Here's a couple of really, really cool videos showcasing Nils Lofgren & his guitars. The first one talks about the one guitar of his that pretty much makes me drool every time I see it... didn't realize it was exactly my age, though! I don't even want to know how much that thing is worth. But it's absolutely gorgeous and sounds incredible. Also, this video has the "guitar-cam" on his "Ghost of Tom Joad" solo and it's just awesome to watch. Notice how much the background moves around (it makes me kind of dizzy to watch)... he spins and whirls around so much while he plays, it's crazy.


Then this second one just shows him with several of his guitars getting different sounds out of them and talking a bit about his amps too. Gee, you think if I had one of these guitars I'd sound like him? Okay, I'm thinking... probably ... NOT. :)

Hey! I have 3 poems in the new issue of diode, and it looks like a good issue overall - go check it out if you are so inclined. http://www.diodepoetry.com/

YOU GUYS.

Tonight was pretty much one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, nights of my life.

I was IN THE VERY VERY VERY FRONT ROW on the floor in the pit. Right smack dab in front of Little Steven. And smart smart me, I was wearing my Little Steven's Underground Garage tie-dye t-shirt (which I love) and he noticed and gave me several big smiles, and at the end of the show (before they came back for encores) he gave me a guitar pick, put it right in my happy little hand. He gave someone else one and noticed me looking at him hopefully and nodded like "oh hell yes you're getting one, give me a second" and I now have a Little Steven guitar pick.

I was close enough to get quite a bit of "Jersey baptism" (he often soaks a sponge in water and flings the water out over the crowd) and I am pretty sure at least one flying drop of Bruce sweat hit me. (The boy sweats like you wouldn't believe, it just drips off his arms all night, really fairly disgusting, and he plays guitar so hard that it just goes flying everywhere.)

It was a very good setlist -- we got "Trapped" and "Mony Mony" (which seriously BLEW THE ROOF off the place) and "Jungleland" and, I dunno, I guess objectively speaking it wasn't as good a setlist as Nashville or St. Louis last year but people, there is no way in hell I will EVER be able to be objective about this show.

I just can't fucking believe how amazing tonight was. I didn't want it to end, ever.

Also, I got from the United Center back to the Days Inn without taking a single wrong turn even though I didn't print out the directions and had to guess based on reversing my directions for getting there (and there were a couple of one-way streets in there). Which impresses me pretty severely since I am SO not a city person and I get lost pretty easily in strange places.

Just another sign that tonight was magic. PURE MAGIC.

I'm sure I'll write more about it later. Oh, and I got some crappy cellphone pictures because I was even close enough for my no-megapixel cellphone camera to get some shots that are hopefully decent enough to enjoy.

OMFG, you guys. I was in the very front row, touching the stage, at a sold-out Springsteen show. 20,000 some people and I was in the VERY VERY FRONT OF ALL OF THEM.

I am deliriously happy!!!!!!

Discovered this one for the first time this morning. Here's my favorite little bar band, back in 2000 on the Reunion Tour in Hartford, playing a little bit of "Honky Tonk Women" before segueing into "Darlington County." Just way too much fun. And look how Bruce is all OVER the stage.

They've been playing some really random requests lately in a "Stump the Band" slot left open on the setlist - ZZ Top, the Ramones, last night in Greensboro they played "Hang On Sloopy" (!!) - so I think in St. Paul and/or Chicago I'm gonna take a sign for "Honky Tonk Women" because holy carp, man, just listen to those guitars. How much fun would a full version of that song be? Way too much fun, let me tell ya.

I haven't caught up on LJ at all and I don't even know if anyone replied to my voice post from yesterday (if it was intelligible at all!) so this is just a quick catch-up concert review post.

We really did end up with kind of a crappy spot on the floor -- about 3 deep behind the rail behind the pit -- I was on my tiptoes much of the night trying to see over people, and craning my neck a lot (ow my neck). But I could see enough to enjoy it, and of course there were the big screens to watch too. And we got a fantastic show! The sold-out crowd was one of the best crowds I've ever seen for a Bruce show -- on their feet most of the show, all the way from the floor up to the rafters, standing and cheering and I even saw big groups of people up in the nosebleed seats fist-pumping for all they were worth. The band responded in kind with an absolutely high-energy show. We got "E Street Shuffle" from a request, which made me say "OH MY FUCKING GOD!" about five times. :D We got a gorgeous, gorgeous, GORGEOUS "Racing in the Street." The last song was "Glory Days" and as that was wrapping up Bruce turned around and yelled to the band "One verse of Louie Louie!" and since they NEVER do that one (seriously, they have not done it since the early 80's and they have only done it four times ever) he spun the mic around and played it with his back to the audience so he could lead the band through it. It was utterly ragged but Louie Louie should always be ragged, y'know? It was just pure, pure fun.

