Live Event: "Gainsbourg" with the author Gilles Verlant, Translator Paul Knobloch, and TamTam Books' Publisher Tosh Berman

  

ARTBOOK @ Paper Chase, Book Soup and Tam Tam Books invite you to the launch party for Gainsbourg: The Biography.

Join us for a tribute to Serge Gainsbourg, the French singer, songwriter, poet, composer, artist, actor and the country’s most beloved pop export since Edith Piaf. The evening will feature Gainsbourg videos and music, and a discussion with the Biography author, Gilles Verlant, in conversation with translator, Paul Knobloch and Tam Tam publisher, Tosh Berman.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012
7:00 pm

RSVP@dapinc.com

FREE but RSVP required and will be accepted until venue capacity is reached

 

ARTBOOK | Paper Chase

7174 Sunset Boulevard
(corner of Sunset and Formosa)
Hollywood, California

(323) 969-8985

Serge Gainsbourg redefined French pop, from his beginnings as cynical chansonnier and mambo-influenced jazz artist to the ironic “yé-yé” beat and lush orchestration of his 1960s work to his launching of French reggae in the 1970s to the electric funk and disco of his last albums. He was the self-proclaimed ugly lover of such beauties as Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, the iconic provocateur whose heavy-breathing “Je t’aime moi non plus” was banned from airwaves throughout Europe and whose reggae version of the “Marseillais” earned him death threats from the right.

Gilles Verlant’s biography of Gainsbourg is the best and most authoritative in any language. Drawing from numerous interviews and their own friendship, Verlant provides a fascinating look at the inner workings of 1950s–1990s French pop culture and the conflicted and driven songwriter, actor, director and author that emerged from it: the young boy wearing a yellow star during the German Occupation; the young art student trying to woo Tolstoy’s granddaughter; the musical collaborator of Petula Clark, Juliette Greco and Sly and Robbie; the seasoned composer of the Lolita of pop albums, Histoire de Melody Nelson; the cultural icon who transformed scandal and song into a new form of delirium.

Special thanks to the evening's bookseller, Book Soup.

Staff Gift Recommendations: I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan

I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan
by Alan Partridge
At last! The true story of UK's greatest DJ and talk host. Here, Partridge - with great honesty and a bit of wit - writes about the down and down of his world. Oh, and he's a pal of Steve Coogan.

- Tosh

Staff Gift Recommendations: Diary of a Rock 'N' Roll Star

Diary of a Rock N Roll Star by Ian Hunter
One of the great classic rock 'n' roll memoirs is now back in print... in the UK, but we have it! Mott the Hoople's Hunter writes about being on the road with great wit, charm, and insight into the world of rock in 1972. Glam lives! (And Rebekah agrees).

- Tosh

Staff Gift Recommendations: Photographs A-Z & Never Any End To Paris

Photographers A-Z by Hans-Michael Koetzle
Koetzle's favorite and brief survey of the classic photo books of all time. With reproductions of the original layout - Oh, my, my, a classic!

Never Any End To Paris by Enrique Vila-Matas
What sounds like an iconic and cliche book about a foreigner going to Paris to write, becomes an awesome and twisted tale of European literature and its importance. Best novel of the year!

- Tosh

"Ten Walks/Two Talks" by Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch

Inspired by Japanese poet Basho, Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch walk Manhattan as if it was a lost world in the 21st Century. Part of it is straight observations on life as it is in New York, and the second part is a conversation between the two writers as they take their grand walk via the urban landscape. A (very) small book, but also one that is great in meditating the relationship between writer(s) and his city. Keep the senses open and enjoy this walk with our hosts Cotner and Fitch.

Tosh's Picks for the next two weeks

Silent Ozu: (DVD)
Sounds like a machine gun, but it is more powerful than that. Yasujiro Ozu is one of the great Japanese filmmakers..No, one of the great filmmakers in the world. Rarely seen, but much admired the silent era of Ozu’s films are basically dealing with the family unit, and how small things in life can somehow affect the big picture. “I Was Born But…” is a classic look at children doing what they do best – causing chaos!


Ugly Man” by Dennis Cooper
No one writes like Cooper, and the dialogues, which on the surface sound shocking, are actually hysterical. No one captures the gay (or maybe not) male stoned Teenage voice of his characters. Murder? Why not! Or whatever. The beauty of his work is that there is a lot of tenderness, but you have to let it absorb in your system like a fine glass of brandy.


“Big Money” by PG Wodehouse
You want to study writing? Read Wodehouse, and you will get an idea how genius works its magic. 1930’s depression is a great era of suffering and. …humor. This novel by Wodehouse is partly romance, farce, and biting satire on upper scale British life.


“Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom” by Pier Paolo Pasolini. (DVD)
Based on Sade’s writings. Mega-degenerate film of excess and wasted passion during the Italian Fascist era. Sex as seen as a tool of control rather than passion. The great Italian writer/filmmaker’s meditation on sexual perversity and the roots of Fascism.


“Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings” by Marquis De Sade
Sexual energy as a political, aesthetic, and acts of protest against a world that doesn’t realize that they have a penis and vagina. Sade is not only a dirty old man, but a philosopher who understood his times (French Revolution) and place.


