Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

I'm gonna save you hours of your life. Don't read this book.

I was pretty stoked to get this for x-mas. I love comics, books and I love documentaries...what better than to mix them all up and read about the origins of freakin Marvel? Well, when you find out what a fucking shambles the company is and what a bunch of money-hungry idiots were crafting the stories...it kinda bums you out.

This book is 430 pages of "this happened" then "this happened" then "this happened." It's reads like an accountant wrote the damn thing. And it all seems to focus around money. The creators remind me of whiny Occupy Movement kids who failed to grow up. They essentially sign contracts, do work, get paid, and then bitch about it afterwards. Motherfucker, if you don't like the contract terms, don't sign it.

It's impossible to keep names straight when reading this because SO MANY people come, go, defect, come back, double-cross, etc. Artists are constantly ping-ponging between DC and Marvel, and then eventually more indie publishers. There's tons of shit-talking.

The shittiest part about this whole thing is how Marvel has been handled for the last 70 years. You can't have Creatives running the business because that's not their strength, but you equally can't have bean-counters running the Creative because that's not their strength. It seems at no point in Marvel's history did they ever really have good management or anyone with any sense making business and creative decisions. Something was always sacrificed and it ALWAYS seemed to hurt the fans as a result.

Reading this books just makes Marvel look like a money-making machine first and foremost. And it makes the content-creators look like greedy douchebags. I read the whole thing thinking it was such a squandered potential. If only they had brought in people with artistic INTEGRITY and business-savvy to run the damn company...

The only guy who still seems cool after 430 pages...is Stan Lee.

Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers

Marie bought me this book a few years ago. I've been meaning to re-read it and finally got around to it. Shit, it doesn't even take an hour to get through. I shouldn't have waited so long.

Trying to explain Wabi-Sabi is impossible. Explaining it isn't the point. You have to know it. True to Japanese culture, this concept is intuitive rather than scientific. You don't have to write it down and formulate it for it to exist or to be understood.

Confusing? Yeah, kind of.

The book says, “Wabi-sabi is the quintessential Japanese Aesthetic. It is beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional…“

That's Wabi-Sabi in a nutshell. This book gives examples and expands upon what it means in regards to metaphysics, spirituality, state of mind, moral precepts and material qualities.

When we buy our next house I'll revisit to book to probably help focus our interior design decisions.

Wabi-Sabi is something I know, but didn't know it had a name until I was introduced to it. It just is. Sort of like being introduced to StraightEdge when I was 13 or 14 or whatever. I just knew.

This is the weirdest, most confusing and bizarre write-up I've done. But if you take an hour to read the book, it'll all make sense. It's by Leonard Koren and it appears you can download a pdf for free from here. Or get it on Amazon for ten bucks.

Generation Ecstacy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture

I wanted to know more about techno as I've recently been diggin' on some old British drum'n'bass like Goldie and Grooverider. I've also been bumping a lot of Prodigy and Underworld. But my list of electronic music is very clearly limited to album-oriented artists in the mainstream. Aphex Twin, Crystal Method, Justice, Roni Size, Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Bjork, Portishead, etc. I love it all, but I wanted to get deeper to find more artists who produced music similar to my favorites. I fucking love the first three Prodigy records, especially the first two. Who else does shit of that caliber and what's it even called? I'm diggin' the Metalheadz stuff, but where do I go from there? And what else am I missing? Clearly I'm a neophyte and I hoped a 450 page book on the first 10 years of techno might help a brotha out. So my friend suggested I pick this up. And that I did...

I dig that it starts in Detroit, like a lot of good, heavy, world-changing shit seems to do. While I was here in its heyday, I was far too immersed in hardcore punk to even contemplate hardcore techno. Fuck dancing, fuck drugs. Not my thing. Never has been. But the music and the creativity...clearly I was missing out big time. I wish I could go back in time and accompany friends to some of those warehouse raves. Sheeeeit.

The parallels between both hardcore scenes (punk and techno) are shockingly apparent. After reading the book it's no wonder many punks (especially anarcho-crusties) crossed over and really got into techno. Evidently I'm a bit late to the party. All I knew in 1995 was that I loved the music from Hackers and Trainspotting. And still do. But now I'm putting it into social and evolutionary context.

