Kool & the Gang

Wikipedia - "Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964. They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and funk, progressing to a smooth pop-funk ensemble, and in the post-millennium creating music with a modern, electro-pop sound."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Funky Stuff, Jungle Boogie, Celebration, Fresh, Get Down On It

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Wikipedia - "Hiroshi Sugimoto ... born on February 23, 1948, is a Japanese photographer currently dividing his time between Tokyo, Japan and New York City, USA. His catalog is made up of a number of series, each having a distinct theme and similar attributes."
Wikipedia
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto - Theater
artnet
pbs: art21 (Video)
YouTube: T Magazine - It's All About Hiroshi Sugimoto

Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart live

"Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart live at the Town and Country Club, London, 6th September 1992 as a part of the NME's Viva 8! week of concerts for the Spastics Society."
YouTube: part 1/6, part 2/6, part 3/6, part 4/6, part 5/6, part 6/6

The Color of Pomegranates (1968) - Sergei Parajanov

Wikipedia - "The Color of Pomegranates ... is a 1968 Armenian film directed by Sergei Parajanov. The Color of Pomegranates is a biography of the Armenian ashug Sayat-Nova (King of Song) that attempts to reveal the poet's life visually and poetically rather than literally. The film depicts the poet's coming of age, discovery of the female form, falling in love, entering a monastery and dying, all framed through both Sergei Parajanov's imagination and Sayat Nova's poems."
Wikipedia
Senses of Cinema
reverse shot
amazon
YouTube: Color of Pomegranates / Sayat Nova

Gilbert Sorrentino

Wikipedia - "Gilbert Sorrentino (April 27, 1929 – May 18, 2006) was an American novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and editor. In over twenty-five works of fiction and poetry, Sorrentino explored the comic and formal possibilities of language and literature. His insistence on the primacy of language and his forays into metafiction mark him as a postmodernist, but he is also known for his ear for American speech and his attention to the particularities of place, especially of his native Brooklyn."
Wikipedia
Poetry Foundation: Gilbert Sorrentino 1929–2006
Gilbert Sorrentino Interview
Brooklyn Rail: Remembering Gilbert Sorrentino
HiLobrow: Gilbert Sorrentino
Coffee House Press
amazon

Loop

Brian Eno, Discreet Music
Wikipedia - "In electroacoustic music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. A loop can be created using a wide range of music technologies including digital samplers, synthesisers, sequencers, drum machines, tape machines, delay units, or they can be programmed using computer music software."
Wikipedia
Sound From Diagrams and The Vivarium (YouTube)
soundsnap
Royalty Free Music Library
Infinity Loop Music

Café Müller (1978) - Pina Bausch

A piece by Pina Bausch. "The rhythm of a Pina Bausch piece is obsessively regular. Bursts of violence are followed by long stillnesses. Bits of business are systematically repeated, sometimes with increasing urgency but more often with no variation at all. At every repetition, less is revealed, and the action that looked gratuitous to begin with dissolves into meaningless frenzy." 1984, BAM, Next Wave Festival.
UbuWeb (Video)
Pina Bausch Remembered
theartsdesk Q&A: Meeting Pina Bausch
Review: Pina Bausch Wuppertal Tanztheater in Cafe Muller/The Rite of Spring at Sadler's Wells

2008 May: Pina Bausch
2009 June: Pina Bausch 1940-2009

Five Points

George Catlin, 1827, Paradise Square
Wikipedia - "Five Points (or The Five Points) was a neighborhood in central lower Manhattan in New York City. The neighborhood was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street in the west, The Bowery in the east, Canal Street in the north and Park Row in the south. ... Five Points gained international notoriety as a disease-ridden crime-infested slum that existed for well over 70 years."
Wikipedia
THE FIVE POINTS By Gregory Christiano
YouTube: Five points, Uncovering the real Gangs of New York Part 1 of 4, Part 2 of 4, Part 3 of 4, Part 4 of 4

James Brown - Live Zaire 1974

"In spite of various personal problems and setbacks he continued to score hits in every decade through the 1980s. In addition to his acclaim in music, Brown was also a presence in American political affairs during the 1960s and 1970s."
YouTube: The Payback, Cold Sweat, Try Me, Gonna Have A Funky Good Time - Muhammad Ali

