Splendid day with a good friend in Scottsdale. Lunch at a French restaurant: pinot noir, parmesan crusted goat cheese and arugala salad, potato onion soup, and hanger steak with shallots and red wine sauce. 

New movie, Gangs of New York. Daniel Day Lewis was fantastic. Movie was a bit too long. And unnecessarily violent as is all of Scorsese’s films. Italians are not known for their subtlety. The U2 "Close" song was rather superfluous, their ubiquity becoming an annoyance. Coffee, good conversation. Acorn squash and baked apple soup and organic kale and homemade pasta with Italian sausage for dinner. 

More smiles from Arizonians than I received all year from Miamians. The people here are really something special. I can feel my heart opening up like it hasn’t in a long time. Problems are starting to feel lighter. Light is starting to show at the end of the tunnel. Attention is becoming less stuck. Talked a lot about the new album and the Rise and Shine as well. Decided to not feel so down about Rise and Shine not getting picked up by about 60% of the stations who received it, but instead feel good about the fact that it got picked up by about 40% of them. It's all in the way you look at it. Decided to stop with the diaries for a while and get back to editing fishy. What's it going to take to get that thing finished...  hot chamomile tea and a little smoke while I write tonight.   

Current Spin: Moby, "Play." System of The Down, Steal This album.