Sorry, didn’t sleep great last night.
Started battling a kidney stone yesterday afternoon. No fun!!
But I’m taking this, so it shouldn’t last long:
And also played this most of the night:
But after I take care of the cats and drink a gallon of water… I’m going back to bed for a little while before heading to work.
Enjoy your Friday, wherever you are in the world.
I love you guys. See ya!🙋♀️
Okay, yes, I did take my cup of coffee back to bed for a little while this morning —
But mostly I’m getting a late start here on the blog today because I had some emails to take care of first thing. A couple more writers are contributing to the M. Christian tribute anthology and I am really excited about that!! Yay!
I’m still going to focus on editing that one longer short story today, as planned. And really, that should take most of the day. And then these 2 new contributions — I should still be done editing the anthology by the weekend!
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Okay!
THIS arrived yesterday and I am so excited– the latest book we need to read for James Tabor’s Private Research Group:
A Man Attested by God: The Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels by JR Daniel Kirk
And the really good news is that it is only 632 pages long!!! Yay!!!
But, honestly, I am very eager to read it. I started it last night.
And, YES! I will be reading it alongside a book that arrived on Tuesday that I am also excited about —
Resident Punk: How I Smoked, Drank, and Stumbled My Way Through the ’70s Punk Scene (and Beyond) by Legs McNeil !!
Just keepin’ it real all the way around, here in the Hinterlands!!
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Okay.
On October 21st, from 10pm – 11pm, the Internet Archive is having a FREE virtual event:
Democracy’s Library: Tools for Participation
“Democracy invites participation; democracies require it. At the Internet Archive, we believe libraries can help make that participation possible by preserving knowledge and providing the tools to explore and build upon it.
This year’s annual celebration, “Democracy’s Library: Tools for Participation,” will showcase the many ways people can participate through the Internet Archive: from saving and contributing materials to exploring government records, researching history, and building new tools with our collections and APIs.”
SIGN UP HERE to attend — FREE!
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Also, on October 21st — and this one sort of stuns me, gang — Bill Wyman, the Rolling Stones’ original and legendary bass player who also owns a camera– turns 90!!
To honor that, in London–
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And on the topic of the Rolling Stones —
Keith! Smoking in a spotlight while sitting on a stool!! Yay!!
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And not at all related–
From Phyllis Stein!
Iggy in Miami!!
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And here’s The Clash!!
Apparently celebrating champagne!!
And here’s Patti Smith, apparently doing the same thing!!
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Personally, I don’t drink champagne too often (anymore!!), but when I do, this is my favorite!! (Just in case, you know, you were planning to visit the Hinterlands anytime soon and wanted to celebrate!!)
(Bring these, too and it’ll be just like yesteryear!! Yay!!)
And, well, okay — here’s THIS again, while we’re celebrating!!
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All righty!
Too much celebrating of a different kind was perhaps the culprit behind this event, but I’m not 100% certain–
Warren Ellis had a Hoovering incident!! (That’s “vacuuming” in American English, btw) (Please note, he is still wearing the Sid Vicious t-shirt here, and that’s part of his beard, I think!):
And here, Warren Ellis is looking quite stylish in “Warren’s House” in 2022!!
And that goes along with this (see above)! “Rock & Roll” by Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground!! (From Loaded, 1970)
And in case you were curious — YES! That song is actually the story of my life!!
“Rock And Roll”
Jenny said when she was just five years old
You know there’s nothing happening at all
Every time she puts on the radio
There was nothing goin’ down at all
Then one fine mornin’ she puts on a New York station
She couldn’t believe what she heard at all
She started dancin’ to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by Rock ‘n’ Roll
Despite all the amputations
You could just dance to a rock ‘n’ roll station
Jenny said when she was just five years old
My parents are gonna be the death of us all
Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars–
Ain’t gonna help us at all
Then one fine mornin’ she puts on a New York station
She don’t believe what she heard at all
She started dancin’ to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by Rock ‘n’ Roll
Despite all the computations
You could just dance to a rock ‘n’ roll station
And it was alright.
c – 1970 Lou Reed
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Let’s jump around a little–
Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard, and someone else (maybe Mick Harvey?) in 1982!!
