Dude! Joe's Jottings, Mostly Junk

That was the first sentence out of his mouth the day after Bowie's Glass Spider tour came through the Cap Center. I was insanely jealous, having seen how strong a Bowie performance could be, even just on tape and doing a "hits" tour, for Serious Moonlight in 1983.

Then I saw the video in 1989. Damn. Arguably among the most spectular stage settings ever conceived for a concert tour, ranking right up there with The Wall and Peter Gabriel's 2-stage Secret World setup. Choreography by Toni Basil, not always as pretensious as she can sometimes be (though it had its moments). Add an incredible song selection digging into is odder musical history with tracks like Loving the Alien and Sons of the Silent Age, plus his better mid-80s faire like Absolute Beginners and Never Let Me Down, among a good collection of classics like Heroes, Fame, Fashion, Jean Genie, and then him descending down from the spider wearing large angel wings singing 1974's "Time" and well, damn it was an incredible show...yeah, it was very typical of the overblown 80s (and some group's 90s excesses like U2 and Pink Floyd would shame it in size without coming near the quality), but it was just something wild to see...

( a pic from someone else's page... )

why am i reminiscing? Well, Trio showed the concert again this morning, and I just got reminded of just how incredible that show was. Really brought back memories of my early concert-going years (before college came along and said you can't afford it) and the music that defined my later high-school days of self-discovery...

On a new ruling by an appeals court that reversed the FCC's new policy to allow a single company to own a majority of the tv and radio stations in a locality, FCC chairman Michael Powell called the court's decision "deeply troubling" and said it "hampers the flexibility of the agency to protect the American public."

In other words, the FCC (well, Michael "I know what's good for America" Powell) knows that with fewer owners/companies to handle, its easier for them to control the airwaves and restrict what you can and can't see...if that's not a HUGE Orwellian slip, I don't know what is...