Ben, The Evil, Homicidal Pet Rat

So, I haven't been writing on here for a few days because I have been trying to write a review of Michael Jackson's new album, "The Ultimate Collection," a five-disc, 57 song + DVD career retrospective. It's truly a herculean task, and I have to do it in only 200 words. It's almost impossible for me to decide what I want to say when so many promising topics introduce themselves. Consider his first solo hit, 1972's "Ben." From the film of the same name, it is a love song to a pet rat. Not only that, but a pet rat who turns evil, and recruits an army of evil rats to kill humans. See, the something's-a-tad-off-with-the-lad theme has been brewing for a while. But who made it impossible to ignore? Is it our salacious media? Our culture of celebrity worship? Or maybe it has been his own aggressive public weirdness for the last 3 decades. I just don't know. But thinking about him, I can't help but compare him to another LA music genius/weirdo, Brian Wilson. Both had young success. Both had overbearing fathers who were clearly jealous of their talent and intent on crushing their sensitivity. Both made weirdo pop albums. But Brian turned his demons on himself. All he did was get fat, set up a tent in the living room, and do drugs. Jacko seems to have become a child predator. So does a music reviewer really owe it to him, or to the art form itself, to overlook that? I don't know. My boyfriend is a genius writer and editor himself, but he fell asleep and my deadline's tomorrow. I read his - my boyfriend's - review of Elliott Smith's posthumous album today in his magazine, and it literally brought me to tears. The way he uses words is just so elegant and - I don't know- thoughtful? Soulful? I can't even write well enough to describe how good his writing is. Anwyay, I am going to keep on chopping away at my MJ review, which is now 400 words, twice as long as it should be. And it has no point. And it's riddled with cliches. Wish me luck. At least, even if the piece turns out so crap that the editor won't run it, I have learned something cool and weird. And that is that the bridge of 1983's "Wanna Be Startin Something" goes like this: “You’re a vegetable/ still they hate you/ you’re just a buffet / you’re just a vegetable / they eat off you.”