April 9, 2005
Controversial Duran Duran at the Patriot Center
My not-so-proud effort at shooting Duran Duran last night from our seats in the second-to-the-last row. This is during their first song, Reach Out for the Sunrise.
Controversy appears to be building over political comments by Duran Duran lead singer Simon le Bon at the group's performance Friday at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va.
He introduced the group's new single, "What Happens Tomorrow," with a bizarre statement, paraphrased: "I don't know if you remember what was happening two years ago today ... your 'wonderful' [facetious tone] president was going to begin dropping bombs on Iraq ..."
A strange noise filled the Patriot Center. I anticipated overwhelming cheering from the crowd in attendance (average age seemed to be about 21, much younger than I expected -- so I thought they would be typical liberal college kids).
But on interpretation, it seemed an angry murmur, with some flat-out booing and very scattered cheers. Didn't seem like the audience was in the mood to have a foreigner take a verbal shot at the president so near the nation's Capital.
One can only imagine that the reaction surprised Le Bon, but it was something of a grievous misstep, for several reasons.
First, he showed a tone deafness that he was in politically conservative Northern Virginia, and near the Pentagon, hit on Sept. 11.
Second, who on God's Earth goes to a Duran Duran concert to hear preachiness?
Bad enough that U2 and Springsteen think their fans look to them for political wisdom; a bunch of Birmingham, England, art school grads who flew to fame on the basis of riding a yacht around Antigua for their breakthrough "Rio" video have simply got to be kidding to think we take their views on anything weightier than best brands for blue eyeshadow very seriously.
"Simon needs to keep his political views to himself," posted Batdog on a Duran Duran fan site (a sentiment echoed by two others):
He is an entertainer not a war activist. If he hates America so much, why come here? Oh and has he forgotten who got his career off the ground? MTV and the American public started the popularity of their music. I am not saying you can not express your opinion, even he has rights under the Constitution, however quit a few of the crowd were not overjoyed in his rendition of the President. Iraq is a safer country and America is safer today then it was 4 years ago.
I almost couldn't figure out what Simon was driving at. Any applicability of the song, "What Happens Tomorrow," to the war in Iraq is certainly opaque to me, because it says:
You've got to believe
It'll be alright in the end
You've got to believe
It'll be alright again
I sat rather puzzled in my seat, knowing the song lyric's optimism fairly well, and after a while wondered if Le Bon's song dedication meant to indirectly praise Bush for leading us into Iraq, which has now conducted its first ever elections.
And the band's official Web site posts a pic of Nick Rhodes, Andy and Roger Taylor in what looks like the press room at the White House prior to the concert.
So who knows what point the remarks made. There are 219 messages on this fan message board, under the headline "Simon booed in Fairfax," but it costs $35/year to join. If anyone can forward some of the thread to me, I would be most interested!
Last December I had obtained tickets to Duran Duran, thinking it would be nice to have the concert to look forward to -- by the time April 8 rolled around, spring would be in full bloom. The Washington Post had praised their comeback album, Astronaut (see "Duran as in Durable: With 'Astronaut,' the '80s Band Recharges"), and it seemed like with a lot of hard work, the band had updated its danceable, fun sound.
Indeed, my sister and I rolled out of D.C. to what she calls "Farfax" to George Mason University's Patriot Center amid cherry blossoms and a perfect evening.
I haven't been to a concert, that I recall, since seeing George Clinton at Baltimore's Pier 6 in May 2000. Not knowing if Duran Duran would start right at 8 p.m. -- not remembering much about concert protocol at all, we took our seats in the two-thirds-empty Patriot Center, wondering if there was little market for an Eighties group. Not to worry though -- DD at this point is far more than a revival band, and we soon figured out where the fans were.
An opening act called Juliet appeared. Sharon wandered off to get bottled water and reported that the concourses were jammed by true fans. We were headed for a full house. The true fans, she said, wore DD shirts reading "Mrs. John Taylor" and "John Taylor Fan Club."
That was my ulterior motive in going, to see an absolutely beautiful man. John Taylor, who I believe lives in LA, needs to set his bandmate straight on showing some tact when addressing an American audience as a foreigner.
