After enduring about 1 1/2 quarters of some of the most disgusting, disgraceful football you’ll ever see from a team (thanks, New York Jets, for nearly making me hurl what was a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner), I flipped over to ABC at 9:30 p.m. to catch what I hoped would be a terrific show: Spike Lee’s documentary on Michael Jackson’s legendary “Bad” album, from 1987.
It was sensational. It’s been a few years since MJ died so I hadn’t been thinking about him much, but when you think about how phenomenal that “Bad” album was, with five consecutive No. 1 singles, it boggles the mind.
I know there’s no way to measure something like this, but Jackson had to have had the greatest chasm in history between “incredible, once-in-a lifetime talent” and personal demons/screwed-up life.
The documentary, told through the eyes of most of the people who worked on “Bad,” basically illustrated how uniquely talented Jackson was; who knew that among his other many talents, he could’ve sung bass but chose not to? Who knew that he laid down all the harmonies and lead vocals together for his songs?
The man was a true genius, with his feet, with his voice, and with his musical brain.
Other things I learned from this doc, and I highly recommend watching it if ABC put it online…
— After years of wondering, now we all know who the heck “Annie” is, during the highly-addictive “Smooth Criminal” chorus “Annie are you OK?” She is a CPR dummy that Jackson was working with while learning CPR during the writing of the song. Never in a million years would I have guessed that.
— The model at the end of “The Way You Make Me Feel” video was told not to kiss him at the end because MJ was shy.
–The funniest thing in the doc was seeing Sheryl Crow as a Jackson backup singer, with incredibly big hair. I know it was the 80s, but I never knew Sheryl rocked the Aqua-Net that much.
— Very moving sequence with everyone Lee interviewed getting choked up when talking about Jackson’s death. It’s obvious how almost everyone who worked with him loved and admired him.
We’ll never see anyone like Jackson again, and 25 years after “Bad,” it was great to be reminded of that. Bravo, Spike Lee.
**There are so many reasons to like Indianapolis Colts rookie QB Andrew Luck.
By every account, he’s humble. He graduated from Stanford in three years, but stayed a fourth year because he loved college football so much.
In his rookie season, while trying to replace the legend Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, he’s shown poise and accuracy in stunningly leading the Colts to a 6-4 record so far.
But here’s why I like Andrew Luck today: My good buddy Jeff Pearlman lives next door to a 6-year-old kid named Andrew Cohen, who cruelly suffers from a rare cancer called neuroblastoma.
The poor kid has had a rough life, but last year he took a liking to Andrew Luck, that really good Stanford QB.
Well, thanks to Luck being alerted, he sent Andrew this signed football to help him in his battle.
Look at that kid’s face. And then tell me that athletes aren’t role models, and can’t have an enormous impact with just a small little gesture.
**Finally, here’s to the most honest cabdriver in the world, from Thailand.
A man named Sia Ka Tian returned $900,000 left in his cab this week.
Sia Ka Tian, 70, found the money a vacationing couple left in his cab on Monday, and turned it all in to authorities. The grateful couple gave him a little reward, but I loved Tian’s quote.
“The money is unimportant to me. It doesn’t belong to me, so how can I use it?”
A good soul, that Mr. Tian is. Now, what the hell that couple was doing with $900,000 in a cab is another matter…
Wide World of Stuff 