🫂🌍

I haven't looked at numbers for a bit.... Just trying to not get syphoned into fear... But like yikes 👀 and also have you noticed how expensive everything has gotten? I went to the coop I used to frequent in 2023... Thought, maybe I should get a half a rotiserry chicken... It was $20. I was shocked. I am pretty sure I could get a whole chicken for $18-$24 when I last shopped here. Wtf?!?

The divide is sooooooo wideeeeee on so many levels...

Good morning 🌞🎎🐉🪷🪴🎶

My roots ❤️‍🔥🌠🥹🕊️🌹🧿

Watched Michael last night. Never knew "Beat It" was filmed with real rival LA gang members (80 👀)... so inspiring to learn this fascinating story. I am still a bit of a bawling mess this morning with the one and only Michael Jackson on my phone screen. Indulging in the feelings of this deep deep emotional well ❤️‍🔥😭 The story: "Beat It" was the third single from Michael Jackson's *Thriller* album, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in spring 1983. The song itself was deliberately anti-violence — Jackson wrote it as a message to a young man newly drawn into gang life, essentially telling him that walking away from a fight isn't cowardice. The lyrics are about life on the streets and gang activity, something Jackson himself was very detached from [SongFacts](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/michael-jackson/beat-it) , having been raised by tutors and famous since childhood. (Interestingly, Jermaine Jackson has said the song drew partly on the family watching real rumbles between rival gangs from their front window growing up.) When it came to the video, Jackson took a big personal risk. His label, CBS Records, refused to pay for his ambitious vision, so he spent roughly $150,000 of his own money to make it his way. [Viralmusic](

Viral Music FM

When Michael Jackson United Real Street Gangs For A Legendary Music Video

Streets of Los Angeles were tough in the early 1980s. A war was raging. Two giant rival gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, fought for territory. The ...

He hand-picked director Bob Giraldi after seeing a news commercial Giraldi had made about an elderly blind couple who stayed in a changing neighborhood and threw a block party for their new neighbors — that spirit of bridging divides clearly appealed to him. ## The inspiration for using real gang members Here's where it gets interesting, because there are two layers to the "inspiration": **Giraldi's creative vision** wasn't actually *West Side Story*, despite the common assumption. Giraldi said his real inspiration was the streets of Paterson, New Jersey, where he grew up — he listened to the song repeatedly and realized it was about the tough kids he knew, everyone trying to seem tougher than they really are while being "cowards at heart." [SongFacts](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/michael-jackson/beat-it) **The decision to cast actual gang members was Michael's idea, not the director's.** Giraldi has been candid that he didn't like the idea — directing actors and dancers was hard enough without adding "hoods." [Webnode](https://truemichaeljackson.webnode.cz/true-stories/bob-giraldi-on-directing-beat-it/) It was Jackson who went out and recruited them, working through the LAPD's gang squad, convincing them that with enough police presence it would be a smart and charitable thing to do — getting rival members to spend two days together making the video. [Webnode](https://truemichaeljackson.webnode.cz/true-stories/bob-giraldi-on-directing-beat-it/) With the LAPD's help, roughly 80 rival gang members were gathered to appear in the video. [The Detroit News](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/movies/2026/04/24/fact-checking-michael-the-new-michael-jackson-biopic/89773099007/) The deeper motivation was Jackson's own. As Giraldi put it, Michael was always about peace, always looking for some sort of peace offering — bringing the Crips and Bloods together was his idea. [Webnode](https://truemichaeljackson.webnode.cz/true-stories/bob-giraldi-on-directing-beat-it/) The video literally dramatizes this: Jackson plays a peacemaker who breaks up a knife fight between two warring gangs through dance. It wasn't smooth. Giraldi recalled they were almost shut down the first night — film sets get boring fast, the Crips and Bloods are mortal enemies, and they started getting on each other's nerves. [Webnode](https://truemichaeljackson.webnode.cz/true-stories/bob-giraldi-on-directing-beat-it/) And Giraldi's own memories are notably mixed — in a 2014 interview he said he doesn't have fond memories of the shoot and tries to put it out of mind. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Giraldi) The gamble paid off culturally, though. Along with "Billie Jean," "Beat It" helped Jackson become one of the first Black artists in heavy rotation on MTV [SongFacts](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/michael-jackson/beat-it) , and the video is widely credited with helping break the network's color barrier. So the short version: the *aesthetic* inspiration came from Giraldi's blue-collar New Jersey roots, but the bold choice to bring real rival gang members together came straight from Jackson himself — as a genuine, if risky, peace gesture.

GM 🥹🌞

wish there was a way straight into your arms... 🫂

Michael 🥹

Morning sun and a walk before my remote small claims hearing in my case against Meta in about an hour. Please envision me prevailing in this case, with the judge awarding the maximum $12,500 in damages, plus court costs, and ordering restoration of my administrative access to the business page I created and managed since 2009.

Messy prep with my coffee in the garden. My hearing with Meta is tomorrow. I'm still waiting for a call back to find out if my request for remote hearing is approved. It'll be a massive hassle if I'm required to go in person. Though, I also keep questioning if in person would make a better difference or if it really doesn't matter. Taking every minute to anchor into my case. It will be amazing if I win. And yet the somatic experiencing and practice of centering into my truth, advocating for myself, my rights, and protection of my digital identity seems to be the core of this unfolding. Scheduled a call with my therapist this afternoon to walk me through deeper somatic arrival in my body... I was in such fight of flight complete nervous system freak out last time a few days before appearing in court, which was a total first, and a session with her made such a huge difference. A friend is also coaching me again later today to remember returning to my heart of truth and how to remeber to speak from that place while under pressure. Just writing this my limbs are getting all shaky and activated, my heartbeat speeding up. It's so weird even though I already learned it's actually pretty chill in one of these hearings.

Rose petals keep gracing my path... I can get used to that. GM 🌞🌹🕊️

Felt like making a glass of lemonade tonight and decided to go looking for some lemon balm in the garden... and immediately a froggy 🐸 crossed my path... Taking it as a good omen and a sign that leapfrogging seeds are the thing to plant on this Gemini New Moon. 🐸🌙

Why are people so resistant to even wanna learn about Bitcoin?

Yahua

A few days before my birthday I was having a real low point that I would not wish upon anyone, though the reality is more of us are going through it than we wish to acknowledge. I am so grateful that I miraculously found myself amongst so many in celebration on my birthday. God organized me a birthday party... Sent angels and guardians to wrap all around me. It was a wonderful reminder that I am not alone. Mama Earth has got our back. We are living intense times weighting on the shoulders of the true spiritual warriors. Our dharma is no easy assignment. Find me, in the pic. 😘 I am wearing a white dress.

...in the dark choose the light.