YouTwo.net: March 20, 2002 (long)

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New Stories:

LA Music Scene: EXIT - LA Artist / U2 Cover Band! (3-20-2002)
Independent: Bono gives Bush Book of Psalms and Earache (3-20-2002)
NY Times Magazine: Mullet mania (3-20-2002)
CBS News: U2, Mr. President? (3-20-2002)
U2.com: U2 Recording, Possible Release 2002 (3-20-2002)
U2Swisshome: Best Of 1990-2000 Release Info (3-20-2002)
Consortiumnews.com: Part 2 - Bush's Bono Act (3-20-2002)
Consortiumnews.com: Part 1 - Bush's Bono Act (3-20-2002)
Billboard: The Healing Power Of Music (3-20-2002)
ShowBiz Ireland: Bono looses face with friends (3-20-2002)
Guitar.com: The Edge #48 on Top 100 Players of all time (3-20-2002)
YouTwo.net: SAG looking for Bono stand-ins (3-20-2002)
Houston Chronicle: 'NSync use stage similar to U2's (3-20-2002)
Telegraph: Client list of spa includes members of U2 (3-20-2002)
Launch: Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder Bows Down To The Ramones (3-20-2002)
AP: Bush administration comes under fire at UN poverty summit (3-20-2002)
Chicago Sun-Times: Bono knows publicity (Letter to the Editor) (3-20-2002)
Irish Independent: Neighbours dispute over playing of Queen, Verve and U2
(3-20-2002)
AP: Battle Rages Over Debt Relief (3-19-2002)
Guardian: US aid pledge is a sop in the right direction (3-19-2002)
Shift.com: Why It Sucks to Be Cool (3-19-2002)
Sun: George Michael on U2 and Oasis (3-19-2002)
Rolling Stone: Love Sounds Off (3-19-2002)
Launch: Courtney Love Promises An Artists' Union In SXSW Address (3-19-2002)
Time: Wasn't A Time Cover Enough? (3-19-2002)
Newcastle Herald: Bono Discovers Leaders' Shady Side (3-19-2002)
Daily Record: Best To Be a Pest (3-19-2002)
Christian Science Monitor: Bono-fied increase in foreign aid, with strings
(3-19-2002)
Ananova: Bono 'would have lunch with Satan' (3-19-2002)
Daily Record: U2 Can Save the Planet (3-19-2002)
Toronto Star: St. Pats float uses U2 music (3-19-2002)
Montreal Gazette: Bono impersonator part of Montreal St. Pats parade (3-19-2002)
Hoovers: US proposed $5 billion increase in foreign aid (3-19-2002)
Allstar: Courtney Love talks about U2 (3-19-2002)
MuchMusic: Bono Meets Bush (3-18-2002)
Hollywood Reporter: 'Gangs of New York' Release Delayed (3-18-2002)
MTV UK: When Bono Met Bush (3-18-2002)
MRIB: Washington Nicknames Bono 'The Pest' (3-18-2002)
Time: Readers respond to Bono cover story (3-18-2002)
Boston Globe: AIDS overwhelms Africa, says Sachs (3-18-2002)
Christian Century: Bono: 'Juxtapositioning' for the World's Poor (3-18-2002)
Dallas News: Too much Love (3-18-2002)
Dotmusic: Bono Meets Bush (3-18-2002)
OCRegister: Royce meets with Bono (3-18-2002)
San Francisco Chronicle: Bono on getting older (3-18-2002)
Newsday: A Whole Lotta Love Visits Austin (3-18-2002)
Guardian: America's shame: Foreign aid should be a US priority (3-18-2002)
Irish Mirror: Bono's on a Mission (3-18-2002)
Irish People: Bono Tells Drummer Why U2 Must Always Come Second to Global Aid
(3-18-2002)
The Globalist: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (3-18-2002)
Boston Globe: U2 mention in Irish cities article (3-18-2002)
Denver Post: Big contributions from a tiny island (3-18-2002)
Guardian: Part 2 - Pro Bono (3-18-2002)
Guardian: Part 1 - Pro Bono (3-18-2002)
Boston Herald: U2 mention in The Saw Doctors review (3-17-2002)
Observer: Grogans Bar description (3-17-2002)
Irish Independent: U2 mention in Stone Roses article (3-17-2002)
Plain Dealer: U2 mention in Talking Heads article (3-17-2002)
Jakarta Post: U2 mention in Five For Fighting review (3-17-2002)
Glasgow Herald: Raise a Guinness to the cream of Irish talent (3-17-2002)
NBC News Transcripts: Corrs are interviewed and perform on 'Today' (3-17-2002)
Tucson Citizen: U2 may contribute to Ramones tribute album (3-17-2002)
Times Online: Bush salutes Irish in Chicago parade (3-17-2002)
Daily Mirror: Bono's Friends (3-17-2002)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LA Music Scene: EXIT - LA Artist / U2 Cover Band! (3-20-2002)
From LA Music Scene:

EXIT - LA Artist / U2 Cover Band!
By Simone Schramm

U2, uh, I mean EXIT certainly had a phenomenal time in 2001. Yes EXIT, the
all-girl
U2 tribute band, a band that certainly has made a name for itself in the
southland as
well as abroad as they were the only U2 tribute band featured on U2.com, the
official
U2 website. And it looks like 2002 could be even better as the band heads in a
new
direction as they work on original material. In fact, the band surprised their
enthusiastic
audience by playing three new songs on March 8 at Rusty's Surf Ranch in Santa
Monica. But before we delve into the new material, a brief history is in order.

EXIT, named after a song off of U2's "The Joshua Tree" album, began somewhere
around 1999, a few years after guitarist Courtney Lavender (a.k.a. Captive) and
bassist
Susan Hamilton (a.k.a. Affa Clayton) broke away from a small acoustic band
called I
You Was in 1997. Later that year Captive met Pam Blue (a.k.a. Dim) in high
school.
"I turned her on to U2 and she fell in love with the drums," said Captive.
Around that
time Affa became fascinated with the bass and bought one. "As they learned their
instruments, I bought an electric guitar and waited patiently."

Now there was one more missing link, the lead singer. That's where new media
definitely came in handy. In May of 1999, Captive posted a message to the U2
Wire
mailing list asking for singers in the Los Angeles area. Nicole Poynter (call
her Nikki)
was the only one that replied and the rest is history. They immediately knew she
was
perfect. She definitely had that exuberant energy needed to front a rock band.
"Courtney
had been wanting to start a band, a music group, a heavenly thought to all of
us, only
felt right," said Dim. "Except we were missing the fourth candle to our fourth
corner,
Nikki! Call it fate or call it the internet, our search was over! I believe in
fate."

The idea of ultimately becoming a U2 cover band didn't really dawn on them, it
just
happened. Hey, they are major fans so it's only natural that they would cover U2
stuff.
"The only thing the four of us could play (and barely) was U2, and even that was
slow
moving. It took us a long time to get it together, and in the mean time, we just
worked
on U2, it just happened that way," said Captive.

Last year some pretty amazing things happened to these young and energetic girls
from Southern California. This little band started the year off playing a coffee
house in
Simi Valley and went on to play clubs like The Hard Rock Cafe in City Walk,
Beverly
Center, and Newport Beach, and the West End in Santa Monica for a Red Cross
benefit
for the victims of Sept. 11. Each time they performed, the crowds just got
bigger. They
went to Ireland in August to see U2 play at Slane Castle in Dublin, at a U2 show
in
November Captive was pulled on stage by Bono and The Edge to play guitar on an
impromptu rendition of "People Get Ready." After the show, Jed The Fish from
KROQ
interviewed them about the incident and what their plans for the future are.

Although the band nearly exudes the same type of youthful energy as U2 with
Nikki's
lively antics and beautiful voice, Captive's driving guitar, Dim's pounding
drumbeats
and Affa's quiet but subtle bass licks, unlike other U2 tribute bands, EXIT
doesn't try to
sound exactly like them; and they don't want to. For that very reason, EXIT will
definitely
grow as a band in its own right. Being a U2 cover band is just the beginning for
them.
It will help them develop their own identity. On March 8 the band proved it by
playing
three original songs, "Sorta Joyful," "Jukebox Song," and "Finish Line." These
songs
somewhat echo the exuberance of early U2 (a la "Stories For Boys" and "I Will
Follow")
but reveal their desire to branch out. Though not perfect yet, these songs are
fun and
definitely show the band's potential for writing and performing more great songs
in the
future.

Finding your own musical style is work and these four girls prove that it's
definitely
worth the challenge. As with what happens to most influential artists, the music
ends
up taking on a life of its own. "The direction of the music isn't really up to
us, it is up to
the music," said Affa. "It will direct us...if that sounds weird...I don't know
how to explain."

"You can only go so far as a cover band. And if we're really influenced and
touched by
this music like we say... then it only seems natural to get out there and do our
own
thing eventually. Just like they (U2) did," said Nikki. This story is to be
continued.... In
the meantime, check out the official EXIT website at www.u2lafans.com for
upcoming
information about the band.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Independent: Bono gives Bush Book of Psalms and Earache (3-20-2002)
From The Independent:

Mar 19, 2002

Pandora
Edited by Sholto Byrnes

Bono, the rock singer turned political campaigner turned latter day saint,
continues
his unchecked ascent. When the singer visited George W Bush last week to lobby
government officials about Aids, he not only quoted extensively from the
scriptures,
but presented the President with a new edition of the Psalms, with an
introduction
by Bono. Asked it he'd left any other presents for the leader of the free world,
the
U2 boss replied: "I also gave him an earache."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NY Times Magazine: Mullet mania (3-20-2002)
From The New York Times Magazine:

Spring 2002

Mullet mania
Joyce Chang

"I worship the mullet," declares Matt Smith, an avid mullet hunter from
Hiawassee, Ga., and
cast member on MTV's "Real World New Orleans." "I think it gets in tune with our
primitive
roots. When I think of mullets, I think of early-- 80's Firebirds, fistfights
and spit. I think of
mustaches - they always go well with mullets. And netted baseball caps. He adds,
"I think
of the WWF when it was real."

Smith is a self-described member of the American mullitia - a subset of
teenagers and 20-
something eccentrics who share a passion for mullets. Also known as the ape
drape, the
neck warmer, and the 10/90, the mullet is a split-level haircut: short on top,
tight on the sides
and long in the back. Or, as the mullitia would put it, "business in the front,
party in the back."

The mullet may be as American as rock'n' roll and loving your mama, but
mullitude goes far
deeper than maternal love. For MTV, Smith produced a cable-- access show called
"The
Mullet Hunter" (a sendup of Animal Planet's The Crocodile Hunter"), in which he
tracked
mullet wearers as if they were rare and dangerous creatures. Thousands of others
post the
findings of their mullet hunts on dozens of Web sites dedicated to the
exhibition and
discussion of mullets. On www.mulletjoe.com, campus agents lead hunts across
America,
Britain and Australia.

Part of the hunt is categorizing mullets by provenance, age and distinctive
markings: Hockey
Hair, from the North; the Kentucky Waterfall, from the Bluegrass State; the
Midwest Metal;
the Fading Glory, for the receding variety; the Puffy-- Combed Wagtail. For the
hunters,
contact with the mullet is an exhilarating exercise in ridicule. The mullet is
something wild in
their Abercrombie lives.

The archetypal mullet-wearer is a good ol' boy who "don't need nothin' but a
good time," as
sung by the hair band Poison (although its members did not have mullets). But
the mullet in
fact crosses racial, socioeconomic and geographic lines. According to Mark
Larson and
Barney Hoskyns, authors of "The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods," the mullet's
popularity stems
from its appeal to every niche of the culture. It addresses conservatism and
edginess
simultaneously.

"What is fascinating about the mullet," says Ted Lundberg, an Ivy League
graduate from
Guilford, Conn., who works in finance, "is that it's real! Growing up in
Guilford, we all had them.
In '87, we were kids, running around and playing sports. Those were the best
days of our lives.
And the mullet was a part of it."

For River Lloyd, a hairstylist at John Frieda who once suggested a mullet to
Kevin Kline (he
declined and never returned), the mullet reflects a different reality. "I cut
mine off when I went
home because it was too real," says Lloyd, for whom home is southern Virginia.
"I associated
it with a genre of people I didn't like, who held ideas I didn't like, an
ignorance."

Jennifer Arnold, a filmmaker, went on a mullet odyssey to shoot "American
Mullet," which will
be released later this year. She interviewed lesbians, country-- western music
fans, Mexican
day laborers and American Indians to give mullet wearers a voice. "It's no
longer acceptable
to make fun of somebody's class status or sexual identity," one of her subjects
explains. So
the mullet has become a scapegoat of political correctness. Yet the mullet is
not a modern
construction. It may have originated, according to Dr. Castle McLaughlin, an
anthropologist
at Harvard University, in Native American culture.

For American Indians, a person's spirit was encapsulated in their hair. Some
Indian chiefs
had hair that swept the ground, because hair was a sign of potency. The mullet
seemed to
serve both function and pride: short on top to stay out of the eyes, and long in
the back to
project strength. Expert horsemen and buffalo hunters, stylish Blackfoot and
Crow men
sported a pompadour in the front and long locks in the back.

Colonists and frontiersmen soon appropriated the look. Even the stylized,
powdered wigs
of the founding fathers - George Washington and Benjamin Franklin among them -
have a
mulletlike shape. Certainly, Hollywood perceives the mullet as the hairstyle for
the colonial
man of action. Look at Daniel Day-- Lewis in "Last of the Mohicans."

The mullet receded in popularity in the mannered epochs that followed the
American
Revolution, lost in romantic Victorian mops and the slick George Raft look of
the 1930's.
After Elvis and the Beatles, rock 'n' roll tried more than a few hairstyles
before getting to
the mullet. By the 70's, REO Speedwagon, Journey and Van Halen were all bilevel
bands.
Across the Atlantic, another strain of mullet evolved: from David Bowie's Ziggy
Stardust to
Bono to Kajagoogoo's Limahl. Meanwhile, the femullet also emerged. Chrissie
Hynde and
Joan Jett proved that rock 'n' roll was not just a boys' club. Their hair could
be as bad as
any man's.

The rock 'n' roll mullet was the breaking point. As hard core dulled to soft
rock, so did the
mullet, fluffed and hairsprayed to prom-queen proportions.

And as the public wearied of Lionel Richie and Richard Marx, their exaggerated
hair became
a parody of what was once edgy. The Beastie Boys targeted the haircut in their
rap "Mullet
Head," a term that the Oxford English Dictionary defines as a "stupid person."
The Beastie
Boys defined it as "Joey Buttafuoco."

Now, with the return of the 80's, the mullet has risen again. Hunted and
disdained, relegated
to the back country of motocross, monster-truck pulls and Billy Ray Cyrus's
head, the mullet
has reemerged as a darling of downtown.

"When you find something that works, you go beyond fashion," says the designer
Jeremy Scott,
an eight-year mullet veteran. "It's like Linda Evans's mushroom that she's had
for 30 years," he
says. Scott's mullet, though, has seen many stages. He has dyed it, added
extensions, cut
lines and tiered the sides. Currently, he wears it poufy with a headband. His
artistic approach
is part of a new wave of ironic urban mullets. Yet having grown up in Kansas
City, Mo., where
provincial mullets abound, his cut is grounded in reality.

"I can accept my white-trash heritage and have fun with it," he says. 'I didn't
take it to be ironic,
but I realize the irony."

As part of the culture, the mullet constantly evolves. Its influence continues
in the "faux-hawk,"
the love child of the mullet and the mohawk - favored by Ewan McGregor and Hedi
Slimane.

There may be an ugliness to the mullet, yet there is also courage in its refusal
to die. It's an
American success story of a small-town hero made good in the big city. And
although it may
never truly arrive, you'll always look twice when it walks in the door.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CBS News: U2, Mr. President? (3-20-2002)
From CBS News:

U2, Mr. President?

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2002

(CBS) Strange bedfellows make great stories. In his latest Against the Grain
commentary,
CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer tells one about the President, the Rocker, and the
foreign
aid plan

If you believe the press (and why wouldn't you?), the most influential outsider
in George
Bush's Washington is not an Armani-clad, K Street lobbyist. It's not a
publicity-shy, Texas-
rich FOG, Friend of George. It's not some establishment Wise Man retained by the
41 to
watch over 43. It's not a columnist, a consultant or a concubine.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Bono.

Seriously. Bono, the U2 star with no surname.

Bono has taken celebrity crusading to a higher plane of success and
effectiveness. His
"cause" is aid for poor countries, especially Africa, and for fighting AIDS in
those countries.
But I don't mean "cause" in the dilettante, Beverly Hills fundraiser sense of
the word. By
all accounts, Bono has orchestrated a shrewd, serious, and sustained campaign to
convince the Administration to increase U.S. foreign aid.

It came together on a Thursday in March, one week before the president was
scheduled to
go to a big United Nations conference on global poverty in Monterrey, Mexico.

Bono had a meeting with the president, in the Oval Office no less, and then
accompanied
him to a speech. In that speech, Mr. Bush proposed to increase foreign aid
spending by
$5 billion over the next three years.

The announcement astonished the international aid crowd. And it meant that Mr.
Bush
could go to Monterrey and not get too badly heckled and harangued, as was
anticipated.

The snapshots from Bono's long national tour are wonderful.

He worked Capitol Hill first. The Dems were easy, always suckers for celebrity
photo-ops.
He warmed up the less rock 'n roll side of the aisle after getting audiences
with the Pope
and Billy Graham.

Daringly, Bono then went for the ultimate convert -- Jesse Helms, a notorious
foreign aid
Scrooge and Mr. Hard Right. And it worked.

In June, Jesse Helms, age 80, grabbed his cane and went to a U2 concert in
Washington.
Really.

"People were moving back and forth like corn in the breeze," said newly gentle
Jesse.
Helms said Bono changed his mind about anti-AIDS funding and debt relief for
poor
countries. "You can see the halo over his head," Helms said.

Then Bono began to crack the administration itself. Colin Powell and Condoleeza
Rice fell
first. But Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, another unabashed international aid
skeptic,
refused to see Bono. "I thought he was some pop star who wanted to use me," he
said.
But he relented.

Their meetings went so well that the unlikely duo will tour Africa together in
May. Really.

All the while, Bono and U2, after 22 years, are on a remarkable roll. Their
concerts became
informal homage to 9/11. They starred at the Super Bowl. They cleaned up at the
Grammy
Awards.

Bono rolled right into the Oval Office. But these things don't happen without a
lot of
calculation and choreography by White House thought-and-action police. A private
meeting with POTUS and a tag-a-long to a major and controversial policy
announcement
are certified Big Deals.

Logic would seem to dictate one of two conclusions: Either Bono played a
substantial role
in influencing the Administration's change of course on foreign aid, or the
Administration
was going to do it anyway and was just using Bono as a prop.

There is a third theory floating around town. It's that Republicans suffer from
Celebrity Envy.
The Democrats usually get the pick of coolest stars from leftie Hollywood and
the music
world. Republicans have been stuck with jocks, astronauts and Arnold. On this
game
board, Bono is a humongous coup. It's giant step for Republican hipness, which
has
been an oxymoron.

The policy implications of the coolization of the Republican Party are earth
shattering. If, for
example, Julia, Tom, J Lo, Oprah, Madonna, Brad and Jennifer made a concerted,
Bonoesque run at the GOP, I believe the two parties would merge within a few
years. The
remaining uber-party would then merge with Disney/AOL Time Warner/Viacom, and
then
Microsoft and then American life would be simplified immensely.

Anyway, back on the Planet Earth, we probably owe Bono a big thank you. The
United
States is still one of the least generous rich countries with its foreign aid
money. But
leading an assault on global terrorism has changed perspectives on global
poverty.

"Poverty doesn't cause terrorism," the President said in his aid speech. "Yet
persistent
poverty and oppression can lead to hopelessness and despair? And when
governments
fail to meet these basic needs of their people, these failed sates can become
havens for
terror."

U2, Mr. President? Welcome aboard.

Dick Meyer, a veteran political and investigative producer for CBS News, is
Editorial
Director of CBSNews.com based in Washington.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U2.com: U2 Recording, Possible Release 2002 (3-20-2002)
From U2.com:

U2 Recording, Possible Release 2002

U2's manager Paul McGuinness issued a short statement today,
revealing that the band are in the studio and working on new
material.

"U2 would like to clarify that, contrary to certain speculation in
the press, they will be neither touring Europe this summer, nor
splitting up," said the statement. "Instead, they are spending time
in the studio working on new material for a possible release
later this year."

That's all for now, more as we get it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U2Swisshome: Best Of 1990-2000 Release Info (3-20-2002)
From U2Swisshome:

Universal Switzerland reports the following information:

-U2 "Best Of 1990-2000" will be released in autumn 2002.
-There will be a new U2 single before the album release.
-There will be a second new U2 single in early 2003.
-The "Best Of 1990-2000" will be released as a limited edition double CD set,
as well as a standard 1-CD edition. Tracklistings are not known.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Consortiumnews.com: Part 2 - Bush's Bono Act (3-20-2002)
Yet, the Bush administration has shown little interest in the correlation
between political
repression and militant extremism. Many human rights advocates argue that the
repression
inflicted by some U.S. allies does more to fuel extremism, rather than contain
it.

This is particularly true in some of the Central Asian states, where religious
Muslims are fully
disenfranchised, imprisoned for wearing long beards and tortured. In countries
like Uzbekistan,
where legitimate political activity is not tolerated by the state, political
groups are forced to go
underground. They see violence as the only way to challenge the government.

The United States officially recognizes that serious human rights problems exist
in Uzbekistan
and other U.S. allies in the "war on terrorism." In the State Department's new
annual report on
human rights, the U.S. detailed major human rights abuses in many of the
countries that are
now slated for increased military aid. The State Department also recognized that
the repression
in these countries sometimes leads to further extremism.

Regarding Uzbekistan, the U.S. criticized it as "an authoritarian state with
limited civil rights"
where "citizens cannot exercise the right to change their government peacefully"
and "the
government does not permit the existence of opposition parties." The State
Department also
conceded "security forces committed a number of killings of prisoners in
custody."

Human Rights Letter

In a recent letter to Bush, Human Rights Watch said, "In terms of human rights,
Uzbekistan is
barely distinguishable from its Soviet past, and [Uzbek] President [Islam]
Karimov has shown
himself to be an unreconstructed Soviet leader. You have to wonder whether this
kind of
record makes for a trusted ally or a foreign policy burden."

Human rights groups praised the State Department's candor in its annual report,
but argued
that the document is not a substitute for a comprehensive foreign policy.
Amnesty International
said it "does not believe that the U.S. acts on a fraction of the serious
violations of fundamental
rights that this report documents in detail."

Secretary of State Colin Powell responded that the U.S. "will not relax our
commitment to
advancing the cause of democracy, for a world in which men and women of every
continent,
culture and creed, of every race, religion and region, can exercise their
fundamental freedoms
in a world in which terrorism cannot thrive."

But Amnesty International pointed to recent history in arguing that dialogue
with human rights
abusers does not necessarily lead to improvements in the human rights situation.
For instance,
in Saudi Arabia, a longtime U.S. ally, there is still a lack of democracy amid
arbitrary arrests
and detentions, with allegations of torture committed by security forces.

Indonesia is another example of the U.S. failing to produce any improvement in
the human
rights record of a government. While Indonesia has received substantial military
aid from the
U.S. for decades, the State Department concedes that extra-judicial executions,
torture and
arbitrary detention continue, while the military has nearly total impunity in
its actions. Human
Rights Watch argues that increasing aid to Indonesia, as the U.S. is proposing,
would
"effectively reward the security forces for bad behavior."

Israel is further evidence that U.S. military aid does not go hand in hand with
respect for human
rights. Although Israel has long been the No. 1 recipient of American military
assistance in the
world, the State Department admits that "Israel's overall human-rights record in
the occupied
territories was poor." Israel continues to receive massive military aid, despite
the fact that, "Israeli
security forces committed numerous, serious human-rights abuses during the
year."

More Repression?

In Bush's war on terrorism, human rights groups worry that more U.S. aid will
lead to more
government repression, which may, in turn, lead to more extremism on the part of
the persecuted.

The authoritative NGO International Crisis Group pointed to this more complex
reality in a recent
briefing paper on the Central Asian Islamic extremist groups Hizb-ut Tahrir and
the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which are considered key threats to security in
Central Asia.

The IMU suffered heavy losses during the American war in Afghanistan, including
-- most likely --
its leader being killed. But the two groups still have considerable sympathy
among the
disenfranchised Muslims of the region. Hizb-ut Tahrir, in particular, is
expected to draw more
recruits, though the group is operating with more secrecy in the post-Sept. 11
climate. The
International Crisis Group expects support for the fundamentalist group to grow
if dissatisfaction
with the present political and economic order increases.

The crisis group maintains that much of the support for Hizb-ut Tahrir has more
to do with the
widely held disappointments of the post-Soviet era, regarding economic and
political
development, than with deeply held beliefs in radical Islamic ideology. "Given
the lack of
avenues for legitimate civic expression or securing political change through
democratic means,"
the group writes, "it is no surprise that many people turn to a
political/religious movement that
argues the current system is badly broken."

In this light, Washington might better serve its anti-terrorist goals by
adopting a more
sophisticated strategy that works to build democratic institutions in Central
Asia and elsewhere,
rather than relying on military force. Giving the world's poor a bigger piece
of the economic pie
also could undermine extremists who find young militants easier to recruit when
they are
surrounded by poverty, injustice and hopelessness.

In his March 14 speech to the Inter-American Development Bank, Bush acted as if
this was his
new discovery. "Poverty doesn't cause terrorism," Bush said, as Bono listened on
stage. "Yet
persistent poverty and oppression can lead to hopelessness and despair. And when
governments fail to meet the most basic needs of their people, these failed
states can become
havens for terrorism."
For Bush, this recognition of the link between terrorism and political
desperation might have
seemed like a burst of enlightenment compared to his previous rhetoric about
mounting a
"crusade" to root out "evil-doers." But it is still not clear whether Bush's
actions will match his
words -- or whether his new-found commitment to fighting world poverty was
mostly a political
show for Bono.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Consortiumnews.com: Part 1 - Bush's Bono Act (3-20-2002)
From Consortiumnews.com:

Bush's Bono Act

By Nat Parry
March 20, 2002

With a different politician, they might be called flip-flops. But George W. Bush
doesn't get
treated like other politicians, so almost no one criticizes his reversals on
"nation-building"
in Afghanistan and elsewhere, on the need for an active U.S. role in the
Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, or on the value of increasing U.S. financial aid to poor countries.

These shifts by other politicians might be characterized in another way, as
tacit admissions
of failure or misjudgments. But Bush gets praised for a belated recognition of a
problem,
even though he used his opposition to the very positions he's now taking to beat
up on
fuzzy-headed thinking by political rivals Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

For example, Thomas L. Friedman's New York Times column on Bush's grudging
decision
to promise a $5 billion increase in foreign aid over three years, starting in
2004, was entitled
"Better Late Than?" -- with an unwritten "never." The article's subhead read: "A
welcome
about-face from Bush."

"The most obvious conclusion from Sept. 11 -- that fighting terrorism around the
globe will
require a new, multidimensional strategy, not just a defense strategy -- was the
one Mr. Bush
seemed least inclined to draw, and that's why his speech (announcing the aid
increase)
should be welcomed," Friedman wrote. [NYT, March 17, 2002]

Still, if Bush is sincere in his recognition that easing world poverty is an
urgent priority, there
is the lingering question of why the aid increase is not part of the current
budget debate for
fiscal 2003, which starts Oct. 1. And why is the $5 billion spread over three
years, starting in
2004? Is that to make the total seem more impressive than a straightforward call
for some
number between $1 billion and $2 billion a year?

Some critics noted that Bush's proposal for an immediate $48 billion hike in
military spending
dwarfs the down-the-road foreign aid increase. Billionaire philanthropist George
Soros called
Bush's proposal "totally inadequate as far as the amounts involved -- a token
gesture instead
of something that could successfully impact most of the poor countries. This is
unfortunately
not receiving the kind of priority that other things are receiving in the
government." [NYT,
March 15, 2002]

Bono's Blessings

A less charitable take on Bush's modest foreign aid proposal is that it was the
minimum price
for a meeting with U2's Bono, an advocate of Third World debt relief. Bono,
whose popularity
soared with his performance during half time of Super Bowl XXXVI, posed for
pictures with
Bush at the White House on March 14, the day Bush announced his promised $5
billion
increase for the world's poor.

"As you can see, I'm traveling in some pretty good company today -- Bono," said
Bush, as he
gestured to the singer. [NYT, March 15, 2002] The Washington Post noted that
"the White House
clearly craved" Bono's support. [March 15, 2002]

The modest new promise for a few billion dollars sometime beyond the current
budget cycles
also may soften international criticism of Bush's emphasis on a military
response to world
terrorism and a previous disinterest in the root causes of violence.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn and other world leaders have argued that
to combat
terrorism, global poverty and other international problems must be addressed.
We will not
create a safer world with bombs or brigades alone," Wolfensohn said in a speech
at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center. Poverty "can provide a breeding ground for
the ideas
and actions of those who promote conflict and terror."

Therefore, the World Bank president said, "If we want to build long-term peace,
if we want
stability for our economies, if we want growth opportunities in the years ahead,
if we want to
build that better and safer world, fighting poverty must be part of national and
international
security." [http://wwics.si.edu/NEWS/speeches/wolfensohn.htm]

For months, the Bush administration resisted the World Bank's calls to increase
funding for
aid to the world's poorest nations. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill insists that
foreign aid
hasn't been effective enough to justify a major increase, and so the U.S. has
blocked efforts
by Great Britain and other countries to raise the level of aid going from
international
development organizations to poor nations.

The U.S. is resisting the foreign aid hike despite the fact that the U.S.
contributes the least
amount as a percentage of gross domestic product of any nation in the
industrialized world,
giving only 0.1% of its GDP, far short of the 0.7% that the United Nations has
set for the
minimal target of industrialized countries, and far behind Denmark, which leads
the
industrialized world with its contributions of 1.1% of its GDP.

Front Burner

While leaving foreign aid on the back burner since the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, the Bush
administration has put military aid on the front burner.

Money, weapons and U.S. military advisers are to go to Indonesia, Nepal, Jordan,
Pakistan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, a senior official at the Defense
Department said.
The administration has sought a 27% funding increase to bolster militaries in
other countries.
Bush has said U.S. military troops also are headed for the former Soviet state
of Georgia
and Yemen.

Opting for a predominantly military solution to terrorist threats, the United
States is going
against the advice of most developed nations, which would like to see a more
comprehensive
approach taken to the threat to international security posed by extremism. At
the recent winter
meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
Parliamentary
Assembly -- which brings together parliamentarians from 55 nations, including
the U.S. -- many
representatives called for more international cooperation in fighting terrorism
and ensuring that
human rights are respected.

(Continued)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Billboard: The Healing Power Of Music (3-20-2002)
From Billboard:

March 23, 2002 issue

UPFRONT

The Healing Power Of Music

Bruce Springsteen and Bono were among the musicians attending the
15th Annual Nordoff-Robbins Silver Clef Awards, which honored legendar
y agent Frank Barsalona, who booked the first U.S. appearances for the
Beatles and Rolling Stones and represented many of rock's leading figures.
The host for this year's event-the best-selling ever-was Clear Channel
Entertainment. The event featured an auction, where among the items
offered were an hour of airtime on both VH1 and MTV, with proceeds going
toward aiding severely handicapped children through music at the
Nordoff-Robbins New York University-based clinic.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ShowBiz Ireland: Bono looses face with friends (3-20-2002)
From ShowBiz Ireland:

Bono looses face with friends

U2 frontman Bono has admitted he gets grief from his band mates for hanging
out with the likes of the US President George Bush.

"Edge was pleading with me not to hang out with the conservatives." The singer
told the press recently. "He asked me was I going to have my picture taken with
George Bush and I said I would have lunch with Satan with so much at stake. I
have friends who won't speak to me because of Senator Jesse Helms. But, it's
very important not to play politics with this."

He went on, "millions of lives are being lost for the stupidest of reasons like
money
and not even very much of it. So, lets not play who are the good guys and who
are
the bad guys. Let's rely on the moral force of our arguments."

Bono also told the press that he more than a mere figure-head, "I'm
uncomfortable
being a rich rock star doing this. I'm unhappy with that juxtaposition. That
guilt has
driven me. It makes me queasy just to turn up for the photo opportunity so I
turn up
for the briefing as well. I go to bed with World Bank reports. These issues are
bigger
then whether it makes me comfortable or not."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guitar.com: The Edge #48 on Top 100 Players of all time (3-20-2002)
Condensed from Guitar.com:

All-Star Millennium Guitar Squad
The Top 100 Players of All Time

by Bob Gulla

When it comes to listing guitar heroes, there are obvious picks
like Hendrix, Beck, Page, Richards. But it's the secondary
contenders that are really more interesting -- the performers who
were greatly influential but not legendary; the ones who could
play with emotion, but not virtuosity; the guitarists who paved
new paths, but had a limited following. After much arguing,
pontificating and coffee-drinking, Guitar.com is proud to present
the best guitar players of the last Millennium.

48. The Edge

U2's the Edge rewrote the book on rock
guitar by introducing trance repetition that
"edged" and lulled the audience at the
same time. His signature use of delays,
reverb, harmonizers, and other effects
gave rock a layered, more dramatic impact
than ever before.

Essential Album: The Joshua Tree
Classic Moment: "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YouTwo.net: SAG looking for Bono stand-ins (3-20-2002)
Thanks to David for the following:

I live in Los Angeles and the SAG (Stage Actors Guild Hotline) is currently
looking for Bono-stand ins. A stand in does not mean look-a-like; it means
Bono is filming something and cannot be there that day so they need a person
close in size and look for lighting, blocking, camera patterns, etc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Houston Chronicle: 'NSync use stage similar to U2's (3-20-2002)
Condensed from The Houston Chronicle:

Set to one side of the Rockets' basketball floor, the stage was
a black-and-steel knockoff of U2's recent tour set. Walkways
were raised so 'N Sync could dance behind the band, and a
square catwalk stretched into the audience. A pit of lucky fans
was enclosed by the catwalk.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Telegraph: Client list of spa includes members of U2 (3-20-2002)
Condensed from The Telegraph:

World of wellbeing

Jo Foley stays at Le Sirenuse in Positano, Italy

The spa
Through a complex of 18th- century rooms and
modern terraces lies the tiny but perfect spa at Le
Sirenuse, Positano's sexiest hotel. An exquisite
fabrication of white, painted glass and steel-framed
white marble, it is like a collection of boxes which
open to reveal changing rooms, shower rooms and
treatment rooms. At its centre is a plunge pool
framed in stainless steel and set in latticed teak
floors, while beyond is a relaxation area, sauna and
steam room, all designed in perfect symmetry by
Italian architect Gae Aulenti.

Fellow guests
Mostly Americans and Britons. For decades Le
Sirenuse has attracted the stars and royals from
Burton and Taylor to Tom and Nicole, not to mention
Nureyev, Princess Margaret, most of U2,
supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and any
number of minor European royals.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launch: Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder Bows Down To The Ramones (3-20-2002)
From Launch:

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder Bows DownTo The Ramones
Tue Mar 19, 8:57 PM ET

(3/19/02, 6 p.m. ET) -- Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder inducted the Ramones into the
Rock
And Roll Hall Of Fame during Monday night's (March 18) ceremonies in New York.
Vedder
made a rambling 17-minute speech about the group's groundbreaking sound, their
immense influence, and how underappreciated they were during their 20-plus years
in
existence.

Sporting a fresh mohawk, Vedder told the crowd, "When punk finally broke in '91,
the
Ramones still weren't brought along for the ride, even though Nirvana, Rancid,
(and)
Green Day wouldn't have existed without them."

Vedder said that he is also someone who is indebted to the group. "You know,
punk
bands now sell with one record--their first or second record--sell 10 times the
amount of
records that the Ramones did throughout their career with 20-something records.
That's
why I go over to Johnny Ramone's house and do yard work three times a week, just
to
absolve some of the guilt."

Vedder continued, "And a bunch of people do it, like (U2's) Bono and Edge do the
windows. Kirk Hammett, the guitar player from Metallica, he dusts, house cleans,
makes French toast. That's a true story," he said with a laugh.

Green Day was also on hand to perform the Ramones classics "Teenage Lobotomy,"
"Rockaway Beach," and "Blitzkrieg Bop." The surviving Ramones have vowed never
to
perform again following the death of Joey Ramone, who succumbed to cancer last
April.

-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles and Bruce Simon, New York

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AP: Bush administration comes under fire at UN poverty summit (3-20-2002)
From The Associated Press:

Bush administration comes under fire at UN poverty summit
By JULIE WATSON
Associated Press Writer

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Days after the United States promised a 50 percent
increase in foreign aid, the Bush
administration is coming under fire for not doing enough -- and not doing it
right.

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush's
pledge to increase aid by $5
billion over three years was a minuscule amount compared to the country's
overall wealth.

"With President Bush's commitment carried out, we'll be giving 12 parts of out
of 10,000 of our Gross National
Product," Carter said. "That's a tiny bit."

Carter, who spoke on the second day of the U.N. International Conference on
Financing for Development in
the northern city of Monterrey, also expressed concerns about Bush tying that
aid to political conditions.

"I hope there won't be any political aspects to it because most of our aid now
is given for political purposes,"
Carter said.

"If we set down strict criteria that that country can't receive assistance
before they prove that they're going to
be efficient, they will never get any help," he said. "So we're going to have
to be generous and not just be
demanding."

Last week, Bush pledged $5 billion more in foreign aid, and suggested the money
be given away in the form of
grants to countries with relatively stable financial and political systems. U2
singer Bono, who has argued against
saddling poor nations with too many loans, helped him make the announcement.

On Tuesday, U.S. Undersecretary of State Alan Larson said at the conference that
Bush will likely raise aid levels
even further in the future if he sees countries making efforts to reduce
corruption, build a democracy and open doors
to business.

European leaders, who pledged last week to increase aid levels by $20 billion by
2006, argue giving money out in
grants instead of loans could eventually drain World Bank coffers at a time when
development aid levels are already
declining in real terms.

"We may not be able to do as much for the least-developed countries," EU
Development Commissioner Poul
Nielson said Tuesday on the sidelines of the conference. "The role of the bank
is a bank."

The World Bank says more than 95 percent of all loans are repaid, allowing it to
continue to hand out credit to needy
countries, and bank officials have expressed concern that too many grants could
cause future problems.

"You end up shortchanging the poor in the future," World Bank spokeswoman
Caroline Anstey said.

Bush says he wants 40 percent of all World Bank funds for poor nations to be
distributed in the form of grants instead
of loans they won't be able to repay.

Still, his calls are not enough to quiet protesters.

On Tuesday, Jubilee 2000, a network of more than 60 organizations dedicated to
debt relief, called Bush's pledge
window dressing.

"This inaction by the Bush administration and the (Monterrey) conference is a
slap in the face," said Mara
Vanderslice, the organization's outreach coordinator.

Non-governmental groups taking part in the conference staged a small protest
Tuesday inside the conference
center, putting tape over their mouths that featured anti-IMF and World Bank
slogans.

Billionaire financier George Soros called on Bush to offer more money, sooner.
Still, he called Bush's proposal
"novel."

"I approve of the approach, but it needs to be tried," he said.

Argentina is still suffering from an economic crisis that sparked a debt default
and the suspension of $22 billion in
aid.

Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde arrives Wednesday in Monterrey, partly to
lobby the IMF and World Bank for
at least $23 billion in additional aid to bolster the shaky banking system and
help the country stage a recovery from a
recession brought on by the 1999 devaluation of the Brazilian real.

The 171 nations participating at the U.N. Conference on Financing for
Development in Monterrey, Mexico, are
discussing how to prevent economic collapses and debt problems in the developing
world, and how to use dwindling
aid more efficiently. Also participating are the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank, business leaders and
non-governmental organizations.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chicago Sun-Times: Bono knows publicity (Letter to the Editor) (3-20-2002)
From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Bono knows publicity

Wow. I'm incredibly impressed by the sacrifices that Bono is making for
the good of the world [''A pest? White House seems to like having Bono
around,'' news story, March 15]. It takes a great man to appear on all
those magazine covers and brave the storm of publicity generated by
meetings with the president.

Bono's Super Bowl halftime show was bad enough. Now we're being
forced to listen to self-righteous and egotistical statements. If anyone
believes that it really is more fashionable for a celebrity ''to be on the
barricades with a handkerchief over my nose'' instead of posturing with
politicians about world issues, then you probably deserve to be tricked
by Bono.

Publicity stunts are a great way for no-talent musicians with poor fashion
sense to jump-start careers that have been damaged by repetitive,
formulaic songs and the rapid turnover that's the hallmark of the music
industry. Before you rush out to buy a U2 CD, think about how much good
your 15 bucks could do in the hands of a worthy charity.

Andrew Freeman,
Rogers Park

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irish Independent: Neighbours dispute over playing of Queen, Verve and U2
(3-20-2002)
Condensed from The Irish Independent:

This was the approach followed by Judge James McNulty when a dispute came
before him involving Paul Lynch of Orwell Road in Rathgar. Neighbours on either
side of his town-house apartment complained of his parties, his late-night organ
playing and his leaving radios blaring 24 hours a day for up to a week. Lynch
was
ordered to moderate the noise or face 12 months in prison.

In the case of the over-eager teenage musicians, the judge, quoting the Paul
Simon
song One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor, advised warring neighbours to
find a
solution to their dispute, lest he make an order that they would have to
disclose
should they ever wish to sell their houses.

He told Mary Quinlan, who lives with her bank-official husband and four sons on
Grange Park Road in Raheny, that a semi-detached home was no place for her
teenage boys to knock out tracks by Queen, U2 and the Verve on their electric
guitars and drum kit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AP: Battle Rages Over Debt Relief (3-19-2002)
From The Associated Press:

Battle Rages Over Debt Relief

Story Filed: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 3:19 PM EST

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- After years of watching economies crash and burn,
world
leaders are rethinking their lending policies to the developing world.

The debate at the U.N. Conference on Financing for Development has divided the
Western world. The United States wants to replace loans with direct handouts.
European
countries and lending institutions worry the grant system would dry up the
existing pool
of funds that currently is replenished as countries repay loans.

Last week, President Bush pledged $5 billion more in foreign aid and suggested
the
money be given away in the form of grants to countries with relatively stable
financial
and political systems.

``Many have rallied to the idea of dropping the debt. I say let's rally to the
idea of stopping
the debt,'' he said. U2 singer Bono, who has argued against saddling poor
nations with
debt, stood by his side.

European leaders, who pledged last week to increase aid levels by $20 billion by
2006,
argue the move could eventually drain World Bank coffers at a time when
development
aid levels are already declining in real terms.

``We may not be able to do as much for the least-developed countries,'' EU
Development
Commissioner Poul Nielson said Tuesday on the sidelines of the conference, being
held
in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey. ``The role of the bank is a bank.''

The World Bank says more than 95 percent of all loans are repaid, allowing it to
continue
to hand out credit to needy countries. Europe also says poor countries are more
careful
with loans than with handouts.

There are 171 nations at the Monterrey conference, as well as the International
Monetary
Fund, the World Bank, business leaders and non-governmental organizations.
Together
they are discussing how to prevent economic collapses and debt problems in the
developing world, and how to use dwindling aid resources more efficiently.

``For literally decades, the debate has been like a bad marriage stuck around
what the
developed countries should pay,'' said Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the
U.N.
Development Program. ``It's been like the alimony payment or the child support
payment.
The deadbeat dads of the donor system have just not been putting their money
forward.''

Officials at the summit already have a case in point. Argentina still is
struggle to overcome
an economic crisis that caused it default on international debt. That, in turn,
led the
international community to suspend $22 billion in aid.

Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde arrives Wednesday in Monterrey, partly to
lobby
the IMF and World Bank for at least $23 billion in additional aid to bolster the
shaky
banking system and help the country stage a recovery from a recession brought on
by the
1999 devaluation of the Brazilian real.

Bush has said he wants 40 percent of all World Bank funds for poor nations to be
distributed in the form of grants instead of loans they won't be able to repay.

It hasn't been decided how the $5 billion in grants that he has pledged for
fiscal years
2004-06 will be given out, or if the World Bank will play a role.

Bank officials have expressed concern that too many grants could cause future
shortages.

``You end up shortchanging the poor in the future,'' said World Bank spokeswoman
Caroline Anstey.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guardian: US aid pledge is a sop in the right direction (3-19-2002)
From The Guardian:

Comment
US aid pledge is a sop in the right direction

The announcement of the first increase in US foreign aid for decades has many
commentators citing the Marshall Plan, and quite right too, writes William
Keegan

Tuesday March 19, 2002

Last week I pointed out that, notwithstanding what happened to Frank Sinatra in
Monterrey, little could be expected from this week's meeting there on
development
finance.

Then, hey presto, urged on it appears by Irish pop star Bono - or Pro Bono as he
should perhaps henceforth be known - President George Bush announced the first
increase in US foreign aid for decades.

True the figure - up to $5bn (£3.5bn), over three years, beginning in 2004, and
heavily conditional, is dwarfed by the proposed $50bn increase in defence
spending.
True, it takes the US aid budget from a mere 0.1% of US gross domestic product
towards a mere 0.12%, compared with UN targets agreed many years ago of 0.7%.

But it is at least a sop in the right direction. What is more, after many years
when the
subject of overseas development assistance rated little interest in even the
most
serious newspapers, suddenly everyone is writing about it.

Why, even the New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, seems to have
developed an aid conscience since he wrote his book The Lexus and the Olive
Tree,
lauding globalisation and the Washington consensus (on free trade and free
capital
movements) but paying scant heed to the dearth of overseas aid.

US commentators such as Mr Friedman are even comparing the present situation
with the aftermath of the second world war, when America "took responsibility
for
making the world both a more secure place to live and a better place to live".

Everybody is now citing the Marshall Plan, and quite rightly. The Marshall Plan
was
really President Harry Truman's idea, but he happily let General George Marshall
take the credit. Truman even commented to a biographer that it was amazing what
one could achieve if one let other people take the credit.

It is when one recalls the scale of the Truman - I mean Marshall - Plan that one
realises how at this stage the importance of George Bush's pre-Monterrey
response
to Bono is more psychological than material.

For the fact of the matter is that between 1948 and 1951 inclusive the US
donated the
equivalent of 1.2% a year of its GDP in aid to western Europe. At one level it
was one
of the biggest acts of altruism in history - at another it was also enlightened
self-interest.

Dean Acheson, the US secretary of state after Marshall, once said that he had
spoken
about the Marshall Plan to many audiences, but in the end questioners always
associated the need for the Marshall Plan with the [successful] fight against
the
encroachment of communism into western Europe.

For individual west European economies at the time, the aid amounted to 7% to
10%
of their GDP. It was a magnificent effort. Something on the same scale is now
required
for the developing world today. Bono needs to keep up the pressure on his fan in
the
White House.

William Keegan is the Observer's economics editor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shift.com: Why It Sucks to Be Cool (3-19-2002)
Thanks to Laura for the following.

From Shift.com:

Why It Sucks to Be Cool

Your fifteen minutes just became fifteen seconds.
by Neil Morton

Mar.15.2002

Once the Strokes Is This It? album became really cool to own, it was pretty much
over
for them -- and for you, if you were just latching on to them. Survivor was a
cool show
to watch, but if you watched Survivor 2, that wasn't so cool, and if you were
talking
about 3 (and now 4) around the office water cooler, well, then, LOSER.

It used to be cool to wear Nike shoes and Ts, but now it looks like Reebok is
the go-to
brand. Vince Carter used to be cool, but now everyone's dissing him because he
isn't
playing like the Vince we know. Retrogaming is cool right now, but, oh wait,
that fad
probably reached its popularity peek the week of November 7-14, 2001. If you
liked
The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies, that was okay, but if you're just
reading
the books for the first time right now...

"Whassup" was cool to use for a while there, but now even Dads are getting sick
of
using it, so it's so completely, ridiculously not anymore.

Come to think of it, it's probably not cool to use the word cool. Now, even that
word is
kinda cold. New variations on cool, which have probably already run their course
(like
wicked and coolio have), include killer and tight and mint and dope.

Okay, time to get to the point: It's harder than ever these days to stay cool in
our one-hit
wonder world, where there are so many possibilities being thrust upon us.
Marketers,
advertisers, PR agencies, publishers, politicians, corporations, sports owners
and
webmasters are constantly trying to figure out not only how to build hype around
something, but also to keep it. As they've found, building a loyal following for
any
extended period of time is an absolute bitch to do. The cool market is
super-saturated.

Because of technology -- the multi-channel universe, the web, email, instant
messaging,
cellphones -- culture moves faster than it ever has, and it's hard to keep up
with What's
Hot and What's Not (are those lists still cool?). By the time you find out
something's
killer, tight, mint or dope, it's pretty much had its day. Cool things get 15
seconds these
days, not 15 minutes.

There are always exceptions to the rule: It will always be cool (or at least,
semi-cool) to
watch a Simpsons episode, or drink Coke, or listen to U2 and Radiohead, or
gossip, or
go to the beach, or watch the Final 4 or CNN or SNL and Kids in the Hall reruns,
or get
drunk (but not puke), or wear jeans (sometimes baggy is in, sometimes tight), or
surf the
web, or go to Havana, or be James Dean or Tom Cruise or Madonna, or read
something
by Nick Hornby, or watch a Stanley Kubrick or Monty Python film.

But in general, it's nearly impossible to keep people on your bandwagon. It's
almost like
winning a lottery.

Ultimately, and I know this is a difficult proposition, the goal should be to
constantly fly
under the radar -- to always be considered "on the brink of being cool" but
never cool.
The tricky thing is to be underground but not too far or you won't get any
attention -- or
$$$. For example, some would say Toronto singer/songwriter Rachel Smith should
be
the next Sarah Harmer to emerge out of Canada -- her sound is a cross between
Sinead
O'Connor and Jane Siberry -- but as yet, Smith and her amazing CD, The Clearing,
haven't been "discovered."

When it comes to the web, we're just as fickle as anywhere else. Salon used to
be a hip
site to go to, but now that it's been around for a while and has cut back on
content (and
marquee writers), it's not so cool anymore. When the Webby Awards first
launched, it was
really sweet to be nominated -- and better yet, to win. But now, many sites
don't even submit
because they're worried about the perception that the Webbys are no longer
tight, stoopid
or even groovy -- that they're somehow too "mainstream." And the once-original
five-word
acceptance speeches now seem kinda lame.