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And Nick Cave & Warren Ellis both announce—
“The Death of Bunny Munro” – Vinyl Pre-order (in pink!!)
“A special edition ‘Baby Pink’ vinyl of ‘The Death of Bunny Munro’ original series soundtrack by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis is available to pre-order now HERE.”
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And I guess that is it for today!!
In all honesty, yes, I will be vacuuming today!! But I will try not to sustain any “hoovering incidents” of my own.
Then I also have to do yoga, wash hair, etc.
But the rest of the day will be spent editing the longer short story, mentioned above, here at my desk.
And so I will get started.
Enjoy your Thursday, wherever you are in the world, gang!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Yes, the morning-listening-music around here is still Bruce Springsteen–
But I’ve moved on to his Greatest Hits!
HOWEVER!
This song is also from The River, 1980.
And I remember so perfectly, gang, shopping in a clothing store that was downstairs in the Empire State Building, while on my lunch hour, and hearing this song come on the radio there.
It had only been a handful of weeks since I’d been listening to that same song on my record player in my side-by-side rental house back in Ohio…
…and now I was living in NYC and working in the legendary Empire State Building!!
My life changed, literally, overnight back then. So many fucking incredible memories, gang. Most of them unbelievably stressful…. but I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Okay!
“Hungry Heart” by Bruce Springsteen, from The River. 1980! Enjoy, gang.
“Hungry Heart”
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
I met her in a Kingstown bar
We fell in love I knew it had to end
We took what we had and we ripped it apart
Now here I am down in Kingstown again
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody needs a place to rest
Everybody wants to have a home
Don’t make no difference what nobody says
Ain’t nobody like to be alone
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
c -1980 Bruce Springsteen
Wow, did I get a lot done yesterday, gang.
I only have one long story left to edit tomorrow for the M. Christian tribute anthology, and then I am basically done. I will still need to arrange the stories in the best order, write a Foreword, but it will definitely be turned in before the end of the month!
I still don’t know when I’ll have to do some work on the script for Sandra’s one-woman Birthday Cabaret, but I might actually be able to spend some of my upcoming days’ off focusing on my own writing again.
And most importantly, now that I have the part-time job again, my mind is in a much better place to tackle my own writing.
Okay, good news and bad news!
Season 2 of “Ludwig” did indeed start on Britbox yesterday — and it was so great to have that show back on my TV!!
Not so good news — I’d forgotten that with Standard Britbox, you only get to see one new episode a week. Aaarrggghhhh….
But it’s still great to have that show back. I just love it!!
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Here’s some great news, gang.
This made me so happy last night!
People are indeed downloading the free eBook edition of “A Man in Her Arms & Other Stories” over on Amazon and so it is FINALLY listed in the sales rankings. Not only that, but I thought the categories it popped up in were very interesting;
Thank you to everyone who is downloading it!
Also — I discovered that a number of people in Kindle Unlimited are also downloading my novel from 2011, Freak Parade. Yay!!!
I will actually be getting some royalties this month. So thank you!!
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I thought this was just wonderful, gang.
On Literary Hub yesterday — a wonderful article that I really related to, since I discovered Frank O’Hara’s poems when I was 14 and in Jr. High School:
“…O’Hara is most famous for his collection Lunch Poems, written on his lunch break as a receptionist from the Museum of Modern Art—proving even future curators/art critics must begin at the front desk. He’s often been called a painter’s poet, and, rejected by the conventional literary scene, found himself faster friends with the Abstract Expressionists than the literary world. Lunch Poems—reviewed by Ted Berrigan, as, emphatically “a great book!” and one of the “most important documents in contemporary poetry”—includes some of his most famous works, including “The Day Lady Died,” “Ave Maria,” and “A Step Away From Them.” This last one was my usual classroom pick. Selecting an eager student to read it aloud, a school’s worth of seventh graders would follow along on their printouts…”
Read it in full HERE
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Okay!
