It's been very cold here in Miami. Made all the difference in people's attitudes. Noticed more and more this year how much our focus during this particular holiday is on buying things. As contrite as that may sound, I just never thought about it. you always hear people talking about that, but it really is true. There is this mad frenzy all around shopping. 

I have had fun though buying presents for all my friends and family. But notice myself with a certain longing deep inside for something more profound and meaningful from this holiday season. I am spending countless moments meditating at night and in the morning, what it is known as praying with open hands. I told God last night, “look I know I may be one of your problem students, always saying that I don't believe, and that you don't exist, but I'm here anyway, you know, kind of sneaking in here late at night to have a look around, you know. So…” 

What I am finding is that this God force/voice is not as much independent of us as much as it just is us. Like our higher selves listening to us and then speaking back to us. And you don't necessarily have to sit there and plead or praise as much as just listen. When you listen, you can hear and feel this presence, this energy; granted, we may be creating that energy, or the experience of thinking we are feeling/hearing something, in one way or another, but it is there nonetheless. I have felt on top of the world for so long and in the last six months felt like I hit some sort of ceiling. Like, O.K. where to now... Strange.

In the studio this week recording piano man’s keyboard parts. So moved by this new Sigur Ross album, simply called ( ). I cannot get over it. It is so beautiful. Our new album, almost definitely called Sleep with You, is coming to me all the time now, taking shape. Flowers, sex, smells, bodies, romance, passion, unrequited love, the pain of love, the joy of it, sex without love, love without sex, the saving grace of music, hallucinations, pain, sadness, anguish, trying to capture what it means to me, all of this. Starting to sound really good. Starting to take on the depth that I am used to. Still rather simple and straightforward though.

Sean Penn is visiting Baghdad. And many other humanitarian both religious and secular organizations from America are over there too, offering assistance and aid and medical attention and support to the Iraqi people. America is an amazing place. Our president is dead set on attacking this country, watch the television, it's really sickening, and the CNN journalists like little mindless puppets playing pretend-a-war, like children. Both ABC and CBS have been doing their best to cover both sides of the war argument, shedding light on the both the pros and the cons of Bush’s proposed invasion. So all is not lost.

Yet, underneath all of this, let’s call it the sludge at the top of our country, is this amazing place with all these amazingly kind-hearted people taking their own time and money to go over to Iraq and help them. It's really surreal. Say what you will, but this is democracy, this is what a free land is all about. This is why we love America so much. We are a very lucky people.

Michael Jackson is supposedly hanging out around 71st St. on Miami Beach. I get some weird premonitions about that boy. I get a feeling things might not work out so good for him as time moves on. This last week I met a girl named Breezy, and a few days later another girl named Sunshine. “A cruel joke by hippie parents, or a cool idea of your own,” I asked. Sunshine said her parents are total freaks and named her that, but her brother was named John, after their grandfather. Go figure. Reading leadership by Rudolph Giuliani. Band needs an agent desperately. Tour dates keep getting booked and then cancelled. Craziness.

Current Spin: Sigur Ross new one ( ). Beck new one. Mum.
Last Movie: Oceans Eleven.