Massacre @ Bridge Street Books

Today, for the first time in my life, I visited Bridge Street Books, which is located in Washington, DC. The store is affiliated with Rod Smith, who the clerk said was the manager; Rod is no doubt responsible for what is probably the best poetry section in any new book store I've ever seen. Not surprisingly many of the best finds feature DC-affiliated poets & publishers such as Mark Wallace, Buck Downs, Tom Orange, a super Greg Fuchs find, & Smith himself, along with an entire shelf dedicated to Edge books.

Tho it took longer to checkout than to pull the books off the shelves (they practically jumped), the experience on the whole was supremely pleasant in every way. From new things like the spanking Torres title that marks the 29th volume in the Atelos series to 2 massive subpress titles to random unforeseen fun gem-items like a pair of titles from Object Editions/poetscoop from the mid 90s--much fun was had by all. Special thank to my shopping companion, whose first day of school is tomorrow.

A photo of the bounty:


Some closer-ups:



& the list:

Xing Ron Silliman, Meow Press, 1996 [1st printing]
Technology/art: 20 Brief Proposals for Seminars on Art & Technology Andrews, Bernstein & Sherry, July 1984, Factory School, 2001 [reprint]
Agreement Peter Seaton, Asylum's Press, 1978
The Weather Kenneth Goldsmith, Make Now, 2005 [signed]
A Self-Guided Walk Kimberly J. Rosenfield, Object Editions/poetscoop, 1996
Adversities of Outerlife Judith Goldman, Object Editions, poetscoop, 1996
The 60s and 70s from 'The Theory of Subjectivity in Moby Dick' Deborah Meadows, Tinfish Press, 2003
Portraits and Maps Diane Ward & Michal C McMillen, NLF editions, 2000 [signed]
Black Dog Songs Lisa Jarnot, Flood Editions, 2003
Memory Play Carla Harryman, O Books, 1994
Reptile House Lisa Jarnot, Bookthug, 2005 [first edition]
Libretto marin Lisa Jarnot, Format Americain, 2000 [signed]
c.c. Tyrone Williams, krupskaya, 2002
25 poems Tom Orange, interrupting the cow, 2004 [100 signed copies]
The Monstrous Failure of Contemplation/Aquifer Mark Wallace & Kaia Sand, "a subpoetics project", 2001
The Lawless Man Mark Wallace, UPPER LIMIT MUSIC lower limit speech, 1996 [signed]
Cipher/Civilian Leslie Bumstead, Edge Books, 2005
Let's Eat Red for Fun/Pax Americana Hoa Nguyen & Dale Smith, Boog Literature, 2000 [100 copies]
Uma Ternura/nuno pontes Greg Fuchs, Canvas & Companhia, ???? [600 copies]
Complications From Standing In A Circle Mark Wallace, leavebooks, 1993 [signed]
Day Poems Mel Nichols, Edge Books, 2005
Nothing Happened and Besides I Wasn't There Mark Wallace, Edge Books, 1997 [signed]
Once Upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge Jules Boykoff, Edge Books, 2006
Every Day Is Most of My Time Mark Wallace, Texture Chapbook Series #15, 1994 [signed]
Crow ed Leslie Bumstead & Rod Smith, Edge Books, 20001
on your knees citizen: a collection of prayers for the public [schools] ed Rod Smith, Lee Ann Brown, & Mark Wallace, Edge Books, 1996
Tinfish 14 ed Susan M Schultz, 2004
fear the sky Rod Smith, Narrow House Recordings, 2005 [CD]
Poems from Ring of Fire Lisa Jarnot, 136-32 Productions/Bootstrap Productions, 2001 [CD]
The 3:15 Experiment Bernadette Mayer, Danika Dinsmore, Jen Hofer, Lee Anne Brown, The Owl Press, 2001
Give Em Enough Rope Bruce Andrews, Sun & Moon, 1987
Moebius Bruce Andrews, GENERATOR Press, 1993
Ex Why Zee Bruce Andrews, Roof, 1995
The Champagne of Concrete Kit Robinson, Potes & Poets, 1991
Furtherance JH Prynne, The Figures, 2004
Ted Berrigan On the Level Everyday: selected talks on poetry and the art of living ed Joel Lewis, Talisman, 1997
A Certain Slant of Sunlight, Ted Berrigan, O Books, 1988
A Poetics Charles Bernstein, Harvard, 1992 [signed]
World on Fire Charles Bernstein, Nomados, 2004 [signed]
With Strings Charles Bernstein, U of Chicago P, 2001 [signed]
Islets/Irritations Charles Bernstein, Roof, 1992 [signed]
The Church--The School--The Beer Cris Cheek, Critical Documents, 2007
Office for Soft Architecture Lisa Robertson, Clear Cut Press, 2003
Temporary Worker Rides a Subway Mark Wallace, Green Integer, 2004
My Year 2005: Terrifying Times Douglas Messerli, Green Integer, 2006
Shadowtime Charles Bernstein, Green Integer, 2005 [signed]
Threadsuns Paul Celan, Green Integer, 2005
the PoPedology of an Ambient Language Edwin Torres, Atelos, 2007
Deer Head Nation K Silem Mohammad, tougher disguises, 2003
Zygal bpNichol, Coach House, 1985
The Middle Room Jennifer Moxley, subpress, 2007
Of Poems & their antecedents Sherry Brennan, subpress, 2004
Loss Benjamin Friedlander, Pressed Wafer, 2003
Down Time Jeff Derkson, Talonbooks, 1990

Notes:

Of course the proliferation of signed books is especially pleasant, the Wallace & Bernstein titles in particular, but for me the fact that I was able to pick up several first editions of books that I know to be in later editions now, for example Silliman's Xing from Meow, was the best perk of a fine shopping experience. Lisa Jarnot's Reptile House is another example of this. In each case, there were several copies of each title available, only one of which was a first. Several of the signed copies were of the same good fortune...there being multiple copies in normal state. My companion purchased an issue of Model Homes magazine, the first I have seen in a retail store (they had at least one other copy). It was fun to see a copy out in the world.

ROUNDUP: St Marx [Books], Rob F, Printed Matter, The Streets

Many bokes, many places.

From St Marx Books, early last week:

How to Proceed In the Arts Gary Sullivan, Faux Press, 2001
Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You Juliana Spahr, Wesleyan, 2001
Un Poco Low Coup Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed Publishing Co, 2004
Anti Kody Vaclav Havel, [publisher unknown], 1997[?][bilingual text in Czech & Chinese]
Ripple Effect Elaine Equi, Coffee House, 2007 [signed]
Selections Miyazawa Kenji, U of California P, 2007 [poets for the millennium #5]
Somebody Blew Up America Amiri Baraka, House of Nehesi, 2003
things of each possible relation hashing against one another, Juliana Spahr, Palm Press, 2003
Infinite Recursor of The Bride of DJ Spinoza Ostashevsky & Timerman, Studioradia & UDP, 2005
Conjunctions 48: Faces of Desire, Bard, 2007
The Way It Wasn't James Laughlin, Nude Erections, 2006[*purchased elsewhere]

*^*^*^*^*

Books found on the Brooklyn streets include

Joyce's Dubliners, de Tocqueville's Democracy in America & The Old Regime & The French Revolution, The Vintage Mencken, Gass' In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, a book of Chomsky interviews Keeping the Rabble In Line, Kierkegaard's Attack Upon Christendom, Jules Michelet's Satanism & Witchcraft, Brains Machines & Mathematics by Michael A Arbib, & an odd journal/catalog of computer[?]art pieces Conceptual Illustration [1989]. Thank you.

*^*^*^*^*

From Alabaster Books: Greg strikes again!

A Little Gold Book Jordan Davis, Golden Books, 1995 [signed, to Greg]
More Winnowed Fragments Simon Pettet, Talisman House, 2005 [signed, to Greg]
Sooner Margaret Christakos, Coach House Books, 2005
Midwinter Day Bernadette Mayer, Turtle Island Foundation, 1982
Yann Andrea Steiner Marguerite Duras, Archipelago, 2006

There were several other [at least 4] books in stock signed by Greg. I'm not sure who this Greg is, but his loss is my gain, I guess.

