Well I guess it's been a long while since I've written one of these but being home in bed in uptown NY lock-out homebase brings limited forms of expression. Where do I start? Where did I leave off? The last 7 months have been a lot of fun starting with the band in the UK on a promo tour in January blasting through February and March with interviews, promotion and interrogation on both sides of the pond, releasing this "Glitter in the Gutter" which leads me to your town with a suitcase full of wacky covers and songs from two other records to choose from to create a set-list.

How did I end up here? Cancelling a bunch of shows, laying around with a remote control popping pain killers. Yuk! I left for tour again on April 30, to start for 2 and a half weeks in the U.K and Ireland, which was amazing - some of the best audiences I get to play to (I was especially happy to get to go back to Belfast - Cinco De Mayo). Return to Europe for another 2 weeks to play alot of places I hadn't been to in a very long time. You could spend over a week touring Germany "Mr. Malin, what do you mean by 'The Fine Art of Self Destruction'?" "Action strasser!"  Even played a place called the Mudd Club in Berlin. After ending in Paris (somehow it always ends in Paris for you, me or Bogart) we flew home to touch down at JFK but no rest for the wicked, broken hearted or emo-core, punk, folk, alternative country, powerpop, glam, singer-songwriter, NY rock, industrial, alternative, major, indie impresario like myself.  The touring continues.

I was so excited to have my cell phone after a month of stealing calls out of booking offices, street coin phones, skype, Michael Stipe, peep shows and carrier pigeons. I decided to put my phone between my neck and my shoulder and use my hands to carry my luggage and my sister Juliet's luggage up four flights while having a conversation on the evil cellular tool. After 3 trips I was a bit crunchy. Next day at the Stone Pony I felt a little off in my shoulder, a little crooked but a homoerotic ointment known as Ben Gay seemed to sooth my pains as well as a couple Sauza shots and a wonderful audience at NJ's Stone Pony - I felt no pain. So I continued to go on, helping out lifting 4x12 cabinets with super roadie Harry. Gotta pitch in and keep it real. Little did I know I had been bitten by some kind of poisonous bug and probably scratched it like a 1984 hip-hop D.J. Who knows? Somewhere 4 weeks later after many wonderful shows in what some people call "God's country", I ended up with the craziest pains. I once fell off a stage playing in my old band DGeneration opening up for KISS at the Boston Garden, but this was a different kind of pain.. Throbbing and BURNING, I still felt that the show must go on. Poppin' Advils and Vicodins like candy is hard for a guy that carry's a plastic case filled with neurotic super vitamins and emergenC packs in his tour bag. But this kept me from not feeling the pain until after the show. I stayed out as long as I could until I collapsed and had to fly home from Minneapolis. I hadn't slept more than a couple of hours in weeks because of the pain, so I had to cancel a few shows in places I was really looking forward to playing - which we will reschedule. As I sit here waiting for the results of my MRI and bumming heavily about the shows I have to reschedule I think this tour has been one of the best ever and one of the longest stretches (11 weeks - almost made it 12 in a row). I never like to look at the whole tour on my web pages or itineraries. Sometimes it can come off overwhelming. I like to take each day or 2 as they come - in each town.

We were joined by a bitter sweet pop band from Los Angeles called Acute. We travelled both my band and those boys, twelve of us in one bus that was painted black and read in huge white letters "Death and Taxes". When we pulled into town everybody from the homeless to the rich business people looked at it and said "What the fuck!" Got pulled over at the Canadian/Michigan border and held in custody for hours after a very excited sniffing and humping dog went beserk over our suitcases. Nothing was found, not even a seed. As I've said before, not into the drugs, though I must confess, did like Sugar Smacks cereal as a kid. We also had, for the first leg of the tour, the beautiful Holly Ramos (who co-wrote "Cigarettes and Violets", "Tomorrow, Tonight", "Black Haired Girl") playing songs from her new release "Race Horse".

