It looked like some tricked out alien big top from outer space. And why not, NASA just launched rockets into the moon, maybe this is the diplomatic response. If so fly me to the moon because this concert reflected the architecture it was set underneath.

I’ll attach a few photos and video that I took using my MyTouch 3g (sorry U2, not using the crackberry).

The boys played some of their old familiar hits, and their future ones. Bono said that they could play some really well, while others they couldn’t. Well, they played them all well and we in the crowd that was legion were moved. The crowd was over 70,000 strong and the RayJay proved to be a great host. “You have a pirate ship, we have a space ship!” Bono exclaimed.

For some reason this song entered into my skull today while shopping for school supplies (as a teacher, I take great pride in finding deals which save money – it gives me an opportunity to get tools for my students to use). I know, I am crazy, but here is more proof! The song was Strafe’s “Set It Off”. Enjoy!

One of my students mentioned to me a cartoon that used to come on Nickelodeon. It was a bit spiritual, dealing with an individual who could control the elements and was fated to be the one “avatar” or an agent of change in a world ravaged by war. The name of the cartoon was Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I want to check out these cartoons – that is why I posted it here (so I don’t forget).

In a lost age, the world is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Within each nation, there is a remarkable order of men and women called the “benders” who can learn to harness their inborn talent and manipulate their native element. Bending is a powerful form combining martial art and elemental magic. In each generation, only one bender is solely capable of controlling all four elements. That bender is the Avatar. The Avatar is the spirit of the world manifested in human form. When the Avatar dies, it reincarnates into the next nation in the cycle. Starting with the mastery of his or her native element, the Avatar learns to bend all four elements. Throughout the ages, the countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony. Then, the Fire Nation launched a war against the other three nations. Just as the world needed the Avatar the most, he mysteriously vanished. A hundred years later, the Fire Nation is near final victory in its ruthless war of world domination. The Air Nomads were destroyed, the Air Temples ravished, and all airbender monks eradicated. The Water Tribes were raided and driven to the brink of extinction. The Earth Kingdom remains and fights a hopeless war against the Fire Nation. Many believe the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads and the cycle is broken. In the desolated South Pole, a lone Water tribe struggles to survive. It is here that the village’s last remaining waterbender Katara and her warrior brother Sokka rescue a strange 12-year-old boy named Aang who has been suspended in hibernation in an iceberg. The Water tribe soon discovers that Aang is not only an Airbender–the extinct race no one has seen in a century–but also the long lost Avatar. Now Katara and Sokka must safeguard the child Avatar in his journey to master all four elements and save the world from the Fire Nation.

LINK

Well, not really. But a couple of songs I wanted to highlight here for various reasons.

This first one is the song featured on that Lebron James Nike commercial. Yeah, I know it is shallow, but I dig that song…

This next one, since I was in a basketball mood, was featured during the NBA 2006 playoffs – when my Heat won it all. I figured I would dust it off as I liked the beat – it just got a little whack at the end as they seemed to run away from their idea musically.

Finally, how about a summer time classic in the winter. You know, Kool and the Gang…

His jokes were not just funny, but frightening. And sobering.

George Carlin was one of my personal heroes. I always envisioned him as a modern day Socrates, stirring up the youth with ideas that their parents would have regarded as somewhat heretical. In fact, I had been working on a script in the back of my mind, which would detail the life of Socrates up until his death upon the sipping of hemlock. George Carlin, also in my mind, was supposed to play that role.

He would have been ideal for it. He was sharp, smart and very much the curmudgeon. He was bitter about society, not because it needed to change but because people has lost their minds and their identities. It wasn’t just the updates on our society, but the way those changes were leading us further and further ever-stumbling towards disconnecting from one another.

One of his jokes that stood out to me was how we have taken the word “shell-shock” and turned it into a euphemism with much less sting – post-traumatic stress disorder. He contended that if we had kept that word in place, shell-shock, then a lot more of our veterans would be getting the medical attention they needed.

Carlin was big on euphemisms and the study of words. After all, words are nothing more than a reflection )or refraction?) of our ideas and our thinking. Words have power. As a Latin teacher and a philologist, I understand that. George Carlin helped open my eyes – or ears – to it. You just have to stop and listen.

The world will go on for a brief time talking about missing Carlin, a comic genius. Then they will stop. What is more disturbing to me is that there are few, if any, that can step in and keep our society in check. We need more George Carlins now, more than ever, to be that watchdog of society. Sure actions speak louder than words, but in today’s smoky era of big government and corporations and lobbyists, those actions are wrapped in words just as swords are sheathed.

Carlin never sipped the hemlock. Yet, without his presence our society continues to do so itself. We gradually forget our traditions and our culture and what made us what we are. George Carlin never seemed to lose sight of that. We are all diseased.

This is a really good demonstration of how far technology has come. No, those aren’t real light sabers but wow they did an amazing job creating their own light saber duel!

And this one is just pretty dang funny. No one ever stops to consider what it would actually be like with a light saber…

Just saw the IMAX U23D film. It was amazing.

I am a huge U2 fan, been one my entire life. The first album I ever bought was U2’s Joshua Tree – on cassette. I worshiped them. In fact, when Rattle and Hum was being shown in theaters, I saw that, too (my cousin Jeanie took me and my brother Jimmy to the Regency Mall theater in Jacksonville). This IMAX film, though blew that away.

What made this so much better wasn’t that the music was better – everything U2 has ever done musically, to me, has been spot on. It was the experience.

It felt like you were really at the concert – in as much as you could. Bono, Larry, Adam and the Edge were right there. I found myself watching the Edge’s guitar work – what chords he was playing, what little tricks he was doing. Larry’s stoic drumming style was within reach. You almost felt like he was your big brother much like he is for the band. Adam’s steady, pounding bass playing kept rumbling your seat as he waived his bass around like an axe. I felt myself ducking under his bass.

And Bono, as usual, steals the show. He is such a ham, you gotta love him. He always seems to take things to the next level, making issues more poignant than we may even perceive them. His energy really paces the show and takes the band’s life performances to a new level.

In all, the experience of the 3D with the filming create a unique experience that really brings U2’s live set to life. It gives poor saps like myself, hardcore fans that can’t pony up for the seats, a chance to experience an intimate concert with my most favorite band ever.

Don’t know why either…

One of my students showed this to me – very funny. If you got 9 and a half minutes to spare, check this out. If you don’t, check it out anyway – the world can wait. Besides you could use a good laugh.