Like Water for Chocolate - Common (2000)

"Common has one of the most distinctive voices in hip-hop, and it goes hand in hand with one of the game’s most storied careers. Over the course of three studio albums he had established himself as a lyricist with few challengers, so when it came time to record his fourth studio album, Like Water For Chocolate, he stepped in once again to hit a hard reset on the state of hip-hop. In the wake of influential releases like The Roots’ Things Fall Apart and Mos Def’s Black On Both Sides, Common’s Like Water For Chocolate was part of an ongoing cultural renaissance in hip-hop. A sprawling opus that spans everything from funk to hip-hop, bebop and cool jazz, the album marks the point where the Chicago MC started transforming into the artist we know today, and finds him taking the chance to honour the black trailblazers that came before him. ..."
udiscover (Video)
Wikipedia
Discogs (Video)
amazom
YouTube: The 6th Sense (Official Music Video) ft. Bilal
YouTube: Like Water For Chocolate (Full Album)

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell @ The National Gallery

Three Women at the Races, 1885
"The Burrell Collection Glasgow is currently closed for a major refurbishment until 2020. Among other things it houses a spectacular collection of works by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas who, as it happens, passed away a hundred years ago this September (1834–1917). So what better way to celebrate this centenary – and display works which would otherwise be gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere – than by loaning this priceless collection to the National Gallery in London, where it nicely complements the National Gallery’s own collection of Degas pastels? ... Pastel became increasingly important to Degas in his later years at a time when, coincidentally, brilliant colour began to play an essential role in the contemporary art he admired, and his own eyesight started to fail. The tactile immediacy and luminous colours of pastel, as well as its ephemeral and fragile quality, allowed him to create astonishingly bold and dynamic works of art, distinct from those of his fellow Impressionists. ..."
Books & Boots
National Gallery
YouTube: Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell at National Gallery

A Brooklyn Dodgers Fan Who Never Gave Up on Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field, the intimate home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957.
"Nobody ever accused Rod Kennedy Jr. of thinking too small. A Brooklyn Dodgers fan who took a beating in a Pelham, N. Y., schoolyard in the 1950s defending his team’s honor against partisans of the New York Yankees and Giants, he began making his living 35 years later by manufacturing tiny tin replicas of ballparks. ... Dissatisfied with recapturing Brooklyn’s past in miniature, however, Mr. Kennedy soon enlarged his ambitions by many orders of magnitude, embarking on a quixotic quest to build a one-quarter-scale replica of Ebbets Field to house a Dodgers museum. ... The first major-league challenge was to locate the long-lost plans of Brooklyn’s cathedral of baseball, where the Dodgers played from 1913 to 1957, before famously breaking the borough’s heart by decamping to Los Angeles. The ballpark was demolished in 1960 by a wrecking ball painted with curving seams to resemble a gargantuan baseball. ..."
NY Times

Mr. Kennedy dreamed of rebuilding Ebbets Field at full size, but the largest replica he ever produced was a miniature tin that played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” when you opened it.

2009 August: Ebbets Field, 2010 June: Red Barber, 2010 August: Shot Heard 'round the World, 2013 October: The Lost Ball Parks: Ebbets Field, 2009 September: Jackie Robinson, 2014 October: How Brooklyn Has Changed on Screen, 2016 March: Black Ball - Jules Tygiel and John Thorn (Essay), 2016 April: The Unsanitized Story of Jackie Robinson, 2016 October: That time a Dodgers fan beat an umpire in 1940, 2017 April: Baseball color line, Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy - Jules Tygiel (1983), 2019 February: In Don Newcombe, Baseball Got Its First Black Ace

