U240

40 years.

Wow.  

I've been a fan for 24 of those years.  Sometimes its still hard for me to believe its been that long (and that the 90's were 20 years ago, lol).  Like, right now, I am the same age the boys were when they were recording Pop.  Now, I LOVE Pop.  Popmart was my first U2 concert that I saw IN PERSON (I saw ZooTV live from Sydney on Pay-per-view when they still called it that, instead of On Demand).  Ok well, two of them (Bono and Adam.).  Still, though, that's a bit of a trip.  

Anyway.  40 years ago Larry put up the notice on the bulletin board and they all met in his kitchen.  The rest is history.  They were first Feedback, Then The Hype, then finally U2.  Of course, if you're reading this, you already know that, lol.  They're not that old, how can they be around for 40 years?!?  Oh yeah, they were babies when they formed.  I mean 14-16.  I had no clue what they heck I was doing when I was 14!  Of course, half the time I don't know what I'm doing now, but that's beside the point (I'm going to blame the ADD and meds...yeah, that sounds good, push it onto something else...but it is a side effect...sorry, back to the blog).

And you know, bless youtube, because you can hear their first single thanks to them:

Out of Control

I love this song.  No really.  There were so many times I heard this and I was like, "Dude, you get it!"

Boys and girls
Go to school, and girls
They make childrenNot like this one   

Yup, I always knew I wasn't like everyone else, and that one stood out right away.

I'm out of control
You say
Out of control
I'm out of control
Out of control
Out of control
Out of control

I fought fate
There's blood at the garden gate
The man said childhood
It's in his childhood 

One day I'll die
The choice will not be mine
Will it be too late
You can't fight fate 

I don't know if my life has ever been in control.  I certainly don't ever think I've had any control over it.  I've recently decided that the best idea is to just live each day and deal with everything as it comes.  At least I don't I don't owe or am late on anything or anything like that.  Trust me, my nerves couldn't take that.  

Its funny, but on each album, there's always a song that specifically grabs me. Sometimes there's more than one.  

Boy-'Out of Control' and 'The Ocean'
October-'October', 'Tomorrow' (dude, the uilleann pipes!), and 'Stranger in a Strange Land' 
War-(other than the obvious FAMOUS ones) 'Drowning Man', 'Seconds'
Unforgettable Fire- Oh Man, this whole album...but 'Promenade' and 'MLK'
Joshua Tree-can we just take a moment...this album is just...*sigh*  it is special for me, you know that, but yeah...'One Tree Hill', that song is so cathartic for me.  'Running to Stand Still', IDK why, but that song hits something inside of me that it affects me every time I listen to it. 
Rattle and Hum-Ok, IMHO this is one of their under appreciated albums.  There are SO MANY good original songs on it too.  I guess I have to narrow it down though, so here I go: Heck, lets just go with the back to back trio of 'Angel of Harlem', 'Love Rescue Me', and 'When Love Comes to Town'.  Honestly, I could probably list every one of the original songs on this album.  All I Want is You is a brilliant love song.  Ok, ok, I'll stop there.
Achtung Baby!- You probably don't even have to guess on this one: 'Acrobat'.  Also 'Ultraviolet(Light My Way)', and 'Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World' hold special places in my heart.  Something just happens to me when I hear them.
 Zooropa-Oh Zooropa.  I don't know what it is about you, but you are an album that I will love forever.  I sort of didn't like 'Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car' for a few months, but that ended quickly and I just can't help but love this whole piece of art.  I even wanted Zooropa to be my nickname ever since 94.  It never caught on.  In fact I didn't have a nickname among friends until I got to college, but that's a different story.  But yeah, there are two songs that when I first heard the album and subsequently every time I listen to it still effect me.  They are 'Stay(Faraway, So Close!)', and 'The First Time'.
Pop-Ok...geez.  Ok, I'm gonna narrow it down to four.  This is hard though, because once again, this is one of my favorite albums (even though it has my least favorite U2 song on it-Miami).  'If God Will Send His Angels' (any version of it), 'Staring at The Sun' is just a brilliant song and is even more amazing when done acoustic, I love love LOVE 'The Playboy Mansion' and how it talks about making your dreams come true in a corrupt world (or at least that's one of my takes on it),  and 'Please' which is a great song a wonderful video performance.  One of my favorite Anton Corbjin/u2 videos.  
ATYCLB- Yeah, there are a lot of songs I could pick from this album.  There are a lot of songs on this album that mean a heck of a lot to me.  and this time, I'm really going to narrow it down to one.  Because I can't go on and on because I've already talked about a few of them on this blog before.  So that song is 'Peace on Earth'.  
Heaven on Earth
We need it now
I'm sick of all of this
Hanging around
Sick of sorrow
Sick of pain
Sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be
Peace on Earth
Yeah, just...yeah.
HTDAAB-This keeps getting harder and harder.  You know, Bono has said that Edge would remix every u2 album if he could.  Something about being the perfectionist.  I don't doubt that.  I get like that with drawings and paintings sometimes.  Not that I'm trying to compare myself to any of the band (that thought is laughable), but I empathize.  Anyway,  I would like to take a moment to highlight 'One Step Closer' for its simple beauty and 'Yahweh'.  I'll admit, though, I prefer 'Yahweh' live than the album version.  It just has this sweet, flowing, lyrical quality to it then.
NLOTH-This album is really growing on me more and more.  Like, initially 'I'll Go Crazy...' and 'Moment of Surrender' were my two favorites, but 'White as Snow' is something I'm really digging right now.  So there's always something new to discover.

