Marndizz’s Goss Blog

UPDATED WITH NEW INFO. SEE THE THRILLER 25 DISCUSSION FOR MORE.

I’m really excited about this release! Here are all the details and remember to sign up for updates at www.michaeljackson.com

You can join the discussion here

EPIC RECORDS/LEGACY RECORDINGS UNVEIL
THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
OF MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SELLING ALBUM OF ALL TIME

Newly Expanded Deluxe Edition of Multi-Platinum Grammy-Winning Album
With New & Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks
Including Remixes By Akon, will.i.am & Kanye West
+ Bonus DVD Featuring Digitally Restored Short Films
& Michael Jackson’s Historic Breakout Performance
From “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” Television Broadcast

Thriller – 25th Anniversary Edition
Available Worldwide Week Of February 11, 2008

* * * * *
Epic/Legacy Recordings proudly celebrates the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the world’s biggest-selling album of all time, with a newly expanded deluxe edition of the phenomenal record-breaking pop culture touchstone, available worldwide the week of February 11, 2008.

The Michael Jackson Thriller 25th anniversary celebration kicks off in December 2007 and continues throughout 2008 with the release of a new single and a multi-faceted global marketing campaign featuring high-profile television, radio and online events around the world.

The Thriller – 25th Anniversary Edition will include the original album in its entirety as well as eight bonus tracks and a DVD featuring Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking short films from Thriller (“Thriller,” “Beat It,” and “Billie Jean”) and the artist’s Emmy-nominated breakout performance of “Billie Jean” from the legendary “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” television special (first broadcast on NBC on May 16, 1983).

The newly expanded version of Thriller premieres five tracks previously unreleased in any form: a new Kanye West remix of “Billie Jean”; a new 2008 version of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” with Akon and will.i.am; will.i.am remixes of “The Girl Is Mine” and “P.Y.T.”; and “For All Time,” a rare unreleased cut from the original Thriller recording sessions, newly mixed and mastered by Michael Jackson.

The deluxe Thriller – 25th Anniversary Edition packaging contains a personal greeting from Michael Jackson to his fans penned exclusively for this special release.

Originally released 25 years ago early December 1982 by Epic Records, Thriller, Michael Jackson’s sixth solo album and second with producer Quincy Jones, rocketed the former child-star lead singer for the Jackson 5 into the stratosphere of international superstardom. Introducing the “robot” and the “moonwalk” into the international lexicon of clubland dance moves via the pulsing sounds of Thriller, Michael Jackson revolutionized all aspects of mainstream pop culture — from radio airwaves to the newly emerging art form of music videos — becoming the world’s most popular entertainer in the process.

The original Thriller spent an astounding 80 consecutive weeks in the American Top 10, 37 of those at #1. Seven of the album’s original nine tracks became Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 while Individual singles from Thriller reached #1 chart positions in the US, the UK, France, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, South Africa, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand and Canada.

Thriller made history as the first and only record to be America’s top-selling album two years running (1983 and 1984).

Thriller has been certified 27x platinum by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond Award status in the US. In addition, the album has achieved Diamond or Multi-Platinum status in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Thriller was named the Best Selling Album of All Time by the Guinness Book of Records in 1985.

In February 1984, Michael Jackson held a record-breaking 12 Grammy nominations, going on to win eight, which stands as the record for most Grammy Awards to be won by anyone in a single year. Seven of Michael’s Grammys that year were for Thriller: Album of the Year; Record of the Year (“Beat It”); Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (“Thriller”); Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical (Thriller); Best Male Rock Vocal Performance (“Beat It”); Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (“Billie Jean”); Best R&B Song (“Billie Jean”). (Michael’s eighth Grammy that year was in the Best Recording For Children – Single or Album, Musical or Spoken category for “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”). That same year, Michael Jackson took home eight American Music Awards and three MTV Video Music Awards. The following year, “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” took home the Best Video Album trophy at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards.

Named the “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time” by the Guinness World Records, Michael Jackson is among the most highly acclaimed and influential artists in pop culture. He was named the World Music Award’s Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium and received the American Music Award’s Artist of the Century Award. He has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice: in 1997 as a member of the Jackson 5 and as a solo artist in 2001.

