Lee Kaplan: Arcana Books, Art, and the History of Los Angeles Book Culture

Lee Kaplan, owner of the long-lived Arcana Books, discusses his journey from being "the jazz guy" at the iconic Rhino Records to becoming the keeper of Los Angeles's best collection of visually-driven art and photography books.

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Paris Chong welcomes Lee Kaplan, owner of the long-lived Arcana Books in Culver City, a destination known for its vast selection of visually-driven material, including modern and contemporary art, photography, music, and fashion. Kaplan discusses his eclectic background, revealing he was a musician and visual artist before opening his store. Notably, he was one of the original three employees at Rhino Records starting in 1975, where he pioneered the store's renowned selection of jazz, world music, and reggae imports.

Kaplan founded Arcana Books in 1984, originally operating out of a one-bedroom apartment in Westwood. The name "Arcana" was inspired by an avant-garde composer (and was strategically chosen to start with "A" for the pre-internet Yellow Pages). He reflects on the dramatic transformation of the book-selling landscape since the 1980s, noting the closure of many original, small used bookstores. Kaplan contrasts the early days of "the thrill of the chase" when hunting for used books with the modern grind of managing the business, sharing that his wife and partner, Whitney, assists with the operations from an annex in the Helms Bakery complex.

Today, Arcana is situated in the Helms Bakery complex, in a building rebuilt on the site of the official bakery for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Kaplan emphasizes that the store serves as more than just a retail space; it acts as a "confluence and meeting place" that connects artists, photographers, and publishers for various projects, an aspect he finds very rewarding. They also discuss the importance of books as a tangible calling card for photographers, mentioning the legendary initial success of Ed Templeton’s “Teenage Smokers*”*, and reflect on the patronage of late client Diane Keaton, who was a passionate book lover and photographer.

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Episode Timestamps

00:00 Show Intro and Guest
01:27 From Music to Books
03:24 Rhino Records Deep Dive
06:00 West LA Food Detour
07:27 Family Roots and Influences
11:09 Why Arcana Books
15:10 Bookstore Life and Partnership
24:32 Old Hollywood Holdouts
25:03 Diane Keaton at Arcana
29:22 Arcana’s Book Universe
31:11 Famous Faces and Connections
34:45 Selling Books and Being Cut Out
40:04 Why Photographers Need Books
44:17 Martin Parr Pick and Final Plug

Links to Lee Kaplan

Arcana Book's Website
Arcana's Instagram
Lee's LinkedIn
Arcana's Facebook
Arcana's - Bookshop.org

🎵 Music by Andrew Raiher

📸 Shot & Edited at Visible Audio Studios

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Intro Song: It's the Paris Chong Show. It's the Paris Chong Show, Show, Show. It's the Paris Chong Show

Paris Chong: I don't even know where I'm supposed to be looking, but hi, everybody. Welcome back to The Paris Chong Show. Um, I feel like I haven't been here for a while, but, uh, it's good to be back with my team. And today, we have a very special guest. Well, they're all special guests to me. I have Lee Kaplan here. He's the owner of Arcana Books in, uh, Culver City.

It's actually one of the oldest, uh, bookstores, or you've been selling books longer than most people in Los Angeles. He has everything you can imagine, modern, contemporary, uh, music, fashion, stuff that you can't find anywhere else, one-of-a-kind collectibles.

Lee Kaplan: And- How about art and photography-

Paris Chong: Art and photography

for, for today's purposes? Yes. Thank you. He's making me look bad already. I just knew it. Yes. And, um, art and photography, a lot of art and photography, uh, some of the best. And, and actually, I asked Lee to bring a book here, and he brought Martin Parr. And welcome to the Paris Chong Show, Lee.

Lee Kaplan: Thank you. It's really thoughtful of you to wanna have me on, and quite an honor considering the guests that I've listened to so far on your show.

Paris Chong: Oh, well, how could I not have- You're kind of

Lee Kaplan: slumming today with me,

Paris Chong: but- I am not. I am not. I'm really ... I actually wanted somebody ... I, I like... The whole point of this show is to have artistic people on the show, not just one type of art, but every kind of art, and owning a bookstore is pretty artsy-fartsy to me.

Lee Kaplan: Before I owned the bookstore, I actually had a career both as a musician and then I transitioned into being a visual artist, and then that overlapped with my opening the bookstore. But pretty much, I'm petty bourgeoisie for the last 40 years, and proud of it. Mm. So, I don't know how artsy-fartsy I personally am in this regard, but I kinda have a background that leans towards that.

Paris Chong: Yeah, I didn't know. I j- I was listening to a podcast recently, and I didn't know you were actually a m- musician and used to work at Rhino Records.

Lee Kaplan: I was one of the original employees at Rhino Records.

Paris Chong: Which was the shit in the day. That, I mean, I don't think there was anything better than Rhino Records.

Everybody wanted to be signed to them.

Lee Kaplan: Thanks. Well, I actually started, I was the third real employee in 19- starting in 1975, and this was before there was actually a record label. Richard Foos, who owned Rhino Records, who was my only, like, real, real employer in my lifetime, and he was the best. And everything that he taught myself and my colleagues about how to run a small business and giving the employees a sense of int- you know, a sense of ownership and independence and giving them the ball and running with it and kind of utilizing their knowledge and their expertise.

And just everything that he taught me, I've completely thrown that out the window and somewhat micromanaged my own business- Mm-hmm ... since I've had it. But it was great. But it w- this was even before there was a record label. But it was, it was the best job, the best job ever.

Paris Chong: What was your title there?

Lee Kaplan: Um, I was the jazz guy.

I was the world music guy. I was the reggae guy, and maybe the most sarcastic guy.

Paris Chong: That's why I like you, 'cause you're sarcastic.

Lee Kaplan: Oh, well, I, I'd like to think that I've mellowed quite a bit- my life, but thank you. Since we've only known each other a fairly short time, I see it's not all gone. But-

Paris Chong: No ...

Lee Kaplan: there are those people who feel

Have you ever seen the movie High Fidelity?

Paris Chong: Yes.

Lee Kaplan: Or read the book? There are many people who feel that Rhino was kind of like the prototypical store on which that was modeled. I don't think that that's the case.

Paris Chong: So when you say you were the jazz guy, the reggae guy, what, you were looking for bands or you were

Lee Kaplan: Again, this was before there was a label, so basically I was scouring the world to bring in, mostly what I did was jazz, um, but really more improvised music. We had the arguably maybe the best selection of creative improvised music, free jazz, um, of a record store in the United States. I say arguably, but we were fantastic.

And I, if there was somebody in Germany who had three privately pressed records out that were so far out that you couldn't get them in a Tower Records store, I would write to them and make sure we got those records. And, um, we had an incredible selection. And then from there I was also interested in world music.

I actually studied African music for a couple of semesters at, when I was going to school at UCLA in the early '70s. So I started a world music selection there, again with all sorts of imports and things that you just couldn't find anywhere else. And that kinda morphed into, we were the first store, uh, certainly on the West Coast, that brought in reggae records from Jamaica, which was like one of the craziest things ever.

