ONCE AGAIN!

This "pwb" thing (Parents without Boundaries) ...must have really struck a nerve out there in this country... and even around the world. I'm getting lots of wonderful email of support. But, guys... let's all start to let it go. A lot of you are checking in for the first time because of that ugliness that happened after I got fired for asking parents to show a little consideration to the fellow audience-members around them at an outdoor gig, by asking their children... um... NOT to do cartwheels into other people's heads! I never thought it would all get the reaction it got. But I'm feelin' good about the amazing response I received from so many people. The numbers on this website went off the charts for a couple of days. And perhaps the most encouraging thing was the number of good parents who wrote in support of me.

See? A lot of people "get it"... and have kinda had it with rude, unthinking parents in public places.

Moving on! I don't wanna be known as the guy who doesn't like families. I love families with kids.... I actually came from one, and I used to be a kid! I just ain't diggin' rudeness.

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Okay... a new week.

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Before we get to anything else...The Yankees and The Red Sox went at it again last night and... damn! This is gonna be a long, hard-fought season any way you look at it. And last night, another tight game. Red Sox back on top.

Long season.

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Welcome to all of you checking in from different parts of the country and different parts of the world. I gotta tell all of you here in town... YES! Me and my guitar will be back at The Hill" this coming Saturday. Hope I see you out there by The Lake!

Hey man... we have a lot of fun around here. I mean check out some of these pictures from the last few times we hung together in Central Park.

Click on the photo for larger image
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I LOVE LIVING AND WORKING IN THIS TOWN!!!

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SOMETHING TO SAY (Just gettin' started.)

But living here in New York, I sometimes forget how insulated we are from the rest of this country. I always try to remember the "time difference". Like, when it's 12:15 in New York City... it's 1955 in some parts of Texas.

You know me... when it comes to social and political conditions in this country and in the world, I hafta put my honest opinion of the Truth in a song because it's part of my job description. Over the years I've learned that when I write a lyric and I aim for the intellect, I run smack into a brick wall. (And the one who gets hurt is me... because, y'know... I just ran into a brick wall!!!!)

But if I aim for the heart, I very often find a secret passage-way inside. And if I aim for the funny bone... I find a side-door.

Well I have more songs to write! 'Cause on Saturday a man who hasn't actually admitted out loud that he's running for president yet, the governor of Texas... (Yeah, another fucking governor of Texas) ...Rick Perry pulled a flawless political move to put him in good stead to win the Republican nomination for president in 2 years. He presided over and event that didn't blur the line between church and state...it obliterated it. And when I say "church", I mean "The Church of the Evangelical Right Wing Hypocritical Christian".

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Rick Perry's prayer rally called "The Response" to help redeem America and repent for all the godless people in this country... y'know... I guess... like me... was organized by his American Family Association (AFA). Here's a little example of the awareness some of he rally's sponsors have had with the basic principles upon which this nation was founded.

Bryan Fischer, AFA's director of issues analysis, said in March, "Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy. While there certainly ought to be a presumption of religious liberty for non-Christian religious traditions in America, the Founders were not writing a suicide pact when they wrote the First Amendment."

Fischer also espoused the disputed theory that "homosexual thugs" helped form the Nazi party. He said in June, "The Nazi party, ladies and gentlemen, was formed in a gay bar in Munich. And historians agree that Hitler's earliest enforcers -- the Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts -- were almost, without exception, homosexuals. So it was homosexual thugs that helped Hitler to form the Nazi party."

HA! Somebody's gotta throw a net over people like this... except there are so, so many frightened and ignorant people in this country who actually want to hear this kind of crap. Maybe they're so frightened of Life they actually need to hear this kind of crap, which is sad... but dangerous in many ways. Now, I'm guessing there are definitely some genuinely sweet people in this mix... people who actually abide by the teachings of that beautiful Jewish hippie who lived 2000 years ago.

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But my experience of the vast majority of those willing to fuse right-wing politics and their own religious superstitions is that they are among the most hypocritical, closed-minded and fear-driven people in this world. The AFA issued an "action alert" in 2006 upon learning that U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, planned to take his oath of office with a Quran. Supporters were asked to urge Congress to pass a law requiring that only Bibles be used in swearing-in ceremonies. In 2007, another action alert protested plans for a Hindu prayer before the U.S. Senate. "Since Hindus worship multiple gods, the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm."

