Orel Family

Last night we went to see the latest Star Wars saga, "The Last Jedi." It has received wonderful reviews, apparently, and the kids all loved it. But me? Not so much. It was fun, no doubt. Plenty of action, the appropriate amount of impossibly close escapes, and more than enough Force wizardry and mysticism -- some of it in forms we haven't seen before -- to last until the next installment. John Williams scored it, we have Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher and Anthony Daniels back in their original roles, and there are several other unexpected nods to the original trilogy. There's even a super-choreographed light saber fight scene with a whole minyan of sacrificial red-shirts, and Rey and Kylo Ren in the Samurai roles. It was light years better than the fight scenes of "The Phantom Menace," but it was also during that scene that I really noticed how overbearing the score was, and found myself wishing they'd just play something lighter. Like " Bad Rep...

The set for Springsteen on Broadway. One piano, two microphones. Guitars are off-stage. At about 8:05pm on Friday, I stopped thinking about the money. Yes, this is worth it. That was, more or less, the time at which Growin' Up  started to fill the Walter Kerr Theater. Bruce Springsteen had taken the stage, spoken the magic word... "Balls!" He'd announced his intent to perform his magic trick, his proof of life. And here we were, just 5 minutes in. In the moments without music, I could hear the silence in the hall. When Bruce was playing, the hall overflowed with the lush noise of Bruce's voice (sounding great) and his guitar. The Walter Kerr Theater is tiny by Broadway standards, just 960 seats crammed close together. I'd been there once before, and remembered the bar area that was practically on top of the last row of seats. Space in the theater was so limited that a main souvenir stand was located next door at a hotel. The seating was so tight that ...

Yesterday was an awful day. It started with news of a horrific massacre, and continued with the death of Tom Petty . It was difficult to stand at the brand new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, just to enjoy a music show, without thinking about people doing virtually the same thing across the country just 24 hours previously, or about a rock icon who surely would have visited this stage soon. But we create our own islands, sometimes. Walking across Detroit, stopping off at a taco stand , enjoying the warm October day in the plaza outside the arena, we had our island. Inside the arena, mash-ups of Beatles songs and covers of Beatles songs helped prepare for Paul McCartney's concert. Paul was 21 when he first toured the United States, playing shows that didn't even last 45 minutes. Last night, at age 75, he played the last US show of the latest tour, playing nearly 40 songs,  and after 3 hours he didn't even look tired. Paul's voice isn't what it once was,...

All around Detroit this weekend, there was music. Music everywhere. Swinging and swaying and people playing. As Bono said from the stage at Ford Field last night, "Detroit. City of History. City of the Future." The past few days, the River Walk and Woodward and the eateries have been packed, from mid-afternoon until well after midnight. The mood has been festive. It feels like the City Of Now. Herbie Hancock. September 1, 2017. Aaron with John Patitucci, September 2, 2017. The Detroit Jazz Festival has been running all weekend. Aaron came in from Central Michigan University to see the shows. By Friday evening, we were downtown to catch the headliners : Wayne Shorter , then Miles Mosley , and then Herbie Hancock . The stage setup at Campus Martius made it difficult for me to see anything other than the video monitor until the final few minutes of Hancock's set, but the sound was perfect, the audience was grooving, and the music was, as Hancock said to descr...

1:29pm. Totality!!! Living in a mobile country. Sometimes it means that on Wednesday morning I have no definite plans, and just 5 mornings and 580 miles later, I'm sitting by a pool in a Tennessee state park, waiting for the sun to go out. All it takes is the will, a car that can get there, one old high school friend with an idea and another with an extra hotel room and  the willingness to let it be used. Oh, and a clear day, too! 11:18am. Still time until the start, but the signs are out: Don't look up without those glasses! Less than 3 months ago, I didn't even know it was coming. But I always liked the sensation of being in an eclipse. I'd even used a pinhole projector once or twice. But never a full eclipse. I wanted in. I read about the eclipse on various sites. I studied up on how to take photographs of the eclipse , and quickly decided that enjoying the show  would be the top priority. Nashville is about the closest "totality" city to our ho...

The QLine approaches the Southern terminus at Woodward and Congress On New Year's Eve I was in New York City with my family. We went to see "The Mikado" on the Hunter College campus, taking the subway to get there and getting off at a nearby subway stop along Lexington Ave. I might have been the only adult in the audience not aware that the very next day, that same station would be opening up to Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway , served by the Q Line. It was a very big deal  in New York; a line was even inserted in to "I've Got a Little List" to note the occasion. Of course, New York has dozens of subway lines, and nearly 500 subway stations . I looked it up. Detroit has... The People Mover . A 3 mile elevated one direction loop (it's currently clockwise) around parts of the downtown, a concrete eye-sore used by virtually nobody except during the annual North American International Auto Show and for Red Wings games; with the Red Wings moving...

Garry Tallent at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, MI. April 25, 2017 I confess: When I think of Garry Tallent , I am inevitably reminded of Bruce Springsteen's long-time introduction for him: "This man comes from a long line of talents: His mother was a talent! His father was a talent! His great grandfather was a great great talent!" That's Garry Tallent, sideman, Bruce's longest-term bandmate. Tuesday night, for the first time I got to see Garry step out to sing at the front mic, play lead guitar (who knew?) and lead a band. He's on tour supporting his album "Break Time", and he's pretty darn good in all of those roles. Garry has put together a first-rate 7 piece band, and he gave each band member space to take lead in spots. If you're hoping to hear a lot of Springsteen covers, forget it; there's only one in the setlist. They weren't missed; by the time of Garry's 3rd song, "Ooh La La," the show had taken off. ...

On September 2, 1995, I went with Lori and my friend Paul to the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We'd bought the "special" tickets that allowed us to tour the museum during the afternoon a few hours before the show. Well, ok, Lori and I had the tickets, and in true rock and roll form we managed to slip Paul in with us. We went downstairs to the museum, stopping first at the Chuck Berry exhibit. That was mandatory. We eventually found our way to the Springsteen exhibit. I was looking up at Garry Tallent's bass guitar when Paul blurted out, "That's Garry Fucking Tallent!"  Yes, it was a nice guitar! "That's Garry Fucking Tallent, right there!"  At which point I realized I was, in fact, standing next to Garry Fucking Tallent, under Garry Fucking Tallent's bass guitar. By this point, I knew that Garry, along with Bruce Springsteen and the rest of the E Street Band would be opening up the concert that evening by backing up Chu...

Our Maple Tree -- what's left of it after an ice storm -- bloomed. Michigan, February 22. The old saying is that, if a frog is put in to a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But if the frog is put in to a pot of cold water, and the water is heated only gradually, the frog will sit there, unaware of the danger until it is too late. The metaphor is so obvious that Al Gore used it in An Inconvenient Truth , more than a decade ago. So here we are. Te GISS data shows that, for the 3rd consecutive year, we had the warmest year since the start of record-keeping in 1880. In January, I wrote , "It took a little longer than I expected, but the final numbers for 2016 were finally posted today. As expected, 2015 is the warmest year on record. As expected, December was warm. Very warm. December is now the warmest month ever, compared to average." By the end of March, December 2015 was only the 4th warmest month ever. But I also wrote, in that piece: "...