This is my banjo song for when the night, it is long

This is my banjo song for when my heart is longing for you

These are my bedside books for when I cannot sleepSing a sad song for me, Hotel 3 and John Connelly′s He

Here are my comfort films for when my eyes get to tired to read

Coming to America, Apocalypse Now, Goodfellas, Casino

Jaws, Trading Places, The Shining, and Benji

This is my collection of old clocks, their presence comforts me

I collected them from all around the world, their styles vary

Grandfather clocks to mantle clocks

To alarm clocks to banjo-style clocks

My favorite is the pastel blue banjo clock that I bought in Tennessee

This is my banjo song, there is nothing wrong with having a banjo song

To comfort you when everything is feeling all wrong

I was walking down Canal Street minding my own

When a derelict kid walked by me

And said, "You should try smiling more"

The town was so ghost town-y and hardly anybody was out

I went to Mother's, there was no line

Because New Year′s was over and the tourists had left town

And I stopped by Starbucks and asked

A girl in front of me ordering a latte

Why do you think it's so quiet out?

She said, "I think it's because of the Saints game"

I said, "I don′t follow football" and she said, "Yeah, I′m the same"

And those were my social interactions of the day

And then from my peaceful living room

I looked out the Garden District

View and listened to this piece of music

Thinking, "Does this next part need words, too?"

I don't understand the game of

Football but they keep showing peoples′ faces

On the news with expressions that look like they just found out

A nuclear missile had been launched

And the world's going to be annihilated

Or their puppy just got hit by a car

Or they came home to their houses up in flame

But all that happened was the Saints lost a game

I know it′s a shame, I know it's a shame, I know it′s a shame

But New Orleans has so much to be proud of, I have to say

Louie Armstrong, Fats Domino, and the chicory coffee and beignets

And the Hotel Monteleone and Lake Pontchartrain

And Aaron Neville and Kermit Ruffins and gumbo and crawfish étoufée

And Phil Anselmo and Lil Wayne

This is my banjo song, though there's no banjo in this song at all

In fact, the guitar in this song is

A nylon-string guitar made by Yamaha

The days leading up to Christmas were very surreal for me

I was in Buffalo and I remember playing a show there once

And going through to see

Niagara Falls a few times when I was a kid

I hadn't spent that much time in Buffalo

And to me, Buffalo was an interesting mix

And maybe Cleveland and maybe Toronto, which would make sense

I think that Buffalo is somewhere between Toronto and Cleveland, Ohio

And there are black people there like

In Cleveland and that makes me comfortable

Not like in Missoula, Montana where it′s just white

As a Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie

And the houses and the neighborhoods have a cozy glow

And some have crystal-shaped windows

And the cars along the roads are covered in snow

And I jumped up on a gate that I saw in an alley

Near the studio where I was working

And I was taking a photo,

A very Christmas-y view of an apartment building

A guy pulled up slow in an SUV

And rolled his passenger seat window down

And said, "Sir, can I help you with anything?"

I said, "Thank you but I′m just taking photos

For a friend who has never seen snow"

He said, "Yeah, how's that?"

I said, "Well, she doesn′t travel a lot and she lives in San Francisco"

He said, "Well, what are you doing here in Buffalo?"

I said, "Well, I'm working across the street at the Goo Goo Dolls′ studio"

He said, "Ah yeah, the Goo Goo Dolls' studio

I did some renovation work in there years ago"

I said, "Yeah, it′s really kept up really nice, it's totally beautiful"

He said, "You really got to try such-and-such-place,

They got the best Buffalo wings"

I said, "I leave tomorrow

And my clothes already smell like Buffalo wings

But I appreciate the suggestion,

But my stomach is Buffalo winged out

But I'll be sure to try the place you mentioned next time I′m in town"

I jumped down from the gate and I said

"Sir, I gotta go, Buffalo′s really nice and I enjoyed this pleasantry

But where I'm heading tomorrow

You′d never pull up slow on someone like you just did

In an SUV in an alley

And roll down your window and talk to a stranger

When someone is doing something fairly suspicious looking"

He said, "Yeah, why is that?"

I said, "Because some people aren't so nice in this world

And where I′m going, you can end up with a bullet in your neck"

He looked at me startled and I could tell he thought

"Jesus, that conversation was nice,

I didn't expect it to end like that"

Then I put my camera in my pocket and

I walked carefully across the icy street

Before I left, Nathan got a stomach bug

That knocked him on his ass

He′s the most resilient person I've ever met

And I've never seen him that sick

He said, "Mark,

I don′t know what′s wrong with me,

I've never felt this sick before"

And he was clenching his ribs

I said, "Well let′s get the fuck out of here then,

I'm too feeling like complete shit"

My back is killing me

And I′ve slept maybe three hours a night for the last week

It's December 22nd, it′s midnight

So let's give ourselves a break

Nathan's kids′ birthday is soon, December 24th

Our friend Aaron′s birthday is also soon, December 24th

And I love it when friends' birthdays fall on holidays

Because it makes it so easy to remember them

Carol and I went to Ponchatoula today, antique shopping

I loved looking at the swamps between New Orleans and Ponchatoula

But sometimes I think about how bad it would suck

To live in the swamps if you were an abused kid

Just stuck there in the swamps

Not knowing there′s other things out there in the planet

I'm not trying to suggest that kids

Growing up in the swamps are abused

I′m just saying the thought crossed my mind

Dark thoughts cross everybody's minds

Depending on their life experiences

I mean I don′t have to tell you about Ponchatoula and its reputation

The first season of True Detective is based on

Things that happened there, if I'm not mistaken

There's a town between New Orleans and Ponchatoula called Manchac

There′s a house you see there

From the bridge that crosses over the water

That makes me think of the dueling banjos scene in Deliverance