The Rolling Stones announced a Pop-Up in NYC for 2 days only!
THE UMUSIC SHOP AT PENN PLAZA IN THE HEART OF NEW YORK CITY IS GETTING A ROLLING STONES TAKEOVER THIS WEEK!
JOIN US ON OCTOBER 16 & 17 FOR TWO DAYS OF A SPECIAL ROLLING STONES POP-UP, FEATURING BRAND NEW MERCHANDISE, MUSIC, LIMITED DAILY DROPS AND PLENTY FOR STONES FANS TO EXPLORE.
UMUSIC SHOP, 2 PENNSYLVANIA PLAZA, NEW YORK, NY 10121
OCTOBER 16–17, 2026
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Starting yesterday, WordPress launched “Wide Margins”, a monthly podcast, featuring interviews and a Q&A with authors. Hosted by Zander Rose.
Neal Stephenson Live: Spies, Science & the Race for the Atomic Bomb (1 hr):
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Johnny Depp posted this today. It’s in London — another exhibit of his art (he’s got a few going on all over the world right now):
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Okay, here’s this! From Facebook!!
And THIS happened last night!!
Warren Ellis actually replied to one of my comments!! (I am not even going to attempt to explain what the comment is referring to, you’d have to watch the reel, but basically, his dogs were stepping on his “fucking vinyl” record albums):
And also from Warren Ellis:
And this is from the other day — Warren with his pups!!
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More from Facebook!!
This is sort of an intense one — Nick Cave in a white shirt!!
Nick Cave eating something!! I’m not sure what, but it looks pretty good!!
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And those are my “here’s this’s” for today!
On the New Guy front– things are still progressing. We still talk on the phone at night, text first thing in the morning.
Last night, he said that when he comes here next month, he wants to drive me by the old farm where he raised his family. The farmhouse is 175 years old — and he rehabbed it when he bought it. (We can only see it from the outside because he doesn’t own it anymore, but I really want to see it.)
Then I asked him if we could go see his RV.
HE (on phone): “Which RV? I have about 5 or 6.”
Crimony!
Anyway, we pinned down exactly which one I was referring to and we may drive over and see that, too!
So, between texting, phone chats, and then driving around in person together — we might actually get to know each other soon!
And yes, he knows I’m a writer. And, no, he has no clue what I write about because he never asked… If he ever does ask… ah, well, we’ll just play that one by ear, gang.
He does know that I went to that Biblical Archeology conference in Charlotte, and he knows how interested I am in Biblical studies and the Historical Jesus…
So, METHINKS my writing career is going to come flying way out of left field for him. We’ll just have to see.
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Okay.
That is it for today!!
I’ll be leaving for town here soon and I am once again really excited to be getting back to the job at my favorite Health & Wellness store and all my fun friends who work there.
Have a wonder-filled Wednesday, wherever you are in the world, gang!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Let’s close with this.
I am still on a Bruce Springsteen kick around here.
Here’s another one from his 1980 album, The River.
I absolutely LOVE this fucking song! And what really makes me smile these days, is that I knew this song by heart before I even moved to NYC. In retrospect, though, I now know everything he’s singing about!
Subways, ghettos, hot blacktops, “operators” in the park…
And I eventually spent 9 years on W.53rd Street in Manhattan, because that’s where the Museum of Modern Art is!
Anyway. It is IMPERATIVE that you learn the chorus immediately and sing along REALLY LOUD!! It’s too fun!!
“Sherry Darling”, by Bruce Springsteen, from The River, 1980. Enjoy, gang!!
