I've worked here for long enough to know better. I moved to
Portland after leaving Bennington College and living like a rat in Brooklyn;
now I get eight months of overcast and rain, which leaves lots of time for reading
and eating. I finally moved into a house where I can live in my closet; my room
is completely empty. Its like a womb where I can read and play guitar – but
cold. I can only thank Stanley Zappa for my working at Powell’s Books: after
all the fantastic stories I heard, the great people he met, and the stupendous
work environment, how could I resist? That, plus I was tired of getting up at
4 AM to go to the bakery.
Photography
Eikoh Hosoe by Eikoh
Hosoe
As a student of photography, the only photographers that I had any time for
were the ones that told stories or made dynamic, novelistic gestures in their
work. I can't say Hosoe ever influenced me in my own work, but he has influenced
my ensuing aesthetic. He is considered by some the premier Japanese photographer
of the day. From his photos and collaborations with Yukio
Mishima to his extensive work with Butoh dancers, he has made a unique mark
in the photo world by combining exquisite technique with deep commentary.
This book is one of the few books in print about him. What
a shame. The prints are clear and you get to see a good cross-section of his
work. Though seeing one or two photos from each original series makes it difficult
to perceive the flow of the story, even the tantalizing glimpses offered here
are very effective. Plus, one of the most narrative of his works is presented
in a series of smaller prints that show the whole story. He is truly a great
storyteller. Given that finding copies of the original publications of most
of these photos is rather difficult, I guess we should all be satisfied with
the little windows into the world of a very great man. I consider him to be
an absolutely necessary part of any photo library, and essential to any thorough
understanding of contemporary photography.
Masterworks
from 40 Years by Paul
Caponigro
Like Ansel
Adams, Caponigro is a master of the large format camera. (Thus the name,
"Masterworks.") Sometimes when I look at his work I feel like I'm watching
someone play with clay. The way he manipulates light, he's truly capable of
placing the lights and darks of his prints wherever he wants them. I get an
insight into what each picture is not. Like staring at a brick for half an
hour, his photographs open up the viewer's sight. (I'm reminded of the cartoons
where the magic-books spray light out when opened.) He doesn't just capture
light; he projects it. He photographs a tree, a leaf, an apple, a shell, a
doll – and yet manages to make the pictures about the Onelove. I'd give
my knuckles and pinky toe to do that.
Los
Angeles Spring by Robert
Adams
What do you say about someone who photographs nothing? Dirt, a dead tree,
a leftover construction site. . . . Not pretty, not really arty, not
anything. Still, Adams is one of my favorite "artists." He shoots the spaces
on the road and in your life that you ignore: that van you can't afford to
fix or use but won't sell, the cracked second step on your stoop. I guess
I interpret these photos as some kind of Zen statement, and to some extent
that’s enough to enjoy them. But I also see a more conscious comment on how
humanity deals with nature and what we, as humans, leave behind for nature
to deal with. There’s always the element of the human in his photos, remnants
of mistakes or abandonment – somewhat like Richard
Misrach, but without the heavy morality. An undeniable cynicism lurks
in the photos, but, at the same time, the inevitability of growth and reclamation
by Nature offers hope. Our conquest of nature is incomplete, and Robert Adams
seems to prefer it that way.
Les Miserables: Homeless People in Ukraine by Boris
Mikhailov
Mikhailov puts my petty yearnings and "needs" into sharp relief.
Paging through his book, I find it hard not to give thanks for the glory day/apple
pie/baseball life we lead here – or, rather, some of us lead here.
Street children huffing drugs, homeless adults with basketball-sized growths
in their stomachs, families living in cardboard . . . they all live and speak
on the pages of this book. But what really makes Case History a winner
is the compassion and reality of it. Like snapshots of friends – apparently,
they are friends – I feel like I’m looking through Mikhailovs
family book of portraits. The only shock is our own projection of what we
expect a "good" life to look like. Not to say that the people inhabiting
the pages are pinnacles of happiness, and there is definitely an element of
social commentary, but the overriding concern here seems merely to document
life: up, down, and side-to-side. Being able to witness that life through
Mikhailov’s photographs is a blessing. Case History leaves me with
a similar feeling as Jacob
Holdt’s American
Pictures. There are a lot of parallels between this "foreign"
culture and our own if Holdt’s book is anything to go by.
Music, Literature, Film, and Art
 Beneath
The Underdog by Charles
Mingus
Who but the greatest bassist of all time could write the greatest music autobiography
ever? When I think of Mingus, the "Praying with Eric" ’64 phase
is what I hear, and this book might be considered much like that phase. His
freewheeling style and amazing life (or his version of it) make for reading
that is more like a real-life Fear
and Loathing meets Schoenberg than a stuffy compendium of albums recorded
and sessions played. With anecdotes about the original "New Jazz" pioneers
(Charlie
Parker, Dizzy,
etc.) alongside crazed tales of prostitution rings and trips to Mexico, there’s
a lot of ground covered here. I’m waiting for the movie to come out, maybe
directed by Peckinpah....well maybe Harmony Korine....
 A
Fan's Notes by Frederick
Exley
If Bukowski
wrote less like Hemingway
and more like Nabakov
you might get Exley. Or you might get a headache. What Exley did for me was
really spell out some of the reasons for being an alcoholic/drug user. He
manages to pinpoint his own reasons for misery without making that the point
of the book. He tells a great story about what it’s like to be a watcher,
a fan, and how we come to be at peace with the symptoms of "Nevergonnamakeitbig."
