tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61990462024-03-13T00:29:02.374-04:00casa malapropa journal of sorts recording the musings of a difficult bookseller.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger221125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-78615282125651765282007-10-25T12:02:00.001-04:002007-10-25T12:02:57.679-04:00Find me now at the new Rabelais Books Blog.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-68045952112619705462007-06-29T17:24:00.000-04:002007-06-29T17:32:39.631-04:00Wake to Songbirds, Wake to Crows photographs by Jonathan LevittThis coming Friday, July 6th, we're opening our first exhibition at Rabelais, photographs by Jonathan Levitt. Levitt's two series of photographs explore cycles of dream and sustenance. "It was not long ago when people didn't leave. The stoves, the roast, the eggs and the yellow fat, the wool and the milk and the mutton. All breathing Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-33224801442989265782007-06-15T13:36:00.000-04:002007-06-15T13:53:11.691-04:00some interesting recent readingBeyond the huge pile of books currently in reading rotation on the bed table, there's some interesting reading on these days. The Zagat's (of restaurant guide fame) have an op-ed in today's NYTimes about the dearth of real Chinese food in America, and predict a new age of tastes and techniques when real Chinese finally his our shores. Reason has a review of Barry Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-82472948387133949882007-06-08T11:38:00.000-04:002007-06-08T11:44:57.309-04:00GOOD BREAD IS BACK A contemporary history of French bread, the way it is made, and the people who make it. Steven Laurence Kaplan's new history of the decline, fall and rise of French bread is reviewed at length in the new issue of the Time Literary Supplement. The review itself is a good, quick introduction to the history of bread in France and to its decline due to the increasing Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-58411105672152465392007-05-30T19:10:00.000-04:002007-05-30T19:34:36.096-04:00A Rabelais updateNew things are flying at us fast and furious since we've opened. The shop is humming along now with new things arriving all the time. Initial frustrations with new book distributors have given way to regular reorders and new shipments. The press has generated solid interest in those outside the initial circle of highly motivated food professionals, and we're already getting to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-50869430675070716012007-04-27T17:54:00.000-04:002007-04-27T18:20:25.263-04:00thanks for the press!Our first two weeks have been even better than planned, thanks to generous coverage from the Portland press and some independent bloggers. Our first mention was by the secretive author of the Portland Pssst, followed by local bartender and booze historian John Myers on his must-read local blog, The Thirstin' Howl (scroll down to 'When the Lord Closes a Door' for the story). Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-6724083389225580902007-04-26T12:19:00.000-04:002007-04-26T12:30:13.105-04:00Rabelais is open!Finally we've opened. Smack in the middle of two snow storms, two blackouts, the New York Book Fair, a quick appraisal job in New Mexico, and much more, we've managed to pull it together, tear down the brwon paper on the windows and let in the public. Initial response has been terrific, especially from Portland's professional food community. More news soon, but here are a few Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-73846471784085222242007-04-01T23:36:00.000-04:002007-04-02T00:14:13.229-04:00Boston Book Fair ReportSo I'm back from the first of what we hope will be a new annual Spring MARIAB book fair, held at the Bayside Exposition Center in Boston. It's a replacement for the old shows at the Cyclorama, and now managed by Marvin Getman who, in my opinion, did a solid job on a new event. The location is well out of the city proper, but the facility is more than adequate with excellentUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-49979386771439289342007-03-12T16:55:00.000-04:002007-03-12T17:08:39.748-04:00rabelais under constructionSo our space for the new shop is under construction, although it's been a great deal easier than our house renovation last year. For the shop, we've only had to remove some plumbing (it was previously a hair salon), demolish two small dividing walls, pull up the floor, move the track lighting and paint the ceiling. Now we're ready to replace the baseboard moldings, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-25292602048374195172007-02-01T09:01:00.000-05:002007-02-01T09:30:47.391-05:00our new project: RabelaisSo we're opening a bookshop in Portland, ME. Samantha and I have both been pondering the 'what next?' question for some time. We both like what we do, but wanted a different platform from which to do it. Before we moved from Brooklyn to Maine, Samantha left behind her photo editor job to attend the Institute for Culinary Education and earned a degree in Pastry Arts, but Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-72030433016121670932007-01-10T23:54:00.000-05:002007-01-10T23:58:25.986-05:00"How I Met My Wife" by Jack Winter "It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-59579989675538281432007-01-10T23:51:00.000-05:002007-01-10T23:53:00.391-05:00Jack Winter sleepsA wonderful and enigmatic personality has left us. The NY Times obit for comedy writer, world traveler, playwright and frog collector Jack Winter spells it