Heaven 17

Wikipedia - "Heaven 17 are an English synthpop band originating from Sheffield in the early 1980s. The trio comprises Martyn Ware (keyboards), Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously with The Human League) and Glenn Gregory (vocals). Although most of the band's music was recorded in the 1980s, they have occasionally reformed to record and perform since then, playing their first ever live concerts in 1997."
Wikipedia
YouTube: We Don't Need No Fascist Groove Thing, Lets All Make A Bomb, Penthouse and Pavement, I'm Your Money ("12 Version)", Hands Up to Heaven (Spray Mix), I'm Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me

Russian Punk Band Is Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Anti-Putin Stunt

"A Moscow judge handed down stiff prison sentences of two years on Friday afternoon for three young women who staged a protest against Vladimir V. Putin in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior last February and whose jailing and trial on hooliganism charges have generated worldwide criticism of constraints on political speech in Russia. While a guilty verdict against the three women, members of a band called Pussy Riot, was widely expected, suspense had built over how severe a punishment they would receive. Prosecutors had demanded three-year prison terms, but President Vladimir V. Putin had weighed in on the side of leniency. But the judge, Marina Syrova, showed little sympathy for the trio, and it was not immediately clear whether the sentences would prompt a reaction on Moscow’s streets."
NYT
Guardian: Media take a prim view of Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot Jailed for Two Years
Pussy Riot Closing Statements: Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich
"We Are All Pussy Riot": Kathleen Hanna Speaks on the Jailed Feminist Punk Group (Video)
Guardian: Pussy Riot: will Vladimir Putin regret taking on Russia's cool women punks? (July 28)

Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets

"This MoMA gallery exhibition and accompanying film retrospective will be the first presentation of the Quay Brothers' work in all their fields of creative activity. Internationally renowned moving image artists and designers, the Quay Brothers were born outside Philadelphia and have worked from their London studio, Atelier Koninck, since the late 1970s. For over 30 years, they have been in the avant-garde of stop-motion puppet animation and live-action movie-making in the Eastern European tradition of filmmakers like Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Svankmajer and the Russian Yuri Norstein, and have championed a design aesthetic influenced by the graphic surrealism of Polish poster artists of the 1950s and 1960s."
MoMA (Video)
NYT: A Universe Like Ours, Only Weirder (Multimedia)
Stopping Time: The Quay Brothers at MoMA
Wired: Puppets, Oddities, Animated Films: Inside the Surreal World of the Quay Brothers (Multimedia)
amazon: Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers (2007)
Quay Brothers - The Short Films 1979-2003
YouTube: Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies 1987 Quay Brothers 14min, Igor: The Paris Years [1982] 25:54, His name is alive - Can't go wrong without you, Day of the Dead (2002), Inventorium of Traces - trailer (2009), Brothers Quay - DVD Picks

2009 August: Brothers Quay

The skinny on Schuyler's line

"I fell in love with James Schuyler’s poetry when I was twenty. Since my beloved has (still!) not received the recognition he deserves, I was initially motivated to write about his work by critical and dismissive readings of it. As an undergraduate I wrote an honors thesis on his great long poems — 'The Crystal Lithium,' 'Hymn to Life,' 'The Morning of the Poem,' and 'A Few Days' — but my interest was in both his long and short line. Almost twenty years later, critics have yet to give much attention to Schuyler’s adept use of line breaks. In an early review of The Morning of the Poem (1980), Stephen Yenser emphasizes the improvisatory feel of Schuyler’s work."
Jacket 2

2012 July: A Schuyler of urgent concern

Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg Visit the Grave of Jack Kerouac (1979)

"Above you can watch a rare 1979 meeting, of sorts, of three hugely influential twentieth-century cultural minds: Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, and — in spirit, anyway — Jack Kerouac, who died ten years before. This clip, though brief, would be fascinating enough by itself, but Sean Wilentz provides extensive backstory in 'Penetrating Aether: The Beat Generation and Allen Ginsberg’s America,' an essay fron the New Yorker."
Open Culture (YouTube)
The New Yorker: Bob Dylan, the Beat Generation, and Allen Ginsberg’s America

