Yes. Am still here. Not going anywhere. Not dead. Not vanished. Not changing. Not moving.

Nothing.

It’s been almost a week since the passing of the King of Pop, and everyday we see more tributes to his musical genius and reminders of how much of an impact he’s had on pop culture.

Being a child of the 80s, I too grew up with the music of Michael Jackson. As a kid, I remember watching agog the now seminal videos of Billie Jean, Beat It and the mother of all music videos, Thriller. And who can forget his pop-locking smooth dance moves, culminating in the jaw-dropping and probably the most attempted dance move of the 80s, the moonwalk?

A few years later, I scrimped and saved my from my meager allowance to buy my first ever music album with my own money – Bad. (Original, too. Indeed, I’ve never bought a bootleg copy of a Michael Jackson album in my life, and I’ve bought every album from Bad till HIStory.)

While Thriller (my dad had bought this album, albeit a pirated copy unfortunately) was an awesome showcase of pop genius and visual extravagance, Bad was all about the attitude, baby. (Man, I really wanted a leather jacket when that title track was released. )

(Of course, there were all those rumours about MJ being gay due to the opening line of Bad that sounded like, “Your bird is mine…”, and given our juvenile senses of humour back then, “bird” meant only one thing. Fortunately, my original copy of the album came with full lyrics sheet which revealed that what MJ was really saying was, “Your butt is mine.” Which probably didn’t help quell those rumours one bit, although it did show MJ’s predilection for creative pronounciation. Shamon!)

Was there a single track from this album to which I did not try to sing along or attempted to move? (Note the words “try” and “attempted”.) They were all awesome, awesome songs, and while I know Thriller’s the ultimate MJ album ever, Bad’s still my personal favourite. Songs like the introspective “Man In The Mirror” and the sassy ode to a hot chick, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, and “Smooth Criminal” (Annie are you wokay? Are you wokay? Are you wokay, Annie?) used to get non-stop rotation in the privacy of my room.

Then came Dangerous, and I took part in various contests that were run in conjunction with the album release. I won several posters (some of which I sold to my classmates for a tidy profit), a cap (which I still have stashed away somewhere), and tonnes of calendars (again, sold to classmates). This was probably the most rewarding experience I’ve had in participating in any contest.

I loved quite a number of the songs on the album (Black Or White, Remember The Time, Heal The World, Jam, Dangerous, etc), although by now people of my age group were beginning to move away from Michael Jackson and on to lesser music like heavy metal. (Yeah, I know, I probably just made quite a lot of enemies. Heh!) Armchair critics were aplenty, saying it didn’t measure up to Thriller and Bad (but seriously, what album could??) and MJ was on the way down.

Fortunately, most industry critics rated the album well, and history now views the album rather favourably.

Not soon after, came the controversies, scandals, and what-have-you. It detracted from the legend of MJ, putting the spotlight on his erratic behaviour like never before, and suddenly it was uncool to be a fan anymore.

Not me, though. When HIStory came out in 1995, I was right there in the music store on the first day of the album launch, buying the album. Sure it was a double album, and it did seem like a dumb marketing gimmick to include a collection of greatest hits with new songs, but hey, they were great new songs! I loved the defiance of “They Don’t Really Care About Us“, the melancholy of “Stranger In Moscow“, the comforting “You Are Not Alone” (although the video starring the topless white-skinned duo MJ and Lisa-Marie was weird), and the eco-friendly “Earth Song“.

But that was to be the beginning of the end of my association with MJ’s music. I was in college at the time, and I was beginning to gravitate to a genre of music that was taking us by storm, i.e. grunge. I was now listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, while my MJ cassette tapes languished at home. Angst was now the currency of choice in the music world, and we were flocking to anyone trading in it.

MJ, on the other hand, was still fending of the suspicions and allegations that continued to hound him. Despite this, he still managed to put together a world concert tour, eventually becoming probably the biggest star ever to grace our shores when he held a 2-night concert at a sold-out Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur in October 1996.

Sadly, I wasn’t in the country at the time, having left for the ivory towers of the United Kingdom just a month earlier.

Although he would later perform in London for 3-nights (in the summer of 1997), tickets for the shows were astronomical (for me, at least) and I also happened to be preoccupied with erm, other affairs at the time.

