I think he's losing his mind

Actually I know the stress is getting to him. He's used to getting very wound up before a performance, then channelling that energy into his performance. This one is different, this is, in many ways, the most intimate perforamcne of his life, where the audience may include people who have known him since childhood.

Add to that the fact that here it is the eve of his birthday and no sign of his daughter, Peri, or from Ann, and I know the promises he has made to himself, the ultimatums he has made to himself, for those sins of omission...he has to be feeling pretty torn and deserted at this point. The problem is, I know him well enough to know that these tempering experiences do not ultimately harm him, but strengthen him...you want ego? cut him! You want will? Mock him! You want a centering? Desert him. He doubts it, but I know when his memoir comes out, when truths are spoken, he will be judged a better man than he has demanded his due for, than he would ever demand his due for, as he believes he owes his best to the world, not the other way around.

Maybe he deserves some of the crap he's gotten from some of the people he has loved the most in this life, maybe he hasn't. But I've seen him love, unconditionally, those whom he had no reason to even give the time of day to, because that's the kind of person he is, that's his character. If he ever grows bitter in time, it will not be because of commercial failures or literary ambitions unachieved, but because of the craven pettiness of those he has given himself for.

What others do, how others behave, after his sacrifices (and mistakes) - that is a statement of their character, that he recognizes and apologizes for his mistakes, that is a statement of his character.

Happy birthday eve, Poet God! As Prince said: May U Live 2 C the Dawn!

(and may a leggy, brilliant goddess show up at your performance Wednesday (or your gig Friday) and sweep you off your feet. You earned it, my friend.)