Fark is becoming one of the more popular sites to visit on the web, but now that
its original
followers don't feel so exclusive -- and now that Fark founder Drew Curtis is
trying to figure
out how to make money with all his new visitors -- the site isn't so hot
anymore. When he
recently attached his name to the site, "Drew Curtis' Fark.com" -- something
that makes
sense, given that Drew is making more and more media appearances and is becoming
a
recognizable name -- some of his "loyal" users dissed him.

"Drew wants people to see him walking down the street and go, 'Hey look everyone
it's
Drew Curtis of Drew Curtis's Fark.com!" said one. "All this celebrity status is
going to Drew's
head," said another. And so on and so on.

There's no doubt that Google is the coolest search engine on the planet right
now -- and
has been for what seems like an eternity. But how long can it last before a
better and more
jiggy Google comes along? After all, it doesn't seem that long ago that Yahoo!
and Alta
Vista were the go-to guys.

It was cool that Wil Wheaton started a weblog, but now his weblog -- and Wil
himself -- is
apparently a big waste of time and energy. On the topic of weblogs, those have
been the
shit for some time now. But how much longer can it be considered sick to run or
visit a
weblog, particularly now that the mainstream media is discovering them?

Offline or on, it's not an impossible task to become cool -- it's a pain in the
ass just to stay
cool. Thus, in closing, all I can say is this: Thank god I'm not.

Now back to the Strokes and Survivor 4...

Neil Morton is editor-in-chief at Shift magazine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sun: George Michael on U2 and Oasis (3-19-2002)
Condensed from The Sun:

George [Michael] also told Radio 1 that he though Oasis had been destroyed by
LIAM GALLAGHER's behaviour.

He said: "Oasis are the most amazing band I've ever seen live with the possible
exception of U2.

"The critics made one member of Oasis feel they were the whole of Oasis. He
promptly wrecked the best band we'd had in 20 years."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rolling Stone: Love Sounds Off (3-19-2002)
From Rolling Stone:

Love Sounds Off

Courtney talks lawsuits, music industry and new album

In a rambling onstage interview Saturday at Austin's SXSW music convention,
singer/actress Courtney Love offered her critique of the music industry, as well
as updates on her ongoing litigation with Universal Music, her pending lawsuit
against former members of Nirvana and the new music she's writing.

Citing Pearl Jam's failed campaign against Ticketmaster as inspiration, Love
said she's actively recruiting everyone from Bono to members of R.E.M. to join
her in supporting legislation that will improve the terms and conditions of
record
contracts for artists. Her whole-hearted efforts to that end so far have
included
testifying before the California state legislature to repeal California Labor
Code
2855 -- which bars recording artists from opting out of personal service
contracts
after seven years -- and filing a lawsuit against Geffen Records in an effort to
gain release from what she considers an unfair contract, a venture she says has
cost $2.4 million thus far.

Claiming her wild card reputation will aid her efforts, Love repeatedly alluded
to
a 221-page deposition she gave for the lawsuit, which she says contains
information both embarrassing and incriminating to record executives. With
boyfriend and manager Jim Barber feeding her figures from the side of the stage,
Love claimed successful bands on major labels wind up paying for the ninety or
so percent of the bands that aren't profitable, via built-in contractual
obligations.
For the most part, however, Love failed to capitalize on a captive capacity
audience by repeatedly losing her train of thought and using overstated
metaphors
for cheap shock value, saying artists no longer wanted to be "house niggers" to
the
record company execs, "massa." Chuck Phillips of the Los Angeles Times
conducted the interview and at times was noticeably frustrated by Love's
inability
to finish thoughts and willingness to sacrifice focus for chatty asides.

"It's so boring," said Love of her case against the former Nirvana members, Dave
Grohl and Krist Novoselic. Last October, she sued the two and Universal Records
seeking control of Nirvana's masters and to dissolve the partnership Nirvana
LLC,
which she formed with them in 1997. The move blocked the release of a box set
that was planned to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Nirvana's "Nevermind"
and would have included some unreleased material, including the much-discussed
"You Know You're Right."

"It's going to take like four hours for me to win," she continued. "Simply put,
in the
early 90's, LLC's were chic, I got freaked and found a foxhole . . . Krist is
trying to get
his last moment in the sun."

Love also said she's been writing songs with former Four Non-Blondes singer
Linda
Perry, who recently penned several tracks for the new Christina Aguilera album,
a
fact that Love jokingly says caused her to demand Perry "take a steam bath"
before
collaborating.

Sensitive to loud whispers over the years that she hasn't written the music for
albums
such as Live Through This and Celebrity Skin , Love said she's the victim of a
double
standard. "If I write with other people, people think someone else wrote the
whole
thing. Charles Cross (Nirvana biographer) got the guys who produced Live Through
This (Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie) to say Kurt wrote it. I asked Kurt for
one riff
and he told me to fuck off. I learned more from ("Celebrity Skin" collaborator
Billy)
Corgan in twelve days than I did from Kurt in three years."

"I'm writing a lot of cool 60's garage nugget stuff," said Love of the songs for
the new
album she's currently shopping. "I'm headed over to England soon. In two months
I'm
going to have a Top Five single there. I'll put the Strokes in their place."

COLIN DEVENISH
(March 18, 2002)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launch: Courtney Love Promises An Artists' Union In SXSW Address (3-19-2002)
From Launch:

Courtney Love Promises An Artists' Union In SXSW Address
Mon Mar 18, 3:17 PM ET

(3/18/02, 3 p.m. ET) -- Courtney Love says a new union for musicians is coming,
and
that big names like Bruce Springsteen and U2 will "come in" to the movement
soon.

During a rambling session at last week's South By Southwest (SXSW) Music
Conference and festival in Austin, Texas, the outspoken Love--loosely
interviewed by
Los Angeles Times reporter Chuck Phillips--chronicled her battles with the music
industry, which include ongoing lawsuits against the Universal Music Group (for
which
Hole records) and with the other members of her late husband Kurt Cobain's band
Nirvana.

Declaring that "the music industry is utterly failing and within three years it
will have
failed," Love said that a union would allow artists to fight for contract
reforms and other
measures that would give them more control over their careers and their music.
Acknowledging the Don Henley -led Recording Artists Coalition (RAC), Love
stressed
that it was most important for a broad group of big-name stars to be part of the
movement, saying, "I will not be martyred. I've talked to Springsteen. Elton
John has
offered to pay my legal fees. They will step up." Love said she's spent more
than $2.4
million in legal fees in the past two years.

While in Austin, Love--who is frequently accompanied by two bodyguards--attended
a
screening of the 25th anniversary print of the Band's The Last Waltz and
performances
by the band Girls Against Boys, among others.

On the music front, Love said she's close to new label deals in the U.S. and
Europe,
and that she's working on a new album, co-writing some songs with former 4 Non
Blondes member Linda Perry, who has recently worked with Pink and Christina
Aguilera.

-- Gary Graff, Detroit

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time: Wasn't A Time Cover Enough? (3-19-2002)
From Time:

March 25, 2002 issue

People
Michele Orecklin

WASN'T A TIME COVER ENOUGH?

The last time a major rock star visited a Republican President in hopes of
influencing
policy, little happened. In 1970 Elvis Presley dropped in on Richard Nixon,
angling to
become a federal agent to fight the drug war; the President gave the
narcotic-addled
Presley an honorary badge and sent him on his way. When Bono visited PRESIDENT
BUSH last week, the U2 singer proved considerably more effective, and coherent.
Bono lobbied Bush to increase money to fight AIDS in Africa and assist
impoverished
countries. Later that day Bush pledged $ 5 billion in foreign aid to poor
nations that
improve their records on human rights and create open markets. Bono later
admitted
proudly, "I'm not a cheap date."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newcastle Herald: Bono Discovers Leaders' Shady Side (3-19-2002)
From The Newcastle Herald (Australia):

Bono Discovers Leaders' Shady Side
According To Linda Barnier & Ben Doherty

U2 singer Bono says he has a new nickname around the White House: 'The Pest'.

The Irish rocker met with President George W. Bush (left) in the Oval Office
last week
to discuss AIDS and Bush's new initiative on US aid to poor countries.
Afterwards, he
accompanied Bush to a speech, then had another session with White House
officials.

'I am a pest, I am a stone in the shoe of a lot of people living here in this
town, a
squeaky wheel,' Bono told reporters, according to Associated Press.

Bono never removed his trademark wraparound shades during his day with the
president.

'I thought the president looked at them quite jealously,' he joked.

And he certainly wasn't about to lend them to Bush.

'The last time I did that was with the Pope, and he took them away with him,'
Bono said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daily Record: Best To Be a Pest (3-19-2002)
From The Daily Record:

RECORD VIEW

BEST TO BE A PEST

U2 star Bono is known as "the pest" because of his shameless badgering of world
figures. He's nagged President Bush, the Pope and evangelist Billy Graham.

Some "friends" have deserted him because he talks to hard-line right-wingers,
even
though he does it to raise billions for AIDS, poverty and famine relief in the
Third
World.

Never mind, Bono. You'll make a lot more friends by being a nuisance in a good
cause.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christian Science Monitor: Bono-fied increase in foreign aid, with strings
(3-19-2002)
From The Christian Science Monitor:

Bono-fied increase in foreign aid, with strings

Joined by U2 rocker, president earmarks more to fight global poverty, if spent
'right.'

By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - Bush to Bono: Hey guy, we care about the world, too.

The American President and the Irish rock superstar might seem to be an unlikely
couple,
but when it comes to aid to poor countries, the two see eye to eye.

Or at least each sees how to use the other for his purposes.

With Bono out to increase the rich world's assistance for developing nations and
the fight
against AIDS, and Mr. Bush keen on shining up his international image prior to
an
international conference on development aid in Mexico later this week, the two
are linking
arms to address global poverty.

After meetings with congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill,
Secretary of
State Colin Powell, and even National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, the
singer for
the band U2 with the cool blue shades visited the White House last Thursday.

On the same day, Bush unveiled what he called "a new compact for global
development,"
under which the United States pledges to increase foreign aid in return for
accountability,
economic reforms, and a commitment to human rights.

The Bush plan calls for a $5 billion increase in US foreign aid over three
years, in the form
of grants to qualifying countries. Currently the US devotes about $10 billion a
year to
foreign aid - an amount that leaves it bringing up the rear on the list of
wealthy countries
and the percentage of their wealth that they spend on international assistance.

But with the US leading a global war on terrorism, foreign aid has grown in
importance.
The president frequently cites a need to address the problems of the world's
poor that can
serve as seedbeds of terrorism.

In a speech at the Inter-American Development Bank in which he announced the aid
increase, Bush explained his view of how poverty can result in terrorism.
"Poverty doesn't
cause terrorism. ... Yet persistent poverty and oppression can lead to
hopelessness and
despair." With Bono at his side, the President continued, "And when governments
fail to
meet the most basic needs of their people, these failed states can become havens
for terror."

The increased aid, which still must be approved by Congress, should allow Bush
to attend
the Mexico conference on slightly better footing. Over recent weeks, European
countries
and even the World Bank have criticized the US for doing too little for global
poverty
reduction - noting, for example, that US aid is at its lowest levels since World
War II.

In another stab at portraying America as generous before the Mexico meeting,
Bush
announced in his regular radio address Saturday that American children have
donated more
than $4 million to help the children of Afghanistan.

As proposed by Bush, the new aid money wouldn't start until 2004. The Bush
administration
wants time to reform the World Bank and the way foreign aid is spent.

Most foreign-aid advocates and development specialists say they are pleased with
the new
US commitment - although they generally add that Bush's proposal still does not
provide
the amount of aid they'd like to see from the US. World Bank specialists have
advocated
an increase in US foreign aid of one-tenth of 1 percent of GNP - or about $10
billion
annually.

"This is a great move in the right direction; it reaffirms the US commitment to
reducing poverty
and inequality in the world," says Charles MacCormack, president of Save the
Children.

Like other development advocates, Dr. MacCormack says the proposed aid increase
may
not be everything he hoped for, but he placed the responsibility for achieving
even more
assistance in the future squarely with relief organizations.

"If we can demonstrate that life-saving results are being reached with this
additional funding,
I believe the president and the Congress can be convinced to respond yet again,"
he says.
"The demand will be there for accountability and results."

Relief and development organizations, which just weeks ago were critical of the
Bush
administration for not putting dollars behind the talk of poverty reduction, now
say their work
will be twofold: First, to make sure Congress approves the Bush increase; and
then to work
with the administration on the criteria to be applied to countries in line for
the new money.

While specialists say they support Bush's accent on accountability and
transparency in aid
spending, they also fear high standards could end up limiting work in poor
countries with
inefficient and corrupt governments.

"We must be mindful not to leave behind people in nations that will not meet
these criteria,
it's critical for America's security and for world stability," says Mary
McClymont, president
of InterAction, a consortium of 160 US-based development groups.

InterAction spokesman Sid Balman notes, for example, that under any plausible
criteria
"Afghanistan a year ago would not have been eligible for a dime. Yet it's a
clear case that
meets the president's test of failed states where terrorism can germinate."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ananova: Bono 'would have lunch with Satan' (3-19-2002)
From Ananova:

Bono 'would have lunch with Satan'

Bono says he would "have lunch with Satan" to help his crusade against poverty
and disease.

The U2 singer says he has no problem dealing with right-wing politicians as he
campaigns.

Bono says White House officials have dubbed him "the pest" because his
lobbying is so persistent.

He admits he has lost friends through some of his political wheeling and
dealing,
reports the Daily Record.

Bono has even forged an unlikely link with right-wing senator Jesse Helms, who
once called homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches."

And he says U2 bandmate The Edge tried to rein him in in his efforts to fight
famine
and the spread of Aids.

Bono admitted: "Edge was pleading with me not to hang out with conservatives.
He said 'You're not going to have your picture taken with George Bush?'

"I said I'd have lunch with Satan if there was so much at stake. I have friends
who
won't speak to me because of Helms. But it's very important not to play politics
with
this.

"Millions of lives are being lost for the stupidest of reasons - money. And not
even
very much money.

"So let's not play, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Let's rely
on
the moral force of our arguments."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daily Record: U2 Can Save the Planet (3-19-2002)
From The Daily Record:

U2 CAN SAVE THE PLANET

Mar 19 2002

Bono swaps rock arena for corridors of power
John Dingwall

ROCKER Bono is forging a new role as a successful lobbyist for the world's poor.

The 40-year-old singer is now as likely to be found meeting George Bush, the
Pope and other world leaders as he is on stage or in the studio.

His efforts paid off in persuading Bush to pledge $5billion - about £3.5billion
- in
aid to the Third World.

And White House officials dubbed him "the pest" because of the persistence of
his lobbying.

But the singer believes anything he does in the crusade against AIDS, poverty
and famine is justified, telling friends that he would "lunch with Satan" to get
the
results he wants.

Experts say that he has now become the world's most effective political lobbyist
for his cause.

And he plans to carry on making his voice heard, calling the billions pledged by
Bush to help the world's poor "a down payment".

He said: "It's not where we need to be. The administration has now committed
itself to an AIDS initiative at some point in the next year.

"Once my foot is in the door, I'm hard to get out."

Like his old friend, Live Aid guru Bob Geldof, the Irish superstar is unashamed
about using his fame to get access to the people who can help him.

And he admits he has lost friends through some of the unlikely alliances he has
forged, including one with right-wing senator Jesse Helms, who once called
homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches".

Even The Edge, the U2 guitarist and Bono's songwriting collaborator, attempted
to rein in his friend.

Bono admitted: "Edge was pleading with me not to hang out with conservatives.

"He said, 'You're not going to have your picture taken with George Bush?'

"I said I'd have lunch with Satan if there was so much at stake. I have friends
who
won't speak to me because of Helms.

"But it's very important not to play politics with this.

"Millions of lives are being lost for the stupidest of reasons - money. And not
even
very much money.

"So let's not play, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Let's rely
on the moral force of our arguments."

He added: "We knew we had to get both sides so we got Billy Graham and The
Pope and I went to people like Jesse Helms who had been very tough on things
like foreign assistance and very bleak on AIDS.

"He's a religious man so I told him that 2103 verses of scripture pertain to the
poor
and Jesus speaks of judgment only once - and it's not about being gay or sexual
morality, but about morality.

"I quoted the verse of Matthew, chapter 25 - 'I was naked and you clothed me.'

"He was really moved. He was in tears. Later he told me he was ashamed of what
he used to think about AIDS."

His technique for persuading world leaders to cough up cash often involves a
"good cop, bad cop" double act with Bob Geldof.

The pair used the act to full effect when they spent a weekend with Tony Blair
and
Gordon Brown at Chequers.

They realised, though, that to succeed in their campaign, they would have to
sway
the Bush administration in Washington.

Geldof says of his friend's technique: "He's charming, he's persuasive and
politicians
can go home to their daughters and say, 'I had a meeting with Bono today'."

Richest

Bono has a long tradition of activism, helping Geldof with the Live Aid concerts
and
supporting Greenpeace and Amnesty International.

But it was the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which aimed to cancel Third World debt for
the millennium, which captured his imagination and set him on his current
course.

Bono is aware of the irony of one of the world's richest rock stars campaigning
for
the poor.

