u/FunUniversity6245

So for past 4 years I have been feeding my two cats their bedtime snacks at exactly 12am and to keep myself reminded I set up an alarm for it.

It used to be the default iphone ringtone but soon after I realized they got conditioned to it and would get overly excited during the day when I get a phone call.

I then followed some guides to decondition them. I desensitized them to the ringtone by playing it a lot.

So like 1 year ago I changed the sound to play Michael Jackson’s smooth criminal thinking it’s fine because even if they get conditioned I don’t listen to it much.

However my neighbors recently moved in and this guy blasts smooth criminal a lot and quite loud. I already talked to him about the volume and he has since turned down the volume to the point I can’t hear it but my cats still can. So they would get randomly triggered and I would have no idea and after checking with my neighbors it’s definitely him.

Now I cannot really tell him to turn it down even lower because that would exceeds courtesy and that song is one of his favorites.

I tried to de-condition with the desensitization trick but somehow it doesn’t work with this song. If I play smooth criminal all day they are excited all day and constantly yelling for treats.

I am at a loss here. Please help

This is the only video I can find of the incident (it's #7 in the list).

Apparently it was at a "private event" but I'm not sure if that refers to where Prince was at that moment, or the origin of the Madonna video he was being shown.

Asking the Prince experts. Although maybe it needs a Madonna expert to ID the song.

Why was Michael Jackson so MASSIVE ?

It's a common question, and historical context is usually taken into account - but I didn't know the Soviets were amongst the earliest MJ haters 🤔

The ever-encroaching reach of American popular culture was often contested by the Soviet establishment, which met Jackson’s rise to global prominence with open contempt. In 1984, the New York Times reported on a Soviet newspaper’s attack on Jackson, noting that the article claimed Americans were “riveted” to him while accusing Jackson of mesmerizing the public and distracting it from politically inconvenient topics. That same year, Jackson was invited to the White House to receive an award from President Reagan. He had begun to resemble something of a dignitary. His stardom had transcended entertainment and taken on a level of genuine political consequence, acknowledged by both the Soviet and American political establishments. Michael Jackson had inadvertently become a major player in the exportation of American culture to a worldwide audience.

Pages 137-143 quoted verbatim.

Bill: Michael Jackson's reality was unlike anything I've ever experienced. That's what made this job so different. I always considered Mr. Jackson to be different. Never weird, just different. Every day with him was a different direction of thinking. Every day was different from the day before. There was always something new you'd find out, whether it was a request, something he would say. I didn't understand a lot of the things he did, a lot of the choices he made, but I also could never begin to understand the life he'd lived, which had led him to be that way. That's what made it so impossible to judge a lot of his actions, one way or another.

There was this one time we went to a magic shop. He was a big magic buff. We went and saw nearly every magician who played on the Strip. He had a bunch of those take-home magic kits, too, for doing tricks with coins and cards and stuff. Around May or June maybe, he wanted to go to the magic shop at the New York-New York casino. So we started planning that detail.

The morning we were supposed to go, he called down and asked me to go pick up some gauze. I asked him how much. He said, "Get as much as you can." I was worried that somebody was hurt. I went out, picked up a couple of bags of medical gauze from the drugstore, and I brought it to him. About half an hour later, he called down again and said, "Bill, I'm ready."

Javon got the cars ready to roll. I was out in the driveway, waiting for Mr. Jackson to come around the corner. He came around, and when I saw him, he had on a green coat with a hoodie underneath. But his hands were all wrapped up with gauze. His entire head was wrapped in the stuff too, with little slits for his eyes. He was dressed like a burn victim or something. He looked like the Mummy. At that point, I thought I'd seen everything with Michael Jackson, but this floored me. I called Javon on the two-way radio. I was whispering into the microphone, "Yo, Javon. You ain't gonna believe what the boss has on."

Javon: Bill was trying to call me, but my radio was off. I was in the security trailer, still getting ready to go. So when I stepped outside, I had no idea what was going on. I walked out and I saw what looked like this weird guy, all bandaged up and disfigured, wandering around the property. This alarm went off in my head. I thought, Intruder! and I ran. I booked it across that driveway and I grabbed this guy and I slammed him against the car, yelling, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Then Bill started yelling, "Javon, no! Javon! That's the boss! That's the boss!"

I realized who it was, and I backed off and I panicked. I mean, I'd shoved him hard, and he was so skinny and fragile. I was scared I'd broken his arm or something. I started gushing, "I'm so sorry, sir. I didn't recognize you at all. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I'm so sorry."

Bill: Javon probably apologized about a thousand times, but Mr. Jackson just started cracking up. He thought it was hilarious. I thought for sure he'd be livid; for a minute, I thought that this was going to be the last day we ever worked for the man. But Mr. Jackson thought it was great, that his disguise had actually fooled someone. He just climbed in the car, laughing and saying, "Did you guys really not know who I was?"

