While looking around my YouTube channel, I noticed somebody disliked my "Vaqueros From A Distance" video.  Why would somebody bother disliking such an obvious afterthought of a video?  Do people actually believe their approval is important?  Is this the side-effect of a culture of......

Whatever.  Whatever it is, it's everything I left the U.S. to get away from.  God bless you, whoever you are, but you're in the wrong place.  This isn't the channel for you.  Take your self-important, conditional approval somewhere else.  You're everything I left the U.S. to get away from.  Vaya con Dios, but get away from me.

Saludos,
NP

p.s.  While I'm on the topic, it's worth mentioning that with the exception of the very first video on my YouTube channel (a version of "True Love is a Trip" intended to get the attention of a girl in New Orleans), everything I have ever written, videotaped, or sung has been for my own personal reasons.  Nothing I have ever produced has ever been intended to please other people.  "True Love is a Trip" was not written for, or even about, the girl in New Orleans.  Even the Spanish-language Bible-reading videos started out as a language exercise for my own personal interest, and practice.

My relationship with my writing is personal, not collective.  I write the poems, articles, and songs for my own personal reasons, to get the topic or theme or words or tune or whatever it is, off my back.  The "explanation" videos, such as "Walking Ramble," "English Ramble," etc, are other examples of me talking my way through an issue or topic for personal reasons.  I choose to post them publicly (except the ones that are private), in case anybody else is interested.  But I didn't come down to Mexico to get your attention or interest.

Even the "Spanish Ramble" video, while on the surface is a way of promoting my music to native Spanish speakers, is really just an excuse for me to practice my Spanish.  The entirety of the "Poor Nick Cave Tour" playlist consists of maybe 10 or 15 minutes, total, of boring videos mostly shot from airplane windows; if I was making "content" for the consumption of people who still believe their approval is important, I would have put a lot more effort into documenting an international trip of such scale and scope.

The songs are the only thing I really put out there "for" other people; but even the songs, which are indeed intended for public consumption, were not CREATED for that purpose.  They were created for personal reasons.

If such a concept is foreign to you, and you create "content" for the collective, I'm happy for you.  But we are not the same.  These platforms breed self-importance in people, which is one reason I have so much disdain for them.

So, if you're waiting for me to entertain you on this chintzy little centralized-censorship platform, allow me to show you the door.  My little square inch of space on the consignment shelf of this virtual junkyard isn't the place for you.  You don't belong here.

And no, of course the song for the girl in New Orleans didn't work.  She was crazy and insane anyway, and I'm glad the non-existent relationship didn't go anywhere, but that kind of thing doesn't work.  You don't make videos for some girl and expect her to respect you.

Know what I mean?

Saludos otra vez,
NP

True Love is a Trip

stranded here
in the now
you want me to let go
but not look down?

there ain't no road
left to run
there ain't no way
to catch the setting sun

but I'll be damned
if we didn't try
our ship set sail
in the sky
the stars are framed
by fire and hair,
and our hands are in the air
as our footsteps slowly slip;
true love is a trip

meet
me on the swings
under a sky of golden coins
and diamond rings

hold
me in your heart
we can stop anytime we like
we just don't know where to start

but I'll be damned
if we didn't try
our ship set sail
in the sky
the stars are framed
by fire and hair,
and our hands are in the air
as our footsteps slowly slip;
true love is a trip

cuz love is hell
and trust is hard
I let everything down
except my guard
let's throw our baggage overboard
and take a stand
hold the horror lightly in your hand
and sweep me away
with the sway of your hips;
true love is a trip

©Nathan Payne