It was like fun and terrifying all at the same time.

Paris Chong: Where was the store?

Lee Kaplan: It was at se- well, 1720 Westwood Boulevard.

Paris Chong: 1720 Westwood Boulevard.

Lee Kaplan: That's in what is now Little Tehran. But, uh, it was between- Oh ... on the west side of Westwood Boulevard between Santa Monica and Wilshire.

Paris Chong: That's really close to where I used to live around here, and you're around- you're from this area too, right?

Lee Kaplan: I was born and raised, I grew up right next to UCLA, and lived

Paris Chong: on- In Westwood?

Lee Kaplan: Yeah. Well, not in Westwood, just outside of Westwood, but m-

Paris Chong: What do

Lee Kaplan: they consider it- ... Westwood adjacent ...

Paris Chong: what do they consider it, Los Angeles?

Lee Kaplan: Uh, u- usually it's, like, West Los Angeles.

Paris Chong: Don't you love this neighborhood?

Lee Kaplan: I m- you mean West Los Angeles?

Paris Chong: Yeah, we're, we're actually, the studio's here too. Oh, we're,

Lee Kaplan: yeah,

Paris Chong: I

Lee Kaplan: mean- We're

Paris Chong: walking distance

Lee Kaplan: from work ... yes, it's very close. And as a matter of fact, um, when, about a year after R- about a year after I started working at Rhino Records, it was in this really decrepit building, and the owners decided that they were going to knock down what was there and put up a new building.

Um, uh, put up, yeah, I mean, they razed it and they put up a new building. And so for a year we were actually next door to the McDonald's that's basically at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica-

Paris Chong: Oh, is that

Lee Kaplan: where that is? ... which is not very far away from here.

Paris Chong: Yeah, no, it's, uh, we can l- we can see it from the window.

Lee Kaplan: Got it.

Paris Chong: Yeah. Uh, do you want any McDonald's?

Lee Kaplan: No.

Paris Chong: Do you eat McDonald's, Lee?

Lee Kaplan: Not today. Um, I eat hamburgers several times a year. I generally don't eat beef, I don't eat pork, I don't eat veal.

Paris Chong: Same.

Lee Kaplan: Um, I eat burgers. I relish in them. But again, like, in terms of West Los Angeles, I- Uh, Sunday night, most Sunday nights my dad would take me on a run to go to the Apple Pan.

Apple Pan. Oh. And so, and when we worked at Ri- when we worked at Rhino, basically two or three times a week somebody went to Apple Pan to get hamburgers. So I'm still a fan, but I don't- And my son goes there every day ... I don't eat beef very much, but that's what the w- the, what I make an

exception

Paris Chong: for. I, I think my son eats there almost every other day.

That's his favorite place. I love Apple Pan. But they had, and they also have a mean grilled cheese.

Lee Kaplan: Um,

Paris Chong: they- Have you ever tried their grilled cheese?

Lee Kaplan: I have indeed. And

Paris Chong: their tuna salad.

Lee Kaplan: All of those.

Paris Chong: It's very good.

Lee Kaplan: Yes.

Paris Chong: And the pies.

Lee Kaplan: And the pies, and the counter servers who've been there for- Forever

basically as long as I've had my store, which is 41 years.

Paris Chong: And they help incarcerated men find work, right? Isn't that kinda one of the things they do?

Lee Kaplan: That I do not know. Yeah. But you know, they- I heard

Paris Chong: that ...

Lee Kaplan: the, they transitioned to ownership from the family that started it to the Azoff family, and I don't know.

Paris Chong: Maybe they- Maybe they stopped that program. Hopefully they did.

Lee Kaplan: I

Paris Chong: don't, I don't- Um, not that I don't think you should help pr- incarcerated people get jo- jobs for, you know, but sometimes it takes a while for people to really re- rehabilitate from a life of crime.

Lee Kaplan: You know, I have no thoughts on this. So let's, let's direct this more towards photography or books.

Okay, so your, so your

Paris Chong: father took you to Apple Pan. Did your father teach you about art and music?

Lee Kaplan: No, actually... Well, my, I take that back. I'm sorry. My father w- my father started several kind of innovative manufacturing businesses, and in fact his businesses were in Culver City because you could use all the most horrible chemicals and produce the most toxic waste and smoke in the entire world, and that Culver City, it used to be next to the train tracks in Los Angeles.

Mm. So everybody had these really vile manufacturing businesses in the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s. That's where they would locate. So I actually grew up spending a lot of time at my dad's couple of businesses in Culver City. And in fact, when we were looking for our current space in 2012, we looked at a building that was going to be renovated in, um- In a d- slightly different area of Culver City, but it was a manufacturing area.

And I'm walking around the outside of the building after we looked at this, I'm have like, "This seems really, really, really familiar." Mm. And it turned out that, that that's where my... One of the two businesses in Culver City, that building that had been renovated, that's where my dad's build- that's where, where my dad's business was, one of his manufacturing businesses.

Paris Chong: Is it, was it near the Culver City, near your store?

Lee Kaplan: Um, no, it's in, um, the... Oh my gosh.

Paris Chong: Or more closer to Jefferson, right?

Lee Kaplan: Yeah. It's call- it's in what's called the Hayden Tract.

Paris Chong: Okay.

Lee Kaplan: It's where all those Erico and Moss buildings are- Yeah ... that he did for the Samator Corporation. Anyway, they're all of these very innovative kind of futuristic looking buildings in Culver City, and it's, it's like across from where Destroyer is.

Paris Chong: Mm-hmm.

Lee Kaplan: Anyway, um, but he was, um... He did that, and he raced cars, and he flew planes, but he was a saxophonist and a clarinetist, and he grew up in the Big Band period, and he loved jazz. And so when I was growing up, um, uh, there was a lot of, there was a lot of jazz in my background. And I, I- So I think

Paris Chong: he did influence

Lee Kaplan: you.

I didn't... He did. I didn't rebel against it. But his favorite was kind of like Stan Getz, but he also liked Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis, and so I was exposed to a lot of that when I was young. So I did get that musical thing, although growing up in Los Angeles in the '60s, it was the heyday of pop radio.

Mm-hmm. You know, there was KRLA and KHJ and, um, you know, I loved- Yeah ... po- you know, American pop music. But more importantly, my grandfather, who had a gigantic, gigantic library and was very proud of it and very well-read, and he loved books. He actually was the one who I think inflicted me, um, with the love for books that I carry on-

Paris Chong: Grandpa Kaplan

Lee Kaplan: till this day. Um, Charles Baron, he was actually my maternal step-grandfather, and I... He would never have allowed me to call him Grandpa, Grandpa Kaplan. But I guess in essence he sort of was, but he wasn't the real Grandpa Kaplan, he was the successor.

Paris Chong: Yeah. And what did your mother do?

