utopia7 said:

"Morphine" off the album 'Blood on the Dance Floor' kicks major ass. MJ is
is credited with playing guitar (along w/ Slash) and drums on the track, but I haven't read any past interviews where he was ever asked about his musicianship. 2 bad. I would love to have known if he was self-taught.
[Edited 8/2/09 12:35pm]

I'm not sure but I think Lisa Marie said that he curses a lot.

StillDirrty said:

And that was way before having kids, so he probably toned it down later.

Or maybe he was trying to impress cause she's a bit of a rebel and no nonsense girl. She did say once about how he was trying to program her of any preconceieved notions she might have had about him- leading to the whole thing of him being a bit of a manipulator.

I remember Debbie saying on that Living with MJ special part 2 (Rebuttal) that he didn't like cursing and would find some other way of expressing himself- like shoot or something like that.
[Edited 8/2/09 12:59pm]

I guess his cursing became less after he became a full-time drug addict. After a decent Propfil injection you don't have a reason to curse.

graecophilos said:

He wanted to set a good example for his kids too

I don't get that. Anyone who has had surgery has had Propofol injected in them. It really has nothing to do with your personality.

Ughh Freidman thinks Joe is gone from Havenhurst from tomorrow onwards



http://www.showbiz411.com...ebbie-rowe

StillDirrty said:

huh? MJ was an Propofol-addict. The thing is, it's risky and makes you dumb in your head.

Copycat said:

Dude has been into music since he was 5. He never took lessons, probablt learned from his pops and Tito and Tito's friend.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I was about to say the same thing. Dude was playing the bongos at 5 and moved on to drums (though we never saw him do it live, there is several pictures where he is at the drum set banging away).

graecophilos said:

It wouldn't cause him to stop cursing. It'll make him feel off but not change his personality.
Propofol

All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome when using Propofol:

Change in mood or emotions; dizziness; drowsiness; lack of coordination.

Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur when using Propofol:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); cough; feeling faint; itching; pain, redness, or swelling at the injection site; wheezing.

Shango said:[quote]

Moonwalkbjrain said:

noticed that too ...it looks like tape,like how MJ sometimes did

whatsgoingon said:

I think those fans that have been around long enough know Michael, as talented as he was, had flaws just like the rest of us. The guy was a SUPERSTAR but he wasn't SUPERHUMAN, he had personal issues that haunted him and were magnified by his fame.

Swa

ViintageJunkiie said:

yes, we'll find out when the film comes out anyways

Jackson Estate Confronts Fake Merchandise Dealers
Aug 2, 2009


Down a crowded merchant-lined street in downtown Los Angeles called Santee Alley, a handful of vendors are selling Michael Jackson T-shirts. Two shirts memorialize his passing, but one gets the date of his death wrong. The other has no collar tag.

Martin Melendes, a store manager, looks askance at a reporter's questions about the $15 Jackson shirts worn by his mannequins. “You're not with the FBI?” he asks. Stepping away from his boss, he says excitedly, “We sold 2,000 T-shirts in the first week. We're still selling a lot.”

Since the King of Pop died late last month, people around the world have mourned him. Others set out to make a quick buck. Now, as estate lawyers battle to secure his fortune in court, they are turning their attention to the hucksters flooding stores and street corners with unauthorized Jackson memorabilia.

This is not just about a T-shirt or two. At stake are tens of millions of dollars in annual merchandising royalties alone, estimates Mark Roesler, chief executive of CMG Worldwide, the business agent who handles licensing and collects revenue for the estates of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and other deceased celebrities.

Elvis Presley's estate brought in nearly $55 million in revenue last year, 32 years after his death. That included $14 million from retail sales. Royalties from DVDs and TV projects and money from tours, exhibits, hotel rooms and events at the Graceland museum made up the rest. Monroe's and Dean's estates took in nearly $5 million each.

Jackson may prove to be more popular than all of them.

The estate and AEG, the concert promoter behind Jackson's planned comeback, are selling Jackson T-shirts, mugs and other paraphernalia online through Universal Music Group's retailing arm, Bravado.

Last week, the estate cut a deal with Harmony Books, a division of Random House Inc., to re-release his 1988 biography, Moonwalk. Deals are in the works for a movie based on concert rehearsal footage — for which Sony bid $50 million to distribute worldwide — and a TV special based on his music and dance moves. There is even a section devoted to Jackson merchandise on QVC, the television and online retailer, which said it spent time vetting the legitimacy of each item.

Jackson's popularity also is providing plenty of opportunities for others to cash in.

“In the piracy and anti-counterfeiting world, this is as big as it gets,” Roesler said. “It's a daunting task for the rights holders to get on top of this.”

Already, a dozen vendors are hawking Jackson T-shirts, fedoras, watches and buttons on Amazon.com, which removes merchandise it deems illegal but does not screen items beforehand. Five entities with no obvious link to the Jackson family have tried to trademark the phrase “King of Pop” on everything from drink umbrellas to juggling balls since the day he died.

Others, like street vendors and T-shirt shops from Los Angeles to New York, are more brazen, openly flouting laws meant to ensure that the estate of the late singer gets its cut.

John Branca and John McClain, the estate's special administrators, said in a statement that the estate will take legal action to prevent the sale of unauthorized items.

