U2 in Croke Park

posted: July 22, 2017
By: Sherry Lawrence

It was an Irish who’s who at Croke Park tonight as U2 brought The Joshua Tree 2017 tour home to Dublin. Among those spotted were musicians Imelda May and Glen Hansard, tennis star Johanna Konta, footballer Robbie Keane, and Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins (just to name a few).

A special flyover by the Irish Air Corps accompanying “Where The Streets Have No Name” was a highlight.

There were several trips down memory lane during the night as Bono recalled the band's early days, including when Reggie Manuel brought Bono to Larry’s house in 1976. Bono said he was asked what instrument he could play. Tonight he joked he told Larry the harmonica. “I lied,” he said.

1987.

2017.

U2 in Barcelona

Posted: July 18, 2017
By: Sherry Lawrence of @U2
Tonight's Barcelona show is the half-way point in The Joshua Tree 2017 Tour's European leg: 6 down, 6 to go. The sold-out show at Estadi Olimpic de Montjuic celebrated David Bowie's influence on the band. During the intro to "Bad," Bono said he had visited the Bowie exhibit at The Barcelona Design Museum before coming to the stadium. "David Bowie was a friend of ours. He called us friends, really we were fans. ... We feel him very close," he said. 

Bono said that long-time friend of the band, Reggie "The Dog" Manuel, was at the show. He explained that if it wasn't for him, he wouldn't have gone to Larry's kitchen in September 1976. Reggie not only encouraged Bono to go, but also gave him a lift on his motorcycle. We all have Reggie to thank for that.

-yes, that worked out well all right!

Reg also provides the glasses.

 

Busy to Death?

There’s a famous story about an executive that hired Edward W. Deming to spend a week with his team and offer recommendations on how to improve both their own performance and the performance of the organization they led. Word has it that Deming arrived on the first day, said “Hello,” and then walked straight to the corner of the executive’s office to sit down. He stayed there, sitting silently for the entire day as the executive went about his daily activities.

At the end of the day, the executive approach Deming and asked “Do you have any thoughts?” All Deming said was, “I’ll be back tomorrow,” and he walked out the door.

The next day—just as he had the day before—Deming walked into the executive’s office, sat in the corner, and said nothing. He did scribble a few notes from time to time as the executive went about his daily activities. Again, at the end of the day, the executive asked Deming for his thoughts. Again, Deming simply said, “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

This cycle continued throughout the entire week until Friday evening, when the executive lost patience and pushed Deming for a more informative answer. Deming asked him one question: “What are the top-three priorities for the business?” The executive rolled them off like a shot.

“Well,” said Deming, “you’ve spent the entire week working on none of them, yet your time has been entirely booked, and every conversation with you and every conversation with every individual that walks into your office starts with how busy you are. Can you guess why?”

We all love being busy. 

AWS still best for IaaS

AWS ahead in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for the 7th consecutive year, earning highest placement for ability to execute and furthest for completeness of vision.

• AWS remains the dominant market leader, not only in IaaS, but also in integrated IaaS+PaaS, with an end-of-2016 revenue run rate of more than $14 billion.
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• Microsoft Azure is second in market share, not only in IaaS, but also in integrated IaaS+PaaS. It has sustained a very high growth rate over multiple years, and Gartner estimates its end-of-2016 revenue run rate as approximately $3 billion. 

Within you and without you

A musicl analysis of Sgt Pepper on BBC last night, after a chance meeting with Steve Engelkind and talking of Arun Gandhi prompted me to listen to Within you and Without you again after more than 30 years. George Harrison was much cleverer than he appeared to be, as illustrated by the songtext below, particularly the last verse.

    

Turn off your mind

Relax and float downstream

It is not dying

It is not dying

We were talking, about the space between us all

And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion

Never glimpse the truth, then it's far too late

When they pass away

We were talking, about the love we all could share

When we find it, to try our best to hold it there with our love

With our love, we could save the world

If they only knew

Try to realize it's all within yourself

No one else can make you change

And to see you're really only very small

And life flows on within you and without you

Good ideas are rare?

The myth that good ideas are rare is just that!

If you watch any 6 year old child they will invent dozens of things in an hour. 

We are built for creativity. The problem is the conventions of adult life demand conformity and we sacrifice our creative instincts in favour of social status.

Unlike a child, adults are supremely and instantly judgmental, killing ideas before they’ve had even a moment to prove their worth. It’s easy to rediscover creativity, which is why brainstorming rarely helps much. We’re already creative. 

The challenge is ideas don’t come with the courage to invest in them. Good ideas are everywhere: what’s uncommon is people with the conviction to put their reputation behind ideas.

Back in the high life

Wolterdingen after a year's break from competition running, back on the podium again.
Feels good too!