tenshikurai9 | Entries tagged with 2012

Because I never got around to posting my last book for last year, I'll do it now.

40. Skateboarding to the Extreme! by Bill Gutman

He goes over the basics, like how to stop when you've finally got enough skill to go fast enough that you just can't step-off the board and be ok. He also seems to have this thing about missing salaam skateboarding. There's a few times he says things like, you can salaam if you want to, just because it isn't popular doesn't mean you can't! Or, you watch salaam skiing so why not salaam skate? Except I don't watch salaam skiing and I doubt everyone who doesn't do it doesn't do it because they see it as not cool. I'm pretty sure there are others like me who just don't find it interesting.

So I take the time and effort to craft a post and when I tried to post it, LJ goes through emergency maintenance and I lose the post. Let's try this again.

34. Post-Car Adventuring: The San Francisco Bay Area, 2nd Edition, by Justin Eichenlaub and Kelly Gregory

They list destinations, have a map, and directions of how to get to said destination, especially if they think it would surprise the reader that you can get to it carless--like Yosemite. A little general advice on finding obscure transit buses if you're visiting other areas too.

35. Zinester's Guide to Portland: A Low/No Budget Guide to Living In and Visting Portland, OR, 5th Edition, Edited by Shawn Granton

Some things don't change, like organizing the book by sector and the city's history. It's nice to know that Vodoo Donuts is still waiting for me to become yet another tourist to have a penis-shaped donut. But it's also nice to know that a new metal pizzeria has opened since whatever edition I read previously.

36. Cafe Life New York: An Insider's Guide to the City's Neighborhood Cafes, by Sandy Miller and Photography by Juliana Spear

When my college's women's center went on a trip to Northampton, I got this at Booklinks. The different books in the series take a city and its neighborhoods, showcase a few cafes with pretty pictures and backstories, then ends the neighborhood sections with a "short cup" list--a listing of other cafes of note, but no pretty pictures and backstories. The West Village's Joe, the Art of Coffee uses Barrington Coffee Roasting Company of Great Barrington, MA's beans and the author notes that those roasters started with a hot air popper in their college dorm. Anyone want to give me a hot air popper to experiment in my room? Park Slope's Tea Lounge uses their back up espresso machine's steamer to make an "eggspresso" or scrambled eggs. I want to order one.

37. Travel as a Politcal Act by Rick Steve

He divides the book according to countries he's been to and talks about the lessons we can learn from their different cultures. There's also general advocacy to travel and learn from one another.

38. The Watchmen by Alan Moore

Originally I started this on the train ride home for Thanksgiving, but I had to hand my school mate's copy back to her when we parted ways in Springfield. So when I was done with exams and had time to waste before bikergeek could extract me from VT, I spent a few days reading the library's copy that had been put on reserve for some humanities class. I'm doubtful that humanity would actually bond together for long if a squid-like "alien" dropped onto New York and killed a chunk of the population. When reading a Dr. Manhattan chapter and seeing him watching his entire timeline made me think, I can claim to have been in the same room as my grandfather yet not have been in the same room as my grandfather. He died 2 years before I was born, but I've visited his house since his 2nd wife owns it. So if the past is happenning at the same time as the present and future, I was in the same room as him yet not in the same room as him.

39. Nothing Mattress by Brian Connolly

A punk from South Boston who writes an often autobiographical and episodic comic from Boston's alternative weekly, The Dig. Now he's made a little booklet with his work. Quick and humourous read.

32. Vermont Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff by Robert F. Wilson was one of my school library finds. It starts with a section that applies to the whole state and then divides it by region. Each section starts with a general overview before talking about a historical figure or location or interesting, current-day living person. For the whole state section, Wilson mentions how the area was the Sovereign State of Vermont when the original 13 states seceded from Great Britain. The only museum devoted to our black military men and women of WWII is here in the whitest state in the country. There's even an entry for some kid/talented mechanic.

33. Under the Arch: A DIY Guide to Reno Edited by Sarah Lillegard

This title from the Go for Broke Collective I found on the Microcosm Distribution web site. Basically it's a guide to Reno from a local perspective and people who love their Reno. I'm reminded of how different a state NV is from MA because the Watering Hole (bar) section has smoking bars labeled with a sk.

29. Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts

Not a guidebook to specific places in the world, but a guidebook as to how to enable spontaneous traveling. I love the long lists of resources at the end of the chapters.

30. All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome by Kathy Hoopmann

It's a children's book with pictures of cats and descriptions of possible Asperger Syndrome symptoms as though the cats have it. Cute.

