Did MJ Really Die? No, Seriously…Did He?

Thursday, 9 July, 2009 - 2 Responses

Firstly, I wish to say that my views are of absolutely no significance whatsoever, so please take them with a pinch of salt.

I know many are still grieving over his death, but somehow I found myself being unable to feel a whole lot of genuine grief over MJ’s death because a large part of me is beginning to suspect that he didn’t really die after all.

Look, I’m a huge MJ fan myself, and have been a fan ever since I was a little boy…so I’m not saying all this to intentionally offend MJ fans out there.

Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and suspicions, and a large part of me really suspects that MJ didn’t really die on 25th June 2009.

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but I think this one really has legs.

I will not give my full thoughts here, cos I think some of them are very sensitive in nature.

I’ll just state a few of the facts, and you can draw your own conclusions.

(I’ve got lots more stuff, but I would rather keep them to myself for now.)

50 Concerts

MJ’s 50-concert run was scheduled to begin on 13th July, which is next Monday.

Did anyone really think MJ would have been able to pull off a string of 50 concerts? At 50 years of age?

When I first heard the news that the initial 10-concert run was extended to 50, I had a shock. My first reaction was “How is he going to pull it off?”

I have my doubts as to whether it was to have happened at all. But I guess we will never know.

50 concerts does seem like quite a stretch for a 50 year old MJ.

I mean, it’s not as if he were terribly ill…but asking a 50 year old guy to do a string of 50 explosive, high-impact concerts is a bit too much don’t you think?

Rehearsal Video

The video footage of MJ’s rehearsal just 2 days before his untimely death was released recently.

(How convenient that it was captured on “multi-camera, high-definition video and multi-track audio”.)

It shows a healthy-looking MJ going through his dance moves.

I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t seem to me like a person who is about to pass on due to cardiac arrest in two days’ time, does it?

He Was In Good Health

To quote from an LA Times article (here):

“In order for concert promoters to get insurance for the concerts, which were scheduled to begin July 13, Jackson underwent a four-hour physical in Los Angele this spring with an independent doctor flown in from New York.

Rand Phillips, the chief executive officer of promoter AEG Live, said in an interview last month that the medical screening uncovered “no issues whatsoever.”

“He declared him healthy,” Phillips said. “His cholesterol level is better than mine.””

As you can see, MJ was recently given a clean bill of health after passing a four-hour physical, which is understandable cos he was going to perform a whole string of concerts and his promoters had to be very sure that he would have the health to deliver the performances.

So it’s not as if he was suffering from some major illness or condition prior to his reported death.

Official Cause of Death

Do you know what MJ’s official cause of death is?

Well, as of now, the official cause of MJ’s death, as stated on his death certificate, is “Deferred”.

London Appearance – Imposter?

This may or may not be relevant to the issue at hand, but there has been talk that the person who went up on stage to do the press conference in London a few months back wasn’t really MJ.

And if you study the footage carefully, you might actually find a number of clues which suggest that this might be true.

I’m now pretty certain it was NOT him.

What could this all imply?

Well, for one, it could imply that it’s hard to tell who the real MJ is nowadays…and that it might be easy to impersonate him.

Think about that for a moment.

Debt

At the point of his reported death, MJ owed at least $400 million to various financial institutions. Sources (here) and (here).

The Memorial

I don’t want to go into the details here, but let’s just say a lot of my questions have to do with the coffin and the fact that no one seems to have seen the body since MJ’s death.

And also, some of the speeches that were made seemed a bit odd in subtle ways, for reasons I shan’t disclose.

Memorial – Huge Clue?

This is interesting – At the end of the memorial service, they flashed a picture of MJ with the words “I’m alive and I’m here forever”.

I’m not kidding. (See the last few seconds of the clip above.)

Go figure.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, let me just say this – If there is anyone in the world who would dare think of pulling off such a stunt, it would be MJ.

We all know about his eccentricities over the years, and his seeming childlikeness.

If there’s anyone who will pull it off, it’s him.

For whatever reason he wanted to do it, I don’t know.

