One of the great joys of going back to my hometown of Croton-on-Hudson, NY is checking out the police blotter. Here's what is keep the cops busy in Croton:

July 5 2:16 AM:
There was a report from a resident of of Hunter Place about two persons in the area making loud noise. Patrol responded to the scene and found two 20-year-old women, one from Croton and another from Connecticut, who were singing in the rain. Subsequently, officer asked the women to stop without further incident.

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If you're looking for new and exciting ways to communicate with friends and loved ones, head over to Someecards.com home of "ecards for when you care care enough to hit send".

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Last Saturday night Carrie and I had the joy of seeing Rickie Lee Jones at the Max M. Fisher Music Hall in Detroit as part of the annual Concert of Colors (all for free, no less). I've been a big fan of Ms. Jones back since my hippie days when her second album 'Pirates' was a staple in the communal farmhouse I lived in.

While I have seen many wonderful, wonderful shows over the past few years, this concert was on a whole different level due to the fact that Rickie Lee didn't just perform her songs, she in many cases reinvented them. She used the talents of her brilliant young band to take her songs from a place that was at once familiar and totally new and different at the same time. Rather than just merely improvise (as in solo), she and her band wandered through and played with her extensive back catalog, at times letting her voice dance wordlessly with her backup singer and violinist in a Van Morrison meets Jane Siberry type groove.

The undisputed highlight was when Rickie Lee mentioned that her daughter was into European dance hall music, ("the worst kind" she wryly noted, "and I love it" she continued). She then led the drummer to pound out a dance hall disco-ish beat while she started singing her much loved 1981 classic "Livin' It Up". As the band followed, the tune grew more dense and driven as time went on. Conducting the band from behind her piano, she pushed the song and her musicians to totally new places. The band seemingly was in uncharted territory as they followed Rickie Lee's hand signals in turning a formerly light and airy four minute track into an eight minute long epic, the music ebbing and flowed, the drum beat always moving it forward.

Watching how Jones used her songs and her band as a canvas, I was once again reminded why live music is central to my life. Rickie Lee held thousands of us transfixed together, creating a sense of unity and joy that was palpable in the hall. She brought us all together in a way that only great music performances can. All hail Rickie Lee Jones.

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In today's column "A not-so-glorious Fourth" Philadelphia Enquirer Columnist Chris Satullo has articulated many of the reasons why we should hang our head in shame at what Bush and Company have done to this country:

"Put the fireworks in storage.

Cancel the parade.

Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.

This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.

For we have sinned.

We have failed to pay attention. We've settled for lame excuses. We've spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago.

The America those men founded should never torture a prisoner.

The America they founded should never imprison people for years without charge or hearing.

The America they founded should never ship prisoners to foreign lands, knowing their new jailers might torture them.

Such abuses once were committed by the arrogant crowns of Europe, spawning rebellion.

Today, our nation does such things in the name of our safety. Petrified, unwilling to take the risks that love of liberty demands, we close our eyes.

We have done such things, on orders from the Oval Office. We have done them, without general outrage or shame.

Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo. CIA secret prisons. "Rendition" of prisoners to foreign torture chambers.

It's not enough that we had good reason to be scared.

The men huddled long ago in Philadelphia had better reason. A British fleet floated off the Jersey coast, full of hands eager to hang them from the nearest lampposts.

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For years naps have gotten a bad rap, derided as a sign of laziness, weakness or senility. As it tuns out naps are not only a sign of healthiness but of hipness.

Our friends over at The Boston Globe have put together an excellent info graphic on the art of napping.

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For those of you who check in here regularly, sorry there hasn't been an update in weeks. A trip back to New York and a certain person named Carrie has left me a bit occupied and preoccupied respectively. I'll do my best to get some new posts up in a day or so.

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Happy Birthday Jeremy!!

The key stats here are: 14 years old 6' 1" (and growing), size 14 feet (and hopefully done growing).

Yes my Jeremy is now 14 years old and taller than his old man! Next fall begins the High School years chapter with Jeremy attending Ann Arbor's Community (Commie) High along with Sasha.

