Most of the entertainment news floating around the Internet today is about tomorrow’s Live Earth concerts (late breaking! Al Gore has just added a ninth show in Washington D.C., thus outmaneuvering Decepticon Republicans!) The purpose of the mega multi-continent 24-hour carnival — featuring Madonna, Kanye West (pictured), my girl Rihanna, and a zillion others — is to boost consciousness about global warming, of course. But do you care? Uh, you better — what with the fate of the world hanging in the balance and all.
The opening Live Earth planetary downchord clangs tonight at 9:10 EDT in the U.S., which is also 11:10 a.m. tomorrow in Sydney, the first city to erupt in rock ‘n’ roll. (Action in Toyko, New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Hamburg, and presumably D.C. follows.) You can watch all the shows streaming live at liveearth.msn.com, and a schedule of coverage on the various NBC channels and list of your radio options is here. So there you go. Get your lighters out.
As for me, I doubt I’ll watch much of it at all. Like any normal person, I buy that we’re cooked unless we do something, but what I really want us to do, frankly, is elect Al Gore president. And for that to happen, the cagey candidate’s gotta run, no matter how bruised and battered he remains by the 2000 election. Watching Bon Jovi croon out a soulful version of "Livin’ on a Prayer" or somesuch on my laptop this weekend isn’t gonna get me fired up about Live Earth or global warming at this point. Al Gore announcing before screaming masses on some global stage tomorrow that he was gonna take this issue all the way to the presidency would.
What’s your take on this, people? Don’t you think even a failed presidential campaign for Al Gore — with a platform that primarily calls for dealing with global warming — would do more to help fix our "planetary emergency" than a dozen Live Earths?
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Hey, you fools at Popwatch need a brother to liveblog that show? Because your main man EP SATO lives about 10 blocks from where that show is going to be.
If so, hit me up at my email address with a # to call.
Peace!
I’m going to the “New York” concert. I don’t think the concert will change the world but it’s a chance for me to show my support for a worthy cause and hear some great music while I do it. Considering the amount of press the concerts already received today, I think the media attention(which is important for these issues) is already working in Al’s favor.
On second thought. F that! I’ll goto the show tomorrow at 10 AM and will type up the results on popwatch soon after.
Global warming has become a new religion with “An Inconvenient Truth” as it’s Bible. Having a bunch of rock stars jetting around using millions of watts is at the very least hypocritical. Here’s to the new druids and there shindig. May we all munch dirt together.
Brian B, your point would be better made if you’d fix the grammatical errors in your post. Tomorrow is the Carifiesta Parade here in Montreal, so I doubt I’ll see much of Live Earth. However, it is a worthy cause, so maybe I’ll hit the website to learn how to reduce my ecological footprint. As for Al Gore running for president, I hope he does! Then maybe he can pressure the Canadian government to live up to their Kyoto commitment.
Just read the article in this week’s magazine with John Rego saying he hopes fans will car pool to the show. That’s practically a given since few people go to a show alone, but why did he pick Giants Stadium for New York, which is one of the least accessible facilities for mass transit?
The rest of the world is finally figuring out what we did years ago: Kyoto was a bust, since it didn’t account for growing energy usage in China and India.
Gore’s not going to run, because he can do more for environmental causes out of office than he can as president. Currently, he’s not accountable to anyone.
Hey, wouldn’t it be great if all these acts flew commercial to get to their gigs instead of by private jet like they usually do? Bet they’d have to buy a lot less offsets if that was the case.
Of course this will not save planet Earth but at least Al Gore has brought this to the attention of the world. Not to be a downer but there are too many problems for one man (or 150 muscial acts) to fix. At least we can enjoy the show for 26 hours and do our part for the environment – every little helps. JMHO
Also, wasn’t Crowded House great in Sydney? Loved them in the 80s and they sounded great today!
Al Gore is a dangerous man. His new persona reminds me of Brando in The Godfather. All who follow this guru are being hoodwinked. This concert is a farce.
oh man, kelly clarkson was amazing. so getting her cd tomorrow.
News Flash: Live Earth Unexpectedly Raises Planet Temperature By Three Degrees.
The media loves this crap. The entertainment industry is enraptured also. And we, the people follow blindly like sheep.
Do some ‘global warming’ research of your own and tell Mr. Gore to stop his fear mongering and sell his mansion and practice what he preaches.
madonna stole the show, brilliant woman, i never paid attention to her before, but today i a new fan
Did anyone else notice that Akon wants us to Support Global Warming? Ah, shouldn’t we be against Global Warming?
I had Bravo’s coverage on while I cleaned house on Saturday. Was that Karen Duffy with Dave Holmes? I enjoyed it but after a couple of hours, started seeing repeat performances.
greenhouseGAS – what “fear mongering” are you talking about exactly? As for Mr. Gore, he runs two offices out of that “mansion.” Regardless, his point isn’t that he – or anyone else – has to live off the grid to help solve the climate crisis. It’s that everyone can do something – even something small.
Besides – the things he’s asking you to do are things you should be doing anyway regardless of whether climate change is true or not.
Sorry kids, I totally overslept and flaked out on the show. We spent the day scootering instead.
Did any DC folks make the gig? How’d it go?
Uggh! I hated Akon’s performance. He is such an idiot. Who the fu** are buying his albums? His music makes me want to stab myself with sharp objects. From my living room couch, I have to say the concert was somewhat disappointing. Most of the acts I saw (Fall Out Boy, Shakira, John Mayer, Rihana, Alicia Keys) seemed a little dull. And everytime the camera would pan out, the crowd would look better. Of course it could have been different in person, but it just did not appear very exciting. I’m sorry I missed Madonna & Mana b/c I wanted to see what their live performances would be like.