Le Bon has noted ("The Ridiculous Life of Simon Le Bon") that the tall bass player was once a young geek named Nigel wearing glasses:
The first time I saw him he was this speccy geek with nicotine-stained fingers, trembling with fear at the prospect of having to meet people. And his name wasn’t even John. It was Nigel. He was a Nigel with glasses, poor sod. I remember staring at his face and slowly realising that he was rather beautiful, exquisite in fact. I mean, this was the best looking guy I’d seen in years, maybe my whole life. Losing his glasses and changing his name to John was the best thing he ever did. He was a man transformed. To see him in action was incredible. He could charm the knickers off anyone.
Once we took our seats in the farthest reaches of row V, section 109, we could see (as you can tell by the above picture) only the tiny figures of the band. Note to self: Splurge on the $100, not $45, seats, next time you want to see a true rock hottie, even if you are so old you remember paying about $7 to see The Who at Merriweather in 1970.
I am not alone, a Washington Post writer named Jen noted she would be focused on the "bass god:" "If you happen to notice a woman in section 116 holding a pair of binoculars so she can get a better look at John Taylor, that would be me. Although I suspect I won't be alone."
One of the interesting aspects of such a venture back into the world of concerts is, what will be the audience be like? I had expected the grey-ponytail brigade, or older women. My amateur anthropology survey revealed that instead, the average audience age seemed to be about 21, apparently a lot of George Mason students who wanted to dance the whole time and knew every single lyric. Mostly there were swarms of pretty blond NoVa* girls, but also some couples (including many where the male half looked reluctant), and some gay fellas.
* Northern Virginia
At 8:50 p.m., Duran Duran came on to "Sunrise," off the new Astronaut CD. Excellent sound, lighting, background movies and pacing for two hours. Simon Le Bon looked like a gym rat -- the pudgy look is gone, and he struck plenty of Elvis-like straddle poses. John Taylor was having a bad hair day -- anyone as tall and skinny as him should not have hair short at the sides and piled to the top. Andy and Roger Taylor played with tons of energy, and Nick Rhodes was, as ever, a statue (he is the bottle blond who plays the Moog).
Here is the play list, from the band's Web site:
- SUNRISE -- Very energetic, great light show.
- HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF -- How did they manage to keep up the enthusiasm after 20 years of playing this song?
- PLANET EARTH -- I think this is their first hit.
- HOLD BACK THE RAIN
- ASTRONAUT -- Good job on the title track of their most recent CD.
- I DON’T WANT YOUR LOVE -- Catchy and incredibly shallow song, "I don't want your love, to bring me down." Kind of the polar opposite of the message of the late Pope John Paul II, on what commitment in marriage means.
- COME UNDONE -- Fabulous vocal by guest singer Anna Ross, who appeared in a slinky leather outfit with mesh stockings. She and the sax player added a lot to their sound.
- WHAT HAPPENS TOMORROW -- Here was Le Bon's downfall.
- REFLEX -- Took me a while to figure out they were playing my favorite song, because it started with a new arrangement! But the kids around us knew right away.
- TIGER TIGER -- instrumental lead by the sax player.
- CHAUFFEUR
- A VIEW TO A KILL -- Their Bond theme.
- ORDINARY WORLD
- SAVE A PRAYER
- BEDROOM TOYS
- NOTORIOUS
- NICE
- CARELESS MEMORIES
- WILD BOYS -- Very loud, I have never much liked this song, but the band seemed to up their energy for this one -- seems to be their personal favorite.
Encore:
- WHITE LINES -- I've never heard this song before, but it was the most danceable of all, fabulous.
Update: Yes, in reply to the comment by Otis below, this is a cover of Grandmaster Flash's version, which I just heard on XM Radio's 80s channel ... really, this was almost the highlight of the whole night, got everyone's funk on.
- GIRLS ON FILM -- With background movie of Marlene Dietrick era models.
- RIO -- Well done, but I could tell this would be their last song, and I had wanted them to do my other favorite instead, "New Religion."
We had a lot of fun dancing to everything that was danceable, most especially "White Lines" which I hadn't heard before, watching the kids slow dance and sing along karaoke style, and seeing Simon Le Bon clamber into the crowd after introducing the other band members to demand an introduction from a college-age girl in the audience of himself, coaching her to describe him as sexy and wonderful.
On our departure, we saw the band's giant cruising bus, painted with pictures of the band from the cover of the Astronaut CD. Skanky punk girls and others were waiting to meet their idols. If I were a bit younger, I would have stayed as well to see how rock stars behave nowadays.
