Yearning For Impossible Escape: Sun Ra, Afro-Futurist Godfather

"Born 100 years ago today, though he claimed to have arrived here from the planet Saturn, Sun Ra provoked a range of emotions in his extraordinary lifetime - from anger, indifference, confusion and oblivion, to astonishment, awestruck, cultic devotion and elation. He was, in his own mind, the first black man in outer space decades before they even built rocket ships. Unacknowledged and overlooked, ploughing a lonely cosmic furrow, he blasted open the portals to a notional future for jazz and post-jazz in an era when racist legislation held brutal sway, not least in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabamba."
The Quietus (Video)

Bobby Womack

"A veteran who paid his dues for over a decade before getting his shot at solo stardom, Bobby Womack persevered through tragedy and addiction to emerge as one of soul music's great survivors. Able to shine in the spotlight as a singer or behind the scenes as an instrumentalist and songwriter, Womack never got his due from pop audiences, but during the late '60s and much of the '70s, he was a consistent hitmaker on the R&B charts, with a high standard of quality control. His records were quintessential soul, with a bag of tricks learned from the likes of Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, and Sly Stone, all of whom Womack worked closely with at one time or another. Yet often, they also bore the stamp of Womack's own idiosyncratic personality, whether through a lengthy spoken philosophical monologue or a radical reinterpretation of a pop standard."
allmusic
Wikipedia
Pitchfork: The Bravest Man in the Universe (Video)
YouTube: The Valentinos - It's all over now, The Valentinos - I'm Gonna Forget About You, When the Weekend Comes (live), Forever Love, Tried and Convicted, I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much, If You Think You're Lonely Now, Across 110th Street, I Can Understanding It, Check It Out, Daylight (live)

2013 September: Across 110th Street (1972)

FROM STREET TO ART to Open Tomorrow, June 20, at Italian Cultural Institute of New York with BR1, Agostino Iacurci, Sten&Lex and more

Sten&Lex
"Opening tomorrow evening, June 20, at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, 686 Park Avenue, is an exhibit of artwork by 10 of Italy’s best contemporary artists who, also, maintain a huge presence on the streets. Curated by Simone Pallotta, it is the first collective exhibit of work by Italian street artists here in NYC."
Street Art NYC

Umbrella

Francesco Maglia - Umbrella
Wikipedia - "An umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The word parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain. Often the difference is the material; some parasols are not waterproof. Umbrellas and parasols are primarily hand-held portable devices designed to shield an individual from sun or rain, and are sized for personal use. Today, larger parasols are often used as fixed or semi-fixed devices, used with patio tables or other outdoor furniture, or as points of shade on a sunny beach. The collapsible (or folding) umbrella may have first been used in China and had sliding levers similar to those in use today."
Wikipedia
Francesco Maglia: The Umbrella Maker Of Milan
YouTube: Ombrellificio Maglia

Past and Present: The Evolution of 265 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn

"A look at Brooklyn, then and now. Before Downtown Brooklyn was the shopping mecca of Brooklyn, it was a residential neighborhood. In the 1860s and ‘70s, many of the most commercially developed thoroughfares, like Fulton, Schermerhorn, Livingston and Willoughby were residential. In the mid-19th century, all of these streets were lined with wood framed, and later, masonry row houses. There were even a few free standing homes as well. But as Brooklyn’s commercial core spread out from what is now Dumbo, the homes began to disappear or were renovated to include store fronts. Gage and Tollner, one of Downtown’s most famous restaurants, was once a home."
Brownstoner

Do the Right Thing - Spike Lee (1989)

Wikipedia - "Do the Right Thing is a 1989 American comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee, who also played the part of 'Mookie' in the film. Other members of the cast include Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, and Samuel L. Jackson. It is also notably the feature film debuts of Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. The movie tells the story of a neighborhood's simmering racial tension, which comes to a head and culminates in tragedy on the hottest day of the summer. The film was a commercial success and received numerous accolades and awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Lee for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Supporting Actor for Aiello's portrayal of Sal the pizzeria owner. It is often listed among the greatest films of all time."
Wikipedia
Criterion Collection
Do The Right Thing 25th Anniversary
The Inside Story of Do The Right Thing
Roger Ebert (June 1989)
Rolling Stone (June 1989)
New York (June 1989)
NYT: Spike Lee Tackles Racism In 'Do the Right Thing' (June 1989)
The Atlantic: When Spike Lee Became Scary (Video)
YouTube: DO THE RIGHT THING - Trailer, Fight The Power (Full Version) - Public Enemy, Take 6 ~ Don't Shoot Me, Do The Right Thing - Moe 'n Joe Black

Dark Waters

Marcel Broodthaers, Chère petite soeur (La Tempête), 1972.
"June 12, 2014 - July 26, 2014. Rasheed Araeen, Marcel Broodthaers, David Douard, Jack Goldstein, Édouard Manet, Jean-Luc Moulène, Gabriel Orozco, Tim Rollins & K.O.S., José María Sicilia, Wolfgang Tillmans, Danh Vo, WOLS.
'Reverie begins before a brook’s running water,
the still water of a pond, the unpredictable water of the sea,
it ends in a gloomy water that imparts strange and funerary murmurs.'
Armelle Barguillet-Hauteloire, Proust et le miroir des eaux, Éditions De Paris, 2006."
Galerie - Chantal Crousel

