Tag Archives: Half-Moon Bride by Marilyn Jaye Lewis

Happy Memorial Day!

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If you live State-side, I hope you enjoy your Memorial Day in whatever way you celebrate!

Around here, people get in their campers and head out to the hills, lakes, peaceful places.

It’s not very warm today, but it’s really sunny. So that helps.

Beautiful Ohio!

If you’re a long-time reader of this lofty blog, you no doubt recall that most of the men in my family — going back to the Revolutionary War, served in the military and usually served in one war or another.

If I wasn’t working today (a double, no less), I would at least make a trip to the local cemetery. But it’s not happening today.

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Yes!

Yesterday was my “day off”! And I got a ton of writing done. Mostly on the play, for Sandra to go over. Then some work on the TV series. Obviously, there is still a ton of work yet to do, but I was able to fall asleep last night knowing that I had gotten a lot accomplished.

Today, I won’t be writing. Today, I’m focusing on just being present. And compassionate. And emotionally flexible. The client I have later today is the one who is in the facility and rapidly declining from extreme cognitive impairment. It can get extremely challenging. (He can get combative, physical, abusive. And you never know when he will suddenly get triggered and slip into that.)

The agency told me the other day that I could remove that client from my schedule if I wanted to, but I don’t want to. He’s the one that, when I first met him, I had the profound impression that I recognized him, that I knew him from somewhere, even though I didn’t. And then HE responded, upon meeting me, that he recognized me, too. Even though he is beyond being able to recognize people from his own family.

I feel that there is a higher connection there, though, you know? That we must recognize each other for some higher reason. This deterioration has got to be so frustrating, scary, confusing for him on some deep level. I don’t want to just abandon him. I don’t want to just walk away. I want to at least be present for him on this final path of his journey.

We’ll see how it goes.

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Also, yesterday–

Perhaps you recall that, several weeks ago, the little girls from next door wanted to sell me a bunch of drooping dandelions and dead flowers because they needed $5 to buy their mom a cake…

Well, they now come around sort of “weekly”. And other kids have joined the little group. They can’t be more than 7 or 8 years old. It’s hard to say. But they come to my kitchen door around dinner time on Sundays, and they have their usual bouquet of weeds….

But now I don’t take the bouquet, I just ask them how much money they need and what they need it for.

They usually ask for $2 (even if it’s all in quarters!!). And they need it for candy, or nail polish, etc. etc.

I happily give it to them and quietly hope that they aren’t buying drugs or anything (although the pot can’t call the kettle black on that score — but I was a little older than 7 or 8 when that started going on in my life!!) (I was 12.).

At this point, I’m sure their parents have no clue that they’re getting money from me all the time now. (And I have no clue, now, who some of their parents even are.) And since I never had children of my own, I feel like this is God’s way of letting me experience giving kids their weekly allowance money!! It’s too funny.

I am curious, though, where it’s going to lead, or end… And I’m guessing I’m getting a reputation in the village for not only being a crazy cat lady, but also for being someone who’ll just give you money — all you have to do is ask!

(I can’t help it, though. I absolutely love kids.)

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Okay, here’s this!

I love this photo!! The Rolling Stones!! They did “mod” like nobody’s business!

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And here’s one of the culprits in action!!

Bettie Jo shredding the chenille bedspread just now!! (This goes on ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT!)

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And here’s this!!!

Two more great random photos of Nick Cave from Instagram. (It’s hard to just sit here and wait for the next tour to start (June 10th — Buy tickets here!!), so I guess I’ll just keep posting anyway.)

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And that’s it! I gotta scoot!!

Enjoy your Monday/Memorial Day, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Wow!

Look what’s queued up on my playlist for driving to town!!

I loved this album when it first came out!! And when I put this record on my record player for the first time (a weekday morning, I was 17 and in high school), and when THIS SONG came on for the first time, everything in my entire being soared to the stratosphere!!

I immediately called the attendance office at the school, pretended to be my mother (who was at work) and called myself in sick for the day. I had to listen to this song repeatedly!! Everything else in the world stopped.

“Miracle Man,” by Elvis Costello. From My Aim Is True, 1977. Enjoy, gang!

“Miracle Man”

You never asked me what I wanted. You only asked me why.
I never thought that so much trouble was restin’ on my reply,
I could say it was the nights when I was lonely
and you were the only one who’d come.
I could tell you that I like your sensitivity,
when you know it’s the way that you walk.

[Chorus]:
Why do you have to say that there’s always someone
who can do it better than I can?
But don’t you think that I know that walking on the water
won’t make me a miracle man?

Baby’s gotta have the things she wants.
You know she’s gotta have the things she loves.
She’s got a ten-inch bamboo cigarette holder
and her black patent leather gloves.
And I’m doing everything just tryin’ to please her,
even crawling around on all fours.
Oh, I thought by now that it was gonna be easy,
but she still seems to want for more.

