Death is just another state

It took a while for this new blog entry - sorry people, I was busy with other difficulties. Now, after four weeks, I am back and kicking on the new madness that has come to town.





The news of this month (or let's better say of the end of last month) is clearly the death of one of the greatest artists and musicians of the last century: Michael Jackson. Now, to me the news came just as shocking as to everyone - even though I must admit that I thought about this day some years ago already. I never thought that he would really grow old, because for that his life was just too crazy, too much of ups and downs and way to excessive (and I am not talking about the drugs in this part!). Having a life that is full of highs and lows, full of being celebrated and then pulled down to the lowest low possible makes you start to feel weak, it makes your life miserable. And with that you realise that you will not really grow old and grey, because there is too much stress involved, too much of a maximum of feelings that make your heart beat faster. From how I see Michael Jackson's life (and I admit, I can only see it from a distance!), his heart was beating way too fast with way too much of stress, pressure and the feeling of not being accepted at all.

Right now, it is a fight going on between the black community and the rest of the world. While the black community didn't really give a good lord on Michael Jackson in the past 5 or even 10 years, they now show up calling Michael "our black man". And of course, the press has a hugh laugh on that, comedians and all those that hated him laugh about this as Michael got his skin bleached (well yeah, it is a skin disease according to him... whoever still believes that!) and now he is all of a sudden the "black bro" again? The man that got nose jobs made several times and looked in the end so far away from being black that you would rather call an albino tanned? Nevermind! I don't want to sound as if I am making fun of Michael, because in fact, I am not.

I am not judging him on the trial against him (which was the only really big news at the last part of his life) or how many nose jobs he really had made on him. To me it is more than ever about the artist Michael Jackson (and thank God, people start talking now more about his music again!). To me, Michael is a musical role model, who wouldn't dream about becoming a megaselling artist with ideas that no one had before and which get copied a million times, still not without the success of the original? On the other hand you start to think: would you really want fame at all? How much fame is healthy and how much is just so sick that it drives you insane?

From my not so long life so far I can say that there were several phases when I had at least some fame - not a "to die for million dollar earning" fame as Michael had, but I was popular and easily pulled everyone's attention. The moments when you step in somewhere and you got everyone's head turning, bringing up a smile to their faces and the desperate will of them to be just as genius as you are. Okay, I admit, I still got that, not the point I am talking about right now. But sometimes, attention just becomes too much and that is when you start to fall apart. When people start to expect your genius mind to work, you know what happens? The genius mind just packs it's bag and heads to the time clock! "No more good ideas coming from my side, you wanted the fame, now make something up yourself...." And of course, you are just insane enough to believe, you could actually do without it! Especially because everyone still feels so flattered being around you.

Well, somehow it must have been like that for Michael. I guess, his genius mind took him to levels that 95% of us will never achieve - and then it got stubborn, out of too much attention and too much fame, too many people dying to meet him and get a tiny crumb of what was the madness around Jackson's creativity. Didn't he feel with the years like superman? Well, let's better say he felt like Peter Pan, since that was his role model character. But he just felt as if he could beat them all, he felt immortal, not possible to get damaged or hurt. And of course (like in every really sucked up fairytale) people know how to destroy this way of thinking. So the stories start: what is his sexual orientation? Did he bleach his skin? And later on (as the success faded out) they asked a million times whether Michael was bankrupt or not.

So in the end Michael had only two choices: leave everything behind and start off afresh or fight by proving his genius mind. He took the second choice and let's be honest: he couldn't have chosen the first choice! Because from his level of fame, how could he have gone into the world of becoming "Mr. Nobody", when actually he was and will always be "Michael Jackson Superstar"? It wasn't possible.

And still: when he announced the 50 concerts that should have been taking place in London, I already knew they would never happen. Sometimes I think I get visions (but not in a crazy way!)... cause it is usually right what I think, may it be concerned within myself or others. Or have we all in the end sensed this? That the concerts would never happen and that he would die? The cause of his death gives now room for a lot of frenzied speculation. Was it an overdose? Or just a wrong medication? Too many painkillers? We will find out sooner or later, that is for sure. But I cannot help myself (and this might sound sarcastic, but hey: I am fluent in talking sarcasm, so don't be surprised!), somehow I am happy for Michael. He got to a better place, without growing old, without seeing his kids gratuating (that is really sad!), but in the end gone off to a better state. You'll say now that only a truly depressed nature can write something like that - wrong! I am just being realistic.

