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Title Author Publisher Price
Atmospheric Disturbances Rivka Galchen $21.50
($24.00 list)
Atmosdist
Read more and comment... 		In her debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, Rivka Galchen has attempted to create a romantic, even sentimental, take on the works of P.K. Dick. J.G. Ballard, (early)Thomas Pynchon and (to a degree) William Burroughs, authors who created obsessive -- some might say delusional -- renderings of the altered states that contemporary consciousness takes when overloaded with raw data, cultural and/or scientific input, technological stimulus, education, or some combination of any or all of these, and wove them into intricate tapestries filled with complex patterns the meanings of which have been ceaselessly debated.  Galchen enters this essentially masculine debate specifically to ask the reader to step outside of it and consider how it might be impacted by gender. She coaxes readers to her point of view through the device of employing a masculine first-person voice to tell a tale in which the authorial sympathies are clearly more aligned with the feminine perspectives on the the events as they unfold.  The book provides an important -- some might say essential -- proviso to the literary creation of the modern mind.  Check out the book's very own website, where you can absorb some of its flavor while you read an extract from the novel, an interview with the author, and more.
Atomik Aztex Sesshu Foster $14.35
($15.95 list)
Atomikaztex
Read more and comment... 		This book has been described as successfully incorporating influences from graphic novels, Ishmael Reed's masterpiece of Americana, Mumbo Jumbo, the paranoia of Philip K. Dick and the knowing cultural insight of William Burroughs.  Then, The Believer magazine -- in the March 2006 issue (now in stock, by the way) -- bestowed upon this book, their Second Annual Believer Book Award.  Upon reviewing their basis and reading the excerpt they provided, well, that was enough for us --  we jumped on the bandwagon!  Check out The Believer's Citation and see what you think.  It has the look of a must read from where we sit.  We hope to be back with more on this once we've had the chance to dive in.
GLAM! An Eyewitness Account Mick Rock $25.47
($29.95 list)
Glam
Read more and comment... 		This is an oversize (10" x 13") softcover collection of some of the greatest rock 'n' roll photos ever taken.  Centering on the glammest of the glam years -- 1972 -- but with numerous forays before and after, Mick Rock was and is the undisputed chronicler of this moment in rock.  All the classic photos are here:  Bowie, Iggy and Lou are the trinity at the center of it all, but there are plenty more pics on offer: of The Spiders and The Stooges; Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno and Roxy Music; Freddie Mercury & Queen; Ian Hunter and Mott; the original cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; Deborah Harry and Blondie; and much more.  Concise, insightful commentary accompanies many of the photos, amply demonstrating that Rock is a man possesed of  a discerning intelligence as well as artistic talent. The photo that was originally slated to run as the cover of Mott the Hoople's classic LP, All the Young Dudes -- but was mysteriously axed at the last minute -- is worth the price of admission all on its own!
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) #1 $7.00
($8.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		 If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here.  Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) # 2 $5.00
($5.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		 If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here.  Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) # 3 $8.00
($10.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		 If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here.  Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
The Disappointment Artist Jonathan Lethem $11.44
($22.95 list)
Disappointment
Read more and comment... 		Lethem's first essay collection, The Disappointment Artist is a rallying cry for fan boys of all stripes.  Within its pages you will find the laid bare soul of a pop culture fiend.  The novels of Philip K Dick, the comics of Jack Kirby, the films of John Cassavetes, Star Wars, The Searchers and more are shown as being worthy and sturdy foundations for building a life upon  --  or at least of retreating into, to escape, if only momentarily, from the vicissitudes of fate.  And there's more:  a paean to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station, a personal memoir of a bohemian childhood, and a charting of the formation of identity through a personal constellation of pop culture artifacts.  For readers whose identities are likewise constructed out of the bric-a-brac of popular culture, ephemeral and otherwise, this is the book you've been waiting for.
