Escanaba Show Review 2007

Here are the musicians from last evening's show at 8th Street Coffeehouse in Escanaba, MI:
me, John D. Beck, Jeff Krebs, and my brother Tim.

I've played Christmas vacation shows with John and Jeff many many times over the past decade and it's always a ton of fun. In fact, here's a link to the review I wrote in this blog after our 2006 show.

I opened the gig solo acoustic, and debuted my newest guitar, a 1948 Gibson LG2. Man, it played like a dream, and felt like I've been playing it for years! I'll try to remember my set list...something like:

Bethlehem Tonight
Out Behind the Old Hotel (I've been playing this song constantly since 2000 and I love it every time)
Caught Up in Your Snare (This one bombs every time I do it, even though it's fun for me to perform. The audience always sends out loathing vibes, though....time to retire this one. I think it's a better song in theory than in reality.)
Nothing Old Nothing New
Every Town's the Same
If You Have a Question... (Another new tune that I love love love to play)
I Shook His Hand (Peter Case cover song)

Jeff and John were up next. They just might be the two best folk/rock musician/songwriters in Upper Michigan. They did some of Jeff's solo material (including "Dead Man" from his early-90s California band Molehill) and cool covers by Robert Johnson and the old folk song "Moonshiner."

I jumped back up for our big finale, and we debuted a brand new song "New Eyes" that Jeff and I wrote back at Halloween. I got to play some accordion and drums, so that was a totally fun and rare instrumental situation. Wow, do I ever miss being the utility instrumentalist! It's the funnest job in the band. My brother Tim came up at the end to play drums and I tried out another brand new song of mine called "Get Behind the Wheel." Tim gave it a good Neil Youngish stomp, Jeff played great lead guitar, and John added a cool and shifty faux-reggae bass line. I'm gonna start playing this one all the time! Whee hoo. We closed with a slightly slower and heavier version of "The Sound of the Cicadas." Here's our closing setlist:

New Eyes
Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming
First Snow of the Year
Let it Snow
Honkeytonk Song
Get Behind the Wheel
The Sound of the Cicadas

My family woke up this morning, piled into the Saturn, and traversed Wisconsin. We're home in Minneapolis tonight, and ready to transition to 2008. The performance in Escanaba is always a great way to wrap up the year. Let's do it again next December!

Escanaba show rescheduled for tonight, Saturday

Last night I was scheduled to perform with Jeff Krebs and John D. Beck at the 8th Street Coffeehouse in Escanaba, MI. As anybody within 80 miles of Esky knows, we got snowed out last night!

Thankfully, there was nothing booked at the venue for this evening (Saturday), so we've rescheduled the gig for tonight. Showtime will be at 7 or 7:30PM...whenever we get rolling. Stop by if you can...it's gonna be fun, and I'm gonna debut two new songs!

A free Christmas MP3 download: Jonathan sings on "Reliving the Past" by 9 On Bali

Ho ho ho, Merrrrry Christmas! In celebration of the Yuletide, I'm pleased to offer you a very cool FREE MP3 download! A couple years ago I had the pleasure of singing harmony on a song entitled "Reliving the Past" recorded by indie/ prog/ punk/ experimental band 9 On Bali. Now, after a few years of adding to the song and mixing it (18 times, apparently), the band has put the song up for free as the Cropcircle Collective Downloadable Song of The Month.

CLICK HERE to download "Reliving the Past, No. 18"

I start singing harmony vocals about halfway through the song, and at 3:46 and 3:49 you can hear me say "Where's my incentive?" Yayahoo, that's me, along with dozens of other guest vocalists! I love this tune, and I think I want to play it in concert someday.

My connection with the band began about ten years ago when I was a music journalist in Chicago. I was writing record reviews for Showcase Midwest Magazine, and two of the CDs in my mailbox were Let's Change the Subject by Chicagoland artist Dan Sweigert and the self titled release by Dan's band Star.Star. It was complex proggy experimental indie rock, and I gave the albums good reviews in the magazine. Somehow I began communicating with Dan, and eventually we even played a gig together...his band joined me (solo acoustic) at a little coffeehouse in Oak Park, IL. We each did a set, and at the end we played together...I remember that Dan's band backed me up on my song "Tell Me Where You Want To Go" from the Recital album...certainly one of my own most proggy and experimental compositions.

