Sahara Blue

J. W. Reitsma - "Forget the fact that there's an all-star cast on this, as on many other Zazou albums. And don't let the first track deceive you either, great though it is. Sure, starting an album with a Gerard Depardieu poetry-reading vocal over a disco rhythm with a pumping Bill Laswell baseline gets thing off on a flying start, but the rest of the album is much more quietly, electronically atmospheric, with some great French and English vocals from John Cale and Barbara Gogan especially. 'Sahara Blue' is a collection of songs set to lyrics (some sung in the original French, some in English translation) by 'poete maudit' Arthur Rimbaud."
amazon
W - Hector Zazou
YouTube: Hector Zazou - Arthur Rimbaud Ophéllie, Hector Zazou & Khaled - Amdyaz, Hector Zazou feat. R. Sakamoto - Harar et les Gallas, Hector Zazou Ft. John Cale & David Sylvian -- First Evening, Hector Zazou feat. Richard Bohringer & David Sylvian - Lettre au directeur des messageries maritimes

Airmail

Wikipedia - "Airmail (or 'Air Mail', in French Par avion) is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, sometimes weeks."
Wikipedia (Video)

Calling all dub producers using original analog gear

"Calling all dub producers who use original analog gear. Dubbhism wants to compile a 'various artists' album (to be released in 2012) showcasing the sound of analog dub equipment. ... In 2012 Dubbhism wants to release a 'various artists' album showcasing the sound of analog dub fx equipment. It's not about recording your masters to tape, not about vintage eq, not about esoteric mixing desks or anything like that. We're just interested in tracks that feature a healthy dose of analog reverb and/or analog echo. No plugins, only the vintage fx, the electronica, the hardware."
Dubbhism
YouTube: the Promised Land Dub
Soundcloud: Addis Night

Tommy Hartung

"This past summer, while roaming around the floors of the contemporary show, Greater New York, at P.S. 1, I stumbled into a gem of a room. As I entered the darkened wonderland I was greeted by a koi that swam in sparkling waters of a tranquil fish tank, positioned near the room’s entrance. I began to watch the single video in the room, The Ascent of Man, by artist Tommy Hartung, and was instantly mesmerized."
The Lo-Dowy
On Stellar Rays
Google
art 21, vimeo: Tommy Hartung’s Underground Movies, Tommy Hartung’s Budget Guide to New York
Current: tommy hartung presents" the story of edward holmes"

The Nefelejcs Projekt By Merge Invisible

"We live in Budapest, Hungary. The project was made in the 8th district, in an area of suspicoius reconstructions. Beautiful old buildings are demolished for replacing them with new ugly buildings made of cheap and bad materials. The idea was to create a memorial painting of a demolished building. There are many empty houses and giant firewalls around, so it wasn't hard to select. ... - Merge Invisible"
Wooster Collective (Video)

Interview - Agnès Varda

"Interview - Agnès Varda . May, 19, 1956"
YouTube

August 2010: Agnès Varda
May 2011: The Beaches of Agnès

The Alexandria Quartet - Lawrence Durrell

Wikipedia - "The Alexandria Quartet is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the books present four perspectives on a single set of events and characters in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II. As Durrell explains in his preface to Balthazar, the four novels are an exploration of relativity and the notions of continuum and subject–object relation, with modern love as the subject. The Quartet offers the same sequence of events through several points of view, allowing individual perspectives to change over time."
W - The Alexandria Quartet
W - Justine
W - Balthazar
W - Mountolive
W - Clea
amazon: The Alexandria Quartet
Paris Review: Lawrence Durrell, The Art of Fiction No. 23
Durrell 2012: The Lawrence Durrell Centenary

Hazel Dickens

Wikipedia - "Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1935 – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. She was the eighth child of an eleven-child mining family in West Virginia. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Cultural blogger John Pietaro noted that 'Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause.' The New York Times extolled her as 'a clarion-voiced advocate for coal miners and working people and a pioneer among women in bluegrass music'."
Wikipedia
NYT: Hazel Dickens, Folk Singer, Dies at 75 (April 2011)
YouTube: A profile of Hazel Dickens, part 1, A profile of Hazel Dickens, part 2
YouTube: Black Lung, A Few Old Memories, West Virginia My Home, The Rebel Girl, Coal tattoo, Play Us A Waltz, Only A Hobo, Won't You Come and Sing for Me (Alice Gerrard), Fire in the hole