The History of Murder Ballads and the Women Who Flipped the Script

"Murder ballads are everywhere. From songs, to movies, and beyond, the centuries-old subgenre is ingrained in our culture—and sometimes, we may not even pick up on the violent, and often misogynistic, messages. You may have encountered murder ballads in the podcast Dolly Parton’s America, in which an entire episode it dedicated to how they influenced Parton’s earlier albums, and how she became a feminist icon by flipping the script; on The Hunger Games soundtrack, in which the foreboding song 'The Hanging Tree' draws from Appalachian folk; the bluegrass standard, 'Pretty Polly,'  which has been performed by everyone from jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to Judy Collins to Throwing Muses frontwoman Kristin Hersh; or songs like 'Hey Joe' (popularized by Jimi Hendrix), 'I Used to Love Her' by Guns N’ Roses, or 'Love the Way You Lie' by Eminem (featuring Rihanna)—all of which may not strictly follow the murder ballad formula, but continue the violent lyrical tradition. ..."
She Shreds (Video)

Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads (1984)

"Stop Making Sense is a 1984 American concert film featuring a live performance by American rock band Talking Heads. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it was shot over the course of four nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues. ... Lead singer David Byrne walks on to a bare stage with a portable cassette tape player and an acoustic guitar. He introduces 'Psycho Killer' by saying he wants to play a tape, but in reality a Roland TR-808 drum machine starts playing from the mixing board. ... With each successive song, Byrne is joined by more members of the band: first by Tina Weymouth for 'Heaven' (with Lynn Mabry providing harmony vocals from backstage), second by Chris Frantz for 'Thank You for Sending Me an Angel', and third by Jerry Harrison for 'Found a Job'. ..."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Stop Making Sense - Trailer
YouTube: Stop making sense (Concert) 1:27:47

2008 September: Talking Heads, 2011 June: Talking Heads: 77, 2011 August: More Songs About Buildings and Food, 2011 October: Fear of Music, 2012 January: Remain in Light, 2012 April: Speaking in Tongues, 2012 June: Live in Rome 1980, 2014 December: "Road To Nowhere" (1985), 2015 May: And She Was (1985), 2011 August: David Byrne: How Architecture Helped Music Evolve, 2012 January: The Knee Plays, 2015 October: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - Brian Eno / David Byrne (1981), 2016 August: Fear Of Music: Amazing Early Talking Heads Doc From 1979, 2016 June: Performance (1979)

Positively Eighth Street

"Staggering through the aisles of today’s giant bookstores, it’s hard not to imagine that most of the merchandise won’t eventually find its way to the nearest Jersey landfill rather than a reader’s night table. Ever since these behemoth-sized emporiums took root in the 1980s, trafficking in assorted lamps, T-shirts, gewgaws, Simone de Beauvoir coffee mugs, Samuel Beckett tote bags, and — oh yes — books, the importance of the printed has become almost a consumerist afterthought. It’s the effect of the literature that these stores sell — a perfume of culture. So omnipresent has this book sales surround become, it almost seems as if — even to those forty and beyond — it has always been with us. But bookstores used to just sell books. ..."
RealityStudio

Nick Cave's inspiration: pictures and notes from his archive

Nick Cave in Yorkstraße, West Berlin, in August, 1985.
"'What you see in this book lives in the intricate world constructed around the songs, and which the songs inhabit,' writes Nick Cave in his introduction to Stranger Than Kindness. 'It is the material that gives birth to and nourishes the official work.' That intricate world includes drawings, lists, collages, scribbled notes and lyrics, found photographs and several handmade books, creased and stained, sometimes in his own blood. Therein the sacred and the profane, the biblical and the pornographic, exist side by side as they have done in Cave’s songs for about 40 years of often frantic creativity. ..."
Guardian
amazon: Stranger Than Kindness

Handwritten dictionary of words by Nick Cave

2008 August: Nick Cave, 2010 November: Henry Lee - Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 March: The Boatman's Call, 2011 December: B-Sides & Rarities, 2012 January: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - White Lunar, 2013 January: "We No Who U R", 2013 April: No More Shall We Part, 2013 June: The Secret Life Of The Love Song/The Flesh Made Word (1999), 2013 October: The Abattoir Blues Tour (2007), 2014 March: Push the Sky Away (2013), 2014 May: Live from KCRW (2013), 2014 July: I Am the Real Nick Cave, 2014 March: God Is In The House (2001), 2015 June: Nocturama (2003), 2015 July: Higgs Boson Blues

