Just A Girl in Flip-Flops

I remember the first time I saw Michael Jackson.  I must have been 4 or 5.  I was flipping through the channels on our television in the early evening and became transfixed with a woman I saw singing on television.  She was dancing in many exotic places and I was completely enthralled.  When my dad came into the room, I asked him, “Who’s that lady?”  He replied, “That’s not a lady.  That’s a man named Michael Jackson.” And then he changed the channel.

The video I found comletely engrossing was for Michael’s song “Black or White.” From wikipedia, I found that the video was released in October of 1991, which was clearly after Michael entered his androgynous transformation.   Having watched it again today, I understand what gripped me as a child – dispite any childhood confusion.  Michael was undeniably a charasmatic and gifted performer.  He always had a fire about his eyes. Whenever he took the stage, he was filled with passion.  He danced and sang as though he was performing for nobody and everybody at the exact same time.  While I haven’t always been a massive fan of Michael Jackson, in the wake of his death I have found new respect for the man’s giftings and can’t help but reflect upon his life and legacy.

Until his untimely death, I would have told you that Michael Jackson had little impact on my life.  As I’ve been forced to think about him more than ever before, I realized just how wrong I was.  Michael was a visionary and a true artist.  He paved the way for hundreds of artists who followed in his footsteps. He is the canon against which we measure solo pop performers. He was vocally flawless, his range was impressive, and he was constantly experimenting with new sounds and colaborations.  His dancing was equally groundbreaking.  Who doesn’t know about his trademark moonwalk?  Jackson could take the stage and dance by himself and keep an audience completely engaged.  However, he was constantly pushing the limits of choreography and had some amazingly complex dance routines with massive swarms of backup dancers.  There is hardly a solo pop performer today that doesn’t credit Michael Jackson as an inspiration.

Unfortunately, Jackson was infamous for many other aspects of his life.

Jackson constantly pushed the envelope.  “Smooth Criminal” is a song about an assault, rape and murder.  “Billy Jean” is about a paternity dispute. His crotch-grabbing dance moves raised a lot of eyebrows and pushed the envelope at the time.

Jackson’s personal life was filled with short marriages, bizarre public appearances, drug addiction, criminal allegations, criticism of his parenting – just to name a few of the negative aspects.  His spending was out of control. He hid from the world in his own personal zoo, Neverland Ranch.  Michael was an eccentric individual.

Michael Jackson was the prototype for the modern pop star.

It’s not hard to see how popular culture has surged into a downward spiral.  Just two years ago Britney Spears was shaving her head and hitting paparazzi with an umbrella.  It seems that the iconic fame of popstardom at a young age is coupled with addiction and losing yourself in the stage persona you have created.   I think Jackson’s quest for a new face and drug addiction puts him on par with Paris, Lindsay, and Britney: trainwrecks.

It saddens me to say that Michael Jackson is the King of Pop.

With the genuine talent, achievements, and gifting, the title also came at a great price.  Ultimately, I don’t think any person can stand up under the pressure of constant public scrutiny.  And like the King of Rock [Elvis Presley], his body finally gave way to the strain of the drugs and expectations.

It is truly disturbing and crushing. Michael Jackson was incredible, yet so much of his personal life was wasted.

In Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell’s character, Ricky Bobby, and his family go around the table and discuss their favorite picture of Jesus.  The phrase their praise in terms like, “My favorite Jesus is the Christmas Jesus,” or, “My favorite Jesus is the tuxedo t-shirt Jesus.  He means business, but he’s also here to party.”  It’s irreverent, but provides context for what I have to say next…

My favorite Michael is the “Black or White” Michael Jackson.  He dances on the statue of liberty and in the desert, and makes political, social, and fashion statements all at once.

What’s your favorite Michael?

My friend Jon just got married. This is hardly just pleasant and exciting news; it’s completely gobsmacking in my estimation. I attribute the gobsmacking nature of the news to two things…

First and foremost, they only got engaged a couple of months ago and hadn’t announced an official date to the best of my knowledge.  I was completely unprepared to log in to facebook and find that Jon is now a married man.  And neither Jon or his wife have posted pictures yet, so the details are left completely to my imagination.

