So, you think you can see right through me, eh?

Back in The Day-

there were stylish paper-hangers.

And Now For Something Completely Different-

Career Change-

Telling it like it is-

The Moral Hazards of Poor Taste in a Graveyard-

"The ornaments of some modern memorials give them a fantastic and ridiculous appearance. A cherub's head, with puffed cheeks and outspread wings, formed by one continuous line of clever flourishing, adorns the upper part of the memorial, while the inscription, written in letters of various shape and character, is also embellished with a profusion of unmeaning flourishes. Such specimens of ornamental penmanship may be necessary in the writing-master's copy book, but are utterly unbecoming the gravity of sepulchral memorials. On the same principle gaudy colouring ought to be excluded. Yet the undiscriminating mania for mediaeval taste commends the one and condemns the other. A tomb, the receptacle of man's perishing remains, should not be tricked out with gorgeously emblazoned ornaments or illuminated letters, which give it a gaudy and flaunting appearance, perfectly inconsistent with its real nature and purpose. However brightened by the resurrection of our Lord, and robbed of its terrors to the true Christian, the grave is still a solemn object".

Tennis, Anyone?

I do love cyanotypes...

Monday Morning, Time for Work!

Too true-

Dilema-

It's Friday, which means it's Movie Night! But it's summer, which means the beach, or baseball. Hmmm. 

Movie? Beach? Baseball? 

Movie? 

Beach?? 

 Baseball???? 

If only there was a way to do all three...

You say Picasso-

The Picasso sculpture is  still there, but they don't make postcards like this anymore...

Our New Sculpture Catalog-

The Book Elves are big Dr. Who fans, so this week they decided to have a party in the Cataloging Cave to watch the BBC announcement of the new actor to play The Doctor next season. They could have decorated the Cave with the Dalek models they made for last year's Christmas Special Party, but those all burned up during this year's Fourth of July Debacle. Next to Daleks, the Book Elves next favorite Dr. Who characters are the Weeping Angels, but since it was very short notice to make up a load of Weeping Angel statues, the Book Elves just went down to the hardware store for some baby blue paint ("for Angel tears", I was told), and then, without further explanation, loaded up some blocks & tackles and implements of destruction into the red VW microbus and headed south on Route 91…

But before The Cloisters called, wondering if we knew anything about 15 missing Medieval angel statues, and long before the State Police arrived, the Book Elves finished our latest catalog, which can be viewed or downloaded as a .pdf file here->

CATALOG #345: BOOKS ON SCULPTURE

Yesterday's Landscapes-

Boston's Old South Church back when it was not quite so old -1906.

Our Latest Catalog-

The Book Elves have been reading about Native American life and customs and decided to re-create a traditional Lakota Sun Dance, except, you know, involving beer and leftover Fourth of July explosiv...er, "fireworks".

Yeah- whatever you're imagining, it was worse.

But before the paramedics and the state Fire Marshall finished, and long before any charges were filed, the Book Elves finished our latest catalog-

BOOKS ON ANTIQUE ETHNOGRAPHIC ARTS & CRAFTS

Books in the Valley-

Art and Books Collide-

LA artist Mike Stilkey uses books (and a few cans of Guinness) to present a portrait of Charles Bukowski-

A Southern Book Blog-

Our friend Lorne Blair posts a book fair entry- 

A Baby Book Fair In The Heart of the Confederacy, and Another in the Land of Handsome Anarchists

BREAKING NEWS!

 Announcing our Special Spring Sale-

items change daily, but as we post this, 776 books and catalogs are on sale at 25% or 50% off their regular prices!

Books and catalogs are drawn from all our categories- books about furniture, silver, glass, ceramics, art, architecture, books, printing, history, food, orientalia, Americana, folk art, metalwares, and more!

Here is the link to our 

Special Spring Sale!

Bookplate of a CIA Bibliophile-

The bookplate of newspaper publisher James Strohn Copley [1916-1973]. Copley published the San Diego Union, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and the San Diego Evening Tribune, and was President of the Inter American Press Association. He also, according to Carl Bernstein, cooperated closely with the CIA during the Eisenhower through Nixon administrations. According to Bernstein-

“at least twenty‑three Copley News Service employees performed work for the CIA. ‘The Agency’s involvement with the Copley organization is so extensive that it’s almost impossible to sort out,’ said a CIA official who was asked about the relationship late in 1976. Other Agency officials said then that James S. Copley, the chain’s owner until his death in 1973, personally made most of the cover arrangements with the CIA., which had widespread contacts in the US media.”

The University of San Diego has a library named in honor of Copley and his wife.

Gotta love You-Tube...