Vultures Row

Interesting post (titled "Where the Streets Have No Shame")from this blog for several reasons:Vultures Row


First, Vulture 6 blogs:

A story that got very little attention last week was one concerning U2. The story is one of artistic integrity. It seems some advertising agency wants to pay the band some 12.5 million pounds ($22,785,212.46) to use the song "Where the Streets Have No Name" in a television spot. The band in the end turned down the money because “Where the Streets Have No Name” was a song they did not want associated with a commercial.

It turns out Bono and the boys are joining the Live 8 concert coming soon for the purpose of raising money and awareness in the G8 nations about the poor of Africa. Vulture 6 seems to write a literate and interesting blog from the conservative perspective--"Aid to help in building a future is one thing, but a redistribution of wealth just for the sake of giving them more is wrong."--I happen not to share.

A cynic might suggest U2 take the commercial and use their own money to help the poor of Africa instead of preaching. Vulture 6 does suggest this but he's not the cynic here. A reporter of course must have been prompt with the suggestion to ellicit this reply from Bono:

“We almost did. We sat down. I know from my work in Africa what £12.5 million could buy. It was very hard to walk away from £12.5 million ($22,785,212.46)... So we thought, we'll give the money away. But if we tell people we're giving the money away, it sounds pompous”

Puh-leeeeze, Bono. There's much to admire in you, but you are not exactly covering yourself in glory with that reply. With Vulturesrow on this one.

We'll save redistribution of wealth arguments for another day.

Second (still with me?):
The "people's band" often is cast in the rosey light of integrity and well-meaning. This recent tour stopped in Boston and it is probably the third go-round I have happily missed. I still think they're great and mostly sincere, but a friend of mine had signed up at the online fan site. A $40 fee "ensured" tickets to concerts in the area. Well, he got his tix of course, for a premium, at the Fleet Center (ahem, Bank North Garden I mean) and I believe they were for Lousy Nosebleed Telescopic Section 4, Row 2. Wouldn't you think that a $40 annual fee paid by loyal FANS at a FAN SITE could ensure not only two tickets, but maybe decent seats as well? Can we get a reporter to pose that question?

Third. Yes third:

I've just come back from three nights in Tortola and a world poverty issue like above prompts comments I had planned on blogging anyway, including the tribulations of an Innocent Abroad treated like THE MAN and a DAMN YANKEE no matter how humbly servile he became in ordering his cheeseburger. Next post:

Tortola, Lotsa Fun
or
Kill, Cramp, and Paralyze (Yankee go home)