R.I.P. Whitney Houston

The image to the left was used in the interior sleeve of Whitney Houston's eponymous 1985 debut album. When I was 11 to 12 years old I can't tell you how many times I stared at this photo while wearing out my "Whitney Houston" cassette tape listening to it over and over. I had such a crush on this beautiful young black woman with the gorgeous and powerful voice.

As more of her saturated the MTV charts over the following years, I maintained my secret crush on Ms. Houston, up until her marriage with that guy that used to be one of the kids in New Edition. When news got out that he was acting like a dick I said to myself, "What in the world is goddess-like Whitney Houston doing with a loser like that?"

Once the '90s progressed further and Bobby and Whitney both became tabloid fodder, she really began losing her sexual mystique. I started seeing her as just another trashy, drug-addled loser. "Crack is wack," she once said to Diane Sawyer in a TV interview, but somehow I didn't believe that she'd stayed away from it despite her protestations. The woman I'd once admired was completely fried. It was then that I did my own sort of mourning for Whitney.

Yesterday's news of Whitney's death is really not that surprising considering her past. It's still a shame though. She was incredibly talented and a legend in her own time. Whitney will be missed.