Oh, and in the past few days there's been this story in the tabloids about some guy in Jersey who's suing his wife for divorce and part of the suit says his wife has been having an affair with Bruce Springsteen. Apparently nobody disputes that she & Bruce go to the same gym and know one another to talk to & were on friendly terms. But the woman's father says she was not either having an affair, and Bruce's only statement was to say that he stands by the statement he made in 2006 when there were rumors flying about him having another affair, which said that his years with Patti Scialfa have been the happiest of his life & he loves her & he loves & wants to protect his family. Anyway, I guess yesterday pretty much everyone involved has said "uh, no, I guess there wasn't an affair" -- who knows what the truth is (I'm guessing that you don't generally find the truth in the tabloids...) and who really cares. Anyway, the relevant thing is, Bruce and Patti did a lovely duet on "Tougher Than the Rest" which is not a usual part of the setlist, and I got the definite impression that song was their "up yours" to the tabloids. Bruce had a cute wry grin on his face when he sang the lines "It ain't no secret, I've been around a time or two." It was a cool moment. I like that song anyway, and was glad to hear it. Patti wasn't there for any of the Magic shows I attended last year, so I was glad to have her there last night, and glad that she got the spotlight on a couple of songs. I like her lots.

There was a young couple from Leadville, CO near us (and as it turns out they're originally from the Chicago area and the guy graduated from the same high school in Palatine that my brother-in-law graduated from, only about 35 years later) and they were having the BEST time. I have never seen anyone as radiantly happy as the young woman -- seemed like she was having the best night of her life, and it was just beautiful to see. People like that are why I love doing general admission, even when we have crappy spots and my feet hurt and my neck hurts -- it's SOOOOOOOO much better than being in seats where people tell you to sit down! I don't wanna sit down during the show, I just don't. I love the energy and friendly chaos of the floor, and chatting with the people around you.

That said, for the Chicago show I MIGHT -- stress MIGHT -- buy a "safety ticket" for a seat in case I get a crappy GA spot again. I dunno. Haven't really decided. The show is sold out right now, so it would depend on catching a drop (when they release tickets that had been held back for one reason or another) or finding somebody with a ticket for sale. I dunno. Maybe not. I did have some moments last night when I couldn't see and I had to stop craning my neck because it was hurting too much and I just stood there staring at the shoulders of the two big guys in front of me, and my energy flagged. But the good moments pretty much made up for those moments, I think... I dunno, I'll think about the safety ticket. It would mean spending $200 on a $100 show, which is utterly insane especially on my budget, but I'm so afraid it will be the last E Street Band show I ever get... dunno. Don't have to decide right now anyway.

Today we'll go to Longmont to visit my sister's stepson, his girlfriend, & their month-old baby. That should be fun. Tomorrow I leave early in the morning. Quick trip. And altogether worth it.

As I said elsewhere -- last night wasn't a once in a lifetime legendary show (I have been to one of those). But it was a great show, the kind of great show the E Street Band's reputation was built on, the kind that keeps people like me coming back. From all accounts it was the best show of the tour so far, and definitely (Bruce said this at the end of the show, too) the best crowd of the tour so far. Of course, we're only 6 shows into the tour. But still -- it was a very very good show, and a GREAT crowd.

Got a humorous whale poem up in the current issue of Sea Stories online. Check it out! I love this journal.

It's based on an actual CD which I actually own. :)

If for some reason you can't get HBO on your tv (e.g. incompetent cable company that failed to open up the signal for this event), you can watch the "We Are One" concert here:
http://www.hbo.com/weareone/

So far I'm blubbering and have serious goosebumps... and oh, here's Bruce! :D :D :D :D

Bruce: MOM! Barack and Joe are copycatting me and Steve again! Make him stop it!!!!!

That was a remarkable, remarkable speech. Wow. I mean, I seriously felt like I had to stand up to listen to that speech! I couldn't sit on my ass on the couch and watch.

This is truly one of the great moments of our lifetime.

When the networks called it at about one second past 11 pm I started shrieking and crying so loud it freaked out the cats.

President-Elect Obama and I are almost exactly the same age. When I was in the first grade, I started hanging out with an African-American (at the time the term we used was "Negro"... yes, I'm old) kid named Mayo Mitchell. He came home with me a couple of times. I didn't find out until years later that apparently There Was Talk about this being somehow inappropriate. (This was about a year after MLK's assassination.) I am grateful to my parents for making sure I never heard that at the time. Anyway, my point is this: when I was a kid, for a white kid just to be friends with a black kid was a Big Deal. And to think that now, one of those little black kids has grown up to be the President, and people of all colors and races and ethnicities are celebrating wildly.

