Henry Miller Memorial Library

Granted, Summer Fever here in Central California is wholly different than the sensation elsewhere.  For goodness sakes, people are trapped under ice for six months; the smallest budding flower sends them in a tizzy.

Yeah, we’re stoked for summer – if by summer you mean a foggy and oftentimes chilly July and August, followed by an immaculate Sept. and October.

Actually, we’re stoked for it all.  And so is Monterey County Weekly.  Check out this recent article highlighting all the great stuff on tap this summer, not just at the HMML, but other places in Monterey County.

This, of course, is the tip of the iceberg – check out our Events page, as we’re adding stuff daily!

As many of you, our loyal readers, know, we had a lil’ fundraiser thing with Kickstarter.

Well, we just stumbled across this amazing project; it’s particularly meaningful for those who came of age in the late 80s/early 90s.  (I also realize, many people reading this weren’t even born yet, which is scary.)

Anyway, in 1989, Michael Galinsky toured the malls of the US with a cheap camera in-hand. Years later, he’s launched a Kickstarter project to compile those images into a photo book celebrating these dying bastions of American culture.

1989 was a particularly great time.  “Appetitie for Destruction” was out for two years- just look at the mini-Axls in the photo!  It was also the same year Nirvana’s “Bleach” was released.  The battlelines were drawn!

So the archives, currently stored on the library grounds, will be moved to a secure storage facility at Monterey Peninsula College in the near future (road washouts and various other out-of-our-hands things have kept us from getting a secure date, but they will likely be moved before interns arrive in Big Sur), which will act to do two things:

1. protect them from the elements in Big Sur – the possibility for debris flows, landslides, and fires are only the most extreme of the things which are bad for them here, the fog in the summer is a daily reminder that no matter how hard one tries, a climate controlled environment is next to impossible to come by around here) and

2. clear up a great amount of working space for a number of items – mostly framed items, art pieces, and book boxes, to be properly stored and accessioned into our database, as well as a backlog of donated collections which have been hard to access until this space was cleared out.

We are also working with a grant-writing firm to secure a grant to have our collections and facilities surveyed by an archives consultant, to create a cohesive long term strategic plan for various aspects of our work with preservation, publication, and storage. Cross your fingers for us, and spread the good word.

We are also interested in creating a more active online exhibit using materials from the archives to enrich our web-users experience and to teach you all more about Henry Miller.  Currently, if you go to the “About Henry” section on the website you will see the brief chronology that Henry wrote with bullet points for each important year in his life.

Soon, this will be updated to include hyperlinks to relevant pre-existing web media relating to those that he mentioned, but the ultimate goal for this section is that it may become a bigger, better compendium of information relating to the archives with more visual, interesting pieces of information interspersed with his own words.

Additionally, an important goal of the summer is to web-publish our database, currently in the form of a File-Maker Pro database accessible only though a hard drive on site.  Stay tuned for these awesome internet-based improvements!  We’ll let you know what to check out and when!

As the summer approaches, we are gearing up for the arrival of another crew of amazing interns.

Stay tuned for introductions to them, as they are announced.  The internship at the library is different every year, and projects are tailored to the interns’ specific skill sets and interests – it is in this way that the internship differs from others (and, I’m sure you will agree, is far superior to others)

Each year our interns come with inspiration, select a project, create a series of goals and work to own and complete these projects.  The library is a living, breathing labor of love for the entire community and when we all work with passion and zeal (in a way that Henry Miller would be screamingly proud of), it is easily the most beautiful thing.  I hope you will excuse my superlatives and believe me.  I cannot wait to show you as we make strides in the summer of 2011!

Ah yes.  Now the real fun starts – the glorious afterglow of our Kickstarter fundraiser.

As per the deal, those who donated in our “first tier” get a shout out on this here amazing blog.

So…brace yourself….Here they are!

• Sarah!
• Maura Nealon!
• Mary Pendleton!
• Courtney Biggs!
• Jade Elizabeth Taylor!
• Kate Hyatt!
• Todd Sickafoose!
• Elle-je Freeheart!
• Stuart Thornton!
• Peg Kazda!

Thanks everybody!!!

It’s true.  Highway 1 to the north of us is now fixed. You can now get here from the north (SF, Monterey, whatever) just like the good ol’ days.

That's Zach!

It feels like V-J Day down here; I just saw a giddy sailor reeking of gin plant a big sloppy one on a very attractive dame.

And while it’s true there’s a slide to the south, by heading over Nacimento Rd., your Big Sur commute will only be lengthened by 20ish minutes.

So.  Back to normal (ish)

Exhibit A: we’re having a show this Saturday!

Jascha Hoffman and Spiff Wiegand w/ local Zack Salaz (who is incredible.)

It’ll be a wonderful intimate evening of most excellent acoustic music.

Admission is a mere $5-10 donation.  Check out the mothership for info.

Also check out this nice article from the Monterey County Weekly.

Hoffman is a San Francisco journalist and songwriter whose debut album, “A Cure for Sleep” has been lauded for its “deceptively simple, deeply weird pop songs” and “down-tempo philosophical musing, romantic longing and infectious harmonies.”