He said: "I'm uncomfortable being a rich rock star doing this.

"I would love not to be doing this - for somebody else to do it who was not as
compromised as me.

"That guilt has driven me to be a policy nerd. It makes me queasy just to turn
up for
the photo opportunity, so I turn up for the briefing as well.

"I go to bed with World Bank Reports. These issues are bigger than whether it
makes
me comfortable or not.

"So the band might cringe, I might wince but I went to Washington to get a
cheque
and I'm going back to get a bigger one."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toronto Star: St. Pats float uses U2 music (3-19-2002)
Condensed from The Toronto Star:

Viewers were treated to old favourites like "When Irish Eyes are
Smiling" and "If You're Irish Come into the Parlour," but one float
blasted the music of Ireland's hugely successful U2.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Montreal Gazette: Bono impersonator part of Montreal St. Pats parade (3-19-2002)
Condensed from The Montreal Gazette:

The musical selection was eclectic, to say the least. Elvis was there in
all his glitter, as was a Bono wanna-be, belting out U2 from atop a
flatbed truck.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hoovers: US proposed $5 billion increase in foreign aid (3-19-2002)
Condensed from Hoovers:

Last week, Mr. Bush proposed a $5 billion increase in U.S. foreign aid over the
next three years, representing
nearly a 15 percent annual increase. He also held a meeting in the White House
with Bono, the lead singer of
Irish rock group U2. Bono has called on rich nations to forgive the debt of the
poorest.

"The advance of development is a central commitment of American foreign policy,"
Mr. Bush said. "There are no
second-class citizens in the human race."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Allstar: Courtney Love talks about U2 (3-19-2002)
Condensed from Allstar:

Comparing herself to actress Olivia de Havilland (who sued and
won a landmark lawsuit against the film industry in 1945), she
stressed the need for an artists union, claiming that big name
artists such as Bono (whom she called a "manipulative lovely
Irishman," more manipulative than herself, she added), Bruce
Springsteen, and Elton John have all sworn their future support.

Speaking of support, Love stated that one of her biggest
regrets was not joining Pearl Jam's fight against Ticketmaster.
Love said, "I was in no condition to help at that point. I'm
sitting there with a needle in my arm and I noticed this. And I
saw those guys in front of Congress being made fools of. And
they were right about Ticketmaster."

She also told a story about how Universal/Interscope executives
didn't want to spend the money necessary to market U2's All
That You Can't Leave Behind. Love explained, "They didn't want
to spend more than 70 cents a record. The U2 record was going
to cost two to three dollars to market; every upper level artist
is going to cost that. The band's manager went into the office
and got a president into a headlock ... maybe someone was
dipped out the window. I don't know what happened, but that
day something changed. It takes money to make money if
you're a mid-to-high level career artist or a baby band. End of
story. If it weren't for this guy sticking up for his band, All That
You Can't Leave Behind could've been a flop."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MuchMusic: Bono Meets Bush (3-18-2002)
From MuchMusic:

Bono Meets Bush

U2's Bono, now known as "The Pest" around the White House, met with
President Bush last week to discuss the U.S. fight against world poverty
and the AIDS epidemic worldwide. "It is much easier and hipper for me
to be on the barricades with a handkerchief over my nose--it looks better
on the resume of a rock 'n' roll star," said Bono. "But I can do better by
just getting into the White House and talking to a man who I believe
listens, wants to listen, on these subjects.? Bush has proposed increasing
U.S. development spending by $5 billion over three years to countries
in need. In other U2 news, the band received the 'Best Concert by a
Touring Band' award at the Austin Music Awards, which kicked off the
South By Southwest Music Festival last week. The band was not
present to accept the honour.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hollywood Reporter: 'Gangs of New York' Release Delayed (3-18-2002)
Thanks to Herbert for the following.

Condensed from The Hollywood Reporter:

Miramax trims 75 employees from workforce
Sun Mar 17, 8:12 PM ET

By Jeffrey R. Sipe

NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- High-flying Miramax Films trimmed its
sails
Friday as the minimajor implemented a round of company-wide layoffs affecting
approximately 75 or more employees, about 15% of the studio's 500-person roster.

The layoffs -- which staffers had been bracing for during the past few weeks --
hit
departments on both coasts at both Miramax and its Dimension label, although
Miramax appeared to take the brunt of the cuts with its creative team and
publicity
force suffering the most extensive trims.

Other areas like postproduction, exhibitor relations and international were also
affected. While a few senior execs were involved, most of the affected employees
came from the ranks of mid-level management and their assistants.

...Last year, the Walt Disney Co., Miramax's parent, eliminated 4,000 jobs
worldwide.
But according to a source at Disney, the current Miramax initiative was not
ordered
by the parent company but arose from within Miramax itself.

Miramax has suffered several financial setbacks and disappointments in recent
months.

In January, the company shut down its 2 1/2-year-old magazine, Talk, which
Miramax
jointly owned with the Hearst Corp. The magazine reportedly lost as much as $50
million during its brief run, and a number of employees blamed the Talk losses
for
Miramax's current belt-tightening.

Miramax was also forced to postpone the December opening of its expensive Martin
Scorsese epic, "Gangs of New York," starring Leonardo DiCaprio . The film, which
carries a steep $100 million price tag, was recently rescheduled for a July 12
debut,
which would pit it against DreamWorks' Tom Hanks vehicle "The Road to
Perdition."
Although there has been no official announcement, Miramax now appears to be
moving "Gangs" once again -- back to fourth quarter of 2002.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MTV UK: When Bono Met Bush (3-18-2002)
From MTV UK:

When Bono Met Bush

Rock star and global rights activist Bono met with US President George Bush on
March 14 to discuss third world debt and the AIDS epidemic sweeping Africa.

Bush told Bono, who was sporting his trademark shades, that the US would pledge
$5 billion to aid the fight against poverty in the third world. The President
stated,
"Nobody should be living in poverty," and praised Bono for working hard to
"achieve
what his heart tells him."

According to Bono, Bush is strongly behind the campaign to fight AIDS in Africa,
describing the epidemic as "genocide" in African countries. "He just wants to
see
that the programmes are efficient," Bono said after the meeting.

The singer, who in recent times has been a strong campaigner for the Jubilee
2000
campaign to ease third world debt, has already met up with the likes of Tony
Blair,
Nelson Mandela, former US president Bill Clinton, UN leader Kofi Annan and the
Pope in his efforts to help the third world.

Later this month, Bono is due to visit Africa to take a close look at the
effects AIDS
has caused, as well as meeting US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to further
discuss the problem of huge debt owed to the Western world by African countries
and the third world in general.

Aside from his efforts in global development, Bono's not doing too badly in the
music
world either, with his band U2 picking up five gongs at this year's Grammy
Awards
recently.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MRIB: Washington Nicknames Bono 'The Pest' (3-18-2002)
From MRIB:

Washington Nicknames Bono "The Pest"

U2 frontman Bono, who's long been an advocate of aid to The Third World, has
apparently been given the nickname "The Pest" by his new friends in The White
House, in relation to his increasing lobbying on behalf of the globe's
disenfranchised.

Over the past year or so, the Grammy-winner has stepped-up his courting of such
powerful US politicians as rightwing Republican senator Jesse Helms and
president
George W Bush, an approach which seems to have paid-off in spades. On March
14th,
Bono appeared with Dubya, to announce an aid package of $5 billion that's aimed
at
the globe's poorest countries.

Despite the myriad accusations of hollow philanthropy, empty crusading and worse
which have been levelled at him, Bono is unrepentant in his belief that using
his
celebrity to get close to powerful politicians is the only way to go. "I'd have
lunch with
Satan if there was so much at stake," the man born Paul Hewson recently told The
Guardian, explaining, "I have friends who won't speak to me because of Helms.
But it
is very important not to play politics with this. Millions of lives are being
lost for the
stupidest of reasons: money... So let's not play, who are the good guys and who
are
the bad guys? Let's rely on the moral force of our arguments."

Unsurprisingly, Bono has misgivings about his position in the political arena,
explaining,
"I'm uncomfortable being a rich rock star, doing this. I'm unhappy with that
juxtaposition.
I would love not to be doing this - for someone else to do it who was not as
compromised
as me. That guilt has driven me to be a policy wonk."

For his part, veteran campaigner and Live Aid co-organiser Bob Geldof thinks
that Bono's
approach is valid, opining, "He's charming, he's persuasive. And the politicians
can go
home to their daughters and say: 'I had a meeting with Bono today.'"

Well, whatever the outcome of his efforts, Bono should at least be applauded for
having
a go.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time: Readers respond to Bono cover story (3-18-2002)
From Time:

Monday, Mar. 25, 2002
Bono's Mission

"After 20-plus years of great music, the melody that Bono has found to combat
poverty
and AIDS is undeniably his greatest hit."
JAY HEIMBACH
Alexandria, Va.

Thanks for the terrific article on U2's Bono and his efforts to save Africa from
financial
ruin [Music, March 4]. He's not a saint. He is a hardworking, real man, using
his gifts to
inspire us in song and make a difference in the world. Some issues are so
overwhelming
that most of us don't even try to fix them. Bono can't save the world by
himself, but like
others who have shown the way, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas
Gandhi,
he is proving that one man can make a difference.
CAROLINE HARTMAN
Minnetonka, Minn.

Bono may be smarter, better informed and more committed than other cause-happy
celebrities, but Africa's problems are larger than his ego. After living in
Africa nearly six
years, I returned to the U.S. with more questions than answers. But you don't
have to live
there to know that the continent is rife with corruption and that most foreign
aid does little
to enrich the life of the average African. Debt relief is a noble idea, but
until Africa can rid
itself of corrupt autocrats, it will probably be just another way for those
leaders to beef up
their fat Swiss bank accounts.
MOLLY LEUSCHEL
St. Albans, Vt.

In a society in which we seem to spend more time talking about what Britney
Spears is (or
isn't) wearing and who in Hollywood is sleeping with whom, it is refreshing to
see someone
with Bono's influence and fame doing something positive. Bravo, Bono!
DANA M. CAIN
Port Orchard, Wash.

I am a longtime U2 fan, not just because of the band's music but also because of
their
politics, their message and their Christian hearts. Can Bono make a difference?
Not by
himself. But the world is a better place because people like him are doing
something
positive. Bono's celebrity status may get him in the door, but his brains and
his sincere
heart are what keeps him at the table.
LISA RENNINGER
Bartlett, Ill.

Bono is more than a pop icon, more than a rock god, more than my idol. He's a
guy who
cares about the world around him and fights to right its wrongs. And that's what
makes
him so damn cool!
CHRISTINE CRESPO
Davie, Fla.

I am a 24-year-old Nigerian and have often viewed celebrities' "concern" for
Africa with
annoyance. My reaction to Bono was different; I was impressed. He is right in
advocating
not just debt relief but also the lowering of trade restrictions on African
countries. What
Africa needs is not gifts of fish but fair access to the fishing pond.
AMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
Mansfield, Conn.

--Can a pop star be a legitimate political activist? Some of you were skeptical
to the point
of scorn. "How easy it is for a windbag celebrity, who pays no price for being
wrong, to
throw his fame around and make grand pronouncements," criticized a reader from
Georgia.
"The court jester may attend important meetings," wrote a Floridian, "but he is
still just a
clown." Suggested a Louisianian: "If Bono wants to help the poor, he should
start by selling
his expensive sunglasses and wristwatch. Mother Teresa he's not." And a
Minnesotan was
downright caustic: "Can Bono save the world? Sure, when Cher cures cancer and
Britney
Spears has a plan for peace in the Middle East." Ouch.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boston Globe: AIDS overwhelms Africa, says Sachs (3-18-2002)
From The Boston Globe:

GREAT DECISIONS

AIDS overwhelms Africa, tests U.S. national morality

By JEFFREY SACHS AND SONIA EHRLICH SACHS

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Blantyre, Malawi -- The sight was shocking. Peering into the medical ward of
Queen
Elizabeth Hospital was like peering into a corner of hell. AIDS has overtaken
the
hospital.

Seventy percent of the medical-ward admissions are AIDS-related, but the
hospital
lacks the proper medications to treat the sick. So the patients come to die in
ever
increasing numbers, far beyond any capacity to manage.

Two to a bed; sometimes three to a bed. When the beds overflow, the next wave of
the dying huddle on the floor under the beds, to stay out of the way of
families, nurses,
and doctors passing through the wards. The constant low-level moans and fixed
gazes
of emaciated faces fill the ward.

These patients are dying of poverty as much as they are dying of AIDS.

In the next corridor is an outpatient service that offers AIDS drugs. Four
hundred or so
patients are successfully being treated with antiretrovirals. They are the tiny
fraction
who can afford to pay approximately $1 per day out of pocket for the medicines.

The treatment has been successful. CIPLA, the Indian generics producer, supplies
the
drugs; the patients take them twice a day and they get better. No great
complexity, no
unusual complications of toxicity, no struggles to achieve patient adherence to
the drug
regimen. Just a doctor prescribing medicines, and his patients responding.

A few miles away, one sees the implications of the dying fields that Africa has
become.
A village in Malawi is like a giant orphanage, in which a few elderly and
wizened
grandmothers look after the children of their dead and dying sons and daughters.

Enter a village and suddenly one is surrounded by dozens of children, a handful
of
elderly, and almost nobody of working age. On the day of our visit, it turns
out, the few
remaining men are off to a funeral. The grandmothers talk softly of their lost
children as
their orphaned grandchildren squat quietly nearby.

One grandmother shows us the rotting, bug-infested millet that she will use to
make the
gruel that keeps her and her wards barely alive. A beautiful young girl proudly
tells us
that she is in the second grade. She walks barefoot three kilometers early each
morning
to get to school. She wants to go to college, says her grandma. To make it, she
will have
to beat forbidding odds.

The rich world is an accomplice to the mass deaths in Africa. Why aren't U.S.
leaders
visiting the hospitals, villages and health ministries in Africa to ensure that
the United
States is doing all it can do to stop the deaths? Why aren't U.S. leaders
talking to
African doctors?

We are spending tens of billions of dollars to fight a war on terrorism that
tragically
claimed a few thousand American lives. Yet we are spending perhaps 1/100 of that
in
a war against AIDS that kills more than 5,000 Africans each day.

A report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health
Organization shows that a tiny share of rich-country income -- one penny of
every $10
of GNP -- would translate into 8 million lives saved each year in the poor
countries.

The rich world is running out of excuses. Every misconception we've heard about
treating AIDS patients -- that the drugs don't work in Africa, the patients
wouldn't adhere
to "complex" regimens, that the doctors aren't qualified or can't be trained --
has been
matched by similarly lazy misconceptions about foreign assistance.

We've been told that any aid would be wasted, that debt relief would be
squandered by
corruption. We've been told that it's not "cost effective" to spend a tiny
fraction of our own
income to save millions each year, as if it's cost effective to let a generation
die, to allow
the collapse of Africa's tottering health care system, and to stand by as tens
of millions
of children are orphaned.

Debt-relief foes in Congress have warned that the benefits of debt cancellation
would
never reach the poor. We found the opposite. In each country that we visited on
this
trip -- Malawi, Uganda, Ghana -- the government is pursuing a meticulous and
transparent process to ensure that budgetary savings from debt relief are
actually
channeled into urgent social sectors. The problem is not waste or corruption,
the problem
is that the extent of help from the U.S. and Europe is so meager in the face of
the
enormous crisis.

In a small room in Uganda, the intermingling of beauty and unnecessary suffering
touched us more deeply than we could have imagined. A singing troupe of
HIV-infected
individuals, all likely to die in the next few years for lack of access to
life-saving meds,
sang to us with great power, charm and bravery of their struggles.

Rock star Bono , traveling with our group, reached for his guitar. With haunting
beauty,
he responded with his magnificent ballad, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm
Looking For."
The Ugandans swayed rhythmically to his pure and gripping tones. The tears
flowed
freely.

The U.S. complicity in Africa's mass suffering, unless reversed, will stain our
country.
Africa is the place where we will confront our own humanity, our morality, our
purposes
as individuals and as a country.

Jeffrey Sachs is director of the Center for International Development at Harvard
University's Kennedy School of Government and chairman of the Commission on
Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organization. Sonia Ehrlich Sachs
is a pediatrician.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christian Century: Bono: 'Juxtapositioning' for the World's Poor (3-18-2002)
From The Christian Century:
Vol. 119 Issue 4
02/13/2002

BONO: 'JUXTAPOSITIONING' FOR THE WORLD'S POOR
by John Dart

One day the lead singer of U2 is joining billionaire Bill Gates at the World
Economic
Forum in New York in criticizing the U.S. for being stingy with aid for the
world's poorest
nations. The next day Bono is in New Orleans performing with his rock band
during
halftime at the Super Bowl.

Versed in the politics of economic aid for underdeveloped countries, Bono once
met with
Pope Paul John II to publicize the global campaign for debt relief in the Third
World. "Now
I am here with the pope of software, making another unusual juxtaposition," Bono
said at
a New York news conference with Gates of Microsoft fortune on February 2.

