OK, so perhaps it's time for a change in the topic. For today, I would like to share with you my latest musical obsession. U2. I've had Achtung Baby in my work computer for about a week non-stop, except for a short, guilty Ryan Adams-Rock and Roll break. All these songs I heard on the radio for years and years, with out really developing any attachment to, except out of a mild nostalgia for being in high school and college. And now, it's like I am hearing for the first time. I was arguably a lame-o musically in 1991 when Achtung Baby came out. I was obsessed with Bob Dylan and the Indigo Girls, which you know, each have their place in the American folk music cannon, but Jesus, why didn't I branch out a little then? I do have a vague memory of sitting in the dorm room with a boy that I dated my freshman year, while the wierd guy from across the hall, played the intro to Zoo Station over and over again and expounded on how it was lifted from a KMFDM song, but it was all lost on me, both Achtung Baby, and, clearly, the KMFDM references.

I had a brief brush with becoming a serious fan in 1997, when someone offered me a free ticket to the Popmart tour. You remember, the one with the big stage and screen display, that briefly garnered them all this attention. The Raleigh, NC show was canceled because the screen malfunctioned which soured me on them a little bit. (I didn't care much about the screen or the special effects, but I thought it would be cool to see them.) Then in the spring of 2002, when I was living in New York, still feeling the effect of 9-11, dealing with a death in my family, feeling a bit buffeted by inter-office politics, I took a personal day and happened to pick "All That You Can't Leave Behind" up from my roommate's stereo. That was it, I was devout.