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June 26, 2009

The death of Captain Eo

Yes, Michael Jackson was arrested and charged with child molestation but then he cared about love and peace and he loved children, etc. so all cultures are beautiful and it's all relative, right? Let he who voted for Obama cast the first stone.* One can only imagine the pain of Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II this morning or, indeed, most mornings.

Leading up to a much anticipated London concert series, Peter Conrad discussed Michael Jackson's freaky talent. I believe the following captures much of Jackson's brio and the genesis of Jackson's weltschmerz.

After "Thriller" he appeared in Captain Eo, a film Coppola directed for the custom-built cinemas at Disney's theme parks. Here Jackson commands a spaceship whose crew includes a bicephalous navigator, a pair of cybernauts and a shipmate with an elephant's trunk; clad in shining white like a Tennysonian knight of the Grail, he has a mission to disseminate peace. How can you play both a fanged demon marauding through the jungle and a saviour descended from the starry heights without puzzling over who or what you really are?

How often have I asked myself the same question? Without further ado: A Michael Jackson video you may not have seen umpteen times.

* I was probably the only person who thought that was funny the first time I wrote it.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at June 26, 2009 06:58 AM