Showing posts with label Live 8. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Live 8. Show all posts

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Lyrics Quiz - Live 8 Edition


I found this idea over at Postcards From Metro Suburbia and I thought it would be a good idea to steal (I mean sample, because stealing is wrong). So I have 25 different lyric listed. IF you think you know one, list the Artist and Song (must have both to receive credit) in the comment section, and if you are correct, I will un-bold the lyric and give you credit. If this is successful, it may become a monthly staple on the 9th Green and I will list the person with the most correct answers in a winner’s section on my sidebar. The first theme will be artists who performed at so lyrics were chosen at random from those artist (and possibly former bands *hint*).


1. I lost my head and thought of all the stupid things I said. (Trouble - Clodplay - guessed by Pure Mood)
2. I’m a man of many wishes, I hope my premonition misses. (Lately - Stevie Wonder - guessed by Daria)
3. Yours are the sweetest eyes I’ve ever seen. (Your Song - Elton John - guessed by Daria)
4. I’m not part of a redneck agenda. (American Idiot - Green Day - guessed by Vryce)
5. I’m warning you don’t ever do those crazy messed up things that you do. (Call and Answer - Barenaked Ladies - guessed by IllyriaJones)
6. It’s the stuff, the stuff of country songs. (If God Would Send His Angels - U2 - guessed by Pure Mood)
7. Everyday should be a good day to die. (You Never Know - Dave Matthews Band - guessed by Ben)
8. Never thought I’d let a rumor ruin my moonlight. (Somebody Told Me - The Killers - guessed by Ben)
9. How does it feel to know you’ll never have to be alone. (Sweetest Goodbye - Maroon 5 - guessed by Gimmie a Dollar)
10. I’m a million different people from one day to the next. (Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve - guessed by Daria)

11. I cut so much; you thought I was a DJ. (Drop it Like it's Hot - Snoop Dogg - guessed by patm)
12. Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? (Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd - guessed by Luka)
13. She couldn’t afford a car so she named her daughter Alexis.
14. I guess I’m not alone at being alone. (Message in a Bottle - The Police - guessed by IllyriaJones)
15. Don’t feel like Satan but I am to them. (Rockin' the Free Worls - Neil Young - guessed by Cassiopeia)
16. I shake my jelly at every chance. (Bootylicious - Destiny's Child - guessed by Pure Mood)
17. You said that irony was the shackles of youth. (What's the Frequency Kenneth? - R.E.M - guessed by IllyriaJones)
18. I can’t wait for the first time. My imagination is running wild.
19. I won’t preach to you, but here’s a caution. (Cochise - Audioslave - guessed by Cassiopeia)
20. You’re talking so much sex, but you’re not telling us about AIDS.
21. You’re about as easy as a nuclear war. (Is There Something I Should Know - Duran Duran - guessed by Julie)
22. With a name I’ve never chosen, I can make my first steps. (Chocolate - Snow Patrol - guessed by Julie)
23. She said her name was Donnie but her shirt said Marie.
24. You’re such a secret, misty eyed and shady. (Bring on the Heartbreak - Def Leppard guessed by Vryce)
25. Walk through concert doors and roam all over coliseum floors. I stepped on stage, at Live Aid. (My Adidas - Run-DMC - guessed by Pure Mood)

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Ask and You Shall Receive


There were a lot of complaints last week of MTV/VH1’s coverage of the concerts as they cut from performance to performance, sometime cutting off an artist in mid-song. Well today, they did an alright job of righting their pervious wrong as both channels show five hours of uninterrupted and commercial free performances. It still wasn’t perfect as they didn’t give full performances of some artist like and . Not too mention the laundry list of performances that were left off that I pointed out in my original Live 8 post (World Keep on Turning, Cause it Won’t Be Too Long), none of those artist were given a slot today. So, alas, the best place to see the concerts until the DVD comes out is at . Here are some additions of interest that I saw on today’s broadcast that I didn’t mention in my last Live 8 review:

- What was with all the gratuitous Gwyneth and Apple shots during the performance? Although I have to admit that Apple gun-range type ear plugs the cutest thing.