And then he just disappeared from my radar. Sure, the occasional song popped up in my consciousness (Blood On The Dance Floor), and in 2001, the album Invincible came out. I did not buy this album, which shows, I guess, how disconnected I now was to my former musical icon.

To be honest, I didn’t really think about MJ anymore, not until the sensational circus of his court trial rolled into the spotlight. I followed it like every other jaded child of the 80s, wondering whatever happened to this childhood hero of ours, in his funny pajamas and funny face.

While I, like many of my peers, couldn’t bring ourselves to believe all the allegations people threw at him (and thus was relieved when he was acquitted of all charges), I still had to shake my head at hearing all the revelations of his free-spending lifestyle and eccentric people. I blamed his handlers, his hangers-on, his posse for leading him astray, but let’s face it, MJ’s no baby. He should have been more responsible for himself, but perhaps he trusted people too much, trust that would eventually be misplaced.

And so MJ vanished. There was nary a peep from him, till the surprising announcement of his concert series in London, and then the shocking news of his passing.

I still can’t believe it. This man sang and danced to the soundtrack of my generation. His death all of a sudden leaves a vacuum of silence around us.

If there is a silver lining to all this, it’s the fact that the world is rediscovering his music anew, reveling in his dances, and reminiscing warm, fuzzy memories of a time when a young man wearing white socks with black loafers and a glittering sequined gloved on one hand tried to heal the world by getting us on our feet and rocking with him.

Rest In Peace, Michael Jackson. You’ll Never Rock Alone.

Hi y’all! Your friendly neighbourhood bloggers group AllMalaysian Bloggers Project (AMBP) is organising it’s kinda-annual blogger gathering on May 1 2009 (Labour Day), to be held at Studio V (The Star’s multimedia showcase place) at 1 Utama.

And this time around, the theme is based around the upcoming STAR TREK movie.

The event is called AMBP First Contact at Studio V, and there’ll be loads of activities and stuff going on, for both bloggers and non-bloggers alike:

• Treasure Trek (i.e. a treasure hunt using GPS equipment!)
• Blogger video interviews (you can watch, or you can participate and BE interviewed!)
• Star Trek Captain’s Chair auction (take photos with the Chair, or buy it – starting bid is RM1,701 – Trekkies would recognise the number…)
• Photo Session with Star Trek characters
• Lucky Draw
• Trivia Challenge (with questions prepared by a serious Trekkie, so be prepared!)
• Online Contest (win a cool Star Trek T-shirt that GLOWS when you’re near a WiFi hotspot!)

And to end the day, there’ll be an special EXCLUSIVE screening for bloggers of the new STAR TREK movie, starring Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana (mmmm!), and Sylar, err, I mean, Zachary Quinto, and directed by JJ Abrams (of Lost and Alias fame).

So if you’re a blogger, join the AMBP today and register for AMBP First Contact at Studio V now! You won’t want to miss it!

See ya there!

Photo Credits: Industrial Light and Magic and Paramount Pictures

Star-Jobs h.e.l.p
A project to assist the retrenched

With the economic crisis hitting every part of the world, retrenchment is on the rise. Losing your job suddenly is akin to losing someone you loved. We at Star-Jobs strive to assist the retrenched to go through their career transition as smoothly as possible and at the same time to discover potential talents within themselves.

This is a CSR initiative of The Star. The purpose of this initiative is to bring together companies that are seeking to hire and retrenched people seeking to be hired.

Times are tough, and when the going gets tough, well, we have to come together. Ok?

What you can do

Retrenched persons
Register on the Star-Jobs H.E.L.P. site, with your resume and stuff. Yes, it’s yet another job-seeker site form, and you probably already have registered on Jobstreet and places. Well, there’s no law that says you have to register on only one site, right? Why not cast the net wider? This is your future we’re talking about, after all.

Companies
Need employees? Have vacancies? Wanna list those vacancies online for FREE? Yeah, I said FREE! Contact the good people at Star-Jobs.com to find out how.

Ex-retrenched persons
Share your experiences! Give hope to your fellow man, people who are currently affected by the global economic meltdown, so that they will have hope that things will turn out for the better for them. Be a speaker at an event, or blog about your experiences! Once again, contact the nice people at Star-Jobs to learn how you can be of assistance.

