Asking celebrities about politics is usually dodgy at best; futile at worst. Face recognizability doesn't make one an expert on anything, and too many young stars treat political opinions like glasses -- something that makes them appear intelligent without actually getting smarter. Beastie Boy Adam Yauch is another thing entirely. Though his comments can be vague and unfocused, no one can accuse him of merely paying lip service to the cause of a free Tibet. It wouldn't have taken much for Yauch to step up to the microphone, whine "You've got to fight for the right of Dalai" and walk away. Instead, he's taken time off from being a Beastie to co-found the San Francisco-based Milarepa Fund, an organization that educates the public about the situation in Tibet, raises money and organizes the now annual Tibetan Freedom Concerts that have helped bring the issue to a wider audience. If all goes well, the concerts will next go to the big screen via the documentary Yauch was finishing edits on as he spoke about politics, mega-concerts and when that next Beastie Boys album will finally hit the shelves.
\"Tibetan Freedom Concert" was released the week Chinese President Jiang Zemin was in the U.S. Was that a coincidence or was it planned?
\It was a little of both. It did work out that way and we were aware of it, but we didn't really shoot for that time.
\There's been a real increase of interest in the media about Tibet -- "Seven Years in Tibet" and the new Scorcese film. Why do you think that's happening now?
\I think, in a sense, humanity is reaching a real juncture. With the coming of the year 2000, it's an important time for humanity to reflect on itself. We're at the end of a millennium, so we're automatically going to look back on the last thousand years. In Western society, we've spent that time modernizing our technology; making our machines as modern as we can. While the rest of the world was modernizing outwardly, the Tibetans basically spent the last thousand years going from being one of the most powerful warrior societies to setting down their weapons, disbanding their army and becoming more spiritual and more compassionate toward all beings.
\We need that insight in order to evolve further and not use our modern technology in a destructive way. I think that Tibet has become symbolic, kind of like a signpost at the crossroads, to help us decide which direction were going.
\Why do you think Tibet has become such a magnet for celebrities -- people like you and Richard Gere and Woody Harrelson?
\Since it's a non-violent struggle, the real means for bringing about change is spreading the word, spreading the truth. And in modern society, we're very focused on celebrities. So in a way it makes sense that people who have this voice would help spread the word.
\You don't hear much about the situation in Tibet on the album. Is that on purpose?
\There's a lot of political information in the artwork. Also, the third CD is also a CD-ROM that has a lot of information, including the history of Tibet and a letter people can send to Congress. Originally, the plan was that we were going to put the speeches people made in between the music, but when we actually started putting it together that way, it didn't really flow right. The idea was to find the right balance between the entertainment and education.
\There's interviews with the Dalai Lama on the CD-ROM and with some of the nuns and monks in Tibet... Hopefully, people will read the booklet and make some kind of connection with the stuff just by knowing that these are things the artists are involved with and interested in, and be more open to the subject and pick the information up from the booklet.
\The album reminded me of "Concert for Bangla Desh." Were you thinking of that when you worked on it?
\Not really. But I went to England... for something... just after the New York concert. They were playing it on the plane and I listened to it and thought, oh, that's cool. But it hadn't crossed my mind before that.
\Some critics have compared it to Woodstock as well.
\Yeah, Biz Markie's Star Spangled Banner was kind of a nod to Hendrix's version.
\There's only one song on the album from each act that played the New York show. How did you chose which one to use?
\We would just listen to the bands' performances and pick out which was the best performance or which seemed the most appropriate or which one the band wanted us to use. It was different reasons for different ones.
\Was a movie always part of the plan?
\It went back and forth. There were times we talked about doing a movie, but by the time it came about to actually doing it, we had decided to just do it as a documentary that would show on public television or something. Afterward, when we were looking at the footage, it seemed to make more sense to make it as a movie and started to edit it with that in mind.
\Do you see Milarepa moving on to other issues?
\We've chosen to focus all our attention on Tibet because it seems to be linked into so many other issues, and it's such a timely thing. It represents so many other things -- non-violence and women's issues and the environment; all these things are tied into it. But after Tibet gains its freedom, we'll probably move on to other things.
\"When" Tibet gains it's freedom; does that mean you're optimistic?
\Yeah, I definitely think it's very possible.
\Finally, what's up with the Beasties?
\We're in the studio, m
