"Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand, those who take refuge in you from their foes. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. From the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. They close up their callous hearts, and their mouths speak with arrogance. They have tracked me down, they now surround me, with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground. They are like a lion hungry for prey, like a great lion crouching in cover.Rise up, O LORD, confront them, bring them down; rescue me from the wicked by your sword."

1Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.

2Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:

3Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

4That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.

5They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?

6They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.

7But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.

8So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.

9And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.

10The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

"I'm not the King, Jesus Christ is King. I'm just a singer."


Life is not promised to anyone.

As the Michael Jackson Memorial service gets under way in Los Angeles today, here is a tribute I put together with a Jermaine song from 1986 that I really like.





Michael. Jermaine. Janet. Marlon. Randy. LaToya. Tito. Rebbie. Jackie.

Brothers. Sisters. Family.

Triumph.

Victory.

Destiny.

In the service of future society and of its development, I present to the public this tangible and intangible heritage of current civilised humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and enjoyment.

Exhibit #1 - The Disconnect

Larry
What's up Jamie?
Jamie
sobering up
Larry
big surprise
Jamie
MJ weekend over.
Larry
Glad to hear it. It was over for me before it began.

Exhibit #2 - The Strains They Call Variance

Josh
dude, $60,000 a month on drugs
Jamie
I haven't read it, MJ I'm guessing
Josh
not MJ, Jacko
Jamie
MJ
Josh
dude, even my MOM says that MJ is Jordan
Jamie
It's mum too
MJ and MUM
Josh
whatever

The Louvre Museum. "Whatever magnifies you."



Sistine Chapel ceiling. "Whatever the forces are they don't matter but they do."



Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "Wherever the rainbows are, it's funny you should say you see the love I push to your heart, I sure hope it's in your nature."

Stories dismissed when retold
Someone is hiding the Truth
Hold on!
When will this mystery unfold
And will the sun ever shine
In the blind man's eyes
When he cries?

Belief is filled with madness
Miracles they're unheard of
Faith is flouting the winds
All we have to do is reach for the Truth?
The Truth?

And when the King of Kings returns
(Sure enough sure enough!)
They'll be no more wars
And with all calls
He will answer all your prayers, PRAYERS
SHOW THE WORLD!



(change the world)

I wanted to make this a personal account, to try do something that means something to me, and stays unique to all the tributes he truly deserves.


My earliest memories of dancing were to the Milo ad, I got a picture (not online, not yet anyway), of me in my diapers grooving. By the age of 3, Thriller was released, and no more would I be dancing to that Milo ad. My father was an old soul and country music lover, he'd sit there and sing to a Johnny Mathis song, said he was the best voice in music. I had a different opinion. We had the old record player, with Billie Jean in its sleeve, when the needle dropped I loved that and Michael Sembello's Maniac. My cassette tape was Thriller, my walkman batteries ran out on that tape, all the time. I'd fall asleep as Lady In My Life was playing out.

At 5, we'd go over to our family friends house, me being mega-memory from a young age, I still remember their teenage son moonwalking into the room as I hid behind a cabinet, he was lame. Couldn't do it for shit!

When I was 9, Weird Al Yankovic released 'Fat', his parody of Michael's 'Bad'. The first time I saw it was a Saturday morning, the rest of the day I paraded around a pillow under my shirt, dancing! I was fat!

By the time I was 12 I was secretly listening to Casey Kasem's American Top 40 into the late hours on a school night, waiting for him to give his take on Michael Jackson's Dangerous, When 'In The Closet' hit the charts Kasem said something of the sort that you can't help but be drawn to his infectiousness. Michael still owned the charts in 1992, and I was there waiting for him to get his due alongside all the other music, but nothing ranked next to him.

Once HIStory was launched I had to have it! By 1996 he was touring in support of it, coming to Adelaide. It was the biggest concert this city had ever seen, at historical Adelaide Oval. I had a mate at the time that understood the passion for MJ, and his mother got discount tickets for us, Gold Tickets, the best! Up front! That saw us right in the thick of it for 4 hours. (Thank you Andrew Miranda!) We got out of our fourth row seats when it began, and stood at the front gates for the next 4 hours, I didn't take a piss once, he did, not me. I remember throwing my arms forward at one stage and pointing at MJ, I'm certain to this day he saw me and my passion, and he smiled.

By the 2000s MJ had basically disappeared, not in my mind, but to most everyone else, he was a relic of a bygone era, a groundbreaker who had run out of ground. I didn't believe it. When he released Invincible I went straight to Sanity (an Aussie music store) and got it. I sat down, no disruptions! And played it. Unbreakable, Break of Dawn, Butterflies and Whatever Happens were beyond good. It took someone like Eminem of the modern era to confirm what I thought, it was the best album released in the year 2001. No one was close.

