Henry Miller Memorial Library

You read that correctly. “The Big Sur Children’s Writing Workshop is dead; long live the Big Sur Children’s Workshop”

Information regarding the splendid March workshop can be found here. And yes, we’re taking registration, so follow the instructions or just give us a call 831-667-2575. It will likely fill up to capacity.

Better yet, Ellen Hopkins, who has been in the top ten of the New York Times Bestsellers List since 2008, and author of CRANK, IDENTICAL (optioned by Miley Cyrus), GLASS and TRICKS is confirmed as faculty for this March Big Sur Writing Workshop.

And early March in Central California is a wonderful thing.

St. Paul taught us that modesty is a great attribute and that bragging is bad. But he was also a misogynist. So forgive us for giggling like a schoolgirl when we came across this…

Q: Was there a particular venue or experience that was amazing?

A: We actually played in an area of Northern California called Big Sur which is just by the huge Red Wood Forests right by the coast and we played in this library. It’s called the Henry Miller Library and it’s just this cool little cultural enclave that we got invited to play at and that was really one of the highlights; just the natural beauty of the area and the people that ran the venue were really cool – that was something really special.

Q: That sounds amazing and it also seems as if playing in these venues would totally suit your music?

Yeah for sure. Probably more so than a metal band or pub rock band we try to have a memorable live show and you know bring some emotional heft to the performance and I think having it in a really beautiful place can add a lot to that so we were very fortunate.

(We were fortunate too! And buzzed on Poppy Jasper Amber!)

Our pal Brian Ziffer is also part of the HML “Family.” You may know him as the guy who projects amazing psychedelic stuff on our big screen during movies.

He’s also the mad-genius behind this new Akron/Family video for the jam, “Cast a Net,” which recently debuted on Spin. And check out his site!

Enjoy.

OK so this is cool. Two years ago, the HML had our nifty little “souvenir book.” Basically, it was an almost-pocket-sized book about the Library. It included the Library’s history, stuff about Miller, stuff about the staff, Miller quotes, and lots of other fascinating stuff. Almost like a scrapbook.

Needless to say, it was a smash. It sold out and now we’re making a new one!

And here’s the really cool part: you can be a part of it by writing a 150-word anecdote or testimonial about the Library. And photos too!!

It can be about a great show that blew your mind, or something really subtle; like the day you drank coffee and wrote poetry on the deck for 5 hours, or the tender moments you spent with Theo the cat.

The trick here is to capture the epic along with the sublime.

I, for example, am gonna write a lil’ thing about the Chili Peppers show, and how suddenly the lights when out. Everyone was totally freaking out, and then amazingly, people in the crowd whipped out their cell phones and illuminated Flea on stage (who, believe it or not, needed the help – they were playing all new songs and he didn’t really know the chords!)

Whatever the Library means to you, whatever that pivotal moment was, we’d love to hear about it.

Now. A few caveats:

* Because of space and budget constraints, we, sadly, can’t include everything in the book. That said, with your permission, we’d publish it on this here blog, and/or our Web site, etc., in the future.

* The desired word count is 150, but it can be less. Heck, it could be a sentence. And if you need to go over 150, who are we to judge?

* We may edit it.

* Deadline to submit is Dec. 20th!

So, wanna submit? It’s easy. Send an email to store@henrymiller.org. If we end up using it, we’ll let ya know.

We’re gonna print up hundreds of these books, and they will sell out, and spread their way all around – literally – the world, Johnny Appleseed/Gideons-Bible style.

So yeah, drop a line! And thanks!

First, I don’t think Henry Miller “dated” anyone. The whole dinner and a movie thing didn’t seem to be his thing. The whole flowers and chocolate thing? Not his bag. And he was most certainly not into foreplay.

As my therapist astutely noted, foreplay is truly a lost art.

But that doesn’t stop us from daydreaming now does it?

Not daydreaming about foreplaying with Miller (per se), but, in the context of this Huffington Post article, thinking about…wait for it…”literally matchmaking!” Namely, brainstorming about an alternative universe where characters from different books get it on.

Some examples: Holden Caufield of Catcher in the Rye with Esther Greenwood of the Bell Jar. Awkward.

Or how about Willie Wonka and Mary Poppins? (Please refrain from edible underwear jokes. Sooo predictable.)

Or how about Arya Stark and Ender Wiggin? To which I ask…Who the hell is Arya Stark and Ender Wiggin?

Anyway, that’s the fun thing about daydreaming: it’s free.

That said, I’m still stumped. Who’d be Henry Miller’s literary match? It’s a tough one, though I do have some theories…

Let’s be honest for a minute here. People don’t really come to the Library for the big shows, or the movies, or even our dank locally-roasted coffee.

They come here for Theo the cat.

Just an hour ago a visitor said he was “beautiful.” Twice.

Keely and I know the drill. We’re working at the front desk, and suddenly we hear high-pitched, mildly-disturbing squealing. No doubt about it: people are meeting Theo on the deck for the first time.

Well let’s add Ryan Adams to the list of Theo-lovers (the main difference being he’s not a middle aged woman.)

Here’s a pic of Ryan and Theo from Ryan’s Facebook thing.

And here’s all the amazing comments it generated, below. Click on it and read’em. Theo rules!

