Michael Jackson's Vision Review

We're back again this week for a timely review of Michael Jackson's Vision. I picked up the DVD set yesterday from the library. I didn't expect it would arrive that quick, but sooner is better than later in any case. The library also had a sale on old VHS tapes and I purchased the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film for fifty cents (what a steal). Can't wait to watch it. Anyway, Vision does not disappoint in its deliverance of quality.

It features thirty five of Michael's songs in video format, plus seven bonus tracks mixed in from his both his earlier days and later years as a performer. One song I particularly like from this selection of music is "One More Chance" (released 2003, on video 2010). Why the delay between the two release dates? Michael's Neverland Ranch was raided when he was recording the music video (he called them "short films", referencing his creative endeavor in the genre), as part of the second set of child abuse allegations against him.

The song -- creative in its lyrics and sporting a smoothly-paced tempo -- will have you groove to its rhythm as Jackson delivers the song with his trademark vocal hiccups. The central theme of the song surrounds unrequited love and asking for redemption in the face of apparent rejection, hence the lyrics "...all I need is one more chance at love". Out of the rest of the songs this collection offers, I would rank this song in the top five. Much of the collection draws upon the height of Jackson's career. Most of Thriller, some of Bad, and some of Dangerous as well as HIStory's songs are featured in here. If I were to rank my favorite songs in order of how much I favor them, from top to bottom, they would be:

1. One More Chance
2. Give In To Me
3. Scream
4. Liberian Girl
5. Come Together

That said, it's hard to give a definite rating of the quality of one song over another, so the list should not be taken to be too accurate of what I prefer. I can, however, give an accurate description of the defining attractive qualities of each song. I have already described "One More Chance" in brief. Let's go over the other four. Number two on the list, "Give In To Me", is noted for its slower tempo in comparison to the former, with the exception of the guitar piece of the song. It boasts harrowing ballads plonked in the middle of the bridge of the piece, of what could be only be described by myself (to be as accurate as within my knowledge) as bearing similarities to progressive-rock.

"Scream" is more up-beat in its bridge but, almost paradoxically, imparts a message of frustration to the audience. For context, Michael collaborated with his sister Janet in this song to express their anger towards Michael's misrepresentation in the media. "Liberian Girl" bears a message of confessed love with an almost tropical-resembling tune. I recommend that you at least listen to this song, even if it's not ranked on top. And last, but not least, the music video for "Come Together" was notably recorded in front of a live audience, and is Michael's own cover of the Beatles song, with his characteristic grunts accompanying the lyrics, imparting to some degree, a unique spin in this regard, on the classic.

If the songs themselves are of quality, what of the container they're packaged in, you ask? The front of the box is adorned with selected holographic shots from the various music videos contained in the package, which move when you tilt the box downward toward yourself a little (a neat feature in my opinion). It comes with a booklet listing the songs on each disc, the length of each, and snapshots from the sets each video took place in (when recording wasn't in session). The box material is of standard quality but guarantees excellent protection of the three discs enshrined within. Overall, considering the price of the box set ($36.99 CAN), it averages out to a little under a dollar for each video, translating to a good deal for all appreciators of Jackson's music, no matter the degree of said appreciation or length thereof.

That's my update for this week.

David

A Call To Arms

Just the other day, I saw a loony liberal busking in the streets, the sound of his fingers plucking guitar strings accompanied by screeching ballads effusively praising the shameless Marxist Obama for creating a stronger welfare state. I became filled with scorn, but I wasn’t surprised. You see, Liberals have a warped idea of reality very different from you and me.

They think raising taxes is liberation. They think patrolling the free market is a duty required from any upstanding Liberal. They think their implementation of economic ‘fair play’ will strengthen the economy and the American population when the reverse is quite true.

Liberal logic is diluted to the point where the consequences of their positions, if successfully implemented, essentially cause the world to go topsy-turvy on its axis. They are too deluded by their self-deceiving propaganda to realize the fatal consequences of their immoral positions.

For example:

Liberals support food stamps for obese people.

Liberals support hand-outs for people who refuse to work.

Liberals want to release twisted crooks from prison as quickly as possible.

Liberals shamelessly promote the dangerous myth that global warming is real.

Liberals support enacting legislation that would erode our cherished gun rights.

Liberals promote the agendas of homosexuality, trade unionism, abortion, atheism, evolution, environmentalism, immigration, feminism, marijuana legalization, universal healthcare and affirmative action, amongst other deplorable subversive plots inimical to the proper functioning of a just American society.

The consequences:

Obese people will consume even more resources than they need to.

Welfare-grabbers will buy cars while hard working persons get the short end of the stick.

