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Beth and I did a radio interview today in downtown Sacramento… fine enough…. after a couple segments, some questions to and fro, during one of the breaks (while DJ Mike played a song from the album), we went off air and Beth and Rob asked me, “Seriously, what is that song about?” I told them how I had never explained this particular song, ever, to anyone… but, OFF THE RECORD, I would tell them… and made them swear with their pinkies and their lifelong allegiance to silence and secrecy…

I then went on to tell them in detail the amazing, naked truth and meaning behind the song, the specific life incident, something so juicy and traumatic.

Thirty seconds before we went back on the air, DJ Mike came back in to settle into his seat, with a rosy, tinted face, literally red… “Um, Michael…. I don’t know how to tell you this….. but… your mic has been on this WHOLE time… everything you were saying was going out on the air…”

??!!

I thought he was pulling my leg and playing a horrific joke on me, as we had just discussed earlier in the interview that my birthday was on April Fools Day…

After repeating his apology 5 or 6 times, trying to convince me he was not joking, it finally sunk in and my stomach dropped out from under me and I had to swallow the giant watermelon in my throat… and immediately get back on air to finish the interview…

As soon as the show ended, I listened to the recorded broadcast with headphones and burning ears… yes, several things could be heard… we cut the song from the podcast and re-inserted a “clean” version for the archives…

Lesson learned… never be naked and tell your darkest secrets with a microphone in your face…

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Last night’s show in Seaside turned out to be a beautiful love-fest… knowing this will be the last time I will see the ocean for a LONG time, we decided this morning to sneak away to the Monterey Bay Aquarium before driving on…

I think I was here once when I was 8 years old… my first time ever to see the ocean… my parents were definitely not sea-lovers, the few times we ever made it all the way to the ocean became giant life-memories, burned into my young heart… I remember being intoxicated by the strange, unstoppable salt air…. it felt like light being poured into me… there was so much sun and electricity of bustling tourists and busloads of swarming kids… my parents bought me a pre-packaged sea-shell, filled with smaller shells… I worshipped it like a secret, golden, buried treasure…

I could see the same starry-eyed wonder in Beth and Rob’s faces today… myself, I was hypnotized and in awe of the sea horses and jellyfish… so happy… so very happy…

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Santa Barbara…. last night’s show? divine… Beth and Rob insisted on staying at a crappy, dingy hotel… I went to my dear friend, Bruce’s vineyard chateau… amazing… wine and stories into the middle of the night… this morning I woke up to a panoramic ocean view, looking out over orchards and orchards of trees and the deep, blue sea… I tried to get my act together… to get on the road and to the next town… but I had to keep getting one last look…

Tonight we played a web-broadcast concert in Atascadero… before the show, we ate at this place where they boast and rave about their world-famous bbq ribs…. it was supposed to be the most amazing and authentically long-cooked, smoked tri-tip and rib experience ever… my mouth now tastes like kerosene…

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I went to the farmer’s market today… one last strawberry binge for old time’s sake before we leave town to continue on the tour…. kicked up my feet and sat and watched the boats coming in and out of the harbor all morning… and ate strawberries… then went on up to Hermosa Beach… played a solo set and Bethy totally won tonight with her band…. I gave her some strawberries for her prize…

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After a long drive from Texas and New mexico… I finally made it home… pulled into my neighborhood late tonight…. it’s a quiet and perfectly still ghost town… my sweet, fog horn, alarm-calls coming in from the jetty. My salty air. My white noise, wave maker. There is no one awake now. All the windows are blackened and asleep. No one here to greet me home or ask where the hell I’ve been. I’ve just snuck back in, exactly as I snuck out… invisible and off the grid… so lovely to be home…

As soon as I got in the door, it hit me smack in the face… like it always does… every time…. all these things that I have now lived without for so long. All the things I apparently do not need at all. One good thing about traveling and living out of a suitcase…. it’s easy to forget what you had before you left, and you forget why you ever needed any of it….

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Memphis… same as last night, bar after bar after bar… a slick and disposable live band…. playing blues… I stopped in one and sat for awhile… just sat and watched and listened and drifted and lost track of time… but in the end, it feels exactly the same as Nashville… and no Elvis sweat…

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Nashville…..
Cruising down the Broadway strip… like a little Vegas… bright lights and the annoying chaos of tourists clogging up the sidewalks… and every bar after bar, next to every bar, has its own live band playing its own disposable country music… each one slicker than the last…. at the very end of the street, there was quite a crowd of commotion swarming at the big something-something arena… ticket scalpers were everywhere…. I was curious, but not curious enough to go see what all the fuss was about… later, I found out Bruce Springsteen was playing… it seemed so un-Nashville-like…

I couldn’t be distracted… I was on a mission…. to try to find me some ‘Elvis Sweat’…. a novelty gag gift that was made years ago… every person i asked in every shop along the street had the same confused, perplexed then amused, look on their face…. followed by the same slow, drawly, “You want WHAAAT?”

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Kentucky…. again… I am a little washed out… some days, the long drives can be wearing and tedious, without much to look at except for more of the wide open space. I sat this morning in a Waffle House (scrambled eggs around melted cheese, biscuits and gravy), getting seduced by the waitresses’ chatter in their sloooooow Kentucky drawl.

The waitress in my station had a boyfriend drop into the booth in front of me. She kept coming over to him, cleaning the tables and checking the sugar levels, and wiping glasses down at his table, trying to be near him. They were completely silent, and he tried to look busy drinking his free Coke… while they were staring long stares and speaking a million words without moving their mouths. They must have spent last night together and she had been working her shift since she left him sleeping in bed. I couldn’t help marveling at their young, awkward trance and secret love language.

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Brooklyn, NY….. Last night I got back at about 4am, and moved my car around the corner to the next block. It was street cleaning day later in the morning, so I felt pretty good about being so smart and pro-active and got a solid night’s sleep…

I woke up and packed all my bags, mentally prepared myself for my 10-hour drive ahead to Ohio and Kentucky… and went out to load up and….

gone… car gone. wait…. wrong street? wrong block? walked to each end of the street… no… car gone…

Called and checked with NYPD to find out it was thankfully (?) towed… not stolen…
I had apparently parked it in a bus zone… no curbs marked… no pavement markings… no signs… I was supposed to just “know”… spent the rest of the day trying to get it out of the impound/tow yard… more comedy and drama at the NYPD station… long lines (of city revenue) and stress, watching others getting denied their car, throwing tantrums at the bullet-proof glass windows, flying into uncontrolled rages… it was Friday, afterall… and getting closer to 5:30pm… and all I could think about was the possibility of not getting to leave with my car… and it being trapped all weekend…. and me having to cancel the rest of the shows of the tour…

I finally made it to the bullet-proof window, and indeed there was a problem… a big problem… I had no I.D. (it was in my car) but the nice NYPD lady told me about a loop-hole, a way I could get around the problem… somebody else in line could sign for my car… a kind gentleman and his granddaughter… I am still not sure why that lady was so kind and helpful to me after all the yelling in her face she just endured… but I got my car… got on the road… and drove all night… drove fast and far away from New York… the tour is not canceled! The show must go on…

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Johnson City, TN……. a good set tonight… seemed like it was winning. I keep finding new souls and deep hearts I want to explore and dive into, and then, I have to shoot off immediately to get on the road… there’s no time for dillying or dallying and I miss the open-ended-ness of being in some distant exotic country where you don’t have to worry about getting somewhere… still, time means little here, but it’s just not the same when you have to rip yourself away to get to the next town. I am a spinning top among the daybreakers and idle tea totallers and night-swimming beer enthusiasts escaping their lives…