Be not inhospitable to strangers

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The iconic Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company has frequently been in the news recently due to a world-wide fund raising effort to save the financially troubled landmark. You may not know that before it got its well known name the store was called the Mistral Bookshop after the chilly, powerful winds that blow through France during winter months. The other day, I was amazed to stumble upon this 1956 flyer for the bookstore which features appearances by Richard Wright and James Baldwin within three weeks of each other. How absolutely fabulous was that.

 

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the gods wait to delight in you

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

It should come as no surprise to any one that the poet Charles Bukowski was an inspiration and muse for the great Tom Waits. I am always moved by the short Bukowski poem “The Laughing Heart” so I love the Waits reading in the video below.

The Laughing Heart

by Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

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Art Mystery or Art Prank

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

You don’t have to be a street art sucker like me to be intrigued by the tale of the Cookie Monster “мир, земля, печенье” (“Peace, Land, and Cookies” in Russian) mural that popped up on a commercial building in Peoria, Illinois over the Thanksgiving holiday. The mystery stems from the question: Who actually commissioned artist Joshua Hawkins to paint the mural.

Nate Comte, the owner of the building, was furious when he discovered an enormous Cookie Monster mural on the side of his store.  It seems that someone impersonating Comte had contracted Hawkins to create the 30 feet long and 16 feet high art work and even paid Hawkins a bonus for completing the mural over the holiday weekend.

The enigmatic Soviet propaganda style mural, which riffs on Lenin’s famous “Peace, Land, Bread” motto, has since been covered over with white paint by the store owner. The wall itself has become a memorial of sorts with mural-loving locals leaving behind stuffed animal, flowers, and candles. No one has come forward to explain the prank, but you can follow the story on social media with at #peacelandcookies.

 

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Books By Bike

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Although Sri Lanka has one of the highest youth literacy rate in South Asia, there are still many villages all across the country with no libraries and no access to books. To address this problem, social worker Mahinda Dasanayaka created the Book and Me project in 2017. Starting with a few dozen books donated by family members and co-workers, he began taking his traveling library by motorcycle to rural villages and distributing books to young people for free.

After some publicity from radio stations, Dasanayaka now has a lending library of more than 3,00 books and he visits at least twenty villages in the Kegalle region each month. Dasanayaka wanted a way to bring people together, especially the two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka after their civil war which ended in 2009. He says, “Books can be used for the betterment of society and promote ethnic reconciliation—because no one can get angry with books.”

Books and Me is now starting to build little free library outposts in some of the most isolated villages so that the children will have access to reading material all of the time.

 

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Sea of Cortez

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

We know it as the Gulf of California, but in 1940 it was called the Sea of Cortez. In that year, the novelist John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts  traveled there to research a book project on the region’s ecology. They sailed to the area in a vessel called the Western Flyer. Their collaboration resulted in a book titled Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, which was comprised of a narrative log and a 328-page catalogue of marine life.

Now the San Francisco art book publisher Arion Press has published the book in a letterpress “hybrid” edition. The handcrafted, fine press edition incorporates reclaimed wood from the Western Flyer and illustrations by the renowned wood engraver Richard Wagener, as well as an original map and endpapers by artist Martin Machado. The edition is limited to 250 copies in three binding options. The Limited Edition, is “bound in striated pearlescent cloth with deep red coral paper sides imprinted with a starfish motif derived from Wagener,” according to the prospectus. It retails for $2,200. A limited number of Western Flyer prints are also available.

 

 

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A Window on the Universe

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Image Credit & Copyright: Zachery Cooley

This extraordinary image was taken at North Window Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, this past October by Zachery Cooley. Not long ago, I spent a few days in and around Arches; it is truly as magnificent as the photos make it out to be. I spent one evening in the park, but my iPhone images don’t capture the magic of the place like this gobsmacking photo. If you are ever in the U.S. southwest, don’t pass up a chance to visit Arches. North Window Arch is just one of thousands of natural rock arches that have been found in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, USA.

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The Nature of Middle-Earth

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

H/T to faithful reader Bonnie B. for this post

Fans of the Tolkien Universe will be happy to hear that a veritable treasure of unpublished writings from J.R.R. Tolkien will be released this coming June by HaperCollins. Titled “The Nature of Middle-Earth,” the new collection will explore themes frequently debated by Tolkien fans, including the immortality of Elves, Middle-Earth geography, Elvish languages, and reincarnation.

The book will be edited by Tolkien expert and NASA engineer Carl F. Hostetter.

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Bookstore Tourism: World’s Oldest Bookshop

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Although I have only visited Lisbon once, I had the serendipitous experience of staying in the Chiado district which is home to some of the city’s best cultural attractions, cafés, and the world’s oldest continuously operated bookstore. Livraria Bertrand, which was founded in 1732 by Frenchman Peter Faure, has been certified by Guinness World Records to own the title of oldest bookstore. Today, the original shop is part of a 50-store chain, but it retains an old world charm rarely matched.

Livraria Bertrand suffered significant damage in the catastrophic earthquake of 1755 and had to temporarily relocate, but returned to its present location in 1773. From the outside the bookstore appears to be but just a compact corner shop whose façade is decorated with stunning old azulejos tiles. But once you make your way inside  you’ll discover a warren of tunnels, alcoves, and book-packed chambers with all of the walls covered in historic wooden shelving.

 

 

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An Epic Story for a Hard Year

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

To be perfectly honest when I first was introduced to the 1,000-year old epic tale Beowulf in high school I was not a fan, but as they say it grew on me over the years. This year, the writer Maria Dahvana Headley’s released an updated translation of the monster classic. Long a fan of Grendel and his mother, she wrote The Mere Wife in 2018, a precursor to her new translation of the original story, which uses modern day slang to make the story more accessible.

The literary magazine Grand Journal is celebrating this work with an epic 25 day reading, featuring a wide range creative, each of whom will share part of the story in Zoom-captured readings. On the last day, December 25th, all of the videos will be presented in a single stream. Starting on December 1st, with drag queen Miz Cracker, who begins reading with a its original Old English, the series includes readings by Laurie Anderson, Sara Quin, Alan Cumming, Justin Vivian Bond, Neil Gaiman and many more.

 

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Reading is still the path

Posted on December 3, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The gears of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness, and low self-esteem mesh to create a kind of perpetual failure machine that grinds down dreams from generation to generation. We all bear the cost of keeping it running. Illiteracy is its linchpin…. Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom. But reading is still the path.”  Carl Sagan

 

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