Tag Archives: Nick Cave Red Hand Files

Good Morning, Good Morning!!

May 28, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Yes, I am up! I’m outta bed!!

And — NO!! — it wasn’t anywhere near 4AM.

It’s seems like 5AM is the best I can really do right now. So why fight it??

Okay, gang. Things just get better and better. Even though I had to wait 3 HOURS (!!) at the Honda dealership after my shift yesterday, so basically my entire day was a washout…

I did get a very quick update yesterday from the small press that has agreed to read my unpublished novel from 26 years ago, The Curse of Our Profound Disorder, with an eye toward perhaps publishing it — and she said that just after having read the opening sentence of the novel, she was VERY interested. [Her caps, not mine.]

This still doesn’t mean a “book deal” — she’ll have to read the whole thing. But it made me feel fantastic, gang. (When her email came through, I was up to my eyeballs, trying to find out why the nurse hadn’t come to see my client last FRIDAY to see if she had a UTI. And we needed someone to come out and see her ASAP. The last time she had a UTI, she was in rehab for over a month.) Anyway. Many phone calls. Trying to be polite. Not wanting to bite anyone’s head off because I know everyone, including the quite comely but rapidly aging moi, is so fucking busy right now…

Anyway. The mobile urgent care was on its way as I was clocking out.

So that email just made me feel so happy, gang.

And then, while sitting for an eternity in the Honda waiting room… the Agency texted me and said that the wife of my client who’s in the facility with deep cognitive impairment issues, can no longer afford us so he is no longer on my schedule, at all.

Even though it’s a difficult situation for his family, and I really like him, that news suddenly and quite wonderfully freed up FIVE HOURS of my schedule, indefinitely!!! Yay!!

Because I of course received many many WhatsApp texts from Peitor yesterday, needing me to look over many many edits on Episode 2. (And I did finally get to sit down at my desk last night, after dinner. And the edits were GREAT.)

And I’ve decided to start illegally acquiring Adderall in order to get all of this stuff — revise a novel, revise a play for Off-Broadway, write a television series — DONE! Yay!

[I am, of course, totally kidding. Who the fuck has time to be addicted to Adderall right now??]

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Okay!!

Here’s this!!

Yesterday, I discovered a playlist of ALL my favorite songs from 2024!! So I thought, hmmm, and I hit the play button and drove off to town.

Wow, so bittersweet. So amazing. Most of the songs were the songs I’d listen to while driving back & forth to see my dad last year, during the final year of his life.

When THIS song came on, my heart hit the moon!! I immediately remembered how much I not only LOVE the sound of Johnny Depp’s voice, but this song, specifically, means so much to me. I loved Jim Carroll so much. He was such a big part of NYC for me in the 1980s.

The Hollywood Vampires’ version of “People Who Died”. (Song written by Jim Carroll, who, as fate would have it, died.)

I don’t really know what Johnny Depp is up to. The last I saw on Instagram was this (not smoking, but at least drinking…so, yay!):

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And here’s this!!

Just coz I’m not sure how he thinks we’re supposed to wait 14 more days before he goes on tour again for 912 months… (most shows are sold out already, but buy tickets here!!) Another personal fave photo from my desktop stash!!

And speaking of Nick Cave…

He sent out a quick Red Hand File yesterday, wherein he revealed that he and I have only ONE movie in common on the “favorites” list. He chose Living In Oblivion as the “movie that makes him laugh”.

[I love this movie, gang. I have seen it I don’t know how many times!!}

Anyway. You can read Nick’s favorite films in various categories HERE.

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From James Tabor — A Young Christian Believer Asks Dr Tabor Four Questions about Paul (47 mins):

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And that’s it! I gotta scoot and drive 30 miles to see my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man!! We’ll be going out for either sashimi and sake, or sushi and sake today. We’ll see what he decides.

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!

Our new Daily Feature continues!

Gifts Keith Richards gave me when I was a wee bonny girl!!

