Orel Family

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, March 29, 2023, Detroit It wasn't so long ago that Bruce Springsteen coming to Michigan to play was pretty much an annual event. Every year from 2002 through 2009, Bruce made at least one appearance in the Great Lakes State. But after Bruce infamously forgot where he was during that 2009 show at The Palace of Auburn Hills , his appearances here have been rare. Last night's appearance with the E Street Band at Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit marked just his 2nd appearance in Michigan in the past decade, and was his first in the city of Detroit since 2005. Which is to say, it's been a moment. Things have happened. But more to the point: Springsteen & E Street Band -- the graphics for this tour can't be bothered with first names or definite articles -- were in town last night for a show, and this is what I witnessed. Smile for the camera! Ezra (and the hat) with Bruce in Detroit Just before 7:45pm the lights dimmed. I was s...

On Sunday morning I was kicking back, killing a little time flipping through whatever popped up in my twitter feed. I saw a somewhat provocative post from journalist Matt Taibbi , with a somewhat vague (to me, anyway) accusation : "The worst thing you can do, if you want people to take a vaccine, is lie about it. You don’t realize it, and these people at Stanford may not, but what they massively promoted “hesitancy.” What are we supposed to, not print this?" Taibbi has been one of Elon Musk's primary go-to people for publishing "the twitter files"; presented as an exposé of how Twitter operated prior to Musk's takeover of the platform last October. A couple days prior, Taibbi had presented episode 19 of the files , which he titled, in his typically understated approach, "The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine - Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of 'True Stories'". The thread was a whopping 45 tweets, and I stopped paying close atte...

Three time previously, I have written about how different media outlets cover an event. In May, 2018 , it was coverage of protests in Gaza after the US opened its new embassy in Jerusalem. In January, 2019 , the topic was the end of the US government shutdown. In April, 2020 , the divergence was over the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, there are several things going on, including, most prominently a major conviction in a big tax fraud case and a major Senate election. But the topic seems especially relevant now, as less than a week ago there was a brouhaha on twitter over "The Hunter Biden files," in which is was alleged that twitter had suppressed a major news story. So, without further introduction, let's see who is suppressing what, this time. Here are the "above the fold" pages, currently on the various sites. Taking the same sources as in the April 2020 post. Some of these aren't like the others. CNN:  The Senate run-off is most prominent, followed b...

April 12, 2012. I was a day away from my 50th birthday, and I was preparing to see  Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball" Tour for the first time. I got an early present from Backstreets Magazine : my first photo gig. For the first 3 songs of the show, I got to set up with the press photographers, bring professional grade equipment, and take as many photos as I wanted... so long as Backstreets got to publish them. I wrote a blog post about the experience, which I titled, appropriately enough, " The Bucket List Gets Smaller. " A few days before that show, my children both decided they wanted to go, too. On show night, while I was waiting with the other photographers to get credentials, Lori and the kids were admitted in to the arena with the other General Admission ticket holders. Springsteen came out with the E Street Band and, beyond what I could hear in the basement, the band ran through several songs including Marvin Gaye's " Can I Get a Witness ....

May 15, 2005, a nice spring Sunday afternoon. I was helping to lead my son's Cub Scout troop on a hike on a local trail network. My cell phone buzzed. "Matt, this is Bobby, I have front row on my screen. Do you want them?" YES!!! 5 hours later we were at Wolstein Center in Cleveland, in the front row, for Springsteen's performance there that night. I've never met Bobby in person. He lives a couple thousand miles away. But he was part of my community. He also had my Ticketmaster account, and when that ticket was spotted, he was me and I was on my way. After the hike was over, anyway. Other times, I bought prime tickets for friends to use, to shows I wasn't going to myself. Bruce Springsteen has never had a formal fan club or ticketing service. No Grateful Dead Ticket Service, no Ten Club, nothing like that. So, various circles of fans grouped amongst themselves. This extended from sharing "backdoor" phone numbers before internet sales became the thing...

Tickets went on sale this morning for several Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band shows for their next USA tour, starting next February. By the time of the first scheduled show at Tampa Bay's Amalie Arena on February 1st, it will have been more than 6 full years since his last US shows in September 2016. Since then, he's released an autobiography, gone on a book tour, made a western album, produced a film that was exhibited at a major film festival, played a few charity gigs, made an album with the E Street Band, sold his catalogue to the record company for a half billion dollars, had one planned E Street Band tour scuttled at the last minute due to COVID concerns, and had two stints of his one man show, "Springsteen on Broadway." Profitably busy, one might say, and now it's time to hit the road. Prices for "platinum" tickets in Tampa. Yes, those are real. Springsteen's ticketing policy has varied over the years: In 1999, for example, virtually e...

 Here is the front page of the Fox News web site, at 3 different times today. 1) 4:59pm 2) 5:27pm 3) 11:02pm