Brian Joseph Davis
Biography
Brian Joseph Davis is creator of deceptive sound and print projects. He was called a "genius" by Alex Ross of the New Yorker, for turning the writings of philosopher Theodor Adorno into a punk 7-inch. Frieze Magazine deemed the same project "serious hilarity...joyous and thoughtful." Coach House Books recently published Portable Altamont, his first collection of writings, which has garnered praise from Spin Magazine for its "elegant, wise-ass rush of truth [and] hiding riotous social commentary in slanderous jokes." He’s a regular columnist for Eye Weekly and recently wrote about the death of the cassette for the Utne Reader.
Davis has often opened up the authorship of his projects to subversive collaborations. For “Thriller,” he worked with Michael Jackson fans to create better pro-Jackson propaganda, and for “Voice Over,” he composed a narrative text from a list of 5,000 film "taglines," which was read by professional film trailer voiceover artist Scott Taylor.
Poet's Note to Portable Altamont
The front cover is pink
The inside front cover is white
The end paper is black
The other side of the end paper is black
There is a title page
There’s that page with all the publishing info
Then there’s a page that warns of fiction
There is then a blank page
The next page is about famous first lines
The next page is about Canadian bands
The next page is about hair
The next page is about Ethan Hawke
The next page is about Nick Nolte
The next page is about hiphop
The next page is about Whitney Houston and unstable identity
The next page is about Tony Danza and unstable identity
The next page is about the Facts of Life
The next page is about fucking Sweden of all fucking things
The next page is about saying sorry (though not to Sweden)
The next page is about assassinations
The next page is about Kiefer Sutherland
The next page is about ?
The next page is about Philip Roth
The next page is about my editor
The next page is about Val Kilmer
The next page is about Sean Penn
The next page is about power
The next page is about Axl Rose’s hair
The next page is about direct action and the star of Walk The Line
The next page is a bad idea
The next page is a dream I once had
The next page is a dream Patrick Swayze once had
The next page is about Bjork
The next page is about death
The next page is a Ponge rip
The next page is filler
The next page is more filler
The next page is about ?
The next page is filler (but Emily rather likes it)
The next page is about dieting
The next page is about more dieting
The next page is about aging
The next page is about Don Knotts (R.I.P.)
The next page is about nude dancing (not to be confused with stripping)
The next page is about Styx
The next page is about the greatest leader our country never had
The next page is about Yoko Ono
The next page is about marriage
The next page is about grant applications
The next page is about an overrated poet
The next page is about Mick Jagger
The next page is about fashion
The next page is about an obscure intellectual in-joke masquerading as fashion
The next page is about desire
The next page is about great actresses of the ’80s
The next page is about James Spader
The next page is about Winona Ryder and sweatshops
The next page is about Mary Stuart Masterson (Didn’t you just love her in Some Kind of Wonderful?)
The next page is about people overcoming disabilities
The next page is about Canadian authors (see above)
The next page is about Canadiana continued
The next page is about Glen Campbell
The next page is about the last day
The next page is about the second page of the last day
The next page has a cannon
The next page is notes 1-3
The next page is notes 4-6
The next page is notes 7-8
The next page is note 8 continued
The next page is 8 continued through 10
The next page is note 11
The next page is note 11 continued
The next page is for all the unanswered questions of note 11
The next page is notes 12-13
The next page is errata
The next page is errata page 16-24
The next page is errata page 24-29
The next page is errata page 29 continued to 36
The next page is errata page 37-38
The next page is errata page 38 continued to page 45
The next page is errata page 45 continued to page 50
The next page is errata page 52-60
The next page is errata page 60 continued to page 62
The next page is the index “Bryan Adams to cubism”
The next page is the index “cubism continued through Ben Kingsley”
The next page is the index “Don Knotts through Luke Perry”
The next page is the index “Storm (a TV movie) through Reese Witherspoon”
The next page is the index “Z’atria”
The next page is blank
The next page is about thanking people
The next page is about thanking more people
The next page is blank
The next page is about me
The next page is blank
The next page is blank
The next page is about where the book was made and what font was used
The end paper is black
The other side of the end paper is black
The inside back cover is white
The back cover is pink