“Dust My Broom”: The Story of a Song

"The passionate blues song “Dust My Broom” has been filling dance floors and exhilarating listeners for more than 60 years. The song’s been covered by countless performers – a quick search on youtube turns up versions by Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Winter, Canned Heat, Ike and Tina Turner, Taj Mahal, Freddie King, Luther Allison, Junior Brown and Warren Haynes, R.L. Burnside, Duwayne Burnside, James Son Thomas, ZZ Top, Gary Moore, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, G. Love, Todd Rundgren, and the list goes on. Along the way, the song’s been adapted to piano, accordion, acoustic guitar, and, most of all, electric guitar. Here’s the best-known version, by Elmore James in 1959..."
Pure Guitar (YouTube)
W - Dust My Broom (YouTube)
KPLU: 'Dust My Broom' sets the standard for blues guitar (YouTube)

Sentimental Education - Gustave Flaubert

Wikipedia - "Sentimental Education (French: L'Éducation sentimentale, 1869) was a novel by Gustave Flaubert, and is considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, being praised by contemporaries George Sand, Emile Zola, and Henry James. The novel describes the life of a young man (Frederic Moreau) living through the revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second French Empire, and his love for an older woman (based on the wife of the music publisher Maurice Schlesinger, who is portrayed in the book as Jacques Arnoux). Flaubert based many of the protagonist's experiences (including the romantic passion) on his own life. ... The novel's tone is by turns ironic and pessimistic; it occasionally lampoons French society. The main character, Frédéric, often gives himself to romantic flights of fancy."
Wikipedia
W - Gustave Flaubert
NYT: Gustave Flaubert
amazon

First Look: Graffiti and The Egyptian Revolution

"This short film- featuring Tahrir street artist Ammar Abo Bakr, and others - highlights only some of the amazing art, inspiring humanity, and awe-inspiring social movements that make up the Egyptian People's Revolution, and that make up the film, THE SQUARE. Graffiti began to appear on walls around Egypt during the January 25 uprising 2 years ago. Prior to that, there was little to no street art in all of Egypt. But now, the walls of Cairo's streets are covered in so many layers of graffiti and posters, grime and fumes, that studying the layers is like reading a book on everything these walls have witnessed. The uprising, the downfall, the unity and the coming apart are all shown in street art pieces - pieces that speak for those that do not have a voice."
Wooster Collective (YouTube)
The Square
IMDb: Jehane Noujaim
Facebook; Twitter
YouTube: The Square (Trailer): Sundance Winning Film About The Egyptian Revolution

Tom Waits - Burma Shave

"Extraordinary singer Tom Waits has become an American musical institution over the last few decades. His audience continues to grow, more artists cover his songs and he has risen from the basement filled with 'eccentric artists' to hugely influential cult hero status, and deservedly so. This '70s live performance features Waits casting his spell on an audience of believers and a handful of punters experiencing his magic for the first time."
YouTube: Burma Shave (Full video)
amazon: Burma Shave (DVD)

2012 July: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin - Robert Wilson

"It is difficult to think of a performance format that Robert Wilson has not used at some point in his career. Improvised or tightly scripted; mute, spoken, or sung; stage monologues for one performer or grand opera with virtually hundreds of participants; all formats are amply represented in his work. But no matter how different superficially, they are linked by his immediately recognizable lighting and the specific dynamics of his performers' movements."
Robert Wilson
Continuo
Discogs

2008 April: Robert Wilson
2010 January: Einstein on the Beach
2010 July: The CIVIL warS
2011 May: Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera
2011 August: Stations (1982)
2012 February: Absolute Wilson
2012 August: Einstein on the Blog: Christopher Knowles’ Typings

Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity

"Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity presents a revealing look at the role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Some eighty major figure paintings, seen in concert with period costumes, accessories, fashion plates, photographs, and popular prints, highlight the vital relationship between fashion and art during the pivotal years, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s, when Paris emerged as the style capital of the world. With the rise of the department store, the advent of ready-made wear, and the proliferation of fashion magazines, those at the forefront of the avant-garde — from Manet, Monet, and Renoir to Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Zola — turned a fresh eye to contemporary dress, embracing la mode as the harbinger of la modernité."
Metropolitan Museum
amazon: Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity
NYT: The Cross-Dressing of Art and Couture
YouTube: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity

2012 December: Impressionism and Fashion (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Berlin East Side Gallery

"For 28 years, Berliners dreamed of tearing down the Wall. Now, the largest remaining stretch of it is to be touched up to preserve art works against weather damage and vandalism. But how long can it stay spic and span? Berlin's Muehlenstrasse -- a four-lane thoroughfare largely devoid of buildings and full of speeding traffic -- isn't the sort of street that would usually attract a lot of tourists. But some half a million visitors come every year to look at the East Side Gallery, a 1,316-meter stretch of reconstituted Berlin Wall. The 'gallery,' which was originally set up in 1990 after the fall of East German Communism, features works by 118 artists from 21 countries -- many of them chipped by the elements and obscured by graffiti."
Famous Stretch of Berlin Wall to be Restored
East Side Galerie Stand 1999 (Germany)
Berlin Wall artists sue city in copyright controversy
East Side Gallery artists battle over rights and compensation
W - East Side Gallery
YouTube: Berlin East Side Gallery

2009 July: The Berlin Wall
2009 October: Berlin Wall

Gregory Isaacs - Poor and Clean (1980)

"The Roots Radics are at their loosest limbed best, Gregory Isaacs at his most inspired, and together the men create a cultural masterpiece. Spun off the rather inaptly titled The Lonely Lover album, this 1980 single was a major hit in Jamaica, and reflected just how far the singer had come over the last few years. His self-productions now boasted a much denser sound, and here he fills the grooves with an evocative and nuanced sound. He's helped by the Radics' phenomenal backing, an inspired arrangement that stirs together a militant rhythm, a C&W atmosphere, and a moody roots ambience."
allmusic
YouTube: Poor & Clean (Live Kingston), Poor and clean 12" 7:02

Brooklyn Navy Yard

Wikipedia - "The United States Navy Yard, New York, also known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the New York Naval Shipyard (NYNSY), is a shipyard located in Brooklyn, New York, 1.7 miles (2.7 km) northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan. It was bounded by Navy Street, Flushing and Kent Avenues, and at the height of its production of warships for the United States Navy, it covered over 200 acres (0.81 km2)."
Wikipedia
Brooklyn Navy Yard: History
BLDG 92: Brooklyn Navy Yard Center
NYT: From Weeds and Bricks to Media Hub in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Navy Yard a Photo Haven for Every Season of Photographer
vimeo: Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History HIghlights
THIRTEEN: The City Concealed Brooklyn Navy Yard
YouTube: WWII & NYC: Brooklyn Navy Yard at War, Navy Yard Museum: Brooklyn Review

House of Poesy: At the Grolier Poetry Book Shop

"The Grolier Poetry Book Shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is both a misnomer and an anomaly. It has long dedicated itself to the task of promoting the reading and writing of poetry and has, for eighty-five years, served as a niche for poets the world over. While its reputation has bloomed over the years, thanks largely to word-of-mouth praise, it has never fared well financially, partly due to competition from larger stores and the Internet, partly because poetry has never been popular with the masses, and partly because its founder seems to have done everything in his power to ensure that his store not be turned into a business."
Paris Review

2009 January: Grolier Poetry Book

Ian Nagoski Mixtape

"This issue of Sound American isn't a simple look at those who collect records any more than it's a discussion of the overriding passion these people feel to be custodians of unheard music. It's a vision of American music, yes, but also an attempt to find out what makes those who champion their vision live and breathe.There is a depth of experience and rigor of thought that goes into the decisions everyone in this issue have made and continue to make every day; be it pragmatic business decisions or artistic curatorial ones, each person that has undertaken this strange, undefinable course has had to find a philosophy to structure these decisions on, even if it's a subconscious one."
Sound American (Video)

This Is the Modern World - The Jam

Wikipedia - "This Is the Modern World is the second studio album by British band The Jam, released in November 1977, less than seven months after their debut. Despite some contemporary reviewers feeling the record was rushed to capitalise on the success of In the City, the Record Mirror's Barry Cain wrote that 'This Is The Modern World reflects a definite PROGRESSION (remember that?) a definite identity mold. Here Weller is making an obvious attempt at creating a Jam SOUND. He succeeds. Brilliantly'. Likewise, Chas de Wally, from Sounds, claimed that although 'people were trying to tell me that this was a lousy album and The Jam were all washed up, This is the Modern World is one of the best albums I've ever heard in a long time.'"
Wikipedia
YouTube: This is the Modern World, In the Street Today, Here comes the weekend, The combine, Life from a window

