Review: U2 360° — Great Music, Bi-Partisan Politics

OK, first things first: U2 put on a great show in FedEx Field in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

This was a relief, because the previous Saturday they had turned in a dismal, oddly disjointed performance on “Saturday Night Live.” But three days later the boys were back in fighting shape; it was, in fact, one of the hardest rocking shows I’ve ever seen them give — and I have seen my share of U2 shows (my lifetime total is now somewhere in the double digits).

The show opened with several numbers from the woefully under-appreciated new album No Line On The Horizon; the thrilling and unique “Breathe,” segued into “Magnificent,” a tune which doesn’t quite soar as as high as it wants to, but comes closer live than on record. The lackluster “Get On Your Boots” was followed by Zoo-era favorite “Mysterious Ways,” bringing the stadium down and prompting Bono to remark, “Well, it’s a warm night after all!” He then gave a preview of the rest of the set: “We have old songs; we have new songs; we have songs we can barely play!” (more…)

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Tags: Bono, FedEx Field, Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, U2
Posted Oct 16th 2009 at 4:37 pm in Entertainment, Music, Reviews | 24403841 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/10/16/review-u2-360-great-music-bi-partisan-politics/Review%3A+U2+360%C2%B0+--+Great+Music%2C+Bi-Partisan+Politics2009-10-16+23%3A37%3A14Matt+Patterson

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: ‘Hollywood on the Potomac’: Personalities, Politics and Powerbrokers

Many thanks to all for making my new book “Hollywood on the Potomac” a success.  In the first week, it is already hitting Non-Fiction Bestseller lists in bookstores.  It’s available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders and many major independents in Los Angeles and Hollywood.  It features over 200 photos and stories that detail the fascination between Hollywood stars and Washington power-players.

Here’s an excerpt:

Chapter Five, Personalities, Politics and Powerbrokers

Somehow late night talk shows became a logical first step for politicians to reach voters. Somehow rock stars became a political voice of the disenfranchised. Somewhere along the way, American politics and pop culture personalities began to blend. (more…)

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Tags: "Hollywood on the Potomac", Arsenio, Bob Geldof, Bono, clinton
Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 8:35 am in Celebrity News, Culture, Featured Story | 2189428 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmeath/2009/09/14/exclusive-excerpt-hollywood-on-the-potomac-personalities-politics-and-powerbrokers/EXCLUSIVE+EXCERPT%3A+%27Hollywood+on+the+Potomac%27%3A+Personalities%2C+Politics+and+Powerbrokers2009-09-14+15%3A35%3A58Jason+Killian+Meath

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: ‘Hollywood on the Potomac’: Actors to Activists

So many big name stars, singers and sports legends have visited Washington over the years, the city is often referred to as “Hollywood on the Potomac.”  So, that’s the title of my new book (available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders) featuring over 200 photographs and stories that detail the fascination between Hollywood stars and Washington power-players — from Presidents Truman through Obama. 

Here’s an excerpt: (more…)

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Tags: "Hollywood on the Potomac", Bing Crosby, Bob Dylan, Bono, Brigitte Nielsen
Posted Aug 27th 2009 at 1:14 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 21247813 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmeath/2009/08/27/hollywood-on-the-potomac/EXCLUSIVE+EXCERPT%3A+%27Hollywood+on+the+Potomac%27%3A+Actors+to+Activists2009-08-27+20%3A14%3A57Jason+Killian+Meath

The Straight Poop On Radical Islam

I suspect that because George Bush and Condoleezza Rice were so respectful of Muslims, constantly telling us that theirs is a religion of peace, some otherwise sensible Americans actually began to believe it.  Now we have a president who not only kowtows to a Saudi prince, but carries on as if Israeli homes are more threatening than Iranian nukes.

What is wrong with our leaders?  Are they worried that they won’t be invited to those cool Ramadan parties?  The Islamists have been actively at war with us for 30 years and generally at war with western civilization for well over a thousand years, and still we pay lip service to these people in a way we never did with Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan or the Soviet Union.  Is it because the Muslims commit sadism and murder in the name of religion and not country?  If anything, I would think that would make their evil acts all the more contemptible. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Africa, al qaeda, Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank
Posted Aug 13th 2009 at 8:52 am in Politics, Religion | 204482108 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/08/13/the-straight-poop-in-radical-islam/The+Straight+Poop+On+Radical+Islam+2009-08-13+15%3A52%3A13Burt+Prelutsky

Bono’s Classless Act – Endorsed by ‘The Won’

I’ll admit up front: I’ve never been a U2 fan. I never really understood the appeal of their self-righteous brand of music, and frontman Bono, with his made-up solo moniker (real name Paul David Hewson) and ever-present see-through wraparound sunglasses, simply irritates me.

