Mississippi John Hurt (March 3, 1892 – November 2, 1966)

Wikipedia - "John Smith Hurt (March 3, 1892 – November 2, 1966), better known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar around the age of nine. He worked as a sharecropper and began playing at dances and parties, singing to a melodious fingerpicked accompaniment. His first recordings, made for Okeh Records in 1928, were commercial failures, and he continued to work as a farmer. Dick Spottswood and Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, located Hurt in 1963 and persuaded him to move to Washington, D.C. He was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964. This helped further the American folk music revival, which led to the rediscovery of many other bluesmen of Hurt's era. Hurt performed on the university and coffeehouse concert circuit with other Delta blues musicians who were brought out of retirement. ..."
Wikipedia
Mississippi John Hurt – You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley (Video)
Stefan Wirz
YouTube: You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley (Live), John Henry, Spike Driver Blues, Make Me a Pallet on the Floor, Cocaine Blues, C.C. Rider, I'm satisfied, Richland Woman Blues, Goodnight Irene, Candy Man Blues
YouTube: King Of The Blues - Full Album 1:12:07

Hoss's Country Corner

"Located in the Hamlet of Long Lake, in the center of the Adirondack mountains, Hoss’s Country Corner is more than just a store. Hoss’s is an Adirondack landmark. For over 40 years, friendly customer service and a selection of great products have been cornerstones of our success. A real general store, Hoss's Country Corner has operated year-round since 1972. Hoss's features Adirondack books, clothing, gifts, sporting goods, camping & hunting supplies, souvenirs and wonderful NY State cheeses. DEC hunting & fishing licenses and live bait are available as well as maps and trail guides."
Tupper Lake
YouTube: Hoss's Country Corner Open House Long Lake, NY

Dave Seidel’s “Black Star Study”

"'Black Star Study' is a dense, lengthy, tumultuous drone, one occasionally fleshed out with jittery synthesizer fluctuations and the stuttered grunts of something more akin to an unloved catalytic converter. Which is to say, in drone/noise terms, it is fantastic. Dave Seidel perpetrates the live performance in full view, his synthesizers narrowing into the distance on his desk, the bleak intensity of the music only slightly undermined by the sewing machine seen toward the rear of the room. As you listen, pay attention to the layers of grit, the mesh of crunchy distortions that makes your speakers vibrate and your imagination soar. Video originally posted at Seidel’s YouTube channel. More from Seidel, who is based in New Hampshire, at mysterybear.net and mysterybear.bandcamp.com."
disquiet (Video)
Dave Seidel (Audio/Video)

Constellations from Around the World

"Two weeks ago I shared a map of all the stars you can see from Earth, alongside the Western constellations. But the Western constellations are only one of many patterns of stars invented by cultures around the world. This week’s map illustrates the animals, people, and objects imagined in the sky by more than 30 different civilizations. To make this map I used data from Stellarium, an open-source planetarium software that includes constellations from ancient Dakota, Hawaiian, and Mongolian cultures, among many others. Some of my favorite constellations were the Stars of Water, Rabbit Tracks, and the Hippopotamus, and I also really liked the star names The Oath Star, Lady of Life, and The Hand of the Mouse. ..."
Tabletop Whale
Stellarium, Source code

Rhythm and Blues Jazz Handbook, edited by Thurston Moore

"... Now this one, which is number 33, is a gem. It is the actual 1952 Rhythm and Blues Jazz Scrapbook edited by Thurston Moore. Published in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1952. Copywrited and patented, but we still copied every page - all 43 - for researchers since it's unlikely another document exists that consolidated so much information on Black radio announcers from 1952. We made a copy of it as well in here. This was given to us by Tommy Cox, and I know we have an oral history by him... and he was a big fan of WJLD and Bob Umbach during the Atomic Boogie Hour. He was a white gentleman, and he told us that he visited Bob Umbach at the Bessemer location on the Super Highway and he told him to go out and get the Rhythm and Blues Encyclopedia. ..."
The Birmingham Black Radio Museum

Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents - Albrecht Dürer (1490)

