So I'm sure everyone's heard the news already about Michael Jackson's death. It's been on the news nonstop since it happened, and at first I was a little amazed at the coverage it was getting. After all, for about the last fifteen years the man has been a living joke, a sad cautionary tale of the price of fame and easy fodder for Family Guy and Robot Chicken jokes. As soon as I heard the music though, played more and more as the day went on, I remembered that there was a time when all of us, myself included, thought Michael Jackson was pretty cool.
I wasn't even a year old when Thriller came out, but it speaks to its enormous popularity that I can still remember the aftermath. One of my earliest memories, in fact, is of running in terror from the Thriller video when Michael morphed into the werewolf. (If you must make a "Children are instinctively scared of Michael Jackson" joke, here would be the place, I guess, but c'mon. The man's dead.) I don't think I got up the courage to watch the video again for almost ten years.
But the other stuff, I'll admit, I liked quite a bit. My friends and I went through a phase when we were in 4th grade (when the Dangerous album came out) where Michael Jackson was just about all we listened to. (If you must make a "Ten year old boys and Michael Jackson" joke, here is probably the place, but again, why not let him rest in peace?) I bought all his albums (on the exciting medium of cassette tape!), watched the videos, rented the Moonwalker movie, tried to do the dances. Better still, I was (an am) a proud owner of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker for Sega Genesis, a kingly game if ever there was one. Michael turned into a spaceship. Seriously.
It's a really odd life to try to get a handle on. On the one hand there's that guy I remember from the 80s and early 90s, the guy that was weird, sure, but still a brilliant, best selling musician. On the other, there's the sad, pasty faced skeletal man-child he's become ever since. And it's sad for me, someone who remembers (however vaguely) the years when Michael Jackson was actually cool, actually a source of inspiration and entertainment. It's sad that he never got to do his comeback tour, which might have revived his image somewhat. But what's sad, really, tragically sad, is knowing that, even at 50, the guy probably lived too long. He'd made himself into such a freakshow that people forgot what a great entertainer he had been.
There will be Wacko Jacko stories flooding the tabloids for years to come, and I'm sure before too long we'll get to hear from his children and others who will reveal new oddities and scandals. As for me, I'm doing my best to remember him as he was. If they put him on a stamp, I sure hope they use the young version. My favorite Michael Jackson song back in 4th grade was almost certainly "Smooth Criminal" and today it's as good a reminder as any of what a great talent the man was, and why so many people are so shocked at his loss.
It's still an amazing song, isn't it? That's the Michael Jackson I want to remember. It's a tragedy that's become so difficult. At least he's finally at peace. Unless he comes back as a zombie.
In keeping up with my tradition of writing about the anniversary of things when I happen to notice it’s the anniversary, I wanted to point out that Tim Burton’s Batman movie officially turns 20 today. Sure, the movie’s been overshadowed by the Chris Nolan movies in the last few years (and deservedly so, I might add) but I will always have a special nostalgic fondness for the Tim Burton movie. It was my first introduction to Batman, my first introduction to the idea of the summer movie season, and, really, my first introduction to the process of filmmaking.
I remember the summer of 1989 so well that it’s absolutely baffling to me that it’s been twenty years already. Somehow, I managed to avoid the Batman phenomenon for much of the summer, off doing whatever it was seven year old kids do. I think I saw some of the commercials, but it never really registered for me for some reason.
That changed late in the summer, when I went to Ocean City, NJ for a routine vacation with my family. I don’t know if the movie’s marketing department had spent extra money on targeting the Ocean City boardwalk or what, but Batman was everywhere. That place gets crowded in the summer, and probably one out of every ten people on the boardwalk had on some bit of Batman clothing, be it a hat or a watch, or, of course, the ubiquitous black and gold bat-logo t-shirt. Stores had Batman junk in all their windows, and you could even get your photo taken with a guy in a lame Batman suit for five bucks. (I know I did!)
Best of all were the movie theaters. There were a few theaters on the boardwalk back then (I think there’s only one left now) and they all actually had the good old fashioned low-tech marquees out front, with the hand placed letters that spelled out the name of each movie. There were only two or three movies per theater, but each and every one featured Batman as the main attraction. And this was after the movie had been out for a month and a half. Movies just don’t have staying power like that anymore. (Except, maybe, The Dark Knight.)
Sadly I don’t remember the exact nanosecond when I was bit by the Batman bug. I do remember buying a pack of Batman movie trading cards (I would go on to collect the complete set, obviously), complete with brittle, tongue-slicing baseball card gum. I think that gum was on its way out back then, it appeared less and less as I got older, which is a shame. It’s the only real kind of gum. Anyway, thanks to the gum each Batman card had the extra bonus of smelling like sugar. By the time I’d looked at every card in the pack, I was hooked. There was no going back.
