|
Last Night an MJ Saved My Life By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman About a year ago, my grandmother gave me the greatest compliment of my life. We were at my oldest cousin’s wedding and I drunkenly decided to start locking and popping on the dance floor in order to impress the bevy of young Korean girls there. As I made my way to the bar to get a drink for some random girl and I, my grandmother stopped me and said “Rob, you’re like the life of the party. I didn’t know you could dance just like Michael Jackson.” Though that compliment does sound a bit homosexual; it really touched my heart, as Michael Jackson has been a hero of mine the past 23 years.
I’ve been a huge fan of Michael Jackson ever since I had first heard his music and seen him dance with the Jackson 5. Unlike many of my other friends, my love for Michael never wavered. Even during the junior high school days where you’d end up having some freakish goon pour milk on your lunch because they found out you liked Michael Jackson, I still proudly listened to his music. In fact, I feel that being such a huge Michael Jackson fan molded my life in many ways (I’m not gay, sorry boys). I seriously doubt I wouldn’t have been so into the hip-hop culture had it not been for Jackson’s music and dance. I distinctly remember being about 7 or 8 and dancing along to the Moonwalker VHS nearly everyday after school. This planted the seeds of interest in wanting to get into breakdancing and uprock when I was 13 or so. Had I not started breakdancing with the Filipino and Mexican kids at my school, I doubt I’d have gotten into the other elements of hip-hop (or even cared about them) such as graffiti and rapping.
Now that I’m adult, I have a whole new respect for Michael. I really feel bad for the guy. Michael really understood that he was more of a brand or a product with incredible marketability to Sony than an actual person with incredible talent. I also believe this was part of the reason he lived such a bizarre life. Though I don’t possess a marginal fraction of the talent or marketability Michael had, I sometimes feel this way in my own life. I often feel like people only care about what I can do for them, whether at my work or even in my personal relationships. A lot of times I really do feel like some sort of servbot, where my personal value is only quantified by my skills with no account for me as a person (this may be why I treat a lot of people like crap, mostly just to show them that being treated like an object is downright shitty). I even felt for Michael during his bizarre legal troubles. To tell you the truth, I honestly don’t think he molested those kids. If you think I’m wrong or whatever, spend $15 on web hosting and write your own article about why I’m wrong. Anyhow, I really think the poor guy was just perpetually trapped in his junior high years. Michael always seemed like a really gentle guy that didn’t seem to trust adults. You know, in a lot of ways that’s totally understandable. Adults really are stupid people and quite frankly they’re really not to be liked or trusted. I have a feeling that I’m going to be like Michael Jackson or Shaquille O’Neal when I get older, since I’m seemingly having a hard time accepting growing into adulthood. I’ll probably be doing some interview for the site only to be hilariously interrupted by a child in my neighborhood asking if I want to hang out and play video games or baseball (something that actually has happened to Shaq).
Even after Michael passed on, I still feel that he had an impact on my life as a fan. Hearing the recent revelations of his personal life and habits through his autopsy and those close to him, I really started to feel for him in a sort of personal way. It was said that Jackson was found with a cocktail of prescription pills and little to no food in his system during his death. While I was a little disappointed in him when I first heard that, I do know how it is to be into drugs and feeling like you need them to get by. I really feel bad for the guy; the more I read about him the more it seemed as if he was never happy with his life. He just seems like someone that really wanted to love someone and be loved whether platonically or romantically. It looked like the poor guy wanted a friend more than a fan.
Michael Jackson was one of the first artists I started to like for myself. His songs were amazing and still kick the crap out of anything anyone’s doing now. He generally came off as a nice, albeit a little creepy gentleman (which is better than our friend Carlos, who is creepy and semi-spiteful). And though I know he probably wouldn’t be releasing any disco or new jack swing style songs as he had 20+ years ago, I’m really sad to see him go. Hell, I would have been that dude’s friend, if I ever got to meet him. I hope no one’s doggin’ you around where ever you are, Mike...
|