If you walked into the Henry Miller Library and, say, pulled “Sometimes a Great Notion” off the shelf, and opened to a random page, and started reading, what would happen?

Here’s what would happen. You’d say, Hmmm, this is pretty interesting stuff. Brilliantly written. Compelling. But slightly disjointed.

And that’s because – duh - you opened the book to a random page! You need to step back and get the whole picture. All things are contextual; nothing exists in a vacuum.

Which is how we approach Hippie Sven’s body of work.

I mean, you laughed in pity at him in the now-iconic short where he drools over fellow Swede-rockers Dungen.

You admired his sincere passion in reveling in the Library’s new stage (which also led to a tense altercation with Executive Director Magnus Toren.)

And you felt a queasy mixture of alarm yet strange comfort as Sven discovered the feral power of poetry. [After all, it's no coincidence the term Stockholm Syndrome refers to a city based in - you guessed it - Sweden.]

But at the end of the day, your collective emotions regarding Sven and his “art” – empathy, terror, disquiet – are mere pinpricks on a larger, far more complex Jungian body of work; cosmetically meaningless fragments flitting in the wind, devoid of deeper meaning unless contextualized across a broader, more multi-layered psychological plane.

You need the full story.

Dudes, you need to check out our YouTube page, which contains, like, over a dozen powerful Hippie Sven (and other, HML-related) videos.

Ultimately, if Hippie Sven’s “art” is on trial, then this is his defense. The dude contains multitudes. And in when taken in totality, a far more illuminating picture emerges, like some infrared MC Escher nightmare-scape where the soundtrack is “Wish You Were Here” performed by a dosed mariachi band.

That said, if any one has any suggestions to help Sven get his shit together, please post them here. We’ll pass’em along.

Hey remember last week when we did a blog?

Specifically about inspiration vs. hard work (10,000 hours-worth), the argument being (courtesy of Malcolm Gladwell) that you have to commit 10,000 hours of something to truly master it.

Ahh they blog may have been nice, but some of the comments generated by y’all was even better. So let’s continue the conversation. (If you want.)

That’s because we stumbled upon this poem by Charles Bukowski called “So You Want to Be a Writer.”

From the outset, Hank (that’s Charles’ literary alias, ahem) is violently anti-Malcolm Gladwell/hard work. He says, quite simply, if it doesn’t come immediately pouring out of you, forget it. Don’t bother.

Hmmmm?

So You Want to Be a Writer by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

It’s true. It’ll be on the XM U channel. Just go here.

And here’s a great show review of the show. So now you can be the judge!

Money quote:

With a combination of songs from their newest record, Helplessness Blues, and their first, self-titled album, the set was thoroughly satisfying and the night close to perfect. Everything was copacetic. Just as I had thought years ago, the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur was the perfect places to experience not just live music, but this music.

Hey the Henry Miller Library’s End of Summer Sale ends in four hours! That’d be today, Friday, at 6 pm California-time.

You can get 20-30% of books, posters, and t-shirts! That’d be a nice Christmas gift, right? And you’re supporting your favorite non-profit book store in the process.

After this we’ll cut back from the hard-selling. We realize it can get gross (go here.)

And trust us: summer is definitely over. We’re experiencing February-like rain at the moment. We’re wearing galoshes, putting tarps up, trudging around in wet socks, tipping over garbage cans in the pitch-black darkness, and getting all psycho, Shining-style.

Oh hey, speaking of a mediation of madness and endings, let’s let a modified version of Jim Morrison’s tone-poem ease us into another winter of existential longing:
—
The End

This is the end (of the Henry Miller Library End of Summer Sale)
Beautiful friend
This is the end (of the Henry Miller Library End of Summer Sale)
My only friend, the end (of the Henry Miller Library End of Summer Sale)

Of our hard-selling elaborate online marketing plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes…again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need of some books, posters, and t-shirts (20-30% off)
In a…desperate land

Lost in a Roman…wilderness of Big Sur
And all the clerks are insane
All the clerks are insane
Waiting for the dry season that is roughly May 15th-Oct 15th

There’s danger on the edge of town
Ride the Rt. 1 highway, baby
Weird scenes inside Fernwood
Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake…he’s old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and we’ll do the rest

Sven’s ’84 Ford Econoline is callin’ us
Sven’s ’84 Ford Econoline is callin’ us
Driver, where you taken’ us

The Swedish hippie awoke before dawn in his van
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the path to the HML
He went into the room where Mike lived, and…then he
Paid a visit to Keely, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door…and he looked inside
Magnus, yes Sven, I want to….get a 30%-off HML American Apparel t-shirt
Mother…I want to…..buy the Come to Big Sur Package!!! yeahh yeah yeahh!!

C’mon baby, take a chance with us
C’mon baby, take a chance with us
C’mon baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of Sven’s ’84 Ford Econoline
Doin’ a blue rock
On in the back of Sven’s ’84 Ford Econoline
Doin’ a blue rock
C’mon, yeah

This is the end (of the Henry Miller Library End of Summer sale)
Beautiful friend
This is the end (of the Henry Miller Library End of Summer sale)
My only friend, the end (of the Henry Miller Library End of Summer sale)

It hurts to set you free
But you’ll never follow me
The end of laughter and discounted merchandise
The end of nights we tried make a buck

This is the end (of the Henry Miller Library End of Summer sale)