Michael Jackson's Memorial is to be held on Tuesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It's free to attend, but there are only 17,500 tickets available. You could possibly get tickets for the MJ memorial by registering at Staplescenter.com, but don't depend on it. The website has been hit by an astounding 500 million visitors after the ticket lottery was announced.

If you don't have a ticket, don't go anywhere near Staples Center. More than 750,000 people are expected to hit Los Angeles by Tuesday morning, and law enforcement is likely to be weak due to the 4th of July holidays. It will be absolute bedlam, and you're better off watching it on TV. Besides, law enforcement officials have said that no one without a ticket or media credentials will be allowed into the area near the Staples Center. Big screen simulcasts have been arranged outside the center.

Michael Jackson is going to be buried in a $25,000 gold plated coffin.

I wasn't really a big fan of Michael Jackson, but I liked his music as much as the next person. His songs weren't all that bad to listen to if they were playing on the radio or the tube, and some of it was actually quite enjoyable.

The main point being that I could recognize his voice and his songs if I heard em. And that's the rub of it - like it or not, people knew about MJ, and everyone in every tiny miserable corner of the world knew his songs.

That's going beyond being a music star - that's being a household name - a celebrity - and that's what Michael became - a celebrity. Less musician, more celebrity. And he's done some really weirdo things which only a whack-job celeb with delusions of grandeur could do.

The ultimate entertainer had a thing, appropriately enough, for the mecca of entertainment - Las Vegas. Although he never performed a proper show as an adult in Sin City, he's had a number of high profile visits to Vegas over the years, and had also got into the habit of staying on in Vegas as a resident.

He first performed on the Strip in Vegas as a teenager with his brothers as a part of the Jackson 5 in April 1974. He became friends with Steve Wynn at the Mirage, and he's got a long history of spending down time in Vegas.

He lived in Vegas with his children for a few months in 2007, and then again in the summer of 2008. Every time he got into trouble, Jackson started taking refuge inside hotels in Las Vegas. And by 2003, he was in big trouble. He was being horribly punished by the media as a freak even before the trial, and it was in the city of freak shows that he found solace.

He stayed at the Green Valley Ranch and the Ritz-Carlton, trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, and then went back to California to face the trial. After he judged innocent, he left the country for 18 months and stayed in Dubai. When he came back, it was to Vegas, in Christmas 2006.

He started going to shows and shopping with son Michael Jr. "Prince" and daughter Paris, and trying to fit into the Vegas social scene. And then his Neverland Ranch was aquired by a company which owned the Las Vegas Hilton. And it was in Vegas that the plan for Michael's comeback tour in London was hatched. It's a fair bet to say that had it all worked out, Michael Jackson would have become a permanent Las Vegas resident.

Meantime, back in Los Angeles, MJ has his own place in the pantheon of oversized legends that is Hollywood. He's got his star on the Walk of Fame, and his own home and then, there's Neverland - which is always going to be Michael's own special place.

The 2,800-acre fantasy estate in Santa Barbara (5225 Figueroa Mountain Road) was Michael Jackson's ultimate tribute to his own personality and an expression of his innermost soul. The name itself - Neverland - is meant to suggest a place where children never grow up- a la Peter Pan.

This was the one place where Michael could be himself, and just play with the kids and be a child himself. That's where you'll find lingering traces of his character and his eccentricities and likes and dislikes. It had zoos and theme parks with Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, super slides, roller coasters, bumper cars and all sorts of kiddie amusements.

And this was where he met his waterloo, with the property being auctioned off to pay his debts, which then began his long slide down the slippery slopes of stardom. The place was also central to the allegations of impropriety surrounding the star and his relationships with children.

If you're in the mood for a Michael Jackson Memorial tour, you might want to visit:-

1. His home in Los Angeles where he was when he got the attack (100 North Carolwood Drive, Los Angeles, California, 90077).

2. Michael Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

3. Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara (5225 Figueroa Mountain Rd, Los Olivos, CA 93441 )

4. His hometown - Gary, Indiana. The town is hoping that Gary, Indiana will be to Michael Jackson fans what Graceland in Memphis is to Elvis fans.

5. Motown Historical Museum in Detroit - Jackson got his start in the 'Hittsville U.S.A.' building.

6. Adlon Kempinki hotel in Berlin, where MJ hung his kid out of the balcony.

MJ concert photo by current news via flickr (creative commons). Hollywood walk of fame photo by San Sharma via flickr (creative commons).