2009 August: Beat Generation
2009 November: Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut
2010 July: Kerouac's Copies of Floating Bear
2010 July: Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
2010 October: "Howl" - Allen Ginsberg
2011 March: Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show

Keith Fullerton Whitman

Wikipedia - "Keith Fullerton Whitman (born May 29, 1973) is an American electronic musician who has recorded albums influenced by many genres, including ambient music, drill and bass, and krautrock. He records and performs using many aliases, of which the most familiar is Hrvatski (the Croatian word for Croatian)."
Wikipedia
disquiet: KFW FTW (Video)
Soundcloud: Keith Fullerton Whitman (Video)
Mimaroglu Music Sales (Video)
Keith Fullerton Whitman (Video)

Through Edward Hopper's eyes: in search of an artist's seaside inspiration

"Gail Albert Halaban has identified 16 houses in Gloucester, Massachusetts, that were painted by Edward Hopper over several summers in the 1920s and she reckons there are a few more that have, as yet, escaped her notice. Over the past three years, Albert Halaban, a fine art photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times and Time magazine, has been tracking down the Hopper houses in Gloucester, a picturesque city on the Atlantic coast, and photographing them from the same vantage points that the great American artist used to paint them from nearly a century ago."
Guardian
Gail Albert Halaban
Wiki: Houses of Squam Light, Gloucester, Gloucester Harbor, Rocks at the Fort Gloucester, Ryders House, Sun on Prospect Street, Adam's House, Gloucester Mansion, House at the Fort, Gloucester, The Mansard Roof

2008 July: Edward Hopper
2010 October: Finding Nighthawks
2010 December: Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time

Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas on Jubilee USA

"June 1960 - The MC is Eddy Arnold filling-in for Red Foley"
YouTube: Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas on Jubilee USA

2008 June: Patsy Cline
2011 January: Patsy Cline - 1

The Dante Quartet (1987) - Stan Brakhage

Wikipedia - "The Dante Quartet is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, completed in 1987. The film was inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy, and took six years to produce. ... The Dante Quartet took six years to produce. The eight-minute silent film was created by painting images directly onto the film, though he often worked with previously photographed material that was then scraped away or otherwise manipulated. The paint was applied very thickly onto the film, up to half an inch thick."
Wikipedia
IMDb: The Dante Quartet (1987)
senses of cinema: Across the Universe: Stan Brakhage’s The Dante Quartet
b l o g . WAYS OF SEEING
ARTFORUM (Video)

2009 April:Stan Brakhage
2011 December: Burial Path/The Process/The Machine of Eden

King Curtis

Wikipedia - "Curtis Ousley (February 7, 1934 – August 13, 1971), who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. He was adopted, alongside with his adopted sister, Josephine Ousley Allen. They both grew up in Texas, together. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Memphis Soul Stew, Them Changes, Instant Groove, Memphis Soul Stew, Watermelon Man, Jump Back, Soul Twist, Groove Me, The Boss

Seen On The Streets Of Kabul, Afganastan

"These are images of Afghan Refugees photographed in Patras, Greece trying to get aboard the ferry boats to mainland Europe. Afghanistan has the world's largest refugee population and I wanted to 'return' these refugees to their homeland in some way. I made traditional black and white prints in the darkroom and travelled to Kabul where the prints were hand-tinted in oil paints by Afghan studio photographer Assad Ullah. Posters were printed and installed at a busy Bazaar junction in the Old City Kabul."
Wooster Collective
Support Bringing the ‘Streets of Afghanistan’ Exhibition to the Streets of Kabul
Streets of Afghanistan
Google - Seen On The Streets Of Kabul, Afghanistan
YouTube: Afghanistan - My Kabul 1 of 3 - BBC Culture Documentary, 2 of 3, 3 of 3