He’s been compared to artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Magnetic Fields and “Leonard Cohen without the attitude,” while his partner Wiegand has been likened to diverse artists such as Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Hot Hot Heat, Devo and They Might Be Giants.

So roll up – happy days are here again!

Thank you.

So our Kickstarter thing end is a mere 20 hours!

And when we were planning it out, we had to think of prizes.

sold out in like...4 days?

We noticed that most, if not all, successful projects had “super-prizes”: prizes awarded for donations that exceeded, say, $1,000.  That’s some serious money!

So we came up with our very own “super-prize.”  A catchy name for it never really caught on, so we’ll just call it, “three (3) *pairs* of tickets to any three sold-out shows!!!”

That’s right: a generous tax-deductible donation of $1,500 can get you three pairs of tickets – six in total – for, say, Gillian Welch (already sold out) or Animal Collective, which sold out instantly.

Could already be sold out...not sure.

And, were I betting man, I’d say these shows will sell out once Joe Q. Public really knows about it: Blonde Redhead, Woodsist Festival, and Bill Callahan.

Just a hunch.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  I predict at least a handful of sure-fire sell-outs that have yet to be announced.

It’s really no joke, because these shows sell out in mere seconds.  It’s heart-wrenching telling people Gillian Welch is sold out.  Breaks your heart.  And some folks dont’ take it to well.

We only made five of these prizes available.

And as I write this, four people have splurged for this package.   Wow!

There’s only one left and time is running out.

Just sayin’!

We like vinyl.  We like record stores.  So sue us.

We’re still nursing our hangover from National Record Store day, when we stumbled upon this cool video featuring Ian Marshall of Wombleton Records inLA.

Ian, if I’m not mistaken, will be attending our Vinyl in the Woods record fair on May 28th (still room for vendors – call 831-667-2574.)

Wombleton Records specializes in hard to find first pressings of vinyl records released primarily in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, with outliers from the surrounding decades peppered into the mix.

A longtime vinyl lover who became addicted to the form thanks to the “Greatest Rock Band in the World,” Kiss, Marshall has spanned the globe (Holland, England, Jamaica) to fill out Wombleton’s impressive and sort of daunting collection.

In this fine article and video, Ian talks about the value of wax, the hunt for one good song and his ambivalence toward Record Store Day.

Does the internet scare you?  What with the Google stuff and the advertising and the search engine optimization stuff?

It scares us.

Basically, there’s a bunch of nifty lil’ tricks you can employ to boost your website’s traffic.  The only problem is mere mortals like us – especially folks in the non-profit sector, which the Henry Miller Library is – don’t know them, or don’t have the time, wherewithal, or emotional maturity to learn them.

It’s black magic.

But do you know who knows them?

Geeks.

That’s right.

And that’s why we like Mediacause.  It’s a platform where non-profits can submit a request for Internet-work, and technically included angels will volunteer to do it for you.

And when we say “angels” we mean “smart geniuses.”  We can attest to this first-hand: what would normally take us, like, four weeks to do, some of these whiz kids can do in four days.  Or four minutes.  Or four seconds.

It can be anything from, “help my non-profit fully take advantage of Google Grants,” to “help increase our web traffic by 200%” to “please erase all my Facebook postings about my ex- from the last two years, because now I realize it was the best love I’ll ever have and we’re trying to make it work again, and I said some terrible things (when I was drunk) but now I’m in a better place and if some Palo Alto genius could purge it from the Internet servers it’ll help our rekindled relationship get off to a healthy start.”

The Henry Miller Library is registered with Mediacause.

Maybe you should be too?

The first time, we thought, how quaint.  The second time, why, what an interesting coincidence.

The third time?  Now it’s just plain scary.

It seems like every few months the New Yorker is reading our blog or home page, and picking their stories accordingly.

Example #1.  The XX.  They played here last year, and week or so after the show was announced, the New Yorker ran a feature on them.  Example #2.  Arcade Fire. They were announced to play here, and – you guessed it – not too soon after, their kind Canadian faces graced the New Yorker’s pages.

Bill's playing here June 19th

Now it’s Bill Callahan (aka Smog.)

He’s playing here June 19th.  We announced it a few weeks back.  Tickets still available. And if you just happened to turn to page 124, there it is, a feature on Bill.  Something about him being depressed.

Ahh, the New Yorker, always one step behind the Henry Miller Library.

It’d be kinda cool if it weren’t so unfortuntae.

I mean, they never even call us.  No fact checkers – no nothing.  I know we’re on the cutting edge of the arts, but are we that intimidating?

Perhaps.  And if that is the case, I’d like to make the following personal appeal to David Remnick.

Dear David,

You’re clearly reading these words – our Web analytics show serious Web traffic emanating from downtown Manhattan.  (We also see you’re playing a stealth game of solitaire on your PC.)

We’d like to officially welcoming you to the Henry Miller Library family.  From now on, there is no need to hide in the e-shadows.  No need to cyber-snoop our upcoming calendar of amazing events for inspiration.

Emerge from the darkness and embrace us fully.

We are here, arms outstretched – see?  We are approachable and nice.

C’mere you big lug.

Join us.

You can also text me.

Love,

The Henry Miller Library Blog