Well, gang! Today is mostly going to be about Abstract Absurdity Productions work, now that the budget proposal has come in and we need to start hiring key people, bringing other people onboard.

Plus, I am actually planning on getting back to work on that website, if you can imagine that!! I have already been in touch with a “happiness engineer” here at WordPress so that I can quit floundering and, honestly, I really am going to finish that darn site as soon as I can.

Which doesn’t mean that I’m going to set aside Letter #8 for Girl in the Night. It just means that I am going to make more of an effort to get that website finished, because, of course, now we need it.

(And I also have that new film editing software that I have still not figured out how to use and I need to know how to use it for the web site content. However, to be fair, I’ve only been quarantined here at home for over 3 months now, so God knows, there was absolutely no time to sit around, learning new software…)

Seriously, though, I am really excited with Abstract Absurdity Productions’ recent developments and I will be eager to update you all as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, Nick Cave sent out a Red Hand Files letter-thing today, about the lack of politics in his songwriting style. As usual, it was very well stated and was very interesting. You can read it here, if you so choose.

Yesterday (June 22nd) was Kris Kristofferson’s 86th birthday. If you do not know who he is, he was an amazingly intelligent Country songwriter, who wrote some songs that became monster hits for Country & Western singers in the early-to-mid 1970s, primarily. He also put out his own albums with his own songs on them, and they were popular, but his songs tended to become just huge hits for other singers.

One of my favorite albums of his came out in 1971, and it was titled, The Silver-Tongued Devil & I.

The songwriting on that album was very inspirational to me as a budding singer-songwriter throughout the 1970s. I played that record a lot. It’s not traditional “Country & Western,” the lyrics run much deeper. He’s more like the songwriters that were coming out of Los Angels in the late 1960s — a sort of Country Rock/Folk mentality. But Kristofferson was definitely embraced big-time in Nashville. (Although Janis Joplin had a huge rock/blues hit with his song “Me & Bobby McGee” before she died, and she was San Francisco-based.)

Some of his big hits for other singers include “Sunday Morning Coming Down” — Johnny Cash. “Help Me Make it through the Night” — every Country music singer imaginable. “For the Good Times” — Elvis Presley, along with many other singers. The list really just goes on forever.

It’s impossible to choose what would be my favorite song off that album because all of them are exceptionally well written, but I will leave you today with at least one of my favorites — this one was a hit on AM radio, at least it was in the part of Ohio where I lived back then: “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”.

I cannot imagine that he is 86 years old now, but I hope his birthday was happy.

And on that note, I’m gonna get some more coffee here and get the day underway. Have a terrific Tuesday, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for visiting, gang! I love you guys. See ya!

“Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”

I have seen the morning burning golden on the mountain in the skies
Aching with the feeling of the freedom of an eagle when she flies
Turning on the world the way she smiled upon my soul as I lay dying
Healing as the colors in the sunshine and the shadows of her eyes

Waking in the morning to the feeling of her fingers on my skin
Wiping out the traces of the people and the places that I’ve been
Teaching me that yesterday was something that I’d never thought of trying
Talking of tomorrow and the money love and time we had to spend
Loving her was easier than anything I’ll ever do again

Coming close together with a feeling that I’ve never known before in my time
She ain’t ashamed to be a woman or afraid to be a friend
I don’t know the answer to the easy way she opened every door in my mind
But dreaming was as easy as believing it was never gonna end
And loving her was easier than anything I’ll ever do again

© 1971 Kris Kristofferson