On June 10, 2009 at 10:22AM in Stratford-on-Avon in the U.K. a new English word was born.“No one said nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ a baby” to me, so at precisely the same time in Los Angeles, 2:22AM, I was asleep with not even a duffel bag at bedside in case I needed to rush to the natal ward, catch this neologism as it exited the womb, and sack out in the neonate department afterward. I like to think of myself as a lexicographical Mother Teresa; all words are my children no matter who sired them, the more humble their beginnings, the...
Tom Bloom’s Illustrations for Between the Covers
In was sometime in the late 1980's when Tom Congalton, the proprietor of Between the Covers Rare Books, and cartoonist, book collector Tom Bloom struck a deal. They agreed to swap books for art. Now, some 20 years later, Tom Bloom's illustrations have graced the covers of over 100 catalogs for BTC. His work has also appeared on numerous lists issued by BTC and is a seminal element of their website.Bloom's work has also regularly appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The Village Voice. His cartoon illustrations have also appeared numerous times on the front page...
ABC’s of Book Collecting : Almanac
ALMANACA calendar, usually in pocket-book (more rarely sheet) form, augmentedwith Saints’ days, fair-dates and astronomical and meteorologicaldata; a bestseller from the start and protected by jealously guardedpatents, the different titles, hot rivals in the 17th century, were allfinally swallowed up by Dr Francis Moore’s Vox Stellarum, familiarlyknown as ‘Old Moore’s Almanack’.Previous ABC's of Book Collecting postsCarter, John & Nicolas BarkerABC's of Book Collecting. 8th EditionNew Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004Buy a copy
A Book Club For Hipsters? Solid, Baby!
Sisters and Brothers and Children of the Flip:When, in the course of literary events, it becomes necessary for one peeps to dissolve the bonds that are such a drag due to connection with Squaresville, and to assume it’s a gas to watch the laws of nature and nature's Big Sky Daddy-O pull their coat on respect to the jaw music of mankind, man, it requires that they should lay out the beefs which impel them to Splitsville.It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.Listen, knock me your lobes, ‘cause, DIG!, we hold these riffs to be self-evident,...
Liz Moody’s "Burgeoning Blossoms/Fairy Tales"
Brightest in the Garden #1, 2008The work of Liz Moody is featured in the inaugural exhibit at the Shooting Gallery.From the artist's statement:Liz Moody is inspired by her mother's old vogue dress patterns, the magic and texture in the pages of vintage children's books, and the profusion of blossoms when spring finally arrives in the Northwest. Liz uses acrylic paint, India ink, collage, and pastel to build up layers of texture in each piece. She loves brilliant, saturated color and playful organic shapes that reveal small mysteries of text and paint.The show, titled "Burgeoning Blossoms/Fairy Tales," showcases Moody's multi-layered work...