New Exhibit on Display at the Smithsonian :-)

US Patent 5255452 A: "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion"

In the "Smooth Criminal' video, the centerpiece of the wonderfully bizarre film Moonwalker (1988), the impossible lean was accomplished with wires, but to recreate the effect during live performances, Jackson worked with two designers to develop a "method and means for creating [an] anti-gravity illusion." This signature move (among many others) was made possible by a patent for a shoe allowing the “wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity.” Though it looks like a regular loafer when worn with long pants, the shoe is actually strapped around the ankle to secure it to the dancer's foot - but the real secret is in the heel, which conceals a slot that can lock into a small post raised on stage. Dancers click their heels into place at just the right time and–-boom–-you've been hit by a smooth criminal. It's a brief moment, but it's one of the most iconic images of Michael Jackson's career and American pop culture.



Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/michael-jackson-singer-songwriter-american-inventor-180950165/#0OE3LlfRgobubM29.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
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Singer, Song Writer, Choreographer, Actor, Director, Activist ....and American Inventor   

("Jack of all trades...master of none"  hmph....who started such words to deter greatness? Ode to to the multi-talented and ode  to multi- excellence!) 

US Patent 5255452 A: "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion" 

 

In the "Smooth Criminal' video, the centerpiece of the wonderfully bizarre film Moonwalker (1988), the impossible lean was accomplished with wires, but to recreate the effect during live performances, Jackson worked with two designers to develop a "method and means for creating [an] anti-gravity illusion." This signature move (among many others) was made possible by a patent for a shoe allowing the “wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity.” Though it looks like a regular loafer when worn with long pants, the shoe is actually strapped around the ankle to secure it to the dancer's foot - but the real secret is in the heel, which conceals a slot that can lock into a small post raised on stage. Dancers click their heels into place at just the right time and–-boom–-you've been hit by a smooth criminal. It's a brief moment, but it's one of the most iconic images of Michael Jackson's career and American pop culture.

US Patent 5255452 A: "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion"

In the "Smooth Criminal' video, the centerpiece of the wonderfully bizarre film Moonwalker (1988), the impossible lean was accomplished with wires, but to recreate the effect during live performances, Jackson worked with two designers to develop a "method and means for creating [an] anti-gravity illusion." This signature move (among many others) was made possible by a patent for a shoe allowing the “wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity.” Though it looks like a regular loafer when worn with long pants, the shoe is actually strapped around the ankle to secure it to the dancer's foot - but the real secret is in the heel, which conceals a slot that can lock into a small post raised on stage. Dancers click their heels into place at just the right time and–-boom–-you've been hit by a smooth criminal. It's a brief moment, but it's one of the most iconic images of Michael Jackson's career and American pop culture.



Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/michael-jackson-singer-songwriter-american-inventor-180950165/#0OE3LlfRgobubM29.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

US Patent 5255452 A: "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion"

In the "Smooth Criminal' video, the centerpiece of the wonderfully bizarre film Moonwalker (1988), the impossible lean was accomplished with wires, but to recreate the effect during live performances, Jackson worked with two designers to develop a "method and means for creating [an] anti-gravity illusion." This signature move (among many others) was made possible by a patent for a shoe allowing the “wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity.” Though it looks like a regular loafer when worn with long pants, the shoe is actually strapped around the ankle to secure it to the dancer's foot - but the real secret is in the heel, which conceals a slot that can lock into a small post raised on stage. Dancers click their heels into place at just the right time and–-boom–-you've been hit by a smooth criminal. It's a brief moment, but it's one of the most iconic images of Michael Jackson's career and American pop culture.


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/michael-jackson-singer-songwriter-american-inventor-180950165/#0OE3LlfRgobubM29.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

US Patent 5255452 A: "Method and means for creating anti-grav


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/michael-jackson-singer-songwriter-american-inventor-180950165/#0OE3LlfRgobubM29.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

Michael Jackson's patent, and more importantly, his signature is on display as part of a new exhibition at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. "Making Their Mark: Stories Through Signatures," invites visitors to examine the signatures on historic documents and imagine the moment they were signed, moments that have shaped America's history and defined its culture. No one has a signature that is exactly the same every time its written, but a signature's variability is part of what reveals it to be authentic; each signature is a unique product of the time and place it was written. Other notable signatories on display as part of the exhibition include founding fathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, whose documents tell the story of a young nation in rebellion against King George III. But they are in good company with the King of Pop, whose signed patent reveals that his inventiveness extended beyond creating sweet dance moves. 


 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/michael-jackson-singer-songwriter-american-inventor-180950165/?utm_source=facebook.com&no-ist

 

Ira Glass on the creative process

nycnoticings...

that the pigeons circle rooftop corners on 50th and 9th, that the husky with ice blue eyes looked straight into mine thru tinted windows, ice-sickle scaffolding created by construction spills, that 6th period are more rambunctious but better listeners and 5th will sleep if not able to create, that my throat begins to close quickly when I haven't said what needed to really be said, and tho i've gotten better, i'm still more afraid than i care to be, that at the base of resistance to film and crew is a string of hearts with lights and a layer of dust,  that there is a hotel in the middle of the flower district, that succulents are finicky, and orchids try to stay as long as possible, carnations as street trash,  and that ordering 2  can sometimes get you 4,  that he wrote us without writing her, that seeing the hollowed tree cut down and laying down made people slow down, that correcting auto text is taking years from my life,  that the mural of the  navy man's kiss is beneath the high line on 25th and 10th, that far away someone has hung a wind chime i can hear in the night, that the mosque begins to sing its call for prayer long before the first church bell rings.

simplicity.

honesty of performance..

doesn't need more. 

(and I'm grateful for my mamas hand holding this week too...)

Glass...

on the way home tonight from a set installation...saw an older man step down the stairs onto the subway platform. overstuffed brief case bag, trench coat, crooked red bow tie with print...and something from the starship enterprise atop his face. He stopped, scrolled his finger along side his glasses before taking off in swift steps. i bypassed my usual last car of the train as it arrived to trot along some after him... Into the same train car I stepped and began my inquiry as soon as i sat beside him: "Sir, what is that on your eyes?" "Ah" he laughs, "I just got them! --Google Glass!" " I thought so!" I became so excited, and told him that he's the first person on the street that i've ever seen wearing them. "Would you like to try them?" he asked as he took them off and offered them to me. My smile must have been 10 feet wide as we adjusted them onto my face.

Now usually--previously-- the thought of such technology has concerned me. But tonight, there was only pure joy as I sat beside him using my finger to scroll through weather and news headlines...as i peered into a weightless bit of glass...realizing also that i was looking at the introductory draft of an IDEA placed in glass...

We spent the rest of our time talking of the 1964 world fair, things unimagined, and the gift of the differentiation of minds...law and theatre...both of us in full glee...and not just of the tiny glass cube and all of the technology within ...but we were in glee of something much bigger---of human creativity--brilliance--and the things  born from it...And it made others watching  us smile too....

a world not yet imagined...yup .it is coming. tis here now... And as long as i get to keep my heart--and sensual intelligence in the deal---i must say, i'm ready.

thanks Phillip! 

We Transfer...

transferring video footage...by far the EASIEST site i've ever used!
#givingpropswheredue