Orel Family

1:29pm. Totality!!! Living in a mobile country. Sometimes it means that on Wednesday morning I have no definite plans, and just 5 mornings and 580 miles later, I'm sitting by a pool in a Tennessee state park, waiting for the sun to go out. All it takes is the will, a car that can get there, one old high school friend with an idea and another with an extra hotel room and  the willingness to let it be used. Oh, and a clear day, too! 11:18am. Still time until the start, but the signs are out: Don't look up without those glasses! Less than 3 months ago, I didn't even know it was coming. But I always liked the sensation of being in an eclipse. I'd even used a pinhole projector once or twice. But never a full eclipse. I wanted in. I read about the eclipse on various sites. I studied up on how to take photographs of the eclipse , and quickly decided that enjoying the show  would be the top priority. Nashville is about the closest "totality" city to our ho...

The QLine approaches the Southern terminus at Woodward and Congress On New Year's Eve I was in New York City with my family. We went to see "The Mikado" on the Hunter College campus, taking the subway to get there and getting off at a nearby subway stop along Lexington Ave. I might have been the only adult in the audience not aware that the very next day, that same station would be opening up to Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway , served by the Q Line. It was a very big deal  in New York; a line was even inserted in to "I've Got a Little List" to note the occasion. Of course, New York has dozens of subway lines, and nearly 500 subway stations . I looked it up. Detroit has... The People Mover . A 3 mile elevated one direction loop (it's currently clockwise) around parts of the downtown, a concrete eye-sore used by virtually nobody except during the annual North American International Auto Show and for Red Wings games; with the Red Wings moving...

Garry Tallent at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, MI. April 25, 2017 I confess: When I think of Garry Tallent , I am inevitably reminded of Bruce Springsteen's long-time introduction for him: "This man comes from a long line of talents: His mother was a talent! His father was a talent! His great grandfather was a great great talent!" That's Garry Tallent, sideman, Bruce's longest-term bandmate. Tuesday night, for the first time I got to see Garry step out to sing at the front mic, play lead guitar (who knew?) and lead a band. He's on tour supporting his album "Break Time", and he's pretty darn good in all of those roles. Garry has put together a first-rate 7 piece band, and he gave each band member space to take lead in spots. If you're hoping to hear a lot of Springsteen covers, forget it; there's only one in the setlist. They weren't missed; by the time of Garry's 3rd song, "Ooh La La," the show had taken off. ...

On September 2, 1995, I went with Lori and my friend Paul to the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We'd bought the "special" tickets that allowed us to tour the museum during the afternoon a few hours before the show. Well, ok, Lori and I had the tickets, and in true rock and roll form we managed to slip Paul in with us. We went downstairs to the museum, stopping first at the Chuck Berry exhibit. That was mandatory. We eventually found our way to the Springsteen exhibit. I was looking up at Garry Tallent's bass guitar when Paul blurted out, "That's Garry Fucking Tallent!"  Yes, it was a nice guitar! "That's Garry Fucking Tallent, right there!"  At which point I realized I was, in fact, standing next to Garry Fucking Tallent, under Garry Fucking Tallent's bass guitar. By this point, I knew that Garry, along with Bruce Springsteen and the rest of the E Street Band would be opening up the concert that evening by backing up Chu...

Our Maple Tree -- what's left of it after an ice storm -- bloomed. Michigan, February 22. The old saying is that, if a frog is put in to a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But if the frog is put in to a pot of cold water, and the water is heated only gradually, the frog will sit there, unaware of the danger until it is too late. The metaphor is so obvious that Al Gore used it in An Inconvenient Truth , more than a decade ago. So here we are. Te GISS data shows that, for the 3rd consecutive year, we had the warmest year since the start of record-keeping in 1880. In January, I wrote , "It took a little longer than I expected, but the final numbers for 2016 were finally posted today. As expected, 2015 is the warmest year on record. As expected, December was warm. Very warm. December is now the warmest month ever, compared to average." By the end of March, December 2015 was only the 4th warmest month ever. But I also wrote, in that piece: "...

Ten days ago we went to see "Rogue One." Ten days ago. Like way too few films in the Star Wars canon, this one had real emotion. It was imperfect, to be sure, but it seemed worth a "review" of sorts. I had stayed away from all of the formal reviews. Didn't even want to know what this movie was , let alone anyone's particular take on it. Star Wars,  after all, was the adventure film of my adolescence, the ultimate coming of age movie as I was coming of age. I didn't know a thing about Seven Samurai,  nor anything about THX 1138,  nor Lawrence Of Arabia. I had no context, and I didn't care. When that death star exploded, so did the theater. At least, the first 3 times I saw the movie. The depth of the plot wasn't such a big deal to me at age, nor the quality of the acting. Even at 15, I understood that there was a gap between Mark Hamill whining about power converters, and Oscars. But I didn't care. So when my 15-year old demanded...

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 ...