i think we are here for two more weeks or so… this year in the UK we have played a few of these ‘stately homes’ gigs… these are concerts put on on the grounds of grand mansions in order to i presume supplement the income of these places now that there are no more serfs available to work for free… shows are held out of doors on the great front lawns of fantastic palatial houses, the type of joints one sees in james bond etc films… theres something actually really great about these shows, people come and set up picnic tables and get well smashed and sing along… i keep feeling like the travelling minstrel show entertaining the people who work the lands for the lord… in fact all thats missing is his lordship looking out of the illuminated upper floor windows (actually not totally absent; we did one show for lord and lady Marsh at their ‘speed festival’, racing cars, the pink ‘thunderbirds’ car on hand was amazing… anyhow the Marsh’s were particularly gracious and forthcoming, so thanx to them) the paris show was particularly fantastic, i wish we were over there more often, i was amazed at how crazy the french crowd got at the gig, really enjoyed it… barbara and akira got back to new york in one piece, we had a little 1 year birthday party for a, by now she knows everyone in the band quite well and was cutely surprised by a room full of large people singing at her… im starting to get messages about ‘fahrenheit 9-11’, i havent gotten time to see it yet but barb told me its playing at the mall(!) back home, i really have hope now that we are gonna see the end of this period of madness, anything has to be better than whats going on now, (again i have very little faith in current systems of government, i think they all need to be overhauled) keep the comments coming, a while back i’d asked you all to send me general weirdness, pics, dreams, ufo encounters etc. this has dropped off somewhat so here is the request again we will be back in the states doing shows in about 6 weeks or so, three weeks off after europe stay cheerful