I’ve been to a variety of rough and ready cities in Asia and Africa, but I think largely due to preconceptions and geo-political history; Moscow felt like one of the more exotic cities I’ve visited.

First thing, the city is big in and lets you know it. Not like Manhattan or Tokyo where small streets and density of life make you feel like you should be able to get around the whole thing on foot. No, Moscow has HUGE streets that flow like rivers, and require you to go underground to get to the other side. The result is that walking feels like an epic journey and there are long stretches where there is little along the side of the street because there aren’t pedestrians or slow trafic that would stop. As a result, it reminded me more of Houston than of a capital or major European city.

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While I hold that New Mexico still has the most beautiful sunsets in the world, I was well impressed with a few sunsets I saw in Denmark and Finland. The picture above is from a sunset in Horsens, Denmark. I sat out on my hotel balcony with a glass of wine and watch the sky for a good 30 minutes as it was painted a range of yellow, orange, and purple. The one below was in Helsinki, and left the whole city as a sharp silhouette on an orange sky for the better part of an hour.

Cross posted from the ONE blog.

After three months on the road with the U2 360 tour, I’m now passing the torch (well, walkie-talkie since we didn’t have a torch) to Matt Higginson.

I’ve had a fantastic time, meeting ONE members around Europe and North America and working with our volunteers to sign up tens of thousands of new folks. But, now Matt is back from leave so I have a chance to head home to London and get back to mobilising our global membership to take action on some key upcoming moments.

Thank you to everyone who helped along the way, especially the hundreds of energetic and passionate volunteers who really did all the hard work of signing up new members. I hope to see you all again soon and that you’ll join me in wishing Matt good luck with the rest of the tour.

This is cross posted from the ONE Blog.

The U2 360 spaceship has landed in North America, and we’re off to a rockin’ start. Matt (who’ll be running the tour for most of the North American tour) met me in Chicago and we ran around town gathering T-shirts, wristbands, and our new tabling set up. Everything was in perfect order, including the weather. I’m told the odds of 4 September days of 72 degree sunny weather is an near impossibility in Chicago, but that’s what we got.

Our 30 volunteers were in good form, recruiting new members by the thousands. The biggest obsticale they ran into was that many of the fans were already ONE members. Not a bad problem to have!

I’m in Toronto now, and ready to get rolling on another two shows. I hope to see you at a show soon!

Cross posted from the ONE Blog.

It was a long summer touring around Europe with U2, but I’ve had a little rest and I’m ready to get back into action this weekend in Chicago. In just two months at 24 shows we signed up over 40,000 new ONE members, and fired up groups of ONE volunteers who are continuing to take action and organise in their communities.

One of the things that keeps me smiling up through the long days of the tour are the warm messages I receive from those volunteers all along the way. I asked a couple of them if I could share their sentiments, and I hope that you find them just as inspiring:

I wanted to volunteer for ONE for quite some time but I didn’t have a chance to before and thank you for giving me the opportunity. I’m still shaking from my head to my toes, it was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

My heart is so filled with pride and love and I’m sure u all feel the same. All of you made me happier and more optimistic than I’ve been in a very long time.

To be there, so speak and to be heard, to teach others…for the first time I had a feeling that I am actually really doing something.
And it felt good.
It felt good to know that I´m doing something worthwhile, and that even I can make a change.

It is hard to explain how this was important to me, but I think that you know it:-).

Giving me chance to work for a real and good thing is so precious. Giving me chance to do this during U2 concerts is just…like a dream.

America, I hope you’re ready to have a good time and sign up scores of new ONE members. Toss on your ONE shirts and let’s rock and roll.