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• Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:06 AM

  Sounds like it was boring to be there

  You got press access, right? Were you far back from the stage -- in nosebleed seats? The Staples Center has a capacity of 20,000, and to fill it you'd need to find everybody who can skip their day job on a Tuesday morning and drive or fly the distance to attend a somber event in the west coast's concrete jungle.

  The reason I mention this is that it seems like the article implies people attending weren't that upset by Michael Jackson's death. The article's later conclusion, that people today tend to experience things without needing to join a communal gathering, seems more apt. (The comparison to Princess Di's funeral has a lot of non-parallels, it being untimely and related to somebody who was royalty.)

  I have to congratulate Fortini on a far slicker writing job than her piece in Broadsheet. (Probably better editing from the top as well.) Sounds like you made the most out of a dull event without many opportunities for angles. For this kind of on-the-spot writing, pick up one of P.J. O'Rourke's books sometime (his late '80s or early '90s stuff might be good). Or go back to Hunter Thompson's campaign-trail stuff, or even Mark Twain with innocents abroad.

  —Xrandadu Hutman Read Xrandadu Hutman's other letters
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