JackViolet

Awwww, Cherisse is awesome. I noticed her right off as soon as I saw a video of Mika performing live. I love how she acts out parts of the songs with him. And she just added me on myspace, hurrah. Much love to Cherisse.

Yes, do ask. I think his birth name is Mica, not Michael. Look at his siblings' names: Yasmine, Paloma, Allegra, Fortune, and... Michael?

Please do, actually. I've heard on here that the reason his name is given as Michael Holbrook in the press is that when New York Times interviewed him, they made that mistake, and the rest of the sources followed suit, but that his name is really Mica. There was also an interview where he said that Mica was his real name, but he didn't say if it was also short for Michael. And I've been discussing this with Wikipedia people for a while. So it would be good to get that cleared up... --Jack

Hmmm, maybe I should care if it's vegans... I am one.

Heee, thank you! Though he'd probably need to guard himself from me more! --Jack

I just feel it's too "girly" for me... --Jack

I don't want the title of "angel," but I have been promoting Mika so hard, I feel like I should work for him! I have: 1) made everybody I met, from friends to classmates to strangers in coffeeshops, listen to "Grace Kelly," because of course I carry it around 2) Gushed about him and plugged his album to everybody I met, including local radio station djs and random people like Tony Visconti or this guy, among others. 3) Have been blogging about him non-stop ever since I first found out who he was, and have gotten a number of my friends into him 4) Have posted about him on all the other music-related messageboards I frequent, most recently promoting his US tour, and have gotten at least a few people to check out his CD... 5) Have been in dialogue with the wikipedia editors to keep the article on him accurate 6) Have been calling the local hits radio station every so often and leaving messages asking them to play him... even though I never listen to radio And there's been more stuff, but it's really going to get embarassing if I confess to it. --Jack

Yeah, I was thinking of that. It might be better not to splash their photos all over the place anyway--even those of Yasmine that are not plain publicity/public shots.

Well, if this is a still from the video, then I think it's fine, but if this is the same french forum I saw linked before, they had photos of his sisters from their classmates' private flickr accounts posted, and that was really too much, I thought. (Though I will admit I looked at the photos anyway. ) On the one hand, I suppose if Mika has his family in the videos and at all his shows, some measure of exposure is okay, but it should be kept to a minimum. That stated, however, I have to say that I am kind of shocked at how gorgeous all of Mika's siblings that I've seen are. Usually when a particular person becomes famous and is celebrated for their looks, they are the exceptional one in their family, and the rest of their relatives are average. But, wow. All of Mika's sisters are incredibly beautiful (we've all seen Yasmine of course, but Paloma is also stunning), and his brother is lovely too. They are almost like some kind of fairy tale family.

Hey, guys... I am a little bit worried about how freaked out everyone gets whenever the possibility of Mika having a girlfriend (or dare we say a boyfriend? Or an aloe vera-friend, hah?) comes up. I mean, I understand everyone wanting to have their fantasies, but come now... eventually Mika will start dating someone, and hopefully this will be treated with respect and discretion on the part of the fans. It's not like we "own" him. And really, doesn't Mika deserve every type of love that he can get? --Jack

Yeah, between this and the flickr photos of his sisters that were linked in that previous thread, it's getting somewhat worriesome about how much of private life he has left... no wonder he refuses to talk about some things to the press. We know an alarming amount of information on him already.

I don't think I embarrass myself, because I like to think I'm wonderfully elegant in everything I do ( ), but I love riding my bicycle while listening to LICM... and miming along with the lyrics. I try to be a bit restrained in overly public areas, but I've definitely noticed people looking at me when I mouth "get out the door!" and point to an imaginary exit, stick my hand in the air for "violet sky," or pump my fist for "gotta be everything more."

'Cause (most) girls aren't supposed to be thin when they get older. ;-) Young men are supposed to be skinny, but young women are supposed to have some curves!

A lot of super skinny, gangly boys I know were chubby as kids. :-) Like I said in the thread about his diet--he's got a rather common 20-something figure. Tons of boys around who have the same deal!

