last night went really nicely, we were in a winery, saratoga, but close enough to san fran to have people from there show up

so… i went to japan for what was i guess four days or so… the band was there for two festival shows and press before heading to australia… barbs sister patti came up to help with akira and it was fast and i really wanted to go so all in it worked out well… debbie and i went two days early to do media… on the way from narita airport, after the thirteen hour flight and little sleep at home the night before (i left at 5:30 a.m.) i questioned my sanity in so far as making the trip at all but by the time i left i was just totally knocked out by the people and place… the band, without me, was playing the SUMMER SONIC festival in osaka and tokyo… radiohead and the strokes were the headliners and there were just a shitload of bands including DEVO who i didnt even know had been playing lately… there was a significant buzz about blondie being back after 25 years, i didnt watch the oska show but everyone came off dissatisfied with it, festivals are at best quirky things, there is often a lot of technical hassle and the vibe surrounding them is often more of the reason to do them than the actual show…. but i watched the tokyo show with one of the guys from sugarcult on a backstge monitor and was really impressed… i could tell it was a more successful show but mainly i was impressed by debbie and i realised how much i take for granted how fantastic she is… it was a very moving moment seeing her from a more objective place and being carried away by her performance, she really is a great master of the form and i honestly believe she’s as great as anybody out there is or ever was elvis, janis, bowie, jagger whatever… anyway i tried to tell her something like that and i think she got the message she seemed pleased… by then i had to catch my plane back and thats where i am now: back here but again i was just KNOCKEDDD OUTTT by the little glimpse i got of japan… some of you know that ive always been a fan of japanese culture, my parents had japanese prints and stuff around when i was growing up and my mother who was a painter went through a period of studying and obsessing over japanese art i got a day to walk around DEN DEN TOWN in osaka which is not really a tourist area; long arcade streets filled with shops, stalls everything very bright and colorful, music all over the place contrast with older streets that are dense with atmosphere if not people (the ridley scott film BLACK RAIN was the first big hollywood production ever filmed in osaka) (i was with one of the guys, Jordan, from management) we went into an amazing gaming hall… pachinko which was the pastime when we were last there, is still around but in this place made up only a small part of the games… the majority were played with coin tokens that one got from the hall and were the sort that have you drop coins down a chute in order to have them pile up and fall over a moving edge… these are common in vegas but the japanese ones are more complicated involving video screens and all kind of tricky interactivity…in the center of one of the rooms a big horse race game with interactive screens all around that one bets with… sitting around at all of these games are the ‘cool’ kids and i had a revelation about why there isnt a drug epedemic in japan… earlier we’d been to some of the amazing model and hobby shops that i’d been longing to see for years… (recently there was a series of commercials on tv here for models; GUNDAM style robots, some of you may have seen them, oddly the theme of these commercials was “what is your level of commitment?…” meaning how many hours would you be willing to put into building a model robot) the model and craft scene in japan is just on a whole other level of commitment than its equivalent in the US, (later that day we all were in a big department store and i was amazed to see whole departments dedicated to craft supplies, wood working, metal parts etc etc… stuff that i can only find in ‘specialty stores’ in the states is right out in this regular department store (they even had a wall of parts to repair umbrellas) what i came to was that there is a different kind of involvement in life there than what we have in the states… americans have become a nation of observers and non-participants (one of the on-going themes at BURNING MAN is participation, posters and flyers say just that: “PARTICIPATE!”) i noticed a couple of kids at the game arcade holding drum sticks and thought that they were advertising their being in bands until i came upon a ‘game’ where you put in 200 yen and play a set of synth-drums along with a rock soundtrack for points… then there’s this: no one is overweight! and i mean no one! if one out of four americans is overweight then the percentage in japan from looking at people on the streets must be one in a thousand, its uncanny, almost every girl i’d see had a slim models figure… after a while it ceased to be amazing… also happily i didnt see the same kind of fashion uniformity that i do here and in parts of europe, no golf shirts on the men thank god and in general hardly any sports-logo clothing though many many t-shirts with crazy slogans and deformed english statements “summertime, the cool vacation since 1969” was an actual one that cracked us up finally the people are really so damn nice its just nuts when i think about day to day life in the US and europe… im used to being glared at and treated like a criminal by the people at the metal detectors and x-ray machines at airports so when the japanese versions of these western storm troopers turned out to be so cheerful and friendly/helpful, handing back packages commenting on toys i bought etc. i found myself thanking them out of all proportion… knowing with certainty that the person that you meet in the street or behind a counter is going to be nice to you makes life different and easier, its weird… what else… tokyo is very green, plants everywhere, we passed by a hurricane fence by a bleak junkyard at the outskirts of the city and even there in the middle of nowhere were little potted plants hanging on the fence that somebody took care of… so i just loved it and i really hope we can get back soon… the journalists and tv people all would ask if we had a message for our japanese fans and my ‘message’ was always that the japanese kids should not be so fast to look to america and the west for models and direction, that the japanese culture is important to the world right now and everyone over here could learn a lot from japan… by now the band is in melbourne, debbie called yesterday (just as akira was having her first floating bath which had her totally hypnotized, she’s three weeks old today) first show is in a day or so… next time i’ll be there, love to all in oz and elsewhere chris

first thanx for all the congratulatory messages all is going very well with akira, i must say we werent prepared for how damn cute she is… on to topics: im kind of amazed at how many messages ive gotten dealing with my off the cuff remarks about france, apparently a lot of people have bought into the current trends of nationalism… so let me try to get my real views out here; in 1984 orwell describes a nation state that is constantly shifting alliances between one of two other great ‘superpowers’, like his description of a culture whose middle and upper classes are virtually controlled by screens in their homes he hit the nail on the head to a degree… difference only that the number of superpower states is constantly shifting… for almost the entire history of the west every fucking country has had their fifteen minutes when they took their bite out of the rest of the world, this includes england, france, holland, belgium, germany, russia, italy, spain, switzerland etc etc and later on america… the point being that all through western history all of these countries have undergone constant shifts in allegiance with every variation at one time or another being at odds with some other collection of allied nations and anyone who thinks these various groupings indicate anything more than convenience is just missing the picture… every western nation has and will sell each other out at the drop of a hat, nationalism is just a way to manipulate masses of people… … pretty soon the planet will just not be able to function with half of its population living off the other half and national divisions will be considered primitive… all of this carrying on about who did what for who in what antique war is meaningless in the face of current world problems; of just making sure the human race survives the next thousand or so years i could go on and forgive for sounding preachy but i really feel that people who hold love of country above love of humanity are misguided… finally i am totally in support of the people in the US military, that has nothing to do with what i think about american foreign policy i just believe that since the advent of nuclear arms the idea of warfare has become very schizophrenic and contradictory; whereby one cant destroy ones enemy without destroying themselves as well… all for now, i dont know how this has turned into a current events forum but what the hell love chris