It could have been to help finance his huge debts, it could have been to finally be able to get away from all the madness that has surrounded his entire life since he was a child.

I don’t know.

But what I’m pretty sure of is that even if he is still alive today, we would never ever see him again.

I wish him all the best.

Sports Stuff

Friday, 3 July, 2009 - One Response

Lots of juicy sports stuff happening recently…

Wimbledon: Federer on course for 15th Grand Slam? He is certainly playing that way. He’s dropped only one set this entire tournament. Loved the way he coolly handled the monstrous serve of Karlovic’s. And now that Djokovic couldn’t make it to the semis, I think the only remaining threat might be Murray in the Finals. It’s gonna be a great one to watch. The monkey is finally off Federer’s back, and he’s showing it.

NBA News: Lots of big moves going on in the NBA off-season. Richard Jefferson to Spurs, Shaq to Cleveland, and now Artest to Lakers! I think the team that gains the most is still the Lakers. I think the reigning champions just made themselves that much harder to beat. The upcoming NBA season is going to be amazing!

F1: Alonso to Ferrari? Can this be true? If so, then I suppose it’s Kimi who’s leaving isn’t it? Massa and Alonso as teammates…this is going to be interesting.

Resign

Friday, 3 July, 2009 - Leave a Response

English is funny…

When a player resigns with the team for a new contract extension, it means he is going to continue playing for the team.

If an employee resigns from the company, it means he is quitting.

My All-Time Favourite Michael Jackson Songs

Thursday, 2 July, 2009 - Leave a Response

If you were to ask me what my favourite Michael Jackson songs of all time are, my list would look something like the one below.

To be honest, I have so many favourite songs, but if I really have to narrow them down, it would be as follows:

(NB: Some of the songs might be a bit less well-known, but I still love them all the same.)

1) Man in the Mirror

As explained two posts below, I first saw the music video to this song when I watched “Moonwalker” as a ten year old kid. This is such an incredible song. The message is larger than life. It’s about changing the world through changing yourself first (hence the “man in the mirror”). And no one could have delivered it better than Michael Jackson himself. Epic song.

2) One Day in Your Life

This is the opening track to a very old Jackson 5 album which my dad bought a long time ago. I’ve listened through the CD many times over the years, and though there are many excellent, excellent songs on the album, I still like this opening track the most. Not really one of his most famous songs, but it’s a really moving number.

3) Music and Me

I love this song. Probably one of the most obscure MJ songs I know of…cos I don’t even know which album to find this song! I first heard this song when I watched the “Moonwalker” video. It was one of the short scenes at the beginning, if I didn’t remember wrongly. Very touching song. There is a sense of innocence to it, probably because of his voice.

4) Heal the World

A lot of people don’t realise what a talented songwriter Michael Jackson was. According to Wikipedia (here), this song was written and composed by MJ himself. Now how about that! This is one of the great pop melodies of all time.

5) Human Nature

There is something quite haunting about this song. I wouldn’t say it has always been a favourite of mine, but recently I’ve really begin to become fascinated by this song (only the Michael Jackson version…the other versions just don’t cut it).

6) Got To Be There (with the Jackson 5)

This is one of my favourite Jackson 5 songs. Yup, as you can see by now, almost all of my favourite MJ songs are of the slower tempo. I think I still prefer slower, melodious songs at the end of the day.

Probability Question (Maths Friends, Please Help!)

Sunday, 28 June, 2009 - 5 Responses

I read that Roger Federer will be playing Robin Soderling (again) in their upcoming match at Wimbledon.

In their 10 career meetings, Roger Federer has won all the matches against Robin Soderling.

Which means that Federer has won 10 straight matches against Soderling.

So the question is: Who is more likely to win the next match?

Federer or Soderling?

If you interpret it as Federer is much much better than Soderling, then Federer is likely to win the next match.

But if say maybe Soderling has a 1-in-6 chance of winning against Federer on any given day, then doesn’t that mean that it’s high time Soderling wins a match against Federer? (After all, what are the odds of losing 11 times in a row right?)

