Michael Jackson Not dead

check test,, Is this thing on?

This is a Shameful Post. and in bad taste. You have been warned.

I wanted to be the first to say I SAW Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, alive and well.

He was just sitting there, having tea with Elvis and JFK. He and the 2 old Geezers were having a good laugh about "escaping the Rat Race"

But seriously folks, it is just a matter of time before the Deification sets in. Years ago I noticed "Elvis Alters", mostly in southern homes. Elaborate shrines to "the King", Iconic and decorated with pictures, flowers, (usually plastic) candles, incense, looking very Jesus-y. It inspired me to collaborate with an artist to produce a limited set of prints, black velvet Elvis up on the cross, complete with golden record halo and TCB where INRI would be. This was the young sexy Elvis, but we dressed him in the later Elder Elvis white outfit. Of course we called it , "Elvis Christ". With glee, a few years later I encountered a wonderful music stage act entitled Jesus Presley. I had to have them play in the club I ran at that time. Even Earlier I had noticed very Catholic enshrinements of JFK. not quite so deistic, but certainly saintly.

Now we are due for another deification. Death will be Mr Jackson's greatest career move. Like Princess Di before him, all the sins will be glossed over. She wasn't "England's Rose" before the accident. In fact, she was deeply reviled and humiliated in the British and American tabloid press, as was Michael Jackson. Had Elvis lived, he would probably have been some kind of super Wayne Newton, master of Vegas and Branson. (well maybe he might have become the first Christian Emperor of America, but that is an alternate reality)

Like Elvis and Di and JFK, (And Marilyn and Jim and Kurt et al) we will see permanent shrines, in public, and in homes. All of the creepy stuff will be played down, and sooner I think, rather than later, someone somewhere is going to see Mr. Jackson, alive and in hiding. In some cases this will be deliberate, the act of impersonators, but more will be mistaken identities, wishful visions and downright hallucinations. There may also be a rash of those that will claim to be an unknown love child, ex-lover, secret confidant and of course psychic channel to the pop afterlife. Maybe some enterprising scalawag will found a cult of some kind, perhaps one will grow of it's own accord.

Death can really clean things up. Once dead, a person is no longer a complex hard to figure out living reality, but a distilled symbol of the things we want to believe are true. This is not just for the famous either. I know too many examples of persons who when alive were known as unpleasant wretches, parasites, drunkards, ne'er-do-wells and that ilk. "Oh Uncle Charley was such a nice old codger."they say of a dangerously psychotic alcoholic. "Ralf was a good friend, a brave soul, we miss him so much." about a man who chose suicide by cop rather than face the music of his own life. There is wishful thinking there as well, we all hope to be remembered in the best light. The Founding Fathers are a good example. It is only recently have we heard the less popular truths about some of those men. I choose to respect them any way, not because they were flawless but because they tried to rise above "that's just the way things are done". It is this attempt, if only for a moment, to be more than the cultural dictates of the time that gives me inspiration for my country and my self.

So what about Mr Jackson? it might be better if we recalled all aspects of his life, the parental abusehe suffered, the isolation, the unsettling details as well as his contribution to entertainment and music. To know that we are complex, conflicted beings, capable of heaven capable of hell, often in the same person.

But I do know something of human nature, and I can guarantee that eventually somewhere we will see the headline,
Michael Jackson Alive!

I just wanted to be the first.

till next time.
Slainte!