Class

No class.

Too many times, when you see people on TV, or even on the street, fewer and fewer people have any class. It's not just the economy, although that is playing a pretty large part.

I was trying to get cerebral with this post but it just isn't happening. It's not that kind of week.
Prepare for lots of random thoughts.

How in the fuck do even Vegas audiences sink so low? (You know what I'm talking about, no need to ask....) Even as a child I knew better than to treat a live performer as an object and not a human.

I think the answer is obvious: money doesn't buy class. Vegas is financially tanking worse than any other city in the nation, so everyone working there suffers. (Read: Barry, it wasn't your fault.) And the people who can afford a trip to Vegas are the types who were raised by wolves and think that people are objects or worse, property. It's not just at the Hilton, either - every act is getting hit, up and down the strip.

Speaking for myself, it killed me that I couldn't hear "Sandra" or any of the Mayflower set live. If I didn't think my doctor would have put me in lockdown, I would have been out there to see it myself. (To TPTB: any chance that set list will end up on Manilow TV? Please???) I'm just not happy unless I can totally immerse in a performance, pick it apart, compare and contrast, and analyze the hell out of it. That's why it's taking me forever to compile all of my thoughts on Live at the Greek - I keep finding something else to focus on and the pile is growing. Hell, I'm still dissecting parts of the Ultimate Manilow shows I saw back in October and re-analyzing them with Pete while watching M&P on DVD. What I wouldn't give for the next musical evolutionary step to sink my teeth into....

My worst fear in this vein is that we won't see/hear any more new material from Barry because of the barbarians. I know, call me paranoid, but I am really paranoid and wound tight these days. I still want to hear the music you can practically **see** he still has in him to create and I don't want us civilized folks not be able to appreciate it or the man who created it because some folks just weren't raised right.

I seem to remember that all of the "classic" songs were brand new at one time. They became classics because they were played and promoted. There's not a damn reason why that can't happen again. Any new material, when promoted the right way can be just as successful as the "classics" - it's only a matter of finding the right promoters, venues, etc and be backed by people who believe in it as much as the creator does. There was a time when people accepted that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place. Today, that's bullshit. Lightning strikes wherever your little heart desires, so long as you manipulate the conditions correctly.