Live Earth Fall-Out

July 12, 2007 @ 5:07am

Update: Why Live Earth Mattered

Check it out.

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Okay, now I can't believe this but, um, I straight up forgot about Live Earth.

How, you ask, is this possible?

Well, I can't give you an exact answer, but it's a combination of a few things:

1. I'm on vacation from work and when that's the case I go into true lazy mode.
2. I'm all a flutter and distracted (over what? well, maybe I'll tell later...however, probably not.)
3. Also, I'm just burnt out on the news. That happens because I actually follow the news and sometimes it's just negative information overload. I'm not even tuning into the news the way I usually do because no matter what the story is it seems to be presented with the most negative angle possible. Doom and fucking gloom. I'm really a positive person and I see the world that way the majority of the time. Basically, staying up on current events can be a kill joy and I consciously step back every few weeks just to keep myself on the Pollyanna side of the jaded spetrum. Don't mistake my ability to hack away at an issue with precision as negative or jaded. I'm good at it because analytical.
   
4. I've also just been busy. I'm under deadline with my current internship and have another one set up to start in early August.

Basically, I'm busy.

Now if you've clicked around my lovely blog you know I'm a John Mayer fan. I'm new to the fold, but I dig his music. I think it's funny because I guess since he's that "Daughters" guy when I say I like Mayer people have a certain image. Well, I've discussed before, but I wasn't a fan until his John Mayer Trio and Continuum albums (his older stuff is excellent though.) In fact, recently I had a friend send me some news blurb on him about him being chosen as a sexy dude or some shit like that. Okay, cool, but really I could care less.

I'm from L.A. I'm jaded and pretty much not impressed merely because someone is a celebrity. I've met a few. I've gone to school with kids of famous people. I know some second tier celebs and people who work in entertainment doing a range of things. It's a big yawn for me. Celebrities just have a job that puts them in the public eye, but they're normal folks (well, as normal as folks can be in that situation.)

I did let out a scream when I saw him in concert but it was like "wow, I'm in fuckin' Tokyo seeing John Mayer...this is sweet. I'm so cool." I mean the girls I was with started pushing to get up front and I just couldn't join in without a high amount of guilt. That's particularly true because, while I'm not tall, I was taller than a lot of the Japanese women in the crowd. I basically let the the shorter ladies get in front of me because it's crappy having crane your neck to see at a concert and this was a small venue so it's not like letting that little lady get in front of me was going to impact my experience. Plus, I had party boots on, so I was hovering a few inches over my normal height anyway.

So I was a little um...suspicious when my cousin emailed me this: Live Earth: John Mayer Calls For Massaging The Message. Now I knew my man was playing Live Earth in New Jersey and I even considered hoping a plane to Tokyo to check out the Live Earth show there this weekend but decided against it. So I was scared because I'm expecting screeching fans and some concert stupidity. Instead, it was a fairly interesting interview snippet. Check it out.

Now I agree with him that's really easy to get stuck on minute details which deaden the impact of the message. The fact is we're wasteful. I think it's crucial to focus on what you can do in your everyday life. That's not hard. That's things like carrying a small mug instead of consuming coffee in disposable cups (that's easy, I do it, even here.) I know I've been while living here. I've found it harder to be environmentally conscious, and I was that conserve and recycle kid that, of course, went vegitarian in college. In California it's pretty easy to be environmentally mindful. It's encouraged. It's cool. It's even sexy. The system helps you. That's gotta spread so that even when it's not encouraged, cool or sexy you do it.

Here, I walk past stores who have their air con on full blast AND the doors are wide open. It's waste beyond measure and, honestly, it's easy to fall into a pattern of I don't have to do it 'cause that person will. Well, if everyone is thinking that (and you know most are) then guess what? There is a lot of waste. I'm regressing back to being more mindful of how my actions impact the world and I think we all should definitely pay more mind to it because we're trashing our Earth.

For the most part, I think the criticisms of Live Earth are just negative people finding anything to take away from the event. Yes, we know big stars flew to the venues to perform. Yes, we know airplanes are big polluters. However, we also know to get your Average Joe or Jane on board it's going to help if their favorite pop star is on board too. People are followers. This is nothing new. So big celebrities who want to contribute to this are welcome in my book.

This lead me to a criticism that IS germane. I'll post the video. Watch it and what do you think?

Peta-tm
Uploaded by hotternews

I agree with the points made here.

And that does surprise me because most of the time when I hear what PETA is up to I just want to slap some of them around because they're repelling more people than they know with the stunts they pull.

It might be time for more changes than I thought.

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Oh thanks to a friend at MySpace looky what was on my bulletin board this morning ;)

Enjoy!

Live Earth - The Police, John Mayer and Kanye West - "Message in a Bottle"

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