Book #152: Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009

But was he, really? 🤔

Pages: 765

Unless you have been living under a rock for your entire life, EVERYONE knows who Michael Jackson was. He was a man of many talents and one of those was beatboxing. MJ could’ve beatboxed the instrumental of a song before it came together. 

Now, this book took me many years to read believe it or not. A friend of my mom gifted the book to me in 2010 and I left it for a while. I started reading it sometime in 2012 or so, then left it again and returned to it sometime in 2014. Then, late last year was the final straw. I finally picked the book up and read until the last page which I completed earlier this year. I was glad to get this off my TBR.

“I want my whole career to be the greatest show on earth”

Michael Jackson

The author had known MJ since they were little – MJ was 10 – and so he decided that he was MJ’s official biographer. However, Randy struggled with accuracy throughout the book and you can tell that Michael’s youth up until he was 20 was the best-researched part of the book for as the years rolled by, they weren’t that close anymore. MJ had shut a lot of people out of his life, for he was always insecure, mistrusting, and suspicious.

Some things/thoughts I took away from the book:

* The author overwrote. There was no need to talk at length of the Thriller video. We know it scene for scene. At one point, I wonder if I was reading a bio or a journal. 

* MJ didn’t want to do the Pepsi deal for he had a bad feeling about it, but his money-hungry brothers and father forced him to sign the contract anyway.

* MJ wanted to rename the “Victory Tour” to “The Final Curtain”. Many, many years later, he got to call his final shows “This Is It”.

* Paul McCartney is a proper right hypocrite.

* Berry Gordy and Diana Ross taught MJ to lie about his age when he was about 9. I still don’t know why he idolized this woman.

* Elizabeth Taylor was a brat and a handler who always knew how to get under MJ’s skin. She made decisions for him as if she wishes she was Katherine Jackson. She was high maintenance and expected MJ to gift her with extravagant things. At one point, she moved MJ to her home. She nagged MJ about opening up himself to a romantic relationship and when he finally had something with Lisa, she felt jealous and left out. She even took charge of his life and legal proceedings in 1993. I never trusted her friendship with MJ, but I also think MJ was infatuated with her and she knew it and she held him at arm’s length for she had control and power over him. 

And I think I’ll stop here for there was nothing to really surprise me about the man and the myth. Now, my rant… or something like it.

The Magic

Trust me, there was nothing magical about MJJ. He was programmed and brainwashed by Disney just like many of us were as children into believing in magic and that’s probably why he preferred fantasy over reality. MJ was an enigma and he beheld the world with a childlike wonder and curiosity, but his talents had nothing to do with magic. He was just crazily gifted. Did you know he also drew and painted? Exceptionally well, too?

See, crazily gifted. No magic there.

The Madness

MJ was highly valued by his mother as the son who can do no wrong and put on a pedestal by fans making him a god. In the 80s, he was said to be battling with lupus and vitiligo. 

He often shied away from talking about his skin condition and that was fine by me. I did not need to know every medical detail. But it spiraled him to another height of madness for over the years people were crazy over his skin and his eccentricity. It was as if he was in a circus peep show except that he was viewed in front of the entire world as a freak at a P.T. Barnum circus show. 

The greatest madness of MJ’s career were/are his fans. 

The Whole Story

Hmm… will the REAL MJ, please stand up?

Did we really know the whole story? Do we really know the real MJ? Alas! We don’t. Michael was a slave to Hollywood and the devil for he used his God-given talents to carry out the devil’s work through his lustful and sexual dancing. He was the ultimate sex symbol and sexual fantasy for both men and women. He ripped his shirts, thrust his pelvis and gyrated his hips in ways no man – or woman for that matter – ever should.

It seems like he had childhood trauma, but sometimes I wondered if he also had DID. He was a terrific father, but he avoided communication and conflict. He loved giving and visiting the orphanages, but he was also a narcissist who quickly became bored with people so he discarded them like unwanted toys.

