"What hit me most about hearing the news of Michael Jackson dying was only then I realized just how much he meant to me, how much his music was such a part of my life," confided my friend Eboness from New York by phone on Thursday evening, just hours after the shocking news of the pop star's passing had clogged all channels of communication. 

One of the many friends and acquaintances who seemed compelled to reach out and talk MJ on Thursday and in the days since, Eboness is 38 and lives in Harlem. Like so many people out there, she grew up on Jackson's music.

She said she and her mom had just come from 125th Street, where a growing crowd was gathering en masse outside the Apollo Theater to spontaneously mourn alongside total strangers in the shared sadness. As Jackson's music boomed from speakers up high, the teary eyed crowd below, with sunken shoulders, sang along to every lyric.

Thursday afternoon's shocking news of MJ passing caught everyone off guard it seemed. When I got that first text on my phone sometime after 3pm from my friend Timi D... which read "Michael Jackson just died???" I thought that maybe it was some of kind of prank or inside joke about the oft mocked star. Maybe it had something to do with his string of upcoming UK concert dates, I theorized as my Google search quickly confirmed the tragic news, with reports citing either the LA Times who broke the story or leading gossip news site TMZ that simultaneously reported on the same story. And when I next logged on to my email, my inbox was overflowing with messages with MJ's name in the subject box. I then clicked on the Amoeblog, where I saw that Whitmore had just posted the news. That was about 3:15 or 3:20 pm on Thursday; by then the news had already spread like wildfire via news and gossip sites and of course via Twitter, Facebook, and every other social network.

Part III in this week's Amoeblogay Music Lists series, an ongoing informal survey of the best queer/gay or "gayest" (in all senses of the term) music or movies, includes submissions from Amoebloggers Miss Ess and Eric Brightwell. Note that most of these lists drew inspiration from the Out Magazine Top 100 Gayest Albums of All Time.

Amoeblogay Part I featured Larry Bob's Top 26  Queer Albums and Amoeblogay Music Lists Part II featured Amoebites Mark Beaver, Amoeba Brady, Brent James and Michael Whitmore. Lists still to come from Amoebites Brad Schelden, Jon Ginoli and Job O'Brother.

First up today for Part III is Miss Ess who says, "I agree about Pansy Division, but I personally haven't listened to them too much. I also think earlier Gossip records are better than the one that made the list. I like That's Not What I Heard. Sleater-Kinney should have had more entries on there too, like The Hot Rock and The Woods. I also love Mirah's album You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This."