The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto

Reading this book you can actually smell Manhattan circ. 1953. Bernard DeVoto was a Historian, who wrote the ultimate love object (the book of course) to the serious art of drinking, and drinking well. The man has a strong hatred for the drink "Manhattan" as well as Rum. In fact he hates all sweet cocktails with a passion. And if you think you should add that olive to the martini, forget it. Cocktail is not a food, its a drink.

The great thing about the book is the packaging - all the original illustrations are here, and it makes you think that there was a better time once, a time where you can control your world. "The Hour" is such a time when you have the perfect (unsweet) cocktail in a location that serves your aesthetic and well-being.

Pullman Fictionalizes Jesus (or rather, re-fictionalizes Jesus)

Just after Paul Verhoeven's Jesus of Nazareth dealt with the historical Jesus, Philip Pullman gives us a fictionalized portrait of the Man, God, what have you...

Is this the season of Jesus or something? How great is it that two of the most controversial creative talents working today have written books on Jesus? Verhoeven has been threatening to make a film of Jesus' life for years now--maybe Pullman should write the screenplay...

The book begins with the birth of Mary and soon moves into her betrothel to Joseph. The sixteen year old Mary gives birth to twins Jesus and Christ. Jesus becomes a miracle worker while Christ becomes the biographer of sorts. Enter some sort of angel (as described by the writer Christ) who convinces Christ to write Jesus' story in such a way that a massive religion will result from the resultant biography's architecture.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is an interesting fictional take on the "greatest story ever told" (to borrow the phrase from the film of the same name). Maybe not the greatest story ever told, but certainly one of the most pivotal in human history--for better or for worse.

As Pullman writes on the back of the book:

"The story I tell comes out of the tension within the dual nature of Jesus Christ, but what I do with it is my responsibility alone. Parts of it read like a novel, parts like a history, and parts like a fairy tale; I wanted it to be like that because it is, among other things, a story about how stories become stories."

Go tell it Phil!

This is recommended reading for non-Christian and Christian alike.

Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow

Emma Rutherford's wonderful book Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow tells the story of shadow portraiture...

If you were a child of the eighties, you might remember having a shadow portrait of your tiny head. Whether this practice at schools still endures, I do not know. But, I was always fascinated with silhouettes and shadows generally. The effect on my imagination has always been considerable. So, when my eyes came across Rutherford's beautiful book I was absolutely taken with it. The silhouette, or the shadow, is what I think of when I hear the music of Burial (the UK electronic musician)... a procession of spectral shadows moving past glittering lights. His is the closest audio representation of shadows.

Rutherford's writing in the introduction perfectly captures the quality of the silhouette:

"A silhouette is both something and nothing, a negative and a positive. In today's world of Technicolor imagery, silhouettes appear gothic and gloomy, even ghostly, devoid as they are of visual information. There is no play of light and shade upon the sitter's face to describe the subtleties of age and expression as in other forms of portraiture--where is the personality, the eyes that are windows to the soul?...Their very "blackness" is enough to make some viewers feel repelled, as if they are staring into the void. Yet, in their heyday in the eighteenth century, they were described as the 'truest representation that can be given of man.'"

Rutherford quotes Sir David Piper as saying (in his book The English Face) a silhouette "is not really a portrait at all: in its basic form it is made by tracing the shadow--it is not merely a portrait of one's shadow, it is virtually the actual shadow, stilled and fixed on paper."

And this is sort of what you get in this book... The portrait of King George III... An unknown lady with a tall hat... A panoramic by Anna Maria Garthwaite of A house and grounds... Beautiful blue shadow portraits by Lady Dorothy Bradshaigh of Roger Palmer and Miss Palmer... A scene of hunters entering the woods...

Below are some of the photographs of silhouette portraiture. A great book.

David Remnick's Portrait of Barack Obama

David Remnick's biography The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama attempts to construct the most 'complete' account of his subject's life to date...

Obama may not have turned out to be what liberals, independents and defecting Republicans had hoped for; many may have been dazzled by his rhetorical genius, only to watch helplessly as he demonstrated to his people and the whole world what we've always subconsciously known, but thought he might be able to change: that (even though popular support swept him into office) the ones who determine the course of this country have been and will always be banks and corporations.

But that is no reason not to read of what led a son of an economist and anthropologist--a man who would become President from the humble roots of a community organizer--to bow down to the financial masters...

Remnick's book stresses again and again Obama's talent for conciliation, finding common ground amongst multiple points-of-view. And maybe Obama doesn't enjoy the power wielded by the financial elites but simply had no choice when faced with economic collapse.