Portrait of Barbara Dürer, née Holper, c. 1490. Albrecht Dürer the Elder with a Rosary, 1490.
Wikipedia - "Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents (or Dürer's Parents with Rosaries) is the collective name for two late-15th century portrait panels by the German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer. They show the artist's parents, Barbara Holper (c. 1451–1514) and Albrecht Dürer the Elder (c. 1427–1502), when she was around 39 and he was 63 years. The portraits are unflinching records of the physical and emotional effects of ageing. The Dürer family was close, and Dürer may have intended the panels either to display his skill to his parents or as keepsakes while he travelled soon after as a journeyman painter. They were created either as pendants, that is conceived as a pair and intended to hang alongside each other, or diptych wings. However, this formation may have been a later conception; Barbara's portrait seems to have been executed some time after her husband's and it is unusual for a husband to be placed to the viewer's right in paired panels. His father's panel is considered the superior work and has been described as one of Dürer's most exact and honest portraits. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Albrecht Dürer

The Canary Islands Connection

"I’m surrounded by date palms. Around them run dry watercourses that look like ones I find not far from my home in Tucson, Arizona. The traditional architecture in town would not be out of place in Tucson, either—or almost anywhere from southern Spain to Mexico and up into the southwest us. The fruit trees and grapevines hark back even further, to traditions of my ancestors from Syria and Lebanon. Perhaps this is what a visit to the Canary Islands is really all about. Indeed, much of what is cultivated on this Spanish archipelago of seven volcanic, mostly undersea mountains can be traced back to crops that came aboard ships from as far away as Phoenicia, in the eastern Mediterranean, as far back to the eighth century bce. ..."
Aramco World
W - Canary Islands

What Time Is It? - The Time (1982)

Wikipedia - "'777-9311' is the second track and lead single from The Time's second album, What Time Is It?. Recorded for the album at Prince's home studio in May–June 1982, the song was produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince with Morris Day later adding his lead vocals. The funky song opens with a drum machine beat, adds guitar, live playing on the cymbals, and finally the bass and keyboards. A similar extended version of this occurs after the main lyrics, but starts with the bass and also includes a lengthy rock guitar solo. The bass is truly the "star" of this song, and Prince has remarked that this is one of his signature basslines, remarking no one can play the line like himself. He also said the same about the bassline of 'Let's Work'. ..."
Wikipedia
W - What Time Is It?
"777-9311": How Prince Gave Away His Best Song To The Band He Admired & Envied Most
vimeo: 777-9311
YouTube: The Walk

Raymond Chandler: The Art of Beginning a Crime Story

"There are times in life when you need a good opener. Maybe you’re caught in a rut and need the charge of a new world, new characters, something that carries with it the quiet thrill of possibility. Maybe you’re looking for inspiration yourself. All writers, aspiring and established, have a few special works they return to time and again, those books and stories that seem to act like jumper cables for their own work—read a few paragraphs, a chapter or two, and you’re back on the road. Whatever your reason or need, you’d be hard pressed to find an author equal to Raymond Chandler in jolting a story alive. If Elmore Leonard was the king of the opening line, Chandler made a case for himself as the master of the opening paragraph. Whether he’s describing the weather, the face of a building, a street corner, or the glint in a doorman’s eye, Chandler brought the scene instantly to life and gave you an immediate and overwhelming feeling that you were in a real place, encountering real people caught up in the little dramas and tragedies that define all our lives. ..."
Crime Reads

W - The Big Sleep (1939)

2009 September: The Maltese Falcon, 2013 July: Raymond Chandler, 2014 November: Finding Marlowe

Which “East River Park” is in this 1902 painting?

East River Park, 1902
"When William Glackens painted 'East River Park' in 1902—contrasting the serenity of a city green space with the noisy industrial riverfront—the park that currently stretches along the riverfront called East River Park had yet to be created. So what East River park did he depict here? Perhaps Corlears Hook Park, at the bend where Manhattan tucks under itself between the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges? This was certainly a smoggy, ship-choked channel at the turn of the last century. The city purchased land here in the 1880s for the creation of a park, completed in 1905. Neighboring East River Park didn’t exist until the 1930s, and according to the Brooklyn Museum, which owns the painting, a label on it indicates that the Brooklyn waterfront is depicted. ..."
Ephemeral New York