31. The Hole: Consumer Culture, Volume 1 by Damian Duffy and John Jennings

A graphic novel which keeps-on jumping back and forth in time to show another character's back story.

There's a "hyper-vodou" that's been created and sold by one of the characters. (She's commodifying religion in shows and clothing in an attempt to get it exposed to more people.) Basically, the authors are trying to show commercialization and races relations in the US.

In the back they mention they were using variations of previous racial stereotypes as part of their comments on commodification, but I missed the stereotypes they were using as I was reading. Kinda distracted by not finding the story line/presentation as not deep. Oh look. Here's another, look!, we're being marketed to thing.

At least their short history lesson and exercises to get you to think in the back was interesting.

28. Undeleted Scenes by Jeffrey Brown-He draws slice-of-life scenes of his life from childhood through his son at 2. Not presented as slices of a plot.

18. Dick Strangely's Graveyard Girl: Book One-Graphic novel about a girl who's dead, has no memory of her past, and digs-up animals to keep her company.

19. Young Lovecraft by Jose Oliver and Bartolo Torres-Imagine Lovecraft as a child who has supernatural things happen to him as he goes about everyday life, like being an exchange student.

20. A People's Guide to Los Angeles by Laura Pulido, Laura Barraclough, and Wendy Cheng-History from the perspective of sites of importance to identity movements, community organizing, and environmental activism. Like the lot that used to be the Black Panther's HQ or the site where a prison was going to go before it got blocked or the incinerator that never got built.

21. The Professional Shopper by Beatrice-Mostly a list of LA stores with some New York stores (including a guy selling linens on a NYC street corner.) Gratuitious use of exclamation marks and capitalization and references to mentioning some store in "the novel" without explanation as to what is "the novel." At least the list of wholesalers (and some retailers) is long and I got a copy for free from the coffee shop that's in the same building as the West Hollywood library.

22. Young, Broke & Beautiful: Broke-Ass Stuart's Guide to Living Cheaply by Broke-Ass Stuart with Jill Strominger-I got all three Broke-Ass Stuart books plus a different book with Amazon gift cards I got through Bing points. The IFC travel host mentions a few times something that one should never forget. Tip! Don't be so cheap that you skip it.

23. Broke-Ass Stuart's Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City by Broke-Ass Stuart-Broken-down by neighborhood and further broken-down by Food, Bars, Shopping, and Sights & Entertainment. There's an intro to each neighborhood and a cap-off with a map of everything mentioned and the addition of something amusing, like a pretending to mark-off where the Goth teenager is standing in and around St. Mark's Place.

24. Broke-Ass Stuart's Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco by Broke-Ass Stuart-Same as above except with San Francisco and done first because he's a Cali boy. Before he got to the point of doing books, he was doing zines of the same concept.

25. The Cheap Bastard's Guide to New York City by Rob Grader, 4th edition-One of those books that I bought at the Providence Borders when they were shutting-down. Turns-out they come-out every two years and this was already the second most recent edition at the time. Turns-out MyOpenBar.com is mentioned in this and Broke-Ass Stuart's New York guide. (Regular e-mail list of open bar events.)

26. Bicycle Touring & Camping by Edward F. Dolan, Jr.-Assumes an audience of a child when it talks about getting your principal to help with getting more bicycle safety information. The book is from 1982 and doesn't seem to make references to doing the actual camping with an adult. It gives some basic information on street riding, camping, and maintenance. So it's a nice intro.

27. Top Secret Tourism: Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases, and Other Places in the United States You're Not Supposed to Know About by Harry Helms-but that doesn't change that there's publicly available information that this guy has carefully compiled by state. A few sites are historical and no longer off limits like the Manzanar Relocation Center. Most of what I've read so far are partially or fully blocked-off from public view (I'm a few entries away from finishing.) Rhode Island is a unit of measurement. There's been something like 4 or 5 sites larger than RI (and still off-limits.)

Doing It Yourself In Stumptown: Resources for making your own zines, posters, & other self-published goodies in the Portland area, with information on local events, classes, bookstores, comics shops, craft printers, publishers & libraries.

Wright, Rustin (ed.)

A Streetcar Press zine.

It was in the DIY section of the Papercut Zine Library, but since it has listings of stores, my mind wants to treat this as a travel guide and I want a copy for myself so bad. It's just so dense and all about the zines. I want! I want! (And an extended stay in Portland.)

I might have lost a list of a few things read under the not-book category, but I think I can reconstruct my books.

