These are images of the soon to be built Gazprom uilding, future home of the russian energy conglomerate Gazprom. Roughly translated, Gazprom means “Gas Production”. This insane building will not however, be how the company is remembered.

Check out their epic fail on BBC news

we back on the grind. also, the kids are on the phones again.

While the death of Michael Jackson has been devastating, and odd and fascinating and strangely uniting, it is also, as we enter week two of coverage, somewhat exhausting.  TMZ has taken their kudos as the first to report and remade themselves to be all MJ, all the time.  The BET awards decided that they were going to be a tribute show, which I tried to watch, and was kind of an epic meh on almost every level.  And MTV actually became a viable reporting source and a place where music lives, if only for a short while.

But what’s amazing is that in the wealth of tributes and talking heads and tabloid stories and rumors and photo montages, the music hasn’t been lost.  It came out of every car stereo and every house party this weekend.  It filled the Gay Pride parade with this positive energy that caused crowd and float participants to dance in unison and sing and lip sync along.  And ultimately, it brought us back to the best of Michael and for some of us (like me!) to some of the best moments of our childhoods.  I won’t forget my wicked floor seats at the 1984 Jackson 5 Victory Tour.  Moving up to row 1 so that I could see better, a lovely woman let me sit on her chair with her and gave me a balloon.  The Jackson 5 sparkled more than anything I’d ever seen before.  And my Grandma, back in row 7, fractured her wrist after the woman next to her stood up on her chair, started to fall and took my Grandmother down with her.

Anyway, I’m attaching a home demo of Billie Jean that I always thought was fascinating, and never got enough exposure.  There’s something so personal and intimate about hearing Michael Jackson work out the words and beats and pacing to this iconic song.  Even his humming and studio instructions are danceable.

13-billie-jean-home-demo-from-1981

“–elo? hey, leave a message.” was actually larrys message for a little while.

It is what it is.

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