Daisy’s website can be found at http://www.photomafias.com

While Michael Jackson was a celebrity who received an enormous amount of media attention, it has been said that nobody truly knew him. Indeed, questions about the man linger on. For example, did he or did he not sexually molest the young boys with whom he kept company? He was accused of doing so on two separate occasions, but in the first case he reached an out-of-court settlement with the purported victim’s family and in the second he was acquitted. The jury’s decision was somewhat equivocal: though they could not exclude the possibility that he might have sexually abused children in the past, in this particular instance he did not. I strongly suspect that the accusations against Michael Jackson were part of the wave of child sexual abuse hysteria that swept through the United States and that led to many people being charged on dubious grounds.* However, the real truth will probably never be known.

Even before that Jackson’s sexual identity was always the subject of much speculation. It was sometimes hard to tell by his appearance whether he was a woman or a man. A rumour in the 1980s had it that he was intending to undergo a sex change operation because he could no longer silence the “woman in me,” but either the rumour was untrue or Michael Jackson changed plans because nothing became of it. Similarly his sexual orientation was unclear in the minds of many. In his youth he was said to have romantic relationships with actress Brooke Shields and his co-star in the Thriller video Ola Ray. A number of observers suggested that these publicized romances were just for show and that these women served as a so-called “cover” for his true sexual orientation. No media report, though, was ever able to pinpoint any relationship he may have had with another man. He did marry women twice and father two children, but comments about his actual sexual proclivities continued.

Michael Jackson’s greatest ambiguity lay in his racial identity. To quote one of his most popular songs, was he black or white? Pictures of him as a child and young man show him with clearcut African features: a large Afro hairdo and a typical “Black” nose. By the time Thriller rolled around, however, he had obviously undergone a nose job, and his hair was curly rather than kinky. At the time of his death his hair was completely straight. But the biggest question had to do with his skin colour, which became progressively lighter over the years. Jackson himself claimed that the lightening was the result of a medical condition that made his skin lose colour. Such conditions do exist (the mother of an African-American friend of mine had one), but given Michael’s apparent attempts to “Caucasianize” himself (the nose operation, the hair straightening), doubts on the veracity of his explanation will persist.

Of course like many American Blacks Michael Jackson had non-African ancestry as well. One of his ancestors was a White man, another an American Indian. Nonetheless, according to America’s “one-drop rule” Jackson and his family would definitely be considered Black. Some Black activists lamented his various “Whitening” endeavours, seeing them as a sign of racial self-hatred. Jackson, though, never claimed to speak for the African-American community. Indeed, his music was loved by people of all colours throughout the world, so he might have feared losing or alienating some of his fans by embracing a particular ethnic identity. In his song “Black or White,” he appears to disavow any racial allegiance – although many observers noted that for a man who proclaimed it didn’t matter whether you were Black or White he seemed to do everything in his power to be White himself.

An autopsy done on Jackson’s remains was inconclusive. As of now (June 28) the cause of his demise has yet to be determined. In death, as in life, the man remains an enigma. And perhaps that is how he would have wanted it to be.

* Here I do not mean to imply that the sexual abuse of children does not exist or that it is not a serious crime. However, starting in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s there was a trend of attributing seemingly unusual behaviour in children to sexual abuse and fingering adults with whom they had come in contact with molesting them.

6:10pm

TMZ is claiming so …

We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived.

Here is a screen-shot of what TMZ has written:

What is interesting to me is that not ONE news source – FOX, CNN, Wall Street Journal, etc seems to have found this information. But of course these are traditional news sources that have to check facts and guarantee their sources. TMZ is a gossip site that seems ok to search through trash, bug bedrooms and pay out cash for even the flimsiest of rumours. Regardless, where the king of pop is concerned, TMZ has either gotten the scoop of the century or killed what little credibility they ever had.

6:28pm

The L.A. Times is now reporting his death. Wikipedia has also modified their entry to report Jackson as deceased:

At this point, CNN will only confirm that Jackson went into a coma shortly after cardiac arrest.

6:47pm

The Associated press is now reporting the death, all but making this a done deal:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Jackson, the record-breaking, sensationally gifted “King of Pop” who emerged from childhood superstardom to become the entertainment world’s most influential singer and dancer, and the tabloid world’s most disturbing celebrity, has died. He was 50.

A person with knowledge of the situation says Jackson died Thursday in a Los Angeles hospital. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

His death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

R.I.P. In spite of his personal flaws, Jackson was the consummate entertainer.

