Simon Le Bon in Dayton; Q-bert Coming Next Week

Duran Duran is playing tonight at the Fraze Pavilion - a 3000 seat ampitheatre - in Kettering. It made front-page news on the Entertainment Section of today's Dayton Daily News.

Duran Duran.

My wife saw the story and said, "I used to have a poster of them in my bedroom."

I used to have a poster of Bo Jackson, too. But that doesn't mean he's section-front news.

Being back in my boyhood home makes one nostalgic. But Duran Duran? I mean, what decade are we in? Of course, in 1982, Princess Diana did declare that the British pop team was her favorite band. And how can you argue with hit songs like, "Hungry Like a Wolf" and "Rio" and "Girls on Film" and most importantly "The Reflex."

It made me think back to my days at 3524 Stutsman Road. And some of the most important trends of that decade: the 80s.

Pac-Man
This incredibly simple game caused millions to lose their quarters in 1980-81. The game comes from a Japanese word "pakupaku" which means to repeatedly open and close one's mouth. THe game was first called "Puckman" but for once, a video game company foresaw problems ahead and changed the name to the family friendly - and vandal resistant - name that lives on today. At one point in time, I actually watched, with relish, an animated cartoon featuring the adventures of Pac-man. In today's world of super-realistic video games, I have no idea how I'm going to explain this one to my son.

We had this yellow circle that went around and ate fruit and ghosts....no, wait, son, come back! I haven't told you about the angry monkey that throws barrels or the frog that tries to cross the road!"

The Oprah Winfrey Show
A local northern Illinois program called A.M. Chicago changed it's name to the Oprah Winfrey Show, hitting national ariwaves on Sept. 8, 1986. She hasn't left since. Want to know how powerful this woman is? i can speak first-hand. I came homet o find not one, but two books by William Faulkner in the coffee table. Now, my mom is a retired kindergarten teacher. I can understand her reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" but "The Sound and the Fury?" Are you kidding me? But because Oprah suggested it, my mother is reading William Faulkner and following along on internet online discussions with English professors. It's like, "Are you kidding me?"

CNN
The network was founded on June 1, 1980 by Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld, who turned a vision of 24-hour news network into a reality most Americans can't imagine living without. Hard to believe that for a while, CNN was the laughingstock of news media. Now, it's the standard.

California vs. Greenwood
What's this, you might ask? Just a little tidbit of info I picked up from my Constitutional Law class. Though not the most important Supreme Court case of the 80s (that's probably Texas. v. Johnson), it is probably the most interesting. This is the case in which 9 dignified justices decided once and for all that curbside garbage is fair game. In other words, police can pick through your garbage in order to get enough dirt (get it?) to warrant an official search (get it?) inside. The vote was 6-2, with the dissenters claiming that picking through garbage is not civilized behavior; the majority said that trash bags on the street are open to inspection by "animals, children, scavengers, snoops and other members of the public." Interestingly enough, after this May 1988 decision, a new industry was formed. Paper shredders. Seriously. Look it up.

USA for Africa
The song We Are The World flew off the shelves in March of 1985 so fast that it was estimated that for the first time, more singles were sold than US households. Which means, that statistically speaking, there was more than one copy of this song - produced and written by Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie - per house. I know for a fact that the Tieche household had three. I bought one, and each of my parents gave it to me for an Easter present. Proceeds went to help famine-starved Ethiopia.

This is going to sound cheesy, but this song actually changed my life. I had an English teacher in 10th grade play the song after we read the book "The Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck, which was largely about the indifference of the world to the suffering of those in need physically. This song attempted to shock us out of apathy by appealing to a message that Christ himself would be proud of.

There comes a time when we heed a certain call
When the world, must come together as one
Wwe can't go on pretending day by day
That someone somewhere will soon make a change
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand
To life. The greatest gift of all
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving

Even more moving, you had this blend of artists, some with gorgeous voices (Lionel Richie, Steve Ingram) and others with terrible, but beautifully distinct voices (Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Willie Nelson). Nowhere was this better articulated than at the end when Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder duet back and forth. The smoothness of Stevie, the rough, textures of Bruce. It's harmony among discord. It's rough next to smooth. It's black next to white. It's blue collar versus I can't tell what color your collar is. It's moving, that's what it is.

The message: we all are part of this thing. We all can help. Even if you can barely sing, you can be part of something beautiful. Call me silly, but to me, that's a large part of the message of Christ. We all are in the body.

Except the third Pointer Sister. She was nowhere to be found.