Michael Jackson and Pinocchio

Thanks to AlonsoHelena for a great video… love it!

After watching this I am thoroughly convinced that MJ couldn’t walk right past me and I wouldn’t know.

But this post is about something else.

I did a search for “the greatest demonstration of freedom” and curiously enough the following link came up:

Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

Which then reminded me of this video… this was a Pinocchio display made for Michael Jackson

Which then got me on the story behind Pinocchio

The film opens with Jiminy Cricket sitting in a library singing “When You Wish Upon A Star”. Addressing the camera, he starts to tell the audience why he believes in such a thing. Opening up a storybook of “Pinocchio”, he explains how he came to the house of woodcarver Geppetto and his pets Figaro the cat and Cleo the fish. Geppetto has just made a little wooden puppet called Pinocchio, whom he loves dearly (“Little Wooden Puppet”). Before he goes to bed, Geppetto wishes upon the evening star that Pinocchio would become a real, live boy. As Geppetto sleeps, the Blue Fairy arrives and grants the wish partially; Pinocchio has come to life, but he is still a puppet and must prove himself worthy before becoming a real boy. However, being naive, he requires some guidance, and the Blue Fairy appoints Jiminy Cricket to be his “conscience”. The cricket tells Pinocchio that anytime he needs Jiminy, all he needs to do is whistle (“Give a Little Whistle”).

The next morning, Geppetto sends his son off to school. But Jiminy Cricket is still asleep! Pinocchio, alone and full of good intentions, heads off to school, but is sidetracked by the wily fox John Worthington Foulfellow and his simpleton accomplice Gideon the cat. Recognizing his uniqueness, the smooth-talking crooks decide to sell Pinocchio to marionette master Stromboli, whose travelling show is in town. Convincing Pinocchio that this is his chance to become an actor, Honest John and Gideon take the puppet to Stromboli (“Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee”). Jiminy Cricket jumps in and tries to stop Pinocchio from being taken away, but he is too late; Pinocchio becomes a success as part of Stromboli’s show, dancing alongside normal puppets in a European-themed musical extravaganza (“I’ve Got No Strings”). Jiminy Cricket, feeling that he failed at his job, walks off into the night.

Pinocchio tries to return home to Geppetto. Stromboli, not wanting to lose such a cash cow, locks the puppet in a bird cage. Alone in Stromboli’s dark and damp caravan, Pinocchio whistles for Jiminy Cricket. He finds Pinocchio, but is not strong enough to unlock the bird cage. Suddenly, the Blue Fairy appears. Not wanting to admit he was naughty, Pinocchio tells a series of lies, but with every lie his nose grows longer. The Blue Fairy forgives him and lets him out of the cage, but warns him that he’ll never become human if he keeps misbehaving. (She also restores his nose to its original size.)

Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket escape from Stromboli and head for home. Yet it isn’t long before the duo become separated, and once more Pinocchio bumps into Honest John and Gideon, who have been hired by a dubious coachman to round up boys to take to the anarchic Pleasure Island amusement park. Jiminy, realising that once again he has been too late, follows Pinocchio to Pleasure Island, where boys can be naughty as much as they like and treat themselves to beer and cigars. But there’s a catch to all this; since they are acting like jackasses, the magic of the island gradually turns them into donkeys, which the coachman sells into a lifetime of humiliation and slavery in circuses and mines. Pinocchio starts to change into a donkey, growing long ears and a tail, but before the transformation is complete he manages to flee the horrible amusement park, and returns home. To his dismay, his father isn’t there.

A dove arrives with a note from the Blue Fairy explaining that Geppetto has gone to sea to search for his lost son and has been swallowed by the whale Monstro. Determined to save his father, Pinocchio and his reluctant conscience journey to the bottom of the sea. They find Geppetto in the belly of the whale, and escape by setting a fire in the belly of the sea monster, who sneezes them right out. In revenge, Monstro destroys Geppetto’s raft. Without regard for his own safety, Pinocchio saves Geppetto from drowning but at the cost of his own life. Geppetto’s wish is finally granted. Pinocchio’s sacrifice has proved to the Blue Fairy that he is worthy, and he is brought back to life not as a puppet but as a real live boy.

