Celebrate the holidays with a great deal on Glitter and Doom Live! This week, Amazon.com is offering a series of Lightning Deals, featuring Tom Waits Glitter and Doom Live. For a limited time, the album will be on sale for just $6.99. Click here to check out the deal!

Friday, December 18th
9am - 12pm PST
Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live

Now RIAA-certified Gold, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards is a spectacular musical journey, which visits most every genre of American song tradition. This box set redefines the words “Deluxe” or “Collectors Edition.” With 7 LPs of 180 gram vinyl, six previously unreleased songs, a 32-page book featuring lyrics and insight, and a beautiful hardbound box, the collection captures the full scope of Tom Waits’ shamanic powers as a vocalist, literary lyricist, romantic melodist, innovative arranger and pioneer of sonic worlds.

Click Here to get it today!

Glitter and Doom Live is now available in stores everywhere! Get it today from the Official Tom Waits Store, iTunes, or Amazon!

TOM WAITS' LANDMARK COLLECTION
ORPHANS: BRAWLERS, BAWLERS & BASTARDS
TO BE RELEASED ON VINYL ON DECEMBER 8
LIMITED EDITION SET
SPANS SEVEN FULL LENGTH LPs
WITH SIX NEW BONUS TRACKS
TOM WAITS' gold-certified triple-disc masterpiece ORPHANS: BRAWLERS, BAWLERS & BASTARDS (Anti-) will be reinvented on December 8 as a limited edition vinyl set, complete with a deluxe 12" booklet and six new bonus cuts. The collection totals 62 tracks over seven full length LPs, all pressed on 180 gram vinyl. (In the original CD collection, the package contained 30 new recordings which have now been upped to 32 with two newly recorded tracks as part of the bonus 6 on the vinyl set.)

An assemblage of rare, new and mostly unheard tracks, ORPHANS includes irreverent--or, rather, remarkably relevant-covers of songs by artists as disparate as the Ramones and Leadbelly, along with WAITS compositions originally recorded by other artists. Waits' selections dazzle as sonic experiments and twisted tales.

WAITS says, "Orphans are rough and tender tunes. Rhumbas about mermaids, shuffles about train wrecks, tarantellas about insects, madrigrals about drowning. Scared, mean, orphaned songs of rapture and melancholy. Songs that grew up hard. Songs of dubious origin rescued from cruel fate and now left wanting only to be cared for. Show that you are not afraid and take them home. They don't bite, they just need attention."

Each of the three CDs is separately grouped and sub-titled - "Brawlers," "Bawlers" and "Bastards" - to capture the full spectrum of Waits' ranging and roving musical styles. "Brawlers" is chock full of raucous blues and full-throated juke joint stomp, "Bawlers" contains Celtic and country ballads, waltzes, lullabies, piano and classic lyrical Waits songs, while "Bastards" is filled with experimental music and strange tales.

Termed "a definitive album" by Robert Christgau in Rolling Stone, the original CD release of ORPHANS was among the fastest-selling offering of WAITS' career, and a hit with critics. "Waits may call them orphans, but another artist would call this a career," noted Keith Phipps in The Onion.

In the Los Angeles Times, Richard Cromelin called ORPHANS "A fulfillment of the ideal Waits...This is one to salt away to sustain you through many winters of the soul."

Among the bonus tracks exclusive to this vinyl collectors' edition are a whimsical take on Fats Waller's "Crazy ‘Bout My Baby" and "Diamond In Your Mind," a WAITS/BRENNAN song first heard on Solomon Burke's GRAMMY-winning CD Don't Give Up On Me. Others include "Pray," Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht's "Canon Song," "No One Can Forgive Me" and "Mathie Grove."

Meanwhile, WAITS is set to release Glitter and Doom Live on November 23 both on LP and as a 2 CD set. The collection of outstanding live tracks from his 2008 sold out US and European tour features 17 live recordings from ten nights along the tour. The second CD entitled Tom Tales, holds nearly 40 minutes of Waits quixotic ruminations on topics ranging from romantic spiders to injured vultures. The live discs encapsulate Waits in all his chug, boom and steam.

On Christmas Day, WAITS hits the big screen alongside Christopher Plummer, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and the late Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. And in January, he can also be seen in the Hughes Brothers' Book of Eli with Denzel Washington.

For more on TOM WAITS and ORPHANS, check out the newly launched www.tomwaits.com

Glitter and Doom Live hits stores on November 24th and is currently available for pre-order in a whole slew of different bundles! Take a look below to see everything that's offered!

Glitter and Doom Live CD, T-Shirt and Tour Book
 

This Bundle Includes:
- Glitter and Doom Live CD
- Limited edition 'True Confessions' Tour Book
- Limited edition, exclusive t-shirt


Glitter and Doom Live LP, T-Shirt and Tour Book
 

This Bundle Includes:
- Glitter and Doom Live Double LP on 180 gram vinyl
- Limited edition 'True Confessions' Tour Book
- Limited edition, exclusive t-shirt


Glitter and Doom Live CD and T-Shirt
 

This Bundle Includes:
- Glitter and Doom Live CD
- Limited edition, exclusive t-shirt


Glitter and Doom Live LP and T-Shirt
 

This Bundle Includes:
- Glitter and Doom Live Double LP on 180 Gram Vinyl
- Limited edition, exclusive t-shirt


Also Available:
- Glitter and Doom Live CD
- Glitter and Doom Live Double LP on 180 gram vinyl

Also, be sure to stop by the all new TomWaits.com. Glitter and Doom Live in stores November 24th!

TOM WAITS TO RELEASE
‘GLITTER and DOOM LIVE’
NOVEMBER 24 ON CD AND VINYL

EACH INCLUDES 17 SONGS FROM
THE SOLD OUT TOUR OF EUROPE AND THE US
IN THE SUMMER OF 2008

TOMWAITS.COM TO GO LIVE ON 10/12

TOM WAITS is set to release Glitter and Doom Live, a collection of outstanding live tracks from his 2008 sold out US and European tour. This two CD set contains 17 live recordings from ten nights along the tour including, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Tulsa, Knoxville, Atlanta, Paris, Milan, Jacksonville, Dublin and Columbus. The second CD entitled, Tom Tales holds nearly 40 minutes of Waits quixotic ruminations on topics ranging from romantic spiders to injured vultures. The CD will also come with a booklet of live photos.

The vinyl version of Glitter and Doom Live will feature gatefold sleeve with live photos from the tour and contain all 17 tracks but no Tom Tales. Inside the LP, Anti- is providing a card w/mp3 download instructions, which will enable the buyer to download Tom Tales as well.

Musically, the live discs encapsulate Waits in all his chug, boom and steam. His shamanistic vocals, innovative arrangements, visionary lyrics, pounding rhythms and emotional melodies are all here. There are dark swampy tribal rhythms, ominous hymns, and cautionary tales all swirling around Waits’ unmistakable howl and croon. The CD has a dead man singing to his widow, a convict’s last words, an instructional dance number, lamenting sword swallowers and bragging pirates. All of the tracks were personally selected and sequenced to give you the feeling of one great night on tour.

On October 12, www.tomwaits.com is set to go live. You are invited to wander and roam through the first ever official website for all things Waits: news, updates on recordings, new releases, tours, films and more. A resource for lyrics, photos, wit and wisdom, strange but true tales, and more imponderables on topics as far ranging as the origin of consciousness, the sexuality of Christ and the lonely journey of the male seahorse.

Track listing is as follows:

1. Lucinda / Ain't Goin Down (Birmingham - 07/03/08) - 5:37
2. Singapore (Edinburgh - 07/28/08) - 5:00
3. Get Behind The Mule (Tulsa - 06/25/08) - 6:26
4. Fannin Street (Knoxville - 06/29/08) - 4:16
5. Dirt In The Ground (Milan - 07/19/08) - 5:18
6. Such A Scream (Milan - 07/18/08) - 2:51
7. Live Circus (Jacksonville - 07/01/08) - 5:04
8. Goin' Out West (Tulsa - 06/25/08) - 3:48
9. Falling Down (Paris - 07/25/08) - 4:21
10. The Part You Throw Away (Edinburgh - 07/28/08) - 5:07
11. Trampled Rose (Dublin - 08/01/08) - 5:06
12. Metropolitan Glide (Knoxville - 6/29/08) - 3:10
13. I'll Shoot The Moon (Paris - 07/24/08) - 4:25
14. Green Grass (Edinburgh - 07/27/08) - 3:20
15. Make It Rain (Atlanta - 07/05/08) - 3:58
16. Story (Columbus - 06/28/08) - 2:02
17. Lucky Day (Atlanta - 07/05/08) - 3:47

Ever the charitable soul, Tom Waits has donated one of his rare photos — signed, framed and truly one-of-a-kind — from his “Oil Stain” series to a charity auction that will go to benefit the tuition assistance program at Summerfield School.

More about the school: “Summerfield stands behind its deeply-rooted commitment to the children of the school, and we celebrate our economically diverse student population. Now, more than ever, Summerfield needs your support to continue this essential program.”

The online auction will close June 5, 2009. Click here for more information.

Last night Tom Waits' long anticipated Glitter and Doom tour kicked off in Phoenix AZ.  As expected, the "P" in "PEHDTSCHJMBA" was treated to the one-in-a-lifetime experience of newly arranged classics, recent favorites and mirrored bowler hats.  The early reviews have been stellar:

Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/06/18/tom-waits-spins-yarns-sings-about-jesus-at-tour-opener-in-phoenix/

LA Times http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-waits19-2008jun19,0,6398553.story

LA Weekly
http://blogs.laweekly.com/play/live-in-la/la-weekly-roadtrips-to-catch-t/

Pitchfork
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/51363-photos-tom-waits-phoenix-az-061708

AOL/Spinner
http://www.forums.spinner.com/2008/06/18/tom-waits-becomes-a-believer-in-phoenix/

Arizona Republic
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/06/18/20080618waitsreview0618.html

Following 'Glitter and Doom's 13 U.S. shows that open in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday 17th June, America's legendary songwriter and performer Tom Waits brings his 'Glitter and Doom' tour to Europe this summer, playing shows that include the Grammy-award winning artist's first-ever concerts in Spain and the Czech Republic. The European dates The European schedule opens in Spain's San Sebastian on Saturday 12th July and finishes in Dublin on Saturday 1st August.

"I have a stellar band: Larry Taylor (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion)", says Waits. "They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers. I'm doing songs with them I've never attempted outside the studio. They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men."

The European tour will also be subject to new anti-scalper plans, thus attempting to ensure that every fan will pay only face value (plus normal service and handling fees) for the tickets. They will be limited to two per person with the purchaser's name - and name of their plus one - printed on the ticket. Ticket-holders will need photo ID corresponding to the names on the tickets to gain access to the venues. Ticket-holders will need photo ID corresponding to the names on the tickets to gain access to the venues.

European tour dates are as follows:

DATE - CITY - VENUE - ON-SALE INFO
July 12 - SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN - Auditorium Kursaal - Ticket Hotline 902 10 12 12. International enquiries +34 933 262 946. Tickets also available online from www.telentrada.com. Tickets on sale Monday 2nd June at 9.00AM.

July 14 & 15 - BARCELONA, SPAIN - Auditorium Forum - Ticket Hotline 902 10 12 12. International enquiries +34 933 262 946. Tickets also available online from www.telentrada.com. Tickets on sale Monday 2nd June at 9.00AM.

July 17, 18 & 19 - MILAN, ITALY - Teatro Degli Arcimboldi - Ticket Hotline - valid only in Italy - 892101. International enquiries +39 0584 46477. Tickets also available online from www.ticketone.it. Tickets on internet presale on Friday 23rd May at 9.00AM and all other outlets from Monday 26th May at 9.00AM.

July 21 & 22 - PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - KCP - Tickets available on www.ticketpro.cz with ticket@ticketpro.cz handling enquiries from English and German speaking customers. Tickets on sale on Friday 30th May at 9.00AM.

July 24 & 25 - PARIS, FRANCE - Grand Rex - Ticket Hotline is 0890 39 01 00 - accessed from France only - with +33 (0)1 46 91 57 67 for international enquiries. Tickets on sale as an internet presale from http://www.gdp.fr/index2.php?idDirBill=1311 on Monday 26th May at 9.00AM, with all other outlets from Wednesday 28th May at 9.00AM.

July 27 & 28 - EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - Playhouse - Ticket Hotline on +44 870 606 3424 and online from www.ticketmaster.co.uk. On sale at 9.00AM on Tuesday 27th May.

July 30, 31 and August 1 - DUBLIN, IRELAND - The Ratcellar, Phoenix Park - Ticket Hotline is 0818 719 300 - accessed from Ireland only - with 0870 243 4455 for the UK and +353 1 4 569 569 for international enquiries. Tickets also available online from www.ticketmaster.ie. On sale at 9.00AM on Tuesday 27th May.

TOM WAITS' TRUE CONFESSIONS

(A conversation with himself)

I must admit, before meeting Tom, I had heard so many rumors and so much gossip that I was afraid. Frankly, his gambling debts, his animal magnetism, coupled with his disregard for the feelings of others... His elaborate gun collection, his mad shopping sprees, the face lifts, the ski trips, the drug busts and the hundreds of rooms in his home. The tax shelters, the public urination...I was nervous to meet the real man himself. Baggage and all. But I found him to be gentle, intelligent, open, bright, helpful, humorous, brave, audacious, loquacious, clean, and reverent. A Boy Scout, really (and a giant of a man). Join me now for a rare glimpse into the heart of Tom Waits. Remove your shoes and no smoking, please.

Q: What's the most curious record in your collection?
A: In the seventies a record company in LA issued a record called "The best of Marcel Marceau." It had forty minutes of silence followed by applause and it sold really well. I like to put it on for company. It really bothers me, though, when people talk through it.

Q: What are some unusual things that have been left behind in a cloakroom?
A: Well, Winston Churchill was born in a ladies cloakroom and was one sixteenth Iroquois.

Q: You've always enjoyed the connection between fashion and history...talk to us about that.
A: Ok let's take the two piece bathing suit, produced in 1947 by a French fashion designer. The sight of the first woman in the minimal two piece was as explosive as the detonation of the atomic bomb by the U.S. at Bikini Island in the Marshall Isles, hence the naming of the bikini.

Q: List some artists who have shaped your creative life.
A: Okay, here are a few that just come to me for now: Kerouac, Dylan, Bukowski, Rod Serling, Don Van Vliet, Cantinflas, James Brown, Harry Belafonte, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thorton, Howlin Wolf, Lead Belly, Lord Buckley, Mabel Mercer, Lee Marvin, Thelonious Monk, John Ford, Fellini, Weegee, Jagger, Richards, Willie Dixion, John McCormick, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Robert Johnson, Hoagy Carmichael, Eurico Caruso.

Q: List some songs that were beacons for you.
A: Again, for now... but if you ask me tomorrow the list would change, of course.
Gershwin's second prelude, "Pathatique Sonata", "El Paso", "You've Really Got Me" (Kinks), "Solider Boy" (Shirelles), "Lean Back" (Fat Joe), "Night train", "Come In My Kitchen" (R.J.) "Sad Eyed Lady", "Rite of Spring Ode to Billy Joe", "Louie Louie", "Just a Fool" (Ike and Tina), "Prisoner of Love" (J.B.) "Pitch a Wing Dan Doodlec (all night long)" H. Wolf, "Ringo" (Lorne Green), "Ball and Chain", "Deportee", "Strange Fruit", "Sophisticated Lady", "Georgia On My Mind", "Can't Stop Loving You", "Just Like A Woman", "So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Who'll Stop The Rain?", "Moon River", "Autumn Leaves", "Danny Boy", "Dirty Ol' Town", "Waltzing Mathilda", "Train Keeps a Rollin", "Boris the Spider", "You've Really Got a Hold On Me", "Red Right Hand", "All Shook Up", "Cause Of It All", "Shenandoah", "China Pig", "Summertime", "Without a Song", "Auld Ang Syne", "This is a Man's World", "Crawlinking Snake", "Nassun Dorma", "Bring it on Home to Me", "Hound Dog", "Hello Walls", "You Win Again", "Sunday Morn' Coming Down", "Almost Blue", "Pump It Up", "Greensleeves", "Just Wanna See His Face" (Stones), "Restless Farewell", "Fairytale of NY", "Bring Me A Little Water Sylvie", "Raglan Road", "96 Tears", "In Dreams" (R. Orbison), "Substitute", "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues", Theme from Rawhide, "Same Thing", "Walk Away Rene", "For What it's Worth", theme from "Once Upon A Time In America", "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", "Oh Holy Night", "Mass in E Minor", "Harlem Shuffle", "Trouble Man", "Wade in The Water", "Empty Bed Blues", "Havanagila"

Q: What's heaven for you?
A: Me and my wife on Rte. 66 with a pot of coffee, a cheap guitar, pawnshop tape recorder in a Motel 6, and a car that runs good parked right by the door.

Q: What's hard for you?
A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German.

Q: What's wrong with the world?
A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley's dog made 12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Q: Favorite scenes in movies?
A: R. De Niro in the ring in Raging Bull. Julie Christie's face in Heaven Can Wait when she said, "Would you like to get a cup of coffee?" James Dean in East of Eden telling the nurse to get out when his dad has had a stroke and he's sitting by his bed. Marlena Dietrich in Touch of Evil saying "He was some kind of man." Scout saying "Hey Mr. Cunningham" in the scene in To Kill A Mockingbird. Nic Cage falling apart in the drug store in Matchstick Men...and eating a cockroach in Vampire's Kiss. The last scene in Chinatown.

Q: Can you describe a few other scenes from movies that have always stayed with you?
A: Rod Steiger in Pawn Broker explaining to the Puerto Rican all about gold. Brando in The Godfather dying in the tomatoes with scary orange teeth. Lee Marvin in Emperor Of The North riding under the box car, Borgnine bouncing steel off his ass. Dennis Weaver at the motel saying "I am just the night man," holding onto a small tree in, Touch of Evil. The hanging in Oxbow Incident. The speech by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner as he's dying. Anthony Quinn dancing on the beach in Zorba. Nicholson in Witches of Eastwick covered in feathers in the church as the ladies stick needles in the voodoo doll. When Mel Gibson's Blue Healer gets shot with an arrow in Road Warrior. When Rachel in The Exorcist says "could you help an old alter boy father?" The blind guy in the tavern in Treasure Island. Frankenstein after he strangles the young girl by the river.

Q: Can you tell me an odd thing that happened in an odd place? Any thoughts?
A: A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it's at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle said he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up. The skeptical group laughed but one of the experts was willing to give it a try. Of course, where in the world would you find twenty million ping-pong balls but in Tokyo? It turned out to be the perfect solution. The balls were injected into the hull and it floated to the surface, the engineer was altered. Moral- solutions to problems are always found at an entirely different level; also, believe in yourself in the face of impossible odds.

Q: Most interesting recording you own?
A: It's a mysteriously beautiful recording from, I am told, Robbie Robertson's label. It's of crickets. That's right, crickets, the first time I heard it... I swore I was listening to the Vienna Boys Choir, or the Mormon Tabernacle choir. It has a four-part harmony it is a swaying choral panorama. Then a voice comes in on the tape and says, "What you are listening to is the sound of crickets. The only thing that has been manipulated is that they slowed down the tape." No effects have been added of any kind except that they changed the speed of the tape. The sound is so haunting. I played it for Charlie Musselwhite and he looked at me as if I pulled a Leprechaun out of my pocket.

Q: You are fascinated with irony, what is irony?
A: Chevrolet was puzzled when they discovered that their sales for the Chevy Nova were off the charts everywhere but in Latin America. They finally realized that "Nova" in Spanish translates to "no go." Not the best name for a car... anywhere "no va".

Q: Do you have words to live by?
A: Jim Jarmusch once told me "Fast, Cheap, and Good... pick two. If it's fast and cheap it wont be good. If it's cheap and good it won't be fast. If it's fast and good it wont be cheap." Fast, cheap and good... pick (2) words to live by.

Q: What is on Hemmingway's gravestone?
A: "Pardon me for not getting up."

Q: How would you compare guitarists Marc Ribot and Smokey Hormel?
A: Octopus have eight and squid have ten tentacles, each with hundreds of suction cups and each have the power to burst a man's artery. They have small birdlike beaks used to inject venom into a victim. Some gigantic squid and octopus with one hundred foot tentacles have been reported. Squids have been known to pull down entire boats to feed on the disoriented sailors in the water. Many believe unexplained, sunken deep-sea vessels, and entire boat disappearances are the handiwork of giant squid.

Q: What have you learned from parenthood?
A: "Never loan your car to anyone to whom you've given birth." - Erma Bombeck

Q: Now Tom, for the grand prize... who said, "He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of"?
A: Mae West

Q: Who said, "Half the people in America are just faking it"?
A: Robert Mitchem (who actually died in his sleep). I think he was being generous and kind when he said that.

Q: What remarkable things have you found in unexpected places?
A:
01. Real beauty: oil stains left by cars in a parking lot.
02. Shoe shine stand that looked like thrones in Brazil made of scrap wood.
03. False teeth in pawnshop windows- Reno, NV
04. Great acoustics: in jail.
05. Best food: Airport in Tulsa Oklahoma.
06. Most gift shops: Fatima, Portugal.
08. Most unlikely location for a Chicano crowd: A Morrissey concert.
09. Most poverty: Washington D.C.
10. A homeless man with a beautiful operatic voice singing the word "Bacteria" in an empty dumpster in Chinatown.
11. A Chinese man with a Texan accent in Scotland.
12. Best nights sleep-in a dry riverbed in Arizona.
13. Most people who wear red pants- St. Louis.
14. Most beautiful horses, N.Y.C.
15. A judge in Baltimore MD1890 presided over a trial where a man who was accused of murder and was guilty, and convicted by a jury of his peers... and was let go- when the judge said to him at the end of the trial "You are guilty sir... but I cannot put in jail an innocent man." You see - the murderer was a Siamese twin.
16. Largest penis (in proportion to its body)- The Barnacle

Q: Tom, you love words and their origins. For $2,000...what is the origin of the word bedlam?
A: It's a contraction of the word Bethlehem. It comes from the hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem outside London. The hospital began admitting mental patients in the late fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century it became a lunatic asylum. The word bedlam came to be used for any madhouse- and by extension, for any scene of noisy confusion.

Q: What is up with your ears?
A: I have an audio stigmatism where by I hear things wrong- I have audio illusions. I guess now they say ADD. I have a scrambler in my brain and it takes what is said and turns it into pig Latin and feeds it back to me.

Q: Most thrilling musical experience?
A: My most thrilling musical experience was in Time Square, over thirty years ago. There was a rehearsal hall around the Brill Building where all the rooms were divided into tiny spaces with just enough room to open the door. Inside was a spinet piano- cigarette burns, missing keys, old paint and no pedals. You go in and close the door and it's so loud from other rehearsals you can't really work- so you stop and listen and the goulash of music was thrilling. Scales on a clarinet, tango, light opera, sour string quartet, voice lessons, someone belting out "Everything's Coming Up Roses", garage bands, and piano lessons. The floor was pulsing, the walls were thin. As if ten radios were on at the same time, in the same room. It was a train station of music with all the sounds milling around... for me it was heavenly.

Q: What would you have liked to see but were born too late for?
A: Vaudeville. So much mashing of cultures and bizarre hybrids. Delta Blues guitarists and Hawaiian artists thrown together resulting in the adoption of the slide guitar as a language we all take for granted as African American. But it was a cross pollination, like most culture. Like all cultures. George Burns was a vaudeville performer I particularly loved. Dry and unflappable, curious, and funny – no matter what he said. He could dance too. He said, "Too bad the only people that know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair."

Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't.

Q: Favorite Bucky Fuller quote?
A: "Fire is the sun unwinding itself from the wood".

