Pinhole camera

Wikipedia - "A pinhole camera is a very simple camera with no lens and a single very small aperture. Simply explained, it is a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. Cameras using small apertures and the human eye in bright light both act like a pinhole camera."
Wikipedia, The Pinhole Gallery, Pinhole Photography, Making a Pinhole Camera

Bert Jansch

Wikipedia - "Herbert Jansch (born 3 November 1943), known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs. He is best known as an innovative and accomplished acoustic guitarist but is also a singer and songwriter."
Wikipedia, Bert Jansch, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6).
Acoustic Routes - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8

The Art of Illumination

"The Belles Heures (1405–1408/9) of Jean de Berry, a treasure of The Cloisters collection, is one of the most celebrated and lavishly illustrated manuscripts in this country. Because it is currently unbound, it is possible to exhibit all of its illuminated pages as individual leaves, a unique opportunity never to be repeated."
Met Museum

Werner Herzog's cave art documentary takes 3D into the depths

"From his film about the hostage survivor Dieter Dengler, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, to his examination of the life and death of the eccentric grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell, Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog always seems to have an eye for stranger-than-fiction scenarios that make for fascinating documentaries. Over on Roger Ebert's blog, there's news of a new Herzog project that might represent his most important venture into factual film-making yet."
Guardian, Roger Ebert's Journal, Wikipedia

The Troggs

Wikipedia - "The Troggs are an English rock band from the 1960s that had a number of hits in Britain and the USA, including their most famous song, 'Wild Thing'. The Troggs were from the town of Andover in southern England. The band were originally called The Troglodytes (troglodyte meaning 'caveman')."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2)

McCarthyism

Wikipedia - "McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents."
Wikipedia, Spartacus

Pianoless Vexations - Erik Satie

Wikipedia - "Vexations is a noted musical work by Erik Satie. Apparently conceived for keyboard (though the single page of manuscript does not specify an instrument), it consists of a short theme in the bass whose four presentations are alternatively heard unaccompanied and played with chords above. The theme and its accompanying chords are written using strikingly eccentric and impractical enharmonic notation. The piece is undated, but scholars usually assign a date around 1893 on the basis of musical and biographical evidence."
Wikipedia, UbuWeb

Isidro Blasco

Shanghai At Last
"BLASCO combines architecture, photography and installation to explore themes of vision and perception in relation to physical experience. His work often references the realm of private or domestic space. BLASCO normally begins by selecting one angle in a room or outdoors and then constructs a new space from the perspective of that vantage point."
DCKT, Isidro Blasco, artnet, Vimeo

Séraphine Louis

"Séraphine Louis, known as 'Séraphine de Senlis' ('Séraphine of Senlis') (1864–1942), was a French painter in the naïve style. Self-taught, she was inspired by her religious faith and by stained-glass church windows and other religious art. The intensity of her images, both in color and in replicative designs, are sometimes interpreted as a reflection of her own psyche, walking a tightrope between ecstasy and mental illness."
Wikipedia, IMDb, YouTube, (1), NYT, artnet

Street art

"Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, 'in the streets' — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations."
Wikipedia

Granite State of Mind

"A music video about New Hampshire that was filmed in New Hampshire has become an Internet sensation. 'Granite State of Mind,' a spoof on the Granite State, is a parody of Jay-Z’s hit song 'Empire State of Mind'."
NY DAILY - 'Granite State of Mind,' by Christian Wisecarver, takes 'Empire State of Mind' to New Hampshire, WMUR

Manroot and Acts

"A friend of mine loaned me a copy of Manroot #10, published in the fall/winter of 1974. This issue dedicated to Spicer came after Caterpillar 12 but before Blaser’s Collected Books of Spicer. Manroot reprints Billy the Kid and Fifteen Propositions as well as several magazine appearances starting with Occident from the late 1940s to J and Open Space."
Mimeo Mimeo, Jacket 7 — April 1999

Cosmic Baseball Association

"The baseball playoffs are over. Behind the veteran pitcher Charles Manson, the Psychedelphia Woodstockings defeated the Speed City Velocitors and their star second baseman, the Apollo 11 command module, in the decisive fifth game. The Woodsox are now likely to face Cyd Charisse, the Paradise Pisces' high-kicking hurler, when the Universal Series opens on Nov. 23."
NYT, Cosmic Baseball Association

Neil Young - Part 1

Wikipedia - "Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960. He then migrated to California in 1966, as part of Buffalo Springfield and established himself as the fourth member of Crosby, Stills & Nash."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Down by the river (1969), Cowgirl In The Sand, (1), Needle & The Damage Done (live), Heart Of Gold, After the Goldrush 1978, Thrasher, The Band & Neil Young - Helpless(Live), Ohio - Live at Massey Hall, A Man Needs A Maid, BBC Concert 1971 - Part One, (2), (3), (4), Sugar Mountain, Like A Hurricane, Like A Hurricane (Live Rust), Cortez The Killer

Crime and Punishment - Musée d'Orsay

Jean-Joseph Weerts, Marat Assassinated! 13 July 1793
"The exhibition Crime and Punishment looks at a period of some two hundred years: from 1791, when Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau called for the abolition of the death penalty, to 30 September 1981, the date the bill was passed to abolish it in France."
Musée d'Orsay

SepiaTown

"SepiaTown lets you view and share thousands of mapped historical images from around the globe. Search the map to view images or... We welcome historical images from collections of all sizes, from libraries and historical societies to individuals with a boxful of cool old photos."
SepiaTown

