What's so fascinating about Michael Jackson was the depth of the yin-yang in his life. He was so brilliantly talented, yet so deeply troubled. We fixate on people like that just as we would someone with two heads. We commoners can't understand how the exceedingly gifted are so often whack jobs with dark sides that can shade the sun.

You and I have a little talent around the edges that we coax to life to produce some barely useful thing. On the other hand, Michael Jackson (with fellow MTV maven Madonna) redrew the map of how to be a music celebrity in the US. It was no longer about good songs and a competent voice. Jackson made it a full-on show with hyper-kinetic dance, hypnotic clothes and songs that throbbed their way into our subconscious. (Just listen to "Billy Jean.") Michael Jackson stayed at the pinnacle of performance productivity for about 10 years, longer than the Beatles.

However, that kind of talent apparently can't exist without screaming demons that eventually erupt in bizarre behavior and shocking revelations. His fixation on kids and beyond healthy appearance almost erased his blinding talent in my mind. It's hard to be sympathetic when you hear about the death of someone that strange, that far past the norms of behavior. He was deeply troubled, perhaps as troubled as he was talented.

It's a strange world. So many of us do what we can and walk through life in obscurity. Then a guy like Michael Jackson sprints by on a path of his own and we think he's got it all. But it's a path that diverges with normal behavior and we will make him pay eventually.

Strange case...

--Bob