You mean except for the backup singers, of course. :)

All-white (and all-male) rock bands surprise me about as little as all-white cliques in school, that's what most of them are extensions of after all.

HA!

I forgot about the backup singers ... although I thought they didn't count as mates. You know, they really are not the real girlfriends.

I dated a European guy for a while and mingled in a few all-white, all-Euro parties and gatherings --enough to have made me raise an eyebrow when I heard of Geldoff's putting together of this concert. No matter how much racism is an issue in this country, the reality is that we, the United Statians of America, know that racism is real. Europeans? The thought of them being equal or worse than their white counterparts across the pond is really a hard pill to swallow.

I truly believe a lot of these guys don't get it. They don't they are part of the problem.

Was Bowie a part of the concert? He's married to Iman.

But, I was disturbed by the concerts in ways that were hard to articulate. It just seemed so, I don't know, condescending. And listening to the commentary just made it worse. Africa came across as this pitiable land full of pathetic people, instead of the continent of amazing people, and natural resources, and tremendous beauty, that has been systematically raped and tortured by you-know-who.
Or am I just reacting like a reactionary white person?

Interestingly enough, I don't think he was part of the concert. And no, you're assessment is right on the money. The resident white guy and I agree on the same issue : They do paint Africa as this little pathethic continent. Nobody seems to be addressing the issues of corruption in those countries by Africans who have very well exploited international aid and relief work for their own profit; not the people that most need it.

I'm so horrified by what is going on in Africa that I'll take anything anyone wants to do. It wasn't a perfect effort, but it was something. I don't care who they're married to - I just care that they showed up, they acted as if it were important, and they pretty much dared Bush to act like more of an ass than he has so far. If we had any kind of leadership in this world, the whole damned thing would have been unnecessary.

It's never a good idea to expect too much from a musician. I love them, I've just learned to keep my expectations low...

i totally hear you morgaine.

i know what is bothering. seeing geldoff and bono and pink floyd there ... especially pink floyd singing money ... i feel like i was witnessing the slow extintion of cultural dinosaurs.

rock and roll was about changing the world and you have these rock gods living in english manors with butlers and servants and "MONEY" just sounds horrendously hollow. it's like, i completely get gansgster rap now --not that i am going to jump all over it. but snoop doggy dog, call him a cynic, at least he is honest. it's not about changing "the" world but "his" world.

as an artist and creative, i do want to believe what i do has an impact and that it can be for good; for social change. live8 feels like the last gasps of a genenration of believers and i'm right there at the end of that generation of cultural dinosaurs.

i guess, watching live8 made me realize how old i am :) and who wants to admit to that!