julian schnabel also owns the infamous pink building, by the way. his film is based on a true story about a man in his 40s who suffers a stroke, and through the help of his nurse, writes a memoir while communicating by blinking his eyes.
[mp3] lonely no more - magnet off the new album the simple life. norwegian boy. plays lots of instruments all by himself. now he has a band, too. interesting arrangements. dig that percussion.
his album cover has ladybugs on it. when i was little, my mom always called me and my friends ladybugs. i am not a fan of bugs, but i have nothing bad to say about ladybugs. magnets are pretty useful, as well.
there is a webcast on think.mtv.com tonight at 9 p.m. EST (i think), featuring bono - it's part of the clinton global initiative going on in nyc. it will supposedly be aired on mtv at some point.
Recipients of the 2007 Liberty Medal, singer-activist Bono and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, accepting on behalf of advocacy organization DATA, wave during the award ceremony at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007. (ap photo)
well, i bet he didn't tell chuck about that stuff.
who and/or what is chuck? is it good and/or bad that foreign born appeared on this show last night? is this lamer than and/or as lame as the peach pit?
i saw these at trader joe's on sunday. don't worry i didn't buy them. why is this item gross? i'm not exactly sure. i have nothing against eggs, really, but this is just not right. my sister agrees with me, which means it is absolutely true.
dressed up like a moustache (still, across the universe does not suck)
so, yeah, it took me, like, five whole days to finally force myself to go see the movie across the universe. considering that bono is in it, that is a LONG time. i guess i didn't really want to see it.
and by it, i don't mean the movie. i mean it:
the moustache! dear holy cleats from heaven, what is that about?!?!
i went to see the movie and sort of expected to hate it. not just because of the moustache. i knew moustache boy would only have a cameo. but i wondered why he needed to be in it at all. acting badly. and why this movie? all singing? silly love story?
i hate to break it to my sarcastic self, but i actually liked the movie. bono is in it for about five minutes. he even has dialogue. his part is slightly past the mid-way mark of the movie. i was literally grinning from ear to ear for the entire time he was on the screen. seriously. dear self: i'm glad you lightened up.
some people will hate this movie. it doesn't quite succeed. it rehashes 60s cliches. but it has a sweet and authentic love story at its heart and the two stars are pretty good. jim sturgess, who plays jude, is way better than evan rachel wood, who plays his girlfriend lucy. but i might be biased because i think jim is cutie mc-hottentot. or something.
seeing a movie's plot advanced via beatles songs is different than what you'd normally see in a hollywood flick. the film is a little too ambitious for sure. julie taymor throws so many visual elements into it that it's sort of like watching a really long, vibrantly surreal music video. its reach exceeds its grasp. but seeing strawberries morph into hearts and hand grenades is not the worst thing one could stare at.
artistic, ambitious, abnormal—these are all good things for my version of the bono to be involved in.
speaking of whom, bono plays a freaking hippie in this movie.
"I’m no hippie with flowers in my hair. I come from punk rock.”
yeah, that bono. so basically, bono is "riffing" on neal cassady, and floating in an exact replica of the psychedelic bus furthur. (i cringed watching an interview with bono explaining his part, but watching it on screen, well, even car crashes can be funny. right? wait, they can't?!) seriously, in this role, bono is MAKING FUN OF HIPPIES. this is awesome. bono is really good at making fun of people. true fact.
does his comic timing suck? a little. does he over act? um, a lot! so much! the most ever! is he a total dork? yes.
press play below. or bono will never remove his fake moustache. and then i will cry. forever.
i finally saw across the universe last night. bono did not make me cringe. he freaking cracked ME UP. he's barely in the movie. the film is quite ambitious. i will elaborate later.
music from the soundtrack to across the universe is available on itunes bono's songs are available to be purchased individually. yay. and yes, thanks, i do realize these are available online for no cents each, as well. i am the walrus is entirely acceptable with the secret machines, but i prefer bono's version of lucy in the sky with diamonds. i don't know exactly what the emotion is inside it that bono is conveying. it's too trite to go with the drug and psychedelic angle. to me it sounds more sweet and childlike. (most evident: 2:35 to 2:40 mark into the song). just the way he says the word "there." mmmmmm, anyway, overall, slightly hypnotic. combined with the distorted vocal effects, it is alluring. edge's voice is also floating around in the background. bonus.
coming very soon:the scatter o' light not sarcastic at all, totally objective, super serious, not psychotic, bono-centric review of the movie across the universe.
the october, 2007 issue of vanity fair magazine includes a top 100 "new establishment" list, which the magazine's table of contents refers to as a list of the "world's most powerful people." topping the vanity fair 100 list is rupert murdoch. steve jobs is #2. the google guys are #3. oprah is #14. yer man is #28. larry mullen jr. wants a recount.
(click image below to enlarge the bono: rocker, humanitarian, tough in business.)
above: a new clip of bono's cameo as dr. robert in across the universe. (different than the last clip of bono on the bus).
here's a collection of moustache-related snippets from a few movie reviews for across the universe. (click links for full reviews).
firstshowing.net While nearly each and every song sung on screen was exhilarating, there were scenes and moments that felt unnecessarily added and pointlessly featured. Characters and story arcs felt added only to include a certain song. Unfortunately one of these involved the commanding presence of U2's Bono who sings a modern "I am the Walrus" and travels on a psychedelic bus to an even more psychedelic location in who-knows-where California.
ap review via palm beach post None of the figures is fleshed out and they all feel like types — though Bono is a hoot in his first film role as an egotistical counterculture leader who sings "I Am the Walrus."
aintitcool.com The cameos are hit and miss (Eddie Izzard's version of Mr. Kite might have been worse than George Burns', while Bono karaokes his way through a performance of I Am the Walrus, which at least was better than his acting as the plot's Ken Kesey stand-in) but the hits, particularly Joe Cocker ripping through Come Together, are home runs. The cast is solid both in vocal and acting talent, and Evan Rachel Wood especially is beyond luminous, becoming the perfect blonde American girl-next-door.
entertainment weekly The story is all protests, rainbow crash pads, and solarized acid trips — a Hairy cliché fest, all reflected through the tale of a guy named Jude (Jim Sturgess) and a girl named Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). I did like the underwater kissing to ''Because,'' plus Bono doing ''I Am the Walrus.'' He has presence (more than you can say for anyone else). But the thing about the Beatles is, their songs already are movies. They hardly needed to be fixing the hole of this one.
hollywood reporter Bigger musical stars turn up in cameos. Joe Cocker plays three characters in a brilliant rendition of "Come Together," and he momentarily supplies the gleeful wit that the film desperately needs. Bono's performance of "I Am the Walrus" is another high point.
new york post There's a sublime appearance by Joe Cocker, and five Salma Hayeks, in naughty-nurse mode, are sexy and disturbing singing "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" in a VA hospital. But Bono, looking like a gay biker, serves up campy bluster singing "I Am the Walrus."
boston globe Oh, dear Lord, where to begin? Bono in a fright wig as Dr. Robert, singing "I Am the Walrus" on his way to meet the giant blue puppet people? "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" set to an image of US soldiers struggling to carry the Statue of Liberty to Vietnam? "I've Just Seen a Face" as an upbeat dance number set in a bowling alley? How to describe the blinding combination of artistic ambition, excess, and plain old bad taste that is "Across the Universe"?
philadelphia daily news At other times, the famously eccentric Taymor does herself proud—a highlight is a drug-trip collage of animation, puppets, digital wizardry and inventive photography that features Bono as a guru preaching higher West Coast consciousness. The movie has its Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix stand-ins, but I'm not sure who Bono's meant to be. He claims both the Walrus AND the egg-man.
chicago tribune The filmmakers' apparent desire to foreshadow every single song occasionally borders on parody--Jude, an artist, spends a lot of time with strawberries; his best friends include a very sexy Sadie and a loner named Prudence, who enjoys entering apartments via the bathroom window. That said, once you give in to the absurdity of a mustachioed Bono as Ken Kesey/Timothy Leary singing "I Am the Walrus" and overlook the cliche bacchanal in New York's Greenwich Village, you just might find yourself happily trying to spot the next ditty on the horizon.
seattlepi.com In the film's most rousing sequence—and what has to be the most realistic movie acid-trip of all time—Bono, playing a psychedelic visionary with a touch of Timothy Leary, sings "I Am the Walrus" with the same self-inflated pizzazz that John Lennon gave it.
for real, people. some idiot asked this question of frames singer glen hansard monday night, late and deep into the frames show at webster hall. and mr. hansard, he with the teeny tiny and totally forgivable bono chip on his shoulder, decided to answer it.
if he had said something really rank i sort of wonder if it would have ruined the show for me. because it was a good concert, full of absurd jokes, pink necked screams and just a perfectly complementary bunch of musicians up there who get really epically upliftingly loud at times. (and way more songs than are written on that setlist below).
getting back to the bono: glen has said a few snarky things about u2 and bono in the past. but who hasn't, people? still, i didn't need this question.
i don't even love any frames songs on their records. live, they have it going on. but if the show ends with a bitchy bono remark, ya know, this is not going to make me HAPPY!
so, there's the idiot yelling "what do you think of u2?"
"what do i think of u2?" glen said, after an eye roll, "it would be easy for me to stand up here and say they are a bunch of fucking assholes ... but every few years they put out a song that knocks me sideways. and you can't argue with a great song."
that video is from brussels earlier this year. that song seems to be a popular one for the frames to open their encores with. they did so last night at webster hall, as well. colm introduced it by saying "i want to play this for everyone who will be lonely tomorrow."
gawker stalker: bono in nyc sep. 10 Bono Sep 10th, 2007 @ 2pm "Standing right in front of my friend at the Time Warner Center. This is insane. He's not looking great, not at all what you would think. Thinning hair. They're filming something. Girls are screaming we love Bono and he's hugging them. Wearing purple shades and a (Red) shirt."
I Am the Walrus "I'd worked with Bono before - we have a common friend, [director] Neil Jordan, and we worked on one of his films. So we were very comfortable with each other. I chose the song for him - it came out of Julie's wishes that Dr. Robert be sort of an LSD guru, with a very typical California accent, 1960s, you know, and to our amazement and delight Bono was very comfortable with that - he nailed it. It's almost a Jack Nicholson type of accent."
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds "In the course of the movie screenings, a lot of folks came up to us and said, 'You know, Lucy was one of the characters,' and, 'Oh gee, we missed that song.' So we felt that even though the movie was over, it was a little romantic P.S. So that was the most recent work, with myself as a producer, working with Bono. The Edge sang on it, too."
Q&A with matt from foreign born (officially cool as f*ck!)
the recent pitchfork review of foreign born's album on the wing now was chock full of u2 and bono references. the band is good. and the review gave them lots of praise. it also called them a "baby u2" and had lines like this one, describing the vocals as always containing "a glimmer of hope, a trick no doubt borrowed from rock's guardian angel laureate, bono."
i got in touch with the band to see how they were doing as far as coming to terms with their inner bono-ness. singer matt popieluch answered some of my questions. dude is funny...
Pitchfork just gave your album On the Wing Now a very fine review and included Arcade Fire, R.E.M. and several U2 and Bono references. Be honest, those U2 references freaked you out just a little. Didn't they? Matt:No! They were right on the money! Just like always. People also like to compare you guys to Echo and the Bunnymen. But I feel like you have a jam band aura about you, too. If you had to pinpoint a few bands as influences, which ones would you highlight? Matt:U2, U2 and umm U2, for sure.. anything they did. What kind of question is that?!!
Who was the first band or artist you ever really loved as a kid and why? Matt:Whatever Bono was up to, I was completely dialed in, even at 5 or 6. If he sneezed I was blown away. Sometimes it's not easy having him as your "rock guardian angel laureate."
What is your lead guitarist Lewis's favorite guitar? And can you tell me what your gear set-up is like when you play live? Matt: For his guitar and pedal set-up, Lewis studied hours of YouTube footage of The Edge. Drew out diagrams, really picked his brain.. So whatever guitar The Edge plays, I'm sure Lewis has some kind of forged signature edition.. and, of course, a mirror of his pedal arsenal. Your drummer Garrett is freaking awesome. Maybe that's not a question really. But how did he get so awesome? Matt:He was born awesome.
Can you tell us a secret? Matt:I'm biding my time until I start permanently wearing shades and introduce my alter-ego! I'm already talking to GAP about something..
is dude making fun of me?! he's definitely making fun of somebody. foreign born's music is worth a listen. the guitars are sublime, the drummer really is freaking awesome, the harmonies are killer and the lead singer, well, see above and below.
video: letter of inclusion
sidenote: my crack team of '80s music experts (aka bob and colin), has confirmed that foreign born's sound is reminiscent of not only u2, arcade fire, r.em. and echo and the bunnymen, but also adorable, teardrop explodes, the ocean blue, stephen "tin tin" duffy, trash can sinatras, the adventures, an emotional fish and power of dreams.
not that we are tracking his movements, but, bono was in st jean cap ferrat in france on september 3, with cherie blair, to dedicate a peace fountain bearing the inscription "coexist." there's some good streaming video of bono being very bono at the event: [view it here]
irish singer and acclaimed actor bono, from the band that used to be sort of innovative a long time ago, u2, arrives for a sotheby's auction in monaco on sunday, september 2, 2007. proceeds from the charity auction will go to the humanitarian organizations amade mondiale, the nelson mandela foundation and the nelson mandela children's fund.