And now of course we have:

Songs (or Son gs) of Innocence-OK, first of all, I was one of the people who was HAPPY that Apple gave this to us for free on our devices.  It was right around my 34th birthday, so its was almost like my favorite band gave me a bday gift of a new album.  That and I don't have a lot of money so yay(!) new album and I didn't have to pay for it!! (that being said have I bought other versions of it? Well, ok yes, a vinyl version, because, well, VINYL, and I had money saved up from loose change collected.).  This album is stellar.  Its fantastic.  I love it.  Its one of the ones that is on heavy rotation still.  And once again, its hard to narrow down.  'Song for Someone' once again is a brilliant love song.  'Iris' reminds me of my dad, and I even have an idea for a painting that was inspired by that song.  'Every Breaking Wave'...just wow.  But ok, ok...'The Troubles', sonically, that song just gets to me.
Somebody stepped inside your soul
Somebody stepped inside your soul
Little by little they robbed and stole
Till someone else was in control
With that heartbeat drum in the background.  Chills the first time you hear it.  And Adam's bass line is a nice surface for Edge's notes to float over.  I love how I sound like I know what I'm talking about.  I don't, but that's how the song sounds to me.  Its like I'm trying to put the song into visuals because that's the only way I can explain artistic things.  

Ok, wow, I really didn't mean this to be my dissertation on all the albums.  I guess I just got started and the rambling took over.  If there's one thing about us U2 fans, its that we all have our own opinions, many of us are passionate.  A lot of us have big hearts.  

Some of us have been around the whole 40 years.  Some of us have only been around for 40 days.  You know what?  It really doesn't matter how long you've been a fan.  Do you love the music?  Does it touch you in some way?  Does it help fill that hole inside, wherever it came from?  Hey, guess what, you're a u2 fan.  

Welcome to the tribe.  

So...

Did anyone else watch Bono on Charlie Rose last night?

I may be biased (yeah, ok I am, I'm not ashamed to admit it), but an interview with him is always good to me.

I can't say I disagreed with anything he really said there (I don't actually know Secretary Clinton, so I'm going to have to go with him on that one, since he actually does know her.).

In case you didn't see it, or you don't get the show where you live (I apparently have someone reading this in France, merci, and I know Cris is in Romania, and quite frankly I'm technologically challenged enough to not know if they stream the show when it airs here in the States) here is a link from Charlie Rose's own website:

Bono on Charlie Rose

SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN

Tomorrow is my 36th birthday.  I don’t say that to try to get a comment or anything, its just to show you where I’m coming from.  

