Just a few stories that were in the news that got my attention:
★ In 1985, many of the biggest pop stars in America, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen, recorded a song together titled “We Are The World“.
The aim of the song was to raise money to help Africa. In fact, the group of singers were collectively known as “USA For Africa“.
And now, twenty-five years after the song was recorded, the producer of the song, Quincy Jones, has assembled another group of today’s most popular singers in America to sing a remake of the song.
This time the song is being used to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti…and the song is being called “We Are The World 25 For Haiti“.
★ Asashoryu, the sumo champion is Japan has retired.
Asashoryu is from Mongolia
He’s a great sumo wrestler and earned the rank of 「横綱」 (Yokozuna…”Grand Champion”)…but he’s constantly gotten into trouble both inside and out of the ring.
His latest scandal was when he recently went out drinking and seriously injured a man when he went into a drunken rampage.
★ The annual 「札幌雪まつり」 (“Sapporo Snow Festival“) in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan starts today and goes until 2010 February 11.
I went to this festival in 1992 and I can tell you the huge, elaborate snow sculptures are amazing! If you have a chance, you should go see this festival.
Tokyo Five 
>>[…]and I can tell you the huge, elaborate snow sculptures are amazing!
How huge are these sculptures? The building on the picture looks gigantic… ^^
“We are the world” kinda reminds me of “Do they know it’s christmas?” by band aid…. They had musicians like Bono, Sting and Bob Geldof… the result is not really my type of music but the names sure are big 😛
LikeLike
The sculptures are very large.
When I went to the festival, there was a snow sculpture of the U.S. White House that, although not as big as the real White House, it was as big as a house.
And I feel the same way about those charity songs.
LikeLike
I was just kidding. I have always found it funny that We Are The World was filled with so many HUGE stars with years of experience…and Kim Carnes who had basically only been around a couple of years and had a couple of hits.
Was she invited or did she sneak in and start singing?
LikeLike
I see.
I never heard of her…so I googled her name in reference to “We Are The World” and, according to this site, her line was only:
“When we…“.
Actually, I never really cared for the “We Are The World” song.
LikeLike
And don’t forget Kim Carnes!
Did they invite her back for the 25th anniversary?
LikeLike
I don’t know what you mean.
I don’t think any of the artists who sang on the original 1985 version of “We Are The World” sang on the new 2010 version.
LikeLike