in print

about every five weeks or so, i find i've filled up another journal with hot trash and a lotta verbal screwin' aroun.' and every journal gets a hand-decorated cover. personally decorated and titled by me, almadora english. this one features a groovy mr. peter tork, in a bookshop, wearing a hippy top, snagging some literary buys. included in the collage portion below, we see olivia newton-john ( with the stack of books ) morrissey, from an early-to-mid 90's concert tour, a miniature collage of jean-luc's, r.e.m., who have now called it quits... umm, a few colorful scraps, ian holm as napoleon at six 0'clock, and georgina hale in ken russell's 'mahler.' i make a sweet journal cover, if i do say so myself.

wolf

i christened a new book tonight. i haven't written anything in it yet, i just got the cover on. the stars are the recently-featured-by-me hot bohemian couple of mick jagger and anita pallenberg. its from the nicholas roeg-donald cammell masterpiece 'performance.' actually, i don't think this particular shot is ever in the movie. and i know i featured a shot extremely similar to this shot last night. but that doesn't mean the cover is not extremely groovy, if i do say so myself. i already had the word 'wolf ' on hand for other distant reasons, but i decided i liked the archetype (sp?) of the wolf, and all those wild primitave implications of the bloodthirsty threat that might creep up upon the doors of innocence and domestic comforts.... that proverbial 'wolf at the door' that symbolizes a savage threat to a known and comfortable, albiet possibly ignorant, way of life. when you are blissfully sewing by the fire and entertaining thoughts of folly as you thread and stitch a square of linen with a slim silver needle and silken threads... the wolf is lurking, prepared... so lock your doors, gentle maidens. the wolf trots ever closer... closer...

(click to enlarge)

back covered

recently, our mother was good enough to send jean-luc and i an assortment of some of our older journals; like the ones from ten years ago. needless to say, it was interesting for me to get my hands on them again. this is a scan of the back cover of one of jean-lucien's books from over a decade ago. all the wear and tear you see on the edges is due to simply that: wear and tear. life.... the simple tread of having been handled and transported and dropped and shuffled and all of that kind of thing. i think i'm correct in revealing the adhesive used to affix the picksh was nothing more glamorous than elmer's glue. i love the color in the live bowie shot in the middle. and if you click-to-enlarge, and look very closely in the lower left-hand corner, you can clearly see and read a part of the lyrics to miss joni mitchell's genius song 'shades of scarlet conquering,' from her landmark album 'the hissing of summer lawns.' its gorgeous. i love the whole thing. it just proves that, with very, very few exceptions over the years, jean-lucien always knew what he was doing. (click to really, really enlarge.)

my newest book

here's a photograph i took of my latest book. i just christened it a couple of days ago. forgive the lopsided-ness. it didn't scan it, i just took a picture of it. not bad... but that accounts for the skewered slant. the model is, of course, the legendary and self-proclaimed 'punk rock warlord,' mr. joe strummer, from his 'clash' days. he's lovely. i was lucky enough to find i already had the name 'john' printed out, which was joe's real first name. the ribbon of color underneath him is made up of shots of military helicopters, a purple galaxy, soldiers in battle, helen mirren, and a tiny rock poster for 'jefferson airplane.' i chose that array of shots for several reasons; the most valid of which was the color of each one. content-and-or-context was secondary. i added some prismatic stickers, glued on the title, and there you are. it probably enlarges real big... my camera works better than i thought, considering i just propped the book up on my phone, which i keep on the floor, and just took one snap. soon it will be full, full of black inkstrokes and truly great, great literature.

darling volume

now, you're really gonna have to 'click to enlarge' this one to get the full detail. its a journal cover i made a few years ago. the main model is none other than a giggling, young, monkees-era davy jones taken from the 'monkees mind their manor' episode. (the only episode directed by peter tork.) i seem to have over-embellished the lower left hand corner with glitter and pen work and such. the stars featured in the circles above are; from left to right: f. murray abraham as salieri, linda blair from 'roller boogie,' andy partridge, patti lupone as evita, nancy allen from '1941, and a little bit of ian holm as fluellen in 'henry v.' as much as its been handled, it still looks pretty groovy if i do say so myself. i do love that pink-and-sea-green color scheme.