out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-22299498429512094862007-01-08T13:08:00.000-05:002007-01-08T13:36:10.065-05:00a visit to PapermaniaThis Saturday, Samantha and I made the three hour drive from Maine to Hartford, CT to attend the giant ephemera fair called Papermania. We got there a bit after opening, but spent the entire day browsing through booths piled high with unusual items: books, prints, photographs, advertising art and postcards. In the end, we bought two big bags of items, and could have spent Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-81514730158193665632006-12-24T14:16:00.000-05:002007-01-08T13:07:00.753-05:00a few of my favorite blogsIn the spirit of the holiday, I'd like to send a thank you to a few of my favorite blogs and sites. I turn to these not so much for information (I have separate list to thank for that - perhaps later), but for the quality of the experience, some thoughtful reflection, and sometimes both. Giornale Nuovo, is the work of one Mr H., a youngish man living in Sweden with a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-73725140062923789902006-12-21T14:53:00.000-05:002006-12-21T15:13:04.257-05:00Poet Piergiorgio Welby gets his wish Piergiorgio, Italian poet dies with dignity. Conservatives do what they can to stifle that dignity, and demand the arrest of the doctor who sedated him and removed him from his hospital respirator. Piergiorgio has been blogging about his desire to control his own destiny for some time, logging over 1000 entries by tapping out the words with a stick on a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-19196376992325016442006-12-21T09:11:00.000-05:002006-12-21T09:15:05.179-05:00Adam Bellow, pamphleteer for the 21st centuryCan the pamphlet bring ideas back into publishing for the masses? Saul Bellow's son Adam thinks so, and looks to Haldeman-Julius' Little Blue Books as a model. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-78276173174636204132006-12-21T08:52:00.000-05:002006-12-21T08:54:37.729-05:00"We've learned nothing in 12,000 years" Picasso on paleolithic cave art, in Gregory Curtis' new book, The Cave Painters. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1166200505446605812006-12-15T11:32:00.000-05:002006-12-15T11:35:05.446-05:00Borges manuscripts turn upRelief is in the air in Cambridge as Lame Duck's two lost Borges manuscripts turn up tucked into another item. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1166199615743440242006-12-15T10:29:00.000-05:002006-12-15T11:28:58.530-05:00Volbracht's Myko LibriEvery so often a bibliography comes along that's not just a handy tool. The great books on books can be beautiful objects in themselves, beautifully designed and a pleasure to pore over. Jurgen Holstein's recent survey of modern dust jacket design, and the multi-volume collection of juveniles, The Children's World of Learning 1480 -1880, published by Antiquariaat Forum come Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1164054597144537032006-11-20T15:19:00.000-05:002006-11-20T15:29:57.163-05:00Ehon: The Artist and the Book in JapanThe New York Public Library has a fantastic new exhibition up currently, titled Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan. Ehon surveys the development of the Japanese picture book, a 1350 year history which began in the eighth century. The survey extends through the Japanese Avant-Garde, including the MAVO movement, through to Anime and the contemporary Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1159544724088497662006-09-29T11:29:00.000-04:002006-09-29T11:45:24.493-04:00you can't play chess in flore...Andrew Hussey's new book, Paris: the Secret History will be available this November, and it sounds like a good one. I might venture a bet that Paris has been the most profiled city in book lore (with new York and London as the other obvious contenders). The book claims to tell the history of the City of Light through its "whores and beggars... hustlers and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1159448963995951692006-09-28T09:02:00.000-04:002006-09-28T09:09:24.010-04:00leonardo on paper The Victoria & Albert Museum has a new exhibition, focussing on Leonardo Da Vinci's thought process as expressed on paper. The drawings include anatomical studies, mathematical expressions and designs for machinery.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1158956413422203662006-09-22T16:14:00.000-04:002006-10-01T17:26:25.830-04:00a new collected camus Gallimard has issued an expanded and corrected complete works of Camus in its venerable Bibliotheque de la Pleiade series. Robin Buss has a review in the TLS.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1158935071997158752006-09-22T10:12:00.000-04:002006-09-22T10:24:32.036-04:00sweet pagesTim Richardson is the author of a history of confectionery entitled Sweets: History of a Temptation,(in America the title has been appropriately dumbed down to Sweets: A History of Candy) The British Library has a short interview and an illustrated selection of his favorite books from the history of sweets.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199046.post-1157916207369203132006-09-10T15:00:00.000-04:002006-09-10T21:37:54.673-04:00more about haying We have about seven or eight acres of open pasture. It's been used for hay in the past, but was quickly headed toward becoming a field of weeds and, eventually, a woods again. Our neighbor Dave was kind enough to let me use his Farmall A with a sickle bar mower to cut the grass. Originally my plan was just to cut it before the weeds went to seed, and let it rot in the field as Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0