Friday Roundup: Duran Duran and Adam Lambert at the Garden, Trader Joe’s pumpkin madness, more U.N.C.L.E., The Devils

Okay, right, it’s Saturday. Saturday is very close to Friday, honestly. Practically the same day.

I went to Fresh 102.7’s Fall Fest at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, with headliners Duran Duran and Adam Lambert. Great show—I’d seen Duran at the Garden back in 2011, but that was in the gargantuan Arena, whereas this was in the much smaller and more intimate (but still pretty huge) Theater within the same complex. We could actually see the stage this time, which was a huge plus. Decent seats, cheap tickets, good acts (in addition to the big draws, Rachel Platten, A Great Big World, and Phases played on the bill). Anyway, Duran did a shortened version of their set from the Terminal 5 show last month (they dropped “Dancephobia”, as well as a few other songs, and damn it, I found myself missing that obnoxious little tune).

One sour spot: The crowd was… not great, at least in our section. There were a bunch of middle-aged male Duranies behind us and in front of us who were pretty loud and vocal in their contempt for Lambert. Look, dudes, you knew Lambert was scheduled to play when you bought your tickets, and being openly disrespectful is a dick move. Go hang out in the lobby if you don’t want to sit through his set. It put me on edge. I have a well-documented firm pro-Lambert stance: He’s got that amazing voice, he’s a natural-born showman, and he’s smart and dazzling and hilarious in interviews. Also? The gulf between Lambert and Duran really isn’t all that wide, guys, and it’s bridged by a love of sequins and eyeliner.

Quick links to my snarky-but-affectionate Adam Lambert video analyses on this site:

For Your Entertainment

If I Had You

Never Close Our Eyes

For balance, here are quick links to my snarky-but-affectionate Duranalyses of the Arcadia videos:

The Flame

Goodbye is Forever

Election Day

(Edited to add: Look at those above screengrabs! I didn't intend that, but "For Your Entertainment"-era Lambert and Arcadia-era Nick Rhodes are apparently twins.)

Following in the grand footsteps of such splendid Duran-themed Tumblrs as Nick on a Box and WTF is Duran Duran Wearing?, here’s Duran Duran: The Divine Comedy, which neatly captures the glamorous, ridiculous, hilarious Spirit of Duran Duran. I like this site a whole lot, and not just because the cool lady who runs it gave a nice shout-out to Duranalysis.

http://thedivinecomedyofduranduran.tumblr.com/post/130305343944/being-diminutive-was-sometimes-a-disadvantage-for

BTW, I’m actively seeking new Duranalysis topics. Suggestions welcomed.

Of the 92 products spotlighted in Trader Joe’s October 2015 Fearless Flyer, fifty-one involve pumpkin. This is madness.

Lulu.com, please tell your marketing department to act less mopey and resentful toward your subscriber base. Passive-aggressive isn’t a good look for any company.

Yesterday I finished watching season three of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. It’s still a delightful, sparkling show; even season three, which is legendary for its slipshod badness (in Jon Heitland’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Book, the section on season three is titled “Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory: How a Good Show Went Bad”, if that gives you some idea of the general level of antipathy toward it), had more hits than misses.

Here are more amazing illustrations from The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Calcutta Affair. Yeah, so there’s this whole subplot where a cow falls in love with Illya, a story so epic it requires four separate illustrations.

Song for the weekend: The Devils—that’d be Nick Rhodes and Stephen Duffy—with their insanely catchy tune “Big Store” off their 2002 Dark Circles album. Fair warning: It’s an earworm.