Shameless crooks will lurk the streets, slipping quietly from lamppost to lamppost in the night, veiled in the comfort of the shadows, seeking to prey on our innocent and impressionable youth with their shop-lifted hunting knives which they brandish like you would a wooden stake toward a vampire’s heart.

Everyone with a different opinion is forced to toe-in-line with the party or face jail time.

Harmless seniors will be relentlessly terrorized by gun-toting black men and will be left with no means to defend themselves to resort to in the worst moments of crisis.

The morals of our society will be subverted to serve the ends of a selfish and derelict, bleeding-heart, ivory-tower, pseudo-intellectual and hypocritical elite.

We cannot let the evil leftists corrupt our fair and just society. Unfortunately, however, by this point in time, it may be too late. It has been almost three years (his dreaded anniversary comes around late January) since Obama has first assumed power. The corruption is already visible and well underway, without question.

Just the other day, not too long after I encountered the busker, I saw a man holding hands with another man, and they were speaking to each other in very thick, very noticeable homosexual accents. I saw two mommies cuddling a vulnerable newborn in their arms, cooing cute words to it as if it were a mindless animal. I saw an atheist give a speech (Richard Dawkins, I think his name was) about why religion is the greatest inhibitor of progress to a modern, humanistic global society that cherishes secular values. I saw a Mexican look twice before he crossed the street, as if he had something to hide.

I’m afraid for the straight couples who will see this deviant abomination of a couple when they cross paths. Will the gay get passed on to them, like a virus? I’m afraid for the baby with two mommies. I pray my hardest and hope against hope that she doesn’t progress into a godforsaken lesbian -- for the disease of homosexuality is one that progresses slowly, but in noticeable chunks of sexual deviancy. I’m suspicious of the Mexican -- likely an illegal immigrant -- who looked twice before he crossed to the other side. I sincerely pray that an elderly white couple doesn’t get robbed of their hard earnings by this pitiful foreign leech.

This is the state of our society under Obammunism: Communism brought to America pre-packaged under the guise of ‘social justice’ through Stalin’s Marxist proxy, Obama, which in itself embodies the very principles that should be considered at first sight to even the least intellectual of persons anathema to the very existence of our great nation. The Constitution has been disregarded in even its most elementary stipulations which dictate how a proper functioning society should operate.

There is no longer an informed and moral, upstanding electorate led by a righteous, moral leader. Instead, the leftist politics of today, though not changed too much on its surface from its original inception, is dominated by a naive and immoral, spineless electorate led by a self-righteous and immoral leader who thinks he knows best for all, just like mommy.

Are we Conservatives really that weak as to watch this decadence and degradation unravel before our very eyes and not even utter a single word of admonition toward it in hopes of backtracking the terrible damage that has been cast like a damnable curse upon our once just and fair society? No.

There have been many Conservative authors who have penned best-selling publications that serve doubly well as articles of faith, a call to arms, and as a nerve-rattling, defiant war cry against the decadent corruption of America that is liberalism. Communism is liberalism in its latest grotesque caricature that it has so shamelessly assumed.

Let this article, then, serve as another war cry -- another voice -- added to the increasingly disillusioned mass of armed patriots who will not let the pillars of their great nation’s Constitution be subverted any longer for selfish ends. With each new voice adds one more story to tell to future generations the indefatigable courage and astonishing resilience of American power and ingenuity, but most importantly, simplicity, in its most dear, yet core tenets that were manifest out of a single, patriotic, courageous revolution that established our nation’s glorious independence from the tyrannical British Empire.

My friends, we are again being squeezed under imperialist thumbs. This time, it isn’t the British Empire who, without second thought, taxed their ex-patriots without sufficient representation in their parliament. No, it is a far more sinister form of taxation, of usury, of robbery. This time, we are being squeezed under the imperialist thumb of Obammunism. It stalks you in the edge of your vision, and when you turn to catch a clearer glimpse, it sinks away into the shadows like a raven taking flight into the night. It is there, but you can hardly notice unless you confront it directly -- or it decides to confront you.

So be it. Either way, we will be prepared. Gentlemen, I propose a call to arms against Obammunism. We will grab our guns from under our mattresses, from our lockers, from our fridge drawers. We will lock and load. We will take aim and pull the trigger. We will cruelly aim for the heart and savor the ensuing victory to follow. We must take action now.

With each moment that passes, a child slowly slips farther and farther away into the mires of sexual deviancy until she is practically indistinguishable from the traits of lesbianism in practice and in character. With each moment that passes, an elderly couple is robbed in their home by a gun-toting foreigner, never certain of what lies immediately ahead in their ordeal, scared out of their wits, no confidence in their own strength, no defense to resort to -- no gun, no faith.

