There was no official confirmation of the reported death and spokespersons for Jackson could not be reached for comment.

“We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died,” TMZ said.

“Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back,” the entertainment site said.

Michael Jackson Dies at age 50

It added, “A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived.”

Earlier, the Los Angeles Times said the singer had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital by fire department paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived at the singer’s home.

The newspaper said paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene before taking him to the UCLA Medical Center hospital.

Jackson had been due to start a series of comeback concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer, whose hits included “Thriller” and “Billie Jean,” had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.

The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.

His lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, makes him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.

He lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation.

There were concerns about Jackson’s health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.

Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. Five Jackson boys — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — first performed together at a talent show when Michael was 6. They walked off with first prize and went on to become a best-selling band, The Jackson Five, and then The Jackson 5.

Jackson made his first solo album in 1972, and released “Thriller” in 1982, which became a smash hit that yielded seven top-10 singles. The album sold 21 million copies in the United States and at least 27 million worldwide.

The next year, he unveiled his signature “moonwalk” dance move while performing “Billie Jean” during an NBC special.

In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Jackson married Debbie Rowe the same year and had two children, before splitting in 1999. The couple never lived together.

Jackson has three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his brief public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony, causing widespread criticism.

In memorium: Michael Jackson dead at 50
03:20 PM PT, Jun 25 2009

As news reports and shocked reactions ripple around the world about the news of his death, it’s impossible not to reflect on the eternal and profound mark he left on music and pop culture at large.

While there are countless nerve-tingling moments in his storied career, few had as cataclysmic and immediate impact as his performance of “Billie Jean” on the now legendary “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever” TV special in 1983. For anyone who was there or watching it as it happened, it was a moment that literally changed pop culture overnight.

In celebration of the music and memories, here is that magical moment to relive all over again.

Please feel free to use the comments section to share your thoughts, memories and remembrances of the eternal King of Pop.

– Scott T. Sterling

The Three Who Died: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon

Yesterday began the deaths of three major figures, each of whom played a part in the advertising world throughout their careers. The latest and maybe most relevant is Michael Jackson, who reportedly died earlier today after suffering a heart attack; he was 50. Before him was Farrah Fawcett, who battled cancer for three years before succumbing to it; she was 62. And yesterday we learned of the passing of Ed McMahon who was 86.

Each of these loved personalities lived his or her life in the limelight and as part of their celebrity status were offered advertising opportunities. The ads they took part in stick out in many of our minds (though we’re not airing the Pepsi ad where Jackson’s hair is lit on fire, for obvious reasons). Jackson and Pepsi, McMahon and Publisher’s Clearing House, Fawcett and Noxzema.

A few weekends ago, my family flew over to Missoula, MT to see my youngest brother, Ryan Fish, graduate from the University of Montana. While the graduation was the focus on the weekend, another big event popped into the weekend when he decided to pop the question to his girlfriend, Lauren.

The weekend started last Thursday with a flight to Spokane, then a long drive(about 3 hours) through the panhandle of Idaho, including Cor’d’lane, Idaho and all the way to Missoula. The city of Mizz is really a cool spot – the high desert landscape and sheer mountains, formed by glaciers, is quite spectacular. The landscape reminded me of Boise, but the atmosphere is very different. Lauren’s parents and grandparents live in the area and have for some time. We were able to spend the evenings and afternoons at their houses for graduation parties and get to know their family, something that I haven’t really had the chance to do yet.

The city of Missoula is pretty fascinating and it reminds me of a mini-Portland. The suburbs are long and the downtown is spread-out, but at the center of the city is a beautiful river that gives whitewater kayakers a playground during the summer time. We ate lunch at a great little place and we had one of the best breakfasts at an older restaurant on the river.

I recently came across a unique usage of a .cc domain. The Monarch Hotel & Conference Center in Portland was unable to obtain the .com for their hotel, so they went to next best thing (which may even be better than the .com!) - MonarchHotel.cc - perfectly branded for their use.

I wonder how many other conference centers will use .cc as their domain extension for better branding.

Have you met your Marissa?  My brother did…at Nuvrei Pastries on 10th st in downtown Portland.  She wasn’t at a stuffy pastry business or in one of the “trendy-twenty-third” spots….nope, she was, well, as Kevin puts it, at a business where “there is no fancy store front, no fancy café style seating.”  Interested in learning more about how Kevin’s run-in with Marissa lead to a chewy flourless chocolate cookie and a cinnamon danish?

Read Kevin’s Nuvrei Pastries Review.

Find out which is the Best SEO Blog.

I recently tried to look up where a Hallmark store was in Portland and of course I first searched online.  Perfect… I found one that was close enough to stop by and grab a card.  We headed out and went to the mall where the Hallmark was listed to be at, and much to our surprise, when we asked a local mall employee they said it wasn’t there any more.

That got me thinking, with all the commercial foreclosures that are piling up, there’s a ton of incorrect content online - so where does this content go when a business closes its doors?  Who’s responsible for taking down a business listing or updating a new address for that business listing?

The current commercial real estate market is a nearly $8 trillion industry that is having its troubles.  “Really since the start of the year the trouble is coming out of the woodwork as far as notices of default, foreclosures, bankruptcies,” said Bob White, founder and president of Real Capital Analytics, a real estate market research firm. “It’s growing alarmingly fast.” Currently, some $50 billion worth of commercial mortgages are in default or foreclosure. White and others in the industry say the worst is yet to come.

With $1.72 trillion of commercial real-estate loans outstanding in the U.S. today, and $300 million of that sum coming due this year alone, the Federal Reserve hopes to launch a program by next month to refinance large commercial properties such as office towers and malls. Although the sector isn’t in big trouble yet, rents and occupancies are starting to fall, and the Fed aims to provide up to $1 trillion of new credit to head off a “looming crisis” of spiraling commercial foreclosures.

It sure looks like a lot of commercial property address listings are going to be changing over the next few years.

Blackwater Worldwide has decided to change their name to “XE”. Here’s more on the article about the blackwater name switch.

So, we all know about xe.com, a currency conversion website.  My initial thought is that there’s no way that Blackwater will be able to get their hands on that domain, so what’s second best?

XEsecurity.com - nope, this was registered by XE.com Yesterday.

XEinternational.com - nope, this too was registered by XE.com Yesterday.

XEinc.com - There it is! This one’s been registered by the Blackwater group since 2004.

It should be interesting to see what happens here, I could easily see XE.com really pushing this trademark issue considering that they are making defensive domain registrations based on the news of the Blackwater name change.

What do you think?

Haley and I made our way up to NW 23rd, venturing out in the cold, being kept warm by Moon Struck Mochas. Here’s some sweet photos from our stroll.

If you have more photos from around portland, add them the PDXpipeline’s Flickr Pool of Portland Snow Photos.

Haley and I went down to the Civil War game this weekend, on a beautiful Saturday, you would think that things would go well, but they didn’t! If you don’t know already, the Beavers lost in the Civil War game that had the most points scored ever.

It was really nice to see our friends Bart & Lexi Crawford, and Nancy & Dave.  Also, we went to the McMenamins downtown and meet up with Chris Mathews and his wife.

Here are some photos from the weekend!