Forest Lawn On June 25, 2012 Part Two

In between the roses going up the stairs, a FL security guard places a sheet, signed by fans, over a small barricade. 

A seemingly endless flow of roses, over 10,000 from OneRose4MJJ.

To the right of the walkway, more roses from OneRose4MJJ, along with other beautiful bouquets for Michael.

A floral display from Japan, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Michael's BAD album.

Another fan display.  Behind this display are board with butterflies with names on them from Monarchs For Michael.  A close up of one of the Monarchs For Michael boards is below.

More cards on the lawn.

A beautiful tribute to Michael from fan Savannah.

This Is It tribute.

Randy after he came outside from Michael's tomb in Holly Terrace.

The view below the road in front of Holly Terrace.

Truly, even three years after Michael's death, his impact on the world is felt tremendously by so many.  Both times that I have been there, I felt as though Michael was there too.  I saw fans crying, I saw fans somber, I saw fans happy to see other fans, I saw fans with just about every emotion there is to see.  What I took from Forest Lawn on June 25, 2012 was two-fold.  I realized more than ever that Michael Jackson's mark on the world will not be soon forgotten; his legacy lives on through his family, friends and his fans.  Michael's fans are one of a kind; a unique group of people who honor him, and continue to fight against the myths that the media portrays him to be.  The world loves and misses you Michael; there will never be another quite like you. 

Forest Lawn on June 25, 2012 Part One

As we all know, June 25, 2012 marked the third anniversary of Michael Jackson's passing.  We left early, but because of traffic, we did not get there until after 11 a.m.  I first noticed that security was drastically different than the last time I was at Forest Lawn.  In order to get to Holly Terrace where Michael is entombed, you have to drive up a steep hill.  Midway up, there were very nice and friendly security guards who directed us to park up further on the hill, because the road where Holly Terrace is, was blocked off.  We parked and this is what we saw on the way:

As we walked down the hill, I realized that not one fan was able to get near the displays of artwork and flowers in front of Holly Terrace.  I saw an Escalade (I think) and realized that Randy Jackson was there.  It turned out he was inside Holly Terrace and until he left, fans were not supposed to get too close to Holly Terrace.  There were security guards inside, outside and on the sidewalk going up the walkway to the HT doors.  I knew Randy was going to be there because he tweeted the fact.   I actually thought we would beat him there but as I said, we were caught in traffic.  Randy finally came out of Holly Terrace, and talked to security for a few minutes.  He then looked out over the fans and chose two to go in to see Michael's tomb.  Below is a picture of Randy with FL security. 

After that, Randy came down into the crowd and took pictures with fans.  I must say he was very cordial as there were a LOT of fans that wanted to take pictures with him.  Security kept telling fans to step back (several times), but Randy continued to take pictures and was still doing so with fans when I left.  While Randy was taking pictures with fans, security was semi-distracted so I moved forward to take closer pictures of fans' cards, flowers, and artwork that was left in front of Holly Terrace.  Please remember that I was there early, and was there for an hour and a half, so some of the displays were missed as I saw lots of fans coming in as I was going out.  Here is a closer picture of Randy with security.  The woman and child walking toward me were allowed into Holly Terrace by Randy (I think)

As security was distracted with Randy, I moved down the road to take pictures.  The next picture was taken further away for context.

These are closer shots of the above photo.  The next photo is of a blanket that fans made, surrounded by cards. 

The next is the other side of the blanket and more cards.

Behind the blanket, as I was taking pictures, a woman placed this butterfly in the back of the blanket and the cards.  The picture does not do justice to the butterfly, it was just a beautiful display for Michael; shimmering in the sunlight, it was stunning.  All along the back below the cement wall was artwork of Michael.

This is a display of cards that was to the right of the blanket, from fans all over the world.

More cards.

Behind these cards and others are the fountain of roses from fans all over the world, facilitated by the AMAZING women from OneRose4MJJ. 

A shot from the wall of Holly Terrace, it's ALL FOR L.O.VE. from OneRose4MJJ!

More cards below the roses.

Close up shot of OneRose4MJJ and other bouquets behind the cards.

A display from a UK fan I assume, because of the flag.

Displays of flowers next to the walkway going up to the Holly Terrace stairs.

Another display of beautiful sunflowers for Michael. Look at all the love the world is showing.

I will continue the pictures in part 2 of this blog, as the blog won't hold all the pictures. 

