Years after defending his dissertation, perhaps unable to adapt or evolve, he appeared stuck in an eternal limbo that would give any student the night sweats. On the other hand, John seemed an extreme version of a kind of intellectual ideal. Wasn’t the freedo…

Prop up the front, the back falls downAll around the canyons of L.A. town
J.J. Cale, Downtown L.A. (1982)
It was a warm Tuesday in January 2012 when I introduced myself to John. He was lying on his…