Recent acquisitions

For someone with such a hoarder mentality, Andy Warhol's diaries didn't detail much in the way of his acquisitions of goodies. That's a shame, because I'd actually enjoy reading about that more than his detailed rundowns of such meaningless trivia as his bar tabs and cab fare.

In that spirit (and what could be bloggier?) I'll be rattling off occasional lists of cool shtuff I've obtained in the last few days. Like this:

"Brecht and Co." by John Fuegi. Huge tome that I haven't cracked open yet but it'll take top priority in the official JSH toilet library when I finish reading his play Good Person of Szechwan (which isn't really impressing me much but I'm determined to finish it).

Beat the Devil, a DVD of the insanely bad yet brilliant film by John Huston and Truman Capote, the idea for which reportedly was cooked up hastily over a drunken weekend. It's got Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart. Bogie absolutely despised the film and said that anyone who liked it was a "phony". Guilty as charged!

"7 Reece Mews: Francis Bacon's Studio" by Perry Ogden. I love books that are specifically about an artist's studio, and this is a photo book documenting every nook and cranny of Francis Bacon's workspace, which is so crusted with old paint and cluttered with books, supplies, junk, filth and garbage that it makes my own studio look positively immaculate by comparison.

- - JSH