In black and white, this militaristic Michael Jackson statue appears to be Soviet-esque. In color, it looks like an elementary school papier mache project.
SUBMITTED BY: Andy Carvin LOCATION: Hungary (2005)
The Neverland Ranch gets all the glory, but there’s another overlooked place for Michael Jackson fans to leave flowers and teddy bears — the Szabo Marzipan Museum in Szentendre, Hungary.
Hungary? Well, you can’t eat this candy Michael Jackson. It’s stale. And, as Andy Carvin reports, it has “a waxy, embalmed-like appearance.”
“Leave the eating to the zombies in the Thriller video,” Carvin says.
“I’d suspect that the museum would have a temporary bump from MJ’s death,” he adds. “But they’ll probably continue to pull in the crowds, modest as they are, from the cutesy marzipan kittens and bunny rabbits they make for the kids. Pop culture icons are fleeting, but a sweet tooth is eternal.”
For Americans who only know about Snickers and Twix, marzipan is a flavorful, sculptable almond paste that lasts much longer than Play-Doh.
For those unaware of Hungary’s special role in Michael Jackson lore, it is where he shot his historic HIStory music video portraying himself as a dictator and featuring Hungarian soldiers as authentic, Soviet-era troops. Jackson’s giant fiberglass statues of himself, which inspired the marzipan sculpture, are still floating around Europe.
(Andy Carvin is a senior strategist for social media at National Public Radio. You can read about his Hungary experience here and also invest a few hours in his “Waste of Bandwidth” blog).
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