Archie Kobain

Today was supposed to be Archie’s triumphant return.
The big blog post to relaunch my bloggerific career and fix all the world’s problems.
But I decided to delay that by a week.

The Lord Gives and The Lord Takes Away
About a week ago, a friend of mine called to tell me about the Guns & Roses reunion.
That’s right.  The original Guns ‘n Roses, or at least Axl & Slash, are getting back together to play at The Coachella Music Festival and there are rumors of a stadium tour to follow.

Of course, we can’t trust these guys to stay copacetic long enough to pull off a stadium tour so, I swore that if they ever played together again, I would move mountains to be there.
Well, that’s not going to happen.

Barnsley spent hours looking into this and, we’re not doing it.  It would be irresponsible to, at this late hour, after tickets have been sold out, to pay twice the price, scramble for a place to stay and negotiate transportation, just to see the greatest rock band that ever lived, one more time.  OK – when I put it that way, maybe we should go.

Just kidding.  I am, however, very excited by this news.
And I’m gunning for some floor tickets at Madison Square Garden, baby!

And Who Can Bear to be Forgotten?
As excited as I am by the news of Guns ‘n Roses, however, it pales in comparison to my sadness over the death of David Bowie, one of the most iconic performers of our time. There’s a guy who was never supposed to die, like Jerry Lewis, Dick Van Dyke or the original Aunt Jemima…

Seriously.  Space Oddity is probably the oldest song that I remember hearing, not counting songs that were played to me by my parents.  It was the first song that made me go, “wow” and think to myself, “I like this music thing. It’s about something. I want more.”

And then, when you saw David Bowie back then, you were like…  Whoa!

I remember watching him on TV and, my father, having no idea what he might do, looking like he did, turned the station while saying, in Spanish, “you’re not watching that”.

…but my head was already floating in a most peculiar way.

Many years later, when MTV hit the scene, there he was again – front & center.
Let’s Dance, Modern Love, China Girl.  I was still trying to figure out Heroes,
The Man Who Sold The World and Diamond Dogs. Loving The Alien. Changes!
The list goes on…

I love when an artist keeps us guessing.  Wondering where he’s going next or in which direction he will point to see if we walk towards it – all the time, blazing new trails and exploring his artistic freedom, only mildly caring whether or not the masses would dig it.

That was David Bowie to me. Genius.

You will not be easily forgotten, my friend.
Thank you for the ridiculous amount of music that you gave the world.

I raise my glass to you and celebrate your life!

Rest in Peace

OK, so…
I guess I’ve announced my triumphant return.
Be sure to tune in next week.
There is much to discuss, as the world seems to be unraveling.

That makes it Archie Time.

Peace

– Arch