While Geppetto, Pinocchio, Figaro and Cleo celebrate, Jiminy Cricket steps outside to look at the wishing star. The cricket has now also proved himself to be a good conscience, and receives a gold badge.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032910/synopsis

A couple of things… I just see MJ as Pinocchio… he grew up like a puppet.  His life was really not his own to live but dictated by others.. similar to a puppet.  I also believe that he became the puppet of the music moguls and they knew a money maker when they saw one.  But MJ saw the strings and figured out a way to cut those strings.

Another thing that jumps out is they talk about on Pleasure Island the boys get beer and cigs and can do what they want.  Michael’s Neverland was compared to Pleasure Island – http://www.smh.com.au/news/People/Children-drunk-at-Pinocchios-pleasure-island/2005/03/18/1111085976387.html – as the lovely media once again attempted to smear Michael’s name.

Ok so I may be grasping at straws however something tells me there is more to this Pinocchio connection than I am fully understanding right now.

Guilty until Proven Innocent

So as some of you know, I just returned from being away from all TV, media, internet for 8 days.  When I left I was focused on making a difference and doing something huge in MJ’s name… a gift from the fans to him.  When I came back, there was a definite division and Conrad Murray was going to be arrested… finally. (not my words)

It brought me back to when MJ was accused of molestation and the chaos that arose with that… the whole lynch mob mentality.

So I started doing some research…. into the challenge.  Why is it that when people are accused of a crime they are presumed to have done it?  What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?  It’s more like guilty until proven innocent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_media

Trial by media is the main culprit.  We are a people that develop our opinions and views based on what the media feeds us.  In the above article, with regards to court cases and the public opinion, it is “less about guilt or innocence but about the promotion of the media coverage in the public mind above the status of the court.”  What a power the media has and how trusting and blind we are!

With this kind of  power, the media can literally control the masses… control what they think, what they believe, and all the time we think we are forming our own opinions!  Hahaha… manipulation at it’s finest!

Another quote from the article, “One of the first celebrities in the 20th century to be arguably tried by media was Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle who was acquitted by the courts but nevertheless lost his career and reputation due to the media coverage.”

Yup, just like Mike.  Proven innocent yet reputation tarnished.  So many people still believe that Mike is guilty!  Just like so many believe that Murray is guilty!

Give the article a read… not too long… and really made me think about how I am forming my opinions.  Is it based on biased media coverage or on the facts?

Oh and the black hole of things that this leads to is endless…

Some of the articles I will be reading and will leave it up to you to read and comment on as well are:

The Media Circus

Yellow Journalism

Culture of Fear

Mean World Syndrome

Social Control

Conspiracy Theory

Media Blackout

Start reading… start breaking away from media… start living in the real world… not the manufactured virtual worlds of TV and internet… start talking with people again… rediscover the art of relationships.

Our world is what we see on TV, in newspapers, on the internet… it’s not real.

Get back to reality!

ARGs solving real-world problems?

This is what I think we are in… there is a real-world problem.  We all know MJ’s passion for the planet and the people on the planet.  What better way to wake us all up and get us caring about each other and our affect on Earth.

Here’s another article I found on ARGs, how they operate, and the good we could possibly do with them.

http://pitchfork.com/features/get-that-out-of-your-mouth/6586-get-that-out-of-your-mouth-34/

Surviving a World Without Oil

---

by Chris Dahlen, posted April 13, 2007

---

Here’s the scenario: the world hits “peak oil,” and the supply starts to dwindle. All around the planet, gas prices go up and economies choke. From rich to poor, from the city to the country, everyone is affected by the scarcity of a resource that’s as crucial as air. So who would you turn to? The scientists? Big Oil? Al Gore, or heck, Dick Cheney? Or for a problem of this scale, that gives everyone a slightly different pain, would you turn to the public at large– and get everyone to come together in spontaneous teams and find a solution?

Let’s say you try the crowds. Since the 90s, we’ve seen more and more cases where a group of once-strangers meet online and collectively, bit by bit, solve insurmountable problems. French philosopher Pierre Lévy called it “collective intelligence,” and in 1994 he wrote about the profound social and cultural change it would bring. But to the team behind World Without Oil, collective intelligence can also be a game.

