Book of the Day Posted Oct 01, 2020

Book of the Day > Planet Wax: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Soundtracks on Vinyl

● Purchase ● Do you crank up your stereo and conduct air symphonies to John Williams' Star Wars? Know all of the lyrics to "The NeverEnding Story" or "Xanadu?" Have a burgeoning collection of space disco albums? Well, pluck those Ceti Alpha eels out of your ears and open this book – we've got you covered.
 
From the orchestral bombast of Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture score, to the muscle-flexing might of Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian, to the dreamy electronic soundscapes of Vangelis' Blade Runner and the pop styling of the Flash Gordon soundtrack, science fiction and fantasy films have inspired some of the most beloved and memorable soundtracks in film history.
 
Planet Wax covers the best, as well as the most unique and underrated scores the sci-fi and fantasy genres have to offer, while showcasing their original vinyl LP artwork over 240 pages. Franchises like Mad Max, The Terminator, and even the Indiana Jones films are spotlighted, along with television classics such as Doctor Who and Star Trek, making Planet Wax the definitive discography of soundtracks from the films and shows of the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s that shaped multiple generations.
 
Featuring over twenty interviews, including composers Stu Phillips (Battlestar Galactica), Laurence Rosenthal (Clash of the Titans), and directors Richard Donner (Superman) and Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II), Planet Wax chronicles an era in film and music when the sounds were given as much prominence as the interstellar imagery.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 30, 2020

Book of the Day > Paul Smith

● Purchase ● A timely celebration of British design legend Sir Paul Smith and his one-of-a-kind creativity This new monograph captures the unique spirit of British fashion icon Sir Paul Smith through 50 objects chosen by Sir Paul himself for the inspiration they have provided him over the years — from a wax plate of spaghetti and a Dieter Rams radio to a Mario Bellini Cab chair and a bicycle seat. Each object has impacted his worldview, his creative process, and his adherence to a design approach that's always imbued with distinctly British wit and eccentricity.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 29, 2020

Book of the Day > SWAMP MONSTERS: Photographs from the 2020 Republican National Convention

● Purchase ● SWAMP MONSTERS commemorates the historically frightful 2020 Republican National Convention with a series of photographs made by Tucson-based artist and publisher Phil Zimmermann as the spectacle unfolded on his television screen from August 24-27. This rogues’ gallery of hideous video portraits is printed in garish full color in an unbound tabloid newspaper format, and published in a limited edition of 666 copies. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Arizona Democratic Party.

Book of the Day Posted Sep 26, 2020

Book of the Day > Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting

● Purchase ● Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the life and work of the visionary and influential painter Philip Guston.
 
Driven and consumed by art, Philip Guston painted and drew compulsively. This book takes the reader from his early social realist murals and the Abstract Expressionist works of the 1950s and early 1960s to the powerful new language of figurative painting, which he developed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on more than thirty years of his own research, the critic and curator, Robert Storr, maps Guston’s entire career in one definitive volume, providing a substantial, accessible, and revealing analysis of his work.
 
With more than 900 images, the book illustrates Guston’s key works, many unpublished paintings and drawings, and photographs showing the artist’s life at home, his work in the studio, and his relationship with fellow artists. An illustrated chronology, drawn from the Guston Foundation’s archives, contextualizes
 
Guston’s life and provides in-depth coverage of his many exhibitions. Guston was also able to speak about art with unrivalled passion and fluency. In celebration of this, the book features a final section devoted to Guston’s own thoughts on his drawing and one of his great heroes—Piero della Francesca.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 25, 2020

Book of the Day > Architectural Digest: The Most Beautiful Rooms in the World

● Purchase ● An unrivaled survey of the most exciting contemporary interior design across the globe, curated by the editors of ten international editions of Architectural Digest.
 
Since 1920, Architectural Digest has celebrated design talents, innovative homes, and products--providing endless decoration, lifestyle, and travel inspiration. With ten global editions, the magazine is an authority renowned all over the world for publishing only the very best of today's interior design.
 
In this new volume--spearheaded by AD France's editor in chief, Marie Kalt--the editors of Architectural Digest's international editions have teamed up to thoughtfully curate a collection of today's most exceptional interiors around the globe. These diverse residential spaces span from the United States and China, to France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Spain, India, Mexico, and the Middle East, presenting each country's unique "AD style manifesto" and the work of design luminaries such as Peter Marino, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Jacques Grange, Joseph Dirand, and Bijoy Jain, to name a few. The featured projects range from Marc Jacobs's New York townhouse to Tommy Hilfiger's Connecticut abode and Seth Meyers's Manhattan duplex; a sumptuous eighteenth-century Italian villa and a Moroccan palace; Pierre Bergé's apartment and a hôtel particulier in Paris; a Majorca summer home; and a country house in Russia. Brimming with stunning images and rich international inspirations, this unparalleled compendium of global interiors is a must for every library of interior design.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 24, 2020

Book of the Day > Skate Like a Girl

● Purchase ● In ever-increasing numbers, girls and women are gathering at skate parks and competing in skateboarding events on nearly every continent. In stunning photographs of remarkable female skaters in action, this book celebrates the incredible range of styles, ethnicities, and ages that make up a rapidly growing community.
 
