Speakeasy

Wikipedia - "A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition (1920–1933, longer in some states). During this time, the sale, manufacture, and transportation (bootlegging) of alcoholic beverages was illegal throughout the United States."
Wikipedia

Forró

Wikipedia - "Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance that developed from European styles of folk music such as 'Chula' and 'Xotis' (term that originated the derivate 'Xote'), as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina (June Festival), a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints. The most celebrated day of the festival is known as São João."
Wikipedia, National Geographic Society, YouTube - Forrowest, Nonsensical, Asa Branca, NUBLU, Brazilian dance-forró

The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)

Wikipedia - "The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising plot twist and was usually brought to closure with some sort of message."
Wikipedia, npr, YouTube - The Twilight Zone

How Power Has Transformed Women’s Tennis

Kim Clijsters
"ON THE DAY BEFORE Wimbledon started, when the club grounds had not yet opened to the public, Justine Henin, the diminutive Belgian tennis great, stepped onto practice court No. 3, then still an emerald patch of unspoiled grass. The sun had just come out after several cloudy days, and all around, players, their coaches and families, yammering in various languages, exchanged greetings like veteran bunkmates on the first day at summer camp. Not Henin. Having unretired last year as suddenly as she quit 16 months earlier — saying she had got all she wanted from the sport — she remained absorbed with her coach, Carlos Rodriguez, in their warm-up routine."
NYT, NYT - video, NYT - Women Who Hit Hard

Monopoly Man: Interview with Street Artist Alec

"Economic crashes, healthcare in crisis and a world where helplessness feels like your only companion. These forces seap into our conversations, occupy minds and invade our way of life day after day. How does one react? How does one respond? Street Art Alec reaches deep into our childhoods and take the most iconic figure of power and money, the monopoly guy, and re appropriates it into a effective and witty social commentary that something has 'going terribly wrong'."
The Dirt Floor, flickr, Wooster Collective - Alec Monopoly, An Introduction (Video)

Derek and the Dominos

Wikipedia - "Derek and the Dominos were a blues-rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, who had all played with Clapton in Delaney, Bonnie & Friends."
Wikipedia, W - 1, last.fm, YouTube - It's Too Late, Little wing, Layla, Crossroads, Bell Bottom Blues

Glow stick

Wikipedia - "A glow stick is a single-use translucent plastic tube containing isolated substances which when combined make light through a chemical reaction-induced chemiluminescence which does not require an electrical power source. Millions of glow sticks are sold annually with the main purpose being for recreational use."
Wikipedia

George Maciunas

Flux Year Box 2, c.1966
Wikipedia - "George Maciunas (Lithuanian: Jurgis Mačiūnas, pronounced ma-chew-nas; born 8 November 1931 in Kaunas, Lithuania; died 9 May 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States) was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He was a founding member of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers."
Wikipedia, Art Not Art

Psychedelic rock

Wikipedia - "Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in United States and Britain. It often used new recording techniques and effects and drew on non-Western sources such the ragas and drones of Indian music.""
Wikipedia

Sounds from Tomorrow's World: Sun Ra and the Chicago Years, 1946-1961

"When Herman Poole 'Sonny' Blount settled on Chicago’s South Side in 1946, he did so rather inconspicuously. Though studious and intelligent, Blount had dropped out of college. He had also spent some time in an Alabama prison for registering as a conscientious objector during World War II. Quiet, intellectual and somewhat eccentric, there was little to suggest that over the next two decades, Blount would become Sun Ra, one of jazz music’s most innovative and respected band leaders."
U. Chicago, Chicago Jazz Archive, Design Observer, Encyclopedia of Alabama, YouTube - Cosmic Rays, Dreaming **Ultra Rare Doo Wop** (1955), Sun Ra - Cry Of Jazz - Intro (Part 1), Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Negro Leagues: New Postage Stamp Series Unveiled

"Almost all of them are gone now, fading memories kept alive through grainy photos and dog-eared newspaper clippings their children and grandchildren keep near. But now the black baseball players and their contributions to the culture and history of a country that once shunned them are being honored. The U.S. Postal Service released a set of stamps Thursday honoring early Negro Leagues players."
Books on Baseball, Kansas City

Laurent Grasso

"Born in France in 1972, Laurent Grasso has developed a fascination with the visual possibilities related to the science of electromagnetic energy, radio waves, and naturally occurring phenomena. Grasso also explores these sciences as they apply to paranormal activity, a favorite subject of 18th century scientists and philosophers, often used as parlor entertainment during the Victorian era."
Laurent Grasso, YouTube - Projection, 2005, Gakona at Palais de Tokyo, Fossil noise of the Big Bang

