Welcome to the website.

Man! Hangin' out with all of you, sharing music at "The Hill" in Central Park for half the year is always very cool.

"The Hill" in Central Park

"Cool" is one thing. But, I was running around the East Side yesterday and decided to walk back to the West Side through the park. Stopped by "The Hill" as I often like to do off-season... just to hang out alone for a couple of minutes and feel the residual good feeling that you guys leave out there. (It lingers, y'know. Ahhh... maybe that's just in my heart. But, I feel it.)

Anyway... it was freeeezzzzing out there. Damn! I mean, face-hurting, finger-numbing, ear-stinging cold. The Lake is frozen. The Hill is covered with what use to be snow and is now jagged ice. A long way from standing there in the Sun with a guitar on my shoulder.

But, y'know? The feeling is gonna be warm at Merkin Concert Hall in 3 nights.

These days, there are people visiting this site from different parts of the US and several countries. get dozens of emails from all over. I just got another great email from a woman in London. Seems Festivus and Seinfeld and this site reach all over the place.

Hey,

Just wanted to say what a cool idea the Podcast of Merkin Hall would be and I hope that you can make it happen. Enjoy the night and please play "Thunder Road" in case that Podcast/recording happens :)

Take care and Happy Festivus (George so ruled Seinfeld!),

Emma
London UK

Very cool. But, if you live in or around New York City...

Saturday night. You doin' anything? It's time for the annual "Year-End Holiday Concert". Seriously... if you've ever been to one of these, you know what I'm talkin' about. I love the energy that happens in that room every year we get together to escort another year out the door.

We lowered the price of the tickets this year. (We decided everybody needs a break... even just a little break.) So, ALL the seats in the whole place are $20. I checked the box office this week and there are still good seats in the orchestra, and a whole bunch of great seats in the balcony. (It's really right on top of the stage.)

And, I happen to know that a couple of pairs of excellent seats in the orchestra were just released for sale... today!

Okay... so, you can call the box office.

212-501-3330

You guys ready to hang out and sing!?

Merkin Concert Hall is near Lincoln Center... on West 67th Street. (Between Broadway and Amsterdam.)

Gig starts at 8:00

By the way, yeah sure... we'll do stuff from my CDs, and some fun holiday stuff. But, this year I'm gonna try to get a Festivus Pole for the stage.

Okay, okay... some of you reading this have NO idea what the hell Festivus is.

HAPPY FESTIVUS!

It was born in the mind of Daniel O'Keefe in 1966 and passed on to his son, Dan, who became a writer for the show Seinfeld. Dan O'Keefe told the rest of writing staff about his father's "Festivus", and the idea made it into episode #166. The character Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller) created Festivus as an alternative holiday in response to the commercialization of Christmas. He explained its origins during the episode to the character Kramer (played by Michael Richards), as related in the following dialogue:

The Birth of Festivus

In the episode, Kramer had become interested in resurrecting the holiday after hearing the plight of his friend George (Frank's son, played by Jason Alexander), who used the holiday celebration he hated in his youth as an excuse to his employer, Kruger. George had been confronted by Kruger after handing out cards for Christmas to his fellow employees stating a donation had been made to a fake charity (invented by George) called The Human Fund (with the slogan "Money For People") in lieu of exchanging Christmas presents. George defended himself saying that he feared persecution for his beliefs, for not celebrating Christmas. Attempting to call his bluff, Kruger came home with George to see Festivus dinner.

The Birth of "The Human Fund"

The Festivus celebration includes four major components:

* The Festivus Pole: The Costanzas' tradition begins with a bare aluminum pole, which Frank praises for its "very high strength-to-weight ratio." During Festivus, an unadorned aluminum pole is displayed. The pole was chosen apparently in opposition to the commercialization of highly decorated Christmas trees, because it is "very low-maintenance," and also because the holiday's patron, Frank Costanza, finds "tinsel distracting."

* Festivus Dinner: The Festivus dinner menu is flexible, but it should be filling non-holiday comfort food (no turkey, duck, goose, or ham). The televised dinner featured what may have been meatloaf or spaghetti in a red sauce. (Presumably, an entree in a red sauce is more festive.)

* The Airing of Grievances: At the Festivus dinner, each participant tells friends and family "all the ways" they've disappointed him or her that year.

* The Feats of Strength: The head of the family tests his or her strength against one participant of the head's choosing. Festivus is not considered over until the head of the family has been pinned to the ground. A participant is allowed to decline to attempt to pin the head of the family only if they have something better to do instead. Other imaginative Feats of Strength have been developed, including washer tossing.

Anyway...

...I just thought, heathen that I am, since there are gonna be different people celebrating different holidays in the audience, maybe I'd write a song for "Festivus". I'm probably gonna run it by you guys at the concert Saturday night.

Oh, hey listen... bring a few extra dollars to the gig, okay? 'Cause all of the CDs are gonna be on sale in the lobby before and after the show. And this year, if you buy any of the albums, you will get your choice of one of the single CDs for FREE! CDs make a great Chirstmas gift... 'cause they're really easy to wrap and even mail someplace!

And then... keep the single for yourself!

Ha!

Anyway, I gotta get running. Got a lot to do today. But, for the "Cast Party" people, I wanted to follow up on this.

One of the "Cast Party" regulars was conspicuously absent last Monday night... the energetic and electric, Bob Dolphin. I was a little concerned. But, I mentioned it on this website and sure enough, my friend and Nancy-Drew-wannabe, Christine Lavin, tracked Bob down. (Although Mr. Dolphin won't confirm or deny the authenticity of this photo.)

(If you don't know what we're talkin' about... uh... nevermind.)

Hey, if you're new here at the website, take a look throght he "Archives" if you want. There are a couple of FREE song downloads and political cartoons to print out... all kindsa stuff. And, if you wanna email me or the webmaster about anything at all, just hit that "Contact" button, okay?

See you Saturday night!

Thanks again