Alton Ellis

Wikipedia - "Alton Nehemiah Ellis OD (September 1, 1938 – October 10, 2008) was a Jamaican musician best known as one of the innovators of rocksteady music and was often referred to as the 'Godfather of Rocksteady'. ... When Holt joined The Paragons, Ellis formed a new group, The Flames. Ellis continued to work for Dodd and also recorded for his arch-rival, Duke Reid on his Treasure Isle label. By the mid 1960s, ska was moving on and the beat was slowing down to rocksteady and becoming associated with the violent rude boy subculture in Jamaican dancehalls."
Wikipedia
Roots Archives
Guardian
YouTube: Breaking up is hard to do, You Are The One To Blame, Can i Change My Mind riddim mix, It's A Shame, LA LA MEANS I LOVE YOU, Why Birds Follow Spring, Classic Hits Medley Mix (Part 1), (Part 2)
CONCERT ALTON ELLIS - Live at the Jazz Cafe (London) (2008) 1:16:10

The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

Wikipedia - "The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, and rebellion. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages. Around 250,000 copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel's protagonist and antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion."
Wikipedia
The Praises and Criticisms of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
TNR: Why Do People Love 'Catcher in the Rye'?
NYT: July 16, 1951, Books of The Times
The Catcher in the Rye: The Voice of Alienation
Richard Prince’s Latest Act of Appropriation: The Catcher in the Rye

Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974

"The Museum of Contemporary Art presents Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974, the first large-scale, historical-thematic exhibition to deal broadly with Land art, on view at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA from May 27 through September 3, 2012. Capturing the simultaneous impulse emergent in the 1960s to use the earth as an artistic medium and to locate works in remote sites far from familiar art contexts, the exhibition will highlight the early years of untested artistic experimentations and conclude in the mid-1970s before Land art became a fully institutionalized category."
MOCA
MOCA: Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974
amazon
Art In America

Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Wikipedia - "Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus is the 13th studio album released by Australian alternative rock band, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It is a double CD with 17 tracks – 9 on Abattoir Blues and 8 on The Lyre of Orpheus – which was released on 20 September 2004."
Wikipedia
The Abattoir Blues Tour
amazon: Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
amazon: Abattoir Blues Tour
Favourite 50: Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
YouTube: Supernaturally, Abattoir Blues, Red Right Hand, Babe you turn me, Messiah Ward, The Lyre Of Orpheus, Hiding All Away
ArtistDirect: Breathless, Nature Boy

2008 August: Nick Cave
2010 November: Henry Lee - Nick Cave & PJ Harvey
2011 March: The Boatman's Call
2011 December: B-Sides & Rarities
2012 January: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - White Lunar

Lounge Lizards

Wikipedia - "The Lounge Lizards are a jazz group formed in 1978 by saxophone player John Lurie. Drawing on punk rock and no wave as much as jazz, The Lounge Lizards have since become respected for their creative and distinctive sound. Lounge Lizards were founded on June 4, 1979 with John Lurie, his brother Evan (piano and organ), Arto Lindsay (guitar), Steve Piccolo (bass guitar), and Anton Fier (drums). They were initially a punk or fake jazz group but soon evolved into something quite special."
Wikipedia
amazon
Robert Christgau: The Lounge Lizards
YouTube - Big Heart, Do The Wrong Thing, Uncle Jerry, Ballad, Snakes Can´t Sleep (the hanging), Stompin' At The Corona, Thrown or Was Pushed, You Haunt Me
John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards Live in Berlin 1991 1:40:03

Postcards from Maine

Natural Bridge, Orr's Island, Portland
"The Maine of my imagination finally became a reality this summer, with a brief road trip to the land of many lobster. After the fourth hour of highway driving towards our destination, entertainment hit a plateau. 'What's the state motto of Maine?' I wondered aloud to my co-pilot."
NYPL: Postcards from Maine

Sun Ra - The Paris Tapes, 1971

"Surprisingly, this remarkable and magnificently captured performance has never been issued on LP or CD before. Sun Ra and his larger than usual Arkestra are caught live here – dancers and all – sometime during 1971 at the Théâter du Châtelet in Paris, France for what is surely one of the Arkestra's finest concert happenings – particularly during this period."
Sun Ra and his Mythic Science Arkestra “The Paris Tapes: Live at le Théâter du Châtelet 1971”
amazon: The Paris Tapes
UGHH
iTunes (Video)
YouTube: Somebody Else´s Idea

