Vanilli said:

Tonight I was thinking about dag, or some other

MJ fam who was sayin on here a week ago...I'm gonna

paraphrase but...they said something like..

I may not have "known" him but I felt like I "knew"

him better than some of the people in my life I know best.

I can't agree with that more. And he certainly

had more of a hand in my taste in everything from

art, to music, fashion, to just about anything....

I still get sad sometimes when I think about

Michael being gone. I was riding with my mom

today and "Rock With You" came on and she

was singing along..and before June 25th, I would

have laughed and enjoyed that moment. Now it's

like I have to breathe and try not to cry. It's funny

because I'm listening to "Black or White" as I type this

and I'm not in tears - but when it comes on unexpected,

it can mess me up. I think I sorta understand what Janet

(or some other family members of Mike's were saying about

how seeing TII might be too upsetting. I was pumped to see it,

but I imagine, had it been unexpected seeing it for the first time,

it would have messed me up big time.)

One of the things I miss most about MJ being alive is

knowing he is somewhere in this world. (And usually

I could hop onto like MJNO or MJstar and figure out

where he was, and what he was up to.) But now, I

can't.

I know how you feel

Once again the meanies executors are denying poor Joe the right to have a say in his child's state. And, of course, the wrongful death lawsuit should be paid by Michael's state! Why is everybody against Joe and Oxman's mission for justice?

[Edited 9/3/10 5:11am]

Nvncible1 said:

it hit me the other day that we wont see anymore NEW EXCLUSIVE PICS of him hopping out of an suv goin to a store or somethin. and i was never really that type of fan that cared about that kinda stuff anyways lol. somebody posted a pic in here of him before he died and my heart jumped out for a second thinking it was new

I know the feeling, I was on and off with caring about that stuff over the years cause of getting busy with life, but right now I just don't think about it though it will hit me some time or if I see a certain pic I liked from a sighting and it hits me. Like the one in 2006 of him in a black blazer and white shirt with his reading glasses on his shirt, that one gets to me for some reason

right now I'm really feeling this

For the past 2 days I've been playing motown mj so much, I haven't in a very long time despite owning all the cd's

ViintageJunkiie said:

mimi07 said:

[img:$uid]http://i34.tinypic.com/2e0myh3.jpg[/img:$uid]

The First Meeting

"I first met Michael Jackson at a recording studio on Beverly Blvd. in Hollywood, where he was three quarters of the way through finishing what would be the largest selling album in history. CBS records indicated that the project was between myself and another very well known photographer whose identity was never divulged to me.

Michael wanted to personally meet both candidates before deciding who he wanted to work with on the album package. I know now after having worked a substantial amount of time with Michael on other projects since, that he needed someone that was at the top of his profession, wasn't egotistical, was trustworthy and creative. But most importantly someone who would treat him with delicacy and consideration, who wasn't threatening or offending.

My first impression of Michael as he slowly and carefully moved through the studio doors where our meeting would take place was that he was taller and thinner than I had expected. His hand shake was very delicate with hardly a squeeze, and I was very conscious to return the same.

As we talked, Michael would ask me questions in his whispered voice about my likes and dislikes. I could tell from the way he poised his questions, that in a sly way, I was being highly scrutinized. That's when I first realized how important it was to Michael to work with the exact kind of person that would make him feel comfortable. Our meeting lasted about twenty minutes and we parted with a cordial good-bye.

The Call Back

Three days later I received a phone call from CBS Records saying that phase one was over and now Michael wanted to come to see my studio and look at my photographs. My studio entrance has a loud buzzer, but instead there was a very gentle knock at the door. Rather than have my secretary answer the door, I wanted to answer it myself. I wanted Michael to know that I was real and approachable and also wanted to avoid anything that may have had the potential of creating an uncomfortable situation for Michael. Evidently I passed the test as I received confirmation two days later from CBS that Michael had selected me to do the honors, and the album shoot was scheduled to take place in two weeks.

