House of Beauty & Culture Book of...

"DISPENSARY TO THE SOUL"

Library Inscription in Trajan's Forum

bust from the estate of YSL

Recently a favorite blogger- House of Beauty and Culture- stopped curating his almost daily postings. A favorite, an inspiration. It seems much like a favorite book- reading through and when finished- You don't want it to end- You don't- but it does. You remember it, quote it- it leaves a lasting impression.
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What Books are on your Summer reading list?

Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought
by Martin Jay

Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 by D.J. Taylor

Rougues' Gallery by Michael Gross

Iris Origo by Caroline Moorehead

Maeve Brennan: Homesick at the New Yorker by Angela Bourke

Little Me by Patrick Dennis

Diary of a Drag Queen by Daniel Harris

Madeleine Castaing by Jean-Noel Liaut

Geoffrey Beene by Kim Hastreiter

Is there one book you honestly don’t expect to get to? Why?

Don't think I will finish the Castaing book. Only because it is in French and requires a greater degree of attention.


Where do you read and When? Does the genre you are reading dictate the place you read- in other words, Do you take just any old book to bed?


I read on the sofa, better known here as the raft of the Medusa, in the living room. The book and time depends entirely on the mood. Which works well as there are usually three on the go.



What is you all time Favorite Book for its sense of place?

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin




What is your favorite Genre?

Biography and art/fashion monographs.

What is your most recent purchase in this category?

why?

I find creative people interesting.

What is your Security Blanket Book?



What about Books you are reading for a second or third time? Why? Any disappointments on second reading?

Don't reread per say, I dip back into for favourite passages.

Latest Obsession Author, Designer, Photographer?


Going out on a limb here –define LIBRARY in the nontraditional sense?

Anything (whether it be fabric samples, images, or music) that is referenced and serves as an inspiration.



...this answer I adore. It says what I could not quite put into words. Indeed, that is what the Blog -House of Beauty of Culture was for Me- and likely other of its readers,

An inspiration.

A constant source of joy, humour, of learning-

A Library.

photograph from HOBAC's latest obession

*all grotesque letters from Bibliodyssey.

How do you define A Library? a beautiful book waits for your answer-What does a Library look like at your house? music, textiles, children's books, photo albums? I'd love to hear about it-the book HOME awaits you- HOME by STAFFORD CLIFF (pb) "5o Tastemakers describe what it is, Where it is, What it means."

on books: House of Beauty and Culture: Tomorrow

taken from Ulla at Model's Own here.

inner soul festival: culoe de song

BodytonicLive 16: Culoe de Song (live at Sonar 2009)

19-year old Culoe de Song hails from South Africa and was recently discovered while attending the acclaimed Red Bull Music Academy. Like his debut 12" for Innervisions, this live mix from Sonar is relevatory, spiritual, deep afro-house - the tribe is alive, all swirling hand percussion and resonant thumb piano thonk, stripped and relentless. He even drops the "makossa" vocal from Manu Dibango, made famous by MJ in 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin.' Easily one of the year's breakthrough acts. And speaking of South Africa, miss soph hipped me to the works of the Ndebele tribe - see the VC blog for more..you could pull some Harry Smith shit here and work between the pulsing beats of Culoe de Song and the Ndebele's penchant for psychedelic geometries..when Harry met folk legend June Carter he started asking her how her quilting patterns related to the musical structures of the Carter Family's tunes..

Teamuncool fashion: " classic campaigns 2"

source

Ancient Industries and My Book Covers- Judging Her Books

,

"Golden the light on the locks of Myfanwy,

Golden the light on the book on her knee,
Finger marked pages of Rackham's Hans Anderson,
Time for the children to come down to tea."
John Betjeman

My Book Covers! I absolutely Love, Megan Wilson's blog- because of course I love books! I am mad about them- I am such a visual person-a good thing- because I am a horror at names, dates and math! I do judge books by covers- they can sell a book quicker than a good review. When I go book shopping for specific titles and have options- the cover art on a book will put IT over the top- the other left on the dusty shelf-figuratively speaking. Megan designs and selects book covers! Her Book Picks will fill you in.

(One of My recent Megan Wilson designed Book Cover acquisitions, how could I resist Twiggy & Cecil Beaton?)

Some of My Favorite Vintage Book Covers from My Library

Megan's other blog is Ancient Industries- equally alluring and all Visual. You must go see it.


Megan~
What Books are on your Summer reading list?

Because I design book covers, a lot of my summer reading has been decided for me. Actually not strictly true: it was my suggestion that we publish the first 4 Fitzgerald books which are freshly out of copyright.

the Fitzgerald Covers

Vintage Classics.

