The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry: An Anthology

"A cornucopia of pleasures, some that come with a sapient sting, FSG’s new bilingual anthology of Latin American poetry provides something for everyone in its great variety and generous, ecumenical selection. Conceived by Ilan Stavans, a noted translator, scholar, and professor at Amherst, this collection invites readers to experience and savor a huge gamut of expressivity, from local pain and colonial resentment, to far-flung fantasy by turns erotic and nationalistic, to an intangible joy in the universe. In chronological order, 84 poets from 13 Latin American countries are represented, as well as nine different languages, some related, but all fascinatingly distinct: Portuguese, Spanish, Nahuatl, Mapuche, Quechua, Mazatec, Apotec, Ladino, and Spanglish. The book also features Latin American poets who experiment in French and English, alongside others who write in Afrikaans, Cantonese, and Yiddish. ..."
Brooklyn Rail
Bookslut
amazon: The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry: An Anthology
YouTube: Literature Book Review: The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry

The Limits of Discourse As Demonstrated by Sam Harris and Noam Chomsky

"For decades, Noam Chomsky has been one of the most prominent critics of U.S. foreign policy, and the further left one travels along the political spectrum, the more one feels his influence. Although I agree with much of what Chomsky has said about the misuses of state power, I have long maintained that his political views, where the threat of global jihadism is concerned, produce dangerous delusions. In response, I have been much criticized by those who believe that I haven’t given the great man his due. Last week, I did my best to engineer a public conversation with Chomsky about the ethics of war, terrorism, state surveillance, and related topics. As readers of the following email exchange will discover, I failed. I’ve decided to publish this private correspondence, with Chomsky’s permission, as a cautionary tale. Clearly, he and I have drawn different lessons from what was, unfortunately, an unpleasant and fruitless encounter. I will let readers draw lessons of their own. –SH"
Sam Harris
Open Culture: Read Noam Chomsky & Sam Harris’ “Unpleasant” Email Exchange (Video)

Life After Don Draper

"The final strains of AMC’s 'Mad Men' have scarcely faded and already panic has set in: after seven seasons of being held rapt by the machinations of Sterling Cooper & Partners, how will you fill the void? Whatever your reason for watching — the allure of the 1960s, the art of the pitch, the prickly gender relations, the boozy bad behavior or simply the panache of a man in a bespoke suit — we’ve got some ideas for feeding your fix. ..."
NY Times
NY Times: Shifting From ‘Mad Men’ to Strong Women in a Series Finale
AMC: Mad Men (Video)
NY Times: ‘Mad Men’ Series Finale Recap: The Door Closes, The Light Goes Off
'Mad Men': THR's Full Coverage
NYPL: The "Mad Men" Reading List (Video)
Having a Coke with Don Draper and Frank O’Hara (Video)
The Finale of Mad Men and Frank O’Hara: A Theory

2013 January: Mad Men, 2013 September: ‘Mad Men’s’ Split Season 7: You’re Killing Me, AMC

Lindsay Cooper - Music For Other Occasions (1986)

"... Lindsay Cooper is an outstanding composer and musician. Her style is a subtle, none-the-less impressive example of contemporary feminist music. She is a former member of Henry Cow, David Thomas and the Pedestrians, the Feminist Improvising Group, the Mike Westbrook Orchestra etc."
DOM
YouTube: The assasination waltz, 1. The Colony Comes a Cropper, 2. Marivaux, The Number 8 Bus

December 2009: Lindsay Cooper, 2010 February: Art Bears, 2011 April: Rags (1980)/The Golddiggers (1983), 2012 July: The Art Box - Art Bears, 2012 November: David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme, 2012 November: News from Babel, 2013 March: The Last Nightingale, 2013 October: Art Bears Songbook - 2010-09-19 - Rock In Opposition Festival, 2014 April: Lindsay Cooper, 1951-2013, 2015 February: Oh Moscow (1991), 2015 April: Rarities Volumes 1 & 2 (2014).

Russia by Train. (Kind of.)

"Everyone’s got a hobby (especially those reading this). Chances are pretty good, though, that within your hobby, you’re not trying to account for an entire country’s biological diversity. And even if you were, chances are even better that your country wasn’t Russia — the largest in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the planet’s habitable land. Which is why you’re not Sergey Morozov, whose dream of creating a model railroad in a scale version of Russia has reached an epic scale. ..."
Lionel (Video)
YouTube: Russia in miniature - Documentary film on TV channel Russia Today

Lola Alvarez Bravo and the Photography of an Era

Anarquía arquitectónica de la Ciudad de México, ca. 1953
"Lola Alvarez Bravo and the Photography of an Era sheds new light on one of Mexico’s most important photographers. Originally organized by the Diego Rivera Studio Museum in Mexico City, this traveling exhibition presents a selection of fine prints from the González Rendón Archive, a recently discovered body of materials that encompass the long arc of Lola’s career. For its installation at the Center for Creative Photography, guest curators Rachael Arauz and Adriana Zavala have also chosen a group of works from the CCP’s own archive of Lola Alvarez Bravo photographs. Featuring both iconic and lesser-known images, as well as photographs by her former husband Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and by her students, the joint presentation of these two archives will inspire fresh insights into this fascinating photographer’s rich contributions to modern art."
Creative Photography
NY Times: A Mexican Photographer, Overshadowed but Not Outdone (18 Photo)
W - Lola Alvarez Bravo
Center for Creative Photography, Part of The University of Arizona
amazon
YouTube: Manuel e Lola Álvarez Bravo Photographers Plaza Santa MariaJuan

Dear Chris Rock, Here's How You Can Get More Black People to Watch Baseball

"On April 21 Bryant Gumbel aired a monologue by Chris Rock on his HBO show Real Sports. The comedian's topic was the deteriorating relationship between baseball and African Americans. Rock played it for laughs, but it was clear he was serious about the subject. Describing himself as 'an endangered species — a black baseball fan,' Rock argued that the game of baseball has stubbornly alienated African Americans: 'Every team is building a bullshit, fake-antique stadium that's supposed to remind you of the good old days — you know, the good old days with Ruth, DiMaggio, Emmett Till.' Even as the world has sped up, he contends that the sport has slowed down, operating under an outdated unwritten code that discourages the kind of flamboyance exhibited in professional basketball and football, sports that are more popular among blacks. And blacks are staying away in droves, on the field and in the stands. ..."
VOICE

