Saturday, April 22, 2006
Hey!!! Welcome to the website this weekend. Today...
I'm actually gonna respond to something posted in the "Forum" (message board.)
I'll do it at the end of this update, okay?
I'm gonna start cutting back on these written updates and start focussing on the Podcasts more and more. So, if you have dial-up... GET HIGH SPEED ACCESS!
Okay?
The weather is looking kinda rotten, cold & rainy. So I'm sure this weekend will not see our first afternoon in Central Park.
But, we'll be together soon. MAN! We're gonna have a lot of fun this year! (Maybe I'll see you at Birdland a week from this Monday Night! Yeah, plan on gettin' a little snazzy and come to Birdland for a Summer Kickoff-Look Back-Anniversary gig. (More about that in a minute.)
So, we're all set to start in Central Park. We just need some good weather and...WE JUST NEED THE PARKS DEPARTMENT TO TAKE DOWN THE FENCE AROUND "THE HILL". Soon, I hope! I'm starting to wonder who's behind the fence... "Fencegate" we'll call it.
THERE ARE A COUPLE OF REALLY COOL THINGS GOIN' ON TODAY!
First... there is a new installment of "I Love the Company"!
On today's show, I'm introducing you all to our new reporter and White House correspondent, the beautiful and talented Victoria Addison. She actually went down to D.C. today to sit in on one of the last press breifings that will be given by Scott McClellan... the man I affectionately call the "pasty-faced twinkie". (That's only because he's a morally bankrupt, documented liar and the public face of everything that has gone wrong in America today! Other than that, I'm sure he's a peach.)
Click on this logo to listen to the show and see what she found out about "Fencegate".
And, today's musical guest is a guy who not only writes beautiful love songs, but is also pee-in-your-pants funny. A good friend and helluva a talent named Ray Jessel.
Anyway, what else?
OH, YEAH!
I really would love it if you would all come on May 1st to help me celebrate the 14 years I have been "That Guitar Man from Central Park".
I've been playing out in Central Park for a looooong time. I'm a really lucky man. I would love it if you would help me take a look back over the past 14 years, help me celebrate them.... and, help me kick off the 15th years of music.
We'll call it... um... I don't know...
THE ANNIVERSARY/SUMMER KICKOFF/LOOK-BACK/GET-THE-HELL-STARTED-AGAIN GIG
(You're not gonna wanna miss this thing. It's in two weeks!!! It's really not that big a place, so make reservations soon, okay?)
Here's the number: (212) 581-3080
Anyway... it's on MAY 1 at 7:00 (That's a monday night.)
To make reservations, call that number or just visit the Birdland site.
Okay...
A guy named MIKE H. posted a link to a song by an artist who does stuff that's a whole lot different than the stuff I do. But, music is music. I wanted to respond to the song and his post. (I make a point of staying out of the "Forum". So, I'll post my response here for all of you to see.)
Here's a video of the song.
Dear Mr. President
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Thanks Mike... (A very rare response to the message board.)
But, my feeling about that song is just outside of language... can't really find the words to express it except, like I always say, "There are songs I like, songs I love and songs I wish I wrote."
I wish I wrote that song.
Thanks for making me aware of it. Maybe I'll sing it this summer.
I wrote one song (that hopefully will be recorded soon) about an imagining, a half asleep daydream I had about sitting across a table from George W. Bush... and, he was weeping inconsolably. Weeping with the sorrow that also knows no words.... shoulder-shaking, snot-running, eye-clenching, chest-gripping sorrow. I recall in this dream being at a complete loss sitting across from this man, never believing that he could be honest enough with his own heart to ever experience this kind of pain.
But in this image, I slowly stood up and sat next to him. I put my arm around his shoulder and asked, "What is it I can do to help you, George?"
He could hardly breathe through his tears, so he just hung his head lower and shook his head from side to side.
So, I gently said to him, "Okay, Okay... what is it that you have to do? Do you know?"
And just as suddenly, I was back in reality.
Y'know, I wrote the song "I Was You" in response to that dream and to those few misguided, fear-driven people who have ever accused me of hating George W. Bush. (Yes, I poke my head in the "Forum" once in a while and read the truly rotten and false things some people write about me and my music.) But y'see, I think... when you hate someone, you delight in their pain. You delight in seeing their anguish. All I could feel was amazement and empathy and sadness.
In this real world, however, the more I experience this man on a daily basis, the more I relate to Pink's lyric, "You never would walk with me... would you?"
No. No, he wouldn't.
I now feel very strongly that a shallow and phony man like George W. Bush could never feel that kind of grief... unless of course, he was feeling it for himself; and not those who really know hard work; and not those who really hafta show up for life; and not those hundreds of thousands of people he is responsible for hurting; and... certainly not for the hundreds of thousands of people, Iraqi and American, gripped with indescribable grief over the death and destruction for which he is directly responsible.
Yeah, what does he feel when he looks in the mirror?
I believe his mirror is made of polished silver.
Really very sad for us all.
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Seriously, I would really like to hear from you. Register in the new version of the "Forum" (message board) and chime in about "I Love the Comapny". Let me know what music you wanna hear, what you think you'd like to hear discussed on the show. If you have any guests you'd like to hear, let me know that, too.
Okay, I gotta get to work. If you wanna email me about anything, just hit the "Contact" button over there. I can't answer all the email I get. But, I promise I eventually read every single one.
See you soon, I hope.
Thanks again.
Wouldn't Want It Any Other Way (CD)
I Love The Company (CD)
Common Ground
The People on the Hill
Crazy On The Same Day
It's Just Us (Live)
Talk Louder (single)
Right now in Central Park:
