Bruins In the House Sound Like Boom

Running back Johnathan Franklin of the UCLA Bruins scores a touchdown in the fourth quarter against USC
at the Rose Bowl on November 17, 2012 in Pasadena, California.

 

When the Bruins In the House It Sounds Like BOOM!

 UCLA 38 - Southern Cal 28!

UCLA linebacker Eric Kendricks blocks a punt by Southern Cal's Kris Albarado
at the Rose Bowl on November 17, 2012 in Pasadena, California.

Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z, and President BarackObama in Columbus, Ohio Watch now!

Columbus is packing the Nationwide Arena to see 
Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z, and President BarackObama! 
Watch now!



Free live streaming by Ustream

Bruce Springsteen and President Barack Obama Embrace
in Madison, Wisconsin on November 5, 2012

Yes We Will Vote for Obama on November 6, 2012

Yes We Will ~ We are Going to Write This Next Chapter Together. 
Watch this Inspiring Spot then Vote on November 6th!

Make Sure That You Have A Plan to Vote:
Are you ready to vote on Tuesday? http://vote.barackobama.com 


#Obama#YesWeWill

Springsteen and The E Street Band Close Hurricane Sandy Benefit w/ Land of Hope and Dreams

by Gregg Chadwick

 

NBC broadcast a fundraiser tonight to raise money for hurricane relief for the communities hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy. (If you are on the West Coast the event will be re-broadcast across NBC and its affiliated networks including MSNBC starting at 8pm.)
To donate, visit RedCross.org or iTunes.com/redcross; call 1-800-HELPNOW or 1-800-RED-CROSS; or text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

The telethon, Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together, was hosted by newscaster Matt Lauer and included poignant performances by Staten Island's Christina Aguilera, New Jersey's Jon Bon Jovi, and Long Island's Billy Joel, as well as Steven Tyler with members of Aerosmith, and Sting. 

 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band closed the event with a powerful rendition of Land and Hope and Dreams from his most recent album Wrecking Ball. Bruce dedicated the song: "We're gonna send this out to the people of NY and NJ, and to all those who put their lives on the line with their service this week. This is Land of Hope and Dreams." Then he and the band tore into a crisp five-and-a-half minute rock n' roll train ride across the desolated Jersey shore. A powerful performance that spoke more of rebuilding and moving on than it did of sadness and reflection.  

If you have not read my piece on this song, which I  wrote in March upon the album's release, I have re-posted it below:

Land of Hope and Dreams

(Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album - Wrecking Ball)

People get ready, there's a train a-comin'
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'
Don't need no ticket, you just thank the Lord

-Curtis Mayfield, People Get Ready

Central Railroad of New Jersey Steam 4-6-2, Jersey City, New Jersey, February 06, 1954 

My grandfather on my mother's side spent his working life as a train engineer on the Jersey Central Line. That itself sounds like a Springsteen lyric and explains part of my great love for Land of Hope and Dreams.  Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band first performed the song during the reunion tour in 1999, a live version was released on  Live in New York City in 2001 and also on The Essential Bruce Springsteen in 2003.  

The version of Land of Hope and Dreams featured on Wrecking Ball is the first studio recording of the song and poignantly includes one of the last recorded performances by E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died in June 2011. 

The inclusion of this song at this point in this album is cathartic. Up to now, hope has been yearned for in Wrecking Ball, but fear and doubt have threatened to overwhelm the lives of those living in the songs. 

The album version of the song begins with a soloist from The Victorious Gospel Choir spiritualizing an echo of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready:

Oh, Oh, Oh, This Train

The full choir joins in with banjo and organ accompaniment:

Don't you want to ride?

This train, this train, this train,

Get onboard, Get onboard, Get onboard

Gregg Chadwick
An August Dream
20"x36" oil on linen 2011

Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready was directly inspired by the Civil Rights March on Washington in August 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech which was given from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the event.

By using the metaphor of the train of salvation, Mayfield's inspiring song continues a tradition of American folk music that began with African American Spirituals referencing the Gospel Train and the Underground Railroad that was then continued by Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash.  As Juan Williams writes for NPR:

"The train that is coming in the song speaks to a chance for redemption -- the long-sought chance to rise above racism, to stand apart from despair and any desire for retaliation -- an end to the cycle of pain."

The amazing thing that speaks to the depth of Springsteen's inspiration is that we are only 30 seconds into the studio version of Land of Hope and Dreams and this much history has been evoked. 

