Posted on 06.25.09 to Starting Over by Charles Hodges

I Wish It Made Me Sad

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If he could have started over, Michael Jackson would have done it differently. He would have quit after Dangerous. He would have sold Neverland. He would have gone into therapy. He would have laughed at his former self in a revealing E! special. He would have had a couple of reality television shows where he capitalized on his fame. He would have had an aquarium where he had fish that he could stare at and say, “that one, that one right over there, is my favorite.” He would have actually fallen in love and that person would have changed everything because finally, finally, finally someone understood him and knew what he wanted for breakfast on his birthday – that it wasn’t everything, that it actually was frosted flakes with strawberries or something normal like that. He would have gone fishing in the mountains, and gone into a bait n’ tackle shop where people kind of recognized him, but no one was really sure.

He would have started over, which is completely different than trying to forget. He would have started over, which is completely different than getting away. He would have started over, which is completely different than restarting.

But he didn’t. Because he couldn’t. And because he couldn’t, he died. And, for some fucked up reason, I feel that, now, he is finally happy.

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For two consecutive generations children around the world permitting could tune into the airwaves and, regardless of their natural tongue, utter with a smile on their faces the only two English words they knew — “Michael Jackson”.

Was it due, in part, to the modern development of corporate entertainment? Sure, why not. However one cannot underestimate the total number of human calories burned moving to his voice and/or video as he communicated in the universal languages of song and dance.

How’d he get so good? Maybe it helped throwing him on the stage just a couple years after he started walking with a family to his side and a nation in his face.. I sure know the vitiligo didn’t help the budding pop icon.

From an Access interview in 2006:

BB: There was nothing ever bigger than (Thriller) that. That is the biggest album ever.

(Cuts to footage of Thriller video before returning to studio)

BB: If you went back and took it to a second chapter…

Michael Jackson: That’s a great idea.

[ link ]

The man still had creativity running through his veins at 47 despite all of his debts and lawsuits and otherwise rebel billionaire with a kid-complex lifestyle. Unfortunately he did also have those opiate-based “health tonics” coursing through as well. His doctor fucking put him to sleep every night and one day put him to sleep for good. Jamie Presley was quoted saying that Michael, when they dated, had predicted he’d fall to a similar fate as her father Elvis.. Not even a little sad?

Tickets for Michael Jackson’s 50 live dates at London’s O2 arena have sold out, meaning that a staggering one million tickets to see the singer have been bought in a matter of hours.

That’s 50 a second in 5 hours. Imagine filling 50 20,000 occupancy stadiums in that time and you get only the people that could afford to fly to London during a global recession.

Those who managed to buy tickets for the singer’s first full concert in 12 years can expect to hear “the songs my fans want”. Tabloid speculation this week claimed these would include classics such as Billie Jean and The Way You Make Me Feel. And with the This Is It dates now stretching into 2010, Jackson has plenty of opportunity to perfect them.

[ link ] Mar 13, 2009

You see the life you describe seems to lack a bit of perspective. A fucking fish tank? And to maintain a lack of empathy despite an apparent yearning? Really?

That said, if he were to start over I think he’d do it all the same and yet there is no possibility that he’s finally happy now for his children were everything to him and he to they. That is the conundrum he could not escape. He didn’t want a restart or a vacation, he was struggling just to be: MJ.

If nothing else makes you sad, three young children lost their father and mother a couple of days ago in an instant you crass bastard.

Cool site concept, though.

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Angelo Gladding added these pithy words on Jun 27 09 at 7:17 am

For a digital writing experiment your site, particularly the comments section, could use some stylesheet attention in the areas of vertical margins, measure, and leading. And what significance does the first paragraph of a blockquote have to justify a font-size of 16px while the remaining body text is 50-75% smaller?

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Angelo Gladding added these pithy words on Jun 27 09 at 7:30 am