A Bend in the River (1979) - V. S. Naipaul

Wikipedia - "A Bend in the River is a 1979 novel by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul. ... Set in an unnamed African country after independence, the book is narrated by Salim, an ethnically Indian Muslim and a shopkeeper in a small, growing city in the country's remote interior. Salim observes the rapid changes in Africa with an outsider's distance. Salim, the protagonist, grows up in the Indian community of traders on the east coast of Africa. Feeling insecure about his future in East Africa, he buys a business from Nazruddin in a town at 'a bend in the river' in the heart of Africa. When he moves there, he finds the town decrepit, a 'ghost town', its former European suburb reclaimed by the bush, and many of its European vestiges ruined in a 'rage' by the locals in response to their suppression and humiliation during the colonial times."
Wikipedia
NYT: A Dark Vision
V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River, 30 Years On
amazon
YouTube: Living Writer's - V. S. Naipaul

2012 February: V. S. Naipaul

Roof, 1976–79 (ed. James Sherry)

"Founded in 1976 by James Sherry to anthologize writing by poets working at the Naropa Institute, Roof magazine played a key role in the development of Language poetry. Ten issues were published in New York City between the summers of 1976 and 1979. The magazine was designed by Lee Sherry in uniform white with blocks of delicately askew Antique Olive Black “press type” neatly filling the large format 8.5” by 11” dimensions. As individual poets are given larger portions in successive issues, the reader can follow Roof’s transition from the magazine to the Roof Books platform still publishing great works of poetry today."
Jacket2

2008 October: L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E

Marcel Proust and Swann's Way: 100th Anniversary

"Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is one of the most influential and ambitious literary works of all time. The Morgan celebrates the 1913 publication of the first of its seven volumes, Swann's Way, with a fascinating selection of the author's notebooks, preliminary drafts, galley-proofs, and other documents from the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The works on display will provide unique insight into Proust's creative process and the birth of his masterpiece. Also on view will be period postcards with depictions of Illiers, which served as the inspiration for Proust's fictional town Combray, and Paris. Several letters between Proust and his mother, Jeanne, from the Morgan's collection, will be included."
The Morgan Library & Museum
Architectural Digest: Marcel Proust at Illiers-Combray
NYT: Proust, for Those With a Memory
Slate: The Way the Cookie Crumbles
New Republic: Jeanne's Way

2008 June: Marcel Proust
2011 October: How Proust Can Change Your Life
2012 April: Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu

Windows of New York

"The Windows of New York project is a weekly illustrated fix for an obsession that has increasingly grown in me since chance put me in this town. A product of countless steps of journey through the city streets, this is a collection of windows that somehow have caught my restless eye out from the never-ending buzz of the city. This project is part an ode to architecture and part a self-challenge to never stop looking up. I am a Graphic Designer living in New York City. I'm into all kinds of visual things, sharing good stuff with great people, and apparently, staring creepily at windows."
Windows of New York
The Atlantic: An Obsessive Cataloging of New York's Windows

Borondo New Mural In Paris, France

"While we last heard from him last month in Vitry (covered), Borondo is still in France where he just completed this new piece on the streets of Paris. As usual with the Spanish painter, his work has a sort of a classical painting technique, which is very rare in the urban art scene. If you are in the area, this one can be seen on Quai D'Austerlitz, Paris 13th."
StreetArtNews

Angela Davis

Wikipedia - "Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, scholar, and author. She emerged as a nationally prominent activist and radical in the 1960s, as a leader of the Communist Party USA, and had close relations with the Black Panther Party through her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement despite never being an official member of the party. Prisoner rights have been among her continuing interests; she is the founder of Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex. She is a retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is the former director of the university's Feminist Studies department."
Wikipedia
PBS: Interview With Angela Davis | The Two Nations Of Black America
Angela Davis Celebrates Sixty-Ninth Birthday: 11 Memorable Quotes From An American Icon
YouTube: Campus Unrest in late 1960s & early 1970s at UCLA, Excerpt from the black power mixtape, Angela Davis (1979), 2, Harlem 1994, The Prison: A Sign of Democracy? 58:35, Wars Against Women- Past Present and Future? 58:10, How Does Change Happen? 59:11, Occupy Wall Street general assembly--Occupy Washington Square Park NYC (2011)

