As I previously mentioned, I had a rocking good time at the U2 concert in Pasadena. I trekked all the way across the country because the 360 Tour was not coming to Michigan like they did in 2005. For those who were not as fortunate, the whole concert was performed live on Youtube (an internet first!). ... Anyways, when the dates were announced in April, I made the commitment to come out to California.

I got back from my trip to California last night. As previously noted I was intending to relax a bit but that never really happened. For better or worse (more of the better), I went around. A lot!. I had a different city for pretty much every day. And I really don't know what I was expecting, but the traffic and driving were too much for me. Although, I was doing much more traveling on account that I was a tourist.

As of today, my trial subscription to XM Radio ended. When I got it a few months ago, I thought I would barely use it. But after a while, I found it quite refreshing to be able to arbitrarily pick between different genre's of music or news or even sports. And the best part was, that it was significantly easier than pulling out my MP3 player and messing with all the cables.

U2 announced their tour schedule about 3 weeks ago. The tour started in Europe but only had 4 confirmed dates for the US in September. There were also some unconfirmed locations later, but there was no Michigan location in any of the cities listed. I was a little upset at first (I still am), but then I looked at the proposed stage layout. The concept is basically that there is a full 360 degree view of the band on stage, which basically means there will be many more great floor spots to get a closer experience (in 2005, I was on the floor close to the stage).

As was announced earlier, U2's latest album: "No Line On The Horizon" hits stores this Tuesday March 3. U2.com members got to listen early to the first single "Get On Your Boots" on Jan 19. Let me say it was incredibly underwhelming! Pretty much same for their performance at the Grammy Awards earlier in February. Some of the reviews I've read basically sum up the album as "pretty good music, but not that great"