Okay! Here we go again! It’s another brand-new year, full of hope and promise and everything looks rosy! There’s a sense of unity in the country, hell, the world, that humanity has never known. As a species, we all came together, sorta like a fast-spreading virus, and, with the wisdom of God-inspired-science, knocked Covid-19 on its ass before it could even show its ugly ol’ round splotchy head around these parts. Well, not exactly. Denton County recorded a record 2,060 Covid cases in one day about a week ago and it’s been hovering a little below that since. What!?!? A year ago, I was waiting until the cases were below 50 a day, so I could feel fairly okay about going to the dentist. Boy, this decade is sucking pretty bad, so far! Today, I watched the live-streamed funeral of a friend I knew very well, growing up: a neighbor and fellow Baptist church kid. She was about five months older than I am. She was always bubbly and positive. We knew her family so well, I still remember their phone number! Saw them just about every day during my public-school years. In high school, our lives took radically different directions. It appears, she became intensely religious and focused on Jesus while I, of course, became intensely ridiculous and eventually focused on polka. But, we were always super happy to see each other and catch up and discuss the stupid stuff our parents were doing. For some reason, as I understand, she would not get vaccinated and became one of those saddest of statistics, at lightning speed. She started feeling sick one day while visiting one of her children in another state, right after the new year kicked in, went to the hospital rather quickly, and was dead in four days. Story over. I’ve been in a bit of a fog since, trying to wrap my head around just the reality of it all. I live, every day, in a world which believes that Covid-19 was and is a real and present danger. Almost every single person I spend, and have spent, more than one minute around, felt, and feels, exactly the same. We’ve all tried to be good soldiers for the science. I get the flu shot every year and it’s never a big deal. Just got it recently, in fact, at Albertson’s. Plus, a coupon for 10% off my next shopping spree there, because I let them give me the shot. Then I bought some spinach, I think, but didn’t blow the 10% on that. Oh, no. I’m gonna wait until I’m ready to spend something like $200 there! You know, for like a couple of boxes of kitty litter and some potatoes. Ka-ching! My point is that it was easy for me to just follow the evolving science because we all follow basic rules of science a million times a day, just doing stuff. Oh, the wonderful world of science! I liked science films in grade school. Most of them were pretty old. And we also watched film strips. I enjoyed watching teachers fumble with all of that clunky equipment. Not to laugh at them, just to watch them, as they heroically struggled. Google “film strips,” if you don’t know what they are and if you want to waste time finding out something underwhelming and only interesting if you were a kid who remembers actually watching them. But, somehow, I knew the technology was unruly and cumbersome and would someday be archaic. Whatever, back to my point. I am quite aware not everyone lives in my bubble. I’ve always known that, but it has surprised me how many people abandoned science this time around. Eradicating a deadly pandemic seems like the kind of thing everyone would get on board with and automatically look to the experts for guidance, rather than outlets like THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER. But, as I said, not everyone lives in my bubble. No matter what, it’s been a weird week.

Hey, let’s talk about music. I will be starting to work soon on three resurrected Tiny Tim/Brave Combo tracks. We decided not to include them the first time around, 25 years ago, but the things I didn’t like about them then don’t seem so unworkable now. I’m having a hell of a time finding Tiny, though, to get him to redo a couple of vocal lines. Anybody seen him since he and Elvis were hanging out with Andy Kaufman and Amelia Earhart (lovely couple)? Speaking of famous dead people, my wife and I visited Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris once. There were guitar picks all over it. It was lightly raining, but we purchased an umbrella, just before entering the cemetery. I know you think I mainly told you that so you would think I was cool. You’re probably right, but a bunch of other famous dead people were there, too. We got a map of all of the graves with the umbrella.

Back to music. On Friday, February 11th, Brave Combo will be playing a groovy-to-the-max show with our ol’ buddy, Jad Fair, who was, during Brave Combo’s early years, half of Half Japanese, an influential sorta punk band he formed with his brother. Jad’s music is uniquely his and we think this will be a spectacular event. I’m trying to get our friend, and Denton legend, Paul Slavens, to do the show with us, as well. Why not give people something to see and hear. I hope it gets to happen. We were supposed to play the Denton Mini Folk Festival this weekend, but, as I mentioned earlier, over 2000 people tested positive for the virus in one day, five days before the festival and the promoters did the right thing, postponing it until Spring. Thumbs up! We had some crazy stuff to play. It’s cool. We can get the songs a little tighter and I can make my folk dancing a little smoother.

We are, by design, keeping the calendar light and, for now, only booking outdoor spaces still. You know, we wanna rip, without worrying about spitting and sweating on people, because we want to spit and sweat on people and want them to do the same to us; to get lost in the moment, without staring at a bunch of masks reminding you not to get lost in the moment. Yeah, it’s best to wait a bit longer before acting like everything is normal again. It’s really not that much fun to just go through the motions while your mind is worrying about getting sick and/or encourage people to cram into an indoor space and pretend everything is A-okay. Oh, whatever, life is fun and the world of Brave Combo is getting busier by the second. We’re rehearsing again and are thinking about live-streaming one of those soon. Also, I’m still feeding cats behind the office. Let’s rock!

Below is a new video of an old Argentinian tango. I was just messing with the song one night recently and decided to rearrange it and write English lyrics. I haven’t worked on the bridge yet, but you’ll get the idea where the song is going.

One more thing. We took our 15-year-old dog, Foxey, to the vet this week, with some of her freshly acquired urine, and she and the urine were both fine. And she’d lost two pounds since our vet visit a couple of months earlier. On the way home we bought her a sack of donuts for getting such a good report.