This book can be read in many ways... I choose to read it as a Shakespearean tragedy.

EDIT: Now with Goldman-Sachs being investigated by the SEC, there might yet be a redemptive side to this story. Who knows?

Tosh Talks! Photos, records, mods and more!

Vollman Deconstructs Femininity Through Noh Theater

Vollman's latest non-fiction effort Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater also considers (according to the author himself) "Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, Kabuki Godesses, Porn Queens, Housewives, Makeup Artists, Geishas, Valkyries and Venus Figurines...

When Vollman writes (which is at a furious pace), he often chooses to look underneath the veil of subjects not given mainstream consideration, or comes at an historical subject and events from unexpected angles. That the resultant study is a book of fiction or non-fiction is immaterial or, at least, incidental.

So when it was announced that the author's new book would be about Noh Theater, fans of his work were not surprised but rather intrigued and expectant. How would Vollman approach the subject? What other related material would make its way into the book? How would he give his the readers both what they expected (a kaleidoscopic vision of the world and its tentacles) but still surprise them with leftfield insights: to put the reader inside his brain in order to see the worlds through his eyes?

Well, Vollman seems to address these questions in the first few lines of his introduction:

"Deaf, dumb and illiterate in Japanese, innocent of formal study in any discipline of art, a graceless dancer afflicted with bad eyesight, I may not be the perfect author for an essay on Nogh drama. Fortunately, this is no essay, but a string-ball of idle thoughts*... In brief, rather than a primer prepared by a Noh expert, this short book is an appreciation, sincere and blundering, resolutely ignorant, riddled with prejudices and insights of an alien, a theatergoer, a man gazing at femininity. "

The asterisk indicating a footnote that elaborates:

"*Moreover, it's not precisely about Noh drama, either. Whatever mistakes of fact I make, few people will catch them, even should my ignorance someday be exposed by translation into Japanese."

So, there you have it... I won't ruin the experience for you. Follow Vollman's prejudicial meanderings of Noh and femininity!

Mr. Vollman is presenting and signing Kissing the Mask tonight at Book Soup. Signed copies will be available for purchase online and in-store following the signing.

Francis Wheen Peers Into The Golden Age of Paranoia

Francis Wheen, author of How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusion, has returned with another book chronicling the 1970s entitled Strange Days Indeed: The 1970s: The Golden Age of Paranoia.

One of my favorite non-fiction books of the 2010...

Within you learn that retired British Generals had formed private armies 'to save the country from anarchy,' industrialists plotted coup d'etats and how E. Howard Hunt had described the Watergate break-in seven years before the incident in his novel On Hazardous Duty. It turns out that in 1946 Hunt beat out both Gore Vidal and Truman Copote for a Guggenheim Fellowship to finance his novel Stranger In Town. What the fuck? Of course, there is plenty of Nixon. How Nixon enjoyed a private screening of Patton, not for pleasure, but according to Wheen, for "business." Five days later Nixon announced the American and South Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, promising the nation "We will not be humiliated... We will not be defeated." He must have really enjoyed George C. Scott's monologue.

In many ways this book is a non-fiction companion piece to works of fiction like Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow and Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus Trilogy, or even the work of Kurt Vonnegut.

One of my favorite excerpts from the book is Wheen paraphrasing Carl Oglesby (former student leader) writing for Ramparts magazine in the article 'In Defence of paranoia.' Wheen writes:

"[Oglesby argued] that recent events had demolished the assumptions of Stone and Hofstadter: instead of leading to political madness, the paranoid style might be the necessary prerequisite for retaining one's political sanity--an echo of the 'anti-psychiatry' popularized at the time by R.D. Laing, who held that schizophrenics and paranoids were the only people sane enough to see that the world is deranged."

How do ape descendants get to the point where the ordering structure of society produces paranoia? Fascinating.

Gary Calamar & Phil Gallo, two record store vets, present and sign Record Store Days: From Vinyl to Digital and Back Again...

Record Store Days is a great book to have out now in print: to celebrate the sonic beauty of vinyl in a digital age that has somehow, against all odds, re-embraced the sound of analog. Maybe it has something to do with nostalgia and a desire to be authentically hip. But, I like to think that it has more to do with a growing realization amongst newer music lovers that analog simply sounds better, and that it is a wonder to be able to go into a record shop and be able to ask questions and meet people who know something about the music they're selling and buying.

