The internet certainly does not need another loving tribute to the World’s Greatest Entertainer, especially since yesterday’s  televised memorial ceremony gave everyone two solid news cycles worth of material to digest, but I felt compelled to collect all of the new and old documents I came across this week while mourning and watching everyone else mourn.

1. This clip of the Jackson 5 performing “Who’s Loving You” on the Ed Sullivan show was excerpted during the memorial ceremony and was an emotional high point because it presented Michael simply as the disconcertingly talented performer that he was, in his adorable purple vest and fuchsia hat, before the subsequent decades of public exposure perverted and complicated him. But the clip we saw was slightly truncated. Watch below to 2:39, at which point a young, lovely Diana Ross, dressed something like an original Chatty Cathy doll, takes a bow for discovering the group in Gary, Indiana. At the end of the clip Ed Sullivan notes, “Those youngsters are amazing and the little fella in front is incredible.”

2. Among other knowledge gems in this brief and candid interview, Quincy Jones divulges that he does not believe Michael had the skin-lightening disease vitiligo and, despite their close relationship, he never felt comfortable broaching the complicated race-identity question. Also: Bubbles “bit a hole” in Jones’s daughter, Rashida.

3. Perhaps the second most surreal item in this round-up (skip ahead to number 6 if surreal is all you’re after): this clip of a James Brown concert in which Michael is summoned to the stage, briefly and modestly riffs with the band, strikes a few familiar moves, and then encourages James Brown to get Prince, who was also in the audience, on stage as well. Thus, Prince approaches, riding what looks like a Hells Angel Santa Claus, takes a dude’s guitar, jangles on it a little, disrobes, slides into performance art, and destroys part of the set. When and where this video was shot is unclear, but it seems like it was either heaven or an alternate ending to the Star Gate sequence from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

4. Brooklyn’s own DJ Ayres provides a connoisseur’s flight of MJ’s best work in this free, fifty-three-minute mix, presented in chronological order and passing over the standards you’ve already heard blasting out of every bar and rattling every Buick LeSabre trunk ad nauseam (almost). You need this.

5. Michael’s ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley laid herself bare in an entry on her Myspace blog, which despite the slightly unpleasant undertones–the way she talks about their relationship is pretty raw, and her decision to post a lengthy emotional dispatch on her Myspace blog (more specifically, on the Myspace page intended to promote her music career) the day after Michael’s death having never written an entry in it before might lead to a raised eyebrow–is obviously heartfelt. An excerpt:

The person I failed to help is being transferred right now to the LA County Coroners office for his Autopsy. All of my indifference and detachment that I worked so hard to achieve over the years has just gone into the bowels of hell and right now I am gutted. I am going to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once. Our relationship was not “a sham” as is being reported in the press. It was an unusual relationship yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a “Normal life” found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part. Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much. I wanted to “save him” I wanted to save him from the inevitable which is what has just happened.

She also notes that she and Michael discussed her father’s fate as something that Michael feared would happen to him, too. It’s sad. At present, the entry has received a staggering 10,004,706 Kudos, Myspace’s equivalent to Facebook’s “Like” button.

6. Ron Artest, previously best known for his involvement in The Brawl and for applying to work at Circuit City after getting drafted to the Bulls just to take advantage of the discounts, dealt with his grief by releasing a tribute track titled “Michael Michael,” which sounds like a weird, bad Everlast impression and which you can stream below or download here.

A few observations: Ron-Ron rhymes “dude” with “dude” four consecutive times, spits the puzzling lines “MJ, you’re in my prayers / I know you’re in heaven / I hope to see you next year,” actually breaks into tears at about the 3:30 mark, and, in the lyric par excellence, describes Michael Jackson as “so wavy.” Top shelf stuff, really, but not everyone liked it. The following message appeared on the news section of his Flash-laden website a couple of days after the track circulated:

As a lifelong fan of Michael Jackson, I want to apologize to anyone I may have offended with the language I used in my Michael Jackson tribute. I have always respected MJ’s music, and appreciate the positive energy he inspired in his millions of fans over several decades.

His fanboy tendency really runs deep: Artest was recently traded to the Lakers and announced in a radio interview that for his jersey he has selected the number 37, the number of weeks “Thriller” spent at number one.

7. Perhaps the item most relevant to the subject matter of this column: peep this “sample map” that shows dozens of rap and R&B tracks that have sampled Michael’s (er, perhaps more accurately, Quincy’s) infectious hooks.

8. Let’s close with somber and sincere. I present to you this heartrending video of Stevie Wonder physically embodying the Kübler-Ross model after a concert in Kansas City the day after MJ’s death.

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