Wherein I regale you with “songs Keith loved, that he would talk about in an interview in some magazine, and then I’d go out and try to find the record and then buy it with my babysitting money, and then I’d listen to it alone in my intense little room, playing it on the portable record player that my dad bought me, and the song would change my life. “

Today’s selection!!

Hank Williams, “Honky Tonk Blues”, 1952. Enjoy, gang!!

“Honky Tonk Blues”

Well I left my home down on the rural route
I told my Pa I’m going steppin out and get the
Honky tonk blues,
Yeah the honky tonk blues
Well Lord I got ’em,
I got the ho-on-ky tonk blues.

Well I went to a dance and I wore out my shoes
Woke up this mornin wishin I could lose
Them jumpin honky tonk blues,
Yeah the honky tonk blues
Well Lord I got ’em,
I got the ho-on-ky tonk blues.

Well I stopped into every place in town
This city life has really got me down
I got the honky tonk blues,
Yeah the honky tonk blues
Well Lord I got em,
got the ho-on-ky tonk blues.

I’m gonna tuck my worries underneath my arm
And scat right back to my Pappy’s farm
And leave these honky tonk blues,
Yeah the honky tonk blues
Well Lord I got ’em,
I got the ho-on-ky tonk blues.

c – 1952 – Henry B. Glover, Shep Sheppard, Bill Doggett, Billy (usa) Butler, Clifford Scott

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

May 24, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

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…

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–

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!

“You know how they say things can change overnight?”

May 13, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis 2 Comments

Just unbelievable, gang. (Regarding the news from yesterday.)

I still have the same pile of work to do, but now, just knowing that I am going to be able to retire at some point and (most likely) spend the twilight years of my illustrious life, sitting at my desk, writing…

Wow. It is a dream come true for me. It makes everything that’s going on in the here and now totally bearable.

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I don’t want to spend too much time talking about my relationship with my adopted dad on the blog, because it is going to be in my upcoming memoir (Joy: The Shortest Season) and I would, of course, prefer that you bought that!!

However, I do believe that my dad has been with me since the moment he died, and I think he was the one who “told” me to email the lawyer’s office and ask them for a copy of my dad’s Will. (This was at 4AM yesterday morning, when I’m not usually in bed on my phone, writing emails to lawyers.)

As you can imagine, it has changed my outlook on everything. I had been getting so unbelievably exhausted and depressed — that feeling that I was going to be exhausted forever. And never be able to stop working. Never be able to sit and write again… (My own stuff, I mean. Not the play or the TV show. I want to do those, but I want to do my own stuff, too.)

Anyway! Things can certainly change overnight.

Me, this morning. YES! Good news made my hair go back to being brown…

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Okay. Here’s this! Two incredible guitar heroes in one interview!!

(No, they have nothing to do with the novel I wrote [purchase here!!], but I do absolutely love both of these guitar heroes)…

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai discuss the SatchVai Band with Guitar Player Magazine (40 mins):

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And on a completely different topic– More from a deep dive into the Book of Leviticus!

Ross K. Nichols – Who’s the Neighbor You’re Supposed to Love? (56 mins):

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And here’s this!

From Seattle last night!

And you know what that means, right?

Only ONE MORE regular show left — tomorrow night in San Francisco. And then the gig at the festival in Pasadena on Saturday. And then the tour is OVER. Buy tickets here.

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Nick Cave sent out a Red Hand File yesterday. Another one about how people get his and Nicolas Cage’s names confused! Nick Cave said, in part:

“…Then Diego started crying again. I was about to explain that he’d made a mistake and mixed me up with the actor, Nicolas Cage, but he looked up at me with such a pitiful mixture of tragedy and wonder that I didn’t have the heart. “She just loves you, man,” he said. Then he asked me about my acting career. I said something like, “I’m just an ordinary person like you. Hollywood is not all it’s cracked up to be. It can be a cruel place. It gets lonely sometimes,” and so on…”

You can read it in full HERE.

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On the home front —

I planted two more wonderful rose bushes yesterday!! Right underneath my kitchen window. Roses are my favorite flower (followed closely by lilacs) and I am so happy to now have 3 rosebushes.

BTW — here’s the song that the Emmylou Harris song from the other day, references! The Texas Swing classic, “San Antonio Rose”! It was originally composed by Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, 1938. But it is sung here by another full-on favorite of mine: Merle Haggard!!! 1970. I love this version!!

And Peitor and I got some great work done on Episode 2 of the TV series proposal yesterday. So that felt great, too.

Other than that, I gotta scoot and head out to my shift now!!

Have a terrific Tuesday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Yes! Emmylou goes on and on and on around here!

Here are some words to live by!! (And sort of my life story in my 20s, if you switch the West Coast for the East Coast!!) From1978, “Two More Bottles of Wine”. Enjoy, gang!!!!

“Two More Bottles Of Wine”

We came out west together with a common desire
The fever we had migtha set the west coast on fire
Two months later got trouble in mind
My baby moved out and left me behind
But it’s all right ’cause it’s midnight
And I got two more bottles of wine

The way he left sure turned my head around
Seemed like overnight he just up and put me down
Ain’t gonna let it bother me today
I been workin’ and I’m too tired anyway
But it’s all right ’cause it’s midnight
And I got two more bottles of wine

I’m sixteen hundred miles from the people I know
Been doin’ all I can but opportunity sure come slow
Lord I’d be in the sun all day
But I’m sweepin’ out a warehouse in west L.A.
But it’s all right ’cause it’s midnight
And I got two more bottles of wine

c – 1975 – Delbert Ross McClinton

And It Begins Again!!

May 7, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

I’m seriously hoping, gang, that nothing went wrong at the dentist and that my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man has teeth again!!

I’m planning to FINALLY take him back here for sashimi and sake today, if all went well!

We shall soon see! (And it also means a trip back to the incredible restaurant at the golf club will be right around the corner!!)

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Okay, I am officially extremely tired here but I am so excited about developments with the TV Pilot package, and I’m over the moon with what’s happening with “The Guide to Being Fabulous” and the women who are working with us, helping to get the staged reading to the Off-Broadway stage.

It is such a thrill for me, gang. Not just to be finally taking it to NYC, but the fact that this will be the version of the play that is true to Sandra’s life. The professional caliber of the people getting onboard makes me feel pretty confident that people will finally get to see the play as Sandra and I have been envisioning it for so many years.

I can’t tell you how much this means to me. After 11 years.

A rarely seen photo!! Back when Sandra and I first started working on the play!

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The kittens this morning!!!

And way in the back, there (a close-up of Wee Bonny Billy’s eye!) —

They no longer hang out in their playpen at all. And they scamper all over the room — even Wee Bonny Billy, with his 2 lame legs. I now have to look down at my feet at all times, so as not to step on anybody.

They are too cute, gang.

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I started watching this show on Netflix last night and I love it!! From 2019, in Japanese with English subtitles: “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories”. Here’s the official trailer:

I also started watching this film on Metrograph, but I am only halfway through: “Leonor Will Never Die”.

So far, I love it. The plot is incredible. As an aging woman writer, it really gives me something to think about.

It’s a dramedy. From the Philippines. This is the plot:

“Leonor Reyes was once a groundbreaking figure in the Filipino film industry during its ragtag action cinema glory days, but now she struggles with old age, mounting bills, and the untimely death of her son. While revisiting an unfinished script about a fearless protagonist trying to avenge his brother’s murder, Leonor is struck on the head by a falling television set and knocked into a coma. As she lies unconscious in the hospital, fantasy and reality begin to blur when Leonor finds herself awake inside her script, becoming the hero of her own story.”

Here’s the trailer:

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Here’s another photo of Nick Cave in Kansas City the other night!

They play Denver tonight! You can buy tickets here!

And Nick Cave sent out a really beautiful Red Hand File yesterday morning, giving spiritual advice to a young woman whose father recently died. He said, in part:

“I suspect your father will hear your words, but I do not know. At the very least, by acknowledging the sacred and mysterious nature of things, these words will impact the general condition of the world, not to mention your own injured heart. I believe we must take our subtle spiritual intuitions seriously and view them as the quintessence that underlies the ordinary world. The rejection of the sacred is the fundamental reason for our existential discontent. “I love you” and “I am sorry” spoken into the universe are two sentiments forever worth declaring….”

You can read it in full here.

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And I think that’s it for now!

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

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I never play music when I have a client in the car, because I need to pay 125% to my driving.

But if I were going to play music today, while heading out for sashimi, it would be this!! A great song for driving on a sunny day!

I’ve posted this song here many times, but it is such a classic!! France Gall, 1964, “Laisse tomber les filles” !!! Play it loud and try really hard to stick to the speed limit. Okay! Enjoy, gang. (Remember: No dancing while the car is in motion.)

Okay! Back to Work!

April 29, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

But what a great couple of days off it’s been around here, gang.

More great feedback yesterday on our pilot script, this time from a European producer. (If I may quote just one line of his email: “I absolutely loved it.”)

AND — great feedback from Wayne! He liked this version better than the first draft he’d read.

Yes, Peitor asked me to give Wayne a copy of the revised script, so I did. He was really busy but when he finally got a chance to read it yesterday morning, he texted back his various thoughts and all of them were good! So, yay!

I also sent Wayne a photo of my target practice from yesterday at the shooting range.

Wayne texted back last evening that someone owed him some money and when he showed the guy my target practice from the shooting range, the guy said that he’d pay up, pronto — “Thanks, Marilyn.”

I found that so funny.

Anyway!

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The weather report for Columbus on Friday — and now, also on Saturday! — continues to be absolutely lousy, gang.

Obviously, it doesn’t matter what the weather is outside while the Bad Seeds are inside onstage, but I really hate driving to (and from ) Columbus, just in general, but I also really hate driving anywhere in the rain.

Here’s hoping that just being with Kara will be enough fun to make the rain and cold temperatures unnoticeable. But I still think it sucks…

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Yesterday evening, I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready, chatting with all the crazy cats who follow, quite exuberantly, every move I make in every room I’m in, when one of the little girls from next door was suddenly on my kitchen porch, tapping on my screen door!

A visitor!! I never have visitors!!

Not only a visitor, but she had a little fistful of “flowers” — mostly bedraggled dandelions, but there was a pretty iris in the bouquet, and a couple of wilting parrot-tulips.

She wanted to know if I would buy the bouquet!

ME: “How much do you want?”

SHE: “$5. I want to buy my mom a cake. But it’s a secret.”

She was so cute. She’s only about 8 years old and she was clearly very proud of her fistful of bedraggled little flowers…

And it’s been a REALLY long time since anyone brought me flowers (although I didn’t ever have to pay for them in the past, but still, beggars can’t be choosers).

And since, for some long-forgotten reason, I knew I had a stack of $5 bills stored up in my room….

So I came back and gave her TWO 5-dollar bills and she was absolutely thrilled. It was so fucking cute!!

And, yes, I put the flowers in a vase full of water, dead dandelions and all.

And, NO — I didn’t do it as a sort of pre-planned bribe to get her to persuade her mom to adopt a kitten come June….

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Okay!!

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds played Chicago last night and it looks like it was just off the charts, gang (even though, rumor has it, that Nick Cave called it Detroit…):

But he also sent out a great Red Hand File yesterday, clearly stating that he knew he was in Chicago last night!

But, seriously, it was a great Red Hand File — basically a love letter to the whole world. You can read it here.

You can buy tickets to tonight’s show in Chicago (and tickets for other shows for the rest of the tour) HERE.

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And that’s it. I gotta scoot!

Have a terrific Tuesday, wherever you are in the world (Chicago, Detroit — you name it; have a terrific day!!).

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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For obvious reasons, I leave you with this gem , performed live in 1972!!

The Rolling Stones, “Dead Flowers”. From their classic album, Sticky Fingers, 1971. Enjoy, Gang!!

Wow, what day is it??

April 14, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis 1 Comment

Correct!! Monday! Which means I’m off to the shooting range!

And I am really, really, REALLY trying to use creative visualization here this morning so that I can simply show up at the range and not have to ask for help with — yet again — loading the fucking bullets!

Once they’re in the gun, I seem to be okay!! (I’m also hoping for 50 out of 50 bullseyes today!! We shall see, gang.)

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Okay, if you follow Simon Parkes, be sure to listen to his update from yesterday.

(If you aren’t a member of Connecting Consciousness, you can join HERE — it’s free. You can’t listen to Simon’s updates without being a member.)

His updates agreed with what Phil has been reporting recently (regarding tariffs, gold, silver, etc.), but I have to say that Simon gave more detailed information and I found it very, very interesting (and really good news for many countries around the world, not just the US).

Also, Phil is supposed to be live again tonight, at 7PM Eastern time. Check here later to confirm.

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Some sort of sad news — Blackie’s little grey kitten has some issues with her back paws. One of them is sort of like an underdeveloped club foot, but the other didn’t develop at all. It’s sort of like a tiny dead little paw.

So either it will be missing both back legs as it gets a little bigger, or it will have 3 legs, with one of them deformed.

So I’m guessing we’re keeping the little grey one, and choosing a name for it soon, and giving it a lifetime of LOVE.

On we go, gang.

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I follow Metrograph (a NYC indie movie theater) on Instagram but I only found out yesterday that for $5 a month, you can watch their movies online in the US (and/or get a discount on tickets for watching movies in the actual theater in NYC).

On their website, they also have interviews, columns, essays — exclusively about independent films, both domestic and international, past and present. Check it out below to see what’s currently playing online and in the theater, or read the great online Journal. They’ve got some great films:

Metrograph

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As luck would have it, Nick Cave just now sent out a new Red Hand File — all about what he was doing & thinking about yesterday morning in a little town in Pennsylvania!

It’s another short one. You can read it HERE.

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And don’t forget!

TOMORROW! In Boston, the Wild God tour gets underway in North America!! Followed by a show in Brooklyn on Thursday, April 17th. BUY TICKETS HERE!

And you know what this all means — that in 18 days, Kara and I will be driving to downtown Columbus to see them at the Palace Theater, and staying overnight, HERE!!!

Yes, I have an alert on my phone to remind me to pack the tickets!! They’ve been stuck on the front of my fridge for something like 6 months already…. the envelope is covered in big black exclamation marks (!!!) and arrows pointing to the name “NICK CAVE” so that I won’t forget to bring the fucking tickets!!!

And I still don’t know what I want to wear. Kara always looks incredibly amazing, so it’s better to dress down than to try to outdo her. She still smokes cigarettes and drinks more espressos per day than you can shake a stick at, so she weighs about 1 pound and everything looks great on her!!

Kara, one Saturday afternoon, when we went to the movies last Spring!

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Okay, I guess that’s it for now. I need to proofread the work I did on Act 2 of the pilot script yesterday and send it off to Peitor. Then, after I come home from the shooting range, work on the revisions of Act 3.

We’re getting there, gang! Only half of Act 4 needs revisions, and none of Act 5, so we are seriously, almost there!!

Enjoy your Monday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys! See ya!

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I thought this was appropriate today!

Since it’s apparently going to take Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds two days to get from Boston to Brooklyn, I figure that they must be walking there…

So, once again, the Beastie Boys classic, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”. 1986. I love this fucking song!!!! Enjoy, gang.

“The more, the merrier, I suppose.”

