I am not going to be at all cynical about Live Earth. I think it is a wonderful event which will do a huge amount to raise consciousness on global warming, and lead both to support for the green movement, and improved personal energy-saving. The benefits will far outweigh the energy use of the production, and to pretend otherwise is nonsense.
Watching on TV, I am pleasantly surprised by how very much I have enjoyed pretty well all the music. Even some of the musically more dubious momemts were entertaining. I thought Paolo Nutini was a Spike Milligan impersonator until I relaised that really was supposed to be singing, but I ignored that and as a Spike Milligan impersonation it was wonderful.
The only grating note has been Jonathon Ross on the BBC. I am generally a fan, but his inability to treat any of the global warming information at all seriously is annoying. He seems to want to treat the event like the Eurovision Song Contest. By comparison, Graham Norton comes across as someone who knows how to mix comedy with a serious message.
Al Gore’s message and his pledges were very well put over. We all think so much about what a horror we got in Bush, we overlook what we lost in Gore. I still view the fraudulent election of 2000 with disbelief. The extraordinary thing is, at the time it didn’t seem that important, to me at least. What a fool I was.
I thought the Black Eyed Peas were superb, and they seemed very much connected to the message and politics of the event. They were the only thing so far that has bordered on rap. though what they sing about is very different from urban rap. It is in fact probably the lack of rap that explains why I am enjoying the music so much. My guess is that rappers are absent because it involves playing for free to help a movement to save the planet. The rappers are too busy beating up women, driving their hummers, shooting people and writing lyrics to encourage young Londoners to stab each other. There is nothing that annoys me more than trendies in Britain who refuse to accept that an ultra-materialist, violence worshipping, openly extreme misogynistic culture is a bad thing.
Ironing uses a great deal of energy for heating and is completely unnecessary. Next time you see someone in a neatly pressed garment or with a crease in their trousers, shun them. I am going to start a campaign against ironing to save the planet.
Possibly that only seems a good idea because I opened the third bottle of wine to celebrate the arrival of Spinal Tap.