Orel Family

After 18 straight days of working, I finally have a couple days to myself. My first days without work or travel since September. Between one wedding in Chicago and another in Boston and then working the polls 8 of the 9 days during Michigan's early voting session, I've been a bit busy. But it's fulfilling to see people who love each other tie the knot, and it's also tremendous to see people proudly exercising their right to vote. Here in Michigan, we had one of the most contentious Senate elections, between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, to replace the retiring Gary Peters. On October 15, I wrote the following on my facebook page:  Both candidates have previously lost statewide elections -- El-Sayed in 2018 and Rogers in 2024. I haven't marked my ballot yet. But I'm seeing a lot of posts from my friends, especially my Jewish friends, in some cases friends who don't live here or know this state. So, here are my thoughts:  El-Sayed is stri...

Bruce Springsteen. June 5, 2026 Why, on all other Bruce shows, do we E Street Band or other bands, but on this night we have only Disciples of Soul?  Why, on all other Bruce shows, do we have mostly Bruce songs, but on this night we have a curated concert?  Why, on all other Bruce shows, does Bruce not even change his shirt once, but on this night he changes it twice? Why, on all other Bruce shows, do we either sit or stand, but on this night we listen standing to symbolize inspiration? ok, well... some  of us, on that last question, but for the answers, we must be delivered from the days of old. Last night was the second installment of "Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us" at OceanFirst Bank Center on the campus of Monmouth University. The first installment took American music from its origins up through around World War II, and last night's show picked things up from there. An obvious question is how, in the space of a pair of 3 hour shows, would it be possible to ...

Bruce Springsteen and Trombone Shorty. June 4, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us is a two-part concert event aligned to the grand opening of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the campus of Monmouth University. Tonight was the first show, featuring Valerie June, Shemekia Copeland, Dropkick Murphys, Keb'Mo', Rosanne Cash, Trombone Shorty, Tony Trischka, Kenny Chesney, Brian Fallon, and Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen and Ken Case in the Second Line. June 4, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel The event was essentially a 3-hour music education event, a "curated concert," as Bob Santelli -- the show's primary mover called it -- and surely it helps to have first rate stars to help give the lessons. The focus tonight was essentially on what I'd describe as "roots" music, starting with indigenous music (a reprise of an event last night) and quickly moving on to gospel, folk, blues, country, jazz, bluegrass, and a ...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Long Walk Home. Washington, DC, May 27, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel You know that flag flying over the courthouse It means certain things are set in stone Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't --Bruce Springsteen, Long Walk Home Bruce Springsteen has performed in front of the American flag before. Most famously, the "Born in the U.S.A" tour stadium shows opened with Bruce and the E Street Band in front of a giant flag ; after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001m Bruce played benefit shows in New Jersey in front of a giant flag as well. It's not subtle. This is my country and this is my flag. Bruce Springsteen, Max Weinberg Land of Hope and Dreams. Washington, DC, May 27, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel On Wednesday, Bruce took his case to the nation's capital city, in the only stadium show of the Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour. It'd be easy enough to interpret - or, arguably, misinterpret - that flag as an ass...

Bruce Springsteen, Pittsburgh, May 19, 2026 Bruce Springsteen brought his "No Kings" / Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour to Pittsburgh Tuesday evening. As nearly everyone paying attention knows by now, Bruce has stopped varying the setlist: He's chosen a core 27 songs and, except for a single song at a single show, hasn't changed a single selection for the past 13 shows. Given that as a backdrop, it may be fair to ask -- at least somewhere in the recesses of my mind -- why I'm making a full day trek and an overnight, etc., to see a show that I already traveled across the country to see less than 5 weeks ago . So, a few things here: It's the same setlist every night, but it's a hell of a focused setlist. Would I tweak it? Sure. Some of the song pairings have been around for decades, and there are  some other entries that would work. The passion that Bruce is bringing to this set, night after night, is off the charts. Lori said this show was better than...

