MY PLAN FOR THE COMING MONTHS

Sometimes it feels like I collect for the sake of collecting.  My treasure troves of music, movies, and books is staggering in its obsessiveness, but the irony is that I haven't read half the books I've got on my shelves or likely listened to even 10% of the songs in my music library.  To say nothing of the hundreds of hours I could spend viewing movies I own but have never actually watched.

So here's my goal to myself.  One new movie per week.  One new album per week.  And thirty minutes per night of curling up with a good book.

Movies, not an issue.  All the ladies in my family crash for a solid Sunday afternoon nap of at least two hours every week.  Should I not be able to finish that movie before they all awake, I can finish it off before bed that night.  Music, not an issue.  The time I spend in a car driving to and from work each day should easily let me knock out an album in a single day.  And I figure thirty minutes with a book to wind down before going to bed at night will be ideal.

Reviews to come.

WOW...SO I HAVE A BLOG?

I was checking out my best friend's blog last week and he made some comment about needing to clean some other blogs off his "to watch" list due to inactivity.  Since it's been 53 weeks since I last updated this, I can only assume I fall into that camp.  Deservedly so.  That being the case, I'm making my triumphant return to the blogosphere this evening.
By chance, today happens to be the 27th anniversary of Live Aid.  It took place back in 1985, two days after I turned eleven.  I don't recall watching it the day of, although I certainly remember the hoopla.  It wasn't until I purchased the DVD of the show four or five years ago that I got to watch some of it.  With regret, I must confess that I have not yet sat down and watched all four discs start to finish and have no doubt missed plenty of great music.

As you're probably aware, Bob Geldof put together Band Aid as a means of raising funds to combat famine relief in Ethiopia back in the mid-80's after seeing a BBC report on the crisis.  After the success of "Do They Know It's Christmas" and the American response "We Are The World," Geldof became more ambitious and made plans for the largest concert event in history.

There were some definite highlights.  After over a decade of perfecting their own unique style of campy rock, Queen was the highlight of the show and Freddie Mercury demonstrated why he was the greatest frontman in the history of arena rock.



It's not on the DVD (I've checked) but this was one of the rare 80's reunions of the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin...with Phil Collins standing in on drums.



It was Geldof's party, so it was only appropriate that the Boomtown Rats got together to play "I Don't Like Mondays."



And if Queen stole the show, the other major highlight was U2 going from college radio darling to worldwide superstars with their fourteen minute set.



In the end, approximately $233 million dollars has been raised to date by the Live Aid concert and other sales associated with the event.  Between JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and London's Wembley Stadium, 172,000 fans saw the performance live, while it was estimated that 1.9 billion viewed the telecast.