Further On Up...

A Winter Without This is No Winter at All...

2010-02-20T13:59:00.003-05:00

I love this stuff...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2010-02-20T00:15:00.009-05:00

The first snow that dumped 28" here was beautiful...

As long as you didn't have to go out in it, it was great...

I'll take 28" of snow over 1" of ice any day...

What Else Needs to be Said...

2010-01-01T21:46:00.001-05:00

Another One Bites the Dust...

2009-12-27T15:59:00.004-05:00

Ever notice as soon as a warranty expires, so does your product? Towards the end of November, my phone began to have some functionality issues...The touch screen was no longer responding properly...it was either misaligned or non-responsive altogether...Made for some frustrating moments...I recall when my boss had the same phone and it began to do the same...it went out the window...quickly...with the car moving...

So I agreed to conform with what my boss tried to get me to do 2 years ago...get a Blackberry when my phone bit the dust...
Two years ago when I looked at them...I was less than impressed...Cheap plastic, roller ball was not fluid, buttons were itty bitty...and I was used to having Microsoft Word and Excel on my phone so I could actually do work and send things during those hours of waiting in airports during tour time...But what was getting old...was the delay in getting emails through my work server... Sometimes it would take 10 minutes...other times...10 hours...At one time in life...10 hours was actually fast...these days? Unacceptable...somehow that's just very disturbing but it is what it is for now...One day in the near future...10 minutes will be too slow...

So I had planned on getting a new phone mid December...December 7th was the magical day when I could upgrade my phone but my schedule didn't allow for phone shopping until the following week...Well, as the Verizon gods would have it...my phone met it's timely, "you're ready for an upgrade-what's taking so long," demise...Of course all of my Contacts were in the phone along with some other pretty vital information...so off to the Verizon store I went to do the dirty deed...Yes, I finally broke down and have joined the ranks of the Crackberrys...I got a Blackberry Tour...why not, I just finished one tour...now I need another...So far, I hate to say it but I'm diggin' it...

Let it Snow...

2009-12-20T21:10:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh...The first significant snow of the season...It ended up snowing through the day, into the night...adding another 16 inches to this picture...Why no pictures then??? I traded the camera for a shovel...

No Retreat No Surrender...

2009-11-27T23:09:00.003-05:00

It's been a 2 month hiatus since I last published anything new here...perhaps I should have at least announced a break however it was non intentional...Simply, a day turned into a week...then weeks...and next thing I knew...2 months had passed...

I knew it was going to be an action packed 2 months but had lofty ideas of at least posting some random updates...In the end...it wasn't the lack of time as much as it was lack of focus, lack of direction, lack of energy, and lack of answers to my own questions...Unexpected changes in plans popped up as well...and then there was fear...Fear that where inspiration was being birthed was leading to the closing of a chapter...not only one chapter...but of many chapters...

Rewinding time back to October...

I was preparing to begin an onslaught of shows and travel plans with friends from near and far...I had been so looking forward to it...I had been in over-drive at work during the two months the tour was overseas in preparation for knowing I was going to be away from work for much of October and into November when the tour would end...October's plans began on the 1st-as I headed to Giants Stadium for the last 4 of the 5 shows to close out the stadium before the 'wrecking ball' came to town...October ended up including 9 shows and 17 days away from home...It was the beginning of a sudden shift in the tour where albums in their entirety were being inserted into the middle of the entire show...Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Born in the USA would all make stadium history...

The Born to Run album is iconic...to hear it live? Meeting Across the River into Jungleland? Oh good lord...what a sweet gem this was going to be...

But, I was excited to hear Darkness on the Edge of Town most of all...that would be the 1st of the 4 shows for me...It's an important album in the evolution of his career...it's full of the demons that tested him to be a man...and even though he wrote "Growin' Up" on his first album...Darkness is the album that forced him to really grow up...There was no turning back... and if we're all lucky enough, we too scrap with our own demons within inches of our lives...and fight to conquer ourselves...

I was least excited about Born in the USA; the weakest of the 3 in my book...and something about the fist pumping, pushing and shoving, beer spilling drunken frat boys who had invaded RFK stadium some 25 years prior during that tour just left me with something distasteful...Bruce had been catapulted into a superstardom and with it, had left behind much of what made him a poet...I always chuckled to myself when I said, "I forgive him for that album"...It would now be the finale' at Giants Stadium...and now, it made perfect sense...

Maybe it was my larger than life anticipation and grand expectations but Darkness turned out to be a tough sell to the drinking masses in a stadium...It's an incredibly intimate album...one I connect to alone...so the incongruency made perfect sense...It's like trying to have a candlelit dinner in the middle of a shopping mall a week before Christmas...Food & wine might be glorious...Atmosphere?...just all wrong...It would definitely be better the next time around in an arena...

Now, here's a slight detour ~

The following day, I was walking the perimeter of the stadium dodging wind gusts and waiting for friends to arrive...It's amazing that of the thousands of faces passing by...there's that 2% that are familiar...When I think about it, it's now been a decade since the Reunion tour...and ten years later...the shows have become the vehicle for many friends to have their own reunion of sorts...It doesn't seem to matter the time in between seeing one another...or the city or country...Once reunited...it's like we've never really been gone all that long...That familiarity and comraderie provides a unique sense of comfort...I know that should I travel overseas the next tour time...I have no doubt there will be friends who will help me find my way...

As I walked into the wind, my phone rang so I ducked into an alcove so I could hear...It wasn't my friends I was expecting but rather my mother...I don't know if it was the wind that sucked my breath from me...or the devil in disguise...Test results indicated that my 79 year old father had cancer...I don't recall much after that...it was as if someone was speaking to me in some foreign language...It wasn't making sense to me...they were all just words that my brain just couldn't wrap itself around...I was trying to make sense out of it but the fragmented thoughts racing through my brain was just stripping the gears...And to compound my confusion and shock...to hear my mother say that my father...who is the most level headed, forward thinking and wise individual I know...had resigned himself to death and was seemingly throwing in the towel...I was speechless...what do you say about the unknown...nothing. I wanted to say everything would be alright...but those were empty words of false promise...not to mention i couldn't get anything oout...other than I would call him the following day...For once, walking the parking lots waiting for a Bruce show just seemed so...inadequate...

Slowly I found myself again...my friends finally showed, 'normalcy' began to return and I decided to just let it all be for the night...Once in the stadium, I shared the news with a friend who I would travel with over the next month and a half...Maybe somehow..if I let it out, the words would unscramble...That evening...the stadium rocked...The show I had the least expectations for...ended up being liberating...It was a blessing that the Darkness album had been the night before...

I returned the following week for the final 2 shows...Collectively...those last 4 shows became a powerful chronicle for the archives...It was the beginning of an end...an end to something much larger than the end of Giants Stadium...an end much more significant than the tour coming to a close...It was the beginning of the end of the E Street Band as we know it...there were no guarantees they'd be back...For the finale'...they pulled out all of the stops...And although we were marking an end...the fireworks that lit the sky reminded us that this was about celebration, not sadness...Somewhere in there, I'd find the message...

What Time is It???

2009-09-25T21:38:00.002-04:00

There is something I try to avoid at all costs...there's never anything good associated with it...and yet, most everyone in a modern society finds it inescapable...

VISITING HOURS...

Institutions that are filled with pain, have visiting hours...I'm not sure if assigning when people can come share your pain...reduces pain...maybe it just allows the pain to be spread amongst the many...why keep it all to yourself...

Let's see...hospitals, rehab centers, nursing homes, residential treatment centers, prisons, group homes, orphanages...those worlds all revolve around visiting hours, don't they? Those are all the ones that come to my mind anyway...maybe there's some nice warm fuzzy ones out there that make you say, "awwwwwww..." when you hear, "visiting hours."

My last 2 days have been spent looking at the clock waiting for visiting hours, looking to see how many hours are left of visiting hours, and saying farewells at the close of visiting hours...

A friend, a couple of nights ago was experiencing stabbing chest pains and a burning sensation in his left arm...Of course, we've been programmed to know that those are amongst the warning signs of a heart attack...In short, when the pains did not subside...off to the Emergency Room he went...followed by 2 days of EKGs, CT Scans, echocardiograms, a cardiac catheter, poking, prodding, sticking with needles, morphine...and visiting hours...

The good news-they've ruled out a cardiac problem...the bad news-the pain is still there...

Hopefully the visiting hours get to end tomorrow ...

Outlaw Pete.....

2009-09-16T22:30:00.002-04:00

Here's that picture of Pete Seeger I wrote about a few weeks ago...............I think we took it with one of those Kodak instamatic cameras...you know, with the Magicube flash bulbs that I used to get in trouble for in school for tripping the flash on purpose...

9.11.01

2009-09-11T21:47:00.002-04:00

Watching archival footage on the History Channel tonight

of the World Trade Centers coming down

still seems surreal...

The stunned groups of faces on the footage...

made it too real...

The sounds of raw shrill fear and panic in peoples' voices

made it inescapably real...

I feel the need to watch it...

not because I'll ever forget...

but more to remember...

Flunking Clunker...

2009-08-29T15:03:00.006-04:00

It's been a busy month as expected...Work has been absolutely nuts...and what is on the agenda for the week on Mondays...turns out to be something totally different come Friday...We're not talking minor changes...wer're talking major ones...huge ones...groundbreaking ones...ones that involve hundreds of thousands of dollars...It has not mattered what day of the week it is anymore...there's no such thing as "the end of the week." It's been one day at a time yet, one long never ending day...

All I needed to remember...was to drive to the airport on the 20th of the month and not miss my flight to Mansfield MA by way of Providence, RI for visits with friends and back to back Bruce shows...That day couldn't have come soon enough...I was counting down the minutes of my never ending day...

Now, in the midst of all of the craziness...time and money was ticking away for the national Cash for Clunkers program...what better distraction than thoughts of a new sparkling car with new car smells during all of the whirlwind of what my life had become swept up in...

Now, I am by nature...practical...I can't necessarily say my decisions are always right...but for the most part...if I am to give thought to a decision, the deciding factor is based in practicality, common sense, and functionality....and well, maybe a twist of rationalization...

Sometimes it sucks...Sometimes I'd like to just freakin' go nuts and splurge selfishly on something that I'm intrigued with, even if it doesn't quite fit the mold of need versus want... even if it's ridiculously expensive...

Even my travels to see Bruce...have elements of self restraint...I've traded in that annual vacation to the beach or cruise or what have you...on sporadic trips between the east and midwest...wherever Southwest or AirTran can get me for a reasonable price...My expenses once there are fairly minimal...good company, a bottle of Patron to share and some food on the run is all I really need...

So I was excited like a kid getting ready for Christmas...the opportunity to trade in my 1989 Toyota Camry for $3500 seemed stupid to pass up...Hell, even the Kelly Blue Book value didn't exceed $800...so..........$3500??? Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out...The Camry had served me well...and prior to that, it served my father well...It's one of those cars that turns out to be a gem...and even now, who would have ever thought...a 20 year old car is the 3rd top car still being stolen nationwide...So, even though I figured I'd keep the car until it's last sputtering breath...I decided I was ready to part with it...Those 270,000 miles clocked in had many stories to tell...

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech...thud* Not so fast...

My first stop was the local Toyota dealership...I was looking to see if they had a Camry Solara convertible however they are tough to find being as they are a discontinued model...Well, the salesfella asks about a trade-in and of course I smugly tell him I have an '89 Camry with 270,000 miles on it... So a few clicks here and there with the mouse....and what?!?!?!? It doesn't meet the list's criteria???? What do you mean the gas mileage is too good???? Seriously...you can't really believe the gas mileage is the same 20 years later.............Crap. So here I am at the dealership...I couldn't very well just turn around and walk out...so I ended up test driving the 2010 Camry and Corolla Matrix...neither of which did much for me...Now, I've not bought a new car since1995 but damn what's the deal with trying to find a manual transmission????? Sheesh. So apparently the Camry doesn't come with a stick shift...but it does have some sort of automatic shifting gears...I'm not quite sure what the purpose is...but an automatic is nowhere as much fun to drive...The Matrix was a cute car...an automatic but didn't grip the gears as smoothly as I would have liked...It was a great car to send your kid off to college with...

Well, being as I'm a die hard Toyota driver...I wasn't concerned about reliability...that's universally solid...but comfort has bumped up higher on my priority list...As much driving in the Jersey, PA, VA area...I needed something that was going to be comfortable so as not to be all seized up by the time I reached my destinatioon...I like to think the quality of what they are passing off as comfort has deteriorated over the years...and not just my body...okay...maybe a little of my body...Nonetheless...I've reached that pinnacle of adulthood where I've decided I should splurge on my own comfort every once in a while...My Camry is the ultimate in comfort...big lounging velour seats that go up and down...adjustable lumbar support...great visibility that doesn't interfere with lounging in the seat...My '93 Corolla however.........sucks in tems of comfort...sucks. I'm in the car not even 2 hours and I swear rigormortis starts to set in...A 4.5 hour drive straight through to New Jersey is a killer...

Well, I am disappointed but had some other dealerships to check out...figured I'd look at a Honda and a Suburu to begin with...Instead...the salesfella tells me I should take a look at the Scion tC...that is has much of what I've said I wanted...something sporty...fun to drive, comfortable...So I look at the one they have in the showroom...the salesfella tells me why the Scion exists and what "pure pricing" means then hands me off to the Scionfella...Well, next thing I know...I'm in the car taking it for a test drive by myself...the salesfella tells me to take it on a cruise with the instructions of taking the exit curve with some acceleration...and I do...and it's nice.................in fact, I really liked the car...tons of standards...sunroof, cruise control, 7 airbags, 7 speakers...stick shift, sporty....all sitting on a Camry chassis with a Camry engine...but 10k less............Hell, thank goodness I wasn't in the mood for an impulse buy...I could've done it easily...but I didn't...

I did check out the Suburu and VW dealerships and for the money...was unimpressed...

So a few weeks have passed, allowing me to do some research and weigh my financial options...

It a great deal for 17k...I'm just not sure if it's someting I want to still be driving 10 years forward...I was thinking 10 years from now, I'd be in the position of driving something in a whole different class.........................the BMW roadster class.........................

And here we are again...luxury versus functionality.................

Today.....................I stumbled upon a 2000 BMW Z3 with 42,000 miles on it...same price as the brand spankin' new Scion...

Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...

Memory Trippin'...

2009-07-24T21:55:00.002-04:00

So yesterday...I go to visit my mother who is now...76...

My father happens to be out of the country for a couple of weeks so I took the day off to go spend the day with her...Little did I know we'd walk back in time...

My mother was listening to a folk station on her satellite radio...She's listened to folk music as long as I can remember...

So I'm there for a few minutes and on comes Bruce...not only Bruce but more obscure Bruce... How about that...Mom had cool Bruce blasting from the speakers...

It was, "My Father's House," from the Nebraska album...an album really only endeared by the hardcore fan...

Folk music is what I grew up on when I was really young...It would surprise most...And of course as I began to explore my own autonomy as a kid and began to denounce everything my parents were imparting upon me...Rock & Roll and it's derivitives became my staple...I was looking forward...not looking back...

But, as time goes on...ang as cliche' as it seems to be....What goes around...comes around...and wouldn't you know it...Bruce's fairly recent Seeger Sessions tour...brought me back home...

I was more than just a little familiar with Pete Seeger...some of my early memories include my mother playing her acoustic guitar to her own Seeger Sessions in the den of the first house I lived in...The first concert I recall was Pete Seeger at Wolf Trap in D.C.

Well, after we had some lunch...I helped my mother with the ongoing task of chronicling the batches of family photos she has collected and is spread out in piles and in albums around her living room...It's our entire family catalogue until my brother and I left home for college...It's one of those tasks that I know my mother feels compelled to do...dating and organizing all of the pictures so that 'someone' will be able to know our story...She's insisted that all of the albums be passed along to my safe keeping once she's moved on...I will keep them...I'm not sure where I'll put the volume upon volumes...but I'll figure it out when the time comes knocking...

Well, we sorted and dated pictures before my time...pictures from her own youth...By developmental deduction, we figure out her age throughout the small collection of black and whites she has...There's an even smaller number of my father as a youngster...but his picture as a two year old is precious...Then there are pictures of them in the 1950's when they met...both at the peak of their youth where innocence and the promise of future shone through...The wedding pictures...yes, they will be married 55 years in December...It was an interesting trip through their lives...

