Full disclosure, I’m a Springsteen fanatic. He’s an icon in my life, and the good he does for the poor is example of how the man walks the talk. Today in Philly he played at a voter registration rally for Obama and played a very nice acoustic set including Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?, an old favorite of mine.
He made a speech today which inspired me to have hope. Yes hope. The point that stuck out in my mind was when he said over his 35 year career, (which I have been following for 30 of them), he’s focused on the expanse between the American promise and the reality of American life. Now that expanse has gotten much wider. He said he believes that with Obama’s life and his work, that Obama understands what that expanse is about and he’s throwing his support behind him to help fix it. He also called on everyone else to lend a hand too.
Celebrity endorsements mean zilch to me. I’m not fan of the celebrity culture, and one of the reasons I respect Bruce is that he’s never bought into it. His body of creative work focuses on the struggle of the middle class, has a keen perspective on it and passionately works to help feed the poor. His music is his soul, and he doesn’t use it to endorse products. I think his strong statement today to use his music to endorse Obama is for me, one that give me hope.
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w00T!
Thanks Ellie.
I stopped by a vendor’s table, and this woman wanted to buy a button to wear to church, and they were 1 for $5, or 3 for $10 and all she had with her was $2 . She said the magic words “They’re all for Palin” and I said “Well let me buy you one so you could wear it to church and maybe insult them.”
Perhaps I should’ve asked where the church was and showed up in my Born to Run t-shirt.
Millineryman, nice to see you writing here!
Thanks egregious! I’m very excited by the opportunity to do so. I hope to write more.
I am so psyched about the Springstein Jeol concert idea.
Thanks for your diary, I had almost forgotten about the show
You’re welcome, I updated it with a video link.
I may never take my tee shirt off.
Thanks for the report! I love field reports, and Bruce.
Recommended
I had to endure Bob Casey and Ed Rendell making speeches but you do what have to you know.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Millineryman totally rocks.
well, the things we have to do…
with Rick DeVille
spalted maple.
What’s funny is the whole time I was practicing in your living room while you and SadieSue were chatting, the phrase “somewhere in the swamps of Jersey” kept crossing my mind. Yes, I know your area isn’t swampy, but there are a heckuva lot of marshes. And I had a guitar in my hands.
Little did you know there was boxed set of Bruce and EStreet band live in the living room next to the couch.
You were channeling him.
And the boxed set is vinyl.
Millineryman and Bruuuuuuce…what’s not to like?
Great post MM, congrats to you!
I’ve been voting in presidential elections since Carter, when I was first eligible. But this year is the first year I’ve ever donated money to someone’s campaign. It sure as hell wasn’t to get a t-shirt, but the campaign said they’ll send one, which is cool. We’ve got a big outdoor gig two weeks before the election. I figure that would be a good time to wear it.
I’ll be wearing my Obama sweatshirt all day long on Election Day.
Thanks for the first hand report! Los Angeles suburbs got Sarah Palin in the Home Depot Tennis Arena–and it rained!
Goodnight, everyone.
MM, thanks so much for this post. Encouraging words.
Hey, MM. Glad you had a good time.
Didja wear a good hat? (still love mine)
Thanks for sharing brother, Bruce gives us all hope.
Love Bruce! My long time friends and I went and saw him at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass along with 50,000 and it was the best concert of our lifetime!
http://whitenoiseinsanity.word…..orough-ma/
Hey Jane,
HA! Yes I did. It was a baseball cap that I got from the Salvatore Dali show here in Philly a few years ago. It’s black with a single eye on the front. Glad to hear you still love yours.
It wasn’t that bad, was it? Was there a lot of Brooooccccceeeee!! during Rendell and Casey’s speeches?
No the crowd was very polite to both of them. Rendell is popular with the locals. If nothing else, he’s a good cheerleader. Casey on the other hand was brief.
Everyone was having fun. There was definite upbeat vibe.
I’ll second that. Great to see your diary, MM.
Hey, Millinery Man, did you meet up with Booman? He went to the concert…
So, are we going to send Bruce the thread that explains what a corporate sellout Obama is and how he is actually going to make racism worse?
Obama buttons are cropping up in Montréal. Saw two today, one yesterday.
Who’s we, babe? You always amuse me.
To a new day. May it work! For everyone!
This place makes me nuts!
O/T but very important. There was a picture that was linked to on Jane’s post downstairs of Piper Palin giving a one-finger salute.
That photo IS PHOTOSHOPPED. Please everyone – do not link to it or use it to criticize or make fun of Piper or her family. AKW at Mudflats debunked it yesterday and pulled it off his site. The original has Piper with 2 fingers up in a ‘V’.
We don’t want to get down into the bucket of sewage of the Rethug party now do we!
Thanks!
No I didn’t. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him.
Nice to see a star giving back. One of the things I like about Springsteen, Mellencamp, and Willie.
Thanks M Man!
Has everyone looked up “maverick?”
A maverick, named for a weirdo early settler, is an un-branded calf, usually motherless. In early times the first to brand such a critter owned him or her, regardless of any other claim.
And, that’s John and Sarah, unbranded calves ready to “MOOOOOO!!!!” for whoever hits them with a hot brand.
Don’t yah just think those 10 to 20 top lobbiests at John’s top leadership circle haven’t hit both Sarah and John with a HOT ONE!!!
