I don’t know about you, gang, but I slept great last night.

Part of it was because of the weather. Part of it was because I knew I had another day off today (yes– the Agency has texted me 3 times already to pick up shifts on my days off, but I have declined all of them).

Most of it, though, is because I’m getting such great work done on the novel-in-progress, The Curse of Our Profound Disorder.

Even though I managed to take a walk yesterday, do yoga, and listen to another lecture in the course about Protestant Reformation, I was still able to get 6 hours of work done at my desk on the novel.

To me, that’s heaven.

And during dinner, I started to watch this — I’m about halfway through:

I follow one of the producers of the film on Instagram and she posted something about the film yesterday, so I started watching it.

It’s a documentary from 2016, that pretty convincingly proposes that Sid Vicious did not kill Nancy. That basically the NYPD didn’t want to waste time investigating a death involving a bunch of junkies.

It’s a sad movie, but it’s really good:

“Sad Vacation is an up close and personal account of the tumultuous and stormy relationship between Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen and how it ended in Room 100 of the Chelsea Hotel. This films pulls no punches and reveals the facts through personal friends, insiders and witnesses. Includes interviews with Sylvain Sylvain (New York Dolls), Bob Gruen, Walter Lure and many more.”

Trailer:

Next movie up, will be this one:

Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders

From 2019:

“Famed rock and roll guitarist Johnny Thunders arrives in New Orleans to attempt to put his life back together after a battle with addiction, but instead, a series of events propels him deeper into chaos.”

It didn’t get great reviews, but I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while now, since I really loved everything about the NY Dolls — the good, the bad, and the ugly. So I decided it will be next in line, finally.

Trailer:

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And here’s this–

I loved these guys!

I was so sad when River Phoenix died. It’s one of those days I’ll never forget, actually.

My Own Private Idaho (1991) is one of my all-time favorite films.

I pretty much loved all the films Gus Van Sant has made.

Many years after “Idaho”, I found myself working in the home office of Gus Van Sant, Sr. (Gus’s dad), at a time in his life when he and his wife were living in Ohio. I got the job solely because I was a writer from NYC, and I was friends with the woman who cut Gus Sr.’s hair out at his golf club.

I didn’t ask for the job, he simply asked me if I wanted to work for him, because he needed help at the office.

It turned out that Gus Sr. was Gus Jr.’s Business Manager, so I learned a lot about the business end of film financing at that job. But beyond that, Gus Sr. was an incredible man. Unbelievably kind and supportive. One afternoon, the subject of River Phoenix came up and Gus Sr. said to me: “We all had dinner one night, while they were filming ‘Idaho’. And that young man was very troubled.”

That was all he said and it spoke volumes.

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Anyway.

Here’s this!

More shots on Instagram from the new Dior “Sauvage” campaign. However, you know the rules, gang — if he’s not smoking we can never be 100% positive it’s really Johnny Depp. It could be a body double. Heck, it could be AI for all we know:

(And this reminds me — when are we going to be able to watch “Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness” on Amazon Prime in the US??)

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And here’s this!

From outside the Baden-Baden show the other night — Nick Cave and an automobile!

And TOMORROW!!

Nick Cave’s Solo Tour of Europe with Colin Greenwood on bass begins to come to a close! 2 back-to-back sold out shows begin in Luxembourg, and then the tour is over.

(But see yesterday’s post about what is up for Nick Cave on Sept. 23rd!)

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And that is it, I think.

I want to get back to the novel. I am really excited to see what hits the page today!

And FYI, I printed out that Kerouac quote I posted yesterday and I taped it to the wall in front of my desk. And it really, really does just keep making me smile, gang. I feel like the spirit of Kerouac is really in there, cheering me on.

BTW, the quote is taken from a story in a collection of his unpublished works that came out in 1999 — Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings:

“It includes writings from Kerouac’s high school years, poetry, short stories, essays and other previously unpublished works. “

If you’re too young to know what an Underwood was , it was a popular brand of typewriter. I have since ordered the book! I can’t wait to read it.

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And that’s that!

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

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this! Breakfast-listening music!!

Still on a Monkees kick around here, but we are up to their 3rd album — another great one! The Monkees — Headquarters (1967). It was a #1 Album on Billboard and it went double-platinum.

This was the first album of theirs that I was able to buy with my own money. My Aunt Sylvia gave me a birthday card in the summer of 1967 (also known historically as The Summer of Love!!) that included a 5 dollar bill in it!! Wow, was I excited! Back then, you could buy record albums for under $5. So I bought Headquarters for myself, for my 7th birthday.

This song was amazing back then — and really appropriate, politically, for 1967 — and it’s kind of even more amazing now. All politics aside. A real gem, written by the famous songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

“Shades of Gray”, 1967. The Monkees. Enjoy, gang.

“Shades of Gray”

When the world and I were young
Just yesterday
Life was such a simple game
A child could play

It was easy then to tell right from wrong
Easy then to tell weak from strong
When a man should stand and fight
Or just go along

[Chorus]
But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray

I remember when
The answers seemed so clear
We had never lived with doubt
Or tasted fear

It was easy then to tell truth from lies
Selling out from compromise
Who to love and who to hate
The foolish from the wise

But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray

[Instrumental Break]

It was easy then to know what was fair
When to keep and when to share
How much to protect your heart
And how much to care

But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray

[Outro]
Only shades of gray

c-1967 – Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil

Technically, we still have about 2 more weeks until summer officially ends, but wow, gang. Summer is like gone around here.

Down into the 40s Fahrenheit every night now. Furnace is on in the mornings. Leaves are starting to change color and fall to the ground (or all over my car, depending on where it’s parked).

In the afternoons, it still gets up into the 70s, so it’s really nice. But at the same time, it no longer feels like summer at all.

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Okay.

Not much to post about today, because I am still in that really weird mood — not depressed, really, but just sort of dumbfounded by how fast time flies and how everything just keeps changing and changing and changing.

I know it’s supposed to be this way, but for some reason, ever since my dad died, everything feels sort of pointless. As if — why do things happen at all if everything is just always changing?

And yet underneath it all, is the current of things that constantly stay the same. For instance, my coffee mug here on my desk right now: A souvenir from Chicago, when I took a trip there with Mark Pritchard in 1999…

THAT stuff doesn’t change, but that also dumbfounds me — how can this coffee mug be 26 years old already???

It has moved with me seven times!

Everything important changes — like the homes and the people and the cats who were with me in them — but the coffee mugs stay the same…

Honestly, stuff like that is all over my brain these days.

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And speaking of everything changing–

Here’s this.

The no-longer-with-us David Johansen in his glam rock period:

Richard Hell (of the bands Television, and the Voidoids)– who is, miraculously, still alive. In NYC, in 1977:

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And here’s this!!

While we wait for the 2 sold out shows in Luxembourg next week (9/10 and 9/11), which will signify the end of Nick Cave’s Solo Tour of Europe with Colin Greenwood on bass!

From my desktop stash!

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From James Tabor– more from the upcoming New Testament Conference, online at the end of the month..

Did Jesus Really Do Miracles? Dr. Dale Allison Weights In (39 mins):

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And that’s all.

I want to take a look at the novel-in-progress before Sandra calls to discuss the play. And then I’m heading out for my shift with the retired Minister and his lovely wife (and probably a couple of episodes of “Love Boat” and “Daniel Boone”, if all goes as it usually does).

Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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And here’s this!

Enough said.

Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, with their classic, “Time Changes Everything” from 1940. Enjoy, gang.

