The Fertile Ground of French Communism

Supporters of Jean-Luc Melenchon, the head of the political movement “France Unsubjugated.”
"PARIS — France’s presidential election this year was exceptional: because of Emmanuel Macron’s victory, because of the presence of a representative of the far right in the second round, because of the first-round elimination of the two main parties on the right and the left. And also because of the strong showing of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of the political movement 'France Unsubjugated.' Mr. Mélenchon, who also had the support of the French Communist Party, or P.C.F., obtained 19.5 percent of the first-round vote, though he came in fourth and couldn’t participate in the runoff. By refusing to give Mr. Macron (in Mr. Mélenchon’s eyes a contemptible neoliberal) an unequivocal endorsement, though at the same time declaring that Marine Le Pen must be opposed, Mr. Mélenchon aroused multiple controversies and raised questions about what exactly he stood for. ..."
NY Times
Jacobin: Lessons From the French Election
Washington Post: 4 key lessons from France’s presidential election

2017 February: France, Without a Struggle, Is at a Loss, 2017 April: France Rebels, 2017 April: How the Election Split France, 2017 May: As French Elections Nears, So Does a Step Into the Unknown

The Watts Prophets (1969)

Wikipedia - "The Watts Prophets are a group of musicians and poets from Watts, California, United States. Like their contemporaries The Last Poets, the group combined elements of jazz music and spoken-word performance, making the trio one that is often seen as a forerunner of contemporary hip-hop music. Formed in 1967, the group comprised Richard Dedeaux, Father Amde Hamilton (born Anthony Hamilton), and Otis O'Solomon (also billed as Otis O'Solomon Smith) (O'Solomon removed the 'Smith' from his name in the 1970s). Hamilton, O'Solomon, and Dedeaux first met and collaborated at the Watts Writers Workshop, an organization created by Budd Schulberg in the wake of the Watts Riots, as the Civil Rights Movement was beginning to take a new cultural turn. Fusing music with jazz and funk roots with a rapid-fire, spoken-word sound, they created a sound that gave them a considerable local following. ..."
Wikipedia
Guardian - 'The rebellion came': Watts Prophet Otis O'Solomon on race, revolution and rap
Spin
YouTube: The Black Voices: On The Street In Watts 20 Video

The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature’s Most Epic Road Trips

"I am a freak for the American road trip. And I’m not alone, as some of this country’s best writers have taken a shot at describing that quintessentially American experience. 'There is no such knowledge of the nation as comes of traveling in it, of seeing eye to eye its vast extent, its various and teeming wealth, and, above all, its purpose-full people,' the newspaper editor Samuel Bowles wrote 150 years ago in Across the Continent, arguably the first true American road-trip book. ..."
Atlas Obscura
W - Samuel Bowles (journalist)

The Pacific Nation - Robin Blaser

"The youngest poet of the immediate Spicer circle, Robin Blaser gained his own experience of mimeography as an assistant in 1955 for the Pound Newsletter produced by the English Department at the University of California at Berkeley. Blaser was devoted to his friend and mentor Jack Spicer and edited his collected books, appending a long, well-argued essay on Spicer’s work. ... After his first two books were published by Open Space, Blaser left Berkeley to teach at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (or more correctly Burnaby), British Columbia, where he started The Pacific Nation. The first issue included poems and an essay (semi-autobiographical and theoretical) by Blaser, one poem by Jack Spicer, a Blaser translation of a letter of Artaud’s on Nerval, Michael McClure’s The Moon Is the Number 18, an early John Button drawing, and the first printing of the first five chapters of Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America."
From A Secret Location
verdant press
[PDF] Robin Blaser - New Star Books

November 2007: EPC, November 2009: Robin Blaser (1925 - 2009), March 2010: The Moth Poem, Les Chimeres, 2011 February: The Holy Forest, 2011 July: "Image-Nation 21 (territory", 2010 April: Manroot and Acts,  2015 January: 'Absolutely temporary': Spicer, Burgess, and the ephemerality of coterie, 2015 March: San Francisco Renaissance, 2016 March: The Astonishment Tapes: Talks on Poetry and Autobiography with Robin Blaser and Friends

The Radiators from Space

Wikipedia - "The Radiators from Space, also known as The Radiators, The Radiators Plan 9, and The Trouble Pilgrims, are an Irish punk rock band. They have been described as Ireland's first punk band. The band formed in 1976 in Dublin, and consisted of Philip Chevron, Pete Holidai, Steve Rapid (Steve Averill), Jimmy Crashe and Mark Megaray. They were one of the earliest punk rock bands. They signed to Chiswick Records and released the album TV Tube Heart in 1977. Their first single "Television Screen" was the first and only punk record to make the Irish top 20, and featured on the Long Shots, Dead Certs And Odds On Favourites (Chiswick Chartbusters Volume Two) sampler Compilation album (1978: Chiswick). ..."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Irish Rock
YouTube: Television Screen, Enemies, Roxy girl, Sunday World, Joe Strummer - Trouble Pilgrim, Love detective, Prison Bars, Let's Talk About The Weather, Blitzin' At The Ritz (Live), Try And Stop Me

Beyond the Stars. The Mystical Landscape from Monet to Kandinsky

Vincent van Gogh, The Sower
"Seeking an order beyond physical appearances, going beyond physical realities to come closer to the mysteries of existence, experimenting with the suppression of the self in an indissoluble union with the cosmos… It was the mystical experience above all else that inspired the Symbolist artists of the late 19th century who, reacting against the cult of science and naturalism, chose to evoke emotion and mystery. The landscape, therefore, seemed to these artists to offer the best setting for their quest, the perfect place for contemplation and the expression of inner feelings. ..."
Musée d'Orsay (Video)
Musée d'Orsay - Introduction

"I'm a King Bee" - Slim Harpo (1957)

Slim Harpo in the studio
Wikipedia - "'I'm a King Bee' is a swamp blues song that has been performed and recorded by numerous blues and other artists. ... Written by Slim Harpo (using his real name, James Moore), the song was recorded in March 1957.The recording features a spare arrangement and instrumentation typical of J. D. Miller's production approach. Accompanying Slim Harpo were Gabriel 'Guitar Gable' Perrodin on guitar, John 'Fats' Perrodin on bass, and Clarence 'Jockey' Etienne on drums. ... English rock band the Rolling Stones recorded 'I'm a King Bee' for their 1964 debut album. It has been identified as an early important song for the Rolling Stones, although it was not released as a single. The band's arrangement generally follows Slim Harpo's, but includes a slide-guitar break by Brian Jones. ..."
Wikipedia
Independent: Why Slim Harpo remains king bee of the blues
Genius (Video)
YouTube: Slim Harpo, Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry (Aerosmith)

2013 March: Slim Harpo

The Men Walking Every Block in New York City

"A few years ago, William Helmreich, a sociology professor at CUNY, wrote a book called 'The New York Nobody Knows.' Helmreich had spent four years walking every block in the five boroughs—that’s a hundred and twenty thousand blocks and six thousand miles. He had produced a street-level biography of the whole city. I read it and found it fascinating. Eventually, I met Helmreich, and we walked around the Bronx together. Three things were immediately clear: he loved New York, he loved people, and the people of New York loved him. ..."
New Yorker: The City So Nice They Walked It Twice (July 29, 2015)
New Yorker: The Men Walking Every Block in New York City (Video)

Curiosities of Paris

"This absorbing compendium is an essential addition to the library of the armchair traveler and flâneur alike. Lavishly illustrated with 800 color photographs, this fact-packed treasury leads the reader on a scavenger hunt through the streets of Paris, pointing out overlooked architectural details and structures that once served a useful everyday purpose but whose functions have been obscured by the passage of time. ... Organized by subject—fountains and wells; centuries-old shop signs; vestiges of wars and ancient Egypt; hotels of legend; civic measurement devices; traces of rites and superstitions; remarkable trees; sundials and meridians; equestrian Paris; romantic ruins; unusual tombs, stairways, and passageways; religious relics; mosaics; public barometers and thermometers; and more—this delightful guide deepens the reader’s knowledge and appreciation of Paris through the centuries. ..."
The Little Bookroom
Paris: our Top 10 Curiosities
amazon

2013 October: Flâneur, 2017 January: Lessons in Flânerie: The Fine Art of People-Watching in Paris

Film Forum

"Film Forum began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Karen Cooper became director in 1972 and under her leadership, Film Forum moved downtown to the Vandam Theater in 1975. In 1980, Cooper led the construction of a twin cinema on Watts Street. In 1989, when the Watts Street cinema was demolished by developers, Film Forum’s current Houston Street cinema was built at a cost of $3.2 million. ... We present two distinct, complementary film programs – NYC theatrical premieres of American independents and foreign art films, programmed by Cooper and Mike Maggiore; and, since 1987, repertory selections including foreign and American classics, genre works, festivals and directors’ retrospectives, programmed by Bruce Goldstein. ..."
Film Forum
W - Film Forum

Negro National League (1920–31)

The 1928 Negro National League champion St. Louis Stars
Wikipedia - "The Negro National League (NNL) was one of the several Negro leagues which were established during the period in the United States in which organized baseball was segregated. Led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the NNL was established on February 13, 1920 by a coalition of team owners at a meeting in a Kansas City YMCA. The new league was the first African-American baseball circuit to achieve stability and last more than one season. ... The war between the two leagues came to an end in 1924, when they agreed to respect each other's contracts and arranged for the Colored World Series between their champions. ... The NNL survived controversies over umpiring, scheduling, and what some perceived as league president Rube Foster's disproportionate influence and favoritism toward his own team. ... The NNL finally fell apart in 1931 under the economic stress of the Great Depression. ..."
Wikipedia
The Negro National League is Founded
the founding of the negro national league, 1920
Rube Foster - The Negro National League
YouTube: Negro League History, Negro Baseball League

Fans waiting in line to enter an unidentified stadium for a Negro League game.

