MICHAEL JACKSON

Whoa! It's been a while since I posted on consecutive weeks. What can I say? It's been dead busy for me. I've only had one day off in the last ten days. Still, it's nice to know that I'll at least have some money to spend at Comic Con this year. Speaking of which, I should give a little more info about the AfterCon event. It's being held at the Suture Gallery at 655 10th Avenue in Downtown San Diego. It's several blocks away from the Convention Center in between G and Market Streets. A word to the wise though: the building isn't marked, so it's really easy to miss. It's on 10th Avenue, right across the street from a steakhouse and a bowling alley. It'll take place July 22-24 from 8:00pm to 12:00am. I hope this info has been helpful. It should be great!

Anyway, it's been a year now since Michael Jackson passed away. There are many mixed emotions associated with the "King of Pop." Obviously, the man's personal life was anything but stable. On the other hand, he was a phenomenal performer who really set the bar, especially when it came to the art of the music video. When MTV first came out, music videos were more or less taped concert footage or a band on a sound stage mimicking their songs. Jackson, along with Madonna, Peter Gabriel and the Talking Heads, really broke down the doors in realizing what a music video could be.

He made so many great videos, it's hard to pick just one, but I'll go with Leave Me Alone, simply because it was animated, not to mention catchy as all get out.


The video was directed by animator Jim Blashfield, who had won an Oscar for his short Suspicious Circumstances. The film was popular among the art and music communities, eventually catching the attention of Talking Heads front man, David Byrne. This led to Blashfield directing the video for the Talking Heads song And She Was (a future post I can assure you). Jackson loved the Talking Heads video, and brought Blashfield in to direct Leave Me Alone, which leads us to today's post. There's much more to be said about the animation process here, but I don't like to over-analyze things. I suppose if anybody is interested, contact me and I'll cover it in a future post. In the meantime, enjoy the video.

Well, that's all for now. Time permitting, I'll be back next week with some new adventures for Mike and Mindy. Take care y'all! Later!