Rockaway! - Janet Cardiff, Adrián Villar Rojas and Patti Smith

"The 'Rockaway!' festival, which kicks off June 29 with a free Patti Smith concert, has announced its slate of exhibits for the summerlong event series. Artists Adrián Villar Rojas and Janet Cardiff will have solo projects featured at Fort TIlden, as will Smith, who has a house on the peninsula. Her large-scale installation, entitled 'The Resilience of the Dreamer,' is inspired by her experience with Hurricane Sandy, according to MoMA PS 1."
Patti Smith Bringing Hurricane-Inspired Bed Exhibit to Rockaway
MoMA PS1’s Rockaway! Festival to Include Janet Cardiff, Patti Smith

Zeppelin Took My Blues Away

"... Those looking to make up their own minds about the relevant issues of musical authorship here can look to Zeppelin Took My Blues Away, an 'illustrated history of copyright indiscretions,' created in trading card format, and featuring clips for the purposes of comparison and contrast. In this post, we have the card and clips documenting the resemblances between 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Taurus,' Randy California’s 1968 song. The series comes to 19 cards in total, including such perhaps excessively Zeppelin-borrowed tunes as Bert Jansch’s 'Blackwaterside', Ritchie Valens’ 'Ohh, My Head,' Willie Dixon’s 'You Need Love,' and Jake Holmes’ 'Dazed and Confused.'”
Open Culture (Video)
Willards Wormholes (Video)

Public Enemy - "Prophets of Rage" (2011)

"In the late 1980s Public Enemy were the biggest rap group on the planet. Their mission: to raise the consciousness of a generation. With a rebellious attitude to match their militant image they sold millions of records preaching pro-black politics to fans of all races, all done through a groundbreaking wall of noise that changed the sound of hip hop. White, middle Americans were outraged, but their kids loved it. Not surprisingly, this confrontational approach attracted controversy. Critics claimed the group themselves were racist, exposing racial divides rather than promoting equality. They were banned from some TV and radio stations and when one member reportedly made anti-Semitic remarks in a newspaper interview the resulting media-storm threatened to end their career. Tensions were running high and arguments within the band ended in violence. Could they keep it together long enough to get their message across?"
BBC
YouTube: Public Enemy "Prophets of Rage"

2009 May: Public Enemy, 2011 July: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 2012 February: Fear of a Black Planet, 2012 August: Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black, 2012 December: A Dozen Pivotal Moments in the 30 Year Career of Public Enemy

Alexander Chen

"Alexander Chen (b. 1981) is a Creative Director at Google Creative Lab in New York. In 2011, Chen launched MTA.ME, which transformed a New York subway map into a string instrument. This personal work led to the conception of the Les Paul Doodle, a Google doodle with generated 5.1 years worth of shared music around the world. Chen continued with a visualization of the Bach Cello Suites based on string physics. In 2012, Chen led the creative team behind the Project Glass concept video and has continued to collaborate closely with the Glass team, both on marketing and the interface design. As a musician, Chen is a violist who has released music under the musical monikers The Consulate General and Boy in Static. Chen is currently living in Brooklyn, NY."
Alexander Chen (Video)

Museum Hours - Jem Cohen (2012)

Wikipedia - "Museum Hours is a 2012 Austrian-American drama film written and directed by Jem Cohen. The film is set in and around Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. When a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads which sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways artworks reflect and shape the world. Vienna, winter. Johan, a guard at the grand Kunsthistorisches Museum encounters Anne, a foreign visitor called to Austria because of a medical emergency. Never having been to Austria and with little money, she wanders the city in limbo, taking the museum as her refuge. Johann, initially wary, offers help, and they're drawn into each other's worlds. Their meeting spark an unexpected series of explorations – of their own lives and the life of the city, and of the way artworks can reflect and shape daily experience."
Wikipedia
Museum Hours (vimeo: Video)
NY Times: Old Masters, Sweet Mysteries
Voice: Museum Hours Makes Art of Waiting
NPR: In Vienna, A Gallery Of Hours That Add Up To Art
Ebertfest: Roger Ebert's Film Festival
Wandering in Vienna: Jem Cohen and the Adventure of Museum Hours
YouTube: Museum Hours Official Trailer 1 (2013), Trailer 2

2014 January: Jem Cohen

In Which We Begin To Roar With Laughter At Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud

"The Crossing Over of Paul Verlaine by Enid Starkie. One day Paul Verlaine at the end of his tether, broke away, feeling that he could not endure the torture any longer. After a quarrel - not more violent than the others, but merely the futile culmination of much previous irritation - he walked out of the house, without any luggage and without saying where he was going. At his cross-examination in Brussels Arthur Rimbaud stated that Verlaine had become angry because he had reproached him with being lazy and treating badly some of their friends."
This Recording

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.

