Barrington Levy - Love Your Brother Man: The Early Years

"Since acquiring Trojan's deep catalog, Sanctuary has done a very good to excellent job with the seminal reggae label when it comes to single-artist collections. With vibrant and informative packaging, a crucial track list, and some 12" mixes that are truly stunning, Love Your Brother Man falls into the 'excellent' category. Covering Barrington Levy's early years, what you have here is the blueprint for dancehall singing that held on strong up until the gruff badmen made things much more frantic in the mid-'80s. Levy took the standard roots croon and added a bouncy hiccup to it that emphasizes emotion and allowed singers a totally new, less mannered way to show off their skills. Levy made delivery much more important than pitch control; here, you can listen to how it happened. Slang-filled, feel-good numbers intermingle with righteous spiritual tracks with Levy's effervescence holding it all together. ..."
allmusic
YouTube: Love Your Brother Man - The Early Years (Full Album)

Leviathan - Andrey Zvyagintsev (2014)

Wikipedia - "Leviathan ... is a 2014 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, co-written by Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, and starring Aleksei Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, and Vladimir Vdovichenkov. ... Set in fictional town of Pribrezhny (shot in the coastal town of Teriberka, Murmansk Oblast), Russia, the plot follows the tragic series of events that affect Kolya (Aleksei Serebryakov), a hotheaded car mechanic, his second wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) and his teenage son, Roma (Sergey Pokhodyaev). The town's crooked mayor Vadim (Roman Madyanov) has undertaken a legal plot to expropriate the land on which Kolya's house is built. Kolya attempts to fight back with the help of an old army friend turned lawyer, Dima (Vladimir Vdovichenkov). The narrative offers a grim outlook on dark and icy aspects of human nature and on modern fissures in social contracts, particularly ones found in the abuses of modern law. The film attempts to unmask the truth behind moral aspects of superficial friendliness, blind love and undeserved trust."
Wikipedia
Roger Ebert
Guardian: Cannes 2014 review: Leviathan - a new Russian masterpiece
NY Times: Champion of the Lone Russian Everyman
YouTube: A film by Andrey Zvyagintsev, Andrey Zvyagintsev Russian Drama

Gentleman - Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1973)

"Gentleman is both an Africa 70 and Afro-beat masterpiece. High marks go to the scathing commentary that Fela Anikulapo Kuti lets loose but also to the instrumentation and the overall arrangements, as they prove to be some of the most interesting and innovative of Fela's '70s material. When the great tenor saxophone player Igo Chico left the Africa 70 organization in 1973, Fela Kuti declared he would be the replacement. So in addition to bandleader, soothsayer, and organ player, Fela picked up the horn and learned to play it quite quickly -- even developing a certain personal voice with it. To show off that fact, 'Gentleman' gets rolling with a loose improvisatory solo saxophone performance that Tony Allen eventually pats along with before the entire band drops in with classic Afro-beat magnificence. 'Gentleman' is also a great example of Fela's directed wit at the post-colonial West African sociopolitical state of affairs. His focus is on the Africans that still had a colonial mentality after the Brits were gone and then parallels that life with his own."
allmusicZ
W - Gentleman
Fela Kuti: Music, Politics and Women
Spotify
YouTube: Gentleman, Expensive Shit, Fefe Naa Efe

V. S. Naipaul - Guerrillas (1975)

Paul Theroux: "It is hard for the reviewer of a wonderful author to keep the obituarist's assured hyperbole in check, but let me say that if the silting-up of the Thames coincided with a freak monsoon, causing massive flooding in all parts of South London, the first book I would rescue from my library would be 'A House for Mr. Biswas,' by V. S. Naipaul. Apart from anything else, it would be immensely helpful when the water subsided, since it is one of the century's best fictional examples of a householder struggling against unfriendly conditions in a village--'a place that was nowhere, a dot on the map of the island, which was a dot on the map of the world.' The island is Trinidad, where Naipaul was born in 1932, and he has written about it with insight and compassion in many of his thirteen books."
NY Times
Wikipedia
Naipaul's Guerrillas..."
amazon

2012 February: V. S. Naipaul, 2013 February: A Bend in the River (1979).

Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

An Out-of-Doors Study, 1889
"Throughout his career, the celebrated American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) created portraits of artists, writers, actors, and musicians, many of whom were his close friends. Because these works were rarely commissioned, he was free to create images that were more radical than those he made for paying clients. He often posed these sitters informally—in the act of painting, singing, or performing, for example. Together, the portraits constitute a group of experimental paintings and drawings—some of them highly charged, others sensual, and some of them intimate, witty, or idiosyncratic. The exhibition Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, which opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 30, brings together about 90 of these distinctive portraits, including numerous loans from private collections. It will also explore in depth the friendships between Sargent and those who posed for him as well as the significance of these relationships to his life and art. ..."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: About the Exhibition
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Audio Guide
NY Times: Highlights From 'Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends' at the Met
Guardian - Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends review – invention, sex and sadness
amazon - Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

Playing The (Baker's) Dozens: George Clinton's Favourite Albums

"Born in 1941, I expected that George Clinton's choices for his Baker's Dozen would span the decades and his own musical life; from his mother's taste in blues, to his formative years spent loving Motown and writing at the Brill Building, through to his psychedelic awakening and subsequent (and continued) genre experimentation. And although all of these periods come up during the duration of our chat, it is one single trip to the record store that characterises nearly half of his choices. At around the age of '29, maybe 30', Clinton purchased his sacred audio library, including records by Sly And The Family Stone, The Beatles, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. ..."
The Quietus

2009 January: George Clinton, 2010 December: Mothership Connection - Houston 1976, 2011 October: Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove, 2011 October: "Do Fries Go With That Shake?", 2012 August: Tales Of Dr. Funkenstein – The Story Of George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic.