“Sherry Darling”
Your Mamma’s yapping in the back seat
Tell her to push over and move them big feet
Every Monday morning I gotta drive her down to the unemployment agency
Well this morning I ain’t fighting tell her I give up
Tell her she wins if she’ll just shut up
But it’s the last time that she’s gonna be riding with me
CHORUS:
You can tell her there’s a hot sun beating on the black top
She keeps talking she’ll be walking that last block
She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight
Well I got some beer and the highway’s free
And I got you, and baby you’ve got me
Hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darling
Now there’s girls melting on the beach
And they’re so fine but so far out of reach
‘Cause I’m stuck in traffic down here on 53rd street
Now Sherry my love for you is real
But I didn’t count on this package deal
And baby this car just ain’t big enough for her and me
CHORUS:
You can tell her there’s a hot sun beating on the black top
She keeps talking she’ll be walking that last block
She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight
Well I got some beer and the highway’s free
And I got you, and baby you’ve got me
Hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darling
Well let there be sunlight, let there be rain
Let my broken heart love again
Sherry we can run with our arms open wide before the tide
To all the girls down at Sacred Heart
And all you operators back in the Park
Say hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darling
Say, hey, hey, what you say Sherry Darling
Say, hey, hey, hey, what you say Sherry Darling
c -1980 Bruce Springsteen
Mostly, since I worked yesterday and then did all the grocery shopping /cat food buying for the week, I have nothing new to post about!
I have stories for the M.Christian tribute anthology I want to edit today, but there is also a zoom lecture I want to try to tune into at noon.
Tomorrow, I will be back here with a regular post.
Meanwhile, thanks for visiting!!
I love you guys. See ya!!🙋♀️💖
It’s a holiday here in the US today, but not one of those where everything shuts down.
I’m still heading to work.
I did manage to convince myself yesterday to take the day off. Kind of astounding that I did that. But I did get to have a great chat with Valerie in Brooklyn yesterday! We hadn’t been able to really chat in quite a while, so that was great.
Before I forget!!
A Man in her Arms & Other Stories is indeed FREE to download this week, with or without Kindle Unlimited!!
You can download it HERE, but it is for ADULTS ONLY, please! The stories are M/F, M/M, and F/F. All the stories have been published before, except “A Man in Her Arms” — a previously unpublished novelette.
Table of Contents:
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From Ross K. Nichols’ Sunday School yesterday —
“Jeremiah was commanded to write a scroll. But what exactly did he write? Against the backdrop of Jerusalem’s destruction and exile, we follow the clues hidden within the book of Jeremiah to a remarkable composition containing one of the Bible’s most famous promises: the New Covenant. Could this have once been a scroll of its own? And could Jeremiah have left us a final clue to what he was doing? What if Jeremiah’s hidden scroll has been in front of us all along?”
We HAVE the hidden scroll of Jeremiah? (1 hr 7 mins):
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If you are new to the blog–
Back in NYC in the mid-1980s, at the peak of the AIDS crisis, I volunteered with Visiting Nurse Services of NY. I was assigned dying AIDS patients to go visit in their homes, helping out, running errands, right up until they passed away.
The renowned gay downtown photographer, Peter Hujar, was one of my patients. To respect his privacy, I used to never discuss that he had been my patient when he was dying from AIDS. But now that it’s been 40 years, and everyone now knows he died from AIDS, I am okay with talking about it.
So — here’s this!
Happy belated heavenly birthday, Peter Hujar! (Yesterday was his heavenly birthday.)
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Warren Ellis posted this yesterday–
And here’s this — Died Pretty – “Life to go (Landsakes)” 1986:
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And here’s something I am LOVING again. It’s currently free to watch on Pluto TV. I watch one or two episodes in bed on my phone, before going to sleep at night.
I used to love this show so much, gang, back in the 80s, and now I am remembering why!! It’s so funny and so loving. “Family Ties” (1982-1989).
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And here’s this!!
All I could find yesterday that was at least interesting, and YES! Both from Facebook!
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And that is it for now!
Things with my new guy continue to develop really nicely, gang. We text in the early morning, and then chat on the phone in the evening.