Lee Kaplan: Um, she wa- she, she was your classic homemaker, but she did a lot of charitable work on the Westside.

Um, so she did these incredible, um Like, premiere charity events, like w- w- you know, when the Cinerama Dome opened up with It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the bene- the, the premiere of it was a benefit for one of her charitable organizations. So she did some of that, and she played bridge, and she played mahjong, and, you know, kind of-

Paris Chong: Mahjong's making a comeback.

Have you noticed that?

Lee Kaplan: Um-

Paris Chong: You need to do a mahjong club at your space. You look like you have that cool space in the back to do events, right?

Lee Kaplan: Um, we have some space that is not occupied by books or boxes of books, um, and we do have events there, too. It hadn't occurred to me to deal with mahjong, but- It'd be kinda

Paris Chong: cool, though, don't you think?

Lee Kaplan: Um, I'll go with it, Karen. Sure.

Paris Chong: Well, I love your space. So your, uh, your, um... So no, Arcana means, uh, deep secrets, mysteries, and hidden things. Is that why you named the store Arcana?

Lee Kaplan: It feeds into it, but thank you for asking. Um, I actually u- had a short-lived music column in the, uh, in the '60s, the great underground paper in Los Angeles was the LA Free Press, but in the late '60s, there was a schism between the owner and the editor, and so the editor went and started his own alternative weekly called The Staff, and so I had a very short-lived program, um, uh, column, but I also wrote, so anyway.

Mm-hmm. Um, it was a column about contemporary music, and it was called Arcana, um, although I called Arcana, really. But it was about, um, it was about contemporary music, but I called it that because that's the name of a really famous piece by an American avant-garde composer named Edgar VarÃ¨se who was Frank Zappa's favorite composer.

Oh, wow. And when I went to sto- my store, I thought, "You know, you need to have a name with an A so that you're up at the top of the, the Yellow Pages." This is, you know- Right. This is wildly pre-internet. This is wildly pre-everything. So basically, the way that people would find your store is they would get the phone book, which you got delivered once or twice a year.

Yeah. You'd look in the Yellow Pages, and you'd look under bookstores, and there'd be an alphabetical listing of all of the geographically relevant bookstores. And so I thought, "I want a name with an A so it'll be up near the top." And I thought, "Oh, Arcana, that's great because, you know, it's, it is, it's a big- Better than Zarcana.

Indeed, for, for so many reasons. But I just thought, "You know, that fits. It's already kinda there," and, uh, it worked out, except for the fact that for many, many, many, many years when people still used the Yellow Pages, Arcana is also a suit in the tarot deck, and so we would constantly- Yes ... be getting people calling us wondering if we had books on mysticism and the occult and tarot, but it was a small price to pay.

Paris Chong: They thought you were the, um... What was the bookstore? The Mystic Bookstore? Uh, Psychic Eye. The Bodhi Tree.

Lee Kaplan: Oh, well, the, the-

Paris Chong: Psychic Eye, and the Bodhi Tree ... Bodhi Tree. Oh, I love the Bodhi Tree.

Lee Kaplan: Then, you know, back when I opened my store, there were probably six or seven-

Paris Chong: Mm-hmm ...

Lee Kaplan: um, metaphysical, psychic bookstores in town, um, but the Bodhi Tree was certainly was the most long-lived.

That was a

Paris Chong: beautiful store. It was. I love that store. So you've been around longer than anybody? I mean, the bookstores, 'cause all the good ones have gone, have closed. I mean, there's also the oldest bookstore in downtown LA, but for the most part a lot of the bookstores have closed in Los Angeles.

Lee Kaplan: Many, many, many, many have.

Um, yeah, when... It was a different age for book selling- Mm-hmm ... when I started my store in 1984. Um, my original hour, I opened in a one-bedroom apartment on Westwood Boulevard, not too far, you know, not too far from UCLA. Um, but it wasn't where I lived, but it was an apartment, and it was in a ground floor of an apartment courtyard, and four of the units were, there were these little one-bedroom apartments around a courtyard, and each one of them had a specialized bookstore.

Mm-hmm. And so I opened mine there, and, um, it was, you know, it was very, very cool. But my hours were Thursday through Saturday, noon to 5:00 and by appointment, but the other three days of the week, bookstores are traditional, used bookstores, out-of-print bookstores, are traditionally closed on Mondays.

Paris Chong: Mm-hmm.

Lee Kaplan: But not everyone is. Um, and so like Tuesday and Wednesday every week, and Sundays too, you know, I would run around to other bookstores in Southern California from between San Diego to Santa Barbara. I'd make a couple trips to the Bay Area each year. Um, but there were bookstores everywhere, and it was really fabulous.

And now, those same kinds of small used bookstores barely, barely, barely exist. I know, it's sad. So I don't think we're the oldest, but we're very, very long-lived. In Los

Paris Chong: Angeles.

Lee Kaplan: Yeah, I mean, I just don't, I don't think that we are. No? I'd have to think ab- I mean, I'd have to think about it. But all the really, you know, sort of original bookstores, like Zeitlin & Verruga and Dawson's, I mean, the kind of great progenitor bookstores, they all, they, they've been gone for a long

Paris Chong: time.

Yeah, so it's changed a lot since the '80s when you started.

Lee Kaplan: It has changed ever so much.

Paris Chong: Was it better then?

Lee Kaplan: It was more fun then for me personally. I mean, it's a different thing. I just turned 70, and when-

Paris Chong: Wow, you look good.

Lee Kaplan: Thank you very much. You, you- When's your birthday? Uh, in January.

Paris Chong: You're Aquarius.

Lee Kaplan: Uh, close.

Capricorn. I, I, you, like I say, you're 50% of the way there. Um, it was really fun. It's

Paris Chong: like- Fun in the '80s. Everything was fun in the '80s, though. How did you not have fun in the '80s, I mean?

Lee Kaplan: Well, I had more fun- Come on ... in the '60s and '70s. But the thing is, starting your own business, it's basically all-consuming.

I mean, you probably know this. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But it was really fun. It's like you're young, you're energetic, you don't know, like, where you're going with it. Mm-hmm. It, all you know is, like, this is what I wanna do. I found this thing. Or like for me, I found this thing. I knew that I wanted to do it. Um, I tell this story sometimes.

It's like it was a very recidivistic thing. It's like you go out in the world, like if I'm going out to find used books, 'cause back then I wasn't selling new books. New books are easy. Yeah. You meet with a publisher's representative or you order th- things online. You just order new books, and they arrive.

When you have used books, you have to go out and find those. Right. And so, like, every day that I go out searching for books, you just never knew. It was like you, it's like you were a caveman, you know? Would you go out and find a, a wooly mammoth that you could take down and have dinner for a week, or come back empty-handed and your stomach would be growling?

So it was kinda like the thrill of the chase. It was, I didn't know where I was going with the store. I didn't know if it would be successful, but it kept being successful, and I moved- Very ... to a succession of larger places. Um, but it was really, really fun. And plus, y- it's, there's- It's a learning experience.

