Grieving Jackson Fans 'Commit Suicide'
Monday, June 29 05:34 pm © Sky News 2009 Print Story The man behind the world's biggest online Michael Jackson fan club has said heartbroken followers of the star have committed suicide because of his death. Skip related content Related photos / videos Grieving Jackson Fans 'Commit Suicide' Enlarge photo Gary Taylor, president and owner of MJJcommunity.com, said he understood the tragedies had mostly taken place outside of the UK but he believed one may have been British. "I know there has been an increase, I now believe the figure is 12. I believe there may have been one Briton who has taken their life," he said. "It is a serious situation that these people are going through but Michael Jackson would never want this. He would want them to live." Jesse Jackson, a friend of the singer, has recorded a YouTube film on the site urging fans not to "self destruct". He said: "This is a time when hearts are heavy. There is great pain but great cause to celebrate Michael's life. "It made Michael happy saying 'We Are The World'. Don't self destruct. "We fall down sometimes, we get back up. That's the right thing to do. In Michael's name let's live together as brothers and sisters and not die apart as fools." MJJcommunity.com was formed 10 years ago by Mr Taylor, a London office manager, and has more than 14,000 online users and 30 staff worldwide. He said the singer's death had left his fans on the forum "in a surreal place". "They can't accept it, they feel in some sort of different reality," he said. "I'm stunned that he's dead. One minute he is coming here for concerts and the next he is gone. "I think the funeral will be where the reality kicks in that he is gone and won't be coming back, there will be a huge depression in the fan community when that happens." Thousands of Michael Jackson fans are expected to gather for a vigil on July 13 at the O2 Arena where the star was due to perform. They will assemble at Canary Wharf from 1pm before moving on to the 02 from 6pm. Da, Da, Da....Emancipation....Free..don't think I ain't..! London 21 Nights...Clap your hands...you know the rest..
James Brown & Michael Jackson RIP, your music still lives with us! | |
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A friend of mine is traveling down to Neverland on Friday. | |
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Timmy84 said: mookie said: I'm surprised to see that most fans on the boards are ok with an open casket. As much as fans complain about the media, they don't seem to be that concerned about what the press is going to do once they get that shot of MJ dead. I'm shocked that even one fan would seem okay with this. It's revolting to me. And I'm one of those rare fans to just not want something like this - a public funeral with an open casket, for what? [Edited 7/1/09 1:09am] I don't think it's a good idea but open caskets aren't that unusual especially for someone of Michael's stature. Thing is it's the family's decision to have it this way, not the media. Maybe they think this is a way of giving the fans their last chance to be close to Michael? He is a global icon. Maybe this is their way of sharing him with the fans for the last time while opening Neverland to fans as well. I don't know. It's too much to even contemplate. [Edited 7/1/09 5:45am] Been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jump off | |
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SoulAlive said: A friend of mine is traveling down to Neverland on Friday.
My friend is flying in from Europe and risking his job. Been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jump off | |
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i know you should not trust the press with regards to mj stories but this one could be true....but who knows ?
Posted Jun 30th 2009 11:39PM by TMZ Staff Sources tell TMZ an extremely dangerous and potent drug used for surgical anesthesia was found at Michael Jackson's house after he died ... and this may well be the drug that killed him. We're told the drug Propofol was discovered at the residence. The drug is used to put people under anesthesia before surgery. It is an extremely powerful drug that is only available to medical personnel. As one source said, "There is no conceivable way this drug can be properly prescribed for home use." The drug can only be administered with an IV. Interestingly, Propofol burns and the drug Lidocaine is used to reduce the pain associated with the Propofol injection. As we first reported, Lidocaine was found near Jackson's body. One of the major side-effects of Propofol is cardiac arrest if it's taken in combination with narcotic painkillers, however, Propofol is so powerful it can stop someone's heart on its own. A registered nurse has come out and said Jackson begged her for the drug Diprivan -- the brand name for Propofol. She says he needed it for insomnia but she declined to supply it. Sources say the drug is so inappropriate and reckless for home use, if a doctor facilitated it for Jackson and it caused his death, he or she could be prosecuted for manslaughter. Filed under: Michael Jackson Da, Da, Da....Emancipation....Free..don't think I ain't..! London 21 Nights...Clap your hands...you know the rest..