RIP Michael

Saturday, 27 June, 2009 - Leave a Response

Well, obviously the sudden news of Michael Jackson’s death hit me quite hard, as I’m sure it did for many of the millions of fans around the world.

As such, I’ve been a bit distraught recently.

This definitely ranks as the most shocking celebrity death of my lifetime, as I was not around when Elvis died, and I was not even one year old when Lennon was shot.

Of all the entertainers I’ve known, Michael Jackson had the biggest impact on me.

I could easily write an entire essay, but I’m not really in the mood to.

Let me just leave you with one of my favourite MJ songs, “Man in the Mirror”.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw this – as a ten year old watching the Moonwalker video, and this was the opening scene.

Greatest opening scene ever.

Is It IRL/Champ Cars All Over Again?

Wednesday, 24 June, 2009 - Leave a Response

I’m getting sick and tired of Formula 1.

Not because of the sport of racing itself, but because of how the FIA (and the teams) always manage to shoot themselves in the foot.

A few years back, there was the McLaren-Ferrari “spygate” scandal, then there was the humiliating “liargate” scandal in Melbourne this year which McLaren was involved in, then there was the whole fiasco over the new regulations this year, including the disastrous introduction of KERS.

And now, as if it weren’t bad enough, we’ve come to the straw that breaks the camel’s back – the FOTA teams are threatening to make good of their promise of starting a rival series.

Which effectively throws away decades worth of precious history and heritage associated with the sport…the marvellous achievements and feats of the Fangios, the Sennas, the Prosts, the Hakkinens, the Schumachers, etc, and the proud heritage of the Ferraris, the McLarens, the Williamses, the Renaults, etc…all thrown out the window.

By splitting up, they’re effectively ruining what is unquestionably by far the biggest and most prestigious racing series in the world.

How crazy is that?

It’s farcical, to be honest.

One only needs to look at the American CART series split in the mid 90’s into IRL and Champ Cars to realise how nobody ever gains when a premier series is split into two.

American open wheel racing has never been the same again ever since the split into IRL/Champ Cars.

And Formula 1 will never be the same again either.

But anyway, to be honest, I think that this season is the start of the decline anyway.

It’s not as if we’re having a vintage season this year, a la ‘07 or ‘08.

We’re having a joke of a season this year (in my opinion), whereby the rules are completely changed, and the cars look hideous, and the traditionally dominant teams are totally caught off-guard, and the former has-beens are fighting for the championship, and some of the best pilots in the world are struggling in the mid-field pack just to score a single championship point…and fans over the world are struggling to even make sense of this new world order in Formula 1.

It’s just a ridiculously surreal season this year.

Which is just as well…cos this might be the last year we actually get to witness Formula 1 in its proper sense.

Singles, Attractiveness, And Life Partners

Thursday, 18 June, 2009 - 18 Responses

I was recently talking with a friend and we happened to talk about the topic of singles.

And he said that as one grows older, it gets much harder to find good single girls around.

According to him, finding a good, beautiful, loving girl in her late twenties who is still single and available is like finding a job opening that is relatively enjoyable, has a great work environment, doesn’t require you to work long hours, has fantastic career advancement opportunities, and pays you a starting pay of $8,000.

Or like finding a huge and beautiful bungalow in an opulent district, freehold, but selling at a mere pittance.

In other words, it’s not impossible…but you can bet that there are 10,000 people out there who would have jumped at it way before you did.

He put it rather cynically. He said that honestly speaking, if someone is late-twenties/early-or-mid-thirties and still unattached…then there usually has to be some catch.

It’s market forces at the end of the day, he said. The good ones are always taken. It’s a free market system.

And it seems to be much easier to find a good, eligible single guy in his early-to-mid thirties than it is to find a good, beautiful, eligible single girl in her early-to-mid thirties.

Or at least that’s what he says.

What do you think?

I was just thinking about the whole thing.

Man was created to look for a wife, and he was programmed to choose the wife which bore the physical attributes which most strongly suggested to him that she would make a good child-bearer.

