More books and an update

Lentish fasting coming along nicely. Just might keep it up for longer than 40 days. Its thrown a wrench in some of my reading lists and I'll probably pick back up on some Medieval history soon enough and DAMN The Closing of the Western Mind is a page turner (really, it is), but its been thrust aside for some real gems:

A lady brought this into the book store I work at a few weeks ago:

This is photographer David LaChapelle's first book. In the pursuit of fairness, I let it sit behind the counter until my compadre Aaron was around to see who wanted it the most. I wanted it pretty badly, and Aaron already scored some sweet stuff a while back, so now its mine.

I really can't emphasize how much I love this book. Its tacky and gay, has Drew Barrymore's boobs surrounded with doughnuts and cherries, Tupac all soaped up and that dude from the x-files running away from a blow up sex doll with terrifyingly long fingernails. Its great.

Full of McDonald's backdrops this little slice of pervy heaven shows superstars of the 90s at their hedonistic, disposable best.  A great quote coming from DesignBoom:

"la chapelle's monstrosities are that breed of gaunt, blemishless human built
and enslaved by heavy makeup, lighting and the glorifying voodoo of photographic
attention, e.g., models, transsexuals and ... leonardo di caprio.
it is a prophecy of even scurvier spiritual illness yet to come from our
media-centric society, in the not-so-distant future."

Perk number one of working at a used bookstore is you get first dibs.

I just finished reading this:

Its by an Asheville local: Brian Lee Knopp. Pick it up at Malaprops and you can get a signed copy at no extra charge. The author's wife also works at Malaprops and passes praise for this book along.

Its one of those books that make me proud to be from Appalachia. It makes me want to stop paying my taxes, buy a bunch of coon dogs, rebuy that family mountain, stock up on a couple guns and ride this whole Americaknowsbest thing out.

What little Libertarian there is in me, its all given to me by my mountain ancestors. Wondering what-the-hell-is-that-person-doing-in-my-driveway-oh-its-just-the-mailman inclinations are purely genetic and I'm damn proud of it. My soul is split between the intellectual "can't we all just get along" and the "live free or die" type. I've never been able to choose which amendment I like better, the first or the second. I love socialism. I will shoot at beer cans from the back porch or so help me god. I just recently started messing around with the Tarot and was so nervous about having it in the house, I almost left the pack outside that first night. Amen.

While author Knopp certainly put himself in some sticky situations (eg,getting held at gunpoint by said tax avoiding, coondog, family compound mountain man) he tells the story just the way you want to hear it. I won't say if he gets out of it in one piece. You really should buy this book and support local writers and all that. Its a damn fine read.

Its one of those books that reminds us how to tell stories.


(I don't really care for the title. Mayberry is so cliche)

the end.