Nag-level up na sila!

Whoa! Hope these guys get some time off for good behavior, este, dancing. And pansinin ang egoy sa gitna, channeling MJ much? hehe

Seriously, bravo again to the Dancing Inmates of Cebu! I hear this bit will end up in the DVD issue of This is It, the tribute movie to Michael Jackson. Clap for them!

This is it

IF you still haven't seen "This is It", the behind-the-scenes documentary of Michael Jackson's rehearsals for what would've been his last concert run to have been staged in London, then go see it quick. The film dispels the rumors that Michael was sick or worn-out before his tragic death on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50.

Spliced with a few interviews with his backup singers, his dancers, his band and the other members of the production, the film is really about Michael's dedication to his craft. He was a perfectionist to the core, but wasn't imposing or and was never a diva about it. Every request made of his musicians or dancers was punctuated with a sincere thank you or a "God bless you."

It showed how much his fans meant to him that he wanted to give them a really good show. So he had to personally shepherd every aspect of the production. He was in complete control from the very beginning. He was there choosing his back up dancers, getting the tunes of his songs right w/ the band leader, overseeing the filming of his new videos w/c would have been shown in the concerts, etc.

Even as he tried to conserve his voice for the actual concerts, or didn't bring out the big dance moves yet, his brilliance as a performer shone through. No matter if they danced the same choreographed steps, for instance, Michael just had his own groove w/c put him above his crew. One tiny pop of his elbow, a shuffling of his feet here, and a kick-turn in place, and he was amazing.

But he was always generous as a performer. He wanted his backups to have their moments onstage. Like he would coax the female guitarist performing w/ him to give it her all and say, "This is your time to shine." You could tell that the concerts would have really been fantastic.

True to the producers' words, the film is really for the fans. The music alone will want you to get up, sing along and dance. It shows Michael at probably his happiest, just performing onstage, even if these were just rehearsals. That was what made the film so poignant and touched me so that at some point, I couldn't hold back my tears much longer. It was just so great to see him smile again.

We love you Michael...always and forever.

MJ Memorial

I thought the memorial service for Michael Jackson started off great with Mariah Carey singing "I'll be there" then Queen Latifah reading a poem by Maya Angelou about the pop icon. But after Stevie Wonder's performance, it went downhill to cheesy, with major chunk provided by Usher.

Sorry sa fans nya, but I found his performance mejo OA and KSP. Imagine he had his shades on the whole time he was singing, then took them off after the song, to show the audience he was crying, then looks to the coffin to the left. A major Kodak moment dontcha think? And gads, Brooke Shields was just hysterical as she painfully tried to crack jokes about the time she spent with MJ. And John Mayer...geez, another OA performance there. I thought he was having a stroke with the way his face contorted.

Btw, they should've asked Smokey Robinson to sing, and the Jackson Brothers should not have worn their white gloves. It made them look pathetic, trying to honor (or ape) their only brother who had the real talent among them. I wonder if MJ's body was actually in that gleaming silver casket. Oh well.

But didn't you guys think the Rev. Lucious was luscious?!?! Way hotttt?! this man of God. Praise the Lord.

Rest in peace, MJ. The circus is over.

* * * *

We had him by Maya Angelou

Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing, now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer wind.

Without notice, our dear love can escape our doting embrace. Sing our songs among the stars and walk our dances across the face of the moon.

In the instant that Michael is gone, we know nothing. No clocks can tell time. No oceans can rush our tides with the abrupt absence of our treasure.

Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone.

Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him.

He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance.

Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that.

He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.

We had him, beautiful, delighting our eyes.

His hat, aslant over his brow, and took a pose on his toes for all of us.

And we laughed and stomped our feet for him.

We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing. He gave us all he had been given.

Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square.

In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama, and Birmingham, England

We are missing Michael.

But we do know we had him, and we are the world.

Michael Jackson, 50

LOS ANGELES — For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another attempted comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.

Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, papparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent nearly 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.

The singer was rushed to the hospital, a six-minute drive from the rented Bel-Air home in which he was living, shortly after noon by paramedics for the Los Angeles Fire Department. A hospital spokesman would not confirm reports of cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm. (Click NYT for the rest.)



Michael Jackson Live in Manila, HIStory tour, 1996

As if we didn't have any other problems...

Bushy eyebrows are back

By Emili Vesilind
Los Angeles Times

STEP away from the tweezers. The tapered, pin-thin eyebrows you’ve been meticulously sculpting every week since the ’90s are looking about as dated as a Menudo T-shirt. Call it recession chic (visiting a brow specialist suddenly feels so indulgent), or further proof that we’re moving toward a less coiffed—even grungy—era in fashion. But bushy brows are back for fall in a big way.

Think Brooke Shields in her skin-tight Calvin Klein jeans, with those thick, healthy arches that veiled smoldering eyes. Only now, it’s Hilary Rhoda who’s the model of the moment, with her considerable brows and all-American good looks. (Click here for the rest.)

(My carefully tweezed and sculpted eyebrows.)
For sure, I'd be the last one riding on this fashion bandwagon. I've plucked far longer than any of you who probably weren't even around yet when Michael Jackson was still dark (he btw, recently celebrated his 50th birthday supposedly by eating cake and watching cartoons with his kids), so some of my eyebrow hairs actually have not grown back. So even if I wanted to get them all bushed up, I'd probably have to wait it out for a year. By then, the trend will probably be over.

Of course, I could use some eyebrow pencil to fill it all in, but to me, it looks fake. Then I also think having bushier eyebrows would make me look always angry, or perhaps insane (more than I usually am). I love my thin eyebrows because it brightens up my face and through the years, I've actually gotten a lot of compliments about them. So I think I'm gonna stick with my bush, errr, I mean my brows.