Power Tower Transforms into Robot: DOMA’s Neon Colossus

"A massive power line tower in Buenos Aires, Argentina now has a glowing face, hands, shoulder spikes and heart thanks to a daring installation by Argentinean art collective DOMA. Known as Colossus, this urban intervention is 45 meters (almost 148 feet) tall. Best of all – the neon is animated."
Web Urbanist

Two Cigarettes in the Dark (1992) - Pina Bausch

"... 'Two Cigarettes in the Dark' is not devoid of cruelty: a woman bangs a man into a wall; a man spills water on the floor and treats a woman accusingly like a dog who has transgressed. But there are also bitterly comic images about escapist fantasies and domestic disputes. All appear ultimately to deal with the banal chores of getting through life. By now it is clear that each dance-theater piece by the German choreographer is a fresh installment in a serialized opus about human existence. Male-female relations receive special attention; hopes and failures are her larger concern."
NYT: Pina Bausch, but Not So Sure This Time
The New Criterion - Smokeless “Cigarettes”: Pina Bausch at BAM
Fresh Hamm: The Prada Pina
Guardian: Dancing in the dark
Two Cigarettes in the Dark, Piece by Pina Bausch
YouTube: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch at BAM: Two Cigarettes in the Dark

2008 May: Pina Bausch
2009 June: Pina Bausch, 1940-2009

Monhegan, the Artists' Island

"A spectacular scrap of land set in a surging sea, Monhegan Island has inspired generations of American artists. Some of the nation's greatest painters have made the pilgrimage to this rocky outpost ten miles off the coast of Maine - 'the most wonderful country ever modeled by the hand of the master architect,' as George Bellows, who painted many brilliant canvases on Monhegan, once wrote. Realists, impressionists, and abstract artists have all been equally captivated by the islands dramatic headlands, its tranquil, wooded interior, and its people - whose lives are defined by the powerful ocean around them. No fewer than 109 color and 162 black-and-white illustrations by 151 artists accompany the text, which explores the history of the timelessly beautiful island - and of the men and women who came to paint it in unprecedented detail."
amazon
Monhegan Artists Residency

2009 September: Monhegan Island

Some Trees (1956) - John Ashbery

"SOME TREES, JOHN ASHBERY’S first regularly published collection, contains numerous poems that explore how the artistic conscious­ness relates to the world in which it finds itself and what that con­sciousness makes of the world it is given. In his examinations of how it feels to think, and of how thought and feeling interact with the world to make art, Ashbery is an heir of Wallace Stevens, whom he has called, along with early Auden and Laura Riding, one of 'the writers who most formed my language as a poet.'"
From Conjunctions: Only in the Light of Lost Words Can We Imagine Our Rewards Some Trees (1956) - Reginald Shepherd
amazon: Some Trees (1956)
Odd and Invented Forms
Silliman's Blog

2007 November: John Ashbery
2009 October: PennSound
2012 February: Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles, 1957-1987

The Bluegrass Way - Katrina Roi

"Every Friday night, families gather to play music in Palermo, Maine. What began as an evening pastime has become a source of community for everyone involved. Teenagers have discovered a love for music, elders have found a source of inspiration, and the group has supported each other through the most difficult of times."
vimeo: The Bluegrass Way - Katrina Roi

Diana Al-Hadid's Studio Boom

"Can growing a business and maturing as an artist go hand in hand? In this film, artist Diana Al-Hadid and her crew of dedicated assistants strike a balance between work and play while finishing a new sculpture on a tight deadline. Filmed over several months at Al-Hadid’s studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the collaborative team of young artists devote long hours towards the completion of Nolli’s Orders (2012) for its debut in the Invisible Cities exhibition at MASSMoCA."
art21: "Diana Al-Hadid's Studio Boom" (Video)
Q&A WITH ARTIST DIANA AL-HADID
NYT: Visiting Artists | Diana Al-Hadid

