Yes, I know I talked about authenticity a few months ago, but in my household we keep talking about an example from a concert that we went to last month.

In the age of enshittification and inauthenticity, it feels like my household is gravitating towards experiences that feel carefully created by humans: live music, plays, art. And one of those experiences really stood out.

We went to see Kool & the Gang at the Rady Shell in San Diego. (Highly, highly recommend this as an amazing venue.) The opening act was the Sugarhill Gang.

Just in case you're not familiar: Kool & the Gang is known for songs like "Celebration" and "Get Down on It," songs that you've undoubtedly heard even if old school R&B/soul/funk music isn't your thing. Sugarhill Gang had the first rap single to become a top 40 hit with "Rapper's Delight."*

Sugarhill Gang was amazing. Two of the three original members are still performing. It's high energy and engaging. The screen behind the stage streams old footage of them performing on Soul Train and other classic shows. It was excellent and authentic. It sounds like them. It feels like them. It was an immersive delight.

And then Kool & the Gang came on stage. Robert "Kool" Bell is the last remaining performer from the original group, so I guess it technically remains Kool & A Gang. But it was like watching a high quality tribute band. The musicians were all excellent (more employment opportunities for trombone players, please!), but it was very much not Kool & the Gang. I could have gotten the same experience from any tribute band anywhere. The vibe was not helped by the absolutely freakishly weird Midjourney AI-generated visuals of steampunk elephants on the screen.

Nothing about the Kool experience felt authentic or valuable. And this is something we can't stop talking about because it was something that we didn't expect from humans creating live music on stage. But in an era where we're clinging to authenticity, it was a huge disappointment.

I've been thinking about this a lot since then. On the surface, it all looks the same: two live music performances at the same venue. And yet they were so very different. How can I make the world feel more Sugarhill and less Kool? Is it in my work? My photography? My crochet? My volunteering? I don't necessarily have an answer to this question, but that doesn't stop me from trying to find better ways to bring authenticity to my life and the lives of those around me.

Have you experienced anything like this? Send me a message and let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

* Also please enjoy the Brian Williams version which is just amazing. AI could never.

​Microsoft's carbon footprint jumped 25% in fiscal year 2025. All of the tech companies' emissions are increasing. Google is up 18% year over year, and Amazon is up 16%. I wonder why.

Oh, right: "GenAI is crowding out sustainability, in real time," says Gaël Duez in the latest issue of the Green IO newsletter. Who could have foreseen such a thing? "Here's the number that should worry us," Duez says. "A 20% year-on-year increase means Big Tech's emissions double by the end of this decade — and multiply tenfold by the end of the next one."

How achievable are climate solutions? Project Drawdown has a grid highlighting what we can do and how plausible these solutions are.

​What would it cost to fix climate change, anyway? About $5.5 trillion per year through 2030. Considering that we have enough money floating around to mint new billionaires and trillionaires, this is relatively small potatoes.

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Alisa Bonsignore

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