THE BOOK OF GRASS An Anthology Of Indian Hemp; Paperback
60's counterculture - 242 pages (1968), Used
Indian hemp and its products, marihuana and hashish - variously known as pot, weed, reefer, boo, tea, mezzo, hash, or the 'grass' of the title - is a much discussed and - perhaps - a greatly maligned herb.
This volume (revised and up-dated for Penguin Books) offers a wide range of writings about this ancient plant, its remarkable products, and its long and varied history. Among the authors represented are Rabelais, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Aldous Huxley, Gerard de Nerval, Allen Ginsberg, C. G. Jung, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, Alan Watts, Lewis Carroll, William James, Anthony Storr, William Burroughs, and Paul Bowles. Extraordinary, illuminating, fascinating essays by many great minds on this plant. There's even an entry from George Washington's diary notes of 1765 saying he sowed Hemp by a Swamp and that he was rather too late separating the Male from the Female hemp. (Book cover may be different than picture shown)
GIVE MY REGARDS TO EIGHTH STREET : Collected Writings of Morton Feldman; Paperback
(2004) 256 pages, Used
Composer Morton Feldman (1926-87) was a crucial figure in the post-war New York art world, using elements of chance composition to construct exquisite, quietly powerful scores that produce wonderfully varied interpretations. In Give My Regards to Eighth Street: Collected Writings of Morton Feldman, Feldman reflects on his own work and ideas, as well as on those of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank O'Hara, John Cage and many others. If "Silence is my substitute for counterpoint," these occasional articulations give us a way into it.
"There are people who say, "If music's that easy to write, I could do it." Of course they could, but they don't. I find Feldman's own statement more affirmative. We were driving back from some place in New England where a concert had been given. He is a large man and falls asleep easily. Out of a sound sleep, he awoke to say, "Now that things are so simple, there's so much to do." And then he went back to sleep." - John Cage
GANGS AND THEIR TATTOOS: Identifying Gangbangers on the Street & in Prison; Paperback
(2000) 176 pages, Used
In this book, Bill Valentine, author of Gang Intelligence Manual, shares the latest intelligence on the predominant street and prison gangs and other disruptive groups, with particular emphasis on their identifying tattoos. Supplementing the text are scores of detailed illustrations by Correctional Officer Robert Schober that replicate some of the most common tattoos worn by members of each of the groups discussed. This groundbreaking work makes a substantial amount of previously classified information available to the general public for the first time. In addition to presenting the latest intel on white, black, Hispanic and Asian gangs, it also includes new information on groups such as the White Afrikaner Resistance Movement and the Russian Mafia, which add to the mounting challenge faced by those laboring to hold the line against the menace posed by gangs, hate groups and organized crime.
FIGMENT (All those shapes - Melbourne Graffiti); Magazine
200 pages, Independent Magazine; Used
Figment is a Melbourne street art / graffiti / urban art book produced by Street Art collective all those shapes. 200 pages of adventures from around Melbourne; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick East, Preston, Brunswick, Footscray, the inner suburbs of Melbourne, abandos and railway. While most of the art in this book no longer exists, the book itself is no more a figment of my imagination, but something real; if only for a while. From simple lines to intricate patterns, figment contains character and characters, words and metaphor, graffiti street-art paste-ups stickers, humour despair decay, colour & dark, stories, shapes, mystery with Leagues, Makatron, Merda, Nock, Rapoela, Vexta, Snotrag, Dvate, Bailer, Kid Zoom, Mymo, I & The Others, Nails, Reka, Be Free, Urban Cake Lady, Shida, Mio, Junky Projects, Philthy, Kyle Hughes-Odgers, Alice Pasquini, Kofie, Nelio, Lucy Lucy, Barek, Kaff-eine, Slicer, Itch, Drewfunk, Twoone, Ghostpatrol, Miso, Mishap, Simz, Stabs, Al Stark, Stormie Mills, Ears, Happy, Will Coles, Maumau, plus many more and many unknowns.....325 images many in full landscape A4. Get inspiration, ideas get syked. Piece together adventures as you would walking the streets, randomly.
RUBBING MIRRORS Brigitte Lewis (Melbourne); Paperback
Queer/Gay interest/Lesbian, Used
Welcome to a brave new world where cunt is a beautiful word and social critique is the cutting norm. Let Alexis take you by her short nailed hand and thrust you fingers first into the dark corners of Melbourne's lesbian scene. The divide between sex and love has always been a tightrope line. She'll make you swoon make you laugh most of all she'll etch herself into your mind long after the last page is turned. Trust us you'll never look back she doesn't. Independent Melbourne paperback....
GRAFFITI JAPAN (2011); Hardcover
Remo Camerota 144 pages, New
Japan has long been a breeding ground for innovative appropriation of Western traditions, as with cinema and baseball. But the fanatical embrace with which Japanese artists have welcomed graffiti has made for a street-art scene wholly apart from its Western origins. As the first English-language book dedicated to Japanese graffiti, Graffiti Japan is an obvious choice for a hardcover edition, featuring all the same great photographs and artist interviews with KRESS, BELX2, FATE, TENGA, EMAR, SUIKO, QP, and many more. The graffiti featured in Graffiti Japan replicates the calligraphic intricacies of the Japanese language with spray paint, depicting how anime and manga characters, national pride, as well as foreign influences, are integral parts of the country's scene. From sprawling, legally sanctioned murals to illegal throw-ups hidden in alleyways, this work could not exist in any other country.
TIM BURTON: A Child's Garden of Nightmares (2007); Paperback
Paul A Woods 192 pages, Used
This definitive study charts the career of Tim Burton from his days as a malcontent animator at Walt Disney Productions to his current place as one of America’s most remarkable directors. It examines Burton's “monster culture” influences — from the films of Ed Wood, Jr. to Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine — that imbue his films with rich visual imagery and emotional depth. For each film, the book provides a detailed analysis, articles and interviews, and a vivid selection of stills.
FATAL VISIONS - THE WONDER YEARS (2015); Paperback
The LedaTape Organisation, 250 pages, Used (Rare)
A collection of FATAL VISIONS, Melbourne's own infamous trash film zine, has congealed into perfect bound format. Proving that dead tree technology has not entirely slipped into a coma this compilation covers the earliest and rarest entries in FVs decade-long publication history. Devoted to sleaze, violence and sexploitation in the Cinema and wherever it appears on video, TV & in print, FATAL VISIONS went to places where few other Australian publications even knew existed: bottom of the package video titles, late late night TV movies, films that played announced as drive-in supports and in hard tops where they were lucky to play for one week only. Profusely illustrated - with index! Includes: Film in Fiji - Jack Ferguson Banned Toys - MH Divine Obit - Fred Burger Wes Craven interview - Paul Harris Film Censorship in Australia 1988 - Joey Inferno Posthumous Bruce Lee films - Spike Des Mangan Interview - MH Mark Savage Interview - MH Confessions of a Porn Novelist - Kris Gilpin Deep Inside Melbourne Porn Venues - Jack Ferguson Candida Royalle Interview - MH David Nolte Interview - MH Zlatko Kasumovic Interview - MH Porn on Film manifesto - Jack Stevenson Plus hundreds of sleazy film, tv and book reviews and much much more!
SAVAGE CINEMA (Hardcover) Rick Trader Witcombe (1975); Book
Books of this quality are like a drug for cinema fetishists of a certain disposition... of course it is'dated'... there are even a few morsels of arcane trivia/inaccuracies (the days when rumour held a firmer sway over the imagination) that might raise an eyebrow ... You only want it for the cover anyway, and that's fine. All the film books in this series (Ape: The Kingdom of Kong, Cut - The Unseen Cinema) are extremely sought after by the cool people, and that's all who need to know...... Rare.
THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS/THE PLUMBER Peter Weir Double Feature; DVD
Art/Australian/Cult DVD
Here on one disc are two apprentice-era offerings by Australia's most consistently successful international director, Peter Weir. On this disc are Weir's first offering as director, 1974's The Cars That Ate Paris, clocking in at a neat 84 minutes, and The Plumber from 1978, running at an even neater 74 minutes.
Cars is an exercise in surrealistic black comedy, about a small New South Wales country town which survives on carnage. The townsfolk arrange smashes of innocent folk driving by in their Holdens, Falcons or even Jaguars. If the drivers are dead, they're buried and forgotten. If they survive, they're quickly given power-drill lobotomies and treated quite fondly as the town's vegetables.
The Plumber is a very well structured thriller with elements of black comedy - it's very Pinteresque in that the suspense and drama come through its words and atmosphere, not through explicit action. Plumbing maintenance turns into psychological and class warfare. White-collar confronting blue-collar across a chasm of sinks and sewerage. The ending is both surprising but somehow inevitable in this little bathroom-sink drama. Excellent!
PORNO HOLOCAUST Joe D'amato (1981); DVD
Horror/Porn DVD
A group of castaways wash ashore on a deserted island in this Italian sex/gore movie. They are unaware that a sex-crazed radioactive monster is also on the island. He attacks and rapes several of the women, who die horrible deaths because of course his sperm is radioactive. The survivors must find a way to either escape the island or kill the monster. Another Joe D'amato classic roughie....
IN A GLASS CAGE (1986); DVD
DVD (1986), Used (Rare)
Talk about a movie that lives up to its reputation -- In a Glass Cage is relentlessly intense from start to finish. The story of a Nazi doctor /pedophile in hiding and the strange young man who comes to work as his "nurse," this film explores taboos with relish. Toward the end, the film devolves into a more horror movie, not to take away from the very real horrors it develops. In a Glass Cage packs a wallop earning its reputation as one of the more disturbing movies ever made. It 's very much a European movie, and, given its horrifying subject matter -- pedophilia, the torture and murder of children, the relationship between monsters and their victims -- it could never have been made in the U.S. Strongly recommended for viewers who have strong stomachs and are not otherwise easily offended.
