Live 8 Thoughts

Here are my Live 8 thoughts in stream of conciousness format while watching MTV...

I can't take Will Smith seriously. He does the "snap every 8 seconds thing" which is cool, but I can just imagine him getting "jiggy" with it.

They plugged an online petition called the ONE campaign.

London gets U2 and Paul McCartney to open up. We get the Black Eyed Peas. What the hell?

Looks like a 90% white audience in London.

The Black Eye Peas are singing a Bob Marley tune. Ugh. They have the Marley family there. Did they ever figure out where Bob Marley was going to be buried?

Kanye West just said that AIDS and crack are manmade devices to hurt black people. Maybe being a college dropout wasn't the smartest thing in the world to be.

Did MTV just use "Drive" by the Cars for a montage on African poverty? Why not use a Spice Girls song next?

Bob Geldoff just called Madonna the "Queen B of Rock-N-Roll". Huh?


What's great is that the African woman with Madonna (who is described by the Associated Press as "African girl Birhan Woldou") seems totally lost and clueless during "Like A Prayer" song. Madonna seemed to be dragging her up and down the stage. It would have been cool if she tried to kiss her like she was Britney Spears.

Madonna has really slowed down.


Shakira is a babe.

Does Linkin Park really suck that bad live?

White guys are big pimpin with Jay-Z. Nice.

It's 4PM. I've been watching for four hours. What am I supposed to do about poverty in Africa? Seemingly...nothing. That's pretty sad.


Joss Stone is a fantastic singer.

Sting's reworked lyrics for "Every Breath You Take" was interesting.

MTV did a good job with a infomercial on the G8 and what issues are involved. I'll give them credit, they did show President Bush talking about the issue too.

I think I hear Jars of Clay in the background of one of MTV's reports from Philadelphia. I don't think Christian rock is going to get any TV time on that network.

Was P-Diddy really on a Proactiv acne commercial? Does P-Diddy need a job?

I'm bored. Too many highlights, not enough live music. I'm going out to dinner.

This was a fun show, but it was no Live AID. Yes, I'm old enough to remember Live AID. It had a clear sense of purpose and a call to action. I'm not sure if Live 8 will be remembered as a success in the same breath as that event. The only thing I was asked to do is gain knowledge. So now I know that there's a problem there. So what? I don't have any greater sense of hope about the situation in Africa than I did when I woke up this morning.

Will someone tell me what the point of all of this was?


This goes out to all of my fans (so much for Madonna's children's book)...

RELATED LINKS:
The Ho-Ho Cognitive Process says that far "too many musicians are jumping onboard to give their careers a boost and gain from the publicity, not to mention the charge that their ego will get when they can say "Of course I care about the little people. I performed at Live 8"."

BBC ranked the London performers.

RELATED LINKS:
Looking At Things