purlblog

First off: if, for some reason, you are critical of Live Earth on 7/7/07, then you might as well head elsewhere. This blog site has no mechanism for commentary other than mine--and I liked it.

That being out of the way, I'd like to say that we were typically Purl-like when it came to the Live Earth Concerts for Climate Change. There was coverage of the concerts on Universal HD, starting at 3:00 am. Prior to that, was Madonna's Confessions tour. We went to sleep by the light of our new bedroom LCD watching that concert. Live Earth came on, to two people dead to the world, and serenaded them until around 8:00 am when it awoke them. Rhianna was singing "Unfaithful" in Tokyo, Japan. It was followed by a reunited Crowded House closing out the Sidney, Australia concert. My enjoyment of these two performances would lead me to do a very Purl-like thing: I turned MythTV loose on it. The only channels Myth had access to was Bravo, CNBC and NBC. This was taking place while Sarah Brightman closed out Shanghai with a powerful opera performance.

Our enjoyment would continue through Shakira and the unlikely pairing of Snoop Dogg in Hamburg, Germany, as well as Genesis, Snow Patrol and the Black Eyed Peas in London, U.K. Even Nunatak in Antarctica was a nice touch, and one that completed the continental presence. We eventually expanded our concert consumption to watching the concert on our main big TV, which allowed us this:

• Watch Universal HD
• Watch Bravo in PiP
• Fire up XM radio online, which dedicated 7 stations to live coverage of Live Earth. XM boasts that you hear "every note". There were never more than 6 concerts going at the same time, and a "All Access" information booth station directed you to what you wanted to hear.

We switched the sound around between the two TV feeds and the radio to the power of X. Why I enjoyed this mega-event is there wasn't the usual brow-beating that you get from benefit concerts. A high majority of the commercials were PSA-type short films that provided information so that it would be easier to "Answer the Call". Our favorite one was called "Think", where a merchant and his customer slapped each other several times. In my opinion, the reason for the concerts isn't in question (Global Warming), and watching the film shorts and being encouraged to take the Pledge was quite an inexpensive ticket for such entertainment. And what's the worst that happens if people take the pledge? We'll all be a leaner, greener bunch and there's nothing wrong with that.

Another aspect that grabbed me as I perused the Live Earth site on MSN (kudos for allowing the video to work in Firefox on Linux--even though you wanted everyone to use Internet Explorer on Vista) was the amount of local favorites that were on the various playbills, especially in the Shanghai concert. I plan to watch the concerts in their entirety online (or as much as I can before MSN doesn't make them available).

All in all, it was a great experience for me. I urge you take the pledge. It really isn't that bad and what can it hurt?