Edward Hopper life and works
Summertime
"... In 1933, Edward Hopper received further praises for the works he had done, and for a piece that was on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. His highly identifiable style, and mature painting styles, were some things he had become known for during this period. The gorgeous landscapes, the quiet rooms and empty rooms he designed, and the transitory effect which many of his works posed, created a sense of contemporary life and a new style, which many in the art world recognized, and many praised him for this distinct style he had created in his art forms. ... Later in his career, during the 1940s, was a period in which he found the most commercial success. But, soon after, and even during this time period, he began losing critical favors. This was namely due to the new forms of art, and the fact that abstract pieces were beginning to enter the art world, which took over the work he did, as well as the work of many famous artists prior to him. ..."
Edward Hopper and his paintings
YouTube: Edward Hopper life and works
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, 2013 July: Hopper Drawing, 2014 May: INTERVIEW: “An Interview with Edward Hopper, June 17, 1959″., 2014 September: How Edward Hopper “Storyboarded” His Iconic Painting Nighthawks, 2015 February: Edward Hopper's New York: A Walking Tour.
Townes Van Zandt & Nanci Griffith - "Tecumseh Valley," 1993
"Song by folksinger Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997), telling the story of a girl named Caroline, who went to look for work in a valley named after Shawnee leader Tecumseh. She wants to earn money for her but also for her father, a miner. When she has earned enough to return home she receives the message that her father has died. Having lost all hope she becomes a prostitute and finally dies of unknown cause (broken heart?). All in all a very strong and melancholic song by one of the great songwriters in American folk music."
Urban Dictionary
Listen Up: The Whores of my Youth
W - For the Sake of the Song, 1968
YouTube: "Tecumseh Valley," 1993, "Tecumseh Valley"
2014 March: Heartworn Highways - James Szalapski (1975), 2014 September: The 10 Best Townes Van Zandt Songs, 2015 January: Solo Sessions (Jan 17, 1995).
The Literary Caribbean, From BOCAS to Brooklyn
"After ten days in Port of Spain, Trinidad at the BOCAS Lit Fest and Alice Yard this May, I needed a lot of sleep. Trinidadians like to fĂȘte, and many have the rare gift of being able to lime (hang out) hard at night, and go to work the next morning with little effect from the previous evening’s revelry. No surprise then that BOCAS Lit Fest was unlike any literary festival I ever attended, a refreshing mix of panels, readings, film screenings, and parties alongside informal debates on the state of Caribbean writing and publishing. ..."
Literary Hub
Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival
"In the 1950s and 1960s, folk music blossomed in New York City, especially in Greenwich Village, where clubs and coffee houses showcased singers like Pete Seeger and Odetta and nurtured a generation of newcomers, including Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Peter, Paul and Mary. The multi-media exhibtition Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival, featuring original instruments, handwritten lyrics, and video and film footage, traces the roots of the revival, its growth in New York, its major players, and its impact on American politics and culture during the tumultuous 1960s. ..."
Museum of the City of New York
NY Times: Review: ‘Folk City’ at the Museum of the City of New York
The folk rebellion that preserved free speech in Washington Square Park
amazon
FOTR: DJ Craze
"So it’s officially Rub week again for our new event at Verboten and we’ve got a massively stacked lineup for this Friday. Our headliner and a longtime FOTR (Friend of The Rub) is DJ Craze, who in all honesty should need no introduction. Straight up, he’s one of the best DJ’s on the planet. End of story. He and fellow FOTR Fourcolorzack released a new mix last week going at the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ list and all that it represents. It’s featured below and definitely worth the listen. It’s a great conversation piece in response to all the 'press play' DJs out there. And definitely do not miss Craze shutting down Verboten along with Sammy Bananas and DJ Wonder this Friday."
The Rub (Video)
NUART 2015 Roundup : A Laboratory on the Street
Ella & Pitr. Nuart 2015. Stavanger, Norway.
"A roundup today for the Nuart street art/ mural festival in Norway with images of the final walls by this years artists. Now celebrating its 15th year, the mid-sized fjord-facing city of Stavanger has played host to a selection of international and local artists directly or indirectly related to the evolving scene we know as Street Art. Again this year the selection of invited participants is varied, potent, and occasionally a smack upside the head – with punk rock graphic designer Jamie Reid leading the way in spirit and on walls. Reid’s inspiration dates to the radical hippie politics and Situationist practices of the 1950s and 60s but he is best known for formation of the Sex Pistols anti-monarchial slash and burn visual identity and for penning their pivotal recording 'Anarchy in the UK' – a history discussed in Carlo McCormick’s presentation during the Nuart Plus program. ..."