Tellus #26 - Jewel Box (1992)

"Harvestworks’ Artist-In-Residence program allowed edible artists using sound to benefit from a New York professionally equiped studio called Studio PASS, whose technicians in 1992 were Alex Noyes and Brian Karl. This is were the pieces on this CD were conceived, some making full use of the studio facilities (rerecording, sampler), so that the ‘Jewel Box’ of the title might as well be the studio itself."
Continuo
Harvestworks (Video)
UbuWeb: Tellus #26 (Video)

A Book of Glyphs - Edward Sanders

"A Book of Glyphs is a facsimile reproduction of legendary author, musician and Fugs founder Ed Sanders’ first book-length work of glyphs, which he created in Florence, Italy in 2008, using colored pencils and a small sketchbook. Though each piece stands on its own, collectively the 72 glyphs convey, with characteristic humility and humor, many of the themes explored by Sanders over his long and diverse career, including history, myth, activism and pacifism."
Granary Books
amazon
YouTube: Ed Sanders - "Glyphs" Portfolio

Archibald Motley

Nightlife – 1943
Wikipedia - "Archibald John Motley, Junior (October 7, 1891, New Orleans, Louisiana – January 16, 1981, Chicago, Illinois) was an African-American painter. He studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918. He is most famous for his colorful chronicling of the African-American experience during the 1920s and 1930s, and is considered one of the major contributors to the Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, a time in which African American art reached new heights not just in New York but across America. He specialized in portraiture and saw it 'as a means of affirming racial respect and race pride.'”
Wikipedia
Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist (Video)
Area of Design
NEH: Block Party

Bob Dylan - "Oh, Sister", "Tangled Up in Blue" (September 10, 1975)

"Oh, sister, when I come to lie in your arms
You should not treat me like a stranger
Our Father would not like the way that you act
And you must realize the danger

Oh, sister, am I not a brother to you
And one deserving of affection?
And is our purpose not the same on this earth
To love and follow His direction?"
PBS Soundstage WTTW-TV Studios. Chicago, Illinois, USA. "Oh, Sister", "Tangled Up in Blue".
YouTube: time is an ocean but it ends at the shore, you may not see me tomorrow

Insane Record Collections and the People Who Own Them

Joe Bussard
"Photographer Eilon Paz left Israel in 2008 to try his luck in New York. 'It was the worst time to try your luck. It was the beginning of the recession. There were no jobs to be found so I just found myself in record stores spending my money on records and nothing much more than that,' he said. All that time spent around records gave Paz the idea to do a project on the people who collect them. After meeting African record collector and DJ Frank Gossner in Brooklyn, he became introduced to other collectors around the city and started posting photos and stories about them on his blog, Dust and Grooves."
Slate

Effi Briest (1974) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder

"... Although I believe Effi Briest is one of [Rainer Werner] Fassbinder's most intricate masterpieces, as discussed below, in many ways it is also one of his most accessible films. On its most basic level, it features an engrossing melodrama about adultery, albeit one purposefully shorn of histrionics. Set in the closed, repressive Prussian society of the Bismarck era, it shows what happens when seventeen-year-old Effi Briest (Hanna Schygulla, who appeared in twenty of Fassbinder's films), with prodding from her parents, makes an expedient marriage to a rising politician twice her age, Baron Geert von Instetten (Wolfgang Schenck), and later has an affair with the charming Major Crampas (Ulli Lommel)."
Jim's Reviews - The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Wikipedia
NY Times
senses of cinema - Effi Briest: Beyond Adultery
film comment - Fassbinder Adapts: Effi Briest
ZIMBIO: Effi Briest (Video)

2014 May: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Suena Pacífico Mixtape

"This brand new, totally jamming mix of Afro-Colombian music comes to our ears from SoundGoods, the blog of a German DJ/Producer named Wolfram Lange. It primarily features two styles of Afro-Colombian music: Currulao and Chirimía. Accordions chug, drums roll, horns blast, and singers wail. Shake your tail feather to this..."
World Music Productions (Video)
Neo-Griot (Video)

Marina at Midnight: Serpentine Diaries

"At the end of each day of her performance 512 Hours, Marina Abramović closes the door to visitors and records a summary of the past eight hours. Spoken directly to camera, this eloquent and moving record is a testament to 'one of the most difficult things she has ever done.' The short daily films will trace the fluctuations and developments of her performance piece, which begins with an empty space and unlimited possibilities. Marina at Midnight launched on Friday 13 June with The Space, a new creative online platform dedicated to new digital art."
Serpentine Galleries (Video)
The Space (Video)

2010 January: Marina Abramović

Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza

Wikipedia - "Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (also known as The Group or Il Gruppo) was an avant-garde free improvisation group considered the first experimental composers collective. The collective was formed by Italian composer Franco Evangelisti in Rome in 1964. Drawing on jazz, serialism, musique concrete, and other avant-garde techniques developed by contemporary classical music composers such as Luigi Nono and Giacinto Scelsi, the group was dedicated to the development of new music techniques by improvisation, noise-techniques, and anti-musical systems. The group members and frequent guests made use of extended techniques on traditional classical instruments, as well as prepared piano, tape music and electronic music. During the 1970s the music continued to evolve to embrace techniques and genres such as guitar feedback and funk."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Ennio Morricone’s noise ensemble: Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza (Video)
Die Schachte
WFMU: The Quietly Lasting Impact of Ennio Morricone and Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza (Video)
Dusted Magazine (Video)
YouTube: Niente, Schema 1, The Feed-Back, Bali, NIENTE