Q: What do you wonder about?
A:
01. Do bullets know whom they are intended for?
02. Is there a plug in the bottom of the ocean?
03. What do jockeys say to their horses?
04. How does a newspaper feel about winding up papier-mache?
05. How does it feel to be a tree by a freeway?
06. Sometimes a violin sounds like a Siamese cat; the first violin strings were made from cat gut- any connection?
07. When is the world going to rear up and scrape us off its back?
08. Will we humans eventually intermarry with robots?
09. Is a diamond just a piece of coal with patience?
10. Did Ella Fitzgerald really break that wine glass with her voice?

Q: What are some sounds you like?
A:
01. An asymmetrical airline carousel created a high pitched haunted voice brought on by the friction of rubbing and it sounded like a big wet finger circling the rim of a gigantic wine glass.
02. Street corner evangelists
03. Pile drivers in Manhattan
04. My wife's singing voice
05. Horses coming/trains coming
06. Children when school's out
07. Hungry crows
08. Orchestra tuning up
09. Saloon pianos in old westerns
10. Rollercoaster
11. Headlights hit by a shotgun
12. Ice melting
13. Printing presses
14. Ball game on a transistor radio
15. Piano lessons coming from an apartment window
16. Old cash registers/Ca Ching
17. Muscle cars
18. Tap dancers
19. Soccer crowds in Argentina
20. Beatboxing
21. Fog horns
22. A busy restaurant kitchen
23. Newsrooms in old movies
24. Elephants stampeding
25. Bacon frying
26. Marching bands
27. Clarinet lessons
28. Victrola
29. A fight bell
30. Chinese arguments
31. Pinball machines
32. Children's orchestras
33. Trolley bell
34. Firecrackers
35. A Zippo lighter
36. Calliopes
37. Bass steel drums
38. Tractors
39. Stroh Violin
40. Muted trumpet
41. Tobacco Auctioneers
42. Musical saw
43. Theremin
44. Pigeons
45. Seagulls
46. Owls
47. Mockingbirds
48. Doves
The world's making music all the time.

Q: What's scary to you?
A:
01. A dead man in the backseat of a car with a fly crawling on his eyeball.
02. Turbulence on any airline.
03. Sirens and search lights combined.
04. Gunfire at night in bad neighborhoods.
05. Car motor turning over but not starting, its getting dark and starting to rain.
06. Jail door closing.
07. Going around a sharp curve on the Pacific Coast Highway and the driver of your car has had a heart attack and died, and you're in the back seat.
08. You are delivering mail and you are confronted with a Doberman with rabies growling low and showing teeth...you have no dog bones and he wants to bite your ass off.
09. In a movie...which wire do you cut to stop the time bomb, the green or the blue.
10. Mc Cain will win.
11. Germans with submachine guns.
12. Officers, in offices, being official.
13. You fell through the ice in the creek and it carried you down stream, and now as you surface you realize there's a roof of ice.

Q: Tell me about working with Terry Gilliam.
A: I am the Devil in the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus-not a devil...The Devil. I don't know why he thought of me. I was raised in the church. Gilliam and I met on Fisher King. He is a giant among men and I am in awe of his films. Munchausen I've seen a hundred times. Brazil is a crowning achievement. Brothers Grimm was my favorite film last year. I had most of my scenes with Christopher Plummer (He's Dr. Parnassus). Plummer is one of the greatest actors on earth! Mostly I watch and learn. He's a real movie star and a gentleman. Gilliam is an impresario, captain, magician, a dictator (a nice one), a genius, and a man you'd want in the boat with you at the end of the world.

Q: Give me some fresh song titles you two are working on.
A: "Ghetto Buddha", "Waiting For My Good Luck To Come", "I'll Be an Oak Tree Some Day", "In the Cage", "Hell Broke Loose", "Spin The Bottle", "High and Lonesome".

Q: You're going on the road soon, right?
A: We're going to PEHDTSCKJMBA (Phoenix, El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Tulsa, St. Louis, Columbus, Knoxville, Jacksonville, Mobile, Birmingham, Atlanta). I have a stellar band: Larry Taylor (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion). They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers. I'm doing songs with them I've never attempted outside the studio. They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men. We are the Borman Six and as Putney says, "The Borman Six have got to have soul."