Young Composers Series: John Adams, Michael Nyman, Paul Dresher, Ingram Marshall - February 5, 1979

Ingram Marshall – Fog Tropes/Gradual Requiem
"My head is still swimming from all the music I confronted at the New International Young Composers Concerts Series, sponsored by the Reich Music Foundation. At least half of the time the compositional level was extremely high, and many of the works reached into areas of musical style that have never been encountered by New York concertgoers. I don’t think it’s possible to fully process that much information in only a few days, but I can at least offer a few generalities and a few basic observations on four composers who were represented on these three concerts at the Guggenheim Museum, January 16-18. ..."
Tom Johnson: The Voice of New Music: New York City 1972–1982

2010 June: John Adams - Nixon in China (1987), 2012 September: Obscure No. 2: Ensemble Pieces – Christopher Hobbs, John Adams, Gavin Bryars (1975), 2008 April: Michael Nyman, 2010 August: Decay Music, 2010 December: After Extra Time, 2011 March: Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, 2011 August: Michael Nyman Band, 2011 December: The Draughtsman's Contract - Peter Greenaway, 2012 March: Time Lapse, 2013 July: Composer in Progress, In Concert (2010).

The Rise of Sneaker Culture

"From their modest origins in the mid-nineteenth century to high-end sneakers created in the past decade, sneakers have become a global obsession. The Rise of Sneaker Culture is the first exhibition to explore the complex social history and cultural significance of the footwear now worn by billions of people throughout the world. The exhibition, which includes approximately 150 pairs of sneakers, looks at the evolution of the sneaker from its beginnings to its current role as status symbol and urban icon. Included are works from the archives of manufacturers such as Adidas, Converse, Nike, Puma, and Reebok as well as private collectors such as hip-hop legend Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels, sneaker guru Bobbito Garcia, and Dee Wells of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder. ..."
Brooklyn Museum
amazon - Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture
NY Times: Missing Sneaker Culture at the Brooklyn Museum
Vanity Fair: The 7 Most Museum-Worthy Sneakers
The "Rise of Sneaker Culture" Exhibit Showcases Some of the Rarest Sneakers in Existence (Video)
Slam: ‘The Rise of Sneaker Culture’ Exhibit (PHOTOS)

Tour de France 2015: Team Time Trial Win Bolsters American’s Shot at Podium

BMC Racing on their way to victory on stage 9 of the Tour de France
"BMC, the American team that includes the winner of the opening time trial of this year’s Tour de France, followed up by winning Sunday’s team event against the clock. The win by BMC, the reigning world champion in the team time trial, was tight, with the team beating Team Sky of Britain by a single second. But regardless of the margin, the result further elevated expectations that BMC’s leader, the American Tejay van Garderen, will be on the podium in Paris in two weeks. After Sunday’s ninth stage, van Garderen was in second place over all, just 12 seconds behind Chris Froome, Sky’s leader. ..."
NY Times
Tour de France: BMC win team time trial in Plumelec
Martin abandons Tour de France due to fractured collarbone
Tour de France: Stybar wins stage 6 on short, punchy hill in Le Havre
‘Cavendish has to prove that he’s still the fastest sprinter’ says team boss - (Video) Stage 5
Tour de France: Tony Martin wins cobbled stage 4 in Cambrai

Steephill: Live Dashboard
LeTour (Video)
Guardian: Tour de France 2015 (Video)

2008 July: Tour de France 2008, 2009 July: Tour de France 2009, 2010 July: Tour de France 2010,  2011 July: Tour de France 2011, 2012 July: 2012 Tour de France, 2015 July: 2015 Tour de France

The Jam - The Gift (1982)

Wikipedia - "The Gift is the sixth and final studio album by English punk rock/mod revival The Jam. It was originally released on 12 March 1982 by Polydor as the follow-up to The Jam's critically and commercially successful 1980 album Sound Affects. The songs were largely recorded during 1981 to 1982, assisted by Peter Wilson, and is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band's later work. It was one of the band's most successful studio albums, reaching No. 1 in the UK. ..."
Wikipedia
The Quietus: Present And Correct: The Jam's Final Album The Gift Revisited 30 Years On (Video)
BBC Review
Spotify
YouTube: The Gift (Full Album) 1982

2009 March: The Jam, 2011 December: Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, 2012 November: "Going Underground", 2013 January: In the City, 2013 February: This Is the Modern World, 2013 July: All Mod Cons, 2013 November: Setting Sons, 2014 January: Sound Affects (1980), 2014 December: Live At Bingley Hall, Birmingham, England 1982, 2015 March: "Town Called Malice" / "Precious".

Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye

The Bridge at Argenteuil and the Seine, 1885
"In 1875 Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894) submitted a painting of floor scrapers to the jury of the Salon, the official exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. The work was rejected, but Edgar Degas and Auguste Renoir admired it and encouraged him to exhibit with the impressionists. Caillebotte’s canvas, depicting shirtless laborers finishing a wood floor, became one of the sensations of the second impressionist show in 1876. Describing the picture in terms of its realism and modernity, admirers praised its 'truth' and 'frank intimacy,' while critics deemed it 'crude' and 'anti-artistic.' Caillebotte was thrilled by the impressionists’ fresh, radical vision. Over the next six years he participated regularly in their exhibitions, submitting paintings of the people and places he encountered in and around Paris. ..."
National Gallery of Art
NY Times: Review: Paris Is Reborn in ‘Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye’
U.Chicago - Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye

2014 April: Gustave Caillebotte

Nas presents the Real Hip-Hop – video

"Rapper Nasir 'Nas' Jones and director Adam Sjoberg take us on a world tour of breakdancing in the most unexpected places, as we visit the slums, shanty towns and ghettos of the world, where hip-hop really means something. With jaw-dropping breakdancing moves, b-boys and b-girls in Uganda, Yemen, Cambodia and Colombia give us an inspiring tribute to the uplifting power of music and movement"
Guardian (Video)
Nas Presents A Documentary About Hip-Hop’s Impact In Uganda, Yemen And Other Countries (Video)
Nas-Produced 'Shake the Dust' Shines Light on Global B-Boys (Video)
Shake The Dust (Video)
W - Nas
vimeo: The SlumGods of Mumbai: hope, hip-hop and the Dharavi way | Guardian Docs

Drawn + Quarterly Comics Enters a New Era

"Publishing houses, no less than people, have personalities. To be sure, certain large corporate presses have identities that are primarily mercenary, with catalogues consisting almost entirely of a mishmash of aspiring bestsellers. But among the smaller, individually run literary presses, the ones that nurture the books most likely to last, logos are marks of character. To see the emblem of a quality publisher on the spine of a book is to have a measure of its ambition and merit. From New Directions we expect strenuous modernist experimentation, from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux substance and style, from McSweeney’s mischievous playfulness not just in the words but also in the book design. ..."
New Republic

Oiseaux-Tempête - Ütopiya? (2015)

"ÜTOPIYA? not only continues their first album, but it extends it. The travels move this time to Istanbul and Sicily providing the food for its urgent energy and indomitable drive. While the structures still hint at moments of post-rock, they go further now, almost into the area of free-jazz yet without loosing a directness rooted in punk (highlighted perhaps by the presence of G.W.Sok from The Ex). In addition, the bass clarinet of Gareth Davis references both the roughest of experiments of Akosh Szelevényi and of The Stooges Fun House. There are, so the story goes, sea birds that reveal themselves only at times of approaching storms. This story though, is a little more complicated. For some, the pipers riding the deluge, yet for the mariner the prophets in the lingering final moments of calm. Thus, ultimately, are they the creator or created if the existence. ..."
Sub Rosa
a closer listen
Soundcloud: Ütopiya / On Living (feat. G.W. Sok)
facebook
Discogs
YouTube: ÜTOPIYA? - Teaser 2, Someone Must Shout That We Will Build the Pyramids, Aslan Sütü (Santé, Vieux Monde!), Omen: Divided We Fall
YouTube: Live at Petit Bain, Paris 29012015

Pocket Sky Atlas By Roger W. Sinnott

"Perfect for experienced stargazers and beginners alike, Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas will have you exploring the heavens in no time. Sky & Telescope's celestial atlases are the standard by which all other star atlases have been judged for a half century. We raised the bar again with our Pocket Sky Atlas: the print version is the handiest detailed atlas around, easy to take on trips and use at the telescope thanks to its compact size, convenient spiral-bound design, and easy-to-read labels."
Sky & Telescope
Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas
amazon
[PDF] Pocket Sky Atlas

Return of the king

"What accounts for the persistent appeal of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (or ISIS) to recruits from Chicago, Bradford or Melbourne? This year, the question became urgent to commentators and policymakers in Europe and the United States. The group’s battlefield successes, its territorial ambitions and viral spectacles of cruelty were made only more ominous by the small but steady stream of recruits it attracted from wealthy democracies. Some of the proposed explanations have been familiar: the marginalisation and alienation of Muslim minorities in the West; a religious zeal that transcends the smallness of secular life; even the group’s thrillingly extreme apocalyptic vision. ... ISIS and its ideology are violent, reactionary, wholly at odds with the ethos of democracy and progress cherished by modern secular societies. But the myth on which its appeal hinges – and the historical dress-up it seems to engage in – is not as foreign as it seems. A lot of people like cosplay. ‘One of the Islamic State’s less bloody videos shows a group of jihadists burning their French, British and Australian passports,’ Graeme Wood reported in his lengthy study of ISIS ideology in The Atlantic this March. ‘This would be an eccentric act for someone intending to return to blow himself up in line at the Louvre.’ Apparently, these people actually want to live under a caliph. ..."
aeon

Pet Shop Boys - Thursday EP (2014)

"A second 'Thursday' digital EP will also be released on November 4th, alongside the original digital EP and CD singles. This new digital EP features remixes by Eddie Amador and Mindskap. The CD single and the first digital EP include the radio edit of 'Thursday', two brand new tracks - 'Odd man out' and 'No more ballads' - and a remix of 'Thursday' by the German producer and DJ, Tensnake. All three of these formats can now be pre-ordered at the links below. You can also view the music video, filmed in Shanghai, on VEVO."
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys release ‘Thursday’ B-sides ‘No More Ballads’ and ‘Odd Man Out’. (Video)
Discogs
Soundcloud: Thursday - Tensnake Remix
YouTube: Thursday ft. Example [Official Music Video], No More Ballads, No more ballads

2008 September: Pet Shop Boys, 2010 November: Pet Shop Boys - 1985-1989, 2011 January: Behaviour, 2011 May: Very, 2011 December: Bilingual, 2012 March: "Always on My Mind", 2012 August: Nightlife, 2012 September: "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)", 2012 December: Release, 2013 March: Pandemonium Tour, 2013 November: Leaving, 2014 April: Introspective (1988), 2014 August: Go West, 2015 January: "So Hard"(1990), 2015 February: "I'm with Stupid" (2006).

Indie 80s

Stranger Than Paradise
"BAMcinématek and Cinema Conservancy present this sprawling six week, 50+ film series spotlighting the independent films of the neglected decade between the golden age of 70s New Hollywood and the indie boom of the 90s. Exploring the textures of regional America and uncovering alternative histories to the supposed monoculture of the Reagan years, independent filmmakers of the 1980s offered up an edgy alternative to overblown Hollywood blockbusters and the straight-laced conservatism of the era."
BAM (Video)

The Collected Poems of Charles Olson edited by George Butterick

"A seminal figure in post-World War II literature, Charles Olson (1910-1970) has helped define the postmodern sensibility. His poetry is marked by an almost limitless range of interest and extraordinary depth of feeling. Olson's themes are among the largest conceivable: empowering love, political responsibility, historical discovery and cultural reckoning, the wisdom of dreams and the transformation of consciousness—all carried in a voice both intimate and grand, American and timeless, impassioned and coolly demanding. Until recently, Olson's reputation as a major figure in American literature has rested primarily on his theoretical writings and his epic work, the Maximus Poems. With The Collected Poems an even more impressive Olson emerges. This volume brings together all of Olson's work and extends the poetic accomplishment that influenced a generation. ..."
UC Press
Jacket2: For a Man Gone to Stuttgart Who Left an Automobile Behind Him
Poetry Foundation: The Kingfishers By Charles Olson

2009 January: Charles Olson, 2009 April: Rockport Harbor, 2010 September: Charles Olson: The Art of Poetry No. 12, 2011 July: Charles Olson: February 21, 1957, 2012 April: A Trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester, 2012 June: In Which We Lather Our Sensibilities At Length, 2013 January: Mass.Charles Olson, 2013 May: The Maximus Poems, 2013 November: A Guide to The Maximus Poems of Charles Olson , 2015 March: "In Cold Hell, in Thicket" (1950).

Why Did Mechanics In New York's Worst Neighborhood Go On Hunger Strike?

"Sergio Aguirre is weak, pale. Sometimes he fumbles for words, and it’s not because English isn’t his first language. He’d been on a hunger strike, and hadn’t had anything besides water and tea in four days. We’re standing in the middle of his garage in Willets Point, an almost surreal corner of Queens. Most people, even some New Yorkers, have never heard of the neighborhood or are aware that it exists as a mass of dilapidated auto shops near the entrance to one of the city’s newest sports stadiums. When you show them pictures, on first glance they often ask if it’s in Brazil. They see the garbage-strewn streets – more rutted, soggy dirt pathways than anything else – and the corrugated metal buildings, more reminiscent of a favela than anything people tend to see in an American city. ..."
Jalopnik

Wire - Pink Flag (1977)

"Wire were born at the dawn of punk, but they became the quintessential art band. In the three closing years of the 1970s, the English quartet had one of the greatest opening runs of any band, shifting to post-punk before punk began to go stale and forging three masterpieces in a creative furnace so hot it burned out by the end of 1980. ... Pink Flag was a fractured snapshot of punk alternately collapsing in on itself and exploding into song-fragment shrapnel. The record's minimalist approach means the band spends only as much time as needed on each song-- five of them are over in less than a minute, while a further nine don't make it past two. ..."
Pitchfork
W - Pink Flag
allmusic
facebook
YouTube: Pink Flag (Full Album)

2009 January: Wire, 2012 January: On the Box 1979., 2013 September: Chairs Missing (1978), 2014 June: 154 (1979), 2014 July: Document And Eyewitness (1979-1980), 2015 April: The Ideal Copies: Graham Lewis Of Wire's Favourite Albums.

Handiedan Sets a Pinup Tone for Wall\Therapy 2015 in Rochester

"Rochester, New York is the home of the Wall\Therapy festival and BSA is partnering with the team and Urban Nation (UN) to bring you coverage of the grass-roots mural festival for 2015. It will begin in a few weeks but the Amsterdam-based Handiedan got into town early due to being in New York for her show with Jonathan Levine Gallery. Her curvaceous pin-up girls and orientally adorned femme fatales from noir films and rockabilly imaginations intricately layered with patterns and designs from currency – sometimes it is all about getting that paper. In this case the paper in use is covering the facade of a beautiful brick building dating back to 1890 that was originally a church and later became a machine shop and home to the Rochester Community Players theater group for a half century or so."
Brooklyn Street Art

Books in the Films of Wes Anderson: A Supercut for Bibliophiles

"There’s something about Wes Anderson films that prompts people to get creative — to start creating their own video essays and supercuts exploring themes in Anderson’s whimsical movies. You can find a list below. The latest comes from Luís Azevedo, founder of The A to Z Review. ... or a detailed explanation of the video, bibliography, filmography and more visit this page. I would also encourage you to watch the book animation that Anderson himself created for Moonrise Kingdom, which sadly never made it into the film. Find it here."
Open Culture (Video)

2013 November: Wes Anderson Honors Fellini in a Delightful New Short Film, 2013 November: Rushmore (1998), 2013 Decemher: Hotel Chevalier (2007), 2014 March: Wes Anderson Collection, 2014 April: The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies, 2014 July: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), 2014 August: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), 2014 December: Welcome to Union Glacier (2013), 2015 January: Inhabiting Wes Anderson’s Universe.

Elmer Nelson Bischoff

Buildings, 1969
Wikipedia - "Elmer Nelson Bischoff (July 9, 1916 – March 2, 1991) was a visual artist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bischoff, along with Richard Diebenkorn and David Park, was part of the post-World War II generation of artists who started as abstract painters and found their way back to figurative art. ... While distinct from expressionist art that came from Europe, art of the Bay Area Figurative Movement displays the immediacy and warmth that one sees in abstract expressionist painting. Elmer Bischoff was older than Diebenkorn, and he had experiences in the world that led to his taking an independent turn in painting. Bischoff's quiet and lyrical paintings were serious in a different way from the painting which was being taken seriously at the time; and which saw the rise of Abstract expressionism."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Review: Elmer Bischoff, ‘Figurative Paintings’
George Adams Gallery

Tartit - Abacabok (2006)

"Nothing is more evocative of the fascinating expanses of the Sahara desert than the music of Tartit, a Tuareg band consisting of five women and four men residing in the Timbuktu region (Mali). Unlike that other renowned Tuareg band, Tinariwen, Tartit play quiet, hypnotic, trance-inducing music: the women sit down, sing, and play cyclic rhythms on their tinde drums, while the men accompany them on string instruments, acoustic and electric. The men are veiled, the women aren't. Tuareg society is one of the few throughout Africa in which women are allowed to choose (and divorce) their husbands. Tartit have toured Europe (a.o. as part of the Desert Blues shows alongside Afel Bocoum & Habib Koite)."
Crammed Discs
W - Tartit
Robert Christgau
Dusted Magazine
Spotify
dailymotion: A Take Away Show
Try Our New Player
YouTube: Chachare Akale, Ofous D'ifous, Tihar bayatin (Live)

Calvin and Markov

"I’ve spent the last few days building a random generator internet toy called Calvin and Markov. It generates random new weird variations on Bill Watterson’s classic, wonderful comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, using a Markov chain process and a few hundred lines of Perl code. It’s a fun, odd machine to just play around with, but if you’re interested in how it works, I’ll detail that below, and include some thoughts on C&H itself and why I built this thing. ... People who know me won’t be surprised that I’m messing around with Markov chains; it’s one of my favorite little intersections of math and linguistic/artistic weirdness, a fairly simple way of analyzing the frequencies of events (like the order in which words appear in a bunch of written text) in order to produce new, novel, semi-coherent output. I’ve built a lot of little Markov-related things over the years. ..."
joshmillard

2011 January: Calvin and Hobbes, 2015 March: Bill Watterson talks: This is why you must read the new ‘Exploring Calvin and Hobbes’ book

Edith Lake Wilkinson

"Some time back in the early 60's, my mother was having one of those bored, restless days, visiting the in-laws in Wheeling, West Virginia. So she proposed to my Aunt Betty that they go up to the attic of Grandma’s old three-story house and see what treasures they could dig up. They found a couple of old trunks that had been sequestered there for years. They belonged to Uncle Eddie’s long-forgotten maiden aunt. No one in the family ever talked about poor Aunt Edith. She had been shut away in a mental institution for years and back in those days, that was just something that nice families didn’t talk about. But when my mother opened the trunks, she found dozens of Edith's light-drenched canvasses tucked in with her moldering clothes. This wasn’t the work of an amateur painter or a mentally unstable naïf. ..."
Edith Lake Wilkinson
Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson (Video)
Finding Edith Lake Wilkinson: After 90 Years, Provincetown Artist Returns
facebook

Henry Miller Interviews

"Henry Miller, author of Tropic of Cancer, was interviewed by Bradley Smith in 1969. This is an excerpt from those interviews... This is how Henry got the money to move to Paris..."
YouTube: Henry Miller Interviews - Episode 1: How Henry Got the Money to Go to Paris, Episode 2: First Impressions of Paris, Episode 3: Henry's Thoughts on Women
W - Tropic of Cancer
Reality Studio: Henry Miller and William Burroughs: An Overview

2010 March: Dinner With Henry (1979), 2011 December: Asleep & Awake (1975), 2013 April: Henry Miller, 2014 April: Henry Miller, Brooklyn Hater.

Odyshape - The Raincoats (1981)

"It's well documented that plenty of oddities were snapped up and issued by major labels during the grunge era, but the fact that DGC released four albums by post-punk artists the Raincoats (including re-releases of their first three records and the then-new Looking in the Shadows) remains a confounding footnote of that time. David Geffen clearly didn't swell his already sizable bank balance by reissuing the band's second album Odyshape, as it quickly became as hard to find as the original 1981 Rough Trade version. ... That feeling is partially shaped by the distinctly un-rock approach, with the core trio of the band (Ana Da Silva, Gina Birch, and Vicky Aspinall) occasionally utilizing African instruments including a balophone and a kalimba to get the job done. ..."
Pitchfork
An interview with The Raincoats as 1981 album Odyshape is rereleased on We ThRee
DROWNED IN SOUND
Dusted
W - Odyshape
Spotify
YouTube: Only loved at night, "Go Away" and "No Side to Fall In", Odyshape, Shouting Out Loud, Baby Song, And Then It's OK, Red Shoes

Summer with Monika - Ingmar Bergman (1953)

Wikipedia - "Summer with Monika ... is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity and, along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it helped to create the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated place. The film made a star of its lead actress, Harriet Andersson. Bergman had been intimately involved with Andersson at the time and conceived the film as a vehicle for her. ... The film's story begins in the bleak working-class milieu of Stockholm. Harry (Lars Ekborg) and Monika (Harriet Andersson) are both in dead end jobs when they meet. Harry is easygoing, while Monika is adventurous, but they fall in love. When Monika gets in trouble at home, Harry steals his father's boat, and he and Monika spend an idyllic summer in the Stockholm archipelago. When the end of the summer forces them to return home, it is clear that Monika is pregnant...."
Wikipedia
Criterion (Video)
NY Times: Bergman’s Bittersweet Ode to Youth’s Sunset
New Yorker (Video)
YouTube: Summer with Monika

Clifford Gibson

"While the music of artists such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Son House, to name the most obvious, have been endlessly dissected, analyzed and debated there are many artists of comparable talent who have been left in the dust. Clifford Gibson's name doesn't have the romantic glow of the above artists; he wasn't from Mississippi, didn't die young or lead a life filled with mystery, yet he left behind a small batch of superb, highly creative recordings that deserve wider attention. Clifford Gibson cut ten sides (four have either never been found or were never issued) in June 1929, four sides in November 1929, eight sides in December 1929 and two sides in 1931. In addition he did some session work and lasted long enough to wax a few scattered post-war sides in the 1950's and 60's.  ..."
Sunday Blues
Wikipedia
Clifford Gibson discography
Spotify
YouTube: Don't Put That Thing On Me, Old Time Rider, Tired of Being Mistreated, Blues Without A Dime (1929), Ice And Snow Blues, Sneaky Groundhog (1951), KEEP YOUR WINDOWS PINNED (1929), Drayman Blues, Bad Luck Dice (1929), Jimmie Rodgers with Clifford Gibson - Let Me Be Your Side Track (Take 2), It's Best To Know Who You're Talking To, No Success Blues, I Don't Want No Woman, The Monkey Likes To Boogie, Let Me Be Your Handy Man, Jive Me Blues, Society Blues

2015 Tour de France

"The 2015 Tour de France is the 102nd edition of the Tour de France. It started in Utrecht, Netherlands, on 4 July 2015, at 12:00 GMT. It is the eighteenth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. It will be the sixth time the Tour de France starts in the Netherlands, after 1954 (Amsterdam), 1973 (Scheveningen), 1978 (Leiden), 1996 ('s-Hertogenbosch) and 2010 (Rotterdam). This is a record for a country that has no direct border with France.
W - 2015 Tour de France
"Every Tour route juggles economics, logistics, history and the need for enthralling racing. This year’s continues a recent trend: short mountain stages, mininal time trialling and more 'étapes pièges', 'pitfall stages' to catch the favourites napping"
Guardian: Tour de France 2015 Stage by stage
Guardian: Tour de France 2015: our team-by-team guide
BBC - Tour de France 2015: Geraint Thomas's stage-by-stage guide
Letour
Telegraph: Tour de France 2015: Stage-by-stage guide
Steephill
NY Times: At the 2015 Tour de France, the Route Could Favor the Home Team
Velogames

2008 July: Tour de France 2008, 2009 July: Tour de France 2009, 2010 July: Tour de France 2010,  2011 July: Tour de France 2011, 2012 July: 2012 Tour de France

Ricky & Doris: An Unconventional Friendship in New York City (with Puppets)

"Doris Diether is a former journalist and longtime activist in New York who is often seen strolling through Washington Square Park chatting with just about everyone. Ricky Syers is a musician and marionetteer who encountered Diether the first week he arrived in the park with his marionettes several years ago and was struck by her outgoing nature. He immediately created a puppet in her image and the two have since become staples of the neighborhood who frequently appear in photographs and interviews together. Filmmaker David Friedman made this great documentary short for AARP detailing the roots of their friendship and how they first met."
Colossal (Video)

The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes

"Usually, when we say 'American slavery' or the 'American slave trade,' we mean the American colonies or, later, the United States. But as we discussed in Episode 2 of Slate’s History of American Slavery Academy, relative to the entire slave trade, North America was a bit player. From the trade’s beginning in the 16^th century to its conclusion in the 19^th, slave merchants brought the vast majority of enslaved Africans to two places: the Caribbean and Brazil. Of the more than 10 million enslaved Africans to eventually reach the Western Hemisphere, just 388,747—less than 4 percent of the total—came to North America. This was dwarfed by the 1.3 million brought to Spanish Central America, the 4 million brought to British, French, Dutch, and Danish holdings in the Caribbean, and the 4.8 million brought to Brazil. This interactive, designed and built by Slate’s Andrew Kahn, gives you a sense of the scale of the trans-Atlantic slave trade across time, as well as the flow of transport and eventual destinations. ..."
Slate
The Enslaved - What They Endured
W - Slave ship
Aboard a Slave Ship, 1829
NY Times: Grim History Traced in Sunken Slave Ship Found Off South Africa
International Slavery Museum: Extracts from John Newton's journal
YouTube: Public Enemy - Can't Truss It

2012 April: Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy - Robert Farris Thompson, 2013 September: Slave Capitalism, 2014 April: 12 Years a Slave, 2015 March: The Life Of A Slave From Cradle To The Tomb.

The Man Who Saw America

"Last May, Robert Frank, the world’s pre-eminent living photographer, returned to Zurich, the orderly Swiss banking city, cosseted by lake and mountain, where he grew up. When an artist who made his reputation by leaving returns home, mixed feelings are inevitable, and that was especially true for Frank, whose iconic American pictures are notable for their deep understanding of human complication.‘I know this town, but I certainly feel like a stranger here,’ he said. As he walked through the immaculate Zurich city center, with its many statues, gilded shop signs and fountains, Frank was ‘just amazed how well organized everything is, how perfect everything is.’ The Swiss, he explained, do not throw coins into fountains, because ‘they have everything they need. They don’t believe in wishing wells. Only the poor have to hope.’ Deciding he wanted to ride a streetcar, Frank surveyed the different lines. ..."
NY Times

2014 May: “Walker Evans and Robert Frank – An Essay on Influence by Tod Papageorge” (1981)

King Tubbys ‎– I Am The King

"During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Tubby was responsible for turning dub into an art form, the creative re-mixing he pioneered at a tiny front-room studio in the Waterhouse ghetto making a long-reaching impact. Like his friend and sometime rival, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Tubby was one of a handful of Jamaican visionaries whose innovations not only changed the shaped of reggae in unprecedented ways, but which also formed a template for so much contemporary music production, be it in rap and hip-hop, jungle, garage and grime, or various forms of electronic dance music — especially dubstep, the British bastard offspring of Jamaican dub. ..."
A beginner’s guide to King Tubby, the producer who turned dub into an art form (Video)
Manwel T meets King Tubby & Marshall McLuhan – Dub Music in a virtual age
Discogs
facebook
YouTube: Black Skin Dub, Teardrops Dub, Neville Blythe - Morning Train b/w King Tubby - Morning Dub, See Me Yah Dub

2009 December: Augustus Pablo, 2011 November: King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo and King Tubby, 2011 May: East of the River Nile, 2013 January: King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, 2015 April: Valley of Jehosaphat (1999)

A Global Neuromancer

"Neuromancer is now more than 30 years old, a considerable time to remain a classic. Its publication in the Orwellian year will seem ironic and laden with symbolism only for those who think Orwell has remained a classic, or that he had anything to do with science fiction or reflected any serious political thought. But at least in one respect the juxtaposition is useful in showing how dystopia can swing around into the utopian without missing a beat, the way depression can without warning become euphoria. Indeed, I’ve suggested elsewhere that much of what is called cyberpunk (which begins with Neuromancer) is utopian and driven by the 'irrational exuberance' of the ’90s and a kind of romance of feudal commerce; but I had Bruce Sterling in mind rather than the more sober Gibson, whose postmodern overpopulation ('the sprawl') comes before us rather neutrally, even though its tone is radically different from the older Malthusian warnings of Harrison and Brunner. ..."
Public Books
W - Neuromancer
amazon: Neuromancer

2010 September: Cyberpunk, 2010 October: Bruce Sterling, 2011 July: William Gibson, 2015 May: Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology - edited by Bruce Sterling (1986)

Anna Pavord

Wikipedia - "Anna Pavord (*20 September 1940 Abergavenny) is the gardening correspondent for The Independent and the author of a number of books on plants and gardening. She is an associate editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine, has written for The Observer for some twenty years, and contributed to Country Life, Country Living and Elle Decoration. Besides gardening her interests include sailing, black and white films, Evelyn Waugh and the rainforests of Central America. ... 'The Rectory', her rural garden in Dorset, has been both a healing influence and source of inspiration for more than thirty years. She took up writing about gardening in order to finance the revamping of the building and garden. The one and a half acres of garden of this 300-year old estate in Dorset was used as a nursery for her ideas on horticulture. In the beginning the garden was overgrown and the building dilapidated. It was here that she first planted tulips, and intrigued by their beauty, planted many thousands more."
Wikipedia
Independent: Anna Pavord
amazon: Books by Anna Pavord
YouTube: Talking to Anna Pavord
NOWNESS: The Writer’s Garden: Sunnyside Farm (Video)

Prepared guitar

Wikipedia - "A prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques. This practice is sometimes called tabletop guitar, because many prepared guitarists do not hold the instrument in the usual manner, but instead place the guitar on a table to manipulate it. The idea of altering an instrument's timbre through the use of external objects has been applied to other instruments as well, most notably John Cage's prepared piano, which preceded the prepared guitar. ..."
Wikipedia
facebook
13 great Prepared Guitar Videos (Video)