I’d be interested in two things…
1.) Exactly where they hit Sarah with that brand! And,
2.) Reading more about the true meaning of “mavericks” and who John is in the tank to.
Sorry, clarity – a commenter on Jane’s post linked to the offending picture.
Booman was equally impressed with Bruce…!
You really think Jane didn’t know (or at least consider) it’s a photoshop job?
The Maverick family is still going on and are furious at McC for using their name. Read that today some where. They are liberal Dems.
Ah.. that is a big difference…)
My pleasure TexBetsy. In and of itself was a great experience, and having the opportunity to share with my fellow firepups makes that much sweeter.
I always think of the cheap car that Ford built in the 70’s.
Thanks for the first hand report! Los Angeles suburbs got Sarah Palin in the Home Depot Tennis Arena–and it rained!
I would LOL but Obama is scheduled to be here Wednesday, and the forecast calls for….
crap.
I was just really concerned because half the following comments on the thread had to do with that picture and we really don’t need to be pushing crap like that. I had been rushing to try and catch up to the current thread – having a hard time as usual! – and was not really clear what I wrote.
The poster insisted that it was not photoshopped – so I was really trying to catch everyone.
Hey, MM, sounds like you were in pig heaven!
That’s okay – Obama has done rallies in the rain before! He just stands there with the rain pouring down – no umbrella – and acts like it isn’t happening! And everyone else stays there in the rain to listen anyway!!
Missed today’s thread altogether, but had a similar discussion about that photo a few days ago.
Hey eCAHN I was.
I cut class at a community college to read Born to Run a biography that Dave Marsh wrote about Bruce in the late 70’s. It was that day that I decided to do what I wanted as far as studying at college, and ended up as an artist because of it.
I figured if an average guy from Jersery could go and do what he wanted and be successful at it, why couldn’t I.
Who You Callin’ a Maverick?
The matriarch of the Maverick family says:
Elmore says McCain has an elephant on his butt…..
this time I’m gonna find out where he gonna be – and get there *real* early. When he was here in May, it was two blocks from me. Unfortunately, the line to get in formed about ten blocks away!
There were a lot more people who *didn’t* get in than did. Never saw a line like that before – people were ordering pizza and having it delivered to them in line…..
Yeah, when he was here, mom and I decided not to even try. The tickets for the stadium were gone in one hour – and we got to watch most of his speech on the local news (who did a really good job) Our area only holds about 6800 people but there were about 3000 more people outside and they set up a bunch of TV’s out there so they could see too. He came out afterwards and walked up and down and shook hands with a bunch of them
He also demonstrated what a cool guy he is. When he was on his way inside, a little (5 or 6 year old) boy wanted him to sign his shirt. He said he would, but them left the area without doing it. After he got outside and was out there a few minutes he sent a couple of his people back inside to find the little guy and his mom and then waited for them to come out and signed the shirt.
Says he’ll do something…then makes sure he does it.
That gives me a lot of hope even in spite of the FISA thing and the bailout thing. He promised at the time of both those votes that when he gets elected he will fix them. Because of that little boy – I believe him.
1,786 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Raven and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Yeah, Brother Freebird, what was that book salon thread all about fer Christ’s sake??!! On the day the the fascist McCain campaign takes the masks off and declares allegiance with the Aryan Brotherhood, we have precious space and time given on a “progressive” blog to the Naderite crazies pushin’ the “not a dime’s worth of difference” bullshit…good Christ, and then we have these same folks sellin’ the pisswater that the “new left” was a reaction to JFK’s corporatism??!!! Lord protect us from our “friends”!
Let’s all settle in for a moment and listen ta “The Boss” bring down some scripture about how it really is here in the heartland of democracy and anus a progress…
P.S. I cleaned up my hard drive and got new updated software and now I only have this half-assed Jacuba spellchecker that won’t load…so deal with it FDLers!
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE FUCKERS ARE EVERYWHERE!!
May the sting of the hot branding iron linger on for quite awhile…!
Citizen Raven:
Your in good company…ROFLMAO!!!
Norske – I agree with you. The thing for me is the claim that a candidate ‘got’ $X from this corporation or that. It has been shown that can be a total canard. You can get $X from the bigwigs who run the corporation in maximum contributions and thousands more through their PAC’s and then more given to the National Party…
Or, you can receive a similar amount, given in small amounts of $50 or $25 from all the worker bees. But on the campaign finance reporting summary – it is treated the same. Total = total.
They are NOT the same in my book and I always want to see just ‘who’ the money came from when people make statements like that.
I am so glad you said that. I thought I had wandered into some other blog.
Yes, the book salon was something ‘else’.
I guess in a way it’s good to know what the ‘opposition’ is up to but I had to quit reading the summary. Couldn’t stomach it.
anybody here
Thanks for the post. I’ve been a Springsteen fan since 1975 and can attest that Bruce always stands up for the right causes. I knew he wouldn’t stay away from Hope.
On behalf of my fellow fans, I was glad to hear that “Casey on the other hand was brief.” I’ve got to give the Senator mad props for coming out for Obama when everyone else in PA jumped on the Hillary bandwagon, but as a speaker … he needs to get close enough to Bruce to pick up a little bit of the charisma.