Michael Jackson

--by Sebastian

I've been strangely sad since hearing that Michael Jackson died.  Strangely because I haven't really liked him much in the past 10 years. 

I loved him growing up.  His voice was so arresting.  His songs were usually encouraging.  He projected an elemental joy in singing that I found captivating.  When I was little I was completely drawn into that.  And as I got older I appreciated his singing even more when comparing it to others. 

But his turn toward extreme strangeness and apparent self-loathing in his non-singing life wore me down somewhat.  And then the allegations of child molestation made me angry at him.  (Though I do remember saying that Michael Jackson was the only person I could imagine who was so weird that it was even remotely plausible that he could be sleeping in the same bed with those kids and not be molesting them).  So for the last 10 years or so whenever I would hear about him, my heart would harden a little and I would turn away.

Yet despite all that in the wake of his death, I'm still sad.  Lots of radio stations on the way home were playing his songs, especially some of his older songs.  Wow, I had forgotten what a good voice he had.  I think there are two parts of me that are sad.  The first is the part that recognizes the death of Michael Jackson as happening many years ago.  The child and then man who so entranced me was gone a long time ago.  I sorrow a bit for all those lost years between that and his actual death.  The second is the part, deep down, that really was rooting for him to snap out of it.  The part of me that believes in redemption stories and getting your life back together.  That will never happen now (and of course it was never very likely).

Hmm.

You can use this as an open thread. 

Comments

[JanieM]

The Jackson Five was around when I was still paying attention in such a way that their music was familiar. Michael as a solo performer wasn't so much. But I remember seeing some video of him performaing (probably Thriller) and I was struck by what he was doing on the stage, and what the people in the crowd were not doing as they watched. Point being: he was carrying something for them that they wouldn't/couldn't/didn't know how to carry for themselves.

[JanieM]

Cut to a different early death: Princess Diana. I felt the same thing about her. No doubt she had her shortcomings, but somehow she managed to come across (to me and apparently to millions and millions of other people) as a real, flesh and blood human being (faults and all), and at the same time carry one of the most powerful archetypes in our culture: the princess. I know more than one little girl who drew princesses her entire childhood.

The princess archetype was all over the place in the children's cartoons and movies of my childhood, and that hadn't changed by the time I had a daughter to watch films. The heroines were spunkier in the late '80s and early '90s than they had been in the '50s, but the end of the story (as presented) was the same: marry the handsome prince and live happily ever after. I was more than annoyed at the mythology that said that the work was done and the story was over at the *start* of a marriage....

[JanieM]

Anyhow, Michael Jackson's life and death carry echoes of Diana for that reason, for me -- the carrying of archetypes for all of us -- with the footnote (?) that maybe those people wouldn't have had such strange lives if we had been able to carry a little more of our sh*t for outselves.

Also echoes of Judy Garland from an earlier generation. James Hillman was interesting on Judy Garland in "The Soul's Code" -- though it has been a very long time since I read it, and I don't remember much about his thought train.

I'm about to get on the road from Cambridge to Ohio ... see y'all later.

[typepad won't take more than a few lines at a time from me... argh.]

[chmood]

I met Michael once (between 'Off The Wall' & 'Thriller'): he was shy, introverted, bookish. The showmanship that possessed him onstage was conspicuously absent in person. A very ordinary, well-spoken young man only a few year younger than myself. I enjoyed very much the time he spent in my store, and apparently, so did he: he invited me to his hotel after his concert that night, but I had cold feet at the last minute & didn't go.

I've always regretted backing out. He was a nice guy. I hope he finds peace.

[Sapient]

Michael Jackson may have been a popular culture archtype, etc., but he was a brilliant prodigy, an incredible artist, and a someone whose work will be remembered for as long as people remember 20th century music.

[CaseyL]

They're running filmclips on MSNBC from his best years. My god, I'd forgotten how beautiful he was - but not how hugely, miraculously talented. That I remember very well - and how I tried to incorporate some of those moves when I danced.

