According to industry sources, the onsale date for the April 9th Hawaiian show is tentatively February 6. Radio stations in Hawaii are gearing up for a “win them before you buy them” promotion in preparation for the ticket sale. More news as it becomes available.

I mentioned on the blog a little while ago that The Edge was one of the judges in the h-lounge.com MIT Ringtone Competition. (For those wondering, he was not present at the awards ceremony). While I love being a contributor here at @U2, frankly it doesn’t pay the bills. So, I was one of the fortunate ones who was able to submit a ringtone in the competition as I am affiliated with MIT.

While my ringtone was selected as a top 10 finalist, I did not win the prize for best ringtone in my category. However, the awards ceremony was quite fun and educational. I found out afterwards that Edge spent about 90 minutes on a conference call with the judging panel on Wednesday night discussing ringtone finalists. I was told by the judges that my ringtone, “Luke Dalton’s Theme” was well liked by Edge. One of the judges, MIT Professor Tod Machover, Professor in the Program for Media Arts and Sciences, went on to say that only Edge understood the meaning behind the ringtone’s title. He got a good chuckle when I brought him up to speed about Edge’s alter-ego. To me, that’s winning the Grand Prize

Thanks, Edge! Don’t forget to download it to your phone.

By the way - for those of you not familiar with what Hyperscore or h-lounge.com is all about, check out their press release here. It includes some great quotes from Edge about why he supported this endeavor: “I’m excited to be taking part in H-Lounge’s Ringtone Competition,” commented Edge, guitarist with U2. “Ringtones are a legitimate branch of Pop music and this is a great opportunity for up-and-coming songwriters to create something designed specifically for the medium.”

For those of you who went to the Portland show back on December 19, there was a new audio intro played before Love and Peace or Else. It was the first (and so far only) time it was played.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet (atomicarchive.com), you can watch J. Robert Oppenheimer as he says those chilling words. Check it out here. (Ironic that it’s part of the atomic archive!)

Bernard Henri-Levy, promoting the book American Vertigo on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, asked John Stewart if Bono was ever a guest on the program. John replied that Bono had been asked, but declined the invitiation.

The topic of Bono came up as Bernard was talking about how he travelled 1500 miles to explore America to see if the cliches about what America is all about were true or not. As a French philosopher, he was intrigued by the “mega-church” phenomenon across the country. He said that they must be an important demographic if Bono went to them to talk about the AIDS crisis and how everyday people can help.

He also mentioned that he is a good friend of Bono’s and encouraged John to get him to be on the show.

For those of you waiting to hear new Bono soundbytes (to add to your Bono Interview drinking game), I think we’ve found two new ones for ‘06.

In a press conference from Davos to launch Product Red, Bono described the American Express Red card as “this card tells you not what you have but who you are, and that’s sexy.”

Further into the press conference, he went on to say: “Maybe we can, if not go mainstream with our riches, let’s be slipstream. Let’s surf on the back of the wake of these companys. And I’ll tell you it won’t be long before our surfboard is moving at its own speed, on its own wave.”

To view the raw footage of the press conference and to read the CBS News report, visit here. The site also has a neat photo essay of Bono.

The first Reuters update from Davos also mentions the press conference here.

Business Week is blogging from Davos too. Bono called Business Week’s report Dan Perry “Zen.” Check out his blog here.

To keep up with the World Economic Forum itself, visit their official website: http://www.weforum.org/ .

An industry source has let @U2 know that the rumored 2nd Hawaiian show is definitely set for April 9. The local promoter has already begun talking with people about the upcoming ticket availability. More details soon as they develop, but expect the ticket onsale to happen “soon” - no specific date has been mentioned.

For U2 completists only, Ford has named their new vehicle THE EDGE. Please note the attractive (?) toffee color and Edgeworthy laptop compartment, and get a load of the press release’s descriptions of The Edge:

Edge will deliver performance, quietness…

Edge is available with…two gyroscopic sensors to monitor both yaw and roll motions.

and my personal favorite:

Edge’s visual promise of dynamic prowess begins with its bold front end.

What can I possibly say to that?

(thanks to Shannon!)

Wonder how all those awesome graphics were created for the Original of the Species video? A New York-based design and effects company called Spontaneous used the animation techonology provded by Softimage Co., a subsidary of Avid Technology, Inc.

