30 years? Really? I was sitting in my studio apt, a lovely Berkeley dwelling situated on top of a garage at the end of a long driveway, watching MNF and mulling over the pros and cons of dumping my current philandering girlfriend. Should I or shouldn't I? The dog stood by the door and wanted out. The f'ball game was almost over. The Jets were probably going to kick a field goal to send it into OT. And then...Howard Cosell's voice, that unmistakable quivering nasal sing-song cadence, broke the news of John Lennon's death at the Dakota. I stared in disbelief at the telly, and started to cry. It was a different sort of emotional over-flow; not as shockingly raw as the Kennedy assassination, in retro, it was more of an undefined sadness that swept through me. The music didn't die that day, but another light went out and once again my generation was left to ponder questions that begged sensibility and wholeness from a shattering enigmatic event. The girl friend came over. In my numbness, I relented and didn't kick her out. A mistake. Which took years to rectify.
postscript: Because MNF was the only 'live' event on the telly that night, ABC was asked to interrupt the f'ball game to break the news. In a recording which was aired this morning, Cosell, not sure of the protocol, and a bit daunted by the request, asks Frank Gifford for his opinion. Gifford, much to his credit, immediately recognizes the gravity of the situation, and tells Cosell to do it. Soon after, 24 hour news networks like CNN, MSNBC and FOX cometh forth.
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