5:48 a.m.

my life in early motion ...

[mp3]
the rise and fall of love and hate - oslo
los angelenos. album out in october. interpol drummer sam fogarino is one of the producers. the guitary part suits the picture. perhaps. (in my brain). [oslo website]


ps: pop packaging. bubblegum. i know. still want some...

shakespeare was a big george jones fan (bono included)

bono is among the featured stars included in a dvd out next week. shakespeare was a big george jones fan, cowboy jack clement's home movies is out on september 4 in the u.s. it is described as a monty python-esque, off-the-wall feature about nashville's legendary cowboy jack clement that "boasts hilarious home movies and skits made with longtime friends johnny cash, waylon jennings, dolly parton, bono and many more."

cowboy jack clement, who featured prominently during the sun studio sessions seen in the rattle & hum movie, is a little more famous for having worked with jerry lee lewis, johnny cash and some dude named elvis. (presley, not mullen jr. jr.)

the listing says this is a 60-minute film. it is available for less than $15 on cd universe and amazon, and supposedly is airing on pbs, though i haven't found a listing.

it also apparently screened at some movie fests last year.

me = clueless. is this just bono in here? not the rest of u2? is it jt/r&h bono? is it footage we have never seen before? is bono in it for more than or less than one minute? are his upper arms visible?

someone tell me.

(thanx for the tip).


required youtube viewing: angel of harlem at sun studios
23 seconds in = top 5 ever mullen jr. moment.

18th street and park avenue south, tuesday afternoon

naively, i thought it might have been a faux deer face/antler man purse. i got close to look. and, yeah, no, it was a dead animal's head.

hopefully these guys didn't notice me camera phone photoing them. cause dudes appear to be the type who might get VIOLENT.

unrelated (completely!): adam clayton sighting.

~ later

u2 popmart dvd trailer on youtube

video



new old stuff. out in september. repackage. resell.

this house is a circus ...

... berserk as fuck. we tend to see that as a perk though.

a few from the arctic monkeys set at glastonbury, 2007.

live mp3s

teddy picker
this house is a circus
the view from the afternoon

today i noticed that someone near me had a davey doll packed in a cardboard box. i freed davey. wondered about the symbolism of davey in the box. kept my thoughts locked inside my brain. instead, just said, "davey's got freakishly large hands."

spotted in naples

photo [via + click for more]

carefully selected teeny tiny screenshot

cd times has a link to watch the u2 popmart mexico city dvd trailer
click it mofos, what are you waiting for?

~ later

le bono in italy

new photos

4th avenue graffiti

mmmmkay then.

also:

[watch] rem live trailer
live dvd/cd preview.

[download] new hives single
ah, the cover art.

[download] new bruce springsteen single: free mp3
yep...

[read] confessions of a supermodel
well, at least read the part near the end about the lizard hunters.

[look at] popmart dvd preview/screencaps
pop bono o o o o o.

~later on, yo

the christina aguilera part creeps me out just a little bit

shine a light movie trailer

i don't think so / i do think so

fake / not fake

this is really quite rad: puppy & u2

via sydney morning herald: "HONEY, he's shrunk the icons. He's reduced Jeff Koons's giant floral Puppy to the size of a terrier and morphed the art critic Robert Hughes into a miniature Jabba the Hutt.

The indignity does not stop with the art world. Alasdair Macintyre has turned the mega rock stars U2 into 13-centimetre figures as part of a diorama in which the Edge - complete with teeny-weeny beanie - waters Puppy's nose. So is calling the work and his new solo show after U2's Elevation Macintyre's little joke?

Not entirely, says the Brisbane-based artist. It is as much homage as spoof, sparked in part by seeing the band in concert last year.

"It was sublime. Occasionally in life I had what I call God moments," Macintyre says. "The previous time I felt it was at the Bill Viola [The Passions] exhibition at the National Gallery … Of course, it's a different sort of God moment when you've got 40,000 people around you."

It is high praise for a gig, but it has provided Macintyre with sufficient inspiration to create all the dioramas in his new exhibition around the titles of U2 songs - from Staring at the Sun, to (Stay), Faraway So Close and The Pursuit of Happiness. "I like doing pieces with pop culture figures in them. I wanted to do something with Bono," he says. read more ...

check out the rest of the images from the exhibit here

foreign born = baby u2?

pitchfork has so many ridonkalous u2 references in this new review of foreign born's album, that you must go read it. plus there are two free mp3s to download so you can have a listen to the band, which that review also compares to arcade fire and r.e.m.

sidenote: the second half of the second sentence of that review is being disputed by my brain cells..

foreign born: [myspace]

the go station: shamelessly utilizing the words epic and anthemic as descriptors

[mp3]
all together now - the go station
from the new album passion before function

this band's sound has been compared to embrace and oasis. if that did not make you run or turn your eyes away, um ... good?? heh. the go station's "we are influenced by" list also namechecks u2, but that is beside the point.

the go station's debut full-length record comes out in september. it's called passion before function. the band's record label is called edge delay records. (realz. hee.)

[mp3]
wandering away - the go station
from the ep quiet zone

listen to more: [myspace]

~ later

we were told you were going to be japanese tourists

august 23, 1981
paris cinema studio, london
recorded for bbc "in concert"

u2 live:

11 o' clock tick tock
i will follow
an cat dubh - into the heart
with a shout
twilight
out of control
rejoice

download at u2 start
(free registration required)

this one is maybe a little bit lacking in the freak out department as far as u2's early days performances go. this is hyper but not insane. all professional, like (despite requisite fumbled lyrics), for the bbc. still, very awesome, must have, all that. rejoice is my favorite part of this set. by the end of that song the energy is so high it feels like baby bono is about to jump out of the speakers and grab you by the shirt and sing it in your face.

info

nicely groomed, at that

not the worst thing to wake up to on sunday morning

later

tgi mf f

this monkey enjoys home-made white sangria [click here for recipe]. he hides under hats when he travels. monkey likes the killers, too. but he is just a monkey. don't blame him for music taste. thingy. what, you expect the monkey to be all cultured, like, and listen to josh ritter? wah??!!

[mp3]
smile like you mean it - the killers
live at glastonbury, 2007

[mp3]
shadowplay - the killers
joy division cover. live at glastonbury, 2007

[mp3]
to the dogs or whoever - josh ritter
cognoscenti approved. from the new album the historical conquests of josh ritter. full of awesomeness. (don't tell monkey. do. not.)

~ happy weekend ...

mix masters please report to the dance floor

sometimes i wander in and get lost over here. for a long time. and then i'm like "fuck! why did i just download 55 ryan adams concerts?"

why not, i guess.

across the universe soundtrack info

according to this news release from interscope, the soundtrack to the across the universe movie "will be released September 18, 2007, in a single-CD edition of 16 selections and a two-CD Deluxe Edition with all 31 of the songs in the film in a special package, including an elaborate booklet boasting stills from the film."

the credits for the 31 songs include two featuring bono:

"I Am The Walrus"
Performed by Bono (cast member)
Produced by Elliot Goldenthal & The Secret Machines

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"
Performed by Bono (this is an end title song and is not performed on camera as a character of the movie)

i'm just going to make sure to close my eyes when bono is singing.

across the universe [myspace]

~ later

we're getting desperate here

cheeky irish student jailed in senegal
be careful who you moon.

daily kos: values voters
i enjoyed reading the comments here. supporting ONE = voting for kittens? interesting way to put it. seriously.

obvious gallagher brother-esque plea for attention:
i sort of think david lee roth is a spandex freakshow circus clown, but i know some people who are like, totally stoked, man, that van halen is probably supposedly maybe going to tour with him if they don't break up first. so, freakshow dave namechecked bono and u2 at the band's press conference yesterday. not a big deal. still, it's too bad he doesn't know we have graduated from mullets to blindfold/headband/do-rag/flags.


music:
maritime's new album heresy and the hotel choir is out in october. drums, fuzzy guitars, slightly off key vocals included. listen if you like:

[mp3] maritime - for science fiction
[mp3] maritime - guns of navarone

~that's all.

hella links ...

spotted pig sneakers
bono may be an investor in this restaurant, but i do not see him as the member of u2 most likely to wear these pimpers.

bono sets election trends
and not just with his haircut.

willie's u2.com playlist
sample: 6. Exit - The Joshua Tree
I hope I live long enough to witness this being played live again, though I suspect it might prove prohibitively expensive to employ the tour exorcist it would require to deal with Bono after the performance. This was one of his first lyrical ventures into an entirely alien psycho personality and there were some nights on the Joshua Tree Tour we really weren’t sure if he was ever going to make it back.

william gibson: with the blah blah blah.
super-cool amazon Q&A about writing in the digital age.

femi kuti: bono does not need to tell us we are poor
actually an interesting read. dude's got some "history."

music:
go listen to the new duran duran and justin timberlake/timbaland song, if only to read the comments. do it! i love how there are so many ardent durannies still around. seriously.

finally: this song it's off frankel's album lullaby for the passersby [buy]. i like it. it is a new song, but it has that "socal 60s i'm super rich and doing drugs floating on a raft in some rich dude in the canyon's pool" vibe. or something.

[mp3]
frankel - thermostat

another time, another place

photos scanned from this book. (*highly* recommended.)

more here.

5 questions: some velvet morning

[mp3]
settle down - some velvet morning

some velvet morning. a psychedelic pop song. a british rock band. smart namecheckers of my favorite guitar player (see below), i can't remember why i asked these guys questions. i think it was the guitar. or maybe the guy named gav. or the band's blog, with its awesome movie reviews. all good things.

the band is from london. they have released a few digital singles in the u.s. and will release a full album here in october on the rhythm bank label.

i asked them things. they answered. here's 5 of my silly questions with gav (bass), des (guitar, vocals) and rob (drums) from some velvet morning:

How would you describe your music for those not familiar with it?
Rob: Somewhere in the middle ground between the Police and the White Stripes.

How much faith do you have in the general public's taste in music?
Gav: I suppose you can despair sometimes when you look at the Top 10 and wonder "who on Earth is buying this?" There's still plenty of good music making it through so no need to start panicking just yet...

Who was the first band or artist you ever loved as a kid and why?
Rob: It would have to be The Beatles, probably because that was the first music I was exposed to in my parents' car (like most kids I imagine). I could write a book on why I love them, but I'll keep it short - great melodies, concise records and the imagery of the words, especially in their later work.

Who are some heroes or influences from a guitar playing standpoint? It sounds like you are into glam rock.
Des: Hmm, perhaps so on our debut single Losing My Mind, which has a bit of glam stomp feel to it. Guitar heroes? U2's The Edge has always been an inspiration. However, having grown up in the 80s I think rather interestingly the monophonic keyboard melodies of the time have also shaped my playing.

Can you tell us a secret ?
Rob: If we told you it wouldn't be a secret any more...






ps ~ yes, dear readers, i realize i was negligent in not asking them why they named themselves after a lee hazlewood song (rip). ask them yourselves. visit the band on [myspace].

lmj update

OMG!

are these two dating???!!

read beyond the headline

Bono, Foreign Aid and Skeptics

New York Times
August 9, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Almost nobody has campaigned so energetically for the poor in Africa as Bono, but when Bono spoke at a conference in Africa recently, he was heckled. Several Africans scolded him for demanding more foreign aid, saying that's not what Africa needs.

A handful of recent books and studies suggest that aid is sometimes oversold, including the superb new work called "The Bottom Billion," by Paul Collier, the World Bank's former research economist (it's the best nonfiction book so far this year). A forthcoming book, "Farewell to Alms," by Gregory Clark, a University of California economist, even argues that conventional aid can leave African countries worse off
than ever.

And a study by two economists formerly of the I.M.F., Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian, forthcoming in The Review of Economics and Statistics, concludes:

"We find little robust evidence of a positive (or negative) relationship between aid inflows into a country and its economic growth. We also find no evidence that aid works better in better policy or geographical environments, or that certain forms of aid work better than others. Our findings suggest that for aid to be effective
in the future, the aid apparatus will have to be rethought."

So does this mean we should give up on foreign aid?

No, not at all. On the contrary, I believe there is an urgent need for more aid. But this is an important discussion worth having, and the critics (though a minority of the experts) make some fair points. Plus, there's no doubt that aid can be made more effective.

this op-ed piece is available as "times select" content. i.e. - it costs money. click here for the full ($) text.

i snipped out the middle, but this is the way it ends ...

Look, it's true that aid doesn't always work — any more than other projects do. We spend billions on our military, yet it doesn't always succeed. But the lesson should be to deploy military power more wisely, not to give up on it.

So how do we make aid smarter? Health and education spending has a pretty good record. Some interventions, like school feedings run by the World Food Program, address both areas: For just 10 cents a day, a child gets a lunch that reduces malnutrition and improves attendance.

And we should commit more aid to nurturing manufacturing and business development, so that countries can grow on their own.

One great U.S. program, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or A.G.O.A., does that and should be expanded. Another excellent U.S. aid program, the Millennium Challenge Account, nudges countries toward better governance — yet a stingy and myopic Congress is balking at funding it.

So let's accept that getting foreign aid right is harder than it looks—but also remember that 4,110 people didn't die today from smallpox. Aid can be cause for celebration, not embarrassment.

click here to see a photo of bono at the ted africa conference he got "heckled" at back in june. or actually, some say he was the heckler. he looks all torn up about it, eh?

clicking on ...

popwatch: pearl jam, at&t and the case of the missing anti-bush statements

toronto film fest: will premiere across the universe
le bon bon + this movie = ugh. do not want.

gizmodo: still waiting for peace-making robot bono

brad: he killed maddox
ha. er, my gossip site boycott = over.

coldplay + eno channel latin flavor on new album
morocco = already taken.

edge birthday song

[mp3]
we love you - u2

i prefer the title i love you (edge birthday song). either way, live in antwerp, august 6, 2001, a few nights before edge's birthday. (details). sort of a rarity to hear the u2, um, jamming (?) on stage. not so odd to hear the bono making up words as he goes along. the words include bono repeatedly singing "i love you."

muse @ msg = A+

muse: starlight (clip)
msg, august 6, 2007



dudes, last night the bellamy wore a sweet red suit and black adidas with gold stripes. nice. muse at madison square garden was a little bit maniac pop, a little bit neon outer space light show, and a whole lot of glam metal. they even had giant balloons (a la flaming lips) during plug in baby [watch].

i sat in the old lady seats while yetta and honey got pummeled (happily) in the front row of GA, watching the bellamy rolling around on the stage with his guitar. with its built in crazy mouse pad. twirling it around his head and jumping over to his white piano.

dom's drum kit dominates the stage, and chris just does his headbanging bass stance, while the bellamy runs all over with his pimp suit on. i know some people who really dislike muse. radiohead cover band? no way. get. a. clue. i'm glad i'm not one of the haters. i think muse is killer. they rock faces right off.

[listen]
muse - map of the problematique (live at wembley, 2007)

related:
new muse song: man of mystery
muse live at hammerstein, 2006
live muse downloads
web site: muse

prat rock

muse on monday. woot.

the ny post says muse has sold out msg.

oh, and my favorite martian-lover matt bellamy tells the post this:

"I'm not really a person who's big on activism," Bellamy says. "I think it's a dangerous road to go down because rock stars aren't necessarily the most qualified people to tell us what to do. But who knows, maybe in five years, I'll be parading around like a prat, trying to tell everyone what to do."

heh. snarky mofo. we only love you for your kaoss pad guitar craziness anyway, bellamy.

(more: guitar demo video for geeks)

website: muse

edward 40 hands (edited version)

video: life (edited)

related

momentary diversion.

edge: he has answers

(click to enlarge the edgeness)





big ups to one of my favoritest u2 nation residents, beth, for asking edge what every edge girl always wanted to know—his inner thoughts on cheese. huzzah!



it's in q mag. right now.

thanks to OG lolcat bun for the tip.

and thanks to q for putting the bellamy and the edge on the same cover. i know a few peeps whose heads might explode. any. minute.

~ later

monkeys & muzak in las vegas

last night i made a few peeps walk circles around hard rock cafe in vegas. we could not find the u2. the pearl jam was easy to find. guess where we found the u2? hee.

the other night, i went to a hall & oates concert. actually, it was a stevie nicks concert. and hall & oates were there. playing. they have 8 number 1 hits. really. it was a work thing, but in the end, i didn't have to go, i wanted to. i would go watch monkeys play muzak. and not because i really like monkeys.

monkeys playing muzak > daryl hall. heh. no, whatever, he is just so not the type of person i can listen to with a straight face. you think he is done singing and then he scrunches his face up to squee out another wooo haaaa eeeeee. oates has some subtlety. it is possible i went back to his yacht and slept with him. but i'll never tell. (if you think there are no yachts in vegas, you are criz-azy.)

yacht rock

i'm hoping he grows his stache back. someday.

oates and hall on the crappy cell phone vid

stevie was good. she had 2 drummers and 2 keyboard players, 3 back-up singers, lots of costume changes and many stories to tell. somebody is a little bitter. she says the words fleetwood mac a lot and only coupled with phrases pointing out that they were wrong and she was right. i wasn't totally into it, but sort of.


landslide on the crappy cell phone vid

now i am in the airport on my way to denver. do not tell oates. we need some space.

conclusion: stevie > oates > monkeys playing muzak > hall > me.