Sad, sad life, and two sad deaths

Sad. That's the word to describe not just the death of Michael Jackson Thursday afternoon but also the life that preceded it. He was one of the great musical talents of his era, but his bizarre lifestyle and self-indulgent, self-destructive habits tarnished his amazing musical accomplishments.

I'll admit, I was not a huge Michael Jackson fan, but after I gave my oldest daughter his 1982 "Thriller" album (an LP, which we must still have somewhere), I listened to the music and was entranced. The album was a creative tour de force. The public had come to know Jackson from his sappy, predictable (but very popular) Jackson Five tunes, such as "I Want You Back." Michael, 10 or 12 years old, was cute as could be, but the songs were fixed in the same old groove. "Thriller" was different, a creative wonder that deserved its accolades and phenomenal sales. It was as monumental as "Sgt. Pepper's" or "Born in the USA." Michael followed the album with a dance video that has been credited with (or blamed for) creating MTV.

But then there was his personal life. Married to Elvis' daughter and then to a nurse he met, he also had a fascination with young boys, which led to both a civil lawsuit settlement and to criminal molestation charges (he was acquitted). His Neverland ranch was a child's playground owned by a multimillionaire man. Those were just weird affectations, but his plastic surgeries and his skin lightening were as bizarre as his denials that he had done anything to make himself look more Caucasian. I can't bear to look at recent photos of Jackson and compare them to the earlier photos of the cute, normal-looking teenager of his earlier life without wondering what could have driven his self-destructive alterations. His nose, his chin, his eyebrows and his skin are all altered, turning himself into a Frankensteinian mutation with the skin tone of powdered sugar. Because Jackson denied surgically or medically changing his appearance, we'll probably never know why he did it.

The other celeb

rity death Thursday was Farrah Fawcett, whose fabulous face, body and hair made her an icon of the 1970s. Her "big hair" can be seen in styles lasting through the 1980s, but nobody ever matched her flowing tresses. Fawcett became a star in an insipid television series that had more to do with the looks of the stars — Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith — than with the plots, which were all predictable and cliched. "Charlie's Angels" created the "T&A" genre of television shows, which had a long run. Fawcett left the show after one year, at the peak of her popularity, but never achieved the level of celebrity and admiration that the show had given her. She won some praise as an actress, particularly for "The Burning Bed," but she never was a consistent star.

But, oh, her pictures! The iconic, best-selling poster of her in that clingy red swimsuit with that brilliant smile a

nd all that thick, bouncy hair will forever represent the feminine ideal, circa 1977. She was a beautiful woman who had the courage to pose for Playboy at age 48, proving that older women could still be beautiful and sexy. Later she pulled back the veil of privacy to document her fatal struggle with cancer, showing the disease in all its cruelty.

Goodbye, Farrah. Goodbye, Michael. It's a sad day.