Terry Riley - Solo piano works, Moscow Conservatory. April 18th, 2000

"Solo piano works, recorded live in Moscow Conservatory on April 18th, 2000. Russian-only release on the Long Arms label. Pieces include: 'Arica', 'Havana Man', 'Negro Hall', 'The Ecstasy', 'Missigono', 'Requiem For Wally'. 'The following pieces appear without any editing of the performance. Large sections of these pieces are improvised and I have attempted to preserve the spontaneity of this special evening by presenting my first concert in Moscow exactly as it was played. I hope in some way my offering of this evenings music reflects the deep respect I hold for the great musical traditions of Russia and the Masters who have reached for the stars before me with their awesome genius.' -- Terry Riley."
Leo Records
YouTube: Moscow Conservatory Solo Piano Concert April 18th, 2000

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).

House of Games (1987)

Wikipedia - "House of Games is David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut. He also wrote the screenplay, based on a story he wrote with Jonathan Katz. The film's cast includes Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, and J. T. Walsh. Margaret Ford (Crouse) is a psychiatrist. She has published a book, Driven: Compulsion and Obsession in Everyday Life, which has made her financially well off. One day, she's in a session with Billy, a compulsive gambler who informs her that his life is in danger. He owes $25,000 to a criminal figure — money he doesn't have — and if he doesn't pay, he will be killed. Margaret visits a pool hall and bar called the House of Games and confronts the man Billy owes, Mike (Mantegna). After a brief conversation, Margaret sizes Mike up as a tough talker, but not a violent gangster. Mike reveals that Billy's debt is only eight hundred dollars. He is willing to forgive the debt if Margaret accompanies him to a high-stakes poker game as his girlfriend, using her to help spot the tell of another gambler (Jay)."
Wikipedia
Roger Ebert
YouTube: House of Games (David Mamet, 1987) Theatrical Trailer, Short Con - Western Union Scene

Lou Reed - The Bells (1979)

Lester Bangs: "... The Bells isn't merely Lou Reed's best solo LP, it's great art. Everybody made a fuss over Street Hassle, but too many reviewers overlooked the fact that it was basically a sound album: brilliant layers of live and studio work in a deep wash of bass-obsessive noise. Most of the songs were old, and not very good, with a lot of the same old cheap shots. The first indication that we've got something very different here is the no-bullshit cover art; the second, a cursory listening to the lyrics. Immediately, one notes the absence of mirror shades, needles and S&M. Lou Reed is walking naked for once, in a way that invites comparison with people like Charles Mingus, the Van Morrison of 'T.B. Sheets' and Astral Weeks, and the Rolling Stones of Exile on Main Street."
Rolling Stone
W - The Bells
allmusic
YouTube: The Bells 40:59

2010 August: Heroin, 2011 June: All Tomorrow's Parties - The Velvet Underground, 2011 June: The Velvet Underground, 2012 November: Songs for Drella - Lou Reed and John Cale, 2013 October: Lou Reed (1942 - 2013)

Pizza

Wikipedia - "Pizza ... is an oven-baked flat bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings. The modern pizza was invented in Naples, Italy, and the dish has since become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a 'pizzeria'. Many varieties of pizza exist worldwide, along with several dish variants based upon pizza. Pizza is cooked in various types of ovens, and a diverse variety of ingredients and toppings are utilized. In 2009, upon Italy's request, Neapolitan pizza was safeguarded in the European Union as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed dish."
Wikipedia

Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948–1988

"The Museum of Modern Art presents a major retrospective devoted to the art of Lygia Clark (Brazilian, 1920–1988), the first comprehensive exhibition in North America of her work. Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948–1988 comprises nearly 300 works made between the late 1940s and her death in 1988. Drawn from public and private collections, including MoMA’s own, this survey is organized around three key themes: abstraction, Neo-Concretism, and the 'abandonment' of art."
MoMA
YouTube: Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948 - 1988, Lygia Clark
The Brooklyn Rail
W - Lygia Clark
NY Times: See Me. Feel Me. Maybe Drool on Me., Pensamento Mudo

Gospel According to Al Green (1984)

"LEAD: ONE night after a concert at Disneyland, the soul singer Al Green had a conversion experience. He woke up in his hotel room, feeling as he never had before or since, shouting 'Hallelujah!' Over the next two years, he vacillated between what he calls 'a million-dollar career' and his calling to sing gospel music. One night after a concert at Disneyland, the soul singer Al Green had a conversion experience. He woke up in his hotel room, feeling as he never had before or since, shouting 'Hallelujah!' Over the next two years, he vacillated between what he calls 'a million-dollar career' and his calling to sing gospel music. After a spurned lover dumped boiling grits on him and then shot herself, Mr. Green bought himself the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, gave up his secular love songs and turned to the gospel full-time."
NY Times
YouTube: Gospel According To Al Green 1987 1:35:37

