...literally. After traveling two countries for two years I have made lots of friends from all over the world. This is a place for me to keep in touch with those friends and to fill them in on my life and all of my random thoughts. This is my place to be me!!!
Such EXCITING news this week regarding "The Hobbit" films. We FINALLY have a green light. Kind of. Here's what's been going on over in New Zealand...
This next video pretty much explains what's going on in those first videos. You can clearly see Peter Jackson's emotions over the whole thing and I love how he is fighting for this. I swear every day I gain more and more respect for this man. I hope that Warner Bros. will see that New Zealand is the proper location to film these movies and that these are the people that should be working on it...
Although I will be absolutely heartbroken if these films are lost to New Zealand, the one thing I CAN say that I am EXTREMELY excited for is the actor chosen to play Bilbo Baggins... MARTIN FREEMAN. YES!!! For those who are unfamiliar... he plays "Tim" in the original BBC version of "The Office". And also for those who are unfamiliar with the English version, he is the equivalent of "Jim" in the American office. And for those of you who haven't seen the BBC version of "The Office".... SHAME ON YOU.
This is just a quick clip of Martin Freeman from "The Office" when he quits. And the episode it's from is so brilliant...
Don't you think he looks like a young Ian Holm??? I can't WAIT to see the first official stills of him in costume!!! The names have also been announced for several of the dwarf characters that go on their adventure with Bilbo and Gandalf although none of the names sound familiar to me. But I figured it would be that way with those characters. And as far as I know, Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are still on board to play Gandalf and Gollum. YAY!!!
The thing that is so great about this is that I'm gonna be around for the WHOLE process!!! When I first got into The Lord of the Rings, I didn't really get fanatical about it until after I saw the first film. I did get excited for it the first couple of months up until the release but since I didn't know anything about Lord of the Rings, I missed out on all the hoopla that was the production and promoting for the films. THIS time, I'M ALL OVER IT!!! So this is VERY exciting for me!!! WOO-HOO!!!
And of course, I will be blogging about it all along the way so if you read my blog and you don't know anything about "The Hobbit"... NOT TO FEAR!!! I will provide you with all relevant news regarding the production. And to tell you about how awesome Peter Jackson is. Because he is, in fact, awesome. And I'm "Team Peter Jackson" by the way, regarding all of that union crap that's going on. GO PJ!!!
1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon This album always ends up at the top of my list and I don't think it will ever change. Even the bits that don't sound like music I still listen to. I don't ever skip anything. It's haunting, beautiful, creepy and magical all at once. The vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky" are like not of this world. I'm pretty much convinced that this is the greatest album ever recorded in the history of time. AND the perfect album to listen to when you go outside and stare up at the stars. Brilliant album.
2. Radiohead - Hail To the Theif Radiohead are this generations Beatles. I'm convinced of it. Their growth and progression as musicians is unfathomable. Every album has a different sound and every album has a different feel. I must say that I chose this album for sentimental reasons as I feel that any of their albums could be in this list. So for the memories that it produces in my mind, "Hail To the Theif" is my number 2 album. Although I knew and heard Radiohead songs before, this is the first album of theirs that I listened to all the way through. It reminds me of anticipating the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in theatres. Those years were some of the best of my life. I learned and grew a lot. This is part of the soundtrack to those years. A brilliantly produced album.
3. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Fever To Tell One word. RAW. There's something about a band with a chick lead singer that automatically makes it different. Not necessarily better but I will pay more attention. Karen O has one of the sexiest voices in rock and roll. Their sound is raw and their look is raw. RAW RAW RAW. I was in Amoeba Records in Los Angeles one weekend on Sunset Blvd. which all music fans should go to. It's like a music lover's shangri-la. I noticed that this was one of the albums on display to listen to. I remembered the name as I had met Elijah Wood the previous weekend at a Lord of the Rings event. He's a HUGE music fan and I asked what he's been listening to lately. And he said "The Yeah Yeah Yeah's". So of course, I took notice. From the first track I was hooked. I then sat there for the next 45 minutes listening to the album from beginning to end. When finished, I brought it to the counter to purchase. I consider it one of the best purchases I've ever made.
