The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

"Like so many daily comestibles we completely take for granted—salt, sugar, and (far fewer of us) tobacco—coffee has a long and often brutal history. And like many of these substances, it tends to be addictive. But coffee has also inspired a longstanding social tradition that shows no signs of ever going out of fashion. It’s a drug that makes us thinky and chatty and sociable (I for one don’t speak a human language until I’ve had my first cup). It’s these contradictions of coffee history—its complicity in slave economies and the Enlightenment public square—that Mark Pendergrast takes on in his new book Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World."
Open Culture (Video)
amazon: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

2010 September: Espresso

Vhils New Murals In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

"Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is now in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for his upcoming exhibition at Clark Art Center.
The Portuguese artist and his crew spent the last few weeks working on the streets of Rio where they dropped a series of fresh portraits. Vhils' work continues explores the layers of urban space and its history through the destruction of their walls."
StreetArtNews

2009 September: Alexandre Farto (aka Vhils), 2012 March: Vhils Solo Show, 2012 November: Vhils New Mural In London, UK.

Women Unveiled: Marc Garanger’s Contested Portraits of 1960s Algeria

"For France, the trauma of the Algerian War (1954-1962) was not unlike the experience of the Vietnam War for the United States. But, unlike the conflict in Vietnam, few photographic documents exist from that period in Algeria: it is as if the French responded with collective amnesia. Marc Garanger’s Algerian Women is one of the few photographic essays dedicated to that painful period."
Light Box

The Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art

PIARS Sonic Arts
"The Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art, SONM, has been created as a public access resource -both physical and virtual online- with my entire collection of experimental music and sound art, gathered over the past thirty years of direct exchange with thousands of sound artists worldwide. This sound archive is not the result of a collector's accumulation (I am not a collector) but is instead the consequence of an intense activity as an artist, and also of one of the most fundamental features of the international community of sound artists: the exchange and collaboration, both physical and telematic. The archive is thus a personal collection, subjective, partial, and particularly focused on the global communities of so-called 'independent' or 'underground' artists, which I am part of since the late 70s."
SONM Archive
Sonm
The Journal of Sonic Studies
YouTube: Slow Dancing Society - The Delicate Sound Of Silence, Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek — In Session 05.10.09, Asmus Tietchens - Hydrophonie 1, zoviet france -- Mohnomishe -- Untitled-4, Mike Hovancsek, B. Chabala & J. Cieciel - The Stomp

On Painting: Alex Katz & Felix Vallotton

Alex Katz, Sunset 1, 2008
"Paintings by Alex Katz, one of the most famous contemporary American painters have been hung alongside a selection of works by Felix Vallotton, one of Switzerland’s most renowned artists, who lived 100 years ago. The show is like walking through the studio of artists who could very well have been painting side by side. Although Katz was born two years after Vallotton died and knew very little of him, there are uncanny resemblances in the themes that inspired them and in the way they painted."
World Radio (Video)
e-flux: On Painting. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton
Museum Publicity

2008 February: Alex Katz
2010 December: Life Imitates Art
2012 June: Alex Katz Prints

Pretty Boy Floyd

Wikipedia - "Charles Arthur 'Pretty Boy' Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934) was an American bank robber. He operated in the Midwest and West South Central States, and his criminal exploits gained heavy press coverage in the 1930s. Like most other prominent outlaws of that era, he was killed by policemen. He remains a familiar figure in American popular culture, sometimes seen as notorious, but at other times viewed as a tragic figure, partly a victim of hard times. ... In March 1939, five years after Floyd's death, Woody Guthrie, a native of Oklahoma, wrote a song romanticizing Floyd's life, called 'The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd.' The song has the form of a Broadside 'come-all-ye' ballad opening with the lines..."
Wikipedia (Video)
FBI: Kansas City Massacre—Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd
YouTube: Pretty Boy Floyd - Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, Joan Baez

"Homburg" - Procol Harum (1967)

Wikipedia - "'Homburg' was Procol Harum's follow-up single to their initial 1967 hit 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. Written by pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid, 'Homburg' reached number 5 in the UK charts, number 15 in Canada, and number 34 in the United States. ... Reid's 'Homburg' lyrics contains the same surreal, dream-like imagery and feelings of resignation and futility as in the debut single. The music also features Matthew Fisher's rich and deep Hammond organ, but the piano and guitar have bigger places in the overall sound."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Homburg"

