On September 1, 1984, my parents brought me to see the Jackson 5
at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. As far as I could tell, this was the biggest
thing to have happened to anybody, ever. My parents seemed more excited than I
was, and even though all I wanted to hear were the amazing songs I knew from
Michael's landmark Thriller album, I kept hearing from the adults in my life
that the Jacksons might do mostly some older songs that the group had
apparently had some success with previously. I thought everyone was crazy to
think that with all these people coming
to see them, the band wouldn't do the songs that were currently taking radio by
storm.
Of course, I was quite mistaken and during the show I can still
remember after each song would end, I would hold my breath and prey fiercely
for the opening notes of Thriller, Wanna Be Startin' Something, PYT, or even
The Girl Is Mine (that one with another guy who had apparently also done well
with some older tunes). But time and again, I wouldn't recognize the next
number and I would be forced to wait until it was over. It was confusing,
because everyone else seemed completely delirious over each song. They couldn't
get enough! JFK Stadium had become a massive gathering of joyful, celebrating
people, and even if I was missing the point, I could tell it was a big day for
all of us.
Come to think of it, that was also my first experience in a
stadium. Since then I've seen a good mix of concerts, sporting events, and more
than a few monster truck rallies in stadiums from Boston to San Diego. Outside
of a few parts of the country where they do church services in stadiums, that's
about all you get in those massive coliseums; Sports and pop artists. Of
course, that makes a measure of sense. After all, you have to have pretty wide
appeal to sell several tens of thousands of tickets. Otherwise, there are
plenty of smaller, more intimate venues that make more sense to try and fill.
Seeing a show in a club or theatre is always a more grounded experience. You don't
have the huge crowds to fight on the way in and out, and you can really get a
sense for what is happening on stage. Usually the sound is a fair bit better,
too.
I bring all this up in response to a discussion I had with a
great friend of mine about the "value" of following sports. When I
brought up the idea that sports is a common language that brings people
together and gives them something to discuss, no matter how unfamiliar they may
be with each other, he countered with the idea that the arts could, and perhaps
should, play that role in broader society. I said I felt it did, to some
extent, and he laughed as he asked me to compare the kind of attention music,
dance, theatre and fine art gets day-to-day compared with sports. I have to
say, his point resonated with me. This was long before The OffSeason, and
certainly was a contributing factor in developing the idea of this experiment.
It's been proven over and over to me in the last several months
that the time I was spending paying attention to sports was time that I was
neglecting some of what life had to offer me. We're only given so much time to
play with, and it has felt good to correct that balance. More than that, I have
come to recognize a larger truth as well. In a stadium full of people watching
a contest, it stands to reason that about half of the people will be
disappointed with the outcome. Perhaps many will feel cheated due to something
their team did, or didn't do, or maybe because of a referees influence on the
outcome. So that leaves room for only half of the audience going home feeling
really good, at most.
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