Springsteen Letter to You Edition


A couple of days ago, Bruce Springsteen launched a new album - Letter to You. How good is it? It debuted on the charts at number one in Ireland today, and is the nation's fastest-sellling album of 2020. Listen one time, and you'll know why.

Music - Pretty much said it all above. Give a listen to Letter to You if you haven't checked it out already.

I usually rotate through a number of playlists during my daily walk, but for the last few days, it's been nothing but Springsteen's Letter to You. I simply can't get enough, much like most of his post-2000 album releases - The Rising (2002), Magic (2007), Working on a Dream (2009), Wrecking Ball (2012), American Beauty - EP (2014), Western Stars (2019).

“I love the emotional nature of ‘Letter to You,'" Springsteen said in a press release. “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs. We made the album in only five days, and it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.”

Audio - On Oct. 19, Phoebe Judge started a series of Sherlock Holmes readings, as a part of Phoebe Reads a Mystery, posting a story a day. Phoebe is the podcaster who voices Criminal and This is Love. Haven't been doing any other book because I'm hooked on Holmes and Watson. It amazes me she has time for the book readings and the podcasts. The new episodes just keep coming. We're going to have to start saying, "Phoebe is a machine!"

Books (personal) - Not a book I would pick on my own, so kudos for the Rutgers Alumni Book Club for getting me to stretch with Pachinko, which follows four generations of a Korean family who move to Japan amidst Japanese colonization and political warfare. It's a nearly 500-page book by Min Jin Lee and I read it in about 10 days, amid all of life's other daily challenges and work. So I guess I must liked it alright.

Books (work) - Content Marketing for PR: How to build brand visibility, influence and trust in today’s social age. My two biggest interests at work, outside of my main job as a trainer, are content marketing and video and webinar production. Content marketing is all about becoming your own media channel and telling your story to educate and guide people through the sales process. This book puts a bit more of a public relations spin on delivering your content. Quick read, definitely some good stuff to put to use.

Video - The Mandolorian is about to start again on Disney+. Of all the Star Wars stuff after the first three, and the last three, this seems the most true to the franchise. Set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order, the series follows the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic. And oh, yeah, it has baby Yoda, in case you don't know.