By Staff
Bono tells Jann Wenner in the Nov. 3 Rolling Stone interview that if he hadn't been an Irish rock star in U2 Paul Hewson would have been a journalist, the perfect outlet for his intellectual curiosity (he still hasn't found what he's looking for) and fondness for writing.
His first rock record, heard at age 4, was The Beatles' “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
During his “obnoxious teenager phase” in 1976, Bono discovered punk.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards “always reminds me of that Dylan line, ‘To live outside the law, you must be honest.' He has enormous personal integrity … He's much more graceful than people realize.”
Of his spiritual life, Bono says, “Even though I'm a believer, I still find it really hard to be around other believers. They make me nervous, they make me twitch. I sorta watch my back. Except when I'm with the black church. I feel relaxed, feel at home; my kids - I can take them there; there's singing; there's music.”
Bono's favorite Beatles songs are “The White Album” because of “the combination of the really experimental and the real songwriting craft … The White Album is probably my favorite album, although (U2's) last two albums are much more like ‘Abbey Road' or ‘Let it Be.' ”
Bono tells Wenner, “This is a generation that wants to be remembered for something other than the war against terror or the Internet. Your generation had a job to do in pursuing equality and civil rights, and you took to the streets and you accomplished a lot. Our generation wants the same thing, and we recognize that the enemies are subtler.”
Bono “loves” Bill Clinton.
Clinton and Nickelodeon executives Oct. 20 announced a campaign teaming him and SpongeBob SquarePants to eat healthy foods and to get up off the couch and move.
Clintion underwent quadruple coronary bypass surgery in September 2004 and a follow-up procedure in March.
George Harrison invented benefits: A cyclone killed 300,000 people. The Beatles guitarist cut a single, “Bangladesh,” to call attention to the crisis in East Pakistan and rang up rock-star friends such as Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton for a charity show, The Concert for Bangladesh, on Aug. 1, 1971, at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Harrison, who died in 2001, had no precedent to guide him when he became the first Beatle to venture out after the breakup and created the model for three decades of relief shows, from “Live Aid” in 1985 to Hurricane Katrina benefits.
He was a reluctant performer largely idle since the Fab Four's finale in San Francisco in August 1966, the last year Dylan toured at the time.
Nobody was sure Dylan would stick around long enough to play.
Now the film has been released on DVD.
Harrison's set consisted of four tunes from 1970's “All Things Must Pass” and his Beatles classics, such as “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun,” which he had never played before an audience.
The proceeds, $243,418 for UNICEF, seem modest by Live Aid standards of $60 million, but continuing donations from movie and album royalties, the total has grown steadily to $15 million.
Agents of change: Bill Clinton won in 1992. Newt Gingrich won in 1994. Clinton won again in 1996 over Gingrich and Bob Dole. Democrats won in 1998 by representing a change from Republicans obsessed with impeachment. George Bush won in 2000. Democrats lost in 2002 by failing to convey change. Ditto John Kerry in 2004.
To win back the House in 2006, Democrats must offer a more positive, forward-looking agenda that inspires hope and voter confidence than just counting on mounting scandals to consume the GOP (House Majority Leader Tom DeLay indicted for conspiracy and money laundering, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist under investigation for insider trading, the head of FEMA forced out in disgrace).
Gingrich's Contract With America, which he wielded so effectively in seizing control of Congress in 1994, succeeded at imagining them in a leadership role to convince voters to install Republicans for real.
A Democratic Contract With America might offer universal college education, universal health care for anyone who works, reduction of the national debt and halving U.S. dependence on foreign oil within a decade.
Vice President Dick Cheney insists he has “no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind,” yet he received $200,000 last year in deferred compensation and has stock holdings worth an estimated $8 million. His former company, meanwhile, collected $10 billion in federal contracts since the Iraq war started.
Colbert Report: Promoted to pundit for his own half hour at 11:30 on Comedy Central following “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” the 41-year-old “Lord of the Rings” obsessed father of three from South Carolina offers an only slightly more absurd version of “The Factor” than Bill O'Reilly does on Fox.
I happened to catch the “The Daily Show” with Viggo Mortensen when Stewart secretly taped Colbert riffing on the genealogy of Mortensen's movie character Aragorn. Mortensen looked impressed, although Stephen's wife, Evelyn, was reportedly aghast.
He grew up the youngest of 11 children in a devout Irish-Catholic family. When he was 10, his father and two brothers perished in a plane crash.
His therapy was his obsession with J.R.R. Tolkien. He's read the trilogy 40 times.
I'm trying to picture him at Northwestern with long hair and a beard.
In Chicago with Second City he discovered improv comedy.
While writing for “Saturday Night Live” Colbert voiced Ace in the “Ambiguously Gay Duo” cartoons.
Colbert says Stewart is the fastest reader he's ever seen and actually reads all those books he discusses with authors.
Since he “trucks in insincerity” when he deflated self-important news correspondents with one cocked eyebrow on his poker face and exposed religious foibles on the “This Week in God” segment, his children have never seen his work.