1. Lady Gaga will be considered one of the "greats" in music history. 2. Lady Gaga will be lauded as a pioneer alongside David Bowie, Madonna and the Gloved One. 3. Lady Gaga's outfits will be auctioned for hundreds of thousands of dollars. 4. Lady Gaga memorabilia will be considered sacred relics of a bygone era. 5. Lady Gaga's music videos will be considered either a) the gold standard of the medium or b) the last great examples of the medium. 6. The "Gaga Effect" will be a major influence on females in the industry, to the point where: 7. Female pop singers will only wear crotch-baring outfits in public. 8. Female pop singers will perform nude. Their nether regions will be pixilated to everyone in the viewing audience except for those who get to see them live. 9. Female pop singers will no longer eat. 10. Female pop singers will inhale electrolytic air and boast about how full they feel after a "meal". 10. Female pop singers will no longer sing. 11. In lieu of singing, female pop singers will dance, moan, grunt, snarl, yell and throw things. 12. Female pop singers will be celebrated for their songwriting skills, which will be viewed as an example of female "empowerment" - or the 2030 equivalent thereof. 13. Female pop singers will adopt a cause and become its poster woman. They will align themselves with a marginalized group that has deep pockets and can afford their merchandise (eg. Asthmatic Albino Investment Bankers). In other words, the gorillas are fucked. (But who are we kidding? There won't be any gorillas in 2030.) 14. Female pop singers will wear product logos embedded in their nail polish, contact lenses, dental veneers and tongue. These logos will change daily. 15. Girls will emulate and idolize female pop singers. They'll deride their mother's nostalgia for the days when female pop singers cared more about fashion than nudity, sang instead of grunted and there was this one pop star called "Lady Gaga" who was like nothing anyone had ever seen before.
The other night, I had a conversation marathon with the chatty, accident-prone Mr. Kamikaze, who happens to be 12 years my senior. He mentioned the 70s TV show Hawaii Five-O and I immediately got a visual of the opening sequence: tanned guy on surf board riding a huge wave and the lead actor, Jack Lord, in a form-fitting grey suit. I sang the theme song to him - something I hadn't thought about in eons - after which he declared, "You're not 25". Oops, busted! No, I'm not, but thanks to genetics / a relatively stress-free lifestyle / an aversion to sunbathing, I can get away with claiming that I am. Pop culture, however, betrays me every time. Music, TV, movies - my fondest memories are rooted in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and I'm not ashamed to admit that, but I'm extremely wary of betraying a number upon which so many stupid assumptions are based, especially for women. Sad, but true. The convo got me thinking, though, about all of the 70s TV theme songs I remember, and as I combed through them on YouTube, I realized that damn, there were a lot of good shows on when I was a kid and that I was a witness to an era of TV writing that will never, ever be repeated. I believe reality TV has ruined - or at least altered - that part of the TV experience for good. Also, it struck me that there was an abundance of funny ass sitcoms that put shows like How I Met Your Mother to shame. Sitcoms like M.A.S.H. and All in the Family that said something worth thinking about while delivering the laughs. And then there was Three's Company, a toxic pleasure that rotted my brain to the point where, one day, I actually blurted out to my mom that I wished I were a blonde - a feat a million bottles of Clairol and skin-bleaching agents couldn't possibly accomplish. Some dreams are just meant to die, but great theme songs live on forever - until the Alzheimers kicks in, that is.
And so, I'm going to take a trip back in time to when bell bottom pants and platform shoes were a fashion statement and not a punchline. It's worth noting that I didn't grow up watching the Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family or countless other shows because guess who dictated my viewing habits? My parents, of course, so this list is as much a reflection of their taste as it is of mine.
Hawaii Five-O is an American television series that starred Jack Lord in the lead role for a fictional Hawaii state police department. The show ran for 12 seasons, from 1968 to 1980.
Book 'em, Danno!
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a television breakthrough, with the first never-married, independent career woman as the central character: "As Mary Richards, a single woman in her thirties, Moore presented a character different from other single TV women of the time. She was not widowed or divorced or seeking a man to support her."
