weddings and bookcovers

It was 107 degrees in Davis. Hot all over. Global warming and here we are driving a car, longing for bikes but glad of the air conditioning and quiet serenity of just us two, listening to books on tape (though I personally think it's a dreadful book....it's in a series that Mykle is reading "The Wheel of Time"), and not waiting for trains in dingy San Jose stations. The car is not ours, it's on loan.
Went on a visiting/wedding-attending roadtrip, combined with the usual tattoo apprenticeship in sweltering hick Vacaville. I was privy to conversatins at the tattoo shop about the number of guns certain swarthy tattooed dudes had in their garage. Apparently one of their friends was also raising alligators in their backyard and then got caught for doing it because a 6 footer escaped. Um...yep.
Mykle got to see the place though. No matter how TOTALLY FOREIGN it is to me there, all of the guys that work there are fucking standup guys. They are very straightforward, call everyone bro, and don't look down on anyone. I love this, as many of my intensely more-educated friends would probably label all of these guys as boneheads and rednecks and not even talk to them (which I understand, you know...all the talk of "fags" would drive most people off).
The wedding part of our weekend was the wedding of Stout and Tash. It was lovely and of course a big friend-reunion of the sweetest kind. Stout says, "Get married, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!"
Santa Cruz is a actually really hot right now, and all of the food and homemade wine wearied us so completely that Mykle, Pete and Lucia and I spent all last night laying prone on the floor of Mykle's folks' house, watchng "Heavy: The Story of Metal" on TV. Combined with recently reading the book "Fargo Rock City" I am now SO educated on the subject of Heavy Metal music as a genre. Ask me anything abut it, just dont ask me to like it. Haha. There is some stuff which I appreciate, but on a whole it's SO ridiculous (to use a Jordan Smart word) and so vapid. It's me, I'm one of those NO FUN shoe-gazers that likes Eliot Smith and Tool**.

I'm at the bookstore right now, my Sunday night shift. We are overrun by flies, and young bearded men who drop off their portfolios and make a beeline to the philosophy section. I swear I think I can now judge what section people are going to go to by their style. People going to the culinary section are easy to spot, since if they are young they usually have burned and scarred arms from being student at the culinary academy! Older white men looking for the military history section similarly easy to peg. They wear meshcaps with a braid on them, like plaid button-up shirts, and are usually REALLY tall. Bespeckled middle-age women with short cropped hair and book bags want Gardening or Lit. If they are wearing purple and/or still have long hair they want poetry. Young slightly bohemian couples (esp. of Indian or Latin American/Spanish descent) want Math, and aren't scared away by our section in the least.
Oh, such generalization! It helps pass the time...

OK, look at this Rushdie bookcover:


I just sold this book and was completely taken with the illustration. Here is the illustrator's website, it's all whimsical collage, and it's really impressive.

Lynn Hatzius
***

Also good in the department of book design is John Gall, who doesn't have his own website (!!!) but who does the exquisite covers for Haruki Murakami's books with Chipp Kidd. I know it's scandalous and very uncool, but I don't really like Murakami. I do like the IDEA of him, and the fact that he writes about unicorns, but I can't get it. Why?!!

If you go to Murakami's website, and click on "Art" you get a gallery of the covers, stony music, and an interview with both book cover designers, which is wonderful for nerds like me. And YOU!

A Doll i found that sort of looks like me.
HERE
Attention Michelle!(from here):
Doll's eye






** I would like to point out that I love Fleetwood Mac and Jane's Addiction, both of whom rocked, but kept it light and fun. Ish.
I also seem to be developing an affection for Motorhead, largely because of their incredible style. (No umlauts on this computer, sorry)

*** I realized this is the same person that did the amazing semaphore alphabet. Woah.