Rachel's Random Reads: Brian Paul Bach

Showing posts with label Brian Paul Bach. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 August 2017

Guest Post - The Books of Summer by Brian Paul Bach - #Blogival

The BOOKS Of SUMMER

Or, At Least, A Few Such Notions

Brian Paul Bach

I guess I’m kind of an oddball reader. That is, not your typical (capable) consumer of reads for enjoyment, first and foremost. Nothing against such pursuits, it’s just that I’m more of a grab-bag kind of explorer, book-wise. Also, I’m maddeningly slow in plowing through pretty much everything. True, I have an astigmatism that ensures my progression will be clunky and start-stop-start, but it’s really because I’d rather be writing than reading. You know, distractions arise – such as, non-related ideas crowding in, a relentless parade of superfluous sensations, and most significantly, my two-year-old hound Hudson sitting before me, smiling, snuffling, and grunting all of which suggest ‘git off yer ass and let’s go goof off’, and I enthusiastically obey without any equivocation whatsoever.

Thus, my own Dog of Summer eclipses any Books of Summer that may vie for prominence. And that’s taking in the upcoming Total Eclipse of the Sun, due in August, which he’ll probably sleep through...

Nevertheless, citing a few ‘summer-ian’ (though not Sumerian) book-looks is a cinch, because I can wax fondly over any read that evokes sweet reminiscences of moods to be treasured.

I tend to gravitate to fiction that conveys cinematic vividness and nonfiction that supports such characteristics (including books about the movies themselves). I guess that’s why I threw everything I knew about the film world into my four-part epic-noir-satire saga, FORWARD TO GLORY. And I did so with a general feeling of everything being right with the world, such as one might encounter in an afternoon of deepest summer, and the enjoyments therein.

So, with the Fahrenheit/Celsius rising, time to settle back on a ramshackle chaise, with both book and matching beverage of the moment. Here are five, randomly selected, in no special order.

Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases and of Kindred Terms Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive by Yule, Burnell and Crooke 1902. India is one of my specialties, and yes, it is noted for its varying aspects of heat. Yet, I’ve never been more chill than when I got up before dawn to visit the Taj Mahal at Agra. That’s where I got this particular book, a totally fascinating compendium that you can dip into on any page and discover how shampoo, bungalow, juggernaut and thousands more terms evolved. And yes, ‘Hobson-Jobson’ is fully explained. Hands down, one of my all-time favorite desert island books. Perfect gin+tonic reading.

A Tennessee Williams omnibus: Suddenly Last Summer, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana 1950s-60s. Just because ‘summer’ is in the title of a book, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything seasonal, but most of this master dramatist’s works are evocative of some kind of hot spell, either literally or emotionally. Plays can be pretty fast to read, especially if you know the story. And because these three classics are three classic films, going through them is even more enjoyable. It’s also interesting to note the differences between stage and screen versions. Refreshment? Ice tea (preferably spiked), but no mint julips – clichés do not apply to Tennessee Williams.

At The Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft 1973. I acquired this book as a youth while visiting Oxford one summer, and I was pulled in because of the wonderfully bizarre cover. I’d never read Lovecraft before, but the contents didn’t disappoint. On beyond Poe, it takes place in Antarctica, where an expedition makes some ghastly discoveries, all of which are shiver-worthy. The only possible antidote: a hot toddy.

Baedeker’s Southern Italy and Sicily 1903. I’ve been to Naples, Pompeii and Sorrento, but not yet further south. I love old guidebooks and of course, Baedeker’s are top of the line. This is the grand tour approach, meticulously detailed, with delightful period touches, yet completely current with the substance that matters. The tactile quality of these little red books is sensuous, the maps are pure amazement, and it’s worth every lira to splurge on a select Italian white.

Rootabaga Stories by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by the Petershams 1922.

