Today is my beloved friend Kara’s birthday!!

Anyway.

Not only will I be heading to the Granville Inn after my shift today with my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man, but my new friend Johnny is meeting me at the inn!! So we are both going to wish Kara a happy birthday together!

Even though they’ve made a lot of changes there recently, this is still my favorite place in Granville. Such great memories, gang:

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Well, since I was last here on the blog on Monday, a few things have happened.

You probably already heard about this.

From Variety yesterday:

Rolling Stones Call Off 2026 Tour

“…Keith Richards, who turns 82 on Thursday, is said to be unable to commit to the rigors of another tour. Live dates in recent years have shown that he has faced challenges due to a long battle with arthritis, which he has called “benign” and said has forced him to change his style of playing….

…Richards was in fine form during a brief three-song performance at the Soho Sessions in New York last month, however, that is a much different proposition than a multi-country, multi-week tour.

…’When they properly sat down to discuss the tour, Keith said he didn’t think he could commit and wasn’t keen on a big stadium tour for over four months’…

…However, a new album appears to be on track for release next year…” [full article here]

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Also–

Joe Ely has died.

From Variety on Monday night:

Joe Ely, Texas Country-Rock Hero Who Grew His Fan Base Touring With the Clash, Dies at 78

“…the singer-songwriter who helped drive a new wave of Texas-based music that united rock and country fans in the 1980s and beyond, died Monday….

An announcement from the family said that Ely died at his home in Taos, New Mexico, with his wife and manager, Sharon, and daughter, Marie, at his side.” [full article here]

And here is a favorite Joe Ely song of mine, although he didn’t write it. Another great New Country songwriter from back in those great days, Robert Earl Keene, wrote it. “Whenever Kindness Fails”. From Joe Ely’s album Love and Danger, 1992:

“Whenever Kindness Fails”

I crossed the desert in a dining car
In the spring of ninety-one
I met some people drinking at the bar
They were laughing, having fun

I told ’em that I hadn’t heard the joke
That was so hilarious
They said that I was just a dumb cowpoke
I didn’t want to make a fuss

So I shot ’em down, one by one
Then I left ’em ‘long the rails
I only use my gun
Whenever kindness fails

The moon was in the sign of Scorpio
The sun was at my back
I didn’t know how far the train would go
Until the law would find my track

I saw the brakeman and the engineer
Drinking wine and eating brie
I asked ’em who would brake and who would steer
They started pointing back at me

So I shot ’em down, one by one
Then I left ’em ‘long the rails
I only use my gun
Whenever kindness fails

I only have a moment to explain
Just a chance to let you know
When it’s time for you to board the train
There are two ways you can go

You can ride the wheels into the sun
Feel the wind upon your face
Or you can laugh into a loaded gun
And you’ll likely lose your place

So I shot ’em down, one by one
Then I left ’em ‘long the rails
I only use my gun
Whenever kindness fails

Yeah I shot ’em down, one by one
Then I left ’em ‘long the rails
When I use my gun
That lonesome whistle wails

c- 1992 Robert Earl Keene

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A couple from Nick Cave’s official Instagram page!!

His song from the Netflix movie, “Train Dreams”, has also been nominated for an Academy Award!!

And this Friday, December 19th, the music from the TV adaptation of his novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, will be released on digital and streaming platforms! (Soundtrack by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis.)

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Okay!

In other news, tomorrow, I will officially sign the publishing contract with Parisian Phoenix Publishing, for my brand-new 26-years-in-the-making novel, The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. Yay!

Can’t really believe it has found a home after all these years, gang. It is such a strange feeling.

And the publisher is in Easton, PA, and oddly enough, you may recall that this is where I was living with Mikey Rivera, writing my (award-winning!) novel Freak Parade, 23 years ago:

And if you’ve been a REALLY long-time reader of this lofty blog, perhaps you will recall that Freak Parade was written for Harlequin Romance Publishing and I was set for a 6-figure advance on Christmas 2003, when my agent called to say that at an end-of-the-year staff meeting, the Editor-in-Chief of Harlequin announced that he had read my manuscript and he “wouldn’t publish that piece of filth if it was the last book on Earth”…

Well, what a happy Christmas that was…

HOWEVER.

Eventually I went on to publish the book myself, in 2011, and it took home the Silver Medal at the 2011 Independent Publishers Awards in NYC. And has since sold many, many thousands of copies…

Oh! And it’s still FREE to download over at the Smashwords Christmas Sale until January 1, 2026! Click HERE. (Adults only, please!)

“Freak Parade is a tour de force, a literary erotic novel that doesn’t shy away from the grittier realities of human nature and survival in the city…” – from a review by Saskia Walker, UK, 2011

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Okay!

Here’s this!

Apparently, Johnny launched the opening of his “A Bunch of Stuff” art exhibition in Tokyo, with a brand new painting !

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And I will close today with this.

As a result of my having visited my birth mom a couple weeks ago wherein I also got to see my younger half-brother for the first time in a few years…

He has started texting me in the evenings! It’s too cool. Back in the 1980s – 1990s, he and I were very, very close. We had a falling out, though, over his relentlessly bad temper with my little niece (his daughter).

Anyway. I think it will be interesting when our mom reads all of our texts, because he’s texting me from her phone! But he melted my heart the other night when he brought up my music.

He said, “Is there a copy of that song you wrote about the railroad? That was a great song! I want to hear it again!”

And as luck would have it, I was able to send him over to my YouTube channel!! And he started listening to my songs again. Such a cool feeling, gang.

“Something Like the Railroad”, 1994, with Groovalaya backing me in the studio in NYC! (This song actually got airplay on WMFU in NYC , and also airplay out in Reno, Nevada, where my birth dad lived. And it also garnered me a songwriting publishing contract in Nashville.)

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And that is it! I gotta scoot!

I hope you have a wonder-filled Wednesday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting!

I love you guys. See ya!

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Okay, here’s this!!

Probably from the upcoming soundtrack of Christmas Eve here with my new friend Johnny!!

Dean Martin’s Christmas classic, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” !!! Enjoy, gang!!