The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Art of Chindogu Kenji Kawakami $11.65
($12.95 list)
Bigbentobook
Read more and comment... 		OK, we're not going to mince words here.  This is it.  You need this book.  It is a must for every home.  It is the entertainer's best friend.  You will wonder how you ever lived without it.  This book presents a tradition that is... not a parody, not a satire, but something else:  an oblique refraction of the essential essence of one of the most important relationships of the twentieth century:  that between the definitively American impulse to come up with an idea that will improve the quality of life through an incremental advance and the post-WWII Japanese tendency to adopt American cultural trends and make them their own, exploiting their own superb technical abilities and ingenious design sensibililties in the process:  In a word, chindogu.  But chindogu is more, it's a reflection on mankind's relationship with the material world, it's meta-materialism; it's a true child of the twentieth century that stands a chance of evolving to become one of the distinctive arts of the twenty-first; and -- it's fun.  Author Kawakami in the founder of the 10,000-member International Chindogu Society, so he should know.  Want another opinion?  Here's the NY Times review.  To learn more visit www.chindogu.com (make sure to learn the ten tenents of chindogu).  But be forewarned:  once you've crossed over, there's no going back.
Autobiographical Writings, True Stories, Critical Essays, Prefaces and Collaborations with Artists Paul Auster $14.45
($17.00 list)
Austercollected
Read more and comment... 		The entire published prose oeuvre of this singular contemporary voice is now available, complete in one modestly priced, French-flapped, trade paperback edition.  The Invention of Solitude, Hand To Mouth, True Stories (aka The Red Notebook - a Copacetic favorite), Gotham Handbook, The Story of My Typewriter, and Northern Lights are all here.  All his previously published critical essays, prefaces, and small occasional pieces are included as well.  When you feel yourself in need of some intelligent, stimulating companionship and there's no one available, this volume will fill the bill nicely.
How To Be Alone Jonathan Franzen $12.60
($14.00 list)
Franzenhow
Read more and comment... 		While we're on the topic of intelligent stimulation available between two covers, we'd like to draw your attention to this fine collection of essays, also written by one of America's top contemporary fiction writers. Topics delved into here include:  whether or not its worth the trouble to bother to try to write a novel in today's day and age; why perfectly intelligent people, completely aware of the risks, nevertheless continue to smoke cigarettes; how to deal with the gradual decline and death of a parent; the prison industry -- from both inside and outside the walls; a revelatory account of how we here in America have some seriously wrong ideas about privacy; and, added to this softcover edition, a new essay on William Gaddis.  Smartly and persuasively written, you'll put down this book with a heightened sense of the world around you.
Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami $22.00
($25.95 list)

Read more and comment... 		And speaking of things Japanese in origin yet universal in application (you see, there is a method to our madness) here's the new Murakami novel to start off 2005 with.  The expectations for this book are of such magnitude that the hyperbole surrounding its release is a bit over the top, but we'll give you this:  it involves an "odyssey" where "Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall fro the sky."
EDNY $8.00

Read more and comment... 		A special New York City edition of the Encyclopedia Destructica.
500 Essential Graphic Novels Gene Kannenberg Jr $26.95
($29.95 list)
500essential
Read more and comment... 		There are plenty of surprises here in Dr. Kannenberg's fully illustrated and highly idiosyncratic list of his top 500 graphic novels, which is most valuable for the obscure and rare works it unearths.  Even jaded "know-it-alls" (guess not!) such as ourselves discovered new works that we now have to track down and decide for ourselves whether or not we too will deem them "essential."
A Long Way Down Nick Hornby $18.75
($24.95 list)
Alongwaydown
Read more and comment... 		This highly anticipated new novel by the author of High Fidelity is now on the copacetic shelves.  We haven't read it yet (hey, cut us some slack -- it just came out) but we admire the premise:  four people encounter each other on a roof top en route to ending it all, get to talking, order a pizza and ponder the meaning of it all.  Then events take control and the whole thing begins to take on a life of its own.  The publishers have this to say:  "Intense, hilarious, provocative, emotional, A Long Way Down is a novel that asks big questions: about life and death, strangers and friendship, love and pain, and what it takes to make it through a long, dark night of the soul."
