Nothing quite like seeing the L.V. behind the wheel of a sports car. And it’s an electric one, at that. This photo is from the Top Marques Monaco “supercar show” which was held April 24-27. More info on the car Bono is sitting in can be found on AutoblogGreen.

-This post brought to you by Scatter O’Light

April is National Poetry Month here in the U.S. Yeah, it’s still April for about 48 more hours. T. S. Eliot’s opening lines from “The Wasteland” are

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

That’s one main reason for why the fourth month of the year got picked. Shakespeare was born and died in April too, with both of those calender dates being within a week of each other.

I was enjoying some poetry the other day from Achtung Baby. Lately, I’ve been thinking this album showcases some of Bono’s finer poetic moments:

She wears my love like a see-through dress
Her lips say one thing
Her movements something else
Oh love like a screaming flower
Love dying every hour love

Or,

I dreamed that I saw Dali
With a supermarket trolley
He was tryin’ to throw his arms around a girl
He took an open-top beetle
Through the eye of a needle
He was tryin’ to throw his arms around the world

So, speaking of Shakespeare . . . what do you think are some of the better lines of poetry to have left Bono’s pen? Maybe a couplet comes to mind; or more? Maybe it rhymes, or it doesn’t?

And happy last hours of National Poetry Month!

It’s been a while since we’ve had the pleasure of mentioning Henry Rollins anywhere on @U2, but as sure as the changing of the seasons, Henry’s back talking about U2 again. In his defense, anxious journalists just love to bring up the name “U2″ to get a reaction out of the guy. And he’s always happy to play along. Like this, from that link:

Well I like Bono’s humanitarian efforts, because when some people go, “oh, he doesn’t mean it. He’s just doing a photo op,” I disagree. I think he’s very sincere. I just think the music, you know, knowing what I know about music… Bands make so much fun of U2. Ask any band on the bandstand, say U2 and the band starts laughing. Because the drummer can’t play. Bass player plods along. The guitar player, if he didn’t have Brian Eno, he wouldn’t have a guitar sound. It’s basically a Brian Eno guitar sound played by guy who’s got one trick. That’s why there’s no leads, because the guys got nothing in there. And lyrically, I mean, whatever. You like God, you go ahead with that. That melts your butter you go for it. To me those records are for people who’ve lost the will to fight.

And that wraps up our 2008 coverage of Henry Rollins. Until next time, this has been m2 reporting…..

There’s only a few things in life that rank right up there for me as ‘great ways to wake up in the morning.’ This morning, I log into U2.com to find Adam’s video of Larry hard at work in the studio. It’s 49 seconds of pure Mullen with a hint of Clayton. You have to be logged in to view it. I must say, Adam knows what the fans want!

Just stumbled on this while keeping up-to-date on material for an updated version of U2: A Diary (which I hope will happen, but don’t know for sure):

According to the Ardmayle blog, Paul McGuinness hurt himself a couple Sundays back in a fall off a horse. Ouch.

It happened before McGuinness gave a speech opening a new art exhibit by his godson, Rocco Tullio.

The things you learn on the Internets……

I know it’s been a few months since the @U2 event in Boston to celebrate U23D’s release, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share some photos taken from it. Special thanks to Ayaz for sharing his photos with us. Check them out on his site.

We had a fun time reviewing the new Bono biography.  This one, though, is the first for kids.  My 8-year -old daughter, Madeline, writes book responses as school assignments in which she has to tell something she learned from the beginning, middle and end of the book.  So she wrote down the facts she learned and then typed out some sentences to get us started.

I prompted her with some more questions to get her to explain or clarify some things and then she dictated her new sentences to me and I typed them in.  (She was impressed with how fast I could type, and I was impressed by how well she understood the book!)  We worked on the introduction together and then she came up with the author questions on her own.  (Well done, Maddie!  What’s our next assignment?)

The book is a great introduction to this “rock start with a conscience.”  It’s the result of careful research on the part of the author, and it says a little about each stage of Bono’s life.  There are some good pictures, too.  (Gotta have lots of those for the kiddies.)

Shout-out to @U2 staffer/photographer Phil Romans for having one of his photos in the book.  Hint: it’s of a famous Dublin hearing aid store.

