James Pravasilis – The A**hole’s Guide To Everyday Living Book Spotlight

The Asshole’s Guide To Everyday Living

A satirical yet real perspective on individualism, sovereignty, spiritualism and social discourse through the eyes and ears of the every man/woman/they/it/them/mammal that hates the taste of kale, has no time or patience for kundalini breathing exercises and is just trying to get through life with as minimal damage as possible in the “New Normal.”

Humor is the best medicine and this book provides a nice dose of haha’s for those of us who are fed up and aren’t pulled into the manufactured polarity and manipulation that is high jacking our individual consciousness.

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Book Excerpt

Prologue, Pages VII-VIII

At the time of this writing, the world as we know it has lost its fuckin’ mind! Narcissists, psychopaths, and morons have breached the ethos of good sense, and anyone within arm’s reach of anything glowing with buttons and access to the interweb has turned into an expert on… well… EVERYTHING!

People eat detergents, use memes as political advice, worship perfect strangers one Tik-Tok at a time, have turned their faces into ducks… ON PURPOSE. We send dick pics as calling cards, watch videos of zit popping (okay, I quite enjoy that actually), post videos of cats giving dogs BJ’s (Google it, I swear). We now invest real money in imaginary coins that no-one can explain or understand because a few elitist billionaires who fly penis rockets into space say it’s cool. Sticks and stones no longer break bones, but trigger words induce anxiety driven conniptions. We stare vapidly at screens, algorithm to algorithm, searching into oblivion. We hold phones that are actually holding us on a 5D leash keeping us addicted to a theatre of distraction. We ingest a steady diet of drama, violence and dysphoria that is constantly accessible at our fingertips. I haven’t even mentioned a virus or the piss-stained bodega basement toilet that has become our government and politics!

So?! Does this sound like a nice lil’ recipe for Assholism? Are you an Asshole? Am I an Asshole? Well… Yes! Sing this next sentence to the Old Dr. Pepper jingle (Google it). You’re an Asshole, I’m an Asshole, wouldn’t ya like to be an Asshole too!? Let’s face it. You can’t avoid it.

Assholed if you don’t, Assholed if you do. As the great philosopher Plato once said: “We’re all the Asshole in someone’s story.”

I figured it’s time for a self-help book for us Assholes who don’t buy into the whole passive aggressive, woo woo, spiritual bypassing, “I only resonate Love”, when in doubt, hug it out (yuk), probiotic, meditate on a mountain, kale-munching, peace-love and granola motherfuckers who spend more time and money “finding peace” than dealing with actuality and circumstances head on.

About the Author, James Pravasilis

Ugh, writing a freakin’ Bio sucks! But, I suppose ya wanna know a little about the guy who wrote this book. Well, that’s me, James Pravasilis (go ahead and call me Jimmy). I’m a born/bred New Yorker from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Now, if any of you reading this know Bay Ridge or Brooklynites, you’ll need no further explanation as to how and why a book called The Asshole’s Guide To Everyday Living came about. For those of you that have never had the distinct pleasure of the un-gentrified, south Brooklyn experience, read on.

Growing up as a little kid in the 70s and 80s as what most people refer to as generation X, we had a much different experience of the world. Sure, there were rotary phones, ugly-ass shag carpets, stickball in the streets, and mothers who drank Tab and chain-smoked enough for their kids to get emphysema. But there was something else. We had to grow up figuring things out for ourselves. Whether it was the street smarts of being a latch-key kid or plagiarizing from outdated encyclopedia Britannica to get through the monotonous, soul-dulling Brooklyn public school system. We had to learn to trust our instincts in everything we did. Building character depended on keen awareness and judgment calls that experiences could only mold in a non-virtual world of immediate consequences.

These experiences created a sense of independence and discernment that taught me to question everything. Trust is something I’ve learned to employ carefully. Now, you might think this would create a sense of paranoia, anxiety, and skepticism fueling the characteristics of a, well… an Asshole, and you are 100% correct! But! It also developed an individual spirit that peers deeper into the different layers of consciousness and life.

This Spirit is what got me picked out of the crowd to perform a short skit with Lassie the dog at Radio City Music Hall at eight years old. It’s what led me to wake up one morning and say, “Ma, I want a guitar,” which led me to become a professional musician and a graduate of the Mannes College of Music. This Spirit continued to do its thing by inspiring me to pursue that small voice inside that said, “Hey, rock star wanna-be, you’re also an actor.” That voice led me to countless stage productions of off and off-off broadway shows and eventually shows such as Ray Donvoan, The Blacklist, The Deuce, Billions, Trial of the Chicago Seven, and I Know This Much is True. The Spirit continued to guide me with writing many short plays and two award-winning short Films, “The Prime” and “Three Grand Souls,” as well as feature films ready for pre-production. And of course, The Spirit gave me a swift kick in the “Nads” the summer of 2020 as I was complaining about the degrading state of the world. Getting tired of my ranting bullshit, a friend turned to me and said, “so why don’t you just write a book and shut the fuck up already?” And just like that, a title popped into my head, and The Asshole’s Guide To Everyday Living was born.