Babel - Alejandro González Iñárritu

Wikipedia - "Babel is a 2006 international drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, starring an ensemble cast. The multi-narrative drama completes Iñárritu's Death Trilogy, following Amores perros and 21 Grams. The film portrays multiple stories taking place in Morocco, Japan, Mexico, and the United States."
Wikipedia, amazon, amazon - Various Artists, YouTube - Babel, Endless Flight

A distressing matter of connoisseurship

"Fake or Fortune is a remarkable new BBC series. It explores the processes involved in authenticating artworks to determine their value as well as gain acceptance as part of a particular artist's body of work. The first episode focused on an alleged Claude Monet presently owned by retired Royal Navy Officer David Joel."
three pipe problem

"I'm Your Man" - Leonard Cohen

Wikipedpa - "I'm Your Man is the eighth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1988. The album marked Cohen's further move to a more modern sound, with many songs having a synthpop production. The song 'Everybody Knows' was one of Cohen's first writing collaborations with Sharon Robinson, who would become a frequent collaborator in the future."
Wikipedia, YouTube - First We Take Manhattan, Ain't No Cure For Love, Everybody Knows, I'm your man, Take this waltz, I Can't Forget, Tower of Song

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood - Alistair MacLeod

Wikipedia - "The Lost Salt Gift of Blood is a collection of short stories by Canadian author Alistair MacLeod. It was originally published in 1976. All of the stories contained is the collection were later republished in the book Island, together with other works by Alistair MacLeod. According to the blurb of the book; 'The evocative and haunting collection is set Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia and in Newfoundland, a remote region where Gaelic is still spoken, old legends live on, and the same cold sea that washes the Hebrides beats against the granite cliffs. With a tearing lyricism, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood lays bare the joys, the fears, the darkness, and the shining hope of communities whose isolation is at once a curse and a blessing.'"
Wikipedia, W - Alistair MacLeod, Google - The lost salt gift of blood, amazon

Film (1965) - Samuel Beckett

"With every new wavelet of contemporary cinema turning directors, in effect, into authors, it took the surprising author of Film, playwright Samuel Beckett, to become, not too surprisingly, its real director. Not that I wasn't always around, red director's cap flying, riding the camera dolly, or telling Buster what to do."
UbuWeb - On Directing Samuel Beckett's Film, UbuWeb - Film (1965)

The Sopranos

Wikipedia - "The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. The series also features Tony's family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and storylines, most notably his wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli). The many conflicts in his life lead to an on-off professional relationship with psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco)."
Wikipedia, W - The Sopranos Episodes, HBO: The Sopranos, A&E, amazon, The Italian Grocer, YouTube - The Sopranos intro, 9 Nine Minute Sopranos

Maya Deren - The Very Eye Of Night (1958)

"Dancers, shown in photographic negative, perform a series of ballet moves, solos, pas de deux, larger groupings. The dancers glide and rotate untroubled by gravity against a slowly changing starfield background. Their movements are accompanied by music scored for a small ensemble of woodwind and percussion."
YouTube

Alcheringa Archive: A Journal of Ethnopoetics, 1970-1980

"Reissues is excited to launch an online archive of Alcheringa, the trailblazing ethnopoetics journal edited by Dennis Tedlock and Jerome Rothenberg through Boston University from 1970 to 1980. Commisioned for Internet distribution by Dennis Tedlock and Jon Cotner in 2010, with site design and information architecture by Danny Snelson, the Alcheringa archive presents a robust network of resources including searchable PDFs, high-resolution images, rapid magazine browsing, and full information on each issue and disc insert of this essential journal operating at the crossroads of translation, ethnography, performance, and contemporary poetics."
jacket2, Alcheringa: A Journal in Ethnopoetics, 1970-1980, PennSound

Rocker's Almighty Dub - 1979

"Mixing Engineer : Ossie Hibbert & Pat Kelly & Prince Douglas & Brad Osbourne. Producer : Brad Osbourne. Backing Band : The Revolutionaries & The Aggrovators."
Roots Archives, amazon, YouTube - I And I Land, Rocker's Almighty Dub, Dunza Dub [Money Money Dub], Storm And Lightning, Something Nice 'Bout Da Dub, Ten Pieces In One, Freedom Joy Dub, Upful And Positive Dread, Hold This Dub, 21 Gun Salute To Brother Marcus

Maximilien Luce

A Paris Street in May, 1871 (La Commune)
Wikipedia - "Maximilien Luce (March 13, 1858 – February 6, 1941) was a French Neo-impressionist artist. A printmaker, painter, and anarchist, Luce is best known for his pointillist canvases. He grew up in the working class Montparnasse, and became a painter of landscapes and urban scenes which frequently emphasize the activities of people at work."
Wikipedia, artnet, YouTube