William Blake - Isaac Newton, 1795

Isaac Newton, 1795
"Both America: A Prophecy and its sequel, Europe: A Prophecy, deal with the upheavals of Blake's own time. In Europe the troubles are traced back to the misunderstanding of the true message of Christianity. Under the baleful influence of the harsh law-giving deity Urizen, Europe develops a repressive and materialistic society that eventually provokes the violent reaction of the French Revolution. —from William Blake, by William Vaughan."
William Blake - Isaac Newton, 1795
Blake vs. Newton
Pencil study for William Blake’s Newton, 1795

2008 April: The Notebook of William Blake
2009 April: William Blake
2010 December: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
2011 June: The Ghost of a Flea

René Lussier

Wikipedia - "René Lussier (born April 15, 1957) is a musician based in the province of Québec, Canada. He is a composer, guitarist, bass guitarist, percussionist, bass clarinetist and singer. Lussier has collaborated with such figures as Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Jean Derome and Robert M. Lepage. His work, which combines elements from all major genres, is often referred to within the discourse of New Music, or Musiques Actuelles, in French."
Wikipedia
amazon: René Lussier
YouTube: Jean Derome & Rene Lussier - Les Aventures De Sacha L'Chat, Clairière Art et nature, J'ai de la chance, L'avis d'un fou, radioKUKAorkest+René Lussier(Kristof Roseeuw-Lode Vercampt-Tom Wouters-Philip Thuriot), Fred Frith Guitar Quartet (Fred Frith -- electric guitar, René Lussier -- electric guitar, Nick Didkovsky -- electric guitar, Mark Stewart -- electric guitar), Jean Derome & Rene Lussier - Les Aventures De Sacha L'Chat, René Lussier & Now Orchestra - Pour Tahani

F is for Fairport Convention

"Sheila Ravenscroft, John’s wife, introduces Fairport Convention and explains why she chose it for the F’s. Founding member Simon Nicol explains the history of the band, with excerpts from John Peel and footage from their 1972 appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test."
John Peel’s Record Collection (Video)
Fairport Convention

2011 April: Fairport Convention - Maidstone 1970

William Heick

Wikipedia - "William Heick (born 1916) is a San Francisco based photographer and filmmaker. He is best known for his ethnographic photographs and documentary films of North American Indian cultures. W.R. Heick served as producer-director and chief cinematographer for the Anthropology Department of the University of California, Berkeley on their National Science Foundation supported American Indian Film Project. His photographs capture the life and culture of Native Americans from the Kwakiutl, Kashaya Pomo, Hupa, Navajo, Blackfoot and Sioux."
Wikipedia
William Heick
SFMOMA
Google
Dances of the Kwakiutl (1951) - Video

"I Love a Man in a Uniform" - Gang of Four

"The girls, they love to see you shoot
I love a man in a uniform
I love a man in a uniform
I love a man in a uniform
I love a man in a uniform"
YouTube: "I Love a Man in a Uniform"

Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon (14 video paintings 1981-1984)

"Finally available on DVD, these video installations were produced by Brian Eno to be shown at various galleries around the world. Subsequently released on vhs and laserdisc, this is the first time for these pieces on beautifully crisp DVD. Perfect viewing material for any follower of Eno, the two works are to the video format what his audio pieces were to music; ambient musings on the nature of the medium. They are non linear and have no obvious plotline or direction : 'video paintings' as the title suggests, drifting in and out of focus. Luckily for us, the music is there to support what could have been a lifeless exercise; the first piece on the disc is accompanied by Eno's seminal Thursday Afternoon, a beautiful single hour-long piano track, and the second piece entitled 'Mistaken Memories of Mediaevil Manhattan' is set to tracks from Music for Airports and On Land."
UbuWeb (Video)
amazon: Thursday Afternoon
The Slow Review
amazon: 14 Video Paintings

