I was 11 years old when Thriller came out in 1982.
We had pretty much just had cable in our house and I remember making sure to watch the epic video EVERY HOUR on MTV! It truly was a first for a lot of us who have never seen a video like that before and a littly tiny guy dancing around the screen dressed up as a vampire with moves none of us would even try to attempt!
The only story I have to share with you all was back in the Summer of 1992 in New York. For some reason on a weekday I decided to head up to Central Park since it was a beautiful NY summer day and I missed feeling grass underneath my feet. Before the Great Lawn had Kentuck Blue Grass installed, it was a pretty beat up field but still a great place to go to get away from the concrete jungle NY so often feels like!
Anyway, I got out near the Plaza and started heading West along the South side of the Park towards Columbus Circle. I remember it wasn't that crowded and since it was a weeknight there wasn't the usual tourist crush and the smelly horse carriages that line that street to take over paying and over zealous tourists around the park. I noticed one carriage approaching me and it was being followed by an unmarked blue-greyish van. The carriage stopped right in front of me and out came from it was a small child, another small one and this strange looking person with a black hat, military black jacket and he was wearind a mask and dark glasses. For a minute I thought, , No, this can't be what I think it is. For one, how crazy would that be and two, how awesome would that be!
But, lo and behold, right there in front of me was the King of Pop himself. One security guy, the driver of the van ( tinted windows of course) and me, 2 kids and Michael himself. I was more shocked and in awe than I thought and with a quick, Hey Michael , loveyour music!..he sort of raised his gloveless white hand, acknowledged me and then quickly was shuttled in to the van along with his kid friends ( he didn't have any children at that point) and drove off in to the NYC streets. Some 17 years later from that NYC Summer, I never thought the King of Pop would be dead at 50 years old!
He truly was one of a kind and I am grateful (along with the countless millions of fans) that we as kids were able to witness a living legend as Michael Jackson was and will continue to be.
I hope you finally find peace and quiet wherever your soul ends up. The world was a cruel place to you and I think, for a lot us, you died a long time ago. ....
MEDIA NOTE:
First, it was incredible to witness the power of a site like TMZ and how it trumped the major networks and news websites in terms of breaking the death of Michael Jackson. They ran circles around the traditional media and I am afraid this might have been a ground breaking media moment that will only be a testament to how we all get our news, receive it and who we are willing to trust in terms of the validity of where it comes from!
Second, I LOVE what the NYT's has for an interactive way readers can read how the world feels about the death of the pop icon himself! I have never seen anything like it and it's yet another way old media wants to reach out to the new one that's knocking on its door and threatening its own existance.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/25/arts/jackson-legacy.html