But enough about me. This is about the book.

It's half good and half jounro' pomp. The chapters that deal with music chronology and history are good. The half that expound on theories and the author's philosophies aren't so hot. He can weave a good tale, and I don't mind it being interspersed with opinion, but sometimes he just rattles on about philosophical garbage. The diction changes from straightforward sensible word-choice in the documentary parts of the book, to thesaurus-requiring unnecessary journalistic one-upmanship in the psycho-babble parts. Maybe the book would read better as two tomes: The History in part 1 and the Analysis in part 2.

Allegedly it came with a cd, which would have been rad if it really did...But I purchased a used copy on Amazon for $4 and alas, it didn't. However, a cursory search didn't reveal any new books that mentioned anything about a cd at all...so...I just used youtube on my iPhone to bring up songs as I was reading along. "What's "gabba" sound like? Ooof, this sucks. How about Chicago "house"...oof, this sucks, too."

SL2 "on a ragga tip"...now we're talkin! ;)

Hyper On Experience? More of that please.

Unfortunately most of these artists were vinyl-oriented and track-oriented, meaning it's impossible to get this crap on cd ten years after the fact. So it might be slim pickings as I hunt down some of the stuff I'm diggin' on.

This is a worthwhile read. It's a good crash course and general overview on techno. It's certainly flawed, but it's still worth the effort if you're a music nerd historian. 

Isaac's Storm

Even the books I read are documentaries.

This is the fourth book by Erik Larson that I've devoured. I read it this weekend. Couldn't really put it down. The cold weather made for a good excuse to sit on the couch with book in hand and hot cider close by.

As with Thunderstruck, the Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts, this book is based on historical fact. Larson deftly weaves the facts into a riveting story that unfolds hook by hook. His books are often difficult to put down. He puts a ridiculous amount of effort into research and it pays off in spades. His novels are part history lesson and part thriller. 100% addictive and informative.

Isaac's Storm is about an insane hurricane that hits Galveston, Texas, in 1900. It's the "Katrina" of its day...only I believe even more deadly and devastating, if you can imagine.

The protagonist is a meteorologist, and the story follows his involvement before, during and a little bit after the storm. Other Galveston citizens' stories are woven into the narrative, too. It's pretty heavy on the meteorological talk, but not to the point of distraction. It's simply part of what you're getting yourself into when you read the book.

Once you've read one Larson book, you don't need much persuasion to read another. I'd suggest you didn't read In the Garden of Beasts as your first exposure to him, though. The Devil in the White City is his fucking masterpiece, followed by Thunderstruck, Isaac's Storm and In the Garden of Beasts. I'll buy whatever he puts out next without question.

This was great. You should definitely read it!

Two Wheels on Two Reels

This book looks low rent. It took me a while, but I eventually picked it up on Amazon. It was just an inevitability that I would own this so I bit the bullet. The interior is even worse than the exterior, but I'll be damned if Mike Seate isn't a damn good author! Shocking, but the motor-mouth responsible for Cafe Racer Magazine and Cafe Racer TV is actually a really eloquent scribe.

The cool thing about this book is that it's written like a chronological history book. Where as the Big Book of Biker Flicks is simply a review/synopsis of each movie in order, this book strings everything together with a sort of narrative and social commentary. It flows well.

The layout leaves much to be desired. It's more shocking for the fact that someone laid this out in the year 2000. It looks like an Economics text book from middle school. There's no excuse for any book to look this dry. It has no personality. But thankfully it is legible and readable, and the content more than makes up for the poor Art Direction.

The book is printed B&W, and even in 2000 Mike Seate was watching VHS instead of DVD. The images of the movies are VHS covers instead of movie posters. What the hell? At the time, many of these were probably only available as old VHS, but still... the posters are WAY fucking cooler than the VHS covers and should have been sourced for this publication.

Surprisingly, I definitely recommend this book, but only to bikers and film nerds. But mostly bikers. Mike's writing is top shelf. I'd love to see this updated with a brand new layout and new content from the last 12 years. Mike, get to it!

