cool mofos

yes, that is bono and pele. it's a pic from last week at the world economic forum in davos. no caption necessary.

however, i could think of a few good captions translating the body language between paul wolfowitz and bono in this shot:



there's an insightful article in the uk independent analyzing the red campaign, which bono launched with bobby shriver in davos.

speaking at the world economic forum in davos last week, bono insisted that this was not altruism: the project has to be commercially viable. he acknowledged that some people might criticise him for working with business, but, of course, such an approach is more likely to generate a stable and growing stream of revenue that can be directed towards combating aids than relying on purely charitable sources. besides, while bono may reject altruism as a motive, the project does tap into a sense that most of us have of wanting to spend money in ways that help global society, when we have a chance to do so.

and finally, u2 log has some background on bono's relationship with his "mom" coretta scott king. rip.



gotta go get my life in order today. you didn't think i'd come back from a week away and post about something other than bono...did you?

stay true

hearts and minds

wow, somebody has the answers to some tough questions. read this argument disguised as an article. the germans have to send two reporters to take on one irish punk in an ethical and political discussion about whether giving aid to africa is really worth it. interesting.

bono: there was abuse of aid for 25 years, even longer. i absolutely accept that. it can be argued that aid has propped up dodgy regimes, even recently. but that is getting less and less true, and more people are getting smart as to how aid is spent and distributed. i don't believe that a laissez-faire approach to the problems of africa will finally sort itself out. we cannot leave the people in their hour of need, let the government fall, let there be chaos. it's very, very heavy. this position is understandable, but it is completely immoral.

sexy + serious. quite the dangerous combination.

i'm off on the red eye tonight. hoping for a sweet sunrise over nyc.

peace

you are so salty

because i am certain that you want some insight into the nightlife of the saltiest of cities, here's my brief recap of the utah nightlife over the past two days.

day one: we hit baci trattoria (surprisingly excellent italian food) and lumpy's. yeah, that's right, i said lumpy's. the irish assassins on the editorial staff of my magazine left our publisher's dinner early because we said we were tired. but we really just went across the street and had drinks at lumpy's. tres lame, but better than sleeping.

last night was better. unfortunately, we forgot to eat dinner, but remembered to drink alcohol. we even let one of our canadian friends from a competing magazine come with us. he has blond hair and blue eyes, and when we were out, a chick came up to him and asked if he was LDS (latter day saint). when he said no, she shrugged and walked away. oddly normal behavior here, i guess. anyway, we went to the depot and another surprisingly stylish martini bar called mynt. we somehow managed to skip the toby keith concert at the delta center.

actual conversation from last night:

my co-worker tom to man selling toby tix on the corner: tough ticket, huh?

toby scalper guy: yeah, toby keith is really popular here.

me: why?

scalper guy: he's really patriotic.

me: don't you mean idiotic?

scalper guy: what?

our canuck friend: oh, don't mind her, she's canadian.

anyway, i know it sounds odd, but this place entertains me more than vegas. maybe because in vegas i feel like i am surrounded by filthy-minded people, but here i feel like little innocent me is the filthy one. which is odd. anyway, i gotta go back and walk the trade show floor now.

peace mofos

so far, so good

okay, so my past two days were awesome. yesterday in cottonwood canyon it dumped down buckets of snow. the powder was so deep i got stuck in it on more than one occasion. like, hip deep. craziness. my best snowboarding day ever. by far.

apparently i also missed out on lots of serious bono news this week. go here or here to catch up on the man.

i'll be in utah until monday night, but it looks like all work and no play for the next few days. we'll see about that...

oh and here's a cute shot of the man taken by a fan last week.

peace

(not) bad

how sick is this?

editors - munich (live & acoustic)

i stumbled across that link the night before i took off on my trip - it's from a french radio broadcast. more acoustic editors mp3s here. who says the french are useless?

i maximum played those acoustic tracks on the plane ride from nyc to vegas yesterday morning. along with:

u2 - bad (live)
mp3 from the rattle and hum dvd

i am such a loser that i have more than 20 different live versions of bad on my ipod. and in the past two days i have listened to at least a dozen of them all the way through. you know the big "L" sweater that laverne from laverne & shirley wore? i need one of those, except my "L" will not stand for laverne.

