Drawn the Road Again - Chandler O'Leary

"My name is Chandler O’Leary. I live in Washington state with my lovely husband (whom I refer to as 'the Tailor' because he makes his own clothes and wishes to remain anonymous) and our tiny stick-shift Subaru sedan. We both love to travel, but I’m the real nut in the family. For one thing, I have lived all over the U.S. and even in Italy—so the urge to wander is deeply ingrained. And I am the one who will choose the squiggliest line on the map, rather than the Interstate highway, every single time."
Drawn the Road Again
Anagram Press - Blog

Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy

Edgar Degas, pastel, Woman at her Toilette.
"Presented as a companion to the major exhibition Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, which investigates Impressionist artists’ expressive use of contemporary fashion in depictions of public life, this exhibition focuses on the private side of apparel—and the lack thereof. Featuring more than 120 drawings and prints, as well as select paintings, photographs, and materials from the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Undressed explores the connotations of informal dress and undress in intimate, personal situations."
The Art Institute of Chicago
Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy - Images
Art Institute of Chicago Exposes the Fashions of Intimacy

2012 December: Impressionism and Fashion (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), 2013 March: Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity.

The Dude Company - The Art of Basketball

"An explosive re-purposing of the iconic official NBA Game Basketball and Backboard as defined by some of today’s most celebrated graffiti and street artists. Presented by Public Works Department. Curated by Billi Kid and James & Karla Murray. charles le brigand."
vimeo: The Dude Company - The Art of Basketball

Rough Cut - Pina Bausch (2007)

"... The Berliner Festspiele always brings the most stunning and creative shows to Berlin. Tonight, was no exception. All the energy that emanated from this dancing performance flooded the audience, giving them no other option than hanging on and enjoying the ride. The female dancers, in colourful ball-gown style dresses, run, jump and somehow float around the huge stage. The male dancers, many times carrying, throwing and spinning these beautiful creatures, seem infatigable. This passionate combination of woman and man on stage, interlacing their bodies is very liberating. However, I was sometimes melancholic when the facial expressions and body movements were full of sad emotion. The music also emphasised this feeling."
My Journeys
Dance Photos
Reportage : ROUGH CUT de Pina Bausch
Choreographer Pina Bausch Stages 'Rough Cut' Portraying Korean Culture
[PDF] Rough Cut: Phenomenological Reflections on Pina Bausch’s Choreography
Tanztheater Wuppertal

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

The Heart of Saturday Night - Tom Waits (1974)

"If Closing Time, Tom Waits' debut album, consisted of love songs set in a late-night world of bars and neon signs, its follow-up, The Heart of Saturday Night, largely dispenses with the romance in favor of poetic depictions of the same setting. On 'Diamonds on My Windshield' and 'The Ghosts of Saturday Night,' Waits doesn't even sing, instead reciting his verse rhythmically against bass and drums like a Beat hipster. Musically, the album contains the same mixture of folk, blues, and jazz as its predecessor, with producer Bones Howe occasionally bringing in an orchestra to underscore the loping melodies."
allmusic
W - The Heart of Saturday Night
YouTube: The Heart Of Saturday Night (Full Album) 41:36
YouTube: San Diego Serenade 1975, Drunk on the Moon, Diamonds on My Windshield, The Heart Of Saturday Night

2012 July: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, 2013 March: Burma Shave, 2013 May: "Ol' '55".

Adam Thirlwell

Wikipedia - "Adam Thirlwell (born 22 August 1978) is a British novelist. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He has twice been named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. ... He is also the author of a project on the novel and translation, which includes a book first published in 2007, which was chosen as a book of the year by Tom Stoppard in The Guardian and A. S. Byatt in the Times Literary Supplement; and, as guest editor, an anthology of multiple translations for McSweeney's Quarterly."
Wikipedia
New Republic: How Baudelaire Revolutionized Modern Literature; Genocide and the Fine Arts (Claude Lanzmann); Visionary Materialism (Arthur Rimbaud, John Ashbery); My Novel, My Novel (Roland Barthes).
Granta - Interview: Adam Thirlwell
The Quietus: Adam Thirlwell On The Great Gatsby
YouTube: Granta Best Young British Novelists 2013

Aoife O'Donovan - "Fossils"

