Whether you love or hate Michael Jackson, this painting of a young, innocent Michael holding a mask of his unrecognizable older visage speaks volumes. I don’t know who is responsible for it. If anyone knows, I’d love to credit the artist.
Update: “Boy Behind the Mask” is by Santa Cruz-based artist Sarah Weaver. Thanks, Siobhan Stofka!
The UK’s Daily Sport tabloid is on a roll - only a few weeks after delivering the now legendary leader “Gordon Ramsay Sex Dwarf Eaten By Badger” comes this beauty. But what I want to know is - did it hurt?
Poly Styrene’s new single “Ghoulish” deals with the last few years of Michael Jackson’s life. An interesting subject for the singer of “Artificial.”
In an interview before she died, Poly explained the inspiration for the song:
There was all these pictures of him, and the nose had fallen off, and the white face, and the ghoulishness. But then I just wanted to say, I see through that. I see through that, he was probably quite a nice guy.”
“Ghoulish” will be released as a digital EP on August 8 including, appropriately, a dance re-mix produced by Hercules and Love Affair.
Jump about 5:50 in to hear how Michael Jackson contacted the spirit of the flamboyant pianist using a favorite occult technique of the Great Beast 666!
There is ten freakin’ hours of They Sold Their Souls for Rock N Roll
Can you imagine being forcibly subjected to all ten hours by fundie parents?
A gentleman performing a karaoke version of Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” gets really steamed when he thinks the wrong track is played. Things start to get interesting around the around the 1:00 mark. I suggest watching the whole video though, the guy’s got talent.
(via The High Definite)
This one is controversial for very different reasons to Mohammed Al-Fayed;s Michael Jackson statue. Fans of the King of Pop have been bombarding Premises studios in East London with hate mail after it unveiled the new work by Swedish artist Maria von Köhler, a recreation of Jackson’s infamous “baby dangling” moment. This makes me wonder if these same fans were angry with Jackson for the incident itself, or just upset at being reminded of it. Ironically von Köhler said she intended the work to be a commentary on fandom. Personally, I think it’s better than the other one, even if it makes MJ look more like Naboo from the Mighty Boosh.
Via the Daily Mail, of all places.
Previously on DM:
Soccer fans can go to Hell, as Michael Jackson statue unveiled
Millionaire Mohamed Al Fayed has told fans of his soccer club Fulham FC, to go to hell, if they do not like his gift of a 7 foot 6 inch statue of Michael Jackson.
Today at its unveiling, Al Fayed responded to criticism over the relevance of having a $150,000, two-and-a-half ton monument to the King of Pop, outside Fulham’s stadium, Craven Cottage:
‘Why is it bizarre? Football fans love it. If some stupid fans don’t understand and appreciate such a gift they can go to hell. I don’t want them to be fans. If they don’t understand and don’t believe in things I believe in they can go to Chelsea. They can go to anywhere else.
‘People will queue to come and visit it from all over the UK and it is something that I and everybody else should be proud of.’
Al Fayed was friends with Jackson, and once invited the singer to attend a soccer match at Craven Cottage in 1999.
Al Fayed is proabably best known as the former owner of the legendary department store Harrod’s, and as the father of Dodi Al Fayed, the “boy friend” of Diana, Princess of Wales, who was killed alongside the Princess in the infamous car crash in Paris in 1997. Al Fayed has famously maintained a campaign to prove MI6 were behind the killing of his son and the Royal Princess.
One fan of Fulham FC, Lee Robinson told the Contact Music:
“Why us? Fulham football fans do not want a statue of Michael Jackson. It’s completely mad. He’s got nothing to do with us. To be honest, he’s the last person you’d want there.”
However, not all fans agree, this from the Guardian:
The former Fulham player Kit Symons, who is now Under-18s manager at Fulham, defended Al Fayed’s decision. “It is great,” he said. “The big thing is it is obviously something that the chairman feels very, very passionately about and he has decided to erect this statue and fair dos to him.”
Speaking about the time of Jackson’s visit, he added: “It was just happy times. They were great times back then. The chairman obviously used to bring high profile people down the games. Tony Curtis was here a few weeks after and it was just fantastic times.”