The Day After

We’ve already been submerged in news coverage and surely more is yet to come. However, one event that does deserve attention is the impromptu dance party set up in front of the Apollo Theatre in Jackson’s honour (not even an hour after the announcement). With the amount of scandal and inquiry we will hear surrounding his death, it is reassuring that at least some humans reacted by celebrating the good.

Turner died at his suburban San Diego home on Wednesday, according to a statement from his manager Scott M. Hanover.
Cause of death has not been released.
Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock ‘n’ roll record, “Rocket 88,” in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar.
But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record – it was recorded with Turner’s band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston.

Unfortunately, Turner’s public legacy up to his death was “Mr. Tina Turner” – and a violent one at that. Perhaps this reputation was deserved, but people should sill remember that Turner was a pioneer of Rock n Roll music and should not be vilified in an industry that maintains a soft-spot for super bad boys like Ozzy Osbourne, Tommy Lee and Sid Vicious. Rocket 88 remains one of the catchiest Rock n Roll tracks to date.

Having been raised on a steady musical diet rich in RnB, I’ve taken a liking to much of Ike’s work (particularly with Tina) and his impact on modern music cannot be overestimated.

Click on the YouTube link below to listen to Rocket 88

In the 1980s the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) featured a character by the name of Kamala the Ugandan Giant. Though the wrestler was in reality an American Black, he bore an uncanny resemblance to Idi Amin, the man who ruled Uganda as president from 1971 to 1979. I’m sure the likeness was no coincidence: the WWF probably thought that one of the world’s most notorious strongmen would serve as a good prototype for a wrestling “bad guy.” So it should come as no surprise that Idi Amin has emerged once again as the villain, this time in the film The Last King of Scotland.

The Last King of Scotland is based on the book of the same name by British author Giles Foden. Foden’s work is a historical novel; that is, it mixes fictional characters with real-life figures from history (some classic historical novels include Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed). Though the actor who plays Idi Amin, Forest Whitaker, is American, both director Kevin Macdonald and supporting actor James McAvoy are from Scotland .

The film tells the story of Idi Amin’s descent into totalitarianism, barbarism, and madness as seen through the eyes of Nick Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor who goes to Uganda on a humanitarian aid mission and ends up becoming the dictator’s personal physician (Garrigan, by the way, is Foden’s invention, though some have tried to link him with Robert Astles, an English soldier and associate of Idi Amin). At first Garrigan, like many Ugandans themselves, welcomes Amin and sees his rise to power as a means for Africans to assert their independence. He begins losing faith, however, after individuals accused of collaborating with Amin’s predecessor Milton Obote are brutally assaulted by police, buildings go up in smoke, and some of Amin’s associates suspected of treason disappear mysteriously. Amin’s paranoia, by definition, renders him irrational.

Though Nick Garrigan is meant to be the eyes into the movie, one gets the feeling that he is merely an observer rather than a character in his own right. In other words, he is irrelevant to the course of the plot. Even as Amin’s “advisor,” Garrigan appears unable to influence the leader. The film loses several opportunities to develop Garrigan as a character. He falls in love with the wife of a physician at the mission at which he is first stationed, but the relationship is suddenly disrupted by Garrigan’s decision to serve Amin and is left hanging, so to speak. Similarly, some of the events that befall Garrigan, like his chance meeting with the president at a roadside, have a Deus ex machina quality to them that makes them, and Garrigan, less believable.

More interesting is The Last King of Scotland’s portrayal of history, even if we are informed at the beginning that the film is inspired rather than entirely based on real-life events. First is the depiction of Idi Amin. He sees himself as the saviour of Uganda and, by extension, of Africa as a whole. It is not that he does much concrete to help his people; as they struggle to meet their basic needs, he lives in luxury in a palace with fancy cars, servants, and a swimming pool. Of course megalomania and exaggerated self-aggrandizement are traits common to absolute rulers like Amin; Adolf Hitler, for example, stated that he would establish an empire that would last a thousand years.

The title The Last King of Scotland also gives way to a number of larger issues. Amin, in the film as in reality, admires all things Scottish. He names two of his sons Campbell and McKenzie, has his troops wear Scottish kilts, and trades his army shirt for Garrigan’s t-shirt with the words “ Scotland ” on it. One senses that perhaps Amin feels a certain kinship with the Scots as fellow victims of British colonialism. On first meeting Garrigan, for instance, Amin eyes him suspiciously and asks him whether he is British. When Garrigan replies that he is Scottish, Amin suddenly smiles and says that if he were not Ugandan, he would be a Scot. He actually once refers to himself – in the movie and in real life – as the last king of Scotland .