My fee from CBS was to be $4,000.00 - which was very good back then (and just about top dollar for an album cover). During the next two weeks I had various meetings with the creative heads from CBS and Freddie Demand, Michael's Manager at that time. The purpose was to create a visual direction for the album that everyone agreed on.

Shoot Day

The day of the shoot arrived, I had hired one of the best fashion stylists in LA to gather a large variety of wardrobe, and we began the arduous process of selecting attire for the cover and inside spread. After about an hour of weeding through the clothes, Michael couldn't find anything he was crazy about. I started to panic for a moment, then I noticed Michael looking at the white suit I was wearing. He asked if we had anything like it. We didn't, so I asked him if he would like to wear mine. Considering his choices, this was exactly what he wanted. Fortunately for the shoot and the time involved, the suit fit.

We had decided prior to the shoot that Michael would have a tiger cub in the shots so we had a selection for him to choose from. He loved a six week old cub but was very squeamish about letting it get to close to his face because of possible scratches from its claws. Throughout the shoot I had to get Michael to forget about the possibility of getting scratched, and to focus his attention on me and the camera.

During breaks Michael would stand in front of a full length mirror and practice continual spins, the legendary ones that are now so familiar to us all. He would come alive in front of that mirror. It was fascinating, because he had such a shy and subdued manner throughout the photo session. For lunch he ordered a special meal brought in from a vegetarian restaurant...the ----- on 3rd Avenue, which is his favorite in town. In fact, a few months later he would hire that chef as his personal cook, and to this day.

The shoot lasted about 6 hours with no particular problems out of the ordinary. At the days end, we said good-bye, and arranged to meet in a few days to go over the results. About four days later the photos were ready and we met at Michael's recording studio on Beverly Boulevard. Michael was in the middle of finishing up one of the tracks, so I set up my light table and spread out the transparencies so he could see them all at one time.

The Album Cover

Michael walked into the studio - he was in a very good mood. He looked over the transparencies and was very excited and pleased with what he saw. He said "There are so many good ones here, how can I ever make a decision?" He told me to hold on a minute, and went to the back of the studio. After a moment, he came back out with Quincy Jones. Quincy took one look at the transparencies and without any hesitation pointed to one, and said "That's the cover!"

That was the fastest I have ever seen anyone pick a final transparency for anything, and it was a good choice. I was happy, Michael was happy, the label was happy, and I guess the world was happy."

A kind of magic emerges from this young couple. I really did not know what awaited me when I arrived, but what I saw made me think of the scene which two in love act as if they were alone in the world, in spite of the crowd which surrounds them. That only comes when two people are deeply enthusiastic about one another. Like everyone, I had heard rumours which surrounded their marriage several weeks ago. But it was necessary that I see them with my own eyes to work out the depth and sincerity of their love. This love, neither could hide from me. It will be enough for you to realise it by looking at my photographs, especially those which I took of Lisa. There are attitudes which cannot be faked. In fact, I did not even need to guide Michael and Lisa. I did not need, for example, to ask them to intertwine. They spontaneously did it and most naturally. I had to only say to them to place themselves at such or such a place, and the rest came naturally. They spoke to each other in a very soft tone, the tone of two people very much in love with one another.

It's like when you see two people in the street who're in love and act like there is no one else around them. I saw it with my own eyes.

If you look at the photographs, you'll notice that there is something going on, especially with Lisa. I didn't have to tell them to put their arms around each other, they just did it.

Having spent an entire day with them, I saw some magical things. They talked to each other very quietly like lovers would. For the first shot, I told them to stand close. They immediately put their arms around each other and Lisa cuddled right up to Michael. I told Lisa to sit in a chair and Michael to kneel beside her. He put his arm around her and pulled her head to his chest, while Lisa tenderly took hold of his hand.

Between shots, they were whispering and giggling to each other. They were so happy it was hard to keep their attention on the camera. They were so much into each other.

They are so happy with the photos. Michael put Xs over the ones he liked, and the pages of photos were covered with Xs. But the loving ones with Lisa, showing their happiness, were his favourites.

[Edited 9/2/10 16:38pm]

Okay, is this article talking about THRILLER or HIStory?

