Another part of... Michael

Multi s-au perindat si s-au gudurat pe langa Michael Jackson de la inceputul carierei sale. Marcel Avram este una din persoanele pentru care Romania ar trebui sa fie recunoscatoare ca s-au aflat in viata lui MJ, pentru ca asa am putut si noi vedea un concert in plina forta si la un inalt profesionalism, asta privind partea tehnica, sa nu mai vorbim de performance-ul si daruirea totala plina de iubire a lui Michael si a tuturor de pe scena - backing vocals, band, dansatori. In orice caz, daca Marcel Avram nu ii sugera sa ajunga si pe la noi (lasam la o parte orice influenta politica, a vremii), nu cred ca stia Michael unde este sau daca exista Romania.

"L-am cunoscut pe Michael Jackson în urmă cu vreo 37 de ani, când el avea 12 ani şi jumătate şi a concertat în Germania cu Jackson Five. Era în 1972. Nu am reuşit să-l aduc în turnee în Europa până în anul 1988. În 1992 l-am adus prima oară la români. Concertul a fost difuzat din Bucureşti prin HBO special, în toată lumea. A doua oară l-am adus în Bucureşti în 1996. Am avut 120 de concerte cu el în toată viaţa mea. Şi nu a existat un concert la care eu să nu fi făcut producţie. Am fost şi producător, şi agent, şi promoter. Managerii s-au mai schimbat în tot acest timp, vreo patru au fost, dar eu am supravieţuit."

"Concertul pe care l-am organizat în 1992 la Bucureşti mi-l amintesc ca şi cum ar fi fost ieri. În timpul pregătirilor îmi era frică pentru că nu ştiam cum o să fie reacţia publicului, nu ştiam cât de bine sunt pregătite forţele de ordine. Am luat cu un avion la Viena 100 de persoane - oameni din Poliţie, de la pompieri, de la presă - numai să vadă cum se organizează acolo un concert. Am adus atunci totul din afară: şi scena, şi toaletele ecologice pe care, de altfel, le-am lăsat în România. Iar când a avut loc concertul, m-a surprins, ca şi cum Bucureştiul era ca orice altă metropolă din lume. Nu mi-a venit să cred: Poliţia a fost OK, reacţia oamenilor a fost extraordinară, spoturile publicitare excelente. Publicul a fost formidabil, reacţia a fost aşa de bună, dacă nu mai bună ca în toate ţările Europei de Vest. Am şi plâns atunci, pentru că România e ţara mea, am fost născut în ţara asta! Nu am luat nici un ban pentru concertul acela, am vrut să fac ceva pentru România. Nici eu, nici Michael nu am câştigat atunci nici un ban."




PARCUL DE JOACĂ JACKSON-AVRAM
"Am stat la un hotel din Bucureşti pentru scurt timp. Într-o zi, când am lăsat piciorul în jos, pe podea, a rămas o gaură, aşa de putredă era. Apoi am stat undeva în afara oraşului, într-un fel de castel, foarte bine, foarte frumos. Am adus bucătar cu noi din Germania. Îmi aduc aminte că la Bucureşti, am deschis împreună cu Michael parcul de joacă pentru o grădiniţă de copii, în apropiere de stadionul de rugby (n.r. - Leagănul de copii Sfânta Ecaterina, care parc azi este în paragină).

"Cum a fost ca om? El a fost un geniu şi, ca orice geniu, era un om tot mereu extrem. Ca orice om, le-a avut şi el pe ale lui, scandalurile nu erau aşa importante pentru el, a fost numai acuzat, n-a rămas nici o dovadă că a abuzat sexual. Divergenţa dintre noi a pornit de la faptul că Michael nu s-a prezentat la două concerte Millenium în Sidney şi Hawaii. L-am dat în judecată. Nici azi nu ştiu de ce nu a venit la acele concerte. El n-a vrut să spună nici în faţa judecătorilor de ce a lipsit. Am câştigat procesul şi am căpătat banii. Mulţi bani. După aceea ne-am reîmprietenit. În urmă cu trei luni ne-am văzut în America, la Los Angeles, în biroul unui producător. Am vorbit despre concertele de la Londra, unde el trebuia să vină în data de 3 iulie pentru a se pregăti pentru concertele care începeau în 13 iulie. I-am spus atunci că dacă are nevoie de ceva, să apeleze la mine, îl ajut ca prieten.