Amin’s relationship with his former overlords, the English, is not so clear-cut, however. While he speaks of Uganda breaking free from England ’s rule, he still keeps company with a number of English diplomats and reporters. He predicts that Queen Elizabeth will become his lover (in real life, Amin proposed to her daughter Princess Anne; the offer does not appear to have been accepted).

Idi Amin reserves his real hatred for the Asians (“Asians” here in the British sense of East Indians, not people from Japan , China , etcetera). He gives them ninety days to leave Uganda , which they proceed to do, leaving most of their property behind. When Garrigan protests that the expulsion will lead to economic collapse, Amin retorts, “You would defend your Asian tailor?” (a man who made a suit for Garrigan). Thus Amin’s empathy for other ethnic groups subject to British colonialism ( Britain ruled India for nearly a century) does not extend to Asians. His expulsion of them from his territory, which is based on an event in actual history, also challenges the notion that people “of colour” will automatically band together against the White “oppressor” or, from the White Supremacist viewpoint, engage in some vast anti-White conspiracy.

The Last King of Scotland is an enjoyable film, and Forest Whitaker’s acting is very good (he won an Oscar for his role as Amin). The movie offers perspectives on history, race and human nature that most Hollywood productions today do not.

Memo to dance music fans: dismiss all your expectations of 4Hero’s latest album. While the UK duo may be responsible for some of the earliest Jungle/Breakbeat hits (e.g. Mr Kirk’s Nightmare) and “deep” Drum & Bass, Dego and Marc Mac have nonetheless been gradually drifting away from electronic funk to explore more traditional sounds. Producers by trade, 4Hero relied heavily on collaborations with a bevy of semi-underground singers, MC’s and poets to implement what could be best described as a 21st century implementation of old-school soul.

Play with the Changes starts off epic, with the opening track showing the greatest dramatic flair. “Morning Child” wastes no time on subtle introduction, charging out the gates with a horn/string combination over sharp percussion stabs and the R&B styling of Carina Andersson. The follow-up “Take my Time” is modest by comparison and far more electronic-sounding, but still attempts to make its mark with minor-key horns and prolonged harmonizing. The title track is arguably the most adventurous on the album and evokes memories of some of the more experimental sounds of the 70’s R&B scene.

In fact, 4Hero clearly had the 70’s on their mind when producing “Play with the Changes”. Despite using leading edge equipment and technology (as evidenced by the razor-sharp engineering – second only to Lucy Pearl in terms of recent R&B releases), the duo were very liberal in their use of the horn sections, wall-of-sound style violins, analog warbles and even some fuzz guitar towards the end. R&B purists will be most pleased with the instrumental tracks “Sophia” and “Why don’t you talk”.

Not content with simply capturing the spirit of epic-sounding 1970’s soul, 4Hero went as far as to remake Stevie Wonder’s “Superwoman”. A possibly suicidal task, it’s no surprise that guest vocalist Terry Devos’ best fell just short of Mr. Wonder. Still, his effort was commendable and Superwoman spent a lot of time in “repeat” mode on my CD player.

On that note, it is important for fans and potential listeners to remember that 4Hero neither attempt to expand on earlier Drum n Bass releases nor endeavour to create the next “Songs in the Key of Life”. Instead, Play with the Changes offers a modern, experimental implementation of what many listeners consider the last truly “soulful” era of R&B. The results are nothing if not listenable.

Track Listing:

1. Morning Child – featuring Carina Andersson
2. Take My Time – featuring Jack Davey
3. Look Inside – featuring FACE
4. Sink Or Swim (No Choice For Me) – featuring Lady Alma
5. Give In – featuring Darien Brockington & Phonte of Little Brother
6. Play With The Changes – featuring Talita Long & Larry Mizell
7. Something In the Way – featuring Bembe Segue & Kaidi Taitham
8. Stoke Up The Fire – featuring FACE
9. The Awakening – featuring Ursula Rucker
10. Sophia
11. Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You?) – featuring Terry Devos
12. Why Don’t You Talk?
13. Bed Of Roses – featuring Jody Watley
14. Gonna Give It Up (Wanna Quit) – featuring Lady Alma
15. Dedication To The Horse

Here are some of Sylvia’s more noteworthy predictions for the year:

• The USA will have an extremely mild winter, especially on the East Coast. Canada will have a harsh winter
• There will be lots of extreme weather during 2007. This will include flooding in the south and a possible “Tsunami” on the east coast
• 8 years until a black American president
• Spirituality is going to soar in the United States (not to be confused with religion)
• Evangelicals will have a difficult 2007 as they come to grips with revelations that many of their leaders have been robbing them blind
• There will be no terrorist attacks on a 9/11 scale, though there is cause for concern about trucks and trains
• Gas prices will drop sharply in February
• Overall, 2007 will be a comfortable year

Overall, I found Sylvia’s predictions to be vague or “obvious”, but as always Montell fawned relentless over her as self-conscious audience members covertly sought assurance about their immediate future.

Now, there are a lot of people who don’t believe in psychics and truthfully I’m sitting on the fence myself (having once been intrigued by Ms Brown’s literature before discovering her other business exploits); however Sylvia Browne is questioned even within the psychic community. One statistic that is never discussed on Montell Williams is how often Sylvia gets her predictions WRONG. Incidentally, Browne has many detractors both in and outside the psychic community who are more than happy to point them out. Below is a passage from the Fox News account of her now infamous Virginia Coal Mine blunder:

Controversial TV psychic Sylvia Browne made a major mistake about the West Virginia miners tragedy on a Tuesday night radio show.

I always like it when psychics are asked, ‘If you know so much, how come you haven’t won the lottery or cashed in big in Vegas or in stocks?’

Maybe Browne was thinking the same thing when she was a guest on George Noory’s live syndicated radio show
…
Noory: “Had you been on the program today, would [you] have felt if — because they heard no sound — that this was a very gloomy moment — and that they might have all died?”

Browne: “No. I knew they were going to be found. I hate people that say something after the fact. It’s just like I knew when the pope was dead. Thank God I was on Montel’s show. I said, according to the time, it was 9-something and whatever Rome time was. And I said he was gone, and he was.”

But the situation was fluid, something Browne — ahem! — obviously didn’t sense despite her claims of being able to speak to the dead, among other things. She couldn’t have imagined that within a short time, the entire story of the miners would change completely — and make her look very foolish indeed.

Noory soon announced that there were new reports that all but one of the miners was dead.

Browne — who was still in the studio taking questions from listeners — had to say something. Now she was just riffing: “I don’t think there’s anybody alive, maybe one. How crazy for them to report that they were alive when they weren’t!” Then she added: “I just don’t think they are alive.” She cleared her throat, and there was a deafening pause.

Noory went to a commercial.

Detailed information can be found at True or False, although the site has an obvious bias against Sylvia Brown. In the meantime, we will wait to see the accuracy of this year’s predictions.

Update: Sylvia Drops the Ball Again

Enter Dr Phil, Oprah’s divisive protégé and TV psychologist. Apparently he thinks that kicking a guest off the show before any serious debate could ensure would be really good publicity and did just that to Bumfights creator Ryen McPherson. (see video below)

To be sure, Bumfights is not easy to watch – most of the documentary-style video depicts inebriated homeless people beating the stuffing out of each other and performing dangerous stunts. The “reality TV” (apparently staging events with non-actors is real these days) video has been blamed for copycat attacks on homeless people in Canada, the United States and Australia.

Still, are we really to believe that Dr Phil had never seen a clip of Bumfights before inviting McPherson onto his show? The moral outrage on display was more contrived than a Fox News “shout” interview.

At the end of the exchange, Phil McGraw had the audacity to state that he refuses to publicize McPherson’s work. Perhaps he should have thought of that before playing Bumfights clips on national TV and inviting its creator on his show. Conversely, Dr Phil probably was legitimately angry about two things -

1. McPherson was obviously mocking Dr. Phil via shaving his head and wearing Phil’s trademark dark suit. The good doctor is far from humble and tends to take himself quite seriously
2. The Bumfights creator pointed out rather astutely that Dr Phil is equally guilty of exploiting the less fortunate via inviting emotionally vulnerable people onto his show and berating them relentlessly on national TV

The attached video clip only strengthens the long-standing belief among skeptics (present company included) that Dr Phil is a fraud and a liability to psychology profession. There couldn’t have been any purpose for that grandstanding outside of publicity. “Reality TV” indeed!