Painting by J. C. Leyendecker

Vintage Classics.

Painting from the Illustrated London News

So I'll be obliged to re-read The Beautiful and Damned and Tales of the Jazz Age, boo Hoo. For pleasure I want to immerse myself in John Betjeman, with whom I am carrying on a posthumous love affair. Is there one book you honestly don¹t expect to get to? Why?

I honestly don't expect to get to any bestsellers this summer because I cannot read something that everybody else is reading.

Book Stacks (Megan's Library)

Where do you read and When? Does the genre you are reading dictate the place you read- in other words, Do you take just any old book to bed?

I wish I could say that I only read Trollop in the conservatory and Austen in a hammock slung across the corner of the ballroom, but I read in bed, almost always. The most indulgent time for me to read in bed is after breakfast, with more fortifying tea.


What does your nightstand look like? or your side of the bed, floor, chair!

Megan says "I did not choose these books by their colour--just a coincidence. I've started all of them; finished none."

What is your all time Favorite Book for its sense of place?

It might have to be Brideshead--whether in Venice or Oxford or Charles' father's house in London or Brideshead, or the war later on--it's all so deeply THERE.

another Brideshead pick, (see Mrs. Blandings book picks)

What is your Security Blanket Book?

Anything by PG Wodehouse or any given Mitford sister.

Vintage Books. Photograph by Cecil Beaton

one of My favorites of Megan's Book Covers

Here have Nancy Mitford and Cecil Beaton- Another irresistible cover- I have this copy. Again- the Mitfords, a Mrs. Blandings obsession and one of my own Summer Books- The Letters of the Mitford Sisters.

What is your favorite Genre and Why?

Fiction written between the wars, because it was a very ripe time on both sides of the Atlantic.

What is your most recent purchase in this category?

I'm afraid I can't remember the last book I bought because of my job, and because I live with a book maniac, who does all the purchasing. This enables me to just nip into the library at home and pick up something I fancy, usually in an a lovely old edition.

What about Books you are reading for a second or third time?Any disappointments on second reading?

I just re-read the whole of JD Salinger, which of course made a tremendous impact during adolescence. I was a bit disappointed I'm afraid--his obsession with the Glass family is maniacal and dull. The non-Glass stories are still tremendous though. I would love to re-read The New Confessions by William Boyd, one of our greatest living authors. It is a perfect epic novel from start to finish; I enjoy knowing that it it there waiting for me.

What is the seminal book in your field or your passion that you would recommend to young would be(s) of the same?

A Designer's Art, by Paul Rand.


Latest Obsession Author, Designer, Photographer?

In order: John Betjeman, David Gentleman (an illustrator with a strong sense of design), the photographs from Lady Ottoline Morrell's photo albums at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Ottoline Obsession
go Here to see the photo albums

Lady Ottoline Morrell

I don't have to tell you, Book covers can be art- Do you have a favorite cover in your stacks?

I am very fond of artists as book cover designers, when the type and image are hand rendered by the artist. For example: Vanessa Bell, William Nicholson , Edward Gorey, the young Andy Warhol, Ben Shahn, Christopher Silas Neal (contemporary).

the Very Thing- Books Covers Megan loves from Her Library

What is on Your Book List? Your favorite Genre? Security Blanket Book? Your latest Obsession? Or what do you like from MW's list?
I'd love to hear from you-and I will pick a winner from the comments and you will have YOUR PICK from The Summer Reading BOOK LIST posted on the 16th-june YOUR PICK!


* megan's interview with a bloomsbury life

sun screen by SARGENT

michael edits

simply good music has put together a first-rate compendium of michael jackson edits & remixes.

michael jackson - I can't help it (tangoterje re-edit)

Onitsuka Tiger Heaven

If you havent got a pair or know about them then you must've been living in a hole for the last 10 years. Onitsuka Tigers are super super. Visited the flagship store in Amsterdam's 9 street district and took some shots.

C

Don't Be a Pig!

in a pig's eye

it is serious...in my little town-so, Don't Be A Pig.