- Even more questionable gratuitous shot was of Paula Abdul during Stevie Wonder’s performance. Seriously why?

- MTV and VH1 repeated many of the same performances like , Coldplay, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Robbie Williams, The Who, Pink Floyd, and Paul McCartney. Let’s play a little game of “Which One of These is Not Like the Others?” If you guessed Robbie Williams, go get yourself a cookie. Very few people on this side of the pond could even name one of songs. But at least MTV showed his performance of Angels, unlike VH1. And for anyone who thinks that’s a Jessica Simpson song, please do yourself a favor and download the original Williams version.

- Did I seriously hear start to sing Steve Miller Band’s The Joker in the middle of 3 AM? Worst placement of a song ever.

- Now I the biggest fan out there but I MTV didn’t show his performance because all they did was edit out every third word. It got unbearable to watch even for me. As I was flipping through the channels until Snoop was over I happened upon the WNBA All-Star Game. I didn’t even now they started their season yet, let alone are halfway through it.

- VH1 actually showed a performance from Johannesburg while MTV showed the same performance and a second one to boot. Yet nothing from Rome, Barrie, Paris, or Moscow.

- I wonder why only got one song. And how did get four songs plus an extra three song with ? Do people really need that long of a bathroom break?

- During my last post (Money, It's a Crime), I wondered if there was some sort of hug at the end of their performance and it turned out there was. I’m really beginning to think there will be a full reunion show (yes show, not tour) in the near future.

It was also telling what each channel chose as their post-concert programming. MTV showed a MTV News report dedicated to Live 8 that included many of the segments that were showed multiple times during last week’s show. It also included a segment featuring the detractors of Live 8 who made counterpoint, many of which I agree with. While VH1 decided to show a mini marathon of their Fabulous Life Of… series. Nothing better to follow up five hours devoted to eliminate poverty in Africa than having a show devoted to the life of excess. Do we really need to know that has about eight cars that cost a total of approximately two million dollars? Hey but at least he snapped his fingers in the One commercial. Way to contribute JT.

Also it was announce recently that the leaders of G8 have pledged to give $50 billion by 2010. A great step in the right direction, but one major obstacle is that many of the African countries are lead by ruthless dictators. There needs to be regime changes in these countries as some of the economist pointed out during the counterpoint in the MTV special. And unlike Iraq, a change in government would not be met with such opposition as the African people have nothing to lose and everything to gain by such a change. Yes Saddam was as horrible as his African counterparts, but Iraqi’s, for the most part were well off under Saddam (sans the Kurds), just as long as they didn’t cross him or his regime. So the Iraqis had much to lose by an invasion and met it with much resistance. This would not be the case in Africa, as it was not the case in Afghanistan either. So once these oppressive regimes are changed and a true democracy is put in place, then, and only then, will the dream of making poverty history will be achieved.


Thursday, July 07, 2005

Throw Up Your Diamonds Like You’re Bulimic


About five years ago I saw a documentary on diamond mines in Africa that linked terrorist to the people running these mines. They also used children as slaves to work in the mines for twelve hours plus a day. I was so appalled at the actions I decided to not to wear any diamonds, which wasn’t much as I had never wore a diamond before. So to take it a step forward I decided not to wear any type of jewelry including necklaces or watches. For timekeeping purposes I do keep a cheap athletic watch in my pocket. The only “glamour” item I wear these days is my bracelet. And then whenever I get asked why I don’t wear anything, as I do get asked about the watch frequently, I then explain the how the majority of diamonds sold in the US are Blood Diamonds and that money goes to fund terrorist. I typically get a response of indifference as we currently live in the bling-bling era. And forget trying to explain the actions to the fairer sex whose main goal in life, starting at a young age, is getting that rock from Prince Charming.