There have been a lot of times when I have been thinking about my biological father, and there’s been a number of recent instances that have brought him to mind.  One of which was an old friend of his coming up to my mom and me after church to say hello and tell me that I look just like him.  To say I was speechless was an understatement (especially considering we haven’t lived in our old neighborhood where we did when Dad died since 1989.  Dad died 30 years ago this December.).  Anyway, because of this there has been more than once when I’ve felt guilty that I’m not spending the same time on my step-dad, who died 4 years ago.  

I knew my step dad better than my dad.  I love them both very very much, but in different ways.  And yeah, there are probably more than one song that reminds my of my dad, but SYCMIOYO in a lot of ways, that one belongs to my step dad.  

We didn’t fight that much.  We had a few arguments at first, but I think that was more a getting to know you thing, and we always apologized…usually about ten minutes later…and it was usually me because I was the one in the wrong.  You know how with teenagers things can happen.  God bless him, he’d never dealt with girls before, so he was learning as he went.  Luckily most of this never happened when my mom was around.  

Tough, you think you've got the stuff

You're telling me and anyone

You're hard enough 

That was one thing about him, though.  He was so very stubborn.  In that case, he fit in well in my family because all of us are really (some more than others).  But really, the lines that really hit home in the song, that remind me of him when I hear it are these:

Let me take some of the punches

For you tonight

Listen to me now

I need to let you know

You don't have to go it alone

and then these:

And it's you that makes it hard to let go 

Sometimes you can't make it on your own

Sometimes you can't make it 

The best you can do is to fake it

Sometimes you can't make it on your own

See, he died in 2012 of a stroke at age 87, almost 88.  He just fell asleep in his chair before lunch.  Mom was in the kitchen making sandwiches, and I was sitting on the other side of him.  She called over to him to wake him up so we could eat, and he didn’t.  We kept trying to, but he wouldn’t wake up.  That’s when we called for an ambulance.  He spent over two weeks in the hospital, but he never woke up, and when they did a scan they found out there had been a number of small clots that had gotten to his brain at some point during the whole thing too, not just the initial stroke.  My mom is in the hospital every day.  I was there every day I could be there (there were some days I had to be at home because we had renovations that were being done that had been planned way before everything had happened.).  I hated seeing this man who never looked or acted his age lying there dying in a hospital bed, but I couldn’t not be there.  

There was another thing too…I’d never actually been in the room when someone died.  I won’t lie, that scared the crap out of me.  I don’t know why, I mean, I’ve dealt with and been around death before.  I mean, I’m Irish-I’ve been to more funerals than weddings in my life.  That being said, I had never been in the room when someone’s life had ended, especially someone that I loved.  But you know what?  It was peaceful, for him at least.  And I was able to say goodbye at the end.  

I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am if it wasn’t for my step dad.  I hope he knew how much I loved him.  My mom says he did.  I hope she’s right.  

So, I finally started my personal blog.

If anyone from here wants to check it out, here the link:

A Wonderer's Notes

Hey all, I'm still here

Once again, I had every intention of posting something last week, but life got in the way again.

So my family went down the shore (which for those that aren't from South East Pennsylvania means the beaches of Southern New Jersey, which are filled with little island resort towns.).  We've been doing that since I was a baby.  Two days before going down I had my second round of Botox injections for my chronic migraines.  So far its not working, but the Dr said that it could take up to three rounds to really take effect.  We'll see.  The wifi that was at the place we rented was a little wonky, but then again, the extender at home has been acting up to so who knows.

OF course while I was off there has been a lot action in the U2 world.  A new song (or a version of) has been heard, and if you haven't caught it yet, get over to youtube before it gets taken down.  I really like it!  Its got a great beat and I'm digging the lyrics I could make out.

Also a very happy anniversary to Bono and Ms Ali.  May we all be lucky enough to find a love like yours in our lives.  (Yes, I know they will never read this, but I still wanted send the happy vibes out into the universe, so to speak).