“The sale of unauthorized Michael Jackson merchandise is illegal and provides nothing for the beneficiaries of his estate, namely his mother, his children and charitable causes that were important to him,” they said.

The estate's concern is not just limited to memorabilia. Americans freely swapped 9.5 million of Jackson's songs, everything from Thriller to Rock With You, using file-sharing software in the week ending July 16, according to tracking firm BigChampagne Media Measurement.

That alone represents about $24 million in lost revenue, based on what the swappers would have paid if they bought the songs from Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

Meanwhile, legitimate sales of Jackson's music are still booming, with about 3 million albums sold in the U.S. since his death, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Experts say it will take a sophisticated legal and business team to succeed at securing Jackson's rights worldwide. Los Angeles police said they won't take action against suspect retailers or manufacturers unless a trademark owner appears in court to claim that the other items are fakes.

Girlytops.com, a New Jersey-based retailer that also sells items featuring Britney Spears and former American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, has sold thousands of Jackson T-shirts online, said owner Pete Ray. He said the company purchased the designs from “licensed retailers,” but wouldn't clarify which ones.

“There's been an amazing response by his fans to his death,” Ray said by phone. “It's just countless. I haven't really sat down. We've been just too busy sending them out. As fast as they come in, they go out.”

Complicating matters is that the phrase “King of Pop” was not actually registered to the singer, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which has some of his applications on display in a free exhibit in Washington.

He registered “Michael Jackson” as a trademark, the office said, but only on sound recordings, videotapes and movies involving music and entertainment. Jackson owned a patent on a shoe that allowed the wearer to lean past his center of gravity, as he did in the Smooth Criminal video, but it expired in 2005 because he didn't pay a $2,480 maintenance fee.

That doesn't mean there is a free-for-all on certain products using his name and likeness, because common law can establish ownership of trademarks if they have been used in commercial ventures before, said Sharon Marsh, the USPTO's deputy commissioner for trademark policy.

An applicant can be denied if his or her trademark application creates a false association with a person or an institution, she said.

The quickest way for the estate to end unlicensed selling would be to seek a judge's temporary restraining order, which can take less than a week and requires little proof, said Alan Drewsen, executive director of the International Trademark Association.

The difficulty is tracking down all of the manufacturers that jump into the business and then bail when legal questions arise, he said.


"It's going to be very difficult for the estate to shut down every source of T-shirts," Drewsen said.

TUTM Entertainment, a New Jersey-based maker of party goods, said it applied for the trademark "King of Pop" on everything from cover artist CDs to buffet decorations, as a way to keep the party Jackson started going.

"The market's already flooded with tons of T-shirts and stuff," said TUTM's chief operating officer, Dianne Aronica. "We felt the smartest way to do it was obtain a trademark and do focused items that made sense. We typically like to do it right."

If history is any indicator, Jackson's earning power will last many years past his death and the estate still has time to overcome the sea of knockoffs.

"Elvis Presley's merchandise still sells extremely well," said Charles Riotto, president of the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association. "Whether this would hold true for Michael Jackson, I don't know. There'll have to be a well-organized and cohesive licensing program to achieve that sales result."




http://www.chron.com/disp...58097.html
[Edited 8/2/09 15:57pm]

Timmy84 said:

Confirmed by who?? I REALLY don't believe that's him. Yeah, he can have a deep or high voice, but it ALWAYS sounds like Michael. You can always tell it's him. Michael has a bit of an accent. He has a very distinctive tone in his voice, and I never hear it through the whole convo. Plus, I don't think he had dogs.


It sounds like some fan or someone trying to sound like him. I've never heard anything out of his mouth that I couldn't tell RIGHT AWAY it was his voice, deep or not.

sexyeyeliner said:

Oh well.

MJ drinking or cursing is not something that's a big deal. Everyone does that at some point or the other.

And MJ is the one who portrays himself in a goodie two shoes way. Fans aren't being in denial, if MJ is constantly behaving this way in public.

Just look at the Earth Song performance in 1996 at the WMA

And the way he has raised has children is a reflection of who the man is, even if he has flaws just like everyone else.

LMP was also around MJ during a different phase of his life. She never saw the man during his fatherhood phase.
[Edited 8/2/09 16:08pm]
[Edited 8/2/09 16:10pm]

On that prank call phone convo, I could tell it was Michael even with his fake voice. He just has such an accent. Example, Mike never said concert, he said "cuncert." He just speaks differently than anyone else. You can alllways tell his voice. That other phone convo is fake. Too bad. I was looking forward to hearing it.

Copycat said:

In December, I got to speak with Michael for over an hour with a few other fans. We asked him what instruments he plays and he said "Drums and piano." I wouldn't be surprised if he knew a little guitar. But, he DEFINITELY knows drums. I think he plays drums better than piano.

suga10 said:

Exactly.

sexyeyeliner said:

THat's cool, I already knew he played drums and piano. TEddy Riley said Mike taught him to start a song at the pianao.

The phone call sounds exactly like him to me. & it also has info that only he would know.

Right on! Thanks so much for sharing that bit of info from the Q & A w/ MJ.

StillDirrty said:

sounds like him to me too.

That is michael on that damn phone .goodness

babybugz said:

How do u know?

It doesn't sound like him to me. Where is the accent? I don't care whether it is or not concerning the content of the convo. I've just never heard him ever speak (even using disguised voices) and it not sound like him.

sexyeyeliner said:

Believe what you want lol