The piles eventually led to my own childhood...and I'm amazed at my vivid recollection of some of those pictures being taken...some as early as 18 months...It strikes me funny since I can't really remember what happened yesterday...

So up through the years...through the chubby years...the bad haircuts...the Halloween oufits that were awesome because my mother always made them...The Elementary School years...where significant flashes of my personality today started bubbling to the top...Pictures of the old house, the new house...the Christmas' where we all changed but the tree decorations did not...The Bicentennial fireworks with millions of people in the background of the family picture on the D.C. Mall...and then I came across it...The black and white picture of Pete Seeger from Wold Trap... It was much like this one...I'll need to get a scan of it on another day...

It was an interesting trip down memory lane at this stage of my life...They are all pictures I'd seen before but this time...seemed different...

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane...

2009-07-17T23:07:00.007-04:00

She's pretty darned amazing at 5 days old...

21...

2009-07-10T00:17:00.007-04:00

Meet my new neighbor...This is at 21 hours old...

Amazing, isn't it...

Darwin Pharmaceuticals

2009-06-30T19:11:00.003-04:00

Yup...that's right...it's Survival of the Fittest...

I don't know who to blame today...the growing and exploding negligence of the medical community that I've witnessed in my relatively short adult life (at least since the evils of HMO's began dictating medical treatment without ever seeing or speaking to the patient), or the parasitic opportunistic lawyers who seize those moments to line their own pockets on the coat tails of those who don't understand or speak legalese...The world has become hostage to lawyers to the point we've bred out common sense for fear of litigation...or...maybe the blame simply lies with the individual who ultimately should be in charge of what goes into their body...

Holy cow...the FDA has 'recommended' a ban and an increased restriction on the maximum dosage for Tylenol...Oooohhh...let's pull acetaminophen from the shelves...no more Nyquil or other cold medicines compounded with acetaminophen...Hell, soon...I'll get carded more for buying Nyquil and Sudafed than I ever did for booze...It's thoroughly ridiculous I can't buy an over the counter medicine...um, over the counter...and on top of it, I can only buy one box a day...not 2...Sorry, come back tomorrow...Is this really causing the jokers who were smart enough to figure out they could cook it down to make meth to not continue??? Surrrrre...it's like ticket scalpers...if there's a will there's a way...and what they can turn over in meth...is worth the investment in spending the day with your 10 closest friends to hit up as many drug stores with some fake ID's to buy the 30 pack of 12 hour Sudafed...Does make a tougher case for the lawyers to latch onto that big payday though, eh?

Yes, I am well aware I am shooting in every direction I can except back at myself...I understand that and will surely come full circle...but in the meantime...this is what royally pisses me off:

This a.m. I went to a "specialist" doctor upon the referral of my 'primary care physician." I had the 10 pages of information filled out ahead of time that they sent to me (twice) in the mail...that will be a $30 co-pay and a 40 minute wait in the "waiting room' with a 12" t.v. set sitting on a stand in the middle of the room...WTF... Finally into one of those quaint 'examination rooms' I go with the nurse who is asking me if I filled out a "patient survey." "Um...I'm not sure...what's a patient survey?" she tells me it's several pages of medical information/history etc. "Um, yes...it's right there in the chart you have." Now, she was a very pleasant gal...engaging, personable...but I could see my own hand writing upside down from several feet away so what was her problem?..."Oh yes, here it is." Suddenly, the door bursts open, the doctor walks in 2 feet, asks what I'm there for which I tell him...he says, "yes...we need to take care of that." Then starts to leave...That was 20 seconds... "Wait...can you tell me a little more?" So I squeeze another 15 seconds out of him and he leaves, "See you soon." Well, I am no fan of doctors...if I didn't need their prescription pad...I'd never go...It burns my ass that the bastard will bill my insurance company who knows how much as this covers an office visit as well as a consult...and then I have to pay $30 on top of it...You'd think there's be at least a 15" t.v. I wasn't the only one astonished...the nurse said, "wow...that was fast." then proceeded with getting my blood pressure and recording it followed by saying, "this is usually when I say, the doctor will be in to see you but....." But what pisses me off is, this isnt an isolated situation...this has become the state of "treatment." Insurance dictates how long a doctor spends with a patient by the amount of reimbursement they will pay...So my primary physician is expected to not spend any longer than 15 minutes in total with each patient...so 4 in an hour...You do the math...It's no wonder she has to ask me every time if I'm allergic to anything...or what meds I'm taking...Hell, she's the one prescribing...you'd think she'd figure it out since it's her license on the line...but...well, who has time to read the patient's chart at this point...much less ask the really important assessment questions...This is why I lived with chronic earth shattering pain for a couple plus years until the Physician's Assistant student took the time to actually listen...Funny the only person who heard me loud and clear was the person whose medical decisions were yet to be dictated by some angry resentful power hungry nurse with a phone and a computer at some insurance company who receives year end bonuses for denying medical treatment...Finally...some relief before I had to take matters into my own hands...which leads me to the next thing that pisses me off:

So back to today......... Today, the FDA is wanting to reduce the maximum adult dose of acetaminophen and wants to yank Percocets and Vicodin (as they are compounded with acetaminophen)...Well let's see...being as I am allergic to the NSAIDS(Aspirin, Ibuprophen, Naproxen etc.)... Tylenol is the only non-prescription pain reliever I can take without breaking out into hives...and as for the ongoing searing pains that course through my body...the only thing I can tolerate that I've been prescribed thus far...is Percocet...So let's see...if they pull that...looks like I can always cop some smack on the street...or I can head to Canada with the already throngs who go for cheaper pills twice a year to stock up...and then of course I can always start cocktail hour earlier...after all, Jimmy says it's 5 o'clock somewhere...And then again...if they just go ahead and remove the acetaminophen from the narcotic...I'd be able to finally take more without fear of an acetaminophen overdose...Ironic that the acetaminophen in the Percocets...keeps me from abusing them for fear my liver will implode...

My next problem with all of this...is...well okay...so now we know most of the doctors don't have the time to provide the quality care required...the responsibility of figuring out how much acetaminophen you jam in your body really falls to yourself...right???? I mean, I can understand how some might not be quite so astute...I suppose if you are taking Tylenol...there's some sort of pain interfering with normal functioning...so I understand that but the magnitude of inadvertant overdose makes it difficult to not blame outright carelessness on the consumer's part...no?

So really...pull the drugs...make new drugs...take too many drugs...ultimately, doesn't this all go back to Darwin???

Working on a Dream...

2009-06-13T10:19:00.004-04:00

I will still write about shows here...they will just take on a different flavor...having said that...this is the tour for that to happen...Not only have the duties of my job been thrown into turbo leaving me less and less time for me to write anything other than policies, job descriptions and proposals...it's also been an odd tour....Sometimes it difficult to step back and dinstinguish...what is the life of the tour...and what is the tour of my life...For instance, The life of the Devils and Dust tour became something intensely intimate...It was Bruce...and us...Many nights as he sat poised at his piano...his conversations with the audience allowed us all to let our guard down...to look inside and then out...and then to travel along an unknown path together...It was a tour where introspection prompted re-evaluation of so many things...of life...of love...of living...Amongst the theatrical crimson drapes and scrims and fuschia and purple uplighting...was a man who had found resolve in his life and yet...continued to struggle to find his way...And...that was my life...It was a time of questioning..of coming to terms with where I'd led myself...with accepting where I was and letting go of those things of which I had no control...It was a time of cleaning house and moving forward...a time to make some decisions...to clear out the devils and dust...That was 4 years ago...It was a cathartic tour...and allowed me to stare down the barrel of reality...It doesn't mean I have the right answers now...I would like to think 4 years later after all of that evaluation that I am wiser...and have honed my decision making skills...No, I can't say that at all...I still walk with much uncertainty...but I have left behind the things I cannot change that I clung to for so many years...

So here we are...Working on a Dream...Yes, that's accurate...I am still working on a dream...My dreams have shifted...What I wanted 10 years ago has evolved into some new ideas...Ideas I didn't forsee...but like it or not...here they are...This has proven to be an odd tour...it's been disjointed...distracted...and although as of today, the foundation has solidified...it took quite some time to get there...I don't know what the issues have been...but in my opinion, this tour's timing was amiss...The tour was forced to piggyback the enormity of the Superbowl performance...and well, why wouldn't it...It would seem poor planning all the way around to perform at Superbowl and then to fade off into the background for another 4-6 months...So from a business standpoint it made sense...from an exposure standpoint...it made perfect sense...No matter what some hardcore fans believe...Bruce wants the exposure...he wants to inflitrate as many homes and ipods as possible...And then there's distraction of both Nils and Clarence's recent hip/joint replacements...I think had the Superbowl not occurred so soon after surgery...rehab for both would have been beneficial...It was not surprising that The Big Man's recovery would not be as seamless as Nils'...Hell, first of all, he IS a big man...and well, he's an elderly man now...That combination alone increases recovery time...And then the other enormous distraction...has been Max's committtment to the Conan show...As a result, a drummer needed to replace Max for chunks of time...I will admit that replacing Max with his son, Jay...was perfectly choreographed...I cannot find a single flaw in it...but no matter how perfect, there's one thing you cannot control...you cannot replace or control the reality of time...It's been exciting to watch Jay contribure his own talents at such an incredibly young age...But, the truth is...although he is E Street Band royalty...he's still 17 and has only been drumming for 4 years...You cannot change fact...and you cannot force time...and it was obvious to me, that Bruce knew exactly what he was nurturing along as fast as feasibly possible...

The first several shows occurred on the West Coast which is atypical...so by the time they returned to the East Coast, theoretically...the show should have been nailed down...To me, it was not...Don't get me wrong...the shows I saw were good...but of all of the tours I've witnessed...the first several shows were more like rehearsals...That was Boston...enjoyable but cautious...The Philly shows helped insfuse what they needed as Philly crows are always special...A slight backstep for Hershey as it was the first preparation for the impending stadium shows before they headed to Europe but by the time they reached DC 2 nights later...they were the powerhouse that we all knew...The tour had lift-off and into the stratosphere they went...before they left the States...2 New Jersey shows were rewarded with the announcent that they'd be returning in the Fall to close out the monster known as Giants Stadium...and for the first time...the Jersey crowds were just as incredible as Philly audiences...

Welcome back to my life...My life has entered a new state of flux as well...My job that I've had for just over a year is exciting in mission and vision yet incredibly exhausting...On top of that, a reality of uncertainty exists...It too is disjointed...and there are so many issues occuring simultaneouly, it's difficult to figure out which item to tackle...It has become like triage...tend to the most immediate things...and even then...it seems I'm just chasing the 8 ball...The momentum has been slow to build because there are so many distractions to address all at the same time...It's the nature of the job for now, and it will remain in that state for the next few years...Just like this tour...we're trying to hammer down the foundation while fighting the storms that seem to distract us at every turn...Yes, professionally...I really am working on a dream...

Will the Circle Be Unbroken.........

2009-05-27T01:46:00.004-04:00

Yes, I've been absent from these pages throughout my recent travels to several east coast shows...For the first time since the inception of this blog-o-rama...recently, I've not intimately chronicled each Bruce show intentionally and yet...that choice comes with some internal conflicts that I'll just have to ride out...

Although there are not throngs of people who read this blog...there are a few faithful followers who check in strictly for my take on all things Bruce...To those who have inquired through emails... I feel an explanation is warranted...

Over the last few tours...my Bruce related friends have goaded me about being in "the inner circle" due to my friendship with someone who is an integral part of recent tours...Because of that friendship, I've been able to experience shows from a totally heightened perspective...I have always been and remain gracious in being an invited guest and do not feel that being a guest is an entitlement due to that friendship...It's always been very clear...that the friendship supercedes anything else and Bruce or no Bruce...the friendship remains a constant...Nontheless, I still catch some good hearted hell (and some not so good hearted) about this "inner circleness..." Okay...guilty as charged...

On the flip side...........my being a self-proclaimed long standing hardcore Bruce fan has placed me in a different "inner circle"...The rabid Bruce fan circle...You know, I've come here in the past armed with stories of decades ago of camping out for tickets, following tour info., watching setlists, detailing every shows experience, knowing when rehearsals are happening and pilgrammaging at Asbury Park...and maintaining a circle of Bruce fan friends through the online Bruce community just nudge the tip of the iceberg...The Bruce influence upon my life over the last 30 years has clearly collided head on in this blog...The blog, although born out of the effects of how Hurricane Katrina entered my life...was still a result of my Bruce fan related connections...The blog's interface is riddled with Bruce related items in every direction you might look...It's intrinsically parallel to my life...way before my happenstance friendship with someone who happens to work for the tour...So within that "other" inner circle" brings some explaining of "this" inner circle...

Having said that, these circles do not co-exist comfortably nor concentrically...As a result...as time has continued over the last few years and tours...this tour seemed to bring cause for me to take a stand and no longer write in a public arena about shows to the degree that I have in the past...As much as I've enjoyed sharing those experiences from a unique perspective as they unraveled before me...there is no question that I'd never trade my friendship to do so... I'll still write about those thoughts as there's no denying I see those experiences as part of my own path through life...I have just chosen to not hang them out on the line here and now...Maybe one day, they will fall in a special heap to see the light of day in something much larger...In the meantime...until those circles may be unbroken...they will have to respectfully mellow within the confines of privacy...

Boss-ton...

2009-04-25T21:02:00.007-04:00

I was pretty stoked about heading to Boston...I'm not sure why I'd not ever been there...Demographically, it's close but for whatever reasons, I just never made it there...So it just so happened, that within a couple of days of each other...was the Boston Marathon....and Bruce...

A big time in the area...

The flight was interesting...and set the tone for the trip...Being that the Marathon was imminent...the entire flight was filled with runners, spectators, and well...ME...
Spectators are family members of runners or are past runners themselves...They are all people who live and breathe running...
Now, I was never a hardcore runner but in my younger days, I did run pretty consistently...no marathons but 3-5 miles almost everyday...It was enough to understand what a runners high was...and what exactly being in "the zone" was...It was an effective way for me to burn off my excess internal energy while clearing my mind of virtually everything...Of course the difference was...after my 5 mile run, I'd reward myself with a Camel Light and an ice cold Rolling Rock...

So here I was on my AirTran flight...the one that I had to actually purchase an ala carte seat for...I was so wanting to sleep on the flight...In fact being the chronic insomniac, I am always ridiculously excited about flying just because I know I'll get the best sleep ever once the engines start roaring...You know how new parents strap their infants in the car seat when they won't sleep and drive around the block becaue it puts them right out??? That's me...except a flight is a bit more involved than a trip around the block...that being said, I don't minimize the value of my air time...

So here I am in my window seat...assuming the head against the window position hoping the ultimate occurs...that I am sleepeing before we even take-off............except..........the people in the two seats to the left of me are chatting...excitedly...not quietly...The fella was running his first Boston Marathon as he didn't qualify last year...The lady...had run it a couple of times previously but was just a spectator this year...Then there was the comparison of the Marine Corp. Marathon versus the Chicago Marathon...chatter, chatter, chatter...Okay, I've slept through chatter before but this one was definitely interfering...and then it started...The 3 year old sitting behind me who decided that jamming his foot repeatedly into the back of my chair was just calisthenics for marathon running when he became older...

whack*whack*thump*thamp*chatter*chatter*thump*whack*...................

I was a bit irritated as I disembarked my ala carte seat and headed off to find a shuttle to my hotel...

I ended up staying in Cambridge...just across the river from Boston ...
The room at the Royal Sonesta had a wonderful view of Boston's skyline...When I checked in...this fella greeted me outside of my window...Together we hung out for awhile just taking in the activity on the river...He was more talkative than I...maybe his flight sucked too...

The view from the room was quite nice at all hours...I made my way out and about while awaiting my buddy to arrive from the west coast...A couple of margaritas and an appetizer at The Cheesecake Factory across the street helped kick off the beginning of my Bruce excursions for the coming weeks...

Tomorrow was a new day...

Loup-Garou...is Blue...

2009-04-17T00:44:00.000-04:00

Blue Dog...

