Saturday, June 27, 2009
RIP, Michael.
At the precise moment my TV came on at 7:15am yesterday morning (i set it on alarm), there was a newsflash on Mezamashii TV and they reported that Michael Jackson was being sent to hospital for cardiac arrest. I remembered i was grabbing for my glasses. Then the whole morning as i was getting ready to work, i had one eye on the TV as the whole world was swamped and confused with mixed reports from the various TV networks that speculated whether he survived or died. I stayed to watch as much as i could until i simply had to run for work. The moment i reached my office, i switched on my PC and opened up my homepage, and there, on the Top Ten Google hits, NINE were about his death, confirmed. Oh no... ... T-T
It felt like the end of an era.
I remember how me and my sis were crazy about him when we were young. I was still in primary or secondary school when he came to Singapore for his world tour. He came twice, first for his Dangerous World Tour, then the History World Tour. I wonder if I still have the ticket stubs somewhere. I can't rem how we ended up going for the first tour. I think it's cos my cousins wanted to go, and they decided to bring us along. I think that was the first ever concert I've ever been too. It was at the National Stadium, and we bought the free-size (read: oversized) Dangerous t-shirts! I rem being very mesmerised by the design...
(everyone ought to image google for "Dangerous Michael Jackson" at this point to know what i mean) I think if your first ever concert was by the King of Pop, at the National Stadium, it kinda set some high standards for future concerts....
Anyway, we became fans after that. I would buy all those expensive US magazines from Times Bookshop which featured him, and read about his crazy huge Neverland Ranch (must go visit one day), the amusement park and zoo inside, his albino snake and Bubbles, and all the weird stories like those about him sleeping in an oxygen tank. Me and my sis also dug out some VHS (albeit pirated) of the Dangerous World Tour at some flea market. (no money for official VHS? VCD? DVD? then) We watched those tapes sooo many times and were so amazed at the images. Oh and i rem freaking out when the magnetic tape of the VHS got stuck inside the VCR, cos mebe we watched it too many times? I had to CUT it in the end (sob) and then brilliantly taped the two ends together(ha!) and thank god, it could still be watched, thou it skips at the broken-but-mended part. Yea, was THAT crazy. (and i wonder where the tapes are now...)
Then when he came the second time, me and my sis had to BEG our dad to buy us two tickets to go watch again, which he finally okay-ed after MUCH negotiation cos i think the tics were over a hundred bucks each. Gosh, i rem making panic phonecalls to my sis using a public phone in St. Nicks yelling at her "Pa said okay already, quick run to Sistic at Bishan and buy!!!!". And ohhh... am i glad we made it.
I rem and LOVED his performances of "You Are Not Alone" (that voice...), "Black or White", "I'll Be There" (how it ended with an angel hugging him), "Heal the World" (that huge Earth Balloon that blows up slowly as he sang), "Smooth Criminal" (the dance, the suit and the fedora and that gravity-defying move which i can't decribe!), "Billie Jean" (THE IMPOSSIBLY SMOOTH MOONWALK!!! WE SAW IT LIVE!!!), "Man in the Mirror" (gosh, loved the lyrics) and sooo many more!!! Seriously, my memory is blur. I cannot rem which performance was from which tour, and maybe some of them I never saw live, but from the VHS. Through the VHS though, i found out that he kinda scripted his concert, like how he will always select a girl to hug him during She's Out Of My Life etc, but still, i loved it. And one of the toursm , it was just before or after his birthday in Aug and the entire National Stadium sang him "Happy Birthday". It was sooo sweet, or am i re-calling from some VHS again?
Anyway after that, we even bought the Michael Jackson game (i think it was on SEGA?), and at that time, there's no such thing as memory card!! Once u start a game, u can't stop bcos u can't save. If u stop, u have to re-start. Absolutely dumb, cos can u imagine how hard it is to finish those games with storylines?? But we did it. From morning til night. We just paused the games and rushed to finish lunch/dinner, bcos we were scared that the machine will auto-shutdown if left on pause for too long. LOL. And then i even bought a bloody thick biography on him which i still have at home!! And oh! I watched that weird movie "The Wiz", where MJ was the scarecrow too. Haha... he's really weird sometimes.
Oh gosh, so many memories of my child/teen?hood with him.
But now he's gone forever, and we can never see him dance live again. He was plagued with so many problems in the late ninties and it was so upsetting. I didn't want to believe the reports, and I still don't. I think he's just someone who live in his own world, who doesn't fit with the "norms" so people keep picking on him for that. I just kept hoping for the media to leave him alone.
As i grew up, he kinda went into a career recluse and i drifted away. Though no longer an avid fan, but always a supporter. (The Earth Song still sends chills down my spine)
And bcos i watched so much of him when i was young, i can tell his influence on other performers. Like in JJ's concert, when JJ imitates his... "crying part??", in Johnny Jr's concerts, where they sing Secret Agent Man, in Takitsuba's concerts, where they wear those suits with fedora etc etc... all MJ inspired.
Seriously, even my 60+ yr old aunties who can't speak English know about him.
Sigh. Still kinda surreal. Is he, really gone?
Just a couple weeks ago, i was still watching his Black or White mtv on YouTube...
I think i will forever remember this day, where i woke up to news of a pop culture icon passing away.
Rest in peace, Michael.
I hope you are in a better place. =)
I believe your music will survive time,
and the culture you created will have its influence on many generations to come.
Thank you for all the wonderful memories and inspiring music.
We will miss you!
By the way, for all those people who are wondering, the one Google hit that wasn't about his death read "Jeff Goldblum dead too?", and no, he's not. Just some hoax.
