We Have Moved

Greetings, readers and writers.

You're probably wondering why the posts dried up a while ago ... We have been hard at work for several months, crafting a brand new Bluebird Books website with the talented team of Reuben Pressman and Hunter Payne of St. Petersburg, Florida.

And today, at last, is our launch day! We are pleased to present www.thebluebirdbus.com

Reuben and Hunter, in homage to our work with books and paper arts projects, crafted all of the design elements by hand, using paper, string and other analog materials -- cutting and pasting the old-school way!

This old Blogspot will soon become inactive, and we hope you will migrate with us over to the new Bluebird site. On the Blog tab, you'll find new material alongside an archive of old posts direct from this feed. Take a look and let us know what you think. Thank you, as always, for your support!

Talk Pretty: Sedaris Coming to Tampa Theatre

With a favored spot on my personal library shelf for years, David Sedaris brings biting wit to bear on the human experience through his stories and personal essays.

He is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, NPR and This American Life -- where I recommend you go take a listen, for a hint at what's in store when he comes to read at our historic Tampa Theatre, Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.

That's right people: If you haven't already heard, David Sedaris is coming to town.

This sardonic member of 'The Talent Family' never fails to elicit a dark chuckle or a lasting, thoughtful image. Usually both.

Inkwood Books, a longtime, independent pillar among Bay area book purveyors, will sell some of Sedaris' collections in advance and at the event, if you don't already have copies of your own.

Barrel Fever, classic. Holidays on Ice, forever the perfect gift book. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, my entry into his tales. I'll be bringing a fair collection to be signed. I will try not to embarrass myself.

The Captive Poet Project

Here at Bluebird, we’re all about taking words to the street. That’s why we have wheels.

This is not a taco truck. But you can order a haiku, through the latest incarnation of our literary outreach: The Captive Poet Project.

At select Bluebird Books events in March – starting tonight – one of our Captive Poets will create an original, experimental haiku poem (up to five lines long) for you to take home.

Our Poets work on a typewriter before your very eyes, and each poem is custom made to order. We only ask for a $2 minimum donation. It helps us keep the Poets fed and watered (and of course, a little gas money never hurts).

During future events, you can get hands-on and write your own to add to our Pocket Book, a teeny ‘zine due out this fall.

Meanwhile, meet the Captive Poets – students of poetry and volunteers from local groups such as the IV Poets – and learn about English-language variants of the Japanese haiku poetic form.

See you on the Bus!

Nicole Kibert / elawgrrl.com

Inspirations: The Sign of the Centaur

"The proprietor [of the Centaur Book Shop], Harold Mason, was a 29-year-old of independent means who was fascinated by books, particularly first editions by liberal intellectuals. His bookshop was a small, comfortable room in a 300-year-old house outfitted with bookshelves, wicker chairs, candlesticks, Japanese prints and a fireplace. Here one could find first editions of avant-garde books and current issues of the intellectual magazines of the day ...

The bookshop's name was taken from a line in the banned book Jurgen, by James Branch Cabell: 'Up on my back,' said the Centaur, 'and I will take you thither.' The association with Jurgen 'lent a mild wickedness to the enterprise,' Mason recalled. When importation of Lady Chatterley's Lover, considered at the time to be as sinful as booze, was prohibited, Mason arranged for a shipment of a case of books, after the spines had been replaced with those of another book of the same size.

From the Bluebird Collection:
Poster by Andy Beach for ICA, Centaur block print by Wendy and Marvin Hill.

A room over the shop became an after-hours gathering place for select patrons, artists, people of letters, and other friends. It was, like a Greenwich Village salon, bohemian and arty. This was during Prohibition, and 'in' members had their own liquor lockers and keys to the room. The outgoing Wharton [Esherick] was quickly inducted into the club, and he made a sign to hang over the door, a modernist centaur of wood and bent iron straps (the 'sign of the Centaur')."

-- From Wharton Esherick: Journey of a Creative Mind, by Mansfield Bascom, Abrams, 2010, reproduced in a pamphlet from the Excursus I: Reference Library at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Philadelphia 

Bluebird Undercover: Debuting Feb. 9

At Bluebird, we've always got our face in a book. Get your own nose between the covers and show the world that you love reading too.

Bluebird Undercover is a photo project for bookworms, inspired by our upcoming participation in a PYT benefit for the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts. (And frankly, it was also kind of inspired by Sleeveface. Because we love Sleeveface.)

So here's how it works: You can get a custom image made by Sasha Rae Photo at select Bluebird Books events beginning February 9 at Mermaid Tavern. You can also post your own Undercover photo to our Flickr Group page. 


