Aesthetic Surgery

From liposuction to lip implants, this book explores all the ins and outs of body sculpting, focusing on the artistry of aesthetic surgery and the extremes to which people go to "improve" their looks. Topics include: History of aesthetic surgery (with unpublished medical photos!); Ethnicity and aesthetic surgery; Surgery in movies; Spotlight on Ivo Pitanguy, the "Michelangelo of the scalpel"; Interviews with the world's most famous aesthetic surgeons; Before and after photos of transformed body parts, from the top of the head to the tips of the toes; Caricatures and jokes about aesthetic surgery; Bibliography including links to plastic surgery websites. (more...)

Deathtripping: Underground Trash Cinema

This exhaustive study focuses on the New York filmmakers that coalesced around the radical manifesto espoused by downtown filmmaker Nick Zedd: "none shall emerge unscathed." Placing their work within the wider alternative film and downtown post-punk scenes, Deathtripping offers detailed analyses of the movement’s films alongside interviews with the filmmakers and their collaborators, including Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Tommy Turner, Beth B, Joe Coleman, and Lydia Lunch. (more...)

In Praise of The Backside

Description: "An ethnological and sociological reflection is lead by Professor Döpp in this fascinating matter that brings to the most incongruous revelations. Beyond our cultural and religious upbringings, women and men pursue their fantasies, which the author tries to unravel with the rigour of a scientist for the pleasure of our eyes." (more...)

Field Guide to the North American Bird

An illustrated guide to everyone’s favorite hand gesture, complete with a history of the bird, bird applications and etiquette, and how-tos for executing more than 50 birds. Brush up on classic birds like the Peel the Banana and the Volume ("Can you hear this?... Or do you want me to turn it up?"), then expand your vocabulary with more advanced birds like the Cell Phone, the Pulley, and the Helium Balloon. Includes a chapter on "Birds of the World," for the globetrotting bird-flipper. Flash the finger from China to the Czech Republic. (more...)

A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis

A man can hold his manhood in his hand, but who is really gripping whom? Is the penis the best in man--or the beast? How is man supposed to use it? And when does that use become abuse? Of all the bodily organs, only the penis forces man to confront such contradictions: something insistent yet reluctant, a tool that creates but also destroys, a part of the body that often seems apart from the body. This is the conundrum that makes the penis both hero and villain in a drama that shapes every man--and mankind along with it.

Whether enemy or ally, demon or god, the source of satisfaction or the root of all earthly troubles, the penis has forced humanity to wrestle with its enduring mysteries. Here, in an enlightening and entertaining cultural study, is a book that gives context to the central role of the penis in Western civilization. (more...)

The Modern Drunkard

Attempting to deconstruct America's joyless obsession with sobriety, The Modern Drunkard offers today's befuddled drinkers a comprehensive and instructive manual on how to drink-and how to do it well. Through articles, anecdotes, cartoons, and illustrations, Frank Kelly Rich campaigns to revive the lost art of tippling and taps a deep vein of boozy lore and legend through the ages, uncovering etiquette and expertise from some of history's greatest guzzlers.
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Sexuality, Magic, and Perversion

Sexuality, Magic, and Perversion surveys such outre subjects as sex magic, left-hand Tantrism, and the initiates of Aleister Crowley’s Order of Oriental Templars. This fascinating and highly readable book also discusses the role of magical fantasy in contemporary pornography. Appendices cover obscurities such as Ralph Chubb’s homoerotic mysticism and the women bishops of the Mariavite Church in Poland. (Out of Print)

Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes

Charles Darwin wasn’t the only one to come up with a contemporary explanation for the origin of human beings. Homespun fantasies and myths abound — the imaginative creations of dreamers, cult leaders, amateur scientists, racists, and rogues. Among the theorists this collection introduces are the eccentric English lord who believes that men are a cross between extraterrestrials and their Martian servants, a successful television journalist whose book suggests that humans evolved from aquatic apes, and a UFO investigator convinced that humans were bred as pets for brilliant dinosaurs. (Out of print)