Writer Ken Eklund came up with the idea for World Without Oil in 2005. The Independent Television Service in San Francisco was looking to fund an Internet game, and Eklund’s idea was to use the ‘net to bring people together around one problem: imagining what it would be like to experience, and overcome, an oil shock. Eklund and his team have designed a “very realistic” scenario for how it could happen, and when the game launches on April 30, it’ll be a kind of collaborative storytelling exercise. The team will plant leads and challenges for the players, but the players will make up their own nightmares.

“I think people have this wall in their imaginations where they go, ‘Oil shock. Bad.’ If you can just get them to look over the wall, to take that one more step where they begin to just imagine [what it means], then they begin to get engaged with the problem,” says Eklund. “We have this page which is just filled with absolutely blank terror. Let’s just tame this, by putting some form to it. What’s it actually going to be like? We can figure this out, collectively.”

World Without Oil is an example of an alternate reality game, which means, to quote Wikipedia, “an interactive narrative that uses the real world as its platform.” ARGs come in all shapes and sizes. They’re played through fake web sites, real street corners, text messages from fictional characters, or phone calls where real-life players interrogate voice actors. Almost all ARGs tell a story– often a broad, fantastic one– but they take the story and splinter it, disguise it, hide it behind puzzles, and bury it for the players to dig up. They’re not unlike an old-fashioned college scavenger hunt, except half the challenge is realizing that it’s even going on– and the other half is finding the team that’ll help you get to the end.

Jessica Price discovered ARGs when a friend called her up and told her to go to a pay phone near her house at 5:35 that afternoon, and when it rang, to answer it. Price recalls that she asked, “What is this?” Her friend just said, “We’re not sure, but just do it!” The phone call turned out to be part of the gigantic I Love Bees game, which ran in 2004 as a viral marketing campaign for the game Halo 2. But Price didn’t know that at the time, and by using a real pay phone to stumble into an imaginary story, she had accidentally become a player. She calls the experience “falling down the rabbit hole.”

Today, Price writes puzzles and moderates communities for ARGs; she’s also an associate editor and writer at Alternate Reality Game Network, and a moderator at Unfiction, whose forums are a central resource for ARGs and ARG rumors. When I asked her to help me define what makes an ARG, she explained that the genre is still too new to pin down. But most ARGs have a few things in common: they take place in real time, with the “puppetmasters” who run the show interacting with the community and adjusting the game on the fly. The puppetmasters stay hidden and only deal with the community in character; in return, the players choose to believe in the events and cast they’re given. If you’re playing online poker and the character you’re talking with says he’s a cowboy who’s been dead over a century, you should take him at his word.

Most ARGs tell a story, but to get it, the players usually solve puzzles– and many of those puzzles force huge teams to work in tandem. Take the pay phone puzzle in I Love Bees. The players had found a table of GPS coordinates with times and dates, all in the near future. When people started visiting the locations, they noticed that each one had a public pay phone. So an effort got underway to find someone who could get to each phone at the specified times– and that meant every phone, however remote or isolated. Because they had roughly 600,000 players working around the country, they pulled it off.

Naturally, you’d think some ARGs would trick people or play hoaxes. But Price says hoaxes generally don’t work. For one thing, the thousands of players who tackle the game will sniff out and uncover any prank. But more importantly, knowing it’s a game is the only safe way to play it. Says Price, “If the phone rings, is it going to be the game calling me? If I don’t respond to this character, are they going to try to find me? … You don’t want somebody calling you at midnight saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been kidnapped! I need help!’”

Still, most ARGs don’t announce themselves publicly: they let the players find them and argue over whether they’re real, and where they might lead. That makes World Without Oil unusual, since the game was announced almost two months before its launch. The news came out at last month’s Game Developers Conference, when pioneering game designer and ARG all-star Jane McGonigal announced it at her keynote. McGonigal was the lead community designer on I Love Bees, and she’s the participation architect for World Without Oil. Since GDC she’s been trekking from conference to conference over the past few weeks, talking up the game and bringing starpower to a team where most of the members haven’t been publicly identified.