Either way gives you a chance to show off that literary love in print: In April, the top 20 Bluebird Undercover photos will be used to create a cool full-color 2012 commemorative tour poster that will be featured year-round on the bus.

Visit our Tour Page to see where we're heading next, and check out the Sasha Rae Photobooth to learn more.

Cool? Now go get yourself Undercover.

Annotations (no. 4)

"If eternal return is the heaviest of burdens, then our lives can stand out against it in all their splendid lightness."

(Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984)

Bluebird Books: January Update

It's been a busy month behind-the-scenes at Bluebird Books!

While the fine folks at Peterson Auto tuned up the bus, we were hard at work putting the finishing touches on Kickstarter rewards. And this weekend we added some real gems to our book inventory while supporting a great cause, by shopping at the WMNF Annual Book and Record Sale, where proceeds benefit our longstanding community radio station. We crammed in elbow-to-elbow with the throng of book-lovers, who lined up early for a chance to browse the stacks.

We also rode out to St. Petersburg to visit with Kyle Durrie of Moveable Type, an inspiring traveling letterpress truck hailing from Portland, Oregon. Since Summer 2011, Durrie has been traveling around the U.S. in her converted 1982 Chevy step van, and snuggled inside contains everything a savvy printer needs to make one-of-a-kind cards and posters, including inks, paper and vintage presses. Clearly, a woman after our own heart!  

Many thanks to Jennifer Kosharek at Eve-N-Odd Gallery for inviting Moveable Type to the Bay area. Durrie said she's met a few other mobile arts venues during her travels, and we made a pact to plan a gathering of these pioneer vehicles in 2013. Imagine the creative caravan we will build!

Meanwhile, we're looking forward to our first public appearances of 2012 this February: a special event at Mermaid Tavern with Boxfotos for PYT, and a weekend at the Dunedin Fine Art Center. Stay tuned for a complete calendar with some cool surprises. 

Happy Blue Year!

We're starting 2012 on wings of joy. Our Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded, providing seed money to keep Bluebird Books rolling forward. We received some great accolades in the press, made our first appearance on the airwaves, and even got our first cover shot!

Looking ahead, we're excited about planning some great cultural events this coming year. On the list: a book signing event featuring printed works by local artists, an artist sketchbook showcase, a special appearance at a wonderful Bay area gallery, and possibly even a museum event. Stay tuned.

Annotations (no. 3)

"She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."


(Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1955, originally Olympia Press)

Notes from the Library Under the Stairs

Many avid readers and prospective book donors have asked what manner of texts line the Bluebird shelves. The best way to find out, of course, is to get on the bus. But when not traveling, our books are stored in an overflowing library beneath a curving staircase. Tonight we pulled a few selections for those who have not yet caught the tour and need a taste. We hereby offer brief notes on some (but not all) of the genres and titles that represent our style. 

Art and Design

This beautiful catalog from an exhibition of Dada Art and Anti-Art at the Goethe Institut (Munich) includes a fold-out cover and fine-art print insert.

One protean figure explores the mind of another in this interesting biography. The two grand icons of machismo, Picasso and Mailer, are well matched.

Fiction and Poetry

We do have a bit of a thing for Bukowski. Maybe a bit cliché, but it’s honest. We just can’t help it. Factotum is par for the course if you know his style, following the misadventures of a seedy, booze-soaked yet oddly poetic drifter.

Moss was poetry editor of The New Yorker magazine from 1948 until 1987, and it shows in the witty wordplay as this series of vignettes unfolds fictitious scenarios from the lives of literati such as James Joyce, John Donne and Oscar Wilde. Illustrated by Edward Gorey.

Counterculture and Feminist Literature

The classic chronicle of the Ken Kesey's Further bus tour, Wolfe's Acid Test is a wild, sensationalist ride of hysterical realism, with Neal Cassady riding shotgun. We’re saving this one for a special event.

One of our more modern titles, published Summer 2011, this edition of the literary magazine Granta features fiction, memoir and poetry exalting the oft-misappropriated F word: feminism. Quoting from the Observer, "Granta has its face pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world."

Unusual Nonfiction

This genre spans a lot of territory. It can be hard to define, encompassing the instructional, the enlightening, and the amusing. Here we find it best to allow you to judge the books by their covers.

Science Fiction and Graphic Novels

We happily embrace the nerd within. Classic Star Trek characters battle alien life-forms in this juicy, full-color illustrated story book.

