Poppets on the Bookshelf

Here is a 4 minute journey featuring a bunch of poppets checking out a bookshelf.

It is quite a trip. On how many bookshelves can one go from a book on Duran Duran to the works of Neil Gaiman without missing a beat?

Poppets on a Book Tour was directed by Alia and Kirkpatrick



Thanks to Omnivoracious for the lead

"You'll never find us and we're rarely open."

Lloyd and Lenore Dickman are booksellers with perhaps one million books. But they don't advertise, don't keep regular hours, and are located on a farm in rural Wisconsin. Oh, and one of their twelve (!?) buildings-full-of-books is in a former manure tank remodeled to look like a castle. Bill Geist recently profiled this charming and wildly-endearing couple for CBS.

Now, I have to go check plane fares to Wisconsin...

UPDATE (5/23/08): Recently came across the store's exact contact info/location: County Road K in Markesan, WI. 920-398-3375.

Death of a Bookstore Trailer

Video trailers are becoming part of the standard marketing plan for many publishers but this is the first time I have seen one created for a bookshop that's closing its doors!

To promote their going out of business sale Loome Antiquarian Booksellers in Stillwater, Minnesota has created this trailer featuring vignettes of books acting "out their favorite literary death scenes."



The background music is a bit devilish and there is a little too much book violence for my taste but it is a pretty clever piece. Watching it a couple times I couldn't help but think that it seemed too happy, too misdirected for a piece announcing the closing of a bookshop.

Well, it all made sense - the music, the book violence, the seemingly upbeatness of it all-when I found out that there are two Loome bookshops in Stillwater, the other being Loome Theological Booksellers "the largest secondhand dealer of theological books in the world," which isn't going anywhere.


Thanks to Bibliophile Bullpen for the lead

The Guinness Book

Guinness is running a great new ad that ends in a hail of books. The huge domino sequence "culminates with the pages of 10,000 books flipping open to create a giant pint of Guinness."



Bravo.

Nicole Martin has the scoop on the making of the commercial in her piece in the Telegraph UK.


Thanks to Lee Kottner for the lead

Taliban Sexuality

Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak struck visual gold when he came across these photos at a photo studio in downtown Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban. Photographing any living entity was banned under the strict Islamic code of the Taliban yet there is a long history, whether for identification purposes or for pleasure, of the Taliban being photographed.

"Kandahar, a city of Pashtuns noted for their gaiety, so to speak, where Mullah Omar had made his final headquarters, has traditions of men in high-heeled sandals, with make-up of kohl and painted nails like sultry silent-movie stars. They liked to have their pictures taken and, because the Taliban most certainly needed passports, their vanities were accommodated in the hole-in-
the-wall photo shops that exist in downtown Kandahar."

In 2003 Trolley Books in London published a collection of these photos unearthed by Dworzak.


Slate magazine has a 7 + minute video tour through the images that appear in the book including commentary by Dworzak





Thanks to Slog for the lead

A Dark Alphabet Book Comes to Life

Here is an amazing video tribute to Edward Gorey's sinister alphabet book the Gashlycrumb Tinies. The film is the work of Matt Duplessie of Clandestiny




Thanks to BookGirl for the lead

The Patron Saint of Booksellers and My Vote For The Patron Saint of Bibles

St John of God
From Patrons and Protectors: More Occupations
Art and Commentary by Michael O'Neil McGrath, OSFS. 2002

Yep we got one too. I am not sure if we are all covered, I'll have to ask my rabbi, but St. John of God is our man.

Like many of us he had no trouble "taking part in the gambling, drinking, and pillaging that his comrades enjoyed." He eventually cleaned up his act and then "A vision at age 41 brought him to Granada where he sold books from a little shop."

And here is my vote for the Patron Saint of Bibles.

Dan "Southpaw"Smith. Smith is "a storyteller-preacher. He strives to model the teaching style of Jesus, who was a master storyteller. Smitty doesn't just tell fluff stories to entertain, though. He's always going somewhere and you're always left whispering (in the words of Keanu Reeves), 'Whoa.' "

and here is his classic 2004 video, "Baby Got Book"




Thanks to Garrett Scott for the St John of God lead and Jim Watts of Iconic Books for the Dan "Southpaw" Smith lead

Roethke Lives

The premier of David Wagoner's one-act play First Class opened last night at Seattle's A Contemporary Theatre (ACT).

For Wagoner the play is a "remembrance of his friend and mentor, the legendary poet Theodore Roethke. In this world premiere, you’re a student in Roethke’s classroom. Why does art matter? When does genius become madness? And what does it mean to live a passionate life? Please discuss."