* * * * *

Track Listing:

1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
2. Baby Be Mine
3. The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney)
4. Thriller
5. Beat It
6. Billie Jean
7. Human Nature
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
9. The Lady In My Life
10. Vincent Price (bonus track)
11. The Girl Is Mine 2008 with will.i.am
12. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 2008 with Michael Jackson and will.i.am
13. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 2008 with Michael Jackson, Akon and will.i.am
14. Beat It 2008 with Fergie
15. Billie Jean 2008 with Kanye West
16. For All Time (unreleased track from original Thriller sessions) Bonus DVD

The Videos

1. Thriller
2. Beat It
3. Billie Jean
4. Billie Jean performance from Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever

25th Anniversary Executive Producer: Michael Jackson
Original Album Produced by Quincy Jones

http://sonybmg.com.au/cd/releaseDetails.do?catalogueNo=88697179872

http://www.maximum-jackson.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=88

Original Aussie Idol Guy Sebastian

I think this year’s Aussie Idol has been very boring. The talent is not the “best ever” as the idol judges and PR say every year. The fact is, idol talent hasn’t been even close to the level of the year that Guy Sebastian won. (2003) Since then, the idol “talent” has steadily declined, pretty much due to loyal voters spending thousands of dollars on voting for their favourite who usually has no talent and can’t actually handle the competition. These voters are usually community, family and friends and all these votes end up doing is torturing the Aussie public more. Take for example, Marty, who actually said he wanted to leave but ended up staying in for another 4 or 5 weeks, despite never growing, never choosing good song and always being nervous and uncomfortable to stage. Several times he even admitted that “he sucked” at performing. Most people I know agreed, yet he stayed in. It could only be a bunch of loyal supporters doing that… It sickens me. They tortured us at home and tortured Marty who just seemed to get worse.

Most of the good idols actually left before the top 12- ie. Most of the talented ones were in the top 40 and never got a chance to get into the top 12. It sucks. There could have been a great talented top 12 and instead we were stuck with a bunch of 16-20 year olds who fumbled on stage and with their song choices each week.

Now we are left with 2 choices: Matt Corby, 17, and Natalie Gouchi, 26.

Matt is a great kid. He’s good looking, has stage presence, is focussed, clean and has an amazing voice. He’s worked hard and taken risks and I am convinced this kid has unbelievable talent that could have him topping the charts in Australia and possibly the world for many years to come. He knows music, respects music and is generally a nice kid.

Natalie is ok. I personally think she’s nice an all, BUT her style is too theatrical. She has never given me goosebumps and I just don’t think she connects emotionally. There is no emotion in her performances. I hope she doesn’t win. I don’t think she’s worked hard and she has no set style. Unfortunately, I know people who will vote for her and like her.

I hope Matt wins. I predict Matt will win. And I sincerely hope I’m right!

Incoming Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

So, I was a little wrong about the election. I voted Labour of course, but I was not sure my vote would do anything until about 8pm, when my friend messaged me and said “looks like your vote didn’t go to waste!”

Then I checked how our seat of Richmond was going and our neighbours; Page. Both seats have been represented by National Party candidates for years and years, and all of a sudden, channel 7 were predicting a win for Labour in both seats. That would mean 2 seats together were gained by Labour. This was great news and I hoped and prayed that this would be a trend followed all over NSW… and Australia of course. By 8.30 we knew that Labour was way in front and basically slaughtering The Coalition and something like 20 seats were already gained by Labour all over Australia. It was exciting to say the least.

Then we heard that John Howard’s own seat of Bennelong was in jeopardy.  Oh My God… John Howard’s own seat was going to go to a Labour Candidate? It seemed like a dream- a revolution- the people of Australia were yelling at John Howard to move over!

What I was witnessing was amazing. I thought I was in a dream land. This was my dream- to see John Howard concede. He made his defeat speech at 10.30pm (half an hour earlier than I expected) – after all, Labour had won by an additional 4 seats- only 76 were needed to win and Labour already had 80 at that time. This was huge and I never expected to see a landslide- or a Ruddslide- as the media dubbed it.

What an amazing result! I felt a bit sad for Howard- he did work hard and he did make a very dignified defeat speech. It was bittersweet.

Then Rudd made his victory speech. What a brilliant man- so humble, so kind and so human. The tears were flowing- we have a new Australian government and the future looks bright!

Good on you Kevin! Congratulations and I know now that Australia is in great hands!!

Marndizz out!

http://www.kevin07.com.au/

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2007/2007-11-24-01.asp

I believe strongly in our right to vote. Yes, it’s compulsory in Australia, but I believe it is a right rather than a duty. I always get nervous before voting in Federal elections because I believe my say may have the potential to change the government and how we get represented in Canberra.