These often chilling sci-fi stories by the masterful Ray Bradbury weave a portrait of our dystopian future, as in "There Will Come Soft Rains," where an automated house continues to function long after its inhabiting family has been wiped out by nuclear war. 

Exceptional Cookbooks

What, pray tell, is an exceptional cookbook? If you'll pardon a pun, it's certainly not the usual fare. Here again we prefer to let the covers speak for themselves.

Books for Children and Young Adults

Roald Dahl's sweet and silly fantasy is a classic for readers of any age. To quote Mr. Wonka, “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”

The infamous young detective searches for a lost doll and a missing gypsy violinist in this hardcover reprint. Nancy Drew was "a sure shot, an excellent swimmer, expert seamstress, gourmet cook, and a fine bridge player ... She brilliantly played tennis, rode like a cowboy and danced like Ginger Rogers." Now that's what we call a standout role model.

Taking Flight

Wow. Just ... wow. The opening day of our Kickstarter Tour was a great success, with an excellent turnout at both Sherry's Yesterdaze and Cafe Hey. Many thanks to our community of supporters for welcoming Bluebird with such warmth.

In a rare moment of speechlessness, we tell the story in images (courtesy of Ubernothing Art Review and Literary Magazine, Wayne S. Williams and others):

Bird in the News

Spreading the word, making some friends, shaking a tail feather. Fall is an avian season. Things are getting downright frisky.

In October, we got our first press in Megan Voeller's lovely Creative Loafing article. And by chance, it was seen by a visitor who brought the news back to Vouched in Indianapolis, IN, a very cool project that promotes small press literature via guerrilla book stores, reading series, and online publishing. So pleased to make their acquaintance! And indeed the feeling was mutual, as founder Christopher Newgent quickly revealed his desire to start up a similar Vouched Bus project. Perfect timing. Let's fly seeds across the land.

What's next? Tomorrow evening, a rendezvous with Stephanie Hayes of the St. Petersburg Times. And the Kickstarter campaign, ever-so-slightly delayed (it takes time to make a good video and such) is expected to go live the week of Nov. 14.

That will be just in time for our first stop on the kick-off tour, at Sherry's Yesterdaze Parking Lot Sale, Saturday, Nov. 19 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Watch for more exciting programs that same evening, when the Ubernothing Big Machine Event takes over at Franklin Street's Cafe Hey.

Oh, we've come a quite a long way. Remember when the bus was yellow? And six hours of scraping turned arms into useless jelly?  Those were good times.

Annotations (no. 2)

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Jean Louise (Scout) Finch

(To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960)

Required Reading: Philly Fanatic Edition

Our findings these days continue to take a decidedly naughty slant, as subversive, dark or complicated tales dominate the shelves. 

It makes sense in many ways. The founding of a new venture always requires a side-step into uncharted territory – explored here with a rather lengthy reading list from Philadelphia (after the image), where a recent business trip was bookended by visits to the best in thrift, book and comic book stores. 

We scored so much that FedEx had to assist in the transport home. On the way out of town, this exhibit at Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, about Philly's Prohibition-era radical press The Centaur Book Shop, closed another memorable chapter. 

"Up on my back, and I will take you thither."

The Breast

Philip Roth

(1973, Jonathan Cape, London)

Tweaking Kafka’s foibles, Roth pens this odd and funny yarn of a man who suddenly turns into a giant female breast. “Sightless in his hospital hammock, Kepesh ponders on possible causes for his monstrous metamorphosis.” 

Cavedweller

Dorothy Allison

(1998, Plume)

Extraordinary. Incantory. Fragile. Tangled. Indomitable. Heartbreaking. Brilliant. Allison.

Sexing the Cherry

Jeanette Winterson

(1989, Vintage International)

“The marvelous and the horrific,” according to The New York Times, “… fuses history, fairy tale and metafiction into a fruit of a memorably startling flavor.” 

Notice a theme appearing here? 

The Acid House

Irvine Welsh

(1994, W.W. Norton & Company)

An anthology of shorts from the Trainspotting author, this caustic volume specializes particularly in “cosmic reversals … [with] a corrosive wit.”

Last Exit to Brooklyn (1957, Grove Press)

The Demon (1976, 1998, Marion Boyars)

Both by Hubert Selby, Jr.

It’s hard to find the right words. We’ve been searching for Selby, and found a bounty. So far Last Exit to Brooklyn feels like the precipice of a roller coaster: excitement and anxiety at gravity’s edge. We’re ready for more, and it can’t be taken in gentle doses. The Demon is almost fear-inducing,  a “devastating, dark, perfect novel” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Cock & Bull

Will Self

(1992, Vintage Books)

A gender-bending pair of novelettes by Brit darling Will Self, described by New York Magazine as “deliciously funny comic fantasy [that] offers pointed comments on the bewildering and sometimes terrifying forms of contemporary sexual expression.”

