Category: Music

Jacksons Pepsi Commercial (nostalgia)

Incidentally at the time this commercial was made, Jackson sightings were just like that: Few and far between, charged with lots of excitement and very brief. Before you knew it, they were waving goodbye and running away and you weren’t quite sure it actually happened when it was over. For all the trouble the Pepsi commercials brought into the life of the Jacksons, I don’t recall them  getting a whole lot of rotation on tv but maybe I watched a lot less tv in the 1980s, or maybe they didn’t blitz commercials over free tv at the time as they do in today’s cable and satellite tv packages. As a Jackson fan I loved the commercial of course, and I thought Alfonso Ribeiro was the cuteness. I didn’t recognize Siggy at the time (Jackie’s son) – he’s the tall kid wearing yellow. But I have to say, it didn’t make me want to drink Pepsi.

He’s not dead, he’s in Africa

A funny passage. The year: 1991. The context: A talk by Wallace Fowlie to a teenaged audience about the poetry of Rimbaud and the rock musician Jim Morrison:

I have often wondered why you still listen to the Doors …. I imagine you like the music, the poems of the songs, Jim’s voice, and his rebelliousness. Perhaps also you are puzzled by the mysteriousness of his death in Paris.

As soon as I said that, a youngster in the last row jumped to his feet, pointed his hand at me, and yelled out” “He’s not dead. He’s in Africa” …. [I] said “If that is true, it will help my talk, because Rimbaud went to Africa”. …. I pointed out that there was a death certificate signed by a Paris doctor. The boy’s answer came immediately …. “No doctor has been found who corresponds to that signature.” This was news to me, and I asked the student, “Where did you learn that?” “In the last issue of Rolling Stone“.

From: Wallace Fowlie, Rimbaud and Jim Morrison. The Rebel As Poet: A Memoir. Durham and London: Duke University Press (1993).

Some t’ings, they just don’t change.

Ella and Sarah

I’m watching a documentary about Ella Fitzgerald on Ovation TV, Jazz Heroes, and a comment was made how instrumental Ella’s manager Norman Granz was in her career. He took her music “mainstream” and is the reason why she is “known” today and Sarah Vaughn isn’t. Interesting – I thought. I had no idea Sarah Vaughn wasn’t known. I know who both Ella and Sarah are – I’ve known for so long I don’t even remember when I found out, and jazz is not even “my music” per se.  So who are these people that know who one is but not the other? I like a broad range of music as long as it has soul in there somewhere, but at my core I’m a child of 70s r&b/soul child who came of age on 80s pop/rock child who loves being a part of the internet age so I can listen to so much of the world all at the same time.

Michael Jackson and the Problem of Diversity in America

A very interesting panel discussion by Vanderbilt University faculty on September 23, 2009 about the “Conflicted Identities of Michael Jackson”. This is rational (i.e. sane!) discourse about the life, career and impact of Michael Jackson, the African American man from Gary Indiana who used his genius in music and the performing arts to become the greatest entertainer of our time.

What made Michael exceptional as an entertainer was his ability to elicit such strong emotional reactions from people through his performance and sometimes just from his presence. For me the connection was made before I’d actually heard Michael sing or seen him perform. The word from my kindergarten classmates about the Jackson 5 was enough for me. Eventually I saw him perform and that sealed the deal. Most people either loved Michael Jackson intensely at first sight – or they felt compelled to say crazy stuff (the craziest stuff imaginable) about him and sometimes the crazy was laced with a nice dose of malice. People talk about the media circus that Michael Jackson lived with while he was here, but as far as I can see Michael press still tends to be sensationalist b.s., and other internet media such as celeb gossip blogs, facebook, and the like are picking up where the tabloids left off with the lurid cackling about Michael and the rest of the Jackson family. I don’t read these anymore but I know they are out there.

One day the dust will settle and all people will know about is the magic of the music, and the dance, but in the meantime there is still plenty of crazy on the wires to avoid, and for that reason it was nice to hear lucid discussion about the music and impact of the musical phenomenon that was Michael Jackson.  As more of the young people are exposed to Michael Jackson from an academic perspective, the insanity will die and Michael will finally get his due respect as an artist. In my opinion the best speakers on the panel are Paul Lim, who is a professor of the history of Christianity and religious studies and a long time Michael Jackson fan who shares his thoughts on Michael Jackson’s spirituality; and, Tiffany Patterson, professor of African American and Diaspora studies who has special insight because she grew up in Gary, Indiana, was a neighbor of the Jackson family and knew them personally.

Here’s the link – you’ll need to set aside an hour, but it’s worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUo2VJ2sbyg

MAMA MTV Awards 2009

These will be held in Nairobi (Kenya!) at the Indoor Arena, Moi International Sports Centre, on October 10, 2009. My “tweet friend” the artist Wyclef Jean will be hosting and is in Nairobi now and giving us followers the blow for report. The MAMA’s will air to a potential TV audience of 1 billion viewers around the world. It’s unclear to me whether the billion will include viewers in the US but hopefully as with the MTV VMA’s they’ll post videos of the performances on the MAMA website and we can watch them that way.

UPDATE: 10/10/2009 – Livestream is available on Wyclef Jean’s website – http://wyclefjean.wordpress.com/ (I’m on crappy satellite so doesn’t work for me but a good option if you have quality internet service).

Michael, the graphic novelist

ESSENCE.com Exclusive: Previously Unknown MJ Novel Materializes

UPDATE 9/14/09: ESSENCE.com has learned exclusively that a novel written by the “King of Pop” himself is currently being shopped around to New York publishers, according to a source in the industry.

The illustrated novel depicts a rock star at the height of his success who becomes disillusioned with money and fame and obsesses about death.

According to the source, the book mirrors Michael Jackson’s own rise to superstardom and self-imposed seclusion, reflecting an inner torment and struggle with personal demons.

Working with a collaborator, the source confirmed, Jackson conceptualized the story line, characters and even the illustrations.

The book is expected to sell in the six figures.—Christine M. Gord

This sounds fascinating.

How authentic is it??

Will we get genuine insight?

Or will it be more of the same.

Cyberspace is full of fairytales

the legend is being carved up

(and I think this happens with all legends)

and people are running off with the

parts they want to see.

But we the mature fans

still wonder what happened.

and why.

So something like this

if it’s not over processed

might provide a clue.

Just the six figures??