R.I.P Michael Jackson

When I logged in to WordPress this morning, I thought I’d be reading through the usual political/funny posts they have featured on the main page.

So when I saw a link from Fox News saying “In Memorium: Michael Jackson (1958-2009)” my immediate reaction was, “Pffft, yeah right.” I clicked on the link thinking, “They’re probably trying to crack a joke about his career. Maybe it’s their way of headlining an article about him cancelling his comeback tour or something.”

Unfortunately, we were both right. It took me a while to process that he has actually died. No need to state any details—-anyone with a TV or radio or an Internet connection will have drowned in those by now.

Michael Jackson was (is, still) a huge part of my life. Especially during my childhood and early teen years. As a kid (not even in the double-digits yet) my sisters and I would gather around the TV in Saudi Arabia and watch Moonwalker, which we had recorded on videocassette. My favorite parts included his transformations—-especially when he turned into a robot at the end. It was likely one of the coolest things I’d ever seen at that age, especially ’cause you knew that the bad guys were seriously gonna get it now

The Smooth Criminal video was fascinating every time, and hilarious too. (Michael actually shoots a dude who was trying to stab him and the guy pretty much slides backwards and slams cartoonishly through a wall. You can’t tell me that isn’t at least slightly amusing). Also getting crushed pool ball dust blown in your face is pretty freaking funny for a kid.

Damn…there are so many memories crammed into that one video, it’d fill up a lot of space to explain it all. Besides, it wouldn’t be worth it to mention them here since I only share the memories with my sisters. No one else really watched Moonwalker with us. Hehe, I learned to stand on the tips of my toes and hold that position because of MJ. I remember showing it off to my mom when I was six and she said, “Oh, yes that’s like ballet.” I only had a vague idea of what ballet really was so I said, “Nooo, it’s Michael Jackson!”

(For what it’s worth, I can still pull it off. It’s useful when I’m trying to reach something that’s just out of my reach )

Pretty much my whole early afternoon today was spent in front of the TV with my mom, flipping through channels and seeing what the news stations were saying about him. Funny how someone’s death will make you say nice things about them. Pretty much the last ten years made MJ out to be more of a punchline than the music legend he was—-a status that no pop star nowadays could ever hope to achieve.

Was he a bit of a freak, especially in later years? Yeah—-I’ll admit it. He definitely didn’t act like most human beings I know. Then again, MJ never was a normal human being to begin with. How could he be, when he’s been in show business since an age when most kids are learning to read five-word-per-page picture books? Sometimes I wondered what the hell got into him when he did weird things—-but that also became who he was. You don’t even expect him to act “normal”.

It was his music that attached me to him. I’d memorized pretty much every song he ever sang on his solo albums. I even had quite a few stuff from his Jackson 5/The Jacksons/young-Michael-singing-on-his-own days. He was immensely talented, a musical genius in his own right. I like the fact that he’d experimented with different sounds, different genres. Even if I didn’t really like the end result, at least he was creative and dug into various sounds to find inspiration for his music. I’ve seen his interviews, I had even scoured the Internet and managed to find his autobiography, Moonwalker. I used to read that a lot, though it required a computer to do so.

My sisters were also fans, but not quite as crazy about him as I became—-especially when I was in my early teens. But Lana, despite making fun of him just to get a reaction out of me, was very supportive. All CD’s I have of his songs were burned by her. She even spent time digging through the ‘net looking for songs that were rare or unreleased, even if I didn’t ask. For my birthday in Canada, she ordered MJ tapes of his music videos, three to be exact. I couldn’t really watch them during the day because the TV was being used for other purposes. But at night, Lana would sit with me and we’d pop one in and watch. Because that’s just how we are, we’d always find something to mock. To this day I can still watch any MJ video and remember at least two or three comments that we’d have about particular scenes. In 2001, when I realized that I couldn’t find any channel in Canada that was showing the concert where MJ was celebrating 30 years as a solo artist, my uncle in the U.S. taped it for me and sent it. We always had a connection with MJ—-he was such a big part of our childhoods. Just to name a few: Thriller, Billie Jean, Say Say Say, The Girl is Mine and Beat It were all part of the soundtrack that defined my kiddie days.

My mom was also affected by news of his passing away. Her past was also deeply connected with his music. She used to play songs from Thriller around the house and told me that the very first time Lana danced, at age two, it was to Billie Jean. Twenty-three years later, 18-year-old Madi danced MJ-style to the same song in a medley of dances from different singers. It was pretty freaking awesome.

*Sighs* I guess I’ll round this off with a video. It’s not one of his more famous ones, but it’s one of my favorites because I love the scenes where he’s with Michael Jordan. Plus the dancing’s pretty cool, as always.

This is part of the Michael Jackson’ Private Home Movies thing that MJ made not long after the disastrous Martin Bashir interview. It cracks me up every time:

R.I.P MJ — May you find the peace you never had while you were here. Thanks for all that you’ve given.