The good times

This morning before work, I was flipping through the channels and 13 Going on 30 was on. Awesome! Sadly, I had to leave before the big dance number. A few days ago, one of the boys in my tap class illustrated his ability to moonwalk, even though he was born well after the move was introduced. In tap the other night, my teacher and I started doing an old routine to "The Way You Make Me Feel."

So Michael Jackson was in the front of my mind when I came home today and saw that he had died. I was surprised at how upset I got when Wolf Blitzer said the news. For those of us who grew up in the 80s, Michael Jackson was just such a huge part of our childhoods. He pervaded everything. One of my earliest memories is being freaked out by the video for "Thriller." (I still can't deal with the ending of it.) (And why the hell did my parents let 4-year-old me watch it?)

But still, over the years he became someone different from who he was when I was younger. He made great music, but was also something of a total nutcase. Linda Holmes does a good job summing up my feelings in an article she wrote, though she doesn't include my uncomfortableness about the child abuse allegations.

Anyway, so I'm just going to include his "Smooth Criminal" video. It's the looong version, from the movie Moonwalker, which I remember watching with my sister. The movie is made of crazy; seriously, just check out the description in Wikipedia. But this criminal is totally awesome. The dancing really gets going around 6:40.



I lied. I'm also including the "Say Say Say" video. I don't care how good (or not) the song is; I just find Paul and Michael adorable in it. Plus, I've heard that Jackson left Sir Paul 50% of the Beatles catalog in his will. I hope that's true.