April 9, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis 1 Comment

Well, this post will mostly be about our new family members. And a little about Nick Cave.

I have to say, gang, the little playpen is fantastic — and much roomier than I thought it would be. Little Blackie seems to love it in there — it’s safe, and she can still see everything around her. And it’s a lot warmer than being outside right now.

It basically puts itself together — you pull off an elastic band and it SPROINGS! right into shape.

It was such a relief, gang. because it got so cold again last night and I did not have to worry about them at all. (They are set up right next to my bed.)

So it turns out there are 4 kittens — not 3. There was a little grey one that I couldn’t see inside the dark cat house filled with straw.

But this is a good thing! Because you never want to not have enough kittens to try to find homes for….

We’re thinkin’ we might wanna move that guitar…

Anyway. All things considered, I am really happy with how this turned out. I will just take it day by day.

And the neighbors, who brought over the cat houses in the first place, are really excited so maybe we will get these kittens adopted somewhere really close to home. (And — NO! –I am not going to secretly bring their daughters in to play with the kittens & fall in love… that just wouldn’t be right…)

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I will just say this quick thing about the pilot script, because I can’t really post the details on the blog, but Peitor and I got some FANTASTIC feedback yesterday from one of the producers he met at Series Mania in Lille, France.

As it becomes appropriate, I will fill you in!

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Nick Cave sent out another Red Hand File this morning, that was rather heartwarming!! There were apologies all around. If you read yesterday’s post — well, the woman who wrote to him and went off on his income, wrote and apologized. (I’m wondering if she will ever recover from having her bile spewed internationally?) Anyway you can read it in full here. (It takes about 3 seconds…)

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And I think that’s it!

Its chilly but really sunny today. If it warms up a bit, I will likely take my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client to Geller Park. I’ve taken him there before, but it was before all the dogwoods were in full bloom. He loves it there. But because of his wooden leg and his cane, we really can only just sit on a park bench close to the car and look at everything. But the park is built on ancient Indian burial mounds (2000 years old). I used to live a block from there and went there all the time. It is such a fantastic park.

Okay. Enjoy your Wednesday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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On this very day, 44 years ago, Chong Foun Kee and I got married at City Hall in downtown Manhattan!! We still wish each other “Happy Anniversary” on this glorious day. Even though we both kinda go “WOW” as the years continue to keep on coming.

Anyway! During our first year of marriage, this song came on the radio one afternoon when we were in our apartment in the Camelot Building — where we lived, a block from Times Square — and he turned up the volume and dedicated it to me. (We both found this very amusing.)

So, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond — “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, 1978. Enjoy, gang!!

Oops! Not Today!

April 7, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

The shooting range sent out an email yesterday, saying that the range is CLOSED today for cleaning. So. Darn.

Here’s hoping that I won’t have forgotten everything by next week, when I’ll have time to go to the range again. (You’re probably wondering why it is so difficult for me to remember how to load the darn bullets! But it is. Especially since each time I go in there, they give me a different gun. The simplest part is so hard for me!!!)

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Okay! Today’s mini feature:

What’s wrong with this picture??!!

That’s correct!! NEVER knit around people who are cleaning guns!!!

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Meanwhile, Peitor and I got great work done on revising the script yesterday and so we will just continue in that vein today.

I have a new policy around here — my work day doesn’t end until 6PM, seven days a week.

So this means that even when I come home at 3 or 4 PM and am completely emotionally wiped out, I still have a couple of hours to sit at the laptop and work on the script.

Because we really, really need to get this done. And now, of course, Peitor is back in the South of France and so there is once again a 6 hour difference in our time zones.

Not to mention, a difference in our views:

Peitor and a friend on the terrace, overlooking the Mediterranean

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And THIS is arriving tomorrow:

It’s a kitten maternity room for Little Blackie and her new kittens. Because they really need to come indoors and I can’t risk exposing the tiny kittens to all the many curious cats in here — all of whom Little Blackie has a history of attacking.