James Brown & Michael Jackson RIP, your music still lives with us! | |
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From the 1994 HIStory sessions
"We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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bboy87,my friend in Antioch is driving down to Neverland on Friday.I'm sure you are going too,right? | |
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JackieBlue said: SoulAlive said: A friend of mine is traveling down to Neverland on Friday.
My friend is flying in from Europe and risking his job. wow. | |
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MICHAEL JACKSON SHATTERS CHART RECORDS
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - As expected, Michael Jackson is once again the King of the Pop charts. Based on preliminary sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, the top nine positions on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart will house Jackson-related titles when the tally is released in the early morning on Wednesday. Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week ended at the close of business Sunday (June 28) night. Jackson himself -- who died June 25 of cardiac arrest at age 50 -- has a record eight out of the top 10, and a Jackson 5 compilation also finds its way into the upper tier. "Number Ones" will fittingly lead the pack at No. 1 with sales of 108,000 (an increase of 2,340 percent) while "The Essential Michael Jackson" and "Thriller" are in the second and third slots with 102,000 and 101,000, respectively. Last week "Number Ones" was the only Jackson title on the chart, at No. 20 with 4,000 copies; both "Essential" and "Thriller" re-enter the tally this week. Additionally, his classic 1979 studio set "Off the Wall" re-enters at No. 4 with 33,000 while his 1987 album "Bad" returns at No. 6 with 17,000. At No. 5, the Jackson 5's "The Ultimate Collection" debuts with 18,000. Jackson's fourth studio album for Epic Records, 1991's "Dangerous," re-enters at No. 7 with 14,000, and his 2001 compilation, "Greatest Hits: HIStory -- Volume 1," returns to the list at No. 8 with 12,000. Finally, Jackson's 2004 box set, "The Ultimate Collection," charts its first week on the Pop Catalog chart, arriving at No. 9 with 11,000. The lone non-Jackson-related set in the top 10 is a reissue of the "Woodstock" movie soundtrack, which bows at No. 10 with 8,000. CHART FIRSTS Collectively, Jackson's solo albums sold 415,000 this past week. That's extraordinary, given that his titles sold a combined 10,000 in the week ended June 21. Of the 415,000, 58 percent were digital downloads. The 415,000 albums sold last week represent nearly 40 percent more than sales of Jackson's catalog during the entire year up through June 21 (297,000). On the Top Digital Albums chart, Jackson has a record six out of the top 10 slots, including the top four. "The Essential Michael Jackson" leads the Top Digital Albums list with 80,000 downloads sold, while "Thriller" is No. 2 with 57,000. With the Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." moving back to the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 chart with 88,000, this week marks the first time that a catalog album has sold more than the No. 1 current set on the Billboard 200 albums chart. (All three of Jackson's top sellers on the Pop Catalog chart outsell "The E.N.D.") It's a feat that Jackson himself almost achieved when he reissued "Thriller" in February 2008. The set relaunched with 166,000, re-entering at No. 1 on the Top Pop Catalog chart. That week, Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" led the Billboard 200 chart with 180,000 while Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" was at No. 2 with 115,000. Catalog albums are ineligible to appear on the Billboard 200 albums chart, but they can chart on the all-encompassing Top Comprehensive Albums list. On the latter chart, Jackson's "Number Ones," "Essential" and "Thriller" are at Nos. 1-3, followed by the Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." at No. 4. NEW DIGITAL RECORD Jackson places a record 25 songs on the 75-position Hot Digital Songs chart (21 solo hits and four with his siblings), smashing the mark of 14 charting titles established by David Cook in June 2008. Jackson's Halloween radio staple, "Thriller," moves 167,000, which is good for second place on the chart behind the 203,000 shifted by the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling." "Thriller" was also Jackson's best digital seller in the week before his death, with 5,000 downloads, which translates to a 3,551 percent jump. Jackson's total volume of downloads this week -- including his tracks with the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons -- account