It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive

Last night, I made the trip...again...to Hartford for the opener of this leg of the tour. Similar to the first leg of the tour, Bruce chose to open close to home, but not exactly a home game.

After a pretty crazy work week which included a trip to Cincinnati on Wednesday, I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to make the show. However, my amazing wife showed up at my office at 11 a.m. Thursday morning with a change of clothes and encouraged me to hit the show. For me, there is something amazingly therapeutic about a great concert, especially a Bruce show. Being able to jump up and down, scream every word, pump my fist and lose myself in the music allows me to eliminate any stress in my life. My partner, Joe, told me he was looking forward to me going to the show because he knew I would show up in a good mood on Friday...no matter how little sleep I got.

As for the show itself, no one in the Hartford Civic Center had a better time than me. We were in the pit, dead center, about 12 people deep. The pit is truly the place to watch this show. There aren't a lot of opportunities to sit. It's a hot show, from the first note. Speaking of the first note, for the first time, Bruce opened with So Young And In Love off of Tracks. Radio Nowhere had been the typical opener during the first leg of the tour and as great an opener as it is, So Young just kicks the night off with a big boost of energy. Also making tour premieres were and Loose Ends and Janey Don't You Lose Heart. Backstreets was an audible in the encore and it was amazing. The encore is usually a trouble spot, but last night, it was great with Kitty's Back following Backstreets...and Born To Run after that.

For the full set list, please visit http://www.backstreets.com/setlists.html.

A few specific lines jumped out at me during the show, partially because I have been so crazy at work. A lot of Bruce's music is out redemption and last night, I needed it. I can't wait until March 10 for the show at Nassau Coliseum. Hope to see you there.

Special thanks to my partner in crime Sammy...and The Man, Rich Russo, who helped us in to the pit.

"Stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive...if you can."

JN

What's old is new...and what's new is spring training

Last week, the 25th Anniversary of Thriller was released. Since I was with one of the people involved in working on the reissue, I went out and bought it last week. As of late last week, it was tracking as the #1 album in country for this week. They digitally enhanced the tracks, added some duets, an unreleased track, and an extra disc for videos and I bought it for $14.99. A venerable bargain for The World's Biggest Selling Album of All Time (it says so right on the disc). This week, what's old is new.

In music, at least what I like, what's old is new pretty often. Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood are playing a full concert together for the first time in over 30 years at Madison Square Garden.

Over the weekend, I went to see Southside Johnny at the Morristown Community Theater. For the first time since the original recordings, a string section was added to the show on certain songs. La Bamba wrote the charts for the Randolph High School Orchestra, which did an amazing job, especially on Hearts of Stone.

The Police just announced the last leg of their reunion tour and will play this leg with Elvis Costello as the supporting act. They come to the PNC Arts Center in early August. I think that's a can't miss show.

Billy Joel is playing the last concert ever at Shea Stadium. He hasn't released an album of new material since 1992's River of Dreams. That said, when I saw him at Madison Square Garden two years ago, it was much better than I thought it would be. I think I am skipping Shea though. It's too much a pain in the ass to get to.

Paul Simon is taking up residency at a theater in Brooklyn for a string of shows in April. He couldn't find somewhere in Manhattan???

So what's new? Well, Bruce's next leg of the Magic tour starts next week also in Hartford. For the record, it isn't new just because it's Bruce. It's new because unlike all of the shows mentioned above, he is actually touring behind a new release. Eddie Vedder is doing a two week solo tour of theaters on the west coast. I think the Vedder show is the first notable show that hasn't hit NYC since...well, ever.

All of that said, what's really new this week is that spring training is entering it's first full week. Hopefully, by next week, the Mitchell Report, the Clemens/McNamee fiasco, and all steroid talk will be OLD and we can focus on what really matters. The greatest game ever invented. Get ready...the last Opening Day at Yankee Stadium is six weeks from today. Who's in???

Some thoughts from spring training so far:
- Randy Johnson must really love the competition to come back again from back surgery. Either that or he really wants to get the 16 more wins he needs for 300. Any which way, I commend him for the attempt.
- Pedro's quotes about dominating the steroid era clean were some of the best quotes I have seen in a long time and much to my dismay, he is 100% right. He was totally dominant when steroid use was at its peak.
- I am happy to root for guys that admit mistakes. For that reason, I will cheer for Andy Pettitte and vow to not harass anyone in the Mitchell Report who came clean. Doesn't Rocket know that if he has just admitted it, the story would have been gone by now?
- Joba shows up at camp with his nipples pierced and it's news. Gotta love this guy.
- Barry Bonds doesn't have anywhere to go for spring training. I hope that remains the case. I think we have all had enough.

That's all for now. "Stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive...if you can."

JN

Changes...good? bad?

The one thing we can always count on is change. There are always big changes going on around us, but this week, I am keenly aware of some big changes happening in my world.

