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Almost Too Painful
I expected LJ to be full of stuff about the Jackson trial and it isn't. At least this corner of the LJ universe isn't. I wonder why.
My reason for steering clear (until now) is the difficulty of writing about it with dispassion. Jackson has been getting me all stirred up for decades now. Love the music (some of it.) Hate the preening and self-deception.
I wish I didn't care, but I do. There was a moment- a very brief moment- when Jackson was not only the greatest singer and dancer in the world, but also the most beautiful human being. Bille Jean. That's a fabulous song. And Michael is a vision, a visitation, an otherworldly androgyne, a god.
And then....
And then the decline, sinking deeper and deeper into freakishness, into Messianic fantasy, into a candy-coloured porno-heaven. It's been like watching a self-exiled Caesar go to the dogs.
Tiberius on Capri- all alone with his flatterers and pimps.
Yesterday, he turned up at the courthouse an hour late in his pyjamas and nearly got his bail rescinded. He doesn't seem to realise how serious this is. It's as if there's no-one in his entourage with the balls to tell him, "Er, Michael, you're not actually writing the script any more."
My reason for steering clear (until now) is the difficulty of writing about it with dispassion. Jackson has been getting me all stirred up for decades now. Love the music (some of it.) Hate the preening and self-deception.
I wish I didn't care, but I do. There was a moment- a very brief moment- when Jackson was not only the greatest singer and dancer in the world, but also the most beautiful human being. Bille Jean. That's a fabulous song. And Michael is a vision, a visitation, an otherworldly androgyne, a god.
And then....
And then the decline, sinking deeper and deeper into freakishness, into Messianic fantasy, into a candy-coloured porno-heaven. It's been like watching a self-exiled Caesar go to the dogs.
Tiberius on Capri- all alone with his flatterers and pimps.
Yesterday, he turned up at the courthouse an hour late in his pyjamas and nearly got his bail rescinded. He doesn't seem to realise how serious this is. It's as if there's no-one in his entourage with the balls to tell him, "Er, Michael, you're not actually writing the script any more."
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I have no idea - and certainly don't want to speculate- whether he is guilty or not although our justice system says he is indeed innocent until proven guilty. I would hate to think this is all one BIG publicity stunt.
IF people didn't worship celebrity - maybe Michael would still bear some semblance to normal. There is no doubt that he is - or was, anyway - a talented man. Now, it's just a very sad thing.
I don't follow the 'trial news' of Michael's any more than I followed the OJ Simpson trial. I think that all the fuss is totally disgusting. Just like the fuss about Prince Charles (as you said yesterday, a public embarassment) marrying whomever. Hey folks, Diana is dead. Let her go, leave Charles in peace.
And start worrying about the REAL world.
Sorry, Tony. I didn't mean to get up on my soapbox.
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I was better able to ignore O.J. Simpson because I didn't have any idea who he was until the murder, but Jackson has been part of the landscape of my life.
I don't know whether Jackson is guilty of these particular offences, but I've little doubt that he's one sick bunny.
P.S. The Bridges of Madison County just arrived. Thankyou so much! Unless you strongly object, I'm going to send you a box of kinder eggs in return.
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thank you very much.
When you finish the book let me know what you think.
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And, yes, I'll let you know about the book.
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P.S. Quite off topic, but I love your icon. Lorenzo il Magnifico- what a dude!
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thanks about the icon.. Lorenzo is one of my heroes. Ah, the world would be different if there had been more of his kind over the centuries!
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Michael Jackson doesn't seem to realise quite how serious the whole thing is.
I wonder if he'll ever make it as far as prison, if it turns out that he's guilty, or whether he'll vanish into the ether...
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People are prepared to make excuses for Jackson (supposing him to be guilty) which they wouldn't for any other paedophile.
"Oh, he was abused as a child. He doesn't realise it's wrong. He still thinks of himself as a kid."
I think it's horrible and I wish it would go away, but I also think it's terribly revealing about the state of our culture.
