The King of Pop is Dead! Long Live the King!
Two weeks ago my daughter and I were driving home from her college with a car loaded up with her junk. Excitedly I told her I had finally gotten Ne-Yo’s latest CD and that I really loved it.
“You know what it reminds me of? You know what he sounds like? Michael Jackson, circa 1980s!” I laughed. I played a song for her. “Come on now, here he should say “hee-heee” and ja’mon. You need a ja’mon. ” We laughed.
A lot of young artists today want to emulate Michael. I hear him in the timber of Usher and the riffs of Timberlake. Notwithstanding his personal troubles (which I’ll talk about in moment) he was the consummate performer that has had a large impact on music and American culture for a good 30 years which could have been 40 if the last decade hadn’t been marred by his personal issues.
I remember loving him when I was 5 years old. Dancing Machine was the song and in 1976 we all were dancing the robot. I was sure I was growing to grow up and marry him, like all the other little black girls I knew. For the next 13, maybe 15 years I held onto it. Michael was the man. He was hitting with his brothers and then in 1979 he stepped out on his own with the Off the Wall album. When I was old enough I had pictures of Mike on my wall and a photo album of pictures and articles about him. I even subscribed to Right On Magazine just so I could get an 8×10 glossy black and white photo of him which I decided should replace my brother’s Air Force photo in our living room (needless to say Lonzo was livid).
I grew up in the generation that didn’t know who Martin Luther King was really but thought he deserved his own holiday, where black music was still played primarily on black radio stations and blacks on our own television shows got all of us talking. The Jacksons, and Michael particularly, made cultural strides that made Gen Xers watch. Michael and his brothers were on a saturday morning cartoon that even my brothers would watch. Michael was the first African American artist to get played on MTV, before that they notoriously wouldn’t play any singers/bands of color and for a long time it was just him then him and Prince. He set records with his singles and albums and concerts. Up until the early 90s he could recreate and change himself to say fresh, new and relevant.
And then the 90s hit and allegations of child molestation, insanity, skin bleaching and nose deterioration. The first time he was accused of child molestation I couldn’t believe it and the 2nd time I didn’t want to. It was then I began to distance myself away from him. I could acknowledge he was probably insane albeit talented and, sadly, not one could reach him to get him help because he had so much money. He’s talented, we could say, but he’s batty. He’s one of us although he doesn’t look like us anymore. We got love for him but we just want him to stay lowkey.
Mostly we would just blame his father who emotionally and physically abused him. Even in the Jackson movie they showed Joe making fun of his features and coloring. And we wondered how stable Mike really was. It’s hard explaining to the younger generation how a child who was chocolate with frizzy hair and a wide nose could grow into a man who was beige with straight black hair and then an anime character. Or a man you’re not really sure you want your young kids emulating.
I heard a few months ago that MJ was going to have a comeback which I wasn’t sure about it although I was curious to hear new music from him. Fatherhood has only added to the enigma (who hasn’t wondered what is up with Blanket?) and his seclusion makes you wonder if he can still make it funky. He’s been practicing, wanting to do a worldwide concert. Is that what did him in? Was he healthy? Who was looking out for Mike? Did he know he was sick?
Whatever anyone can say about him they can’t deny his impact not just on Boomers and Xers but on Millennials and not just on Americans but on people across the world. Who hasn’t seen the Bollywood movie with a shout out to Thriller? Or the Thai prisoners who also danced to Thriller? Michael has gone around the world and made people sing and dance. The legacy he has left us won’t be forgotten. I only wish he could have experienced the peace that he desperately needed from boyhood on and he could have gotten the love that would have brought him down from icon to just a regular man.
I feel so hurt from the family, but mostly I mourn for Michael. For the boy he was, for the man he could have been and for the legend he will always be.
Who Rocks It Better? Corbin Bleu vs. SHINee
For those who don’t know, Corbin Bleu released a solo cd in 2007. Here’s his song called Deal with It:
The K-Pop group SHINee took the music and made a song called Juliette.
My verdict: they’re both okay but makes me want to go pull out my Jackson albums circa 1986. (Both videos had the hee-hees but not the ja’mons. Ya gotta have a ja’mon.)
Corbin’s 2nd cd is in stores now. Just a heads up.
But Whoopi, how do you really feel about Glenn Beck?
hat tip to NewsOne
Terrorist fist jab to Whoopi and Babs for calling Glenn Beck out on the show.
I bet he was back in the green room with the real tears this time.
