Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Page 3 of 5

Kate Zambreno and Friends

Apr ’10
15
7:00 pm

OFallenAngel

Kate Zambreno will read from her debut novella O Fallen Angel, published in April by Chiasmus Press, winner of their “Undoing the Novel” contest. The work is a triptych of modern America set in a banal Midwestern landscape, inspired by Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, also a grotesque homage to Mrs. Dalloway. O Fallen Angel commits an act of anarchic literary sacrilege that calls to mind the rant and rage of an American Elfriede Jelinek, an exorcism of the culture wars and pop-cultural debris, a sneering indictment of deaf ears, blind eyes, and mute mouths. An editor at Nightboat Books, Zambreno keeps the literary blog Frances Farmer Is My Sister. An essay collection inspired by the blog will be published by Semiotext(e)’s Active Agents series in Fall 2011.

Like Angela Carter’s fairy tales, Kate Zambreno’s O Fallen Angel deftly exposes the psychic brutality that lies underneath the smooth glassy surface of parable. Set in Midwestern America in approximately 2006, Zambreno’s character/archetypes—a Mommy who names her golden retriever after Scott Peterson’s murdered wife Laci, a daughter who signs her suicide note with a smiley face and a doomed psychotic prophet—are all agents and victims of disinformation, but this doesn’t make their pain any less real. In Zambreno’s SUV-era America, unhappiness doesn’t exist because it can be broken down into treatable diagnostic codes. As she writes, “Maggie wants to be FREE but she also wants to be LOVED and these are polar instincts, which is why she is bipolar, which is a malady of mood.” A brilliant, hilarious debut.  -Chris Kraus, author of  I Love Dick and Aliens & Anorexia

Also joining the bill is John Beer, Jeremy Davies, Daniel Borzutsky, Megan Milks and AD Jameson.

For more info: http://francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com/

James Greer reads The Failure at Quimby’s with Zach Dodson and Natalie Edwards

May ’10
4
7:00 pm

Failure

The Failure is a picaresque novel set in Los Angeles about two guys who conceive and badly execute a plan to rob a Korean check-cashing store in order to finance the prototype for an impossibly  ridiculous Internet application. The main character, Guy Forget, is a twenty-something drifter with brains, good looks, and absolutely no ambition except to get rich without having to work. His best  friend, Billy, is a professional dog walker who ties the dogs to the rear bumper of his run-down car and drives very slowly. Along the way we meet, among others, Guy’s Midwestern parents, his  theoretical-physicist brother, his girlfriend Violet McKnight, and his secret nemesis, Sven Transvoort, who hates Guy with unusual passion for reasons that are not immediately clear. Using elements of pop culture,  tech jargon, and noirish satire, the book attempts to answer the question not enough people ask themselves on a regular basis: Am I a failure?

JAMES GREER
is the author of ARTIFICIAL LIGHT (a selection of Dennis Cooper’s Little House on the Bowery Series), which won a California Book Award for Best Debut Novel, and the nonfiction book GUIDED BY VOICES: A BRIEF HISTORY (Grove), a biography about a band for which he once played bass guitar. He is currently working on a rock musical about Cleopatra starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. He lives in Los Angeles.

ZACH DODSON’s
hybrid typo/graphic novel, boring boring boring boring boring boring boring, came out last year under the nom de plume Zach Plague. He hosts The Show N’ Tell Show. His writing has appeared in The2ndHand, ACM, Take the Handle, and Proximity Magazine.

NATALIE EDWARDS once worked at an Australian indoor theme park, but now writes about art. You can find her fiction in the Chicago Reader, theRumpus.net, Mcsweeney’s Internet Tendency, and on TripleQuick Fiction.

For more information visit www.akashicbooks.com and www.featherproof.com

GREERwebpost2

Poets Michael Bernstein, Lewis Freedman, and Andy Gricevich

May ’10
14
7:00 pm

Michael Bernstein is the author of the chapbooks cinderbook (Gold Wake Press, 2009), the rot to light (Gold Wake Press, 2010), 8s (Scantily Clad Press, forthcoming 2010), imaginary grace (Recycled Karma Press, 2010) from “a heap of swords and mirrors” (Bedouin Books, forthcoming 2010), the transit illuminate (mud luscious press, forthcoming 2010),  nanostars (greying ghost press, forthcoming 2010), and the Fire District (Differentia Press, forthcoming 2010) . His poems have appeared in magazines such as Puppy Flowers, milk, Moria, BlazeVOX, and New American Writing. He currently co-edits the online literary arts magazine Pinstripe Fedora. Michael lives and writes in Wisconsin.

Lewis Freedman writes poems. He (as of recently) lives in Madison. A chapbook, The Third Word (2009), was published by what to us(press) and another, Catfish Po’ Boys (2009), was published by MinutesBooks. He is co-editor of Agnes Fox Press.

Andy Gricevich lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he edits Cannot Exist magazine and, with Lewis Freedman. His poems have been published here and there, most recently in Pinstripe Fedora and We Are So Happy to Know Something. He has toured internationally as a performer of strange chamber music, theater and satirical cabaret songs with the Prince Myshkins and the Nonsense Company. He is uncomfortable writing this in the third person. Lately he’s been baking bread and finding the prevailing forms of irony in our poetic culture to be utterly inadequate in every possible way. The bread is getting better.

For more info:
www.cannotexist.blogspot.com
www.agnesfox.wordpress.com
www.pinstripefedora.com

Top 10 Bestsellers This Week

Monkey snack. Er, stack.

Monkey snack. Er, stack.

1. Hi Fructose #15 $6.95

2. Great Perhaps SC by Joe Meno (Norton) $14.95

3. You’re a Horrible Person But I Like You: The Believer Book of Advice by var. (Vintage) $13.95

4. Bust Apr May 10 $4.95

5. Hate Annual #8 by Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics) $4.95

6. Baffler vol 2 #1 $12.00

7. Bizarre #161 $10.50

8. How to Wreck a Nice Beach: Vocoder from World War II to Hip Hop Machine Speaks by Dave Thompkins (Melv House/Stop Smiling) $35.00

9. Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace (Broadway) $16.99

10. Return to Sender zine by Morray Brenton Harper $2.00

Mountains of New Stuff!

We’ve been pretty busy as of late, but wanted to make sure you knew what new things we’ve been getting in lately, so here’s our list of 139 things you simply can not live without (that we conveniently have in our store):

funnynotfunny

(Funny (Not Funny))

Artsy Fartsy Books

Mythical Beasts of Japan From Evil Creatures to Sacred Beings (PIE Books) $35
You Are Forgiven by Matt Leines (Free New Projects) $45
Art of Bollywood by Rajesh Devraj (Taschen) $29.99

Kid’s Stuff

Mama is it Summer Yet by Nikki McClure (Abrams) $17.95

DIY/How To

Old Man Drinks Recipes Advice and Barstool Wisdom By Robert Schnakenberg (Quirk Books) $14.95
Steampunkery Polymer Clay and Mixed Media Projects By Christi Friesen (CF Books) $14.95

Drugs! (books about)

Altered State the Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House By Matthew Collin (Seprents Tail) $15.95

Erotic Comics

Hot Moms vol 1 TPB By Rebecca (Eros) $18.99

Fiction

Awful Possibilities By Christian TeBordo (Featherproof Press) $14.95
Going in Circles By Pamela Ribon (Simon & Schuster) $15
Little Brother By Cory Doctorow (Tor Tom Doherty) $9.99
People Who Watched Her Pass By By Scott Bradfield (Two Dollar Radio) $14.50
Perscription Errors By Charles Demers (Insomniac Press) $15.95
Sex Dungeon For Sale By Patrick Wensink $10
Stories of Ibis By Hiroshi Yamamoto (Haika Soru) $15.99

Gewgaw

Absinthe Flavored Toothpicks (Accoutrements) $2.50
Absinthe Soap for Hand and Bath An Enchanted Absinthe Sented Soap Fashioned by Green Fairies (Accoutrements) $6.00
Boo Boo Kisses Adhesive Bandages (Accoutrements) $5.00
Cal Q Tek 2000 Calculator Watch (Accoutrements) $15.00
Curry Flavored Kali Mints (Accoutrements) $2.50
Gesundheit Tissues Uber Absorbent (Accoutrements) $1.00
High Rollers Exotic Dancers 4 Magnetic Coasters (Gamma Go) $7.50
Hobo Bubble Gum Cigarettes Campfire Coffee Flavored (Accoutrements) $1.25
Jackalope Tumbleweed Wine Stainless Steel Water Bottle (Accoutrements) $12.00
Lil Devils Trick of the Day (Accoutrements) $10.00
Manly Mustache Mirror Clings (Accoutrements) $3
Rotting Zombie Mirror Clings (Accoutrements) $3
Sunrise in Meatopia 500 Piece Puzzle With Bonus 48 Piece Mystery Puzzle (Accoutrements) $10.00
Yeti BBQ Coffee Mug (Gamma Go) $12.00
Gama Go Stickers Like Peanut Butter Sandwich These Designs are Stickalicious By Tim Biskup (Gamma Go) $5.00

