U2 Concert Review

It was U2. Of course it was freakin’ awesome!

Although, I’m not sure what to say about the giant caterpillar that was crouching over the stage. It was even green with little yellow spots on it. A little bit of Alice in Wonderland? It even lit up at certain points during the show, in different colors. Which was kind of neat. Maybe it looked even better (or perhaps more frightening) if you were on mood-enhancers (which I wasn’t, so I’ll never know).

Bono has got my props though, for lasting 2+ hours through B-more heat in humidity in all black and a jacket (although there may have been fans aimed at the stage, and I mean the electric kind, there were still all those lights and a fog machine constantly going). And what with all the hopping around… He does dance like a white boy though. Which is okay, because he is one. I will now admit to a new respect for “Sexy Boots” and a nice drumming part for “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.” It was interesting to note that, while there was a bongo being played at the beginning of the song, it kept playing when the drummer switched to the drum kit (and vice versa). Hmmm. Still, the drums were amazing on the song, even if they weren’t “real.”

I also enjoyed the lights (it goes without saying that the sound kicked butt. So we’ll skip that for the most part, except to note that there was feedback on one song. But for 5 hours of music, we’ll let it pass. It was one particular note that didn’t seem to like the stadium. Every time it was hit – feedback. Ah, live sound). Anyway, lights. So, the stage looked like two caterpillars standing next to each other on their tiptoes, with a stick in between them, with a disco-ball cherry on top of the stick. And on each of the four caterpillar legs were at least four manned spotlights that guys had to climb up and rappel down to get to. It was so neat to watch (even though, once up, they pretty much stayed there the whole show). There was another vertical truss behind us, one the ground level, which held another spotlight that was manned during the show, with another on the other side of the sound booth in the back as well. I didn’t see anyone in that one though. They were up high! And the lights were plenty, but not overdone. They were simplistic, but elusively so; the kind of simple that you know costs money to achieve. At one point the disco ball on the stick was rotating, and there was another one lower down rotating in an opposite direction, and it made an effect that looked almost like someone was blowing beautiful bubbles around the stadium.

Yeah, it was a good night.

Things people write that I have to read

Okay, so apparently it doesn’t take very much skill in the written word to obtain and maintain a job in the “real world.” Here’s some proof of things that I’ve actually had to read (and respond to) at work:

“Dear ____, Please be advised of my intention to request a hearing regarding the $10,000 penalty assessed in the above captioned case. I respectively request reconsideration of the assed penalty based briefly on the following facts…” (no, there are no typos in that)

And a Work Plan that was submitted for review, proposing the following, “Borings would be advanced to below the water table, with all soil samples being field screened for the presence of VOCs. Any elevated field readings would be sampled and sent to the laboratory for analysis for VOCs and fuel oxygenates. Temporary piezometers (wells) would be installed in the boring locations, and groundwater samples obtained and analyzed for the same parameters.”
So, could you be any more vague about this? How many borings? Where? What parameters are you analyzing for, and by what method?

Recently, I received a groundwater sampling report. Now, I like my commas, but this was a little much. “Historic groundwater analytical data is, also, summarized on the attached Table. A copy of the complete laboratory report is, also, attached.” Hmm, thanks.

Finally, I once attended a meeting, where we were handed a meeting agenda. Last on the agenda (I really, really am not making this up, because honestly, I had to read it six times to figure it out), “Dynamic vs. Static Work Plans: Maximize the Reduction of Uncertainty.”

Thanks to all those out there for providing me countless hours of entertaining reading.