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability

With the growing HMI (human-machine interface) design I'm doing, I've been meaning to read more books on usability, interactivity and psychology. So after a little research I picked up Steve Krug's, "Don't Make Me Think." Sounds perfect.

I enjoyed Steve's tone of voice. Very personable. Witty. Down to earth. And just like the premise of the book, he's very straight-to-the-point. This really helps because web usability is certainly a topic that could get real dry, real fast. Krug keeps it fresh throughout.

Thankfully, the design of the book matched the content in terms of ease-of-use. The designer tried to employ Steve's principles of web design to the book and did so wonderfully. It's a great example of how to lay out a book of this nature.

The overall content is all very relevant and relatable, even if the specific website examples are dated. When he's talking about particular situations you can immediately relate or empathize because it's more than likely something you've encountered in your career. Many times you probably wish you had this book to pull out at that very moment to use as canon fodder. "No, the website doesn't need more pizzaz and blinking things to make it pop."

Krug mainly covers usability principles and theories, specific implementation of ideas, usability testing, and accessibility. Some of it was old news, but it's still good to read and re-read things like that. Drill it into your head. But a lot of it, especially the chapters on usability testing, were particularly elucidating for me.

If you work on any sort of HMI design, this is a valuable book to read. Phones, web, tablets, head-units, machines, anything with an interface. Watches, DVD players. Whatever. You'll get some benefit from this book and enjoy reading it to boot.

Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC

Who the hell's ever heard of Mark Evans?

Turns out he was the original (or close enough) bassist for AC/DC and one hell of a writer to boot.

I picked this up a few days ago to read and I didn't realize at the time that it was a Bazillion Points publication. So I got extra excited to check it out, as Ian Christie has a flawless record. The attention to detail he puts into his books is second to none. Always great printing and finishing techniques.

Dirty Deeds is an exceptionally well-written rock bio. I'd put it just behind I Am Ozzy and SLASH. Evans is clearly a well-read individual, which definitely shines through in his writing. The book is effortless. It's down-to-earth and follows a wonderful pace. Even though he was "coached" by someone on his writing, I'd like to think that what you're reading is ultimately all down to Evans's hard work.

I'm glad Hammer of Doom previously reviewed it as well as let me borrow it, cuz it was a fun read. The content is as you'd expect. The in's and out's of being in a rock band and all the shenanigans that goes alone with it. Writing, recording, touring, drugs, alcohol, and threesomes.

Having said that, there isn't a whole lot of drug talk. Evens doesn't deny it, but he doesn't play it up like Ozzy or SLASH, for instance. It takes a back seat to relentless gigging and the pursuit of stardom.

I agree with Hammer of Doom that it does make you want to open up some other doors to find out what the Youngs are really like. Call me a retard, but I didn't even know that Malcolm was the driving force behind the band. I always figured Angus called the shots. I'd definitely be into reading a Young bio down the road.

Anyway, reading this books gives you even more respect for AC/DC, if you didn't have enough already. These dudes worked HARD to get where they are. And they still put on a freakin awesome show. Angus is unreal!

Read this book.

Hitchcock Poster Art

Bad Eye liberated this book from a friend of his and kindly passed it along.

It's a simple book. One spread per film, and it covers every film Hitch directed. Each spread has a single paragraph intro that's generally just a film synopsis, some small reproductions of posters and/or lobby cards, and a full page poster on the opposing side. And that's how it rolls.

It'd have to fuck up royally for me not to enjoy it. It doesn't fuck up royally. It's worth a perusal for sure. However, it's certainly not without faults:

• The intro paragraph offers nothing more than a synopsis. I think a Hitchcock fan would prefer tidbits of information about the film more that was is generally given. If you deleted the intro paragraphs and made the photos on that page even a bit bigger it wouldn't have hindered the book at all. So I think if something can be deleted without determent, you should reconsider what it is you're writing.
• Who the fuck sets body copy in bold?! Use regular or light. Jesus, man. I know it's just one paragraph but get your typography right. That pissed me off more than anything.
• All the posters and lobby cards were culled from one man's collection. While this makes for an amazing collection of Hitchcock poster art(!), it's definitely not the best of the best when it comes to what's AVAILABLE. Very little was shown from Japan, for instance. Little from France. Thankfully, quite a lot from Poland/Czech (b/c they make great Hitchcock posters!). But overall, it's impressive for the collector, but not impressive as a representation of what's out there.