4. Led Zeppelin - III This was a hard decision for me. Led Zeppelin is my second favorite band of all time and they have some incredible albums to choose from. But after careful consideration I find that this album makes me FEEL more than their others. You have the beautiful melodies, harmonies and road-trip like feel of "That's the Way" (which was used in Almost Famous quite perfectly), you have the lap dance feel of "Since I've Been Loving You" and you have the majestic elegance of "Tangerine" (also used in Almost Famous at the end, again quite perfectly). Led Zeppelin pretty much rock my world and what a sight it must have been to see them live.
5. Michael Jackson - Thriller I don't think I need to explain this one to you but allow me to just the same, LOL!!! *sigh* Where to begin??? I can't remember where I read this but one article described Michael's Thriller album as (paraphrasing here) "a greatest hits album without having the greatest hits yet". And I COMPLETELY agree with that. Each song can stand on it's own. Yet listened to as an album it has a flow that you can't ignore. Not to mention it's timelessness. One could play "Billie Jean" in the clubs and not only will people still go mental but it sounds like anything else that's out nowadays. Or everything else sounds like it could fit in with THAT song. Michael really knew what he was doing with this one. He was right. We wouldn't be able to ignore it.
6. The Beatles - Revolver Next to Michael, The Beatles are my all time favorite artist. If you put a gun to my head you'd have to shoot me because I wouldn't be able to choose between the two. The things they have each done for music are unparalleled. Out of the many Beatles albums that one can choose from, Revolver gets my vote. Most people would choose "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and although that is a great album and changed the face of music at it's time, "Revolver" is the album that I TRULY feel The Beatles really started to experiment and grow as musicians. It starts with my all time favorite Beatles song "Taxman" and also George's best song with the group. You then head right in to "Eleanor Rigby" and how can you ignore those violins??? Then the BRILLIANCE of "I'm Only Sleeping". George, Paul, John. BAM!!! Things slow down with "Here There and Everywhere" Paul's most romantic song and then the beat picks up with the fun loving "Yellow Submarine" and "She Said She Said". The album ends with another one of my favorite Beatles tracks "Tomorrow Never Knows". The most advanced song that they had recorded by that time. This is your complete and total 60's fix all in one magical album RIGHT HERE!!!
7. The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream If there was ever an album that reminded me of adolescence it would be this one. The Smashing Pumpkins made me pay more attention to "rock" music. I was starting to get less interested in the "top 40" and poppy type songs that were popular during that time and I started to look else where. Listening to the pumpkins made me feel REBELLIOUS and I LOVED IT!!! Out of all the many Smashing Pumpkins kicks I've been on this album has played it's part in all of them. And I believe that any of their albums up to "Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness" could be put in this list but just as with the Radiohead album I listed, this album makes it simply for sentimental reasons. And Billy Corgan has one of those voices that's just so haunting you can't help but listen to him.
8. The Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business I feel that this is sometimes a guilty pleasure but I don't care. I love Will. I. Am. and I love their beats. I think they are some of the best main stream hip hop out there right now. I know there is a lot of underground hip hop that is supposed to be amazing and I have them on my list to check out eventually. But I don't know what it is about this group. I love every song on this album and I think the album flows very well. I think Will. I. Am. really paid attention to Michael Jackson while he worked with him. The Black Eyed Peas have only released an album every 4 to 5 years just like Michael. And I feel that every single one of their albums is quite good. But this one gets my vote.
9. Keller Williams - Stage Keller Williams is an interesting musician. He has a very different voice that you might not quite like at first but it grows on you like a bad fungus. As strange as he may sound, the man is incredibly talented. He has to be seen live to really be appreciated. Which is why I chose his live album "Stage". Keller is amazing. He plays all the instruments and loops them live in front of the audience. His energy onstage is never ending and he really gets into it. He even did a cover of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" which is freaking awesome. Totally unique. And the man can finger-pick a guitar like nobody's business.