The Charlie Parker Story

"Hugh Quarshie narrates the story of one of the greatest jazz saxophonists of all time. Charlie Parker was a pioneer of the postwar bebop school which changed the face of jazz forever, before his tragic death at the age of 34. Contributors include Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Peter King, Slide Hampton, Phil Woods and Mitch Miller."
YouTube: The Charlie Parker Story 59:12
W - Charlie Parker

2011 July: Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, et al 1950

Dawoud Bey - Harlem, U.S.A.

"In 1979 African American photographer Dawoud Bey (born 1953) held his first solo exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, showing a suite of 25 photographs titled Harlem, U.S.A. Bey had been in residence at that museum for one year, and he had made the surrounding neighborhood a subject of study since 1975. Though raised in Queens, Bey and his family had roots in Harlem, and it was a youthful visit to the exhibition Harlem on My Mind at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1969, that had given Bey his determination to become an artist."
Dawoud Bey: Harlem, U.S.A
Q&A with Dawoud Bey: "Harlem, U.S.A."
A tour of Dawoud Bey's 'Harlem, USA' (vimeo)

Yvonne Rainer - Space, Body, Language

"Museum Ludwig in cooperation with Kunsthaus Bregenz and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles proudly presents the first European retrospective of the trailblazing choreographer and film maker Yvonne Rainer. When Yvonne Rainer stepped onto the dance stage in 1960, she radically changed the genre. Her minimalist choreographies dispensed with narrative and overstatement. Instead they used movements and poses from everyday life, combined with texts, films and sound recordings. Already her dance adopted the means of film montage."
Museum Ludwig
vimeo: Raum, Körper, Sprache, TRIO A REHERSAL, Spiraling Down

2010 Janury: Yvonne Rainer

Brandalism

"The Brandalism project saw 25 artists from 8 countries coming together for the biggest subvertising campaign in UK history. Over five days a team of guerilla installers travelled to Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol and London and put up artworks that seeks to confront the ad industry and take back our visual landscapes."
Brandalism
Brandalism Criticizes Advertising and Reclaims Billboards in the UK

All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s

"This landmark book, together with its accompanying CD, captures the heady excitement of the vibrant, irreverent poetry scene of New York's Lower East Side in the 1960s. Drawing from personal interviews with many of the participants, from unpublished letters, and from rare sound recordings, Daniel Kane brings together for the first time the people, political events, and poetic roots that coalesced into a highly influential community."
amazon
MimeoMimeo: Footnoting Howl and Other Acts of Responsible Scholarship
Reality Studio: Don’t Ever Get Famous

Water wheel

Wikipedia - "A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface. Most commonly, the wheel is mounted vertically on a horizontal axle, but the tub or Norse wheel is mounted horizontally on a vertical shaft. Vertical wheels can transmit power either through the axle or via a ring gear and typically drive belts or gears; horizontal wheels usually directly drive their load."
Wikipedia
Water Wheel Factory

East Village Mosaic Man Explains What His Work Means

"One of the many wonderful characters in the East Village, Jim 'The Mosaic Man' Power, has gotten himself another online tribute. And unlike the slightly-longer 2010 documentary short on the occasionally homeless, definitely talented, artist this one includes some interesting explanations of the symbolism behind his famous lamposts (along with some great archival footage)..."
gothamist (Video)
The Mosaic Man — Jim Power and His Mosaic Trail

Lasse Marhaug

Wikipedia - "Lasse Marhaug (born September 10, 1974) is a Norwegian musician who primarily works in the field of noise music but frequently drifts into other areas such as improvisation, jazz, rock and extreme metal. Marhaug has also been involved in creating music for theatre, dance, art installations and video art."
Wikipedia
Lasse Marhaug
disquiet: Norwegian Noise (Video)
YouTube: Musikksøndag, Issue Project Room, Music Unlimited 22, Wels, Austria, Studio Soto - Boston (Fort Point), MA, Platekompaniet, 13th of April, 2007
vimeo: Capilla Barroca del Museo del Pueblo, Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico, Videotage, Hong Kong