2015 April: Chris Rock explains how Major League Baseball got so old and white

Plans Are Doomed to Fail - The Battle of Galicia I Week 6

"While the Germans are very close to reaching Paris, the Eastern Front proves to become a disastrous fail for the Austro-Hungarian forces. Conrad von Hötzendorf overestimated his skills and the strength of his troops. And after his too complicated plan in Galicia failed, the town of Lemberg falls into the hands of the Russians. Meanwhile, the war starts spreading into Asia, as Japan is besieging Tsingtao and New Zealand conquering German Samoa. In our last episode, Indy explains how the Germans left a trail of misery while marching through Belgium."
YouTube: Plans Are Doomed to Fail - The Battle of Galicia - Week 6

2014 December: The Great War: WWI Starts - How Europe Spiraled Into the Great War - Week 1, Europe Prior to WWI: Allies and Enemies I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 1/3, Tinderbox Europe - From Balkan Troubles to WWI I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 2/3, A Shot that Changed the World - The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 3/3, 2015 January: Germany in Two-Front War and the Schlieffen-Plan I - Week 2, 2015 March: To Arms! Deployment of Troops - Week 3, 2015 March:A New War With Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front - Week 4, 2015 April: The Rape of Belgium – War Crimes in the Summer of 1914 - Week 5.

Barcelona: Berta Marsé, Ricardo Feriche, Javier Velasco

"Throughout its complex past, Barcelona has managed to maintain its unique features: its famed architecture, monuments, style and spirit. Barcelona offers a visual chronological journey through the city with its stimulating mosaic of iconic images, many never before published, from past and present. The book begins in 1870, moving from the Expo to the crazy nights of 60s intellectuals to the energy of 1992. Finally comes a portrait of Barcelona through the lens of multiple generations: the images of local photographers such as Catala-Roca, Colita, Pomés and Masats, but also international greats such as Cartier-Bresson, Erwitt, Avedon, Koudelka, Newton and Parr, are accompanied by text that contextualizes them historically. Famed Barcelona figures, of course, make appearances as well: Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Ava Gardner, García Márquez, Cortázar and others are here captured in this beautiful tribute to a city and its cultural history."
Barcelona - The Eye of Photography
Pictures of Barcelona, the great book of the city.
amazon

Sun Ra - Sunrise in Different Dimensions (1981)

"This double LP features a live concert by Sun Ra & the Arkestra in Switzerland. The only fault to the set is that the two drummers (Chris Henderson and Eric Walker) fail to swing and often sound wooden on the vintage standards, which might be due to the lack of a bassist. However, the nonet (which also includes Ra on piano and organ, tenor great John Gilmore, altoist Marshall Allen, baritonist Danny Thompson, the reeds of Kenneth Williams and Noel Scott, and trumpeter Michael Ray), despite its slightly odd instrumentation, is heard throughout in excellent form. In addition to eight diverse and generally adventurous untitled originals by Ra, the ensemble performs ragged and eccentric versions of such 1930s pieces as 'Big John's Special,' 'Yeah Man,' 'Queer Notions,' 'Limehouse Blues,' and 'King Porter Stomp.' For the remainder of his life, Sun Ra would alternate between reinventions of swing tunes and his outer space originals; despite the drummers, this was one of the better examples of his late-period band."
allmusic
W - Sunrise in Different Dimensions
amazon
Spotify
YouTube: Sunrise in Different Dimensions (1981)

Home - Procol Harum (1970)

Wikipedia - "Home is Procol Harum's fourth album, released in 1970. With the departure of organist Matthew Fisher and bassist David Knights and the addition of the remaining musicians' (Gary Brooker, B.J. Wilson and Robin Trower) former bandmate bassist/organist Chris Copping from The Paramounts, Procol Harum was, for all intents and purposes, The Paramounts again in all but name. The purpose of bringing in Copping was to return some of the R&B sound to the band that they had with their previous incarnation. The initial sessions were performed in London at Trident Studios under the supervision of former organist Matthew Fisher who had also produced the band's previous album. ..."
Wikipedia
amazon
YouTube: Home [Full album, 1970] 38:49

2009 July: Procol Harum, 2011 July: A Salty Dog, 2011 December: Broken Barricades, 2013 April: "Homburg", 2013 June: Procol Harum (1967).

Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology - edited by Bruce Sterling (1986)

"Preface to Mirrorshades By Bruce Sterling. This book showcases writers who have come to prominence within this decade. Their allegiance to Eighties culture has marked them as a group as a new movement in science fiction. This movement was quickly recognized and given many labels: Radical Hard SF, the Outlaw Technologists, the Eighties Wave, the Neuromantics, the Mirrorshades Group. But of all the labels pasted on and peeled throughout the early Eighties, one has stuck: cyberpunk. Scarcely any writer is happy about labels - especially one with the peculiar ring of 'cyberpunk.' Literary tags carry an odd kind of double obnoxiousness: those with a label feel pigeonholed; those without feel neglected. And, somehow, group labels never quite fit the individual, giving rise to an abiding itchiness. It follows, then, that the 'typical cyberpunk writer' does not exist; this person is only a Platonic fiction. For the rest of us, our label is an uneasy bed of Procrustes, where fiendish critics wait to lop and stretch us to fit. ..."
Preface to Mirrorshades - The Cyberpunk Project
Best SF
W - Mirrorshades
amazon

