Maurizio Cattelan: All

"Hailed simultaneously as a provocateur, prankster, and tragic poet of our times, Maurizio Cattelan has created some of the most unforgettable images in recent contemporary art. His source materials range widely, from popular culture, history, and organized religion to a meditation on the self that is at once humorous and profound. Working in a vein that can be described as hyperrealist, Cattelan creates unsettlingly veristic sculptures that reveal contradictions at the core of today’s society. While bold and irreverent, the work is also deadly serious in its scathing cultural critique."
Guggenheim, NYT: A Suspension of Willful Disbelief, Art Fag City - Slideshow: Maurizio Cattelan’s All at The Guggenheim

Them

Wikipedia - "Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard 'Gloria' and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career. The original five member band consisted of Morrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Millings, Billy Harrison and Eric Wrixon. The group was marketed in the United States as part of the British Invasion."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Here Comes the Night, Gloria, Baby please don't go, Turn on your love light, Mystic Eyes/Gloria , Interview + Them Here comes the night

Style Wars

"One of the questions people always ask us is, 'What's in the outtakes?' STYLE WARS was originally edited to its 69 minute length from about 30 hours of 16 mm film that we shot in 1981 and 1982. Hours of exciting and wonderful scenes in the extra footage that didn't make it into the finished film need to be restored. There are many shots of trains and some surprising masterpieces rescued from oblivion."
Style Wars (Video), Pitchfork (Video), Wikipedia

A la recherche du temps perdu

Woolf's passport leaf, 1923. Virginia Woolf
"This is a commonplace book of words, images, poetry, visual art, film stills, philosophical and cultural materials, all with a Proustian sensibility. Every day my posts are built around a theme; there is no random ordering or arbitrary choice of what I post here, even if the theme or the relation between images and words is only evident to me."
A la recherche du temps perdu, Tumblr - A la recherche du temps perdu

The Rum and Coca-Cola Reader

"A reader from Berkeley, California pointed out that the site did not contain a transcription of Lord Invader’s original version of 'Rum and Coca-Cola'. So here it is, below on the left. The text is scanned directly from the page of the famous booklet, 'Victory Calypsoes - 1943'. It is as close as we can come to the version of the song as performed by Invader in Trinidad in 1943. On the right is the Andrews Sisters’ version which was recorded in New York City on October 18, 1944."
The Rum and Coca-Cola Reader (Video), Wikipedia

Perfect Lives - Robert Ashley

"Perfect Lives has been called 'the most influential music/theater/literary work of the 1980s.' At its center is the hypnotic voice of Robert Ashley. His continuous song narrates the events of the story and describes a 1980's update of the mythology of small town America. Perfect Lives is populated with myriad characters revolving around two musicians — 'R', the singer of myth and legend, and his friend, Buddy, 'The World's Greatest Piano Player'. They have come to a small town in the Midwest to entertain at the Perfect Lives Lounge."
Lovely Music, Ltd.: Perfect Lives, Perfect Lives, Performa 11, amazon, amazon - 1.
YouTube: PERFECT LIVES (excerpts), Part 1 of part 1: The Park (Privacy Rules), Part 1 of part 2: The Supermarket (Famous People), Part 1 of part 3: The Bank (Victimless Crime).
VIDAS PERFECTAS: a new version of Robert Ashley's opera Perfect Lives (1983)(Video).

Kareem Rizk

"Born in Australia in 1982, Kareem Rizk is a Melbourne-based collage artist, illustrator and designer who graduated from Monash University in 2004 with a Bachelor in Visual Communication. During the course, Rizk developed an appreciation for collage and explored a diverse array of mixed media techniques and mediums."
Kareem Rizk, Escape Into Life, Vintage Illustrations by Kareem Rizk

Jimmy Reed

Wikipedia - "Mathis James 'Jimmy' Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries. His lazy, slack-jawed singing, piercing harmonica and hypnotic guitar patterns were one of the blues' most easily identifiable sounds in the 1950s and 1960s and had a significant impact on many rock and roll artists who followed, such as Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones."
Wikipedia, Blues Harp.
YouTube - Jimmy Reed plays the blues, Bright lights, big city, Ain't That Lovin' You Baby, You're Something Else, You've got me dizzy, Aw Shucks, Hush Your Mouth, Baby What You Want Me To Do, Big Boss Man, Take Out Some Insurance, Shame Shame Shame

