Orel Family

From Elianna Orel and family.

An upright moment. The form will improve. "How many days until I can go skiing?" Elianna has been asking that question pretty much daily, for... well, ever since she agreed to take lessons the the Winter Walden ski school. Yesterday she told the piano teacher. She tried on the boots in the den, get in to the skis. She could barely contain her excitement. But today was the day. Up early, in to the clothes, equipment to the car, for the 400 yard drive to the Middle School for the bus out to Mt. Brighton . Of course, we warned her that she would fall... a lot. Her cleass had two teachers. One is famous for wearing underwear outside his ski clothes. As he introduced himself, he told the class that if he fell, they should throw snow on him... but that they couldn't do it on purpose. Of course, 10 minutes in to the class, the other teacher was accidentally knoced down by a student; Elianna wasted no time at all. Snow from her, and then the other students,...

Lori and I took a rare night out last night, first snowstorm night of the year. She wanted to see "I'm Not There," but I just wasn't too keen on it. But then we saw that there were some "sneak preview" showings of "The Golden Compass" around the area, so we decided to catch one down in Southfield. For those familiar with the area, we were at Star Southfield, a 20-plex that's gone shockingly downhill since AMC took over there a while back. Maybe it was the snow, but it seemed nearly empty there this evening, and all the eateries and side shops in the complex have been closed save a single sad sub shop. The subs were pretty good, anyway. But on to the movie. First things first: No matter how this is promoted, "The Golden Compass" is not a good movie for young kids. We left our kids at home, and I'm glad we did. Aaron would have had a very difficult time following the plot, as especially at the beginning it's very dense...

A quick show, so a pretty quick review. The band is so tight now that they're wonderful every night, it seems. Last night's setlist certainly wasn't as exciting as Sunday night's in Cleveland, and perhaps I felt a few too many moments where Bruce was playing a role... but it's a really good role -- that of "Bruce Springsteen." The setlist highlight was "Jackson Cage," which I don't think I've ever witnessed before. It was flawless to my ears, and the transition in to "She's the One" was perfect. The low-light was "Working on the Highway." A good friend of mine tells me that song is a "girl thing." The line-up for the pit was an extraordinary sight. After 1140 wristbands for 250 pit positions in Cleveland, it was 754 wristbands for 570 pit spots yesterday. Good thing for us, we were 524/525 from the lottery winner. But that's not what made it extraordinary: what did that was that Jerry a...

In late 2005, I established an associates account with amazon, going primarily from my discography page. Any amazon.com sales generated by people navigating to amazon from my site generates commissions, that amazon eventually sends my way. As I noted at that time, anything that comes my way from amazon.com will be turned over to charity, on a quarterly basis, doubled by a match from me. All selected charities will be from the set of charities documented at my charities page. During Q2 2007, a total of 43 items were sold by amazon off links from the site. Total commissions for the quarter were $32.19. With rounding, this quarter's donation+match is $65.00. This brings the total raised for charity since the inception of the amazon account up to exactly $1000, to 11 different charities. The donation for Q2 is being made on November 7, 2007. This evening, Bruce Springsteen is appearing at an event titled Stand Up For Heroes: A Benefit for the Bob Woodruff Family Fund . To ...

One great thing about seeing many Bruce Springsteen shows is, the next show just could be the best yet. It's one of those euphoric feelings that comes from sharing the space during one of those evenings when all I can say is, "he's on fire ." Tonight was one of those nights. As I was in General Admission, I arrived early for the "pit lottery." And, since the arena is connected by an indoor walkway to my hotel, I left my jacket behind. The walkway was closed, the lottery was outside, I was wearing a t-shirt, and though it was reasonably nice out, it was still November in Cleveland. Just behind me in the line was a man with 3 young girls, ages 9, 10 and 12 ("almost 13," she said). They had made signs and the oldest had one rolled up in her pocket, so I asked them to show me. The best of them said, "Dance With Me." There were 1100 people lined up for 250 pit spots, I had no jacket and the temperature was dropping. The setlist wa...

Back in January, I wrote about the local weather . Seemed we were getting unusually warm weather for an extended period of time, and it seemed a bit... scary. For a period of more than a month, every day was warmer than "normal," most by a wide margin -- 10 degrees or more. Well, the early fall provided an encore of the heat. Today marks the 22nd consecutive day above normal , and the hottest came last. This past weekend saw temperatures 25 degrees above normal . So what else is there to do, but... SWIM!! So we sent out the late invites. Had to call it early, 'cause by 3:45 the sun's behind the trees. And people started to come. And some more people came. Because when it's 90 degrees on October 8th in Michigan, that's what you do . At least, given the opportunity. Glad we didn't stay the whole weekend in Philadelphia! Gotta live in the moment at home. Last Sunday was the sukkah pool party, this weekend 40 people for the October pool ...

