The Man who Invented Rock & Roll - Sam Phillips

"The Sun Sound began when Sam Phillips launched his record company in February of 1952. He named it Sun Records as a sign of his perpetual optimism: a new day and a new beginning. Sam rented a small space at 706 Union Avenue for his own all-purpose studio. The label was launched amid a growing number of independent labels. In a short while Sun gained the reputation throughout Memphis as a label that treated local artists with respect and honesty. Sam provided a non-critical, spontaneous environment that invited creativity and vision."
Sun Records: About
W - Sam Phillips
W - Sun Records
SOS - Sam Phillips: Sun Records
[PDF] Sam Phillips, Elvis, & Rock N’ Roll: A Cultural Revolution
YouTube: The Man who Invented Rock & Roll (PART 1), (PART 2)

Solus

"Dublin artist Solus. Solus has travelled a long and twisted road to find his way to being the man he is today... a path consisting of a troubled past, personal tragedy, pain, and ultimately triumphs. Now a major player in the Irish art scene Solus not only works on large outdoor murals but additionally has become a successful gallery artist, producing works on canvas and limited edition prints. Solus has gained notoriety not only for his work in Ireland, but also New York, Miami, Canada, London, South Korea and Berlin to name but a few."
Solus (Video)

Doughnut

Wikipedia - "A doughnut or donut (/ˈdoʊnət/ or /ˈdoʊnʌt/; see spelling differences) is a type of fried dough confectionery or dessert food. The doughnut is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty outlets. They are usually deep-fried from a flour dough, and typically either ring-shaped or without a hole and often filled. Other types of batters can also be used, and various toppings and flavorings are used for different types, such as sugar, chocolate, or maple glazing."
Wikipedia
NY Times: In Greenpoint, a Situation Ripe for a Doughnut War
NY Times: Till the Last Doughnut and Drumstick
America's Best Donuts
Guardian: My obsession with a New York cup of coffee and a doughnut
Smithsonian: The History of the Doughnut

This Year's Model - Elvis Costello (1978)

"Where My Aim Is True implied punk rock with its lyrics and stripped-down production, This Year's Model sounds like punk. Not that Elvis Costello's songwriting has changed -- This Year's Model is comprised largely of leftovers from My Aim Is True and songs written on the road. It's the music that changed. ... It's nervous, amphetamine-fueled, nearly paranoid music -- the group sounds like they're spinning out of control as soon as they crash in on the brief opener, 'No Action,' and they never get completely back on track, even on the slower numbers. ..."
allmusic
W - This Year's Model
Pitchfork
Counterbalance No. 79: Elvis Costello's 'This Year’s Model' (Video)
YouTube: No Action, Lipstick Vogue, The Beat, Pump it up - You Belong To Me, (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea, Night Rally, This Year's Girl, Little Triggers, Hand In Hand, Living in Paradise

2011 August: Get Happy!!, 2011 November: "Watching the Detectives" (1978), 2011 December: "Radio Radio" (1978)

Culture’s Keeper

"Mickey McGowan’s reverence for cultural relics is contagious. It awakens a desire to daydream and play. Mickey is best known as the man behind the Unknown Museum, a pop-culture repository he opened in Mill Valley, California, in the 1970s. The museum, famous for its tableau vivant exhibits cluttered with twentieth century toys, knick knacks and curios, became a favorite stop for media outlets and tourists alike. When the museum closed its doors in the late ’80s, much of its contents ultimately wound up in Mickey’s San Rafael 'Culture Cave.' The day before our photo shoot with Mickey, we had some concerns. The location he was sending us to sounded more like a warehouse than a home. We wondered if he didn’t have any records at his house, explaining that our goal was to feature collectors in their record rooms."
Dust and Grooves
Mickey McGowan

Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art

“Reading the War News” (1915)
"A celebrated raconteur and art activist, the long-lived Theresa Bernstein may be the only artist to have made and exhibited work in every decade of the twentieth century. Exhibiting during the 1910s, Bernstein witnessed critics compare her work to that of Robert Henri and his circle for its forceful brushwork and realist approach. ... The exhibition will communicate many dimensions of the complex urban metropolis that is New York as well as the life of Gloucester, MA, the small seacoast town and artist colony, where Bernstein and her husband worked during the summers. Themes include Bernstein’s observations of political activism such as woman’s suffrage; economic hardship as shown by out-of-work women at an employment office; spiritual life as exemplified by people in the congregation of a Polish immigrant church; and cultural pursuits by artists from visual to musical performers."
Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art (Video)
W - Theresa Bernstein
NY Times: A Long Life Lived in the Shadow of Others
Why Theresa Bernstein Was the Jewish Artist of the Century (Video)
YouTube: Gail Levin Explains the Origins and Inspiration for "Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art", Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art Gallery Exhibit

