Joshua Tree Obsession

I've been fascinated with Joshua trees for a while now so when I found this postcard from 1947 at the PCC Flea Market today, I didn't think twice.  Back then, what is now Joshua Tree National Park was just a national monument.  The front of the postcard says:

"It is believed the early Mormons gave this giant Yucca its name, seeing in it's grotesquely extended arms a symbol pointing tot he promised land they were seeking."

This time of the year is the best time to visit this part of the desert and given the date stamp on the postcard of Dec 29, 1947, it gives me an idea of maybe a day trip during the holiday break.  Below are some image of Joshua trees I've taken over the years, typically somewhere in the high desert in California.  I would never hesitate to stop the car and stand next to these towering Yuccas.

Of course, the most famous Joshua tree of all is the one from "The Joshua Tree" album by that Irish band as shown below on the inside cover.  Yeah, back when music was actually packaged in somewhat decent artform.  The U2 images were taken by photographer Anton Corbijn.

Leaving The Comfort Zone

I had generally stayed away from celebrity photography.  The last book I ever bought on the genre was  "Individuals: Portraits from the Gap Collection" sometime in 2006 -- until last night.  Browsing at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, I found a clearance book by a German photographer, Olaf Heine.  Much of my distaste for photographing famous people is the fact that the celebrity icon on the image is easily too distracting for me to fully appreciate the merit of the artwork.  Besides, we all have preconceptions of who these people are so that photographs will often reinforce our biases.  However, Heine's "Leaving the Comfort Zone, Photographs 1991/2008" just grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go until I made my way to the cash register about twenty bucks poorer.  (I just can't believe I've never heard of him or his work before.)

  Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters

Kurt Cobain in a backdrop that looks like he's on fire with that Fender Mustang guitar.

 Snoop Dogg Samurai.  I don't even need to see the face, just his silhouette, which Olaf Heine exploits to the fullest extent.

The crazy James Hetfield of Metallica!

The Tour in Print

Just finished Bike Tribes and on to the next book.  Blazing Saddles: The Cruel and Unusual History of the Tour de France.  I don't really care what people think of professional cycling with the Armstrong debacle and all dominating the past several months of the news.  The tour still has quite a bit of history that most people in this country don't care to know about because it's French and by definition, any red-blooded football-watching, pickup truck-driving, gun-loving American can't possibly be interested in it.  My passion for the tour didn't kick in until 1985 when American Greg Lemond battled the Frenchman, his teammate Bernard Hinault for the title.  This book is about the aspect of the tour that is not covered by the mainstream media.  Speaking of the tour, the only poster of this epic bike race I keep in the house is the one I have in my bedroom.

Photographer Robert Capa captured the essence of the tour that most Americans will never understand. French cycling fans will stand on the side of the road for hours to just get a glimpse of the race fly by.  A 10 second blur maybe? 30 at most depending on how fast the peloton is going at the time.  This 1959 photograph tells so much about the tour without even showing any image of a cyclist or a bicycle.  Only someone who has watched or participated in bike race in person will fully appreciate Capa's masterpiece.

Bike Tribes: A Field Guide to North American Cyclists

One of the funnier books that looks at the sociological side of two-wheeled transit.  Most of us belong to some primary tribe and consider ourselves part of other tribes.  After all, no self-respecting cyclist owns only one type of bike right?  This is easy Reader's Digest-type reading, short, sweet, anecdotal and some cool drawings by Danica Novgorodoff.  I heard writer Mike Magnuson interviewed in a cycling podcast once and was impressed enough to order the book online.  Between Magnuson and BikeSnobNYC, there's this constant stream of writing that reminds me that cycling is not all about serious turning of the cranks and hammering.  It's about how cycling is just another instantiation of how social beings interact.

Analog Print

I don't think I'll ever stop buying art books.  Digital books may work for fiction or other types of work but for art books, analog is still the way to go.  Nothing like feeling the texture of a large format color print of an art book.  Only problem is, I have to go to Pasadena or LA to buy them.

The Enlightened Cyclist

One of the funnier books I've read on cycling culture.  Even though I understand road racing, there's a whole world of the two-wheeled life that I don't even come close to understanding.  Bike Snob NYC provides an insight into the strange subculture of commuters, hipsters, fixies, cars vs bikes, bikes vs bikes, etc.

It Was Good While It Lasted

Amazon will start charging sales tax in September and for the last 10 years, I had bought most of these art books from them at a much discounted price.  Normally, I would thumb through a book associated with a museum exhibition and I am really just too cheap to pay $70 for a book, so I get it online for $35.  In addition to the free shipping, the fact that I have to pay no sales tax got me sold on the deal.  Well, I have literally a month and a half to buy from them before I get taxed as if I'm going to the local bookstore.  And sometime last year, I started buying household items like shoe polish, bike parts, clothing, etc from Amazon as well.  For me, a bulk of my Amazon purchases are really not necessities -- more like impulse buys or luxury items.  A few dollars of taxes won't break me but it's the damn principle of having to pay more taxes.  Screw 'em all.

Jackson Pollock Note

I had bought this used book at Rhino Records in Claremont and is basically a collection of images from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art about "Artists In Their Studios".  Jackson Pollock's basic message is that technique is a result of a certain needs amongst practicing artists.  For some reason, I do find this statement very representative of that way he practiced his art.  Innovation, in many areas of everyday life, is typically a result of a need to solve a particular problem or in the case of art, the need to make a statement.  Several key words jump out that define Pollock the artist as we know from his brief life -- total control, organic intensity, human needs, acceptance.