I suggest that you put on a pair of headphones and listen to the song with the music up loud because at this point the musical train thunders in with rumbling guitar, drums, mandolin and swirling keyboards. Every time I listen to this moment in Land of Hope and Dreams, I remember a photo of me as a little kid standing next to my grandpa Desch as he guides a Jersey Central steam engine down the tracks. It was in the 1960's, but the photo is in black and white tones that give the image a timeless quality that hovers somewhere between memory and dream. 

Springsteen urges us onboard:

Grab your ticket and your suitcase

Thunder's rolling down this track

You don't know where you're goin' now

But you know you won't be back

Darlin' if you're weary

Lay your head upon my chest

We'll take what we can carry

And we'll leave the rest

Well, Big Wheels roll through fields

Where sunlight streams

Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

JMW Turner
Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway
36"x48" oil on canvas 1844
National Gallery, London

I will provide for you
And I'll stand by your side

I also think of my Dad's parents and the time we took a road trip deep into the South during the Civil Rights era. At a road stop somewhere along I95, in Georgia I think, my Grandma Chadwick saw me staring at a crude racist, epithet scrawled on a sign. She put her arm around me and said to me "Don't mind about those words. Those words aren't true. God loves everyone one of us - equally."
It was one of the first, and one of the best lessons about civil rights and equality that I have ever learned. 

As Springsteen sings:

You'll need a good companion now for

This part of the ride

Leave behind your sorrows

Let this day be the last

Well, Tomorrow there'll be sunshine

And all this darkness past

I think of the more recent past and how much I needed to hear this song when I saw Springsteen and The E Street Band on the Reunion Tour in 1999. I took BART in from San Francisco to Oakland with a copy under my arm of Eric Alterman's recently published, It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen. On the train over, I read the epilogue about a new song that Springsteen had written which was the initial live version of Land of Hope and Dreams. A relationship that I had thought was real was ending and I found myself in a place similar to the despair found in Michelle Moore's rap in Springsteen's Rocky Ground. I needed to get on board. That night in Oakland, my faith was rewarded in Land of Hope and Dreams. I was one with the crowd and the band carried us along.

Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen
from the Born to Run cover shoot
June 1975
photo by Eric Meola

The next time I heard the E Street Band play Land of Hope and Dreams, the whole country needed the spirit that Springsteen's music at its best can provide. The Rising, with its call to national unity after the horrors of the September 11 attacks had been released in July 2002 and a month later I stood close to the stage by Clarence Clemons throughout the entire concert in San Jose. I had met Clarence at a private dot com gig in San Francisco a few years before and warmly remembered the giant hug he had given me after the event. In San Jose, during the bands homage to Amadou Diallo - "American Skin", Clarence Clemons' face was streaked with tears as he intoned the refrain "41 shots". The music roared that night. The crowd around knew the words to every song and sang them as if their lives depended on it. And maybe they did? 

That August night in San Jose, the concert ended with a gospel fueled, steel engined, crowd propelling version of Land of Hope and Dreams. Now as I listen to the recorded version, with my headphones on and the music up loud, I can still see Clarence but the tears are mine as I listen to his last sax solo. 

This Train

Dreams will not be thwarted

This Train

Faith will be rewarded

This Train

Hear the steel wheels singin'

This Train

Bells of freedom ringin'

As Clarence Clemon's last recorded solo fades, Springsteen slides into Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready. As the train pulls into the final station, The Victorious Gospel Choir joins in with a musical epitaph for the Big Man.

All lyrics from Land of Hope and Dreams -  Copyright © Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)

Debris In Belmar, New Jersey After Hurrican Sandy Inscribed With Lyric From Bruce Springsteen's Song Sandy
Photo Courtesy Backstreets Magazine

To donate, visit RedCross.org or iTunes.com/redcross; call 1-800-HELPNOW or 1-800-RED-CROSS; or text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

A Perfect Storm

by Gregg Chadwick

President Barack Obama comforts Donna Vanzant today in Brigatine, New Jersey
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) 

The Megastorm Sandy roared into the Atlantic Coast on Monday night.  A thousand mile wide swath of destruction marked its path. The storm raged from the Carolinas to New England,  dumped a massive freak snowfall on West Virginia and flooded much of coastal New Jersey and New York City. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity, buildings were washed away, homes burned to the ground, and many died. But it could have been so much worse. As the night of Sandy wore on, many of us were reminded of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the feeble efforts to save the city of New Orleans. I was on twitter most of the night, communicating via 140 character messages what we knew and how to reach help. People were scared, information was spotty and at times poisoned with fake news from a now disgraced  Republican campaign manager who cruelly spread dangerous rumors of trapped emergency personnel. But arching over the discord and disinformation was the understanding that President Obama, via the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and his own personal courage, had our backs. 

