My own Michael Jackson weirdness

Sure, Michael Jackson's all over the news today. But there's some weird stuff going on with Jacko and the Bartman. In a way, his death was like the capstone of my most Michael Jackson-intensive week ever.

Item #1: on Monday, I was listening to the latest episode of Doug Benson's delightful podcast, I Love Movies. It's a simple enough concept - he brings guests onstage at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater and talks about movies. The guests range from people you've never heard of to Kevin Pollak, Sarah Silverman, and Jon Hamm. The guests you've not heard of are generally funny. Except the women, who tend to be airheads. At any rate, the conversation turned to Francis Ford Coppola, because he's got a new movie coming out, and Doug Benson revealed that he'd been a backup dancer in 'Captain EO'. "What the hell is 'Captain EO'", you may wonder. Oh, it was the Francis Ford Coppola-directed, Michael Jackson-starring short film that was made for Disney theme parks. It looks incredibly bizarre.

Apparently the story with backup dancing was that the movie went over-budget, so Coppola had to fire the professional backup dancers and just brought in anyone he could find. That's how a pothead comedian with no discernable coordination ended up as a dancer. While describing his experience, Doug said "Oh yeah, Michael Jackson was definitely a child molester." Because any time he wasn't filming, he had a young child on his lap, and they were whispering to each other and giggling.

So that's Michael Jackson item #1. A random call-back to a weird 20-year-old Disney theme park video.

Item #2: whilst listening to the Pretty Good Podcast on Wednesday, the hosts started talking about how much each of them loves the Michael Jackson song 'Stranger in Moscow'. I'm not familiar, but at the end of the podcast they play some of it, and I think, hmm, I like it. It's un-Michael-Jackson-y. Kind of like people who don't like Woody Allen movies like 'Match Point', I'm not a big Jacko fan, but right then & there I downloaded 'Stranger in Moscow' on my iPhone. (Later I was trying to decide if I'd ever owned any Michael Jackson music, but I think as a kid I had a 7-inch record of 'Thriller'. Christ, if that doesn't date me, nothing does.)

Item #3: Jacko dies on Thursday.

So, there you have it. My most Jacko-intensive week ever. Ne'er to be beaten, thanks to his untimely demise.

Say what you will, my first thought when I heard the guy was dead was: that's a relief. Not for me, but for him. In the same way that when someone who's terminally ill dies, I think, well, at least they're not horribly suffering any more.

If you want a proper tribute, go read Roger Ebert.

Check out the rest of my blog!