"Guitars, Cars, Watches, Wine & The Deluxe Life"

That's what the top corner of this new publication (I recently discovered) states.  I'm into 60% of what's listed (guitars, cars, wine), maybe on 20% (deluxe life) and no on 20% (watches).  Nonetheless, that makes me a target reader demographic and definitely, a potential subscriber.  The coverage is mostly guitars, cars next and the remainder, everything else.  I hear about the death of printed media all the time but with some creativity of content, publishers can find a market for magazines like Guitar Aficionado, which merges multiple interests into a single magazine.  Personally, it would have been even better if they replace "watches" with "bicycles".

New Publication

Cruising the magazine rack at the grocery store Friday night looking for candy with the kids, I instead found this new rag "Paved".  This is an interesting mixture of bike racing, personalities, photography, history and product reviews (including an 11 pound $14,000 bike).  I will want a subscription as soon as I figure out what other magazine to cancel.

Size (Actually Weight) Matters

I finally found over the weekend a copy of Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961-1967 at the Urban Outfitters in Rancho Cucamonga discounted at $30 (normally $70).  What's striking about this book, besides the photographic works of one of LA's own is it weight.  At 9.8 lbs, it's easily the heaviest book (art books or otherwise) I have in my library.  Which brings me to my little exercise.  Out of the hundreds of art books I have, I picked out several that looked like heavyweights (literally) and listed the ones that are equal to or greater than 6 lbs.  Here the empirical data:

1) Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961-1967 (9.8 lbs)

2) Picasso (8.2lbs)

3) Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 (8.2 lbs)

4) Cream 3 (7.2 lbs)

5) Chuck Close - Work (6.8 lbs)

6) Anthony Quinn's Eye (6.0 lbs)

I don't think there's any positive correlation between the weight of these books to the impact to the art world of the artist(s) represented in their respective pages. I don't think there's any positive correlation to anything other than where they sit on my bookshelf, i.e. at the bottom.  Otherwise, these 6 books alone, weighing in a combined 46 lbs could sag any non-reinforced shelving.  I don't think I will ever appreciate any artbook in electronic format viewed through these readers.  I'm old school when it comes to printed media.

My NPR, My Radio

I cannot even remember the number of books, CDs, movies, art, etc that had discovered over the years listening to National Public Radio.  I know that NPR is constantly under assault from the right wing in this country but given the fact that it had always been for as long as I can remember, I actually think there's a good chance for long term survival of NPR.  In particular, my public radio station,  KPCC (89.3) will always be around.  So I got some B&N gift cards on my birthday and went out to get some books when I did remember another interview driving home a couple weeks ago.  A certain Simon Garfield and his book on type.  So this week, this is what I'm reading based on an (indirect) NPR recommendation.  Of course, my kids listen to NPR as well when they're in the car with me.  In fact, Sam downloaded several This American Life podcasts into his iPod a couple weeks ago.  I believe the continuity with NPR will always be there as long as there are people in this country who are open to learning something new each day.

Monster Children Magazine

I just can't believe I haven't heard of Monster Children before last night.  This is a wonderful magazine that I feel was published just for me.  It's got -- photography, design, skateboarding, bikes, art, interviews and most importantly, minimal ads.  On the cover of Issue #32 is Margaret Kilgallen, an artist from San Francisco.  The other thing I really like is the landscape format of this publication.  I just don't understand where it says the printed media should be in portrait format -- when square, 16x9 or plain old landscape are more suited for how we view information these days, via computer screen.

Do-It-Yourself Physics

The ad in the Smithsonian magazine was very well written. But this guy, Terence Witt, is an absolute hack. He is developing, on his own this theory called Null Physics. Actually, the ad is selling a book as well. So I checked out the website to see what it's all about. Turns out he's got an electrical engineering degree and is pursuing Null Physics on his own -- without peer review. None of the dozen colleagues at work I talked to (all with physics degrees) take Mr. Witt seriously. I'd hate to waste money to read something that should be available in scientific journals anyway.


"For quite some time now, anyone who wanted to understand the universe's inner workings had only two places in which to turn. The first is an eclectic cast of "scientific" paradigms, which includes, but is not limited to, string theory, the Big Bang, and quantum reality. While these make valiant attempts to describe the universe and come to grips with their own glaring incompleteness, in the final analysis they can't even begin to answer questions that any child might pose. Regardless of how many popularized versions of these theories find their way into bookstores, the important questions remain unsolved because the current scientific approach lacks any trace of an underlying natural philosophy. The other option available to the inquiring mind is a disorganized quagmire of "alternative" theories. These decry the reigning scientific models but provide absolutely nothing of substance in their stead. Alternative theories seldom identify their own premises unambiguously, let alone provide quantitative tests for them.
At long last, a theory has emerged that addresses the foundation of reality logically, rationally, empirically, and completely - Null Physics. The universe it reveals doesn't rely on unknowable precursors in the ancient, untestable past. The universe it reveals won't collapse, or grow old and die. Null Physics tells us why the universe exists, how the universe exists, and why it is the way it is. The mystery of our existence has beaten scientists and philosophers for so long that they are utterly convinced that reality's underpinnings are beyond human comprehension. They are wrong. Anyone with a basic familiarity with high-school physics can, by reading this volume, understand the universe with a greater depth and clarity than is currently believed possible. Welcome to 21st century physics. "