A Farewell Message from MJ...

What about sunrise?
What about rain?
What about all the things,
That you said we were to gain?
What about killing fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the things,
That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice,
All the blood we've shed before?
Did you ever stop to notice,
The crying Earth the weeping shores?

Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........

What have we done to the world?
Look what we've done.
What about all the peace,
That you pledge your only son?
What about flowering fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the dreams,
That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice,
All the children dead from war?
Did you ever stop to notice,
This crying Earth these weeping shores?

Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........

I used to dream.
I used to glance beyond the stars.
Now I don't know where we are.
Although I know we've drifted far.

Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........

Hey-yea!
What about yesterday?
What about the seas?
The heavens are falling down.
I can't even breathe!
What about apathy?
I can feel its wounds.
What about nature's worth?
It's our planet's womb!

What about animals?
We've turned kingdoms to dust,
What about elephants?
Have we lost their trust?
What about crying whales?
Ravaging the seas.
What about forest trails?
Burnt despite our pleas!

What about the holy land?
Torn apart by creed.
What about the common man?
Can't we set him free?
What about children dying?
Can't you hear them cry?
Where did we go wrong?
Someone tell me why!

What about baby boy?
What about the days?
What about all their joy?
What about the man?
What about the crying man?
What about Abraham?
What about death again?
Do we give a damn?!



Michael Joseph Jackson (29 August 1958 – 25 June 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums are among the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as Beat It, Billie Jean and Thriller — credited for transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool — helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as Black or White and Scream made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced many hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.

One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records — including one for "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time" — 13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career — more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era — and the sales of over 750 million albums worldwide. Cited as one of the world's most famous men, Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. [Source: Wikipedia]

SPECIAL BONUS TRIBUTE FEATURE...


MJ may have died laughing at this vid!

[First posted 26 June 2009] Reposted 5 August 2014]

Does the mysterious 432 hold the key to universal attunement and harmony? (reprise)

There's a whole lot I still haven't understood after viewing the above videos - but I'm definitely convinced that the 432Hz frequency used by Hermetic philosophers like Pythagoras and Tibetan musicians carries a vital resonance that links up with cosmic cycles, small and great.

For a start the number 432 features prominently in Hindu cosmogony as well as in Nordic legends. A yuga (age) supposedly lasts 432,000 years; while a kalpa (aeon) is 4.32 billion years, approximately the age of planet Earth as calculated by radio-astronomers. The Icelandic Edda declares that in the Halls of Odin there are 540 doors through each of which 800 warriors will pass on the day of the Final Battle: 540 X 800 = 432,000, of course.

Consider the way time is measured: 60 seconds in an hour and 12 hours in a day. Guess how many seconds constitute a 12-hour day? 60 X 60 X 12 = 43,200.

Obviously, the 432Hz frequency is a key fractal of cosmic cycles - and when you consider that the "sacred number" 108, multiplied by four, equals 432... the mind begins to boggle at what else a dedicated mathematical sleuth will discover.

Serious researchers into cymatics (the science of soundwave phenomena) like Leonard G. Horowitz believe that the standard concert tuning of A=440Hz was introduced by the Rockefeller Foundation, following years of secret experiments on the psycho-emotional use of music for mind-control. Apparently, at 440Hz music can produce a subsurface tension affecting the human nervous system, making us susceptible to hysteria, hostility and herd mentality. Although Horowitz advocated A=444Hz as standard tuning instead of 432Hz, it's fascinating to delve a little into what obsessed him. (Click on the link above to read his excellent thesis titled "Musical Cult Control.")

As music plays a very important part in my life, I'm inclined to take these findings to heart. This blog is a follow-up on something I posted in mid-September, also relating to the importance of recent rediscoveries in the arcane field of cymatics.

