Bono will never play the guitar again after his bike accident. [Buzzfeed]
Adam Sandler tops the list of most overpaid actors. [PopBytes]
“Jamie Lynn Spears Pulled a Knife at a Pita Pit” is already one of the best headlines of the year, amirite? [The Blemish]
Taylor Swift fell down some stairs on New Year’s Eve. [Pajiba]
Rest in peace, Edward Hermann. [Dlisted]
A compilation of 2014’s street slang. Or nah. [OMG Blog]
Who is Kristina Sofia and why is she posing for the paps? [Moe Jackson]
Iggy Azalea has TMJ, apparently. [Evil Beet]
Totally sketchball blind item reveal about Chris Brown & Ed Sheeran. [CDAN]
Laverne Cox got a Christmas card from Beyonce. [ICYDK]
I hope 2015 is the year we stop paying attention to Lena Dunham. [The Frisky]
Was a disgruntled, fired employee the real Sony Hacker? [IDLY]
Did Lady Gaga & Taylor Kinney get engaged? [Bitten & Bound]
Katy Perry rides the subway. [Seriously OMG WTF]
My husband loves Adam Sandler movies.
I slobber in my sleep and leave the twist tie off the bread so…I guess it evens out.
Taterho, NO ONE deserves a Sandler-loving husband, no amount of drooling compares. Please click the ruby shoes together and get out of there.
Noooo I can’t!! I wuv him too much!
He makes me toast wif bananas and peanut butter and buys me fuzzy green Grinch pajamas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have to allow him one hideous vice.
*I’m melting…what a world what a world*
I have a soft spot for some of his earlier work, but most of the last ten years worth of material has just been painful.
Sandler’s real comedies like The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates are good. But his slapstick comedies are horrible.
Those tolerable* Sandler comedies are outliers, though. His body of work, collectively, is trash, unfunny, sophomoric and embarrassing. And (where’s that German word?) I can’t even suffer embarrassment FOR HIM, because the expectation from the get is that he is a douche with limited talent who must have a huge blackmail file on someone in Hollywood (I kid, or do I?), for him to even be putting out more of the same unbearable tripe.
* I say tolerable because even his best films are not genius, uproariously funny or particularly clever.
I don’t like U2, but that’s sad. I hope there’s a way to reverse that. Not that he’s great, but you know he loves playing.
Supposedly the other folks in U2 hate it when Bono plays the guitar anyhow. He’s the lead singer, not the guitarist.
•InvaderTak•
Replacement elbows supposedly suck. A lot. Because, unlike other replacement joints, they aren’t very functional. I know, because I might need one someday and I’m not looking forward to the prospect.
Agreed. It’s unfortunate he’s injured so badly, and I suspect that playing the guitar may not be the only motion that ends up being limited for him.
I feel bad for Bono. It’s bad injuries, especially for a guitarist, and he plays on stage a lot. His last tour they had to stop for back surgery and then restart after he healed.
He’s not a spring chicken, and tours are a big undertaking. I loved the promo they were doing overseas for this album They were doing a lot of acoustic performances. They were doing radio performances acoustic of mini concerts with like five songs off the album. They had been impassioned about promoting, and I appreciated it. Bono had quit smoking and his vocals are the strongest they’ve been in years. I was so excited for the U.S. promo to start and then the accident the day before their five-day residency with Jimmy Kimmel. It sucks. I know it’s a long recovery. I just hope he’s strong enough for the tour and his vocals stay strong. Don’t pick back up smoking, Bono, while recuperating.
This is an acoustic performance at the EMA’s this year. It literally was one of the best performances I’ve seen by Bono in 15 years and put the young acts to shame. And this song is actually being played on the radio, the standard version and the disc 2 version that is acoustic.
He absolutely blew me away with this performance below. It was a WOW moment and gave me chills. And we bought tickets because of how on fire they seem this era, very passionate about music again and that 2015 they are playing smaller venues to be more intimate and mix in acoustic versions, and 2016 will be stadiums. Get well, Bono.
Every Breaking Wave – 2014 EMAs This song is so beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cszigsFaChc
Sad for Bono, I guess, but not the rest of us.
true
Agreed.
Not really any loss there.
His guitar playing has never amounted to a hill of beans. It won’t be missed.
Agree. I think the guitar was used as a prop for the most part. Could never really hear his playing on stage….
He probably uses it though for writing songs. Either way get well soon. 55 is looming this May though.
Bono’s new years musings are lengthy, but worth a read —
http://www.u2.com/news/title/little-book-of-a-big-year/
Bono himself admits that neither the band “or Western Civilization” will miss him on guitar — though he will miss it.
Wow. That Chris Brown/Ed Sheeran is awful, if true. I didn’t think Chris Brown could get any sleazier.
Aw thats sad… i mean yes the band will probably survive but it still sucks that hes deprived of using his most important tools to create music that he loves.
Hopefully all will work out.
He plays guitar? No really!
*whispers* It’s Keri Russell not Kery.
RIP Edward Hermann. Fantastic actor – and he passed before his time.
I had recently watched the Gilmore Girls episode where he had his heart attack and Emily demanded he let her go first. I completely teared up.
I’ve been rewatching Gilmore Girls since it came on Netflix, and the news of his passing made me so sad. He was a very accomplished actor, but he’ll always be Richard Gilmore to me.