2011 May: Keith Rowe, 2012 August: Derek Bailey, 2014 June: Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.

Gordon Parks’s Harlem Family Revisited

"In March 1968, Gordon Parks published a portrait of an African-American child with disheveled clothes in Life magazine. His lips were swollen and cracked from eating plaster, in a futile attempt to ward off hunger. His eyes were plaintive and haunting. Richard Fontenelle was too young to understand, but he and his family became the faces of urban poverty for millions of Americans. The photo essay Mr. Parks produced — 'A Harlem Family,' which is now on exhibit at the Studio Museum in Harlem — changed Mr. Fontenelle’s life, and the lives of every member of his family, forever. It sparked in him a desire to succeed, and a lifelong friendship with Mr. Parks. ..."
NY Times
Gordon Parks: "A Harlem Family," Life Magazine, 1968
NY Photo Review
amazon

2015 January: Gordon Parks, 2015 May: Segregation Story

Social Isolation, Isaac Cordal, and Neighbors (Sasiedzi) in Łódź

"Berlin-based Spanish sculptor and street artist / public artist Isaac Cordal has just completed another poignant installation that speaks volumes to viewers, if they look up from their phones as they walk past. His sad little men are customarily detached from a sense of hope, now stranded out on verandas that are attached to a bland, beige stucco wall. Many are mounted together at once, yet the effect is one of isolation, individuals banished to a vast disconnect. 'SĄSIEDZI' means 'neighbors' in Polish, a name he chose for this installation for the, Łódź 4 Culture Festival in June. ..."
Brooklyn Street Art
Isolation in the City, by Isaac Cordal
“SĄSIEDZI”, Trauguta 10. Lodz, Poland. June 2015.

Cafe Wha?

Wikipedia - "Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and many others all began their careers at the Wha? Although Cafe Wha? was sold by its owner, Manny Roth, in 1968, the club remains at its original location, 115 MacDougal Street, between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets. Roth is the uncle of David Lee Roth. The original Cafe Wha? opened in 1959 and closed in the late 1960s, when the room was taken over by Menachem Dworman, who ran the Cafe Feenjon in the location until 1987. The Feenjon featured Israeli and Middle Eastern music."
Wikipedia
Cafe Wha?
NY Times: Manny Roth, 94, Impresario of Cafe Wha?, Is Dead
facebook

New York Dolls (1973)

Wikipedia - "New York Dolls is the debut studio album by American hard rock band the New York Dolls, released on July 27, 1973, by Mercury Records. The band formed in 1971 and developed a following while playing regularly in lower Manhattan. However, they were unappealing to record companies because of their onstage cross-dressing and vulgarity, while most record producers were reluctant to work with them. For shock value, the band was photographed in exaggerated drag on the album cover. ... The album features carefree rock and roll and Brill Building pop influences in its hard rock songs. Their lyrics were written by lead singer David Johansen and touch on themes such as urban youth, teen alienation, adolescent romance, and authenticity. ..."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Rolling Stone
YouTube: Personality Crisis, Looking for a kiss, Trash, Jet Boy, (There's Gonna Be A) Showdown, Bad Girl, Stranded in the Jungle
YouTube: New York Dolls (Full Album)
YouTube: All Dolled Up: A New York Dolls Story - Found Tapes 1:38:03

2012 January: The David Johansen Group Live

Portfolio by Patrick Goddard

"Patrick Goddard (b.1984/UK) is an artist working in East London, completing an MFA at Goldsmiths University in 2011. Recent works have taken the form of video, publication, performance, and installation, exploring politically loaded issues whilst attempting to avoid the platitudes of didactic simplification. Saturated with a sense of pathos, narratives undermine themselves with a self-defeating humor, playfully calling into question the authority of the narrator and through this, the artist."
BOMB (Video)

"White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" - Grandmaster Flash + Melle Mel (1983)

Wikipedia - "'White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)' is a hip-hop-funk song by Melle Mel, released as a 12" in 1983 on Sugar Hill Records. The song, which warns against the dangers of cocaine, addiction, and drug smuggling, is one of Melle Mel's signature tracks. The bassline is sampled from a performance of the Sugar Hill house band (featuring bassist Doug Wimbish) covering 'Cavern', a single by post-punk band Liquid Liquid. ... The song was co-written by Melle Mel and Sylvia Robinson. Originally, it was intended to be an ironic celebration of a cocaine-fueled party lifestyle, but it was abridged with the 'don't do it' message as an anti-cocaine song as a concession to commercial considerations. ..."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Grandmaster & Melle Mel - White Lines (Don't Don't Do It), Grandmaster Melle Mel-White Lines Live, Duran Duran / Grandmaster Flash - White Lines (X-Mix), duran duran - white lines (don't don't do it) (remix)

An American Experiment George Bellows and The Ashcan Painters

"With 12 paintings never before seen in the UK, this exhibition introduces visitors to the American artist George Bellows and his artist friends, the Ashcan Painters: William Glackens, George Luks, John Sloan and their teacher Robert Henri. The Ashcan School was formed at the beginning of the 20th century. American painters, principally in New York City and Philadelphia, began to develop a uniquely American view on the beauty, violence and velocity of the modern world."
National Gallery
An American Experiment: George Bellows and the Ashcan Painters, National Gallery, London
An American Experiment: George Bellows and the Ashcan Painters, National Gallery
amazon