Goodbye, Michael Jackson

I'm sure many of you are mourning the loss of Michael Jackson today like I am. I was obsessed with him in 6th, 7th & 8th grade. I had all his posters all over my walls and all his buttons all over my jacket. For Christmas I got a red pleather jacket that looked just like the one he wore in his Beat It video. My brother got a black one just like it and my mom a white one.

I think our neighborhood was the last one in the entire USA to get cable. When the Thriller video came out I had to go over to a friends house to catch it. MTV was playing it every half hour. They've never done that since - that's how groundbreaking the video was. That zombie dance is STILL totally kick ass!
And the moonwalk?! W-O-W!! There hasn't been a dance move before or since (or any kind of move by anybody doing anything) that blew everyone away. 'Fess up - you tried to do it and failed miserable but even now you still wish you could to it. (It's ok, me too.)

I dragged my whole family (though it wasn't hard) to the Jackson's Victory concert at the Pontiac Silverdome when I was 13. It was my first concert so I couldn't say for sure, but I think that was the first concert tour that was a 'production' and not just a concert. I remember we were all dazzled the entire time. I got to see him moonwalk live while singing Billie Jean. What a memory to have! I still have my concert ticket.

I remember when the Black or White video premiered on MTV when I was college. It obviously was about race relations so I thought it was going to be slow and preachy, but it turned out to be one of the best pop songs he ever wrote. And how cool was the end of that video when all those people were morphing into each other?!

At the end, it seems like he surrounded himself with a bunch of self-serving leeches who didn't do anything to help him emotionally or physically. And if the toxicology report reveals that his death was caused by all meds, I hope the evil Dr. Feelgood gets stripped of his medical license and thrown in jail. He had all those people around him - why didn't any of them help him? The frustrating thing is that he could have gotten help and didn't have to die.

MJ: You are missed. Say 'hi' to Elvis for me.

Movie Reviews

Movie review time! The Life Before Her Eyes starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood is the story of a woman who survived a Columbine-like tragedy. This isn't my normal genre of movies, so please believe me when I say it's worth renting.

I also recommend Death At A Funeral, a British comedy about family dynamics in midst of the funeral of the family patriarch. I wasn't in the mood to watch a British film, but it won me over in spite of my bad mood. It was pretty darn funny.

Darjeeling Ltd. was a little too goofy for me. It's the story of a trio of brothers who never got over the death of their father. If you're in the mood for a very quirky movie you might like this one.

Outlaw starring Sean Bean is slow, and Awake is stupid. Don't rent either of them.

Movie & Book Reviews

I've been laid up after having surgery on my foot so I have lots of reviews to post from all this free time on my hands. I'll start with The Hangover which was hilarious. Three guys wake up in their trashed Vegas hotel room after a crazy night out on the town for a bachelor party to find a chicken, a baby, and a tiger - but no groom. They have no memory of the night before and try to retrace their steps so they can find their friend. This movie was absolutely laugh out loud funny. This is a must see.

Yesterday I went through South Park Season 12. If you're a South Park fan this is a must see. The first few episodes were a little on the weak side, but as the season progressed the episodes got funnier culminating in the best and last episode of the season where Butters thinks he's turned into a vampire after getting a Hot Topic makeover and drinking Clamato. I love Butters.

The rest of the movies I watched I can't really recommend. Deception, starring Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor, is slow and predictable. Harsh Times, starring Christian Bale, is about a stupid white guy trying to fit into Latino street culture. One Missed Call wasn't scary at all. Lars and the Real Girl wasn't bad, but I thought it was supposed to be comedy and it turned out to be a touching indy film.

Now for a couple book reviews. The first one is a short story that was free on the Kindle called Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch. It's three chapters long. The first chapter follows a male serial killer who rapes and tortures a hitch hiker in a cornfield. The second chapter follows a female serial killer who drugs her victims so she can tie them to the back of the car and drag them until they die. The third chapter has these two serial killers meet each other and gets interesting as we watch them try to kill each other. Very twisted. It's not bad, but I'm glad it was only three chapters because it was disturbing.

The other book was also a free Kindle download called The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. It's aimed at a pre-teen audience, but it was a good little story. It's about Nicholas Flamel and the philosopher's stone, which can make the elixir of life. Some bad people steal the codex of ancient formulas and it's up to a set of twins to help Flamel save the world from destruction. Cute, but I can't recommend it to an adult audience.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Zombies?! Yes, you read that right. Some genius named Seth Grahame-Smith took Jane Austen's torturously boring novel and wrote in a bunch of zombies to spice it up. The Bennet girls are all ninja warriors pledged to kill Satan's minions, but the main story is still Austen's original drivel. This book is much more clever and entertaining than it sounds like it would be.

It took me a long time to read this; probably about a month when my usual pace for a book is a few days to a week. It if weren't for Grahame-Smith's upgrades I would have stabbed my eyes out with a fork and tossed the book into the garbage (well, not really because I have it on my Kindle, but you get the point). I don't know how Austen got herself published and why her books are considered classics. Thank God Grahame-Smith had the inclination and the time to revamp it so than now I may say that this new version is definitely a classic.

My initial thought was that he should upgrade all of Austen's books, but his next project is going to be Abe Lincoln: Vampire Slayer. I'm glad he's spreading the love around. I'm looking forward to his future works.