Born to Run

Someday, girl, I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun... but til then tramps like us, baby we were born to run.

Nothing says Jersey like a little Bruce Springsteen.  One of my favorite stories involving Bruce actually centers around another genius musician, Bob Dylan.  Apparently as Dylan got older he started making the rounds to the childhood homes of other artists like John Lennon and Neil Young.  In the summer of 2009, Dylan was detained by police in Long Branch, New Jersey after a family called the authorities with concern about a suspicious person wandering around their street on a rainy night.  When the 24 year-old police officer - who didn't recognize him, even after he said his name was Bob Dylan - asked him what he was doing in town, Dylan replied that he was touring the country with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp.  Even after driving him back to the location where all of his tour buses were parked, police still weren't convinced and after getting a look at him a sergeant even said, "That's not Bob Dylan."

Anyway, back to Springsteen... Dylan was, in fact, wandering a few blocks away from the shore house where Springsteen wrote his "Born to Run" album.  Was that where he was headed?  Maybe.  The old rocker never said.  But I like to think he was.

I love the idea of a genius like Dylan still being enamored by the idea of other musicians being inspired when they were young.  So often you get the vibe that talented artists (whether from music or film) get jaded and forget what is special about their work.  For Dylan to keep a curiosity about him seems really cool to me, and in an indirect way it makes me appreciate the work of musicians and filmmakers even more.

Another appropriate reason to reference "Born to Run" today?  I signed up for my first 5k ever.  January 16th in Santa Monica - looking forward to reporting back how it goes.  In the meantime, I'll keep hitting the gym to train.  2011 = healthy eating + healthy living.  Let's hope it lasts.