This is pretty cool. [AOL](http://www.aol.com) is live streaming the [Live8 concerts](http://music.aol.com/live_8_concert/live_now). I saw the link on a blog and expected to go to the page and be asked to enter a AOL screen name. But no, it appears to be freely available and the quality is not bad. Just listened to one of my favorite songs from high school, A Ha’s “Take On Me” in Berlin. Still remember the fantastic video for it. Nice to be able to bounce between Paris, London, Berlin, Toronto, Philly or Rome depending on who is playing.

Anyway, this is one of those times I’m glad that I’m multi-platform. The streaming video, sponsored by Microsoft Windows XP, only appears to play in Internet Explorer 6 with the latest Windows-only version of Windows Media Player. Imagine that.

I remember the first Live Aid concert and all the fundraisers of the 80s going towards relief efforts in Africa. Why do I feel numb to it now? It’s not that I don’t care about death and poverty in Africa. I do. I care about a lot of horrible things that are going on in the world…cancer is way up on my list, as is homelessness and abandoned children. There are so many atrocities, so many causes to unite behind that they all blend together like white noise. This is the world we live in, I guess.