“Time Changes Everything”

There was a time when I thought of no other
And we sang our own loves refrain
And our hearts beat as one as we had our fun

But time changes everything

And when you left me my poor heart was broken
Our romance seemed all in vain
The dark clouds are gone and there’s blue skies again

Yes time changes everything

The time has passed and I have forgotten you
Mother Nature does wonderful things
I guess it is true for me and for you

‘Cause time changes everything

Oh you can change the name of an old song
Rearrange it and make it swing
I thought nothing could stop me from loving you

But time changes everything

So good luck to you and may God bless you
I can’t say we won’t love again
You have gone your way and I’ll go mine

‘Cause time changes everything

c – 1940 Tommy Duncan

Yes!

My very FIRST holiday, since starting to work for the Agency one year ago, where I actually have a holiday OFF!

(I cannot believe I have been working for the Agency for a year already.)

And tempting as it is to invite some old-style grandparents over and have a cookout (as pictured above!)… instead, I am going to be working on The Curse of our Profound Disorder all day today. I am almost finished with it, gang!!

In fact, today, I am starting at page one and reading/revising up to what I’ve written so far, to see how it’s flowing, and then, from there, it won’t be long until it’s complete. Only took 26 years…

This was me, yesterday. After working on the novel, I started getting ready for my shift and I happened to glance in the mirror and I thought: Wow. I actually look like a non-stressed human being.

That is rare for me. So I took my picture:

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Okay.

I’ve already got the laundry underway. And, later, I’ll do yoga. Then listen to another lecture in the course I’m taking about the Reformation (15th-16th Centuries). We are up to Christian Humanists and Martin Luther (early 1500s), so I actually want to re-listen to that lecture — there is so much to take in.

Also, long-time readers of this lofty blog perhaps recall that my ancestors in Germany attended this Protestant church in Alsenz in the 1600s:

It is still an active church. And there are still birth, death, and marriage records of my family in their archives, including birth records of the brothers who left Germany and came to America. (Late 1600s.)

This region is less than 200 miles from where Martin Luther was born and died (although he lived a few other places in between).

My point is that I feel certain my extended family has to have been aware of what Martin Luther was achieving during the Reformation — while it was happening. So, even though I’m not a Lutheran, I just find the whole era extremely interesting.

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Okay!

Other than that — and a phone call I’m expecting from Wayne this afternoon, all I’m going to do today is focus on the novel and it feels really incredible. To finally have time to focus. (And also knowing that a publisher is waiting to read the finished manuscript.) (But I think I will have Wayne read it first before, eventually, sending it off.)

So I’m feeling like today is just a real gift.

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All righty.

Here’s this!

From Instagram — from the long ago days when it was always easy to know for sure when you were looking at a picture of Johnny Smoke Depp, because he was always smoking!!

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And here’s this!

I saw this photo yesterday, after I posted to the blog about Patti Smith and Jim Carroll. (And a photo of myself playing CBGBs, in the mid-1980s — I was known as” Marilyn J.” back then.)

If you aren’t aware of the profound impact CBGBs had on the club scene in NYC and on bands from the 1970s, that have since become legends, here’s a short list!

Patti Smith
The Ramones
Television
Blondie
Talking Heads
The Dead Boys
The Misfits
The Dictators
The Cramps
Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
The B-52’s
Mink DeVille

Even though I didn’t write or perform music in that genre, by the time I did play CBGBs in the mid-80s, it was back to hiring other types of music. (CBGB stood for Country, Bluegrass, and Blues.)

Anyway.

Here’s the guy who made it all happen. First, by opening CBGBs and then by letting punks play there, even though he, personally, didn’t care much for punk music, which was why he eventually added OMFUG to the title of the club (Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers.).

Hilly Kristal. He was a true legend among musicians on the Lower East Side. And he was still very much around in the days when I and most of my freinds were playing gigs at CBGBs.

It turns out that Thursday (8/28) was the anniversary of his passing:

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Okay.

This was interesting.

Posted last night– does he mean this current holiday weekend, or the upcoming one?

From il donaldo trumpo:

WE’RE GONNA NEED WAY MORE POPCORN THIS WEEKEND!!!😎🇺🇸🍿🍿🍿

Phil also dropped a comm, this morning at 2:51AM, but I can’t usually de-code Phil for the life of me. This one seems to have something to do with “batter up”. Anyway. Something’s up. Check the link for the video.

