Memorial for Michael Jackson, Apollo Theater, Harlem

It was hot and humid if you were one of the tens of thousands of Michael Jackson fans standing in-line outside the Apollo Theater in Harlem today, for a chance to pay your respects to the pop legend Michael Jackson. In fact, there were two lines outside the Apollo; one for fans and a second line for ambulances to carry those from the first line to the hospital when they fell from dehydration. And they did.

At one point, the line stretched down 125th Street around the corner, past 126th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. beyond 128th Street. Adriane Anderson, 27, was standing in line for 45 minutes clutching her two prized possessions, her 1998 Michael Jackson doll and the album cover from Thriller. Anderson credited Jackson as an inspiration in her life and described herself as hysterical when she heard Jackson had died. Anderson said she spent last night crying and felt she had to come today to pay her respects. She called in sick to her internet job in downtown Manhattan.

Phillip and Elaine Ward from Richlands, Virginia were celebrating their 14th wedding anniversary in New York, when they felt they had to come up to Harlem to see the place where Jackson got his first break. “It made our trip to New York more memorable,” Elaine Ward said. “I loved his music, he was the King of Pop and I had to come and see where he performed,” Phillips husband chimed in. His wife went on to say, “Jackson’s music crossed all barriers, all racial divides.” Phillip and Elaine Ward were two of the few white fans who waited in line, today.

There was a mixture of commerce, grief but mostly celebration in Harlem today, as fans and the just the plain curious, got an opportunity to show their affection for the King of Pop one last time.

Vendors along 125th Street opposite the Apollo Theater made a killing selling Jackson tee shirts, posters, and pins covering every decade of Jackson’s life - from his boyhood appearance on amateur night at the Apollo, with his brothers in 1967, right up to what seemed like the very end. One vendor was trying to sell a 25-year-old mint condition Michael Jackson doll for $1000. He had no takers today.

Six hundred people were allowed into the theater at one time for 45 minutes to view videos of Jackson and listen to live music, but because of the huge crowds, that time was reduced to 30 minutes.

Iranian Protesters Outside U.N. Headquarters, NYC

As protesters faced baton-wielding police and live ammunition in Tehran on Sunday, in defiance of Saturday’s warning by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei against public demonstrations, approximately 100 protesters gathered outside the United Nations in New York in a show of solidarity.

The protesters held up signs showing bloodied photographs of protesters beaten or killed in Iran and chanted ‘United Nations pay attention.’ The mostly young crowd was vocal but peaceful. Most wore some form of green clothing in a show of support for their defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. On woman painted a green X over her mouth.
There were similar protests held in Washington, Germany and Belgium