10. Howard Shore - The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring This album has great significance to me. When Michael's "Invincible" album came out, I was so ecstatic because I was like "FINALLY, Michael is doing something again!!!" and for the 2 months after it came out it was all I pretty much listened to. Then of course you had the Madison Square Garden shows with his brothers and I was in Michael heaven yet again. Then one night I went to the movies with a friend and I saw the trailer for the first Lord of the Rings film for the very first time. I didn't know anything about it but I knew I had to look into it. The images in that trailer stuck in my mind for days and days and I went home and watched the trailer over and over and over. Slowly and slowly this film was pulling me out of Michael land and for anyone who knows me, they know that that is hard to do. When I saw the film on opening night, I was hooked. It was life changing for me. I had never seen anything more beautiful on the big screen in my life. The very next day, I went and bought the score to the film and I listened to it EVERY NIGHT when I went to sleep until the next film came out and so on and so on with the other scores. Howard Shore set the bar for movie scores for the next 20 years just as Peter Jackson set the bar for fantasy films for the next 20 years if not more. Even the evil, creepy, haunting music in this score is some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. This score provided escapism for me and made me able to be creative. It was how I felt about Michael when I first REALLY got into him. I can't listen to it now without getting chills. Granted, I don't listen to it as much as I used to because now I'm on a Michael kick and haven't been on a movie score kick for ages but this one??? This one is the one.
So there you have it. My top 10 favorite albums. Granted, I think there are albums that are better but that doesn't necessarily mean they are my favorites. There is a difference, in my opinion, of what is the best and what is your favorite. Having made this blog it has made me realize just how powerful music is. How could we live without it??? It's inspiring, creative, magical and pretty much any other positive adjective you can think of. In the words of Russell from the film "Almost Famous"...
After posting my previous blog entry on my weekend in L.A. I had SO MANY comments from friends and family that were so heart warming and touching. But I also had many negative comments that were not very friendly and pretty much unnecessary.
I don't know why people feel the need to make those kinds of comments. They varied from "crazy" to "over the top". Which has made me come to realize... society is always confusing "passion" with "obsession".
For those that know me, they know that I am not crazy or "obsessed". I am a normal human being that lives a normal life. I work and pay my bills just like everyone else and just like everyone else I have those things in my life that I love and that make me happy. So what is the difference between them and me??? I show it. I have NO PROBLEM talking about the things I love and why I love them. And for whatever reason, that makes some people uncomfortable.
So, having said that...
What is wrong with passion??? What is so wrong with expressing yourself and letting the world know what makes you happy??? Why should we have to contain those things that make us happy and never talk about it??? Why is it "over the top" because I am passionate about it???
I looked for a film school in New Zealand and lived there for a year because I love Lord of the Rings so much. Is that crazy??? I spent one thousand dollars to see Paul McCartney in concert three times. Is that over the top??? No one said anything about those things when I did them. They only had good things to say and they were so excited for me.
Is it because it's Michael that they don't like it??? They have their right to not like Michael but I should not be judged because I do. It could be because Michael is just one person whereas The Beatles were part of a group and The Lord of the Rings was a huge group of individuals that created something amazing. It may seem like "hero worship" or "idolizing" to some. Well I do not worship Michael and he certainly isn't an idol to me. He is someone that inspires me and makes me want to be more creative just like The Beatles and The Lord of the Rings.
The level that these other two passions have had in my life are along the same level as my passion for Michael. No more, no less. Yet why do they feel the need to say that this one is "over the top"???
These things make me happy and I like to show people how happy they make me. So because I show it to everyone and don't keep it inside like everyone else does with THEIR passions, I am considered crazy and obsessed. Why???
There is a girl I know who is completely in love with Jack White from The White Stripes. When she talks to me about him I see a spark in her eye that I'm sure people see in me when I talk about my passions to them. I have had people tell me that they now look at movies differently because of the way I talk about them. To me, that is AMAZING.
People need to show their passions more. I feel that a life can change when you can find something that makes you so happy you want to scream it out loud to the world. If more people were passionate, this world would be a better place.
A friend of mine suggested that I post this here...
Not Everyone Deserves a Front Row Seat.
Life is a theater – invite your audience carefully.
Not everyone is healthy enough to have a front row seat in our lives.
There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you let go, or at least minimize your time with draining, negative, incompatible, not going anywhere relationships / friendships!! Observe the relationships around you.
