Rare Documentary on Captain Beefheart

"The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart is a BBC documentary from 1997, on the late, great Don Van Vliet. Its presented by the also late and lamented DJ, John Peel, who was once tour driver for Captain Beefheart, and contains contributions from Frank Zappa, John French, Ry Cooder, and Matt Groening."
Dangerous Minds

The Wilderness Below Your Feet

"It must have been the third or fourth day — time, by that point, had started to dissolve — when I stood in camping gear on Fifth Avenue, waiting as my companions went to purchase waterproof waders at the Orvis store. We had already hiked through sewers in the Bronx, slept in a basement boiler room, passed a dusty evening in a train tunnel; we were soiled and sleep-deprived, and we smelled of rotting socks. Yet no one on that sidewalk seemed to notice. As I stood among the businessmen and fashionable women, it dawned on me that New Yorkers — an ostensibly perceptive lot — sometimes see only what’s directly in front of their eyes."
NYT, vimeo, NPR

Jennifer Bartlett

House: Spatter Painting, 1998
Wikipedia - "Jennifer Losch Bartlett (born March 14, 1941 in Long Beach, California) is an American artist. She is best-known for paintings combining abstract and representational styles."
Wikipedia, artnet, BOMBSITE

James Brown Olympia 1966

"James Brown, often referred to as 'The Godfather of Soul', is one of the most influential musicians and entertainers of the 20th. His mixture of Soul, Funk and Blues, along with his energetic live performances, helped make him an icon in contemporary music."
YouTube - James Brown Olympia 1966, Offer

Detective Comics

Wikipedia - "Detective Comics is an American comic book published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best-known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in issue #27. It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and the source of its company's name."
Wikipedia, Detective Comics, Comic DB

Behaviour, 1990 - Pet Shop Boys

Wikipedia - "Behaviour (Behavior in the original US pressing) is the fifth studio album, the fourth of entirely new music, by English electronic music group Pet Shop Boys. It was first released in 1990."
Wikipedia, Being Boring, Jealousy, So Hard, What Have I Done To Deserve This, My October Symphony, How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?, Only the wind, Nervously, Miserablism [Moby's Electro Mix]

Achooo Mr. Kerrooschev, 1960

"Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984), 1:43 min, b&w, sound"
UbuWeb

Arena - William S. Burroughs

"Featuring - Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Jackie Curtis, John Giorno, Lauren Hutton, Patti Smith, Terry Southern, William S. Burroughs"
UbuWeb

Kontakthof, Tanztheater Wuppertal - Pina Bausch

"Kontakthof, created back in 1978, is one of Pina Bausch's most minimalist productions. It is set in a drab municipal hall, and its choreography is limited to a palette of shuffling dance steps and small gestures. But, as always, the colour comes from people who perform the work – their bodies, faces, personalities and foibles."
Guardian, YouTube - Tanztheater Wuppertal

Hip-Hop History Volume 2: 1980

"Ronnie G – Raptivity
Spoonie G – Spoonin Rap
Spoonie G & The Treacherous 3 – Love Rap
Spoonie G & The Treacherous 3 – New Rap Language
Super 3 – Philosophy Rappin Spree
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – Freedom
Sugarhill Gang – 8th Wonder
Kurtis Blow – The Breaks
Funky Four + 1 – That’s The Joint
Margo’s Cool Out Crew – Death Rap"
Its The Rub

Demolition of the Paris Metro

"The Paris Metro and the service it provides are deeply intertwined into the fabric of the city. As the 4.5 million passengers who ride it every day will probably attest it's the quickest way around whether it's for work, for play or both. The metro's distinctive art-nouveau style is unmistakable and the plant like green wrought iron entrances topped with the orange orbs and Metropolitan signage designed by Hector Guimard which sprout up all over the city lead one down to the gleaming white tiled platforms to be whisked away all over the city."
Sleepy City

Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time

Gas, 1940.
"Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time traces the development of realism in American art between 1900 and 1940, emphasizing the diverse ways that artists depicted the sweeping transformations in urban and rural life that occurred during this period. The exhibition highlights the work of Edward Hopper, whose use of the subject matter of modern life to portray universal human experiences made him America’s most iconic realist painter of the 20th century."
Whitney, NYT, FT

