What can I say? I love Halloween and I love U2. Last year I saw my final Elevation show (I'd seen three previous to this show) at the Dunkin Donuts Arena in Providence, Rhode Island, on Halloween; it was an amazing show. The combo of Halloween and U2, not to mention the fact that I'd gotten floor seats earlier that afternoon on a whim check of Ticketmaster, sent me into euphoria. The show, as it was Larry's birthday, made for a more relaxed and exciting show than I had seen previous. It inspired me.

Shortly after the show I recieved a project to design CD packaging in my design class. To make a long story short, I did the CD packaging for "U2: Halloween in Providence," as if U2 would ever release an entire show on CD (Ha ha ha). A hobby that I have developed over the past few Halloweens has been carving portraits into pumpkins (I have carved JFK, Bush, Saddam, DeNiro, and a few others), and I applied my skills to portraits of U2 for this project. The final project was a hit in my class, namely for the carved pumpkins.

I graduated Boston University last year and I am now attending Rhode Island School of Design. I have shown the pictures of the U2 pumpkins to many U2 fans and they have loved them. I contacted Matt a little over a week ago about somehow getting these pumpkins out to U2 fans for Halloween; he had the idea of using them as desktop backgrounds. What you see are desktops I designed in Photoshop incorporating my carved pumpkins. I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I have.

Thanks,
Mike Pekala
(Thank YOU, Mike!)