2012 May: Invisible Cities - MASS MoCA

Son House & Bukka White - Masters of the Country Blues (1960)

"Eddie 'Son' House and Booker T. Washington 'Bukka' White were giant figures in the annals of American music. Both were passionate purveyors of their native Mississippi Delta music and of slide guitar. Both were seminal figures, not only through their association with legendary blues pioneer Charley Patton, but also in the strong influence Mississippi blues has had on this century's music from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters, all the way to Eric Clapton. In the early part of this century, Mississippi still retained characteristics of a frontier state, physically, socially and politically."
amazon: Son House & Bukka White - Masters of the Country Blues (1960)
YouTube: Country Blues Guitar

How city kids cooled off in the heat wave of 1953

"A 10-day heat wave left the city blistering in late summer 1953, with record temperatures in the triple digits scalding the streets. Luckily these city kids living in the vicinity of today’s Nolita (see the ad for 276 Bowery) knew how to keep cool: They opened a fire hydrant."
Ephemeral New York

Malcolm X at Oxford, 1964

"I enjoy replaying this vintage gem every now and then – Malcolm X debating at Oxford University in 1964. In this classic video, you get a good feel for Malcolm X’s presence and message, not to mention the social issues that were alive during the day. You’ll hear X’s trademark claim that liberty can be attained by 'whatever means necessary,' including force, if the government won’t guarantee it, and that 'intelligently directed extremism' will achieve liberty far more effectively than pacifist strategies."
Open Culture (Video)

2008 August: Malcolm X

BAM: Do the Reggae

"In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence, BAMcinématek presents this 14-film series dedicated to the country's unique and widely influential musical tradition. Throughout decades of political unrest in Jamaica and racial violence against Caribbean immigrants in Europe and North America, reggae in all its forms has endured as an essential conduit for social protest, individual expression, and spiritual exploration. It has also single-handedly paved the way for rap/hip-hop, the remix (invented in the early 70s in Jamaica), not to mention later cross-pollinated genres like drum and bass, reggaeton, and dubstep."
BAM: Do the Reggae
DO THE REGGAE at BAMcinematek, Aug 2-6 (Video)
W - Do the Reggay
YouTube: Toots & The Maytals - Do The Reggae, Rockers (1978), The Harder They Come - Jimmy Cliff (1972), Countryman (1982), Heartland Reggae (1978), Land Of Look Behind (1982), Reggae (1970), Babylon (1980), Deep Roots Music 1: Revival/Ranking Sounds, Deep Roots Music 2: Bunny Lee Story / Black Ark

Martha's Vineyard

Wikipedia - "Martha's Vineyard (Wampanoag: Noepe) is an island (including the smaller Chappaquiddick Island) located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony. Often called just 'The Vineyard,' the island has a land area of 100 square miles (260 km2) and is the 58th largest island in the United States, and the third largest on the East Coast of the United States." Annie Cameron, 1976-1978.
Wikipedia
W - Edgartown
W - Gay Head
YouTube: Martha's Vineyard

Toumani Diabaté

Wikipedia - "Toumani Diabaté (born August 10, 1965) is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles. Diabaté comes from a long family tradition of kora players including his father Sidiki Diabaté, who recorded the first ever kora album in 1970. His family's oral tradition tells of 71 generations of musicians preceding him in a patrilineal line."
Wikipedia
Toumani Diabaté
amazon: Toumani Diabaté
YouTube: Cantelowes, Elyne Road, Mande Variations, Si Naani, Cheikh Oumar Bah

The Nova Trilogy

Wikipedia - "The Nova Trilogy or The Cut-up Trilogy is a name commonly given by critics to a series of three experimental novels by William S. Burroughs. These novels, The Soft Machine (1961, revised 1966), The Ticket That Exploded (1962, revised 1967) and Nova Express (1964), like Naked Lunch, derive from The Word Hoard, a number of manuscripts Burroughs wrote in Tangier, Paris and London between 1953 and 1958. Commenting on the trilogy in an interview, Burroughs said, 'I am attempting to create a new mythology for the space age.' All three novels use the Cut-up technique that Burroughs invented in cooperation with painter and poet Brion Gysin and computer programmer Ian Sommerville."
Wikipedia
W - The Soft Machine
W - The Ticket That Exploded
W - Nova Express
RealityStudio: Burroughs Literary Archive
The Quorum of Gentlemen: The Nova Trilogy

