History of randomness

Pompeii - Osteria della Via di Mercurio - Dice Players
Wikipedia - "In ancient history, the concepts of chance and randomness were intertwined with that of fate. Many ancient peoples threw dice to determine fate, and this later evolved into games of chance. At the same time, most ancient cultures used various methods of divination to attempt to circumvent randomness and fate."
Wikipedia

Adelaide's Forgotten Outlaws

"I'm loving Peter Drew's latest project, Adelaide's Forgotten Outlaws. He's taken mugshots from the South Australian State Records Department, and turned them into huge paste-ups. And this 1920 mugshot, of Helen Maud Coombs (charged with Larceny and fined £10), has pride of place on the corner of King William Street and North Terrace, and it looks much more impressive, and startling when you first see it, than this photo would indicate."
yaniblog, YouTube - Adelaide's Forgotten Outlaws

Charles Bradley

Wikipedia - "Charles Bradley (born 1948, Gainesville, Florida), commonly referred to as 'The Screaming Eagle of Soul,' is a funk/soul/R&B singer signed to the Daptone Records label under the Dunham Records division. His performances and recording style are consistent with Daptone's revivalist approach, celebrating the feel of funk and soul music from the 1960s and 1970s."
Wikipedia, Charles Bradley, npr - Charles Bradley: Soul Music, 40 Years In The Making, YouTube - The World (Is Going Up In Flames), Why Is It So Hard, The World (Is Going Up in Flames), Lovin' You, Baby, Heartaches and Pain, No Time For Dreamin', Golden Rule

George Clinton - "Do Fries Go With That Shake?"

Wikipedia - "The music video for this song is an all-black variant of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, where an evil fast food restaurant boss discovers that one of her workers (who is flirting with George Clinton) has taken her place as 'the fairest one of all.' In retaliation, the boss laces the worker's order of fries with powdered rat poison. The worker takes a bite of the poisoned fries and drops dead, sending her into a surreal world where she's trapped inside a large chocolate milkshake and her boss is trying to slurp her through the straw. Before the dream can continue, the worker wakes up to George Clinton kissing her to break her sleeping spell."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Do fries go with that shake?, Do fries go with that shake? (10:15)

John Salt

Wikipedia - "John Salt (born August 2, 1937) is an English artist, whose obsessively detailed paintings from the late 1960s onwards made him one of the pioneers of the photorealist school. Although Salt's work has developed through several distinct phases, it has generally focussed on images of cars, often shown wrecked or abandoned within a suburban or semi-rural American landscape, with the banality and dishevelment of the subject matter contrasting with the immaculate and meticulous nature of the work's execution."
Wikipedia, ikon gallery, Visualingual, John Salt at Ikon Gallery, Plus One Gallery, amazon - John Salt: The Complete Works 1969-2007

John Prine

Wikipedia - "John Prine was the first album by American country/folk singer-songwriter John Prine, issued by Atlantic Records in 1971. In 2003, the album was ranked number 458 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time."
Wikipedia - John Prine, YouTube - Illegal Smile, Spanish Pipedream, Hello In There, Sam Stone, Sam Stone - 2, Paradise, Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore, Far From Me, Angel From Montgomery, 6 O'Clock News

Pieter Hugo

Wikipedia - "Pieter Hugo was born 1976 and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a South African photographer who primarily works in portraiture and whose work engages with both documentary and art traditions with a focus on African communities."
Wikipedia, Pieter Hugo, YouTube

A TV Dante by Tom Phillips and Peter Greenaway

"This ambitious program, produced by the award-winning film director Peter Greenaway and internationally-known artist Tom Phillips, brings to life the first eight cantos of Dante's Inferno. Featuring a cast that includes Sir John Gielgud as Virgil, the cantos are not conventionally dramatized. Instead, the feeling of Dante's poem is conveyed through juxtaposed imagery that conjures up a contemporary vision of hell, and its meaning is deciphered by eminent scholars in visual sidebars who interpret Dante's metaphors and symbolism. This program makes Dante accessible to the MTV generation."
UbuWeb, Wikipedia

Amy Cutler

Above the Fjord, 2010
"Over the past decade Amy Cutler has created a fantasy world that is whimsical and childlike, occasionally ominous, and often perplexing. Inspired by stories and images encountered in current events, art history, folktales, and personal experiences, Amy Cutler creates exquisitely detailed, enigmatic paintings of women, animals, and hybrid-beings engaged in fantastic, dreamlike activities. Her work has drawn associations with fables and fairy tales, dreams and surrealism, and folk art."
David Winton Bell Gallery, Universal Limited Art Editions, YouTube - Artist Talk with Amy Cutler

