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Tonight brings a downright spectacular pairing to Raleigh's NC Museum of Art, two wonderful acts guaranteed to get your mojo workin'. I've done interviews with both in the not-too-distant past; so you can read up on Bettye LaVette and Marcia Ball.

RALEIGH -- The public mourning of Michael Jackson's death reached its apex with Tuesday's memorial service in Los Angeles, which drew reported six-figure throngs to the area around the Staples Center. Things were far more low-key in Raleigh, where several hundred people gathered for a remembrance service.

There were many multiples more empty chairs than people inside the cavernous Raleigh Convention Center. That added up to a financial disaster for event organizer Bruce Lightner, who thought the event would draw at least 5,000 people. The actual turnout was less than a tenth of that, which Lightner said that left him with $20,000 in bills to cover rent and expenses.

"I don't know where the money's coming from," he said afterward. "I'll probably have to get a loan from the bank to pay it off. Right now I feel like crawling under a rock. I'm hurt that our community didn't come out to celebrate Michael's life together. But I've learned a valuable lesson. Sometimes you have to say no. It was a mistake on my part to attempt to do this."

As for those who did show up, they came wanting to make one last show of paying tribute to what local pastor David C. Forbes called "the one and only Michael Jackson, king of pop" in his invocation. Everyone there agreed that Jackson's music and performances transcended race and brought people together, despite the controversies that dogged him over the past decade.

"I did not know Michael personally, but his music has always been in my home," said Penny Reaves, 47, a schoolteacher from Fayetteville. "I just pray his family makes it through this. They have the support of the whole world because he was a world icon, an ambassador to the world."

Along with speakers and a video tribute, the Raleigh gathering featured live performances by Timika Shields, Stanley Baird Trio and the Martin Luther King, Jr., All Children's Choir. After the local program concluded at about 1:15 p.m., the convention center's video screens tuned into a live feed of the funeral services from Los Angeles.

Kim Daniels, 39, who runs a cleaning service in Raleigh, remembered some of Jackson's other famous moments on video.

"My most memorable moment of Michael would be remembering the world premiere of his 'Billie Jean' video on MTV," Daniels said as her 19-month-old son played nearby. "I'd meet with friends every time he premiered a new video, and it was like the whole world would stop for him."

Not surprisingly, the best music heard was Jackson's own. Before the live program began around noon, a deejay spun a set of Jackson songs -- "Beat It," "Black or White," "Off the Wall" -- and people got up to dance. "Man in the Mirror" even inspired an impromptu sing-along, as people joined hands and formed a line.

Even at his own funeral, Jackson can still fill a dancefloor.

Something country, something Christian, something television-related -- and most all if it rather wholesome. Sounds like the live-concert lineup for the 2009 North Carolina State Fair. One headliner is still to be announced, but so far it looks like this:

Oct. 15 -- Jason Michael Carroll
Oct. 16 -- Third Day
Oct. 17 -- Kellie Pickler
Oct. 18 -- Nat and Alex Wolff (from Nickelodeon's Naked Brothers Band)
Oct. 19 -- Jamey Johnson
Oct. 20 -- Temptations featuring Dennis Edwards
Oct. 21 -- Julianne Hough ("Dancing With the Stars" champion)
Oct. 22 -- To be announced.
Oct. 23 -- Jeremy Camp, Tenth Avenue North
Oct. 24 -- Blake Shelton
Oct. 25 -- Eric Church

The word about Aerosmith's scheduled shows in Raleigh and Charlotte:

Aerosmith has postponed their scheduled shows for July 7th at the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek in Raleigh and July 9th at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte due to an artist injury. Rescheduled dates will be announced soon.

Tickets purchased for the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek concert as well as the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte concert will be honored on the rescheduled dates.

For additional tour and ticket information, please visit www.livenation.com or www.aeroforceone.com.

Be sure to have a good one, folks -- and remember to be careful out there.

With a public memorial service for Michael Jackson set for Tuesday in Los Angeles, the accompanying remembrance service in Raleigh is back on.

"Yes, we are going forward with it," says co-organizer Bruce Lightner. Originally, Jackson's funeral was going to happen today at his Neverland complex in California. But that was canceled after county officials declined to issue the necessary permits. So local organizers also canceled the Raleigh event, which had been set for 2 p.m. today at Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek.

Now the local program is happening at the Raleigh Convention Center, starting at noon Tuesday with an hour of performances by the Martin Luther King All-Children's Choir and other groups. A video feed of the funeral services at Los Angeles' Staples Center will take center stage at 1 p.m., simulcast on video screens in the convention center.

Admission is $5 to cover expenses. Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Monday at the Raleigh Convention Center box office, and also at the Progress Energy Center box office.

After four decades as a band, the members of Aerosmith aren't exactly young anymore. In fact, they've had to call off some dates on this summer's tour due to unspecified health issues. We'll see if the Raleigh show scheduled for Tuesday comes off. But Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton is just glad to be back on the road at all, after a bout of throat cancer in 2006.

"I had to go through a nightmare of treatment, but so far so good," Hamilton said in a recent interview. "I'm almost to the three-year point, so it's all good. I never had much appetite, and I do have to put more thought into that now. But when you're radiating that area, it's not like it's a part that only gets used once in a while. Your throat is always busy."

For more, see the interview in Friday's paper.

Nothing about Michael Jackson's death has been simple, including his funeral. There was going to be an extravaganza of a memorial service on Friday at the late singer's Neverland ranch in California, complete with a white horse-drawn carriage. Thousands and thousands of people were going to attend.

But the public funeral has been canceled, also forcing the cancelation of a Friday afternoon remembrance service at Raleigh's Walnut Creek. The Martin Luther King All-Children's Choir was to perform, along with a live feed of events in California on the venue's big screens.

"Our objective was to get a live feed of the funeral, but that's not gonna happen," said Raleigh organizer Bruce Lightner. "That was important, to connect with other cities across the country. So it did not make sense to move forward."

The word from Durham's High Strung Violins & Guitars, which will be happy to take whatever weird unused instruments you have off your hands:

Wanted: Your uncle Louie's zither, or great-grandpa Mac's bagpipes, or any old instruments you may have but not had the heart to get rid of.

All donations will need to be in the shop by Thursday, July 2.

So maybe the shine has worn off your iPhone just a bit, and you're getting a little bored with merely talking on it or listening to it, or even using it to search for nearby sushi restaurants. Sounds like you need another silly function to waste lots of time with, yes? Well, you're in luck, because now there's the iMouth (and they promise songs for it are "coming soon"). What will those crazy kids think of next?