2009 May: Cut-up technique - 1
2010 March: Cut-up technique
2010 December: The Evolution of the Cut-Up Technique in My Own Mag

Tunneling Below Second Avenue

Wikipedia - "Unlike ants, moles, gophers and skinks, humans aren’t instinctively tunneling creatures. When we go underground, we are partly admitting that we’ve made a mess on the surface and partly showing off. In Manhattan, where street traffic tends to stall, only one subway runs the length of the East Side. Every weekday, 1.3 million passengers — more than are carried in 24 hours by the transit systems of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco combined — cram onto the Lexington Avenue line. Yet the chaos above and below has inspired afeat: about 475 laborers are now removing 15 million cubic feet of rock and 6 million cubic feet of soil — more than half an Empire State Building by volume — out from under two miles of metropolis."
NYT: Tunneling Below Second Avenue
NYT: Way Down in the Hole
NYT: The Once and Future Dream of New York (Video)
W - Second Avenue Subway
IRT East Side Line
NYMag: The Long, Tortured History of the Second Avenue Subway

Jo Ann Kelly

Wikipedia - "Jo Ann Kelly (5 January 1944 — 21 October 1990) was an English blues singer and guitarist. 'To many American performers', an obituarist wrote, 'Jo Ann Kelly was the only British singer to earn their respect for her development of what they would be justified in thinking as "their" genre'. ... Kelly had a voice far bigger than her slight frame would suggest; with a rich, deep, tonal quality that could easily have come from Dinah Washington or Sister Rosetta Tharpe. After establishing a musical partnership with the British blues musician Tony McPhee, Kelly appeared on two McPhee compiled albums for Liberty Records, Me and the Devil (1968) and I Asked for Water, She Gave Me Gasoline (1969). She also appeared on two John Dummer Band albums John Dummer Blues Band (1969) and Oobleedoobleejubilee (1973)."
Wikipedia
Jo Ann Kelly discography
Blues Nexus
YouTube: Where Is My Good Man At, I Feel So Good , Ain't Seen No Whisky, Back Water Blues, The Girl I Love She Got Long Curly Hair (Live) Blues, Jo Ann Kelly & John Fahey - High Sheriff Blues, I've been scorned, Death Have Mercy, Louisiana Blues

Nico

Wikipedia - "Nico (born Christa Päffgen, 16 October 1938 – 18 July 1988) was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s. She is known for both her vocal collaboration on The Velvet Underground's debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), and her work as a solo artist from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. She also had roles in several films, including a cameo in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966), as herself. Nico died in July 1988, as a result of injuries sustained in a cycling accident while vacationing in Ibiza with her son."
Wikipedia
Nico Web Site
YouTube: Femme Fatale, All Tomorrows Parties, I'll be your Mirror, 1966 Warhol, My Heart Is Empty, New York New York, These Days, Das Lied vom einsamen Mädchen, Strip-Tease.
The Velvet Underground and Nico 1966 1:04:14.