The website– which right now, is just a teaser– introduces the scenario. We hear about eight characters who were stuck in a blizzard in Denver Airport. While they were there, they got a tip that something bad was going to happen on April 30^th– and that’ll mark the kick-off of the game. But some of the early players are already instant messaging with them, and while I was working on this story, one of the characters even contacted me: I got an e-mail from someone named Sharon, or “gracesmominnh@gmail.com,” who lives near me in Laconia, NH. Maybe when the crisis hits and gas goes to $6 a gallon, we can carpool?

If the players decide to run out and buy guns, “we take them at face value,” says Eklund. “If that’s going to be the response, then that’s going to be the situation that we’re in.” But although he couldn’t give me the details, he implied that he and the team would try to steer them toward a more social response. As one player said to Eklund, “‘How come the government never talks about building communities? They just talk about stockpiling some water in your basement.’ I thought that was an extremely good question, and one that should get some airtime.”

When I asked what he expected people to take away from the game, he said, “In a sense we don’t want them to walk away at all. I’m hoping there are communities built which last beyond the game.” And in an ARG community, anyone has a chance to play a crucial part– not just to lead a team, but to catch a period that’s out of place, or bring up a crucial fact about ethanol. “Jane [McGonigal] talks about the two American cultures, the Superidol and the Superhero. With the Superidol, it’s all about me. Whereas the Superhero, it’s all about service. What hidden superpower do I have that I can contribute? To me I just think that the person who looked at that period and said, ‘Look at this’– that was their superpower coming out.”

World Without Oil has to overcome several challenges. Collaborative storytelling takes more imagination than collaborative puzzle-solving. Games are simpler than real life, and they always lead to an answer; the real world is tricky, frustrating, and sometimes you lose. And although World Without Oil isn’t the first ARG to tackle real-life issues, Price explains that the community mostly shies away from talking politics. “We don’t really have that, and I think it’s because the community is valued so highly here that people don’t want to get into these potentially divisive discussions. And when they are discussed, it’s with a great deal of restraint.”

But when so many players get involved with ARGs just to talk to aliens or dead cowboys, it’s impossible not to wonder what they could bring to a real-world problem. A dramatic set-up could get them started, but the challenge itself could be enough to pull them along– and to find real-life solutions along the way. Or as Eklund puts it, “I hope that this is an alternate reality game which alters reality.”

Thisisalsoit.com – Update #3

http://michaeljacksonhoaxforum.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=5024&p=78302#p78302

I really don’t need to comment on this at all… just read.

Again though, this is more for those who need convincing that a) Michael Jackson is alive and b) we are in the middle of a hoax.

For those of us that have come to this conclusion already, we need to move beyond is he alive and is this a hoax and on to why is he doing this? what is the desired outcome? what are the lessons to be learned? and finally how can we help?

I’m back!

Hello everyone!  Well my apologies for dropping off the face of the earth!   I was on a cruise and without internet for 8 days!  Yes!  I survived!  So as you can imagine, I have some catching up to do and will do my best to get back on top of things.

For those of you who have contacted me re: Drill the World… thank you for running with it and believing in this vision.  I really don’t know how this is going to come together but I truly believe that God puts a vision in the minds of many and with that vision is the way to make it possible.

L.O.V.E. you all very much and will be posting new things in the next little bit.

Drill the World

Ok guys, I just had an idea.

Spurred on by this comment in a previous post of mine:

What I can envision?  Pods of people/fans from all over the planet… in every country… learning the drill, wearing the shirt and orange pants.  (Except MJ will wear his gold pants – woo hoo!) and on one day at a particular hour we perform the largest ever simultaneous dance routine… all for L.O.V.E… putting MJ once again into the Guinness Book of World Records.

And by the tweets and comments I have been reading and the Thrill the World idea, let’s all comment on this post where we live and the continent we are on.  Let’s get a ton of people willing to host a “drill the world” pod in their area.  We need someone from each of the seven continents at least and then divide the continents up.  Ideally we should get as many countries as possible!!!