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And here’s this!!

While we wait 3 more days for Nick Cave and Colin Greenwood to resume their tour with 2 sold out shows at Baden-Baden, Germany…

From my desktop stash!!

And don’t forget! On sale now!! Only 4 months away…

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And I think maybe that’s it for today!!

Enjoy your Labor Day if you live State-side, otherwise, have a happy Monday wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!

My favorite 95-year-old Japanese client was very much influenced by the guy below, back in 1953. In fact, my client even took a break from attending NYU’s Engineering School, to attend a very small Methodist college in Kansas and study for the Ministry, after attending one of Billy Graham’s talks at a church in NYC.

He and I listened to this on Saturday —

Billy Graham — Put God First (46 seconds). Enjoy, gang!

So far, so good.

Bobby and Freddie are still doing great, post-surgeries.

The sky is blue, the corn is still green (although farmers are starting to harvest it now around here).

I’m getting some good work done on completing The Curse of Our Profound Disorder.

The bills are paid for another month. And we say goodbye to August today.

Although I actually had to turn the furnace on this morning. The furnace — in August! If that isn’t geoengineering, I’m not sure what is.

But you know, I much prefer having to turn the furnace on, over so much heat and humidity that I can’t think straight and my poor cats start dying…

Anyway. It’s a good morning here. And I have a few hours to myself before I head out for my shift with the retired Minister and his wife.

And as of right now — I have 3 days off this coming week, so I’m really, really hoping to maybe even finish The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. Or at least get really really close.

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Oh!

And here’s this.

Some cool photos of one of my absolute all-time heroes, Jim Carroll.

An original cover of the 1st edition of The Basketball Diaries (1978) (this was a fantastic book, gang. If you’ve never read it, you should!!):

“It is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen. Set in New York City, they detail his daily life, sexual experiences, high school basketball career, poetry compositions, the counterculture movement, and especially his addiction to heroin, which began when he was 13.”

And this photo of Jim with his good friend, Patti Smith:

And if you never read Patti’s memoir, Just Kids, you should read that, too!! It is mostly about her relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe, but there’s some great stuff in there, too, about her early days in NYC being freinds with Jim Carroll.

The book won the National Book Award in 2010. And this LINK is Patti talking about her feelings around writing the book on its 15th anniversary of publication. (9 mins.)

And PS: Patti Smith is one of the key people who literally saved my life back in 1975. She was just starting to become known outside of NYC and CREEM Magazine did a fantastic article about her and her upcoming first album, Horses.

I read the article in CREEM while confined to the mental hospital, after my first suicide attempt (in 1975).

As fate would have it — I had just become familiar with Patti Smith as a playwright and a poet. She’d co-written a play with Sam Shepard, “Cowboy Mouth“. And I had bought a copy of this book, Mad Dog Blues & Other Plays (1972) —

— just prior to being put in the mental hospital. I was already very fond of reading plays, and I had bought the book for 10 cents, when the public library in Columbus was having a used book sale.

The very moment that I was informed I was being committed to a mental hospital and to “get in the car NOW”, I grabbed any books I could find in my room, and Mad Dog Blues was one of them. So I read it while in the hospital, and I was blown away that a GIRL (!!) had actually written that incredible play with Sam Shepard, and some of her poetry was included in the book, and her poems blew me away, too.

So when I read the article about her in CREEM, I couldn’t wait for her album to come out. She just wasn’t like any other woman out there back then. And it gave me great hope that someday, I, too, would actually somehow, someway get to NYC and be a singer-songwriter.

(How it turned out: Me in NYC, at CBGBs about 9 years later — being a singer-songwriter in NYC.)

Patti literally gave me something to believe in and to live for back then (when I was 15). And when her album, Horses, came out — WOW, was I blown away by that, too!!

