There seems to be a great amount of rock in China, especially Beijing and Shanghai but there's also a lively music scene in Xian. From what I can gather from, YouTube videos, and searching for it.
A little music to listen to while you wile away your time reading what I have to say about making books.
What I've Learned
What I've learned in the last 67 books I've bound can be summed up in two words: Listen to a teacher. (Okay, four.)
I've learned that 2 mm book board is better than a grocery sack.
I've learned that the space between the spine and the cover is about 3.5 times the thickness of the book board (If using a 2 mm book board that would be about 7 mm)
I've learned that you need to press the book under considerable weight shortly after making the book and not let it sit on your tabletop overnight while you gloat about your great achievement because the covers will curl up like a butterfly about to take flight.
I've finally learned that you need to cut the corners of the book cloth BEFORE you paste it up or try to press it to the book board.
I've learned that glue in a glass container can still get dry and grungy and if you let it sit overnight while you gloat about your great bookbinding achievements then you might as well buy a new glass container and glue.
I've been looking for this video clip for awhile. This came on after Jerry Lewis had a two-hour special. Lots of people were asked to follow, but no one wanted to because they knew Jerry would blow them out of the water. Ernie Kovacs basically volunteered and presented this dialog-less show. Innovative, creative, and memorable. Not many people remember any skits, songs, or jokes from Jerry's special but many remember Kovacs' Eugene. Enjoy.
Film noir and old-time radio detectives (audio noir?) are great, I think. The visuals are dramatic - shadows and light playing the dramatic role, the stories are usually strong, and the dialog terse. Action movies - even in color - pale by comparison. Recently, if you surf YouTube and other sites, you can find a few good modern day film noir short films. Here's one by Plaxin Productions, which has other pretty good films, too.
This one has all the elements of film noir plus a word not usually spoken in mixed polite company so it might not be audibly safe for work.
This seems to be a new design in holiday or homes from inhabitat. It's called the iPad with the little tm symbol following. The little trademark tm symbol, could it get Apple in trouble? I mean, I understand Apple has a product called the iPad, too, but theirs is considerably smaller and cheaper.
The inhabitat iPad starts at $125,000 New Zealand dollars and has 50 square feet of living space. Beat that, Apple. And just like Apple, the iPad comes with a video: iPad Video.
Here is the floor plan from inhabitat of the cheapest model. As you might barely be able to see, it has three large decks with large doors/windows to the interior that make the small abode seem larger. With exterior walls that provide a bit of privacy. From the looks of things, the most expensive model ($375,000) is three of these modules put artistically together in a horseshoe arrangement. Check it out at iPad.
I'd like one of these - maybe in a southern island or an Italian cliffside. Turn it into a small office/workspace. But, alas, I may have to settle for the other iPad, pictured below; smaller and cheaper.
Christmas eve and I just finished a book I'm giving as a solstice present. Is that cutting it close or is that cutting it close? It is also my first bound novel with imposed pages. No illustrations, though. I wrote the book in November during NaNoWriMo, imposed it in early December, printed out three copies, sewed up two, and finally finished putting the coverboards on one tonight. About 20 minutes ago. Recommendation: don't do this at home, boys and girls.
As it is Saturnalia Eve and you all are probably not reading this right now, I shall refrain from putting up photos of said book until a more auspicious occassion. Besides, I already wrapped it.
Do NOT do this at home. No matter how much you like to paint.
Every year universities have school festivals and the students put on a dance exhibition. This year, one school's dancers were caught on video and uploaded to a host and now You! can view it. This is Part One.
you will find another video. Odd, that, finding a video on TouYube. Anyway, this video has a troop of fire demons dancing with globs and poles of fire.
To celebrate my finishing my largest book (A4 when closed, about 200 pages, I think. I forget. I suppose I could go look it up, but... nyah.) Big Book. The cover is made of an old obi from an old kimono that I bought at an old flea market in an old temple. The obi, not the kimono. Anyway, to celebrate finishing it, I provide to you, the viewer/listener with a Magical Listening Experience:
Today's Playlist
Wagner - Ride Of The Valkyries Neil Peart - Drum Solo R-30 Alice Cooper - Poison Little Feat - Dixie Chicken Little Feat - Skin It Back Jesse Mccartney - Beautiful Soul Mozart - Rondo Alla Turca
I experimented with perfect binding - the binding cheap detective novels use to keep the pages between the covers of scantily-clad dames with cigarettes hanging from the mouths while they fondle the business end of some sap's revolver.
The result was a book with a lot of pages falling on the floor like so many corpses in a gangland shoot out. This was not the result I was hoping for so I ripped the book apart like a gold-digger rips through a fortune. I sewed the loose sheets of paper up, glued them very heavily and gave them an offer they couldn't refuse. It looks and feels better and its pages also staying in one place. This is usually considered to be a good thing.
Next, I will experiment with more glue, more thread, more pages... In fact, as we speak at this moment, two books are being pressed. Both perfect binding. Both about 100 pages. Papers of different sizes though. The covers are being designed tomorrow. Or someone's waking up with a horse head in their bed. If you know what I mean.
And now, even if you don't know what I mean, a jazzy piece of music from ez2google which can be found at GarageBand.com. Listen to it, if you know what's good for ya.
First, a few links to a couple of cool books. The first one is Necronomicon designed by Jean Marc Laroche. These others at the Ingalls Library at the Cleveland Museum of Art, are not so bizarre as using unusual materials or relatively unusual binding methods.
The book on the right is bound in brass - could be heavy, eh? - and it sold on Abebooks for $24,400. That's US dollars. Twenty-four thousand US dollars. It's a catalog of brass bookbindings. Speaking of Abebooks, whose tagline is cheap, fast, easy (I had a date like that once), they also have a book going for $119,000. Yes, three zeroes, two ones, and a nine. In US dollars, again. It's a Bible printed in 1611 and bound in calf skin and copper. So if you have a few coins of loose change rolling around on the top of your chest of drawers, you might want to check Abebooks out.
On the upper left you might have noticed the original book: cuneiform on clay from our friends at the Sumerian Civilization - that would be a great name for a bookbindery, wouldn't it? And finally, another book using clay (and paper, fabric and paints) from LadyArtisan. The leaves are clay, by the way.
A nifty 6-minute 45-second video about surfing in China. Looks cool.
What's the music? I don't know either. I do know that Hangzhou is a bit inland from Shanghai, southern China, if you're looking to surf China this summer.
One: Cailun has two books using the Secret Belgian Binding (so don't tell anybody.) His Duotone duo is quite nice, so please check it out.
Tao: (or is it Two) Tedorigawa (me) finished another book using Perfect Binding (although it isn't) for a book called The Dance of the Fool. Now with the continuing audio events in the fictional life the Bookbinder.
This seems to be a new design in holiday or homes from inhabitat. It's called the iPad with the little tm symbol following. The little trademark tm symbol, could it get Apple in trouble? I mean, I understand Apple has a product called the iPad, too, but theirs is considerably smaller and cheaper.
I experimented with perfect binding - the binding cheap detective novels use to keep the pages between the covers of scantily-clad dames with cigarettes hanging from the mouths while they fondle the business end of some sap's revolver.
First, a few links to a couple of cool books. The first one is Necronomicon designed by Jean Marc Laroche. These others at the Ingalls Library at the 
Cleveland Museum of Art, are not so bizarre as using unusual materials or relatively unusual binding methods.