Women's cinema

Post-war French director Jacqueline Audry
"Women's cinema is a variety of topics bundled together to create the work of women in film. This can include women filling behind the scene roles such as director, cinematographer, writer, and producer while also addressing the stories of women and character development through screenplays. Renowned female directors include Kathryn Bigelow, who is the only woman to date to win the Academy Award for Best Director, along with many other female directors from around the world such as Alice Guy-Blaché, Dorothy Arzner, Mary Harron, Icíar Bollaín, Jane Campion, Aparna Sen, Sofia Coppola, Agnès Varda, Patty Jenkins, Nancy Meyers, Yasmin Ahmad, Nadine Labaki, Ava DuVernay, Lucrecia Martel, Lynne Ramsay, Greta Gerwig, Rakhshān Banietemad, and Ida Lupino. Many successful cinematographers are also women, including Maryse Alberti, Reed Morano, Rachel Morrison, and Zoe White. Women's cinema recognizes women's contributions all over the world, not only to narrative films but to documentaries as well. ..."
Wikipedia
Women with a movie camera
BBC: Top 100 films directed by women: A new golden age of cinema?
Sight & Sound: the October 2015 issue ($)
15 Women of Cinema History You Should Know

Laura Mulvey

New Art Exhibit Explores Death and its Effect on Those Left Behind

Rachel Grobstein, Ghost Bike, 2019
"As a society, we’re more technologically advance than ever, yet the world feels more dangerous than ever. With concerns around poverty, homelessness, climate change, racial violence, climbing suicide rates and now the threat of a third world war, it’s no wonder so many a preoccupation with the meaning of life and the inevitability of death and dying. Right on cue, a new art exhibition opening in February at BRIC will draw our attention to the universal imminence of death and how the grieving process impacts the living. The exhibit, Death Becomes Her, is a collaboration between BRIC and The Green-Wood Cemetery featuring seven artists: Mimi Bai, Nona Faustine, Rachel Grobstein, Gyun Hur, Heidi Lau, Catalina Ouyang, and Keisha Scarville. ..."
BKReader
BRIC: Death Becomes Her (Video)
Artists Explore Mourning and Loss at BRIC’s ‘Death Becomes Her’ Exhibition in Fort Greene

Detail of ‘The Burial Chamber’ by Heidi Lau

Townes Van Zandt - In The Beginning... (1966)

"Not surprisingly, when one listens to these early recordings of Townes Van Zandt, it's obvious from the start that he was someone and something that arrived fully formed. Even if the songs themselves weren’t quite as refined as they would become, virtually all of the elements are in place: the poetry, the stark melodies, the restless wanderlust, the inherent melancholy and impenetrable darkness; all of which this would inhabit his lyrics and delivery for the rest of his too-short life. The songs on In the Beginning were recorded in his first Nashville recording sessions in 1966, pre-dating the release of For the Sake of the Song by two years. Eight of these ten songs was recorded with Van Zandt playing solo on his guitar. ... Take this for what it is, not some holy grail, but a collection of heretofore unheard and excellent early Van Zandt material, which is in itself a gift."
allmusic (Audio)
popmatters
Discogs (Video)
amazon
YouTube: In The Beginning... 30:54

2014 March: Heartworn Highways - James Szalapski (1975), 2014 September: The 10 Best Townes Van Zandt Songs, 2015 January: Solo Sessions (Jan 17, 1995), 2015 September: Townes Van Zandt & Nanci Griffith - "Tecumseh Valley," 1993, 2016 February: "If I Needed You" - Townes Van Zandt (1972)

Requiem for What's His Name - Marc Ribot & The Rootless Cosmopolitans (1992)

"Requiem for What's His Name is the second album by Marc Ribot & The Rootless Cosmopolitans which was released by the Belgian label Les Disques du Crepuscule in 1992. The album was recorded in New York City at Sound on Sound Recording except 'Commit a Crime' which was recorded live at Desi Stadtteilzentrum in Nuremberg, Germany. Ribot stated 'On the next record, Requiem for What’s His Name, the focus moved towards composition. It’s almost impossible to get hold of it. I was interested in Balkan music at the time, certain ritual music ... in finding stuff I could do without ironic distance.' ..."
Wikipedia
Discogs (Video)
amazon
YouTube: Requiem for What's His Name