After my dad died, we flew in to New Jersey for the funeral and shiva . The rabbi got to the house a few minutes after I did, to go over the funeral as well as the traditions of mourning. He brought his low chairs for the family, and started talking. I knew most of the basics, no shaving or sex during sheloshim , stuff like that. Then he mentioned other “don’ts,” and got to “no live music for a year.” He spoke of how he had had to leave his own daughter’s bat mitzvah party because it was during his mourning period for his mother. So I thought about it. And realized that, despite the positive impact of such a prohibition on my budget, that this was one minhag I did not care to fulfill. At least, I’d have one exception to it, ‘cause when it comes to Bruce it’s not just music to me. The Philadelphia shows went on sale during shiva, but a good friend bought a pair of General Admission for the first night, and held them for me to consider. So I thought about that, too. Philade...

The song "Last to Die" was just broadcast on The Today Show Sunday Edition. On the initial mp3's that passed around earlier this month, I liked the song, didn't really love it. But live, it just slaughtered. Maybe it was different because the sound was so clear or the voice so upfront in the mix so I could understand the words, but it just seemed to me to be the most powerful damn thing I've heard from Bruce in about... I dunno, forever. Even with the audience shots of folks clapping along, having a "good" time. Just so many lines in the song that leap out. Kids asleep in the backseat, maybe a reminder of "Seeds," with a different kind of numbness and rage. Today falls during the festival of Sukkoth , when traditionally the biblical text Koheleth (Ecclesiastes) is read. Koheleth asked, "What advantage does the wise man have over the fool?" Well... what if the (self-proclaimed) wise men are fools? Do we then just hear the cri...

In late August, I received an email from an account manager at Special Ops Media in New York, asking if I might be interested in receiving a review copy of Patti Scialfa’s new album Play It as It Lays and post a review of it. It was a form letter, likely sent to anyone with a reasonably well-known Springsteen website. Nonetheless, having liked Patti’s first two albums well enough, not minding receiving promo material, and without promising what type of review I might give, I figured that yes, I might just be interested. The disc arrived August 31, which, as anyone who has read any of my other recent blog entries might know, was about the worst possible day to arrive. August turned to September, my priorities turned to those of mourning, and the package did not make the trip to New Jersey. I asked a long-time friend if he wouldn’t mind writing the review for me. Three weeks have passed. I’m returning to some semblance of normalcy. Patti’s album was released, to occasionally g...

It seems my last blog entry got noticed at Harp Magazine . Which means a couple things: Traffic went up; more than 100 visitors found the way via that magazine I get to see how other writers interpret what I had to say. The piece starts like this: Springsteen’s New Magic Album Leaked In Its Entirety Online Fred Mills September 7, 2007 Despite stringent security precautions on the part of Columbia Records to keep Bruce Springsteen’s new album Magic under wraps until its official Oct. 2 release date, as of this morning MP3s of the entire album were flying around the Internet faster than you could say “Rosie, come out tonight!” Twelve songs in all had been posted to various websites or file-sharing services—one of them, “Terry’s Song,” about Springsteen’s late friend Terry Magovern, is reportedly a track that isn’t on the album and will presumably turn up as a bonus or a B-side. In short order, the bloggers ground into action: At the Matt Orel “Orel Family” blog a fairly in-depth, an...

I’m sitting here, trying to come to terms. So far as grieving goes, I’m somewhere between denial, anger and acceptance right now. Part of me wants to yell at my dad, “how could you have done this?” but then I remind myself that he’s the one who’s gone. People coming and going from the same house where I grew up. So many of the appliances and furnishings and even wall hangings have remained unchanged from the 1960’s. Everything’s the same. Some of the kids I went to elementary school with, I’ve seen their parents these last 3 days. Or the kids, some of them still live in town, some of them came back. There are too many desserts. Way too many. More keep coming in, and we can’t keep up, and there’s one less person eating them, anyway. Cousins I haven’t seen in 20 years, super 8 movies to thread for the first time ever (dad always did that), we can all see ourselves from happier times in 1968. As I write, washing over me are the sounds of “Long Walk Home,” a track from the soo...

Yesterday one of my best friends and I were having an email discussion on some things, including my ailing dad. He ended one email by saying, "it’s always sounded to me like there was as much affection as respect between the two of you and that is a very good thing. And he kept the Chevy." Yes, he did. Not that he kept it in perfect condition, but he did keep it. So I wrote back: Did I tell you about our last trip to NJ as a family? Aaron always asks to go for a ride in the Chevy. So, last day home, he convinced my dad to start it up. After a couple tries, he got it running. It wasn't exactly stable, but it ran. Then he said to get in, I figured he'd take it around the block. But, noooooooo!! He goes past the school. and out to Millburn Avenue. Holy shit, we're all going to die. And the kids aren't even scared! Then he turned on to Vauxhall Road! My dad was never much of a driver anyway, and I'm wondering if he's totally lost his mi...