I am a passionate Labor voter. I know a lot of people choose not to say how they vote, but I don’t have any problem saying how I vote. I believe Australia was at its best when we had Labour  Prime Ministers. I know we had a recession under Labour and I know interest rates went up, but that was in the past. When John Howard was voted in, he had 11 and a half years to do something to fix certain things. He brought in a radical taxation system- the GST and he promised that interest rates would not rise, yet they have. He also brought in a radical work place reform system that actually leaves many hard working Australians far worse off than they were before. Also, if we vote tomorrow for Howard to stay in as Prime Minister, we are not actually voting for him, we are voting for Peter Costello- the treasurer- who would replace Howard as soon as he announces his retirement, which could be any time after he gets voted back in. Then we really don’t have a choice do we?

I can’t deny that the economy is strong and that the value of our dollar is high, but the rich seem to be getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and Howard refuses to do things like control the rising cost of petrol, spend money on education (actually he has grossly cut the education budget so out government spends less money on education than countries like Latvia and Slovenia, Estonia and more) spend money on fixing our hospitals, spend money on our telecommunications and so much more. He frequently takes statements back – like the time when he said “sorry about the interest rate rise.” He turned around and said “well, it wasn’t actually an apology…” What a tool. It would have been better for him to keep his mouth shut because many Australians saw it as a great thing that he’d said sorry in the first place.

This Election Campaign has been the dirtiest I have ever seen- jokes, mud slinging (remember Kevin Rudd’s international “ear-wax” video and his 10 minute trip to a strip club back in the day?). The Liberals seem to be trying to get any dirt – whether it’s big or small- on Kevin Rudd and his wife. After all the Lib’s have shown us, there’s not much dirt at all. It’s all insignificant wind, designed to distract us from the real issues that need addressing in our government- things like hospitals, education and so on. You can’t seriously tell me that because Kevin Rudd went to a strip club back in the day that he’s all of a sudden inappropriate to represent Australians. I actually think it makes him MORE likeable- he’s human!!

Then there were the Libs who took it upon themselves to distribute fake letters pretending to be an Islamic group. (read more here). What a crock. How could you make a joke about something as serious as the Bali Bombings?

The Liberals are not targeting hard working Aussies in their ads. They are targeting conservative Australians who may have extremist views, especially about things like  Labour giving their preferences to the Greens who are run by a gay leader and who want to fund more injecting rooms. I think the Greens are great and I have no problem with that. The Liberals are trying scare-tactics by saying things like “more needles will end up in kids’ playgrounds if they get more injecting rooms”. Like What The? The whole point of injecting rooms is to keep needles out of our playgrounds! I have to admit those ads are effective though and many Australians may believe the Liberals’ “facts.”

The Labour party haven’t been resorting to mud slinging and scare tactics which is a great thing. I am loving them for that! Kevin Rudd has been absolutely wonderful and he even did Rove Live which was a smart move. He has been appealing to younger Aussies by creating a myspace page- John Howard has 600+ friends and Kevin Rudd has over 23,000 friends. I would like to say this has made me more optimistic that Rudd will win, but it hasn’t.

The polls are all over the place and I don’t think we will know until tomorrow night. I would love to think that Australians want and need change, but I’m not sure…

I found this info VERY useful and very interesting in regards to music leaks.

Thanks to http://www.spin.com/features/magazine/2007/07/0708_leak/

So, one of the funniest things I have heard in recent weeks is that Michael Jackson is losing Neverland and that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have apparently been looking at the property to buy. It’s the funniest and saddest shit I have heard in ages.

1. Michael Jackson’s Neverland is not for sale. It never has been.

2. Michael Jackson may or may not be in default of his loan on the property, but he has 90 days to fix it regardless. His publicist has said he is in the process of re-financing.

3. How did Brangelina end up entering into this picture? Ask the tabloids. One quote I found interesting in a tabloid documentary was this: “We will take a shred of evidence and run with it down a field. Maybe we will kick a goal and maybe we won’t.”

That says it all right?

This is my good friend J’s blog. This is one of the funniest women I have ever had the pleasure of talking to! She is a great writer, ingeniously funny and utterly compassionate, thoughtful and wonderful to read. Here’s her blog:

http://snarkycleverwit.livejournal.com/

I LOVE love love her graphics, too!!

And the blurb:

“blurb

Sometimes I have an overwhelming urge to kick people in the shins for nothing more than opening their stupid traps. Suffering stupidity isn’t something that I do well.”

I FULLY concur J!

