HC:

CK, your trail mix is mega healthy compared to the snacks I eat. When I read that as being your slip up or the green tea ice cream..... girrrrrrl if you knew what I ate for snacks you'd scold me harder than you just scolded miss Tania here! I got cookie dough flavored ice cream downstairs with cookie dough ribbons and chunks and choco chips too. And doritos. And Doctor P. But shshhshshhshsshhhh i didn't even wanna say nothin' cuz I know what your reaction's gonna be!!

 

^ CK.

Oh, and I had KFC for dinner and ice cream cake for dessert today waaaahhh!

 

CK:

LOL!!! Oh THANK you HC for that fabulous gif!!! <it was a gif, now it's a photo>

I love me my Maestro (especially when he gets all manly tough-guy and stuff) yuuuuuummmyyy

(Not easy to do in long hair and a frilly shirt, I might add! LOL)

Honey - you eat what you wanna eat, darlin' - it's your body and you get to feed it exactly what you want! Calories are calories whether from trail mix and green tea ice cream or KFC and cookie dough ice cream.Which is why I'm still a chubette in spite of my good intentions.

I don't aim to convert ANYBODY - takes more energy than I have to spare anyhoo.

 

I must point out though, that the noted and unusual health of MJ's arteries (no plaque) and the good condition of his heart according to the autopsy <sigh> can only be in part due to his long years of healthy eating (vegetarian at times and calorie-restriction when he chose to fast) and very active physicality. I think it's too late for me, but maybe not for you youngsters.

We can learn from that too.

 

HC:

 

 

oooooh I love Maestro too. All the time, any time he can come and "scare" me.

 

I must say too I am usually pretty good with how I eat but it was my stepgrandma's birthday so we had lots of goodies about but normally I don't eat too much of that. I grew up eating wholesome homemade meals too so now that I'm grown I treat myself to junk food from tim to time since I didn't have it as a youngster. (which is a good thing) everybody should be careful I think but it's also okay to have treats sometimes! MJ always loved to have some KFC himself. Too much makes me sick anyhow.

CK:

Hee hee! loveitloveitloveit

And then right after those two faces, when he gets REAL INTENSE....

Go Maestro! Go Maestro! Go Maestro!

Sock their knockers off!

 

HC:

I think I need to watch Ghosts again. Just sayin'. I've been feeling a want, NO, A NEEEEEEEED, to watch it lately.

CK:

Funny you should say that -

MJStar sent out the link to the VH1 "Making Of" special this morning - which I had to stop and watch again coz I needed it bad - If you haven't downloaded this little gem, make sure you do coz there's so much meat there.

I just ADORE his scenes in his trailer as The Mayor when he's speaking in his own deep voice and spouting profound about dance...

Shoot, I adore everything in it.

So awesome too to see his body in the "performance capture" mode when they animated the skeleton - his moves are so specific and clean, made even more so by the skin-tight catsuit he had to wear. All that gaming video he shot was great rehearsal for that animation process. (Needed a booty shot though - would have been breathtaking!!)

Again he leaves me shaking my head when he describes his intention in Ghosts as simply fun entertainment -

 

Thanks to the recent brilliant reminder by Willa and Joie on Dancing With The Elephant, we know there was so much more to it, and more to discover as we watch it many more times. I want more "behind the scenes" footage and pray that the Estate can come up with something a little faster than 25 years later...

 

RB:

WHY do you believe MJ downplayed his intent with Ghosts and other things, CK? Willa made an interesting observation recently about what she believes MJ meant when he used the word "escapism"--it was really about time and space coming together at a single point--something great art can do. She interprets his otherwise somewhat vapid, "escapism is what they want"...

 

CK:

Well - regarding Ghosts in particular, while I shake my head in wonder, I also think that MJ realized full well that he could not make a polemic out of any creation of his that contained a message, however subtle, concerning his personal struggles against racial bias, lies from the media and "fear of the different".

If he introduced it as a "message" piece, a harangue against the prejudices he had faced, against bullying and name-calling, it would have been a hard sell to get anyone to look at the film. The critics would have reviewed it with claws out and it was too gentle a piece to get that kind of treatment. He was wise to market it the way he did AND LET THE MESSAGE SELL ITSELF, allow the subtext to seep in to the consciousness of the people who "got it" and "got him", spread by word of mouth (which I think it did) and give a more enticing gateway to get the viewer to look at it.

"Come see a fun piece of fluff by the King Of Pop! See state-of-the-art special effects that have never been done before! Laugh! Sing! Dance! Cry!"

It's always harder to sell a moral.

He reserved his polemics for social issues (Man In The Mirror, Earth Song) but I think also knew that too heavy a hand might possibly turn off many viewers he was trying to reach. He had to rope them in first using his own wonderful music and his own personal magnetism, and hope that the respect and love he had earned around the world would do the rest of the work.

