Book club

I got my Awakening book in the mail yesterday. You probably read about it in Dan's blog (where I ripped this pic from), and remember how it was published in conjunction with an art show put up by friends to raise money for HK photographer JC's cancer treatment. The 34-year-old portrait shooter lost the battle, and book profits are now being given to his family.

I don't know if Dan accurately conveyed how incredible the book or JC's work is. Many of the portraits are larger than life, and you actually have to step back to recognize who they are: Tony Leung, Chang Chen, and, yes, Dan. You see pores, tiny hairs, wrinkles, and soul. I like those the best. I'm not usually a fan of posed photos, but even those are nice, with stars such Andy Lau or Maggie Cheung captured in human moments. Even Edison isn't posturing, which is a miracle.

The volume itself is printed on heavy, glossy stock and bound in a material that feels like velour. The slipcase has the same material. This is one of the nicer books on my shelf, and if you have the liquid assets and are into HK movies or culture, you might consider purchasing it for a good cause.

Here are some other prized books with fancy sleeves that sit on the same shelf (figuratively since some of them are too big)...


For a time, this was the most expensive book in my collection. I think I paid about $140 for it online, and got one for Eric, too. It was not easy to pull the trigger on this one--I had to get a cashier's check and do all sorts of other nonsense since this was before PayPal days--but I didn't regret it. The book is not large, but it's thick with tons arty photos shot by Christopher Doyle on the set of Happy Together. It has several types of paper stock as well as surprise inserts including a film clipping and an unrolled condom! I think there's a ball-point pen floating around the hand-bound spine.

As is often the case, Eric found a way to stock these at the GR store but they're long gone and this book remains special to me. I was collecting everything related to WKW for a while, and this might be the prize. (Well, actually that would be the Wing Shya poster remix set, but that's another blog. Also, there's an In The Mood For Love counterpart that's pretty good but not nearly as deluxe.)


I bought this book after hearing photographer Kate Simon talk about it on the Jonesy's Jukebox radio program. This large photo book comes in a silkscreened wooden sleeve and each edition was signed by Simon. The classy, oversize, hardbound book is from England, and blew the lid off my typically miserly budget. I guess I skimp so I can get stuff like this. The photographer, best known for shooting the cover of London Calling, spent a lot of time in Jamaica during its key musical era, and seems to have an anecdote for every killer concert and candid photo of her friends, who included not only Bob Marley, but Peter Tosh, Lee Perry, Burning Spear, and others.

I hate going to the Genesis Publications site because I totally want the Bowie books, but could never justify spending that type of money on a book ever again--even an amazing one that is a true, collectible art object and historical document.


Here's another example of an amazing book (limited to 2,000) that I found online, ordered two copies for me and Eric (straight from Jet Tone), and then Eric found a way to get it and sell it at the GR store for about half the price. When I saw one at GR on Sawtelle yesterday, I felt like the sushi chef who sets aside a fresh shipment of fish and says, "Too good for the customers."

Inside the huge cardboard slipcase is a nice 96-page paperback that documents the filming of Hero as well as showcases Christopher Doyle's experimentation with color. As a bonus, there are four poster sets: red, green, blue, yellow. And then there's Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, and Jet Li.

This is another part of my WKW obsession/collection which ended after 2046. (I recently pre-ordered My Blueberry Nights, but think I have things under control now.)


The Complete Far Side is the only two-volume edition in this post, and it's a monster. You could pull a muscle or sink a boat with the set, which contains every strip from 1980-1994. Many of them appear in color for the first time, and there are some extra tidbits from Gary Larson's personal archives: hate mail, form letters, and other stuff to add context to the already incredible strips.

Eric gave this to me for Christmas a few years ago, and I still flip it open to random pages all the time. Not to disrespect the current cartoonists, but today's funnies are a sad afterthought to an era when geniuses like Larson, Watterson, and Schulz were at the top of their game. This book really drives that home.