Rock on, dudes. Even if you're out at George Mason, having to yell "hello Fairfax" instead of "hello D.C." after your first song, the concert was a fabulous success. Kudos to Nick Rhodes for pushing to keep DD together, working to come up with a fine new album, top arrangements for the live act and a variety of visuals.
- posted by jbelliveau at 4:58 PM in Books, Music, DVDs
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April 3, 2005
The world's greatest traveler, Pope John Paul II
This photo and cutline ran with my June 1982 article in the Catholic Standard on Pope John Paul II's visit to Britain.
What an inspired choice the College of Cardinals made on Oct. 16, 1978, picking on their eighth ballot Karol Wojtyla as pope.
The vigorous actor, skier and devout cardinal took his message on how to navigate an out-of-control modern world everywhere he could, from Rio di Janiero to Angola, from Coventry and Denver to the Philippines (partial map here).
News accounts of the passing of Pope John Paul II note that he is the most traveled pope of all time. It is quite likely that he is as well the most traveled person in human history.
In 
An Amateur's Guide to the Planet, I noted in the third chapter, on missionaries in Borneo:
Pope John Paul II, the modern world’s champion missionary (and perhaps even its foremost traveler at 625,000 miles), issued an encyclical in 1990 calling for increased missionary zeal. He wrote that “faith demands a free adherence on the part of a person, but at the same time faith must also be offered to that person.” Even so, he acknowledged that simply preaching at people would have little success in the modern world: "People today put more trust in witnesses than in teachers, in experience than in teaching and in life action than in theories."
Pope John Paul demonstrated that the indeed, people trust more in experience than in teaching, and that the vast experience gained on his travels made him treasure more than ever traditional wisdom on the importance of life and the family.
The Washington Post reported:
Simplified radically, his theology was this: Without fixed moral principles, people can fall into the trap of treating one another like objects of commerce or pleasure or vengeance. The proof was in nearly all realms of human activity. In "The Gospel of Life," his famous 1995 indictment of modernity, he cited the Second Vatican Council in listing murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, slavery, prostitution and disgraceful working conditions.
He continued to the corners of the Earth to bring this message. The figure of 625,000 miles traveled, logged by the mid-1990s, mushroomed to 742,000 miles by 2002, according to report from the Vatican Information Service (described here). And the Pope continued traveling, despite poor health, through 2004, for a total of 25 years of his papacy.
"Since the start of his Pontificate on October 16, 1978," the Vatican Web site notes, "Pope John Paul II has completed 104 pastoral visits outside of Italy and 146 within Italy. As Bishop of Rome he has visited 317 of the 333 parishes."
CNN lists his visits to 125 countries here.
I saw the pope during his October 1979 visit to Washington, D.C., part of his first visit to the United States. Few of us had an inkling that this brand-new but very dynamic pope would go on later in the decade to, along with President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, help bring Communist rule to an end in Poland and ultimately Eastern Europe.
As I note in my article below, the pope waded into a small lion's den in secular, cynical Washington, D.C., but that was sandwiched between far more bold ventures to Poland, in June 1983, June 1987 and June 1991. CNN notes of his first visit:
Huge, adoring crowds met him wherever he went and were an acute source of embarrassment to the communist government. Officially, the country was atheistic; it was also suffering from food shortages. The pope added to the authorities' discomfort by reminding his fellow Poles of their human rights."That was the beginning of the end of what we call the Soviet Empire," Robert Moynihan, editor and publisher of the magazine "Inside the Vatican," told CNN in a 2003 interview. "I think he brought that empire down, but not with missiles and not even with economic sanctions, but just by being a man, by being a man of faith."
By 1982, John Paul inspired great respect on his trip to, of all places, resolutely anti-Catholic Britain. I'll conclude by reprinting is a story I wrote more than two decades ago about that trip (published in Washington, D.C.'s Catholic Standard). How brave of him to go where he did and teach traditional morality. Who else has even attempted a fraction as much?
Washingtonian tells of British response to Pope
'More joyous' than during U.S. visit
June 10, 1982
By Jeannette Belliveau
(Special to the Catholic Standard)
LONDON — As a Washington Catholic now living in Protestant Britain, I expected the worst during Pope John Paul II's historic visit.