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" - Bob Dylan (1965)

Wikipedia - "'Subterranean Homesick Blues' is a song by Bob Dylan, originally released in 1965 as a single on Columbia Records, catalogue 43242. It appeared 19 days later as the lead track to the album Bringing It All Back Home. ... The song's first line is a reference to codeine distillation and politics of the time: 'Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine / I'm on the pavement thinkin' about the Government'. The song also depicts some of the growing conflicts between 'straight' or 'square' (40-hour workers) and the emerging 1960s counterculture. The widespread use of recreational drugs, and turmoil surrounding the Vietnam War were both starting to take hold of the nation, and Dylan's hyperkinetic lyrics were dense with up-to-the-minute allusions to important emerging elements in the 1960s youth culture."
Wikipedia
allmusic
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" - Bob Dylan (1965)
Subterranean Homesick Blue, Filming Location - London, England
YouTube: Subterranean Homesick Blue

Teresita Fernández: As Above So Below

"Demonstrating the artist’s remarkable ability to transform materials and their surrounding architecture into an enveloping perceptual experience, Teresita Fernández: As Above So Below combines graphite and gold to create a series of immersive, interconnected installations whose scale shifts from intimate to vast, from miniature to panoramic. Fernández's largest solo exhibition to date, As Above So Below is made up entirely of new works."
MASS MoMA (Video)
Inhale
Cuban Art News
YouTube: Teresita Fernández: As Above So Below

Chris Stain

"Chris Stain grew up writing Graffiti in Baltimore, MD in the mid 1980’s. Through printmaking in high school he adapted stenciling techniques, which later lead to his work in street stencils and urban contemporary art. Compared at times to the American Social Realist movement of the 1930’s and ‘40’s, Chris’s work echoes his upbringing and the people who helped shape his mental and physical landscape. His work illustrates the struggles of the unrecognized and underrepresented individuals of society. Chris currently teaches art in New York City and is pursuing a BA in Art Education."
Chris Stain
Justseeds: Chris Stain
NYC: Speaking with Chris Stain
vimeo: Mural // Chris Stain
YouTube: Sheboygan City Hall Garage time-lapse painting , Scion Installation LA: Rooms // Chris Stain Interview (Scion AV)

"My Blakean Year" - Patti Smith (2004)

"In my Blakean year
I was so disposed
Toward a mission yet unclear
Advancing pole by pole

Fortune breathed into my ear
Mouthed a simple ode
One road is paved in gold
One road is just a road
YouTube: "My Blakean Year", LIVE from the NYPL

"Monterey" - Eric Burdon & The Animals (1967)

Wikipedia - "'Monterey' is a 1967 song by Eric Burdon & The Animals. The music and lyrics were composed by the group's members, Eric Burdon, John Weider, Vic Briggs, Danny McCulloch, and Barry Jenkins. In 1968, two different video clips of the song were aired. ... The song 'Monterey' was subsequently written in tribute to the group's experiences at the festival, and proved to be one of the new band's biggest hits. The lyrics describe the atmosphere of the festival and some of the notable musicians who played, including The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Shankar, The Who, Hugh Masekela, The Grateful Dead, and Jimi Hendrix, as 'young gods' with music 'born of love' and 'religion was being born'."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Monterey", Eric Burdon, Eric Burdon - The Animals - Monterey 1967

Some YoYo Stuff: An observation of the observations of Don Van Vliet by Anton Corbijn (1993)

"...this short black-&-white film made in 1993 is an unique opportunity to see & hear Don van Vliet, alias 'Captain Beefheart', one of the most influential, misunderstood, talked about, admired, copied, treasured, loved & quoted musicians & yet he is still an obscure & mysterious artist. The film is approximately 13 minutes long, directed & photographed in black & white..."
t.tex's hexes
captain beefheart electricity: F A N Z I N E S
captain beefheart electricity: SUCTION PRINTS
Discogs: Some YoYo Stuff - An Observation Of The Observations Of Don Van Vliet
YouTube: Some YoYo Stuff

2009 October: Captain Beefheart, 2010 December: Captain Beefheart, Art-Rock Visionary, Dead At 69, 2011 October: Interview with Captain Beefheart, 2013 August: This Is The Day (1974-Old Grey Whistle Test), 2014 July: Safe as Milk (1967).

