It's been a week since The King of Pop peaced outta here to moonwalk on the big dance floor in the sky. Seven days that have, to the surprise of nobody, been filled with all kinds of salacious stories surrounding his strange death and even more bizarre life. What is surprising though, is how bummed about MJ's death I genuinely am. And as Michael himself would say to me "you are not alone." I've received several emails from friends who are feeling the same way. We're in an MJ funk.
I haven't thought about Michael Jackson in what feels like forever and admittedly when I have thought of Jacko, it's not been in a positive way. I've said it before, My Michael died around 1991/1992, after the release of Dangerous and before the first round of child molestation allegations. Sure it had been a long time since he was a pretty young thing, his face was already the stuff of nightmares and we had already seen our share of behaviour that could be described as eccentric at best and totally off the wall batshit crazy at worst but I held on, my love of MJ allowing me to overlook all the insanity until it became just too much and I handed in my sparkly glove, relegated my official MJ Mafia t-shirt to 'gym shirt status' and moved on with my life.
Now, more than 15 years later, MJ is dead and like most things in life, the grieving process is not black and white nor is it as easy as ABC or 1,2,3. Several friends and I have been finding comfort in drowning ourselves in everything Michael, watching his videos, old interviews, classic performances and pop culture milestones. When you don't know what to say, say say, sometimes it's just easier to remember the time it seemed like MJ was invincible. It's only human nature, I suppose. I can't keep my grief in the closet.
Michael, I can't explain the way you make me feel, you were a dancing machine, you were dangerous, some might even say a smooth criminal but you made me scream, you rock my world and now you are gone too soon and I'll never get to rock with you. But perhaps it took your death, your blood on the dance floor to make me realize I just can't stop loving you.
If you're like me and you want to drown your sorrows by drowning yourself in MJ, Entertainment Weekly has put together a Michael Jackson tribute issue out tomorrow.
I'll be picking this up tomorrow, the same day I'll be sitting down to watch the VHS copy of The Making Of Thriller that I tore apart my apartment to find.
If you want to strap yourself into the DeLorean with me and Doc and relive some of MJ's magical moments, here are some below. Great Scott! He was amazing;
Motown 25th Anniversary featuring the debut of the Moon Walk:
Pepsi commercial (the one in which he was injured during filming);
Another Pepsi commercial featuring MJ (and a young, adorable Alfonso Ribeiro);
Thriller. Full-length version;
We Are The World (take a Lactaid, it's gonna get cheesy!);
The Way You Make Me Feel & Man in the Mirror from the 1988 Grammys;
1993 Super Bowl half time show, parts 1 & 2;
MJ's final rehearsal, taken two days before his death;
