Holding Patterns

Nathan Harger, Untitled (Holding Patterns), Brooklyn, New York
"This the graphic answer to living in a city like New York. It’s an environment where I see the same objects and structures repeating themselves everywhere: They are somewhat different, yet still they look interchangeable."
The Paris Review

Skip Blumberg - Nam June Paik: Lessons from the video master (2006)

"Nam June Paik was the first video artist and did almost everything in video art first. His work broke the rules of art, television, graphics, and, because TV can use all possible art and information, practically everything else, too."
UbuWeb

Marlene Dietrich - Falling in love again (1930)

"In 1929, Dietrich landed the breakthrough role of Lola-Lola, a cabaret singer who causes the downfall of a hitherto respected schoolmaster, in UFA's production, The Blue Angel (1930)."
YouTube

Banjo Spirits

"Banjo Spirits explores the legacy of the banjo through the eyes of Don Stover and Stephen Wade. Don Stover learned to play the banjo from his mother in Artie, West Virginia, where he was born in 1928. Don grew up and worked in the local coal mines, but the banjo proved to be his ticket out of the area. Don played with Buzz Buzby, the Lilly Brothers, and Bill Monroe."
folkstreams

Zeena Parkins

Wikipedia - "Zeena Parkins is a harpist active in rock music, free improvisation and jazz. Parkins plays standard harps, as well as several custom-made one-of-a kind electric harps; she also plays piano and accordion."
Wikipedia, Zeena Parkins, vimeo - Roulette TV: JANENE HIGGINS & ZEENA PARKINS, YouTube - ZEENA PARKINS + BOBBY PREVITE DUO, Matmos & Zenna Parkins, Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins / sound. at REDCAT pt. 1/4, Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins / sound. at REDCAT pt. 2/4, Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins / sound. at REDCAT pt. 3/4, Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins / sound. at REDCAT pt. 4/4, ZEENA PARKINS / IKUE MORI - PHANTOM ORCHARD - Teatro Fondamenta Nuove Venezia

The Fool

Wikipedia - "The Fool or The Jester is one of the 78 cards in a Tarot deck; one of the 22 Trump cards that make up the Major Arcana. The Fool is unnumbered (sometime represented as 0--the first—or XXII--the last—Major Arcana in decks). It is used in divination as well as in game playing."
Wikipedia

Let them eat cake

Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin
Wikipedia - "'Let them eat cake' is the traditional translation of the French phrase Qu'ils mangent de la brioche, supposedly spoken by a great princess upon learning that the peasants had no bread. As brioche is a luxury bread enriched with eggs and butter, it would reflect the princess's obliviousness to the nature of a famine. Although they are commonly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette, there is no record of these words ever having been uttered by her."
Wikipedia

Exit Through the Gift Shop

"The film is relentlessly entertaining, a fascinating document of work whose life span is commonly determined by city councils and cleanup crews. New York Times - Jeannette Catsoulis"
Banksy

Magnum Opus

"I am besotted with a new book that is also an old book. This is The H.D. Book, by Robert Duncan, a wild, dazzling, idiosyncratic magnum opus that the poet composed between 1959 and 1964 and that is only now being published in its complete form, by the University of California Press. What began with a request for a brief birthday homage to the American poet known as H.D.—she had been born Hilda Doolittle—morphed into one of the greatest of all meditations on the nature not only of modern poetry but of the modern artistic imagination in its bewitching complexity."
TNR, amazon, Google - The H.D. Book By Robert Duncan, Michael Boughn, Victor Coleman

DJ Handi's Archive Picks: Captian Beefheart 1941-2010

"Hi: I'm DJ Handi: Each week, I’ll be picking an archive, or aspects of shows I found compelling and hope you also do. This week is about how different WFMU DJs handled Captain Beefheart’s death at age 69. If you are new to Beefheart, learn about his importance in this article."
WFMU

The Ventures

Wikipedia - "The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. The band, formed by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, two masonry workers, has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide, having sold over 100 million records, and are to date the best-selling instrumental band of all time."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - The Ventures Live 1966. Pipeline, Diamond Head (1/1), The Cruel Sea, Walk Don't Run'64, Apache (2/2), Slaughter On 10th Avenue, Bumble Bee Rock, Bulldog (3/3), Wipe Out, House of The Rising Sun, Telstar (4/4). Hawaii Five-0, Perfidia