Oh how I love a Blue Dog...
My introduction to George Rodrigue's Blue Dog series was in New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day...2005...A group of us had spent the day driving up and down the streets of Central City in search of residents who had returned to what was left to their Katrina ravaged neighborhood... Before heading to the French Quarter to find our own Thanksgiving meal that now had new and deeper significance...we drove through The Ninth Ward...where inhabitants were non-existant... There is no movie director who can recreate what we saw...The expansiveness of the destruction was so beyond comprehension...Cars aren't supposed to be sitting on one another...telephone poles aren't supposed to be laying on top of houses...But there they were...
We finally made our way back to The French Quarter...where life existed...It was an emotionally grueling and uplifting day...Amongst the empty houses and vacant faces...the human spirit continued to fight for survival...People with boots and rubber gloves covered in muck were there Thanksgiving Day...dragging out water soaked and now mold and creature invested carpets and furniture...They were coming back...Those were the people who as exhausted and numb as they were...were the glimmer of hope..An eye of a different storm...It too would grow...
It was a lot to contemplate walking down Royal Street...and there in the window of an art gallery...was my introduction to this Blue Dog...

This is what accompanied it:

We Will Rise Again

Those of us from South Louisiana grew up with the aftermaths of hurricanes Audrey, Betsy, Camille...and now Katrina. As with times before, "we will rise again." Tears and rising water threaten to drown us. But don't be deceived. The land may be under water, but the spirit of New Orleans and the culture of Louisiana hold their heads high.

We Will Rise Again shows the American flag covered with water. The blue dog is partly submerged, and its eyes, normally yellow, are red with a broken heart. Like a ship's S.O.S., the red cross on the dog's chest calls out for help.

Katrina hit me personally at Ground Zero. My immediate thought was for the safety of people I know, followed by the shock of seeing helicopters and boats alongside familiar street signs, as rescuers assisted people from rooftops and attics. For the second time in this young 21st century I sat at my easel weighted by personal sorrow and my desire to help, this time also reflecting on the devastation of my city and the suffering of my neighbors.

New Orleans has been home to my gallery and studio for sixteen years; it is where the blue dog was born. My wife is a third generation New Orleanian, and the Big Easy remains the 'big city' to my Cajun hometown of New Iberia. Wendy and I join thousands of New Orleans residents in our pledge to go HOME, to re-build our city, and to pay tribute to those who lost their lives with a commitment to care for our citizens, embrace our culture, and make the good times roll ... again.

George Rodrigue
September 2005

When we returned home...my friend who went along with me on the trip purchased one, a signed print...The proceeds going in total to the Red Cross in order to help rebuild...The print has since increased in value five-fold...

Since then, I've looked into the history of Blue Dog...and Blue Dog has looked back at me...
The rest of these have been borrowed from art auction sites simply for your viewing Blue Dog pleasure...

1984...The Beginning...

It just doesn't seem right that poor Tiffany was likened to the evil Loup-Garou of the swamps and marshes of Louisiana and yet.........unbeknownst to her (or wa it)...she would become an icon...

How can this not make you smile, Blue Dog???

A pack of Blue Dogs...

Linda Blair???

2009-04-16T23:17:00.009-04:00

Somehow I was tasked with making reservations for everything for a group of 5 of us for our trip to NOLA...That's always tricky business with people you don't know very well... My boss decided that he wanted me to find "suites" in order to keep costs down...Of course, he being the only male...............easy for him to say from his own private room...So anyway, I end up making reservations at the Maison St Charles in the Garden District. First, I checked with everyone to make sure they were okay with staying somewhere that was going to be unique with a more authentic New Orleans feel than the usual cookie cutter hotels by the convention center. The price for a suite here versus a typical hotel room with 2 double beds near the convention center weren't really that much different in price with the discount offered through the convention organizers. The selling points however...your own privte room as well as common living area, fridge, microwave, courtyard surrounded by the multiple buildings owned that have been converted into rooms and suites and a streetcar stop right out front that would dump us right in the French Quarter...Well, luckily...all of my colleagues were up for the adventure...What a great place it turned out to be...Every room's decor was different yet furnished with antique pieces of furniture...All of the living areas were plenty spacious...which was such an added plus...Who wants to be cooped up in a hotel room with someone you don't know all that well...

My Room

"Linda Blair"

One of the 3 resident cats that live on the grounds. This one lives in the "haunted house." One of the employees told me this and when I said,

"nuhhh uhhhh...you're just pulling my leg..."

He said the show Paranormal States been out recently to do a segment and that if we had time, he'd show us the 7 minute segment...Unfortunately...by the time we got back from The French Quarter...he was already gone for the night...

"The Haunted House"

The climate definitely has a jump start on us...

These were pretty cool...fully bloomed while the sun was out...

closed up otherwise...

The Courtyard outside of our balcony...

Another balcony view of local tropics...

A great place...I will stay here again...

Beyond The Quarter...

2009-04-12T17:29:00.004-04:00

Although my time in New Orleans was brief and the premise was work focused...I still find myself unable to toss all of my thoughts into one blog entry...'Tis the flaw of my brain...the need to compartmentalize life sometimes to a fault...and sometimes surprisingly efficiently brilliant...Much more fault than brilliance I might add...

I wrote my first post about the spoils of The French Quarter...It was wonderful fun to share the little bit that I knew about the city with newcomers...Info about the great Mississippi, Lake Ponchartrain, the St. Louis Cathedral, Pontalba-the oldest apartment buildings in North America that overlooks the Cathedral, the oldest streetcar system in North America...the "shotgun style" homes that are signature of the region...Jazz Fest...Mardi Gras... George Rodrigue's Blue Dogs that we saw everywhere...the history of Canal Street-the street that never became a canal...that sort stuff...Two of my colleagues are originally from South America so their curiosity- was even more heightened than the other two U.S. citizens...Mardi Gras I imagine ain't got nothing on Carnival, held in Rio de Janiero...nonetheless...they were wide eyed with a part of the U.S. they'd not yet seen..

I'll have a couple more posts related to New Orleans however...this one is the hardest...and as a result...it has simmered for more than a week...

The reason this blog ever hit the blogosphere...was because of my last trip to New Orleans...My first post back in December 2005 explains it all for anyone who cares to read the birthing of "Further on Up..."

It has chronically tugged. nagged and pained me to have not returned since my trip to help out after Hurricane Katrina's wrath...Does not matter the excuses...I allowed time to slip away much too long...and much too fast...

Believe me...I've thought about the lives literally ripped from their foundations on many a day since leaving reluctantly last time...

I've thought about the daunting task for years to come of clearing out miles of devastation and destruction...

I've thought about the long term ill effects we will see in people 10 years from now...

I've thought about the people whose lives touched me more than mine touched theirs...

I've wondered whatever happened to Rudy...the contractor from Tulsa who 3 months into his 5 year contract after the storm was so emotionally shattered...

and more than anything...

I've wondered about whatever happened to the recently widowed elderly man who was living feet away from his neighbors' condemned house...Living in a house with no electricity...no car, no public transportation, no open stores to even make it to even if he had a way to get there...Living amongst rubble...and stench...Living in an area where there were more shifted above ground gravestones than living people...Living amongst such solemn emptiness...That's who I think about most...I can't forget the slowly changing waves of emotions shining from his kind eyes...Such ambivalence...such warmth...such fragility...such loneliness...yet amongst the pain and exhaustion that no elderly person should have to endure in their twilight years...was such wisdom...and such pride...

This was a man whose life was clearly of simple means before The Storm...and although the storm swept away so much...there was no destroying the wealth of his character...Three and a half years later...I can only hope he made it through...It breaks my heart to think that all of the living he'd done...all that he'd given to those whose lives he touched...would in the end leave him with such hardships...If there really were Genies to grant wishes...undoubtedly..I'd have given my wishes to him...

I wasn't sure what to expect going back to see how the residents were doing...I'd heard stories about how slow the progress of rebuilding has been...We'd all heard about the corruption...the injustices of how opportunists looked to take advantage of the weakened...to steal...to lie...to cheat...My heart has calloused over the years by chronic exposure to the evils of human nature...that's the nature of my work and those callouses are what allows me to be effective...

It's what allows me the strength to fight for those who cannot...It allows me to have the insight to step in to intervene to prevent further damages to others...What I was unsure of...was how I'd be impacted once re-immersed into places I'd left...It is what refuses to become hardened that allows the balance for me to not ever become insensitive and complacent...

As part of a convention workshop...we went on a site visit to St. Bernard/7th Ward to speak with some local organizers about the revitalization of their community...I took one of my co-workers with me and sent two others to Central City....Even if they got nothing out of the workshop...it was important for them to see more than the French Quarter...to see reality...That's exactly what happened...It was a mistake on the Convention organizers part to believe that the local residents were in a position to teach outsiders how to set up successful community organizations. Not because they weren't putting forth valiant efforts and sacrificing their own private lives for the vision of revitalization...noooo...that's exactly what they were doing...but where they were in the process remained much in it's tenuous toddlerhood...Instead of hearing about where they pulled the strength and resources to be able to restructure and organize...we spoke with some very emotionally drained good hearted folks who were fighting such an uphill battle...

The school system remained a mess...Only 1 of 6 schools had reopened since The Storm...that left children on buses being bussed out to other communities...and oftentimes, bus rides wouldn't return them home after school until after 6 p.m. as they were bussed across The River...

The FEMA aid was ridiculous...after everyone got their hands in the pie from a top heavy system...there was virtually nothing left...

The church from where they were operating...was going to go into foreclosure with the land developer planning to bulldoze the little bit they had salvaged...The little house 2 doors down from the church where they re-opened the HIV Clinic...still had the haunting Katrina crest of a criss-cross and status of number of alive or dead bodies and date checked by the National Guard door to door check...The big gaping hole between the church and the boarded up buildings in the distance was all that was left of an entire public housing development...

These folks had a story to tell...and the story they asked us to take back to wherever we came from was,

"When people ask how thinga are 4 years later and how we are,

tell them we're not doing well."

The French Quarter...

2009-04-11T16:44:00.007-04:00

I really love New Orleans...I need to become more familiar with it but with such a short trip of 3 nights and 4 days filled with a work related convention and in the company of work colleagues who'd never been there...We spent the evenings hopping the street car and running about the French Quarter...I showed them the usual sights and gave them a bit of history...made sure they had signature New Orleans fare (crawfish, alligator, red beans and rice, Jambalaya, gumbo, po' boys, Cafe du Monde beignets) and New Orleans drink (Hurricanes, Hand Grenades, Shark Attacks)...And then of course...gave them an introduction to my favorite cornerstone bar, The Tropical Isle and endless people watching of Bourbon Street...

I introduced them to the Hand Grenade and Shark Attack drinks of The Isle...and well, let's just say...they were back for more the next 2 nights...It just so happened that one of the owners was celebrating her birthday as was one in our group...Next thing we knew...she was sharing birthday cake with us and stories of opening the bar some 25 years ago...Birthday cake she shared readily...but there was no prying the secret recipe of The Hand Grenade from her...

To add to the spirit of New Orleans...a Pirate Convention (pyratecon.com) was in town making the people watching that much more entertaining...Swashbuckling and plundering...Arrrrrr...

There's nothing like Bourbon Street and it's surrounding blocks...It invites drunkeness and debauchery yet...I've never witnessed any conflict... Period...Interesting......

From White Castle to the White House...

2009-04-09T01:30:00.005-04:00

Mondays...

There's not a whole lot I look forward to on Mondays...It usually means that my return into the office is an in-your-face reminder of all of the things I've not been able to accomplish...It usually begins with my rushing around in the a.m., trying to battle my really bad habit of being late...It doesn't matter what time I get up...it's those last 5-10 minutes before leaving home that typically derail my punctuality...It's clearly an internal head-game issue versus some sort of serendipitous situational calamity...

On the flip-side...once into the office, it's tough for me to get out of there too...Typically I make it home in time to grab something to eat before watching my weekly ritual of "House" follwed by "24." I've been a fan of "24" however some seasons have become too mundane and predictable but nonetheless...I have to watch it...But before that...is "House"...which I've become obsessed with...like I did when CSI came out...Gregory House's character is a great blend of genius and major character flaws...a top notch medical doctor who pops pain killers like Pez and has the shocking Asperger's-like social skills that will stop you dead in your tracks...It's one of those characters where the actor is the key to the character's success...
Hugh Laurie is perfectly cast...he brings with him, some sort of internal conflict and flippant arrogant humor that can't be solely acting...It's much like Jack Nicholson...Sure, you can replace him with another actor but remove Jack and you've lost something unique...Hugh Laurie is like that...that and I have a twisted little adolescent crush on him...Something about that scruffy unkempt exterior and eyes that explode with all sorts of untold stories...oh, and he rides a Triumph...So this past Monday, I'm running late (surprise! surprise!)...I get home, turn on the t.v. and grab something to drink from the kitchen...I hear the opening of the show...rush into the room to catch the medical premise of the show...You have to catch the first 5 minutes so you can see what sort of near death experience is thrust into the lives of House and his team...Well, I round the corner of my kichen into the living room, dodging dogs to see the commotion of 2 of the characters screaming about a "gunshot to the head." They are scrambling for 10 seconds to save the person to no avail...and 3 minutes into the show...it turns out to be the demise of one of the main characters...Yup, without any warning Kutner whacks hinself! Holy Moly! No warning I tell you...and then at the end of the program is a quick yet serious blurb about suicide, an endorsement for NAMI and a Fox t.v. website dedicated to Kutner's character...Holy Cow...what a ratings booster...So right after the show, I'm online Googling like thousands of other House aficinados...trying to figure out what the hell just happened...Did something happen to Kal Penn, the actor? Why was there such an abrupt and final exit off the show? Why was there such a real life seriousness at the end of the show??? Something wasn't adding up...Kal Penn (who plays Kutner) is the unmistakeable face of Kumar...from the infamous stoner movie, "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle." did he finally have one too many White Castle burgers????

Well...by Tuesday...the secret was out...he wasn't going to White Castle...he was going to the White House!!!Apparently he's been offered a position with the White House working for the President therefore...a haitus from Hollywood is in order...How cool is that...

2009-03-28T03:35:00.006-04:00

This past week I was in Asbury Park to catch up with friends and to catch the first of the two Rehearsal Shows for the Working on a Dream Tour...

First...I must say that there's been a ton of re-development down there...It's no longer looking like an abandoned old seaside town...New buildings...new shops...and new parking meters that will begin bringing in money this summer have changed the landscape...There are still remains of the concrete C-8 dinosaur that became the infamous looming monstrosity of Ocean Avenue...but little by little...it too, will become a ghost of times gone by...

I was astounded when I walked through the grand arcade that separates Convention Hall and Paramount Theatre...What was once a barren refuge in disrepair from the blistering cold or blazing sun ...is now home to several little bars and stores(the pictures aren't current but is representative of the renovations)...The outside of the building has undergone many repairs and the signature seafaring ornamentation has been cleaned, painted, and polished...There's still work to be done but there's new life that's been breathed into what once was fighting to not go down for the count...Yes...the parallels have now been overtly drawn with the filming of The Wrestler in and around the area...

I always look forward to show times at Convention Hall..It's a stark contrast to latter parts of the tour when things are explosive in places like arenas and stadiums...The environment is much more casual and intimate and although there are still rabid fans that take the anxiety to a higher level...the numbers are but a fraction of what occurs once the tour is in full swing...Bruce's interaction with the audience reflects much of the same...there's certain to be casual banter and laughter exchanged between band and audience...

I was fortunate to be able to make one of the rehearsal shows this time around as well as visit with friends I'd not seen since the closing of the Magic Tour...I'd made my way to Convention Hall a couple of days before the open rehearsal shows had started to meet up with a friend and happened to be there when Bruce and Patti arrived for a closed rehearsal...I gotta say I was clearly more excited to see Patti step out of the Range Rover with a beautiful German Shepherd than I was to see them! Well, it wasn't that I wasn't happy to see them too...but, but, but...they have a German Shepherd?!?!?

There's a couple of highlights that struck me...

This was the most 'rehearsal-like' show I'd ever seen. I'm not sure if it was because closed rehearsals seemed so scattered...or if it was some changes up on stage with 2 backup singers from The Seegar Sessions Band, or maybe Jay Weinberg's sitting in for his father at the drums, or maybe Nils & Clarences' physical re-entry into the band...Maybe it's just a combination of everything!

It was great to see Nils and Clarence at the show for the first time since having recieved new bionic parts...Nils was all over the stage and to me...was more in tune with the songs than anyone else...Clarence, seemed to be having some trouble adjusting...I am hoping he's not dealing with chronic pain...that is going to make for a tough tour...

The tour oddly begins on the West Coast which is good for us eastcoasters...Once they return east for Boston...we'll all be ready...

