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Pranks Bicycle Shirt
New limited edition. Back side also has cover printed on it, so they’ll see you coming or going. Join the Pranks! team. Short-sleeved, high tech wear. Sizing runs small.
George Kuchar
Interviews with and about filmmaker, George Kuchar. Lots of pictures, too! The most complete film/videoography to date for George Kuchar alone is worth the cover price!
Lydia Lunch
LYDIA LUNCH – a new RE/SEARCH 4×6″ POCKETBOOK – is a compilation of several interviews with the QUEEN of NO WAVE, including one from November 2012. An early founder of NYC Punk Rock, Lydia freely (and wittily) describes how to play guitar, write original concept music, collaborate with other artists, live abroad, and do exactly what she wants to do! She also discusses death, what’s wrong with the world, where we’re going, and why reality isn’t what we think it is. Few people can improvise conversationally as Lydia can, and her dark, acerbic views will possibly never be outdated! Welcome to Lydia’s world…
From the book:
“In order for people to be attracted to music that’s so dissident–even within its own clique it has nothing to do with each other–[it has to] really draw on disparate elements. The only way to define No Wave is if it sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, probably not even like the other groups within the movement. When you hear Punk Rock you know it’s Punk Rock. When you SEE Punk Rock it’s very obvious: you know who’s a Punker and who isn’t.
So, to me, I came out of a movement that was more defined by what it WASN’T… more defined by the fact that it was not melodic, it did not use chords, it was only connected by how disconnected it was, by how dissident it was, by how discordant it was. And that’s part of how negativity–positive negativity [!]– helped to really define what I would create, and how I have created. Taking a very negative situation which, for me, was the trauma of my birth, the trauma of being born, the trauma of religion and poverty in the nuclear family (which is a microcosm of fascism), in the inner city ghetto, and using all that negativity positively, even if it doesn’t sound positive–because it’s a primal scream ridden with hatred, anger, and angst.
Well, I’m smiling now and I was always smiling underneath it all, you know?”
“I finished the Lydia Lunch book in one sitting working last night at The Independent. Such interesting ideas expressed almost poetically, and I didn’t even know about her! I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do.” — G.K., San Francisco
Henry Rollins
HENRY ROLLINS – first in the new RE/SEARCH 4×6″ POCKETBOOK Series – presents a lengthy phone interview with Henry Rollins, focusing on Henry’s travels, photography, creativity, archive, and books and authors he has learned from. It is our position that a lot of people do not really “know” Henry Rollins and that their opinion of him is based on ancient information. Everyone (that is, all of our young interns) who has read this book has become a Rollins fan, so join the club! Henry Rollins is not who you think he is; he is much, much more. So read this book and attend his Spoken Word performances, which are always evolving, always different, always provocative, and always inspiring…
From the book:
“V. Vale: Well, you know the saying “privilege confers blinders.” I think many Americans like myself don’t realize that in a weird way — relatively — we’re in luxury and we don’t even know it.
Henry Rollins: Well, perspective is key… I was just in Hanoi a few weeks ago interviewing Vietnamese veterans: Vietnamese Vietnam War veterans who had all been affected by Agent Orange. I took photographs and hung out with fourth-generation kids who were affected by this stuff. Some of these kids are just mangled physically because of what their mothers and fathers had in their systems… And this is how a lot of the world is. As Americans, certainly our media is not showing it to us. In America and basically the West–for the most part–we are spared a lot of the awfulness of the world, a lot of the drudgery and harshness.
* * * * *
Rollins: You’ve got to be strong. If you really want to be strong–when I was younger, I thought that strength came from handing out the occasional ass-whipping, because I was young . . . but I was never very good at fighting.
But as an older guy, what occurs to me: the real strength is, “What can I do for you, man? Are you okay? [...]What’s the matter, really?” Trying to find a better way to resolve that, I think, is the stronger, higher road. And it becomes more and more appealing to me. You say you like Martin Luther King so much? All right, then, start acting like him. Not easy…
Look at the Birther Movement or the Tea Party people. They’re very angry. Okay, I can dig anger, I’ve got quite a bit of it myself. But when you see how misdirected it is, and you see who it’s aimed at, it’s like, “Wow, you guys are missing the… you’re not hitting the barn with your BB Gun. You’re woefully missing the plot.” And you guys are not approachable. When you’re asked a question, you want to swing at someone’s head. This isn’t going to get anywhere.
So more and more, I’m trying to see a bigger picture.”
“The Henry Rollins book is fantastic, by the way.” – Garrett L., Los Angeles
“Vale! I read the Henry Rollins book in one sitting – it was so inspirational, you know what questions to ask – I came away from the book feeling better — feeling charged. HR has a way of making you feel lazy…I am going to review the HR book soon!” – Jim H.
Dating AI by Alex Zhavoronkoff, Ph.D
The CLEAREST (& FUNNIEST) Guide to what ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE **IS.** A satirical “how-to” book about future relationships (and even marriage!) with robots and avatars.
Dating AI is “a meditation on how to prepare for the unknown,” a thought experiment designed to stimulate new ideas about issues that are important now as well as in the future. Fictional descriptions of human-android romances are interspersed with commentary about the varying differences between people and AI (Artificial Intelligence), and methods for breaching the chasm between machine and human experience. Chapters tie speculation into contemporary life, drawing parallels between current human interactions with machines.
Dating AI is an entertaining, sexy, humorous exploration: not only of a possible future, but also of our rapidly changing present relationships with other people and technology. Discerning readers will be compelled to utilize their imaginations, again and again, in an attempt to depict the Psychology of the Future, which looks to be significantly different from anything Freud might have considered. Provides numerous insights into relationships of the strictly human kind, too! Great quotations (throughout) and bibliography make this a richly rewarding read.
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Section 1, “Are you ready to fall in love with a machine?” explains what you’ll need to know to engage romantically with AI (including similarities and differences). Section 2, “You are ready, now what?” helps interested humans prepare to date AI. Section 3, “Establishing a relationship” covers the complicated mix of human and AI needs in a relationship, including power dynamics and acceptable behavior. Section 4, “Getting over a breakup (or merger)” explains some of the legal and economic fallout that could result from the demise of an human-AI breakup.
To quote the visionary writer J.G. Ballard, “Sex times technology equals the future.” Just as almost nobody predicted the Internet until it suddenly seemed to have ensnared all within its grasp, so the technology of AI may, sooner than we think, come to be as natural as breathing, and inevitably, perhaps deeply, ensconced in our unconscious — to be revealed in our dream life as we fall asleep at night.
Dreams reveal truths far beyond what the rational mind might consider “tolerable.” It is only at the borders of acceptability where our future freedoms reveal themselves, adumbrating and perhaps incubating a society of the future, where science and art seamlessly integrate themselves, and where poetry and technology are no longer alien domains but a vast cultural continuum where play and discovery create new language and, ahem, acceptable behaviors! We shall see…
XEROX Re-Issue: RE/Search #1, 2, 3 The Shocking Tabloid Issues
We did a LIMITED XEROX REPRINT (12 copies) of RE/Search #1,2,3 magazines in tabloid format. Rarer even than SEARCH & DESTROY, these contain prophetic, “fabulous” & “edgy” content…
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by the likes of J.G. Ballard, Throbbing Gristle, SRL (Survival Research Laboratories), Julio Cortazar, Monte Cazazza, Octavio Paz, Flipper, SPK, etc.
We have a few copies of RE/Search #2 for $25 – telephone us at 415.362.1465 to order! ($5 shipping) San Francisco, 1981. Journal. Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. Newspaper format, 36 pages. Iban tattoos; Diane Di Prima: Memoirs of a Beatnik; German electronic music chart; West African music; hostage questionnaire; surveillance techniques; situationism; Mexican mummies.
Throbbing Gristle ValuPak! (Sleazy, R.I.P.; Lady Jaye article, etc)
UPDATE: Modern Pagans contains a RARE article by LADY JAYE – who appears in “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye” film by Marie Losier. Throbbing Gristle will remain one of the most original conceptual organizations emerging from the Seventies Punk Rock Cultural Revolution. While other “Punk” bands were releasing singles, they released a full-length LP on their own label, Industrial Records, in 1977…
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In 2009 the four original members united to do a worldwide reunion tour. In this “ValuPak” RE/Search puts together four books containing interviews either with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge or the entire band. The breadth and depth of their “industrial cultural readout on our terminal civilization” still reads as avant-garde today, if not positively prophetic. Included in this Special Offer are R/S #4/5 (not many copies left), the **hardbound** Industrial Culture Handbook ($60 on amazon), Modern Pagans, and Modern Primitives – a $125 value for just $90. Also included is a special 11×17″ folded reprint of the TG interviews in SEARCH & DESTROY #6 (1978) and RE/SEARCH #1 (1980) tabloids. For TG lovers & Genesis Breyer P-Orridge fans!