Over the years, I couldn’t decide if Michael was too feminine for my liking (he really blurred the lines between masculinity and femininity), but his smile endured and up to this day, I still think he had one of the most beautiful smiles in the world if not the most beautiful. I mean, come on, that smile could bless a nation!

Overall:

MJ was a gifted, talented genius, but he was also battered, bruised, broken, and the poster boy for why you shouldn’t love the world and all that is in it (1 John 2:15; Mark 8:36). He was tortured, twisted, molded and created in their image – turning him into a caricature of his former self; the image God created him in – for our entertainment and we contributed by enjoying his work or ridiculing him (especially by mocking the way he looked in photos when he was just probably miserable, silently pleading for help while dying inside) whichever suited us best. He never found the happiness he passionately yearned for, for he was looking in the wrong places.

Only God could’ve granted him what he was searching for.

Michael died as he lived for the worldly desires: the King of Pain, never freed,  always chained.

***GIFs and images via Google Search

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Devotional Nugget #6: Choose wisely which master to serve.

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6:24

Last Thursday, my BFF Tammy and I met to have a day to ourselves and it was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time! We bought some fun stuff before sitting down to have a nice chat. We found ourselves reminiscing, talking about our writing, and the Industry from a Biblical perspective which led us to discuss serving two masters.

The Bible makes it clear: WE CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS! There is a reason why the world is filled with hatred, greed, and jealousy. Why there are so many robberies and frauds taking place. Why our entertainment (magazines, TV shows, books, commercials, etc.) are filled with blaspheming products that are not of God (gambling, drug overdose, nudity, etc.). Why professing Christian actors play ungodly roles in movies. Why professing Christian musicians neglect to drop God’s Name from their lips. Why preachers thirst after riches. For the mammon (money, wealth, and material things) makes them compromise their relationship with God. And when you serve mammon, you do not serve God, but Satan, thus you’ll do ANYTHING for it.

So you go to church
Read the holy word
In the scheme of life
It’s all absurd

Want your pot of gold
Need the Midas touch
Bet you sell your soul
‘Cause your God is such
You don’t care
You kill for the money

You do anything for money

Money, Michael Jackson

Don’t get caught up in all that glitters for what does it profit a man to gain the world, but lose his soul (Mark 8:36)? The world may look good dangling before our eyes, but the lust of this world cannot satisfy us like Christ can. God is our Sustainer and He doesn’t want us to worry (Philippians 4:6-7). Rather, we should learn to be content in whatever state we’re in (Philippians 4:11). When we’re content, we do not lust after mammon in any form, for we’ll be putting our trust in God for our provisions (Proverbs 3:5-8; Matthew 6:31-34).

We’re to be set apart from the world (1 John 2:15-16) and not conform to it (Romans 12:2) for the enticing, sparkly, glittery, shiny things of this world is deceitful (Mark 4:19). 

Reflection

Are you storing up treasures on earth or in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21)? Be honest with yourself during your self-evaluation for God doesn’t do compromises. 

Welcome… to the revamp!🈴

*claps hands* Lights on, please! 

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Ahlan wa Sahlan

Things are going to be a whole lot different this year. I’ve been working on revamping the blog for a while now, gathering topics of interest and sitting on them wondering when it was going to be the right time to integrate them on the blog.

The time is now.

It’s more of a makeover than a total revamp. 😒

The tone is going to be serious overall. Things are going to be spoken of that some readers – especially Christians – may not like, but it needs to get out. I’ve been holding back, but this is not the time to be joking around. This is the time to be winning lost souls as the pending arrival date of our Savior gets nearer.

You have been warned. I won’t be holding back on whatever topic I’ll be delivering.

Last year, I was given the word ‘peace’. When that was achieved at the end of 2018, I was given the word ‘restoration’ for this year and it seems like everywhere I turn, I am being reminded of it. I’m not perfect and I do backslide just when I wrongly think that I have it under control. Without God, I wouldn’t be perfect and during this year of restoration, I’m moving aside to let God enter the room.

