Finally! Blogger has let me in . . . And now I'm 36. It feels like a year has passed since I last logged on.

Lots to talk about, but I won't. Must shave, eat, play with friends, catch a ferry to Orcas Island with Sarah! The sun is out.

The last two shows were tremendous--Bellingham & Mt. Vernon. I stayed at Robert & Chickadee's rustic cabin with no water or electric heat. They opened up both shows with their rootsy acoustic ditties. Again, I'm so blessed to have kind friends across the universe.

Tomorrow night I perform at the Doe Bay Resort & Retreat which is tucked away on beautiful Orcas Island: http://www.doebay.com/

They've made a deal with me there that they'll buy a large quantity of my CDs to 1) support my financial cause, and 2) use as promotional enticements for their establishment. It'll work like this: Anyone who visits and mentions my name will get a free Sandman CD and a FREE third night's lodging, if they decide to stay more than two nights. It's really worth it, too. Doe Bay Resort has clean outdoor soaking tubs, saunas, scenic beauty (Doe Bay looks out over the Ocean), super delicious and healthy food, kayaking and hiking opportunities, film and lecture series, and much more.

'Twas a jolly Christmas for Sandy Claus. My friend Sydney invited me to her house for a delish supper with her uncle and two daughters. Then I played a house party at Jasper and Tess'.

Tonight I've been invited to perform on Andras Jones' Radio8Ball radio show on KAOS. You can listen live starting at 7 p.m. PST.

Merry Christmas! I just hung out with friends Tyler, Froseph, Tiffany, Judd, and a few others. We made cookies, played games, and traded gifts. I'm blessed to have families in many states.

The recording part of my tour is complete. In the last two days I laid down twenty songs for my 2007 CD. Some of the ones we recorded today include "Michael Jackson," "Cowboy Ride On," "Rueben Benz," "Tsunami," "Buddha Chant," & "Pegasus." Nerviz is a great producer.

Today, Shawn "Nerviz" Parke and I recorded five songs for the new record: "Queen Patricia," "All the Things I Done Wrong," "Smoke & Mirrors," "Waterboy," and "Corpse." By tomorrow we hope to have ten more.

Winter's over. Winter's just begun. Happy Solstice!

May the lights in our eyes be rekindled. May our love for God be born again.

Though I wouldn't trade my primitive prairie hermit's life for the cosmopolitan traffic of the Northwest, I'm enjoying the Korean food. Seeing old friends has been nice, too.

Carl and I recorded all day. One song. We call it "Strange Medicine."

Life has never seemed so hyper-real before. Solar flares, hurricane winds, chaos. Just how I like it.

Greetings from Olympia, Washington. I'm subletting Timezone LaFontaine's apartment. The big winds had knocked out internet throughout the region, but now it's back up. This is my first blog on my new HP Pavilion PC.

Happy Hanukkah!

Excalibur's brakes are fixed. The drive home from Seattle was dark and daunting. A big storm had knocked out power along the I-5 Corridor. Thus, there were no open gas stations, and we almost ran out of gas. My drummer Garf departed a few hours earlier and almost blew off the road several times. I traveled with Nerviz. We both agreed that our odyssey had apocalyptic overtones.

Excalibur's brakes went out after last night's show at Sunset Tavern. Here's the tow truck. Gotta run.....

For the next two weeks I'll be subletting my friend Giles' apartment while he's in Nashville. The apartment is right in the heart of Olympia. I plan to focus all my earthly powers into two projects: (1) recording my best album ever, and (2) setting up my best tour ever.

Rain, traffic, and Thai food. Back in the Northwest.

THE GREAT EVENT

It's going to happen very soon,
the great event which will end the horror,
which will end the sorrow.

Next Tuesday when the sun goes down,
I will play the Moonlight Sonata backwards.
This will reverse the effects of the world's mad plunge into suffering
for the last two hundred million years.

What a lovely night that would be,
what a sigh of relief,
as the senile robins become bright red again,
and the retired nightingales pick up their dusty tails
and assert the majesty of creation!

-Leonard Cohen

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I love you.

Thursday, December 14th at Sunset Tavern in Seattle, WA, with the Moustaches and the Jesus Chords. This show will rock.

The Spokane show at Whitworth College was weird and good. About seventy college students came to watch me as I stumbled and juggled through my set. Thomas, the guy who set up the show, was awesome. He made a 20x30-foot banner of my big head and hung it from a balcony to advertise the show. Then he paid me $500.

The tour is goin' swell, and Excalibur is running smoothly. Three shows down, one to go. Then Seattle and Olympia for rest and relaxation. My only difficulty, so far, has been finding computers to check email and journalize. (Oh yeah, and I left my wallet at a Livingston truck-stop.) I'm in Missoula at the public library, about to drive north to have lunch with Grandma Herak and Bryher.

On the road again.

My exhaustion is manifest. Two days until tour. And the roads are slabs of glass.

My parents and grandparents are in Spearfish, South Dakota, eating turducken (that's a duck cooked inside a chicken cooked inside a turkey) with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I couldn't afford to take time off from work to join them. After spending six hours at the Museum today, I watched Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell.

