I don't want my permanent record to reflect that my favorite things are BlackBerries, Mike Bloomberg & U2. So, to clarify some confusions that have arisen in the real world since posting last week about Bono's Bloomberg shout out I need to make three points. 1. RE: BlackBerries / I like them more than iPhones. I do, however, prefer the iPhone's advertising campaigns. 2. RE: NY political situation / My feelings on Important Political Matters are often hopelessly muddled. I want the Nets to move to Brooklyn so I can give up on the Knicks forever; yet I don't like the idea of a gross stadium a mile from my house. I like that crime seems less a factor in New York City life than it did when I came here as a teenager; yet all the new, glassy, big windowed condos in Tribeca freak me out & make me wonder why. These muddled feelings seem a not unusual characteristic of life in the political scrum. I keep asking my political operative friend if David Yassky is a politician worth supporting. My friend's answers are so diffident and oddly parsed that determining his opinion is like trying to figure out if Bill Clinton ever smoked pot or got a BJ from Monica Lewinsky. This is why I try to stay out of politics for the most part. 3. RE: avant garde / "Avant-garde" in contemporary usage often mean experimental & underdeveloped. It's probably always meant that. We just remember the great ones. I doubt anyone's ever confused U2 for an avant-garde troupe, yet they are a great band. And, yes, I think I can conservatively estimate that 9 times out of 10 I would pick seeing them over most concerts at The Stone. Well, except maybe that Mary Margaret O'Hara show that happened there in January of last year during which she, reportedly, tried to run out of the venue half way through. Unlike my feelings about politics & personal communicators, my feelings about O'Hara certainly aren't muddled, which is a good excuse to show you this:

It's from a memorial service for the actor John Candy.

I've spent my last two weekends at weddings so perhaps it's appropriate that today gets a funeral.

Credit: Nigel Scott via Luminato