Music Review: Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball (Part 2)

Death to My Hometown is a very politically charged piece, with very obvious allusions to the current political situation and overall climate of corporate culture. Bruce expresses anger and outrage at the corporate elites who have sucked the life out of American communities and hometowns all over, and who focus only on the profit margin, with no imagination or compassion towards anything else but the bottom line of making their bucks and netting short term profits. It is also one of the most overtly angry songs on the album, and that is reflected in the lyrics, as well:

            Now get yourself a song to ting

            And sing it 'til you're done

            Sing it hard and sing it well

            Send the robber barons straight to hell

            The greedy thieves who came around

            And ate the flesh of everything they found

            Whose crimes have gone unpunished now

            Who walk the streets as free men now

            This Depression is an unconventional love song, suggesting a sort of internal malaise from the singer, who openly relies on the love and support of his partner, as he adjusts to a grimmer new reality where his energy and strength have been sucked out, and he copes to find something positive:

            This is my confession

            I need your heart

            In this depression

            I need your heart

            You've Got It begins with an acoustic guitar to set the mood, but it turns a bit more rock as it goes along.

            Land of Hope and Dreams at first sounds like it will pick up on the gospel feel of much of the album, but quickly turns back to straight rock, with some acoustic parts mixed in. Once again, lyrically, Springsteen suggests a political statement of greater freedom in this piece, as well, although it also has a hint of almost a religious, all-forgiving kind of acceptance.

            Leave behind your sorrows

            Let this day be the last

            Tomorrow there'll be sunshine

            And all this darkness past

            Big wheels roll through fields

            Where sunlight streams

            Oh meet me in

            A land of hope and dreams

            This train….

            Carries saints and sinners

            This train…

            Carries losers and winners

            This train…

            Carries whores and gamblers

            This train….

            Carries lost souls

            I said this train….

            Dreams will not be thwarted

            This train….

            Faith will be rewarded

            Rocky Ground has a semi-gospel feel to it, as well, and is one of the slower songs on the album. Though slower, Michelle Moore's vocals really add a strong dimension to it that might otherwise by absent, while Springsteen's lyrics seem to linger in a Biblical tone throughout this song.

            We Are Alive is among my favorites of the album. It has a very different sound than the rest of the songs, which makes it stand out. Bruce uses his soto voce in this one, and addresses injustice in general. Yet, strangely, the song has an old western type of feel to it, but to good effect.  It is a very upbeat song, and seems capable of lifting my spirits when I listen to it.

            All in all, a solid album by Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, and we have come to expect nothing less! It definitely has a different feel from much of his earlier works, but this is not for the worse. Rather, like a fine wine, his music has a timeless quality and ages very well!

Concert Review: Bruce Rocks the Rock

The show opened up in somewhat odd fashion, with the house lights on, and with all of the members of the E-Street Band simply walking on stage and taking their places, with Bruce himself being the last up. He then stood before the microphone, and asked if everyone there was ready to be transformed. Later on in the show, he asked of the crowd everything that they had, and claimed that he wanted everyone to go home that night with tired legs and sore feet and aching backs and scratchy voices from singing hard all night. Those are the liberties you can afford to take, when you are "The Boss".

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, playing their first ever show at Newark's Prudential Center (often referred to as "The Rock"), opened up with a riveting version of "No Surrender", followed immediately by the opening song in the latest album, "We Take Care of Our Own".

They ripped through a fiery three hour set, electrifying those in attendance and adding one particularly special treat for fans. Marking the special occasion of the first time that they were playing at Pru Center, Springsteen announced that he would play one song for the first time in decades, much to the delight of the crowd. He then played "Bishop Danced", and loyal followers voiced their appreciation.

There was a good mix of old and new, with a rich sprinkling of songs from the recent album, "Wrecking Ball". That included the title track itself, as well as "Death to My Hometown", "Jack of All Trades", "We Take Care of Our Own", "Land of Hope and Dreams", "Shackled and Drawn", "Rocky Ground", performed with Michelle Moore, and "We Are Alive". Some of the older fan favorites were performed as well, of course, including "Badlands", "The Promised Land", "Born to Run", and "Dancing in the Dark", and the always popular "Rosalita".

Springsteen even did a great acoustic cover of "The Weight" as a tribute to late drummer Levon Helm, of "The Band".

Towards the end of the show, there was a touching tribute to late E-Street band saxophonist Clarence Clemons right in the middle of "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out". Everyone just froze in place as the music and lights yielded to a video tribute of Clemons, before the song resumed. It was the final song of the show.

