Farrah Fawcett wasn’t my first crush (that was Holly Zimmerman) nor was she my fist celebrity crush (that was Frieda Payne) but she was the first woman that articulated what sex was about. Yes, it was THAT poster. I never owned the poster, but I had lots of friends who had older brothers who had the poster.

When I was living in Florida, just before the move we made to San Diego, is when I first laid my eyes on the poster. While it would be some time before Indiana Jones was in the theaters, the first time I saw the poster was very much like the opening sequence to Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy comes upon the idol glistening in the light. Indy just stood there in awe. When I saw the poster it was like seeing something odd, something strange and beautiful. At that young age I didn’t realize seeing a smiling woman in a red bikini, obviously with some cold in the room, would stir some primal manhood in my child body, but it did.

When we moved to San Diego, which was when Charlie’s Angels came on the air, I remembered the woman from the poster because she was everywhere. The thing was, let’s be truthful, at the time I was still a young kid. As much as I could compute the sexiness of the photo, it was cooler to me that she was married to Steve Austin (Lee Majors). Yes, even with the beginning stirring of manhood, geekdom won out. By the time 1977 came along and Star Wars hit, images of Farrah died.

Well, not exactly. One other memory, related to the poster, came when I saw the trailer for The Deep. Anyone who remembers the trailer (I don’t think many people saw the movie) remembers seeing Jacqueline Bissett coming out of the water, cold, in a wet, white t-shirt. I remember going to my first Comicon in 1978 and seeing a dealer's table that had two big side by side photos of Farrah in the red swimsuit and Jacqueline in the wet white t-shirt. He was selling Farrah’s posters faster than Jacqueline’s, definately showing her star power and sex appeal to the geek set.

My biggest memory of Michael Jackson was through the album Thriller. I was in my second year of UCLA, still playing the geek and basically doing a lot of stuff I shouldn’t have been doing. Going to Gompers then going to UCLA was a shock. Being with a lot of the brains at Gompers, being with ‘normals’ was tough to adjust to, and in trying to adjust and fit in I began doing things that were counter to me getting an education. For those old enough to remember, it was like a Rev. Jim moment, when he changed from the upstart, straight laced conservative student to a spaced out pothead. I just didn’t have the drug thing to put me over the edge, just the trauma of being away from the nest.

In any case, in that second year I met Ann Drake. She was the first girl I fell crazy in love with, but it wasn’t meant to be because of timing. It’s a very long story I don’t want to get into right now. Despite the fact we never dated, we became close friends. She was a Michael Jackson fan. When Thriller came out she called me to her dorm room and I listened to Thriller over and over again. Not just songs we listened to the album for hours.

I thought Jackson was OK but I was never a huge fan. I remember some stuff from Off the Wall and even remember watching some of the videos from that album I saw on early music video shows. I think the mix of liking Ann and being with her for hours while listening to Thriller got me to like the album. Ann was also a Madonna fan and anytime I hear Holiday I think of Ann. When I hear Billie Jean, Thriller or any of the other songs off the album I think of Ann. They are fun memories of a simpler time.

Sure, there’s all the stuff that happened afterwards, but like I told someone yesterday there are some people where you have to admire one part while ignoring the other. The man and the music cannot be touched and that’s what we should remember right now.