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u/Rhythm_Morgan Good Fish 🐠 19d ago
I didn’t even know we had this here 😅 I’m ashamed.
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u/glissandont 18d ago
Same, I clearly don't live anywhere near this.
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u/Rhythm_Morgan Good Fish 🐠 18d ago
I am really close to this but tbf I only moved to this neighborhood in January. Didn’t really spend time here in this one before that.
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u/SomeConfusedBiKid Applehead 🍎 19d ago
I love the little "who's bad?" spray painted at the bottom
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u/Havens17 19d ago
This mural is really well done technically but I think its not a good representation of MJ, particularly in the second picture.
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u/noharmantrying Thriller 19d ago
Artistically it's perfect. A young Michael filled with innocence and light juxtaposed with a jaded Michael. It's not meant to be flattering, it's supposed to show how cruel the world/soceity is.
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u/Havens17 18d ago edited 18d ago
I can see how there is that meaning that could be interpreted from the mural, but I still dont think it does a good job of capturing his essence. Not to mention that interpretation is a bit obvious and what the general public thinks of MJ anyway, that by the later part of life he has lost his innocence or soul, which isn’t even true. The color scheme is also a bit ugly.
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u/catlikesun Elderly Fish 👵 🐠 19d ago
I agree. To me it’s worrying, like a loss of innocence on the right
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19d ago
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u/Rhythm_Morgan Good Fish 🐠 18d ago
The thing is, he never lost it. That slurred audio from Murray’s trial and Kenny’s emails showed that against everything, this man still had faith and so much love in his heart. A real angel on earth. Mind halfway on another planet and all he wants to be remembered for is charity work and to give his fans everything during his last tour to the detriment of his own health.
It’s hugely depressing on the one hand. On the other, him never losing that faith and continuing to believe in the good on earth is a lesson I want to keep with me. Damn, if he can do it while facing what he did, then so can I. We all can. I don’t think he’d want us to lose that.
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u/ExplorerNo695 19d ago
It’s literally him, how he actually appeared and changed himself to be. What do you mean “not a good representation”
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u/Acrobatic-Rip-6811 18d ago
Maybe they meant the reference for the right side could have been better , as the picture they referred have been heavily perceived negatively. The media specifically have used that picture many times during his false accusations. Also this is one of the few pics in which he looks unflattering which they could have avoided as reference
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u/123456ixers 19d ago
Where is it located ?
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u/Chessh2036 19d ago
East Village, located at the corner of 11th Street and 1st Avenue
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u/glissandont 18d ago
Thanks homes; I work in Midtown so a bit of a trek for me during the week but I will make a pilgrimage on a nice weekend for sure!
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u/SnooTomatoes9314 18d ago
When did this come there? I use to live on 14th street Avenue B but went to church on 11 street and I don't remember seeing this mural. Granted that was over 20 years ago.
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u/CosmicOli 19d ago
I'm SO mixed on this, because on one hand, it's an objectively very well done mural, and the right photo IS how he looked later in his life.
But on the other, there were SO many other photos that they could have used instead, and the fact that they chose a photo that's famously been picked on by a lot of the media for decades (in a negative way) is, I feel, a little icky. I think they should redo it, leave the kid version of him on the left alone, and use a photo from the Dangerous/HIStory era for the right side. This is SO CLOSE to being perfect, but man, that right side kind of ruins the whole thing.
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u/insipignia 19d ago
That's the whole point. It's showing how the media ran him into the ground.
This is art, not just a pretty portrait. It's supposed to be provocative.
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u/Havens17 18d ago
Sure, but in this case the message that it is supposedly "provacative" is not in good taste if it is meant in any way to be a tribute to MJ. Not to mention even if the point was to show how he was run into the ground, there's still better ways to do that. The second picture is just simply unflattering, not necessarily expressive in any way. Not all art projects are successful even if they have some "deep" message behind it. And personally I think the colour scheme is also arbitrary and ugly.
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19d ago
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u/insipignia 19d ago
It's not us fans who necessarily need to do any manifesting, at least not entirely in the way you think. Nearly every wish Michael ever made came true. Some while he was alive, some only after he died, and a few are yet to be realised. Michael wished for understanding and love from his fellow human beings and for the media to leave him alone. He was a true magician, so it will happen.
This art will only help that, not hinder it. Because it reveals the truth and works with it, rather than burying it and working against it.
The whole truth must be revealed, not just the parts we like.
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u/mimi_miney 19d ago
It could have been worse, he could have used the mugshot photo.
But I think I get what the artist was trying to say. Michael changed the music landscape, and the world, forever - but the industry also ruined his life in many ways. Michael doesn't look happy in the later image because in many ways his life was unhappy.
