Next week, after I see Dinosaur Jr. play two nights at the Troubadour, I will go to Europe for a few shows. I will be in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Holland and then a short show in Austin TX at Emo’s on July 4th. Festival dates, which most of these will be are always interesting. The sheer amount people I am in front of is always an adrenaline rush and it’s always over too fast.

06-21-09 LA CA: 1640 hrs. I have been up for several hours and have busied myself reading up on news events and listening to new records, ones that are new to me, at least. These Are Powers, KTL, both very good in their own way, now checking out some Double Leopards.

Things continue to go well at Sons Of Anarchy. It’s a very hard working outfit, cast, crew, everyone. I don’t see how they do it. One episode goes right into the next without break, it’s very impressive how it works.

It’s been very interesting to watch the story unfold in Iran. It is tragic that so many people have been killed and injured but it’s inspiring to see that the protests seem to grow with intensity. Obviously there some very unhappy people there. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says that president Obama isn’t coming out hard enough on the Iranian government. This to me is the perfect example of only being equipped with a hammer, thus seeing everything as a nail. No matter who is in office in Iran, the president has to deal with that person. Perhaps it’s not such a bad idea to play it cool and not shoot your mouth off all the time. I think the president is a smart guy. I don’t know if the election counts in Iran were accurate or not. There’s more than one election I have some questions about. I don’t think the powers that be in Iran were anticipating the backlash that’s been happening over the last several days. Perhaps the ground has shifted underneath their feet. One thing is for sure, there’s no way things are going to be the same in Iran again. At some point, something’s going to give. I just hope the human cost isn’t too bad.

I am looking forward to checking out Dinosaur Jr. tomorrow night and the night after and then getting out of here for some shows. As great as working on the television show has been, it’s difficult being here week after week. More often than not, I would rather be on the road, out in the world. Soon enough, I will be.

The last week has been not been all that interesting for me. Office work and some work on set. I have been reading quite a bit and that’s been good. This time next week, I should be in Finland. I can’t wait to get out there.

Thanks for reading this. Henry

There wasn’t a great deal of sleep to be had over the last three days but I am feeling pretty good nonetheless and will try to get all the things on my list done before sundown.

I have no idea as to how the radio show went last Saturday. We were not able to pre-tape the show so I gave all the music to Will, who works the phones during the broadcast and asked him to play the songs. Apparently, that’s a big no go at KCRW. No lowly volunteer will be allowed to commandeer the station for any amount of time. So, I don’t know what they put together. It’s their station and their rules.

Interesting events over the last few days have had me scouring the internets in search of more background information. A few things. The shooting death of Dr. George Tiller. Very tragic and awful but shows that America really needs to deal with its abortion issues. Like a lot of people, I think the whole discussion needs to be posited differently. People went after Bill O’Reilly, theorizing that his attacks on Dr. Tiller were partially responsible for his murder. I don’t think Mr. O’Reilly is to blame. I think if you’re going to kill someone in broad daylight, you know you’re going to get caught and it’s some guy and his television show that pushed you over the edge. Mr. O’Reilly and his fans obviously are just fine with the things he says.

Also, president Obama’s speech in Cairo seemed to cause Sunday talk show pundits to overheat. It seems that there’s nothing Mr. Obama can do right for these people. The things they attack him for at this point are pathetic. The speech was very good. I read it very carefully and bet that it will start a healthy dialog in the Muslim world and elsewhere. I can’t see McCain having been able to go to Cairo, tasked with the same assignment and pulling it off. So when Mitt Romney, a draft dodger, claims that president’s recent trip was an “apology tour,” all I can do is pity the GOP at how lost they have become.

The oddity of the week was the very strange three-way effort of Oliver North, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich engaged in at the Rock Church in Hampton Roads, VA. The topic was “Rediscovering God in America.” Look this up and check out the Gingrich quotes. Has this draft dodging adulterer lost his mind?! Stunning.

