Live 8

[Aeson]

I didn't expect this to be a flame war.

you don't know what I do or don't do. I don't think war helps anyone. People are dead and that helps no one. Killing some to save many never made sense to me. I think violence should stay in games and in movies not on the street.

I hate no one but I do hate actions and inaction.

I don't think the world is any safer now than it was 5 years ago.

I think the best tool we had humans have is education. Educate those who need it. Our greatest warriors are teachers. There is no medal of honor for them. There is no national cemetery.

Don't make this personal. If my comments offend I'm sorry. Insults never solve anything.

 

[Aeson]

All right lets go back to talkingabout how much some of the bands sucked...

It always seems to me live performances often do suck. It never sounds the same as the studio recording. Of course you can always pull a Lisa Marie and Lipsync. During the Pepsi 400 tonight her timing was off and you could tell.

 

[Krug]

I dunno. Not all live bands sucked. Annie Lennox was pretty good. She can flat out sing. Audioslave was terrible; out of tune and just provided an inept performance.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I thought the Pink Floyd reunion came off well - I only saw "Money" and "Comfortably Numb" but both sounded great. Madonna did a great job, too - singing live mind you! U2 was good, as usual. I'm pretty tired of the obligatory Hey Jude finale - very predictable. Some of the clips of little-known foreign bands were kinda cool - Yannick Noah is a pop singer now? Didn't he use to be a tennis pro? WTF?

I think Bono summed it up well - you can't change everything, but the things you can, you must. Vaccinations for Malaria, basic Aids drugs, debt relief - these things are doable, and will make things better. It will be up to poverty-stricken nations to make use of the breathing room those things would give them, and there's no guarantee that they can or will, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't give them the chance.

I refuse to become a cynic.

 

[Templetroll]

If you want to educate about what Live 8 is about it gets political fast. Nature of the beast when you try to influence politics or discuss an attempt to influence politics.

I heard that when Pink Floyd was reunited onstage they cut away from the performance so the DJs could remark about how historic this reunion performance was?!? Someone was missing the point there!

 

[wingsandsword]

Well they're not aiming to raise $ from the general public. They're trying to get the G8 leaders to deliver an additional US$25 billion in aid to Africa. Will it work? No idea...

Holding a big concert to try and convince a council of world powers to change their policies, sounds a little inefficient.

I figured it was just a chance for celebrities to engage in a little self-promotion while looking socially responsible. If these wealthy celebrities want to change things, why don't they try speaking to these leaders in person (with their wealth and social standing, they might be able to get an audience), or maybe even donate some of their significant personal wealth to charity or establish charities to help. Use their frequent appearances on TV to push this as a pet cause. Celebrities and musicians can do a lot to help the world.

But holding a big, heavily publicized concert to try and directly influence world economic politics sounds like using the completely wrong tool for the job.

 

[CGoat]

I was watching it for a while... and I just got sick of all the propaganda crap that MTV was telling me. When did MTV sell out to corporate america.... basicly they are just a huge marketing tool so all the prebubecent kids can gobble up the capitilistic crap they advertise.

I heard some celerbities saying how they need to focus on free trade so that african farmers can export their produce without paying high tarrifs. WTF? since when is there high tarrifs on food? And second doesn't africa have more of the need for food themselves? To me it sounds like its more of a corporate sponsorship for free trade. So then the corporations can go in and exploit the people.

With that said I'm all for letting africa off the hook with its debt. But damn me to hell if we let corporations go in and exploit the children of africa. I know I live in america and all... but damn... capitalism is the worse thing in the world. So many people will sell out their neighbors to make a buck.

 

[Seonaid]

I don't know how I feel about it, but the point of the concert was to get average citizens interested in the topic. People tend to follow celebrities. For some, having a favorite artist say "sign the petition" will be enough. If enough people sign a petition, the receiver will listen. I think the organizers just wanted people to become aware of the issues, because once you know about something, you are less likely to ignore it.

On a side note, I was really looking forward to seeing Chris de Burgh, but none of the web sites had lineups and the recordings aren't broken up at all (as in, by artist). I'm not sure it's worth it to sift through the entire Berlin recording.

 

[Shemeska]

I know I live in america and all... but damn... capitalism is the worse thing in the world.

Tell that to a friend of my grandfather who spent 30 years in a Soviet gulag.



As for the concert itself, it seems like a few people with really good intentions (Bono who has actually devoted himself to this cause for more than the past week like 3/4 of the people involved) and then there's all the celebrities who spout talking points and promote themselves.

Pink Floyd getting together was cool though.

 

[Warrior Psychic]

Live 8 reminded me very much of Frankenstein's monster.

Dr. Frankenstein had good intentions when he gave life to his monster. He didn't intend for it to rampage across the country-side leaving confusion and broken lives in its wake.

Personally, I thought Madonna's tactic of using the young Ethiopian woman as a prop was incredibly crass. It seemed like an ill-thought attempt at attaching some sorta of social relevance to her image.