Mary Tyler Moore Season 5 on DVD! For fans of the show, it’s been a long road between season four and this one, and now it looks like the final brilliant seasons are finally going to be released...it’s a dream cast, and the writing in this season is peerless.
LOVE IS ALL AROUND by Pat Williams Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it's you girl, and you should know it With each glance and every little movement you show it
Love is all around, no need to waste it You can have a town, why don't you take it You're gonna make it after all You're gonna make it after all
How will you make it on your own? This world is awfully big, girl this time you're all alone But it's time you started living It's time you let someone else do some giving
Love is all around, no need to waste it You can have a town, why don't you take it You're gonna make it after all You're gonna make it after all
Season 1 opening theme
Welcome Back, Kotter starred comedian Gabe Kaplan as the title character Gabe Kotter, a wise-cracking teacher who returns to his high school alma mater—the fictional James Buchanan High in Brooklyn, New York—to teach an often unruly group of remedial wiseguys known as the "Sweathogs."
Most of the major characters of Welcome Back, Kotter were based on people from Kaplan's teen years as a remedial high school student in Brooklyn.
The TV characters' signature lines became enormously popular catch phrases such as Barbarino's "up your nose with a rubber hose" and Washington's deep-voiced "hi there" and Horshack's wheezing laugh. It wasn't long before the previously unknown actors became hot commodities, particularly John Travolta, the show's breakout star.[Wikipedia]
The popular theme song "Welcome Back," written and recorded by former Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian, became a #1 hit in the spring of 1976.[Wikipedia]
WELCOME BACK by John Sebastian Welcome back, Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back, To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around, But those dreams have remained and they've turned around.
Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya) Back here where we need ya (Back here where we need ya)
Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've got him on the spot, welcome back, Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
M*A*S*H is an American television series developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH (which was itself based on the 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker). The series is a medical drama/black comedy that was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS. It follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H's title sequence featured an instrumental version of the song "Suicide Is Painless", which also appears in the original film.
The series premiered on September 17, 1972, and ended February 28, 1983, with the finale becoming the most-watched television episode in U.S. television history, with about 106 million viewers. The show is still broadcast in syndication on various television stations. The series, which covered a three-year military conflict, spanned 251 episodes and lasted eleven seasons.
Many of the stories in the early seasons are based on real-life tales told by real MASH surgeons who were interviewed by the production team. Like the movie, the series was as much an allegory about the Vietnam War (still in progress when the show began) as it was about the Korean War.
[EXCERPTS: Wikipedia] The series creators wanted M*A*S*H broadcast without a laugh track, but the TV network, CBS, refused to allow this. As such, in America the series was shown complete with laugh track, but in the UK it aired as originally intended. However, an exception was made in the American version where scenes in the Operating Room never used the laugh track. For one particular episode, set entirely in the O.R., this meant an entire episode broadcast in the U.S. which had no laugh track.
In the UK, one episode was accidentally broadcast with the laugh track left in, and the BBC announcer apologised for "the technical problems we had" afterwards.
On all released DVDs, both in the UK and America, there is an option to watch the show with or without the laugh track.
Gary Burghoff (Radar)'s left hand is slightly deformed, and he took great pains to hide or de-emphasize it during filming. He did this by always holding something (like a clipboard) or keeping that hand in his pocket. Burghoff later commented that his deformity would have made it impossible for him to be involved in active service.
The 4077th actually consisted of two separate sets. An outdoor set, in the mountains near Malibu, California (Calabasas, Los Angeles County, California) was used for most exterior and tent scenes for every season. The indoor set, on a sound stage at Fox Studios, was used for the indoor scenes for the run of the series...Just as the series was wrapping production, a major brush fire destroyed the entire set on October 9, 1982. The fire was written into the final episode as a forest fire caused by enemy incendiary bombs.