2010 September: Cyberpunk, 2010 October: Bruce Sterling, 2011 July: William Gibson

Looking at paintings

La Promenade, Renoir
"Discover the elements of art seen in such masterpieces as The Dream of Pope Sergius by van der Weyden, La Promenade by Renoir, River Landscape by Koninck, Still Life with Apples by Cézanne, The Entombment by Rubens, Christ Crowned with Thorns by von Honthorst, Vase of Flowers by van Huysum, and Irises by van Gogh. Love art?"
Khan Academy (Video)

The Case for Riding the Subway to the Last Stop

The Coney Island boardwalk.
"There are plenty of reasons to trek out to the last stop on a subway line—and not just because you dozed off and didn’t wake up until the train jerked to a halt. (For instance, you could pull a Hannah Horvath and eat some cake in the shadow of the Wonder Wheel.) In well-traversed cities, it’s hard to find anything that’s truly off the beaten path—but that doesn’t stop people from wanting to look. Sharing terrain with thousands—or millions—of other people can foster a desire for something a little unfamiliar. One way to find it: Explore the far reaches of the public transit system. CityLab chatted with Amy Plitt, co-author of the new book Subway Adventure Guide: New York City—To the End of the Line, about why it’s worth exploring the end of the route. ..."
CityLab
amazon: Subway Adventure Guide: New York City: To the End of the LineLost in NYC: A Subway Adventure: A TOON Graphic

John Ashbery Created Spaces: A Dream Of This Room

Chelsea: A collection of early 19th-century French puzzle-plates represent tension between the language of image and the language of words. Living room.
"When Micaela Morrisette first mentioned the idea of a Created Spaces symposium on John Ashbery’s domestic environments, I was elated. I had recently composed a verbo-visual presentation concerning the untitled poem by Ashbery that graces a magnificent, Siah Armajani-designed bridge at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (a presentation I have been privileged to give in several cities around the country, and to publish in a slightly abridged textual form in the fine literary magazine jubilat). Working on this talk gave me the welcome excuse to re-read John Ashbery’s amazing body of work, and to discover in it a finely-tuned exaltation of spatiality I hadn’t quite noticed before—an important, self-regulating corrective to the temptation some readers may have to view the work as too 'abstract.' ..."
rain taxi: Publisher's Preface By Eric Lorberer
raintaxi - John Ashbery Created Spaces: A Dream Of This Room
Wayfinding John Ashbery: Remarks from an Evening with AshLab
[PDF] The ream Songs of John Ashbery - Marjorie Perloff
PBS: Ashbery Discusses Lifetime of Poetic Achievement (Video)

An Animated John Coltrane Explains His True Reason for Being: “I Want to Be a Force for Real Good”

"Last week, we posted an interview with the late, great Ray Bradbury that was brilliantly animated by the folks over at Blank on Blank. This week, they unveil a new piece featuring John Coltrane. You can watch it above. Coltrane is, of course, one of the true giants of 20th century music. He first got attention playing with the Miles Davis Quintet in the mid-1950s on albums like Relaxin’, Cookin’ and Steamin’ before he released his seminal solo album Blue Train. But his career quickly faltered. He was hooked on heroin and Davis, a former junkie himself, fired him from the Quintet. When he cleaned himself up, Coltrane found he was a changed man."
Open Culture (Video)

2011 November: John Coltrane Quartet, Live at Jazz Casual, 1963, 2012 March: John Coltrane 1960 - 1965, 2012 September: "Naima" (1959), 2012 October: Blue Train (1957), 2013 April: The World According to John Coltrane, 2013 November: A Love Supreme (1965), 2014 July: New Photos of John Coltrane Rediscovered 50 Years After They Were Shot, 2014 November: Coltrane’s Free Jazz Wasn’t Just “A Lot of Noise”, 2015 February: Lush Life (1958).

Little Brazil, Manhattan

Wikipedia - "Little Brazil, Manhattan refers to a small neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City that is centered on the single block of West 46th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The area consists mostly of Brazilian commercial enterprises and Brazilian restaurants. It is demarcated by signs between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, along 46th Street, and several vendors display the green and yellow colors of the Brazilian flag. Little Brazil is famous for hosting New York City's annual Brazilian Day which features live music and food stands from the various restaurants on the street."
Wikipedia
Description and pictures of Little Brazil, New York
Where In The World Is Little Brazil?
NY Times = Little Brazil: Buyer Beware
YouTube: Little Brazil - Manhattan New York, Brazilian Day in New York 2013 ( Little Brazil Street W 46st ), Manhattan Samba @ Little Brazil St. New York City

Fashion to Die For: Did an Addiction to Fads Lead Marie Antoinette to the Guillotine?

"Fast fashion might seem like a modern invention, but in the turbulent world of 18th-century France, when Marie Antoinette was calling the shots, fashion moved at light speed: In an era when several artisans would be called upon to labor over a single garment, styles shifted by the hour, rendering fashion magazines, which were printed every 10 days, outdated before their ink was even dry. Not unlike today, the streets of Paris in the 18th century were filled with people wearing flashy outfits referencing politics and pop culture. Trendy hats, hairstyles, and other accessories signaled that you were in the know. During the 1780s, the aristocracy of Europe’s most powerful country even started slumming it with simpler, peasant-inspired looks. ..."
CW
amazon: Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette
W - Reign of Terror
W - Ancien Régime
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Eighteenth-Century European Dress
Rose Bertin, the creator of fashion at the court of Marie-Antoinette
W - Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre, Duchess of Orléans

Sven Augustijnen

L'Histoire Belge, 2007. A series of 10 offset prints on paper.
"Sven Augustijnen (°1970) lives and works in Brussels. His films, publications and installations on political, historical and social themes constantly challenge the genre of the documentary, reflecting a wider interest in historiography and a predilection for the nature of storytelling: 'Historiography is by no means a natural phenomenon. The way we use stories, images and fiction to construct reality and history fascinates me.' He had solo-shows at the Kunsthalle Bern; Wiels, Centre for Contemporary Art, Brussels; de Appel, arts centre, Amsterdam; Malmö Konsthall; Vox, Centre pour l'Image contemporaine, Montréal; CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson. Recent group-shows include The Unfinshed Conversation, The Power Plant, Toronto and Ce qui ne sert pas s'oublie, CAPC, Bordeaux. Sven Augustijnen is represented by Jan Mot, Brussels/Mexico City and is a founding member of Auguste Orts, Brussels."
Auguste Orts
e-flux - Sven Augustijnen: Summer Thoughts
WIELS
The Incomplete Truth Spectres by Sven Augustijnen
VOX

