And to think, I’ve never gotten as much as a 50 cent donation in 8 years of blogging — of course I can’t possibly offer the return on investment that a Ron Paul can. Or maybe I’m just jealous.
Live Earth Hits and Misses
The greatest surprise performance at the 24-hour Live Earth was not Kanye West and John Mayer joining the Police on “Message in a Bottle.” Hell, no. It was Spinal Tap (reunited) with some help from Metallica (they actually laugh) bringing down London’s Wembley Stadium with hits like “Stonehenge” and “Big Bottom.” Madonna’s gypsy-hobo-punk performance — fully choreographed — of “La Isla Bonita” with Eugene and Serge from Gogol Bordello was also surprisingly excellent (watch after the jump).
MSN reports that the Live Earth Web simulcast resulted a single-day record 9 million streams launched. It will be interesting to see if it experiences continued traffic over the next few weeks as the Live 8 site did in 2005 — before viral video and YouTube embeds became viewer’s choice.
Good LA Times coverage of Live Earth here.
12 more videos after the jump include Live Earth performances from Smashing Pumpkins, The Police, Roger Waters, Beastie Boys, Corinne Bailey Rae & John Legend, Metallica, Snoop Dogg, and more…
WOOZradio Goes Silent for Net Radio D-Day Protest
Take action here, here and here. The Washington Post has a great article. D-Day will effectively crush Internet radio as we know it on July 15th — unless we act.
Protesting Students Threatened with Suspensions
As if it’s not fascist enough that USC (where I’m at grad school) has an actual “free speech zone,” which would imply that such freedoms are not ensured anywhere else on campus, yesterday a small group protesting the schools use of sweatshop labor for their products was given 10 minutes to disperse, or else:
The sit-in began about 11 a.m. and ended after the students were handed personally addressed letters that said, “I want to inform you that you have been placed on interim suspension from USC. ” The letters outlined eight charges of misconduct.
The three-page letters, signed by Denzil J. Suite, assistant vice president for student affairs, said that “effective 5 p.m. on April 10, 2007, you may not return to the University of Southern California.” It also added that “if you reside in university-owned housing, you must vacate your residence by 9 a.m. on April 11.”
They even CALLED the protesters parents! Unbelievable. Shame, shame, SC. Go here to support the efforts of SCALE.