When M*A*S*H was filming its last episode, the producers were contacted by the Smithsonian Institution, which asked to be given a part of the set. The producers quickly agreed and sent the tent, signposts, and contents of the "swamp", which was home to Hawkeye, BJ, Trapper, Charles, and Frank during the course of the show. The Smithsonian has the "swamp" on display to this day. Originally found on the Ranch, Radar's teddy bear, once housed at the Smithsonian, was sold at auction on July 29, 2005 for $11,800.
As the series progressed, it made a significant shift from being primarily a comedy to becoming far more drama-focused. Changes behind the scenes were the cause, rather than the oft-cited cast defections...
Executive Producer Gene Reynolds left at the end of the fifth season in 1977. This, coupled with head writer Larry Gelbart's departure the previous season, stripped the show of its comedic foundation. Likewise, with the departure of Larry Linville after five seasons, the series lost its "straight man" (comic foil).
Beginning with the sixth season, Alan Alda and new Executive Producer Burt Metcalfe became the "voice" of M*A*S*H, and continued in those roles for the remaining five seasons (though Alda and Gene Reynolds became Executive Consultants). By the eighth season in 1979, the writing staff had been totally overhauled, and M*A*S*H displayed a different feel—consciously moving between comedy and drama, unlike the seamless integration of years gone by. While this latter era showcased some fine dramatic moments, the attempts at pure comedy were not as successful as compared to the first five seasons. The quirky, fractured camp of the early years had gradually turned into a homogenized "family"; clever dialogue gave way to puns; and the sharply defined characters were often unrecognizable and lost most of their comedic bite. In addition, the episodes became more political, and the show was often accused of preaching to its viewers. At the same time, many episodes from the later era were praised for its experimentation with the half-hour sitcom format...
Harry Morgan, who played Col. Potter, admitted in an interview that he felt "the cracks were starting to show" by Season 9, and the cast had agreed to make Season 10 their last. CBS decided otherwise, saying that their hit show wasn't going to go away so suddenly. Ultimately, CBS persuaded the cast and crew to produce half a regular season of episodes for the final year (making an official run of eleven seasons) and end the series with a big finale, which ultimately became one of the most watched episodes in television history.
"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" was the final episode of M*A*S*H. The episode aired on February 28, 1983, and was 2½ hours long. The episode got a Nielsen rating of 60.2 and 77 share, translating into nearly 106 million Americans watching that night, which established it as the most-watched episode in United States television history, a record that still stands to this day. The only record it did not break was the highest percentage of homes with television sets to watch a TV series, which is still held by the August 1967 final episode of The Fugitive, which was watched in 72% of all American homes with television sets.
M*A*S*H was the first American network series to use the phrase "son of a bitch" (in the 8th-season episode "Guerilla My Dreams"), and there was brief partial nudity in the series (notably Gary Burghoff's buttocks in "The Sniper" and Hawkeye in one of the "Dear Dad" episodes). A different innovation was the show's producers' not wanting a laugh track, as the network did. They compromised with a "chuckle track", played only occasionally.
In his blog, writer Ken Levine revealed that on one occasion, when the cast offered too many nitpicking "notes" on a script, he and his writing partner changed the script to a "cold show"—one set during the frigid Korean winter. The cast then had to stand around barrel fires in parkas at the Malibu ranch when the temperatures neared 100 degrees. Levine says, "This happened maybe twice, and we never got a ticky-tack note again."
"Suicide Is Painless" is a song written by Johnny Mandel (music) and Mike Altman (lyrics), which is best known for being featured as the theme song for both the movie and TV series M*A*S*H. The actual title, as it appears on the sheet music, is "Song from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)."
Mike Altman is the son of the original film's director, Robert Altman, and was 14 years old when he composed the song's lyrics. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1980s, Robert Altman said that his son earned more than a million dollars for co-writing the song while he only made $70,000 for directing the movie. [Wikipedia]
SUICIDE IS PAINLESS by Johnny Mandel & Mike Altman Through early morning fog I see visions of the things to be the pains that are withheld for me I realize and I can see...
[chorus]:
That suicide is painless It brings on many changes and I can take or leave it if I please.
