As a child of the late 70′s/early 80′s, I first really noticed Michael Jackson when Thriller came out. Oh, sure, I think I probably heard “Rock With You” (still my favorite) and Jackson Five songs before then, but Thriller was a big enough pop-culture earthquake to reach me in small-town Kansas. And my, what an earthquake!

The Thriller album, video, etc. was all encompassed by this hoopla that changed our culture. We had the behind the scenes on HBO of the Making of Thriller, the music video that was more like a film, that gave us insight into the way all subsequent music videos would be created. Thriller is the Citizen Kane of music videos, and despite what Nirvana has to say about it, it will always be the #1 music video of all time. The album itself was really good, including more hits than I can count–and the rest are pretty much ingrained into my psyche, as well, as a function of how good they are. If Michael’d swapped out “The Girl Is Mine” for his other duet with Paul McCartney, “Say, Say, Say”, the album would have been freakin’ perfect. Then there was the jacket, the glove, Billy Jean, Beat It, the Moonwalk, the Pepsi commercial…all resonating in pop culture through movies like Beverly Hills Cop, to Corey Feldman dressing up like Michael, and so on.

I was in 2nd grade and had never heard of the Moonwalk until one morning I walk into my classroom early and some kid asks me if I know how to moonwalk. Caught off guard, I say, “Yeah,” and start doing my best Neal Armstrong impression. This was the first time that I can remember that Michael Jackson was known as ‘cool’ (this event also confirmed that I am a dork). It was all downhill from there, and my younger brother was even more into Michael than I was. This was one of two Michael Jackson posters he had on the wall of his room:

When Captain Eo came out, I was as pumped as I could be. Michael Jackson in a musical scifi fantasy, in 3d? We had the “making-of” for this movie, taped off the Disney Channel, and watched it repeatedly for years, such that when we finally went to Disneyland in ’89 we already knew 80% of the film and all of the music, but it was the fulfillment of the promise that the behind-the-scenes special had made years before.

Don’t forget ”We Are The World”. How many people who lived through the 80′s can’t sing that song all the way through, even imitating each artist’s unique singing style, and naming off each person in order (more or less). We liked it so much, we bought both versions of the album. Hey, it was for starving kids in Africa, and we did our part.  

I don’t know if it would have been obvious from the outside how much I respected this guy. Here he did charity work, and would hang out with kids, and he always had a big smile on his face, and his music and dance moves were SO COOL! He was wholesome, heroic and virtuous. People called him the King of Pop, and we all hailed him as royalty, devoting our time and treasure and heart to the king.

But this King’s hero journey had not yet ended. Things went Bad from here… Bad was kind of the beginning of the end of the honeymoon for me. The music was great, but some of it was darker and weirder: gone was this innocent 1950′s movie-house faux-horror of the song Thriller, and in was the nearly unintelligible but somehow threatening Smooth Criminal; out was the completely unbelievable fight song Beat It (unbelievable because Michael Jackson wasn’t a physical threat, just a coolness threat. He wasn’t going to kick your butt, but he could win hands-down in a dance-off), and in was the more deadly threat of Bad. No more We Are The World; now it was Man In The Mirror, which was less sympathy for others and more of a guilt trip.

At the same time, we started to hear about Michael hanging out with Bubbles the chimp, and buying the elephant man’s bones, and just doing wiggy-ass stuff. Not to mention the plastic surgery: he wasn’t the cute little black boy from the Jackson Five (probably wouldn’t even qualify to be in The Wiz without makeup, sorry to say), and he wasn’t even this cool black guy with the million-dollar smile from the Thriller album. He was bad, and white, and unrecognizable, and he grabbed his crotch for no reason. The music was great, but the King was a shadow of his former self, at least in my eyes.

I bought the Dangerous album on CD when I was in high school, and it was okay. About 50% good-to-great songs, but the rest were just so-so. MTV just kept on selling him as if nothing had changed, but just about everything about Michael had changed by then. Didn’t he marry Lisa Marie around that time? He had officially gone off the deep end by then, even though it wasn’t fully evident. In hindsight, maybe it was seeing him with Macaulay Culkin that started getting us wondering, but enough of the music was still outstanding, and the music videos continued to be innovative, so we didn’t worry about it.

Until he got in trouble. Officially. Some believe Michael that it was some celebrity witchhunt, but I think most of us could tell there was truth to the accusations. It was around this time that Michael started wearing masks, and I think he lost part of his nose for a while to plastic surgery. It was at this point that I really started mourning the loss of my hero, of my king. This is what I meant in the first paragraph above: the Michael Jackson I knew, loved, and respected in the 80′s had already died in the 90′s, so today I did not shed a tear.

Lately, I have been itching to finally get my collection caught up and buy his music on CD for ripping to my iPod, but I didn’t want any of my money going to that Thing that my boyhood idol had transformed into. Now I don’t have to shop the used CD racks for his music (unless I just want a deal), because now I know my money won’t go to feeding his shell of a corpse that still went by the name Michael Jackson.

That sounds very bitter, but I think it portrays quite accurately how my childhood hero has fallen in my estimation. I do not weep for the overly wealthy yet still hopelessly in debt, insanely weird and self-disfiguring pedophile who died this afternoon. Today, on the day of his passing, I remember and earnestly mourn the man who created iconic music, dance, and imagery that had such a major influence in the shaping of my own artistic and aesthetic tastes, as well as those of my generation. That is the one I remember, the one I mourned for when he fell from grace, and the one I mourn for today, in his own words:

He’s out of my life
He’s out of my life
And I don’t know whether to laugh or cry
I don’t know whether to live or die
And it cuts like a knife
He’s out of my life

“New Christmas album “The Dawn of Grace” coming October 14

Sixpence None The Richer has put the finishing touches on its first Christmas album “The Dawn of Grace”. Set to be released on October 14, the album includes eight traditional Christmas songs and two originals, “The Last Christmas” and “Christmas for Two.”