Agnès Varda

Wikipedia - "Agnès Varda (born 30 May 1928) is a French film director and professor at European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style."
Wikipedia, senses of cinema, NYT, YouTube - The Beaches of Agnes, The Gleaners and I, Cléo de 5 à 7, Salut les cubains (1962-63) Part1, Part 2, Le Bonheur, L'Opera Mouffe I, II, Interview, BBC Interview

White Dove Review

"In the late 1950s, Ron Padgett, Joe Brainard, Dick Gallup, the members of what John Ashbery called the 'Tulsa wing' of the New York School (Ted Berrigan was the fourth horseman of that group), started an magazine in Tulsa, Oklahoma while they were in high school called White Dove Review. It is one of the great magazines of the period, paved the way for the mimeo explosion that followed in New York City and ushered in the Second Generation of the New York School."
the top shelf

Anne Morgan's War: Rebuilding Devastated France, 1917–1924

"This exhibition brings to life the extraordinary work undertaken by a small team of American women volunteers who left comfortable lives in the United States to devote themselves to relief work in France during and after World War I. Their dynamic leader was Anne Morgan (1873–1952), a daughter of the financier Pierpont Morgan. As she rallied potential volunteers and donors on speaking tours across the United States, Morgan harnessed the power of documentary photography to foster a humanitarian response to the plight of French refugees."
The Morgan Library & Museum, W - 1

Village People

Wikipedia - "Village People is a concept disco group formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - YMCA, Go West, In the Navy, Macho Man, New York City, San Francisco, Just a gigolo

Lee Friedlander

Wikipedia - "Lee Friedlander (born July 14, 1934) is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 70s, working primarily with Leica 35mm cameras and black and white film, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of the photographs including fragments of store-front reflections, structures framed by fences, posters and street-signs."
Wikipedia, artnet, YouTube

The Bazaar Years

"Man Ray was one of the greatest Surrealist painters and photographers of the 20th century. From 1934 to 1942, he produced a body of work for Harper's Bazaar, photographing personalities in the society, entertainment, and literary worlds as well as the fashions of Chanel, Schiaparelli, Molyneux, featured with his own artwork and those of his friends Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti. Man Ray had an immediate impact on fashion photography. His work made use of many of the innovative and unorthodox techniques he experimented with."
UbuWeb

Russian types

Washerwoman
"During the 1860s, several photographers based in Moscow and St. Petersburg produced series of cartes-de-visite showing Russian 'types.' These remarkable portraits provide a fascinating record of working-class townspeople, artisans, street vendors and peasants, some staged performing an activity, such as drinking tea or gaming, and some photographed in the performance of their occupation."
flickr

Canned Heat

Wikipedia - "Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California, USA, in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 'Canned Heat Blues', a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called 'canned heat'."
Wikipedia, Canned Heat, last.fm, YouTube - Going up the country, On The Road Again, Let's Work Together, Shake and Boogie, World in a Jug

Dance notation

A Fouette-en-Tournant in Labanotation
Wikipedia - "Dance notation is the symbolic representation of dance movement. It is analogous to movement notation but can be limited to representing human movement and specific forms of dance such as Tap dance. Various methods have been used to visually represent dance movements including..."
Wikipedia, Baroque Dance, Dance Writing

Lenny Bruce

Wikipedia - "Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was an extremely influential and controversial American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s, whose comedy revolved heavily around the social stigmas and taboos of the era in which he lived. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in New York state history."
Wikipedia, Lenny Bruce, Lenny Bruce without tears, All Alone, THE TRIALS OF LENNY BRUCE, YouTune - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The Grain Terminal

Red Hook
"On the far side of Red Hook Park’s soccer and baseball fields, locked-up behind a fence made of enormous concrete blocks, lays the last vestige of Red Hook's industrial grandeur: The New York Port Authority Grain Terminal. This massive 429-foot long and 12-story high beige-colored fortress was built in 1922 for the purpose of washing, drying and storing grain from the Great Lakes, before the grain was loaded onto freight ships and delivered to breweries, distilleries and flour mills. Ultimately, the terminal was built to invigorate New York State’s Canal System and compete with railroad-owned stationary elevators."
Wooster Collective, flickr