The New Yankee Stadium was in the media this week. The Yankees COO, Lon Trost, did a tour of the construction site with the local media and gave an update on the process, the costs, and the project overall. I, for one, am very excited about the new Stadium and can't wait for it to open. Yankee Stadium is one of my most special places on earth, but I have a lot of confidence in the Yankee brass that they will build the greatest baseball stadium money can buy. My confidence was boosted this week when they announced that they would NOT be selling the naming rights. The estimated price would have been $50m per year, and I can't express how important it is for die hards like me that they will be keeping the name Yankee Stadium.

The music business is changing, has been for years, and will never be the same. I was in my car on Friday, listening to my iPod on shuffle which is my standard. A song from Jon Bon Jovi's solo record, Destination Anywhere, came on. I took the iPod off of shuffle and listened to the entire record, just as I used to when I had a five-cd changer and had to listen to cd's front to back. That was how I got to learn entire albums and not just singles. Now, people download one song off of iTunes if they want as opposed to the whole album. The single off of the JBJ record is Midnight in Chelsea. That's one of my least favorite songs on the album. I think that there is some great material and Jon is missing the boat by not using some of it on tour. How loud would the girls scream if Jon sang a song titled Naked...even if they didn't know the song?

Two takeaways from the paragraph above:
1. The departure from entire albums is a great loss for music as an art. There are amazing songs that never become hits and less people will find those songs if they don't have to buy the whole album.
2. If you don't have Destination Anywhere, I highly recommend it. One of Jon's most adult albums as far as writing and while there are definitely typical Bon Jovi lines, the material is great. Janey Don't You Take Your Love To Town is still one of my all time favorite Jon Bon Jovi songs.

For the first time since 1995, Joe Torre will not be sitting in the manager's office at Legends Field overseeing Yankee spring training. Joe Girardi will be the new manager and I can only hope that he has half of the success that Joe Torre had. I will miss Mr. T (as Derek Jeter calls him) and wish him well in LA, but am rooting hard for Girardi, even if I wanted Donnie Baseball to get the job. Who knew he had a crazy wife???

I know that baseball is changing with the whole Mitchell Report. The way that we look at certain players will never be the same. I am sorry for that. I want to remember Roger Clemens for the competitor he was on the field...not the guy walking the halls of Congress fighting for his name and his legacy. I don't think we are any better off after The Mitchell Report than we were before it. The new rules are in place and were before the report. What good is dragging back the past?

The look of the blog has changed too. Gone is the black background thanks to Mr. Fresh. If anyone has any other suggestions or requested topics, I am happy to oblige. I am looking forward to pitchers and catchers reporting this week and the Bruce tour to kick up again at the end of the month. Hopefully, that will provide plenty of material.

Until then..."Stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive if you can..."

JN

My Lucky Charm

The Giants pulled off one of the biggest upsets in sports history yesterday beating the previously undefeated New England Patriots 17-14 to win Super Bowl 42 (I didn't use the roman numeral for my cousin Jared). I watched the game with my wife, Jared, my two sisters, my mother, David, Uncle Eddie, cousin Jeffrey, and most important...my lucky charm, my daughter Avery.

I know it's a little silly, but she and I have both worn our Giants jerseys throughout the playoffs, mine #80 (Shockey) given to me by Fresh as a 30th b-day present, and Avery's #10 (Eli) given to her by my cousin Keith, not coincidentally, Fresh's brother. When the Giants won the first playoff game, we decided that the jerseys would be worn, from start to finish, until we lost. Needless to say, we never lost.

At the start of the 4th quarter, I took my daughter to sit on my lap, partially because it was time for her to go to sleep, and partially because I thought the Giants needed some good luck. As soon as she came to sit with me, Eli completed a 45 yard pass to Kevin Boss and they were on their way. I won't recount the game...there is plenty of that, but I will say that the Tyree catch should go down in history as the greatest catch in Giants history. What a play!

I have said it in a previous blog entry, but I feel the need to repeat it. I was wrong about Eli and Coughlin. I was very critical of both and they did a great job of silencing the critics. While I always rooted for them, I wasn't convinced they could get the job done. They more than proved me wrong and I am happy they did so. Eli really came of age the last month and Coughlin went up against the best in the business last night and came out on top.

THE GIANTS ARE THE SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!!!

Some quick thoughts:
- I am of the opinion that history will not remember the Pats. Teams start the season with the goal of winning the Super Bowl. They missed their goal. Everyone on that team would have traded the undefeated season for the Super Bowl win if given the choice.
- The defense was swarming and I hope Spags stays as the D coordinator.
- Tiki who?
- It's time to trade Shockey. His energy is great, but it can be a detriment to the team.
- If they raised ticket prices after the last two years, what are they going to do to us next year? Ownership should keep in mind, we only won three home games.
- I am happy that the boys were in AZ for the game...Scott, Keith, Strauss, Al, and Mike Levine had us well represented.

Less than two weeks until pitchers and catchers report. I am ignoring the nonsense in Washington with Congress and steroids and focusing on the Giants until spring training starts.

"Stay hard...stay hungry...stay alive if you can..."

JN