Edwin Denby

Wikipedia - "Edwin Orr Denby (February 4, 1903 – July 12, 1983) was one of the most important and influential American dance critics of the 20th century, as well as a poet and novelist."
Wikipedia, UPenn

Grand Central Terminal

Wikipedia - "Grand Central Terminal (GCT) — often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central — is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City."
Wikipedia, Grand Central Terminal, PBS - Grand Central Terminal

Rip Rig & Panic

Wikipedia - "Rip Rig & Panic were a post-punk band founded in 1981, who broke up in 1983. They were named after a 1965 jazz album by Roland Kirk. They were formed by Sean Oliver (bass), Mark Springer (piano, sax, vocals), Gareth Sager (guitar, sax, keyboards, vocals) and Bruce Smith (drums, percussion), the latter two formerly of The Pop Group with singer Neneh Cherry."
Wikiedia, last.fm, YouTube - Bob Hope Takes Risks, Those Eskimo Women Speak Frankly, Storm the reality Asylum

Rap Genius

"What is Rap Genius? Rap Genius is your guide to the meaning of rap lyrics (basically the internet version of the nerd-ass “rap dictionary” dorm-mate you had in college). You can listen to songs, read their lyrics, and click the lines that interest you for pop-up explanations – we have thousands of canonical rap songs explained (2Pac, Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z – even the beginning of the Torah..) Our aim is not to translate rap into 'whitespeak', but rather to critique rap as poetry."
Rap Genius - About, The Rap Map, Rap Genius - Blog,

50 Square Meters of Public Space

"The appropriation of public space with no apparent intent. Duration: 54 days (September 04 - October 27, 2010). Location: Palackeho square, Prague - the so-called 'Czech Hyde Park' - allegedly the most liberal spot in the country, approved by the authorities for holding any unannounced public gatherings. Have we grown accustomed to having our living space curbed by just anyone? Is public space a mere myth?"
Wooster Collective

James Cospito

"Common themes articulated across a wide variety of disciplines; the connected unconscious, duality and observations along ones path. Scroll through the categories at right, each contain different series of work."
James Cospito, Brooklyn Art Project, flickr, SML Pro Blog - Video

Patti Smith and Jonathan Lethem in Conversation

"Dont miss this conversation with two New York icons. Patti Smith burst on to the New York punk scene with her 1975 seminal album Horses. A bright flame in music for more than three-decades, she has influenced the likes of REM, The Smiths, and Garbage. She is an acclaimed visual artist and poet, and recipient of a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture."
YouTube

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

"Aguirre, the Wrath of God ... is a 1972 West German adventure film written and directed by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski stars in the title role. The soundtrack was composed and performed by German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh. The story follows the travels of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who leads a group of conquistadores down the Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. Using a minimalist story and dialogue, the film creates a vision of madness and folly, counterpointed by the lush but unforgiving Amazonian jungle."
Wikipedia, Roger Ebert, amazon, YouTube

Redemption Song - Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer

"Old pirates, yes, they rob I,
Sold I to the merchant ships.
Minutes after they took I,
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong,
By the hand of the All Mighty.
We forward in this generation,
Triumphantly."
YouTube

Afrocubism

"Afrocubism is the project of which lovers of international music have only dreamt. One such dreamer, British producer Nick Gold, originally conceived of the project in 1996--pairing the best musicians from Mali with the best musicians from Cuba, two countries that have been speaking each other's musical languages for generations."
The Afrobeat Blog

Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning, 1910-1983

"Anyone interested in the history of the labor movement and the National Miners Union, women’s history, or the New York folk scene of the 1940s will find this program fascinating, and anyone wanting to hear some truly fine singing, the kind we hear less and less of these days, will be delighted with this video. - The Old Time Herald"
folkstreams

Love of Life Orchestra

Wikipedia - "'Love of Life Orchestra was created by Peter Gordon (sax, keyboards, composition) and David Van Tieghem, a talented, smart-aleck avant-garde percussionist with ties to new music composer Steve Reich. Both have gone on to greater fame as elder statesmen of the downtown music scene in New York, but these early works stand as an important developmental chapter.' —Mark Fleischmann"
Wikiedia, YouTube - Roses, CBGB '82, Siberia, CBGB '82, Extended Niceties, Beginning Of The Heartbreak / Don't Don't, HOMELAND SECURITY #1, HOMELAND SECURITY #2, HOMELAND SECURITY #3, DON'T DON'T REDUX