2011 September: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Lazy Lester

Wikipedia - "Lazy Lester (born Leslie Johnson, June 20, 1933, Torras, Louisiana, United States) is an American blues musician, who sings, and plays the harmonica and guitar. His career spans the 1950s to the 2010s. Best known for regional hits recorded with Ernie Young's Nashville, Tennessee based Excello label, Lester also contributed to songs recorded by Excello label-mates including Slim Harpo, Lightnin' Slim, and Katie Webster. ... Lester's career took off when he found a seat next to Lightnin' Slim on a bus transporting Slim to an Excello recording session. At the studio, the scheduled harmonica player did not appear. Slim and Lester spent the afternoon unsuccessfully trying to find him, when Lester volunteered that he could play the harmonica."
Wikipedia
Lazy Lester
amazon: Lazy Lester
YouTube: I'm A Lover Not A Fighter, Sugar Coated Love, I HEAR YOU KNOCKIN' / THRU THE GOODNESS OF MY HEART, Made Up My Mind, Late Late In The Evening, I told my little woman, You're Gonna Ruin Me Baby

Dub Housing - Pere Ubu

Wikipedia - "Dub Housing is the second album by American experimental rock group Pere Ubu. Released in 1978, the album is now regarded as one of their best, described by Trouser Press as 'simply one of the most important post-punk recordings.' The title is an allusion to the echoes at rows of identical concrete public housing units in Baltimore, presumably reminiscent of the echo and reverberation that characterize dub reggae. The photograph on the cover shows the apartment building on Prospect Avenue near downtown Cleveland in which members of the band lived when this album was recorded."
Wikipedia
aquarium drunkard
Short Bits 3: Pere Ubu, Dub Housing
Robert Christgau
YouTube: Dub Housing (Full Album) 35:40
YouTube: Dub Housing - 2012

2008 April: Pere Ubu
2010 July: Pere Ubu - 1
2012 November: David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme

Catacombs of Paris

Wikipedia - "The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris is a underground ossuary in Paris, France. Located south of the former city gate (the 'Barrière d'Enfer' at today's Place Denfert-Rochereau), the ossuary holds the remains of about six million people[1] and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris's stone mines. Opened in the late 18th century, the underground cemetery became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1874. Following an incident of vandalism, they were closed to the public in September 2009 and reopened 19 December of the same year."
Wikipedia
National Geographic: Paris Catacombs
National Geographic: Under Paris
National Geographic: maps
CNN - Bone people: The explorers of the Parisian catacombs (Video)
“Scariest Places on Earth”: The Paris Catacombs (Video)
YouTube: The Empire of Death - Paris Catacombs, Inside the Catacombs of Paris, Paris Catacombs Exploration 2009

The Days of The Commune (2012) - Zoe Beloff

"In the spring of 2012 I brought together a group of actors, activists and artists to perform Brecht’s play 'The Days of the Commune' in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Thinking about OWS as a radical theater of the people, inspired me to conceptualize this project as a 'work in progress' in a sense that all social movements are a work in progress and I wanted this work to be visible. Rather than stage the play in a theater, we performed it scene by scene in public spaces around New York City starting in Zuccotti Park. These public rehearsals ran from March through May, the months of the Paris Commune's brief existence in the spring of 1871. ... - Zoe Beloff"
UbuWeb (Video)
W - The Days of the Commune
The Days of the Commune

2009 December: Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht
2011 August: W - Communards’ Wall 1871
2012 March: The Threepenny Opera - Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill
2012 July: Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht / Weill & Eisler - Dagmar Krause

Guy Klucevsek

Wikipedia - "Guy Klucevsek (born February 26, 1947) is an American-born accordionist and composer. Klucevsek is one of relatively few accordion players active in jazz and free improvisation. Klucevsek was born and raised outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has released 21 albums as a leader or co-leader, and has recorded or performed with Dave Douglas, John Zorn. Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson and others."
Wikipedia
Guy Klucevsek
Piero Scaruffi
YouTube: Alive and Composing: Guy Klucevsek 17:10
YouTube: Dancing on the Volcano, Virginia (Mrs Woolf), Old Woman Who Dances With the Sea, Viavy Rose Variations, Dining In The Rough In The Buff, Loosening Up the Queen, Bandoneons, basil and bay leaves