Death itself is a better state. At least it is not worse than life. Not that I am longing for death (nor should anyone else, even when you might think of it in weak hours!), the thing is that the mind, the soul, never dies. That is really immortal, like Michael always thought he'd be. He thought he was Peter Pan? Well, somehow now he is. His music and the legend of his at times crazy, outstanding life and at times tragical life will remain in all of our hearts and heads. And his own legacy, the personal mind that nobody but him knew? That has now moved on to a better place - without pain or humiliation. No questions about what he looks like when he takes a glimpse in the mirror, no questions about if he is good enough, if he is really loved by his family or friends and fans. It is just him and all he ever wanted to be but with the boundaries of being trapped in his body. He has cut lose. In a tragical way I admit, but that way he even succeeded in one more thing: he is now on the same level as Elvis!

The legends that rise and fall... or that maybe just rised in their lifes to fall very very deep. Michael is in the end yet another good example for one simple truth: as soon as you get born, you have to struggle your way through, fight to win with a lot of effort very very small pieces. And with that you can only win - or completely lose everything that was important to you. Now when that happens, it is only a question of will power to stand up again and fight again - or lay down and die. Sometimes you also die while fighting for your life, but at least you show that you never give up.

A good lesson to be learned by the "King of Pop": he never stopped fighting, even if that costed his life in the end!

Contributing with two of his best videos (at least they are my favourites ;-)):










PS: The video "Thriller" is not included in this even though I find this video just insanly great - but when people talk about Michael Jackson lately, they only talk about "Thriller" being the most successful album of all time. So I decided to skip that for this entry.

Have a nice weekend, everyone! - Gene :-)

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen...

to the english version of my very own blog. You wanna know what it is about? Well, actually - it is about everything, yet nothing.

It is a little bit about my side of town, my view to things that happened, happen, will happen, shouldn't have happened or can happen in a better way. Politics, society, a little critism and never too less of humor. That is my blog - and you all are invited to follow and comment what moves me - and maybe you as well :-)

Barbecue Solace in slices...

The past few weeks were pretty full of excitements - at least when you have a look at the news. One's own experiences and happenings always seem so much boring compared to those on the news. The news on TV are always much more full of colours, brightness and at the same time dramatic and ridiculously irrelevant. But these are bundled happenings, from all around the world and happening to so many different people that one as individual can never compete with that. And to be frank: who would want to watch the news of one single person? What would those be about anyways? One's digestion? Or why it is more useful to that person to turn left instead of right on their way out of the house to work? Everyone would maybe listen to it and think at the same moment: who cares? Simply cause it doesn't make sense at all! It is purely of no interest if you know about a person's life in every detail that you never wanted to know. And that is not just when you think about someone "mortal" - even when you think about a VIP .... who wants to know Barack Obama's digestion? People want to know how is political actions change the world, the more surface amongst us want to know what Michelle wears at the next official party where both attempt. But digestion? People hardly care for their own, why care about someone else's? Why want to know how someone managed to get up at 5 am instead of 7 am? You see, actually it is quite uninteresting and everyone knows it. At least people working for TV know it...

Soon as we start to look around on the internet, it seems that things get a lot more trivial, a lot more inconsequential... and actually, most of the time they're even a little embarrasing. By now there are so many people on the internet that don't just come around with a certain philosophy or opinion that might be full of information or maybe good in an artistically kind of way, no! It is all about telling their friends, family and strangers what they would never ever tell anyone in real life. How it works? Via blogging, using Twitter, using different communities - the triviality of the internet blows up boundaries and takes to endless widenesses, those you didn't even know existed behind those widenesses that you only guess might be there. By now there's no information not being posted, no photo that is not being uploaded etc... On TV the only question might be "What does the viewer want to see?"

On the internet however, the question is not what users want to see, the question is "What am I willing to show to inform people I know or don't know?" Because that is the only boundary on the internet: one's will to expose and at the same time one's prudery when people feel their "privatesphere" might get damaged. That is the point of no return, the point, when man turns his back on expression and walks right in the loving arms of privacy.

The only problem: mostly it is too late on the internet when people decide not to show more. The www has some unique laws, which the user THINKS he knows and can control. But pretty soon the one that loves to express becomes a "slave of information" stuck tightly in the claws of his own race to catch "15 minutes of fame". Because the written word has one perfidy: it tempts to garrulity. Soon as we start to write, the gate that takes action certainly when we speak, falls down: restraint. Restraint not to say those things that we just think. Soon as we write, we only think, we hardly speak, while we type words. That is why, users of blogspots and "Twitter" tempt to say, what he thinks - without that certain gate that would keep him from showing thoughts that would never be for millions of listeners in real life. Of course the chances are close to zero that the wrong people read your thoughts on Twitter. Or that one thing you wrote at a certain time might be a doom in one's real life future.