Keith Haring - Journals

"This biography uses Keith's own words to tell his story--words that first appeared in numerous interviews and profiles published during his lifetime, as well as in his personal diaries."
Keith Haring - In His Own Words
amazon
Art In America Magazine
YouTube: Keith Haring Documentary

2009 April: Keith Haring

Rare Concert Footage of The Band, 1970

"Just four songs from The Band, performing live at The Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh, PA, recorded on November 1st, 1970."
YouTube: Time to Kill, The Weight, This Wheel's on Fire, Up on Cripple Creek

EVOL

"EVOL is a berlin based street artist that transforms banal urban surfaces, into miniature architectural surfaces through pasting. using pasted paper, EVOL transforms electric boxes, small planters and other geometric city forms, into miniature apartment buildings and other structures. each piece of paper is printed with a repetitive pattern of flat gray walls dotted with plain window frames. once applied to a surface, the paper transforms the form into small building that EVOL often adorns with small characters. EVOL performs this process within different cities and has even been commissioned to do installations in galleries, where he was created entire blocks of miniature buildings."
designboom
EVOL – A Street Art Collection
EVOL/CTINK

Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven

Wikipedia - "Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (born 5 December 1951) is a Belgian artist whose work involves painting, drawing, computer art and video art."
Wikipedia
Zeno X
e-flux

Elvis To KLF: The Train I Ride Is Sixteen Coaches Long

"Life with a three-year-old can find you focusing on on forms and representations of transportation you wouldn't otherwise. Trains, for example, hold a particular resonance with the developing mind that challenge their relative rarity compared to cars and airplanes. We've found ourselves meeting constant demands for all things trains by discovering the online world of obsessive documentarians of all things locomotive. Watching this narration-and-music-free modern footage of old-fashioned steam engines has caused us to consider the sensual impact the advent of train travel would have on the rural blues men who would incorporate the sound of trains into their music and use the eeire whistle of the coming train as a metaphor for all great changes in life, love and death."
WFMU (YouTube)

Music Is the Weapon - Fela Kuti

"Music Is the Weapon may be short, but it's essential viewing for Fela fans. Filmed in 1982, the 53-minute documentary captures the late Nigerian musician/activist at his peak. ... For the uninitiated, it's hard to explain--in mere words--how one man could so successfully mate the sexuality of James Brown with the righteous politics of Bob Marley and sinuous sounds of Miles Davis. Fela drew as much inspiration for his 'Afro-beat' from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as funk, reggae, and jazz."
amazom
vimeo: Music Is the Weapon

Simonetta Capecchi

"Simonetta Capecchi born in Milan, graduated in Architecture in Venice. She completed her Phd in Naples, where she works as an illustrator and lectures at the Faculty of Architecture. In 2006, she curated an exhibition at the Castel dell'Ovo in Naples, including a section where more than 50 Moleskines were distributed to travellers of all ages, with a view to recounting the City of Naples."
moleskine (YouTube
Escape Into Life
Urban Sketchers
YouTube: Simonetta Capecchi at Detour Exhibition in Paris

John Ashbery - Recent Collages

"The Tibor de Nagy Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new collages by acclaimed poet John Ashbery. This is the gallery’s second solo exhibition devoted exclusively to Ashbery’s collages, following his hugely successful debut with the gallery in 2008. Ashbery was fascinated in his youth by the collage novels of Max Ernst and the partly collaged Cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque. He started making collages as an undergraduate at Harvard, and has continued the collage process in both his visual and literary creations ever since. Influenced by such collage giants as Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, and more directly, Joe Brainard, Ashbery’s work combines equal doses of art historical and contemporary pop culture references."
Tibor de Nagy Gallery

