Beautiful You - Jesu, Sun Kil Moon

Woke up at 11:30 a.m. to a ton of e-mails

A friend from Ohio went to a funeral

Over the weekend

He’s got another one to go to on Wednesday

The rest were all business plus a piece of ambient music

From Justin but I haven’t listened to it yet

I dropped some film off to be developed,

That I’m hoping could be right for the Jesu/Sun Kil Moon album art

Then was planning on walking down to the Marina

When I overheard someone say the word «Creole»

And with the power of suggestion I walked the opposite way down Polk

To Brenda’s, where I had a bowl of gumbo

A waitress working there saw my iced tea cup she said «Oh I work there»

I said «Really, I’ve never seen you there before»

She said «I work from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.»

I said «Oh, I don’t even wake up til 11»

On my way back I saw this crackhead-looking guy walking his dog

The dog’s hind legs where supported by this little wheelchair type thing

And he was wearing this tiny little diaper

The guy was walking the dog pretty fast and it concerned me a little

And I thought about saying something

But the dog’s face looked happy enough

And at some point the crackhead guy picked the dog up, wheel chair and all

And they gave each other a kiss

I could tell that the only thing they had in the world was each other

And it was really touching

My mind triggered to that horrible scene in 'Midnight Express'

Where the cat, the pet who belonged to the prisoner played by John Hurt,

Gets hung by prison guards

Then I looked down and I was in a sunny spot on the road and it felt really warm

And I looked up and I saw my friend Roger’s old apartment

He moved to Portland years ago and got married

He and I used to go fishing up in Point Reyes, or Bolinas, or Stinson Beach

And we’d bring fish back and I’d clean the fish and Katy would cook them up

And his girlfriend would come over and the four of us would watch boxing

matches or movies or whatever

And I thought of Katy as I do several times a day

And then I went into a corner market and bought some oranges and yogurt and

water

I came back to more e-mails and will listen to Justin’s piece of music soon

Then I’m gonna re-string my nylon string guitar, read a chapter of John

Connolly’s book

And see Caroline tonight for dinner

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

September 2nd, 4:45 p.m.

In my green chair listening to the kids on the playground

I had the most beautiful day yesterday with Caroline

We went for a walk through the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf

And for the very first time in 28 years of living in San Francisco

I swam in the San Francisco Bay

The water is always too cold and the thought of swimming in it has never

crossed my mind

But I saw three people out there in bathing suits, not wet suits like you see

all the time and it was a rare sight

So I walked through the sand at Aquatic Park and touched the water

It felt almost lukewarm and I couldn’t believe it

I said «Fuck it» and I stripped down to my underwear and started walking out

into the water like that guy in 'Coming Home', you know, at the end

Caroline was smiling really big and she said «You're really going out there?»

When I got about knee deep into the water, it wasn’t as warm as I thought

I kept inching my way out there a little at a time, until a wave came and hit

me in the balls

Once your balls are freezing, that’s all that matters, the rest of your body

can handle that same amount of cold

So I dove in and when out to where my feet couldn’t touch the bottom

I swam around a little, came back, sat in the sun, looking out at the boats

with Caroline and I warmed up a

little

I shook as much sand as I could out of my clothes and got dressed

It felt so refreshing to go out into that water

We came back to my apartment and it was nice taking my clothes off

and seeing some sand fall onto my floor

A nice souvenir from the beautiful day

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Caroline cooked dinner and I flipped through the new movies on On Demand

And I stumbled upon 'The Stanford Prison Experiment'

I saw that an old cast member, Billy Crudup, was in it

I hadn’t seen him in anything for a while and so we watched it

I gotta say this was definitely one of his best

But Caroline and I were both pretty tense as we watched it

The guy playing the «Cool Hand Luke"-style prison guard

Was enjoying himself a little too much

But the tension finally eased when the movie ended on day 6

Of what was set out to be a 14 day experiment

And after that I stayed up pretty late, booking hotels for my East Coast tour

next month

And some flights as well

But today has been spent paying bills, and trying to figure out an acoustic

version of 'This Is My First Day And I’m Indian And I Work At The Gas Station'

for a tour that starts in Israel this month I leave on the 6th

The chord changes are very weird in this song

And it requires a lot of bar chords involving all 6 strings using my index

finger,

Which isn’t easy considering how long the song is

It’s 4:58 p.m.

and I can still hear the kids on the playground

I’m meeting Caroline tonight for dinner

And the world and everything in it is a beautiful place

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

September 2nd, 9:34 p.m.

Just back from dinner with Caroline and I opened my mail

There was a letter and a photo from my ex-girlfriend who I haven’t heard from

in over a year

She’s days away from having a baby, wow

I thought of our time together back then and how far she’s come

I remember her desk was very close to where I’m sitting now

Where she did her homework and was studying to be a child…

…psychologist and I remember the summer when her mother passed

There’s never a summer that goes by that I don’t think about that

The times we spent in Santa Cruz hospitals and Los Gatos

I wrote her back and told her how happy it made me feel to see the photo

And I send her my love and that I’ll be back in touch

After I’m home from my next tour at the end of the month when she’s a mother

Caroline wants to watch «Cool Hand Luke"tonight,

Because I mentioned to her how the guard in the Stanford Prison Experiment was

using the same southern

Accent and lines that were used by the guard in «Cool Hang Luke»,

starring Paul Newman

She’s never seen it and I hadn’t seen it for probably 20 years

She just told me that she ordered it and that it was released in 1967

And I didn’t realize that before

I was born that years so I’ll be paying attention to the movie more than I ever

have tonight,

Knowing that detail

September 3rd, 8:32 p.m.

Just back from Mexican food with Caroline

Today was a lot of errands and a walk though the Marina

I picked up the photos for the Jesu/Sun Kil Moon album art

Bumped into my friend Melody on the street whose coffee shop

Has recently been closed and we talked for a while on the corner

Right in front of the market where I’ve been buying groceries for over a

quarter…

…of a century, it’s all boarded up with plywood now

We talked about our many friends who have left this city due to all the new

developments

At the end of the conversation, she said «Mark whatever you do, please don’t

leave»

I said I’m not going anywhere.

I got back to my apartment and finally had a chance to listen to this ambient

piece of music that Justin sent, and it’s beautiful

I’m going to add vocals to it on Saturday, the day before I leave for Israel

I just went over the chords to 'This Is My First Day And I’m Indian' again,

and it’s still tricky,

But I’m getting it

An old Sun Kil Moon song called 'You Are My Sun' is going to play on TV tonight

A show called 'Mistresses' and Caroline wants to watch it

She’s in bed, the cat’s on her lap, and she just told me it’s on in a minute

September 3rd, 11:46 p.m.

We watched the TV show 'Mistresses' and the song played early

And after it was over, we changed it

To Dateline Thursday Murder Mystery

Hosted by Keith Morrison on Channel 3

The cat is sleeping on her lap and hey, I’m 48 and I’m healthy and happy and

both my mom and dad

Are still alive and I can see the bridge twinkling like gold out my window

And I look up and Jimmy Fallon’s face is on TV

And just like Billy Crudup or Anna Pacquin or Jason Lee

Every time I see them on TV it reminds me of when I was 32

Everything I’ve been through has lead me to this beautiful piece of music that

I’m listening to

While I’m laying in bed next to beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you

Beautiful you