Am I Scary for You? Minstrelsy, Metamorphosis and Michael Jackson
'Let the performance start...'
Postings by Judith Coyle on the inspirations and influences on Michael Jackson's life and work, exploring transformation, beauty, gender, the Gothic, minstrelsy, and whatever happens along.
Please note: all written material is the copyright of Judith Coyle unless otherwise stated.
"The thinking person's Michael Jackson-related website."
See http://leachima.deviantart.com/art/Goodbye-my-beloved-angel-128038715
'A Wandering Elf' by Hannah Frank, 1928
On the radio I heard someone comment that since Michael Jackson's death the public have split into two camps - those who believe he was an angel and those who saw him as a demon.
HUMAN NATURE
Personally, I think that's aload of rubbish! I'm not so sure that people are that simple although many fans have chosen to depict MJ as an angel through art. Just Google the words 'Michael Jackson angel' on Google Images and you will see what I mean. Angels are apparently the hot new subject for the New Age crowd. Above (top) is one such MJ as angel image. I include the Hannah Frank drawing 'A Wandering Elf ' from 1928 here just as comparison as I thought the fan drawing mirrored it somewhat.
I do feel that on the whole there has beeen a willingness to re-examine his life and work, including his humanitarian work, and that people are trying to look at him in a more objective way. Mind you, you still come up against the 'experts' who actually seem to know very little except what they've read as headlines or, while he was alive, biased comment in broadsheet newspapers. As Stewart Lee jokes in his live show Stewart Lee - Stand Up Comedian [DVD] "Oh, facts! I hate facts. I tend to find they get in the way of my blinkered opinions." (Or words to that effect.)
Our reader in Ottawa, Jennifer, sent me this email (I've edited it very slightly due to space) and a link to a website called The Silenced Truth.
Judith,
I am really intrigued by MJ's philanthropy. I was searching on the Internet last week and came across this website: http://www.thesilencedtruth.com
I am very happy to see that there are people interested in documenting MJ's donations and relief work. The detailed lists and anecdotes are quite interesting. There seems to be an effort here to "rehabilitate" MJ's image. A general search of the words "Michael Jackson" and "philanthropy" on the Internet reveals a wide range of writings by individuals and many groups of volunteers and charities calling on the world to follow MJ's example of charity and volunteering. If his life is seen in the right light, he was, and continues to be, an inspiration!
The journalist writing these articles seems to have done some really effective research. The various comments I have heard about the "racial conspiracy" against MJ appear to have some real basis.
Halton Mill, the site of Lancaster Cohousing, North Lancashire.
The blogging books advise you to not go 'off topic' in your posts but me, well, I can always find a way to make some link between whatever subject comes up and my passionate interest in minstrelsy, metamorphosis and Michael Jackson!
And so it came to pass that I was asked to write a press release about a sustainable living project that is happening right here in North Lancashire.
I'm going to reproduce that press release below but it got me to thinking about Neverland and how MJ tried to realise his dream of creating a community for children, especially disadvantaged children. Sadly, over time it all went horribly wrong. Rather than a community it became, or was viewed by many, as a kind of 'King's Court', with MJ as king, of course - themes explored in the long film Michael Jackson - Ghosts [VHS TAPE]
I recall someone saying that if he had created it as a place for children but chose not to live there himself then many of the troubles that arose may have been avoided.
There was something of Versailles about Neverland for me... Those years he spent at Neverland are the most fascinating. And, of course, it was while he was living there that he wrote the music that seemed to reveal more about him than any that had come before... The songs that many don't even know about. Just listen to Stranger in Moscowor Morphine
Anyway, here's news of community living of a different nature...
PRESS RELEASE
Sustainable Living Projects Celebrate
£500,000 Grant for Halton Gorge Site
Lancaster Cohousing, in partnership with LESS and Halton Community Association, has won a £500,000 grant to refurbish a derelict factory, install new solar panels, and develop a develop a community owned hydro-electric scheme at Halton Gorge near Lancaster, for the benefit of local people and local businesses.
The grant, which will be shared equally between the three groups, comes from the government’s Low Carbon Community Challenge (LCCC), a programme which aims to see ambitious cuts in carbon emissions at community level.
The Halton project is one of just 22 projects across the country to win one of these grants.
Lancaster Cohousing is a group of households who have been working and meeting together for the last four years. They plan to build around 30 cutting edge zero-carbon homes on the edge of Halton village. At the centre will be a common house with shared facilities such as eating and living spaces, childcare space, guest bedrooms and laundry facilities.
The site also includes a derelict engineering factory housed in an old Victorian mill, which will be refurbished to provide managed office space, workshop areas and studios for local businesses and arts and craftspeople. The grant provides for Lancaster Cohousing to fully insulate the factory and to install a biomass boiler, fired on wood products. Halton Community Association will install the Forge Weir Hydro, which will harness hydroelectric power from the River Lune while Lancaster’s environmental organisation, LESS (Local & Effective Sustainable Solutions) will provide solar roofs for The Mill, Boathouse and Out of the Woods buildings. The electricity provided from the Forge Weir Hydro and the solar roof panels will be sold locally, to the cohousing residents and others – and profits will go to develop new environmental projects in the village.
