Carlos got the speeding ticket, and I got the flat tire. But after two months and nearly 10,000 miles driven touring with U2, all in all those are pretty good statistics...
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Monday, May 30, 2005
41,000 U2 fans can't be wrong
The tour has ended and we are tallying up our numbers, and discovering that some 41,000 U2 fans have signed the ONE Declaration over the course of the 26 dates of this tour! Thanks to everyone for their support, and urge your friends and family to get involved as well!
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Boston U2 fans
Our favorite thing to see: people lined up at one of our two booths, waiting to sign the ONE declaration and show their support and lend their voice in the fight against poverty and AIDS.
Boston Volunteers
Part of our crew of volunteers helping us out our last night of the tour, where we got over 2,000 people to sign the declaration!
Volunteers sign up U2 fans for the ONE Campaign
Two of our ONE volunteers get Boston U2 fans to sign the declaration.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
12 Hours Left...
I woke up this morning and had this email from Dave, part of our Lokahi team who has been on part of the tour and is now holding down the fort for us in Los Angeles:
"Congratulations on a sweet tour campaign with no major lawsuits or broken bones or anything!
dave"
He might have best summed up how we all feel right now - can't quite believe it was two months to the day that we were in San Diego on opening night trying to figure this all out, can't believe we got this leg of the tour prepared in so little time, and can't quite believe that we have gotten so many U2 fans (and hopefully their friends and family) involved with this campaign!
There is actually a sunny sky in Boston today, the first I have seen since I got here Monday, so the mood of all seems to be a bit brighter. My staff and are all bracing ourselves for tonight: a sunny Memorial Day weekend Saturday night in a town where everyone seems to be Irish, and the last night of the tour: it should be quite insane!
"Congratulations on a sweet tour campaign with no major lawsuits or broken bones or anything!
dave"
He might have best summed up how we all feel right now - can't quite believe it was two months to the day that we were in San Diego on opening night trying to figure this all out, can't believe we got this leg of the tour prepared in so little time, and can't quite believe that we have gotten so many U2 fans (and hopefully their friends and family) involved with this campaign!
There is actually a sunny sky in Boston today, the first I have seen since I got here Monday, so the mood of all seems to be a bit brighter. My staff and are all bracing ourselves for tonight: a sunny Memorial Day weekend Saturday night in a town where everyone seems to be Irish, and the last night of the tour: it should be quite insane!
U2 Boston Fans Join us as ONE
More Boston U2 fans braving the unusually cold weather to sign up with us (and I suppose check out their favorite band in the process...)
The Boston U2 fans...
Have been incredibly supportive of our campaign thus far - we can't wait to come back here in the fall!
Boston Joins ONE
A few of the nearly 2,000 people that joined the ONE Campaign with us at the U2 show in Boston on Thursday night!
Our numbers keep growing...
This was our total as we started out night two in Boston on the spring leg of the Vertigo Tour. That number now stands at 39,009 - which means that when we end the spring leg of this tour we'll have physically signed up some 41,000 U2 fans, no small feat and one that we are very proud of!
One Bands: perfect wedding favors!
This couple came by our booth night two in Boston and purchased a bunch of ONE bands and took a ton of our literature to use as 'socially conscious' party favors at their upcoming wedding in Yosemite. We appreciate their support and offer our congrats!
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Updated!
If you've been checking out this blog at all, looking for our show updates, be sure you scroll down - I finally got the big backlog of blogs and photos up and posted, but I'm being anal and wanted to keep them in order by show date, so you've got to roll down as far back as April 28th to see them. Thanks for checking out out our work!
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Vertigo Night #26
I can't believe we are down to the last two dates of the spring leg of the Vertigo tour. You can tell we are nearing the end of the tour though, as things are falling apart: our hand carts are loosing their wheels, screws are falling out of our tables each day, our banners have seen better days, and myself and my staff are covered in bruises - tell tell signs in my experiences that a tour is nearing its end! It's been an insane four month period of preparing and touring, but worth all the effort. We have signed up over twice the amount of people we were hoping to, have gotten over 50,000 white bands distributed and hopefully have inspired people to take the message of the ONE Campaign into their own communities. I'm ready for a break - a remarkably short break as we'll be back on the road all summer - but am already looking forward to the fall leg of this tour and getting even more people involved with the campaign. I CAN safely say, however, that I can probably go most of the summer without hearing 'Vertigo' as it is very much so ingrained in my brain at this point...