Download ‘Angels We Have Heard On High’ for free now from Sixpence’s MySpace music player.
Why do a Christmas album? Leigh Nash says ‘Sixpence fans have been asking for a Christmas album for as long as I can remember. It was something we always wanted to do, but somehow time got away from us. Now that we are back together, we thought a Christmas album would be a nice gift for our long time supporters. We love it and hope they will too!’”

I am very much excited for the Christmas album; it’s been forever since I’d been ‘waiting’ for a new Sixpence album to come out. But what’s all this about ‘Now that we are back together?’ The band has been apart for a few years, as far as I know. Then I read this

“Sixpence will be going back to the studio in the coming weeks to work on a new album for 2009.”

And now the word ‘elation’ comes to mind, and I find myself hoping they mean something like January 2009, and not October.

I consider this win-win-win, because I get my caffeinated beverage, at a non-vending machine discounted price, and on top of that I get the equivalent of 20 cents per bottle cap (since downloads generally cost a buck each). It’s given me the chance to build up some of the 80s music library I never legitimately purchased, and to fearlessly buy newer songs for my wife and I, since it doesn’t cost anything except the energy to do it.

But if I collect 60 points, the equivalent of 12 downloaded songs, I could get an actual CD from Amazon. My take on downloading music (legally) is that it’s only worth it if you’re not going to buy the album. So I can buy A-Ha’s “Take On Me” (Best song of the 1980′s) and the 2 songs from The Cure that I really like (“Lovesong” & “Friday I’m in Love”), and I’m only out $3. But if I want an album, I want the CD version so I always have the solid-state backup. Yes, I know I can burn CDs with my mp3s to back them up, but since mp3′s are compressed it’s better to have the CD-quality as the archive. Plus not every one of my friends and vehicles is ipod friendly, etc, so CDs still have a purpose, in my opinion.

But here’s the conundrum: I have enough points to get a CD now, but A) the selection of CDs I can redeem with points is fairly limited, and B) Amazon’s prices for CDs are pretty darn good. I can get a new copy of Radiohead’s “OK Computer” (I lost my old copy in 1999 when I brought it to work to play for everybody at Pizza Hut, but I never found it after that night…You’re welcome, thief! You know who you are!) for the point equivalent of $12, or I can buy it for $7.99 cash money. Well, that’s not a good value for my Pepsi points!

So the CDs that I would consider point-worthy are unavailable, and the available CDs are too inexpensive for me to give up my precious points for. Curse you, Amazon! Mocker of Pepsi Point collectors!!!

Update: They had The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” album available, which I’ve always wanted to get, and it sells for $13.97 normally. SOLD! for $12 in Pepsi Points and free shipping!

Alicia Keys at Sprint Center!
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

Great seats were late birthday presents for my wife.

Good show. Baby is at uncle’s house.
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

Bon Jovi in Sprint Center

Opening for Bon Jovi.
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

Daughtry at the Sprint Center

Like a baby when he is sleeping in his loving mother’s arms
What a newborn baby dreams is a mystery
But his life will find a purpose and in time he’ll understand
When the river meets the sea
-Paul Williams

And inside every turning leaf
Is the pattern of an older tree
The shape of our future
The shape of all our history
-Sting

I’m alive! and the world shines for me today
I’m alive! suddenly I am here today
Seems like forever and a day
Thought I could never feel this way
How can this be real?
-Electric Light Orchestra

I heard this song on the radio the other day, and I liked it so much I searched for it on YouTube. I found this acoustic version where SCC talks a bit about adoption, as well!

Since today is August 24th , I thought I would put a little post together about my recent viewing of the first season of ’24′ on DVD which I borrowed from SithSlayer, who (in spite of the name of his blog, the Common Sense Approach) spilled the beans to my wife which characters would be killed in the course of the season…fortunately, I for once was not listening to that conversation. I will try not to spoil anything for anyone, though I may inadvertantly mention some plot points…but hopefully I’m vague enough not to keep people from watching the show.

I was hooked, like most people, from episode 1. Watching the DVDs is the only way to view a show like this, in my opinion, because there are so many freaking cliffhangers, it’s just ridiculous to have to wait a week or more to find out what happens.

That said, there were a lot of cheap shots at hooking the audience, especially the amnesia part. Also, how many times does Jack’s family have to be in the gravest of danger?? Nobody has days likes this one, thankfully, in real life.

I did want to briefly bring up a thought I had about the morality of what the diner waitress did by going to the police instead of helping a main character who was in trouble. We can elaborate more in the comments if need be, but I wonder (assuming she were a real person, not a TV character) if she would have to answer for her actions there as a sin, or would she be rewarded for doing the right thing, or is it such a grey area that God wouldn’t look at it either way? Discuss…

In case there are any assassins looking for me, tonight, if the weather behaves, I will be at the free Wreckers concert at Crown Center.

I don’t know what it’s going to take to bring me down from the high I’m feeling, just knowing that ‘Xanadu’ is back in the spotlight – this time, on Broadway.

Everyone who knows me well enough knows me as the biggest Xanadu fan they know. Now I’m just trying to get my brain around the need to go to New York City, to the Helen Hayes Theatre, to see a childhood dream in reality – granted, a tongue-in-cheek retelling of my childhood dream that’s been called the worst movie ever by pretty much everyone – but still, heck-freakin’-yeah!

No more words … they should have sent … a poet …

Here are the relevant links, as much for my benefit as for my readers’:

Xanadu on Broadway Official Site

Video from TheaterMania

Video from Broadway.com

And the requisite YouTube video: