How To Prepare for the Past (Paperback)

Brian Cullman

ISBN 13: 9798988670100

Published by ZE Books, 2026

About this Item

Paperback. Writer and musician Brian Cullmans rapturous evocation of life in the bike lane, before the world was digital, when music was everything and magic was everywhere, encompassing friendships with Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, Tim Hardin, and Paul Bowles. When people asked Brian Cullman his favourite song, he would say the radio. It was all one sound. It was all one song: the drums and the words, the words without words, the rhythm and the static and the joy and amplified tears. TV was a clunky box in the corner, nothing but images on a screen telling the same story over and over. The stories were old and small, over before they began. Yesterdays gossip and twice cold toast. They gave him nothing. But Smokey Robinson crying like a flower with a hangover, The Ronettes, so carnivorous & tender, the sound of eternity in bed with the night: this was love and death and a ticket to places the buses dont go. These were the dreams of the dead, the regrets of the living, stolen prayers from the broken church where God & The Devil relax after work and trade places. He went to sleep to it, woke up to it. The idiot announcers and jingles and calls from New Jersey, the news and guitars, all one. He wanted to walk in it, dance in it. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9798988670100

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How To Prepare for the Past (Paperback)
• Publisher: ZE Books
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798988670100
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Writer and musician Brian Cullman’s rapturous evocation of life in the bike lane, before the world was digital, when music was everything and magic was everywhere, encompassing friendships with Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, Tim Hardin, and Paul Bowles. 

When people asked Brian Cullman his favourite song, he would say the radio. 

It was all one sound. It was all one song: the drums and the words, the words without words, the rhythm and the static and the joy and amplified tears. 

TV was a clunky box in the corner, nothing but images on a screen telling the same story over and over. The stories were old and small, over before they began. Yesterday’s gossip and twice cold toast. They gave him nothing. 

But Smokey Robinson crying like a flower with a hangover, The Ronettes, so carnivorous & tender, the sound of eternity in bed with the night: this was love and death and a ticket to places the buses don’t go. These were the dreams of the dead, the regrets of the living, stolen prayers from the broken church where God & The Devil relax after work and trade places. He went to sleep to it, woke up to it. The idiot announcers and jingles and calls from New Jersey, the news and guitars, all one. He wanted to walk in it, dance in it.

About the Author

Brian Cullman is a writer & musician based in New York and in France. He has written extensively for The Paris Review, Antaeus, Rolling Stone & The Village Voice and has won the ASCAP/Deems Taylor award for excellence in music journalism three times. He has three solo albums on Sunnyside and is currently a member of Lisbon-based group Rua Das Pretas. He lives in NYC.