Hey Patient Outpatients,

Seems like awaiting the outcome of the US election in order to complete this month’s drudion was a big waste of time. Dunno why, but I thought it was somehow more professional to hang fire doing a write-up until all the ballots had come in. As the Krav says, it ain’t over ‘till it’s over, and when Lenny makes such pronouncements, we gots to listen! Although I deffo never gave Kerry any real hope of winning because he seemed just too intellectual and too removed to make any real dent in Amerika’s ongoing “Straitjacket = Freedom” equation, the sudden surge of extra voters did hoodwink me temporarily into believing they couldn’t possibly be out ticking for Bush. Never was this nation so divided, at least from the point of view of the implications to the outside world. As an American writer friend and Kerry activist (whose name I’ll keep anonymous) has commented:

“Tell all your neighbors that we tried, we really did, but the morons and Jesus freaks are just too plentiful. The poor might not have jobs or food or health care, but hey, at least gays can’t get married and our army is out there killing Arabs. Jesus will thank us when we die!”

Still, this news is certainly old hat in light of the wider scheme of things, especially as John Peel left the planet very unexpectedly last week. I always believed John would continue Methuselah-like into his 90s and die peacefully in his sleep. The tragedy of John Peel’s going is that his was a take-me-for-granted role, that of someone we could count on always; a healing continuing force for the greater cultural good. Like Robert Graves, Colin Wilson and Frank Zappa, Peel was a cultural constant whose work we could not always appreciate because it was so damned ongoing that its value could never be judged until he was no longer around. The tragedy of Peel’s death is that one of culture’s greatest Facilitators has just stopped facilitating, and the music world will suffer (and in some places wither) accordingly. My Album of the Month pays homage to John Peel and his enduring influence over generations of British rock’n’rollers. But right now it’s important to send love to his family as well.

I shall finish by thanking everyone who has attended the talks and book signings for THE MEGALITHIC EUROPEAN. All have been sold out and, as being surrounded by the general book-buying public is a rarity, I’ve tried my hardest to keep on the programme during the talks and to explain thoroughly the nature of this hefty tome. A few people in the queues have commented that I must be left with time on my hands after such a task. Hardly, me dears. Indeed, I’m deeply on the case with the next one AND (Oh result of results!) the seemingly endless European fieldwork has come to and end without one single moment of yearning. O yeah, it feels so gooooood to be done and in there signing real copies – most of all because this means THE MEGALITHIC EUROPEAN is no longer just an abstract future idea inhabiting my chilly brainium as I shiver my ass off on the north coast of Skaggerak!

Love at y’all,

JULIAN (M’Lud Yatesbury)