The Continents:

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Europe

North America

South America

Oceania

Here’s the list of countries: (starred countries have representation)

1	Afghanistan
2	Akrotiri
3	Albania
4	Algeria
5	American Samoa
6	Andorra
7	Angola
8	Anguilla
9	Antarctica
10	Antigua and Barbuda
11	Argentina
12	Armenia
13	Aruba
14	Ashmore and Cartier Islands
15	Australia
16	Austria
17	Azerbaijan
18	Bahamas, The
19	Bahrain
20	Bangladesh
21	Barbados
22	Bassas da India
23	Belarus
24	Belgium
25	Belize
26	Benin
27	Bermuda
28	Bhutan
29	Bolivia
30	Bosnia and Herzegovina
31	Botswana
32	Bouvet Island
33	Brazil
34	British Indian Ocean Territory
35	British Virgin Islands
36	Brunei
37	Bulgaria
38	Burkina Faso
39	Burma
40	Burundi
41	Cambodia
42	Cameroon
*43	Canada
44	Cape Verde
45	Cayman Islands
46	Central African Republic
47	Chad
48	Chile
49	China
50	Christmas Island
51	Clipperton Island
52	Cocos (Keeling) Islands
53	Colombia
54	Comoros
55	Congo, Democratic Republic of the
56	Congo, Republic of the
57	Cook Islands
58	Coral Sea Islands
59	Costa Rica
60	Cote d’Ivoire
61	Croatia
62	Cuba
63	Cyprus
64	Czech Republic
65	Denmark
66	Dhekelia
67	Djibouti
68	Dominica
69	Dominican Republic
70	Ecuador
71	Egypt
72	El Salvador
73	Equatorial Guinea
74	Eritrea
75	Estonia
76	Ethiopia
77	Europa Island
78	Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
79	Faroe Islands
80	Fiji
81	Finland
82	France
83	French Guiana
84	French Polynesia
85	French Southern and Antarctic Lands
86	Gabon
87	Gambia, The
88	Gaza Strip
89	Georgia
90	Germany
91	Ghana
92	Gibraltar
93	Glorioso Islands
94	Greece
95	Greenland
96	Grenada
97	Guadeloupe
98	Guam
99	Guatemala
100	Guernsey
101	Guinea
102	Guinea-Bissau
103	Guyana
104	Haiti
105	Heard Island and McDonald Islands
106	Holy See (Vatican City)
107	Honduras
108	Hong Kong
109	Hungary
110	Iceland
111	India
112	Indonesia
113	Iran
114	Iraq
115	Ireland
116	Isle of Man
117	Israel
118	Italy
119	Jamaica
120	Jan Mayen
121	Japan
122	Jersey
123	Jordan
124	Juan de Nova Island
125	Kazakhstan
126	Kenya
127	Kiribati
128	Korea, North
129	Korea, South
130	Kuwait
131	Kyrgyzstan
132	Laos
133	Latvia
134	Lebanon
135	Lesotho
136	Liberia
137	Libya
138	Liechtenstein
139	Lithuania
140	Luxembourg
141	Macau
142	Macedonia
143	Madagascar
144	Malawi
145	Malaysia
146	Maldives
147	Mali
148	Malta
149	Marshall Islands
150	Martinique
151	Mauritania
152	Mauritius
153	Mayotte
154	Mexico
155	Micronesia, Federated States of
156	Moldova
157	Monaco
158	Mongolia
159	Montserrat
160	Morocco
161	Mozambique
162	Namibia
163	Nauru
164	Navassa Island
165	Nepal
*166	Netherlands
167	Netherlands Antilles
168	New Caledonia
169	New Zealand
170	Nicaragua
171	Niger
172	Nigeria
173	Niue
174	Norfolk Island
175	Northern Mariana Islands
176	Norway
177	Oman
178	Pakistan
179	Palau
180	Panama
181	Papua New Guinea
182	Paracel Islands
183	Paraguay
184	Peru
185	Philippines
186	Pitcairn Islands
187	Poland
*188	Portugal
189	Puerto Rico
190	Qatar
191	Reunion
*192	Romania
193	Russia
194	Rwanda
195	Saint Helena
196	Saint Kitts and Nevis
197	Saint Lucia
198	Saint Pierre and Miquelon
199	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
200	Samoa
201	San Marino
202	Sao Tome and Principe
203	Saudi Arabia
204	Senegal
205	Serbia and Montenegro
206	Seychelles
207	Sierra Leone
208	Singapore
209	Slovakia
210	Slovenia
211	Solomon Islands
212	Somalia
213	South Africa
214	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
215	Spain
216	Spratly Islands
217	Sri Lanka
218	Sudan
219	Suriname
220	Svalbard
221	Swaziland
222	Sweden
223	Switzerland
224	Syria
225	Taiwan
226	Tajikistan
227	Tanzania
228	Thailand
229	Timor-Leste
230	Togo
231	Tokelau
232	Tonga
233	Trinidad and Tobago
234	Tromelin Island
235	Tunisia
236	Turkey
237	Turkmenistan
238	Turks and Caicos Islands
239	Tuvalu
240	Uganda
241	Ukraine
242	United Arab Emirates
243	United Kingdom
*244	United States
245	Uruguay
246	Uzbekistan
247	Vanuatu
248	Venezuela
249	Vietnam
250	Virgin Islands
251	Wake Island
252	Wallis and Futuna
253	West Bank
254	Western Sahara
255	Yemen
256	Zambia
257	Zimbabwe

