Wow, gang. What a beautiful day! And I have the entire day off …
Which means that I’ve already done 2 loads of laundry and I have a TON of reading to do before I call Peitor and we work on the TV pilot promo stuff later today.
Still. It is a day off from driving hither & yon, taking care of people.
But speaking of people that I take care of–
I had such a great time yesterday with my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man. We stayed in all day because the wind was beyond belief yesterday afternoon. But he had a great day, clarity-wise, and we talked a lot about so many things, especially about his dad, who also had an incredible life.
Here is a photo of his dad, from around 1930, when he was already retired but during the summer months, he ran a stall on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. This was right at the time my client was born (his dad was 60 years old when my client was born):
The Ocean City boardwalk as it looked in 1930 (it is not too far from NYC, where my client was born):
And how about this incredible old hotel in Tokyo?
The Imperial Hotel, after it had a “face-lift” done by Frank Lloyd Wright:
My client and his father would frequent this hotel when they moved back to Tokyo in the 1930s. (The hotel has since been completely renovated and relocated and is now a Marriott, if I’m not mistaken.)
I have these photos because, when my client and I talk about “the old days”, I usually try to find photos on my phone of things he remembers from the past, so that he can “re-live” them a little bit more. His short-term memory is not great, but his long-term memory is phenomenal and I just like to keep him using his mind as much as possible when I’m with him.
The photo of his father is not from the Internet, though — it’s sitting out in the living room.
His father was wealthy, and when he moved back to Tokyo prior to the war, he had an enormous traditional Japanese house built that has since become a museum in Tokyo (!!). Just after the war, when the US military occupied Japan, American military officers (and sometimes their wives) occupied most of the rooms in the house. The family got 5 rooms — and the given officer and his wife would get 12 rooms!! (And the family had almost NO food, while the Americans had plenty.)
Anyway.
Another thing that blew me away — there was an American family that my client first lived with & worked for (ie. “Japanese houseboy”) when he first went back to NYC after the war, at age 17. This family was really, really good to him. They were instrumental in getting him trained to be a TV repairman, so that he could go out on his own, and they also helped him get into NYU to become an electrical engineer.
Anyway — we googled the wife of that family and she died in 2012, at age, 93, and she had 28 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren!!!
I was flabbergasted by that!! That would have been my dream, gang. To have a really, really huge family like that.
Anyway. Yesterday was really nice.
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Also, yesterday — the Bad Seeds’ Wild God Tour of North America came to an end!
About 99.9% of the images on Instagram, from the show at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena, were videos. And I wasn’t really crazy about the few photos I could find, but here’s one:
And it looks like Nick Cave is taking a HUGE 3 and 1/2 weeks off, before he starts his solo tour (with bass player) of Europe throughout June, July, August, and September!!
27 shows, gang, and almost ALL of them are already sold out. Literally.
Curiously, though, his show in Rome, Italy, on July 22nd still has tickets available. I’m guessing this is because it’s my 65th birthday and most of the people in Rome will probably be home, dedicating some sort of birthday shrine to me, but I’m not completely certain about that.
Anyway, we’ll see!
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Oh! Speaking of shrines to me…
More print book and eBook sales have posted in the various stats today!! Thank you, everybody. I really love seeing that.
I love that people are loving The Guitar Hero Goes Home — I really do appreciate that so much because I love that novel. But what really just makes my little heart beam to the moon and back, is when the original print edition of Neptune & Surf appears in the “Best Sellers” ranks, as it did again today.
Even though it’s ranked at #303,826 in Erotic Literature, it still means that somebody somewhere BOUGHT it! After 26 years since it’s original printing.
It had 6 editions over the years, in both English and French, and sold something like 100,000 copies overall (for literary erotic fiction, that is almost unheard of — and that doesn’t count when the entire book was illegally put into a torrent and downloaded for free by game boys, worldwide, about 10 years ago), but I never lose sight of how hard I worked on that first book of mine (it took me 4 years to write it), wondering if it would end up getting published and/or if anyone would ever buy it…
I gave up my songwriting career to sit at my desk and write that book and everyone I knew thought I was nuts to do that.
And I loved — so much — that Richard Kasak, the original publisher of the book, gave it such a non-sexual cover!! It meant that women, especially, could openly buy it in bookstores and easily read it on public transportation. It didn’t scream “SEX”. (Even though the book is completely 100% hardcore erotica.)
Anyway, gang. That made me so happy.
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All right, gang, I guess I better get moving here. The coffee’s all gone, the laundry is done, and I have a TON of reading to do here at breakneck speed!!
Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world!!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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No, I just can’t help it.
I always go back to Tom Petty eventually. I cannot stop loving him, even all these years later.
Breakfast-listening music!!
His totally Midwestern American coming-of-age ode to smoking weed!! Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”. 1993. Enjoy, gang. I sure did!
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance”
She grew up in an Indiana town
Had a good-lookin’ mama who never was around
But she grew up tall and she grew up right
With them Indiana boys on them Indiana nights
Well, she moved down here the age of eighteen
She blew the boys away, was more than they’d seen
I was introduced and we both started groovin’
She said, “I dig you baby, but I got to keep movin’ on
Keep movin’ on”
Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m tired of this town again
Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told
You never slow down, you never grow old
I’m tired of screwin’ up, tired of going down
Tired of myself, tired of this town
Oh, my my, oh, hell yes
Honey, put on that party dress
Buy me a drink, sing me a song
Take me as I come ’cause I can’t stay long
Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m tired of this town again
There’s pigeons down on Market Square
She’s standin’ in her underwear
Lookin’ down from a hotel room
The nightfall will be comin’ soon
Oh, my my, oh, hell yes.
You got to put on that party dress
It was too cold to cry when I woke up alone
I hit my last number, I walked to the road
Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m tired of this town again
c – 1993 Tom Petty
Marilyn's Room 