"... If her aim was to mold a collection which encompasses a broad range of sensibilities including pop and country/rock more nuanced tracks, nonetheless the Boston native artist is determined to keep in the album framework a distinctively folk core. 'Fossils' is impressively interpreted by Aoife's ethereal voice and her capacity to move sometimes abruptly from a melancholy tone to a rough and somewhat stark one without losing the sensuality of the vocals, gives the listener the impression of having to do with a remarkable piece of work, sure making it one of the finest albums in the Americana landscape you can hear in this 2013."
No Depression
NY Times: From Gowanus to Bonnaroo
W - Aoife O'Donovan
YouTube: Red & White & Blue & Gold, Beekeeper, Lay My Burden Down, Oh, Mama, Fire Engine, Tears of Healing Rain/ After the Rain

2011 June: Crooked Still - Some Strange Country, 2011 October: Crooked Stills - EP Friends Of Fall, 2011 October: Interview: Aoife O' Donovan of Crooked Still Shares Memories While Looking Ahead.

War - The World Is a Ghetto

"War's third album as an act separate from Eric Burdon was also far and away their most popular, the group's only long-player to top the pop charts. The culmination of everything they'd been shooting for creatively on their two prior albums, it featured work in both succinct pop-accessible idioms ('The Cisco Kid,' etc.) as well as challenging extended pieces such as the 13-minute 'City, Country, City' -- which offered featured spots to all seven members without ever seeming disjointed -- and the title track, and encompass not only soul and funk but elements of blues and psychedelia on works such as the exquisite 'Four Cornered Room.'"
allmusic
W - The World Is a Ghetto
YouTube: The Midnight Special 1973 - Cisco Kid, Cisco Kid, City Country City, Four Cornered Room, The World Is A Ghetto, Where Was You At, Beetles In The Bog

Hopper Drawing

Study for Nighthawks, 1941 or 1942.
"Hopper Drawing is the first major museum exhibition to focus on the drawings and creative process of Edward Hopper (1882–1967). More than anything else, Hopper’s drawings reveal the continually evolving relationship between observation and invention in the artist’s work, and his abiding interest in the spaces and motifs—the street, the movie theatre, the office, the bedroom, the road—that he would return to throughout his career as an artist."
Whitney
NY Times: A Master, Between the Lines
amazon: Hopper Drawing
VIDEO: Drawings of Edward Hopper at the Whitney

2008 July: Edward Hopper, 2010 October: Finding Nighthawks, 2010 December: Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time, 2012 Wednesday: Through Edward Hopper's eyes: in search of an artist's seaside inspiration.

The Chess Records Story

"From Muddy Waters to Bo Diddley to Chuck Berry to Etta James, Chess Records helped solidify Chicago as one of the music centers of the world and became the bridge between rural southern blues and the emergence of both rock and soul music. And the documentary The Chess Records Story tells an awful lot of that history in a pretty short time. It is great watching and a virtualy musical history lesson."
Soul Track
YouTube: The Chess Records Story 01, 02, 03, 04

Michael Nyman: Composer in Progress, In Concert (2010)

"This special DVD boxed set pairs an insightful documentary on composer Michael Nyman's artistic life with a live concert recording of the Michael Nyman Band at Studio Halle. Known for his minimalist soundtracks to such movies as Man on Wire and The Piano, Michael Nyman also has an increasing passion for film and photography, as Composer in Progress demonstrates."
amazon
YouTube: Michael Nyman in Progress - Trailer, Silvia Beck. Michael Nyman. Composer in Progress. 2010, Michael Nyman in Concert

2008 April: Michael Nyman, 2010 August: Decay Music, 2010 December: After Extra Time, 2011 March: Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, 2011 August: Michael Nyman Band, 2011 December: The Draughtsman's Contract - Peter Greenaway, 2012 March: Time Lapse.

Montage

Wikipedia - "Montage ... is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. The term has been used in various contexts. It was introduced to cinema primarily by Eisenstein, and early Russian directors used it as a synonym for creative editing. In France the word 'montage' simply denotes cutting. The term 'montage sequence' has been used primarily by British and American studios, which refers to the common technique as outlined in this article. The montage sequence is usually used to suggest the passage of time, rather than to create symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory. From the 1930s to the 1950s, montage sequences often combined numerous short shots with special optical effects (fades, dissolves, split screens, double and triple exposures) dance and music. They were usually assembled by someone other than the director or the editor of the movie."
Wikipedia
W - Soviet montage theory
YouTube: Soviet Montage Cinema, Eisenstein's 5 "methods" of montage
YouTube: Movies in movies: A montage