After Invincible, Michael looked confused, uncertain where to go next, he didn't get the praise he was seeking, and this was not without precedent for hitmakers, Heavy D - an old MJ collaborator - recently released a reggae album, citing lack of passion for mainstream hip hop in 2009, but in a way it was Heavy D saying his love wasn't the same. For MJ.... Everyone looked to him now for what would come next.

What was next? The pressure took his life.

Michael Jackson was fit at 50, but his soul wasn't. Over time it had been eaten away by all this celebrity. Unfairly, God took him from us, but maybe history will say it was drawn out, for MJ took way too many hits for someone so sensitive who didn't deserve it in the least.

And finally, his heart succumbed. Refusing to beat life into him.

This is Michael Jackson, 6 years away from Thriller. All the tools were in place.

And there's nobody or nothing that will ever replace this man.

Michael Jackson was the last of the great Motown acts, he had studied them all as a child, and he absorbed it within himself and then unleashed his passion to become the greatest entertainer in the history of the world.

I don't have much to say right now.

• North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday. Hawaiians are being told to look for a short rocket with a lot of bluster.
  
  
• More than a quarter of South African men have admitted to raping a woman or girl, with 9.8 per cent forcing themselves on a victim for the first time before the age of 10, a study has found. The study is more proof of the great advancements Nelson Mandela envisioned for civil South African society since the end of apartheid.
  
  
• Los Angeles has suggested putting unemployed parents to work - to care for their own children instead of welfare, which is part of the problem that's sending the state broke. The plan is part of the broader initiative called 'No Shit Hey. We Get It Now.'
  
  
• President Obama said he loses sleep over deficit fears, but said he uses Ice Cube's 'Get Money, Spend Money, No Money' song to drift back off.
  

From the National Post:

Notably, he has more titles than Jordan did at the same age, and Vegas has already installed the Lakers as the favourite to win the 2010 NBA championship. Undeniably, Kobe has matured.

"He's grown," said Fisher. "He's grown up."

But his past, like everyone's, cannot be left behind. Kobe has as many titles as Tim Duncan and Shaq; he has one MVP award, one Finals MVP, two scoring titles, 11 all-star appearances, one broken dynasty and one very ugly but ultimately settled court case on his resume. He has grown up in a very public glare.

And he has arrived here, with road left to travel. Kobe Bryant has always been a lot of things, but he was never simple. He isn't now, either.

Kobe Bryant loves basketball. He loves it arguably more than anything else in his life. He'll do anything for it, step over anyone, handle whatever pressure, leave people behind who don't accept it, tackle any challenge, take what he's given and do more with it. Love continues to be the story that empowers success, spiritually and materially, it's an allegory for Kobe Bryant, for his love, basketball, he surrendered to it in order to accomplish more with it, it became his guide through life, but it wasn't always so easy, sacrifices and tests of character would come.

During his younger years the peer pressure from his fellow teammates and coach meant he wound up doing things that wasn't even in his mind dreaming of the big time, when the previous Lakers Dynasty of the early 2000s would have players go to strip clubs in each city and fool around with groupies, Kobe would instead choose to eat in his hotel room and study game tapes of his opponents.

He sat away. From them.

Phil Jackson would talk to him about it, tell him if he wanted to become a leader of these guys he had to be with them, do what they do, understand them, get closer. Phil Jackson's advice was wrong. It was Kobe's desire to fit in with his teammate's culture that led him to the sexual assault allegations, to his wayward focus. A seasoned rookie in that culture for a black player raised in conservative Italy, Kobe got caught because it's not him, but for the Scottie Pippen's and Shawn Kemp's, Sports Illustrated had to dig up their lurid stories for us to find out.

That was the problem for Kobe, he just wanted to play basketball, but bball is a team sport, and he was youthful with the biggest ambitions. For him, sitting away lonely was not an option because he still was too young to be taken seriously as a leader, or to have the wisdom and courage to lead men older than him. So from 2003 onwards, Kobe Bryant would have to fight the demons that inevitably arose to destroy his love of this game, he fought back. He had to fight back. He had to stop the bleeding souring it. He had to take a team that missed the playoffs in 2005 back to the top, this time he was going to be given the title of leader, the door was open to him, and now the rebuilding process would be by his walk, his way.