This coming week will be a busy one. I have a few days of work on Sons Of Anarchy. I can always count on that to be action packed, looking forward to it.

I hate to use this forum to say this but I see no other choice. To the person from Illinois who sends packages to the company with the company address as the return: in these modern times, we are not interested in your magical mystery tour so we have been unceremoniously throwing the packages out, unopened. That’s how it will always go, so you might want to re-consider your actions.

We will be back live on the radio this coming Saturday, so please tune in if you can. Thanks for coming to the shows and thanks for reading this. Henry

Last night’s radio show was fun but as always, went too fast for me. It’s overcast in Los Angeles today, strange but not bad. I was hoping for some sun though. My dryer is broke so I hang wet laundry all over the place and wait for the sun to dry it but it looks like I’ll have to wait. I have bee listening to music all morning. I started with Throats Filled With Concrete by Wolf Eyes and am now listening to Cluster ’71. I had the music going in here until the early hours this morning before sleep wore me down.

I guess it’s a combination of events in the news and my current reading material but I have been thinking a lot about torture, or enhanced interrogation if you will. Ex vice president Dick Cheney has been making the rounds on television, defending the Bush administration’s use of these techniques, his daughter has been on television as well, sticking up for her father. Jesse Ventura has been making the rounds as well. He was a Navy SEAL and was water boarded in SERE training and insists the method is torture. Mancow, the conservative talk show host, was actually water boarded and after six seconds, he had enough and admitted that it was torture, even though it pained him to do so. I finished Charlie Savage’s book Takeover, which I found to be fascinating, and immediately picked up Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values by Philippe Sands, which I am finding hard to put down. Tough material but well rendered. The aspect of all this that really catches me up is what all this is doing to the collective psyche of those aware and concerned of what was done to the detainees. There are a lot of strong opinions about all of this flying around. It’s not necessarily the actual opinions that interest me as much as what they say about the one who holds them. It is interesting to me that those who interrogate for a living and those who actually go out and fight wars seem to have almost perfectly opposite opinions as to the benefits of enhanced interrogation techniques as a method of getting actionable intelligence as the ones who gave the orders to administer the methods. Boy, that sentence ran on, didn’t it? I wonder if the torture debate won’t have more lasting damage than the September 11 attacks.

Like many of you, I am a book fanatic, want to read all the time. I have been taking breaks from Torture Team and re-reading Open Up And Bleed by Paul Trynka. It’s about Iggy Pop. What a life! I had forgotten what a connection Iggy had to Los Angeles and how much he spent here in the 1970’s. Reading the book again made me pull out all those 80’s Iggy records and listen to them again differently. I have not heard his new one, Preliminaires, it comes out Tuesday. Engineer X already has a copy of course and says he really likes it. I have only heard one song and thought it was ok. The album gives me an excuse to go to the record store, oh, twist my arm! Apparently, the songs for the album were inspired in part by Iggy reading the work of Michel Houellebecq. I read a couple of his books years ago and they blew my mind. Platform and Atomised were the ones I have read so far and they were excellent, some of the best modern fiction I have ever read. 

Last night, I read that president Obama will be giving a speech in Egypt next week. I am looking forward to hearing this one. I want to hear what he has to say the Muslim world and am so glad that Bush didn’t try to do anything like that before he left office as I think it would have only made things more tense. I don’t know what day Obama is delivering the speech but I will be watching for it.

I have shows coming up this weekend.

05 Friday: Montclair NJ @ The Wellmont Theater 8 pm stage time

06 Saturday: Hartford CT @ The Webster Theater 8 pm stage time

07 Sunday: Wilmington DE @ The Grand Opera House 7 pm stage time

It will be good to get out of LA and be back on the road again, even if it is only for a few days. It’s been great to have these weekend shows now and then. I don’t believe I have done a show in Delaware before, looking forward to it. See you at the show!

