82nd & Fifth

"82nd & Fifth is the Met's address in New York City. It is also the intersection of art and ideas. We've invited 100 curators from across the Museum to talk about 100 works of art that changed the way they see the world. Eleven Museum photographers interpret their vision: one work, one curator, two minutes at a time. 82nd & Fifth is a year-long series of 100 episodes."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 82nd & Fifth
YouTube: 82nd & Fifth: A web series, 82nd & Fifth: "Dedicated to Myself" by Doug Eklund, 82nd & Fifth: "Atmospheric" by Malcolm Daniel, 82nd & Fifth: "Over the Top" by Beth Wees, 82nd & Fifth: "Open-Minded" by Navina Haidar, 82nd & Fifth: "Getting Lost" by Deniz Beyazit, 82nd & Fifth: "Thinking Aloud" by Carmen Bambach, 82nd & Fifth: "Threshold" by Keith Christiansen, 82nd & Fifth: "String Theory" by Jayson Kerr Dobney, 82nd & Fifth: "Prime of Life" by Alisa LaGamma

Dubliners - James Joyce

Wikipedia - "Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences self-understanding or illumination. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses. The initial stories in the collection are narrated by child protagonists, and as the stories continue, they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. This is in line with Joyce's tripartite division of the collection into childhood, adolescence and maturity."
Wikipedia
W - The Dead
W - The Dead (1987 film)
Guardian: A brief survey of the short story part 32: James Joyce
amazon: Dubliners
YouTube: DUBLINERS by James Joyce, The Sisters, (p. I), (p. II), (p. III), (p. IV). DUBLINERS by James Joyce - FULL Audio Book | Greatest Audio Books

2011 March: Passages from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (1965-67), 2010 March: Ulysses Seen, 2013 February: ULYSSES “SEEN” is moving to Dublin!.

"Shake, Rattle and Roll"

Wikipedia - "'Shake, Rattle and Roll' is a twelve bar blues-form rock and roll song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone under his assumed songwriting name Charles E. Calhoun. It was originally recorded by Big Joe Turner, and most successfully by Bill Haley & His Comets. The song as sung by Big Joe Turner is ranked #126 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."
Wikipedia
npr: The Big Man Behind 'Shake, Rattle And Roll'
YouTube: Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle & Roll, Bill Haley
vimeo: Elvis Presley

Robert Wilson - Death, Destruction and Detroit

"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: Death, Destruction and Detroit
A CurtainUp Review
The Apocalypse Is Here, and it's Gorgeously Inviting
Music: The Days Before
NYT: John Rockwell
Voice: Cold Comfort

Agnes Martin

Wood I, 1963
Wikipedia - "Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was a Canado-American abstract painter, often referred to as a minimalist; Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist. She won a National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998. ... In addition to a couple of self-portraits and a few watercolor landscapes, Martin's early works include biomorphic paintings in subdued colors made when the artist had a grant to work in Taos between 1955 and 1957. However, she did her best to seek out and destroy paintings from the years when she was taking her first steps into abstraction."
Wikipedia
artnet
Phaidon - Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances (Video)
ZWIRNER & WIRTH | Agnes Martin
vimeo: In Search of Agnes Martin

Dollhouse

1902 Period Doll House
Wikipedia - "A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. The term dollhouse is common in the United States and Canada. In UK the terms dolls' house or dollshouse are used. Today's dollhouses trace their history back about four hundred years to the baby house display cases of Europe, which showed idealized interiors. Smaller doll houses with more realistic exteriors appeared in Europe in the 18th century. Early dollhouses were all handmade, but following the Industrial Revolution and World War II, they were increasingly mass-produced and became more standardized and affordable."
Wikipedia
Doll houses and Miniatures, Antique Dollhouses, Dollhouses
Derelict Farmhouse transformed into a life-size Dollhouse
W - American Girl
American Girl

Argo (2012)