Brooklyn Street Art
Hot Dog!
Sabrette Frankfurters and Rolls, 1937
"The origin of the hot dog has long been contested and has even been a source of tension in American history. In 1913, for example, Mayor Reginald S. Bennett called an emergency meeting of his cabinet when he learned two men were selling hot dogs in Asbury Park, New Jersey. That day, the council banned the sale of frankfurters on Sundays, citing that such commerce 'would not add to the dignity of the beach.' Hot dogs drew even further scrutiny in 1922 when detectives arrested two men in Atlantic City for secretly peddling drugs by inserting small packages of narcotics inside the slit of hot dog buns. Indeed, despite hot dogs’ popularity, newspaper articles of the early 1900s cast a negative image of the classic American finger food. Likewise, Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, which described unsanitary sausage making practices in a Chicago meat packing house, also influenced the public’s perception. Nevertheless, the millions of hot dogs bought in the United States every year testifies to the food’s popularity beginning in late nineteenth century America. ..."
MCNY
2013 May: Hot Dog
Suckin’ and Blowin’ – Harmonica Blues (1952-1960)
"If you dug the recent Little Walter post then you’re sure to love this collection of stompers and wailers by a selection of both well known and obscure blues harp men. This Dutch LP is probably a bootleg, date unknown. I bought it in 'Southside Records' a shop about which I blogged a couple of years back. Sadly the shop is no more, having closed down last winter. There are good sleeve notes on the back cover and I have added more notes at the end of this post. Download, wail and stomp, blues lovers. And if anyone has the lowdown on the identity of 'Ole Sonny Boy' please share this valuable knowledge with the rest of us!"
Be Bop Wino
YouTube: Suckin’ and Blowin’ – Harmonica Blues (1952-1960)
SLAM Magazine
Wikipedia - "SLAM Magazine is an American basketball magazine in circulation since 1994, published by Source Interlink. SLAM was launched in 1994 as a basketball magazine that combined the sport with hip hop culture at a time when the genre was becoming increasingly popular. ... Many of the magazine's lasting features, such as In Your Face, Slam-a-da-month, and Last Shot all began with that first issue. ... The magazine carries advertising for basketball related products, street-wear clothing and hip hop music, and has been credited with helping to market hip hop culture and basketball as one. ..."
Wikipedia
SLAM Magazine
facebook, twitter
YouTube: SLAM Magazine
2011 June: American Basketball Association, 2012 July: Doin’ It In The Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC, 2012 November: Your Guide to the Brooklyn Nets, 2013 March: March Madness 2013, 2013 October: Rucker Park, 2013 November: Free Spirits', 2014 January: History of the high five, 2015 February: Dean Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015), 2015 June: Basketball’s Obtuse Triangle.
Cléo from 5 to 7 - AgnÚs Varda (1962)
Wikipedia - "Cléo from 5 to 7 is a 1962 Left Bank film by AgnÚs Varda. The story starts with a young singer, Florence "Cléo" Victoire, at 5pm on June 21, as she waits until 6:30pm to hear the results of a medical test that will possibly confirm a diagnosis of cancer. The film is noted for its handling of several of the themes of existentialism, including discussions of mortality, the idea of despair, and leading a meaningful life. The film also has a strong feminine viewpoint belonging to French feminism and raises questions about how women are perceived, especially in French society. The role of mirrors are prevalent to symbolize self-obsession, which Cléo embodies. ... Before the two World Wars in France, gender roles were enforced thoroughly throughout Western Europe. In France specifically, the woman of the family was meant to be the 'femme au foyer,' or 'woman of the home' in English making them responsible for the wellbeing of their family. ..."
Wikipedia
Female Inhibition and Empowerment in 1960s Paris
Slant
YouTube: Nouvelle Vague Française - Cléo de 5 à 7
August 2010: AgnÚs Varda, May 2011: The Beaches of AgnÚs, 2011 December: Interview - AgnÚs Varda, 2013 February: The Gleaners and I (2000), 2013 September: Cinévardaphoto (2004), 2014 July: Black Panthers (1968 doc.), 2014 October: Art on Screen: A Conversation with AgnÚs Varda.
