stark comparisons and nostril hairs

We all know that Bob Geldof deserves every ounce of credit and admiration for being the damn brilliant human that he is, but...

After the original Live Aid, Bob was faced with a moral slap in the face. He was asked to go to Africa to be filmed in the areas of most need, (the idea was to show examples of where donations were actually going to be directed). He said it was tacky and insensitive for a pop-star to parade amongst the immense suffering.

However, Robbie Williams prancing about on stage singing "Let me entertain you", in front of a giant backdrop with footage of starving African children? I don't know, call me crazy, but it just didn't puff my chest with pride.



So while we're prancing about in a pop "I'm the overlord of all front-row boob bouncing" fashion...
Is Madonna walking around in a cloud of extreme g-force that the rest of us luckily manage to avoid? After watching Annie Lennox, a woman who (apart from unfortunate 80's hairstyles, that I'm sure we all share a similar sense of shame about) exudes elegance and grace, the extreme stretch of Madonna's eyelids seemed stark and painful in comparison.

Admittedly, I only saw highly edited 'free-to-air' footage of the Live 8 stuff on the weekend, but what I saw left me somewhat perplexed.

One of the camera people filming the London show, must have been just as distracted, because occasionally there'd be a camera shot of extreme close-up. I'm talking extreme! I missed taking a photo of it, but imagine a full screen shot of Michael Stripe (oh, I mean Michael Stipe), from the upper tip of his nostrils to his bottom lip. Dentistry has never sparked much of an interest in me, but I was so pleased to be able to check out all of his fillings. It helps me sleep easy at night knowing that the entertainers of the world are free from gum disease.



But maybe that was the clever plan all along; "See, your heroes are from good stock, are free of gum diseases, have tight healthy skin and are happy and bouncy despite sadness and suffering in the world. So you can stop worrying about them and re-direct your concern to Africa".

Well, I for one am reading you loud and clear.