When I first started this, I mean, I knew some books- Mm-hmm ... but I kept discovering new things, and you have to, like, figure out what they're worth, and what you're willing to pay for them, and what you should be charging for them. And back then, there wasn't an internet where you could go on and look for all of this material.

Right. You had to have this very arcane, specialized knowledge, and it had to be something that you grew with. It was, it was really fun. Now, it's just very different. It's just putting out fires and me falling behind in my work on a daily basis. And my wife, Whitney, who is my partner in the business, you know, she ha- she works not in the store.

We have a annex that's across the parking lot in- That's what you said ... Helm's building. Yeah,

Paris Chong: I was

Lee Kaplan: wondering about that. And she loves what she does except for the fact that I'm a huge impediment to her efficiency. But it's just like, I'm in the store four or five days a week, and it's just, it's a very, very different thing.

I've been doing it for a long time. I don't have the same energy. I don't have the same enthusiasm. Um, but I do still really enjoy meeting the people that I enjoy interacting with. Yeah. You know, educating people. I've had so many fabulous books and collections of books pass through my hands over the years that it's really, um, it, it's very inspiring.

There are things about it that I still do very much love, um, or like a lot, if not love all of them. But it's, like, kind of a grind to

Paris Chong: have this business after so long. It's, you lose your mojo when you're doing some things for so long. But, um, your, but your, but the building is beautiful. I know you've been there since 2012.

Right. And if you haven't been there, you have to go to this store. It's amazing and such a great place, uh, for gifts. And I was, like, uh, surprised how reasonable some things were and how, what the, the selection was huge. It was just such a... And I'm so sorry it took me so long to get in there. As you know, it's, you haven't been into LAICA since I've been there.

Mm-hmm. But you will be now. And, uh- So yes, I'll have to reciprocate ... yeah, you have. No, no, you don't have to, but I would be ni- it would be nice. But it's, it's so hard when you, you're working at a business to even leave or go to other things. And, uh, there's so many art shows I wanna go to. You know, uh, Fahey/Klein just had a great show with Bruce Weber.

But after being in a gallery all day long and w- talking to people about art, sometimes it's hard to go straight to that in your free time. So I, I, I get it. But how did you g- What was there before? Is that space, did, did they build that space for you? I don't remember seeing that space.

Lee Kaplan: No, it was... Actually, most of the Helms Bakery complex in which we reside, um, it was built in, it was built for the 1932 Olympics.

Right. Um, the Helms Bakery was the official, um, bakery for the 1932- Mm-hmm ... Los Angeles Olympics. And so most of those buildings are a little bit on the north side, on the Venice side. Um, that, our building was, was, there was a structure there that was raised, and it was rebuilt about, I wanna say about 25 years ago by our landlords, who are really fantastic.

Shout-out to Walter Marks Realty. We have the most beneficent landlords in the entire world. Yeah. And I've never had great landlords, but I really love them. Um, anyway, it was built and the original inhabitant was a Hastens, uh, mattress showroom Okay And I don't know if you know what Hastens Mattress- I do Okay.

So people would go there to get their $20,000 hand-tied horsehair mattresses, but amazingly enough, after I think 10 years, they, they decided that it wasn't for them any longer.

Paris Chong: Yeah, they were in the West Hollywood... I, I'm on the board for the West Hollywood Design District, and they were on Ro- um, Beverly at one point.

I think they moved to Beverly Hills. Very expensive- Hm ... mattresses.

Lee Kaplan: They are, but apparently they're the best.

Paris Chong: Yeah, well, if you can afford it, then I guess you get these very expensive mattresses. I, yeah, I just don't remember this building built out like that, but again, I haven't been there. Like I was mentioning, I, I loved HD Buttercup, and that's been gone for a long time, I think.

You know? It's

Lee Kaplan: been- No, they just, they just closed, like, November,

Paris Chong: so. Oh, really? 'Cause I was like, what happened? But they were there for a long time. I loved that store. They had great furniture. So, so business is good. The book business is good.

Lee Kaplan: We're very fortunate at Arcana. Um, so yes, we are.

Paris Chong: Yeah. So, but- And how, and how is it working, um...

I, I, you just mentioned that you've been married for 22 years. That's, that's a s- huge success story right there.

Lee Kaplan: Actually, I'm sorry. It's 24 years,

Paris Chong: so. 24 years? I am so sorry- I heard 24 ... my

Lee Kaplan: love.

Paris Chong: Um- When he- Okay, yes ... he said 24 when he got here.

Lee Kaplan: Okay.

Paris Chong: So he... So how do you... How, what's the secret to, uh, working together and making it work?

'Cause a lot of times that's a hard thing to do for couples to work together.

Lee Kaplan: It's very challenging. Mm-hmm. Um, we've been doing this for a l- I mean, we've been doing this for a long time, and we both have very We have very differing ideas about certain aspects of the business, and it's different for me because I work in the store and Whitney does not, and she sees a problem and she sees it in a very logical, um, favorable way to, like, alter things to make it more efficient or successful, and I sometimes am stuck in just kind of my way of having done things for so long.

Mm-hmm. Where it's like, but I'm in the store. I'm actually dealing with people, and I actually, yeah- Yeah, which makes,

Paris Chong: can make you cranky as, and I, I know how that is too.

Lee Kaplan: But we're very fortunate. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, we really love each other and, you know, it, I mean, it is difficult 'cause we wake up, we breathe Arcana, we come home, we breathe Arcana.

It's like when you have a- Oh, you take work

Paris Chong: home with you?

Lee Kaplan: Y- well, I, I mean, psychically. Yeah. It's like I said, you know, you can never sort of... I can never really step away from the business and to a certain extent I don't think Whitney really can either. So, you know, it's very, very, all, it's all-consuming, but I think we were just very fortunate to have found each other and figured out a way.

Where did you

Paris Chong: meet?

Lee Kaplan: Uh, we met at a Soul Coughing concert at The Palace in 1998.

Paris Chong: A what?

Lee Kaplan: The band Soul Coughing.

Paris Chong: Soul Coughing? I'm sorry. Yes. I don't know who

Lee Kaplan: they are. That's okay. I'm, I'm, I'm sure I-

Paris Chong: I've never heard of them. What kind of music is that?

Lee Kaplan: Um-

Paris Chong: Soul Coughing, sorry. I don't know who you are.

Lee Kaplan: It's okay.

Well, not a lot of people, except they, they broke up very acrimoniously a few years after we saw them and didn't get together I think for something like 25 years, but they came back and last year we actually went to see their reunion concert in Los Angeles. They were kind of a indie Breakbeat poetry inflected sampling weirdo band from Brooklyn

Paris Chong: That's kind of why I probably don't know who they are.

Lee Kaplan: They, even at, even at their-

Paris Chong: That's

Lee Kaplan: kind of

Paris Chong: intense.

