Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser

"In 1981, film producer Bruce Ricker had a chance encounter with director and cinematographer Christian Blackwood on the streets of New York. Ricker had just released a documentary on Kansas City jazz, called The Last of the Blue Devils, and Blackwood told him that he too had done a little work on jazz. When Ricker went to see the footage, he was stunned. The reels, he would later say, were 'just sitting there like the Dead Sea Scrolls of jazz.' The 'scrolls' were an intimate look into the life and music of Thelonious Monk, the legendary bebop pianist and composer."
Open Culture - Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, 1:29:22 (Video)
amazon: DVD
amazon: CD

Rarely Seen Contemporary Works on Paper

Romare Bearden. The Return of Odysseus (Homage to Pintoricchio and Benin), 1977.
"Whether centuries old or the latest contemporary creations, works on paper are extremely light sensitive and can only be displayed in the galleries for short and infrequent periods of time before they must be returned to the safety of the dark, climate-controlled vault. Some of these works, however, also make brief appearances in the Prints and Drawings Study Room, frequently requested by professors for their classes to view as exemplars of specific techniques."
Rarely Seen Contemporary Works on Paper
Rounder Studio Art and Stuff

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Weeping Song

"This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While all the men and women sleep
This is a weeping song
But I won't be weeping long"
YouTube: The Weeping Song, The Weeping Song (Live)

Under the Roofs of Paris - René Clair

Wikipedia - "Under the Roofs of Paris (French: Sous les toits de Paris) is a 1930 French film directed by René Clair. It was probably the earliest French example of a filmed musical-comedy, although its often dark tone differentiates it from other instances of the genre. It was the first French production of the sound film era to achieve great international success. In a working-class district of Paris, Albert, an impecunious street singer, lives in an attic room. He meets a beautiful Romanian girl, Pola, and falls in love with her; but he is not the only one, since his best friend Louis and the gangster Fred are also under her spell."
Wikipedia
Criterion: Under the Roofs of Paris (Video)
MoMA: Under the Roofs of Paris
amazon

Post Punk Rare Videos Compilation #1

"Occult Chemistry -- Fire (UK, 1980) ...; The Dykes -- 2 Fingers Wide (USA, 1980) ...; Mother's Ruin - Dreamy Teeny (Suisse, 1981); Barchen und die Milchbubis -- Muskeln (Allemagne, 1981) ...; Nini Raviolette - Suis-je Normale? (France, 1980) ..; Q4U -- Creep (Islande, 1982) ...; Young Marble Giants -- Colossal Youth (UK, 1980); The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like (UK, 1982); Sort Sol feat. Lydia Lunch -- Boy-Girl (Danemark/USA, 1986)"
YouTube: Post Punk Rare Videos Compilation #1

Blu New Mural In Roma, Italy

"After a large-scale mural in Sardiginia last month (featured), Blu is now in Roma where he just completed this new mural. Faking an antique Roman style, the Italian street artist painted this stunning piece depicting some of our modern life syndromes such as Religion, War, Politics etc... If you are in the area, this one can be seen at the the greyhound track, under Ponte Marconi in Roma."
Street Art News

Katz’s Delicatessen - Alan Wolfson

"Katz’s Delicatessen is one of those legendary New York locations. It’s been in business on the lower east side of Manhattan since 1888, and is New York’s oldest deli. Telling someone to 'meet me at Katz’s..,' is almost the same as telling them to meet you under the clock in Grand Central - everyone knows where it is. The collector who commissioned the piece no longer lives in the city and wanted something that reminded him of the many times, when he was a boy, that he and his family had eaten at Katz’s."
Alan Wolfson - Katz's Delicatessen
NYT: Go, Eat, You Never Know
YouTube: Katz's Delicatessen - in "When Harry Met Sally"
Huffington Post: Alan Wolfson's Miniature New York Sculptures
YouTube: ARTINQUIRY: The Art of Alan Wolfson with Molly Barnes, Artist Alan Wolfson

2011 April: Alan Wolfson - Miniature - Urban Sculptures

Jazz Parades: Feet Don't Fail Me Now

"Jazz Parades is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). Jazz Parades shows the cathartic Sunday jazz parades of social clubs in New Orleans and an overview of the jazz scene in the convergence of 'the Uptown Blacks with the Downtown Creoles.' In interviews the participants explain the ritual aspect of 'turning loose' the dead, celebrating Mardi Gras, and sublimating violence by dancing in the streets."
folkstreams - 58 minutes (Video)
amazon: American Patchwork- Jazz Parades