Thanks for reading this. Henry

As far as the even itself, I think it was one of the best days I’ve ever had. Over the course of several hours, I watched thousands of people get their diplomas. Parents, friends and fellow students cheered, the looks on the faces, the excitement, the sheer optimism of it all was really something. I think I got through my part of it pretty well. No one threw anything and people seemed to like what I had to say. I spoke to many of the people I was on the platform with, the school president, people like that, they all thanked me and said I did a good job. I got a lot of letters from people who were there and they said they dug it. So, mission accomplished, I reckon.

It was a couple of days not corrupted by sleep, that’s for sure. I got back here several hours ago and figured I would get a couple of hours of sleep and woke up about four hours later, hardly a clue as to how I got to my room. Now all I have is a slight headache and a one-liner that’s been making me laugh to myself, “It’s a day off, so I have a lot of work to do.”

I got several letters about the speech. As a read, it is perhaps a little flat, might be better if you heard it out loud. In any case, here it is: 

It is an honor to be in front of you today as we congratulate all of our graduates and welcome their families and friends. My name is Henry Rollins and the fact that I was asked to speak briefly to you all today is one of the highest compliments I have ever been paid and most terrifying propositions I have ever been given. I only hope my words have some meaning and merit.

I would like to thank you for going to college. I would like to thank you for taking years of your life and devoting it to study and the pursuit of knowledge. The world is in great need of people who can think, people who value ideas

For a moment, think of the person you were before you came here as a freshman or a freshperson if you will, and the person you are now. Of course, there was a large amount of good times, carrying on and engaging in behavior that we need not mention here. It is perhaps why the human brain is allotted such a vast amount of cells, so that it’s not a big problem when a few million fall off the back of the truck.

But amidst all the fun and frivolity there were infinitely long stretches of time where you had to hit the books and work and work in order to achieve. There was no one there to tell you to keep at it but you. And you did it, and here you are. You may not need every single course you ever took to get you though life, but the focus and discipline that was required to complete the course will be invaluable tools that you will utilize and that will hopefully benefit you and those around you for the rest of your life.

Your education and the time you spent here must be more than merely the means to a good job and financial security. Those are certainly important concerns but I am hoping for much more from you. To come all this way only to become content cogs in a large machine or merely indistinguishable threads in a massive tapestry is not enough. It just isn’t.

I know you are well aware of what is happening on planet Earth in 2009. Some say that we are in tough times. I believe we are in challenging times that are in need of bold thinking, fresh ideas and new ways of going about old things. This is where you come in. The future greets you today. You are a very big part of what it will be.

So, it is incumbent upon you to take all that you have learned and all that you have worked so hard to achieve and do something with it that is more than the gathering of items and the purchase of a place to put it all in. Because at the end of the day, that is a bit of a checked swing, isn’t it? You don’t want to retire into the dull roar that quickly and quietly, do you? I should hope not!

It is interesting, the excuses people give when they tell me why they don’t read as much as they used to, don’t travel or inquire as much as they did years before. They tell me they got tired, the kids, the job, the drive to work, the grind, not enough hours in the day, they say. When someone would tell the great philosopher Seneca that there wasn’t enough hours in the day, Seneca would reply that the gods had been quite generous with time allotment but that many people made poor use of it. Not a second of your life will you ever get back. Make every day count, or acquire a taste for regret.

I don’t understand how a mind that has been enlightened by years of study and immersed in an environment of such frenetic intellectual activity could ever suffer the crushing blow of complacency. I hope that none of you ever suffer this self-inflicted, greatly compromised condition. Not only is it inexcusable, it is boring as hell and no fun at all.

Your curiosity must never wane! Ever. You are, therefore you want to know, want to go, want to know more and want to go further. As college graduates, you know all too well how much there is to know and the incalculable amount of fascinating things there are to explore, from thought to geographic destination. It is your curiosity that you must enhance, strengthen and value, more and more as the years go on and on. It is your curiosity that you must guard against exhaustion, apathy and that awful plague called middle age. You are allowed occasional but brief vacations from your curiosity, DVD box sets of television shows and carbohydrate rich foods are permitted—but don’t make a career out of it! It is your curiosity that you will pass on like a genetic trait to your children, infect all those around you like a virus and inspire the anger of those who have chosen to admit defeat. One of the greatest and most powerful words in any language is: WHY.

