Choreographer Pina Bausch - April 2009

"Pina Bausch is regarded one of the most influential artists on the European dance scene. Two years ago, Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal visited Beijing with a show at the Tianqiao Theater featuring 'Cafe Muller', one of her signature works.
Over the years, Pina Bausch has developed her own dance theater. It's become union of genuine dance and theatrical methods of stage performance. It creates a new dance form that distinguishes itself through an intended reference to reality."
Dance Tech (Video)

Pop art

Andy Warhol - Marilyn Monroe, 1962
Wikipedia - "Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art. Pop removes the material from its context and isolates the object, or combines it with other objects, for contemplation. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it."
Wikipedia, Google, YouTube - Introduction to Pop Art

X-Ray Spex

Wikipedia - "X-Ray Spex were an English punk band from London that formed in 1976. During their first incarnation (1976–79), X-Ray Spex were 'deliberate underachievers' and only managed to release five singles and one album. Nevertheless, their first single, 'Oh Bondage, Up Yours!', is now acknowledged as a classic punk rock single and the album, Germ Free Adolescents, is widely acclaimed as a classic album of the punk rock genre."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Oh Bondage! Up Yours!, Identity, World turned dayglo, Germ Free Adolescence

Ergo Phizmiz

Created a Posthuman Dadamix, based Andrei Codrescu
"Over the past twelve years Ergo Phizmiz has become one of the most defiantly single-minded and uncategorisable artists in the world. Across pop music, opera, radio-art, puppet theatre, film scores, cover versions, sound-collage, installations, sound-poetry and electronic music, he has built a body of work that exceeds 300 hours."
Ergo Phizmiz, (1), Ergo Phizmiz Blogspot, WFMU: Ergo Phizmiz's Opera The Third Policeman on Tour (YouTube - Video), Eloise My Dolly, Ergo Phizmiz (feat. MC Erik Bumbledonk) - Anna Boom, Now That's What We Pump At The Party, People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz - Snow Day, The Travelling Mongoose - "Low Commotion"

Bode Museum

"Sometimes on a whim I stop into the Bode Museum here to commune with a tiny clay sculpture of John the Baptist. It’s in a corner of a nearly always empty room, a bone-white bust, pretty and as androgynous as mid-1970s Berlin-addled David Bowie. The saint’s upturned eyes glow in the hard light through tall windows. Attributed to the 15th-century Luccan artist Matteo Civitali, the sculpture is all exquisite ecstasy and languor."
NYT: Has Sculpture Become Just Another Pretty Face? (Multimedia), Wikipedia

David Cox

"A couple of days ago, self-appointed 'dub artist' David Cox got in touch to share his latest work 'Rub A Dub – Modern Art Version'. I really liked what I saw and asked him to send me some more information on him and work from him..."
SEEN, YouTube - STARS DUB, RUB A DUB, Soundcloud: David Cox

Village Voice

Wikipedia - "The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper in New York City, United States featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City. It is also distributed throughout the United States on a pay basis. It was the first and is arguably the best known of the arts-oriented tabloids that have come to be known as alternative weeklies, though its reputation has been unstable since a recent buyout by publishing conglomerate New Times Media."
Wikipedia, Village Voice

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup

Wikipedia - "Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup (August 5, 1905 — March 28, 1974) was a Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs such as 'That's All Right' (1946), 'My Baby Left Me' and 'So Glad You're Mine', later covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other artists."
Wikipedia, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, YouTube - That's All Right, Who's Been Foolin' You, So Glad You're Mine, Rock me Mama, Death Valley Blues (1941), Any Time Would Be The Right Time, Hey Mama, Everything's Alright, Black Pony Blues (1941), She's got no hair (1954)

Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell

Rue du Coq d'Or, 5th Arrondissement
Wikipedia - "Down and Out in Paris and London is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell (Eric Blair), published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. The first part is a picaresque account of living on the breadline in Paris and the experience of casual labour in restaurant kitchens. The second part is a travelogue of life on the road in and around London from the tramp's perspective, with descriptions of the types of hostel accommodation available and some of the characters to be found living on the margins."
Wikipedia, amazon, Down and Out in Paris and London, BBC: On the trail of George Orwell’s outcasts, Emma Jane Kirby