Clumsy

Jeffrey Brown

(2002, sixth edition, Top Shelf Productions)  

This diminutive graphic novel out of Marietta, Georgia, is filled with darling, painful comic vignettes “for everyone who has ever loved and lost.”  Check.

Hot Water Music

Charles Bukowski

(1984, Black Sparrow Press)

Thanks again, Black Sparrow, for a torrent of gritty poetic prose, brief glimpses of L.A.’s underbelly provided by one of our favorite dirty old men.

We also bought Bukowski’s novel ‘Factotum’ (1975, rep. 1980, Black Sparrow), a classic edition with a simple geometric cover design fringed by a microscopic spattering of wax drops – accidental candle deposits from the previous owner. How charming are the touches that remind us of other hands and other eyes.

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Gertrude Stein

(1933, 1990, Vintage Books)

This irreverent, conjoined-twin kind-of biography about the infamous pot-brownie-baking lesbian is an unexpected trip.

Kaleidoscope: A Variety of Short Stories

Ed., Ralph E. West, Jr., William Penn Charter School

(1970, Independent School Press)

Took a chance on this one, in part for sentimental reasons. It was edited by a professor from our kindergarten school in Philadelphia – albeit 13 or so years before we attended. This looks like a good teaching text, with short stories both classic and new by the likes of Poe, Twain, Jack London and E.M. Forster.

Dreamtigers

Jorge Luis Borges

(1964, 1970 E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.)

The most personal of books by a masterful figure in contemporary literature, crammed with poems, stories and sketches best described by John Updike of The New Yorker: “He represents the skeptical mind that is fascinated by an unending compulsion to isolate and define moments of experience in which the presumed identity of self, of here and now, can be fathomed and recognized as a tragic illusion.”

We expected nothing less.

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing

Issue 115: The F Word

(Spring 2011 issue, ed., John Freeman and others)

Sometimes we find great new books. And this, with its beautifully tactile cover, entices us to explore new feminist writings by Gillian Allnutt, Laura Bell, Clarisse d’Arcimoles, Maja Hrgovic, Caroline Moorehead, Eudora Welty, Jeanette Winterson and many others.

Special Thanks (no. 2)

October always marks a season of change. This time around proves no exception, and we welcome it openly: the new, the unusual, the unexpected.

We recently contacted artist Josh Pearson about showcasing his book, Alphabhetto, a beautifully-illustrated tome featuring a colorful alphabet of creatures and objects. In the process, we discovered Josh's manifold talents extend into design, fabrication and installation as Creative Director of Creative Arts Unlimited Inc.

A book-maker who also builds traveling exhibits? The synchronicity was almost too perfect.

One look at the bus, and Josh was bursting with great ideas for fixtures and displays. He took us in a surprising direction, recommending autopoles for the interior -- a sort of vertical tension rod system that supports a variety of presentation pieces.

A few weeks later, Josh and brother Mike Pearson (Creative Arts' Installation Captain) laid in the first set of Bluebird shelves.

How did we become so lucky in our friends? These two join a long list of supporters who have donated time, effort and expertise to the Bluebird Books project. Their thorough attention to detail made for a stable and attractive installation. Our gratitude is nigh-inexpressible.

Get your first peek at the shelves (and what's stocked on them) when we go on the road in mid-November to support our upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Follow us on Twitter for breaking news on where Bluebird will soon be perched.

Stay tuned for further news, as the wheels keep turning.

Annotations (no. 1)

"Camus wrote like a man who had just finished a large dinner of steak and french fries, salad, and had topped it with a bottle of good French wine. Humanity may have been suffering but not him. A wise man, perhaps, but Henry preferred somebody who screamed when they burned."

(Charles Bukowski, Hot Water Music, 1983 Black Sparrow Press)

Hot Stacks

It was a fruitful evening at my secret new book-hunting spot. There wasn't much time to shop, but something drew me in for a quickie, an irresistible magnetic pull toward a 15-minute grab-and-go with the headphones on. Not surprisingly, most of the fruit landing in my heavy-handed basket turned out to be of a plump and juicy variety. Tonight's reading list follows the photograph.

Treasures laid carefully in a crate, I flew off to meet a lady. In dim light we pulled off these waxy, paper leaves. They fluttered to the floor like careless-shed clothes. Tape peeled up slowly to reveal a smooth blue skin beneath. She asked if she could touch it.

