My Bruce Battle
Peter Chianca does a great job on his Bruce Springsteen site Blogness on the Edge of Town (http://www.wickedlocal.com/springsteen). His blog can feature album and show reviews, stories from Springsteen fans and updates on Springsteen news. I like to think of it as a central point of contact for me to get most of my Bruce Springsteen news. The blog just hit 10 years and he asked people to write in and share what was their biggest Springsteen moment over the past 10 years. Here is what I sent him and Peter published it today. http://www.wickedlocal.com/blogs/20171117/blogness-at-10-springsteen-podcasters-bruce-battle
In the past ten years a lot of "stuff" has gone down. In 2007, I was in the early stages of my Bruce obsession/passion. I had seen him perform live in 2002 for the first time and then saw him a 2nd time in 2005. I was just starting my true Springsteen story. Before 2002, I was a casual fan but once I saw the band on The Rising tour, well you know the story. In 2008, I saw him in Dallas and then in 2009, in Houston.
In 2012, Linda (my wife) and I drove from Dallas to Cleveland to see him because the band wasn't coming anywhere close to Dallas. We did the Kentucky Bourbon trail during that trip, half the stops on the way up and the other half on the way down, we called it our Bruce and Bourbon tour. Then we saw him later that year in Louisville and a few weeks later my buddy Sam & I flew to Kansas City MO to see him a 2nd time. In 2014, I reached a new level, I saw 3 shows in 30 days (Dallas, Nashville, and Houston). I met my first group of online fans including Donna from Bruce Funds, Colleen from Chicago and Bridget from Nashville.
In 2015 I started a Bruce Springsteen podcast called Set Lusting Bruce which is going strong. During the 2016 River Tour, I attended 5 shows with the last one being at Metlife Stadium on 8/25, seeing Bruce in Jersey ( mark that off the bucket list)!. There I got to meet so many of my online Bruce friends including Howie, Josh, Neil, Stan, Nancy and of course Ali. Then my year ends with the chance to spend six seconds with the man in Austin and had my photo taken with him at the book appearance. All of these are great moments but they aren't my most significant moment.
In March of 2017, I was diagnosed with Colon Cancer. I spent almost 3 weeks in the hospital. I had blood clots, violent diarrhea, and vomiting. I had tests done on my heart, my lungs, my stomach, my colon and I'm sure in places on my body that I didn't know existed. After a successful surgery, I had eight (8) sessions of chemo, one every 3 weeks, followed by two weeks of oral chemo. I felt like trash all the time, I was weak, I had a constant headache, I had tons of waste coming out via both ends, in solid, gas and liquid forms. I had a great support system, wonderful friends, loving family including my wife and son who were my rocks but my other companion “on this part of the ride" was Bruce. HIs music was my co-driver as I drove to doctor's offices for a checkup and chemo treatments. His music held my hand as a needle was inserted into my port and deadly chemicals were pumped into my body. His music was a hand on my shoulder as I sat on the toilet and then put my head in a trash can. His songs helped me to fall asleep when tired and helped me to wake up as I returned to work.
I played Better Days, Land of Hope and Dreams and No Surrender daily. Better Days to remind me that no matter how bad things are at the moment, to enjoy the journey, to savor the small victories and to continue to push for that magical goal of remission. Land of Hope and Dreams to remind me that there is always hope and that faith will be rewarded, that in life's journey we are each other's companions and that tomorrow there will be sunshine and all this darkness past.
Finally, No Surrender, the unofficial anthem of Springsteen fans fighting rough times and illness everywhere. "Blood brother in the stormy night with a vow to defend, no retreat baby no surrender!"
Congratulations Peter for a great webpage and blog. Thank you for providing us a place where we can go to get the latest news about Bruce and the band. Thank you for your continued love and support of the podcast! Here is to 10, 20 even 30 years of more Springsteen news and blogs!