2011 June: All Tomorrow's Parties - The Velvet Underground
2012 June: The Velvet Underground & Nico

Y Pants

Wikipedia - "Y Pants were an all-female No Wave band from New York City active from 1979 to 1982. The trio, made up of photographer/musician Barbara Ess (previously of Disband and collaborator with Glenn Branca both in The Static and Theoretical Girls), visual artist Virginia Piersol, and filmmaker Gail Vachon, developed a unique sound via their acoustic toy instrumentation of toy piano, ukulele and a paper-headed Mickey Mouse drum kit, augmented by electric bass guitar, Casio keyboards and various low-tech effects."
Wikipedia
Robert Christgau: Y Pants
YouTube: Favorite Sweater, That's the Way Boys Are (Original version by Lesley Gore in 1964), Off the hook, LOVE'S A DISEASE, The code of life

Stinkfish

"After Spain (covered), Netherlands (covered), Germany (covered), Colombian muralist Stinkfish is now in UK where he recently finished this large-scale mural on the streets of Bristol. If you are in the area, Stinkfish will be participating in the upcoming 'Rebel Soul' group show at Canteen Gallery this Saturday."
Street Art News
Stinkfish

Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black - Public Enemy

Wikipedia - "Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black is the fourth studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released October 3, 1991, on Def Jam Recordings. It debuts production team Imperial Grand Ministers of Funk, which consisted of producers Stuart Robertz, Cerwin 'C-Dawg' Depper, Gary G-Wiz, and The JBL."
Wikipedia
Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black - 1991
Robert Christgau: Public Enemy
NYT: Hip-Hop's Prophets of Rage Make Noise Again
YouTube: Can't Truss It, Nighttrain (Touch Up Remix), By The Time I Get To Arizona, REBIRTH, Bring The Noise, Shut 'Em Down

2009 May: Public Enemy
2011 July: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Fear of a Black Planet

East of Eden

Wikipedia - "East of Eden is a 1955 film, directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on the second half of the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. It is about a wayward young man who, while seeking his own identity, vies for the affection of his deeply religious father against his favored brother, thus retelling the story of Cain and Abel. The film stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey. It also features Burl Ives, Richard Davalos and Jo Van Fleet, and was adapted by Paul Osborn and John Steinbeck. Although set in early twentieth century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley."
Wikipedia
W - East of Eden
YouTube: East Of Eden - Trailer, East of Eden-best scene of James Dean, Love on the Ferris Wheel, East of Eden (1955) Documentary

Haunting Monumentality

"Plan B opened in 2005 in Cluj, Romania. Initiated by Mihai Pop and Adrian Ghenie, Plan B functions as a production and exhibition space for contemporary art; at the same time it is a research center focusing on the Romanian art of the last 50 years, by revealing works of remarkable artists without previous international exposure."
Haunting Monumentality, GALERIA PLAN B | BERLIN
artforum

Robert Montgomery's Concrete Poetry Sweep London Billboards

"'The spectacle of advertising creates images of false beauty so suave and so impossible to attain that you will hurt inside and never even know where the hurt comes from, and in all pictures now the famous people have already begun to look lost and lonely.' It is hard to pin down just where Robert Montgomery's words are coming from -- it seems as if they were whispered from a looming spirit, while simultaneously erupting from your insides. While advertisements talk loudly while communicating very little, Montgomery's pieces speak softly while uttering what we may need to hear most."
Robert Montgomery's Concrete Poetry Sweep London Billboards

2011 May: Robert Montgomery

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards - Tom Waits

Wikipedia - "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is a limited edition three CD set by Tom Waits, released by the ANTI- label on November 17, 2006 in Europe and on November 21, 2006 in the United States. The album is divided into three sections, with each disc being a separate collection in its own. It borrows from Tom Waits’ typical rock sound, with the first disc being blues and rock-based, the second centred on slow-tempo, melancholic ballads, and the third on more experimental compositions. Additionally, the record contains influences of other genres, including folk, gospel, jazz and roots music."
Wikipedia
amazon
pitchfork
ANTI-
Contact: Bottom Of The World, Trampled Rose, You Can Never Hold Back Spring, The Day After Tomorrow, Lie To Me
YouTube: Widow's Grove, World Keeps Turning, You can never hold back spring, 2 19, Bend Down The Branches