Celebrity aside, the statue is just not that good, and looks more like a waxwork or one of those gaudy plaster statues found in a theme park. And of course, there is the bigger question of whether a sports club wants to be associated with a man who allegedly had questionable relationships with young boys?
Whoa. These are really weird. A clearly classically trained singer, one Chris Kent of Nashville, TN., doing very strange and wildly inappropriate vocal arrangements of your favorite Toto and Michael Jackson songs backed by a drunken band teetering on the brink of total collapse for the entire duration. As I observed before about Final Placement, It’s re-assuring to hear such rhythmically wobbly music in this day and age for some reason. Somehow at times I’m reminded of late period Scott Walker and maybe Berlin era Bowie. Huh.
With thanks to Thom Monahan
Well, it’s been almost fifteen years and Jarvis Cocker still hasn’t gotten his much deserved knighthood for jumping onstage during Michael Jackson’s ludicrous “messianic” performance at the 1996 Brit awards when the King of Pop implied he had the power to heal children and sick people. While the incident is well-known, of course, in the UK, this story is less known outside of Britain.
As Cocker told BBC’s Question Time in 2009:
“He was pretending to be Jesus. I’m not religious but I think, as a performer myself, the idea of someone pretending to have the power of healing is just not right. Rock stars have big enough egos without pretending to be Jesus – that was what got my goat, that one particular thing.”
Cocker and his friend, former Pulp member Peter Mansell jumped onstage and caused comic confusion before being led off by security. It was reported at the time that Jarvis “mooned” Jackson (that’s what I always believed) but this is not true at all.
The incident itself, which took place on live television. GENIUS!!! Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s still laugh out loud funny.
The police detained the Pulp frontman on suspicion of assault. A former attorney, comedian Bob Mortimer represented Cocker, who was released without charge.
Noel Gallagher, of Oasis proclaimed, “Jarvis Cocker is a star and he should be given an MBE.” Clearly the editors of the Melody Maker felt the same way. I was already a huge Pulp fan at the time, but this made me love them—and their lanky, fashionable and intellectual frontman—all the more.
After the jump, Jarvis Cocker’s press conference about the incident, Cocker looking back on the Brit awards stage invasion in 2009 and how the story was reported on at the time in Amercia..
Alien vs. Predator skateboard deck from Skate Mental.
The wonderful Tracii Macgregor at Gargamel Music hepped me to this latest project put together by New York hip-hop DJ/producer/scene-vet Rich Medina. Like any device, the mash-up/remix can yield a good amount of garbage (Gaga vs. Bieber, etc.), unless the sources are well-chosen and assembled.
It hardly gets better than pop king Michael vs. Nigeria’s Afrofunk prez Fela Kuti—much has been made of how Fela and James Brown mutually influenced each other, so the R&B/Afrofunk connection is hardly a surprise. Medina’s put together 10 rounds of it for The King Meets the President in Africa, which is downloadable for free. Unfortunately, the videos below are uncredited—if Rich did these as well, I’d consider him even more of a badman talent than I already do.
Thriller vs. Zombie from MJ Fela on Vimeo.
Billie Jean is Shakara from MJ Fela on Vimeo.
Ever found yourself wondering what became of all of Michael Jackson’s exotic pets? Of course you have! From the Telegraph:
Few will need reminding that Jackson’s highest-profile pet was a chimpanzee named Bubbles. After rescuing him from a research centre in the early Eighties he took him on his Bad world tour.
Bubbles wowed fans by mimicking his moonwalk on stage and the two became inseparable. At Neverland, the ape slept in a cot in the singer’s bedroom and used his lavatory.
However, after the birth of Jackson’s son Prince Michael Jnr, Bubbles – who was growing into moody adolescence – was deemed potentially dangerous and moved to a sanctuary for Hollywood animals.For the past six years he has resided in Florida at the Center For Great Apes. Half of the money needed for his care – which costs £12,000 per year – is still provided by Jackson’s estate.
‘Michael owned Bubbles all these years,’ says Patti Ragan, who runs the centre. ‘He would visit him, but he couldn’t handle him any more.‘Chimps that appear on television are almost always very young. When they grow up they get very big and have huge canine teeth. They become very dangerous so can’t work around actors and entertainers.’