So I had my Batman trading cards. I had a rudimentary understanding on the Batman mythos thanks to the TV series. Hell, I even had my picture taken with Batman himself. There was just one thing missing: I hadn’t seen the movie. Every day I would look up from the beach at the marquee on the boardwalk, and every night I would beg my parents to stop as we walked past the theater. They refused: The movie was PG-13, it made Batman out to be “bad”, it was too dark, too violent.
None of my well reasoned pleas and arguments had the slightest effect. I had a lot of fun at the beach that summer. I went to Atlantic City and rode a roller-coaster (they were undergoing a short-lived, Vegas-like attempt to turn the city into a family destination), built castles on the beach, rode rides on the boardwalk, went to a water park, and laid out in the sun listening to boom boxes blaring late 80s classics. But I didn’t get to see the movie. So despite all the fun I had, I came home from the beach without success: A huge Batman fan who had yet to see Batman.
It took about another two weeks of constant nagging before my parents finally relented. In the meantime, the fact that I hadn’t seen the movie did nothing to prevent me from buying more Batman cards, Batman comic books, and all kinds of other Batman junk that was being shoveled my way. When my parents at last allowed me to see the movie, it had already stopped playing in my home town, and my mom had to drive me almost an hour to find a theater that was still playing it.
We got there a little late, about halfway through the opening titles, and I remember immediately trying to guess what I was looking at as the camera swooped through some bizarre series of caves, only to be finally blasted with the climax of Danny Elfman’s theme and my first full view of the wonderful Bat-logo. Needless to say, I loved every second of it. (Except for the part where the Joker joy buzzers the guy to death. That scared me, playing on my phobia of skeletons.)
Looking back, the movie does seem a little dated. Obviously it can’t hold a candle to The Dark Knight. (It’s a tremendous credit to The Dark Knight as a movie that even with the years of aforementioned built-up nostalgia, it still managed to blow me away.) There’s too much Joker and not enough Batman, the Vicky Vale subplot is soap opera quality, and the entire storyline is a little half-baked.
But where it was great then, it’s still great now. The crazy gothic Gotham City beats the Chris Nolan version any day. Michael Keaton is still the best Batman—I’d pay any amount of money to see young Michael Keaton Batman face off against Heath Ledger’s Joker. He was insane and dark and intense without resorting to the famous Christian Bale voice. You really believed that he was crazy enough to put on a bat suit and run out fighting crime. I still love the look of the movie, all black and yellow and purple—it just looks great, and it puts you in a fully realized fantasy world from start to finish.
Naturally, my love for Batman only increased after seeing the movie. I had all Batman school supplies when school started. (It’s a great comfort to have Batman staring at you from the cover of your spelling notebook). I was Batman for Halloween. Christmas was all Batman stuff, including, of course, a cherished VHS copy of the film.
That same fall, my dad bought a video camera for the first time. Since I had a book called Batman: The Official Guide to the Movie or some such thing, I decided that with the book and the video camera together I had everything I needed to make a movie of the same quality as Batman. And trust me, I knew everything about the production of that movie: Who the costume designer was, who the producers were, who did the music, who did the production design. I even knew the name of Michael Keaton’s stunt man. If that’s not devotion, I don’t know what is.
Thanks to Batman, then, I learned a whole hell of a lot about how movies were made for the very first time. As it turned out, taping me running around the yard in a Batman costume or my Joker action figure falling out of my tree house as an approximation of the film’s climactic scene didn’t exactly live up to the high standards set by the movie. My plans to film an elaborate Batman movie never materialized, but I never put down the video camera either. Years later, after the Batman junk hand long been relegated to the closet, I was still running around with the old camera, trying to make movies. Let’s hope none of those tapes ever see the light of day.
So that’s what I think about, twenty years later, when I see that iconic black and gold poster. I don’t think I’ve ever, before or since, gone quite so crazy over a movie. When I watch it now, all those memories come flooding back—I’m at the beach again, cracking open a pack of Batman cards while some 80s dude walks down the boardwalk wearing a dirty Batman T-shirt. It makes me just the tiniest bit less cynical about Hollywood when I stop and remember that movies can do that. Just the tiniest bit.
I'm a huge fan of the show and have been praying to the TV gods that this would would happen for a long time. The direct to DVD movies were decent, but they never quite captured the spirit of the show. This time we've got 26 actual episodes on the way, and the writers won't have to be tied down to the four episode=one movie formula. The show will be free to really grow creatively again, bringing back more characters and going in new directions. I'm eager to see where Groening, Cohen and co. take us next.
Sadly, Futurama is the second major show in recent years to be resurrected from cancellation, the first being the far inferior Family Guy. That show is funny, sure, but lately the strings have really begun to show. They long ago abandoned characters and stories in favor of random and cruel frat-boy quality humor. Even when it was good, Family Guy could never hold a candle to Futurama's well drawn characters, fully realized sci-fi universe, and overall storytelling quality. A subtle joke with amusing characters is a thousand times more effective than an over the top shock-seeker with no grounding in anything. I have enjoyed both shows, but Futurama is in a league all its own.
