Bruce Springsteen performing on stage. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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Bruce Springsteen performing on stage. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
This past Thursday, rock n’ roll icon Bruce Springsteen gave a solo acoustic performance during a Kamala Harris rally in Georgia. He famously did the same for Barack Obama back in 2008, and has been up front and consistent about his lefty politics ever since. (more…)
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“You know how to gain a victory; you do not know how to use it.” Those are the famous words Maharbal, a commander in the Carthaginian army, told Hannibal after they had achieved a momentous success on the battlefield at Cannae. Whether or not Maharbal really did utter the admonishment does not matter. (more…)
Phil Eiger Newmann, Stew Made with Heart, 2021.
Phil Eiger Newmann, Stew Made with Heart, 2021.
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All the Fine Black Cannibals
As a young white child growing up in a 90%-white country where white characters dominated the media, it was easy for a green saplin’ such as myself to conclude that the only two races in America were Cowboys and Injuns. I was vaguely aware of the existence of black people, but you hardly ever saw them on TV or in the movies — and if you saw them at all, half of the time they were depicted as cannibals boiling their human prey in a gigantic cauldron. (more…)
Phil Eiger Newmann, Fortunate Son, 2020
Phil Eiger Newmann, Fortunate Son, 2020
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As the sickly, suicide-grey rays of a frosty autumn Sunday mornin’ in Georgia wriggle through my imitation-wood Venetian blinds, I pause to reflect how much the Hunter Biden saga reminds me of Robert Redford’s Oscar-winning 1980 dysfunctional-family drama Ordinary People, which was based on a novel by Judith Guest, whom I’m going to assume is Jewish without even bothering to check. (more…)
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Side One
When I was growing up in the ‘80s, I considered Bruce Springsteen to be a buffoon. Watching him prance around in the video for “Dancing in the Dark” at the age when you think GI Joe is where it’s at embarrassed me profoundly, and made me feel embarrassed on behalf of those around me who were mesmerized by this spectacle. (more…)
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Lights out tonight
Trouble in the heartland . . .
–“Badlands” (1978)
I was sold on Springsteen the moment I first heard the mournful wail of his harmonica as he began to sing “The River”:
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Tied closely with Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 was the song “We Take Care of Our Own” by Bruce Springsteen. The song was played throughout President Obama’s campaign, during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, and after the President’s victory speech in Chicago. Mr. Springsteen profited handsomely from this exposure, (more…)