Fear of Music - Talking Heads

Wikipedia - "Fear of Music is the third studio album by American New Wave band Talking Heads, released on 3 August 1979 on Sire Records. It was recorded at locations in New York City between April and May 1979 and was produced by the quartet and Brian Eno. ... Three songs were released as singles between 1979 and 1980: 'Life During Wartime', 'I Zimbra', and 'Cities'."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Life During Wartime, I Zimbra, Heaven, Cities, Air, Mind

Betty Everett

Wikipedia - "Betty Everett (November 23, 1939, Greenwood, Mississippi – August 19, 2001, Beloit, Wisconsin) was an African-American soul singer and pianist, best known for her biggest hit single, the million-selling 'The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)'."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Shoop Shoop Song (it´s in his kiss), There'll come a time, Getting Mighty Crowded

The Architecture of the Comic Book City

"In the opening of issue #2 of the Daredevil re-launch, you’ll find the Man Without Fear perched beneath the iron undercarriage of a fully realized replication of the High Line Park, complete with '10th Avenue Square' viewing platform, antiquated iron filigree, and passing traffic below. Resting on a authentically rendered steel column, our hero listens in on a conversation between two men above. The following image exchanges viewpoints, establishing a wide shot with the park’s infamous benches, concrete planks, and 'wild' flora on full display. The interlocutors now appear at eye level; beneath them, Daredevil calmly (read: creepily) waits in anticipation. The scene is set."
Architizer

Susanne Linke

Wikipedia - "Susanne Linke (born 19 June 1944) is a German dancer and freelance choreographer important in the development of Tanztheater in Germany and contemporary dance internationally."
Wikipedia, Susanne Linke Dance Company, Goethe, NYT - DANCE: SUSANNE LINKE OFFERS 4 SOLOS IN BROOKLYN, impulstanz: "Im Bade Wannen" (Video), vimeo: Guest Artist, Susanne Linke, vimeo: Folkwang Tanzstudio - Frauenballett, YouTube: Tanz Dis Tanz Akut

Gordon Matta-Clark

‘Building cuts’, 1974.
Wikipedia - "Gordon Matta-Clark (June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for his site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He is famous for his 'building cuts,' a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls."
Wikipedia, NYT: Timely Lessons From a Rebel, Who Often Created by Destroying , Google, ArtNet, amazon, SECRETFORTS (Video), YouTube - Gordon Matta Clark Exhibit at Whitney walk through with Jane Crawford

Christian Krohg

Et Nodskudd
Wikipedia - "Christian Krohg (August 13, 1852 – October 16, 1925), was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. ... Inspired by the ideas of the realists he chose motives primarily from everyday life – often its darker or socially inferior sides."
Wikipedia, Nordic Culture Spot, YouTube - Christian Krohg

Occupy Wall Street

Wikipedia - "Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City based in Zuccotti Park on Wall Street. Instigated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters, the protests were inspired by the Arab Spring movement, especially Cairo's Tahrir Square protests, and the Spanish Indignants. The participants are mainly protesting social and economic inequality, corporate greed, as well as the power and influence of corporations, particularly from the financial service sector, and lobbyists over government."
Wikipedia, OccupyWallStreet (Video), 15 October, The Atlantic: Why Is Occupy Wall Street Going Global?, Thr Nation (Video), Huffington Post: Occupy Wall Street, YouTube: I AM NOT MOVING - Short Film - Occupy Wall Street, 15 October - United for Global Change, Global mass protests 15th October 2011, Democracy Now, Oct 17 2011, Bernie Sanders on Occupy Wall Street (Video)

New York Subway, 1980s

"Photographer John F. Conn displays a series of photos (which is part of a permanent collection at the Museum of New York City) of the New York City Subways during the early 1980s. Viewing these photos just reminds me how gritty and scary the 80s were. I was a kid in the 80s but I do remember how everything always seemed a little grayer and dirtier. Of course, that could be my memory playing tricks on me."
Camille Reads, vintage everyday, John Conn Photography