[First posted 22 November 2011. Reposted 27 November 2020

SPOTLIGHT ON ZAHIM ALBAKRI (repost)

A young Zahim (r) plays the Angel of Death

Malaysia’s top-ranking actor-director shifts into high gear

By Antares

Appropriately enough I first met Zahim Albakri on stage - in a 1988 production of Maureen Ten’s For The Time Being. I played a dying doctor and Zahim was cast as an angel assigned to assist in the doctor’s transition. Zahim had recently returned from drama studies in the U.K. and this was his introduction to Malaysian theater. With the benefit of hindsight it appears that Zahim’s rôle as an angel of transition was indeed a prophetic one.

In the decades since his return to the homeland, Zahim Albakri has been a key factor in helping shift local theater from the amateur end of the spectrum to the professional. He didn’t accomplish this feat alone, of course. Look at his peer group - Jit Murad, Jo Kukathas, Huzir Sulaiman, Allan Perera, Indi Nadarajah, Afdlin Shauki, Harith Iskandar, Patrick Teoh, Nell Ng, Gavin Yap – all theater luminaries in their own right. They are undoubtedly the fresh wave of talent that has swept up the theater-loving legacy of the older aficionados and carried it to entirely new heights.

  

Co-founder of Instant Cafe Theatre

In 1989 Zahim got together with a few buddies and founded the notorious Instant Café Theatre, which carved a prominent niche for itself in political satire. He subsequently created Dramalab as a vehicle to explore and develop original works, and to promote the further growth of a Malaysian theater idiom.

Stage actors began receiving modest wages only around 1990, so almost everyone aspiring to a full-time career in local theater had to moonlight in TV dramas and the occasional feature film. Zahim Albakri has appeared in countless Malay TV dramas, many of which are best forgotten, but he did score a Best Actor award in 1999 for his performance in something called Odisi. The Boh Cameronian Arts Awards - inaugurated in 2002 and now affectionately known as the Cammies - was a timely boost to the performing arts in Malaysia in that excellent work was at last getting the public recognition it deserved.

Making waves in theater

Zahim bagged the Cammy for Best Director (Spilt Gravy on Rice) the very first year. In 2004 he was voted Best Solo Performer for The Smell of Language, and a year later he shared the Best Director Cammy with Singapore’s Alvin Tan for Separation 40 (a Dramalab/Necessary Stage co-production). His huge directorial success with Puteri Gunung Ledang – The Musical has established Zahim Albakri as a veritable icon in Malaysian theater. When I met him over lunch towards the end of August 2006, Zahim was in the midst of reprising his rôle as director of Jit Murad’s maiden play, Gold Rain and Hailstones, first staged in August 1998 to tremendous acclaim, and which begins an 11-day run on September 7th, this time on the big stage at the newly inaugurated KL Performing Arts Center.

Zahim’s mother Valerie is a vivacious Englishwoman with a distinct flair for the arts. Her ambition was to be a professional dancer, but her parents persuaded her to get a bank job instead. Valerie became a speech and drama teacher in Malaysia when she married Zahim’s dad - an eminent architect best known for the National Library and the landmark Putra World Trade Center. In February 2006, Zahim’s father had a heart attack while playing golf, and died. Zahim has two siblings: elder brother Zarul (a musician and film producer) and younger sister Zehan (who followed her father’s footsteps and took up architecture).

Zahim Albakri: conferred Datukships in 2009 & 2015

The warmth and affection with which Zahim speaks of his parents is tangible. He did toy for a while with the idea of becoming an architect like his dad, but instead opted to express his artistic impulses in the more kinetic field of theater where he subsequently earned his Master’s degree in Theater Directing. 

He rarely intellectualizes about directing, preferring to approach his work intuitively, allowing for serendipity and creative inputs from his cast and crew. Zahim’s lifelong interest in architectural forms and physical structures grounds him firmly in the visual aspects of dramaturgy, while his early exposure to the magic of theater gives him a solid grasp of the alchemy that happens when the right actors get together to dramatize a story.

Born January 12th in 1963, Zahim Albakri is a firmly established, mature actor and director in the fullness of his prime, poised on the brink of even greater accomplishments.

[First published in The Hilt, September 2006. Posted 27 July 2017]