Michael Jackson shrine

Last year, when the boy started kindergarten, we learned of his school's mysterious neighbor--and continued to learn about it, since there were cars with license plates like "KNGOPOP" and with gigantic rear-window stickers praising his one-glovedness. I thought it was comical--I had no idea Michael Jackson had such a big following anymore, and I seriously questioned the sanity of people dedicating their cars and license plates (and free time to sit outside his house and watch for him) to the guy. But they did. And we knew it, since we would often drive home from church past the boy's school, mostly just to see how many people and paparazzi were waiting across the street. (Perhaps this makes us less than sane, but there's really not much else happening on a Sunday afternoon...).

Anyhoo, to say it with as much tact as I can, now he's dead, and, since we were heading to the boy's open house, we passed the house again. And what a shrine there was. This confuses me. He DID live there, about nine months before he died, and maybe the people will never make it to his real burial spot--or maybe they couldn't afford a personalized license plate dedicated to him, or a giant sticker that takes up their entire back window. So maybe this does make sense (and, while we're on the subject, I just hope that when I kick off, people will dedicate their car to my memory with a classy sticker, but I know it probably won't happen).

Here are some pictures.












You the king of pop, indeed. And all wase will.



This child watched Thriller a few too many times.



Nothing says, "We miss you!" like a nappy stuffed animal.





This one puzzles me the most--it's like a prayer, asking Michael for intercession on their behalf.



I love that this one has had corrective surgery, too.

Also interesting about this phenomenon is that now there are two full-time security guards posted on either side of the street, 24 hours a day. I wonder who's paying for that? And for what? To protect poster boards and teddy bears? They're obviously not stopping people from placing the stuff, so they must be there to protect it. Bizzarro.