Scout Books

Call it art within art.

When the folks at Pinball Publishing were brainstorming ideas for the following new year, a culmination of many lifetimes of production moxie and print design expertise led way to a novel concept. Scout Book was created.

Fully recycled and as green as grass, locally harvested and exclusively domestic, Scout Book takes the art of its consumers and collaborates on a DIY project; notebooks, with saddle stitched binding, pads with vegetable based inks. Like a tailor, but for words and expression. Whether the cover might be for a young Bohemian striving to notate his life experience for the next great American novel or streamlined as informative business-speak for a global conglomerate, Scout Book provides the canvas for whatever masterpiece is forthcoming.

The teenaged days of doodling on a composition notepad just got serious.

Banal Series #19: Books as Display Accents in Furniture Stores

Furniture stores unfold labyrinthine, in pods of wonder and possibility. Clutches of fat brown leather chairs and sofas around oversized coffee tables. Dining room sets in various heights and designs. Office bundles. A desk, a secretary. A swivel chair in tucked upholstery fit for an oil magnate. Shelves of deep stained oaks, and bare pines hewn in rustic slats. They all sit, waiting, with desperate and aging salesmen combing and roving, clutching tie and clipboard. Customers are here, and they are browsing.

The unsung of this breed are the books fashioned as display accents. They sit, perched in neat pyramids. Dust jackets removed, and their hard bound (always hard bound, never soft) spines speak of titles in muted whites and golds. Embossed in mild ferrules, often describing best sellers, or lesser knowns of bygone times. Reader’s Digest collections tend to be favorites of the furniture store display. They are, inherently, from the past, and often doffed in simple ostentations evoking vague ideas of The Classics, and of five foot shelves. The spines of these bear titles (usually in threes) of novels long forgotten and unheard of in the vernacular. These Reader’s Digest tomes are more than likely purchased in bulk from a second hand store, or culled from a relative’s attic. They look serious. Next to those might be a jacketless copy of a hardbound John Grisham novel. Maybe a Michael Crichton work.

Books in furniture stores, however, are not to be disturbed. They are meant to appear within these menageries of potential furniture for one’s home, as an accent of authenticity. Of something real, and tangible. To give the illusion of context, and meaning. Oddly, nothing will upset the stasis of the furniture store more than taking off shoes, making oneself comfortable and cracking open one of these unread books.

Bright Lights, Big City

Jay McInerney's debut novel, Bright Lights, Big City, takes the reader into the tenuous realm of a struggling would be writer caught up in the cocaine fueled materialism of New York in the Big 80's. Oddly, the narrative is entirely written in the second person. This seething "you" becomes the reader, as lines between word and audience are blurred, and with each failing or yearning of the character, so goes the reader. The "you" is a risky endeavor; presuming wholesale acceptance of the position, the "you" as a perspective can have catastrophic shortfalls, not the least of which: the reader closing the book. Placing a napkin, or a toothpick, or an unwanted business card from some poor schlub firmly between a quire of pages, and clasping together the paperback binding. Leveled up on a shelf, with nebulous intentions to "give it another shot, maybe, when I'm bound by the trajectory of my Hoveround." Bright Lights, Big City keeps the reader with book in hand.

Through every gut churning transgression, the "you" becomes the "I" and the reader becomes this "him" in Big 80's New York. The reader feels the malaise of the "you" as parades of material and affectation trundle past, and "your" pining for the unrequited love of "your" estranged model wife. Something happened between "you" and the love of "your" life, and now "you" ramble around in the opulent sheen of Manhattan with a guy named Tad Allagash, whose glad handing, good times actions seem only in line with the smug vapidity that his name suggests.

Michael J. Fox starred in the 1988 film adaptation of the same name, interspersing second person narration with real time interaction. Kiefer Sutherland portrays Tad Allagash, and Phoebe Cates plays estranged wife Amanda. The movie is a great watch. The book remains, however, a gripping experience in the second person.

Ironweed

William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Ironweed, shows a seedy underbelly of depression and prohibition era alcoholism. Set in Kennedy's hometown of Albany, New York, Ironweed follows Francis Phelan as he cobbles together odd jobs, and "flops" enough to keep him in booze and warmth for the night. Meanwhile, drinking buddies "occupy" vacant lots, and rusted hulls of cars.

Phelan is haunted by apparitions of the dead, and not uncoincidentally, the story begins with children ghouling and goblining around on Halloween, as he returns to Albany after years of absence. Dawn finds Phelan working a job cleaning a grave yard on All Saints Day. The text is a rich tapestry of shoe soles flapping, steel drums splayed with splintered pallets aflame, and a wincing look at homelessness during the Great Depression. Frost slowly grips the scene, as the carefree of autumn dirges mercilessly into winter.