When you stop wanting to find out, you’re done. There are few things more unendurable than being forced to spend time with someone who is intellectually incurious. This can never be you. Ask a question. Go forth. Arrive at the answer. Catch your breath. Ask Why. And then set off again. Never relent!

The world is in need of bright minds. Individuals who seek to spread peace and prosperity by the way conduct themselves and the value they place on the lives of others and on life itself. These people, by way of their concern and awareness, whether they know it or not—are leaders.

You lead through kindness, generosity, tolerance, innovation, the quest for knowledge and a basic, resolved goodness that is incorruptible, inexhaustible and undefeatable.

You do not lead by intimidation, by economic coercion, overwhelming military might or sanctions.

Brutality, oppression and the constant threat of violence only results in brutality, oppression and actual violence. The world has more than it needs.

A member of Ku Klux Klan doesn’t need a frying pan upside the head! He needs an Al Green record and some good books. He needs better information so he can make better decisions and reach better conclusions. He needs to be inspired. You could do that for someone else, you could do that for a lot of people. It might take a lot less and go a lot further than you think.

If you have noticed, I keep mentioning the people and the world around you. I have been doing this because you are surrounded. You are surrounded by millions of square miles of land, billions of gallons of water and who knows how many cubic feet of air. You share all of these finite and vulnerable resources with millions of people. Everything you do, affects someone else, perhaps more than you realize. I am hoping that you understand that your responsibility to yourself and your well-being must also somehow include the planet on which you live and the people you share it with because like it or not, it does.

And now it’s time for my self-serving op ed. Of course, everything I have said to you thus far, has been merely my opinion. Fair enough. Here’s something that perhaps has little to do with our topic today but this is something I will not allow myself not to say to you on this very important day: It is my opinion that all wars are avoidable and unnecessary and could have been prevented by more compassionate governance of peoples and the highest possible value put on life and human rights. I know that one day, war and torture will be relics of the past. That racial discrimination, homophobia and other intolerance and ignorance will be looked upon as primitive, half-baked behavior that no one could ever be induced to repeat. I know that future generations will look back and wonder, “What in the world were those people thinking?”

From that history they will understand that some of their duties as human beings are to pursue peace at all times, to make sure that famine and human suffering never return, and that the stewardship and care of the planet and its very delicate ecosystem is in everyone’s best interest.

But, I am an impatient person and can not, will not, wait for these conclusions and actions to be part of some distant future. I want them to happen right now and I want you to be a huge part of that.

I think you will, and I think you’re going to be great at it. I think that some of the decisions you will make and actions you will take will make things better. You don’t have to be a doctor or a hero to save a life and you don’t have to be a scientist to brighten the future. All you need to do is care and get involved. I know you will, and I can’t wait to see how you act upon every ounce of your tremendous potential.

This is a great day. It’s your day. And so are all the ones to follow.

Think you can handle it?

I bet you can.

The future is bright.

I know this.

I’m looking at it.

Congratulations

Good luck.

I’ve never written a speech before and really had no idea as to how long to make it, etc. but it seemed ok when I finished it. So, onto the next thing, as they say.

A thing that has been on my mind a lot over the last several days, I am sure this is boring to many of you and maybe it’s because I am reading too much about the man but Dick Cheney’s actions of the last few weeks have been fascinating to me. To many, it is perhaps a foregone conclusion that his constant presence on television shows, decrying the Obama administration and defense of “enhanced interrogation techniques” is nothing more than grandstanding and an attempt to keep the legacy clean. I saw it as something more. It occurred to me that this man is running scared and trying to keep the lid on something that he knew he couldn’t control if he couldn’t keep his foot on it. A few days ago, one of his lovely daughters confirmed that for me. Elizabeth Cheney said on Fox News. She said her father realized that with the Obama administration might be open to prosecution, he had to speak out. Of course, Mr. Cheney only did as many talk shows as he could to merely point out how wrong president Obama is to release interrogation information because it’s a threat to American security. Yes, I know. He’s all about my safety. It’s interesting that one of Cheney’s kids (!) have to go out there and stump for dad. I think it would have been great if she just said, “Daddy can’t do time! Nooooo!!”

I think it’s great, all the discussions Americans are having about the Geneva Conventions, where to put the “detainees”, the Guantanamo problem, etc. It’s about time. You have to deal with all this stuff at some point. What president Obama will do about all this will be very interesting no matter what.

I am going to attempt to stand strong and not cave into watching one or six hours of the To Catch A Predator marathon happening any minute on MSNBC. Even though I have to have seen almost all, if not all of the segments, I can’t seem to turn away.

Today is a holiday of sorts. I think if you really look at what Memorial Day means, it is a solemn one to be sure. On this day, Americans have a lot to think about. Maybe someday, things will be different and the day will not be such an immediate reference to a present situation.

I have re-named Heidi. I now call her, “The Drill.” It’s a combination of the constant punishing attack upon my psyche that she exacts, combined with the sound of her voice—the power, the pain. Anyway, the Drill won’t be at the office tomorrow as it’s a day off. A day off! Well now. Perhaps my ears will have a chance to recover from the screeching caterwaul of her Drillness. I hope that you have a safe and productive holiday yourself. Thanks for reading this. Henry

Weekend fly out dates are always fairly sleepless events. It’s the logistics of getting from show to show utilizing airports, taxis, etc. that makes for a lot of hustle pre-show. This weekend was no exception. I flew out for the first show in Woodstock out of LAX late at night to Dulles and then up to Albany NY. I got a few hours of sleep and then got a ride to Woodstock and did the show. I remember the show but not a lot else. The rest of the travel to get to the next place left me pretty dazed but at least the shows were good. Doing dates this way is a burnout though and a few more days like this would start to have an effect. It was great to get out to the east coast for a few days though.

I will try and finish this off when I get back to Los Angeles. As it is now, not having slept since yesterday, I am drawing a blank here. Onto the airport.

2224 hrs. Los Angeles. I got back here several hours ago. I slept all the way. I worked at the office and then worked out. I went to the grocery store after that. I got several feet into the place and all of a sudden I noticed that I was in the air. I hit the ground pretty hard and what food I had leapt out of the basket and hit the deck as well. I gathered my stuff and got to my feet and looked around to see what I could have stepped on. It was a small tomato that got under my heel. I told the guy stocking them to watch out for those killer tomatoes. He just stared at me and didn’t say anything. I thought that was pretty funny. A few of the employees asked if I was ok, that was cool of them. My leg is hurting now but I am sure that will go away.

It was good to do those shows. When I am off the road for too long, it’s not good for me. As much as these weekend fly out dates are an excursion into exhaustion, they are always worth it.

Next weekend is the speech at Sonoma. I think I am ready. I like what I have written and have already sent it into the school. So far, I have not received any angry calls or letters from the place, so perhaps I’ll be ok.

Tomorrow night, I am going to see a film called Pray The Devil Back To Hell. It was recommended to me and when I checked it out online, it seemed interesting. http://www.praythedevilbacktohell.com/v3/

I have to do an interview with the BBC in the morning so I better try and get a few hours of sleep before it all starts.

Thanks for reading this. Henry

When I wasn’t on set, I was either driving there or back, sleeping or scrambling to get things done between call times. I went into the studio with Engineer X and we pre-taped two shows for the Saturdays upcoming when I will be out of town. Last night’s show was pretty cool but went by too fast for me as it usually does. KCRW presenter turned me onto a free download of a song from the new Dinosaur Jr. album so I played that one last night, that was good but like I said, all of a sudden the show was over and I was back in my car. I am always kind of depressed after the show is over. I wait all week to do it and then it seems like it’s over in half an hour or something.