#TBT The Rub – Going Back to Cali

"Almost exactly a decade ago, The Rub did a Summer West Coast tour to flex their muscles (aka DJ skills) and commemorated this journey with their very appropriately titled mix, Going Back to Cali. In what’s a very timely #TBT for this week, this mix showcased a wide variety of tunes with an obvious homage to a number of artists who have been instrumental in putting the West on the map and continuing that tradition of excellence. The beauty of this mix to me though it never stays in one place stylistically or regionally, and the flow of sample drops in between their modern era flips is all too slick. Just take a listen below and see if this doesn’t make you want to hit Cali for a summer getaway."
The Rub (Video)

Zakaria: How ISIS shook the world

"It's easy to be anxious about the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. After all, this is a brutal organization that not only kills but seems to revel in doing so in ways designed to shock the world -- from the beheadings of journalists to burning a Jordanian pilot alive. Such moves are part of this murky group's propaganda and its deliberate efforts to manipulate information. So what can and should we make of the organization? I explore the issue in depth in a special airing Monday night. And although it's important to start with the caveat that ISIS is indeed trying to scare and confuse us, I took away some tentative lessons from speaking with the people who have traveled inside the minds of ISIS. ..."
CNN
YouTube: Blindsided: How ISIS Shook The World (2015) 42:09

2014 August: The Islamic State, 2014 September: How ISIS Works, 2015 February: The Political Scene: The Evolution of Islamic Extremism.

LISTEN: New Cave And Ellis Soundtrack

"With a healthy catalogue of soundtrack work already under their belt, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have once again come together, this time to accompany David Olehoffen’s Loin Des Hommes (Far From Men). Set to be released through Goliath Enterprises a week today (May 18), you can now treat yourself to an exclusive pre-release stream of the soundtrack, in full, above. Loin Des Hommes marks Cave & Ellis’ fifth full soundtrack release, while the film itself was a triple prizewinner at 2014’s Venice film festival. The soundtrack provides a sprawling accompaniment to Olehoffen’s chronicle of Algeria’s war of independence, adapted from a short story by Albert Camus. You can watch the film’s trailer, featuring a small part of Cave & Ellis’ soundtrack, below."
The Quietus (Video)

2008 August: Nick Cave, 2010 November: Henry Lee - Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 March: The Boatman's Call, 2011 December: B-Sides & Rarities, 2012 January: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - White Lunar, 2013 January: "We No Who U R", 2013 April: No More Shall We Part, 2013 June: The Secret Life Of The Love Song/The Flesh Made Word (1999), 2013 October: The Abattoir Blues Tour (2007), 2014 March: Push the Sky Away (2013), 2014 May: Live from KCRW (2013), 2014 July: I Am the Real Nick Cave, 2015 April: God Is In The House (2001).

BSA Film Friday: 05.08.15

EL MAC on the US/Mexico border on BSA Film
"... El Paso X Juarez: Border Murals by El Mac. These sister cities that straddle the line between Texas and Chihuahua continue to highlight the tumult that exists along the southern border of the United States – a heady mix of commerce, severe economic disparity, xenophobia, racism, family love, dreams, violence, the drug trade, aspiration, honesty, hope, and corruption. In this first part of a series of videos highlighting the street artist / muralist El Mac, you get a taste of the the caustic militarized state of this zona and what it may feel like to live in it or pass through it." 1. Shepard Fairey: OBEY This Film 2. El Paso X Juarez: Border Murals by El Mac 3. Paint PHX 2015 4. DULK in Rome
Brooklyn Street NYC

Culture - Two Sevens Clash: The 30th Anniversary Edition (1977/2007)

"For all its Biblical heft-- the title was taken from a Marcus Garvey prophecy about chaos erupting on 7/7/77-- Culture's reggae classic Two Sevens Clash, like Funkadelic or gospel, took suffering as a means for uplift. Re-sequenced from its original running order, this 30th Anniversary Edition opens with 'I'm Alone in the Wilderness', which singer Joseph Hill does appear to be, for about 20 seconds. The minor key screws up to major, and the second time Hill claims solitude, he's joined by Albert Walker and Kenneth Dayes; Robbie Shakespeare's guitar nods in repose with the rootsiness of a Band record; wet organs drone in the background; an electric piano punctuates Hill's exultations; Sly Dunbar clacks along on drums like their bejeweled rickshaw. The goal here-- not to lose sight of what already feels like heaven on earth-- was deliverance: 'I'm alone with Jah almighty'. ..."
Pitchfork
amazon
Spotify
YouTube: Two Sevens Clash: The 30th Anniversary Edition
YouTube: Two Sevens Clash b/w Version

September 2009: Culture, 2011 April: Two Sevens Clash

The Slow Destruction Of Pete Reiser, The Greatest Player Who Never Was

"'Down in Los Angeles,' says Garry Schumacher, who was a New York baseball writer for 30 years and is now assistant to Horace Stoneham, president of the San Francisco Giants, 'they think Duke Snider is the best center fielder the Dodgers ever had. They forget Pete Reiser. The Yankees think Mickey Mantle is something new. They forget Reiser, too.' Maybe Pete Reiser was the purest ballplayer of all time. I don't know. There is no exact way of measuring such a thing, but when a man of incomparable skills, with full knowledge of what he is doing, destroys those skills and puts his life on the line in the pursuit of his endeavor as no other man in his game ever has, perhaps he is the truest of them all. 'Is Pete Reiser there?' I said on the phone. ..."
The Stacks

