Paris for President!

Many friends of mine are turned off by the 2008 presidential election. They don’t like McCain or Obama. They want another choice (and Ralph Nader doesn’t count). Short of a return of the Ron Paul Revolution, I proudly present an independent candidate we can all believe in..

The sad thing is, if our elected representatives thought more like Paris Hilton (who whoever wrote that for her), we would be in a better place. It’s the whole AARP “Divided We Fail” campaign with a much younger spokesperson.

Then again, as comedian Lewis Black says (paraphrasing), Democrats are the party of no ideas and Republicans are the party of bad ideas. When they work together, the Republican says, “I have a sh-tty idea!” and the Democrat says, “Hold on! I can make it sh-ttier!”

I will withhold my official endorsement until I see who Hilton selects as a running mate. I would love to see a Paris-Hulk Hogan ticket. Or maybe a combination of fake presidential runs: the Paris-Ken Griffey Jr. ticket, brought to you by Nike.

Heroes of Internet Video: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (with Legos!)

After midnight with little to do, I’ve been browsing YouTube. Last Halloween, my roommate and I watched the entire Michael Jackson “Thriller” video to perfect our dance moves before heading to a Halloween dance party. This undead hockey player was moonwalking all over that courtyard. About a week later, the DJs at an informal pulled it out again. I love that song. Back when the King of Pop mutating into a monster was only fiction. (Author’s Note: I knew I wasn’t going to make it through this post without a Jacko joke.)

Anyway, “Thriller” is a work of art, especially when it is combined with my childhood pasttime of Legos. What better for The Acropolis’s first edition of “Heroes of Internet Video” (working title)?

And the classic version that changed the way music videos were made. Has it ever been topped?

Live Earth sends an S.O.S.

7-7-07 was a special day for numerology buffs. Weddings were the thing (I emceed a reception that afternoon). Mothers induced labor to have their children on the supposed lucky day. Carlos Delgado of the New York Mets hit a homerun at 7:07 p.m., freaky. Also taking advantage of the triple 7’s was the former vice president turned activist turned rockstar Al Gore. Live Earth, a worldwide concert to raise awareness of the climate crisis, took the stage Saturday hoping to hit the jackpot.

Following in the footsteps of Live 8 and Live Aid, Live Earth was a simultaneous worldwide rock show, artists performing to raise awareness for an issue. Unique to Live Earth, all seven continents got in on the act. Even a group of scientists in Antarctica set up a stage and played. Probably not quite as popular as the bands playing in New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Hamburg, Sydney, Shanghai, and Tokyo.

The sheer scale of Live Earth was amazing to me. Organizers say 2 billion people were reached. No explanation of that exorbitant number was given. There were, however, 10 million viewers on MSN, making it the most watched webcast in the history of the Internet. 400,000 people were at the Rio de Janeiro beach stage alone. Stadiums full, millions and millions watching worldwide on television, millions more reached through media reports and word of mouth. 150 artists performing. It was massive.

Forget the cause for a moment; I love live music. John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, and Dave Matthews were among my favorites. Madonna for her stage show; Shakira for her… well, as the song says, her hips don’t lie. Seeing the legends like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Duran Duran, and Smashing Pumpkins was also cool. But I was waiting for The Police. Naturally, they were the last performance on the entire planet. Sting and company closed it out by inviting Mayer and Kanye West for a rendition of “Message in a Bottle.” We could have done without Kanye’s off-rhythm rapping.

To segue between the music and the cause, I focus on Melissa Ethridge. Her set was a non-stop mix of song and rally cry.

“When I was in school, it was America,” Ethridge said. “People were doing things, people were standing up when it was an unjust war. I remember when we had a President who was a criminal. I remember America rose up and said uh-uh. Our democracy is sacred. What happened to us?”

Today, the critics unleashed upon Gore and Live Earth, calling it a failure and hypocrisy. The most common attack was the “hypocrisy” of promoting conservation of energy by flying artists around the world in jets to play on stages with elaborate lights where fans would pile up garbage. Gore was villainized for taking a train to the event. All of the stadiums had recycle bins for trash, in London, virtually everything was biodegradable, and grease used to cook food will be turned into biodiesel. And as for using fuel to travel, shall we teleport Foo Fighters to London? Shall Gore fly a french fry grease-powered helicopter? It definitively reached millions, possibly billions. It was worth the energy.

Critics also blasted the organizers of the Johannesburg site for blaming climate change for a poor turnout. This is stupidity searching for strings. The organizers blamed extremely cold weather for the poor turnout. The tongue-in-cheek comment, “Is it climate change?” came after the point.

What weak arguments. This is an issue that somehow got turned into Democrats vs. Republicans, which is ludicrous. President Bush and plenty of Republicans in Congress have realized the need to be green. Why do right-wingers insist on claiming climate change is liberal propaganda? What does it hurt to be environmentally conscious? Oh yeah, oil companies.

I won’t deny that Gore is a bit over the top in his global warming forecasts. Gore claims 20” of sea level rise, scientists say the number is closer to 14”. Apples and oranges – and it’s causing the big picture to be missed. It is some arrogance and more ignorance to think that all of the pollution humans put in our environment has no effect on our planet.

Even if it turns out that we are in a natural climate cycle causing warmer temperatures, humans still need to be more environmentally conscious. We need to find alternative, clean energy sources, if not because of global warming, because oil won’t last forever. We need to recycle, if not because of global warming, because it cuts production costs and eliminates landfills. We need to conserve electricity, if not because of global warming, because it saves households money.

Gore has gone from being the most boring man on Earth to a hero cheered like a rockstar and pleaded with to run for president. I am a full supporter of his cause, even if he turns out to be dead wrong. The scientific community suggests he’s right. We can argue details and potential extents of possibility to these theories that won’t play out for decades, but instead, let’s “answer the call.” At worst we improve our standard of life, at best we save our planet. Last time NASA checked, it’s the only one we’ve got.

 

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And believe me, the latest example of President Bush’s disregard for our nation’s laws is next up on the docket around here. Well, after a quick Bill O’ Reilly blast.