I was never entirely sure what that meant, but it is something my mother used to say -- inherited from her mother, presumably -- the morning of a big family trip. Crude and off the wall, it spelled mystery and adventure and it never failed to send chills up my spine.

My father’s version of this was to sing a refrain of “Movin’ Day” (“pick the carpet up off the floor / put on your overcoat and out the door”) which he knew from the Holy Modal Rounders (Stampfel and Weber), a favorite group of his and now of mine.

But any way you like to talk about it, or learned about it from you’re family, I’m referring to that wonderful feeling you get when you’re about to leave behind the every day humdrum, and venture out into the unknown.

That’s exactly how I feel about starting up this weblog! It’s been on the back burner for the better part of a year now. But for one reason and another, I haven’t quite been able to get it up and running. That changes now!

This is an exciting and amazing time for me personally, for my family, for my band, for the culture and country, and for the world as a whole. “Strange things happenin’ / like never before.”

Besides writing, performing and recording songs, I want this blog to be a vehicle of expression. I plan to comment on happenings in my own life and events in the news, point to links on the web that highlight an interesting angle or turn of thought, and to publish stories, anecdotes and anything else that seems relevant and in need of an outlet.

Since I got on line in the late 90s, like many people, I’ve gotten more and more tuned into dangers we face as a people. Environmental, economic, political, especially. . . Sometimes it seems like badnews.com, all day, all the time. I won’t shy away from that. When the culture’s definition of good and clever is whatever makes a buck, whatever satisfies the body and ego, and whatever you can get away with, it’s well overtime to start looking the beast straight in the eye and speak the truth without backing down.

But I refuse to get bogged down by doom and gloom, either. As Jalaluddin Rumi noted, what seems bad ultimately originates from the great good beyond -- like everything else. And, as Otis Redding added, “Change gonna come.” So there’ll be a healthy dose of goodnews.com as well. In fact, I’ll start this blog on that note, as a harbinger of the tone I mean to set:

I woke up this morning, after everyone was gone -- one of those lazy days I get from time to time, especially during this last year since my move from San Diego with my wife Kim to a cabin out behind a farm house in the woods and hills of western Massachusetts. I wandered down to the main house, and what should I find on the breakfast table, but a home grown news sheet called Positive News (for much more, see http://www.positivenews.net). The headline read, “Sweden to Be Oil Free by 2020”. The story shows a picture of Sweden’s prime minister and talks about the nation choosing to make the transition to renewable resources a national priority. Sweden already gets 20% of its energy from renewables (as opposed to 6% for Europe as a whole) and is aiming to go the whole hog. How fantabulous, I thought, little old Sweden, leading the way!

That’s what I mean by goodnews.com. But that’s just a teaser. Keep tuning in. I certainly don’t mean to write every day. But if you keep coming back, I promise there’ll be more goodies as time goes on: jazz and blues, comedy and improv, science and religion, seriosity and fun. A verbal corrollary to Radio Free Earth’s “Crossover Music”.

If we’re gonna get through, we’ve got to think in new ways. Conversely, in order to get through, all we have to do is be able to think in new ways, and start thinking that way. My band’s music is a new kind of music -- rooted in all kinds of old kinds of music -- and you can find out about Radio Free Earth at http://www.RadioFreeEarth.com. And with this post, my personal blog, sister to that site, is launched!