INHERENT VICE

 

"Turn on, tune in, drop out," is a distant echo, now it's all, "go away little hippie." In society's blood-shot gaze the free-love generation spawned a parasitic organism, and chances of mutualism are a distant memory. The fact is, spiritual liberationsim has given way to post-Manson malaise. It's the end of an era. Deteriation with a pulse.

My first full-length novel

illustration by @j52o

The idea for the novel came about in early 2012, some time after finishing my creative writing course. I wanted to write a 'psychedelic' fantasy with a unique concept that was thematically rich.

So, what's it about? Well, without giving too much away...

The story chronicles the adventures of a young man named Jason Rooke, who after running away from his hometown to avoid siphoning, is left aimlesss and vulnerable in a world he knows little about.

When a friend of his father’s, Augustus Shade, entrusts him with a rare map, he goes on a quest to find the Bubble Blower, a mysterious character he believes might hold all the answers.

In his encounters with the people of Foxcote and Temperance, he learns the importance of friendship, and human morality. But the tension caused by his dealings with the towns begins to build and with it the true relationship between power and knowledge is revealed...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BUBBLE-BLOWER-Ashley-Russell-ebook/dp/B00K56V1TS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409931456&sr=8-1&keywords=the+bubble+blower

Barcelona, Wu-Tang wisdom & cognitive maps

Last month my girlfriend and I went to Barcelona. We covered a lot of it by foot. When I'm in a place/city I like to be able to memorize its geography. I have realised that one of my abilities is forming a strong, reliable cognitive map of my surroundings.

This reminded me of something the RZA wrote about in his book, THE TAO OF WU, where he made reference to a British study about cab drivers in London who by 'mastering the streets in that city, they actually increased the size and changed the structure of their brains.' This enlarged 'the hippocampi - which is part of the brain that handles memory.' He makes a good point that practicting this gives 'a sense of perspective-of the size of the world, the scale of the universe, the place of man.' 

Inspired to write this after watching the film BRICK (2005)

Brendan Frye’s on a case. He’s aggravating existing conflicts, drawing people out into the open despite being conditioned to small places. In his composure and his words he makes Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled world three dimensional, whose immortality is now his mortality. He can touch the sadness everywhere. School yard and athletic field draped in silence under a grey and scratched sky. His mind is like spools, between which his memories of her pass and wind. He presses play, his memory moves in one direction, while life moves in the other. He presses stop, and he flips it, plays the other side…back and forth until the tape threatens to feed noise and snap. This case is the most personal. It’s the one that threatens to expose him. Shadows murmur and hum. Dreams are held together with only invented textures and instruments. It’s his need to find out that keeps him ticking. He decided at the start, this case is no different to a Rubik’s Cube. It's no easy pickings but it’s not insoluble. Its nature can be learned. Algorithms can be made of it just the same. He just needs to keep all five senses. Get just enough sleep.

I've published a book >

On the Curb

By Ashley Russell/Ja...

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Kermode's band 'warm up' at the Albert Hall

sabre-tooth tiger with an asshole like an 8-ball sidepocket

"Casanova used to run his fingers, his hands up the ladies dresses as men were torn apart in the king's courtyard; but Casanova died too, just an old guy with a big cock and a long tongue and no guts at all. to say he lived well is true. the ladies usually go for the biggest damn fool they can find; that is why the human race stands where it does today: we have bred the clever and lasting Casanovas, all hollow inside, like the chocolate Easter bunnies we foster upon our poor children. - the only thing that has kept me from being assassinated is that I am small shit, I have no politics, I observe. I have no sides except the side of the human spirit, whist after all does sound shallow, like a pitchman, but which means mostly my spirit, which means yours too, for if I am not truly alive, how can I see you?" ~ C. Bukowski