As the ’00s come to a close, I’m looking back on the music that made my decade. These are the pop albums I listened to straight through the most…

10. The Postal Service, Give Up
09. Kanye West, Graduation
08. *NSYNC, No Strings Attached
07. Janet Jackson, All For You
06. Jason Mraz, Mr. A-Z
05. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP
04. John Mayer, Continuum
03. Justin Timberlake, Justified
02. Usher, Confessions
01. Michael Jackson, Invincible

I am very excited to finally see this Tuesday night a glimpse of what I was supposed to see in person in London this past summer! To share my excitement, here’s a great clip from the film:

Mick and I went to AMC Hoffman today to see “Where the Wild Things Are” in IMAX and it was a great experience. The film is directed by Spike Jonze, whose simplistic cinematography, reminiscent of his music video days back on MTV, really fleshes out the story. The book itself was only a few pages with maybe 100 words of text, so Jonze had a lot of gaps to fill.

He explains Max’s mischief, which in the book is a given from the first sentence without reason, with a touching exposition about Max’s busy mother and teenage sister who’s getting too old to play with him anymore. That latter part I latched onto from memories I’d forgotten I had about my older sisters mysteriously shifting from playmates to nemeses as they grew up and grew annoyed. The rest of the story–except Max running away from home instead of his imaginary forest growing inside his bedroom, as in the book–plays out very closely to the book.

What Jonze captures best is that the monsters in Max’s imagination don’t talk like wise adults as in other kids’ films, placed in convenient situations to dole out necessary morals to bring the main child character to some new conclusions about himself and the world. Instead, they really are his imagination, speaking with the maturity and moodiness of a pre-teen boy dealing with negative feelings about a grown female monster (his image of his mother?) and longing feelings for a sassy teenaged female monster (his image of his sister?). Then there are all the male monsters which seem not to replace the missing father figure in the movie but instead represent elements of Max’s own psyche: timidity, ferociousness, and others.

It’s a tear-jerker if you relate to Max and overall a great movie–Jonze REALLY succeeds in bringing the book to life and strengthening its sentimental place in our culture.

I highly recommend you check it out, but take 45 seconds to reread the book first.

Ray’s rating: A

These are based on sales, unlike the Grammys, which are based on ratings–as in, how can we get Paul McCartney to show up? Oh, let’s nominate him for an otherwise ineligible recording by dipping into his completely obscure live album.

Anyways, the AMA nods are out and Michael Jackson is up for five trophies, including Artist of the Year. His “Number Ones” collection, actually released on the day he was arrested in November 2003, has become one of the biggest-selling records of the year here in the US. In fact, a recent tally shows he’s sold some 16 million records worldwide in the last 3 months from across his entire catalogue. Phenomenal, indeed.

Nonetheless, despite being a devoted fan, I have to say it’s a little unfair to honor someone for an album that A) came out 6 years ago, B) contains only greatest hits and one new cut (“One More Chance”), and C) isn’t all that impressive a package. I know the AMAs are based on sales data and Nielson ratings, so it’s unavoidable, but the rules may need to be changed to prevent this sort of thing from happening again (though perhaps never on such a grand scale again).

Just do a tribute performance or two or ten–no need to steal Taylor Swift’s thunder.

Again…

A new high-tech book developed with Michael Jackson and intended to ultimately include photos from the “This Is It” concerts in London will be released soon. Apparently, it plays videos. And it’s a book!

Apparently Dr. Murray can’t get his story straight and the coroner’s report indicates a lethal dose of Propofol killed the King of Pop. It’s all in this affidavit.

It also says in there that the LAPD have already ruled this a homicide. I don’t think anyone would argue…

A lot of people think so…do you see it?

According to MSNBC, Omer Bhatti’s Norwegian mother met MJ through Liz Taylor some years back and yada yada yada, here’s Omer.

For awhile he was actually living at Neverland and sat in the front row at the Memorial last week, next to Rebbie, Janet and Michael’s “official” children. Apparently Omer studied under Michael and is a helluva dancer, which would make his parentage all the more exciting news.

While in London on Monday, I wore my official tour t-shirt, mirror shades and Michael Jackson buttons to the O2 Arena to take part in a mass vigil by fans of my idol. I thought I’d share some photos of the afternoon and evening, including a shot of my message to Michael which I left on the white boards.

He seems fine to me here. Really makes Thursday all the more shocking.