Boris Vian Music by Tosh Berman

 

Boris Vian Music by Tosh Berman

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

 

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

Tosh's Unfortunate Life

 

Tosh's Unfortunate Life

Tosh Berman Interviewed by Jordan A Rothacker for Statorec

 

Photo by Nick Ebeling, 2022

Tosh Berman Interviewed by Jordan A Rothacker for Statorec

In The Words of Sparks... Selected Lyrics by Ron Mael & Russell Mael (TamTam Books) at Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles (free shipping in the U.S.)

 

One can purchase copies of "In The Words of Sparks: Selected Lyrics by Ron Mael & Russell Mael (TamTam Books) at Artbook at Hauser & Wirth as well as here:  

https://www.artbook.com/9780985272401.html

Buy it here!

Both places offer free shipping within the U.S.of A.

Tosh Berman's TamTam Books by Tosh

 

 

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

Tosh Berman's TamTam Books

GAINSBOURG: The Biography by Gilles Verlant

 

Gainsbourg: The Biography

By Gilles Verlant. Translated by Paul Knobloch.

When Serge Gainsbourg died in 1991, France went into mourning: François Mitterand himself proclaimed him “our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire.” Gainsbourg redefined French pop, from his beginnings as cynical chansonnier and mambo-influenced jazz artist to the ironic “yé-yé” beat and lush orchestration of his 1960s work to his launching of French reggae in the 1970s to the electric funk and disco of his last albums. But mourned as much as his music was Gainsbourg the man: the self-proclaimed ugly lover of such beauties as Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, the iconic provocateur whose heavy-breathing “Je t’aime moi non plus” was banned from airwaves throughout Europe and whose reggae version of the “Marseillais” earned him death threats from the right, and the dirty-old-boy wordsmith who could slip double-entendres about oral sex into the lyrics of a teenybopper ditty and make a crude sexual proposition to Whitney Houston on live television.

Gilles Verlant’s biography of Gainsbourg is the best and most authoritative in any language. Drawing from numerous interviews and their own friendship, Verlant provides a fascinating look at the inner workings of 1950s–1990s French pop culture and the conflicted and driven songwriter, actor, director and author that emerged from it: the young boy wearing a yellow star during the German Occupation; the young art student trying to woo Tolstoy’s granddaughter; the musical collaborator of Petula Clark, Juliette Greco and Sly and Robbie; the seasoned composer of the Lolita of pop albums, Histoire de Melody Nelson; the cultural icon who transformed scandal and song into a new form of delirium.

Gainsbourg: The Biography

FROM THE BOOK

"Now it's impossible to understand what will follow – namely the mad passion that will unite Bardot and Gainsbourg for no more than a few weeks but which will have serious repercussions for the both of them – without taking into consideration the reckless Don Juanism of this woman, who at the age of 33 is at the height of her beauty. Our anonymous contributor continues: 'She dealt with her conquests like a praying mantis: Serge, like me and like all the others, was zombified by Bardot. That woman had a supreme talent for grinding men into rubble. Serge was a totally atypical lover for her. He had the authenticity of a real artist, he hated money, and he led his life with a sort of heedless existentialist ethic. He was the exact opposite of the clean-cut types she had been with. I am convinced that Serge fascinated her much more than her other lovers. He brought her into a world of intelligence and talent, which no one had ever exposed her to before. Little did it matter that he had a face like a gargoyle from Nôtre-Dame. What's more, he brought a whole new world to her, served up on a silver platter, which is just what she needed at the time. Thanks to Serge she was hip again.'"

-Excerpted from Gainsbourg: The Biography

You can purchase the book here: Gainsbourg: The Biography by Gilles Verlant

"Evguenie Sokolov" by Serge Gainsbourg, his only work of fiction (TamTam Books)

Evguenie Sokolov

By Serge Gainsbourg. Translated by John Weightman, Doreen Weightman.

Serge Gainsbourg's sole foray into fiction, Evguenie Sokolov describes an artist who uses his intestinal gases as the medium for his scandalous artwork. What once was a smelly and noisy problem in his social and sex life becomes a recipe for success in the early 1980s art world.

FROM THE BOOK

"So, as I said to myself during the dark hours of the night while trying in vain to get to sleep, the pestilential exhalations prophetic of my corporeal death were to serve the purpose of channeling and transcending that which was more pure, most enduring and most despairingly ironical in the inner depths of my creative mind, and after all the years devoted to the technique of painting and all the day spent releasing my gases in front of museum walls radiant with the genius of the great masters, these jagged, fragile and torturous lines had now rid me forever of my inhibitions."

Excerpted from Evguenie Sokolov.

You can buy a copy here: 

Evguenie Sokolov by Serge Gainsbourg 

Albums That I Listened to in 2003

 

Finding new music released in 2003 was boring to me. Besides new recordings by Wire, "Send," and Bowie's "Reality" everything was non-existent. Except in the year 2003, and since the 1990s, I really got into the music of Serge Gainsbourg. Like on a Sparks (Ron and Russell Mael) level of fandom. With my love for Serge and his world, I started TamTam Books. The three compilation CDs of Serge's music is excellent. Organized in pop, Latin, and Jazz. It's an excellent way to make your first step into the world of Gainsbourg.