2009 July: Procol Harum
2011 July: A Salty Dog
2011 December: Broken Barricades

Repetition - Søren Kierkegaard (1843)

Wikipedia - "Repetition is a 1843 book by Søren Kierkegaard. ... In Repetition he followed his own advice and became his own psychologist. He used the pseudonym Constantin Constantius in this book. Constantin is currently conducting experiments into whether repetition is possible. The book includes his experiments and his relation to a nameless patient known only as the Young Man. Every patient must have a problem. The Young Man has fallen in love with a girl, proposed marriage, the proposal has been accepted, but now he has changed his mind."
Wikipedia
Wikiquote
Kierkegaard's Repetition as a Comedy in Two Acts - Stuart Dalton
amazon: Repetition and Philosophical Crumbs (Oxford World's Classics)
Job and the thunderstorm in Kierkegaard’s Repetition

2011 July: Søren Kierkegaard

Bamboo Blues - Pina Bausch (2007)

"Pina Bausch’s 'Bamboo Blues' (currently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music) is, like most or all of her work, an incoherent dreamscape. Sometimes strikingly picturesque, always fluid in its comings and goings, it switches between episodes of sensual impulsiveness; coy, catwalklike audience-awareness; rushing scenes of harrowing need or anxiety; and diverse aspects of melancholia."
NYT: Glimpses of India, Eruptions of Chaos, Flashes of Choreography
Brooklyn Rail: Pina Bausch Returns to BAM with Bamboo Blues
Telegraph - Pina Bausch: A vision of life’s humour and pain
Dance’s free radicals: Bringing Pina Bausch’s work to the Olympics
ballet dance
Pina Bausch's Sensuous, Mysterious, Funny, Sexy, Playful, Violent "Bamboo Blues"
Tanztheater Wuppertal - Bamboo Blues
YouTube: Bamboo Blues@Spoleto52 Festival dei 2Mondi
facebook: Bamboo Blues

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

The Ruins of an Empire

"Motown has ran out of gas. The city looks like a ghost-town or a place that has been hit by a typhoon. Some areas even look like war zones. As I drive around downtown Detroit and in the adjacent neighborhoods below the infamous 8 mile road that defines Detroit’s northern border, I have post-apocalyptic visions. All I see are beautiful abandoned art deco buildings and Neo-Gothic skyscrapers, rusted factories, broken windows, desolated churches, evacuated schools, unoccupied hotels and motels, dried up gas stations, empty supermarkets and shuttered shops. I also see thousands of deserted homes."
charles le brigand

Chemiserie Niguet

"Spotted at Beautiful Century, this scan of a postcard showing the flower shop which now occupies what was originally the Chemiserie Niguet in Brussels. The shop is in the Rue Royale, and the Art Nouveau storefront was installed in 1896 from a design by Belgian architect Paul Hankar (1859–1901). Considering this is one of Hankar’s few Art Nouveau designs to have survived the depredations of 'Brusselization' I was surprised that the only illustration in any of my books was the early plan below. (In fairness, Victor Horta tends to dominate any general discussion of Belgian Art Nouveau architecture.)"
feuilleton

KEEPINTIME

" Keepintime started as a simple idea, let’s bring some of the most revered and notable L.A. session drummers together for a photo shoot. Then have them talk about the famous (to us) recordings that we (those whose ears have been opened through hip-hop) treasure, sample and discuss endlessly. The musicians (Roy Porter, Earl Palmer, Paul Humphrey and James Gadson) were excited at the prospect of sitting together and discussing old times, old friends and the business. The first problem we encountered though was that to our ears the famous sessions were in fact often beyond the reach of our musician’s memory."
mochilla
Stylus
CDUniverse
Discogs: Various ‎– Keepintime: A Live Recording
YouTube: Keepintime: Talking drums and whispering vinyl pt. 1, pt. 2
YouTube: Brasilintime Documentary (ft. Madlib,babu,cut Chemist) 1:52:22
YouTube: Keep In Time: A Live Recording 47:00

The Radiants

"The Radiants were an American doo-wop and R&B group popular in the 1960s. The group formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1960, where its members met singing in the youth choir of Greater Harvest Baptist Church. They performed both gospel and secular tunes, the latter of which were written by leader Maurice McAlister. While attempting to land a record deal, they found that labels weren't interested in gospel groups anymore, and concentrated on secular tunes, eventually landing a deal with Chess Records."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Baby You Got It (1965), Voice Your Choice (1966), Don't Wanna Face The Truth (1965), (Don't It Make You) Feel Kind Of Bad (1965), I'm Glad I'm The Loser