As expected, the energy was high, the home crowd enthusiastic, as they not only welcomed him back home to close out this leg of the tour, but also sent him off to Europe with a bang. Bruce & the E-Street Band will be touring Europe for the next few months.

Here is the set list for the show:

1. No Surrender (with house lights up)
2. We Take Care of Our Own
3. Wrecking Ball
4. Badlands
5. Death to My Hometown
6. My City of Ruins
7. BISHOP DANCED (first time since 1973, first time ever with full band)
8. It’s Hard to Be A Saint in the City
9. Jack of All Trades
10. Candy’s Room
11. She’s the One
12. Shackled and Drawn
13. Waiting on a Sunny Day
14. The Promised Land
15. Talk to Me (Flynn McLean from BTX’s birthday sign request. Happy Birthday Flynn!)
16. Apollo Medley
17. The Rising
18. Lonesome Day
19. We Are Alive
20. Land of Hope and Dreams

21. THE WEIGHT (TAKE A LOAD OFF ANNIE) (sign request for the late Levon Helm)
22. Rocky Ground with Michelle Moore
23. Born to Run
24. Dancing in the Dark
25. Rosalita
26. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out

Album Review: Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball" Part 1

I like Bruce Springsteen, and had heard that he had come out with his new album, "Wrecking Ball". Sooner or later, I meant to get it, but there was no huge sense of urgency.

So when a friend offered me a ticket to one of Bruce's shows (tonight, May 2nd), it suddenly seemed a lot more important to get the album and get familiar with it, especially once he told me that Bruce plays a lot of songs from the new album. Once it was made clear that I would be seeing Bruce in person again, for the first time in many years, it felt like the level of determination to obtain and get acclimated with the album stepped up quite a few notches.

It is a good album. The title track is perhaps the best known of the songs, and addresses the recent trend of scrapping old and historical stadiums in favor of more modern, and far more expensive ones. Of course, these are always equipped with luxury boxes and the works, to accommodate greed, as is the trend in our country, more than any other right now. History and tradition and winning are all set aside in favor of trying to impress. Arizona builds a stadium that seems to be the wonder of the sports world for a year or two, but it leaves out one of the most important and desirable elements of southern Arizona: the abundance of sunlight. The Cowboys get a new home in the Dallas area, and it has the largest television screen in the world, purportedly.

Now, the old Giants Stadium, one of the "concrete doughnuts" that came into vogue some decades ago, is being scrapped. It housed the New York Cosmos soccer team, who famously had Pele as the star, and won many championships. The New York Giants played there, and three of the seasons while they were there ended up with the G-Men winning the Super Bowl. The Stadium played host to the World Cup in 1994, and hosted many important soccer games, including Brazil versus the World All-Stars of FIFA back in 1996.All that, and numerous huge concerts, and now, the site is part of the parking lot for the new stadium with a $1.6 price tag, at a time when people are truly suffering. Perhaps we do have our priorities screwed up, and Springsteeen gives a moving account of his perspective of this with his trademark lyrics.

"And we're burnin' down the clock
And all our little victories and glories
Have turned into parking lots"

That is just the title track, of course, but there is a whole album's worth of music here. The first track, "We Take Care of Our Own", is a patriotic one meant to rally Americans together, to remind them of how the country has pulled together for others in their time of need.

"Wherever this flag's flown
We take care of our own."

I am not sure how accurate that is or not, especially in these times, when you see the indifferent approach that millions of Americans take towards healthcare, and when someone yelling out "Let them die" in a nationally televised Republican Debate is met with laughter rather than shock or disgust. Yet it is a reminder that many Americans have indeed done their best to help others when necessary.

"Easy Money" is a more folksy type of song, with Springsteen delivering lyrics in his trademark style, as only he can. "Shackled and Drawn", by comparison, has almost a gospel feel to it at times, and follows up on Springsteen's tendency to address issues like freedom in the age of slavery and/or segregation during the days of Jim Crow. It talks of injustice, and seems to evoke a message of personal strength as an act of defiance in the face of oppression.

"Jack of All Trades" sounds almost depressing at times, yet is also done in a vintage Springsteen style lyrically. Taking the perspective of a do it all handyman, just as such handymen seem to be an extinct species. Never shy to take a political stance, Springsteen addresses politics in this one, as well.

"The banker man grows fat,
working man grows thin
It's all happened before and it'll happen again
It'll happen again, yeah they'll bet your life
I'm a jack of all trades,
Darling we'll be all right."

