Bonnie, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Wait, what *is* he doing behind that curtain, anyway? Anyway. I again urge you to get on HearMe, soon, socks or no socks. If you really are too timid to sing or play, just type in that you have no microphone. We'll know you're lying but we won't hold it against you.

For me, HearMe brings back some of the fun of the Seattle Song Circle, at which I was a more or less regular in the late 80s. There ain't no such animal here on the island, and it's wonderful to be able to listen to people sing and play and to share songs. And from all over the world, too! (We even had Andres one time I was there.) The text chat is fun, too. It's even better than song circle, because you can make comments without making noise. And, as Mbo and Praise can tell you, it's often difficult to control your textual urges.

So show up, OK?

And to the downunder folks like Spider Tom and alison and Billythebus, I'm only 4 hrs behind Sydney and 2 hours behind Auckland (the day before). I often log on after work about 5:00 or so (1700), so if you want to start something on a weekday I'll look for you. Just post a note in the Forum.

And a great big mahalo (thanks) to Jon Freeman for getting the tech stuff together and making this happen.

Aloha,
Mark