Bruce Springsteen/ The River

This Sunday morning I listened to this album. It is a treasure. All Springsteen is good but the for me from Born to Run through Nebraska was the high period. This double album was a number 1 album in 1980.

The River, the title song, is a classic. Hearing the opening chords of the harmonica in concert is a mesmerizing experience.

Point Blank and Drive All Night are two songs by Springsteen that are both haunting but unforgettable.

Hungry Heart, Fade Away, Cadillac Ranch, The Ties that Bind, Independence Day, Sherry Darling all these songs are songs we know and love.

No one is greater than Springsteen. This album is one of the reasons why.

Morning Joe

Joe Scarborough was a member of the Gingrich revolution who came to congress in 1994. A couple of years ago he had an afternoon show on CNBC when Don Imus self destructed. Soon he and Mika Brezenski were hosting this morning show that has become the place to be. With Pat Buchanon commenting from the right and Mike Barnacle from the left the two hosts work well together. Scarborough still a Republican but one who would pass no purity tests and Brezinski the daughter of Jimmy Carter's NSC head is clearly still tilting left.

What is best about this show however is that there is no line such as Fox. Joe is contrary to anything you might automatically expect. I am a moderate Democrat and for me someone like Joe is an ideal candidate. Realistic with the budget but realizing you cannot tear everything down. Recently he called Newt Gingrich shameful for his Muslim baiting comments and said it was worse as he should know better.

Interviewing Bill Clinton, and what a shame we cannot have a leader such as he, he commented on how much the country could use a leader such as he.

The show is great.

The Event

It was promised as something not to miss. As the NY Post said if Lost and 24 had a baby it would be this. An apt description. All kinds of skipping around in time, flashbacks, some mystery alluded to but not understood.

I do not know if a show can ever live up to expectation as high as they must be after this but this show rocked.

One of the best things I have watched in a long time. I am excited for next Monday

The Deer Hunter

I watched this movie this week. It was a movie that allows you have to have different opinions about it. Robert De Niro was wonderful in it. Christopher Walken was very good, a far cry from some of his less serious roles of late.

A young Meryl Streep is beautiful and subdued in her role. Reading the backstory one cannot help but center on John Cazale. After playing Frodo in the Godfather movies his place in movie lore is assured. In this movie he sealed it by despite having end stage lung cancer which had moved to his bones she chose to take this role. Meryl Streep,his fiance at the time joined him in the movie was the woman caught between Walken and De Niro.

The movie told in 4 scenes goes between Vietnam and Clairton, Pennsylvania. The main characters, all Russian Americans are all affected in some way by the war.

The movie won Best Picture and while I liked the movie that seems extreme. The Vietnam scenes, and extended scenes of forced Russian roulette were extreme then and are extreme now. Walken's character Christoper, after going AWOL gets sucked into the gambling scene in a fallen Saigon and that seems a little off from the rest of the believability of the movie.

For me however the most memorable scene is the last scene. After the funeral for Christopher the characters are having coffee around a table. Cazale, whose scenes were filmed first as he was literally at deaths door, is seated next to Streep while the characters somberly reflect on the loss of their friend. In the movie the characters did not interact much so this seating must be on purpose. As a final gesture to the real life couple who would soon be facing Cazale's death. This and this alone makes this movie memorable.

The Guitar Song by Jamey Johnson

Last year I thought this singer's song " In Color " was one of the best songs I had heard in quite sometime. Hearing alot about this album before its release: it was a double album with one side devoted to dark and one to light, that it was a real country music album, I decided to check it out.

I have listened to much of the album. At 25 songs there are still more to hear. The verdict is clear however. This is truly the best country album you will find this year, next year or perhaps until he releases another. No fluffy pop country here Johnson's voice sounds like he ate sandpaper for breakfast and his lyrics will make you feel just what he feels.

Truly a descendant of Haggard, Jennings and Jones this is a great album.

The Pillars of the Earth on Showtime

I was wrong. The first episode was a bit murky, so many different plotlines to introduce. Overall though after watching the full 8 hours I have to give this a strong rating. It was a good story, the characters were well drawn out and this was enjoyable. I think Waleren the priest was played to dastardliness in the extreme. My only question was what happened to Tom' son who was living in the monastary after Tom died.