Amos Kennedy Film + News

There is a full trailer on YouTube for the upcoming documentary on southern letterpress artist Amos Kennedy. The film, Proceed and Be Bold, will debut at Columbia College in Chicago on May 9, 2008. Here is the older teaser.

He is supposed to be at the Alabama Book Festival on April 19th, down in Montgomery. And if you are a fan, then you need to go see him…

word on the street is that he’s moving to Virginia soon.

Jonathon Benton Bookseller

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sadly, this shop closed in April 2009. This post is being left up as an archive.

jb021.jpgJonathon Benton Bookseller
2705 Culver Rd
Birmingham, AL 35223
(205) 870-8840
jbbookseller@gmail.com

This small independent shopis located in Mountain Brook, just off Highway 280. Their store web presence seems to always be in flux but they do seem to do a better job of keeping their MySpace presence more up-to-date. They have a full coffee bar and the bookstore staff always seems very knowledgeable and helpful. It’s popular with a handful of book clubs and local folks.

It’s a nice small bookstore to peruse. They do a good job of keeping the most recent titles in stock, but nothing too far back.You’ll have to call about the hours, as they don’t keep them posted.

jb01.jpg

jb03.jpg

jb04.jpg

jb05.jpg

jb06.jpg

jb07.jpg

jb08.jpg

jb09.jpg

jb10.jpg

jb11.jpg

jb12.jpg

jb13.jpg

A bass-tastic video

Designer Saul Bass was BIG a few decades ago (think Vertigo and the original AT&T logo) and his influence can still be found in book covers today. Here is a short video a design student worked up, imagining “what if Saul Bass had been tapped to do the now iconic Star Wars title sequence. I think the fonts and titles are spot on and “very Bass”. It’s all pretty cool (though I’m not sure about the music).

swa.jpg

And I wish I could get it to embed, but we seem to be having problems, so you’ll have to click on through, if you want to watch. Sorry. Once there you’ll be able to see the other films Bass’s brush has been applied to.