Dear Oprah,

Dear Oprah,

Horatio Nelson once said, “Desperate affairs require desperate measures.” Judging by the recurring headlines detailing OWN Network’s dismal performance after a year and a half on the air, you must be looking for those “desperate measures”. We can’t help but notice the irony of the current situation: the man you spent the better part of the last decade, bashing and stopping short of labeling a child molester, is the very man’s name and progeny, you are now using to salvage your sinking network. No doubt, at the top of OWN TV’s Rescue List would be a repeat of HIStory?

Remember in 1993, your Oprah show experienced record ratings, over 100 millions viewers tuned in, to watch you interview the world's biggest superstar, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. While you were a somewhat hot commodity in the United States then, Michael Jackson introduced you to an international audience.

When a few years later, Mr. Jackson had sex abuse allegations leveled against him, we all watched in dismay you turned on him, appointed yourself judge and jury, deciding even before evidence was presented in court, that he MUST be guilty of the charges. After a jury of his peers rejected those accusations and turned a NOT GUILTY verdict on ALL counts, you continued to openly question his innocence with snide remarks, and demonized him to your audience and guests. You have made it very clear, whether by airing “Is Michael Jackson Guilty?” show during jury deliberations or molestation shows before or after interviewing members of Mr. Jackson’s family, that Lady O’s opinion is more important than those 12 jurors who sat through the grueling trial.

Randy Jackson, younger brother of Mr. Jackson confirmed in a 2010 interview, that Mr. Jackson was well aware of your smear campaign and your dubious attitude towards him. Though he never made his feelings about you public, his brother reiterated, “She [Oprah] is the last person on earth he [Michael Jackson] would want around his children." Having crowned yourself a “child defender”, we find it distasteful, disgraceful and hypocritical, that you are now using grieving children, whose father you tried to sway a jury to send behind bars, when it suits you. Few in the media have called out your shameful exploitation and hypocrisy, but we applaud the few who did.

Those Who Remember

BAD 25 VHS Restoration

After John Branca's release of a further explanation of the upcoming BAD 25 DVD, I decided to do some digging.  For Branca's explanation, click here.  After doing a little googling, I'm fairly sure that the company the Estate is using for the restoration of Michael's personal VHS tape of the BAD tour at Wembley (7/16/88) is Reliance Media Works, formerly Lowry Digital.

When reading Branca's statement, I used his words to gather the information which lead me to Lowry Digital/Reliance Media Works.  John Lowry, who died in January of  this year, was the founder and COO of Lowry Digital.  Lowry developed and patented (proprietary ownership) software that "removes the veil" from old film.  "It's like cleaning your glasses so you can see more.  We want to remove the veil so that you can see everything that's in the original", stated Lowry.

In an interview after Lowry's death, his friend and business partner of 15 years, Mike Inchalik explained the process that John Lowry pioneered, stating:

"Movies and television shows that sit in archives around the world, as they age are generally copied onto new pieces of media, meaning a piece of film is copied onto a new, less brittle piece of film every 10 or 20 years to keep it usable.  But every such copy, as we'd all be familiar with, if we were to Xerox a document and then Xerox the copy and do that over and over, every time you do so, the copy gets fuzzier and fuzzier, the contrast gets worse.  There's dirt and scratches from the glass, etcera. 

And, in very simple terms, John and his team of engineers built software that would automatically look at a sequence of pictures and decide what belonged and what didn't so that it could discard defects and also improve the inherent quality in what had survived all these copies."  Inchalik goes on to explain that Lowry also developed patents for noise reduction as well.

This New York Times article explains the process of film restoration in detail, and also states that Lowry "patented a method of cleaning up NASA's live televised transmissions from the moon."  (Another reason I assume this is the company the Estate is using, because Branca mentioned the restoration of NASA film.) 

The list of clients that Lowry Digital/Reliance Media works is impressive to say the very least.  Lowry himself worked on projects for the Walt Disney Company, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, NASA, Universal Studios.  The list of Lowry restored films is here, including Casablanca, Singin' In The Rain, Star Wars, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Indiana Jones, and more.  In addition,  Lowry Digital worked with James Cameron for Titanic 3D, which had to be restored before making the film three dimensional.

Personally, after reading the articles regarding Lowry Digital, I am reassured that Michael's personal copy of the BAD tour on VHS will be restored to an amazing audio/visual DVD that will have the most up-to-date technology applied.  If it's good enough for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, one can only assume that it will be good enough for Michael Jackson's fans.