Lenovo Mojo...

2009-03-22T15:44:00.003-04:00

I kept telling them...and telling them...
It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt...

Last May I got a new job along with a new laptop...Our IT guy had decided to try Lenovo laptops instead of Dells and mine was the first purchase...From time to time, he'd ask me about it's functioning...

I'd tell him it was okay...I didn't have much to compare it with however it was definitely slower than my previous one...

Then slowly, things began to deteriorate...

The cursor would jump around on the page...It would start typing from right to left which would be fine if I were writing in Chinese...It would make noises like it was preparing to take off from the tarmac...

It was all a mystery and Mr. IT would scratch his head and just not really have any solutions...

Shortly after the "taking off down the runway," noises, the unit would become so hot that you certainly couldn't put the laptop...in your...er...lap...

Mr IT must've thought I was a pansy and just unable to tolerate first degree burns...

Then...several months ago...it started zapping me...First, the zappage would occur where the ports were...

So I told Mr. IT...

Then the zappage was happening on any indiscriminate corner...

so I told him again...

Then a constant current would radiate up from the keyboard and around the touchpad...to the point it was making my hand numb...

So I told him again at which point he called Lenovo to see about exchanging it as it's been under a year...Well, you know how that goes...Full warranty means if it accidentally falls off the top of your car, hits the pavement and is catapulted into the aquaduct after a semi-truck runs over it...then they will replace it...Slight electrocution??? Sorry...

So still nothing...

zap* zap* ZAPPPP*...

Finally I told my boss I couldn't do my work without suffering nerve damage...and asked if we had policies on Worker's Comp (knowing full well that since I'm the policy writer...we don't)...Oh, and I named the laptop, "Sparky"...Seemed with all of this electrical magnetism between us...why be so impersonal...

So I told the boss Sparky had become an intolerable problem and he said, "Send it back. Tell Mr. IT we need a new one. Period."

Well, Mr. IT came to look at it once again...I don't think he really believed me until...CRACK!!! Zapped his ass good...I think he was so "shocked" that I had really been telling him the truth all this time, he was on the horn to Lenovo again and they told us to box it up and they'd start replacing parts...
Well, off it went...and a couple of days later, back it came with an invoice stating they'd replaced the keyboard and whatever kind of card...huh??? That's supposed to fix Sparky's electrical overload problem??? Hmmm...

Well, no sooner did I take it out of the box and turn it on...............ZAP! I hadn't even plugged the power pack in...Then when I plugged in my phone/PDA to sync-up...ZAP! The cord to my phone zapped me. So out came the IT guy again...and back on the horn to Lenovo he went...At this point he was getting pretty impatient with them...So after talking to whoever's boss's boss...they said to send it to them again and THIS time...they would send it to their lab for some diagnostic tests...from there they would fix whatever...Well our IT guy asks exactly where did they send it before and apparently their first line of responding to complaints is to send it to some monkeys who don't diagnose the problem...they just take a guess at what's wrong and hope for the best...So my IT guy has them on the phone while he explains all of this to me and tells me they have said that there's a snowball's chance in hell that it would be a total replacement...and that in order to have the diagnostic monkeys work on it...they'd have Sparky for 4-5 weeks...4-5 weeks??? Are they waiting for some sort of evolutionary miracle??? So I ask if during that 4-5 weeks...if they are providing a loaner. Nope...no loaner.
Well, I have no idea how I'll get anything done...and I know if they keep it for 4-5 weeks without replacing it versus fixing it...the issue will remain...so wtf? What's the point?
So I tell the IT guy, "Then never mind...I'll keep it until it implodes...and when it fries my phone, they can replace that too!" Well, they heard that and immediately wanted to know if Sparky had damaged the phone/PDA...Hmm, they didn't seem so concerned about my well-being...

Well, reluctantly...I gave up Sparky and figured we'd be reunited in the near future...

A week later...our IT guy calls me...Lenovo contacted him out of the blue, told him they were going to replace the laptop however since the model I had was discontinued, they were upgrading to the next level up and it would take a week or more...They would pull the hard drive from Sparky so I'd be able to keep everything...No mention of repairs, no nuttin'." You know that means one things..............................Some sucker in "the lab"got juiced! Heh heh heh...

Nothin' But a Hamster on the Wheel of Life...

2009-03-22T12:03:00.003-04:00

...This is my life the past month...

Between the 6 weeks of not having my own laptop and the onslaught of pressing issues at work...I've not had a moment to spare to construct any worthy commentary on the nuggets of life...

Anyone else ever feel like there's not enough hours in the day to make that to-do list- done??? Sheesh...and I don't even sleep...imagine how unproductive I'd feel if I actually slept like a normal person...

WTF???

2009-02-27T21:43:00.003-05:00

Why is it that there's always that driver on the Interstate who insists on driving the speed limit in the passing lane and when it's apparent that they aren't going to move over; you go to pass them on the right...just to find they are going to speed up so you cannot pass them? What's up with that?

And why is it...that you have those driver's who insist on driving in your blind spot so when you figure out they aren't going to speed up or slow down...you do in order to get them out of the blind spot...just to find that they speed up or slow down in order to maintain their invisibility?What's up with that???

And why is it that people feel the need to plaster those damn magnetic ribbons all over their minivans to righteously show support of whatever cause...yet find it thoroughly acceptable to blast through the parking lot, blatently disregarding pedestrian crossings or pedestrians walking to their cars...What's up with that???

And...why is it that these always seem to be women.............................how embarrassing...

Air Scam Airlines

2009-02-21T01:49:00.005-05:00

Just when you thought the airline fees couldn't get any more ridiculous............

Pricing for bringing luggage with you as absurd as it is...is now old news...

Now, we've heard about charges for blankets and pillows...charges for soft drinks...charges for stale packets of peanuts...and even more recently, a charge to book a reservation through a live person...but it was a surprise to me when I booked a flight on AirTran; I went to pick my seat and there was a charge for the seat??? It was so incredulous...I busted out laughing, had to blink twice and focus a little closer to the monitor to make sure my aging eyes weren't deceiving me...Nope...peepers were still working...For the window seat over the wing (my usual spot) was $6 each time my butt was planted in it...and if I wanted the exit row to be first out of the plane in an emergency? $20 each time...All I could do was laugh as I frantically seached for the "No thank you-I'll just stand over here in the corner for the flight," option...I understand the a la carte pricing...but in order to actually have a seat seems a bit over the line...Essentially, your only option to possibly forgo the fee is to not book the seat and just hope one exists when you check in...so really, they have you by the nuts...err...I mean balls...nuts are $2.00.

Oh, I did end up with a seat and a round trip to Boston or $150.00...guess it could be worse...I'm sure it will be next year when we pay for a flotation seat and the oxygen to be fed through the mask...

She's not what she seems..............

2009-02-16T23:26:00.006-05:00

Meet Shadow if you've not met her before...

She looks sweet, doesn't she...................Angelic, even...

Cute how she crosses her front paws as if she's posing for one of those cherubic photographs they take of your rosy cheeked kid at Olan Mills sitting on a soft white fuzzy rug...
Looks great in the picture...It's how we want to remember the moment but it's never the complete story, is it...

Funny how we say, "a picture is worth a thousand words" but nowhere in that picture does is scream out to you that the rosy cheeks are from the full on tantrum the kid just threw because you won't let him hold his favorite ratty blankie in the photo and in mid tantrum he split his pants and his diaper had a blowout... Nowhere in the picture can you tell you just bribed your child with a Happy Meal to sit still and stop pouting for 3 minutes while they sit on that nasty white fake fur rag that someone else's kid peed on the day before...
We don't care about all that...it's the cute picture in the end that we remember and say, "awwwwww..." when the kid is all grown up and is draggin' their own kid off to sit for the same Kodak Moment...

Yes...my dear sweet Shadow...just like her picture, isn't what she seems...
She's a cold blooded killer...Don't let her fool you...
I think somewhere in this blog, I wrote much of the same sort of thing...I'm just too lazy to look for it and even if I found it, I still have no answers since I wrote it...
Now, this pooch has gone barreling out of the house on numerous occasions to startle an unsuspecting bird and snatch it out of the air before it can reach full flight...Then of course she attempts to eat it...

ewwwwwwwwwwww...

Don't think you're going to get her to drop it...Make a move towards her and she'll try to 'swallow' it whole(pun not intended but what the hell in hindsight)...
I've learned how to create a diversion since she cannot "play ball" AND eat a Cardinal at the same time...and "playing ball" wins out every time...Once I chuck the ball, she's off and running...forgetting all about her slobbery limp snack...and before she can run back, Woodstock is bagged, tagged and disposed of...
She's also moved up the food chain...and pretty much anything that wanders into her yard is fair game...I have saved a few bunnies...allowing them just enough time to squeeze back under the fence like Peter Rabbit...and I saved a poor cat who would definitely would have been a goner without my own tactical diversionary maneuver...And then there are the polecats...When Springtime hits and the scent of skunk permeates the air...I am careful of making a huge racket before 'releasing the hounds' from the house to their yard, hopefully allowing a meandering skunk enough time to meander back out of the yard...Problem with them is...
they DO meander...there's no real skunk sprinting involved...Luckily for now...the skunks are still in hibernation until it's warmer...

So last night, I let the dogs out around their usual midnight time to romp...They run off causing a ruckus, just like any other night...They usually bark their fool heads off if they hear the deer and other creatures walking around beyond their fenced in perimeter...And like usual...about 45 minutes later, they are back at the door, wondering how come I didn't barrel out after them with 5 varying sizes of balls to play with them...Well, surprisingly, in they came...tongues hanging on the ground and heading to their respective water bowls...It wasn't until they went to lay down...that I noticed Shadows front paws had blood on them...Not her blood...Someone ELSE'S blood...

Double Ewwwwww...

I knew exactlllllly what that meant...They stayed in the rest of the night since the last thing I wanted was to wrestle some critter away from her once outside...
That left the deed to this morning before leaving for work....
Well, as usual...Shadow, who isn't the brightest bulb in the pack apparently forget about her conquest the night before...Her buddy, Chopper however...didn't miss an opportunity to rat out her out, so proudly came out from beyond the bushes...with a 1/2 mangled, 1/2 frozen rabbit...Exactly half...the bottom half...
I don't get it.............This is the second time that I've been brought just the bottom half...What the hell is the deal with just eating the top half?!?! I like to think that animals do things for logical reasons...like maybe they avoid the lower half of suck a small animals because well, that's where the toxins are housed in the intestines...Can it be that she instinctively knows this and she's smarter than I give her credit for or is she just.....Cujo??? Some form of possessed head eating monster??? I dunno...I wish they'd cover these issues on Animal Planet or something...

Ten Days???

2009-02-16T23:05:00.002-05:00

Wow...I can't believe it's been 10 days since my last post...especially since there's been plenty to expound upon...

Bruce's new CD...
The Ticketbastard debacle...
The insane enormity of tasks at hand at work...
My, "should I buy a new car or not," dilemma...
The weather dropping into the low teens one week then hitting a high of 70 the next...
The ongoing uncertainly of tour plans and hence inability to secure travel plans...
The return of my best friend back home after several years of her gallivanting around the world...
The unfolding story of President O's first 100 days...
The colossal extremes of emotions surrounding the miraculous USAir landing in the Hudson River that killed no one...measured against the enormous tragedy of the ConAir flight outside Buffalo that killed everyone...

And probably the largest barrier has been with............

"Sparky the laptop," who has been sent out for repairs/diagnostic/magic wand treatment for the second time in 2 weeks...

I'll whittle away at some of them if they still seem pertinent over the next couple of days...

Dissecting Superbowl...

2009-02-06T00:49:00.005-05:00

Superbowl Half-time..............Was it live or was it Memorex???

There's been much debate across the media about whether Bruce's Half-time Show was pre-recorded... Even though aspects of live performance and broadcasts have been explained to me over the past couple of Bruce tours...this is an excellent explanation by a poster on Backstreets

Here's the way it works.

The stage I'm told had approximately 58 microphones. If you look at Bruce's feet during BTR ( I believe) you will notice a coiled, hardwired SM-58( industry standard microphone, what Bruce sings into when he does his solo gigs where he doesn't need wireless).
The microphone setup on the stage is standard with the way the stage is mic'd for an regular ESB show. The stage comes out in a bunch of pieces, usually around 20. The stages pieces are all prewired with multipin interconnects for mics, lights, power, and monitors. The mics are plugged into a snake, which is then split a bunch of different ways:

1. House( stadium mix). Those big huge carts that get rolled out at the end of the half contain JBL Vertec 4889.

This is what the crowd hears. It is NOT what we hear at home, or what the performers hear.

2. Monitor mixers. Troy Milner mixes Gary, Max, C, and Nils. Monty Carlo mixes Bruce, Miami, Patti, Roy, Charlie, and Soozie Q. The band members want to hear more of a certain voice or insturment, they ask their respective engineer which is why Bruce often yells "Hey Monty" etc.
3. Broadcast mixers- radio and TV have their own mixers.
So, everyone at home could be listening to a different mix from the fans in the stadium
Also, everything is recorded. The tracks are recorded digitally during rehearsal than are played underneath during the performance. They could be brought up at the engineer if thats what they wanted.

The band, obviously can't hear whats going on at home. They can't even clearly hear the stadium in-house mix. That is why they have monitor speakers and in ear monitors. The band might have been up there playing their hearts out without having any knowledge what they were doing wasn't being used in the stadium let alone for broadcast.

Also, most people don't know what these are but if you look to the left of the horn section you can see something on a pole sticking up that looks like this

That is a wireless antenna amplifier used on the wireless mics. Bruce, the horns, the choir and the guitars are all wireless.

Also, this is VERY important. Audio and video travel at different speeds. Video is a much more complicated signal and requires more processing. If it's not sync-ed up properly, it can make the timing look off. You see a lot of this on youtube. One of the last pieces of equipment audio travels through at a tv station is often a delay unit so to speak so they can delay the audio by a few mili-seconds so that it lines up with audio.

Finally- someone mentioned awards shows and how they are straight forward. Not true. Although they don't have to deal with setting up a stage by rolling it onto the field, they do have to worry about band change overs. The Grammy's usually use at least 2 stages. While a band is performing on one, techs are working in low-light conditions to set up the other band's gear. Drum kits, guitars, monitors, mics etc all have to be in place, and double checked. Interestingly enough, ATK audio handles the sound for the superbowl and most major award shows- grammy's, and the anti-The Wrestler- Oscars.

Here is my take on the audio. It was predominately live with a few backing tracks used. Bruce's vocal was definitely live, the choir seemed live, max looked live but my biggest problem was the guitars. They weren't loud enough in the mix.

It's Tour Time Again!!!