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, 2015 September: Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos - The Prosthetic Cubans (1998), 2015 November: Marc Ribot Ceramic Dog (2014), 2016 February: Musical Improvisation in the Marlene Dumas Exhibition (2015), 2017 May: Marc Ribot Trio - Fat Man Blues (2015), 2017 July: Err Guitar by Elliott Sharp with Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot (2017)

The Mauritius Command - Patrick O'Brian (1977)

"The Mauritius Command is the fourth naval historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1977. Aubrey is married and the father of twin girls, owner of a cottage with a fine observatory he built. He is more than ready to be back at sea. He and Stephen Maturin join a convoy charged with taking two well-located islands in the Indian Ocean from the French. The mission provides scope for each man to advance in his specialty. A review written at first publication found the novel to be written in 'language deep with detail and the poetry of fact', appreciating the period detail. A later review, written at the reissue, finds the author a graceful writer but sees a difficulty with the novel's structure, building to climaxes that do not occur. Others writing at that time saw the novel more as part of the long series, with humour, erudition and 'impeccable period detail'. ..."
Wikipedia
Coffee, (1810, Port-Louis, Mauritius)
The Mauritius Command Radio Play (Audio)
amazon

Combat de Grand Port by Pierre-Julien Gilbert

2009 September: Patrick O'Brian, 2013 July: Harbors and High Seas - Dean King and John B. Hattendorf, 2015 October: HMS Surprise (1973), 2016 May: Post Captain (1972), 2019 February: Aubrey–Maturin series, 2019 February: Cooking with Patrick O’Brian By Valerie Stivers, 2019 June: Desolation Island (1978)

Al's French Frys

"... Founded by Al and Genevieve Rusterholz in the late 1940s, Al's French Frys was originally housed in a small hut, open to the elements. Many Chittenden Countians encountered Al’s French Frys stand at the Champlain Valley Fair, where it earned a reputation that has endured for more than half a century. Al’s is now owned by the Bissonette family, headed by Bill Bissonette, who revealed part of the restaurant’s secret when he told a local paper that he starts with Idaho or California russets and fries them twice in a combination of beef tallow and soy bean oil at between 300 and 400 degrees for a total of about seven minutes. There are always lines at Al’s, night and day. ..."
America's Classics: Al's French Frys, South Burlington, VT
Al's French Frys
Google - Al's French Frys
YouTube: JBF Awards 2010: Al's French Frys, Americas Classic Award

Nothing but Blue Skies

Stoke-by-Nayland, 1836, John Constable
"The sky alters our day. As soon as we open our eyes, the light in the window colors the way many of us approach family, school, work. The sky, whether clear, overcast, or threatening storms, is a dramatic visual character in our daily stories. Artists have approached the sky in many ways. John Constable was an influential British painter who harbored an intense curiosity about skies and weather. He went on sketching outings he called 'skying' during which he closely observed the sky and clouds. In Stoke-by-Nayland (1836) the earth is a muddle of dark colors and shapes that blend into one another. ..."
Art Institute of Chicago

Valley of Aosta: Snowstorm, Avalanche, and Thunderstorm, 1836/37, Joseph Mallord William Turner

Haymarket Books

"Our mission is to publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. We strive to make our books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, international left. We take inspiration and courage from our namesakes, the Haymarket Martyrs, who gave their lives fighting for a better world. ... Radically independent, Haymarket seeks to drive a wedge into the risk-averse world of corporate book publishing. Our authors include Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Rebecca Solnit, Angela Davis, Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Wallace Shawn, Mike Davis, Winona LaDuke, Ilan Pappé, Richard Wolff, Dave Zirin, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Nick Turse, Dahr Jamail, David Barsamian, Elizabeth Laird, Amira Hass, Mark Steel, Avi Lewis, Naomi Klein, and Neil Davidson. ..."
Haymarket Books

