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Gisèlle Prassinos
Monday, November 4, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Fantasmagorie (1908)
one of the earliest examples of hand-drawn animation
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Absurd Words, Puns, & Fun
It’s all packed into this huge collection of Captain Cap tales by the great Alphonse Allais:
CAPTAIN CAP: HIS ADVENTURES, HIS IDEAS, HIS DRINKS
Translated from the French by Doug Skinner.
370 pages -- profusely illustrated with witty drawings by Skinner, plus copious notes on the translation. In addition to the complete, unabridged text of the original 1902 French edition, the book includes eight uncollected stories featuring the good old Captain. There’s also a “Cappendix” of rare historical drawings & photos,
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
CHECK IN
Taking a step back and trying to be objective, Hotel Ortolan reminds me of those early paperbacks published by City Lights… little gems like A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard and True Minds. Or, perhaps, Breton’s illustrated novel Nadja published by Grove Press. Certainly Michel Varisco’s photographs are equally haunting.
Ortolan is the sort of slender surrealist volume one dreams of encountering at a bookshop in Paris. The door on the cover dares you to enter. And, of course, you do. You open that forbidding door, step inside and then…well, it’s too late. Whalen’s words are in your bloodstream. The book is destined to be displayed face out on one’s bookshelf, or even under glass. It’s surely not an edition one loans to a friend, as it will never be returned. It won’t find itself in a box at a yard sale in Greenwich, or at the Salvation Army in Sacramento. Maybe, just maybe, a copy will appear in the bin outside Strand in NYC, but only because it arrived from an estate sale and was mistakenly sorted by an ignorant temp.
Limited to only 125 copies, it’s already imbued with the aura of an avant-garde classic that collectors will search for without success.
“Ever seen a copy of Whalen’s Ortolan?”
Here’s your chance, only 75 copies remaining.