This May Lose Me Some Friends

[poliphilo]

The music never dies. It goes on and on and on. Ad nauseum. Someone switch the bloody thing off.

Jackson's work is kitsch. Even the better stuff is slick and empty.

Fred Astaire said Jackson was the greatest dancer of the 20th century. I refuse to believe he meant it.

Bad? Not in the way he wanted us to think.

I find it shocking that people make excuses for Jackson that they wouldn't dream of making for other middle-aged men who like to share their beds with children.

By the time of his death he was a freeloading junkie who indulged himself in every little whim- but couldn't be bothered to pay his staff.

Celebrity turns men and women into monsters. The strong-minded get out before it destroys every last scrap of decency and truth.  Jackson wasn't strong-minded.

Comments

[alice-g.livejournal.com]

I really want to love Michael Jackson, I did when I was a young girl and his picture was on our wall, and you Poliphilo took us to see Moonwalker. He was a god in my eyes for some time. I had an unholy crush on him, and I knew that if we ever met we would fall in love... hmmmmm. I believe also that this is the effect he has had on half the world, male, female, straight, gay , young and old.

However I also know all the bad stuff and sadly I can't quite make that go away. There is too much of it, and the papers today are sticking the boot in. They gave him two days grace, and now its all very much of the vein that you have taken, junkie, abusive, bizarre, sad, freeloading etc etc etc.

The result being, I feel nothing. I wish the MJ of my youth was still here, but I wished that years ago too, way before his death. He has been gone a long while before 25th June 09. His death almost seems merciful, for the man has looked barren and empty for so long now. No matter what he did or did not do, he could not have been, in any way, shape or form happy. That actually makes me a little sad.

As for his place in history....again I'm torn. I am too young for Sinatra so the comparison is meaningless. Judy Garland is another tragic drugs victim who will always be an icon purely for the Wizard of Oz. Elvis was just a cheesy old crooner to me until I went to Graceland and got an education. MJ was astonishing but his life was a freakshow and I'm pretty sure his 'legend' will not allow history to forget that fact. His freakiness contributed to his longevity, to our fascination with him. That was part of his appeal, the whole 'peter pan' thing. But also part of his repulsion.

You know what this whole thing has got me so muddled up. I'm debating in my own mind how I feel about him. I think maybe you been a little harsh, but also bang on fact. Lord knows I'm indecisive and diplomatic at the best of times, but this has got me going through loops. I can only ever see two sides to every story. And I think with MJ there are two very distinct sides. I've seen both and one has muted the other. tO the point I don't know how to respond anymore.

On that note I'm off.... Alice x

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember taking you to see Moonwalker. What a strange movie! It was as if artistic control had been handed over to an 8 year old.

I think it was obvious even then that there was something a bit screwy going on. I mean, who allows an 8 year old to run riot though a movie studio?

Celebrity hollows people out. It got to work on Jackson when he was just a kid. He didn't really stand a chance. Thus far I'm sorry for him.

But then, well... he became a bad man and did bad things- and I hate to see him being spoken of as if he were some sort of secular saint. I feel the need to protest.

Yes, there are things to be said on both sides. I'm sure this debate is going to run and run....

Love, Dad XXX

[alice-g.livejournal.com]

I knew even when I was 8 that he wasn't right. The surgery, the skin whitening, the chimpanzee!! Probably you told me too! He was, however, intriguing. Although not so much today. J read all the papers but I couldn't. I don't care enough, it's too depressing and hideously dark. I just see him as a desperate character, malformed and ruined. None of it seems real.

Love ya xx

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Some of it was just PR- the chimpanzee for instance; That was pretty much just a stunt. Jackson' people wanted us to believe he was crazy in a childlike, attractive sort of a way. But other things- the bleaching, the endless surgery, the dodgy phone calls to boys, the weird way he treated his own kids- they were real.

I wish it would go away, but I'm afraid it's is going to dominate the media for weeks.

Love,

Dad XXX