Gregg Chadwick

Belle Ville

11"x11" oil on linen 2005

Private Collection Los Angeles

As Sandy raged, I thought of my painting, Belle Ville, inspired by images flooding through the media of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It struck me that this strong woman carrying her child away from the storm, could in many ways be seen as Michelle Obama. And I knew that the man who married this heroic woman would carry us as well. Today  President Obama inspected the damage that Sandy brought and determined the continuing course of action with the head of FEMA, Craig Fugate, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. President Obama spoke to the American public across from a damaged marina in Brigatine, New Jersey. Barack's words were purposeful, calming, and filled with effusive praise for those working hard to take care of the people of New Jersey, in particular Governor Christie. Those words will be noted. But what will be deeply remembered is President Obama's comforting embrace of Donna Vanzant - who lost her livelihood, the marina from which the President spoke, in the storm's wrath. Pablo Martinez Monsivais captured a stirring photograph of that moment. This is how Hurricane Sandy will be remembered. A simple image of one man helping another in need. The question is answered. We do take care of our own. 

Time Lapse Video of Hurricane Sandy Hitting New York City

Incredible time lapse video made by Richard Shepherd from stills grabbed from the New York Times webcam during Hurricane Sandy. I had the New York Times webcam on all day yesterday as well. My thoughts go out to the brave responders and all those dealing with this frightening, unprecedented storm. Climate change is real my friends. Props to President Obama, FEMA, the Coast Guard, the National Guard, and all the courageous nurses, firefighters, police officers, EMT's and union workers of all stripes who kept so many safe.

Provocative Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Creates His Own Gangnam Style Video

Provocative Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Creates His Own Gangnam Style Video

Here's Ai Weiwei's twitter announcement:

@aiww 
艾未未 Ai Weiwei

给债主的礼物。。疯转吧！！！RT @aiww: 草泥马stylehttp://t.co/OmLdJjP3 来自 @youtube

October 24, 2012 3:15 pm via weiweiweb Reply Retweet Favorite

Wear Purple Today to Show Support for LGBTQ Youth

Springsteen Performs at Ohio Rally for President Obama

Springsteen Campaigns for President Barack Obama in Ohio
 Thursday, October 18, 2012
(Complete Show on Video With Introduction by President Bill Clinton)

 1. No Surrender
2. The Promised Land
3. Obama Rally Song: Forward
 4. Youngstown
5. We Take Care Of Our Own
 6. This Land Is Your Land
7. Thunder Road

Springsteen's Poignant Words to the Crowd:


"I'm here today for Ohio, and for President Obama, and because for 30 years I've been writing about the distance between the American dream and American reality. I've been gauging that distance through a big part of my life. I've seen it from inside and outside: as a blue-collar kid from a working-class home in New Jersey — where my parents struggled, not always successfully, to make ends meet — to the Ninth Ward in New Orleans after Katrina, to meeting folks from food pantries all around the United States, working daily to help our struggling citizens through the hard times we've been suffering through.

Our vote — our vote is the one principal way we get to determine that distance in that equation. Voting matters. Elections matter. Think of the events of the last 12 years and try to convince yourself they don't. We get an individual hand in shaping the kind of America we want our kids to grow up in.

I'm a dad, I've got three kids, I'm 63... and I've lived through some galvanizing moments in American history: the Civil Rights struggle, the peace movement, times when you could feel the world shifting under your feet. I remember President Obama's election night was an evening when you could feel the locked doors of the past finally being blown open to new possibilities.

But then comes a hard, daily struggle to make those possibilities real in a world that is brutally resistant to change. We've seen that over the past four years; the forces of our opposition have been tireless.

But I came here today because I'm thankful for universal health care, the lack of which was for so long an embarrassment to our country. I'm thankful for a more regulated Wall Street. I'm thankful GM is still making cars. What else would I write about?! I'd have no job without that!

I'm here today because I'm concerned about women's rights. I don't have to tell you about the dangers to Roe v. Wade under our opponent's policies.

