Yes!! The Agency texted me TWICE already this morning, wanting me to pick up some urgent shifts today and tomorrow — however!!

LUNCH is on my horizon for today!! With my Q-following girlfriend, as we belatedly celebrate her birthday at 3 Tigers Brewing Co in Granville! And I’m not missing that for anything.

And then, of course, tomorrow, I need the whole day to work on getting the novel ever closer to its ending. (And I still have no clue how this novel ends, gang. The pages just keep coming out of me, with me having no clue beforehand what is getting ready to hit the page.)

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Still no word from Nick Cave’s Official Instagram page about what the announcement about July 31, 2026 is going to be!

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And here’s this!!

2 remarkably different looks sported by another one of my treasured heroes who is long gone now–

Lou Reed:

And here’s this, in case you never heard it before– a demo of my song, “Lou”, from 1984. (This version, recorded by me and Peitor Angell, when we were hanging around his apartment, back in the very OLD days, when he lived on Broadway in Manhattan.)

(When I then played this demo for my incredible friend Bob Cato at Columbia Records, he said, “Why on Earth are you singing like that?? What am I supposed to do with this??”)

(Although, an earlier demo, of just me and my guitar in my room on E.12th Street, was given directly to Lou by my good friend Joe Queenan.)

"Lou"

Come watch the rain
Wipe out the ballgame and 
Strike-out the names
Of players who’d gamble
With needles and dreams
In a game that’s as ruthless
as whiskey on speed

Who’ll call the game
On account of the rules being
Too tough to save
Any losers who’d forfeit
In a halo of fear?
Well, shame takes a holiday,
Let’s have a beer

CHORUS:
Fight, and maybe you’ll find
A reason to smile 
At the end of the line
Why don’t you fight?
Maybe you’ll win
And you’ll have some stories to tell 
For trying

Strike up a tune
For those who surrendered
And ducked out too soon;
Vice in the shadow
Was no easy crime
Let’s make it a double
For auld lang sine

You carve your name
In seasons of anger
of laughter and fame
To warn of the dangers
In packaging pain
For lives that get tossed
On account of the rain

© 1984 Marilyn Jaye Lewis
First of May Songs, BMI

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Here’s this–

The day after the notorious, horrific Altamont Concert in 1969.

Keith and Charlie, leaving California:

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This really amused me.

Back in the late 1990s, I was reading a collection of letters written by Edgar Allan Poe. And in the foreword, it said that he was living on the Upper West Side in Manhattan — around W.84th and Broadway — when these specific letters were written.

I lived at W.98th and West End Avenue at the time, so I used to stroll around W.84th, trying to imagine which old brownstone he might have lived in!!

Well, who knew????

There weren’t even any apartment buildings up there back when he lived there!!

Here’s this!

I definitely would have noticed an old farmhouse in the nieghborhood, if it had still been there…

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And I think that might be it for now. I’m gonna get myself ready to head to town for lunch.

BTW, it is another really gorgeous day. I am really looking forward to just hanging out and relaxing (and laughing) with my girlfriend.

Okay. Enjoy your Monday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Yes!

Another one from the playlist from 6 years ago!!

Okay, this one just astounded me, gang.

When I was in my teens, my adopted mom LOVED Neil Diamond. So we always played his records together.

I remember this song (and album) extremely well. What a great album it was. It came out when I was still living at home, age 16, in 1976.

Beautiful Noise (seriously, a great album, produced by Robbie Robertson):

When the song below came on the playlist yesterday — when I was driving to my shift — it was one of those feelings, gang. It sent a chill right through me.

I realized that this song totally captured what it was like when I moved to NYC and had, what I refer to as, “my life” there. And how it feels now to remember it all. I almost cried right there in the car. Wow.

Anyway. “If You Know What I Mean”, 1976. From Beautiful Noise. Enjoy, gang.

“If You Know What I Mean”

When the night returns just like a friend
When the evening comes to set me free
When the quiet hours
That wait beyond the day
Make peaceful sounds in me

Took a drag from my last cigarette
Took a drink from a glass of old wine
I closed my eyes and I could make it real
And feel it one more time

Can you hear it, babe
Can you hear it, babe
From another time, from another place
Do you remember it, babe

And the radio played like a carnival tune
As we lay in our bed in the other room
When we gave it away
For the sake of a dream in a penny arcade
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean, babe

And here’s to the songs we used to sing
And here’s to the times we used to know
It’s hard to hold them in our arms again
But hard to let them go
Do you hear it, babe
Do you hear it, babe

It was another time
It was another place
Do you remember it, babe

And the radio played like a carnival tune
As we lay in our bed in the other room
When we gave it away
For the sake of a dream in a penny arcade
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean

If you know what I mean, babe
If you know what I mean

c – 1976, Neil Diamond