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New Yorkers celebrate MJ a year after death
Remembering Michael Jackson. Share your tribute : Here
Michael Jackson took many things seriously — singing, dancing, facial reconstruction — but he also loved a good joke at his own expense.
“Michael saw a spoof I did of his Pepsi commercial,” says filmmaker Bryan Stoller, who recalls the 25-year-old incident like it was yesterday. “I had a look-alike of him shaking up the drink, and it explodes in his face.
“So I get a phone call: ‘Hi, this is Michael Jackson.’ I was ready to hang up. But he wanted a copy!”
Stoller, whose decades-long friendship with Jackson began that day, says the King of Pop, although surprisingly self-deprecating, was always obsessed with being the best. “I said, ‘Michael, are you happy?’ And he looked me in the eye and said, ‘I’m happy, but I’m never satisfied.’ He was always trying to create the perfect moment.”
This week, Jackson fans all over the world will join together to try to create their own perfect moments — showing their appreciation for one of the world’s greatest musical icons, on the one-year anniversary of his death on June 25, 2009.
Sunday in LA, the BET Awards at the Shrine Auditorium will pay tribute to Jackson. Friday in Las Vegas, Julien’s Auction at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino will offer items such as the famous “Beat It” leather jacket, handwritten “Bad” lyrics and the crystal glove from his 1983 Motown 25 TV special performance of “Billie Jean” (bid estimates range from $40,000 to $60,000).
But New York is the city where you’ll find the true soul of Michael Jackson. “I’m going to be in Miami, but I wish I was going to be in Brooklyn, because I know I could find a good party there,” says Nelson George, author of the new book “Thriller: The Musical Life of Michael Jackson.”
George recalls the Spike Lee-sponsored celebration of Jackson’s birthday in the park last summer, shortly after the pop icon died: “Twenty-thousand people were in Prospect Park. It was an amazing event. It was mostly families. DJ Spinna played so many great records, and it was just an intense vibe. It was a community that the music created.”
Here’s our NYC guide to the week’s best Jackson
tributes, specials and new books.
‘When the ‘Thriller’ video came out, my niece was probably 9 or 10,” says Nelson George, author of “Thriller: The Musical Life of Michael Jackson,” out Friday (Da Capo, $24).
“She freaked out when Michael Jackson became a werewolf. She kept saying, ‘Michael Jackson’s not a monster!’ Cut to maybe five years later, we were going to the ‘Bad’ tour at Madison Square Garden, and I could tell ‘Thriller’ was gonna happen. So just before it, I got [a friend] to sneak her out to go to the bathroom, so she wouldn’t freak out.” Read more...
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