A Season in Hell - Arthur Rimbaud (Robert Wyatt, Carl Prekopp, Elizabeth Purnell, 2009)

"A Season in Hell is an abridged radio reworking of French poet Arthur Rimbaud's intense masterpiece of spiritual disillusionment, narrated by Carl Prekopp with a soundscape by Bristol composer Elizabeth Purnell and poems sung by Robert Wyatt. ... Here, producer Sara Davies gives a fascinating account of the journey from the idea of turning the work into radio, through various artistic twists and turns, to the version listeners will hear on Saturday. About thirty years ago I was in a bar in a small Mexican town where a French actor gave a thoroughly eccentric performance of some of Rimbaud's poetry to a musical accompaniment. ..."
BBC
YouTube: A Season in Hell - Robert Wyatt, Carl Prekopp, Elizabeth Purnell 30:10
YouTube: A Season in Hell - Robert Wyatt, Carl Prekopp, Elizabeth Purnell 56:25

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, 2015 May: Illuminations - Arthur Rimbaud (John Ashbery - 1875), 2016 March: Rimbaud in New York, 2016 December: The Photography of Poet Arthur Rimbaud (1883).

Hidden Gems in Common Deep-Sky Objects

"Many of the deep-sky objects we point our telescopes toward have pleasant surprises, some in plain sight, others hidden and more challenging. Let me introduce you to a few. As kids, we'd take our allowance and buy these boxes of Cracker Jack filled with caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts. I never much cared for the molasses-flavored popcorn, but the peanuts were tasty. Both took a backseat to the paper-wrapped prize at the bottom of the box. Sometimes I'd fish out the prize before even bothering with the goodies, tearing it open to get something cool like a plastic T-rex, whistle, or even a magnifying glass. Deep-sky objects are like that. You might seek out a galaxy and discover an unexpected double star in the same field of view. A star cluster may include a striking asterism or an appealing red star. But you've got to rifle through the popcorn and peanuts first to find the prize. I've selected eight of my favorites, all well-placed in the evening sky this month. ..."
Sky & Telescope

Balthazar - Lawrence Durrell (1958)

Wikipedia - "Balthazar, published in 1958, is the second volume in The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt around World War II, the four novels tell essentially the same story from different points of view and come to a conclusion in Clea. Balthazar is the first novel in the series that presents a competing narrator, Balthazar, who writes back to the narrating Darley in his 'great interlinear.' ... The book begins with the Narrator living on a remote Greek island with Nessim's illegitimate daughter from Melissa (now either four or six years old – marking the time that has elapsed since the events of Justine); however the tone is very dark and opposed to the light and airy reminiscence of Prospero's Cell – Durrell's travelogue-memoir of his life on Corfu. The prolonged nature-pieces, which are a highlight of Durrell's prose, still intervene between straight linear narrative – but are uniformly of askesis and alone-ness – and have a more pronounced 'prose-painting' feel to them pre-figuring Clea. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Alexandria Revisited (August 21, 1958)
Pseudo-Intellectual Reviews

2011 December: The Alexandria Quartet - Lawrence Durrell, 2013 September: Villa that inspired Lawrence Durrell faces demolition, as Egypt allows heritage to crumble, 2014 August: Prospero’s Cell (1945), 2015 April: Bitter Lemons (1953–1956), 2015 May: Caesar's Vast Ghost: Aspects of Provence, 2016 July: Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953), 2016 September: The Greek Islands, 2016 October: Justine (1957)

Charles Alston

The Family, 1955
Wikipedia - "Charles Henry Alston (November 28, 1907 – April 27, 1977) was an African-American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance; Alston was the first African-American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Alston designed and painted murals at the Harlem Hospital and the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building. In 1990 Alston's bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. became the first image of an African American displayed at the White House. ..."
Wikipedia
artnet
CIVIL RIGHTS ERA AFRICAN AMERICAN ART: SPIRAL GROUP
Whitney: The Family, 1955

Sun Ra Arkestra Boiler Room London Live Set

"The half-century reign of afrofuturism pioneer and cosmic jazzologist Sun Ra has undoubtedly shaped music's modern-day climate – from jazz, soul and hip hop, all the way to techno. Now, his legacy lives on through his 'Intergalactic Arkestra'. With 30+ musicians altogether, the Arkestra trained and toured with Sun Ra until the very end of his life in 1993 – and continue to play his revolutionary music to this day under the direction of alto-saxophonist and longtime Sun Ra collaborator, Marshall Allen. We had the honour of live broadcasting a small arrangement of the original Sun Ra Arkestra, directed by Marshall Allen at the Union Chapel in Islington, London."
Boiler Room (Video)
Soundcloud: Sun Ra Arkestra Boiler Room London Live Set 1:42:23
YouTube: Sun Ra Arkestra Boiler Room London Live Set 1:42:23

Joni Mitchell - Hejira (1976)

