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All content herein is personal opinion and must be considered as such for the purposes of knowledge acquisition and dialogue.

The Sound in the Library

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Curtains drawn, this one remains special…

“Frusciante’s Curtains is an artifact for memory. It remains a powerful relic borne from the culmination of talent, sincerity, desire, and will.

Record: Curtains. Artist: John Frusciante. Label: Record Collection Produced: John Frusciante, 2005

By Asa Adams

It’s a pretty well known fact that John Frusciante is an audiophile with a love for making and recording music. The music he established with RHCP was in many ways revolutionary. Even more, the solo work he has been responsible for is striking and indicative of an artist well aware of the value of trauma and the clarity of which addicts mind can bestow.

“[…] it leaves a residue in your heart that arises fifteen years later when you re-experience memories; so think twice before you reengage with this record and booze”

The recordings reek of a basement layered in wood panel, lined with expensive kits capable of making a home-brew album this jarring. The clean contributions from The Mars Volta’s Rodriguez-Lopez, and Ken Wild’s bass riffs are enough to make this weird shit just work. And more than that it leaves a residue in your heart that arises fifteen years later when you re-experience memories; so think before you reengage with this record and booze.

I ran into my ex girlfriend, Josefina, on Rue Des Innocents, and we walked in that blasted cold and drank espresso on Les Halles, where the wind blew my hat into that oak tree and I never got it fucking back. That’s what I felt when I put the needle in the vinyl. That’s exactly what this album is capable of retrieving from off the old server stack. It is breathtaking, and well deserved of it’s stunning unanimous support.

Frusciante’s Curtains is an artifact of memory. I will most likely live with its phantasm, it feels accursed and yet I experience catharsis each time it makes its cycle again.

It remains a powerful relic borne from the culmination of talent, sincerity, desire, and willingness. And whatever the vast potential a home recording studio, bankrolled by a rock God musical genius, could assist with.

Curtains is cosmic acoustic art rock poetry and should be in the vinyl libraries of those willing to lose a night to memory and wine; or for those looking to expand their own personal boundaries.

‘Readers Advisory’ and Commentary

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Arthur C. Clarke:

Childhood’s End

By James Johnson

If you are anything like me, you have silently acknowledged, for the sake of memory, just how bizarre each progressing year has been. Its not a foretelling of doom, but rather a result of some cycle or chain of events. Sometimes it correlates to the cycle of a new American presidency. Other times to the effects of global catastrophe, like the 2008 economic crises many nations faced; or more closer to home – the ravaging effects COVID19 has had on virtually all of humanity in the year 2020.

The intensity of our personal and communal unrest is alarming. This is rapidly becoming a dangerous time for us all. Uncertainty and our own demons hold us back from being better. From choosing to be better. In our communities towards each other, in our careers and how we serve each other, and especially in our families and how we raise our children.

Art Bell said the world was suffering from the Quickening, the rapid advancement of humanity and the generic “speed” with which life is lived by. He said the development and pace of our civilization was eroding our social contracts, effectively our technology was dehumanizing us. I cant say for certain this is the case, but it is definitely making it difficult to differentiate real information from “fake news”.

What if a man could strike out on his own and try to accomplish what he desired most, without fear of eviction, starvation, or destitution. Would he not be the subject of unlimited potential?

This madness and these bizarre times we live in, make it seem as though we’re all passengers on an out-of-control, organic-mechanic sphere, fueled by the literal physical efforts of the lower of us. Our working class work hard to stay afloat, paycheck to paycheck, while producing the grease that moves the wheels that drives their very burden. I have belonged to this rung all of my life and I know it well. Head down, take your crumbs, show up the next day. Don’t get sick. You don’t get very far this way, but its honest and accounts for some of the most honorable among us.

If only there were no need for this work, these long hours (or sometimes erratically spaced shifts), with no incentives, salaries, or benefits. “Earning” indentured regulated arbitrary wages that stagnate year in and year out. What if a man could strike out on his own and try to accomplish what he desired most, without fear of eviction, starvation, or destitution. Would he not be the subject of unlimited potential?

That question is answered in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End. When mankind has no concern for war, wage, or sin, the fruits of initiative and ingenuity are revealed to us. Among other terrifying and confounding revelations of existentialism. Reader beware.

This pandemic has shown that most Canadians aren’t prepared for prolonged breaks in employment. And many small businesses too also proved unable to survive the shutdown. Prior economic disasters compelled many governments around the world to conduct experiments on Universal Basic Income projects*, and this pandemic has spurred the movement to support more projects to increase the validity of its benefits.

Childhood’s End has the world finally come to the doorstep of peace and prosperity. The results are mind blowing and you’ll be reeled into a book full of foundational science fiction tropes paired with unique Judaeo-Christian mythology. The conclusion of the story will most likely leave you in that surreal yet recognizable state; slacked jawed with a thousand yard stare, the book quietly closed in your lap. You know that feel.

It gets an 8 out of whatever. We recommend it.

Below is the source for the UBI reference

*https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/19/21112570/universal-basic-income-ubi-map

Ensuring The Writing Gets Done!

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By James Johnson

Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Writing often and well has been a challenging problem that has followed me most of my life. From writing horror movie scripts in the cornfields of small town Ontario, to producing wounded and confused ethereal poetry on the staggered streets in a Peterborough winter, boundless and silent. I have sought to write often and well, for what feels like most of my adult life, post-formative years and with broader perspectives; some of which I earned at great personal cost, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

C.Wright Mills would say I feel stuck in a prose that’s full of pose

One thing is certainly clear to me. The writing I do now is worse than what I contentedly drew up as a child. C. Wright Mills would say I feel stuck in a prose that’s full of pose. Academic writing, or writing with the intention of producing something scholarly tangible, is not something I want overwhelming my other aspirations. Academic writing requires research and rigidity; in ethical standards and scientific methods (especially if you wish to gain objective perspectives, or prove and disprove theories established by your colleagues). Half the time I feel as if I am writing with the express intent of wowing or subduing the audience with skill and panache. When in reality I’m only distancing myself from the intended target. Working on bettering myself as a writer requires writing on things I may not like, or perhaps even agree with. Such is the sacrifice with which writing in this mode entails.

Writing outside of the library industry, as an external observer with access to professionals and industry best practices via coursework, has rendered much of what I read and form opinions about tenuous. It mostly comes from a place of uncertainty, of being unsure. So I write about what I read, unable to provide evidence due to a lack of field work experience. Therefore, my academic writing, as it remains in it’s unpublished state, resides in the to-do drawer of my desk, buttressed by relevant articles of which I have read and re-read, trying to distill what I can. It will stay there until I can referee its contents, challenging what I may know theoretically to what I will know in certainty. For now I can take my lovely library administrative skills and file it accordingly so as to access it quickly and efficiently! That is something to be grateful for.

Forming good habits for writing often and well is essential for the kind of works I’m exited to explore in the future. My affection for youth horror has been gnawing at my psyche for ages, and devoting some time to these projects is something I am keenly looking forward to.

That being said, and coming full circle to academic writing, I have a significant course load starting next week. Establishing a strong schedule will have to be my next task. Without a clear writing plan, I wont be doing much creating, whether academic or personal.

Thanks for reading, and all the best as you face your own writing challenges