*^*^*^*^*

Fun Gifts from Rob F.

One day last week, I think Tuesday, Marie Buck & I visited Rob Fitterman. He gave me several of his own books that I lacked copies of, along with turning the two of us loose on a pile of duplicate copies of other things he had. I emerged with the following loot:

1-800-FLOWERS Robert Fitterman, porci con le ali, 2005 [cutest book]
Among the Cynics Robert Fitterman, Singing Horse Press, 1989
Metropolis 16-20 Robert Fitterman, Edge, 1998
Metropolis 4-12 Robert Fitterman, Potes & Poets, 1994 [limited to 30 signed copies, #19]
Torque #5 & Object #8, eds Fitterman & Fodaski, 1998
The Inveterate Life Jessica Grim, O Books, 1990
No. 111 2.7.93-10.20.96 Kenneth Goldsmith, The Figures, 1997
Free Space Comix Brian Kim Stefans, Roof, 1998
Kildare Stacy Doris, Roof, 1994
Sun Rock Man Cid Corman, Nude Erections, 1970
Black Watch Steven Hall, Intermezzo, 1990
April Galleons John Ashbery, Penguin, 1988
Sadly William Fuller, Flood Editions, 2003
Human Ceiling Diane Ward, Roof, 2005
Errata 5uite Joan Retallack, Edge, 1993

*^*^*^*^*

Rob, among his other kindnesses (such as introducing me to his dog Walter, & to Dirk Rowntree @ the neo Benshi event @ St Marx), also directed us to Printed Matter, a high-end bookstore I'd never visited before. There I acquired:

Re-Writing Freud Simon Morris, Information as Material, 2005
Reading The Remove of Literature Nick Thurston, Information as Material, 2006
Don Quixote Gareth Long, [no publisher], 2006 [#22/100 signed copies]
Guy Debord and the Situationist International ed Tom McDonough, MIT, 2004
Bio-Music Manford L Eaton, Something Else Press, 1973
There's a little ambiguity over there among the bluebells Ruth Krauss, Something Else Press, 1968
I've Left: a manifesto and a testament of science & art Bern Porter, Something Else Press, 1971
The Book of Hours and Constellations Eugen Gomringer, Something Else Press, 1968

*^*^*^*^*





* :)

Strap-on Moms Fuck Guys

Fresh from an ultrarevitalizing visit to Charleston, where I saw everone I loved & now love them twice as much, I returned to scenic Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to a stuffed mailbox. Within waited the following, which includes a few random books along with lovely packages from London (Atlas Press) & Berkeley (SPD), who somehow erased one of my orders so I got back at them by placing an even-bigger-one, only to realize now, going through the books, that I left out some things I had my eyes upon, like the new Nada Gordon & the Potes & Poets (going wild over them right now) Hannah Weiner boke, Nijole's House. This will be hastily rectified, for sure.

oddz-n-endz:

The Calm Ocean Gerhard Roth, Ariadne, 1993 [insides marked up, booo]
Drafts 15-XXX, The Fold Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Potes & Poets #39, 1997
Twenties Jackson Mac Low, Roof, 1991
Iowa Review (Volume 9, No 3, Summer 1978) [contains WCWilliams' megadirty "Rome"]

& [...............................]

