Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000

"In conjunction with the publication of PFA’s first book, Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000, edited by Steve Anker, Kathy Geritz, and Steve Seid, the Pacific Film Archive is presenting a film and video series that explores the themes and movements, and traces the historic chronology of alternative film and video in the Bay Area. The history of avant-garde cinema in the region goes back to the 1940s, when surrealist-influenced films were created through San Francisco Art Institute workshops, in some of the country’s earliest filmmaking classes."
BAM/PFA, amazon, YouTube

James Casebere

Wikipedia - "James Casebere (born 1953) is an American contemporary artist and photographer living in New York."
Wikipedia, James Casebere, Whitney, artnet, YouTube

The Monterey International Pop Music Festival

Wikipedia - "The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. Monterey was the first widely promoted and heavily attended rock festival, attracting an estimated 55,000 total attendees with up to 90,000 people present at the event's peak at midnight on Sunday."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Monterey Pop Festival 1967, Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Throbbing Gristle - Interview (2005)

"The Industrial movement rose and fell in Throbbing Gristle's wake, the form subverted by its purveyors to the point of parody. None of the music made in the shade of TG's long shadow ever showed a scintilla of the originality, the audacity, or the moments of incredible beauty regularly displayed by the original model."
The Return of the Wreckers of Civilization, UbuWeb - Interview (2005)

Steve Goodman

Wikipedia - "Steve Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of 'City of New Orleans', made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards."
Wikipedia, Steve Goodman, YouTube - City of New Orleans, You've Never Even Called Me By My Name, You're The Girl I Love, Penny Evans, A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request, Souvenirs, Vegematic, The Dutchman

LoopLoop - Patrick Bergeron

"Using animation, sounds warping and time shifts this video runs forwards and backwards looking for forgotten details, mimicking the way memories are replayed in the mind."
video

Sun Ra - The Magic Sun (1966)

"Stunning visuals and the sounds of Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra fill this classic 1966 black and white short experimental film by composer/photographer/ filmmaker and multi-media artist Phill Niblock. The Arkestra provide its characteristic spacial sounds in conjunction with visually abstract images - severe closeups on hands and heads to ornate cosmic/psychedelic patterned costumes. Opening spooky reed exclamations, pulsing bass bellows, syncopated percussion, blistering yet warm-toned trumpet - the Arkestra eventually is heard in its disorienting orchestral glory, ideally suited to the morphing visuals."
All About Jazz, amazon, YouTube

Arthur Rimbaud

Wikipedia - "Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (...20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as 'an infant Shakespeare'—and gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent movement, Rimbaud influenced modern literature, music and art. He was known to have been a libertine and a restless soul, traveling extensively on three continents before his death from cancer less than a month after his 37th birthday."
Wikipedia, The New Yorker, YouTube, Arthur Rimbaud Poetry, Index des poemes, Guardian, Library of Biographies and Articles, Fleurs du mal / Flowers of Evil, 1857 Edition

Doug Aitken

Sleepwalkers
Wikipedia - "Doug Aitken was born in Redondo Beach, California in 1968 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles and New York. Aitken’s body of work ranges from photography, sculpture, and architectural interventions, to films, sound, single and multi-channel video works, and installations. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world, in such institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris."
Wikipedia, Doug Aitken, MoMA, YouTube - sleepwalkers, sleepwalkers [60-second trailer], Eraser, 1999, Electric Earth, 2009, Frontier (Rome), Happening

John Berger - Ways of Seeing

Wikipedia - "Ways of Seeing is a 1972 BBC four-part television series of 30 minute films created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. Berger's scripts were adapted into a book of the same name. The series and book criticize traditional Western cultural aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies in visual images. The series is partially a response to Kenneth Clark's Civilisation series, which represents a more traditionalist view of the Western artistic and cultural canon."
Wikipedia, UbuWeb

Over The River - Christo and Jeanne-Claude

"Over The River is a temporary work of art by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Christo plans to suspend 5.9 miles of silvery, luminous fabric panels high above the Arkansas River along a 42-mile stretch of the river between Salida and Cañon City in south-central Colorado."
Over The River, (1), YouTube

Priit Pärn

Elu ilma Gabriella Ferrita (2008)
Wikipedia - "Priit Pärn (born 26 August 1946 in Tallinn) is an Estonian cartoonist and animation director whose films have enjoyed success among critics as well as the public at various film festivals."
Wikipedia, vimeo - Hotel E, veoh - Breakfast on the Grass

Cannibal & The Headhunters

Wikipedia - "Cannibal & The Headhunters were an American band originating from East Los Angeles, that is known for being one of the first Mexican-American groups to have a national hit record, 'Land of a Thousand Dances', recorded on the RAMPART label. They were also the opening act for The Beatles' second American tour, backed up by the King Curtis band."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Land Of 1000 Dances