The Subterraneans - Jack Kerouac (1958)

Wikipedia - "The Subterraneans is a 1958 novella by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. It is a semi-fictional account of his short romance with a black woman named Alene Lee (1931-1991) in New York's Greenwich Village, 1953. In the novella, Kerouac moved the story to San Francisco and renamed Alene Lee 'Mardou Fox'. She is described as a carefree spirit who frequents the jazz clubs and bars of the budding Beat scene of San Francisco. Other well-known personalities and friends from the author's life also appear thinly disguised in the novel. The character Frank Carmody is based on William S. Burroughs, and Adam Moorad on Allen Ginsberg. Even Gore Vidal appears as successful novelist Arial Lavalina. Kerouac's alter ego is named Leo Percepied, and his long-time rival Neal Cassady is mentioned only in passing as Leroy. ..."
Wikipedia
Pseudo-Intellectual Reviews
NY Times: The Subterraneans (February 23, 1956)
NY Times: 'Subterraneans':Kerouac's World of the Beatniks on View (July 7, 1960)
Archive: The Subterraneans (1960)

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), 2017 February: The Jack Kerouac Collection (1990).

James Comey’s Conspicuous Independence

"On Tuesday, when Donald Trump abruptly dismissed the F.B.I. director, James Comey, his Administration insisted that he was merely following the recommendation of his Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, the two most senior officials in the Justice Department. ... In a three-page memorandum attached to Comey’s termination letter, the Deputy Attorney General, Rod J. Rosenstein, cited concern for the F.B.I.’s 'reputation and credibility.' He said that the director had defied Justice Department policies and traditions and overstepped his authority in the way he handled the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation. ... In the aftermath of Comey’s firing, Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have proposed a far more credible explanation for Trump’s action, accusing the President of trying to halt the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian interference in the election and possible collusion with his campaign. Some of those legislators, as well as many critics in the press, have said that Trump has ignited a constitutional crisis, and they called for the appointment of an independent prosecutor to carry out the Russia investigation. ..."
New Yorker
New Yorker: Donald Trump’s Firing of James Comey Is an Attack on American Democracy
NY Times: Trump Warns Comey and Says He May Cancel Press Briefings (Video)
NY Times: The Events That Led Up to Comey’s Firing,
and How the White House’s Story Changed
NY Times: The Opinion Pages | The Trump-Russia Nexus
New Yorker: In Trump, Echoes of Nixon’s Constitutional Crisis

Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre - By Jonathan Schell (November 12, 1973)
"Sixteen months ago, five men (in case anyone hasn’t heard) were caught in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee carrying wiretapping equipment. Whom could they have been working for? The country awaited evidence. In one man’s pocket were consecutively numbered hundred-dollar bills that were soon traced to the Committee to Re-elect the President. In another man’s pockets was a notebook that contained the entry 'W.House.' One of the men turned out to be the chief of security for the Committee. It became known that a Committee counsel had planned their action. Could it have been the Committee to Re-elect the President that the men were working for? The President said he thought not. The F.B.I. thought not. The Criminal Division of the Justice Department thought not. And the public thought not. Six months passed. The men were indicted and convicted. ..."
New Yorker

John Cage Meets Sun Ra - A Modern Harmonic Industrial Film Short (1989)

"Modern Harmonic are to reissue a rare Sun Ra/John Cage recording documenting the pair’s historic encounter in June 1986, when they were brought together for a one-off concert at Sideshows By The Sea in Coney Island. Meltdown Records recorded it and released an LP of unedited concert segments the following year. Much sought after by collectors, a copy of the original LP is currently up for sale on discogs at a price just shy of £90. Described as 'full of dissonant electronics, astral flourishes, vocal experimentations and, as you’d expect from Cage, moments of profound silence', John Cage Meets Sun Ra has been remastered and expanded to a double LP for this reissue, adding 25 minutes of material to capture the full concert, as opposed to the original album’s edited version. Jazz writer and The Wire contributor Howard Mandel was in the audience and saw it happen. He contributes sleevenotes to the new edition."
The Wire
Cage, John Meets Sun Ra - The Complete Concert - CD (Video)
Pitchfork
amazon
YouTube: John Cage Meets Sun Ra - A Modern Harmonic Industrial Film Short, John Cage Meets Sun Ra - June 8th 1986 - CD or 2LP Clear Vinyl

"Caroline, No" - Brian Wilson and Tony Asher (1966)

Wikipedia - "'Caroline, No' is a song written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. It marked Wilson's solo debut when released as a single in March 1966, peaking at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. ... Wilson compared the song to the music of Glenn Miller and the song 'Hey Girl' (1963) as recorded by Freddie Scott, claiming that 'Caroline, No' wasn't written about anyone in specific. On another occasion, he credited the song's inspiration to an unrequited love interest from high school who happened to be named Carol. Asher had also been acquainted with a different girl named Carol; they had recently broken up when the song was written. After Wilson produced his recording, he sped it up by one semi-tone to make his voice sound younger. When the song reappeared on Pet Sounds, he added recordings of his two dogs barking and a passing train, which close the LP. ..."
Wikipedia
Psyched Master
Genius (Video)
YouTube: "Caroline, No", "Caroline, No" (a cappella)

2010 July: Pet Sounds, 2013 October: The Pet Sounds Sessions, 2016 July: Enter Brian Wilson’s Creative Process While Making The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds 50 Years Ago: A Fly-on-the Wall View