And tell me, if you were a kid, what would you think about the man you’re seeing on the book cover?

I know the ladies out there have a crush on our Hitman, but more and more guys are coming out and admitting they have a crush on him too - and it’s not just Boy George this time!

In Sunday’s Irish Independent, Brendan O’Connor admitted that he has a man crush on Larry as well. Here’s what he had to say about spotting him this past Saturday:

A LARRY MULLEN spotting in Eden. While the ignorant among you may think, “Jesus, O’Connor, give us a proper spot. He’s only the drummer. What about a spotting of Bono, or the other fellah, the Edge,” that’s where you’d be wrong. A spotting of the lesser-spotted Larry is the ultimate. You’d catch Bono out on the town any night between Wednesday and Sunday and the Edge is fairly common too. Adam Clayton and Larry are the real exclusives. And there’s also the fact that God, Larry looks good. If Irishmen were to admit to a slight man-crush, most of them would probably say Larry.

If nothing else, he gives great hope for Irish guys. He shows we can be good-looking in an old-fashioned, handsome, movie-star way. If Irish guys are attractive, it’s usually in the rugged or interesting-looking way, boxers’ noses and big jaws and stuff, or we have a great personality or something else useless like that. Larry just looks good like Brad Pitt looks good. Larry is eye candy.

And age isn’t diminishing him. And he always had the dignity to appear troubled by the worst excesses of U2 — like the Pop album.

I love the line “Larry is eye candy.”

To update a story mentioned here a week ago (or so), Edge has announced he will donate 2 Gibson guitars and other personal items to the upcoming “Icons of Music” auction on May 31.

In an interview with the Associated Press by phone while the band was in the studio, Edge said, “No one could ever come close to repaying the debt of those who have established this form (of music) that we all take totally for granted, this hybrid of European melody and African-American rhythm that’s given us jazz and R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. There’s something powerful about musicians giving instruments they own to an auction to aid musicians who are going through a particularly difficult time.”

The AP story also said that Aaron Neville is scheduled to perform at the May 31 auction, held at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City. Edge will host the auction.

If anyone is planning on attending the auction, let us know. We’re looking for special correspondents to cover this event!

Following on from Cara’s post about the Clarence, here’s the story of why Dublin is one of my favorite cities on the planet.

In 2001, my partner and I went to Dublin for a few days. We stayed at the Clarence, drank in the Octagon, and ate an enormous meal one night in the restaurant (where the sommelier learned we were from America and wanted to extol the virtues of a wine called Marilyn Merlot. I am not making this up.) We were celebrating our anniversary, and after a dinner with perhaps more wine than was strictly necessary, we went down the street to the Kitchen, U2’s nightclub.

We were both 40 at the time. Temple Bar was full of Beautiful Young People. The Kitchen had the usual red velvet rope guarded by large, hiply-dressed men. And I remember turning to my sweetie and saying, Oh, yeesh, what if they don’t let us in? I have been given the arched-eyebrow treatment by some of the gatekeepers of clubs in New York (who had to let me in because I was On The List, and it just about killed them because I totally skewed their demographic). I really didn’t want this to happen at the Kitchen.

So we approached the rope, and one Large Well-Dressed Man smiled and said, Ladies, are you coming in? And held the rope aside for us.

I love that man.

We went in and explored, and ended up at the far end of the club (through several rooms, across at least one dance floor). There was a bar in the back, and we found a table, and we had some Guinness, and talked… and before we knew it, it was about 3 AM and the place was heaving with people. They were literally standing packed like sardines around our table and others.

And my partner walks with a cane.

So, you can picture it — 40-year-old women, one using a cane, who have had a fair amount to drink and now have to make their way through about a million Young Dancing Drinking People without being trampled in the rush to claim our table.

And here’s what happened: We stood up. A man of about 21 or so said, Ladies, are you going out? And when we said yes, he proceeded to walk in front of us, politely tapping people on the shoulder and saying, Make way, please, make way. And everyone smiled and made way. We never even got jostled, never mind trampled. He walked us all the way to the entrance, and I was so amazed and grateful for the grace of the moment that I kissed him on the cheek and told him I’d never forget him. And I never have.

I’m glad I got to go to the Kitchen. But more than that, I’m glad I found out that Dublin is a city of such kind and lovely people.