Seattle actor John Aylward plays the lead and does so so convincingly that Wagoner says "he's absolutely channeling Roethke in many instances."

Roethke is a legend around these parts. His time here in Seattle raised the literary stakes for the region. In addition to Wagoner his students at the University of Washington included Richard Hugo, James Wright and Carolyn Kizer.

The play is a must see for anyone interested in a glimpse of how influential he was as a teacher and as a poet.

The ACT blog has numerous videos and links about Roethke and the play.

The Roethke Readings: Meter and Madness (co-produced with Eleventh Hour Productions) will follow many of the performances. The program is inspired by the early 20th-century nightclub Cabaret Voltaire and will feature readings, dance, and music.

Here is an awesome one minute trailer for the Roethke Readings:


Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers has also published a broadside for the event featuring David Wagoner's poem The Rosebush: a memory of Theodore Roethke and a photograph of Roethke taken by legendary Northwest photographer Mary Randlett.

The King of the Street

A couple of months back I posted a video about New York's street booksellers. Now I bring you a 3 1/2 minute video of the king of street booksellers.

His "shop" is in Chennai, India. He has been there for 60 years and I am not sure if he's ever left. "This is my business for life I know no other" he says.

He goes on:
"The government doesn't want to help us. Government wants people to remain ignorant. If people started to read they might vote for others so the government gives no importance to education."

Now that's street smarts.

Pop-Up Comes Alive

The Pop-Up Music Video award goes to:

ShitDisco for "OK"


Awesome.

Thanks to Popular Edge Book Arts Blog the blog of pop-up artist Carol Barton for the lead.

Wilde Times

"The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands." - Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism

Aside from his success as an author and playwright Wilde was also a major celebrity in Victorian London. In many respects his celebrity mirrors the path of many of today's celebrities (Martha Stewart and Paris Hilton immediately come to mind) where the prevailing culture hoists them up then tears them down with no mercy.

My Wilde phase took place in England in the mid 80's. I was studying in London and The Smiths were on top of the music world. My roommate was a young innocent looking kid from Wisconsin who was infatuated with Morrissey. His passion was contagious and soon I was hooked too. There is a line in the Smith's song Cemetry Gates "A dreaded sunny day so I meet you at the cemetry gates Keats and Yeats are on your side while Wilde is on mine." That is where it began. I had a copy of Oscar Wilde's collected works by my side for the rest of the semester.

The power of Oscar Wilde is still all around us. Somewhere in the world I am sure a production of one of plays is being planned or staged and not a year goes by without some other other artist, filmmaker or musician paying tribute to Wilde in their work.

Here are a few Wilde related items that I came upon in the last few days.

Anthony Gardner has a great piece in the Sunday London Times, The Oscar sinners, where he recounts the long history of forged Wilde manuscripts with the latest appearance of some questionable documents surfacing this past April at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair. When Wilde was imprisoned and declared bankrupt in 1895 there was an auction of his possessions. "The auction of his house and its contents became such a free-for-all that the police had to be called; as a result, the provenance of a particular document is often impossible to establish." The details are worthy of a biblio-mystery of the highest order.

and here is an 8 minute stop-motion puppet animation on Oscar Wilde by Lucy Knisley who describes herself as "a 20-something artist and cartoonist who still plays with toys and dressup clothes."


and finally, this classic Monty Python skit:




These are still very much Wilde times.

Librarian Couture

Amsterdam's new Central Public Library is set to open in less than two months.

The goal of the new Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam is to become a 21st century "island of knowledge"

They are guided by this beautiful principle:

"The right to information is enshrined in law and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is part of the library's purpose to make these rights a reality. By facilitating the free flow of information the library makes its contribution to a democratic and humane society."

and are well aware of how things work:

"In the 21st century information is synonymous with power. You will notice that if you lack it, -because it's the well informed who have all the advantages and wield the power. The library can provide you with both the source and the access."

They have also decided to have their librarians were uniforms.

Of course there is some resistance to the concept but we're not talking civil service, drive thru threads we're talking Aziz

Here is the 2 minute YouTube fashion show.



There must be some plus-size librarians in Amsterdam.

The library has also opened a new branch in Second Life where I don't think any plus-size avatars exist either.


Thanks to the Dutch libraries blog for the lead

The Newest Library Technology

It is called DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and is now available in many libraries. It is probably one of the most important technologies currently available to libraries for reaching out to the kids they serve.

Here is a clip from a DDR booth at the recent ALA Mid-Winter Meetings in Seattle:





Thanks to the Shifted Librarian for the lead

The New Breed of Booksellers and 'The Bookish Social Networks'

Another instant YouTube biblio classic.

