Author: BillSaysThis

Movie: Springsteen & I

Last night TS1 and I saw this new Ridley Scott-produced Springsteen fan documentary and I was blown away. Maybe my expectations were on the low side, I was sort of expecting repetitive yammering, but director Baillie Walsh did a superb job of mixing up touching home videos and career-spanning concert videos.

If you haven’t heard about Springsteen & I, this is the basic story: A bit more than a year ago the call was put out for Springsteen fans to make short videos talking about what Bruce meant to them, with the best submissions to be used in this film. Phone cams, web cams, whatever, the important thing was what the person said.

I wanted to make one but nerves got the better of me and I punked out šŸ˜¦ Who’s sorry now, right?

If there was one negative about the choices Walsh and the producers made it was the almost complete lack of mention of any of the E Street band members. I find it hard to believe no one sent in a video that included a sentimental bit about Clarence, for instance.

Some of the stories were great, more than one had me tearing up, a bunch were funny (Philly Elvis, I’m looking at you, dude!), and only one or two were mawkish (e.g., the couple dancing).

There was even one from a long-suffering husband of a huge Bruce fan whose main request to Springsteen manager Jon Landau when the couple met him and Bruce was could he maybe shorten the epic shows. As if! I empathized with that guy since I think TS1, who probably enjoys Bruce and the band somewhat more than him, generally puts up with my devotion.

What I would have said

In three words: power, connection, endurance. (Fans were asked to include this)

Bruce came into my life in 1975 when Mike Appel, his first manager/producer, snuck an early release of Born to Run out of the studio to a few key radio stations with DJs who were already supporters. One of them was WNEW-FM, the main rock radio station in the New York City area in the ’70s, and they played the heck out of it. For me it was a revelation, even after 40 years I’m hard put to say just why. When the album was finally released and Bruce was on the cover of Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone the same week I was already ruining the vinyl by playing it constantly. For three months nothing else was on my turntable!

The second event, the one I think sealed my fandom, was a radio concert (also broadcast on WNEW-FM) from the beginning of the 1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. In those days three years between releases was an eternity but Bruce lost two years to a brutal court case to get free from Appel and then, well, he never thinks a record is done.

Anyway I remember sleeping over a buddy’s house to listen to the concert together, was a big deal since this was a Wednesday night during the school year. Springsteen still told long stories as part of the intro to songs–which I wish he still did–and the way he drew me in to his world with the stories in top of the band’s amazing rock and roll and soul music was just what my 17 year old self wanted.

Or needed. Suburban New Jersey teenage life was privileged and easy, to be sure, but not necessarily filled with excitement. The closest I guess I got was an episode three months before the concert in Asbury Park of all places.

That was it. Bill was hooked, then and forever. I remember bugging the guys at the off-campus record store two years later every week after the posters announcing The River went up. Is it here? Do you have it yet? 52 year old me remembers the excitement and passion, and seeing five of the 10 concerts they played in LA at the start and end of the tour.

That’s my story, I guess. And no mention of any E Streeters, so I guess that explains why the film was the same.

Thanks Bruce, Danny, Clarence, Roy, Steve, Garry, Max, Nils, Soozy, Patti, Vinny, David, Boom and Jon!

Luis Suarez Walks Alone

Continuing to diss the loyal fans who supported him through the eight game suspension for being a racist and 10 games for being a carnivore in public, Luis Suarez continues his public campaign for Real Madrid to come in for him. But so far the Spaniards are apparently not willing to match Liverpool’s required fee.

And new boss Carlo Ancelloti may have a different EPL star in mind though as rumor has Los Blancos lining up a record transfer fee for the player who beat Suarez out for Player of the Year, Gareth Bale. How much? Let’s say Ā£85 million, Ā£5 million more than the team paid for Ronaldo.

But even with Bale on board will Ronaldo stay? So far he hasn’t signed a contract extension and so a handful of billionaire-backed clubs are preparing bids with lots of zeros at the end. Man City, PSG, Chelsea all seem interested.

Perhaps most intriguingly there’s Monaco. The team, owned by a Russian rival of Chelsea’s Abramovich, has already spent Ā£120 million or so on three players but adding CR7 would surely be enough to take them from Ligue 2 to Champions League in one season, and not having to play in European competition this season would make him fresher for the World Cup next summer.

If he leaves Madrid, with Higuan also out the door, Bale would need someone more than Karim Benzima to partner with and then Suarez, even at Ā£40-50 million, looks much better.

Hard to see the terrific LFC fans, supportive as we’ve been the past two seasons, getting past the poor-mouthing of Luis Suarez the last few weeks.

The Difference between Obama and the Republicans

Robert Scoble recently wrote, in a comment to his G+ thread on the news blowing up around PRISM, that President Obama “hasn’t exactly been met with love and flowers by the Republicans for the past few years. Shows there still is a difference.”

Sadly I have to disagree. The President hasn’t gotten love or flowers from the GOP because he isn’t a member. If he was elected at the head of the GOP ticket, their response to his proposals would’ve been very different.

In fact we can look back to public statements by GOP Congressional leaders around 2010, they said that from their party’s perspective every single piece of legislation and appointment coming down from the White House should be dead on arrival. In other words the quality of the item being voted on was totally irrelevant.

Efforts like PRISM, and let’s remember that the Administration didn’t feel it needed any new legislation to authorize this monster, are being criticized by Republicans. But if it wasn’t PRISM, if the President had proposed a new MPG standard that treated trucks like cars or sent Secretary of State Kerry to launch a Kissinger-style shuttle diplomacy with the warring parties in Syria, the result would be no different; the GOP Congressmembers and pundits would be out in force telling us how bad this is for America.

Because how can anything proposed by the Democrats be good for America.

Happy Deck of Cards Day to Me

52 years ago today, my mother brought forth on this continent a new baby, conceived in, well, let’s not go there, dedicated to the proposition that life is wonderful and meant to be enjoyed. And so I have!

For the most part I’ve had an easy time of it, though into every life some rain must fall, and I won’t complain about the storms sent my way. Why should I, when I’ve had it better than 99% of the other people around me?

Two wonderful parents, a great sister, a loving wife and lately two of the cutest little dogs you’ll meet.

So say Happy Birthday to me and I will say thank!