Video killed the Radio Star

A couple mornings ago Zion was telling me about the Michael Jackson song Bad, which he'd heard on one of our mix CDs. I started telling him about how Michael Jackson had been singing since he was a little boy, and then thought, "hey, why not SHOW him that?" So, off I went to YouTube for a video of the Jackson 5 singing ABC.

Zion was not impressed. "When will he sing Bad"?, he asked.

Bad was easy to find, too.

Now, since I was a poor, disadvantaged child who grew up without cable, virtually all music videos are new to me. So our recent forays (which have also included the Beastie Boys and Tom Waits) are an education for me, too. My favorite part of Bad is towards the end- check out the smooth moves and hot fashion stylings of the guy in the red roller skates!!

Yesterday as we watched Bad Zion pointed to Michael Jackson and said "Is that Michael Jackson?". "Yes", I replied. "He looks like a girl", said Zion. "Yeah, he kind of does in this video", I agreed, "but he is a boy. I guess." Zion nodded. "Because usually only girls have hair hanging down from their heads", he said.

Lest you think that Zion is mastering social norms well ahead of the 3 year old curve, I draw your attention to yesterday evening. We were all outside chatting with our neighbor, Ted. Both kids love Ted, but for some reason Zion was feeling shy at first, and hid behind me, clutching my skirt. Then he moved to the side and front of me, still hanging on to my skirt. I was talking to Ted, and not really paying that much attention to what Zion was doing. Then back behind me when I noticed quite abruptly that Zion was lifting my skirt up MUCH too high. I hastily pushed it back down and pulled him out from behind me just as he loudly asked "Mama, why aren't you wearing any underwear??" "I AM wearing underwear", I replied (I was!). He scurried around to the front of me and began trying to flip my skirt up again. "Then why can't I see them?"

We had a quick word about socially acceptable behavior.

Who's Bad??