the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright creepy (king of pop week at m21, part 4)

we've had one last post to do about our visit to the world's creepiest yard sale (also known as the exhibition of furnishings and memorabilia from michael jackson's neverland estate), and we've been putting it off for almost a week. why? because what we have left to post kinda freaks us out, and some it is just too disturbing to be funny- the kajillions of statues and paintings of children, and the acres and acres of video and arcade games, all show a man with a creepy obsession with childhood, and that's deeply bothersome. whether or not you believe the allegations that swirl around MJ, the fetishization of childhood innocence by a grown man is just kinda gross. no matter how bad one's childhood was, it can't be fixed by trying to reclaim a second childhood as an adult. looking at the world with childlike wonder is one thing, living out a childhood fantasy life as an adult, is another.

almost as disturbing as all the child imagery and games, are the many, many lifesize latex figures that populated the show- some of children but most of adults, and again they speak of a very troubled man- maybe someone who thinks that dealing with a doll is easier than dealing with actual people (shades of lars and the real girl, but without the comedy, just the pathos).

so we knew in advance to expect tons of bronze "children playing" statues, but we were actually shocked at how many of them there actually were...

creepy and poorly executed- are these children? midgets? troll babies?

and more inside...

so many of these statues suffer from some weird big-head disease

tons of these kitschy pseudo-nostalgic photo/paintings of children- ick.

room after room of video and arcade games. we won't bore you with them all.

why would a grown man have a mighty morphin power ranger costume? have you ever watched an episode? if you are not a 7 year old boy, it is excruciating...

this jacket covered in children's names struck us as particularly inappropriate.

creepy clown doll number one

and two

the lady from murder she wrote?

soooo creepy. carrot top as a child?

the boogey man...

the stuff of which nightmares are made...

what ever happened to baby jane? eeeek!

ok- that's all. we are done with neverland for ever. excuse us while we go take a silkwood shower...

the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright creepy (king of pop week at m21, part 3)

in our first post about the michael jackson exhibit, we remarked that perhaps they should have sold DSM's at the admission booth (um, folding table), not auction catalogs. one of our favorite commenters, tracy, wondered what a real mental heath professional would say if they toured the exhibit. luckily enough, in addition to being the world's foremost interior decorator, maison21 is a fully licensed doctor of the internets, able to effectively diagnose all physical and mental disorders via the magic of the interwebs (he has successfully diagnosed himself with everything from lyme's disease to parkinson's. unfortunately medical technology has not advanced to the point where tests are able to back up dr. m21's diagnoses, but we are sure given time, the technology will catch up to our genius).

so in today's episode of the king of pop week here at m21, "the ugly", we are going to talk about MJ from a mental health standpoint, most notably dr. maison21's diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. according to the DSM, it takes at least 5 of the following to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special"
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

god, that sounds like LOTS of people we know actually, (including ourselves)! you've gotta think you are pretty nifty if your every thought is special enough to blog it, FB it or twitter it, right? (self-reflection is such a bitch, but please, follow us on twitter to find out more!) ;-) the only thing that gives m21 any consolation is he just has the one blog as his outlet of self-admiration- if MJ were a blogger, he'd have like a kajillion: "the king of pop blog", "the best of the king of pop blog", the "moonwalkin' with MJ!" blog, the "MJ really loves the all the little childrens of the world- really!" blog, the "MJ is such a giver- 'cept when he's shoppin' for himself" blog, etc. repeat, ad nauseum...

as usual, we digress, so let's get down to business, shall we? one of the more self-indulgent aspects about the exhibit was the many rooms devoted to MJ memorabilia. now we understand documenting one's career- we do it ourselves, often on this very blog (god there we go again, having stuff in common with MJ. somebody call our therapist, k?). while some of the stuff was pretty legit (the glove, tour costumes, etc.), some was definitely in the wtf? category- like walls and walls covered with cheap-looking plaques made of cd's and foamcore with bogus titles like "outstanding artist award" and "artist achievement award". it also looked as if anytime MJ traveled, someone from his record label would call the local office and scream "break out the hot-glue gun, MJ is comin' for a visit, and you know how he whines if he doesn't get an award. remember- keep it shiny!". one imagines a VP in charge of MJ ass-kissery:


here's a piece of memorabilia we thought kinda encapsulated the whole darn grandiosity complex in a nutshell- a royal robe as befits his outsize sense of self-importance and obsession with being some sort of royalty (we imagine him wearing it to breakfast):
but look up close- velvet and ermine? hardly. more like velour and cheap, tatty hooker fur.

