Apart from what you might suspect, I’ve got nothing against Michael Jackson. For a short period he displayed a couple of fairly remarkable, terrestrial abilities. The material was pedestrian but the choreography was compelling… except for the message in the movements. It was mostly comedy though, watching a hyperkinetic tooth fairy pretend to be an urban gang leader. That’s how it is in this world, pretend to be something you’re not and then get dipped into sealing wax and pressed against the parchment of life with a hot iron. Made authentic, so to speak; Madonna has a lot of that manufactured appeal, except in her case she can’t do any of the things Michael could but that doesn’t matter either.