Listen Without Prejudice - Review of "Michael" the New Michael Jackson Album

Reviewing new albums of relatively recently deceased musicians is not something to look forward to, unless the deceased is Johnny Cash. These albums are rarely really new or enjoyable listening.

"Hold My Hand", the opener, had me grinning and nodding for my prejudice seemed right. The song sounds like Estonia's contribution to the annual nightmare of the Eurovision Song Contest and won't add to the fame and glory of Michael Jackson nor Akon.

Michael Jackson

Similarly mellow, cut and put on the album to bring tears in the eyes of the "super fan" buyer persona is "Best of Joy". "Breaking News" sounds like Britney Spears' "Piece of me" and Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" mixed together, the song is about the media tearing up Michael Jackson and is pathetic.

Listen Without Prejudice - Review of "Michael" the New Michael Jackson Album

"(I like) The Way You Love Me" is classic R&B album filler material. "Hollywood Tonight" features a groovy, catchy and fresh Michael Jackson. "Keep Your Head Up" is a socially engaged motivational song with interesting lyrics( She (a waitress) waits her life away...").

Now, the best stuff. Although "Monster" has a similar topic like "Breaking News" it's probably the closest to the songs Michael would have wanted on a new album, its hypnotizing robotic R&B beat is dance floor matter, 50 Cent contributes a well fitted rap staccato.

Lenny Kravitz is proud of his contribution to the album on track number 8 "(I Can't Make It) Another Day", and is right saying that "Michael is singing his behind of" on this song - fantastic.

Almost all the songs have a healthy dose of Michael hee-hees, hoo-hoos, hmm-hmms, eeh-eehs, ooh-oohs, ha-has and that's alright, the beatboxing is not as enjoyable.

The gems on the album are, each in its own way, "Behind The Mask" and "Much To Soon".

Both stem from the "Thriller" era, "Much To Soon" is less than 3 minutes in time and is Michael Jackson as he was not often heard. The song is different from the rest of the album and could become a campfire, romantic hymn. There's an acoustic guitar, accordion, harmonica and strings. "Behind the Mask" with Japanese electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra's sample, saxophone, Michael's energised vocals and the robot choir is an revelation. The songs alone are worth buying the album.

The album is not really tight, but as a whole is surprisingly and unexpectedly good.

Listen Without Prejudice - Review of "Michael" the New Michael Jackson AlbumEmerald Anniversary Tube. Duration : 20.78 Mins.

When Chris' dad buys a Chaos Emerald for a gift, Sonic and Friends, and Eggman duke it out for the emerald but Eggman unleashes Weazo and escapes with the sixth emerald while Knuckles helps Sonic defeat the robot.

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Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch

Okay, I'll admit, I've read a number of novels where the hero enjoys sipping on a single malt scotch and I'm not entirely sure the differences, so I couldn't tell you if he was sipping on a good one or not. I also have friends who talk about various scotches and I can't contribute much to the conversations. Sure, I've enjoyed scotch now and then, and will again, but I really can't say I know that much.

However, that is where "Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch: A Connoisseur's Guide to the Single Malt Whiskies of Scotland" comes in. This fully revised sixth edition, updated by Dominic Roskrow, Gavin D. Smith, and William C. Meyers, and published by DK, covers just about anything you would want to know about malts. It's not a book to read cover to cover, unless you are really into scotch and enjoy reading reviews and tasting notes on over 1,000 malt whiskies, with vintages from 1926 onward, including reviews of over 500 new bottlings. I spotted it on the library shelf and had to pick it up and give it a read.

Michael Jackson

The book begins with a few pages on the late Michael Jackson of the whisky industry, not music fame. Then it proceeds with an instant guide to the pleasures of the pursuit of malts. Just a few pages, but it will help you understand why malts are so popular, and why many heroes in books and movies refer to these beverages. Next come chapters on the origins of malt whisky, the words used on the label, flavors, regional variations, the age, the wood, and finally the owners, distillers, and bottlers. These are all very short chapters, with photographs that take up the first 71 pages of the book. You can read these pretty easily and know more about malt whisky than most people. The rest of the book, which is nearly 450 pages long, is an A to Z directory of single malts.

Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch

In these pages, you can find information on just about any single malt you can think of. This expanded edition includes chapters on world whiskies, including malts from Ireland, Japan, and newer producers in Sweden and Australia. One of the first entries I turned to was the chapter on Laphroaig, a favorite brand of a few of my friends. Sure, I've shared toasts with it with those friends, but I now know a bit more about what I was drinking. So, if you have any questions regarding single malt whiskies, check out this book and you'll find your answers.