a theme running through MJ's art collection is his view of being a savior to the children of the world. somehow we're missing the logic that backs that up- commissioning a garish painting or 8 foot wide bronze sculpture isn't quite the same as building a children's hospital, or providing money for wells with clean drinking water, or even buying mosquito nets because you've reached one million followers on twitter...
the pied-piper imagery of these works is a bit disturbing too, after the allegations following MJ over the years. somehow, we know he doesn't get the irony...

image via decider

this sculpture is about 6 - 8 feet wide depicting a bare chested MJ (creepy) and dozens of individually sculpted "children of the world". we shudder at the cost to commission this, and also shudder at the self-involvement to do so- if the sculpture was really about the children of the world, like we said- it would be a hospital in an impoverished country.

we thought this 3 foot wide photo perhaps caught a defining moment and cultural shift in american life, and marked our descent into the celebrity-driven, reality-tv obsessed, state of unreality we find ourselves in today: an actor portraying a president, giving an official audience to a pop star playing a king (in sequins, no less). we LOVE it, and in the unreality version of our future, we hope to buy it to hang next to our jeff koons and warhol!

speaking of playing king, there must have been a good dozen large scale paintings of MJ as royalty. some of them actually bordered on cool, but really, even if you have all the money in the world, one would be sufficient, dontchathink?


this one was beyond beyond in the narcissist sweepstakes- a royal triptych, with a self penned poem! fantabulous. you'll want to click on it to fully grasp the profundity of the poem, but allow us to quote one stanza:

i am the dewdrop,
the sunshine,
the storm...

that's it! were changing the name of our blog to: maison21: i am the dewdrop...

this hot mess of a painting was our favorite- once again, you'll have to click to see in it's full beauty, but m21 will try to summarize: we believe it depicts MJ as the inventor of spaceflight (the space shuttle launching in the lower right hand corner, as well as what appears to be a fierce space battle waging over his right shoulder); he is also savior of the endangered earth, represented by the macaw and the monkey family. the rest of it, we can't figure out- the japanese angel-baby shooting death rays with it's eyes at the monkey; jesus appearing to pop out of MJ's boot; and a circa-white diamonds era liz, sitting on Mj's foot (next to jesus, natch). oh, yeah, if you look carefully, the king tut harp appears to be making an appearance in the background. genius.
not to get all heavy on you guys, but m21 felt pretty sad for this man after seeing some of his stuff- obviously there were huge voids in his life that he tried to fill with things, and a self-image he tried to bolster with trappings of grandeur- but somewhere it seems, a line was crossed into madness. maybe because he became so isolated no one would him let him know he crossed the line, or maybe he just went nuts (it happens. a lot). but still, it was all a bit wasteful and sad.

what do y'all think? is dr. maison21 correct in his diagnosis? or is dr. m21 too self-involved to be an impartial judge? ('cuz, yu know, like our opinion of MJ's psyche matters).

next, (and last) in our series to follow: the downright creepy!

the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright creepy (king of pop week at m21, part 2)

our first post about the exhibition of decor and memorabilia from michael jackson's neverland estate was pretty easy- we selected the few items that didn't skeeve us out, and posted them as "the good". took about 5 minutes. today's post on "the bad" portion of his home decor collection was tougher- as it was almost all bad, from mildly so, to "dude, are you freakin' kidding me"? what killed us most, is the majority of these furnishings looked to have been purchased by an elderly woman, not a man who was once the most successful entertainer in the world. maybe great-grandma jackson was his designer...

this giant marble clock with life-sized maidens greeted you as you entered the exhibition. like most things displayed, we couldn't help thinking,"why?" it obviously cost tons o' $$, but is so durn fugly, why would anyone bother? for a minute, we wondered if it was perhaps a jeff koons parody- a grandma mantle clock blown-up to gargantuan proportions to highlight it's ironicism as a kitschy object turned into high art. but no- it's just a big ugly, expensive, grandma clock.

so you have all the money in the world, yet you choose to buy a vaguely "oriental" furniture suite straight out of a san gabriel valley warehouse furniture store? (we know, not PC, but that's how they are advertised. really). yuck. tip to ANYONE think of buying a "suite" of anything- don't. suites are good only at the four seasons or the plaza, never for furniture. also, please note the lifesized butler statue- more on that when we cover "the creepy".

more gram-tastic furniture- a victorian renaissance revival mirror and a clunky brown wood american cabinet- both bad reproductions, we bet. lets not start about the clock- hid-e-ous.

