It’s been too long, old friends. However, since I was at the mercy of Furlough and couldn’t by law communicate with ye, it was best to go to Texas and catch up with relatives and pals long unseen.

You don’t care, probably, that my sainted Mom is considering a new bed frame and that she couldn’t make up her mind before I left and therefore — in the event she does decide she wants one — well, someone else will have to set it up and install it because I’ve already left. (Sorry, Mom!)

You probably also don’t care that, for a variety of peculiar reasons, I attended an corporate address by former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman. I should point out that Troy has come a very long way in terms of fluent business-y commentary since his playing days, when he was a truly awkward spokesman for Acme Bricks — which is a real company, by the way, and which, according to Troy, manufactured literaly building blocks with the precision and ability-to-thrill of a finely tuned NFL squadron.

What hopefully is more interesting is that, on Saturday, at the annual Dallas Guitar Show, I got to see a thunderously awesome set by headliner Andy Timmons and his Trio (Mike Daane on bass and Mitch Marine on drums). The next time you wax nutty about Slash or Jack White or Yngwie in that God Of Guitar context — and, yes, they’re all very good — do yourself a favor and check out Timmons. (I’ll mention that Andrew is a close friend, not exclusively to “name drop” but also because it’s the correct thing to do, journalistically.)

One more musical note. As you perhaps know, each Wednesday here on the Day’s web site, Elissa Bass and I host a video called Idol Autopsy on which we comment with precise wit and acumen on what went down during the previous evening’s episode of American Idol.

A lot of the fun of Idol Autopsy is that Elissa and I have a large time together, and also that she absolutely loves the show whereas I hate it and think it embodies everything wrong with not just music but the whole human race.

So it was with great pleasure, then, that on Tuesday, April 20, when ordinarily I would have been handcuffed to a chair and forced by job regulations to watch American Idol, I was instead standing in front of the stage at the Dallas House of Blues, watching the best band in the world, Porcupine Tree, roar through two hours on their tour for The Incident.

I share this with you because many of you have doubts about spirituality or wrestle with conundrums that preclude your ability to come to any firm conclusions on theology. What I’m saying is, that I happened to be in Dallas on the precise evening Porcupine Tree appeared there — when otherwise I would have been watching American Idol — is proof of a benevolent deity. Hey, look! You can see him over there: he's the one with long white beard and is wearing the black The Incident tee shirt.

Anyhoo, I’m back. What’s going on with y’all? Heard any good music or seen any good bands?