Wikipedia - "Argo is a 2012 historical drama thriller film directed by Ben Affleck. ... Militants storm the United States embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, in retaliation for President Jimmy Carter giving the Shah asylum in the U.S. during the revolution in Iran. More than 50 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six escape and hide in the home of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). With the escapees' situation kept secret, the US State Department begins to explore options for exfiltrating them from Iran. Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), a CIA exfiltration specialist brought in for consultation, criticizes the proposals, but is at a loss for an alternative. While on the phone with his son, he is inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes and begins plans for creating a cover story for the escapees being Canadian filmmakers scouting for exotic locations in Iran for a similar science-fiction film."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Argo Trailer

"Missionary Man" - Eurythmics

Wikipedia - "'Missionary Man' is a song by the British pop music duo Eurythmics. It was taken from their sixth album, Revenge, and continued the band's rock/R&B musical style of the time and featured Jimmy Zavala on harmonica."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Missionary Man"

2009 August: Eurythmics
2012 March: 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)
2012 December: In the Garden

Neil A. White

"Neil is an English-born photographer and teacher currently living in London, UK. ... Growing up in the north of England, Neil would escape to the countryside whenever he could. This fascination with the natural world and contrasting environments is at the heart of his photography and an infinite source of inspiration. His work explores the relationship between nature and the modern world, and how they co-exist, sometimes harmoniously, more often in conflict with one another. He sees this conflict as one of the key dilemmas of modern day existence."
Neil A. White
vimeo: Lost Villages

Stanley Kubrick - LACMA

"Often, I find museum exhibitions that have to do with celebrity or Hollywood culture to be a shameless attempt to generate a blockbuster-sized crowd who, flocking to the museum in droves, boost attendance numbers for the year. That being said, the massive installation Stanley Kubrick at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) transcends the sticky landscape of vapid popular culture and embraces a filmmaker that many would term an artist. The exhibition, which was originally curated by the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt was brought to LACMA in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."
An Imperfect Exhibition of a Near-Perfect Director, Stanley Kubrick
YouTube: Stanley Kubrick Exhibit @ LACMA - Part 1/3, Part 2/3, Part 3

2008 August: Stanley Kubrick, 2010 September: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2011 February: A Stanley Kubrick Odyssey - A Tribute, 2011 April: Killer's Kiss (1955), 2011 December: Chicago (1949), 2012 October: Dr. Strangelove (1965)

I Stand Alone - Al Kooper

"Listening to I Stand Alone for the first time is a lot like first hearing the Sgt. Pepper album, except that this album challenges and rewards the listener in ways that the Beatles' psychedelic classic never tried to or could have. Al Kooper's first solo album is a dazzling, almost overpoweringly beautiful body of music, and nearly as sly at times in its humor as it is impressive in its musical sensibilities -- specifically, the overture serves its function, and also pokes knowing, savagely piercing fun at the then-current vogue for sound collage-type pieces (most especially the Beatles' 'Revolution #9')."
allmusic
rising storm (Video)
W - I Stand Alone
YouTube: I Stand Alone (Part 1), (Part 2), (Part 3), (Part 4), (Part 5)

2009 February: Al Kooper
2012 January: Child Is Father to the Man - Blood, Sweat & Tears

Woman Arrested for Instagramming Street Art

"Montreal, Canada – 20 Year old Jennifer Pawluck was arrested this past Wednesday, she is accused of criminal harassment and intimidation, after posting a picture of anti-police graffiti online, last month. ... The allegation is tied to a photo she posted to the social media site Instagram depicting a drawing of Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière. The image, which Pawluck photographed about a week ago after spotting it on a brick wall in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood, shows the police commander with a bullet hole in his forehead. His name is also written beside the image. The graffiti has since been removed."
Montreal Woman Arrested for Posting Photo of Anti-Police Graffiti on Instagram (Video)

Jimmy Johnson

Wikipedia - "Jimmy Johnson (born February 4, 1943, Sheffield, Alabama) is an American a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section that was attached to FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama for a period in the 1960s and 1970s, and later was the a founder of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio located at first on 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama and at a second site on 1000 Alabama Avenue also in Sheffield, Alabama. Johnson's operated variously as a record producer or guitarist."
Wikipedia
allmusic: Jimmy Johnson
The unbearable lightness of being Jimmy Johnson
amazon: Jimmy Johnson
YouTube: Blues, As the years go passing, You Don't Know What Love Is, Cold Cold Feeling, Sky is Crying, Great soul-blues, When My First Wife Quit Me, The Twelve Bar Blues, Serves me right to suffer, Ashes In My Ashtray, JIMMY JOHNSON INTERVIEW