okay, i'm in vegas, and i'm supposed to be working. last night we had dinner at a swank place called aureole. tonight we are getting spa treatments. no complaints here. but i gotta say, vegas makes me sad. it's population is roughly 50/50 old people and whores. i can't wait to get out of here to the mountains in utah tomorrow. right now i've gotta go talk to some boys about snowboards and stuff.

peace peeps.

pray for snow

so in the process of choosing between buying tix to see either supergrass or black rebel motorcycle club next month, i ended up buying ted leo tix for march instead. yeah that makes no sense i realize. but it is what it is.

anyway, i stumbled across some fun ted fan drama about some of his show dates being at clubs that you have to be at least 18 years old to get into. apparently a whole bunch of people who are under 18 actually like ted, and these young peeps sent him hate emails about the 18+ policy! ted basically blogs at them in a big "shut the fuck up, you babies or i won't tour at all" sort of way.

now, ted is known as mr. indie and i think he deserves it. but just imagine, if you will, that ted were actually popular on a real scale, and had about 100 million times (literally) the amount of fans he has scrutinizing his every move. and not just in the u.s., but in every country in every continent. imagine how hard it would be to maintain a reputation of being a good person who cares about your fans in that fishbowl-type situation. not so easy...

so anyway, i'm taking off tomorrow for 2 days in vegas, and then on to utah. looks like my murphy's law-type luck will have me arriving in park city just as the edge is on his way out. the man is/was in park city to support the leonard cohen documentary i'm your man which is part of the sundance film festival. for more info on the film, including a cool video clip, click here.

in other edge news, here's a link to an article about edge's involvement in helping to get instruments back in the hands of musicians in new orleans.

"some would say it's a luxury to think about music when so many people have lost the roof over their heads. but the purpose is to bring life, work and people back in that city. music is a wonderful way of inspiring confidence in the belief that it's starting to grow back. music is a catalyst."

"the thing is that wherever music is happening in new orleans, it's like this outpouring of positive feelings and hope. suddenly, the gravity of the situation is lifted and people go, 'yes, this is why it must be rebuilt. this is what it's all about.' it unifies every strata of new orleans society."

oh, and here's a few for the road:
u2 - super bowl 2002
beautiful day
mlk
where the streets have no name
save file mp3 link via interference.

peace out peeps. i'm sure i'll post a few times from the road, but probably not every day.

keep track of the man in the purple shirt for me........

the war on jesus

the war on christmas was one thing, but me thinks luigi cascioli has gone a bit too far. he's suing the catholic church in italy (!) for religous racism for claiming that jesus existed.

cascioli, a lifelong atheist, says the church fraudulently deceives people and has been gaining financially from such fraudulence, and that the gospels are inconsistent, full of errors and biased, and that other written evidence from the time is scant and doesn't hold up to scholarly analysis.

hmmm.....on second thought, he is sort of making sense to me now.

anyway, for true heresy, i submit to you this letter that i just read in the current issue of spin magazine.

dear spin magazine:
i loved the franz ferdinand cover! alex kapranos looks dashing, and franz's new album is even better than the first. [so far i agree] there's no reason why they can't be the next u2 [starting not to agree now] - they've got the songs, the style, and the attitude to become the biggest band in the world, except i know alex will age better than bono. [oh no, you didn't!]
alison davies
ft. lauderdale, fl

poor, poor alison. that's all i have to say about that. oh, and here's a pic of the old man carrying a fruit and pastries plate.

stay true

so classy

did you see the little page six piece on fab moretti and drew barrymore yesterday? looks like bono has some fellow opera fans. oh fab, you are so classy, son.

here's a few random, direct links to some cool mp3s:

she's hearing voices - bloc party (live)

the money you have may be too little - oxford collapse
the boys go home - oxford collapse
grasses of anne - oxford collapse

oxford collapse has a big r.e.m. influence on their guitar playing for sure. they are in the spotlight now as they did some touring with the we are scientists boys. check out the oxford collapse site for more mp3s.