Fractal

Fractal (The Mandelbrot Set), sometimes described as "the thumbprint of God."
Wikipedia - "A fractal is 'a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole,' a property called self-similarity."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Arthur Clarke - Fractals - The Colors Of Infinity 1 of 6, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Lionel Corporation

Wikipedia - "Lionel Corporation was an American toy manufacturer and retailer that did business from 1900 to 1993. Founded as an electrical novelties company, Lionel specialized in various products throughout its existence, but toy trains and model railroads were its main claim to fame. Lionel trains, produced from 1901 to 1969, drew admiration from model railroaders around the world for the solidity of their construction and the authenticity of their detail."
Wikipedia, Lionel, Postwar Lionel Trains, amazon - "Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory", Robert's Lionel Trains Layout, YouTube - Lionel Trains for Christmas - CBS Sunday Morning, Lionel Trains - Railroad Story

Bob Marley and the Wailers

"Bob Marley was born in the country village of Nine Mile in Jamaica's St. Ann Parish. When he was 12 years old he moved to the poverty stricken Trenchtown area of Kingston where he decided that his future lay in making music. Marley worked with many musicians throughout his teenage years, including Peter McIntosh (Peter Tosh) and Neville Livingstone (Bunny Wailer). The three of them would later go on to record under the name 'The Wailers'."
Jamaica Travel and Culture, YouTube - Biography part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6, part 7

Red Scare

January 4, 1920 photo of Massachusetts prisoners seized during government raids awaiting transport to Deer Island.
Wikipedia - "The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker (socialist) revolution and political radicalism. The Second Red Scare was focused on (national and foreign) communists influencing society or infiltrating the federal government, or both."
Wikipedia, CUNY, Google, YouTube - First Red Scare

Robert Wyatt

Wikipedia - "Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945, Bristol) is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career. He is married to English painter and songwriter Alfreda Benge."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Shipbuilding, I'm A Beleiver, Sea Song, Catholic Architecture, Gharbadzegi, Alifib, Little Red Robin Hood - Robert Wyatt Documentary, The Canterbury Scene: An Interview with Robert Wyatt - BBC South, Dondestan (Revisited) Interview (Part One of Two), (Part Two of Two)

Silliman's Blog - World Series, San Francisco Giants

Edgar Renteria gets the pitch he wanted
"In 1954, the last time the Giants won a World Series, I was eight years old. I remember the series as one of the first that I watched on TV with my grandfather, gradually becoming a baseball fan but not yet with an allegiance to any team."
Silliman's Blog

The Age of Discovery

Wikipedia - "The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania and mapping the planet. Historians often refer to the 'Age of Discovery' as the pioneer Portuguese and Spanish long-distance maritime travels in search of alternative trade routes to 'the Indies', moved by the trade of gold, silver and spices."
Wikipedia

Marianne Faithfull

Wikipedia - "Marianne Evelyn Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an award winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned over four decades. Her early work in pop and rock music in the 1960s was overshadowed by her struggle with drug abuse in the 1970s. During the first two thirds of that decade, and with little notice, she produced only two studio albums. After a long commercial absence, she returned late in 1979 with the landmark album, Broken English. Faithfull's subsequent solo work, often critically acclaimed, has at times been overshadowed by her personal history."
Wikipedia, Marianne Faithfull, last.fm, YouTube - As Tears Go By, My Time Of Sorrow, There But For Fortune, Dreaming My Dreams , Love Is Teasin' (live feat. the Chieftains), Sister Morphine, Ballad of Lucy Jordan, Why d'ya do it (2009), Broken English 1979, Working Class Hero (2004), Incarceration of a Flower Child, My Friends have, Crazy Love, Nobody's Fault, Strange Weather, Live 2005, Easy Come, Easy Go , Hold On Hold On, As Tears Go By (2009)

Interview 1978 , Close Up (1999) 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5, Before The Poison (2005), CBS Sunday Morning, 5-3-2009

The Great Mimeograph Revolution

"A library is a living organism. I consider my book collection a beneficial and benevolent version of the Burroughsian virus. The books on my shelves are fluid, mutating, multiplying. After close to twenty years of intense collecting, it has become obvious as I scan the bookshelves that I am no longer strictly a William Burroughs collector."
Reality Studio

