This bank is about 100 years old, and it looks a lot more solid than many bigger banks today -- I don't think it'll need billions of taxpayer dollars to keep standing.
		Another view of the bank. As you can see, the bank has some small holes in the back and on the sides. These holes are small enough to keep the money deposited in this bank from falling out, but big enough to give some idea of what's inside the bank. Modern banks don't work this way.
		People had been telling me for a while that maybe I should get a new wallet. I guess maybe they were right.
		The other side of the wallet. It didn't look quite so bad from this side, so maybe I was just looking at this side more than the other.
		Another old friend that I said "good-bye" to recently. It served me well for many years. The front zippered pocket stopped closing a long time ago, and a small hole appeared in the bottom some months ago, but it was the hole in the top, which started recently and slowly got bigger, that finally did it in.
		A different kind of bag. This one isn't mine, but I wanted to get a picture of it because it's a real carpet bag. I'd heard of carpet bags before, but this is the first real one I've ever met. I don't think I've met any real carpet baggers, but I suspect that these days a real carpet bagger doesn't actually carry a carpet bag.
		A pair of very musical frogs. The sound these frogs make is a bit different from the sound frogs make out in the country. While I like the sound of country frogs, if I need a frog sound for a recording, it'll probably come from one of these two guys (or both), since it's easier to get them to the studio than it would be to invite one of their live country cousins.
		Another musical animal. When I first saw him on the store shelf, it was as if we'd already met long before. I think he reminded me of a guitar player I'd seen in a mirror once or twice.
		Maybe you've seen the t-shirt with the angels looking bored and smoking cigarettes? I would guess that doing a few hand-stands is probably a better, and healthier, idea.
		Mozart on the outside and some chocolate on the inside. I didn't get to eat the chocolate so I can't judge it, but I have a lot of respect for old Wolfgang, so I hope the chocolate was as classy as he was.
		A cake by Jill Caporlingua, an artist from the Highland Park, NJ area. If you'd like to know more about her art, her Web site is at gallerychaos.net. If you'd like to know more about her cake, I can tell you that the piece I had was pretty good!
		I found this belt buckle on the street in Brooklyn, and I thought it made a perfect birthday gift for David Seitz, the man who has helped me every step of the way over the last few years to get that magic elusive sound that I try to pull out of the air and put down onto a CD. I have to say, as many others have said, that David has a very good ear for music, and for musical sounds. You can find a link to David's Web site on the Friendsville page.
		Here's a lamp that is very well dressed, or at least it was at the time I took the picture, back in early September. It may not be so elegantly covered right now, of course, but soon enough, spring will spring again and it will put on this dress again.
		What appears to be an antique oil lamp, of the kind that Aladdin rubbed to call a genie, is actually just a humble incense burner. Of course, I've never rubbed it to see if I could call a genie, so I can't say for sure that it wouldn't happen. And come to think of it, it does look like it could use a little rubbing to shine it up...
		A drawing of me that my friend Jeff Larson did some years ago. It has faded some over the years, but strangely enough, the ground beneath me hasn't faded nearly as much as my image. You can find a link to Jeff's Web site on the Friendsville page.
		John Gray, Joe Canzano and I had some fun jamming in John's basement on 5/22/05. I wouldn't have remembered the date, but someone wrote it down on the board on the wall. You can find a link to Joe's Web site on the Friendsville page.
		The logic of this sign is hard to argue with, and hard to explain as well.
		Posted 3/5/09