St. Mark's Bookshop

"St. Mark's Bookshop was established in 1977 on New York City's Lower East Side, a community of students, academics, artists, and other discerning readers. Our specialties include Cultural Theory, Graphic Design, Poetry & Small Press Publishing, Film Studies, and Foreign & Domestic Periodicals and Journals. We are open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to Midnight, Sundays 11 am to Midnight."
St. Mark's Bookshop
WNYC: The Fight to Save St. Marks Bookshop (Video)
Huffington Post: St. Mark's Bookshop Turns To Crowdfunding In Fight For Survival (Video)
NYT: Killer Rent, a Plea and a Petition to Keep Selling Books

Pussy Riot

Wikipedia - "Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk-rock collective that stages politically provocative impromptu performances in Moscow on Russia's current political life. In March 2012, during an improvised and unauthorized concert in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, three women from the band were arrested and charged with 'hooliganism' and their trial began in late July."
Wikipedia
Free Pussy Riot!, (Video)
NYT: Musicians on Trial Over Crude Anti-Putin Song in Moscow Cathedral
The Nation: Pussy Riot and the Two Russias
TIME - Russia’s Pussy Riot Trial: A Kangaroo Court Goes on a Witch Hunt
Guardian: Pussy Riot: will Vladimir Putin regret taking on Russia's cool women punks? (Video), Pussy Riot trial over Putin altar protest begins
YouTube - In focus: Russia's Pussy Riot, Pussy Riot: Opposition saints or spawn of Satan?

Maga Bo

"Spanning the breadth of international urban bass music, Maga Bo‘s work makes connections between the organic and the electronic, the traditional and the avant-garde and the local with the global. In his live performances, original productions and remixes from his far reaching creative collaborations take new forms mixed live, often with the participation of MCs and live musicians."
Maga Bo
Soundcloud (Video)
Maga Bo - Quilombo do Futuro - New Album Release (Video)
vimeo: Maga Bo - "Gondar feat. Eritbu 'Solomon' Agegnehu and Entenesh Wassié", Maga Bo - "Fire feat. Xuman"
YouTube: Maga Bo - No Balanço da Canoa feat. Rosângela Macedo and Marcelo Yuka, Maga Bo - Piloto de Fuga feat. Funkero and BNegão, Maga Bo - Saye Mbott feat, Maga Bo - "Nqayi feat. Teba"

"I Chase the Devil" - Lee "Scratch" Perry

Wikipedia - "'I Chase the Devil' is a reggae song, recorded in 1976 by Max Romeo, with the backing of Lee 'Scratch' Perry's house band, The Upsetters. Composed by Perry and Romeo, it was released on the album War Ina Babylon. Also in 1976, The Upsetters recorded a version with different lyrics. The track, called 'Croaking Lizard' and credited solely to Lee 'Scratch' Perry, was included in their album Super Ape. Later, Perry made a dub remix of both versions, called 'Disco Devil'."
Wikipedia
belated tune: Lee Perry, “Disco Devil” (1976)
YouTube: Disco Devil, Disco devil (Lee Perry cover), Disco Devil 12", Disco Devil (Video)

Central Governor - Saul Melman

"Saul Melman's installation is the result of a six month long performance during which he chiseled 5,000 pounds of salt block and covered MoMA PS1's old boiler with gold leaf. Melman transformed the massive structure into a gilded object, making allusions to the alchemical properties that have been long associated with salt and gold. Central Governor was originally presented in the 2010 Greater New York exhibition in conjunction with Aki Sasamoto and her performance and installation Skewed Lies (2010)."
MoMA PS1
Central Governor - Saul Melman
THE SKULL SESSIONS

Springfield Gardens, Queens

Wikipedia - "Springfield Gardens is a neighborhood in the southeastern area of the New York City borough of Queens, bounded to the north by St. Albans, to the east by Laurelton & Rosedale, to the south by John F. Kennedy International Airport, and to the west by Farmers Boulevard. The neighborhood is served by Queens Community Board 12." 1949-1961
Wikipedia

