Wow! It's been a while. I bet everyone (all four of you out there) missed me. Well, I'm glad to be back. After all, sometimes a little absence is just what it takes to make the heart grow fonder.
I should know. Over the last month or so, I've found the speakers to my car stereo and iPhone are more and more frequently pounding out the music of some of my old faves. Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Run DMC... as it turns out, Nate loves 80s music. Every time he puts on 'Bad' or 'It's Tricky' (which, admittedly, has been one of his go-to-favourites for a while now), my mind wanders down those old, abandoned trails to the days when I first heard them. And then I feel old. REALLY old. But I still smile, because absence has made my heart grow fonder and, well... I still love Michael Jackson's music.
I have to admit that I still get a little bit giddy at Halloween when I just KNOW the Thriller video will be played. And I always do my creepiest voice along to Vincent Price's part... mwaaaa haa haa ha! I marvel at Michael's effortless contortions in the videos for Beat It, Billie Jean, Remember the Time, and (among the best for his dance performances, in my view) Smooth Criminal. I remember fondly those days when I would try to moonwalk down our wood-floor hallway in my slipperiest socks... and I recall in particular one neighbourhood garage sale when every other house had a table of Michael Jackson keychains and trinkets. I ran out of money before I hit the end of the block!
In any event, last weekend, after listening to 'Bad' in the car at least a million times, I finally pulled out our nifty little tablet thingy and searched Vevo for Michael Jackson. http://www.vevo.com/search?q=michael%20jackson&content=Videos They don't have the full cache of his videos, but they do have Bad. I called Nate over, and he, Byron and I cuddled on the sofa while we watched Michael strut his stuff and take on a scrappy ne'er do well in an empty train station. Then, Byron and I watched (and recorded) with glee while Nate recreated the steps in front of the fireplace. He didn't seem to take a shine to the pelvis grab-and-thrust (I feel like that may come later, like when he's a teenager), but he definitely nailed the head whip, the arms-out-to-the-side-defiant-pose-with-shouty-face, and the shuffles.
Since then, I've gone back to Vevo and watched most of the other available videos. My love of Michael Jackson's music and my admiration for his talent has returned, in full force. Michael's right. It doesn't matter if you're black or white. As it turns out, you are not alone. And it sometimes helps to just sit back and remember the time, back when Billie Jean may or may not have been my lover, back when we were all bad and each day was a thriller. There are always going to be some days when you wanna be startin' somethin' because that smooth criminal over there has made you feel like they don't care about us, but instead you just get on the floor and go off the wall, or take a good hard look at the man in the mirror and scream. You think about those who may be gone too soon, which may make you think there ain't no sunshine and you'll never be able to heal the world. But you've got a friend. We've got a good thing going, and no matter what happens, I'll come home to you, because we've got forever. Absence has indeed made my heart grow fonder.
You, my loyal fan(s), may have worried "she's out of my life", but I'm back, baby. I'm back. Can you feel it? Is your heart fonder? Mine is.