I'm glad it's now in my collection and I'm glad I read it. Thanks, Bad Eye!

I'll leave you with some choice cuts. I gotta run cuz England is about to play their last game in the opening round of the European Cup:

This is for Strangers on a Train. Awesome.

I love this one and it reminds me of a Carcass album cover. It's disturbing.

Again, Carcass-esque. So much to look at. It rules.

Flying Skulls.

Such a unique take on Vertigo.

Monsters in the Movies

It took me a while, but I finished Monsters in the Movies – 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares, by John Landis.

I think I got this for x-mas from Marie and I started reading it chapter at a time in between other books I had going. I like how personal it is. It's written by Landis and it's clearly in his own passionate and honest voice. He'll trash some films by major Directors (when it's warranted) and he'll sing the praises of his personal favorites. He's clearly a man who loves horror and moreover, who loves good cinema. He's got a broad perspective on what makes a "monster" and that's what makes this book so good. I'm not a huge Landis fan, but I appreciate his passion and knowledge on the subject. It makes for an entertaining read. Definitely not dry.

The book breaks monsters down chapter by chapter and genre by genre. Each section has a couple pages of text-heavy intro, and then it flows into numerous spreads with many photos with brief commentary alongside each one. Most chapters end with an interview. So it's intro, pictures and comments, interview, rinse-wash-repeat. Done.

I think it's a worthwhile purchase. It's informative but also entertaining. It's not written by a bookworm historian and that's why the book has personality. Landis himself sets this apart from any other academic collection of movie monsters.

I'm into it and I'm not even that into horror. So I say check it out. You'll dig.

In Cold Blood

I read that it took Capote about 6 years to research and write this classic true crime novel.  Moving back and forth between the victims, the murderers and the law. It reads like fiction. You get to know all the key players quite well. And while you expect to feel some of the terror the victims felt, you don't expect to feel bad for the murderers...only to a certain degree though.

Killers loose on American highways. Thinking they got away with murder. They have dreams but the only means they have of achieving them is to be criminals. One is the brains and one is the brawn. Suspicion, fear and paranoia drive them apart, yet they have no one else left to turn to.

This is probably the best true crime novel I've ever read. That says a lot, as it's one of my favorite genres.
I'm definitely going to check out the film version of ICB, as well as the film Capote. I highly recommend this book.

A Long Slow Screw

Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, Frank Miller and...Eugene S. Robinson?

You may not have heard of Eugene Robinson, or if you have you may have connected him solely with the band he fronts; Oxbow. But Eugene's debut crime fiction novel will probably get you pretty psyched if you're a fan of the former three artists mentioned above.

Eugene is a multi-faceted individual and artist, but since we're talking about the book then that's where we'll start. It's pretty much a pulp noir novel set in New York City, in I believe an undisclosed era. I get the impression it's the 70's, but historical details are intentionally left absent. I'm sure I'm the umpteenth person to compare him to Tarantino and if Eugene is fed up with said comparison then he shouldn't be, because that's like saying you're fed up being favorably compared to a fucking god. As we know, Tarantino is one of the great auteurs of cinematic history and it's clear that both Robinson and Tarantino have similar points of reference that they infuse in their art. This is a gangster novel. There's a heist, there's a femme fatale (kinda), there's an anti-hero protagonist, there're classic mob goons, crooked cops, and plenty of unique 'bad guys' that would find a safe home in a Punisher comic. Frank Castle would love to fuck these crooks over.

The dialogue and general caper are the immediate nods to Tarantino and Ritchie, while the mood and the love interest is a bit more Frank Miller. The book starts off a bit rocky, to be honest. It takes a short while to get used to Robinson's writing. It feels clunky at times. It doesn't have the finesse of Ritchie or the flamboyant elegance of Tarantino. Robinson tries. And it's a good read. But don't expect him to dethrone either of those two when it comes to gangster patter. At times some of his sentences are a little too verbose, but I still appreciate the sentiment behind them even if they're not totally refined. Maybe it's because the flair is peppered in there and not consistent? But if it were consistent then it might be much harder to get through, so maybe he's just decided to throw us some cool little nuggets here and there. It's cool. I appreciate the flair for style. And I'm not one to criticize anyone for being too verbose. Sheeeit.