Manet: Portraying Life

"This singularly important exhibition is the first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. Spanning the entire career of this enigmatic and at times controversial artist, 'Manet: Portraying Life' brings together works from across Europe, Asia and the USA. Manet’s engagement with portraiture has never been explored in exhibition form before, despite it constituting around half of his artistic output. Manet painted his family, friends and the literary, political and artistic figures of his day, giving life not only to his subjects but also to Parisian society of the time."
Royal Academy (Video)
vimeo - Manet: Portraying Life
NYT: I Went to a Movie and an Art Exhibition Broke Out
Manet: Portraying Life – review
amazon
YouTube - The Making of Manet: Portraying Life

2011 May: Manet, the Man who Invented Modernity

Superflex - Burning Car (2008)

Wikipedia - "Superflex is a Danish artists' group founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen. Superflex describe their projects as Tools, as proposals that invite people to participate in and communicate the development of experimental models that alter the economic production conditions. Often the projects are assisted by experts who bring in their special interest, these tools can then be further used and modified by their users. Often their projects are related to economic forces, democratic production conditions and self-organisation."
Wikipedia
UbuWeb: Superflex (Video)
SUPERFLEX with PHONG BUI

They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950

"During the first half of the 20th century, the city of Chicago was shaped and reshaped by waves of migration and immigration as African Americans poured in from the South and newcomers arrived from Europe and Mexico. They Seek a City is the first exhibition to focus on the art produced by the wonderfully diverse communities that made Chicago their home. Over 80 works primarily by southern- and foreign-born artists—many rarely seen by the museum’s audiences—come together for this look at the city’s rich art of migration, as Chicago became the polyglot, cosmopolitan place that it remains today."
The Art Institute of Chicago
N'DIGO
In seeking a city, AIC’s latest misses connection
amazon
WTTW (Video)

Western Culture - Henry Cow

Wikipedia - "Western Culture is an album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Sunrise Studios in Kirchberg, Switzerland in January, July and August 1978. It was their last album and was released on Henry Cow's own private label, Broadcast, in 1979. Later editions appeared on Interzone in the US and Celluloid in France. Only the UK Broadcast pressing used the custom label artwork design."
Wikipedia
Pitchfork
Prog Archives
allmusic
amazon
YouTube: (History and Prospects) Industry, History and Prospects: On the Raft, Day by Day: Falling Away, Day by Day: Gretel's Tale, Day by Day: ½ the Sky, Viva Pa Ubu

photograph + poem = PHO-TOEM

"My visual art pieces, crafted digital photographs, draw from the traditions of urban landscape photography, collage, mural, and graffiti art. I call these works 'pho-toems.' I begin with a digital photo I’ve taken. Then, via Photoshop, I add other images I have created, e.g., black & white images I’ve Xeroxed out of 1930’s sixth-grade textbooks, hand-colored, and scanned back in. Then, I add small bits of my own text— mini-poems, if you will."
Nance Van Winckel
PhoToems by Nance Van Winckel
YouTube: Astral Project Town

Township Jive & Kwela Jazz (1940-1960

"Kwela jazz is frequently quoted as the defining sound of a more innocent time in South African history. A cursory wiki provides this somewhat sterile snapshot: ‘happy, often pennywhistle-based, street music from Southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat’. That’ll do as a high-level view of the music itself but can never provide the sense of sheer exuberance that the music itself resonates."
deep absurdum (Video)
YouTube: Soul Safari presents Township Jive & Kwela Jazz (1940-1960)

Tommy McCook - Blazing Horns/Tenor in Roots

"Saxophonist Tommy McCook is primarily remembered for his role as a founding member of the seminal ska band the Skatalites, who played such an important part in the development and maturation of ska before it morphed into the slower rocksteady genre, and later into reggae. But McCook was no slouch in those later categories of music, either, as this wonderful two-for-one reissue makes plain. The Blazing Horns segment of this disc was originally issued on LP in 1979 on the Grove Music label and consists of nine tracks originally produced by Vivian 'Yabby U' Jackson."
allmusic
Dusted Reviews
YouTube: Blazing Horns, Blazing Horns, Tears of love, Tubby's control, Far over yonder, Gold Street Skank

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)