In my room, I mean.

But first — there’s this:

If you live anywhere near Newark, Ohio and want to participate, this candlelight vigil is tonight–

If you are not familiar with this area, be prepared — it is small but loaded with restaurants, theaters, offices and it is really hard to find a place to park, even in the best of circumstances.

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And here’s this!

As soon as I posted to the blog yesterday, naturally Nick Cave’s Official Instagram account released the announcement about July 31, 2026!

And it is this!!

“I am thrilled beyond words to return to my beloved Brighton with The Bad Seeds to play Preston Park. It’s a homecoming! It’s going to be big, bad and beautiful. An epic show!!!” Nick Cave

[I think “big, bad, and beautiful” and “epic” are all euphemisms for pandemonium, but we shall see! — Ed.]

Presale for tickets begins next Thursday, Sept. 25th, 10AM UK time. You can register here for presale access.

Meanwhile, here’s this!

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And here’s this–

Keith at home at Nellcote, in the South of France, 1971 (he is about 27 years old):

And just in case you have any interest in this whatsoever —

This is the very photo that first made me fall in love with Keith Richards when I was just turning 12!! I first saw it while alone in my room, naturally!

My room was in this house (in Columbus, OH) , and as luck would have it, the window to my room is on the upper left and now — lo! these many decades later! — totally hidden by the tree:

And here’s this, just because it sums up my whole entire life — The Beach Boys, from 1963, “In My Room” (!!):

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There is an Iraqi dinar update from yesterday. You can find it on Sara Hopps telegram channel HERE.

“$1 dinar notes are out and articles are being published. Let’s see how the rest of this day plays out…. But things are moving and now IRAQ 🇮🇶 is finally taking major steps! This is an excellent start on a Monday!”

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And now we can go back to the title of this post — “A really, really, really, unusual world”.

And it refers, of course, to my room.

I decided to dust the bookshelves in my room this morning, because they haven’t been dusted since Spring, and — lo! and behold! — what did I find but these 2 textbooks that I totally forgot I had!

They were not my textbooks, but given to me by a friend back in 2020. They had been his textbooks and, since I have that Ministry Degree, he thought I would appreciate them.

And I did! And I appreciate them anew this morning!! Wow.

2 textbooks about the Reformation! The one on the left is HUGE. And that slim volume, The Western World, focuses solely on Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Saint Theresa of Avila.

I’m guessing that at this point in my life, I am simply meant to learn all I can about the Protestant Reformation without even leaving my room. Who knew?

And I have to add, yet again, that this series of lectures I’m currently taking (about the Protestant Reformation) continues to basically blow my mind every single day. And not always in a good way — considering the amount of executions, violence, etc.

And here’s this.

From yesterday.

I posted these 2 photos to my Instagram page. I posted the first one because I thought it was kind of amusing that I am once again really falling behind in my current reading. On my night table:

And then, after I came home from having lunch with my girlfriend, yet another highly anticipated book was waiting for me on my kitchen porch!!

And yesterday morning, before I even left for lunch, I ordered THIS book because a friend in France had recently read it and it sounded really great! So that, too, is on its way! (I ordered it in English translation, though.)

And sort of in a similar vein —

I also ordered one of these yesterday!!

To keep by my bed. Because it has a CASSETTE PLAYER!!!!

And honestly, gang, I have been noticing that it was so much easier for me to study Chinese and French in the old days because I used cassettes. I don’t know — the in-depth quality of the lessons was just so much better than what I have access to on my language-learning phone apps.

And since I still have ALL those various cassettes (and the accompanying textbooks), but no handy cassette player– wow! This little boombox from Jensen was so affordable! (Plus, I will be able to easily play CDs in my room, now, too!)

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So, basically, between studying and now READING all about the Protestant Reformation. And STILL studying French. And re-studying Mandarin, Chinese. And finishing my novel-in-progress, The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. And working on our play, “The Guide to being Fabulous,” readying it for Off-Broadway, along with the NEXT unbelievably awesome project with Sandra that I still can’t post about ….

I am now and forever, as I always have been for decades and decades, going to be in my room.

And with that, I want to get started on the writing for today, since I have the day off!!

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

Thanks for visiting!

I love you guys. See ya!

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Okay!!

Another song from my “songs I was listening to 6 years ago playlist” and yes, as it turns out, it’s another great song from my wee bonny teenage girlhood!!!!

When this song was a (smash) hit, I was going through probably the nadir of my existence. 1974 was one of the worst years of my life. And this song is so upbeat and so full of kindness and so hopeful. I just loved it. (Apparently, I loved it again when I was 59!!)

Billy Swan, “I Can Help”, 1974! Enjoy, gang!!