I remember this from the other times I have worked on films and TV stuff, the days fly by and I don’t get a chance to get out of the thing much. I have been reading in my trailer between set ups and a little before falling out but not as much as I would like. I did get some good listening in over the weekend. I checked out that Horrors record again last night post show, really great. Friday night, I went on Mutant Sounds and downloaded the 10 CDR set of Kawabata Makoto’s early recordings. I have played a few hours of it so far, really great. If any of you have any of his Private Tapes collection, please let me know, I want to hear all of that.

So, in a few days, I fly to the east coast and do three shows! I am really looking forward to them.

15. Woodstock NY

16. Burlington VT

17. Portsmouth NH

I will hopefully be out a good part of next year on the road, not so much this year. I have been getting several e-mails asking if there will be more dates added for this year and at this point, it doesn’t look like it. Like I said, next year should be a good amount shows starting in Europe in January and going all over for hopefully several months. You know me, I would rather be out in the world than here.

It’s late and tomorrow starts early. On Mondays, Heidi comes into the office on an energy level that requires me to be ready for anything. Usually she informs me that, “You have chores!” and sets me at some really boring task that takes way too long. I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those days. I will see some of you at the shows later in the week. Until next week, thanks for reading this. Henry

Last night’s radio show was pretty good. Engineer X couldn’t make it last night and Good Golly Miss Holly was there instead. She’s a great engineer but not having Engineer X there throws me off some so the music was good but I was a little off the mark. At least I got all the music I brought played. That’s always the goal, to get all the stuff I brought with me onto the air for people to listen to. I came back here and worked on more radio stuff for a couple of hours and then tried to get some sleep because I had to get up early for the photo thing this morning.

Last Thursday, I went to Century City to be on a panel for a press conference the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America was having there. The press conference was to announce a new outreach program IAVA is initiating via internet called http://supportyourvet.org/. This is a great thing and will do a world of good for returning veterans, their friends and their families. It’s always good to see IAVA’s executive director Paul Rieckhoff, he’s one stand up guy. He and his organization are kicking ass for veterans. The week before last, I did the voice over work for their next video promotion campaign. I am glad to be able to be part of what they’re doing. Here’s the address for their homepage: http://iava.org/. I can’t say enough good things about IAVA and Paul.

It is no secret that there are more abuse photos of detainees that will soon be released to the public. That news is weeks old. I got some information from someone recently, who has seen the photos and says that some of the images are extremely hard to take and if those particular ones are released, it could shake things up quite a bit. I am not one for conspiracy theories so much but I have time to listen to different takes on things and one thing that I have read and heard that is interesting to me is that the Influenza A, previously known as swine flu, which, is getting a lot of news at the moment is perhaps a bit of a diversion from the state of the economy, bailouts, Iraq not extending the withdrawal date, increased casualties in Afghanistan and again, these photos that apparently will soon be out in the world. I am in no way trying to belittle the lethality of the virus but it doesn’t seem to be the pandemic that sources said it was. What’s more interesting to me is that a potential cause of the whole thing could have been from US pork that had been outsourced to Mexico. There’s an interesting book by Paul Roberts called The End Of Food that talks about hog lagoons (I’ll let you look that up on your own if you are so inclined.) and the damage they do to local water supplies. When food is produced on such a massive scale, there is a price to be paid. I am no scientist but I don’t think it takes one to come to the conclusion that we are in for more tainted food and in your face viral outbreaks in our future. But back to these torture photos. I have been thinking about this a lot, having just finished Jane Mayer’s book, The Dark Side and getting a fair way into Charlie Savage’s very interesting book Takeover. I read an interesting article earlier, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/us/politics/04detain.html?ref=us, that makes me even more curious about what the hell was going on with all of this over the last few years. Maybe more information will makes itself available later this year.