oh, and george clooney is funny.

peace

sharks, jellyfish and whales, oh my

i was pretty damn happy to see a little write-up online of how to react in a shark attack. i'm pretty afraid of sharks. and i know one day one will attack me. maybe while i am in the ocean, but possibly even in a pool, or maybe a lake. there's an outside chance it may even happen in a bathtub.

anyway, so now that i read the "how to kick a shark's face in" story, and i feel all sure i can kick a shark's ass, here comes the news about the invasion of the ginormous jellyfish, which probably at some point will walk onto land and kill me inside my home. and in case you didn't hear, whales are now swimming in rivers in england. next thing you know, a giant octupus will climb through the sewer grate on my street. my philosophy is that anything is possible when it comes to getting killed by sea creatures.

oh, and thanks to everyone for helping me decide which band to see at webster hall. i became convinced a few days ago that black rebel motorcycle club is the way to go. then i discovered that the date conflicts with the ever-so exciting circus being in town. literally. trust me peeps, my favorite 4-year old would totally skip the circus if bono were in town, but as it is, i think we're gonna have to go with the elephants instead. while i'm sorry i'll miss brmc, the good news is that now i just get to go to supergrass instead.

alrighty then. be good peeps......( or else i'll post more pics of bono's belly button):

power out

when my power went out yesterday, i sorta thought it was funny. when it was still out 24 hours later, um, i thought it was...cold.

the arcade fire - neighborhood # 3(power out)/rebellion (lies)
live at first avenue, 9/29/05

hopefully the power gets back on soon, cause the strokes are on saturday night live this weekend. the boys are also announcing north american tour details any day now. updates can be found here.

oh, and did you see that the french face transplant lady is risking her recovery with ciggies? i guess smoking really is a tough habit to kick, huh?

did somebody mention smoking? hotness? no? whatever, mofos........



peace

stormy weather

it's a teensy weensy bit windy here today in the big nyc. according to my local paper, it's chaos, yo. trees falling, trucks flipping, trains crashing off the tracks. it's kinda like war of the worlds except no sign of the alien peeps.....yet. just lots of banging and crashing. (maybe not as bad as the freak out over u2 tickets in brazil, but still, pretty crazy.)

anyway, on the music front, i sorta feel that mashups generally suck. usually i hate them. that being said, this is my favorite mashup of all time:

tripper trouble - the beastles
(direct link to mp3)

the dj bc mashup of beastie boys and beatles tunes came out as a bootleg late in 2004, but you can still grab all the mp3s here. (there are 9 total).

here are some not mashed up u2 links:

follow this link for individual mp3s of each song off of u2's 2001 elevation live from boston dvd. (via interference.)

follow this link to hear mr. le bono the opera singer in an mp3 of miss sarajevo live in milan 2005. (re-posting this one by request.)

my day is looking super busy. and a little bit, um, not calm. hope yours is pretty chill:

(not really) new lauryn hill

did you hear that a new lauryn hill track has leaked? do you care? either way, i'm pretty sure it's not really true. the track circulating sounds like a version of the song i find it hard to say from lauryn's 2002 mtv unplugged album. according to the peeps on this hip hop board, it also includes a rap she once did during a ziggy marley show. but ya know, whatever, if you want to say this is actually a "leaked" version of a new track, ya know, maybe that's the case.

lauryn hill - rebel
either way, i'm not hating it.

i mean, it is waaaaaaaay better than this:
kevin federline - popozao

but really, it's still not half as good as this:
m.i.a. - hombre

all links via you send it

oh, and check out this pic of conde and laura at the inauguration of liberia's ellen johnson-sirleaf, who is the first elected female president of any nation on the continent of africa. wow, i guess it was sunny out, huh? do you think they are hiding mint juleps under those sweet hats? seriously, there's an interesting article on the bbc site about what the election of a female leader could mean for women in africa. read it here. one interesting fact that jumped out at me is that three african countries already have a larger percentage of parliamentary representation by females than european countries do (on average).

peace

so said dr. king...

"nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

mlk - u2
(direct link to mp3)

visit the king center here.

and check out this crazy story for extreme levels of ignorance and stupidity. now i know where dave chappelle got his kkk skit from.

choices, choices, choices

i'm trying to decide which one of these three shows coming up at webster hall i should go to:

black rebel motorcycle club/elefant
supergrass/pilotdrift
stars/magnet

i'm definitely only going to one, and i'm leaning towards BRMC, unless anyone convinces me otherwise. i'm pretty sure they will rock the hardest. and also, i'm almost certain that the stars/magnet show will have, like, elijah wood, and harry potter guy in attendance, so, um, you know, that's not even my second choice at this point.

oh, and if you haven't checked out chuck klosterman's current page 2 piece on the impact of race in how we describe and compare athletes, i recommend reading it. it's very klostermanlike, which isn't always my cup of tea, but i like this piece. you can read it here. he compares the search for the next larry bird to the search for the next bob dylan and even involves malcolm gladwell in the conversation. tom gugliotta = beck; keith van horn = conor oberst; and mike dunleavy = ryan adams. what what? ridiculous, but amusing...

finally, feel free to share the weirdness in the comment section of the post below. thanks to all who have given us some insight into their wackiness so far. i have to admit, i have since thought of 5 things way weirder than what i listed, but, ya know, i think i'll keep those to myself for now.

happy sunday. rock on, boys and/or girls...

good, better, best

good we are scientists - cash cow
better editors - munich
best u2 - two hearts beat as one (live)

let's be honest. scientists are geeky. editors, while sometimes fat, and often pretentious, can sometimes be hot. and well, the o.g. style of u2 blows both those mofos out da water. i do like the WAS boys. i even own a t-shirt. but i like the vocals of the editors more. and this u2 track is very downloadable. it is soundboard quality - from a dublin gig in 1989. bono ad-libs some of michael jackson's billie jean and sings "i can't dance, oh shit, i can't dance" during the chorus.

okay, so my canadian friend nastyboy tagged me with one of those "meme" things, which is like blogger chain mail. the meme asked me to share 5 weird things about myself. i won't really play that tagging game by tagging anyone else. but here are 5 weird things about me:

1) i once wrote a get-well letter to def leppard drummer rick allen when his arm got cut off; 2) my eye glasses are crazy-glued together; 3) i don't love to fly on planes, but i do it a lot, and when i do, i always put a picture of bono in my pocket; 4) i have nicknamed my sister's unborn child larry mary mullen; 5) our family cat is named after former tarheel star hubert davis.

if you are reading this, i am pretty sure there are some weird things about you, too. if you would like to share something weird about yourself in the comment section, that would be very cool.

peace out weirdos...

there goes the fear

we are proud of who we are. we stand up for what we believe. we keep our families together. we trust in god but rely on ourselves. we are not afraid.

those words are from a brief, yet beautifully written essay up on npr regarding the lives of those who live in coal mining towns. read it here.

there goes the fear - doves
acoustic version

the full-band, studio version of there goes the fear off the last broadcast is one of my favorite tunes. acoustic style it totally changes, but it's very achey and beautiful. here's another of my favorite tracks from that 2002 doves album:

caught by the river - doves

oh, and there was a mr. and mrs. b-man sighting yesterday. they were snapped on the way into the irish premiere of breakfast on pluto. based on the high maintenance styling of that fascinating (as ever) facial hair on our favorite chiseled chin, it looks like yer man didn't quite like his au natural grey beard as much as we did. oh well. nancy boy...

by far the best picture from the event, though, wasn't yer man or even mr. cillian murphy. for my money, it was this snap of pogues singer shane mcgowan flashing the two fingers in a pose with liam neeson's mother. i would almost want to advise liam to keep his mum away from that mongrel, but she definitely looks like she can handle her shit. she is an irish girl, after all.

stay true peeps...

baby, baby, baby

u2 has a new version of the original of the species video streaming online right now. you know the last one had a whole fake baby head floating around. kinda freaky and cool. this version is just like that one, except the baby is gone. those damn baby killers. anyway, the new version has none of this baby:



and a whole lot of this baby:



see for yourself on the aol web site.

new york, new york

cool cover story on the strokes in this week's new york magazine. it's penned by jay mcinerny (bright lights, big city). it's all about the new men, the new album, yada yada yada. i'm not sold on the new, slick strokes album, but mcinerny's article really resonated with me. particularly the part about the strokes' debut album is this it, which came to the fore right around the time of september 11.