2015 April: Ashcan School, 2015 October: Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York, 1897-1917, 2016 June: "Crowd at the Seashore," 1910

Cami Layé Okun

"The HAPE collective was created in Havana in 2016. Quickly it became a stimulant for local talent. Due to their success, they were soon working with some of the most innovative Cuban underground artists like El Individuo and Eric Cimafunk, as well as international DJs and musicians like Gilles Peterson. For this edition, they will introduce you to Cami Layé Okún, a DJ from Cuba. Her music is characterised by Afro-Caribbean, tropical, Amazonian funky grooves and so on. Vinyl plays a major role in her work, as she collects records from all over the world and throws parties in a 100% vinyl format! ..."
DJs Cami Layé Okún (Hape) & SebCat (Rebel Up!)
Mixcloud (Audio)
YouTube: Cami Layé Okún • Vinyl Set • Le Mellotron 1:03:15

Pierless

"It’s 7 a.m. on a high-summer Friday, and Steeplechase Pier in Coney Island is already packed. A frail older woman spreads a large silk scarf on a wooden chaise lounge, then stretches out to catch the sun. A younger woman cruises by on a silver bicycle, then skids to a stop when she recognizes a neighbor, beginning an excited conversation in Jamaican patois. Two dozen fishermen line the pier, casting again and again, looking for the sweet spot, until most give in and leave their long ocean rods leaning against the railing while they chat in Russian, Spanish, and Chinese. The chaotic back and forth is broken up only briefly as a Russian cry of 'Ryba!' ('Fish!') cuts through the cacophony. A man has pulled in a foot-long sea robin, a bottom feeder known for its unattractive face and tasty tail. A man of 40 or so rolls determinedly up the pier in a wheelchair, the muscles in his arms flexing as he spins the chair’s wheels, mounting the ramp leading up to the elevated platform at the end of the pier. He stops on the platform and stares out over the pounding waves of the Atlantic Ocean. ..."
BKLYNR
14 Photos Of The Coney Island Boardwalk, 12 Days After Hurricane Sandy (Video)
W - Steeplechase Park

Vintage postcard of Coney Island’s original Steeplechase Ride (1898-1907), George C. Tilyou’s first Steeplechase Park.

2009 April: Coney Island, 2010 July: Nathan's Famous, 2011 March: "An Underground Movement: Designers, Builders, Riders", Owen Smith, 2013 August: Donna Dennis: Coney Night Maze, 2013 October: Last Days of Summer at Coney Island, 2014 July: Coney Island - Directors: Steve Siegel and Phil Buehler (1973), 2015 May: The Case for Riding the Subway to the Last Stop, 2016 December: Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008, 2017 August: Here's What Coney Island Looks Like In The Empty Pre-Dawn Hours

Attarazat Addahabia, Faradjallah ‎– Al Hadaoui (1973)

"Re-connecting American blues music with its West African ancestry has become a well trodden path. The infectious beats of John Lee Hooker’s guitar licks are clearly present in the work of the legendary Ali Farka Touré, who began his musical education in traditional ceremonies on the banks of the Niger. Kel Tamasheq rock bands like Tinariwen and Tamikrest have since made blues’ African roots less obvious, with both citing a teenage love of Dire Straits as a key influence. This makes the melodies on German label Habibi Funk’s latest offering – a 1973 album from Moroccan band Attarazat Addahabia & Faradjallah- – all the rarer, with band leader Abdelakabir Faradjallah keen to give the listener a heady immersion in a traditional guitar-driven music he introduces as gwana. From the opening track, Al Hadaoui whips up a relentless pace. Hypnotic drumming patterns, castanet clacks and a militant-tight female backing choir compete with funky guitars, while the overriding gwana force evokes a deep spiritual awakening. ..."
The Quietus (Audio)
Discogs (Video)
amazon
YouTube: El Hadaoui, Attarazat Addahabia - Unknown Title (Morocco, 1970s), Kaddaba, Taali, Aflana