New Wilderness Letter, 1977-84 (ed. Jerome Rothenberg)

"Jerome Rothenberg’s impressive twelve-issue magazine New Wilderness Letter picks up precisely where Alcheringa left off, with a decisive change: 'the present work will be more open – more coarse and broad in Whitman’s vision for poetry & consciousness – than the previous one.' Having departed from the ethnopoetics focus of Alcheringa in 1976, Rothenberg delivered an expansive notion of poesis in his new magazine. ... Indeed, continuing the expansive synthetic impulse that guided the anthologies Technicians of the Sacred, Shaking the Pumpkin, and America a Prophesy, Rothenberg gathers an impressive and unlikely set of writings, drawings, and images over the course of the magazine’s seven years in publication."
Jacket2

Gail Albert Halaban: Paris Views

"Gail Albert Halaban: Paris Views is a continuation of Halaban’s 2012 series Out My Window. In this new set of images, Halaban shifts her focus from New York to Paris—while continuing to steady her gaze through the windows of her neighbors and others in the community. The photographs, taken between 2012 and 2013, feature cinematic atmospheres and intimate domestic stills. Through Halaban’s lens, the viewer is welcomed into the private worlds of ordinary people. The photographs in Gail Albert Halaban: Paris Views explore the conventions and tensions of urban lifestyles, the blurring between reality and fantasy, feelings of isolation in the city, and the intimacies of home and daily life."
aperture
Exclusive First Look: Gail Albert Halaban: Paris Views
Gail Albert Halaban

Stickball

Willie Mays playing stickball in NYC
Wikipedia - "Stickball is a street game related to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City and Philadelphia. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, typically a spaldeen, pensy pinky, high bouncer or tennis ball. The rules come from baseball and are modified to fit the situation, for example, a manhole cover may be used as a base, or buildings for foul lines. The game is a variation of stick and ball games dating back to at least the 1750s. This game was widely popular among youths growing up from the 20th century until the 1980s."
Wikipedia
World Series Stickball of Fame
Streetplay - Introduction, Streetplay
East Harlem storefront celebrates city's stickball history with shrine to spaldeens and three-sewer smashes
Stickball in New York is a vanishing game
YouTube: New Yorkers Prove Stickball Isn't a Dying Sport - New York Post, Stickball, Robinson Cano takes to the streets of NYC for stickball

2010 July: Stoop ball, 2013 May: Spalding.

Muddy Waters - "Got My Mojo Working" (1957)

"My magic charm is working. Origin: In the early 20th century mojo meant voodoo or magical power, specifically one which gave the mojo's male possessor a sexual power over women. More recently, this has been extended to mean power or influence of any kind. The term was widely used in the US black communities at that time. In 1926, Newbell Niles Puckett published this definition in his Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro: 'The term mojo is often used by the Mississippi Negroes to mean 'charms, amulets, or tricks', as 'to work mojo' on a person or 'to carry a mojo'.' McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters, would have heard work mojo as he was growing up in Mississippi. ..."
The Phrase Finder
allmusic
Wikipedia
YouTube: Got My Mojo Workin'

NYC ²

"Alix A.K.A L’intrépide had the opportunity to visit New York for two weeks. So he took his camera and shot barely everything. This is the result. And this is absolutely great! Don’t miss this video full of lifestyle and inspiration! Camera : Canon 7D, Image & Post-production : Alix Bossard."
vimeo: NYC ²

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - "Goin Back to Harlan"

"There where no cuckoos, no sycamores
We played about the forest floor
Underneath the silver maples, the balsams and the sky
We popped the heads off dandelions
Assuming roles from nursery rhymes
Rested on the riverbank
And grew up by and by, and grew up by and by

Frail my heart apart
And play me a little shady grove
Ring the bells of rhymney
Till they ring inside my head forever
Bounce the bow, rock the gallows
For the hangman’s reel
And wake the devil from his dream
I’m going back to Harlan

And if you were Willie Moore
And I was Barbara Allen
Or Fair Ellen all sad at the cabin door
A-weepin’ and a-pinin’, for love

YouTube: Goin Back to Harlan

2008 July: Kate and Anna McGarrigle, 2010 January: Kate McGarrigle 1946 – 2010, 2012 January: Entre Lajeunesse et la sagesse, 2012 April: Kate and Anna McGarrigle.

Kissin' Time - Marianne Faithfull (2002)

"One of the most endearing things about Marianne Faithfull is how well and often she reinvents herself as an artist, all the while remaining true to her rebellious, defiantly independent nature, enduring whatever changes the industry undergoes with her restless, and often reckless, vision intact. ... It sounds so alien, so gauzy, like a ghost from memory past coming to illustrate why things change. It's positively tender, not ironic. Ultimately, Kissin' Time is another achievement, another raise of the bar, another welcome and necessary addition in the strange and beautiful catalog of Marianne Faithfull."
allmusic
W - Kissin' Time
Pitchfork
Guardian: When charm is just enough
YouTube: Kissing time, Sliding Through Life on Charm, Song for Nico, The Pleasure Song, Like Being Born (live in Paris), I'm on fire, Where ever I go, Love & Money, Nobody's Fault

2008 June: Marianne Faithfull, 2010 November: Marianne Faithfull - 1, 2013 January: Broken English: Deluxe Edition, 2013 November: Before the Poison (2005).