Serge Gainsbourg - Ce mortel ennui (1964)

Sort of the social distancing video from Serge Gainsbourg.  Well, almost.  Nevertheless, a brilliant visual with the great Serge.  Throughout his long career, I think I love him the most during the late 1950s and early 60s.  But again, when you buy or listen to Gainsbourg, your getting quality.  - Tosh Berman​

Tosh Berman interviewed by Erik Davis for Expanding Mind Podcast

Tosh Berman on Erik Davis for Expanding Mind

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

TOSH BERMAN - Modern Art Blitz episode #76 part 3

Tosh Berman interviewed on the show Modern Art Blitz.

"To Hell With The Ugly" by Boris Vian (Vernon Sullivan) TamTam Books

To Hell with the Ugly

Et on Tuera Tous Les Affreux

By Boris Vian. Translated and Introduction by Paul Knobloch. Drawings by Jessica Minckley.

First published in French in 1948, To Hell with the Ugly saw Boris Vian's noir-novelist pseudonym Vernon Sullivan take on Vian's own burlesque pop sensibilities. An erotic crime novel with science fiction tendencies, Sullivan's third outing is described by its translator as "a pornographic Hardy Boys novel set on the Island of Dr. Moreau to a be-bop soundtrack." To Hell with the Ugly recounts the tale of Rock Bailey, a dashing 19-year-old lad determined to hold onto his virginity amidst the postwar jazz-club nightlife of Los Angeles-a resolution challenged by the machinations of the demented Doctor Markus Schutz, who has decided to breed beautiful human beings and found a colony in which ugliness is a genetic crime. Vian's brutal depictions of American race relations in his previous Sullivan novels here give way to a frenetic fantasy of eugenics and uniformity-a parodic anticipation of the cosmetic surgery that was to rule Hollywood over the coming decades, as well as a comic-book reflection on Nazi Germany's visions of a master race. With the novel's breathless domino tumble of fist fights, car chases, kidnappings, and murders, Vian here set out to out-Hollywood Hollywood, serving up a narrative cocktail of Raymond Chandler, H.G.Wells, Brave New World and Barbarella.

PUBLISHER
TAMTAM BOOKS

BOOK FORMAT
PAPERBACK, 8.5 X 5.75 IN. / 200 PGS / ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT.

PUBLISHING STATUS
PUB DATE 2/29/2012
ACTIVE

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. EXCLUSIVE
CATALOG: SPRING 2012 P. 47    

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780966234664 TRADE
LIST PRICE: $15.95 CDN $17.50

"The Death Instinct" by Jacques Mesrine (TamTam Books)

The Death Instinct

By Jacques Mesrine. Introduction by Robert Greene. Translation by Robert Greene, Catherine Texier.

France's Public Enemy Number One from the late 1960s to the end of the 1970s--when he was killed by police in a sensational traffic shootout--Jacques Mesrine (1936–1979) is the best-known criminal in French history. Mesrine was notorious both for his violent exploits and for the media attention he attracted, and he remains very much a public media figure in France and Europe. In 2008 there were two feature-length films based on his life, one of them starring Vincent Cassel in the lead role. Mesrine wrote The Death Instinct while serving time in the high-security prison La Santé; the manuscript was smuggled out of the prison and was later published by Guy Debord's publisher Gérard Lebovici (who briefly adopted Mesrine's daughter, Sabrina, before being assassinated, a few years after Mesrine). The Death Instinct deals with the early years of Mesrine's criminal life, including a horrifically graphic description of a murder he committed early on in his career and a highly detailed account of the workings of the French criminal underworld--making this book perhaps one of the most intriguing and detailed anthropological studies of a criminal culture ever written.

PUBLISHER
TAMTAM BOOKS

BOOK FORMAT
PAPERBACK, 6 X 9 IN. / 325 PGS.

PUBLISHING STATUS
PUB DATE 10/31/2014
ACTIVE

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. EXCLUSIVE
CATALOG: FALL 2014 P. 77    

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780966234688 TRADE
LIST PRICE: $16.95 CDN $20.00

"The Dead All Have The Same Skin" by Boris Vian (Vernon Sullivan) TamTam Books

The Dead All Have The Same Skin

By Boris Vian. Introduction by Marc Lapprand. Translated by Paul Knobloch.

Vian’s second noir novel under the Vernon Sullivan pseudonym is a brutal tale of racism in postwar New York City, as protagonist Daniel Parker is blackmailed by a long lost brother. Also included is the short story “Dogs, Desire and Death,” and Vian’s account of the controversies surrounding his previous novel I Spit on your Graves.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Literary Hub

Appropriation and racial confusion themselves become motifs; the book reads like the nightmare of a person having an extreme identity crisis.

PUBLISHER
TAMTAM BOOKS

BOOK FORMAT
PAPERBACK, 8.5 X 5.70 IN. / 137 PGS / ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT.

PUBLISHING STATUS
PUB DATE 2/29/2012
ACTIVE

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. EXCLUSIVE
CATALOG: SPRING 2012 P. 47    

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780966234657 TRADE
LIST PRICE: $17.00 CDN $20.00