The Book No One Read
"I remember well the first time my certainty of a bright future evaporated, when my confidence in the panacea of technological progress was shaken. It was in 2007, on a warm September evening in San Francisco, where I was relaxing in a cheap motel room after two days covering The Singularity Summit, an annual gathering of scientists, technologists, and entrepreneurs discussing the future obsolescence of human beings. ... Returning to my motel room exhausted each night, I unwound by reading excerpts from an old book, Summa Technologiae. The late Polish author Stanislaw Lem had written it in the early 1960s, setting himself the lofty goal of forging a secular counterpart to the 13th-century Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas’s landmark compendium exploring the foundations and limits of Christian theology. Where Aquinas argued for the certainty of a Creator, an immortal soul, and eternal salvation as based on scripture, Lem concerned himself with the uncertain future of intelligence and technology throughout the universe, guided by the tenets of modern science. ..."
Nautilus
2011 June: StanisĆaw Lem, 2012 May: Solaris - Andrei Tarkovsky (1972)
Ellen Gallagher: AxME
DeLuxe (2004)
"Ellen Gallagher is one of the most acclaimed contemporary artists to have emerged from North America since the mid-1990s. Her gorgeously intricate and highly imaginative works are realised with a wealth of virtuoso detail and wit. This is her first major solo exhibition in the UK, providing the first ever opportunity to explore an overview of her twenty-year career. Gallagher brings together imagery from myth, nature, art and social history to create complex works in a wide variety of media including painting, drawing, relief, collage, print, sculpture, film and animation. The exhibition explores the themes which have emerged and recurred in her practice, from her seminal early canvases through to recent film installations and new bodies of work. ..."
Tate
W - Ellen Gallagher
Guardian
amazon
YouTube: Exhibition — Ellen Gallagher: AxME, Cutting | "Exclusive" | Art21, Ellen Gallagher
John Coltrane: Impressions of Coltrane
"The great Jazzman John Coltrane in nine rare, live television performances, shot in the late 1950's and the early 1960's. In dazzling extended solos, showcasing his trademark 'sheets of sound,' Coltrane demonstrates his mastery of tenor, alto, and soprano saxes and the unique artistry he brought to innovations in Jazz - and in music as a whole. This collection has both breadth and depth. Four of these performances are led by Miles Davis, who features Coltrane on the worldchanging 'So What,' as well as on Dave Brubeck's 'The Duke'; and Miles also works out his huge, orchestral ensemble under the direction of Gil Evans. The rest of the program is given over to the John Coltrane Quartet - joined for two numbers, including Coltrane's signature 'My Favorite Things,' by the great flautist and sax player Eric Dolphy. Here we find Coltrane utterly in his element, in the years in which he was changing jazz forever. Classic Coltrane collaborators pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones, and bassist Jimmy Garrison are given their own chances to shine as well. Rare footage - and beautiful music from one of the greatest icons of Jazz. Immortal."
amazon - John Coltrane: Impressions of Coltrane
ARTISTdirect
vk: The John Coltrane Quartet (featuring Eric Dolphy) performing "Impressions" at Sudwestfunk TV Studio, Baden-Baden, West Germany on November 24, 1961.
2011 November: John Coltrane Quartet, Live at Jazz Casual, 1963, 2012 March: John Coltrane 1960 - 1965, 2012 September: "Naima" (1959), 2012 October: Blue Train (1957), 2013 April: The World According to John Coltrane, 2013 November: A Love Supreme (1965), 2014 July: New Photos of John Coltrane Rediscovered 50 Years After They Were Shot, 2014 November: Coltrane’s Free Jazz Wasn’t Just “A Lot of Noise”, 2015 February: Lush Life (1958), 2015 May: An Animated John Coltrane Explains His True Reason for Being: “I Want to Be a Force for Real Good”, 2015 July: Afro Blue Impressions (2013).
