Pouring Music From a Cup

          As far back as I can remember I have felt different from everyone else. I don’t mean to say I thought I was better than everyone else, only that I was destined for something out of the ordinary—some insight or experience or talent that would set me apart from the people around me. I saw things no one else saw, as if there were colors and textures to the air that were right there in plain view, but no one else could see them. Yet, there they were, as obvious as pillars holding up the ceiling. It could be something out among the stars, a feeling inside that we would, all of us, one day, get the chance to flit among the galaxies and know everything. Or it could have been the coarseness of Long John Silver’s beard—the exact length and glisten on each spiky hair of his cheek—as my classmates struggled to envision the basest details of Treasure Island. More often, it was an intuit, a sure knowing that someday I would set myself apart from everyone...

        From time to time when I was in junior and senior high school, we used to take interest surveys and aptitude tests, presumably to help us discover what we would likely be when we grew up. You know the kind I mean: a swollen packet of multiple answer statements and questions designed to help you uncover your hidden strengths and interests and, in turn, your true calling in life. The survey would ask you to answer Yes or No or require you to decide between Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree , have No Opinion, Disagree, Somewhat Disagree , or Strongly Disagree with such penetrating queries as "Do you enjoy presenting yourself publicly, playing roles, showing off?" "I prefer to work with others," "Do you enjoy thinking up or seeking new solutions to problems?" "I prefer to follow guidelines precisely and meet strict standards of accuracy," "I like to write," and "I like to work with numbers." Many of the stat...

      Next month, after playing Sunderland, Manchester and the Isle of Wight, Bruce Springsteen heads for London, England, as his European "Wrecking Ball" tour continues. The show happens a week before the most aggressively corporate Olympics Games ever staged take place, and on the centenary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, the father of American folk protest.      Why is it always Springsteen, and at this level of stadium rock and record sales, only Springsteen, who expresses rage against the political sharks, investment vultures, and war hawks– those thieving, oil-stealing, money laundering, drug peddling, arms dealing, tax evading criminals —who have stolen the very hearts and futures of the middle class, Machiavelli-style, and aimed their poison-tipped arrows at the middle class workers themselves? Where are the singers and students who should be stirring the already muddy waters and agitating the weary masses to rail against the very inquisi...