Orel Family

Bruce Springsteen has made national headlines many times over the past 30 years. But he's never really been an internet sensation. His website is modest with few interactive features beyond links to order products. His  official videos on youtube , especially of more recent vintage, typically generate fewer than a million views. His first twitter post was just a few months ago. That changed Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, Bruce's latest studio album, High Hopes, was officially released. That didn't make a dent. But that evening, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon . And by Wednesday morning, seemingly the whole world knew about it. My facebook wall exploded with links. Not just from my Bruce friends, either: From my old high school friends from New Jersey. From college friends in the diaspora. From conservatives. Bruce's appearance on Late Night came as no surprise; after all in 2010 he went in the show and spoofed his own '70's look  for a c...

Lori and I saw David Chase's new romanticized semi-autobiographical movie Not Fade Away  last night. It's a new release with a spectacular soundtrack (Little Steven was its executive producer), but it was a private showing: we were the only ones in the theater at 9:30. That begs the question of whether something can fade away if it was never really there at all. Not Fade Away is not the first "Beatles era coming of age in New Jersey" movie;  I Wanna Hold Your Hand covered that ground way back in 1978. That movie was also more "down home" to me, as it started within walking distance of my childhood home. Not Fade Away's New Jersey feels more ersatz: It sure looks  like New Jersey, and is full of the types of artifacts and references that one might have found there in the '60's. It doesn't take more than a minute in to the opening scene for the "We're in New Jersey!" announcement with a name check of Delbarton Academy (a p...

Graham Parker and the Rumour at the Newton Theater, December 7, 2012 (photo: Aaron Orel) The Newton Theater is a 605 seat theater in the small town of Newton, New Jersey. That's up in the northwest corner of the state, and I expect that even people who grew up in New Jersey -- like me -- generally have no idea where it is. The theater was built in the 1920s and has gone in and out of operation, most recently re-opening as a concert venue in late 2011. Last night Graham Parker and the Original Rumour appeared at the completely sold-out theater, playing a non-nonsense mix of songs originally recorded with The Rumour, post-Rumour songs, as well as most of Parker's newest album, Three Chords Good. Parker certainly knew where he was: as I heard one amused fan saying it on a bathroom run just prior to the show starting, "we're in bumblefuck New Jersey!" But if Parker is, as my brother described, "the best rocker no one's heard of," the Newton Theate...