February 20, 2003 | 10:49 AM

Hey Joe,

I love the kid to death, but between you and me his politics are about as consistent as Judy Garland�s emotional health, and just as polarizing. The guy fucking voted for Nader in the last election, and now all of a sudden he�s putting on war paint and chomping at the bit for blood. And you�re right, if he feels so fuckin� strongly about killing arabs (which personally I find really offensive) then why doesn�t he go over there and do it himself instead of just participating in the pomp and circumstance fascist nationalism that�s swept this country lately.

Personally, I am a pacifist for the most part and don�t like the idea of hurting civilians unnecessarily or displacing them just for our own economic interests. I think our government is beyond pompous and full of hubris and we are alienating the rest of the world. But speaking just pragmatically and from a utilitarian standpoint, this war makes no sense except as a way for King Bush II to shift everyone�s gaze away from the crumbling state of domestic affairs, and give him an excuse to enact all kinds of undemocratic enterprises. While all this is going on, nobody notices that the new head of the Women�s Health initiative in the FDA is a fundamentalist Christian anti-choice reactionary, or that when Renquist and Sandra day O�Connor resign, Bushie will most likely stack the court with Goebbles and Himmler respectively.

I am very very afraid for this country. People are such stupid fucking idiots, and I bet you anything within the next ten years, just like Nero�s Rome we�ll be obliterated for being the complacent amoral pieces of shit we are. Personally, I wanna move to Holland. Good grass. Great gov�t benefits. It�s clean. And if Sweden can come up with a kick ass rock scene, then my bet is on Amsterdam next to produce some dirty neo-psychedelic blues type shitite�and I don�t mean no elephant six collective Apples in Stereo Monkees rehash�I mean some 13th floor Elevators meets Moby Grape with a little Red Krayola thrown in.

Oh yeah�Interpol. Josh played them for me and I loooooooooved them. Gotta go out and buy the CD. Your girlfriend sounds like she�s got good taste in tunes. Except for the not knowing Gimmee Shelter, thing. Gimmee a frickin� break, dude. I can�t stand people who have no sense of rock HISTORY�like people who only listen to the last five years worth of indie music and don�t know what the hell happened pre- Nirvana. Fuckin� hipsters, man. What I always dug about you was that you admitted to liking like, The Mamas and the Papas and the Airplane and the Dead and stuff like that. Made me feel much less alone. I just hate people who get their opinions on music from like, NME or Alternative Press.

What have I been listening to lately? Well, to be perfectly honest, I�ve been listening to the Cabaret soundtrack non-stop because I�ve been so deeply entrenched in preparing for rehearsals, which start on Sunday. And as an offshoot of that, I�ve been listening to a lot of Kurt Weil, Nico, kraftwerk, and Neu, which although very different from each other in some respects are just so GERMAN�that�s what I�m trying to get a feel for�there�s a German sensibility that�s deeply melancholy but also highly controlled�sexual but mechanical. That�s what I�m trying to tap into right now to get me close to my character, who is basically a fuckin� hause frau circa 1930, but is in the eye of this STORM occurring between the changeover from the decadent Weimar Republic to Fascism.

And I�ve also been really into standards and old musical theater�Cole Porter and Rogers & Hart, Irving Berlin, Gershwin. Lyrically that shit is just above and beyond anything. I�ve had Ella Fitzgerald�s songbooks on repeat. And Sinatra�s �The Very Good Years��Is it Capitol or Decca? I don�t remember.

Tomorrow night I�m having Alamada over for dinner, as well as Dave and my friend Danni whom you haven�t met but would probably get a huge kick out of. Alamada is going to bring her keyboard over (did you ever hear any of her songs? She�s a really talented songwriter) and we might do some collaborating�we had a big talk on the phone about it yesterday. Something more jazz oriented but really modern as well and kinda fuzzy. She knows people at Scullers and other jazz people in Boston. It�s all in the planning stages though.

Too bad you aren�t closer to Boston �cause I�m cooking a big meal and there�ll be drinks and whatnot as well.

Saturday is a party, and then Sunday of course is rehearsal so the weekend is pretty packed looking, which is grand �cause last weekend just blew, so I figure karma owes me some fun.

XOXOXOXOX, you rock star.

Love,

Anna