Michael Jackson

When I was in the third grade, a friend came up to me and told me about this musician she was "in love with." His name was Michael Jackson, and she showed me a picture. I had never heard of him, and I couldn't understand why she liked him. I would have been 8 at the time, I'm guessing, so I wasn't really into boys yet. Apparently, she was.

A couple of years later, I went over to a friends house after school and saw "The Making of Thriller" on MTV. I had grown up watching shows about the making of movies, but this one was different for me. I remember vividly watching Rick Baker make the werewolf mask for Michael Jackson and thought, "I want to do that!" I think it was the first time I wanted to do something behind the camera rather than in front of it. I credit this show as one of the reasons I studied film in college.

Even though I bought my first and only Michael Jackson album last year (the 25th Anniversary release of Thriller), you could not grow up in the 1980's and early 90's without being inundated with Michael Jackson music, videos, and, sadly, the tabloid news about him. It seems strange that he's gone, but almost fitting that it was so fast and unexpected, kind of like his solo career.