Yes, of course.

Faithless
Joyce Carol Oates (2001, The Ecco Press)
The prolific author-poet spins tales of transgression with her usual chilling understatement and precision.


Couplings and Groupings
Megan Terry (1972, Pantheon Books)
These interviews conducted in the early 1970s delve into the changing nature of modern relationships, monogamy and sex roles.



Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes
John Pierson (1995, Hyperion)
A revealing look at a decade of independent cinema (mid-1980s to '90s) penned by a risk-taking insider.



C'est comme ca
Jean-Paul Valette and Rebecca M. Valette (1978, D.C. Heath and Company)
It's a French textbook with pop illustrations. French is the hottest of the romance languages. Hands down.


The Book of Aphrodesiacs
Dr. Raymond Stark (1980, Stein and Day)
Potency, enhancement, contraception, fertility ... Dr. Stark explores sex from the herbalist perspective in this concise encyclopedic-style index. Incidentally, the good doctor also penned The Psychedelic's Handbook.


perv, a love story
Jerry Stahl (1999, William Morrow and Company)
The Permanent Midnight author follows his gritty memoir with this nakedly wicked young outsider story, getting props on the dust jacket from Mark Mothersbaugh, Lydia Lunch, and Hubert Selby, Jr. If a book makes Selby laugh, you know it's twisted.

Required Reading (no. 4)

Good things are happening. Weird things are happening. 

Things are happening.

Last Friday, we attended Book As Art: Beyond The Limits, an exhibition at MOSI advancing the book as a contemporary art form, sponsored by the inspirational USF-SOLIS (Student Organization of Library Information Science) under guidance of Cleo Moore. 

Attendance felt mandatory after reading this compelling sentence on their press release: 

"If you are inspired in any way by the physical presence of the book, as a vehicle for transmitting information, as a personal object or as a multiplicity of ideas, you will no doubt be moved by the visual power of word and image presented."

Vehicle, you say?

The show presented book illustrations, text collage, poetry and various paper works, fabric arts and deconstructed / reconstructed books. Plus a book sale (extreme restraint was exercised), banned book readings (cool) and adorable craft table. After careful observation, we can report that alphabet stamps do consistently appear to cause smiles.

In the gallery area, we were instantly lured in by Claudia Ryan's haunting, circular litany "I am a secret," a prose poem printed on simple white wall panels. But Sabrina Hughes' "Stories in Black and White" revealed a surprise with multifaceted charm. 

Each cross-stitched square, meticulously executed and pinned to the wall, was wrought into a QR code -- those blotchy, smart-phone-scan-able barcodes you see cropping up everywhere. Scan these tiny wall tapestries, and your digital device registers a simple line of text: the first line from a famous book. The resulting clever blend of media -- tediously handmade object providing instant delivery of information -- seemed an appropriate statement in the conversation about the future of words in a digital world.

We look forward to talking with the SOLIS folks again soon.
And also cannot stop looking at this art, captured on a quiet night in Ybor City.
The owls are not what they seem:

It Takes a Village

This story tastes of grit and blood and sweat. It is crusted with dust-coated candy and hairballs, faded gaming cards and valentines. All things unearthed in the removal of bus seats. Including the inevitable fossilized chewing gum.

Of course, there is a happy ending. We have been so lucky in our friends. A humbling, steady rally of support keeps this project going, with painters, electricians, fabricators, teachers, videographers and accountants each lending expertise to the pool.

Today we are especially grateful for Scott Avoy and Shanna Gillette. Scott brought in the serious power tools and showed us how to use them, embracing some real mechanic up-to-the-elbows, face-in-the-undercarriage dirty time.

Shanna caught these stylish shots of the work in progress. Now the once-crowded bus interior is stripped down to a blank page, where we can draw shelves and lights to make a cozy reading room.

This village keeps growing. Two electricians, an architect, and a library designer have offered to contribute to the fixtures plan, and on Friday our best-read friend will sit down to help draft reading lists after we scout local poetry chapbooks from Yellow Jacket Press.

Recurring reference to Confederacy of Dunces lately, perhaps a reminder of the good turns from Fortuna. Wheels turning all together. Last weekend a blue jay feather landed in our path, and cerulean cyanotypes appeared in the mailbox.

Everything in this story is true.

Sneak Preview

August was a long, blue month. But we're back.
In action!

This Sunday, it's time to do some demo.
Who's with us? Grab a wrench, we're pulling up our sleeves and pulling out the seats.