Saturday, June 23, 2007

I'm one busy person this weekend. I'm working Saturday and Sunday (I have Wed/Thu off for now to avoid having to work every night of the week), going to the Police concert tonight, and driving down to Dana Point Sunday to meet up with an old friend.

I read an article on the web yesterday about Cameron Diaz who was in Peru carrying an olive green messenger bag emblazoned with a red star and a famous quote from Mao Zedong. The Peruvians, who once suffered decades of violence from Maoist guerrillas, were not amused. I have the same bag that I picked up in China last summer, and upon returning to Pasadena (frequented by many Chinese-Americans) I've often wondered who I might be offending. I hardly use the bag anymore. The Mao quote is "Serve the People." It seems quite innocuous until you consider that, for the Peruvians, the phrase is synonymous with the death of 70,000 of their people.

In honor of the Police concert tonight, the song of the day is "Don't Stand So Close To Me" off their 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta. I was surprised when I looked up the date to see how many of their hits were actually recorded in the 70s. The original version of this song is SO much better than the redux recorded in 1986 for their singles album. The song relates the thoughts of a teacher as he fights against his inappropriate attraction to an underage female student. One thing I've always loved about the Police and their songs is the lyrics and I often wonder if this is the only successful pop song to use the word Nabakov. I didn't realize until I was much older that it referred to the book "Lolita." This is one of my favorite songs by the band, and I can't wait to hear them perform it live tonight.

1 Comments:

Blogger Diane said...

The first time I saw the Police was at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium after their first album came out . . . have fun at the show tonight

7:59 AM  

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