Federico García Lorca

Wikipedia - "Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (... 5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads during the Spanish Civil War."
Wikipedia, Floating Bridges, Green Integer, amazon

Raymond Scott

Wikipedia - "Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow, 10 September 1908 – 8 February 1994), was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor. Although Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, his music is familiar to millions because of its adaptation by Carl Stalling in over 120 classic Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and other Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts."
Wikipedia, Raymond Scott, An Anecdotal History of Sound and Light: The Music and Inventions of Raymond Scott (Video), YouTube - Raymond Scott Quintette - Powerhouse - Hit Parade, Ali Baba Goes to Town - 1937, War Dance For Wooden Indians, Night And Day, Portifino, Nescafe, Porky Pigs Feat, Ren and Stimpy-The Big Baby Scam

Seinfeld

Wikipedia - "Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself. Set predominantly in an apartment block on Manhattan's Upper West Side (but shot mainly in Los Angeles), the show features a host of Jerry's friends and acquaintances, in particular best friend George Costanza, former girlfriend Elaine Benes and next door neighbor, Cosmo Kramer."
Wikipedia, SONY: Seinfeld, tbs: Seinfeld

Astor Piazzolla - 1985. Utrecht, Netherlands

"Astor Piazzolla y su Quinteto Tango Nuevo, VPRO television registration 1985 concert in Utrecht, Netherlands"
YouTube - 1/3, 2/3, 3/3

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey

"Household names in Benin and unknown anywhere else, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey are one of the most prolific music groups to emerge from Africa. With over 50 full lengths to their name and hundreds of 45s, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo's music still remains largely confined to Benin, buried beneath the larger markets of West Africa."
Spectrum Culture, amazon, YouTube - Gbeti Madjro, Minsato Le, Mi Dayihome, Ma Dou Sou Nou Mio, Dis Moi La Verite, Se Tche We Djo Mon, Djanfa Magni

"Stations"(1982) - Robert Wilson

"Stations is an enigmatic, hauntingly vivid work, in which Wilson envisions the daydreams and fantasies of an eleven-year-old boy as a universe both magical and sinister. Resonating with Wilson's precise visual stylization, the tape's pivotal image is a young boy looking through a large window in the kitchen of his home, which becomes the portal for his dramatic, often startling inner fantasies. Fire, metal, wind, glass and water, among other elements, serve as points of departure for a series of elegant pictorial compositions and evocative metaphors. Unfolding without dialogue or spoken language, Wilson's indelible visions articulate the fear and mystery of the internal life of a child, and his relation to the outside world."
Electronic Arts Intermix, UbuWeb: Video

Lilli Carré

"Cartoonist and animator, Lilli Carré (Chicago USA) is the writer and illustrator of the books Nine Ways to Disappear, The Lagoon, and Tales of Woodsman Pete, and has contributed comics strips to anthologies such as MOME. Lilli also creates the most wonderful moving drawings."
Pikaland, Lilli Carré, Lilli Carré - New Films, Kettle of Fish

Monk Meredith - "Ellis Island" (1981)

"This excerpt from Meredith Monk's haunting, reflective piece on Ellis Island and the immigrants who passed through there shows re-creations of the medical examinations the immigrants underwent and the conditions they lived through. The sequences were filmed in the run-down buildings of Ellis Island before restoration was started."
OpenVault, YouTube - ParteI, ParteII

Collector Not Completist

Lighting (1978) - Can
"Collector Not Completist features daily posts of center-labels from records. Bloggers are invited on board for two-week stints to contribute 14 of their favorite labels from their collections. Collector Not Completist is organized by Alexander Stewart."
Collector Not Completist

Artistamp

Wikipedia - "The term artistamp (a portmanteau of the words 'artist' and 'stamp') or artist's stamp refers to a postage stamp-like art form used to depict or commemorate any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries or bogus Illegal stamps in that typically the creator has no intent to fool postal authorities or stamp collectors."
Wikipedia