H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life Michel Houellebecq $15.30
($18.00 list)
Houellebecq_lovecraft
Read more and comment... 		And, speaking of creepy ambience, it doesn't get any creepier than Howard Phillips Lovecraft.  Against the World, Against Life is the latest entry in the longstanding tradition of French intellectuals championing an American creative artist -- think Baudelaire and Poe, Camus and James M. Cain, Goddard and Samuel Fuller, Jaques Tati and Jerry Lewis.  Houellebecq, however, has more of agenda than his precursors and skillfully blends his valorization of Lovecraft with a cultural critique of America.  This volume also contains two of Lovecraft's greatest tales:  "The Whisperer in Darkness" and "The Call of Cthulhu."  For a more detailed review, here's J. Hoberman's Village Voice review.  And, if that whets your appetite and you feel like taking a bite out of the book right away, here's a lengthy extract courtesy the Guardian.  And, as an added bonus, check out this complementary French celebration of American popular culture, The American Pulp Magazines Cover Gallery sponsored by L'encyclopedie Francophone de la SF.  Scroll to the bottom for the complete run of Weird Tales, where most of H.P. Lovecraft's works originally appeared.  Just click on the thumbnails for full-cover scans.


Read more and comment... 		Test test test
Atmospheric Disturbances Rivka Galchen $22.22
($24.00 list)
Atmosdist
Read more and comment... 		In her debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, Rivka Galchen has attempted to create a romantic, even sentimental, take on the works of P.K. Dick. J.G. Ballard, (early)Thomas Pynchon and (to a degree) William Burroughs, authors who created obsessive -- some might say delusional -- renderings of the altered states that contemporary consciousness takes when overloaded with raw data, cultural and/or scientific input, technological stimulus, education, or some combination of any or all of these,and wove them into intricate tapestries filled with complex patterns the meanings of which have been ceaselessly debated.  Galchen enters this essentially masculine debate specifically to ask the reader to step outside of it and consider how it might be impacted by gender.  She coaxes readers to her point of view through the device of employing a masculine first-person voice to tell a tale in which the authorial sympathies are clearly more aligned with the feminine perspectives on the the events as they unfold.  The book provides an important -- some might say essential -- proviso to the literary creation of the modern mind.  Check out the book's very own website, where you can absorb some of its flavor while you read an extract from the novel, an interview with the author, and more.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames David Sedaris $22.22
($25.99 list)
Engulfedsedarisam
Read more and comment... 		22 new pieces by David Sedaris, are herein collected for the first time.  Readers of Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim now having something to look forward to.
The Art of Cassette Culture Thurston Moore $18.75
($22.50 list)
Mixtape
Read more and comment... 		"Since Phillips launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, our relationship with music has never been the same... By the early 1970s, we were voraciously recording music onto blank cassettes: LPs, concerts, tunes from the radio. It allowed us to listen to music in a new way, privately.  Artist and musician Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) looks back at the plastic gadget that first let us make our own compilations. Mix Tape shares the treasured works (and the stories behind them) of over 50 dedicated home tapers, including Elizabeth Peyton, DJ Spooky, Jim O’Rourke, Allison Anders, and Mike Watt. From the Romantic Tape to the Break-up Tape, the Road Trip Tape to the “Indoctrination” Tape, the art and text that emerged was of the mix cassette as a new way of resequencing music to make sense of our most stubbornly inexpressible feelings, a way of explaining ourselves to someone we love, or to ourselves."  Or so says the official publisher's release.  The best thing about this book is that it will encourage you to dig through those boxes at the back of your closet and dig out your own mix tape collection and give them the once over; whereupon you will be happy to realize that your very own tapes are much more meaningful (and better!) than those made by the celebrated contributors to this volume, interesting though they may be.  For those of our (younger) readers still active in the music mixing department, this volume should provide some inspiration for taking those mp3 CD mixes to the next level.
Fresh Fruits Shoichi Aoki $25.47
($29.95 list)
Freshfruits
Read more and comment... 		Four years in the making, this is a terrific follow-up/companion volume to Fruits, the best-selling gift book in Copacetic history.  Like its forerunner, this volume is cover to cover photographs of gals and guys gone wild on fashion, synthesizing their own unique blend of haute couture, hand-me-downs and home made fashions to create a look found nowhere else in such abundance as on these particular byways of Tokyo where author/photographer Aoki points her unerring lens.