[December 5th, 2007]

10 Cutting the Umbilical Cord

Not so much a gift as a public service, Daily Show lackey Sarah Walker gives unto the world: Really, You’ve Done Enough: A Parent’s Guide to Stop Parenting Their Adult Child Who Still Needs Their Money But Not Their Advice ($16.99, St. Johns Booksellers, 8622 N Lombard St., 283-0032). This snicker-out-loud satire of an “instructional guide” is about all us overgrown, self-obsessed brats and the parents who make sure that the world revolves around us. Really, you can’t lose with a book that contains such helpful advice for parents as: “An Alphabetical List of Types of Ponies You Could Purchase for Your Twenty-Year-Old (American Walking Pony thru Zaniskari Pony)” and the “Venn Diagram of Drugs (hint: You + Drugs + Your Child = Terrible Dragon Apocalypse).” I’m still deciding if You’ve Done Enough is a better present for the smug parents of newborns or for single women too cheap to shell out for birth control pills. Probably both. (KC)

11 Art School Confidential

“Luck is coming your way…in bed .” Art School Girl gives original Chinese fortunes a middle-school twist with its playful handmade cards ($5, Olio United, 1028 SE Water Ave., 542-5000) . Chicago-based crafty chick Amy Rowan started her small paper-goods company from reclaimed and repurposed materials. For added vintage-inspired goodness, scribble love notes on recycled stationery or in mini pocket journals (starting at $12, artschoolgirl.com ) fashioned from old school-book clippings held together with red stitching. (EB)

12 Save the Date

For celebratory occasions when you want a snappy invite, Paper + Cup Press has a new line of multiple-choice stationery (Oblation Papers and Press, 516 NW 12th Ave., 223-1093) , perfect for those who wish to plan a more unconventional holiday soiree. Choose from A) paint the town red B) dinner and drinks C) girls night out D) bible study or E) all of the above). With poppy colors and clean type, these are as design-driven as they are handy. Ain’t it comforting to know that holiday invites don’t have to sacrifice good taste? (EB)

13 The More Things Change…

Decades before Family Guy hit the airwaves, Jack Cole created a big-headed evil genius baby of his own in the short-lived comic strip Betsy&Me ($14.95, Floating World Comics, 20 NW 5th Ave., 241-0227 ). But where Family Guy is quick and crass, Betsy&Me works itself under a reader’s skin until you actually care about this dysfunctional family—problems and all. Cole only completed 2 1/2 months of Betsy&Me before taking his own life in 1958, but its Fantagraphics release assures that his stylistically sophisticated strip will live on. (CJ)

14 All The Leaves Are Brown…

Usher in the seasons with Nikki McClure’s Collect Raindrops ($29.95, Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak St., 274-1449) . In her poetic renderings, spring brings botanical abundance and summer finds you sprawled beneath the warm sky. Fall shifts to communal hunting and gathering, and winter transports you to bright, dancing bonfires. Each cycle is accompanied by McClure’s singular paper-cut drawings, identifying the true core of nature’s clock while offering an introspective, emotional portrayal of each. And, oh yeah, they’re totally rad. (EB)

15 These Shoes Were Made For Walking

Catch a glimpse of life as an artsy young buck living in the Oregon Cascades through nonprofit art center Caldera’s 2008 desk calendar, A Walk in Our Shoes ($20, awalkinourshoes.org). As chairman of the organization, ad god Dan Wieden has undoubtedly fused his creative forces with the calendar’s stunning design. But it’s the kids’ budding creative talents in photography and writing that are most notable. All proceeds benefit the Caldera Program in helping to bring arts education to Oregon Schools. (EB)

16 The Chosen Ones

Design as we know it has taken on a radical life form. For the design junkie on your holiday gift list, And Fork ($69.95, Barnes&Noble, 18300 NW Evergreen Parkway, Beaverton, 645-3046, and other locations ) is a highly comprehensive, globally diverse chronicle of 100 of the world’s best young product designers of late, selected by 10 top design critics (including Julie Lasky, editor-in-chief of NYC-based I.D. magazine, Chieko Yoshiie of the Japanese publication Casa Brutus, and Francesca Picchi of Italy’s Domus ). From lighting and chairs to footwear and electronics, this tome covers everything from snapshots of the design world’s latest developments to technological advancements and the social responsibility and ethics of design. (EB)

17 American Apparel for the Literary Mind

We all know Vice Magazine as a blunt, raunchy purveyor of writing, photography and candid street pop culture. Sometimes they try way too hard. Other times the results are cool. In this case, the freaks compiled The Vice Photo Book ($45, Powell’s City of Books) , an intimate, glossy picture book of works by acclaimed photogs (Terry Richardson, Jerry Hsu) chronicling global fashion, music and anything else they effing feel like. It’s 336 pages of the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) picks from Vice ’s 13-year reign. You’ve gotta know someone who’ll dig it. (EB)

18 Cuckoo for Coffee-table Books

Darkly beautiful yet more than a little eerie, The Architect’s Brother ($60, Powell’s City of Books), by Robert Parkeharrison, is like no other photography book you’ve seen before. Thought-provoking, muted images of single, solitary men in various mad acts—from attempting to patch up a hole in the sky and cleaning the clouds to devising a rain-making instrument—make up its compelling, dream-like pages. Each image is stunningly captured in some ulterior wasteland universe of industrial landscapes and oddly formed contraptions, making for a coffee-table staple that will undoubtedly leave readers thinking, “Where the hell did this come from?” (EB)

19 City x 3

Travel the sidewalks of three of the world’s most interesting cities…in your mind . Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom’s Paris, New York, Shanghai ($49.95, Powell’s City of Books) takes a street-level approach to “the past, present and (possibly) future capital of the world” by shooting photos of passersby, traffic and public art, and then painstakingly presenting similar photos in large, tiled groups. The themes that emerge, from Shanghai businessmen carting around plaid laundry bags to young Parisian women sporting belly shirts and big belts to young dudes in Scarface T-shirts talking on cell phones in NYC, are fascinating and surprising—kind of like an anthropological study meets Vice Magazine ’s Dos and Don’ts. Bonus: The book is actually three books accordion-folded and bound together. You can, well, “unfold” them and look at the three cities simultaneously, finding new links and patterns between them all on your own. (KC)

Gimme More

Twelve Months of Fun:

The cover of the 2008 Portland Icons Calendar ($20, New Seasons Market, 1954 SE Division St., 445-2888) features Mayor Tom Potter and former mayor Bud Clark opening their trench coats to flash another former Mayor, Vera Katz. And it’s all for charity. That’s a win-win if we’ve ever heard one.

Tyler Durden Would Be Proud:

Office Mayhem ($15.95, Annie Bloom Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, 246-0053) will give you an arsenal of cruel and unusual tactics for going to war with your worst nemesis at the office. Choose your course of action wisely, because you might not be working there much longer.

How Many Ways Can You Say “Doin’ It”?

We’re pretty sure there’s something dirty about How Not to Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms by R.W. Holder ($18.95, St. Johns Booksellers, 8622 N Lombard St., 283-0032) , but we can’t quite put our finger on it.