2009-01-28T01:45:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of Backstreets.com - Show dates and ticket sale dates:

Apr 1 - San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion at San Jose (Feb 2)
Apr 3 - Glendale, AZ - Jobing.com Center (Feb 2)
Apr 5 - Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center (Feb 7)
Apr 7 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Center (Feb 7)
Apr 8 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center (Feb 7)
Apr 10 - Denver, CO - Pepsi Arena (Feb 2)
Apr 15 - Los Angeles, CA - LA Memorial Sports Arena (Feb 2)
Apr 21 - Boston, MA - TD Banknorth Garden (Feb 2)
Apr 22 - Boston, MA - TD Banknorth Garden (Feb 2)
Apr 24 - Hartford, CT - XL Center (Feb 2)
Apr 26 - Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena (Feb 2)
Apr 28 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Spectrum (Feb 2)
Apr 29 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Spectrum (Feb 2)
May 2 - Greensboro, NC - Greensboro Coliseum (Feb 6)
May 4 - Hempstead, NY - Nassau Veterans Mem. Col. (Feb 2)
May 5 - Charlottesville, VA - John Paul Jones Arena (Feb 2)
May 7 - Toronto, ONT - Air Canada Centre (Feb 6)
May 8 - University Park, PA - Bryce Jordan Center (Feb 2)
May 11 - St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center (Feb 2)
May 12 - Chicago, IL - United Center (Feb 2)
May 14 - Albany, NY - Times Union Center (Feb 2)
May 15 - Hershey, PA - Hersheypark Stadium (Feb 2)
May 18 - Washington, DC - Verizon Center (Feb 2)
May 19 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mellon Arena (Feb 2)
May 21 - E. Rutherford, NJ - Izod Center (Feb 2)
May 23 - E. Rutherford, NJ - Izod Center (Feb 2)

May 30 - Landgraaf, Holland - Pink Pop Festival (March 7)
June 2 - Tampere, Finland - Ratinan Stadion (ON SALE)
June 4 - Stockholm, Sweden - Stockholm Stadium (SOLD OUT)
June 5 - Stockholm, Sweden - Stockholm Stadium (SOLD OUT)
June 7 - Stockholm, Sweden - Stockholm Stadium (SOLD OUT)
June 9 - Bergen, Norway - Koengen (SOLD OUT)
June 10 - Bergen, Norway - Koengen (SOLD OUT)
July 2 - Munich, Germany - Olympiastadion (ON SALE NOW)
July 3 - Frankfurt, Germany - Commerzbank Arena (ON SALE NOW)
July 5 - Vienna, Austria - Ernst Happel Stadion (ON SALE NOW)
July 8 - Herning, Denmark - Herning MCH (ON SALE NOW)
July 11 - Dublin, Ireland - RDS (Jan 30)
July 16 - Carhaix, France - Festival des Vielles Charrues (Jan 30)
July 19 - Rome, Italy - Stadio Olimpico (ON SALE SOON)
July 21 - Turino, Italy - Olimpico di Torino (ON SALE SOON)
July 23 - Udine, Italy - Stadio Friuli (ON SALE SOON)
July 26 - Bilbao, Spain - San Mames Stadium (ON SALE SOON)
July 28 - Benidorm, Spain - Estadio Municipal de Foietes (ON SALE SOON)
July 30 - Sevilla, Spain - La Cartuja Olympic Stadium (ON SALE SOON)
Aug 1 - Valladolid, Spain - Estadio Jose Zorrilla (ON SALE SOON)
Aug 2 - Santiago, Spain - Monte Del Gozo (ON SALE SOON)

The Last Carnival...

2009-01-27T23:25:00.008-05:00

I've been reliving the past Magic tour through

a wonderful 11 cd fan produced compilation

I recently received...

It's wonderful to hear the energy in particular

songs and the audience reaction from

around the world...

It does make me yearn more and more for a

trip to Europe for some shows before the

E Street Band is no longer (not inferring an end

is near...just inevitable)...

The face of the ESB changed during this tour

with the death of Danny [Federici]...

It was a sobering experience as it was

happening...

We were all pulling for his recovery and

after he surprised us on stage in Indianapolis

for what unbeknownst to us all, would end up

being his true finale'...sometimes you just see

what you want to see...

So many of us left that night with great hopes

that he was going to be okay after all...

His performance for the 8 songs was so incredibly

stellar and to see the joy on his thinner and paler

face as he settled into his place at the keyboard

was such a cosmic homecoming...

To see the band just swarm around him...

no one wanting to leave his side, was such a pure

and simple expression of the deepest love there is...

There were no words to describe what we were

seeing and there was nothing we could do but beam

with them and cry...

It was such a beautiful sight that my still intact

childish idealism just knew that what was occurring

in the arena that night was what miracles were

created from...

I'll never forget getting word in the Fort Lauderdale

hotel bar three short weeks later...

Danny had died...

The world was emptier as I watched dusk slip into

the ocean from my hotel balcony that night...

It was a profound moment in time...

The world had changed...

The E Street Band had changed...

and now so had I...

Bruce and his band brought us all along through the

grieving process...

It's something they needed...and something we needed...

It was such a gracious gesture to include the entire

E Street Nation in the thoughts, the stories,

the photographs, and the music in order to try and

make sense of it all...

And as we continue along the journey...

the new album includes this farewell…

Seven...

2009-01-27T21:30:00.003-05:00

Wow...it's only been a week but before I could expound upon the hours of media I was immersed in for the Inauguration...I ended up being stomped by the horrid cold/flu/whatever is taking people down one by one around here...

I had a zillion thoughts about the Inauguration...but at this point, it's really old news...

My impression in a snippet...

It is amazing how much hope and inspiration people radiated seven days ago on the National Mall, around the United States...and throughout the entire world...

It's absolutely amazing the strength of people in numbers...at a time that everyone knows is going to be a very long and rocky road...And still...to see the elation...the comraderie...the lack of hatred...It's been a long time since I've seen that on such a grand scale...2(?) million people and no arrests...Good for us...

I may end up liking people afterall...

Within the week, the new President has been kickin' ass...He's moving methodically and succinctly and not wasting any time...

He is certainly stirring it up...

I like the change...

Moving on from D.C., we're finally getting our first real snowfall tonight...

My dogs are in heaven...they think the world is one big white snow cone for the eatin'...

Then of course...the next Bruce tour was officially announced today after a week of dates and locations leaking throughout the week...

And certainly by design...today was also the release of his newest album, "Working on a Dream"

Oh, and I won a $100 football pool on the Superbowl...and the Superbowl hasn't even happened yet...How about that?!

It's been an action packed week...

The beginning of next week takes the Steelers to the Superbowl with Bruce at halftime...

If that isn't a good omen...

If the Steelers win??? It's bound to be a good year..........................

Tearing Up the Highway Like a Big Ol' Dinosaur...

2009-01-20T11:35:00.001-05:00

Today is the defining day...and it begins with a ride in the new Presidential limo en route to the Capitol...

"Caddy One"..."The Stagecoach"..."The Beast"...

There are many names of reference...

Ultimately it is "Bad Ass One"...

It's essentially an impenetrable tank...

Hopefully one day I'll see its motorcade blast past me, faster than anything I've ever experienced on I-70W...headed to Camp David...

People Get Ready...

2009-01-18T03:35:00.004-05:00

Today it officially starts...

There's an expected 1/2 million people expected to converge upon the National Mall for the free and open to the public concert to kick off Inauguration festivities... It's no secret that Bruce will be there and in light of the mutual respect and admiration that Bruce and Obama have for one another...there was no surprise that Bruce would be participating for the Inaguration...

500,000 people is a lot but I've seen that m

any on motorcycles there for Rolling Thunder Rallies...Of course, security and entrances will be much more confining so I hope the city is as prepared as possible...It will be cold and hopefully there will be no precipitation...

Following the election, I had seriously contemplated hopping on the Metro redline and heading downtown as I have so many other times before... I'm not typically a fan of D.C....it has always struc

k me as being cold and sterile and full of hidden agendas...

But if you are going to be in D.C., there is no better time than for an inaguration...The excitement is incredible...The belief in hope is intoxicating... I went to Clinton's first inagural parade...and it was so incredibly cool to feel the energy down there, it's one of those things I take for granted being so closer to the nation's hub...

I'm quite torn...DC is 85 miles away but

at this point in the game, I'll be watching it on t.v. from the comfort of my living room..

Here's a couple of shots snagged from the internet yesterday...for rehearsal day...

Change...

2009-01-17T18:16:00.004-05:00

WOW...

2009-01-17T09:02:00.006-05:00

By now all of these pictures have been splashed all over every form of visual media possible...

Nonetheless...they are worth another look at success...

They are calling it a Miracle...but really, it was the skill and training of the flight crew and pilot as well as the collective cooperation of all of the passengers and surrounding ferry boats who came to the immediate rescue...

Slam Dunk!

2009-01-11T21:18:00.002-05:00

A short and sweet acceptance speech and a shout out to Clarence for his birthday before heading off stage in the wrong direction...heh heh heh...

Another doorstop for the collection! Congrats Bruce...You too Mickey Rourke...this will only help your return to society....

On Route 66...

2009-01-11T14:48:00.002-05:00

Now here's someone who has some great life stories locked away...

Clarence "The Big Man" Clemons is 66 years old and young today...

What do you think it's like to be in the E Street Fraternity for 35 years (yeah yeah...the short break-up of the band doesn't interefere with membership)...Clarence is clearly deep rooted in the heart and soul of the band...on a much greater level than probably anyone else next to Bruce himself...He's literally Bruce's right hand man...from the infamous Born to Run cover to where his throne has set on stage at the close of the last tour...

Hopefully this recent break has been a successful recuperation time, post surgery for new parts...

The world will see on Superbowl Sunday...and if all goes well, we'll see him on the road for the next tour...

Happy Birthday Big Man!!!

Bruce-apalooza...

2009-01-09T23:46:00.013-05:00

Wow...

There's an awful lot of Bruce saturation going on right now...and he's not even on tour! Not only is it hardcore, in your face marketing, but I admit it's quite impressive for a rocker pushing 60 years old this year...There was a time when I'd say I was seeing Bruce 5 times in a month and now, mainstream America is saying the same thing! It's a bit odd when my mother is telling me she's seeing Bruce as much as I am in a month...

Let's see...

January 11th-

Golden Globes nomination for song written especially for

Mickey Rourke's new movie, The Wrestler.

The song is really a beauty too I might add and a beautiful tale of how the song came to be can be found here on Backstreets about midway down the page...

January 13th -

Greatest Hits to be launched exclusively by Walmart

January 18th-

Heavy speculation that he'll be playing a free concert with

other artists on the National Mall for

the Presidential Inauguration

January 27th-

new Album release, Working on a Dream...

January 27th- Feb 4th-

Free Guitar Heroes downloads of

"Born to Run" and the new "My Lucky Day"

(That is total coolness)

Feb 1st-

Superbowl Halftime show

The impressive thing about all of this is it's just a smidgen of what he's got going on before another tour kicks off in Feb./March...Time to start plotting my travels...heh heh heh...

Parental Deficit Disorder..........

2009-01-04T18:26:00.004-05:00

WTF...

Sometimes people are so ridiculously ridiculous, I'd like to throttle them...

But when they happen to be friends in your own life??? Sometimes they might benefit from something like a hardcore bitch-slap...Is that considered insensitive??? Maybe...Then again, do you think the most effective bitch-slap is delivered with a top spin or an underspin???

Perhaps all of this post holiday spiritedness has reared it's ugly head...There's only so much smiling and nodding I can do before all that goodness curdles up like old eggnog...

Now, before I break all bad-ass righteous all over the page and mistakenly leak out into some unsuspecting eardrums...I clearly have no idea of what it takes to be a successful parent... because I am not one...Now, having said that...I've also spent the last 22 years, helping kids undo damage resulting from PDD...that would be the non-professional, non-clinical, made-up but right on the money pseudo-faux-diagnosis of Parental Deficit Disorder...I really should coin that before the lawyers manage to win a lawsuit using it and Dr. Phil takes credit for it...

Anyway...out of frustration, I'll spew my frustrations here instead of telling my friends they suck....(Don't worry, they don't read my blog, don't know I have a blog, and if they did would be so perplexed by what roams between the ears)...But just in case, I'll change the names to protect the stupid...Here goes:

Scenario #1:

So one of my friends has a 16 year old daughter, "Hope" who was living with her mother who had brain cancer...Shortly before the holidays, it became clear that Mom was imminently terminal..."Hope" called her father(my friend), "Frank" and asked what was going to happen to her after her mother died, specifically where she was going to live. I can't imagine the weight of the world on this teenage girl's shoulders...Not only was she losing her mother at a crucial developmental stage in her life...but to have to think about being all alone in the world, not knowing what was going to happen to her after her mother died was heartbreaking for ME to think about...So she asks where she'd live if her mother died and "Frank" replies, "I don't know...I haven't really given it much thought..."

WTF???

A bitch-slap in this case doesn't seem to be adequate...maybe something more like a nut-vice is more appropriate...

I took a deep breath and kept it all in until my head felt like it was going to implode....I didn't feel it was my role to be reprimanding stupidity for fear I'd leave photographable marks...and then he said, "So what do you think? Why do you think she was calling?" It took all I had to give him as much of an objective reply as I could, provide a push in the right direction regarding some of the issues she was most likely dealing with...and to not kick him in the nuts... Sheesh.............................

Scenario #2:

The day before yesterday, a friend came over who I give permission to hunt on my property...

Hunting is not something I'd ever do but I live in a pretty rural area right by the Potomac River and hunting is commonplace and for some families, tradition... There's a couple of people I know who are avid hunters...they eat what they kill and they don't consider hunting an excuse to take a 12-pack with them...

I have two demands...

#1: They wait for "the shot" and that the kill is clean and quick...none of this shooting while the deer is on the run...none of this shooting to maim...with "hopes" to track it to it's fallen place to die...Deer are incredibly resilient...which means they will live through certain gunshots but die a slow painful death through some other means...

#2: Any doe with her youngsters are left alone...I'll not have some baby's mother dropped in front of them...not on my property...

So anyway, back to the situation at hand...

Well, it was probably a month ago when I spoke with my friend...let's call him..."Richard." A month ago he was telling me about how out of control his 14 year old step-son was...that he's had to put a padlock on the bedroom to keep the kids out and off of his laptop and out of his money. Seems his last laptop, the kid got a hold of it, opened a bunch of infected porn sites

and well, the rest as you can imagine...is history...This is a kid who has been diagnosed with ADHD for several years...has always had behavioral problems in school...is emotionally immature...impulsive, etc. etc. Well, since he couldn't leave him at home alone for fear he'd break into his belongings or steal the car...his Einstein plan was to bring him along to sit in a tree stand to wait for Bambi to saunter up so he could blow her away..........................Now THAT is fine parenting, isn't it??? Bring the impulsive, immature kid who has no regard for other peoples' property nor respect for others...along to glorify guns and killing.... Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice...Dumbass...

WTF???

"The Way"

2009-01-03T23:36:00.002-05:00

Here's the other one on my wish list...

If...

2009-01-03T20:40:00.003-05:00

I have no complaints whatsoever...

Bruce has surprised me on countless occasions

since he took back the stage with the E Street

Band for the Reunion Tour less than a decade ago...

He's been thoroughly unstoppable since then...

in fact, as an artist and as a person...

It was if a cloud was lifted and he really did

finally take root in the earth and found him

a nice little place in the stars...

Finally...he'd kicked some serious demon ass and

was able to move on...And he's moving like a

locomotive...

For some, comes criticism...

After all, happiness does not make for creative

masterpieces...

None of the masters...or geniuses pushed the

bounds as a result of bliss and contentment...

It was always about the quest for

or elusiveness of it all...

Nope...

Masterpieces, progression, revolution, evolution...

All of it is a result of discontent...of angst...

of sleepless nights...

of desire...

of survival...

More is never enough...

That's all part of human nature, isn't it?

It's what we seek to temper and refine as we

grow up and older...

Yes, Bruce is no longer the same writer he was

as a young man...and thankfully, he's made

sense of and conquered much of where those

profound and not so profound lyrics

stemmed from...

As much as I hear people say he's "lost his

edge," at the same time, to listen to an almost

60 year old man still write about such

soul core unrest...such misunderstanding...

would be sad...and disheartening...

He's a different man now...happier I would surmise...

and still in search of...

But to hear him sing those early works in

his repertoire...is a reminder that he still

hasn't forgotten...

With each tour, I'm asked about what

crown jewel I'm hoping to hear...

I embrace what he's currently writing...

I admire his continued experimentation...

and revisiting and reinterpreting old works...

It's part of that refinement...

But this song...is one of the two I wait for...

This one is on the bucket list if you will...

This is one he's yet to bring back out...

It's a hidden gem written by an old wise

soul...

Give it a listen if you've never heard it...

and let your mind wander off to somewhere old...

to somewhere new...

IF I WAS THE PRIEST

Well there's a light on yonder mountain

And it's calling me to shine

There's a girl over by the water fountain

And she's asking to be mine

And ain't that Jesus, he's standing in the doorway

With a buckskin jacket, boots and spurs, so really fine

He says "We need you up in Dodge City, son

'Cause there's oh so many bad boys (just too many outlaw)

Tryin' to work the same line"

Well now if Jesus was the sheriff and I were the priest

If my lady was an heiress and my mama was a thief

Oh and Papa rode shotgun for the Fargo line

There's still too many outlaws

Tryin' to work the same line

Now old sweet Virgin Mary

She runs the Holy Grail saloon

Where for a nickel they'll give you whisky

And the personally blessed balloon

And the Holy Ghost, he's the host with the most

He runs the burlesque show

Where they let you in for free

But oh hit you for your soul when you go

And Mary serves Mass on Sunday

And then she sells her body on Monday

To the bootlegger who will pay the highest price

But he don't know he got stuck with a loser

Mary's a stone junkie, what's more she's a boozer

And she's only been made once or twice

By some kind of magic

Well things ain't been the same in Heaven

Ever since big bad Bobby came to town

He's been known to down eleven

And then ask for another round

And me I got scabs on my knees

>From kneeling way too long

I gotta take a stand, be the man, up where you belong

And forget about the old friends and the old times

Because there's just too many new boys

Tryin' to work the same line

Well now if Jesus was the sheriff and I were the priest

If my lady was an heiress and my mama was a thief

Oh and Papa rode shotgun for the Fargo line

There's still too many bad boys

Tryin' to work the same line

Now there's a light on yonder mountain

And it's calling me to shine

There's a girl by the water fountain

And she's asking to be mine

And Jesus, he's standing in the doorway

With his six-guns drawn, and ready to fan

He says "We need you son, up in Dodge City"

But I'm already overdue in Cheyenne

Tangerine Dream...