Chen Zhen - The Body as Landscape

"... Having grown up during the Cultural Revolution in China, Chen Zhen has lived and worked in Shanghai, New York and Paris. All his work goes beyond the borders commonly marked between Oriental and Western thinking, and even evades systematic classification on the basis of labels commonly associated with art movements. Deliberately avoiding rigid membership of any group and consolidated expressive languages, Chen Zhen placed a striving for synthesis as the basis for his work, questioning himself, for instance, on the strength and universality of human desire to avoid wars in favour of peaceful mediation."
e-flux
designboom

The World According to John Coltrane

Wikipedia - "The World According to John Coltrane is a documentary film about saxophonist John Coltrane. Produced with the cooperation of his widow Alice Coltrane, the documentary focuses on the later period of Coltrane's work where he explored themes of Eastern spirituality. This is a retrospective documentary on the life and music of saxophonist John Coltrane, featuring reminiscences and interviews with his contemporaries and fellow musicians."
Wikipedia
amazon: The World According to John Coltrane (1991)
YouTube: The World According to John Coltrane

A Software Dry Run

"One person’s experiment with new gear is another’s background listening — one’s focused subject of hands-on attention, another’s office-filling atmosphere. Such is 'Dry Sun Anode,' a gently torqued drone that contorts in one direction while it moves in another. It’s the work of Ken Mistove, aka Kenzak, who lives in Simi Valley, California. The tool he was fiddling with is Atomic Shadow’s Panoramic Wave Generator for Kontakt, which the developer calls 'an experimental sound generating sample library'.”
disquiet
kenzak (Video)
Soundcloud: dry sun anode (Video)
atomicshadow (Video)

Les Blank

Wikipedia - "Les Blank (November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013) was an American documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians. ... Most of his films focused on American traditional music forms, including (among others) blues, Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, Tex-Mex, polka, tamburitza, and Hawaiian musics. Many of these films represent the only filmed documents of musicians who are now deceased. Blank's films focusing on musical subjects often spent much of their running time focusing not on the music itself but on the music's cultural context, portraying the surroundings from which these American roots musics come."
Wikipedia
Les Blank Films (Video)
folkstreams: Dry Wood (1973), Cigarette Blues, (1985) (Video)
Les Blank, Independent Documentary Filmmaker (1935-2013) (Video)
An American Treasure and Living Legend Les Blank and his Documentary Films
NYT: Les Blank, Filmmaker of America’s Periphery, Dies at 77
Les Blank. INTERVIEWED BY JESSE PEARSON.
Time Well Spent: Les Blank (Video)

2011 February: The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins

Michelangelo Pistoletto

Venus of the Rags
Wikipedia - "Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 25 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. ... In the beginning of the 1960s, Pistoletto started painting figurative works and self-portraits which he painted on a monochrome, metallic background. Later on, he combined painting with photography using collage techniques on reflective backgrounds. Eventually, he switched over to printing photorealistic scenes on steel plates polished to a high finish."
Wikipedia
Michelangelo Pistoletto
YouTube: Michelangelo Pistoletto at Tate Modern, Michelangelo Pistoletto on his Sepentine commission, Michelangelo Pistoletto Serpentine Gallery, Michelangelo Pistoletto / Gianna Nannini: "Il Terzo Paradiso", bunKerart, Milan, 2007

The Head-Hunters

"Head Hunter is an institution here in Brooklyn. It is one of the oldest and most respected barbershop in Bed-Stuy. I heard about it because it is a well known fact in the neighborhood that Notorious B.I.G. used to hang out there. Few weeks ago, Jason 'Classic Beatz' Minnis mentionned to me that the shop was one block away from his house and that he goes there two or three times a week. I immediately asked him to hook me up with those guys. One week later, Jason calls me back and says 'Mark, the owner of the place, is expecting us this Saturday. That we should go at around 2.30 PM when the place is packed so you have a feel of the place'. Bingo."
charleslebrigand (Video)
W - Barber, W - Hairstyles in the 1950s, W - Afro-textured hair, W - Afro, W - Ponytail, W - Regular haircut, W - Beard, W - Baldness.