The secret behind the special effects is found in an Avid Technology press release: “The video for Original of the Species featuresa digital version of Bono, the band’s lead singer, accompanied by a computer generated woman. Both characters were created using SOFTIMAGEXSI (R) v.5.0 and animated with an alpha version of SOFTIMAGEFACE ROBOT (TM), the revolutionary new digital acting technology that allows 3D artists to achieve realistic, lifelike facial animation for high-end film, post and games projects.”

The press release also quotes Catherine Owens, director of the video and long-time collaborator and friend of U2, “One of the concepts of the video was for Bono to enter and exist in the woman’s private, digital world for a brief moment in time. When we saw an early model of her character, the images were absolutely haunting - we knew that we could achieve exactly what we had imagined. Spontaneous did amazing work to fulfill the band’s vision for the song, which was to deliver an intimate and emotional experience. The band considers it a dazzling work of future animation.”

The press release goes on to quote Lawrence Nimrichter, director of animation at Spontaneous, “One of the biggest challenges on this project was the task of delivering a believable, animated model of Bono, who is so recognizable. The concept of the video was so subtle and elegant that we knew the digital acting element had to be perfect. Once we took the data from the motion capture - or ‘mocap’ - session and brought it into Face Robot, we knew we had it. The animation was so clean and we were blown away at how convincing it was….this was a high-profile project with an extremely tight deadline, and by having access to Face Robot, we were able to deliver. This technology is truly incredible.”

You can read the entire press release here.

By the way…Avid Technology has strong ties with U2 and the Vertigo Tour. Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, has been providing a product called VENUE, “an innovative, state-of-the-art live sound mixing and production environment that surpasses the sound quality and functionality of other sound reinforcement mixing systems at a surprisingly affordable price. VENUE was designed to provide operators with the most flexible set of audio tools possible. Each system component is expandable and reconfigurable on a per-show basis, including the D-Show mixing console and digital mix engine, effects plug-ins, the stage and FOH I/O, the digital snake, and the record/playback options.”

The Digidesign press release would excite any audiophile’s inner techie as it explains in excellent detail the extent tha their system and interface allowed up to 96 tracks of audio to be recorded, as well as the combination of ear and wedge mixes it was able to provide to Adam and to Larry, as well as the backline technicians. The full press release can be read here.

Another subsidiary of Avid is M-Audio, a company that provides Keyboard Sonic ReFills, as well as that well-loved M-Audio 02 keyboard that Larry and Adam use during the show.

There’s been a very *hot* rumor going around the online boards about the band Rocko and the Devils opening for U2 for their last Vertigo tour dates in April at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii. According to two affiliated websites for Rocko and the Devils: jimhandley.com (drummer for the band) and melanielowery.com (webmaster for the band), it sounds all-but-confirmed.

If you’re wondering why they’re opening, well…the “Rocko” is U2’s crew member extraordinare Rocko Reedy. Two of the four “Devils” are crew members for Journey. The band’s website: www.rockoandthedevils.com should have video and other content up soon on it in the weeks to come.

UPDATE: as of 1/18, all affiliated websites have changed the dates to indicate they’ll be opening on April 8 with no mention of the April 9 date. An industry source has told us that due to slower-than-expected ticket sales for the Honolulu show, the second proposed date at Aloha Stadium on April 9 may not happen. More news to follow as it becomes available.

Just a few things of note for a Monday….

First, the comic strip Get Fuzzy had a U2/Bono reference in its January 1 edition. Thanks to comics.com for archiving it. Check it out here.

Second, did anyone else catch the U2 reference in the video “Don’t Cha” by the Pussycat Dolls? About 30 seconds into the video, there’s a scene where one of the singers is wearing a vintage War tour TShirt. It was one you could buy during the Vertigo tour. Glad to finally see a U2 retro TShirt being worn by someone.

Finally, for those of you with AOL…the “new” version of Original of the Species isn’t all that “new.” They’ve taken out all of Catherine Owens’ artwork and 3-D graphics and in turn, filled in the spaces with more footage of band members, this time superimposing themselves so that you have double vision, as well as more footage of the pregnant woman in the reddish organza-like cloth. For all the hype about this video, I was rather disappointed when it was just a re-edit of the previously released Catherine Owens video.