Henry Miller, Brooklyn Hater

"Henry Miller was one of those rare writers who actively and energetically hated New York, calling it late in life 'that old shithole, New York, where I was born.' A famously restless product of what was then the 14th Ward, Miller returned—ruefully—to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in his novel Tropic of Capricorn. 'I saw a street called Myrtle Avenue,' Miller wrote, 'which runs from Borough Hall to Fresh Pond Road, and down this street no saint ever walked (else it would have crumbled), down this street no miracle ever passed, nor any poet, nor any species of human genius, nor did any flower ever grow there, nor did the sun strike it squarely, nor did the rain ever wash it… Dear reader, you must see Myrtle Avenue before you die, if only to realize how far into the future Dante saw.' That Myrtle Avenue cuts at least partly through the borough of Queens is small consolation, for it is clear that Brooklyn is the target of Miller’s loathing."
New Yorker
Big Sur Brooklyn Bridge

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

Loisaida

Wikipedia - "Loisaida /ˌloʊ.iːˈsaɪdə/ is a term derived from the Spanish (and especially Nuyorican) pronunciation of 'Lower East Side', a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The term was originally coined by poet/activist Bittman 'Bimbo' Rivas in his 1974 poem 'Loisaida'. Loisaida Avenue is now an alternative name for Avenue C in the Alphabet City neighborhood of New York City, whose population has largely been Hispanic (mainly Nuyorican) since the 1960s. Today, there is much dispute over the borders of the Lower East Side, Alphabet City, and the East Village."
Wikipedia
W - Nuyorican Poets Café
W - Nuyorican Movement
Exploring 'Loisaida' And Latino Culture In NYC (Video)
East Village
EV Grieve
vimeo: When Walls Speak: Loisaida
YouTube: Nuyorican Poetry at Home in Loisaida 1: Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Viva Loisaida, 1978, Loisaida Carnival 2014

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos

Wikipedia - "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is a 1989 novel by Oscar Hijuelos. It is about the lives of two Cuban brothers and musicians, Cesar and Nestor Castillo, who immigrate to the United States and settle in New York City in the early 1950s. ... The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love was published in 1989, and soon became a huge international bestseller. It tells the story of Cesar Castillo, an aged musician who once had a small amount of fame when he and his brother appeared on an episode of I Love Lucy in the 1950s. The book chronicles Cesar’s last hours as he sits in a seedy hotel room, drinking and listening to recordings made by his band, the Mambo Kings."
Wikipedia
W - Oscar Hijuelos
NY Times: Oscar Hijuelos, Who Won Pulitzer for Tale of Cuban-American Life, Dies at 62
YouTube: On The Outside: Oscar Hijuelos Plays Songs Of Love, Author Oscar Hijuelos Tackles His Toughest Subject: Himself, INTERVIEW: Pulitzer Prize Winner Oscar Hijuelos

Street Collage from PAPERGLUEnSCOTCH

"Working with silkscreen artist 10H23, French street artist Lili Jenks (also known as PAPERGLUEnSCOTCH) is making collages that cross boarders. The team collected strips of paper from billboards in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil then swapped and reorganized the billboard strips into large collages with screen prints of old photos by 10H23. After making huge photocopies of these pieces, PAPERGLUEnSCOTCH pasted the collages as posters, spreading her work far and wide."
Wooster Collective
papergluenscotch
PAPERGLUEnSCOTCH
YouTube: PAPERGLUEnSCOTCH in 10mins

Ragged Glory - Neil Young + Crazy Horse (1990)

"Having re-established his reputation with the musically varied, lyrically enraged Freedom, Neil Young returned to being the lead guitarist of Crazy Horse for the musically homogenous, lyrically hopeful Ragged Glory. The album's dominant sound was made by Young's noisy guitar, which bordered on and sometimes slipped over into distortion, while Crazy Horse kept up the songs' bright tempos. Despite the volume, the tunes were catchy, with strong melodies and good choruses, and they were given over to love, humor, and warm reminiscence. ... Young was not generally known as an artist who evoked the past this much, but if he could extend his creative rebirth with music this exhilarating, no one was likely to complain."
allmusic
W - Ragged Glory
The Beat Patrol - Kurt Loder
YouTube: Love and only love, Mansion On The Hill, Country Home, Love To Burn, Over and Over, F!#*in Up, Farmer John (Live at Farm Aid 1994), White Line, Days That Used to Be

2008 February: Neil Young, 2010 April: Neil Young - 1, 2010 April: Neil Young - 2, 2010 May: Neil Young - 3, 2010 October: Neil Young's Sound, 2012 January: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, 2012 June: Like A Hurricane, 2012 July: Greendale, 2013 April: Thoughts On An Artist / Three Compilations, 2013 August: Heart of Gold, 2014 March: Dead Man (1995).