2009 June: Hazel & Alice

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Wikipedia - "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ... (October 13, 1948 – August 16, 1997) a world-renowned Pakistani musician, was primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). Considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded, he possessed a six-octave vocal range and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is widely credited with introducing Sufi music to international audiences."
Wikipedia
NPR - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Voice Of Pakistan (Video)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
YouTube: Part 1of 3, Tum ik Gorakh Dhanda Ho, Part 2 of 3, Part 3 of 3. Tan Kunto Taula, A killing song, Tomb Asif jah at Lahore Pakistan.
YouTube: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

B-Sides & Rarities - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Wikipedia - "B-Sides & Rarities is a 3CD compilation by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in March 2005. It features over 20 years of the band's B-sides and previously unreleased tracks, including tracks performed with Shane MacGowan and acoustic versions of 'Deanna' and 'The Mercy Seat'. It is also the first recording to include all members of The Bad Seeds, past and present: Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, Thomas Wydler, Martyn P. Casey, Conway Savage, Jim Sclavunos, Warren Ellis, Barry Adamson, Kid Congo Powers, James Johnston, Roland Wolf and Hugo Race."
Wikipedia
amazon: B-Sides & Rarities
Pitchfork
YouTube: Where the Wild Roses Grow (PJ Harvey), Deanna, The Mercy Seat, City of Refuge, Black Betty, The Train Song, Rainy Night in Soho, Little Empty Boat, What A Wonderful World, Jack The Ripper, The Willow Garden, Red Right Hand, Black Hair (PJ Harvey), Bless His Ever Loving Heart, Little Janey's Gone, I feel so good, Shoot Me Down, (I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World

Terry Riley rare footage, live in the 70s

Wikipedia - "Terrence Mitchell Riley, (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement. His work has been deeply influenced by both jazz and Indian classical music."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Part 1, Part 2

December 2007: Terry Riley
March 2010: In C
December 2010: Terry Riley & Gyan Riley
April 2011: Terry Riley - Shri Camel: Morning Corona

New Directions

Wikipedia - "New Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and operates from New York City, and its books today are distributed by WW Norton & Company."
Wikipedia
New Directions

The Making of Rembrandt and Degas: Two Young Artists

"Even a relatively small exhibition like Rembrandt & Degas: Two Young Artists has many component parts that must be organized and coordinated in order to bring the exhibition to completion. The intellectual genesis for this exhibition was the observation of a senior staff member from Rijksmuseum Amsterdam upon visiting the Clark that the shading, or chiaroscuro, effects across the face of the Clark’s youthful 1856 Edgar Degas Self-Portrait were reminiscent of the shadows that fall across the Rembrandt’s face in two similarly small format Self-Portraits, one in the Rijksmuseum collection and one from the Alte Pinakothek in Munich."
The Clark
WSJ: One Master Mines Another

Objects - Ann Hamilton

"Acts of finding, Hamilton pulls forward background moments during the process of creating her large-scale installation work, giving them a focus of attention and a presence beyond, yet related to, the sensory surround of the exhibition. Working with the material of these moments--discovered in the pages of books and during the shipping process alike--Hamilton develops print, video and object editions, bodies of work that constitute an archive of the threads of process, research, inventory and action that ultimately comprise the larger structure of form and language with which Hamilton works."
Objects - Ann Hamilton

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Wikipedia - "Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an Amercian pioneering gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist who attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of gospel music in the late 1930s and also became known as the 'original soul sister' of recorded music."
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia of Arkansas
YouTube: Sister Rosetta Tharpe Documentary 1, 2, 3, 4.
Up Above My Head, The Lonesome Road, Old Time Religion, He Watches Me

No New York

Wikipedia - "No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave movement."
Wikipedia
Creem, April 1979
amazon
YouTube: James Chance and The Contortions - I Can't Stand Myself, DNA - Blonde Red Head, Mars - Helen Forsdale, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - My Eyes

Henry Miller - Asleep & Awake

"One of my favorite writers is Henry Miller, who I happen to share a birthday with (Dec. 26th). I recently came across a short documentary about the man called Henry Miller - Asleep & Awake (1975, Tom Schiller), which was made when Miller was 84 years old. Some kind soul uploaded the entire 35 minute film to YouTube in four separate parts and I really can’t recommend it enough if you’re a fan of Miller’s work or just curious about him."
Cinebeats
YouTube: Bathroom monologue 1, monologue 2, monologue 3