Last night, we made great progress in just getting to know each other better, and helping me to sort of calm down. Long-time readers of this lofty blog know that I struggle with chronic PTSD and borderline autism, so “getting to know someone” is a true challenge for me. But we really seem to be getting there, gang!
My guess is that by the time he comes back to Ohio for a week in mid-November, I will probably be able to behave sort of like a normal human being around him!!! We shall see!!
Meanwhile–
This morning, he texted me a photo of the sunrise outside his house — the hurricane has finally passed over. The weather in his area of Florida had been really awful for about 6 days.
Okay.
I guess I will get ready to head to town now.
Enjoy your Monday and/or holiday, wherever you are in the world, gang!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Let’s close with this!!
Last night’s listening-in-bed-in-the-dark music (after watching 2 episodes of “Family Ties”…)
Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 album The River.
This wonderful album was released in that intense juncture in my life, where I still lived in Ohio, working in a GE factory, but then moved to NYC, sort of suddenly. (A girlfriend in NYC helped me get a receptionist job at a menswear designer company she worked for — she was a fashion designer — the job was in the Empire State Building. I got the job over the phone on a Friday and basically started working in the Empire State Building in NYC on Monday morning. I was 20…)
Anyway.
I loved this whole album. It is now full of so many memories for me.
I’ve posted this specific song here before, but this song really helps me stand back and see that I really made all my dreams come true in NYC. As hard as it was, still, what incredible times they were.
“The Price You Pay,” by Bruce Springsteen, 1980. From The River. Enjoy, gang.
“The Price You Pay”
You make up your mind, you choose the chance you take
You ride to where the highway ends and the desert breaks
Out on to an open road you ride until the day
You learn to sleep at night with the price you pay
Now with their hands held high, they reached out for the open skies
And in one last breath they built the roads they’d ride to their death
Driving on through the night, unable to break away
From the restless pull of the price you pay
Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay
Now you can’t walk away from the price you pay
Now they’d come so far and they’d waited so long
Just to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong
Where the dark of night holds back the light of the day
And you’ve gotta stand and fight for the price you pay
Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay
Now you can’t walk away from the price you pay
Little girl down on the strand
With that pretty little baby in your hands
Do you remember the story of the promised land
How he crossed the desert sands
And could not enter the chosen land
On the banks of the river he stayed
To face the price you pay
So let the game start, you better run you little wild heart
You can run through all the nights and all the days
But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign
That counts the many fallen away to the price you pay, and girl before the end of the day
I’m gonna tear it down and throw it away
c – 1980 Bruce Springsteen
Even though I slept great last night, for some reason I felt like going back to bed after breakfast today.
Took the cup of coffee upstairs, hung out in bed with about 4 or 5 (?) cats. Slept a little more. Finally got back out of bed but I feel sort of at loose ends right now.
I know I should probably force myself to take a day off and just relax, but I am getting really close to finishing the editing on the M. Christian tribute anthology.
If I can get 2 short pieces edited today, that leaves me with only one long story to do sometime this coming week — and, in essence, the book will be done.
Anyway. We shall see if I can force myself to relax today or not!!
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Okay!
Before I forget.
Starting tomorrow the Kindle edition of my short story collection “A Man in her Arms & Other Stories” will be free to download for the week.
I don’t think you have to belong to Kindle Unlimited to get it for free. (Not all the stories are explicit erotica, but it is still Absolutely for Adults Only, thank you!)
Table of Contents:
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And here’s a curious — although really nice! — thing.
Amazon claims there is “only one print copy of The Curse of our Profound Disorder left in stock (more on the way)”!
I guess this means people are actually buying the book. I think the eBook is selling even a little better. But absolutely no one besides Ron Bass in NYC has reviewed it… so who knows, gang.
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Also, yesterday, while searching through some really old files for a specific story by Michael Hemmingson, I discovered the manuscripts for my erotic romance novel, When Hearts Collide (this was distributed exclusively by Barnes & Noble stores, in 2003, and it sold, overall, 10,000 copies).