I had to laugh a couple years back when the government released advertisements on TV that said if you smoke marijuana you are supporting terrorist as the majority of pot consumed in the US is grown in grown in Kentucky. Now if you are taking about opiates, then yes that was the biggest export in Afghanistan and was a money maker for the Taliban. Cocaine grown in Columbia would be another good example. But smoking pot doesn’t help terrorist except to make our population dumber and thus easier to attack. I remember at the time it would have been a much better message if the ad would have said “People who by diamonds support terrorists.”

kanyeWest_125x125With the recent publicity surround Africa brought on by , there was a lot of talk about ending poverty, debt relief, and free trade, but there was barely a whisper of Blood Diamonds. The lone voice who brought up the discussion was with his performance of . While the song itself doesn’t touch on the subject aside from the title, the video (check it out here) opens with the narration of a working in a diamond mind explaining the how the owners of the mines exploited him and other. The rest of the video depicts children of the mines “haunting” people who have purchased Blood Diamonds including West himself. For the Diamonds From Sierra Leone Remix (featuring Jay-Z), West does take on the issue. Here is his verse from the remix:

Good Morning, this ain't Vietnam still
People lose hands, legs, arms for real
Little was known of Sierra Leone
And how it connect to the diamonds we own
When I speak of Diamonds in this song
I ain't talkin bout the ones that be glown
I'm talkin bout Rocafella, my home, my chain
These ain't conflict diamonds,is they Jacob? don't lie to me mayne
See, a part of me sayin' keep shinin',
How? when I know of the blood diamonds
Though it's thousands of miles away
Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today
Over here, its a drug trade, we die from drugs
Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs
The diamonds, the chains, the bracelets, the charmses
I thought my Jesus Piece was so harmless
'til I seen a picture of a shorty armless
And here's the conflict
It's in a black person's soul to rock that gold
Spend ya whole life tryna get that ice
On a polar rugby it look so nice
How could somethin' so wrong make me feel so right, right?
'fore I beat myself up like Ike
You could still throw ya Rocafella diamond tonight


Now I don’t expect for you to take the issue to the extreme like I have, all I ask is that you make sure the diamonds that you do purchase come from legit businesses that adhere to child labor laws and are in no way associated with terrorist organizations. For more information on Blood Diamonds, chack out the website on the subject.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Money, It's a Crime

Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie.

After every major awards show, it is inevitable that most of the performers and winners see substantial sales spike in their albums and it seems that was no different as every artist in London saw an increase of the album. Bring up the rear with only a 3% increase was , but then again their latest album had been number one on the charts for the last couple weeks. Leading the pack was the reunited who saw their greatest hits package, Echoes, go up a whopping 1343% on Sunday compared with last week. Not to be influenced by their own lyrics (see title) Pink Floyd are, yet again, doing the right thing when they noticed the sales increase and donate all their profits from the sales to Live 8. Guitarist Dave Gilmore said:
Though the main objective has been to raise consciousness and put pressure on the G8 leaders, I will not profit from the concert. If other artists feel like donating their extra royalties to charity, perhaps then the record companies could be persuaded to make a similar gesture and that would be a bonus. This is money that should be used to save lives.
I am not aware of artists asides from Paul McCartney, doing so yet, but hopefully some more will start falling in line with Pink Floyd.

Speaking of donating to Live 8, if you want a copy of U2 and Paul McCartney performing at the opening of Live 8, follow the link to iTunes and pick up a copy for yourself with the proceeds going to Live 8 charity. Also if you missed a certain performance you wanted to see but MTV/VH1 cut it off or just didn't show it at all, AOLMusic is streaming all (I think) of the individual acts so you don't have to sit and hope you catch it on the live feed.