Gotham Book Mart

Wikipedia - "The Gotham Book Mart, in operation from 1920 to 2007, was a famous midtown Manhattan bookstore and cultural landmark. The business was located first in a small basement space on West 45th Street near the Theater District, it then moved to 51 West 47th Street, then spent many years at 41 West 47th Street within the Diamond District in Manhattan, New York City, before finally moving to 16 East 46th Street. Beyond merely selling books, the store virtually played as a literary salon, hosting meetings of the Finnegans Wake Society, the James Joyce Society, poetry and author readings, art exhibits, and more. ... The store specialized in poetry, literature, books about theater, art, music and dance. It sold both new books as well as out-of-print and rare books."
Wikipedia, NYT: Gotham Book Mart Holdings Are Given to Penn, Google, 16 E 46th: The New Gotham Book Mart, The James Joyce Society

William Morris

Woodpecker Tapestry, 1885
Wikipedia - "William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. He founded a design firm in partnership with the artist Edward Burne-Jones, and the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti which profoundly influenced the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. As an author, illustrator and medievalist, he is considered an important writer of the British Romantic movement, helping to establish the modern fantasy genre; and a direct influence on postwar authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien."
Wikipedia, William Morris: Story, Memory, Myth, YouTube

The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry

Wikipedia - "The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry is a collection of poems from an assorted list of poets. First published in 1999, the collection features work from several notable poets, including Jack Micheline, Harold Norse, A.D. Winans, David Trinidad, Jim Chandler, Tuli Kupferberg, D.A. Levy, Bob Kaufman, David Lerner, Richard Brautigan, Allen Ginsberg, Tom Waits, William S. Burroughs, Ken Kesey, and Rebecca Fransway, among others."
Wikipedia, amazon, Google: The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry - Alan Kaufman, Disinformation, NYT: 'The Outlaw Bible of American Literature': The Rebel Establishment, eclectic / eccentric, YouTube: Alan Kaufman discusses upcoming memoir about self-recovery | Mills College

Twin Peaks: The Last Days

"‘When Twin Peaks’ in-house photographer had quit and no further promotional shots were needed since the show was cancelled, Richard Beymer (Benjamin Horne) took his Olympus camera to the set and was given David Lynch’s thumbs up to document the last days of filming the show.’ - Welcome to Twin Peaks"
HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT - Twin Peaks: The Last Days, Twin Peaks 20 years later, 'Twin Peaks' 20 Years Later: How the Show Changed Television (Video)

2008 September: Twin Peaks
2010 March: Twin Peaks: How Laura Palmer's death marked the rebirth of TV drama

The Cardboard Valise - Ben Katchor

"Ben Katchor is the best world-builder in comics today. This is true even though he does none of the things we tend to associate with world-building, be it visual or narrative in nature. He’s no epic sci-fi-fantasist, with a wiki-worthy cultural-historical framework underpinning (or overwhelming) every person, place, and thing that ends on the printed page. He hasn’t developed a personal visual vocabulary of forms and symbols from which a wholly alien world that nonetheless makes optical sense on its own terms can be constructed."
The Comics Journal, amazon, Ben Katchor

DJ Conquerrah - "On The Run"

"Hello Brooklynites and all other listeners throughout the world! It's been too long. During this go-around we are on the run and time traveling. Into the past with tracks by U Roy, Roger Rankin, and Count Machuki, predecessor to the Jamaican dancehall DJ (this is the man who started it ALL!). Then we go back to the future with heavy dub remixes from 10 Foot Ganja Plant, Copia Doble Systema, and Dubblestandart (Big-ups to Subatomic Sound System, always.) Plus some righteous roots and culture from the likes of Steel Pulse and the Marley brothers, and those tunes are dedicated special for the thousands fighting the good fight on Wall Street and beyond.. Chanting down Babylon for real for real."
DJ Conquerrah - "On The Run" (Video)

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