They're also comparing him to Anna Nicole Smith which is an absolute travesty. Jackson had more talent in his smallest fart than Smith did in her entire body.

[Gary Farber]

Huh. I was just startled by checking SiteMeter for my blog for the first time all day, not expecting to see anything beyond the abysmally small number of hits I get these days absent a link from a major blog, and was staggered to see hundreds of hits per hour for the last few hours, hitting over 240 hits per hour a couple of hours ago.

And what was being hit? Variants of this">http://www.forartist.com/forensic/modification/mj/mjscan.jpg&imgrefurl=http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com/2003_11_30_archive.html&usg=__UNUr4u7KQIFVeC380I5R3v-hhmE=&h=360&w=269&sz=22&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=ubMQGndmaY-2QM:&t">this Google picture search.

First time I ever got such a large number of links to an image.

Ironically, the post being linked to, from 2003, was, accurately, entitled "MY FIRST AND PROBABLY ONLY MICHAEL JACKSON POST EVER."

But it used the words "professional forensic scientist" in it. He created, back then, a photo of how Michael Jackson "would normally look at age 45."

Suddenly lots and lots of people are interested.

Funny old internet. Original post here

[Gary Farber]

Good lord. I'm watching Burn Notice, but for reasons not worth describing, my tv accidentally switched to NBC, and I see that both NBC and ABC are in the middle of urgent news specials on Michael Jackson.

They wouldn't do this for, say, events in Iran, but, well, they know what draws ratings, I'll give them that.

[russell]

He became such a bizarre character in the second half of his life that it's easy to forget that he wasn't always like that.

I'm going to remember the effervescent funky pop he gave us with the Jackson Five, and the sheer, seemingly effortless joy of his work with Quincy Jones on "Off The Wall".

[hairshirthedonist]

(Though I do remember saying that Michael Jackson was the only person I could imagine who was so weird that it was even remotely plausible that he could be sleeping in the same bed with those kids and not be molesting them)

I said exactly the same thing to a number of people when the molestation allegations surfaced, Seb. And I meant it. I can't say that I wasn't at all trying to be funny or cute, but I did truly mean it, regardless. Great minds.

My wife's far sadder about his death than I am. I can't honestly say I'm all that sad at all. I'm not a fan of pop music (in the sense that Michael Jackson's music was), and never really have been, but he was extraordinarily talented. I'm not very surprised by it, either. His whole existence over the last 15 or so years didn't seem very healthy.

[hairshirthedonist]

"...all that sad at all." Ick. Sorry.

[Gary Farber]

Mark Evanier has a nice anecdote:

[...] I worked with him in the late eighties on a proposed Michael Jackson cartoon show for CBS. He didn't want to do it but had been persuaded by associates that he had to okay the project for business reasons. So I found myself in the odd position of trying to come up with something he'd like...and all the time, he was saying, "I'm a rock star...I don't want to be a cartoon character." Eventually, I moonwalked off the project and the cartoon series idea evaporated. Michael got his way.

[...]

I remember a certain lovable, impishness about the guy that occasionally peeked out between statements of total self-obsession. At one point, he was showing me around the estate and introducing me to his pets, and we had an exchange I will never forget.

I had been hired to create and develop the proposed cartoon show because, among other reasons, Michael had expressed some affection for the Richie Rich cartoon show, which I'd story-edited. On the grounds of his mansion, after showing me his llama and some small amusement park rides, he turned to me and said, "I love Richie Rich."

I said the same thing you'd say to the guy. I said, "Michael, you are Richie Rich."

He had an odd look on his face. There was always, by then, an odd look at his face but this one looked like it came from his brain and not a surgeon. Then he grinned and said, "Thank you." That's the Michael Jackson I'd like to remember. I wish it could have stopped there.

[jrudkis]

HSH,

I seem to recall that you had a red jacket and sequined glove way back when...

[hairshirthedonist]

I seem to recall that you had a red jacket and sequined glove way back when...