“I Can Help”

If you got a problem
Don’t care what it is
If you need a hand
I can assure you this

I can help
I got two strong arms
I can help
It would sure do me good to do you good
Let me help

It’s a fact that people get lonely
Ain’t nothing new
But a woman like you
Baby should never have the blues

Let me help
I got two for me
Let me help
It would sure do me good to do you good
Let me help

When I go to sleep at night
You’re always a part of my dream
Holding me tight and
Telling me everything I wanna hear

Don’t forget me baby
All you gotta do is call
You know how I feel about ya
If I can do anything at all
Let me help

If your child needs a daddy
I can help
It would sure do me good to do you good
Let me help

When I go to sleep at night
You’re always a part of my dream
Holding me tight and
Telling me everything I wanna hear

Don’t forget me, baby
All you gotta do is call
You know how I feel about you
If I can do anything at all
Let me help

If your child needs a daddy
I can help
It would sure do me good to do you good
Let me help

c- 1974 Billy Swan

Yes!! The Agency texted me TWICE already this morning, wanting me to pick up some urgent shifts today and tomorrow — however!!

LUNCH is on my horizon for today!! With my Q-following girlfriend, as we belatedly celebrate her birthday at 3 Tigers Brewing Co in Granville! And I’m not missing that for anything.

And then, of course, tomorrow, I need the whole day to work on getting the novel ever closer to its ending. (And I still have no clue how this novel ends, gang. The pages just keep coming out of me, with me having no clue beforehand what is getting ready to hit the page.)

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Still no word from Nick Cave’s Official Instagram page about what the announcement about July 31, 2026 is going to be!

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And here’s this!!

2 remarkably different looks sported by another one of my treasured heroes who is long gone now–

Lou Reed:

And here’s this, in case you never heard it before– a demo of my song, “Lou”, from 1984. (This version, recorded by me and Peitor Angell, when we were hanging around his apartment, back in the very OLD days, when he lived on Broadway in Manhattan.)

(When I then played this demo for my incredible friend Bob Cato at Columbia Records, he said, “Why on Earth are you singing like that?? What am I supposed to do with this??”)

(Although, an earlier demo, of just me and my guitar in my room on E.12th Street, was given directly to Lou by my good friend Joe Queenan.)

"Lou"

Come watch the rain
Wipe out the ballgame and 
Strike-out the names
Of players who’d gamble
With needles and dreams
In a game that’s as ruthless
as whiskey on speed

Who’ll call the game
On account of the rules being
Too tough to save
Any losers who’d forfeit
In a halo of fear?
Well, shame takes a holiday,
Let’s have a beer

CHORUS:
Fight, and maybe you’ll find
A reason to smile 
At the end of the line
Why don’t you fight?
Maybe you’ll win
And you’ll have some stories to tell 
For trying

Strike up a tune
For those who surrendered
And ducked out too soon;
Vice in the shadow
Was no easy crime
Let’s make it a double
For auld lang sine

You carve your name
In seasons of anger
of laughter and fame
To warn of the dangers
In packaging pain
For lives that get tossed
On account of the rain

© 1984 Marilyn Jaye Lewis
First of May Songs, BMI

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Here’s this–

The day after the notorious, horrific Altamont Concert in 1969.

Keith and Charlie, leaving California:

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This really amused me.

Back in the late 1990s, I was reading a collection of letters written by Edgar Allan Poe. And in the foreword, it said that he was living on the Upper West Side in Manhattan — around W.84th and Broadway — when these specific letters were written.

I lived at W.98th and West End Avenue at the time, so I used to stroll around W.84th, trying to imagine which old brownstone he might have lived in!!

Well, who knew????

There weren’t even any apartment buildings up there back when he lived there!!

Here’s this!

I definitely would have noticed an old farmhouse in the nieghborhood, if it had still been there…

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And I think that might be it for now. I’m gonna get myself ready to head to town for lunch.

BTW, it is another really gorgeous day. I am really looking forward to just hanging out and relaxing (and laughing) with my girlfriend.

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

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Yes!

Another one from the playlist from 6 years ago!!

Okay, this one just astounded me, gang.

When I was in my teens, my adopted mom LOVED Neil Diamond. So we always played his records together.

I remember this song (and album) extremely well. What a great album it was. It came out when I was still living at home, age 16, in 1976.

Beautiful Noise (seriously, a great album, produced by Robbie Robertson):

When the song below came on the playlist yesterday — when I was driving to my shift — it was one of those feelings, gang. It sent a chill right through me.

I realized that this song totally captured what it was like when I moved to NYC and had, what I refer to as, “my life” there. And how it feels now to remember it all. I almost cried right there in the car. Wow.

Anyway. “If You Know What I Mean”, 1976. From Beautiful Noise. Enjoy, gang.

“If You Know What I Mean”

When the night returns just like a friend
When the evening comes to set me free
When the quiet hours
That wait beyond the day
Make peaceful sounds in me

Took a drag from my last cigarette
Took a drink from a glass of old wine
I closed my eyes and I could make it real
And feel it one more time

Can you hear it, babe
Can you hear it, babe
From another time, from another place
Do you remember it, babe

And the radio played like a carnival tune
As we lay in our bed in the other room
When we gave it away
For the sake of a dream in a penny arcade
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean, babe

And here’s to the songs we used to sing
And here’s to the times we used to know
It’s hard to hold them in our arms again
But hard to let them go
Do you hear it, babe
Do you hear it, babe

It was another time
It was another place
Do you remember it, babe

And the radio played like a carnival tune
As we lay in our bed in the other room
When we gave it away
For the sake of a dream in a penny arcade
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean

If you know what I mean, babe
If you know what I mean

c – 1976, Neil Diamond