Islamic and Arab art institute opening in New York aims to challenge stereotypes

'We will do everything in our capacity to see our culture is represented and open up a cross-cultural dialogue with New York City,’ says Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani.
"Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani noticed something missing in New York City’s cultural institutions – there is the Swiss Institute, the Asia Society and the Jewish Museum, but there isn’t anything to represent Arab Muslim artists, until now. Al-Thani, who is part of the ruling family of Qatar, is opening up New York City’s first Institute of Arab and Islamic Art on 4 May. The 2,500 sq ft space will host exhibitions with Muslim and Arab artists, foster interfaith dialogue with public discussions and will be home to a new bookstore. According to Al-Thani, who is the founding director, he wanted to set straight some Muslim stereotypes. ... Even with Islamophobia and Trump’s recent Muslim ban, Al-Thani has been working towards the institute since 2014. One inspiration was Orientalism, a book about Middle Eastern stereotypes written by Palestinian American cultural critic Edward Said in 1978. ..."
Guardian
IAIA: Exhibition 1
Art In America
Institute of Arab and Islamic Art

The Pharoah Sanders Story: In the Beginning 1963-1964

"While the musical benefits Pharoah Sanders enjoyed as the direct result of his association with John Coltrane are indisputable (not to mention the instant high profile he received), it was hardly the beginning of the story. The four-disc The Pharoah Sanders Story: In the Beginning 1963-1964 may not be, either, but until we get earlier material, this fills out the saxophonist's portrait considerably. Compiled by Sun Ra Archive boss Michael D. Anderson for ESP-Disk, this first CD features two previously unreleased sessions with the Don Cherry Quintet and the Paul Bley Quartet in 1963 and 1964. Along with the music, there are separate archival interviews with all three men. ..."
allmusic
Arkiv Music
Soundhound: The Pharoah Sanders Story: In the Beginning 1963-1964

2015 December: Maleem Mahmoud Ghania With Pharaoh Sanders - The Trance Of Seven Colors (1994), 2016 January: Ptah, The El Daoud - Alice Coltrane & Pharoah Sanders (1970), 2016 November: Tauhid (1967)

verdant press

Jess, detail from Alternative cover for O!, 1959.
"This site started in 2003 [with much thanks to Denise Enck] as a way to catalog the printing and publications of verdant press, and later parenthetical press, then some collaborative work. Since then it has 200501aevolved to focus primarily on the printing and publications of the small and independent presses of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. It started with Cleveland and d.a. levy and has slowly expanded to include San Francisco and to a larger extent California as well as other lesser-known but no less important folks and their work. The site now is meant as a starting point and a checklist for reference, further reading, and research…"
verdant press

I Am Not Your Negro - Raoul Peck (2019)

"James Baldwin was one of the most important voices to document the civil rights movement. Black and gay, he was also one of the sharpest writers of his generation, with the most beautiful prose. Working from Baldwin’s unfinished 30-page manuscript Remember This House, Raoul Peck’s documentary animates his words with Samuel L Jackson’s voice, illustrating them with archive footage of adverts, interviews, newsreels, film clips (mostly from the 1930s, such as Harry Beaumont’s Dance, Fools, Dance and Mervyn LeRoy’s They Won’t Forget) and still photographs of Black Lives Matter protests. In the text, Baldwin describes wanting the lives of his friends and fellow activists Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr to 'bang against each other' as they did before their eventual assassinations. Baldwin’s words feel as urgent and articulate as ever, though Peck’s attempts to link history with present-day race relations feel a little clunky next to the elegance of the text. ..."
Guardian (Video)
NY Times: ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Will Make You Rethink Race (Video)
W - I Am Not Your Negro
NPR: 'I Am Not Your Negro' Gives James Baldwin's Words New Relevance

Matisse in the Studio

Robert Capa
"Henri Matisse—who revolutionized 20th-century art—believed that a treasured group of objects was instrumental to his studio practice. 'Matisse in the Studio' is the first major international exhibition to examine the importance of Matisse’s personal collection of objects, offering unprecedented insight into the great artist’s creativity. See these rare pairings of Matisse’s major works with objects of inspiration in 'Matisse in the Studio' in its only US venue at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Five thematic sections—'The Object Is an Actor,' 'The Nude,' 'The Face,' 'Studio as Theatre,' and 'Essential Forms' — feature a range of works in a variety of media from different points in the artist’s career. Approximately 36 paintings, 26 drawings, 11 bronzes, nine cut-outs, three prints, and an illustrated book by Matisse are showcased alongside about 39 works from his studio collection—many on loan from private collections and publicly exhibited outside of France for the first time. ..."
MFA (Video)
amazon

2011 December: Gauguin Tahiti, 2012 May: Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia, 2014 May: Gauguin: Metamorphoses, 2015 April: Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse: The Art of the Flower, 2016 April: Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse.

A History of Alternative Music Brilliantly Mapped Out on a Transistor Radio Circuit Diagram: 300 Punk, Alt & Indie Artists

"Lumping millions—billions!—of people together arbitrarily by their birthdates sounds ridiculous in the abstract. But when we lump together generations with clusters of pop cultural references, it always seems to give the concept flesh. A certain cohort around the world—ye olde Generation X (though fewer and fewer people probably know where that comes from)—can measure their common sensibilities by a constellation of musical references dating back to the late sixties and forward to the early oughts (whereby the runts of the bunch finally got around to having kids and mostly stopped leaving the house after dinner). ..."
Open Culture
WIRED: Let’s All Obsess Over This Intricate Map of Alt Music History
Alternative Love Blueprint - A History of Alternative Music

Singles Going Steady - Buzzcocks (1979)

"If Never Mind the Bollocks and London Calling are held up as punk masterpieces, then there's no question that Singles Going Steady belongs alongside them. In fact, the slew of astonishing seven-inches collected on Steady and their influence on future musicians - punk or otherwise -- sometimes even betters more famous efforts. The title and artwork alone (the latter itself partially inspired by the Beatles' Let it Be) have been parodied or referred to by Halo of Flies and Don Caballero, which titled its own singles comp Singles Breaking Up. As for the music, anybody who ever combined full-blast rock, catchy melodies and romantic and social anxieties owes something to what the classic quartet did here. The deservedly well-known masterpiece 'Ever Fallen in Love' appears along with 'Love Bites', 'Just Lust,' but the remaining tracks originally appeared only as individual A and B-sides, making this collection all the more essential. ..."
allmusic
W - Singles Going Steady
BBC: Singles Going Steady Review
Genius (Video)
YouTube: Singles Going Steady (Full Album) 1:15:38

Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe

"From Paris to Venice to Rome, Europe’s most iconic cities have played host to magnificent ceremonies and dramatic events—and artists have been there to record them. During the eighteenth century, princes, popes, and ambassadors commissioned master painters such as Canaletto and Panini to record memorable moments, from the Venetian carnival to eruptions of Vesuvius, inspiring what became the golden age of view paintings. This first exhibition focusing on views of historic events includes more than 40 works, many never seen before in the U.S. These paintings turn the viewer into an eyewitness on the scene, bringing the spectacle and drama of history to life."
The Getty
NY Times: ‘Eyewitness Views,’ at the Getty in Los Angeles, Illustrates History
The Getty: Book

Blanche Thomas

"Blanche Thomas was a very, very great blues singer who performed primarily with New Orleans traditional jazz groups. She played with many of the greats who would later make their names in the Preservation Hall scene. This LP Am I Blue, was released on the Nobility label, a small New Orleans label that put out many great traditional local jazz before the days of Preservation Hall. Blanche Thomas, for some reason, hasn't achieved the acclaim of a few other local singers, which is a pity. With her deep, resonant and throaty voice and great stage presence, she rightfully made a big hit with the audience. Blanche Thomas was born October 15, 1922 in Orleans Parish in New Orleans and she grew up singing. Her father, Sam Thomas, was a musician. According to Blanche, in 'the early days', he played bass and trumpet with Kid Howard and Jim Robinson. ..."
Jazz, Blues, Female Vocalists, and more...
Discogs
amazon: Dixieland Hall Presents Blanche Thomas, Am I Blue
YouTube: You Ain't So Such A Much, Papa French & Blanche Thomas --- Bald Headed Beulah, Blanche Thomas w/ Papa French & his New Orleans Jazz Band St. Louis Blues, Am I Blue

Saving the NEA Won’t Save Culture

An arts-inspired sign, painted by artist Panhandle Slim, at the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21.
"On Friday, President Trump signed into law a $1.1 trillion appropriations bill, preventing a government shutdown and bringing to an end months of debate over his controversial budget, intended 'to take an ax to government spending.' Trump’s original proposal threatened dozens of federal institutions with elimination, including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. ... The premiere federal agency for arts funding in the US, the NEA has doled out one hundred thousand grants in its fifty-year existence. It has sent the Martha Graham Dance Company on tour, paid Laurie Anderson to record 'O Superman,' and assisted in the creation of the American Film Institute. It has supplied much-needed funding to K–12 arts education, supported Native American cultural exhibitions, and even helped expectant mothers compose lullabies for their babies. ..."
Jacobin
NY Times: What if Trump Really Does End Money for the Arts?
Here’s What You Can Do To Protect National Arts And Culture Funding
W - National Endowment for the Arts
The Atlantic: Who Should Pay for the Arts in America?

Yves Bonnefoy, The Art of Poetry No. 69

"Yves Bonnefoy works in a tiny apartment in Montmartre, a few steps from where he lives. His windows at the back look over a small garden, one of the few remaining parts of Montemartre that has not been built upon—a huge maple tree shades the building and the rose-covered walls. The apartment is jam-packed with books and tables, the largest of which is the poet’s desk, so crowded that it hides him almost completely from view. A small, worm-eaten statue of Sainte Barbe, 'early seventeenth-century', a Giacometti lithograph of his wife Annette, an oil painting depicting Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Mathilde Mauté (Verlaine’s wife), and photographs of Rimbaud and Baudelaire somehow find space on the walls and in niches among the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. 'I cross the road every morning to try and work here quietly,' he explains. ..."
The Paris Review
amazon: The Arrière-Pays

How Radical Can a Portrait Be?

