5 - Merry Christmas!!

"Available now for the first time... The lost recordings of one of rock and roll's most mysterious bands... In rare Yuletide spirit, The Doors... Light my Christmas..."
YouTube: The Doors -- Light My Christmas
The Soul Saints Orchestre - Santa's Got A Bag Of Soul
Tom Waits - Christmas Card From a Hooker
A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas
Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special

2010 December: 30 - Merry Christmas!!

Hey You! What Are You Listening To? New York

"A guy (his YouTube handle is TyCullen, so maybe he's named Ty Cullen) walks the streets of New York asking pedestrians with headphones what they're listening to. Listening to music in the crowded Mahattan streets is usually a private, even isolating, enterprise. Cullen's simple project is a nice reminder that there's value in sharing the things we like, and also provides an interesting cultural cross-section of New York pedestrians. Enjoy."
GOOD
YouTube

"Wild Leaves" - Patti Smith on World Aids Day

"To celebrate World AIDS Day this year we are showing Wild Leaves, a film of Patti Smith directed by Melodie McDaniel. The song 'Wild Leaves' was originally penned by Smith to honor her friend Robert Mapplethorpe, who died from complications arising from AIDS in 1989."
NOWNESS (Video)

Vladimir Zuev

"Vladimir Zuev is a Russian artist specializing in graphic art. Over 10-year
experience in printing graphic abstract etchings, ex-librises and
woodcuts makes his works popular all over the world."
Vladimir Zuev
50watts

Nashville (1975) - Robert Altman

Wikipedia - "Nashville is a 1975 American musical black comedy film directed by Robert Altman. A winner of many awards, selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, Nashville is generally considered to be one of Altman's best films. The film takes a snapshot of people involved in the country music and gospel music businesses in Nashville, Tennessee. It has 24 main characters, an hour of musical numbers, and multiple storylines."
Wikipedia
filmsite
Classic Throwback: Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
Salon: A movie called “Nashville”
Dailymotion: NASHVILLE trailer Robert Altman

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam

Wikipedia - "'Down in the Tube Station at Midnight' was the second single taken from the album All Mod Cons by The Jam. Released on 21 October 1978, it charted at number 15 and was backed by a cover of the Who song 'So Sad About Us', and 'The Night', written by Bruce Foxton. The back of the record jacket displayed a photo of Keith Moon, former drummer of The Who, who had died of an overdose of prescribed medication intended to help his alcoholism the month prior to the single's release."
Wikipedia - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
YouTube: Down at the tube station at midnight, So Sad About Us, The Night

An Anthology of New York Poets

"Mark Ford's new anthology provides an excellent insight into the work of four very distinct and fascinating writers (Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler), whose early careers all flourished in the exuberant New York art scene of the 1950s. The city was brimming with postwar energy and confidence, self-consciously taking on the modernist mantle worn by Paris in the first half of the century, and this book is charged with the vivacity, optimism and camaraderie of the times."
One thing that can save America
amazon: An Anthology of New York Poets

Shakespeare and Company

Wikipedia - "Shakespeare and Company is the name of two independent bookstores on Paris' Left Bank. The first was opened by Sylvia Beach on 17 November 1919 at 8 rue Dupuytren before moving to larger premises at 12 rue de l'Odéon in the 6th arrondissement in 1922. During the 1920s, it was a gathering place for writers such as Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Ford Madox Ford. It closed in 1941 during the German occupation of Paris and never re-opened."
Wikipedia
Shakespeare and Company
George Whitman, owner of Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company, dies at 98
YouTube: Shakespeare and Company.
W - Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man, 2005
video: Portrait of of a Bookstore as an Old Man

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