Pioneers of Country Music Trading Cards by R. Crumb

"Forty legendary and obscure country music pioneers painted by R. Crumb with biographies on the reverse by music historian Richard Nevins. (These are similar to Crumb's Heroes of the Blues and Early Jazz Greats boxed sets.) Featured are such well known acts as Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family (A.P., Maybelle and Sara), along with long neglected groups whose sprightly names alone evoke foot stomping and tub thumping: Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers, The Happy Hayseeds, Ernest Stoneman & his Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers, and Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters. OmieWise"
Steve Krupp's Curio Shoppe, amazon, YouTube: Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters - Take Your Foot Out of The Mud, Carter Family - Worried Man Blues, Ernest V. Stoneman - Old Joe Clark, Al Hopkins & His Buckle Busters - West Virginia Gals, FRANK BLEVINS - NINE POUND HAMMER, Jimmie Rodgers - The Blue Yodel #1, Uncle Dave Macon and His Fruit Jar Drinkers - Jordon Is A Hard Road To Travel, Hoyt Ming And His Pep Steppers - Monkey In The Dogcart, Happy Hayseeds - Cottonwood Reel, Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers - Battleship Of Maine, Gid Tanner & Skillet Lickers Riley Puckett - Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, Joe Carter Brothers & Son - Cotton Eyed, Tennessee Ramblers - Tennessee Traveler, Big Rock Candy Mountains - Harry Mac McClintock, Narmour & Smith -- Avalon Quickstep, Shelor Family -- Billy Grimes, The Rover, Burnett & Rutherford -- Short Life of Trouble, Ted Gossett's String Band -- Eighth of January, Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio -- Ninety-Nine Years, Earl Johnson & His Dixie Entertainers -- Ain’t Nobody’s Business, Jimmie Johnson's String Band -- Soap in the Washpan, Paul Miles & His Red Fox Chasers -- The Arkansas Traveler

J Boogie's Dubtronic Science - Undercover

"Straight out of the Bollywood underground comes the new video for J Boogie’s Dubtronic Science Undercover featuring Chrys-Anthony. Check it out over at Okay Player and make sure to cop the free download of the DJ Nu-Mark Remix on the soundcloud widget."
YouTube - Undercover, J Boogie's Dubtronic Science (Video), J Boogie's Dubtronic Science - 2 (Video)

Albert Camus on Nihilism

"Albert Camus talks about his stage adaptation of Dostoyevsky's 'The Possessed', (also known as 'The Devils' and 'Demons'), in 1959, a year before his death in an automobile accident."
YouTube

Laurie Anderson - Delusion

"A pioneering storyteller whose ever-intriguing convergence of technology, violin, visuals, and voice creates spellbinding tales, Laurie Anderson (The End of the Moon, 2005 Spring Season; Songs and Stories from Moby Dick, 1999 Next Wave) opens the Next Wave Festival with Delusion. A phantasmagoric world made up of short plays, her latest work is activated by brooding, deeply affecting music redolent with Tibetan temple horns and Arabic strings, performed by Anderson on electronically enhanced violin with supporting virtuoso musicians. A simultaneously contemplative and whimsical epic about longing, identity, and memory, Delusion invokes both humor and terror, conjuring up elves, mysteries, ghost ships, and dead relatives to spin poetic stories and imagery into gold."
BAM (Video), NY times, BrooklynVegan, YouTube - Delusion Highlights (BAM Harvey Theater), YouTube - Delusion Live June 12, 2011 Holland Festival Amsterdam NL

Ilene Segalove

Today's Program: Jackson Pollock, "Lavender Mist", collage, 1974
"Ilene Segalove, author, former independent National Public Radio producer, university professor and multi-media artist, has spent the last 25 years making and exhibiting work that champions the stories of women’s personal lives. Segalove taught photography, video and radio journalism at several universities, including Harvard, Otis Parson School of Design in Los Angeles and the University of California at Irvine and San Diego."
frieze, Ilene Segalove, THE DISSATISFACTIONS OF ILENE SEGALOVE, YouTube - Jancar Gallery, Ilene Segalove, Jancar Gallery, Jancar Gallery - 2, Jancar Gallery - 3, Jancar Gallery - 4

Bushwick News

Luhring Augustine Gallery
Charles Kessler: "Most young artists coming out of art school can’t afford Williamsburg anymore, so for the last five or ten years artists have been flocking further east to Bushwick. For the moment, Bushwick's run-down warehouses are more affordable because there are still vestiges of gang activity, few trendy restaurants and bars (Roberta’s, 261 Moore Street near Bogart Street, being the most noted exception), and a somewhat longer commute to Manhattan."
Left Bank Art Blog, Self-Guided Tours of The Lower East Side Galleries

John Cage - Water Walk

"John Cage performing "Water Walk" in January, 1960 on the popular TV show I've Got A Secret."
YouTube - Water Walk, Water Walk

Clyfford Still

Wikipedia - "Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, and one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionism."
Wikipedia, Clyfford Still, Google, YouTube - Clyfford Still Unveiled, at the DENVER ART MUSEUM

A State of the Flowers Report - Joe Brainard

Flower Painting IV, 1967, mixed-media collage
"Well, the apple blossoms are gone of course. No more tulips. No more daffodils. No more dandelions. (Such big ones I’ve never seen before.) Nothing left of them now but random white balls of fuzz, lurking in obscure corners the wind finds hard to get at, evidently. And the forget-me-nots are decidedly on their way out. Though not to be forgotten. As we love them just that much. Some modest lavender irises have just bloomed. ..."
The Paris Review, amazon: The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard (Library of America)