Yo-Yo's With Money Ted Berrigan & Harris Schiff, United Artists, 1979 [500 copies]

[!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]


from Atlas Press:

Blago Bung Blago Bung Bosso Fataka! Hugo Ball, Richard Huelsenbeck, Walter Serner, Atlas Press, 1995
the autobiography of albert einstein Gerhard Roth, Atlas Press, 1992
The Pataphysical Flook Kevin Jackson, LIP, 2007 [signed]
Circular Walks Around Rowley Hall Andrew Lanyon, LIP, 2007 [signed]
Pataphysics, a Religion in the Making & 'Pataphysics as Apostasy Asger Jorn & Anonymous, LIP, 2007

with Part-Time Pataphysician's postcard included from the DOTARD, a hilarious gift from my friends at Atlas. Thank you.


from SPD:

O Clock Mary Rising Higgins, Potes & Poets #49, 2000
Executive Summary Bruce Andrews, Potes & Poets #18, 1991
The Art of Practice: 45 Contemporary Poets Ed Dennis Barone & Peter Ganick, Potes & Poets #32, 1994
Think of One P. Inman, Potes & Poets #3, 1986
A Reading (11-17) Beverly Dahlen, Potes & Poets #19, 1989
Doubt Jim Leftwich, Potes & Poets #51, 2000
Locale Jessica Grim, Potes & Poets #35, 1995
Feminine Hijinx Dodie Bellamy, Hanuman #41, 1990
Sonnets of a Penny-a-Liner Mark Wallace & Lawley Paisley-Jones, Buck Downs Books, 1996
A-Reading Spicer & eighteen sonnets Beverly Dahlen, Chax, 2004
The Black Warrior & Other Poems Denize Lauture, subpress, 2006
A Thousand Devils K. Silem Mohammad, Combo Books, 2004
Draft, Unnumbered: Precis Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Nomados, 2003
The Evacuated Forest Papers Jeff Conant, Buck Downs Books, 1998
A Reading 18-20 Beverly Dahlen, Instance Press, 2006
Cunt-Ups Dodie Bellamy, Tender Buttons Books, 2001
Pink Steam Dodie Bellamy, Suspect Thoughts Press, 2004
Academonia Dodie Bellamy, krupskaya, 2006
Itenerant Men Deborah Meadows, krupskaya, 2004
Scratch Space Andrew Levy, Cuneiform Press, 2004
Draft X: Letters Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Singing Horse Press, 1991
Abacus #115 (Jessica Grim), Potes & Poets, 1998
Curve Andrew Levy, O Books, 1994
Aerial #5 Ed Rod Smith, 1989
Dure Craig Dworkin, Cuneiform Press, 2004
Strand Craig Dworkin, Roof, 2005
Kluge: A Meditation and other works Brian Kim Stefans, Roof, 2007

phew,
I've got some reading to do.
See you all later!
See me here at the new Model Homes site, in a list of names that makes me blush.

Happy New Year!

on the way to PSA

The Tupelo Press people invited me to the Poetry Society's award ceremony last night. Even though I was a minute or two behind schedule, I stopped by Alabaster Book Shop (122 Fourth Ave) which I find infinitely more pleasant than The Strand, which is just around the corner. There are only four or five shelves given to poetry at Alabaster--while there are are probably 30 or more at The Strand--but I never seem to find many interesting things at The Strand. They have a lot of things you've heard about, but seem to lack anything you haven't. Last time at Alabaster, for instance, I found Night of Loveless Nights by Robert Desnos, translated by Lewis Warsh, published as The Ant's Forefoot 10 in 1973. I'm not sure what Coach House had to do with this series, but the backmatter says to inquire there about previous Ant's Forefoot books. Its limitation is 300 copies. I also found a copy of Big Sky 4, featuring Bernadette Mayer, David Meltzer, Ron Padgett, Marty McClain, Jim Brodey, Terry Allen, Robert Creeley, Anselm Hollo, David Antin, Joe Brainard, Aram Saroyan--along with a Clark Coolidge/Philip Guston collaboration predating the o-blek book by almost two decades.