After announcing he was personally giving an added $50 million to fight the
spread of
AIDS, Gates decried the U.S. for being "the laggard" among world aid
donors--directing his
remarks to fellow panelist U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill on the third
day of the
economic forum, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

O'Neill politely brushed aside the criticism, saying that poor nations have
received "trillions
of dollars in aid over the years with precious little to show for it," evidently
counting the
bailouts of indebted countries. "The question is, how do we create a situation
so that people
become engines of economic progress, and not just objects of our pity?" O'Neill
said. Bono
responded that progress is impossible without basic health care. "Dead people
don't make
a great work force," he said.

Saying diplomatically that O'Neill's stance accurately reflects an American
distrust of foreign
aid, the singer disclosed that he will accompany O'Neill on a visit to Africa in
March. "The
great thing about hanging out with Republicans is that it is very unhip for both
of us," Bono
said. "There is a parity of pain there."

Bono appeared to handle the juxtaposition better than Konrad Raiser, general
secretary of
the World Council of Churches. Raiser was one of some 40 religious leaders
invited to
participate in the economic forum, ostensibly due to the religious elements in
some political
conflicts. Others included George Carey, archbishop of Canterbury (who declared
that a big
question mark hangs over capitalism, which "has to act within boundaries");
Cardinal Francis
Arinze, the Vatican's top interreligious official; and Desmond Tutu, former
Anglican
archbishop of Cape Town.

The WCC executive said he prefers collaborative efforts in contrast to the
forum's
"individualistic" approach. "It's a strange feeling," he told Ecumenical News
International. "I
can't get away from the sense that I'm in the wrong place." A critic of some
aspects of a
globalized economy, Raiser said he sympathized with an estimated 7,000 people
who
protested outside the meeting site. Thousands more attended an alternative World
Social
Forum in Brazil intended to counter corporate-driven globalization.

Some religious representatives felt caught in an odd kind of
damned-if-you-do-damned-if-
you-don't bind, reported Episcopal News Service. Religion (read "religious
extremism")
was attacked when it was seen as "deviant," but then held up as a kind of
paragon for all
that ails the world when it represented the impulse of peace and mediation.
Maybe there's
a song there, Bono.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dallas News: Too much Love (3-18-2002)
From The Dallas News:

Too much Love

Hole singer rhapsodizes on tangential issues at SXSW

03/17/2002

By THOR CHRISTENSEN / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN - Courtney Love picked the perfect quote with which to introduce herself
Saturday afternoon at the South by Southwest Music Conference.

"Darling, you're not a sociopath," she said, recalling what filmmaker Cameron
Crowe
once told her. "You just have debilitating ADD [attention-deficit disorder]."

And with that it was off to the races as the oft-vilified Widow Cobain rambled
for 80
minutes on 800 topics that popped into her head as she sat on the dais of a
packed
ballroom at the Austin Convention Center.

Her session was billed as a Q&A with Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times
music-biz reporter Chuck Philips. But the Hole singer mostly ignored his
questions,
demoting him to role of human TelePrompTer: Mr. Philips' main task was to help
her
each time she lost her train of thought.

Ms. Love's mental maelstrom was every bit as amusing as it was frustrating.
After
showing up nearly 30 minutes late ("We drank a little tequila last night"), Ms.
Love
dished, gossiped and made wild accusations about half the music industry, from
Bono ("He's more manipulative than me") to Christina Aguilera ("I almost got in
a
fistfight with her the other night").

She tried to dismiss inquiries about her lawsuit with the surviving ex-members
of
Nirvana ("It's just boring"), and she never quite settled on the advertised
theme of
the session: her contention that record companies are ripping off musicians.

Sure, she served up the usual hyperbole, equating record companies to slave
owners
and calling Recording Industry Association of America president Hilary Rosen
"the
devil." But whenever it came to specifics, she changed the subject -- usually to
herself.

After talking about her drug use, her favorite band (Black Rebel Motorcycle
Club) and
her sex life, she finally cut to the chase.

"I might not be educated," she said, "but I do have a high IQ."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dotmusic: Bono Meets Bush (3-18-2002)
From Dotmusic:

BONO MEETS BUSH

George Bush was joined by Bono in the White House last week as he promised
$5 billion to help the campaign against world poverty.

The U2 frontman met the US president at the Oval Office on Friday, as Bush
pledged the cash and commended Bonos numerous human rights causes.

He was also apparently very impressed with Bono's trademark wraparound
sunglasses. "I thought the President looked at them quite jealously," explained
the Irish rock megastar.

However, unlike his meeting with the Pope, Bono did not handover the shades
as a gift, insisting his latest pair were too expensive.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OCRegister: Royce meets with Bono (3-18-2002)
Condensed from OCRegister:

The Buzz

As chairman of the Africa subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, is used
to
dealing with diplomats. But last week the Fullerton Republican got up close and
personal
with U2 lead singer Bono, who is on a crusade to help the continent's sick and
poor.

Royce told the rocker at a meeting with a group of congressmen that he'll get on
board for
debt relief for struggling African nations if the relief gets tied to government
accountability
and environmental protection.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

San Francisco Chronicle: Bono on getting older (3-18-2002)
Condensed from The San Francisco Chronicle:

THE IN CROWD

In for the long haul
Leah Garchik

...at the recent Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Sean Penn
received
the Modern Master Award, he had one complaint about a montage of clips: "The
hardest part is the aging issue that I go through watching myself on the
screen." As
U2's Bono grows older, he's enjoyed growing respect for his political endeavors,
but
he told Gear magazine that he misses at least one aspect of being young.
Studying a
photo of himself at 21, he said, "the look in the eye was so much clearer. . . .
I had a
beautiful naivete. . . . I thought it was something that you had to get rid of,
and it's not
true. Innocence is much more powerful than experience."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsday: A Whole Lotta Love Visits Austin (3-18-2002)
From Newsday:

A Whole Lotta Love Visits Austin
By Glenn Gamboa

Austin, Texas - The always-controversial Courtney Love was the belle of the ball
at the South by Southwest Music Conference Saturday, and she did not disappoint.

For nearly 90 minutes, Love told the standing- room-only crowd about everything
from her groundbreaking lawsuit against the Universal Music Group, which touched
off the red-hot battle between artists and record companies over long-term
contracts,
to her plans to bully stars like U2 and R.E.M. into forming a musicians' union.
Love
said the mergers of the music companies in the past five years led to the
widespread
elimination of creative, artist-friendly executives in favor of cost-cutting
businessmen,
leading to poor results artistically and financially. "It is failing," Love said
of the music
industry. "Within three years, it will have failed."

In her freewheeling style, Love unveiled a string of startling claims, ranging
from a
music executive telling her, "If you were on my label, I would still have you on
Quaaludes" to her insider view of U2's recent success, which she claims almost
didn't
happen because the promotion budget of the band's Grammy-winning album was
higher than the record company wanted to pay.

After U2's Grammy win, Love said she stood on top of a stove at a celebration,
screaming about the need for a musicians' union. "Now it's time to step up," she
told
the post-Grammy party. "I will not be martyred."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guardian: America's shame: Foreign aid should be a US priority (3-18-2002)
From The Guardian:

America's shame: Foreign aid should be a US priority

It is not often that America, whose prosperity depends on the rest of the world,
peers outward and recognises the problems that blight the globe. Yet President
George Bush, with help from an unlikely axis of good between the rock star Bono
and rightwing Christian senators, appears to have belatedly embraced the notion
that aid can alleviate disease and poverty in a time of plenty. So America's
extra
Dollars 1bn a year will be welcome when it arrives. As is the European Union's
pledge to spend Dollars 7bn more on aid by 2006. The reason for the rustle of
new money is the start of the UN conference on financing and development in
Monterrey, Mexico. Two years ago the world's leaders, perhaps gripped by
millennial fever, offered bold promises to cut global poverty by 2015 -
including
halving those living in extreme poverty; universal primary education; and
reducing
by two thirds the child mortality rate. Fine goals, but they are in danger of
not being
realised because not enough cash is being spent. So large is the gap between
aspiration and reality that more than 10,000 children are needlessly dying every
day. Monterrey is the "show me the money" conference for poor nations. And
America is largely the reason why they have seen so little cash. Washington
blocked a pre-conference commitment to raise the amount rich countries spend
on aid to the UN target of 0.7% of gross national product, from the average of
0.22%.
The US's gesture diplomacy of last week cannot disguise the inadequacy of its
foreign aid policy. First, the US spends far too little on aid, even the new
cash barely
raises the development budget above 0.1% of its national income. Second,
Washington sees aid as a tool of foreign policy. Large sums of US development
money props up client states such as Egypt or the cash is "tied" so that the
poor
are forced to buy American goods. Third, only 17% of American aid goes to the
48 least-developed countries.

Where the US has a point is to question the effectiveness of aid. Aid works,
although its track record is patchy. Development money should be allocated not
just on need, but also ensuring that it can be spent effectively. In the past
too
much money has either funded corrupt politicians or subsidised unwanted
infrastructure projects. However campaigns to eradicate debilitating diseases in
Africa, for universal education in Asia and cutting Aids-related deaths in South
America have been spectacularly successful. As aid provides healthier, better
educated peoples in poor countries, the developed world needs to remove its
deeply unfair trade barriers so that developing economies provide jobs for
growing populations. Almost 40 "low income countries" rely on agriculture for
half of their export earnings, yet the richest countries spend Dollars 1bn a day
supporting their farmers to undercut produce from poor nations. The west also
protects the sort of basic manufacturing and service industries that are the
next
rung up the economic ladder for poor countries, depriving them of a potential
gain, according to the World Trade Organisation, of Dollars 344bn. Instead of
words, Monterrey needs to see action. Rich countries should get serious about
ending poverty and adopt Gordon Brown's ambitious goal to double global aid
spending to Dollars 100bn a year. The US, by matching EU aid spending levels,
could raise the figure to Dollars 85bn. This is the US leadership the world
needs.
Before Washington goes to battle with Europe over steel imports or Iraq over oil
and geopolitics, it should pause and ask itself: would it not be better to wage
war on poverty? The answer is, of course, yes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irish Mirror: Bono's on a Mission (3-18-2002)
From The Irish Mirror:

BONO'S ON A MISSION

STAR RUSHES AID TO NUNS AT FAMINE HIT HOSPITAL

ROCK STAR Bono took time out just hours before receiving his four Grammies
to pledge his help to an Irish-run mission in Africa which is battling famine.

The U2 singer was visibly moved when Sister Anne Carr brought him to visit a
hospital full of AIDS patients in Malawi during an African trip in January.

The Irish nuns also brought the world famous musician to visit impoverished
families struggling to survive in the community.

Since his visit two months ago the small southern African country has plunged
into crisis and they have sent out a desperate appeal for help. It is estimated
70
per cent of the 10 million population will be affected as the country slips into
famine.

A Government official in Malawi announced his country on the verge of starvation
on the night Bono picked up four Grammy awards in Los Angeles.

Spokesperson for the Medical Missionaries of Mary, Sister Isabelle Smith, said
they were grateful for the support of the campaigning singer.

She said: "He was waiting for the awards but he made a call to his office to
send
help to Malawi.

"Much of the world's media ignored this information but Bono didn't miss it.
Within
hours they were on the phone to the Medical Missionaries of Mary community in
Lilongwe offering assistance for the villages Bono had visited a few weeks
earlier."

Bono was in Malawi with the Director of the Harvard Institute for International
Development, Jeff Sachs, to address a summit meeting about debt relief for
southern Africa.

He insisted on seeing the scale of poverty and illness in the country before
attending the meeting.

Bono promised to return with politicians so that decision makers could see the
effects of policies on the people of poorer countries.

And after a meeting with the US President this week Bono admitted that he was
a "pest" of the White House.

However, President Bush praised the star for doing everything he can to "achieve
what his heart tells him and that is nobody - nobody - should be living in
poverty."

Bono, who has already met former US President Bill Clinton, questioned George
Bush about the AIDs epidemic sweeping Africa.

On a visit to Africa, later this month, the singer will add treasury Secretary
Paul
O'Neill to a lengthy list of world leaders - Tony Blair, Nelson Mandella, Kofi
Annan
and the Pope - who have his ear.

In Malawai Sister Mary Doonan, from Co Meath, took the U2 frontman to the home
of a widow with seven children who had gone without food for three days.

The one-roomed mud hut in which they lived was already starting to cave in due
to the rains which had just started.

Sister Mary had discovered a second family close by who were desperately
struggling to survive after their mother had been seriously injured.

She was waiting for more than six years for a wheelchair or crutches to help her
move around.

Sister Mary said: "They had little idea of the fame of their visitors, but they
had
grasped that they were 'friends from Ireland'.

"We are glad Bono and Jeff came to see us, because they are not only talking to
us but are also going to talk to the people who have power," said Sister Mary.

"It was a simple and friendly visit. I was deeply touched by his sensitivity and
astuteness as he met the people, and by his sense of compassion and how he
listened."

Now the Medical Missionaries are calling on Irish people to put pressure on the
Department of Foreign Affairs to help the starving Africa nation.

Sister Isabelle said: "The situation is desperate. One of the sisters in the
hospital,
Anne Carr, said they fed 600 this week from the Chaplain's funds.

"The patients were so hungry. The food the hospital provides isn't adequate to
meet the needs.

"The hospital resources are not reaching all the patients.

"The police are saying they are picking up bodies every night.

"The priests in the dioceses say imprudent management, drought and dictatorial
practices of the World Bank are at the root of the crisis."

She said Bono showed a deep understanding of the situation in Malawi during
his visit.

"When Sister Anne Carr brought him around the hospital they wanted her to take
him to see the private section. She was saying to herself 'Why are we going to
the
private floor?' but that was where they wanted her to bring him.

"When he came out Bono turned to her and sighed and said: 'This is what it could
be.'

"He meant it was the way it should be for all the people. It was semi-private
and
reasonably comfortable," Sister Isabelle said.

"The homes he was brought into were chosen by the local people before he came.

"A lot of them would never have heard of Bono but many were deeply touched by
Bono and Jeff."

The sisters felt he was a great listener. He was asking the right questions and
his
whole style of being with the children was great.

Sister Isabelle said there was a need for international action.

"It's a national disaster. Bono offered his help and told his office to get food
out
there but it needs much more than Bono," she said.

"There have been many attempts by popstars to bring attention to world crisis
and
it is very welcome.

"In a few weeks time they will be talking about a disaster."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irish People: Bono Tells Drummer Why U2 Must Always Come Second to Global Aid
(3-18-2002)
From The Irish People:

(YouTwo.net note: Unfortunately, we are not able to provide the photos that
should
accompany this article.)

THESE ARE THE POOR PEOPLE I WANT TO MAKE A BETTER WORLD FOR, LARRY

BONO TELLS DRUMMER WHY U2 MUST ALWAYS COME SECOND TO GLOBAL AID

THESE images show just why millionaire rock star Bono feels compelled to break
from
the studio and head for the Third World.

Despite criticism from fans and even a fellow band member about taking time off,
the
U2 frontman shows here that his real dream is about making the world a better
place -
not about promoting his own image.

Earlier this month Irish Sunday People revealed how the Dublin music king had
been
blasted by drummer Larry Mullen Jr for taking time away from the band.

Larry had said: "It does interfere with the band. "It's a four legged table and
with one leg
missing for short periods of time, the thing becomes a little unstable."

But the packed-out stadia and rock and roll lifestyle become insignificant when
you see
what Bono's really been up to out of the limelight.

Irish Sunday People has learned that the singer has been emotionally bowled over
by
the amazing works of an Irish-run mission in Africa.

Those who live there are on the verge of starvation.

Bono was visibly moved when Sister Anne Carr brought him to visit a hospital
full of AIDS
patients in Malawi during the trip in January.

The Irish nuns also brought him to visit impoverished families struggling to
survive in the
community.

Since his visit the small Southern African country has plunged into crisis and
they have
sent out a desperate appeal for help.

It is estimated 70 per cent of the ten million population will be affected as
the country
spirals towards hunger.

A Government official in Malawi announced that his country was on the verge of
starvation
on the very night Bono picked up four Grammy awards in Los Angeles.

Spokesperson for the Medical Missionaries of Mary Sister Isabelle Smith said
they were
grateful for the singer's support.

She said: "He was waiting for the awards but he made a call to his office to
send help to
Malawi.

"Much of the world's media ignored this information but Bono didn't miss it.

"Within hours they were on the phone to the Medical Missionaries of Mary
community in
Lilongwe offering immediate assistance for the villages Bono had visited a few
weeks
earlier."

Bono visited Malawi with the Director of the Harvard Institute for International
Development,
Jeff Sachs, to address a summit meeting about debt relief for the countries in
Southern
Africa.

He insisted on seeing the scale of poverty and illness in the country before
attending the
meeting.

Bono promised to return with politicians so that decision-makers could see the
effects of
policies on the people of poorer countries.

Sister Mary Doonan, from Co Meath, brought the U2 frontman to the home of a
widow with
seven children who had gone without food for three days.

The one-roomed mud hut in which they lived was already starting to cave in due
to heavy
rain.