In retrospect, it seems strange to me that an album of edgy, urban, hyperhip garage rock would have become the soundtrack of our post-traumatic distress. Released days after September 11, Is This It could have easily vanished without a trace, as many contemporary pop-cultural offerings did that fall. Instead, the Strokes' debut album became part of the fabric of that autumn of 'missing' posters and anthrax scares, when the air downtown smelled like oven cleaner, and the friend with whom you used to play tennis every week was officially missing. You'd think, in that environment, we would have all had an appetite for the familiar offerings of classic-rock radio, though, in a sense, listening to the Strokes was like listening to an underground, highly selective classic-rock station playing tunes with which you knew you were familiar but that you couldn't quite identify. The Strokes’ sound seemed both brilliantly distinctive and hugely derivative.

i never really looked at it that way, but for sure, along with u2's all that you can't leave behind, the strokes' debut was my most listened to cd in 2001. i'm still working on falling in love with the new strokes album first impressions of earth. in case you live under a rock, and you are interested in trying to fall in love with the new album, too, but you haven't heard it (because of the rock on top of you that you live underneath), you can check out a few mp3s at bushwick is beautiful.

boy/girl

so i was with some boys and girls sitting at a table this saturday. the boys were complaining that one of their male friends had ditched them that morning. they were all meant to meet at 8 a.m. to go on a trip to the mountains. one guy never showed up. just slept through it and didn't call.

girl # 1: so are you pissed off at him?

boy #1: no, i just called him a minute ago to see if he wants to hang out tonight.

boy #2: if we were girls we would never talk to him again.

girl #2: that's true.

girl #3: what would a guy have to do so that you wouldn't talk to him anymore?

boy #2: (ponders.....)

boy #3: hmmm.....i don't know, probably eat my sandwich or something.

boy/girl - u2 (new link)
this is a classic u2 track from the 1979 limited edition ireland only release u2-3. if you don't have it, you ain't got nothing, yo. it's a cool track to listen to now, particularly with so many young brit bands playing a similar style to this punky dancey pop that u2 started out with. i love this faux british accent bono sang with before he hit age 20.

the boy with the thorn in his side (live) - the smiths
from rank, one of my favorite live albums. morrissey, shmorrissey, johnny marr live is a thing of beauty.

speaking of boys and girls, the jt leroy plot continues to thicken. this amuses me to no end. read the ny times article on this gender bending literary mystery here.

peace

ink on skin

this boy's got some nice tats.



go here to see a sports illustrated photo gallery of athletes and their tattoos. i am not anti-tattoo, but i have never come up with something that i absolutely for certain know i would never regret permanently inking myself with, so i remain tattoo-less. for now.

tattoo'd lady (live) rory gallagher
from the irish guitar hero's 1974 live album called irish tour.
rory's final guitar solo on this live version is criz-azy good. more on rory here.

oh, and the uk independent talked to our boy cillian murphy here. you know what cillian thinks of the heat on his career right now? "this thing about heat, it's all really just hot air." i like the way that boy thinks. oh, and here's an interesting article on the relationship between psychosis and weed-osis. do you think marijuana can really drive you mad?

peace, love and mofo oh oh oh...

my credit card goes yelp, yelp, yelp

bono, why is your face on my new ipod? you dirty bastard.

you really got me (live) ray davies
megalomania muse
dirty mouth hot, hot heat

did you hear darkness skank (er, i mean singer) justin hawkins doesn't hate bono anymore? or ever, he claims. well, golly, that wasn't the tune he was singing last year, was it? but alas, my list of people to kill just got shorter.

