Super recluse author Thomas Pynchon has (sort of) stepped out into the spotlight (reading) in the trailer for his new book Inherent Vice. The video was posted online last week causing a great number of Pynchon fans to wonder who the narrator in the video is.
After some probing by the Wall St. Journal, and Galleycat, it has been confirmed that we are hearing the voice of none other than Thomas Pynchon, making this his closest brush with the public eye since his appearance on The Simpsons.
The Guardian has a promotion video trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie, coming out in 2010. Last week, on my holiday, we bought Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and began reading the book with my young daughter. Like so many books I read to her before bedtime, I hadn’t read Alice for 30+ years. Burton’s trailer puts a scary spin in Alice’s journey but, re-reading the book in 2009, the story is simply crazy. I just keep glancing at my daughter and saying “All these people are bonkers” and she smiles back and says “Yes, Daddy.”
I liked the dreamy, awestruck quality of this narrated video demonstrating the vastness of Chamblin BookMine in Jacksonville, FL.
Drat. Another bookstore I might want to see as much as Powell’s. One day, I’m going to have to take a North American bookstore road trip.
….and I’m going to need a really big van for souvenirs.
Hello!
I dub today Frivolous Friday, a day on which I will create a post only vaguely related to books at best (the first because I stole it from Bookninja, the second because the guy just got a book deal).
Item the first:
Whack-a-kitty!
(I could watch this all day. Giggling like a maniac the whole time.)
Item the second:
Tiny Art Director!
(start at the bottom).
In short, this guy has been doing this illustration blog for almost 2 years. When he started, his daughter was 2. She’s now 4. Together, they make the weirdest art team ever. She tells him what to draw, he draws it, and she critiques it, usually by raining insults and dissatisfaction down upon him. It’s really, really funny. Here’s an example:
Saturday, May 12, 2007
The Brief: A Scary Baby Dinosaur
The Critique: No! You color him some more! Can I put makeup on him?
Job Status: Rejected
Additional Comments: Stop Drawing! Stop Drawing!
The er.. “wit” of the MSNBC news team and their teabag and teabagging reference heavy discussions of reactions to Obama’s tax plans. I found it pretty funny. But then, I’m juvenile.
And more importantly, Here are 9 Books about Tea and Teabags! Having cut way, way down on the lifegiving necta… er.. I mean, coffee, I’m enjoying trying different teas these days. Today I had a delicious mug of Pomegranate-Raspberry green tea. Mmm, antioxidants. Anybody have a recommendation for a good Earl Grey? I find Twinings positively wimpy.
On to the books!
If you don’t live under a rock, you’ve probably seen the beautiful phenomenon of A Lion Called Christian on Youtube already, and probably know the amazing, touching story. But in case you don’t:
A Lion Called Christian tells the remarkable story of how Anthony “Ace” Bourke and John Rendall, visitors to London from Australia in 1969, bought the boisterous lion cub in the pet department of Harrods. For several months, the three of them shared a flat above a furniture shop on London’s King’s Road, where the charismatic and intelligent Christian quickly became a local celebrity, cruising the streets in the back of a Bentley, popping in for lunch at a local restaurant, even posing for a fashion advertisement. But the lion cub was growing up—fast—and soon even the walled church garden where he went for exercise wasn’t large enough for him. How could Ace and John avoid having to send Christian to a zoo for the rest of his life? A coincidental meeting with English actors Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, stars of the hit film Born Free, led to Christian being flown to Kenya and placed under the expert care of “the father of lions” George Adamson. Incredibly, when Ace and John returned to Kenya to see Christian a year later, they received a loving welcome from their lion, who was by then fully integrated into Africa and a life with other lions.
The book - originally published in the 1970s but long out of print - is now being re-released, and is chock full of photographs of Christian, from cubhood to adulthood.
And now, in case you haven’t seen it, the video that started all the attention:
I can’t watch it without getting all teary.
This past weekend, I watched the 1977 documentary film Pumping Iron. (I sense quizzical looks and raised eyebrows from my coworkers but anyhow…) The film documents the final stretch leading up to the 1975 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition and focuses on the man who is now the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his rivalry with Lou Ferrigno, who gained fame as the Incredible Hulk in the TV series.
During the opening credits I was surprised to see, “Based on the book…” and had to check into this. Sure enough, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding is a 1974 book by Charles Gaines and George Butler who had a keen interest in the “sub-culture” of bodybuilding during the time that has come to be known as the “The Golden Age” of bodybuilding, a time when mass and size were less important than symmetry and definition of the body.
First edition, first printing copies in good condition are now selling for as much as $400 on AbeBooks.
First Edition, First Printing Copy of Pumping Iron by Charles Gaines, George Butler
My discoveries didn’t end there either. Lo and behold, there is a 1984 sequel called Pumping Iron II: The Unprecedented Woman. And yes, there is also a film documentary to accompany this book.
The film was an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the life of die-hard bodybuilders and offered some interesting insight on Schwarznegger. I’m curious as to what angle the book took as it was released prior to the competition documented on the film. Hmmm…a bookstore here in Victoria has a copy…
“The greatest feeling you can get in a gym, or the most satisfying feeling you can get in the gym is… The Pump. Let’s say you train your biceps. Blood is rushing into your muscles and that’s what we call The Pump. You muscles get a really tight feeling, like your skin is going to explode any minute, and it’s really tight - it’s like somebody blowing air into it, into your muscle. It just blows up, and it feels really different. It feels fantastic.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
I wish i’d remembered to include Joseph Epstein’s new book about Fred Astaire on my Christmas list. Aside from being one of the most graceful, talented and fantastic men to watch (not to mention a looker), he was in vaudeville as a child with his sister, and in his fascinating life became an actor, a singer, a devoted husband, a tremendous dancer, and a man of great dignity. He always refused to allow a film to be made of his life, and included a clause in his will that no posthumous fim biography be made, either - so the written is all we get.
So, in honour of Fred Astaire, check out this video of the Nicholas Brothers performing ‘Stormy Weather’, which Fred Astaire called “the greatest dance number ever filmed”.
I’ve seen it at least six times, and it still completely blows my mind and makes me smile ear to ear.
In Stephen King’s The Shining, Jack Torrance is a frustrated writer who travels to an isolated hotel during winter in hopes of finding inspiration to write the novel he’s always wanted to start. Alas, “things” get in the way and Jack’s manuscript merely reads “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over again. Not good when you’re aiming for a best seller.
Now New York artist Phil Buehler, a self-described Stephen King fan, has brought Jack Torrance’s book to press. Crediting the work to Torrance, Buehler has self-published a book that also repeats the phrase throughout but employs different formatting on each page, using the words to create various shapes.
I think I’ll go off and bottle my own Red Rum…
A very literary Christmas carol, and this time it has nothing to do with Dickens
Merry Christmas!
An Indonesian businessman tossed over $10,000 out of an aircraft about 40 miles west of Jakarta as a promotion for his marketing book.
The stunt was captured on video
This is a great podcast. It explains how to make a handbag out of an old hardcover.
Follow the instructions and you are left with… this
Fantastic video preview of an upcoming pop up book.