Tosh on Thomas Pynchon's "V."

 

Tosh on Thomas Pynchon's "V."

Boris Vian Music by Tosh Berman

 

Boris Vian Music by Tosh Berman

Tosh on Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

 

Tosh on Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

The Best Fiction & Poetry Books I Have Read in 2022

 

The Best Fiction & Poetry Books I Have Read in 2022

Tosh Berman on Boris Vian's "Vercoquin and the Plankton

 

Tosh Berman on Boris Vian's "Vercoquin and the Plankton"

My Favorite Albums of All Time (Part One) by Tosh Berman

 

My Favorite Albums of All Time (Part One)

Tosh's Unfortunate Life

 

Tosh's Unfortunate Life

Jacno by Tosh Berman

 

Jacno by Tosh Berman

The Light Pours Out of Me by Tosh Berman

 

The Light Pours Out of Me by Tosh Berman

Tosh Berman Interviewed by Jordan A Rothacker for Statorec

 

Photo by Nick Ebeling, 2022

Tosh Berman Interviewed by Jordan A Rothacker for Statorec

Come On, World, Inspire Me! by Tosh Berman

 

Come On, World, Inspire Me! by Tosh Berman

Tosh Berman's TamTam Books by Tosh

 

 

Tosh Berman's TamTam Books by Tosh. Read it here: 

Tosh Berman's TamTam Books

Albums That Were Important To Me in 1997

 

Economically, I live in two states: we have money, or we have no money. In 1997, we had enough money for a down payment for a house. For the first six months or so, we spent our time looking for a house to buy. Twice a week, we would tour stranger’s homes to find that perfect combination for a place for us to work, live, and hide away from the world. Work and live, yes we saw the world was very much just outside the front door. Still, we were going to Japan back and forth to visit family, a trip to London as well. Around this time, I decided to start up a press of my own, TamTam Books. I became obsessed with Boris Vian and became his American publisher. 

Beyond that, I was haunting down CD-singles from Pulp because they had the most astounding remixes of their music. Their album “This Is Hardcore” is a masterpiece. It is a point-of-no-return type of record. Senior swingers, the decaying of life, and one had to “Party Hard” to get through middle-aged life difficulties. Everything about this album is perfection as practiced as an art. 

The other albums that impacted me that year are Tindersticks’ “Curtains,” which contained their sophisticated approach to orchestration and life. Again, it reminds me of Cave and the Bad Seeds, but with a more sophisticated approach to their subject matter, which is broken romances. The album also has a duet with Anne Magnuson. Blur’s “Blur” is an album of not turning back as well. Here they embrace a much stronger vision of an inner-world of some demons. I heard “Beetlebum” in Japan, and I thought this is one of the most remarkable songs ever. I loved the slow built-up, that reminds me of a Lennon Beatle-era psychedelic song if they had Jimmy Page in the band instead of George. A terrific album as well. 

Bowie’s “Earthling” continue to embrace the new electronic sounds of England, and although not as ambitious as his previous album “Outside,” it still had great songs on it, such as the classic “I’m Afraid of Americans.”  The one album that I found endearing and knowing that this will be the last time I will buy his work is John Lydon’s first solo album, “Psycho’s Path.”  There is a track on it called “Sun,” which is terrific. I think it’s up there with the best of the original PIL albums.  1997 was a significant change for me, and I think the albums above also expressed a shift. Brit-Pop was still around but turning sour in a very interesting manner.

Juliette Gréco R.I.P.

 

Juliette Gréco, an icon from the beginning to the end. St Germain des Prés beauty and a great song artist. A dramatic life with intense romances (Miles Davis) and a close friend and perhaps even muse to Boris Vian. I love her. -Tosh Berman.

Tosh's Journal: December 4

Come on, world, inspire me! There are occasions in my life when I have to check the mirror by putting my nose close to it, to see if I’m still breathing. The room I’m in right now was built for consistent inspiration. There is a turntable on one corner with two gigantic speakers, and a window looking over Astro’s Diner on Fletcher and Glendale Boulevard. The bookcase is filled with books that I haven’t looked at in years.  Yet, the spines of these books are laid out to inspire my writing sessions. But now, a sense of failure is creeping up on me, like a weed in an outside potted plant - it comes alive when you try to ignore it. The traffic noise outside is an unfluctuating reminder of a life that is spent indoors. What do I know of the world, except whatever is through my window, and what record is on my turntable? Other than that, I’m clueless.



“I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.” The fear of time passing, and just thinking of time as this abstract body of matter makes me fearful. I feel that “body” looking over my shoulder as I write, and the solitude I crave is not from the people in general, but time itself. I somehow woke up as a teenager, and somehow went to bed that same day as a senior. I don’t even want to think about tomorrow.



