Thursday, August 28, 2008



Tomorrow is Mr. Michael Joseph Jackson's 50th birthday, and since the subjects I choose to write about vary so much, I figured I better get this out of the way today.

The poster you see above hung over my head in my bedroom wall from 1984-1986. I had gotten over the initial fear from the Thriller video, and I decided that I needed an MJ poster in my life. I remember being in the record store, and I told my dad that it had to Billie Jean-themed, so he got it for me. I totally ignored my dad's wish for me to wait for him to put the poster up, and I scotch taped it to the wall, as sloppily as a 9 year old can. I was so proud of myself.

Then I started to notice that as my room got darker in the evenings, the poster was way more creepier than it had been upon the initial purchase. I kept seeing MJ's beady eyes following me around the room, and it made me uncomfortable(almost as uncomfortable as it would for him to actually be in my bedroom). So one day I just upped and tore the poster down, because in my mind, he was staring at me, and he was no longer cool. But then the video for Say, Say, Say came out, and I was on the MJ bandwagon again, and I taped that poster right back on the wall. But once again, after a few days, I got creeped out all over again, and I tore it right back down.

That next year, my family moved across town, and I was faced with the decision of discarding MJ or bringing him along to terrorize me once again. Earlier that year, I had noticed that Theo had the exact same poster in his room, so maybe I should stick it out in an attempt to be cool. Ultimately, I decided to ditch that poster, and I never bought or put up another MJ poster. It did not diminish my love for his music or his dancing though. Years later, I found out that having MJ in your bedroom in any capacity is a detriment, so perhaps I was ahead of the curve.

All that being said, in my humble opinion, Billie Jean is the best song/video combo ever made in any genre, and I'd argue with anyone on that point. So on that note:

Here is the demo version of Billie Jean

Here is the regular version

And here the video is posted below. The part of this video I imitated the most in the mirror? From the 1:54 mark when he's holding his jacket, to the 2:34 mark when he comes out of a spin and ends on his toes. Great great stuff.

Oh, and Joe Biden's speech was just so-so, and doesn't warrant a review from me. Go to the Washington Post site or something. Obama saying Clinton rocked the house was funny, followed by a shot of Hillary asking Bill what "rock the house" meant. That was golden. Enough of that though..on to Michael

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

man, the very end of the Thriller video used to terrify me. i could make it through michael's initial transmogrification, and the dance sequences took the edge off the zombies; but when he went back to "normal" and turned to the camera w/ those evil eyes?

jesus.

rashad said...

m.g.,
i remember those evil yellow eyes, that they had to nerve to run the ending credits over...

Miss. Lady said...

I slept with my bible, a cross and the lights on for two weeks after seeing the Thriller video.

But my favorite part of the song was when dude said, "Creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorize y'alls neighborhood."

maxwellsmusze said...

VOILA!!!

Here he is approaching 50!

http://api.ning.com/files/tfvHXb1Rq6FyN15jpcvhi*NQ8H9kXguZy5rxalksmCc8GQkGquF4FUmmhfPA0U4OI7frC7iQZSwCqTeua**fCDSpAmKZWjqI/mj.jpg

Papier Girl said...

i used to dance to Billie Jean when i was a kid--while being cheered on by my great grandma. Picture me, with a tiny squiggle of my hair pulled down on my forehead, pants rolled up like high-waters, moonwalking and spinning like a complete fool. Only Mike could make it look so cool.

Anonymous said...

you're a weirdo!

£ said...

excuse me michael, but are those pajama pants you're wearing?

is it me or does he look like the chatelaine of some kind of puppet dungeon?

how the mighty have fallen. :/

but yeah, i had michael-itis for a good minute. i remember i had a plethora of puffy stickers and used them to decorate any hard surface, much to my mom's chagrin. my bro and i used to have moonwalk-offs too. lol

anyway michael's music will always knock, despited his current grotesque appearance.