1986: First Class Stamp $0.22 cents
Space shuttle Challenger Explodes
CHERNOBYL Accident
Haley's Comet Returns
Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone's secret vault
to find a bottle of moonshine.
Georgia OKeefe dies
"The Oprah Winfrey Show" premieres
"Blue Velvet" in theaters
"Hands Across America"
"Addicted to Love", "Sledgehammer" and
"Two of Hearts" got us dancing
U.S. Surgeon General Everett Koop published a report on AIDS,
urging sex education as a means of prevention.
11,932 AIDS Deaths in the USA
There are very few events you encounter in life that you know for a fact will be a memory some day. The Houston Rendez -Vous Musical Concert by Jean Michel Jarre was one of those events. He was invited by the city of Houston to celebrate the birthdays of the state, city and NASA in 1986. Over a million people crowded every available view of downtown to watch this spectacular event. The entire city was still mourning the Space Shuttle astronauts, and this spectacular free public concert really brought joy back to Houston. I took a picnic lunch up to a hill overlooking downtown from "The Heights" with my friend Howard. Every local station in Houston played the event music at the same time from the same feed, so the echo of eveyone's radio on the same station was really strange. And when it started, it was breathtaking. The city had no idea of the magnitude of the explosives stashed on the buildings downtown, but once started the fire marshal had no choice but to let it continue. (LOL) I will remember as long as I live Howard leaning over to me and saying, as we watched the show, "This is what art will look like in the future."
That same week, Howard was asked to paint a backdrop for a press party for Jean Michel Jarre, and this is a picture as he did it. Well, Howard, I made it to the future. Art still doesn't look and feel as it did that night, I wonder if you would have lived if it would have. I miss you.
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