Not necessarily a summer-oriented collection, except that it reminds me of rose-tinted and carefree summers of childhood, when joys were so simple, especially when discovering such a parade of splendid originality as these ingenious inventions. It’s a pretty big book for kids, and I’m powerful thirsty. Lemonade...? Well, now that I’m all growed-up, I think I shall send out for cold beer.

PS: Not that I get snockered while reading, but on such an afternoon, I do not question the summery magic that results from indulging in such pleasures.

Thank you so much Brian for sharing your books of summer with us.

Forward to Glory: Tempering

Facing the movie monolith’s prospects alone, Butterbugs attempts to perform dramatic scenes in front of the homeless and amongst the inebriated. Living in his car, and with dwindling reserves, he searches for opportunities, takes on a hazardous scaffolding job, and makes desperate pleas to bankers for clemency. Isolation leads to alienation, from fringe existence to bare survival, all in a city which cradles high achievement and bottomless failure. Despite his rough start, Butterbugs is strangely attractive to other outcasts turned possible allies: Heatherette – a mysterious force for good whom he weirdly rejects, and who in turn, rejects him; Starling – the thief who tries to love him; ProwlerCat – who might indeed save him, though it is far too early to know for sure. At one of his bleakest moments, Butterbugs receives his first sign of hope that his dreams remain alive: a screen test and the chance to be an extra in a major production. But now, with his first opportunity in hand, nothing seems as it should, except his going forward.

Abundant with movie lore and invention, Forward to Glory I: Tempering by Brian Paul Bach is an ode to the cinema and the bewitching power of entertainment.

Purchase from Amazon UK

About the author:

Brian Paul Bach is a writer, artist, filmmaker and photographer; he has worked across the entertainment business, in theatre, music and as an academic. He now lives in central Washington State with his wife, Sandra. His previous works include The Grand Trunk Road From the Front Seat, Calcutta’s Edifice: The Buildings of a Great City, and Busted Boom: The Bummer of Being a Boomer.

Website: https://forwardtogloryquartet.wordpress.com/
Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/340808.Brian_Paul_Bach
Goodreads FORWARD TO GLORY page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34416505-forward-to-glory?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/brianpaulbach/
Twitter: @ftgquartet

Follow along with the rest of Clink Street Publishing's big blogging festival - Blogival

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Guest Post - My Own Version Of Love For The Cinema by Brian Paul Bach - Blog Tour

COMING SOON...

...NEVER TO END

My Own Version Of Love For The Cinema

Brian Paul Bach

It’s almost as if – before I knew they even existed – I could hardly wait for the movies. To see them, experience them. To dive right in, and dive deep. When that time came, and my subconscious anticipation found its outlet, I was not disappointed. Movies were more than I ever could have imagined. One of life’s frosting-on-the-cake gifts.

That’s the thing about film, it’s a realization of things previously unimagined. Or else it’s the fulfillment of dreams actually imagined. Or more commonly, ‘That isn’t how I thought it would be at all!’ – which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

My interest in, appreciation of, and love for the cinema goes way back.

I started out with the silents. Not the Silent Era, which was a tad before my time, but via 8mm home movies my dad shot, documenting our family from time immemorial. During screenings, all we could hear was the projector running. That was perfectly fine because, as Gloria Swanson said in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, ‘We had faces then!’ Talkies naturally followed, but in professional film gauges, like 35mm and even 70mm.

TV was certainly accessible, but in bluish black & white, often with lousy, snowy reception. Consequently, the big screen became super-special, even sacred – and an experience in front of it was an event.

Disney & Co. provided the usual fare at first. You know, Hayley Mills crush, the 20,000 Leagues submarine, Swiss Family/Castaways wonders, etc. Then there came the exciting horrors of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Atlantis, The Lost Continent. Plus all those Jerry Lewis matinees in the company of howling, snotty kids who were a little too interested in spit-wads and throwing milkshakes at the screen. (For years I regarded Lewis’ solo films as pretty miserable, until giving them a second chance in DVD form and finding inventive comedies, more for adults than for no-neck monsters.) But then came Lawrence of Arabia, and the world changed. The flickering floodgates opened. It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’, The Blue Max, In The Heat Of The Night, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, Eraserhead...others...

