Well...the most pathetic U2 thing I ever did was almost trash my (still) favorite album, UF, in spectacular fashion.
Hell hath no fury like a teen who thinks her favorite band has sold out, which is what I thought had happened after War. (I was 14 at the time.) After the pounding drums and brilliant political couplets of that album, here was this S***--washed-out keyboards and not being able to tell what the f*** the song was about. (I am quoting my less-than Christian reaction at the time
) Our house had a fireplace, so I thought that the proper way to dispose of an album with such a title was to burn it, cover art and all.
We3ll, fortunately God sought fit to remind me that dropping a cassette into a fieplace was not so great an idea, safety wise. And later on, I relistened to it, it grew on me, and then I saw Live Aid, which made me a fan for life, after I'd been a fan for 4 yrs already.
Most pathetic? Hm. I have a long list. One recent entry was on the afternoon of October 8, 2005, at Madison Sq Garden, around , if any of you were there you'll recall how rotten the weather was that weekend. Couldn't spoil the vibe though! A crowd of people stood out in back waiting for them, and it was freezing cold, very windy and absolutely monsooning rain, and finally Bono's car stopped and he rolled down the window, and I shouted right at him, spreading my arms to indicate the crowd, "Yes, Bono, I know, we're all nuts!" He grinned, but I couldn't hear his reply, it was pouring too hard. I didn't care. It was my last Vertigo show on the 7th and I had to catch a train back to Albany in half an hr. My umbrella gave up the ghost and I was soaked to the skin. I then sat for 3 hrs on the train home in this condition, huddled in a fetal ball and hoping I wouldn't get pneumonia. Up north, it was even colder, it felt like snow and I wasn't dressed for that. Did I give a darn? No! What a way to end the tour
Pathetic things would include yearly birthday "celbrations" for the band memebers, esp Edge. I'd buy a brownie sheet cake and cut off aolittle and stick candles in it and do a Happy Birthday prayer etc. I know, but hey, when the band are like family....
Let's see: Not having a car and the bus broke down the day JT came out, so I walked almost 2 miles to the record store to buy it, and 2 back, (being too broke otherwise for a cab.) Almost gettng killed on the way back crossing an intersection b/c I was hearing "One Tree Hill" for the first time and belting out, "OH, GREAT OCEAN, OH GREAT SEA, RUN TOOOO THE OCEAN..." totally oblivious to the world
Speaking of JT, one of my findest memories from that yr was reading a fanzine article written by a high school boy who admitted (or rather strongly hinted) that he lost his virginity while listening to JT. He brought the album over to his girlfriend's house on his bike....to this day I've wondered, "What song?"
Snapshot, 1983: Thanksgiving Day, me washing the dishes after the dinner, the house full of relatives, and me going "BROKEN BODIES UNDER CHILDRENS' FEET", etc etc, at the top of my lungs, and mt poor Mom (RIP), taking me aside after many long-suffering months and asking me WHAT am I listening to.
I could mention a pathetic dream I had in March of 1992, after going to my first ZooTV show, that very night after the show, that involved (among other things) being taken backstage and a drunken Edge sobbing after losing his ski cap and an equally tipsy Bono covering his bald head with a peice of pizza, (cheese down of course) but I'd better not
(I kid you not, this is true)
PS can't find my post from yesterday...can anyone help me with the Ellen Degeneres footage and the CNN pizza interview on DVD? I h ave to check my email...(It HAS to vew a video or DVD b/c I don't h ave my own PIC and can;t just pop it up whenever I want)....
PPS. A footnote to the post yesterday. I mentioned that I had ran into a friend who said she just happened to have a friend who was a Christian Youth Minsiter and had taped the Prayer Breakfast. She is getting me copy. We talk about the Grammys and she just HAPPENS tio mention that not only is she a liongtime fan, but she just *happened* to meet Bono not at a show, but "some event..I forgot what) many yrs ago and he actually *picked her up and walked across the room with her in his arms*. I believe her b/c she said her hubby had this on film and she offered to bring the pics in to show me. I said to her, "Can you get me an NRA membership so I can shoot you right now???"
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(Incidentally, my friend Erin agreed that it smells absolutely delicious, although our two male friends who were there with us disagreed. "It smells like aftershave, what's so special about that?" Erin & I just laughed and decided it wasn't worth trying to explain to them why the "masculine" scent was appealing to us.)
