In October 1990, I was out of college for five months and living in Chicago, actually Evanston to be precise. America was headed to a Middle East war and the economy was going south. I was a newly minted graphic designer, who disembarked the Greyhound bus in the Windy City two months

I remember the day tickets were announced to the show. I was aimlessly flipping through The Daily Iowa, our student newspaper delivered daily to our room, as I ambled my way to the dining room in Burge Residence Hall for breakfast. Suddenly, my eyes caught a display ad – 1 night only

We all do it. We regurgitate what Bono says. I’ve been known to repeat, or re-craft, those infamous statements he says which are embedded in our DVD collections of U2’s live shows, movies and videos. It’s charming and a challenge to take a brilliant statement and try to work it to you

So much of my book focuses on my stepfather and it’s not fair to cut out my real dad, the audiophile. I say that because he never jumped onto the CD craze nor the cassette. My father is old school. He’s a reel-to-reel man who cruised Des Moines, Iowa in deep sky blue 1972 Thunderbird

I was going to use the word muse instead of inspiration but it would be the wrong word choice. So typical of us Shivvers’ who have a tendency to chop up the English language. Let’s stay on track about the mannequin legs, which initially resided in my aunt’s Glencoe artist’s studio. Th

Songs of the Ascent, the quieter sister of No Line on the Horizon, is about to see the light of day, in November, as U2 traipses across Europe, South America and Australia. For those of you who have seen the 360 tour, you’ve heard a snippet of Soon, a track from the new album, as the

One word sums it up – terrifying. Trust me, turning my written work over to my wife was exciting and nervous at the same time. I saw my mom and stepfather share their work together on countless occasions. Naturally, they were one another’s editors. I asked myself, “Why couldn’t I do t

If I told you it was for anything other than U2, I would be lying. Actually, that is a half-truth. Chicago is the Midwest Mecca of advertising and I wanted to break into the biz. The city is closer to Iowa than New York plus I had family here who I could bunk in with if I needed to. M

Seriously, in this day and age I commend those who can do it. In the 70’s when I was growing up it was easier. Upon return from our sabbatical in England, my parents literally threw the television out the window. It was an old set that my mom inherited from the divorce and it was dyin