What a blog entry that would be!

"...Where the streets have no name...we're still building and burning down love..."

Yep, it was an awesome concert. The first one I've stayed till the end in a long, long time. Of course, they ended with 40...and Larry Mullen was the last one to leave the stage...he just went to the edge of the stage and stood there in the light for a long time, as everyone was singing, "How long...to sing this song...How long...to sing this song...."

They had an amazing stage set. The most incredible one I'd ever seen. The stage was a circle, with concentric circles of lights set into the floor. And that main stage was set into the end of an ellipse-like runway that extended way out into the main floor, and back, in a large swoop. The fan club people were inside the ellipse--standing, of course. There were more concentric lights set into the runway. And they also had these beaded curtains made of fiber optics that acted as moving video screens, which raised and lowered depending on the song. Really cool.

Bono spent a lot of time on the elliptical runway, as you can imagine. And what prompted the title of this blog entry was what he did during the last song of the first encore.

The intro to With or Without You was playing, and he went down to the furthest part of the runway, reached into the crowd, and pulled up a woman from about three rows back onto the stage with him.

He hugged her, and she (of course) hugged him, and as he was holding her, as if they were embracing, her head on his shoulder, his head on hers...he sang. The whole song. While he was holding her.

I can only imagine what it must have been like to be her. She could feel the rumble in his chest as he sang, could feel his warmth, his smell, feel him every time he took a breath...OMG. Bono!

As my husband said, "It was Bono's way of dancing with every woman in the arena."

Yeah. I'd have fainted once I got back to the ground.

Another highlight was when, during Love and Peace or Else, the lights came up, and there was Larry Mullen, standing on the farthest part of the ellipse, with a single drum, just banging away. Probably the first tour he'd ever gotten that close to the fans while playing! And after that song ended, Larry dashed back to the main stage and Bono took over on the single drum there, pounding out the beginning to Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

That was awesome to see: Bono slashing the drums, his arms raising high, one after the other, slamming down on the drum, with his white "coexist" bandanna over his forehead. Very moving.

A friend of mine doesn't like to see U2 in concert, because he, as he puts it, "comes to see them perform, not preach about politics." Well, I have to disagree with his sentiment, because that's one of the things that I admire most about Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam. They aren't afraid to--and in fact, I believe they must feel the responsibility of--using their exposure and influence to speak out about inequalities in the world. And they do, and they did.

And I appreciate them all the more for it.

What a blog entry that would be!

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/10/what-blog-entry-that-would-be.html

Concert Cramming

I've had tickets for U2's concert here in Detroit since...oh...April. Maybe March. Whenever they went on sale. I've seen them twice--once during their Joshua Tree tour, and also during their Achtung Baby! tour.

I haven't bought many of their newer albums, so I've been a little out of the loop. Anyway, I figured I'd get the new How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb CD in plenty of time to listen to it and get to know it before the show.

Well, it's sneaked up on me! The show's tomorrow, and I've never heard any of the songs on it before (except for that snippet from Vertigo on the iPod commercial)...so I'm concert cramming.

Listening to the new CD over and over today and tomorrow before I go.

Am I the only person who hates to go to a concert knowing only, say, 50% of the songs?

Concert Cramming

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/10/concert-cramming.html

I got tagged

...and I dropped the ball.

Why, you ask? Well, here's the story. My dear friend Mary tagged me about a week or so ago. The tag meant that I needed to look at the fifth sentence in my 23rd post, meditate on it, and see if there was some hidden meaning. Well, that simple-sounding task stymied me. I mean, I don't have 23 posts.

I am a blog loser.

And so, knowing that I couldn't respond appropriately to the tag, I slunk into my hole (instead of madly writing ten more posts so that I could play tag--which I love to do) and hid for a week or so.

Now I'm crawling back out, and I think that even though I didn't play tag this time, I can play by starting a new game. Of which this time I will be the tagger, and perhaps someone will have pity on me and allow me to be the taggee again sometime.

So, Mary, Trish, and Jana...consider yourself tagged with Alpha-Meme:

ALPHA-MEME

A - Age you got your first real kiss: Thirteen or so. Freddy G., short, cute, teddy bear kind of guy serenaded me with Stairway to Heaven and then gave me a whopper of a kiss after.

B - Band listening to right now: U2 (going to see them on Monday!! Gotta get in the mood.)