"To Be," Lynn Behrendt

"Lynn Behrendt is the author of several chapbooks, most recently Acquiescence and This is the Story of Things That Happened, both as part of the Dusie Kollektiv 5. A full length collection, petals, emblems, is available through Lunar Chandelier press. She co-edits the Annandale Dream Gazette, an online chronicle of poets' dreams, as well as Peep/Show, an electronic journal of innovative contemporary poetry."
Lines Chapbook

The Shadows

Wikipedia - "The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Apache 1964, F.B.I., Wonderful Land

The Ghost of a Flea - William Blake

Wikipedia - "The Ghost of a Flea is a small tempera mixture with gold painting on mahogany type tropical hardwood panel by the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake, held in the Tate Gallery, London. Completed between 1819 and 1820, it is part of a series of works depicting 'Visionary Heads' commissioned by the watercolourist and astrologist John Varley (1788-1842). Fantastic, spiritual art was very popular in Britain from around 1770 to 1830, during this time Blake often worked on unearthly, supernatural panels to amuse and amaze his friends."
Wikipedia, Great Works: The Ghost of a Flea (c.1819-20) (21.4cm x 16.2cm), William Blake

Frank Stella - 1972

"Frank Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter and printmaker. He is a significant figure in minimalism and post-painterly abstraction."
YouTube

Robert Farris Thompson

Wikipedia - "Robert Farris Thompson (born December 30, 1932, El Paso, Texas) is the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art at Yale University. ... He lived in the Yoruba region of southwest Nigeria for many years while he conducted his research of Yoruba Arts History. He affiliated with the University of Ibadan and frequented Yoruba village communities. Thompson has studied the African Arts of the Diaspora in the United States, Cuba, Haiti, Peurto Rico, and several Caribbean islands. Robert Farris Thompson is also an authority in hip-hop culture."
Wikipedia, A Tango with Robert Farris Thompson, Professor of Mambo: Robert Farris Thompson—Master T—teaches “the black aesthetic of the cool.”, amazon, Video: Robert Farris Thompson Speaks: Daughters of the Dust, The Afro-Argentine Legacy of Tango: Robert Farris Thompson and Facundo, Knocking and Kicking (Kugonga Na MaTeke)

Crooked Still - Some Strange Country

"Crooked Still's five musicians know how to make traditional songs sound new again, in the process creating a genre fusion in which alternative folk blends with bluegrass and the sounds of string bands."
npr, amazon, YouTube - Sometimes in This Country, The Golden Vanity, Half Of What We Know, Locust in the Willow, Distress, You Were Gone b/w Rainroad Bill, Henry Lee, Locust in the Willow, Cold Mountains, You Got the Silver

Jenny Holzer Installation at the Guggenheim and Protect Protect

"Jenny Holzer was commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum create this work for the exterior of the museum to celebrate it's unveiling after an extended renovation of its facade. The work quotes from the poet Wislawa Szymborska's work. The video was produced by Howard Silver for Bloomberg MUSE. Lindsay Pollock interviewed Holzer. Sam Henriques shot the walk and talk and the Guggenheim exterior."
vimeo

2008 January: Jenny Holzer

Margaret Mead & Gregory Bateson - Trance and Dance in Bali

"This is an early film of historical significance by pioneers of visual anthropology, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, circa 1939. It explores the themes of trance and dance in the rituals and religion of Bali. The famous Kris Dance is performed. Narrated by Margaret Mead. Filmed by Gregory Bateson. Converted from 16mm film reel."
YouTube

2008 March: Margaret Mead. 2009 June: Gregory Bateson. 2011 March: Gamelan.

Music from Big Pink - The Band

Wikipedia - "Music from Big Pink is the 1968 debut album by rock band The Band. It features their best-known song, 'The Weight'. The music was composed partly in 'Big Pink', a house shared by Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, in upstate New York. The album itself was recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles in 1968. With a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, and soul, Music From Big Pink was the first album released by The Band in the summer of 1968."
Wikipedia, Tears of Rage, The Weight, King Harvest, Long Black Veil, Chest Fever, This Wheel's On Fire, I Shall Be Released

Stanisław Lem

Wikipedia - "Stanisław Lem (... 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire."
Wikipedia, VITRIFAX: The writing of Stanislaw Lem, First ever direct English translation of Solaris published, IMDb, Stanisław Lem

Mario Bauzá

Wikipedia - "Mario Bauzá (28 April 1911 – 11 July 1993) was an important Cuban musician. He was one of the first to introduce Latin music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles into the New York jazz scene. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of Afro-Cuban music, and his innovative work and musical contributions have many jazz historians to call him the 'founding father of Latin jazz'. If so, it is an exaggeration, since Cuban jazz was established much earlier."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Mario Bauzá Corta Historia - 1, (2), Sun Sun Babae, Tanga, Yo soy el son cubano, A night in Tunisia, Mambo Rincon, El Manisero

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Wikipedia - "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is a book with text by American writer James Agee and photographs by American photographer Walker Evans first published in 1941 in the United States. The title is from a passage in the Wisdom of Sirach that begins, 'Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.'"
Wikipedia, amazon, part six: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, YouTube - Let Us Now Praise Walker Evans

