Michael Jackson
 

Reactions, comments, etc which are all *related* are welcome.

Edit: Oh, and let's not forget Farrah Fawcett.

MJ's certainly been one of the biggest influences on late-20th-century popular culture. (I mean "popular culture" in a respectful way.)

[QUOTE=cheesehead;178882]MJ's certainly been one of the biggest influences on late-20th-century popular culture.[/QUOTE]That sounds like a statement from a politician that I heard yesterday, a statement of facts that seems to those that wish it, to be lauditory, but in fact is not.

Hmm ... I see.

To expand and clarify: I have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, Michael Jackson's music and videos. I think he made a lot of positive contributions to popular culture, regardless of a controversial lifestyle and a medical problem that was not widely understood by the general public.

Some of you may not know that he was granted a U.S. patent for a device that enabled him, in at least one of his videos I saw, to lean waaayyy over to the side [I]in the middle of a dance sequence, without any break in action or filming, and without any apparent fastening or unfastening of himself to the support that kept him from falling[/I] -- and without trick cinematography, I might add.

I've read the patent. His improvement (or at least one of his improvements) over previous such support devices was a method of engaging the device right on stage seamlessly as part of his dance steps, without the attachment being apparent to the viewer, plus the ability to disengage it and resume dancing seamlessly.

No trick cinematography; no tilting of camera or stage; no need to stop action or filming; no effect on other dancers on stage next to him (though it could have been possible to use the device for several dancers simultaneously -- maybe I remember seeing that: multiple dancers all leaning waaayyy right and waaayyy left - either in unison or not -- maybe "Thriller"?). Pretty slick. :smile:

[quote=cheesehead;178928]Some of you may not know that he was granted a U.S. patent for a device ...[/quote]

I had to google this after reading your post...

pretty cool!

[URL]http://blogs.discovery.com/news_tech/2009/06/michael-jackson-had-a-patent.html[/URL]

US Patent 5255452, filed 1992, issued 1993

[URL]http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5255452[/URL]

Hmmm... it seems to mention just leaning forward, not sideways. Perhaps (probably) I remembered incorrectly. Oh ... I bet what I remembered is that some of the shots were from the sides of the dancers, so that their forward leans were toward the left or right of the screen. Or maybe the attachment swiveled.

Note the citations of ten earlier patents, the most recent (1991) of which was "especially suited for a low gravity environment". Moonwalk, indeed.

... and the earliest (1913) of which was "Ladder-gripping attachment for shoes".

And, to be fair, MJ was co-inventor along with two of his costume designers.

[QUOTE=cheesehead;178928]maybe I remember seeing that: multiple dancers all leaning waaayyy right and waaayyy left - either in unison or not -- maybe "Thriller"?)[/QUOTE]

Smooth criminal?

[quote=axn;178956]Smooth criminal?[/quote]Yup. Everyone's saying that's the one. (I don't have it.)

The impact of Michael Jackson's death on the Web
 

According to [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson#Death"]Wikipedia[/URL],
[QUOTE]
News of Jackson's death spread quickly online, causing many websites to experience technical difficulties following the unanticipated swell of users. Google announced technical difficulties after a sudden increase in searches for "Michael Jackson" led the company to believe it was under attack from malicious hackers, while social networking site Twitter reported a crash after record numbers of users used the site to spread the news of Jackson's death.[178] AIM, an instant messaging service operated by America Online, collapsed for forty minutes.[179] The company called it a "seminal moment in Internet history" and added "We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth."[179] Wikipedia also experienced technical difficulties, and crashed at 3:15 PDT, reportedly due to excessive edits and user overload.[167]
[/QUOTE]

[quote=flouran;178960]According to [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson#Death"]Wikipedia[/URL],[/quote]Detailed information about MJ's death, including the "Effect on Internet" paragraph, has now been copied/moved to a new separate article at [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Michael_Jackson[/URL]

As for the effect (crashes of popular sites and such) itself: we seem to have established, in recent years, a new metric for popular cultural impact by an individual. Hmm... is there a website where someone is keeping track (of the Internet effects of sudden news about prominent individuals)?

Funny vid to lighten up the mood
 

Funny vid:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeC2XTpei_w&feature=related[/url]