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Michael Jackson, Demerol, and Prescription Drug Abuse

Did Michael Jackson die from a prescription drug overdose? As I write this it is barely 12 hours since the death of the "king of pop" and rumors are circulating that there is a strong possibility an overdose of Demerol, a prescription pain killer similar to morphine might have triggered or caused his cardiac arrest. While tragic, if true then Michael Jackson is just another in a long line of meaningless deaths at the hands of prescription medications...an epidemic that has gone on for far too long.

From Elvis Presley to Marilyn Monroe to Janis Joplin and now Michael, the list of victims from prescription drugs reads like a who's who of the talented and successful. But what isn't reported in the mass media are the millions of people that are killed from prescription drugs that aren't rich and famous. These people listen to their doctors, believe the propaganda of the pharmaceutical companies and think they are doing 'the right thing' by buying often toxic man-made chemicals and poisons to treat what ails them.

Michael Jackson

The truth is that 90% of illnesses, pains and other complaints that people go to their doctors for are treatable just as easily and more effectively without using drugs than with them. Pharmaceutical companies have made billions and billions of dollars convincing people that they 'need pills' in order to deal with what are ordinary, simple health issues that the body will correct by itself without medication.

Michael Jackson, Demerol, and Prescription Drug Abuse

Painkillers and Antidepressants are the two most abused kinds of drugs. If you think about it, they are really two sides of the same coin. Antidepressants after all are simply 'emotional' painkillers. Unfortunately people have bought into the bogus logic that medicating away your fears, anxieties and problems is 'better' and 'more effective' than actually tackling life's challenges through hard work, focus and follow-through. 

Similarly, denial is a condition that is rampant in our society and using painkillers both the physical and mental kind are a key way that pharmaceutical companies encourage denial. Let's take Michael Jackson as an example. It has been widely reported that Michael had suffered from debilitating physical problems with his back and legs from injuries during the years and years of rigorous performing. Instead of accepting that at 50 years old he was not the spry, malleable 25 year old of yesterday and forcing himself to try and live up to what were unexpectedly high levels of physical stress...he turned to painkillers. 

Pain has a purpose. It is the way a person's body tells them that they are pushing themselves too hard or under too much stress. Emotional pain comes out as anxiety or depression. It is no different in that way than physical pain. By taking painkillers for his physical pain, Michael very well might have caused his life to be taken far too young. Similarly, people that don't heed their own emotional pain and camouflage it with antidepressants or turning to other drugs both legal or illegal or alcohol are simply emulating the same denial. The end result is ALWAYS bad and sometimes leads to tragedy.

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If Michael Jackson Had Been a Vegetarian - He'd Still Be Alive Today!

Did you know that among all of the other ills associated with eating red meat, researchers are now saying that it can increase your chances of developing rheumatoid arthritis? Pretty scary, huh - a British study, published in the medical journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, followed 250 people who kept food diaries listing everything they ate for a week. One-third of the people in the study suffered from inflammatory arthritis in at least two joints in this study. People who ate the most red meat were more than twice as likely to have arthritis. Some 40 percent of the participants who had arthritis ate more than 58 grams of red meat. Furthermore, those who combined red meat with other animal proteins had a higher risk of inflammatory arthritis than those who ate less meat.

Also, did you know that, as much as the pundits would like to find fault with the vegetarian lifestyle, a retrospective British study was carried out on 116 patients with anorexia nervosa to ascertain the extent and nature of vegetarianism in this population? Of the 116, Sixty-three (54.3%) patients were found to be avoiding red meat.  So what does that tell you? It says that less than half were meat eaters and half were not. Split down the middle on vegetarians being anorexic or meat eaters being anorexic. These studies funded by bias groups need to stop providing miss information! Meat eaters are just as much at risk of getting anorexia as vegetarians. It's a psychological issue not a dietary one. Although, I would contend if the study was done on the overall population many, many more meat eaters are anorexic than vegetarians. Sadly, Michael Jackson might have died due to his anorexia.

Michael Jackson

Another study by the Rheumatology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School reviewed recent research on diet and arthritis, and concluded that there was an association between an increased risk of arthritis and both a high consumption of meat and a low consumption of Vitamin C. They noted that the Mediterranean diet, which is on the right path to being a vegetarian lifestyle, focuses mostly on plant foods and olive oil while restricting red meat, can head off the development or arthritis and lessen the severity of symptoms.

If Michael Jackson Had Been a Vegetarian - He'd Still Be Alive Today!

The more that scientists and doctors study the connection between diet, eating lifestyles and overall health, the more they discover that eating meat is unhealthy. As you continue your vegetarian lifestyle, you can feel good about the fact that the choices you make at the grocery store can help you live a longer, healthier, happier Life! Michael Jackson, God rest his soul, would have fared a longer, healthier life had he avoided the dieting nightmare and anorexia that obviously consumed him.

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