And he's outside pumpin' gas.

One Springsteen fan's reaction to the Boss not playing a show in his hometown of Winnipeg:

All frustrated Winnipeggers are urged to come out on the evening of April 16th when Bruce's equipment trucks roll through town without stopping. After much consideration, we are opting NOT to forcibly stop the trucks and hijack the equipment, returning the gear only when Bruce shows up himself to get it and play a free open-air concert. We're Canadians. We're nicer than that. Rather, we will simply be venting our frustration at the equipment vehicles in a slightly less didactic way. We will egg the trucks.

He eggs because he loves! Full text of his announcement here. News coverage here.

I got to talk to Clarence Clemons last week for work. It was pretty fun. He came across as the same professional but easy-going guy he's always appeared to be in concert.

-Jeremy Mullman, on the autograph signing: "Am I the only one who finds it funny that they leave the arena in the same order they walk onto the stage?"

-Captured on film, yet again.

I have never seen pocket watches melt in the desert, but Monday night I experienced the surreal. Because suddenly in the middle of a blowing, chilly wasteland, there were guitars. They were loud and brawling to hold this stage, this scene together. Heaving down on one side of them were drums and a booming saxophone. Lifitng up on the other side and smoothing with desperation were a piano, an organ and violin. The tumult, the synesthetic stew demanded, where does it end and where does it begin again? Struggling for an answer, the guitars dripped sweat. I swear I saw it.

Somewhere on the edges of this appearance, there may have been more passive things. T-shirts and beer for sale on the horizontal rim and wealthy-containing boxes running way up the vertical. I have been told too that there were 20,000 other people in the general vicinity. I do not call such a statement a lie, but I cannot claim to have seen them. When one is the front row of a Bruce Springsteen concert, the world condenses and dramatically increases in speed. I can claim nothing for the experience except the experiencing.

Continued….

My Springsteen concert story will likely be done and up tomorrow, but for now check out these photos I took after the show last night. Hanging around paid off!

I was in the front row. At this moment, I am arguably the happiest person I know. Amazing details to come later on Tuesday.

Speaking of Jesuits, a recent Luckytown Digest had a good post about a Springsteen-fan Jesuit at Fordham University. Scroll down to the "bruce in church" e-mail to read it. There were a few interesting, 9/11-related follow-ups in the subsequent digest as well.

Speaking of September 11, some for-a-time-lost bookmarks deserve mention. First, way back in early September this year, former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky wrote a thoughtful piece for Slate about poetry and the terror attacks. The article doesn't rush to judgment, but instead arrives there after travelling through a few poems. I give Pinsky a lot of respect because he seems to understand the world both as a poet and as an average, verse-disinclined human being. Plus, I saw him dance once. (He could groove.)

For a far less poetic but more immediate look at reaction to the attacks, read this archive from Fark.com. The site's content is varied almost to the point of indescription; its community and moderators post links throughout each day to interesting news articles and Web pages. (Note to the easily offended: Some aren't appropriate but most are.)

Fark also has a comments area for each link, and that's where the archive is most amazing. Scroll through the comments, starting with the earliest one. You can almost see the streams of information passing by and tightening into history.

Thanks to my cousin Matt, I will be seeing Springsteen and the E Street Band on the second night of the new tour, the only night in DC. I am the happiest camper.

NJ politicos this week announced a campaign to draft Springsteen for senator. Today Springsteen offered a simple response: No.

I agree with the response. To the politicians: Stop bothering the man; let him make an album. To Bruce: Pleeeease, make an album.