Babylon Falling-Blog-

Click the picture above to open a flip book of two mini interviews with Peter Simon & Roger Steffens.

Also, be on the lookout for a more in depth video interview that I will be doing with Peter and Roger the day of the event.

May 10th is creeping…Not only will we have a display of Peter’s iconic photographs hanging in the store, this will be the first time that Roger and Peter will be together signing the book. Molli Fire, who contributed two great chapters, will also be in attendance to sign the book.

Not to be missed…

About The Book

Roger Steffens and Peter Simon’s Reggae Scrapbook is exactly what it sounds like, a treasure trove of memories, images, and ephemera from two men who have enjoyed unprecedented insider access to Reggae music and Reggae musicians. In between stories and anecdotes about such luminaries as Bob Marley, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and many more, the book is peppered with Peter Simon’s beautiful photography (mostly previously unpublished) and meticulously reproduced pieces of memorabilia from super collector Roger Steffens’s personal collection. For the uninitiated to the long-time fan, Roger Steffens and Peter Simon’s Reggae Scrapbook is an indispensable, multi-dimensional look into the growth of a music and culture that has touched lives across the globe. Also included is a DVD of interviews with reggae legends conducted by Roger Steffens over the course of two decades on his show “L.A. Reggae.”

Went on a field trip with Nicole and her students yesterday up to the Beat Museum (www.kerouac.com) in North Beach to hear the poet laureate of San Francisco, Jack Hirschman, read his poetry. Matt (more of his photography here)took these beautiful photos of the day.

Free Association

Jerry Cimino, Director of the Beat Museum, gave a great speech outlining the history and importance of the Beat Movement.

Lay Down Your Arms

Revolutionary

Jack Hirschman Reading Poems from his latest collection, All That’s Left - the fourth volume of the San Francisco Poet Laureate Series.

Jack Reading Walt Whitman.

Matt had to go to work, but after Jack read the kids did a little haiku exercise, and then Mel Clay (Bob Kaufman’s biographer and friend) read a poem by Bob Kaufman, and Jessica Loos read a poem by Jack Micheline (she was a close friend and is currently working on a book about him) as well as one of her own. Charlie (www.poemdome.com) also performed one of his spoken word pieces.

A one of a kind experience for real.

Thanks Nicole for inviting us to come along. Thanks for the photos Matt. Nice to meet you Jerry, Jack, Brandon, Jessica, and Charlie

Thanks for the photo Kensey.

So Many Books by Zaid - Just picked this up on a recommendation by Hal but I have to say it’s some pretty basic shit. He talks about all the reasons why the book will avoid obsolescence.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Nafisi - Kensey just finished it. She liked it.

Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun - Currently reading this. So very dope. Before you rush out to buy this you should know that Hamsun was an infamous Nazi sympathizer and went so far as to gift his 1920 Nobel Prize to Goebbels. An asshole of the highest order but a great stylist whose influence on modern writing can’t be overlooked.

The Medium is the Massage by Mcluhan - Classic, in a dope pocket edition…picked this up at Green Apple. Zaid up there has some weird obsession with Mcluhan.

Surrealist Subversions - Dope collection of pieces from and about American Surrealists. Picked this up from the Autonomedia table at the Anarchist book fair. A good collection to have on hand. They include some pretty obscure shit.

Novels in Three Lines by Feneon - All time favorite. From the New York Review of Books:

“Novels in Three Lines collects more than a thousand items that appeared anonymously in the French newspaper Le Matin in 1906—true stories of murder, mayhem, and everyday life presented with a ruthless economy that provokes laughter even as it shocks. This extraordinary trove, undiscovered until the 1940s and here translated for the first time into English, is the work of the mysterious Félix Fénéon. Dandy, anarchist, and critic of genius, the discoverer of Georges Seurat and the first French publisher of James Joyce, Fénéon carefully maintained his own anonymity, toiling for years as an obscure clerk in the French War Department. Novels in Three Lines is his secret chef-d’oeuvre, a work of strange and singular art that brings back the long-ago year of 1906 with the haunting immediacy of a photograph while looking forward to such disparate works as Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project and the Death and Disaster series of Andy Warhol.”

A Maysles Scrapbook - Kensey just got this as a gift. Looks pretty dope.

An Interview with Pulitzer Prize-Winning (2008) Novelist Junot Diaz

Via Counterpunch. Click Here

“A month before winning the Pulitzer, I sat with Junot Diaz, the Ghetto Nerd himself, for a revealing and candid discussion about the devastating “curse” and emotional scars of a tyrannical dictatorship ­ in this case that of Dominican Republic’s horrific General Trujillo ­ on an immigrant, American family; the mainstream “whitewashing” of “brown” experiences; the power of popular culture and comics books to express one’s personal narrative; the arrogance of “Whiteness”; and the emergence of a multicultural voice reflecting an ethnic, “All American” America”

For once I’m sitting here with nothing really pressing to do and being the dutiful revolutionaries that my customers are they are all out protesting the Olympics today.

So I’m here browsing around online and I came across this amazing website Folkstreams.net.

Their description: “A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures
streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites. ”

Highly recommend this site.