Book Review: "American Dervish" by Ayad Akhtar

Although I cannot pretend to have a strong working knowledge of the Koran or of the Islamic faith in general, this book seemed very good overall. It is about a young man, Hayat Shah, growing up Muslim in Michigan, who finds his faith challenged by society, by both his direct and extended family and the larger community overall, by his emerging sexual desires that seem to strange and foreign to him still, and by his strange and not altogether innocent and jealous love of a beautiful young woman who happens to come to live with the young man's family.  

Hayat is a largely immature and overly naive boy who's inflexible idealism leads him to make some bad decisions with very wide ramifications for the lives of others around him. He has a literal belief in his Islamic faith fostered by the beautiful Mina that he loves so much. She is a childhood friend of Hayat's mother, and Hayat's parents accommodate her when she makes an escape from an abusive situation with her husband in her native Pakistan . He uses the religious instruction he receives from Mina to develop his faith, but he is also troubled by the more lax faith of his parents, particularly of his scientist father. Adding to the confusion are the various levels and interpretations of faith of those around him in his community and in his life.

Nothing is really out of the ordinary for a while, but all of that changes. When his beautiful Mina begins to get serious with a Jewish man, the trouble begins. The Jewish man, Nathan, who is Hayat's father's coworker and a fellow scientist, seems to be comfortable with both his profession and his religion and is not troubled in holding onto both> Still, his involvement with Mina leads to the inevitable conflict between the two faiths, which comes into play and ultimately destroys their love, with Hayat playing a surprisingly huge role, considering his young age. They both fall into misery, and the tragedy of their doomed love leads them both to immense suffering and regret. Only the adult version of Hayat will come to understand the fuller ramifications of actions taken when still just a child.

Things do happen in this novel, and yet, most of it is simply the thoughts and psychology of a growing and bright, but still rather immature boy, who's thinking is still not quite on the adult level. Hayat makes unfortunate decisions that will haunt him for a long time, perhaps even for the rest of his life, and make the reader cringe. Of course, we all think strange thoughts at that age, but this boy takes it to another level, and his actions have very serious, and ultimately tragic, ramifications – strong enough ramifications that he tried to come to grips with the results years and years later, as a young adult himself, now.

As for the writing style, Ayad Akhtar is able to move this story along with ease, and makes the reading pleasurable. He also has the ability to make the Koran and the teachings and interpretations accessible to a Western audience that might not be all that familiar with it – which was admittedly the case with me. It is hard not to cringe at the literal interpretation of these works by a young teenager, yet the author makes this believable, to the point that it is the essential element that moves the book along. Akhtar is able to juggle some complex themes, such as a faith and various interpretations and applications by it's practitioners, as well as

For a first novel, written earlier this year and just released, this is a remarkable work, and one that promises some great things for this author in the future. I, for one, will look forward to more of his works.

Below is a link to a very good review of this work by Adam Langer, of the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/books/american-dervish-by-ayad-akhtar-review.html

The Strange Case of Michael Morton

Sometimes, the trust reads stranger than fiction.

Imagine coming home one day to find your life completely transformed, irreversibly, touched by tragedy.  Your wife has been found dead, savagely beaten to death, in the comfort of the home that the two of you shared together.

Now, imagine the police questioning you for hours and hours, and you assuming that they had their best intentions in mind. You assume that they just want to ask questions to clarify matters, and to eliminate you as a suspect. Now, imagine you sitting in a court room, as the judge announces that you have been found guilty of the murder of your wife. Imagine the first time that the cell door of the prison cell you will be spending possibly the rest of your days slams shut for that first time. The long and lonely night that follows, the period of adjustment to your new, imprisoned life. Imagine the shame of being known to the world as a convicted murderer, and imagine your spirits sinking further and further. You think things cannot be worse, and yet, they get worse. You spend over two decades in jail, and you find out that your own son has changed his last name, to have the least association with you as possible. He is ashamed of you and, sitting here on the wrong side of the prison bars, there is not a damn thing you can do about all of this! You are powerless, and the world that considers you a monster is trying their best for forget you, to bury you prematurely.

This is what actually happened to Michael Morton in real life, way back in 1987. Almost twenty five years have passed, and finally, Michael Morton's name has been cleared. It almost sounds like a Hollywood movie, doesn't it?

