Okay so, we can all agree on one thing: Roger Waters is an asshole. He was, however, a member of Pink Floyd and as such deserves at least our tolerance. He did a show in Dubai, at a makeshift venue constructed on the landscaped grounds between what we know as "the CNN Building" and the campus of the American University in Dubai, where I work, teach and live. The faculty tower is about 200 yards from the stage they construct for concerts every few weeks or so. (Only in the Gulf countries, where South Asian labor is so abundant can it actually make economic sense to build, take down, store, and build again a 3,000 seat ampitheater every few weeks, but let's not get bogged down in a discussion of labor practices.)

But so anyway, Mr. Waters came to town. I watched him, along with several colleagues, from the balcony of a faculty apartment with a good view. The first half was, I have to admit, not bad. He opened with "In the Flesh" from The Wall, and it was interesting to hear him ask, "are there any queers in the theater tonight?" in a country in which homosexuality is a crime. The line suggesting there might also be jews in the crowd was also good to hear. So he did "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" which was nice, and then "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" complete with images of poor sad Syd, paunchy and sad looking in middle age, hardly the guru of psychadelia we all like to think of him as.

But so the show was okay. A little too much of Roger's "boy does it suck that my dad died" music, but what do you expect from Roger? The second half of the show was Dark Side of the Moon, first song to last, which, thankfully, he did not sing. I don't know why he even bothered to perform it, frankly. The encore was, yes, "Another Brick in the Wall" that stupid Vera Lynn song from the The Wall and "Comfortably Numb."

Would I have paid to see him? No. Was it an okay event? Yes. I had a blast hearing the old stuff. I would have rather heard "Careful with that Axe, Eugene" than "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun," but, hey, what is life if not a series of disappointments brightened up by an occasional orgasm or two.