Acid for the Children: A Memoir

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Someone please do tell him three ominous dots after a sentence is enough. It is. Three. No more. No, it's fine, I promise. Three dots. guess it's just the way he is. He seems to be spur of the moment type of guy and it just comes with the territory.

Kada se sa majkom i očuhom Walterom preseli u Los Angeles, Flea i ovaj grad prepun smoga, palmi i toplote pronalaze zajednički jezik, i on mu se prepušta lutajući njegovim ulicama, upoznavajući nove, čudne i oštećene ljude, prepuštajući se eksperimentisanju sa supstancama koje su mu ili otvarale um ka cijelom svemiru, ili ga zakucavale za pod donoseći samo prazninu, i učeći da svira bas, koji će mu postati krila i prolaz u dubinu sopstvene duše. Ljubavi bez koje ništa ne bi bilo moguće, ljubavi koja se nalazi u svemu - u dobrim stvarima, u lošim iskustvima, književnosti, džezu, u samodestrukciji, gubitku, samoći. Vulnerability, loneliness and the wonder of discovery are key themes in this memoir, and Flea presents difficult stories in a unique light.Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days. Acid for the Children is not an as-told-to, nor is it written "with" someone. These are Flea's words-excitable, jazzy, regretful, disarming, popping and writhing away in his biological bass zone. Insecurities to the fore: He worries that he may be producing "a thorny jumble of trash." But he's actually a lovely writer, with a particular gift for the free-floating and reverberant. He writes in Beat Generation bursts and epiphanies, lifting toward the kind of virtuosic vulnerability and self-exposure associated with the great jazz players....Flea-elegant nutcase, funk-at-high-pressure bassist, wildly cultured and culturedly wild man-has written a fine memoir. You'll put down Acid for the Children with your human sympathies expanded; you'll feel less alone."-- The Atlantic P.S. His childhood love of jazz and learning music is likely one reason he began his Silverlake Conservatory of Music, where my daughter took guitar lessons. Flea raises funds so children of all incomes can attend. Flea details the life that led up to that moment — where “four became one” — in a stoic manner. The memoir follows a basic chronological structure, split into three parts: childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. But aside from this structure, Flea exercises a lot of creative freedom throughout the book. FLEA: ...You know, you get together for Thanksgiving, and they say one thing that might seem innocuous to someone who's not, you know, familiar with your relationship. But to you, it crushes your heart and sends you into a raw, vulnerable frenzy. We have that kind of relationship.

And I find it stunning how much I could identify with the guy. We seem to have pretty much similar psychological setup, and I've even done some of the same shit in my youth. Not that it resulted in any kind of stardom or sublime mastery, like in his case. CORNISH: ...You had the stepfather who's the wild and free but also volatile and violent one. Have you merged those experiences - meaning, like, what kind of father do you think you are as a result? In Acid for the Children, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles. Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s come to gritty, glorious life, including the potential for fun, danger, mayhem, or inspiration that lurked around every corner. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists, and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness, and love. This left him open to the life-changing moment when he and his best friends, soul brothers, and partners-in-mischief came up with the idea to start their own band, which became the Red Hot Chili Peppers. FLEA: He was a pretty scary guy, prone to fits of violence and going into these rages where he would destroy the house. And as a kid, you know, you don't understand this stuff or know how to make sense of it. But I would see him play his instrument in a fury, in an absolute rage - you know, his eyes closed, just, like, in this ether he was propelled into by virtue of his pain. As a kid seeing it, I - though I couldn't intellectualize it, I felt it.

FLEA: I think I improve as a father over time. I think at my worst, I've had the bad elements of both of those guys. And at my best, I'm thoughtful, kind, present, understanding, energetic and a bottomless pit of love who sees the sun rise and set every time his kids walks into the room.