Peak Oil and a Changing Climate

"The scientific community has long agreed that our dependence on fossil fuels inflicts massive damage on the environment and our health, while warming the globe in the process. But beyond the damage these fuels cause to us now, what will happen when the world's supply of oil runs out?" Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, Nicole Foss, Richard Heinberg and the other scientists, researchers and writers interviewed
The Nation - Peak Oil and a Changing Climate, The Nation - Video

Calvin and Hobbes

"Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair are named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher."
Wikipedia, Go Comics, amazona, 25 Great Calvin and Hobbes Strips, Calvin & Hobbes Search Engine, Google - The complete Calvin and Hobbes, Volumes 1-3 By Bill Watterson

Streets Against The War

"The video above was shot on 294 walls in four different Turkish cities."
Wooster Collective

Woodberry Poetry Room Oral History Initiative: Charles Olson, Gloucester, MA, October 9, 2010

"During the Charles Olson Centennial celebration in Gloucester, in October 9, 2010, a group of Olson’s Massachusetts friends, NYC acquaintances and Black Mountain contemporaries---including Ammiel Alcalay, Peter Anastas, Chuck Stein, Ingeborg Lauterstein and Ed Sanders---congregated in a local café and communed about the Maximus poet with the staff of the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University."
PennSound

Hip-Hop History Volume 3: 1981

"Treacherous 3 – Heartbeat Rap
Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde – Genius Rap
Just Four – Girls of the World
Afrika Bambaataa & Jazzy 5 -Jazzy Sensation (Bronx Mix)
T-Ski Valley – Never Let Go
Mean Machine – Disco Dream
Troy Rainey – Tricky T Rap
Solo Sound – Get the Party Jumpin
Crash Crew – We Want To Rock
Disco Four – Do It, Do It
Loose Joints – Shoot the Pump
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
Sugarhill Gang – Apache
Cold Crush Brothers (Live)
Busy B vs. Kool Moe Dee (Live)"
The Rub

Toy piano

John Cage
Wikipedia - "The toy piano, also known as the kinderklavier (child's keyboard), is a small piano-like musical instrument. The present form of the toy piano was invented in Philadelphia by a 17-year-old German immigrant named Albert Schoenhut. He worked as a repairman at Wanamaker's department store, repairing broken glass sounding pieces in German toy pianos damaged in shipping. Schoenhut conceived of the toy piano as it is known today in 1872, when he substituted durable steel plates for the traditional fragile glass bars."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Suite for Toy Piano, John Cage, John Cage, YouTube - John Cage : Suite for Toy Piano (in Zen style?)

D.A.F.

Wiokipedia - "Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft ... is an influential German electropunk/NDW band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 featuring Gabriel 'Gabi' Delgado-López (vocals), Robert Görl (drums, percussion, electronic instruments), Kurt 'Pyrolator' Dahlke (electronic instruments), Michael Kemner (bass-guitar) and Wolfgang Spelmans (guitar). Kurt Dahlke was replaced by Chrislo Haas (electronic instruments, bass-guitar, saxophone) in 1979."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Der Mussolini, Der Raeuber und der Prinz, Liebe Auf Den Ersten Blick, Ich und die Wirklichkeit, Greif nach den Sternen, Der sheriff

Aimé Césaire - Five Poems

"The glade today happily presents five poems by Aimé Césaire, as translated by A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman from the great Martinican poet’s unexpurgated 1948 first edition of Soleil cou coupe (front cover pictured above). These translations are previously unpublished and will appear in Solar Throat Slashed (Wesleyan University Press, announced for May 2011, front cover also pictured above), the first full edition in English of Césaire’s book."
the glade of theoric ornithic hermetica

Robert Nighthawk

Wikipedia - "Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. Born in Helena, Arkansas, he left home at an early age to become a busking musician, and after a period wandering through southern Mississippi, settled for a time in Memphis, Tennessee where he played with local orchestras and musicians, such as the Memphis Jug Band. A particular influence during this period was Houston Stackhouse, from whom he learnt to play slide guitar, and with whom he appeared on the radio in Jackson, Mississippi."
Wikipedia, Bricks In My Pillow: The Robert Nighthawk Story, YouTube - Maxwell Street, My Sweet Lovin' Woman, Sweet Black Angel, Anna Lee, Murderin' Blues, Blues Before Sunrise, You Missed A Good Man, Can't No Grave Hold My Body Down, Return Mail Blues

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Wikipedia - "Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery film directed by Peter Weir, adapted from the novel of the same name. ... The film centres on a party of schoolgirls who mysteriously vanish after being drawn towards a mysterious rock formation in Australia in 1900. It is known for its dreamlike aura, eerie soundtrack and mysterious, unresolved story; for the debate over its meaning, see the article on the novel."
Wikipedia, Roger Ebert, Criterion - video, YouTube