The day before his wife was murdered happened to have been his birthday. They went out together, had a good time. Came home. Shared some cookies. Then his wife went to sleep. He had been hoping for a happy ending, like any normal guy, and was extremely disappointed, like any guy would have been. He wrote his wife a note about it, explaining that he was not mad, but that he needed to voice his disappointment about what happened. It was these words that he wrote that largely would convict him, and force the next twenty plus years of his life to be spent locked up behind bars.

Of course, he contested it, but the prosecution laughed at him, almost literally. It had seemed like an open and shut case. The note seemed to provide the motive for the crime, and Mr. Morton was presumed guilty. He was far and away the leading suspect, and the prosecution was able to convince the jury quite easily that Michael Morton had, in fact, killed his wife.

The only thing is that it was not true, and the prosecution knew it. They conveniently left out any evidence that would cast doubt,  serious doubt, that Michael was, in fact, the murderer. They did not include the fingerprints, that did not match. They did not allow the jury to know about the account of a neighbor, who had seen a suspicious individual driving around the house, hovering, acing, waiting. They also ignored a bloody bandana found nearby that would have showed that the husband was not apparently involved. It had his wife Christine's blood and hair on it, but since it was not found on property, the police dismissed it. A neighbor who found it turned it into the police, and that might have put the thoroughness of the investigation into question. So it was not permitted as evidence. Finally, they left out the similarities between this murder and a similar one in the area in 1988 that would suggest striking enough parallels that the same killer would be a real possibility. In fact, it has been determined to have the been the work of the same killer.

Michael Morton kept petitioning to try and get this evidence introduced into a court of law, in order to clear his name and get his freedom back. But the prosecution responded with arrogance, almost literally laughing at him, mocking him. They said they would allow this evidence to be introduced once he admitted to committing the crime. It was a paradox,. The years turned into decades.

Then, it happened. A Texas Court suddenly demanded that this "new" evidence never previously introduced now be permitted, and decades after the fact, Michael Morton's name was finally cleared of the murder.

Williamson County District Attorney James Bradley had long blocked this new evidence from being introduced, but now claims he had done so with honest intentions. He offered a rather lame apology in return for having gone a long way towards ruining this man's life for so long, as well as that of family and friends. One wonders if there is not a case to be made for prison time for the prosecution, who made a poor case by withholding evidence back in 1988 during the trial, and who steadfastly refused to introduce the new evidence, perhaps afraid of having such incompetence exposed and thrown before the public eye. It almost reads like the "Shawshank Redemption".

Michael Morton is now free, but he is staying active with the "Innocence Project", a program designed to help people in similar circumstances to him – wrongly convicted of crimes that they did not commit, and trying desperately to introduce new evidence that would clear their name back into court.

An incredible story, and unbelievable resilience under obviously difficult and trying circumstances by Mr. Morton, who's series of misfortunes are now fully recognized by the public that had once condemned and tried largely to bury the man. Now, he is the poster child for the failures of a flawed law enforcement and legal system that seem suddenly riddled with holes, even gaping holes. 

Movie Review: "The Five Year Engagement"

I had heard about this movie, having seen a preview of it, and automatically assumed it was a chick flick. That, plus the seemingly steady flow of bad reviews, made me a little hesitant to see this movie. I kind of figured that it was a movie that could be seen once it came out on DVD, either perhaps a Redbox rental, as they say, or to borrow it from a friend, if any friend would get it.

But this was actually a pretty funny movie at times, and if you do not just view it as a comedy, pure and simple, but rather as a movie on relationships (but not one that takes itself too seriously), then it is not half bad.

There is a couple that seem happy and ideal for one another, on many levels. Tom, played by Jason Segel, and Violet, played by Emily Blunt, are happily together and engaged, living in San Fransisco and, by all accounts, living a seemingly ideal life. Tom is a cook on the rise, while Violet hopes to get a teaching position at Berkeley, although she has been turned down. It hurts her, but she still seems in relatively high spirits, and manages to more or less get this failure out of her mind. Everything seems perfectly normal and they are on course for a successful relationship, but at their engagement party, Violet's sister, Suzie, played by Alison Brie, meets Tom's loser friend and coworker Alex. It does not seem promising at first, and not much is made of it, until Suzie discovers she is pregnant with Alex's baby. So, this is the first event to kind of steal the thunder from Tom and Violet, and the first of many delays en route to a very long engagement, as the title suggests. For that matter, Suzie and Alex, who seem like a true odd couple destined to fail, actually prove to be surprisingly compatible, and they make it work. For most of the movie, they seem to possess that elusive something that makes a couple work, in comparison to Tom and Violet, who for various reasons, cannot seem to make the relationship work.