The 48 Hours When Liverpool’s Title Run Screeched to a Halt

Liverpool was on pace to clinch the Premier League title this Saturday at Anfield.
"LIVERPOOL, England — For once, there was no big finale to Jürgen Klopp’s speech. Liverpool’s coach stood in the canteen at Melwood, the club’s training facility, with his players and the club’s staff gathered in front of him. All boundaries had blurred. Star players sat next to interns, all wondering the same thing: What now? Klopp did not, as he ordinarily would, end his talk with a rhetorical flourish, or a war cry, or even a joke. Instead, as he sent everyone home for the foreseeable future, he stressed two simple messages. ..."
NY Times

Illusions of the Photographer: Duane Michals at the Morgan

"Contemplative, confessional, and comedic, the art of Duane Michals exerts an appeal that transcends the conventional audience of photography. Since the early 1960s, Michals has worked past what he sees as the limitations of the camera: he writes in the margins of his prints, creates sequences of images that explore intangible human dilemmas (doubt, mortality, desire), and derives poetic effects from technical errors such as double exposure and motion blur. Illusions of the Photographer combines a full career retrospective—the first on Michals to be organized by a New York City museum—with an artist’s-choice show, as Michals plumbs the Morgan’s vaults for treasures both revered and long-forgotten. Michals leads viewers on a tour of his mind as he engages heroes and mentors as varied as William Blake, Edward Lear, and Saul Steinberg and matches wits with stage designers, toy-makers, and his fellow portraitists of the past and the present. The exhibition will be accompanied by screenings of short films—Michals’ preferred medium in recent years. An audioguide narrated by the artist will complement a wide-ranging interview in the exhibition’s catalog. ..."
The Morgan Library & Museum (Video)
NY Times: Duane Michals Searches the Morgan and Finds Himself

2011 October: Duane Michals, 2014 May:The Last Sentimentalist: A Q. & A. with Duane Michals, 2014 September: Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals

Greatest Hits - Afro-Zen Allstars (2017)

"Led by a driving horn section, Afro-Zen Allstars deliver a powerful instrumental collection on Greatest Hits that evokes irresistible rhythms and danceable grooves to match their acclaimed live performances. From Ethiopia's 'Golden Age' of music (popularized by the Ethiopiques Series and groups like Debo Band) to wedding music of Rajasthan or Zimbabwe’s Chimurenga music of 'revolutionary struggle,' Afro-Zen honors a heritage of positive music through the modern arrangements of its bandleader, George M. Lowe. As a lifelong student of international music, Lowe takes the listener to a place where the sound is both rare yet familiar. On Afro-Zen Allstars’s Greatest Hits, he leads the powerhouse lineup of Hector 'Coco' Barez, percussion; Brian Cruse, Bass; John Lilley, Alto and Tenor Sax; George M. Lowe, Guitar; Scott Milstead, Drums; Chris Sclafani, Baritone Sax; Chris Vasi, Guitar; and Toby Whitaker, Trombone through highlights of their vast songbook of Ethiojazz standards and originals. ..."
Afro Zen All Stars
bandcamp (Audio)
anazon, iTunes
YouTube: Afro Zen All Stars perform 'Wu Beat'

A Trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester

Ipswich Bay to Gloucester Harbor; Rockport Harbor
"... Except for that letter, for years I kept largely to myself and have had a limited correspondence. That has begun to change recently but for the most part I still remain wary of my idols despite all the wonderful insight they could bring. Charles Olson would have been an exception to that rule had I been fortunate enough to have been born a full two decades earlier. From all accounts, Olson was one of the great talkers of all time at home, in the library, looming over the lecture hall, sitting at the kitchen table, or holding forth in the barroom. The depth and breadth of his thought coupled with his mythic endurance made for an exhausting and, for many listeners, a life-changing experience. I like to think I would have tracked him down at 28 Fort Square in Gloucester for an evening of strong drink and heady talk as the fog rolled in off of Ten Pound Island and mixed with the cigarette smoke. ..."
Reality Studio
OLSON from From Gloucester Out by Peter Anastas
Gloucester Author Peter Anastas
Jacket2: 'To find out for yourself' - Maximus at Gloucester High School
W - Gloucester, Massachusetts