Threatened

Intrand de pe un site pe altul, ca de obicei, am gasit un site dedicat (ma intreb cate alte zeci sau chiar sute or mai fi...?) lui Michael. Iar aici am gasit un interviu acordat revistei Gold, in 2002. Michael vorbeste despre dorinta de a avea o existenta obisnuita, fara istericale, de a "simti ce simt si ei", adica noi, despre ce ar face daca ar fi invizibil si despre bucuria de a fi tata.

Gold Magazine Interview Nov 2002

Michael Jackson Interview To Gold Magazine

GG: Does it ever become a burden to be one of the most recognized stars in the world?
MJ: There's nowhere in the world I can actually go and have privacy. The thing that hurts the most is the fact that your privacy is taken away from you. To use the silly expression, you live in a fishbowl, but it's true. I do disguises... People know them all, it's very hard, very hard.

GG: What kind of disguises?

MJ: Fat suits, buck teeth, glasses, afros, prosthetics, make-up jobs, everything. Just to sit in the audience and experience it the way an audience would experience a show; I want to feel how they feel.

GG: Do they find you out?

MJ: Sometimes, yes. In the beginning, no. Then they start looking me in the eyes. I put these things on and then they start looking behind the glasses... Girls are very smart, you know. You can trick a guy quicker than you can trick a girl. Women can just pick it up. They know the way you move your body, the way you walk, the way you gesture. I hear them go, 'Look at the way he moves his hand', or ' Look at the way he was walking', and I think, ' Oh no.'

GG: If You were invisible for a day in London, what would you do?

MJ: Oh boy. Who would I like to slap? Let me see {laughs]... I think I'd find one of the tabloid paparazzis and kick his ass, moonwalk style. I'd really like to knock them off one of those little scooters they ride around on, I really would, knock the cameras right out of their hands. They're so annoying. I'd go for them first, yeah. They drive you nuts. You can't get away from them. It's terrible.

GG: Who are your favourite people?

MJ: I love people who have really contributed to the pleasure and happiness of the planet and mankind, people with light - from Walt Disney to Ghandi to Edison to Martin Luther King. These are people with light, people who really cared about children, bringing families together, and love. That's what I try to say in my music and in my songs. If you go to one of my concerts, my shows, you will see 200,000 people swaying, holding candles, saying, 'We want to heal the world,' and 'We love you.' I've seen it around the world from Russia to Germany to Poland to Africa to America. We're all the same. People cry in the same places in the show. They get angry in the same places in the show, they get the pathos in the same places.

GG: If you could work with anyone, alive or dead, who would that be?

MJ: If I could work with anybody it would be Charlie Chaplin, who I love so much. Also, Laurence oliver was a genius, really. Those two guys, I think. And also the king, Brando.

GG: You had a cameo in Men In Black II, was that fun to work on?

MJ: The Men In Black project really was a lot of fun because I introduced myself as the new guy.

GG: It was obvious from the video of Thriller that you have a great interest in the visual arts.

MJ: Everything I do I like either to direct myself, or work closely with the director - we co-direct and come up with the ideas together. If you look at Ghosts, it says co-written by Michael Jackson and Stephen King. We wrote it on the telephone, Stephen and I - he's a lovely guy, he's amazing. We wrote it on the phone, just talking together.

GG: Who are the figures in the movie business you most admire, and why?

MJ: I just love Robert De Niro. I think he's such a multi-faceted actor. He can play anything from a comedian to a priest to a psychopathic killer to an idiot to a charming uncle to just anything. And of course, any of the great dancers.

GG: Who would be your ideal leading lady, and why?

MJ: An actress? {laughs} You and I should do a film together. Let's do it, I'd love that...

GG: There was talk of you going to the moon to perform an authentic moonwalk here. Is there any truth in this?

MJ: {laughs} There is some truth in it. It's not a rumour. I'll just say that.