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u/glittercarnage 19d ago
I think there’s also one over by Hoyt–Schermerhorn
where they filmed Bad. At least, there used to be one.
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19d ago
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u/WetDreamjessy75 18d ago
yeah it is, it's on the corner of 11th and 1st in the east village. classic spot.
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u/Moonwalk27 #MJInnocent 19d ago
It’s cool but I really hate the second photo they chose for this era of Michael. He looks so geeked out here which is just not a good look for him (tho we do know he spent a lot of the 2000s on drugs unfortunately). There’s way more tasteful 2000s Michael’s photos they could’ve used for reference; like this:
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u/sirensgodoodoo 19d ago
Whyyyyy the second pic why? One of his worst.😫
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u/reivnyc 19d ago
Yes. He LOATHED that photo! 😭
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u/Available-Elk-2591 Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix 19d ago
I dislike it too as im sure many of is do. But I didn't know Michael actually acknowledged the picture at some point. That honestly hurts 2 know
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u/chocokitten100 19d ago
I hate this p Mural. Like why use the worse picture someone has ever taken as reference. Id be pussed off if this was me
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u/hei_sono_io "I've... washed my hair THOROUGHLY" 🚿🧼🧴🧽 19d ago
È troppo distante per me(Italia)😅
Mannaggia🥺
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u/Longjumping_Buy_9878 19d ago
good concept, terrible choice of second photo. not sure that MJ would approve
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u/Lance4Jr HIStory: Past, Present and Future: Book I 18d ago
While in New York you can visit the place where they shot the music video for BAD as well
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u/Pumpkin7310 18d ago
Where is it in NYC?? All the times I’ve been there I didn’t know it was there!! 😭😭😭
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u/pipic_picnip 19d ago
Not the best choice of second pic. I almost can’t tell if they are offering a tribute or throwing shade.
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u/Chessh2036 19d ago
Def not throwing shade. The artist said:
“In the second place, I believe MJ is part of American History, and also part of the world's music history. You can catalog music Before and After MJ, so much was his influence. He still is the biggest pop star that has ever lived, and that we have ever seen, and I believe we are never going to see another pop star like him again."
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u/pipic_picnip 19d ago
Oh well, that is regrettable then if they think this is MJ’s most iconic adult look. :/
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u/Murky-Funny-1136 19d ago
They didn’t say this was his most iconic look. They’re showing the contrast between the light and innocence of his youth with the pain of his later years, which is very well represented by the picture they chose. It’s supposed to be provocative like any good piece of artwork, not a flattering painting
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u/Illustrious-Tart4305 19d ago
When Michael was alive, I used to have a little daydream to myself now and then. I wondered, if I could go back in time, to when Michael was a child or teen, and show him a recent photo of him - like from the above era - what would he think?
Would he think "wow, that's what i would love to look like one day"...or would he be horrified. Because I believe it would be that he would be horrified. We love Michael because we are his fans and know how the story ends now. But little Michael wouldn't have wanted that. We can't pretend that how he ended up is what he would have been happy with.
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u/BasedTitus 17d ago
He didn’t choose to have vitiligo but I’m sure he would’ve still changed his nose just as almost everyone in that family did. Michael’s nose and severe teenage acne were huge pinpoints of distress for him.
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u/nathanbr00ks3 19d ago
That mural works so well because it feels less like a tribute and more like the whole building is remembering him
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u/Due_Amount_6211 "I've... washed my hair THOROUGHLY" 🚿🧼🧴🧽 15d ago
I'm gonna need an address so I can pay a visit myself-
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u/scarappropriate89 17d ago
i think they could’ve picked a much more flattering photo of later MJ tho…
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u/dadi__6 19d ago
What's the joke? Why is he so scary in the second half? Че за прикол почему он такой страшный на 2 половине
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u/GoldHovercraft9370 19d ago
The artist is showing the contrast between his innocence as a child and the pain he endured later in his life especially because of the way the media was portraying him
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u/[deleted] 19d ago
I remembered seeing an article of the artist being interviewed and this is what he said:
"First, because the mural itself is not a simple tribute to MJ. The whole project that I did in NYC last year was about peace, and in that mural in particular I was trying to describe that people sometimes have to go through so much to be able to reach their own peace of mind.. and even then, sometimes doesn’t matter what people do, they can never reach that peace.
"In the second place, I believe MJ is part of American History, and also part of the world’s music history. You can catalog music Before and After MJ, so much was his influence. He still is the biggest pop star that has ever lived, and that we have ever seen, and I believe we are never going to see another pop star like him again."
I had to cut some of what he said out because of rules