Rose Bowl!!: Great day in Pasadena. A little warm, but gorgeous, sunny and a beautiful setting for the gig. This was my first experience queuing up with U2 fans – I had a ticket in Red Zone 2 (Adam’s side – yay!) and to ensure this shorty got on the rail with an unobstructed view of his lordship, I lined up early. The line was loaded with Bay Area people and organized by Nick and Brono from the bay. Eden was subbing for them when I came up, so I got my number (7) and hung out for the rest of the afternoon, making new acquaintances as people came up. Had a great time chatting with Deb and Lance, a guy from the East Bay. Lance and I were interviewed by KNX 1070 Newsradio, LA’s sister station to my beloved KCBS here in San Francisco.

Was pleased to get a great spot on the Red Zone 2 rail when they finally let us into the Rose Bowl. The stadium is a gorgeous, massive old thing sitting on lovely grounds in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The neighbors got an earful that night. The roar from the show’s one great surprise probably shattered windows. That surprise came during the Black Eyed Peas set, when they welcomed Guns n Roses’ Slash onto the stage and did “Sweet Child o’ Mine” with Fergie singing. WOW.

The U2 set itself wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t up to par with Las Vegas. First of all, the Rose Bowl leaves a great deal to be desired acoustically. Secondly, to use a racing term, there were “offs” by almost every member of the band at one time or another. But it was a great time spent with rabid Red Zoners with frequent visits to the catwalk by members of the band. (Catwalk was about 5 feet in front us with only an occasional security guard in between.) I could have gone home happy after the first time Adam came down our way – I got a twinkly-eyed smile from his lordship that curled my toes a bit.  :)

The entire show is archived on YouTube – over 10 million people watched as it streamed live.

My photos are here for now.

And here are a couple of video clips I took:

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Want to see Anaheim and Oakland on the second leg of this tour next June. Highly recommend it if you can get to a show – an amazing experience and setup that may never be repeated.

First U2 Gig: Flying into Vegas that morning, I snapped an iPhone shot of Sam Boyd Stadium with the giant hulking stage slumbering at one end.

I headed to Sam Boyd Stadium a bit early that evening and caught part of the soundcheck. Fans were gathered at various points around the perimeter cheering, dancing and singing along like it was the actual concert. Excellent vibe as we headed in to our seats – everyone was excited to be in such a small place – maybe 42K – to see a show that had been playing to much larger stadiums elsewhere. Not a bad seat in the house.

Really enjoyed the Black Eyed Peas set –  they know how to throw a great party. Then, my boys finally came on and after all these years, I saw U2 live. I was not disappointed. New songs and old came off really well and we were all dancing and singing along, having a great time. My very favorite part of the night was the elderly couple (60s at least) standing near me, singing and dancing like they were kids. Completely adorable.

My photos from the show are on Flickr for now.

I didn’t have a backup battery for the camera, so I only took small clips of video to capture lighting and screen effects. Here are two from Las Vegas.

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Loved the view from my seat and left the show one very happy camper…

FUBAR: Yahoo Messenger, that is. Last week, my contacts list disappeared and only partially re-appeared. Had to re-add folks, and sent just one request, but several folks are getting repeated requests. Doesn’t matter if they approve, deny or ignore. I’ve also had to delete and re-install the standalone client twice and haven’t been seeing some IMs that people send. Tried logging in using Trillian, but it refuses my attempts with undefined errors. Messy. If I seem to be ignoring you, send me a text or tweet instead. Those are still working. *sigh*

Rose Bowl Show On DVD/Webcast: I’ll be along the catwalk for U2’s show in Pasadena Sunday night, which will be filmed for DVD and webcast live on U2ube, a collaboration between the band and YouTube. Here’s the preview:

Faraway, So Close!: Next week, I cross another thing off The List – finally going to see U2 live! Vegas and Pasadena. They’re expecting 96K+ at the Rose Bowl, larger than the bowl game itself. Have plane tix, car and hotel reservations all set and am really looking forward to it. Surely will be the highlight of my year.

Damned-Near Perfect: There are only three things I would change about Miami: I’d have avoided a red eye flight if possible (it wasn’t) and not missed the first evening’s fun; I’d have made the weather 15 degrees cooler and half-again as humid as it was; and Shane Rogers would have heard his birthday wishes in person, right outside in the shade of the media center.

As it was, I was hot and tired and without @shagers for the extra laughs, but it was a funtastic time at Homestead for the IndyCar finale. My boy Dario won the race and the title, I at least had one good night out with my Tweeps, and I got to spend long, lovely mornings at the hotel with my pal J, who came down from central Florida and spent time with his music pals while I did race stuff.

I even got to see a few places besides the room and the track. Went to Coconut Grove for a bit, took in a meal and a sandy stroll in South Beach, and socialized in skanky Florida City, where race folks chased clandestine encounters or holed up in their seedy rooms for a little illicit online sex chat. Well, that’s the kind of town it seemed to be, anyway.

My room near the airport was quite nice – top floor, 10 stories up, facing a golf course with the Miami skyline in the distance. Lots of people moaned before the trip about how bad the traffic would be. I had no problems getting anywhere and only hit pockets of slower traffic at the Homestead exits on race day. Piece of cake.

The time at the track was spent hiding from the sun or crawling pit lane with fellow camera-toting Tweeps. Met some fantastic folks and really enjoyed Homestead. Had what looked to be a nice seat for the race, but spent the whole race in the pits, mostly pit-out, getting shots of cars and stars and being right there for the wife drama as the last laps unfolded: Emma Dixon gnawing on what looked like a plastic bag with ice in it; Ashley Judd taking a slow, measured walk down into turn one to shake off some nerves; both women, married to teammates, congratulating and consoling one another when the outcome was known. It was my first time to attend a championship-deciding race and the strategies and people drama lent some excitement to what was otherwise not a terribly notable race.

Already hating that the season is over…is it March yet?

Tweeps!: A group of us met near the media center at Homestead and recorded a little pass-the-mic-around podcast. Here’s how it looked:

And here’s how it sounded.

More to come…

Good to Go (at Last): Finally got plans set a couple days ago. I was waiting on someone to decide whether they would collaborate on accommodations only to discover I was being jerked around. What a shame – things were going fairly well with that one after a reeeeally bad start last year. Apologies to everyone who had to wait along with me – group ass kicking sound good?

The fun awaits – four members of Planet-IRL.com will be in the house and who knows what that will lead to! Got a decent seat for the race, and if I don’t get flaked-out-on, I should have pit access as well. The other three P-IRLers got our media credentials. Off track fun looks like it could be dangerous… If there’s time, I’ll post from the trip; otherwise, see ya once I recover.