It seems that over the past two weeks, journalists around the world have written something about the life and death of Michael Jackson from every imaginable angle. I have not because, frankly, I couldn’t think of any memories of Michael or odes to his talent that were not already being rushed into print. So, I decided to jump into this Michael Jackson media frenzy by relating my personal experience with Michael’s father, Joe Jackson, and the day he threw me out of the Jackson family’s Encino compound.
It happened on one of those typically beautiful, balmy Sunday afternoons in the valley in the 1980s. I was working for another Black L.A. newspaper and Michael was preparing to appear somewhere doing something special — exactly what, I do not recall, but it was supposed to be big and exciting and newsworthy and produce a lot of advertising revenue for the paper. Even though I was a Michael Jackson fan, I was not then (and am still not) interested in writing pieces on entertainers or any pop culture figures unless they’re involved in some kind of scandal. If I remember correctly, the Jackson people and my newspaper people wanted a piece about him published in our paper. Since I lived closer than anyone else on the staff to the Jackson family home, it was decided that I would do the piece, as I was in the area anyway.

I acquiesced and agreed to do the assignment. I made an appointment to interview Michael at his home and arranged for the late, great photographer Steve Grayson to meet me there. Steve and I arrived at the Jacksons’ home on Hayvenhurst at the appointed hour and we waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. I don’t like to wait. I have this thing about waiting: I feel as if segments of my life that I would never get back are being frittered away by the unproductive act of just sitting and waiting; I find it physically and mentally agonizing. A prolonged wait causes me to itch and twitch and pace and get out of sorts as my mind keeps running images of the many other things I could be doing with my time.

I could take this waiting torture no longer, so I asked a nearby factotum what the holdup was and he said he didn’t know, so he fetched Joe Jackson to come tell me. I reminded old man Jackson that we had an appointment for an interview with his son and I asked how long we would have to wait before we got it. He looked at me as though I had struck him hard across the face and told me to “get out!” I said, “What?!” Then he said I was “impertinent.” Well, actually, he mispronounced the word, but “impertinent” was what he was striving to say. (Me? “Impertinent?!”)

“Get out!” Old Joe barked at me again. I then stood up, shrugged my shoulders and said, “Fine. I’ve been thrown out of better joints than this,” after which Steve packed up his gear and he and I moved on down the yellow brick road to my place. As we were leaving the compound, Steve said: “Damn! That’s the second time I’ve been thrown out of here!” Steve then explained to me what a difficult man Joe Jackson is — using a more colloquial term for “difficult man” — and wondered aloud as to whether he would ever get a chance to take photos of Michael Jackson.

Once I realized how disappointed Steve was, I apologized to him for being “impertinent” and ruining his photographic opportunity. I promised to make it up to him some day, (and I did later, when I became managing editor, I assigned him to cover Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to L.A.), but in the meantime, we decided to go to my house, where we spent the rest of that beautiful Sunday afternoon eating and drinking and listening to Michael Jackson cassette tapes and affirming our belief that while Michael was truly a great artist, worthy of our attention, his father was a piece of &#@t.

DREW MOVES ON — Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science has begun hiring faculty and recruiting students for its new Mervyn M. Dymally School of Nursing, scheduled to open early next year. The university received the green light to hire and recruit after the state Board of Registered Nursing recently approved the school’s entry level master of science nursing program. The program offers a two-year, entry level masters degree in nursing for students holding at least a baccalaureate degree in a field other than nursing who wish to become nurses.

Students will attend classes year-round, in two 15-week fall and spring semesters, as well as in a condensed 12-week summer semester. Students completing the program will receive a master’s degree in nursing and will be eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination for registered nursing licensure. Graduates will also be eligible to sit for the Clinical Nurse Leader certificate exam. Contact the university for application information.

CALLING TO ACCOUNT — More than 700 leaders from One LA institutions will convene Sunday to call on public officials to invest federal stimulus dollars in effective programs, rather than spend them on the status quo. This meeting developed from the concerns of parishioners of Transfiguration Catholic Church about the foreclosure threats looming in their Crenshaw-area neighborhoods in particular and throughout South L.A., in general. The Crenshaw group joined community leaders throughout Los Angeles in comparing notes and strategizing on the foreclosure crisis to the point where they are ready to make demands on their elected officials to save their neighborhoods.

This Sunday at 3 p.m. the community leaders will meet at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, 3663 Wilshire Blvd., with 8th District Councilman Bernard Parks, 14th District Councilman Jose Huizar, City Controller Wendy Greuel and LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines and call upon them to invest federal stimulus dollars in programs with demonstrated effectiveness such as foreclosure prevention, workforce development and high school algebra preparation — the lack of which leads to students’ repeated failure of that subject and contributes greatly to the staggering number of high school dropouts that occur each year. Community leaders will report on research they’ve been conducting of these three topics.

FOUR BY KING — Four books by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that have been out of print for almost 30 years will be published again on Jan. 18, 2010 — on the federal holiday marking King’s 80th birthday. The books will be published by Beacon Press, a department of the Unitarian Universalist Assn., as the result of a deal brokered by King’s son. The books to be re-issued are: “Stride Toward Freedom,” King’s memoir of the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott which was first published in 1957; “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?,” first published in 1967; “Trumpet of Conscience,” first published in 1968, and 1963’s “Strength to Love,” a volume of King’s best known homilies and the book he had in his briefcase when he was killed on April 4, 1968. These will make significant additions to our personal libraries. I can hardly wait. But I bet Black history bibliophile Anthony Samad already has them in their first editions!

THIS AND THAT — Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has endorsed Gardena Councilman Steve Bradford for the 51st Assembly District. … Judith A. Washington will be feted with a party July 17 in celebration of her retirement from the Inglewood School District, for which she had been employed for 34 years — as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and IUSD director. The party will be held at Shanghai Red’s in the Marina from 6 to 11 p.m.

AND FINALLY — I stand corrected. I’d always thought Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a winking, blinking, gerund-dropping crazy piece of trailer trash. But no, her resignation from office shows she’s got good sense.