The third and last part of a series of related posts on Journey’s new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, called “It’s Steve, and It’s Not Steve“, on American Pop.

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I’m in a crabby mood, so be forewarned: a new American Pop entry on the rather dreadful Esther Ku, some petty infighting, and what happens when satire runs off the rails, called “Unfunny“.

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At some point in your life, Dear Reader, you must have said to yourself — and you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog if you didn’t — you must have said to yourself, This is my favorite band. That band was The Police, back in 1983, at the tender age of [don't even ask], when I saved up my allowance to buy my very first album on cassette, Synchronicity, which was followed by a voracious rifling through their back catalog, beginning with Outlandos d’Amour. In hindsight I can see, even back then, the obsessive quality of my consumption: it wasn’t enough to get the five studio albums; I had to go buy a bootleg Synchronicity T-shirt, and even that volume of The Secret Policemen’s Ball, on vinyl for crying out loud, where a solitary Sting sings “Roxanne” without his fellow band members. (But my incipient critical faculties didn’t cling to The Police for too long, fickle as they were; they were supplanted, in too-quick succession, by Talking Heads, U2, and The Cure (1984, 1985, and 1986 respectively) as my Favorite Band Of All Time, but no matter: The Police were the very first.

Just a few hours ago, with Son and Eloise, I finally fulfilled something of a lifelong and impossible dream of mine: to see The Police in concert. It feels odd to report that the highlight of the concert was Sting making a surprise appearance to sing a duet with Elvis Costello on “Alison”, but the element of surprise gets me every time. (Costello also played “Pump It Up”, “Radio Radio”, “Watching the Detectives”, “Everyday I Write The Book”, “Clubland”, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding”, and I swear they were playing “Accidents Will Happen” during the soundcheck, but he didn’t play it.) But again, no matter: The Police gave a fantastic concert from start to finish, with my brain completely fried from what was technically 25 full years of waiting.

So, the setlist, as far as I can remember, below:

1. “A hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore.”
2. “I hope my legs don’t break.”
3. “I’m a walking disaster.”
4. “Echoes things that you said.” / “Same tape I’ve had for years.”
5. “Just like that old man in that book by Nabokov.”
6. “Shame wells in my throat.”
7. “I shake like an incurable.”
8. “I resolved to call her up a thousand times a day.”
9. “I will turn your face to alabaster.”
10. “And no one’s jamming their transmission.”
11. “Looking like something that the cat brought in.”
12. “And my LP records and they’re all scratched.” / “Rio riay riayo.”
13. “I won’t share you with another boy.”
14. “There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread.”
15. “I always play the starring role.”
16. “I keep crying baby baby please.”
17. “I sold my house I sold my motor too.”

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In most matters of style, the Press follows the Chicago Manual of Style… unless the author has used an alternative style that is reasonable and consistent.

The alternative style sheet, as provided by my copyeditor, which is an oddly accurate snapshot of what’s inside my forthcoming book, though I hesitated for a minute about “Q-Bert” versus “QBert”:

Adobe PageMaker
anti-abstinence
anti-communist

balikbayan (ital. at 1st appearance, not afterward)

CommLink

DJ Q-Bert

ethno-linguistic

family-reunification as adj. before noun
family-reunification preference as adj. before noun
Filipino
The Filipino Channel
Filipinoness
Financial District
first-preference as adj. before noun

hiphop
Hiphop Nation
hyperaccelerated

I-Hotel
inarticulable
insurmountability
intraethnic
intraracial
Invisibl Skratch Piklz

Jefferson High School District

maidless
maidlessness
Manileños
middle-classness
misrecognition
multilocality
multisited
museum-ized

national origin as adj. before noun
neo-functionalism
non-citizen
non-fulfillment
non-existent
non-participation
non-practice
non-profit
non-quantifiable
non-quota
non-resident

occupational-preference as adj. before noun
Orientalism
Other
Otherwise

pakikisama
PhilNews Network
Pilipino
Pinoy
Pinoys
politico-legal
postcoloniality
postcolonially

reggaeish
re-turn

Second Wave open as adj before noun
semi-autobiography
semi-conscious
semi-fictional
semi-mythical
semi-official
semi-permanent
semi-racist
semi-religious
Serramonte district
St. Francis district
subheadline
Sunset District

Taglish
Tenderloin district
Third Wave open as adj before noun
third- and sixth-preference as adj. before noun
third-preference as adj. before noun
Top of the Hill district
transnationality
transnationally
turntablist
turntablism

unpatriotism

Westlake district

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One of my earliest childhood memories ever — come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve seen this clip from Sesame Street in color, since I watched it back in the day on a small black-and-white TV. I don’t think it gets any funkier than this.

Three decades later, I finally saw him live for the first time at the Shoreline, just over the weekend with Joannie and Luna. An amazing concert all around — not quite as tight a band as in the vintage video above, and with an audience a little more sedate than the kid in the red shirt, but with massive amounts of goodwill radiating outward from the stage, it wasn’t hard to be swept up and feel overjoyed. (Despite the odd sequencing, at times: the crowd on their feet with “Higher Ground”, only to sit back down with an extended jam on Chick Corea’s “Spain”. A great reminder, nonetheless, of Wonder’s place as a titan of American popular music, one not “limited” to funk and soul.)

And I can’t pick from my favorite 1-2-3 combos: was it the “Isn’t She Lovely / Ribbon in the Sky / Overjoyed” combination halfway through, or “Signed Sealed Delivered / Sir Duke / I Wish” two hours in? Nevertheless: an unassailable selection of songs, a fantastic concert.

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