So Blackie and her tiny newborns will be kept in there — and you can see that the litter box house is attached! I’ll let her come out when I’m home, but she really just wants to stay close to her kittens right now, anyway.

I’ll probably end up putting it in my room, still farther away from all the other cats. We’ll see how it goes!!

BTW, you can also use this to take your pets camping with you! Here’s the link in case you’re interested.

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Well. Nick Cave sent out an AMAZING Red Hand File just now!! It was just great — and this time, he wasn’t too hard on himself! I really loved it. It was in response to a fan thinking that he (and other “celebrities”) are paid “shit tons of money” for what they do, when other people who provide services are paid less. (She sounds a wee bit Neo-Marxist…)

Anyway, he replied, in part:

“Your letter felt a little ungenerous and seemed to contain a corrupting resentment – that kind of indignant, moral posturing where we blame others for our feelings of powerlessness. Resentment – that bitter cup of gall is not good, Carol, not for your heart, not for your soul, not for your digestion, not for anything….”

You can read it (completely and totally for FREE) here.

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Okay. I guess that’s it for now.

I gotta finish the laundry and then get back to work on the pilot script.

Enjoy your Monday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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James Tabor begins the countdown to Good Friday!

Last Days of Jesus Pt 1 (4 mins):

One of those great mornings!

March 26, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

A little chilly, but SUPER sunny! And my shift today is with my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man!!

I never, ever know what lays ahead when I first enter his kitchen each morning, but without fail, the journey he and I undertake together (mostly to the past) winds up, by the end of my shift, being astounding.

I always learn something new about him, of course, but also about myself, and usually about life, in general.

He was married twice — first, to a young Japanese woman, who was studying piano at Julliard when they met in NYC in the mid-1950s (she was friends with — an as yet unknown — Yoko Ono, and so the 3 of them would have lunch together in Greenwich Village!! You know, how cool is that?). They ended up having 4 children together — 2 in NYC, and then 2 more were born when they lived in Tokyo. One of the children, a son, very, very tragically died several years ago, but from that son came 4 grandchildren.

He was then married a second time, late in life — to a Latvian woman whose family came to the US as refugees during WWII. This second wife was the absolute love of his life. The house is still full of her essence, her world, her photos, her books, her music & movies. She seems like she was a really wonderful woman, full of life.

She passed away 6 years ago, but they were together for just over 20 years. I’m bringing all this up, because my client believes that this wife, her spirit, is what brought me into his life. And I tell you what, gang — I feel that way, too. I really do. I always smile and quietly say hello to her every time I let myself in through her kitchen door.

Anyway! Wow. I digress!

All I was really going to say is that it is a great morning over here in the Hinterlands.

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Nick Cave sent out a Red Hand File yesterday morning that was very interesting. It was one of the few RHFs that I didn’t agree with — mostly because I thought he was being too hard on himself. But also because I think it is up to each individual to discover what the purpose of his or her life is.

But it was still really interesting. It dealt with dividing one’s focus between being an artist, and having a spouse and family. He said, in part:

“You wonder whether this is a mental illness. I believe it is. The artistic impulse is an exquisite derangement – like drugs, like love, like faith, like grief – a complete and full-force commandeering of the body and the heart. It is a kind of possession, a thrilling seduction, an enchantment, as the ink and paint flow and dance. So demonically exhilarating is this sensation that we think – “This must be the purpose of life!”

But, John, it is not….”

(You can read it in full here.)

Basically, I don’t agree with anything he said there. But it did give me a lot of interesting things to think about, in relation to my own life as a writer.

If you are a loyal reader of this lofty blog, then you no doubt recall that I really, really wanted to have children when I was younger. But I went through 2 marriages to men who either did not want children or couldn’t have children, and this was really, really hard for me to come to terms with.