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One reporter who was watching him in court said she'd never seen him looking worse: his hair was uncombed, and he was so pale (I saw this, too) that he looked like a "death mask." It was also noted that he is extremely thin.
I suspect that Michael is moving close to the depressive barrier of the real world which he has, through wealth and syncophants, been able to avoid for years in Neverland. I think he is losing his mind.
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Sometimes, watching these images, I feel like I'm a member of a lynch mob
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And Michael is a vision, a visitation, an otherworldly androgyne, a god.
I also confess to disagreeing with you wholeheartedly on this. Michael was never an androgyne (as very old pictures can attest)...until he plastic surgery-d himself. I also don't think he was aiming for androgyny but rather femininity. To me, David Bowie is androgynous, K.D. Lang is androgynous....Michael Jackson is a horrible nightmare. I cannot help but wonder if Michael is a frustrated transsexual - something tells me he would very much like to be a Caucasian woman. There isn't a word like "transsexual" for wanting to be of another ethnicity, but I really do have to wonder, with all the bleaching, etc. he has put his skin through over the years.
People are saying that he's "coming unhinged" - I say that he's been unhinged for quite some time, and this is merely him continuing to sink in depravity and
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was very beautiful- at least I thought so.
I agree that he's always been unhinged. I don't know if you saw his movie Moonwalker- my kids dragged to to it- but it was the sort of wish-fulfilment fantasy an 8 year old might have made.
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But how can we believe anything we read about any of these people? Most of what they let us know about them is controlled (and perhaps invented) by publicists.
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In the end it's just gotten tedious, hearing about him year in and year out. Your line pretty much says it all:
And then the decline, sinking deeper and deeper into freakishness, into Messianic fantasy, into a candy-coloured porno-heaven. It's been like watching a self-exiled Caesar go to the dogs.
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I remember a special on TV that talked about this throng of people always around Jackson. Apparently the numbers have been dwindling for years and they (the news) keeps cutting the angle closer and closer so you can't see that in fact, there are very few people there. I guess they do it under Jackson's direction. Pathetic, really. But also, it says he's fully aware of his dwindling popularity AND is aware enough to try and manipulate that perception.
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I'm not sure which is worse.
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God, you are so right.
*points to Livia icon*
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I sometimes wonder what he would have been like had he not been a child star. But I can't, he wouldn't have been MICHAEL JACKSON,just Mickaek Jackson, a different entity altogether.
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I dunno. It's sort of like the Elvis phenomenon, isn't it? A prisoner of his fame and all that? I guess probably long after there is no Michael Jackson, there will be movies about what *really* happened, and books about what *really* happened.
If it comes to the point where he is convicted, he will not go to a real jail. There would be no way any judge would sentence him to such a thing, if for no other reason than his fame.
Guess it doesn't matter, though, does it?
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I expect the TV movies are already being planned.
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not my area of interest
Second endgame with MJ, is that he has lost control of his creative process and the way his last failure was promoted was the sort of corporate think inertia that results in useless expense and embarassing press for years to come. I have grown up with MJ in pop music and only grudgingly gave him acknowledgement for his accomplishment as a performer with the Killer album. I am reasonably certain that the army of pros that made that possible, starting with Quincy Jones, gave MJ the body of work that he has lived off of. As he has tried to "mature" and take control of his music, the results have consistantly lost the respect of musicians. The nadir was his petulant law suit against his record company for not properly supporting the album when all the money pissed away could have supported a hundred new artists who deserve a chance. The simple fact was the album was unlistenable.
The trial can't be over fast enough for me, regardless of the verdict. Assuming it is even possible, MJ needs to be refind his roots as a performer as so many others have had to do. Then he might find the respect he has lost.
Compare this to someone like Ronnie Lane, who has continued to create and perform music as he battles MS. There are other stories like his involving artists who continue to create. To focus on MJ is to buy into a cult of personality.
Re: not my area of interest
"King of Pop", indeed!