Gérard Philipe, the eminent French actor, was 37 when he died from liver cancer. His doctor never informed him that he was that ill, so he worked on, except one can notice fatigue in his facial expressions. He shared that fatigue with another actor in his last film, “Les Liaisons dangerousness” –Boris Vian, who that same year also died, but from a lifetime heart problem. Both had the same look as they were prepared to leave the room, and they couldn’t go fast enough. Time is fundamentally essential, and you have to either trick it or not let it take possession of your life. The sensibility of time is very much being stuck in a narrative, perhaps not of your own choice. Concerning time there is an end, but when? That is the essence of time itself. Otherwise, “life is one long process of getting tired.’



The mental journey from one end of my living room to the other side is a lifetime to me. I go through emotions like one changes pj’s during night sweats. “Extreme joy and extreme sorrow are indistinguishable beyond a certain point.” All I know is that I have to finish my writing and not let time take it away from me. I will take it, not time. “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.” - Tosh Berman

TamTam Books at Alias Books East in Atwater Village

Alias Books East in Atwater Village has a selection of books published by TamTam Books.  

- Boris Vian's "Autumn in Peking"

- Boris Vian's "Red Grass" 

-Boris Vian's "To Hell With The Ugly"

& a book by Ron Mael and Russell Mael of the band Sparks.  "In The Words of Sparks: Selected Lyrics"  Edited by Ron and Russell, with a great introduction by Morrissey.  

And, also for sale is "Memory Before Action" text by Tosh Berman and art by Senon Williams.  Very limited and of course, very special.  All exclusively on sale at Alias Books East.  Located 3163 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90039.  For more information, here's their website: http://www.aliasbookseast.com

"Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50" by Agnès Poirier (Henry Holt & Company)

ISBN: 978-1-62779-024-6

I can almost resist everything, except, any books about the Left Bank during the 1940s to the late 1950s.  Generally, readers/culture addicts are seduced by images of Paris and its culture throughout the years.   In a way, it's the conceptual 'Disneyland' for those who don't live there, yet, keep track of its beauty through pictures, movies, and of course, literature.  I'm so much in tune to that world that I pretty much started up a press, TamTam Books, just focusing on the Paris post-war years, due that I love the literature as well as the figures that came out of that time, especially Boris Vian.    

There are many books on Paris that was published throughout the years, as well as memoirs, diaries, and biographies - so it's not an obscure subject matter by any means.  But it wasn't until recently one hears the name Boris Vian in English reading books on the Existentialist period.  Vian was a significant figure in those years, and a lot of books about that period avoided his identity, I think due that none of his books were available in English at the time.  Therefore I have to presume editors for various presses probably decided if editorial cuts are being made, it is perfectly OK to eliminate Vian in its narrative.  That is not the case anymore.  Although he's a side-figure in the recent book "Left Bank" by Agnès Poirier, at least he's given credit as a writer and social figure in Paris.  

Beyond that, this book doesn't have any new information, and if one is a long-term reader of Paris literary and social history, still it's a fun read and Poirier does a  good job in covering all the loose ends of the rambling narrative that is the grand city of romance and ideas.  All the stars are here:  Juliette Gréco, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, Camus, as well as the Americans that came to Paris during the post-war years, such as James Baldwin, Miles Davis, Richard Wright, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, and the old stand-by's such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau.   A colorful group of characters.  One is in good company.

Paul Knobloch Translator Writer on Tosh Talks

Literary translations to me are extremely interesting.  My press TamTam Books mostly focuses on translations of novels by Boris Vian, Serge Gainsbourg, as well as the biography on Gainsbourg written by Gilles Verlant. Translator and writer Paul Knobloch discusses his work and the issues one has to deal with when publishing Boris Vian.  Also a detailed look in how one chooses the right phrase or sentence while doing a translation.  A very informative interview on this subject matter as well as on TamTam Books.  Tosh Berman, Tosh Talks.

Tosh Berman Introduction on Tosh Talks

Sherds Podcast on Boris Vian's "Red Grass" (TamTam Books)

#3 Red Grass by Boris Vian

In this episode, we look at Boris Vian's Red Grass (1950), a surrealist science fiction novel in which the main character, Wolf, creates a machine that allows him to erase his own memories.  Perhaps a critique or satire of existentialism, perhaps a veiled song of mourning for post-war France, Red Grass is a somewhat obscure novel that really got us thinking.

Over the course of our discussion, we consider Vian's playful complexity, his parodies of psychoanalytical and existentialist thought, and the possible significance of Red Grass in terms of French collective memory in the wake of the Second World War. 

This episode features readings by Kinga Stanczuk

http://www.holdfastnetwork.com/sherdspodcast/12/11/2017/3-red-grass-by-boris-vian