Source: www.listofcountriesoftheworld.com

I’m going to contact K.O. and get his help.  What are your thoughts?

I’ll start – Vancouver, BC Canada (North America)

JennyAppleHead/Crocstimpy Videos

The Event: A chance to perform “Drill” with the actual dancers from Michael Jackson’s This Is It and meet Michael Jackson’s choreographers!

The videographer:  The wonderful, beautiful, Michael-scented Ms. JennyAppleHead (aka Crocstimpy on YouTube)!! *round of applause*

Ok so Jenny took some video… raw… unedited video to share her experiences with us!  Thank you Jenny!

Let’s see if we find anything…. hmmm….. interesting…

Travis:

Thank you for coming out and supporting Michael Jackson – how do you support a dead person?

Two dancers are Canadian!  Woot Woot!  Canadian representation!  I’m jus sayin’

They ARE very important people in Michael Jackson’s life.  Not WERE… ARE!

Kenny:

There to support the memory of <Michael> – hmmm… well that could go either way… I could say uh oh memory… he’s dead or memory… of someone who has left or gone away.

Kenny:

He speaks all in past tense… hmmm… not good.  But then again if this is an ARG (and I believe it is) then anything can be said and it’s just part of a role to play.

Travis:

He starts talking about the dancing inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center and mentions Shawshank Redemption….

doo doo doo doo… let’s go back… way back… to Stranger in Moscow…

Nice message there too:  Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free!  Interesting connection.

Another interesting connection is found within the history of the exercise program that Mr. Byron Garcia implemented.  The first song that Mr. Garcia had his inmates exercise to was… dun dun dun… a Pink Floyd song.  Pink Floyd… Pink Floyd… where have we heard that before? http://wp.me/pGwtF-bW

Moving on…

He said Michael “passed” not died… but a lot of people use this so… I don’t really count this.

They shot it on MLK birthday?  Cool.

Ok Michael and K.O. mention that MJ was the best boss because he wanted things to be bigger, better, never done before.  Well safe to say an ARG of this magnitude has never been done before!

As for “The Drill” there are 1500 inmates that know the drill, there are people in LA and NY that know the Drill.  We have got to get more people from all over the world doing the drill so it will be absolutely massive the amount of people doing it at the same time.

They ask what did they want to leave the fans with… Kenny says, the WHY.  Why MJ would go out and do this in this time in his life.  So we’ve discussed this before but it’s worth mentioning again.  Let’s not get caught up in the hoax itself.  We need to remember the purpose, the mission, the why.

MJ wanted to tour the world!!!!!!  Is this what we have to look forward to?  He wanted to do all the continents.  We need to have “drillers” on every continent!!!

He was going to give up live performance and seriously get into film making particularly a full length 3D Thriller and Smooth Criminal.  HAHAHAHAHA Ok I believe this is EXACTLY what he’s doing RIGHT NOW! He is directing and we are the actors, dancers, backup dancers, singers…

The takeaway:

Travis:  Michael Jackson was the truth. What you saw is what you got.  Would tell you what he thought. Loving.  Not a pushover.  Fearless.  Surrounded self with people who would challenge his ideas.

Kenny:   If you can’t do it with LOVE take it out of the room.

And I think that is a great thought to leave you all with.

IF YOU CAN’T DO IT WITH L.O.V.E., TAKE IT OUT OF THE ROOM!

