Posts by Benjamin
Shooting U2
Frankly, my mind had been blown nearly half a dozen times already, and that was before I waltzed past the well-guarded barricades outside the Somerville Theater and bumped into U2 sound checking “Magnificent” just a few feet in front of me. First, there was getting tapped for the trip to begin with. It happened like…
Read MoreThe Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust (1871–1922), the French essayist and novelist who believed that in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. Since July 1993, Vanity Fair has devoted the back page of its magazine to the Proust Questionnaire,…
Read MoreU2 Treat Boston Fans To Surprise Show
BOSTON — “It was an unwieldy event,” Bono told MTV News’ Sway Calloway just seconds after stepping off the tiny club stage at Wednesday’s surprise performance. “But that’s the way we like ’em.” No strangers to spectacle, U2 wrapped up their 10-day, four-city campaign for Biggest Band in the World — and celebrated No Line…
Read MoreLearning To Fly, Part III
My brother, Christofer, willed me two things when he went off to college: a periodically empty house with an immediately unsuspicious mother (and, ergo, the license to throw frequent though reasonably-sized parties; there were no pizzas on the turntable at my house), and a handmade wooden lock box. Chris built the simple, stained-pine rectangle in…
Read MoreWhat’s So Funny About Peace, Love & Citibank?
My college band, Smokey Junglefrog, performed its first show in the fall of 1991 at a shady rock venue on Erie Boulevard in Syracuse called The Lost Horizon (don’t look for it, it’s not there; the venue closed in 2005, then re-opened elsewhere this year). Though The Lost Horizon was home to touring metal bands…
Read MoreInfinity Is A Great Place To Start
Thirteen years at MTV News, and finally I get my close up! Ok, so it was a two-shot, but still. I knew today was special from the moment I forced myself from my warm sheets: my pre-order of U2’s “No Line On The Horizon” was waiting on iTunes. I spent the few minutes it took…
Read MoreMegaFest!
When it comes to inspired festivity, Chris and Megan Abad don’t mess around. Chris’ thirtieth birthday celebration, AbadFest ’08, put me in the hospital (well, kinda’). A casual afternoon football game at Chris and Meg’s Hell’s Kitchen apartment once turned to a wildly-competitive beer pong tournament in a heartbeat. They’ve even make presidential debates fun.…
Read MoreThe Road Leads Back To You
In May of 1992, I drove my red Nissan Sentra from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to Telluride, Colorado. I was a twenty-year-old child philosopher, whiling away the summer between my junior and senior year on highways and mountain tops of The Great American West in search of answers for love and life and everything else. The…
Read MoreBoys Of Summer, Part II
The modern twist on the old cliche that “The phone began ringing off the hook” is “My Blackberry inbox was stacked like a bad game of Tetris.” And so it was Monday at 5:49 pm, incoming messages fall like straight, horizontal bricks in the moments between landing and unloading at the gate, one after another…
Read MoreHollywood Forever
The afternoon before I left for Los Angeles, I walked into my boss’ offices for our weekly meeting. He was turned away from the door, staring at his laptop, captivated by a music video. “Do you know these guys?” he asked. Quick cuts and violent camera movement showed a masked group of lean, totooed, scrappy…
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