Oh, the ideas...

The trouble with being a writer is that the ideas never stop. So there I was, at a U2 concert, surrounded by a million different people (okay, over 70,000), which means plenty of fodder for book ideas.

Because I don't want to get the attention of U2 security, or give any wackos ideas, I'll be non-specific about most of them. However, as I sat in a completely full stadium, I couldn't help but think of The Sum of All Fears. Great movie, great book, and super scary, because as I sat at Invesco Field, I realized how easy it would be. It wasn't like we went through metal detectors or anything like that. Security guys looked in our bags (but not very thoroughly, IMO), and then asked if our bottled water was factory sealed (it was). My point being, any number of the 70,000+ attendees could have been carrying weapons and completely gotten through, and... there we have The Sum of All Fears. OR, we could have had something like what we saw in The Event's finale... what if someone came to the concert with the intent of infecting concertgoers with a massive species-ending virus so that aliens could take over our planet? (Which would totally fit in with some of U2's space themes from the night.)

On top of that, it was supposedly Doomsday. From what I heard, there was supposed to be a massive earthquake to start off the end of the world. So as I sat in this big metal stadium, I wondered... what would happen if a massive earthquake hit right now? Is Invesco Field built to withstand an earthquake? What magnitude? What would a natural disaster look like with all those people trapped in that big bowl?  It was a zoo trying to get out to light rail to get home, I can't imagine what a rescue response would have looked like trying to help that many people. But it would make for great fiction.

All right, so let's get beyond the massive incidents. What about seemingly benign things, like when I was in the restroom. A woman exited the stall, so the next lady went in to that stall, and called out to her, "Hey, you left your beer in here." The woman replied, "it was there when I got in." Wouldn't you know, I ended up in that stall, with that leftover beer? What if that beer had been spiked with something, and the woman who left it there was stashed in a closet somewhere, dead? What if that beer was the only clue to the woman's disappearance? Or maybe she was raptured... leaving behind her beer at a U2 concert?

Or... as was the problem at the concert (70K+ people, go figure), the restroom lines were ridiculous. I was behind about 50 people waiting my turn, when a woman came by and said, "hey, did you know there's a virtually empty restroom over there?" Of course, we all went to the place she indicated, but what if it had been a lure for more nefarious dealings?

Then there was the helicopter circling the place. First off, I want to know why they had to have a police helicopter circling a concert venue. Anyone know for real? Me, I kept thinking that at some point, it was going to shoot missiles into the place. And then, I saw a plane come dangerously close to the helicopter. Hubby and I thought for sure those two were going to crash into each other. Wouldn't that have been something? A plane crashing into a helicopter over a U2 concert. Not even Bono could have planned that.

The sad thing was, hubby thoroughly did not appreciate all of my great ideas and conspiracy theories. I kept thinking it would have been so much more fun to have a writer friend with me who would appreciate all of my great ideas. Instead, I had to wait to blog about it... and here we are.

Do these pictures give you any ideas....