I try to find a way to make all our little joys relate without that ever-present hate but now I know that it's too late, and...
[Chorus]
The game of life is hard to play I'm gonna lose it anyway The losing card I'll someday lay so this is all I have to say.
[Chorus]
The only way to win is cheat And lay it down before I'm beat and to another give my seat for that's the only painless feat.
[Chorus]
The sword of time will pierce our skins It doesn't hurt when it begins But as it works its way on in The pain grows stronger...watch it grin...
[Chorus]
A brave man once requested me to answer questions that are key 'is it to be or not to be' and I replied 'oh why ask me?'
Suicide is painless it brings on many changes and I can take or leave it if I please. ...and you can do the same thing if you please.
QUOTES Wikiquote Hawkeye: You know, we gotta do it someday... throw away all the guns and invite all the jokers from the north and the south to a cocktail party. Last man standing on his feet at the end wins the war.
IMDb Frank Burns: Why does everyone take an instant dislike to me? Trapper: It saves time, Frank.
TV.com Hawkeye: I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got thrown into this war I had a clear understanding with the Pentagon: no guns. I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even 'hari-kari' if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun.
MORE 70S TV THEME SONGS
AND FINALLY...Three's Company (reenactment) This was the closest I could find to the original. ___________________________________________________
Did an Indian Diplomat Help the Salahis Crash the White House? The Secret Service is currently investigating how fameballs Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed Obama's first state dinner, Bravo camera crew in tow. We have a theory: Their polo buddy, Indian ambassador Arun K. Singh, got them in on the DL. [...]
COMMENTS Why aren't these people under arrest already? And while we're at it, outlaw "reality" shows. They put actors and writers out of work, they encourage monkeyshines like these, and no good has EVER come out of them...And if you enjoy watching pathetic losers bumble through their lives, then why not just set up a live-cam at Walmart? [...]
A live feed at Walmart? Now there's a show!
But seriously, there's always been a niche on TV for people willing to make an ass of themselves for our amusement. Remember "Candid Camera"? How about "The Gong Show" or various pranks played on unsuspecting Man-in-the-Street types for late night talk show guffaws? It doesn't take a genius (like Mark Burnett) to refine and capitalize on the genre. The first and last few episodes of "Survivor" (season 1) were brilliant. Truly groundbreaking in how it illuminated age-old practices of sabotage, subterfuge and power play, all in the name of winning. Granted, most of it was scripted, but it was all plausible, which made it a winning formula and compelling TV.
Also granted, a lot of reality TV is crap. I don't watch any of the stuff you list and would rather stick a fork in my eye than do so. I do, however, acknowledge that there's a strong attraction to it by the viewing public and that it's not going to disappear. It'll continue to get more crude as it pushes boundaries of "acceptable" social behaviour, all in the name of ratings. It's already broken laws and caused deaths (in other countries). But obviously, it's fulfilling a need that scripted TV does not. Think about that. And from the comments above, people who watch and enjoy it are not all mouth breathers. Think about that too.
Personally, I'm waiting for the perfect reality show. One that doesn't bore me to tears, piss me off or disgust me at some point in its 30-60 minute run. Something that shows me the essence of humanity in an attractive format. I'm thinking along the lines of MTV's "The City", but with a greater variety of characters, tighter action and more dramatic storylines. Maybe if a producer married the writers from "The Good Wife" (this week's ep was awesome) with the real life calamities of pretty urban youth, then they'd actually convince someone like you that reality TV is worth your time and attention.
I leave you with a pic of Richard Hatch, winner of the first Survivor. To quote Amazon.com: "Here's where it all began. The first season of Survivor dominated the ratings in the summer of 2000, helped spur the reality-TV craze, and inspired countless water-cooler jokes about getting voted off the island."
Let's face it, reality TV is here to stay. Question is, are you in?
The Real World
The Real History of Reality The manifest destiny of television technology is real-time viewing of all the places the audience is not. It's the ultimate peek into the neighbor's kitchen window. Or, the bedroom window. The entertainment conglomerates found a way to make televised life a business, so now there is a lot of it. [...]