Blind Faith

Wikipedia - "Blind Faith were an English blues-rock band that consisted of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech. The band, which was one of the first 'super-groups', released their only album, Blind Faith, in August 1969. They were stylistically similar to the bands in which Winwood, Baker, and Clapton had most recently participated, Traffic and Cream."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Can't Find My Way Home - 1969, In The Presence of The Lord, Sea of Joy, Means to an End, Had To Cry Today

La Coquille et le Clergyman - 1926, Germaine Dulac

"The Seashell and the Clergyman ... is considered by many to be the first surrealist film. It was directed by Germaine Dulac, from an original scenario by Antonin Artaud, and premiered in Paris on 9 February 1928."
YouTube

Alan Ganev

F&B. Color Print (featured in Decover Magazine)
"Born in 1986 in San Jose, Costa Rica, collage artist Alan Ganev has been calling Montreal home for several years. Ganev is meticulous in his process. He cuts the images delicately and is exact about the position and alignment of the elements in the composition. The compositions are rich, yet simple, using no more than three images, some geometrical shapes and bright colors."
Ganev

Howlin' Wolf

Wikipedia - "Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976), better known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. With a booming voice and looming physical presence, Burnett is commonly ranked among the leading performers in electric blues; musician and critic Cub Koda declared, 'no one could match Howlin' Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.'"
Wikipedia, YouTube - How Many More Years, Smokestack Lightning, Shake It For Me, I´ll be back someday, Rust my broom, Highway 49, Back Door Man, Evil (Is Going On)

Robert Fripp - Frippertronics Demonstration '79

"October 5th, 1979, Burbank. Robert Fripp demonstration of his Frippertronics with a very sweet and warm improvisation."
YouTube

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Wikipedia - "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) is a book by educator Neil Postman. The book's origins lie in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. He was participating in a panel on Orwell's 1984 and the contemporary world. In the introduction to his book Postman said that the contemporary world was better reflected by Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, whose public was oppressed by their addiction to amusement, than by Orwell's 1984, where they were oppressed by state control."
Wikipedia, amazon, Amusing Ourselves to Death - Stuart McMillen

Bruce Conner

Wikipedia - "Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines."
Wikipedia, artnet, Bruce Conner: The Art of Montage, YouTube - Mea Culpa, Experimental Movie, Mutants: Homage to Bruce Conner: Missing In Action, The Dynamics of Progress, Life in Your Hands, (About) Robots

Lanquidity -Sun Ra

Wikipedia - "Lanquidity is a jazz album by Sun Ra and his Arkestra released in 1978. It is quite different from his earlier recordings in the sense that it was more of a fusion inspired recording. It also features two guitarists which was seldom used in the Arkestra. The funk influence is also considerable, especially on 'That's How I Feel'."
Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube - Lanquidity, That's How I Feel, Where Pathways Meet, Twin Stars Of Thence

"Respect For Things As They Are" - by John Ashbery

"In his introduction to Fairfield Porter's posthumous collection of art criticism, Art in Its Own Terms, Rackstraw Downes quotes a remark Fairfield Porter made during what must have been one of the more Byzantine discussions at the Artists' Club on Eighth Street, around 1952. The members were arguing about whether or not it was vain to sign your paintings. With the flustered lucidity of Alice in the courtroom, Porter sliced this particular Gordian knot once and for all: 'If you are vain it is vain to sign your pictures and vain not to sign them. If you are not vain it is not vain to sign them and not vain not to sign them.'"
ThisRecording

Memories of Sugar Hill

"In a time of discrimination and segregation, young people growing up in an area of Harlem known as Sugar Hill right before and after World War II found success and inspiration all around them. Explore the people who lived in Sugar Hill and hear the stories of those who grew up there."
NYT - Video

The Shadows of Knight

Wikipedia - "The Shadows of Knight are an American rock band from the Chicago suburbs, formed in the 1960s, who play a form of British blues mixed with influences from their native city. At the time they first started recording, the band's self-description was as follows: 'The Stones, Animals and Yardbirds took the Chicago Blues and gave it an English interpretation.'"
Wikipedia, The Shadows of Knight, YouTube - Gloria, I'll make you sorry, Potato ship, Oh Yeah

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