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty

"For over three decades Marilyn Minter has produced lush paintings, photographs, and videos that vividly manifest our culture’s complex and contradictory emotions around the feminine body and beauty. Her unique works—from the oversized paintings of makeup-laden lips and eyes to soiled designer shoes—bring into sharp, critical focus the power of desire. As an artist Minter has always made seductive visual statements that demand our attention while never shirking her equally crucial roles as provocateur, critic, and humorist. Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty features over 25 paintings made between 1976 and 2013, three video works, and several photographs that show Minter’s work in depth. The exhibition was co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver."
CAMB
amazon
YouTube: AI Interview, Photographer & Painter 1:01:19

Yoko Ono and MoMA, Together at Last

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's billboard in Times Square, New York City, 1969
"Yoko Ono was about to burn a painting. Standing alongside curators and conservators in an unused gallery at the Museum of Modern Art this spring, the 82-year-old superstar wanted to copy a cigarette hole that John Cage, the avant-garde composer, had burned into another blank canvas of hers half a century earlier. For the remake, she had asked for the French cigarettes that Cage would have used but ended up settling for one from Nat Sherman. Lighting up in a museum that had not smelled of tobacco for decades, she reached out and, with a sure artist’s touch, scorched a tidy round hole. Velazquez painting the Spanish king could not have been watched more closely than Ms. Ono was — though it was hard to know whether these courtiers were crowding around to witness creation or to prevent conflagration. 'Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960-1971,' opening on May 17 in one of MoMA’s prestigious sixth-floor galleries, is a major event of the museum’s summer season."
NY Times
MoMA: Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971
Rejoice! Her Majesty Yoko Ono Is Getting A MoMA Exhibition

2009 January: Yoko Ono, 2009 September: Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, 2011 April: Grapefruit, 2014 February: "Walking on Thin Ice" (1981).

Yes - Pet Shop Boys (2009)

"Some bands, as they age, turn into hacks, banging out songs that mean nothing to them; some lose it by becoming dilettantes, groping at modish styles they don't understand. But it takes a master ironist to fall into mediocrity by embracing sincerity and scoffing at dancefloor trends-- and Pet Shop Boys' frontman Neil Tennant has built his career out of being a master ironist. That, it turns out, is why the band's 10th studio album is such a disappointment. On its surface, Yes isn't a significant departure from the style of the PSBs' better records--the same highbrow witticisms ('Love etc' is probably the first U.K. chart single to namedrop artist Gerhard Richter), the same lavish arrangements, Tennant's soft little voice cutting through the beats. It allegedly features the duo's longtime collaborator Johnny Marr playing on a few tracks, although most of the guitar parts are bland as paste or all but inaudible or both."
Pitchfork
W - Yes
YouTube: Yes (Full Album) [2009]

Edith Schloss Burckhardt Archive

Print of the 1949 Rudy Burckhardt photomontage “Over the Roofs of Chelsea”
"Featuring: Rudy Burckhardt, Edwin Denby, Francesca Woodman, and Alvin Curran. Avant-garde composer and musician Alvin Curran has written about his meeting with artist, writer, and critic Edith Schloss Burckhardt during his first years in Rome: 'In that same settling-in period I met Edith Schloss, an Offenbach-born New York painter just divorced from photographer-painter Rudy Burckhardt. She arrived on a cloud of combustible materials which included the entire New York Abstract Expressionist movement, the Cedar Bar, Art News, MOMA, the Art Students League and Balanchine Stravinsky the Carters Edwin Denby de Kooning Twombly Feldman Cage Brown Rothko Cunningham Pollack her beloved Morandi and of course ‘Piero’ (della Francesca)...' "
Granary Books

2010 December: Edwin Denby, 2013 December: Rudy Burckhardt, 2014 July: Rudy Burckhardt Films: 1936-1999

Watermill Quintet: Robert Wilson Curates New Performances

"A collaborative work curated by Robert Wilson with five young emerging directors and choreographers. The work combines dance with performance art, theater, video, and music by the late composer Michael Galasso, a long time collaborator of Mr. Wilson's, and Brian Lawlor. It was created by artists Marianna Kavallieratos, Ryan Mitchell (of Implied Violence), Andrew Ondrejcak, Jason Akira Somma, and Carlos Soto, under Robert Wilson's mentorship during the summer of 2010 at the Watermill Center."
Guggenheim (Video)
Curating Currents: Robert Wilson at The Guggenheim

2008 April: Robert Wilson, 2010 January: Einstein on the Beach, 2010 July: The CIVIL warS, 2011 May: Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera , 2011 August: Stations (1982), 2012 February: Absolute Wilson, 2012 August: Einstein on the Blog: Christopher Knowles’ Typings, 2013 March: The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin, 2013 April: Death, Destruction and Detroit, 2013 October: crickets audio recording slowed way down, 2013 October: Beached, 2014 January: The Louvre invites Robert Wilson - Living Rooms, 2014 November: The Old Woman - Robert Wilson, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Willem Dafoe.

Juan Muñoz

Double Bind, 1998
Wikipedia - "Juan Muñoz (June 17, 1953 – August 28, 2001) was a Spanish sculptor, working primarily in paper maché, resin and bronze. He was also interested in the auditory arts and created compositions for the radio. He was a self-described 'storyteller'. In 2000, Muñoz was awarded Spain's major Premio Nacional de Bellas Artes in recognition of his work; he died shortly after, in 2001. ... Muñoz's sculptures were created primarily with paper maché, resin and bronze. In addition to sculpture, Muñoz was interested in the creation of auditory arts, creating some works for the radio. One of his more recognized auditory works was a collaboration with British composer Gavin Bryars in 1992 called A Man in a Room, Gambling, which consisted of Muñoz explaining card tricks over a composition by Bryars. The pieces, ten segments all shorter than five minutes, were played on BBC Radio 3."
Wikipedia
Juan Muñoz
The Sculpture work of Juan Muñoz
artnet
YouTube: TateShots: Juan Munoz

Illuminations - Arthur Rimbaud (1875)