In other words, the physical attractiveness (build, healthy appearance, child-bearing hips, etc) of a woman were highly regarded by men.

In the same way, a woman was programmed to choose a husband which would be able to provide her with i) a sense of security and ii) an ability to materially provide for the entire family.

Hence, to a woman, a man’s emotional qualities and perhaps wealth is of the utmost importance.

Therefore, I think it is definitely no fault of anyone’s that men are naturally attracted to physically-beautiful women and women are naturally attracted to confident, wealthy and emotionally-attractive men.

I think any guy that says that looks are totally NOT a factor when choosing a female partner is most probably not being totally truthful.

But the thing is, I don’t necessarily think there is anything wrong with admitting that we guys take looks into account when considering members of the opposite sex.

In the same way that a girl can say that she is attracted to a guy because of his humour, his confidence, his patience, his wittiness…I think a guy is perfectly allowed to say that he is attracted to a girl because she is beautiful (maybe more in the physical sense).

It’s all about attraction anyway, isn’t it?

How in the world can two people marry if they are not the least bit attracted to one another?

So, (apart from the fact that both should be Christians) I believe that at the end of the day, a guy must believe in his heart that he is truly attracted to the person he intends to marry.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying looks are the ONLY factor. I’m saying we cannot totally discount the looks factor for guys.

That’s just the way we were programmed.

I’m not saying that we guys only want to go for beautiful girls. That’s not my drift.

What I’m saying is that the looks factor is always something that is hanging at the back of our heads…and it is something which we cannot totally ignore.

Ultimately, people do not marry blindly.

We, as limited human beings, marry because of certain reasons.

Yes, of course…”love” is the reason, but this love is hardly unconditional.

We’re human after all, aren’t we?

Kobe

Tuesday, 16 June, 2009 - Leave a Response

So this NBA season has finally concluded.

I dare say I had followed this season as closely as I’d followed any other NBA season, right from the very start of the regular season all the way till the end of the playoffs.

It was a fascinating season.

Before the playoffs started, I would never have imagined that the Lakers would play the Magic in the Finals.

In the end, I guess the Lakers were simply the better team. Somehow the Magic just had no answer for the Lakers, nor for Kobe Bryant.

Kobe wanted the ring more than any other player on both the Lakers and the Magic teams.

The Magic live and die by the 3-pointer…and I guess in the Finals they died by it.

I guess now I’m not the only one who secretly wishes it were Kobe-LeBron in the Finals instead. Imagine how incredible it would have been eh!

(I wonder if we’ll ever get to see a Kobe-LeBron Finals?)

Anyway, my main topic today is about Kobe Bryant.

There is so much to talk about the guy…so many intriguing storylines to write about.

He’s finally got his 4th title…or more importantly, his first without Shaq. I mentioned awhile ago that it would interesting to see if Kobe ever ends his career with a 4th title, to prove to the world that he can win while being the best player on the team.

And he’s finally done it….so let’s not take anything away from Kobe.

Even though he might arguably be only the 2nd most physically-gifted player on earth, he is undoubtably the hardest-working player around and is the most ferocious competitor since Michael Jordan…and thus, I feel that he fully deserves his 4th title.

Anyway, there’s this great great column written by Bill Simmons which brilliantly encapsulates his thoughts about Kobe and his 4th title and his legacy and how he compares to Jordan and all that.

Fully worth reading.

Nobody writes about basketball like Bill Simmons.

From espn.com: Kobe ‘09: Change we can believe in?

Jeremy Is Sibelius-ing These Few Days

Tuesday, 16 June, 2009 - Leave a Response

Yup, because I don’t have/don’t want to have Twitter…I have to resort to putting such updates (such as the above title) on my blog instead.

Have been busy working on Sibelius to do some music arrangements (inspired by the great Iskandar Ismail!) for our church service music, for instruments such as flute and strings.

Very challenging, but very fun!

In other news, I did a 24:48 for 1,500m very recently, but I was practically almost dying when I touched the wall.

I thought it would have been a faster time.

Looks like it’s gonna be tough to get to sub or even low 24.