Fake Ass Tears from a Fake Ass Patriot
“I am a commentator who commentates on life. “
LOL
The Books that are Cluttering up My Desk
There are two books out this spring that deal with race and passing. I have been meaning to read them but this damn J&K+8 fiasco is just sucking up my time. Did he cheat on her? Did she cheat on him? And what about the chil-dren?! Please will someone think of the children?
The first book isn’t the usual passing story about a tragic mulatto trying to get into white society. Actually it’s the opposite; a white male who lives his personal life as a black man.
And it doesn’t help that the white man looked like this:
Clarence King, 1869
Clarence King was an American Geologist who was the first director of the United States Geological Survey. But in his personal life his African American wife knew him as James Todd a Pullman porter. It wasn’t until he was on his death bed that King revealed the true identity of his race to his wife.
Odd.
Martha Sandweiss’ book, “Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Colorline” recounts King’s life from the beginning and his double life. Unfortunately Ada’s life is not as documented.
The second book is about the history of whites passing as blacks in the U.S. Baz Dreisinger’s book “Near Black: White to Black Passing in American Culture” looks at the fragility of whiteness and racial appropriation.
But then I readily admit they are books I’ve been trying to read but haven’t had a chance to yet. They are definitely on my short list of books to read, right after the season premiere of J&K+8; I am so sure he’s going to get his gonads back this season.
Twins with Different Dads
Didn’t I see something similar on Grey’s Anatomy?
The Washington Twins
Okay, woman has affair on her fiancee which results in fraternal twins and there’s a different father for each child.
The odds of this happening are rare. When two different men father fraternal twins it’s called heteropaternal superfecundation. It occurs when a woman releases more than one egg and has more than one sex partner in the same period.
“Uh, this is likely to be the only time that we will see this occur in the city of Dallas. It’s that rare,” said Dr. Chris Dreiling.
Who Rocks it Better? Super Junior vs PumaShock
The song is addictive any way you slice it. Here’s the original by K-pop band Super Junior:
And the contender, PumaShock
For me it’s a toss up, they both make me want to get up and dance.
How Bruce Lee Changed the World
Right now I’m watching the History Channel’s documentary, “How Bruce Lee Changed the World“. It’s pretty cool, but then it’s about Bruce Lee. Check your local listings to see re-broadcasts.
Saberi Free, Lee and Ling Still Locked Up
Samantha Orobator
I am very glad that Iran opted to do the right thing by releasing journalist Roxana Saberi yesterday. I was worried that this would drag on for years or end badly but luckily this story has a happy ending.
I am hoping the same for Euna Lee and Laura Ling who, as of today, have been prisoners of North Korea for 44 days and haven’t had contact with Western Officials since March 30. As far as we know they haven’t been sentenced yet but they have been accused of illegal entry and allegedly carrying out hostile activities.
Another story that has been getting a bit of attention off and on in the press is the story of Samantha Orobator. Orobator is a British citizen and is alleged to have been smuggling drugs into the country of Laos which is punishable by death. Orobator made the news a few weeks ago when the country of Laos set aside her death sentence by firing squad because she’s pregnant. She had arrived into the prison pregnant but lost the child shortly after and is now pregnant again. The prison is known for guards who allegedly coerce female prisoners into sex. A Laos government official is evasive when asked who fathered Orobator’s child saying, “It is a mystery — maybe it is a baby from the sky”.
Laos authorities expect Orobator, who goes on trial this week, to testify that she was not raped inside the prison.
If she refuses, the London woman will be tried again after she has given birth — when she will not be immune from the death penalty because she is pregnant.
So Orobator’s best chance of getting out is to deny she was rape. Maybe she wasn’t; I could lean to the side she had sex with an unknown, possibly germ infested stranger if it meant it could save her life. She could catch a disease that could take her life, but nothing takes your life faster than five guys with rifes shooting bullets at you.
Part of the reason why I think Orobator’s story isn’t getting much attention is she’s a mule. Unlike Lee or Saberi, Orobator is not a journalist entering a country to get a story but instead she was (again that word) allegedly transporting drugs. But then we don’t know whether she commited the crime or not because like Lee and Ling she has not been allowed to speak with her western lawyer.
Let’s hope that justice prevails in both these cases.
White in America
I was definitely worried about the state of whites in America with the rise of minorities. But with Larry Wilmore segment I can mind at ease.
Kobe Goes Chinese
hat tip to Disgrasian
Just because you are named after a city in Japan doesn’t mean you are up on all things Asian.
But, hey, someone has to be an ambassador to China to get them dollars– not on loan, that is.
Kobe Does China