July 2008: Wikipedia, Al Green, 2011 April: Al Green

Alfredo Jaar

Wikipedia - "Alfredo Jaar (born 1956) is a Chilean-born artist, architect, and filmmaker who lives in New York. He was born in 1956 in Santiago de Chile. From age 5 to 16, he lived in Martinique before moving back to Chile. He is mostly known as an installation artist, often incorporating photography and covering socio-political issues and war - the best known perhaps being the 6-year long The Rwanda Project about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He has also made numerous public intervention works, like The Skoghall Konsthall one-day paper museum in Sweden, an early electronic billboard intervention A Logo For America, and The Cloud, a performance project on both sides of the Mexico-USA border."
Wikipedia
Alfredo Jaar
PBS 21 (Video)
Park of the Laments (Video)
Louisiana (Video)
YouTube: Focus on: Alfredo Jaar 31:26, Alfredo Jaar, The Silence of Nduwayezu

2013 June: Pavilion of Chile

Paris/Berlin: 20 Years of Underground

"Almost two years after the release, the music documentary Paris/Berlin: 20 Years of Underground Techno celebrates its success of continuously reaching out to the new audience worldwide with the soundtrack LP featuring selected 8 tracks that accompanied hypnotic and explosive scenes and footages from the documentary capturing the goose bump inducing techno moments where you "let yourself go, in the environment where nobody cares where you come from or who you are," to borrow Kareem's words from his interview in Paris/Berlin."
Cargo Collective (Video)
Paris/Berlin: 20 Years of Underground Techno with Amélie Ravalec and Adam X (Interview)
vimeo: Paris / Berlin : 20 Years of Underground Techno // Official Trailer

Hand Me Down Blues: Chicago Style (1990)

"This amazing collection of early 50's Chicago blues features some of the toughest, most uncompromising sounds ever waxed on shellac. Albert King, John Brim, Henry Gray and Sunnyland Slim with some of the cream of Chicago sidemen...from Snooky Pryor and Eddie Taylor to Walter Horton and Floyd Jones. This cd also features four sides by gritty harp man Dusty Brown and an unknown session from Henry Gray. It gets no better than this my friends."
Bluebeat Music
amazon
allmusic
YouTube: Albert King - Little Boy Blue (1953), Henry Gray - Watch Yourself, Snooky Pryor - Crosstown Blues, Little Willie Foster - Four Day Jump, John Brim - Gary Stomp, Sunnyland Slim - The Devil Is A Busy Man, Dusty Brown - He don't love you

RAW Magazine

Wikipedia - "Raw was a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly and published by Mouly from 1980 to 1991. It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb's visceral Weirdo, which followed squarely in the underground tradition of Zap and Arcade. Along with the more genre-oriented Heavy Metal it was also one of the main venues for European comics in the United States in its day."
Wikipedia
RAW materal: Charles Burns, Sub Pop & Spiegelman
amazon: Read Yourself Raw
YouTube: Art Spiegelman y Françoise Mouly sobre RAW

2009 September: Art Spiegelman, Francoise Mouly, 2010 February: Art Spiegelman, 2013 November: Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix: A Retrospective.

Somebody Nailer My Dress To the Wall. A Glimpse Into The Work of Pina Bausch By Randolyn Zinn

Bandoneon
"... As an example of her innovations, take the astonishing first moment of Palermo, Palermo as witnessed by some of us at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in September of 1991. Spanning the width of the Harvey Theater’s stage, an imposing 30-foot high gray wall of concrete blocks faced us, silent and still, as we waited in the darkened house for the piece to begin. We expected an entrance, an overture, something…and we thought our eyes were playing tricks on us when it seemed that the solid wall appeared to be tipping forward from the top. All of a sudden, in arguably one of the most astonishing opening cues in the history of theatre, the enormous wall smashed to the floor, whereupon the performers entered to dance through the rubble."
3QuarksDaily

2008 May: Pina Bausch, 2009 June: Pina Bausch 1940-2009, 2012 August: Pina Bausch Costumes.

Kentile Floors Sign, a Stalwart Remnant of a Grittier Brooklyn, Will Get a New Home

"It is confirmed: The Kentile Floors sign in Brooklyn is coming down. But the majestic 50-year-old icon will be saved, said City Councilman Brad Lander, who helped broker the deal. And it will be reinstalled nearby. The owner of the warehouse building beneath the sign, Elyahu Cohen, has agreed to donate it to a neighborhood nonprofit group, the Gowanus Alliance, which will find a new home for it. The sign has been the subject of a sudden preservation campaign since news of its possible demolition broke last week."
NY Times
NY Times: Vestige of Bygone Era Endures Time, and Talk of Its Demise
Kentile Floors Sign Will Be Relocated!
YouTube: Brooklyn's Iconic sign Kentile Floors Circa 1949, Kentile Floors

