Facebook confuses me with its publicly private world. In the process of trying to follow some of my favorite artists and arts organizations, I accidentally (okay, maybe not very accidentally) clicked on a friend request for a certain dancer.
A week or two passed with the "request pending" still sitting in my Friends list. I thought about deleting it, but would that have seemed rude?
(For the record, there is a friend request of my own sitting in my notifications: the high-school boyfriend who dumped me before prom and took my best friend and who is now a married minister, and a Republican to boot. He only needed three strikes.)
Last night when I got home from the Kaleidoscope skating-for-survivors event with Scott Hamilton, I checked my e-mail and found that I'd had a message from the dancer whose friendship I had blundered into requesting.
It was a very sweet greeting that invited me to join his fan group, which I did right away. This dancer is most certainly a master of the art of the graceful gesture. But I won't get to tell him how much he reminds me of Rudolf Nureyev.
love and big smiles, hosaa blundering as gracefully as possible
I know I'm late to this, but I finally went to see "This Is It" last night. Just a few thoughts from a non-fan: I loved it.
The movie's tagline is "Discover the Man You Never Knew," and for someone like me, that was truly the case. I pretty much grew up with MJ music, but from the Jackson Five. I remember their cute cartoon show. By the time MJ went off on his own and reached superstardom with Thriller, I'd moved way far away from pop. (I didn't come back to pop at all until 2003, when a certain redhead said he could've been in the top one or two at least on American Idol). All I knew about MJ, really, came from the tabloids, and for me the "freak" factor (plastic surgeries, dangling babies over balconies) was a big turnoff.
With MJ's death, that "freak factor" evaporated, and the voices of those who truly knew the man and were inspired by his talent dominated the public consciousness. The enthusiasm of at least one friend alone was enough to make me rethink MJ. And the movie did the rest.
Of course with all I'd seen happening to Clay Aiken and the gossip-lies-hatred thrown at him over the last six years, I should already have known not to believe what I read/hear. I try to accept reality as it's presented to me, but I still need to ask questions.
As for This Is It - I am sure I enjoyed this "making of" view more than I would have the actual concert, simply because the big productions leave me too overwhelmed (that's the reason I HATE Phantom of the Opera, for instance). What I got to see was the work behind the art, the meticulous attention to detail, the deeply respectful collaborations, the humility and appreciation for other people's ideas. His vision was so absolute and powerful, he made others see it too.
In the end, MJ was an artist who had become the art.
The film itself, I found just enthralling, simply as a great musical. I would rate it with A Hard Day's Night (which, though scripted, was as close to a documentary of the Beatles' experience with music, fans, and production as you can get). I especially appreciated the full-body-view photography of the dance sequences - something I always look for in musicals. The editing was seamless and fluid. Just a wonderful, wonderfully made work. It's amazing they put it together so quickly.
One episode in the rehearsal process made me smile - when MJ and his backup singer were carrying on after "The Way You Make Me Feel," their playful trilling (musical one-up-manship) reminded me of Clay and his backup singer Quiana Parler during the 2007 summer tour, riffing after "I Want to Know What Love Is."
What a tragedy that, though Michael had complete control of his music and the concert experience, he did not have the same control over his own life. I wish this kind of film had been made years ago - maybe it would have countered a lot of that "freak factor" crap he had to deal with.
Love, hosaa envisioning the man in his mirror
ETA, I have no idea when MJ started using one particular dance move, but its prevalence in this movie called to my mind the 1980 film Fame and the "Red Light" number by street dancer Gene Anthony Ray:
Dang, I've been at the magazine so long that I not only can't find an article from way back when, I can't even remember the decade it was from.
For the record, I was looking for a story (with illustrations) on converting the backyards of all the houses in a typical suburban block into a common area for gardening. A great local-farming solution. But what issue was it in? I couldn't remember the author or the title, and I'm pretty sure we ran the story long before ProQuest began digitizing our stuff.
Anyway, short story long, while looking for that article, I found these cartoons from a 1987 article, "How to Think Like an Innovator" by Denis Waitley and Robert Tucker. The art work was by an illustrator named Spyder Webb, but it was based on sketches I provided him.
I guess I thought that was really hysterical at the time... setting up the expectation that the little innovator was going to invent the wheeled suitcase but then actually coming up with a game show. HAHA! The lesson is (I suppose) that the process of innovative thinking can lead you in a variety of directions.
And even if I didn't find the future I was looking for, it's all good.