If you are not familiar with the album, try this song — and imagine being a deeply troubled 15-year-old girl, stuck in Columbus, Ohio, alone in your room and hearing this at a time when most “girls” in the music industry were absolutely nothing at all like this. Just, WOW:

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Okay!

Here’s another photo from Johnny Depp’s new Dior campaign:

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And I am currently watching this on Metrograph:

“Whisky” from 2004, an award-winning Uruguayan tragicomedy. I just started watching it, so I’m not too deep in, but the cinematography and the music are just gorgeous.

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Also!!

As we wait the remaining 5 days for Nick Cave and Colin Greenwood to resume their tour in Baden-Baden, Germany, here’s this!

“Shivers,” 1979. The Boys Next Door. (I absolutely NEVER get tired of this song and it DOES keep me from contemplating suicide, and it gives me yet another reason to be glad I’m still here.)

“Shivers”

I’ve been contemplating suicide
But it really doesn’t suit my style
So I think I’ll just act bored instead
And contain the blood I would’ve shed

She makes me feel so ill at ease
My heart is really on it’s knees
But I keep a poker face so well
That even mother couldn’t tell

But my baby’s so vain
She is almost a mirror
And the sound of her name
Sends a permanent shiver down my spine

I keep her photograph against my heart
For in my life she plays a starring part
All alcohol and cigarettes
There is no room for cheap regrets

She makes me feel so ill at ease
My heart is really on it’s knees
But I keep a poker face so well
That even mother couldn’t tell

But my baby’s so vain
She is almost a mirror
And the sound of her name
Sends a permanent shiver down my spine

c – 1976 Rowland S. Howard

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Okay.

From James Tabor–

What Do We Really KNOW About the Historical Jesus? An In-Depth Conversation with Dr. Justin Sledge (1 hr 48 mins):

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And here’s this!

I just love this song from yesteryear!! “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” 1943, Al Dexter & his Troopers:

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And I’m not positive, gang, but I think that’s it for now.

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

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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How about this?

From The Jim Carroll Band, off their first album, Catholic Boy, 1980. “City Drops into the Night.” Enjoy, gang.

“City Drops into the Night”

It’s when Billy’s whores are workin’
They’re workin’ with the skeleton crew
It’s when the sky over Jersey
That sky starts to drain from view
It’s when my woman pawns her voice so
So she can make her old excuses sound new

But I just want one clue

‘Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there’s one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?
I think it’s gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

It’s when the door to the River
That door is like 26 miles
It’s when ambitious little girls start
They start to dream about a change in style
It’s when the slick boys got their fingers
They got their fingers in the telephone dial

But I think I’ll just wait a while

‘Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there’s one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?
I think it’s gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

It’s when the sneak thieves are checkin’
They’re checkin the alleys for unlocked doors
And Billy’s sister’s gettin’ frantic ’cause
‘Cause Billy’s sister’s little brother can’t score
It’s when the woman from the dream is
Oh my God! That’s the woman on the floor

Each promise was just one promise more

‘Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there’s one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?
I think it’s gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

It’s when Teddy’s ghost is on the roof
Beatin’ his drum
And Teddy’s best friend is two blocks East
And he’s makin’ Teddy’s ex-girlfriend come
You know, they mistook Teddy’s blind trust
Just to prove that Teddy was dumb
But listen, you know, I think they are both just scum

‘Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there’s one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?
I think it’s gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

It’s when the body at the bottom
That body is my own reflection
But it ain’t hip to sink that low
Unless you’re gonna make a resurrection
They’re always gonna come to your door
They’re gonna say, “It’s just a routine inspection”
But what you get when you open your door
What you get is just another injection
And there’s always gonna be one more
With just a little bit less until the next one
They wait in shadows and steal the light from your eyes
To them vision’s just some costly infection
But listen, you should come with me
I’m the fire, I’m the fire’s reflection
I’m just a constant warning to take the other direction

Mister, I am your connection

‘Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there’s one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?
I think it’s gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

c- 1980 Jim Carroll, Stephen Linsley, Brian Linsley