the bright skies of march have begun to fill our lives in the northern hemisphere, with the sun at its strongest and the days beginning to lengthen… this and the vaccine rollout are making for a building anticipation that’s nearly palpable. you can almost hear the voices in the streets and shops, and while many restaurants and clubs remain closed or at limited capacity, they are filled with smiling people in my mind’s eye. like everyone else, i can’t wait to play the bars again, to go out to hear live music and to shake off some of the year-long fear about crowds. spring!

after what seemed like an intermedable year of rollercoaster politics, global pandemic and social distancing, 2020 is actually coming to a close… how did you fare? what changed in your life? how did life continue for you despite these events that almost seemed to make time stop? and, finally, do you think your perspective on life has changed permanently? i ask these questions because i’m amazed at my own answers, and i’m super-curious to hear what others have to say…

and the months continue to fly by like autumn leaves swept up in an indian summer wind… i write as America awaits its political destiny after an arduous 2020 that divided our country along political lines based on a virus. for those of us who came of age during the vietnam war, this outcome is literally like science fiction. i hope to God we can return to each other as brothers and sisters in a shared ideology; this isn’t the first time our country has been divided, and it probably won’t be the last. as a friend said to me in 2016, “don’t worry, johnny, America is stronger than you think.”

what looked like an endless summer is suddenly slipping into september… somehow i was blessed to wind up in the middle of an artistic renaissance reminiscent of laurel canyon in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s at donna green’s magical moon farm in marshfield, massachusetts, where, after literally farming with donna last spring, i’ve been acting as music director of the summer saturday music series... ”live at magical moon barn” has been an island in the covid storm for musicians and audiences alike with socially-safe performances from 12-5 every saturday.

life has taken on a surrealistic hue that feels like reality imitating fiction. i’m spending most of my time on boston’s south shore at magical moon farm with the lovely donna green. i am helping out with the farm’s many dimensions, not the least of which is its weekly music program. this has been a lifesaver in the time of covid, with socially-safe outdoor performances. the musicians and audiences have appeared and we all get to revel in something resembling normalcy— the creation of community in the midst of isolation.

welcome, summer 2020, creeping in after the languishing months of our new, slowed-down world. the arrival feels like a slow glide into a pool of cool water instead of the usual splash into the ocean. i wonder if i’m paying more attention to time, or less... a book and a hammock seem productive in our alternate reality; a seizure of life’s vitality rather than a retreat from it. and i really don’t want the old normal to return- at least not until summer’s over.