Unusual types of gramophone records

Wikipedia - "The overwhelming majority of records manufactured have been of certain sizes (7, 10, or 12 inches), playback speeds (33⅓, 45, or 78 RPM), and appearance (round black discs). However, since the commercial adoption of the gramophone record, a wide variety of records have also been produced that do not fall into these categories, and they have served a variety of purposes."
Wikipedia, Messages in the Matrices of Records

Bruce High Quality Foundation

"The Bruce High Quality Foundation, a group of anonymous artists, uses performances and pranks to critique the art world. For the work on view in 2010, the Foundation repurposed an iconic vehicle as a 'portable museum,' a site for both reviving and putting to rest American cultural myths."
Whitney, Bruce High Quality Foundation, YouTube, (1), (2)

U-Roy

Wikipedia - "U-Roy (born Ewart Beckford, OD, 21 September 1942, Jones Town, Jamaica) is a Jamaican musician, also known as The Originator. He is best known as a pioneer of toasting."
Wikipedia, Roots Archives, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)

Tic-tac-toe

Wikipedia - "Tic-tac-toe, also spelled tick tack toe, and alternatively called noughts and crosses, X's and O's, and many other names, is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, O and X, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid, usually X going first. The player who succeeds in placing three respective marks in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row wins the game."
Wikipedia, Tic-tac-toe

Freddy Cannon

Wikipedia - "Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. (born 4 December 1939), known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included 'Tallahassie Lassie', 'Way Down Yonder In New Orleans', and 'Palisades Park'."
Wikipedia, YouTube, (1), (2),

Artforum

Wikipedia - "Artforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art."
Wikipedia, artforum, BNET

Commodore 64

Wikipedia - "The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982. Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US $595."
Wikipedia, YouTube

Au Soleil (To The Sun)

"'Au Soleil' is based on my memories of a cycling trip I undertook across Eastern Europe from Berlin to Istanbul. I travelled with three close friends on a journey lasting one month; we cycled through incredible scenery in the isolated backwaters of Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey crossing the Beskids and the Carpathians."
vimeo

Robert Fripp

Wikipedia - "Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946 in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England) is a guitarist, composer and a record producer best known for being the guitarist for, and only constant member of, the progressive rock band King Crimson. His work, spanning four decades, encompasses a variety of musical styles."
Wikipedia, DGM, King Crimson, YouTube - Robert Fripp: New York - Wimborne (Part 1), (Part 2), (Part 3). Frippertronics, Interview, Robert Fripp String Quintet Kan Non Power, brian eno - baby's on fire/ feat. robert fripp, Fripp & Eno - Evensong, Robert Fripp String Quintet - Passacaglia

Little Red Songbook

Wikipedia - "Since the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the IWW, songs have played a big part in spreading the message of the One Big Union. The songs are preserved in the Little Red Songbook.
Wikipedia, IWW Little Red Songbook

BibliOdyssey

"We first met blogger PK and BibliOdyssey, his remarkable blog devoted to visual materia obscura two years ago. BibliOdyssey is the starting point on the net for uncovering eclectic archival imagery and the fascinating wealth of ephemera offered by libraries, universities and other institutions."
Drawn!, BibliOdyssey, amazon

'SKINE.ART

amiplasse
"Hanging by the sad, long neglected, yellow receivered pay phone on the platform at Chambers Street on a Friday Afternoon (1-22-10)."
'SKINE.ART

Kraftwerk

Wikipedia - "Kraftwerk ("power plant" or "power station", ...) is a pioneering and a highly influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation. The group's simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software."
Wikipedia, Kraftwerk, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)

Green Integer Blog

The Festival Play of Daniel
"The Green Integer Blog supplements our Green Integer website with essays on various cultural topics by editor/publisher Douglas Messerli, along with a listing of Green Integer titles and information on our new books."
Green Integer Blog, Green Integer

Rock in Opposition

Wikipedia - "Rock in Opposition or RIO was a movement representing a collective of progressive bands in the late 1970s united in their opposition to the music industry that refused to recognise their music. It was initiated by English avant-rock group Henry Cow in March 1978 when they invited four mainland European groups to come to London and perform in a festival called 'Rock in Opposition'."
Wikipedia, Rock in Opposition, CHAMBER MUSIC ROCK, Bukisa, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4)

Pictish stones

Wikipedia - "Pictish stones are monumental stelae found in Scotland, mostly north of the Clyde-Forth line. These stones are the most visible remaining evidence of the Picts and are thought to date from the 6th to 9th centuries."
Wikipedia, Dark Isle, Ancient Scotland, Meigle Pictish Stones

The Baseball Biography Project

"The Baseball Biography Project is an ongoing effort to research and write comprehensive biographical articles on people who played or managed in the major leagues, or otherwise made a significant contribution to the sport. The project is run by the Bioproject Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)."
SABR

A Piece of Monologue

Jean Martin 1922 - 2009
"A Piece of Monologue is an independent website that examines literature, film and contemporary issues in critical theory. The site offers a broad selection of news, commentary, and analysis, spanning a wide range of cultural texts — in particular, those pertaining to modernism, continental philosophy and the work of Samuel Beckett."
A Piece of Monologue

Sten and Lex's "Poster Stencils"

"The video above shows their process of pasting up the matrix of the stencil, cut on paper, on a panel of wood as a poster. They then paint on the matrix in black and when it all all dry they destroy the matrix, letting some parts of the matrix stay pasted to the wood. In this manner the stencil is not reproducible and the matrix 'dies' in the work itself."
Wooster Collective, flickr