A 1987 film adaptation starred Jack Nicholson as Phelan, Meryl Streep as ladyfriend Helen Archer, Tom Waits as chum Rudy, and even the looming Fred Gwynne as a mystically and recently sober bar tender.

TBW Books

TBW Books, out of Oakland, is an indie publisher that focuses on photography books. Founded by Good By Angels crafter Paul Schiek in 2005, the company strives on two little words that make every artist as giddy as a tot on Christmas morning: Creative Control.

Each year, TBW invites four photography artisans to collate a self reflective dive into their work, unleashed in book format. It is a no- holds- barred, unprecedented narrative that beckons the audience to explore the connections between the images laid out before them. Each craftsman, his book one of four, presents his/her own unique snowflake for consumption, an impactful gift bestowed from the talented creator to the viewer. Represented by one book in this four book series, each artist is given complete creative control.

The DIY scene in Oakland is solely responsible for the construction of the books.

The Subscription Series format employed by TBW is an original concept that has drastically altered the norms of publishing. Previous Subscription Series have been curated by numerous galleries and museums, as well as showcased in features for modern art and culture reads.

Delirium Books

It used to be that unless your name was King or Koontz (or Bachman, for the purists who will get it), Dark Fiction, Horror and Supernatural authors need not apply. As it was, Bram Stoker or Richard Matheson might have transacted with the mainstream publishing houses, but anyone else, especially those whose creativity leans towards “fringe”, a slush pile graveyard or rejection letter was in their future.

And then there was the rise of “Indie”, the very word that causes executives of record labels, movie studios and publishing houses to shudder more violently than any ghost story.

Count Delirium Books amongst the ranks of mainstream assassins.

Delirium Books hit the scene in 1999, quickly emerging as one of the horror genre’s premier specialty presses. Proving that the literary world does NOT revolve around New York City, the Northern Indiana based Delirium Books has sprouted a reputation for introducing fresh, deliciously twisted crafters of morbid fantasy and terrifying prose, authors such as Brian Keene, Michael McBride and Greg F. Gifune. Already entrenched novelists such as James Morrow, Brian Lumley and David B. Silva also headline the marquee at Delirium, these creators of gritty fear the torch carriers of the Stephen King niche. And as the writing game evolves and the limits of taboo are shattered, the next-gen roster at Delirium continue to shock and terrorize their readers in a way that no “safe” publishing house would ever dare.

This is not your average fright-mare anymore.

Brooklyn Teen Gang, The Jokers, 1959

In 1959 there were about 1000 gang members in and around the streets of New York City, primarily troubled teenage males from the outer boroughs. That spring, up-and-coming photographer Bruce Davidson read an article about the street violence in Prospect Park and decided to document this rebellious youth lifestyle, just a bridge away.

Connecting with a social worker for initial contact, Davidson embedded himself in the Jokers quickly becoming a daily observer with the ability to chronicle their dark and secretive culture. For several months he followed the Jokers around their turf throughout Prospect Park , Helen's Diner and Coney Island hangouts.

As he would later pen for his Magnum Photos book " I met a small group of teenagers called the Jokers, I was 25 and they were 16. I could have easily been taken for one of them."

Images Bruce Davidson

Linda McCartney's Intimate Portraits

Before she married Paul, Linda Eastman was one of the most preeminent photographers capturing the 60's rock scene. Her intimate body of work documents the rise of the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creme, The Who, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, Kinks, Traffic, Aretha Franklin, The Animals, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Otis Redding, and many others.

Her career began as receptionist for Town & Country Magazine, where in 1966, she used an unwanted invitation to a Rolling Stones record launch party held at the SS Sea Panther, on the Hudson River, to launch her photography career. The young photographer took full advantage of the opportunity by documenting the event, and photographing the band. Later, she was asked to be the photographer at Bill Graham's Fillmore East, the legendary venue that launched many of rock's luminaries. Linda's access enabled her the snap exclusive, spontaneous, and relaxed, behind-the-scenes moments, that chronicled the music of an era.

John & Paul 1968

Janis Joplin, Fillmore East

Mick Jagger 1966

Pete Townsend 1967

Paul McCartney's American Concert

Exclusive Eric Burdon Interview

The Lost Beatles Photographs

Unearthed after forty-five years, ' The Lost Beatles Photographs ' offers fans behind-the-scenes access to the Fab Four.

Documented by Bob Bonis, amateur photographer, and the tour manager for all three U.S. tours 1964, 1965, and 1966, these intimate images capture the group's most casual moments, in rehearsal, in concert, in dressing rooms, backstage and on vacation. A fresh look at the beginning of their journey.

Editor's Note; Our exclusive interview with former Beatles drummer Pete Best, dropping soon.

Hunter S. Thompson At Work

The dark glasses. Less than comfortable wicker chair. Pack of smokes, half empty. Nondescript bottle of spirits within reach. Ashtray too. Unread paperback, rotary dial in hand.

A mad genius's work space.