Chester Gould

Wikipedia - "Chester Gould (November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains. ... The original comic was based after a New York detective that Gould was interested in at the time. The comic then branched to the fictional character that became so famous. He drew the comic strip for the next 46 years from his home in Woodstock, Illinois. Gould's stories were rarely pre-planned, since he preferred to improvise stories as he drew them. While fans praised this approach as producing exciting stories, it sometimes created awkward plot developments that were difficult to resolve."
Wikipedia
The Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum
amazon: Books by Chester Gould
vimeo: Art Spiegelman on Dick Tracy, Chester Gould, and more
YouTube: Chester Gould appearance on The Fred Waring Show

Disobedient Objects

Carrie Reichardt, Tiki Love Truck (2007)
"From a Suffragette tea service to protest robots, this exhibition is the first to examine the powerful role of objects in movements for social change. It demonstrates how political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design. Disobedient Objects focuses on the period from the late 1970s to now, a time that has brought new technologies and political challenges. On display are arts of rebellion from around the world that illuminate the role of making in grassroots movements for social change: finely woven banners; defaced currency; changing designs for barricades and blockades; political video games; an inflatable general assembly to facilitate consensus decision-making; experimental activist-bicycles; and textiles bearing witness to political murders."
V&M: Disobedient Objects
V&M: How-To Guides
Guardian: Blow-up cobblestones and tiki trucks: unlikely protest objects – in pictures
BBC: 'Disobedient objects' chart history of protest at V&A
Art Review
vimeo: Ceramic Intervention on the V&A Façade

Dorothy Parker

Wikipedia - "Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in such venues as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed as her involvement in left-wing politics led to a place on the Hollywood blacklist. Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a 'wisecracker'. Nevertheless, her literary output and reputation for her sharp wit have endured."
Wikipedia
Dorothy Parker (Video)
Vanity Fair: Rebel in Evening Clothes by Christopher Hitchens
Poets
The Paris Review: Dorothy Parker, The Art of Fiction No. 13
amazon: Dorothy Parker
YouTube: Excuse my Dust: The New York Life of Dorothy Parker, Anne Hathaway reads Dorothy Parker

Confrontation: Paris, 1968

"In May 1968 (in this context usually spelled May '68) a general insurrection broke out across France. It quickly began to reach near-revolutionary proportions before being discouraged by the Stalinist oriented French Communist Party, and finally suppressed by the government, which accused the Communists of plotting against the Republic. Some philosophers and historians have argued that the rebellion was the single most important revolutionary event of the 20th century because it wasn't participated in by a lone demographic, such as workers or racial minorities, but was rather a purely popular uprising, superseding ethnic, cultural, age and class boundaries."
French Riots May 1968
W - May 1968 events in France
YouTube: Confrontation: Paris, 1968 41:36

2009 September: Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, 2009 November: The Society of the Spectacle, 2010 December: On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, 2011 May: Détournement, 2011 October: Posters from the Paris Protests, 1968, 2014 July: Situationist International Anthology.

The B-52 - "Rock Lobster"

"... Written by vocalist Fred Schneider and guitarist Ricky Wilson, 'Rock Lobster' uses surf-rock as its genre base, with ‘60s-friendly elements like a Farfisa organ brought in to provide the deliberately nostalgic vibe that was the band’s trademark at the time. The tone of track isn’t all bright and chipper: it’s actually a bit down-trodden despite its tempo, but that only serves to give a 'serious' contrast to lines like 'His ear lobe fell in the deep!'”
popmatters
YouTube: Rock Lobster, 52 Girls

2008 October: The B-52's, 2012 October: The B-52's -1, 2013 May: "Private Idaho", "Give Me Back My Man".

Lou Reed - New York (1989)

"The Lou Reed on 1989's New York is a different animal than the one we'd previously come to know. He's kicked drugs. He's explicitly political. 'The archetypal Lou Reed song makes you feel compassion for somebody you never understood and never expected to feel compassion for,' Voice scribe Tom Carson wrote of the album in his review. But this time around, a curve ball: Reed's trying to make you feel compassion for people, Carson theorizes, he's not even met. It's a beautiful, complex album full of Reed relenting to the power of the riff, trying, perhaps, to be as big as the album's title implies."
The Voice's 1989 Review of Lou Reed's New York
NY Times: Lou Reed’s New York Was Hell or Heaven
Remembering Lou Reed's New York album
W - New York
allmusic
YouTube: New York (Live) 1:17:07
YouTube: Romeo Had Juliette, Halloween Parade, Dirty Blvd, Endless Cycle, There is No Time, Last Great American Whale, Beginning of a Great Adventure, Busload of Faith, Sick of You, Hold On, Good Evening Mr. Waldheim, Xmas in February, Strawman, Dime Store Mystery

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), 2014 June: The Bells (1979).

Gatsby to Garp: Modern Masterpieces from the Carter Burden Collection

"Between 1973 and 1996 Carter Burden, a cultural benefactor and former New York City councilman, assembled the greatest collection of modern American literature in private hands. This exhibition brings together nearly one hundred outstanding works from the collection, including first editions, manuscripts, letters, and revised galley proofs. Authors featured in this unparalleled exhibition are some of the twentieth century's most celebrated—William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, John Irving, Henry James, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, J. D. Salinger, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, John Updike, Tennessee Williams, and Richard Wright, among others."
Morgan Library & Museum
NY Times: The Joys of Judging a Book by Its Cover

The MFA Handbook: A Guide to the Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"This is a new, fully updated and redesigned edition of the definitive guide to the most enduring masterpieces in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Featuring more than 500 objects from all times and places (nearly 100 of them new to this edition)—Native American ceramics to European shoes, Egyptian funerary arts to Warhol silkscreens, not to mention the Museum’s world-renowned collections of paintings and sculpture—The MFA Handbook provides a window on works that have surprised, delighted, and inspired visitors since the MFA first opened its doors in 1876."
The MFA Handbook
MFA Guide
amazon

Revisiting the Nightmares of World War I

"A moonscape of craters, mud and shattered stumps fills a wall-sized video screen; you can hear shrieking shells and shattering blasts; an enormous British howitzer, meant to pulverize the enemy’s defenses, points toward the fields. The only thing missing in this gallery, devoted to the Battle of the Somme at the Imperial War Museum here, is the ability to conceive of 20,000 British dead and 37,000 wounded or missing in the first day of fighting, and more than a million casualties over all during five months. It is one of the most powerful presentations at the new First World War Galleries here, suggesting that this seemingly futile battle was actually a turning point."
NY Times
IWM London
1914.org
Casson Mann
The World at War, 1914–1918 (Video)
NY Times: Visceral Reality vs. the Big Picture
History: Outbreak of World War I (Video)
Slate: Everything You Need to Know About How World War I Began in Four Minutes (Video)

Jimmy Reed - Ain't That Lovin' You Baby? (1956)

Know I love ya, babe?
Know I love ya, babe?
Know I love ya, babe?
But you don't even know my name

Let me tell ya, baby
I'll tell ya what I would do
I would rob, steal, kill somebody
Just ta get back home ta you
YouTube: Ain't That Lovin' You Baby?

Phil Ochs in Concert (1966)

"During much of the career of this great performer, this so-called live album was the only recording that supposedly represented Phil Ochs as he was heard in concert -- in other words, solo. While his major studio albums concentrated on orchestral productions, sometimes bordering on unlistenable pretension or slightly uncomfortable band tracks, his live performances inevitably consisted of just one man with his voice and guitar, at least until his ill-fated rock & roll venture near the end of his popularity. ..."
allmusic
W - Phil Ochs in Concert
Phil Ochs remembered - Perfect Sound Forever
Shadows That Shine
YouTube: Phil Ochs in Concert

2010 July: Draft dodger, Conscientious objector, War resister, 2008 September: Phil Ochs, 2011 December: All the News That's Fit to Sing, 2012 February: There but for Fortune, 2013 February: Pleasures of the Harbor, 2014 March: "Draft Dodger Rag" (1965).

Matt Weingarden - Dust & Grooves

"Matt Fine Wine, 44, lives in Brooklyn NY. He’s a magazine editor and a Funk & Soul DJ. collects mostly 45s. Q: What prompted you to start collecting? A: I grew up in Detroit and was listening to CKLW radio, a renowned, influential station just across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario, from about the time I was 5. The first record I bought was something I heard on CKLW and fell in love with: 'Ben' by Michael Jackson, from the rat movie of the same name. I was obsessed with it at age 8. Soon after that, I moved on from CKLW to the local great AM oldies station, WHND, 'Honey Radio.' I listened to that for years. The 45-buying floodgates were open."
MATT WIENGARDEN (MR. FINEWINE) - BROOKLYN, NY (Video)
NY Mag: Matt Weingarden
WFMU: Downtown Soulville with Mr. Fine Wine: Playlists and Archives (Video)
MixCloud: Jazzman Radio Feat. Matt ‘Mr Fine Wine’ Weingarden (Video)

Cement Eclipses from Isaac Cordal

"Isaac Cordal's cement sculptures play hide and seek among cracked walls and drain pipes in his project titled 'Cement Eclipses.' In this project, Cordal calls attention to everyday people whose lives and dramas play out hidden all around the world. See if you can spot them all!"
Wooster Collective

