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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Due to our limited financial
resources, ArtCommotion's weekly columns, Booked and Framed, have
been suspended indefinitely. |
Booked
by Tosh Berman October 28 through November 3 |
Matthew Coolidge, from the
Center for Land Use Interpretation wrote a book titled "Nevada Test Site: A
Guide to America's Nuclear Proving Ground." The book is chock full of
photographs and documents. He is now lecturing across Southern California,
and if you like the Museum of Jurrassic Technology then you'll like the
lectures on the Center for Land Use Interpretation. The Center's mission is
to comment, study, and record human interaction with the earth's
surface--including nuclear test sites, strip mines, the Spiral Jetty, and
aqueducts.
Coolidge's road show is at California Institute for the Arts (November 5,
7:00 p.m.), Beyond Baroque (November 9, 8:30 p.m.), Art Center College of
Design (November 12, 7:30 p.m.) and one of my favorite general bookstores
Midnight Special (November 26, 7:00 p.m.). For more information call 310.839.5722 or e-mail: clui@sirius.com. The web site for the Center for Land Use Interpretation is: http://loft-gw.zone.org/clui.html.
Posted 10/28
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Nancy Agabian, my favorite
Armenian princess, will read her witty work on October 26 with Shahe
Manderian at the Glendale Public Library Auditorium on 222 East Harvard
Street, Glendale. This reading is part of a project called "Literary
Corner" that focuses on Armenian writers and poets.
Upcoming events in the series are a "Feminist Literary Criticism" night
with Rita Vorperian (in Armenian); and a poetry reading with Alec Ekmekji,
Arpine Konyalian Grenier, and Silva Varjabedian. For more information
please call 818.546.2821.
Posted 10/28
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Tiki News, Issue No. 8 has just
hit the stands. Its the travel issue, and it features an interview with the
legendary songwriter Bobby Troup plus cocktail recipes by Brother Cleve of
Combustilble Edison--yummy! Pick up a copy of Tiki News at AMOK Bookstore
on Vermont Blvd.
Posted 10/28
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Brian Baltin is the coolest
person I've ever met and he's reading at
AMOK Bookstore on November 7 at 8:00 p.m. I have a hunch that Baltin is
really the son of Mickey Spillane and Patricia Highsmith. His writing is
charged, especially when it concerns homosexual porn, cheap pulp
writing, and British and Japanese juvenile delinquent film from the
sixties. He is also the editor of Intent to Kill, one of the better of
the way-out-there zines. For more information on the reading call AMOK
at 213.665.0956
Posted 10/22
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High Risk Books is no more! A
press release from the parent company, Serpent's Tail, announced the end.
High Risk's head honcho, Ira Silverberg, said, "While the High Risk imprint
brought both visibility and prestige to Serpent's Tail, these benefits were
not enough to outweigh the demand of increased returns and lower advances
from the stores. Thus, our UK publisher has chosen a path which is geared
to decreasing overhead in an effort to create better economics for the
house."
Serpent's Tail publisher Pete Ayrton said, "Due to difficult trading
conditions and excessive and unpredictable returns, Serpent's Tail will
close its U. S. office on December 20, 1996." Silverberg will stay on
through the end of the year to see the spring list into production. Those
titles include books by the visionary performance
artist/playwright/poet/writer Jack Smith and a collection of essays by
Lynne Tillman and Kathy Acker.
High Risk editors Amy Scholder and Ira Silverberg gave us books by Benjamin
Weissman, William S. Burroughs, Renaud Camus, David Trinidad, and Lynn
Tillman, to name a few. For anyone who loves edgy, nervy writing the end of
High Risk is very sad news.
Posted 10/14
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"The Eye of the Needle,"
written by Ralph Rugoff, is a catalog of an exhibition of art by Hagop
Sandaldjian that took place at the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
Sandaldjian made microminiatures of subjects such as Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, Donald Duck, and Pope John, among others. These are amazing
sculptures that you cannot see with the naked eye because they're comprised
of specks of dust and perhaps a single strand of hair. The only way to
view these microminatures is through a microscope.
Rugoff's descriptions of Sandaldjian's work habits are a total delight.
Rugoff tone is warm and friendly and his reports on Sandaldjian's methods
are as detailed as the microminiatures themselves. Each sculpture takes
approximately 14 months of a very steady hand and lots of patience.
Sandaldjian even studied yoga so he could control his breathing.
Posted 10/14
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Hot off the press! "Michael
Jackson Was My Lover: The Secret Diary of Jordie Chandler" by
Victor M. Gutierrez, published anonymously out of Santiago, Chile, and
available at Different Light Bookstore in West Hollywood. At last the truth
is out. If you don't believe me just read the inside flap: Adrian McManus,
Michael Jackson's ex-personal maid says, "This book shows the truth I
confronted daily but was so afraid to tell." Even the great TV journalist
Diane Dimond of "Hard Copy" says "Victor Gutierrez is the only journalist
that investigated the Jackson case better than our program, and we were
number one." The book presents pictures and documents such as Jordie's
bank account, his drawings of his dad, photographs of Jordie's room,
Jackson's collection of Jordie's underwear (including some with shit and
urine stains), and Jordie's drawing of Jackson's penis. Run out and buy
this book right now.
Posted 9/30
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