skippy the bush kangaroo: michael jackson's playground

Thursday, June 25, 2009

michael jackson's playground

Michael Jackson's Playground
Originally uploaded by SB John Wiley

santa barbara has long had a love/hate relationship with michael jackson. i remember before jackson came and bought the land he turned into neverland, mccdonalds wanted to build a ronald mccdonald house there. the valley neighbors went nuts saying how much the traffic would impact their lives, yadda yadda yadda. and so the ronald mccdonald house was not to be.

jackson bought the land and created his own little version of childlike reality, including fair rides and a zoo, complete with zoo keepers and various wild animals such as tigers and elephants. the valley was inundated with traffic from helicopters, planes, paparrazzi, etc. including the fiasco that was liz taylor's wedding (was it her 6th or 7th...i can't keep up), but jackson was the local legendary celebrity, so i guess the valley neighbors weren't so vociferous in their complaints.

neverland featured prominently in jackson's problems with the santa barbara district attorney and his long time attempts to convict jackson on child molestation charges. the mug shot seen throughout the internet(s) was taken here in santa barbara. throngs of jackson fans, young and old, male and female, trekked to their idol's mecca to show support. hotels were booked solid. herds of journalists hung out in restaurants and bars, chatting up each other and the locals and starting up relations, professional and otherwise. the "jackson" business was thriving in town, it seemed sometime, to be the only business in town. however, these long, dragged out legal slugfests sucked the county coffers of money and put a large dent in jackson's monetary treasure chest, too.

neverland was never the same after jackson fled the county...and then the states. the animals were neglected and then were shipped out to places where they would be cared for. the employees were neglected and claimed they went unpaid for months on end. the property started aging, falling apart piece by piece, some would say like jackson himself.

today, hearing the unexpected news of the peter panish michael jackson passing, i thought about long ago when there was life...and song...and magic in the old property. in the boyish man himself.

michael, your music brought magic to lives throughout the world. your ranch brought entertainment to many lives in the county and beyond. but, neverland is nevermore.

i hope you find peace in your rest, michael. i hope you don't eventually cross paths with sneddon again.

5560 Neverland Estate
Originally uploaded by SB John Wiley

(flickr photos by sb john wiley)

remembering michael from 1974

Labels: michael jackson, neverland, passings, santa barbara

posted by Cookie Jill at 6:20 PM |

3 Comments:

You are a poet Jill....

commented by

Essaress ; Prior of the F.C.F.J., (C), 9:01 PM PDT

Saw Michael in 1965-66 on tour with the Jackson Five, good rhythm good lyrics. good movers. Wondered what would be left for this black kid, blacker than the Ace of Spades after puberty.

Saw him on the thriller tour. Left before the set was over. What had caused a genius of his level to bleach and cut himself to become white? What had the racism of this country destroyed.

I cried over his song and pictures ever afterward. He is finally dead and out of this hell hole
that allowed one of the musical genius of the age to be destroyed.

Michael I hope you found peace.
Thanks for the music. man.

commented by

Anonymous, 12:25 AM PDT

I lived in Santa Barbara (near Laguna & Anapamu) in 1992-3. I remember reading in the Independent about MJ's attempts to buy a home in Hope Ranch, SB's most exclusive neighborhood.

He was thwarted in those attempts by the neighborhood association, who claimed his celebrity & general weirdness would destroy the character of Hope Ranch. There was considerable speculation that it was more an issue of MJ being black than of his being a megastar.

commented by

3waygeek, 4:29 PM PDT

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