Life in Five Seconds

"In our jet-fuelled, caffeine-induced, celebrity-a-minute world, who actually has the time to learn a thing or two? C’mon, let’s face it, life’s too bloody short. What you need is instant knowledge. Life in Five Seconds takes 200 world events, inventions, great lives, places, animals and cultural icons that you really need to know about, and then, hey presto!, cuts away all the useless details. The Last Supper, Lady Gaga, the moon landings, the Mona Lisa, the invention of electricity, Ikea, the Berlin Wall, celebrity chefs and everything in-between. This is the perfect gift for anyone with a sense of humour … and a short attention span."
Life in Five Seconds
YouTube: Quercus Books, Life In Five Seconds: The Beatles, Life In Five Seconds: Minotaur, Life In Five Seconds: Michael Jackson

Harbors and High Seas - Dean King and John B. Hattendorf

"This atlas tracks the routes taken and summarizes the plots of all 17 of O'Brian's Napoleonic sea sagas. Featuring a redoubtable pair of British buddies, the series recounts their nautical adventures in the course of fighting the dastardly French or bumptious Americans. As Aubrey and Maturin direct their good ship Surprise around the globe at the admiralty's beck and call, the authors present original maps that pinpoint the novels' pursuits and battles, and they spice the graphics with contemporary drawings of significant ports and forts (like Gibraltar) that were printed in the Royal Navy's official yearbook of those times. As a novelty spin-off, these maps by fans for fans will be popular if an individual library records steady circulation of O'Brianiana."
amazon
Google - Harbors and High Seas
Patrick O'Brian Web Resources

2009 September: Patrick O'Brian

In Living Color

Wikipedia - "In Living Color is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on the Fox Network from April 15, 1990, to May 19, 1994. Brothers Keenen and Damon Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. ... Other members of the Wayans family — Kim, Shawn and Marlon — had regular roles, while brother Dwayne frequently appeared as an extra. The show also starred the previously unknown actor/comedians Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, and David Alan Grier. Additionally, actress Rosie Perez, Dancing with the Stars judge and choreographer Carrie Ann Inaba and dancer Jennifer Lopez (now best known as a singer and actress) were members of the show's dance troupe The Fly Girls."
Wikipedia
In Living Color (1990-1994): "Homey don’t play that!"
'In Living Color' Cast: Then and Now
YouTube: In Living Color, Season 1 Episode 1-13, Season 2 Episode 22-26, Introducing Homey D. Clown, Jim Carrey - Funny Workout Video, Jim Carrey - Background Guy 4, Jamie Foxx - Wanda Meets Luther The Ugly Man, Jamie Foxx - Dirty Dozens, East HollyWood Squares - Tommy Davidson as Spike Lee & Jamie Foxx as Little Richard & David Allen Greer as Dr.Dre This video belongs to Keenen Ivory Wayans, Tommy Davidson and David Alan Grier - Men on Film, The Fly Girls, "In Living Color" original stars exclusive on FOX 25th Anniversary Special"

"Sunny Afternoon" - The Kinks

"The tax mans taken all my dough,
And left me in my stately home,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
And I can't sail my yacht,
Hes taken everything Ive got,
All I've gots this sunny afternoon."
W - Sunny_Afternoon
YouTube: Sunny Afternoon

2012 February: The Kinks

Agostino Iacurci New Mural In Venice, Italy

"While we last heard from him last March in Paris, France (covered), Agostino Iacurci recently stopped by Southern Europe to paint a quick piece in Venice, Italy. Primarily focusing on characters, the Italian artist compose larger-than-life illustrative works outdoors converting walls into storybook pages."
StreetArtNews
Agostino Iacurci

Trojan Box Set: Ska (1999)

"Guaranteed to drive the purists around the bend, this budget-priced box set skimps on the packaging, but does make up for it with 50 tracks spread across three CDs. As the cynical have learned to expect, although advertised as a ska compilation, it does indeed stray repeatedly into rocksteady. Once upon a time, Trojan knew the difference, but apparently no longer. Admittedly though, it is classic rocksteady -- the Paragons, the Tamlins, the Valentines, with their sensational 'Blam Blam Fever,' and a clutch of other sublime vocal groups -- but let's get back to the ska. And here's the bit that will really infuriate collectors: Trojan has trawled through their archives and come up with enough gems to make listeners grit their teeth and buy this set regardless of the genre faux pas."
allmusic
YouTube: Get Up Edina - Desmond Dekker, Justin Hinds And The Dominoes - Carry Go Bring Come, Don Drummond- Don D Lion, 007 (Shanty Town) - Desmond Dekker, Baba Brooks And His Band - One Eyed Giant, Eric Monty Morris - If I didn't Love, The Skatalites - Guns Of Navarone

