Orel Family

It's mid-February, so I guess the New Year's greeting is a bit overdue. In recent years, I haven't written so much, but will make a short exception this year. For the rest of the New Year's greeting and the pictures, please go to http://matt.orel.ws/2007_album/.

In late 2005, I established an associates account with amazon, going primarily from my discography page. Any amazon.com sales generated by people navigating to amazon from my site generates commissions, that amazon eventually sends my way. As I noted at that time, anything that comes my way from amazon.com will be turned over to charity, on a quarterly basis, doubled by a match from me. During Q3 2007, a total of 54 items were sold by amazon off links from the site. Total commissions for the quarter were $50.35. With rounding, this quarter's donation+match is $100.00. This brings the total raised for charity since the inception of the amazon account up to exactly $1100, to 12 different charities. T The donation for Q3 is to the Melanoma Research Foundation. The Melanoma Research Foundation ( http://www.melanoma.org ) has been actively supported by Danny Federici. The foundation was mentioned on Bruce Springsteen's website when Danny recently took a leave of absence...

From Elianna Orel and family.

An upright moment. The form will improve. "How many days until I can go skiing?" Elianna has been asking that question pretty much daily, for... well, ever since she agreed to take lessons the the Winter Walden ski school. Yesterday she told the piano teacher. She tried on the boots in the den, get in to the skis. She could barely contain her excitement. But today was the day. Up early, in to the clothes, equipment to the car, for the 400 yard drive to the Middle School for the bus out to Mt. Brighton . Of course, we warned her that she would fall... a lot. Her cleass had two teachers. One is famous for wearing underwear outside his ski clothes. As he introduced himself, he told the class that if he fell, they should throw snow on him... but that they couldn't do it on purpose. Of course, 10 minutes in to the class, the other teacher was accidentally knoced down by a student; Elianna wasted no time at all. Snow from her, and then the other students,...

Lori and I took a rare night out last night, first snowstorm night of the year. She wanted to see "I'm Not There," but I just wasn't too keen on it. But then we saw that there were some "sneak preview" showings of "The Golden Compass" around the area, so we decided to catch one down in Southfield. For those familiar with the area, we were at Star Southfield, a 20-plex that's gone shockingly downhill since AMC took over there a while back. Maybe it was the snow, but it seemed nearly empty there this evening, and all the eateries and side shops in the complex have been closed save a single sad sub shop. The subs were pretty good, anyway. But on to the movie. First things first: No matter how this is promoted, "The Golden Compass" is not a good movie for young kids. We left our kids at home, and I'm glad we did. Aaron would have had a very difficult time following the plot, as especially at the beginning it's very dense...

A quick show, so a pretty quick review. The band is so tight now that they're wonderful every night, it seems. Last night's setlist certainly wasn't as exciting as Sunday night's in Cleveland, and perhaps I felt a few too many moments where Bruce was playing a role... but it's a really good role -- that of "Bruce Springsteen." The setlist highlight was "Jackson Cage," which I don't think I've ever witnessed before. It was flawless to my ears, and the transition in to "She's the One" was perfect. The low-light was "Working on the Highway." A good friend of mine tells me that song is a "girl thing." The line-up for the pit was an extraordinary sight. After 1140 wristbands for 250 pit positions in Cleveland, it was 754 wristbands for 570 pit spots yesterday. Good thing for us, we were 524/525 from the lottery winner. But that's not what made it extraordinary: what did that was that Jerry a...

In late 2005, I established an associates account with amazon, going primarily from my discography page. Any amazon.com sales generated by people navigating to amazon from my site generates commissions, that amazon eventually sends my way. As I noted at that time, anything that comes my way from amazon.com will be turned over to charity, on a quarterly basis, doubled by a match from me. All selected charities will be from the set of charities documented at my charities page. During Q2 2007, a total of 43 items were sold by amazon off links from the site. Total commissions for the quarter were $32.19. With rounding, this quarter's donation+match is $65.00. This brings the total raised for charity since the inception of the amazon account up to exactly $1000, to 11 different charities. The donation for Q2 is being made on November 7, 2007. This evening, Bruce Springsteen is appearing at an event titled Stand Up For Heroes: A Benefit for the Bob Woodruff Family Fund . To ...