David Barker - Death at the Flea Circus from BoSP

[Hosh]

Just posted at Goodreads:

"The book is every bit the equal of the fascinating story behind it. Written 40 years ago and left virtually untouched for decades, Death at the Flea Circus is a yarn one part dirty Brautigan, one part Sherlock Holmes procedural, and one part surreal, comic, almost Sci-Fi time-travel. Or maybe it's just that, like the dusty manuscript forgotten in a drawer, the story doesn't concern itself deeply with chronology. Or narrative, necessarily. The exacting and wildly inventive language of Brautigan is prominent here--not as a nostalgic tribute, but rather elbow to elbow as a contemporary; and the story belongs very much to the experimental schools made popular in the decades since it was written. What we end up with is a book wholly of another era, and yet timeless in the way that all fine writing is--a book that teaches us that the journey is the destination."

Now, Dr. Barker, where can I get some laudanum for a future re-read? Thanks for a fine book!

 

[Rekrab]

Hosh, thanks for the great review! I like how you place the book in its time, and still convey the strangeness of having it surface at this late date. I may quote your review about a million times.

 

[Rekrab]

Update on the deluxe edition oil paintings: Bill has the first four, all varnished and dry. One other has been done for weeks but I've been waiting for its red part to dry. I completed four more paintings last Saturday, and those have been drying, so I thought maybe I would have five dry and ready to varnish today (Thursday.) I did a careful check and three of the five had red parts that are still wet (including the one that has been drying for three weeks at this point), so I only varnished two of the five completed paintings today, and one of those had tiny red spots that smeared a bit when I spread the varnish, but I was able to clean the brush and brush out the pinkish smear. It seems like all my colors dry in three or four days except red, which takes forever. At this rate, I won't be able to varnish the three that are completed but still drying until the weekend after this coming weekend. Makes me think I should avoid red unless a painting has a long, long time to dry -- like months. I'll post photos of the new paintings later. I still have one painting that is not yet begun - number 10. That's the last of the deluxe edition paintings. I'm happy with all of them so far. Red is a slow bitch.

 

[Rekrab]

Five new oil paintings for the deluxe edition of Death At The Flea Circus. The first two are varnished, the rest are not (yet.)

The final painting -- not shown -- is 2/3rd done. It needs to dry a couple days, then gets more work. The unvarnished ones above just need to have their red parts completely dry (jeez...that sounds biological, "red parts") and then they get varnished. Varnishing is wildly fun. I can't imagine not doing it to an oil painting, now that I've tried it. Not only looks good, but protects the painting's surface, and it's just so much fun to do. The down side is that varnish can yellow after many years, although it hasn't happened yet to a couple paintings I did about 40 years ago.

 

[Black Swan]

Good job, David! Love the Laudanum and the Score!

 

[Rekrab]

Thanks, Black Swan. The Score tube took some research. I finally found a 1960s TV commercial for Score Hair Cream on Youtube and it has a couple close ups of the tube. They were clear enough for me to sketch out the basic design, but in Black & White, so I made up the colors. I actually used that stuff in High School. It was clear and not greasy.

By the way, I talked with my younger brother today and he remembers that I took the trip to Goleta with my pal and his dad late in my last year of high school, or in the summer just after graduation, so that dates much of the narrative of Death At The Flea Circus to 1966. Just in case you were dying to know. And, he remembers something I'd forgotten: that we distributed some of our privately minted lead coins in Goleta. That's a big subject, the lead coins. I'll save the details for another post. We made the coins from 1964 through 1966, I think, so the dates are right.

 

[jordan]

i used to work in goleta! lucky i made it out alive.

 

[Rekrab]

Really, Jordan? How long were you there? And what I'm really aching to know: do you happen to know the names of any older hotels there, that might have been in business in the 1960s? I don't mean old brick 1890 style hotels, but modern, mid 20th century motel style hotels. The one I stayed at was perhaps three or four stories high, with a big swimming pool in the center. Don't know if it was in Goleta or Carpenteria (if Carpenteria is even a town -- it may just be a beach). I'd love to find some photos of that hotel. Aside from that, what's Goleta like these days? Still small and sleepy and isolated? I could Google it and find out a bunch I'm sure, but I can't spend all my time at a computer. Well, I could, but that's no life...

 

[jordan]

carpenteria is indeed a town, immediately on the opposite side of santa barbara as goleta. i lived in santa barbara and worked in goleta for 2 years - it's pretty nice, but it has all the modern trappings of mid-to-upscale suburbs, including big commercial parks filled with franchises and chains, and stuff like that. if you go up into the hills, it's probably pretty similar to how it was 40 - 50 years ago. alas, i'm not much of a resource on hotels - whenever my parents came to visit me there, they stayed at a best western, which is about all i know.

 

[Rekrab]

Sounds like the place probably has changed a lot since I was there, although, as you say, up in the hills it may be the same. It's kind of funny that I've published a novel set there and know almost nothing about Goleta and the beach at Carpenteria. Even funnier if someday people go there looking for Crux and Dram streets, and the old warehouse that was turned into the Flea Circus. None of which were ever really there. Which reminds me. I should make a map of the Goleta of the book. There are four or five streets mentioned in the book, and several stores, businesses, residences. It could be like one of those fanciful maps in the front of fantasy novels.

 

[bospress.net]

that would look pretty letterpress printed....

 

[Rekrab]

Yes, it would. Actually, I already have a rough draft for it. I sketched out a crude map with a few streets on it so I could make up a reasonable address for The Mannikin, when I was typing postcards for the deluxe edition. I can build on that, add some sites, come up with a better sketch.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Count me in for one of those - I really dig maps (and the book). Just don't tell me that they're for the bureau edition only!

 

[bospress.net]

nope. If I do it, it will not be in the Bureau Edition.

Bill

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Sending PM on logistics.

 

[Rekrab]

Purple Stickpin, as I said in my PM, I like your ideas for the map, and I'm on board. I'll let you and Bill work out the details on logistics, while I'll focus on drawing up the map. Once I have a rough draft (well, less rough than the first draft), I'll post an image here and ask for help from readers on what I should add, what looks wrong. I've read the book four times lately, but I'm sure some of you will have picked up on details I'm forgetting, that could be used in the map. Thanks...

 

[Rekrab]

I'm getting some good ideas for map features. Street names, character homes, sites of various scenes. Oddly, the last of the oil paintings is of a small compass -- began before the map idea came up. It's a 19th century compass that my dad owned, brass in a wood case, about 2 inches square and maybe half an inch thick, with brass hinges and a clasp.

 

[Rekrab]

Here's the tenth and final oil painting (unvarnished in this shot) for the Bureau edition:

I just varnished five paintings, including the Compass. One painting, the tube of Score hair cream, is still drying. Stubborn red painting.

 

[Rekrab]

Doing that compass dial by hand was tricky. I should have used one of those plastic stencils with ovals on it to lay it out. As is, it's a bit wobbly but basically okay.

 

[Rekrab]

The varnish is dry on the last 6 oil paintings and they are in the mail to you, Bill.

 

[bospress.net]

The first 2 Bureau copies shipped today. Jeez it is a lot of work. I hope to have more copies in the mail in the next few days. I ran out of the correct color bookcloth.

Bill

 

[Rekrab]

Fantastic! I can only imagine how much it work it must be to make those boxes with drawers and all. I am not worthy.

 

[number6horse]

Taking a break at p. 65 because I don't want this story to end. And that hasn't happened in a while for me.

 

[bospress.net]

I felt the same way. I solved the problem by reading it a second and third time...

 

[Rekrab]

I hope my other novels will have the same effect on people. When they're published. No one has any trouble putting them down now because there's nothing to pick up yet. It would be terrible if this is the only book I ever write that has that effect, and the rest are slogs. I have no idea if that is or isn't the case. Time will tell. Thanks for the kind words, guys.

 

[Rekrab]

Got my copy of the BUREAU EDITION of Death At The Flea Circus, and it is over the top amazing. Incredible to see that drawer filled with objects from the book. Not to mention the huge, stunning clamshell. I'll post pictures later.

 

[bospress.net]

My friends at Lead Graffiti shot these photos and made them beautiful with Photoshop.

Here is the Bureau Edition. Some copies are brown in the inside and some are tan...

 

[jordan]

i quit

 

[justine]

me too

 

[Stavrogin]

Let me see - there's bold, italic, underline, strike-through, align left, align center, align right, unordered list, ordered list, outdent, indent, insert/edit link, unlink, insert/edit image, media, code, quote and so on. Where's speechless?