The Threepenny Opera - Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill

Wikipedia - "The Threepenny Opera ... is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique of the capitalist world. It opened on 31 August 1928 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. By 1933, when Brecht and Weill were forced to leave Germany by the rise of Hitler, the play had been translated into 18 languages and performed more than 10,000 times on European stages."
Wikipedia
The Threepenny Opera
NYT: Toxic Dispatches From Weimar (Robert Wilson)
TheaterMania: The Threepenny Opera (Robert Wilson)
BAM Presents Robert Wilson's Glittering Nihilist Romp
W - The Threepenny Opera (1931 - Film)
YouTube, 1931: Shooting Down Pictures, amazon: 1931
YouTube: L'Opera da Tre Soldi: Robert Wilson's jewel at Spoleto51

Earth, Wind & Fire

Wikipedia - "Earth, Wind & Fire is an American R&B musical group founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1971 by Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. ... The band's music contains elements of African, Latin American, funk, soul music, pop and rock music, jazz and other genres. The band is known for the dynamic sound of their horn section, and the interplay between the contrasting vocals of Philip Bailey's falsetto and Maurice White's tenor. The kalimba (African thumb piano) is played on all of the band's albums."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Boogie wonderland, September, Lets Groove, That's The Way Of The World, Shining Star, Head to the Sky, Early 70's live medley

Alejandro Cartagena

"Alejandro Cartagena lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. His projects employ landscape and portraiture as a means to examine social, urban and environmental issues. His work also engages with a larger history of photography by reinterpreting or rethinking the ways in which poignant issues have been addressed or represented in the past. Cartagena’s work has been exhibited and published internationally, and is in several public and private collections in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, and the United States."
Alejandro Cartagena
Alejandro Cartagena Blog (vimeo)
monterrey (vimeo)

Downton Abbey

Wikipedia - "Downton Abbey is a television series, coproduced by Carnival Films in the UK and WGBH Boston in the US. The series is set on the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and features an ensemble cast. It was created and principally written by actor and writer Julian Fellowes, and premièred on ITV on 26 September 2010 and on PBS on 9 January 2011."
Wikipedia
pbs: Downton Abbey (Video)
itv: Downton Abbey (Video)
NYBooks: The Abbey That Jumped the Shark
The Paris Review: The Aristocrats
Under the Sign of Sylvia: Downton Abbey as Amos 'n Andy for lower-, to middle-middle class whites, Think of me as the dead maid, one of the absent women (say Vinnie), A parallel: Oakland, Ohio & Damascus, Syria: Another Maggie Smith
Vulture: Print Out Vulture’s Downton Abbey Paper Dolls
Washington Post: ‘Downton Abbey’ fashion, from costume to the runway
amazon: Downton Abbey, 2
amazon: The World of Downton Abbey

"The House at Pooneil" - Jefferson Airplane

Wikipedia - "The House at Pooneil corners is a song by the American rock group Jefferson Airplane which firsts appears in their successful album Crown of Creation in which it is the eleventh track on the album (track five of side two). It also appears in their album The Roar of Jefferson Airplane alongside the similarly named song 'The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil' suggesting that they are related, though they were made at different times. Unlike The Ballad, The House At Pooneil Corners was mainly written by Marty Balin and not Paul Kantner. This song was the only one Jefferson Airplane was able to complete when performing on RCA's roof in New York before the police men stopped the show."
Wikipedia
YouTube: House at Pooneil Corners (In a New York roof 1968)

So Percussion

Wikipedia - "So Percussion (often styled Sō Percussion) is an American percussion quartet based in New York City. Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for its work with composers such as Steve Reich, David Lang, Paul Lansky, Martin Bresnick, Steven Mackey, Fred Frith, Dan Trueman, Evan Ziporyn, and Arvo Pärt."
Wikipedia
So Percussion
amazon
disquiet: So Percussion Remixes So Percussion (Video)
SoundCloud (Video)
I Care if You Listen (YouTube)
YouTube: Amid the Noise, Steve Reich's "Drumming", Steve Mackey's "It Is Time", "Shifty" by Dennis DeSantis, Paul Lansky's "3rd Mvmt", Behind the scenes with So Percussion