Yeah, but I only wore them to Iron Maiden concerts, simply to be controversial.

[kimberly]

Too many will seek to canonize Michael Jackson--it tends to happen after someone dies, they become scarce and suddenly valuable. That's why I like your blog, at least you were honest when you said he "died many years ago." Like W.A. Mozart, MJ had a domineering father who milked him like a prized cow, damaging him for life. Like Mozart, MJ became a very sick, self-hating person who died relatively young. It's sad that such a wonderful talent has to go down the tubes like that, and so dramatically, but it's no reason to turn the man into a saint as the media is trying to do right now. It's frustrating.

[BlueRidge]

This 1984 Michael Kinsley piece from The New Republic explores a lot of the weirdness that bothered me about Michael Jackson even before the (completely credible, to my mind) allegations of sexual assault of children. Was he troubled? Yes. Was his victimization at the hands of others the source of his troubled-ness? Undoubtedly in large part. Is he still responsible for his own actions as an adult? Yes. Am I horrified by what kimberly terms the canonization of MJ in the media these past 18 hours? Yes, yes, a hundred times yes.

[Kindest Regards]

MICHAEL JACKSON WILL BE GREATLY MISSED!

JACKSON’S MUSIC IS SPECTACULAR!
_____________________
SCANDALS! SCANDALS! SCANDALS!

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

GEORGE W. BUSH IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CRIMINAL STALKER!

George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked Margie Schoedinger to the point that she could not get away from it, and she committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered her.

“In her suit, Margie Schoedinger states that George W. Bush committed sexual crimes against her, organized harassment and moral pressure on her, her family members and close relatives and friends. As Schoedinger said, she was strongly recommended to keep her mouth shut. . . . Furthermore, she alleges that George Bush ordered to show pressure on her to the point, when she commits suicide” (blog of drizzten).

“George [Bush is personally complicit] in the death (murder to be precise) of my friend Margie Schoedinger in September of 2003. Determining the exact whereabouts and contacts of . . . George Bush on September 21 thru 22, 2003, should be entirely lacking in difficulty” (Leola McConnell—Nevada Progressive Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010).

McConnell is correct: George W. Bush applying pressure (continuously criminally stalking Margie Schoedinger) purposefully to force Schoedinger to commit suicide does in fact constitute murder where it culminated in her death.

Bush’s method of murdering Schoedinger cannot exist in a vacuum: he must have murdered other people in the same way.

While he was president, actually, George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked numerous people to the point that they could not get away from it, and they committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered them. During Bush’s presidency, of course Bush would have desired to kill people whom he hated or get them out of his way. Insofar as Bush was clearly capable of murdering Schoedinger—even in “broad daylight”—and is clearly capable of getting away with it, in consideration of common sense and the laws of human nature, Bush of course murdered numerous people in the disgusting way he murdered Schoedinger. However, the vast majority of such scandalous information will never come out (the grisly details are typically hard to substantiate). A prosecutor really can lawfully charge a former president with murdering one or more people in the disgusting way Bush murdered Schoedinger. The American people unfortunately live in a world where evil presidents can murder any number of people—figuratively—with a wave of a magic wand and get away with it.

(There are thousands of copies of the information above on the Internet. It exists very extensively in all major search engines. Please feel free to go to any major search engine, type “GEORGE W. BUSH IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CRIMINAL STALKER” or “George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked Margie Schoedinger to the point that she could not get away from it, and she committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered her” or “George W. Bush applying pressure (continuously criminally stalking Margie Schoedinger) purposefully to force Schoedinger to commit suicide does in fact constitute murder where it culminated in her death” or “George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked numerous people to the point that they could not get away from it, and they committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered them,” hit “Enter,” and find innumerable results.)

(Please feel free to see my “GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” blog.)
_____________________
Andrew Wang
(a.k.a. “THE DISSEMINATING MACHINE”)
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993