U2 Boston fans sign up...
This fan was one of the 2,008 fans that signed the ONE Declaration with us last night in Boston at the first of three U2 shows. There were thousands more that texted their name to UNITE and will hopefully join the campaign online! Boston was very supportive of the campaign - in addition to getting more people to join the ONE Campaign, we also distributed some 4,000 wristbands!
Mary goes to Boston...
...where she wears her lucky hat to defend against the rain and signs up lots and lots of ONE Campaign supporters!
Boston crew
Our night one crew of volunteers in Boston. We had a really great time with our volunteers last night - they are a great bunch of people that all work for organizations doing poverty and debt relief work. Brian Rawson and Xavi Benavides both work as organizers with Oxfam, one of the partner organizations of the ONE Campaign. Sean McGrail and Rebecca Wiemer both work with Mercy Corp another ONE partner, and John Alberts and Ellen McCurley are both with Boston based The Pendulum Project. Not pictured is Laura Strietelmeier, whom had never done this sort of outreach before, but nonetheless managed to sign up many, many people for the ONE Campaign. Thanks to all of our volunteers for their help, and we look forward to working with you again soon!
One Campaign Booth
Our booth in Boston as U2 fans there join the ONE Campaign and wear the white band.
The ONE Campaign moves into Boston
We arrived in Boston to what turned out to be one of the coldest May days in Boston history. 42 degrees and wind and rain doesn't resonate particularly well with my Southern California blood, but the show in Boston last night was a lot of fun. People here have the best accents in the country, are nice, and were very supportive of the ONE Campaign...
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
ONE outreach in the news
Check out this recent write up in the Washington Post discussing the ONE Campaign, including a good play by play of what is happening at each of the U2 shows. Sun Microsystems gets the fans to text, and myself and my Lokahi team are the ground support at each show getting those fans to sign up and join the campaign before and after each performance. We are nearing 36,000 names so far, meaning we'll end this tour in two days with 40,000 signatures, and hundreds of thousands of virtual sign ups...
Monday, May 23, 2005
One Campaign Booth in Philly
Our banners standing above the massive crowds in Philadelphia at the 5/22 U2 shows. We put a lot of effort into our visual appearance and signage to ensure that lots of people can find and visit our booths!
Philly ONE supporters
Philadelphia was the city where the One Campaign was kicked off last year (http://www.one.org/Background.aspx) and it continues to show it's support for this important effort.
U2 Philly fans join us as one
These Philly U2 fans were just two of 2,064 that signed up to join the ONE Declaration with us at the 5/22 show at Watchovia Center, putting true meaning to the phrase 'we are more powerful when we act together as one'!
Philly volunteers
Part of our crew from the 5/22 show in Philadelphia - these guys were great, helping us sign up lots of people for the ONE Campaign, and even lending a hand as we loaded out for the night! Thanks to Tish McCully, Steve Bush, Belinda Bush
John Ryle, Rick Young, Patrick Conti and
Adrienne Lehner for all of their hard work and committment to this campaign!
John Ryle, Rick Young, Patrick Conti and
Adrienne Lehner for all of their hard work and committment to this campaign!
ONE volunteers signs up ONE supporters
One of our Philly volunteers from the 5/22 talks with U2 fans.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
The ONE Campaign takes on Manhattan...
One of our ONE Campaign volunteers talks to people outside of Madison Square Garden prior to the U2 show on May 21st.
The craziness at the end of the night...
The end of any U2 show is crazy for us - we talk to a lot of people before the show, but since Bono discusses the campaign at length during the set, we always get a nice rush of people at the end of the night, sometimes having lines of our own that rival the tee-shirt guys. Some nights, like MSG though, are just completely insane. Watch for some short video I shot that truely captures the madness! It's a fun time though, as we are able to sign up lots of people for the ONE Campaign and distribute lots and lots of bands in a very short period of time...
