u2

Aw, hell. Writing about this band is the very definition of unnecessary. What to say that hasn't been said many times before, good and bad? I'm trying to engage you, yet everyone has pretty much already made up their mind and taken an entrenched position on U2. I can sense your eyes glazing over as you read.

I had no interest in hiking up this well worn pathway. That is, until I saw them perform last night about a mile from my home. The thing about U2--they will ENTERTAIN and they will be LOUD in doing so. I've seen this band so many times over the years (somewhere near twenty) that the tours past are creating a blurry mess by smashing together the memories of Mullet Bono, Jesus Bono, Live Aid Bono, Fly Bono, Disco Bono, Super Bowl Bono, Pope Bono and now Blonde Bono in my half century old head. My ears are still ringing from last night to add to my U2 induced hearing loss from 1984. So yeah, I think I enjoyed the show.

Last night was also the live debut of this little known gem, The Crystal Ballroom:

 
 

So, U2: 

Pompous? Yeah they are, but let's see you gross three quarters of a billion dollars like they did on the U2 360 tour of 2009-11 and not feel a little good about yourself. Corporate? Well, they shill for the largest company by market cap in the world. Elitist? Bono rubs elbows with Barack and George W when he's not jetting off to Clooney's wedding and just met with the Canadian Prime Minister last week, so the shoe sorta fits.

Messianic? There are millions of words written about Bono's do gooder activities so I'll leave that to you to figure out. But I am always fascinated by how much vitriol is directed towards him when his heart is basically in the right place. My friend Gato relayed an illuminating story of taking his son to see a Kiss concert a few years back and the Kiss frontman told the crowd how Kiss always just wanted to party and play rock and roll, not change the world and right social injustice. The crowd erupted with a chant of U2 sucks! U2 sucks!

That made me laugh.

In a culture that doesn't regard rock music and rock stars with the same gusto as it did in its glorified past, is U2 even relevant anymore? Grantland.com had an outstanding piece on the band a month ago in which Stephen Hyden posited that "No band is as loved or as despised, which is its own kind of relevance." Moi? I think they're the last of a dying breed: authentic, slow motion moving Rock Stars wearing their shades at all times to reflect their aura and deflect their neurosis. And I like it.

Edge, Adam, Larry and Paul played for close to two and a half hours last night, covering somewhere around 25 songs and close to 40 years. I haven't written about the outstanding musicianship of Edge, Adam and Larry. This band is tight and always has been. It's amazing how powerful four little Irish guys can be. I hope they keep playing together for many more years. I will follow. 

I'm going to take advantage of Twofer Tuesday and leave you another ditty written in 1986. It's not a U2 original, but a song written by the Irish band Aslan. This cover was performed as a tribute to Aslan's lead singer, Christy Dignam, as he went through cancer treatment. This is This Is:

 
 

spider rain on an easy cheesy sunday

It's an Easy Cheesy Sunday and I'm time tripping to my first concert back in 1978. It was the eve of my first day of high school and, much to the chagrin of Mom, I had a ticket to go see the Commodores with my friend Jimmy C.

It was an obvious show for me to go to. See, I had a fro. I wanted to be Dr J and Dr J had a fro too. Actually he had an afro. Mine was just a fro.

As seen below, Lionel Richie also had an afro. Obviously, Lionel Richie wanted to be Dr J too. Jimmy Carter was President. Jimmy Carter didn't have a fro but he, too, wanted to be Dr J. Everybody wanted to be Dr J.

Well, we can't all have afros and we can't all be Dr J. But it is an Easy Cheesy Sunday and we do have the afroriffic Lionel Richie of the Commodores. There's only one tune that will suffice:

 
 

I don't know how much more of this I can take without building my own underground bunker. It gets harder and harder to act in a normal fashion as if nothing strange is going on in this world. 

I mean, every morning I wear my Keep Calm and Carry On tshirt while I drink my morning joe outta my Keep Calm and Carry On coffee mug after showering behind my Keep Calm and Carry On shower curtain. I am the Lebron James of Keeping Calm and Carrying On. 

ISIS, Greece, Chinese hackers...no worries, mate. The Calm is Kept and Carried. But this? Worries, mate. Big, big worries.

Millions of raining spiders.

Millions. Raining on your head. On my head. On my froless head. 

Putting on the Left Calm and Currently Freaking Out tshirt right now.

Easy Cheesy Sunday is over. 

yoshimi and the terminator

Hey Alex. Are you paying attention?

Have you met Yoshimi? She's a little badass. 

She's a black belt in karate with a mind like a razor sharp titanium alloy knife. Twice a day, she washes down B6 complex vitamins with a spinach/kale antioxidant and fish oil. To build up her immune system, she swims in the nukewarm waters of the tritiated ocean off the eastern coast of Japan where the Fukishima nuclear plant is located. 

The Flaming Lips wrote a song about her:

 
 

Yoshimi is intrepid and fearless. But she might need your help in the future. Why? Because of these guys. They're called Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems--LAWS for short....that's an interesting choice for an acronym. LAWS.

LAWS sounds very similar to this guy.

Then again, I guess we can't automatically assume the worst. After all, the government is designing the program.

<Thinking>

Maybe let's head to the gym and the fish oil store when you get home, Alex.