C - Crush: Matt Damon in The Bourne Supremacy

D - Dad's name: Harry D. Gleason, III (now deceased)

E - Easiest person to talk to: My husband, and my friend Holli.

F - Favorite bands at the moment: Ray LaMontagne, always Jeff Buckley

H - Hometown: Near Ann Arbor

J- Kindergarten: Denton School (torn down when I was in sixth grade and attending a Catholic school).

K - Kids: Three...girl (9), boy (7), girl (4)

L - Longest car ride ever: Every time I drive to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan--about once a year. Ten hours. With three kids in the car. When I say longest, I'm not only going by miles...but how slowly the time seems to pass!

M - Mom's name: Joyce

N - Nicknames: Sweetheart

O - One wish: World peace (honest!!!!)

P - Phobia[s]: Spiders, spiders, spiders

Q - Quote: (It's on my blog, but here it is again for posterity:) "The computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history--with the possible exception of handguns and tequila." --M. Radcliffe

R - Reason(s) to smile: My kids, my husband, my new book contract (woohooo!!), my friends, my life.

S - Song you sang last: Point of No Return from the original ALW Phantom Soundtrack

T - Time you woke up [today]: 7:15 am

U - Unknown fact about me: I can alternate raising one eyebrow at a time quickly enough to hypnotize someone.

V - Vegetable you hate: Lima beans. They're tasteless and useless!

X - X-rays you've had: Dental ones, only. Unless you count a mammogram. Ouch.

Z - Zodiac sign: Taurus.


Okay, so, girls...have at it!

I got tagged

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/10/i-got-tagged.html

Our world is amazing

My friend Jill Monroe is an astrophysicist wannabe and a romance author. (A fabulous combination; her second book is coming out in April!)

We've been having a discussion on the Wet Noodle Posse loop about the power of positive thinking, and whether or not repeating affirmations and focusing on the good can actually make a difference in one's life. Many of us agree that there is a spiritual level to all of this--myself included--and others tend to focus more on what they can comprehend and understand using science and math.

At any rate, Jill was a self-identified skeptic, until she found a book called Hidden Messages in Water. In this book, a scientist took pictures of the molecular makeup of water. Amazing photos and images in itself; but then, he began to submerge printed copies of different words in the water. Peace, love, hate, fear...etc. And then he took photos of the molecules again.

The molecules actually changed! When beautiful words/thoughts were used, the molecules looked like crystals, snowflakes--but even more intricate and beautiful. When unsettling thoughts (like "you make me sick") were used, they turned thick and oily.

Our bodies are over 70% water. Think about it.

Our world is amazing

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/10/our-world-is-amazing.html

A Wolverine who now loves Columbus

I received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan, which makes me a rabid Wolverine fan.

As anyone who follows the Big Ten knows, there is no love lost between the Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes. We hate each other. We live to destroy each other. The biggest football game of the year for both teams is always the weekend of Thanksgiving, and there is much Monday-morning quarterbacking the week following the game.

Interestingly enough, Ann Arbor (home of the Wolverines) is about four hours directly north of Columbus (home of the Buckeyes) on US-Hwy 23.

It's so bad, that when an Ann Arborite gives directions to Columbus, we say, "Head straight south until you smell it." I've seen t-shirts for sale in Columbus that say "Ann Arbor is a hole."

A friend of mine used to have a plastic toilet seat that, when raised, said, "Flush twice...it's a long way to Columbus." (Obviously, a Wolverine fan.)

Anyway, my point is: it's nauseating for a Wolverine fan to travel to Columbus and spend any length of time there...and that's just what I had to do this past week.

I was attending a week-long training class in the not-so-fair city of Columbus and as soon as they found out I was from Michigan...no, Ann Arbor...the remarks started to fly.

Unfortunately, Michigan is not doing itself justice in this year's football season as of yet.

I digress.

I spent my week in Columbus, but I will forever hold one of the best memories in my life in that city. That's because on Wednesday morning, while running late to class (and hung-over to boot), I got a phone call that changed my life.

My literary agent called to inform me that not only had she sold my book, but she had actually sold two books, for a "very nice" deal, to a large New York publisher, to an executive editor who loved the story.

Needless to say, it was agony for me to finish out the next two and a half days in class, where I had to sit and pay attention to things like IBRPs and 529 plans and other financial products...but I made it.

And it's for that reason that I will now forever love Columbus....unless the Wolverines are in town.

A Wolverine who now loves Columbus

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/10/wolverine-who-now-loves-columbus.html