Okay, thank you!
You guys never cease to amaze me. And by that, I am referring to the Smashwords July sale that started yesterday, wherein a great big bunch of people downloaded my free titles, yet again, all day long and on into the wee small hours of this morning, and it continues…
And this sale has been going on twice a year, for years. (13, to be exact.)
My eBook titles there are really old, a lot of those short stories have been around forever (1992 is the earliest one), and it amazes me that there is anyone left who hasn’t and/or who still wants to read them.
So when the sale begins, and my inbox starts filling up with alerts that someone has downloaded one or more (usually all 4 titles), it is a really cool feeling.
So, thank you!!
Here is something else that has happened recently that blows me away.
Two entirely different but equally young people — one young man, a musician, in a very far away country who only speaks a little English, and a young co-worker of mine, a 23-year-old white woman who lives in a really pretty but incredibly small rural town — both listened to my song, “Where Do Dark Girls Go?” recently. Like, within the last 10 days.
This is a song I wrote in 1982 — I can do the math for you, that’s 41 years ago. And even though Peitor and I still intend to re-record all my favorite songs from my songwriting career and just release them online, it never occurs to me that people — young people, who were nowhere near being born yet when I was a folksinger in NYC — might still react to these songs the way audiences did in the old days.
And this was an 8-track demo these two young people were listening to (albeit, it was a demo that almost got me a record deal with Columbia Records), still the quality is just straight from my guitar player’s living room, over 40 years ago.
The young guy texted me and said, “This song is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. The whole world should be listening to this. Why have you not put it out there?”
And the girl, who was actually standing next to me by the espresso machine at the train station while she was listening to it on my phone — I just thought she might enjoy the song, but her whole body went erect and tears immediately came to her eyes. She said, “This is you? You wrote this? You have to put this song out there. You are like a goddess.“
These were not the reactions I had anticipated — I really thought maybe they would just like the song. But it was really interesting. People used to respond that way when I played in clubs, but that was a very, very long time ago, gang. Music has changed so much since then, that I really only think of it as my own private music now, that maybe a few older people would appreciate.
And regarding the girl, my co-worker– she is someone who is really struggling with life and I am always trying to encourage her, to give her hope that she can still have a beautiful life.
After she listened to the song, I showed her photos of Blaire that were also on my phone — the woman I had written the song for 41 years ago. The first one was of Blaire back in the East Village days when I was so much in love with her. We were both musicians, playing very different types of downtown clubs. And back then, she struggled with heroin addiction. This photo was taken in the very, very wee small hours of the morning, in my apartment back in 1985:
And then I showed her a current photo of Blaire, at age 63:
And the girl was astounded. She said, “Wow. So she got clean?”
“Yes. She’s been clean for decades. She’s a heavy metal guitar player in LA.”
It was very interesting — to me, in particular. To see the girl’s reaction to things that I was just sharing with her for what I’d thought was “no particular reason.”
The next day, the girl came in to work and said, “You’re more like a mother to me than my own mom has ever been. You always really help me.”
That just floored me.
Anyway. Here is the song. It used to be posted here on the blog, but that was a few years ago.
[“Where Do Dark Girls Go?” c- 1982, Marilyn Jaye Lewis, First of May Songs, BMI]
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Okay,
Simon Parkes had another update this morning that was really, really sobering and very good. You can only listen to it if you are a member of Connecting Consciousness, though. (It is free to join.)
His updates are similar to Phil’s, yet the differences are striking. However, Simon also says that the White Hat optics, worldwide, are now pretty much off the charts because people are just refusing to wake up. But he also agrees with Phil that this is all coming to an end very soon. (Simon also says that France is very close to the military declaring Martial Law.)
Other than that, though — other than the unbelievable noise and chaos all over the world — things are pretty quiet.
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From Ross K. Nichols – Messiah: Origins of the Anointed (42 mins):
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James Tabor – Death & Afterlife: From Homer to Plato–Overturning the World (47 mins):
All right.
Today begins my 4-day vacation for the 4th of July holiday. Naturally, about 50% of it will be spent working with Sandra on the play, but the other 50%, I intend to just do my own thing and relax!!!!
I hope you guys are having a great Sunday, wherever you are in the world.
I’m going to get started over here.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Marilyn's Room 