For cold. I rehearsed for this on vacation, and I didn’t enjoy it then.

This is what french birds look like when their fountains freeze over.

This is the fancy china they eat their fruit off of. Note the edge gilding!

Here’s to 33 degrees!

It’s almost time for shuffling around the house in old sweat socks and drawstring pants, unlimited personal time and leftover baked goods.

To do list now that the Annual! Holiday! Sale! is over:

1. what do babies who live somewhere too hot for knitted booties and hats want? I’m new to stranger-baby shopping.

2. what cookies to bake? Tart? Or not Tart? How do you ship baked goods?

3. what am I going to wear to keep from freezing during the Midnight Run in Central Park on New Year’s?

Are done, and are going in the mail this week. This is the second in a series of occasional small scale publications, combining text (found, handset) and image (carved in wood or linoleum) produced via obsolete technology in editioned works which are distributed at will to a chosen audience. The content of the series aims for historical interest, commemorative intent and a healthy dose of humor, and the distribution methods are based on the values of the gift economy.
Our publishing model reflects the print tradition of the tract, small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, which are often either left for someone to find or handed out. Our first production was a pamphlet on the History of Pie; this fall we are happy to present a pamphlet on the subject of Weasels and their Habits.

I’m going to Paris tomorrow for a well deserved vacation.

Here’s my somewhat haphazard report from the NY Art Book Fair, which took place last weekend at PS1:

1. Opening was hot. Why is it always hot? Every year, never fails, it’s just too hot.

2. The Center’s table was in a nice quiet corner, which might be something you don’t really want to be in at a fair, but for me it was better than being in the crowded crowded hallway right next to us. Panic attack level of crowded. Teeming hordes of people came to the fair, I think more than last year, and last year was big too. And even in the quiet corner the teeming hordes came to visit. I didn’t see quite as much as I had planned on, partly because the teeming crowds of people kind of got in the way of the books, and partly because every time I left the table I spent money. But much of what I saw I liked, and many people I liked came and saw and talked, and all in all I had a grand time.

This is Jen, who helped out. Thanks Jen! She’s holding a copy of the IFS, Ltd. Book Trust Prospectus, which we traded an exhibition catalog for. IFS were the best dressed of the barter-for-book-project exhibitors.

Here is a link to Susan Mills’s books, which were lovely and smart and humble all at the same time. Interior Sky is my favorite.

She was next to Women’s Studio Workshop, who had a copy of Heidi Neilson’s new book Orbital Debris Simulator. In 3-D!

Lubok Verlag: German publisher selling GREAT lino cut books; I really liked the serials they had of collected artists.

This is a book by Elisabeth Belliveau, don’t get lonely, don’t get lost, it’s surreal and feminine and funny. There’s a whole bit about famous dead women writers and their dogs. It comes with an animation, which I love!

This is a book which I looked at while the table-sitter was not there, and liked. Then I came back to buy it when the table sitter was there, and he was really annoying, so I had second thoughts, and didn’t like it as much. Then I came back again, and the annoying table sitter was quiet this time, so I liked it again. It has interesting staples and multicolored handwritten tangles of text and a theory of everything.
Otherwise, I spent too much money and made some progress on a scarf. I hands down had the best time at the event than I have in past years.  It seemed like a greater range of vendors, and different kinds of vendors mixed together, which I think worked well. There’s a more official review of the event in the New Yorker here, if you’re interested.

I do think that it’s unfortunate that it was the same weekend as every other print event in NYC, the Editions/Artist Book  Fair in Chelsea, as well as the biennial Book Arts Fair and Conference at Pyramid Atlantic down in Maryland. There’s plenty of other weekends that all of these things could have happened, and it overwhelms the capacity of organizations and other people involved in the field.

Center for Book Arts has a table at the biggest book fair I’ve been to, all weekend long at PS1. I’ll be present on Sunday, smiling at strangers and working on that new scarf.  I’ll make an effort to take some photos this time around to share with the internet.

If you visit the fair, bring snacks and water, take as many breaks as you need, maybe stretch before. There’s a lotta books to see.

Fall is a like one big marathon. Highlights include:

-Staten Island half marathon completed without injury! (Staten Island is pretty! And flat!)

-two, count ’em, two public speaking events completed, without major mishap and without me vomiting on my shoes or passing out, or blanking out entirely. The panel I organized last weekend at the APHA letterpress conference was well-received. And we got to go first, which meant we could relax and enjoy the rest of the conference afterwards. (Pretty pictures are from the Book Arts Studio at the Corcoran, which hosted APHA.

-New prints online through Cannonball Press! Yowza! Thanks guys!

-new fall scarf in progress

-new weasel pamphlet in progress

Major downsides may be lurking in the background; however, vacation (to paris!) is looming in the distance, which makes all the difference. I’ve been listening to french news podcasts for weeks to bone up. Hopefully France won’t implode before I visit.