Daily Prompt: Clouds Have A Silver Lining

June 1, 2013 by TammyeHoney 3 Comments

Daily Prompt: Silver Linings

by michelle w. on June 1, 2013

Write about something you consider “ugly” — war, violence, failure, hatred — but try to find beauty, or a sense of hope, in your thoughts.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us UGLY.

A Benefit Concert is normally to raise money for a great cause.
The big celebrity shindigs normally have a huge turn out of celebrities who convince people to donate.

The latest Benefit in Boston is still all the rage in Twitter and various social media.

The hype?

Benefit Concert Unites Americans in Love of Boston, Hatred of Dane Cook

http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/benefit-concert-unites-americans-love-boston-hatred-dane-061745789.html

The Boston Strong benefit concert that streamed over the web Thursday night was notable for appearances by homegrown artists ranging from Aerosmith to the reunited New Kids on the Block. But the most talked about act of the night was Dane Cook… and not because America suddenly fell in love with him all over again.

The hostility toward Cook toward the end of the show became rampant enough that the comedian became a trending topic on Twitter — out of sheer contempt. He’s always been a polarizing comic, but what caused him to become a social media supervillain on a night devoted to charity and good vibes? Just this: The web feed being viewed by millions went dead as soon as he took the stage and came back on as soon as he left, leading to rampant speculation that he had disallowed organizers from sending his set over the web like everyone else’s.

Eventually Cook confirmed it himself, sounding blithe about the rampant contempt directed his way: “Hey everyone sorry my set was not a part of the live stream or televised! I didn’t want any of the new material to hit the airwaves yet! I can’t wait to share it soon!”

If the marathon bombings made Bostonians mad, Cook’s “Dane Cook move” (as one angry tweeter put it) might have been the one thing that could have enraged locals even more. Jeff Howe, a sports writer for the Boston Herald, unleashed a series of tweets bashing the comic. “Couldn’t imagine turning on a city the way @DaneCook did tonight. I know that’s not how it goes here in Massachusetts… I’ll admit, I used to think he was hilarious, but turning your back on your state makes you look like a squirrel… Why use a tragedy to tease your career?”

Dane Cook [Getty Images]

Other Boston residents or sympathizers joined in on Twitter: “I have loved Dane Cook since day 1, but I am just speechless on what he did tonight. Feel betrayed”… “If this rumor is true about Dane Cook blocking the stream of his performance for a charity show, he should rot in hell asap”… “Dane Cook right up the with Onizneb as the shame of Massachusetts”… “We will always forgive Doug Flutie for the gym shorts, but we will never forgive Dane Cook for being Dane Cook”… “If Dane Cook wasn’t just censored and he blocked it himself, he has become public enemy number 1″… “I hear Dane Cook earned $100,000 for Boston charities by auctioning off his exit from the stage”… And so on.

Cook did allow himself to appear on camera for the all-star finale, joining Aerosmith for the the classic rock song “Dirty Water” and wielding Steven Tyler’s mic stand, apparently unaware of the fact that he’d just become the most discussed alleged evildoer in America. As one tweeter wrote, “Watching Dane Cook sing and dance oblivious to the fact Boston hates him is the funniest thing he has done in years!”

At first, viewers figured there might be technical difficulties when the feed dropped out moments after Cook came on stage, since the first third of the five-hour-plus concert was plagued by streaming difficulties that rendered the show virtually unwatchable. That buffering disaster caused untold thousands to tune out of the broadcast and stirred up its own social-media firestorm, until the streaming finally smoothed out at about the time Jason Aldean took the stage two hours into the show.

Did someone lose sight about what a fund raiser is all about here? Perhaps next time Mr. Cook should think twice before making an appearance till he is ready to publicise his material.

Giving the fundraiser a black eye was not his intent, or at least I hope not. All in all Money was still raised and even he was still able to raise some money.

That is the silver lining to this cloudy day.

Here are what other Daily Prompt Writers had to say on the subject:

Thank you for reading,

Tammye Honey

Author: TammyeHoney

I am about Blogging various information. If you check, I have several sites. Everything from food to funny with a few product lines in between. I am a Daily Prompt Blogger and an A-Z prompt blogger as well. Thank you for checking out my site. I hope you enjoy. I started this for cooking and my corn allergy and then it grew...

3 thoughts on “Daily Prompt: Clouds Have A Silver Lining”

sarahwbartlett
June 1, 2013 at 11:51 pm

I hadn’t heard about this – but love Boston – and appreciate the in-depth sharing with us.

- TammyeHoney
  June 2, 2013 at 6:09 am
  
  I had been following updates on Yahoo news that is how I caught it… I love that area also. Thank you for sharing.
  
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