Nightlife (1999) - Pet Shop Boys

Wikipedia - "... After the release and promotion of their previous album, Bilingual, Pet Shop Boys started work with playwright Jonathan Harvey on the stage musical that eventually became Closer to Heaven (at one stage during the writing process, the musical was given the name of Nightlife). Pet Shop Boys soon had an album's worth of tracks and decided to release the album Nightlife as a concept album and in order to showcase some of the songs that would eventually make it into the musical."
Wikipedia
YouTube: I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More, New York City Boy Montage, You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk, For your own good, Closer To Heaven/Left To My Own Devices, Radiophonic, Pet Shop Boys Nightlife Interview
YouTube: Montage ( Nightlife Tour ) 1:51:11

2008 September: Pet Shop Boys
2010 November: Pet Shop Boys - 1985-1989
2011 January: Behaviour
2011 May: Very
2011 December: Bilingual
2012 March: "Always on My Mind"

Episode 8 - 21st January 2008 - Collage

"When does it stop being completely isolated from the rest of the universe and step into the world of collage, adding another patch to the huge quilt of sounds that have gone before? People Like Us 'start at the very beginning' and try to find out. Features sounds from Noah Creshevsky, DJ Earlybird, Brion Gysin and Kid Koala, amongst many others." Codpaste with People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz
WFMU - January 21, 2008: Collage (Video)

Power Tower Transforms into Robot: DOMA’s Neon Colossus

"A massive power line tower in Buenos Aires, Argentina now has a glowing face, hands, shoulder spikes and heart thanks to a daring installation by Argentinean art collective DOMA. Known as Colossus, this urban intervention is 45 meters (almost 148 feet) tall. Best of all – the neon is animated."
Web Urbanist

Two Cigarettes in the Dark (1992) - Pina Bausch

"... 'Two Cigarettes in the Dark' is not devoid of cruelty: a woman bangs a man into a wall; a man spills water on the floor and treats a woman accusingly like a dog who has transgressed. But there are also bitterly comic images about escapist fantasies and domestic disputes. All appear ultimately to deal with the banal chores of getting through life. By now it is clear that each dance-theater piece by the German choreographer is a fresh installment in a serialized opus about human existence. Male-female relations receive special attention; hopes and failures are her larger concern."
NYT: Pina Bausch, but Not So Sure This Time
The New Criterion - Smokeless “Cigarettes”: Pina Bausch at BAM
Fresh Hamm: The Prada Pina
Guardian: Dancing in the dark
Two Cigarettes in the Dark, Piece by Pina Bausch
YouTube: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch at BAM: Two Cigarettes in the Dark

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

Monhegan, the Artists' Island

"A spectacular scrap of land set in a surging sea, Monhegan Island has inspired generations of American artists. Some of the nation's greatest painters have made the pilgrimage to this rocky outpost ten miles off the coast of Maine - 'the most wonderful country ever modeled by the hand of the master architect,' as George Bellows, who painted many brilliant canvases on Monhegan, once wrote. Realists, impressionists, and abstract artists have all been equally captivated by the islands dramatic headlands, its tranquil, wooded interior, and its people - whose lives are defined by the powerful ocean around them. No fewer than 109 color and 162 black-and-white illustrations by 151 artists accompany the text, which explores the history of the timelessly beautiful island - and of the men and women who came to paint it in unprecedented detail."
amazon
Monhegan Artists Residency

2009 September: Monhegan Island

Some Trees (1956) - John Ashbery

"SOME TREES, JOHN ASHBERY’S first regularly published collection, contains numerous poems that explore how the artistic conscious­ness relates to the world in which it finds itself and what that con­sciousness makes of the world it is given. In his examinations of how it feels to think, and of how thought and feeling interact with the world to make art, Ashbery is an heir of Wallace Stevens, whom he has called, along with early Auden and Laura Riding, one of 'the writers who most formed my language as a poet.'"
From Conjunctions: Only in the Light of Lost Words Can We Imagine Our Rewards Some Trees (1956) - Reginald Shepherd
amazon: Some Trees (1956)
Odd and Invented Forms
Silliman's Blog