Bad Eye read the book in two sittings. He really enjoyed it and pretty much agrees with my take on it, I think. I picked the book up after seeing Eugene doing spoken word in support of Scott Kelly's acoustic show. Being a huge Neurosis fan I was stoked to see him and intrigued to see what Robinson would do. I had no idea. I have seen some crazy videos of Oxbow and hoped it wouldn't involve nudity or sleeper-holds. Thankfully he took a seat and essentially plugged the book through stories of his past and stories about him interviewing gangsters to use as fodder for his book. I dug it and bought the book.

Here comes the only bad part: The physical book. For being a label that prides themselves on packaging, Hydra Head need to up their game when it comes to print publications. About an inch of protective covering was peeling and ripping the cover before I even got home from the show. It's bubbling and just reveals the cheap and tacky finishing method they used on the book. The bindery didn't align all the pages correctly and some of the opening pages were slightly askew. But most annoying of all...the fucking editing. Did someone read the manuscript or proof this thing before it went to press? There are a significant amount of carriage returns throughout the book that break paragraphs mid-sentence. It's not like it ruins the book by any means, but it frustrated me (as a designer) since I look for typo's every day at work. Don't let the production values stop you from reading the book. I'm just pointing it out. Hydra Head, please fix for the next edition.

So there you have it. For fans of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, A Bronx Tale, Sleepers, Reservoir Dogs, Snatch, Sin City, etc. It's a great gangster noir novel and well worth the read.

Of Love and Evil

The second book from Anne Rice's series on angels. I definitely liked this one better than the first one. These are pretty short little novels. Only about 220 pages and again I read it on a slow day at work.

Her lack of flair from Angel Time is still present in this one. I hope she's not just whipping them out on purpose these days. Still very historical and well researched. Just not to the same depth I normally get drawn in by.

Murder, betrayal, persecution, suicide, the Devil,  ghosts. It's all the elements for a spectacular book. I can see the series getting better.

Rosemary's Baby

There's something about having this book sort of crumble in my hands as I read it that I really enjoyed. Little specks of paper.

Of course I'm going to enjoy this book as I consider Rosemary's Baby to be a classic suspense film. What this book did for me though was it actually made me appreciate the movie version more. They really did a great job adapting the book into a movie. But I love all the little details you get from a book that you don't always notice or appreciate in a movie. More suspenseful I think.

I read this in one afternoon on a slow day at work. I could barely put it down...and I know the ending!

Thanks for the loan.

The Devil In The White City

I love history and I love horror so I loved this book. Two talented men driven towards their respective passions. Art & Murder. Two separate stories that are perfectly intertwined. The hardships on people towards the end of the 1800s as well as the naivety. The charm & wits of Burnham & Holmes. The eerie castle and mystifying fairgrounds. The stench of Chicago. I really got into this story. Reminds me of the book Gangs of New York. Can't wait for the movie. There's a hour long documentary on H.H. Holmes streaming on Netflix currently.

Iron Man

What a surprise, I read another bio.

I'll keep this one short since Hammer of Doom already reviewed it. Said gentleman was kind enough to trade me Iron Man for Devil in the White City (which I hope he is currently enjoying). I thought this was good, but just as H_o_D said, it's nowhere near as good as Ozzy's.

I felt like this was kind of like reading a book of, "This one time when I was at band camp..." stories all strung together. It's 90 odd chapters long and each one is only a few pages long, like a Dan Brown novel. Only Dan Brown novels have plots. This was entertaining and I'm glad I read it, but it didn't feel like a cohesive narrative, but instead just a bunch of stories told one after another. And by that I mean that you could probably skip every fourth or fifth chapter and not have it affect your comprehension of the book or story.

Black Sabbath fans should read it. No doubt, but do yourself a favor and read Ozzy's first. While Tony is a way fuckin cool dude, Ozzy's book is just so much more compelling. Clearly he can afford a better ghost writer or "contributor" or whatever they're called.

