Fortescue "Kid Spats" Deepelum ("The Crazy Blues") has secured another landmark in the historical literature of the blues, to be presented in jpt over two issues. The jazzlogy / bluesology legacy of the Kid has been insider buzz for a generation. See earlier works on our pages—" 'A Handful of Riffs,' " for example.

Dobar/Bodar Z. Bent (jpt Outer Provinces) hasn't noticeably strayed off-message since his Outer Provinces debut last issue, so his original intro remains apropos.

Professor Lawrence Jones ("Walking the Road Not Taken: Confessions of an Unreconstructed Liberal Humanist") now departs from the joyous labors of his Jazz Lines feature series "Confessions of a Jazz Fan" to offer sociological reflections that will have observers and advocates in every camp of the great social dialog taking pause (and extensive notes). The integrity of a position lies in reason, not rote. Our jpt community being of no single orientation—this is but one reason we sail latitudes removed from political shores as we explore commonality in art and experience (while doing deviltry with the pejorative "provincial")—we nonetheless prize the intellectual quality of honest, rational analysis by a thinker of Professor Jones's public credentials and private reputation. Of demonstrations against nuclear testing and later the Vietnam War, protests with which he was in fundamental sympathy, he writes, "I had refrained from shouting then too because I was embarrassed by the oversimplification." The clarity of insights into popular movements and the principles driving them is welcomed by all who encourage understanding, instead of exploiting ignorance, to effect reforms.

Marion Jones ("Fishing," "In the Wall," and "Solitude to be Less Solitary") graciously makes time for us once again amid ongoing creative projects too vast and numerous to catalog. You will recall that in addition to occasionally publishing selections in jpt, Marion writes poetry which has appeared in New Zealand literary periodicals including Brief, Catalyst, Critic, Otago Daily Times, Takahe and Turbine. From California, she arrived with her husband in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1964. Her husband, retired, continues to write; three grown children with families live in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Melbourne and Darwin, Australia.

Glo Niellsen ("A Novitiate's Delicately Embroidered Account of a Professor Loose Frosty Mug Lecture") is a high achiever who with one hand types Frosty Mug Lecture notes on a netbook while with the other embroidering likenesses which she then sells to the drunks depicted. Glo's ambitions are to skateboard across America and to reinvigorate Western civilization before tackling dual careers in education and medical art.

Herman Parsons ("Caregivers Syndrome Refugee Document, Phase 2") sustains the high poetic note on which he entered last issue, in so doing demonstrating the incomparable power of poetry to engage and to establish perspective on tragic, irrational aspects of life. Herman, you recall, has enjoyed passing himself off as an "obscure washed-up radical bohemian socialist - eking out a living selling art supplies somewhere in the appalachians of ky ex social worker ex research writer ex classically trained professional cook former organic farmer stints as fbi fugitive cocaine addict surrealist maniac caretaker of demented parents currently zen train wreck." We suppose that's more colorful than "poet"; certainly more intense.

John Rice, Esq. ("Hatari It Isn't, Installment 3") is still spinning his wheels in South Africa— motorcycle wheels, that is, and we're along for the scenic tour as the attorney on a journey narrates with wit and erudition, expounding the exotic as naturally as a native born to the soil. If you're taken with John's passion, talents and style, or need some legal assistance of the highest caliber, or if you're nothing but nosy, you'll want to explore his website at http://www.riceheathlaw.com

Dr. Owen Scott, III (Double Take: A novel of the post-'60s, jpt installment 3), uses the magic of his own playable rock'n'roll recordings to absorb us completely into the story. To our mind, this third installment caps the preliminaries setting up a journey through the protagonist's real-life trauma, the unspeakable event underlying all that unfolds in the vivid dream world we have been experiencing. Dr. Scott, psychologist by profession, brings to bear the power of authentic insight into psychological phenomena. We can tell you that beginning next issue, answers will start coming together as you get a handle on the madness in the music and the music in the madness. Speaking of music, BTW, you can get a lot more of the rockin' therapy you need at the Dr. Morpheus webpage.

Pilgrim ("Pilgrim's Excellent Adventures": Cherokee, N.C. 2010) was the first biker of his generation to be labeled a bat out of hell. You are privileged to see in a single picture two of the rarest sights on the planet: 1) Pilgrim standing still and 2) Pilgrim beside his scooter instead of on it. Long Jon, the chip off the ol' block, is the same way. "He only slows to pose." Whether the sky opens up and dumps on a much-anticipated run, or (apparently, from the pic) a campfire rages out of control, the word "bummer" never occurs to these men, and it's for one obvious, simple reason: they are their own party. The party is them. There is a party in progress and they are it, dig? One thing more: they are genuine Americana.