Hello everyone,
This past week we had the pleasure of visiting a house in town to pick up one of the cooler collections we’ve encountered in a little while. It was from the dad of a professional artist and friend who had recently passed, and we were told that his living room near the end of his life was piles of books from floor to ceiling. This man was described by his kid as a “seeker,” and his books sure do tell that story. His reading was wide: literature, spirituality, Jungian analysis, the natural world, quantum physics, the occult and, of course, P.D. Ouspensky. As we catalogued his collection we listened to music by George Gurdjieff, the Armenian mystic and writer who was also a recording artist (sort of). This was quickly followed by the Greatest Hits of San Francisco’s Space Lady.
The Space Lady was a busker who played music on an accordion. She only made one record, released on cassette (later issued on CD burned in her home) and there’s something just honestly beautiful about her sweet, futuristic sound that gives us hope. It is precisely our speed. It contrasts radically with the other musical deep dive we’ve been doing, like Luie Luie, a California outsider musician who self-released a notorious and unfortunately named album “Touchy”. We know we’re supposed to be promoting books here, but it’s the dead of winter and the snow-covered roof on the house outside our office window is the EXACT SAME COLOUR as the white sky above it. Music is what’s sparking our pilot light. We’re reading books, of course. Vanessa is reading all the contemporary horror she can stand and Jason is reading a book about time travel. These are high ideas, sure, but neither can hold a candle to a musical style described as “Mariachi-infused lounge-bar easy-listening”. We want to be in that bar. We want to listen to an album with song titles like El Touchy, Tastee Touchy, Sweet And Tender Touchy and Touch Of The Pharaohs.
We hope your life is full of equally bizarre and satisfying things. Want a book on Amazonian Plant Medicine? We got you covered. Feeling the pull of Dionysos? We got a book for you. Is it finally time to tackle Finnegan’s Wake? We got that book AND a skeleton key to that book by Joseph Campbell. Irish Fairy Tales, Islamic philosophy, the First Council of Nice, The Quantum World, the Wisdom of the Kabbalah, even Ursula K. Le Guin, are all on this list. We’re not even through the whole collection! Our office is positively humming with fifth dimensional pizzazz! These boxes are BRIMMING with mystery. So, take a look and snatch up whatever interests you. It’s good to have inspired and mind-bending stuff on your nightstand in the darker days of the winter up here in the Great White North.
Much love,
Jason and Vanessa
