My friend George of YD Industries fame called up the other day and asked if I would be a correspondent for his online venture, Zannel to cover the Inauguration. I was more than happy and now am hooked on my little micro-blog. With some thirty loyal followers I now can’t let them down and stop doing it. Between Facebook, Zannel, and this site, I’ve been unsure where to consolidate all my goings on, but with an easy-as-pie app for my iPhone I can most easily update the Zannel account and that is good news for on-the-road blogging. Since the Inauguration, I’ve been Zannel-ing Brooklyn, San Francisco, Reno, and beyond. So bookmark www.zannel.com/bewlz and keep up to date on all my goings on.

I know. It’s been too long! But now it’s 2009 and everything is just heating up. Why just today we got stuff mailed, rent paid, Volvo taken in for repair and bought groceries! WHOOT! It’s all pretty exciting. A few highlights from the waning days of 2008: Shary Boyle & Doug Paisley at BAM – endlessly awesome; visiting the CAC in Cincy; homemade ribs; the wonder of Value City; scoring some sweet luggage; a new bottle of scotch; slippers; embarrassing my niece; and of course, two words that changed our world: SALT PIG!

Happy Happy! Here’s some pics to prove it.

Today, cranking a gigantic red-handled lever on a voting machine built circa 1934, I cast my vote for Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States!!! Bush and Company have been soundly rejected. Palin is going back to the woods. McCain can go back to being a normal independent Senator, the kind of guy I actually liked back in 2000. And we can move forward. I spent the weekend in New Orleans, walking for hours through the devastation of the Lower Ninth Ward. It remains a wounded part of the city, with fire hydrants pouring water into the streets and houses abandoned and collapsing back into themselves. But even there, in a place where America’s government failed its people so completely, in windows and on front yards, there were signs supporting Obama. Hope lives. Let’s get to work.

On a bright Sunday afternoon, I took a walking tour of Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta. To stand in front of the house Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up in, the church he preached from, and his tomb alongside that of his wife, Coretta Scott, is to be humbled before God and the legacy of his great family. Things are still not perfect in Atlanta, just as things are not perfect in this country. But my visit there only reinforced in me the deep knowledge that we cannot afford to be divided or pulled apart into a “Pro-America” and its opposite. Here’s to only 15 days left in this campaign season. Lord Almighty, do I need a break.

Though the world seems headed into the crapper, here are some great things that are happening in this, my official birthday week. 1) Discovered the riveting Paul Swan in a film by Andy Warhol at the gigantic Warhol exhibition at the ridonkulously awesome Wexner Center. If you can get to Columbus, get Jenni’s Ice Cream, and then go see this show. 2) I enjoyed the Biden-Palin face off while in the company of the incomparable John Waters. I’ll keep his thoughts on Palin in a giggle vault to unlock whenever I’m feeling low. 3) I passed by Peggy Olson from TV’s Mad Men on the street near NYU. Whatta doll! 4) All my pants are hemmed at an appropriate length. 5) The weather has finally slipped from muggy oppression to crisp with a hint of wood smoke. Fall is here and I’m headed to the Planetarium for some birthday good times on Friday. Happy Birthday me. I’ll worry about my 401k vanishing on Monday.

It would be easy to get discouraged by the Palin-bomb of right-wing enthusiasm that the McCain campaign chose to drop just the other week. But I’m refusing to give in to the same old, woe is me, Democratic hand-wringing that so often occurs around this time, especially given the past few years of electoral history. The facts are if this country is going to get better, we must elect Obama-Biden. And despite the polls, I know we can do this. McCain is by his own staff’s admission, doing whatever they can to win, regardless of a little thing called the truth. Sound familiar? This absent pursuit of power is surely reminiscent of a certain dynamic destructive duo already installed in the White House. With McCain’s willingness to sacrifice all honor for the sake of winning combined with Sarah Palin’s naive, uninformed world view, electing them means certain doom for this country. I don’t understand how anyone who wants their children to be better off, for their grandchildren to live in a safe and just world, could in good faith, even consider electing McCain-Palin. Here’s a video of Barack Obama at his best in Concord, NH, he’s got real ideas, real compassion, and integrity. For those who consider Obama a toss of the dice, or too risky, I think a 72-year old sell-out, with an extreme right wing running mate with zero experience as a backup, a far more reckless choice for this country. More than reckless, it would actively be participating in the unraveling of the American dream. You want Obama’s specifics? Read his plans on www.barackobama.com .

The blissful union of two hearts in love. In this case, Maura and Rufus, who married just before the raindrops in a grassy clearing beyond the woods in Freeport, Maine.

A beautiful lady and a canoe for two.