some items made me smile, they were so gaudy- like this giant king tut harp. wtf? do you think he had a servant dressed as an egyptian slave play it at parties? at least as campy performance art, we could get behind the expense of the darn thing.
what grown man would have not one, but TWO 3 foot wide statues of cinderella's carriage? one lladro ceramic, and the other bronze. again the expense and the waste boggles the mind, and since these things were purchased years and years ago, you really have to wonder why a man not yet in middle-age would be compelled to buy lladro? isn't there an ironclad rule that one must be an elderly woman to qualify to purchase lladro? oh well, we guess it just shows how all celebrities think they are above the rules, even the sacred "gramma's only" lladro rule. ;-)

speaking of gramma's, note the below sofa. seriously, m21's own grandmother had chicer stuff than that, and she wasn't a gazillionaire (remember, all of these items were purchased pre-financial meltdown).

more yucky brown wood "americana" furniture. neverland was supposedly modeled after the happiest place on earth, but it's furnishings were anything but happy. positively dreary for the most part.

last, you are a multi-millionaire, one of the most successful pop entertainers ever, and you have the money to indulge your every whim- so you buy yourself a freakin' leather lazy boy chair? really? at least the king tut harp was one of a kind...
next installment- "the ugly", because yes, it gets worse...

the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright creepy (king of pop week at m21!)

as you all might know, maison21 spent a couple hours last week perusing the the contents of michael jackson's neverland estate. the auction, scheduled for this week but unfortunately auction was canceled. we still don't understand WHY it was called off- we know MJ sued to stop it, but it sure looked to us as if he must have been cooperating with the auction house at some point. oh well, another bizarre twist in his bizarre story.

the location couldn't have been more fitting for the event- an abandoned robinson's-may department store, awaiting demolition to be turned into luxury condos and a boutique hotel (you, know, 'cuz we rully need more of those). the sense of dilapidation and decay- weed and pothole filled parking lot, leading to a rundown courtyard filled with the massive collection of life sized bronze "children playing" statues- set the tone for what might have been billed as the creepiest garage sale of all time. we don't know if it was just our preconceptions going into the exhibit or not, but the smell of remorse, mental illness and moral decay was almost palpable. we felt like DSM manuals, not auction catalogs should be offered for sale upon entry! the actual 5 catalog boxed set was for sale on site- for 200 bucks, twice the price it was before the auction was canceled! (not that we really wanted a set anymore after actually viewing the estate's contents- yuck).

we took hundreds of pictures- literally- and have whittled them down to about 50 (the abysmal splendor of it all made the cuts difficult ;-). we're unsure how to separate them into individual posts either, so we've kind of randomly divided them into the "the good","the bad", "the ugly" and "the downright creepy". no easy task to categorize, as while it was easy to select the good (not so much of that), so much of the rest combined "bad, ugly and creepy" all into one sick package, so just roll with us on our justifications, k?
first of all, let's get "the good" out of the way- by far the best thing was the graphic design of the exhibition- lots of crisp black and gold graphics with giant back-lit scrims, emblazoned with photos of MJ in his prime. the central area of the exhibit was near pitch black, with spotlit memorabilia and a blasting jumbo screen of MJ video clips. it served as an effective reminder of why the "king of pop" (oy) ever deserved the public's attention to begin with. at one point, before he devolved into a creepy celebrity caricature, he was an incredibly charismatic performer, and the early music still stands up- we've been humming past hits ever since (we've always wondered though, if the quality of the his late 70's- early 80's music owed more to quincy jones than to michael himself).above, one of the well-designed backdrops, and also an illustration of how hard it is to categorize any of our photos, as in front of the backdrop sits the worlds largest franklin mint dungeons and dragons chess set. that set pretty much underscores the running theme of the exhibit- bad taste & too much money, combined with ego run amok. we can't imagine how much the gaudy monstrosity cost, and why anyone would feel the need to spend so much $$$ on something so not well done...
more scrims, and of course the glove. love it or hate it, it is an icon of pop culture. now here's where things get a little easier- picking out the the two or three things we actually liked from the crazy mish-mosh of MJ's possessions. you know we wanted to bid on this gilt rooster, and if it had sold at it's pre-auction estimate of $100-$200, we would have been thrilled to get it (though it's a bit gaudier in person then we had hoped- surprise, surprise!). and who doesn't like a 1970's ram's head table? maison21 has sold a few over the years himself (scary though, to think our taste and MJ's have anything in common).

MJ rams:

m21 rams:

one of the striking things about the exhibit is all the larger than life paintings of MJ. some appear to be amateur fan tributes, but lot were obviously commissioned. this black and white number reminds us of a longo, so graphically it's kinda cool. still, who wants a 6 foot portrait of themselves hanging in their home? such ego and hubris- an unchecked grandiosity/narcissistic complex, to be sure (told ya a DSM would be handy).
last we liked this pair of empire style etageres- gaudy, yes but pretty dramatic too, and in the right space, they could rock. we're quite sure that neverland was not that right space and you will be too when post our next installment of "king of pop week", "the bad", featuring some incredibly fugly furnishings. check back tomorrow!