You can compare what you write on the internet with the action when you go to confession. You want to entrust someone with things that lie heavy on your heart - and different than talking to a friend to someone that hardly objects against you. The internet user writes down all his sorrows, his passions, his lust, dreams and desires, his rage and his guilt and thinks of relief in that same moment. Because (as you remember) you write down what you think instead of telling something and hide other things, as you don't speak as much as you think. Because in most cases, people would feel too ashamed to tell certain things. The problem is when you go to confession on the internet, the confession rests there! Right in front of millions of viewers and readers, who can read everything you wrote every time of the day, seven days a week, 52 weeks per year. And even, if you decide to "delete" your entries, some things always rest on the internet. A person in real life might disappear without a trace - but a virtual information on the internet never disappears again as soon as it is in public. So instead of praying 20 "Our Father" and forget about your confessions, it rests right in front of you and can always used against you under every circumstance. Welcome to "Judge Judy"!

News on TV and newspapers work kind of in the same way - as soon as some infos are printed or telecasted, it is impossible to ever undo what has been said or written. No matter what and no matter how far you think a certain news might be away - be sure: people will remember it! Don't matter if it has been just a small news, something trivial, totally of no importance - as soon as there's a heading news coming your way, this small event will be found again. Even if they have to come up with it out of the cellar, pull it into the daylight and slaughter it till it's the death of all news.

Back to start: the past weeks? As I said, from my side less till nothing (even if there was something important: there are enough weird people talking about their intimate stuff on the internet, I let those people go ahead!). On the newsfront on TV there's quite a lot that has been talked about: 60 years of German Constitution, Elections in Europe, car company "Opel" in the dept of the financial crisis (and with that Germany's young and dynamic 37 year old minister of economic affaires who tries to act mature and solve all problems of the financial crisis in Germany). In the US? Not really a better situation: GM is down, down and down, Obama wants to shut down Guantanamo, which was already known, but then he couldn't do it to be now on the "Yes we can!"-front again and now it might be that maybe Guantanamo will be closed.

But one news beats it all! All the worries about keeping your job, losing your job, worries about financial shortage, this news even beats the devil, death and all commercials combined: summer! it finally arrived! And especially as the next weekend is round the corner, people dream of barbecuing and sunshine - simply let flesh (your own and that of your steak) turn nicely brown and black (but only a little, everything else is bad for your health!).

And the barbecue madness knows no tomorrow and no limit. No matter when you turn on your TV, the early morning shows or the late news after midnight... everyone talks about the best way to invite all your friends to a fun barbecue time. At least once people on the news need to mention the word "barbecue". It is like a duty these days - "barbecue weather" "barbecue party" "barbecue mood"... maybe you will find in a good bookstore near you a dictionary with every existing word in addition with the word "barbecue". After that simply every word will start with "barbecue". From A as "barbecue a-bomb" till Z as "barbecue z-axis". Of course, the dictionary is not from A to Z. Actually it is from "Barbecue" to "Barbecue", but whatever follows after barbecue has a strict order like in normal dictionaries. There will be just a few expressions excluded from the "Barbecue"-Dictionary for quite logical reasons: Cancer, Arterioslerosis and fire victims.

Where years ago you heard almost everywhere warnings not to do barbecues because they are bad for health, talking about cancer risks ... all that is left today is silence. Nothing. It seems like all doubts in barbecuing with charcoal are gone. As experts suggested barbecue with electrical grill, people still stick to the charcoal variety: black, smokey and really unhealthy.

Maybe people are one step ahead of politicians: when there's a problem, just let it go up in smoke, the consequences don't matter to them. No matter if barbecues with charcoal are bad for health and environment, it doesn't matter, we live in the here and now. And what should the politicians do now about companies like GM and Opel? Right - let them all go up in smoke! What do we care about other people's jobs or if they lose them or not? We matter, we want the meat, and we want it now - and we don't want to invest or hard earned money in companies that are ruined! What would we have if we try to do everything not to let this financial crisis get worse? As people might remember, the crash of the Titanic with the iceberg would have never been so bad if the Titanic had collided with the iceberg straight up instead of trying to avoid colliding with it. So if companies are in a crisis, they should just go for insolvency. Because there's nothing much going to happen - a few jobs get eliminated, alright. But at least we don't have to pay with our hard earned money for some manager's mischief. Love live man's egoism!

According to the title of this blog I promised "solace". And where exactly was solace in this whole entry? Maybe the only solace in here is that you can do almost everything wrong, but at the same time everything right. Only thing that matters is: "Be active!" Only when you move you can achieve. And even if moving means having a too big mouth at times.

Thank you for your attention, everyone! Have a great rest of the week! ;-)