Oprah poetry suit

By "Oprah poetry suit" I don't mean "apparel Oprah dons when reading verse" (though the idea of her and Maya Angelou donning matching outfits and trading lines from "Phenomenal Woman" would make a great YouTube video), I mean that Oprah is being sued by a crazy dude who claims she stole his poetry.

Read all about it on Videogum, though the story is best encapsulated by a comment made by Videogum user Skillet: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I, I took the one with the 1.2 trillion dollars. Because poetry is for ballers. Also, shot callers."

And speaking of Maya "All Occasions" Angelou, she wrote a poem for Michael Jackson that Queen Latifah recited at his public memorial.

Blair: King of Poetry?

Okay, Blair is probably not the King of Poetry, but he has made quite a name for himself in the Detroit poetry world. He also has a new book and record out all about Michael Jackson. He's also the cover story of this week's Between The Lines.

While you're there, you can read my Creep of the Week column, which I write, as the name implies, every week.

More Michael Jackson poetry

From the Awl, passed along by my sister Laura who was very adamant I give her public credit for this since she's the one who wrote the poem in question. May God bless her, indeed.

Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl" video

I'm not going to lie, I always thought "Liberian Girl" was "Librarian Girl." But give me a break, I was 11 when it came out. In any case, Videogum has an excellent post about the video:

"In the outpouring of reminiscences about Michael Jackson's life and career over the past few days, it has been mostly overlooked that in 1989, he built a private celebrity menagerie, and he put all of the celebrities in there so that he could watch them mingle. Seriously, all of them."

See how many you can name (I'll give you one of them: Bubbles).

Michael Jackson - New Music - More Music Videos

"No one wants to be defeated..."

Michael Jackson is dead. I didn't even know about it right away because I said to myself yesterday morning, "I'm going to get some reading done today and stay off of the computer" and what do you know, as soon as I turn my head, half of the 1980s dies (Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon). It is a lot to have on my conscience.

Jackson's passing is obviously monkey related (duh: Bubbles), but thanks to The Awl and Detroit performer/poet Blair, it is poetry related, too.