2008 September: The Collages - John Ashbery
2011 July: Postcard Collages - John Ashbery

Remain in Light - Talking Heads

Wikipedia - "Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by American New Wave band Talking Heads, released on 8 October 1980 on Sire Records. It was recorded at locations in the Bahamas and the United States between July and August 1980 and was produced by the quartet's long-time collaborator Brian Eno. ... The members of Talking Heads wanted to make an album that dispelled notions of frontman and chief lyricist David Byrne leading a back-up band. They decided to experiment with African polyrhythms and, with Eno, recorded the instrumental tracks as a series of samples and loops, a novel idea at the time. Additional musicians were frequently used throughout the studio sessions."
Wikipedia
amazon
YouTube: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), Crosseyed And Painless, The Great Curve, Once In A Lifetime, Houses In Motion

Joel Chadabe

"Joel Chadabe, composer, author, is an internationally recognized pioneer in the development of interactive music systems."
Joel Chadabe
Joel Chadabe – Rhythms
Kalvos & Damian (RealAudio)
Activities as Music (Video)
Interview with Joel Chadabe
YouTube: Joel Chadabe on Ear To The Earth

Great Directors

"The documentary filmmaker Angela Ismailos welcomes the debate over what makes a great director with her new film, appropriately titled, Great Directors, opening on Friday. It includes interviews with 10 filmmakers she sees as essential to the craft: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnès Varda, Ken Loach, Liliana Cavani, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles."
NYT: Assessing Great Directors
YouTube: Great Directors - Trailer HD 2010
Great Directors
Film Journal

History of Jamaican Music

"The history of jamaican music from ska to reggae."
YouTube: History of Jamaican Music

Asphalt Renaissance - Kurt Wenner

"A new book, Asphalt Renaissance, collects the amazing 3-D street art of Kurt Wenner. The former NASA space illustrator turned street artist uses innovative techniques that produce astounding three-dimensional images. The book charts his 25-year career, with his designs leaping from pavement to pages. When viewed from the correct angle, people standing on top of them look like they are floating in thin air, and solid concrete can look like gaping chasms."
Simplex Design
amazon

Richard Hamilton

Wikipedia - "Richard William Hamilton CH (24 February 1922 – 13 September 2011) was a British painter and collage artist. His 1956 collage, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, is considered by critics and historians to be one of the early works of pop art."
Wikipedia
W - Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?
MoMA
artnet
YouTube: Richard Hamilton Retrospective | euromaxx

The James Dean Story

Wikipedia - "The James Dean Story is a 1957 American documentary. Released two years after Dean's death, the Warner Bros. Pictures release chronicles his short life and career via black-and-white still photographs, interviews with the aunt and uncle who raised him, his paternal grandparents, a New York City cabdriver friend, and the owner of his favorite Los Angeles restaurant, and outtakes from East of Eden, footage of the opening night of Giant, and Dean's ironic PSA for safe driving." Directed by Robert Altman.
Wikipedia
YouTube: The James Dean Story

David Behrman - The Siren Orchestra

"A short film with David Behrman and the Siren Orchestra. This event took place in Leiden, The Netherlands. This event was focused on the element of sound and looking at alternative ways of viewing audio and music."
David Behrman
Intonarumori
YouTube: The Siren Orchestra "The Element of Sound"

Robert Duncan - Ten Poems, 1940 to 1980

"Transcribed and edited by Robert J. Bertholf and James Maynard. This material is © The Literary Estate of Robert Duncan. This piece is about 12 printed pages long. The ten buttons immediately below take you to the poems; the button on each poem takes you back to this listing."
October 2005, Jacket 28

Child Is Father to the Man - Blood, Sweat & Tears

Wikipedia - "Child Is Father to the Man is the debut album by Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in February of 1968. ... Widely regarded as a classic fusion of jazz, rock and roll, psychedelia and classical music, Child Is Father to the Man is one of bandleader Al Kooper's most enduring works. The album introduced the idea of the big band to rock and roll and paved the way for such groups as Chicago. Kooper left the band after this album, changing the nature of the group."
Wikipedia
amazon
sundazed
YouTube: I Can't Quit Her, I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know, Just One Smile, My Days Are Numbered, Without Her, Morning Glory, So Much Love Underture, House in the Country, Meagan's Gypsy Eyes, Overture, The Modern Adventures Of Plato Diogenes & Freud

