Michael Jackson's Downtown Afterlife

Jeff Koons' statue of Jackson and Bubbles, 1988, at DTLA's Broad Museum

Everyone knows how, up until his death, Michael Jackson was preparing for his world tour at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. And many people have seen on TV and in magazines how, at Lakers games, Hollywood celebs come to the center to cheer on their home team.

But fewer know exactly where the Staples Center is: in downtown LA. Or how, in decades past, people would come to see concerts or sports events and then LEAVE IMMEDIATELY, because downtown was one scary place. Even today, as downtown approaches its 21st-century hipster zenith, it still comprises miles of parking lots and abandoned buildings, including a swathe of blocks known as Skid Row, which is said to house (figuratively speaking) 4,000 of LA's homeless. 

But since downtown is also the civic, financial, and historic heart of the city, and since real estate isn't something they're making much more of these days, downtown (re-branded as DTLA) is slowly being wrested from ignominy by hopeful developers. Vintage abandoned buildings have been turned into luxury condos, while drilling, scaffolding, and cranes mark the spots where new towers will spear the heavens next year and beyond. The names of famous tenants like Manny Pacquaio and Johnny Depp are bruited about in the pretty pocket parks and fashionable eateries that have opened at street level.

Onto this now-trendy landscape, the ghost of Michael Jackson casts a wistful, posthumous presence. The Grammy Museum, part of the LA Live complex adjacent to the Staples Center, features Jacksonalia of all kinds, including two of his single gloves. At the Broad Museum (where "Broad" is pronounced like "road"), Jeff Koons' porcelain sculpture of Jackson, relaxing with his pet chimpanzee Bubbles, forms part of Koons' Banalities Series. (Dinnerware with the image can also be found in the museum gift shop.)

Two of Jackson's single gloves featured at DTLA's Grammy Museum

The last images of the living Jackson were captured at the Staples Center, as he rehearsed the performance that was to be his comeback; these were compiled into the documentary, This Is It, which was released in 2009 in lieu of the comeback that died tragically with him. 

Michael Jackson's lifelong obsession with outward appearances makes one wonder if he would have appreciated this behind-the-scenes look at his art. But perhaps being introduced to new generations through DTLA's cultural institutions is a consolation to his lingering spirit.