The person on the left is not me; though when I was in High School, I wanted to be like him...let me clarify that - dance like him. During that bygone era of Betamax; it was play-rewind-play-rewind tapes of Michael Jackson music videos (not to mention Linda Lovelace films but that's another story), trying to imitate his dance steps. I kinda got the moves of "Beat it" and half of the "Thriller" dance sequence (the Beta player gobbled up the tape), but the real challenge was doing the moonwalk - keeping your heels flat on the floor while sliding backwards, which is basically what you naturally do when trying to get rid of the dog poo you just stepped on.
But in the end, the only thing MJ-ish I got right was having his skin tone (which would also change eventually...darn it). So I quit trying to spin on my heels and just enjoyed his music. And man, what a line-up of hits this guy had: From 'Rock with You', 'Billie Jean', 'Smooth Criminal', 'Black or White', 'You are not alone'....well, everyone has their bad days.
My love for Michael Jackson's music rubbed off on my daughter, Camy. When I bought DVDs of his videos, there was a time when she would watch them every single day without fail. So it doesn't matter to me if he was ultra-weird or maybe a perv. I had fun watching his videos; my daughter enjoyed listening to his music; my wife got a good laugh out of watching me try to dance like him. So I guess in his life, Michael Jackson has done his job - to make people like us happy.
So, thank you, Mr. Jackson. And I hope you teach those angels how the Moonwalk is really done.
No comments:
Post a Comment