July 20, 1967

2009 January: Charles Olson, 2009 April: Rockport Harbor, 2010 September: Charles Olson: The Art of Poetry No. 12, 2011 July: Charles Olson: February 21, 1957, 2012 April: A Trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester, 2012 June: In Which We Lather Our Sensibilities At Length, 2013 January: Mass.Charles Olson, 2013 May: The Maximus Poems, 2013 November: A Guide to The Maximus Poems of Charles Olson , 2015 March: "In Cold Hell, in Thicket" (1950), 2017 May: The Collected Poems of Charles Olson edited by George Butterick, 2017 May: Gloucester HarborWalk #: Charles Olson 3rd Letter on Georges, unwritten to Schooner Footage

Learn the constellations

The Winter Sky
"If you're a newcomer to amateur astronomy, eager to begin exploring the night sky, you'll have to overcome one of astronomy's biggest hurdles — learning to identify the constellations. After all, you can't find the Andromeda Galaxy if you can't find Andromeda. Trying to make sense of those myriad stellar specks overhead might seem intimidating, but making friends with the stars needn't be a 'mission impossible.' ... North circumpolar constellations. We begin in the northern sky, realm of those always-visible star groups known as the north circumpolar constellations. The most prominent figure is the Big Dipper (Note: The Big Dipper is not a constellation). These bright stars — four forming the 'bowl,' three more tracing out the 'handle' — create one of the most recognizable patterns in the night sky, an ideal guide for locating surrounding constellations. ..."
Astronomy
Constellation Guide
amazon: Guide to the Stars

The Autumn Sky

Garden of Painterly Delights

Percy Horton: Suburban Garden, 1921
"A bright, blowy day in London. Blue sky, tumbling white clouds. The trees are budding in the parks, and even the brown Thames seems to sparkle. Could spring be coming? We are fed up with snow and floods and sad, bad news. Many of us—myself including—simply want to get into the garden. In tune with this mood, thank goodness, the Garden Museum in Lambeth is showing an exhibition called 'Sanctuary: Artist-Gardeners 1919–1939.' During World War I, when soldiers thought longingly of home, their minds often turned to the garden. Indeed, they made small gardens in the trenches, planting bulbs in empty brass shell-casings. In a catalog essay, the Garden Museum’s director, Christopher Woodward, quotes Ford Madox-Ford’s No Enemy: A Tale of Reconstruction (1929), on the soldier’s dream of return, not to a landscape but 'a nook rather,' at the end of a valley 'with a little stream, just a trickle level with the grass of the bottom. You understand the idea—a sanctuary.' ..."
NYBooks
Sanctuary: Artist-Gardeners 1919–1939

Harry Bush: Snowfall in the suburbs, 1940

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché - Pamela B. Green (2018)

"Pioneering Franco-American filmmaker Alice Guy was never completely forgotten. Her movies would be mentioned by legendary directors like Hitchcock and Eisenstein in their memoirs. Every so often, over the decades of her life and in the 50 years since her death, some archivist or historian would seek to give her the due she was owed — first female writer-director-producer-editor, first female head of production, etc. But the slights, omissions and outright sexist erasures of her name from the historical record ruled the day — a century of days. ... Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, the First Female Filmmaker, begins with Alison McMahan’s 2002 book, Alice Guy-Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema and dives into globe-trotting original scholarship, filling the screen with some 138 interview subjects and mountains of primary source (written and film) material. ..."
Movie Nation (Video)
NY Times - ‘Be Natural’ Review: Rescuing Alice Guy Blaché, a Film Pioneer, From Oblivion - A.O. Scott (Video)
W - Alice Guy-Blaché
W - Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
YouTube: BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ - official US trailer

061° SPIRITUAL JAZZ - THE LOST TRACKS - selected by Gerald "Jazzman" Short

"Those of you that has been following the blog for a while knows that we have a very special interest and respect for the English record label Jazzman Records. So it is with very great pleasure that we are pleased to present to you exclusively 9 Spiritual Tracks selected by Gerald Short, owner and creator of Jazzman Records. When we asked him to tell us what has led his choice, he answered us 'This is a selection of European modal & spiritual jazz tracks that for one reason or another did not make it onto our series of Spiritual Jazz albums on Jazzman. The quality is there for all to hear; these are not rejects.' We wish you a nice travel into Northern and Eastern European Jazz! ..."
les mains noires (Audio)