Back to Pink Floyd, their reunion got me thinking whether or not this will be a one time affair or maybe we will see Gilmore and Roger Waters back together again. Keep in mind that it’s been about thirty years since the two had talked. They even had to go through an intermediary to finalize the previously mentioned Echoes greatest hits album. Waters even boycotted Floyd’s induction into the in 1996 to avoid being in the same room as Gilmore. Gilmore instead had to duet with on the appropriate Wish You Were Here. They continued their grudge even as other 70’s acts such as , , and cashed in big time with reunion tours in the late 90’s. But watching their Live 8 performance, one might think that the fence might finally been mended as both Gilmore and Rodgers look happy and playful sharing the same stage, albeit as they stayed far away from each other while performing as well as the Hey Jude finale. I am interested if there were any hugs or handshakes at the end of their performance but unfortunately MTV/VH1 cut to performance before that happened. So if anyone saw the live feed, please leave a comment to let me know if there was any kind of effort by either to show a sign of solidarity.

I have a feeling that we will not be seeing any new Pink Floyd album that features Waters in any capacity. Nor do I think that there will be any full-fledged “Back for More Cash” reunion tour á la The Eagles. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they take a page out of Cream’s recent playbook and have a run of show in London (most likely Wembley Stadium) and donate the gate to charity. But this will lead to a sticky situation with a playlist as songs like post-Waters songs such as Learning to Fly and High Hopes have become Floyd classics. Would Rodgers agree to perform these songs? Would he instead have a stand-in play those songs? Would he insist that none of those songs be played? Hopefully we will find out the answers to these questions sometime soon.

Monday, July 04, 2005

A Letter to Sanity’s Bluff


I originally planned not to post anything today so I could enjoy our (or mine to my foreign friends) nation’s birthday. But last night I was wondering around the web last night when I can across a site blog last night that had some bad things to say about the and its message. As a fan as the show and the cause (scroll down to the next post to see my review) I was a little unhappy with this dude’s assessment of the concert especially since he didn’t do he research on the subject and printed some straight up lies. So I decide to write him a little comment setting things straight. Of course a little quickly turned to a lot as I wrote for about an hour. Then when I went to send my comment only to find out as I wrote, the dude turned off his comments. Hi received what he called “comment terrorist.” Apparently there were people leaving vulgar comment. Granted, I just call these people idiots as I fell terrorist is a little harsh. So instead of wasting my comment, I decided to post it here, so if you would please, hop over to Sanity’s Bluff and read And read his original post than come back here to read my comment in its entirety. And feel free to leave you opinion on the subject in my comment section about either his post or my reply.

A Letter to Sanity’s Bluff

There are a lot of holes in that post. First off, Africa was invited to the party as there was a concert held in Johannesburg. The face of Africa, Nelson Mandela was there. Also Bob Geldolf brought a woman to the stage that was given 10 minutes to live 20 years ago and thanks to money raised by Live Aid, the young woman is now in college in Ethiopia. I dare you to watch this moment and not cry like a little girl. But apparently help did get to Africa.

Secondly, yes Africa is worse off then they were 20 years ago, but this due to years of civil war that make it hard to import humanitarian aid. Read Black Hawk Down to see exactly how hard this can be. Also high tariffs hurt the local economy on the continent.

And how exactly do you know that Bob Geldolf is “much richer” now than he was twenty years? Geldolf runs a non-profit organization and I can’t imagine that the residuals from his Boomtown Rats days to really bring in too much money these days. As for the other artist, I haven’t even heard from must of them since Live Aid except for episodes of Where Are They Now, and let me tell you, none are “much richer than they were back then. Now if you wrote that without knowing the facts, you are no better than Dan Rather.

Thirdly, it is very wrong to pigeonhole the people involved as liberals. I am a conservative, and I support their case. If you have seen the commercial for The One Campaign, you would also see Pat Robertson along side Brad Pitt and Bono in the ad. It doesn’t get more conservative that Pat Roberson. Bill Gates was at the event and nothing says corporate domination like the dude who runs Microsoft. They also brought in such “red state” acts as Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, and Mr. Courtasy of the Red, White, and Blue himself, Toby Keith. So to call these people (including myself) liberals is just plain ignorant, not to mention the “liberals” are already one step ahead of you on recruiting “conservatives” to their cause. Instead of suggesting that the liberal recruit conservative, have you ever thought maybe about joining the liberals on this issue like me and many other conservatives already have?

