1980-1989

In 1992 George H. W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton, a cold blow really. I had no particular liking for Bill Clinton. The first time I saw him I turned off the television repelled by his cute little Kennedy haircut and what seemed like a disingenuous smile. (Ross Perot’s candidacy emerged to become a blip, […]

Certainly the tumult of the sixties seemed long gone. Reagan “Morning in America” was the theme, wafting over the land. His single-minded determination to confront the Soviet Union would culminate in the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a triumphant moment. And the rise of ‚”market democracies” marked the apparent triumph of America. […]

The process led to a downwardly-spiraling media circus. By the end of the 1960s it the protestors and those watching were like two exhausted heavyweights, leaden-legged, bloodied, leaning on each other, until each like Roberto Duran threw up their hands “No Mas!” This video is a link from You Tube. All copyrights remain with the […]

Double Fantasy is John’s first record in more than four years.  Intermittently I have heard of his “lost weekend” in Los Angeles, his return to Yoko, his stint as a “house husband.”  The secretary ushers me into the office where the operating head of the company sits behind his desk. He wears a beard, appears […]

Nobody would understand this better, nor use it more to their advantage, than Madonna. The number of seismic social and cultural shifts she somehow embodied reads like an inventory of the rift in the generations: from the Sixties’ spiritual quest for ”Further” and ”All You Need Is Love” to the Eighties’ ”Material Girl” and ”Greed […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muz1OcEzJOs&feature=youtube_gdata_player Nobody would understand this better, nor use it more to their advantage, than Madonna. The number of seismic social and cultural shifts she somehow embodied reads like an inventory of the rift in the generations: from the Sixties’ spiritual quest for ”Further” and ”All You Need Is Love” to the Eighties’ ”Material Girl” and […]

It was night when I arrived back in Los Angeles, and driving home, I could see a thirty-foot can of spinach being tugged down Hollywood Boulevard, spot-lit, surrounded by limousines. There really is no place like it.  Early evening almost two weeks later, I was walking around my front room and listening to Bruce Springsteen’s […]

This video is a link from You Tube. All copyrights remain with the original copyright holders.

http://youtu.be/8icJnavt2So When the dominance of the LP ended – and with it the ”writerly” concept album, it was the sunset of an era. I didn’t remark it at the time. I just missed what those LP fueled inspirations had been able to tell me. I definitely noticed they were gone. The effects of television went […]

“Culture can be an insistent worm. The Berlin Wall, some argue, came down not because of Ronald Reagan but because of the influence of Western culture, which was broadcast into Eastern Europe and looked like a lot more fun. The Rolling Stones in Leningrad? There’s something in that.” From AMERICAN STORY This video is a […]