Sure, I say something nice about Farrah Fawcett and then Michael Jackson dies. Am I now going to say something nice about him? I took a day to think about this. It’s not going to be a glowing tribute, but it won’t be as bad as some might be thinking, or hoping. The thing I will miss most about Michael Jackson is I will no longer be able to say that he is proof that white people are crazy. When he was black, he was cool, but when he turned white, he turned into one crazy mother . . . you get the idea. The Jackson 5 was just a hair before my time. I remember being very young and watching their cartoon on Saturday morning TV with my older brother. I remember how excited he was when some cereal company decided to put some of their singles on the back of their boxes. You just cut it off the back of the box, popped a hole in the center with a pencil and you could play it on your record player. And thus the Jackson 5 made it into our household. Not that we weren’t allowed to have records. We just lived in the middle of nowhere. A grocery store was a lot easier to get to then a record store. Thank God for radio and TV. Yes, Michael Jackson was around a long time. He spent nearly every bit of his 50 years in the public eye. That has got to be daunting for anyone, especially a small child, and I’m sure it affected things he did later in life. I honestly believe he was innocent in the molestation charges. I’m sure that’s not what some people want to hear. My impression always was that he was desperately trying to get back the childhood he never got a chance to have when he was a child, because of his music career. That was the reason for an amusement park home and the sleepovers. I’m sure he did some stupid things he shouldn’t have, but there were no sexual intentions. He just wanted to be a kid again. Unfortunately, Peter Pan doesn’t exist. He was grasping for something he was never going to find. The biggest part of being a child is the innocence of discovery and the loss thereof. Once it’s gone you can’t get it back. He just didn’t have sense enough to realize that an adult having sleepovers with children, especially one’s that aren’t your own, just doesn’t look right to the rest of the world. Eventually someone was going to take advantage of that. Michael Jackson’s life was pretty much split into two parts. The first part was huge creatively, what with the Jackson 5 and his own solo career. Who can deny the impact that Thriller had on the entertainment business in terms of music and video. It is highly unlikely that anyone will ever put out a bigger selling album. It had elements that appealed to everyone. The second part of his life was just as huge in terms of bazaar behavior. The music may have dried up, but he stayed in the headlines with surprising marriages, molestation charges, cosmetic surgeries and dangling kids off balconies. How do you explain that nose you could slice meat with and the paleness of his skin? Was it really a skin disease or the bleaching that some people claimed? All of the cosmetic surgeries made him look more frightening than anything else. Don’t ask me what he was trying to accomplish there. If he wasn’t hanging out with young boys he was hanging out with old women like Elisabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. With all of the money he made, how did he end up $400 million in debt? Someone should slap his accountant. Who knows what he will be remembered more for, the music or the bazaar behavior? Whatever the case, he has reached legendary status and will not be soon forgotten. Was I shocked to hear that he had died? Yes and no. I was shocked at first, but thinking of all the things he’s done to himself over the years it’s not surprising to hear that he died of a possible heart attack or cardiac arrest. Michael Jackson spent most of his life searching for something he was never going to find when he already had more than anyone could ever hope to have, proof that the grass is always greener.