I did come to terms with it over time, because, in hindsight, I know I would have been a terrible mom. My writing meant everything to me — whether it was my songwriting, or my fiction writing. And I would have ended up being really short-tempered and tightly wound most of the time because i would have wanted to give my all to ALL things. But more importantly, I would have wanted my privacy. Constantly. My own world to write in.

If you’ve ever read Virginia Woolf’s classic essay, A Room of One’s Own (1929)– about how “a woman must have money and a room of her own to write fiction.” I read that book in 1983 and it has continually rung true for me throughout my life — needing a room of my own (i.e. “Marilyn’s Room”). Throw the reality of caring for children into that mix, and my mind probably would have exploded. I would have wanted to give 100% to all things, and it can’t be done.

Anyway. I enjoyed reading that Red Hand File very much because it gave me a lot to think about!

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Okay! I gotta scoot!!! BUT– before I scoot!! Peitor is getting some very interested responses to our TV series pitch over there at Series Mania in France! So we will have a ton of work to do when he gets back early next week.

Meanwhile.

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

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I love this photo!

Sort of like “destiny awaiting me”! Times Square in 1960 — the year I was born!! (I lived a block from here for a couple of years in the early 80s, during my first marriage.)

A quick Saturday hello!

March 22, 2025 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Lots of little things have happened this week — and, oddly, almost ALL of them were good!

Tomorrow I will have time to do a longer post about all of it. But I’ve got to dash out here soon, to go spend the day with my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client! And then — two whole days off!!

Yay!

And — yes! — on my days off, I will be spring-cleaning the remaining rooms of this house with my beloved Bissell powerbrush-pet carpet shampooer!!! Double yay!!

AND — going here:

So.

Peitor will finally be at Series Mania in Lille, France, beginning this evening. He had a horrible time in Montreal, a horrible time in Iowa, a truly horrible time in Los Angeles, then a quick but horrible time in London… so here’s hoping, now that he’s back in his beloved France, he will stop having horrible times.

Here is a very, very brief synopsis of our TV streaming proposal, in case you’re interested (this is printed on the back of a sample photo collage, below):

“Fresh Paint is a one-hour screwball-dramedy streaming series about Dewitt Lawson’s search for the meaning of his own life, while the world as he knows it is caving in on him. Having had the great misfortune of reaching age 46 with everything having always worked out perfectly for him, Dewitt Lawson is suddenly faced with the fact that he possesses no skills whatsoever to navigate the snowballing problems of the art house film company he recently inherited from his father.

It also appears that from his love life to his spiritual life, everything that once worked for Dewitt now falls flat – has he lost his magic? Feeling stranded and abandoned, Dewitt must repeatedly learn how to remain one step ahead of catastrophe – and the Finnish Mob – while saddled with a bevy of culturally diverse, cross-generational characters, ages 22 to 85. By enrolling each of them, and their unique and often colorful survival skills, Dewitt just might get the company – and his life – to turn completely around.”

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Nick Cave sent out a really, really beautiful Red Hand File yesterday, specifically about his song “Skeleton Tree,” written just after his son Arthur’s death. He says, in part:

“…When I wrote ‘Skeleton Tree’, I could not perceive any hope in the song at all. It was a vacuum, all nihilism and void. Listening to it now, years later, I can hear its insistent beauty loud and clear. The echo is not empty, Russell, not in the slightest – we call out, and given time, the echo comes back bearing the entirety of the world.”

You can read it in full here.

And don’t forget!!

In just about 3 weeks, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ North American Wild God Tour begins!! Buy tickets here!

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That’s it for now, gang. But I will return tomorrow!!

Enjoy your Saturday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!

This popped up on my “frequent plays” while driving on the backroads into town yesterday. It was a really beautiful, sunny spring day! And it was sort of wonderful to revisit my wee bonny youth while driving in the Hinterlands at age 64 and a 1/2 (this song was a smash hit when I was 10) — and marveling at the thought that the Rolling Stones can no longer sing this song in public!! (Marxist woke-ism, gang).

Okay. Enjoy!! (oh, and play it LOUD!)