The bolded part mentions the biggest selling album in history, which is Thriller, then at the end of the article, it mentions Lisa. I don't know if they're referring to LMP or not...

Yes, it is about Lisa and MJ. It mentions they were married and they are definately speaking about this photoshoot. Just read it again and look at the poses.

[img:$uid]http://img80.im.../img:$uid]
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BTW does anyone have these in HQ? I can´t find them anywhere.

Vanilly.

[Edited 9/3/10 7:53am]

great pics dag, thanks for sharing! they're beautiful! what about the ones of them in white and the ones shown on prime time live with mj in the red and black outfit? those were nice too, I wondered if mj and lisa gave each other makeup tips sometimes heheh

alphastreet said:

great pics dag, thanks for sharing! they're beautiful! what about the ones of them in white and the ones shown on prime time live with mj in the red and black outfit? those were nice too, I wondered if mj and lisa gave each other makeup tips sometimes heheh

[img:$uid]http://img180.i.../img:$uid]
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[Edited 9/3/10 8:37am]

that last one is hilarious, like he's trying to protect diane sawyer who looks creepy from grabbing lisa

[img:$uid]http://img204.i.../img:$uid]
[img:$uid]http://img709.i.../img:$uid]
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WOW, Lisa's ring is incredible.

Michael was so happy with her.

[img:$uid]http://img195.i.../img:$uid]
[img:$uid]http://img842.i.../img:$uid]

Don't make me cry, DAG.

Beautiful pictures.

sag10 said:

WOW, Lisa's ring is incredible.

Michael was so happy with her.

I´ve read somewhere that Lisa is still wearing it. They even had pictures to prove it. If I find it, I´ll post it.

And yeah, he was happy. That´s why I love pictures of the two of them.

The snake did many photoshoots with MJ.......

suga10 said:

NMuzakNSoul said:

I think Karen isn't that cool either actually. Obsessed.

She's a bit obsessed, but then, I think she really is telling the truth

I think Karen Faye just makes things up. I do not believe she was as close to MJ as she has convinced some newer fans. Old fans are familiar with Karen's BS.

AnaisKarim said:

suga10 said:

She's a bit obsessed, but then, I think she really is telling the truth

I think Karen Faye just makes things up. I do not believe she was as close to MJ as she has convinced some newer fans. Old fans are familiar with Karen's BS.

dag said:

sag10 said:

WOW, Lisa's ring is incredible.

Michael was so happy with her.

I´ve read somewhere that Lisa is still wearing it. They even had pictures to prove it. If I find it, I´ll post it.

And yeah, he was happy. That´s why I love pictures of the two of them.

Here´s the picture. Actually the last picture of her is not that recent, but it was still taken after divorce (if it´s really the same ring)

dag said:

dag said:

I´ve read somewhere that Lisa is still wearing it. They even had pictures to prove it. If I find it, I´ll post it.

And yeah, he was happy. That´s why I love pictures of the two of them.

Here´s the picture. Actually the last picture of her is not that recent, but it was still taken after divorce (if it´s really the same ring)

I would wear it forever... I am sure after the hurt she found peace of mind.

Can we please get back to the music before I

MyLuv229 said:

Can we please get back to the music before I

Michael Bearden (‘Lopez Tonight’) Remembers The Times With M.J.

'I went from planning a triumph to planning a memorial'

By Ricardo Hazell

September 3, 2010

*To be the man that’s next to the man can be very rewarding or very vexing depending upon ones’ mindset. For Michael Bearden, musical director for “Lopez Tonight” starring comedian George Lopez, being the man next to a great man was a dream come true, but later turned into a horror story. You see, he was the musical mind behind Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” tour

EURweb.com recently had the opportunity to sit down with Bearden to see how he’s handling the first year of M.J.’s untimely passing. It’s not as if Michael ever worked with anything less than the best in the game. We asked Bearden how he came to work with the King of Pop.

“If we can go back a little further, I worked with Michael Jackson back in 2001 for his 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden right before 9-11 happened,” he explained. “So I worked all the artists on the show and Michael and his brothers. That’s where I first worked with him and struck up a friendship.”

At the time of Jackson and Bearden’s first partnership he had been one of the best in the game for sometime. So, working with Jackson would be the pinnacle of anyone’s career, but only a select few can say they had an encore engagement with the ever growing talents of Jackson. But Bearden tells EURweb’s Lee Bailey that he wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of rejoining Jackson.

“I knew him for at least ten years and then I found out I was on a short list of musical directors for ‘This Is It.’ Michael was looking for some leaders to help get his show together for London and all of that. I was on the list and, to be quite honest, I wasn’t interested but when Michael Jackson calls you have to take that call but I wasn’t really gung-ho on taking a musical director job and all that. I was musical director for a lot of artists and I was really looking to do something different with my career, score more films and just really do something different.”

“So, I went in and I didn’t really know what to think,” he continued. “I just went in to go check it out. I had such a great talk with Kenny (Ortega) and he wanted me to come back later and talk to Michael. So, I said okay I’ll come back and talk to Michael, but I asked him to put some keyboards in the room. He looked at me kind of funny. So he said okay we’ll have keyboards in the room. So when I got there we had keyboards in the room and I started working out and Michael came in about 10 minutes later. As soon as he came in he was dancing and everything, he was popping and we were smiling. I hadn’t seen him in awhile. So we stopped and I hugged him. We talked about what he wanted from the tour and I talked about what I expected from the tour. Pretty much MJ and I did a concert for about a half hour.”

That would be a “wow” moment for anyone and Bearden says it was certainly that for him.

“We bonded instantly and I left and there were a couple of guys waiting in the lobby. So I asked him ‘Am I on the short list?’ And he said ‘We’ll let you know by tomorrow.’ I had left out of the parking lot for maybe 20 minutes before they called me back and asked me would I do it and I say yes. And that’s how it happened.”

It’s been said that Michael Jackson was very picky when it came to his music and performances. To be selected must have been a wild ride.

“I think Michael was the one that choose me. Because I, like everybody else, had heard reports of him being in a wheelchair, not healthy and all of that other craziness. I saw him walking in under his own power. Nobody was helping him, he was dancing and singing. He looked good, sounded good, he had all his wits about him, he was really cool. He was just Michael. I could just see the passion in his eyes that he really wanted to do it. I asked him why he wanted to do this again and he just said ‘I’m really ready and I just want to do it.’ He was still young enough to do it and his kids were old enough to appreciate what Daddy did. He just really wanted to show them what he did, and that was his motivation.”

On June 25th 2009 the King of Pop passed away under circumstances that are still a bit cloudy. We asked Bearden where he was when he first heard the horrible news.

“The day before I was pretty much with him all day,” he explained. “A few other people who were working on the tour, Travis Payne was doing choreography with the dancers. I was with Michael all day, he hit the stage pretty late. Almost 9:30 (pm). He looked great, he sounded amazing. Even my band was like ‘Man, I don’t know what’s going with Michael tonight.’ He almost had like a glow to him. Michael and I were parked in the same area of the Staple Center, his security team had it all blocked off so I couldn’t really get out. It was like 12:30 at night and I was really tired. I just told him I was tired and I wanted to go home. There were so many Michaels on the tour that he just called me by my last name. He said he would be in around 2:00 for travel and to work out with the dancers and he would probably see me around 4 or 4:30. So, I said alright MJ you looked good tonight, and he said ‘OK, I love you. God bless you.’ He said that almost every night. He got in his car and left out first and I was right behind. And that was that.”

To go to sleep on top of the world is every man’s dream, but to awake to find that things have turned nightmarish is unfathomable to some. That’s the situation Bearden found himself in.

