Who's Bad?

It's Friday morning now. And I can always come back to the topic of my kid. It might be a few days or months away. But I'll get there.

Back to Michael Jackson. I am kinda sad today. I heard about Farrah this morning too. They were both icons in my youth. I don't know too many guys my age who did not try to find nude pictures of Farrah on the Internet when they were 12 years old.

Okay, Okay, busted. Al Gore did not invent the Internet until roughly 10 years later. But if there was an Internet when I was 12, I'd have been all over it looking for naked pictures of any of the Angels, and seeking out videos of Michael Jackson dancing...so I could practice for my role as MJ in the 1982 Carolyn Kiesel production of the Thriller video. Although the video cameras were bigger than the original Atari machines back in those days, we were committed to learning all of the moves and recording the full 8 minutes of the video so that we would have a BetaMax recording that we could cherish forever. I showed up for all the rehearsals, but we could not get enough ghouls to come regularly, so we had to shut it down.

In addition to my almost lead role in the never-produced video, below are a few things that I did or obtained as a part of my totally non-gay pre-pubescent obsession with a man who later turned into an alien.

1) I had a 2'x2' yellow silk tapestry of MJ in his Billie Jean attire hung above my bed.
2) I never had a red zipper jacket, but many people to this day accuse me of owning one. Though I did borrow one for a junior high dance once.
3) The first time I saw the moonwalk, I swore that I would do that move at a junior high dance someday and "wow" the crowd.
4) When I did my moonwalk for the first time at a school dance, along with some other breakdancing moves that I HAD TO LEARN, nearly every person in the gym stopped dancing and gathered around me. That was not the biggest crowd to see me pop, lock and glide, but it was the most memorable. I instantly went from "little Chris" to being a big hit with the ladies. Shortly after I made out with a girl on the bleachers.
5) To this day, if I am out and an MJ song comes on, people that know me well seek me out and demand that I do a few moves. Shamon.
6) Next to the yellow tapestry in item #1 above, I had an MJ signature Pepsi can from one of his tour sponsorships...in pristine condition, duct taped to the wall.
7) I saved every picture of MJ that I ever came across and most of them were on my wall somewhere too. I wish I had a picture of all that ridiculousness.
8) On the non-soda can side of the tapestry, there was a single glove pinned to the wall. It did not have sequins but it was white and left-handed.
9) When I was doing research for a paper in 10th grade, I was looking up M. Jackson articles and came across an article on Jackson Pollack... I thought his art was awesome too. I wrote the paper on JP not MJ. I got an A. I still have the paper in a box in my attic. I had bad grammar in 10th grade.
10) I am sure there are things that I am forgetting. Please remind me if you have any stories.

I am 36 years old. And based on what Michael Jackson turned into, I can't say that I will always have fond memories of the guy but he definitely had an impact on my life and I'll always carry him with me on my iPod.