Mexican Constitution Day!

February 5 marks Mexican Constitution Day, and what better way to celebrate than to (re)discover a fascinating Mexican artist?

Until a customer brought in a Dover clip art book of Posada's illustrations, I'd never seen his work before! How drab my life had been until now! Jose Posada was a printmaker and engraver who worked mostly during the 19th century. He created a lot of illustrations for Mexican tabloids, so while there are really great illustrations of goings-on in late 19th - early 20th century Mexico, there are also a grip of illustrations of folk stories (like a lady rumored to give birth to three children and four animals!), pop-art skeletons, advertisements and scenes from the Mexican revolution that are fascinating and detailed.

Here are some examples:

The UBC got in a Dover clip art book that can be yours for just $3.50, it's a larger format so you can see all the engraving details. We also got in a little box that has a tiny hardcover book of illustrations in addition to several postcards and full-size reproduction posters, all in mint condition. That one's $13. Great gifts, great coffee table items, a great way to celebrate Mexico's sovereignty!

Nifty Gifties

We got some holidays coming up, folks! People are really into giving new books as gifts, but what about rare, out-of-print vintage cool things? Below I'm highlighting some of the most special things of all you won't find anywhere else in the WORLD but the Used Book Cellar. These are rad things you should totally give to those people on your list that have everything. 'Cuz they won't have these:

For the budding grand sommelier, an epic-huge hardcover book "Wines of the World" with full-color photographs, endpapers and a SLIPCASE. Nothin' says class like a slipcase. The book is huge and well-bound so it lies flat. It has a bit of the history of wine, and talks about some ideas for ones to look out for, but as this was printed in 1967, the bread and butter of this book (or cheese and crackers?) is the exhaustive guide to regions, and what kinds of wine come from where, what they taste like, why they taste the way they do. A really fascinating, beautiful book. $20 smackers.

For the funny-man, kooky-lady, anglophile or philosophy major who needs a laugh over the winter break, if I were you I would SERIOUSLY consider The Brand New Monty Python Bok [sic]. This book is rated NC-17 guys, but really there's something for everyone (over 17) here. In standard Python fashion nothing is sacred, all things are satirized and there are lots of pictures. Crude humor. Making fun of monarchs. Sex advice. Rat recipes. Fairy tales. Etiquette tips. Rene Descarte detective stories. Basically, you and anyone worth knowing deserves this book. All this can be yours for just $15 bucks. This is a HUGE savings off of the (fake) list price of £142.48½

For the history buff grampa who's always saying you wouldn't have a chance in a fight against Winston Churchill (I'm in therapy now, guys, don't worry) I present to you The New Yorker War Album. This book was printed in 1942 and is full of New Yorker cartoons lampooning the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Full of subtle humor and slices-of-life from the years of the Great War, this would make a rare, cool gift. $14

The UBC is mad-rich in fancy art books. Big ones, small ones, expensive ones, inexpensive ones. Rare, awesome, etc. We're all over the board! Art is the way to go to impress the cultured ones in your life, and why break the bank to impress someone? Everyone is impressed by the guy or gal who can get a $75 art book for $13. Which is possible here.

So show us the goods, you might be saying? Here is but a SAMPLING dear readers:

I'm obsessed with Penguin book covers, and look at this thing we got in that I DID NOT EVEN KNOW EXISTED: A whole MONOGRAPH of the full paintings used on Penguin covers. Some beautiful, strange stuff in here. Color and black and white. A cool old saddle-stitched book of paintings by Ben Shahn. In 1949 it went for three shillings and sixpence at modern art museums EXCLUSIVELY. But YOU can have it for $5.

For $20 we have a monograph of Anish Kapoor (the shiny Chicago bean guy) that is both physically a beautiful book (shiny endpapers! handwritten notes sewn into the center of the binding!) as well as a fascinating exploration into a VERY contemporary sculptor's process, inspirations and oeuvre.

And for $8 (this is a crazy deal) we have this really large trim-size (I'm talking 15" x 11") book of 16 color plates of French Primitives, beautiful paintings of French medieval life and interest beautifully reproduced (sometimes with metallic ink!). The pages are loose, making each leaf ready for framing!

Thanks for reading! If you have any books you want to turn into cash or store credit, we're here Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 AM-4PM.

Just Answer the Question: Jessica Hagedorn

Jessica Hagedorn read at the store Wednesday night, and I cornered her while she was signing stock of her kick-ass new novel TOXIC-OLOGY. Smiley and affable, Jessica Hagedorn is warm and approachable. I chose this picture of her because it's kinda edgy; but asymptomatic of her aura. Yet, there is something of the Duende in this image, an idea that runs throughout this magnetic novel.

as follows are her answers to our wickid' haahd-hitting questions.

me: What are you reading that you feel guilty putting down?

JH: Your Face Tomorrow, by Javier Marias...part I in a trilogy. It is brilliant.

me: You have your finger on the zeitgeist as it were, and have a seamless command of teen vernacular. It reads totally authentic. You clearly are no tourist in the land of contemporary electro-slang...which leaves me to the question of research...What is your favorite reality TV show--(we know you watch them so don't lie.)

JH: RuPaul's Drag Race. Hands down. I love how he plays with language. "Con-drag-ulations!, and Sashay, Away" There is something so positive in the message that 'hey, you lost... but rock it anyway'. I also have kids, and I listen to them. I love kids, their honesty and their cruelty.

me: What's on the horizon for you?

JH: Just waitin' for a phone call.

me: What are you listening to right now?

JH: Martires de Compas which translates loosely to "slaves to the rhythm."

me: Favorite cheese?

JH: (smiles and shakes head in amiable disbelief) Manchego ...or Gorgonzola.

(To order a signed copy just call 617.566.6660, or buy the ebook here.)

The book that I can't stand to have open in front of me.

The blank kind. The sort in which I was told, all through my years as an art student, that I should be filling with sketches, ideas, images that may or may not develop.
Can't open the things without wanting to run away. I made an effort recently to give it a real go, to be a man about it and keep a damn sketchbook, but that one, too, lies collecting dust in a corner of the studio, the pictures on its first twenty or so pages nothing more than brittle exoskeletons, destined never to expand, never to be a painting on my wall.
I float through life. My mind is rarely where I am; my hands count out change for you but they do it in rhythm with the music that was playing the last time they held a brush. How can I set them to work on a sketch, a plan? They only work on the real thing. How can I expect myself to grab a wave from the river and put it on paper and close the book? Will it not dry and darken; what is left when I open it up again?
I paint in the moment. It gives me comfort (when I'm not worrying about it) that I can only feel like I know what I'm doing at the exact moment that I am doing it. Sketching isn't doing it, for me. Sketch books weigh hundreds of pounds in my hands. Maybe I'll make a sculpture out of all of my abandoned sketchbooks someday.