Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Michael Jackson I never knew.

麥可傑克森 Michael Jacksons 未來的未來 THIS IS IT 海報Image by #LUC!EN via Flickr

Tonight was a night that I have been waiting over a month for. With tickets in hand I joined my parents as we entered the theater to see Michael Jackson's This Is It. To say that the movie was awesome would somehow be selling it short because This Is It is more than just a film or even a documentary.

This Is It represents something more akin to viewing the most recent pictures or home movies of a family member or friend who has recently passed away. My feelings while experiencing this event-because that is what it really is-were not unlike the feelings I have when I see pictures of my grandfather that were taken months before his passing. The difference being that some of the footage used to make This Is It was taken weeks,days;perhaps even hours before Michael's death.

Here was a side of Michael Jackson I never knew. I watched in amazement as an undeniably healthy Michael rehearsed and perfected a show that would have been beyond anything I would have expected. He danced and sang with so much energy that much of the time I forgot he was fifty years old. Michael knew his music so well that it seemed to emanate from him. Like the music was an extension of the man.

Nothing could impress me more than to see the man whose music and influence have worked into my very soul, do what he did best and do it effortlessly. I swear that the dancers he chose worked harder to keep up with Michael than he did to glide across the stage.

This Is It brings to our attention the truth of Michael Jackson's last days on Earth. He was at the top of his game, ready for the comeback of a lifetime. That chance was taken away the moment he was killed.

My heart hurts once again as I grieve once more for the passing of a mentor who never knew how special he was to me. At least now I know from seeing This Is It how much it meant to Michael to heal the world through music and how special all those who love him were to him.

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Monday, August 24, 2009

In Flight

I fly through the night on winged engine.
The clouds are an ocean,
this vessel my ship.

I peer through the dimness.

The moon,
rising above the horizon;
Smiles at me
in its dainty way.

This gladdens my heart
assuring me
That good has come of this day.

So now I depart
In airborne flight
To a new but familiar place.

Where I will find
The moon unchanged

Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Wonderful World of Social Networks

Let me tell you what my experience has been so far with Social Networks.

It really all started years ago when I discovered Instant Messaging and texting. How wonderful it was that I could type a few sentences-or sentence-press or click send and Viola! Someone either instantly sees it in their chat window or on their phone. Beautiful!

In 2000 I was introduced to something called MyFamily.com which is a website that hosts a family web page to which family members and invited friends can post family news, pictures and personal views within the confines of that group. To me, this was an even more convenient way for families to communicate. Yes there was and is still email, but this was something else. It was like having the entire family in one room having a conversation with family members popping in and out having their say or just observing within a few hours,days or even weeks. I never thought it could be done on a global scale. That is, until I discovered MySpace.

I joined the ranks of MySpacers in 2006 when the group I was hanging out with and co workers all mentioned that they had MySpace accounts.I quickly discovered that it was nothing like MyFamily.com. There were similarities in that a person could post pictures and information, but that is where it ended.

MySpace allowed me my own personal page with a background and even a song that I was into at the moment. It also allowed me to post a brief message on how I was feeling or what I was on my mind and I could decide who to share it all with, on a global scale! I was enjoying MySpace and all its intricacies when my sister began telling me about Facebook so, I joined that too.

Facebook has a lot in common with MySpace except that you can't choose your own background. A major difference at first were the applications. With Facebook one can take a quiz about their personality traits, then share and compare the results with all of their friends. This was eventually picked up by MySpace.

Earlier this Summer I decided to open this blog in order to post film reviews I had written. After doing so, I felt that I needed to get more exposure for my blog.

I began by simply copying the URL and pasting it in my Facebook update. A few days later, I saw that a friend who has a blog had re-posted all of her blog entries to Facebook. Upon inquiry she told me how to link my blog to Facebook. Still curious for other avenues, I researched online and managed to find Triond, a website that lets writers publish and share their writing while gaining a small profit.

It was the sharing part that intrigued me the most and I added myself to Triond. It was through that website that I discovered Twitter and Newsvine, but there was noway to add my articles to this blog or to my Facebook easily. This caused me to quit using Triond and stick with Twitter and Newsvine which have both already gotten me more exposure than either Triond or this blog by itself has.

In truth, all of the social networks have made the world seem smaller and the business of networking yourself easier not to mention your favorite celebrities more accessible.

Social Networking is the wave of the future and hopefully we all learn to ride it soon.




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Friday, June 26, 2009

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

Michael JacksonMichael Jackson via last.fm

At 3:15 on June 25, 2009, legendary musician Michael Jackson died from cardiac arrest.

I found this out as I walked into the break room of my work place at approximately 3:45. At the time, CNN had only been able to confirm that he was in a Coma and it was the L.A. Times that was reporting his death.

This came as shock to me and at first I was disbelieving of the headline. It would be another hour before it would be confirmed by Fox News and the hospital, and at 4:45 in the afternoon my father called and gave me the news while I was returning home from work.

To say the least I will miss him. I am unsure if words will be enough to convey just how much, but I will try.