This sure doesn't mean there is no more racism in the USA. There's a shitload of it still. But to have reached this point in my lifetime... I'm so grateful to be here to see this. I'm so proud of everyone who has worked hard to make this happen... and make no mistake, this work didn't just start a couple of years ago with Barack Obama... this is work that's been going on for decades, and a lot of people died for this to happen.

This night is nothing short of amazing. I don't have words.

I know we're putting a hell of a lot of weighty expectations on someone who's just a guy my age. He's bound to fail us now and then. I hope we forgive him when he does, because I think he has the potential to do great things. I think that with his leadership, WE have the potential to do great things.

Wow. Just ... wow.

This speech gives me serious goosebumps. This is Bruce Springsteen's speech in Cleveland at the Obama rally -- after this speech he went into "The Rising" and then introduced Senator Obama and his family. There's video below (just Springsteen's speech, not the song & no Obama).


I've spent 35 years writing about America and its people--what does it mean to be an American, what's our duties and our responsibilities, what are our reasonable expectations when we live in a free society. I really never saw myself as partisan but more as an advocate for a set of ideas: economic and social justice, America as a positive influence around the world, truth, transparency, and integrity in government, the right of every American to have a job, a living wage, to be educated in a decent school, and to a life filled with the dignity of work, promise and the sanctity of home. These are the things that make a life. These are the things that build and define a society. I think that these are the things we think of on the deepest level when we think about our freedoms. But today those freedoms have been damaged and curtailed by 8 years of a thoughtless, reckless, and morally adrift administration. But we're at the crossroads today.

I've spent most of my life as a musician measuring the distance in my music between the American Dream and the American reality. I look around today and for many Americans who are losing their jobs or their homes or seeing their retirement funds disappear or their health care, or have been abandoned in their inner cities, the distance between that dream and that reality has grown greater and more painful than ever.

I believe that Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his own work. And I believe that he understands in his heart the cost of that distance in blood and in suffering in the lives of everyday Americans. And I believe as President he'll work to bring that promise back to life and into the lives of so many of our fellow Americans who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning.

Now, in my job I travel around the world and I occasionally play to big stadiums or crowds like this, just like Senator Obama does. And I continue to find out that wherever I go, America remains a repository for people's hopes, their desires; it remains a house of dreams. And a thousand George Bushes and a thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down. That's something that only we can do, and we're not going to let that happen.

This administration will be leaving office--that's the good news. The bad news is they're going to be dumping in our laps the national tragedies of Katrina, Iraq, and our financial crisis. Our house of dreams has been abused, it's been looted, and it's been left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power, for influence, or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, strong hearts, strong minds. We need someone with Senator Obama's understanding, his temperateness, his deliberativeness, his maturity, his pragmatism, his toughness, and his faith.

But most of all it needs us. It needs you and it needs me, and he's gonna need us. 'Cause all that a nation has that keeps it from coming apart is the social contract between us, between its citizens. And whatever grace God has decided to impart to us, it resides in us, it resides in our connection with one another. In honoring the life and the hopes and the dreams of the man or the woman up the street or across town--that's where we make our small claim upon heaven.

Now in recent years, that social contract's been shredded. Look around today and you can see it shredding before our eyes. But tonight and today we are at the crossroads. We are at the crossroads, and it's been a long long long time coming.

I'm honored to be here on the same stage as Senator Obama. From the beginning, there's been something in Senator Obama that's called upon our better angels, and I suspect it's because he's had a life where he's had to so often call upon his better angels. And we're going to need all the angels we can get on the hard road ahead. So Senator Obama, help us rebuild our house, big enough for the dreams from all our citizens. 'Cause how well we accomplish this task will tell us just what it does mean to be an American in the new century, what the stakes are, and what it means to live in a free society.

So I don't know about you, but I know I want my country back, I want my dream back, I want my America back. Now is the time to stand with Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, roll up our sleeves, and come on up for the rising.

For anyone who missed Obama's half-hour infomercial tonight -- it was really very nicely done. If you didn't see it and would like to, here it is -- yes, it's thirty minutes, so pop some popcorn and settle in ;)



Honestly? I'm not one of those people who believes Obama's nothing like any other politician, thinks he's only running for office for purely unselfish reasons, can save the world, etc. He's a politician. He is in many ways a product that's being sold to us. Given the current size and state of our political system, I'm not sure it can be any other way. But man, how great would it be to have a president who didn't make my stomach hurt every time I heard his voice on my TV? I actually feel a little bit better about the world when I hear him talk about his plans. And that's something I can't say about very many politicians, especially the ones who run for President. And I really do think he means it about getting people involved -- and I think he can do it, too; I think if his campaign has proved nothing else, it has proved that. And that alone is worth a lot.

