This interview with Bruce Springsteen was a revelation. I’ve been aware of the thoughtful folkie current running through his more recent music (and Nebraska of course), but listening to him talk about Flannery O’Connor and the other influences on his work surprised me somehow. Take this bit, for example:
That’s what I try to accomplish at night in a show. Presenting ideas, asking questions, trying to bring people closer to characters in the songs, closer to themselves—so that they take those ideas, those questions—fundamental moral questions about the way we live and the way we behave toward one another—and then move those questions from the aesthetic into the practical, into some sort of action, whether it’s action in the community, or action in the way you treat your wife, or your kid, or speak to the guy who works with you.
Not a bad way to make a living, when you come right down to it…Bruce Springsteen, the thinking person’s rock icon? A world-class storyteller for sure. [via metascene]
A long night—getting ready to sign off and go to bed. I spent a good chunk of the weekend working, fixing a really lame search-and-replace mistake on a bunch of mockups I was working on. Note to BBEdit users: make sure you really want to grep if you have that box checked. I searched on [FTMI] to replace with [OFT] with grep turned on, and it went through all 30 of my files and replaced every instance of F, T, M, and I with [OFT]. And of course, I had set it to save all files rather than leaving them open.
Dictionary-definition hubris.
Ah well, it wasn’t a total loss. I went to see the local symphony and my dad’s barbershop chorus perform on Saturday, had a great spicy chicken sandwich (mmm…hot wing sauce) and good beer after, and slept in both days until at least 9. A pretty good weekend, heading into a short week with a road trip at the end. Not a bad setup, actually. Better get to bed and get on with it.
I’ve been feeling really restless with the site since the redesign a while back—I miss the fun feel it had. I’m also feeling ambitious about adding some things to the site (like comments), but have very little time at present to do anything about it. But don’t be surprised if you see a reappearance of the brain sometime soon.
In the meantime, I’ve got my head buried in work and learning JavaScript and planning my vacation for next weekend. Another lovely weekend in Portland…I went down last week to visit Whit and had a blast, and next week Suzie & The Deb will be gracing the Rose City with their fair presences. Off to the Saturday Market! Here’s to better weather, but I’m sure it will be a fun time regardless, especially since it’s The Deb’s & my anniversary. Not sure how to count it exactly…maybe seven years with one year off for bad behavior? I guess six will do—in any case I’m delighted at the chance for do-overs. It’s a rare blessing to have the chance to remedy past mistakes.
Given the media mergers of recent years and the overwhelming homogeneity of corporate news, I found this Bill Moyers piece a fitting reminder of the importance of the press and why the First Amendment is first. And anyone who can watch his documentary The Secret Government and still believe that Monica Lewinsky or Whitewater was the presidential scandal of the century needs to reread their Constitution. [via the ever-astute Rebecca's Pocket]