Lee Kaplan: I, I- Even, even at their most popular, um, they were b- definitely a New York thing. They did have a song called Unmarked Helicopters, which is fabulous- Okay ... which was in the- Do you

Paris Chong: dance? ...

Lee Kaplan: X Files movie.

Paris Chong: Do you like to dance?

Lee Kaplan: Not if I can help it.

Paris Chong: No? No dancing?

Lee Kaplan: Um, uh, no, on rare occasion. Oh. I mean, when I was younger, yes. Yeah. And, but,

Paris Chong: so

Lee Kaplan: you're s- How about you, though?

Paris Chong: I

Lee Kaplan: love

Paris Chong: to dance.

Lee Kaplan: You know, ev- I was gonna say. Every podcast of yours I've listened to, you've, um, talked so much about yourself, and now you're just feeding me questions and I'm blathering on. It's just like I- No, no

I expected that it would be so much about

Paris Chong: Paris Chong today ... I talk so much about myself. Well, it is called the Paris Chong Show. But no- But no- ... no, I've, I've shared a lot of stuff. I'm trying to, like, share less so that pe- pe- strange people come and to see me at the gallery and ask me about personal things.

I'm like, "Did I say that?" But, you know, it, it's, it's just, it's, it, that's who I am. I, I don't think anything's so secretive, you know? That's true. I'm not, I'm not, uh, shy about my life. And now you, you

Lee Kaplan: j- I don't get that impr-

Paris Chong: No, I'm not ... I don't get that impression. So now what are the cats' names?

Lee Kaplan: Oh. God. Um, the, the cats names are Cosmos and Musso.

Paris Chong: Cosmos and Musso? Yes. After Musso & Frank's or -

Lee Kaplan: After Musso & Frank's ... Is

Paris Chong: that your favorite restaurant?

Lee Kaplan: N- Whitney loves Musso & Frank's. I, I mean, who doesn't? And it's not my fav... I know. It's, like, one of the last link, you know, talking about the fact, like, all the great early bookstores are gone. Bookstore, Hollywood Boulevard used to be- The restaurants are gone

Hollywood Boulevard used to be Book Row in the '40s and '50s, and, like, all of the stars in Hollywood, like, the major stars back then, they would shop at bookstores on Hollywood Boulevard. So it's, it's- Yeah ... one of the last- No, I know ... traditions from

Paris Chong: that era. And Dan Tana's. That Dan, I'm a more of a Dan Tana girl.

But speaking of celebrities, I have a friend that is, um, helping or trying to sell the Diane Keaton estate, whi- which he said was absolutely gorgeous and s- and amazing, and that her book collection, her art book collection was insane. And everything was just left as is, even her hats and her closet, her shoes, everything was pristine, and he was just taken aback by all the beautiful art books.

And I read somewhere that she was a, that her favorite bar, bookstore was yours, Zarkana.

Lee Kaplan: Well, that's a, I, she never... She was a longtime customer, client of ours. She was a longtime client. Usually I don't talk about such things. We try to be- If you're out

Paris Chong: here-

Lee Kaplan: I- ...

Paris Chong: I love her though ...

Lee Kaplan: do you know that for a fact?

Paris Chong: No, I don't.

Lee Kaplan: Okay. She could be following your podcast- I absolutely do not know ... from the great beyond, Paris.

Paris Chong: I do not know that for a fact. I hope she is- She was a photography fan ... 'cause I'm

Lee Kaplan: a big fan ... as you know. I'm

Paris Chong: a huge fan of hers. I was very sad when that happened. I was, I, I, it's just been one after the next here in Hollywood.

I mean- But did you see her a lot in the store?

Lee Kaplan: You know what? For many years we did. She was really Um, I have to say, you know, we had many employees over the time that sh- she visited us, and there was not one person who worked at the store or somebody who happened to be milling around in the store who was not delighted to see her walk in.

She was wonderful. She was everything that you think that she would have been based on her on-screen personas. But when you would see her on a talk show, I mean, she was just, she was smart, she was funny- And real ... she was engaging. She made you feel like she was talking to you. We did a book signing with her, um, after many years of her being a client.

She was definitely a book f- you know, she was a book lover. We were by no means the only store in Los Angeles that she frequented. If somebody told you that she said that Arcana was her favorite store, then I,

Paris Chong: I, I- I

Lee Kaplan: read it somewhere ... I am humbled. I have a great feeling in my heart. But no, she was really, really lovely, but she was also, you know, like everybody, she was idiosyncratic.

She would sometimes come in and make a huge stack, and sometimes she's come in and look around for 20 minutes and say thanks, and just kinda hop out. Um, so you never knew what you were getting with her. And one of my favorite things at Arcana ever was one day she, both she and Richard Diebenkorn did this.

When we had our original location in Santa Monica, we had these lo- it was on the Third Street Promenade, but it was basically when they were changing it from a mall. We had these really long windows in front that we had stocked with books, so like it was display. Mm-hmm. Which we thankfully we don't have at our store now.

I don't have to even think about that stuff. But she stood in the windows, walked along them. They were on either side of the front door, so there were these two maybe 12-foot long displays on either side, glass fronted, and she spent all this time looking and kind of like, you know, going like this And just walked away without even walking in the store.

And Richard Diebenkorn, the great painter, actually did that one time too, and of course I knew them both, and, you know, I knew exactly who they were, and I always just thought, "That's so interesting that you would actually come here, get to the threshold, look at what's in the window," clearly have some degree of, express some degree of interest, if not, you know, overtly to me, because they didn't know I was watching them, I'd like to think.

Yeah. But it was just really curious. But I love the time that she just looked and walked away. But she was great, and, you know, when I said earlier that I actually used to write, I did for different publications. I don't do it very much anymore, but our store has a blog on our website, and it seems like sadly the only time that I really do sort of feel moved to write is when a longtime client of ours passes away or, you know, somebody who's been inspirational to me or to the store.

Mm-hmm. And I did actually, I needed to sit down and write something for Diane when she passed- Oh ... Ms. Keaton when she passed away. That's sweet. And we received so many, like, really, um, heartfelt responses or comments about that, and it made me feel really good because she was, I mean, she was so special, and she- She was

supported so many bookstores, and she was just f- she was awesome, and she was a great photo- she was a great editor, she was a great collector, she was a great photographer. Mm-hmm. There, she did two really fantastic photography books that most people don't really even know about, but she was amazing.

Paris Chong: Do you take photos?

Lee Kaplan: Uh, only with my camera phone, and usually when we get damages from a publisher, so we can ask for, to return them and get credit.

Paris Chong: Do you, so do, um, i- in, in Arcana, do you mainly have art books? Like, what's the, what's the main subject matter? 'Cause you have so much there. I know you have a little bit of everything, but, like, do you, do you focus on the art and the photography?

Lee Kaplan: It's just visually driven-

Paris Chong: Yeah ...

Lee Kaplan: material, and I mean, I feel like, you know, we met because of photography. Yeah. And we, I- I feel we have maybe the best selection of photography books that you can walk into a store for-

Paris Chong: I think

Lee Kaplan: so ... outside of New York, and maybe even including New York. But photography is a main focus.

