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Michael Jackson Memorial Live Blog
 
1:13

Ron Hart:  People are getting a lot of seating upgrades. There are a lot of no shows.
 

1:13
Ron Hart: There is no aisle for a coffin, leaving the possibility that he comes in on a jetpack like the Super Bowl.
1:15

Ron Hart: Is it over?
 

1:16

Smokey Robinson starts the proceedings reading a message from Jackson's friend and fellow Motown legend Diana Ross, whom Jackson singled out in his will.
 

1:19
Several minutes of silence follow, which are not respected by TV anchors. Live blogging, in this case is the more reverent form of commentary.

 
1:19
Ron Hart: We must  be in a commercial. Hate when that happens at a funeral.
1:20
Ron Hart: Likely pall bearers: Webster, Macaulay Culkin, Corey Feldman, Brooke Shields, Alphonso Ribera, and Bubbles.
1:21
This is no longer a moment of silence. This is a technical problem. Or a tribute to Michael's notoriously delayed appearances.
1:22
Ron Hart: Hot dog sales are brisk. Churches should consider selling them for all funerals.
1:25

Ron Hart: Greta Van Susteren is so close I could spit on her. But they'd throw me out, right?

1:32

TV funeral commenting is a difficult task to begin with, let alone when trying to fill what is now 15 minutes of nothing, with only one camera angle to look at.  

1:36

Music at last: a gospel choir sings "We Are Going to See the King" as pallbearers, including Jackson's brothers, carry Michael's flowered casket to the proscenium.

1:39
Pastor Lucious W. Smith, a Jackson family friend, delivers a touching eulogy.  
1:42
Mariah Carey follows with a rendition of "I'll be There." Despite the compulsive pitch-adjustments she is making with her hands, we are choking up at the memory of Michael singing that same song.  
1:43
The Jackson brothers, each wearing a single white glove, are singing along as heartbreaking  images of young Michael flow on screen.  
1:43
Ron Hart: People crane their necks wondering where the hearty laughter is coming from. Answer: the Fox News Box.
1:49
Queen Latifah quotes a poem Maya Angelou read her this morning: "We had him"
Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone....
He took a pose on his toes for all of us....
We do know we had him, and we are the world.  
1:54
Lionel Richie, looking and sounding as good as ever, follows.
1:57

Motown records founder Berry Gordy gets the laugh of the day, remembering how young Michael smoked Smokey Robinson on his own song in a 1968 audition.

2:01
He's also the first to euphemize, bringing up "sad times and questionable decisions."
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