Arnold Ness Klagstad: Archer Daniels Midland Elevator, 1934
Archer Daniels Midland Elevator, 1934
"Cars and trains, industry and agriculture, trees and smokestacks meet in this busy image of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Local painter Arnold Klagstad gently guided the viewer’s eye into the painting along a curving stretch of road with a car and two pedestrians to lead the way past a brick house, trees, and green lawns. Two white railroad crossing signs signal an abrupt transition to the confusing complex of commercial structures crowded along the railroad tracks. Among the many buildings is the Harris Machinery Company at the far right, announced by a bold black and white sign, while a towering Archer Daniels Midland grain elevator dominates the view. The density of businesses may suggest a thriving economy, but in fact drought and low farm prices made for hard times in 1930s Minnesota. The juxtapositions of greenery with steel, and agricultural structures with manufacturing signal the tensions among farmers, business owners, and unions that led to violent confrontations in the streets of Minneapolis in 1934."
Smithsonian American Art Museum
WorthPoint
Desire - Bob Dylan (1976)
"If Blood on the Tracks was an unapologetically intimate affair, Desire is unwieldy and messy, the deliberate work of a collective. And while Bob Dylan directly addresses his crumbling relationship with his wife, Sara, on the final track, Desire is hardly as personal as its predecessor, finding Dylan returning to topical songwriting and folk tales for the core of the record. It's all over the map, as far as songwriting goes, and so is it musically, capturing Dylan at the beginning of the Rolling Thunder Revue era, which was more notable for its chaos than its music. And, so it's only fitting that Desire fits that description as well, as it careens between surging folk-rock, Mideastern dirges, skipping pop, and epic narratives. It's little surprise that Desire doesn't quite gel, yet it retains its own character -- really, there's no other place where Dylan tried as many different styles, as many weird detours, as he does here. ..."
allmusic
W - Desire
Bob Dylan - Desire
Spotify
YouTube: Hurricane, Sara, One More Cup of Coffee, Black Diamond Bay, Isis, Joey, Romance in Durango, Oh, Sister, Mozambique
Passport
Germany
Wikipedia - "A passport is a travel document, usually issued by a country's government, that certifies the identity and nationality of its holder for the purpose of international travel. Standard passports contain the holder's name, place and date of birth, photograph, signature, and other identifying information. Passports are moving towards including biometric information embedded in a microchip embedded in the document, making them machine-readable and difficult to counterfeit. A passport specifies nationality, but not necessarily citizenship or the place of residence of the passport holder. A passport holder is normally entitled to enter the country that issued the passport, though some people entitled to a passport may not be full citizens with right of abode. A passport is a document certifying identity and nationality; having the document does not of itself grant any rights, such as protection by the consulate of the issuing country, although it may indicate that the holder has such rights. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Passport stamp
W - Category:Images of passports
W - List of passports
Michael Nyman - An Eye for Optical Theory (Live at Studio Halle, 2010)
"... These testimonials—set to 'An Eye for Optical Theory', a mainstay of the band’s set that baritone saxophonist Andy Findon says is difficult to even imagine playing live—could make Nyman seem like a joyless taskmaster. Though he does appear to want maximum control over performances of his compositions, he is good natured and complimentary of the band and their skills. His music also provides them with the unique opportunity to really 'play out'. Barr comments that the Michael Nyman Band is the only place a brass player can play so loud and not be told to quiet down. The picture of Nyman that emerges in these interviews is that of a man who has figured out the precise sound he wants to hear and assembled the right people for the job. On his own, however, he’s more adventurous. ... -Thomas Britt, PopMatters, December 2010"
Naxos
YouTube: An Eye for Optical Theory (Live at Studio Halle, 2010)
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, 2013 July: Composer in Progress, In Concert (2010).
Ciguë: Materialised Instincts
"Playing the architect and the builder: this dynamic duality best describes the work of French design studio CiguĂ«. A DIY practice sought after by luxury brands including Isabelle Marant and Kris van Assche, CiguĂ« was born out of a collaboration between four aspiring craftsmen – then students at Paris’s La Villette School of Architecture. Now the practice encompasses a growing team of 19 members, straddling architecture, interior design and shape-shifting installations. While intuitive collaboration remains at the forefront of CiguĂ«'s vision, it is their experimental use of materials, namely wood and steel, that has made them design-world stars. For the concluding part of The Cultural, director Matt Black catches up with the designers in and around their workshop in the Paris suburb of Montreuil – where you won't find a computer-generated design in sight. ..."
