CBGB: Decades of Graffiti (2006); Paperback 64 pages - Introduction by Richard Hell, New CBGB (the initials stand for Country Blue Grass Blues) is the officially designated birthplace of Punk Rock. It is a bar located in the Bowery of New York City described by author Christopher D. Salyers as 'No better place to drink in the wonderful nothingness of the 1970s Bowery and Lower East Side than at this bar. On the streets outside, crime soared, cracked-out bodies imitated corpses as anxious junkies scurrying like alley cats scratched around for their next fix'....'Cheap rent, cheap beer, cheap sex.' And inside CBGB the likes of Talking Heads, Ramones, Richard Hell (who writes a colorful Forward for this terrific little book), the Voidoids, and the Dead Boys introduced punk rock to the patrons.  What this superb little book celebrates is the atmosphere in which all of this history took place, a club notoriously filthy, whose owners invited the patrons to graffiti the walls, the floors, and especially the bathrooms. Photographer John Putnam has supplied designer/writer Salyers with gritty photos of the stage and the seats, the green rooms (where artists prepared before performing), the bathrooms with some of the most wonderfully vile language and demonstrations of man's ability to deface public property are at a peak, and the bar. The colors are rich and ludicrously dirty and the words left behind are scribblings by minds toked on drugs and loud music.

BROOKLYN KINGS New York City's Black Bikers (2000); Hardcover Martin Dixon 144 pages (Large Format), New As an avid biker for over nine years, photographer Martin Dixon gained unprecedented access to the predominantly African-American motorcycle clubs in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan. Comprising a huge subculture of urban road warriors totally unknown to most New Yorkers and bike club enthusiasts, these black "biker gangs"—with names like the Jaguars, the Black Falcons, the Pythons, the Transit Wheelers, the Imperials, the Corpians, the Harlem Riders, the United Roadrunners, and the Uptown Riders—are really high-octane social clubs, whose members ride flashy ninja sport bikes.  Through Dixon's spectacular insider perspective, we enter a world straddling the customs and trappings of traditional biker culture (the heavily embroidered leather jackets, the thick male camaraderie, the bike as manifestation of the ego), and the rituals and pastimes of the urban biker (the springtime bike blessings, the trophy parties, and the clubhouse socials). More importantly, thanks to Dixon, we witness, even participate in, a set of rituals the likes of which no outsider has ever documented: the block parades (complete with monster trucks!), the barbeque parties (replete with a southern club specialty, the "Mississippi Mud Slide"), the bikini bike wash, the Myrtle and Virginia Beach bike runs, the drag races, the raunchy fundraising parties, and, of course, the "biker chicks", urban flavor.  

SHAMANIC PLANT MEDICINE - Magic Mushrooms: The Holy Children; Paperback 136 pages (2019), New The Shamanic Plant Medicine series acts as an introduction to specific teacher plants used by shamans in a variety of cultures to facilitate spirit communion, healing, divination and personal discovery, and which are increasingly known, used and respected in Western society by modern shamans as a means of connecting to spirit.

TATTOO (Coeditions Quai Branly) 2014; Hardcover 304 pages Hardcover, Used The practice of tattooing has an extensive primitive history in Asian and African countries, where it had social, religious and mystical roles. In 3000 BC, Ötzi (whose mummy was famously discovered in the 1990s) covered his body in 57 tattoos. In the West, meanwhile, tattoos have long been signifiers of infamy and criminality, before becoming a badge of identity for various urban tribes. Tattoo examines the artistic nature of the practice and celebrates its many cultural expressions from ancient times to the present. Among the topics explored are Native North American tattoos; American tattooing from the Revolution through the 1980s; Russian criminal tattooing; European sideshow culture; Japan's tattoo boom during the Edo period; tattooing in the Marquesas Islands, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand; and newly emerging Latino, Chicano and Chinese tattoo cultures. Alongside accounts of older tattoo practices (presented through rare artifacts, paintings and archival photographs) and contemporary cultural trends in tattooing, the book pays tribute to the pioneers of the modern era, those responsible for its transformation into the mainstream. In addition, it includes two "workshop" sections in which contemporary tattoo artists demonstrate their craft. The artists featured are internationally renowned, and many have created a style that has evolved into its own school. The book closes with a series of photos assessing the most recent currents in modern tattooing.