Encino, 1983

and this is coming from a queer person. like can't we just appreciate this one of a kind soul without all the other unnecessary shebang please 🫤

Michael Jackson was the kind of star who not only would call back fans who wrote to him, and have lengthy phone talks with them, he would literally invite these same strangers to Neverland, to visit and sleep, even when he wasn't there. There is this tension to Michael Jackson way of living where he made himself super elusive and mysterious to journalists and paparazzi, but very easy to reach to the "common people" and, to my understanding, that was the mix that bred mediatic disaster.

What people fail to mention is that, MJ didn't just have phone calls, sleepovers, trips with children. He did these things with people from all walks of life: old people, adult people, poor people, rich people, everyone. Basically, his door was open to pretty much everyone and surely that was a totally reckless life choice for someone (let alone someone with high risks at stakes like him) to have, and probably irresponsible, but imo that's also what made MJ so special to the eyes of people who today still remember him with fondness and are extra defensive of him:

31 December - Alexander Mokhov , 2005.