Be smart and responsible and keep your eye on what we’re doing. It’s all getting stranger and, perhaps, even more entertainingly interesting.

Sometime in August, about four months ago, Texas was really hot. I was concerned about our AC at home. It shouldn’t still be working so well. We thought we might have to replace it years ago, but it just keeps on doing its thing. Anyway, Christmas Holiday music seemed a long way off. Polka season hadn’t even happened yet. Slowly, but surely, though, time marched on. The days got shorter and by October the temperatures began dropping dramatically. Not much Autumn in Denton this year. September was stupidly warm, then, suddenly, it was cold. Then everyone was anticipating Halloween and once that happened, the flood gates opened. Halloween equals Thanksgiving equals Christmas equals New Year’s Eve. Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam! Everyone’s all revved-up now, ready to travel in bad weather and spend, spend, spend. An unseen force has taken control and is moving us along. I find this phenomenon both curiously entertaining and curiously annoying. No one can really escape being involved to some degree. Our poor little town is bursting at the seams and it appears Dentonites are hitting the stores in record numbers this year. Why not? We have Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Rooms-To-Go, Party City, Macy’s, Guitar Center. You name it, we’ve got it. Just like you, wherever you are. We even have our token struggling mall and two different theaters where you can eat a full meal during the movie, just like watching TV at home, without the luxury of being able to pause it. This town is full of stuff, ready for the masses to buy and take home. And the masses in Denton number about 10,000 more people than were here in 2018. Whatever, during this “most wonderful time of year,” stuff is definitely king. New things in boxes give us a thrill. We simply LOVE boxes with stuff in ‘em. The problem is that we sorta do this all year long. Most of us, if we can afford it, treat ourselves every day to special things. According to reruns of the old TV show, THE RIFLEMAN, back in the wild west days, for Christmas, you might only get an orange. I know, I know. This isn’t a new observation. People have been trying to get back to “the real meaning of Christmas” and away from over-commercialization since I was a little kid. But, apparently, a healthy economy depends on all of us spending extravagantly as much as possible. I mean, would things fall apart if we didn’t buy tons of new crap constantly and then, at the end of each year, go consumer berserk? It doesn’t matter. I’m just thinking out loud. Nothing can change, so it’s hardly worth pondering. And besides, the holiday season has been very good for Brave Combo over the years. It has added about 30 songs to our permanent repertoire. Bob Dylan even covered one of our arrangements (“Must Be Santa”) for his Christmas album a few years ago. We did a whole tour of Japan in support of our album, IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN, a year before we even released it in the USA. Did you know Japan goes Christmas bonkers, too? Maybe even more so. But Jesus isn’t really part of the festivities. Love hotels are, though. Anyway, I’m always thinking about how to improve something or make it more efficient or, perhaps, even more meaningful. It really bugs most people around me that I’m constantly unsettled. From my point of view, there’s always something different around the corner, waiting to be discovered, created or fixed. The world is forever new. Merry Christmas!

Speaking of now, Brave Combo has some super-duper shows coming up. The Holiday Funhouse is waiting for you! On Friday, December 6, we return to Andy’s, in Denton, for our annual hometown bash. On Saturday, December 7, we’ll be at Poor David’s Pub, in Dallas, for our annual North Texas bash. On Friday, December 13, we are really excited to bring the funhouse to Knucklehead’s, in Kansas City. Our good friend, Mike Dillon, will be joining us for this show. If you live within 100 miles of KC, you must attend this event! On Saturday, December 14, it’s the ultimate Christmas happening, at mighty FitzGerald’s, in Berwyn (Chicago), Illinois. Another good friend, Danny Jerabek, will be on stage with us, playing some excellent notes! And on Sunday, December 15, it’s matinee party time at the Zoo Bar, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Get off your butt and come out and party with us. You can sing along with everything! “O, Holy Night (Cha Cha Cha)!”

Speaking of Christmas music, we have just received a shipment of IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN CDs. This has been somewhat tricky to order in recent years, so we’re glad to have a decent stock for the holidays. BUT, do not tarry, if you want one. They tend to sell out. It’s a classic. Go to our store right now and order several today!

So, here we are, nearing the end of another year. Things seem hopeless, in many ways. The United States is divided into two tribes and, it appears, the best we can hope for is “our side” keeping a lid on “their side,” whatever that means to you. Unfortunately, winning-at-all-costs doesn’t really work anymore, especially when our enemies are the people with whom we share the country. I think people want to get along more than certain people in high places would have us believe. When I’m walking my dogs, and cars pass by, I usually wave and smile at the drivers. Almost every time, even if those people don’t look anything like me, they will do the same. Most people want you to like them and they want to please you, believe it or not. We are united in our insecurities and long for acceptance. This is a wonky world and no one knows what will happen next. It might behoove us to concentrate a little more on the ways we’re all similar. For instance, I’ve had a pretty terrible cold for over two weeks. I bet we can all be united in our desire to not catch really bad colds. See, that’s a place to start. Most of us like our favorite foods and hate road construction. We all, I assume, hope to sleep well and wake up refreshed. And I’m sure we would all like to put five dollars in a slot machine and get back five thousand. That would put almost everyone I know in a good mood, even if they had a headache. Oh yeah, no one likes headaches, probably. We can agree on that, right? Okay, you can take it from here. Have a Damn Happy Holiday Season. Make music part of your fun. Yes, fun! Have some fun!