Talkin' bout my generation

[captainsblog]

I've been reminded several times about my companions who came to this earth in the year 1959. They run the gamut from Sarah Ferguson (Andrew's ex, not the pop star) to "Weird Al" Yankovic, from Bryan Adams to Krzysztof Zwoliński (a Polish track star from the 1980 Olympics, and he hasn't heard of you, either), and on the fictional side, the year of my birth brought us everything from Ben-Hur to Barbie.

Yet until today, the world's most famous 50-year old was probably one Michael Joseph Jackson, of Gary Indiana, Southern California, and the world of the weird.

I have mixed feelings about today's news. Sadness for the fans and his family, especially for his kids, who didn't deserve the crackpottery of the last two decades. Nostalgia- from my own childhood when this little kid and his brothers made the Motown sound far more real to me, and some of it even lasting  into the early 80s when everyone, even roomsful of repressed white suburban law students, listened and even danced to Thriller on mix tapes at parties.  Yet balanced against that is the sense of waste- of life, of talent, of body parts- that went into the last decades of this man's life.

His legacy should be of his music. For me, though, it will be of an "adult alarm" going off outside his bedroom before the authorities arrived. And that might be among the saddest parts of all.

Comments

[ourika.livejournal.com]

What is an adult alarm?

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

The story was told, back when the child molestation case broke, that MJ had an active motion detector in his manse outside the bedroom, to give him lead time if anyone got too close to the room.

Certain wags added the term "adult alarm." There's an online re-creation of what it sounded like that's too crude for even me to post at the moment.

[ourika.livejournal.com]

Ahhh... I kept trying to google the term and came up with nothing that made any sense. Thanks for the explanation!

[elbiesee.livejournal.com]

All of this.

Apropos of nothing, he and Mickie shared a birthday. But then, she also shares it with Charlie Parker, so par.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

From just a quick look at the August 29 list, she's also got Elliot Gould, "Singin' in the Rain" actor Donald O'Connor, Sir Richard Attenborough, and one of our favorite authors, the awesomely amazing Temple Grandin. (John McCain was born in the canal zone, so that doesn't count.)

Me? I've got, or rather had, Dr. Carl Sagan and former vice president Spiro Agnew.

Mickie wins;)

[meredith-mae.livejournal.com]

I believe Madonna is about 2 weeks older than MJ.

Yeah, he was cleared of any wrongdoing, but... so was OJ. I prefer not to focus on it. It's obvious he had a very troubled life, not that it's any excuse, and if he did do something horrible wrong, legally and morally, I don't want to excuse that. But people are complicated. He touched a lot of lives (in a GOOD way), and influenced a lot of people with his music. He was enormously talented. The saddest part is that his talent was so over shadowed by his weird life. He could have been even more productive if he didn't have so many phobias and odd habits.


I share a birthday with Billy Joel, Candice Bergen, Mike Wallace, Rosario Dawson and John Brown (the abolitionist).

[mayiwrite.livejournal.com]

This is a nice tribute. I always thought Michael Jackson was pretty cool. I was in Times Square, staring at a jumbo news screen when he got acquitted.

The nostalgia, the playlist from my childhood and adolescence, wins.

But, I can't, no one should, ignore his latter years, career/personal. If you haven't already, go check out Sars's thoughts on the matter.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

As someone who worked with abused kids for five years, and had a dear friend who was a victim of abuse, the word PEDOPHILE just pops up in blazing lights in my mind when I think of Jacko. Not that I can't see his talent, and yes, I owned "Thriller" (before my days as a confirmed headbanger)...but the music is forever shadowed by the scandal. And if he was indeed guilty of sexual abuse, I wouldn't want to be having the conversation with God he's having right about now.