Guys and gals, if you have a job, know how lucky you are. I have friends who have been retrenched, and I can only wish I could do something for them. This is the least I can do, and I hope you can do the same at the very least.

Of life.

It’s that time of season, where merrymaking and gift exchanging (not to mention the stresses of finding the right gift in the first place) is uppermost on people’s minds.

Yet, during this time of joy and festiveness, let us not forget about the less fortunate ones among us.

Recently, as I was at a cineplex in PJ, waiting to go in to the movie theatre, I caught sight of a booth near the cineplex entrance. It was a UNICEF stand. I wandered over to find out more details about what they were doing there, and long story short, I decided to become a regular donor to their cause.

Some people hearing this would think, “well, he must have been suckered into it”. I didn’t. I wanted to contribute to their cause. Despite the economic slowdown, I’m aware that I still have it better than a lot of poor, impoverished people around the world, especially innocent children. I still remember clearly the sight of bedraggled, dirty little kids wandering around the streets of Delhi in India, begging for a little change, something to eat, a little bit of attention, please.

It’s a hard, difficult thing to experience, and it’s made all the more uncomfortable – and unforgiving – when you’re in an air-conditioned car looking out into the harsh, polluted, sun-drenched landscape, to which these kids are exposed every hour of every day.

Which is why I did not hesitate to part with a portion of my take-home income towards helping these children in need, through a reputable organisation such as UNICEF. Hey, it’s also tax-deductible, so really, what reason do I have NOT to help? Like a good friend told me, “it’s better that your money goes towards charity than to the taxman”.

Anyway, if you’re keen on lending some support for another good cause, the AllMalaysian Bloggers Project (AMBP) are calling out to bloggers to help with a project set up by the Rotaract Club of Kuala Lumpur (RACKL) called PROJECT GIFT A KID.

RACKL aims to sponsor 100 underprivileged kids’ aged between 6 – 15 years old back-to-school educational needs (books, stationery, uniforms etc) for the school term 2009. The kids who will benefit from this are:

• Children of Rumah WAKE 1 (a home for HIV+ children and their affected siblings under the Pertubuhan Wanita dan Kesihatan Kuala Lumpur)
• Underprivileged schoolchildren from SRJK(T) Cheras (many of the children come from the surrounding low-cost flats and squatter areas and most cannot afford school uniforms let alone school fees)

How can you help? Well, you can:

Sponsor A Child

• You can choose to sponsor a kid from as little as RM10 to the full pack of RM150. A small step from you goes a long way in empowering these kids’ futures.
• Let your family, friends and colleagues know about this project and encourage them to sponsor a kid. Alternatively, you could pool your resources together too!
• This season of giving, why not sponsor a kid on behalf of your loved one (sure beats having to think of a material gift!). We’ll give you a gift card which comes nicely packed with an inspirational quote and ribbon that you can pass to them. That way you’re giving two people a gift at once!

- From the RACKL info page

To sponsor a child, you’ll need to fill out a Sponsorship Form and send it either to RACKL or AMBP (c/o Star Publications). You can get the Sponsorship Form and details on how to go about sponsoring a child from the AMBP Project Gift A Kid page.

Blog About It!

Hey, it’s what you do, so why not wield that mighty pen (or keyboard, as the case may be) and lend your voice towards promoting a noble endeavour. Get more information on PROJECT GIFT A KID at AMBP or from RACKL.

In case you need more incentives, United International Pictures (UIP) has agreed to sponsor a number of movie tickets; your one blog post will send one of these kids to the movies!

And if you really REALLY need more motivation, you can participate in the AMBP-UIP Caption Contest. Just caption a picture from the movies (either Wild Child, or Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) and you could win yourself some goodies courtesy of UIP and EMI.

Example like so:

Ommm.. oh dear, suddenly I feel a hankering for curry, sarees, and dancing the ancient art of bharatanatyam! Yoga, thou art teh evil!

Yeah, I know, not exactly prize-winning material, but I’ll bet you can do better.

To ensure that your blog post is counted, don’t forget to post your link as a comment at the AMBP Editor’s Post: Help us help a kid go back to school.

Ok, c’mon, after all that, and if you still can’t be arsed to do even the slightest bit to help out here, well, be sure to say hi for me to the Devil when you see him in hell, won’t you?