Vale with Rocket photo by Charles Gatewood
Welcome to www.researchpubs.com, the online home of Search and Destroy Publications, and my current publishing venture, RE/Search Publications. Since 1977, I have been publishing magazines and books from my apartment in North Beach, the Little Italy district of San Francisco, CA. It's a creative and inspirational environment to live in: Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Press and bookstore is a few steps away, as is Francis Ford Coppola's production company, American Zoetrope.My philosophy has always been that everyone is born an artist, and that all creativity springs from a platform of information and subversive role models. To that end, I've always aimed to give a voice to new rebels or forms of rebellion as they've emerged in underground society. I've also researched the past in order to establish and provide a continuum of rebellion in the hopes of inspiring people to participate in their own forms of subversion against mainstream society. All of my books, past, present, and future, are committed to these goals, and to inspiring future generations to become the creative individuals that they are born to be.
However, in this current climate of mass media mayhem, merger mania, information overload, political tomfoolery, and chain-store consumerism, it is increasingly difficult to be an artist of any kind without having to compromise yourself in some way every day. I should know: the book business, once a thriving community full of independent bookstores, small presses, revolutionary thought, and new voices, is now an industry fueled by marketing dollars, Oprah Winfrey, huge chain bookstores, and online behemoths. Needless to say, it's been a huge struggle to survive the past few years as an independent publisher. I hope that by increasing our presence on the World Wide Web, (which I feel is a resource with tremendous possibilities), my publications will gain more visibility with old fans and new fans alike.
As the 20th century comes to an end, we as humans have less and less time: our attention spans are shorter, our working days longer--we don't have much time anymore to seek out a wide variety of sources of empowerment and free expression. I hope that over the past 22 years my books have become publications that you can trust to examine cultural creativity and subversion. I promise to continue our quest to encourage social change (and recover it's lost histories), catalyze new forms of rebellion, and continue researching the secrets of personal creativity and pleasure.
I hope you continue visting www.researchpubs.com. Thanks for your support of my goals and visions.
Best,
V. Vale (call me Vale)
