The Novel That Writes Itself is finished September 17, 2014 – Posted in: Books and Art, Content, Exhibits, posters

Allen Ruppersberg began The Novel That Writes Itself in 1978. The plan was to create a “fictionalized autobiography where he would talk of his adventures as a young artist.” The main characters were slated to be the artist’s friends including Ed Ruscha, his gallery owner, Rosamund Felsen, and the collectors Elyse and Stanley Grinstein. Amazingly, Ruppersberg exhibited a Kickstarter mentality 35+ years before crowdsourcing became the rage by offering the Grinstein’s places in the story for 300 dollars. He also…

Art Center To Fill Acres of Books Site March 3, 2010

A rendering of the proposed Art Exchange project.(Photo credit: Rodolfo_M) When Acres of Books, the legendary used and rare book shop that for seventy-four years provided Southern California book lovers and literati with a place to get joyously lost in and, ultimately, became a designated cultural landmark, closed in 2008 the grief was profound. Acres of Books in Long Beach, CA, at the time of its closing in 2008. Now, the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency…

The Inside Story of Jim Vaus and the Unholy Alliance of Politics, Crime, and the LAPD December 30, 2009

In 1953, a paperback book, The Inside Story of Narcotics, was issued by religious publishing house, Zondervan. Released at the height of hysteria about a national epidemic of teen-aged junkies that did not exist, it was written by one Jim Vaus. “Every trade has a technical language. Even Christians have a language of their own. They speak of being ‘saved,’ of a ‘Christian worker,’ or of ‘putting out fleece.’ The person not used to their…