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June 7, 2005
POETRY ON THE BOWERY
On Saturday, June 4, I took a break from the Expo hustle to see poets Kim Rosenfield and (San Francisco's own) Rob Halpern read at the Bowery Poetry Club. What a treat. Kim read from a series called re:evolution which included surprising uses of scientific language, and she even sang (!) a few jazzy numbers about molecular chains and chemical processes.
Rob, who recently read at Modern Times for the release of his book Rumored Place, started out with a piece called "Music for Porn" that drew me right into the sweaty, heady, politically inflected space his writing makes. He followed with excerpts from email correspondences with Tyrone Williams, whose book c.c. informed the writing of Rumored Place. This provided a helpful and eloquent framework for understanding some of the themes Rumored Place takes on and takes apart: poems that explore or invent "holes in the social fabric" of "the continuous empire that our present seems to have become." Rob also talked about the historical present being haunted by the possibility of, simply put, a better world.
Then he launched into the poems. My impression was of fragments of landscapes wasted by industry and empire that nevertheless shimmered with poetic intensity. There would be bone fields and all of a sudden the poem would veer and "we" would be waist deep in lake water, surrounded by floating petals.
Rumored Place is thoughtful and theoretical and definitely holds appeal for those with a taste for so-called experimental writing. But you can also experience the piece as a kind of music: Rob talked about structuring Rumored Place after a fugue, with movements and repeating motifs. And then there are moments of physical heat and glimpsed possibilities of connection, "when love appears like a prompt on the screen." I must say that the pleasure of reading this difficult work is well worth the effort, and even compliments the steady intake of comics and sci-fi (the new Octavia Butler! more on that soon) that I picked up at the Expo.
posted by Amanda
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June 5, 2005
CIRCUIT READER
A couple of weeks ago I, along with thirty or so fellow booksellers, had tea and cookies with Kazuo Ishiguro, the author of our current staff pick Never Let Me Go. Ish (no, this is not obnoxious pseudo-familiarity, but the gentleman's preferred form of address. Had I been faster on the uptake, I might have observed that "Call me Ish" could be the opening of an abridged edition of Moby-Dick. Just as well.) turned out to be almost unbearably friendly, boyish and charming. Great writer as fantasy best-buddy. When I mentioned we were in the Mission, recalled spending time there in a crash pad in his twenties (which is how he still looks).
When the time came for him to stop schmoozing and address the assembled company, we expected him to maybe read from the book, or say something about how he came to write it, or about the response to the book, followed by a Q&A. Instead he issued us a challenge. Could we please come up with something he could do on a book tour besides reading from the book, or telling how he came to write it, or what the response had been, followed by a Q&A?
He has to do this in 30 stores in as many cities in as many days. And, let us be frank, while it is wonderful, stimulating and all that to get feedback from his readers, the questions they pose do not exactly vary a whole lot from city to city. And fond though he may be, at the start, of his own carefully crafted words, by the end of the tour he is ready to pull the pages out of the book and tear them into little pieces in front of the audience. We are all professionally literate and intelligent people. Surely we can come up with something better? Or if not better, at least different?
To our collective shame, we could not. Of course it would be nice, as someone suggested, to have him read from some of his favorite writing by another author. But remember, the publisher is footing the bill for the tour, so whatever he does is supposed to lead directly to the sale of the books. Sounds crass; but the only way we get to see our favorite writer in the flesh (something we all seem to want) is by the publisher footing the bill. So Ish looked at us, and we looked at Ish, and we all just sort of shrugged.
What about you, our gloriously imaginative customers? Any thoughts about how to radicalize the book tour? Send them along to blog@moderntimesbookstore.com, and we'll pass them on to Ish. For all he's given us, it seems like the least we can do.
posted by Michael Rosenthal
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June 3 , 2005
JUMPING IN THE DEEP END
Welcome to the Modern Times blog! Entries will be posted by sundry Modern Times employees in order to maximally impart the weird range of our eclectic book-related enthusiasms. Types of information I imagine we'll be sharing with you include: exciting new books that arrive in the store, info on authors and community events, reportage from the frontlines of retail life, and more. We'll even add a comments page, once we've mastered the techno know-how, but in the meantime, send us an email at blog@moderntimesbookstore.com to let us know what you think.
To jump right in, I'm in New York this weekend for the BEA--which is the yearly book industry trade show, for those of you who aren't here as well, spending the weekend in the over-stimulating interior of the Jacob Javits convention center, scoring free books and suffering ankle fatigue along the way. Ah, the BEA...where the publishing industry's bid for Hollywood-style glamour crashes into the, um, 'down to earth' (or scruffy) bookselling set, who I like to think of as "my people." Appropriately, I started the expo off at a panel discussion about blogs. One of the panelists was most excellently dressed in full wizard regalia, including: rubber mask with long, crooked nose; tall pointy cap decorated with stars and moons; flowing gray locks of beard, mustache and ear hair; black, floor length robe.
I saw a panel today called "The Future of the Graphic Novel," which mainly consisted of five comic artists talking about their forthcoming book projects. Black Hole fans, look out for the entire 10 years' worth of Charles Burns' precision take on teenage-hood and social distortion finally collected into one big, beautiful graphic novel, due out in the fall. (I scored a signed poster for the store!) Things got a little heated when an audience member asked something to the effect of "Hey, where are the women on this panel?" After some awkward hemming all around, Harvey Pekar made a winning plug for Allison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For. Thanks, Harv.
Speaking of rockin' comic art by women, and bringing it back to the Times, some beautiful hand made art items appeared in the store shortly before I headed east. Australian illustration whiz Arlene Textaqueen consigned a number of her postcard sets and stickers. Texta is "Australian" for felt tip pen (I looked it up) and the artist makes maximum use of crazily detailed marker lines in her Textanude series. Lart Cognac Berliner (designer of the first Modern Times art shirt) also brought in some lovely handiwork--her new Directory (aka address book), which was produced by Little Otsu Press, publishing offshoot of the local vegan store. The Directory features weeping pandas, two headed birds and such a myriad of creatures and details that it's pretty much a tiny forest full of visual wonders. Handmade craft-tastic goodness plus obscurity value: man, I love consignment.
posted by Amanda
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