The "Mega One Booth"
Since there pretty much aren't any real concourses at Madison Square Garden, we set up in the lobby, which was a lot of fun as we pretty much got to see every single person there for the show. (Plus lots of people hanging out in the lobby AFTER the show started asking if we could get them in...FYI: we can't!) It also meant that instead of our normal two booths, we set up one 'mega booth'. We were excited to get to use the word 'mega' in association with our work and were excited about the response we got to this set up!
U2 Fans sign up in NYC
We had a lot of support for the ONE Campaign in New York at the U2 show at Madison Square Garden. Over 2100 New Yorkers joined the campaign, and hopefully most of those will be telling their friends and family to do the same.
One Campaign volunteers in NYC
One of our One Campaign voluneers, talking to people in New York outside of Madison Square Garden prior to the U2 show.
Madison Square Garden volunteers
This is our crew of volunteers from the Madison Sqaure Garden show. They work with ONE Campaign partners Bread for the World and Mercy Corp. We had a lot of fun working with these guys - they were eager to try out anything and everything, including working the streets outside of Madison Square Garden! Their hard work paid off: we signed up some 2146 people for the One Campaign during our one night in New York. We'll be ready for the fall now - with a total of 8 shows at MSG then, I am hoping we can sign up some 25,000 New Yorkers for the ONE Campaign over those eight nights...
Friday, May 20, 2005
Jamie and Mary at Teany & a day off in NYC
A day off in NYC - I ended up hiding out and working at a coffeeshop all day (which how I spend most of my 'days off' on tour!), but not before Mary and Jamie and I hit up Moby's Teany cafe. I go there every time I am in New York because it has the best veg club sandwhich I've ever had. And we discovered the strawberry shortcake this time as well, forever changing our lives.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
ONE volunteers night two U2 in NJ
Our night two crew of volunteers that helped us sign up over 4,000 people during two nights at Meadowlands!
Young ONE supporters sign up in NJ
These guys were great - they read all about the campaign on their own (with mom's prompting!) and signed up with their own email addresses before getting white bands for themselves and all their friends! I was way into it, especially since I teach after school programs (one of Lokahi's other projects is that we run after school programs based in teaching elementary aged kids civics and community service) and often get my own students - whom I totally miss when I am away on tour - to do the same thing!
Mary signs up ONE supporters in New Jersey
Mary signs up ONE supporters at one of our booths in New Jersey...
Bank Robbers take the stage
Towards the end of the show night two in New Jersey, as we were waiting for the ‘end of show rush’ when we sign up lots and lots of people, we noticed a change in the set. U2 changes their set pretty much every night, but there was a lot of audience noise before they launched into a version of 'I Still Haven't Found What I Am Looking For' that was a bit different from their normal one (and I had only heard them play that song once before, really early in the tour). I stuck my head inside to see what was up only to discover that Bank Robbers had taken over the stage. Apparently these guys are in a band and were in the ellipse, with signs in hand informing Bono that ‘they were in a band’, and got pulled on stage to play with the band, or rather, play FOR the band, as they pretty much took over, with only Larry remaining as the standing and playing U2 member. There were two 'best parts' to this whole thing for me: when Bono tried to end the song after the second verse, but the guitar player kept going, turning to Larry who apparently was all about it and launched into a fast 'punk' version of the song, and later on, as we were loading out, I saw the guys in the parking lot and called them over, since I had a few shots of their on stage antics and wanted to email them to them. Apparently they had also joined the ONE Campaign the day before and were very excited about it, so we gave them a few more bands and congratulated them on their big moment. They were definitely very excited about it as they left the show that night, and I would have to say it was one of the cooler things I have seen over the course of the tour!
Jersey joins the ONE Campaign
More U2 fans join the ONE Campaign and wear the white band in New Jersey. Over two nights there, we signed up over 4,000 people for the campaign and distributed nearly 7,500 white bands. I'm really hoping those 4,000 took our words and requests to heart and will then go and tell their friends and family about this important campaign!