Patricia Johanson

Plans for stormwater purification ponds, Petaluma, Calif.
Wikipedia - "Patricia Johanson (Born September 8, 1940, New York City). Patricia Johanson is known for her large-scale art projects that create aesthetic and practical habitats for humans and wildlife. She designs her functional art projects, created with and in the natural landscape, to solve infrastructure and environmental problems, but also to reconnect city-dwellers with nature and with the history of a place."
Wikipedia, Patricia Johanson, YouTube - ecoartspace video archive: Patricia Johanson Interview, Patricia Johanson at Headlands Center for the Arts

Robert Johnson

Wikipedia - "Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend, including a Faustian myth. As an itinerant performer who played mostly on street corners, in juke joints, and at Saturday night dances, Johnson enjoyed little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime."
Wikipedia, Robert Johnson, The Robert Johnson Notebooks, YouTube - Sweet Home Chicago, Alleged Video Footage Of Robert Johnson, Exposed, Me and the Devil Blues, Crossroad, Stop Breaking Down Blues, Rambling On My Mind, Come on in my Kitchen, Preaching blues (up jumped the devil), Love In Vain Blues, Kind Hearted Woman Blues, 32-20 Blues

A Hard, Merciless Light. The Worker-Photography Movement, 1926-1939

"A Hard, Merciless Light. The Worker-Photography Movement, 1926-1939 examines the period during the history of 20th century photography in which photography joined forces with various worker movements (ranging from trade unionism to the creation of 'workers' states' like the Soviet one), motivated by growing working-class consciousness and the idea of taking over the means of production and reproduction of images."
Magnum Photos, RURAL Contemporánea

Gimble's Swing

"Johnny Gimble ... is one of the country’s leading fiddlers and former star of Hee Haw, grew up in Texas at the same time western swing did and his memories of the greats who taught him form a Who’s Who of the genre."
folkstreams

Photographs from "Dog Ear" - Erica Baum

Fallout, 2010
"A dog-eared page — a folded corner — is the simplest memory system: it marks a stopping point, a favorite passage, a place to remember. Along with marginalia, underlining, and other notational strategies, dog ears map a history of reading and remind us that reading is a physical act: an encounter with words, to be sure, but also a tactile experience with paper and individual pages of a book."
jacket 2, Ugly Duckling Presse, jacket 2: In moveme/braces,

Sun Ra Arkestra - Face the Music / Space is the Place

"Live on Night Music. Don't miss my other Sun Ra video 'Retrospekt'."
YouTube

Hans Richter

Wikipedia - "Hans Richter (April 6, 1888 – February 1, 1976) was a painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer. He was born in Berlin into a well-to-do family and died in Minusio, near Locarno, Switzerland."
Wikipedia, senses of cinema, ArtNet, UbuWeb - Video

Black Swan

Wikipedia - "Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. Its plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to play both the innocent White Swan and the sensual Black Swan. One dancer, Nina (Portman), is a perfect fit for the White Swan, while Lily (Kunis) has a personality that matches the Black Swan. When the two compete for the parts, Nina finds a dark side to herself."
Wikipedia, Feminist Spectator, Rolling Stone, YouTube

Van Morrison & The Caledonia Express

"Not sure if this is Dixieland or Swing or whatever. Seems “Caldonia’ gets spelled a little differently depending on who releases it. In fact, it’s even spelled two different ways on this label copy alone. The James Brown version was my favorite for years and still is, yet lately I’ve been spinning this. Yeah, it’s very SNL but hey, he was the singer of Them and the single sounds just that little bit better given it’s a wlp."
SO MANY RECORDS, SO LITTLE TIME - Video, Wikipedia - Caldonia

New Order live, 1984

"New Order live performance of 'Blue Monday' at BBC Radio 1 studios, 1984."
YouTube - Blue Monday, Sooner Than You Think, Age Of Consent, In A Lonely Place, Temptation

Gaston Bachelard

Wikipedia - "Gaston Bachelard (June 27, 1884, Bar-sur-Aube – October 16, 1962, Paris) was a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. ... He rose to some of the most prestigious positions in the Académie française and influenced many subsequent French philosophers, among them Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Dominique Lecourt and Jacques Derrida."
Wikipedia, amazon, gaston bachelard: “the poetics of space” + desire paths., Google - The poetics of space, YouTube - Poetics of Space and Reverie, Poetics Derived and Applied, God of Nothing, Art Language Ambiguity

Swing Time (1936)

Wikipedia - "Swing Time is a 1936 RKO musical comedy film set mainly in New York City and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The film was directed by George Stevens."
Wikipedia, YouTube

Holger Czukay - Persian Love

"On Persian Love, Czukay backs up clips of an Iranian singer recorded off short-wave with lilting guitar and keyboard riffs that sparkle like light. The album is all pleasant, playful textures, with little of the darkness that Can dallied with."
YouTube