French Painting of the 19th Century

Jean Beraud, Au Cafe
"As the century began, the academic style favored by the official Salon still dictated the success of artists and public taste. But soon that began to change. Realists turned convention on its head to give heroic character to everyday subjects. Manet scandalized the public with his images of modern life. Impressionists tried to capture fleeting effects of light and atmosphere."
NGA (Video)
Wikipedia

Cliff Bruner & His Texas Wanderers

Wikipedia - "Cliff Bruner (April 25, 1915 – August 25, 2000) was a fiddler and bandleader of the western swing era of the 1930s. Bruner's music combined elements of traditional string band music, improvisation, blues, folk, and popular melodies of the times."
Wikipedia
amazon: Cliff Bruner & His Texas Wanderers
YouTube: It Makes No Difference Now~1938, Kangaroo Blues, One Sweet Letter From You, When You're Smiling, Sugar, Sublime Western Swing, One Sweet Letter From You

Pulp magazines

Wikipedia - "Pulp magazines (often referred to as 'the pulps'), also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long. Pulps were printed on cheap paper with ragged, untrimmed edges. The name pulp comes from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. Magazines printed on better paper were called "glossies" or 'slicks.' In their first decades, they were most often priced at ten cents per magazine, while competing slicks were 25 cents apiece."
Wikipedia
NYT: Want to Be a Pulp Fiction Writer? Here’s Your Chance
Google
Picasa Web
Pulp Maps
Going Postal T-shirts

Ted Kincaid

"Twenty-two images line the wall of Marty Walker Gallery, foggy, silvery alien landscapes: an iceberg adrift in the sea, craggy mountain ranges, the glowing surface of the moon. Ted Kincaid’s new work breaks from the wistful austerity of artist’s pristine cloudscapes with images that are grittier, dreamier. That the work in Every Doubt that Holds You Here looks like the mid-19th century photographs of Gustave Le Gray or early films like Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon (1902) is every bit the point. This is an homage, of sorts, to photography and photographic process, made, we are told, without the use of any 'photographic material'."
Front Row
Ted Kincaid
Ted Kincaid Blog
YouTube: Ted Kincaid Every Doubt That Holds You Here

Trojan Dub Box Set (Trojan, 1998)

"One of at least 10 3-CD box sets issued by Trojan recently, a testament to the vastness of their vaults. The Dub Box Set, however, also reveals their limitations, as each of these 3 CDs seems to contain the same artists -- Roots Radics, The Upsetters, Gregory Isaacs, King Tubby, Tommy McCook & The Aggrovators, Sly & The Revolutionaries, The Observers, et al. Indeed, although there are 50 tracks, only about 16 different acts are represented. Thus, I don't feel like I got as broad an overview of '70s dub that I would've expected; this is certainly not a definitive collection."
Trojan Dub Box Set (Trojan, 1998)
amazon
YouTube: #1. Marijuana [Sly & The Revolutionaries] #2. Storming The Death Star [Roots Radics Band#3. Public Eyes [Gregory Isaacs], #1. Love Of Jah Jah Children [The G.G.All Stars] #2. A Dancing Version [Tommy McCook & The Aggrovators] #3. Miss Know It All [Scientist], The Observer All Stars - Rebel Dance, The Upsetters - Freedom dub, King Tubby & Observer All Stars - Rema Dub