BAM: Cassavetes - Jul 6—Jul 31, 2013

"Godfather of American independent cinema John Cassavetes led his stable of fearless actors — Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel, and, especially, wife Gena Rowlands — into hitherto uncharted cinematic territory, portraying raw human emotion with radical realism and penetrating insight. His films are guided not by conventional narrative technique, but by the rhythms and interiority of everyday life. All films directed by John Cassavetes unless otherwise noted."
BAM: Cassavetes
VOICE: The Life Project: John Cassavetes Brings the Love to BAM
New Yorker: Seeing John Cassavetes (Video)
YouTube: 34-Minute Clip: Host Dick Cavett welcomes guests actors John Cassavetes, Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara., 40-Minute Documentary (1969)

2008 September: John Cassavetes, 2010 December: Shadows (1959), 2011 June: A Woman Under the Influence (1974), 2012 February: His Life and Work, 2012 July: A Constant Forge, 2013 June: Minnie and Moskowitz

State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970

Eleanor Antin, “100 Boots,” 1971-73
"State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970 offers the first in-depth survey of Conceptual art and related avant-garde activities in both Northern and Southern California during a pivotal period in contemporary art. Organized as part of Pacific Standard Time, the exhibition showcases more than 150 works of art—installations, photographs, videos and films, artists’ books, and extensive performance documentation—that demonstrate the critical role of California artists in the development of Conceptual art and other new genres."
Berkeley Art Museum
Exhibitions
LA Times - Art review: 'State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970' at OCMA
amazon
NY Times: ‘State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970'

Legends of the Dead Ball Era (1900–1919) in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick

"The term 'dead ball era' refers to the era of American baseball when the combination of cavernous ballparks, spongy baseballs, and pitcher-friendly rules resulted in games with few home runs. Strategy was important to the sport at this time, with great value placed on individual runs, stolen bases, sacrifice bunts, and other maneuvers. Beginning July 8, the exhibition Legends of the Dead Ball Era (1900–1919) in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will feature nearly 600 historical trade cards of baseball greats from the time."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
NY Times: Rascals and Heroes, Before the Babe
NY Times: Slideshow

Subway Art

Wikipedia - "Subway Art is a collaborative book by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, which documents the early history of the New York graffiti movement. Originally published in 1984, the book holds great significance in exporting graffiti and the wider hip hop culture internationally."
Wikipedia
NYT: The Subway Art History Project
amazon: Subway Art
7 Incredible Images Of New York City Subways in the 70s and 80s (Video)
YouTube: Subway Art: 25th Anniversary Edition, Martha Cooper - graffiti interview

Van Morrison: Under Review 1964-1974

"Van Morrison: Under Review 1964-1974 is a 2 hour documentary film which covers the musician’s albums during that period, from the formation of Them through to his solo records Astral Weeks, Moondance, St. Dominic’s Preview, Tupelo Honey, Veedon Fleece and It’s Too Late To Stop Now."
YouTube: Van Morrison: Under Review 1964-1974, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

2007 July: Van Morrison, 2011 January: Astral Weeks, 2011 June: Van Morrison & The Caledonia Express, 2012 January: "Into the Mystic", 2012 March: Live at Montreux 1980/1974, 2013 May: Saint Dominic's Preview.

Rauschenberg Research Project

"The Rauschenberg Research Project provides free worldwide access to a wealth of scholarly research and documentation relating to artworks by Robert Rauschenberg in SFMOMA's permanent collection. The museum's holdings span the artist's career from 1949 to 1998 and include Combines, sculptures, paintings, photographs, and prints and other works on paper. A rich range of materials surrounds the featured works, including newly commissioned essays, numerous images, interview footage, artist's statements, conservation reports, and archival materials, which together provide new insights into the artist's work."
SF MoMA
Cy + Roman Steps (I-V).By Nicholas Cullinan, July 2013
YouTube: Robert Rauschenberg - Erased De Kooning

2008 May: Robert Rauschenberg

The Last Detail (1972)

