Michael Jackson and Pictures from the Estate Auction

Just please forgive the source. I found this blog recently while looking around at Michael Jackson-related things. The blog is filled with wannabe-'pithy' comments about the contents. Yes, I realise that it's tough to keep your tongue out of your cheek when looking at these pictures, but...

Well, let me finish that sentence in a second. Before his death, it was often said that Michael Jackson's planned 'This is It' concerts were designed to get him out of the dire financial straits he had found himself in. To that end, just a few months before his death there was talk of Neverland's assets being seized and auctioned off. The auction was cancelled; it never happened. But the items were put on display, and this blog is, at heart, a collection of photographs of the material on display.

Much of it is tacky as hell, and features Michael Jackson. What I think bears mentioning, though, is that the vast majority of these are likely to have been made by fans and given to him, unsolicited. So it's not that Michael Jackson said, "I think I'll have someone paint a picture of me with the Mona Lisa, George Washington and E.T." so much as some misguided soul painted it and gave it to him, and he didn't have the heart to throw it out. Neverland is a large place: plenty of room for storage. The pieces could also have had sentimental value attached to the circumstances of his acquisition: a gift by a visitor to Neverland, some person who had touched him or made him feel good in some way. A memento, not an example of a commitment to crass kitsch, as I believe the blogger suggests.

But it does go without saying that much of this stuff is hideous, and in no real way represents Michael Jackson. It's just another example of the head-shaking 'junk lifestyle' aspect of Michael Jackson's public image that has managed to build around him over the years and will now, hopefully, start to fade away.

The link for the blog I am discussing: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/04/17/goodbye-brain-sorry-i-accidentally-exploded-you