NOWESS (Video)
Nicolas Jaar - Work It (Bluewave edit)
"OK, Nicolas Jaar, we all know you’re a fantastic producer with talent to burn, and we’re all deservedly hanging on your every musical movement, waiting for what happens after your debut album ‘Space Is Only Noise’ in January. Turns out, an EP entitled ‘Nico’s Bluewave Edits’ is what happens, a set of three pop songs given the Jaar treatment. ... The floor shaking, Timbaland-produced, club boom of the the original stretched, stripped, and folded into a slick sensual swing. Light drums fluttering, loose claps, pitched vocal, sparse but precise arrangement. Despite the under-stated tone it’s also catchy as can be. Jaar’s still not missed a beat then. ..."
DUMMY (Video)
Soundcloud (Video)
YouTube: Work it(Nico's Bluewave edits), "What My Last Girl Put Me Through", Materials (Nico's Bluewave Edit), Jamie xx & Nicolas Jaar - Girl vs Work It (Nico's Bluewave Edit), Nicolas Jaar Work it + Girl Unit I.R.L.
2013 September: Nicolas Jaar, 2014 January: Other People, 2015 May: Nicolas Jaar Soundtracks Short Film About Police Brutality and #BlackLivesMatter, 2015 July: Space Is Only Noise (2010), 2015 August: Boiler Room NYC DJ Set at Clown & Sunset Takeove
Resident Visitor: Laurie Spiegel's Machine Music
"Probably the most remarkable thing about Laurie Spiegel is that a piece of music she made could be the first sound of human origin to be heard by extraterrestrial lifeforms. If aliens exist, of course. And assuming they have ears. Spiegel's computer realization of a composition conceived back in the early 17th Century by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler is the opening cut on the Golden Record, a disc that accompanied both Voyager probes on their journey across the solar system and out into the great interstellar beyond in 1977. Also known as The Sounds of Earth, this gold-plated copper record (the assumption seems to have been that any civilization advanced enough to pluck a passing probe out of space would also be able to build a turntable to play it on) includes 90 minutes of music, greetings in many languages, animal sounds, and the EEG brainwaves of a young woman in love. ..."
Pitchfork (Video)
2011 May: Laurie Spiegel, 2012 November: Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe, 2014 February: The Interstellar Contract.
Traveling in Europe’s River of Migrants
Refugees, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, crowded a platform as they waited for a train at Keleti station in Budapest on Thursday.
"Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, mostly fleeing unrest in the Middle East and Afghanistan, are pushing their way through the Balkans to Hungary. From there, many are continuing their desperate trip to Germany and other countries in northern Europe. A team of New York Times journalists is documenting their journey."
NY Times
A group of Syrian migrants charged their cellphones using a television station's satellite truck outside the Keleti train station last week in Budapest.
Chuck Close: Red Yellow Blue
"Pace announces Chuck Close: Red Yellow Blue an exhibition of new oil paintings on view at 534 West 25th Street from September 11 to October 17, 2015. ... In his most recent work, Close continues his investigation of the grid as an organizational device, exploring minimal information processing in portraiture. Close abandons the expressionistic brushstrokes that have characterized his paintings since the 1990s. Rather, he applies multiple thin washes of paint in each cell of the grid, layering red, yellow and blue until they accumulate into extravagant full-color images. The earliest works in the exhibition—portraits of Cecily Brown and Cindy Sherman—reveal the beginnings of this process, leaving the painting’s development visible. Although the works represent a new direction for Close, they are also a revival and reconsideration of processes he first used in the 1970s when he first restricted his palette to three colors, coaxing different saturations of paint and hue into photorealist portraits. ..."
Art Daily
Pace Gallery
FINDING THE COLOR WORLD: An interview with Chuck Close
Beyond the Portrait: The Many Categories of Chuck Close
2008 August: Chuck Close
An Inglorious Slop-pail of a Play
"When the French playwright Alfred Jarry—born on this day in 1873—was fifteen, he enjoyed lampooning his physics teacher, a plump, inept man who so amused his students that he became the subject of Jarry’s first attempt at drama, Les Polonais, staged with marionettes when he was still in short pants. PĂšre Heb, as the physics teacher was called in it, had a prominent gut, a retractable ear, and three teeth (stone, iron, and wood). These features by themselves make him a distinctive figure in the history of French drama. But years later, Jarry revived Heb—as all responsible playwrights do with their juvenilia—making him somehow even more ridiculous, even more obese, and putting him at the center of Ubu Roi, a play so contentious that its premiere, in December 1896, was also its closing night. It lives in the annals of drama because it offended almost everyone who saw it. In this, it prefigured modernism, surrealism, Dadaism, and the theater of the absurd. ..."