Barrington Levy

Wikipedia - "Barrington Ainsworth Levy (born 30 April 1964, Clarendon, Jamaica) is a reggae and dancehall artist from Jamaica. In 1976, Levy formed a band with his cousin, Everton Dacres, called the Mighty Multitude; the pair released 'My Black Girl' in 1977. Levy established his solo career the next year with 'A Long Time Since We Don't Have No Love'; though the single was a failure, the fourteen year old was a popular performer at Jamaican dancehalls."
Wikipedia
Barrington Levy (Video)
YouTube: Here I Come, Don´t throw it all away, Black Roses, Send A Moses, Murderer, Under Mi Sensi, Sensimella, Poorman Style, Be Strong, Too Experienced, Ragga Muffin"

Nicolas Jaar

Wikipedia - "Nicolas Jaar is an US American-Chilean musician. He studied comparative literature at Brown University, Rhode Island. Jaar is also the owner and founder of his own record label and art house Clown & Sunset. ... Jaar’s music is ruminative and emotional (he calls it 'blue-wave'), drawing inspiration from fellow-Chilean Ricardo Villalobos and minimal techno. Most of Jaar’s compositions reside at 100 BPM or lower, far lower than the techno/house standards of 120-130 BPM."
Wikipedia
Download Nicolas Jaar’s Essential Mix - BBC (Video)
soundcloud (Video)
Nicolas Jaar (Video)
YouTube: Nicolas Jaar Performs A 5 Hour Improvised Set At MoMA PS1 +1, Mi Mujer (original mix), Space is Only Noise, Encore, Problems With the Sun, El Bandido, Time For Us, With Just One Glance (feat Scout LaRue)

Andrew Moore: 'Detroit Disassembled'

"Tuesday on the PBS NewsHour, Jeffrey Brown talks to Philip Levine about his long career in poetry and about his early life working in the Detroit auto industry. Their conversation took place at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, where an exhibition of photographs by Andrew Moore was on display that captured the lost world of Detroit -- abandoned auto plants taken over by plants, burned out high schools frozen in time."
PBS (Video)
amazon: Andrew Moore: Detroit Disassembled
Andrew Moore
Detroit Disassembled by Andrew Moore: The devastation of a major American city
YouTube: Detroit Disassembled

Carl Stone' DARDA performance Super Deluxe Tokyo

"An excerpt from the benefit/prayer performance for Japan following the devastating events of March 11 2011. Featuring Makiko Sakurai (vocals), Hiromichi Sakamoto (cello), Pearl Alexander (bass), Carl Stone (laptop/composer). Projected images by Morgan Fisher. Video recording by Morgan Fisher."
YouTube: DARDA, Al-Noor

2010 August: Carl Stone
2011 April: Ear Meal with Carl Stone

William Duckworth (January 13, 1943 – September 13, 2012)

Wikipedia - "William Duckworth (January 13, 1943 – September 13, 2012) was an American composer who also was an author, educator and Internet pioneer. He wrote more than 200 pieces of music and is credited with the composition of the first postminimal piece of music, The Time Curve Preludes (1977-1978), for piano. His other notable compositions include Thirty-One Days (1987), for alto saxophone, and Southern Harmony (1980-1981), a choral work which uses certain features of shape note singing."
Wikipedia
NYT: William Duckworth, Internet Composer, Dies at 69
Lovely Artist: William Duckworth (Video)
Remembering William Duckworth (Video)
YouTube: Time Curve Preludes ~ i-iv, William Duckworth iPod Opera

2008 March: William Duckworth

The Confessions of Robert Crumb (1987)

"Here's a 55 minute long BBC documentary about my favorite cartoonist. This precedes the Terry Zwigoff film bio 'Crumb"' by 7 years. Nowhere near as in-depth or powerful as the Zwigoff film, but probably an enjoyable view for fellow R. Crumb devotees nonetheless."
YouTube

2008 August: Robert Crumb
2010 October: Comics No. 1
2011 October: Pioneers of Country Music Trading Cards
2012 August: R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection

Sweet Pea Atkinson

"Sweet Pea Atkinson is one of the greatest living soul singers. A charter member of Was (Not Was) for 27 years, he's also recorded with Bonnie Raitt, Michael McDonald, Solomon Burke, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Iggy Pop, Khaled, Keb Mo, Bob Seger, Leonard Cohen, The Boneshakers and Willie Nelson. For the last decade, he's also toured as a regular member of Lyle Lovett's band."
My Damn Channel
SoundCloud: Dance Or Die (Venice Beach Edit)
YouTube: Slow Down, Back In Love, Spy In The House Of Love, Someone could lose a heart tonight, Girls Fall For Me