Secondly, when I met Jon, he was just a punk kid with a guitar and a soccer ball.  We rocked out to Dashboard Confessional and Hanson, jammed on our guitars, and talked about absolutely everything. It’s hard to imagine that the kid with whom I named the Edmonds Beach ducks is now a married man.  He’s an adult. He has a wife and responsibilities.

Jon is the first of my close friends to get married.  I might have a lot of married friends, but almost all of them were married when we met.  Thus far, Jon is the first that I’ve grown up with and watched meet, date, propose to, and eventually marry someone.  It’s really different from having older married friends; it seems that way to me anyway.

I find the whole thing very sobering.  It’s easy to be really introspective and self-absorbed. Sometimes we get caught up in the minutia of our lives, freaking out over the mundane because we have nothing better to do, and we change and grow without realizing it.  I suppose the finality of adulthood is really hitting me. Obviously I’ve acknowledged the fact that I was growing up, but at some point I’ve become a grown-up.

About a month ago, I had a very intellectual chat with a man I met. Our conversation ranged from the economy, outsourcing, Obama, politics, extended-adolescence as a trend in youth, and so on… The man said he was extremely concerned because he knew too many young people that weren’t stepping up to the plate.  He recalled a time in his early twenties in his first leadership position at work.  He conducted a meeting, made his presentation, and then stood waiting for someone to come and wrap it up; in that moment he realized he was the someone. He was the boss, the adult, the person in authority – and the buck stopped with him.

I guess we will all have moments like that.  It seems this has been one of the themes in my life over the past month.  Whether it’s been at work or in my personal life, I’ve had several moments in which I’ve realized I’m the adult – not just some kid waiting for the adult to come and take care of business.  I think tonight was the most profound of these moments, however.

Marriage, a career, having a family, paying a mortgage – these aren’t just things that I can idly idealize.  They can actually be a reality.  I’m actually an adult. They’re all things I’m actually working towards, one step at a time. It’s raw and it’s real; it’s terrifying and exciting.

So I’ll conclude with a toast [of sorts] to Jon and his wife…

Jon, you are a strong and courageous person.  When you know that something is absolutely what God wants for your life, you jump in head first, you commit, and you seize the fullness of what God has for you.  It’s silly I’m surprised you got married so quickly – I’ve known you long enough that I should have realized you’d have done the same thing with Trisha! May your life together be filled with infinite blessings and happiness!  I hope that you and your “other whole” will always compliment, encourage, and inspire each other as you grow together.  All my love to both of you!

Oh! And here’s a song for you!

Here’s a video from the show last night… It was amazing.  The video really speaks for itself:

Apparently Jason Mraz can sing in Spanish!  Check out the video for the new Spanish version of “Lucky,” featuring Ximena Sariñana.   I think it’s a little cheesy that they recycled the original video which featured Colbie Caillat, however…

At the end of the day, I’m still undyingly loyal to Ingrid Michaelson, and like the live version of the song she performed with Jason Mraz.

Update: The flash wont post to my site, so check the video out here

Instead, check out this neat acoustic version of Jason’s song, “I’m Yours”:

Tonight Peter and I saw Coldplay at GM Place.  Buying the tickets had been a spur of the moment decision.  I was blow-drying my hair when Peter knocked on my bedroom door and asked whether or not I wanted to go to the show.  Historically I haven’t been a huge Coldplay fan, but over the past year or so I’ve gotten into them.  Peter had seen them on their last tour, so he was excited to see them again.

We narrowly dodged tickets halfway behind the stage, and managed to snag a couple on the balcony level.  Little did we know, our tickets were for the last row in the entire venue.  When we arrived at our seats, we just laughed. We’re not hardcore fans; we hadn’t bought their latest album, so we weren’t disappointed.

The openers were great.  Howling Bells, a band I hadn’t heard previously, played first. I liked them well enough, aside from the fact their songs all sounded the same.  Snow Patrol played a great set too. There was something special about singing “Chasing Cars” with a stadium of people.

And then we waited for Coldplay to start.

