Tag Archives: Tom Petty Wildflowers & All the Rest

One of Those Mornings

October 16, 2020 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

I awoke at 3:56am today, and the first thing I did was check my Amazon music library for the new Tom Petty album (which I apparently paid for at 12:01 am) and the only things in there were the 5 songs they had already dropped weeks ago…

So, after breakfast, journaling, meditation, cleaning up after 7 cats, etc., I spent about 15 minutes just trying to find the actual customer service page on Amazon. Then it took close to 30 more minutes to straighten out the problem.

I haven’t listened to it yet but at least now it is there. And I hope the rest of the day is just easy-peasy…

Yesterday, there was something on Instagram indicating that some of Nick Cave’s fans don’t like Cave Things because they feel it is mercenary and exploitative. And I guess he has been “cancelled” by some of his “cancel culture” fans because of it.

I do think the stuff is really expensive, but it kind of amuses me. Plus, I am a capitalist, and I feel that if the market will bear it, then one should reap the rewards of it.

I certainly would do it if I thought anyone on Earth would pay me £300 plus shipping for anything whatsoever.

On a similar note, though — yesterday was a little depressing for me. The Guitar Hero Goes Home is not exactly selling like hotcakes, and no one has reviewed it, except for the initial reviews I got before the book was published. So there it languishes. Even though, because it is experimental fiction and not erotic fiction, I did not really expect it to sell that great. And I was sort of hoping that after I died, there would be some sort of market for it. And I’m actually really okay with that. But what depressed me, was that I scrolled through the out of print book titles of mine that are being sold on Amazon and they are once again, going for extremely high prices.

For instance, a copy of Entangled Lives, selling for $967 plus $3.99 shipping (I’m guessing that Nick Cave autographed it…) (Just kidding.). A mass market paperback of Neptune & Surf selling for $132 plus $3.98 shipping. Seven “new” editions of a hardcover version of When the Night Stood Still — each selling for $98.96 plus shipping, and that book never came out in hardcover, ever, so that’s just criminal all the way around.

What bothered me most was that a print edition of Twilight of the Immortal is selling for $244.99 plus shipping, and that edition is full of typos, which is why I canceled the contract with that publisher and pulled it from stores all over the world. And then hired a professional editor to edit the eBook edition. But it doesn’t really matter too much, does it?

And I felt two things: why can’t people pay those kinds of prices while the books are still in print and I can benefit from it in some way? And why is there more of a market for my out of print books, than for a brand new one that is just now “in print”?

I can’t really answer that. But it makes me kind of sad — that my name is worth more than my actual living self.

So that sort of helped yesterday feel sucky. (But it does bode well for that idea that The Guitar Hero Goes Home will sell great after I’m dead…)

Otherwise, I did get some writing done on the new erotic short story (“Novitiate”). And in case you haven’t seen it yet, I posted a brief excerpt from it last night.

So, you know, it’s a sort of “onward” kind of day around here.

Tonight will be that killing frost, so I spent some time saying goodbye to the petunias yesterday. And we shall see what next summer brings.

Other than that, I don’t really have too much to say here today, gang.

I leave you with last night’s listening music. “Heart of Gold,” by Neil Young, from off of his incredibly great album Harvest (1972). Listen and enjoy. Have a wonder-filled Friday, wherever you are in the world. And thanks for visiting, gang. I love you guys. See ya.

A Lovely Morning So Far!!

October 9, 2020 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

For whatever reason — I guess the Autumn Equinox — I now get up at 4am and get out of bed! Whereas, I used to get up at 4am and just lie there for an hour.

Anyway, luckily, I was more than wide awake at 5am for the Bad Seed TeeVee chat-a-long to the Lawless soundtrack (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis). (I will say it again: that is such a beautiful soundtrack, gang; so atmospheric.)

It was fun. At one point I looked at the number of people in the chat and it was something like 900, but most people weren’t actually chatting. So it wasn’t completely insane.

And now it is 7am here and still completely dark out. So you really know it’s fall.

I spent a good chunk of my afternoon yesterday with Kevin, the director of my play (Tell My Bones) and his husband, Chris. So I did not get as much done on the new erotic short story as I had hoped. About 4 or 5 hours, at the most. It is still really challenging. I know what I want to say, but for some reason, I keep hesitating to say it — or write it, I mean.

(And on a side note — I spent about an hour chatting on the phone yesterday with an older gentleman I met through Gus Van Sant Sr. Well, we didn’t meet, we spoke on the phone about my play, via Gus. And at one point, I said something like, “I’ve been doing it a long time, already. I’m 60 years old…” And he said, “You’re kidding me! You sound like a kid!!”)

YAY!!!! Twice in one week…..

Oh, and, at one point yesterday, while I was talking to Chris about something, I noticed he was staring at my neck. I was wearing a sort of hippy-chick blouse that had a deep “V” neckline, and I didn’t ask him, but I just knew he was thinking: Man, no way does her neck look 60 years old….

(YES!! All those many miraculous skin products from France strike again!!) (Yes, yet again, another new product from France. First, they gave a jar of it to me for free. Then, they gave me another jar at half-price. We’ll see what happens after this, because it is really expensive but now I am hooked on it…) (As usual.)

1958 Beauty Ad, Avon Cosmetics & Skin Care Products, with 1950's Super-Model Anne St. Marie | Vintage makeup ads, Vintage cosmetics, Avon cosmetics — Me, yesterday!!! So youthful-looking!!!

Okay, anyway.

So, yesterday was nice even though I didn’t get enough work done on the new story. And I did finally get to chat with Valerie for the first time since her mom died. And the weather was just really, really lovely yesterday. All the trees have changed colors and it was mild enough to not need a jacket or anything. Just perfect weather. It was really a nice drive over to Kevin’s mansion on the hill.

So today, we will try again to make some significant headway with the new story. I guess what we really need is to make headway with myself — get myself to stop hesitating and just write the story the way it is asking me to tell it. Because the story is all up here in my head. I’m the one who is laboring over how to tell it. So we’ll work on that.

As of, like, right now.

So, thanks for visiting, gang. I hope you have a really nice Friday, wherever you are in the world. Last night, I was listening to the 6 songs that have now been dropped for next week’s upcoming release of Tom Petty’s Wildflowers & All the Rest. (Listening to them over & over, actually. In my bed , in the dark. Thinking about life. And, of course, death, because now I can’t stop thinking about one without the other.) And I really love that song, “Leave Virginia Alone.”

Today, I’m gonna leave you with Rod Stewart’s version of it, though. He had a hit with it back in 1995. Listen and enjoy. I love you guys. See ya!