You, too?

I find it really odd the things that draw to me to some people and repel me from others. It could be the smallest thing that tells me that someone and I are going to click and an equally trivial bit of nothing that tells me we won't. My best friend of 17 years and I initially bonded over our shared loved of all things Audrey Hepburn and built from there.

I was thinking about this while I watched the U2 concert on YouTube the other night. I've seen them live once before and I think they're amazing. In fact, I'd say they're my favorite band of all time. Lots of bands sound like U2, but U2 sounded like that first. They're truly original.

That's why I had to quit reading this one blog. I'm going to make up a totally random name for her and call her Lava Girl. I can't say her blog was awesome. It was okay with periodic posts that were so "on" I kept coming around in case it was one of those days. Then one day, she went on a rant about U2, specifically Bono.

Now, I don't care if you don't like U2. My husband could take or leave them and I love him plenty fine. (I love that phrase). Liking U2 isn't the point. A friendship with me will not break on that point. As I remember it, her beef with them was that Bono is a hypocrite because he goes around the world, poking his nose in politics screaming for reform and feeding the hungry, and then builds this massively expenisve carbon-footprint intense stage set for their concert tour.

I get that some people hate when celebrities in music or film get involved with political causes. I don't. I say if your fame will highlight a cause that you believe in passionately, you have a moral obligation to try to do something about it. If you're showing up to support a cause because you want the PR, then you're lame. I suspect, after years of casually following U2, that these guys are the real deal and truly care about the causes they champion. So how come they can't promote awareness and raise millions of dollars for regions like Darfur, why can't they donate millions of their own dollars, AND have a stage set to blow the minds of their fans?

Because that's why it was designed. The "claw" as it's called, is intended to create a concert experience unlike any other that incorporates the crowd as much as possible into the show, to put the band as near to the audience as possible, and vice versa. It's expensive, yeah. But I still don't get the hate. If you've ever seen a U2 performance, you clearly get that this is a band that absolutely loves their fans and feeds off of that energy, then pours it right back. They also sing songs that are about everything they preach.

But still, I can be your friend if you don't like U2. The kicker for me with this Lava Girl person, is that she went on to point out how Nickelback is a far superior band.

Uh, I don't want to insult anyone else's muscial tastes here, so I'll stop at saying that they're music is inarguably derivative and I don't think anyone can make a case that they've been a force for good in humanitarian causes. That doesn't mean to say they aren't a good band or even that they aren't charitable. They probably are. But have they mounted anything on the scale of the ONE campaign?

It doesn't matter if they did. It doesn't make them a better or worse band or group of people. But to say U2 sucks and Bono's lame but Nickelback is the gold standard?

It was just one of those moments where I knew the twain would NEVER meet, and I took her out of my blog reader before my eye could twitch any more. It wasn't even about disagreeing with her opinion; it was about being so far apart in thought that I realized we weren't going to find common ground on this or probably most other things. Unless she happened to mention loving Audrey Hepburn, which would have been enough to close the gap. But she didn't.

I rarely remove someone from my blog reader and if I do, it's usually because I have been consistently bored for months and can't find anything to respond to/relate to in what they're writing. This makes them neither good or bad bloggers. There are some really well-written blogs I've moved on from because I just don't connect. It's rare that this happens, but it does.

You're safe, is what I'm saying. I won't cut you off because you have an open love for the Jonas Brothers even though I couldn't name a song they sing. Or shun you because you eat shellfish and I can't stand the stuff. It's just that we watched that concert on Sunday night and I thought, "How could anyone not get this? Not like it, fine, but not get it?" It blew my mind a little.

I love U2, btw. Did I mention that? Bye-bye, Lava Girl.

P.S. Baby Girl Jacobson (I'm so tempted to post her name and claim it pre-emptively but my husband is afraid other people will steal it, like we're living a Seinfeld episode, so I can't) looks healthy, normal, and right on track per last week's ultrasound.

P.P.S. I absolutely LOVE the new blogger editor but I don't know where spell check went. Sigh.