They Just Fade Away

The story I'm about to tell you isn't the sort of story I generally tell. Most of the encounters I talk about on Facebook are of the humorous or unusual variety; attempts to take snapshots of peculiar encounters. However, the story I'm about to relay is a story of romance, nostalgia, heartbreak and regret. It's a bit messy, because I've tried to preserve this story as it was told to me without grammatical or structural embellishment. I have left out specific names, however.

I spent a large portion of this morning in conversation with a 92-year-old World War II Veteran. He called the station and asked for me by name. He told me he just wanted someone to talk to. I asked why he had asked for me specifically, and he told me that he had heard me on a few programs and that I sounded like, "a pretty nice guy." He had a story he wanted to tell me.

"I was in the army in World War II," he said, "I never did see any action, but I suppose that's a good thing. I would have been ashamed if I hadn't at least been ready to fight, though. I spent most of my time in the military right here in the U.S. After the war I was stationed in Alabama, and while I was there I met a beautiful girl. You know that Blueberry Hill song? The one about the guy who found his thrill on Blueberry Hill?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, that song pretty much describes everything you need to know about what happened between us. It's basically our story. Sometimes I think whoever wrote that song must have been spying on us, but I know that ain't true. Anyway, before too long she was pregnant. Now most fellas would be pretty scared if they found out their girl was pregnant. But I wasn't scared. I was in love with this girl and I was happy. She was happy, too. We were going to get married - we wanted to do it pretty quickly before anybody really knew that she was pregnant. And I thought everything was going to be just great. Unfortunately, I had a nemesis."

"A nemesis?"

"Yeah. The sergeant above me. He was the meanest S.O.B. who ever lived. He hated most everybody, but he especially hated me. He always said I wasn't man enough for the army and he would make me do all the dirty work around the base. Anyway, my captain liked me and wanted to give me a promotion, but the sergeant wouldn't go along with it. So the captain waited until the sergeant was on furlough and then he got me a promotion. When the sergeant found out about that, he was really mad. All this was before me and the girl were going to get married, you understand."

"I see."

"Well, when he found out we were going to get married, he decided he was going to get revenge on me because I got that promotion. He told me that I was being transferred immediately and that I needed to leave the next day. Now, this was on a Tuesday, and I was supposed to get married on Saturday. She had gone out of town to visit her family for the week, and she was supposed to meet me back at the base on Friday. Now, believe it or not, I didn't even know where her family lived and I didn't know how to get in touch with her. I asked the sergeant if he could give her a message and tell her where I'd gone when she got back in town so we could make new arrangements. He grumbled about it and said I was a fool for getting married, but he said he would tell her.

"Anyway, I got transferred to a base in South Carolina and I didn't hear anything from her. I was worried, but back then I didn't have a way to get in contact with her. I was worried sick for a few weeks. Finally I was able to get enough time to drive back to Alabama for a couple of days. After I did some looking around, I discovered that she was still there - but she was married to one of my buddies! I was so upset I didn't even know what to do. I went marching over to see my friend and I was all ready to get into it with him. We almost started fighting, but he explained what happened. He said that the sergeant had told the girl that I had left and that I never wanted to see her again. Then my Buddy explained that he had seen her crying and asked her what was the matter. She told him what she thought I had done to her, and he felt real bad for her. He had a crush on her when I'd been seeing her, so he offered to marry her. She took him up on the offer 'cause she wanted to be married when she had her baby.

"My friend was real nice about it and all - he said that he didn't intend to let her go now that he was married to her, but if I wanted to talk to her alone and explain the situation he wouldn't object. But I said no. I couldn't bear to see again and know that I couldn't have her. I told him that I wouldn't want to do anything to interfere with his marriage and just asked him to tell her that I wished her all the luck in the world.

"Well, after that I was just in agony for a while. I wasn't really religious then - I'm saved now, but I didn't get saved properly until a few years ago - but anyway, I was praying all the time asking God to help me forget. Then I had a stroke and it really messed me up for a while, but it definitely took my mind off the situation. I don't know if that's something that just happened or if that was God answering my prayer in some funny way. But that happened. And after a while I was able to forget all about it. I never did get married, because any time I thought about romance I thought about her, and I didn't figure it would be fair to any other girl to get married when I was still in love with another woman. So I just focused on my work and my hobbies and other things."

