Dad,

Have you seen Michael Jackson lately? Do you know what he is doing? Have you seen his new look?

Me neither. Michael Jackson has a new public personality – he is absent.

After a lifetime of fame like the world has never seen and a face that has appeared more times on tabloids and magazines than any other face in history, he has managed to disappear. I am happy for him. I have always been a fan, and I winced at his public charades and the media circus that would surround them. None of us can know what it would be like to be given that kind of talent, more money thatn you can spend in three loifetimes, and the kind of fame that buys you a ticket to the front page of every magazine in the media – no matter what you do. If he is crazy, if he is a monster, then he has been crafted as one through the majesty of our modern media machine.

Is he crazy? Yes. I think so. An I am happy for him that he can go and be crazy in private for the first time in his long life.

Bryan.