Springsteen on life and songs

I read this in a new interview with Bruce Springsteen and thought it was interesting.

“…much of our life is spent running. We’re running, we’re on the run; one of my specialities… There is no part of yourself that you leave behind; it can’t be done. You can’t remove any part of yourself, you can only manage the different parts of yourself. There’s a car, it’s filled with people. The 12-year-old kid’s in the back. So’s the 22-year-old. So is the 40-year-old. So is the 50-year-old guy that’s done pretty well, so’s the 40-year-old guy that likes to screw up. So’s the 30-year-old guy that wants to get his hands on his wheel and put the pedal to the metal, and drive you into a tree.

“That’s never going to change. Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s getting thrown out by the roadside. The doors are shut, locked and sealed, until you go into your box. But who’s driving makes a really big difference about where the car is going. And if the wrong guy’s at the wheel, it’s crash time. You want the latest model of yourself at the wheel, the part of you that’s sussed some of this out and can drive you someplace where you want to go.”

Bruce has done an interview with a guy from the BBC and it was broadcast on Radio 2. As that won’t stick around for long, the main parts of the interview also appeared in Observer Music Monthly. Both are worth checking out, although what he says comes across a lot more naturally when you hear him speak rather than when the words are written down.

• OMM: Meet the new boss

Welcome, President Obama

• The Guardian: Obama inauguration: Let the remaking of America begin today

• Welcome to the White House

• YouTube: President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address

Explaining the credit crunch (kind of…)

2009 is going to be a shit year. They all say it, we all know it. God help us all.

But trying to figure out what the hell happened and why is very difficult. The articles below are the best I’ve found, and to be frank, I still don’t quite get it.

Sounds like a bunch of supposed professionals who don’t really understand either, playing with other peoples’ money. Follow this with government deciding that these people can regulate themselves – leading to them behaving totally irresponsibly. They found ways of polishing a turd until it shined like gold and selling it on. Underneath the sheen, its still a turd. But someone has bought it thinking it’s gold. Sooner or later the shit is going to hit the fan. For some people it took a lot longer than expected (see the Portfolio piece) but for most of us it came out of the blue.

• Portfolio: The End

• Vanity Fair: Wall Street Lays Another Egg, Capitalist Fools, Profiles in Panic

• Wikipedia: Short Selling

• Wikipedia: Credit Crunch

• The Guardian: Britain faces worst year since 1930s, warns IMF

• The Guardian: Global recession – where did all the money go?