These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Nancy Sinatra

"These Boots Are Made for Walkin' is a pop song musically composed by Lee Hazlewood and first written and recorded by Nancy Sinatra. It was released in February 1966 and hit #1 in the United States and United Kingdom Pop charts."
YouTube
W - These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

Strength

Wikipedia - "Strength is a Major Arcana Tarot card, and is numbered either XI or VIII, depending on the deck. Historically it was called Fortitude, and in the Thoth Tarot deck it is called Lust. This card is used in game playing as well as in divination."
Wikipedia

Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), 2011

Dora Maurer, Seven Twists, 1979
"The 12th Istanbul Biennial explores the rich relationship between art and politics, focusing on artworks that are both formally innovative and politically outspoken. It takes as its point of departure the work of the Cuban American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996). Gonzalez-Torres was deeply attuned to both the personal and the political, and also rigorously attentive to the formal aspects of artistic production, integrating high modernist, minimal, and conceptual references with themes of everyday life."
Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), 2011
YouTube

Cameo

Wikipedia - "Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several hits records. As of 2009, some of the original members continue to perform together, while two others were hired by the hip hop group Outkast."
Wikipedia
W - Word Up!
YouTube: Shake your pants, Word Up, You Make Me Work, Skin I'm In, Candy, Single Life

Mustard Gas Party

"Stencil, Acrylic paint, inks, dyes, staining agents, watercolor paper, wood. Brandon Merkel. 28, NY."
Mustard Gas Party

René Clair - Entr'acte (1924)

"In his search for 'pure' cinema, René Clair followed the Dadaist approaches of photomontage (as advocated by John Heartfield—a technique which involved 'the meeting place of a thousand spaces'), and the random (as advocated by Tristan Tzara). True to those premises, Clair juxtaposed images and events as disparate as a chess game played by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, a cannon ignited by Erik Satie and Francis Picabia, a funeral where the coat of arms bearing the initials of Satie and Picabia was displayed, a ballerina, a sniper, inflatable balloon heads, the Luna Park rollercoaster, etc."
YouTube: Part 1/2, 2/2

Bilingual - Pet Shop Boys

Wikipedia - "Bilingual continues the heavily instrumented arrangements and backing vocals Pet Shop Boys began making to their music with the album Very. As suggested by the title, the songs on the album have worldwide influences, particularly from Latin America. After the release of their Very album, Pet Shop Boys toured South America and were influenced by the beats and rhythms associated with Latin American music. Three of the songs have bilingual lyrics, mixing the English language with Spanish and Portuguese."
Wikipedia
amazon: Bilingual
YouTube: A Red Letter Day, Delusions Of Grandeur (A red letter day B-side), Se a vida é, Discoteca, Single, To Step Aside, SOMEWHERE(VERSION 2), The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On, Before (standart disco dub), The Survivors, It Always Comes As Surprise [Teatime Mellow Mix], Metamorphosis (That Kind Of Guy Vision Mix)

The History of Salsa From Africa to New York

"A journey through the history of salsa, I produce this movie in two main parts African influence then development in New York. This short movie is upload on 3 videos made with loads of passion and love to Salsa and Afro Antillana music."
YouTube: The History of Salsa From Africa to New York 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3

10 Questions for Poet John Ashbery

"American poet John Ashbery talks to TIME about fame, poverty, art criticism and why he hates the sound of his own voice"
YouTube

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: Ralph Stanley

"Standing on the corner
With a nickel or a dime
There use to be a rail car
To take you down the line

Too much beer and whiskey
To ever be employed
And when I got to Nashville
It was too much soldiers joy"
YouTube: Wayside, Jackson

Prisoners of the Sun - Tintin

Wikipedia - "Prisoners of the Sun (French: Le Temple du Soleil) is the fourteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Seven Crystal Balls, and is one of very few Tintin books to directly carry on the story of the preceding title."
Wikipedia
Telegraph: Tintin and the finder of lost cities
amazon
In Peru with Tintin
YouTube: Tintin Fan Video - Prisoners of the Sun