2008-12-30T01:25:00.003-05:00

I totally forgot to mention during all of the Christmas preparations...This year's tree was a Concolor Fir...It looks like a pine tree...but get this...it smells like tangerines!!! Isn't that cool?

Crack Moose Head...

2008-12-28T14:53:00.002-05:00

Well, the major portion of the holidays are over...if I can make it past New Years, we'll call it a success...
I made a last minute stop on Christmas Eve to pick up last minute goodies from Harry and David's and $100 later...I was on my way home with high doses of carmelized and malted sugar for neighbors, Gary the Mailman, the garbage collector guys and any extraneous people who might stop in over the holidays...You just never know who comes out of the woodwork and I'd hate to be caught empty handed...
I ended up grabbing a few boxes of Gingerbread Moose Munch which had just been marked down to mooooove...Damn this stuff is good...It should be called Moose Crack...or Crack Munch...well maybe not the latter since I can't help hearing Beavis and Butthead saying,

"heh heh heh...she said Crack Munch...heh heh heh..."

So Moose Crack it is...that's what the garbage guys are getting...1 lb. 4 oz of Crack...

I just ate a big pawful and my ears are ringing and my heart is palpitating...just like the real thing...If you've never had any...your life is not complete...

Holidaze...

2008-12-24T01:11:00.002-05:00

I'll be glad when this holiday madness is over with...
There's nothing like working all day followed by more Christmas shopping since I'm still not done, followed by shopping at Sam's Club...followed by the grocery store to buy everything I need for Christmas dinner shenanigans with my folks...By the time I got home in the 19 degree weather...I felt like I'd been run over by a herd of Heffalumps and eight tiny reindoor...
People are nuts this week.
All rules of the road have been thrown out the car window..
Pedestrian crosswalks are more like pedestrian crosshairs...
Maybe it has something to do with everyone on the verge of a glucose coma since the workplace has been flooded with cookies, cakes, punch, candy...and everything else that could possibly contain sugar...But there's a very fine balance occuring this week that could implode with the slightest of upset...
I still have some last minute stuff to get and still need to lug the Christmas tree decorations up 2 flights of stairs so I can put the stuff on the tree...all before Christmas is over!
And of course every year at the last minute, I grapple with holiday tipping...I usually get something for Gary the Postman...just because Gary the Postman goes out of his way for me all the time when I need things sent with and without postage....But this year, I need to include the garbage collectors...They do a good job, take things I set out that are not quite on their list of things to take...they are typically always reliable...and my garbage can and lid never ends up in the road to be plowed run over after they've come through collecting...But what do you get the garbage guys??? I always chuckle when I think back to when I was young...young like 2nd grade...I would go out with my father when the garbage truck rolled up to the end of our driveway...to "help" give them a holiday gift...I always remember how excited they were to get something and clearly they remembered my father...Now when I look back..I just have to smile and chuckle...My father used to give them a bottle of wine or cheap champagne...That was back in the day when it was pretty standard to drink and drive...Now as an adult I know the garbage guys had that bottle uncorked before they got to the end of my street!!! Funny how times change...I'm still at a loss for what to give them............but probably booze might not be quite appropriate these days...the garbage guys would probably dig it and would remember me too!!!

Brrrr...

2008-12-07T12:44:00.005-05:00

I'm getting old...

Or...

It's getting cold...

One of my earliest winter memories involves my mother dressisng me to head off to school...I must've been in 1st grade because I don't believe in Kindergarten, I walked to school by myself (yeah...walked to school by myself in 1st grade, back when you could let your kid do that sort of thing without fear that the neighborhood pervs wouldn't leap out from behind a tree with a fistful of candy). Yes, I grumbled and protested (to myself)...It was always the same...like clockwork...and it usually was accompanied with a story of how my mom and dad lived in Chicago on the lake so she knew how to dress for the winter.

First came the undershirt(do kids still wear undershirts???)-CHECK

Second-thermal leggings or stockings-CHECK

Third-turtleneck-CHECK

Fourth-cordouroy pants-CHECK

Fifth-v-neck vest -CHECK

Sixth- another shirt, cordouroy or flannel was preferable- CHECK

Seventh- thick wooly socks-CHECK

Eighth- wool scarf wrapped around my face up to my eyeballs-CHECK

Ninth-hat pulled down over ears-CHECK

Perfect...I was now ready for the parka with a hood so big it engulfed my whole head...By the tenth step(parka application)...I needed some hydration because I was so hot I was ready to pass out...Too late...my mother would stuff me into the parka like sausage is stuffed into it's skin...

And then the finishing touches:

Cram my naked paws into some mittens, push my feet into boots because I couldn't at this point bend down to put them on myself without falling over and tumbling down the steps to our foyer...and poof* I was ready for the frozen tundra... CHECK,CHECK,CHECK.

Where'd I grow up you say??? Green Bay??? Cleveland??? Minnesota???Alaska??? Nah...Rockville, Maryland...

If I was lucky, my hat wouldn't work it's way over both eyes from beneath the parka hood...Lord knows I couldn't very well push it back up with my mittens...Didn't she know that "seeing" might be more important than warmth when walking to school??? Afterall, if I got run over by a car because I couldn't see where I was going...or fell head first into a snow drift...I'd be a goner and well, inevitably I'd get cold anyway...very cold...

Then again...maybe my mother thought it worked the other way...that if I was cold and became hypothermic while walking to school...my brain would stop working and I'd just turn left into traffic instead of right...simply because of brain-freeze...Maybe she was right after all this time...and if not, well...she was effective with implanting her voice in my head for life when it is cold...Now, all I hear when I get ready to walk out into the winter blast is, "layer, layer, layer...you have to put on layers to stay warm!"

But anyway, out the door I'd go to school like this and by the time I got there, I was sweating, had serious hat head-(what wasn't wet stood up on end from the static)...and well...was dressed like a six year old lumberjack...I guess this was a good deterent for any of those neighborhood candy weilding pervs looking for little 6 year old girls...doesn't quite have the same appeal when they look like midget rednecks...

The irony of it all is, even at six I knew a part of this winter apparel equation had to do with my mother being cold...not me...Seems colder she was, the more clothes she'd put on me...I even recall telling her this in protest at some point...I think I ended up with 2 pairs of socks that day...

By the time I was at the older end of elementary school and was able to get out of the house before she got up to check my attire, I was just fine leaving in the dead of winter with a jacket and a pair of gloves over jeans and a shirt...And as I got older, it was much of the same...

By high school, even though there was snow on the ground...a jacket and a skirt sufficed while waiting for the bus...Who wanted to sit on a school bus for an hour with a big heavy coat with scarves and gloves and the like? And it just never struck me as being quite THAT cold...I preferred cold over heat, anyway...

In college? December I was still wearing shorts...Even as an adult, there were years I didn't even own a winter coat...It wasn't like I had to stay outside for any great length of time...

But now, here I am...It's going to be the highs of 30 degrees(F) this week and I'm in the house with a fire going, heater on...a shirt with a cordouroy shirt over it and big ugly wooly socks (oh, that my mother gave me)...Now, I don't have any kids to go throw clothes on because I'm cold but......is this how it all starts???

6.7%

2008-12-05T20:18:00.004-05:00

Half a million people in the U.S. were laid off in the past month???
Happy Thanksgiving...

That marched us to a 6.7% unemployment rate, the highest in 15 years...

Expect people to be marching off to a myriad of 12-Step programs in 10 years as people try and regroup and get their lives back together...

There's never a welcomed time to lose your job...but to lose your job right before the winter holidays compounds the fallout...Mental health deteriorates in the winter months...substance abuse increases, depressive symptoms skyrocket, domestic violence increases...break-ins, robberies...suicides...the list goes on...

It's going to get uglier before it gets better...

I have rarely ever thought about losing my job but at the same time, I have stopped living beyond my means just in case something should happen to my income as I know it...

Believe me, I went through a period starting in college and for the decade following it...of spending money I didn't have...It seemed like survival at the time...but as borrowed comforts set in...I learned the harsh reality of the creditor game, I realized that enough was enough and I had to dig myself out of the hole I was in...I just happen to have had timing on my side and after 5 years of diligent and drastic budget cutting...I paid off and got rid of all of my 20 some credit cards that ruled my life...From that point on...I had a choice...buy the big house and a dream car and start the cycle over or buy responsibly...the modest house with some land for my dogs and drive the economical car...I felt fortunate that I was able to clean up my credit mess so I opted for not spending what I didn't have...

Like I said, I'd not thought about the possibility of losing my job but this time around I did focus more on the possibility of the unexpected...illness, accident...you know, that sort of stuff...ADULT stuff...What would I do...how would I be able to pay my mortgage and expenses so I live comfortably modest...and I still drive my parents old '93 Toyota Corolla with the crack in the windshield...even though I really COULD get my BMW Z4 Roadster convertible...

So now...in light of the state of our economic affairs...I start wondering about the unexpected...

All of sudden I realize that no matter how vital I am at my job...the reality is, I've been there less than a year in a company that is in it's privately funded infancy...There are no guarantees that due to the economy...our philanthropist may find the need to put on the brakes...bringing us to a screeching halt...

Boy, I hope this thought never goes anywhere.............

Workin' On a Dream............

2008-11-12T01:26:00.000-05:00

The Rising...

2008-11-05T20:10:00.001-05:00

There's nothing novel or intelligent that I can express about the Presidential election that hasn't already been brought to the public table over the last several months. Yes, it truly has been Historic. Monumental. Progressive. Thrilling.

It was an exciting campaign and well, considering the quagmire the current administration has dragged the American people through at the people's request...any change is upward momentum...With that comes back...that dormant glimmer of hope...Hell, if my dogs Chopper and Shadow had been on the ticket representing the Canine Party...they would have done less damage than the Bush beating we've all endured...

I of course followed along with much of the campaign...I watched the debates...the town hall meetings...the interviews...the exploitation of Joe the Plumber and the brilliance of Tina Fey(lin)...I planned my day around voting, taking off half the day from work due to the reports of the heaviest voter turnout in history...
I listened carefully to both parties, even though I clearly had a Democratic bias...nonetheless, I wouldn't blindly vote for the party as much as for the individual and what they have to offer and what sort of resources they can effectively tap...
Although I didn't agree with some fundamental ideas that McCain brought to the table, I did have respect for how he handled certain situations and for his staunch terrier-like stance behind what he believed in...I didn't consider him an evil man nor a stupid one...which isn't something I can say for our current debacle...I think his choice of Sarah Palin, although a quick temporary band-aid for a capsizing campaign, I think in the end...sunk his battleship... She...not he...could easily be just another pea in the Bush pod...short sighted, certainly wasn't going to ace any intelligence tests...and easily emotionally reactive....Her snide, uninformed, pompous responses spoke volumes of what she brought to the table...and Lord help us all if the table involved pushing any buttons...

I had many opinions about what I liked about Obama...and although the lack of experience was something fair to weigh in on, there was something that he evoked in me that was quite difficult to do...and that was to instill the return of a certain level of hope and trust in our leader...
I am a cynic and a skeptic by nature...and those mistrusting characteristics were most likely further nurtured through my profession...
What I find impressive about him, is the depth of his intellect, not just his eloquence in speaking and writing...clearly he is a true scholar...but it is his solid core of wisdom that reaches far beyond his 47 years that is captivating...
That wisdom is a cornerstone that allows him to see his surroundings on a grand scale...He sees the large picture...he is not reactive but rather pro-active...

Perhaps his age played a role in his campaign...he executed a beautifully run campaign...which meant he surrounded himself with some very young, progressive thinking people...that was a brilliant, well calculated decision...

Now, oddly enough, race played virtually no role in my decision making...I grew weary of the media cramming down our throats, his African-American heritage...Yes, he is black...but hello people...he's also white... I suppose if nothing else, in this case we have someone who is truly an African-American... It's always makes the hairs on the back of my neck bristle when people sling terms and phrases around in the name of "political correctness." I consider labeling presumptuous...To assume that because someone has dark skin means they are African, is shallow and narrow minded. Now, if they are truly descendants from Africa...then we have a case...and even then, at some point...if your roots lie on American soil for generation after generation...then doesn't that make you an "American?" Hell, if we want to be that politically correct...then "Americans" should really be synonymous with what we've labeled, "Native Americans" and everyone else should be "Imported Americans." But I've digressed slightly... In this particular case, Obama is a true African-American...his father from Kenya and his mother from Kansas...He is a true blending of ethnic lines.

So...on the heels of that rant of mine...I awoke this a.m. after having watched the results roll in...after hearing McCain's gracious concession speech and after watching the Obama family take the stage in Grants Park...and oddly, the magnitude of what had culminated in the last 12 hours...caused me to become rather emotional. All of a sudden, I was overcome with the realization of what a huge step in history we'd just taken...It was no smaller a step than the first one on the moon...I was overcome with emotion because this step in history was going to be life changing for the up and coming generation and for generations to come...Yes, it seems like such a huge step for a black man to be elected into the Presidency...it is, but imagine our children's children...they'll know no different...It's like how I have no true understanding of what racial segregation was like...I don't know what it was like to not be able to drink from a non-racial water fountain...I can conceptualize it...but can I fully internalize it? Not really...That's what was moving to me...that our children's children won't know life when the thought of a black man being our Commander in Chief was preposterous, impossible...a fantasy...I was moved because the last 8 years successfully confirmed my mistrust in the human race...and this a.m. when I awoke...I felt a renewed sense of faith in the citizens of our country...that we'd actually made a collective decision based on listening and thinking...
I was astounded at how overcome I was this a.m. with emotion....overcome with emotion at such a pivotal moment in history being made...and that I was here to witness it...It was so uncharacteristic of who I'd thought I'd become...This a.m., I actually had a renewed faith in the human race...and if that isn't humbling.....

So here we are...embarking on a momentous change...we've made some serious and significant decisions to mold our future...and now that the election is behind us I have just 2 burning questions:

What kind of puppy will the Obamas bring to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

to poop all over the presidential yard???

And.............um...............

Will Bruce and the ESB be playing at the inaugural ball???????????

Go Sharks! Go Bruce!

2008-10-23T23:11:00.000-04:00

It's been years since I went to a hockey game...
Some of my fondest memories as a child were going to Capitals games with my father...
As I grew older...our school band played at the games too...
So when I found myself in Philly visiting a hardcore San Jose Sharks fan/friend...it made good sense to go to The Flyers/Sharks game at Wachovia Center...

Wow what a pleasant surprise when we ended up with Skybox Suite #5 seats... I'd never been in a skybox there...in fact I'd only been there for Bruce shows...and well, I'm pretty sure my friend had only been there for Bruce shows too now that I think of it...Well, we were pretty stoked...and then...when I turned around to face the ice...right in my face was this:

Okay, now double stoked...It hadddddd to be a good Sharks omen...

I'd seen this banner from the floor on numerous occassions...in fact, I recall taking pictures of it when the spotlight hit it...and now, here it was...almost close enough for me to reach out and touch...

Hmmm...45 sold out shows...one behind Billy Joel's 46................ Sounds like a duel to me, Bruce.....

Speaking of duels...I've never seen such a high scoring hockey game... Flyers=6 & Sharks=6...ending in a shootout for the last point...Sharks win!

Saint Louis...The Show...

2008-09-23T02:01:00.000-04:00

Life's been non-stop since the train stopped in Milwaukee...and putting keypad into action for anything other than grant applications, schedules and spreadsheets has left very little time to capture some of the my closing show thoughts...There's so much out on the internet about show quality, much of it within hours of the close of each show that anything I have to offer about those sort of initial details...is really irrelevant and mundane at this point...
Nonetheless...just for my own need to record life...even a month later...this is necessary for chronicles sake...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was great to run into friends from near and far...my only regret...not enough time with any of them...I hung out with a few of them before the show...Oh, make that 2 regrets now that my memory is returning...I had the worst hangover I've had since the last blizzard pummeling Holiday Show...