The Paris Review
W - Alfred Jarry
TLS - Merrrrdrrrre!: Alfred Jarry and PĂšre Ubu
Guardian - Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life by Alastair Brotchie - review
amazon: Alfred Jarry
Ubu's Almanac: Alfred Jarry and the Graphic Arts
Alfred Jarry: a Cyclist on the Wild Side
2011 April: The Insolent Eye: Jarry in Art, 2013 August: The Banquet Years of Apollinaire, Alfred Jarry, Henri Rousseau, and Erik Satie - Roger Shattuck
Dembow: A Loop History
"In the world of sample-based music, few recordings have enjoyed so active an afterlife as the Dembow. A two-bar loop with unmistakably familiar kicks and snares, it underpins the vast majority of reggaeton tracks as an almost required sonic signpost. Thanks to crossover jams like Lorna’s 'Papi Chulo' and Daddy Yankee’s 'Gasolina,' the Dembow has spread its distinctive boom-ch-boom-chick to glossy Latin pop, raw electro-chaabi in Egypt, transnational moombahton and Indonesian dangdut seksi, to name a few. With such remarkable resonance and staggering frequency of appearance, the Dembow would seem to deserve a place alongside such well-worn loops as the Amen, the Triggerman and the Tamborzao. ..."
Red Bull Music Academy Daily (Video)
Digital Rhythm: The loopy origins of dembow and the knotty dancehall roots of reggaeton (Video)
Welcome To The Dirt – The Beginning of Trench Warfare I THE GREAT WAR - Week 8
"After the advances and retreats during the early weeks of war, the front is coming to a grinding hold after the Battle of the Aisne. The German Army is digging itself in on one side of the river and a new, horrible chapter of World War One begins: trench warfare. To be prepared for this new kind of war, the British Army is recruiting over 400.000 soldiers still believing that the war will be over by Christmas."
YouTube: Welcome To The Dirt – The Beginning of Trench Warfare I - Week 8
2014 December: The Great War: WWI Starts - How Europe Spiraled Into the Great War - Week 1, Europe Prior to WWI: Allies and Enemies I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 1/3, Tinderbox Europe - From Balkan Troubles to WWI I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 2/3, A Shot that Changed the World - The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 3/3, 2015 January: Germany in Two-Front War and the Schlieffen-Plan I - Week 2, 2015 March: To Arms! Deployment of Troops - Week 3, 2015 March:A New War With Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front - Week 4, 2015 April: The Rape of Belgium – War Crimes in the Summer of 1914 - Week 5, 2015 May: Plans Are Doomed to Fail - The Battle of Galicia - Week 6, 2015 August: Taxi To The Front – The First Battle of the Marne - Week 7.
Fran Lebowitz
Wikipedia - "Frances Ann 'Fran' Lebowitz (born October 27, 1950) is an American author and public speaker. Lebowitz is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities. Some reviewers have called her a modern-day Dorothy Parker. Lebowitz was born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey. After being expelled from high school and receiving a GED, Lebowitz worked in many odd jobs before being hired by Andy Warhol as a columnist for Interview. This was followed by a stint at Mademoiselle. Her first book was a collection of essays titled Metropolitan Life, released in 1978, followed by Social Studies in 1981, both of which are collected in The Fran Lebowitz Reader. ..."
