December 08, 2009
Vol. XI issue iii
Silver Spring, MD

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Wait --- Wait --- Wait just a second here. We MUST have a sec for a rare but still important crass commercial announcement. It is from our sponsor ,um, me.

Ya see, it is THAT time of year and the new CD is finished. JUST when you were wondering what you would get that special someone in your life.  Or maybe the distant uncle that likes to quote Glen Beck at holiday gatherings.
THE NEW CHANDLER CD!  

Get The New Chandler and Benoit CD as a Christmas Gift
In case the link did not work:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/chrischandler12

My best studio effort in years!  All due to Paul Benoit Paul-Benoit-Music. He is nothing short of a world class slide, roots and Americana guitar player living in Seattle, El Salvador and Paris. He both accompanies on and produced this new record, "So, Where Ya Headed?"

you can do it through pay pal here:  
by clicking on the coffee can to your left

The other is to send a check or money order to:
Chris Chandler
3128 Memory Lane
Silver Spring, MD 20904
then I will snail mail it to you.

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***HOLIDAY FLASH****
***OK OK enough of the crass commercial announcement***
***HOLIDAY FLASH***
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T.H.E. .M.U.S.E. .A.N.D. .W.H.I.R.L.E.D. .RE.T.O.R.T
December 08, 2009
Vol. XI issue ii
Silver Spring, MD
By Chris Chandler and Jen Delyth

How does a sea turtle
know its way
to the ocean
once it emerges from its shell?

Taking with it grains of sand in which it was born,
returning them to the sea in which it was conceived.

Sometimes, you just know.

Is it the same way a goose knows to follow the sun,
or a bear to rise from its slumber?

Sometimes, you just know.

How does a child know to feed itself from its mother's breast?

Is it love?
Or is it instinct?
Or is it that sometimes you just know?

Is it some God-forsaken scientific garbledey-gook?
Or some pointless poetic pretense?
Or is it that sometimes you just know?

Is it time compounded by experience
pilling atop itself,
compressing,
forming the rock of civilization,
just to crush it back into the sands of time?

Or

Is it our individual spirit
inspired by compassion
seeking to simulate,
the collective soul of all things,
just to oppress us with the despotism of piety?

Mountains rise from the sea.  
Continents are formed,
then split and drift
until immeasurable oceans divide them.

Us.

Human beings follow suite.
Scotsmen cross over the ocean
to find the highlands of Appalachia
is the same mountain range from whence they came,
while teeny-bopper Rockies preen and flex their muscles
as grandfatherly Ozarks slump broke-back
into sand and are carried to the ocean to form new continents.

Sand
funnels through the narrowing hole of an hour glass
ironically made of the same sand it imprisons.  

Sand
heated with the flames of love
and shaped like your beloved in her prime.

Sand
entering the narrowest of passages
in order to measure times gone by,
only to stand on the shoulders of history
forming a tiny cheerleading pyramid,
applauding the inevitable rise of the latest dawn.

But to love, dawn has neither come nor gone,
for it is always dawn – somewhere.  

To love, the rising of the sun simply means the moon will follow.

As will the goose,
and it will nudge the bear from its slumber,
and it will open the infant's eyes
and cause the sea turtle return to the sea…
...for as long as there is a sea...
and sand to wash upon the shore...
and montains to crumble into the ocean.
                                                          …Because…
                                                                            …sometimes you just know.

And when you know…

you must say Yes…
                           …to the only thing we have.

Love.

Only love and sand know what forever means,

So, Yes.

I say Yes.  

To love.

Because I want to discover, with you, what forever really means.

Because sometimes, you just know.

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A.N.N.O.U.N.C.M.E.N.T.S.

YES, it is true.  

I am engaged!  

To Jen Dyleth OF San Francisco USA via Whales.

Sometimes you just know.

If you would like to know more about her or her art Jen Delyth

Her work also makes for terrific Christmas gifts.

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Happy Holidays
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Paul Benoit and I are planning a west coast tour in March. And east coast in May. Lots of irons in the fire but not much confirmed yet.

Get your requests in now.

We could use the help.
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T.H.A.N.K. .Y.O.U.!

Jen Dyleth, Paul Benoit, Shirley Myers, Anne Feeney, Drunah NOLA,  Wendy Corn, Amy Berlin and all the folks at the compound, Jessie in abstention, Brad Massengill, Shakey Bean, Bruce Chandler, Mav, Jeff and Elizabeth, Dan Electros, My family, Eddie Owens, Dan Bern, Fishman, Chuck, Joe Uehlein, Peter Jones, Pat Barnes, Joe and Jay.
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H.E.R.E.'.S. .D.A. .D.A.T.E.S.

Friday, January 15 through Sunday, January 17
Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival in Burlingame, CA  http://www.docspopuli.org/WesternWorkers.html

Sat March 20 Orcas Island, WA
Off Center Stage

Thur March 25 Eugene, OR
Sam Bonds Garage

Fri April 30
House Concert
Watertown, CT

Sat May 1 Paterson NJ
Botto House
afternoon

Sat May 1 New York New York
TBA

Monday May 10
Cambridge, MA
Cantab Feature

July 4th Weekend
High Sierra Music Festival
Tentative

July 9th Weekend
Oregon Country Fair
Tentative

July 16th weekend
Duncan, BC
The Islands Folk Festival
Tentative