Well, if you were going to arm chair quarterback a show by setlist watching...this is one that would catch your attention...
My attention was captured when I snuck a peek at the setlist and saw it opened with "Kissed Me"...
No f*ckin' way... "Then She Kissed Me???" From the Bottom Line bootlegs in '75,
" Then She Kissed Me???" Wait...and what's that at the bottom???
"Little Queenie???" Holy Crap...
Strap me in....I'll get over the fact he's crossed out "Drive All Night"...I might not be going for a Drive but I'm definitely going for a ride...

In the end...I did both...

It indeed proved to be a sublime show...It was a show to share with a loved one...That seemed to be where his mindset was...Perhaps it was spurred by the tour coming to a close...perhaps it was thoughts of sending the first Child Springsteen off to college...Perhaps it was the reality that each ESB performance is one step closer to an inevitable parting of ways...Perhaps it was the tour culmination of putting up on the shelf...a very dificult year and a half of huge personal losses...Terry and Danny...both stalwart life bookends for Bruce...If loss doesn't teach you love...

That's what the show was...every hardcore Bruce fan's bookends...
Here on one hand we had gems that hadn't poked thier heads out from the treasure chest in 30 something years...and on the other hand...the harsh unpolished realities of our current world...

I was surprised that the arena wasn't full...I was surprised that to my right and left of where I sat...the floor was only half full...but it didn't much matter...Bruce just banged it out...Ever heard the saying, "life is short, eat dessert first..?" That was tonight's show...Instead of being littered with love songs...it was quite the opposite...A love story littered with some breif detours...
Try and tell me that the string of "Spirit," "Rendezvous," "For You," "Mountain of Love," "Backstreets," "Gypsy Biker," "Because the Night," "She's the One" (with a sweet "Not Fade Away" intro), just one after another after another doesn't just touch on every aspect of love & true friendship...And just after you come up for air, throw "Drive All Night?" back into the line-up...Ooooooohhhhh...that was just as thick and rich and sweet as the Tupelo honey I have on my kitchen shelf that I feel compelled to dip into and roll around on my tongue when the itch needs soothing...

All that and it still wasn't over...We'd feasted on the sweets of the night but it wasn't complete yet...not without a little meat and potatoes of the show..."Jungleland," "Detroit Medley," "Born to Run," the signature "American Land," "Thunder Road"...and then to wash it all down...
"Little Queenie"...and finally..."Twist and Shout"...

Now THAT...is a monumental show...

We capped the night off with a quick drink at some bar near the Hyatt...then headed back to ready ourselves for the mornig drive to Kansas City...2 more stops before the train comes to a halt...

The end of the tour is always tough...

You're Still the Cosmic Kid, Bruce...

2008-09-23T01:10:00.004-04:00

Happy Freakin' 59 Years Young...

First known live performance of "Growin' Up" was in 1972...

before the legendary E Street Band...

Wise beyond his years, he captured the core of his soul in these lyrics...

As hard as his fans try and hammer him into the mold they've created for him...he's remained true to himself...no matter what we insist upon...

I so dig that...

Do what you keep doing...and never stop growin' up...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Growin' Up

I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade

I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade

I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch

I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched

I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said "Sit down" I stood up.

Ooh-ooh growin' up

The flag of piracy flew from my mast, my sails were set wing to wing

I had a jukebox graduate for first mate, she couldn't sail but she sure could sing,

I pushed B-52 and bombed `em with the blues with my gear set stubborn on standing

I broke all the rules, strafed my old high school, never once gave thought to landing,

I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said "Come down" I threw up

Ooh-ooh growin' up

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere and you know it's really hard to hold your breath.

I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress

Well, my feet they finally took root in the earth but I got me a nice little place in the stars

And I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car

I hid in the mother breast of the crowd but when they said "Pull down" I pulled up

Ooh-ooh growin' up. Ooh-ooh growin' up

The Cardinals...

2008-09-13T23:15:00.006-04:00

After all the banter with Larry the Driver about all of the things I should be doing in St. Louis...it turned out that plans to go to the Cardinals game had already been made...So after a little R&R...we headed off to meet some other folks before grabbing a cab for a quick jaunt to Busch Stadium...

Now, it's no secret that I'm no sports fanatic...

I don't dislike sports...but I don't make a good spectator...

Probably the most excited I get would be during football season...and even still...although I'd have to claim The Pittsburgh Steelers as "my" team...I'm not broken hearted if the game they are playing isn't televised...I don't wear a Roethlisberger jersey the day after a victory...and I don't wave my terrible towel like a mad woman during the game...Maybe there's still residual bitterness from my childhood when the Baltimore Colts up and moved away to Indy in the middle of the night...harrumpf. The Colts are still supposed to be Baltimore's team...not the Ravens (although they do have a cool Poe name and crazy purple/black color scheme!) And The Redskins? Well...that's my Pop's team...ever since I was a kid...Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer were not foreign names in my household...and I remember our "I Love Billy" & "I Love Sonny" bumper stickers that I had on the wall, not even knowing the controversy surrounding the two...

As for baseball? Well, being as I'm a Marylander...I do tune into what's up with the Orioles...and since I lived in Baltimore for several years, there's some demographically instilled pride because Cal Ripken is "ours." I used to drive past his house all the time on the backroads to avoid the gridlock on the Baltimore beltway during the morning rush hour...And then there was always the period of time that I dated their mascot, "The Bird" (albeit the year after they won the World Series)...I've seen a good number of games over the years and Camden Yards is a beautiful ball park...The Orioles are Baltimore...and Baltimore has always held a special spot in my heart...

So even though I'm no avid sports fan, I was certainly up for checking out a Cardinals game...Just based on doing something I wouldn't ordinarily do, was reason enough to go...Throw in on top of it, tickets were gratis and we decided we'd go for a while, watch some of the game, grab some ballpark food and scoot on out if we so desired...Well, as luck would have it, not only did we have great seats several rows behind the Cardinals' dugout...we weret treated to dinner in the stadium club restaurant, had the opportunity to do some Cardinal merchandise buying at an awesome discount and as if we didn't have enough food in the restaurant for dinner...we also had more food and drink vouchers than we could ever feasibly consume...It was a great time...I'd never sat that close to the field before and after seats like these, it's difficult to settle for upper deck seats! As if luck weren't already on our side for the evening...the game itself was such a blowout against the Atlanta Braves that when we finally left during the 8th inning...the score was 18-1!

18-1...what a spanking...

Gateway to the Beyond...

2008-09-09T02:28:00.015-04:00

This was going to be the gem show...I could feel it...

Collectively, the St. Louis/Kansas City back to back shows happened to be bringing several friends from different regions out for the last hurrah...Crossing paths and catching up with friends you've not seen who share the common Bruce thread makes for some special memories...

Unfortuntely, because the shows were back to back, that left very little time to hang out with many of them...People were coming in at different times and staying in different areas...there just wasn't enough time this time around...Literally, no sooner did the show end, it was time to mobilize to the next town...I did manage to arrive a day prior to the show to soak in some of the town for an evening with fine company...

It's been quite some time since I was in St. Louis and unless memory fails me...the last time was for the Devil's & Dust show in August 2005 at the infamous Fox Theatre...I absolutely loved that place...and just like this time, saw many friends at this seemingly central meeting place (I wrote a post about the shows prior to the inception of my blog-town, one of which was about the Fox Theatre show...Hopefully I can dig some of those up from elsewhere...)

It's ironic...St. Louis and I have some faint and fleeting. yet significant brushes in history...

Firstly, My mother was born in St. Louis...

And secondly, my very first memory in life was of St. Louis...Decades later...it still remains crystal clear...and I can see it through these same eyes that were so much younger...

I was just a hair over 2 years old and we were staying at my maternal uncle's house with his family...All I remember is I wasn't so keen about sleeping in someone else's crib...a pale yellow crib at that...How's that for hard wired anxiety! Funny what seems to get caught in the webbing of my mind...Anyway...that's the extent of my roots in St. Louis...but roots, nonetheless...

So here I was again at the Gateway by way of Southwest Airlines...I found my way to the shuttle bus to take me to the Hyatt at Union Station...I stayed there the last time I was in town too; it's such a magnificent place...Magnificent like the Fox Theatre struck me in 2005...but with so much more larger than life, grandeur...The shuttle driver stopped to pick me up...A large black fella donning a chauffers hat with an infectious smile and a smooth, firm, baritone voice...I smiled and thought to myself..."He could always stand in for Clarence..." As we headed towards downtown he asked me what all drivers ask...

"In town for business or pleasure? Where are you from?" (etc., etc.)

After answering the preliminary questions, I told him I wasn't going to be in town long at which point he said with a big booming scolding voice,

"Now, you CAN'T come to St. Louis without staying for at least several days...

We have the BEST BBQ, great Blues, Forest Park which is TWICE as big as Central Park

(he also gave me a run down of all of the activities/events in the park including the The Saint Louis Zoo), Casinos....You just CAN'T come for a couple of days!"

Well, after my scolding, and my scrambling to tell him I HAD been to Forest Park before including the zoo, I perked up and said,

"Wellllllllll...as a matter of fact, I'm AM looking for a good blues bar...

Something unpretentious...somewhere YOU would go...

My friends and I are either looking to find a good blues bar

we're going to catch the game (Cardinals)...

to which he replied,

"You can do both!"

He wasn't quite sure what to say when I said,

"Oh...can't do both, it's a 'school night' !"

(meaning, friends I was going to be with

were up and out early in the a.m. for work,

so no late night for them!)

So then he says,

"Well, if you're here tomorrow night, Bruce Springsteen is at the Scottrade Center..."

to which I replied with a Cheshire-like grin,

"That's actually exactly why I'm here and why I'm not here long

because the next day he's in Kansas City."

Larry the Driver (yes, after all the gabbing, we'd done name introductions) was well aware of the short stint in St. Louis and the following night in K.C. He said he was the limo driver for Bruce and was picking him up at the airport the following day...Now, I'm usually the skeptic and on one hand I'm thinking he's probably just pulling my leg and has become a pro at maximizing a tip through engaging his passengers...or...he really was going to be driving Bruce...

Larry the Driver asked me if I've been to the Scottrade Center and I told him that I'd not because the last time Bruce was in town, he played at The Fox Theatre...

"Ah yes...that's right...he was at the Fox Theatre last time." he says...

So now I'm thinking he really isn't pulling my leg...Larry the Driver seemed pretty familiar with Bruce then he said,

"What I really like about him is he's not like so many other big entertainers

whose fame has inflated their egos.

Bruce has always remained down to earth and approachable to anyone.

He'll talk to you or me just like anyone else."

He had some very admirable comments to say about him which to me was an indication that he really was in the know...I asked if he was going to the show and he said,

"Hellllllooo, of course! I have a backstage pass!"

I told him to remember my face and that if I saw him back there, I'd say hello...

"Now remember, my name is Janey...don't forget now!"

He told be Chuck Berry was going to be at the show since St. Louis was his hometown...I asked if he thought he'd share the stage and although he said he didn't think so...he did say he still came out to play locally about once a month...He also said he had seen Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton play locally and said with such admiration,

"Those are some incredible musicians,

there's no one like them and you should have heard

the magic between them."

How cool is that...

It was only 9a.m. and here I could have parked myself in some smokey bar chattin' up some St. Louis life stories with Larry the Driver for a couple of hours...

Instead, it turned out to be a great ride to the Hyatt and before I departed, Larry took a lap around the Scottrade Center to show me what was what in relation to the hotel, made sure I knew specific intersections, showed me where I needed to go to find the loading area...then parted ways with a big ol' smile, a hearty laugh, and handshake that swallowed up my own...

Larry the Driver rocked...

As I entered the doors and ascended the staircase of the historic Union Station...I found myself entering the gateway to the Great Hall that held countless unknown stories of another time steeped in love, fear, and adventure...The laughter of the roaring 1920's and the more solemn and conservative eras that preceded and followed World War II still radiated from the plaster and marble that had bourne witness to so much humanity... As I walked beneath the historic piece of stained glass known as the, Allegorical Window...even though the last train pulled out of this spectacular station in 1977...the spirit of St. Louis clearly remains...And as I stood beneath these beautiful barrel-vaulted ceilings...there was no doubt that new stories would continue to be born and reincarnate, still steeped in love, fear and adventure...

(The Allegorical Window's 3 women are

representations of the main train stations of the time...
From the left...San Franscisco...
From the right, New York...
and poised in between...St. Louis...)

There is so much unknown from one pane to the next...

So much to hope for...

So much to reach for...

So much to touch...

And here I stood...

Hoping...

Reaching...

Touch or be Touched by something magnificent...

My sleep deprived self shook off what dreams my surroundings evoked and I found my way past the cast iron gate that separated the hotel from the Midway to find my short lived home away from home...

All this before 10 a.m......

Chocolate Town...

2008-09-08T23:53:00.008-04:00

Dammit...I guess I'm not 22 anymore...
I've said this before...and I'm sure I'll say it again...
I figure I'll continue to make plans to hop from plane to car and an occasional train to catch up with friends at Bruce shows...There was a time where it was nothing to stay up all night, party with the hardiest of them, drive homeward 4 hours stopping along the way to change into work clothes, brush teeth and hair and head straight to work on no sleep...Then once night time arrived after a couple of hours of down time...rinse and repeat...

I had the first of my 8 upcoming shows under my belt...drove back from Richmond without any problems but I tell you...the following day getting my act together to head to Hershey Park for the next show??? I was draggin' ass like I'd been on a 7 day stretch instead of, umm... 1...

Hershey is only 90-ish miles from my house...that's nothing...maybe that was the problem...it was so close, my sense of urgency didn't motivate me to get out of the house when I intended...So I left late...and of course it's only when you're late do people drive like imbeciles...

Typically, Interstate 81 is known as Truckers Turf...If you're not going at least 80...get out of the way unless you want to have the grille of an 18 wheeler angrily kissing your bumper...I had anticipated the drive to be 75 minutes...but after spending portions of the drive creeping along for no apparent reason...it was clear after 100 minutes...that I was really going to be more than fashionably late to meeting up with friends...

I finally reached my destination...gave a call to a couple of friends who told me their locations in the parking lot...one being in Lot 8 and the other in lot 69...Hmmm...that's quite the spread...

I finally made it into the parking area for the stadium and the place was much larger than I remembered in 5th grade...the last time I was there...After seeing how expansive the parking area was...I had little faith in ever parking anywhere near anyone I knew...I drove aimlessly towards the end where the stage was located...found myself driving through the lot going the wrong direction and as soon as I turned to get myself in the right direction, I saw a sign on the lamp post that said, "Lot 9." No wayyyyy...I looked in my rear view mirror and yup, the lane I just plowed my way through was Lot 8...apparently exactly where my friends were...
I lucked out, found a spot a couple of rows over and went to join the festivities...

It was a blistering hot day...Blistering hot to me...and if you were a Hershey's candy bar...it would have been blistering to you too...
I didn't hang out too long...I decided to go check out the GA lottery mayhem and to check out the loading area on the other side od the stadium...
Wow, is all I can say...They were giving out 2500 wristbands and from what I was witnessing (and what was later described to me)...it was a total cluster**ck...I wished my friend good luck and decided to meet another friend by the loading area where she was waiting for Bruce's arrival...I think I was melting into a puddle of goo by this time...Luckily, my friend came to rescue me sooner than I thought and I was able to seek out a reprieve from the sun's beating rays while my friend went back to work his pre-show magic...Nothing like kickin' back to enjoy a couple of shots of Patron and some much needed Gatorade on a hot day...Man, that's some good stuff...it's saved my life on a couple of occasions...Once the sun began to recede...we grabbed a bite to eat before taking our places on what was to literally be a perch this evening...The sound/lighting booth is typically pretty large and elevated in a stadium but this particular night...it was the highest I'd seen...My friend warned me beforehand that I'd have to climb my way up the scaffolding to reach my perch and like a champ...up the 15 feet I went...That far up, away from the heat of thousands of sweaty people...was a breathtaking breeze that rolled on through the booth after some fellas rolled up some of the sides of the tent that surrounded us...I had a great birds eye view and an awesome view of the stage...As the sun went down...you could feel the energy level rise...and as the heat of the day finally stopped sucking the life from us all...the band took their places on stage and opened as planned with Summertime Blues...What a fun welcome...it's a song that brings back many memories and somehow it was fitting for a place I'd not been to for 33 years...