There was a long silence.

"I don't know what to say," I said. "That's an incredibly sad story."

"Well, it was tough for a while," he said. "But I thought I had gotten over it. That's actually the reason I wanted to tell somebody - I've been having these dreams."

"What kind of dreams?"

"Dreams about her. Almost every night now. I keep thinking about her and wondering if she's still out there somewhere. She might be gone by now - I'm 92 and she'd be in her late 80's. But I don't know why, after all these years, I've started thinking about her again. Maybe once you get towards the end of life you start thinking about all the things you missed out on. Are you married?"

"Yes," I said.

"Are you happy?"

"Very much so," I said.

"Well, that's good. If I could tell young folks one thing, it would be when you find the love of your life, you should hold onto 'em no matter what. Doesn't matter if it costs you your job or your reputation or anything; none of that stuff really matters."

We talked for a while longer, as he filled me in on some of the other chapters in his life. He talked about how long he had been listening to the radio station, and that tuning for a couple of hours each morning was a part of his daily routine. He said he felt like everyone at the station was a personal friend, even though he hadn't even spoken to most of us. I asked him if I could share his story with others.

"Oh yes, please do," he said. "If it just helps one person out there, then that'll make me happy. That'll make me feel like at least some good came out of it, you know? Because right now it just feels like there's nothing good about it at all."

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You: June 2012

Hey folks,

It's been over a month since my last post, though that isn't due to lack of writing. There are about five different semi-completed drafts waiting to be fine-tuned, finished, reconsidered or scrapped entirely. Hopefully at least a couple of those will see the light of day at some point, but in the meantime, let's move on to our monthly look at the films coming up over the course of the next month.

June 1st

"Ha! Look at David Hasselhoff satirizing his Baywatch image!"  - Something no one says anymore due to how often The Hoff has done this in recent years

I've been slowly but surely warming up to the idea of Snow White and the Huntsman, as the marketing has gotten progressively better and the buzz has been encouraging. Additionally, considering how many sarcastic reworkings of fairy tales we've gotten in the post-Shrek era, it's kinda nice to see a movie erring on the side of taking things a bit too seriously. It's only wide release opposition is Pirahna 3DD, which... yeah. Elsewhere, there's the "teenagers compete with each other in a dance competition" flick Battlefield America and a movie about stoned teenagers aptly entitled High School. Basically, that Snow White movie looks better by the minute.

June 8th

Glad to see the franchise hasn't lost its subtly witty touch.

There's probably no way that Prometheus can possibly live up to the expectations which have been placed upon it, but I'm incredibly excited about seeing Ridley Scott return to science fiction (the genre which produced his two finest films to date). For the wee ones, there's Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, though I still can't force myself to demonstrate any interest in that tedious series (and this is coming from an animation junkie who will probably watch yet another Ice Age movie in the theatre later this summer). Again, the choice is pretty obvious. In limited release, we have a diverse slate of options: the Aubrey Plaza comedy Safety Not Guaranteed, the Robert Pattinson-starring period piece Bel Ami, the Greta Gerwig comedy Lola Versus and Jane Fonda's return to theatres with Peace, Love and Misunderstanding (a sigh-inducing title if ever there was one).

June 15th

How is it possible for Paul Giamatti to look even more Paul Giamatti-ish?

The musical comedy Rock of Ages has a terrific cast, but so did Mamma Mia! and look what happened there. Also, in the wake of M:I:IV, it seems like the public might just be ready to embrace Tom Cruise again, but I'm not sure this is the path which best suits him. Adam Sandler also continues his ambitious attempt to determine just how little effort the American public is willing to tolerate with the inevitable future Razzie nominee That's My Boy. In limited release, the Ethan Hawke thriller The Woman in the Fifth is arriving (and has generated solid early reviews) alongside Lynn Shelton's indie comedy Your Sister's Sister (starring present-day indie staple Mark Duplass).