2011 May: Isaac Cordal

The Islamic State

"The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced its intention to reestablish the caliphate and has declared its leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph. The lightning advances the Islamic State made across Syria and Iraq in June shocked the world. But it's not just the group's military victories that have garnered attention — it's also the pace with which its members have begun to carve out a viable state. Flush with cash and US weapons seized during its advances in Iraq, the Islamic State's expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In the first week of August alone, Islamic State fighters have taken over new areas in northern Iraq, encroaching on Kurdish territory and sending Christians and other minorities fleeing as reports of massacres emerged."
VICE (Video)
PBS: Losing Iraq | FRONTLINE (Video)
NY Times: Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) (Video)
W - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
W - Anarchist symbolism

Jacques Dupin

"Jacques Dupin, a poet, art critic and cultural eminence in France whose influence straddled the avant-garde literary world and the commercial market in paintings and sculptures by major 20th-century artists, died on Oct. 27 at his home in Paris. He was 85. Family members who confirmed his death said he had been ill for several years. Mr. Dupin was for a long time one of the directors of the renowned Galerie Maeght in Paris, which represented Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Wassily Kandinsky and other modern artists. As both a poet and an art dealer, he had a wide circle of friends. Bacon and Giacometti painted his portrait. The American poet John Ashbery, another friend, translated a seminal monograph written by Dupin in 1961 about Giacometti, which was published in English in 2003."
NY Times
W - Jacques Dupin
amazon: Jacques Dupin
Of Flies and Monkeys By Jacques Dupin Translated by John Taylor
Poetry International
The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry by Mary Ann Caws (Editor)

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction

"'How would you like to be remembered?' the director David Lynch asks the actor Harry Dean Stanton during the documentary 'Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction.' 'Doesn’t matter,' is the laconic reply, and you know he means it. It does matter, however, to the Swiss filmmaker Sophie Huber, who seems to have chosen a particularly tough subject for her first feature. Guarded in the extreme and bereft of vanity, Mr. Stanton, now 87, may have plumbed the inner workings of close to 200 characters, but he’s cagey about revealing his own."
NY Times
W - Harry Dean Stanton
amazon
YouTube: Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction | Official Trailer, Harry Dean Stanton says it all

Go West

Wikipedia - "'Go West' is a song by the 1970s disco group Village People. The song eventually found greater success when it was covered in 1993 by the synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. ... The song's title is attributed to the nineteenth century quote 'Go West, young man' commonly attributed to Horace Greeley, a rallying cry for the colonization of the American West; though Victor Willis denies writing the song with a gay theme in mind, 'Go West' is generally understood as an expression of the 1970s sentiment of San Francisco as a utopia for the Gay Liberation movement."
Wikipedia
shmoop
YouTube: Village People - Go West, Pet Shop Boys - Go West, Pet Shop Boys - Go West++

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

The Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec: Prints and Posters - MoMA

'La Troupe de Mademoiselle Églantine', 1896.
"A preeminent artist of Belle Époque Paris, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) brought the language of the late-19th-century avant-garde to a broad public through his famous posters, prints, and illustrations for journals and magazines. A cultural nexus, he connected artists, performers, authors, intellectuals, and society figures of his day, creating a bridge between the brothels and society salons of the moment. His work allows entry into many facets of Parisian life, from politics to visual culture and the rise of popular entertainment in the form of cabarets and café-concerts."
MoMA
NY Times: Imbibing a World of Delight and Degradation
WSJ - The Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec: Prints and Posters
W - Moulin Rouge
BBC: Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit brings classic Paris to NY (Video)

Photoville Exhibition Returning to Brooklyn Bridge Park

"United Photo Industries, the Brooklyn photography cooperative probably best known for 'The Fence' – the 1,000-foot-long photo installation that began in Brooklyn in 2012 and has since had versions in Boston and Atlanta – will set up its third annual Photoville, a pop-up, modular exhibition space, in Brooklyn Bridge Park from Sept. 18 to 28. The project, at Pier 5 in the park, will include 60 exhibitions, most presented in 20-by-40-foot shipping containers repurposed as mini-galleries, with several outdoor installations as well. Also planned are more than 25 talks, panels and hands-on workshops, and a series of multimedia presentations and author readings."
NY Times
About THE FENCE - Photoville
Photoville Photoville
Photoville - Brooklyn Bridge Park
kickstarter :Photoville - Brooklyn Bridge Park (Video)

Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute To Cole Porter (1990)