9. "Third Girl from the Left" by Martha Southgate-Three generations of African-American women in a VERY dysfunctional family, but they all find themselves interested in some aspect of film. The grandmother had an interest in how the projectors worked, but couldn't see herself free to actually do anything. The mother was the daughter who ran-away and didn't get farther than an extra in Blaxploitation films in roles like, third girl from the left. And the daughter who becomes a film maker.

10. "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell-weird novel with several different stories that get cut-off to start the next story in the next chapter that will somehow reference the previous story and they're all connected. Then after every story's been started, the last chapters revisit the previous stories and ties everything together.

11-17. I read the seven books that is "The Invisibles" by Grant Morrison when collected together. Though granted I didn't get particularly involved in the part of the ending where he's jumping around with Jack as school principal, Jack as telling the story of his life in an alleyway, Jack as a man who's playing "The Invisibles" video game with a relative, Robin as creator of a novel that's become real, whatever else there was for different endings. I'm not going to sit there and puzzle with, what's real? What's the truth for what's happening?

comic books, not compiled into book form

The Walking Dead #92. I found it while walking Harvard Square one wet night. Then went to J.P. Licks and read it with a kiddie cookie dough cone. The zombie story isn't enough of a draw to actively search for it.

'zines

Lilt zine #1, February 2012

I honestly don't remember much. It had a Valentine's theme and instructions for how to color cards with the help of gelatin.

People of the Hill #1

Yeah, I remember that's from Allston, like Lilt, but not much more and I've already given it to the Papercut Zine Library.

Sex Chat #2

Which is from Providence, RI and there are some non-sex graphics. The writers have their phone numbers listed and identified only as male-voice and female-voiced. There's a transcript of a chat with one of the guys and it's a little bit humorous.

Wanting to Be Indian: When Spiritual Searching Turns Into Cultural Theft by Myke Johnson

About things like how Native American religions are systems of practice and community to live-by and not a set of beliefs so the commodification of practices, like of sweat logdges, are rather destructive to tradition.

Books so far this year, not in the order of reading.

1. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

First book for my book club this year. Each chapter goes to a different character at a different point in time and comments on the characters within at future and past times in relation to the chapter's time. It ends in a future with marketing decisions made by babies pointing on devices and a concert with music made outside of focus testing and such.

2. The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

Planet Aka has been through a cultural revolution and the government is intent on destroying all knowledge of the past. Sutty is from Terra and has been sent from her government to document what she can find of the old culture. The old culture is about the telling and the telling is all the stories and the traditions of sharing the stories. The Akan government suddenly approves her supervisor's request to send her to a rural village and it's there that she pieces together why and how an entire planet would turn on its own past en masse. Second book club book of the year.

3. The Gaze by Elif Shafak

Weird book with repeated themes of the color red and shades and the different looks people give/receive. There's a tent in late 1800s Turkey with a show for women and a show for men and an obese woman with a midget in more modern times. There's a bit of jumping back in time for the tent owner's and his acts' backstories. The woman and her midget boyfriend go-out in public in disguise to gain different gazes from strangers for his dictionary of gazes.

4. Skateboarder's Start-Up: A Beginner's Guide to Skateboarding by Dough Werner with Steve Badillo

First before I can do any of these tricks, I'll need to get my balance to be able to do more than just stand on the board. But even after I do, I'm going to have to wait to go to the local skatepark in order to do most of the 14 tricks since most of them require ramps and bowls.

5. Skateboarding: Legendary Tricks by Steve Badillo

Tricks are divided by era and has a brief history before instructions and photos. Lots of pictures of vintage boards from SkateLab in CA.

6. Skateboarding: Legendary Tricks 2 by Steve Badillo

Early tricks, tricks by Duane Peters, and then categories by kinds of tricks like grinds is the organization before more instructions, photos, and images of vintage boards.

7. Bicycling Magazine's Complete Book of Road Cycling Skills: Your Guide to Riding Faster, Stronger, Longer, and Safer by Ed Pavelka and the Editors of Bicycling Magazine

So right now I shouldn't mix-in with traffic, but at least I have lots of skills to practice, like turning by counter-steering, before I apply the skills for avoiding collisions with cars and ride-at-night in-the-snow.

8. On Conflict and Consensus: A Handbook on Formal Consensus Decisionmaking by C.T. Lawrence Butler and Amy Rothstein

First book of the year or second. I'm interested in non-hierachical decision-making and wanted to have something to read when I'm not in Occupy General Assemblies.