June 22nd
 

A still from Impenetrable Fog: The Movie

Fingers crossed that Brave represents a return to form for Pixar. No, Cars 2 wasn't an abominable disaster, but it was the first of their films which felt like it could have been made by any major animation studio. Honestly, the Brave trailers haven't done a lot for me, but Pixar's marketing campaigns have traditionally been pretty poor indicators of the final product's (usually impressive) quality. Its biggest competition is Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which I suspect will turn out to be one of the summer's most ill-advised experiments. It's a cute idea for about 30 seconds, but the trailers make it look like an exceptionally tedious long-form joke. I'm far more interested in the comedy/drama Seeking a Friend at the End of the World, which looks like it might actually bring some fresh ideas to an increasingly overused idea. Finally, Woody Allen delivers his annual feature with the comedy anthology To Rome with Love. Considering Allen's track record, he'll undoubtedly follow his unexpected Midnight in Paris success with a film which disappoints viewers and causes them to dismiss the prolific director for the umpteenth time.

June 29th

Eugene Levy and Tyler Perry in a playful scene from Formulaic Adventures Test Market Audiences Enjoy: The Movie

The final weekend of the month offers a blend of peculiarities, beginning with Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, a romantic comedy set within the world of male strippers. Former real-life male stripper Channing Tatum removes his shirt (and more, presumably) alongside such other frequently-shirtless actors as Alex Pettyfyr, Matthew McConaughey and Olivia Munn. If nothing else, it once again demonstrates that there's nothing Soderbergh won't try at least once. Tyler Perry delivers his latest in the form of Madea's Witness Protection (this time bringing Eugene Levy along to do yet another variation on his "square white man" routine), and Seth McFarlane takes one of the year's biggest risks by spending $100 million on Ted, a movie in which Mark Wahlberg gets into hallucinatory R-rated adventures with a stuffed bear. Good luck with that, pal. In limited release, the critically-acclaimed Beasts of the Southern Wild is finally arriving in theatres. Several folks have described it as a live-action Miyazaki flick, which sounds amazing. Also, Transformers/Star Trek/Fringe writer Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci turn their attention to robot-free drama with the Chris Pine vehicle People Like Us. Curious to see how well these two fare when dealing with more down-to-earth material.

Picks of the Month

3. Seeking a Friend at the End of the World

Starring Keira Knightley and Rick Santorum.

2. Beasts of the Southern Wild

Childlike Whimsy: The Movie

1. Prometheus

Welcome back, creepy H.R Giger-designed visual metaphors.

What are you looking forward to?

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You - May 2012

Summer movie season is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. Let's take a look at some of the big blockbusters on the horizon (along with some of the smaller movies which will be quietly pleading for your attention).

May 4th
 

Actor Tom Wilkinson, seconds before snapping into a violent rage after a nosy photographer interrupted his afternoon prayers.

Summer kicks off in grand fashion with Joss Whedon's The Avengers. Most of the Marvel movies have essentially been feature-length trailers for this star-studded spectacle, so expectations are understandably high. Happily, early buzz is quite strong and many are suggesting that Whedon has managed to keep his own distinctive voice intact. I'm looking forward to it, even if we're now on our third big-screen Bruce Banner of the 21st Century. A smart piece of counter-programming is being offered in the form of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a romantic comedy for viewers of a certain age who would much rather watch Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith wander around India than witness Iron Man and Thor punching each other. Seriously, it does look like a nice movie. And for the people who no interest in either of those, there's a movie called LOL which stars Miley Cyrus as a heartbroken teen named Lola. And the sequel will probably be called LOLA, and the trailer guy will say, "Get ready to Laugh Out Loud Again!" And I will sigh heavily.

May 11th

Because nothing says "deadly psychopath" like a pony sweater.

Tim Burton returns with Dark Shadows, a goofy updating of the moody vampire-themed soap opera. I can't exactly say that I'm excited about it, but it at least looks like a step up from Alice in Wonderland. The Danny Elfman score is enjoyable and the cast is talented. We'll see. Not much of note competing in wide release, though in limited release we'll see the lightweight Eva Mendes vehicle Girl in Progress and the hotly-debated-even-though-most-people-haven't-seen-it-yet comedy God Bless America, in which a middle-aged man and a teenage girl wander across the country murdering people who annoy them. In other words, it looks a bit like the movie an internet message board might make if internet message boards were people who made movies.

