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I just unpacked my books.
So these are 10 books (and magazines and zines) I
picked from those on my shelves right now.
- 4 French Comedies
It includes Jarry's Ubu Roi, but my favorite is
Professor Taranne by Arthur Adamov. Adamov was an
experimental playwright but Professor Taranne "was the
first time I came out of my pseudo-poetic
no-man's-land and dared to call things by their name".
The intro makes the claim Taranne was all transcribed
from a dream. The result is really, really funny.
- Harper's Bazaar May 2002
For some bizarre fashion photography that's sexier in
a way more dangerous and questioning than Maxim,
Blender and its ilk could ever be.
- Infiltration
I have six issues of this zine about "the joy and
discovery and exploration", namely abandonned
hospitals, various tunnels, sewers and storm drains,
industrial ships, large hotels and civic
buildings...Of course, the activities profiled here
are not exactly legal, but they're great ways to learn
the lost history and geography of your town..if you
don't get caught. The zines I have were a dollar, but
now I think they cost two bucks and they're between 24
and 30 pages in length.
- The Structure of Praise
A singularly designed book
that covers three centuries of religious architecture
in New England. I bought it for the clean, beautiful
but eccentric layout and I'm also happy that the same
care and imaginativeness is found in the text. The
author, Arthur B. Mazmanian, is a sculptor/graphic
designer who attended and thought school in New
England.
- Great Beer Guide
Michael Jackson (not the
surgically-altered guy who sang "Beat it").
This book will encourage you to drink more beer and
less wine which , as a Belgian, is a mission I
completely encourage. Of all the books "The
Beer-Hunter" has written, this one is the best
designed and most easily readable. If all you drink is
Old Style or PBR, do yourself a fave and borrow or buy
this book. This one is only 6.5" tall, so if you're a
total nerd you can even take it to the grocery store
with you.
- Subway Art, Henry Chalfant
Still found in most chain stores after so many years,
this book is a classic and is supposedly the most
shop-lifted book in England. With its companion
Spraycan Art and bootlegs of Wild Style, it helped
spread (and teach) graffiti worldwide. Damn, do I
sound like a retard. Yes, it's a colorful book.
- Lucky Luke Special 1
Morris
This tome collects three early Lucky Luke stories (La
Mine d'or de Dick Digger, Rodeo and Arizona). I keep
going back to it: the drawings are fluid and
effortless, the comic timing is still great and the
coloring is appropriately raw.
- Music and Memory, Bob Snyder
Bob Snyder was a teacher of mine. This book is
published by MIT, but had its beginnnings in his
Composition classes' course packet. Not finding
enough material to teach composition to music
ed-deficient art students (like myself), and most of
the material found being very western music centric,
Bob Snyder started writing... Years later, I have the
book in heavily-annotated syllabus form, and it's
falling apart from readings. I'm buying the published
version this week with my birthday money.
- Hopping Freight Trains in America
Duffy Littlejohn
The title says it all. Unfortunatelly, it's out of
print and pretty rare, but there's copies out there.
[Sometimes you can find this in anarchist bookstores as well as other helpful how to hop info - like maps - M.]
- This last one I'm cheating cuz these books have all
been mentionned by others already. They're all great,
of course: The Autobiography of Malcom X, American
Psycho, Prisonners Inventions and Evguenie Sokolov.
- Peter Moran
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