The stage was looking exceptional...perhaps in part because of how high up I was this evening and perhaps in part because of the stadium's locale...There was something inviting about being able to see through the backdrop this evening...and watch an occasional car driving along and seeing the silhouettes of the tour buses and Road Show trucks looming in the background...Sure it was a stadium...but it wasn't in the league of Giants or Shea etc...It was more like that of a college or even high school...where the seats weren't seats...they were metal benches...

Along with the other fun summertime covers were, "Boom Boom," born from a sign request picked by Little Steven...And then there's nothing 'sweeter' than the 8 pack encore of, "Thunder Road into Jungleland...followed by Seven Nights (unfortunately it wasn't received as well as it was on The Rising Tour,) Born to Run, Rosalita, Tenth Ave. Freezeout, American Land...and Gloria...
It was a great show...and although I left Richmond feeling THAT show was pretty darned good...this one blew it away...I enjoyed looking around me, taking in the reaction of the crowds to the left and right...From that far up, there was an oddly voyeuristic quality to it...There was an Excited Guy to the right of me that I thought might explode during Rosalita...He could no longer contain himself in his seated area, 3 seats in from the aisle...so while jumping up and down...he jumped on out into the aisle with wreckless abandon...He was having such a great time...oblivious to my spying on him...oblivious to the woman who he almost took out a couple of times with his Excited Guy elbows...

I called it a quick night with hopes to get out of the parking lot early and there I sat...and sat...and crept along...then sat again...It took me over an hour to go 6 miles to the Interstate and I finally got home after 3a.m., same time as the night before after Richmond...which is easily twice as far...I spoke with my friend as he was on the road headed to Nashville...and I was still heading home...I joked with him that we'd probably arrive at our destinations at the same time...

Time to pack my bags...next stops...St. Louis, Kansas City, and finally Milwaukee...

Richmond...

2008-08-31T20:59:00.004-04:00

It's time to do some condensing of my past two, fun filled, action packed weeks...

I managed to finagle taking some time off while working from different locations in the midwest and east coast...What a great boss I have...

For my first stop...I jumped in the car and departed for Richmond VA on August 17th...It's not a bad drive...180 miles or so...I figured I'd be able to go to the Bruce show and make the drive home afterwards so that I'd be in line to head to Hershey, PA from my home the following day...

After fighting Sunday morning traffic down I-95 South...I finally made it to my exit in Richmond...except...the exit happened to be closed...So after cruising around Richmond, I finally made my way to the Omni hotel...Typically I pack pretty light but since I was going to be there for a couple days sharing company with several friends...it was only proper to bring some refreshments...So the bell hop loaded up my backpack and cooler packed full of ice, Sam Adams Boston Lager, top shelf margaritas, cherry bombs, and killer BLT's made with thick sliced bacon, Beefsteak tomatoes from my garden, crisp iceberg lettuce on potato rolls...oh, and spicy brown mustard...none of that nasty mayonnaise stuff...The poor fella looked like he might have a hernia lifting the cooler onto the luggage cart...

It just so happened that Bruce's crew were in the midst of checking into the hotel at the same time...so as we headed off to the 5th floor, the bell hop asked if I was with the crew...I told him that, "yes...I'm with friends on the crew" to which he replied, "Oh, do you do Bruce's make-up?"

I busted out laughing as the elevator doors opened saying, "ohhhh no...if I did Bruce's make-up, his hair would look a helluva lot better..." The poor fella looked rather puzzled...I'm not sure if it was because his own head was as bare as a baby's bottom or he just wasn't quite acutely aware as I am...of what a mess Bruce's hair is somedays...

The following day was show day...I hooked up with a couple of friends who were planning on being in the pit...so we planned to grab some lunch before the wristband lottery drawing at 5:15 p.m. There seemed to be a lot of chatter about central meeting places pre-show for food and drink...but none of which seemed to be close to The Coliseum...and none of which had any good reviews...In fact, one of my buddy's had been to the Capital Ale House the night before and had, "the worst crab cakes he'd ever had." Well, if that wasn't an endorsement...Luckily, I relied on googlemaps to find the closest restaurants/bars to the venue and the closest place was called, "Croaker's Spot." I checked out the website and read the plethora of positive reviews about the food so assumed they had no liquor license since there was no boozer section on the menu & no Bruce people wanted to go there...I gave them a call and well, seemed they did indeed serve alcohol...I ended up passing the place en route to the venue and there it sat on the street corner...steeped in neighborhood roots...unassuming and qauint...yet bordering the fringes of a pretty impoverished neighborhood...Well, after I met up with my buddies and we visited The Cooler in my car a couple of times...we worked up a healthy appetite and headed off to Croaker's...All I can say is..............all of the Bruce "fans" who passed up on this "spot"...missed out BIG TIME...We all had grand meals of seafood, potatoes and big hunks of cornbread...My 2 pieces of Lake Trout spawned to 3 huge pieces before it got to the table...and although I've never met a carb I didn't like...I couldn't finish the huge scoop of "house potatoes" for fear of falling asleep headfirst onto the lighting console at the show...Not one Bruce fan came in while we were there but the local people who worked and were patrons...were darn charming...

We bid our farewells to Sheryl, our waitress and we walked our full carcasses in the hot blazing sun back to The Coliseum...My buddies headed to the pit line, and I headed for a quick shot of Patron with some friends before going in...
Richmond is always an electric charged show...Historically, Richmond was Bruce's first place to welcome him outside of his own Jersey turf in the late '60's when he was the frontman for Steel Mill...He's never forgotten Richmond...Find a hardcore Bruce fan and chances are...they'll grab you and run you down memory lane with them to "that show" they saw in Richmond...Watch and listen to them lose 40 years as they step back in time...

But back to the present...Richmond received a solid high energy show...Unfortunately, from where I sat, the sound was muffled and it was almost impossible to decipher Bruce's comments to the crowd...I had heard from others though, from where they were (Pit included), that the sound was really clear...

Show Highlights:

On the heels of the last show in Charleston where some of the crew likened the audience to that of a European crowd...Bruce was an unstoppable runaway train from start to finish...This was one of those defining moments where it's obvious of how far ahead of his band, he is...There are moments where they look absolutely exhausted and are struggling just to keep up...And then there's Bruce...just finding his groove at full speed ahead...I fully understand why so many years ago, he disbanded the E Streeters in search of new challenge...

Ironically...a sign from the audience that said, "My band just broke up-please play Backstreets" was enough to pluck a familiar chord for Bruce as he acknowledged how tough it is to break up a band... "Backstreets" is just what the doctor ordered to heal the wounds anyone my have....and followed by "For You"...solo at the piano just makes sure you never forget where those scars might be...

The encore kick-off being "Crush On You" in response to an audience sign hasn't been played in 28 years...and ironically, as Bruce has resurrected the age of sign song requests from the audience...the one that sticks in my mind from the Capital Center in the '80's was a white sheet that ununfurled from the first tier with a royal blue "Oooh oooh, I got a Crush on You" spray painted on it...That probably spoke for most of the arena...women and men alike...

"Quarter to Three" was a great follow up and "Twist and Shout" with Robbin Thompson joinging them on stage made for a really fun ending for the night...

The audience from where I sat was pretty decent...There was a harmless intoxicated fellow just to the right of the sound/light riser who was there alone and would have blended easier into a Grateful Dead show...At one point, I thought he might get decked when he came up to grab the shoulders of some guy and did a Grateful Dead dance all around him...What made me chuckle most however...was this guy who was blissfully out of his mind yelling his obscure request(and something I'd consider giving a limb up for), "If I Were the Priest." How I'd love to hear that...but something about the highly inebriated fellow screaming "If I Were the Priest struck me funny and all I could think was, "If you were the priest, you'd surely be excommunicated..."

I bid my farewells for the evening, spent 30 minutes driving around in circles trying to maneuver around the closed off steets that sheltered the entrance to I-95...

Next stop...Hershey Park...

You Have the Right...to Nothing...and Don't You Forget it...

2008-08-10T02:19:00.003-04:00

This occurred over a week ago and I've been so outraged over it I didn't dare put words to keyboard about it because well, as this story proves...you can never really be safe...and once again...you should...Trust No One...

Read the article...I won't rehash it...but in short, exactly what are the police or SWAT team thinking when they bust down someone's door without knocking and they have dogs...Let's see...dogs protect owners and property...for shame...Do they not have any training about what to do with dogs on the premises???

So apparently the cops felt threatened by a couple of black Labradors...one of which apparently needed to be gunned down as he was running away to the back of the house to hide...Anyone who knows Labradors knows they are the sweetest, most gentle hearted, people pleasing, loving life dogs on earth...I have a dog who is part Labrador...and the ongoing joke is, if burglars ever came to break in, Shadow would surely check them out for snacks in their pocket before holding the door for them and pointing the way to the valuables...That's what Labs do...they love everyone...My other dog, Chopper...is mostly German Shepherd and some wolf in there...
He's 100 lbs of pure muscle and not only extremely protective of me and his domain...but wound pretty tight...He is intimidating...there's no doubt about it, even if here's a fence between he and the person in question...he looks very scary until you see him dragging his stuffed animal Nemo around the house with him like Linus and his blanket...

These cretins who are supposed to do something called"protect and serve" gunned down this family's 2 dogs and kept them handcuffed with their dogs lying in front of them dead...I cannot tell you what I would have done had I been in that situation...but I can tell you I'd be in jail or dead...If anyone EVER hurt or killed my dog...I can guarantee I'd be taking someone out...Want to see someone unhinge and become completely and totally crazed and homicidal??? This situation would easily send me there...

I am so pissed...I hope the mayor sues the police department and the individual officers who shot his dogs to the maximum limit allowed...What pisses me off the most? You know this happens all the time...it just so happens this time they ended up with a mayor with the ability to not be silenced...

Wall Tall...and yell at the top of your lungs, Mayor...

Cat and Lousy Stinkin' Good for Nuttin' Mouse...

2008-08-08T22:22:00.003-04:00

This is just pure evil...
All you have to do is click the ball to change it's color...
That's all...
Yup...
Simple stuff...
Have at it...
Don't hurt anyone...

Arrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!

The Swamps of Jersey...

2008-08-01T22:07:00.001-04:00

I've been in Jersey for the past week to hit the 3 Giants Stadium shows...and to catch up with tour friends...

As has been typical of many of my post show commentaries...they aren't about the blow by blows of each number...or the flaws in missed cues...or how Bruce should walk all over the venue and sit in every which direction for a 3 hour sound check like he used to...Nor is it about what a great ass he still has at 58 years old...
It's more about reflecting upon the human condition...how it plays out and intertwines at shows both in relation to other shows...or within just a single show...Ultimately, it's all about the relationships sparked between Bruce and his band, Bruce and his audience, and Bruce's audience amongst one another...That's what's always made the difference...because as we all know...as much as we enjoy the studio works...it's the spontaneity that humans thrive upon that keeps us all coming back...It's what helps define ourselves...and affirms how healthy and grounded we really are(or aren't)...

I rolled into town a couple of days early to meet up with friends I'd not seen since the last US leg of the tour...It was great to see the same friendly smiling faces from all corners of the earth again...It didn't matter from which camp they were a part of...all were full of chatter and speculation about the first show...

My own expectations were cautious for several reasons...
Sunday's show was the first re-entry back to The States...
Not just The States...but in the State of New Jersey...

Sometimes that's an Attitudinal State...

Sometimes an Apathetic State...

Regardless, Barcelona sets the bar high in terms of audience reaction...

New Jersey could possibly bring the band's momentum to a screeching halt...

In addition, the decision to videotape the 3 shows was handed down rather late so throw that into the mix...That meant amongst other things, last minute technical changes...It was destined to be more on the conservative side of the 3 shows...

Aside from all of that, I was just glad the thunderstorms got out of the way early on, before anyone got into the stadium...There were some pretty decent flashes of light and for about 45 minutes after the lightening passed...it was funny to see people standing around with their hairs standing on end like dandelions ready to blow in the wind...

While dodging storms, we did hear BTR being soundchecked...and later we were to find out it was Max's son...

The show was solid and as I suspected, not a "knock your socks off' kind of show...but none the less, we got a "Janey Don't You Lose Heart" audible on top of getting the more standard "Spirit..." When your name is 'Janey'...and both are played...it makes for a happy girl...

Growin' Up was also a highlight...I stepped out from beneath the confines of where I was to get a better listen...The tradeoff of having your own private bathroom (albeit a Port-o-John) and stocked cooler...is the sound and lights are skewed from beneath a tent...It's a bit ironic, eh? But I suppose with thunderstorms rolling through on and off...the priority has to be to protect the equipment...I didn't stay out too long as the incessant audience chatter along the walkway was unbearable...

Bruce did his best trying to connect to the people in the Pit, in particular, the kids...but this was one of those nights that the kids looked disinterested or scared to death of him...I think if he'd found one of the kids who were hoisted up on some parent's shoulders, who were really excited to be there...it would have stolen the show...

Night 2 was totally different..It was spontaneous...the band was energized...and Bruce seemed to find his groove with collecting sign requests out of the audience..."Held Up Without a Gun" was definitely a surprise...it would never be one I'd think he'd do in a stadium since some of the 'lesser known" songs are met with that "deer in the headlights" stare...But he did it and the band seemed to really have fun with it..."Saint in the City..." had a rough start...and to me, was the weakest version I'd ever heard...That was a shame, I really like that song...but when you're live, that's all part of the charm...

"Because the Night" was smokin' with Nils' solo and it would have been flawless except Patti's duet with Bruce was just ALL wrong...Sunday night she sounded good harmonizing...Monday night? Wow...for a few seconds it was like angry alley cats mating on a rainy night...But Nils refocused us all with a forward somersault amidst his solo...It was a conservative one for him but shocked us all since it had been many years since he'd done any full on acrobatics...This is what separates the men from the boys...Here we have a man who has some significant mobility issues...and no one would be the wiser without the somersault...And still...he pulls it off...maybe for our enjoyment...and maybe to prove to himself that he really doesn't need bionic hips...

Drive All Night I had seen on the setlist and I was glad to see he hadn't nixed it...These days, even though I have access to the setlist beforehand, I don't give it much creedance since Bruce makes so many changes to it during the show...It was a beautiful version and I swear it's a masterful love song...

This was the highlight though...

Wow...Max's son was incredible sitting in for his father on Born to Run...He was having such a grand time and when you looked at his expressions...how do you top this experience...It was such a wonderful human touch...Oftentimes, Max presents as being very serious and egotistical...but tonight? Wow...the pride in his eyes...and the hug and peck on the head after his son's performance spoke volumes...It was the look of absolute endearment...I imagined it was the same expressiveness as when he he held him for the first time...I did chuckle when a friend of mine likened his son's drumming to Animal of The Muppets...it was so dead on...

Bruce had his paternal moments as well...There was a shout out to Sam and he spent a bit of time singing to his daughter and then she and her friends joined them on stage for Twist and Shout...He was such a proud Papa...practically running over the other girls to squeeze in next to her...It was very sweet to see her flanked by her parents...

I know people get a little weird about talking about 'the kids' but obviously they were fine with her sharing the stage and having a family moment in front of 55,000 people...How surreal that must be...

Night 3...

Out in the parking lot, we'd heard there was a major traffic SNAFU due to a overturned propane truck...Rumor was, that the show was going to be delayed until 9:30 p.m. due to so many people being stuck in traffic...Great...Hank Hill ran amok on the turnpike...

Just shy of 9:30 p.m., the show began and although a great show, I'd still place #2 ahead of the finale'...That's tough to say since they audibled Pretty Flamingo which rates up there as one of my obscure favorites...but the band seemed tired to me...Bruce was on top of his game but when he has to work so hard to keep the band up to speed...it takes away from their ability to be spontaneous...

I do have to say that Nils once again didn't let us down with Because the Night...I knew when he walked across the stage to whisper in Patti's ear and stopped by Max on his way back...that he was preparing for his momentous solo...He performed... and absolutely nailed it...front flip and all...Screw the somersault... He was airbourne...

I had a a much needed and anticipated week in the swamps of Jersey...I had a chance to hang out with some friends and the conversations blossomed well beyond all things Bruce...It was a tough re-entry back into the real world of work...

Two weeks...I'll be off to Richmond...