I had not really read anything in Rolling Stone in a very long time and this past year I've read several articles in the magazine for one reason or another. I'm not a big magazine guy really. I don't subscribe to any. Oh I read them sure, at the dentist office or doctor's office or on a plane. This year though I did buy a copy of Rolling Stone to read at the lake when I was in New York. It was the issue with Al Gore on the cover and I wanted to read what he had to say. It was a pretty good article.

I also read the issue with the Vonnegut article in it but that was a disappointment because if you have read Vonnegut's last book (which I highly recommend) it's all just one liners from A Man Without a Country. Now I'm gonna have to read this Diebold article too. So is it me being nostalgic and going back to read a magazine I read in my youth or has Rolling Stone been getting better?

 I keep getting sucked in to reading it again and again this year. They keep putting stuff on the cover that makes me pick the thing up. I find myself in the supermarket at the magazine rack or in line at the check out counter looking for the new issue of Rolling Stone. The issue with Bob Dylan on the cover is in my living room as I type this. I have noticed that they are really hitting the 70's pretty hard at the moment. They have had Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Joe Walsh, and Levon Helm all in featured articles lately. I actually know who these people are. The girl on the cover of the Vonnegut issue...I had no idea who she was. I just saw Vonnegut on the cover and had to read it. I think I have become a target market.

One of the key things to me about the whole Diebold deal is something David has already said. Diebold has been around a long time and has plenty of product on the market that is considered safe and hack proof. Now they have come out with these voting machines that are a complete disaster and really it seems intentional. It makes you think, what was their intent? It seems to have been to create a machine that could be manipulated and in that regard they have an overwhelming success on their hands. Pretty much makes you think of the old chestnut "If voting could really change anything, it would be illegal."

So, because I'm just babbling in this post here's something I wanted to run past you, David. I know at some point you are going to get together this acoustic record and I was thinking that you've got a job to do out there with the movie biz stuff so doing a tour is not very likely but how about doing a couple of small things on this side of the country just for fun and the joy of making music in unique places with some good folks. Something where you don't have to plan out a hell of a lot just pack some socks, clean shirts, a tooth brush and a guitar or two and just get on a plane and play.

Here's what I had in mind. Just two stops around late April 2007. One at the Shenandoah River Songfest, an invitation only gig, and the other in Levon Helm's barn. I'll even pick you up at the airport in my Jeep and do all the driving. These would both be small but unique gigs with one set right on the banks of the Shenandoah and the other a chance to get Levon to sing "It's Hard to Give a Damn".

Ok, I know you meant that to be sort of a Randy Newman type song but I hear The Band and Levon when I listen to it and sure it's probably just my fantasy not yours to hear you doing that tune with Levon but hell, even a prisoner can dream right? I will personally begin the process today to get you booked into both gigs if you feel the spirit move you to participate in this out of the blue nonsensical request/adventure.

Anyway, thanks for the Diebold update and in the spirit of Noam Chomsky's recent death and resurrection and my love for Kurt Vonnegut we should all remember what it said on Kilgore Trout's tombstone...

Life is no way to treat an animal.