so… on tues last as i was looking at the e-mails id gotten barbara approached slumped up against the wall and announced that her contractions that had started at around seven a.m. were getting serious… this was about nine a.m., we hung around the house as long as possible went to the midwifes at around noon… midwife stacy said this was it for sure and that we should perhaps return home to which barb replied “I dont think so” long story short AKIRA born 4:44 p.m. on july 15 which im told is the same date as Johnny Thunders among others… those in the baby know will appreciate the shortness of the labor, really only four hours of the heavy stuff… believe me the word ‘labor’ is an understatement… stacy gave a final tug just as barbara was giving a push and akira whose squooshed head had just emerged came literally shooting out hanging suspended in the air for a fraction of a second that felt much longer, landed on the bed and was instantly whisked up by the nurse… and that was that… 8 lbs. 1 oz. with a full head of dark hair… she’s soo cute and gorgeous its appalling, she’s the best baby in the universe etc etc etc… you who’ve been through it might have a slightly better idea but i guess everyone can imagine how i feel, im so proud of barbara also, the birth was ‘natural’ without any drugs, she just went in and ‘did it’, very no nonsense… thats the basics, maybe barbara will post some of her comments on “MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES”, her site, and i’ll get some pictures of akira up soon… no i didnt video the birth, to me that feels weird, i dont think i’d particularly want to see myself emerging from my mother and standing behind a camera wasn’t how i wanted to experience the event… we stayed at the center for two nights and are back home getting into the rhythm of baby care, godmother debbie came by on saturday, akira seems to enjoy certain kinds of bell like sounds, the wind chimes on the porch sent into a deeper trance than the one she’s usually in, im gonna try the acoustic guitar for her soon, see if she likes that thats it for now, im going to get back to the fifty or so messages i’ve got left to read… a few of you have sent stuff and we cant thank you enough, by now we really have as much baby stuff as we need so if you really want to do something material for akira at this point i guess you could send funds to any aids charity in her name i’d just as soon get things in e-mails from you, for ex rob wooten sent me an amazing picture of a rock he found on a beach that looks like a crying babys head… as usual thank you all sincerely from all of us, those of you who sent stuff i’ll try to write to but things are a bit chaotic here so if i miss any one please forgive and write to me love chris ps i have gotten a bunch of e-mails reacting to my comments on france… the tone of these is generally that “lets not forget those french would be speaking german now without the united states…” and im certainly not going to dispute that very basic concept, (though i think the politics of WW2 are way more complex than what is popularly understood) let us NOT FORGET THAT IF IT WERENT FOR FRENCH SUPPORT IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION we might all be going to mc donalds fish and chips etc etc… the facts have nothing to do with any of this nonsense; the world is too small for borders

the next phase of the band saga is underway… DH says the shows have been going well, she likes the sound guy… the due date for the baby is just a week away… in the interim ive been doing various interviews, (phoners as they are referred to) numerous with australian media… much as i try i cant help but repeat myself when asked similar questions within a short span of time… but a lot of these journalists are bright and easy to talk to… one guy was surprised at my negative views about former mayor juliani or gewel any or whatever being that he was used to the mainstream view… im looking forward to getting over to europe to get a different perspective on whats going on in the world… from lately speaking to a lot of foreign writers i get the impression that the US is losing more international respect than ever… a french journalist told us that as he was leaving the country recently a customs person upon handing him back his ‘papers’ said “and dont come back!” ‘freedom fries’ etc etc americans have short memories it seems; pop stars come and go like waves on a beach and everyone has obviously forgotten completely that were it not for french support the US might still be a british colony… on the fourth of july we watched a particularly sad little parade in one of these upstate towns, ‘floats’ consisted of a lot of flatbed trucks with elderly people just sitting on chairs waving being hauled down the small main street, various shabby groups of firemen and military types all shouldering their respective weapons of choice: axes, rifles etc… the crowd was all decked out in its own uniform gap finery, stood about without any enthusiasm, this event was just something to do on a day off, the meaning of freedom liberty etc lost in the sale of plastic inflated happyface and spiderman balloons… its obvious now that the farther one gets from big urban areas the poorer the population becomes… will america become like some third world place where there is no middle class anymore only very rich and very poor? for all of our dull greatness we still are in a position to feed and clothe the parts of the world that need it though we all know this aint gonna happen; why spend a hundred dollars taking care of someone when we can spend a hundred thousand blowing them up? i hadnt really intended to write gloomy shit today but having free time now and thinking about what things will be like for the kid is taking up a lot of mental space… some of the reading i have been doing says this: that the human race is in decline, that all of our values are reversed; what we call primitive is of course the opposite, that the ancient races of people before history were the ones who were the advanced civilizations, that the metaphor of adam and eve is the current “fall” of mankind that has been going on since man decided he knew what was right and wrong for the world… and everyone seems to ‘know’ all of this stuff inside but doesnt seem to care enough to do anything about it youll have to forgive my moralizing right now, this went off on a tangent, i’ll get back to band and related topics shortly for now peace out chris

you guys who wrote are all so sweet, thank you so much… i was just going over the messages, i’ll write more later just thanx again… (yes of course we thought of calling the baby “Franklin” actually not Frank N. as suggested, somehow we figured it mightn’t be appreciated…i was actually in grade school with one Richard Frankenstein, truth) xxx chris

i attended rehersals last week and Jimi Bones my stand in is doing fine Paul will probably take most of my parts…deal is this: im grieved that im gonna miss shows for the first time ever, im not going to Australia and i would appreciate it if any of you down there who read this would explain to any and all others that you might know who are going to the shows… the “official” due date for the baby is July13 but i gather that ‘due dates’ are just rough guesses also that first babies frequently are a little on the late side… im told however that we will be back to down to Oz fairly soon with the new record, (i recall the last time we were there that a lot of people werent even aware of the concerts, im presuming that this short tour is better advertised) i really have always had a great time there which is why im so split up about the timing of the whole thing (i hope you all know that i am truthful in these writings, it would be easy to just not comment, or bother talking about how i feel, but believe me this is a REALLY tough one for me and it just doesnt have any way to resolve without some major distress) the band is part of my personal identity and make up, debbie and i have known each other for thirty years in sept. of this year, we met in sept.’73 right when i came back from my second trip to the UK, similarly the kid is also a part of me and (i felt bad about leaving geepies two kittens to tour four years ago) i cant be absent from its arrival and first few weeks on earth… i’ve been planning to go to Japan for the four-five days in the beginning of Aug. but im leaving it open, it’ll depend on how comfortable Barb is at the time…im also not gonna be at the US warm-up dates;they are right around the time the baby is due… i sincerely hope all of you get this as i really do love all of the fans a lot, … when i get e-mails that say the writer is a teenager who has discovered blondie all at once or that the music helped them survive highschool, family horrors etc it is really a payment more than money for doing all the work… i could keep going but…its just been really a drag for me having to choose between two things that are such heavy positive factors in my life after all the band is certainly not ‘business’, the music is similar to creating life… Jimmy D will be back for this next bunch of shows and i will be back in sept-oct for Europe and all else, we’re hoping Barb may be able to come out with Akira for a week or so at a time the babys name is Akira no matter what its gender is, i know that Akira Stein sounds a bit like the name of an eastern country but that’s it…’we’ had three sonograms and it just wouldnt let anyone see its sex though both of us are pretty sure what it’ll be it still is gonna be a surprise… just before we saw a goddam black bear(!) down the hill from the house, we’d been hearing that there are one or more around here but havent seen em yet, pretty great, it wasnt too big, was just walking along peacefully through the woods to be continued love chris

briefly Louis B. informs me that this: THE SIMPSONS P.O. Box 900 Attn: The Simpsons Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900 is a better place to send simpson related requests to, that the chunky lover address is a porn site i cant verify this information but the address here sounds more like the real deal ( however the chunky53 address is all over the place on simpson related sites and i got e-mails from others whod heard it on the show…) so if you’re so inclined to send copies of whatever you e-mailed there it cant hurt ive gotta get cat food and supplies right now, id been meaning to write more but got sidetracked, so ill put up some more ranting in a day or so xxxx C

