Broke the ice...

After a loooong winter, and a near-rainout yesterday, I finally got out to "The Hill" in Central Park for a few hours. Man! It was good to see so many faces I haven't seen since last summer.

Believe it or not, this is gonna be the 14th summer of music in that spot.

Yeah, I know many of you are reading this in other parts of the country or around the world, but here in New York City when I woke up yesterday morning, it was pouring rain. Now, this summer, the day for the outdoor concerts is gonna be Saturday this year. But, since it was raining on Saturday as well, I thought maybe we'd give it a shot on sunday. Kinda disappointed when I saw the rain.

But, around noon the Sun came out and by 2 pm the ground looked like it was drying up. The temperature went over 60 degrees, so at the last minute I said, "What the hell! Might as well break the ice!"

Glad I did. I only sang for a couple of hours. But, it felt good.

I got to run a few new songs. I got to take a little test drive of a new piece of equipment I'm using out there... a new foot pedal. (I really hafta to work with it this week. I'm still a little buggy with it.) And, I got to realize how many tunes I wanna go over and bring out there this year... new stuff I've written, and new/old songs that I love.

But, yesterday almost felt like a rehearsal or a kind of a read-through. I have a feeling this is gonna be an amazing summer. But, remember... SATURDAY afternoons this year.

If you are new to this website, take a look around. Click on the "Archives", go back and read a few entries to get the feel of what we do around here. And, by all means, feel free to join the "Forum" over there and say "Hi".

Listen... there's a whole lot going on in this world. And, in the last few years I made a commitment to myself to do my best, in some small way, to use my gifts and means to make a difference for the Good... and, that includes my music. James Marino, my good friend and webmaster, and I had a brief talk yesterday about this website. And, it seems like it's time to set up an entire page for current events, seperate from this homepage. That way, people who care to can click on a seperate page to find out what's going on, and if they're really a little loopy, they can read my take on world events. Then, EVERYBODY will be free to join in the discussions in the "Forum" (message board) about whatever topics they feel like talkin' about.... music, the WAR, movies, politics, Love, sex... whatever.

I will keep updating this website, on the new page and in the Forum, with news from Iraq. Not on this homepage... but, it will be here.

That is a promise.

But, like in that great old song by Louis Armstrong, we'll just keep this homepage for the other stuff that goes in a "...Wonderful World"

Hey, listen... if you were out at "The Hill" in Central Park yesterday... "Thank You". I'm hoping for good weather this coming Saturday, and we'll call it the first official day of the new season....

Year XIV.

Whew! We're gonna have a lot of fun out there!

Thanks for everything.