"to the editor
On the weekend of June 13, you ordered a pig to cook for your birthday celebration. You needed a grill to cook the pig on. My husband was nice enough to let you borrow his BBQ grill.
He also got two tanks of gas filled. You paid for one of them and he let you take the other one in case you needed it. He did not charge you anything to use the grill. He did expect you to be honest and return his grill before now.
He worked hard to make that grill and has enjoyed using it many times. It has also been used by a lot of other folks. They have always been good to return it within a couple of days.
It has been almost two weeks and you have not returned it or even called That does not show that you even appreciated him letting you use the grill.
Would you like for somebody to do you this way? He tried to be nice and help you out. We need the grill back to cook some BBQ for ourselves. Please, please return our BBQ grill and gas tanks.
You know what you have done and the Lord knows, too. Please return the grill as soon as possible."

high on the hog or hog heaven

the QUOTABLE BOAR

“The Pig, if I am not mistaken, Gives us ham and pork and Bacon. Let others think his heart is big, I think it stupid of the Pig.”

ogden nash

"Why, this fellow don't know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday."

harry Truman

“These are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of song achieved by the pig."

alfred hitchcock



brando in pig skin

"I have eyes like those of a dead pig."

marlon brando

PULLED vs CHOPPED ?

a wonderful blog entry here Eating High of the Hog.

DON'T BUY a Pig in a Poke!

discussion here Perils of the BBQ grill.

travel the BBQ TRAIN here on Southern Roads with Sandy Lang Garden and Gun- HOG HIGHWAY


ORDER SMITHFIELD'S BBQ OnLine here.

God is great God is good. Good God, please protect the pig.

ricardo villalobos y los updates - baile

who else but ricardo can make a song so utterly weird and catchy at the same time? A simple electro 808 rumble, some minimal flicker, and a highly goofy vocal from los updates. You know what? there is no latin sci-fi. Shouldn't there be? There's white sci-fi and a black sci-fi underground, Samuel Delany and Sun-Ra and Newcleus and that. What's the latin sci-fi? "Baile" makes me feel like I'm at a karaoke bar at the 3am on the dark side of the moon, in an Espanol version of the not-too-distant future. Like PKD with a sombrero.

at home she's a hamster

why do you occasionally become a hamster?
Sako Kojima: I spent the summer of 2002 indoors and alone. My life was empty, all I did was go to the nearby supermarket to buy a simple meal and then come back home to sleep. One day I realized that my life was similar to a hamster’s. To me, becoming a hamster is a symbol of how life in today’s standardized society is safe and we’re spared from hunger, but we’re not living.

I have a tear in my eye now.
We don’t suffer from physical pain, but we seem to have lost the pleasure of living. Our pain is mental, like self-injury, wrist-cutting syndrome and anorexia nervosa. They are ways for people to feel alive in this overprotected society. That’s how my mental suffering started.

Is giving into and living out this hamster existence something you do instead of stuffing your face with multicolored antidepressants?
While doing the performance I’m almost mindless, as my head goes empty when I mimic a hamster’s movement. When I move quickly, my heart beats faster and my feeling of shame disappears as the world outside gradually becomes meaningless to me.

Vice Magazine - Interview with Sako Kojima

the king's two bodies

the aim of Ernst Kantorowicz's landmark 1927 book The King's Two Bodies was to explore the relation in the middle ages between the king's physical body and his status as the embodiment of the kingdom. Kantorowicz describes one particularly uncanny historical tradition: when the king died, first he was buried and ceremonies were performed, and then a full-sized wax effigy of the king was created which was laid in bed, treated as alive, and which became "sick", then "died", and then was mourned in a grand public spectacle. It's not hard to draw the connection here with Michael Jackson, the king of pop. Michael too had two bodies: his own body and his spectacular body, his imaginary body - his image, which grew into gargantuan proportions, and which had roamed free from him, living a life of its own. This assumes that Michael Jackson the person only had one body, and not many, not a continuum of bodies, constantly morphing under the surgeon's scalpel. As if it felt traumatic to be one person when his image was already multiple, disseminated.

This distinction might explain why when I learned that MJ had passed away, I felt an uncanny feeling, as if this made total sense, because he was already dead. How can we say that MJ was alive to begin with? His image was omnipresent. In a sense it seems like only his image was alive and he had retreated into a Howard-Hughesian realm of the alienated superwealthy.

But in a counterintuitive way, maybe it's not that the king was already dead from the beginning. Maybe that assumes that all-powerful image MJ is fake and reclusive physical MJ is real. Maybe the opposite is the case. A star from the age of 5 years old, Michael never had a normal childhood, nor anything like a private life. Maybe we can't speak of a private Michael and a public Michael. Maybe only the image Michael is real, because he was always already a star, a celebrity, an image. Maybe Michael cannot die, because he was never really alive. Perhaps the reason his story is so tragic is because in this weird private-public inversion, he was like a person from the future, that the constraints of contemporary life could contain, and he was rent asunder, like a fiery meteor descending through the atmosphere.