Coldplay was amazing.  Once they came out and started playing, I was blown away.  They sounded fabulous. Of course they were recording their first DVD, so they had to perform flawlessly.  However, by the the end of “Yellow,” the smell of marijuana was becoming completely overpowering.

We were looking around, trying to figure out who was lighing up, and then we realized it was the couple sitting next to us – the couple easily in their late 40’s or early 50’s.  It was ridiculous.  The air was completely stagnant, so we were stuck in this cloud of pot smoke.  As soon as we figured out we were sitting next to the culprits, we decided to slip out for air. And then began the debate…

Our seats weren’t fantastic, but we had shelled out almost $90 each to be there.  At the same time, we didn’t want to make a huge deal, especially because we doubted anyone in Vancouver would really care about a little weed.  The hallway to our elevator was closed.  We then began to wander looking for drinks, but the concessions stands seemed to be closed.  After circling halfway round the venue, we found an open stand and got drinks. As we sipped our drinks and walked, we came to the conclusion that we should just leave.

My brother might be 18, but I’m fiercely protective of him. I wasn’t about to let him walk back into a cloud of Mary Jane.  Everything else aside, I have successfully avoided marijuana for the first 22 to years of my life; I intended to keep my record clean.  I was not about to go get high with some creepy couple (they were creepy, the guy didn’t seem to blink at all).

And then Coldplay began to play “Viva La Vida.”  I love the song, and I suggested we just slip through the doorway and watch from the stairs.  This is when our night took a turn for the better…

The host at the gate eyed us curiously, so I asked, “Can we just stand here and catch the song before we leave?  The people next to us are smoking pot, and we don’t want to deal with it.”

The guy furrowed his brow, then disappeared for a moment to peek over the guard rail.  “Want to stand in the wheelchair section?”

Pete and I shrugged and followed him.  He said something to the girl at the wheelchair gate and disappeared. At the end of the song she approached to ask what had been wrong with our seats.  I explained that we didn’t want to make a big deal about the situation, but we didn’t feel like sitting next to a couple of aging potheads.  She went and fetched us folding seats.  Score! We went from sitting in the last row of the balcony to the first. Our new seats were also more centrally located…

We sat on our folding seats for about half a song before Coldplay got off the main stage to play an acoustic set.  They ran down the length of the venue and performed from a little stage in the middle of the crowd.  They were almost directly beneath us.  At that point, I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.

To top it off, they played “Green Eyes” – which is probably my favorite Coldplay song.  As a girl with green eyes, I was marginalized by musicians who wrote songs about brown-eyed girls and girls with blue eyes.  The song is the main reason I love Coldplay. At that point, I had to try not to cry.

It probably sounds silly, but tonight was a big deal for me.  For so long I have been walking the line and being a genuinely good pastor’s daughter.  While I am happy with the life choices I make, it’s a lot harder (and lonelier) to always do the right thing and to stay out of trouble. Doing the right thing almost never has an immediate payoff.  It might build character or lead to some ultimate payoff in the distant future, but I don’t think I’ve ever had any sort of instant gratification from dodging a cloud of marijuana in the past. Tonight was different.

In terms of musical highlights:

• “Yellow” was absolutely amazing.
• “Viva La Vida” always rocks my world.
• “Green Eyes,” as previously mentioned
• cover of “I’m a Believer”
• Encore performance of “The Scientist”

Unpacking our escapades tonight, Peter and I came to the conclusion that we had experienced our first genuine dose of culture shock since moving to Canada.  In Washington you would be arrested for possessing marijuana.  I’ve seen my share of concerts at big venues, and nobody would have tried to light up in the Key Arena. The staff at GM Place didn’t seem to care. That said, the states are a lot more strict even with alcohol, and wouldn’t have allowed alcoholic drinks inside the seating area.  Canada is  a lot more liberal, and I didn’t like it.

Anyway, I think it’s time for bed. Despite the fact I changed clothes the minute I got home, I still smell like pot.  I think the smoke got all in my hair, but it’s far too late to shower and blow-dry.  I needed to change my sheets tomorrow anyway…

The above video was from a gig in Sydney back in March, but it’s pretty much how they performed it tonight…