Friday, June 26, 2009

RIP MJ


Wow. Michael Jackson has died. A wonderfully dynamic entertainer, with a great energy to his performances. The King of Pop. I was glad to see such an outpouring of emotion from fans all over the world-- strangely enough, courtesy of the same mass media that vilified him not that long ago....



I hadn't thought of him in years. Strangely enough, since all that hoohah was going on about him in the media as to his various alleged aberrations. I was never a big fan per se, but always respected his talent. And that's what will shine through in the end, regardless of what he did or didn't do otherwise. Great stuff.



As far as all the bizarre behavior, who knows? Personally, I think he just snapped, and that the subsequent media "coverage"(make that scrutiny)just exacerbated the situation- like a magnifying glass on a leaf outside under the sun. Fried his psyche real good. Of course this is just my halfassed opinion, not any great pronouncement of fact..



As a creative artist of any kind, but particularly a performer--such as an actor or instrumentalist or vocalist--you give a part of your ass to your audience every time you perform in front of them. If you're a good actor or player or singer, you've shared something very intimate to them. You've gotten inside them. And that part that's gotten inside they take with them. So thus they now own a piece of your ass. And the bigger the scale you perform on, the more of that ass they own.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jackson. It's a shame they crucified you before they deified you. Hopefully you won't have those problems where you've gone from here.

Friday, June 05, 2009

The Letter M

Just as a sort of intellectual exercise, I was trying to see how many classical composers I could come up with whose last names begin with the letter M. Okay, so far: Mozart, Mendelsohn, Mahler, Milhaud, Menotti, Monteverdi, Mussoursky(sp?), Martino, Messaien.

Not too many. Let's try artists: Monet, Matisse, Michaelangelo, Munch. Hmm, even fewer there. How about writers? Moliere, du Maupassant, Miller, Michener, More, Mann, Melville, Matheson, Machiavelli.

Well, between composers and writers, about even. Trailing in the M artists. I guess that's the area I need to work on.