And yet Family Guy surged back to Fox after only a two year hiatus, bringing with it throngs of cheering fans and an undeserved reputation as the beacon of animated comedy. Now that the show has gone so far off the rails, even long time fans are starting to realize that there was never very much to stuffing a show with 80s references and obscure pop culture nonsense. But for a while, it did seem that Family Guy would be remembered forever and Futurama relegated to animated obscurity.
No more. Come 2010 we can look forward to more nerdy humor than we'll know what to do with. More of Fry and Leela's romantic fumbling! More of Bender's ruthless antics! More Zoidberg!
Conan's taken over the Tonight Show and Futurama's coming back to TV. Could it be good things are in the air?
UPDATE (7/31): Looks like this post will not become tragically ironic, as I'd feared: The whole voice actor madness has apparently ended. Everyone will be back for the series! Huzzah!
Now I'm not one of those people who thought Jay Leno was absolutely worthless, but he was safe and predictable. On the other hand, I've been a fan of Conan O'Brien since before I knew who he was (with the first airing of Marge vs. the Monorail, to be specific) and he's been a huge comedic influence on me ever since. He's perfected the comedy of insane nonsense, and I wish him great success winning over the non-believers in the new time slot. This is a guy that reached my ultimate life ambition of being a professional writer when he was 25 and just kept going higher from there.
It's a general rule that you've got to be really smart and serious about comedy to be as silly and stupid as Conan. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of patience for sifting through bad ideas. It all pays off though, when you end up with gems like Tom Hanks getting hit with a meteor. The first new show might have been a little rocky, but Conan is really settling in now, and I very much look forward to seeing him on TV for years to come.
Just in case you missed it:
Tom Hanks falling over = comedy gold. No matter what.
(Also, there's a nice in depth article about the Tonight Show, Conan's comedy, and the whole transition here. Worth a read.)
E3 is this week, so the nerd in me will be getting hyped up about various new bits of video game news.
I've been a huge Beatles fan much of my life, so I'm really getting hyped up for the new Beatles Rock Band game. I know it's not any different than a lot of other rhythm games, but c'mon, it's the Beatles!
Here's a new trailer--I love the visual style and song choice. Has a cool rotoscoped, Yellow Submarine feel to it. Even though all Rock Band games are basically the same (this one spices it up by adding three part harmonies) this is one I'll definitely be picking up on September 9th, hopefully with all the many peripherals to get the full Beatles fantasy experience.
If that doesn't get a Beatles fan excited, what will? They sure know how to market themselves, even forty five years on. There's some gameplay footage and more at the game's official website. No doubt it will sell like crazy when it comes out.
I was lucky enough to have been able to attend the MTV Movie Awards last night, seated as far as possible from the stage and surrounded by a group of screaming thirteen year old girls. There was nothing of note to see that you couldn't see on TV, but man, do teenage girls love Twilight. I'm really not sure what to make of society's future when a glowing, vegetarian, pro-abstinence vampire is every teen girl's dream man. Maybe it's a good thing, I don't know, but when you watch MTV these days it's not hard to get the idea that "the man" has finally won. There's very little envelope pushing anymore. (But to be fair I haven't read Twilight or seen the movie, so perhaps my ramblings are those of a bitter old man who just "doesn't get it.")
Not that I didn't have fun there. Some of the sketches were very funny, particuarly the "Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions" song and Andy Samberg playing "Doubt" for the Sega Genesis. (For me Sega Genesis is a comedy flag word like Aquaman, Tito Jackson, or the band Rush--no idea why, but it is always, ALWAYS funny.)
I really enjoyed the Eminem bit--I can't say for sure whether Eminem was in on it or not, but I get the feeling he would almost have to be, considering the danger of doing a wire stunt like that and the amount of rehersal involved. But he did look genuinely pissed off, so who knows. If he's not in on the joke, he needs to get a sense of humor, othewise, kudos to him for playing off his image. Fake or not, the stunt sure landed with the audience--that's what counts, right? Anyway, for more information on the Eminem/Bruno debacle, consult the internet. Anywhere. I bet there's even a link on Eric Cantor's twitter page.
When I was a kid the MTV Movie Awards meant the official kickoff of summer (while the VMAs meant the official end of summer) so it was a great experience for me to finally get to go to one and see some celebrities sort of up-close. I definitely didn't get excited like I used to--maybe because when you're an adult summer doesn't matter so much. Maybe MTV was always geared towards preteens--that sort of thing is much harder to guage when you're a preteen.
But really. Twilight? Honestly? Nothing makes you feel so old as spending time with thirteen year olds. Oh well. It was fun.