[Chorus]

I hear they’re givin’ you a bad reputation
just because you’ve never been denied.
You try to say you’ve done it all before.
Baby, you know that you just get tired.
Yet everybody loves you so much, girl.
I just don’t know how you stand the strain.
Oh, I, I’m the one who’s here tonight,
and I don’t wanna do it all in vain.

[Chorus]

c – 1977- Elvis Costello

Getting TOO glamorous around here, gang!

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Honestly, some day soon — I hope — I will be able to post to the blog all the details of everything that is just getting off-the-charts amazing around here! The news from Peitor yesterday about our TV project blew my mind!

And I’m really having to start to face the fact that I might not have a free moment of downtime for the next three years…

But in the meantime, all I can say is that I need WAY MORE than one day off a week… sadly, that’s all I’m getting this week, anyway.

So, I do have today off but today is all about typing my wee bonny fingers off.

Still, I don’t have to leave the house. Don’t have to drive to town. And it’s a beautiful holiday weekend around here, so I’ll take all the little perks I can get today.

And even though tomorrow is a national holiday, and even though I usually have Mondays off–

ME (thinking): No need to specifically request to have the holiday off, because Monday is my day off anyway.

AGENCY: “She didn’t specifically request to have the holiday off, like EVERYBODY ELSE did, so let’s just dump everybody else’s shifts on to her!”

Alas, too late…

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So, yes, the week ahead of me is going to be intense. But I am trying to find ways to just keep on moving forward.

Work, write. Work, write. Work, write. Repeat.

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Okay.

From James Tabor — and even though I am a member of his special research group, I was not on the zoom call yesterday because:

A. I had to work

B. I had to work

C. I had to work

D. All of the above

[The correct answer is, of course, B. I had to work.}

Is the Jesus Story Modeled after a Typical Hellenistic Divine Man Matrix (46 mins):

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And as you can see, I really have nothing serious to post about today!! And I probably should get focused on the revisions of the play that Sandra has been waiting on for, I don’t know, something like 5 days.

Then, of course, back to Episode 2 of the TV series project.

And if I am at all coherent this evening (I’m hoping I will be!!), I’m planning to re-watch this for the first time in about 40 years!! I just bought it on Amazon Prime.

I first saw this film in high school, when I was about 16 (less than a year after I was released from the mental hospital, which was probably the most precarious year of my existence). I was taking a class in filmmaking and we were studying the French New Wave. This film blew me away, gang, and sort of changed my life forever. After this, I saw every film Truffaut made. I have seen this film numerous times, but it’s been a long time since I last saw it.

The 400 Blows (1959)

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And on that note, I better scoot!! The evening will be here before we know it!!

Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!!

If you recall, not too long ago, I played this song for my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man. He had never heard it before and he loved it. Now, he asks me to play it at least once every time we are together.

Yesterday was no different. I played it for him on my phone, while we sat out on his back deck, surrounded by hundreds of green trees, flowers, many birds, some squirrels & chipmunks, a deer, and a big beautiful blue sky.

Louis Armstrong, “What A Wonderful World”. Enjoy, gang.

“I wonder how that great new schedule is working out for her??”

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Yessirree, gang!!

That great new schedule I have around here — the one that’s going to give me an extra hour at my desk on those mornings (like, TODAY, for instance) when I have to drive to town and go see a client but I have WAY TOO MUCH script-writing to get to around here….

YES!! So far it’s looking a whole lot like the old schedule.

Hmmm….

I am trying really hard to get out of bed and get started around here at something that resembles being within the realm of 4AM…

However.

I’m getting there. I’m at least lying there at about 4:07AM, eyes open, telling myself, “Marilyn, you gotta get outta bed. Now. People the world over need to see some PAGES.”

But the peculiar thing about my bed, which perhaps I have never mentioned here on the blog before, is that it is REALLY REALLY comfortable. It’s super soft and cozy, with bunches of fluffy pillows, and the all-cotton Portuguese sheets are, like, a 3,924-thread count…

My, no, SOMEONE’S actual bed…

This morning, though, I was really tired because I’d had some incredibly cute kittens racing around all over me last night — at several different times during the night.

But eventually I got out of bed. At my usual 5:09AM.

But what are you gonna do? Right? You just keep trying…

And the texts from Sandra and Peitor keep arriving.

At least when Sandra texts me, it’s just a text. When Peitor texts me, it’s on WhatsApp and the moment I’ve read it he can see that I’ve read it…

Meaning that a response is needed. In a reasonable time-frame. The old excuses don’t work anymore–

Sorry!! Too drunk to reply right now!!

Anyway!!

I confess. This morning is not really gonna happen. And after I see my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client today, I am meeting my girlfriend for LUNCH!! Yay!! An actual social obligation!! At Tequilaville!! One of my few remaining favorite restaurants. So the phone call I might be having with Sandra today regarding the play, at about 5PM, may or may not be super productive. But we shall see!