A few years ago I got an email from Dan, inviting me to contribute to a song he was working on with a new band, 9 On Bali. Dan sent me the early tracks of the song, I dumped it onto my computer, and did a vocal track. I sent my vocal track back to Dan, and he imported it into the master recording of "Reliving the Past." A few years went by, and I wondered what ever became of that song. I was pleased to find out earlier this week that the song had been completed, and was available for download!

Okay everybody, raise your glass of egg nog, and join me in singing:

"reliving the past....reliving the past...
where's my incentive to wake up today
when I keep reliving the past?"

"In God's Name" on CBS, featuring Lutheran Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA and LWF

Christmas Eve greetings from Upper Michigan where my family is happily ensconced in warm jammies and blankets, eating good food, and huddling 'round the television hearth.

Last night we watched a documentary on CBS entitled "In God's Name," featuring profiles on twelve global religious leaders. This Rundman/Peterson clan was especially interested due to the inclusion of Bishop Mark Hanson, the leader of our denomination the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the president of the Lutheran World Federation. Not often do Lutherans receive a major-network prime time TV platform, so we were all excited to see how our Bishop would represent us to the world. After viewing it, I can declare a heartfelt "You rock, Bishop Hanson!"

I tried to imagine what it would be like to watch this program if I was somebody searching for a religious tradition to adopt. I thought the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dalai Lama, and the Rabbi all came across well. The Pope seemed unsurprisingly distant, above-it-all, and, well...Papal. The Hindu leader was lovable and inspiring but sorta dingy, and the Shinto leader was so chilly and corporate that the poor filmmakers could hardly get anything meaningful out of him, so he was barely mentioned. Muslims and Sihks appeared reasonable, but I didn't hear anything too surprising or insightful.

Bishop Hanson, however, really nailed all the points and values that connect with me, and he did it with concrete examples, humbleness, humor, and classic Lutheran language. I loved it. BUT, I wondered about the chicken-and-egg situation. Did I like Hanson so much BECAUSE I've been raised Lutheran and trained/brainwashed to respond to such ideas? OR, do I naturally/intellectually agree with that worldview, which causes me to remain an active and passionate Lutheran Christian? Either way, I'm thrilled with the way Hanson stepped up to the plate and reflected an honest, loving, and grace-filled Spirituality.

One strange thing about the profile on Hanson: mostly he was shown in a conference room at the Lutheran Center (our churchwide offices building in Chicago), and other shots featured the ELCA cubicle-farm and other business-world images. There was a quick shot of Hanson distributing communion in a church, but most of his surroundings were his office, his home, or hi car. All the other religious leaders were shown in grand cathedrals, or mysterious shrines. Hanson just commutes to "the office." I thought that was kinda funny. But it didn't bother me or anything...it's just interesting.

Finally, I loved the images of Hanson with his wife, and how he spoke so clearly and passionately about being her "lover." How cool...now THATs a real life-embracing Lutheran picture of marriage that I want the world to know. And his admission of doubt, too, was very powerful, and important. When the filmmakers asked the Southern Baptist about doubt he sorta dodged the question and launched into a story about his daughter's bout with cancer, when he never wavered at all. Okay man, whatever. Glad to hear you're so perfect. It must be nice to be 100 percent certain about all the mysteries of life and faith.

Well, anyway, it was a good show, and it was nice for Lutherans to get some props in the global religious scene. Here's a link to the ELCA's page about the show.

Best of 2007, the beard, and other excuses not to go to sleep

It's almost midnight and I should certainly be getting ready to go to sleep, BUT I'm totally wired. So I might as well rant here for awhile. Here's a cool pic of me and young Paavo shoveling the driveway.

Maybe I'm so awake and jittery 'cause I drank two re-filled XL sized cups of caffeinated iced tea from McDonalds for lunch today. I took Paavo to the Golden Arches after church today on our way to Menards to get my Dad his Christmas gift. I've been thinking of starting another blog...this one would be based around my patronage of chain restaurants. Every time I go to McDonalds, Culvers, Panera, Hesburger, whatever, I'd blog about the food quality, customer service, bathroom cleanliness, piped-in background music, etc. What do you think? Sound interesting? I'd be like the online Upton Sinclair of fast food. Just what I need... ANOTHER blog to take up hours of my non-existent free time. But I bet I'd get some serious readership.

This blog, Protestant Blog Ethic, gets about 30 readers a day, and I suppose that's okay, but I bet even more folks would tune in if I developed some kind of french fry ranking system. After reading comments and talking to a surprising number of real people out in the world, it seems like the best way I could increase my readership here would be to focus this blog more on religion and politics, and less on songwriting, recording, and the sub-underground late-80s indie rock bands that I enjoy. Oh well.

For every year of my adult life I've assembled year-end "Best of" lists for my favorite movies and music, but alas, this year I have so few choices to be excited about that instead I'll choose to share some general stuff about 2007.

I'm also dumping some random data from my digital camera, so for my first favorite thing I shall share this:

BEST ATTEMPT AT HAIR VARIETY:
MY LIFETIME BEARD RECORD-BREAKER
A week or so ago I shaved off the chin-weasel, but here's how it looked at its end. I have very slow and pre-pubescent facial hair powers, so this was about one month's work. Ultimately, it was blotchy and weak, and only succeeded at making me look weird, lumpy, and old. And Paavo and Svea hated it. After I got rid of it, Dawn said "Wow, you look a lot younger." It was the most serious beard I ever had. I thought maybe I'd gain some "beard-rock" musical powers, like the Beatles' "White Album" era, or like hipsters like that Iron And Wine dude, or those ZZ Topp guys. But no, my musical abilities were unchanged with the beard.

On with the Best of 2007 list:

BEST MOVIES I SAW IN THE THEATER
Once: a blissful filmgoing experience, and most inspiring music movie I've ever seen
Gone Baby Gone: great acting and cultural analysis from the Affleck brothers
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead: Philip Seymour Hoffman rules as always

BEST BAND I HEARD FOR THE FIRST TIME
MuteMath: modern electro-arena-pop-prog with '80s influences and the greatest drummer I've heard in a long long time. My introduction to this band was seeing them live last Spring on Maundy Thursday and although I knew none of their songs at the time, they blew my mind and proved to be one of the best live acts I have ever ever seen. I bought their album soon after, and it gradually grew on me (the best albums are growers, you know) and now I am a believer. All this, and I think the video for their song "Typical" is the greatest music video I have EVER seen (search YouTube and you shall see). Oh, and my 3 year old son LOVES them, too.

BEST RE-CLAIMED VICE
Soda pop: Back on New Years Eve 2002-03 I drank pop for the last time. I needed to, 'cause I was rotting my mouth with the equivalent of about three cans off Coke per day. And I didn't touch soda pop for four years. This Fall I fell off the wagon, in honor of my tonsillectomy. 7UP and Sprite were good for my throat and healing, and since then I've been casually using Root Beer and Coke. Nothing like the old days, but I'm drinking again. Coke is pretty darn good, and Root Beer totally hits the spot.

BEST BOOKS
I don't usually read books. I'm a magazine and newspaper lovin' man. But this year I really "hit the books" literally. Favorites were:
Everything Matters by Richard Rohr: a book on contemplative spirituality by a Catholic monk, and one of the most challenging and profound books I've ever read
The Grand Delusion by Sterling Whitaker: a biography of the band Styx, written using interview snippets. Many good lessons for folks in showbiz, mostly about the value of hard work and insane levels of dedication. And of course some interpersonal disaster stories as well.
The Grand Illusion by Chuck Panazzo: if you can believe this, ANOTHER Styx-related biography, this time by the band's bass player, mostly detailing his long coming-out process as one of the few public gay musicians in the classic rock universe. I've interviewed Chuck back in my journalism days (when he was still in the closet), and it's awesome to see how his openness has changed his and everyone's life for the better. Chuck, you rule, man.
Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi: the first work of fiction I've read in over a decade, and a crass and funny reminder to me of my own childhood in a remote rural Finnish community. (Thanks for letting me borrow the book, Joe! I'll try to return it before Xmas!)

BEST VANILLA/FUDGE/PEANUTBUTTERCUP ICE CREAM
Usually it's called "Moose Track" on most packaging, but the Blue Bunny brand calls it "Bunny Tracks" and I think it's the best kind I've ever tasted.

