believe me good will come

If you have been at any concert/musical event in history, which one would it be?

Some that spring to mind - Roger Waters’ staging of The Wall show in Berlin in 1990 - amid the ruins of the Berlin Wall; the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in 1985 that featured Queen, David Bowie, U2, The Who and Paul McCartney; Crowded House’s farewell concert outside the Sydney Opera House in 1996; Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock 1969…

But I’d choose U2’s Popmart show at River Plate Stadium in Bueno Aires on 5 February 1998. U2 played Mothers of the Disappeared for the first time since December 1987 and they were joined onstage by some of the original “mothers of the disappeared” (the Madres de Plaza de Mayo), who held pictures of their missing family members. After the song they put their white scarves around Bono’s neck and the crowd began to sing Argentina’s national anthem.

In 1976, a military coup brought Argentina under a military dictatorship. Over the next eight years, between 10,000 and 30,000 Argentinians “disappeared” at the hands of military death squads. In 1977, mothers and grandmothers of those who had disappeared began gathering at the Plaza de Mayo to protest the military’s actions. Similar movements emerged under the military dictatorships in other Latin American countries such as Chile and El Salvador (Mothers of the Disappeared was originally dedicated to the madres in El Salvador, whom Bono had met when he travelled there in 1986).

Here’s footage of U2’s concert at Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile on 11 February 1998, when some of the madres came on stage:

And here’s a description of the Buenos Aires concert by someone who was there on the night:

With the standard set list again, I knew they must be saving something special until the end, and it could only be one song. As Bono introduced One he said, “Every country, every city, has its ghosts. These ghosts won’t be forgotten.” As he said this, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo walk out on stage, about thirty in all, and begin slowly walking back and forth across the center section of the stage. I knew what I was about to witness will be something special, history, one of those rare moments that makes traveling thousands of miles worth every penny. Seeing this, hearing the crowd sing along, and knowing what has to come next, overwhelms me, and the tears start to flow. Bono sings an incredible rendition of One as the Mothers continue to slowly walk. Then, as the song ends, they all line up across the stage, behind Edge, Bono and Adam. Without a word Edge begins Mothers of the Disappeared. A new video sequence begins, footage of the Mothers marching in their search for justice for the sons and daughters, as Bono starts to sing. The song is almost too painful to watch, and to hear. Bono changed the words slightly to “We hear their hearts beat, and still their hearts beat” I thought 40 in Seattle was emotional, but the next few minutes in River Plate Stadium, with 70,000 people singing “Oh oh oh oh. Oh oh oh oh.” goes beyond description. One thing remained, Bono starts singing “El Pueblo Vencera” and the audience joined in. This was it, the moment I’ll never forget, the defining moment of my POP Mart tour, and my 15 years as a fan.
As the song ended Bono walked to the base of the stage, turned, bowed, and applauded the Mothers. Larry stood at his drum kit and did the same, followed by Edge and Adam. One of the Mothers stepped forward, took Bono’s hand and held it in the air, then took off her white head scarf and handed it to Bono, who put it on. The band left the stage and the audience roared in their applause of the Mothers, and began to sing what I was later told is Argentina’s national anthem. As the lights came up we embrace each other, everyone savoring this special moment. As we were leaving the stadium a bus carrying the Mothers was pulling out of the parking lot, everyone stopped and respectfully applauded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Disappeared
http://www.u2faqs.com/songs/#11
http://www.threechordsandthetruth.net/u2albums/joshuatree.htm
http://www.u2-vertigo-tour.com/show55.html
http://hem.bredband.net/steverud/U2MoL/JTree/mothers.html
http://www.u2-vertigo-tour.com/song132.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4647150.stm

Sony Bravia site about their ad.

An unsolicited email I received from Victoria University: 

Hello Mark,

I’m writing to let you know of an exciting new course being offered by the Centre for Continuing Education and Executive Development. 

‘Achieving Personal Excellence’

Presenter - Dr David Keane

Friday 25^th May, 2007 or

Friday 22^nd June, 2007 or

Friday 7^th September, 2007

Cost - $795 (less 5% if booked three weeks prior to course i.e. by close of business on 4^th May, 1^st June, 17^th August)

The cost includes a personal coaching session with the presenter which would normally cost you $250

This unique workshop was created to address the needs of people at all levels within organisations to help them develop a sense of purpose in their lives and to align personal and business goals. Many people feel stressed as a result of not prioritising projects, tasks and activities and focussing on urgent but ultimately unimportant tasks. This course consists of a one-day workshop followed by an individual coaching session with the presenter.