Renaissance

Wikipedia - "Renaissance are an English progressive rock band, most notable for their 1978 UK top 10 hit 'Northern Lights' and progressive rock classics like 'Carpet of the Sun', 'Mother Russia', and 'Ashes Are Burning'."
Wikipedia
Renaissance
YouTube: Carpet of the Sun, Mother Russia, Ocean Gypsy, Ashes Are Burning

Public Service Broadcasting - EP, The War Room

"... ‘Spitfire’ layers samples of 1942 film The First of the Few over the part-Krautrock, part-electronica background, while the video is comprised of snippets from the film, which tells the tale of the creation of the iconic fighter plane. It comes from their new EP, The War Room, which is full of tracks giving a comprehensive vision of Britain in The Second World War. It’s even dedicated to George Willgoose, the great uncle of the mastermind behind PSB, J. Willgoose, who lost his life at the Battle of Dunkirk. PSB perhaps aren’t one for karaoke, but they’re definitely a band to be intrigued and charmed by. 1939 - 1942."
abacuspost
Public Service Broadcasting - EP, The War Room
YouTube: London Can Take It, Spitfire, Lit Up, Dig For Victory, If War Should Come, Waltz For George

White River Junction

Wikipedia - "White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Hartford in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,569 at the 2000 census. The village includes the White River Junction Historic District, a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and whose boundaries were increased in 2002. The historic district reflects urban architecture of the area from the late 19th century and early 20th century. It includes at least 29 contributing and non-contributing buildings. Notable buildings include the Coolidge Hotel, the First National Bank building, a U.S. Post Office building, and the White River Junction Fire House, showing examples of Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, Italianate and Romanesque architecture."
Wikipedia
White River Junction
YouTube: White River Junction: A Town at the Crossroads, Center for Cartoon Studies

Kitty Wells

Wikipedia - "Ellen Muriel Deason (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012), known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American country music singer. Her 1952 hit recording, 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels', made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts, and turned her into the first female country star. Her Top 10 hits continued until the mid-1960s, inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s."
Wikipedia
Kitty Wells blazed country path for women
The Country Music Hall of Fame
NYT: Kitty Wells, Trailblazing Country Singer, Dies at 92
YouTube: It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, I dont claim to a angel, There's poison in your heart, Lonely Side Of Town, Making Believe, Amigo's Guitar, One by One, Dust On The Bible, Your Cheating Heart, kd lang, Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee, Kitty Wells

Subatomic Sound System meets Lee Scratch Perry & Ari Up of the Slits (7″ vinyl)

"A #1 on Ernie B’s vinyl charts. First time and only time Ari Up of the Slits and Lee Scratch Perry appear on record together! Sadly this would be the last record released during Ari’s lifetime and one of her final recordings. These tracks bring together two eccentric legends doing what they do best on some of Scratch’s classic 70s dub vibes that Subatomic Sound System pushes into the future rootical dubstep realm."
Subatomic Sound (Video)
soundcloud
YouTube: Hello, Hello, Hell Is Very Low

5 Pointz

Wikipedia - "5 Pointz: The Institute of Higher Burnin' or the 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center, Inc. is an outdoor art exhibit space in Long Island City, New York, considered to be the world’s premiere 'graffiti Mecca,' where aerosol artists from around the globe paint colorful pieces on the walls of a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) factory building."
Wikipedia
5 Pointz
NYT: Writing’s on the Wall (Art Is, Too, for Now)
Queens Graffiti Landmark 5 Pointz is Set to be Demolished in 2013
Google
YouTube: 5 Pointz, 5 Pointz March 2011, 5 POINTZ:THE MECCA OF GRAFFITI

Various - Lovely Little Records

"Avantgarde music company Lovely Music, Ltd was founded by Robert Ashley’s wife Mimi Johnson in New York in 1978. Apart from Ashley’s magnum opus Perfect Lives in 1983, Lovely published Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, 'Blue' Gene Tyranny, Pauline Oliveros or Annea Lockwood, among others. Still active today after almost 35 years, Lovely is a major avantgarde music label. Published in 1980, this box set of single records introduced new artists of the Lovely stable, in addition to early associate 'Blue' Gene Tyranny, who already had 3 LPs out on Lovely in 1980."
Continuo
Various - Lovely Little Records
League of Automatic Music Composers (Video)

