Did anyone check out the Tonight Show last night? I know it was their 1,500th show so that might have drawn some attention from the public. Maybe some people tuned in to see Kit Harington or Miranda Cosgrove. I’m willing to bet, though, that the majority of people reading this blog checked in out to see Duran Duran perform. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, here it is:
There is something about Duran Duran appearing on late night that really excites me. Maybe it goes back to my childhood when my family would spend time at my cousins’ house. Those cousins were older than me and were much more hip than my older siblings were, when it came to pop culture. They would often have late night shows on as we hung out. I remember seeing a number of artists perform on those nights. So, last night was no different as I was excited. I had been at my parents’ place earlier in the night, exercising a different fan practice for a different fandom as my beloved White Sox beat the New York Yankees at the very special Field of Dreams game. Luckily, the game ended and I was able to get home by 10:25. Perfect timing. By the time Jimmy Fallon was done with his monologue, I was sitting on the couch, ready to see my favorite band perform. While I anxiously awaited the end of the show, I thought back to another time in my Duranie history that I was super excited to see Duran on late night TV.
Back in the Astronaut days of 2004 and 2005, it felt like Duran was on every talk show and that an appearance would come up every other week. While many of them were awesome, I have super fond memories of the time that they performed on the Conan O’Brien’s show, the day before they played at Madison Square Garden in New York City in April of 2005. If you haven’t seen it or haven’t seen it in a long time, here it is:
During this time period, I worked across the hall from my friend, Sara, who was as into Duran as I was (at the time). While I figured that we would dish about the performance at some point the next day, I was not quite prepared for her level of enthusiasm. As I walked into my room, I spotted her coming down the hall with a cart that held a TV and VCR that classroom teachers could borrow from the school’s library and media center. (At the time, we did not have TVs in our individual rooms.) I turned to her and asked her what she was planning on showing her 6th graders that day, assuming that the TV was for educational purposes. Well, it was for educational purposes, but not for her students, at least not at first. She laughed and declared that it was for us as she went on to explain that she had recorded the performance at home using her VCR. With that statement, I followed into her classroom as she worked to plug in the equipment and pull out the tape from her bag. Quickly, I realized that we would be watching it now, before school started. While I cannot remember my schedule that year, I clearly did not have a class by myself, 1st hour, as I was not in a rush to get to class. No, instead, I stood with my friend as we watched the performance over and over again, even after her students had entered the classroom. Yes, we forced her students to watch the performance, probably more than once. Definitely no more than five times. It could only help them develop good music tastes, right? We were providing a much needed service to these growing young minds.
It made for a fun morning and lunch for both of us as we decided to watch it a couple of more times when we had down time in the middle of the day. I’m not certain that we got any work done that day but we had a good day, nonetheless! Now, when is the next TV appearance because I am ready for the next one!
-A