The Warriors

Wikipedia - "The Warriors is a 1979 American cult action/thriller film directed by Walter Hill and based on Sol Yurick's 1965 novel of the same name. Like the novel, the film borrows elements from the Anabasis by Xenophon."
Wikipedia, The Warriors Blog, Slant, Film School Rejects, YouTube, Warriors Vs. Baseball Furies, The Warriors Vs The Orphans Fight, Ready or Not (vs. The Fugees)
The Warriors Movie part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9

Tom Tom Club

Wikipedia - "Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband and wife team Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, both also known for being bandmembers of Talking Heads."
Wikipedia, Tom Tom Club, last.fm, YouTube - Genius of Love, Genius of Love - 1, Wordy Rappinghood

A Nightclub Map of Harlem

"I was at my friend Jojo’s house about a year and a half ago, watching some old VHS tapes of dance stuff she had. Among the home movies she had was a taped documentary featuring Cab Calloway. He was checking out this amazing cartoon map of Harlem from back in the 30’s and remembering all the places. Since then I’ve been trying to find a readable copy of it."
Mike Thibault, "More Jazz Maps", Big Think - "Go late!": A Night-Club Map of Harlem

McLaren & Meyer & Rotten & Vicious & me

"'I need you out here,' Russ Meyer told me on the phone in 1977. It was 6 a.m. He could not conceive that I might still be asleep. 'Have you ever heard of the Sex Pistols?' 'No,' I said."
Sun Times

Angel Hair / Joe Brainard

"A sampler of writing selected by Jacket editor John Tranter from the 630-page Granary Books anthology of material from the collection of Angel Hair magazine and books edited by Lewis Warsh and Anne Waldman (photo, left) between 1966 and 1978."
Jacket 16, MimeoMimeo, Granary Books

The Tornado History Project

April 1, 1974 Alabama Killer Tornadoes
"The Tornado History Project is a free, searchable database of all reported U.S. tornadoes from 1950-2009*. There are over 53,000 tornadoes currently in the database, each with its own map and forum. The project's main goal is to combine historical data with user submitted items (eyewitness memories, photos, videos, etc...) to recreate the history of as many tornadoes as possible."
The Tornado History Project, Blog

Hank Williams

Wikipedia - "Hank Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953), born Hiram King Williams, was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as among the greatest country music stars of all time. He charted eleven number one songs between 1948 and 1953, though unable to read or write music to any significant degree. His hits included 'Your Cheatin' Heart', 'Hey Good Lookin'' and 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'."
Wikipedia, Lost Highway Records, last.fm, Hank Williams, YouTube - Lovesick Blues, Hey good lookin', Cold, Cold Heart, Lost Highway, Move it on Over, Jambalaya on the Bayou, There's a tear in my beer, Lonely Tombs, Please Don't Make Me Love You

Shot Heard 'round the World

Wikipedia - "In baseball, the 'Shot Heard 'round the World' is the term given to the game-ending home run hit by New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds to win the National League pennant at 3:58 p.m. EST on October 3, 1951. As a result of the 'shot' (baseball slang for 'home run' or any hard-hit ball), the Giants won the game 5–4, defeating the Dodgers in their pennant playoff series, two games to one."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Shot Heard 'round the World, Video - Bobby Thomson Dies At Age 86, NYT - Bobby Thomson Dies at 86; Hit Epic Home Run, W - "Pafko at the Wall", Don DeLillo

A Collection a Day, 2010

"This is a blog documenting a project that will span exactly one year, from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. On each of those 365 days, I will photograph or draw (and occasionally paint) one collection. Most of the collections are real and exist in my home or studio; those I will photograph. Some are imagined; those I will draw or (occasionally) paint."
A Collection a Day, 2010

Carl Stone

Wikipedia - "Carl Stone (born Carl Joseph Stone, February 10, 1953) is an American composer, primarily working in the field of live electronic music. His works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the Near East."
Wikipedia, Carl Stone, kalvos, last.fm, YouTube - Schindler House, L'os a Moelle, ResBox, Ear Meal, Makino Takashi, Wall Me Do

Shirley Ellis

Wikipedia - "Shirley Ellis (born Shirley Marie Elliston, circa 1941, The Bronx, New York) is a soul music singer and songwriter of West Indian origin. She is best known for her novelty hits 'The Nitty Gritty' (1963) (U.S. #8), 'The Name Game' (1965) (U.S. #3) and 'The Clapping Song' (1965) (U.S. #8)."
Wikipedia, W - The Name Game, YouTube - The Name Game, The Clapping Song

B movie

Wikipedia - "A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature."
Wikipedia, AMC, GreenCine, Modern Times, Brians Drive In Theater