I'm also here today because of the continuing disparity in wealth between our best-off citizens and our everday citizens. That's a disparity that I believe our honorable opponents' policies will only increase and that threatens to divide us into two distinct and foreign nations, until many of us are going to end up like a song I wrote in the 1980s, "Jackson Cage": "just the scenery in another man's play." If we marginalize so many of our citizens, their talents, their energies, their voices will go unfound and unheard. We will lose their contributions to this great land of ours; we will impoverish ourselves and set ourselves on the road to decline. So their opportunities must be protected, and I think President Obama understands this.

And I'm here today because I've lived long enough to know that despite those galvanizing moments in history, the future is rarely a tide rushing in. It's often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day, and I believe we are in the midst of those long days right now. And I'm here because I believe President Obama feels those days in his bone, for all 100 percent of us. I believe he's got the strength, the commitment, and the vision to live these days with us, and to carry the standard forward toward a country where, as I've written, "nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."



 

Bruce Springsteen's Powerful Endorsement of President Obama

OCTOBER 17, 2012

A Message From Bruce

Dear Friends:

The election is coming up on all of us and we all have strong feelings about it. I’ve been getting asked a lot about where I stand, so for those who are interested, here goes.

This presidential election is different than the last one because President Obama has a four year record to run on. Last time around, he carried with him a tremendous amount of hope and expectations. Unfortunately, due to the economic chaos the previous administration left him with, and the extraordinary intensity of the opposition, it turned into a really rough ride. But through grit, determination, and focus, the President has been able to do a great many things that many of us deeply support.

Domestically, that record includes working to increase and expand employment for all, protecting our all important social safety net, passing guaranteed health care for most of our citizens, with important new protections for all of the insured, rescuing the auto industry and so many of the American jobs that go with it, protecting and enhancing the rights of women, and bringing us closer to full acceptance of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.

In foreign affairs, that record includes following through on the removal of troops from the misguided and deceptive war in Iraq, and vigorously pursuing our real foreign enemies, especially the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Right now the opposition’s resort to voter suppression in so many states is not receiving as much attention as it deserves. I believe that all of us, of whatever views, should be opposing these anti-voter, anti-citizen efforts.

Right now, for the President to be effective in his next term he needs our increased support and he needs support in the Congress, where some sterling candidates, such as current Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, challenger Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, and so many others, are fighting to make their constructive voices heard.

Right now, there is an ever increasing division of wealth in this country, with the benefits going more and more to the 1 percent. For me, President Obama is our best choice to begin to reverse this harmful development.

Right now, there is a fight going on to help make this a fairer and more equitable nation. For me, President Obama is our best choice to get us and keep us moving in the right direction.

Right now, we need a President who has a vision that includes all of our citizens, not just some, whether they are our devastated poor, our pressured middle class, and yes, the wealthy too; whether they are male or female, black, white, brown, or yellow, straight or gay, civilian or military.

Right now, there is a choice going on in America, and I’m happy that we live in a country where we all participate in that process. For me, President Obama is our best choice because he has a vision of the United States as a place where we are all in this together. We’re still living through very hard times but justice, equality and real freedom are not always a tide rushing in. They are more often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day. I believe President Obama feels these days in his bones and has the strength to live them with us and to lead us to a country “…where no one crowds you and no one goes it alone.”

That’s why I plan to be in Ohio and Iowa supporting the re-election of President Obama to lead our country for the next four years.

Bruce Springsteen

More at:

Bruce Springsteen's Website

President Obama Campaigns in Mount Vernon, Iowa (Live Video)

 

 

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 President Obama Campaigns in Mount Vernon, Iowa (Live Video)

After last night's stirring debate by President Obama, I am excited to watch Barack back out on the campaign trail. Watch with me as the president speaks in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Enjoy!
Fired Up! Ready to Go!

Gregg Chadwick
Campaign 2012: President Barack Obama
oil on linen 2012

Santa Monica Art Studios Holds 8th Anniversary Celebration This Weekend @ Santa Monica Airport

Gregg Chadwick

Occupy

40"x30" oil on linen 2012

I am pleased to invite you to the 8th Anniversary Celebration of the Santa Monica Art Studios at the Santa Monica Airport. Come by this weekend - Saturday, October 13th from 6-9PM and Sunday, October 14th from 1-5 PM for a sneak peek at my new work in Studio #15 and the other amazing artists in our 22,000 square foot art laboratory.

Gregg Chadwick

Studio #15

3026 Airport Avenue

Santa Monica, CA 90405