2007 November: John Ashbery
2009 October: PennSound
2012 February: Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles, 1957-1987

The Bluegrass Way - Katrina Roi

"Every Friday night, families gather to play music in Palermo, Maine. What began as an evening pastime has become a source of community for everyone involved. Teenagers have discovered a love for music, elders have found a source of inspiration, and the group has supported each other through the most difficult of times."
vimeo: The Bluegrass Way - Katrina Roi

Diana Al-Hadid's Studio Boom

"Can growing a business and maturing as an artist go hand in hand? In this film, artist Diana Al-Hadid and her crew of dedicated assistants strike a balance between work and play while finishing a new sculpture on a tight deadline. Filmed over several months at Al-Hadid’s studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the collaborative team of young artists devote long hours towards the completion of Nolli’s Orders (2012) for its debut in the Invisible Cities exhibition at MASSMoCA."
art21: "Diana Al-Hadid's Studio Boom" (Video)
Q&A WITH ARTIST DIANA AL-HADID
NYT: Visiting Artists | Diana Al-Hadid

2012 May: Invisible Cities - MASS MoCA

Son House & Bukka White - Masters of the Country Blues (1960)

"Eddie 'Son' House and Booker T. Washington 'Bukka' White were giant figures in the annals of American music. Both were passionate purveyors of their native Mississippi Delta music and of slide guitar. Both were seminal figures, not only through their association with legendary blues pioneer Charley Patton, but also in the strong influence Mississippi blues has had on this century's music from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters, all the way to Eric Clapton. In the early part of this century, Mississippi still retained characteristics of a frontier state, physically, socially and politically."
amazon: Son House & Bukka White - Masters of the Country Blues (1960)
YouTube: Country Blues Guitar

How city kids cooled off in the heat wave of 1953

"A 10-day heat wave left the city blistering in late summer 1953, with record temperatures in the triple digits scalding the streets. Luckily these city kids living in the vicinity of today’s Nolita (see the ad for 276 Bowery) knew how to keep cool: They opened a fire hydrant."
Ephemeral New York

Malcolm X at Oxford, 1964

"I enjoy replaying this vintage gem every now and then – Malcolm X debating at Oxford University in 1964. In this classic video, you get a good feel for Malcolm X’s presence and message, not to mention the social issues that were alive during the day. You’ll hear X’s trademark claim that liberty can be attained by 'whatever means necessary,' including force, if the government won’t guarantee it, and that 'intelligently directed extremism' will achieve liberty far more effectively than pacifist strategies."
Open Culture (Video)

2008 August: Malcolm X

BAM: Do the Reggae

"In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence, BAMcinématek presents this 14-film series dedicated to the country's unique and widely influential musical tradition. Throughout decades of political unrest in Jamaica and racial violence against Caribbean immigrants in Europe and North America, reggae in all its forms has endured as an essential conduit for social protest, individual expression, and spiritual exploration. It has also single-handedly paved the way for rap/hip-hop, the remix (invented in the early 70s in Jamaica), not to mention later cross-pollinated genres like drum and bass, reggaeton, and dubstep."
BAM: Do the Reggae
DO THE REGGAE at BAMcinematek, Aug 2-6 (Video)
W - Do the Reggay
YouTube: Toots & The Maytals - Do The Reggae, Rockers (1978), The Harder They Come - Jimmy Cliff (1972), Countryman (1982), Heartland Reggae (1978), Land Of Look Behind (1982), Reggae (1970), Babylon (1980), Deep Roots Music 1: Revival/Ranking Sounds, Deep Roots Music 2: Bunny Lee Story / Black Ark