BEST ALBUM TRILOGY
Parthenon Huxley released a new album called Kiss The Monster this year, and it's great, like all his music. BUT, I recently realized that, when experienced in chronological order with his previous two studio albums (Purgatory Falls and Deluxe) the listener witnesses one of the most personal and powerful stories of tragedy and rebirth in rock music. Parthenon is like the MIT of songwriting universities, and his new song "Come Clean" (in context of these three records) is one example of completely vulnerable and amazingly personal lyricizing. Plus, the music rocks.

BEST MUSICAL REDISCOVERY
The Juliana Hatfield family tree. Juliana has been around since the late-80s, but I only started to appreciate her a few years ago. In 2007, though, I played her CDs constantly. Her new EP Sittin' in a Tree was a favorite, I collected all her early work with the Blake Babies this year, and her greatest achievement has to be her trio called Some Girls, who I totally adore. The drummer for the Blake Babies AND Some Girls is the floor-tom queen Freda Love, and Freda's OTHER band has been in huge rotation for me and Paavo the past few weeks: they're called The Mysteries of Life. I've been listening to the MOL album Distant Relative in the car lately, and I can't believe how amazing it is. Jake Smith (Freda's husband) is a delightfully simple and melodic writer, and all the instruments are grooving and hooking along constantly. MOL has direct connections to the Vulgar Boatmen (and The Silos and Lisa Germano, too...more of my all-time faves), and of course everything works its way back to Ms. Hatfield.

Okay, now it's way too late. Time for bed.

set lists from Christmas show w/ Bill Mallonee

For the past couple days Blogger has not been allowing the uploading of photos, for some weird reason. Tonight, however, the system is working, so here's a flashback to Tuesday's show at Edina Community Lutheran Church.

My opening set was

1. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
2. Cold But I Don't Mind
3. Librarian
4. Four Candles
5. Out Behind the Old Hotel
6. Bethlehem Tonight
7. Tape

Here's Bill's set (courtesy of the VOL mailing list)

1. Solar System
2. Goes Without Saying
3. November Ghost
4. High and Lonesome
5. Nothing Like A Train
6. On To Bethlehem
7. That's What I Meant
8. Friendly Fire
9. String of Pearls
10. Bank
11. Resplendent
12. Skin
13. Tobacco Sunburst
14. Every Father Knows Where His Sons and Daughters Are

thanks to Micah Taylor for shooting these pics. More to see here.

I just got home tonight from playing a show at Station 4 in St. Paul, where I was the accordion player for Bobby Wildgoose and his Ragged Regiment (better known as Nate Houge and an army of musical friends). The show was indeed wild and gooselike, and consisting entirely of Christmas carols. My favorite, "Good King Wenceslaus."

Steve Martin, Bill Mallonee, and lessons in showbiz

Tonight on Charlie Rose, my favorite TV show, I just watched an hour long interview with comedian Steve Martin about his new autobiography Born Standing Up. (Santa, if you're reading, please add this book to your list of stocking stuffers for me.) 'Twas an inspiring and fascinating discussion about creativity, art, and "being in front of people." My job, too, is being in front of people, and I'm always interested in the philosophy behind the work of show business. Martin closed the interview with the words of advice he offers all young performers who want to be successful: "Be so good that they can't ignore you."

24 hours ago I was wrapping up a concert here in the Twin Cities where I was the opening act for acclaimed folk/rock artist Bill Mallonee (who you've most likely heard of as the frontman for the band Vigilantes of Love). I booked the gig and made it happen, Bill and Muriah (his spouse/keyboardist) were gracious and expertly harmonious, and the evening was filled with nice moments and good socializing. BUT, ultimately I felt discouraged and disappointed, for multiple reasons. The whole experience was yet another refresher course on the seeming futility of being a performing rock musician.

I booked the gig a couple weeks ago, ran around town putting up posters, sent out three separate emails to local fans, typed up a press release and got it out to all local papers and radio, made inviting phone calls, talked to a ton of exited and interested people in person, and set up the show at a nice venue with easy parking, at an early time, and the weather was perfect. BUT, we got zero press or media coverage, and only about 30 (paying) people attended the show. I needed 60 people just to break even on expenses, so it was pretty lame in that regard. Although, I didn't book this show to make money...in fact, I suspected that I wouldn't break even, and of course I was prepared to foot the entire bill if necessary, BUT I think the low attendance is just a good illustration of the state of affairs for the touring musician.

