Teeser

Dita: Stripteese is a sumptuously packaged collection of three flipbooks, starring the bountiful Queen of Burlesque—Dita Von Teese. The embossed cover fairly seduces one to touch it. You run your fingers over the lettering (naughty, naughty)… thinking, if only all photography books were this much fun.

Fittingly, the reader/viewer must undress this beribboned edition to unveil its contents: a trio of ornately designed flipbooks: Bird of Paradise, Classic, and Martini Glass. As with a box of imported chocolates, one must make a selection from the offerings bedded in their recessed felt-lined nooks, labeled Swing, Seduce, and Splash… another tease before you flip for the strip.

The gorgeous color photos by Sheryl Nields live up to the anticipated pleasure here as Dita swings in a gilded cage, does a naughty feather dance and back-to-back peek-a-boos.Splashes and basks in a giant Martini glass, yet keeps her pasties on. Indeed, the book maintains a level of tastefulness rarely seen these days. It’s a refreshing romp, a flirtatiously trippy flip to days of yore when burlesque ruled the rude. As you flip through these photos and watch Dita come alive, you can almost hear the hoots, howls, and ribald applause.

Dita: Stripteese is bound to please.

With the holidays approaching, it should certainly take off.

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE ON AMAZON

Covers we’d Like to See (before they go under)

“Not our beat.” —George Schaub

George is known for his wry sense of humor.

Read Me!

Book lovers with the munchies will feast on Read Me: A Century of Classic American Book Advertisements, compiled by Dwight Garner.

You can snack on bite-sized bits of semi-“soft sell”:

I do not ask you to buy it, but I do tell you that “Sons and Lovers,” by D. H. Lawrence is one of the great novels of the year.

Or stuff your face with steaming hot  hyperbole:

“Unsurpassed in American fiction!” (Gone with the Wind)

Bite into the classic manual from “a Great, New Movement” (Boy Scouts of America). Nibble away on headlines like these:

“10,000 Bambis have been boxed for Christmas!

“What do you care about sex laws.”

“Do you want war?”

“Voodoo as no white person ever saw it!”

“Remember the name Norman Mailer.”

“No royalties to Adolf Hitler!”

My favorite specimen is an ad which appeared in 1934. It shows a man in an armchair reading… “The Tired Business Man’s (sic) Library of Adventure, Detective, and Mystery Novels.” The publisher, D. Appleton-Century, hawks its 15 volumes as a healthy way for males to relax.

“…Learn the secret of many famous men who refresh their minds with exciting books like these.”

Guess women weren’t looking for adventure back then.

Buy READ ME on Amazon

2-Dawg Night

And now for the rest of the story…

 

Best Stuff Picks “Thrill”

Shoot To Thrill is featured today at BestStuff.com.

“…Shoot to Thrill will get you out of jail, get you out of the family dog house and give your photography hobby a new lease on life!”

Here’s the direct  link.

Childhood Lost

Portraits of children have fascinated photographers since the dawn of the medium. One thinks of the controversial images taken by Lewis Carroll of Alice Liddell circa 1850.

In recent years we have Sally Mann’s equally controversail portraits.

Julie Blackmon’s “domestic” tableaux…

 

And the strikingly surreal photos by German photographer Loretta Lux…

To this genre we must add the Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene.

German publisher Schirmer/Mosel Verlag has just released a new collection of portraits: Hellen van Meene: tout va disparaître. (The book is distributed in the US by Prestel)
The title in translation: “Everything will disappear.”  Or one might say… this strange  puberty too shall  pass.  Van Meene’s images capture the isolation and  alien awkwardness of childhood—imbued with forboding and sadness. These frozen moments are mortal shards that resonate…echo like the sound of footsteps racing into the future.

The portraits in tout va disparaître were shot in the  USA, Russia, and the Netherlands. You can order a copy of the book from Amazon here.

Unpaid Political Announcement

Take Cover! The True Crime Story Behind the Controversial Cover for “Shoot to Thrill”

Here’s the link to the article which has just appeared on informIT.

Dunce Noir

Crossing Borders

A blurry still from an anonymous video. Nice to see Shoot To Thrill right up there with Dracula and Star Wars in this dsplay at Borders Bookstore. My book is actually right next to Pilgrims. The connection escapes me, but I’m not complaining. It’s not often a book gets to be the equivalent of a welcome mat.