The Body Artist - Don DeLillo

Wikipedia - "The Body Artist is a novella written in 2001 by Don DeLillo. It explores the highly abnormal grieving process of a young performance artist, Lauren Hartke, following the suicide of her significantly older husband. The novella is sometimes described as a ghost story due to the appearance of an enigmatic figure that Lauren discovers hiding in an upstairs room of the house following her husband's death."
Wikipedia
amazon
Salon: “The Body Artist” by Don DeLillo
NYT: Ghostbuster

2010 October: Pafko at the Wall
2012 May: Underworld

The Collected Books of Jack Spicer

Wikipedia - "The Collected Books of Jack Spicer first appeared in 1975, ten years after the death of Jack Spicer. It was 'edited & with a commentary by Robin Blaser' and published in Santa Rosa, CA by Black Sparrow Press. A primary document of the San Francisco Renaissance, The Collected Books of Jack Spicer has arguably reached the status of a twentieth century 'classic' and helped to define an emerging countertradition to the prevailing literary establishment."
Wikipedia
amazon

2007 November: Jack Spicer
2010 February: mad cartographer (PoemTalk #28)
2010 April: Manroot and Acts
2011 January: 5 Poems by Jack Spicer

Maceo Parker

Wikipedia - "Maceo Parker (... born February 14, 1943) is an American funk and soul jazz saxophonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s, as well as Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s. Parker was a prominent soloist on many of Brown's hit recordings, and a key part of his band, playing alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. He is now just as well known for his own shows, as he has toured continuously under his own name since the early 1990s and has built up a strong fan base."
Wikipedia
Maceo Parker
YouTube: Maceo Parker-Fred Wesley-Peewee Ellis (JB HORNS), There Was A Time, I need somebody, George Clinton and Maceo Parker in Germany, Maceo Parker and Candy Dulfer - North Sea Jazz 2005, Maceo Parker & Fred Wesley - House Party, the soul of a black man 1973, Speed Reading, Cold Sweat - Jerry Preston on Bass Guitar!, Soul Power 92 (Official) 1/2, Rabbits in the Pea Patch (Official) 2/2

Schulz Library Blog

Jim Rugg‘s comic map of Copacetic Comics
"The Schulz Library is packed with zines, graphic novels, cartoon collections, and related ephemera— an amazing and inspirational resource for The Center for Cartoon Studies students and faculty."
Schulz Library Blog

Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht / Weill & Eisler - Dagmar Krause

Wikipedia - "Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht / Weill & Eisler is the first solo album by German singer Dagmar Krause released by Hannibal Records in 1986. It is a collection of 16 songs by German composers Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and sung by Krause in English."
Wikipedia
Progarchives
Zero G Sounds
YouTube: Song of a German Mother, Surabaya Johnny, Moritat (Ballade von Mackie Messer), Barbara-Song, Song Von Der Ware, Alabama Song

The Wheel - Rosanne Cash

Wikipedia - "The Wheel is an album by singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash. Most of the songs on the album reflected Cash's feelings on embarking on a new relationship after the dissolution of her marriage to Rodney Crowell. Though neither of its two singles, 'The Wheel' and 'You Won't Let Me In', charted on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, the album received considerable critical acclaim."
Wikipedia
popsublime: Rosanne Cash, The Wheel (Columbia Records, 1993)
amazon
YouTube: The Wheel, Seventh Avenue, Sleeping In Paris

2010 March: Rosanne Cash
2012 January: Black Cadillac
2012 April: "I Was Watching You"

Ringolevio

Wikipedia - "Ringolevio (also spelled ringalevio or ring-a-levio) is a children's game which may be played anywhere but which originates in the teeming streets of New York City, and is known to have been played there at least as far back as before World War I. It is one of the many variations of tag. ... There are two teams. In one version, one team goes off and hides. The other team counts to some number like 30 and then goes looking for them. In another version, each team has its own "jail", perhaps a park bench or other defendable turf. In Bay Terrace, Queens, both teams had a park bench jail, and whichever team could capture all of the other team's members, won. Often, the game would go on so long that it was called on account of darkness."
Wikipedia
American Dialect Society