Remember the time

I first heard news of Michael Jackson’s death during my daily work commute, and my mind quickly returned to my work on the previous season of American Idol, one week of which was dedicated to his songs. One idea led to another, and it culminated in this article, which was thankfully given a go-signal and eventually first published on BuddyTV shortly after his death was officially confirmed.

The feeble connection with American Idol is, of course, the very first week of the finals of the past season. “Tonight, we’re celebrating the hits of Michael Jackson,” Ryan Seacrest said, before the Top 13 kicked off their trips to stardom singing songs from the so-called King of Pop. (That episode will be aired again this Monday from 8pm on Fox.) I’m just in my early 20s, and I’ll admit to being too young during his heyday, so watching that show was quite a revelation: “I didn’t know he sang that!” was my most prominent line, once song after song after song started to sound so familiar.

I suddenly remembered that when news of the musician’s death started filtering through. The sketchy details – of him suffering a heart attack, of being found not breathing in his home, of him being brought to a Los Angeles hospital – gave way to unconfirmed detail after unconfirmed detail after confirmed detail. And then, the tributes, in 140-character bursts, from celebrities to my friends who, for the most part, were too young to have a grasp of his hits.

Really close to home

It was a Wednesday. As always, I was in front of my work computer, wondering how the heck I finished all of my tasks early. I got a message from Carmel – who works somewhere within DLSU – announcing that classes have been suspended until 14 June.

Actually, I initially thought that the Independence Day break was extended, until I realized that the date given was a Sunday. Was the school breaking apart? It was raining hard, after all, although the possibility of a part of the school breaking apart because of the weather was less than nil. So, obviously, I asked why.

“Alam mo ba kung bakit wala?” she responded. Those words felt like it was something pretty big.