“fathoms from anywhere” - Samuel Beckett

"'I don’t find solitude agonizing, on the contrary. Holes in paper open and take me fathoms from anywhere.' So wrote Samuel Beckett to Nancy Cunard on 26 January 1959. That land—'fathoms from anywhere' is like no other land in literature. It is consistent from work to work, as are the people who inhabit it. But within the homogeneity of background, of character, of theme, are subtle shadings of approach, of definition, of presentation that open up for the reader—or, in Beckett’s plays, the viewer—vistas as varied as the range of human emotions."
U. Texas: “fathoms from anywhere” - Samuel Beckett
Final and Posthumous Works
Beckett Timeline
Manuscripts
Publications

2009 November: Samuel Beckett
2010 April: A Piece of Monologue
2011 June: Film (1965) - UbuWeb

Neil Young Busking in Glasgow, 1976: The Story Behind the Footage

"The day was April 2, 1976. Neil Young was flying into Glasgow, and a local camera crew was waiting at the airport to meet him. Director Murray Grigor and cinematographer David Peat had been hired by Young through his record company. As they waited there, at the airport, they had no idea what to expect."
Open Culture (DailyMotion)

2010 August: Busking

Malin Gabriella Nordin

"Malin Gabriella Nordin, born 1988 in Stockholm, Sweden. Currently lives and works in Bergen, Norway."
Malin Gabriella Nordin
For my friends & family

Bluebird Records

Wikipedia - "Bluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter the American Record Company in the '3 records for a dollar' market. Along with ARC's Perfect Records, Melotone Records and Romeo Records, and the independent US Decca label, Bluebird became one of the best selling 'cheap' labels of the 1930s and early 1940s. (RCA pressed the 'two hits for two bits' cheap Crown label, independently owned in New York City, from 1930–1933, and Crown's sales probably also influenced RCA to get in on the cheaper priced market.)"
Wikipedia
The 78rpm Record Home Page
Big Road Blues
YouTube: Fats Waller & His Rhythm-Undecided, California Ramblers-Two Shadows (Kay Ray), Carter Family-When The World's On Fire, Earl Hines & His Orch-Number 19, Red Nichols & His Orch-Poor Butterfly, Erskine Hawkins & His Orch-Bicycle Bounce, Artie Shaw & His Orch-Non-Stop Flight, Tampa Red-Mean & Evil Woman, Washboard Sam-Bucket's Got A hole In It

Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune

Wikipedia - "Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune is a documentary film on the life and times of folk singer-songwriter Phil Ochs. The film, released theatrically in January 2011, was written and directed by Kenneth Bowser. Its title is taken from one of Ochs' best known songs, 'There but for Fortune'. The film features extensive archival footage of Ochs, as well as scenes reflecting the turbulent political climate of the 1960s during which he emerged as a spokesperson on causes such as racial injustice, political oppression, the horrors of war, and labor issues."
Wikipedia
Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune
pbs: Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune (Video)
amazon
The Mumpsimus (YouTube)
Remembering Phil Ochs

2008 September: Phil Ochs
2011 December: All the News That's Fit to Sing

Art in the streets of Kabul

"Inside the blackened ruin of Kabul's cultural centre, a spray-painting of a woman in a burqa sits at the foot of a staircase to nowhere, beside a line of poetry mourning everything that has been lost to Afghanistan in three decades of violence. The painting is the work of Shamsia Hassani, 24, probably her country's first serious graffiti artist."
Guardian
Guardian: Kabul graffiti – in pictures
BBC - Graffiti art hits the streets of Kabul (Video)

Iconic Artist Talk: Meredith Monk

Meredith Monk, '16mm Earrings', 1966, performance
"It seems like Meredith Monk has always worn her hair in braids. Sometimes several, sometimes only one or two, but always braids. It’s a fitting consistency for an artist who’s been just as unwavering in her artistic goals. Sure, there have been changes in scale, in personnel, and the occasional need for a magnificent tower with a double helix staircase, like artist/collaborator Ann Hamilton's."
BAM 150 (YouTube - Quarry (1977) and impermanence (2006)
THE VOICE IS A LANGUAGE