Glossy Periodicals

Artforum Apr 10 $10.00
Dwell May 10 $5.99
Famous Mag #11 Desert and Plants $5.00
Hi Fructose #15 $6.95
Muddy $12
2600 Hacker Quarterly vol 27 #1 $6.25
Bizarre #161 $10.50
Make vol 22 $14.99
Tokion vol 3 #4 $6.99
High Times Jun 10 $5.99
Taps paraMagazine vol 6 #2 $5.95
BlackBook #75 Apr 10 $4.50
Hyphen #20 Spr 10 $4.95
Time Out Chicago Apr 08 10 $2.99
826 Quarterly vol 11 (826 Valencia) $15.00
Iowa Review vol 40 #1 $9.95
Packingtown Review vol 2 2010 $13
Fader #67 Apr May 10 $5.99
Mojo #198 May 10 $9.99
Uncut May 10 $9.99
Wire Apr 10 #314 $10.99
Adbusters #89 May Jun 10 vol 18 #3 Ecopsychology $8.95
Monocle vol 4 #32 Apr 10 $10.00
Pin Up Show $15.00
Skin Art #132 $6.99

Graffiti and Street Art

Belio 030 Back to the Roots Experimental Art and Design (Belio Magazine) $35.00
Calligraffiti the Graphic Art of Niels Shoe Meulman (From Here to Fame) $29.95
DY005 Nicholas Di Genova (Belio Magazine) $29.95
DY008 Saner (Belio Magazine) $29.95
DY009 Gualicho (Belio Magazine) $29.95
Swoon HC (Abrams) $35.00

Graphic Novels

Area 10 By Christos Gage (Vertigo) $19.99
Batman and Robin Batman Reborn Deluxe Edition HC By Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely (DC) $24.99
Beats a Graphic History SC By Harvey Pekar (Hill & Wang) $14.95
Body World HC By Dash Shaw (Pantheon) $27.95
Crossed vol 1 By Garth Ennis & Jacen Burrows (Avatar)$24.99
Emberley Galaxy A Tribute to Ed Emberley $12.00
Funny Not Funny Modest Selection of Comic Art Exhibiting Signs of Black Humor By Ryan Standfest $14.95
Market Day By James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)$21.95
Melvin Monster vol 2 John Stanley Library By John Stanley (Drawn & Quarterly) $24.95
Mome vol 18 Spr 10 (Fantagraphics) $14.99
Neptune By Aron Nels Steinke (Tugboat Press & Sparkplug Comic Books)$14.00
Other Lives HC By Peter Bagge (Vertigo) $24.99
Sparky The Life and Art of Charles Schulz By Beverly Gherman (Chronicle Books) $16.99
Teenaged Dope Slaves and Reform School Girls (Pure Imagination) $20.00
Whirlwind Wonderland By Rina Ayuyang (Tugboat Press & Sparkplug Comic Books) $15.00
Wonder Woman Amazon Hero Icon HC By Robert Greenberger (Universe) $35.00
Young Lions By Blaise Larmee $10

perversitythink
(Perversity Think Tank)

Humor

99 Classic Movies For People In a Hurry By Nicotext (Nicotext) $9.95
PS I Hate It Here Kids Letters From Camp By Diane Falanga (Abrams) $12.95
Youre a Horrible Person But I Like You Believer Book of Advice By Sarah Silverman (Vintage) $13.95

Low Brow Art

Another Science Fiction Advertising the Space Race 1957 to 1962 By Megan Prelinger (Blast Books) $29.95
Beautiful Decay Book 3 The Underdogs (Beautiful Decay) $20.00
Jime Litwalk Sketchbook vol 3 Monsters Misfits & Maidens By Jime Litwalk (Presto Art) $30.00
Nymphettes Erotic Elfin Art By Barry Blair (SQ Productions) $14.95
Sailor Jerry Tattoo Flash vol 3 By Jerry Collins Sailor (Hardy Marks Publications) $50.00

Mayhem!

Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You By Robert Brockway (Three Rivers Press) $14.00
Zombie Combat Manual a Guide to Fightnig the Living Dead By Roger Ma (Berkeley Books) $14.00

Minicomics

Clutch #21 Invincible Summer #16 Split By Clutch McBastard & Nicole Georges $2.00
Feedback #6 By John Isaacson $2.00
Phase 7 #014 By Alec Longstreth $4.00
Phase 7 #015 By Alec Longstreth $3.00
Pop Art Show By Trevor Wayne $8.00
Pyromania #5 By John Isaacson $3.00
Roots To Fruits By APAK $4.00

Video Discs

Mellodrama The Mellotron Movie DVD (Bazillion Points Books) $24.95
Wholphin #10 (McSweeney’s) $19.95

Muckraking, Memoirs & Miscellany

Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace By David Lipsky (Broadway) $16.99
Cardboard Gods An All American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards By Josh Wilker (Seven Footer Press) $24.95
City Kid A Writers Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post Soul Success By Nelson George (Plume) $14.00
Fix Is In Showbiz Manipulations of the NFL MLB NBA NHL and NASCAR By Brian Tuohy (Feral House) $16.95

Music Books

Arcana IV Musicians on Music By John Zor (Hips Road) $34.95
How to Wreck a Nice Beach Vocoder from World War II to Hip Hop Machine Speaks By Dave Tompkins (Melville House Publishing) $35.00
Rock And Roll Will Save Your Life HC By Steve Almond (Random House) $23.00
Swedish Death Metal By Daniel Ekeroth (Bazillion Points Boks) $34.95

Comic Books!

Blaster Al Ackermans Tales of the Ling Master Barnes $3.00
Hate Annual #8 Bagge Peter (Fantagraphics) $4.95
Rabid Rabbit #11 Tall Tales and Magnanimous Myths By C M Butzer and Ben Trinh $5.00

Outer Limits

Great Airship of 1897 By J Allen Danelek (Adventures Unlimited Press) $16.95
Solomon Islands Mysteries Accounts of Giants and UFOs By Marius Boirayon (Adventures Unlimited Press) $16.95

Poetry

Adulthoods By Bambi $10.00
Dodging Traffic By J Bradley $12.00

Politics

Anarchism and Its Aspirations By Cindy Milstein (AK Press) $12.00
Capitalisms World Disorder Working Class Politics at the Millennium By Jack Barnes (Pathfinder) $25.00
Che Guevara a Revolutionary Life Revised Edition By Jon Lee Anderson (Grove Press) $20.00
Common Ground in a Liquid City Essays in Defense of an Urban Future By Hern (AK Press) $17.95
Crisis In The Global Economy Financial Markets Social Struggles By Andrea Fumagalli (Semiotext(e)) $17.95
Propaganda Inc Selling Americas Culture To The World By Nancy Snow (Seven Stories) $11.95
Thousand Machines By Gerald Raunig (Semiotext(e)) $12.95

Sex Guides & Culture

Perversity Think Tank By Supervert $15.00
Pornapocalipse vol 1 By Rachel Gontijo Araujo $10.00
Worst Laid Plans When Bad Sex Happens to Good People By Alexandra Lydon (Abrams) $14.95

Sexy Art Books

Shunga Japanese Erotic Art (PIE Books) $35.00
Vanessa Del Rio Fifty Years of Slightly Slutty Behavior (Taschen) $59.99

Zines!

Aristocratic Hands #13 By Gregory Walker $2.00
Aristocratic Hands #14 By Gregory Walker $2.00
Blow Jobs In The Afterlife By David Moscovich $1.00
Box of Chocolates By Leslie Perrine $5.00
How To Stay Alive In the Metaphorical Woods $2.00
Lets All Find Awesome Jobs Actual Information By Kevin Fanning $3.00
No Better Than Apples #6 Piecemeal By Kate Larson $2.00
Or Let It Sink #3 $1.00
Reality Mom vol 7 #2 By Corbin Lewars $3.00
RIP by Steve Katz $1.00
This Is the End Journeys Toward Armageddon By Aaron Cynic $2.00
Tragic Genius of Dan Gleason By Dan Gleason $2.00
Volkerlchau By Melanie Bonajo $10.00
Welcome to Bend Population 80995 By Laura Walker $5.00

nobetterthan6
(No Better Than Apples)