Well, today I'm scouting new locations in Riverside Park for the Sunday gigs. (I got a list of places to check out from the Park Administrator, K.C. Sahl.) I'll let you guys know sooner than later if we find a good spot to hang out and share some music.

Oh, listen... on the last Monday of every month, I sit in at the SGA Songwriter's Circle in the Village. This Monday, I'm gonna be in Washington for meetings about the benefit concert. (More about that further down the page.) So, I'm not gonna be in the Circle this Monday night. But, if you've been there before, you know about the extraordinary songwriters that I'm lucky enough to share the stage with every month. Some of them will be there. So, head down there anyway and have a great time... for me. You won't be disappointed. Then, next month, I'll try to bring a few new songs or at least a work in progress, okay?

Hey! This oppressive weather is probably gonna break tomorrow. And, I think the weekend is lookin' pretty good for the usual concert in Central Park. I'll be out there, where I belong for now, at "The Hill" by the Lake, all afternoon.

"The Hill" in Central Park

If you stay in town, I'd love to see you out there this weekend. We'll do the usual... music, a few laughs, music... alot of smiles... music. Y'know, what we do.

Um... I've been a Yankee fan my whole life... through the good times and what I call "The Horace Clark Years". (Of course, for me, sports is truly in the Toy Department of Life. Nothing important at all goin' on down there on the field. But, it's fun.) But, I have a good, good friend... who HATES the Yankees! I actually LOVE how much she hates the Yankees! It makes me smile. I actually laugh with delight sometimes when the Yankees are doing poorly, because it makes her feel so good!!! She's a die-hard Mets fan who, in the natural order, oughta hate the Braves... but, even if the Yankees were playing Atlanta, she still roots against the Yankees. One time, I told a bunch of friends in her presence, that if the Yankees were playing the Third Reich, she would still root against the Yankees. (She, very seriously came back and said, "No. I draw the line at Hitler.") THAT's how much she hates the Yankees! It makes me smile. (It's all fun.)

Anyway... this is for you, Cajigas!

3 out of 4 in Boston... and a really tough, tough win in Texas last night... and, the Yankees just clawed there way back into first place for the first time since opening day.

Holy smokes! Did you feel that? I swear Manhattan just shook beneath me. The Wrath of Cajigas.

Ah... moving on.

Well... like I said before, in less than a week I'm heading down to D.C. to meet with the people of CIVIC, the organization that Marla Ruzicka started, and some people from a certain U.S Senator's office. We wanna see how they can help us facilitate the concert we're planning to help CIVIC, and Elissa Montanti's Global Medical Relief Fund.

Elissa is truly an angel.

She's got two kids who were very badly hurt in the Tsunami disaster arriving... probably today... to get the medical treatment they need.

.

Believe it or not, Elissa tells me these two kids... Tara and Hamdani, are the first two children from that tragedy to make it to the U.S. for medical treatment. And, Elissa is the reason.

She will be telling the country about her work on the TODAY SHOW very soon. Check back in here and I will let you know when, as soon as she tells me.

And, then her focus will be turning to the children being wounded and maimed in Iraq. Elissa will be focusing on the children because she is working closely with Shriners Childrens Hospitals. CIVIC, meanwhile, has been trying get an accurate and honest assessment of all of the civilian casualties in that war, while helping as many as they can in whatever ways that they can. These poor people are being overlooked by our government, the news media, and for the most part, the American people.

The concert we're planning for January is gonna be a larger version of the very, very good thing you all did on September 16th, 2001 in Central Park. I don't know how many of you reading this were actually there that day. But, in the immediate wake of September 11th, I asked you guys to directly help the families of FDNY Ladder 22. (They would park the truck at the top of "The Hill" and hang with us. They lost so many guys on the 11th.) Well, all of "The People on the Hill" together put over $7,250 in my guitar case... which I walked down to the fire house on 77th Street the next day. There were no middle-men, no "9-11 Fund", no Tom Hanks TV broadcast. It was...

...just us.

We wanna do it again.

We wanna help these people... directly. And, that's what Elissa and CIVIC are doing. So, we're gonna help them... help them.

Okay?

Y'know what? You can catch up on this project and find out some very simple way you can help... right now. I put it all in a recent update. Click on the link.

Get a general idea of what we're planning here.

One last thing... Bravo to CNN.

At 9:37 this morning, I saw the first item specifically about the civilian casualties in this war. Aneesh Raman reported from Baghdad about the nightmare most of our government officials and so many news organizations are ignoring.

Maybe the wind is changing.

Anyway... I'll see you guys on Friday night at Pier 45, or in Central Park this Saturday. (Maybe Riverside Park on Sunday.)

Thanks again.