Skate Like a Girl features professional skaters, pioneers and newcomers, skate photographers and filmmakers, downhill skateboarders, longboarders, and gold medalists. You’ll meet skaters who are moms, models, artists, and engineers. What they all have in common is that skating is their way of life. Hailing from all over the world, each woman is profiled in her own words of wisdom about going after her dreams, falling hard, and getting right back up. Filled with empowering images and inspiring words, this book will encourage girls and women of every age to get on a board and shred!
Book of the Day Posted Sep 22, 2020

Book of the Day > The Lives of Others: Sublime Interiors of Extraordinary People

● Purchase ● A privileged invitation into a world of beauty--from a seventeenth-century Italian palace and retreats in the Swiss Alps and Morocco to artists' studios and noble residences in Austria and Spain. Simon Watson takes the reader into highly personal environments that reveal the creativity and personality of their esteemed inhabitants.
 
Since the 1990s, Watson has been one of the most prolific chroniclers of remarkable interiors and portraits, gracing the pages of W magazine, Vanity Fair, AD, and T Magazine. From hard-edged modernity and historical exoticism to pure classicism, the photographer has documented rooms of note in cities, atop mountains, and by the sea.
 
Complementing his masterful images, Watson gives an intimate description of each location. On this journey with the photographer, one experiences the Duchess of Alba's Palacio Liria in Madrid, filled with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century masterpieces; interior designer Roberto Peregalli's splendid riad in Tangier; the magnificent and vast Castello Gardena in the Italian Alps owned by the Franchetti clan; Guinness heir Garech de Brun's hillside retreat in County Wicklow, Ireland; the Renaissance Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome, designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi in the sixteenth century; shoe designer Christian Louboutin's fanciful Parisian apartment; and many other splendid places around the world.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 19, 2020

Book of the Day > KAWS: He Eats Alone

● Purchase ● A clothbound collection of KAWS’ instantly recognizable riffs on pop culture, featuring bold graphics and a familiar cast of characters
 
Few artists have managed to bridge the gap between high and low culture as seamlessly as KAWS has since his career took off in the 1990s: his iconic cartoon-inspired designs have graced fashion collections, vinyl figurines, and skateboards as well as canvases sold for millions of dollars. Frequently portraying familiar figures such as Mickey Mouse and Spongebob Squarepants with cauliflower ears and X’ed-out eyes, KAWS employs a sophisticated dark humor throughout his work, exploring the relationship between art and consumerism.
 
This publication documents the artist’s first exhibit in the Middle East, with more than 40 key pieces in sculpture and painting from the last two decades. The exhibit in Doha, Qatar, and its accompanying catalog also feature a number of KAWS’ commercial collaborations alongside his 5-meter-tall sculpture Companion (Passing Through) and his inflatable 40-meter-tall piece Holiday. Bound in cloth, this volume is a gorgeous collection of KAWS’ most exciting work.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 17, 2020

Book of the Day > Luigi Ghirri: Cardboard Landscapes (Paesaggi di cartone)

● Purchase ● A handsome facsimile of conceptualist Luigi Ghirri’s poetic narrative of 1970s pop culture
 
Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri (1943–92) made Cardboard Landscapes (Paesaggi di cartone) during his travels around Europe, coining the term “sentimental geography” to describe his unique artistic approach of examining the ordinary to prove it remarkable. The original handmade album features over 100 chromogenic color prints pasted onto the pages of a blank book, and was gifted by Ghirri to John Szarkowski, then the Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, in the 1970s.
 
A singular work of art, Cardboard Landscapes is now being published for the first time. The collection is an anomaly within Ghirri’s overall oeuvre, as it prioritizes complex composition rather than the sweeping tableaux for which he is best known. In this series of works, he regards the printed image as the subject, framing a kaleidoscope of photographs and advertisements to tell a poetic visual narrative that reflects at once regional, personal and popular culture, revealing a fascinating impulse to investigate his role within his own medium.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 16, 2020

Book of the Day > You Next: Reflections in Black Barbershops

● Purchase ● An intimate photographic exploration of the ways Black barber shops operate as sites for the cultivation of Black male identity and wellness
 
There's something about a fresh haircut that can change a Black man's outlook on the world, change his outlook on himself. The experience extends beyond just the cut but to the environment of the barber shop. Grow-ing up, getting a hair cut was a weekly event Antonio M. Johnson looked forward to more than anything. His uncle Jason was a barber and embodied everything cool. There in that tilted chair, under the hand of his uncle, surrounded by members of his community and totems of a shared experience, Johnson felt safe—felt like anything was possible. Over the years, he came to understand that barber shops are more than places simply to get a cut. They are about the only spaces in Ameri-can life created where Black men can speak and receive feedback about who we are, who we want to be, and what we believe to be true about the world around us. The interpretation of the barber shop as community center falls short of capturing what they really are for so many Black men: sanctuaries in a hostile land. You Next is an intimate photographic exploration of the ways Black barber shops operate as sites for the cultivation of Black male identity and wellness in major US cities—Gary, Indi-ana; Washington DC; New York City; Oakland; Atlanta; Los Angeles; Detroit; New Orleans; Montgomery; Memphis, and Johnson's home-town of Philadelphia. These photos, interviews, and essays tell the full story of the Black barber shop in America. "You next" is what a barber says to customers to communicate that they're on deck for a haircut; it's the question between customers to determine where they are in line. Thus, it is an invitation, an invocation, an affirmation. Because after waiting your turn in a barber shop, sharing, laughing, debating, those magic words signify you are about to be transformed.
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