Miscellany Posted Jan 13, 2025

Help Owner of Pasadena's Beloved Book Alley

TOM ROGERS, owner of Pasadena's beloved book store BOOK ALLEY has lost his home in the Eaton Fire. A charismatic, compassionate boss and loving father to two boys who work at our store, we come together as a community to help them rebuild their lives after the devastation. The Rogers family selflessly used the last moments they could helping neighbors evacuate and took nothing with them but their vehicles and husky. 
 
Miscellany Posted Jan 13, 2025

Books for Altadena's Displaced Children

Please consider helping this worthy cause with a financial donation

The organizers are at capacity for donations and we can't accept any more at this time.

 

Thank you!

 

Book of the Day Posted Jan 05, 2025

Book of the Day: Race Stories

From the publisher: "Edited by Marvin Heiferman, Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images examines the transformational role photography plays in shaping ideas and attitudes about race and how photographic images have been instrumental in both perpetuating and combating racial stereotypes. Written between 2012 and 2019 and first presented as a monthly feature on the New York Times 'Lens' blog, Berger’s incisive essays help readers see a bigger picture about race through storytelling. By directing attention to the most revealing aspects of images, Berger makes complex issues comprehensible, vivid, and engaging. The essays illuminate a range of images, issues, and events: the modern civil rights movement; African American–, Latinx–, Asian American–, and Native American photography; and pivotal moments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when race, photography, and visual culture intersected. They also examine the full spectrum of photographic imaging: from amateur to professional pictures, from snapshots to fine art, from mugshots to celebrated icons of photojournalism." Book of the day! (Aperture, 2024)
Book of the Day Posted Jan 04, 2025

Book of the Day: Flashpoint!

"Flashpoint!, an anthology focusing on protest photography in print, presents a global selection of photobooks, zines, posters, pamphlets, independent journals and alternative newspapers that address protest and resistance from the 1950s to the present" All Power to the Book of the Day! (10x10 Photobooks, 2024)
Book of the Day Posted Jan 03, 2025

Book of the Day: Forever Changes - The Authorized Biography of Arthur Lee

Arthur Lee, the archetypal mercurial genius and the driving force behind the legendary L.A. band Love, is throughly profiled in this wonderful biography named Forever Changes after the group’s timelessly excellent 1967 album. Don’t be “Alone Again Or,” “Old Man”! Pick up “The Red Telephone” or “The Daily Planet” and grab this tome today or else it’ll be a real “Bummer in the Summer.” Oof, sorry. Anyway, book of the day! (Jawbone Press, 2024)

Book of the Day Posted Jan 02, 2025

Book of the Day: Seana Gavin's "Spiralled"

​Who among us hasn’t dreamed of packing it all in, buying a disused caravan, and traveling the UK and Europe hitting illegal raves in muddy fields and squalid squats? Just us? Well, the legendary Spiral Tribe collective made this fantasy a reality starting in the early ‘90s, and photographer / artist Seana Gavin was there documenting the reality of her life deep in the mix. Spiralled is her book of these photos, and you can almost hear the repetitive beats and smell the clouds of spliff smoke. We wish we could be there right now. Anyway, book of the day and big up the Spiral massive! (IDEA, 2024)
None Posted Dec 24, 2024

Happy Holidays, Friends

Holiday Hours Open 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM each day through 12/23
Tuesday, 12/24: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Wednesday, 12/25: Closed
Thursday, 12/26: Closed
Friday, 12/27: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Saturday, 12/28: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday, 12/29: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Monday, 12/30: Closed
Tuesday, 12/31: Closed
Wednesday, 1/1: Closed
 
Our regular Hours are Wednesday - Sunday, 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Resuming on Thursday, 1/2/2025
 
Photo by the great Todd Hido.
Events Posted Dec 14, 2024

Huggy Bear Killed (of kids) LA Book Launch at Arcana 12/21!

Join us Saturday, December 21st, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to celebrate Huggy Bear Killed (of Kids), the long-awaited (especially by a certain breed of punks) history and compilation of zines by the legendary, seminal British riot grrrl band Huggy Bear.
 
From the book's editor, Ethan Swan: "Huggy Bear existed from 1991 until 1994. Outcast and outraged, they made a howling, squalling mess of punk, all the menace and freedom of flocking birds. The handful of records, zines, and memories that document this brief, bonfire lifespan sketch a blueprint for how to be in the world, for how to understand the forces of capitalism and patriarchy and capitulation and still resist. Huggy Bear was a group that let things be complicated, that considered themselves complicit, but never took that as a reason to surrender. There’s no band more important. Killed (of Kids) is a book by the five members of Huggy Bear. It reproduces all seven zines made by the band during their lifespan alongside photos, correspondence, flyers, and ephemera from their three-year existence. This archive is joined by new text drawn from two years of interviews with the band members, carefully assembled into an extensive dialogue about intention, surprise, distress, encouragement."
 
Arcana heartily agrees with all of the above. Please join us in taking a break from holiday chaos to celebrate the ageless spirit of "boy-girl revolution," as Huggy Bear put it. The holiday cheer at this gathering is generously supported by our friends at Open Beer and Las Jaras Wines.
 
See you then! If you can't make it but would like to purchase a copy of the book, you may do so here.
Events Posted Nov 21, 2024

Booksigning at Arcana - Ryan McGinley: Yearbook

Join us on Saturday, November 23rd, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to celebrate Yearbook, the new release by Ryan McGinley!
 
The culmination of a multi-year project encompassing colorful, joyous studio nudes starring a veritable menagerie of stark naked human beings, Yearbook marks a particularly vibrant era of Ryan's work. In addition to signing his new volume, McGinley will also appear in discussion with artist (and subject of his camera) Petra Collins.
 
The gathering is generously supported by our friends at Open Beer and Las Jaras Wines.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 20, 2024

Book of the Day: Yoshitomo Nara - Guggenheim Bilbao

From the distributor, D.A.P.: "This definitive monograph spans 40 years, from 1984 to the present day, in the career of the iconic artist, shedding light on Yoshitomo Nara’s conceptual process through paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics and installations that reflect his empathetic vision of the world around him. Published in conjunction with the epochal exhibition at Museo Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, this eponymous monograph divides Nara’s oeuvre into three chronological periods, beginning with his first artworks created in Japan in the 1980s, in which recurring elements of his personal history appear, such as his family’s house and childlike figures, developed under the influence of artists such as Takeshi Motai. The volume then highlights the artist’s fruitful stay in Germany, where Nara reacted to the isolation imposed by the language barrier while he studied and discovered German Expressionism with A.R. Penck at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and introduced in his production the central characters that would soon be recognized as part of his signature language. Finally, the monograph closes by exploring the work Nara produced after his return to Japan in 2000, presenting an essential selection of his late paintings, drawings, installations and sculptures."
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