The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope (197

"For their second album, the Clash worked with the American hard rock producer Sandy Pearlman, best-known for his work with Blue Öyster Cult and the Dictators. The teaming was quite controversial within the punk community, and the sound of Give 'Em Enough Rope is considerably cleaner, yet the more direct sound hardly tamed the Clash. While the record doesn't burn with the same intense, amateurish energy of The Clash, it does have a big, forceful sound that is nearly as powerful. What keeps Give 'Em Enough Rope from being a classic is its slightly inconsistent material. Many of the songs are outright classics, particularly the first half of the record ('Safe European Home,' 'English Civil War,' 'Tommy Gun,' 'Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad') and 'Stay Free,' but the group loses some momentum toward the end of the record. Even with such flaws, Give 'Em Enough Rope ranks as one of the strongest albums of the punk era."
allmusic
W - Give 'Em Enough Rope
W - "English Civil War" (song)
Today: The Clash released Give ‘Em Enough Rope in 1978 (Video - Live)
YouTube: Give'em Enough Rope 1978 (Full Album)

Icy and Sot Take NYC to Tehran and Bring Tehran to NYC

CK1 in NYC
"Opening Friday evening are two concurrent exhibits curated by Icy and Sot. Artworks of 35 NYC street artists will be on exhibit in Tehran, while we New Yorkers will be treated to a gallery show of 10 Iranian artists at 58 South Sixth Street in Brooklyn through Monday. Here is a sampling from this groundbreaking cultural exchange..."
Street NYC
Imagination In Space

Holger Czukay - Der Osten Ist Rot, Rome Remains Rome (1984/7)

"Former Can bassist Holger Czukay is reissuing a selection of songs from two of his albums, 1984's Der Osten Ist Rot and 1987's Rome Remains Rome, via Groenland Records on July 18. The release also features previously unheard remix versions and will be available as a double 10" vinyl, in triple gatefold with a poster, as well as digitally. Stream 'Sudetenland' from Der Osten ist Rot below. The album features instrumental contributions from Can bandmate Jaki Liebezeit on drums, trumpet, keys and percussion. Legendary producer Conny Plank also plays synthesiser while experimental bassist and ex-PiL member Jah Wobble lays down his frequencies on Rome Remains Rome."
The Quietus (Video)
allmusic
YouTube: Photo Song, Blessed Easter, Perfect world, Der Osten Ist Rot (the east is red)

2011 February: Plight & Premonition, 2011 June: Persian Love, 2013 October: Flux + Mutability - David Sylvian and Holger Czukay (1989) .

Sean Scully

Red Merida 2002
"Timothy Taylor Gallery is proud to announce a presentation of ambitious new paintings by Sean Scully. This is the artist’s eighth solo show with the gallery and the first opportunity to view new work in London since 2010. ... Monumental in scale, the works featured in this exhibition demonstrate a mature confidence and unwavering drive for experimentation. Indeed the focal point of the show, Kind of Red, 2013, a powerful five-panel installation on aluminium, is unlike any work previously made by the artist. Music, particularly jazz, has always played an inspirational part in Scully’s practice and Kind of Red references the seminal 1959 Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, which Scully absorbed while making these paintings in his German studio."
Sean Scully: Kind of Red at Timothy Taylor Gallery
Timothy Taylor Gallery
Sean Scully
YouTube: Sean Scully, SEAN SCULLY: PAINTING 34:17, SEAN SCULLY: THINGS OF LIFE, ARTISTS' JOURNEYS: SEAN SCULLY ON HENRI MATISSE 40:34

Industrial Soundtrack For The Urban Decay

"When we first heard about Industrial Soundtrack For The Urban Decay, the upcoming documentary about industrial music and its origins, it struck us as relevant for a death metal site. In the landscape of popular music, there are obvious 'pop' genres on the surface next to accepted forms like jazz and classical, but underneath that are the surly and dangerous types of music that are underground because they don’t place nice with the contemporary mythos and ideology of our society. That group includes metal, hardcore punk (not pop punk, which belongs under rock/pop) and industrial. These genres just refuse to play by the same rules as everyone else who wants mainstream acceptance, mainly because they flirt with or outright endorse ideas that the mainstream has decided are unpalatable."
Death Metal Underground
vimeo: Industrial Soundtrack For The Urban Decay // Official Trailer
INDUSTRIAL SOUNDTRACK FOR THE URBAN DECAY (Video)
Destroy//Exist: Amélie Ravalec - The opiate of the masses (Video)

James Bridle - Dronestagram

"Dronestagram has received much ongoing attention online, gathering thousands of followers across each network in its first week. It has been featured by English-language and foreign media including the Verge, New Statesman, Wired, Vice, the Guardian (online and in print), the Atlantic, the Daily Mail, Russia Television (RT) and many others."
STML Portfolio
James Bridle - Dronestagram
Instagram
Dronestagram: The Drone’s-Eye View
Dronestagram: Artist James Bridle Captures Aerial Snapshots Of Drone Strike Locations (PHOTOS)
vimeo: Artist Talk: James Bridle Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Video: Unseen War

King Sunny Ade - Classics, Vol. 1: Let Them Say/Edide (2001)

