So I drove down to Atlantic City today in order to take part in an industry trade show. Which of course meant that somewhere around mile marker 105 on the Garden State Parkway, my inner jersey boy comes to the fore and I pop in my Bruce Springsteen mix. In most instances I can’t help but pop in “Incident on 57th street” & “Rosalita”, as these two songs really can’t be played without each other. Though I do have them both in my ipod shuffle, it really is a surprise when I am listening to the final piano solo that leads into the killing sax explosion of the opening notes of “Rosalita” and suddenly have one of my wife’s power hair band love ballads come on instead. And those two songs best display Bruce’s early ability, in fact I would argue that “The Wild & The Innocent & the Estreet Shuffle” is the most complete Bruce album of his whole repertoire. It showcased the mastery of the piano solo, the raw power of the driving electric guitar, the lightness of the acoustic, the use of Bruce’s vocals as an strument and most of the incredible sax of Clarence Clemons. That sax is what helped to set Bruce apart at the time . And there was a time that it could almost be argued that Clarence was almost a bigger star than Bruce himself but as his solo album showed & Bruce’s career showed, Bruce could make it without Clarence but Clarence could not make it without Bruce but how the hell did I get all the way to here from trying to decide where to start on my bruce disc this trip ? Well another recent choice had been the long time favorite “10th Avenue Freeze Out”, a song that I always found to be far superior to the more commercial & mainstream “Born to Run”. But today I picked “Jungleland”. I do believe that this was the first time that I had ever picked “Jungleland” and I was not disappointed because I had mentioned earlier, this 9 ½ minute song, this is a song that uses all of the elements of Bruce’s early career but mostly the straining groaning wails at the end that could have been played by a sax but had a certain raw primitive feel to them that fit the title subject. I usually don’t think so deeply about Bruce but the traffic was flowing, as opposed to the Northbound side that looked like it was at a dead stop.

Did finally get here and met up with the Deadliest Catch at the Trade Show. We smiled, answered dumb questions and gave away pens & stress balls. I grabbed a couple of stress balls myself and I did get my free hot dog & indigestion. More of the same tomorrow with a rubber chicken lunch thrown in. I did get one little cool handout and I will have to go get 2 more tomorrow.

Lost $20 in the Wheel of Fortune quarter slots but it was fun having it hit on spin the wheel every so often – obviously not often enough for me since I lost. And as for not having something come up, I only hit once on $100 playing $2 bets on the $10 roulette table. I think I may go back in a few minutes because I can feel the luck that I didn’t before.

Maybe some of Tony Soprano’s luck perhaps. If you didn’t watch earlier tonight than don’t read again until I tell you too. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The WTF moment was the hit of Phil Leotardo by Tony’s B-team henchmen, A tremendous pop by the way in my opinion and one of the great WTF Hits in the Soprano’s season history. AJ is a waste of a character but a series could be built around Meadow working in the court system having to fight the prejudice of her name. Props to Agent Harris for stepping up to the plate both in the sack, that agent was way too hot for balding anti-terrorism dudes with no real agency future but you have to love Hollywood because it is only there that these writers can live their fantasies vicariously through the characters they create. Janice & Junior ride off their separate ways. Janice in her search for $$$ or someone to support her. Junior into further dementia. Or was he crazy ?The final scene was so overt in it’s red herrings that you had to know that nothing was going to happen and that life goes on. Thought the cable had gone out but then I realized the final 2 words of the song were “Don’t Stop” and the credits rolled. I have zero complaints. None. I liked the ending. I can’t wait to watch with Mrs. Swampy for her opinions and does she ever have them. ****OKAY TO READ AGAIN****

Gatorade Citrus Cooler & Mango Electrico are the 2 best flavors they make outside of Lemonade. Made sure that I was pounding the gate while I was working this weekend.

More later on the special anniversary coming up in SwampyWorld.

Quietly waiting for KC & The Sunshine Band on July 13 & 14…..swampy abides