"Cole Porter did not die of AIDS, but he is generally acknowledged to have been at least bisexual, which seems to be the justification for assembling an AIDS charity album in which contemporary artists perform songs he wrote in the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s. Producer/creators Leigh Blake and John Carlin (along with Steve Lillywhite, credited as supervising musical producer, who produced several of the individual tracks) appear to have suggested to the artists that they simply take Porter's lead sheets and come up with arrangements and recordings in their own individual styles. Leading off the album, Neneh Cherry demonstrates how far that can be from traditional approaches to Porter's music. ..."
allmusic
W - Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute To Cole Porter
W - Cole Porter
YouTube: Tom Waits - It's Alright With Me, Annie Lennox - Every Time We Say Goodbye, David Byrne - Don't Fence Me In, So in love - k.d. lang, Neneh Cherry - I've Got You Under My Skin, Iggy Pop & Debbie Harry Sing "Did You Evah", Les Negresses Vertes - I Love Paris

Au Pairs - Stepping Out of Line: The Anthology (2006)

"This is it -- every studio recording made by Au Pairs, one of the smartest, sharpest bands of the post-punk era. Stepping Out of Line contains the two albums, 1981's Playing with a Different Sex and the following year's Sense and Sensuality, as well as all the non-album material, three tracks from a BBC session, a live version of 'Piece of My Heart,' one previously unreleased track, and a handful of demos for a third album that never materialized. Most of the non-album material surfaced on RPM's reissues of the two albums, but those discs vanished shortly after release, and an attempt on the part of Cherry Red to condense the best of it all onto one disc in 1999 came up short. No one could possibly give this band's output too much attention."
allmusic
W - Stepping Out of Line: The Anthology
stylusmagazine
Only the Lonely
YouTube: Set Up (Live), Come Again (Live), Intact (Live)
YouTube: Stepping Out of Line: The Anthology +++

2008 May: Au Pairs, 2012 October: Au Pairs @ Pinkpop 1982.

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson (2009)

Wikiedia - "Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 American stop-motion animated comedy film based on the Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name. This story is about a fox who steals food each night from three mean and wealthy farmers. The farmers are fed up with Mr. Fox's theft and try to kill him, so they dig their way into the foxes' home. However, the animals are able to outwit the farmers and live underground. Produced by Indian Paintbrush and Regency Enterprises, and released in the autumn of 2009, the film features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson. For director Wes Anderson, it was his first animated film and first film adaptation."
Wikipedia
New Yorker: Wild, Wild Wes
Slate: Outfoxed
NY Times: Don’t Count Your Chickens
amazon
YouTube: Fantastic Mr. Fox - Official Theatrical Trailer

2013 November: Wes Anderson Honors Fellini in a Delightful New Short Film, 2013 November: Rushmore (1998), 2013 Decemher: Hotel Chevalier (2007), 2014 March: Wes Anderson Collection, 2014 April: The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies, 2014 July: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

Children's Games - Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1560)

Children's Games, 1560
Wikipedia - "Children's Games is an oil-on-panel by Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in 1560. It is currently held and exhibited at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. ... The children, who range in age from toddlers to adolescents, roll hoops, walk on stilts, spin hoops, ride hobby-horses, stage mock tournaments, play leap-frog and blind man's bluff, perform handstands, inflate pigs' bladders and play with dolls and other toys. They have also taken over the large building that dominates the square: it may be a town hall or some other important civic building, in this way emphasizing the moral that the adults who direct civic affairs are as children in the sight of God. This crowded scene is to some extent relieved by the landscape in the top left-hand corner; but even here children are bathing in the river and playing on its banks."
Wikipedia
Center for History and New Media
amazon: Inside Bruegel: The Play of Images in Children's Games

2010 May: Peasant, 2011 March: "The Harvesters", Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 2012 February: The Mill and the Cross - Lech Majewski, 2012 December: The Lord of Misrule and the Feast of Fools., 2013 July: Netherlandish Proverbs.

Bukka White - Parchman Farm (1970)

Wikipedia - "'Parchman Farm' or 'Parchman Farm Blues' is blues song first recorded by American Delta blues musician Bukka White in 1940. It is an autobiographical piece, in which White sings of his experience at the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as Parchman Farm. ... One was 'Parchman Farm Blues', which he recorded that day (all twelve were recorded over two days, May 7 and 8, 1940). The song has the elements of Delta blues, including a one-chord modal arrangement and a slide guitar break. However, the melody line is distinctive and relies less on blue notes. White delivers the vocal in his characteristic grainy, guttural style accompanied by his acoustic guitar, with Washboard Sam on washboard percussion."
Wikipedia
W - Bukka White
Discogs: Parchman Farm (1970)
allmusic
YouTube: Parchman Farm Blues, Aberdeen Mississippi Blues (Live), Fixin' To Die, Pine Bluff Arkansas, Shake 'Em On Down, Black Train Blues, Strange Place Blues, Where Can I Change My Clothes, Sleepy Man Blues, Good Gin Blues, High fever Blues, District Attorney Blues, Bukka's Jitterbug Swing, Special Steamline