Kerry James Marshall

Muralists on scaffolding. SFMOMA.
Wikipedia - "Kerry James Marshall (b. October 17, 1955) is an artist born in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in South Central Los Angeles and now lives in Chicago where he previously taught at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago."
Wikipedia, PBS - art21, CI:99/00, Callaloo, Vol. 21 No. 1, YouTube - On Museums, Being an Artist, Otis Visiting Artist

Luis Camnitzer

Wikipedia - "Luis Camnitzer (born 1937) is a German-born Uruguayan artist and academic who resides in the United States. He is a conceptual artist who works in the media of printmaking and sculpture."
Wikipedia, e-flux, Luis Camnitzer: Retrospective Exhibition, 1966-1990, The Legacy Project, YouTube - Interview with conceptual artist Luis Camnitzer, Muestra Antológica, Behind the Scenes: On Line

William Blake - PennSound

"Charles Bernstein reads 'The Sick Rose' at a launch reading for Poems for the Millennium III, Kelly Writers House, October 27, 2009 (0:55). Charles Bernstein reads 'The Grey Monk' for the Romantic Circles website (2:26). Lee Ann Brown sings 'Ah! Sunflower' at a Segue Series Reading at Double Happiness, May 26, 2001 (1:46). Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake, tuned by Allen Ginsberg (complete album, 1970). PoemTalk Podcast #4 on Ginsberg's performance of 'The Garden of Love' (24:38). Anne Waldman sings Ginsberg's arrangement of 'The Garden of Love,' from By the Side of the Road, 2002 (1:19)."
PennSound

Lorenzo Aitken

Wikipedia - "Lorenzo Aitken (April 22, 1927 – July 17, 2005), better known as Laurel Aitken, was a singer and one of the originators of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the 'Godfather of ska'."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Sally Brown & Skinhead, Mood for Ska, Boogie in My bone, Mad About You, Negro, Lion Of Judah, I'm still in love with you, If It's Money You Need

"Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z, Alicia Keys

Wikipedia - "Empire State of Mind is a song by American rapper and hip hop artist Jay-Z, featuring vocals from R&B and soul singer Alicia Keys.is a song by American rapper and hip hop artist Jay-Z, featuring vocals from R&B and soul singer Alicia Keys. ... Profanity is also present throughout the song, and although it is usually included during live performances, it was omitted during Jay-Z and Keys' performance at Game 2 of the 2009 World Series. It was included in multiple critics top 10 list for the best songs of 2009, including Rolling Stone magazine's and the New York Times'."
Wikipedia - "Empire State of Mind", YouTube, elyrics world

Marcel Odenbach

Wikipedia - "Marcel Odenbach, in conjunction with Ulrike Rosenbach and Klaus vom Bruch, belongs to the most internationally established German video artists. In the 1970s they formed the producer group ATV. Odenbach's works paradigmatically criticize the specific conditions of the German society for which he usually finds literary titles referring to puns or traditional sayings."
Wikipedia, frieze, Anton Kern Gallery, NYC NYC, MoMA - Video

Ernie K-Doe

Wikipedia - "Ernie K-Doe (February 22, 1936 - July 5, 2001), born Ernest Kador, Jr., was an African American rhythm and blues singer best known for his 1961 hit single 'Mother-in-Law' which went to #1 on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S."
Wikipedia, Ernie K-Doe, YouTube - Mother-In-Law, Wanted, $10,000.00 Reward, A Certain Girl, I Cried My Last Tear, Baby, Since I Met You, Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta, Here Come The Girls,

Out of Print

"Out of Print celebrates the world’s great stories through fashion. Our shirts feature iconic and often out of print book covers. Some are classics, some are just curious enough to make great t-shirts, but all are striking works of art."
Out of Print

CBGB's the roots of punk documentary

"The following is a demo video produced expressly for Hilly Kristal, creator and owner of CBGBs."
YouTube - part 1, part 2

In Defense of Dots: The lost art of comic books -

"From the 1940s to the 1970s, comic book art and comic books were the same thing. In the decades since, the art of comics has been carefully separated from the original physical conditions of its reproduction. Elevation of the 20th century art form has resulted in the erasure of the 20th century mechanical processes that enabled comic books to exist and thrive – for ten, twelve, fifteen, or twenty cents, millions of times over."
In Defense of Dots: The lost art of comic books, 4CP Four Color Process

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