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Okay!

I saw this on Instagram yesterday. And I realized that if I could somehow maneuver myself into James Fox’s position at Keith’s dining room table there, I could probably get a whole lot of really great work done on my own memoir (which heavily features my adoration of Keith in my wee bonny girlhood)!!

Isn’t this a great photo??? Keith at work on his memoir, LIFE, from about 15 years ago.

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Here’s this from earlier this morning!

Kittens doing what they don’t do a whole lot of anymore!! (Sleep…)

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And here are these!!

More vintage Nick Cave. (The woman in France who posted these photos said that she will “never stop loving Nick Cave”. I’m guessing that I concur.)

And speaking of Nick Cave…

I think it was yesterday, but I am seriously losing track of the days here, but he posted a new Red Hand File, wherein he thanked everyone imaginable for such an incredible Wild God tour of North America. He said in part:

“I think of them all – The Bad Seeds, so deft, so expressive, so anarchic, so bloody awesome, and all I feel at this restless hour is a profound gratitude….”

You can read it in full here.

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Yesterday, I took my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man out to Peony Bistro for lunch, but you know what???

He wanted sushi!!

I guess hell froze over or something because he always, always, always wants sashimi. With sake. He still wanted sake, but he insisted, yesterday, that he wanted sushi.

And we did not have our usual waitress. We had a young Malaysian woman who tries really, really hard, but who nonetheless did not bring us exactly what we’d ordered. And I didn’t want her to feel bad so I didn’t say anything, but she brought us one order of the sushi lunch special — to split.

So. We did not get a lot of food, but at least we went out to lunch and we had a great time.

Oh! And, oddly enough, our fortune cookies had no irony whatsoever. None. Zippo. So I guess maybe hell really did freeze over yesterday. So I guess be on the lookout for random devils and demons is big puffy fur coats…

After lunch, though, when we were back at my client’s house, I showed him the trailer on YouTube for that show I’m currently watching on Netflix, “Samurai Gourmet.” I posted the trailer here the other day — it’s entirely in Japanese. Although the show itself has English subtitles.

Anyway, my client of course speaks fluent Japanese and he was actually chuckling quite a lot while watching the trailer!! It was really fun. It was clear, he really wanted to watch the show but he doesn’t have Netflix.

(Here it is again, in case you speak Japanese and missed it the first time. What a cool show! From 2017.) (2 minutes):

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Meanwhile…

James Tabor has a new (re-issued) book out that I just started reading, it is really good!! How Abraham’s faith in God underlies Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

And, yes, I’m still studying Chinese and French every day, too… so I am really just sort of off the charts around here.

But on that happy note, I better scoot, gang!

I need to sort of pull my head together here and then drive to town. It is actually quite lovely here today, so it should be a really nice drive.

Enjoy your Saturday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I know I’ve posted this here before, but, wow, gang! Every time this song comes on my playlist, every single cell in my entire being RELAXES. At last.

Andrea Bocelli, “Besame Mucho”.

Enjoy, gang!

Welcome to my new world!

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Jeepers, gang.

I knew this was coming — ALL projects would need 100% of my attention at the same time…

And here it is.

Not only that, but naturally, the agency increased my hours, too.

So I came up with a new schedule around here and it should work! Because, wow, gang– the new pages Peitor sent me yesterday for Episode 2 of our TV series project were really great! So, I’m excited!!

We have an outline for the episode already, but then he fills in dialogue and sends it to me. Then I put it all into the script and tweak it a little and send it back to him. Obviously the sooner I can get my end of it done, the sooner the entire episode will get written and sent off. Because we still have the whole pitch deck thing to finish and send off.

But then, also yesterday — another “wow”, gang! Sandra sent me the first 13 pages of the play, revised. It’s stuff we’d already written but she switched big sections of it around and wow, wow, wow!! It just flew off the page. It was just fantastic. For some reason, it just works so much better!!

So I have to reformat that, tweak it a bit, put it into the new script and send it back to Sandra. And then wait for the next chunk of pages from her.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Even then, once we are in the rehearsal studio in NYC, the dramaturge and the music director will also need to make tweaks and changes. But the primary script has to be ready ASAP because they need to see it before we’re all in the rehearsal studio.

“ASAP” is now my new name.

And of course I also have my novel from 1998 that I am re-working the ending of… which requires an intense amount of focus.

So my new schedule: Even though I am usually awake by 4AM, I now need to be out of bed as close to 4AM as I can manage, and not lay around until 5AM before I really get up.

Then I have to clean litter boxes, feed cats, feed myself, pack a lunch if it’s Thursday — which is now a TWELVE HOUR shift day for me!!! Good God… Take my shower. Then sit down at my desk and work until the absolute minute I have to head out the door and drive to town.