2010 November: Joe Brainard - "I Remember"
2010 August: Angel Hair / Joe Brainard
2009 February: Joe Brainard

Robert Wyatt - "Sea Song"

"Robert Wyatt & Annie Whitehead's Soup Song play the 'Sea Song' from the most popular RW record 'Rock Bottom', which had been released in 1974 as the 2nd Robert Wyatt Solo Album."
YouTube - Robert Wyatt & Annie Whitehead "Sea Song", September the Ninth, Gharbadzegi, Left on man, FREE WILL AND TESTAMENT

Broken Strings, Plastic Tubes and Bedside Serenades - Neil Wiernik

"These may be the least drone-like drones in recent memory -- or, perhaps more to the point, the most drone-like melodies in recent memory. Certainly the music on Neil Wiernik's Broken Strings, Plastic Tubes and Bedside Serenades has the thick slow-motion ooze of the best down-spectrum haze, of the most bass-veering ambient music: dense figurations that hover just above the ground, more Tule fog than cumulous cloud. "
disquiet (Video), phoniq (Video)

Hurt - Johnny Cash

"Johnny Cash died less than four months after his wife, on September 12, 2003, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He was buried next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee."
YouTube - Hurt

6 Decades Books

"I drove up to the NY Book Art Fair last weekend with Brian Cassidy. I was very impressed with 6 Decades Books. A great selection of material that is a bit more representative of the art market than the mags and mimeo that we post here, but the focus on artist's books and the book as an object is right on point. 6 Decades reprinted Germano Celant's Book as Artwork 1960-1972, which I was ashamed to be unaware of."
MimeoMimeo, 6 Decades: BOOK AS ARTWORK 1960/1972, by Germano Celant, 6 Decades Books

RRRecords

Wikipedia - "RRRecords (based in Lowell, Massachusetts) is a used and new record shop. RRRecords is distinguished as being the first American record label to specifically publish underground noise music in the early 1980s, and published the first American vinyl by Merzbow, Masonna, The Hanatarash, Violent Onsen Geisha, and many more artists who have subsequently become well known in the world of noise music. In its first 20 years, RRR has issued hundreds of releases. The label's owner, Ron Lessard, is a tireless supporter of new artists, and created several sub-labels and series to specifically highlight unknown and underground musicians."
Wikipedia, RRRecords, Tumblr, YouTube - RRR

Bert Jansch (November 1943 – October 2011)

Wikipedia - "Herbert Jansch (November 1943 - October 2011), known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs. He is best known as an innovative and accomplished acoustic guitarist but is also a singer and songwriter"
Wikipedia, YouTube - Reynardine, Moonshine, There comes a time/Fresh as a sweet sunday morning, Blues Run The Game, It Don't Bother Me, Fool's Mate, Katie Cruel, The Auld Triangle

April 2010: Bert Jansch

Robert Filliou

"MAI 22, 1973 8:29 to 8:32 A.M. CALENDAR, 1973"
Wikipedia - "Robert Filliou (Born January 17, 1926, in Sauve, France - Died December 2, 1987, in Les Eyzies, France) was a French Fluxus artist, who produced works as a filmmaker, 'action poet,' sculptor, and happenings maestro."
Wikipedia, Art's Birthday/ Mississauga, Google, Real Space-Time Poipoidrom No. 1 - Extension, Six Fillious Reading, YouTube - And So on, End So Soon: Done 3 times (1977), L'esclave

John Zorn - Filmworks Anthology : 20 Years of Soundtrack Music

"With Zorn's half century birthday bash being celebrated through all manner of wonderful releases, this fantastic anthology brings together a hand-picked selection from the man himself including pieces composed over a twenty year period for well over 30 soundtracks and commercials. Standing at the regal total of 16, Zorn's 'Filmwork' series has contained some of the most engaging music ever committed to tape, ranging from desolate soundscapes and haunting orchestral dalliances, through to hillbilly punk and avant-jazz introspection."
Boomkat, amazon, YouTube - Ruan, Shaolin Spirit, Shanghai, Vocal Phase, Bamboo Forest, Tashlikh, Marking Time, Filming

Warm and Cool - Tom Verlaine

"Tom Verlaine borrows his name from the 19th century French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine, and nowhere in his 20-year catalog does Tom Verlaine's music more closely follow his namesake's poetic philosophy than on 'Warm and Cool'. 'Warm and Cool' was recorded with the help of Television band-mates Fred Smith and Billy Ficca (also of Verlaine's earlier band, Neon Boys), as well as Jay Dee Daugherty (The Church) and Patrick A. Derivaz, who helped engineer Television's 1992 self-titled album."
Thrill Jockey, amazon, YouTube - Spiritual, Saucer Crash, The Deep Dark Clouds