2008 March: Robert Ashley
2011 November: Perfect Lives - Robert Ashley

Lara Favaretto

"Located somewhere in the vast landscape of human emotion is the intersection of playfulness and sadness, a crossroads at which Italian artist Lara Favaretto has set up shop to ply her trade. Over the past 15 years, she has amassed a body of work that explores and celebrates the absurd and the existentially tragic, at once delighting her audience and musing on death, decay and obsolescence."
High Brow Magazine
MoMA PS1
Vogue: Lara Favaretto at MoMA PS1
YouTube: Lara Favaretto in Ladonia Biennial, Without Earth Underfoot, Klosterfelde Gallery, Zimmerstrasse, Berlin

Woody Guthrie at 100: Celebrate His Amazing Life with a BBC Film

"Saturday marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, the greatly influential folk singer whose music was inseparable from the hard circumstances of his life and his deep sense of social justice. 'A folk song is what’s wrong and how to fix it,' Guthrie once said, 'or it could be who’s hungry and where their mouth is or who’s out of work and where the job is or who’s broke and where the money is or who’s carrying a gun and where the peace is.'"
Open Culture (Video)
Woody Guthrie 100
npr: Fresh Air Celebrates Woody Guthrie At 100 (Video)
Democracy Now: On Woody Guthrie’s Centennial, Celebrating the Life, Politics & Music of the "Dust Bowl Troubadour" (Video)

2008 January: Woody Guthrie
2009 May: To Hear Your Banjo Play - 1947
2010 June: Dust Bowl Ballads

Transsubstantiatio

I Am Sitting In A Room
"Images generated from sound files. No edition, just automatic data bending. 1. Save sound file as raw. 2. Open raw in graphics editing program."
Transsubstantiatio
null66913BLOG (Video)
vimeo: _blank’s Videos
disquiet: The Sonic Image

Photographing the Mexican Revolution

"The Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920 is among the world’s most visually documented revolutions. Coinciding with the birth of filmmaking and the increased mobility offered by the reflex camera, it received extraordinary coverage by photographers and cineastes—commercial and amateur, national and international."
U. Texas
Photos of the Mexican Revolution
ZONE ZERE (PDF)
W - Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution: An Overview
YouTube: The Mexican Revolution 1910 -1920.
PDS: The Storm That Swept Mexico (Video)

Nick Drake

Wikipedia - "Nicholas Rodney 'Nick' Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician who was known for his sombre guitar-based songs. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime but his work has gradually achieved wider notice and recognition. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums — Bryter Layter and Pink Moon. Neither sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release. Drake's reluctance to perform live, or be interviewed, contributed to his lack of commercial success. Drake suffered from depression and insomnia throughout his life and these topics were often reflected in his lyrics."
Wikipedia
Bryter Music
amazon
The Paris Review: Things Behind the Sun
YouTube: From The Morning, Cello Song, Place to be, Time Has Told Me, One Of These Things First, Fly, Day is Done, Riverman, Things behind the sun, Way To Blue.
A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake 48:56.
Kaleidescope BBC Special part 1, part 2, part 3

Fred Frith at Cafe Oto, with Christian Marclay, John Edwards, and Mark Sanders

"Fred Frith was back at Cafe Oto for his third annual residency, playing just a week after his old colleague in 70s avant-garde rock group Henry Cow, Tim Hodgkinson, had appeared alongside synth player Thomas Lehn. Frith was paired on consecutive nights with a local free jazz tag team in bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders, and with turntablist and fellow New Yorker Christian Marclay in what was, incredibly, their first collaboration since the 80s, when they were both prime movers in New York’s creatively vital ‘downtown’ jazz scene."
Dalston Sound
cafe OTO (Video)

Tacita Dean

“Tacita Dean: Five Americans,” 2012
"This May, the New Museum will present an exhibition of works by British artist Tacita Dean—the most substantial presentation of the artist’s work in New York to date. The presentation focuses on a group of recent pieces that capture five important American artists and thinkers of the last fifty years and features Merce Cunningham, Leo Steinberg, Julie Mehretu, Claes Oldenburg, and Cy Twombly. These works are beautifully crafted portraits of each individual, opening a lens onto their artistic processes and personal memories. This installation, organized in close collaboration with Dean, provides insight into the way in which her filmmaking intersects with painting, sculpture, writing, and dance."
New Museum
Tacit Approval: Tacita Dean’s “Five Americans”
Tacita Dean’s ‘Five Americans’ Captures a Quiet Brilliance (Video)
Guardian: Tacita Dean's Film is the reel deal - video