And another erotic short story collection, Ribbon of Darkness & Other Stories, that I printed privately on LULU — it has never been for sale. I gave it to a handful of people as a gift. This was back in 2009.
Even though the short story collection has stories that appear in various other anthologies of mine, I’m thinking of re-publishing both these books as specially-priced eBooks on Amazon.
I was thinking of doing this because, you know, I’ve got nothing else to do right now…
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Okay.
I’ve got a lot of “here’s this’s” for today, so let’s get crackin’!!
Here’s this!!
From Phyllis Stein!
Richard Hell!!
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And how about this??!!
Photo by Anton Corbijn.
Blixa Bargeld! A long time ago!
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From Jim Lauderdale–
He’ll be playing at the Gram Parsons Derry Down listening room, in Winter Haven, Florida, on November 7th, in honor of what would have been Gram Parsons’ 80th birthday (tickets are $30 — you can buy them HERE):
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And here’s a few of Keith –SMOKING!!
In the morning in France, around 1971?? (From Facebook!)
With Mick, in London, 1969!!
With Ronnie, somewhere!! In 1975!!
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And here’s this!
Something is upcoming for Bad Seed George Vjestica!! Watch this space!!
And here’s a great photo of Nick Cave & the Birthday Party — from their first tour of the US.
Here, they’re in NYC, 1981–and Rowland S. Howard is SMOKING!!
And speaking of smoking!!
Nick Cave, onstage, perhaps taking a break?? I’m not sure!! But he’s reading and smoking in France, in 1990!! (Photo by Jean-Louis V)
And smoking — and singing!! — onstage in Germany, 1990!
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And I believe that is it for now.
And any moment, I will decide if I’m going to work on the editing today, or relax. We shall soon find out.
Either way, enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world, gang!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Let’s close with this!
Dwight Yoakam & KD Lang, live, in 1989, singing “Sin City” by Gram Parsons & Chris Hillman.
KD and Dwight first did this duet on Dwight’s album, Just Lookin’ For A Hit, in 1988.
Enjoy, gang.
Yes, it turns out that I don’t have to work today, so that’s good because I still have a lot of stuff left to do on the M. Christian anthology and I am hoping to have it turned in to the publisher by the end of the month.
So here’s hoping I have a productive weekend!
NO, wait! Of course, I meant THIS!!
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And, YES!!
I did manage to screw up the electric breaker switch thingie yesterday morning while trying to fix the lights in the kitchen and also dash off to the job on time!
But luckily, the tech guy was able to come back out while I was at work and he fixed it in a nano-second, so everything is back to normal. Yay!!
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Okay!!
This is happening today!!
Happy birthday, David Lee Roth!! He is 72 today!!
And here’s this!! And if you’re not old enough to remember it — this was in the peak years of MTV, when music videos cost a fortune to produce and were like little 4-minute movies. From 1985, David Lee Roth’s huge hit version of “California Girls”!!
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I don’t have a lot of “here’s this’s ” today because, you know, I had to work at a job yesterday and wasn’t able to just sit and scroll through Instagram all day!! (But I had a great time!!)
Anyway.
Here’s this!
Jack Kerouac– confused in Autumn!!
And here’s this bit of absolute loveliness while we’re at it! Chet Baker, “Tis Autumn” from 1959:
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And here’s this!!
From Phyllis Stein.
Lou Reed with Iggy Pop, smoking, at Max’s in NYC in 1972!! (Photo by Danny Fields)
And I’ve posted this once before, but here it is again! The song I wrote about Iggy Pop in 1984, after having read his incredible memoir I Need More. (What a great book that was.)
This is an absolute demo — it’s just me and my drummer using the 8-track in my bedroom on E.12th Street, so the sound quality is not great. The demo is followed below by my lyrics, and then by Jim Carroll’s comments on my lyrics, because I wrote the song and turned it in while taking Jim Carroll’s songwriting class in 1984 (one of the true highlights of my life!!).