Peter Gabriel - "Sledgehammer" (1986)

Wikipedia - "'Sledgehammer' is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. ... The song was influenced by 1960s soul music, in particular the music made by the Memphis label Stax. The distinctive horn track was provided by the Memphis Horns, house musicians at Stax. The opening horn riff is similar to the beginning of John Coltrane's 'Chronic Blues' from the Coltrane album. The song also features a synthesized shakuhachi flute generated with an Emu Emulator II sampler. The lyrics are a mosaic of sexual innuendos, with references to steam trains, bumper cars, Big Dipper (roller coaster) and fruit cage as metaphors for male and female sexual organs and references to pollination, acting like a sledgehammer, fruit and bees as metaphors of sexual acts."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Sledgehammer"

Merlin James

"... In recent years Merlin James has made paintings often on semi-transparent supports, and with picture frames that are integral to the work. These quasi-conventional frames, and the stretcher bar structures partly visible through them, may be fabricated from humble, seemingly salvaged materials, pressed into service as ‘fancy’, high-art objects. Extending James’s long-standing investigations into the nature of painting, the works continue to feature his particular erotic, topographic, architectural or abstract motifs – images that both function as elements in his aesthetic experiment and build to a poetic account of human experience."
Contemporary Art Daily
Sikkema Jenkins Co.
frieze
Art Critical

NEIL YOUNG Part 1 – Thoughts On An Artist / Three Compilations

"I don’t remember hearing Neil Young’s music much when I was growing up, although I was probably aware of some of his most popular songs like 'Southern Man' and 'Heart of Gold.' It wasn’t until I was 12 or 13 and began listening to rock radio stations (as opposed Neil Young Photo (circa 1968)to Top 40) that I started hearing his music more frequently. In 1979 you couldn’t go 30 minutes without hearing one of his new twin acoustic & electric songs, 'My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)' or 'Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black).' Even though I enjoyed them, it would be years until I owned any of his albums, remaining content to hear his songs occasionally on the radio. For some reason he’s never come close to being one of my favorite artists, yet I’ve liked him enough to accumulate 45 of his albums."
KamerTunesBlog (Video)

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.

Mento

Wikipedia - "Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the bass part of the music. Mento is often confused with calypso, a musical form from Trinidad and Tobago. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms. During the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently referred to as calypso, kalypso and mento calypso; mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques. As in Calypso, Mento uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on poverty and other social issues. Sexual innuendos are also common."
Wikipedia
Mento Music
YouTube: MENTO gave birth to Reggae, Early Theodore Miller-Mento Music, Authentic Mento Band, Count Owen and his Calypsonians - Melody D'amour, Walk & Talk - Bedasse w. Calypso Quintet, Honeymoon - Bedasse with Local Calypso Quintet, Lord Power - Penny Reel, Rum & Coconut Water - Hubert Porter and The Jamaican Calypsonians

Saving Basquiat: Seeing the Art Through the Myth-Making at Gagosian

"With over 50 paintings, 'museum-quality' is probably the term you'd use to describe Gagosian’s Jean-Michel Basquiat show, which has been drawing rock-star crowds to West 24th street since it opened. But really, it might be better to call it 'warehouse-quality.' The show is overwhelming and difficult to write about, partly because there doesn’t seem to be any idea behind it at all; the works are hung neither by chronology nor by theme. They are merely a spectacularly impressive collection of largish Basquiats from a number of private collections. In this way, the show replicates the tragedy of this artist’s short and chaotic life, where the feverish buzz of celebrity came to overpower any assessment of the works as individual objects."
Blouin Art Info
Gagosian: the works

