When not on Mudcat, I am usually travelling around the US (currently in South Dakota, Western Iowa, and NE Nebraska) organizing unions. Currently working with a mostly hispanic workforce in the Packinghouse/slaughter industry. Tough work, and tougher workers. The conditions are appalling. We read books like "The Jungle" and think these conditions don't exist anymore. Some do, some don't. In the high pressure world of production, management will push humans ever farther and harder to get a little more out of them. Machines are made of steel and they break down, imagine what happens with bodies.

Of course, I play music. More and more this is music about the struggles of peoples to simply better themselves and give their children a decent life. These days we try to criminalize something that has been a way of life in this country for generations. And the children are usually the victims. I am writing songs and collecting songs about the plight of these decent, hardworking folks. I am trying to put together a collection that takes the songs of the earlier age of immigration when my people (Irish) were coming to this country, along with Germans, Poles, and others, and then add songs, either of my own, or other folks songs, that show that some things really don't change. Music can affect social change, and I am moving in that direction.

Also, now that we have moved home to Michigan, we are trying to get our house back in order after a 2 1/2 year abandonment. During that time there was a flooded basement (looked like a swimming pool), a blown fuse that left a freezer full of food to rot, and critters. So we are a bit busy to say the least.

How's that for a regular Mudcatter report?

Mick