Another thing you’ll be seeing a lot of are butterflies. Yes, butterflies. The butterfly represents hope, life, and transformation. I hope to become a new butterfly at the end of 2019 be it God’s willing that I live that long.

Where it concerns a new theme, I already looked at some and I narrowed it down to 3. I’ll also be playing around with some fonts. I created a few logos last year, but I discarded them. I’ll try to see what I can do with the ones I currently have.

So, what has changed? Is book/movie reviews still going to be published? Is this the end of La Petit Muse as we know it? Maybe the government is reading this as I write?!

Kidding! Just kidding!… Or am I? 😆

I plan to stick around for just a little while longer. I’ll be randomly posting topics as usual. There’s a change in schedule as well. Scripture of the Week and Devotional Nuggets will be kicking off the week on Sundays, as well as Song Sunday. 

Yes, that’s right! I’ll be introducing a few new categories in due time. I want to dedicate Tuesdays to trips and travels. I’ll likely share posts about T&T and possible places I’ll like to visit so we’ll be traveling via blogging! Some Wednesdays would be dedicated to writing and I’m still contemplating on Midweek Mystery at the moment. Another category I’ll be adding is Origins, a series I mentioned in January 2018 that I was interested in doing. It never took off, but I drafted some ideas last year, so hopefully, it’ll take off this year when the time is right.

Also, also, I want to start incorporating quotes at the beginning of my posts, but I’m still sitting on the fence with this one. I may eventually start incorporating more French in my posts as it’s a continuous learning process. Celebrity culture is going to be a recurring theme… you’ll see why soon.

Despite the fun topics, I’ll be focusing more on the Bible, our Creator and Savior, and end time events. Looking forward to flying with you this year.

***GIFs via Google Search

When (False) Idols Fall.

Short Story #19
Christian YA (or sort of)

When Agnes found her best friend, Reece, she was bawling her eyes out in the girls’ washroom. Thinking that someone did something terrible to her BFF, Agnes quickly dove into action in comforting her.

“Reece, what’s wrong? Why are you crying like this? Who hurt you?”

Reece blew her nose into a tissue and looks at her friend with teary chocolate brown eyes. “Didn’t you hear?” she babbled. “He… He was just arrested.”

Agnes was confused. Her best friend had two older sisters and no brothers. Reece’s father was the principal of the school they were currently attending and he gave a speech to the morning assembly half an hour ago. So “Who was arrested?”

“They found him with an underage girl…”

This was getting weirder by the second. She helps Reece off the floor and took her over to the sink to wash her face. She was thankful that the bell had gone for the second period and the students were currently in class. Yet, she was aware that anyone can walk into the washroom at any given moment and she didn’t want them to find Reece this way.

“Come now, we have French and…”

“I’m not going to that stupid French class!” Reece yelled in anger. “Not when Matty is probably going to prison for a lifetime and the class is going to make fun of me.”

The remark made Agnes’ blood run cold. So this is what the tears were all about? Some Hollywood B-lister who didn’t know that some California native existed and was the president of his so-call fan club?

Agnes didn’t want to know how she’ll feel when/if it was her favorite celebrity’s turn to fall. But after witnessing her best friend falling victim to celebrity worship, the illusion was shattered and she wondered if she too was guilty of such idol worship. When she got home that evening, she ripped posters of her favorite boy band off the wall and got down on her knees to ask God to forgive her of putting man on a pedestal and to give her a new heart in which He could dwell in.

via Inspirational Bible Verse Images

And the spirituality theme continues in my stories. 🙂 People will worship anything and anyone because they’re sheep looking for a shepherd to guide them. In this present world, many people worship celebrities, sometimes without even knowing it. We put too much effort in idolizing celebrities (including social media stars) instead of God. We tend to put them on a pedestal forgetting that in the end, they have selfish desires and tendencies just like us. None of them are sinless.

God does not grant dual citizenship: you cannot eat at the Lord’s table and dance with the devil at the same time.