for 2.6 million downloads, a remarkable number considering that last week's cumulative sum was 48,000. Moreover, Jackson becomes the first act to sell more than 1 million song downloads in a week. Besides "Thriller," Jackson places five other songs in the top 10 including "Man in the Mirror" (No. 3, 165,000), "Billie Jean" (No. 4, 158,000), "The Way You Make Me Feel" (No. 6, 136,000), "Beat It" (No. 7, 134,000) and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (No. 8, 125,000). Not surprisingly, each of the Jackson tracks in the top 10 of Hot Digital Songs was among the top 10 most-played Jackson selections on radio after his passing. According to research provided by Nielsen BDS of monitored airplay from more than 1,600 terrestrial and satellite radio stations and cable music channels, "Billie Jean" was the Jackson track with the most spins for the week ended June 28, with 4,540 -- 97 percent of which occurred after news of his death became public. The track posted only 318 plays in the previous week. (Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters) "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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EmeraldSkies said: bboy87 said: I believe they were in love. They were friends even after the divorce.Remember them hanging out and holding hands when he was on the HIStory tour in London? No I don't remember that. Lisa Marie was all around on the London portion. Some of us thought maybe they were secretly seeing each other again but they were clearly happy around each other. Been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jump off | |
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bboy87 said: From the 1994 HIStory sessions
So this is from HIStory and not the recent rehearsals as previously posted? Been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jump off | |
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suga10 said: EmeraldSkies said: True. I don't think she really loved him. She used him. Plain and simple. [Edited 6/30/09 20:33pm] It's really not. Been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jump off | |
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JackieBlue said: suga10 said: She used him. Plain and simple. [Edited 6/30/09 20:33pm] It's really not. I think unfortunately for a lot of fans the joy of the marriage to LMP was one we felt we had to defend in the face of all the "it's a scam". But when you see footage of them from that era it seems obvious there was a connection and an intimacy couples display. I think when she left Michael a lot of fans turned on her, but I really appreciated her honesty on her blog in the wake of the sad news. And I am glad that she put the rest all those who labelled it a scam. Swa "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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Swa said: JackieBlue said: It's really not. I think unfortunately for a lot of fans the joy of the marriage to LMP was one we felt we had to defend in the face of all the "it's a scam". But when you see footage of them from that era it seems obvious there was a connection and an intimacy couples display. I think when she left Michael a lot of fans turned on her, but I really appreciated her honesty on her blog in the wake of the sad news. And I am glad that she put the rest all those who labelled it a scam. Swa She had put it to rest ages ago. I dont get why she said it was something she had never said before. Every time they've ever interviewed her about the topic she has said the exact same thing. That part of her speech wasn't new. [Edited 7/1/09 6:21am] | |
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Timmy84 said: mookie said: I'm surprised to see that most fans on the boards are ok with an open casket. As much as fans complain about the media, they don't seem to be that concerned about what the press is going to do once they get that shot of MJ dead. I'm shocked that even one fan would seem okay with this. It's revolting to me. And I'm one of those rare fans to just not want something like this - a public funeral with an open casket, for what? [Edited 7/1/09 1:09am] last honour? | |
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I have chosen to remember MJ for his contributions to the music industry. My memories of MJ are from the time he started out with his brothers. From "I Want You Back" to "ABC" and many other songs he did as a solo artist down the road. I will always remember the cute young kid that stole the hearts of so many young folks at the beginning of his career, and was first introduced to the c world. Whatever MJ's issues were with his personal life was something that only MJ could answer for, and that was between him and his family.