Then, as soon as I come back from my shift, if it isn’t Thursday, I am back at my desk until 6PM. Then have dinner. Then go back to my desk until about 8:30PM. Then give myself time to watch something cool on my phone before attempting to fall asleep with a bunch of incredibly cute 6-week-old kittens frolicking all over me…

I am currently watching this on Netflix. Another Japanese show, 12 episodes, in English Subtitles. From 2017:

Samurai Gourmet. It is exceedingly enjoyable if a little insane:

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Okay!

More good news.

This product works!! For the last year and a half, I’ve had the ear ringing thing that everyone seems to have nowadays, which is allegedly caused by overexposure to 5G Wi-Fi.

I take 30 mgs of Vinpocetine every day specifically for the ear ringing. I also take 1200 mgs of Alpha Lipoic Acid — for various other reasons, but it also helps decrease the ear ringing. But sometimes, the ringing is still just incredibly maddening, gang. Just off the charts. So I bought this — it’s homeopathic:

As with all homeopathic remedies, you have to wait a bit for it to really start working.

I used the drops 2-3 times a day for 2 days, and then this morning, the start of day 3, I awoke (yes, at 4AM with kittens all over me), and I realized my ears were just barely ringing!! It was incredible, the difference! I will keep you posted as the days go on.

I bought it at my local drug store, but you can get it all over the place.

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Okay!!!

From Warren Ellis’s Instagram page yesterday, Nick Cave and Warren at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, at the end of the Wild God tour:

Warren looks sort of A LOT more awake here than Nick does…

And this is unrelated, really, but back when Peitor Angell still lived in LA, he lived basically next door to the Sunset Marquis. Here is a photo I took of him at Christmas 2018, in the hotel:

Peitor Angell, Christmas 2018, Sunset Marquis

On that particular trip, he and I had such a fantastic time. That was when we officially created Abstract Absurdity Productions (now based in Nice, France)!!

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Here’s this, just because I love it!!! Vintage Nick Cave, 1992:

And from Nick Cave Official yesterday — All the Grinderman stuff is being released on vinyl on July 18th! You can pre-order them here.

And read all about it HERE.

The first Grinderman album was my favorite!!!

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And I think that’s it because I need to read over some pages from Peitor before I head out the door (for TWELVE HOURS!!!).

Enjoy your Thursday wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting!

I love you guys. See ya!

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Okay! I leave you with this!!

Just one of many great songs off the first Grinderman record!

“Go Tell the Women”. Grinderman. 2007. Enjoy, gang.

"Go Tell The Women"

We done our thing
We have evolved
We’re up on our hind legs
The problem solved
We are artists
We are mathematicians
Some of us hold extremely high positions

But we are tired
We’re hardly breathing
And we’re free
Go tell the women that we’re leaving

We’re sick and tired
Of all this self-serving grieving
All we wanted was a little consensual rape in the afternoon
And maybe a bit more in the evening
We are scientists
We do genetics
We leave religion
To the psychos and fanatics

But we are tired
We got nothing to believe in
We are lost
Go tell the women that we’re leaving

We done our thing
We’re hip to the sound
Of six billion people
Going down
We are magicians
We are deceiving
We are free and we’re lost
Go tell the women that we’re leaving

Hey hey
Hey hey
Come on back now to the fray
Hey hey
Hey hey
Come on back now to the fray
Hey hey
Hey hey

c -2007 Nicholas Edward Cave / Warren Ellis / Martin Casey / Jim Sclavunos

Everything’s Fantastic!!

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When was the last time you heard me say that, gang??? (I will give you a few minutes to let you go over your notes and find out…)

Okay! Time’s up!

The correct answer is: You have NEVER heard me say that!!!!

I cannot remember a moment in all of my many, many moments here on Earth wherein everything has been fantastic — at the same time.

But everything is actually fantastic today. And, no, I didn’t do any housecleaning yesterday. And, no, I did not go to the shooting range, either. I stayed at my desk and worked. And also did a little yoga — although not at my desk.

And let me just add that trying to do yoga while closed up in a room with 4 frisky six-week-old kittens and a curious Mommy-cat, is not entirely relaxing. For some reason, they seem inordinately fond of yoga mats and they constantly get underfoot…

Not us…but a reasonable facsimile

Okay.

While I can’t publicly go into everything that’s fantastic right now, I can say this: I heard back from the agent in Helsinki, who reps the Finnish actor that we are keenly desiring will take the role of the Finnish crime boss in our TV series– and she said that he read the script and is “interested in the project”!!!!

That alone sent me zooming to the moon yesterday. I cannot tell you how badly Peitor and I both want that guy to be in that role!! It is such a fucking out there character, gang!!

Lest you forget — his “theme music” in the final moments of the pilot episode (in slow motion, no less) (yes, please play it and please play it LOUD):

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In other incredibly fantastic news, although the “news” was just a very short sentence — it still gave my heart a whole lot of hope, gang.

