I just caught this ad for the first time today watching Wimbledon tennis coverage. Guess the PR campaign has started. Special thanks to Jaime for sharing this on YouTube.

You know you have a problem when you can no longer stack all of your T-shirts in their designated drawer.

That’s what happened to me a few months ago when I was adding yet another one to the pile and my dresser wouldn’t shut completely. Me being somewhat of a neat freak, this bugged me to the point of taking many of them to Goodwill and sorting the rest into piles (travel, concerts, etc.). The pile that was the largest was easily the U2 pile (21 shirts in all).

So, I decided to do what I did a few years ago when I had the same problem: hire someone to craft a quilt of those memories. It’s a practical way to recycle, a space saver (in my drawers, at least), and an easy conversation starter when hosting visitors.

Said quilt arrived in the mail today. Though I didn’t only use concert shirts (or even all the U2 shirts I have), all of the ones shown below have something to do with the band (i.e. in the bottom left corner is my first ONE shirt from volunteering for the campaign). I can’t stop looking at it, remembering all of the good times I had.

London-based designer Moritz Waldemeyer is apparently the man responsible for making Bono’s concert jacket (you know, the one that he had trouble turning off until he reached his Barcelona hotel last night).

He writes about the frock on his blog and mentions more possible “surprises to come.”

I can hardly wait!

It was just last week that I asked a simple question: What’s with the steering wheel microphone?

Thanks to this awesome video shot by U2gigs.com, we have an answer.

Your thoughts? Cool? Awkward?

For the past three days, I’ve been at a business conference for my day job. Speaking, schmoozing, yawning, etc. It’s an exhausting ritual.

But something I like about artificial gatherings such as this, are the ‘networking cocktail parties’ where everyone sort of lets their guard down (after a few drinks, at least) and talks about things other than work.

When it’s my turn, the topic almost always shifts to film (because of my screenwriting and/or my podcast) and of course, U2.

And (I do mean) every time, a random person (usually a casual U2 fan, or even a non-fan) has a story about how they/their spouse/their sibling/their 5th grade math teacher met Bono and had a meaningful encounter with him.

Last night it was a sweet woman from another Seattle school whose path I had crossed several months ago at an event, and she recalled the last time U2 played Seattle (April, 2005). It seems her friends were out and about on that bright, sunny day (I remember it well) and they stumbled upon B-man, who was gracious and kind and chatty and all the things you want your rock star heroes to be. And then they all went on with their day.

I wasn’t surprised, nor was I unhappy that she was sharing a lovely memory about my favorite band with me. But I was envious. Okay…maybe even a little jealous.

And I wonder aloud: why is it that someone like me, who has lived and breathed this band in some capacity for more than half my life, has never bumped into any of the four of them, yet has heard from dozens of fans who may or may not care much about U2, yet have experienced an impromptu Bono meet-and-greet? I’m not implying that people like me are entitled to anything extra, or deserve a special ‘moment’ for our loyalty (after all, their concerts have delivered some of the greatest ‘moments’ of my life). I just find it statistically very odd.

Any of my fellow die-hards out there have similar experiences?

This image has been posted in our forum a couple times now (like here), but I don’t remember where it originally came from. It’s a photo from last week’s rehearsals in Barcelona, and the thing I circled looks like a steering wheel hanging down, with a microphone attached.

What the %$#!%#$????????

Anyone have an educated guess what that thing really is, or what it might be?