May 18th

A scene from the forthcoming epic Battleship: The Musical 

The world has already decided that Peter Berg's Battleship will not be good, and early reviews have drawn unfavorable comparisons to Michael Bay's recent work. Eeesh. Then again, Michael Bay's recent work has done quite well at the box office, so maybe Berg and John Carter star Taylor Kitsch shouldn't start crying into their beer just yet. What to Expect When You're Expecting looks terrible in an entirely different way, though that's not really a surprise: no one other than Woody Allen should be permitted to make movies based on self-help books. Sacha Baron Cohen returns to theaters with The Dictator, which is his first traditional feature. Cohen's a talented guy, though his material does a lot less for me than it does for many critics (I found Borat overrated and pretty much hated Bruno). He's subtler and funnier in his more reserved turns in Hugo and Sweeney Todd. Finally, we have the period comedy Hysteria, which stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and documents the invention of the vibrator. Expect many scenes in which elderly British actors (hey, Jonathan Pryce!) raise their eyebrows in astonishment.

May 25th
 

Because nothing says "terrifying cinema" like the letter R printed backwards.

Hey, here's Men in Black III! This probably would have been a huge hit in 2005 (y'know, instead of a full decade after the last Men in Black movie), but now? I dunno. This should be a valuable indicator of whether Smith is still an unstoppable force at the box office (some people said that Seven Pounds proved otherwise, but c'mon, no actor on planet earth could have turned Seven Pounds into a megahit). The trailer doesn't exactly look promising, but I must admit that casting Josh Brolin as young Tommy Lee Jones was a smart move. Also: where else are you going to find Michael Stuhlbarg and Lady Gaga in the same movie? Chernobyl Diaries looks like straight-to-DVD material to me, but one can rarely predict what audiences will go for when it comes to horror (remember how The Devil Inside made a killing at the box office earlier this year?). In limited release, we have Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, which I can't wait to see. Anderson's twee, formal style is easy to mock, but the sheer soulfulness of his movies is often overlooked. He's an enormously gifted director who seems to grow just a little bit more with each new effort, and this one looks like another winner.

Picks of the Month

3. Men in Black III/Dark Shadows (Because one of these has to be decent, right?)

Actor Will Smith, revisiting Men in Black II for the first time in years and realizing that it really wasn't his finest hour.

   

Actor Johnny Depp explains how he used Roseanne Barr, Count Basie, Andy Warhol and a beetle he found behind the sofa as models for his latest performance.

2. The Avengers
 

A forgotten classic returns to theatres in 3-D!

1. Moonrise Kingdom

Actor Bruce Willis, using glasses as a way of denoting that he is actually making an effort to act.

What are you looking forward to?

Back at ya later

Should I Be Concerned?

One of my co-workers - an energetic, middle-aged man who has a rather contentious relationship with technology - asked me if I could do him a favor.

"Sure," I said. "What's up?"

"Well, see, you're good with all of this equipment around here. Could you help me patch a song through to a girl's answering machine? Today's her birthday and I'd like to butter her up; make her feel good."

"Yeah, I can do that. This your new girlfriend?"

"Well... I mean, we see each other now and then. You know how it is."

"I see. So what's the song you're looking for?"

"Well, that's the other thing I need your help with," he says. "It's this birthday song... all about birthdays..."

"I assume you're not talking about the usual birthday song..."

"No, no, no, it's this other birthday song from back in the day."

"Is it the Beatles song?"

"No, not that one. It's a guy singing to his little girlfriend - something about teenagers, sweet sixteen, happy birthday..."

"Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen?"

"Yeah! Who did that one."

"Neil Sedaka, I think," I replied, quickly turning to Google to confirm my suspicions. "Yeah, Neil Sedaka."

"Yeah, so that's what I wanna play for her."

"Okay. I hope it's not actually her 16th birthday?"

"I'm not sure which birthday it is. She lives on her own in Atlanta, though, so she's old enough. She made me some cake on my birthday, too, and that's definitely a grown woman thing to do."

"Your evidence seems pretty unshakable."

"Oh, that reminds me - when you dial the number for me, be sure to press *67 so nobody can look at her phone and see who's been calling."

Back at ya later

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You - April 2012

April is generally an intriguing month, as studios push out products they actually have some faith in but which probably wouldn't survive against the heavy May/June/July competition. Let's take a look at what we're getting.

