And with that Dear Reader (all four of you)... I bid you adieu for a week or so...

When I last took an extended leave back in April of 2001 (Paris, the Loire and Normandy), I had no idea that the events five months later would take up so much of my life. This project was in part therapy to get back my life but I really need some downtime to recharge my batteries and rest my head.

So tomorrow I'll go to an area that has always intrigued me since I wrote a report about the Seneca Indians way back in the 6th grade. See me tomorrow and I'll be floating on one of the Finger Lakes in New York State. At some point family will join me for some fishing and hiking.

From there I hope to drive over to Coney Island next Saturday and catch the Siren Festival where Mission of Burma plays at 6:30PM. If I'm not too beat, I'll try and catch Joseph Arthur's first show in a long while but it's about a 100 mile drive from there, so I don't know if I'll make it.

Walking around my adopted home over the last few days has been a treat. Today I sat and ate lunch (a south-western tuna wrap and kettle chips washed down with diet pepsi, yum) while watching a Persian protest on the west lawn of the Capitol and it was inspiring to see all the people yearning for freedom (and disheartening to see the faces of those people who have disappeared). They also played some intriguing music and had some beatific women there (hell, everyone looked handsome).

I also spent some time at the wonderful Library of Congress looking at the artifacts collected from Winston Churchill's life. What an inspiring guy, warts and all. Afterwards, I went down to the Gershwin room and listened for about an hour to their awesome collection. This is a great town.

So... I leave you with some links I stumbled across recently:

Here's an article on why the '80s were important to music -- and no, we aren't talking about Wham! and MC Hammer but all those indie "cult" bands that barely sold enough records to pay for their macaroni. I'd venture to say the author missed the boat in some cases such as Burma, Buttholes, Big Black and others but there's apparently another book out there that makes that case.

Here's a set of lullabyes for your baby, that is if you want to raise a PUNK BABY. There's a nice collection of M3u streams -- check out Pretty Vacant and tell me you wouldn't want that to put you to sleep.

And finally, here's a link to one of the more popular Iranian english-language bloggers. Where in the world is Ahmad Batebi, Mullah Khatami?

BRB