Never Will Say Goodbye...

Sigh.

For those reading in the States, this has been quite the week for the stars ascending on into heaven. For those reading in the rest of the world, the last one we lost has prompted enough shock and sadness for a whole fleet of singers, actors, and entertainers who have passed away.

While I can’t say Michael Jackson was ever an integral part of my life—all the MJ CD’s in the house belong to my husband; my only possession of his music is an old 45 of “Rockin’ Robin”—he was a part of it by default. I was learning to walk when the Jackson 5 first hit the airwaves… in grade school when Off the Wall was released… in high school when “Billie Jean” spent 7 weeks at the top of the U.S. charts… in college when the “Bad” video had its big MTV premiere… and working my first full-time job when Dangerous came out. With his astounding career starting around the time my life was starting, his music became a vital part of my soundtrack. It always will be. Still, it’s breathtakingly sad when such a voice is silenced. Especially when the whole world feels it.

And then there was the dancing. Like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and even Mikhail Baryshnikov, Michael Jackson was the gold standard for his generation and his genre. No surprise, then, why skaters and skating fans have repeatedly embraced his music for their own, unique spin on his moves. I have to wonder how many top skaters might be considering an MJ-inspired exhibition program now as they plan out the upcoming season…more than ever, it’s sure to be a crowd pleaser.

There’s a few different clips I could choose as the Clip of the Day, but I’m going with Katarina’s leather jacket-clad take on “Bad” from the 1988 Winter Olympic Gala. I wonder if MJ ever noticed that the only mere mortals who had a chance of successfully “moonwalking” were those that did it on skates…