{"id":45996,"date":"2026-05-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=45996"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:22:33","slug":"mick-rock-the-rise-of-david-bowie-horrorstor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/mick-rock-the-rise-of-david-bowie-horrorstor\/","title":{"rendered":"Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie \/ Horrorst\u00f6r"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MICK ROCK: THE RISE OF DAVID BOWIE, 1972-1973 \u2013 AN AMAZINGLY IMPRESSIVE OBJECT, EVEN BY TASCHEN STANDARDS<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973<\/em>
by Mick Rock (photographer)
Taschen
2016, 300 pages, 10.8 x 15 x 1.2 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I asked Taschen\u2019s PR person for a review copy of the hardback edition of Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973<\/em> (after sheepishly asking in vein for the $800 Limited Edition), she warned me that it was an amazingly impressive object, even by Taschen standards. Don\u2019t laugh, but this intimidated me to the point where, after receiving the book, I waited over a week to look inside. I had damn-near passed out while first perusing the uncompromising art publisher\u2019s recent Blake<\/a> book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973<\/em> is about as woozying of a tome as you\u2019re ever going to stick your nose into. And this \u201cregular\u201d edition, available at Amazon for the remainder-bin price of under $45, is anything but regular. Every single aspect of this book is elevated. The cover sports a lenticular panel which contains five iconic Mick Rock images of everyone\u2019s favorite glam commander. This could have gone horribly wrong, too gimmicky or tacky, but this technology seems to have been invented to flash the ever-changing personas of David Bowie at the height of his (and Rock\u2019s) artistic powers. There is no more perfect cover for this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s just the cover. I was right to psych myself up. The first time I went through it, I got about 20 pages in and had to stop. The book is a sensual flood of uncompromising print materials, meticulous photographic reproductions, and state-of-the-art printing and binding. The smell of the this book is also worth noting (if you\u2019re into that sort of thing). It\u2019s intoxicating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The content of Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973<\/em> is almost entirely photographs. There is an essay on Bowie\u2019s rise in the early \u201870s and an interview with Mick Rock on working with Bowie, but otherwise, the majority of the 300 outsized pages are devoted to full-bleed photos, often paired with a Bowie quote, lyric, or statement about him. Nearly half of the images are rare or never before seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowie once said that Mick Rock could \u201csee him.\u201d I found the clarity of that vision, captured here in such a high-energy, high-definition presentation, to be literally breathtaking. You really do get the feeling that you are seeing a very rare and intimate relationship between an artist and his muse, chronicled by perhaps the one person who could see actually see and understand that relationship as it was unfolding. \u2013 Gareth Branwyn<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HORRORST\u00d6R \u2013 A TWIST ON A HAUNTED HOUSE STORY SET IN A MODERN IKEA-LIKE MEGASTORE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Horrorst\u00f6r<\/em>
by Grady Hendrix
Quirk Books
2014, 240 pages, 7.4 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches (softcover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine a store much like Ikea, but not quite up to Ikea\u2019s standards. In the book Horrorst\u00f6r<\/em>, Orsk is a shabby copy of the Scandinavian warehouse we all know, and maybe even love, right down to the incomprehensible product names (Fr\u0227njk, for example) and a Bright and Shining Path that guides shoppers through the showroom floor maze. But something about Orsk is different. And very, very wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy works at the Orsk in Cleveland, Ohio. Caught in a spiral of student debt and unable to support herself, she moves into her mom\u2019s trailer and wonders if she\u2019ll ever dig herself out of retail. \u200bThat\u2019s when things change. \u200bResigned to working at Orsk for the rest of their lives, Amy and her co-workers arrive every morning to find broken wardrobes, shattered glassware and vandalized sofas. Convinced someone is hiding out in the store and up to no good, they agree to spend the night in the store with their manager to unravel the mystery. Little do they know that tonight is their final shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horrorst\u00f6r<\/em> is a clever twist on a traditional haunted house story that takes place in a modern consumerist setting. The symbolism and criticism of consumer culture and the nature of work are there if you look for them, but it\u2019s light, and pretty funny, and doesn\u2019t get in the way of the story. The catalog-style furniture \u200bpages in Horrorst\u00f6r<\/em> \u2014 complete with enthusiastic but meaningless descriptions \u2013 grow increasingly dark as the story, and Amy\u2019s situation, become dire. Consider this catalog page for a chair:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoasting several advantages over traditional forms of restraint, BODAVEST confines the penitent and opposes the agitated movement of blood toward the brain, forcing the subject into a state of total immobility, conducive to self-reflection and free of stressful outside stimuli.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book also includes humorously grim versions of Orsk employee evaluations, order forms, and pages from the Orsk Leadership Handbook<\/em>. They really add to the enjoyment of the story. I found myself eagerly looking forward to them, trying to decipher which twist in the story they alluded to. Surprisingly, the last pages of the book took the story from hilariously gruesome to \u201cOh, heck yes!\u201d in the last few paragraphs. I won\u2019t ruin it for you, but they left me wanting to read more stories set in the wild and outrageous world of Orsk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOrsk. It\u2019s not just a job. It\u2019s the rest of your life.\u201d\u00a0\u2013 <\/em>Keith Monaghan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Books That Belong On Paper<\/strong>\u00a0first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair.<\/em>\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get the issues a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Issue No. 116<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46017,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45996\/revisions\/46017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}