Modern contemporary art is a main focus. Um, design, both interior design and graphic design, architecture, and we have a huge fashion section, and we have a large section of visually driven books on cinema and music. Um, we have a cookbook section, or a culinary section- That's

Paris Chong: good ...

Lee Kaplan: thanks to Whitney who started that, and it's actually a very successful part of our store.

A lot of the books are visually driven, but not so many. But it's all just that. We have a very little bit of tangential, you know, literature. We don't have poetry. We don't really have fiction. We don't have New York Times best-selling, you know, autobiographies- Yeah ... unless they're about artists or photographers.

But, you know, we have both new and out-of-print books, and it's, like, the culmination of doing this for more than 40 years. So it's not just the books that have come out in the last year or two or three, and it's not like we're a new bookstore so we only have books that we can get, that we can order from the publishers.

Um, it's, it's a really vast array of all the books and the subjects. It really

Paris Chong: is. I was very impressed with your store. It was awesome. I loved it. And it was so great walking in and seeing Bruce Talamon. You're like, "Do you know Bruce?" I'm like, "Oh my God, Bruce. I love Bruce."

Lee Kaplan: Well, it was a big week for Bruce.

It was actually the day before Bruce Weber came over.

Paris Chong: Oh.

Lee Kaplan: Um, and who's absolutely one... He's so lovely, and he and his wife Nan, who I don't... I mean, I haven't seen Bruce for a few years, and I barely ever see Nan. But, um, they came before they had to do a lecture at Fahey/Klein, and Bruce was one of my first cl- one of our first clients.

And he's so lovely, and he's been so supportive of our store- Mm ... for so many years, and we had so many fabulous times together when he used to, in the 1980s when I first moved to Santa Monica, basically he would shoot four campaigns a year in Southern California. He would do Ralph Lauren and he would do, um, Calvin Klein, and he would come from New York and stay at the Shangri-La Hotel- Oh

when it was, like, really a down ... I mean, the, the Promenade when I first moved there was down at its heels. Mm-hmm. But the Shangri-La was, like, this really beautiful art deco hotel that was built- That's still looks pretty ... in the '30s that was down at its heels. It's since been renovated. Yeah. And it's real- it looks great again.

But he would sometimes, like, book the entire hotel, and so he would have chefs come in and, like, after they finished shoots for the day, all the models would stale- stay there. All the, you know, executives from, you know, the companies would be there, his art directors, and it was, it was real- Decadent. It was really fabulous.

It was like it was another time, but-

Paris Chong: This sounds good.

Lee Kaplan: Okay. Anyway, I'll ... Enough of that. No, it

Paris Chong: does sound good.

Lee Kaplan: But- But yes, a lot of, a lot of interesting people-

Paris Chong: Mm-hmm ...

Lee Kaplan: on an ongoing basis come through our doors. I mean, you know, we've had events for so many peop- for people who've been on your show, but- Yeah

you know, Ed and Deanna Templeton are there- I love them ... fr- frequently. I don't mean to name check. I'll, I'll stop, but one of the

Paris Chong: things- No, it's okay. No, he, Ed did a show with Leica. He, he shoots with Leica.

Lee Kaplan: Yeah. Oh, no, he loves Leica. He-

Paris Chong: Yeah.

Lee Kaplan: Um, no, he's great. But I mean, one of the ... When you asked about, like, is it fun or, like

The, I know one of the things that's really made it all worthwhile f- you know, in addition to meeting interesting people and having all these fabulous things pass through my hands, um- We've done a lot of putting people together for projects- Mm-hmm ... over the years. It's like we're introducing people. Like, people will come in the store.

Like, I didn't know if you knew Bruce Tellerman when you were in the other day. I assume-

Paris Chong: I met him, yeah, I met him a while ago, um, at Leica.

Lee Kaplan: But, you know, we always make a point of trying to introduce people that we think might- Yeah ... have an interest in one another. We have really had a, a small, if not invisible, hand in any number of books that have come out.

You know, like putting together a photographer with a publisher- Mm-hmm ... or an artist with a publisher, or an artist with a gallery. I mean, so many things like that because of the confluence of Arcana. It's not that we take credit for- Yeah ... necessarily, like, all of that stuff happening. It's not r- really about us.

But it's been sort of like a meeting place and a confluence- It is ... where those things have happened, and that's something I really do feel very good about. It ... As does Whitney. She's done a lot of that too. And, you know, there's something really fabulous about that.

Paris Chong: I, I ... That Leica's a community like that too.

It's, it feels so good. Ma- Ma- Uh, actually, we met, uh, through Matthew Rolston.

Lee Kaplan: Mm.

Paris Chong: And, um, he was, uh, gave me one of the greatest compliments I've ever had about Leica. He said, "It's like a salon here. Like, just all the different people that are doing different things at the same time." It was, uh, such a c- I, I lo- I, I love Matthew.

That was a fun night, right? It was. Celebrating Matthew. He's amazing. So I, I wanted to ask you, have you ever helped someone's career by helping them sell so many books?

Lee Kaplan: Um, I'd like to think so. I mean, there,

Paris Chong: there- A little bit? Like, and does anything come to mind? Does a person come to mind?

Lee Kaplan: Well, hmm, we have been very, very fortunate.

Um, you know, there have been things that have been really surprise bestsellers. I mean, uh, Ed and Deanna Templeton, to go back to them, they're so lovely. I, I mean, just as people, they're so inspiring. I am a glass half empty kinda guy. Mm-hmm. And, you know- That's right ... maybe I still am more soc- sarcastic than I would like to give myself credit for.

But, you know, Ed and Deanna are, like, the most genuine, joyous, thoughtful, considerate people. And so, like, you know, when Ed first started coming in, he brought us his first book, Teenage Smokers. And That's a le- It's kind of like a legendary book in the world of contemporary photographer, photo ... Sorry, photography and photographers.

It's just a small color zine that he produced- Mm-hmm ... with his gallery and Aaron Rose in New York. And it, you know, it's like a 36-page color zine. And he used to bring them in. We sold them for $15. We paid him $9 for each copy, and we sold hundreds of copies of that. And now it's like a $650 book. And we've sold hundreds of Ed's books over the years.

He doesn't need us, but, you know, at a time where there wasn't a place ... You know, he has so many fans through his skating. Yeah. Um, you know, it's like he could say, "Hey, go to Arcana," and there was a place. And there have been so many people. There was, there is a f- you know, to me, a kind of comedic story Well-

Paris Chong: Yay

Lee Kaplan: in re- in recent years, but again, I like, I try to be more discreet than I think that I'm being today. But, um- There is a spectacular cinematographer- Mm-hmm ... who, um, finally produced a book of his work, but it wasn't specifically his cinemat- cinema- to- cinematographic work. It was a book of photographs that he took throughout his career, mostly when he was younger- True

and first starting out. Um, I'm sure everybody will be able to figure this one out. But anyway, um, his, uh, his agent, who was a client of our store, came to us and wanted us to help with having a book for him. And so I did a lot of work for that, and then all of a sudden it seemed like there was no communication, and then all of a sudden, like six months later, there was a book produced by the company that I suggested, the publisher that I suggested they contact.

Um-

Paris Chong: Who's the publisher?

Lee Kaplan: Damiani.

Paris Chong: Oh, okay.

Lee Kaplan: In Italy.

Paris Chong: Uh- Did they show at Leica?

Lee Kaplan: Well, I mean, they, they work with so many m- mostly photographers. Like I edited a book, you mentioned that Arthur Grace is going to be on the show

Paris Chong: soon. Yeah, I love that.

Lee Kaplan: Okay. My friend Clint- He

Paris Chong: did a really good impersonation of you, Arthur, by the way.

Lee Kaplan: Did I? Um, it must have been- He could do it ... it must have been inadvert- no, I love Arthur. He's

Paris Chong: great. I w- that's a good thing. He'd be flat- he's fi- he's got a good sense of humor.

Lee Kaplan: But he does. He's great. He's g- he's very ebullient. Um, my friend Clint Woodside, who has Deadbeat Club Press- Oh,

Paris Chong: I love Deadbeat Club

Lee Kaplan: Clint and his wife Alex, they're fabulous. But Clint and I and, and Arthur edited a book of Arthur's photographs that he took as a photojournalist in the 1980s in Eastern Europe when he was a stringer for Time and Newsweek. Mm-hmm. And he was one of the o- one of the only, if not the only American photographer who was going c- um, repeatedly, um, behind the Iron Curtain to photograph.

So Damiani did Arthur's book. Mm-hmm. No, they're, they're great. But anyway, so what happened was this book came out. Clearly I had been iced out of the production of this book by the cinematographer's- Iced out ... agent. And in order to make it up to us, the cinematographer and his partner, um, came to us and basically when the book first came out, it was pretty much sold out in Europe.

And so they made sure that we were the only store in the United States that had copies-

Paris Chong: Oh, that's

Lee Kaplan: cool ... when the book came out, and we sold hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. It's ... They were doing something nice for us, but it was the one place that every p- could go because Los Angeles is Hollywood.

Paris Chong: Yeah.

Lee Kaplan: And so they were really good to us to try and make up for something that I felt- Kinda

Paris Chong: shitty.

Lee Kaplan: Yeah. And it was not them being shitty, but the person who was shitty knows who he is, and maybe he'll hear this one

Paris Chong: day. You know who you are.

Lee Kaplan: Um, so anyway, like, you know, that was a really, really nice moment and, you know, uh, I mean, stuff, stuff like that happens.

I d- I forget exactly-

Paris Chong: It's nice when people don't forget. I, I ... It's a horrible thing when people forget, when you make connections and introductions and then you just get kinda cut out. I know how that feels. It's, it's kind of a silent hurt, you know?

Lee Kaplan: Yeah.

Paris Chong: You know? No, it ... We're all human. It, it's not a nice feeling.

Lee Kaplan: It's true. I was not happy, but, you know- Yeah ... it was all made, it was all made right and, you know, basically they didn't need to do that and, you know, uh Let's move on to the

Paris Chong: next

Lee Kaplan: one I

Paris Chong: work,

Lee Kaplan: I,

Paris Chong: I work

Lee Kaplan: a lot- I, we probably don't really have much in the way of

Paris Chong: time Yeah, we're almost, we're wrapping up, and I, I work a lot with the American Society of Cinematographers.

I work a lot- Mm-hmm ... with the cinematographers. I do, I curate their still, still life shows, and I'll have you come there. So let's see. Now, what else did I want to... Do you think, how important do you think it is for an artist to have a book that, that, that would help them to sell their artwork?

Lee Kaplan: Well, I think it's more germane to photographers-

Paris Chong: Yeah

Lee Kaplan: than it is- Yeah ... artists, because i- it's expensive. I mean- It is ... depending upon the book you make and want to make, it can be expensive. Photographers Uh, not everybody gets a gallery show. I mean-

Paris Chong: Yeah ...

Lee Kaplan: w- w- you know, I'd have to go back and talk about the whole history of the photographic book and photographers and, like, why, you know, at the beginning of photog- Sorry, I'm not...

This'll be the last thing, 'cause I know I'm really digressing here. But I feel like I have to mention this. You know, in the '30s, '40s, '50s, to be an art photographer, you never were gonna sell a print. There wasn't a gallery structure. Yeah. There wasn't anything. You know, like, the Museum of Modern Art had a couple of photography installations- Mm-hmm

you know, exhibitions and installations in the '40s and '50s. Um, but until the '60s, there was no way to make money from selling your prints. You were either a photojournalist, but if you were an art photographer- Yep ... maybe you did portrait photography, maybe you sold prints to friends at a craft show or something like that.

Mm-hmm. There was no market for it. Now, having a book, I think for most photographers, it's a really good way, it's a calling card. It is. It's a good way to get a gallery, it's a good way to get a show. But, you know, there was this transitional period until, you know, maybe 15 years ago, like, there wasn't the internet in the same way- Right

or 20 years ago. So, like, now you can have a complete gallery online, all of your work that you want to exhibit can be there. It's very easy to do. But up until then, it was very difficult. Either you got an exhibition and your gallery or the institution that you were showing with did a catalog for you, or not.

But so it was important that people be able to see your work. So I think it is important, more so for photographers- Photographers ... for artists, not so many artists do books of their work unless they're kind of like small zine or project, you know- Mm-hmm ... not zine, but smaller project-oriented books. Mm-hmm.

But I still think it's a very important thing, and it's something tangible. It's something to feel proud about. It's like when you can p- present that in somebody's hands. Yeah. I

Paris Chong: think it's helpful.

Lee Kaplan: So.

Paris Chong: I definitely think it's helpful. Do you, do you collect art?

Lee Kaplan: I have some art that I've acquired from over the years.

Paris Chong: You know, w- w- uh, I was talking to Chris Pickler, um, not that long ago, and we, he was sh- we were walking around at the, um, show, uh, this, The Reef when, when- Mm-hmm ... we were doing the Show LA gig. And he said, 'cause I s- told him I loved paintings, and he said, "I don't have any photography in my home." I was like, "What?"

I said, "Wait, excuse me, what did you just say?" He goes, "Yeah, all the p- the, all the, all the stuff I collect at my house is paintings."

Intro Song: Mm-hmm. "

Paris Chong: I don't have photography at home." And it's, that was, I was kind of surprised, because he, uh, he's m- m- makes photo books, a lot of photo books.

Lee Kaplan: It's

Paris Chong: true. Has he ever told you that?

Lee Kaplan: Have I?

Paris Chong: Have you been over there to see this?