The Real World moved the format ahead by staging an environment in which "reality" could occur in 1992. That landmark series married the secret cameras and setups of Candid Camera, to the explorative impulse of You Asked For It, to the personal revelations of What's My Line, to the technology of Evening Magazine, to the voyeuristic appeal of An American Family and Cops. The combination of techniques resulted in a format that is more structured and crafted than any that had come before. The premise comes in the architecture and the choice of city; the character creation comes in the casting; the storyline creation comes in the confessional interviewing, the choice of who and what to tape and the editing. The wide range of reality television series that we recognize today followed. They often came by way of the UK or other foreign television markets, where the concepts were born. An import, Big Brother, and a startup, Survivor, would break open the genre of staged reality in 2000. [...]
Big Brother
The Decade Reality Evolved Into a Beautiful Beast Here's a look at the reality genres that have come to define the decade. While some are better than others, making the whole "reality TV is bad" argument is now impossible, because it is everywhere and available in a million different forms across a broad and beautiful spectrum. We are living in a reality reality, and we're the better for it. [...]
What to See For all the talk of late night boozing, 24 hour subway service, and survival, it's easy to forget what Toronto's Nuit Blanche is really all about: giant floating rabbits. That, and free, accessible contemporary art. With 46 installations, 132 total projects, and over 280 artists (official and renegade), deciding what to see can be a daunting task. More likely than not, your more memorable art pieces will be the ones you accidentally stumble upon at 4 in the morning. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a plan. Here are some of the more interesting pieces at this year's Nuit Blanche. [...]
NUIT BLANCHE Oct.03-04, 2009 6pm-6am
SO HOW WAS IT? Water bottle pixels__[Flickr.com__Fumio Photo]
Building a Nuit to Remember Now that we have all recovered from our Nuits, it's time to step back and take stock... Polling Booth: Bonne Nuit ou Ennui? Fantastic! I loved it! 15% (55 votes) It was pretty good 40% (146 votes) Meh 24% (86 votes) It was kinda lame 16% (58 votes) What a colossal waste of time and money 5% (18 votes) Total Votes: 363 ____________________________________________
Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.
My first 12" vinyl was "The Ghost in You" by The Psychedelic Furs.
COMMENTS I think part of the genius of that movie (Sixteen Candles) was that probably all the girls you knew in high school were like her character, even the popular, seemingly self-assured ones. If Hughes taught us anything, it's that high school sucks for everyone.
You know what makes me really sad? I mean, aside from all of the other reasons? It positively ends my hope that he'll do a director's commentary on The Breakfast Club.
I felt my whole nerdy weird childhood just flash before my eyes reading this. The Psychedelic Furs CD with Pretty in Pink on it, remains to this day, my most carefully considered purchase. It was the first cd I bought when I had saved up enough money for a cd player. John Hughes's soundtracks were as key to that generation as the movies they were in.
This also means some absolute, fucking jerk will try and remake one of his movies, to an epic fail. Because no one, just no one can capture the angst of the teen years like J.Hughes.
I'm officially wearing my Pretty in Pink t-shirt tomorrow. No really. I have one. And I'm wearing it.
Hughes created a self-contained but highly recognizable high school alternate universe where petty school bureaucrats ruled with an iron fist and soul-killing rules as cool kids, unpunished, roamed the halls like scavengers on the veldt.
Life sure does move pretty fast. I'm happy J.H. did get a chance to stop and look around.
Don't you, forget about him.
John Hughes was responsible for entertaining me when I was sick, stoked, depressed and/or anxious. I can quote at least 10 of his movies down to the ending credits and I want to thank him for convincing me I could look like myself and still get to bang Jake Ryan. I guess TBS is aware of their programming duties this weekend. And not to be callous, but If Madonna croaks this Summer, the 80's are done.
As you walk on by....Will you call my name?
