It’s Just a Youngin

Our new blog is up. Don’t expect too much from the little guy just yet: a little maturing and getting a few quirks and errors out will do it good. But it’s there, and it’s where we’ll be posting from now on. So please join us.

Not Forgotten

It’s been a little while since we’ve posted. Good reason for that really. First, the holidays bowled us over. Sales were amazing, your patronage was thoughtful and fantastic, and we were able to get in a little family time too. So, thanks. Subby Customers rock the house!

But beyond that, we’re building a new blog that will be all ours and part of our website. We hope this is step one in kicking ourselves into the 21st century. We’d like to completely renovate our site this year and even add internet sales. Wouldn’t that be peachy? But no worries about us going corporate, it’ll always have that sweet DIY feel here at SB--all our internet stuff will be open source. Vive la Revolution!

My 2007 Subby Wishlist

1. The Best American Series continues to offer a comics collection.

2. The store has a signing for one of Jeremy’s books (preorder now $20--no guarantees).

3. Glenn Danzig comes into the store when I’m actually here.

4. Our 7th Birthday Party has Dita von Teese and Marilyn Manson on the VIP list.

5. The store can afford the 300% pay raise I’ve asked for. They don’t call me J$$ for no reason. Right, Kelly? I mean Special K.

Moleskine

Apparently there is a whole subculture out there that likes to display the contents of their moleskine journals on the internet. My education never stops.




P.S. It has been suggested by certain unnamed persons that I have too much time on my hands.

Junky's Christmas

God bless YouTube for all that they make available, including this animation for a William S. Burroughs short story. See the whole thing: parts I, II, III. And have a Subterraneanly merry Christmas!

Beat Jazz

Let’s face it, jazz is Subterranean. Gene Krupa was a chronic cannabis user. Sonny Rollins made the Mohawk stylish. Sun Ra was from another planet. And our Miles Davis reinvented music at least three times in his life. (Why exactly doesn’t St. Louis have a museum for this legend or for all the jazz and blues greats from the region? Shame, shame.) Anyway, we just got in three large boxes of used jazz books, and they’re priced to go. On top of that and related, we’ve also unleashed a couple boxes worth of beat literature on the shelves. They’re worth the trip, I promise

Gift Ideas

For the hard to buy for:

New DIY Section Officially Awesome

Sure I’m a little biased about our new DIY loft. I work here and my mother-in-law has stuff in it, but I seriously think it looks great. Soaps, baskets, photos, magnets, blank books, brooches, purses, wrist bands, art boxes, and sock monkeys. Sock monkeys? Sock monkeys!!! Plus, there’s more stuff arriving every day. It’s knitastic!

Bunny Love

We probably all have a mixture of nostalgia and loathing for A Christmas Story, which must have been screened a million times by now. Luckily, there are always the cute and fuzzy Angry Alien bunnies to make the old new again. If you aren’t familiar with the bunny theater troupe, they put on 30-second reenactments of films (word on the street is that they are currently working on Borat). Some suggested watching (all free on the AA website): Alien, Caddyshack, The Exorcist, Jaws, and The Shining.

It's F-ing December Already???

November's Bestsellers

1. Maddox : The Alphabet of Manliness
2. Mario Garza : Stuff on My Cat
3. Dave Eggers (ed) : Best Nonrequired Reading 2006
4. Chuck Klosterman : Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
5. Chuck Klosterman : Killing Yourself to Live

6. Orhan Pamuk : Istanbul
7. Max Brooks : The Zombie Survival Guide
8. J.D. Salinger : Nine Stories
9. Amy Sedaris : I Like You
10.Schiffmacher & Riemschneider : 1000 Tattoos

Nature of the Beast

Our art section is changing! Our art section is changing! Well, maybe it’s not that exciting, but in the next couple of days it’s going to transform from an unruly primitive monster to a modernist work of logic. Well, maybe. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, and most the books are lying on the floor right now. But this I know for sure…we’ll have a contemporary art section finally! Already in...

Vitamin D, Vitamin P, Vitamin Ph

Richard Prince, Raymond Pettibon, Marlene Dumas, Mike Kelley

Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3

and more and more each day

A Tree Grows in St. Louis

After buying all your holiday goods at Subterranean (hint! hint!), you may be left wondering what you can give this year that will also benefit the community (not that giving books doesn’t!). Of course, there are a lot of great projects, but here are two of my favorites. The first is the “Tree-Membrance” program in the City. For $125 (trust me, being on bookseller’s salary I know how much that hits the wallet, but it’s a good cause) you can have a shade, flowering, or evergreen tree planted in almost any City park (including the big guy between Skinker and Kingshighway) in honor of anyone or anything. Just think of all the oxygen you’ll provide our beautiful city!

Number two is becoming/giving a gift membership with the St. Louis City Library Foundation. Membership levels generally start at $40, but you can give as much or as little as you want. I don’t need to tell you literate folks what great services the library provides, and St. Louis has two of the best systems in the US in the City and County (which has a similar program here).

For Jenni

Thanksgiving Thus

Perhaps some ideas for reading material on the plane/train/bus. Here’s what people have been coming in for the last couple of weeks.

1. Maddox : Alphabet of Manliness
2. Max Brooks : The Zombie Survival Guide
3. J.D. Salinger : Nine Stories
4. Chuck Klosterman : Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
5. Orhan Pamuk : Istanbul