Yet I was willing to give him some credit for working with former President Bush on a cause they both believed in – AIDS and poverty in Africa – even though he disagreed with Bush’s stance on Iraq. I honestly don’t think throwing all the money in the world at Africa will change anything there unless the tin pot dictators on that continent are all tossed out on their hineys – and I believe fellow rock star philanthropist Bob Geldof said something similar - but that’s beside the point. I might think even more of Bono if he were to give all of his own massive fortune to the needy in Africa before he lectures the rest of us about our “responsibility,” but I doubt even his philanthropic tendencies go that far. If he did, how could he afford to do things that only rich folks can do, like have his favorite hat flown from the UK to Italy because he forgot it? 

But cool rock stars have their limits. Apparently the B Man reached his when Bush tried to give him a hug at a prayer breakfast a couple of years ago. Adroitly dodging the president by scooting behind the podium, he shook his hand instead. Apparently Bush was good for soaking for taxpayer money for Bono’s cause, but that didn’t merit a hug.

Surprisingly, the media failed to pick up on that little maneuver until this week, when Bono admitted to the dodge in a BBC interview. Why mention it now? Apparently he felt bad about it, but since no one noticed it, why point it out publicly and humiliate someone who is no longer in the public eye? He could have just written Bush a private note saying “sorry, dude.” But I’m a little more cynical – I’m thinking he knew about the buzz of publicity that would accompany his little admission. See, with Bush out of office and criticizing Obama being verboten in the media, even new evidence of old Bush-bashing would immediately be picked up on and go viral. When a world tour is looming, any publicity will work in a pinch. (more…)

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Tags: Africa, AIDS, Barack Obama, BBC, Bono
Posted Jul 22nd 2009 at 1:51 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 189518180 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pmeister/2009/07/22/bonos-classless-act-endorsed-by-the-won/Bono%27s+Classless+Act+-+Endorsed+by+%27The+Won%272009-07-22+20%3A51%3A31Pam+Meister

Bono Discovers Sustainable Development Isn’t Sustainable

THE BIG problem with renewable energy is that it just doesn’t renew itself. The sun does not shine enough and the wind doesn’t blow enough to power the towns, cities, factories, hospitals and schools that make our lives so livable.

No environmentalist would ever allow their child to be treated in a hospital fully powered by “renewables”. They would not take the risk that the wind might stop whilst their baby was on the operating table. They would insist that the hospital and the life support systems had a fossil fuel powered back-up.

And so it is with “sustainable development”. It just isn’t sustainable. At least it does not sustain a lifestyle that those who promote it would consider acceptable for themselves. But of course that is the key. Renewable energy and sustainable development are for “other people”.

Even though environmentalists come from societies and very often families that became rich because of their use of non-renewable energy and unsustainable development they will not allow these opportunities to be extended to the poor in the developing world. (more…)

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Tags: Bono, capitalism, clooney, Edun, fashion
Posted May 20th 2009 at 5:03 am in Celebrity News, Politics | 1379429 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/amcelhinney/2009/05/20/bono-discovers-sustainable-development-isnt-sustainable/Bono+Discovers+Sustainable+Development+Isn%27t+Sustainable2009-05-20+12%3A03%3A19Phelim+McAleer+%26%2338%3B+Ann+McElhinney%E2%80%8F

Art 101: Hey Sean Penn, Who Wrote This?

Here’s a hint:

Sean Penn and Bono were friends/admirers of this poet and I wonder if they are aware of this very pertinent and timeless poem which reflects today’s “progressive” hypocritical agenda.

I will reveal the rest of the poem and the artist this weekend, a poet I had the great fortune of having met as a very young man in high school at the studio of an artist and friend.

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Tags: Alvaro Alvillar, Art, Bono, Hypocrisy, progressive
Posted Apr 14th 2009 at 8:03 am in Entertainment, Politics | 104998No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aalvillar/2009/04/14/art-101-hey-sean-penn-who-wrote-this/Art+101%3A+Hey+Sean+Penn%2C+Who+Wrote+This%3F2009-04-14+15%3A03%3A33Alvaro+Alvillar

U2 & Me

I anticipated the new U2 album, “No Line on the Horizon,” with something approaching dread – the kind of dread only a longtime fan can muster.  