Well, old Mitch Albom finally pissed me off enough that I fired off a letter. I'll note, before getting to the letter, that Albom is hardly alone in devoting multiple articles to pontificating on the evils of Barry Bonds. Never mind that Bonds just set the all-time record, or that -- 3 years after the implementation of steroid testing -- he is having, by a wide margin, the greatest season ever for a player of his age. Never mind that, in their disgust over a man they don't like and their "I'm shocked!" reaction to various as-yet unproved (and uncharged, in any official sense) allegations, they seem to be unable even to see what happend on the field. Last week, I was subjected to Bob Costas speaking decisively on multiple forums. "Absolutely," he said to Wolf Blitzer on the CNN show "The Situation Room" when Blitzer asked if Bonds used steroids, as if Costas had been right there in the room with Barry. Costas added that there was ...

In late 2005, I established an associates account with amazon, going primarily from my discography page. Any amazon.com sales generated by people navigating to amazon from my site generates commissions, that amazon eventually sends my way. As I noted at that time, anything that comes my way from amazon.com will be turned over to charity, on a quarterly basis, doubled by a match from me. All selected charities will be from the set of charities documented at http://bruce.orel.ws/charities.html. During Q1 2007, a total of 58 items were sold by amazon off links from the site. Total commissions for the quarter were $49.01. With rounding, this quarter's donation+match is $100.00. While I had considered going to a single charity going forward, recent tragic events made the choice of recipient very easy. I have selected Joan Dancy and PALS Support Group as this quarter's recipient. The donation is made in memory of Terry Magovern. PALS is a grassroots organization that hel...

A couple weeks ago, Palace Entertainment did a quickie 2-day half-price sale on tickets to a bunch of concerts here this summer. So I picked up a couple shows. Tonight’s was the “B.B. King Blues Festival,” with B. B. King, Al Green and Etta James, and $10 a ticket for the lawn, parking included. Can’t beat that. The time was listed as 7pm, and with multiple artists on the bill, I figured they’d start on time. But I really wanted to see Al Green. We missed him the last time he was through. Of course, I wanted to see B.B. King and Etta James, too, but figured we could afford to miss some of Etta’s set if it meant avoiding Pine Knob traffic, and we just saw B.B. a few months ago and figured it’d be pretty similar. We aimed for a 7:30 arrival; unfortunately, it seems like everybody else did, too – we ended up in a mile long backup. By the time we got out of the car, we could clearly hear “Let’s Stay Together” coming from the speakers. Damn! Got to the entry, and found out why:...

Today's little experiement. Went out to www.travbuddy.com because I saw a link to it from another blog and thought it'd be cool. A few minutes later, my own map of where I've been (no separate entry for Hell, Michigan ). So, here goes, my own map: note -- travbuddy ceased operations in April, 2018. 

Last night we saw Bob Dylan at Freedom Hill Amphitheater over in Sterling Heights. The show was hot, though maybe not quite as much as the Palace show last November . Bob's been touring with he same band for several years now, and they were pretty tight throughout. Freedom Hill is about in a county park about 20 miles due east from our house. Surface streets all the way, and we managed to catch every red light. We wanted to see Jimmy Vaughan open, but by the time we got there he was almost done, we got to hear about the last 10 seconds of his final song. After a couple minutes, I went over to the souvenir stand; Dylan always does venue-specific posters now, and I'm a sucker for 'em. I got to the front of the line, and behind the table was... Jimmy Vaughan. So now I have a signed poster. Vaughan was standing with a tall bald guy in an ancient Bob Seger t-shirt, some folks seemed to recognize him, too. Dylan opened with Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 while Jimmy...

A few days ago, I went to lunch with a former work team of mine. As it happens, the members of the team are all from India, and we chose an Indian restaurant for the occasion. Much of the conversation was light-hearted banter about foods and gardens; of course, being at an Indian restaurant, I could get all the explanations of the southern Indian cuisine being served (I passed on the mango mousse, which I learned isn’t really a dish native to India, anyway). As we talked, the conversation moved to the education systems. Sreedhar explained to me that, in his school, in all but the Tamil class, only English was allowed in the classroom. Tamil is the native language of Chennai , Sreedhar’s home city. He had gone to a Catholic school there, and related, still apparently with some sense of horror, of how he had had to study The Merchant of Venice for two years. I asked what he remembered of the book, and mostly he remembered the book’s cover sheet, which was in cyan. Shabbir laughe...

