T-Minus 3 Days...

"This Is It" hits theatres at midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Get your tickets! It's only out for two weeks, and it's going to be amazing...

"Back In The Day"

Joel told me about this MJ article in GQ. I decided to pass it on to you all.

Simply put, it's a great article. The thing I enjoyed the most about it? Its honesty.

Sullivan doesn't put Michael on an untouchable pedestal, but he doesn't ridicule him unnecessarily either. He portrays the ups and downs, postives and negatives of a human being, a human being who just happened to be the biggest pop star in the world.

I think the most striking lines in the piece are the first three paragraphs:

How do you talk about Michael Jackson unless you begin with Prince Screws? Prince Screws was an Alabama cotton-plantation slave who became a tenant farmer after the Civil War, likely on his old master's land. His son, Prince Screws Jr., bought a small farm. And that man's son, Prince Screws III, left home for Indiana, where he found work as a Pullman porter, part of the exodus of southern blacks to the northern industrial cities.

There came a disruption in the line. This last Prince Screws, the one who went north, would have no sons. He had two daughters, Kattie and Hattie. Kattie gave birth to ten children, the eighth a boy, Michael—who would name his sons Prince, to honor his mother, whom he adored, and to signal a restoration. So the ridiculous moniker given by a white man to his black slave, the way you might name a dog, was bestowed by a black king upon his pale-skinned sons and heirs.

We took the name for an affectation and mocked it.

And with that, I encourage you to keep reading...

Warhol and MJ

On November 10, this portait of Michael Jackson will be going on the auction block in New York. The portrait was created in 1984 during the whole Thriller phenomenon. Apparently a similar portrait sold for over $1 million in August.

I don't know about you, but if I was rich, I would buy it.

What's Really in a Name...or 19?

According to The Business Insider, MJ had 19, I repeat, 19 different names that he bought prescription drugs under.

Wow, I don't even know what to say about this. The fact that this was even possible is despicable.

Want some burnt hair?

Today in London rich obsessive fans can bid on a clump of Elvis' hair from 1958 as well as 12 strands of MJ's burnt hair from the 1984 Pepsi commercial.

Nevermind that there is burnt hair remaining from an incident that happened 25 years ago. The bigger question is why does this producer named Ralph Cohen have this hair?! You picked up MJ's hair off of the ground to keep it in hopes of one day selling it?

Michael only received $1.5 million from Pepsi. Imagine if he had known that the producer was collecting his hair at that moment. The settlement would've been bonkers.

I guess this is just another case of exploitation. Sad to see but true to form...

"This Is It" Clip

One of the most exciting aspects of this upcoming movie is the ultimate backstage pass that the viewers will be getting. For once, all of MJ's fans and admirers will get to see the method behind the madness, something the average fan has never had the chance to experience. This clip is just a taste of what the movie will show, but even in this 1:48, we can see Michael Jackson's perfectionist tendencies emerge.

Watch his body language. He knows every beat, every hit, every note.

This guy is a genius.

"This is It"

MJ's newest single "This is It" was released on his official website today at midnight. Apparently the song was just his voice and the piano chords at the start, but producers added other instruments and his brothers' backup vocals.

The song is pretty good. Michael would have done it better, but listening to his strong vocals, you can tell that he's still got it.

RIP MJ.

Thrill the World

This is pretty cool but pretty pointless at the same time. Apparently there's a group of people who sign up to perform the "Thriller" dance simultaneously in different locations all over the world.

All I can say is that it really is amazing to see what issues people will get behind these days. A significantly large group of Michael fans, from all different walks of life, can agree to come together and learn some dance moves, so why can't people come together on important, life-changing issues?

Makes you wonder...

The Importance of the Message - "Black or White"

One of the reasons I love Michael Jackson is because of the message behind his music. Sure, he, like everyone else, had songs that were pretty irrelevant to issues concerning the world, but a lot of his stuff has meaning to it. If you didn't pick up on the meaning from the song itself, you could definitely find it in his music videos. Whether you agree or disagree with his status as the King of Pop, you can't deny that he was the King of the Music Video.

One of my earliest childhood memories was watching a Michael Jackson video with my parents. Weird I know, but it's stuck with me all these years. I was 3 years old and was watching the "Black or White" video on my parents' bed. You have to understand - this was back in the day when MJ videos made people stop in their tracks. It was a world premiere, the first single released from the Dangerous album, and my parents and I were watching right along with the rest of the world.

The morphing faces towards the end of the song had the biggest impact on me. That was something no one had ever seen before on television, especially not at that precision and quality. But the message behind the faces stuck out to me, too.

I'm a biracial kid. My mother is white and my father is black. They're an interracial couple, and have been for nearly 35 years. The ridicule they've faced, especially living in Indiana, is unbelievable. Bringing a child into the world didn't exactly make things easier.

But when the three of us watched that music video, something happened inside of us. To see someone of Michael Jackson's caliber and fame saying that it really doesn't matter what you look like or what color you are was huge to us. I was only 3 years old, but even then I knew the importance of watching someone on tv say that my family was okay, even if we were two different colors. We already knew that it was true, but to have somebody of that stature in the world verify was made us feel good. Really good.

I can remember my dad saying, "Did you see that? Just watch. Now everybody's going to have commercials and stuff with people's faces morphing." But looking back, I can honestly say the smile on his and my mom's face said so much more.

It was a good day in Cheatham household.

P.s. Check out the end of the video when MJ's crashing windows and stuff. I didn't remember this part of the video, but the message still carries through. In the words of MJ, "prejudice is ignorance."

What the...?

I'm sure most of you saw this video on the Daily Dish a few days ago.

Just wanted to repost this craziness. Get on down lady!

Uh Oh.....

So some details on MJ's autopsy report were finally released yesterday.

Guess what? The man was in relatively good shape for 50-year-old.

And guess what else? There were no other drugs in his systems besides the propofol and other sedatives Dr. Conrad Murray administered to him the night before.

This is starting to sound like a really real homicide. Someone's in BIG trouble...