Pay attention….Which ones lift and which ones lean? Which one encourages and which ones discourage? Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill? When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse? Which ones always have drama or don’t really understand, know or appreciate you?
The more you seek quality, respect, growth, peace of mind, love and truth around you, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in The FRONT ROW and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.You cannot change the people around you, but you can change the people you are around!
Remember, everyone does not deserve to occupy a front row seat in your life – adjust accordingly!
- Unknown
If people don't like reading my blogs and how I write them or what makes me happy then you don't have to read it or like it. Read something else that YOU like and not something you won't talk about cause you don't feel comfortable expressing it to the world.
And on a side note... when the last Beatle, Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson dies, I will be JUST AS devastated.
If you've read this far... STAY TUNED FOR MORE PASSIONATE BLOG ENTRIES!!!
Again, I have been lazy and procrastinating on my blog. But this entry is a very special one for me and took a long time to put together so I hope everyone reads it all the way through and enjoys it. Also, if you read or watch anything at all make sure it's the very last video that I posted at the end of the blog. Thanks!!!
Two weekends ago I went up to Los Angeles for what would have been Michael Jackson's 52nd birthday on August 29th. Michael has always been a part of my life, if even in the smallest ways, ever since I was very little when I first saw him in Captain EO. This trip was very special in the sense that I revisited my childhood and was also reminded of why I fell in love with Michael in the first place. I've been avoiding this blog entry as I know that it's very hard to convey emotions over the internet. So hopefully the photos and videos that I post will be able to say perhaps what I cannot. This is a blog for L.O.V.E.
I took the train up to Los Angeles. I love the train. There's something about a train ride that is very relaxing and allows one to reflect. My best friend, Donna, picked me up. I would be staying with her for the weekend. Here we are, acting like complete morons:
Donna rents a room in L.A. that's very close to Sunset Blvd. I love the area she lives in and you can even see the Hollywood sign from her place. It's pretty cool!!! By the way, Donna, thank you for housing me while I gallivanted around the city for my Michael weekend. ;)
For the weekend, I was meeting up with a friend from Canada named Cheryl, also a Michael Jackson fan. Her and her husband were on a road trip all the way from Toronto and their final destination was L.A. From there they would turn back around and head home. Quite a trip!!! But they had a blast. We met up the same day that I arrived. Their hotel was really close to where Donna lived so they came to pick me up. Our first stop was the Grammy Museum where they had a whole exhibit for Michael Jackson!!! I was so excited. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take photos inside but here's the display for the exhibit:
WOO-HOO!!! Now, in edition to Michael's exhibit, they also had this one:
Classic Rock is in my top three favorite genres of music. Forget about it. This exhibit had stuff on Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Doors. All three of which I like already but don't really know a whole lot about (except maybe Hendrix). But I will say that after this exhibit, I REALLY want to get way more into Janis Joplin. She's amazing. But that's for another blog. Oh, but before I move on, this was her car:
Sweeeeeeet. This was at the entrance so it was really the only thing I could take a picture of. Still, pretty cool!!!
Michael's exhibit was amazing. They had a "Billie Jean" dance floor that lit up when you stepped on it, they had many of Michael's jackets that he wore on stage and they even had hand-written lyrics to "Beat It". I pretty much died when I saw that. They also had a few of Michael's gloves and there was a room that you could sit in and just watch his videos all day if you wanted. The room was full. That put a smile on my face. =) We then went to the gift shop where they had LOADS of Michael things to buy. I then found out that they were all on sale because Michael's exhibit only had six days left. We got there just in time!!! I bought a "BAD" t-shirt, several post cards to send to friends and these buttons:
I was thrilled!!! It's been ages since I've had Michael paraphernalia to sport around. Mainly because they didn't make it but alas, now that Michael has passed away people can make money off of him and that's exactly what they're doing. Granted, I support it and buy things but I can't help it!!! I love him!!!
