Greetings. Amazing it is to me, on this flurried last day of February, to have enough time to write a quick note to update you all on my latest activities.
1. New recording fresh out of the recording oven. "She moves through the fair" an old Irish folk song - done by many and now by me. This song just keeps going through my brain so I had to record it.
2. Performance next weekend at Brothers K in Evanston at their Open Mike.
3. More new recordings to come...just be patient please!t

Sometimes I think MySpace sux  -when I want to do certain things and it says "Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group.



" - Oh yeah, maybe that's why I've been on Facebook more often lately....

Just a beautiful song/poem ! It's on Bringing it all Back Home. I never get tired of Bob Dylan's poetry, word play, zen-like obviousness, obvious-like zen-ness. Listening to his songs I have often wished to be a painter and paint some of the scenes Dylan has evoked. What would a "motorcycle black madonna
Two-wheeled gypsy queen" look like? Someone out there want to paint me one?

Gates Of Eden

Hey people! I just updated my top friends list.I don't keep my top friends the same in perpetuity  - I change things around - so if you were a top friend and are no longer - please do not take it to heart. I just want to mix things up. Maybe more importantly, I wanted everyone in my top friends to be - actual - living - breathing people - who - I've actually crossed paths with - either in person or via email - or - in the case of Mr. Country Joe MacDonald, someone for whom I've actually collected their autograph - yes, he signed our copy of Electric Music for the Body and Mind! So, my top friends is no longer a catalog of my favorite music and philosophy influences. But it could be again if I choose. None of my top friends are dead people - and I think that is an improvement.

Just uploaded five original songs that have vocals. Some have been posted here before. Just felt like showing the singer-songwriter side of my music for a change. These songs stretch from my earliest recording, Eighty Miles Blue Again (1998) to more recent stuff , Origin (2007). I promise ( as best I can) that I will post some new original songs up here soon !

Warning the thinking public that our society is/has become an Orwellian reality is - well not exactly earthshaking news but I saw this quotation from Orwell’s1984 on a blog somewhere. I think it’s worth stating that it reminds us that the old guard of the dominant consensus reality will do everything in their power to maintain that status quo and prevent the distribution of new ideas, the dawning of new paradigms and the like from seeing the light of day:

’A Party member ... is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors ... The discontents produced by his bare, unsatisfying life are deliberately turned outwards and dissipated by such devices as the Two Minutes Hate, and the speculations which might possibly induce a skeptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early acquired inner discipline ... called, in Newspeak, crimestop. Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.’

Hello. I am adjusting to my new life in Evanston. I've been here since the end of October. It's a great place to live and with Chicago about a block away there are way too many things to do. It is an amazing contrast with Kalamazoo and Portland and even Seattle. There are just so many people, so many cars, lights, jets....my brain starts spinning. I am still looking for a regular day job. I thought it would be easier but thus far this has not been the case. Once I get working though, I intend to upload a lot more music. Chicago is a haven for music of all kinds and I am finding myself ever more attracted to blues and jazz - just being here makes me want to hear some hard core blues - some Lightning Hopkins or maybe some Smokey Smothers!
No fear though, my music , however it evolves will always be etheric.
Oh, I had a great Holiday season. Got to see my step-son, who turned 18 on December 27. That's when we three took a road tip to New Orleans. The food was magnificent. I am in love with Gumbo! ANd we herard some amazing music. Went to Preservation Hall and heard a great semi-trad jazz band. The vibes inside Preservation Hall are quite spooky. The place dates back to the 1750s. It's been a meeting place for pirates, whores, ne're do wells of all types, and of course, jazz musicians! We also heard some Zydeco at Tippatinas' - got me dancing!
New Orleans, the tourist New Orleans is back, strong as it ever was. Bourbon Street simply busting at its seems. SO many people - drunk people, football fans in for the Sugar Bowl, tourists like ourselves - well not at all like ourselves...
Before we left, we took an excursion toward the 9th Ward. Leah had come down here about 6 months after Katrina to work at Emergency Communities, so she knew what the devistation was like. I had never seen anything like it myself. While I guess things are a lot better than 2 years ago, there is still a long road of recovery to follow. There are still blocks and blocks of abandoned houses. All of them still have those big red Xs on them!
I don't make New Years resolutions but I do make New Years wishes. Here's to wishing a true, tangible recovery for all of New Orleans in '08 !

Hi all. TOday is moving day. Now to Evanston, IL. Seems like a good place. Goodbye Kzoo. We tried. Here's to better days for you and for me.
More soon, must sleep now...

Hello. I have uploaded some new stuff. "Savasana" was just recorded last night. Not sure that it is done. Might add some vocals to it, possibly by my friend Tamar. "Dark Blue Sunshine Shadows" was recorded in 2005 - it is actually the theme from the 60s gothic soap, "Dark Shadows" . I ran it backwards and added some goofy animal sounds and some electronic percussion. I hope it's at least partly my song now...."Economic Crisis" was recorded earlier this year. It's goofy too - a nod to my love of garage style 60s punk psychedelia. Very Iggy influenced. I'm mostly happy with Savasana though. "Savasana" aka "corpse pose" in yoga. It's not about death, it's about deep deep relaxation.

Wow, all I can say... what a fantastic summer, capped by a whirlwind trip to Burning Man, but punctuated by many high points... I can't list them all - just two nights ago playing songs with my friend Tamar at the open mike at the Blue Moon Tavern in Seattle - I know this is a run-on sentence, a night and a day in San Francisco, a night with the family at Hoods Canal ( Robin Hood Villiage Cottages - yo must go there!), Hemp Fest, Winthrop Blues Festival, Interlake Preschool - where Leah and I worked, cooling our heels for the summer.

Burning Man - my first time there (along with about 25000 other first timers) - incomprehensible, ineffible, weirdness, sadness, absurdity, beauty. It was truly a psychedelic 3 nights and no mind altering substances were consumed, except for some home made absinthe of all things. It was delicious. I discovered some things - you do discover things when there are 60 mph dust storms, leaky air mattresses, and 105 degree temperatures. The beauty of the desert at 5am is like nothing I've ever seen! The pounding of euro-disco and tribal drums , like 24 hours a day , is crazy-making, The Green Tortoise could have been/should have been a much better ride than it turned out to be. Burning Man - it's not about wearing faux fur and skimpy under-wear ( I wore no underwear - it's just hot to do that), it's a lot more than just the burning of the man, himself, it's about truth, redemption, forgiveness, and letting go. That's what I found out when I went to the temple and sent a simple note of love to my long dead sister. That was the moment of letting go for me. Much will be said about this year's burning man. There are too many people there, many of the young kids who go really don't get it. Maybe someday they will. Dust storms, a suicide (RIP), possibloe commercialism around the corner. I'm glad I went and I'm happy to call myself a 'burner" now. And I'll go again.

Leaving Seattle - tomorrow. It's bittersweet. I love this town, summer has not been without tribulations. I will always have Seattle and I will always come back but the midwest awaits us and specifically, we will be moving to Chicago next month, so I am excited about our future. Chicago too has some mighty great music and I lok forward to playing some there.

Got:

and