America, August 4, 2003
How to Get a Rock Star to Drink a Smoothie
You might call it star fucking
|
Somehow, way back in July of last year, when I was hanging out with Claudette in San Francisco, getting my, re-activization, I introduced her to the new fangled idea of hydrogen fuel cells. Now I don't remember doing this, but Claudette swears I was the one who first explained it all to her, which seems like something I would do. Now it's a year later, and guess who is now a big fuel cell booster? Yep, none other than joe-cool Claudette, though it took her a while to get there. She's always been a big booster of recycled and renewable fuels, and she's big in the summer concert touring world, which gives her a fun little bio. Like last fall, when she toured with Moby and worked on getting that show to run on bio-diesel, which is a diesel fuel made with different concentrations of recycled vegetable oils, mainly from restaurants. Then, when Perry Farrell decided that this summer there should be another Lollapalooza, one that would showcase Jane's Addictions newest album, he wanted to make more than good music. He wanted to make sure that new ideas and new applications had a chance to strut their stuff at his shows and he picked Claudette to organize the alternate energy section of the experience. Soon Claudette was organizing a second bio-diesel fueled show, this one bigger, better, bolder, and more beautiful than the last. And in doing so, she invited the guys from Humboldt State University to go along, introducing hydrogen fuel cells to the next generation of America's youth, convinced Perry that he should do a demonstration of this new technology, and got me a backstage pass to witness it all when Lollapalooza came to DC. So that's how, a year after I had a casual conversation with Claudette about hydrogen, I was sweating my ass off one Friday afternoon in August, watching Perry Farrell drink a fruit smoothie from a blender powered 100% from renewable energy sources. Neat, eh? |