Next we were gonna head over to the Hollywood Walk of Fame to see Michael's star!!! I had never seen it before so I had no idea where to find it but Cheryl had seen it 20 years before and she knew where it was. Just to the left of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Here's a video of Michael receiving his star back in 1984 with his family:
Fun times!!! And here's the photo that I took when I got there. Unfortunately there was some stupid woman putting all of her toys on the star and saying something about Britney Spears. Needless to say, she was a bit crazy. And I wanted to tell her that Britney Spears and Michael Jackson shouldn't even be uttered in the same sentence. Minus the one that I just said there. But anyway...
I don't know what any of those things have to do with Michael (except for his own doll, of course, which I wanted to take home with me).
We were actually at the shopping center that is next to the Kodak Theatre where they have the Oscar's. On all these pillars they had the best picture winners listed for every year since the Oscar's started. I looked everywhere for 2003 just so I could see "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and I found it!!!
It's kind of hard to see but if you click on the picture you can see the writing more. I was so stoked!!!
We then decided it was time to eat. Cheryl and I thought that a burger and fries sounded really good so we went across the street to Hooters, LOL!!! Fair enough as we had never been to one and I figured why not??? We had dinner and then just did some browsing inside this Hollywood souvenir shop. It looked really cool. And I'm glad we went in cause we found some more Michael goodies inside!!! Here's Cheryl with Michael:
And here's the both of us together:
We also have some Anakin Skywalker in there which I don't mind so much. ;)
After this I was dropped off back at Donna's house and Donna and I proceeded to geek out like we normally do. We watched a bit of the American Office (which by the way, Donna, I am finally getting around to watching all of them on netflix now so you should be proud of me!!!) and just talked about whatever like we normally do. The next day was Michael's birthday and Cheryl and I were gonna head over to Forest Lawn where Michael is buried and leave him a card and some flowers. I meant to write my card to Michael way before I actually arrived in L.A. but I figured it was better to write it right before I went because I didn't want to think about it too much, I just wanted it to be more about how I felt right in that moment. And I think it worked cause once I started writing I couldn't stop. I said exactly what I wanted to say in the exact length that I wanted to say it in. I was trying to think "What would I say to Michael if I only had 60 seconds to say it???". The result is in the card that I left for him.
I woke up at 8 a.m. the next morning and Cheryl and her husband picked me up at 9:30. The drive to Forest Lawn was not far at all. And oh my, what a beautiful place. It's the perfect place for Michael. He would love it there.
This is the mausoleum that Michael is buried inside of:
Due to it being his birthday and for security reasons they weren't allowing people to go up to the doors but if you were to look through those glass doors you would be able to see his coffin at the end of the hallway. It's not buried underground. It's the coffin that everyone saw during his memorial.
There was probably fifty, sixty people at any one time throughout the day. It was a good crowd. And people from all over the world, too. There was a couple from Russia that had to be in their 50's who had tears in their eyes. There were kids probably no older than six or seven who were singing Michael songs. And all ages and races in between. People brought gifts for Michael for other fans who couldn't make it to Los Angeles. They were from ALL OVER the world:
This one brought tears to my eyes:
There were also some incredible works of art there. One thing I can DEFINITELY say about the weekend is that it inspired me creatively:
And here is a short video I took of the whole arrangement:
I kept my gift simple. I just gave him my letter that I wrote the night before and one single sunflower. When Michael passed away Lisa Marie Presley said that his favorite flower was the sunflower. He called it the "happy flower". She said all the fans should shower his grave site with sunflowers and as you can see from the photos, people pretty much did just that. I decided to set my stuff just behind where I am standing in this photo:
Cheryl arranges her flowers and has a moment:
This little girl was bringing a card for Michael. It was the sweetest thing. Michael would've loved that:
Cheryl and I met on a Michael Jackson fan website and we were able to meet another one of the girls who posts there. Her name is Elmira. This is us together:
She is the sweetest girl and whenever I get a chance to get up to L.A. again we'll hopefully meet up and pay Michael another visit.
We spent about an hour just standing around and observing the area having moments of silence and all that. This woman came up to us and introduced herself. Her name was Carolyn and she was from another website. She asked us if we were going to the fan documentary after we were done at Forest Lawn. Cheryl and I had discussed it before through emails. Some fans made a documentary titled "The Way He Makes Them Feel" which basically had fans talking about why they love Michael and what he has done for their lives. We weren't too sure if we could make it based on time limits but Carolyn said she had an extra ticket for us if we changed our minds. We thought that was very sweet of her. So we took it just in case. After talking to Cheryl's husband, Sean, it turned out that we would be able to go so after leaving Forest Lawn we headed over towards where the theatre was.
