Marty After Dark - Almost Live...From New York

Entries in Otto (1)

Monday

Apr042011

April 4, 2011

Okay, it’s Sunday and time to visit an independent business in New York and buy something. My way of encouraging everyone to try and shop as local as you can and tell the chains to go fuck themselves. As I’ve said in the past my two favorite kinds of stores are record and book shops, so I’m kind of juggling them back and forth. Maybe next week I’ll find a different kind of shop to go to, but this week it’s back to a book store, The St. Mark’s Bookshop in the East Village.

It's about a ten minute walk over there. It's a little chilly out, but not freezing, maybe spring is finally on the way.

Ugh.

Downtown, where the neon lights are...

Pretty. Downtown.

And here we are, St. Mark's Books, let's check it out.

Lots of books in here and this is just the front of the store!

Jed was behind the counter and said it was fine to take photos in the store. A nice guy!

Here's some of the newer releases. I keep meaning to buy that Sarah Silverman book. Maybe that'll be tonight's purchase.

More books! Let's go check out some titles, shall we?

Quite a scary bear and we all know that Otto spelled backwards is Otto. I think that's called a padiddle when that happens, but don't quote me on that.

When I saw the title of the book, I thought the author had to be Jimmy Kimmel, but once again I'm wrong.

This one goes out to Tim "Clacky" Clack all the way to the land down under! Cheers, mate!

This is a poster of a postcard book you can buy up front. It's real photos of Theater signs done up in haiku three line style. Hilarious, maybe I'll buy that.

Speaking of postcards, there's a couple of racks of them in the back.

Fire!

Two bookends at the end of the aisle.

And there's magazines in here too. They sold fishwrap in here back when I was publishing it.

Speaking of fishwrap, check it out, a food fanzine called, Put A Egg On It. Very cool, you don't see that many fanzines these days.

A shot of Jed in action behind the counter. They're doing a brisk business in here tonight and that's good to see.

Here's a display of some specialty books. Hey, speaking of fanzines, check out the book on the lower right hand side!

It's a huge book on the history of fanzines. It made the transition from St. Mark's Bookstore to...

My coffee table. Okay, I gotta go start reading and see if fishwrap is mentioned anywhere in here. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

In Their Own Words (Taken from their website)
St. Mark's Bookshop was established in 1977 on New York City's Lower East Side, a community of students, academics, artists, and other discerning readers. Our specialties include Cultural Theory, Graphic Design, Poetry & Small Press Publishing, Film Studies, and Foreign & Domestic Periodicals and Journals. We are open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to Midnight, Sundays 11 am to Midnight.

Located at 31 Third Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets, we are convenient to the 6 Train at Astor Place and the N/R Trains at Broadway and 8th Street. Our neighborhood is home to New York University, The Cooper Union, and such cultural institutions as P.S. 122 and St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, which offer theatre, dance performances and poetry readings. There are also many vintage clothing stores, designer boutiques, import shops, antique stores, and new & used record stores in the area, as well as dozens of cafes, restaurants and bars.

St. Mark's Bookshop
31 Third Ave. (Near 9th St.)
212-260-7853

Further reading: facecrack page, Indie Bound, Ludlow Press and New York magazine.