So if not for financial reasons, why did I put on this show, you may ask? Well, I did it as a musical service to the community. I like Bill and his work, I knew he hadn't been here for many years, I know he's got hoards of fans in the area, and I wanted to see it happen. I scheduled myself as the opening band in the hopes I'd sell a couple CDs to make up for the time I put into booking, and any extra cash would go to Bill. My own band members played for free, just 'cause they're nice guys and they supported my idea for a show. Honestly, I wanted Bill and Muriah to have a great night, and I wanted music fans in this town to experience the good songs they play.

Bill is the real deal, and he hadn't played in Minnesota for five years(!!!) so where were all his rabid fans? I know they're all over the Twin Cities 'cause I meet them everywhere...but they stayed home last night. And where were MY people? It's so lame that I've got something like 300 names on my Twin Cities email list, but whenever I play a show in town I draw about five people. (This is why I rarely play in MN...I'd rather go on tour in PA or CA and play for sizable audiences!) And don't give me that line about "Well, Jonathan, it's the holiday season and people are busy, so what do you expect..." That's crap, because almost every show I play in Minneapolis is horribly attended, regardless of date, time, or circumstance.

Am I whining and complaining? Maybe so, but I've talked to a few nationally-touring rock artists in these past couple months, as well as other showbiz professionals, and they all say the same thing: nobody is buying CDs anymore, nobody is coming to shows, venues are shutting down, and there's no energy for live music out in the culture. Bill's giving entire full-length records away online in the hopes that the free-downloaders might return in the future and actually buy something. Other big acts I know are burning CD-Rs of new material 'cause it's not worth it anymore to actually duplicate new albums in quantities over 1000.

So if bigger artists than me are now forced to burn short-run CD-Rs of their new albums, or else just give the music away free online in the hopes of receiving some sort of charity donation, where does that leave me? I've almost got an entire new record tracked and mixed, but when it's done I don't know what to do with it! Do I even bother manufacturing 1000 "real" albums, when I may never ever sell them all? Or if it takes me three years just to break even on the recording budget (like Public Library, which should have been my hugest album of all time)? Should I resort to the Mallonee/Radiohead model of putting it online as a free download, and hope that a few folks would donate to my cause via PayPal? Man. Thankfully I've got an entire church audience of Baby Boomers who like my Heartland Liturgy music, and who don't download music online, so at least the old-school church folks still buy actual CDs for $15. Does that mean that the only way I can progress is to only write hymns and liturgical songs for my parents' generation, and abandon any more pop/rock albums? Country artists sell more hard-copies than rock artists do....maybe I should make a Kenny Chesney-style album. Yeeesh.

My fear is that Steve Martin's wise advice to "be so good they can't ignore you" might not apply to the artists in the future. Could it be that no matter how good you are, you won't be able to get anybody to come to a show or to buy your music?

So I have a message for all you folks who say things like "There's no good live music in this town..." or "I haven't been to a good show in ages..." Well newsflash, Einstein, you've got to get off the freakin' couch, TiVo "Dancing with the Stars" and "The Biggest Loser," and you've got to get in your CAR and go see A CONCERT. Otherwise, I don't want to hear any more whining about how our culture is toileting. To quote Steve Martin, "Well, excuuuuuuse me!"

an audio stocking stuffer: FREE MP3 of "Worse For You" (alternate mix)

Good morning, y'all. Svea woke me up at 5AM this morning so she could drink a bottle, and when I went back to bed, I was wide awake. So, I decided to get up and work, hopefully squeezing a few productive hours out of my day. Right now it's 6:47AM and I'm a bit dazed.

Anyway, I'm very very pleased to present to you a little aural Christmas gift. Since we're at the end of 2007, I'd like to offer up one more 10th-anniversary remix from my 1997 album Recital, before we move on to a new year.

This twangy number is called "Worse For You" and although it is certainly one of the least played and least noticed songs in my catalog, it holds a special place in my heart. AND, now that it's been extraordinarily remixed by uber-engineer Matt Patrick, maybe it will experience a resurgence in the consciousness of America.

