7:41 pm By la Macha · Uncategorized · Comments Off
10 Sep 20098:17 pm By la Macha · Arts|Entertainment|Health|race · 1 Comment
24 Aug 2009
In truly sad news, it is looking like Michael Jackson’s death didn’t have to happen. The L.A. corner has released preliminary findings which say the cause of death was an overdose of overdose of propofol, a powerful sedative Jackson was using to sleep.
The 32-page warrant said Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson’s personal physician, told a detective that he had been treating Jackson for insomnia for six weeks. Murray said each night he gave Jackson 50 mg of propofol, also known as Diprivan, diluted with the anesthetic lidocaine via an intravenous drip.
Worried that Jackson may have been becoming addicted to the drug, the Houston cardiologist said he attempted to wean him from it, putting together combinations of other drugs that succeeded in helping Jackson sleep during the two nights prior to his death.
But on June 25, other drugs failed to do the job, as he recounted to detectives in an hour-by-hour account that was detailed by detective Orlando Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department:
This is just so sad. The irony in the fact that Jackson “made it” after starting off in desperate poverty–and he still wound up meeting the fate so many of us in the ghetto do–a drug related death. His drugs may have cost more than anything you or I have ever gotten, but they’re still drugs. And presumably, Jackson was taking those drugs for the same reason so many of us are: over work, isolation, depression, and past abuse.
Jackson’s death either shows that you can’t outrun your past–or that racism is a lot more pervasive than we think. And that it is our *culture* and *physical surroundings* that are as sick as we are. That we are living in an unsustainable world.
Or maybe it’s a little of all of it.
9:02 pm By la Macha · Celebrities · 2 Comments
3 Aug 2009I was so happy to hear the news that Michael Jackson’s children will not become fodder for the celebrity mags–at least not yet. Jackson’s mother (Kathryn Jackson) and his ex-wife (Debbie Rowe) have settled (largely out of court) visitation and custody issues with the kids.
The battle for his estate will not be going so smoothly. And it makes me wonder, if Jackson had left all his money to his kids, would the custody battle have gone so smoothly?
Maybe Michael was a lot smarter than any of us ever figured.
12:46 pm By la Macha · Celebrities · 5 Comments
29 Jul 2009Seems to be a really slow news cycle these past few days. I’ve been surfing around all the major news sites and all I can find is grisly stories about babies being cut out of dead women and bus riding cats. Oh, and stories about Madonnas biceps. Apparently, Madonna has been spending a lot of time working out.

I don’t know ya’ll. On the one hand, I won’t deny having an immediate reaction to those pictures (ay, dios mio, Madonna, what are you doing to yourself girl?), but on the other hand, in light of the stark picture of how horribly and dehumanizing Michael Jackson was treated throughout his life time only to find out that the man was suffering from serious skin conditions, drug abuse, loneliness and god knows what else brought on by the evils of fame–I kinda feel like these pictures are exploitative. They reduce Madonna to her biceps.
And sure, Madonna is one of the biggest Latinophiles out there–but whatever may or may not be wrong with her, does she deserve to have her entire humanity reduced to the state of her arms? Does she deserve to be turned into another “wacko” so that the public can feel better about itself?
9:12 pm By la Macha · Controversia|society · Comments Off
28 Jul 2009I’m pretty conflicted on continuing to follow the Michael Jackson death story–I mean, the dude was incredibly influential in my life and in my community–so I think that there’s news interesting in finding out why he died so early and what is going to happen with his family/kids. But..at the same time…I don’t know. His death seems to have brought out the worst in everybody, including his own family. I swear if I hear one more “Kathryn Jackson approved interview” with a friend of the family declaring they have ‘proof’ that Jackson wasn’t gay–I’m going to scream (Some proof? Jackson apparently drew pictures of pretty women. And nobody ever saw him with a man. And…well. Um. Yeah.).
But either way–the latest news is that Jackson’s doctor may have caused his death by administering a lethal injection.
I have to say, I’ll feel pretty bad for the doctor if this turns out to be true and he really did cause Jackson’s death. Because from everything that I’ve read, Jackson had a long history of abuse of drugs (ranging form popping pills to being put under anesthesia so he could sleep) and treating his body poorly. And it’s my guess that his long history of drug abuse had as much of an influence in his death than the last injection.
But, we’ll see how it plays out.