New Jersey joins the One Campaign
Some of the many U2 fans that joined the ONE Campaign over two nights in New Jersey.
NJ ONE volunteers at work
We ended up having this Rutgers versus Princeton rivalry going on during our two nights in New Jersey at Meadowlands: night one we had Rutgers Bread for the World student volunteers, (www.bread.org) and night two we had the Princeton Bread team helping us out. I can't (and am kinda afraid to declare) a winner because we did really well on both nights and both teams were incredibly talented and fun to work with! I believe the volunteers in this picture are part of our Princeton crew, but please forgive me guys if I am wrong!
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Carlos in New Jersey
Lokahi's Carlos Lourenco at one of our ONE Booths at the U2 shows at Meadowlands in New Jersey.
New Jersey ONE Volunteers
Part of our crew from night one in New Jersey! These guys did an amazing job, working to get every possible Jersey native to join the ONE Campaign.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Still behind on updates and random thoughts on birthdays...
Much more to come, including the sizable backlog of photos and updates that will post soon, but high speed internet and free time have been quite scarce as of late. Tour is going remarkably well, seems we are exceeding our goals each and every night, and it's incredible to be at 'ground zero' of a campaign that is growing and spreading in the fashion that this one is. I can't explain why I can put in a 17 hour day and still leave the arena each night full of energy and excitement, other than to chalk it up to the fact that it really feels like we are making a huge impact and really inspiring people in the work that we are doing every night. (And I'm also not eating much, so it could also be a form of delirium. . .) This type of outreach is all or nothing - you can't fake it, you have to be behind it 125%, and you know when it matters and when you are connecting - the response to the work we are doing on this tour has been phenomenal, it almost can't compare to other outreach I have done in the past.
Tomorrow (or is already today?) is my birthday - birthday's spent away from home and on the road are always interesting to say the least, mostly because you generally don't know what day of the month it is at any given time and can easily not realize you are officially one year older - but there is really nowhere else I would rather be right now. Though I started Lokahi several years ago and I've been doing outreach of this nature - and working on tours - for awhile now, a year ago today if you told me I would turn 26 on the road with U2, with my organization (www.lokahioutreach.org) partnering on a campaign like the ONE Campaign I would have never believed it. It's funny how fast and easily your life gets totally rearranged and shot down different paths. Anyway, enough of my 'deep thoughts' - there was initial talk amongst my staff and a friend of mine flying out to help with the last seven shows to spend my big day in Atlantic City on the lookout for big hair and lots of Bon Jovi, but luckily we decided that was far too much effort and are opting for a day spent in Manhattan. Much of which I'll probably spend working - preparing for future shows on this tour, working on ideas for other tours, putting in time on other Lokahi campaigns being run back home in LA, checking in our after school program - but I'm sure we'll get in some much needed time publicly embarrassing me in as well...
More show photos and updates to come soon!
Carlos fights poverty AND dead bugs
The only thing that Lokahi's Carlos Lourenco hates almost as much as poverty and disease around the world are dead bugs on the Lokahi touring truck that won't come off...
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Chicago signs the declaration!
This has to be my favorite sight, something I get to see every night and photograph over and over (check out our 'photo' link under links on this page for more images!): people siging up, using the most powerful thing they have, their voice, and showing their support in the fight to make poverty history!
Chicago U2 fans join the declaration
Night four in Chicago - we had lots and lots of support during our four shows in Chicago!
Anne Bachelder, Campaigner Extraordinaire
Anne Bachelder is DATA's regional cordinator for the greater Chicago area, and she was awesome to work with, helping us sign up over 7,000 people for the ONE Campaign while we were in Chicago, and keeping us well staffed each night with volunteers. If you live in the Chicago or midwest and want to volunteer for the One Campaign, but sure to send me an email so I can put you in touch with Anne!
U2 from the mixing booth...
U2 as seen from the mixing booth on the floor night four in Chicago - I try to take a break from the ONE booth and visit with people and catch the show every now and then!
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