Weekend Guide: 12.11.2020

In conversation with Julian Lynch

This week I had the pleasure of talking books/reading with Julian Lynch. Julian is a musician/composer/producer, a recent PhD in anthropology/ethnomusicology, and guitarist in the band Real Estate.

I first met Julian in 2010 at a show in West Philadelphia. He performed solo. Sitting cross legged, he played a clarinet into a delay pedal for 45 minutes as a crowd of sweaty kids sat transfixed. I had never seen anything like it. Since then, I have followed his illustrious solo career closely. I’ve ripped through countless spins of Mare, Terra, Lines, and Rat’s Spit. His catalog never gets old.

His newest, Animals 2, was recorded during quarantine with some help from AI collaboration and computer randomization. Highly recommended for a deep zone or as a companion for your drifting mind.

Please enjoy his tastefully heady book recommendations below:

DS: What are you currently reading?

JL: I’ve been reading this collection of essays by Umberto Eco called Faith in Fakes that is really interesting. In between essays from that book, I ended up re-reading Animal Farm, which I hadn’t read since my middle or high school days but always stuck with me and also was one of the things on my mind as I was recording Animals 2.  Also, I’ve been getting into playing chess recently, so I just got these two books by Irving Chernev that I plan to read next (Logical Chess: Move by Move, and Winning Chess: How to See Three Moves Ahead).

DS: Who is the best Musician/Reader you know?

JL: My buddy Daniel Wyche does amazing and innovative guitar stuff, and he’s also a recent PhD who is very well-read in religious studies. He’s an expert on Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Foucault. I think he’s actually even done published translations of Foucault’s work.

DS: What was the best book recommendation you’ve ever received? One that changed your life:

JL: During my first couple years of college, I was working at this cafe and would frequently chat with this one regular during my breaks or after work. He was this really smart guy who I think had a background in biochemistry, but had fallen on rough times for some really fucked up reasons and ended up being homeless. He was really knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, but I remember we were talking about mental illness at some point and he recommended that I read the book The Politics of Experience by R.D. Laing. I read that book soon after our conversation, and I really loved it. Furthermore, that book referenced the anthropologist Gregory Bateson.

I had just started studying anthropology in college at that point, and I hadn’t yet read any Bateson, but after reading Laing’s book I ended up reading Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind as well as Mind and Nature, and I’ve love both books ever since. From there, I read books like Tim Ingold’s The Perception of the Environment. Reading those books kind of locked in my interest in anthropology, and here I am, more than a decade later, with a PhD in anthropology! So I guess you could say that path from Laing to Bateson to Ingold and beyond kind of changed my life.

DS: As an academic how do you split up reading for research and reading for pleasure? One for you/One for them?

JL: I finished up my dissertation just about a year ago now, and up until that point most of my reading was consumed by things relating to my dissertation project. It’s definitely nice to get some other stuff thrown into my reading routine now!

DS: Thoughts on Steven King. Love/Hate/Indifferent?

JL: To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve actually read any of Stephen King’s work, but I definitely love a lot of movies and tv shows based on his work (as well as stuff he’s screenwritten himself). So, overall, I guess my feelings are generally pretty positive towards him.

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Big thanks to Julian for taking the time to share these choice selections. He certainly elevated the game, and maybe even gifted us all a few extra IQ points. Contact high!

Spend some time with a Julian Lynch record this weekend. You won’t regret it! If you’re feeling sinister - you can purchase his entire discography for a mere $35 from his Bandcamp.

Peace and love!

Dan