In front of the theatre was this piece of work:
Some guy made it out of pop cans and it was called "The King of Pop". Get it??? Haha. But it was really cool!!! It took him three months to make it. It's HUGE!!! Cheryl and I took some photos before we went inside the theatre:
We then proceeded to go inside the theatre. We went upstairs to run to the restroom before the film started and on our way back down the stairs there was this girl who tripped and fell in front of us. I ran down to help her up. It was obvious she had a disability and needed help re-organizing her things. I felt so bad for her cause it was even hard for her to slip her sandals back on. I did everything I could for her and after saying she was okay Cheryl and I headed inside.
The documentary was amazing. It's so funny cause when I look back to when I first REALLY fell in love with Michael I was convinced that I was the only one in the entire world who loved him as much as I did and no one could possibly understand how I felt about him. Well, now that I'm older, I know that is definitely NOT the case, LOL!!! And even if I still felt that way, this documentary would prove me wrong. There were people of all ages and races from ALL OVER the world who feel exactly how I feel about Michael and are just as devastated about his death.
There was an Asian woman that was probably around Michael's age who said she was never a Michael fan. Growing up in her family music was considered noise so when she got married and had her own family, she would never allow her kids to listen to music loudly. However, when Michael passed she saw the reaction to him and wondered what was so great about this man that everyone seemed to be so upset about??? In the documentary she said "A lot of people said that music died when Michael passed away but for me, I discovered music because of him." I thought that was beautiful.
There was lots and lots of just little comments here and there. Lots of "he changed my life" and "he inspired me" type of comments. One that REALLY stood out to me was a woman who said something along the lines of "If we knew what we had while he was here we would've taken better care of him." That really broke my heart because I really feel that's true. You know a lot of people came out of the woodwork when Michael passed claiming to be fans since before he died and what not. And if they were, cool. And if there are new fans, awesome. If Michael's death means more people can discover his music and his humanitarian work then I guess at the end of the day, that's a really good thing. Perhaps it can encourage people to help their fellow man more or maybe even to be more creative and learn something new. I just don't like the people who are all "Oh, Michael Jackson died??? Oh yeah, he's cool man." When before they didn't care and would either make fun of him or didn't like him at all. And it's made me come to realize you know, Michael had problems. He had his issues. But he was a good person with a heart that was too big for his body. He had a sensitive soul. And people took advantage of his caring nature. But he was a human being with flaws just like all the rest of us. The only difference with him is that his flaws were broadcasted all over the world for everyone to see. People are so quick to judge yet they won't try and see things from his point of view. Anyways, I'm ranting like I tend to do when I talk about this side of Michael so I'll just get back to the film.
Another thing that stood out to me was this girl popped up on screen who just happened to be the girl that fell down the stairs who Cheryl and I helped out. She said "I was in a car accident and I had to go to physical therapy but I didn't need it because I would just put on Michael's music and get up and dance to him. Michael was my physical therapy." I wanted to find her and give her a hug but I didn't see where she went.
I almost made it all the way through the documentary without crying but finally there was something that really got me. There was a girl who came all the way from Japan for the one year anniversary of Michael's death on June 25th. She was crying so hard. She said (in Japanese) "I came here to get closure and I don't think that I have found it. Michael meant everything to me." and then in English she said "Thank you, Michael. I love you." And that's when I lost it. It was so sad!!! I think part of it was because, in general, Asian cultures are taught to not show sad emotions because it's a sign of weakness. (I think this is the case with a lot of cultures, actually.) So when I saw her crying like that it really hit home. But then that's when I realized that I'm not the only one who's so upset. Then you get the people who are like "But he died over a year ago, aren't you over it???" Well, when you invest that much time in to one person and learn about them, you really feel like you get to know them like a friend or family member and when Michael passed I really felt like I lost someone like that. The day I found out it was my second day in Australia and I just felt so empty that day. I didn't know how to feel or react. His death actually didn't hit me until months later after I saw "This Is It". But again, I won't get into that. Anyway, here is the trailer for the documentary we saw:
So, wiping my tears away we walked out of the theatre and headed outside to meet Cheryl's husband. We decided to do a few more things that day like go to the Capitol Records building which I'm kinda glad we did cause right in front of that building are some of The Beatles stars!!!