The change was obvious. Kobe Bryant emerged a ridiculously potent offensive player, in the 2005/06 season it was something not seen since Wilt Chamberlain. He went for 81 points, second only to Wilt's 100 point game, then 62 in 3 Quarters, only to sit the last quarter after outscoring the entire opposition team over those quarters. Then he took the more talent laden Phoenix Suns with MVP Steve Nash to 7 games, a few shots shy of eliminating them in the first round. For many his one man show was proof who was the real MVP that year.

The evidence was there, Kobe Bryant was getting better when given the chance to shape his own values and behaviour off and on the court, and the team was shaping around him, embracing basketball like he was instead of the outside pursuits of the previous Lakers Dynasty.

By 2008 Kobe had emerged, aided by his trusted basketball father figure Jerry West, he was paired with a committed European player, Pau Gasol, who shared more in common with Kobe's continental European balling culture than the rougher street culture of the American one. Both were concentrated on conquering this game as far as they could go. With a full season together in 2008/09 Kobe had someone who he could message at 3 AM in the morning about the next game, restless and unable to sleep, and get thoughtful words in return, because Gasol had the same problem. Pau wasn't Shaq writing egotistic ghetto mannerisms back.

Standing there, accepting the 2009 NBA Finals MVP Award, Kobe was asked why this championship meant more to him, he said for the challenge straight off, but his eyes and body language were compelling in their honesty. It wasn't for the challenge.

It was due to him being the outright declared leader this time.

This championship was special because it finally validated inside Kobe Bryant something he knew all along.

It would bring success - his leadership, his values, his character, his way.

His love.

• The Australian labour market remains resilient amid the sharp global downturn, with the jobless rate edging up to just 5.7 per cent. Most of the recent job losses occurred in the rugby end of the market.
  
  
• The price of oil burst through the $71 a barrel mark today amid predictions that the price could eventually hit $250. Carmakers manufacturing large vehicles heard the news and begun preparing paperwork for a future bailout.
  
  
• Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed over the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged. The investigators have said it could be a 'macabre coincidence' though, since plenty of men are named Muhammad.
  

• An 89 year old gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, killing a security guard before being shot. When asked what the motivations might be, police said White Supremacism, Dementia and Senility are all being considered. They would not speculate on whether a Jewish nurse once refused to give him a sponge bath.
  
  
• Oil prices rose to almost $72 a barrel on Wednesday - doubling crude prices since February - on optimism that the global economy has reached its bottom. Hugo Chavez pumped his fists and said the revolution can continue now.
  
  
• While in talks for a new nuclear arms treaty with the U.S., Russia has said it will not cut its nuclear warhead arsenal below 1500. When asked why, the Russians replied that they too need to maintain the capacity to extinguish the human race if they decided it was time.
  

• President Obama has said the U.S. is in a deep recession and will take considerable time to recover. He then noted that although times are tight "me and my bitch are rollin' 24 inch Sprewells see us up in Paris on yo' dime? The Broadway by copter and they cheering? That's right."
  
  
• A North Korean court sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with the United States and its neighbors. Diplomats are worried Kim Jong Il's Small Man Syndrome is rapidly deteriorating with old age.
  
  
• Voters have punished heavily-socialist and pro-immigrant leaning political parties in European parliament elections in the U.K., France, Germany and other nations, much in reaction to the global economic crisis. An analyst looked at his watch and said the Hitler Clock was at about a quarter to midnight.
  

• President Obama has participated in a spoof for the Tonight Show that was a fake news interview and actually an infomercial for NBC. Establishment heads said Obama is taking the Presidency to previously unseen levels of tacky and unbecoming of the office, and expect him to feature with Chuck Norris and Tony Robbins at 3 AM in the morning soon, selling ab rollers and motivational tapes.
  
  
• Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has said that President Obama may be more left-wing than himself and Fidel Castro. Next week Hugo Chavez is planning to call him George Bush's house negro, and the week after he will call him a confused shill, followed by more praise the week after.
  
  
• New Zealand has been named the most peaceful nation on Earth, according to the 2009 Global Peace Index released Tuesday. Noise factors were not included in the Peace parameters as sheep shagging would have plummeted it at least 100 places.
  
  
• US President Barack Obama has vowed to forge a 'new beginning' for Islam and America in a landmark speech to global Muslims, evoking a vision of peace after smouldering years of 'suspicion and discord'. For its part Islam promised to review its foundations and assert that an Islamic Republic like Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is not the same as wielding a sword to convert people to its side based on submission for fear of annilihation. America for its part promised to review how porno rock'n'roll the internet and McDonald's are imperialising their lands.