On a lighter note, I just got my copy of Heaven & Hell’s new album The Devil You Know and am one song in. H&H is The Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice of Sabbath. So far, so good. I can only find a vinyl copy in Germany so far. I am going to go to the record store on Tuesday and check to see if I can get a vinyl copy of the new Horrors album Primary Colours. Also, there will be a new Dinosaur Jr. album soon called Farm. You know how excited this makes me!

Until next week, thanks for reading this. Henry

Thanks for the letters about last night’s radio broadcast. If I didn’t mention it enough, this was the show I put together based on Simon Reynold’s book on Post Punk music called Rip It Up And Start Again. I even got a letter from Simon, telling me he liked the show, so there! I have next week’s show ready but will put it through a couple more listens before I decide it’s all it can be.

Friday night, Keith Morris and I did that LA Weekend thing. It was good for the most part. It was very cool to hang out with Keith of course. He has excellent taste in music and all the stuff he played was great. It was in the third hour that I started to have my fill. People were very friendly to me but as the evening wore on, some people became increasingly intoxicated and found themselves in need of someone to talk to, which, too often for my liking, turned out to be me. It’s hard enough to keep the music going without screwing it all up but when you add drunks to the mix, it’s more than I wanted to deal with. So, when the last band of the evening went on and things were basically winding down, I left. It was better to do that than act out.

There has been a lot of interesting rumbling going on concerning the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act otherwise known as House Resolution 1913. I encourage any of you to check it out. Some groups are in a bind about it, fearing that it will restrict their free speech. It basically allows the Feds to assist local law in hate crime investigation and prosecution. There are some Christian groups who are upset about it because they fear something that might be said from the pulpit characterized as hate speech and off to jail goes the good pastor. I don’t share their fear. I think if you are preaching that being gay is wrong, a sin and whatever else, I don’t think that would strike any rational person as hateful as much as just being either right on or woefully ignorant, depending on which side of sanity you fall on. Those who think their First Amendment rights are potentially being thrown under the bus I think are in no need of worry. It will be ok, you’ll still be able to keep your gays are bad ball up in the air for as long as you want. You just might find the room you’re in has less people in it as time goes on.

Now here’s something that would get these angry people really steamed. A few days ago, David Duke, ex KKK leader found himself in Prague, Czech Republic for three speeches in support of a book of his called My Awakening: A Path To Racial Understanding, that was recently translated into Czech. Well, he never made those speeches. He was arrested in a restaurant there a few days ago and held. The government had determined that there was Holocaust denial in the book and that carries a sentence in that country that is up to three years in prison. Damn! Of course, Mr. Duke won’t be doing any time behind bars but he was booted back to America yesterday, I believe. Don’t like the rules they play by? Don’t go. I don’t think it’s a good thing to arrest someone for denying the Holocaust. If that’s what you think, then that’s what you think, but it is a remarkable law nonetheless. It definitely lets you know some people in the world are sick of this bullshit. So, I reckon David Duke is back home now, writing letters to all the tearful Czech racists who are all in pieces that their import item didn’t get to tell them that their skin color was better and also being preyed upon by the forces of darkness. I know, there are some people in America who will tell you that our freedoms are already all but gone and the only way out is to lock and load, get your tea bags out, etc. I don’t agree but it is interesting to see these people thrash about. By the way, if you look up Mr. Duke’s book on Amazon.com, in the section about the author, they leave out the fact that he used to be the Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Sexy!

There sure has been a lot of spectacular gun homicides in America over the last several days. People are feeling the economic downturn, some are just having a bad time in general, I guess. The more this kind of thing happens, the more you will hear some people say that the government is coming for your guns. I don’t think that’s true and I don’t think that just because you have guns in America, that you necessarily have a gun problem in America. I think we have a people problem more than anything else. If you took all the guns away, then it would be baseball bats or whatever else.

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of the new Horrors album Primary Colours from one of the cool dj’s at KCRW last night. I am on my third listen and I am loving this album and its sonic splendor.

Next week, I will have had a day of shooting behind me and will let you know how that went. The second pressing of my book A Preferred Blur is now out. Thanks for reading this. Henry