The Home for the Literarily Bent
Archive for October, 2009
Ladies of the Lamplight
02 years ago
by Todd
in Working Girls
Ladies of the Lamplight front cover
By Kay Reynolds Blair
Published in 1971 by Timberline Books
I’m not sure if this is the least dirty book in the Library’s holdings, but I am sure though that it is the only one my mother would approve of. I know this not because mom was fond of ladies of questionable virtue. Instead, I know this because mom bought this book while we were on vacation when I was still in elementary school. While a wiseacre might suggest that I was doomed from the start, I will think of it as a belated (and unmentioned) present. But I digress.
Containing short biographies of the women who lived in and around the mining boom towns of Colorado after the Civil War, Ladies of the Lamplight is an entertaining remembrance of those women whose stories are often forgotten by more “respectable” histories and historians. My only complaint was that this little booklet was far too short – I would have really enjoyed more and/or longer stories of the ladies discussed.
Poker Alice
Though Ladies of the Lamplight isn’t dedicated solely to telling the stories of prostitutes in the old west, most of the women described were involved in prostitution in some form or fashion for at least part of their lives. Feminists reading this work might blather incessantly, as is their wont, about how that was indicative of women’s lower social status in the patriarchy and further decry that the world is works in much the same way today. But that misses the point entirely. What makes the women described in Ladies of the Lamplight noteworthy decades after their passing wasn’t their flaunting of gender conventions, it was their flaunting of social conventions altogether.
Even though Poker Alice wasn’t associated with prostitution or bawdy houses (at least so far as this book is concerned) I couldn’t help but reproduce her photo. If Alice makes you horny, you are a sicker person than I – Godspeed in finding true love, you sicko.
The Porn Project #2
02 years ago
by Todd
in Magazines and Zines
The Porn Project #2 front cover
Self Published in 2008
Before I had my sweaty little palms on the Porn Project’s inaugural issue, I happened upon the second issue.
I read a lot of zines, so I understand the production arc of a zine fairly well. Typically, the first issue is the least polished. The writing lacks a tight focus and struggles to find a voice or tries too hard to be all things to all people. As a zine grows legs and finds a voice, its writing grows sharper and more focused making for much better reading.
From a visual perspective, a zine’s first issue often has a better and more interesting layout as the publisher, not knowing what he is doing breaks the established “rules” for graphic design and comes out with something that is breaks the visual mold. Sometimes that isn’t the case though and the visual quality improves as production values improve.
Knowing that, I waited until I had read the first issue of the Porn Project to delve into the second. While I wasn’t overwhelmed with issue one, I had hopes for this issue. Those hopes were misplaced.
With the annoying rubber band binding and outrageous cover price of $5, I figured that the girls (those of you with a bent for political correctness or inclusiveness can substitute women, bitches, or womyn as suits your fancy) would give me a much better product than the first issue had for the same price. For a zine titled “The Porn Project” saying that things were only going down would seem to connote a good thing. Too bad that isn’t the case here. Compared to the first issue, this thing went down like a like the Hindenburg.
Rather than becoming clearer or more focused, the writing here seems to ramble more and astonishingly got less sexy. Not only that, the illustrations went from nondescript to eye watering. If this is what passes for interesting insightful erotica from a woman’s point of view, I’ll stick with good old fashioned smut.
If a third issue of the Porn Project comes out, I will likely buy it. But don’t worry about me suffering by reading it. I have a plan: instead of torturing myself with what will likely be a terrible read, I will make my girl read it first and have her tell me if it is any good. If it turns out to be as awful as I imagine it could be, I can claim it was a really intense scene. If by some miracle she reports the Porn Project rights its sinking ship, I’ll give it yet one more chance.
Naked Vinyl
02 years ago
by Todd
in Multimedia
Naked Vinyl front cover
By Tim O’Brien and Mike Savage
Published in 2002 by Universe Publishing
As a fan of cheesecake and vinyl records, I had high expectations for this book.
The album covers reproduced in Naked Vinyl are nicely printed on glossy paper and the decision to reduce the album images to the size of a 45 was a good one. Full-sized reproductions would make the book only suitable for a coffee table, but the reduced size still makes the images large enough to appreciate all of a record’s detail.
The book begins with a brief introduction to the galleries to follow with short explanations of stag, party, comedy, and exotica records. Unfortunately, the introduction is all too brief and not particularly informative. The galleries that follow are arranged in a mostly chronological order beginning in 1950s and ending in the 1980s.
Curiously, this is one book where I wish the illustrations were left to themselves without commentary. Or at least, I wish that the album covers included different commentary. My biggest complaint with this book is insightful information is given short shrift over corny jokes. The commentary would be much improved if it told me more about the artists, the music on the records, or even the art direction on the covers.
Overall though, this is a good book and a nice reference for collectors of cheesecake vinyl.