July 3, 2005
mind-numbing
This was drawn yesterday, while I was watching Live8 on the TV. Go figure.
Hugh MacLeod
I'm a cartoonist.
I sell limited-edition prints.
I wrote a book.
I'm CEO of Stormhoek USA, which markets South African wine in the States.
I also draw private commissions.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
|---|---|---|
Bluetrain |
$900 | |
We Need to Talk |
$650 | |
Portfolio #2 |
$300 | |
NY NY |
$275 |
But were you comfortably numb?
Only while Pink Floyd were playing
They were utterly great, I thought.
Did anyone else catch Michael Stipe wearing Savile Row?
Well intentioned self importance? Quite possibly, there are very few unselfish selfless acts after all.
I’d still pick well intentioned self importance over inaction, however.
Floyd got great reviews in the crowd too, one friend said that watching them was one of the best moments of his life!
i was about 20m from floyd. they rocked though i hope that i’m a little more engaged in all the best moments of my life. roger waters was nervous and emotional and that was wicked cool, i love it when “performers” reveal themselves a little. gilmour is just a mind bending musician and continued to be so.
mr. stipe wore a rather natty suit, how were you able to pick it as saville row? i didn’t care for the face paint.
mariah was booed, did that come through on TV?
self importance? i think you’re wrong empirically wrong, a huge number of people signed the list to give this importance.
i the more important question is whether their three step proposal will help anyone. that might just be because i finished reading paul theroux’s dark star safari and he was rather down on western aid efforts in africa being large fish supply operations rather than large fishing schools. i don’t know, i have no personal experience in the matter.
let’s hope geldof et. al. are right and that the larger problems are sovable this way and that the african governments will use this aid money to feed their people.
i think that free trade for poor nations into the west offers the most hope of a real breakthrough but i can’t see any european or american leader having much hope of opening their agricultural trade to a fair fight. imagine the marketing opportunities for ‘tinternet if they did though.
this might be leading me into a line of thinking about blogs and micromarketing small single source local produce — farmers market type stuff… that stuff just isn’t really branded at the moment. it wouldn’t take many people hearing about your great farm to turn your sunday morning at the markets into a quick delivery round with far less risk because you’re produce is already paid for through subscription or whatever and you get to charge more for the convenience.
blah… need some more wine now. looking forward to the shipment of stormhoek.
Yeah. I thought the Killers were good.
I assume the cartoon refers to the “US” section of “the show”…
I think the rest of “us” are beginning to get it??
(we do have a head start in raping the world — after all)
That so begs to be on a t-shirt…
I just couldn’t resist, Hugh. They were amazing via AOL … the videos are up now. http://music.aol.com/artist/main.adp?artistid=76669 (IE works best)
Re Stipe, I was too busy trying to figure out the stripe to note the tailoring.
I’m seconding graywolf.
That’s a pretty cynical take Hugh.
Me, I was amazed at the number of people that turned up to support this cause, that too in 9 different countries. Not to mention the billions watching on TV all over the world. I am hopeful that this will make a difference to the world’s poor.
I wouldn’t normally point you to my livejournal, since, hey, it’s livejournal. But I had a rather intense reaction to the Pink Floyd reunion, and so far the people I know have been moved by what I wrote about it:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/openreel/34066.html
Incidentally, the very end of the post makes me think of gapingvoid, so in a way it takes you full circle.
So maybe Geldof, Bono et al ARE doing it (partly) for self-importance. And MAYBE it is a waste of time (for a plethora of reasons). But as Geldof says — ‘you have to try’.
I’m not a Geldof fan — I think that Live Aid is the best thing he’s done musically! But credit where it is due — he is trying to improve what is an obscene situation — and we are talking about it, so maybe it’s working.
Cynical?!
Moi?!!
I second Scott Caplan and third graywolf. I would also buy the t-shirt.
Why should we (as consumers of mucic) spend the billions on cd’s, dvd’s, mp3’s, concert tickets, and accessories while musicians (some well-intentioned) continue to pretend to care about world poverty. The musicians, in this case, are getting all the benefit here (publicity, face time, money, etc.).
Idolizing musicians who sell overpriced music and entertainment while telling their lies (see Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars) and encouraging us to personally spend more money (through higher taxes) is not my idea of gaining ground in tackling world poverty.
Tell me really, if Bono cares so much, how much is he donating to Africa? I venture to guess that Bono has made more money than several small country’s GDP throughout his career and yet he lives very well. Does it matter that I don’t like Bono? Sorry.
I guess I’m just tired of publicity skunks (musicians in this case).
Love it, love it,love it.
I trust you’re being serious.
Dry sardonic comments are as rare as full time full pay jobs ‚now.
Where is the next Scott Adams and why do i need him? Oh he sold out,gone to Cancun for life i hear.