Wikipedia
The Paris Review: Interviews
Elle: 'Yoga Pants are Ruining Women' and Other Style Advice From Fran Lebowitz
A Chat With Fran Lebowitz
Vanity Fair: Is Everything Sacred? by Fran Lebowitz
amazom: Fran Lebowitz
YouTube: Public Speaking, Fran Lebowitz gives her view of modern NYC, A Cynic Looks at Childhood, Five Questions for Fran Lebowitz
Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos - The Prosthetic Cubans (1998)
"The mastery and vision of the enduring Marc Ribot shine through on this release. Although there have been many attempts to produce authentic indigenous music of various cultures, most have fallen short; this album succeeds in the wake of failure. Ribot delves deep into Cuban rhythms, and indeed the album is a tribute to the Cuban master Arsenio Rodriguez. Here Ribot finds an authentic Cuban sound employing traditional instrumentation: upright bass, wood blocks, cherke, and other percussion sounds. The performance is inspired, and the band consistently tears through Rodriguez's material, as well as some of their own. Ribot's guitar work nears perfection, and he proves himself to be the most soulful white alive. Songs like 'Aqui Como Alla' and 'Postizo' confirm these assertions. Although this album does not present the iconoclastic Ribot of The Book of Heads fame, it is an excellent album."
allmusic
Wikipedia
YouTube: Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos - The Prosthetic Cubans (1998) [Full Album]
2011 February: Selling Water By the Side of the River - Evan Lurie, 2012 September: Marc Ribot, 2013 February: Silent Movies, 2013 November: The Nearness Of You, 2014 January: Full Concert Jazz in Marciac (2010), 2014 May: Gig Alert: Marc Ribot Trio, 2014 September: Marc Ribot Trio with Mary Halvorson at The Stone.
Earl King
Wikipedia - "Earl King (February 7, 1934 – April 17, 2003) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, most active in blues music. A composer of blues standards such as 'I Hear You Knocking' (recorded by Smiley Lewis, Gale Storm, Dave Edmunds and others), 'One Night' (recorded by Smiley Lewis and Elvis Presley), "Come On" (covered by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan) and Professor Longhair's 'Big Chief', he is an important figure in New Orleans R&B music. King was born Earl Silas Johnson IV in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. His father, a local piano player, died when King was still a baby, and he was brought up by his mother. With his mother, he started going to church at an early age. In his youth he sang gospel music, but took the advice of a friend to switch to blues to make a better living. ..."
Wikipedia
Discogs
BluesArt-Studio-Journal
YouTube: Street Parade, It Hurts To Love Someone, Mama & Papa, I'M YOUR BEST BET, BABY, Baby You Can Get Your Gun, You Can Fly High, Come On Parts 1 and 2 (Also known as "Let The Good Times Roll"), Trick Bag, Is Everything All Right, Always a First Time, The Things That I Used To Do
TAXI: A History of the New York Taxi Cab
"In this episode, we recount almost 175 years of getting around New York in a private ride. The hansom, the romantic rendition of the horse and carriage, took New Yorkers around during the Gilded Age. But unregulated conduct by ‘nighthawks’ and the messy conditions of streets due to horses demanded a solution. At first it seemed the electric car would save the day but the technology proved inadequate. In 1907 came the first gas-propelled automobile cabs to New York, officially ‘taxis’ due to a French invention installed in the front seat. By the 1930s the streets were filled with thousands of taxicabs. During the Great Depression, cab drivers fought against plunging fare and even waged a strike in Times Square. In 1937, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia debuted the medallion system as a way to keep the streets regulated. By the 1970s many cabdrivers faced an upswing of crime that made picking up passengers even more dangerous than bad traffic. Drivers began ignoring certain fares – mainly from African-Americans – which gave rise to the neighborhood livery cab system. ..."
The Bowery Boys: New York City History
2012 June: Taxicabs of New York City, 2015 March: In New Exam for Cabbies, Knowledge of Streets Takes a Back Seat
The 10 biggest reggae basslines, according to Trojan Sound System
"London's Trojan Sound System, formed just over a decade ago now, are one of the UK's finest examples of the power of the sound system culture. Inspired by the legendary reggae label of the same name, the Trojan crew have been spreading their message of love and unity through ska, roots, dub, and dancehall since 2004, headlinging club shows, captivating festival crowds and supporting legendary Jamaican acts such as The Wailers, Luciano, Sly and Robby and the late great Gregory Isaacs amongst others. The bassline aficionados return next month with their new track Time Is The Answer a response to the curreny state of political unrest and troubles sweeping the globe. ..."
DUMMY (Video)
CLASH: Trojan Sound System Mix (Video)
W - Trojan Records
YouTube: TROJAN SOUND SYSTEM // The 10 biggest reggae basslines
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