11 Legendary Literary Parties We’re Sad to Have Missed

Truman Capote
"Everyone loves a good party. Especially literary people—who, aside from book parties, which technically count as “work” (ask their accountants) tend not to get out much. Or so the stories go. Literature abounds with great parties, but here I’m interested in the parties that actually took place in literary history—where famous authors met, or fought, or fell asleep, or got goaded into writing mega-famous, bestselling memoirs. Eleven of these historically relevant literary events are below, for all your FOMO/vicarious partying needs. ..."
Lithub

When Marcel Proust came to a party at 2:30 in the morning to meet James Joyce, who was asleep

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, August 2 – 10

"... Saturday, August 3. The Big Dipper hangs diagonally in the northwest after dark. It's starting to "scoop water," which it will dump from on high to become "spring showers" in the evenings a half year from now. From the Dipper's midpoint, look three fists to the right to find Polaris (not very bright) glimmering due north as always. Polaris is the handle-end of the Little Dipper. The only other parts of the Little Dipper that are even modestly bright are the two stars forming the outer end of its bowl. On August evenings you'll find them to Polaris's upper left (by about a fist and a half at arm's length). They're called the Guardians of the Pole, since they circle around Polaris throughout the night and throughout the year. ..."
Sky and Telescope

Kingston Allstars Meet Downtown At King Tubbys 1972-1975

"1973-1976 was a period in Reggae's history when the music coming from Kingston,Jamaica was at its peak. So many talented singers,who sang soulful/righteous songs found their way onto tape. Maybe it was the competition between the studios like Randys,Channel 1 and Harry J's and the quality of the singers available to sing these tunes. But whatever caused the explosion the mighty voices of Horace Andy, Cornell Campbell, Johnny Clarke and Ronnie Davis never sounded better.... The tracks as you can see here were culled together from sessions recorded at the fore mentioned legendary studios. Then taken to King Tubby's home style studio at 18 Drummlie Ave in the Waterhouse district of Kingston. This is where the great Dubmaster himself would record the vocal tracks. A method in which he preferred to work and then mix the tracks Tubby style... We have travelled to Jamaica and listened to hours of master tapes to bring this set to you. So please sit back and enjoy what we believe to be a wicked set by Kingston's finest..."
deejay
Discogs
amazon
YouTube: Kingston Allstars Meet Downtown At King Tubbys 1972-1975 46:28

Sam Shepard - Seven Plays (1982)

"'I just dropped out of nowhere,' Sam Shepard said of his arrival in New York, at nineteen, in the fall of 1963. 'It was absolute luck that I happened to be there when the whole Off-Off Broadway movement was starting.' Shepard, a refugee from his father’s farm in California, had spent eight months as an actor travelling the country by bus with a Christian theatre troupe, the Bishop’s Company Repertory Players. Acting had been his ticket to ride; he’d been so scared at his Bishop’s Company audition that he’d recited the stage directions. ... Shepard’s early plays, written between 1964 and 1971, were full of surprises and assaults on the senses—people spoke from bathtubs or painted one another, colored Ping-Pong balls dropped from the ceiling, a chicken was sacrificed onstage. The plays express what Shepard called the 'despair and hope' of the sixties; they act out both the spiritual dislocation and the protean survival instinct of traumatic times. ..."
New Yorker: The Pathfinder
amazon
Archive: Seven Plays

2017 August: Sam Shepard (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017), 2019 July: Sam Shepard Saw It All Coming

Pennsylvania Coal Town - Edward Hopper (1947)

"'Pennsylvania Coal Town' is an oil painting, created in 1947. During this time his output had slowed, following a productive period in the early 1940’s, in which he painted some of his most famous works, such as 'Nighthawks' and 'Morning in a City.' The painting portrays a man, tending the yard outside of his house. He has a rake or similar tool in his hands. The yard is relatively bare, apart from a plant, with green foliage, in a large, brown vase. The man is staring at something we cannot see. This theme occurs frequently in Hopper’s work, with many paintings depicting people gazing, at something unknown, in the distance. We can see the interior of his house, through a large front window. There appears to be a lamp by the window, and a picture on the wall. As with many of Hopper’s paintings, light plays an important role. ..."
Edward Hopper: Pennsylvania Coal Town
New Yorker: Ordinary People By Peter Schjeldahl

