For those who didn’t get what they wanted at auction last year will have another opportunity at bidding on items generously donated from fellow musicians…Julien’s Auctions is hosting the “Icons of Music” auction to benefit Music Rising. The auction is set for May 31 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City. There are a few locations hosting a viewing of the items:

Museo de la Moda in Santiago, Chile - March 25 thru April 18
Newbridge Silverware Vistior’s Center in Kildare, Ireland - May 2 thru May 14
Celebrity Vault in Beverly Hills, California - May 22 thru May 24
Hard Rock Cafe in New York City - May 26 thru May 30

Session 1 of the auction begins at 1 p.m. on May 31, with session 2 beginning at 6 p.m. The site is advertising a “Special Performance” at 5 p.m. that day. Who knows - maybe Edge will teach the winning bidder how to play the guitar they just won!

For more information about the auction, check out the official site here.

If you wish to order the catalog for $50, click here.

According to Multichannel.com, some of the items up for auction this year include: “a signed Miley Cyrus guitar, suits worn by The Beatles while promoting A Hard Day’s Night, a Miles Davis owned and used trumpet – 400 lots in all.” The site also mentions that, “Startup Auction Network, a Tulsa-based Web and cable network headed by a passel of former TV Guide Network executives in Oklahoma, will do a six-hour interactive Webcast of the auction, working with Julien’s Auctions of West Hollywood, Calif.”

So, if you can’t make it to NYC, you can still participate. Check your local cable operator to see if you get the Auction Network.

I know, I know. Shame on me.

Instead of staying home and watching Bono’s second appearance on Idol Gives Back, I opted to head to a fine Irish establishment in downtown Seattle with some friends to compete in pub trivia (if you’re curious, our team “Brown Sauce” came in third).

Since I missed the show, I was delighted to find this brilliant blog by Village Voice writer Tom Breihan. He offers a fair, if not somewhat sarcastic recap of the broadcast, moment by moment.

And now I don’t feel so guilty for missing it…

I’m driving into Boston this morning to take the lil’ chop to an appointment and I hear Bono on the radio encouraging me to call in as the radio station he’s a “MIX artist of” is giving away $10,000. All I needed to be was caller 110 and the money was mine.

Needless to say, I wasn’t caller 110.

I started to think - when music artists give a soundbyte to a radio station or other media outlet, do they know that their soundbyte will be used for purposes other than just a station identification? All the contest promo used was “Hi, this is Bono” and then the announcer said something along the lines of call-in now for this contest, which was a multi-state contest. Usually when it’s one of these, your chances of winning is next to impossible anyway. But with the pavlovian training I’ve been under for the past 20 years as a fan, I know that when Bono tells me to do something, I have to follow - so, in this case, as I’m on my way into Beantown, here I am hitting redial on the cellphone in the hopes that I’ll be caller 110. Oh well, maybe next time when it’s Jon Bon Jovi, I might have better luck - nah…who am I kidding!

Just a few random tidbits from the past week …

Bono’s Across the Universe “co-star” Jim Sturgess was quoted talking about Bono and Edge’s Spider-Man music and his own possible involvement in the musical. Among other things, he says “we kind of hung out with Bono and the Edge and sung songs about Spider-Man” and “as ridiculous as it sounds, it’s going to be an incredible piece of work.”

Paddy Casey, one of Paul McGuinness’ clients not called U2, is currently touring the U.S. The description of Casey in this LA Times article caught my eye:

“He’s not like Bono, who goes and grabs the camera,” says DJ Tony Fenton of Irish radio station Today FM by phone. “He’s more shy and honest, which I think people like. America is the toughest place to make it, though. Each state is like a different country, and you have to spend two, three or four years there to make a dent.”

From the slightly larger than a tidbit file …

One of the more interesting aspects of the U2-Live Nation announcement this week was Bono’s quote from the press release about the band’s website.

“With regards to U2.com, we feel we’ve got a great website, but we want to make it a lot better. We want a closer, more direct relationship between the band and its audience and Live Nation has pledged to help us with that.”

Dear B: I hope you didn’t think that was a throwaway quote, because some of Larry’s favorite militant fans will be spitting it back in your face if this whole “closer relationship between the band and its audience” thing doesn’t happen.

Seriously, I would love to know exactly what Bono means by that statement. What is it that he thinks is “great” about the website? The shirtless Larry photos? I really don’t mean that in a snarky way. (Maybe I do).

I am genuinely curious about what aspects of the site the band thinks can be improved. And I wonder if these are the same things the fans want improved.

Finally …

There was that Edge interview on RTE. You guys didn’t actually think he was going to deliver any juicy details on the album did you? I am getting the feeling that the hype machine job has been assigned to Mr. Lanois this time around …

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

In this week’s Economist newspaper (sold worldwide, as far as I know) Bono is mentioned very briefly in an article reviewing the latest book to be released by the singer’s long-time friend and guru, economist Jeffrey Sachs. The piece, which is titled ‘Sachs appeal,’ remarks that an indication of Sachs’ status as a modern intellectual is the fact that “when Time magazine featured him in its global list of people who influence the world, his profile was written by Bono - a rock singer” (the Economist does have a slight tendency for stating the obvious, admittedly).

Anyone know which issue of Time that was?