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>>>OTOH, I've seen great outbursts of creativity where you wouldn't expect them - in areas which were deemed less important, or a showcase for the system. We had great arts, and, unbelievably, very good television. I wish there's a team like that today, just to show how TV can actually be good. And we had very good rock'n'roll.
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>>I'm curious about your rock and roll. I think the Beatles are the best there ever was, but I do like the Eagles too (what a talented group). My taste in music runs the gambit though. I like SRV, Lyle Lovett and James Taylor are my two current favorites, then I go from bluegrass, to '40s jazz, Mississippi blues, all the way back around to classical, especially guitar. And then there's this guy named Doc Watson who is blind and plays like he can see inside the strings.
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>I see your tastes are entirely American :). We had much more British influence, to the point when our best bands (i.e. those who made enough money to afford the trip) were recording their LPs in London, sometimes with famous musicians joining in.
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Entirely American? I thought I said the Beatles were the best there ever was. Of course I liked the Stones and Who and a few of those other bands, but the Beatles were head and shoulders above them. (British)



>We had a few great bands in '66-74, then a few huge commercial successes in 75-80 (but not entirely to my liking, except a few), and then the huge new wave wave :) in 1981, which somehow sprung up simultaneously all over the country. If you have the Live Aid '85 tapes somewhere, you can see the relevant faces in the Yugoslav entry (and IMO the song is more powerful than what Brits and Americans have cooked up - but I'm as biased as my tape deck's head was at the time :).
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>>I would never say we have a perfect system, but I think it's the best around. If they would only make me King, "we'd all be drinking that free bubbleup and eating that rainbow stew." Everyone would have to learn Foxbase+,Foxpro (dos and windows) and we would allow only the brightest to delve into VFP!<vbg>
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>Would you allow your subjects to vote you out of office? :)

Kings don't get voted out. . . .