REVOLUTIONESQUE

"In more radical radical poetry journal news, you’ve got to check out Esque Mag Issue 3, called 'Revolutionesque,' which was just released today. For this one, editors Amy King and Ana Božičević asked contributors to respond to the idea of revolution."
Poetry Foundation: Let’s Read Revolutionesque
REVOLUTIONESQUE

Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam

Catalan Atlas, Majorcan Jewish cartographer Abraham Cresques, 1375
"One of the five pillars of Islam central to Muslim belief, Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim must make at least once in their lifetime if they are able. This major exhibition charts the history of this deeply personal journey."
British Museum (Video)
Telegraph - Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, British Museum, review
British Museum Blog (Video)
Guardian - Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam at the British Museum; in pictures
NYBooks: Bringing Mecca to the British Museum
YouTube - The Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam at the British Museum

The Vision Thing - Martin Scorsese

"At 69, an age when most Hollywood directors have been packed off after a hollow cavalcade of plaudits, roasts, and nostalgic fetes, Martin Scorsese is once again panicked about hitting a deadline. His new movie is Hugo, a 3-D children's movie being released by Paramount Pictures this Thanksgiving weekend, and Scorsese has never before directed in 3-D, nor, God knows, made anything resembling a kid flick."
Fast Company: The Vision Thing
Fast Company: How to Lead A Creative Life (Video)
Co.Create: Martin Scorsese’s Film School: The 85 Films You Need To See To Know Anything About Film

2009 August: Marty Scorsese
2010 September: The Directors: Martin Scorsese (2000)

The City of Samba

"Tilt shift of the Carnaval party in Rio de Janeiro. Made by Keith Loutit and Jarbas Agnelli. Captured during Carnaval of 2011."
vimeo: The City of Samba

Harry Partch

Wikipedia - "Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit (43-tone) just intonation."
Wikipedia
Harry Partch
American Mavericks: Harry Partch's Instruments (Video), (1)
The Quality of Vitality: Music by Harry Partch
amazon
YouTube: BBC Documentary - Part 1 of 6, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
Music Studio - Part 1 of 2, Part 2.
YouTube: Harry Partch

Andreas Schelfhout

Frozen canal near castle
Wikipedia - "Andreas Schelfhout (February 16, 1787, The Hague – April 19, 1870, The Hague) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer, known for his landscape paintings. He belongs to the Romantic movement. His Dutch winter scenes and frozen canals with skaters were already famous during his lifetime. He became one of the most influential Dutch landscape artists of his century. He started as a house painter in the framing business of his father. He already started painting pictures in his spare time."
Wikipedia
BBC
Google

Kraftwerk – Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

"Over eight consecutive nights, MoMA presents a chronological exploration of the sonic and visual experiments of Kraftwerk with a live presentation of their complete repertoire in the Museum's Marron Atrium. Each evening consists of a live performance and 3-D visualization of one of Kraftwerk's studio albums—Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991), and Tour de France (2003)—in the order of their release. Kraftwerk will follow each evening’s album performance with additional compositions from their catalog, all adapted specifically for this exhibition."
MoMA
Brooklyn Vegan: Kraftwerk playing eight full albums at MoMA (YouTube Radioactivity, Autobahn, The Model, etc.)
Synthtopia: (YouTube: Kraftwerk 3 - Trans Europe Express (1977); Hitler reacts to Kraftwerk MoMa ticket limit)

Katie Paterson

3 litres glacial meltwater, 3 litres silicon, 3 turntables [2007]
"Katie Paterson was born in Glasgow in 1981 and educated at Edinburgh College of Art from 2000-2004 and at the Slade School of Art from 2005-7. Paterson’s artistic practice is cross-medium, multi-disciplinary and conceptually driven, with emphasis on nature, ecology, geology and cosmology."
Ingleby Gallery
Katie Paterson
James Cohan
AnOther
RHIZOME: Interview with Katie Paterson
YouTube: TateShots: Katie Paterson, Artist Katie Paterson on Moon Transmission, Katie Paterson