i believe in a thing called love (live) the darkness

finally, have you seen the david letterman versus bill o'reilly clip? watch it here. they talked a little bit about the war on christmas and a lot about the iraq war. it gets very serious about halfway through when the topic turns to cindy sheehan. i would agree with my blogging friend nastyboy that o'reilly made some good points overall, but i sided with letterman when he told o'reilly incredulously "i am very concerned about people like yourself who don't have nothing but endless sympathy for a woman like cindy sheehan, honest to christ. honest to christ. do you have children?"


buy music here.

this is not yer man

one of my co-workers put this piccie (actually it's a magnet) on my cabinet. not long after, a random person that i don't even know walked by and said "hey, is that bono?" i then replied to said person by muttering "no, it's not." fuck face. well, actually i only spoke the first part out loud, but you get the point. then i sang a little song....

your mother's got a penis - goldie lookin' chain

visit ali g here and read the bbc's description of the mad, mad, juvenile welsh boys of goldie lookin' chain here. for more goldie lookin' chain mp3s, go here. you knows it.

wine in a can

u2 - walk on (live)
this is an acoustic version from the 9-20-05 chicago show. halfway through the song it becomes clear that bono has absolutely no idea what the lyrics are. mint.


this is a photo of a tiny can o' vino that got mailed to me at work. check out the straw on this sucker. it looks like a kid's can of juice, no? "here you go, lil' one, it's wine in a can." yep it is. it's called sofia mini and apparently oprah likes it. just another cute little thing for ms. winfrey to give her seal of approval to, i guess. i'm not a connoisseur, but i do believe it has a bit of a can-ny palate.

peace

10 things i think i liked in 2005: #1

#1: live is where we live



the vertigo tour shows i was lucky enough to go to were by far and away the highlights of my year. here are a few highly recommended live goodies from the past year:

all because of you
live under the brooklyn bridge, november 22, 2004
technically from 2004 and not 2005, but this free show kicked off my vertigo odyssey

original of the species
live on the conan o'brien show, october 6, 2005

love and peace or else
mtv, react now, disaster relief, september 13, 2005

i will follow
live in gothenburg, july 29, 2005

the fly
live in gothenburg, july 29, 2005
i have posted this before. but i'm posting it again. it's just that good, yo:



follow this link for audio rip of the live in chicago 2005 dvd. go here to see an exceedingly ass-kicking video of vertigo live in milan. and click on this to find a very good audience recording of the december 7, 2005 hartford show which included lots of tributes to john lennon, including instant karma, help and norwegian wood.



oh, an did you read the news that bono and the boys are having some disagreements? slow news day, i guess. that story got ripped from a harmless little comment made in a bbc interview. get the full context here. ring the alarm when larry and bono stop giving each other lip. then i'll be worried.

peace

10 things i think i liked in 2005: #2

#2: cillian murphy



big year for the boy. he had some nice starring roles in hollywood flicks, plus he was toasted with cillian murphy week, and, um, yeah, he hung out with this guy.

if you haven't seen any cillian flicks yet, you really need to.

some people think he's kind of creepy, but we think he's hot and extremely talented. his roles never bore you, that's for sure.

my top recommendation, one that just about any type of personality could enjoy, is the irish movie intermission. rent it now. after that, depending on your movie tastes, my recommendation would either be red eye (it's a thriller) or 28 days later (zombie flick by danny boyle) or disco pigs (left of the mainstream movie, about twisted, obsessive love, but cillian is magnificently psychotic in this). or you could go see cillian pretending he is a woman in breakfast on pluto, which may be playing in a theater near you still.

in the next year, there are two more cillian movies to look for: the wind that shakes the barley, a ken loach-directed period piece about the irish civil war, and the danny boyle thriller sunshine, which is set on a spaceship.

stay tuned, tomorrow is the last day of the countdown. here's a recap of the other things i think i liked in 2005: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3

peace

10 things i think i liked in 2005: #3

#3: the naked stare

"bono calls on everyone to be their best. if you fall short, you feel embarrassed. that's a unique thing. and we all want to be that person."
- george clooney

if you haven't done so, please consider signing on to the one campaign . there are worse choices you could make to kick off the new year. (like mixing absinthe, champagne and leafy greens. bad idea peeps. trust me.)