If you subscribe to my substack page, you may recall that last year, I unearthed a novel I had written back in the late 90s and after reading it over, I came to the conclusion that I was crazy to let the opinions of others affect how I felt about that novel back then. Even though it had won 3 writing awards. Publishers did not want to be associated with it. I stored the novel away and thought I would never look at it again.

When I did look at it again (25 years later), I was astounded to discover that it was almost finished. I had remembered it as being maybe halfway done. But it was practically done and I had buried it away. A novel that meant so much to me. (Back then, self-publishing was very different than it is now — it was really expensive, for one thing. And very hard to promote. It just wasn’t a serious option.)

Anyway, I intend to publish it, after I nail down the ending. But my preference of course would be that a traditional publisher publishes it, instead.

It is an intense novel and it offended a lot of editors who read it 25 years ago. (It is not erotica although it has a lot of sexually harsh and graphic scenes in it.) If Henry Miller or Bill Burroughs had written it, and if Barney Rosset had still been publishing back then instead of being retired, the novel might have had a chance at a Pulitzer Prize….

The late, great Barney Rosset, who did technically publish me once — his company picked up the mass market paperback rights to Neptune & Surf and published it, although by that point, he had retired.

Okay, anyway.

Long story short, I approached a small press yesterday, asking if they would read it and maybe have an interest in publishing it. And they at least wrote back that they “looked forward to going over the materials” I’d sent.

What can I say?? To the moon and back, gang.

I know it’s not a lot, it doesn’t mean that the novel will appeal to them, either, but just the thought of that novel maybe seeing the light of day and not as something else I yet again have to self-publish… wow.

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Okay, so yes!! I have a lot on my plate. Oh, and Sandra called me at 5:30AM this morning! And you know what? I had just that moment woken up! I’d overslept!! Most people know I’m usually up and out of bed by 5AM, so they don’t hesitate to call me before dawn, but Sandra felt terrible that she’d called me so early and I was a wee bit incoherent….

Anyway! Yes, my plate is really full. But I don’t care! It’s all a big bunch of happy projects for me.

And tonight!! THIS:

Dinner with Kara at the Granville Inn!! And our friend Wendy might also be coming!!! I text Wendy pretty frequently but I haven’t actually seen her since last Fall. So I am super excited!!

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And I think that’s it for now. I gotta read over some pages Peitor sent and then get to a client.

Have a terrific Tuesday wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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In an unlikely turn of events — I have not only given the kittens first names, but this morning, I suddenly gave them the usual last name that I give most of my cats: “McGee”. Currently, I have McFees and McGees in the house. And these new kittens have joined the ranks of the McGees.

And when Bobbie Jo jumped up on my bed this morning, while I was sitting there having coffee — I realized that her full name is now Bobbie Jo McGee!!

Wow! So I immediately regaled her with THIS song in its entirety and she seemed to really like my singing, gang! Well, at least she stopped cold and stared at me very intently.

Okay. Enjoy this moment, gang: Janis Joplin, singing Kris Kristofferson’s timeless classic, “Me and Bobby McGee”. See ya.

Getting Our Ducks in a Row!

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I cannot decide what to do today, gang.

I really want to pop in at the shooting range but it is a cold and dismal day. Part of what I love about going to the shooting range is that drive over there — all back roads. All hills and trees and fields and cows. Hawks and the occasional eagle circling in the big blue endless sky.

I love that. Especially on my day off.

It’s just so gloomy today. Plus, I have a bunch of housecleaning that needs doing. So, part of me wants to just stay home and clean.

Still another part of me wants to forget about cleaning and just sit at my desk and write!!

Since Peitor is involved in scoring a film in Canada right now, I won’t be hearing from him today.

And — so far — Sandra doesn’t need me today, either. So I could just sit here and write….

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Here’s something you don’t often see around here these days — the kittens sleeping!!

And the 3 that have normal legs discovered — last night — how to get up on my bed and frolic around! It was so cute!!

But it was 1:28AM….

Oh, and lest me forget that I still have that family of amazingly adorable young cats that were abandoned left here by that young married couple a year ago…

One of them has learned a new skill! In the last 24 hours, THIS happened 3 times in the upstairs bathroom!!

(Yes, 3 complete jumbo rolls of TP in 24 hours because for some inexplicable reason I kept thinking he/she would stop doing it!)

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And we won’t even discuss THIS type of thing on 4 of my window screens….

Anyway.

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I had the coolest dream last night! It was so detailed and just so cool, so empowering. I can’t even begin to describe it. But the one thing I can easily describe:

Right before I awoke, I was singing the song below in the dream — every word of it. I hadn’t thought about this song in probably 58 years!! And I still knew all the words!

When I was a little girl in Cleveland, I used to sing this song in my bed at night. Really loudly, until my brother would shout “Shut up!” from his room across the hall…

Anyway. I took this song really, really seriously when I was a little girl. (I can’t even imagine what my parents were thinking, downstairs in the living room, trying to watch TV….)

