UbuWeb: Patti Smith

"Her February 1971 poetry reading at St. Mark's Church, where rock critic Lenny Kaye joined her for three songs on guitar, opened the door for her future recordings. The two hit it off right away, discovering a shared interest in obscure rock records. Two years later, Smith and Kaye reunited for a concert in celebration of Rimbaud, and the seeds for a band were sown."
UbuWeb

Closely Watched Trains

Wikipedia - "Closely Watched Trains ... is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel. The film is based on a story by Bohumil Hrabal. It is a coming-of-age story about a boy working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II."
Wikipedia, Criterion, YouTube

Emilio Morenatti

Pakistani
"A bombing wounded two Associated Press journalists embedded with the U.S. military in southern Afghanistan. Photographer Emilio Morenatti and AP Television News videographer Andi Jatmiko were traveling with a unit of the 5th Stryker Brigade of Fort Lewis, Wash., when their vehicle ran over a bomb planted in the open desert terrain, the military said."
Sacramento Bee, Denver Post, (1)

Brooks Robinson

Wikipedia - "Robinson grew up to play third base for the Orioles, and gained great renown for his fielding ability. Nicknamed 'The Human Vacuum Cleaner', he is generally acclaimed as the greatest defensive third-baseman of all time."
Wikipedia

The Battle of Issus

Wikipedia - "The Battle of Issus (or more commonly The Battle at Issus) occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 333 BC. The invading troops led by the young Alexander of Macedonia, defeated the army personally led by Darius III of Achaemenid Persia in the second great battle for primacy in Asia."
Wikipedia

Mark Trail

Wikipedia - "Mark Trail is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on environmental and ecological themes. Mark Trail, the main character, is a photojournalist and magazine writer whose assignments lead him into danger and adventure. His assignments inevitably lead him to discover environmental misdeeds, most often solved with a crushing right cross."
Wikipedia
King Features
Hickory Tech

Ursula von Rydingsvard

Czara z Babelkami, 2006
Wikipedia - "Von Rydingsvard is best known for creating large-scale, often monumental sculpture from the cedar beams which she painstakingly cuts, assembles, and laminates, finally rubbing powdered graphite into the work's textured, faceted surfaces."
Wikipedia, PBS, Conversations, Google

Chess960

Wikipedia - "Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess is a chess variant invented by former World Champion Bobby Fischer by modifying the rules of Shuffle Chess so that castling possibilities exist for all starting positions. It was originally announced on June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina."
Wikipedia, Chess960, Chess for the 21st Century

Jana aka J's

"Street art, stencils, photography, screenprint ... "
Jana aka J's, janaundjs

Nick Drake

Wikipedia - "Nicholas Rodney 'Nick' Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician best known for his haunting, acoustic, autumnal songs. His primary instrument was the guitar, though he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, and saxophone."
Wikipedia, Nick Drake, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

Axis Mundi

"Axis Mundi proposes a conceptual alternative to business-as-usual, choosing the site of the proposed 53W53rd, among the city’s largest skyscraper proposals in one of the most overbuilt parts of Midtown to test their ideas. Their design suggests new expressive possibilities for an urbanism of difference rather than of homogeneity."
MoMA, Design Boom

Perseids

Wikipedia - "The Perseids ... is the name of a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids are so-called because the point they appear to come from, called the radiant, lies in the constellation Perseus."
Wikipedia, Stardate, Space, Chiff, Universe Today,

Mark Rothko

Wikipedia - "Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz (Latvian: Marks Rotko; September 25, 1903–February 25, 1970), was a Latvian-born American painter and printmaker. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted the classification as an 'abstract painter'."
Wikipedia, NGA, Tate, YouTube - BBC, (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)

New Left

Wikipedia - "The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on union activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism. The U.S. 'New Left' is associated with the Hippie movement, college campus mass protest movements and a broadening of focus from protesting class-based oppression to include issues such as gender, race, and sexual orientation."
Wikipedia, Brown U.

King Sunny Adé

Wikipedia - "King Sunny Adé (Sunday Adeniyi, born September 22, 1946) is a popular performer of Yoruba Nigerian Jùjú music and a Pioneer of Modern world music."
Artist Direct, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)

Alchemy

An Alchemist in his Workshop, depicts alchemy in the 17th century
Wikipedia - "Alchemy (Arabic:al-kimia) (Hebrew:אלכימיה al-himia) is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties. The practical aspect of alchemy generated the basics of modern inorganic chemistry, namely concerning procedures, equipment and the identification and use of many current substances."
Wikipedia, The Alchemy web site, Transforming the Alchemists - NYT

Emory Douglas: Black Panther

"A collectors' series of Emory Douglas serigraph art prints are available now from Station 4 Gallery. Each print is signed by Emory Douglas and numbered on archival cotton rag paper. These are reprinted in collaboration with the artist."
MOCA, newmuseum, SF Gate

George Inness

Evening Landscape, 1863
Wikipedia - "George Inness (May 1, 1825 -August 3, 1894), was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism found vivid expression in the work of Inness' maturity. He is best known for these mature works that helped define the Tonalist movement."
Wikipedia, George Inness

Myth of Tarzan under scrutiny at Paris show

"Jungle saviour, noble savage, or green superhero? Tarzan's many mythical faces come under the microscope at a Paris exhibition complete with sounds of the forest, and the hero's distinctive cry."
Google, onculture, BBC, NYT