2009 August: Jean-Michel Basquiat

Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe unlocked and on display after nearly 60 years

"When she died, her husband Diego Rivera ordered her clothes be locked up for 15 years. When Diego passed three years later, a philanthropist, art collector and old friend of the couple, Dolores Olmedo became the manager of their houses. She kept all of Kahlo’s belongings secretly guarded under lock and key for decades until she too passed away in 2004 and the fashion time capsule of an icon; a treasure chest, was finally unlocked. Defiantly beautiful, tenacious, and veracious, Frida Kahlo was and still is one of the most revolutionary and influential women in modern culture. The Mexican artist, known for her surreal self-portraits, emblematic of her indigenous Mexican culture, her great love for her husband and her tragic disability, are still celebrated in exhibitions and retrospectives around the world."
messy nessy chic (Video)
W - Frida Kahlo Museum
Frida Kahlo's Fashionable Wardrobe Open To The World Through ‘Appearances Can Be Deceiving' Exhibition (Video)

2008 April: Frida Kahlo
2008 May: Diego Rivera

Evoca1 New Mural In Río San Juan, Dominican Republic

"Miami-based Evoca1 recently stopped by Dominican Republic where he dropped this gorgeous new mural somewhere on the streets of Río San Juan, a municipality in the María Trinidad Sánchez province. The Dominican painter tries to merge art and humanity together. He started the ‘Sketches for Mankind‘ project to raise awareness of local and world wide issues through his art, all while raising funds to aid the needs of the homeless community in Miami. Check back with us soon for more by Evoca1..."
StreetArtNews

Mapping Manhattan

"'New York blends the gift of privacy with the excitement of participation … so that every event is, in a sense, optional, and the inhabitant is in the happy position of being able to choose his spectacle and so conserve his soul,' E. B. White memorably wrote in his 1949 masterpiece Here Is New York. And indeed what a canvas of glorious shared eclecticism Gotham is — city of cats and city of dogs, city of beloved public spaces and beloved secret places, of meticulous order and sparkling chaos, but above all a city of private memories woven together into one shared tapestry of belonging. Maps, meanwhile, have long held unparalleled storytelling power as tools of propaganda, imagination, obsession, and timekeeping."
brain pickings
Map Your Memories
NYT: Manhattan of the Mind
amazon

"Love Is a Beautiful Thing" - Al Green

Wikipedia - "Seth Swirsky wrote 'Love Is a Beautiful Thing,' which was recorded by Al Green for his 1995 album Your Heart's in Good Hands. The song also appears on his 2002 Love, The Essential Al Green Greatest Hits Collection. It was Green's last charted single (#56 in the UK)."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Love is a Beautiful Thing

2011 April: Al Green

The Story Of The Turban

"The Story Of The Turban is a documentary by BBC Television which traces down the history of the turban in the Sikh religion. It shows how the British Sikhs fought for its freedom, for its existence, for wearing it without fear. In September 2011, Sikhs from all over Britain gathered in Parliament Square to protest. The focus of their concern was the turban. Since the terrorist attacks of the 21st century Sikhs believe their turbans have singled them out for discrimination. In a case of mistaken identity the Sikhs claim they’ve been wrongly regarded as religious terrorists and subjected to increased airport security searches."
punjabiportal
YouTube: The Story of the Turban

Ben Durham - Text Portraits

"Ben Durham’s drawings are currently on view at the Nicole Klagsburn Gallery through February 19th. All images have been graciousely provided courtesy the Nicole Klagsburn Gallery. The subjects of Ben Durham’s portraits are friends, classmates and acquaintances from his childhood in Lexington, Kentucky. In a ritualistic daily process, the artist combs the Lexington police reports for familiar names and faces, collecting their mug shots and arrest records. Ranging from petty theft to violent crime, these records represent the climax of a troubled past. Drawn on thick handmade paper, the Text Portraits are comprised of Durham’s memories of the subject, resulting in an eerily accurate picture composed entirely of text."
Glasschord
art21 - Inside the Artist's Studio: Ben Durham
Smithsonian Institution: Text Portraits