I loved him as William Randolph Hearst in “The Cat’s Meow”, a very underrated film Imo. He had an amazing voice, and was most recently the voice of FDR in the Roosevelt documentary. And “Lost Boys”. I really loved that guy. RIP
I watched that same episode just after finding out he had died, Erinn. Also the silent scene with Lorelai was touching. I feel really sorry for his family and friends, he seemed like a good man and actor.
I too just watched all seasons of Gilmore Girls on Netflix (even though I own them all). Love Richard Gilmore… RIP Edward Hermann. You will be missed.
I guess I thought the Lena Dunham link would be about her doing something obnoxious, and not about various media outlets trying to out her rapist against her wishes. I don’t mind if she goes away either, but that story isn’t why.
I’m with Emmee; why are we shaming Lena for this particular bit? For whining about her ridiculously privileged upbringing? Totally. But not this link.
“As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this.” I like that he’s keeping a sense of humor about it. He may not be a great guitarist, but it’s probably something he’s done his whole life and was always a part of his musical process. To lose that must be heartbreaking. Best of luck to him in his long recovery.
I recall a comment from the Edge years ago that Bono doesn’t play guitar so much as he “wears guitar”. But it is a bummer to have some thing that painful and debilitating — good luck to Bono.
I remember playing hooky from school to see U2 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago when I was 15. Time flies….
I have a few of their earliest albums, but nothing after that.
Does he compose on the guitar?
I would imagine he does or to help him figure things out.
U2 has a very interesting songwriting process. I have read up before on the writing of their music, and it is very much a collaborative process with the band, especially The Edge,writing the music, and lyrics come after. But Bono is the lyricist for the band and a very strong lyricist at that.
The one thing I love about them is all you hear are popstars try to always stand out as my art, I write the songs, blah, blah. U2 has taken major right and left turns throughout their career, until beginning to play it safe in 2000. And they enlist producers to help take their music to a different sound, whether bringing ambient sound like Brian Eno (Unforgettable Fire) in there or bringing electronica in there, Zooropa. They have admitted to having a crisis of confidence and stalling out at times, switching gears with new producers who took their songs in a different area, and the fights within the band as they changed at times.
Bono joked it takes a village sometimes. I respected the credit they give in crafting their songs into an album and the producers’ role in helping them visionwise with the songs they’ve written.
They are one of the few bands still together with the original members and who actually are friends and like each other. They have known each other since school. It’s rare, and a hole will be left when they stop touring and putting out music. I don’t see them continuing on if one of them can’t do it. They are too tight.
I completely agree with you. U2 is the most important band in my life. I would probably not have made it through my teens without Achtung Baby.
I have read a lot about them too and think the equality in the band is one of the main reasons they are still together. They split all of the money evenly even when Bono and The Edge do most of the song writing.
They sound great live which is probably due to playing together for so long.
I feel really bad for Bono and hope his elbow will heal after all. For a musician losing the ability to play an instrument even if it’s not your main “job” must be really difficult.
Just finished reading Song of Spider-Man, which is an account of all the issues plaguing bringing to musical to B’way. Not surprisingly, bono’s name came up a good bit in a very positive way. It is a bear recovering from a joint injury, esp as we age- good luck to him!!
Gaga and Taylor have one of those relationships that it’s okay to not understand it. I hope they tie the knot one day. They seem good for each other.
I wonder if he’s an enabler or has his own issues? When she was recovering from her hip surgery, she says she lived with him. She was getting high 24/7 and a mess. She never mentions that he got fed up with her or talked to her about it. She said recently she was so high she passed out on the lawn at his brother’s wedding, I think. Nothing about him concerned or it straining their relationship. Then she says at a wedding (maybe the same one), she was so messed up and Elton talked to her about being out of control. She credits him for saving her because he talked to her about it. What the? Where is Taylor in all of this as far as being instrumental in her addictions and helping her? I know Gaga is dramatic and contradicts herself a lot, but it seems strange. She says she’s mostly sober now,. She was high as a kite when she got that last tattoo. Her eyes were so messed up. I think she will always have addiction issues at tiimes.
I wonder what his parents think of Gaga.
Congrats to Zoe and her husband on the birth of her twin boys
I cannot stand Adam Sandler except Wedding Singer.
I felt horrible for Bono until I remembered that he can still sing, wasn’t much of a guitar player anyway, and is still a bazillionaire. Could be worse for him.
DId Bono ever used to play the guitar?
Is that a bad thing if he still has the use of his hands and fingers and the worst thing he can whine about is his inability to play the guitar? It could have been worse.
Well, it can pretty much always be ‘worse.’ And it certainly doesn’t sound like he’s whining. But, for a musician, losing the ability to make music is like losing a piece of your soul. I started playing an instrument in 5th grade, am now 35, and have been a professional musician since I was 18. Like Bono, music has been a major part of my life for most of my life now. It may sound a bit dramatic, but I can’t imagine life without music. I had a teacher once who had nerve damage in his face and lost the ability to play–it was so incredibly sad. Yeah, he was still alive and healthy, but you really do lose a huge part of what makes you YOU when you can no longer sing/play/perform/create.
Well, it can pretty much always be ‘worse.’ And it certainly doesn’t sound like he’s whining. But, for a musician, losing the ability to make music is like losing a piece of your soul. I started playing an instrument in 5th grade, am now 35, and have been a professional musician since I was 18. Like Bono, music has been a major part of my life for most of my life now. It may sound a bit dramatic, but I can’t imagine life without music. I had a teacher once who had nerve damage in his face and lost the ability to play–it was so incredibly sad. Yeah, he was still alive and healthy, but you really do lose a huge part of what makes you YOU when you can no longer sing/play/perform/create.