The Ghost Dance

Wikipedia - "The Ghost Dance (Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the prophet Jack Wilson (Wovoka)'s teachings, proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with the spirits of the dead and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to native peoples throughout the region. The basis for the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, is a traditional ritual which has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times, but this new form was first practiced among the Nevada Paiute in 1889."
Wikipedia
W - Ghost Dance War
The Ghost Dance - A Promise of Fulfillment
PBS: The Ghost Dance Among the Lakota
amazon: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
YouTube: Native American Spirits - Ghost Dance Movement, Wounded Knee - The Darkest Hour, Ghost Dance Wounded Knee

Last Address - Ira Sachs

"Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe, Norman René, Peter Hujar, Ethyl Eichelberger, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Cookie Mueller, Klaus Nomi....the list of New York artists who died of AIDS over the last 30 years is countless, and the loss immeasurable. In Last Address, filmmaker Ira Sachs (The Delta, Married Life, and the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning Forty Shades of Blue), who first moved to the city himself in 1984, uses images of the exteriors of the houses, apartment buildings, and lofts where these and others were living at the time of their deaths to mark the disappearance of a generation. The elegaic film is both a remembrance of that loss, as well as an evocation of the continued presence of their work in our lives and culture."
Ira Sachs
vimeo: Last Address

Imaginary Sounds Feature: Einstürzende Neubauten

"Out of fire; Out of chaos. Out of the mud, rubble, metal, rivets, and splintered wood. Ash of burnt food, linoleum and dreams. There is a peace of nothing; absence of movement and breathing. Even the usual current of wind stopped short by rubbled monolithic buildings. Rows of corporate churches stopped short of worship. Nothing where there was once something. Nothing caused by something. Was it in direct opposition; like a revolution or a mutiny? Or was it simply a necessity; a natural progression toward simplicity and ultimately perfection? In 1980 came the storm."
Imaginary Sounds Feature: Einstürzende Neubauten (Video)
'This was made to end all parties', Einsturzende Neubauten
amazon: Einsturzende Neubauten

2010 September: Einstürzende Neubauten

William Burroughs - Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted

"Laurie Anderson profiles one of the most extraordinary writers and thinkers of the 20th century. William Burroughs was a leading figure of the Beat generation, hugely influential among musicians and artists from the 1970s to the present day and responsible for the dark side of American culture entering mainstream consciousness. The programme features recordings of Burroughs's spoken word performances over a soundscape of noise and music from artists whom he inspired."
soundcloud (Video)
amazon: Nothing Is True - Everything Is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin

The Tyranny of the Alphabet Book

"A is for A show I just Assembled About Artists’ Alphabet books. Each letter of the Alphabet is represented by A book. You’ll be Amazed how many different ways that Artists interpret the ABCs. B is for the Books, of course. They were fun to Bring together. ..."
MoMA
MoMA: Artists’ Alphabets

Where Is Cuba Going?

An urban garden, Matanzas, 2012
"On the plane, something odd but also vaguely magical-seeming happened: namely, nobody knew what time it was. Right before we landed, the flight attendant made an announcement, in English and Spanish, that although daylight saving time recently went into effect in the States, the island didn’t observe that custom. As a result, we had caught up — our time had passed into sync with Cuban time."
NYT: Where Is Cuba Going?
NYT: Reinventing Cuba (Slide Show)

Jeff Greinke - Cities in Fog

"Jeff Greinke is a musician, composer, performer, sound sculptor and visual artist known worldwide for his unique sound. Through a highly developed process of layering, Jeff composes and performs music rich in texture, depth, mood and subtle detail. Using various acoustic and electronic instruments, found sounds and extended studio techniques, Jeff sculpts sound worlds that conjure a strong sense of location, hovering somewhere between the familiar and the exotic. Key elements include mood, texture, space, motion and a perception of place, with no one element being primary."
Mutant Sounds
amazon: Cities in Fog
Review Revue: Jeff Greinke – Cities in Fog
YouTube: Moving Through Fog, Low Ceiling, Among Icebergs

2009 December: Jeff Greinke

Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings : By The Mark (2004)

"This song is one of the earliest performances by Gillian and David in the online archive. This performance was recorded in 1999. 'By the Mark' is the first gospel song that Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings have written. Garrison stated he remembered 'thinking that it sounded like something people had passed on for generations. It sounded like something that had come down through the churches.'"
A Prairie Home Companion
YouTube

2009 February: Gillian Welch
2011 March: Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings NPRP
2012 July: Harrow Harvest

Conrad Schnitzler (1937–2011)

