Michael Jackson- Promoter Statement. Official Ticketmaster Site

Here's some info on future ticket refund for the "This Is It" Michael Jackson concerts that were scheduled for London, England's O2 Arena next month, for those of you who jumped on tickets to what would have surely been phenomenal shows.

Michael Jackson- Promoter Statement. Official Ticketmaster Site

Been continuing to rock out to MJ at various points all throughout this weekend. Here are some more 90's joints from Mike's catalogue, starting with the 1995 R. Kelly-penned ballad "You Are Not Alone" from the album HIStory (featuring ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley!):



"They Don't Care About Us" is another single from the HIStory record that generated some controversy over allegedly antisemitic lyrics contained in the virulent social commentary song, prompting rancor from critics and Jewish community leaders, including film director and friend Steven Spielberg. The lyrics were later edited after a public apology by Jackson.

The song is accompanied by two videos by director Spike Lee: one based in the favela of Salvador Bahia, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the other set in a prison. Spike Lee and Jackson faced opposition from the Brazilian government in preparation to shoot the video, charging that the singer was exploiting their poor and projecting an image of Brazil's seeming social failings would be bad for tourism. They eventually shot the video and were warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by the community that lived there. I think that the video is an earthy and defiant slice of life and an uncommonly down-to-earth appearance by MJ...in jeans, no less:





I really like both these videos. I think they are strong collaborations between Lee and Jackson. They really focus Jackson's righteous indignation in the song into very authentic and artful visuals reminiscent of the insurgence of Lee's earlier films, especially 1989's "Do The Right Thing."


The 1997 Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix album is an interesting musical re-discovery in the midst of the hoopla surrounding Jackson's death. A collection of remixes of the then-new Disc Two songs from the 1995 double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, it's a fascinatingly dark and funky carnival ride through Jackson's paranoia about media scrutiny and the perils of being a crazy-talented dancing machine:




"Ghosts" is a weird little morsel from the same album. WARNING: This is almost for Michael Jackson mega-fans and 90's completists only. It is, in its entirety, an almost forty-minute long music video that tells the story (co-written by Jackson with Stephen King) of a character called "The Maestro" who is chased out of town by angry residents, illustrating how Jackson felt in the wake of child sexual abuse charges he incurred in 1993. It is the longest music video ever produced to date, and was directed by Hollywood special effects/makeup wizard Stan Winston, who himself passed away June of last year.

This is something I didn't really get to the first time around in the 90's, so this is pretty interesting now...here's a shorter version:



The choreography at the beginning of this is actually pretty badass, despite all the creepy tomfoolery with the harlequins later on.