Get ready for a segregated “Survivor.” Race will matter on the upcoming season of the CBS show as contestants will be divided into four tribes by ethnicity. That means blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians in separate groups.
The announcement was made on CBS’ Early Show. Host Jeff Probst says the idea “actually came from the criticism that ‘Survivor’ was not ethnically diverse enough.” He says the twist fits in perfectly with what “Survivor” does, saying the show is “a social experiment. And this is adding another layer to that experiment.” Probst says contestants had mixed reactions to the racial divisions.

Above all else, the latest competition configuration suggests that Survivor is finally running out of creative steam. This should come as no surprise – the recent failures of ABC’s “The One” and that silly treasure hunting show that looks like Tomb Raider (the name evades me) signal that the public is finally fed-up with these so-called “reality” shows. Perhaps it’s because the formula for these shows hasn’t changed since the felonious Richard Hatch slithered his way to victory in Survivor’s first season:

• Put several slightly and severely dysfunctional people together in an enclosed or remote place not nearly large enough to contain their egos
• Create activities and competitions that force some sort of cooperation
• Leave loopholes that encourage duplicitous behavior
• Count money while TV viewers gasp “I can’t believe she broke the alliance!”

Alas, Survivor has resorted to the race card to pique the interest of viewers. Who will win? I couldn’t guess, but rest assured the victory won’t be clean. No matter who wins, someone will complain and someone else will use the result as ammunition in his/her political vendetta.

(Warning: very un-serious predictions)

Whites Win –
Stormfront goes beserk. Conservative bloggers wait for Al Sharpton to complain so they can h/t each other to the top of the Alexa skewering him. Sharpton obliges, perhaps acknowledging that self-sacrifice is his only present contribution to political discourse.

Blacks Win –
Hip hop discussion boards go berserk. Black team members hit the lecture circuit expecting they will actually be able to convince gang members to stay in school by relating their experiences on Survivor. Gang members add one more long-shot path to pursue in lieu of going to school. Kathy Shaidle goes into cardiac arrest.

Asians Win –
Most Asians under 30 go berserk, unleashing a wave of testosterone-fueled aggression that betrays every “truth” we ever held about that culture. Steve Sailer writes a 3 volume book set on the season, claiming validation of his life’s work.

Hispanics Win -
La Voz de Aztlan goes berserk, promising America that this is “only the beginning”. Pat Buchanan spins the hysteria in the opposite direction, hoping to move more copies of State of Emergency. More Mexicans are convinced they can “survive” crossing the border and flood southern Texas.

Regardless of who wins –
Many bloggers will post nonsense about Survivor depending on its relative Technorati rank. Many TV viewers will be unmoved, citing Wife Swap played the race card to dramatic perfection long ago.

You’ve got a good twenty years on you now, and that’s Trebek-era alone. Times have changed since your debut, but when I watch you, it’s the same-old same-old: the same format, the same patter[n], the same fonts, the same everything as when I first crushed out on you in fourth grade. You’re like the Dorian Gray of syndication. You seem to think “change” means replacing a blue polyethylene backdrop with a slightly different shade of blue polyethylene backdrop every presidential election or so.

Does every freaking category have to be some effete left-coast crap nobody’s heard of, like “Opera,” or, um, “U.S. History” or whatever? I mean, wake me up when you come up with something that middle America actually cares about. I think it would rule if, just one time, Alex had to read off a board like:
-PlayStation
-The Arby’s 5-for-$5.95 Value Menu
-Reality TV
-Men’s Magazines
-Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men’s Magazines
-Potpourri

Granted, the satire would have been a non-issue if it were written by the average blogger. Coming from the man whose fame is owed entirely to the show, however, it smacks of ungratefulness. Jennings did stress the humor intent in a subsequent post but still came off looking somewhat haughty.

Going back to the opening sentence, I’ve had a lot of time to observe the behavior of geniuses, and came to the conclusion that quite often the difference between a genius and someone who is autistic is the value society places on his/her forte. Several schoolmates came to class having invented their own math theories or were able to calculate complex math equations in their heads faster than the average person could do so with a computer … but ask them to do anything remotely social and they either do something completely awkward or petrify in a wave of near-retardation. Ever the self-promoter and salesman, Ken Jennings does not fall into the genius category; rather he comes across as a self-purported genius – usually discernable by the fact that he directly and indirectly states how much smarter he is than you at every possible opportunity. Think Donald Trump, rather than Bill Gates.

The website of Ken Jennings – modesty and all

At the end of the day, Ken Jennings must remember that Jeopardy’s ability to survive without changing format for over 20 years is an ode to the show’s staying power. Individual Jeopardy winners, on the other hand, are forgotten rather quickly. Good luck with that merchandising.