Today cnn.com's electoral-vote map moved Colorado from "tossup" to "leaning Obama" and moved Indiana from "leaning McCain" to "tossup" ... that's pretty huge right there.

Please please please let this election go the right way.

Out Loud: Three Bloomington poets

Anne Haines, Dory Lynch, and Shana Ritter will present original poems from newly released chapbooks and grant awards. Anne Haines' collection Breach was published in September by Finishing Line Press. The same press published Dory Lynch's collection Praising Invisible Birds on Oct. 29th. The Indiana Arts Commission awarded Shana Ritter a 2009 Indiana Individual Artist's Grant to examine Jewish immigrant life in New York City in the 1920s. Ritter will do library and museum research and gather family materials to create a series of new poems that will provide the immigrant's perspective through a personal voice. Both Haines and Lynch have also won Indiana Individual Artist Grants in previous years.

Free admission - beverages and food available for purchase from the cafe!

A little over four years ago, I heard some buzz about a young Senator from Chicago who was slated to give the keynote speech at the Democratic convention. Word was that he was an exceptionally good speaker, an up-and-coming sort of guy with a funny name. I thought he sounded intriguing, so I made a point of watching. He had me absolutely spellbound, moved, completely inspired. Wow, I said... I want to vote for that guy for something, someday.

Today, I did.

Barack Obama isn't perfect by any means. I don't think he (or anyone) can single-handedly save the world from everything that ails it. But I think he's the best possibility we have had for a long, long time. I think he has the potential to be a very, very good President who will make our country, and our world, a better place. I think he is intelligent, well-spoken, thoughtful, compassionate. He has a kick-ass wife, a million-watt smile, and terrific taste in music.

And less than three months from now, if all goes well, he will take the oath of office and become the President of the United States.

Holy crap, am I ever looking forward to that moment. I'm gonna cry. I just know it. :)

A song for today.

Lyrics here.

Midlife Crisis While Watching a Nature Program (Octopus marginatus)

Rob Hardy

On the one hand, look at all you've accomplished:
career, house, children, money in the bank.
Your life has taken a certain comfortable shape
and there isn't all that much you'd wish to change.
On the other hand, you will never be a marine biologist,
scanning the ocean floor with your submersible camera,
on the lookout for an octopus walking on two legs.
Your eyes will never widen behind your mask,
and you will never gesture in slow-motion
to your fellow marine biologist, the water champagning
with the excitement of your quickened breath,
because you have just seen what looks like a coconut
sauntering along the ocean floor with a purposeful stride
that makes you think of John Cleese with tentacles
and a coconut suit. No predator with a taste for sushi
will go after a coconut rolling along with the current,
water-logged terrestrial junk, not worth a second glance.
But your human heart goes out to the octopus:
no bones, no spine, nothing but head and feet,
and a brain devoted entirely to escaping notice—
little sea-nerd on rubbery legs, pretending to be tough.
You admire something so soft and determined,
so adaptable. How wonderful not to mind
how ridiculous you look, to be self-contained
like an octopus. How much harder for humans
to adapt. Especially now, when we are who we are,
when we will never be marine biologists looking
in astonishment at the octopus disguised as a coconut—
when we can only look out the window at the boat
our middle-aged neighbor suddenly brought home
when his wife had left him and his children had all grown up.

( From Red Cedar Review, 41.1, 2006)

Just a reminder to anyone who might have thought "oh, I want to do that" and then hasn't gotten around to it: there's only a couple weeks left to pre-order my chapbook from Finishing Line Press and get free shipping! Deadline is July 25th.

It's going to be a nice little chapbook. Of course, I'm extremely biased. :)

You can read blurbs and sample poems and stuff right over thisaway. There's also a link there to the ordering page. Or, just go over to the Finishing Line Press website, click on New Releases & Forthcoming, and scroll down -- they're in alpha order by author's last name.

They've sold 67 copies so far, which is pretty cool! If I make it to 100 pre-publication sales, I'll get extra author copies.

Okay, enough shameless self-promotion for now. :)

Longest Wimbledon final in history. Also the first to end after 9 pm London time (it gets dark by 9:30). Two rain delays. At least a half-dozen points that made me shout out "NO FUCKING WAY YOU DID NOT JUST MAKE THAT."

And John McEnroe, in the post-match interview, saying to Roger Federer, "Give me a hug. Just... thanks, man." McEnroe said it was the best match he's ever seen, and he's seen a couple of good ones.

To quote aforementioned Mr. McEnroe, "Unbelievable match." And that's an understatement.