MJ Sleeves

(1) I remember being in grade school when the red MJ Beat It jacket went retail. It was full of zippers, and you could detach the sleeves. This is not a good feature when you are 7 or 8. Soon, the playground was littered with red (or black with red trim) sleeves. The lost and found was full of 'em.

(2) I loved the Moonwalker video game for Sega Genesis. LOVED. Even more than I loved Golden Axe, which it clearly ripped off. Instead of the little gnome/elf thing coming around with sacks of extra magic or health points as in Golden Axe, Bubbles the Chimp would come out and you had to pick him up. Instead of magic thunder bolts killing your enemies, you could make MJ dance and the bad guys would (assumedly) die of exhaustion copying his moves. Sheer brilliance.

(3) Without disputing the indisputable fact that MJ was, by all accounts, nuts, the dude was acquitted on charges that had a shaky evidential basis in the first place. I still remember the bit from Mos Def's "Mr. Nigga":

"You can laugh and criticize Michael Jackson if you wanna/ Woody Allen, molested and married his step-daughter/ Same press kickin dirt on Michael's name/ Show Woody and Soon-Yi at the playoff game, holdin hands/ Sit back and just bug, think about that/ Would he get that type of dap if his name was Woody Black?"

(4) Here are a few of the mixes from the Japanese Soul Source series, which never made it over State-side. I have posted the DJ Spinna mix again and again - still one of my faves - but here are others:

J5 "Get It Together" (4Hero rmx)


J5 "Hum Along and Dance" (United Future Organization rmx)


Monday Michiru "I Wanna Be Where You Are" (J5 cover)


J5 "Darling Dear" (Muro rmx)


J5 "Ben" (Hiroshi Fujiwara & KUDO rmx)