Part of the attraction was Michael's impulsive nature as he quickly went from one thing to the next with the abruptness of someone surfing channels or like a kid in a candy store. Unconstrained by checks and balances, Michael instantly seized on new ideas with extreme intensity. He seemed purely spontaneous, with an envious ability to live in the moment. Vehemently opposed to drugs, he tried them one day and over time graduated to becoming an all out drug mess. Nothing with Michael was ever done in moderation .

However child-like or childish Michael could be, he was not stupid. Recognizing that we live in a media age where perception is the reality, he knew that instant and outrageous self-invention was the key. Unfazed by being a misfit from the Midwest, Michael gathered around him similarly like-minded souls -- the kids who had been teased and bullied in school -- and gave them fabulous new Club Kid identities. They were the Lost Boys to his Peter Pan.

James could see that Michael's chaotic and unruly behavior was a kind of genius. It was performance art. Michael's minting of superstars out of those least likely to be stars parodied society's absurd obsession with celebrity. His attention-getting antics parodied the dysfunctional circuses of our talk show times. His surreal infantility parodied our culture's overriding obsession with youth.