kingvention 2015 ♕
quick rough notes from september 12th
misc
- drum band playing TDCAU while registering (that impersonator was just a fan who turned up.. not part of the event lol)
- decorations were awesome. cloakroom had a big picture of mj's "dangerous" eyes with a sign saying "In the Closet"
- opportunity to take photos with the original red cloud HIStory album backdrop
- fans from all over europe, one from new zealand and another from japan
- two BEAUTIFUL guys. one wearing michael's red/yellow varsity jacket, the other in a black suit and fedora
- after the talks there was a screening of all of the HIStory music videos (I thought everyone would sing along ㅜ). popcorn and sweets! they also included MJVibe's xscape promotional movie which I loved! it would be so cool to be a part of something like this.
- opportunity at the end to get autographs/pictures with the guests
- final event was a small MJ dance party
king of shop
- literally all the MJ merch you could ever ask for. you name it, it was there: t-shirts, posters, framed photos, artwork, cups, DVDs, books, vinyl, casette tapes, magazines, bags, badges... everything
exhibitions
- moonwalker: my favourite! a lot of unseen photos from filming... photos of michael without makeup super close-up, you could see his pores and everything.
- scream: the photos were enormous.. the photographer eddie wolfl was extremely friendly and allowed people to buy prints to take home. in the scream room there was also a stand with every piece of HIStory merchandise known to man. even including things like promotion posters from 1995
talk with diana walczak
- sculpted HIStory statue. really funny woman
- has been in sculpting/computer graphics field for years and gets a call saying she is wanted to work on a project for mj
- mj's team gives her sketches and ideas for a statue - she edits them and creates a final draft drawing.
- she asks michael to come for a photoshoot for reference and writes down a bunch of rules (no sunglasses, no makeup, don't remember the others) and she said michael broke all of them!
- michael asked diana to sculpt the statue wearing the leotard "for edge"
- during the shoot she was pregnant and said michael could NOT stop staring at her stomach, he was totally glued to it. someone in the audience made a joke which I forgot but it was something like "you could've been debbie rowe instead"
- she said she spotted michael once (before working with him) in tower records looking at mozart box sets alone, but he quietly left when he realised he was recognised
- showed photos of two unseen handwritten notes
1) diana gave michael photos of early sculptures to see what he thought. he wrote "thighs too fat" over one of them and everybody laughed (the thighs were very slim though...)
2) memory is fuzzy on this one. diana gave a copy of the sculpture to michael. michael wrote a note to somebody saying the following (roughly): "bronze statue 3 times human size. trump hotel. plaque with michael jackson, king of pop, greatest entertainer something something"
diana was sent a photocopy of mj's note and was discussing possibilities with us. she said she's honoured michael liked it so much and thinks his dream of having the bronze statue should be realised. she was asking us where in the world we think it should be, because it won't be the trump hotel lol
talk with rob hoffman
- love this guy! really nice and easygoing.
- worked at hit factory in NYC. was selected to work as a studio engineer on HIStory, then after one meeting with michael, he was told that he was asked to leave the position. he was wondering "what did I do... did I smell?" but it turns out that michael just liked to keep his team small and familiar. two weeks later... he was back because they needed more staff
- rob said he was never really a big MJ fan, preferred janet. he loved basketball so his interest in MJ began when he saw the jam music video then listened to the dangerous album, which is his favourite.
- he said working with michael was extremely painful lol! the TDCAU drum band at the beginning reminded him of working on the song. he couldn't stop stressing how loud michael played music in the studio - for three days straight all he would listen to was the drum intro to TDCAU and the only thing he could remember was how much it hurt. he kept stressing it - "it just hurt so bad" "my ears were in crazy pain" etc. described the volume michael liked as "unreal" and didn't understand how michael could stand it.
- first song they worked on for HIStory = 2 Bad
- runaway by janet originally written for michael to be recorded on HIStory
- was a huge janet jackson fan so was super excited for scream recording sessions! the two sang into the same microphone which is uncommon (the backing vocals during the chorus are mj/jj singing into one mic)
- tabloid junkie originally = tabloid jungle
- there was a TV in the studio, so once they were watching CNN and a report came on saying michael left lisa marie alone to go on holiday with kids, even though they were using old airport footage and michael was in NYC with him.
the only time he saw mj really angry was when reading a magazine article in which michael was accused of being inappropriate with his cousins/nephews.
- went to neverland with his gf and her kids, never saw anything that would make him doubt michael's innocence and maintained that he was very welcoming and generous
- recorded much too soon for HIStory. he said the original version sounds NOTHING like the 2010 version on the michael album. "they sound like two completely different songs"
- the one lesson he took from working with michael - never give up. he said he admired how michael would spend hours, days, weeks on the tiniest detail to get it as he desired and described it as a mix of insecurity and perfectionism. he said everything you hear in michael's music is deliberate, not a single aspect goes undiscussed.
sadly I do not remember much of jonathan morrish's talk... very sweet man though. we were shown many pictures of the two at hayvenhurst with snakes and messing around together. he was michael's PR assistant from J5 days right up until invincible!