Michael Jackson # 70 We are all his friends!

The King is dead! Long live the cash-in!


Caspar Llewellyn Smith
The Observer, Sunday 2 August 2009


Michael Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a week after his death in June. Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty Images

While she waited for Michael Jackson's memorial service to begin at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on 7 July, the Sky News anchor asked her guests, including Lou Ferrigno, the Incredible Hulk actor, billed as the singer's friend and personal trainer, whether now that he was dead, we could forget about the child abuse allegations and the rest of the weirdness that surrounded him and instead simply remember the superstar.

In the warmth of that summer morning and in the heat of the "whoopla" attending the event (to borrow the term of another of Jackson's confidants, Elizabeth Taylor), it felt a forgivable question, but the weirdness was always inseparable from the transformative process that saw this troubled black child from Gary, Indiana become a universal figure of indeterminate race and sexual yearnings: the self-styled King of Pop.

It's a point lost, however, on those publishers and authors who rushed into print before Jackson's emaciated and pock-ridden corpse was laid to rest. The most feeble effort is Michael Jackson: Legend, Hero, Icon (HarperCollins £12.99, pp192) written by James Aldis, a self-confessed fan whose chief credential is that he "was among the many fans to have bought tickets for the London O2 arena performances". It skims over the 2005 child abuse court case in a paragraph, although novel insight is offered into the source of Jackson's changing image: "Perhaps as a direct consequence of the stress, Michael's appearance seemed further removed from the happy, dark-skinned child he had once been." The jacket lifts quotes mourning the singer from three of his fellow stars – Mariah Carey, Madonna and, bathetically, Fergie, from the Black Eyed Peas.

Its rival as a coffee-table companion, Michael Jackson: Life of a Legend (Headline £17.99, pp192) by Michael Heatley has better pictures, and the story is told at greater length in Michael Jackson: King of Pop (John Blake £7.99, pp288) by Emily Herbert (previous credits: Gok Wan: The Biography and Kerry: Story of a Survivor). But best of this sorry bunch is former Melody Maker writer Chris Roberts's more astute tribute, Michael Jackson: the King of Pop (Carlton £14.99, pp144).

Neither Jackson's protestations nor the findings of the jury could initially persuade Ian Halperin that the singer was innocent of the charges brought against him in court. His Unmasked: the Final Years of Michael Jackson (Simon & Schuster £10, pp288) was being written to coincide with Jackson's O2 dates and it contains the results of his own investigative work. Refreshingly, he is candid about having set out to "nail" the singer, but the conclusion he draws, convincingly, is that Jackson was never a child molester but, rather, the victim of two extortion attempts.

Equally intriguing are claims that Lisa Marie Presley's marriage to Jackson in 1994 was part of a plot to bring him into the fold of Scientology. But the idea that Jackson could never love her (or show off his mottled penis to a child) because he was gay, with a hidden string of (adult) male lovers, feels less convincing. But the Michael Jackson myth has always served as locus for lurid speculation and if that appeals, this is the place to come – at least until tomorrow's tabloids appear with their new bombshell revelations.

Otherwise, anyone wanting a reliably solid account of Michael Jackson's life should continue to turn to J Randy Taraborrelli's 1991 biography, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness (Pan £8.99, pp704), updated in 2004 but yet to be further revised. "Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars?" Jackson told Taraborrelli in 1995, in a quote that prefaces the book. "Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, 'I'm an alien ...', people would say, 'Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up! You can't believe a thing that comes out of his mouth ...'"

The one thing that none of these books bother with much is, inevitably, his music, and so it is that for all these several hundred thousand words written about Jackson's life and death, the most fun is to be found in Smash Hits: Michael Jackson 52-page Special Tribute Issue edited by Barry McIlheney (Bauer £2.99, p52). Lazarus-like, rather than like the ghouls rising from the dead in the "Thriller" video, the magazine has returned for a one-off issue, complete with a guide on how to moonwalk and a selection of old reviews of his singles. "I like Michael Jackson," wrote guest reviewer Zodiac Mindwarp of "The Way You Make Me Feel" in 1987. "I don't think he's 'wacko' at all."

En moeder Katherine heeft het er maar moeilijk mee!!

MUM: MY TORMENT


By Kate Mansey 2/08/2009

EXCLUSIVE: King of Pop: 1958-2009 Katherine's story

The torment of Michael Jackson's mother can be laid bare today... she is haunted by the belief she could have prevented her son's death.

And distraught Katherine Jackson has revealed how she begged Michael to pull out of his gruelling 50-date London residency just a week before his death.

"I pleaded with Michael not to do it. I knew he wasn't up to it," she said.

Katherine, 79, has been unable to sleep since her youngest son's death, replaying in her mind the final days of his life.

She now want to sue concert promoters AEG after medics engaged by the firm deemed Michael fit to perform despite his frail, drug-dependent state.

