"Lives in a box down by the ocean
Down off the main road by the hill
Takes what he finds and eats it right there
Makes what he can with what he will"

In 'Box', Izzy seems to be affected by seeing someone who is living homeless, and that's one of the reasons we chose the Ealing Soup Kitchen as the charity to donate to through our "I signed" #Izzyconcert2018 petition merchandise sales.

In the photo, Andrew McLeay, who runs the Ealing Soup Kitchen in West London, holds a cheque for £100 - our first instalment, collected through profits from sales of the "I signed" keepsake t-shirts, mugs, bags and pins. Andrew says that at this time of the year, cash donations go a long way to paying for things like sleeping bags for people living on the frozen streets, as well as for soup kitchen food and supplies, and phone credit so homeless people can contact their loved ones at Christmas. 

If you would like to contribute to the next donation, please purchase your merchandise at the following website (we raise about £2 off every item):

http://shop.spreadshirt.co.uk/izzyconcert2018 

As usual I would say please order the items in the red colour, as that will help us stand out in the crowd to one another - and to Izzy himself from stage! - if/when El Iz puts on a concert again.

Also, the items make great selfie-presents to put under the Christmas tree (I can't be the only one who buys selfie-presents!!) :)

Soooo... I don't know if anyone noticed - but I couldn't, I just couldn't, close down the petition after we got to 2,000 names. You can see that the number of signatures has gone up by nearly 100 since the last update, which is good of course. If you all want to keep sharing the petition link, go right ahead, let's see where we end up. If something good can come out of this effort, I suppose we should keep it going...

One more thing I'd like to shoutout in this update is news of the new Izzy Stradlin cover band, Bucket O'Trouble, a duo made up of Steve and Jeff (cool names yeah), who were inspired by this very petition to start recording covers of Izzy's solo songs. Check out their version of 'Hammerhead' (and connect with them on social media - YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram): https://youtu.be/MCk4Pcwn4nQ

That's all for now, folks.

Maybe next time I write it will be because Izzy has done his annual 'Happy New Year' tweet including a mention of something for us to look forward to...... ?????

Keep good everybody & listen to more solo Izzy.

- Carlene
#believeinIzzy