Sister Mary had discovered a second family close by who were struggling to
survive after
their mother had been seriously injured.

She was waiting for more than six years for a wheelchair or crutches to help her
move
around.

Sister Mary said: "They had little idea of the fame of their visitors, but they
had grasped
that they were "friends from Ireland".

"The villagers said afterwards, 'We are glad Bono and Jeff came to see us,
because they
are not only talking to us but are also going to talk to the people who have
power.'

"There was no fuss anywhere he went," said Sister Mary.

"It was a simple and friendly visit. I was deeply touched by his sensitivity and
astuteness
as he met the people, and by his sense of compassion and how he listened."

Now the Medical Missionaries are calling on Irish people to put pressure on the
Department of Foreign Affairs to help the starving Africa nation.

Sister Isabelle said: "The situation is desperate. One of the sisters in the
hospital, Anne
Carr, said they fed 600 people this week from the Chaplain's funds.

"The patients were so hungry. The food the hospital provides isn't adequate to
meet the
needs.

"The hospital resources are not reaching all the patients.

"The police are saying they are picking up bodies every night.

"The priests in the dioceses are saying imprudent management and drought and
dictatorial practices of the World bank are at the root of the crisis."

She said Bono showed a deep understanding of the situation in the Malawi during
his
visit.

"When Sister Anne Carr brought him around the hospital they wanted her to take
him to
see the private section. She was saying to herself 'Why are we going to the
private floor?'
but that was where they wanted her to bring him.

"When he came out Bono turned to her and sighed and said: 'This is what it could
be'.

"He meant it was the way it should be for all the people. It was semi-private
and reasonably
comfortable.

"The homes he was brought into were chosen by the local people before he came.

"A lot of them would never have heard of Bono - but many were deeply touched by
Bono
and Jeff.

"The sisters felt he was a great listener. He was asking the right questions and
his whole
style of being with the children was great."

She said the situation now desperately needs to be highlighted.

"It's a national disaster.

"Bono offered his help and told his office to get food out there and while
that's great it
needs much more than Bono.

"There have been many attempts by popstars to bring attention to the world
crisis and it
is very welcome.

"In a few weeks time they will be talking about a humanitarian disaster.

"What they really need is sustained international attention to this crisis."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Globalist: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (3-18-2002)
From The Globalist:

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

From traditional tunes to the songs of wildly successful rock groups such as U2
and the Corrs, Ireland has given the world an overflowing pot of musical gold.
Yet, what precisely has the country received in return? It's a question that
Irish musicians asked almost five years ago - in the halls of the EU and the
WTO. The eventual answer garnered Irish (and other European musicians) millions
of dollars in compensation for unpaid royalties - and forced a change in U.S.
copyright law as well?

Irish music is a pervasive cultural force in the United States. Of course, one
can quantify the sales of albums by popular musicians such as U2 (which has sold
10 million copies of its latest recording) or the Corrs (who sold one million
copies of their last CD). Then, add in all the traditional Irish music played in
the numerous Irish bars in the United States. That's a lot of music - and a lot
of money too.

Low returns

Back in 1997, the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) noticed that something
smelled funny in this cultural exchange. Ireland's musicians were exporting a
lot of music, but the royalties they imported from the United States were not
what one would expect from the amount of Irish music sold and played on radios
and television in the mighty US of A.

Ireland's musicians were exporting a lot of music, but the royalties they
imported from the United States were not what one would expect.

On behalf of Irish musicians, the IMRO decided to do something about it. So they
went to the EU Commission - which took note of the mournful Irish tune on music
royalties. In 1999, the EU took the case to the WTO.

The Europeans argued that an exemption from U.S. copyright law for some U.S.
bars and restaurants was cheating the continent's musicians of millions of
dollars in royalties.

A game of chicken

Usually, under U.S. copyright law, any "public performance" of a song requires
the payment of a royalty to that song's owner. But an odd U.S. copyright escape
hatch - dubbed the "Aiken exemption" - came about in 1975 as a result of a
uniquely American copyright tussle.

The two U.S. organizations that have long collected royalties on behalf of
musicians and copyright holders - BMI and ASCAP - once targeted all public
spaces in the U.S. that played music to make payments to its members.

But 26 years ago, when a U.S. copyright holder sued a small Pittsburgh chicken
restaurant for copyright infringement, a loophole emerged. The defendant,
restaurateur George Aiken, played music from a radio in his small dining
establishment.

Eventually, however, Aiken won the case in the U.S. Supreme Court. Thus, an
exemption for smaller establishments from the "public performance" section of
U.S. copyright law was born.

Barroom brawl

However, as time progressed, the scope of the Aiken exemption grew larger and
larger. Twenty years late, in 1995, BMI and ASCAP struck a bargain with
lobbyists for the restaurant industry to exempt all establishments under 3,500
square feet in size (or 1067 square meters) and with less than three TVs or
radios from paying royalties collected.

Many U.S. restaurant and tavern owners found ingenious ways to squeeze their
establishments under that bar set by the agreement, such as switching the
compact disc players and turntables that they had installed in their bars to
radios and television, or enlarging their dining spaces - where no music was
played - and shrinking the space of their bar areas.

The case is different in Europe. There, all public establishments - no matter
what the size - are liable to pay copyright fees for music. An IMRO spokesperson
told the newspaper Scotland on Sunday in 2000 that "U.S. copyright law does not
give the same level of protection to European songwriters as we give to American
songwriters."

Fair trade winds

The WTO considered both the U.S. and the European positions on the matter. In
July 2000, that organization's Dispute Settlement Body ruled against the United
States and its loophole for small restaurants and bars. The WTO gave the United
States a year to abandon the Aiken exemption - and to find a way to compensate
Irish and other European musicians.

More than a year later, the U.S. and the EU finally settled on a total of $3.3
million to remunerate Europe's musicians. The United States also agreed to fix
its copyright laws to reflect the agreement. The EU's Trade Commissioner, Pascal
Lamy, a feisty Frenchman always willing to battle hard for the bigger EU camp,
joked that the agreement "will bring a smile to Irish eyes in particular."

It will also make a sound as sweet as any made by Ireland's talented singers and
fiddlers as well - the ring of coins in musicians' coffers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boston Globe: U2 mention in Irish cities article (3-18-2002)
Condensed from The Boston Globe:

Dublin is the political and cultural capital of Ireland, a city both modern
and historic. It's a vast city, but visitors can see plenty without traipsing
all
over town. Parnell Square alone is home to three museums that show
very different sides of Dublin. The Dublin Writer's Museum showcases
the work of writers everyone knows were Irish, such as Oscar Wilde,
along with those people don't always associate with Ireland, such as
Bram Stoker, whose Dracula is said to be modeled on the habits of
some Dubliners to stay out all night drinking and then sleep all day. A few
doors down is the Hugh Lane Gallery, a free gallery of works by artists as
varied as James Whistler, John Singer Sargent. and Francis Bacon.

Around the corner from the art gallery, the National Wax Museum is an
exercise in the ridiculous. Madame Toussaud's it isn't. But the maze of
rooms and displays will give you a good laugh. The museum features
bad wax replicas of mostly Irish personalities, with a few seemingly
random choices thrown in, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Thankfully, the models are all labeled, so visitors can identify Prince
Charles and Princess Diana circa 1982 and a seemingly unrecognizable
U2 lounging on a beach.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Denver Post: Big contributions from a tiny island (3-18-2002)
Condensed from The Denver Post:

Big contributions from a tiny island

Test your knowledge of Irish-linked culture

By Colleen Smith
Special to The Denver Post

Sunday, March 17, 2002 -

Credit the Blarney Stone, a lively pub life or all that
romantic mist: The Irish tend toward expression.
Given the diminutive size of the Emerald Isle, perhaps
no other nation is a larger powerhouse when it comes
to gifting the world with art, particularly music and
literature. 'Tis the test of your knowledge of the
influence of the Irish imagination.

4. Van Morrison launched his
career as lead singer for this Irish
band:

a) U2

b) Them

c) The Commitments

d) The Shamrocks

15. This year, this Irish band performed at the Super
Bowl and subsequently won four Grammys:

a) The Black and Tans

b) U2

c) St. Brendan and the Navigators

d) The Dead Kennedys

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guardian: Part 2 - Pro Bono (3-18-2002)
Ann Pettifor, who headed the Jubilee 2000 campaign, knew a publicity coup when
she saw one. "I flew to Dublin to talk him through it," she says. "I explained
Sabbath economics - the idea that every seven days you stop consumption and
exploitation, and every 49 years you write off debts and free slaves. It was the
opposite of globalisation, and Bono got very excited."

According to Geldof, a weekend that the two musicians spent at Chequers with
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown established that "we were pushing at an open door".
They had a good-cop, bad-cop routine, Bono joked to a friend. "Geldof rages at
the injustices served by the west on Africa while Bono comes in to ask politely
what we're all going to do about it," the friend recalls.

But they all knew that Washington needed to be on board if the campaign was to
succeed. So Bono turned to an old friend, Bob Shriver, a member of the Kennedy
clan and a record producer with excellent connections with Democrats on Capitol
Hill, and some pretty good Republican links through his brother-in-law, Arnold
Schwarzenegger.

Meanwhile, the US wing of Jubilee 2000 hit on the idea of persuading the
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Baptist, to write a letter to Baptist
churches across southern US states explaining the Biblical principles behind
debt cancellation. Suddenly, Bono found he had access to a swathe of strongly
Christian Republicans compelled by his Biblical theme - what Bono calls "the
melody line" of his pitch. "We knew we had to get both sides," he explains. "So
we got Billy Graham and the Pope and I went to people like Jesse Helms, who had
been very tough on the the concept of foreign assistance and very bleak on Aids.
He's a religious man so I told him that 2103 verses of scripture pertain to the
poor and Jesus speaks of judgment only once - and it's not about being gay or
sexual morality, but about morality. I quoted that verse of Matthew chapter 25:
'I was naked and you clothed me.' He was really moved. He was in tears. Later he
told me he was ashamed of what he used to think about Aids."

All the time spent on Capitol Hill began to pay off when members of the Bush
administration finally agreed to meet with Bono, often in Geldof's company.
First came Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, whom Geldof describes as "one of
the smartest people I've ever met". Secretary O'Neill was still sceptical, but
relented after his chief of staff met Bono last May. Three weeks later, Bono was
back in Washington to meet O'Neill again - and now he has persuaded O'Neill to
accompany him to Africa in May to prove to him that aid and debt relief can
really work.

Then White House advisors Josh Bolton and Karl Rove agreed to meet, from whence
followed last week's appearance with the president. All parties were presumably
too tactful to recall U2's ZooTV tour, in the early 1990s, when Bono would call
the White House nightly from an onstage telephone to lambast a hapless
receptionist about US policy in Central America.

Bush's announcement on foreign aid astonished development experts: they had
already written the obituaries for Monterrey, the UN summit on development
finance in Mexico which opens today, blaming US unilateralism for killing it
off. But Bono, unlike many of the other development lobbyists in Washington,
kept on going after the Republicans took over the White House. He was convinced,
he told sceptical aid experts, that the Republicans were taking him seriously -
and Bush's extraordinary testimony to Bono's influence was vindication. As the
president put it in his speech: "Dick Cheney walked into the Oval office, he
said, 'Jesse Helms wants us to listen to Bono's idea.'"

Everyone involved in Bono's energetic coalition-building over recent months
agrees on one thing: the singer knows his stuff. "Every time you go into these
meetings you're surrounded by civil servants who know their stuff, even if the
protagonist doesn't. So you have to be au fait with the issues," says Geldof.
"For a summer, we had a high-level tutorial until we completely knew this boring
shit backwards. Bono's an exceptionally clever man, and he's also a paddy, so
he's very verbal. He was... jesuitical."

The combination of rock singer with someone who knows the issues is a strange
one; Bono knows this, and he has been deft in exploiting it. Calculatedly, he
never drops the superstar routine - the louche T-shirts, the informality, the
shades worn while meeting the Pope - while stunning besuited powerbrokers with
his knowledge of debt sustainability ratios and aid flows. If he understands the
importance of mastering his subject, Bono also has a keen sense of how to
exploit his celebrity. "It doesn't matter who you are - he is the pop star of
record," says Geldof. "He's charming, he's persuasive. And the politicians can
go home to their daughters and say: 'I had a meeting with Bono today.'"

The mild irony of the multi-millionaire performer appointing himself spokesman
for the world's poor isn't lost on Bono either. "I'm uncomfortable being a rich
rock star, doing this. I'm unhappy with that juxtaposition. I would love not to
be doing this - for somebody else to do it who was not as compromised as me.
That guilt has driven me to be a policy wonk. It makes me queasy to turn up just
for the photo opportunity so I turn up for the briefing as well. I go to bed
with World Bank reports. These issues are bigger than whether it makes me
comfortable or not. So the band might cringe, I might wince, but I went to
Washington to get a cheque and I'm going back to get a bigger one."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guardian: Part 1 - Pro Bono (3-18-2002)
From The Guardian:

Pro Bono

When George Bush announced a $5bn hike in US aid last week, many were surprised
by the figure at his side - the same Irish rock star who once routinely
denounced the president's father. Bono tells Madeleine Bunting and Oliver
Burkeman how he wooed Washington

Monday March 18, 2002
The Guardian

Senator Jesse Helms is 80 years old. He walks with a four-pronged cane. A
fearsomely rightwing evangelical Christian, he has repeatedly exploited racial
prejudice in his election campaigns. He believes that homosexuals are "weak,
morally sick wretches", and a couple of years ago, he endorsed a report entitled
"There Is A Virus Loose Within Our Culture", which blamed violence in America on
Satan's involvement in the music industry. For these and many other reasons, he
stood out somewhat when he attended his first rock concert last June, a sell-out
date in Washington DC on U2's Elevation Tour.
"People were moving back and forth like corn in the breeze," the wide-eyed
senator reported, seeking metaphorical inspiration in the landscape of his
native North Carolina. "When Bono shook his hips, the crowd shook their hips...
[It] was the noisiest thing I ever heard," he added, noting that he hadn't been
able to make out most of the words. But he was taken with Bono. "The senator is
very much a fan of Bono," says Lester Munson, one of his senior staffers,
failing to disguise his incredulity. "Or that's my sense from hearing him talk
all the time about this person who now seems to be his favourite rock star."

The Bono/Helms axis may seem entirely improbable to the average owner of Achtung
Baby and The Joshua Tree. And when Bono appeared alongside President Bush last
week at the announcement of a historic $5bn aid package for the world's poorest
countries - declining to remove his blue shades and matching the president's
chummy wave with a peace sign - it might have looked like another standard-issue
photo opportunity.

In fact, it was the culmination of an assiduous effort to court Washington's
Republican elite - and the first public sign of an extraordinary hub of
influence that has emerged at the centre of American government. It embraces the
religious right, the counterculture-phobic Bush conservatives, the anti-Aids
crusaders, and the normally beleaguered international-aid lobby. And most
extraordinary of all, it was constructed by a 40-year-old singer from Dublin
with no surname who is more accustomed to hanging out with musicians called The
Edge.

Back home in Dublin this weekend, Bono - affectionately known as "The Pest" by
his new friends in the White House - was quietly satisfied with his latest
mission. "It's a downpayment. It's not where we need to be. The administration
has now committed itself to an Aids initiative at some point in the next year.
Once my foot is in the door, I'm hard to get out."

There is nothing new about rock activism, of course. Bob Geldof, a close friend
of the U2 singer, epitomised the old approach: raise money, raise public anger,
pile the pressure on the politicians. But Bono - working in collaboration with
Geldof - has pioneered a new kind of celebrity activism: he is a lobbyist, not a
fundraiser. "Usually, famous faces are used to getting media attention," says
Lucy Matthew, one of two key behind-the-scenes players in Bono's campaigning
(the other is Jamie Drummond, of the Drop the Debt campaign). "But now Bono and
Bob spend time on meetings, phone calls, how to get people on side, much more
than on photo opportunities.

It's a strategy that comes with risks. Is it possible to appear in public with
the likes of Helms and Bush and preserve that precious commodity - street-cred?
If it's not, says Bono, it's a price worth paying. "Edge was pleading with me
not to hang out with the conservatives. He said, 'You're not going to have a
picture with George Bush?' I said I'd have lunch with Satan if there was so much
at stake. I have friends who won't speak to me because of Helms. But its very
important not to play politics with this. Millions of lives are being lost for
the stupidest of reasons: money. And not even very much money. So let's not
play, Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Let's rely on the moral
force of our arguments."

And Bono has not stinted from making those arguments at every opportunity. In
the past year alone, there have been frequent meetings in Washington and an
eight-day trip in January to Uganda, Malawi and Ghana with the influential
Harvard economist, Jeffrey Sachs. Then an exhausting dash along the East Coast -
a rehearsal for the Super Bowl halftime slot in New Orleans, followed by
intensive schmoozing with Republicans at their get-together in West Virginia,
where he met with White House adviser Josh Bolton before joining Bill Gates and
treasury secretary Paul O'Neill on a panel on the effectiveness of aid at the
World Economic Forum in New York. For two days, Bono shuttled between
discussions on development and recording studios. Then it was back to New
Orleans for the Super Bowl.

