SCENE: Spike Lee's Michael Jackson Block Party. There's a dark stage with a DJ, a large-screen TV, and a thousand people on a hillside watching. As always, NYPD crowd control means you're herded into a pen where you can stand around or dance. You can't visit another pen, and if you leave your pen you can't return.

TIME: Before noon.

DJ SPINNA: "Here's the strategy: let's save all the great songs for later in the afternoon so we can really end with a bang."

Cut to three hours later.

ME: "Okay, if he plays one more bad song, we'll leave." (Michael Jackson's "Butterflies" starts up.) "Wow -- eight in a row! Okay, let's go."