April 6th

"Did you ever think this series would be, like, our legacy?"

In recent years, the American Pie franchise has grown irrelevant. The former pop culture phenomenon has devolved into a series of increasingly miserable-looking straight-to-DVD affairs marketed towards easily-amused jocks without internet access. Still, that's not going to stop anyone from attempting to recapture the old magic (?) with American Reunion, which reunites the original cast and provides them with undoubtedly contrived reasons to behave badly. The only other wide release it will compete against is the re-release of Titanic (in 3D, natch), and I wouldn't be surprised if the latter ends up sinking* the former.

*I apologize.

April 13th

Curb your enthusiasm. Seriously.

I keep hearing good things about the horror/thriller Cabin in the Woods, and I keep being informed that the less you know, the better the film will be. I know very little about it, aside from the fact that it was penned by Joss Whedon and reportedly features a cabin in an area filled with trees. Speaking of horror, the Farrelly Brothers are bringing The Three Stooges back to life. The terrible trailers combined with Peter and Bobby's weak track record in recent years have thoroughly scared me away. Lockout looks like a decent slice of genre fun, though its producers can't seem to figure out whether it's "Taken in space!" or "Escape From New York in space!" Either way, it's definitely recycled material. In space. Finally, T.D. Jakes follows up his cinematic version of Woman, Thou Art Loosed with a sequel awkwardly entitled Woman, Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day. I hear it's a combination of Taken and Why Did I Get Married, but it's probably less fun than that description makes it sound.

April 20th

"Are you sure people are gonna believe that I drive a pickup truck filled with bags of fertilizer?"

The Lucky One is a Nicholas Sparks adaptation which stars Zac Efron. Odds are that sentence either fills you will unspeakable joy or makes you physically ill. We also get an adaptation of Steve Harvey's relationship book Think Like a Man (advice I've found helpful on multiple occasions), though it has a metatextual twist: it seems the male characters get upset because they've discovered that the female characters have been using the advice in Harvey's book against them. No word on whether Steve Harvey plays himself, but it seems that Ron Artest does. Remarkably, we also get two competing nature documentaries, both of which will undoubtedly remind us that A) animals are adorable, B) are just like us and C) do the darndest things. You can either check out Chimpanzee (narrated by Tim Allen) or To the Arctic 3D (narrated by Meryl Streep).

April 27th

"While I nodded, nearly napping/they placed me in these period trappings."

First up, we have the romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement. It's another collaboration between director Nicholas Stoller and actor Jason Segal, who made me laugh with both their surprisingly enjoyable Forgetting Sarah Marshall and their screenplay for The Muppets. On the more dramatic side of things, we have V for Vendetta helmer James McTeigue delivering the From Hell-on-Steroids thriller The Raven (which amusingly features the increasingly droopy-eyed John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe). The Pirates! Band of Misfits doesn't have a great trailer, but Aardman Animation has a strong track record. Whether it's good or bad, it will be absent one mildly amusing leprosy joke. Finally, Jason Statham's latest installment in his Film-of-the-Month club is Safe, which involve the Russian mafia, a kidnapped Chinese girl, corrupt New York mobsters and other elements which blatantly appeal to specific markets around the globe.

Honestly, another weak-looking month. I'm not one who regards blockbuster season as the highlight of my cinematic year, but summer 2012 can't get here quickly enough.

Picks of the month:

3. The Five Year Engagement

That moment when a roaster finally crosses the line and no one else notices.

2. Lockout

"But seriously, my favorite weapon is sarcasm."

1. Cabin in the Woods

A strong indication that the film will deliver what it promises.

 What say you, folks?

An Evening with The Boss

Though I've been a music lover all my life, I've never really been a concert-goer. My general dislike of loud, crowded spaces has consistently overwhelmed my desire to see certain individuals perform live. Sure, I've been to Atlanta Symphony Orchestra events on a number of occasions (and enjoyed them a great deal), but that's a very contained environment where everyone sits, listens and behaves themselves. However, for a variety of reasons, I figured it was finally time to confront my inhibitions and dive into a full-blown rock concert. But where to start?

