The two latest performers to pass on were much alike, and also much different, as played out with local fans and singers of their songs.
Actor/comic Bob Saget and musician/actor David Bowie pushed the envelope, but in different ways, and in what of it was out there in the public. And their visual appeal was at bookends, but shared a feminine look, which was used for both art and satire — we won’t even mention the late Betty White and Hot in Cleveland as that would be outside the two-state Minnesconsin area.
(And before I go further, let me reference the death of Clyde Bellecourt, an leading American Indian advocate based in Minneapolis. I once did a lengthy interview with him on his own turf, a small, unassuming single-story building in an unassuming part of south Minneapolis. What this place he used as an office lacked in high-class, it made up in colorful decor from his culture. This was a social justice from-the-region story that was run nationally long before the days of Black Lives Matter and the like).
When taking a bow for Bowie, karaoke is how I’ve always done it, singing as poppy as I get with Fame and all the vocal orchestrations that were really novel at their time. I’ve done it on many a night, especially years back at what is now the Nutty Squirrel in River Falls, then it was Bo’s ‘N Mine, loving to do on the long descent of that word mid-song. I also was intrigued watching some early morning TV and finding Bowie had penned a rockish opera that was strongly religion based.
As if it needs saying, HudsonWiNightlife has anointed Ellie as the semi-official western Wisconsin queen of Tic Toc. Her daily postings quickly gained a huge following, and this attention to quick detail shown forth when she had two postings on Saget within the day after his death. That speed Tic Tocing is second to only Weird Al Yankovic, who did something similar in volume and comedic-quality-haste a day after a debate, based on the debate, between Trump and Biden.
Some local fans of both Ellie and Saget say he had an alter ego to his family fare, doing very riske comedy that at times was self-deprecating, and upon hearing it were turned off. (Are you listening Miley Cyrus?) Did he push it too far and really tick someone off? Be careful about proceeding in this fashion, especially these days, HudsonWiNightlife.