As part of the MTV generation and a target of the force-fed dreams of stardom
funneled down my throat, I can really relate to the emotions that football,
basketball, and other sports aroused in the baby boomer generation –
not to say that sports-feeding ever stopped. After reading his biography,
Misfit:
The Strange Life Of Frederick Exley (by Jonathan
Yardley), I came to the conclusion that Exley tried his best to write
about what he knew and added some "fiction" to make his own life
more interesting. A Fan’s Notes speaks to the overwhelming desire to
"be somebody" and the endless excuses as to why you "can’t
right now."
Kinski
Uncut: The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski by Klaus
Kinski
Cobra Verde isn't mentioned in this book, though it’s one of my all-time
favorite movies. It was also one of Kinski’s last. Much like that film, this
book meanders here and there while dealing with some rather disturbing and
blownoutofproportion situations with grace and beauty. Not even vaguely PC,
he focuses predominantly on his affairs, his feuds, and his children (pausing
every few pages to tell us how they changed his life and are the only magic
left – quack quack) while rarely discussing the movies he's made, which
he generally treats only as a source of income or irritation. He is not lacking
in ego, and I’d certainly hesitate to call him a role model, but he performed
anywhere and anyway (if the money was right). That attitude created one of
the greatest actors the world has ever seen. If you can't agree with that,
at least I can feel confident that he would. If you think this book
isn't your bag, then at the very least go out and rent Cobra Verde.
Japanese
Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky by Alexandra
Munroe
The Japanese and their art! I love any book that has photos of Min Tanaka
doing his thing – or any Butoh for that matter. Back in my "formal"
education period, I had the privilege of seeing a Min Tanaka/Milford Graves
performance ("Butoh Dance" and Drums/Percussion). I left feeling
as if I’d been allowed into a private ritual. It really changed the way I
conceive of performance and music. It also opened up the world of Japanese
contemporary art for me.
My understanding? After a couple of nuclear devices are set
off in your backyard, then several decades of pernicious western social, medical,
economic, and military influence, how does one get back to work on the several-thousand
year old roots of one’s culture? Some of the answers are in this book. Munroe
provides a history and breakdown of most of the major trends and artists of
the postwar period. A lot of beautiful pictures. And a fair amount of background,
history, and explanation of the sources and influences of the artists make
for a thorough overview (whatever that means).
Health, Mind, and Body
 Healing
With Whole Foods by
Paul Pitchford
Natural food and healing are the hipnewjiggytight thing. From TBN (The Bible
Network) to CNN, "you are what you eat" is becoming more and more
accepted as the Truth by the mainstream media. Healing With Whole Foods
is the definitive resource that bridges Eastern holistic theory and the Western
analytical view of medicine, food, healing, and, ultimately, life. Pitchford
presents chapters on theory (Ayurvedic,
Macrobiotic
and Western Medical), diseases (cures/treatment for everything from AIDS to
warts), nutrition (vitamins, minerals, oils, etc.), plus, my favorite
descriptions of the energetics and properties of specific foods – and
recipes for them, too! You could live your whole life out of this thing!!
I've used it as a healing and nutrition index for five years now. It just
keeps providing more and more to think about and more and more frameworks
within which I can analyze my own well-being. I can’t say enough about it.
Good good good!!!
Yoga
Mind and Body by
Swami Sivananda
Unfortunately, though he is one of the originals who translated this information
(about yoga and Vedanta) into English, most of Swami Sivananda’s books are
out of print. (He has written over 300 books in English and many more in Hindi.)
I started doing yoga about three years ago, and I've only done it out of a
book, The
Sivananda Companion to Yoga, but even lesson-less I've managed to stand
on my head and pretzel myself up into various shapes – like physical
origami. I feel like I am not quite at the "lights on!" point, but the philosophical
aspects of Sivananda’s teachings are very exciting. He manages to put the
"mysterious" into very practical terms and makes the whole process seem
very doable. I like this particular instructional manual because it covers
all the bases: the poses, sets, settings, meditation, and even some excellent
recipes! With beautiful pictures and easy-to-follow instructions (and warnings),
the first steps into the shining light can be taken by anyone.
Human,
All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich
Nietzsche
As I’m neither a fluent German speaker nor a scholar, I couldn't begin to
say which is the truest translation of this seminal work. I am, however, working
on being a free spirit, and, given that my ex-girlfriend claims that I get
all my ideas out of books, I guess this is doubly the book for me. It contains
a lot of aphorisms and couple-page-long discussions on virtually every topic,
and I mean every topic; every single thing you could possibly think
of, it seems, Nietzsche has an opinion about. Snacking on one or two of these
aphorisms each day gives me something to think about and manages to help me
reexamine my own opinions. Like this one: "When virtue has rested, it will
arise refreshed." I’m still thinking about that one. He always puts things
in the most understandable way, leaving the ends open so you are never quite
sure what to think. In trying to interpret his thoughts in as many ways as
possible, you come to an understanding that encompasses the whole idea, all
sides of it, rather than closing yourself to the limitations of one perspective
or the other. After reading this book we will all arise refreshed.
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