"To sow the seeds of confusion, the Edide album here is not the same as the E Dide that was issued in the West in 1995 (in fact, there's no date on it). It is, however, paired with 1986's Let Them Say for a strong groove fest, especially on the title cut and 'Bami Wa Solution.' With a total of 16 cuts, nothing goes on too long, so the band doesn't have the chance to stretch out that it really needs. But there's still plenty of incisive guitar work from King Sunny Ade himself, and the percussion percolates and simmers throughout, with plenty of juju call-and-response phrasing in the songs. While these reissues are wonderful in general, and certainly do a service to those in the West who never had a chance to own the Nigerian originals, a little more thought would have been appreciated, both in the way LPs were juxtaposed on CD and to information in the liner notes."
allmusic
YouTube: Classics Volume 1: (Let Them Say & Edide) 56:06

2009 August: King Sunny Ade, 2012 January: Live Video: The Best Ambiance 25th Anniversary with King Sunny Ade.

The 5 Essential Rules of Film Noir

"Film Noir. When you think that phrase, the mind is immediately drawn to images of leggy ice queens, rumbled losers in fedoras, guns, neon and certain deadpan cynicism. Film Noir wasn’t a self conscious movement in the way the French New Wave was. It wasn’t a brand name like a Marvel superhero epic. But it did tap into something dark in the American postwar zeitgeist and became for a spell hugely popular. It also created some of the most unforgettable images in film history."
Open Culture (Video)
filmsnoir.net
Check out This Doc: The Rules of Film Noir (Video)

2009 January: Film noir, 2014 February: Crime Jazz: How Miles Davis, Count Basie & Other Jazz Legends Provided the Soundtrack for Noir Films & TV

Wire - 154 (1979)

"Named for the number of live gigs Wire had played to that point, 154 refines and expands the innovations of Chairs Missing, with producer Mike Thorne's synthesizer effects playing an even more integral role; little of Pink Flag's rawness remains. If Chairs Missing was a transitional album between punk and post-punk, 154 is squarely in the latter camp, devoting itself to experimental soundscapes that can sound cold and forbidding at times. However, the best tracks retain their humanity thanks to the arrangements' smooth, seamless blend of electronic and guitar textures and the beauty of the group's melodies. Where previously some of Wire's hooks could find themselves buried or not properly brought out, the fully fleshed-out production of 154 lends a sweeping splendor to 'The 15th,' the epic 'A Touching Display,' 'A Mutual Friend,' and the gorgeous (if obscurely titled) 'Map Ref. 41°N 93°W.' ..."
allmusic
W - 154
Stereo Society
Punknews
Stylus Magazine
YouTube: 154 45:20, 154 EP - Song 1 / Get Down / Let's Panic Later / Small Electric Piece

2009 January: Wire, 2012 January: On the Box 1979., 2013 September: Chairs Missing (1978).

Pascal Comelade

Wikipedia - "Pascal Paul Vincent Comelade (born 30 June 1955), is a French musician. Comelade was born in Montpellier, France. After living for several years in Barcelona, he made his first album, Fluences, influenced by electronic music and by the group Heldon. Subsequently, his music has become more acoustic and is characterised by the sounds of toy instruments, used as solo-instruments and as an integral part of the sound of his group, the Bel Canto Orquestra. In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon. He has collaborated with many singers and musicians from diverse genres of music including Robert Wyatt, Dani, Faust, Christophe Miossec, Toti Soler, Jac Berrocal, Pierre Bastien and P.J. Harvey to mention just a few."
Wikipedia
"Degeneration Electronics 1974-1983 & First Bel Canto Orquestra Concert 1983" 5 LP box set
amazon: Pascal Comelade
Cut and Run
The Wire (Video)
YouTube: Russian Roulette, I Can't Control Myself, Stranger In Paradigm, Sense el resso d'un dring, Pascal Comelade & PJ Harvey. Love too soon, Paganini Paga Tot A Nono, 4 roses pour Marie, Valse De La Demoiselle Aux Yeux Verts, Les cases del meu carrer, Deep Sound Of Bobby Perou, Park Güell, El Pianista Del Antifaz, Like A Rolling Stone

Robert Adams

Wikipedia - "Robert Adams (born May 8, 1937) is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West. His work first came to prominence in the mid-1970s through the book The New West (1974) and the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape (1975). He was a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow in photography in 1973 and 1980, and he received the MacArthur Foundation's MacArthur Fellowship in 1994."
Wikipedia
The Place We Live | Yale University Art
PBS: Art21 (Video)
The Getty
YouTube: Robert Adams au Jeu de Paume, Robert Adams: Turning Back

Barbara Kruger at Modern Art Oxford

"Modern Art Oxford presents a monumental solo exhibition of new and recent work by internationally acclaimed artist, Barbara Kruger. The exhibition will comprise a site-specific architectural wrap of Modern Art Oxford's iconic Upper gallery, alongside an installation of classic 1980s paste-up works and a major film presentation in the John Piper Gallery. With a career spanning over four decades, Kruger’s instantly recognizable work combines bold lettering, colours and dramatic juxtapositions of text and image, to investigate the machinations of power in popular culture today. Through ironic appropriation of specific slogans and imagery, Kruger deploys the visual strategies of mass communication in order to challenge the often manipulative logic at work in the language of advertising, television and other media and the role of Western consumerist culture."
Modern Art Oxford
YouTube: Barbara Kruger Time Lapse - Hirshhorn Museum