Whitney: Study for Pennsylvania Coal Town, 1947

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, 2015 September: Edward Hopper life and works, 2016 May: "Night Windows," 1928, 2016 July: Sunday (1926), 2016 September: Drug Store (1927), 2018 January: Seven A.M. (1948), 2018 February: Jo Hopper, Woman in the Sun

The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins (1957) / Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (1957)

"On 16 October 1957 one of the great studio sessions of the decade took place in Capitol’s famous studios in Hollywood. The brilliant tenor saxophonist, Coleman Hawkins spent much of the day and evening in the studios recording two separate albums with producer, Norman Granz for Verve Records: The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins and Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster. 52 year old Hawkins was there, working with pianist, Oscar Peterson’s regular trio of Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass) along with drummer, Alvin Stoller. The musicians recorded twelve songs that were released in the aptly-named The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins. ..."
‘Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster’: Genius At Work (Audio)
NY Times: CELEBRATING THE GENIUS OF COLEMAN HAWKINS
W - The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins, W - Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster
Discogs: The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins (Video), Discogs: Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (Video)
amazon: The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins, Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster
YouTube: Coleman Hawkins Quintet - Ill Wind, I Wished on the Moon, How Long Has This Been Going On?; Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (Full Album) 36:36

An Introduction to Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda: Romantic, Radical & Revolutionary

"Does politics belong in art? The question arouses heated debate about creative freedom and moral responsibility. Assumptions include the idea that politics cheapens film, music, or literature, or that political art should abandon traditional ideas about beauty and technique. As engaging as such discussions might be in the abstract, they mean little to nothing if they don't account for artists who show us that choosing between politics and art can be as much a false dilemma as choosing between art and love. In the work of writers as varied as William Blake, Muriel Rukeyser, James Baldwin, and James Joyce, for example, themes of protest, power, privilege, and poverty are inseparable from the sublimely erotic—all of them essential aspects of human experience, and hence, of literature. Foremost among such political artists stands Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who—as the TED-Ed video above from Ilan Stavans informs us—was a romantic stylist, and also a fearless political activist and revolutionary. ..."
Open Culture (Video)
Pablo Neruda’s relationship with Spain examined through his focus on the concrete particulars of daily life.

The varieties of everyday life that Neruda’s poetry explores; illustrated by Julie Paschkis

February 2009: Pablo Neruda, 2011 November: 100 Love Sonnets, 2015 November: The Body Politic: The battle over Pablo Neruda’s corpse, 2015 December: In Chile, Where Pablo Neruda Lived and Loved, 2016 May: Windows that Open Inward - Pablo Neruda. Milton Rogovin, Photographing., 2018 March: What We Can Learn from Neruda’s Poetry of Resistanc, 2018 July: Poet of the People: The partisan world of Pablo Neruda, 2018 December: Neruda - Pablo Larraín (2016)

Across a Crowded Room—Live at Barrymore’s 1985 - Richard Thompson

"As one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, Richard Thompson has played with some of the world’s most accomplished rock and folk musicians, starting, of course, with his first band, Fairport Convention. But of all the outfits Thompson has led during his sterling, post-Fairport, solo career, perhaps the finest was the unit he took out on the road with him for his 1985 tour supporting his then-current studio release (and first for the Polydor label), Across A Crowded Room. While the album’s recording sessions had featured Fairport Convention stalwarts Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks on rhythm guitar and drums, respectively, for the tour Thompson enlisted the considerable talents of Any Trouble leader Clive Gregson and his creative partner Christine Collister, whose haunting harmonies (and occasional songwriting contributions) beautifully fleshed out the band’s live sound. ..."
Real Gone Music
Discogs (Video)
amazon
YouTube: Full Across A Crowded Room concert 1985 13 videos

2011 July: Shoot Out the Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson, 2012 February: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, 2014 March: Videowest 81, 2015 October: Richard & Linda Thompson - Rafferty's Folly (1980), 2015 December: Rumor and Sigh (1991), 2016 March: Hand of Kindness (1983), 2018 December: You? Me? Us? (1996)

Cape Cod Baseball League

Wikipedia - "The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) is a collegiate summer baseball league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Founded in 1885, the league consisted largely of local and regional college players until 1963, when it became officially sanctioned by the NCAA. In 1985, the league moved away from the use of aluminum bats, and became the only collegiate summer league in the nation at that time to use wooden bats. This transition began a period of significant growth in the league's popularity and prestige among Major League Baseball (MLB) scouts, as well as among college players and coaches. The league continues to be one of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, receiving significant financial support from Major League Baseball, and boasting well over 1,000 alumni who have gone on to play in the major leagues. ..."
Wikipedia
Cape Cod Baseball (Video)
Cape Cod Baseball League
YouTube: Cape Cod Baseball League: Find Out What Makes Cape Cod Baseball Second To None!