Bruce Springsteen, Phoenix, April 16, 2026. All pictures and video by Matthew Orel. Bruce Springsteen is angry. And boy, oh, boy, is he holding on to his anger. Last night, through a bit of clever planning with a family trip, I managed to be in Phoenix for the "Land of Hope and Dreams - No Kings" tour.  It's also, for the most part,  a "no surprises" tour. Last night was the third consecutive show with the same setlist. To some fans, setlist variation still matters. To them, I'd say this: Get over it. Going in, even those of us in "blackout" mode basically knew what to expect. Bruce has been very vocal about his rage over the current administration, culminating in his sudden January release of "Streets of Minneapolis"  and the subsequent announcement of this 20-date E Street Band tour. The show is positioned as a rhetorical call to arms, with Bruce directly stating the purpose multiple times during the show: "This American tragedy ca...

This past Saturday, I returned home from services -- as a mourner I go every day now to say kaddish -- to relax, check my phone, and so forth. Lori wasn't feeling well and was sleeping, so I went to another room. The first thing I saw on my phone was a post from a friend who doesn't post very much, quoting the famous Martin Niemöller poem, along with a video appearing to show an ICE encounter. My friend is in Philadelphia. I wondered, "is something going on in Philly?" But then I saw the word "Nicollet" in the background of the video and realized he hadn't shot the video, it was from Minneapolis. As I watched a little more carefully, I realized I was watching a murder. I turned on the TV. For the next several hours, more numb than I could have foreseen, I watched as the news came in, More videos. Totally predictable preposterous statements from DHS head Greg Bovino and later DHS head Kristy Noem defending the actions of their agents, and labeling the vic...

November 11, 1972 January 6, 2026: Thank you, Cantor Wallach. Thank you, everyone, for coming this morning. Some of you I haven’t seen in many, many years. Thank you all for coming. A special thank you to Rose and Fayona, nurses who helped take care of my mom in her final weeks. I just have a few notes, I’m not going to take very long, I didn’t formally write anything but I sent myself a few notes that I’d try to say in a few minutes and that I thought might be worth hearing. I’m going to start with a brief story from something my mom and I experienced a few years back. I was back here 1990, it happened to be Tisha B’Av, which is, to those who are familiar, it’s one of two Jewish fast days on the calendar, the other, of course, being Yom Kippur. For whatever reason, I was here on a break from my job in California that day. My mom wanted to go to Kings to get some groceries for later on. It’s not one of those non-work days so you can do that, except of course Kings was sampling cookies,...

December 14, 2025. The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ I wasn't even supposed to be here. I was just laying low in Michigan. Oh I was planning to come visit until Saturday anyway, to see my ailing mother at the hospital, and then things got bad and things got worse and I was on a 6am Monday flight out here with no immediate plans to go home. When I got to Overlook, words were gone. Food intake gone. Responses to prompts were gone. This is how it was, all week. A gerontologist called it "delirium" and I learned what "decompensation" means. I wasn't sure she'd last the week. I started making the calls - funeral home, cemetery, spiritual leaders. But... she didn't die. Eddie Manion's facebook post, 11/13/25 On Saturday, I happened to see a facebook post from Eddie Manion ,  "Rehearsing for the show at t he Stone Pony tomorrow!" My immediate reaction was, "this... is possible... if mom stays with us." I asked some friends about the s...

2025 has presented an almost embarrassing haul of new released material by Bruce Springsteen. In June, Bruce released a 7-album set, "Tracks 2," focusing largely on unreleased material from the 1990s. And now... an item that seemed to many fans the holy grail of vault items, "Nebraska 1982," featuring most prominently the oft-rumored but never heard "Electric Nebraska" as well as 4 other discs. Bruce said many times over the years since "Nebraska" came out that he had tried out the tracks with The E Street Band and that everything he tried to do with the band just made the songs worse. So he ended up releasing the cassette tape he'd carried around in his pocket, of his original bedroom demos. But did we fans believe him? Uhhhh... maybe.  Anyway, now we have the evidence. Due to production delays, the official release won't make it out until October 24th, but the songs have started circulating. So... let's get to it! Was Bruce right? ...