Well, everyone has their movie memories, and mine go on and on. Still! However, while most young people understandably regarded movies as simply entertainment, I was one of those who, amidst the general absorption, noticed stuff like backgrounds, the music score, the style of lettering in the main title sequences, the studio logos (20th-Fox my favorite), the screen process, names in the credits, and so much more. After all, a film is nothing but details, assembled, after much fiddling, into a kinetic whole. ‘How did they do that?’ was my most frequently-asked question.

After enough technique was noted, enjoyed, and familiarized, the way opened to more mature considerations, such as the drama itself, acting technique, dialogue, and editing. I always liked handling a camera, but because of my impromptu film ‘studies’, I began to think more like a producer/director. I added ‘writer’ to the combo when I figured out, again thanks to Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, that writing was – ahem – pretty important, too.

There’s so much to admire, to fascinate, to critique, and to love in the cinema. It’s not necessary to define it further, except to say, there’s something for everyone. I follow most genres (including foreign films; why limit oneself to Hollywood?), and I try to keep up when I can, but my specialized focus tends to be the Golden, Silver (and often the Silent) ages of film, though the ages of Brass and Lead have amazing offerings here and there. No need for any sort of snobbishness, but like everyone else, I have preferences. There’s far too much product to take in on a regular basis.

As a Complete movie fan, small-scale filmmaker, and most pertinently, as a writer, I tossed all this interest, this appreciation, knowledge, instinct, tons of details, names and notions, ballyhoo, personalities, characters, inventions, lore, scandal, danger, ecstasy, theory, sensibility (and sensuality) – this love – for film and its consequences, into the four-tiered hopper of my production mechanism. My own ‘studio’, as it were. Then I pushed the button marked blend, and after much chugging and steaming, thrashing and streaming, groaning and screaming, out came my Epic-Noir-Satire saga: The FORWARD TO GLORY Quartet, with TEMPERING [the Actor’s struggles] comprising the first act, to be followed by EXPOSITION [the Actor’s rise], APOTHEOSIS [the Actor’s climax], and concluding with BEYOND FIN [the Actor’s legend].

It’s going the be a GREAT SHOW!

EPIC in its SCOPE!

NOIR in its TURNINGS1

SATIRE by its PLAYFULNESS!

TWO CENTURIES IN THE MAKING!

A CAST OF THOUSANDS – PERHAPS EVEN MILLIONS!

COMING SOON!!

Forward to Glory: Tempering

Butterbugs is a nobody, a nothing. But that’s not why he’s compelled to drive to Hollywood and hurl himself upon the mercy of the cinematic capital. His only dream is to act. Without any plans, resources or friends, he throws caution to the wind and embarks on a journey to the City of Angels. The trials that result pose only one question: will Butterbugs remain a non-entity, or will his big dream come true?

Facing the movie monolith’s prospects alone, Butterbugs attempts to perform dramatic scenes in front of the homeless and amongst the inebriated. Living in his car, and with dwindling reserves, he searches for opportunities, takes on a hazardous scaffolding job, and makes desperate pleas to bankers for clemency. Isolation leads to alienation, from fringe existence to bare survival, all in a city which cradles high achievement and bottomless failure. Despite his rough start, Butterbugs is strangely attractive to other outcasts turned possible allies: Heatherette – a mysterious force for good whom he weirdly rejects, and who in turn, rejects him; Starling – the thief who tries to love him; ProwlerCat – who might indeed save him, though it is far too early to know for sure. At one of his bleakest moments, Butterbugs receives his first sign of hope that his dreams remain alive: a screen test and the chance to be an extra in a major production. But now, with his first opportunity in hand, nothing seems as it should, except his going forward.

