lumpyplume's reviews
349 reviews

I was really drawn to the book design, because the cover art was amazing and the front and backing boards were even printed on a material similar to retro boardgames. While it seemed like a fun collector's item, tens of thousands of first addition copies were sold. Also, this book provides only a small sample of Perry Bible Fellowship (yet nonetheless classic PBF moments). Additionally, now that Nicholas Gurewitch has announced the semi-retirement of the series, and that Dark Horse plans on publishing a really comprehensive PBF, I can't help but feel like I and many others were totally duped.

A shallow how-to guide for those that desperately want to become geisha, like the author, but ultimately have no chance in hell (due to their tainted blood). It gives some basic information about the water trade that was interesting though, but is all keeping with the romance and glamour of naughty Japan made popular by Arthur Golden.

A discussion of Noguchi's UNESCO garden, where an American sculptor was hired to create a garden "in the Japanese style." Treib discusses site-specificity, the politics behind UNESCO's Paris headquarters and its art program, issues of race and nationality, and gives a hint at Noguchi's importance on sixties landscape architecture (which of course means the '60s and beyond).

Buy this if you want to look at purdy pictures. Don't even bother reading what Vartanian wrote.