the famous copacabana room

I’m here at Zaphods last night in what some may call the famous Copacabana room to see Matt Good perform his free acoustic show. The place if full of many of whom I’m sure are all but familiar with the old line that if you can get a hundred monkeys in a room banging on typewriters after a while someone will write Shakespeare (ensuring human rights in this case). But when you get two hundred bloggers in a room banging on cameras and beer bottles you get a fucked up network where no one can think or be creative for that matter. Matt Good said he even got distracted. Damning actor/comedian Dave Chappelle for his smart aleck red balls take.

Between songs he voiced his opinion, one for example, that we were laid into over the concerned effectiveness of Live8 and as he openly criticized their altruistic intensions. Some like I, remember we just couldn’t keep our mouths shut after seeing madonna prance around in her $2000 dollar designer suit with equally expensive jewelry while roping her arm around the neck of a former victim of famine. "There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas," she said, "...where the only water that flows is the tears of the children." The efforts struggled seem appreciative and supportive until a translator was told to communicate to her that she needed to clap and smile because the camera was on her and the whole world was watching her confusion and culture-shock.

I also read an article where several people attending Live8 concerts had no idea what it was about, one person quoted saying “Yeah, about, starving in, Afghanistan, right?” We’d like to think more people are aware of the issues, and hopefully people were motivated to make personal efforts to initiate change, but for the most part, I think people probably just enjoyed a good rock show, almost a lot like this one hosted by Matt Good along with Amnesty International.

As for my photos, they did not turn out as well as I had expected but I was all the more thankful to be present at the concert in the very least. It might as well be. After a few songs and jokes about playing next to BareFax (the strip bar next door), we bid a fond farewell to the irrepressible Matt Good, and that was the weekends happy ending.

After a quick wander through the streets with my girlfriend Sharon, squeezing past those with droopy eyes in skimpy outfits, people in the cold with tight fitting suits and oversized sunglasses, maybe a C-list celebrity, a suicide girl, and a guy who looked so out of place that he must’ve been famous, I was reminded that glamour is rarely glamourous up close—especially when you’re not drunk. I wished Sharon goodnight when she found the bus home and I ran into a ol’friend named Sam right there after whom says to me, “...you look a little mopey.”

After a moment I agree, “...I’m with you,” Sam and I looked at each other, nodded, and we all headed our seperate ways.

Please visit the following for information on the fight for human rights.
10,000 Voices- Amnesty International or Amnesty Canada

I have photos from the Zaphod concert available.
Matt Good Show - photo gallery