Despite how many in the media at this time, are focusing on the negative aspects of his personal life, They can never take away the talent he was blessed with nor the music and performances that he shared and charmed audiences with over the years. I can only wish his family peace and strength during their time of grief due to the passing of Michael and that they keep their memories of him close to their hearts. | |
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Are people frowning at the open casket idea off the Org as well? I'm wondering if there's a possiblity that they may change their minds on this idea. Been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jump off | |
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BoOTyLiCioUs said: Jordan Chandler Admits He Lied about Being Molested by Michael Jackson - Report
2009-06-30 19:35:23 Jordan Chandler has admitted that he lied when he accused Michael Jackson of sexually molesting him in 1993. The news has been reported by the BGNES news agency which cites an interview with Chandler in an American news website. Chandler is quoted as saying that back in 1993, when he was 13, he was forced to lie by his father. Chandler's accusations caused a scandal that stained irreparably the reputation of the King of Pop, who died last Thursday. The child molestation case against Jacko ended after the singer agreed to pay Jordan Chandler's family USD 22 M. http://www.novinite.com/n...?id=105204 Is that real? "When Michael Jackson is just singing and dancing, you just think this is an astonishing talent. And he has had this astounding talent all his life, but we want him to be floored as well. We really don´t like the idea that he could have it all." | |
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I just wish the Jackson family would hurry up and confirm something already | |
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Anxiety said: that's nice | |
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suga10 said: Grace is saying that the media made up bullshit about her pumping Jackson's stomach
http://www.mjjcommunity.c...hp?t=66825 Statement by Grace Rwaramba Regarding Michael Jackson
The following statement is by Grace Rwaramba: June 30th, 2009 “Michael Jackson was an exceptional Human Being. He was gifted, deeply compassionate and brought joy to the lives of so many. He loved his family dearly, and above all, his beautiful children. In addition to being my employer over the past 17 years and entrusting the care of his beloved children to me, he was my dear friend. While our friendship had challenges, as do all friendships, he was loyal to the end. I cherish and honor his memory. I am shocked, hurt and deeply saddened by recent statements the press has attributed to me, in particular, the outrageous and patently false claim that I “routinely pumped his stomach after he had ingested a dangerous combination of drugs". I don’t even know how to pump a stomach!! In addition, I have never spoken to the Times Online, the original source of the story that has now been picked up worldwide. The statements attributed to me confirm the worst in human tendencies to sensationalize tragedy and smear reputations for profit. I convey my heartfelt and deepest condolences to Prince, Paris, Blanket and the entire Jackson family. The pain and sorrow I feel over the loss of Michael pales in comparison to what has been taken from them forever.” - Grace Rwaramba I'm glad that this story turned out to be false.The media and tabloids are making up so much bullshit Some of these stories are insane! "I don't even know how to pump a stomach!! | |
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SoulAlive said: I'm glad that this story turned out to be false.The media and tabloids are making up so much bullshit Some of these stories are insane! Unfortunately with 3 - 6 weeks to confirm a cause of death the 24/7 news machine are desperate to fill space and will run with anything regardless of the source or it seems real fact checking. Swa "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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They're so bold with the lies these days. When I saw it was from Grace I knew it wasn’t true. Been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jump off | |
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StarCat, thank you so much for the beautiful pictures. The continued outpouring of love and sadness is really getting to me this morning. That and the charts news. | |
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dag said: BoOTyLiCioUs said: Jordan Chandler Admits He Lied about Being Molested by Michael Jackson - Report
2009-06-30 19:35:23 Jordan Chandler has admitted that he lied when he accused Michael Jackson of sexually molesting him in 1993. The news has been reported by the BGNES news agency which cites an interview with Chandler in an American news website. Chandler is quoted as saying that back in 1993, when he was 13, he was forced to lie by his father. Chandler's accusations caused a scandal that stained irreparably the reputation of the King of Pop, who died last Thursday. The child molestation case against Jacko ended after the singer agreed to pay Jordan Chandler's family USD 22 M. http://www.novinite.com/n...?id=105204 Is that real? It doesn't appear to be. You have to take everything you read at the moment with a high level of scepticism when reading anything in the press and specifically online. Swa "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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Swa said: dag said: Is that real? It doesn't appear to be. You have to take everything you read at the moment with a high level of scepticism when reading anything in the press and specifically online. Swa I know, but this would be nice if it was real. "When Michael Jackson is just singing and dancing, you just think this is an astonishing talent. And he has had this astounding talent all his life, but we want him to be floored as well. We really don´t like the idea that he could have it all." | |
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allmusic.com gathers together some of the better insight written about MJ over the last week:
http://blog.allmusic.com/...ggregator/ Since Michael Jackson’s passing last week, a great deal of nonsense has hit news programs and the Internet. (Here is a case where Google might not be your friend.) From the disgraceful father of the deceased using every opportunity to promote his whatever, to countless ill-informed speculations, to reductions of Jackson’s life to a mere caricature, there has been enough errant garbage to nauseate the most casual fan. As a supplement to our own tribute from Stephen Thomas Erlewine, here is a modest attempt at shining some light on the more insightful and heartfelt writing that has surfaced during the last few days.
