(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

Rufus Wainwright wants to save the world by turning off the lights. He calls it “Blackout Sabbath,” and he’s encouraging people to unplug and live in quiet darkness from noon to midnight on June 21, the summer solstice. “I felt like the whole environmental movement was getting a little too glitzy,” he said by phone after announcing the plan at his glitzy Valentine’s Day concert at Radio City Music Hall. “But my belief is that it really has to come from the individual.” So during your twelve hours without power, he wants you to think about the Earth and make a list of what you can do to save it. “The New York power outage was a real profound experience for me,” Wainwright said. “I just remember such a sense of relief, and of being a human being, when everything was shut off. I had to try and re-create it.” He doesn’t expect a huge following, but he hopes to get the Empire State Building’s lights darkened. But if he succeeds, he won’t see it: He’ll be on tour in Berlin that night.

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