Javon: We got in the car and drove out to the casino, like it was any old regular trip, with him dressed up in this mummy costume in the back. We took the back entrance into the casino, but the magic store was still a few hundred feet from where we entered, and the place was packed with people. Soon as we walked in, they started turning and noticing me and Bill wearing these black suits, following this guy who's dressed like a mummy. You could hear the whispers, people going, "Who's that? What's going on?"

It was obviously drawing more attention than it was avoiding. If you looked at him even for a minute it wasn't hard to figure out who he was. He'd gone to all this trouble, wrapping up his face and his hands, but he was wearing the white socks and the hiked-up pants with the slip-on loafers. That's his signature look. Everybody knows that. Plus he just had a way about him - the way he moved, the way he walked, the way he'd pick something up off a shelf - that was unmistakably Michael Jackson. Everyone on the planet knows how Michael Jackson moves.

Bill: At one point, as we were walking through the casino, this lady walked up to him, middle-aged woman. She walked right up to him and stood next to him in this mummy getup. Then she sort of gave him this look and said, "I know who you are."

Mr. Jackson said, "Hmmm?" He did it in his high-pitched tone, acting like he didn't know what she was talking about. "Hmmm?"

She said, "I know who you are. You're not fooling anyone."

Then she just walked off and let him be.

We finally made it to the magic store, and Mr Jackson was browsing. The store manager walked up to him two or three times and asked him if he could help him with anything, and he'd just shake his head no. Didn't really say anything. They had a lot of these kits and magic tricks. Mr Jackson was picking things up, looking at them, putting them back down. I was watching the store manager's eyes, and I knew exactly what I would have been thinking if it had been my store. I watched this guy pick up the phone, quietly say something, and then hang up real quick. About five minutes later, two police officers walked in and they went over to the manager. They talked for a minute and then he pointed at Mr. Jackson. I was just shaking my head, thinking, No, no, no. Please no. This isn't happening.

One of the officers came up and addressed Mr. Jackson. He said, "Excuse me, sir? Do you have an ID?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you have an ID?"

The second time he said it, he kind of grabbed Mr. Jackson's arm, like he wasn't messing around. I stepped up and politely tried to get between them and explain the situation. I told them that I was personal security for this man, a high-profile dignitary, and he was in this disguise in order to remain anonymous. "This man is very famous," I said. "And it would really be best for everyone if we could keep his identity a secret and quietly exit the store."

The cop said, "Famous? Who the hell is he?"

By now a crowd was starting to form. The manager had come over. The other police officer was stepping in behind me. I was reluctant to identify Mr. Jackson, but I felt the only was we were going to get out of there was to be straight with these officers and get them on our side. So I leaned in to the guy and I whispered, "It's Michael Jackson."

"Who?"

"Michael Jackson."

"Get the fuck outta here."

I said, "Look, we'll just leave."

Then this cop turned to his partner and he said - and he said it real loud and arrogant, like I was some jerk - "Hey, this guy says he's doing a security detail and that guy in the bandages over there is Michael Jackson."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the first camera flash pop. Shit. Then I hear this murmur of voices start to ripple through the crowd: "Michael Jackson?" "Michael Jackson?" "Michael Jackson?!"

I grabbed him and said, "Mr. Jackson, this way." I ushered him quickly toward the back of the store, moving his body through the aisles, left, right, as fast as I could hustle him. I looked around, found the door to the stockroom, and rushed him in there. The manager followed us back and I asked him, "Is there another way out of here?" He pointed me to a back door that led to a little service hallway and out to the parking lot. I radioed Javon and told him to get the truck and meet us outside.

You could hear the crowd outside. It was intense. I was really worked up, agitated. Like an idiot, the store manager had even gone back out and confirmed that it was Michael Jackson. Now he was all excited about it. Now he was like, "Hey, Michael Jackson is in my store!" It was turning into a mob scene. We could hear people screaming, "Mi-chael! Mi-chael! Mi-chael!" The two officers were stuck out front doing crowd control, dealing with what they'd started.

I stayed in the back with Mr. Jackson. I was on full alert. My pulse racing. Looking this way and that. Watching the door, listening to this crowd, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. Was there going to be more trouble with the police? The paparazzi? Meanwhile, Mr. Jackson was just chilling, like this was any other day. The crazed mob of people screaming his name outside the door? Like it wasn't even happening. He was just wandering through the stockroom shelves, casual as you please, checking out these little magic tricks. Dude was still shopping. He pulled this one thing down and brought it over to me and said, "Bill, can you find out how much these are?"