Huh? I'm sorry, I thought you were the one who edited the wiki to put your name there in the first place... you mean you didn't? Someone else wrote that about you? In any case, it's deleted now and I also deleted my link to your page. :-)

Ha, I'm impressed that I actually got the right Rosina! I just googled "Rosina Mika New Zealand" and linked to the first MySpace profile I got...

Oh come on, it's obviously a joke. I mean, now the article says that he's dating this girl: ("Mika is rumored to be dating budding activist and journalist Rosina, formally of New Zealand.") As for his name, it's really hard to keep it as "Mica Penniman" and not "Michael Holbrook etc" because of all the big name news sources that have reported it as such. According to wiki rules, the fact that a credible news source like NYT called him "Michael Holbrook Penniman" trumps the smaller articles that say he was born as "Mica." And sadly there are no articles that I know of where Mika flat out says, "Yes, my birth name is Mica and the Michael Holbrook thing is a mistake." So if that bothers any of you who are going to see him sometime soon, if you get a chance, maybe ask him what his birth name is, and take a video of that (or, I dunno, get him to take a photo with a piece of paper where he wrote "My birth name is Mica Penniman!") so we can reference the wiki people on it and finally clear this up?

Honestly, that's how I read that song as well. The thing about Mika "not coming out if he's gay," by the way, is that he's also never denied it. IF he is gay, it would indeed be damaging if he told people he was straight, as other closeted celebrities have chosen to do. But he never has--he simply insists that who he sleeps with is not the public's business. Which it isn't. I will back him up that this isn't a question of shame about one's sexuality, but a question of privacy, and he may want to keep it private for many various reasons. And in this, I actually think it's refreshing. Maybe his reasons for privacy are good ones, maybe they're complicated, maybe they do have to do with shame or whatnot--we don't know. But I kind of like the line he straddles. I think it's good for the press to have to deal with a celebrity who doesn't make his sex life available to them, either by too much disclosure or by false denials. On a personal level, I would like to say that I am quite comfortable with my own sexuality, and am involved in various clubs and activist collectives on behalf of queer rights, etc. But in my classes, or at my workplace, I do not share my sexual orientation with my coworkers or supervisers or professors. I don't hide it or lie about it, but I consider it none of their business--there's a difference between personal and professional after all. After class one day, when we were talking about queer issues, a friend asked me why I insisted on talking about it in the abstract rather than owning I was myself queer--why wasn't I out? Was I ashamed? In this day and age? I laughed and told him it wasn't a question of being "out"--had he heard me talk in class? Didn't he notice that I brought up queer issues all the time, and a lot of my studies were specifically queer-focused? It wasn't that I had any shame about it, but I just didn't think my sex life was something my professors needed to know about. So I rather support Mika's right to do the same thing. (And to play along, I am deliberately not disclosing either my gender or my sexuality on this forum. :-P )

I sent him a message on his official MySpace a week or two ago asking this very same question, but it hasn't even been read yet, let alone replied to...

Voted! And saw "Grace Kelly" on vh1 for the first time today. It's all exciting for me 'cause I'm in the states. One of my friends whom I hooked on Mika says she's seen him on mtv a bunch of times, but I don't watch mtv... still, I am excited they are playing him! Ha, he is taking over. I caught my roommate whistling "Grace Kelly" today and she didn't even know she was doing it... that's 'cause I play the album 24-7.

Oh, that is lovely! And I'm glad to see that he's finally gotten relaxed enough (or maybe better at acting) to improvise in interviews and bring up new anecdotes rather than repeating his previous well-rehearsed statements. Also, he should stop it with the wearing of Marc Bolan-like clothes. That is not helping my obsession!

Awww, what are you talking about Hannah? The interviewer was brilliant ha. Loved it! Great interview.

I think you mean "Velvet Goldmine." Great movie, though Placebo were by far not the best part of it. :-P I used to like Placebo... but then things happened. Not a fan anymore. (Well, I still think Stefan is lovely.)

Oooooooh, I love it. When does he have time to put out all these new songs, what with touring and all?

Johnny Depp just looks like everyone. Heck, he looks like me in that movie, and I look nothing like Mika!