John Benefiel of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, one of the endorsers of "The Response", has said the Statue of Liberty is a "demonic idol." Benefiel said, "People say, 'Well, no, it's patriotic.' What makes it patriotic? Why is it? It's a statue of a false goddess, the queen of heaven. We don't get liberty from a false goddess, folks, we get our liberty from Jesus Christ, and that Statue of Liberty in no way glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no connection whatsoever. So I'm just telling you we practice idolatry in America in ways that we don't even recognize."

Maybe he gets his liberty from a dead man who lived in Palestine 2000 years ago. But I'd rather try to keep mine in a voting booth every year.

I'm tellin' you... I'll be writing more and more about this kind of stuff in the weeks to come. But I just wanted to take a moment today to shine a little light that way. Most of you guys know the level of my disappointment in President Obama and the reasons for it. (See the music videos: RESOLUTION and THE LAST PROTEST SONG )But he sure beats this alternative. If you happen to be an open-minded, tolerant, Peace-loving, intelligent, spiritually-curious, principled person... you might wanna keep an eye on these closed-minded, religious zealots. They have their eye on the White House and Perry just pulled off a great gig to that end. But they have NO idea how or why this nation was formed during a time in human history called The Enlightenment, when the human race began to abandon mythology and religious rigidity to form a government based on the basic sense of justice and tolerance in the common person... and began to embrace what Abraham Lincoln later called "...the better angels of our nature."

EMAIL ME YOUR COMMENTS HERE

Here's a FREE song for all of you to download into your ipods, and pass around to all your friends and family.

THE RELIGION SONG

And here's a video from last December's concert at Merkin Concert Hall here in Sodom and Gamm... I mean, New York City.

Click to watch video

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Y'KNOW WHAT!?

Let's say these things and write these songs and speak to a larger audience. There's a bit about a Broadway Project you might wanna be a part of a little further down this page.

Y'think?

Now, you might be one of the people who's checking in here for the first time. (There are always a bunch of newcomers here at the site, especially in the Summer season. Bookmark it every day and check back. I'm gonna start bring more video to this page again very soon.)

GIMME A SHOUT HERE!

(Actually, gimme a shout for any reason at all!)

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I'm a lucky man.

If you're new you can always go back and browse through THE ARCHIVE as far back as you wanna go. I mean... thanks to my friend, my webmaster, and resident evil genius James Marino, you can historically go back through this website all the way back through the Bush years right up until the present. It's really kinda freaky how much content is here on this site.... cartoons, free songs, Photoshop images. Very cool.

And the Photo Galleries just keep growing. (Maybe you're in there!!!).

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AND HERE'S A REALLY FUN GALLERY FROM LAST SUMMER!!!

Click to visit last year's gallery

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BTW -- "The Something'th Annual Year End Concert" is booked for Saturday night, December 10th. I know it's early, but I wanted to let you know if you're one of those people who travel down from Buffalo, or in from Pennsylvania, or Maryland, or Germany just for this gig.

The internet has made the world a very small campus and that's a really cool thing. Mostly, if you check back at this website every day, I hope you feel that... "It's Just Us" feeling. You're not alone.

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That "Broadway" thing...

Okay now you can find out how YOU can be a part of this new project here.

In a nutshell, we're putting together something that we hope is headed for Broadway or... Jupiter... or... I don't know. But it's gonna be done someplace. Broadway legend, TONY WALTON, a man who has more Tony Awards and Academy Awards than I have socks, is behind it 100%... so now it's just about getting the right team together and working it. I'll be inviting all of you to another one of those small, unplugged work sessions very soon, so keep checking back. The last 2 filled up in a matter of hours.

Here's a little 10-minute video from Tony and his wife... explaining the project.

Click to watch the video

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And here's a link to visit if YOU wanna be a real part of this process.

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Here are a couple of different fun galleries to check out.

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HAVE FUN TODAY!!!!!! (And be cool to each other, okay?)

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Thanks for everything.

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Peace ☮