There were a number of options on the table which interested me. Radiohead was in town recently, and there's no telling how long it might be before they're back in the area. Elton John was playing in Augusta, but the drive was long, the concert conflicted with my work schedule and ticket prices were at least twice as high as everything else. After taking a look at the assorted options, the best choice revealed itself pretty quickly: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I own nearly every Springsteen album and love the music ("Born to Run" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town" would both make a list of my favorite albums of all time), knew that Springsteen and the E Street members were still going incredibly strong as musicians and knew that their live show was held in very high esteem. There was no way that couldn't be a blast, right?

My wife and I arrived early - approximately two hours before the concert was supposed to start. Turns out that was probably too early, since we were in reserved seats and the doors didn't even open until an hour before the concert. Still, I was eager to be on the safe side. Alas, the only unpleasant part of the evening was waiting in line, as the gentleman in front of me was a surly, irritating fellow who kept turning around and blowing cigarette smoke in my face. After we got inside, I was alarmed to discover that this same gentlemen was sitting in my section. Fortunately, he was several rows back and would be too far away to cause me any additional grief.

The concert was supposed to begin at 7:30, but it was clear that wasn't going to happen. Assorted members of the stage crew fiddled with instruments, adjusted lights, climbed ladders and moved music stands as a selection of amiable golden oldies quietly wafted through the room. This continued at 7:40, and 7:50, and 8:00. Every now and then, the lights would start to go dim and the crowd would murmur with excitement for a moment before realizing that it was just another lighting test. Finally, around 8:05, the lights went down completely, and James Brown's "I Feel Good" started blasting from the speakers. The music was so loud that I could feel the ground tremble beneath my feet... or maybe that was just my own excitement for the show to begin.

After Mr. Brown's legendary tune was finished, Springsteen sauntered to center stage and provided his own tongue-in-cheek introduction, including a proud declaration of the fact that, "his new record has been number one on the charts for four straight days!" Without further ado, the band launched into a furiously energetic quartet of songs both outraged and outrageously catchy: the new tunes "We Take of Our Own", "Wrecking Ball" and "Death to My Hometown", with the classic "Badlands" sandwiched in-between. I thought the James Brown intro was loud, but that was soothing in contrast to the live performance - it was deafening, but it only sounded muddy for the first minute or so, as I adjusted to listening with shattered eardrums. After a short while, it was as if I had been listening to music at that volume all my life.

On his previous tour, Springsteen didn't play many songs from the album he was promoting at the time (the tuneful, upbeat "Working on a Dream"), opting instead to focus on older material and audience requests. This time around, he played nearly everything from the new album. I've been listening to "Wrecking Ball" quite a bit in the days since its release, and I like it quite a bit, but it quickly became obvious why Springsteen was placing such an emphasis on the new material this time around: these songs were meant to be heard live. They have a rowdy, infectious quality which encourages audience participation, sing-a-long choruses and massive orchestration which was meant to fill an arena. There are fleeting moments in which the album versions of the songs tentatively incorporate some run-of-the-mill adult contemporary effects (light drum loops, echo effects, etc.). These moments aren't terrible, but they often feel like an uncomfortable attempt to pull sprawling, rambunctious tunes into a more intimate setting. Live, the tunes are thunderous and instantly memorable. It's no wonder that the crowd responded with as much enthusiasm to the new material as they did to a handful of Springsteen's greatest hits.

"Wrecking Ball" has a very specific narrative arc, starting with bleak, angry tunes and slowly working its way towards optimism and hope. It's one of Springsteen's most blatantly political albums (a good deal of it was inspired by Occupy Wall Street, though Springsteen makes his points with more directness and elegance than many of the protesters), and also one of his most blatantly spiritual (references to God and Jesus abound, and the album's final section relies heavily on gospel influences). The concert as a whole offered a similar (albeit larger) arc, and touched on similar themes. While Springsteen kept his well-known political beliefs contained to the lyrics of his music and a passing comment on the economic crisis before playing "Jack of All Trades," he occasionally adopted the raspy tones of an old-fashioned evangelist during some sequences. "We're here to wake you, to shake you and to take you to higher ground!" he crowed while introducing the band.