Thisisalsoit Twitter – This is Not a Game

Well thisisalsoit on Twitter posted this pic today

And at first I thought…uh oh… somebody thinks that my previous post was saying that I think this is all a game.

So just in case, I just wanted to be clear on what I am saying here.  I am not saying that I think that this is all for a marketing ploy only.  I believe that MJ was in danger, or being exploited, I truly believe that.  I think that MJ needed a way to break the spiral of insanity going on regarding his life, the public’s opinion of him, and the way the media was absolutely gang raping him.  That’s right!  That’s how I see it!  Gang rape!

Being the absolute creative genius that he is, he knew that he couldn’t just come out and say “ok people this is the way the music industry really is and this is the way the media as a whole works or and by the way this is the way our government works oh and it doesn’t stop there this is the way the world works and they’ve violated me in a way I can’t even begin to explain for years and you all are fast asleep not even realizing that you are victims of mass manipulation… WAKE UP!”  Oh yeah, that would have gone over fabulously! I can see it now…  “Wacko Jacko strikes again!” “The King of Pop-per is off his rocker”

No he had to have us experience the lesson in order to truly educate us.

Enter the world of Alternate Reality Games.  He, and I’m sure a team of many others, devised a way a bring us into their world.  To lead us, yes manipulate us into seeing what they want us to see.  Only difference is that the government uses these tactics for harm and control… and MJ… it’s all for L.O.V.E.

The ARG is the tool, the means by which to expose to us our reality.  To help us see the Matrix.

And why not cash in on the whole deal at the same time… get out of debt… provide great music and movies for the fans.  Enter This is It.  But then again, if the publics opinion is still negative there is no guarantee that they will buy.  MJ MUST DIE!  This will allow us to talk about all the great things he did.  The public will feel a sense of loss and will want to know the man they never knew.  They will seek to get their hands on what is now an appreciating commodity.  Every bit of memorabilia, music, video footage, clippings, you name it, will increase in value because the supply has been halted.  The creator is no longer! Yes!  Everyone knows once an artist dies their art value goes up.

And why not bring in the whole family into this matter?  Let’s get the brothers back on the map.  Let’s reignite the family legacy!

Then we can implement the campaign to clear his name.  Family members and friends can behind the scenes work on every crazy story ever told, every bit of slander, every accusation, and show it for what it really was…LIES AND MEDIA MANIPULATION!!!! (Flip! This boils my blood!) They will talk about all the humanitarian efforts we saw MJ take part in and the many many more that he did quietly behind the scenes without fanfare or want of recognition.  Just doing it because that’s what his heart told him to do and that’s what his God commanded him to do.  Love God and love one another.

So by no means do I think this is just a game.

Then I decided to look up the book and this is what it is about -

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Williams (The Rift) weaves intriguing questions about games, gamers and their relationships with real life into this well-paced near-future thriller. Game designer Dagmar specializes in creating alternate reality games that muddle the line between fantasy and reality. Trapped in riot-torn Jakarta, she reaches out to the gamer community for help. Once back in Los Angeles, Dagmar is caught up in a web of murders and financial manipulation that she begins to blend into her latest game, using the community of players to solve clues and sift through large amounts of data. The line between real life and the game blurs as the action builds to a satisfying and thoughtful conclusion. Though the technology talk occasionally becomes intrusive, it’s convincingly written; the characters are realistic and absorbing, and the story deeply compelling. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wow! Need I say anything else!!!! So the question is what is real and what is not? Who is real and who is not?  Oh yeah people GAME ON!!!!

Haiti

Only 7 more days and I will be in Labadee, Haiti.  I am really torn as I will be arriving on a luxury cruiseliner and I don’t know what to expect when I arrive.

Will there be devastation right there or will it still be touristy?  Will I feel badly because I can only help for a few hours?

I just can’t imagine being right there and not doing anything! I want to help so badly but I’m only there for 8 hours so time is of the essence.  I’m going to be on the Royal Caribbean cruise lines and they are apparently bringing supplies and water to Labadee with every arrival there.  So I’m going to beg if maybe I can help unload and/or deliver supplies.  My dream would be to hook up a ride from the ship to an orphanage and just coddle and hold babies that need love in such a scary time.  Maybe help feed the kids… I don’t know.

