U2 and Shakespeare

Last night TCF Stadium hosted a U2 concert for which Minneapolis had been waiting for a couple of years. The concert was originally scheduled for a year ago but was postponed until now. That meant I had the opportunity to work security. Several people I know would have loved to have been in my shoes (and if you are a man on the bigger side you could have had a spot right in front of the stage - facing the crowd of course.) After hearing an extended sound check I was grateful to be sent off to a gate where I could hear the music without losing my hearing.

Working security amounts to lots of waiting and standing. I was given the job of checking bags which I'm actually not very good at because I have a hard time telling people that their large backpack full of rain gear is too big to be allowed into the stadium. I was more strict on the size of the camera lens which was to be less than 3 inches. I only saw one lens that seemed longer than that and the guy protested rather loudly that it was fine. I was thankful my supervisor was close at that point and got him to deal with it. (The man was let in with his camera.) I saw lots of ponchos and a few women in high heels had a pair of flip flops hidden in their bag. The people were of all ages. My favorite was a grandma, a mother and her two grade school boys. I think the grandmother was more excited than the boys (in part because she was getting to introduce her grandchildren to some great music.) It may be a stereo-type on my part but that isn't what I would expect at a typical rock concert.

I hoped the ponchos wouldn't be needed but about 10:00 (an hour into the U2 part of the concert) it started raining and was soon pouring with strong gusts of winds. A few people headed for the exits but for the most part the party continued. Bono closed his concert with Singing in the Rain with the crowd joining in. As I watched the crowd stream out, cold and soaking wet with water squishing out of their shoes, many of them had smiles on their faces. Rain or no, they had had a wonderful time.

This afternoon I went to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. A friend of mine is taking a Shakespeare class and she had to attend and write a paper on it. She rounded up a few other friends and we enjoyed the beautiful summer day with a picnic before the show. It was well done and held the attention of even the youngest ones in the crowd. One child was following the story well enough to be able to answer one of the character's rhetorical.
Personally I was thankful for the summary my friend had given us before so it was easier for me to follow. (If you are in the area, there are 2 more showings next weekend. http://www.thestrangecapers.com/index.htm).

One of the people I was with this afternoon had been at the concert last night and from his description of the way Bono was able to make a stadium filled with 60,000+ people feel like a community it was easy to see why almost everyone had come out smiling.

U2 and Shakespeare: that's lots of culture for me in one weekend.