I hope everyone had a nice holiday. I’m still hearing fireworks going off around the neighborhood this evening. We had a big rain right about dusk last night so, I have no doubt that most people have stuff that blows up left over.
I promised myself that I wasn’t going to say anything about Al Gore’s son except; who knew you could go 100 M.P.H. in a Prius.
Gore Sr. and “The Rock Stars Came To Save The Earth” (Live Earth) concert is fair game though. Here are some quotes from Arctic Monkeys from Breitbart/AFP.
“It’s a bit patronising for us 21 year olds to try to start to change the world,” said Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders, explaining why the group is not on the bill at any of Al Gore’s charity concerts.
“Especially when we’re using enough power for 10 houses just for (stage) lighting. It’d be a bit hypocritical,” he told AFP in an interview before a concert in Paris.
Bass player Nick O’Malley chimes in: “And we’re always jetting off on aeroplanes!”
“Someone asked us to give a quote about what was happening in Sheffield and it’s like ‘who cares what we think about what’s happening’?” added Helders.
“There’s more important people who can have an opinion. Why does it make us have an opinion because we’re in a band?”
The Monkeys are the latest in a list of rock notables to come out in public criticism of the July, 7th event that includes Roger Daltrey, Matthew Bellamy of The Muse, Neil Tennant of The Pet Shop Boys and even Bob Geldof the architect of Live Aid.
I have always held mistrust for these types of shows going all the way back to the Concert for Bangladesh that George Harrison put together in the ’70s. Historically the rock stars and fans get all self-righteous about some cause, put on a show and then the money gets mismanaged and nothing gets done. On a personal level, I witnessed this first hand while working at a series of Farm-Aid type shows in the early ’80s. By the time all of the “expenses” were paid there was no money for farmers.
The performances at these overblown spectacles often leave a lot to be desired as well. Kind of same way the Super Bowl is usually a crappy game.
Now, in most cases, these big shows are for some cause you can sink your teeth into; help the homeless, farmers, hunger etc. However, the goal of Live Earth is to “raise awareness”. Honestly, is there anyone who is not “aware” of the global warming debate. That just makes me queasy, a concert to raise awareness.
So, when I first heard of that ridiculous premise, I thought this is a case where you have to follow the money, there will be a lot of people getting rich while raising awareness.
Now, I don’t know any particulars such as, what kind of money is involved in the T.V. and radio deal. It may very well be a case where that stuff pays for the whole event up front and it can’t lose. That being said, I think Live Earth is going to tank in a big way.
Ticket sales are slow; the Istanbul show has been cancelled for lack of interest and the Johannesburg show has been moved to another venue for the same reason. All the while the promoters are promising to put on the “greenest” event possible down to buying carbon offsets to off-set the energy consumed by moving 150 major acts around the globe.
All in all, it is an enormous expense to put on an event like Live Earth. Now, here’s the thing, I have mentioned Live Earth to a lot of people who are music fans and consumers. I haven’t talked to any that are even interested in the show. And, here’s the kicker, the other night, I was talking to a group of young music fans (16-20 years old); these are kids that buy music, carry around iPods and most of them are in bands themselves. There wasn’t one of them who had even heard of Live Earth and when I explained it to them, they could not have been less interested.
Now, if you are a geezer like me, think back to Live Aid/Farm Aid or even Bangladesh; there was definitely a buzz surrounding these events that is not present with Live Earth.
The sad irony is that Live Earth is poised to be one giant, self-edifying, expensive undertaking and the only “awareness” that it will raise will be for those that disagree with the cause who will be able to cite this farce as an example of irresponsibility.
Related posts
Tags: Live Earth
Fred wrote,
Check out this US Carbon Footprint Map, an interactive United States Carbon Footprint Map, illustrating Greenest States. This site has all sorts of stats on individual State energy consumptions, demographics and State energy offices.
http://www.eredux.com/states/
Link | July 6th, 2007 at 10:59 am