New York's Street Booksellers from Jason Rosette's movie BookWars (via Sean Flannagan)



Flannagan, who among other things, is the associate web director for the seminal cultural establishment the 92nd Street Y in New York City.
His website is Deeplinking.net.
His post "The Big List of Bookish Social Networks" is the most comprehensive I've seen on the subject to date. From LibraryThing and Shelfari to Douban, a "bookish community site aimed at some of the world’s 1.1 billion Chinese speakers". Like Flanaghan "I’ve yet to find a book-oriented social network that’s inspired me to register".

The comment to the post left by a user named lauren is also worth mentioning:

"I just can’t see myself entering all my books instead of, you know, reading them. Listing collector’s items (and old or first-edition books that really serve the purpose of collector items) a-la squirl, sure, maybe if I was bored—the primary purpose of a collection is to show it off. But listing all the books I’ve ever read seems insufferably tedious—the primary purpose of books is reading them!" [or if you are a collector not reading them!].

Do you think anyone on any of those sites has posted a library of books bought exclusively from street booksellers?

March of the Librarians: A Video Tribute to ALA Meeting in Seattle

"Didn't you wonder where your librarians disappeared to last January? Ten thousand of them were in Seattle for an American Library Association convention, and I was there to capture the bizarre congregation on video." nnicck

Hysterical rendition of the meeting. Good Seattle footage. An instant YouTube biblio-classic.

P.S. you can insert any trade show and it works.





Thanks to Jeremy from PhiloBiblos for the lead

The Scroll to the Book: The Last Technological Jump in the Book Trade

Another youTube biblio classic.

This one from a Norwegian TV sketch with English subtitles.

Become A Rare Bookseller

Doesn't get any better than this. Another biblio-classic via YouTube.

A public service type instructional video from a series called "The Significant Occupation Series" circa late 1950's.

A 2+ minute commercial promoting the joys of rare bookselling.




Thanks to Biblio-Technician for the lead

Naked Man Bookseller

Book Patrol's new entry in the YouTube Hall of Fame.

Must be something in the desert.

Book Watch

Historically, the relationship between our eyes and books was a simple one. Our eyes scanned printed pages producing symbols for our brain to work with. We read.

Somewhere along the line book design added another visual component to the mix through cover art and dust jacket design. This change was so profound that today most people who are browsing in a bookstore for something to read rate the cover art as the most important factor when purchasing a book.
Now we are at the next visual intersection.

Videos and books.

Lets start with this one from YouTube. A video by lestyoubejudged showing off books from her library accompanied by the Beatle's song "Paperback Writer":



A novel idea for sure but then the magic spreads.

This link will bring you to the 28 video responses to the video above.

So not only are we getting a visual trip through the books that are important to each reader but we are also getting a sound component. Books-Video-Sound. A blending of the senses that until now have rarely mingled together in this format. It is impossible to know where this will lead but the certainty is that the boundaries between these elements have been shattered.

Then there is the new fad of video trailers for books. Not as utilitarian as the book videos above because of the involvement of the publishers but nonetheless a new marriage. Did you know there was already The Book Video Awards!

Here is one definition of these videos from BookShorts:

Short films based on books -- averaging 3 to 5 minutes, released with a suite of behind-the-scenes screen features about the book, author, and filmmakers. They are broadcast on television, the Internet, in bookstores, festivals, live events.

Visual cliff notes for the tv generation. This will clearly be a growth area for publishers and advertisers and is sure to siphon advertising and marketing dollars from the print world. Another quiet storm.

Two other sites in this genre worth a peek:
Book Trailerpark
Vidlit while you're here don't miss "Santa Lives" by Ellis Weiner. I have no idea how it relates to the book but it was an enjoyable couple of minutes.

New York Times Does Letterpress

Nice article in the NYT Sunday Arts & Lesuire section entitled "Retro Printer, Grounding the LaserJet"

Of course there is the customary "In the compter age, the old-fashioned letterpress is enjoying a resurgence" line that we have been hearing pretty much yearly for the last 20 years but hey at least they keep writing about it.

My favorite line comes from Kitty Maryatt, director of Scripps College Press, who says "It is the romance of the impression of letter pressed into paper" Wow! Love thy printer now!

To keep the momentum going here are some letterpress related links:

First this great video "Leader's in Yesterday's technology" courtesy of Graphic Touch Letterpress Company


Pics of the Stern & Faye Printing Farm in Sedro-Wooley, Washington

And David Rose's comprehensive website Introduction to Letterpress Printing in the 21st Century

Enjoy.

photo above courtesy of Scripps College website