Lunch in San Francisco with RE/Search Publisher V. Vale
Item Number: 1030
Time Left: CLOSED
Description
RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy (1977–1979), started with $100 fromAllen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.[1] RE/Search itself began as a tabloid-sized magazine.
The first issue had photographs by Ruby Ray and articles on Factrix, The Slits, Conspiracies (written by Jay Kinney), Young Marble Giants, Boyd Rice's Non, Cabaret Voltaire, Sun Ra, Flashcards, Japan, J. G. Ballard, Julio Cortazar, Rhythm & Noise, Soldier of Fortune magazine, Throbbing Gristle, Nuclear Disaster, Situationism, Octavio Paz, and Punk Prostitutes. It was distributed by Rough Trade. Following the third issue, issues 4 and 5 were collected as a single volume, a "special book issue". Subsequent issues all retained the book format.
RE/Search has published books on various underground topics. Titles include Pranks, Incredibly Strange Films, and Modern Primitives, and the subject matter includes profiles of William S. Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, and others.
Special Instructions
V. Vale is a writers also a keyboard player and, as Vale Hamanaka, was a member of the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, prior to that band becoming famous as a power trio.[1] He is the publisher and primary contributor to books and magazines published by his company, RE/Search Publications. Vale, who is the host of the television talk show Counterculture Hour on public access channel 29 in San Francisco. studied English at UC Berkeley, and is a Japanese-American.
In 1977, while working at City Lights Bookstore, with $100 donated by Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, he began publication of Search and Destroy, a San Francisco-based zine documenting the then-current punk subculture. In 1980, he began publication of RE/Search, a tabloid format zine focusing on various counterculture and underground topics, with financial help from Geoff Travis ofRough Trade Records and actress/film director Betty Thomas. At the same time he also started his own typesetting business, allowing for a day job to fund his publishing exploits and guaranteeing high quality typography and design for his magazines and books.
The 1980s saw the expansion of RE/Search from a tabloid format zine toVale published and contributed to many books on the subjects of pranks; obscure music and films; industrial culture; authors J.G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs; modern primitives; and many other underground topics. In 1991, Vale sold his typography business to focus on publishing full time.
Bidder buys lunch (or coffee) at a mutually agreeable time and place in the San Francisco Bay Area.