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Okay, I promised myself I wouldn't keep posting so many videos, but I just had to post this amazing clip sent by my friend Jeff.

Watch as John Mayer calls a baseball game without the slightest knowledge of baseball what so ever. This is priceless.

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My friend Jeremy recently called me and told me he went for a ride on one of these beasts last weekend with a neighbor who apparently had $12,000 he didn't know what to do with. Okay, it's way overpriced, but I still want to go for a ride on it.

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After almost eight years of Bush Administration where the right has continually abused Gays and Lesbians, it's exciting to finally have some good news to post here. On the heels of the Michigan Supreme Court taking away the rights of Gays and Lesbians in my adopted state, it's thrilling to hear that the California Supreme Court has upheld the rights of California Gay and Lesbian couples to get married.

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Those of us who with a strong Jones for new music need their suppliers, folks who keep us fed with the latest bands and tunes. My friend Godfrey is one of my main sources. Originally from Dublin, Godfrey is my supplier of all that is great from the British Isles. Years ago he turned me on to The Frames, who at the time were barely known here. So it was only fitting that when I finally got to see The Frames perform live last Saturday, it was with Godfrey (along with his wife Nancy, the kids and my dear friend Cynthia). The show was billed as a duo show with Frames lead man Glen Hansard and his music partner Marketa Irglova, the stars of the movie Once.

Based on the huge success Hansard and Irglova were having after winning the best song Oscar this year, Godfrey decried the apparent end of The Frames, Ireland's greatest live band. However his sorrow was short-lived when Hansard introduced The Frames at the start of the show. Where we expected a duo show, what we got was a Frames plus Irglova show. Granted there was a fair amount of Hansard's more recent acoustic driven songs that were featured in Once, but there was enough driving symphonic Frames music to keep me very happy and grooving in my seat.

If you want to see what makes The Frames one of the world's great bands, here are some links (since the site has been so heavy on embedded video lately, I figured I'd pass along the video as links):

The Frames performing their crowd favorite, God Bless Mom (from Lollapalooza 2006)

Check out a beautifully shot and produced Frames concert featuring clickable chapters so you can pick any song from the show.

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In the 2004 fall election, Michigan was one of 13 states that passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. It was one of the tools the right used to motivate their base in order to get them to the polls. It was insidious and it worked perfectly.

The Sunday after the election I attended Quaker Meeting here in Ann Arbor. At one point the silence of the meeting was broken when a friend of mine stood up to speak. She started to sob, "As a Lesbian I feel hated in this state. I feel like the election was won at the expense of Gays and Lesbians and I cannot tell you how despised I feel right now..." It was a very powerful and heartbreaking moment.

Proponents of Michigan's constitutional amendment repeatedly stated that the sole purpose of the amendment was to prohibit marriage between partners of the same sex and they denied that the amendment would be used to take away benefits such as health insurance from gay couples. Once the amendment was passed it was up to the courts to interpret the vaguely worded amendment:

"To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose."

On Wednesday the Republican-led Michigan Supreme Court did the job that the far right anticipated they would do when in a 5-2 vote, they ruled that the amendment prevents governments and universities from providing health insurance to the partners of gay workers. Although I am not at all surprised by this, I cannot express just how deeply saddened I am by the ruling.

Led by its failing economy and the highest unemployment rate in the nation, Michigan has been on a prolonged downward slide. The recent blunder by the Michigan Democratic Party which led to Michigan's delegates not being seated at this summer's Democratic Convention was just one more indignity suffered by my adoptive state. And now this...

Jessie Olson, an attorney and gay rights advocate was quoted as saying that the Supreme Court ruling leaves Michigan "at the bottom of the barrel. We are the worst of the worst of the worst when it comes to civil rights for same-sex couples."

As we look towards a fall election where the Democratic nominee will be either a woman or an African American, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we Americans have come a long way in terms of our discriminatory history. But the ongoing assault aimed at Gays and Lesbians shows that in many ways America is just as closed-minded as it always has been.

If you feel like you want to do something, you can head over to the Human Rights Campaign site, and there you can contribute, volunteer, take action or attend an event.

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