"WORSE FOR YOU" COMMENTARY:
I wrote the song back in 1995 (I think) in Eugene, OR. Here's a photo of my friend Lowell Michelson during the recording session for this song at This Here Studio in Milford, IA back in 1996. Lowell's drumming, as usual, is quite delicious on this tune. I'm playing and singing the other parts, and I'm particularly happy with the honkeytonk guitar solo. I also enjoy the fact that this song contains a major-7 chord during the chorus, and that is a rare occasion in my songwriting. After the album came out in Summer of 1997 my Chicago-era band (Benji Derrick: bass and vocals; Andy Deitrich: drums; Matt Marohl: pedal steel) performed this tune regularly in concert, and we did a darn good version of it. Alas, Benji moved away in 2000, ending that version of the band, and the song has never been performed since.

The lyrics address an awkward situation to which you may be able to relate, and they even have a connection to Christmas. One December long ago I was excited to be flying home to Upper Michigan for Christmas vacation, but I became aware that some other people I knew didn't have enough money to travel back to their own hometowns. So, they were forced to stay put, spending the holiday alone and separated from their loved ones. And, I realized that I couldn't express my own feelings of excitement and joy without making them feel bad about their lack of finances and inability to get home for Christmas. So here's the lyrics, in the hopes that all of you have a happy and fun place to go in these coming weeks. Sing along now, carolers!

WORSE FOR YOU (click to download)

yes I've got my tickets tacked up on the board
and I know this two-way fare is more than you can afford
so the next time that I'm leaving I'll try to keep the noises down
'cause it makes it worse for you to stay around

it makes it worse for you to sit here and do nothing
it makes it worse for you to sit here all alone

yes I've got my baggage lined up on the floor
and I know that you don't want to hear it anymore
but I know you won't be sleeping, you'll have the stupid TV on
and everything you see will make you wish that you were gone

it makes it worse for you to sit here and do nothing
it makes it worse for you to sit here all alone

my first eBay vigil, while listening to the Vulgar Boatmen

Here are Robert Ray and Dale Lawrence of the '80s/'90s indie pop band The Vulgar Boatmen. (Here's a helpful essay about the group.) I can't really express how important this band has been for my rock & roll education. I've been thinking about the Boatmen since my song "Front Row at the Fashion Show" appeared on the current Paste Magazine CD Sampler...check my previous blog post..."...Fashion Show" has some obvious Boatmen inspiration, and I even deliberately borrowed a snare drum trick from their song "Mary Jane." Any of you who read this blog 'cause you like Jonathan Rundman music, you should probably surf over to Amazon.com and order yourself the Vulgar Boatmen debut album You and Your Sister as an early Christmas present for yourself. I remember exactly the moment I purchased that album (on cassette), in Marshall, MN, in 1989, when it was a new release. For a kid who grew up listening to Kansas, Styx and Rick Springfield this kind of throbbing and riffy two-chord garage-pop was quite the revelation.

Anyway, tonight I've got the Vulgar Boatmen on shuffle in iTunes, and I'm waiting out the last couple hours of my first ever eBay vigil. About 10 days ago I listed five items for bid on eBay, and three of them are having a bit of action. Two others seem likely to sell, too, although there are no bids yet. Some weird stuff....a pair of barely-worn leather boots, a '80s-vintage CD of Duran Duran's Rio album still shrinkwrapped in its original cardboard longbox, an autoharp I've used on a few albums, a 1978 Roland MP600 electric piano (you can hear it on "Smart Girls"), and a 1918 Gibson tenor banjo (that you can heard on the two most recent Lost And Found albums, as well as the Tennesota album I recorded with Beki Hemingway).

Here's a link to the items I've got up for bid. I know there's only an hour or so left, so blogging about it is kinda useless at this point, but oh well. As a first-time eBay seller, I have some comments:

+ it sure is a big hassle trying to set up an account and figuring out how to post items
+ there's a lot of psychology involved in the eBay universe
+ once people start bidding, it's kind of exciting!
+ I can see how it could get addicting, especially if you have some good luck selling big money items
+ now that I know that someone will win the bidding on the boots, the Duran CD, and the autoharp, now I've gotta figure out the logistics of fulfilling an order, shipping, etc.
+ so far, it's been a lot of busywork, but kinda fun
+ if this banjo sells in the next two hours, THEN I'll be very very pleased.