Orel Family

Things to do on my birthday: WGI Semi-finals in Dayton! Ezra turned 17 this week. Start with the name. That's the first thing. Ezra. But that'll be for Part 2. (If there is a Part 2) First, I have Winter Guard on my mind. What is Winter Guard, anyway? Fortunately, there's a web page that succinctly answers that question: "Winter guard is the sport of indoor color guard. Modern color guard is a combination of the use of flags, sabers, mock rifles, and other equipment, as well as dance and other interpretive movement." Winter Guard lineage ultimately goes back to military color guards, which helps explain the use of flags, rifles and sabres. I could do without that portion of the symbolism, even while admiring the mastery with which high school kids -- mostly girls -- can spin, toss and throw them. Ezra first joined Winter Guard as an 8th Grader. Aaron convinced them to go to a "try it out" night. The coach at the time had just created a ...

Someday we'll look back at this and it will all seem funny. Yesterday we woke up just after 4am, piled in to the car at 5:45am, and drove more than 4 hours to Cincinnati. We stopped at a shopping mall and went in to a nice book store. I had my most important business meetings of the year, but at the most crucial moment my phone was on mute -- it would be hard to participate while Bruce Springsteen was standing atop the bookstore's staircase, surveying the hundreds of people cramming every aisle of the store. Meet me in Cincinnati! Bruce preparing to meet and greet. I thought I had missed the book signings. Last month's event in Toronto was supposed to be the end of it, and I hadn't managed to get myself a ticket. Of course, I could rationalize it: After all, who would really want  to drive 4 hours each way for a firm handshake and a snapshot? < raising my hand /> And who would really want  that full day excursion for a ridiculously below-market rate ...

Since Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band last played in Cincinnati in March, 2008 , the United States has gone through two presidential elections and a great recession. Two cherished members of the E Street Band have passed away. Bruce has released two powerful studio albums and, along the way, has enabled new voices and new sounds for his Hall of Fame-bound band. During those six years, while the rest of us aged, Bruce somehow became younger. We can conjecture from what or where his fountain of youth came. Was it from the booty shaking? The love making? The earth quaking? Perhaps it was the Viagara taking. He has mentioned Viagra taking. Whatever the elixir, whoever the alchemist, the results have been spectacular. But what about Cincinnati? Bruce's 2008 Cincinnati show didn’t pass the two-hour mark until the evening’s last song. Tonight’s show could have come with a warning label: For a show lasting longer than 3 hours, audience members should call their doctors...

My report from the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert in Cincinnati, March 22, 2008, as published on the official Bruce Springsteen website . At just about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band left the stage, having just completed "American Land" before a nearly packed house at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. The crowd was loud and had been on its feet -- even back in section 201-- for nearly the entire show. But, even before Springsteen was off the stage, the house lights were on. At barely two hours, the show was over. On the floor, some long-time fans were apoplectic. What the #%&!? Anyone with an internet connection knew that, in the prior two shows, fans had been treated to incredible guest appearances. Not that anyone expected anything like that again, but here we were, on a Saturday night, with a phenomenal crowd, and it was already over? Sure, we'd collected a bunch of moments. An unusual (and unrushed) opener of ...