So, I suffer migraines. I have for about 11 years, since I turned 16 and started my year 10 certificate. Anyway, most of the time I can operate while I have a migraine- I can still watch TV, chat and stuff, but I rest wherever possible. If I don’t have to operate with a migraine, I won’t. Sometimes they can be bad and other times they can be severe. I’ve had some pretty weird and some pretty regular symptoms of migraine… light flashes in my eyes, slurred speech, throwing up, weakness, pins and needles, etc etc. Sometimes migraines will stay for days and weeks on end. This current migraine has lasted about 3 days. Like I said, I have suffered some weird side effects before but last night was the hands down scariest reaction I have ever had…

So, after watching some of my old Michael Jackson documentaries, I tried to get some sleep. I was tossing and turning all night because I was in pain and I didn’t have my migraine meds left over. So at about 4am, I decided I was eventually going to get some sleep and set the TV to “sleep” in 30 minutes. I dozed off and then all of a sudden I woke up in sheer terror, gasping in horror at what appeared to be a massive multi coloured dragonfly or spider or insect of some kind. This thing was flying over me in my room and was HUGE- like the size of half my ceiling. I hid under my sheets for a good 5 minutes, trying to move and I realised I should turn on the light. I thought I was going to get eaten by this thing, so it took me a while to compose myself and switch the light on. After I did, I looked for this thing around my room, not moving from my bed, for another good 5 minutes. It was then that I realised that I had suffered a hallucination and that I was NOT going to be eaten by a massive multi-coloured dragonfly / spider/ mosquito mutant insect. My heart was still racing and I tried to figure out what had prompted this hallucination.

It ended up that even though the TV switching itself is not a loud sound, the sound of it and the static sound that followed coupled with the flash of light combined with my migraine was what prompted this hallucination. I decided to leave my TV on and comforted myself with more Michael Jackson. I got to sleep about 5.30am after all that. I sent my mother off to fill my migraine medication script this morning and I feel a little better, but I don’t think I’ll forget the terror I felt. You may be reading this and thinking “oh what a weirdo” and “as if you’d think that thing was real”, but at the time, it was very real to me. Migraines are horrible and I can tell you right now that I would have preferred to have spent the night throwing up than having to experience that terror….

I hope they come up with some more decent migraine medication in the future- something that cures them, because obviously, these things can be hell.

marndizz, OUT!!

Hi all!

Welcome to my blog! I’m Marndizz, the mastermind behind this shebang.

Here’s a few opening numbers and thoughts for my first blog….

First of all, Thank you to Damien for giving me such an awesome nickname. He’s a very good friend of mine and an awesome dancer. Check out his moves here:

Michael Jackson has been a bit of a busy little bee. Me and millions of other fans are waiting for his comeback. He’s recently done L’Uomo Vogue (which the press barely picked up), Ebony (which the press did pick up and the Aussie media have been particularly cruel about it) and went to Jesse Jackson’s Birthday party and then went shopping in LA. In between, he also managed to write us fans a beautiful letter thanking us for birthday gifts and he also hinted at a comeback.

In addition, Ebony magazine published loads of exclusives for fans, and I sent in a question to them. It was answered earlier this week. The full Q&A is located here:

http://www.ebonyjet.com/michael_jackson/

My question was this:

Q: How did you get the interview with Michael? Was it easy?

A. (Bryan Monroe) | Because of the nearly 40-year relationship between Johnson Publishing Company — the owner of Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago — and the Jackson family, a relationship that began when Michael was part of the Jackson Five, we knew that, when and if Michael was ready to re-emerge back onto the world stage, who better to do it with than Ebony. We had been talking with his team in Washington, D.C. for the past eight months and Michael himself requested that it be Ebony and Jet magazines to have his first U.S. cover and interview in years.

I was very happy to say the least!

I’ve been actively slamming the Aussie bloggers who decided to have a go at Michael Jackson for his skin colour… and I made a formal complaint to news.com.au for publishing a story that also mentioned Michael’s skin colour.

Do you think it’s fair at any time, at all, to make fun of someone’s skin colour, under any circumstances? I certainly don’t think it’s ok. But it’s ok when it’s Michael Jackson, right? Wrong!! If it was anyone else, these people would be slammed for discrimination, bigotry, and racism, among other things. It annoys me when people don’t THINK before they type. The same goes for Roger Friedman. But I have more severe words for him…

Well, since it’s time for beddy-bies, I’ll write more tomorrow. Thanks for listening world!

Marndizz Out!!

One final word for the media: