William Gibson

Wikipedia - "William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist who has been called the 'noir prophet' of the cyberpunk subgenre. Gibson coined the term 'cyberspace' in his short story 'Burning Chrome' (1982) and later popularized the concept in his debut novel, Neuromancer (1984). In envisaging cyberspace, Gibson created an iconography for the information age before the ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s."
Wikipedia, W - Neuromancer, William Gibson, amazon, The Atlantic: William Gibson and the Future of the Future, Salon: William Gibson, William Gibson Bibliography / Mediagraphy, YouTube - William Gibson anticipates Susan Boyle, William Gibson: The New Cyber/Reality

2 Tone

Wikipedia - "2 Tone (or Two Tone) is a music genre created in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae, and New Wave. It was called 2 Tone because most of the bands were signed to 2 Tone Records at some point. Other labels associated with the 2 Tone sound were Stiff Records and Go Feet Records. Within the history of ska, 2 Tone is classified as its second wave, the product of an early 1980s nostalgia for vintage music."
Wikipedia, W - 2 Tone Records, 2 Tone, YouTube - The Two Tone story (Documentary - Prologue) I, II, III, IV, V

2:12

"2:12 is a Houston based artist with a passion for urban decay. His tools of choice are the x-acto knife, for cutting painstaking details, and the spray can, for stenciling layer by layer to create each painting. His canvas is the grit and grime of the city and his mission is to bring attention to those areas that are often unnoticed or neglected. By using vivid colors, eye catching patterns and sometimes physical objects his works add considerable interest to what was otherwise uninteresting."
tx2twelve, Wooster Collective - Video

Pissarro’s People

Jeanne Pissarro, Called Minette, Sitting in the Garden, Pontoise, ca. 1872
"Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) has been called the 'dean of Impressionism.' His work embodied Impressionism’s radical character more consistently than the paintings of Monet and the other artists associated with the movement. While he experimented with different styles and techniques, Pissarro remained committed throughout his life to portraying the modern world with a remarkably constant directness and objectivity."
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Video Highlights, amazon

Army Arrangement - Fela Kuti

"In this music video, Afrobeat rebel Fela Kuti performs 'Army Arrangement' in London and Lagos (at The Shrine in Okeja). His performance is beautifully intercut with images of Lagos, including military occupation and police beating. It ends with news of Fela's arrest in 1984. Fela died in 1997."
YouTube

Kota Ezawa: Re-Animating History

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 2005
"Employing computer animation, Ezawa retells historical and current events, building a new narrative that relies upon visual cues, our cultural memory of these events, and the subtlety of human mannerisms, such as a smirk of the mouth or shift in the eyes. In The Simpson Verdict, Ezawa animates actual footage of the proceedings. This breaking down of the images forces the viewer to look more closely at the nuances of character and iterates the issues of race, celebrity, and police investigation that plagued the case."
Williams College Museum of Art, UbuWeb: Kota Ezawa (Video), Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Animated Videos on the Recent History of Culture and Society

Dub Echoes

"A journey from th birth of Dub in Jamaica to our days. Featuring artists and producers like King Tubby, Lee "Scratch" Perry, U-Roy... Mad Proffessor, Thievery Corporation, Roots Manuva..."
Hellucinogenic - Video, amazon, Soul Jazz Records, YouTube - Dub Echoes - King Tubby 1, 2

Love Kills Demons - 12 short films about the work of Chris Rubino

"Shot over the course of one year, Love Kills Demons consists of 12 short films, beautifully made by Jim Helton, documenting the work of New York artist, Chris Rubino as he searches for a new direction in his work. You can watch all of them here."
Wooster Collective, Love Kills Demons - 12 short films

East Village, Manhattan

Wikipedia - "The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City which lies east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side. Within the East Village are several smaller neighborhoods, including Alphabet City and The Bowery. The area was once generally considered to be part of the Lower East Side, but began to develop its own identity and culture in the 1960s, when many artists, musicians, students and hippies began to move into the area, attracted by cheap rents and the base of Beatniks that had lived there since the 1950s."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Manhattan Walk Throughs: East Village, New York City : Video Tour of the East Village (Manhattan, NY)

Tupac Shakur - 2Pac

Wikipedia - "Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), known by his stage names 2Pac (or simply Pac) and Makaveli, was an American rapper. ... In addition to his career as a rap artist, he was also an actor. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, other social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast – West Coast hip hop rivalry."
Wikipedia, 2Pac, YouTube - Keep Ya Head Up, Under Pressure, Papa'z Song, Street Fame, Dear Mama, I Ain't Mad At Cha, Starin' Through My Rear View, Brenda's Got A Baby

Max Kozloff

Wikipedia - "Max Kozloff (b. 1933 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American Art Historian, art critic of modern art and photographer. He has been art editor at The Nation, and Executive Editor of Artforum. His essay, 'American Painting During the Cold War' is of particular importance to the criticism on American Abstract Expressionism."
Wikipedia, HigherPictures, (2)

Bob Marley - Tuff Gong Studios 1980

"Studio Kingston Rehearsal"
YouTube - Forever Loving Jah, Bad Card, Pimpers Paradise, Concrete jungle, I shot the sheriff, Zion Train

The Empress

Wikipedia - "The Empress (III) is the third trump or Major Arcana card in traditional Tarot decks. It is used in Tarot card games as well as divination."
Wikipedia

Uncle Tupelo

Wikipedia - "Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville, Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their previous band, The Primitives, left to attend college. ... Shortly after the release of the band's major label debut album Anodyne, Farrar announced his decision to leave the band due to a soured relationship with his co-songwriter Tweedy."
Wikipedia, Factory Belt, Gumbo Pages: Uncle Tupelo, last.fm - Video, amazon, YouTube - The Long Cut, Chickamauga, Whiskey Bottle, Atomic Power, No Depression, Gun, Life Worth Livin', Effigy, Critical Mass - Part 1 - Interview, Part 2

The Barnes Foundation

Wikipedia - "The Barnes Foundation is an educational art and horticultural institution in Lower Merion, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, a chemist who collected art after making a fortune by co-developing an early antimicrobial drug marketed as Argyrol. Today, the Foundation possesses more than 2500 objects, including 800 paintings estimated to be worth about $25 billion. These are primarily works by Impressionist and Modernist masters, but the collection includes many by leading European and American artists, as well as ancient works from other cultures."
NYT: Collector as Artist: The Barnes Foundation (Video), NYT: An Interactive Tour Through the Barnes Foundation, NYT: Barnes Foundation

The Bowery Poetry Club

Wikipedia - "The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman in 2002. Located at 308 Bowery, between Bleecker and Houston Streets in Manhattan's East Village, the BPC provides a home base for established and upcoming artists."
Wikipedia, The Bowery Poetry Club, YouTube - Bowery: Arts-Bowery Poetry Club and Amato Opera

Lady Blue Shanghai - David Lynch

"How come no one told me this existed? I may be a year late to the game, but this seems to be the longest video/film work David Lynch has directed since INLAND EMPIRE. Filmed as a commission for Dior, Lady Blue Shanghai stars Marion Cotillard in a work that strongly continues the stripped down 'amateur' digital aesthetic introduced by Lynch's 2006 masterpiece, working in a vein closer to video art / avant-garde video than his feature film-films."
mubi - Video

Brian Eno Documentary

"Brian Eno first starred as the feather-crested electronic keyboard genius of Roxy Music forty years ago. Since then he has been hailed as a pioneer, with his revolutionary experiments in ambient music and audio visual art and as featured producer on benchmark albums by David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2 and Coldplay."
viddler - Part 01, Part 02, Part 03

Percy Sledge

Wikipedia - "Percy Sledge (born November 25, 1941, Leighton, Alabama) is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit 'When a Man Loves a Woman' in 1966."
Wikipedia, W - When a Man Loves a Woman, YouTube - When a Man Loves A Woman

The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

Wikipedia - "The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex- and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, which hinge around the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third and first person perspectives and jumps around in time. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology and Discordianism."
Wikipedia, amazon

Horses - Patti Smith

Wikipedia - "Horses is the debut album by American musician Patti Smith, released in 1975 on Arista Records. The record was a key factor and major influence on the New York punk rock scene."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Gloria, Horses, DailyMotion - Redondo Beach, YouTube - Birdland, Free Money, My Generation, Kimberly, Elegie

The Bit-52s Play Rock Lobster

"The Bit-52s are the creation of Toronto’s James Cochrane, who’s programmed an array of mechanical and electronic contraptions to crank out music, sans human musicians. The 'band' features everything from a solonoid-controlled guitar, keyboard and tambourine to a set of old scanners which help give the group its squeaky Kate Pierson-esque backing vocals. The whole rig is is controlled by a pair of PIC16F84A microcontrollers. Here, have a listen…"
Technabob (Video), EOL/The Beautiful People, Funkytown by Lipps Inc.

Lucifer

Gustave Doré, illustration for Paradise Lost, Book III
Wikipedia - "Traditionally, Lucifer ... is a name that in English generally refers to the devil before being cast from heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means 'light-bearer' (from the words lucem ferre). It was the name given to the dawn appearance of the planet Venus, which heralds daylight. For this meaning, English generally uses the names 'Morning Star' or 'Day Star', and rarely 'Lucifer'."
Wikipedia

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown

Wikipedia - "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by American writer Dee Brown is a history of Native Americans in the American West in the late nineteenth century, and their displacement and slaughter by the United States federal government."
Wikipedia, amazon.
W - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (film), HBO, YouTube - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Lynda Barry

Wikipedia - "Lynda Barry (born January 2, 1956) is an American cartoonist and author. One of the most successful non-mainstream American cartoonists, Barry is perhaps best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. Barry's cartoons often view family life from the perspective of pre-teen girls from the wrong side of the tracks – Arna (the sensitive, freckled observer) and the cousins with whom she lives; pig-tailed Marlys (gifted, exuberant, snarky, and spastic); and the older Maybonne (concerned with social justice, music, makeup, hairdos and boys) and Freddie (gay, sweet, bullied, fascinated with bugs and monsters); but she often ventures far afield from this, such as in her strips featuring a Beat Poet poodle named Fred Milton."
Wikipedia, amazon, Salon

Bluegrass Roots

"This is the 1st TV Special (1964) shot documentary style in the Mountain of North Carolina. It follows Old Man Bascom Lunsford as he casts the talent for his Asheville Mountain Music Festival (also the first such event). 'Bluegrass Roots' takes viewers presents a who's who of the most extraordinary singers, players and dancers the Bluegrass Mountains had to offer. Many later became famous."
amazon, YouTube - Bluegrass Roots

The Braille Trail

"A self-guiding nature trail for the blind — both seeing and non-seeing — teaches us to comprehend the natural world through the purest form of communication — touch, smell, hearing — without first filtering it through sight. The Aspen Braille Trail was built high up in the Independence Pass wilderness, at 10,400 feet, by a small band of Aspenites and White River Forest Service personnel."
Aspen no. 4, item 7 - The Braille Trail

Talking with Gillian & David - "When she sings, she sounds lonesome - what are you going to do?"

"Sam Parton - I had spent days trying to line up an interview with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, but had had no success at all, so I’d pretty much resigned myself to simply reporting on their concert at the Vancouver Folk Festival. I hadn’t had a chance to hear them play live together since 2003 when a friend and I drove down to Seattle to take in their show at the Moore Theater."
No Depression - Part I, Part II

Art of the States

"Since 1993, Art of the States has been expanding audiences for United States-based composers and performers through its international radio music distribution service. Art of the States began as a production in association with WGBH Radio Boston participating in musical exchange with broadcasters of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)."
Art of the States

Charles Olson: February 21, 1957

"The Poetry Center presents Charles Olson reading from The Maximus Poems and other works."
Poetry Center Digital Archive

Otis Spann

Wikipedia - "Otis Spann (March 21, 1930 – April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician. Many aficionados considered him then, and now, as Chicago's leading postwar blues pianist."
Wikipedia, Rubber City Review, YouTube - Aint Nobody's Business, Spann's Blues, Nine Bellow Zero - Otis Spann & Sonny Boy Williamson, Chicago Blues and Nobody Knows Chicago Like I Do, Must Have Been The Devil

A Look Inside Mars Bar - the EV's Legendary Dive Bar

"The actual history of Mars Bar is not well documented which is part of its charm. Depending on who you talk to or what account you happen to read, you basically come up with a few vague facts. The owner Hank Penza opened Mars Bar in the early 1980s after a few decades of owning and operating several other bars on the Bowery. Anything else you could possibly learn is usually from colorful anecdotes of those who have had a drink or two (or three) there."
East Village & LES

Spanish Civil War - 75 Year, 18 July.

Male and female militia fighters march. Spanish Civil War, July 1936
"Living Utopia. Anarchism in Spain... This documentary film by Juan Gamero, Francesc Rios and Mariona Roca consists of 30 interviews with survivors of the 1936-1939 Spanish Revolution. It is - in my view - probably the best documentary ever made on the subject. The testimonies of the anarchist militants, most of them now dead, are both inspiring and moving, and illustrate the constructive work of the social revolution in Spain."
vimeo - Living Utopia. Anarchism in Spain..., YouTube - Anarchists in the 1936 Spanish Civil War, Mujeres Libres presentación. Free Women of Spain, YouTube - Women of the Spanish Revolution (1 of 3), (2 of 3), (3 of 3), 1936 - Spanish anarchist song w/English subtitles, The Clash - Spanish Bombs. PBS: Guernica: Testimony of War, amazon - Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell, amazon - The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939

2010 February: Spanish Civil War

Justified & Ancient - The KLF

Wikipedia - "'Justified & Ancient' is a song by British band The KLF (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) which featured on their 1991 album The White Room but with origins dating back to the duo's debut album, 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?). The song is best known for its remake that was released in November 1991 as a pop-house single subtitled 'Stand by The JAMs', with verses featuring the vocals of American country music singer Tammy Wynette."
Wikipedia, SO MANY RECORDS, SO LITTLE TIME, amazon, YouTube - Justified and Ancient (Stand By The JAMs), KLF - Justified & Ancient (Live)

History of Hip-Hop Vol. 9: 1987

"MC Lyte – Kickin’ 4 Brooklyn
Just Ice – Goin’ Way Back
LL Cool J – Kanday
Eazy E – Boys In The Hood
NWA – Dope Man
Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded
Kool G Rap – Rikers Island
MC Lyte – I Cram To Understand
Audio Two – Top Billin’
Black, Rock & Ron – That’s How I’m Living
The Jungle Brothers – Jimbrowski
EPMD – You’re A Customer
Big Daddy Kane & Biz Markie – Just Rhymin’ With Biz
Latee – This Cut’s Got Flavor
Boogie Down Productions – Poetry
Public Enemy – Timebomb
Schoolly D – Saturday Night
Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full
Steady B – Use Me
Biz Markie – Nobody Beats The Biz
Classical Two – Rap’s New Generation
Salt ‘N Pepa – I’ll Take Your Man
Super Lover Cee & Cassanova Rud – Do The James
Public Enemy – P.E. #1
LL Cool J – My Rhyme Ain’t Done
Roxanne Shante – Have A Nice Day
Spoonie Gee – The Godfather
Eric B. & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul
Ultramagnetic MCs – Funky (Remix)
Big Daddy Kane – Raw
Public Enemy – Bring The Noise
Dismasters – Small Time Hustler"
History of Hip-Hop Vol. 9: 1987

Fernando Trueba on ‘Chico and Rita’

"Few contemporary cineastes have enjoyed so estimably varied a career as Fernando Trueba. A onetime book editor whose film oeuvre has garnered no fewer than twenty-eight Goyas, he won an Oscar for Belle Epoque (1993), his sexy tale of a young deserter from Spain’s Civil War landing up at the farm of an aging artist whose comely daughters—one craven, one queer, one a young Penélope Cruz—impart a barnful of lessons about women and love. ... I caught up with Trueba a few days after Chico and Rita opened the Miami International Film Festival to a rousing ovation."
The Paris Review, Chico and Rita, amazon, YouTube - Chico and Rita

Centuries of June (made with Stan Brakhage) (1955) - Joseph Cornell

"This is a film about an old house which was to be torn down. I think Cornell was interested in showing us the beauty of this fine old structure, but it seems dead and lifeless and cut off from the life all around it. We see children and workmen and insects. The neighborhood really is alive and vital, but the house has had its day."
UbuWeb

The BRD Trilogy

Wikipedia - "The BRD Trilogy consists of three films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder: The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Veronika Voss (1982), and Lola (1981). The films are connected in a thematic rather than in a narrative sense. All three deal with different characters (though some actors recur in different roles) and plotlines, but each one focuses on the story of a specific woman in West Germany after World War II. The three letter acronym 'BRD' stands for Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the official name of West Germany and of the united contemporary Germany."
Wikipedia, W - The Marriage of Maria Braun, W - Veronika Voss, W - Lola, amazon, Jim's Reviews - The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, YouTube - The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, Lola

Music Downtown - Kyle Gann

"This collection represents the cream of the more than five hundred articles written for the Village Voice by Kyle Gann, a leading authority on experimental American music of the late twentieth century. Charged with exploring every facet of cutting-edge music coming out of New York City in the 1980s and '90s, Gann writes about a wide array of timely issues that few critics have addressed, including computer music, multiculturalism and its thorny relation to music, music for the AIDS crisis, the brand-new art of electronic sampling and its legal implications, symphonies for electric guitars, operas based on talk shows, the death of twelve-tone music, and the various streams of music that flowed forth from minimalism."
University of California, amazon, Music downtown:
writings from The Village voice (Google eBook), W - Downtown_music

