Live8

[Ghoulish Delight]

Anyone watch this?

My sister recorded the entire coverage on ReplayTV, so we watched the heavily accelerated version. These were my impressions:

* Geldoff apparantly got a lot of criticism for the lineup, but I think most of that came from Americans. It was definitely a Anglo-centric lineup. I thought it was pretty good

* It seemed like most of the performances were pretty good. Pink Floyd, reunited for the first time in forever, surprised me, they sounded fantastic.

* The Pink Floyd segment lead to the best line of the whole thing. The camera focused on a t-shirt that said, "Pink Floyd is Back", to which the male host (we skipped so much of the hosts blathering that I have no idea who he was) said, "Truer words have never been put on a t-shirt." And he was so earnest in saying that.

* Speaking of the hosts, there was, of course, way too much, "We're so important" crap. Bleh. Just do it and stop patting yourselves on the back.

* We found ourselves discussing the probably effectiveness of this thing, and whether it will be remembered in the same way as Live Aid was. My feeling is that it won't. At least on in the US. I have no idea how it was received in other nations, but here, I think it kinda fizzled. And I think that partly had to do with it being on 4th of July weekend. People tend not to pay attention to tv or news when they travel, and lots of people were traveling. And if not traveling, doing social, summery type things. Things that keeps one away from the TV. I know that while I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the news, even I was less aware of what was going on that I would have been on a normal weekend. And considering that these concerts had only free tickets, the point being to get people to be active and to "raise their voices", I think that lack of exposure will really limit the impact. If "no one" saw it, or didn't even see the sound-bite coverage on their local news, then the social dialog that might have otherwise had some impact will never get started. I may be wrong, but that's just my impression.

Of course, even with limited impact, it's got to be better than nothing being done. I just wonder if anyone will remember it in 10 years.

[€uroMeinke]

What's Live 8?

[Not Afraid]

What's Live 8?

Ditto.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Exactly.

http://www.live8live.com/

Bob Geldof, at the urge of someone else (I'm blanking right now on whom), organized "Live8", a series of concerts time to coincide with this week's G8 Summit in Scotland. There were 10 concerts around the world (Phily, London, Johanesberg, Barrie, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Eden Project, and Tokyo). Tickets were given out for free (some sort of lottery system). The motto has been, "in 2005 it is your voice we are after, not your money."

The goal has been to put pressure on the G8 countries to increase aid to Africa and to agree to debt relief for African nations.

Wonderful ideals, not sure if it reached enough people to make that voice loud enough.

[wendybeth]

I read this on Eric Alterman's blog the other day:

"This just in: I’m an idiot, I know, but I just figured out that Live 8 is not raising any money for famine relief or malaria cures or AIDS treatment in Africa. It is just designed to “pressure” G8 countries into doing what’s right. Thing is, guys, the G8 doesn’t, (and shouldn’t) care what Madonna, Elton John, U2, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, R.E.M., Coldplay, Bjork, Sting, Dido, Justin Timberlake, Green Day, Snoop Dogg, P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Celine Dion, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill think about anything, particularly if they won’t put their own riches where their big mouths are. (Ditto Pitt, George Clooney, Will Smith, Natalie Portman and Salma Hayek.) I am in favor of harnessing the power of celebrity for global good but where’s the good in this? Good God, this is a moral crime. All that money available just for the asking—all those lives that could be saved by people who won’t miss the money--and these guys won’t even bother to ask? They won’t even allow charities to canvass the audience. Turns out the concert is NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING but moral vanity, and the exploitation of starving, sick Africans, by pampered, rich as**oles and their self-interested corporate sponsors rather than their potential salvation. This is really unspeakably shameful. More from Richard Leiby here (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/30/AR2005063002023_pf.html). Good for Bruce for staying away. (And I withdraw my more generous-minded comments yesterday and apologize for not doing the basic research before answering my correspondent’s question.)"

I am inclined to agree. While I've no doubt noble intentions were at play, it was mostly a self-serving show and could have been utilised far more effectively for other purposes, in other ways.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Uh... what Wendy said. :)

I also thought Pink Floyd sounded great. The band that really surprised me though was The Who. They sounded MUCH better than I expected.

All in all, the performances were quite good. I'm doubtful that it made any kind of a difference though.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Perhaps, but I think what they were attempting to do was separate themselves from any sort of controversy over who might be making money off the show. They were vehement about the tickets being free, so much so that when they started showing up on EBay, they threatened legal action until EBay blocked auctions of Live 8 tickets.

I'm undecided whether it's good or bad. I agree that they could have used it to generate money to be sent over there, especially since one of their goals is to increase the ammount of money the G8 nations send. BUT, I also like the attempt (albeit largely failed, imo) at saying, "It's not about money, it's about attitudes. Throwing all the money from selling tickets over there would be a tiny bandaid, what really needs to change is global awareness and willingness to do what needs to be done." And what needs to be done is FAR more than throwing money that way.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I don't think there is anything necessarily "bad" about the event. Awareness is always a good thing. I just noticed that a lot of people weren't even aware of the event or paid little attention to it, and the ones that I spoke to were quite surprised to hear it wasn't raising any money. I think that is what people expect from events like this and maybe were a bit confused by its purpose. Perhaps it was better received in some of the other countries. I hope so.

[Gn2Dlnd]

I wonder what Mr. Alterman thought of War of the Worlds.

;)

[wendybeth]

I wonder what Mr. Alterman thought of War of the Worlds.

;)

Wouldn't matter to me- I like your review best.;):D
('Vomitous dog-turd'- classic!)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yup, that was my impression too. I think part of the problem was that it was thrown togehter very last minute. They didn't have time to properly promote it and get its message out. So it came out very muddled, under publicized, and lost within the holiday weekend.

[scaeagles]

I just can't get into things like this. I personally do not believe the starvation in Africa has much to do with food, but with the governments there.

For example, in Somalia, it was not an issue of no food. In fact, food sat and rotted on the docks, because the controlling war lords didn't want food to go to particular ethnic groups that he didn't like or that didn't support him.

So, that's great that they want to raise money. Go for it. But I don't think it will make a huge difference.

Anyway, I didn't watch a minute of it. I have enjoyed reading about the tantrums and egos of the performers. McCartney getting upset when anyone would dare leave his presence if he wasn't ready for them to. Pitt throwing a fit because he didn't have a private dressing room for his two minute appearance. The steak and lobster dinners for the performers who are they to raise money for famine relief. I don't understand how they can roll in their wealth (I have no problems with personal wealth - I am a capitalist through and through) and then criticize the G8 nations for not doing enough. I have no idea how much they are doing personally, but all the limos, feasts, parties, etc, when the show is about famine relief.....seems a bit excessive.

So.....it's all a huge turn off. The best way to help Africa isn't by sending food and money to those there that already control the food and money. it's by getting rid of thugs and warlords - such as the Somalia example - that use food as a weapon of control and ravage their own country sides to destroy those whom they do not like ethnically or religiously.