The reporter, Ewan Flectcher, apparently couldn’t resist adding:
The chimp, like his owner, is also very fond of children.
‘There are some youngsters in his group, little kids, and he loves to play games with them,’ she says. ‘He likes to be groomed by the others in his group and sometimes he’ll groom them.’
For more about Jackson’s other pets, including Thriller the tiger, read: Michael Jackson’s menagerie (Telegraph)
Plus video: THE REUNION OF THE CENTURY: La Toya & Bubbles! (dlisted)
If, like me, you have major problems detaching yourself from King of Pop weirdness, this was a big week for you. A series of answering machine conversations purportedly of Jackson babbling druggily about his finances was just released in Britain to The Sun newspaper. Here are some highlights:
“It is Michael calling. It is very important, I want that 150 in that account for me, because…I am very concerned about my life. I am hearing a lot of stories that (name withheld) is still trying to sabotage…me…I want to be away for a while where they can’t find me.”
A second message adds, “It is Michael. It is 4:30 in the morning here that’s why I sound very sleepy and I’m really worn out…but please check the message I left a day or so ago. I am very concerned. I don’t trust that man. We think he’s bad, we think he is Italian mafia. Please…we must be smarter than him. So please, help me with this…I wanna be away…I don’t want to be in Neverland right now.”
WTF? Italian mafia? Anyway, now it’s coming out that Jackson’s long-isolated (and frequently masked) children, Paris and Blanket (or someone in their circle), have been uploading clips of themselves to the YouTube. Blanket appears to be a fan of Star Wars, and Paris, evidently, likes…monkeys (but hopefully not chimps).
So, maybe, so far, so good? Keep it up, kids! Despite the nuttiness of your possibly non-biological father, you two seem entirely normal!
Though this clip has been around for some time, I think this latest version is of the best quality. This is from a James Brown concert in 1983, in which the hardest working man in show business invites both Michael Jackson and Prince to the stage for a little improvisation. Michael woos the ladies, while Prince - well you’ll just have to watch. If you blink you might miss him ride in on the back of a gigantic body guard dressed in a leopard wrestler’s outfit.
The first round of child sexual abuse allegations were leveled against Michael Jackson in ‘93. Amid all the “avalanches of dirt,” Jackson found an unlikely ally in the Academy Award-winning actor, Maximilian Schell (Judgment At Nuremberg, The Black Hole), who wrote the King Of Pop a gushy fan letter that appeared on the back page of the Hollywood Reporter:
MAXIMILIAN SCHELL
NOV, 19 1993
TO: MICHAEL JACKSON
(SOMEWHERE ON THIS PLANET)DEAR MICHAEL,
I AM DEEPLY ASHAMED—FOR THE PRESS, FOR THE MEDIA, FOR THE WORLD - I don’t know you - we met only ONCE on one of those Award-Dinners (“ENTERTAINER of the DECADE”) - We shook hands - you were kind and polite - I don’t think you knew who I was - HOW SHOULD YOU? OUR WORLDS ARE TOO FAR APART - (I am more, “CLASSICAL” - minded -) but I looked into your eyes—THEY WERE KIND—
You are a great artist and I admire you - my little daughter (she is 9?Ǭ?) LOVES YOU! DEEPLY - SHE EVEN WANTS TO MARRY YOU! (-“BUT HE NEVER CALLS ME!”) SHE IMITATES YOU ALL THE TIME - and quite well -
WE ALL LOVE YOU
I would like her more to listen to MOZART - but she loves YOU! AND I RESPECT HER TASTE!—
THAT YOU SURVIVE THIS AVALANCHE OF DIRT THROWN AT YOU - I ADMIRE TREMENDOUSLY -
THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE!
GOD BLESS YOU
Maximilian Schell
P.S. “ONE CAN ONLY SEE GOOD WITH THE HEART - THE ESSENTIAL IS INVISIBLE FOR THE EYES - (“THE LITTLE PRINCE”)
To see a copy of Schell’s actual missive, check out Letters Of Note
