Lord, what a week! Food service, prom committee, student senate, homework, thesis meetings, script revision...do you see 'free time' anywhere on that list? Didn't think so. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be busy, but I am very, VERY glad that it is the weekend. A three-day weekend, no less!
Two words: Michael Jackson. That's about it. I just saw This is It, directed by the effing AMAZING Kenny Ortega, and I swear I cried more watching that movie than I did watching Titanic. Honestly, I have no idea how anyone who has seen that documentary can still scoff at MJ, because he was one of the sweetest, most soft-spoken, most down-to-earth people I have ever seen in my life. (And keep in mind, I met Ronnie Winter.)
Being the idiot that I am, I paid absolutely no attention to MJ whatsoever...well, maybe a bit, when Mom showed me the "Thriller" video and when we occasionally listened to Jackson 5 on the radio...until he died. And I was watching this movie and thinking, oh my God, I completely idolize this person on the screen, he is incredible and poised and dear God that freak can dance like crazy!...and then I realized, wait a second, he's dead. Oh crap.
See, unlike my LIVE idol, the aforementioned Ronnie Winter, I will never have the chance to look Michael Jackson in the eye and say, "You inspire me." Granted, I probably would not have gotten to do that anyway; it would be kind of like a one-year-old baby trying to get a private audience with President Obama, but still, there was a CHANCE. And now, because I am STUPID and didn't pay attention to his music and talent when he was ALIVE, I don't have even that tiny, insignificant chance anymore.
Don't judge me, please. Yes, I know I am being melodramatic. Yes, I know he died last June for heaven's sake, and yes, I know about the shady deeds, the plastic surgery, the sexual misconduct allegations, and the various and sundry other things he was supposedly involved in. But screw that. This guy had talent. He was freaking incredible. He left a legacy that no comedian can joke away, no internet hater can spam away, and no tabloid can slander away. Make all the Michael Jackson jokes you want, but it does not change what he did for the music world.
And you know something? I used to be one of those dorks hwo mindlessly laughed at whatever jokes people made about him. One of the popular ones at camp was "When Farrah Fawcett died, God told her she had to make a wish to get into heaven. She wished for all the children of the world to be safe. A few hours later, Michael Jackson died." I remember hearing that joke and saying, "That's mean!"...while giggling. At the time my knowledge of MJ was limited to "Thriller" and "ABC." I didn't know much about him beyond what he looked like and the sexual abuse allegations. So to me it was just another celebrity death. Just another person who was getting, in my opinion, waaaay too much tabloid attention.
It goes to show that you never appreciate something until it's gone. You see someone on TV or in a magazine and think, "Ugh, they're so overrated." And then suddenly they die, or in a less drastic situation they announce that they aren't touring anymore or they're retiring or their band is breaking up. And then you panic and htink, "But I never saw them live/met them/wrote a fan letter/whatever!" This happened to me when the comedian Richard Jeni died a couple of months after I passed pu the chance to see him live. I freaked out and cried, "I missed the chacne to see him live! I'm so stupid!" Hmm...sound familiar?
Anyway, back to Michael Jackson. All I have to say is...wow. Half the time for This is It, the filmmakers had to add subtitles because he was so quiet you could barely hear what he was saying. He was sweet to the backing band, sweet to his dancers, sweet to Kenny Ortega, and sweet to his tech crew. If they did something wrong, he would apologize. How many performers do you know who will do that? While rehearsing one song where there was a major guitar solo he said to the guitarist, "This is your time to shine," and stood there and listened while she played the same solo about a dozen times, and he just kept saying it--"This is your time to shine." Now, I was already teary eyed for about a million different reasons, but when I saw that I started to cry for real and thought, "Okay, that's it, he is now officially a hero to me..." (I TOLD you I was an overreactor, didn't I?) And then when he was giving a final pep talk to his band and crew he said, "This isn't something you should be nervous about," meaning the show, and it started all over again. From what that movie showed, he was a total sweetheart.
And yeah, it's a cliche and I've said it about ten times now...but holy crap, he can DANCE. Wathcing him dance gave me chills. Like I said, I haven't seen much footage of him performing live, or seen many of his music videos, so I didn't really get just how incredibly talented he was as a dancer until I saw the movie last night. I saw him dance to fast songs, slow songs; I saw him dancing acappella or backed by a huge band. I've never seen anyone with that much versatility. He could dance alone or with backing dancers, he could do it on flat ground, on a ramp, or on a cherry picker. It was freaking mesmerizing to watch him--trust me, I wasn't the only one with eyes glued to the screen. And then hearing him sing live on top of all that? Amazing. The CD doesn't even begin to compare.
Am I gushing too much? Yes? Good. Too many people of my generation (I DEFINITELY can't speak for the people who grew up while he was in his prime) will either listen to his music and then deny it later, or they'll trash him to their friends and snort, "Oh, that idiot who had too much plastic surgery?" and not bother looking beyond the appearance and the rumors. Where are all the people who jump up and say, "Hey, he was strange, yeah, but he was talented, and besides that, the way he grew up, how do you expect him to NOT be screwed up in some way?" (For anyone who doesn't know, MJ had the Childhood from Hell, with the added pressure of fame at an early age.) Those are the people pretending not to like him because if they say they love his music they will get looks that suggest that they might possibly need medication and shock treatments (in the form of a few Green Day concerts). But you know what, I say, screw that. And so I blog about michael Jackson and say...
RIP MJ!!! YOU ARE LOVED AND REMEMBERED! EVEN BY IDIOTS WHO DIDN'T KNOW HOW EPIC YOU WERE UNTIL YOU DIED! <3
And I command anyone who reads this blog, go and look him up on YouTube if you have not yet done so. Pretty please?
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