Rico Gatson’s 'Nina,' from 2007, is on display at the Studio Museum in Harlem as part of 'Icons,' a solo exhibition of the artist’s recent works on paper.
"In March, I went to see the first Biennial to be held at the Whitney’s new building downtown, near the Hudson and the High Line, with an artist friend whom I knew to be the best kind of museum companion—entirely comfortable with splitting up until the end of the visit. We took the elevator together between floors but were otherwise invisible to one another until, after an hour or so, we left the exhibition and started to walk. As we went, my friend expressed his disappointment with the show. It wasn’t that the work was uniquely bad or ill chosen. ..."
New Yorker

Claude Monet, Tulip Fields at Sassenheim (1886)

"In 1886, Monet was invited by a French diplomat to visit Holland’s famous tulip fields. The artist was concerned that the 'poor colors' of modern oil paint might not effectively convey the fields’ vibrant hues. In the foreground of this view, the flowers are painted with thick, parallel strokes of bright red, yellow, violet, and cream, the colors glowing in the sunlight beneath a brilliant blue sky. Sterling Clark bought the work directly from the private collection of Monet’s dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, in 1933."
Clark Art

Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Afrika 70 - Yellow Fever (1976)

"... Yellow Fever was the nickname Lagosians gave to traffic wardens, and Kuti borrowed the expression to describe and decry the fashion among Nigerian women for skin-whitening creams. The song is about cultural identity. Kuti cites skin whitening as an example of the post-colonial, cultural inferiority complex he believed was holding back the country’s development: skin whitening was not only harmful to beauty and health, it was also damaging to women’s psyches. The lyric addresses women much as 1973’s Gentleman addressed men, urging them to take pride in their own culture rather than aping their recently departed colonial masters. ..."
The Vinyl Factory
Mixcloud: Golden Collection
YouTube: Golden Collection 56:16

Mingus at the Bohemia - Charles Mingus (1955)

Wikipedia - "Mingus at the Bohemia is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded during a live concert at the Café Bohemia on 23 December 1955. Further recordings from the concert were released under the title The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach. ... Mingus at the Bohemia fixed a moment in time where Mingus found his musical identity. The first song, 'Jump, Monk' is a tribute to Thelonious Monk. Mingus tried to simulate with his bass play the dance like movements of the great musician. This composition is described by Mingus as 'a profile of Monk', not a complete picture of the man but a side view or one aspect of a complex personality. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Café Bohemia
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: Mingus at the Bohemia 1:04:43

The Alternative Facts of Samuel Beckett’s “Watt”

"In the summer of 1942, Samuel Beckett and his partner Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil fled their apartment in the German-occupied city of Paris. After more than a month on the run, including stints sleeping in parks and hiding in trees from Nazi patrols, they wound up in the town of Roussillon d’Apt, in the unoccupied zone. The couple had reason to fear for their lives. In Paris, both had been active members of a Resistance cell known as Gloria, which was compromised by the Nazis. Numerous members of the cell were arrested by the Gestapo, including Beckett’s close friend Alfred Péron, who was interrogated and eventually sent to Mauthausen concentration camp, in Austria. He died two days after the camp was liberated, in 1945. ..."
New Yorker
The Atlantic - 'You Begin to Breathe Again': Samuel Beckett's Humor as a Coping Mechanism
W - “Watt”
NY Times: One Man's Universe (January 21, 1959)
[PDF] Watt

2009 November: Samuel Beckett, 2010 April: A Piece of Monologue, 2011 June: Film (1965) - UbuWeb, 2012 March: “fathoms from anywhere”, 2017 April: Krapp's Last Tape (1957)

As French Elections Nears, So Does a Step Into the Unknown

"France’s presidential election on Sunday has already broken all kinds of barriers in a country whose politics seemed frozen for decades. The two candidates are outsiders. The political establishment has been elbowed aside. The tone of the race between the insurgents has shocked many for its raw anger and insolence. Then, barely an hour before the official close of campaigning at midnight Friday, the staff of the presumed front-runner, Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, announced that his campaign had been the target of a 'massive and coordinated' hacking operation. Internal emails and other documents, some real, some fake, according to the campaign, were posted on 4chan, an online message board favored by white nationalists, in an apparent effort to aid his rival, Marine Le Pen, 48, the far-right leader. ..."
NY Times
NY Times: U.S. Far-Right Activists Promote Hacking Attack Against Macron
**NY Times: Macron, Well Ahead of Le Pen, Is Poised to Be President of France
**NY Times: Results of the French Presidential Election
**Jacobin: X-Ray of a Shattered Vote


2017 February: France, Without a Struggle, Is at a Loss, 2017 April: France Rebels, 2017 April: How the Election Split France

Bert Jansch - Avocet (1979)

"1979 might not initially appear to be a vintage year for Bert Jansch, the perennially influential and innovative acoustic guitarist and proponent of the complex, counterpoint-heavy guitar style known as folk baroque. It was over a decade since he'd made a name for himself as a Beat-influenced troubadour and progenitor of fiery folk-jazz hybrids as a member of Pentangle, and though still loved by a coterie of musicians and journalists unaffected by the politically-charged trad scene of the time, he was struggling to maintain a career as a performing artist. Though it was at this time that he released Avocet, an ornithologically-themed instrumental album centred around one side-long composition. Now lovingly released by Earth Recordings, this album sees Jansch at the height of his compositional powers. ..."
The Quietue
W - Avocet
amazon
YouTube: Avocet 36:22

