McDonald's Girl #1 in Norway
    Volume 2, Issue 1 - July 1998

Hi Everybody,

First of all, for those of you that have never gotten email from me before and are scratching your heads wondering, "Who is this guy? And how did I wind up on his email list?" - you were probably overheard on some newsgroup talking about the 'real origin of "McDonald's Girl" or some other obscure song trivia relating to this list.

Don't panic.

Anyone that would like to be removed from this list just send a "REMOVE ME" reply.

The rest of you have no excuse and will be forced to read the rest of this missive regardless of how vague, confusing and convoluted its train of thought becomes because, much as we'd like to deny it, we are all - and I include myself in this grouping - helpless media babies suckled on the glowing phosphorous milk of the constantly flowing, beneficent boob tube and irradiated by the fuzzy warmth of its mind-numbing scanning electron beam.

O.K. Maybe I'm overstating the case. The point is, you've read this far and clearly only the rare contrarian will have the rigid self discipline and perverse will power necessary to be able to stop reading at the period at the end of this sentence.

Good. Now that we've gotten rid of those assholes, I can get on with the rest of my message intended for the rest of you who obviously possess exceptionally good taste and an appreciation for rare lyrical craftmanship and consumate songwriting skills.

All right, enough of all that. How are you all doing? I'm just fine. Still here in London promoting the new album, doing radio, TV and press interviews all over the UK. I spent an exciting week in Ireland doing all sorts of media and enjoying a great reception to the new album. I'm looking forward to going back there in October on the first leg of tour which will continue in the UK in November. I'll keep you all posted with the tour dates once they're all confirmed.

In the meantime, allow me to mention two brief upcoming summer festival appearances...

  1. I'll be doing a short 1/2 hour spot on Saturday, August 1st (8pm Club Tent stage) at the CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL.
  2. I'll be doing another short 1/2 hour spot August 8th) at the GUILFORD '98 FESTIVAL in STOKE PARK. (The festival runs Aug. 7,8 & 9. (call 01483-454159 for more info and time)

"But, what's really happening these days?", you innocently ask.

It's difficult to explain. Here's what I mean:

There I am, sitting in a hotel room ( in Dublin) talking to Alison on the phone (in London), as she explains to me that Amelia, her monkey (in New York), escaped.

For those of you that have never met her, Amelia is a small hairy Capuchin monkey that lives in our dining room in Peekskill and is being looked after by Chris and Sabine who are housesitting for us and looking after the menagerie.

Anyway, Amelia ran out of the house and spent the night up in a tree and finally came down the next day for grapes but not until an army of 60 people, including the police, a cherry picker, emergency crew, and staff from the Bronx zoo tried to coax her down. She's fine and had what by all appearances was a fun excursion but Chris and Sabine and Alison are still recovering. (As a point of information, if anybody is wondering why we live with a monkey - it's because she was originally rescued from customs quarantine and has no place else to live.)

These types of unusual incidences occur more frequently than I care to admit but the following event definately bordered on the surreal...

Many of you are familiar with the saga of my song "McDonald's Girl". For those not, it goes like this...

  Questions, comments, and suggestions to Dean