But, I don’t know, gang — it seems like some sort of good sign that it came back to me all these decades later, in “a dream”:

"The Impossible Dream"

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage

To reach the unreachable star

c - 1965 - Mitch Leigh / Joseph Darion

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My life is at least interesting these days, if nothing else…

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Okay!

No Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds today. But here’s this again!! Just ’cause I love it:

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And other than that, I guess I will close this and just sit and try to figure out what I’m gonna do today.

I want to make good use of this wide-open day today, gang, because I have 6 shifts ahead of me this week (and every week after that, until I go to NYC). But I also have —

Dinner tomorrow night with Kara at the glorious Granville Inn!!

A late lunch on Saturday with my Q-following girlfriend at Tequilaville!!

So this week won’t be all about stress and work. But I still want to make today count for something.

Meanwhile, while I try to figure that out, enjoy your Monday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

Another great day in the Hinterlands!

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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):

My client’s dad, around 1930. Ocean City, NJ

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

“It seems like she never thanks God that it’s Friday. I just don’t get it…”

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Welcome to Friday, gang!

However. Around here, it is meaningless to me because, by Friday, I still have a ton of work ahead of me before I get something that looks like a day off.

This week, it will start on Sunday. Yay. And it won’t come a minute too soon.

Although Peitor sent me a THIRTY-FIVE page document this morning that I need to read over before we can proceed with the pitch deck for the TV pilot proposal.

So Sunday is looking a little less like a day off than I usually prefer.

But this is also happening on Sunday! Over at Metrograph.com!

“Join us on Metrograph at Home for the live streaming premiere of The Black Sea with an exclusive introduction and post-screening Q&A with filmmakers Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden and comedian Kareem Rahma (Subway Takes) this Sunday, May 18 at 8pm EST.”

I’m excited! The trailer looks really great (FYI- for $5 a month, you can join Metrograph at Home, otherwise, the theater itself is in NYC at 7 Ludlow Street):

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From last evening — a quick photo of Bobbie Jo, Calico, and a little bit of Billy Jo and Betty Jo, and Blackie, too!!

And, yes, I have to stare at them for a few moments before I can figure out what their supremely complicated names are…

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Oops! Just got a call from Sandra. Wondering if I am free over the weekend to do some quick editing…

But I am, gang. I am! It’s what I signed on for.

I’m just really hoping that I can get to the shooting range on Monday, because it’s been 2 weeks now and I worry that I’m losing whatever progress I made last time (98 bullseyes out of 100 bullets).

I want to get to 100 out of 100, so that I can start working on my speed. What good is being a gunslinger if you take forever to aim????

But at least I now have the appropriate attire!! ( See yesterday’s post about the new sundresses.)

(But seriously, I would never wear a sundress while practicing at the shooting range. Those bullet casings fly back at you and when they land on your flesh, even for a nano second, they are burning hot and leave blisters!! Not a look I’m really going for. Least of all, at my age, when I need all the help I can get in the overall “allure” department…)

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Anyway!!

Okay, I think these two fantastic photos were from San Francisco:

And here’s this — for the final gig of the tour, tomorrow night (buy tickets here):

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I know you are going to think that I’m utterly insane … but last week, I decided to start studying Chinese again.

I studied Mandarin for many years in NYC, back in the 1990s, and I was at what was called the “college level”. But since I have no access to a bunch of people who speak Chinese anymore, I have forgotten most of it. And that frustrates me.

So I still study my French every morning on the Mondly app, but then I follow it with Chinese. It’s coming back to me, in tiny bits and pieces.

I couldn’t find my favorite textbooks (I know they are stored here somewhere, I just haven’t found out where yet), so I bought this new textbook on Amazon. It arrived yesterday:

It is unbelievably complicated. So now more than ever, I want to find my old textbooks. But in the meantime, I am making progress, little by little. Between the Mondly app and this new unbelievably complicated textbook.

And this phrase comes in really handy! Funny how it stuck with me over the years:

我的中文不太好。(Wǒ de zhōngwén bù tài hǎo.)

Translation: My Chinese is not too good.

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And I guess that’s it for now. I have to get on my merry way. There’s a 94-year-old Japanese man 30 miles from here who’s expecting to open his eyes and see me, gang.

HE: “Marilyn! My angel!”

ME: “You wanna get up now? Your coffee’s ready.”

Enjoy your fabulous Friday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Yes!! You had to know this was coming, eventually!!!

This incredible song, written by Townes Van Zandt in 1972. Emmylou Harris knocked it outta the park!!

And, yes, I sang this song a lot in my days on the Folk Music circuit in NYC. I sang it as a duet with Frank Mazzetti (who is actually still out there singing, somewhere in NY. He was wonderful, gang, and he basically discovered me).

“Pancho & Lefty”. From Emmylou’s album Luxury Liner, 1977. Enjoy!!