April 2010: Bert Jansch, 2011 October: Bert Jansch (November 1943 – October 2011), 2014 February: Bert Jansch / John Renbourn - Bert & John (1966), 2014 May: L.A. Turnaround (1974), 2016 February: Don't You Be Afraid To Lie By Me: The Strange World Of... Bert Jansch

The Trumpcare Disaster

Protesters watched on Thursday as Republican members of the House started to head by bus to the White House to celebrate their passage of a health care bill.
"The House speaker, Paul Ryan, and other Republicans falsely accused Democrats of rushing the Affordable Care Act through Congress. On Thursday, in a display of breathtaking hypocrisy, House Republicans — without holding any hearings or giving the Congressional Budget Office time to do an analysis — passed a bill that would strip at least 24 million Americans of health insurance. Pushed by President Trump to repeal the A.C.A., or Obamacare, so he could claim a legislative win, Mr. Ryan and his lieutenants browbeat and cajoled members of their caucus to pass the bill. Groups representing doctors, hospitals, nurses, older people and people with illnesses like cancer opposed the bill. ..."
NY Times
Common Dreams - 'God Have Mercy on Your Souls': GOP Passes Cruel, Destructive Trumpcare Bill
NY Times: House Passes Measure to Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care Act (Video)
‘Unspinnably dumb’: GOP strategist explains why Trumpcare 3.0 is an unprecedented political disaster
NY Times: Who Wins and Who Loses in the Latest G.O.P. Health Care Bill
NY Times: The New Study That Shows Trumpcare’s Damage

New Left

Wikipedia - "The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of educators, agitators and others who sought to implement a broad range of reforms on issues such as civil rights, gay rights, abortion, gender roles, and drugs, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist approach to social justice and focused mostly on labor unionization and questions of social class. Sections of the New Left rejected involvement with the labor movement and Marxism's historical theory of class struggle, although others gravitated to variants of Marxism like Maoism. In the United States, the movement was associated with the hippie movement and anti-war college-campus protest movements including the Free Speech Movement. In Australia, the New Left was engaged in debates concerning the legitimacy of Heterodox economics and political economy in tertiary education. ..."
Wikipedia
Guardian - A life in politics: New Left Review at 50
Discover the Networks
A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEW LEFT REVIEW 1960-2010

 Racist taunts stir up ancient pains in Boston

"Racism is a wound that’s difficult to cauterize even though it already burns. Just when Boston felt it had gotten the bleeding under control, the wound has been re-opened, gushing disappointment, anger, disbelief, and defensiveness. The news that Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones was subjected to racial epithets at Fenway Park on Monday during the Orioles 5-2 victory over the Red Sox put a city with a checkered racial past — on and off the field — back on the defensive. That’s the problem. The immediate reaction of some folks at Jones saying he was 'called the N-word a handful of times' at Friendly Fenway was to demand proof. There was a sense of fatigue that racism remained an issue that had to be dealt with and seething that an entire people could be painted in a derogatory fashion with such a broad brush. Welcome to the world of anyone who has ever been discriminated against. That’s exactly how those on the receiving end of racist taunts feel. It doesn’t feel good, does it, Boston? ..."
Boston Globe
The Nation:  MLB and Boston Sports Fans Have to Stand Up to Racism in the Stands
The Guardian: Some Red Sox fans just don't know Boston's racist history (Video)
WBZW: Boston sports struggle with perception built on racist past
NY Daily News: Orioles’ Adam Jones says Red Sox fans called him N-word, threw bag of peanuts at him
What Happened to Adam Jones Isn’t Just a Boston Problem
NY Times: Red Sox Fans Give Adam Jones a Standing Ovation at Fenway
USA Today: Orioles' Adam Jones berated by racist taunts at Fenway Park (Video)
YouTube: Adam Jones discusses racists taunts by Red Sox fans at Fenway Park

2017 April: Baseball color line

P-Funk mythology

Wikipedia - "The P-Funk mythology is a group of recurring characters, themes, and ideas primarily contained in the output of George Clinton's bands Parliament and Funkadelic. This 'funkology' was outlined in album liner notes and song lyrics, in addition to album artwork, costumes, advertisements, and stage banter. P-Funk's 'Dr. Seussian afrofunk' is often cited as a critical component of the Afrofuturism movement. Main article: Parliament-FunkadelicGeorge Clinton's space-age mythology began to emerge with the release of Funkadelic's self-titled debut album in 1970. Later that same year, Parliament released their debut album Osmium. Clinton's cosmology was largely absent from the latter release, and it took longer to blossom in Parliament's output. Generally speaking, Parliament was a dance-oriented band, while Funkadelic was more serious and psychedelic. ..."
Wikipedia
Can You Get to That? The Cosmology of P-Funk (Video)
Funk Folks! (George Clinton's Characters & Mythology of P-Funk) (Video)
The Mothership Connection: Mythscape and Unity in the Music of Parliament

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, 2015 July: Playing The (Baker's) Dozens: George Clinton's Favourite Albums, 2015 August: Chocolate City (1975), 2016 February: Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971), 2016 June: P-Funk All Stars - Urban Dancefloor Guerillas (1983), 2017 March: Up for the Down Stroke - Parliament (1974).

