One planet, many time zones. Live Earth–10 concerts on seven continents to fight global warming–has begun in Sydney, Australia with an aboriginal welcome ceremony: men in loincloths and facepaint (and a more modestly dressed woman) chanting and drumming and dancing. There will also be concerts in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg, Maropeng (near Johannesburg, South Africa), London, Rio de Janeiro, Antarctica, Washington D.C. and scenic Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (which msn.com, carrying the concerts as live netcasts, is calling “New York”).

This blog will feature photographs from the shows worldwide. To play critic for the faraway concerts, I’m plugged into broadband and satellite radio, and I’ll be checking in through the night. On Saturday afternoon, I’ll head over to Giants Stadium for the “New York” show headlined by the Police: laptop in hand, wi-fi card active, headphones in a pocket. With luck, I’ll be able to monitor some of the other concerts during set changes. We’ll see how many of the hundred or so bands worldwide I can hear.