The best bits of the book were when Tony was being introspective and giving you insight into his head. All the other stuff about drugs and albums and shit can be put together with internet research of through interviews and other peoples' accounts. But the true value is in finding out what Tony thinks about things. Not the technical crap.

At times I identified with Tony. I did feel a little kinship, I ain't gonna lie. But anyway...I like Tony's 70's mustache a lot better than his current mustache.

I need to check out the later Sabbath stuff with all the post Dio singers. That's just part of the catalog I never gave much thought to. But you know what, I don't think anything after the first six hold a fucking candle to those records. There's a huge line drawn in the sand right after Sabotage. I'll get rotten fruit thrown at me for saying that, but whatever. I'm not gonna get into that here because this is about Tony's book, not Bill Ward's tepid drumming on post Sabotage records, Ozzy's phoned-in vocals or Tony's more generic non-bluesy riffs. ;)

Yeah, read this if you love Sabbath. It's worth the time.

Nice shirt, Ozzy.

Always loved this shot. That's a lot of hair. Like freakin pirates of Birmingham.

Alpine white with gold hardware and triple humbuckers. Nice one, Tony.

Aged like a fine wine.

Blood and Gold

Anne Rice is my favorite author. Been reading her books since junior high and I've never been disappointed by any of them. She is so descriptive, I don't think any other author draws me in like she does.

This is another book in The Vampire Chronicles, so it's tied in to her classics like Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. In Blood & Gold she tells the story of Marius, one of the most ancient vampires. It's a very historical, fantastical and romantic story...as are all of her stories. 

Marius lives in pagan Rome, witnesses the rise of the strange new cult called christianity and battles with a satanic coven of vampires. He suffers the loss of all his loved ones after he is burned to a black husk. He is the guardian of Those Who Must Be Kept. He is thousands of years old. 

If you've never read any of the other VCs you could still start with this one, but I wouldn't recommend it. Start at the beginning with Interview. I really feel the need to go back and start at the beginning too after reading this one.

I can let you borrow them obviously.

Hell's Angel

Seems like about 75% of the books I read are non-fiction, and most of those are bio's. I think 2012 is the year of the bio for me. Did the Mayan's make any reference to that? Probably not. Idiots.

Anyway, I made it through Sonny Barger's bio pretty quickly. It's alright. His writing is pretty mediocre. It's like reading Lemmy's bio, y'know. He's hardly Wordsworth. The thing that I didn't like (or one of the things) is that I felt like I could tell the difference between a passage mostly penned by Sonny and a passage penned by the Zimmerman's (who "helped" him write it). Now, Keith and Kent Zimmerman both helped in writing Soul on Bikes, which I thought was considerably better. It was much more fluid and definitely more mature and high brow than this particular tome. Ok, so no shocker that Sonny Barger isn't terribly poetic. Moving on...

The book starts a little disjointed and then goes back to its roots and starts the narrative properly. It was like a false start or something, so I wasn't looking forward to it right off the bat but mercifully it got better. The book basically lays out the history of the Hells Angels as it relates to Barger. He started the Oakland chapter and it follows him as the M/C becomes what it becomes. For better or for worse, Barger is the nucleus of the HAMC. The thing I find odd is that for all the cries that the Angels make about not being a criminal organization and just being out to ride bikes...it sure doesn't seem like that according to Barger. While he never outright says they killed this person or trafficked drugs and guns to that person, a lot of the stories sure revolve around killing, torture, drugs, money, prison and guns. These guys are not saints. True, I know the media sensationalizes things and pins things on them they didn't do, but it's not like they're choir boys.

It's good to hear the stories from the horse's mouth. There are some really cool passages when he's talking about riding 200 strong and generally being rebellious. It's freedom. It's cool. But there are lot of times when he's talking about cocaine and revenge killings and time in the pen', which isn't so cool. It's one hell of a crazy ride, that's for sure. It's amazing he's not dead or currently in jail. Seriously. How he managed to dodge the bullets (literally and figuratively) is beyond my comprehension. Even cancer couldn't kill him!

Sonny is a gearhead and he rode some awesome bikes. The shots of the Angels in the 50's and 60's are bad as fuck. The summer of love, the music, the bikes...I dig that part of the book. The 80's just got all gangsta. I'm sure they started attracting far more criminals on bikes as the years went on, rather than bikers who turned criminal.