While many of the houses have already been snapped up the project is keen to hear from individuals, families or couples who are interested in taking up one of the 8 – 10 remaining houses, and from businesses who are interested in using the Mill facilities.
Jon Sear, Lancaster Cohousing project manager, said:
“It’s fantastic that DECC have recognised that we are planning something really special. But our project won’t just be a national example of low carbon living it will deal with the dereliction of the former North West Engineering factory so that the whole of Halton Gorge is a more pleasant place to visit. The local economy and environment will benefit because we will source food locally, not add to traffic congestion, and can approach the design of the site in a different way to a profit-driven developer. The business space should appeal especially to businesses who would benefit from being part of a vibrant working community, adjacent to a nationally recognised eco development.”
The project hopes to start work on the mill refurbishment this summer and be open for business by mid 2011. The houses should be ready in early 2012. Lancaster Cohousing hopes that this project will inspire others to seek sustainable solutions to working and living.
Halton resident Emily Jefferson said: “I think it’s wonderful that the village can use the power of the river that is so much part of this village and that it will help the community. Like many things that are right in front of you, it’s often the obvious that you miss – someone pointed out that perhaps we can use that power – and here we are able to bring it into fruition.”
Lancaster Cohousing runs regular site tours (please book in advance).
People are also welcome to the planning application preview meeting on Wednesday 17 February from 6.30pm at Halton Youth and Community Centre.
Regular Site Tours:
- 4.15pm on the last Thursday of the month (an opportunity to look at the proposed workshops/office/studio space in the mill.)
- 1pm on the fourth Sunday of the month (tour of the whole Cohousing project site, including the location of the proposed hydropower unit and solar panels).
Meet the Members - Open Brunch at the Whale Tail, Penny Street, Lancaster from 11am on the fourth Sunday of the month.
I have submitted around 3,500 words I wrote back in 2007 about Michael Jackson and the Gothic tradition and Michael Jackson and Minstresly to Joe Vogel. He's the guy from University of Rochester who who asked to see my writings which he may be able to use in his upcoming book, Man in the Music - The Definitive Guide to the Songs, Albums, Videos and Creative Life of Michael Jackson
It would be great if some of it is used, or if it stimulates further thinking.
The words I've sent have not been published eslewhere, not even on this blog, and refer to minstrel characters such as Jim Crow, Long Tail Blue and Zip Coon and how I see MJ as embodying each of these minstrel types at different points in his career and personal life.
It's not a completed study. It was more a work in progress before I found blogging.
Here's something I noted back in 2007, before Michael Jackson's death. I often think about these words of Big Tray Dee. Mr Dee is or was a rapper with an outfit called Eastsidaz.
Big Tray Dee is speaking about his deceased friend, the iconic hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur:
“Everyone knows he [Tupac] was taken from us too soon. He didn’t have the chance to reach his full potential like Donald Trump or Howard Hughes or Michael Jackson, someone who is going to live out their years to see all the fame.”
Bitter sweet, huh?
I too never questioned the assumption that Michael would not live to at least 70 years of age. Note how Big Tray Dee places Jackson, a black man, with two white tycoons, two of the richest men in America of the last 50 years. For many Black people Jackson was the Great Black Hope – the man who has done what his predecessors could only dream of: attain the money, power and fame previously only awarded to or seized by white men.
My name is Joe Vogel. I left a comment on your blog the other day about my book, Man in the Music: The Definitive Guide to the Songs, Albums, Videos and Creative Life of Michael Jackson. I just wanted to follow up to see if you would be willing to send me your dissertation chapters on Jackson and the Gothic tradition. Or anything about Jackson connected to minstrel shows or freak shows. I've written the chapter on Blood on the Dance Floor, which is where I mostly explore these issues, but I would like to add some more detail and perhaps add some quotes. (By the way, in addition to Jefferson's book, you should check out Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body
It contains a very interesting essay on MJ).
I also thought I would give you and your readers some more information on the book. It is mostly written at this point. I'm just polishing, finishing interviews, doing a bit more research and revision. I've been working closely with the Estate and my agent has a great publishing deal lined up so it will reach a wide audience. The release date will probably be next fall or spring (depending on a few things, including when the new album is released). The book is now around 400-450 pages and all of it is dedicated to in-depth analysis of MJ's work, how it was made, the cultural context, its impact, meaning, etc. It will also feature a Foreword from Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis. My goal was to do some justice to Jackson's genius as an artist, which of course means more than painting him as a one-dimensional hero. But the book is very positive and very sympathetic.
Keep up the good work on your blog. I've found it a nice resource.
Left: The Death of Socrates by Elsie Russell, 1986.