"Fertile Destabilization" by John Ashbery: "What are the Illuminations? Originally an untitled, unpaginated bunch of manuscript pages that Arthur Rimbaud handed to his former lover Paul Verlaine on the occasion of their last meeting, in Stuttgart in 1875. Verlaine had recently been released from a term in a Belgian prison for wounding the younger poet with a pistol in Brussels two years earlier. Rimbaud wanted his assassin manqué to deliver the pages to a friend, Germain Nouveau, who (he thought) would arrange for their publication. This casual attitude toward what would turn out to be one of the masterpieces of world literature is puzzling, even in someone as unpredictable as its author. Was it just a question of not wanting to splurge on stamps? (Verlaine would later complain in a letter that the package cost him '2 francs 75 in postage!!!') More likely it was because Rimbaud had decided already to abandon poetry for what would turn out to be a mercantile career in Africa, trafficking in a dizzying variety of commodities (though not, apparently, slaves, as some have thought)...."
Poetry Foundation
Wikipedia
NY Times: Rimbaud’s Wise Music By Lydia Davis
Guardian
amazon: Illuminations, John Ashbery
YouTube: John Ashbery - "Promontory"

2008 May: Arthur Rimbaud, 2010 November: Arthur Rimbaud - 1, 2012 October: Patti Smith: Poem about Arthur Rimbaud (Subtitulado), 2012 December: Writers’ Houses Gives You a Virtual Tour of Famous Authors’ Homes, 2013 August: Arthur Rimbaud Documentary, 2013 November: julian peters comics - The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud, 2014 June: In Which We Begin To Roar With Laughter At Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud.

Revolutions On Air: The Golden Era of New York Radio 1980 - 1988

"New York Radio from 1980 to 1988 was a hotspot where DJ culture, sampling, remixing, and new musical forms mixed and melded, a sonic tidal wave that still reverberates today. In advance of our new documentary, Revolutions on Air, Vivian Host investigates how Shep Pettibone, Mr. Magic, Tony Humphries, and Latin Rascals made the airwaves sing from the Boogie Down to Bed-Stuy to Berlin. New York City between 1980 and 1988 was a crucible of musical styles: hip hop (then brand new) melting together with boogie and electro, disco and funk dancing elegantly towards their doom, New Wave and punk making way for the first strains of house music and freestyle. Nowhere was the intertwining of these threads more obvious than on the radio, where a handful of DJs – themselves producers and remixers in their own right – were creating a conversation between the underground sounds of the clubs and the streets and the mainstream. ..."
Revolutions On Air: An Introduction (Video)
YouTube: Revolutions On Air: The Golden Era of New York Radio 1980 - 1988

R. Crumb Describes How He Dropped LSD in the 60s & Instantly Discovered His Artistic Style

"As Nancy Reagan and my junior high school health teacher will tell you, LSD is illegal and illegal drugs are bad. Unlike other drugs, however, LSD can blow open – as Aldous Huxley described it – the doors of perception and remove the filters of conventional thought. It has pushed some of the 20th century’s most creative minds into making important cognitive leaps. Nobel Prize-winning scientist Francis Crick famously first imagined DNA’s double-helix structure after dropping acid. Steve Jobs described his first trip as one of the most profound experiences in his life. And in June 20, 1970, Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter (or so the legend goes) while tripping on a preposterously large dose of the stuff. Let’s see you do that on meth. ..."
Open Culture (Video)

2008 August: Robert Crumb, 2010 October: Comics No. 1, 2011 October: Pioneers of Country Music Trading Cards, 2012 August: R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection

China: Through the Looking Glass

"The Costume Institute’s spring 2015 exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass, is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 7 through August 16, 2015. Presented in the Museum’s Chinese Galleries and Anna Wintour Costume Center, the exhibition explores the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries. In this collaboration between The Costume Institute and the Department of Asian Art, high fashion is juxtaposed with Chinese costumes, paintings, porcelains, and other art, including films, to reveal enchanting reflections of Chinese imagery. ..."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Select Images
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Video
Vogue: A Preview of “China: Through the Looking Glass”
Inside the Met's Spring Exhibit, 'China: Through the Looking Glass'
amazon
YouTube: China: Through the Looking Glass, Met Reveals 'China: Through the Looking Glass'

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.03.15

Balu and his portrait of Malcolm X
"We’ve been seeing an increase in the number of politically charged pieces showing up in the street lately. It is no surprise given the rise in marches and demonstrations and discussions in our city and country about topics like racism, police brutality, and rising economic inequality.  Street Art has a tradition of addressing socio-political topics, sometimes gently, sometimes yelling at the top of its lungs. This comes at a time where the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is banning all political speech and religious ads in the advertisements it runs. 'Hateful speech is not harmless speech. Only a fool or rogue would argue otherwise,' said Charles Moerdler, an MTA board member and Holocaust survivor who voted for the new policy. Of course any time you start to ban speech you don’t like, you are risking someone banning yours."
Brooklyn Street Art

Acnalbasac Noom - Slapp Happy and Faust (1973)

Wikipedia - "Acnalbasac Noom (also known as Slapp Happy or Slapphappy) is an album by German/British avant-pop group Slapp Happy, recorded in Wümme, Germany in 1973 with Faust as their backing band. It had a working title of Casablanca Moon but was never released at the time because it had been rejected by their record label, Polydor. Slapp Happy later re-recorded the album in 1974 for Virgin Records, who released it in 1974 as Slapp Happy. The original 1973 recording of Casablanca Moon, was released as Slapp Happy or Slapphappy by Recommended Records in 1980, and reissued as Acnalbasac Noom in 1982. The title Acnalbasac Noom appears in the lyrics of the song "Casablanca Moon", and is Casablanca Moon with the words written backwards. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Slapp Happy (album)
1973: Slapp Happy / Faust: Slapp Happy (aka Acnalbasac Noom)
Clouds and Clocks
YouTube: Casablanca Moon, Charlie 'n Charlie, The Secret, A Little Something, Mr Rainbow

