I just stumbled upon this article on CNN that tells of the demise of Live Aid-like concerts due to…yep, the Internet.

Apparently artists are shifting to a more direct approach for soliciting charity donations, eliminating the need for a lot of work, time and money on their part (and the part of the organizers/producers, etc.).

I’m a little surprised to see this argument being made since I assume most artists have touted their chosen charities on their Web sites as long as the Internet has been in existence (U2 certainly has), and Live Earth wasn’t all that long ago.

But whatever the reason, I’m most surprised they didn’t mention U2 at all in their article because of their reputation for activism.

Unless of course that “mullet” they mention is in reference to Bono…

Whilst trying to avoid doing any work I recently discovered that some amusing things come up if you type ‘U2′ into the Onion’s website. Hope it helps you to procrastinate as much as me…….

http://www.theonion.com/content/search/onion/advanced?search=U2&restrict=

I paid for and downloaded Daniel Lanois’ mp3 soundtrack for his film Here is What Is about two weeks ago, and it’s been on heavy rotation. At work, I’ve just played it over and over, probably twice a day on average.   Track 5 is a spoken track: it’s what Brian Eno has to say to Lanois about Beauty and the composing process. After so many listenings, this track had seeped into my conscience such that when I was trying to think of a way to encourage my writing students in Advanced Composition class that they shouldn’t despair if it takes writing 2, 3 or 6 drafts of junk in order to start seeing the beginnings of something better, the first thing that came to mind was to quote Eno: “beautiful things grow out of sh**.” 

Here’s what he was telling Lanois:

“Well, I’ll tell you, one thing I would say about your film is that, what would be really interesting for people to see is how beautiful things grow out of sh**.  Because, nobody ever believes that.  You know, everyone thinks that Beethoven had his string quartets completely in his head.  They somehow appeared there and formed in his head and all he had to do was write them down and they would kind of be manifest to the world.  

But I think that what’s so interesting and what would really be a lesson that everybody should learn is that things come out of nothing.  Things evolve out of nothing.   You know, the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest.  And then the most promising seed in the wrong situation turns into nothing.  I think this would be important for people to understand, because it gives people confidence in their own lives to know that’s how things work. “

And it was what Eno said at the end of his mini-soliloquy that I really wanted them to hear:

“If you walk around with the idea that there are some people who are so gifted, they have these wonderful things in their head, but you’re not one of them, you’re just sort of normal person, you could never do anything like that — then you live a different kind of life.  You could have another kind of life where you could say, ‘Well, I know that things come from nothing very much, and start from unpromising beginnings, and I’m an unpromising beginning, and I could start something …‘ “

So I played track 5 for them in class and encouraged them to just start writing something – anything – even if it feels like an unpromising beginning.  Then let the power of revision  make that “right situation” for the seed to grow and begin its transformation into something beautiful.

Sounds sort of like something a friend of Lanois and Eno’s said a few years back, eh?. 

…must not be good for the gander.

I’m surprised this hasn’t been brought up prior to now.

I took the time to re-read the full speech published on U2.com Paul McGuinness gave to those at the MIDEM International Manager Summit.

In his remarks, Mr. McGuinness stated, “They have families and it is terrible that a direct effect of piracy and thievery has been the destruction of so many careers.” This was in regard to the losses of jobs in the record industry due to the loss of profits and the forced consolidation of the labels.

Wasn’t it Bono who said “Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief?”

Readers of atu2 may remember reading a story written by Kevin Hutchinson back in July 2005 about Polish artist Piotr Mlodozeniec, the creator of the CoeXisT image in 2000 which Bono utilized in one of the most dramatic parts of the Vertigo Tour (which McGuinness shared that in 2005/2006 grossed $355m and played to 4.6m people in 26 countries.)

The CoeXisT image was created for an exhibition by The Museum on the Seam in Jerusalem. The Museum on the Seam’s Director and Curator, Raphie Etgar, said in a statement, “It is the responsibility of the Museum on the Seam to protect the images and the rights of the artists participating in the exhibition.”

When atu2 last communicated with Mr. Mlodozeniec, he received a credit on Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago DVD but he did not state that he received any financial compensation for the use of his artwork. He went on to let us know, “the people from U2 proposed me long time ago to give them my sign as royality free (i haven’t done this). now they are not contacting me
anymore. if the museum on the seam had got something - i was not informed.” The Museum on the Seam has not updated us as to if they received any compensation.

If Mr. McGuinness feels that there are thieves in the midst, then he and/or U2 should revisit the use of this artist’s work as part of their live show which they made $335 million.

The kicker - I believe Mr. Mlodozeniec was remarkably missing from the credits at the conclusion of U2 3D. Shouldn’t he be compensated for the use of his image in this film as well?

The other kicker - in the United States, the CoeXisT image was trademarked by coexistonline.com. Piotr was unable to copyright his own image, nor was the Museum on the Seam able to protect him as an artist.

Bloomberg has reported that the (RED) auction backed by Bono and Damien Hirst has been downgraded by Sotheby’s, cutting the estimated take from the auction 28%, claiming that the economy may be hurting the auction.

Hey, brother - can you spare a dime? A pill cabinent estimated to go for $7 million? Good golly - if you’re going to shell out that kind of money, the economy should not be bothering your wallet!

Dave Allen, bass player for Gang of Four, has a pretty good blog that tends to highlight under the radar music and trends. Today he has a post up regarding Paul McGuinness’ provocative speech about piracy and the music industry, and Allen’s brief intro is not only spot on, in my opinion, but also pretty interesting, coming as it does from the point of view a recording artist.

Paul McGuinness, the manager of U2, turned up at MIDEM in Cannes to give us all a scolding and by “all” I mean the record labels and any of you who have ever downloaded a music file. His list of core agitators, people he considers to have let the side down in the fight against “piracy”, include - all record labels, ISPs, SDMI, the US Govt, Abbi Hoffman(!), Silicon Valley hippies, Deadheads, people who listen to music through ear buds and not big speakers(!), Radiohead fans who he accuses of stealing music, the so-called counter-culture (sic), oh and a”humiliating list of miserable artists.” All this mad ranting from a man who has the balls to tell us his clients, U2, made $355 million on their Vertigo Tour….it’s hard to shed a tear for a multi-millionaire, old-school rock manager who misses the good old days of the recording business. He makes some good points but the hyperbole washes away the substance of his speech. It doesn’t help that he proposes that a tracking technology should be used to track downloads - he just happens to be an investor in the company… more

Totally unrelated:

Late last week I was wandering through Times Square after a lunch meeting, trying to hustle through the tourists and the bone chilling freezing rain, when I happily stumbled upon this:

Mr. Bono in the window of the Hard Rock Cafe. Not quite 3D, but still, looking good. He even lured me inside to buy one of his shirts.

—This post brought to you by Scatter O’ Light.