Stuff that caught my eye whilst bookshopping

[imomus]

Here's a quick roundup of things that caught my eye whilst bookshopping in Berlin yesterday. First, Auguststr. has a new magazine shop, an extremely arty place called Do You Read Me?. It's at Auguststr. 28, just round the corner from Cocolo Ramen.



Secondly, when I was in ProQM they were playing the Ursula Bogner record. If you haven't heard of this, it purports to be rediscovered minimalist radiophonic masterpieces by a Delia Derbyshire-like lady who recorded them between 1969 and 1988. You can hear the pleasant results here. In fact, it seems to be the work of Viennese glitchster-prankster Jan Jelinek, and the photo of Bogner inside the sleeve looks suspiciously like him in drag. Anyway, bippity-boppity hats off to him.



I enjoyed an obscure little booklet, also in ProQM, of the photos of Taisuke Koyama. He takes photography into realms of abstraction only Wolfgang Tillmans has really dared recently.



There's also a nice book by the ever-groovy Die Gestalten Verlag focusing on the strangeness of classical album sleeves in the vinyl age. There've been endless collections of pop album sleeves, but very few of classical releases, and this handsome volume, entitled Classique, fills the gap with admirable completeness.

Something else that caught my eye in the bookstore was Bill Drummond's book The 17. It seems to be a good mixture of grand conceptual stunts and very direct, personal grappling with the way music has changed its status in culture, and I think Drummond is an interesting man.

Another rock-related -- yet elegant (because "rock-related" usually means super-naff) -- book is Fotoreportage23 by Katja Ruge, a series of photos in which Ruge tries to locate the spirit and the face of the disappeared rock star in various living people, and visits places significant in Curtis' story. It's the acceptable face of Retro Necro.

I leave you with the two books my 15 year-old nephew Robbie -- who's staying with us just now, and performing with me at the Bridge Art Fair -- found most interesting on our book-browsing trawl. He's into cartoons and animation and character design and computer games, and this stuff floats his boat.

Comments

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

I've seen that Sessions book before, they have a copy on the shelves at the Bodhi Gallery on Brick Lane.

[lame-no-antenna.livejournal.com]

i bought the krazy book on my third visit to the exhibition, wonderful curation, the book more or less summarizes exactly what they had on display.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ha, that's funny, you're all responding to Robbie's picks, not mine!

Meanwhile, Robbie and Hisae are comparing notes on the fleamarket in Animal Crossing, which they're both playing on separate DSes, and which seems to be some kind of worldwide Animal Crossing event. "What have you bought and sold at the fleamarket?"

Ah well, I have my memories of Ian Curtis to console me. It's generational.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

You finally managed to get your hands on a copy of Animal Crossing?

When I attended your lecture in London I was gonna give you my copy since I hardly play it anymore... but after the lecture there were loads of people waiting to speak to you. I dunno... the idea of literally queuing up speak to a pop star right after a lecture where the pitfalls of a society dominated by celebrity culture was specifically mentioned and targeted, the irony wasn't lost on me. so I decided to go have a few drinks with my friend instead.

Animal Crossing is a really cute game though. The advertising for it worldwide is also pretty telling. In Japan, they advertised it as a slow life simulation (they actually use the word slow life in the campaign). In the US they did the opposite - they sold it as a wild, wacky, exciting game where they compared it to MTV's Real World. But that would hardly surprise you, would it?


Japan:


The US:

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

I wonder when anyone else will catch-up and make another farming simulator like Harvest Moon available.

[womanonfire.livejournal.com]

i found myself hoping that the story of Ursula Bogner were real.

[(Anonymous)]

What gives with the chickpeas?

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I bet Berlin has amazing bookshops. I think James Wood's How fiction Works (http://www.amazon.com/How-Fiction-Works-James-Wood/dp/0374173400) was the last book I bought. I've only finished half of it, but it is really top shelf. Worth it for the excerpts alone.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, but the chickpeas...

[hindlip.livejournal.com]

'nuff about the Chickpeas!