“Pancho & Lefty”

Livin’ on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath’s as hard as kerosene
You weren’t your mama’s only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit, boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Well, Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
And nobody heard his dyin’ words
Ah but that’s the way it goes

All the Federales say
Could of had him any day
Only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

Lefty, he can’t sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty’s mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain’t nobody knows

Well, the poets tell how Pancho fell
And Lefty’s livin’ in a cheap hotel
The dessert’s quiet and Cleveland’s cold
So the story ends, we’re told
Pancho needs your prayer’s it’s true
But save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he’s growin’ old
A few gray Federales say
Could have had him any day
Only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose

c – 1972 – Townes Van Zandt

A Breezy Wednesday in the Hinterlands!

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I know — it looks like my apartment in Paris in the 1920s, but …

Wow. So this is a cool development, gang!

Already, my psychological stress level has diminished to the point where we had TONS of really intense thunderstorms here last night — which usually triggers my PTSD — and I breezed right through it!

I didn’t even flinch! I hung out happily on the bed with Blackie & the kittens and just kept watching my new absolute favorite show on Netflix:

“Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories”. From 2019.

I love this beautiful opening to each episode. I never skip the intro (2 mins):

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If you saw my post yesterday, about the new Guitar Player interview with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai …

I know I’m getting older now, too — Steve Vai is my age, and Joe Satriani is 4 years older.

However, I remember them so well from the 1980s when they both had HAIR!!! I miss that.

Joe with hair
Steve with hair

They have a new album coming out, in case you missed that part. And a new single, with Glenn Hughes on vocals. “I Wanna Play My Guitar”:

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And to be fair: Me in the 1980s, when I also had hair!

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Oh wow, gang!!

So I guess you probably saw that all the stuff about “Pope Leo IV” was just a mistake!! A cruel lie, even!!

Here’s the new Pope!!

Pope Keith I

And while I’m at it — here’s this!!

Brian, Keith and Mick, 1965 — I love this photo:

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And on the kitten front —

Here’s something I bought that is a lifesaver!!

I was worried about using the vacuum cleaner anywhere near Blackie & the kittens because they are closed up in my room and cannot escape the scary noise.

This works great!! I’m so glad I bought it. Cat litter, cat hair, pieces of my chenille bedspread that the kittens have discovered is really fun to shred!! GONE!

I can actually sweep the entire upstairs in under 4 minutes. And it also works on uncarpeted floors, too. (Here’s a link on Amazon if you want one.)

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Okay, it looks like Cave Things is having a 40% Off sale on all prints!

My favorite is in stock AND 40% off, so if you need my address, just GOOGLE it!!

(Don’t use the Spring Garden St. address in Easton, PA, though, because I have not lived there in 20 years!! And someone other than me will receive this treasured item!!) (And, yes! It’s on sale now for a mere $245 plus a zillion in shipping fees!! I eagerly await its arrival, so thank you!!)

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And another photo from the show in Vancouver:

Tonight, they play San Francisco. Saturday, they play the festival in Pasadena. And then the tour is OVER!! Buy those final tickets here.

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On a happy note–

Next week is a big week for me, gang. On Tuesday, I have been invited to have dinner at the Granville Inn by my dear friend Kara!

And then on Saturday, after my midday shift, I’m having lunch with my favorite Q-following friend, at our favorite haunt — Tequilaville!!

Here’s a less warehouse-y looking shot than the one I usually post:

And here’s what it looks like inside:

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And that is it for now, because I gotta scoot!!

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, I know. But we’re still on the Emmylou kick around here, and I can’t help it!!

Here’s the song she wrote in memory of Graham Parson’s after he died — and his body was burned at Joshua Tree:

“But, to fulfill Parsons’ wishes, Kaufman and a friend stole both a hearse and his body and drove it to Joshua Tree. At Cap Rock Parking Lot, they poured gasoline into the open coffin and lit it, creating an enormous fireball. They were arrested and eventually fined $750.00, for stealing the coffin. “

At that point in time, Emmylou Harris was a backup singer for Graham Parsons. Afterward, she became a huge success on her own.

I definitely used to sing this song in my sets on the Folk Music circuit in NYC.

The beautiful “Boulder to Birmingham” from 1975. Enjoy, gang!!

“Boulder To Birmingham”

I don’t want to hear a love song
I got on this airplane just to fly
And I know there’s life below
But all that it can show me
Is the prairie and the sky

And I don’t want to hear a sad story
Full of heartbreak and desire
The last time I felt like this
It was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire
And I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn
I watched it burn, I watched it burn.

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.

Well you really got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing I’ll survive.
I have come to listen for the sound
Of the trucks as they move down
Out on ninety five
And pretend that it’s the ocean
coming down to wash me clean, to wash me clean
Baby do you know what I mean

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.

c – 1975 Emmylou Harris, Bill Danoff

Happy Mother’s Day!

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What a glorious day it is today, gang!!