brief word i saw the art thats up, its not the actual cover, just part of it… im now hearing that the record wont be released in the states until after the rest of the world, its not my fault, sorry… ” Amy ” was offended by my equating republicans with chimpanzees, though i dont mean to insult anyones beliefs i really have a hard time getting too serious about anything political, its all a bunch of nonsense; democrats, republicans, im sorry but to me its a cosmic joke that our lives are influenced by this antique system thats more akin to show biz, carnival than to actual human leadership, i just find it hard to believe that politicians are more concerned about the well being of the people than they are about getting elected… but lets not forget that i am a sixties hippie radical and that any of my views are tainted with the stain of pagan liberalism… also i absolutely am NOT interested in anyone trying to be like me, far from it, everyone should be as different from one another as possible thanks so much for all the baby encouragement, some of you actually wrote to the simpsons on our behalf, as far as i know theres no plan for us to be on the show so do keep it up, see, on one of the episodes homer said his e-mail address was chunkylover53@aol.com, which supposedly goes to one of the producers, keep trying love chris

we (the band) were in L.A. memorial day weekend shooting a video for the ‘good boys’ song with Jonas Akerlund who has directed the new film SPUN (check out http://www.spunthemovie.com/ very cool site) which DH has a supporting part in… i daresay this looks to be the best blondie video to date, hopefully it’ll get played more than once somewhere, anywhere, here, there, everywhere, etc etc etc speaking of movies the metaphor of matrix is so apt its absurd; everyone (especially in america) is living in a tank being fed a bunch of hypnotic hallucinatory bullshit that they are in love with, at the same time their essence and energy is being sucked out and used as food for some vast parasitic machine… the difference with reality and the film is that in the world here everybody kind of knows whats going on they just dont give a fuck and zion doesnt exist… the ultimate irony is that the matrix movie is part of what keeps everybody in their trance state even though its laying the scheme out in plain view and living color… i guess like the film it’ll take the ‘real world’ turning into a burned out graveyard with black sky before people decide to take action about changing their situation… on a more cheerful note i thought x-men2 was just terrific, in a way it was almost better than matrix, it was sooo much better than the first x-men and the first matrix was a hard act to follow even for itself i wish you guys would ask some questions that i could actually answer sometimes… for some reason ive gotten several things about the record not coming out in canada and ive got no idea where this kind of stuff comes from, once again: to the best of my knowledge the next blondie record will be out everywhere in sept-oct of 2003… if anything changes which it shouldnt i’ll put it here, tour dates are getting booked now and should include everywhere we’ve played in the past as well as perhaps some new areas, as far as i can tell touring will start in the summer and then pick up again in the fall, europe and the u.s. will be included in the touring schedule… i hope this general outline will answer some of the endless questions about this stuff… i saw in the new york times that chimpanzees were going to be included in the human race, as human(s) from now on, this was a small item and didnt say where or what this decision would affect, it was pretty vague actually, does that mean that some group like the republicans would be left out of the human race to make room for the chimps?… speaking of which the “goodboys” video has a monkey in it… some recommendations: theres a Jet Li movie called “Hero” thats really fantastic except for the score which is a total cop of crouching tiger (speaking of tigers there is also a tiger in the “goodboys” video) lately ive been even more into japanese and chinese films than in the past… an amazing chinese film is called “Fallen Angels” by director Wong Kar Wai, another by the same director is “Chunking Express” which has gotten more attention than “Angels” pretty great though i liked Fallen Angels a lot more… of course the japanese film “Audition” has been around for a while now is totally great though very heavy duty (definitely not for kids) the new film by the same director Takashi Miike “The Happiness of the Katakuris” is very crazy worth seeing, a very very amazing american (i think) movie called “Devils Playground” about rites of teenage passage into adulthood in the Amish community in the US, just amazing, who knew this stuff? last night finally saw “Mighty Wind” which was way better than i expected, i wish it was longer actually…lastly for now, i just came upon a really far out book by british author Martin Amis titled “Night Train”, im going for sure to check out some more of his stuff what else? rain, lizards, that swamp smell is kind of gross, the dogs go rolling around in the swamp and come in laden with the aroma which they rub on stuff, “swamphounds swamphounds” sung to the tune of the simpsons theme…speaking of the simpsons why the fuck havent we (blondie, debbie) ever been on their show… i suggest a write in campaign, start writing to homer directly at chunkylover53@aol.com all for now love chris