TV REVIEW : ‘Future’ Ecology Show Links World

Combining live music and global ecological awareness for five hours, the rock-oriented “Our Common Future” show was broadcast Saturday from cities around the world. Beijing, however, dominated the initial live afternoon broadcast with grim news reports that interrupted the festivities. This was all the more ironic when Chinese Premier Li Peng showed up as one of more than a dozen world leaders delivering taped messages of encouragement.

Wrapping up his subtitled speech against an incongruously hilarious, pleasant musical backdrop of saxophones, Li finished on an upbeat note: “The prospect for human beings is bright.” Meanwhile, hundreds of his constituents were too deceased to agree.

There were other such jarring moments, like ex-MTV veejay Nina Blackwood (she of the amazing tilting and bobbing head) delivering an environmental pitch in Valleyspeak; cut to Moscow, where Soviet flack Vladimir Pozner greeted her with a hearty, “Right on!” in Russian and English.

Much of the movie-star happy talk could have been boiled down to five words: Give a hoot! Don’t pollute. Yet some of the alarming figures were worth sounding off about, and the taped segments trumpeting ecological success stories provided an upbeat balance.

The music choices were wide-ranging. Two of the most irritating folk singers on any continent, John Denver and Soviet citizen Alexander Gradsky, bantered via satellite. Diana Ross looked laughable tossing a globe balloon in the air, crooning, “What a Wonderful World.”

On the up side, Midnight Oil turned in two typically feisty numbers from Australia. In London, R.E.M. scored the day’s most beautiful choice with “You Are the Everything,” a lilting melody with an ominous refrain: “I’m very scared for this world.”