Cubism and Abstract Art

"In assembling the works for Cubism and Abstract Art (MoMA Exh. #46, March 2-April 19, 1936), The Museum of Modern Art looked not only to American but also to European collectors and museums; a total of fifty-nine paintings and nineteen sculptures were borrowed from overseas. On arrival at the United States Customs, the paintings were admitted, but all nineteen sculptures were denied entry. The sculptures were, like the paintings, to have entered under Paragraph 1807 of the United States Customs Tariff Act that provided for the free importation of original paintings and sculptures as works of art."
MoMA
the art object

The Mill Pond - John Fahey

"John Fahey occupies a unique place in the history of modern guitar music. He was able to merge country blues with influences like Bela Bartok, Charles Ives, and Indian ragas and somehow make it all work. Later he experimented with tape manipulation, samples, and even played the electric guitar."
WFMU: John Fahey's Mill Pond Double EP (Video)
dusted (Video)
W - The Mill Pond
allmusic (Video)

2009 March: John Fahey
2011 March: Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You (The Fonotone Years 1958-1965)
2012 September: Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice)

The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames

John Frederick Kensett
"In the late 18th century, British artists developed the large-scale panorama, which became a popular form of entertainment in Europe and the United States. The Hudson River Museum’s exhibition The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames explores the panoramic vista as the ideal expression for a new, all-embracing way of seeing the landscape that influenced how the public and artists perceived it as well. By the early 19th century, painters such as Robert Havell Jr. worked to express this panoramic perspective in their choice and depiction of vistas."
Hudson River Museum
amazon - The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames

Silent Movies - Marc Ribot

"Silent Movies, the new release from guitar great Marc Ribot, finds him taking another surprising step in a career filled with unexpected turns. One might expect a program of solo guitar music from Ribot to be filled with bracing atonality or studies in texture. Instead, Silent Movies is filled with performances of gorgeous contemplation that linger on the mind long after they are over. The album reflects Ribot’s fascination with movies and contains pieces intended to function as music for films: some are adaptations of music he has actually written for films, others for classic silent movies that he scored for his personal amusement, still others for films of his own imagination."
Pi Recordings
allmusic
all about jazz
npr: Marc Ribot: Translating 'Silent Movies' To Music (Video)
YouTube: Marc Ribot Trio - Fat Man Blues 2011, The Kid, The Sous Le Ciel de Paris, Bateau, Delancey Waltz, Postcard from NY

2011 February: Selling Water By the Side of the River - Evan Lurie
2012 August: 2010 | Jazz in Marciac | John Zorn
2012 September: Marc Ribot

Dust & Grooves

"Dust & Grooves is a photography and interview project documenting vinyl collectors in their most natural and intimate environment: the record room. Dust & Grooves maintains the integrity and history of vinyl, as well as the musical heritage that goes along with every record in these collections. Dust & Grooves is the only project of its kind that documents vinyl lovers and their collections in this most intimate way. The project will continue to help preserve the integrity of vinyl records as well as the many colorful personalities that collect them. As technology moves forward and many music formats go digital, Dust & Grooves helps keep the rich, warm, analog life of vinyl spinning."
Dust & Grooves (Video)
Dust & Grooves: Extra Cuts (Video)
facebook
mixcloud
vimeo: The Dust & Grooves photo book Kickstarter project

Ashbery live webcast interview: audio recording segmented by topic

"On February 12, 2013, I interviewed John Ashbery in his Chelsea (New York, NY) apartment, and moderated a discussion with people gathered at the Kelly Writers House, while many hundreds more watched via live webcast. Thanks to Anna Zalokostas, PennSound’s Ashbery page now offers the audio-only version (in [listen] downloadable MP3 format, as always) of the discussion, and, also, links to audio excerpts segmented by topic. Here are those segments..."
Jacket2 (Video)

2007 November: John Ashbery

Snowflake Bentley

Wikipedia - "Wilson Alwyn 'Snowflake' Bentley (February 9, 1865 – December 23, 1931), born in Jericho, Vermont, is one of the first known photographers of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated. Kenneth G. Libbrecht notes that the techniques used by Bentley to photograph snowflakes are essentially the same as used today, and that whilst the quality of his photographs reflect the technical limitations of the equipment of the era 'he did it so well that hardly anybody bothered to photograph snowflakes for almost 100 years'. The broadest collection of Bentley's photographs is held by the Jericho Historical Society in his home town, Jericho, Vermont." Tinker...
Wikipedia
Snowflake Bentley
Wilson A. Bentley: Pioneering Photographer of Snowflakes
YouTube: "The Snowflake Man" (a short film about Snowflake Bentley)