Whew...

Little bit of a music marathon this weekend.

Hey, if you went away for the weekend, hope you had a great time. I stayed here in New York City and played music all over this town. It was kinda cool. Met a whole lotta new, really cool people. A bunch of new people signed the email book, so I guess there are a bunch of new sets of eyes here at this website this week. If you're new here... welcome. Take a look around. Look through the "Archives". Jump into the "Forum" (message board) and say "Hi". Have fun.

Sorry the "Sunset Concert Series" got rained out last Friday. But, I'll be back on Pier 45 this coming Friday night. (I think Roger "Dodger" Bartlett is gonna be able to join me again. That'll be cool.)

But... man! What a great day we had in Central Park on Saturday! If you weren't there, we had a... well... we all had... um... no... nevermind. I'm not gonna tell you what you missed. Don't want you to feel bad. But, we had a great time and a lotta laughs! (If you were there, you know what I'm talkin about!)

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Then on Sunday afternoon, I headed over to Riverside Park for the first afternoon of music over there. I really dug it. Thanks to Ed Grimm and K.C. Sahl for makin' it happen! It felt a little weird at first.... different hill, different park. But, I think it's gonna be a very cool thing to do. I might even bring along a stool to sit on and make it a little more of a storytelling kinda thing... to make it a little different than "The Hill" in Central Park. Just a thought. I hope, if you ever can't make it Central Park on a Saturday, you remember that we're doing basically the same kinda thing in Riverside Park on Sunday afternoons, hopefully for the rest of the summer. (Our friend, Sue Hannah, emailed in the first "Riverside Hill Photo" today.)

Then, yesterday on July 4th, I was asked to play for the volunteers that run the FREE-kayaking dock on the Hudson River at 71st Street. So, y'know, I packed up my guitar and headed over there and sang for a few hours. That was cool, too. It was also kinda gratifying to have sooooo many people along the river ask me why I wasn't in Central Park! (Ha! And, still nobody knows my name! "Hey, Guitar Man! What're doin' over here by the river!?") Listen, who knows... maybe the kayak-people will have another barbecue and we'll do it again before the end of the year. And listen, if you're not aware of it... yes, the kayaking is absolutely free and they are out there ALL the time. It run by a group of people who just want to make sure the people of this town actually get to use the city's waterfronts for fun. It's a very good thing to do.

Anyway, speaking of "good" things to do... listen...

In the coming weeks, I'm gonna keep posting information about the concert we're planning to help the innocent civilians whose lives are being destroyed by the war in Iraq. I'll keep you up-to-date here on this website. But, as the thing progresses, James Marino is also gonna build a separate site for more comprehensive updates. If you wanna know about the project, keep checking back. If you wanna know the reasons for this concert and why my good friends and fellow artists feel so passionately about it, you can always go into the "Forum" and read all about it in the "Iraq Comments" thread and the "News from Iraq" thread. (You're input and comments are also welcome, of course.)

In the meatime, tomorrow my buddy Dennis and I are going to meet with a woman whose group is hopefully going to be one of the beneficiaries of this effort. She works miracles, getting badly wounded Iraqi children to the United States for the medical help they so desperately need. I'll let you know all about our visit on Thursday.

Hey... whatever you're doing today.... make it worthwhile, okay? Maybe I'll see you in the "Forum" later to day if I have time to check in.

Thanks again.