This time at Alabaster I found:

Foriegnn Bodie Nada Gordon, Detour, 2001 [with an Are Not Our Lowing Heifers Sleeker Than Night-Swollen Mushrooms? postcard laid in]

Broken Off by the Music John Yau, Burning Deck, 1981 [with New Titles Winter 81-82 pamphlet laid in--also, the spine is printed upside-down]

Abracadabra, Kimberly Lyons, Granary Books, 2000 [just realized this is signed, "for Chris, with affection"]

Swoon, Nada Gordon & Gary Sullivan, Granary Books, 2001 [also just realized this is signed by both Nada & Gary, festively, with pictures & shit, "for Greg"]

I just snatched the two Granary's without even inspecting them, & they're both signed. Not bad for a five minute quick-dive when I was already late. Reminds me of similar exploits in London. The PSA event was a little on the drab side, with John Hollander delivering a speech about two Robert Frost poems, & some readings by some pseudoboring poets such as Matthew Zapruder, whose name belongs as far away from William Carlos Williams as possible (he once said something mean to Carol Ann), & two young women, one of whom spoke about bugs. I thought about insulting MZ to his face at the reception, or perhaps kicking him in the shin & running, but there was free champagne, & a little courtyard between buildings (or in the building--this was at The New School) where you could sit enjoying the night sky. Across the way a group of young, attractive poets were having a reading, replete with music, laughter, cleavage, & enthusiasm. I watched them for a while, inhaled some smoke, & rejoined the elderly reception until the champagne ran out. Thank you to Tupelo Press.

Unnameable Books, again

On Friday the 13th I visited Unnameable Books for the 2nd time. In February I had seen Nick Piombino read there from his new Factory School book, fait accompli. During the reading I couldn't help but browse a little bit & I happened to find a copy of Kenneth Goldsmith's 73 Poems for a good price--$25 (which I later got signed). This time there wasn't any special events, only me & the books.

$136 & change later, I emerged with :

used poetry:

Visible Shivers Tom Raworth, O Books, 1987
Wanders Robin Blaser, Meredith Quartermain, Nomados, 2002
The Big Lie Mark Wallace, Avec Books, 2000
Song of the West George Trakl, North Point Press, 1988
The Case Laura Moriarty, O Books, 1998
Moving Right Along Kenward Elsmlie, Z Press, 1979 [1276 copies]
Anatman, Pumpkin Seed, Algorithm Loss Pequeno Glazier, Salt, 2003

used prose:

The Cubs and other stories Mario Vargas Llosa, Noonday, 1989
How to Write Gertrude Stein, Dover, 1975

new books:

From Now Johanna Drucker, Cuneiform Press, 2005 [162/200, signed]
To the Cognoscenti Tom Mandel, Atelos, 2007 [600 copies]
SCOUT Norma Cole, Krupskaya, 2005 [CD]
The Private Listener Pamela Lu, Corollary Press, 2006 [150 copies]
Health Pack Brad Flis, the chuckwagon, 2006
The Window Ordered to be Made Brian Kim Stefans, A Rest Press, 2005 [300 copies]

notes:

The poetry section was a little richer than the last time I had been there, there were several books I had ordered but not yet received amongst the shelves, which I wanted to buy anyway but managed not to. These included Mark Wallace's Sonnets... and Brett Evans After School Session, both from Buck Downs Books, & Curtis Faville's Stanzas..., which I'm getting direct from him in HC. Eating lunch afterwards, I realized Anatman, Pumpkin Seed, Algorithm was signed by Loss, which I don't think the store realized either, since it was only $6. The book itself seems very interesting. The Trakl title, which was $15, has a sticker on the back stating ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT $9.95 NOW $2.98, making the volume seem extra-over-priced. The Johanna Drucker was $15 but will be worth a shitload more in 5 years. The work itself, which utilizes different fontsizes, seems interesting too. The Brian Kim Stefans book is probably more beautiful than the Druker, it's cover featuring a window cutout revealing bright orange endpapers with the title stamped on them. Lu's The Private Listener is particularly beautiful also, with decorative white stitching & a good small size. The Stein book is sized well as well & is hilarious. Had to buy the BFlis again, although he gave me a copy, which I had put in a safe place during my movings up & down the coast & have since not been able to find. For a mere $2, it's the best deal of the year, as I read it with enthusiasm for about the fourth time. The only reason I bought the Tom Mandel is because it's in the Atelos series [#27]; otherwise I would pass on Mandel because he called Ted Berrigan "Elmer Fudd" at 80 Langton St in 1981. The Norma Cole CD doesn't work.