Orel Family

Now that Bruce Springsteen's one-man show on Broadway is over, and the Netflix video is out and sporting a 95% rating on rotten tomatoes , with comments such as "transformative" and "a master class"  coming from reviewers in the major New York papers, I'm re-evaluating my own thoughts on the show. Where and how did it resonate? And, why? The show was based, in large part, on Springsteen's autobiography. I wasn't able to get beyond about page 80 reading  the book, but then I got the audio book, read by Springsteen himself. There, the narrative seemed to take off, and I listened to the whole thing multiple times. Many of the items from the book that I found the most engaging, ween't in the Broadway show: sister Pam's hair getting caught in a blender, and Bruce still  laughing  about it, 50 years later! Or, the details of getting kicked out of his parents' former home after just one month  of being on his own, and laughing about those

We saw Mary Poppins Returns a couple nights ago. This wasn't my first choice, but as it was Lori's birthday, I deferred. I don't post much about movies these days, but I figured after having fun with Princess Leia's bit as Mary Poppins in the most recent Star Wars flick , I'd take a bit of a closer look at the "real" Mary Poppins. First, I'll note that I never read the PL Travers books. But I've seen the first Mary Poppins movie many times, on laser disc (I date myself!). The first movie was a silly, elitist celebration and gentle lampooning of lily white Northern European aristocracy -- a popular Disney theme of the time. But that movie had Julie Andrews at the top of her craft, and Dick Van Dyke at his charismatic best, no matter his atrocious Cockney accent . It also had an overload of some of the Sherman Brothers'  best songs -- the sound track included instantly memorable classics such as "Sister Suffragette," "A S