Call me foolhardy

Back when I was just around 15, our American History class was studying the historical and cultural events of the 20th Century, and various groups of students were assigned decades about which to do reports and make presentations. My group was assigned the 1970s. We focused on integrating the events and culture, and rather than do it as a report in a costume of the day, like all of the other groups had done until that point, we used the key entertainment and cultural attitudes of the period to convey the historical events. We started off with a Family Feud segment, complete with light-up board with flipping answers that we built using reinforced poster board and Christmas lights triggered by hidden switches, in which the Bunker family competed against the Jefferson family. Okay, think about Al Jolsen and then Neil Diamond in the Jazz Singer and then go ahead imagine everything that could be so wrong about a skinny teenage Jew (not me) in blackface, then forget about the blackface 'cause we weren't that crazy, but still. And then a commercial break starring me as Mark Spitz, fake mustache and all, on video before video editing was easy - I think we perfected the art of daisy-chained VHS recorders and timing with the pause button.

Like most groups, although we did a pretty good job of selecting key historical and cultural events, we had the fortune (really, the obligation) of relying on events that actually, you know, happened, and in our lifetimes, no less.

Our friend Philip's group, on the other hand, was assigned the 1980s. We didn't really have that much of the '80s under our belt at that time, however, so in addition to looking at the few years or so of the 1980s that had actually been written by history, Philip had the opportunity to write the future and predict what the rest of the '80s would bring. Lots of people would have fallen into the trap of political predictions at the start of the Reagan era, or focused on international affairs like the Soviets in Afghanistan, tensions with Iran or the Solidarity movement in Poland, or the space shuttle, or Star Wars (the movies or the space-based missile defense system), Pac-Man, Madonna and Michael Jackson, Charles and Diana, Luke and Laura.

Not Philip, though. A true visionary, he unconsciously or brilliantly - we, of course had no idea of his genius back then - predicted the era of the high concept. And what a high concept. You could basically build his anticipated decade (and his entire personal character, down to the bleached white hair) on two words: Billy Idol.

Which is relevant only to this - today's musical break, which I caught on the radio today.

Billy Idol - Cradle of Love
by Discodandan