[gawker.com / jezebel.com] ************************************************* Sincerely, John Hughes John told me about why he left Hollywood just a few years earlier. He was terrified of the impact it was having on his sons; he was scared it was going to cause them to lose perspective on what was important and what happiness meant. And he told me a sad story about how, a big reason behind his decision to give it all up was that "they" (Hollywood) had "killed" his friend, John Candy, by greedily working him too hard.
Pushy French Are World's Worst Tourists: Study [ca.news.yahoo.com - Jul.09]
PARIS (AFP) - Penny-pinching, rude and terrible at foreign languages: French people are the world's worst tourists and Japanese the best, according to a study of the global hotel industry.
Carried out last month by TNS Infratest for the Expedia online travel agency, the study asked 40,000 hotels worldwide to rank tourists from 27 countries based on nine criteria, from their politeness to their willingness to tip.
Clean and tidy, polite, quiet and uncomplaining, Japanese tourists came top of the crop for the third year running.
At the other end of the spectrum, French holidaymakers and business travellers were the least generous or ready to tip, and ranked next-to-last for their overall behaviour and politeness.
Pushy French travellers made amends on elegance -- classed third -- as well as for their discretion and cleanliness.
But the French were the least ready to try a new language, unlike US tourists who were most likely to swallow their pride and order a pizza, baguette or a paella in the local lingo.
US tourists also got top marks for generosity -- as the biggest spenders and tippers -- but fell short on other counts as the least tidy, the loudest, the worst complainers, and the most badly dressed.
Despite cliches about beer-guzzling hordes descending on Mediterranean resorts each summer, Britons came a surprise second for their overall behaviour, politeness, quietness and even elegance -- second for dress sense only to the Italians.
But the model Japanese were followed by Canadians as the least likely to whine when a trip goes wrong.
France's rivals for the "worst tourist" tag, Spaniards and Greeks came near the bottom of the pack in almost every category.
The study was released on Thursday.
----------------------------------------------
The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own. --Susan Sontag
PLAYLIST 1. Like the Sun - I Mother Earth 2. All My Real Friends - High Holy Days 3. Deny - Default 4. I Am the Highway* - Audioslave
*Video of our move from Los Angeles, CA to Yakima, WA in March 2006. We left my whole family behind to start a new one. Thank you brothers and sisters for holding him so tenderly. I tried to show how precious that was too see in the video. Thank God that dad noticed that one of our wheels on the trailer was bad with a tire that was about to blow just before we left his house... Then someone on the road shattered the driver side window on my truck just 2 hours after we left. On top of that we went from rain and icy roads of Northern California to freezing cold rain and snow up north in Oregon and Washington... "Long and weary my road has been..." - 4 days later we finally arrived safely! Thanks bro for driving the other car with our baby boy! Ruby and I will never forget that! -E. ________________________________________________
R.I.P. He was such a freak. But... If I'm going to remember him, it will be like this:
I grew up on Michael in the 70's and he was nothing short of an idol, but for me he died long ago. This makes one less pedophile hiding behind wealth and fame. I look at him as I do Roman Polanski. Appreciate the dance, but definitely not the dancer.
Yep. I don't think our opinions will be popular, but my first thought is, now those kids actually have a shot at growing up normal.
I feel the same way. I can't really stand to look at him, even if hearing his songs make my feet start to tap.
Mourning fan__UCLA Medical Center
Exactly. Although it's weird to think of a person who has been famous for as long as I had a concept of what celebrity was is now gone, I don't have the urge to shed a tear for him.
I agree. I'm not trying to be a ghoul, and I love his music and believe him to be a pop genius but I don't think you can overlook the last, oh two decades.
I'll admit, I'm stunned. But, I have to agree with you, in part. His legacy is so tainted. It was impossible to enjoy his art when I could not stand the artist.
Media and fans__UCLA Medical Center
Fourth'd. I feel that we'll hear in the next months all the dirty laundry. Much like Howard Hughes, whose dysfunction and mental illness was a closely guarded, protected secret, I bet all the people bound by confidentiality agreements and/or stipends will be coming forward with much Michael Jackson's apologists would prefer remain hidden.