GG: If one of your children came to you and said, 'Dad, I want to be a pop star,' what's the best advise you could give them?

MJ: The best advise that I would give them is it's a lot of hard work, and be prepared, because it's not all joy all the time. And that you've got to have rhinoceros skin, because the bigger the star, the bigger the target. The tabloid press are bastards, and you've got to have rhinoceros skin to deal with that kind of ignorance mentality. They do it simply to sell papers, because bad news sell, not good news. They simply make it up. If they don't have anything, they just make it up. I'm nothing like the way the tabloids have painted me out to be, nothing. Nothing like that. they're the ones who are crazy. They're ignorant. I always say to my fans 'Let's have a tabloid burning. Let's make a big mountain out of tabloids and just burn them.' The real fans who love me know that garbage isn't true. They know. They're smart.

GG: Have you always wanted to do film? If your family had not been such successful musicians, would you have turned to it earlier in your life?

MJ: I've always wanted to do film, but the tours got in the way. That's why I want to take several years off just doing film. I'd like to get six great movies behind me, and then I'll do a little bit of touring, then I'll do more filming.

GG: What kind of ideas do you have for film?

MJ: I have ideas for film and movement and dance and things that people have never seen. I can't wait to just surprise people. That's why I've been dying to start a film production company, and I'm very excited that that's what we're doing with Neverland Pictures. I get to just have a clean slate and play and create and sculpt.

GG: Tell me a little bit about the werewolf idea in your films, and how does it relate to video?

MJ: I haven't read the script yet for Wolfed - it's one of the movies that we're going to be making and I'm really excited about it. I'm so happy to be working with Sammy Lee {the co-writer of Music Box, who recently acquired 'first look' rights to Jackson's films}. We're doing some great projects together in film, and I'm really excited.

GG: And Wolfed will be the first film?

MJ: As of now, our schedule says that Wolfed will be the first film. that's going to be fun. I want it to be really scary. Rick Baker wants to do all the visual effects. He has seven Academy awards. Rick is very excited about it too - he did American Werewolf in London. He won an Oscar, and he said, 'Michael, that was nothing.' That's nothing compared to what he can do today. And he did Thriller and he said of that, 'It's nothing'. He can go way beyond that. He did all the Eddie Murphy films, Clumps and Nutty Professor and all that Men In Black stuff too. He does all that.

GG: So tell me how you would like to be remembered?

MJ: How would I like to be remembered? As a person who came and brought light to the world, some escapism. Also as the voice for the voiceless children, because I love them. I'm living for the children. If it weren't for the kids, I would throw in the towel. A baby, a child - now that's amazing. They're little geniuses, you know, little geniuses. They really are.

GG: Do you enjoy being a father?

MJ: It's my favourite thing. I love it. I love it. I love it.

GG: The other day I saw you pick up your daughter when she was sleeping. You just picked her up, and I could see the joy in your face...

MJ: Oh, I love them. The Jacksons have a lot of kids. I have a lot of nephews and nieces. There's a lot of us!

GG: What is your relationship with your brothers and sisters?

MJ: I love my brothers and sisters. When I'm with them we laugh. It's like a different version of yourself. We can just laugh and giggle and talk about old times. We're not together as much as we'd like to be. We're all busy. We're all in showbusiness. We're always doing something. If I'm in town, Janet's out of town. If we're both here, my brother's somewhere else. Everybody's running around, you know.

GG: Are you a family man? What do you like doing with your family?

MJ: My personal family? My Children? We love just sitting together, talking, shooting the breeze. We sit by the lake. I take them for a walk every day at my house. We sit by the lake and we throw rocks in the water and we just talk.

GG: What do you think is the deepest form of love someone can feel? And have you felt it?

MJ: Wow, I think that's really a matter of opinion. Have I felt the deepest form of love? I don't know what would be the deepest... {long pause} an interesting question... {repeats question a few times}. I love my children very, very much, and I always look in their eyes and tell them that - I think that's the most important thing.

P.S. weekend-ul asta este Michael Jackson weekend la MTV. Vizionare placuta!