Shut away in the Jackson family compound in Encino, Los Angeles, she is trying to hold herself together for the sake of Michael's children, Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket.

Family friend Kevin McLin, who knew Michael for 34 years, told the Sunday Mirror that Katherine is arranging for the singer's first two children to meet their birth mother Debbie Rowe.

Katherine has agreed to allow her visiting rights but she will be introduced as "Miss Debbie" rather than "Mom", Mommy or Mother

McLin said: "Debbie hasn't had contact with the kids for years so they will see a counsellor to talk them through it before they see her. Prince Michael has taken his father's death the worst. He used to go everywhere with Michael - to business meetings and the studios. He is kind of quiet, but they are all seeing a therapist and Paris lets her emotions out, which is good."

Kevin also revealed that Michael's eldest sister Rebbie is also playing a motherly role to the children.

Katherine remains in a state of constant torment, Kevin added.

"She is asking questions but the answers don't make sense. She wants to know how Michael passed the physical examination he was given by AEG. Something has to be wrong with this because he had all of these problems - how could he possibly pass a test like that?

"Michael would have had to pass the physical examination for the concert promoter's insurance purposes. So what does that say?

"When the toxicology result comes out and it's different from what the AEG doctors said about his health it will be time to consider legal action."

Katherine urged Michael to scrap the gigs a week before his death on June 25. McLin added: "She told Michael not to do it."

Aeg Live boss Randy Phillips claimed in March that the star was put through gruelling checks at his LA home as part of a deal to insure the concerts. He said: "Michael was put through a whole battery of tests - stress, treadmill, electrocardiogram, bloodwork ... and he passed them all."

But Michael was regularly taking a cocktail of up to THIRTY drugs.

Conrad Murray, the doctor who had administered anaesthetic Propofol just before he went into cardiac arrest, had been hired by AEG to accompany him during the tour.

McLin, Jackson's publicist from 1996 to 2005, said: "Katherine is upset, angry and confused at why her son was allowed to go ahead with the tour. As far as Murray is concerned it seems strange as to why you would hire somebody who was not of the upmost pristine credentials. From the outset Katherine's feelings were that AEG were pushing him too hard, but it was up to Michael."

If toxicology reports are at odds with the findings from Michael's AEG examination, the Jacksons will take legal advice on whether to sue - while burial plans remain on hold.

Hmmm, unable to sleep, dat klinkt bekend

En hij heeft toch al een begrafenis gehad aan de Ivoorkust:

Michael Jackson's other funeral

By John James
BBC News, Krindjabo, Ivory Coast


The village will be in mourning until a new prince is announced on Sunday
A "funeral" for pop star Michael Jackson has been taking place in the village of Krindjabo, where he was crowned a prince of the Anyi people on a visit to the country in 1992.
The village has been in mourning since his death on 25 June.
The villagers appealed without success to have the body returned, but since his official funeral in Los Angeles they have decided he also needs to be properly buried according to the customs in the Sanwi kingdom.
The village football pitch here has been transformed into a green square surrounded on all sides by tents full of what I guess is around 1,000 people from the village and - like us - from Abidjan to formally say goodbye to one of the biggest pop music stars of the last 50 years.
You may know him as Michael Jackson, but here he is Prince Michael Amalaman Anoh.
One of the organisers of the event, Emmanuel Kassy Kofi, said they had appealed through the international media and the US embassy in Abidjan for Michael Jackson's body to be returned.

Michael Jackson was enthroned as a "king-in-waiting"
Michael Jackson was enthroned as a king-in-waiting and should normally be buried in a river.
"If for example the Americans or his family permitted for us to bring the body here we'd do what needs to be done," Mr Kofi said.
"We asked for the body - it's for us. It was Michael Jackson himself who tested his DNA and said it'd be good to find his family.
"And by certain signs the King also recognised certain signs that he was part of the dynasty. And the royal seat that the king's sitting on - Michael Jackson sat on it too."
The organisers say his spirit is already here and will be put to rest.
The whole village is in mourning here until Sunday when the successor to Prince Michael Jackson Amalaman Anoh will be announced.
Until then, the party and memorials will continue well into the night.


The village will be in mourning until a new prince is announced on Sunday


Michael Jackson was enthroned as a "king-in-waiting"

quote:

Op zondag 2 augustus 2009 13:54 schreef Anonymousz het volgende:
wel jammer
ik vind haar wel aardig

Ik ook. Ze heeft alleen een heel kort lontje en kan beter, in plaats van op een internetforum met veel verschillende meningen geconfronteerd worden die haar niet aanstaan, een weblog beginnen waar ze helemaal zelf uitmaakt wat ze daar schrijft over MJ. En dan kan ze ook nog zelf reacties die haar niet bevallen wegmodereren.