It's like reading an episode of Gangland or something. But without the stupid deep voice and ominous synth. I'm gonna buy Hunter S. Thompson's book about the Angels and see what he had to say. I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between the two books. Sonny can't be all that forthcoming (for fear of self-incrimination) and Thompson will be full of journalistic hyperbole, I'm sure.

So yeah, you pretty much know what you're getting yourself into if you buy this. It is what it is. I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't rush out to buy it tomorrow.

Amazing bike! Springer front end, HUGE wheels, tough looking can, sweet bobbed fender. Love the whole thing.

Scary lookin dude.

Bad ass.

If you squint your eyes he has a slight resemblance to Clean Cut's dad.

Steve Jobs

Last night I finished the behemoth tome you see pictured above. Steve Jobs. What a dude.

It's close to 600 pages and I could have read another 300 easily. It's a fascinating book that really follows Steve from one revolution to the next. It's incredibly insightful and very well written. Steve, as per normal, didn't pick a dud when he chose Walter Isaacson to write his bio. He hounded Walter to do it and gave him unrestricted access to himself as well as anyone else he could possibly want to interview to get the goods for this book. In fact, Steve didn't even want to read it before it was published. It wasn't supposed to be some sugar-coated bullshit to boost his ego. It's a riveting true story about a motherfucking genius.

I really took a lot away from the book as it relates to my art and my career. It's inspirational, but not in an Oprah book club kinda way. More like in a gnarly counterculture fuck you I won't tolerate anything but the best out of myself and my company type of way. He's a measuring stick for integrity. But he's also flawed as hell. And the duality is clearly recounted in this book. It's not all roses.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with eyes.
But moreover, I'd consider it essential reading to anyone in business.

Steve was the man. It actually bums me out to see his picture. I feel a genuine loss that's he gone after reading this book. I think the world honestly lost someone great who will be remembered in the same league as Henry Ford.

I'm not gonna go into what Apple has meant to me, my art and my career. I'm hungry and I need to finish this post without getting carried away. But the bastards better come out with the new iMac asap. I want to upgrade to the 27"already. C'mon, Tim, it's overdue! Chop chop, get those Foxconn workers on it double-quick.

Dirty Deeds

I wasn't a fan of AC/DC until we saw them at the Palace a few years back. That night they blew me away.

Reading this book had a similar effect. Not that I was blown away by Evans writing skills but just by how bad ass AC/DC were. Nothing makes you appreciate something more than knowing all the blood, sweat and tears involved in making it happen.

Not every book on rock bands that I've read has had this effect on me though. So that's why I'm recommending this one. It's way better then White Line Fever. Slightly better than Iron Man. But not even close to as good as I Am Ozzy or The Dirt.

One similarity between this book and I Am Ozzy is that it makes me want to read a different book on the main force behind the band...in this case ANGUS. That dude seems like he would have some real shit to say. The only real thing I learned about him was that he preferred "ciggies & tea" to booze & drugs and that he was an anti-social little cunt. But based on these things, I really would like to read a book from his perspective.

You should borrow this.

Rosemary's Baby

I just finished Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. Marie had an old edition from 1968 kicking around the house so I thought I'd check it out.

It's a bummer reading it when you know what's gonna happen. It loses the thrill of the plot unfolding when you know damn well who's in on the conspiracy, but whatever. It's a good read nonetheless. It's really quick and accessible.

I really dig the design of the book cover. And the original poster (with the type at the bottom) is one of my all time favorite posters. I almost bought an original for $195 or so a while back. I thought that was a fair price. It's a fucking awesome poster and an incredible film.

Reading this book in the 60's would have been a trip. It's a callous and terrifying premise for a novel. The book builds at a pretty slow pace but starts to gain and gain towards the latter half as the pieces of the puzzle start slotting together. Levin puts in the work up front and it really helps for the pay-off in the end. It's a bleak ending, but really pretty satisfying. I think endings are the hardest part for any author to get right, but Rosemary's Baby nails it pretty well.

Again, I don't have to say much on this. You've seen the movie, now read the book. It's quick and it's worth it.