So those were the only three there. Does Paul McCartney not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame??? How wrong is that??? If he does have it, then that means it's somewhere else on the walk of fame and that's just stupid. Why would it not be with the others??? I find this to be quite strange. Anyways. The Capitol Records building was closed because it was Sunday but I was able to see these things hanging on the wall in there:
YAY Beatles!!!
We then went up to the Griffith Observatory which I had never been to before but it was really cool looking!!! And it had an awesome view of the city and Hollywood sign:
This is the observatory as you walk up to it:
That white pillar in the middle has all the founding fathers of astronomy all around it. This is the inside of the building as you walk in. The ceilings are AMAZING:
As you walk into the building they have this pendulum swinging from the ceiling:
This was the first proof that the Earth spun around on it's axis. It's way too complicated to explain how it works unless you are looking at it, so I won't bother. But it's really very cool.
We went out the back of the building to look at the views and Cheryl's husband said to us "So did you look at the Michael exhibit here at the Observatory???" and we were like "Haha, very funny!!!" to which I then said "Actually, Michael really liked astronomy. It wouldn't surprise me if he's spent some time up here at all" and Cheryl said "Yeah, that's probably true it wouldn't surprise me either". Within the next few days after I got home I found out that this photo was taken where we stood to take some photos of the city:
I had a huge smile on my face all day!!!
After the Observatory I got dropped off back at Donna's place. I said my goodbye's to Cheryl and Sean and thanked them for dragging me around everywhere. Cheryl is awesome and I really look forward to meeting up with her again someday!!!
I think I got Donna in a Michael mood from my weekend cause when I got back there she asked if I had "Moonwalker" on my laptop. Uh, hello?!???! Of course I do!!! We then proceeded to watch the movie together talking about our memories from it and everything. Donna said that "Moonwalker" was her "Shut the kid up" movie. I laughed so hard at that. I don't know why but it was so funny to me. She asked me about how the day was and everything and I told her all about Forest Lawn and all the gifts that people had left for Michael. I told her how I asked one of the security guards what happens to all of the stuff that people leave there??? The guy told me that the flowers are destroyed and then they call the family and ask if they want to come pick up the gifts and cards and what not. I remember feeling quite sad about that because obviously the family can't take EVERYTHING that people leave there. Where would they put it all??? But then Donna put it all into perspective for me when she said that the stuff that is left there for Michael is more for the people who are leaving it. It's part of their grieving and it's more so for themselves that they leave something more than the idea of giving something to Michael. And when I thought about it, it made complete sense because writing out that letter the night before really made me feel a bit less sad. Like a little bit of a weight had been lifted. I felt much better after she said that to me. But then we went back to the movie and started reliving memories. Here's one of my favorite parts from the film. Not only is it a Beatles song but it's Michael singing a Beatles song and making it sexier:
And just for fun, here are the credits during "Moonwalker" which I feel are totally overlooked. I LOVE the images shown while this group is performing. And the flow of it is just brilliant. If anyone knows where I can get this song that these guys are singing, I would love you forever:
So yes. That was my Michael weekend and I'm really glad I went and did all of those things. Is there closure??? Mmm... maybe. Maybe in the sense that I've accepted the fact that he's no longer here but I will always miss him. On that note, here are a few of my favorite Micheal photos that always make me smile when I see them:
Now, before I go I want to share this video with you all. Thanks to the wonders of youtube I have been able to see performances and interviews with Michael that I was not able to see while growing up completely in love with him. This performance was from the Sammy Davis Jr. 60th Anniversary Special and I feel that it is Michael's MOST. PERFECT. PERFORMANCE. EVER. There's no dancing, no special effects, no back-up. Just Michael and his beautiful voice. The words that he is singing to Sammy is how I think a lot of people feel about Michael. Thanks for reading everybody.