2008 February: Barbara Kruger, 2013 February: The Globe Shrinks, Barbara Kruger.

Available Light - Zoe Leonard

"For her most recent solo exhibition at Galerie Gisela Capitain, entitled ‘Available Light’, Zoe Leonard transformed the front room of the gallery into a camera obscura. In the remaining spaces, she displayed black and white analogue photographs taken of the sun, produced without the aid of retouching. Together, these works presented not only a rumination on the medium of photography but also on the nature of perception in general – concerns that have long been at the core of Leonard’s practice. Rather than highlighting a divide between the world and its image, Leonard uses a quasi-journalistic approach to attempt to reveal the complexities of such distinctions in the first place."
frieze
Contemporary Art Daily
Murray Guy
YouTube: Whitney biennial 2014 camera obscura
vimeo: Zoe Leonard: Observation Point

John's Ten of the Best - 1995

"Thanks to citypoison for this ! DJ legend John Peel chooses his favourite ten of the best music records from the video list and explains why !! PS: Music has been edited out of the video. This was first broadcast in 1995."
YouTube: John's Ten of the Best - 1995
10. Altered Images - I Could Be Happy, 9. Eddie Cochran - C'mon Everybody, 8. Dick Dale - Terra Dicktyl, 7. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower, 6. Roy Orbison - You Got It, 5. Elvis Presley - Don't Be Cruel, 4. The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated, 3. Sonic Youth - Superstar, 2. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks, 1. Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World

2012 June: John Peel

Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop

"Born in the Bronx is a striking anthology of Hip Hop's baby steps. Not only does it capture the emergence of a burgeoning culture but also the fashion and character of the surrounding community. From rare photographs of MC's and DJs to records, flyers, and other ephemera, writer Johan Kugelberg has pulled together the scattered remains of a movement that never has its eye on posterity. The book includes the improvisational artwork of previously unpublished street flyers of the era, Polaroids buried for decades in basements across the Bronx, and testimonials from the most scholarly historians of Hip Hop culture - the legends and pioneers who lived it!"
Born in the Bronx
amazon: Born in the Bronx
Rolling Stone (Photo)
A Conversation with Hip Hop's Pioneers (Video)

2012 January: The Hip-Hop Family Tree: A Look Into the Viral Propagation of a Culture, 2012 August: ‘Hip Hop Family Tree’ Comics Explain Genesis of the Genre, 2013 October: The Hip Hop Family Tree.

Recommended Records Sampler

Wikpedia - "The Recommended Records Sampler is a sampler double album by various artists released by English independent record label Recommended Records on LP in 1982. It contains tracks by musicians and groups on the Recommended Records catalogue at the time. This sampler differed from the traditional record label sampler in that all the pieces here were newly recorded by the artists and, at the time, had never been released elsewhere. (Many of the tracks were later re-released on the artists' own albums.) In 1985 Recommended Records launched the RēR Quarterly, a 'quarterly' sound-magazine, which continued this approach of releasing previously unreleased work on a compilation album."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Recommended Records Sampler
01. A1 Vogel - Flaschenzug (0:00:00) 02. A2 Faust - Extract 5 From Faust Party Three : "The Voice Of The Pumpkin." (0:03:50) 03. A3 Art Bears - All Hail! (0:08:20) 04. A4 Stormy Six - Reparto novità (0:12:25) 05. A5 The Homosexuals - Walk Before Imitate (0:17:00) 06. A6 Patrick Portella / Joseph Racaille - On ne Peut Plus Compter sur ses Doigts (0:19:43) 07. A7 Feliu Gasull - * (0:20:42) [Changing Sides] (0:28:10) 08. B1 The Black Sheep - Strangelove (0:28:31) 09. B2 Univers zéro - Influences (0:31:25) 10. B3 Aksak Maboul / Honeymoon Killers - Boss de Crosses dans le Doulos (0:39:00) 11. B4 The Work - Houdini (0:43:50) 12. B5 Henry Cow - Slice (0:47:53) 13. B6 Henry Cow - Viva Pa UbU (0:48:33) 14. B7 Decibel - Radio Extract (0:53:00) 15. C1 Art Zoyd - Simulacres (0:56:00) 16. C2 The Muffins - 2 from 'Chronometers' (1:03:00) 17. C3 Heiner Goebbels - Berlin Ku-Damm I2/4/8I (1:07:17) 18. C4 Amos - Steer Clear of England (1:12:27) 19. C5 Conventum - Commerce Nostalgique (1:16:10) 20. C6 Hector Zazou - Vera C (1:19:55) [Turning Over Time] (1:22:30) 21. D1 This Heat - Pool (1:22:53) 22. D2 The Residents - Walter Westinghouse (1:27:30) 23. D3 R. Stevie Moore - Pedestrian Hop & Copy Me (1:35:40) 24. D4 Ron Pate - I Talk to My Haircut (1:41:30) 25. D5 Picchio dal Pozzo - Uccellin del bosco (1:45:10) 26. D6 Robert Wyatt - The Internationale (1:48:25)