2012 October: Faust, 2013 January: Desperate Straights - Slapp Happy / Henry Cow

10 Galleries to Visit on the Lower East Side

"The Lower East Side was once frontier territory, where new immigrants settled alongside poets and artists, punk musicians and anarchists, everyone needing rock-bottom rent. In the 1980s, the neighborhood soaked up some of the limelight trained on the East Village art scene, and began the slow creep toward gentrification. A decade or so ago, when art dealers started to set up shop below East Houston Street, a vague hope beat in the hearts of some observers that the neighborhood might be an alternative, in art and attitude alike, to Chelsea. I doubt anyone harbors that hope today. Mostly, the Lower East Side gallery scene is Chelsea with more storefronts and cheaper retail. Still, it has a certain margin of flexibility, and sometimes it uses it. And that’s good to see. ..."
NY Times

The Spinster Hall of Fame: Yes, Cut-out dolls of five pioneering women writers

"In honor or Kate Bolick’s new books Spinster, Crown has created what everyone needs on a Friday afternoon: spinster cut out dolls. ... 'My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night…' America’s first rock-star poetess, Edna St. Vincent Millay toured the country after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, bringing her revolutionary lyrics and bohemian lifestyle to the masses. Millay’s work, including the poem 'First Fig,' was definitive and revolutionary for her generation, yet her lyrical voice is timeless."
Literary Hub
Spinster By Kate Bolick
W - Spinster

Public Enemy - Give it up (1994)

"Aight, aight, aight, aight, aight, aight, aight / I'm aight if you aight, I'm aight / I be better, get some of that bass / Word / You know what I'm sayin' / Give it up / Aight, yeah / Booty twinkin' body shakin' / Nuffattackin', brain's a rackin' / Clock tockin', chuck shockin' / Flavor flavor, ain't never shavin' / One, two, three, four // It's another record, check it, mad methods / To put my brothers and sisters on a deathbed / You know he cheated, took what he wanted but now you blunted / Suckin' up to the devil, steppin' down a level /"
YouTube: Give it up

2009 May: Public Enemy, 2011 July: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 2012 February: Fear of a Black Planet, 2012 August: Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black, 2012 December: A Dozen Pivotal Moments in the 30 Year Career of Public Enemy, 2014 June: "Prophets of Rage" (2011), 2015 February: The Noise And How To Bring It: Hank Shocklee Interviewed.

21 Grams - Alejandro González Iñárritu (2003)

Wikipedia - "21 Grams is a 2003 American drama film directed by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu from a screenplay written by Guillermo Arriaga. It stars Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Danny Huston and Benicio del Toro. Like Arriaga's and González Iñárritu's previous film, Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams interweaves several plot lines, around the consequences of a tragic automobile accident. Penn plays a critically ill mathematician, Watts plays a grief-stricken mother, and del Toro plays a born-again Christian ex-convict whose faith is sorely tested in the aftermath of the accident. As the second part of Trilogy of Death, 21 Grams is presented in a nonlinear arrangement where the lives of the characters are depicted before and after the accident. The three main characters each have 'past,' 'present,' and 'future' story threads, which are shown as non-linear fragments that punctuate elements of the overall story, all imminently coming toward each other and coalescing as the story progresses. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times
Roger Ebert
YouTube: 21 Grams Trailer

2011 June: Babel, 2012 September: Biutiful.

One of These 4 Radical, Badass Women Could Be on the $20 Bill

"Since the dawn of our great nation, there’s one thing United States citizens can count on: seeing white guys everywhere. In spite of women outnumbering men in the U.S. and our ever-growing racial diversity (37.4 percent of non-Hispanic Americans identified as a race other than white in 2013), white guys dominate our media, our history books, our government, and (especially) our money. You probably have some white guys in your wallet right now. The organization Women on 20s has been working to bring more diversity to your wallet by getting a woman on the $20 bill in place of Andrew Jackson."
Yes Magazine
Women on 20s (Video)
New Yorker: A Campaign to Put a Woman on the Twenty-Dollar Bill
In Nod To Zionist Control, Woman On New $20 Bill To Be Golda Meir
W - Emma Goldman

Gordon Parks- Segregation Story

"... In 1956, Life magazine published twenty-six color photographs taken by staff photographer Gordon Parks. The photo essay, titled The Restraints: Open and Hidden, exposed Americans to the effects of racial segregation. Parks focused on the everyday activities of the related Thornton, Causey, and Tanner families in and near Mobile, Alabama, capturing their everyday struggles to overcome discrimination. Parks's photo essay served as crucial documentation of the Jim Crow South and acted as a national platform for challenging racial inequality. However, rather than focusing on the demonstrations, boycotts, and brutality that characterized the battle for racial justice, Parks emphasized the prosaic details of one family's life. In particular, his ability to elicit empathy through an emphasis on intimacy and shared human experience made the photographs especially poignant."
High
amazon
Artworks

2015 January: Gordon Parks

50th Day of the Year - Fred Frith Trio

"Frith returns to his deep roots in this improvising trio with the classic lineup of guitar, bass and drums. Playful, intimate, and bound together by a dark and delicate interplay, the group reminds us what listening is all about. After a lifetime of experience across almost every field of musical endeavor, Fred stretches out in the company of two stalwarts of the vibrant Bay Area music scene, drummer Jordan Glenn and bassist Jason Hoopes. The trio is set to embark on its first European tour in mid-February 2015."
YouTube: Live @ Teatar &TD 19.2.2015. Zagreb (Croatia), Live at Schlachthof, Wels, Austria, 2015-03-01 01. Part01, 02. Part02, 03. Part03, 04. Part04, 2015 02 23 - Bolzano, Carambolage

Magic Sam - All Your Love / Love Me With A Feeling (1957)