Firstly, they clearly have no idea who I am. Secondly - Wow!…a whole one-day course for only $795…’Achieving Personal Excellence’ reminds me of the ‘Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence’. This is so stupid you may suspect that I have just made it up. Nope. Visit the web page for the course.

Course Content

• Secrets of working effectively - What do effective people really do? Based on a detailed study of effective people, we can recognise certain patterns and learn from others.
• Living by choice, not by chance - The workshop will introduce the concept of being proactive. Proactivity is about choice and about how much we choose to exercise our choice. Being proactive places us in the driving seat of our own lives. It pervades every other aspect of life, inside and outside work. It involves taking the decision to lead ourselves. This is a choice critical for our performance. Being proactive applies to each of us regardless of the role we are in.
• Tools and techniques that really work - We explore a number of ways of managing yourself, your time, and your work environment to ensure strong alignment between what is important and what you actually do.
• Making it happen - In preparation for the coaching session, we provide the opportunity for you to plan what will work for you.

I like a few of Switchfoot’s songs and I like the fact that in its songs the band often asks the big questions about life (though if you look at too many of Switchfoot’s lyrics you’ll find it’s actually the same question every time: “This is your life/Are you who you want to be?”…”We were meant to live for so much more”…”There’s a new way to be human”…”The tension is here/Between who you are and who you could be”…”I want to live and die for bigger things”…”There’s gotta be something more/Than what I’m living for”…etc…).

I also like songs that tell stories. ‘Faust, Midas and Myself’, off Switchfoot’s newest album, tells a story and references Greek mythology and classic literature. It fits nicely with Pan’s Labyrinth (teaser trailer), which I saw last week.

You can listen to Faust, Midas and Myself on Switchfoot’s Myspace page. Here are the lyrics:

Faust, Midas, And Myself

This one’s about a dream
I had last night
How an old man tracked me home
And stepped inside
Put his foot inside the door
And gave a crooked smile
Something in his eyes
Something in his laugh
Something in his voice
That made my skin crawl off

He said, “I’ve seen you here before,
I know your name.
You could have your pick
Of pretty things.
You could have it all -
Everything at once,
Everything you’ve seen,
Everything you’ll need,
Everything you’ve ever had in fantasies.”

“You’ve one life, you’ve one life.
You’ve one life left to leave.”

I woke up from my dream
As a golden man
With a girl I’ve never seen
With golden skin
I jumped up to my feet
She asked me what was wrong
I began to scream
“I don’t think this is me.
Is this just a dream
Or really happening?”

You’ve one life, you’ve one life
You’ve one life left to leave

What direction, what direction?
I’m splitting up, I’m splitting up!
This is my personal disaffection
What direction, what direction?
What direction now?

I looked outside the glass
At golden shores
Golden ships and masts
With golden cords
As my reflection passed
I hated what I saw
My golden eyes were dead
And a thought passed through my head
A heart that’s made of gold can’t really beat at all
I wanted to wake up again
Without a touch of gold
 
What direction, what direction?
Death or action
Life begins at the intersection
What direction, what direction?
What direction now?

I woke up as before
But the gold was gone
My wife was at the door
With her night robe on
My heart beat once or twice
And life flooded my veins
Everything had changed
My lungs had found their voice
And what was once routine
Was now the perfect joy

You’ve one life, you’ve one life
You’ve one life left to lead

Faust – Wikipedia
Midas – Wikipedia
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust 

They say that given a hundred typewriters and enough time, a hundred monkeys will write Shakespeare’s complete works.

To test this idea, a team at the University of Plymouth, England, got a (PndStlg)2000 grant from the British Arts Council, shut six Sulawesi crested macaque monkeys with a computer keyboard in an enclosure at a Devon zoo for a month, and filmed what happened.

The alpha male bashed hell out of the computer with a stone and the other monkeys did little else but urinate and defecate on the keyboard. Nevertheless, the monkeys did produce the equivalent of five pages of type with a predilection for the letter S. One researcher said that proved the monkeys were not hitting the keyboard at random, so were part of the way towards literacy.

- Full story here

A picture of a cat (with at least six legs) that I drew in 1988:

Here is the Catbus from the film My Neighbour Totoro (となりのトトロ), released in 1988:

I first saw My Neighbour Totoro at the 2004 New Zealand International Film Festival. The film is about two young girls who spend a summer in the Japanese countryside. In the forest near their house they discover a secret world of magical creatures. Totoro is one of my favourite films. The animation is truly beautiful: