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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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error404

The thing that seems to fly under the radar is that that great looking black lad, grew up to look like a white lady.

I saw the pretty shoddy comedy Tropic Thunder a while ago, and it struck me that Robert Downey Jnr’s character, a method actor who is surgically altered to play a black man, was a sort of mirror of MJ.

I know he said he had the skin pigment disorder that leaves white spots, but that’s balls. I know quite a few black people who have that same disorder… basically you don’t paint the whole carpet red because you dropped a half a glass of kool aid on it.

Very very odd man.
jackm

A lot of people consider it to be very rude to criticize or mock the recently departed. While this show on its own is pretty harmless, the context in which it is being presented does toe the line of taste.

I will give the folks at Boing Boing the benefit of the doubt and hope they are merely remembering the late MJ in the way they see most flattering.

Considering he literally killed himself to try to please his fans one more time here in London (it was the strenuous practicing schedule leading up to the concert dates at the O2 Dome in East London which led to his heart attack), any other sentiment about the man would be extraordinarily rude.
jtegnell

#27: I submit for you this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LNwUjd0gLo&feature=related

And I eagerly await a comparably clip from Teletubbies.
jtegnell

Oops. I meant comparable. Stupid non-editable posts!!
Anonymous

michael jackson had a skin disease called VERTILIGO, which caused him to lose all the pigment in his skin. In order for him to perform, his makeup artist would put black makeup on. when it became too much and his was majority white, having lost a lot of the pigment, they opted for white makeup. some ppl with the blotches that vertiligo causes then choose to get rid of all the pigmentation (by actively bleaching the skin>> which is what MJ may have resorted to). But first and foremost, he had vertiligo, and although the fact that he had been ridiculed by his father about being ugly, obviously not a good idea for someone who is so prominent in the public eye, he never chose to be WHITE.
Dipigmentation occurs in ppl who suffer from the disease. he also had lupus which made him sensitive to the sun.
please educate yourself before you leave rude, uninformed comments. the poor guy had to deal with the consequences of such ignorance for his entire life. please allow him to rest in peace. jeez.

http://atozbeauty.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/women-of-color-ruining-their-skin-with-monobenzone/
Tavie

Nice clip Cory ;)
fistula spume

Huge Free to Be You and Me fan. The Diana Ross version off the album is tops in my book. This song makes me happy and sad.
drblack

Jackson was fortunate to have had such brilliant musicians like Quincy Jones to write and produce the music that could show Jackson’s excellent skills at dance.
WalterBillington

The thing about very very odd people is how much attention they get. And the legions of followers they generate.

It was odd of Hendrix to die as he did. Madonna is odd. British politicians are very, very strange. They’re all odd – all famous people – because they float on our need to bestow them with amazing qualities.

Of course he was odd. But what’s undeniable is that he was a phenomenon. As time passes, it will be interesting to see if he’s recalled as an “odd phenomenon”, and hence put in the odd box, or as a phenomenon who was odd, and set a performing arts example to the people of the world.

Personal life notwithstanding. More of that we’ll learn, I’m sure.
Lobster

To be fair, he claimed he only received one surgery for his nose (to help him breathe), and that there may have been one other but he forgets (not like surgery is memorable).

So just 1-2 surgeries is all. Any other “changes” you perceived were just his natural maturation. Or so he said.

And #16, we have a tendency to whitewash the dead because we find it “rude” to speak ill of them, or even speak the truth of them. For the last 10 years, Michael Jackson has been a punchline. He’s been in the media only for pedophilia charges, fleeing trial, and being criminally irresponsible with his own children. Sure he was a great musician, but he was also seriously messed up.
WalterBillington

An objective view from allmusic.com:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kifuxqe5ldae~T1

Read the bio.
Mark Gordon

#16

“A lot of people consider it to be very rude to criticize or mock the recently departed.”

