Songs for the Extinction of Winter: Poems

Cook, Rob

Rain Mountain Press

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Part Charlie Chaplin, part Rimbaud, visionary poet Rob Cook recreates childhood and young adulthood in one of the funniest yet emotionally potent collections to appear. DIARY OF TADPOLE THE DIRTBAG is biography compressed into a series of darkly humorous vignettes—bristling, self- deprecating, yet celebratory. A long- haired Tadpole at last emerges from the miasma of his boyhood in an ill- fitting green trench coat. His saving graces are his acute vision (although his eyesight is bad along with a host of other maladies)and his humor, gloriously his own. Although he fails, he wants to become the Einstein of Failure.

Diary of Tadpole the Dirtbag, Second Edition

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Poetry. "Eschewing neat closures, Cook creates poems that arguably compose one long gesture, the sections open to and echoing each other, all held together by the pain of a unblinking awareness as well as by a ubiquitous freshness in the writing—if Cook sees a worn linguistic or perceptual path in front of him, he always veers off in a new direction that challenges both himself and his reader. Fueled by a deep dismay, the poetry goes beyond Surrealism, for Breton's 'astonish me' is no longer sufficient; the many contemporary outrages of Cook's 'always lurking, indefinable country' require instead a poetic that can register the shock of 'castrated hymns' and 'the statues of sharks inside our mouths.' Cook's world, where even the ground is capable of falling and wind is torn to plastic, is our own but atomized and reassembled in such a way that what we see through his lens is both strange and familiar. Thus the poet's vision of berries 'ripening / on a noose' encapsulates a life-and-death drama between, as the book's title suggests, the imperial and the natural, a drama that gives an urgent quality to the verse and so invigorates the poet that the end result is a buoyant energy in and of itself a significant victory. Like Whitman in another perilous national period, Cook, by imagining the unimaginable and expressing the ineffable, offers us 'good health'; EMPIRE IN THE SHADE OF A GRASSBLADE is both an antidote for dispiritedness and a guidebook for living in the land of 'commercially-harvested weeping.'"—Philip Dacey

Empire in the Shade of a Grass Blade

The Bitter Oleander Press

The Slingerland Book

Arts & Photography

Music

Rebeats Publications

The Ludwig Book by Rob Cook is the definitive business and historical guide to this legendary drum manufacturer. Includes dozens of interviews, a 64-page color section, a dating guide including every catalogued Ludwig snare drum and outfit, and a handy CD-ROM. Interview sections include the top executives from Ludwig's heyday in the 1960s: Karl Dustman, Frank Baxpehler and Dick Schory, as well as todays leaders: William F. Ludwig III, Todd Trent and Jim Catalano. There are also special segments on Ludwig Electronics, Phase II, and detailed sections about the gear used by famous drummers such as John Bonham and Ringo Starr.

The Ludwig Book: A Business History and Dating Guide

Humor & Entertainment

Rebeats Press

Slingerland is one of the greatest drum companies of all-time. Rob Cook has lovingly compiled the Slingerland story with detailed chapters on the family the Boston background the company through the decades Slingerland endorsees and personnel the Gretsch/HSS era Gibson's acquisition and much more. The book features a detailed dating guide classic ads and catalog pages and lots of stunning full-color and B&amp;W photos throughout.

Rebeats

The Gretsch Drum Book by Rob Cook in collaboration with John Sheridan is a complete business history of the Gretsch Drum Company and dating guide for Gretsch drums. From the founding of the company in 1883, every significant management change of direction is discussed right up to the current era in which owner Fred W. Gretsch partners with KMC Music. A history of Gretsch artist relations includes an alphabetic list of every Gretsch drum endorser from 1936 to 2012 with photos of over 200 of them. The dating guide illustrates every catalog, color, badge, snare drum, drum kit, and hardware item catalogued through the 130-year history of Gretsch drums.

The Gretsch Drum Book

Autobiography of Maurie and Jan Lishon, and the history of Franks Drum Shop of Chicago. Maurie Lishon was one of the top show and studio drummers of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. From 1951 to 1978 he owned and operated the iconic Franks Drum Shop, one of the largest drum shops in the USA, with an international reputation. This history of Franks Drum Shop provides a great many insights into the history and development of the percussion industry in the USA.

Franks For The Memories

Lishon, Maurie

Biographies & Memoirs

Includes samples of the various colors and finishes used by the major American drum companies from the 1920s through the late 1970s. Includes Camco, Fibes, Gretsch, Leedy, Ludwig, Rogers, and Slingerland.

Drum Colors

The Rebeats Calfskin Head book details how animal hides are made into drum heads, how they are mounted on drums, and how drummers tune and care for the skin drum heads. Also included is a section on oil-painted scenes on drum heads, and a directory of skin drum head suppliers.

The Rebeats Calfskin Head Book

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cook, Rob. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cook, Rob

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cook, Rob. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Songs for the Extinction of Winter: Poems

Diary of Tadpole the Dirtbag, Second Edition

Empire in the Shade of a Grass Blade

The Slingerland Book

The Ludwig Book: A Business History and Dating Guide

The Slingerland Book

The Gretsch Drum Book

Franks For The Memories

Drum Colors

The Rebeats Calfskin Head Book