Man, remember when stuff like this used to run on MTV? You already know that Michael Jackson died yesterday. As a blog largely about performance, we have to give him a tip of the hat. Despite how crazy his pants have gotten (and he had become the king of crazy-pants), the man did have an incredible impact, from the Jackson 5 stuff (elements of which have been mixed into the work of everybody from my friends spinning Chicago house in the ’90s to Justice last year), to “Thriller” (see above; “making of” cuts here), Captain EO (I totally saw that in 3D at EPCOT – did you know that Francis Ford Coppola directed it?), and more.

Anyway, with this, I leave you for the weekend. Actually, I leave you to write and edit more excellent features for next week. See you then, and pour one out for MJ.

–Nicholas Gilewicz