I was nearly ten years old the first time I heard a Michael Jackson song and that song was Beat It followed closely by Thriller then Billie Jean. This initial youthful discovery was thanks to the television show Solid Gold which was my favorite show at the time while living on Kadena AFB in Okinawa, Japan. I remember hearing the opening to the song Beat It and thinking that it was unlike anything I had heard before as my parents so often played Neil Diamond or Barry Manilow.

I also remember thinking that there was no way they would approve of me listening to it thanks to Eddie Van Halen's blisteringly memorable guitar solo. Fortunately for me, they already knew who he was because my Aunt had liked the Jackson 5 as a young girl, so it was not hard for them to approve.

Even though the beat and Van Halen's guitar hooked me on the song, it wasn't what immediately hooked me on Michael. To his credit it was his dancing.

I had never seen anyone move the way he could, and when I saw the Thriller video for the first time, I began dancing along.

Not unlike other fans of the early eighties, I had to get the jacket that he wore in Beat It. That jacket was the coolest jacket I've ever had. To this day I wish I hadn't grown out of it.

Did I become a fan because I lived in an area of the world that embraced him on a large scale, he danced well, or because his music was awesome? No. It was more than that, something unseen.

In fact, I did not learn how he had influenced me until we moved back to the United States and I heard another boy making fun of him. I became upset and defended my hero and it was then that I learned that there is a bad side to being famous...everyone is a critic.

In my opinion, Michael Jackson was misunderstood and by the time I arrived in the US in 1985, he was already surrounded by scandal and rumor. For the next twenty four years I defended him as more rumors, lies and eventually lawsuits became the stigma that followed the seemingly infamous Michael Jackson. It was here that I related to him most.

As a young boy I had often felt misunderstood and was often teased for various reasons. I saw in Michael an example of how to handle oneself in the face of bullies and unwanted remarks.

It was his strength to carry on without fear and be the person he wanted to be that inspired me to eventually shrug off the jokes and jibes that were aimed at me. Because of that I will always have a strong admiration and respect for him.

The world and media may claim that his legacy is the music he gave us.Or that he was an incredible and inventive dancer who invented a few trademark moves, but, though it is an incredible legacy to leave behind, his true gift to the world was his love and kindness to others and his desire to help underprivileged children around the globe.

While his music will forever immortalize him, let it be a reminder of the man he was and that we must all remember: "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change." Man in the Mirror, the Bad album 1987

I thank God for you Michael, your spirit changed me and the rest of the world. Thank you for filling our lives with music and dance.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Up! The Must See Family Movie of the Summer

If you have not seen this movie yet, trust me, you should. When you do, prepare to be entertained. Prime your funny bone because it will be working overtime.

I saw it las
t night with my brother and did not have one iota of regret for the $10 it cost me. It had all the wit, excitement and heart I have come to expect from a Pixar movie.

Directors Peter Doctor and Bob Peterson who also collaborated with Thomas McCarthy, created a rich screenplay full of colorful and very likeable characters. The story carries within it not only a story of adventure, but one of friendship. There is also a story of love and the promises we make and try to keep.

It begins with the main character as a little boy watching the newsreels of his hero Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer) who claims to have found an exotic and rare bird in a place that he calls Paradise Falls and swears to not return until he has captured it. We see in this boy all the awe and wonder we have all had towards our own heroes as children. We watch as he finds a friend named Ellie (Elie Docter) who shares in his admiration of Charles Muntz and has a great passion for adventure. It is this bright personality with whom Young Carl (Jeremy Leary) falls in love and makes the promise to take her to Paradise Falls one day.

The

American actor Ed Asner during a tour of the P...Image via Wikipedia

re is a tender, heart warming montage of Ellie and Carl as they travel through life and its triumphs and let downs until we finally rest on present day Carl (Ed Asner) who, because of that promise he made as a child, embarks on a fun filled adventure to Paradise Falls with his house which he has made into a makeshift hot air balloon using...well...balloons!

He is joined on this grand adventure by Russel (Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer who is determined to get his Assisting the Elderly badge and has picked Carl as his candidate. The two of them are eventually are joined by Dug (Bob Peterson)a loyal and ardent retriever who instantly adopts Carl as his master.

The jokes in this film are abundant. During numerous scenes the entire audience was laughing. Not just short bursts of amused chuckles, but outright jovial belly laughs that would make Santa Clause proud. I for one would have thought my own laughing would fill the room if not for my brother sitting next to me guffawing and blasting in delight.

Sight gags and witty lines are not the only entertainment this story has to offer though. There is a story of a man adamantly doing all he can to keep the promise he made to the girl he loves, of a boy who desires to fulfill his potential, a dog who wants nothing more than to prove his loyalty, and another man who has thrown his life away in pursuit of absolution.

In short, Up is a film that pulls all the right punches and does it with percision. I laughed, felt heartache and was thrilled. Yet the most important message this film had for me is that life itself is the greatest adventure we can have and as one character often exclaims, "Adventure is out there!"
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