Lord Creator

Wikipedia - "Lord Creator (born Kentrick Patrick, circa 1940, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago) is a calypso and ska artist. Alongside Cuban born Rolando Alphonso, Barbadian Jackie Opel and fellow Trinidadians Lynn Taitt and Lord Bryner, Lord Creator was an important and positive 'outside' influence during the early development of the Jamaican music scene."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Don't Stay Out Late (1962), Remerber When, Sweet Jamaica, Such is Life, Big Bamboo, Such Is Life / Come Down 68

Rosa Barba - Vertiginous Mapping

"For Vertiginous Mapping, her first web-based project, Rosa Barba draws upon a collection of film, images, texts, and audio that she compiled and created while on a residency in Sweden in the Spring of 2008, weaving together facts and footage with fabricated elements to invite the viewer on a pleasantly perplexing journey through a fictionalized country named Forgotten."
Dia Art, Wikipedia, Rosa Barba, YouTube - Current Exhibition: Rosa Barba at Tate Modern

The Evolution of the Cut-Up Technique in My Own Mag

"In late 1963, Jeff Nuttall sent William Burroughs the first issue of My Own Mag. In an editorial note on the cover, Nuttall writes tongue firmly in cheek, My Own Mag 'will appear every now and then… will be devoted to creations of unparalleled nobility… morals of unquestionable soundness high literary standards of traditional finesse. No dirty pitchers.' 'The Super Absorbant periodical' appealed to Burroughs and he responded enthusiastically, thus initiating a fruitful and influential partnership between the two writers."
RealityStudio

Ann Toebbe

The Ex-Wifes Pies and Things
"Ann Toebbe was brought up in the Midwest, but it was only once she moved to the East Coast that she became aware of the aesthetics of her childhood. This piece is made from cut paper that Toebbe paints by hand and then combines to create the composition and is a salute to a familiar Midwestern style."
Moco Loco, Ann Toebbe

Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger: Vintage Performance Footage

"Woody Guthrie performing an adaptation of 'East Virginia Blues' ('South Carolina Blues') with Baldwin 'Butch' Hawes and 'John Henry' with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee."
YouTube - Woody Guthrie, Vintage Performance Footage, The Film Archived

The Smithsonian’s New Culture War

"On November 29, a conservative website posted an 11-second clip of ants crawling over a crucifix from a 4-minute video made by David Wojnarowicz, an artist who died of AIDS in 1992. The video, Fire in My Belly, was part of a show at the National Portrait Gallery called 'Hide/Seek,' said to be the country’s first national exhibition devoted to gay and lesbian themes."
NYBooks, Protest Outside Met Recalls 1980’s Culture Wars

Sun Ra in Egypt and Italy

"Old footages of Sun Ra and his Arkestra by the pyramids and in Sardinia (Italy)"
YouTube

Werner Herzog Reads Twas The Night Before Christmas

"German director of Caves Of Forgotten Dreams, Encounters At The End Of The World, and Grizzly Man reads and interprets the holiday classic Twas The Night Before Christmas."
YouTube

Bojangles of Harlem from Swing Time (1936)

"The dancing in Swing Time is some of the best of all the Astaire/Rogers pairings, and Astaire's homage to Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson is divine. It is one of the few times Astaire used camera tricks (dancing with shadows of his own figure) on film."
UbuWeb

Brian Eno - Imaginary Landscapes

"Imaginary Landscapes is a profile of a modern artist at thecutting edge of technological change and popular taste. It brings into an intensely personal focus Brain Eno's seemingly disparate work in sound, vision and light, and explores his music in visual terms, based on landscapes and images that have shaped his life as an artist."
YouTube, 2, 3, 4

Hip-Hop History Volume 1: 1979

"Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – Superappin’
The Younger Generation – We Rap More Mellow. Kurtis Blow – Christmas Rap. Sequence – Funk You Up. Funky 4 + 1 – Rapping and Rocking the House. Lady D – Lady D. Ron Hunt – Spiderap. Fatback Band – King Tim III (Personality Jock). Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight. Lady B – To the Beat Yall. Paulette & Tanya Winley – Rhymin and Rappin. Jazzy 4 MCs – MC Rock."
The Rub