The Ordinary Man Is Honored

Bono and The Edge were among those who honored Christy Moore as he received the lifetime achievement award from the Irish Recorded Music Association Friday evening in Dublin. While Bono paid tribute to the Irish folk singer by sending his wife to the ceremony and a video message, Edge took a more physical role, presenting Moore with the bronze statue.

The ceremony included a charity auction to benefit Crumlin Childrens Hospital and the Chernobyl Childrens Project. A handpainted guitar by The Edge and a lithograph from Peter and the Wolf signed by Bono and his daughters were among the items auctioned for the charities.

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Larry Promotes Motorcycle Training

Yesterday Larry Mullen Jr. came out of hermit status to help promote a motorcycle safety booklet for the National Safety Council and the Irish Motorcyclists’ Action Group.

Larry announced that he intends to enroll in driving school, having never received formal motorcycle training in the past.

“I just hope that by doing this, someone will listen and decide to do training before getting on a bike. It’s not a cool thing to get on a bike. It’s not cool to take your life into your hands. It is a dangerous undertaking that can get you killed,” warned the U2 drummer. (Photo: Irish Independent)

Sing A New Song

U2exit.com is offering audio of Starfield’s version of “40″ from the In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa CD in Windows Media format. Listen and then buy the CD, which benefits World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization working to resolve health and hunger issues in Africa.

U2 Get the Japanese Treatment

As fans of Japan and its culture, we were interested to learn that U2 have been honored with a Japanese fan site — the first of which we are aware. U2Japan.com provides Japanese U2 fans with global news and information about the band. The site also offers translations of material from other U2 fan sites, including yours truly. (Arigatou!)

One interesting bit of news the site reports is the use of four of U2′s songs in a popular, daily Japanese news program called News Station. The program opens with “Where the Streets Have No Name” (in Japan, the song is called “Yakusoku No Chi,” which literally translates to “Promised Ground”) and closes with “Electrical Storm.” Sports segments are introduced with “Lady with the Spinning Head” and news flashes with “Discotheque.” So, on a daily basis, Japan is listening to U2.

Sampling U2

Ok, now we’re really reaching for content. Let Them Sing It For You (warning, pop up blocker recommended) is a sound art project that allows you to hear your lyrics using words sampled from other songs.

To pass the time while we wait for new album news, figure out what words have been sampled from U2. Report back your findings. Rinse. Repeat.

Heart on Fire

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This entry is for all the design freaks out there.

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In Yer Face

Unless Steve Lillywhite has a magical wand, it’s going to be a while before U2 fans have anything to discuss. To keep you entertained in the meantime, we have scoured through our photo files from events U2log.com has covered in the previous year to offer up photos no one other than the U2log.com staff has seen. These photos were not published because they were flawed in some way, too similar to a photo that we published, or did not compliment the accompanying article. Looking at these photos now, we have found an interesting quality in many of them, which we would like to share with our readers.

Until there’s something of substance to talk about, we will publish these photos on occasion and provide background on them. We hope that, like us, you’ll find something interesting in these images.

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Fixing a Hole (so the aid gets in)

Referencing a Beatles song, Bono made an appeal to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be the champions of a financial proposal that would combat poverty and disease in the Third World at a conference in London today. Via satellite link, Bono addressed the “Making Globalisation Work for All” conference as a keynote speaker. Proving himself to Beatles savvy, Brown replied, “I believe we can work it out.”

Bono, Jim Sheridan on NPR

Jim Sheridan and Bono spoke with NPR’s Alex Chadwick recently about working together now and in the past. Bono explains how the song came out of the main theme as composed by Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer. Jim’s just full of stories. This is a fun in-depth interview. Listen at NPR.org.