“The next morning I found out from my mother. She said ‘What’s all this I hear about Michael being in the hospital?’ I said what’re you talking about? I had just left Michael a few hours ago, pretty much. Then I started getting call after call from people asking what had happened. I said ‘I’m still coming in.’ As I was going in that’s when I found out. Everybody was just distraught, as you might imagine. Without getting too much into that day because it’s still kind of surreal and really painful. I went from planning a triumph to planning a memorial. Then I got the gig on the ‘George Lopez’ show. So, I really haven’t had time to really deal with it, even a year later. There are certain songs I won’t listen to and certain things I still won’t watch. I’ve just been dealing with it on my own in that sort of way.”

Though Michael Bearden still mourns the loss of a friend, he knows that the show must go on. Now he’s making things hot for audiences at “Lopez Tonight.” He has also scored for films. “Constellation” is his most recent. But no matter where he goes in life he will always remember his time rubbing shoulders with the best who ever did it. Michael Jackson.

In a future report, Michael Bearden discusses how he came to be musical director for “Lopez Tonight.”

http://www.eurweb.com/?p=47749&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=michael-bearden-lopez-tonight-remembers-the-times-with-m-j

MyLuv229 said:

Can we please get back to the music before I

MyLuv229 said:

Can we please get back to the music before I

babybugz said:

Those DVD'S better be a Bad , Truimph and Victory tour , I care more about that than a new album to be honest.

I want those three tour DVDs sooo bad! pleeeze let them be avaible to purchase..soon! omg i would faint.

seeingvoices12 said:

The snake did many photoshoots with MJ.......

why is he a snake?

Timmy84 said:

AnaisKarim said:

I think Karen Faye just makes things up. I do not believe she was as close to MJ as she has convinced some newer fans. Old fans are familiar with Karen's BS.

think so? I don't know, I never really studied Michaels inner circle that close. She seems ok, but like I said, I've hardly studied her. I do know that when people get too close to others they tend to start trying to control and make decisions for them as if they own them.

THIS IS IT In Retrospect

I did buy this DVD and watched it with love from beginning to end, anger too. A few days earlier I saw the incredible footage from Bucharest, really no comparison as far as quality but understandable. Watching This Is It was objectively like watching Elvis in his last days except that Elvis was at his best as a singer and his worst as a dancer. Michael was still very vital as a singer and his dancing only held glimpses of his past greatness, but even those were precious and better than anyone else now living. I think it came down to his insecurity, his confidence just seems nonexistent, as was the passion. That's to be somewhat expected and I've said before I'm positive he would have done fine BUT I don't think he thought that. Like Elvis before his 68 special he looked very, very tentative. I hear Elvis was always nervous before a show, no big deal there, but his heart didn't always look into it. I remember once speaking to a broken down Navy Seal who would go in and out of clarity, in his moments of clarity you could see the same type of glimpses into what he used to be, a lethal, efficient, instinctively intelligent machine, watching Michael in his better moments, especially during Billy Jean or even in the ambiguous, heartbreaking scene where he floats above the dancers like a puppeteer during Threatened. That scene particularly, (once described as "demonic" by a reviewer) where he looks both fragile/victimlike and completely in command at the same time was the most powerful scene for me. Maybe that was part of Michael's (and Elvis' for that matter) appeal. He always seemed at once completely out of control and completely in control at the same time. I have to repeat that I believe he would have done fine as Elvis once he got cooking, and as a performer myself I am completely aware of how you can go onstage and emotional mess and full of doubts and come off feeling like a god. Michael seemed genuinely touched by the rabid cheers of his crew at the end of Billie Jean, unlike the taken for granted applause of his younger self. It's what the love of people can do when you touch them and they respond, I know Michael still had it in him, pity we didn't get the oppurtunity to witness more magic.

[Edited 9/3/10 18:27pm]

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/09/

exclusive-katherine-jackson-debbie-rowe-court-battle-you-want-too-much

[Edited 9/3/10 18:58pm]

[Edited 9/3/10 18:59pm]

suga10 said:

MyLuv229 said:

Can we please get back to the music before I

LMP hater I guess.

"LMP+Michael Forver" fan I guess

MyLuv229 said:

suga10 said:

LMP hater I guess.

"LMP+Michael Forver" fan I guess

Don't take it the wrong way. I'm not a fan of hers either.