Fourthly, when you wrote, “aging rock stars, hungry for one more spotlight, and an assortment of dogooders” is doing a diservice to many of the acts that showed up. Members Pink Floyd have not taked for about thrirty years let alone performed together over that time. They did not get back together for big payday/reunion tour. They didn’t even get back together for “one more spotlight” when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They got back together, as Rodger Waters said, because it was the right thing to do. Kanye West, at the risk of being sued, played the Live 8 even though he had an apperence in New Orleans on the same day.

Fifthly, saying, “more money was spend (Scooter’s note: actually I think spent is the correct tense, not that I’m a English teacher or anything, but anyways) pampering the millionaire musicians and their friends, than the total given by the 160 'artists’ participating in the L8 concerts, but they demanded charity from everyone else” is a diservice to everyone who donated their time to help make sure the consert ran properly. Also they did not demand charity from anyone as all the tickets to all the event were free.

Also you should suggest that Africa should turn to faith based charity. To take a page out of your ignorant page book: I got two words for you – James Baker. So how does it feel to be pigeonholed? I really doubt that a faith based charity will be able to raise enough money to settle the billions of dollars they are indebted with. And they defiantly cannot end the civil wars and economic turmoil that plagues the continent. The only people that can do anything substantial to help are the politicians. That is what Bob Geldolf and the people of his ilk learn from Live Aid and that is why Live 8 focused on encouraging those who can actually make a difference to do so.

In the end, Bob Geldolf and his ilk can go to sleep knowing they tried to help the continent of Africa. It may not be much, but at least it was something, which is at least better than just sitting at a computer and complaining about people who actually try to help. So what I would like to do now is to invite you and the people of your ilk to hop over to my website and click on The One banner and join myself (and like I mentioned ealier, even conservitives including Pat Robertson) to encourage the G8 to end poverty in Africa because liberals cannot do it on they own and neither can conservatives, everybody needs to help off. (Unless you don’t care that a child dies every three seconds because of poverty, then in that cause, just ignore this whole comment.)



Note from Scooter: As of 1:00 EST, Sanity's Bluff has put his comments back, so you can leave your thoughts about his post over there, but please, don't be a comment terrorist, or as I like to refer to them, idiots.


Sunday, July 03, 2005

World Keep on Turning, Cause it Won't Be Too Long


Amazing day yesterday as I spent over ten hours glued to either my TV screen or computer screen watching the concerts. I was a little disappointed in the MTV/VH1/ABC coverage as I was under the impression that MTV and VH1 would be doing two separate broadcasts with maybe one focusing on the Philadelphia concert and the other focusing in on the London concert. Instead we got one solo show just showed on two separate channels. What a waste of airtime. And being that it was MTV, what we got was small snippets of some the performances instead of full one or even full songs in most case. They rarely went outside of London of Philadelphia stopping into Paris once (Shakira), Berlin three times (twice for Green Day, once for Audioslave), Japan once (Good Charlotte), Canada twice (Jet, Simple Plan), Africa twice and they never went to Rome once. And there is a good list of great performers that didn’t even make it to TV:

Sarah McLachlan (with some dude named Josh Groban on Angel)
Brian Wilson
Snow Patrol
Ms. Dynamite
The Cure
Sheryl Crow
Crosby, Stills and Nash
Duran Duran
Barenaked Ladies
Byran Adams
Pet Shop Boys
P. Diddy
Lauryn Hill
Neil Young
Rob Thomas (Well that wasn’t much of a loss actually)

And the song selection was poor sometimes too. We had to sit threw Will Smith’s Switch when they could have let us see the classic Summertime or the cheesily entertaining Theme to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. So I found myself watching more and more from my computer thanks to
AOLMusic.com. Here are some of my highlights.