I wanted to say to him, "Really? We've got a couple hundred people breathing down on us, and you want me to stop and do a price check on some Houdini tricks?"

But he just shrugged the whole thing off. "This is what happens all the time," he said. "They should have left us alone. People should mind their own business."

Finally, Javon radioed me to say that he'd pulled the car around. The two cops came back into the storeroom to escort us out. Just as we started to leave, one of the officers came over to me and he leaned in and said, "Hey, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Do you think maybe he'd mind signing an autograph?"

I turned to Mr. Jackson. "Sir, the officers would like to know if you could sign an autograph."

"Oh, sure," he said. "Just give me a pen."

The officers gave him their report pads and he signed each one and then we left. We just bounced. He didn't even buy anything.

It was times like that we'd be left scratching out heads. But it wasn't our place to say anything.

Very well researched biography which covers the extreme fame aspect, artistic accomplishments, the beginnings of the media backlash, the impact of Michael's changing appearance, charity projects, "Palestine Don't Cry", the ongoing media frenzy, attempts to redirect public relations, the vitiligo problem, the relationship with Joseph and more.

It packs a lot in, definitely worth a listen.

I think she's made other videos about Michael, but this one is lovely.

Verse 1

You should really see 'em all going like this I wonder if you know her, want to know the things you missed All crowded in the bedlam like some feral kids, suffocating It's such a trip

Verse 2

Thumbprint scuffing on the coward's glass And if they cut themselves, they'll use the blood to forge a one-way pact Sucking on your bones is the final act They ate you alive

Would you look at that? Even in death, when there's nothing left

Chorus

I'll see you in my sleep They won't need to stare It's just you and me There's no need to keep them amused Got nothing to prove whеn it's me and you

Verse 2

It's like playing bloody knuckles with a concrеte wall Anything that's real will leave them outraged and apalled Headless words'll tell me that it's all my fault Hey, just for clicks, maybe it is Keeping what I have left close to my heart They'll twist it and interpret it as something cold and stark Tired of trying to mirror what they call their love 'Cause it's not enough and it never was

I'll do something else Keep you to myself

Chorus

I'll see you in my sleep They won't need to stare It's just you and me There's no need to keep them amused Got nothing to prove when it's me and you

There's no giving up on Michael - the guilters are cooked.

Brett's only interview since he was stalked by Tom Sneddon's outfit in 1993.

(As he explains, Sneddon tracked him down in Australia and knocked on his family's door - looking for dirt on Michael to match what Evan Chandler was selling.)

This interview tells the entire story of Brett's friendship with Michael. It leaves out nothing.

(One of the best displays of interviewing skill I've ever heard too, by Charles Thomson.)

Brett was the second witness for the defense in 2005; his mother and sister also testified.

They didn't speak to a single journalist - not then, and not since. Brett explains why in the interview.

Sneddon never got what he was looking for from Brett. Nor have countless other people - not the journalists, and not the thousands of haters and random weirdos who bombard his social media accounts with their sick fantasies. (You can watch that happening in real time on X.)

This interview isn't just a great story of an Australian hero.

It sums up the solution of the bed-sharing puzzle.

I wish more MJ fans would put aside their cultural bias and listen.

It's NOT a "mistake" Michael made. It's NOT a grey area. And it's NOT a tough argument to fight!

Not at all.

It's Michael trying to replace his missing childhood - the same reason he built Neverland. (He talked about this so extensively in the first thirty years of his life, he figured everyone had heard enough and started leaving it out - hence the myth that he doesn't explain himself properly.)

Or in other words, it's a survivor of child abuse, attempting to avoid the responsibilities of adulthood - as survivors often do.

It's never been anything more than that.

17 years and still going strong!

Michael will live on in our culture forever.

It's very hard to imagine what it's like to be Paris Jackson.

I think I would loathe the fans almost as much as the detractors. The endless bickering over everything she does is heartbreaking.

"I love you Paris."

Anyone who knows, what's her story and why did she give up? How much influence did she have?

I heard of her before but never watched any of her stuff.

Sign up if you want a quiet place to share your knowledge or ask questions!

r/mjcourttranscripts

The best way to explain it is that Michael Jackson in the mid-1980s wasn't simply a very famous musician. He was closer to a global cultural phenomenon. The scale of his fame is difficult to translate to someone who grew up after that era because today's celebrity culture is much more fragmented.

A few comparisons help.

Imagine a person who was simultaneously Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Elvis, and the biggest movie star in the world.

That still doesn't quite capture it, because those people operate in an environment where there are thousands of competing channels, celebrities and online communities.

In 1983–1984, there was nothing remotely comparable to today's internet. There were three major American television networks, a relatively small number of major radio stations, newspapers and magazines, and MTV. When something became a genuine mass-cultural event, almost everybody encountered it.