Disconcerted: A Music Critic’s Empty Nights

Webster Hall in Manhattan.
"Empty rooms. Empty stages. Empty seats. Empty dance floors. And not far away, empty lobbies, empty dressing rooms, empty back rooms, empty bar areas, empty kitchens, empty lounges, empty sound booths, empty loading zones. These were places animated by live music, with entire backstage workdays dedicated to presenting just a few hours of intangible sound — gigs, shows, concerts — for the audiences that gathered there, often with great anticipation and at significant cost. I already miss them dearly. Concerts have been shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic; schedules and calendars, at least in the short run and possibly for much longer, are empty too. ..."
NY Times

The United Palace, from the balcony.

Magical Land Art By Andy Goldsworthy

"Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, renowned in his field, that creates temporary landscape art installations out of sticks and stones, and anything and everything else that he finds outside. The son of a mathematician, Goldsworthy grew up working on farms before eventually getting his BA from what is now the University of Central Lancashire. 'A lot of my earth art is like picking potatoes,' he told the Guardian. 'You have to get into the rhythm of it.' Much of Goldsworthy’s land art is transient and ephemeral, leading many to view it as a comment on the Earth’s fragility. But for Goldsworthy, the picture is more complicated. ..."
boredpanda
amazon: Andy Goldsworthy

2007 November: Andy Goldsworthy: Roof, 2012 March: Rivers and Tides, 2012 June: Andy Goldsworthy 1987 Grizedale, 2017 September: Rivers and Tides: Working With Time - Fred Frith (2001), 2018 August: Hedge Walking: The Land Art Of Andy Goldsworthy

Titian: Love, Desire, Death review – whims of the gods made flesh

Female realm … Titian’s Diana and Actaeon, 1556-69.
"The women are the stars in Titian. Men barely get a look-in – and that look-in can be fatal. In his painting Diana and Actaeon, a young man out hunting has chanced on the goddess Diana and her court bathing naked in a woodland hideaway. As he pushes aside a soft pink hanging, he sees inside this female realm. His punishment is shown in another painting here: he will be turned into a stag and torn apart by his hounds. In Diana and Actaeon we see what he sees: women kneel and crouch, turn in horror and rush to cover. Titian’s brush shapes their flesh in ethereal yet weighty flicks of colour that capture form while being smokily suggestive. He called these paintings 'poesie', poetic pictures, with good reason, for they hover in a cloud of carnality and dreams. ..."
Guardian
W - Titian

‘An image of the Venetian sex trade itself’ … Danae, c1554–56.

How to Socially Distance and Stay Sane

"On Monday, The Times reported that British researchers studying the coronavirus had made a harrowing projection: If government and individuals don’t take sweeping actions to slow the virus’s spread and suppress new cases, 2.2 million people in the United States could die. Social distancing is one such action, now in increasingly wide effect. But how does it help, what exactly does it entail, and how do you practice it without sacrificing your physical and mental health? Here’s what public-health experts, journalists and others are saying. ..."
NY Times

Fehlfarben - 33 Tage in Ketten (1982)

“Fehlfarben is a Neue Deutsche Welle band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The band name is from a German term referring to cigars with a discoloured wrapper leaf and sold cheaply: singer Peter Hein was in this line of work at Xerox while in the band. Its founding members were Peter Hein (vocals), former Mittagspause (‘lunch break’), Thomas Schwebel (guitar, former Mittagspause, S.Y.P.H.), Michael Kemner (bass, former 20 Colors, Mau Mau, DAF, YOU), Frank Fenstermacher (saxophone, later Der Plan), Markus Oehlen and Uwe Bauer (drums, former Mittagspause, Materialschlacht). … Shortly after having released their debut album, Fehlfarben suffered the departure of lead singer Peter Hein owing to his frustration at the follow-up tour’s being lengthened from three to six weeks on short notice. He went back to his day job at Xerox, where he worked until 2003. …”
Wikipedia
Discogs
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: 33 Tage in Ketten (Full)