Despite the weighty themes at work in many of the songs, Springsteen never seemed inflated with a sense of his own importance. Above all, he seemed interested in ensuring that the audience had a good time. After all, they had spent their hard-earned money to escape the troubles of the world, not to wallow in them. Early on, he vowed that everyone would get their money's worth: "We're gonna leave you with your hands tired, your feet tired, your voice tired and your sexual organs stimulated!" he joked. And he more or less lived up to his word, proceeding to deliver over two and a half hours of enthralling music.

After his thunderstorm of an opening section, Springsteen proceeded through more eclectic territory - the moving "My City of Ruins" (from his 2002 album "The Rising", which was also featured prominently throughout the evening - appropriate, given that its exploration of a nation's attempt to heal in the wake of 9/11 fits nicely with his new album's exploration of a nation's attempt to heal in the wake of economic collapse), the wildly entertaining "E Street Shuffle", the moving ballad "Jack of All Trades", the rough-n-tumble obscurity "Seeds" and the stomping "Easy Money."

Catchy as it may have been, the front half of the show was loaded with darker material. It was a good time for a breather. The audience received precisely that in the form of the chipper "Waiting on a Sunny Day" (in which Springsteen did a great deal of back-and-forth with the audience and even allowed a female audience member to sing a few lines), followed by a dazzling performance of "The Promised Land." Things then took an unexpected turn as Springsteen decided to take a musical trip to Motown - after all, he had a brass section with him. He began by rattling off a cheerfully corny speech about the education the music gave him during his youth: "We got geography from The Drifters, who told us where the #$&! Broadway was. We got math from Wilson Pickett, who told us that 99 1/2 won't ever do. And we got sex education from Marvin Gaye!" Bruce and the band then proceeded to deliver a soulful take on The Temptations' "The Way You Do The Things You Do" and a wildly enjoyable cover of Wilson Pickett's "634-5789" (during which Springsteen went crowd-surfing).

The concert then proceeded to its final "official" segment, which offered an increasingly hopeful series of tunes. "Shackled and Drawn" was yet another "Wrecking Ball" tune which killed in its live incarnation, and the one-two punch of "Lonesome Day" and "The Rising" was enormously moving. "We Are Alive" played like the world's greatest campfire song; an affirmation of the human spirit delivered with hushed excitement. Finally, Springsteen tore into the great "Thunder Road," which was as spectacular as ever.

These days, an encore isn't really an encore, but the encore portion was thrilling nonetheless. In fact, the final six tunes may well have been the highlight of the entire concert. Springsteen provided the entire crowd with a magnificent Sunday evening service with the pairing of two new songs: the tender "Rocky Ground" (featuring a surprisingly touching and effective rap interlude courtesy of Michelle Moore) and the soaring "Land of Hope and Dreams." The latter in particular was such a moving experience live, and its (admittedly simplistic) chorus was awe-inspiring when accompanied by thousands of additional voices:

This train
Carries saints and sinners
This train
Carries losers and winners
This train
Carries whores and gamblers
This train
Carries lost souls
This train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This train
Faith will be rewarded
This train
Hear the steel wheels singin'
This train
Bells of freedom ringing
This train
Carries the broken-hearted
This train
Thieves and sweet souls departed
This train
Carries fools and kings
This train
All aboard

It was the performance which deviated the most thoroughly from the album version, with a new introduction, a richer arrangement, a terrific interlude featuring Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" and an extended conclusion. "Let me see your faith!" Springsteen yelped late into the song, raising his hand in the air.

From there, it was an adrenaline-filled sprint to the finish light. The lights came up and the band powered through "Born to Run" and "Dancing in the Dark," then jigged their way through the foot-stomping, hand-clapping and very Irish "American Land". By this point, everyone in the crowd had let go of their inhibitions. People who had simply politely observed were dancing, clapping and singing - sometimes rather badly - but they were dancing, clapping and singing nonetheless.

There was a bit of a shadow hanging over the evening from the beginning. It was the start of Springsteen's first tour since Clarence Clemons' death. Of course all of the members of the E Street Band are talented and essential (Max Weinberg's drum work is a remarkable thing to behold), but no supporting member shaped Springsteen's sound quite so memorably as The Big Man. Would the band be the same without him? Of course not. But the subject was addressed in simple, touching fashion early on. After introducing the members of the band, Springsteen quizzed the audience: "Are we missing anybody?" Lights came up on both Clemons' traditional spot onstage and on the organ once played by Danny Federici (who passed away in 2008). After a while, Springsteen leaned on his microphone stand and said, "All I know is that if you're here, and we're here... they're here."