Newsreel

Orson Welles' Mercury Theater on October 30, 1938
Wikipedia - "A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers until television supplanted its role in the 1950s. Newsreels are now considered significant historical documents, since they are often the only audiovisual record of historical and cultural events of those times."
Wikipedia, Universal Newsreels, Newsreel Weekend, Newsreel Archive, YouTube - Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Battle of the Bulge, Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan (1930 Newsreel Footage), Algeria fights for Independence against France, Google

disquiet: ambient/electronic

Disquiet (detail), 2008. Patricia Hickman.
"... to Disquiet, a little locus of ambient and other electronic music. The site's name honors Fernando Pessoa (1888 - 1935), the late Portuguese poet. Son of a music critic, illuminator of the everyday, loner, futurist — he is as good a patron saint of electronic music as the burgeoning genre could ask for."
disquiet

Cars in Cuba

Cars of Havana, Cuba
YouTube - Classic Cars in Cuba, Cars of Cuba, Cars of Havana

Soft Machine

Wikipedia - "Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre."
Wikipedia, last.fm, Cuneiform Records, YouTube - I Should've Known, Soon, Soon, Soon, I Should Have Known, We Know What You Mean, Moon In June, Memories, Live 1969, Soft Machine documentary

Dick Dale and the Deltones

Wikipedia - "Dick Dale (born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937) is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier."
Wikipedia, Dick Dale and the Deltones, YouTube - Misirlou, Pipeline/Surf Beat Medley, Nitro, Surf Beat, Riders In the Sky, Hava Nagila, Banzai Washout

2011 TED Prize — JR

"JR, a moving and innovative artist who exhibits freely in the world’s streets, has been named the recipient of the 2011 TED Prize — an award granting $100,000 and something much bigger: a wish to change the world with the support of the TED community."
World Changing, TED Prize - Video

Brion Gysin: Dream Machine

"The New Museum will present 'Brion Gysin: Dream Machine,' the first US retrospective of the work of the painter, performer, poet, and writer Brion Gysin (born 1916, Taplow, UK–died 1986, Paris). Working simultaneously in a variety of mediums, Gysin was an irrepressible inventor, serial collaborator, and subversive spirit whose considerable innovations continue to influence musicians and writers, as well as visual and new media artists today."
New Museum, NYT, Bohemian Rhapsody, Brion Gysin: Dream Machine, YouTube - Brion Gysin: Dream Machine at the NEW MUSEUM

The History of the Argentine Tango

"Buenos Aires and tango are synonymous terms, and tango is an integral part of the large city. You can find the tango all over Buenos Aires: in it's mythical cafes, at the milongas, and by walking around the city's authentic neighborhoods. The history of the Argentine Tango, from tango's humble beginnings to its latest developments, is part of the grand history of Buenos Aires."
The Foundation of Life

Pina Bausch - Nelken

"A pervasive air of nostalgia surrounds the current visit of Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal to Sadler's Wells Theatre. Many of the critics have dredged up yet again the old rhetoric about Bausch's cruel world of victims and abused women while the souvenir programme is full of reminiscences by eminent British actors and directors - including Alan Rickman and Neil Bartlett - about the impact Bausch's work had on them when they saw her company during its first London season back in 1982."
ballet-dance, YouTube - The Man I Love (vocal: Sophie Tucker), Dominique Mercy, Fensterputzer laveur de vitre, Dominique Mercy sublime

The Afrobeat Blog

Entrance Gate to the Afrika Shrine, Lagos 2006 (Photo by Ezra Gale)
"The Afrobeat Blog is a global music forum dedicated to the legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the founder of Afrobeat and international protest figure. This blog is dedicated to publicizing those spreading Fela's legacy of cross-cultural exchange and international musical consciousness. -Marc Gabriel Amigone"
The Afrobeat Blog

Bruce Sterling

Wikipedia - "Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre."
Wikipedia, Mirrorshades, Vimeo, YouTube - MoMo #8 - Bruce Sterling, Bruce Sterling - reboot 11 closing talk, YouTube - Bruce Sterling in Belgrade

T-Bone Walker

Wikipedia - "T-Bone Walker (May 28, 1910 — March 16, 1975[1]) was an American blues guitarist, singer, pianist, and songwriter who was one of the most important pioneers of the electric guitar. He was the first blues musician to use an electric guitar."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong, She Is Going To Ruin Me, Call It Stormy Monday, I Got A Break Baby, Hey Baby '65, Call Me When You Need Me, Shuffle - Live 1967, Woman, You Must Be Crazy; Goin' To Chicago Blues

Tom Phillips

Wikipedia - "The year of 1966 was important for Phillips. He exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the first time, started work on A Humument, and began collaborating with Brian Eno. When Cornelius Cardew founded the Scratch Orchestra, its constitution was drafted in Phillips' garden in Bath (where he had become a teacher at the Bath Academy of Art) and he participated in most of the concerts until he became disillusioned with its politicisation."
Wikipedia, Tom Phillips, Humument, Tom Phillips Blog