This type of cultural interaction just isn't possible on Itunes or Amazon. Yes, buyers and sellers can write up reviews and trade information via message boards. But... it's the not the same as meeting a person in a record store who shares your love for The Del Vikings' perfect mono recording of "Whispering Bells" or who will be able to give you a recommendation or five if you happen to be a Stooges fan. "Whispering Bells" will always sound better on vinyl, pumped through a set of nice speakers, than through a set of crappy headphones attached to an Ipod.

If we as a society completely remove this possibility from the social landscape, it's just one more link in the chain that separates us from one another. It's just one more reason to never leave the house. And how boring is that?!

And so Calamar and Gallo celebrate the glory of record stores with a history of them in a nicely packaged book with a foreword by Peter Buck of R.E.M.

Do yourself two favors: 1) Get this book, and 2) Buy vinyl for Christ's sake (and let Steve Jobs have his digital empire).

Peter T. Leeson reveals the Invisible Hook

A professor of economics examines the economic life of the pirate...

Leeson, in his introduction, admits he's not an historian. And this isn't so much a pirate history as a portrait of pirate economics, hierarchy and democracy.

He states:

"Normally, we define and distinguish societies by individuals' citizenship of, residence in, and allegiance to particular nations and governments. None of these traditional demarcators of society make sense in the context of pirates, however. Although born as citizens of recognized countries, most pirates had abandoned associations with their governments before the age of thirty... [they] heeded no flag but the black one they sailed under. They boasted that 'they acknowledged no countrymen' and 'had sold their country' and would 'do all the mischief they could.'"

This is an interesting thought because typically we don't think of pirates coming from anywhere, as though they spontaneously come into being as fully-formed societal misfits. They relinquish one economy which they cannot control for one that they could. Sounds romantic, doesn't it? Wouldn't we all love to excuse ourselves from the world economy?

As we've seen from movies and read in fiction, or history books, there was a hierarchical structure, a system for maintaining order. It may seem something of a paradox, but Leeson calls this mechanism the 'Pirate Democracy.' Here arises the paradox presented any government: if someone (a Pirate Captain, in this case) is given power, how do the subjects ensure that power isn't abused? Well, the pirates utilized a form of democracy by which one pirate one vote was the law. And upon being elected to the office of Captain, the Captain-Elect would vow to be faithful to the pirate's society and its customs. There were even separation of powers through other officer pirates, such as the Quarter-Master (similar to the Roman Tribunes, elected officials who could check, or basically veto Senate lawmaking, or the decisions of the two Consuls).

Leeson in Chapter 3, AN-ARRGH-CHY: THE ECONOMICS OF THE PIRATE CODE, Leeson writes that "[c]ontrary to conventional wisdom, pirate life was orderly and honest. This isn't counterintuitive on recollection of pirates' purpose, which was profit." The incentive was strong for 'social harmony,' which would allow them to gather more plunder. How did they do this? By establishing rules outlawing thievery aboard ship (ironic), minimizing the problem of free-riding or excessive drinking beyond certain hours (no way!)...

That's just a taste of what you'll find in this book. I highly recommend it.

Barry Miles "London Calling"

London Calling: A Countercultural History of London Since 1945 by Barry Miles


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm a long term Barry Miles fan. I guess one can consider him as a cultural historian, but he also witnessed many aspects of his own field of interest. Which is American Beat/British Hippie/pop music cultural life. He was also a close associate of Paul McCartney in the mid to late 1960's, as well as a co-writer on McCartney's interesting memoir.

Miles has written biographies on American Beat Greats, as well as his own memoir of London life during the Sixties. But"London Calling" is sort of his masterpiece, and although not historically perfect (some names are wrong, or the wrong artist with the wrong piece), he captures something more important, and that is the life blood of various countercultural youth movements from post-war London to now.

It may be age or perhaps the current social life of London is not that interesting to Miles, but for sure the past is full of colorful characters and various causes in the U.K. capital. From Teddy Boys to British Beats (and how they mixed in with Burroughs/Ginsberg) to the Mods, to the Hippies, and then to the punks is really five or six books in this one volume.

But each section is really alive with details about life then, and I would think a young reader would want to check out the literature/visuals of the various underground movements that took place in the mid to late 20th Century. Also in detail it explains the importance of London as a location as well as an iconic fantasy land of sorts.

This book is by no means the ultimate history, for that you need to read at least fifty other books on the subject of London's subculture. But this is an excellent introduction to a world with great possibility and sometimes disappointment. But the adventure to go from zero to 10 is a magnificent ride.