I saw a trailer for a new film about Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was tortured and hung by Hitler for not behaving like a Nazi. Trailer looks very Hollywood though maybe not as disturbing as Tom Cruise portraying Claus Von Stauffenberg fifteen years ago. Started reading Salman Rushdie’s account of the man who tried to murder him “Knife”. It is like everything else by Salman Rushdie; amazing. Thirty years ago I tried to write a song about him, about the madness of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Taliban, about sanctioning murder and violence confronted by views unlike theirs. About treating the lives of girls and women like shit. I tried something experimental with the vocal, sent it to twenty-five different people and had them record their vocal as close as possible to mine and then aligned them and cut and paste within syllables. I wanted it to sound like a single person, so the voice would morph in all sorts of ways right and left and upside-down. Use the studio like an instrument instead of dialing in a plug-in. That’s what I got from growing up with the record collections of my older brothers. The legacy of studio experimentation in the Beatles catalogue. One of people I asked, who played in a band from Guelph, accused me of being a racist. I know a bit about being profoundly stupid so I moved on without him. There are catch my breath moments in Knife where he addresses the governments who released supportive statements after the attack by the 25 yr. old failed assassin. President Biden and Macron in France but nothing from India or Pakistan where so much of his heart always has been he writes. A lot of the Satanic Verses reflections in this book are stunning for their bluntness and insight, reminding me of Bob Dylan’s acceptance speech at Music Cares, addressing the madness of certain critics, of their hate and ignorance and the beauty and camaraderie of others and their unexpected inspiration and support. I had to explore differently Porter Wagner and Doc Pomus after reading his acceptance speech.