“Thursday night in New York was hot — after weeks of rain, it was one of the first real summer nights of the year. Car windows were open all over the city, and just about every station on the radio dial had switched to an all-Michael Jackson format; for the first (and, for all we know, the last) time, it felt as if absolutely everyone was listening to the same songs.” — Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker “A showstopper in any definition of the word, he transcended generations and racial barriers. From oldies fans who were there from the start of his career in Gary to today’s young teens, whose attention span and too-cool-for-even-last-week’s-number-one-hit musical tastes rarely wander from the MTV playlists, he rocked them all. Even as I talked to a co-worker today, she told me about her 6-year-old son who goes to bed each night playing the Jackson 5’s greatest hits CD. That’s what you call IMPACT.” — Eric Luecking, Soul Sides “If he did anything wrong in his life, and part of me doesn’t ever want to know if he did, he certainly also did more good than any of us can ever conceive of. He was easily the greatest dancer of the past three decades, probably the greatest singer, and quite possibly the greatest songwriter. Which adds up the greatest entertainer, period. ‘I can guarantee you one thing, we will never agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis,’ Lester Bangs wrote in his obit 32 years ago, only a couple years before Michael Jackson definitively proved him wrong, emerging full-blown into adulthood as the world’s most popular musician by presaging generations of young people who would celebrate their adulthood by refusing to grow up. And he emerged, of course, with some of the most celebratory music anybody from those generations will ever hear. But always, in the middle of that celebration, and not always submerged, there was dread. If anybody deserves to finally rest in peace, it’s him.” — Chuck Eddy “The way he integrated MTV in 1983 with ‘Billie Jean,’ the ‘We Are the World’ extravaganzas, the face masks, the oxygen tanks, the Neverland Ranch — all that mixes in with everything from ‘Stop the Love You Save’ to ‘Dancing Machine,’ ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,’ ‘P.Y.T.,’ ‘Man in the Mirror,’ adding up to the more than 750 million albums sold worldwide… I mean. And this is not the half, the tenth, the thousandth of what he was.” — Danyel Smith, CNN “He was Blackness and maleness, soul music and pop culture, all forged pre-hip-hop, pre-Reagan, pre-crack, pre the implosion of short-lived Civil Rights-era idealism and hope. That’s an incalculably important point to understand the thick strands of optimism, possibility, aesthetic, and political vision that ran through his work. And that makes the darkness and paranoia that marbled so much of his later work all the more heartbreaking, especially as it roughly paralleled the shifting tenor of the times. He never lost his humanitarian streak or his belief in the overall goodness of humanity, but the evolution of his own relationship to the world and his feelings about how he was treated darkened noticeably.” — Ernest Hardy “But what is the allure of this narrative that we — fans, consumers, the media, American culture, etc — somehow destroyed Michael? What anxieties do we displace by projecting them onto his troubled face? I always think back to the interrogation scene from Three Kings. ‘What is the problem with Michael Jackson?’ an Iraqi soldier asks a wayward American. ‘Your country make him chop up his face.’ He did it to himself, the American protests, but his interrogator insists: ‘Michael Jackson is pop king of sick fucking country.’ Maybe it is a ’sick fucking country.’ Maybe the idea of pop transcendence is deeply flawed. But we are truly the sick ones if we didn’t already know this, if we needed Michael Jackson to be our martyr. If we think we would trade it all for a world without Off the Wall or Thriller or ‘Butterflies.’” — Hua Hsu, The Atlantic “I often thought of a veal calf when I saw him — he had been raised to perform under extreme pressure before he had any idea of what life could be beyond performing for others. Then he spent decades trying to build a life without ever having seen one. He had the best ear in the world but he had no apparent idea of how people experienced everyday comfort, or even boredom.” — Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker “We have to be sophisticated enough to acknowledge that greatness and a touch of evil dwelled in the man. I’ve always believed that transcendent art emanates from the purest, most evolved parts of our soul. But