Meredith Monk - Piano Songs (2014)

"Meredith Monk's Piano Songs consists of pieces or other material dating from 1971 to 2006, originally composed for voice or conceived with aspects of song at their core. Yet writing for two pianos presented Monk with many possibilities, and she didn't always rely on song structure as her model. This ECM New Series release by Ursula Oppens and Bruce Brubaker shows how strongly Monk was influenced by the minimalism of the 1970s, because the kinetic patterns of Obsolete Objects, Folkdance, Tower, Railroad, Window in 7's, and Totentanz create their content and define the form. Even such song-like pieces as Ellis Island, Urban March, Paris, and Parlour Games have active patterns that move the music along, though at a more moderate pace. ..."
allmusic
W - Piano Songs
amazon
YouTube: Piano Songs (full album) 47:08

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), 2017 February: Book of Days (1988).

Skeleton Crew - Learn to Talk / Country of Blinds (1990)

Wikipedia - "Learn to Talk / Country of Blinds is a CD compilation album by United States experimental rock and jazz band Skeleton Crew. It was released by RecRec Music in 1990 and comprises the band's two studio albums, Learn to Talk and The Country of Blinds, with two tracks omitted from the former album, and one track omitted from the latter. In 2005 Fred Records reissued the compilation on a double CD, omitting only one track from The Country of Blinds, and adding ten live tracks taken from the band's North American and European tours, nine of which were previously unreleased. This reissue was dedicated by Fred Frith to Tom Cora, who died in 1998: 'Dedicated to the memory of Tom Cora – dear friend, master musician and enthusiastic co-conspirator.' ..."
Wikipedia
ReR
All About Jazz
amazon
YouTube: The Hand That Bites, Sparrow Song, Que Viva/ Onward and Upwards, Los Colitos/ Life At The Top, We're Still Free, It's Fine, The Border, Killing Time

The San Francisco Earthquake

The San Francisco Earthquake, vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1967). Cover collage by Norman O. Mustill.
"We should have named it Earthquake, plain and simple. But we were in love with San Francisco, with the city as it was then in the mid-1960s. It’s not for nothing that the first issue, published in the fall of 1967, began with a swooning LSD-flavored prose poem, 'First Evening in San Francisco.' The poet was a New Yorker, though: Jim Brodey. The second poem, 'I’m Hunger,' was by Debi Ray. He lived in India. The third piece was an anarchist manifesto, 'Intro to Provo,' by Roel van Duyn. He was Dutch. Experimental texts by William S. Burroughs were the heart and soul of the magazine through the entire run of five issues. Burroughs lived in London. ..."
From a Secret Location
The Summer of Love - Magazine as Seismograph By Jed Birmingham
Jan Herman’s The San Francisco Earthquake and Norse Centennial Update
MEMORIAL FOR MARY, AU REVOIR

Lichtenstein and the Art of Letters

"When I started reading Marvel comic books in the 1970s, I was baffled by the lettering. While it didn’t appear to be typeset, the dialogue, narration, and sound effects looked too perfect to be done solely by hand. I was sure that the letterers must have had some help — maybe a weird mechanical device controlled their fingers as they worked. How else, I thought, could they form the thousands of words in a comic book’s balloons and caption boxes with such precision and consistency? Years later I learned — with some amazement, and a little disappointment — that no strange machines were involved. Letterers typically used a plastic 'Ames Guide,' T-square, and pencil to create reference lines for words inked freehand. Like the artists who drew a comic’s pictures, letterers worked on pages much larger than the book’s printed size. When the original art was photographed and reduced during production, guide lines and other imperfections vanished, leaving behind only the letterer’s calligraphy. ..."
The Comics Journal

2012 July: Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, 2013 December: Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Donates Shunk-Kender Photo Trove

Clea - Lawrence Durrell (1960)

"In Clea (1960) we finally gain a true sequel to the story thus far. Darley narrates again, but a wiser Darley than when last heard from. With the passing of years he has had ample time to reflect; he’s a hermit still, raising the child in comfortable solitude. War is upon the world and it is only with a summons from Nessim that he returns to a much different Alexandria (though still unchanged in the essentials), hoping to at last exorcise its hold over him. Clea’s function in the narrative is as a clearing of the board, an attempt to set in order all the lives flung about by the earlier events. The triumph is not of truth (as Henry James said, 'the whole of anything can never be told') but of pragmatism. It functions as a book-length epilogue – the 'story' and its finale have already been told and retold. This is 200 pages of who gets hitched, who dies and who moves away. With Justine and Mountolive as two impeccable dramatic narratives, Clea pairs off with Balthazar as a series of disconnected sketches meant to fill in the blanks with further guesswork. ..."
Pseudo-Intellectual Reviews
Spoiler, Or, A Reckoning with Sentimental Habits By Way of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet
W - Clea
NY Times

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), 2017 February: Balthazar (1958), 2017 April: Mountolive (1958)