Methinks the day is not gonna look quite as relaxing as this, but I’ll settle for a feeling of “ease & peace” by the end of the day, and maybe even be sporting a smile…

We shall see.

For some reason, I’m feeling distracted today. But I’m just going to let the flow take me wherever it takes me. And not fight it.

And just a head’s up!

I have next Tuesday off, which means 2 days off in a row, which means I’ve decided to do the spring cleaning! Get out the Bissel steam cleaner and get the carpeting in the whole house really clean before I head out to NYC in June (when Rasha’s mom and her little baby will be staying here with a multitude of cats…).

So, this is in my very near future and, actually, I can’t wait:

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And a week from today, my best friend Valerie in Brooklyn and I will be taping our first mini-podcast for “Marilyn’s Room”. So we will see how that goes!!

It’s just a trial run, I doubt I will actually post the first one. I guess we’ll see. My main concern is learning how to use the editing tools. The rest of the “recording studio” on Substack looks simple enough.

But then we’ll be off & running (or running away), as we leap into the very serious world of painting & writing at a “certain age” after your entire young adulthood was spent getting into nothing but, well, I don’t know — trouble? Life, itself? I don’t know what to call it. But we got into it. And we’re still here! And that, in itself, is newsworthy!!

And FYI — While doing research for the podcast the other day, I came across this postcard online and wow, did it bring back a truckload of memories!! From 1981 — the important part is the description, which I guess is hard to read. I guess you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out why it’s so important!! (It involves a bunch of us dropping acid one night and going to the Wienerwald at W.48th and Broadway…)

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Okay! Onward.

Last night, while re-listening to an audiobook of Kerouac’s Big Sur, I recalled that Henry Miller had also written something about living in Big Sur and so I went in search of a free online reading of that — and found one on YouTube.

It is so interesting. This isn’t the novel, itself. It’s more like a long excerpt from it. But I am quietly astounded by it.

Written in 1957, it’s Miller’s take on Big Sur and about artists and writers in the USA, in general, back in the late 1940s.

Personally, I relate to it because Henry Miller was a writer whose books were constantly getting banned for their erotic content. But what he also had to say about writers trying to, I don’t know, be true to their craft while surviving in America — and how they needed to find the solitude of living in the middle of nowhere in order to exist…

Well, it rang a few unexpected bells for me at this stage of my life.

I’m halfway through it (excerpt is one hour):

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And yesterday, gang…

Yes! One of the other caregivers did do all the grocery shopping!

So I did get to go with my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man to have sashimi & sake and we accidentally each got 2 fortune cookies at the end of our meal!!

His were oddly boring, but both of mine were great!!! Wow!

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And here’s this!

Keith and Ronnie clowning around in a closet! It is maybe in 1979:

And back in July of 1975, George Harrison visits backstage in LA, during the Stones’ 1975 tour. (Billy Preston played keyboards for the Stones during that tour.)

And Keith with James Mitchell, in the Royal Recording Studios in Memphis, in 1988:

AND —

I know I’ve posted this one before, but it is one of my all-time favorite shots of Keith (I have it, in 2 different sizes, stuck on my wall). And it was the first photo that popped up in my Instagram feed today!!

Keith, in LA, in 1969!!

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Yesterday, Nick Cave sent out a really cool Red Hand File. It was so candid and, just, I don’t know. I just loved it. Mostly, he talked about his sleeping habits — and dreaming habits or lack thereof. He wrote it while in a cab, heading to a recording studio, to perhaps begin a new record with some of the Bad Seeds. (Yay!) He said, in part:

“…I am going to Islington to mess around in the studio with Marty (he’s well now), Thomas (him too), Jim (always robust), and Warren (still lovely and deranged) with the vague idea of perhaps making a new record. …”

However, he also stated that women are generally attracted to men (and women) who wear suits….while I love Nick Cave in anything he chooses to wear, I am totally not in the “attracted to suits” category!! I’m blue-collar all the way!!

But whichever way you lean, you can read the Red Hand File, in full, HERE!!

And meanwhile —

Here’s this!!

A couple of shots of Nick Cave wearing an interesting expression!!

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And that is it for today.

I’m hoping this will be a good day, gang. We shall soon find out.

Have a great Thursday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s close with this.

Bonnie Tyler is going through some very difficult health problems. As of right now, she’s in a medically-induced coma, but her condition is stable. But it sounds very serious.

So here’s this. Her fantastic, international mega hit from 1978. “It’s A Heartache.” Thanks, Bonnie. Enjoy, gang.

“It’s A Heartache”

It’s a heartache
Nothing but a heartache
Hits you when it’s too late
Hits you when you’re down

It’s a fool’s game
Nothing but a fool’s game
Standing in the cold rain
Feeling like a clown

It’s a heartache
Nothing but a heartache
Love him ’til your arms break
Then he lets you down

It ain’t right with love to share
When you find he doesn’t care for you
It ain’t wise to need someone
As much as I depended on you

It’s a heartache
Nothing but a heartache
Hits you when it’s too late
Hits you when you’re down

It’s a fool’s game
Nothing but a fool’s game
Standing in the cold rain
Feeling like a clown

It ain’t right with love to share
When you find he doesn’t care for you
It ain’t wise to need someone
As much as I depended on you

Oh, it’s a heartache
Nothing but a heartache
Love him ’til your arms break
Then he lets you down

It’s a fool’s game
Standing in the cold rain
Feeling like a clown

It’s a heartache
Love him ’til your arms break
Then he lets you down

It’s a fool’s game
Standing in the cold rain

c – 1977 – Ronnie Scott, Victor William Batty