Orel Family

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...