that highly spiritual achievement doesn’t absolve us of our daily misdeeds. To simply brand him a smooth criminal, as some have, or to overlook his tragic nature, as have others, is to deny his humanity. The meaning of Michael Jackson’s life — as a black man, a sexual being, a abused and abusing adult — will be interpreted to fit the prejudices of the speaker. His music — it speaks volumes.” — Nelson George “Why would people try to tear down a man who constantly used his power, money, and influence to help others? Why would people express such disgust and contempt for a man who constantly sang of love and peace, and used his talent to entertain, uplift, and inspire millions? Tell em that its human nature, I suppose…” — Phonte Coleman (Little Brother, the Foreign Exchange) “What we’ve lost, in a word, is monoculture. Michael Jackson is the final pop star of seeming consequence to everyone — not just people who don’t normally care about music, but people who don’t care about culture, period. Obviously, it’s been a quarter-century since that was unequivocally true. But he’s the last pop musician for whom it was even equivocally true. The fact that the business he saved has been crumbling for some time was given a brutal underlining by Jackson’s sudden, unexpected death, the question of what’s-next now punctuated with what-will-never-be-again.” — Michaelangelo Matos, Salon | |
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ATTENTION US FANS
Could someone please get this magazine for me? Of course I would pay you for it. I doubt I´l be able to buy it here in Europe. I´d love to have this picture as a poster... "When Michael Jackson is just singing and dancing, you just think this is an astonishing talent. And he has had this astounding talent all his life, but we want him to be floored as well. We really don´t like the idea that he could have it all." | |
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MJ's song, "Monkey Business" sounds like kinda like a Prince song. I wonder if that's just coincidence... "What you lose in the fire, you will find in the ashes." -Creole Proverb | |
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errant said: allmusic.com gathers together some of the better insight written about MJ over the last week:
http://blog.allmusic.com/...ggregator/ Since Michael Jackson’s passing last week, a great deal of nonsense has hit news programs and the Internet. (Here is a case where Google might not be your friend.) From the disgraceful father of the deceased using every opportunity to promote his whatever, to countless ill-informed speculations, to reductions of Jackson’s life to a mere caricature, there has been enough errant garbage to nauseate the most casual fan. As a supplement to our own tribute from Stephen Thomas Erlewine, here is a modest attempt at shining some light on the more insightful and heartfelt writing that has surfaced during the last few days.
“Thursday night in New York was hot — after weeks of rain, it was one of the first real summer nights of the year. Car windows were open all over the city, and just about every station on the radio dial had switched to an all-Michael Jackson format; for the first (and, for all we know, the last) time, it felt as if absolutely everyone was listening to the same songs.” — Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker “A showstopper in any definition of the word, he transcended generations and racial barriers. From oldies fans who were there from the start of his career in Gary to today’s young teens, whose attention span and too-cool-for-even-last-week’s-number-one-hit musical tastes rarely wander from the MTV playlists, he rocked them all. Even as I talked to a co-worker today, she told me about her 6-year-old son who goes to bed each night playing the Jackson 5’s greatest hits CD. That’s what you call IMPACT.” — Eric Luecking, Soul Sides “If he did anything wrong in his life, and part of me doesn’t ever want to know if he did, he certainly also did more good than any of us can ever conceive of. He was easily the greatest dancer of the past three decades, probably the greatest singer, and quite possibly the greatest songwriter. Which adds up the greatest entertainer, period. ‘I can guarantee you one thing, we will never agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis,’ Lester Bangs wrote in his obit 32 years ago, only a couple years before Michael Jackson definitively proved him wrong, emerging full-blown into adulthood as the world’s most popular musician by presaging generations of young people who would celebrate their adulthood by refusing to grow up. And he emerged, of course, with