Babylon Falling-Blog-

Just put up the event photos from the opening reception of our exhibit of radical underground papers from the sixties and seventies in the U.S. Click the picture above or here to go to our Events page where we have a slideshow of pictures from the night. All taken by Shaun Roberts

Billy X Jennings from It’s About Time and former Revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party Emory Douglas both gave great talks full of hilarious anecdotes. I also have to give thanks to John Wilcock, one of the founders of the Village Voice, The East Village Other, and Other Scenes, who drove up from LA to check out the exhibit and who gave an impromptu talk at the urging of Billy X.

It was dope to be able to host this event and it was even doper to hear all the stories from the collectors, the regular readers and subscribers to the papers, and those people, like Ron Turner from Last Gasp and Warren Hinckle from Ramparts, who were involved in the underground press of the time. Respect to everyone I met, and everyone that came out.

The exhibit will be up through March 11th so stop by and check it out if you can.

If you haven’t already you can check out our studio visit with Billy X Jennings here

There’s also a video that Evan from KTVU Channel 2 did previewing the exhibition. You can check that out here

Just put up this little photo narrative (sounds official) of our trip up to Sacramento to see Billy X Jennings and his It’s About Time Archives. I’ll quote myself…

We went up to his place to look through his collection of original copies of radical underground newspapers from the sixties and seventies in order to hand select copies for our upcoming exhibition of, you guessed it, radical underground newspapers from the sixties and seventies in the U.S.

Don’t forget to come out to the opening reception which takes place on Thursday, February 19th from 6pm-9pm right here at the store. Billy X will be leading a short discussion on the history of the underground press in the U.S. and former Black Panther Party Minister of Culture Emory Douglas will also give a short talk on the role that art played in these papers.

You can check it out by clicking the picture above or by clicking here

For the night of the exhibit we will have a number of prints by Emory Douglas for sale. Among them will be three beautifully done limited edition silkscreen prints put out by Station4.

Station 4 is extremely proud to present the art of Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture of The Black Panther Party by introducing three historic propaganda art pieces originally published in the Black Panther newspaper in 1970 and 1971. The featured limited edition silk screened images are the first of a twelve print collectors series.

Each silk screened print has been artfully reproduced by the Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company headquartered in Oakland, California and are signed by Mr. Douglas and numbered on archival cotton rag paper and reprinted in collaboration with the artist.

More info at www.station4.co.uk

Just got these in at the store. This kept getting pushed back, been waiting for ever for these to come in but the wait was worth it. This was sold out just on pre-orders from the publisher so cop it while you can. We’ll be holding on to a few of our copies for an event we are planning surrounding the release of the book only edition down the line (more on that in a couple months).

$39.95 and as are all hardcover new releases this one is 20% off the list price.

For the first time, the critically-acclaimed arts magazine Hi-Fructose is collected in a comprehensive, expanded hardcover box set.

Hi-Fructose magazine showcases an eclectic mix of underground artists, pop surrealists, emerging and rediscovered countercultures, and awe-inspiring spectacles from around the world. This box set compiles the best of the sought after, long-sold-out first four volumes. Featuring the art of Mark Ryden, Tim Biskup, Junko Mizuno, Dave Cooper, Craola (Greg Simkins), Gary Baseman, Alex Pardee, Gary Taxali, Scott Musgrove, Jeff Soto, Ray Ceasar, JennyBird, Joe Ledbetter, Longo Land, Michael Salter, Fawn Gehweiler and more. Includes expanded art spreads and interviews; five deluxe edition art prints from artists including Craola, MARS-1, Joe Ledbetter, Travis Louie, Dave Cooper; a DIY papercraft art toy; and a DIY plush sewing pattern housed in a candy-themed box. Hardcover, color.

“Hi Fructose is one of the most beautiful magazines coming out anywhere.” -Buy Olympia.com

“Whenever a new issue of Hi-Fructose shows up in my mailbox, I climb on my roof and genuflect in the direction of Arcturus to pay homage to master Zogg for allowing such beauty to exist in this lowly mortal plane. There’s a lifetime of material to study in these pages.” -Mark Frauenfelder, BoingBoing.net

Artists Annie Owens and Attaboy are co-founders of Hi-Fructose Under the Counter Culture Magazine. Their art has been shown in numerous galleries, museums, and publications.

www.hifructose.com

www.lastgasp.com

Serious congratulations go out to our good friends and Babylon Falling extended family Shaun Roberts and Hal Lawrence for the recent selection of their short film “Dear Texas Highways” to screen at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

SXSWeek 2009: March 13-22
Interactive: March 13-17
Film: March 13-21
Music: March 18-22

sxsw.com/film for the screening schedule.

Official!

Dear Texas Highways from Shaun Roberts on Vimeo.

Our friend Matt recently launched a blog called Sub Sf as a home for pictures of graffiti in and around San Francisco. The pictures above were taken this last weekend down by the Mariposa Caltrain tunnel. The majority of the pictures up on the blog are his own but he’s always looking for contributors. Check the blog out at http://diridon.typepad.com/subsf/

Matt also recently put out a photo book called Vagrant chronicling his trip around the country on Amtrak. You can preview and buy the book at Blurb. And of course we have signed copies here at the store.

We also now have signed copies of the just released Bay Area Graffiti. Photographer Steve Rotman was kind enough to swing by the store and sign a stack of books for us last week. Get them while they’re here…as always 20% off cover price for all hardcover new releases.