The unhappy couple's fortunes take a turn for the worse when Violet actually receives some seemingly good news in the mail: she gets accepted into a university program in Michigan, and her chance at teaching like she wanted to seems to be within her reach. But that would require the couple to be separated, or for Tom to sacrifice his life, with a promising career, in San Fransisco, and to pack his bags for Michigan, which he chooses to do. It is a sacrifice that he feels he is making for love, to make the relationship work. In fact, it is a huge mistake, and Michigan becomes a nightmare for him, and the seeming undoing of once happy relationship.

The relationship is tested in various ways for the rest of the movie, and the couple ultimately has to grow farther apart and ultimately end, and for each to get involved in new relationships that leave them unhappy in ways they hardly could have expected or predicted, for both Tom and Violet to truly appreciate what they once had. Yet, the miscommunication that lingers between the two seems to prevent their outright getting back together.

The ending was a little over the top. But it is a feel good movie, and so perhaps this is to be expected. All in all, not a bad movie. That said, unless you really want to go see this, it might be better to wait until you can rent or borrow this. Not an insult to the movie, but you don't absolutely have to rush out to see this one. 

The First Round of the 2012 French Presidential Elections

So, I spoke in yesterday's blog about my personal experience last weekend in participating in the first round of this year's French Presidential election, but did not talk about the election results themselves.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the sitting President of the French Republic, received a good news/bad news kind of thing for his chances. He managed to get to the second round, but he did so by coming in second to one of his competitors in the first round – the first incumbent to place so low.

There are a variety of reasons for this, of course. The economy is bad, and people are suffering. Yes, this is not unique to France, as the economy has been more than a little sluggish seemingly the world over for a few years now. But in France, what has irritated people has been, in large part, Sarkozy's attitude and his overall personality. He is a wealthy guy, perhaps a little flashy, with a celebrity wife, and some sex scandals, and he appears to relish his fame. It is a bit similar to a few years ago in the United States, when George Bush was President, and for many people, his mannerisms and everything about him proved irksome to many people.

The man who won the first round, and who is also projected to be the winner in the second round next weekend, is François Hollande, a more or less centrist-left candidate (of the Socialist party). He is not the most exciting man, and does not exactly have an electrifying personality or presence when he gives addresses. Yet, he seems poised to become the first leftist President that France has had in seventeen years, since Francois Mitterand. It remains to be seen whether or not he will actually manage to do it, but his chances are looking promising.

The two official winners were not the only story and, in fact, perhaps not even the main story regarding this first round of the French Presidential election. Perhaps more shocking was the emergence of Marine Le Pen as an evidently serious candidate. She is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the controversial founder and long time leader of the extreme right Front National. Jean-Marie has long been a controversial, and largely discredited, presence in French politics, infamous for strange incidents, like when he declared the Holocaust to have been a detail of history. His political stance was long regarded as not just anti-immigration, but outright xenophobic and racist. Yet, in 2002, he shocked France, and indeed the world, by managing to win enough votes in the first round of the Presidential elections to be the official opposition to Chirac in the second round. He lost the general election in a landslide, yet the fact that he made it so far raised some eyebrows, especially when coupled with the success of other extreme right candidates, most notably Jörg Haider in Austria.

Now, Marine has brought a new, and perhaps seemingly friendlier, less controversial face to the Front National. Their ideas are largely the same, but the language employed is different, the rhetoric perhaps somewhat toned down. She is still the face of extreme right wing politics in France, and she spent much of the past year not only trying to build credibility to the movement she now fronts, but also to be officially recognized as a contender in the French Presidential elections. She was successful and, ultimately, garnered 18% of the vote – a record high for the party. Like her father did ten years ago, her success on the national scale has raised more than a few eyebrows, and seems to prove that she is a factor in national politics.

As such, now Sarkozy, desperate for reelection, has started to pander to this extremist wing, claiming now that they have legitimacy, and that he would, in essence, address their concerns, and listen to them. Marine responded with scorn and ridicule, while many critics to the left were shocked and appalled that Sarkozy would so transparently bend to the far right.

They are now done with almost a full week of campaigning, and there is one week left until the decisive second round now. Sarko, as he is often referred to, is getting increasingly desperate, and it remains to be seen whether his recent action will either hurt or help his chances, or whether instead, perhaps, it will hardly make any difference. Stay tuned until next weekend!