Not just flawless weather!! BUT —

I also got plenty of sleep last night. Wow!

Around 2 PM yesterday, when I was still with my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man, the agency began texting and calling me, and practically harassing me to work a longer evening shift last night than I was scheduled for.

And I said repeatedly that I absolutely could not and would not do it. I was already completely exhausted at 2 in the afternoon… It got intense.

However–

ME: “If you can find someone who wants to work my whole shift and they can also work later, then I’ll give up the shift.”

YAY!! It worked!! They finally found someone.

As I was driving the 30 miles home from my Japanese man’s house, they called and said that they didn’t need me to work the shift and they thanked me for being willing to give it up.

It’s SO FUNNY how, when I arrived at my house and got out of my car on a truly splendid Saturday afternoon and realized I had the night off ….. I suddenly wasn’t tired anymore. At all. Not even one little bit. I had a great evening!!

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A very Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful birth mom, Cherie!

Here she is with my Uncle Jim, in Greenfield, Ohio, somewhere around the time I was born. I love this photo! It’s straight outta yesteryear:

I loved my Uncle Jim so much. I only got to know him for a handful of years before he died, but — as I have posted here before — he was the one who helped me find my birth father.

I remember so vividly one evening, right when I first met him (and my birth mom), he took me aside in the kitchen and whispered in urgency to me: “I don’t know who your father is, but if I did, I would tell you. I swear it. I don’t care what the others say, I would tell you.”

From the moment everyone found out my mom was pregnant with me, she steadfastly refused to ever tell anyone who my father was. I have one of those heartbreaking birth certificates that reads: Mother, age 13. Father, unknown.

My Uncle Jim was in his hospital bed, dying, and he unexpectedly called me on the phone.

HE: “I just found out who your father is.”

ME (in my dark, hellhole apartment on E. 12th Street , the phone to my sweaty ear): “Oh my god…” as my voice trailed off into profound and utter gratitude to the entire universe. At last.

Anyway, I loved my Uncle Jim. It turned out that he also had an illegitimate daughter that few people knew about. Because while he was married to my Aunt, he was not allowed to have anything to do with her. Even though his daughter lived right there in their little town. And even worked in the only grocery store there, and so he would see her all the time — watched her as she grew up– but wasn’t allowed to speak to her. Or she to him.

But the moment my Aunt died, my Uncle bought a brand new Cadillac and went and picked up his now fully-grown daughter and drove around town with her right there in the front seat –letting the whole fucking town know, finally, that she was his.

It made the rest of my family crazy, but I thought it was so incredibly cool!!

I was still a folksinger back then, and of course I wrote a song about it. I only remember part of the chorus:

In this car of my old man’s / we’ll run as fast as the racing wind

It was through his daughter that my Uncle Jim found out who my father was, because she had gone to school with my mom.

Anyway. I digress!

Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful birth mom, Cherie!!

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And speaking of fathers and of father figures, etc. Here’s this!!

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And on another equally lovely topic here’s this, from the Mission Ballroom, but I can’t remember which city that was.

And it looks like they blew the roof off in Portland last night, gang! It looks like it was such an amazing show.

There are only 3 more regular shows left of the tour and then one show at a festival. 2 of the shows are already sold out, but you can buy tickets here for San Francisco and the festival in Pasadena!

(I’m not positive but I think they’ve added one final show to the end of the tour, but it’s here in Crazeysburg and the house venue only seats one and that ticket is sold out…)

Anyway!!!

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Okay!

I was crazy kind enough to pick up someone’s shift today because they wanted to have Mother’s Day off, so I gotta scoot!

But enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Wow, gang. So after yesterday’s post with the Emmylou Harris song, I went on an all-out Emmylou Harris kick around here!

I can’t tell you how much I loved her, gang. She’s not dead, but she doesn’t make records anymore. And it was so cool to bring out all the old memories and sing along.

Her voice was absolutely right in my key, so I included a lot of her songs in my sets when I performed on the Folk circuit in NYC.

Anyway. Here’s this morning’s breakfast-listening music!

This goes out to the man I love!! He knows who he is!!

This is for all the hotel rooms in the world that we will never have!!! I love you, bambino. Enjoy your beautiful day, wherever you are right now!!

“I’ll Be Your San Antone Rose”

If they’ll play another love song
And if that Miller Hi-Life sign stays dim
And if you’ll keep my glass full of whiskey
I’ll whisper words I wish I’d said to him

Just ask me to dance all the slow ones
Hold me close and take me ‘cross the floor
I’ll gently lay my head on your shoulder
And pretend this never happened before

I don’t want to hear a sad story
We both already know how it goes
So if tonight you’ll be my tall dark stranger
I’ll be your San Antone Rose

I wish I could tell you I love you
I wish that he weren’t always on my mind
If wishes were fast trains to Texas
I’d ride and I’d ride, how I’d ride

c – 1977 Susanna Wallis Clark