Re: Orange County Weekly Review

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

>Well, it certainly does smell of crass hyprocatcy and grasping at straws 
>for a middle-aged multimillionaire to pretend to be the 20 year old ex-art 
>student he was 35 years ago.  To that I would add that it certainly reveals 
>a lack of respect for one's audience to flip them off and to make 
>statements on stage which gives every impression that one knows that they 
>are ripping off the very people who has put food in their mouths for so 
>long and they don't give a rip one way or the other.

You were fine up to here.  I don't think TED have made any pretense to being 
20 years old.  I wasn't at this particular show, of course, but none of this 
was true for the one show I've been to.  From all accounts Hollywood Bowl 
and Irvine must have been seriously lackluster, but The Who have the 
reputation for variable quality from way back.  There are some nights where 
the chemistry just doesn't work.

As far as becoming a caricature goes, I think they are expected to do a few 
things: windmills, jumps, mic twirling, shirt-unbuttoning and standing still 
to play bass.  These were genuine self expression at one time, but long ago 
became caricature.  Still, if you compare, there are some definite 
difference in the shows now compared to the seventies--they've adjusted the 
caricature fairly appropriately.

There was a comment on another list about how much they've cut back on the 
acrobatics.  Roger and Pete can still do that stuff (and did some starting 
off), but they've decided it's too much work.  Pete's doing his comedy 
routine instead.  Roger had pretty much quit unbuttoning his shirt for a 
while, but it seems the gals are disappointed if he doesn't do it, so I'd 
say he's still fine with it open (fake tan or not).  When the gals start 
going "ick" then it's time to button up.

TED are breaking new ground here, and the reviews so far indicate they're 
doing well at it.  Whenever anybody brings up Elvis, I always think about 
Leopold Stokowski (born 1882), who died about the same time, infirm but 
witty as hell, and still doing good work.


keets
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