I stuck with U2 virtually my whole life – from their sophomore album October (the first record I ever bought with my own money), through the ambient experiments of “The Unforgettable Fire,” to their earthy and earnest “Joshua Tree” phase, all the way through the avant-garde “Zooropa” wackiness.  God help me, I even loved “Pop.”

Through it all, it had been easy for me to tune out the political pontificating for which the band was known, drowned out as at was by so much wonderful music.  But by the time of 2004’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” that ratio had begun to shift.  The band’s musical output declined in both quantity and consistency, while at the same time Bono’s political activism went into overdrive.   (more…)

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Tags: "Can Bono Save The World", Bono, No Line on The Horizon, Time magazine, U2
Posted Mar 18th 2009 at 3:47 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Political Humor, Reviews | 8133463 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/03/18/u2-and-me-matt-patterson/U2+%26amp%3B+Me+2009-03-18+22%3A47%3A14Matt+Patterson

Lonewolf Diaries: Celebrities Love AIDS and Breasts…Hate The Prostate

Cancer is no laughing matter. AIDS on the other hand, can be hilarious…. But I digress.  A friend of mine went in for a prostate cancer operation this weekend. The whole ordeal lead me to a painful realization: If you get a disease, you’d better hope that it’s one with a celebrity “march for the cure.” Chances are that if Bono isn’t singing about it, you’re probably dying from it. Is anybody else as sickened by this as I am?

AIDS is still the most funded disease around (by the American taxpayer) despite its insignificance on the fatality radar and the fact that in the industrialized world it’s entirely preventable. AIDS doesn’t just “happen” to you here in the U.S.A.  You sort of have to seek out those high risk…activities.  While countless people die of other more prevalent, non-communicable sicknesses, Hollywood has made AIDS benefits trendier than torn Levi’s. (more…)

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Tags: AIDS, Bono, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Diabetes
Posted Mar 10th 2009 at 5:10 pm in Featured Story, Lone Wolf Diaries, Politics | 76690122 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/scrowder/2009/03/10/lonewolf-diaries-celebrities-love-aids-and-breastshate-the-prostate/Lonewolf+Diaries%3A+Celebrities+Love+AIDS+and+Breasts...Hate+The+Prostate2009-03-11+00%3A10%3A44Steven+Crowder

Politics Plays Hell With Your Poetry

“This class struggle plays hell with your poetry,” John Reed, celebrated in Warren Beatty’s Reds, confessed to friends after jumping from the lighthearted literary Left of Greenwich Village into the world of hardcore Communists. Bono may be thinking the same thing about saving the world. U2’s much-hyped No Line on the Horizon, the band’s first album in nearly five years, might be interpreted by celebrities as a cautionary tale against mixing activism with their art. As I write in my American Spectator review of No Line on the Horizon, the album represents the transformation of U2 from relevant it band to greatest hits act. It is uninspired, leaving diehard fans to wonder if meetings with popes, presidents, and queens, fundraising for debt relief, human rights activists, and AIDS, and writing columns for The New York Times makes U2 an afterthought for Bono.

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Tags: AIDS, American Spectator, Bono, Communists, Greenwich Village
Posted Mar 4th 2009 at 1:03 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Reviews | 7239033 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dflynn/2009/03/04/politics-plays-hell-with-your-poetry/Politics+Plays+Hell+With+Your+Poetry2009-03-04+21%3A03%3A56Daniel+J.+Flynn

I Pledge to Ridicule Celebrities Who Refuse to Recognize We Are At War With People Who Want to Kill Them, Too

Many of the celebrities that were central to demonizing and making life impossible for President Bush for eight loathsome years NOW want to help with the heavy lifting of bringing America back together under President Barack Obama.

Witness Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s cavalcade of shiny, happy situational patriots appearing in a derivative public servitude announcement: A “Presidential Pledge” to President Barack Obama.

Forgive and forget? Right.

(more…)

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Tags: "Oceans" franchise, 9/11, Afghanistan, AIDS, Anthony Kiedis
Posted Jan 19th 2009 at 2:42 pm in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Video | 24317382 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/01/19/where-were-you-celebrities-after-911/I+Pledge+to+Ridicule+Celebrities+Who+Refuse+to+Recognize+We+Are+At+War+With+People+Who+Want+to+Kill+Them%2C+Too2009-01-19+22%3A42%3A40Andrew+Breitbart