michaelmaurer.net

I'm busy watching Michael Jackson's funeral, so I'll keep it short. passive-aggresive notes is a collection of, well, passive-aggressive notes. Duh. Most of the notes seem to originate from shared apartments, and more specifically, shared bathrooms, fridges, and pantries.

Not too surprising. As a former casualty of flat-sharing myself, I can relate to the pain a missing yogurt or a decomposing can of dog-food can generate. On the other hand, I never wrote lenghty letters of accusation like this three-part Ladies Room Notice. Or this crazy door cum pin board full of legal threats and rants against smoking.

Jesus. Trash as narrative art, please try not to leave hair in the bathroom, get a new bed or make your boyfriend lose weight - the list goes on and on. Stick to "Greatest Hits" and "Most Popular" to the right of the page, these are the funnier ones. Or go buy the book.

July 1 marked the 25th anniversary of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. Cyberspace, the world wide web, simstim, rogue AI's - some of its technological predictions have already become ubiquitous.

Jack Womack even believes that Gibson's ideas came to life in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: Serving as a blue-print for engineers cum readers, shaping their understanding of the inner workings of the web. Well, why not. If you're trying to fill a void with metaphors, you'll probably use the ones you're most familiar with.

For an extensive look at yesterday's cyber-future today, go read Mark Sullivan's Neuromancer turns 25: What it got right, what it got wrong. Oh, and this: 8 Bits vs. Spring features art & music inspired by Neuromancer.

French website Télérama was lucky enough to get a bunch of sample pages from Robert Crumb's upcoming Book of Genesis. And there's more to come. Check their website each sunday until August 19 for additional panels full of original sin. Like those hips.

Couple of interesting things concerning MJ's life and death floating around:

1. The unauthorized interview of Michael Jackson (1983)
See him talk about life and art on his Neverland Ranch, one year after the release of Thriller (109 million copies sold). He comes over as a very fragile, childlike kind of person. The second part shows him imitating his favourite musical scenes, for no particular reason at all. He just starts to sing and tilt his head like Julie Andrews. Weird. And sad, in a disconnected kind of way. The fountain makes some questions hard to understand, apparently it was his favourite place. At least he had a favourite place.

2. Michael Jackson goes shopping - private home video
All he ever wanted was a normal life. So they closed down a shopping mall, dressed up his relatives as "normal people" and sent him shopping. Surreal. "It's my dream to be in a supermarket, walk around and put things in a basket." Cue Pulp's common people.

3. Quincy Jones remembers Michael
Quincy Jones, producer of such hit records as Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad, shares his fondest memories:

Q: I've heard you say that you wanted Michael to sing "She's Out of My Life,"
the great pop ballad from Off the Wall, in part because you felt like he had to
deal with reality.

A: I just wanted to hear him deal with a romantic relationship with a human
being rather than a rat. I'm saying that facetiously, but it's true. I saw him
at the Oscars very emotional about "Ben." I wanted to hear him get in touch
with a real human relationship. "She's Out of My Life" was written by Tommy
Bahler from a very bad ending to a marriage. So it was very real. I was saving
it for Sinatra. But I gave it to Michael. And Michael cried during every take,
and I left the tears in.