All The Critics Love U In New York

We've all observed this at one moment or another, but time is a strange thing, indeed. As noted before, this fall will be the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road and also of the launch of the first Soviet Sputnik. But it will also already be the 25th anniversary of Prince's massive breakthrough album, 1999, which mystical year -- in 1982 -- seemed quite a little way off.

Now we in the USA have spent our entire 21st century experience under the Bush-Cheney Republican nightmare machine. Party like it's 1999, horrible people are coming to take over the country. "Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?"

Between 1982 and now, Prince has gone through various transformations (David Bowie comes to mind as a like artist orbiting out there and coming back again to Earth). A lot of Prince stays in mind: I don't need to break out the album to hear the cover song in my head, "Let's Pretend We're Married," "Lady Cab Driver," "All The Critics Love U In New York," or any of the other tracks on 1999. It was different. it was raunchy. It was cool. It also carried a lot of musical tradition, duly noted and celebrated on Prince's Musicology (2004), the most recent of his many works I've listened to over the past quarter century. I love "Kiss" (1986) and "U Got the Look" (1987) and various other funk-laced tracks.

A salute to Prince on his 49th birthday, just ahead of the Kerouac/Sputnik half century mark.

Today's Rune: Opening.

Birthdays: Beau Brummell, Amelia Edwards, Elizabeth Bowen, Jessica Tandy, Gwendolyn Brooks, Dean Martin (b. Dino Paul Crocetti), Tom Jones (Woodward), Yolande Cornelia Nikki Giovanni, Jenny Jones (b. Janina Stranski), Louise Erdrich, Prince aka The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (TAFKAP) aka The Artist (b. Prince Rogers Nelson), Gia Carides, Song Yun-ah , Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova.

2000 zero zero party over, oops, out of time. Ciao!