Thursday, June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson: Redefining Weird

By Alan Caruba

We shall now be regaled with over-heated reporting about the life and death of Michael Jackson. The media will have a field day because he was always good for circulation and ratings.

When I think of Michael Jackson, I think of a grown man who, though born black, had a metamorphosis that left him with ghostly white skin. He also had a straight nose thanks obviously to plastic surgery, the long hair of a woman, and he appeared to wear lipstick and other makeup. Normal people do not do these kinds of thing.

He never dressed like ordinary people, not even very famous, but otherwise ordinary people.

In his later years, he always carried an umbrella or someone carried it for him to shield him from the sun.

The revelations of the trial for child molestation were fairly appalling even if he beat the rap. The circus and zoo he maintained on his estate in order to be able to surround himself with children was, shall we say, odd.

His voice was odd. Childlike barely begins to describe it. It did, of course, make him one of the most famous singers on planet Earth since Elvis Presley. I liked Presley. I didn’t like Michael Jackson.

His dancing influenced a whole generation of wannabes, but I always found it spastic and frequently obscene, particularly because he was always reaching for or touching his privates. Normal people don’t do that in public, even if or particularly when performing on stage.

The various show business experts will tell you that all this was the result of his enormous fame, but many performers enjoy such fame without turning into complete freaks though frequently they also abused drugs or alcohol or anything else they can sniff, snort, inject, drink, or ingest by any and all means possible.

Michael Jackson was a very weird person.

Kinky doesn’t even begin to describe him. You won’t hear too many show business reporters or news professionals say that. So I will.

He was one of a kind and for that we can all be grateful.

His death will spawn a dozen books, but I doubt any of them will ever explain why Michael Jackson was such a freak. Frankly, I don’t really care.

Let all the usual show business suck-ups, groupies, hangers-on and---yes, fans---mourn his death. He was, musically, a great talent.

His life, however, was a tragedy and I will not miss his androgeny, the clear evidence of his drug addiction, or the stench of his behavior around children. Everything about Jackson screamed deviation and excess. He was no one's role model.

9 comments:

  1. I'd rather remember the old school MJ. Good times.

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  2. Did I mention that I am a cranky old bastard?

    He was a cute kid. And the Jackson Five rocked. The problem was that they and we had to grow up.

    His "inner child" was the outer child we were supposed to accept.

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  3. At least one of our local TV channels ran a ticker announcing Jackson's death across the bottom of the screen all evening. Call me crazy, but isn't that the sort of thing usually reserved for life-threatening weather, plane crashes, or the like? I hardly think the death of someone like Michael Jackson rates that kind of news coverage, but yes, the media will make a circus out of it. He was certainly a pop culture celebrity, but so was Farrah Fawcett, who also died today ... I didn't see any ticker running across the bottom of the screen about her death. Jackson was a media favorite simply because he exemplified two of the big causes our liberal media has been championing for years. He was a tremendously successful black man (but he obviously wanted to be white), and he was either gay, or at least VERY confused about his sexuality. I had respect for his music at times, but events of late cost him any respect I ever had for him. The tabloids called him Jacko ... I called him Sicko. What a sad, sad story.

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  4. Alan,

    Lighten up a little bit. The guy was wierd. I agree. But to say your glad to get rid of him is somewhat pathetic.

    A 50 year old man with 3 children died of a heart attack. Lets not forget that.

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  5. Point well taken. It is not the man I am glad to be rid of, but the androgeny, the behavior around children, the likely drug habit, and the endless need of the news media to excuse all that.

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  6. The article is spot on but isn't it "weird" as opposed to "wierd"??

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  7. Jack, it's only "wierd" when I misspell it that way!

    Correction noted and made.

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  8. Alan,

    For a "cranky old bastard" you have a great sense of humor!

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  9. ?... How does a black man that turned white have ALL WHITE children. ?... Does bleaching and replacing sections of skin with white people's skin change your DNA? Those are not his BIOLOGICAL children...

    Funeral homes where I live have set up shrines for this man and his worshipers.

    What is it to gain the WHOLE wide world and lose your very soul?

    Gordon Robertson said when he was in the Philippines years ago, a city of 15 million came to a stand still when Michale arrived. I liked his music when I was in middle school, but after "Rock With You" I did not find his music, sexual acts on stage, or his face changing into a white person anything to mold my young life after.

    I am sad for those that think this is how GOD, who creates everything BEAUTIFULLY, would have a person to live and die. SAD...

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