HAPPY CELTIC NEW YEAR

Otherwise known as Samhain. And what an extraordinary day it is here in Northern New Jersey. The light rain last night created a perfect fog for the Halloween celebrations and this morning the fog had cleared and the light rain persisted giving us what the Irish call "a soft day" as well as bringing out the deeper hues in the Autumn leaves colors, the deep cranberry and bright yellows and golds, and now the rain has stopped the skies cleared and the brightest blue with puffs of white shine down on the most beautiful day of the year, which seems appropriate to this Celt. To top the gratitude I feel with even more, I'll share another great Van Morrison composition and performance with you:

MORE FROM THE CUTTING ROOM TUESDAY NIGHT

In the room this was much clearer and louder and the subtleties of the singing and guitar playing and song writing were more evident, but you'll get the idea (for the full band version check out Bell Engine on iTunes etc.). This is a song my oldest son, Miles, wrote and he explains the inspiration for it in his introduction.

VIDEO FROM LAST NIGHT'S READING AT THE CUTTING ROOM NYC

The noise in the background was coming from another closed off room, and the camera work is just my good friend John shooting from his iPhone. The beginnings were cut off. In this first one I had read the title, "How the Light Gets In" (from the Leonard Cohen line and the theme of the evening) before the video starts (not sure why I sound like I have false teeth or something, but you'll at least get a taste of the poem, written that afternoon for the reading and revised during the sound check and edited in my head as I read, which also goes for the poems that follow).

This next one is an excerpt from my long poem "Of" which I often read and had been introducing it by talking about my oldest son, Miles, who was on this same bill, or a song he wrote was (performed by the singers in the band Bell Engine, Miles plays bass in, but for this venue it was just the singers, John and Lisa in their beautiful harmony with John taking the lead to new heights, backed by the band's electric guitarist Dan, hopefully I'll have video of that to share too) and I was saying how touched I was by his song and how lucky that he survived growing up with me as the poem I was about to read would show.

And this was read partly in recognition of the passing of Lou Reed, a poem I wrote in the '80s I think, which this video catches the last word of the title before I muff the first line, the title being "Walk On the Wild Side"...'nuff said.

ANOTHER GREAT NIGHT AT THE CUTTING ROOM

Too tired to say more than another exhilarating display of talent, from comics getting serious to poets gettin' funny to songwriters startling with their vision. Sweet (and maybe more tomorrow when I'm rested).

TOMORROW EVENING AT THE CUTTING ROOM

Just a reminder I'll be reading my poetry, and my oldest son performing with some bandmates a song he wrote. It's an expensive evening, but if anything like the last one, more than worth it with a line up of incredible talent including fellow poet Simon Pettet, the comic Rain Pryor and the great music makers Julie Christensen and Sylvana Joyce and many more.

LOU REED R.I.P.

You've heard the news I'm sure [the news of his passing was on all the major network and cable newscasts]. He will be missed by many [and our thoughts and condolences go out to his wife and family and friends]. My feelings were always mixed, but his album TRANSFORMER had an impact on me (we were the same age and experiencing some changes at the same time etc.) and there are songs of his I will always dig [though it's obviously his best known song in terms of popularity and there are others more emblematic of his music's impact perhaps, I had "take a walk on the wild side" and the rest of the lyrics to it going through my head all day and night]. Here's the best place to go for links about him and his passing (and a good blog to follow anyway).

RANDOM OLD PHOTOS

[Me in my first Santa Monica home in 1982 in my favorite shirt with Diane Lawrence making the hand gesture and Mary Woronov crouching down next to her]

[My three oldest brothers (RIP) back when I was still a boy]

[My two oldest kids, Caitlin and Miles with me in an airport on our way to Ireland in the mid-1990s]