Hey guys...

We're moving into... today. Another day. A new day.

Very cool.

Won't be long before we're back out in Central Park for another season of music and laughs. I've already started putting together a rough setlist of brand new songs and cover songs for Summer 2006.

By the way... did you watch the Academy Awards a couple of nights ago?

What did you guys think of Jon Stewart's debut at that event?

I never watch awards shows. I mean, I catch a little snippet of 'em here and there. But, generally I never watch those things. I watched this year... (albeit I turned it on about an hour into it, so I missed the opening. So, I didn't catch the most important part for the host.) But, I caught a lot of it.

Now, I'm a HUGE Jon Stewart fan. But, I didn't think he particularly hit a home run. The gig kinda lacked the enthusiasm and special-ness... the kind of thing that Carson or Crystal seemed to bring to it when I'd seen them host it in the past.

Still... I'm a huge fan of Stewart. And, I think The Daily Show is the hippest show on television.

Blah-blah...

Oh hey.

Check this out, though. This is clever. It's a fake trailer for a film called...

BrokeBack to the Future

Have fun.

Man! There are a lot of clever people out there.

Out there on the internet.

Speaking of that... y'see those clips over there on the right under "Podcasts"?

They're not really what James Marino (webmaster) and I consider Podcasts. They're really just free sound clips from various events I've done... some fun stuff. But, this week we'll be talkin' about jumping into the Podcast stream. Once we kick around some ideas, I might ask James to describe what he's got in mind in the "Forum" (message board).

Um... in the meantime, I just had a thought. Got a question, a legitimate and in no way a mean-spirited question. But, I'm curious... for anybody who voted for George W. Bush.

Now that hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in the violence in Iraq (many of them children), sectarian violence is tearing the civilian population to pieces, that part of the world is already in a steady low-grade civil war and teetering on the precipice of all out civil war dragging Iran and Saudi Arabia into it... let's see, Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are still sending video messages from... somewhere. America has abandon it's principles concerning torture, domestic privacy and the basic rule of law. (We have a man in the Oval Office who is flagrantly breaking a law enacted in 1978. And, nobody on either side of the aisle has the balls to actually do the right thing and draw up an article of impeachment.) Hurricane Katrina was a nightmare of incompetence and the Vice President has operated under a veil of secrecy unlike anything this nation has ever seen. The rich are getting much richer and the poor are suffering more vividly than at any time since the Great Depression. The budget deficit is spiraling out of control, while oil companies and pharmacutical companies are reporting record profits.

And in Iraq we're rapidly approaching the same number of Americans killed in New York on September 11th, 2001... here's the question.

So... howzit goin' for you?

How's your sense of right and wrong?

Feeling it yet?

Feeling a little ugly about things?

Ready to join the rest of us who love this country in doing what is right and Good? Are you grown up and do you have enough real courage and character to just say, "Um... we were wrong. We were lied to. We were misled. We love this country but...

...we were soooooo wrong."

.

2,752 people died in my town on September 11... now 2,301 in Iraq.

.

.

And remember... Iraq had NO weapons of mass destruction, posed NO imminent threat to the U.S., and had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11th.

So... just wondering.

How you feelin' these days?

It's not too late. Most of you are probably good people who also love this country as I do. But, correcting mistakes begins with admitting error. As John Lennon wrote in his wonderful tune, "Imagine"...

"I hope someday you will join us."

Okay, moving on.

Once again, THANK YOU! To all of you who are helping out with this year's Permit Fund.

Seriously.

It makes it easier.

Once I get settled in this new place I'll try to send a personal "Thank You" email to every one of you, okay?

If you feel like helping out with this year's "Permit fund"... now would be a good time to do it. I put the paperwork and fees in for most of the permits to play on "The Hill" in Central Park already. If everyting goes smoothly, and it doesn't rain like it did last Spring, we'll be hanging out together before you know it.

So if you feel like it, the webmaster James Marino has made it really easy. There are two buttons over there on the right. PayPal actually keeps a smaller percentage of your donation. But, either method is good.

But, only if you feel like it and only if you can afford to help out. Remember, it's most important to me that you show up... with or without your money.

Listen, I gotta get out there and get to work. If you feel like emailing me about anything at all, just click on the "Contact" button. I can't answer all the email I get. But, I promise I eventually read every single one. And, listen... I know there are people reading this in different parts of the country and different parts of the world. If you're new here, take a look through the "Archives" to see what we've been up to. There's alotta fun stuff in there... FREE songs to download, original political cartoons I've drawn... all kindsa stuff.

Thanks again.