King of Pop

I finally got to see This Is It, the documentary about Michael Jackson's preparation for his last concert tour. For some crazy reason, I seem to be the only one I know that loves Michael Jackson, but there, I said it. Ok, he was strange, and accused of some things that are quite nasty. But let us not forget where he came from... This man had an extremely tough childhood, working in the recording studio when other kids played in the park. Desperately lonely, and ruled by a father so strict and abusive that Michael was literally sick to his stomach from stress being around him. And out of this grew... music that is still loved. Dance moves that are still recognizable, still fun to watch, still influential. I really believe he was a good guy and meant well, and we should all just get over his oddities. He was a product of the environment we all put him in, he never had a chance to be normal, and he was weird, but he was a wildly successful genius too. The best part of the documentary for me was that his 50 last shows were all sellouts. I'm glad he had that satisfaction before the end.

Here's a little reminder, if you want the short version, skip to the 3:30 mark.

And incidentally, Wikipedia has a very interesting page on him, that describes his accusations of child abuse (no charges were brought on the first one, and he was acquitted on the second), and the hundreds of millions of dollars he spent supporting dozens of charities. I'm just sayin.