Gauguin Tahiti

"The life of Paul Gauguin is one of the richest and most mythic in the history of Western art. A banker and 'Sunday painter,' he left behind family and homeland and sailed to the South Seas, seeking a life 'in ecstasy, in peace, and for art.' Gauguin Tahiti, the first major retrospective of the artist's work in fifteen years, offers an in-depth study of the fabled Polynesian years that have so defined our image of the painter."
amazon: Gauguin Tahiti
W - Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
theartwolf
Paul Gauguin Prints
Google
YouTube: Paul Gauguin

The Draughtsman's Contract - Peter Greenaway

Wikipedia - "The Draughtsman's Contract is a 1982 British film written and directed by Peter Greenaway – his first conventional feature film (following the feature-length mockumentary The Falls). Originally produced for Channel 4 the film is a form of murder mystery, set in 1694 (in the William and Mary period). The period setting is reflected in Michael Nyman's score, which borrows extensively from Henry Purcell, and in the extensive and elaborate costume designs (which slightly exaggerate those of the period for effect). The action was shot on location in the house and formal gardens of Groombridge Place."
Wikipedia
Shooting Down Pictures
amazon: The Draughtsman's Contract
The Draughtsman's Contract - Peter Greenaway
YouTube: The Draughtsman's Contract

The Satyagraha protest

"As promised, Philip Glass spoke to an Occupy Wall Street demonstration at Lincoln Center tonight, after a performance of Satyagraha at the Met. The protest, which was directed not at the opera itself but at a certain disparity between its lofty moral message and the machinery of corporate arts funding, got under way during the third act; police cleared everyone from the plaza, loitering music critics included (I had gone to the Mahler Tenth at the New York Philharmonic), and so the crowd assembled on the sidewalk at the foot of the steps."
Alex Ross, YouTube: Philip Glass at Occupy Wall Street protest
OccupyWallStreet: Phillip Glass Joins OWS in Protest at Lincoln Center
The Nation: The Occupy, USA Blog for Friday (Dec. 2), With Frequent Updates (Video)

Chicago, 1949 - Stanley Kubrick

"Before he started making movies, Stanley Kubrick was a star photojournalist. In the summer of 1949, Look magazine sent him to Chicago to shoot pictures for a story called 'Chicago City of Contrasts.' - Chicago Tribune"
Retronaut
YouTube: Stanley Kubrick's Chicago, 1949

Joan La Barbara

Wikipedia - "Joan La Barbara (born June 8, 1947 in Philadelphia, PA) is an American vocalist and composer associated with contemporary music. She is a former student of Helen Boatwright. She has worked with her husband Morton Subotnick since 1979, as well with other contemporary composers such as John Cage, Robert Ashley, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Larry Austin, Peter Gordon, and the dancer Merce Cunningham."
Wikipedia
Joan La Barbara
New Albion
Lovely
vimeo: "New Roulette" INTERVIEW SERIES: Joan La Barbara, Jon Gibson, Phill Niblock, Roulette TV: JOAN LA BARBARA
YouTube: Neil Rolnick: Body Work, with Joan La Barbara 2004 (part 1), JOAN LA BARBARA & JAAP BLONK - Messa Di Voce-2003, Angels, Demons and Other Muses

Blaise Cendrars

Wikipedia - "Frédéric Louis Sauser (September 1, 1887 – January 21, 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss novelist and poet naturalized French in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the modernist movement."
Wikipedia
The Paris Review: Blaise Cendrars, The Art of Fiction No. 38
Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961) - pseudonym of Frédéric Louis Sauser
Introduction to the Trans-Siberian of Blaise Cendrar
BLAISE CENDRARS [the greatest poetic spirit of the 20th century]
amazon: Complete Poems
MoMA: La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France
YouTube: Homage to Apollinaire

The ARChive of Contemporary Music

"There is a wonderful short story by Emanuel Boundzeki Dongala called 'Jazz and Palm Wine.' In it, the Earth is invaded from outer space and the advance ships land in Zaire. Aliens conquer the world. Spacemen explore the various cultures and societies on this planet and decide, quite rightly, that the only things of value are palm wine, a West African intoxicant, and Jazz. The tipsy, hip and benign rulers make Sun Ra the president of the United States and John Coltrane the Pope. 'A Love Supreme' replaces the 'Gloria' in the liturgy."
The ARChive of Contemporary Music
NYT: Sampling a Vast Archive of Music (Video)
The Supine View From the ARChive's Chesterfield
Wikipedia
YouTube - GOLDMINE presents: What's in the Archive?, Collectors Peruse Semi-Annual Music Archive Sale