Word: saneness
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...time he changes faces. First as a self-satisfied military officer, then as cowardly tyrant, and finally as a simpering, giggling despot who knows he has crippled the souls of his people, Wells is a perfect villain. David Reiffel is equally good in his role as the not-quite-sane mayor, who switches mental illnesses to suit the moment. Charles Weinstein, as the mayor's conniving son who gives up his fiancee to the dragon in return for a position as private secretary, may overdo his sliminess somewhat; but fairy tales deal in black-and-white characters, and outrageously villanous...
...generations we were confident that we could distinguish the sane from the insane. Now that confidence is vanishing, and the decade of the '60s did much to erode it. Nations and societies went crazy, as they had in the past, but this time they were collectively judged to be abnormal: society was blamed, not its members or its leaders. British Psychiatrist R.D. Laing took that view a step further, enunciating that in a crazy world even wildly abnormal personal behavior might be considered sane...
...party is now assembling that platform on which the eventual nominee must stand or run or fall or whatever. The issue that most grips me is monogamy for Utah. Many otherwise quite sane politicians become livid at the mention of the Mormons, a curious sect recently invented by a "prophet" and confined for the most part to the Utah desert, where Mormon women live in harems and breed incontinently. They sound very nice to me, if overly energetic...
Glitter, however, was only one facet of Bowie's early work. The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Alladin Sane were concerned as much with mortality as with kinky sex. Bowie's lyrics reflected a fascination with aging and its immanence. On "Changes" he despairs that "Time may change me/but I can't trace time" and warns "rock'n'rollers" to turn and face the changes for ever they get older. And on "Cracked Actor" he paints a gruesome portrait of superannuated sex--"Forget that I'm fifty cause you just got paid/Suck, baby, suck, give...
Such was the glory of Bowie's best years. Since 1973, he has contended unsuccessfully with the departure of Ronson, the waning of glitter's initial excitement, and the pressure to move from critical raves to a high place on the charts. The LP's after Alladin Sane were all disappointing. Pin Ups, a reworking of classic British hits of the sixties was a dismal failure. Bowie's vocals are so mannered to begin with that when he works with lyrics less surreal than his own he sounds like he's camping it up. Diamond Dogs was worse, an unintentional...