At first it seemed like Henry VIII in 1531 all over again. Cries of "the Antichrist," "pagan" and "Communist sympathizer" came from Ian Paisley and other fundamentalist Protestants. In March, a poll showed only half of Britons approved of the visit.
At my office outside London, a coworker grumbled the morning John Paul arrived: "The Pope is here making political statements," she said, "talking about war. He's supposed to be a spiritual leader."
But my smugness at the undoubtably greater tolerance and pluralism in the United States has been brought to an abrupt halt over the past few days. If anything, this is a more joyous event than the Pope's American visit in 1979, a welcome of amazing warmth from a country one-quarter the size of the U.S. — and less than 10 percent Catholic.
As one of the 175,000 who saw the Pope on the Mall in Washington, I now ponder the turnouts he has somehow received in this overwhelmingly Anglican nation: 350,000 in Coventry, 200,000 in Manchester and York, 300,000 even in Scottish, Presbyterian Glasgow.
The press coverage has been, in a word, glowing. "Joyful crowds take Pope John Paul to their hearts," was the banner headline in the May 30 Sunday Times.
John Paul is emerging here as a leader unafraid to call forcefully for peace in the Falklands and unity among Christians. This visit will undoubtably be remembered for a different stress from his visit to Washington, where he restated traditional themes against divorce, contraception, married clergy and women priests.
But John Paul's message is almost eclipsed by his forceful personal magnetism. Most riveting was his ministry to the sick on the day he arrived, at St. George's cathedral in London. As Guardian correspondent John Ezard put it:
John Paul's quarryman face and tender hands dominated a national service for the sick, elderly and dying yesterday afternoon. The event ... was the first in which intimate qualities of strength and love were able to emerge clearly from the man who quarried stone as a student. ... The pope's personal force could be seen most pointedly from close to the altar during the anointings. He clasped the hands of his people and looked with concentration into their eyes. Their faces opened like flowers as he touched them on the brows and fingers.By the end of an event of great intensity, not only the sick but many of the able-bodied in the congreation had to be led out of the cathedral, while they recovered from its impact.
A magical and surprising moment in this nations where Catholics number but 4.4 million. Try to imagine it happening in secular, cynical Washington.
As notable as the sizable crowds greeting John Paul are the tiny numbers at counter-demonstrations. While he celebrated Mass at Wembley Stadium in suburban London, Protestant protesters gathered at Trafalgar Square. I counted perhaps 600, and police estimated 500. A paltry turnout for a major, well-publicized London meeting -- I've covered meetings of the Montgomery County (Md.) school board that pulled more of a crowd.
The Rev. David Wright, vice-chairman of the Scottish Reformation Society, addressed the crowd. "Is he (the Pope) our brother in Christ?" he asked. "No!" they roared back.
A man in the crowd, wearing a "Jesus Lives" T-shirt, listened with eyes shut and fist raised straight in the air. Periodically he shouted, "Thank you, Jesus! Bless His name! Hallelujah!" It was a scene right out of the rural Maryalnd revivalist meetings, held summer evenings on Route 355 outside Darnestown.
Despite seeming so American, the man -- David Hartshorn, and his wife Rose -- were from Chatham, in Kent. What did they think of the pope's visit? "Horrifying," said Rose. "It's politically inspired, as well."
How so? "It's a subtle move from the devil to weaken the resolve of the country against the Argentine," said Dave. "He wants peace at any price. Peace at any price doesn't suit us."
Feelings like this run deep but not wide. In Liverpool, where earlier in March militant Protestants aborted a sermon by Anglican leader Dr. Robert Runcie, Ian Paisley could muster but 300 demonstrators on the Sunday of the pope's visit.
Far more typical was a Sunday Times editorial entitled, "First Citizen of the World:"
In all the long annals of the papacy, there has never been an occupant of the throne of St. Peter who knew better how to appeal to his fellow creatures, Catholics and non-Catholics, Christians and non-Christians, old and young, sick and healthy: Karol Wojtyla is a human phenomenon.
One priest asked on television whether the pope was winning converts responded, "Perhaps not converts, but sympathizers."
Jeannette Belliveau is a 28-year-old native of Rockville who from 1975 to 1981 was an education and features reporter on the Montgomery Journal. She moved to Britain in October. She is now a copy editor on Here's Health magazine in Surrey, England.
- posted by jbelliveau at 12:48 PM in Love, Sex, Romance and Travel
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