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Wikipedia - "After the marked lack of success achieved by his first album, Henry The Human Fly, British singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Thompson struck up a personal and professional relationship with Linda Peters, a session singer. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight was the first album by the duo of Richard and Linda Thompson. Where his first album was treated harshly by the critics, the second was hailed as a masterpiece."
Wikipedia
YouTube: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, Jet Plane in a Rocking Chair, Pavanne, Withered and Died, Dimming of the Day, A Heart Needs A Home, Sisters

2011 July: Shoot Out the Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson

Choreographic, Lucinda Childs

"Choreographic innovator Lucinda Childs joins Philip Bither, McGuire Senior Performing Arts Curator, for a candid discussion of her artistic collaborations and her legacy."
Walker Art (Video)

2008 June: Lucinda Childs
2010 January: Einstein on the Beach
2011 March: Carnation

Fatboy Slim

Wikipedia - "Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook on 31 July 1963 in Bromley, England) better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer.[3] He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s. Cook has achieved considerable success in the UK charts, performing as Fatboy Slim and with The Housemartins, Beats International, and Freak Power."
Wikipedia
Fatboy Slim
UbuWeb: Weapon of Choice, 2001 (Video)
YouTube: Push The Tempo, Bird of Prey, Don´t let the man get you down, Funk in the Punk, Apache

Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles, 1957-1987 - John Ashbery

"Ashbery's art reviews for the Paris Herald Tribune , ARTNews , New York and Newsweek go beyond journalism. Generous, astute, never dull and possessed of catholic taste, this poet-critic shows us what is special about a Bonnard or a Grandma Moses. He especially admires artists who have undertaken individualistic, spiritual pilgrimages, like Marsden Hartley, Odilon Redon ('a kind of Cezanne of the unconscious'), Belgian fantasist Leon Spilliaert and undervalued American still-life painter John F. Peto. Nearly 100 reviews and essays are gathered here, amplified by 35 color and black-and-white reproductions."
amazon: Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles, 1957-1987

V. S. Naipaul

Wikipedia - "Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad 'V. S.' Naipaul, TC (born 17 August 1932) is a Nobel prize-winning Indo-Trinidadian-British writer who is known for his novels focusing on the legacy of the British Empire's colonialism. He has also written works of non-fiction, such as travel writing and essays."
Wikipedia
NYT: V. S. Naipaul
The New Yorker: Wounder And Wounded
Post Colonial Web
The Atlantic: Man Without a Country
amazon: V. S. Naipaul
Forum: The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief (Video)

The Kinks

Wikipedia - "The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a wide range of genres, including rhythm and blues, British music hall, folk and country."
Wikipedia
The Kinks
The Rock Hall
YouTube: You really got me, All day and all of the night, Tired of Waiting, Set Me Free, Sunny Afternoon, Waterloo Sunset, Lola

John Cassavetes / His Life and Work

"Yum ! A full-length documentary about John Cassavetes, of course featuring the wonderful Gena Rowlands. I'm on vacation. Enjoy some TV for me."
WFMU: John Cassavetes / His Life and Work

2008 September: John Cassavetes
2010 December: Shadows (1959)
2011 June: A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini

"It has been said that the Renaissance witnessed the rediscovery of the individual. In keeping with this notion, early Renaissance Italy also hosted the first great age of portraiture in Europe. Portraiture assumed a new importance, whether it was to record the features of a family member for future generations, celebrate a prince or warrior, extol the beauty of a woman, or make possible the exchange of a likeness among friends."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
MetMuseum: Artworks
NYT: Getting Personal
euronews: NY’s Met welcomes Renaissance portraiture (Video)

Everything is a Remix

"Everything is a Remix is produced by me, Kirby Ferguson, a New York-based filmmaker. This site is a companion piece to the four-part video series. The first three episodes of the series have been published and part four should be released in late November. Donations are much appreciated and help me devote as much time as possible to research, writing and production."
vimeo: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Everything is a Remix