Decoded - Jay-Z

"When you're famous and say you're writing a book, people assume that it's an autobiography--I was born here, raised there, suffered this, loved that, lost it all, got it back, the end. But that's not what this is. I've never been a linear thinker, which is something you can see in my rhymes. They follow the jumpy logic of poetry and emotion, not the straight line of careful prose. My book is like that, too."
amazon (Video), Decode Jay-Z with Bing, MTV - Jay-Z's 'Decoded': The Five Most Revealing Excerpts, WSJ - Just Asking: Decoding Jay-Z, Voice: Decoding Jay-Z's Decoded.
YouTube: Bing | Decode Jay-Z Case Study, YouTube: Jay-Z On Letterman Talking About Decoded.
The New York Public Library - Decoded: Jay-Z in Conversation with Cornel West (Video)

Bobby Vee

"This was Bobby Vee's first and only #1 hit. Released on August 7th,1961, it immediately began to climb up the Billboard Charts, and by September 18th, 1961 it had reached #1, staying there for three weeks. It is no surprise, given it was written by the legendary Brill Building songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, the song featured an irresistible melody along with inspired and sincere lyrics. Add to that an equally sincere and strong vocal performance by Bobby Vee and you have one of the greatest hits of all time."
YouTube - Take Good Care Of My Baby, The Night Has A Thousand Eyes, Rubber Ball, Wikipedia

Duane Michals

"The Annunciation"
Wikipedia - "Duane Michals (... born February 18, 1932) is an American photographer. Michals' work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy."
Wikipedia, pdn Gallery, Duane Michals: Asking Questions Without Answers, Duane Michals: Getting To The Heart With A Wry Eye, amazon.
YouTube - Duane Michals, Interview with Duane Michals by Mauro Fiorese.
vimeo: Duane Michals, Théâtre Antique, 9 July 2009, Rencontres d'Arles 2009, vimeo: Duane Michals

Troy Ruffels

Sentinel, from Filtered Sky series, 2009
"Ruffels is a graduate of the Tasmanian School of Art, where he was awarded a BFA Honours degree in 1996. In 1997 he was selected for the Museum of Contemporary Art's annual ‘Primavera’ exhibition for emerging Australian artists, and in 1998 was recognised locally when he was named Young Tasmanian of the Year (Visual and Performing Arts Category)."
Troy Ruffels

Greetings From Zuccotti Park

"For the last couple weeks, photographer Matthew Septimus has been working on a project we love: he’s taking his camera to Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park and taking portraits of the people he meets there. For some reason, the simple act of documenting faces—the ones that defy our expectations and the ones that don’t—makes what’s happening with OWS seem more resonant, more human, more difficult to dismiss with a weary, jadad eye-roll. Septimus has posted them all on Flickr—click here for the full set."
GQ, flickr

Debora Iyall of Romeo Void Talks About Videos...

"Debora Iyall and Frank Zincavage met at San Francisco Art Institute in the late 1970s, and soon after formed the post-punk band Romeo Void, whose edgy lyrics and sax-driven sound quickly made new wave noise throughout the Bay area. After the success of their EP 'Nvr Say Nvr', the group signed with Columbia Records, and the band recorded three albums and scored two top 40 singles. Both songs, 'Never Say Never' and 'A Girl in Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing)', were accompanied by music videos with imagery straight out of French New Wave and art-school experimentation."
Golden Age of Music Video

2008 July: Romeo Void

NYC 1978-1985

"Self-taught photographer Michael Sean Edwards has been an East Village staple for more than three decades, since moving to the once-gritty neighborhood from Toronto in 1977. Using 'slow' film called Ektachrome Type B, Edwards documented neighborhood life with a cinematic touch and eye for detail: trash-can sculpture, a recurring graffiti tag, a doll on a street sign, the corner coffee shop. He only recently uploaded the resulting photographic prints to Flickr, in a photoset that’s been making the Internet rounds. We spoke with Edwards to get the background on a selection of his most compelling shots from 1978 to 1985."
flavorwire, flickr, Gothamist

Konono Nº1

Wikipedia - "Konono Nº1 is a Grammy nominated musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They combine three electric likembé (a traditional instrument similar to the mbira) with voices, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group's amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator and a gigantic horn-shaped amplifier."
Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, Gilles Peterson BBC Radio 1, Flow Festival 2010, Helsinki, Kongolese, electro-acoustic trance music!

Interview: Aoife O' Donovan of Crooked Still Shares Memories While Looking Ahead

"Aoife O'Donovan was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule (and as you will read, I mean BUSY) to share some of her most memorable experiences with her band, Crooked Still, as well as share some news of a few things she already has in the works. With her band officially now on hiatus, and with a staggering number of projects in the works, it seems like the perfect time to discuss some of Ms. O' Donovan's past achievements with Crooked Still, as well as get the skinny on all of the exciting things she has in store for faithful listeners and loyal fans."
No Depression

RēR Quarterly

Wikipedia - "The RēR Quarterly (also known as Rē Records Quarterly and RēR Records Quarterly) was an English 'quarterly' sound-magazine comprising an LP record and a magazine. It was published at irregular intervals between 1985 and 1997 by Recommended Records and November Books, and edited by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler. It was sold internationally by Recommended Records via mail order and in specialist record shops."
Wikipedia, YouTube: C.W. Vrtacek - Saying Goodbye to the Beauty and Complexity of Life on Earth, ZGA - Moon`s Fury

Interview with Captain Beefheart

"Captain Beefheart is a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman."
artforum (Video)

Joe Gibbs

Wikipedia - "Joe Gibbs born Joel A. Gibson (14 October 1942, Montego Bay — 21 February 2008) was a Jamaican reggae producer. The fast growth of the local music scene encouraged him to get more involved in the music business, and in 1967 he started to record some artists in the back of his shop with a two-track tape machine, working with Lee Perry who had just ended his association with Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd. In 1968, with the help of Bunny Lee, he launched his Amalgamated record label, and had his first success with one of the earliest rocksteady songs, Roy Shirley's 'Hold Them'."
Wikipedia, Independent - Joe Gibbs: Producer of a string of reggae hits, Roots Archives: Joe Gibbs, YouTube - Hijacked, Red Red Wine, Crucial Attempt, Tribesman Rockers, If I Had A Hammer, Walls of Jericho, Half Ounce, Dreadlocks Affair, No Bones For The Dogs, Love Thyself 12"

City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara - Brad Gooch

"It's not easy to find biographies of writers that describe the life and the writing equally well. 'City Poet' provides an intelligent, balanced, readable account of a writer's life and milieu even as it illuminates Frank O'Hara's fabulous, unsung poetry. An accomplished poet and fiction writer himself, living and working in O'Hara's beloved Big Apple, Brad Gooch proves an able choice for this unique poet's biographer. A poet, playwright and eventually a curator at New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Frank O'Hara lived with intensity and died relatively young."
LA Times, amazon

Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk

Wikipedia - "Trans-Europe Express ... is the sixth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. Recorded in mid-1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. The album's themes were influenced by friends who suggested writing songs about the Trans-Europ Express to reflect Kraftwerk's electronic music style. Critics have described the album as having two specific themes: celebration of Europe and the disparities between reality and image. Musically, the songs on this album differ from the group's earlier Krautrock style with a focus on electronic mechanized rhythms, minimalism, and occasional manipulated vocals."
Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube - Trans europe express, Trans europe express (German Version), The Hall Of The Mirrors, Showroom Dummies

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