Gentlemen, our faith is our shield and our weapon. Nothing can hurt us as long as we have faith. Faith is the strongest defense one can ever possess. This is why the leftists are fundamentally weak -- they have no faith. God is on our side. The leftists are afraid of guns because they’re afraid they will accidentally kill someone. But Lord knows, nothing happens by accident, and this revolution certainly isn’t one. God, give us the strength to draw our weapons and hoist them proudly into the air, and air the sound of victory with that first shot. We cannot lose this war for as long as have our faith, our guns, but most importantly, our will power.

No mercy. Kill any leftist: closeted, suspected or confessed. The more leftists we kill, the closer we get to finally killing the Leftist ideology itself and thus be in a more favorable position to assert the dominance of the correct Christian Conservative ideology. For what is an ideology, but a person who holds a position for how affairs should be conducted?

We will win, my friends.


God Bless America. Amen.

A Couple of DVDs I Wanna Get

A copy of Michael Jackson's Vision 

I just saw this collection of Jackson's music videos from my library yesterday. Not physically mind you, I was checking it out on-line. I didn't even know they had so many copies in stock! I have a Michael Jackson Number Ones DVD that my sister bought for me for my birthday, which has about fifteen of Michael's videos on it. It's awesome and I keep it near the top of the TV so I can always watch it, naturally. I requested Michael Jackson's Vision yesterday, and I hope to receive it soon. When I first requested it, I was sixth in line. Today, that number had dropped down to fifth place. We're getting closer!

One of the best things about requesting DVDs from the library is that in some cases, you can hold them up to a maximum of three weeks, like books. Other times, you can only hold them for up to one week before you have to return them. I think that'll give me enough time to watch the DVD from start to finish, even for the songs I already have ^_^ And yes, in case you were wondering, I'm a pretty big Michael Jackson fan; about twenty of his songs take up space on my MP3 player (iPods are pretty but expensive), the largest space an artist has taken up on my player.

Oddly enough, I became a fan after he died. I didn't care much for who he was before that, in part because I thought he was a pedophile. Well, I listened to "Beat It", the first Michael Jackson song I listened to, by the way (besides Alien Ant Farm's rendition of "Smooth Criminal") and needless to say, I fell in love with his music. My curiosity about the personal details of Michael's life was piqued enough that I eventually concluded for myself, after some research, that he was much too well-meaning of a person to ever harm a child, so I've parted from that silly belief now.

One book I strongly recommend for you to read, if you're a fan of Michael's, is La Toya Jackson's Starting Over. I think it's a wonderful piece of work with a strong narrative and powerful physical description that relates La Toya's ordeal over the years at the hands of her abusive husband, Gordon, and her strained relationship with her family as well as her brother, Michael, as a consequence. It also chronicles the feelings La Toya went through when Michael died, and presents a plausible alternative theory for why Michael Jackson died (beyond the oft-cited mis-administered propofol as the main cause for his death). Trust me, I think you'll enjoy what she has to say as much as I have.

Another DVD I want to get is the complete series of Married with Children box-set. Like with my Michael Jackson collection, I already own a copy of Married with Children that my mom bought for me about six years ago. It's a special edition that includes only "the most outrageous episodes", as the marketers have decided to term it. There's five episodes from the series on there, and I love them all. The ones I love the most, though, are "You Better Shop Around" (Parts 1 and 2) and "I'll See You in Court", which is a lost episode from this series. It didn't first broadcast till five years after the series ended due to problems with its vulgarity (except by the time it went on air, it was considerably below the standards of what was considered racy).

The prices for the DVDs are $36.99 and $44.99, respectively. I don't intend to buy the first one though; viewing it via library request is good enough for me. Maybe I'll burn it if I find enough time ... shh! I'll buy the second one when I save up enough Amazon gift cards on SwagBucks to do so. That place, by the way, is actually a pretty crappy way to earn money. The site makes you run around to earn points called "swagbucks", and the pay rate is really poor: about three swagbucks per video you watch. Depending on the length of the videos you watch, it can take up several days worth of time to earn one five dollar gift card. It's ridiculous. You earn far less than even an entry level cashier working on minimum wage.

That's not the only way you can earn swagbucks, though. You can search for stuff like you would on Google, although I wouldn't recommend this either, even though it's the site's primary way to hand out reward points to desperate people. I say this specifically because from my experience, it can take up to several minutes to earn just seven swagbucks. When you compare the time you spend searching for swagbucks compared to watching videos, it's actually more efficient if you search, but not by much. Plus, they only reward you once or twice a day. Still, combining that with polls might shave a few minutes off your total. Awesome, right?