Wikipedia - "The Last Detail is a 1973 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jack Nicholson, with a screenplay adapted by Robert Towne from a novel of the same name by Darryl Ponicsan. The film became known for its frequent use of profanity. ... U.S. Navy petty officers Billy 'Badass' Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and Richard 'Mule' Mulhall (Otis Young), are awaiting orders in Norfolk, Virginia when they are assigned a shore patrol detail escorting young sailor Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid) to Portsmouth Naval Prison near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Meadows has drawn a stiff eight-year sentence for the petty crime of trying to steal $40 from a collection box of his C.O.'s wife's favorite charity."
Wikipedia
YouTube: The Last Detail Theatrical Trailer, A scene, directed by Hal Ashby, Winter picnic scene

Dobro

Wikipedia - "Dobro is a registered trademark now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar. The name has a long and involved history that is interwoven with that of the resonator guitar. Originally coined by the Dopyera brothers when they formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company, in time it came to commonly mean a resonator guitar, or specifically one with a single inverted resonator. ... The name originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. 'Dobro' is both a contraction of 'Dopyera brothers' and a word meaning 'goodness' in their native Slovak (and also in most Slavic languages)."
Wikipedia
Vintage Guitars Info's Dobro Metal Body Resonator Vintage Guitar Info.
amazon: Basic Recordings in Bluegrass Dobro / Resonator Guitar
YouTube: Man of constant sorrow, Blues Stay Away From Me, Little Medley - Jerry Douglas, Crying Time, On Dobro - The Whirley Brothers Bluegrass, Panhandle Rag

A Mural of a Spanish Poet in Bushwick, Confounding and Enchanting

"A huge portrait of Federico García Lorca peered out onto Stockholm Street in Bushwick, painted on a drugstore wall alongside verses from 'Sleepless City (Brooklyn Bridge Nocturne).'

Out in the sky, no one sleeps. No one, no one.

But out on the sidewalk, one man groused. ... Out by the wall, two artists — accustomed to the entire gamut of popular reaction evoked by their latest mural — painted their fourth of the Spanish poet and playwright in this Brooklyn neighborhood."
NY Times
W - Federico García Lorca
The Federico Garcia Lorca Murals
vimeo: Lorca’s Route in New York/La Ruta de Lorca en Nueva York

All Mod Cons - The Jam

Wikipedia - "All Mod Cons is a 1978 album by the British band The Jam, their third full-length LP. The title, a British idiom one might find in housing advertisements, is short for 'all modern conveniences' and is a pun on the band's association with the mod revival. The album was more commercially successful than The Jam's previous album, This Is the Modern World. The single 'Down in the Tube Station at Midnight' was one of the band's most successful chart hits up to that point, peaking at #15 on the UK charts."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: "A" Bomb In Wardour Street, David Watts, Down In The Tube Station, In The Crowd, Mr Clean

2009 March: The Jam, 2011 December: Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, 2012 November: "Going Underground", 2013 January: In the City, 2013 February: This Is the Modern World

Brushy One-String

"When filmmaker Luciano Blotta walked out of a rural Jamaican recording studio, way off the beaten path of tourists and music hounds, he saw something wildly unusual: a man with an instrument. Even more surprising, the instrument in question—a battered but resonant acoustic guitar—had only one string. Blotta had encountered Brushy One-String (born Andrew Chin), son of a musical family who despite his challenging life had a seemingly innate ability to inspire and move even casual listeners—including millions of people who have watched and shared Brushy’s videos on YouTube."
Rock Paper Scissors (Video)
amazon: Brushy One-String
YouTube: Chicken in The Corn, They Are Going Down, No Man Stop Me (Good Morning Mr.Sun), Life Is For Every Man, War and Crime, Boom Bang Deng, Destiny, Seeking a better

Mike Innocenzi

"My name is Mike Innocenzi. I was raised in Oak Park, Ill., and then lived in other places. I currently live and work in Chicago. ... I have also contributed regularly to several venerable city news outlets, including Gapers Block, WBEZ, Chicago Reader, CenterSquare Journal, and Chicagoist. Editorially, I’ve covered Iraq War protests, Obama’s Grant Park Inauguration, the Occupy Chicago movement, Chicago Teacher’s Union strike, and more. I’m also a member of the Hungry Ghost Collective, a group of fine art photographers based in Chicago."
Mike Innocenzi
inspirefirst
mashkulture