| Aside from a mountain of mindbending
music , here’s a couple of things that have made the madness
more bearable.
Mc Sweeney’s is a publishing company that
utilises top quality wood pulp for it’s papers, soy inks for
their printing, they’re brighter & darker & last longer,
top quality bindings, embossed covers, gold thread decorations &
classic proportions. They make bookcraft an artwork in itself. The
medium & the message come together perfectly in their
MC SWEENEY’S QUARTERLY CONCERN ISSUE NUMBER 13, the latest
volume in a series edited for them by novelist David Eggers. This
time Eggers has handed over control to comic artist & historian
Chris Ware, who has produced a remarkable 260 page special on comics.
But the fun starts before you even get to the
frontpage, the cover is a work of art in itself, beautifully coloured
& goldleafed it folds out into a mock Sunday newspaper comics
page, turn it over & the contents of the book are displayed.
But that’s not all, tucked into the paper pocket are 2 miniature
comics.
Open the book & you begin a journey through
the history of comics, beginning with a reprint of what is reputed
to be the very first & then follow a word & picture overview
of an incredibly vital & enduring populist art form that has
constantly evolved & mutated in unexpected ways. Examples of
all the greats past, present & future are lavishily reproduced,
many commisioned especially for this book. It’s a fascinating
visual record. The sheer sensual pleasure of reading this book is
almost somatic, it pleases more senses than most. Along with Todd
Schorr’s Dreamland ( see a previous rave ) undoubtedly the
must have book of the year.
I’ve done a U turn & tracked down the
first books by 2 authors I’ve raved about & recommended
previously, Howard Bloom’s Global Brain & Jerry Stahl’s
Undercover Naked.
Bloom’s first, LUCIFER PRINCIPLE is a fascinating,
beautifully written, meticulousy researched revolutionary examination
of the existence of “evil”, drawing together genetics,
human behaviour & culture to argue that “evil” is
intrinsic to our basic biological fabric & a natural bi product
of nature’s evolution. Stimulating & provocative, he laces
his treatise with fascinating examples to substantiate his theory
& moves along so briskly that like it’s successor, your
intellect is constantly stretched & your attention rivetted.
Jerry Sahl’s first novel “PERV –
A LOVE STORY is a dark journey through the underbelly of the late
60s that reads like Catcher In The Rye on really bad acid. Not as
leavened with humour as it’s followup, it’s a harrowing
twisted morbidly fascinating examination of social & personal
disintergration.You get a metallic taste in your mouth. The perfect
read while listening to Black Cab’s rockumentary Altamont
Diary album. But hey, any book that boasts raves from James Ellroy,
Lydia Lunch, Jim Carroll, Nick Tosches & the late Hubert Selby
Jr has to merit at least a couple of hours out of your life.
In 2003 there was a seminal artshow held in San
Francisco featuring 93 cutting edge artists including established
names like Robert Williams & Spain Rodriquez, then future stars
like Todd Schorr, montagist Winston Smith, Tim Biskup, Ron English,
the Clayton brothers & more. I didn’t make it to the show
either, but you can pickup the catalogue for the exhibit called
SCI FI WESTERN. Each artist was given total freedom with one stipulation,
that they must include the 2 elements of science fiction & the
western in the work & what makes the large format 100 page plus
book so entertaining is the variety, imagination & vision that
each artist brings to the theme, some literal, some tangental, some
simply off the map.
Eraserhead Press is a collective publishing organization
with a mission to create a new genre for bizarre literature. They
want to tear down convention, explode from the underground &
use all the the elements that make independent films “cult”
films displayed twice as wildly in their fiction. CARLTON MELLICK
111 is the guy behind it all & has printed the works of a number
of authors in the genre & most notably his own prolific output
including titles like Satan Burger, Electric Jesus Corpse &
The Baby Jesus Buttplug. I think you get the idea. They’re
works of audacious imagination, outrageous extremes & brash
self indulgence. A good portal in is his novella RAZOR WIRE PUBIC
HAIR. As the author himself says “ It’s all just sex.
Not porn, not erotica, but all sex. I believe this world is an ugly/beautiful
one to live in “ There’s shades of William S Burroughs
& David Cronenberg in the surreal tale, but how often have you
read a book that hurtles you through a grotesque sexual futurescape
from the point of view of an alien sex toy?
I never buy or read newspapers, but there’s
some excuses for entering your local newsagency, very often the
only portal to culture & ideas in an otherwise desert of mediocrity.
Even if they don’t stock what you want they can always get
it. Here’s my print picks.
JUXTAPOZ is an American bi monthly magazine of
art & culture ( they also do 2 special issues per year ) that
keeps your eyes on the alternative visual scene, both old &
mind bogglingly new.
THE WIRE is the most intelligent best written
monthly music magazine that focuses on a sonic world that you ever
new existed. This is the real so called alternative.
WALLPAPER is a weighty visual delight that encompasses
the best of the best of the material world in design, interiors
& architecture. A decadent delight.
WORD magazine is full of them, edited by NME veteran
Paul Du Noyer, erudite analysis, substantial interviews & detailed
articles that are not always running for the next cultural bandwagon
to jump upon.
UNCUT still leads the consumerist music magazine
scene. The great thing is that’s not just about music, it’s
book & movie coverage is concise & coherent.
MOJO should thank it’s lucky stars that
it gives away an occasionally interesting free CD, the magazine
itself is poorly & shallowly written & they make mountains
out of musical molehills, although the black & white photography
is excellent.
Of course Brian Wise’s RHYTHMS magazine
is a quality undersupported overview of the rootsy end of spectrum
that reflects the enthusiasm, dedication & taste of it’s
editor & crowds in an amazing amount of information minus the
page after page of ads that you’re normally pay for.
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