A Brand New Day

Closing Guantanamo Bay by executive order is a nice start to things! Now, let's see something on the domestic level regarding electronic wiretapping or even on Iraq. Also classy to see wage freezes for $100,000+ salaries among White House employees. I wore a tiny Obama pin on the reverse of my presidents tie today to commemorate the great inauguration and start. Euphoria across campus among both most students and faculty. Surprising, as the majority of people, adults and students, consider themselves as conservative or Republican.

January 27th is the next great day as it is the release of Bruce's latest record, "Working On A Dream". I'm anticipating this new batch of songs but honestly, with great nervousness, as the record's already been released to hardcore fans to mixed results. Rolling Stone gave it five out of five! Wired, I believe, gave it a solid 4/5. We'll see. If anything, it'll be a rush to throw on new Bruce and eagerly await the new tour this summer. Supposedly, "Outlaw Pete" is an eight-minute banger about Mr. Seeger himself. I haven't really liked the title cut and the second Single, Brand New Day but the third single, whose title eludes me at this moment, sounded really promising. Even if it's not Darkness On the Edge of Town, it's the E Street Band playing together.

I'm finishing two books at this moment, one inspiring the other. My mother-in-law gave me David McCullough's book on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge which is just a treasure of a read. I'm only twenty pages from its completion and have enjoyed the science behind the bridge's construction the most. With that is a re-read of Doctorow's "Ragtime", historical fiction from roughly the same era. I read this one two years ago and wanted to revisit the waning years of the Progressive Era. Always a treat. Not sure what's next on the docket, though Billy Bathgate and The Sun Also Rises call. I finally read "Cannery Row" over the last couple of months and God bless John Steinbeck; his vignettes of fictional people create such the mood and setting that I will find those people next month as I take some students to the Steinbeck Center as well as the famed beachfront.

Off to bed. It's late and my brood wakes early. The children sprout like weeds and continue to amaze me every single day. Such different personalities and such love from each of the three. Living proof, man, living proof.