The Chatham Anglers take on the Harwich Mariners at Whitehouse Field.

Top 10 Experimental Music Festivals

"Of course, we're all partial to flailing our arms and screaming our lungs out to anthemic belters during a climactic festival headline slot. But sometimes, the paint-by-number music frequenting the mainstream charts just doesn't quite cut the mustard. For those who possess a taste for the innovative, unconventional, and wholly original, there's a surging network of experimental music festivals emerging around the globe. With an emphasis on the wider scope of music festivals rather than simply assembling a roster of familiar artists, experimental music festivals offer a platform for sounds to be heard, sights to be seen, and sensations to be felt that aren't commonplace. Just yet. Here are our Top 10 experimental music festivals, in no particular order, that succeed in propelling the festival experience to new heights. ..."
Festicket (Video)

Always the Model, Never the Artist

Left: Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with Bouquet of Violets, 1872; Right: photo of Berthe Morisot
"'It’s annoying they’re not men,' Édouard Manet wrote to fellow artist Henri Fantin-Latour, after meeting Berthe and Edma Morisot, two sisters from the Parisian upper crust who were promising painters. He found them 'charming' and feared that because they were women, their accomplishments would inevitably go to waste. Manet thought the Morisot sisters should 'further the cause of painting by marrying académiciens,' members of the jury who selected which works to display at the Académie des Beaux-Arts’s annual salon. The possibility that the Morisots might actually become artists did not seem to occur to him. Manet envisioned the Morisot sisters might make their mark in the annals of art as counselors to men in power—by influencing their tastes and sympathies, and convincing them of the worth of outsider artists (such as Manet himself). ..."
The Paris Review

Berthe Morisot, Hanging the Laundry out to Dry, 1875.

2010 January: Berthe Morisot, 2014 March: In Which Berthe Morisot Is Spared Nothing, 2015 March: In Which Berthe Morisot And Claude Monet Exchange Winter Letters, 2019 July: Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

Theatre of the Absurd

On the occasion of West Berlin Festival Weeks the workshop of Schiller theatre will give “Fin de Partie” of Samuel Beckett. ... Left Ernst Schroeder (Hamm), right Horst Bollmann (Clov). September 26. 1967, Berlin, Germany
Wikipedia - "The Theatre of the Absurd (French: théâtre de l'absurde [teɑtʁ(ə) də lapsyʁd]) is a post-World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s, as well as one for the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. Their work focused largely on the idea of existentialism and expressed what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument give way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence. Critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay 'Theatre of the Absurd'. He related these plays based on a broad theme of the Absurd, similar to the way Albert Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus. ..."
Wikipedia
British Library - Nonsense talk: Theatre of the Absurd
NY Times - Theatre: Of the Absurd (February 12, 1962)
On Absurdity. Adorno, Beckett, and the Demise of Existentialism
amazon: The Theatre of the Absurd by Martin Esslin
YouTube: Beckett, Ionesco, and the Theater of the Absurd: Crash Course Theater #45, Why should you read "Waiting For Godot"? - Iseult Gillespie

Blue Note Records at 80: Can a Symbol of Jazz’s Past Help Shape Its Future?