I once literally bumped into Andie McDowell as she was exiting the Mammyth Bakery in Missoula, Montana. Our eyes locked fast, and I greeted her enthusiastically as if she were an old friend. To my consternation, however, I couldn't remember her name. She smiled as I rapidly tried to process my predicament. Her face seemed so familiar, and yet she didn't appear to know who I was either. I was so bewildered in fact that, without saying a word, I swiveled clumsily into the Bakery and let the closing wooden door seal our awkward farewell. Seconds later, while eating a bagel, I realized she was the actress from the movie I'd recently seen at the Crystal Theater: Sex, Lies and Videotapes.

P.S. My family didn't really eat turducken. Just turkey, probably.

The Big Dipper is hanging low in the north tonight on this Thanksgiving Day's Eve. It's positioned directly over the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. My favorite radio deejay lives there: Shannon Hale. Every weekday morning from 7:00 until 10:00 he plays the best country and rock & roll songs. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Waylon Jennings are his favorites. Between songs he cracks off-the-cuff jokes and tells stories about his former "outlaw" days when he partied a lot and spent nights in prison. Earlier this year I dropped off my Good to Be Awake CD at the KMHA radio station. The song he chose as the hit was "Storage Unit 209," which he plays regularly. Unfortunately, now that I've moved to Dunn Center I don't get good reception anymore. Dad said he heard Mr. Hale express over the air that he hadn't heard from me in a while. He wondered if I'd moved away, and I guess I have. Seven miles east.

Two close Minnesota friends, Alex and Julia, just visited me on their way through to Olympia. These people are road warriors. On the way here they wore Depends diapers to limit the need for bathroom breaks. Alex said that his diaper leaked, though, and so he might not try that experiment again.

Have you heard of John Tester? He's the new Montana Democratic Senator.

Random Sandman News: Cooked first pizza in my new oven tonight. Cupboards and fridge are stocked, washing machine hooked up. Bought an old oak desk for the living room yesterday. Grandpa brought over some aspen logs from Killdeer Mountain for for the wood stove; I'll chop them tomorrow. I'm reading Autobiography of a Yogi, by Yogananda Paramahansa.

My friend E just ordered three pillow cases and three Good to Be Awake CDs. Friend S ordered one Long Walk Home and one Live & Suspicious CD.

I leave for tour in thirteen days. Earlier this week I got my cowboy boots re-soled for $45.

Wrote a song tonight called "Corpse," about a frightened man who kills a pregnant wolf.

This is how they do it in Manitoba. It took 'em eleven minutes and eight seconds to harvest the wheat from this quarter-section (160 acres).



We had a ceremony at Dunn County Museum today for Dorothea Pelton, who won the 2006 North Dakota Excellence in Local History Award. About 25 years ago she and her husband, Les, became millionaires after discovering black gold on their remote Badlands ranch. They donated a good share of it to our Museum, and that's why I have a job. Les has passed on. Dorothea is in her mid-to-late nineties.


Mrs. Pelton with my Grandma in the log cabin earlier today.

Check out the new Crunks Not Dead website: http://www.crunksnotdead.com/

That's the record label that earlier this year put out (return to) . . . the blackhole (of outerspace). This CD would be a good holiday purchase along with a Sandman pillow case. It has a song on it called "Pillow Cases," which explains why I silk screen my name onto pillow cases.

A glass is good, and a lass is good,
And a pipe to smoke in cold weather;
The world is good, and the people are good,
And we 're all good fellows together.

John O'Keefe (1747-1833)

Democrats have taken control of Congress. Here's to balance of power.

Meanwhile, legendary CBS journalist Ed Bradley has died of leukemia at age 65. I appreciated Mr. Bradley--he had that common touch and trademark earring. Too bad he couldn't have lived to possibly see Barack Obama be elected President in a couple few years.

In Dunn County news, my neighbor Emogene has given me a sweet little cook stove, which Dad installed earlier today. Emogene is a very generous soul (Grandpa calls her a walking, breathing angel), and I will be thinking about the best way to repay her.

In other Dunn County news, my galfriend Elle Newman will soon be arriving for a three-day visit. How you like them apples?

I spend a lot of time thinking about G_d and always have. G_d this. G_d that. G_d is Love. Let G_d. Thank G_d. Trust in G_d. G_d is the Answer. G_d will set you free.

(G_ddess.
Yahweh.
Elohim.
Jah.
Engai.
Vishnu.
Christ.
Mwari.
Shang Ti.
Allah.

Unity.
Higher Power.
Infinite Love.
Divine Breath.
The Light.)

How nice it would be to know G_d, unshackled from all propaganda and reactionary prejudice.

News stories like Saddam getting "outed" or Ted Haggard being sentenced to death by hanging are no longer interesting to me. I can't even keep people straight. Was it Floyd Mayweather who just won World Series MVP? Did Raul Castro call Borat a sulphorous smelling devil? It's confusing. I'm confused.

I will vote tomorrow.