As you might expect there are numerous conspiracy theories (probably zillions of them) about where MJ might 'be' now - if he is not dead in the ground, which I believe he is, by the way. These conspiracy theories always crop up when a famous person dies. They helps us to avoid some truths:
We're all human.
None if us is superhuman, though witnessing great performers or athletes it sometimes feels that way. 3. And we all die.
Admittedly, with MJ being such a fan of Houdini you would not put it passed him to just 'do one' and go into hiding - but I don't think that is what happened in this case.
I wonder if Jackson's death was not altogether unlike that of Marvin Gaye.
As you may recall, Marvin Gaye was shot by his father, Marvin Gaye Snr. an odd man but not a murderer as far as we know. His father was never jailed for shooting his son because it was deemed that Marvin, who was a drug addict and had huge IRS debts, wanted to die but did not have the heart to do it himself. He went on to buy his father a gun (his dad had no interest in owning a gun but his son insisted he keep it). Marvin and Father had a huge row and his dad shot him.
Now, I'm defintely NOT saying that Michael Jackson wanted to die - no, please bear with me here... What I am saying is that he was playing Russian Roulette through the drugs he was using. He could have died at any time. He must have known that, deep down. He was in a co-dependent relationship with Dr Murray, a curious, shady character by all accounts. (There's something about him that puts me in mind of Joseph Jackson. And MJ was constantly looking for surrogate father figures...)
That last rehearsal was said to be 'electric'. I have no doubt it was. Jackson proved to himself, his critics and the film-makers that he had not lost his touch, his jaw-dropping talent. It's only my opinion but at the back of his mind MJ may have realised that if he did die, through an overdose or whatever, it might have some positives. His debts would disappear, his music career would revive, he would not have to go through with the 50 gigs, face the continual pain he was in...
The only catch here is the children. He would not leave them. But it happened.
I don't know how massive amounts of pain killing drugs and anaesthtic affects a mind, especially over many years of use. I do know that MJ was very interested in Socrates. As he told one writer:
"Socrates. You know what he did? He drank the hemlock."
By continuing to take drugs MJ was taking the hemlock. It just did not kill him straightaway.
“An undeniably great performer with Neo-Gothic, dandy proclivities.”
Margo Jefferson, ‘On Michael Jackson’
“…He wasn’t a monster freak whom people could sneer at, or pity from above, or laugh away. [That] he was a scarily pure product of almost two centuries of American entertainment and race traditions, and of mass media global culture with its monster needs and fads…. And that Michael Jackson was a genius and we must never forget that. It’s too easy to patronize and sneer now: the flip side of decades of wonder and worship.”
‘A Conversation with Margo Jefferson’ [in conversation with writer Steven Fulwood]
Lancaster Moor Hospital, near the cemetery. Pic by 'Chewy'. See link to Chewy's posting.
These last two Saturday nights have been like something out of the 'Thriller' video.Last week I was due to meet some friends at a pub a few short miles out of town.I set off in an absolute pea-souper - i.e, really dense fog. It just so happened that I was playing the Blood on the Dancefloor Cd in the car. What should come on but my 'theme' tune - Is It Scary
I always feel emotional when listening to this song - as you will see from my previous posting about how I view this song as Jackson's manifesto for his career and personal life during those tricky 1990's years.
Of course, I was singing along while driving. When I reached my destination, and pulled into the car park, the song drew to its close - you know, those final, operatic cadences. Right on cue. I dimmed the lights, just sat there for a moment, then went to join my friends. It was all rather timely.
Last night, hubby and I took the dog up for a walk in the cemetary (it's flat and quiet and easy to walk round). It was a full moon. My, oh, my, how scary was that? The complete silvery moon scenario illuminating hundreds of Gothic style graves (it's a mainly Victorian cemetary near to a derelict mental asylum). I felt like Orla Ray. Hubby did not turn into MJ, don a red suit and start twitching in the middle of the moonlit pathway... but were those cat's yes he turned on me at the end?! (Shivers).
Judith in Sheffield, 1989, long before Jacko fascination set in!
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About Me
Judith Coyle
Lancaster, Lancashire, United Kingdom
I trained and worked as a journalist but now do writing and editing.
As a hobby/enthusiam I've been researching the history of Black American Showmen since February 2007, latterly with a research group of Senior Learners at Lancaster University, hence this blog. My research encompasses everything from minstrelsy to The Will Mastin Trio to Michael Jackson to Tupac Shakur... but especially Michael Jackson who has totally captured my imagination. Although I am a Jackson fan, this is not a 'fan' site. One of the reasons I started this blog was 'cos I wanted a place to spell out/air my thoughts on MJ and connect with others. On Jackson fan sites it can be impossible to say anything negative about the man while 'hater' sites are an anathema.
"Oh, facts! I hate facts. I tend to find they get in the way of my blinkered opinions." (Or words to that effect.) 
or 
Cd in the car. What should come on but my 'theme' tune - 
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