Goosebumps moments:
- Paul McCartney with U2 in doing
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band live for the first time ever with some faux Beatles in Pepper outfits playing french horns
-
U2’s set including their version of Unchained Melody
- Coldplay bringing out Richard Ashcroft to sing Bittersweet Symphony
- Black Eyed Peas with Stephan and Rita Marley to sing Get up Stand Up
-
Kanye West backed by a Sting section
- Dido joined by Youssou N'Dour during Thank You
- The opening to Dave Matthews Band's
Dreamgirl
- Robbie Williams singing Angels they way it supposed to - without Jessica Simpson
- Green Day covering Queen’s
We Are the Champions
- Stevie Wonder and Adam Levane of Maroon 5 doing a duet on
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours
-
Pink Floyd whole set, extra Goosebumps at the beginning of each song
- Maroon 5 covering Neil Young’s Rockin in the Free World
-
Alicia Keys’ tribute to Luther Vandross
- Jay-Z backed by Linkin Park who did a faithful
Public Service Announcement

Tear Jerkers:
- Bob Geldolf bring out an African Girl who, at the time of Live Aid, was only given ten seconds to live
-
Annie Lennox playing Why over a montage of AIDS victims
- The finale in London with everyone singing Hey Jude with Paul McCartney

Other interesting tidbits:
-
Snoop Dogg was able to get 5 F-bombs pass the MTV censors (and the N-word once). Granted he mumbles some and they weren’t part of the song. The bigger slip was they Pink Floyd let the blatant word in Pink Floyd’s Money or maybe they let it slip because it Floyd.
-
Beyoncé wore a skirt that was as short as it could have been without showing off her Kootchiepop.
- I was a little disappointed that no one pulled a
Phil Collins this year.
- The only American acts in Rome -
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill?
-
UB40 were introduced saying they were going to perform a medley of their hits. Shouldn’t it been a medley of other people’s hits?
- Who invited Randy Jackson? I had to laugh when I spotted him playing a tiny keyboard when
Mariah Carey already had two keyboarders on stage with two large keyboards themselves.
- What was up with Stevie Wonder’s moustache/beard thing around his mouth? Who let him out of the house like that?
- There were a lot of lyric changes to reflect the festivities including U2, Sting but my favorite was Kanye West switch the line in Jesus Walks into, “And George Bush gets paid off of all of that.”
- When I saw you could download
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club from the concert on iTunes, I thought the whole concert would be available, but alas the only other song available (for now hopefully) was The Long and Winding Road. Click on the links to get them for yourselves.

If you missed the concert,
AOLMusic.com is still streaming Paris, Canada, and Philadelphia. London was stopped sometime during the 1st rebroadcast and Berlin was taken offline sometime last night. Hopefully there is a comprehensive DVD coming because, even after all I watch, there is still a lot I missed.



Saturday, July 02, 2005

Live 8


I'm currently watching the Live 8 concerts. Check them out for yourself at AOLMusic.com. If you missed it, they are rebroadcasting it there too.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

We're One But We're Not the Same


What I would like for you to do is to take a look to the left of your screen at the banner I have had up for a couple weeks. I’m sure you have all seen the annoying ads on the TV by now with the likes of Brad Pitt and Bono. But at the heart of the campaign is a good cause. They are trying to get the United States as well as the worlds other wealthiest countries to eliminate extreme poverty and global AIDS. As a fiscal conservative (unlike our spend happy President) I am almost always against more spending that will raise are already massive national debt, but the thought of people, including many kids, who die daily from starvation (50,000 or every three seconds to be precise) trumps any fiscal concerns I might have. So if you would like to join the cause, go ahead and click any of the links and fill out the simple declaration. While you are there, you can even pick up one of the wristbands that have become the official charity accessory (myself, I just stick with the solitary LiveStrong wristband). Also check out the Live 8 concert on MTV and VH1 airing this weekend featuring Coldplay, Snoop Dogg, Audioslave, Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder and a reunited Pink Floyd in London. I hear a DVD will follow too, and even if it didn’t go to a good cause would be worth the cost with the Pink Floyd reunion.