Lee Kaplan: I've been to his-

Paris Chong: Does, does he

Lee Kaplan: not have- Y- yes, I've actually been to both of his... He lives, um, in Paso Robles. I

Paris Chong: think he said his

Lee Kaplan: house in Paso

Paris Chong: Robles- And, and his place- ... is only paintings.

Lee Kaplan: Yeah. Yeah. But he has some photographs. He also has a place in Southern California.

Yeah. And I've been to bo- Yes, I've been to both. Um, I've been fortunate enough to be to both. He has some really fabulous things from over the years. Yeah. Yes, I have some things that I really love. I have... Oh, I sh- I don't know. I mean, I, I have a l- It's not

Paris Chong: name-dropping if it's art ...

Lee Kaplan: uh, I mean, I have a couple of, uh, Templeton photographs that are really special to me.

Love those. I have, mm, I have the b- I, we are fortunate enough to have a number of Raymond Pettibon works. I have one drawing that I think is spectacular, that gives me a lot of joy, even though its subject matter is not joyous. Um, I have a fabulous Kerry James Marshall piece from when we were friends when he used to live in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

I have so many photographs that are not up on our walls, but actually my wife and I do have the fabulous Todd Hido. Oh. Shout out to Todd. The photograph of the white Persian cat against the wa- Oh ... the, the veneer wall behind, which is, like, maybe my favorite cat photo ever, and being a cat person. So anyway, we do have some things, and we do have stuff in our home.

We have several Richard Misrachs who I grew up with. We-

Paris Chong: So you have a lot of good art.

Lee Kaplan: Uh, yeah. And Whitney has a really fabulous Candida Hofer photograph from when she worked at a gallery when we, shortly after we first met. So we do have some things, but we don't have that much wall space that isn't occupied by books.

Paris Chong: Mm-hmm. And thank you for bringing the book. I asked you to bring a book. So this is a book signed to you by Martin Parr.

Lee Kaplan: It is. It's maybe my favorite Martin Parr book. Um, I'm, again, I'm conscious of the time. But, um- ... Martin was the most inveterate book, or photo book discoverer, collector, entrepreneur, trader, um, so many other things.

But he was relentless and rel- ruthless in his quest for finding books that he hadn't seen or that he wanted more copies of. Um, but I really love this particular book. I don't know if there's a show and tell that goes along with it, but, um, it's, it's-

Paris Chong: Well, let's turn it around ... it's

Lee Kaplan: very sweet. Well- Do you

Paris Chong: sell this at the store?

Lee Kaplan: Well, no. Love you. We don't have a copy at the moment. But anyway, here, I'm gonna do this really quickly, and this will get us out of here.

Paris Chong: Okay.

Lee Kaplan: So, and I just really v- Destroyed the

Paris Chong: microphone I did, uh, Martin Parr curated our original library at like a Gallery LA

Lee Kaplan: He had the greatest photography book collection- Oh, look at this

maybe in the entire world, barring Manfred Heiting. But anyway-

Paris Chong: Oh, they're... Those, that's cool ...

Lee Kaplan: the conceit of this is these are all young people in the UK, first women-

Paris Chong: I

Lee Kaplan: love

Paris Chong: that ...

Lee Kaplan: that... Sorry, I have to show you.

Paris Chong: They're like little prints.

Lee Kaplan: They are. I'm destroying your

Paris Chong: microphone here. Oh my God, this is... No, this is great.

And,

Lee Kaplan: uh- It's very sweet. I'll speed this along.

Paris Chong: Don't

Lee Kaplan: speed

Paris Chong: anything along

Lee Kaplan: And then it has guys.

Paris Chong: It has dudes.

Lee Kaplan: Yes, very, very vintagey looking dudes.

Paris Chong: I love those.

Lee Kaplan: Where is my manual dexterity when I need it? I should be letting gravity do the work, but anyway-

Paris Chong: So do you

Lee Kaplan: sell these at the

Paris Chong: store?

Lee Kaplan: But then, uh, it's a very hard book of his to find.

Is it? I have sold copies of it at the store.

Paris Chong: Uh-huh.

Lee Kaplan: But I do not have... And then it's, because it's the love cube- Couples ... it's the co- it's the men and the women here photographed as couples, and I think this book is so joyous.

Paris Chong: I love it.

Lee Kaplan: It's so sweet.

Paris Chong: Aw.

Lee Kaplan: Anyway, and it's so- That's a goodie ... it's so British 1970s, but

Paris Chong: anyway.

Which is awesome.

Lee Kaplan: So you said

Paris Chong: bring, bring a book. Well, thanks for sharing. No, I'm glad you did. You did, you, you nailed it. I mean, it doesn't get any better than Martin Parr, does it?

Lee Kaplan: Okay.

Paris Chong: Now, is there anything you can re- recommend to people that's up and coming that they should be coming to Arcana to buy now that you think is really interesting and new, uh, fresh?

Lee Kaplan: Um, we always have... I mean, we're always getting new books in. Um, I mean, that's one of the things about the store. Mm-hmm. It's not like some static thing. We're always getting new books in. Um, we're having a couple upcoming events. On May 9th we're... Actually Uh, mm, no disrespect to anybody who has an event between now and then.

Um, I don't know if you know the Los Angeles based photograph- well, she's Los Angeles based now, Shanequa Jarvis. But anyway, she's a friend of ours, she's a really fantastic photographer, and she did a self, kind of self-published book about six or seven or eight years ago that we had a book signing for, that was one of the most fun signings we've ever had at our store.

And she finally has a new, like her second new big book, and it's really, really fabulous. It's published by Super Labo in Tokyo, who we love. Um- So May 9th ... one of our, one of, one of our favorite pub- So May 9th at Arcana. If you want details, you can go to www.arcanabooks.com- Perfect ... and get on our m- emailing list.

We'll let you know about the events that we have. There, I mean, there are always things coming up. We're always getting in- Yeah.

Paris Chong: So go to the website- ... cool, uh, print books ... and you'll see it. And no, seriously, I, I, I loved his space and the bookstore's so cool, and there's something for everybody there. And I agree what, what you said, it's like, you know, y- it's, it's...

But they make great gifts and s- screw the wine, you know, get a book, you know?

Lee Kaplan: I

Paris Chong: like- It'll last longer ...

Lee Kaplan: I like your way of thinking there, Paris.

Paris Chong: Well, thank you so much for being here, Lee. It really means a lot to me. Well- And you're doing a great job. And, and, uh, I think, um, I, I, I just, I, I'm really pleased with, with everything, and I'm so thankful that you're still listening to The Paris Chong Show.

Uh, we got a lot of listeners in Europe. Did you know that?

Lee Kaplan: Uh, I do now.

Paris Chong: You do. So- And so thank you for listening. Thanks to my team, and just keep following us, sharing, and we'll see you next time.

Lee Kaplan: Take

Paris Chong: care.

Lee Kaplan: Bye. Bye. Thank you so much.

Paris Chong: You're awesome.

Intro Song: It's the Paris strong show. It's the Paris strong show, show, show. It's the Paris strong show. It's the Paris strong show, show, show

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