Abundant with movie lore and invention, Forward to Glory I: Tempering by Brian Paul Bach is an ode to the cinema and the bewitching power of entertainment.

Purchase from Amazon UK

About the author:

Sunday, 16 April 2017

Fab Firsts - Q&A with Brian Paul Bach - Spring Reading Week

Fab Firsts is my new regular Sunday feature, that is going to be highlighting books that are firsts. When interviewing authors, it will be about their first book, as well as other firsts in their lives. When reviewing books for this feature, there will be a mix of debuts, first books in a series, the first time I read an author, and possibly other firsts depending on what I can think of!

If you are an author wanting to take part in Fab Firsts then please do email on gilbster at gmail dot com and I'll whizz the questions over to you.

I hope you enjoy this look at a variety of hopefully fabulous firsts, while making some sort of dent in my review and paperback TBRs which are my current main focus!

Brian Paul Bach is a writer, artist, filmmaker and photographer; he has worked across the entertainment business, in theatre, music and as an academic. He now lives in central Washington with his wife, Sandra, independent cat Condell, and faithful hound Hudson. His previous works include The Grand Trunk Road From the Front Seat, Calcutta’s Edifice: The Buildings of a Great City, and Busted Boom: The Bummer of Being a Boomer. Forward to Glory I: Tempering by Brian Paul Bach (published by Clink Street Publishing March, 2017, available to order from online outlets including Amazon and from all good bookstores. For more information, visit https://forwardtogloryquartet.wordpress.com/

1) Can you tell us a bit about your first book?

When my wife Sandy and I were traveling in India in the 1990s, the route that we took, from Calcutta in the southeast all the way up the border with Afghanistan in the northwest, was so thrilling that it was a natural for a travel book. The result was The Grand Trunk Road From the Front Seat, which appeared in 1993, and a revised and expanded edition in 2000. The journey is described in vivid detail, but in an appreciative and exploratory manner.

2) What was your original inspiration to become a writer, and to write your debut?

Because I’ve always been an artist, and later a photographer and filmmaker, writing has always been a natural addition to my creative pursuits. I was particularly moved to write the Grand Trunk Road book because there was so little material on the subject. That’s why it was accepted so enthusiastically by the publisher.

3) How long did it take you to write your first book?

About five months, and it was pretty easy, because I was writing about recent experiences.

4) If you could do anything differently in retrospect, what would you change about your debut, or how you went about writing it?

I would have been a bit more assertive in working with the publishers to make the book better than it turned out to be, especially as far as editing and presentation were concerned.

5) Was your first book self or traditionally published, and how did you go about making that decision?

It was traditionally published by HarperCollins in India. I wrote a proposal to them from Bombay, and when in Delhi, I approached their offices in person. They had received my proposal and liked my offering. I signed a contract that very afternoon.

6) Do you have any tips for other first time authors?

If you can write, even just a bit, every day (or every other day, so as not to overdo it!), you’ll quickly learn for yourself what sort of system you can work into. One that works best for you. If you’re driven on a single project, and it’s going smoothly, keep it going, and you can refine it later, which is the best approach anyway. Also, you might try working on more than one project at a time, and try out different genres within fiction, nonfiction, essays, reviews, etc. Even if your writing is just for yourself, the important thing is to keep the momentum going, and concentrate on the writing itself. Allow yourself a bit of planning (or fantasizing) about what you want to have happen with your work, but ease off if it becomes a distraction. Good luck!

Tell us about your first…

7) Book you bought

‘The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends’ by Anne Terry White. A treasury I treasured whenever I checked it out from the library in elementary school, especially the glorious illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen. When on a family vacation in exotic Chicago, I was amazed to find a brand-new copy for sale in the Art Institute’s bookshop. My dad, an artist, art professor, and Art Institute alumni, was impressed by the illustrations and so, cheerfully handed over the purchase funds, which amazed me even more. One of the best four dollars I’ve ever spent.

8) Memory

Being dragged down the hall on a blanket by my three older brothers. We were all laughing hysterically.

9) Person you fell in love with

Hayley Mills – along with millions of others! Sandy came my way later on – fortunately!

10) Holiday you went on

British Columbia, Canada. Total excitement.

11) Prize you won

I have never won a prize, even though I am always eligible!

12) Album you purchased

The ‘Doctor Zhivago’ soundtrack album, which was a blissful revelation. Music by the great Maurice Jarre.

13) Sport you enjoyed participating in

Tetherball! Easy!

14) Embarrassing moment you can remember

Puffing on my first cigarette, at age five, in the crawlspace of a house under construction in our neighborhood, accompanied by my older brothers and friends, I declared: ‘Nice filter!’ It happened to be a filter-less Camel ‘straight’. The power of TV advertising! I was razzed, but with good humor, because my statement was more funny than stupid. I’m proud to say I’ve never become a smoker.

15) Pet

Our Springer Spaniel, Cricket, much beloved. For my first ten years, she was slightly older than I was.

16) Time you were in trouble

I was a good little boy (!)

17) ..choice of alternative career if you weren’t an author

Film director.

18) …time you had any independence

When still in elementary school, my dad let me explore downtown Seattle on my own.

19) …toy that you recall loving

An inflatable choo-choo-train locomotive that’s squeaky-deaky when squeezed. I still have it, though it’s currently uninflated.

20) … time you felt like an adult

When I was no longer carded when buying beer. (Just kidding.)

21) … time you realised you were good at something

My capabilities in drawing pictures were appreciated by others quite early on.

22) Dish you cooked

Cold oatmeal with milk. Uncooked, so I guess it doesn’t count.

23) … time you were really scared

When the foghorn blasted on the ferry from Seattle to Victoria BC. I started bawling. I was four.

24) ..time you bought or received flowers

I always picked ‘em for Mom – no need to buy ‘em!

Thank you for agreeing to take part in Fab Firsts. Although Brian may not be a film director I do have a post coming up on 25th April all about his love of film, to celebrate his new book Forward to Glory: The Tempering.

Forward to Glory: Tempering

Brian Paul Bach has been a worker in the theatre, an academic library, and the music business. He is a student of film and its lore, a casual dramatic performer and voice impressionist, an appreciator of theatre architecture and operation, and an architectural writer. Golden ages of film production, automotive design, and world architecture are of especial interest, as are music, social culture, and most things concerning the Indian subcontinent. As a youth he embraced teenage filmmaking, worked in fringe show business in Seattle, and later probed the filmic corners of Hollywood, London and India. From these pursuits he has adopted cinematic thinking as a built-in facet of everyday life. As a young person he ran his own neighborhood theatre, for which he produced acts and short movies. He has been immersed in performance arts and associated activities all his life. Writing has also been a constant, fiction and nonfiction.

Accompanying these efforts has been an ever-present production of drawings, paintings photographs, videos and designs that have added up to a very personal statement of style and expression.
Bach’s other published works, illustrated with his photos, drawings, and maps, include: THE GRAND TRUNK ROAD FROM THE FRONT SEAT, in two editions, 1993 and 2000 – the Author’s travels from Calcutta to the Afghan frontier; and CALCUTTA’S EDIFICE: THE BUILDINGS OF A GREAT CITY, 2006 – a major examination of the architecture and culture of the Bengali metropolis. The book was presented to two successive Chief Ministers of West Bengal state, at the 2006 and 2012 Calcutta Book Fairs, the latter attended by the Author. Bach has long observed his own generation’s behavior, its choices and its outlooks, resulting in BUSTED BOOM: THE BUMMER OF BEING A BOOMER.

He lives in Washington State with his wife Sandra, an accomplished ceramicist and chef, independent cat Condell, and faithful hound Hudson.

Purchase FORWARD TO GLORY - ACT I: TEMPERING
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