Bono has done his fair share of the old-style rock politics, helping Geldof with
Live Aid and supporting Greenpeace and Amnesty International. But it was the
Jubilee 2000 campaign - the simple, Biblical idea of cancelling third world debt
for the millennium - that captured his imagination and set him on course to
becoming a backroom powerbroker. "He rang me and said he'd like to do another
Live Aid concert," Bob Geldof remembers. "I said, 'It's not going to work.'
These are very dry, empirical, economic arguments, and it needs something
different. The main thing he's got is access because of his fame - and the only
route I was prepared to go was one that would move the political agenda... It's
embarrassing and pathetic that people who have celebrity have access, but if
that's the case, let's fucking use it, you know?"

(Continued)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boston Herald: U2 mention in The Saw Doctors review (3-17-2002)
From The Boston Herald:

THE SAW DOCTORS
``Villains?'' (Shamtown)

Back home in Ireland, the Saw Doctors are almost as popular as Guinness.
But these Emerald Isle rockers don't take after U2. Pretentious they're not.
Easy to like they are.

On ``Villains?'' these beer-and-potato rockers expand their friendly sound and
stylistic range without getting too fancy. The ominous but catchy title cut
features a near-rap vocal, but nothing that will scare a hip-hop hater.
Elsewhere the Doctors prescribe old school r & b horns for an energy boost.
Their great strength - melodic, no-nonsense Anglo-American pub rock with a
Celtic aura - remains intact.

They have a reputation as a rabble-rousing live act, but the Saw Doctors'
weakness shows on slow songs. They want to come off as sincere and sensitive on
``Still Afraid of the Dark'' and
``I Know I've Got Your Love'' - titles that tell you all you need to know - and
sound sappy instead. But better sappy
than pretentious. Tonight at the Roxy. LARRY KATZ

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Observer: Grogans Bar description (3-17-2002)
Condensed from The Observer:

Grogans Bar
15 South William Street, +353 1 677 9320

From its fake wood-panelled walls, to its green leatherette bench
seating, circa 1972, Grogans is an interior decorator's
nightmare, but in terms of soul, it's got plenty. Less than five
minutes walk from Grafton Street, it hosts a permanent art
exhibition with the majority of the works contributed by its
clientele.
High point: Tommy, the most gallant bar owner in Dublin with
some of the best stories
Low point:
The occasional irritating drunk
Beer: Guinness IR£2.50
G&T: IR£3.30
House wine: 25cl bottle IR£3
Food:Toasted cheese sandwich IR£1.50
Music: None
Popular with: Builders, barristers, actors, musicians, painters,
students and assorted senior citizens. U2's Bono occasionally
pops in for a chat with the owner
Best for: Escaping from the Ireland promoted by tourist
brochures

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irish Independent: U2 mention in Stone Roses article (3-17-2002)
Condensed from The Irish Independent:

After the Stone Roses split up in 1996, their simian-faced leader seemed
destined
for career obscurity cum drug-hazed oblivion. For a time, the ganja-smoking roué
led the early Nineties Manc supergroup; their single Fools Gold was a seminal
classic. Oasis, Blur, the Verve and Primal Scream might never have come into
being without Brown and his coked-up cohorts.

"There were about three weeks in 1989 when everyone loved us," he says. "I
wasn't
on stage to be worshipped. I was with the crowd. We started out to finish groups
like U2 they're still the biggest band in the world, so we failed."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plain Dealer: U2 mention in Talking Heads article (3-17-2002)
Condensed from The Plain Dealer:

"We were . . . dealing with subjects that weren't always normal for rock or
pop," Byrne says. "Mixing arty rock or whatever with a lot of dance and
groove things - well, that's what a lot of music is now. I'm not taking credit
for it. But I'm saying that's what we were doing."

Harrison hears echoes of Talking Heads in a range of other groups, from
U2 to R.E.M. to the Police.

"Everyone in Talking Heads certainly didn't start out trying to be a virtuoso
musician," Harrison says. "We embraced the idea of short, to-the-point
songs that we found a way to express. . . . The spirit of punk is, if you
have something to say, you will find the means to say it, whether you've
taken music lessons or not.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jakarta Post: U2 mention in Five For Fighting review (3-17-2002)
Condensed from The Jakarta Post:

Artist: Five For Fighting; Album: America Town
(Sony Music)

Five for Fighting is yet more proof of how ridiculous the
Grammy Awards can be.

Five was nominated for the best pop duo or group in
the vocals category, along with U2, R.E.M, N Sync
and Backstreet Boys, when it is not a real group or
even a duo at all.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glasgow Herald: Raise a Guinness to the cream of Irish talent (3-17-2002)
Condensed from The Glasgow Herald:

Green Day
Raise a Guinness to the cream of Irish talent

Teddy Jamieson

POP

U2

The one advantage of never being hip is you can never go out of fashion.
And U2 were never hip. Coming out of Dublin in the late seventies they
seemed too earnest in comparison to contemporaries like Joy Division.
What they had going for them was persistence, a genuinely innovative
guitarist in The Edge, a mean live act and time. By the mid-eighties
audiences were ready for their stadium -friendly worthiness. An
appearance at Live Aid catapulted them into the mainstream and they
spent the rest of the decade cementing their status as the world's biggest
rock band, via the The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum. They spent the
early nineties trying to reinvent themselves as cool Europhiles on
Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop. But we knew them too well. Still, last
year's album All That You Can't Leave Behind proved they can still sell
records, helped by their ability to knock off the odd soaring anthem like
Beautiful Day.

POLITICS

Bono Vox

Another musician turned missionary. Whether it's in his rabble-rousing
for Greenpeace, CND and Artists against Apartheid, or in his ability to drop
in on the Pope and Bill Gates in his role as spokesman for Jubilee 2000, the
U2 vocalist knows how to flex his political muscles. Sometimes he even
does it as part of his day job. Picking up an MTV award in Paris in 1995,
a time when Jacques Chirac's government was running nuclear tests in the
Pacific, Bono accepted the award piquantly. "What a city, what a night.
What a bomb. What a mistake. What a wanker you have for president."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NBC News Transcripts: Corrs are interviewed and perform on 'Today' (3-17-2002)
From NBC News Transcripts:

SHOW: Today (7:00 AM ET) - NBC
March 15, 2002 Friday

The Corrs are interviewed and they perform

ANCHOR: MATT LAUER

Announcer: TODAY's concert is brought to you by...

MATT LAUER, co-host: St. Patrick's Day is just a couple of days away, and
we decided to kick off the celebration a little early by inviting a
quintessential Irish
band to perform for us. We'll talk to them in a second, but right now, without
further
ado, ladies and gentlemen, The Corrs.

(Performance by The Corrs)

LAUER: The Corrs on a Friday morning. And they're back with another in a moment.
But first, this is TODAY on NBC. ***

LAUER: We are back talking to the members of The Corrs: Jim, Andrea, Sharon and
Caroline, in the back there, and I always feel bad, folks, because you've got
two other
musicians with you. Will you introduce them for us, as well?

Ms. SHARON CORR: Yes.

Ms. ANDREA CORR: On the lead guitar, it's Anthony Drennan, and Keith Duffy
on the bass.

LAUER: We thank them very much. Tell me a little bit about the new album. It's a
live
album, you recorded it in Dublin. Is this the first live album you've done?

Mr. JIM CORR: It's actually the second live album we've done, but it's the first
one
that's going to be released in America. And we--we got a chance to work with
Bono from
U2 and got a chance to work with Ron Woods from Rolling Stones, so we had a lot
of
fun doing it.

LAUER: Well, you've recorded a lot, but what's the energy difference when you're
recording something and, you know, it's going out and going to be recorded live?

Ms. S. CORR: The adrenaline is something else. I mean, it's quite a tough
challenge
to try and, you know, create something that visually seems good and also record
a live
album on the night, but it was great. It was great fun. We loved it.

LAUER: Couple of--not long ago you folks were in Washington, DC. You got to
perform for the president and Cardinal Egan. What was that like?

Ms. A. CORR: It was quite surreal, actually. It was--it was hard to take in that
we
were actually there, and that you're looking down, and you realize there's
President
Bush looking up at you and other very important people in history and in our
time.
I mean, it was quite--quite surreal.

LAUER: I can imagine. The other thing we have to talk about: Caroline. Tell me
about her husband. She broke a lot of hearts this year and actually got married.
How
did the family deal with that?

Ms. CAROLINE CORR: She did. I don't know--I don't know how many--how all
the men dealt with it, but she's married a very nice man called Gavin now. So it
was
good. We had a great time.

LAUER: Was it hard to bring someone and say to the family, 'OK, look folks, I'm
bringing someone else into this family'?

Ms. S. CORR: It wasn't actually, I mean, because we've been together about six
and
a half years so, I mean, right through king of the rise of our career and he's
been there,
so we've known each other a long time.

LAUER: Well, congratulations.

Ms. S. CORR: Thank you.

LAUER: Thanks for coming again. What are you going to sing for us now?

Ms. S. CORR: "Would You Be Happy."

Mr. CORR: A song, "Would You Be Happy."

LAUER: All right. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, The Corrs.

(The Corrs perform "Would You Be Happy")

LAUER: Jim, Andrea, Caroline and Sharon Corrs. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you
so much, and happy St. Patrick's Day.

We're back with much more on a Friday morning after these messages and your
local
news.

(The Corrs perform more songs)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tucson Citizen: U2 may contribute to Ramones tribute album (3-17-2002)
Condensed from The Tucson Citizen:

IN THE HALL
Isaac Hayes, the Ramones and others get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

POLLY HIGGINS
March 16, 2002

Johnny Ramone responded to his band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in an
expected, rather nonchalant way.

"I didn't even want to go in," he said, calling from L.A.

But going in he is, along with the rest of the Ramones, as well as the others in
the class of 2002
- Talking Heads, Isaac Hayes, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Brenda Lee and
Gene Pitney. Jim
Stewart, who co-founded Stax Records (Hayes' label for many years), will be
honored in the
nonperformer category, and guitarist Chet Atkins is a "sidemen" inductee.

The ceremony takes place at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on Monday, and
it will be
broadcast on VH1 on Wednesday.

"Five years after the band, I thought I'd totally be forgotten. I was prepared
for that. Now, it's
like I'm overdosing on it," Ramone, aka John Cummings, said.

The death of the punk band's singer, Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), last April has
put the
band in the spotlight in recent months. Spin magazine named the New York
four-member group
the No. 2 two band of all time, just behind The Beatles. And Sire Records,
Johnny said, was keen
on putting out a Ramones tribute album, though the project has since moved to
Rhino. (U2,
Rancid, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Garbage are among bands expected to
contribute, Johnny
noted.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Times Online: Bush salutes Irish in Chicago parade (3-17-2002)
Condensed from The Times Online:

Bush salutes Irish in Chicago parade

Residents come out to show president their
support during St. Patrick's Day Parade

Wire Service Reports
Posted on Sunday, March 17, 2002

CHICAGO -- President Bush marched in Chicago's
annual St. Patrick's Day Parade, capping a week of
White House events acknowledging Ireland's patron
saint.

Cheers and "thumbs up" signs from an enthusiastic
crowd greeted Bush, who waved and blew kisses and
shook hands with fire officials.

Bush walked a few blocks, flanked by GOP Gov.
George Ryan and Democratic Mayor Richard Daley
along Columbus Drive...

The visit came at the end of a week in which Bush
honored Northern Ireland officials at the White
House, attended a St. Patrick's Day luncheon on
Capitol Hill, and enlisted Irish rock star Paul "Bono"
Hewson to help announce $5 billion in new U.S. aid to
developing nations.

Bush came to Chicago because "he wanted to join in
the St. Patrick's Day Parade and celebrate it with
Chicagoans, one of the largest Irish communities in
America," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan
told reporters on Air Force One.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daily Mirror: Bono's Friends (3-17-2002)
Thanks to Dave for the scan of ''Bono's Friends''
from the Daily Mirror:

http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/bonosfriends.jpg

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Releases:
April 1. Craig Armstrong's 'As If To Nothing'; features
collaboration with Bono and The Edge on new acoustic version
of 'Stay (Faraway, So Close)'
November. U2's 'Best of 1991-2001' (RUMOR)
--------------

TV/Live Events/Appearances:

---------------

In Print:

People Magazine, March 4 issue (p. 73), Bono interview

--------------

Fan Club Meetings

Please email eliz...@youtwo.net with your fan club meeting
details.

--------------

Work from home and earn $125-$175 an hour!!
Click here to learn how.
http://by.advertising.com/1/c/71054/47902/163081/163081

--------------
U2News: http://www.YouTwo.net
The only DAILY updated U2 News page is brought
to you by the letter U and the number 2.

[m.p]

>
--------------------------------------------------------
--------

>San Francisco Chronicle: Bono on getting older (3-18-2002)
>Condensed from The San Francisco Chronicle:

> As
>U2's Bono grows older, he's enjoyed growing respect for his
>political endeavors, but
>he told Gear magazine that he misses at least one aspect of
>being young. Studying a
>photo of himself at 21, he said, "the look in the eye was so
>much clearer. . . . I had a
>beautiful naivete. . . . I thought it was something that you
>had to get rid of, and it's not
>true. Innocence is much more powerful than experience."

3/21/02

Spring is here. Innocence is of the heart, while
experience is of the mind and so Bono may be right when
he says that 'innocence is much more powerful than
experience'. A clearing of the heart, a breathing into
it, does wonder for a confused mind.

And so one must not undervalue the power of innocence
and self renewal and yet -and yet- one should not
hesitate at times to go and get caught in the tangles of
experience, in the lessons of incarnation, in the
confusion of the traffic. One must not seek to entirely
avoid getting entangled in other human lives, for those
are to be a mirror for our reflections. Having said
that, let me quickly add that it is wise and useful to
call on Your Innocence to come join you on the
battlefield, in the midst of the battle, in the midst of
the live experiencing that often threatens to paralyze
the great joy that you can find within. In truth , there
is innocence in the * Rejoice* of the soul. And
rejoicing the soul can , not only because it is
eternal, but also because it is eternally young and
vital. You can call on the innocence that always stands
by you. Do call, call on it and let her come close; then
breathe it/her into your heart.

Inhale, breathe it into your center, then exhale,
breathe it out unto the world.....
Well... something like that anyway....;)
close enough to be experienced ;)

For those who keep their eyes open to the suffering in
the world, and refuse to be blinded by fear and terror,
it is easy to feel the nausea of life coming on at
times. The stench of disease, terror, and death that
surrounds us is huge now, in Africa and also elsewhere.
It is more important than ever to remember and reconnect
to the musica, to keep relating to her, to keep her
alive; simply because with the music the soul can feel
itself coming alive again and the soul is whole. And
when one remembers that the soul is eternally young and
whole, then even if the body and the mind are torn and
anguished, there is no need nor obligation to fear.

BEST WISHES for a happy co-creating U2! I hope U 2 will
indeed be in the flow to deliver a new album this year.
I certainly would like to journey and travel on with
your renewing and renewal music.

Melia

-

[Canadanne aka Anne Stacey]

Melia! Long time no see!

- Annie Vox :o)

[m.p]

----------
In article
<20020321135657...@mb-ba.aol.com>,

cana...@aol.com (Canadanne aka Anne Stacey) wrote:

> Melia! Long time no see!
>
> - Annie Vox :o)

Happy to see you still dancing here Annie!

Melia

[Canadanne aka Anne Stacey]

Melia wrote:

<<Happy to see you still dancing here Annie!>>

Hehe... how's life treating you lately?

- Annie Vox :o)

[m.p]

----------
In article
<20020321192553...@mb-ch.aol.com>,

cana...@aol.com (Canadanne aka Anne Stacey) wrote:

Hehe-Hmmmm, that's no small question you are throwing my
way Voxie. But hey, from a friend to another, here is a
bit of an answer:

Last summer She (My Life) dealt me a deck full of huge
- and i do mean huge- changes. At first I was thrown off
balance but eventually decided to hop on the wild horse
again, only to realize it was not exactly a horse but a
freaked out bull. What could I do but take it by the
horns and ride the unexpected, let It reveal where It
wanted to lead me? Rather than fight the changes i
exploited them by deciding to go seek destiny on the
other side of the globe -- get a preview so to speak.
Then I came back -for a little while- to finish some
business here, untie some knots, thread the eye of the
rainbow needle with some blue -and white- even a bit of
red, and watch more T.V (because of the news). You
might say that I am visiting the inbetween spaces
between what is fast becoming my past and what appears
to be my future. Of course the present is the real gift
and so I do live it and want to enjoy it. And when the
red light turns green, i will pack my suitcase with the
very few things I will not leave behind, I will say
thank you to the blessed islands that have kindly hosted
me for so many years, and I will head back With A
Shout. I got a direction, I hold on to the dream.
Uncertainty is still one of my guiding lights but it
ain't the only one anymore. In between uncertainty and
certainty there is a whole field to play in; and I do
want to play.

----- And you Annie, if i may ask: what's the name of
your game these days?

Melia