GeoCurrents

"Martin W. Lewis has taught college-level geography for 20 years, and is currently a senior lecturer at Stanford University. He is a co-author on two leading textbooks in world geography, Diversity Amid Globalization and Globalization and Diversity."
GeoCurrents
facebook

5 Films About Christo & Jeanne-Claude

"Plexifilm introduces its most elaborate release yet: FIVE FILMS ABOUT CHRISTO & JEANNE-CLAUDE. This three-DVD set is the most complete motion picture collaboration ever released between filmmakers and artists. Spanning 30 years, this unique DVD package shows the passion, vision and complexity of the environmental art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude."
Plexifilm
amazon: 5 Films About Christo & Jeanne-Claude
npr: 5 Films About Christo & Jeanne-Claude, realPlayer
Wikipedia

2007 November: Christo & Jeanne-Claude
2009 November: Jeanne-Claude
2010 April: Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence
2010 September: Christo and Jeanne-Claude - The Gates
2010 November: Over The River - Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art

"Established as the research arm of the Department of Latin American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA) is currently in the midst of the multi-year Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art: A Digital Archive and Publications Project, which seeks to consolidate Latin American and Latino art as a field of study and to place it on equal footing with other established aesthetic traditions."
ICAA: Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art
YouTube: Documents of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - White Lunar

"All three movies, with their epic landscapes and acutely incised psychology, find a correlative sweep and depth in the scores that Cave and Ellis have devised for them, and a poignancy that imbues the films with a timeless aura; the music from this triumvirate is on Disc 1 of the 2 CD set. In addition to these large-scale efforts, Cave and Ellis have also contributed a resonant musical dimension to a pair of lesser known, but striking documentaries, represented on Disc 2."
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
amazon: White Lunar
Pitchfork: White Lunar
YouTube: White Lunar (preview), Song for Bob, Song for Jesse, Cheata, The Journey

Pierre Bonnard

La fenetre
Wikipedia - "Pierre Bonnard (3 October 1867 – 23 January 1947) was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis. ... Bonnard is known for his intense use of color, especially via areas built with small brushmarks and close values. His often complex compositions—typically of sunlit interiors of rooms and gardens populated with friends and family members—are both narrative and autobiographical."
Wikipedia
Google
Pierre Bonnard
NYT: Pierre Bonnard
YouTube

BBC Documentary: Sun Ra, Brother From Another Planet

"Sun Ra was born on the planet Saturn some time ago. The best accounts agree that he emerged on Earth as Herman Blount, born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, although Sun Ra himself always denied that Blount was his surname. He returned to Saturn in 1993 after creating a stunningly variegated and beautiful assemblage of earthly and interplanetary music, most notably with his fervently loyal Arkestra."
YouTube: BBC Documentary: Sun Ra, Brother From Another Planet

The Voice Lays Off J Hoberman

"Reaction on Twitter and Facebook to yesterday's late-breaking news that the Village Voice had laid off J Hoberman, a staff writer since 1983 and chief film critic since 1988, was swift and harsh. ... Following the waves of fury, some who might be in a position to know have suggested that Hoberman will 'land on his feet' and I know I'm not alone in sincerely hoping he does. Today's must-read, then, is 'A History of Film Criticism at the Village Voice,' which Hoberman wrote back in October 2005 on the occasion of the alternative weekly's 50th anniversary."
mubi
amazon: The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits

Cesária Évora

Wikipedia - "Cesária Évora (Portuguese ... 27 August 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a Cape Verdean popular singer. Nicknamed The Barefoot Diva for performing without shoes, she was also The Queen of Morna."
Wikipedia
The Paris Review: Sodad
Cesária Évora
amazon
NYT: Cesária Évora, Singer From Cape Verde, Dies at 70
YouTube: Sodade (Paris, 2004), Besame mucho (Paris 2002), Isolada (Le Grand Rex de Paris, 2004), Saia Travada (Paris, 2004), Carnaval De São Vicente (São Paulo, 2000), Cabo Verde, Rotcha Scribida, Angola (Le Bataclan, Paris, 1995), Fada