keep on with the force don't stop

so.

Michael Jackson is dead.

sort of weird typing it. not that i thought that he was immortal (throw in joke about being made up of lot of nonliving material, then throw it away for being a little too crass), but it definitely was unexpected.


(i won't make a "plastic" joke if you won't!)

my earliest Michael Jackson memories are as follows:

1. his hair catching on fire. this was big big playground news.
2. the Wiz.
3. thriller. more specifically, playing thriller on the playground in kindergarten. somehow assuming - this was also around the time of the Jackson's victory tour -that the other Jackson brothers (and, for some reason, their father Joe). yes, if there's anything to prove that i was a weird little kid, it was that. i knew the whole Vincent Price "rap" by heart. mostly because it was sort of cool to pretend i was a zombie crawling out of the ground. I'm pretty sure i didn't do the "dance" (i tried to learn it a couple of years ago... hard!)

yeah, he was always a bit odd. bubbles? his friendship with Emmanuel Lewis? a love song to a rat?


(oops, that's not Michael Jackson... ::shudders::)


(much better!)

but he was cool. the songs were good. the videos were maybe a little self indulgent, but to some degree that was the only way MTV was going to play a black artist in the early 80's. and really, i always wanted a sidewalk that lit up when i stepped on it...

even when he did the Simpsons - right at the start of the going "off the wall" (hey, nice play on his album title) he was cool (and very self effacing, which you didn't really see much from him afterwards). yeah, the Bartman was actually a pretty awful song. "Bad" wasn't anywhere near as good a record as "Thriller" but certainly tops "Dangerous." (this was also the start of his odd obsession with filling his videos with odd celebrity cameos - the Liberian Girl video had everyone from Paula Abdul to George freaking Jefferson and Theo Huxtable).

and then the downward spiral began... the plastic surgery (sorry, barring some horrible wasting disease, nobody's nose shrinks like that), the "allegations" (which, unfortunately, probably rang a little true...). the absolutely crappy videos from Dangerous (I'm not even going to post remember the time.... ugh... really?? the man who did Thriller and Beat It made that atrocity???)

favorite weirdness after his fall from grace?

1. wanting to play peter pan in Spielberg's "Hook" (the movie which sort of began the hallmark-ization of Robin Williams, but that's another post)
2. the giant statues
3. "Jesus juice"
4. claiming that "Invincible" didn't do as well as he thought it should have, not because it was a really sub par record full of tired, dated production values, but because the head of
Sony (who at the time had darker skin than him) was a racist... yes somehow Michael Jackson was suddenly a spokesman for African American equality...

all this said, it feels a little like my generation has lost it's Elvis. though MJ's fall from grace is a lot different from the latter years of Elvis' life (as far as we know, Jackson wasn't a drug addled mess at the end, but Presley was far less of a punchline at his death). in terms of impact... this is pretty huge. while certainly there is more going on in the world than this - should the death of a man who has become all but washed up really overshadow the crisis in Iran? - this will dominate the news cycle for a few days, with tributes, pictures of people mourning, tabloid magazines talking to "friends close to Jackson," and the inevitable quickie biography or two. which is what we do when celebrities die.

was Jackson still culturally relevant? ask Timberlake. ask the black eyed peas. ask anyone who has mined his style of R&B or aped his dance moves. had he gotten a chance to do his comeback tour, it could have been like Elvis's comeback special, reinvigorating his career. but now we'll never know...

an open letter to Tom Hanks

Dear Mr Hanks,

first of all, congratulations on your new-sh movie. i hope it is a success (though it seems it's fallen quite short). (say hi to opie for me).

but mr hanks, i am concerned that this movie is just another in a long line of "serious" roles that further distance you from your goofy/nice guy past.

i still remember your first attempt at serious, with bonfire of the vanities. i would have thought that the terrible reception it got, that you got in it, would have shied you away from any attempt to become a "real" actor again.

this is not to dismiss "Philadelphia" which was... well... amazing, honestly. and it's not to say that your oscar winning performances haven't been... well... oscar worthy. and it's not like you became the walking hallmark card that is robin william's carreer (though he did make attempts at recovery, those have largely been incredibly awkward).

but now a new generation of loveable schlubs have stolen your thunder. seth rogen, jason lee, steve carrell... yeah, the humor is cruder (though i remember bachelor party, sir) but in a lot of ways, they play the nice goofball that you used to do so well...

do i have a point here? i don't know. i'm not saying remake the burbs, or the man with one red show (though, wow, please do!) just bring back the tom hanks we all know and love!

(ps. no more stupid haircuts!)

random thursday morning thought...

what? a blog post??

it's been a while, though the number of half done entries sitting in my drafts folder might suggest i had ideas, just never finished them out.

so i'm flipping through channels and i come across the sci fi network, where i see amber tamblyn. now, i know she's been in a few sci fi type movies, so i think little of it, until i see her talking to mary steenburgen.... then the wheels turn and it clicks....

joan of arcadia? on the same network that brought us mansquito??

≠

yes, the show has "fantasy" elements, which probably earns it placement on scifi. and this was the channel which kept showing reruns of quantum leap, another "fantasy" show which really wasn't. but... i guess it just bothers me....


and that's my thought of the morning...