"No blues guitarist better represented the adventurous modern sound of Chicago's West side more proudly than Sam Maghett. He died tragically young (at age 32 of a heart attack), just as he was on the brink of climbing the ladder to legitimate stardom, but Magic Sam left behind a thick legacy of bone-cutting blues that remains eminently influential around his old stomping grounds to this day. ... Sam's tremolo-rich staccato fingerpicking was an entirely fresh phenomenon when he premiered it on Eli Toscano's Cobra label in 1957. Prior to his Cobra date, the guitarist had been gigging as Good Rocking Sam, but Toscano wanted to change his nickname to something old-timey like Sad Sam or Singing Sam. No dice, said the newly christened Magic Sam (apparently Mack Thompson's brainstorm). His Cobra debut single, 'All Your Love,' was an immediate local sensation; its unusual structure would be recycled time and again by Sam throughout his tragically truncated career. Sam's Cobra encores 'Everything Gonna Be Alright' and 'Easy Baby' borrowed much the same melody but were no less powerful; the emerging Westside sound was now officially committed to vinyl."
allmusic
YouTube: All Your Love, Love me with a feeling, Everything Gonna Be Alright, Look watcha' done, All Night Long, All My Whole Life
YouTube: The Essential Magic Sam: The Cobra and Chief Recordings 1957-1961, Chicago Blues 1957 to 1960 (Full Album)

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks

"Brooklyn-born artist Jean-Michel Basquiat filled numerous notebooks with poetry fragments, wordplay, sketches, and personal observations ranging from street life and popular culture to themes of race, class, and world history. The first major exhibition of the artist's notebooks, Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks features 160 pages of these rarely seen documents, along with related works on paper and large-scale paintings. A self-taught artist with encyclopedic and cross-cultural interests, Basquiat was influenced by comics, advertising, children's sketches, Pop art, hip-hop, politics, and everyday life. Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks emphasizes the distinct interplay of text and images in Basquiat’s art, providing unprecedented insight into the importance of writing in the artist’s process."
Brooklyn Museum
NT Times: The Unknown Notebooks of Jean-Michel Basquiat
NY Times: Review: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ‘Unknown Notebooks’ at the Brooklyn Museum
Basquiat's Rarely Seen Notebooks Open At The Brooklyn Museum
amazon
YouTube: Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks at the BROOKLYN MUSEUM

2013 April: Saving Basquiat: Seeing the Art Through the Myth-Making at Gagosian, 2015 February: Now's the Time

Ocean of Sound - David Toop (1995)

Wikipedia - "Ocean of Sound is a compilation album compiled and produced by English musician and author David Toop. The two-disc, cross-licensed 'various artists' compilation contains 32 tracks culled from a variety of musical sources, including dub, exotica, free jazz, and field recordings. Toop compiled the recordings to serve as both a historical survey of ambient music and an aural companion to his 1995 book Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds. Ocean of Sound was released in January 1996 by Virgin Records. It was well received by music critics and finished fourth in the voting for The Village Voice‍ '​s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. The album later went out of print."
Wikipedia
[PDF] Ocean of Sound - David Toop (1995)
Ambient Techno: Peter Namlook, Mixmaster Morris, Scanner & David Toop
Perfect Sound Forever: David Toop - Interview by Jason Gross (August 1997)
amazon
vimeo: David Toop - Making Sounds
podomatic: Transmission 33: Ocean of Sound

Blank Generation (1980)

"If you like your cinema extra-awkward and incoherent, Blank Generation (1980) is the film for you. Not to be confused with the ragged and ultimately better documentary of the same name from a few years earlier, this narrative feature was helmed by future horror-schlock director Ulli Lommel, who at the time was most famous for being a member of the circle surrounding ultra-prolific German auteur Reiner Werner Fassbinder. Starring Richard Hell and Carole Bouquet, Blank Generation suffers from an extreme lack of focus — at times, it seems as if each member of the production was under the impression they were working on a different film than the rest of their collaborators."
Tiny Mix Tapes
W - Blank Generation (1980)
MMMMM Movies
YouTube: Richard Hell - Blank Generation
Fandor: Blank Generation (1980) 78 Min.

A Droning In The Eire: Jennifer Walshe On The Irish Avant-Garde

Zaftig Giolla (right middleground), Galway, 1929.
"There was this guy I went to school with, lived about a mile away from us. His grandfather was the principal of one of the three parish schools, back in the days before they were amalgamated into a single, yet still tiny, entity. That was in the late 70s I think, or around then. He wasn't that old then; 60, maybe 65, but a venerable civil servant all the same. Like many a civil servant in Ireland, he had things going on outside of the job that few people at the time really knew about. I guess his family knew, some of the parish probably did, but there were only ever hints of it publicly. He kept it mostly to the shed at the back of their house, itself a picturesque country home next to the parish hall, two storeys with a tall roof, cubic, squat but somehow elegant under the unnecessary shade of tall Douglas fir trees that dominated the front yard. Ivy was growing up the front of the house when I knew it, by which time it had been sold to a couple of German retirees. Master Madden was dead by then, and I never met him. ..."
Quietus (Video)
Aisteach Institute Ireland (Video)
Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde By Jennifer Walshe
amazon
YouTube: Jennifer Walshe's Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde, #JenniferWalshe

An Empty Stadium in Baltimore

"When the Baltimore Orioles host the Chicago White Sox at Camden Yards on Wednesday, it won't really feel like a baseball game. There will be no cheering, and no booing. Nor will there be heckling, hot dogs, or beer. There will be no fans in the stadium at all, in fact. After riots in the city forced the postponement of games for two straight days, Major League Baseball announced that the Orioles will play on Wednesday, but the game will be closed to the public. ..."
Atlantic
ESPN: White Sox-Orioles game will be played Wednesday, closed to public (Video)
ESPN: This too is Baltimore
NY Times: Taking to the Baltimore Streets, but for Peace and Progress (Video)
ABC: Baltimore Riots 'Not Going to Happen Tonight,' Governor Says (Video)
After Riots, Orioles Play To An Empty Stadium In Baltimore
UEFA punishes CSKA Moscow for racist, violent fans with Champions League stadium closures
TIME: A Japanese Soccer Team Plays to an Empty Stadium Because of Racist Fans
NPR: Mexican Soccer Teams Play To Empty Stadiums