I love my local used bookstore. It's called Logos, and they sell outrageously arty remainders, unbelievable picture books, piles of OOP hardbacks, lyric sheets, real vinyl, and significantly weird poetry.
They are also a nice cool place to sit when it's broiling outside.
For those of you who live in Santa Cruz, or driving distance, I'm going to let you in on a secret: Logos just acquired a mammoth Underground Comix collection of a local fellow who passed away. His family didn't want his dirty comix, his Crumb, his Furry Freak, his Guy Colwell, his Slow Death and Heavy Metal... so they sold them all to the store, and now Logos is selling them to anyone who walks in. There are hundreds of esoteric titles that any fiend is going to lose their mind over.
I walked in and dropped $100, which was a pittance of what I really wanted to spend. I'm afraid I took ALL the Tits & Clits first editions, so you can just gnash your teeth at a distance.
Don't forget to ask for a look at what they put away in the "really expensive and really erotic" section, too. I couldn't afford any of those, but I loved browsing.
I finished myself off the same afternoon with an entirely different kind of porn: a gigantic photo book by uber-star Elizabeth Taylor on the subject of her jewelery collection— which must be one of the most amazing private collections in the world.
Liz says that she will take her Krupp diamond off and lets anyone try it on who asks! She tells one outrageous drunken, sex-fueled, bling-bling spending spree story after another, and makes you wonder why you ever had a spat with a lover that didn't end in a sprint to Bulgari's secret "money room."
The pictures are JAW DROPPING. Who needs peyote when you have this many facets to blind yourself with? She has one pear-shaped natural pearl the size of some people's cocks, that she had strung on new necklace designed in the fashion of one of its former owners, Mary Queen of Scots. She gossips about the outrageous history of every byzantine design. She loses priceless heirlooms under the rug in rages and fits... then sobs with ecstasy when they are rediscovered. It's enough to make you watch The Taming of the Shrew all over again!
I love jewels— the colors, the light magic, the imagination of their design. When I was little, I pretended I had three daughters, and their names were Ruby, Emeralda, and Sapphire. They were always getting into trouble, and I was always drawing them new outfits— in their namesake colors, of course— to give them a new start!
I've never had anything remotely like one of Liz Taylor's hairpins, but I'm inspired nonetheless. I may have to get out my crayons again!
