I watched the new DVD last night. Here's a quick review. Best Buy has the DVD for $18, Borders has it for $20. My local Wherehouse didn't have it at all. I've got a lot of this stuff on video, but it's been ages since I've watched it, so my memory is faulty. But I think some of the videos are ones I've never seen before. The Roxanne video isn't the guys with the red backdrop, which is the one I'm used to. It's a mostly live concert video with Sting in his jumpsuit looking intently into the camera a lot. Often, the vocals don't match what's on screen. I think So Lonely was new to me, as was De Do Do Do (standing in the snow is soooo exciting). Most of the early videos are, how shall I say???...pretty basic. The video for De Do Do Do looks like it was shot in about 12 minutes, though I do like the clip of Sting wiping his nose on the back of his hand in a big swiping motion. Some fun footage of Sting and Stewart hamming up their fighting for the camera. Stewart looks kind of uncomfortable in the early videos because he has to stand around clutching his drum sticks while Sting and Andy at least get to pretend to play their bass and guitar. Occasionally, Stewart gets to bang on something like a chair or the side of a rocket burner, but still, it seems pretty awkward for him. I guess I noticed it more because I got to see the videos back to back and he just holds the drum sticks a lot. There's a discussion on Ian's message board about people who think some of the songs on the DVD are slightly different versions or at least sound like they are mixed differently. I have to agree. The Jamaican sounding drums in Every Little Thing sound more prominent. Excellent. I'm sure there's more, but I wasn't really paying attention to that. Clearly, the best videos are from Synchronicity. Of course, that was the video age, so they couldn't get away with the "videotape us goofing around in the dressing room" kind of videos they had done previously. Which brings me to a question. Is there a video for King of Pain??? I don't remember one, but 1983 was more than half my lifetime ago, so I could be mistaken. If there isn't, why??? It was a huge hit. The video for Don't Stand 86 is just terrible. Horrible. Stewart and Andy are Photoshop cardboard cutouts who stand with their arms folded the whole time. Sting isn't much better. At the end, when they flash pictures of the Police's album covers and magazine covers over their heads, you can see that Dream of the Blue Turtles is one of the covers flashed. I hadn't noticed it before. Interesting. The Police in Montserrat is OK. The studio footage (which ended up as the videos) is the best. As are the jams with Jools Holland. Studies in Synchronicity is a waste. It's a black and white film of the objects used as the props on the Synch cover, including that damn goat. Now, it was the goat that convinced my parents that the Police were satanic (you know, goat = Satan, lamb = God). If Sting had used a fucking lamb on the cover, my parents might have let me see them in concert. Alas...... In other news, Fiction Plane is playing in LA tonight and Wed. I might go to the Wed show. Depends on how tired I am this week. LA and back is a long night for me. Rolling Stone's Fiction Plane review is pretty bad. 2 stars out of 5. "It's one thing to grow up poor and cynical, like Kurt Cobain. It's another to be raised in wealth and still be perpetually bummed and snarky, like Nirvana fan Joe Sumner, leader of the English guitar threesome Fiction Plane. "Touch me 'cause my daddy's rich," he sings in "Cigarette," and he's not kidding: Sting's his father. You can tell that from the younger Sumner's voice, but only when he whines, which is often. As you might guess, Fiction Plane suggest Nirvana crossed with early Police. That's a novel combo, and musically it works: Driven by session drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., the taut trio rocks on the beat's edge, impeccably anxious but in the groove. Yet there's little soul behind the smug discontent of tracks such as "I Wish I Would Die," and the well-played result sounds inconsequential. At the end of the day, Fiction Plane never feel real." You can write your own review at www.rollingstone.com Oh, almost forgot, Dave, Wendy and Tina are thanked in the "Special Thanks" liner notes on the back inside cover. Maggie