And Michael Jackson became one of those events.

When Thriller exploded, he wasn't merely selling enormous numbers of records. He was appearing constantly on television, dominating radio, appearing on magazine covers, being discussed in newspapers, and becoming recognizable to people who didn't even listen to pop music.

The numbers were extraordinary.

Thriller was released in 1982, but its cultural explosion occurred over 1983–84. It eventually became the best-selling album in history, with sales generally estimated at more than 70 million worldwide.

But the more important point for understanding his life is what happened when he appeared in public.

The Motown 25 performance in May 1983 is a good example. Jackson performed "Billie Jean" and debuted the moonwalk on national television.

It became an enormous cultural moment. People didn't merely watch it; they talked about it, imitated it and tried to figure out how he had done it.

The same thing happened with the Thriller video. A music video had effectively become a major television event.

His physical presence could produce something approaching Beatlemania.

This is particularly important.

When Michael went somewhere publicly during the height of Thriller, ordinary celebrity recognition could turn into crowd hysteria.

People would scream, chase his car, surround hotels and airports, camp outside venues and attempt to touch him. Security became a genuine logistical problem.

And unlike today's celebrities, Michael couldn't retreat into a private digital space. There was no Instagram account through which fans could experience him from a distance. If they wanted to see him, they had to physically go somewhere he might appear.

That created an unusual relationship between Michael and the public: millions of people felt an extraordinary familiarity with someone they had never met.

And this is where the fame becomes psychologically important.

Michael became famous when he was still a child.

He had already been performing professionally with his brothers for years before Thriller. By the time he was 11 or 12, he was an internationally recognized performer.

Then, in his early twenties, he became perhaps the most recognizable entertainer on Earth.

So he never experienced adulthood in the ordinary sense.

Imagine becoming so famous that:

• You cannot casually walk into a shopping centre;

• You cannot go to a cinema unnoticed;

- People photograph you whenever you're outside;

• Strangers scream when they see you;

- Newspapers and magazines speculate about your appearance and relationships;

- Millions of people believe they know your personality;

- Your smallest public action can become international news;

- And everywhere you go, security has to be involved.

And then imagine that this has been happening since you were a child.

That's a very different psychological environment from simply becoming famous at 30.

The strange paradox was that Michael Jackson became extraordinarily powerful and extraordinarily restricted.

He had enormous financial resources and could build whatever environment he wanted.

But ordinary freedom became extremely difficult.

This is one reason Neverland makes more sense historically if you understand the scale of the fame first.

It wasn't simply a rich man's eccentric house. Michael was trying to construct a private environment in which he could do things that ordinary people take for granted: walk around, play, watch movies, ride attractions, invite people over, etc.

He could create an enormous amount of physical privacy, but he couldn't create anonymity.

And there was another paradox:

The world wanted Michael Jackson constantly, while Michael Jackson increasingly needed somewhere the world couldn't reach him.

The closest historical analogy is probably Elvis and the Beatles.

But there is an important difference.

Elvis became enormously famous as an adult. The Beatles became famous as young men, but they experienced the explosion of Beatlemania collectively.

Michael's situation was more unusual because the person at the centre of the phenomenon had essentially been performing his entire life.

And his fame became truly global at precisely the point when his artistic identity was becoming intensely personal.

This isn't just fame. This is extreme fame - a very rare occurrence in human history.

So the young man who created Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad wasn't just making records for a large audience.

He was doing so while hundreds of millions of people were watching him develop as a human being.

That's an extraordinary burden.

Perhaps the simplest way to explain it to someone born later...

I'd put it this way:

In the 1980s, Michael Jackson wasn't someone you could choose to follow. He was someone you couldn't escape encountering.

You heard him on the radio. You saw him on television. His videos were discussed at school and at work. His records were in virtually every record shop. His face was on magazines and newspapers. His performances became national and international events.

For a few years, Michael Jackson occupied an extraordinary amount of the world's cultural attention.

And because he had been famous since childhood, he never really had the opportunity to learn how to be an ordinary person before becoming one of the most recognizable people who had ever lived.

His fame didn't just give him an enormous life. It fundamentally changed the conditions under which he had to live one.

And that's probably the key thing a younger person needs to understand: today's enormous celebrity culture can make Michael's fame seem less exceptional than it actually was. In 1983, there were vastly fewer people competing for the public's attention. Michael didn't merely win the attention economy—he dominated it.

The people Michael interacted with were, like everybody else, scrambling to get his attention.

Parents of children he took a liking to weren't shy about pushing their kids forward. The more contact your child had with Michael the better.

He was never anything like your solitary neighbour down the street.