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Nick Cave

When I am looking for a good podcast, one of the places I head to is On Being by Krista Tippett. Her recent conversation with Nick Cave was particularly interesting and moving to me, covering a multitude of issues including love, death, grief, and religion--a full gamut of topics that plague the human condition.

Nick Cave is an Australian musician, writer and filmmaker whose intense life has been full of ups and downs including devastating loss. His emotional opennesss and vulnerability has had a healing effect on many. His new book entitled Faith Hope and Carnage documents that emotional journey. In addition, he writes a blog entitled The Red Hand Files where readers ask him questions and he attempts to answer them. Amanda Petrusich conducted a recent interview with him in the New Yorker and there is a full length documentary entitled This Much I Know To Be True about Cave's life on youtube should you want to learn more. His creative rich life is definitely worth examination.Here are a few of his songs:

Into My Arms

Red Right Hand

Waiting For You

Mary Oliver Poem

Drifting by Mary Oliver

I was enjoying everything: the rain, the path
 wherever it was taking me, the earth roots
 beginning to stir.
 I didn’t intend to start thinking about God,
 it just happened.
 How God, or the gods, are invisible,
 quite understandable.
 But holiness is visible, entirely.
 It’s wonderful to walk along like that,
 thought not the usual intention to reach an answer
 but merely drifting.
 Like clouds that only seem weightless
 but of course are not.
 Are really important.
 I mean, terribly important.
 Not decoration by any means. By next week the violets will be blooming.
 Anyway, this was my delicious walk in the rain.
 What was it actually about?

Think about what it is that music is trying to say.
 It was something like that.

A Few Songs I Listened To On My Ride to Maine

I am back in my favorite spot. These are a few of the songs I listened to on the six hour ride up:

Clay Pigeons sung by Michael Cera, written by Blaze Foley

Song for a Winter's Night written and sung by Gordon Lightfoot

Whistle Stop sung and written by Jim Sullivan

Hero by Family of the Year

Bluebird of Happiness by Mojave 3

Kiko and the Lavender Moon by Los Lobos>

Shotgun Never Aimed by Uniontown

Beware of Darkness by George Harrison sung by Stanley and Astrid Samuelsen

Texas Hold Em by Beyoncé

Painting of the Week

Spring is Coming mixed media on canvas 54” x 32” $7500

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.