Doing lots of TV on this run was a blast. At the Jay Leno show I realized how much more nervous I was 4 years ago on my first album when I first appeared. This time I got to play with a huge snake with Samuel Jackson, but not on a plane. I talked about peace with Ben Kingsley in a men's room at the Craig Ferguson show. Did lots of those Good Morning America shows (Good Morning San Diego, Minneapolis, etc.) where they go "After the weather, up next is Jesse Malin and he's gonna tell us what it's like working with "THE BOSS." In Chicago, I felt sad watching the Virgin Records on Michigan Ave. go out of business, or looking for a record store like Tower, which I seemed to have known all the different locations in each city (as I craved a musical fix). I like album artwork,; I like impulsive shopping; I like running into strangers; I like hearing things in the shop. This spontaneous ritual I am going to miss. RAVE ON MOM & POP SHOPS and VINYL OUTLAWS.

We hooked up with Chuck Ragan who opened up some of the west coast shows as well as Acute. His dark and gutteral voice set a nice tone for the evening. Then we were joined up by the Wildbirds, a bunch of rockin' lads from Wisconsin in a shortbus fueled by Vegetable Oil and free beer. Suddenly the wall of percussion grew on "Tomorrow Tonight" with my new extended family and the Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" became a Malin/Acute/Wildbirds sing along sandwich at the end of the night. Met so many sweet friends, fans and supporters at the merch table. Took lots of sweaty photos via cell phone, digital cameras. Got high from the sharpe magic marker signature scribble. Got lots of great music, books and questioned "what does PMA mean?" The trick is, like what they say in those AA meetings, keep coming back, it works. Whether it was 60 people or 1200 people, I like to play every show like it could be the last. Having to cancel breaks my heart.

Now that I'm home, what do I do? Well, I watch "Sesame Street". Can you believe I haven't seen this show in 20 years! Do you know many of the same actors, not just the puppets, are still on the show? Bob and Maria who I watched when I was 7 are still there. They didn't get new versions. They let these people be human and age with me and the rest of us muppets. Watching "Easy Rider" on AMC I was reminded that a great and true definition of anarchy as peace and freedom is described by Jack Nicholson round the camp fire after smoking his first joint. When I first saw this film when I was 19 I thought I knew cinema. I didn't get it. I thought it was a bunch of guys riding around on bikes listening to Steppenwolf so when people ask me what the circled A on their autographed CD next to the peace sign means, I tell them it's anarchy - not the chaos that kills, but the freedom that Jack speaks about in this wonderful scene in Easy Rider.

I finally caught up on "The Sopranos" after having to play Chicago and be on stage the night of the last episode. But my great friend Bob Benjamin was sending me FedEx packages with the last episodes to different hotels (some people have contraband sent in FedEx envelopes - I guess I'm a "Soprano's" junkie). Watching "Sicko" on the bus and ending up the next days in different emergency rooms with miles of red tape was ironic. Watching Bush pardon Libby to avoid his own Watergate. As we gear up for the 2008 presidential election, it seems to interest me more than ever after: 1. the worst administration of all time 2. Hillary Clinton running (once was a Republican, now a Democrat) 3. Obama running 4. and my old nemesis, NY's Rudy Giuliani running. It's going to be very interesting!! Noticing how these candidates flip flop on their views and stance. Giuliani, who was always anti- handgun, now is pro. They all seem to do this at different times. Maybe as some people have suggested, they grow with age and change and mature or get scared. Maybe it's like me when I was a kid hating the Beach Boys and now I buy Beach Boys' records. Or God, did a friend of mine actual turn me on to a good Grateful Dead song? It will be interesting to sit back and watch.

If the polar caps don't melt and China doesn't take over, Bush doesn't blow up the world, the government doesn't make everyone have to wear white iPod earphones at all times, Starbucks doesn't start their own Dr. Goebbels Big Brother radio station, record stores become obsolete, and everyone stays home in orange alert, net-flixing, myspacing, home shopping and googling themselves to bed every night... but somehow I still believe "it's all gonna be alright." Miss you all.

JFM