Thanks for putting into words what I have spent the last hour trying to figure out how to say.
Neverland Ranch__Beverly Hills
It's a sad story all the way around. He needed help before he went totally street rat crazy, but nobody was there for him. They saw him as a golden goose, not a human being.
I guess I mourn for whatever was lost a long time ago, because you're right -- he's been essentially a shadow of his former self, and he was clearly a tortured soul who dealt with abuse on his own.
Orphaned kids of a rich, legendary father do not have any shot of a normal childhood.
MJ's crown, scepter and crystal glove__Apr.09 auction
This is very much how I feel. I was a huge Jackson 5 fan when I was a child (still am) but that Michael Jackson disappeared years ago. I admit I feel sad and actually a bit sick in my stomach but I feel sad for that little boy and for what he became.
You can't libel a dead man. It's gonna get real crazy.
Carved hanging swing__Apr.09 auction
No one would help him because it may have threatened their paycheck, so it just continued to spiral out of control.
Fifth'd, or wherever we are. I can appreciate the tragedy of his life, but if he really did molest children, I have no sympathy for him. It's sad that he probably had some serious demons, but not sad that he tried to work them out on young kids. For the kids he's alleged to have harmed, I feel for them. A lot of people are talking about how great he was now. And he had years of greatness, but then it all slid downhill.
Black or White vid__1991
I'm mostly sad about my lost childhood, I think, and this stands in for other things about my childhood that I'm sad about losing. For example...my sister and my brother and I all dancing to "Beat It" in our living room. That was a happy time, and preceded many unhappy times, so I'm sad because I feel like a little bit of that is lost.
1974
A person does not wake up one day and become a pedophile. There is always something under the surface. It just took the public a while to figure everything out.
The talent, the art, the music and dancing, what he brought to our lives is amazing. His own life was in some respects a sacrifice to that. I've no doubt he's done some wrong but I think his own face is testament to the fact that he was a deeply screwed up person. Doesn't take away from the sheer joy and greatness of his music.
You articulated most of the thoughts that have been tormenting me for an hour. I am sad at the loss of his musical genius. But I am appalled by the overwhelming evidence that he engaged in inappropriate relationships with children and even more by the crowd of hangers-on who rushed to protect him from the consequences of his behavior. I trust that our Creator will judge him with the mercy we would all want. And forgive me for my own lack of grace and kindness.
I go back and forth: Let's assume your parents and family physically and mentally abuse you to an extreme, before, during, and after you are applying a tremendous talent and spreading profound enjoyment to hundreds of millions of people. How might a retaliation to that abuse manifest itself in an adult with no cultural or financial limitations? I feel for him, and those he hurt.
His personal demons and misdeeds don't subtract from his genius, they exist alongside each other.
MJ dangles his baby over Berlin hotel balcony
This rings of the sentiment of my mother when I told her that MJ died. She's sad, but at the same time, she can't bring herself to look at and appreciate what he turned himself into. When mid-80's MJ came up on screen, she said 'That's the Michael Jackson I know' and walked out the room. Sad...but I think I'm over it. The music will live forever.
In this culture, it's amazing what one will forgive for the sake of entertainment.
He was mercilessly abused, assaulted and driven by his "guardians" from the time he was a little kid. There are complex reasons behind why he was so fucked up. Doesn't excuse his actions, but his whole life was very tragic, and worthy of just a bit of compassion.
The generational gap is always more apparent when it comes to pop culture, I've found. I'm almost 25, and I spent my childhood rocking the fuck out to MJ in the 80s and early 90s. Although the last couple decades have shown a completely different person, I still can't help but remember him as the world's biggest superstar. Right after I heard the news, I went to the final for this prep class I am taking at a junior college, and I asked this 19 year old guy if he had heard about it. He just kinda said "Yeah, kinda sad" and shrugged it off, and I realized that most younger people probably only know him as a freak show, nothing more. [Jezebel]
1. Lady Gaga will be considered one of the "greats" in music history.