“SHAPE YOU’RE IN“
(for Iggy Pop)
She was a tiny girl,
but she felt like a woman to you
In her high-heeled shoes and her
Tanqueray point of view.
You were a man on the edge
She was a girl in chains
When a child comes on
Don’t the night get strange?
CHORUS I:
You’ve broken all the rules but you still need more
‘Til you’re not sure what you’re looking for
But God’s gonna overlook this one sin
‘Cause, honey, He’s seen the shape you’re in.
It was a tiny dream,
It took all the money you had
It was a good little dream, but it shook you
And treated you bad.
When the damage is done
When you fear the change
When the deal’s gone down
Don’t the dark get strange?
CHORUS II:
You’ve taken all the pain but they still want more
‘Til you’re not sure what you do it for
But God’s gonna carry you through my friend
‘Cause, honey, He’s seen the shape you’re in.
Life on the edge
Can cheat you and paralyze
‘Til the voice in your head
Misleads you and tells you lies
If I could give you the moon
In a paper jar
Would you trade it all
For the big rock star?
CHORUS III:
You’ve broken all the rules but you still need more
‘Til you’re not sure what you’re looking for
But God’s gonna carry you through my friend
‘Cause, honey, He’s seen the shape you’re in.
© 1984 Marilyn Jaye Lewis
FIRST OF MAY SONGS, BMI
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And here’s this!
The only Nick Cave thing I have today, but it’s from Facebook!!
Nick Cave and his skateboard!!
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All right, that’s it.
I need to finish up the laundry now and get focused on editing the anthology.
Oh, I will add that I had such a great chat on the phone with my new guy last night. Even though our lives could not have been more different if we’d planned it that way, we have a lot of fundamental things in common.
For instance, does this sound familiar? He said that his parents forced him to go to college. He didn’t want to go. He said, “I lasted about 10 weeks and thought it was just stupid and so I quit.”
Of course the difference between him and me, is that after I quit college, I went off to NYC to become a singer-songwriter and a writer, and he worked on farms and trained horses and did road construction and rehabbed old houses.
HE (on phone last night): “I’m just a dumb hillbilly.”
ME (very encouraging): “You’re not dumb at all!”
(He’s a hillbilly maybe, but he absolutely is not stupid!!)
Plus we also discovered that our ancestral heritage is similar — heavy on the Irish and German.
Anyway!
Okay. I gotta scoot.
Enjoy your Saturday, wherever you are in the world, gang!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Let’s close with this!!
From 1986!
Iggy Pop’s fantastic song “Blah-Blah-Blah”!! From the album of the same name. (I adored this whole album.) Okay. Enjoy, gang!!
“Blah-Blah-Blah”
Pop before the war
lunch before the score
steady as she goes
following my nose
I’m a bull mongrel
that’s me
Shimon Peres
whatcha gonna do
I’m from detroit
blow the reveille
deatho knocko
that’s me little ol’me
glamorous me
Johnny can’t read
blah blah blah
I’ can’t see
blah blah blah
tuna on white
guns all night
blah blah blah
Cat taboo girl-
raped by an ape
cat taboo girl
jam the sucker in
you dig the mongrels
guardian of the state
says you gotta go
bombin’ low
Senator Rambo
merrily you go
monkey butcher knows
a cab to find abank
a bank to find a loan
’cause you can’t be alone
you dig the mongrels
Violent peace
blah blah blah
buy it right now
blah blah blah
we are the world
we are so huge
blah blah blah
johnny can’t read
blah blah blah
I’ can’t see
blah blah blah
tuna on white
guns all night
blah blah blah
blue jeans coolies
everything huge
petrified food
pizza killers
from napalm to nice guy
nifty fifty
hit ’em where they live
the most spoiled brats
on god’s green earth
pop before the war
c – 1986 Iggy Pop, David Bowie
Heading to town in the mornings and having a job again!! Even if it’s only part-time.
