Orel Family

Just before 5pm last night, I left my office in downtown Detroit. I wasn't quite sure where I was going... But then I pointed the car south and realized, "I can be in Cleveland by 8!" And that was all I needed to cap off my birthday week. There would be friends at the show, if I could find them. Dinner? That could wait until 2am. Who cares, when the shows are this compelling? I bought a ticket on the street (another personal first) and made my way in. But not before being wanded. My new point&shoot? Busted! Ah, well, who cares, when the shows are this amazing? Finally, the lights went up. As at Madison Square Garden a week earlier, Bruce and the band came out as fully lit Marlboro Men... err... gunslingers, as the theme from The Magnificent Seven blared over the house speakers. The band tore in to "Badlands" to open the show. If there was a theme to last night's show, I'd put it at about, "rock the goddamned house down....

(It's My Birthday Too, Yeah!) This review originally appeared at http://www.backstreets.com/setlists.html Friday night, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band completed the back end of the Detroit/Buffalo two-pack. Thursday evening's show in Auburn Hills set a pretty high bar, with classics such as "Incident on 57th Street" complementing flawless versions of new songs such as "Rocky Ground." Friday's show at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo cleared the bar, with room to spare. Let's get one thing straight: These shows aren't possible. I just don't know how else to put it. Yes, as Bruce puts it in the main set's penultimate song, our bodies may betray us in the end. And, I get it: he can't promise us life everlasting. But he is delivering life, right now. He's on that hill with everything he's got. And the really good news is, he's got a lot. The E Street Band is tighter than ever. Max Weinberg ...

Bruce Springsteen’s appearance at the Palace Thursday night neatly corresponded with my 50th birthday. How nice, I told friends, for Bruce to think of me that way! OK, it wasn’t exactly my birthday, that wasn’t until the 13th. But close enough. I thought of things to make the day extra memorable, bucket list items. And one of them was to get a photo pass to a Bruce Springsteen show. I’ve taken pictures before, both when allowed – see http://ypsilantibruce.shutterfly.com/ -- and, not so much allowed – see http://mattorel.blogspot.com/2011/11/good-night-its-all-right-pittsburgh.html . The Pittsburgh show last November was traumatic, when I realized just how far I had to go as a photographer. I saw that Backstreets Magazine was getting credentials, and that occasionally old friends of mine were involved. So, as a (very occasional) Backstreets contributor, I put in an inquiry to its editor, Chris Phillips. In the meantime, Aaron, now 15, decided he likes Wrecking Ball, ...

Elianna had a writing assignment for her Hebrew class over the weekend. She produced a beautiful booklet detailing activities she loves (some of them hypothetical). She tried to write that she loves to dress in flower-girl costumes and take pictures of butterflies... but she left out a couple letters, and got a couple other letters slightly wrong. It came out as, I worship cows and roast butterflies. (As an example, the hebrew word for flower, פרח, very closely resembles -- to a native English speaker, anyway -- the word for cow, פרה). I try to avoid helping with the homework, but I made a bit of an exception this time. To the left is the back cover of the finished product; the silver glitter paper having defeated the scanner, it looks almost blue here. I haven't determined when we might have the butterfly roast.

A little more than 5 years ago, I wrote a blog piece called Global Cooking . Maybe not so much for other readers at the time, but for myself. To document a winter that essentially wasn't happening, with early January temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Using a chart from the Weather Underground website , I wrote, "Today is the 26th consecutive day of above normal temperatures here. Every day during these past 26 has had a high temperature at least 7 degrees above normal." I also noted, among that year's oddities, that I had harvested broccoli in the garden on New Year's day. 5 years before that, in 2002, when 4 consecutive mid-April days in the 80s caused the fruit trees to bloom prematurely. But a frost nearly immediately thereafter completely wiped out that year's cherry crop, and reduced the apple crop by almost 90%. None of this prepared us for 2012. Here is the weather chart for March, 2012 from the Weather Underground site. The average high temp...

I have a t-shirt I've never worn. It announces "Peace, Love and Jukes," and the dates: March 2-4, 2001. The event was Jukestock, a weekend festival of all things related to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, held at a Holiday Inn in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. Lori -- 7 months pregnant with Elianna at the time -- needed a doctor's approval to go with me. We took Aaron, just past his 4th birthday, to some of the events. I remember that, during a concert by Mark Pender's band, it was too loud for Aaron so I took him out of the concert room to the hallway... only to realize about a minute later that Pender was doing a Louis Prima routine and leading the band through the hallways -- right to where we had escaped! The highlight, of course, was Southside's concert at the hotel that Saturday night for the 300 loyal attendees. A stunning 35-song set, highlighted by "This Time Baby's Gone for Good," and a monumental version of the Springste...

Family Car For 6 days, starting last Wednesday, I had the privilege of driving a Chevrolet Volt . A lot has been written about the Volt, a vehicle that to a large extent runs on electricity. But, until recently it has been very difficult to get behind the wheel of one. First things first: I had the Volt for 6 days. During those six days, I drove 348 miles. This included my regular commute, as well as picking up and dropping off children, local errands, a night out, and so forth. In the course of my driving, I used a total of 1.74 gallons. That is not a misprint. 1.74 gallons. That comes out to exactly 200 miles per gallon. Let's say that again: 200 miles per gallon. Highlights? Oh, start with the very first song I turned on Sirius/XM Kids Place Live when I picked up Elianna the first day: They Might Be Giants, with Electric Car. I couldn't make that up if I tried. Then, there was the extreme quiet . No "car noise" while on electricity. This means...