Some stars who defined Blue Note Records years ago, from left: Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter.
"The name Blue Note Records calls to mind a once-regnant sound in jazz: the hard-bop of the 1950s and ’60s, with its springy four-beat swing rhythm, its spare-but-lush horn harmonies, its flinty, percussive piano playing. Imagine a smoky room with a horn player blowing fiercely over a strolling standup bass, and you’re hearing the Blue Note sound. Think of a modernist, cobalt-hued album cover, with blocky title text and a photo of a studious young musician hunkered over an instrument, and you’re envisioning the Blue Note look. It’s been a long time since that fantasy was a reality — for jazz or for Blue Note, which turns 80 this year. Since the 1960s, the label has been through numerous corporate mergers, partial shutdowns and creative readjustments, all while working to keep pace with shifts that have left jazz in a state of diffusion: Much of its forward motion is happening on the fringes, and there’s hardly a mainstream sound to speak of. ..."
NY Times (Video)
NY Times: A History of Blue Note Records in 15 Albums (Video)

Herbie Hancock, Bobbi Humphrey, Cecil Taylor and more: Blue Note Records has been celebrating its eight-decade history this year.

The Book Beri’ah - John Zorn (2018)

"If you are a fan of downtown NYC impresario and jazz/classical/rock/unclassifiable composer John Zorn, two contradictory things are likely to be true about your relationship to his music: you own more of it than you could ever hope or want to listen to, and you can’t get enough of it. Zorn is despairingly prolific and also controls his own means of production in the form of his record label, Tzadik. Central to his oeuvre is the Masada project, his take on new Jewish music, which began in the nineties and has spawned literally hundreds of compositions and dozens of albums by many, many bands. This summer, Zorn brings the project to a close with his final collection of Masada music, ninety-two compositions performed by twelve bands or performers released as a lavish boxed set of eleven CDs. He is also releasing each volume individually. ..."
The Paris Review
Avant Music News
Tzadik (Video)
YouTube: Highlights from The Book Beri'ah [FULL ALBUM - VINYL] 44:50, Malkhut [FULL ALBUM] 43:11


2009 March: John Zorn, 2010 August: Spillane 2011 October: Filmworks Anthology : 20 Years of Soundtrack Music, 2012 September: Marc Ribot, 2013 January: Bar Kokhba and Masada, 2013 September: Masada String Trio Sala, 2014 January: Full Concert Jazz in Marciac (2010), 2014 March: "Extraits de Book Of Angels" @ Jazz in Marciac 2008, 2015 June: The Big Gundown - John Zorn plays Ennio Morricone (1985), 2015 July: News for Lulu (1988), 2016 March: Film Works 1986-1990, 2017 March: John Zorn Is Rolling The Stone From Avenue C To The New School, 2017 September: Naked City (1990)

Sport, history and politics at the African Cup of Nations

"I have been struck lately by how strongly held our ideas about race and nationhood are. That these ideas are socially constructed or artificial—I teach a course on their historical construction in Africa through colonial science—does not mean they are not powerful. Living in Cairo, I attended the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals between Senegal and Algeria. The closing ceremony before the match featured an impressive light and fireworks show with music by Ghanaian Afropop singer Fuse ODG and Egyptian pop diva Donia Samir Ghanem. But was also a preview of racial binaries that would become more apparent once the football started. Algeria won the match 1-0 on Baghdad Bounedjah’s deflected ball in the second minute. A stout Algerian defense prevented the Senegalese, favored by many to win the tournament, from equalizing. ..."
Africa is a Country (Video)
Guardian: Africa Cup of Nations 2019: highs, lows and moments of mayhem (Video)
CNN: Algeria crowned Africa Cup of Nations champion after beating Senegal
W - 2019 Africa Cup of Nations
Algerian football success is a double-edged sword

2019 July: Yes We Can—Football and Nationalism

Film Forum: Burt Lancaster - Through Thursday, August 15

"A street kid from East Harlem, Burt Lancaster (1913-1994), after a stint as a circus acrobat, got a late start in pictures – but his star personality, among the most powerful in film history, was there from the beginning: from the doom-laden twisted hunks in films noir; to the grinning hot dogs in spoof adventure films; to the sleaziest of con men, Nazi collaborators, and tabloid columnists; to stalwart leaders of men; to idealistic fanatics; to a supremely dignified icon of another age."
Film Forum
W - Burt Lancaster


2014 July: Sweet Smell of Success (1957), 2018 December: 1900 - Bernardo Bertolucci (1976), 2018 December: Atlantic City - Louis Malle (1980)