You mean like Xeni?
Anonymous

Amazingly pure voice. Even Roberta Flack sounds harsh by comparison.
jtegnell

Anybody got a link to Diana Ross singing this? I can’t find it for the life of me.

YouTube search comes up fail.

Or did she even do this? Wikipedia seems to think so.
Anonymous

WEll excuse me anonymos who said :
“It’s always depressed me that African Americans have had so little to say about why a handsome guy like this so hated his racial appearance that he spent so much energy trying to become a white woman. ”
He didn’t decide himself to become white! he suffered by a desease called vitiligo, and ppls skin becomes lighter or totally white. Here is proff that shows everyone that he suffered by vitiligo: watch the picture in this video of him showing that he had Vitiligo since thriller. wahtch at 3.27 min;) or the whole video if u wish u’ll change ure mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjEtpBgeAw0&feature=related
daneyul

#6: “Man! I can’t imagine it being made these days! O’Reilly and Glenn Beck the rest of the silent majority would drag it out and exhibit it every day for months on end!! Boys with dolls? Boys being told that crying is okay? Young women choosing to do things other than marry and devote themselves to their husbands?”

Exaggerate much?

Ever seen Barney, Teletubbies, half the shows on Nick or Disney?
Anonymous

Michael Jackson wrote some of his own music as well. Quincy Jones did write some hits such as Thriller, but MJ wrote some of his own big hits as well.
jtegnell

I have to partly agree with the above sentiment.

Although Jackson and everyone who profited from him are not entirely to blame, they’re in no small way responsible for having paved the way for Brittany Spears, New Kids on the Block, and a host of other musicians that showed that dancing ability is the main skill necessary for pop stardom.

And that’s not to say Jackson didn’t have musical ability. But without Quincy Jones, Jackson might well have been the back up dancer for whomever it was that Quincy ended up writing for instead.
error404

@ #19 WalterBillington

I presume you are referring to my comments, “Very very odd”?

I was in fact me biting my tongue Walter.

See the things I would normally say about him would make jackm @ #16 upset.
mermaid

Wow he was so very talented.
perrysalembinks

I do agree to an extent. One has to look at the situation as two different entities. Musically he was a genius and that can’t be taken away from him. Personally he was a mess. The media, as well as many writing, seem to forget that he paid millions to make the first allegation go away. The trial was a train wreck. That should tell people something. I feel bad that this has completely overshadowed the death of a true “icon” Farrah.
Anonymous

Quincy Jones didn’t write Thriller, Rod Temperton did. The only song he wrote (co wrote with James Ingram) for Michael was Pretty Young Thing.

Stop giving Quincy so much credit. You can actually find the demos for songs Michael wrote on youtube. It was Michael singing and Randy & Janet playing instruments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcyJUg1_0F8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsaAFyr0VFE&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpj3QYHy3qg&feature=channel_page
Anonymous

@JTegnell

You can get the Diana Ross version on iTunes (I don’t know of a free link to it (or a no-DRM version)). I think she sang on the album, whereas Roberta Flack did this T.V. special.

Also, thanks for posting this. I haven’t heard this music since I was a kid, and I had never seen these video clips until today.
Larskydoodle

I agree with Fistula Spume [they have surgery for that, you know ;)]…. The Diana Ross version on the album is superior to the video with MJ and Roberta Flack. I’ll even admit to getting a bit misty-eyed at the end.

“I don’t want to change, see, ’cause I still want to be your friend.

Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.”
error404

@ #31 robcat2075

Not so much under the radar then as no one mentioning the fact after his death… all of a sudden.