Eurythmics

Wikipedia - "Eurythmics are a British musical duo, formed in 1980 by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. ... They are Britain's biggest selling duo, and are noted for their songs that showcase Lennox's powerful and expressive alto voice and Stewart's innovative production techniques."
Wikipedia, Eurythmics, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

Kick Map

"The Kick Map is designed to get more people to ride New York City's subway system. Created with clarity and ease of use, it allows riders to navigate this vast system easily and without uncertainty. The subway map is the key to understanding this most complex subway in the world, which has 26 separate lines and 468 stations."
Kick Map

Paul is dead

Wikipedia - "'Paul is dead' is an urban legend alleging that Paul McCartney of The Beatles died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike and sound-alike. The legend hinges on supposed hints among the Beatles' many recordings and presumed to be deliberately placed by The Beatles or others. Hundreds have been cited at various times; they include statements heard when a song is played backwards, symbolic interpretations of obscure lyrics, and ambiguous imagery on album covers."
Wikipedia, Geocities, Turn Me On Dead Man

Gerda Meyer Bernstein

"Gerda Meyer Bernstein’s piece Marginalized consists of a fully deployed military parachute lying on the ground to act as the foundation for the twenty-two burlap-wrapped mannequins that rest on top of it. The mannequins, upon closer examination, are all women and the finger tips that sometimes escape the confining canvas also reveal a spectrum of ethnicity."
art + culture, Gerda Meyer Bernstein

Major League Baseball on the radio

Wikipedia - "During the Golden Age of Radio, television sports broadcasting was in its infancy, and radio was still the main form of broadcasting baseball. Many notable broadcasters, such as Red Barber, Mel Allen, Vin Scully, Russ Hodges, and Ernie Harwell, started in this period."
Wikipedia, Old-time radio - W, Baseball Radio, Pitch Black Baseball, The Digital Deli Online

The Swingin' Medallions

Wikipedia - "The Swingin' Medallions are an American beach music group from Greenwood, South Carolina. The band was formed as The Medallions in 1962 adding the 'Swingin'' in 1965 possibly as a tribute to the Swingin' Travelers an R&B group popular in South Carolina in the late 50s and early 60s."
Wikipedia, Medallions, YouTube

BBC Documentary: Iran and the West

"Iran Press Watch urges its readers to watch the following three part BBC documentary. This well-funded work analyzes the long struggle of Iran and the West to come together ever since the revolution. The documentary shows interviews with a wide range of world leaders who reveal the inner dealings of all governing adminstrations from the past thirty years, both from within Iran’s own adminstration and from the Western counterparts."
BBC

The Four Elements of Hip Hop

"Hip hop is a phenomenally successful youth-oriented culture that has now reached every corner of the globe, just as rock'n'roll did a generation earlier. Also like rock'n'roll, hip hop emerged in the exuberant decade following a prolonged military conflict, in this case the Vietnam war."
BBC

Pattern in Islamic Art

"This website offers a FREE download of over 4000 images of patterns and other design features drawn from the rich cultural heritage of the Islamic world. Historically, the decorative arts have always formed a major part of Islamic aesthetic expression. Its remarkable achievements in this direction (much of which are represented here) make it an invaluable resource for designers of all kinds as well as for art-historians and art-lovers generally."
Pattern in Islamic Art, npr, Wikipedia

Martin Scorsese

Wikipedia - "Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and violence. Scorsese is widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential American filmmakers of his era, directing landmark films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas; all of which he collaborated on with actor Robert De Niro."
Wikipedia, IMDb, Scorsese Films, PBS, senses of cinema, YouTube, (1), (2)

Jorge Luis Borges

"Although honors came late in life to Jorge Luis Borges, his unique worldview had begun to emerge even as a child. This program examines the life and literary career of the charismatic Argentine writer, as well as the thematic, symbolic, and mythological underpinnings of his works."
UbuWeb

Ghost town

Wikipedia - "Medicine Mound is a ghost town in southeastern Hardeman County in West Texas, in the southwestern United States. It consists of two buildings, the former Hicks-Cobb general store and the W.W. Cole Building, a combination bank, drugstore, gasoline station (with rusty pumps still standing), and post office."
Wikipedia, TexasEscapes

Talk to The Times: One in 8 Million

"One in 8 Million is an oral history project in which a different individual among New York City's 8 million residents is profiled each week of 2009."
NYT, One in 8 Million

Film Noir of the Week

"Steve is the Film Noir of the Week editor. The blog was started in 2005 - and has been updated every week since the summer of '05. Steve-O is also administrators the Back Alley Noir message board and is a supporter of the Film Noir Foundation. He's also a frequent contributer to the site posting dozens of articles on the subject of Film Noir."
Film Noir of the Week

John Sloan

Six O'Clock
Wikipedia - "John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was a U.S. artist. As a member of The Eight, a group of American artists, he became a leading figure in the Ashcan School of realist artists. He was known for his urban genre painting and ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often through his window."
Wikipedia, Google

Brothers Quay

Wikipedia - "Stephen and Timothy Quay (born June 17, 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania) are American identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators. They are the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play The Chairs."
Wikipedia, senses of cinema, art+culture, YouTune, (1), (2)