"Joni Mitchell's Hejira is the last in an astonishingly long run of top-notch studio albums dating back to her debut. ... But by and large, this release is the most overtly jazz-oriented of her career up to this point -- hip and cool, but never smug or icy. 'Blue Motel Room' in particular is a prototypic slow jazz-club combo number, appropriately smooth, smoky, and languorous. 'Coyote,' 'Black Crow,' and the title track are by contrast energetically restless fast-tempo selections. The rest of the songs here cleverly explore variants on mid- to slow-tempo approaches. None of these cuts are traditionally tuneful in the manner of Mitchell's older folk efforts; the effect here is one of subtle rolls and ridges on a green meadow rather than the outgoing beauty of a flower garden. ... Performances are excellent, with special kudos reserved for Jaco Pastorius' melodic bass playing on 'Refuge of the Roads' and the title cut. This excellent album is a rewarding listen."
allmusic
W - Hejira
Desert island albums #1: Joni Mitchell — Hejira (1976)
YouTube: Coyote (The Band - 1976)
YouTube: Hejira full album

2015 July: Blue (1970), 2015 Novemer: 40 Years On: Joni Mitchell's The Hissing Of Summer Lawns Revisited, 2016 August: On For the Roses (1972), 2016 November: Court and Spark (1974)

France, Without a Struggle, Is at a Loss

In Chartres, France, people holding blackboards showing the most important election issues for them, including health, peace, education and unity.
"PARIS — It’s unprecedented: In the course of a few months, French voters, the media and polls have knocked several of the biggest contenders out of the presidential race. First, it was Cécile Duflot, the main leader of the Greens, who was defeated in her party’s primary. Then came Nicolas Sarkozy, a former head of state, and Alain Juppé, a former prime minister who for months had been a heavy favorite — both eliminated in the primary for the right and center-right. After that it was the president of France himself, the Socialist François Hollande, whose unpopularity led him to renounce even running. Finally, out went Manuel Valls, until very recently France’s prime minister. He lost the left-wing primary. ..."
NY Times
The Nation: Lyon, the Capital of a Europe in Crisis

Big Joe Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982)

Wikipedia - "Joseph Lee 'Big Joe' Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982) was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. ... Born in Oktibbeha County, a few miles west of Crawford, Mississippi, Williams as a youth began wandering across the United States busking and playing in stores, bars, alleys and work camps. In the early 1920s he worked in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels revue. He recorded with the Birmingham Jug Band in 1930 for Okeh Records. In 1934, he was in St. Louis, Missouri, where he met the record producer Lester Melrose, who signed him to Bluebird Records in 1935. He stayed with Bluebird for ten years, recording such blues hits as 'Baby, Please Don't Go' (1935) and 'Crawlin' King Snake' (1941), both of which were later covered by many other musicians. ..."
Wikipedia
Me and Big Joe Williams by Michael Bloomfield
allmusic
Discogs
amazon: Blues on Highway 49 (Video)
YouTube: Baby Please Don't Go, She Left Me A Mule To Ride, Big Joe Williams pt 1, pt 2

2014 September: "Baby, Please Don't Go", 2016 February: West Oakland - 1940s and ’50s

Army veterans return to Standing Rock to form a human shield against police

A permit has been granted for the oil pipeline to cross the Missouri river, following Donald Trump’s executive order.
"US veterans are returning to Standing Rock and pledging to shield indigenous activists from attacks by a militarized police force, another sign that the fight against the Dakota Access pipeline is far from over. Army veterans from across the country have arrived in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, or are currently en route after the news that Donald Trump’s administration has allowed the oil corporation to finish drilling across the Missouri river. The growing group of military veterans could make it harder for police and government officials to try to remove hundreds of activists who remain camped near the construction site and, some hope, could limit use of excessive force by law enforcement during demonstrations. ..."
Guardian - Army veterans return to Standing Rock to form a human shield against police
Guardian - Standing Rock chairman looks to history as divisions emerge among activists (Video)
Guardian - Revealed: FBI terrorism taskforce investigating Standing Rock activists

2016 September: A History and Future of Resistance, 2016 November: Dakota Access Pipeline protests, 2016 December: Police Violence Against Native Americans Goes Far Beyond Standing Rock, 2016 December: Dakota Protesters Say Belle Fourche Oil Spill 'Validates Struggle', 2017 January: A Murky Legal Mess at Standing Rock, 2017 January: Trump's Move On Keystone XL, Dakota Access Outrages Activists

The Last Days of Oakland - Fantastic Negrito (2016)

"Blues in the 21st century usually falls into two camps: hip revivalists raised on rock who are ready to shred and traditionalists content to confine the music on a narrow path. Fantastic Negrito -- the new persona of Xavier Dphrepaulezz, who previously pledged allegiance to Sly Stone in the '90s -- disregards this playbook by offering a fresh take on blues with his 2016 album, The Last Days of Oakland. ... There's a reason why this album is named after his hometown: it's an album about Oakland, just as it's an album about Xavier, yet this city by the Bay stands in for any other city in America, just as Fantastic Negrito speaks for anybody frustrated by the loss of humanity in this era of gentrifications."
allmusic
Fantastic Negrito celebrates East Bay, new album release
NPR (Video)
amazon
Soundcloud: The Last Days of Oakland - Complete Album
YouTube: Fantastic Negrito: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Band for Life - Anya Davidson (2016)

"For the last few years, Chicago-based cartoonist Anya Davidson has quietly been making waves in alternative comics circles. Her work, which evokes the bombastic action of Jack Kirby as immediately as it does a riot grrrl zine, is bold and brash. Her bulky, blocky figures clash and collide with one another in a cacophony of pen and ink. It’s the kind of genre-busting, high- and low-culture-blending comic perfectly at home in a post-Fort Thunder alternative comics scene, and for those in the know, Davidson has been a cartoonist to follow. ... Paste exchanged a few emails with Davidson to discuss the upcoming graphic novel, covering everything from the book’s beginning to her recent work as a comics critic. ..."
paste
Fantagraphics
Anya Davidson’s Band for Life to be collected
Anya Davidson

Reason, creativity and freedom: the communalist model - Eleanor Finley

2016 municipal assembly in Naples
"In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election, devastating images and memories of the First and Second World Wars flood our minds. Anti-rationalism, racialized violence, scapegoating, misogyny and homophobia have been unleashed from the margins of society and brought into the political mainstream. Meanwhile, humanity itself runs in a life-or-death race against time. ... The term communalism originated from the revolutionary Parisian uprising of 1871 and was later revived by the late-twentieth century political philosopher Murray Bookchin (1931-2006). Communalism is often used interchangeably with 'municipalism', 'libertarian municipalism' (a term also developed by Bookchin) and 'democratic confederalism' (coined more recently by imprisoned Kurdish political leader Abdullah Öcalan). ..."
ROAR

2014 September: Anarchism in America (1983), 2015 August: The Prophet Farmed: Murray Bookchin on Bernie Sanders, 2015 October: Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), 2015 October: The Ecology of Freedom (1982), 2016 July: Murray Bookchin’s New Life.

Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - King & Queen (1967)

"Otis Redding never recorded a lighter, more purely entertaining record than King & Queen, a collection of duets with Stax labelmate Carla Thomas. In all likelihood inspired by a series of popular duets recorded by Marvin Gaye -- indeed, 'It Takes Two,' Gaye's sublime collaboration with Kim Weston, is covered here -- the record serves no greater purpose than to allow Redding the chance to run through some of the era's biggest soul hits, including 'Knock on Wood,' 'Tell It Like It Is,' and 'When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,' and while clearly not a personal triumph on a par with either Otis Blue or The Dictionary of Soul, the set is still hugely successful on its own terms. Redding and Thomas enjoy an undeniable chemistry, and they play off each other wonderfully; while sparks fly furiously throughout King & Queen, the album's highlight is the classic 'Tramp,' where their battle of the sexes reaches its fever pitch in supremely witty fashion."
allmusic
W - King & Queen
BBC
Genius (Video)
YouTube: Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - King & Queen (Full Album)

The Second Avenue Subway Is Here!

Conceived nearly a century ago, the line became Governor Cuomo’s obsession. Illustration by Ben Wiseman
"New Yorkers view their subway system with reproachful pride. We fixate on its virtues and faults, as though the subway lines were our children. We want so much for them, and yet they so often disappoint. When their latest report cards arrived, just after Christmas, the top grades went to the 1 line, the 7, and the L. The goats were the 5 and the A. The A train at least has an anthem, and the vestigial grandeur of connecting old Harlem to Bed-Stuy. ... The subway-line rankings, based on such categories as cleanliness, crowding, and frequency of service, come from the Straphangers Campaign, a project underwritten by the New York Public Interest Research Group. Straphangers also issues year-end top-ten worst and best lists. ..."
New Yorker

2017 January: Second Avenue Subway

The Place of Many Fish

"There is no road to Iqaluit. You fly in or, in the summer for a few weeks, you can arrive by boat. It’s a city of 8,000 people at the western point of Frobisher Bay, on Baffin Island, just below the Arctic Circle. Its name means 'Place of Many Fish' in the Inuktitut language. Its history is one of travelers and centuries of nomads of the water, land and ice. Seventeen years ago Iqaluit became the capital of Canada’s farthest northeast territory, Nunavut. It was around then that it began attracting more people from the Canadian South and even around the world. ..."
AramcoWorld
W - Iqaluit
YouTube: Life in Iqaluit Nunavut

Various - O Samba (1989)

"This is a compilation of samba from the collecting hands of David Byrne of Talking Heads fame. The selections primarily focus on the modern forms of the genre, more specifically on the studio end of the spectrum, with little or no relation to the large-scale productions associated with Carnaval in Rio. There are bits of reference to the classic sambas of the '60s in the songs here, and explorations into jazz on the side. Nods to Afro-Cuban influences are thick in the lyrics, going so far as to have a full song from the Candomble traditions based on the Yoruba orishas. Beyond this, though, there's a whole range of modern Brazilian music present in the background of these tracks, as slighter influences from MPB and Tropicalia quietly creep in now and then. ..."
allmusic
Luaka Bop
W - Music of Brazil
Discogs, iTubes
YouTube: O Samba

The problem with modern politics, summarised.

"This is how the media and common knowledge portrays politics: the left to right scale, with 'hippie Commies' to the left and 'suited rich people' to the right, with 'ordinary Joe' in the middle. It is, naturally, a huge oversimplification. This is how politics actually looks (with markers for US politics and the average voter). Most people will naturally be in that populism group, most 'loony lefty libtards' in the 3 categories down-left (social liberalism, social democracy and democratic socialism) and 'right wing Fascist Nazis' in the 3 up-right (conservatism, neo-conservatism and national conservatism). It's very rare you ever meet a political group outside these centralised groups, but perception is often accentuated by the media. ..."
imgur

Meredith Monk - Book of Days (1988)

"Book of Days opens, in color, with 20th-century workmen blasting a brick wall, leaving a hole that opens into a black-and-white small town in the Middle Ages. Men, women and children glide about their daily tasks, stopping to answer sometimes tellingly anachronistic questions from 20th-century interviewers... The medieval Christians are dressed in white; the Jews are in black robes, each marked with a yellow circle. Both are stricken by the plague, for which the Jews are blamed. ... Book of Days is a very beautiful visual play of surfaces and textures, from brick to rough-plastered wall and from the luminous innocence that lights the girl's face to the canny innocence illuminating the face of the crone, played by Ms. Monk, who teaches her to embrace her visions. ..."
Meredith Monk
NY Times: Meredith Monk's Blend Of Medieval and Modern Life (1990)
W - Book of Days
Disogs
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: Book of Days (extract) 2:40
YouTube: Book of Days 1:14:30

2008 March: Meredith Monk, 2009 September: Songs of Ascension - Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton, 2011 February: Meredith Monk: A Voice For All Time, 2011 August: Ellis Island, 2012 December: Turtle Dreams, 2013 February: Quarry: The Rally (Live, 1977), 2014 November; 10 Things You Might Not Know About Meredith Monk, 2015 April: Volcano Songs (1994), 2015 June: Ellis Island, 2016 April: 16 Millimeter Earrings and the Artist’s Body (1966/1998), 2016 December: Beginnings (2009).

John Constable, The Wheat Field (1816)

"'I live almost wholly in the fields and see nobody but the harvest men,' wrote Constable to his fiancée in August 1815. That summer, working primarily outdoors, he painted The Wheat Field, a view across a valley in his native Suffolk. Plowmen cut down the golden wheat, reapers bundle the stalks, and gleaners collect leftover grains, while a boy and his dog guard lunch. The figures seem to be a natural part of the landscape, captured at a specific moment in time. Yet the artist carefully organized each element of the composition to craft an idyllic harvest scene. ..."
The Clark (Video)
NGA

2008 July: John Constable, 2014 November: The Hay Wain, 2009 October: Hay in Art, 2010 March: Van Gogh Museum, 2010 May: Why preserve Van Gogh's palette?, 2012 April: Van Gogh Up Close, 2015 May: Van Gogh and Nature, 2016 January: Van Gogh's Bedrooms, 2016 November: Wheat Fields - Van Gogh series.

The Museum Of Giant Puppets In Vermont Is Not For The Faint Of Heart

You’ll find an assortment of over five decades of puppets, masks, paintings and graphics in a 150-year-old barn.
"When someone mentions puppets, you might conjure up images of Pinocchio or some warm and fuzzy creatures you’ve seen at children’s shows, but the puppets at the Bread and Puppet Theater are much, much different. At this 150-year-old barn in Glover, Vermont you’ll find giant puppets that are sometimes whimsical, sometimes political and more often than not, a bit unsettling. From the setting to the puppets within, this is one giant puppet museum in VT that is not for the faint of heart. ..."
Only In Your State

2009 October: The Bread and Puppet Theater, 2013 September: Peter Schumann on 50 years of the Bread and Puppet Theater, 2015 May: Bread and Puppet Cheap Art Posters

A day like any other (PoemTalk #85) - James Schuyler, 'February'

"... John Ashbery gave the introduction, emphasizing how reluctant Schuyler was to read in public. He noted: 'As far as I know, this is the first public [reading] he has ever given.' One can tell from the tone of Ashbery’s remarks that he felt that he and the audience were in for a rare treat, a savoring for which years of waiting were worthwhile. Schuyler then read 17 poems, and one of them indeed was 'February.' The poem was published in Freely Espousing (p. 15) and reprinted in Selected Poems (p. 6) and in Collected Poems (p. 4). ..."
Jacket2
Peter Gizzi - A Note on "February"

2008 January: James Schuyler, 2009 October: James Schuyler: Six New Recordings Added, 2011 March: Broadway: A Poets and Painters Anthology, 2011 December: An Anthology of New York Poets, 2012 July: A Schuyler of urgent concern, 2013 July: In Fairfield Porter / James Schuyler country: Penobscot Bay, Maine, 2014 November: Just the Thing: Selected Letters of James Schuyler 1951-1991, 2015 October: The Morning of the Poem (1980),June 2016: New Video of James Schuyler’s Legendary Debut Reading in 1988, 2016 August: A few of Schuyler's revisions - Charles North, 2016 December: James Schuyler - “December”.

Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969)

Wikipedia - "A Rainbow in Curved Air is the third album by experimental music and classical minimalism pioneer Terry Riley. Through the use of overdubbing, the composer, a keyboard virtuoso, plays all the instruments on the title track: electric organ, electric harpsichord (Rock-Si-Chord), dumbec (or goblet drum), and tambourine. The largely improvisational nature of the work, based on modal scales, owes much to jazz and Hindustani classical music. Some jazz musicians had explored overdubbing techniques before, notably Bill Evans, one of Riley's piano 'heroes', on his classic album Conversations with Myself from four years earlier, with its three piano tracks; but Riley uses a far wider range of instruments and colors. ..."
Wikipedia
Pitchfork
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: A Rainbow in Curved Air - Full CD, A Rainbow in Curved Air - Live in Cologne 1974 (full concert)

December 2007: Terry Riley, March 2010: In C, December 2010: Terry Riley & Gyan Riley, April 2011: Terry Riley - Shri Camel: Morning Corona, Terry Riley rare footage, live in the 70s, 2014 March: Kronos Quartet Plays Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace (1989), 2014 June: Solo piano works, Moscow Conservatory. April 18th, 2000.

David Axelrod’s Hip-Hop Influence in 7 Highly Sampled Songs

"David Axelrod, who passed away over the weekend at age 83, was for a while something of an unsung hero of production and arrangement. During his most active years, from 1963 to 1970, he was an A&R man and producer for Capitol Records, with his two biggest commercial successes coming in the form of Lou Rawls' velvet-smooth R&B and Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley's funk-crossover soul-jazz. Through those two artists, you get a strong sense of what Axelrod was capable of bringing to the table: a composer and arranger as comfortable with grand symphonic gestures as he was with direct-hit funk. He could make a record sound like it belonged in a small country church or a massive cathedral, whether the spirituality was explicitly divine or subsumed in something more personal. Aside from Isaac Hayes, virtually nobody's compositions could hit that sweet spot between 'beautiful music' opulence, uncannily strange pop-psychedelia, and deeper-than-deep soul quite like Axelrod. ..."
Pitchfork (Video)
Wikipedia
Discogs

MoMA Takes a Stand: Art From Banned Countries Comes Center Stage

Henri Matisse’s Tiari, 1930, and Periwinkles / Moroccan Garden, 1912, and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, K+L+32+H+4. Mon père et moi (My Father and I), 1962. ARTNEWS
"President Trump’s executive order banning travel and rescinding visas for citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations does not lack for opponents in New York — from Kennedy Airport, where striking taxi drivers joined thousands of demonstrators, to the United Nations, whose new secretary general, António Guterres, said the measures 'violate our basic principles.' ... A Picasso came down. Matisse, down. Ensor, Boccioni, Picabia, Burri: They made way for artists who, if they are alive and abroad, cannot see their work in the museum’s most august galleries. ..."
NY Times

Miniatures (A Sequence Of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces) (1980)

"... Originally issued in 1981, Miniatures is a concept compilation album that is certain to delight the listener on a multitude of fronts simultaneously. Conceived in 1980 by Morgan Fisher (erstwhile keyboardist for Mott the Hoople) as a means of addressing the scope of music and musicians that he loved but lacked time enough to release, Miniatures draws from an array of artists whose submissions exist within the strict framework of a 60-second maximum track length. The pieces wriggle excitedly in their rapid and unrelenting succession, sequenced with insight sufficient to create an infinitely curious netherworld. ..."
Soundohm
Discogs, amazon: Miniatures One + Two
YouTube: john white - scene de ballet, Dave Vanian - Night time, Ralph Steadman - Sweetest Love (Lament After A Broken Sashcord On A Theme Of John Donne), Band One: 1/1. ollie halsall & john halsey / bum love 1/2. the residents / we're a happy family + bali ha'i 1/3. roger mcgough / the wreck of the hesperus 1/4. morgan fisher / green and pleasant 1/5. john otway / mine tonight, Morgan Fisher Story - Interview by Iain McNay - 2008

A Photographic Exploration of Northern British Landscapes

"Watching the landscapes in the north of England in counties such as Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire “change inexorably” over time is what motivated photographer Theo Simpson to embark upon his own investigations into the region and its histories. ... He presents elegiac, sublime photographic explorations of vernacular architecture bathed in golden light alongside more austere, typological black and white recordings of forms and structures, and varying materials and objects he’s collected when rifling through archives and local newspapers. ..."
AnOther

11 Memoirs by 20th-Century American Radicals

"With the Trump era now a week old and storm clouds gathering, many decent, salt-of-the-earth Americans not previously given to shows of popular unrest, never mind civil disobedience or outright violence, may find themselves newly curious about America’s radical past, in particular the radical left. For the big picture, there is always the work of the late and ever-insightful Howard Zinn, but then sometimes your curiosity craves a more intimate literature: the memoir. ... For those who prefer their radical history first-hand, the 20th century provides in abundance, from the anarchist riots and unionist shutdowns of the early century to the interwar New York intellectuals, always flirting with offshoots of the Russian Revolution, to the new wave activists of the late 60s and early 70s, with the violence, infighting, despair, and a few strands of hope and inspiration that followed. ..."
LitHub

Lindsay Cooper - Rags (1980)

"Having played with British bands Comus and Henry Cow during the 1970s, bassoonist, composer and songwriter Lindsay Cooper, born 1951 (more info here), was used to communal music activities and LP-cum-political-tract releases when she co-founded the Feminist Improvising Group (FIG) in 1977 with Maggie Nicols (of Centipede fame). Her first solo LP, Rags, published 1980, was the soundtrack to The Song of the Shirt, a 1979 Feminist/Marxist film by Sue Clayton and Jonathan Curling. The musicians are members of FIG (Lindsay Cooper, Sally Potter, Georgie Born) plus Frith and Cutler from Henry Cow and Phil Minton from the Mike Westbrook Band. Self-published in 1980 in the UK through small label Arcades, Rags was recorded and engineered by Dave Vorhaus at his own Kaleidophon studio, the usual White Noise recording facility. ..."
Continuo (Video)
Surfing the Odyssey
Discogs
YouTube: The Exhibition/Lots of Larks/General Strike, 1848/The Chartist Anthem/Cholera, Song of the Shirt, Woman's Wrong (Part IV)

December 2009: Lindsay Cooper, 2010 February: Art Bears, 2012 July: The Art Box - Art Bears, 2012 November: David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme, 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), 2015 May: Music For Other Occasions (1986), 2016 April: News from Babel (1983-1986).

Elmore James - "Standing At The Crossroads" / "Sunnyland" (1951)

"... The original 'Sunny Land' as recorded by James in 1954 was more of a loping shuffle, released on Flair Records, and backed by 'Standing At The Crossroads.' The songwriting is credited to Joe Bihari (one of James’ publishers under a pseudonym) and Elmore James. But the track that has captivated me all these years was recorded late in James’ life at the New Orleans studio of Cosimo Matassa, a legendary R & B producer and engineer. James was plagued by health problems and embroiled in disputes with the musicians’ union and died not long after these sessions took place. This 1961 version is far more driving and has a dirty, distorted sound with a blues-shout vocal style that gives the track an urgency the original lacks. ..."
The Vinyl Press
Discogs
YouTube: Standing At The Crossroads, Sunnyland

2014 November: Blues Master Works

Francofonia - Alexander Sokurov (2015), The Rape of Europa Collector's Edition (2009)

"Fourteen years after Russian Ark, that renowned single-take movie journey through the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, Alexander Sokurov has created another absorbing meditation on art, history and humanity’s idea of itself – this time centred on the Louvre in Paris. It is a sophisticated, complex film: a cine-prose poem or installation tableau, weaving newsreel footage with eerie floating images above Paris and dramatised fantasy scenes. It has all sorts of wayward digressions and perambulations around the idea of French and European culture, and the role of the museum in conserving art and promoting the idea of what it means to be human. ..."
Guardian: Francofonia review – a wayward meditation on art, history and humanity (Video)
Roger Ebert
NY Times: ‘Francofonia,’ About World War II Foes Turned Allies, for the Sake of Art - A. O. Scott
Guardian: Francofonia review – eerie look at the Louvre's vulnerable freight
W - Francofonia
YouTube: Francofonia - Official Trailer
2014 August: Louvre, 2016 January: Russian Ark (2002)

"World War II was not just the most destructive conflict in humanity—it was also the greatest theft in history: lives, families, communities, property, culture and heritage were all stolen. The Rape of Europa Collector's Edition includes the award-winning documentary film, The Rape of Europa, based on the book by scholar Lynn Nicholas, and narrated by Academy Award-nominated actress Joan Allen. It also features interviews with key figures including the Monuments Men and other war heroes, victims of the Nazis' thefts, and prominent cultural figures including Major Corine Wegener (retired), a modern day 'Monuments woman' who served in Iraq. The Rape of Europa Collector's Edition addresses the questions of our time about the role of art in defining culture, and our shared responsibility to protect it. ..."
The Rape of Europa - Order the Collector's Edition DVD
The Rape of Europa (Video)
YouTube: The Rape of Europa - Topic 79 video

William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying (1930)

Wikipedia - "As I Lay Dying is a 1930 novel, in the genre of Southern Gothic, by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner said that he wrote the novel from midnight to 4:00 AM over the course of six weeks and that he did not change a word of it. ... The novel utilizes stream of consciousness writing technique, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths. The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family's quest and motivations—noble or selfish—to honor her wish to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi. ... The family's trek by wagon begins, with Addie’s non-embalmed body in the coffin. ..."
Wikipedia
NYBooks: On ‘As I Lay Dying’- E.L. Doctorow
Creation and Rebellion in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying By Tristan Gans
amazon: As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text

2011 September: Southern Gothic, 2014 February: William Faulkner, 2015 October: William Faulkner Draws Maps of Yoknapatawpha County, the Fictional Home of His Great Novels, 2015 November: Interviews William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12, 2016 April: Absalom, Absalom!! (1936), 2016 May: The Sound and the Fury (1929), 2016 October: The Snopes Trilogy (1940, 1957, 1959), 2016 December: Light in August (1932)

The Smothers Brothers: Laughing at Hard Truths

"On Sunday nights at 9, 50 years ago, more than a quarter of American households were watching NBC’s 'Bonanza.' That comfortable and comforting western series was so dominant that CBS felt it had nothing to lose by taking a chance and giving that time slot to two brothers, musical satirists who interrupted songs like 'Boil That Cabbage Down' and 'Dance, Boatman, Dance' with ridiculous bouts of sibling rivalry. The brothers, Tom and Dick Smothers, had had a successful run of appearances in nightclubs and on television variety shows with subversive takes on folk songs. When 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' made its premiere on Feb. 5, 1967, CBS figured the two men in their late 20s, clean-cut and appealing, might find a niche. ..."
NY Times (Video)
W - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
YouTube: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Akram Zaatari

After They Joined The Military Struggle, Saida early 1970s (2007)
"There’s something peculiar about the faces of people posing for pictures in a photographer’s studio. Whether smiling or thoughtful, serious or sad, in their expressions the public and the private collide. Standing still before the camera, studio clients are afforded the luxury of pursuing their greatest fantasies (film star; sheikh) — all within the confines of the studio, complete with its own particular codes, customs, and theatrics. You could say that what emerges on the photographic print is a curious amalgam of all of these factors. It is the complexity of the studio image that Akram Zaatari seeks to investigate in his ongoing Madani Project. For some years already, Zaatari has been working on compiling, structuring, and (re)contextualizing photographic material gathered from the former Studio Shehrazade in Saida, Lebanon, where he was born in 1966. ..."
Bidoun
Sfeir-Semler (Video)
W - Akram Zaatari
Photography as Apparatus - Akram Zaatari in conversation with Anthony Downey
MoMa - Projects 100: Akram Zaatari
[PDF] MoMA
vimeo: akram zaatari - 16 Videos

Hip-Hop Utopia: Culture + Community at Jersey’s City’s Dineen Hull Gallery Through February 21

Yishai Minkin, Biggie
"While visiting Hip-Hop Utopia: Culture + Community at Hudson County Community College‘s Dineen Hull Gallery this past Friday, I had the opportunity to speak to Michelle Vitale aka woolpunk who — along with Fred Fleisher — curated the wonderfully eclectic exhibit. What a fabulous tribute to hip-hop this is! What would you say is the exhibit’s mission? Its mission is to celebrate the culture of hip-hop. Its four elements –  MCing, Graffiti, DJing and Breakdancing — have had a huge, positive impact on today’s society. This exhibit is our way of paying tribute to these elements and to the community that has nurtured them. ..."
Street Art NYC

Jon Hassell ‎– Earthquake Island (1979)

"Earthquake Island was Hassell's first project supported by a traditional lineup -- two guitarists, a bassist, and several percussionists. Rhythms from Latin American and the Caribbean appear for the only time (so far) in this world citizen's recordings, and on a couple of tracks there's even a guest vocalist named Clarice Taylor. Earthquake Island is also the artist's least discussed album. Okay, make that undiscussed -- even on websites devoted to Hassell's music, it only gets a sentence or two. In hindsight, this album seemed like a backward step compared to the electronic drones and hand percussion of Vernal Equinox, and was perhaps taken as a thin example of the late-'70s jazz fusion taste for Latin percussion and horn arrangements. ..."
allmusic
Discogs
YouTube: Earthquake Island (Full album)

Roy C & The Honeydrippers - Impeach the President (1973)

"... From that crucial moment on, the Georgia native has staunchly committed himself to over five decades of the funkiest funk and silkiest soul that ever spun at 45 and 33 1/3 rpm. One of those compositions, born out of a 1973 presidential espionage scandal, would go on to have an unexpected shelf life decades beyond the mom-and-pop record-shop bins of the day. With a sly, syncopated backbeat and loopy guitar licks courtesy of a precocious group of high school kids from Queens, New York, called the Honey Drippers, 'Impeach the President' was one funky juke-joint juggernaut destined to inform the headphone masterpieces of generations to come. ..."
Wax Poetics: Roy C’s legacy goes beyond the single song (and ubiquitous golden-era hip-hop break) “Impeach the President”
W - Roy C
iTunes
YouTube: Impeach the President

The 15 Best Things to Do in New York City

7/15 - Walk the Brooklyn Bridge to Dumbo
"When you're visiting a city, the pressure to see and do everything is intense. Not to mention, it's hard to stay on top of what's happening in a city that's not your own. We get it. We also get that the best experiences are as much about the how as they are the what. Meaning, you can go to Central Park, just like everyone else, but do you really know how to do it? How to find those quiet, picturesque nooks that only the locals know, and taking advantage of the nearby great coffee shops you wouldn't make it to otherwise? That's why, in the following list of things we think every visitor to our hometown should do, we’ve built in tried and true strategies and tips—like where to get an excellent chocolate chip cookie when you’re touring the new Whitney, because you can't fully appreciate Diane Arbus if you're in a pissy, low blood sugar–induced mood. ..."
Condé Nast

The Jack Kerouac Collection (1990)

"This triple-disc box set is centered on the reissue and restoration of Jack Kerouac's three long-players: Poetry for the Beat Generation (1959), Blues and Haikus (1959), as well as Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation(1960). The Jack Kerouac Collection (1990) also adds over a half-hour of previously unissued material. These include outtakes from the Blues and Haikus sessions, recitations from On the Road and Visions of Cody from the Steve Allen Plymouth Show, as well as a candid recording from a symposium titled 'Is There a Beat Generation,' which was held at the Hunter College Playhouse and sponsored by Brandeis University. ... There is also copious discographical, biographical, and bibliographical information as well. This set is an essential piece of Americana and is highly recommended for literary buffs and beatniks alike."
allmusic (Video)
LA Times: 'The Jack Kerouac Collection'
W - Poetry for the Beat Generation, W - Blues and Haikus, W - Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation
Discogs, amazon
YouTube: The Jack Kerouac Collection, McDougal Street Blues, Charlie Parker, I Had A Slouch Hat Too One Time, October in the Railroad Earth

2009 November: Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut, 2010 July: Kerouac's Copies of Floating Bear, 2011 March: Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show, 2013 September: On the Road - Jack Kerouac, 2014 May: “Walker Evans and Robert Frank – An Essay on Influence by Tod Papageorge” (1981), 2015 March: Pull My Daisy (1959), 2015 December: Hear All Three of Jack Kerouac’s Spoken, 2016 July: Mexico City Blues (1959).

Sherwood at the Controls, Vol. 2: 1985-1990

"Four primary factors distinguish Adrian Sherwood's earlier productions and remixes, anthologized on Sherwood at the Controls, Vol. 1: 1979-1984, from the later work gathered here. The September 1983 murder of close friend Prince Far I temporarily pushed Sherwood away from reggae. Shortly after that, while in the U.S. on business, he bonded with Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald, and Doug Wimbish, progressive session pros who had played together on 'Rapper's Delight' and 'The Message,' among other cuts. Sherwood's work with that trio, scattered across dozens of 12" and full-length releases during the latter half of the '80s, is summarized with a front-loaded batch on this second volume. ..."
allmusic
Discogs, amazon
YouTube: Sherwood At The Controls Vol. 2: 1985 - 1990 12 videos

2011 September: Adrian Sherwood, 2012 April: Dub Syndicate, 2013 August: Don't Call Us Immigrants (2000), 2014 May: Bim Sherman - Across the Red Sea (1998), 2016 November: Keith Hudson - Brand (1979)

Harry Mathews

Wikipedia - "Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. He was also a translator of French. ... Together with John Ashbery, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch, Mathews founded and edited the short-lived but influential literary journal Locus Solus (named after a novel by Raymond Roussel, one of Mathews's chief early influences) from 1961 to 1962. Mathews was the first American chosen for membership in the French literary society known as the Oulipo, which is dedicated to exploring new possibilities in literature, in particular through the use of various constraints and algorithms. ... Mathews was married to the writer Marie Chaix and divided his time between Paris, Key West, and New York City. ..."
Wikipedia
The Paris Review: Harry Mathews, The Art of Fiction No. 191
The Many False Floors of Harry Mathews
BOMB: Harry Mathews
amazon: Harry Mathews
Poetry Foundation: Cool gales shall fan the glades By Harry Mathews (Video)
YouTube: Harry Mathews reads "The White Wind", "The New Tourism"

2010 June: Locus Solus, 2012 January: The Tropological Space of Locus Solus

The First Monday in May

"The debate about what does and does not constitute Art rages—although quite politely—at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. One would imagine that anything within the Met's revered galleries and extensive collections would receive the benefit of the doubt in regards to its stature as Art. Even so, there's still a battle over the status of fashion among the museum's curators and people involved in the fashion world. The Met's Costume Institute is housed in the museum's lowest level, meaning that its collection is physically and, hence, figuratively seen as occupying the basement of Art. ..."
Roger Ebert
The First Monday in May (Video)
W - The First Monday in May
YouTube: Watch the First Monday in May Trailer

2015 May: China: Through the Looking Glass

The Myth of the Well-Behaved Women’s March

"On October 5, 1789, a crowd of more than seven thousand women—fish sellers and bakers, working women from the markets, bourgeois 'bonnet-wearing' women from the suburbs—marched the twelve miles from Paris to Versailles to demand King Louis XVI release his stores of grain. The march had been planned at the Palais Royal by a group of women who were furious over food shortages, especially after rumors that the king had thrown a lavish feast for his bodyguards only days before. The women swore that together, they would save the city: 'Tomorrow things will be better because we will be in charge!' ..."
New Republic

Evergreen Review

Wikipedia - "Evergreen Review is a U.S.-based literary magazine founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 through 1973, and was re-launched online in 1998. Its diversity can be seen in the March–April 1960 issue, which included work by Albert Camus, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bertolt Brecht and LeRoi Jones, as well as Edward Albee's first play, The Zoo Story. The Camus piece was a reprint of 'Reflections on the Guillotine', first published in English in the Review in 1957 and reprinted on this occasion as the magazine's 'contribution to the worldwide debate on the problem of capital punishment and, more specifically, the case of Caryl Whittier Chessman.' Evergreen Review debuted pivotal works by Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Marguerite Duras, Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg, Günter Grass, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, Pablo Neruda, Vladimir Nabokov, Frank O’Hara, Kenzaburō Ōe, Octavio Paz, Harold Pinter, Susan Sontag, Tom Stoppard, Derek Walcott and Malcolm X. United States Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote a controversial piece for the magazine in 1969. Kerouac and Ginsberg regularly had their writing published in the magazine. ..."
W - Evergreen Review
Evergreen: The Glossy of the Underground
RealityStudio: Evergreen Review Archive
RealityStudio: Bibliography of Burroughs Texts in Evergreen Review, Evergreen Review, Issues 1-31, Evergreen Review, Issues 32-99
amazon: Evergreen Review Reader 1957-1967, Evergreen Review Reader: 1957-1966, Evergreen Review Reader, 1967-1973

Betty Davis: Columbia Years 1968-1969

"A name on the guestlist of greatness, the former Betty Mabry had hip cachet in the ’60s, and has it again now. A model, a songwriter and a friend of both Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis (who she married), her trio of mid-1970s albums (Betty Davis, They Say I’m Different and Nasty Gal) established her as a powerful female performer. A cross between George Clinton and Bette Midler, she played sex music with no implied candlelit dinner, a hard and uncompromising funk in which she inhabited an aggressive, theatrically sexual persona. At the time, she outraged nearly everyone. Hers is a story with some great records, a lot of interesting associations, and – possibly the most important factor – many years of unaccounted time, into which mystery and supposition has since enticingly poured. ..."
Uncut
All About Jazz
amazon
YouTube: Down Home Girl, My Soul is tired, Hangin' Out, Politician Man, Born on the Bayou, I'm Ready, Willing & Able (Take 9)

2012 October: Betty Davis