What a year this has been!

Thanks for another great summer in Central Park.

I hope we all... all of us... find our way in 2006.

Reason, Truth, Peace... compassion, kindness will win out.

Find yourself losing hope?

Nah.... there's hope. There's always hope.

Y'know how I can say that with certainty?

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I have it.

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And, in 2006... lotsa music... lotsa laughs... lotsa Good work to do.

Okay?

Just wanna take a quick look back at some stuff from here on the website. FREE music downloads. Photoshop things... a few cartoons. Y'know, if you find yourself so inclined and with a little time on your hands, go back and browse through the "Archives" of this year as far back as it goes. (Considering the time James Marino, the websmaster, posted a page that said, "Oops! I broke the website." And I, like a bonehead, trashed spome of the most fun photos.)

Still, most of the fun and the articles are still there.

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about the...

...concert on January 28th. (Click on that logo to visit the Voices Togetherwebsite.)

But, for this weekend, download whatever you want for FREE and pass them on to your friends.

Like, here was a new song about a cowboy who has a secret. Go ahead. Click on the title and download the song for FREE.

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A different Cowboy's Lament

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This past summer, Elissa Montanti, who calls herself the Global Medical Relief Fund, brought two little angels who were badly hurt in the tsunami disaster to "The Hill". Tara and Hamdani.

My buddy Roger Bartlett and I played down at Pier 45 in the Village at Hudson River Park again this summer, before Dodger moved to Las Vegas.

"Christian" evangelist and right-wing nutjob, Pat Robertson, helped make my song "JesusLand" more relevant than ever this year by calling for the assassination of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and by telling the town of Dover, PA that they had actually voted God out of their town. Click on this good 'ol boy's face to hear the most requested of the downloadable songs this year. (This song actually rocketted around the internet, and was played nationally on Air America for a while.)

There was the Run-Away-Bride-Towel-Look. (The American "news" media at it's best.)

There was your basic argument against "Intelligent" design...

...who nominated his girlfriend to the supreme court.

We had a stretch this summer of something like 12 or 14 days of rain in a row. Remember?

Roger (Dodger) made a really great "Special" appearance at Merkin Concert Hall in December.

The Department of Homeland Security finally came up with a chart that made sense.

And of course, we heard a lot about "progress" this year.

And, certain kinds of people started to send me really whacky email.... basically telling me what songs I should and should not play. (Like I care!)

I began to discover that there were actually many people in Congress who have look-alikes.

I mean, with Trent Lott... maybe it's just the hair.

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And, for the film buffs or older readers out there... do you guys remember a comic actor naamed Joe E. Brown. (He was in the classic film "Some Like It Hot". Bill Frist has always reminded me of him... just not as funny. And, I don't think Brown was ever investigated for insider trading.)

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And I'm sorry, but I swear... if Senator Harry Reid was in drag, he would look exactly like Mrs. Landingham from The West Wing. (In fact, I have never seen the two of them together.) Glad he finally stood up on his hind legs and started demanding the Truth about the war in Iraq. But, just the same...

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It was year of devastating hurricanes. (And, of course, "Brownie, I think yer doin' a heck of a job!")

I visited Washington DC to tell Senator Pat Leahy's office about the idea for the Voices Together Concert. (And decided to make a little music while I was down there... in my way.)

Here in New York City, we all got through a viciously-timed transit strike the week before Christmas.

The "Storyteller Hill" in Riverside Park was born this summer.

I started cartooning again! Here are a few of the most recent. Click on the image for the larger version to print out.

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I call them, "Damned Scooter!" - "The Wheels Came Off" - "'At's My Boy!" - "Who Knew Pants Really Catch Fire?"

Doh! Here's another...

Oh yeah! And, this year it finally made sense to me why Dick Cheney is such a disingenuous, duplicitous, evil man.

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We all had some really, special, musical moments in Central Park this year. I got to sing with and for some of the most wonderful people on the face of the earth and I'm so grateful for that.

Yeah...

It was an amazing year. And this is the year that the idea for the Voices Together Concert was born. I'll be back tomorrow to let you know all abot that, okay? It's really gonna be a special night.

This was just a quick glance back.

Like I say, "I glance.... but don't stare." It's time to begin a new lap around the Sun.

Thank you, all... for giving me the opportunity to share the music that's inside of me with all of you. Hope I see you all soon, and that 2006 moves us all closer to our True Place.

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Thanks again.