Deep Roots Music 1: Revival/Ranking Sounds

"... Part 1-'Revival' examines the evolution of African music and its influence on culture and the formation of new styles, like ska. Part 2-'Ranking Sounds' reveals the origins of deejaying and toasting with an exemplary live performance of a Jamaican sound-system. This thorough series serves as the ultimate authority on reggae history!"
YouTube - Deep Roots Music 1: Revival/Ranking Sounds 51:10
amazon

7th Berlin Biennale 2012

Burak Arikan
"'THIS IS NOT OUR MUSEUM / THIS IS YOUR ACTION SPACE,' reads a banner greeting visitors to KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the Berlin Biennale’s main venue and traditional host. Its authors, members of Occupy Berlin and affiliated groups invited to set up shop there by the biennial’s curator, the artist Artur Żmijewski, are the exhibition’s main attraction and set its tone. They paradigmatically stand for the concept of art to which Żmijewski has dedicated his 'biennale for contemporary politics': 'Art that actually works, makes its mark on reality'."
ARTFORUM
Art Agenda
domus
YouTube: 7th Berlin Biennale 2012

40 Years Ago Today: Chess Rivals Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky Meet in the ‘Match of the Century’

"They called it the 'Match of the Century.' The eccentric American chess master Bobby Fischer and the reigning world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union faced off against one another 40 years ago today in Reykjavik, Iceland. As the world looked on, the Cold War struggle between two superpowers was played out in proxy, on a chess board."
Open Culture (Video)
HBO: Bobby Fischer Against The World
npr: Bobby Fischer: A Chess Champ 'Against The World' (Video)
YouTube: Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011)
W - Bobby Fischer

2008 October: World Chess Championship 1972

Kontakthof mit Senioren ab "65" (2000) - Pina Bausch

"Duration: 148 minutes. Legendary Bausch piece Kontakthof, this time performed by ladies and gentlemen over 65, premiered in 2000. Ein Stück von Pina Bausch"
UbuWeb (Video)

2008 May: Pina Bausch
2009 July: Pina Bausch, 1940-2009

MacDougal Street

Peter Orlovsky, Ginsberg and friends in front of the Kettle of Fish, 1959
"MacDougal Street is a one way street in Greenwich Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The approximate six-block street is bound by Prince Street and West 8th Street. It has been the subject of many songs, poems, and other forms of artistic expression. MacDougal Street has been frequented by numerous famous individuals. It is named for Alexander McDougall."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Quick "Macdougal Street" Tour, Village: Macdougal Street

Doughboys Playboys & Cowboys: The Golden Years of Western Swing

"Western Swing is a musical genre wonderfully described by its leading historian Cary Ginell as 'a bastard child that neither country nor jazz is willing to accept into their own house. In my opinion they are an important part of both genres.' Jazz historian Ted Gioia in this thoughtful The History of Jazz, while also omitting any mention of Western Swing, does address a key reason for its neglect among jazz listeners: For example, most chronicles of musical activity in the 1920s will draw an implicit delineation between popular music, jazz, and classical composition. Hence, accounts of jazz tend to present a polarized landscape in which hot bands (Henderson, Ellington, Goodman, Basie) thrive, develop, and change in complete isolation from other musical currents."
bravo juju
amazon
YouTube: Tiger Rag - The Light Crust Doughboys, Bob Wills - Take me back to Tulsa, I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart ~ Patsy Montana & The Praire Ramblers, Kangaroo Blues - Cliff Bruner And His Texas Wanderers, Fort Worth Doughboys - Sunbonnet Sue, Bob Wills - San Antonio Rose, Milton Brown and the Musical Brownies - Down By The O-Hi-O, The Tune Wranglers - Texas Sand, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IWEcW8N-Uc">Cliff Bruner - One Sweet Letter From You, Who's Sorry Now - Milton Brown & his Brownies, The Light Crust Doughboys - Pussy, Pussy, Pussy