This and That
It’s cold, rainy, and gray in Chicago this week. It’s the sort of weather that makes you wish you were somewhere else.
Wish I’d been back home in the Twin Cities this past weekend, for example. Jim Walsh reports that Prince was up to his old tricks at Paisley Park.
“This will always be my home,” Prince told a crowd of a couple thousand at Paisley early Sunday morning during a rave-up of “Let’s Work,” which sizzled like a call-to-arms for the Obama generation. Then, as if reminding himself of his own roots and what can happen when one man puts his mind to making music for the ages, he testified, “I lived in an apartment on Aldrich. I cashed my checks at Rudolph’s [Bar-B-Que]. I swam in Lake Calhoun.”
Point being, of course, that you can and should go home again. With the specter of Michael Jackson’s tragic legacy hanging from the Paisley rafters, Prince rescued his old friend/competitor for the moment with an ebullient version of The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” As he led the first few rows in a singalong, he grinned joyfully and shouted “that’s what I’m talking about,” as if the music alone could negate the ceaseless sordid Michael minutiae clogging the culture’s consciousness at the moment.
On the other hand, it’s a very good thing I’m not in Japan this week. The object of horror/desire that Burger King is offering up there to celebrate the launch of Windows 7 would be a suicidal temptation too strong to resist.
I mean, wouldn’t you have to try it once?
There are apparently worse things than autumnal rain and cold.
on October 28th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
There’s another certain Minnesotan in town for three nights starting tomorrow at the Aragon Ballroom. Are you going? Junko and I will be there tomorrow.
on October 29th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Hi, John — No, I won’t be going to see Uncle Bob this time around. I thought about it, but it never happened. Enjoy the show, and pray that he doesn’t do too many Christmas songs….