Shoot Out the Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson

Wikipedia - "Shoot Out the Lights is the sixth and final album by British husband-and-wife folk rock duo Richard and Linda Thompson. It was produced by Joe Boyd and released in 1982 on his Hannibal label."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Shoot Out The Lights, Just The Motion (live, 1981), Wall of Death, Walking on a Wire

The Wheels Of Steel: An Ode To Turntables

"The turntable is more than just a hi-fi music player for the home. To the DJ, it's also a creative tool for remixing music in real-time. The turntable gave birth to a culture of disc jockeys and is an important element of hip-hop; it also plays a role, quite literally, in the evolution of electronic music."
Schillmania, Wheels Of Steel, YouTube - Wheels Of Steel Prototype - Cue Points (Sampling) Demo, Wheels Of Steel Prototype - Cueing, Pitch and Beat Matching / Mixing (scratch/demo routine). YUIBlog, A JavaScript Sound API supporting MP3, MPEG4 and HTML5 Audio

Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, et al 1950

"This is one of two surviving sound films of Charlie Parker playing (and certainly the longest; the other is only 52 seconds long). Until recently, this film was a rumor, and only still photos of it existed. Watch Bird's amused expression as he watches Hawkins solo, and also how he cuts off the older Tenor man's solo. Although the musicians are filmed playing against tracks recorded earlier, it's still a fascinating and rare look at Bird on film."
YouTube - 1 of 2, 2 of 2

Impressionism

Woman with Parasol by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1875
Wikipedia - "Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The name of the style is derived from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satiric review published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari."
Wikipedia, WebMuseum, YouTube - Impressionist painters

"Poet Among Painters" by James Schuyler

"I first met Frank O'Hara at a party at John Myers' after a Larry Rivers opening: de Kooning and Nell Blaine were there, arguing about whether it is deleterious for an artist to do commercial work. I was most impressed by the company I was suddenly keeping."
In Which The Clouds Get Enough Attention As It Is - This Recording, Poets: Meditations in an Emergency

Tom Gauld

"Tom Gauld is a cartoonist and illustrator. He draws a weekly cartoon for the Guardian newspaper and has created a number of comic books. He lives and works in London."
Tom Gauld, Cabanon Press, flickr, Angry Robot, The Tools Artists Use

Anne Theresa De Keersmaeker FASE at Walker Art Center

"Interview with Anne Theresa De Keersmaeker –overview of her dance career and her group, Rosas and specifically, FASE: Four Movements to The Music of Steve Reich with excerpts from the dance directed by Thierry De Mey."
vimeo

Mikey Dread

Wikipedia - "Michael George Campbell (born 4 June 1954 in Port Antonio, Jamaica - died 15 March 2008 in Connecticut, United States), better known as Mikey Dread, was a Jamaican singer, producer, and broadcaster. He was one of the most influential performers and innovators in reggae music. His abilities, technical expertise, and unique vocal delivery combined to create a unique sound that tells the listener emphatically that it is the 'Dread at the Controls'."
Wikipedia, Mikey Dread, Roots Archives, YouTube - Money in my pocket, Bankrobber, Rasta in Control, Choose me, The Master Recordings [Dub], Tricky Track (Dub), Break Down The Walls

A Salty Dog - Procol Harum

Wikipedia - "A Salty Dog is an album by the Rock band Procol Harum, released in June 1969. Having an ostensibly nautical theme, as indicated by its cover (a pastiche of the famous Player's Navy Cut cigarette pack), interspersed with straight rock, blues and pop items A Salty Dog showed a slight change of direction from its predecessors, being thematically less obscure. The title track itself was the first Procol track to use sound effects and an orchestra, as would be referred to in the live album performance some three years later."
Wikipedia, YouTube - A Salty Dog, Pilgrim's Progress, Too Much Between Us, The Devil Came From Kansas

John Ashbery - Postcard Collages

"JOHN ASHBERY’s most recent book of poems was Where Shall I Wander. His next, A Wordly Country, will be published this winter. He is a Leo, born the same day as Marcel Duchamp and Gerard Manley Hopkins, as well as film comedian Joe E. Brown. The collages reproduced in the current issue were all executed in the early 1970s."
Sienese Shredder Editions, Tibor De Nagy

"Brooklyn Bodega" - Fresh Stuff From Spektor in Paris

"The piece above, entitled Brooklyn Bodega, was hand painted with brush on the streets of Paris. It coincides with the opening to Spektor's first solo in Paris at since/upian
'things change'."
Wooster Collective, Specter Art