10:53 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Controversia|society · 4 Comments
9 Jul 2009Are we done with Michael Jackson yet? Not even close.
Like La Macha, I also teared up watching his memorial service. But our friend Bill O’Reilly says we’re blowing his legacy out of proportion and that America needs to stop idealizing the man. Check it out:
What else could he say? O’Reilly pooh poohs all gestures of admiration towards any person of color. While he does make a couple of good arguments, the overall rhetoric is meant to be hateful and that’s just what it is.
But I do agree with at least one Fox News commentator on this issue. Geraldo Rivera criticized celebrities who showed up to salute Jackson at his memorial service, but who were silent when Michael was being skewered with child molestation charges.
What do you think? Is the glorification of MJ going too far? And what about those silent celebrities?
Via / Examiner
4:33 pm By la Macha · Entertainment · Comments Off
7 Jul 2009I’m sure I’m not the only mujer out there that spent the early 90′s with this duo cranked up on the boom box (and eyeballing Mariah’s marvelous tetas).
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Feeling melancholy right now.
4:26 pm By la Macha · Entertainment · 1 Comment
7 Jul 2009I’ve had a lot of conflicting emotions about the death of Michael Jackson. I think he totally acted improperly (at the very least) with young children. I think he was beaten (viciously) by his father. I think he had some really complicated problems with being black. I think he also identified strongly as black. He made music that brought communities together (we are the world, anybody?) and he made it ok for little kids of color to be proud of who they were (for real, the number of times I’ve seen little Latino kids dressed up as Michael Jackson impersonators??? Countless).
Here’s MSNBC’s entire coverage of the memorial:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
But even with all these complicated issues I have with the man–I found myself teary eyed watching the memorial. So many of my life memories are connected to his songs.
It’s good to see Michael’s family can have some peace and dignity and love at this time. No matter what their son/brother means to me or any of the rest of the public, to them–he is a son, a father, a brother. And for their sakes, I wouldn’t want him remembered in any other way.
4:05 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bizarro|Celebrities|Music|society · 1 Comment
1 Jul 2009As surreal as it sounds, reports that have surfaced about at least 10 grieving Michael Jackson fans committing suicide in the past few days appear to be true.
The man behind the world’s biggest online Michael Jackson fan club has said heartbroken followers of the star have committed suicide because of his death.Gary Taylor, president and owner of MJJcommunity.com, said he understood the tragedies had mostly taken place outside of the UK but he believed one may have been British.
“I know there has been an increase, I now believe the figure is 12. I believe there may have been one Briton who has taken their life,” he said.
“It is a serious situation that these people are going through but Michael Jackson would never want this. He would want them to live.”
The first death reportedly occurred in Tunisia, where a girl took her own life by overdose. Similar reports have been popping up in other parts of the world.
Meanwhile, Reverend Jesse Jackson is urging fans to keep living (see video above).
This is all really too surreal.
Via / Yahoo News UK
2:08 pm By la Macha · Celebrities|children|Family · 2 Comments
29 Jun 2009
Huffington Post published a link to an old interview given by one of the mother’s of Michael Jackson’s kids, Debbie Rowe. It reminded me of how incredibly screwy that whole situation of Michael having kids really was:
Debbie (who lives on a farm surrounded by animals) said, “”I was just the vessel. It wasn’t Michael’s sperm. Just like I stick the sperm up my horse, this is what they did to me. I was his thoroughbred.”….
After Debbie gave birth to second child Paris, she couldn’t have kids again, “The delivery was so hard. My insides were all torn up and I was barren. When he knew I couldn’t have any more babies he didn’t want anything to do with me.”
Debbie says she will not fight for custody of Prince Michael or Paris, “I know I will never see them again. I was never cut out to be a mother – I was no good. I don’t want these children in my life. My children are my animals now.”
I know that these old interviews are coming up now because our culture as a whole is really enjoying making fun of Jackson and continuing the “weird” discourse it had created around him. But I also think that this interview is coming up now because we’re going to be treated to years and years of of custody battles over Jackson’s kids, and this is the first step in that battle.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the lawyers of one group who has an investment in getting custody thought it would be a good idea to remind the public of this interview.
We’ll have to wait and see.
Until then, read this post by Elle PhD and her conflicting complicated emotions she is feeling about Jackson’s death.
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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