The Columbus Dispatch reports that trends in eyeglasses for spring are going in circles.

How does this impact the most famous shade-wearing front-man? Apparently he’s changing with the times. He was recently seen in France wearing a pair of more conservative specs.

No word yet on whether the new look will carry through to next year’s tour.

I, too, am travelling this week in the UK - seems like a theme running through the @U2 staff. (Can someone say New York, London, Paris, Berlin…)

Since arriving in London, every time I channel surf, I seem to find a U2 reference. It’s like being in front of Bob’s Boxes in The Fly video with a remote control in a way Whilst channel surfing, I found that the Bono Biography was being broadcast on the UK Biography Channel (this is the programme that’s quite rubbish, by the way). A few channels later, I found that Q’s Music Television station has the top 20 U2 video countdown. Trouble is, those channels are blocked at the place I’m staying because my host hasn’t upgraded their cable television to have those channels. UGH! I’ll never know what Q feels is U2’s #1 video!

DAVE TV broadcasted Top of the Pops 2 a few days ago and they listed The Chimes’ version of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” as the best U2 cover song released. The viewers of TOTP felt it was Johnny Cash’s version of “One.” DAVE TV has also been showing ads for the Friday with Jonathan Ross programme, and it’s featuring a quick cameo by U2 from a previous broadcast. The episode of Top Gear airing on that channel also features “Theme From Lets Go Native” and “United Colours” from the Passengers disc. Good golly!

I suppose I’ll need to start my U2 drinking game at the flat I’m staying at (drink every time a U2 reference appears on the screen) - as it’s St. Patrick’s Day, we’ll all be drunk in less than an hour with the rate I keep stumbling upon U2-related items on the tele.

I am in Taipei, Taiwan this week, and while wandering around the city yesterday, I snapped these shots:

I wasn’t even looking for U2 signs, I swear! (I mean, I am looking for the Bono of Taiwan, but that’s besides the point.)

So, I figured the above sign was a promo for U2 3D, but I have been told it is really just a sign advertising things available in a particular music and DVD shop.

Not that I mind, but clearly U2 is inescapable.

-This post brought to you by Scatter O’ Light.

While killing some time last night, I was looking at some comments about the “American Idol” results on EW.com and came across this one:

Before I go, I like to say I would absolutely love a U2 Week !!!

I know Bono made a brief appearance on “American Idol” last year for the charity episode, but a whole show using (and possibly abusing) U2’s music? I’m not sure if I could take that.

I don’t know how likely that scenario would be, but if the contestants were able to choose from the U2 songbook, what tunes would you want to hear? Or what songs would you hope and pray they leave alone? If Kristy Lee Cook turned “In a Little While” into a country hoe-down, I might just cry. And not in a good way.

Whilst watching the new French film The Diving Bell & the Butterfly last night I was delighted to find that ‘Ultraviolet (Light My Way)’ was being played in one of the scenes. The film is superb regardless though, and I urge anyone with an appreciation of independent cinema to see it. It follows the life of the former editor of the French magazine Elle as he tries to cope with living with ‘lock-down syndrome,’ a condition he develops in the wake of a stroke, which leaves him paralysed except for the lid of his left eye, which he uses to communicate by winking. Does it not have an echo of a similar condition experienced by Christopher Nolan, the subject of another U2 song? Altogether now: “I wanna trip inside you head, spend the day there……”

As I was strolling along Fremont Street Thursday night in Las Vegas, I got very nostalgic for the Joshua Tree-era U2. I snapped this photo and then marveled at how nearly every other visual in the “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” video has morphed into something else or been replaced altogether. It made me sad.

And then I got to thinking—what is the best set U2 has ever used for one of their video shoots? Not necessarily their best video, per se, but just the best backdrop? I tried to think of just one, but couldn’t narrow it down further than three:

1) Bono’s childhood haunts (”Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”)
2) The French Riviera (”Electrical Storm”)
3) Berlin (”Stay (Faraway So Close)”)

What are your top three?