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When I first started practicing law, I loved the travel. San Francisco, Detroit, the Twin Cities, Raleigh-Durham, the Twin Cities and plenty of places betwixt and between. But I quickly learned that it wears on a person. I missed sleeping in my own bed and I especially missed my kids, young as they were. I changed my practice so I didn’t have to travel out of state as much. Now, years later my travel desire hasn’t increased a lot, particularly with the airport hell of post-9/11 America.
So that’s why I’m somewhat surprised by the streak I seem to be on. Friday was Omaha. Sunday was St. Paul. Tuesday was spent en route to Bloomington, Ind., where I’ll be through the end of the week (and hopefully it will quit raining between now and then). Still to come before Memorial Day: Denver, Minneapolis (at least twice) and New York City. Equally as odd, only one trip is work-related. About half relate t0 kids looking at colleges, either graduate or undergrad.
There are potential scheduling advantages, though. Springsteen and the E Street Band are in Indianapolis tomorrow night and my oldest daughter and I fly out of there Friday. Whether she can experience her first E Street arena revival will depend on just what IU has in mind for her in the extremely busy schedule it’s created for her that already fills the day tomorrow.
I’m ready to grow young again
“No Surrender,” Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A.
Hitting consecutive shows by Springsteen and the E Street Band in Omaha and St. Paul provided interesting insight into the culture of Springsteen.
You see, every show I’ve seen with the E Street Band is much like an old-fashioned tent revival in the church of rock and roll. Bruce and the band preach a gospel of music that reaches into the essence of your musical soul. And that’s what made Omaha and St. Paul different.
In Omaha, the preachers were full of hellfire and brimstone. In fact, I thought Nils Lofgren would burn the place down with his solo on “Reason to Believe” and the band provided a helluva lot of inspiration with “Jungleland” and “Detroit Medley” in the encore (they replaced “Kitty’s Back” on the handwritten set list). But the fact Springsteen hadn’t been to Omaha in 30 years made the vast majority of the audience revival newcomers. It wasn’t until the encore that the audience’s intensity began to match the level of the band. Yet there is no doubt many were converted as the band played in excess of 2 1/2 hours. In fact, for me much of the concert was almost like seeing newcomers welcomed to the fold.
In St. Paul, on the other hand, there were far fewer newcomers and significant numbers of longstanding church members. Not only is St. Paul a mainstay on Springsteen tours, it was the site of a November concert in support of Magic. But the audience shows why Bruce keeps coming back. The intensity level and excitement of the crowd started about where Omaha ended. There were far more here with a deep appreciation of the roles of each band member and who truly feel the strength of both their musicality and Springsteen’s songwriting.
A casual observer might call some of the extensive audience participation Pavlovian. Yet it is more of a collective celebration, one where a significant majority of the crowd exalted in opportunities for collective chant, choruses and call-and-response. Thus, even though it was largely the same set list, this was more of a shared exaltation. In fact, to continue the revival metaphor, many were speaking in tongues by the time the encore rolled around.
The congregational sense was not just reinforced by the performance and the passion of the crowd. We met at least five other people who, like us, had been to the Omaha show Friday night.
Sure, we drove nearly a thousand miles, spent more time on the road than we did listening to the shows and dropped more than a few coins on tickets, meals and motels. But to experience the jubilation of E Street Nation twice in three days is something I would do again in a heartbeat.
Mister I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man
And I believe in a promised land
“The Promised Land,” Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
“A woman snapped and stabbed her partner to death after he objected to her listening to Bruce Springsteen music, a court has been told.”
Perhaps the fact my wife and I are heading to two Springsteen concerts this weekend made me a bit more attentive to that news article. Fortunately, though, it wasn’t my wife who brought it to my attention as added incentive to make sure we get to both shows in Omaha and St. Paul.
According to the article, the Australian woman suffered a “brain snap” and stabbed the man with a kitchen knife after he said he didn’t want to listen to a Springsteen CD. The knife punctured his aorta and esophagus. When arrested, she supposedly told police, “I mean, who the hell doesn’t like Bruce Springsteen, for God’s sake?”
While I understand her indignant question, it’s not grounds for assault, let alone homicide. She better hope authorities allow her to take some Springsteen CDs with her as she serves her eight-year sentence for manslaughter. I know, though, that it is extremely doubtful I will utter the phrase, “Maybe we shouldn’t go” between now and the conclusion of Sunday’s St. Paul show.
Over nothing you end up on the wrong end of someone’s knife
“Brothers Under the Bridge,” Bruce Springsteen, Tracks
What’s happening to the Catholic Church? You know, the church I belonged to until, to quote George Carlin, “I reached the age of reason.” First, limbo goes out the window. Now the church is bringing mortal sin into the 21st Century.
For those unfamiliar with Catholic doctrine, mortal sins basically mean go directly to hell on death without passing Go. They include, but are not exclusively, the seven deadly sins many in the press and blogosphere are referring to. In fact, the list of potential mortal sins can get awfully long. But here’s a list of the ones published in the Vatican newspaper Sunday:
- Environmental pollution
- Genetic manipulation
- Accumulating excessive wealth
- Inflicting poverty
- Drug trafficking and consumption
- Morally debatable experiments
- Violation of fundamental rights of human nature
Any Catholics on the Forbes list of billionaires may have gotten a tad nervous today. And it certainly makes one wonder if the legend on recycling containers should be changed to “Recycle OR ELSE.”
You know that it’s a sin to be rich
But it’s a low down shame to be poor
Title Song, Lightnin’ Hopkins, It’s a Sin to Be Rich
A while ago I discovered Lists of Bests, a site that is just what the name implies. It is a list of “bests,” whether by award or personal preference. Looking at it this weekend, I wondered if the fact I hadn’t read any of the National Book Critics Circle award winners this year was unusual. Evidently not. For example, I’ve only read six percent of the novels that have won the fiction award in the last 30+ years. In fact, the site may give a fairly good overview of my tastes.
I’ve only read two percent of the books that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (although the award does date back 90 years), three percent of the books winning the National Book Award for Fiction (which goes back nearly 60 years) and eight of the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. In contrast, I’ve read 73 percent of the books that won the Hugo Award for best novel and 48 percent of those gaining the honor for the Nebula Awards.
Evidently my movie tastes are a bit off the mainstream also. Granted, I’ve seen 53 percent of the films that won the Oscar for best film. Yet I’ve seen two-thirds of films that won the best foreign film Oscar and two-thirds of those that were named best film at the Independent Spirit Awards.
I wasn’t sure there was a name for the life I sought
Now I’m a long way gone down the life I got
“The Night Inside Me,” Jackson Browne, Solo Acoustic, Vol. 2
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