Brighten The Corner

Back from a trip to NYC and some Narrow Books store visits.

Highlights:

Cinders gallery, where I got to meet Sto, the head man in charge of a gallery that shows work from a lot of our favorite artists like Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson, Megan Whitmarsh… I was going to hit him up with Hey Fudge but he already had a copy on the shelf behind me!

Desert Island book and comic store, who recently put out the “Smoke Signals” comics mag with cover and comics inside by Travis. Great store, run by the friendly Gabe Fowler, who also gave me an awesome trade– I walked out with the new David Mazzucchelli book, Asterios Polyp.

Word bookstore in Greenpoint. When I was walking up I saw a sign in the window, a sort of friendly manifesto on supporting independent publishers. And it was no lie! The manager, Stephanie, was super-hospitable. I think they’d even invite Narrow Books for an event there if I could figure out how to coordinate one from here in LA.

Also got to attend a book event at ArtBook at X for For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis, put out by PictureBox, and scored a copy signed by Aubrey Powell for a friend of a friend who designs album covers.

Ah, NYC, the city of friendly people. Now I just need to remind people LA isn’t all suck.

Two events coming up to tell you guys about:

Funk Rumble Block Party! 12pm-10pm, Saturday, July 11th - The first Funk Rumble Block Party is happening in Chinatown this weekend, in conjunction with the Chinatown Artwalk (6pm-10pm). This “half music festival, half block party” is going to feature some amazing soul and funk… homegrown LA stuff no less! And Narrow Books will be there too, selling books and t-shirts. There’ll be food vendors (including vegetarian), a load of designers and artists, and a full bar open over at the Grand Star Jazz Club. Admission is $5 before 4pm, $8 after. And kids under 10 get in free.

** Special for this event, we will have a limited amount of signed copies of Yeti Logic (Rojo) by Megan Whitmarsh. Each copy has a unique yeti drawing! 

Joseph Mattson reading at Book Soup, 7pm, Thursday, July 16th - Author John O’Brien sadly committed suicide two weeks after hearing that his first novel, Leaving Los Vegas, was being made into a film. But he left behind several hard-hitting novels that were published posthumously. The amazing press Akashic Books has just released his final unpublished work, Better, and Narrow Books author/editor Joseph Mattson will be reading from that novel along with writers Jerry Stahl and O’Brien’s sister, Erin.

Been super busy lately, sorry about the lack of posts. Several on the way, well overdue.