Aaron and I will be cycling in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure fund-raising event one week from today, June 10, 2007. The Tour de Cure is a series of cycling events held in over 80 cities nationwide. We have joined thousands of others to pedal in support of the Association's mission: to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. Aaron is 10 years old and riding for the 3rd time this year, and is very excited to be part of the event again. I am asking you to help by supporting our fund-raising efforts with a donation. Your tax-deductible gift will make a difference in the lives of the 18 million Americans who suffer from diabetes and the 20 million people in the United States with pre-diabetes. It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make your donation online by simply clicking on either of the links at the bottom of this message. Any amount, great or small, helps in the fight again...

This evening, Lori alerted me to an article she found at "weird science" on MSNBC -- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16381098/?pg=9#Science_weird_061228 . She tried to tease by asking, "why do you get that odor when you touch coins?," to which I quickly answered, "a chemical reaction." Her follow-up surprised me more: It's from iron in the coins! Here's the article text at msnbc: "That metallic odor you smell after handling change? It's created by the breakdown of oils in skin after touching objects that contain iron. The chemical reaction has most of us running to wash our hands to get that musty scent out." Well!! As any numismatist surely knows, there's no iron in US coinage, nor much of anywhere else. Most of our coins are made from an alloy of copper and nickel. the penny is mostly zinc (since the early 1980's, prior to that it was mostly copper), and the golden dollar contains manganese in addition to copper, nickel and z...

Aaron with the winning car When I was 9, I joined Cub Scouts for a year. I don’t remember all that much about it. I started a coin collection as a suggested project. We went to a Yankees game at the old Yankee Stadium, and Bobby Murcer hit two home runs. The den leader showed us a tributary of the Rahway River that ran right through the basement of his house. The other thing I remember was the Pinewood Derby . I had no skill to make a car, and what I remember mostly was painting it. I put it on the kitchen table and spray painted it royal blue. Little dots of royal blue paint remained on the kitchen wall until the day the wallpaper was replaced many years later. But it wasn’t very stable, and my Pinewood Derby career was over after the first race. Aaron is in his 4th year in Scouts. He doesn’t pay much attention to the various achievements and patches, I think the patches have collected in a draw and the achievements have gone mostly unachieved and unattempted. Even the...

7pm this evening Spring finally arrived here last weekend. In March, we briefly considered skipping right by spring and on in to summer, then for most of April we skipped past spring the other way back to winter. The crocuses bloomed early and were eaten by a rabbit the next day. The cherry blossoms nearly bloomed two weeks early, and then nearly froze off the trees. The crocuses, the day before the rabbit ate them Finally, last Friday the temperatures eased over 50, and we were able to get the trees sprayed. This is important, as we prefer our cherries without the worms. Then, on Saturday, spring arrived. I had to be a spectator that first day, as somehow I ended up with some friends at the Corner Bar of the Townsend while very tall former basketball plaers came and went, and some very nice looking woman was telling me how she’d been at the Tigers game that day but they’d lost “in overtime.” So I knew spring had arrived: I was sure she was hitting on me. Sunday was t...

Note: This post originall appeared at http://hollerif.blogspot.com . Market research cited in an article in Monday's New York Times says that users of peer-to-peer downloading networks—BitTorrent, LimeWire, and the like—downloaded ten times more songs than users of "legit" download services like iTunes. More than 5 billion songs were downloaded from P2P source in 2006, as opposed to 509 million legal downloads, said NPD Group, a market research firm. Those numbers didn't ring true to me. Here's my response: I would guess that 10:1 is seriously understated—I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to 100:1. The article doesn't capture how these ratios work out when considering "officially released" content as opposed to "bootleg" content. For example, the torrent site Dimeadozen.org (capped at 100,000 free members) has a strict policy banning any material that is either in official release or likely to become officially released. ...

Aaron, age 3 days. (Aaron, age 3 days). February 27, 1997 This is what I wrote, when I finally got home from a long, unplanned night in the hospital: If you've never seen a C-Section performed, here is one word to help you picture it: ALIEN . "What does it look like, honey?" "Oh, Sigourney Weaver is going to show up any second now to fight 'em off, otherwise you look great!" February 26, 1997. We went to the hospital for a non-stress test. This is a test which is performed on women who are beyond the expected delivery date. Basically, they hook up a monitor to check whether the baby is in distress or if there are any signs of contractions -- anything which could cause the doctors to induce labor. Lori's mother had wanted to go for this test, but this time I said I would go. Call it a premonition. I arrived at 11am, Lori had already arrived and they had started early with her. I found the room, it was hot and muggy and Lori was ve...