Honestly, gang, when I wake up and realize that I have someplace to be, a place I really love being in, around people I really enjoy, it makes me feel so happy to get out of bed!!
I will find out today if I’ll be needed to work on Saturdays, too, but on Saturdays, the store is only open for 3 hours so it’s not really like working…
Anyway.
I’m in a really good place, mentally. Finally.
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All right. So.
The hot water heater is working great, for now. However, as soon as the sun is fully up, I need to head down into my 125-year-old creepy basement and look at the breaker panel, because another fuse has blown on one side of the kitchen wall. I’m guessing that when he was checking the breakers yesterday afternoon, he flipped one that needs to be flipped back. We shall see!
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Okay!!
It’s all about THIS today!!
Happy heavenly birthday John Lennon!! Born on this day in 1940. Rest in glory, baby!!
*************
And I think this next one should just basically be the new motto for this whole blog!!
************
All righty.
A couple of updates on Warren Ellis that are not in any way dog-throwing-up related!!
Coming up on October 26th in Milan, Italy (I think this is in some sort of fashion museum?) —
And here’s this!
Kirsten Krauth’s new podcast, Just Surrender: Creative Conversations, interviews Warren Ellis!
You can listen HERE (45 mins)
************
There’s an End of Summer Sale going on at the Nick Cave merch store!!
Shop here for Summer Sale items!!
***********
Okay. Here’s this!!
The Cars take Osaka in 1980!!
Oh, here’s something, before I forget!
The Cars were really popular when I was in my late teens. And the girlfriend I wrote about here recently who is now really sick and confined to a nursing home — we loved The Cars.
She and I recently re-connected through Facebook. And last night — another girlfriend re-connected with me through Facebook! The three of us were all really close for most of our lives.
Here’s the 3 of us at my 40th birthday, when I was still living in NYC but had made a quick trip back home to Ohio — we’re all 40 in this photo. 26 years ago (we had all been friends for 30 years already!):
**************
Okay!
Here’s one from Phyllis Stein!!
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, in London, 1977 (Photo by Ian Dickson)
***********
And here’s the playwright, Arthur Miller, smoking at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC in 1960!!
If you’re unclear about who he was, aside from being an incredible playwright, he was married to this gal! (From 1956 – 1961)
**************
And here’s this!!
From Facebook!!
Nick Cave!! Lying down on a sort of sofa/bed thing, surrounded by Christianity!!
And here’s Nick Cave, all alone on a chair!!
And Nick Cave doing, well, I’m not sure what but his hair looks great!!
***********
And that is it!
I better scurry down to the dark creepy basement and check that breaker box before heading to town!
Oh, the latest update on my guy is sort of intense, gang.
He is indeed coming back to Ohio for about a week in mid-November in order to spend time doing stuff with me and getting to know me better. He bought his plane ticket yesterday.
We text a couple times a day and chat on the phone every night. We are indeed getting to know each other but he finds phones and texting frustrating. He says that, in person, we can:
HE (on phone): “Make some headway and move forward.”
ME (sarcasm): “Is that the same as spendng time together and getting to know each other??”
Anyway! He’s funny.
I will, of course, keep you posted.
************
Meanwhile, have a great Friday, wherever you are in the world, gang!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
The plumber replaced the 2 heating elements on the hot water heater.
He said the unit is not going to last much longer and he gave me the numbers on a new one just so that I can start saving…
Then the whole unit blew a fuse, but he fixed it!
And now I have hot water again!! Until… well, we shall see.
Hope you’ve had a good Thursday wherever you are in the world!
I’m expecting things to be back to normal in the morning!!
Meanwhile, thanks for visiting!! And here’s Queenie!! Hanging out in the laundry room just now!🥰💖🥰
See ya!!
I don’t know if I’ll be posting today or not, gang.
The hot water heater is out and the tech has just arrived!!💖💖💖
