Call me cold hearted but did Michael Jackson pick a great time to die or what?  Though his musical genius has never been denied, it's obvious that his personal life has overshadowed so much of what he's accomplished.  Yet, after years of ridicule and tabloid fodder, people are mourning his death the world over.  They've gathered to remember the pop icon at the height of his career - the 80's and 90's when he was weird, but not too weird and when the music and entertainment still stood above all else. 

His untimely death has put his music back on the map and on our i-pods, making us forget about the Wacko Jacko of more recent years. 

He was still a fairly young man, young enough to put the impact of his death among the ranks of Elvis, John Lennon and others.  That alone is likely enough to push him back into the icon-status he once held around the world.

Couple that with the fact that MJ was about to make his "big comeback" with dozens of concerts in London, England over the next several months and you've got one great legacy.  In reality, I think these shows would have been a disappointment  (there had already been one delay and talk about bad health) but because we never got to actually see them, we are left with nothing but the anticipation of what these shows might have been.  And in most cases, we're choosing to believe these shows would have put Jackson back at the top.

So ya, the guy was weirder than Tom-Cruise-talking-glib- while-jumping-on-a-couch-preaching-Scientology but that's what good music does.  It can make you forget everything else.  Even what a strange character the man behind the music was.