Never understood the sudden solemnity that meets the deaths of people who mean nothing and that whom touched no one… other than those that could bne categorically refuted by their legal team.
robcat2075

@#15

That didn’t “fly under the radar”. His change from black to white has been the object of incessant commentary for 20 years.
KaneCitzen

Portions of this performance were used in the Johnathan Caouette documentary Tarnation to great poignant effect.
nosehat

If only we could be the child we were.
thequickbrownfox

That is Roberta Flack with MJ.
Anonymous

It’s always depressed me that African Americans have had so little to say about why a handsome guy like this so hated his racial appearance that he spent so much energy trying to become a white woman.
hobomike

Sad in its irony, but who remembers or thinks about the words they are performing? I am sad for MJ as I think all around him are complicit….
Anonymous

WOW that’s Roberta?
RevEng

It’s too bad there are so many people who can’t separate his oddities and his eventual downfall from what was an amazing talent and career.

Yes, Michael Jackson was odd. Very odd. In fact, he likely dropped off the edge of sanity a long time ago.

But he was also amazing. He was called the King of Pop for a reason: his pure voice, his eccentric dance, his catchy songs, and his powerful performances.

We can’t forget the fact that he eventually changed from black to white, that he had enough facial surgery that the whole works caved in, that he was alleged to have slept with boys, and that he (for who knows what reason) held his baby out of a window. But let’s not forget that he made a name for black musicians, sparked an entire genre of music, pleased millions of fans for decades on end, and is still one of the greatest musicians who ever lived.
oasisob1

:-(
chgoliz

Daneyul @ #27:

[BLOCKQUOTE]
#6: “Man! I can’t imagine it being made these days! O’Reilly and Glenn Beck the rest of the silent majority would drag it out and exhibit it every day for months on end!! Boys with dolls? Boys being told that crying is okay? Young women choosing to do things other than marry and devote themselves to their husbands?”

Exaggerate much?

Ever seen Barney, Teletubbies, half the shows on Nick or Disney?
[/BLOCKQUOTE]

Not before Free to Be… made it possible.
chgoliz

I guess I should follow up my above comment by saying I was a girl in those days, and my daughters are girls now. I’ve seen that what passes for freedom and equality in modern “children’s” shows is but a shadow to the truly ground-breaking stuff we had.
Halle

Terribly sad that he sang it but couldn’t hear it.
jtegnell

This clip made me go back and watch the whole film!

Man! I can’t imagine it being made these days! O’Reilly and Glenn Beck the rest of the silent majority would drag it out and exhibit it every day for months on end!! Boys with dolls? Boys being told that crying is okay? Young women choosing to do things other than marry and devote themselves to their husbands? Kris Kristofferson being taken seriously?

Ah, the naive, innocent days of optimism!
MarkM

God– can you imagine if Michael Jackson had developed and had an actual maturity in his adulthood?

In the same way Barack Obama showed much promise
and striking ability in his youth, and then
*built* upon that to become an even more
striking adult, so Jackson sadly *deteriorated*,
in an almost continuous downward curve.

Wow. And he had too many millions of dollars for
anyone around him to ever say “Michael– you idiot–
what are you doing?” His family deserves most of
the blame. Noones ever heard of an intervention??
jtegnell

One more comment, a bit more on-topic! What a lovely little chorus this song has!
Anonymous

What the hell is he doing with that tampon?
Patrick Arcee

Encouraging news Jtegnell: I was the right age to be raised with “Free to Be You and Me” at the Unitarian congregation so before age 8 my critical thinking skills were too strong to ever fall for circus acts like O’Reilly.

The songs are certainly idealistic, but I’ve found optimistically shooting high to be so much more effective then despairing about reality.
thequickbrownfox

I think there was a moment when Micahael Jackson’s star was eclipsed. 1985 British new-wave song produced by Arif Mardin of Atlantic Records.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMdf1onDkxA
jtegnell

Oh, I was, too, Patrick.

I miss those days. Now I’m sad.
Agies

The thing is that he never really changed, that is to say that he didn’t really grow up.
Anonymous

i wish i could have met him when he was little he seemed very nice and normal
Guitar Dad

MJ has a phenomenon of the highest order. Although I personally couldn’t relate to his art, his talent was immense and his impact otherwordly.
Trnck

Aww… It’s really really sad…

Michael Jackson likes what he looks like and doesn't have to change at all.

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