Time Is Nothing (John Frusciante)

Chapter 33

"I'm thinking we should throw away the TV," John declared while mindlessly flipping through some random television channels, half lying on his living room couch and his face expressing a look of complete unimpression.

"Yeah?" Cecilia chuckled, "Care to give me a reason?"

"Nothing good is ever on anymore," John shrugged.

"Like this for an example," he pointed towards the TV with the remote control as his channel search landed on MTV, the music video for "Give It Away" playing and the shimmering image of the four Peppers dancing away in the desert running on the screen.

"Are there any other music videos left at all?" he rolled his eyes and then turned the television off, "Literally every time I open this thing, that video is on."

"Isn't that the whole point of a music video?" Cecilia laughed, "To have it on MTV?"

"Well, it is," John agreed, but then added, "But to an extent. I used to love this video. Now it is just devalueing the music."

"According to the numbers, your music seems to be one of very high value at the moment," Cecilia chuckled again as she eyed the annoyed look on John's face and grinned, putting in some extra effort to jokingly tease him over his latest conviction of the band getting way too much senseless media coverage and attention.

Cecilia still hadn't managed to figure out whether John was completely serious about this recent resentment of their rising popularity, or whether it was just one of his passing artistic notions, but it was certain that ever since the release of "Give It Away" followed by the release of the album some weeks ago, he had become increasingly disgruntled by the reception. The single was steadily climbing the charts day by day and everybody was expecting for it to reach the top at least in the rock charts very soon.

And while the rest of the guys were absolutely stoked by this and couldn't hide their excitement over the success, John's head space seemed to be occupied by sentiments of rather contradicting emotions. He was already convinced that they were on a road to become a yet another commercialized act of music and didn't exactly bother to hide his feelings from anyone. Anthony in particular seemed to be annoyed by John's recent views on true musicianship and it is safe to say that their relationship hadn't really evolved in the best direction since John's decision to ditch him back in Amsterdam. The communication was there, but definitely not as warm as it used to be and all in all it was clear that Flea had become a some sort of mediator between the two.

Cecilia felt rather helpless and sad as she watched John and Anthony's relationship strain away day by day, but there was really nothing she could do about it. She understood both of their points of views and even as she perhaps didn't always agree with John's most eccentric notions, she still felt that her loyalties had to lie with him no matter what. So she tried her best to stay away from the conflict and provide John the best support and understanding she could, hopeful that perhaps things just had to set a bit for the tension to wear off like it had many times before. Things had been perfectly fine with a few exceptions only a few months ago, so Cecilia was hopeful that the situation was just going to resolve itself once the time was right.

"Well, I didn't ask for those numbers. If anything, they show nothing about music's real value," John then grumbled after a moment of silence and now earned a more sympathetic look from his wife.

"Oh, come on," Cecilia lightly smiled and climbed right next to him on the couch, snaking her arms around him and kissing him on the neck, "Let's ditch the grumping for a minute now, shall we? I'll have to go to the studio today to finish setting up. Want to come with me?"

John's expression softened the minute he was taken into Cecilia's embrace, a light smile now creeping on his lips as he answered after a pause of contemplation, "I do. You need help and I'm not into packing for the tour just yet anyway."