Filling in for Clemons was Clarence's nephew Jake, who received an enormous amount of support from the audience on his first night. The crowd roared with approval as Jake tore through the sax solos on "Badlands", "Land of Hope and Dreams", "Thunder Road", "Born to Run" and others. The evening concluded with a tremendous performance of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out." When Springsteen arrived at the song's passing reference to Clemons ("When the change was made uptown / and the big man joined the band..."), he paused, allowing the crowd to clap, shout and express their love for Clemons for nearly two minutes. At long last, he and the band dove back in, finished the song, thanked the good folks of Atlanta for being so supportive and enthusiastic on their opening night and departed.

Rebekah and I were in something of a daze as we left. We could barely hear ourselves speak, or even think. The reaction from the crowd was unanimous: we had all just seen something incredibly special, and despite the show's considerable length, it was over far too soon. Any concerns I had about being stuck in the midst of a rowdy crowd had been obliterated; once the music started, nothing else mattered. I don't know how much longer these guys will be touring - Springsteen is 62, though he performs with the reckless energy of a 25-year-old - but if you get a chance to see them, don't pass it up. Thanks for an experience I'll never forget, Bruce.

Back at ya later

A Few Thoughts on the Bource Backlash

Personally, I wouldn't have given the Academy Award for Best Original Score to Ludovic Bource's work on The Artist. However, I did quite like Bource's effort, as it's a breezy, infectious, warmly-orchestrated throwback to golden age film music which works superbly in context.

Unfortunately, it seems that some are remarkably angry about Bource's win. Not because they found his original material lacking in quality, mind you (though some certainly do), but rather because of the manner in which The Artist incorporated an iconic musical selection from Bernard Herrmann's score for Vertigo. It's doubtful that any of the folks complaining will actually read this, but I feel a need to clear up some common misconceptions for the sake of aiding those expressing misguided outrage.

1. It's not Bource's fault.

Quite a few have accused Bource of demonstrating shameless behavior by simply ripping off the Vertigo theme instead of writing original music. The decision was made by the director, not Bource. In fact, Bource actually wrote original music for the scene, which was rejected in favor of the Herrmann piece (you can actually hear Bource's fine composition for the scene on the soundtrack album).

2. The music wasn't stolen.

The piece of pre-existing music was licensed by the filmmakers and was used in entirely legal fashion. This is done in almost every movie - a song written for a Tom Waits album turns up in Domino, a piece of music from The 13th Warrior turns up in Kingdom of Heaven and the theme from Across 110th Street appears in Jackie Brown. Granted, it might have been inadvisable to use such an immediately recognizable piece of film music in this case, but The Artist doesn't violate Vertigo any more than Kill Bill violated Navajo Joe (and it certainly didn't "rape" Kim Novak's "body of work"). If the Herrmann estate didn't want the music used in the film, then they wouldn't have allowed the producers of The Artist to buy the rights to that particular selection.

3. The music wasn't re-arranged for the movie by Bource.

This is a smaller complaint, but a surprisingly common one. The music wasn't arranged by Bource. It is actually a 1993 recording of the theme conducted by Elmer Bernstein. So much of the vitriol lobbed at Bource has gone back to his alleged employment of the Vertigo theme in his score, but Bource simply had nothing to do with it.

The misplaced anger is exasperating, but not exactly surprising. Surprisingly few film critics actually bother to learn anything about what film music does or how it is created, which leads to every other critic referring to any large-scale orchestral score as sounding like a rip-off of John Williams. This also leads to artists who avoid traditional film music technique - Ry Cooder, Trent Reznor, Vangelis, A.R. Rahman, etc. - getting overpraised, simply because their music is so explicitly different from the norm that many critics can't help but recognize that it doesn't sound like everything else. In fact, the distinct nature of Bource's score is likely what earned it the Oscar win in the first place. His music is too thoughtlessly praised, too thoughtlessly condemned and not appreciated enough for what it really achieves.

Back at ya later