Haris Epaminonda

"The ghostly folds of a curtain, a couple strolling backwards on a sun-dappled path, the limpid eyes of a disconsolate diva: these are just some of the suspended moments captured in the video works of Haris Epaminonda. In the last few years, the artist has produced a series of radiant, emotional, audio-visual vignettes, which are long enough to soak into the viewer’s consciousness yet short enough to assume the qualities of a vision: they come and go fleetingly, but linger in the head like an afterimage. Reality is kept at arm’s length, its absence not particularly noticed, while the present is lost in a fictionalized past."
frieze, Haris Epaminonda, Artforum, Domobaal
YouTube: Haris Epaminonda
blip: Haris Epaminonda, Tarahi V (2007)
Site Gallery: Talks about her recent show at Site Gallery

Requiem Lass

"...Patti Smith, poet, musician, author, photographer, in Paris, late June."
NYT, A.O. Scott: "I met Patti Smith at the Electric Lady recording studios on West Eighth Street in Manhattan on a sunny August afternoon. Both the place and the date have a special significance in Smith’s personal mythos and in the broader mythology of rock ’n’ roll. The facility, which you enter through a nondescript storefront on a once famously scruffy block now given over to discount shoe stores and student-friendly eating places, was Jimi Hendrix’s brainchild, and it stands as an enduring part of his legacy."
NYT
Grantland: Patti Smith, the Curator of Rock 'N' Roll (Brian Phillips)

Sharon B's - Pin Tangle

"Pin Tangle tracks online resources, news and information which relate to contemporary and historical textiles, embroidery and crazy quilting, the fiber and book arts including studio and visual journals."
Sharon B's - Pin Tangle, I dropped the button box crazy quilt

Clarence Ashley

Wikipedia - "'Tom' Clarence Ashley (September 29, 1895 – June 2, 1967) was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands."
Wikipedia, Clarence Ashley
YouTube: Clarence Ashley performs "The Cuckoo", Dark Holler, Coo Coo Bird, The Old Arm Chair, "Tom" Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson- Peg and Awl, The House of the Rising Sun, Corinna, Corinna

Bill Cunningham

Wikipedia - "William J. Cunningham (born 1928/9) is a fashion photographer for The New York Times, known for his candid and street photography."
Wikipedia, NYT: On the Street, Bill Cunningham, New York, Google
YouTube: On the Street, Bill Cunningham New York Trailer, Bill Cunningham New York - Movie review by Kenneth Turan

Lucinda Williams - Austin, Texas, 1989

"I've drove my car in the middle of the night
I just wanted to see you so bad
The road was dark but the stars were bright
I just wanted to see you so bad"
YouTube: I Just Wanted To See You So Bad, Side of the Road, Something About What Happens When We Talk, Wild and Blue

Big Youth

Wikipedia - "Manley Augustus Buchanan (born 19 April 1949, Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica), better known as Big Youth (sometimes called Jah Youth), is a Jamaican deejay, mostly known for his work during the 1970s. He commented, 'Deejays were closest to the people because there wasn't any kind of establishment control on the sound systems'."
Wikipedia, Roots Archives, last.fm
YouTube: Pride & Joy Rock, Train To Rhodesia, Chi Chi Run, Cool Breeze, Travelling Man, Wolf In Sheep's Clothing, Lion In The Jungle

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