Beautiful You

(Album: Jesu / Sun Kil Moon - 2016)

August 31st 2015, 2:36 p.m.

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