“Concrete Island” by JG Ballard
Ballard was one of the few great visionary writers who can capture the horrific dread of everyday life. Imagine you being in a car accident off the side of the freeway, and how would you get back to life. Or life as lived under the Freeway passage. Remarkable nightmare of a novel.


"Nancy Book” by Joe Brainard
The great poet (and artist) obsession on one of the great iconic comic strips of the 50’s Nancy. But Brainard sees Nancy in a very different light. Light witted with a tinge of outrage, Brainard’s work is masterpiece-tastic.


"Girl Factory" by Jim Krusoe
One of the great living American writers, Jim Krusoe tackles the issue of a yogurt shop and manufacturing young ladies in its basement. Witty, funny and profound.


“The Alcoholic” by Jonathan Ames
The God-Like genius of Ames. His graphic novel is hysterical/sad but mostly (really) funny.


“Catalog L.A."
The French argues and shows Los Angeles is the art capital of the world. The one essential book to have in your art library.


"Autumn in Peking” by Boris Vian
Dark funny if one mixed the Marx Brothers with an adventure novel. Vian is a superb writer and wit.

Tosh Talks Part 2 on Art Books

Tosh Talks: The Ferus Gallery

Our Book Buyer Tosh Berman has started his own book show! Here we have Tosh's first episode... sharing in a series about art books on art in LA. We begin with the Ferus Gallery... Let us know what you think and please make requests of future books!

New York Book Soup Diary Part 2

In Manhattan, I have this nasty habit of wanting to head West, but going East instead. Which on one hand makes me late for everything, but on the bright side I find something remarkable on the wrong-way direction:



Now this is a strange building heading towards East 23rd St. From a distance it looks like a slice of a cake. And then I thought the rooms must be really narrow at the end of the hall. I imagine one has a small desk, and if you stretch out your arms you will be touching both walls. It seems like H.G. Wells admired this building, therefore this quote: "I found myself agape, admiring a skyscraper — the prow of the Flatiron Building, to be particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the late-afternoon light. – H.G. Wells (1906)."

Going the wrong direction I passed the famous Hotel Chelsea.




This is a famous hotel where famous dead people lived and did unnatural things. Some of the famous people:


Edith Piaf


Arthur C. Clarke


Jean-Paul Sartre


Jack Kerouac (wrote On The Road at the Hotel

To be cont.

NYC: Tuesday June 26, 2009

For those who are curious about what happens to a bookseller when they go to a major American City to attend the world famous BEA, well.... read somewhere else! No, no I am just kidding.

The image down below is the JFK Airport, named after someone who dated Marilyn Monroe and various other actresses. And strange enough this is exactly what the airport looks like!



After settling into our hotel near the Brooklyn Bridge:



We went to have dinner at one of New York City's top restaurants: White Castle.



For me this was an exotic place to eat. It seems like you can't get a full-sized hamburger here. All the hamburgers are super small, which personally makes no sense to me. I was extremely impressed by the graphics of the store, which is very 1930's Depression, and of course fits in with the new Economy of 2009.




We then had a drink at a well-known hotel in Manhattan called the Algonquin. It is here where Dorothy Parker and various theater people had drinks and goofed off after a hard day working on various poems either in the hotel bar or across the street, which is the New Yorker magazine.



We also saw the famous cat who lives in the hotel. I have been told that this is the same cat who has lived at the hotel since 1906. It seems hard to believe because he (or she) looks very young.



The books I purchased for this trip:


NFT New York 2009 edition

and to read in bed:


Richard Stark's "Lemons Never Lie"

To be cont.












Ti

Books + Innuendo 7... in real time!

Finally, we are getting this show up the same week it was recorded. This week, Tosh loses his cool. Most of us have never seen this before, so it is very well worth listening to. Caroline evaluates her relationship to Baltimore, her home town, through crime novels. And at long last, Charles has to admit that he does not have a microphone while we record and no one can ever hear a word he says to us.
If you want the show super fast, we are now getting it on iTunes right on the very day it is recorded... Subscribe through the fun orange rss square below or search for Books + Innuendo on iTunes. Yay!

Books + Innuendo is back!

Hello all. We know you were beginning to doubt that the illustrious archives of Books + Innuendo would ever all see the light of day. We are working hard on it. And so, here is another episode. It is a mystery- it was recorded many moons ago, so many that this author (in fact one of the hosts) has no memory of what we talked about, only that we had better title recall this time than we did on the first show.

Eventually we'll have them all out and the episodes will be timely and recorded within a week of posting, just like the author podcast is.

It will be a beautiful day. Tell us how you love the show and the day might come a little faster.

Click the magic orange square to subscribe, if you aren't already a stark raving fan who signed up months ago.

At Last! The podcast: Books + Innuendo

So... may moons ago, there was a recording session. And a podcast was born. But the poor thing languished in a hardrive until now. So please excuse us for its out-of-dateness. We have had these files for quite a while, but we are going to release them anyway, because it was too much fun to record to not share it.

Plus, some of you who heard about Tosh's and my show have been asking.

So here is a teaser. Episode 1: (click the magic orange box below)