Michael Jackson. You have and will continue to mean so much to generations of people. You defined what it meant to be a music icon. You taught us the full potential of a music video. You showed us that dancing can be cool. You made one of the finest examples of a Popular World Music.

Yeah, there was a time when the crotch grabbing during dances got out of hand (although it gave us an excuse to intersperse spazzy dance routines with our own crotch grabs amongst parents and elders!). We were bummed that you couldn't see that you were a naturally handsome dude the way that we all did. The fascination with Peter Pan and animals was a little weird, but we didn't care... because you were Michael FREAKIN' Jackson.

More than anything we all wished you could understand that we loved you for your music, performance, and humanity.

Thanks for the music. Thanks for the entertainment. Thanks for that awesome glove and swagger. You will be remembered as more than a talented human being. You will be remembered as a superhero. :-)

Here are a few of my favorite Michael Jackson bits:

SMOOTH CRIMINAL

REMEMBER THE TIME

THRILLER

MJ, PRINCE & JAMES BROWN

Last week Jack Palance died. He was one of the best American actors. Before his career in the movies he was a professional heavyweight boxer, and a WWII hero. He was a B24 bomber pilot, and during a training he was trapped in his plane destroyed by fire. His face, severely burned, was rebuilt with plastic surgery and became unique. He was the perfect villain. Moviemaker Elia Kazan said that "only his mother could love his face." One of his rare friends was Lee Marvin, former Marine and WWII hero, too. Here I offer you this splendid cover from a French photonovel (a "ciné-roman", see my previous post about Star Ciné Cosmos). It’s taken from the film ATTACK, a masterpiece of Robert Aldrich. Aldrich, one of the most famous Hollywood’s mavericks, made stories about pure violence and survival. In ATTACK, Jack Palance plays Lt. Costa, a strong soldier fighting the German Army during the Battle of the Bulge. Betrayed and abandoned, he will be crushed alive by German Panzers.

OK, I'm not -that- stupid. I know he died two years ago. This morning I was at the "Hollywood Memorial" in Los Angeles, taking pictures for the next chapter of the LUCHADORES FIVE and I found the grave of Johnny Ramone. Since it's never to late to pay some respect to one of the member of the best band ever, I took a picture and posted here.