A gentle and loving, somewhat restrained, but very concerned messenger to the end.

Does this make any sense?

 

RB:

It makes complete and utter sense, Chris. I get it now. Perfect sense! It belongs in a blog.

Giuseppe Mazzola Photography - Michael Jackson In Moscow Highlights [Unreleased Video]

TB:
This has been on Facebook for awhile but I just watched it. It is so clear and up close. He is lit from within with love. The children see it and respond to it.


He truly belonged to the people of this world. I am sure he knew that.


But, did he ever truly belong to himself?


TD:
Absolutely beautiful
Thankyou
XO


SO:
Wow! That was wonderful. Seeing him interact with the children is just amazing. He has this way of touching - it's a healing touch, he's giving all of his love. Just think of all the children he gave that warmth to. I think of the orphanages he visited and the sick children that probably rarely received any human contact, loving touch. He knew that and he gave it. What an angel, what purity

FB:

~SIGH~

~TEARS~

Thank you for sharing.

CK:
Michael Jackson In Moscow Highlights / Peter Pan

Beautiful, indeed. 

How shy his eyes were on that day.

I watched another video while I was on YT that had interviews with people who were there that day as kids - one guy said they were told not to touch MJ while he was there - but he did, he said he was unable to stop himself - MJ sat down to sign a paper for him and he knelt next to him, and was so drawn to him that he kissed him on the cheek. Couldn't stop himself. Others spoke about how much of a kid MJ was himself. It always awes me when MJ crosses over so many language and cultural barriers and is simply recognized as the unusual person he was on an energy level. No words needed, really.

Thank you for sharing another one of so many touching, inexplicable, mysterious, MJ moments.

Did he belong to himself?

It feels to me so often that he simply gave himself so totally away --- to the extent that he knew there really was no turning back.

Though he clung to some intense and very important realities they were tiny compared to the impact of his gift to the world and his "footprint" within it.

The art owned him, body and soul. Not vice versa.

This is also kinda why the Peter Pan film wouldn't work out.

Dunno if I can express this and make sense...

Spielberg in his particular approach (in "Hook") was trying to connect or bridge reality into fantasy (modern-day lawyer to fictional iconic character) so that we viewers who are unfortunately and supposedly rooted in reality could 1) start to relate 2) connect with our own personal childhood fantasy a la Peter Pan, and 3) allow that fantastical part of us to carry us into the less real-part of the story, surrender to it and go with it. It's a reasonable, directorial-rational approach.

However -- Michael Jackson in the lead role, simply existing in the moment as himself... is ALREADY personally waaaay closer to the fantastical, illusional, magical end of the story - his energy did not have a footprint in normalcy ever - so attempting to start him out in the modern-day reality part of the transition was already wrong. 

Like trying to squash Charles Dickens' vibrant, luminous and larger-than-life Spirit of Christmas Present into the body and business suit of Bob Cratchit and putting him to work in Scrooge's firm...

Nuh-uh. 

Ain't gonna fly (pun intended).

MJ would know that instinctively.

IMO -The only approach that MJ could have worked with as Peter Pan would dive right into the fantasy from the start and somehow have to work back slowly towards some connection with reality that a mere mortal viewer could walk out with - because we'd all want to stay in the fantasy with MJ/Peter anyway. We'd encounter reality again at some point - he'd deliver us there in some form but not really be part of it... but we'd never - ever - ever - forget the place he'd taken us, and the twinkle in his eye as he sucked us in would also stay in our souls. Like the shooting star in Moonwalker.

This is Michael's audacious magic.

SO:

CK, I think you're right. Kids were drawn to him because he was so kind and charming at the same time. Plus, he gave them attention. In the video, I love the part where he is looking into the eyes of the boy and holding his hands. It's like he's saying "I SEE you, you are important." It was a very purposeful interaction.

It is amazing how he was loved universally. Audacious magic - I love it. TB is right, this should be on a blog


CK:

Hee hee sorry guys - I probably shouldn't be allowed near my computer when I stay up late coz I do babble, huh...

Did any of that make any sense?

(Put the woman on a blog where she can confoose thousands instead of just us ten... LOL)

Anyway - I think it went way beyond kind and charming with MJ and kids, I think they recognized his soul and his connection to source immediately... 

He never left that place... So many others saw it too and spoke about it but the children are more connected to divinity until society gets to 'em.

Like Oprah mentioned last year and LMP agreed: when MJ turned his light on her it was quite an experience. He unnerved most people but not the kids.

SO:

Yes, I agree it goes beyond kind & charming - that is probably what first draws people and then they feel a spiritual connection.

CK:

Gosh I would have loved to have known him.

He certainly tops my short list of "wish I had known xxxx"...