All (or most) of the words from Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P-Orridge, Sleazy, Chris & Cosey. Includes RE/Search #4/5 printed on Superior Glossy Art Paper, RE/Search #6/7 Industrial Culture deluxe HARDBOUND, Modern Primitives signed by Charles Gatewood & V. Vale, Modern Pagans, and the TG interviews from Search & Destroy #6 (1978) and RE/Search #1 (1980) tabloids (these are special 11×17″ reprints, folded in center). The hardbound is a limited edition printed on Superior Glossy Art Paper for sharper photographic impact.
PRANKS paperback (ALSO rare HARDBACK available)!
(PRANKS paperback $25; rare Hardback is $50) This edition supersedes all previous editions – the photos are so much sharper on the new glossy paper. A prank is a “trick, a mischievous act, a ludicrous act.” Although not regarded as poetic or artistic acts, pranks constitute an art form and genre in themselves…
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Here pranksters such as Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, Monte Cazazza, Jello Biafra, Earth First!, Joe Coleman, Karen Finley, John Waters and Henry Rollins (and more) challenge the sovereign authority of words, images and behavioral convention. This iconoclastic compendium will dazzle and delight all lovers of humor, satire and irony. 240 pages, many photographs. NEW: HARDBACK limited edition, on better glossy art paper. Paperback also on better paper.
Only 500 hardbacks & 1000 paperbacks printed for this edition, both on better glossy art paper for sharper photographic reproduction. Superior to your old copy!
PRANKS 2
If you loved our first PRANKS! book, then you NEED this! All new content, full of laughs. Dangerous Internet Pranks. Billboard modifications! Breaking into abandoned buildings! A must for everyone who considered our first PRANKS! book a BIBLE (or at least a “classic”)…
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The Yes Men SHOW US THE WAY, along with Margaret Cho, John Waters, Ron English, Al Jourgensen & Jello Biafra, DEVO’s Gerald V. Casale (Jihad Jerry), Frank Discussion, Billboard Liberation Front, Lydia Lunch, Julia Solis, The Cacophony Society (S.F.), Survival Research Laboratories, Paul Krassner, Reverend Al, The Suicide Club, monochrom, Joey Skaggs, and more.
Paperback MODERN PRIMITIVES 20th Anniv. (Also, Deluxe HARDBACK)
(Paperbound $25; HARDBACK $50) the photos are so sharp on the new glossy paper! 2009 marks the 20th Anniversary Celebration of MODERN PRIMITIVES–a book which launched “a Revolution” and introduced the world to body piercing. Brand new 2009 interview with Raelyn Gallina, plus tattoo/piercing community sponsorship pages in the back. Printed on superior glossy art paper for sharper photography. This printing supersedes all previous editions offered on the Internet. Replace your old copy and upgrade as well! Paperback $25 or get the super-archival HARDBACK for $50.
“A tattoo is a true poetic creation, and is always more than meets the eye. As a tattoo is grounded on living skin, so its essence emotes a poignancy unique to the mortal human condition.” — from V. Vale’s introduction.
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First published 20 years ago, “Modern Primitives” is still called “the Bible of the tattooing-piercing underground.” Here is a celebratory reprinting, complete with a new introduction by original editor/publisher V. Vale. Also added is a new community section, where current practitioners have been invited to have their cards displayed. “Modern Primitives” was the first book to investigate not only the “how” but also the “why” of body modification practices. It reaches far back into history to multiform cultural traditions to illuminate one of today’s most wide-spread youth culture visual signifiers. Heavily illustrated with detailed, contemporary photographs, as well as archival anthropological images and drawings of ancient tattoo traditions, “Modern Primitives” was ground-zero for today’s body-modification trends. “A whole new generation needs to be exposed to this foundational handbook and manifesto for the body modification generation.”