The rewards they offer, for the most part, aren't even good. They either take absolutely insane amounts of time to earn, or offer you an obscure selection of musical artists and sub-par plush toys for a decent amount of points. The latest iPod touch, for example, costs about 36,000 points to purchase, which translates to about a few thousand hours of searching, minimum. Don't feel like wasting all that precious time? No problem, just redeem a plush doll, which will take a few days to earn, even then. Still think SwagBucks is worth your time? On top of that, you have to wait several weeks for your purchase after you order it, with the exception of gift cards.

As well, a large part of SwagBucks' selection from their store is only available to U.S. residents for ordering, so don't sign up for it unless you want to buy the iPod touch (even then, you're insane). I know first-hand how painful this experience is. I had to wait two months for a movie on VHS tape I purchased (Groundhog Day, 1994) for 360 swagbucks, which took about a month or two of frantic searching to earn. When I watched the movie, I was disappointed. There has to be some point where having the main character repeat the past for the umpteenth-time is just too much for the pleading audience to bear.

The only positive experience I recall with ordering from there is that they never charged for shipping fees when they delivered my parcel to me; they paid the fees instead. That's good, because if I were to order from that place, and find out upon delivery that I had to pay shipping fees for this third-rate movie, I would kindly return the bastard to sender.

Besides the gift cards (which you earn about one per month, investing a few minutes of your time per day), there's not much else that's actually worth getting from there. What else will get you five dollars off your next purchase besides a free coupon from some grocery store? You'll notice I didn't link to the website this time. That's because it's not even useful to link to it. If you find yourself disappointed after you wasted your time on there, that's your own damn fault, because I'm not taking responsibility for something I didn't even recommend you.

I know some of you reading this are probably thinking, "Hey, you get stuff for free, why are you complaining?" and true, I do get stuff for free. Likewise, I could be the lucky recipient of half a rotten potato (for free!). Does that mean I should be grateful? Hell no. I mean, the effort is definitely not worth what you get, so why be grateful, knowing they set up the process that way to intentionally profit from your efforts? I'm not dumb. I can send get a part-time job and spend my energy being grateful for the paycheck I bring in every week. But from swagbucks? Ha! No thank you.

But I prattle on. That about sums it up: I'm getting two DVDs, and from my previous experience with similar ones, I think I will find myself highly satisfied with them. Don't use SwagFucks unless you don't want bang for your buck. No, it's quite the opposite: you get all buck for your bang. SwagBucks is a third rate excuse of a shopping site. If you find yourself there after this, not my fault, I gotta tell you.

That's my small update/rant for the day. Take care, my readers.

David

Spicing Up The Old Blog

As you may have noticed, Thoughts and Musings has recently been the lucky recipient for something of a visual make-over! With a few clicks (okay, thrashes) of several shiny buttons, and after a long (read: five minute) process of deciding what template was best to drape over the worn out one, I've decided to go along with the lime-green color-scheme. Tasteful, yet simple, no? Not only that, I've also brought about the following tweaks:

• My display name has been changed from Hail Me to David (my real name)
• I've removed the page-counter as it hasn't clocked many page-views
• I've updated my profile information to reflect my current real-life status
• Changed the font from Arial to Verdana 
• I've slimmed down the blog's width for better aesthetics
• I reformatted the blog archive from a hierarchy to a flat list, and renamed it too.

Visual make-overs aren't the only events over the horizon, either. I've decided to re-invest myself into this blog. As my updated profile information suggests, you'll be seeing more of me from now on. What's the point of a personal blog if I don't maintain it actively enough, right? Based on my current academic schedule, I think I'll be able to fill in two or three postings a week, minimum. Hey, did I hear a cheer just now? Why thank you, anonymous admirer. 

Besides the changes to the blog and my activity, I also want to take the opportunity to bring attention to my (somewhat) newly-created account, DavidZeeSee, on Booksie. For those of you who don't know, or aren't too active in on-line contributory literature, Booksie is, well, what I referenced  it as: a site where you can contribute your own original writings -- poetry, editorials, wide-ranging fiction -- the list goes on.

I have several original writings collected from around my journeys on the web archived there -- one piece of fiction dates from 2004 -- and I hope you'll appreciate my work there as much as I do. Feel free to give feedback. Even if you just like what you see, I'd appreciate that as well. Of course, I'm not psychic, so I'll just quietly assume some of you will enjoy my work anyway. ^_^ 

Speaking of writing, I have an itch that I'll ramble about something sometime this week. So stay tuned for that, and take care, my readers. 

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