I’ve NEVER had an opportunity like this and it’s been a dream of mine!

Have any of you ever gone to Haiti?  On mission trips?  Care to share your experiences?

TMZ – Michael Jackson Concert Tix in San Diego

http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/26/michael-jackson-concert-tickets-san-diego/

Michael Jackson — Live in Concert? Not Exactly

Posted Jan 26th 2010 1:45AM by TMZ Staff

Michael Jackson is back … at least according to a Ticketmaster email.

The email above sure makes it seem like Michael is performing in San Diego on Valentine’s Day. But the show is actually a laser light show set to Michael’s music. It’s an hour and a half long and tickets are around $40. The show starts at 5:00 PM and there is a Pink Floyd one at 7:30 PM.

Plenty of good seats still available. Shocker.

RBTL people!

This is extremely interesting.  First of all for the obvious reasons: Michael is back!

I truly believe they are testing the waters for when they actually announce he is back.

Secondly, they mention Pink Floyd. Well this takes me back to a post of mine from Nov 4th when I used another well known Alternate Reality Game as a reference.  I was hoping that if I read about how one actually played out that it may help me to identify if we were now part of the biggest longest ARG.  It was for Pink Floyd’s Publis Enigma.

http://lilwendy.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/other-arg-for-reference/

And here’s another earlier one from Oct

http://lilwendy.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/a-game-2/

Anyway, it has me thinking.. I’m just going to throw some thoughts out in point form.

• Arguably the granddaddy of the genre. Although it was preceded by the “Publius Enigma,” a promotion for the Division Bell album by Pink Floyd, the Beast was more successful in attracting a mainstream and diverse audience. This alternate reality game was set in the A.I. movie universe and centered around the mysterious death of Evan Chan.
• Don’t you think Evan Chan and Evan Chandler are pretty darn close? Hmm interesting.

• Is this an ARG to promo This is It DVD, CD, movie, etc.
• If so, people would hit the roof thinking this anguish was all for marketing.  They would have to do something to avoid a massive uproar from people – like adding massive value into the people’s lives.
• I believe mjawakening and thisisalsoit played key roles in us understanding about the world we live in and about what we need to do to make a change.  This is a big big value add.
• Everyone has a role to play: from Karen heading up This is Not it to someone heading up This is also it, to family members, friends, certain people on Twitter, etc.
• Oh also I think it’s very interesting there is an instructional video out for “The Drill” and then there are a few fan events where we need to learn this and then do our stuff at the event.
• Then on YouTube comes out from the Philippines a huge amount of inmates doing the drill (absolutely phenomenal by the way… see below)
• What I can envision?  Pods of people/fans from all over the planet… in every country… learning the drill, wearing the shirt and orange pants.  (Except MJ will wear his gold pants – woo hoo!) and on one day at a particular hour we perform the largest ever simultaneous dance routine… all for L.O.V.E… putting MJ once again into the Guinness Book of World Records.
• This is also an opportunity to clear MJ’s name.  Oh everything comes out after someone is dead and gone.  True colours shine through.  So it is an important mandate of this game to get in  there and dispel all the rumors so when MJ comes back, it will be to a positive opinion of him, and who he is as a person.  They need to deposit into the media all the good Michael did and educate the public.
• They will also need to keep a pulse on how that public opinion is changing.  Enter TMZ.  TMZ is a great way to get the low down, to comment (ie give feedback on public opinion) and to be a medium for giving clues for those looking for them.  I could be looking way too far into this but everything on TMZ that is bolded seems to be a clue to me – from Paula’s “dancing with the stars” which parallels “The Drill” practices we see happening to Steven Tyler singing two songs “Dude looks like a lady” (is MJ disguised as a lady?) and “I don’t wanna miss a thing” (hinting that if we don’t wanna miss a thing look for a dude who looks like a lady.)
• I believe we are going to be graced by MJ’s presence however we won’t know it because we’ve had so many fakes that we don’t know who is who and MJ can just walk on the scene and blend in with all those fakes.  We probably have been talking to some guy or girl and we don’t even realize it’s him!
• If I have any additional thoughts I’ll add it on here.. but for now I leave you with the dancing inmates!