For me, I can only think of the NYT article published a month or so ago about declining rates of readin gin the US as a leisure activity. It said that according to current rends, virtually nobody in the US will read for pleasure within the next 50 yrs. And this doesn't mean big meaty novels, they mean ANYTHING...you could read a Harlequin Romance and that would be "leisure" reading.
Stop and think about that for a moment. The part that really scared me though is that the study drew a clear dicotomy between people who read being more likely to participate in community events, go to concerts, ball games, volunteer, etc. They were the "Active" culture. Those whose recreation did not include reading at all were the "passive electronic culture" whose community particiaption was almost nil.
As more and more leisure time is spent in sedentary, non-actively mind-engaging culture (electronic games vs books) people will become more mentally lazy. You can see where this is going, where this may have already gone...
ValleyGirl: You post made me cry. So true, so true....
StarsGoBlue:
YES!!! I am going with it. The image of the band playing amidst a sea of broken TV screens is pure genius. You should start a thread with "Stage Ideas for the Next Tour." Of course, we wouldn't expect Edge to give an open reply as to which one of those he supports would we??? But you never know, he could drop hints
I am thinking a very kind of surrealist Bosch look, or even Picasso would do (though he is overused to the point of cliche.) (or Frank Lloyd Wright?!?!--wouldn't thast be the irony of all...)Guernica, all over again. Except we've a lot of replacements to Guernica. We have had Bhopal. Sarajevo. Srebrenica. Kinshasa. Grozny...Kikwit...Fallujah...Abu Gharib. . The list goes on, to the point of obscenity. And it will continue, I am afraid.
But unlike Guernica, so far those cities have not had their resident painter or poet. Something to capture the horror, or attempt to make sense of it. Painting and poetry now being effectively dead as active hot spots of culture in the US, (and we can thank a varity of factors for that), electronic poetry will have to do.
As minimalism seems to be a good point to make now, a huge mockup of the ZooTV stage seems an impossibilty, and a bit unweildy, since we are not going back to the era of the 80's when concerts had no video screens. It would also be too literal. The stage should not be easy to "figure out." Not right away. And the statement would get too repiditive the longer the tour went on. You need something more simpler and seductive. A few broken TV's, maybe 4 or 5, total, and next to each of the band members might be good. Scattered around the stage, in artfully reclining, cubist positions. It would really be killer if the band had them sitting on giant cushions. (How we worship it like an emperor--but also a funny yet sad commentary by the band--"it needs comfort in its 2 hrs on the stage, and we don't." It is increasingly becoming the ever-changing, "active' thing in our lives, while we stay the same. Giving it a cushion would turn it into a living thing, and if the screens were to be facing each band memember, it would be like the Big Brother watching us of the Homeland Security etc. 12 yrs ago it was an impassive monster passing judgement on us from afar.
This time the scutiny is much more personal and up close. A TV on a cushion would be funny for the audience. But it really isn't funny.)In keeping with your idea, it might be nice if one were also stood up to form a podium, so we could be treated to the delicious spectacle of Bono standing on one, preaching at a particularily grand moment. While overhead, the customary bigger screen (of modest Elevation size) would of course be broadcasting him. If the band has any resident sense of irony left this would be an illustration of it--Bono trying to look like he has "destroyed" the God of the Cathode Ray to which he was slave this past decade--while overhead the Big Screen is still there. This would send the double message that we need to be made aware of: how we can succeed in overcoming or addiction to the "Word", on the clutte rof the small screen, but at the same time, there's the bigger screen above. But also, it could be an illustration of our need for clarity of things.
Soft green or blue lighting--soothing cathode ray blue--and little red or yellow lights bathing each little TV in pretty light. Oh boy, now I'm spinning with this...