Seven years ago, I witnessed something I thought I would never see. Mild mannered Edge completely detroying a guitar on stage during “Gone” in Boston. The only other time a band member destroyed an instrument that I could recall was when Bono tore apart Larry’s drum kit at Toad’s Place in New Haven, Connecticut on November 15, 1981.

To the best of my knowledge, Adam has not detroyed an instrument while onstage.

While on the topic of U2’s Boston shows in 2001, Carter Alan shared an anecdote with @U2 about the filming of the shows. Check it out in the latest @U2 Podcast.

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!

…must not be good for the gander.

I’m surprised this hasn’t been brought up prior to now.

I took the time to re-read the full speech published on U2.com Paul McGuinness gave to those at the MIDEM International Manager Summit.

In his remarks, Mr. McGuinness stated, “They have families and it is terrible that a direct effect of piracy and thievery has been the destruction of so many careers.” This was in regard to the losses of jobs in the record industry due to the loss of profits and the forced consolidation of the labels.

Wasn’t it Bono who said “Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief?”

Readers of atu2 may remember reading a story written by Kevin Hutchinson back in July 2005 about Polish artist Piotr Mlodozeniec, the creator of the CoeXisT image in 2000 which Bono utilized in one of the most dramatic parts of the Vertigo Tour (which McGuinness shared that in 2005/2006 grossed $355m and played to 4.6m people in 26 countries.)

The CoeXisT image was created for an exhibition by The Museum on the Seam in Jerusalem. The Museum on the Seam’s Director and Curator, Raphie Etgar, said in a statement, “It is the responsibility of the Museum on the Seam to protect the images and the rights of the artists participating in the exhibition.”

When atu2 last communicated with Mr. Mlodozeniec, he received a credit on Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago DVD but he did not state that he received any financial compensation for the use of his artwork. He went on to let us know, “the people from U2 proposed me long time ago to give them my sign as royality free (i haven’t done this). now they are not contacting me
anymore. if the museum on the seam had got something - i was not informed.” The Museum on the Seam has not updated us as to if they received any compensation.

If Mr. McGuinness feels that there are thieves in the midst, then he and/or U2 should revisit the use of this artist’s work as part of their live show which they made $335 million.

The kicker - I believe Mr. Mlodozeniec was remarkably missing from the credits at the conclusion of U2 3D. Shouldn’t he be compensated for the use of his image in this film as well?

The other kicker - in the United States, the CoeXisT image was trademarked by coexistonline.com. Piotr was unable to copyright his own image, nor was the Museum on the Seam able to protect him as an artist.

U2’s long-time artistic contributor and U23D director, Catherine Owens, was quite clear during her press conference at the Cannes Film Festival last year that U23D would not be released to the home DVD market until the technology was available to fully experience the 3D quality of the film at home.

There must be some U2 fans over at Samsung as they’ve showcased at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 3D capable plasma televisions and a upconverting top box product called TriDef 3D, which comes with handy 3D glasses and everything!

Who thought that the technology would catch up so quickly? Who wants to make a new year’s prediction that we’ll have U23D at home within the next 12 months? (I’m not a betting woman, and I haven’t any clue what the odds would be on that!)

With the busy holiday season afoot, there are a few news items that might have flown under the radar screen…

1) If you’ve been following the news about Elevation Partners, then this New York Post article is right up your alley. It gives a head’s up that Conde Nast Portfolio’s January issue features an interview with Bono, as well as gives some insight about Bono’s thoughts on hair length and the boardroom.

2) If you enjoy the work of Edun’s designer Rogan Gregory, then you’ll be happy to know that he’s finalized a deal to design for Target stores.

and finally,

3) @U2’s fearless leader, M2 has been still locking himself in his tres chic office (approx. 15 square feet) to put the finishing touches on U2 Diary, but that hasn’t stopped him from talking with U2Spain about the project. Check out the interview here.

I was gonna put this on the U2Diary.com blog, since I’m working on the book at the moment, but it’s kinda misplaced there since the info. doesn’t belong in the book.

I’m re-reading BP Fallon’s Faraway, So Close book and there’s a little story where Edge reveals that the original inspiration for “Desire” is not a Bo Diddley song, as the press reported and assumed, but was a song called “1969″ by Iggy Pop and the Stooges.

You can hear for yourself on iTunes.

If you’re into this kind of stuff, you might also check out this recent post I did put on the book blog about the original inspiration for “With or Without You” –a 1977 punk/electronica song you probably never heard of before.

Alright … back to the book for me.