some of the most celebratory music anybody from those generations will ever hear. But always, in the middle of that celebration, and not always submerged, there was dread. If anybody deserves to finally rest in peace, it’s him.” — Chuck Eddy “The way he integrated MTV in 1983 with ‘Billie Jean,’ the ‘We Are the World’ extravaganzas, the face masks, the oxygen tanks, the Neverland Ranch — all that mixes in with everything from ‘Stop the Love You Save’ to ‘Dancing Machine,’ ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,’ ‘P.Y.T.,’ ‘Man in the Mirror,’ adding up to the more than 750 million albums sold worldwide… I mean. And this is not the half, the tenth, the thousandth of what he was.” — Danyel Smith, CNN “He was Blackness and maleness, soul music and pop culture, all forged pre-hip-hop, pre-Reagan, pre-crack, pre the implosion of short-lived Civil Rights-era idealism and hope. That’s an incalculably important point to understand the thick strands of optimism, possibility, aesthetic, and political vision that ran through his work. And that makes the darkness and paranoia that marbled so much of his later work all the more heartbreaking, especially as it roughly paralleled the shifting tenor of the times. He never lost his humanitarian streak or his belief in the overall goodness of humanity, but the evolution of his own relationship to the world and his feelings about how he was treated darkened noticeably.” — Ernest Hardy “But what is the allure of this narrative that we — fans, consumers, the media, American culture, etc — somehow destroyed Michael? What anxieties do we displace by projecting them onto his troubled face? I always think back to the interrogation scene from Three Kings. ‘What is the problem with Michael Jackson?’ an Iraqi soldier asks a wayward American. ‘Your country make him chop up his face.’ He did it to himself, the American protests, but his interrogator insists: ‘Michael Jackson is pop king of sick fucking country.’ Maybe it is a ’sick fucking country.’ Maybe the idea of pop transcendence is deeply flawed. But we are truly the sick ones if we didn’t already know this, if we needed Michael Jackson to be our martyr. If we think we would trade it all for a world without Off the Wall or Thriller or ‘Butterflies.’” — Hua Hsu, The Atlantic “I often thought of a veal calf when I saw him — he had been raised to perform under extreme pressure before he had any idea of what life could be beyond performing for others. Then he spent decades trying to build a life without ever having seen one. He had the best ear in the world but he had no apparent idea of how people experienced everyday comfort, or even boredom.” — Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker “We have to be sophisticated enough to acknowledge that greatness and a touch of evil dwelled in the man. I’ve always believed that transcendent art emanates from the purest, most evolved parts of our soul. But that highly spiritual achievement doesn’t absolve us of our daily misdeeds. To simply brand him a smooth criminal, as some have, or to overlook his tragic nature, as have others, is to deny his humanity. The meaning of Michael Jackson’s life — as a black man, a sexual being, a abused and abusing adult — will be interpreted to fit the prejudices of the speaker. His music — it speaks volumes.” — Nelson George “Why would people try to tear down a man who constantly used his power, money, and influence to help others? Why would people express such disgust and contempt for a man who constantly sang of love and peace, and used his talent to entertain, uplift, and inspire millions? Tell em that its human nature, I suppose…” — Phonte Coleman (Little Brother, the Foreign Exchange) “What we’ve lost, in a word, is monoculture. Michael Jackson is the final pop star of seeming consequence to everyone — not just people who don’t normally care about music, but people who don’t care about culture, period. Obviously, it’s been a quarter-century since that was unequivocally true. But he’s the last pop musician for whom it was even equivocally true. The fact that the business he saved has been crumbling for some time was given a brutal underlining by Jackson’s sudden, unexpected death, the question of what’s-next now punctuated with what-will-never-be-again.” — Michaelangelo Matos, Salon Thanks so much for posting this. "When Michael Jackson is just singing and dancing, you just think this is an astonishing talent. And he has had this astounding talent all his life, but we want him to be floored as well. We really don´t like the idea that he could have it all." | |
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