And of course, lastly, the rumors are that the new album, Songs of Experience, will be out in either September or October.  Selfishly I'm hoping for the middle of September because that's when my birthday is, but really, whenever it comes out, I'll be happy.

Now, as just a side note, when people judge too harshly on new music that they hear.  I was out doing yard work that needed to be down way before when I was doing it, and I was listening to my music library on random while working.  Now, if I had to pick a least favorite U2 album, I guess it would be NLOTH, just because its the one I listen to the least.  I don't dislike it though, and it doesn't contain the one U2 song actually don't like (that's actually on one of my favorite albums, Pop.  The song is Miami, BTW, but that's something else).  Anyway, a song starts that I at first don't immediately recognize, and I said to myself, "hmm, that melody is pretty."

The song was White as Snow.  I probably hadn't heard that song in over a year, and suddenly I had a whole new appreciation for it.

(And just so you know, I've given Miami multiple chances...for some reason, I still don't like it.)

So, you know, that album you didn't like, or that song that you just didn't vibe with that first time you heard it, give it another listen.  You might change your mind.  You might not, but you never know.

Next post should be coming much sooner, and its a really lighthearted one.  Its also a wee bit embarrassing for me, but you know, that's a part of life.

More Love More Peace

I’ve rewritten this a few times now, and each time I delete it all because it just doesn’t sound right, or it isn’t coming out right.  This summer, and much of this year has been plagued with stories of shootings and massacres, of violence against others that are feared or touted as different from one group or another.  Hate has been rhetoric of choice.

It shouldn’t be.  

“Love drives out all fear”

“Love makes strange enemies

Makes love where love may place

The soul in its striptease

Hate brought to its knees”

“I’ve seen for myself

There’s no end to grief

That’s how I know

That’s how I know

And why I need to know that there is no end to love”

One of the things I always loved about U2’s music was the light that was inside of it.  Even in the darkest one, there was always a small spark.  It always helped me through my darkest times…but you already know that, I’ve mentioned it more than once.

Not long after what happened in Orlando, one of my friends down there, Del Marco, who works in the media industry, wanted to try to get something started to combat all the negative emotions that have been swirling around.  He thought about starting a rally, first online, and then hopefully getting one in person called #MoreLoveMorePeace.

He wants to get the message out that its shouldn’t matter what your color or creed or sexual orientation or anything like that is, that we should all love each other.  And, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but, if we all love each other, then why would we be fighting against each other than?  Why would we be throwing all of this hate at each other?  And, in there, is the More Peace.

I thought it was a great idea, and in some small way I wanted to help.  So I told him (all over Facebook) that I would try to come up with a logo if he would like.  It wasn’t much that i could do, but I guess it was something.

There is an old saying that goes “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

I’m really hoping that this candle burns very bright indeed.

BEAUTIFUL DAY

I have been trying to finish the entry that I wanted to post over a week ago, and haven’t been able to, when I was out to do my weekly chore of mowing the lawn.  I brought my iPod with me this time, and started a random playlist.  The second song to play was ‘Beautiful Day’ and I just had this wave wash over me.  

Now, I’ve heard this song a million times; I even know all the words to it, but that other day I could really feel it.  There are so many times when I feel so lost-between my illness and not knowing when or if the headaches will ever be controlled, and if they are, what happens after.  I know there are a lot of people who have it a lot worse than I do.  I never want anyone’s pity or anything like that, but I can’t help that there are times when I have these feelings.

That day that I was out mowing was a beautiful day; it wasn’t too hot and wasn’t too cool, which is rare for a July in Pennsylvania.  The sky was a bright blue with barely any clouds and the humidity was low, it was almost a perfect day, weather-wise. I was able to stop and actually look around and admire that. 

Sometimes, its nice to be reminded that its ok to not have all the answers.  Its ok to just take it one day at a time, and occasionally take delight in the beauty God gives you in a perfect summer day.