Live8

So today is the Live8. Will it be just another festival, or will anyone actually take any of it to heart and do something about ending extreme poverty? Trying not to be cynical about this... been rockin' a One Campaign band for a few months now... taught a lesson to a grade 8 class about AIDS in Africa... every little bit counts I guess. Watching the CTV telecast of all this, I can't help but notice a lot of ancient white men playing guitars. Question: without festivals like this, would any of these Canadian Rock Legends™ be allowed to play anywhere? Sure, include some of them, but what about some young bands to inject some energy into this set?? Arcade Fire? Stars? K-Os?

Favourite moment of the show so far: Celine Dion. Here's a rough translation of her introduction: "Hello Canada, Sorry I can't be there to perform live. I couldn't pull myself away from my $100+ million contract Las Vegas show, but please enjoy this pre-recorded song. How many a's are there in laaaaaaaaaaaaaame?

Also on the lame front: the celebrity gift bags being generously donated by Hugo Boss et al. Artists are donating their time, and would donate their time for nothing... who let these $10 000 gift packages happen? Lets do some math... we'll round the number of performers to 175 (its actually a few more than that), and pretend that each band only gets 1 of these gift packages...
$1 750 000 worth of product generously donated by these companies to a bunch of rock stars in hopes of product placement. How about an auction for these goods instead? How about just donating the money to the cause . They say they don't want our money... but I bet they'd rather have our money than a bunch of your crap.

If you haven't signed your name yet, please do so now . If nothing else comes of this show, at least we got to see Pink Floyd together again.