"In the early 1960s, Conrad Schnitzler met Joseph Beuys in a bar in Düsseldorf. Beuys was at the start of his legendary run as a professor of ‘monumental sculpture’ at Düsseldorf’s Kunstakademie. Schnitzler was a sailor, who specialized in fixing the engines of merchant ships in nearby ports. Beuys took a liking to Schnitzler, inviting him to be one of his students. Schnitzler enrolled at the Kunstakademie, but dropped out a year or two later, much to Beuys’ dismay."
frieze: Conrad Schnitzler (1937–2011)
Wikipedia
WFMU: Remembering Conrad Schnitzler (Video)
Conrad Schnitzler, Interview by Carlos M. Pozo
Conrad Schnitzler  
YouTube: Live 1977 (better image & sound), Big in Japan: Live in Tokyo 2010, Rheingold. Alberich, Live at Loreley 2008, Schatten - Stuhl, KratzRhythmic, Cluster '71, Cluster & Eno 1977, Cluster - "21.14" ('71), Mut, Zug Berlin - Köln 1978, Krautrock, Electric Garden

The Lathe of Brooklyn

 "The great Touch Radio podcast has uploaded audio from just a few days ago. The concert in question was a show at Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Eleh was the headliner, and the opener was Lary 7 (pictured above in a photo of the event from Touch). Charactertistic for the Touch Radio series, there’s close to no information about the event provided. What there is is half an hour of increasingly violent chafing, noises of mechanisms in action, echoed in a reverberant space."
disquiet
NYT: In a Dark Church, Nuances of Sound Turn Symphonic Eleh (US Debut) + Lary 7

Forbidden Words: Selected Poetry of Eugenio de Andrade

"Eugénio de Andrade’s poetry has always exhibited a carefully evoked simplicity. Through naked word and image, he strives to convey what he calls 'the rough or sweet skin of things.' Distrustful of abstractions, he focuses on the world of matter, proclaiming a love for 'words smooth as pebbles, rough as rye bread. Words that smell of clover and dust, loam and lemon, resin and sun.'"
Poetry International Rotterdam
amazon: Forbidden Words: Selected Poetry of Eugenio de Andrade

Ghost Signs

"A ghost sign is an old hand-painted advertising signage that has been preserved on a building for an extended period of time. The signage may be kept for its nostalgic appeal, or simply indifference by the owner. Ghost signs are found across the world with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada having many surviving examples. Ghost signs are also called fading ads and brickads. In many cases these are advertisements painted on brick that remained over time. Old painted advertisements are occasionally discovered upon demolition of later-built adjoining structures. Throughout rural areas, old barn advertisements continue to promote defunct brands and quaint roadside attractions."
Wikipedia
The Basement Geographer
Ghost Sign Project (Video)
Ghost signs: Jersey's commercial history is written large in faded paint on city buildings
Ghost Signs Part 1, Part 2
Portland's ghost signs
Ghost Signs
American Ghosts : About Ghost Signs
Ghostsigns
San Francisco Ghost Signs: A Tour of SF's Historical Advertisements
NYT: The Handwriting on the Wall Says, ‘GiGi Young Originals’

Trampin' - Patti Smith

"Patti Smith kicks off her ninth album, Trampin', with what sounds like a call to arms: 'Come on, girl/ Come on, boy/ Be a jubilee.' That word, 'jubilee,' hangs heavy with meaning. Commonly connoting a commemorative celebration, this Biblical term also refers to a period of emancipation for Hebrew slaves. It was adopted by the abolition movement in the 1800s and by the civil rights movement a century later."
Pitchfork
W - Trampin'
YouTube: My Blakean Year, Mother rose, Trampin', Peaceable Kingdom, Trespasses, Cash, Cartwheels, Gandhi

Ultimate Dr. Sir Warrior

"Christogonus Ezebuiro Obinna (1947, Imo State, Nigeria – June 2, 1999), the Ultimate Dr. Sir Warrior, was the leader of the Oriental Brothers International Band which ruled the Nigerian highlife music scene for several decades. He modernized highlife music. His style remains an epitome of defined music with meaning, direction, and purpose."
Wikipedia
amazon: Oriental Brothers
YouTube: Uwa atuola m ujo, Nwanyi Di Ya Bu Eze, Onye Tara Nye Ibe Ya, Otu nwa, Onye Oma Mmadu, Nwa da di nma, Chi awu otu

Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years

"For decades, critics have observed that Andy Warhol exerted an enormous impact on contemporary art, but no exhibition has yet explored the full nature or extent of that influence. Through approximately forty-five works by Warhol alongside one hundred works by some sixty other artists, Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years juxtaposes prime examples of Warhol's paintings, sculpture, and films with those by other artists who in key ways reinterpret, respond, or react to his groundbreaking work. What emerges is a fascinating dialogue between works of art and artists across generations."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Images
About the Exhibition
amazon
Reuters: Warhol’s art influence shown at the Met (Video)

"Naima" - John Coltrane

Wikipedia - "'Naima' is a ballad composed by John Coltrane in 1959, and named after his then-wife, Juanita Naima Grubbs. It first appeared on the album Giant Steps, and is notable for its use of a variety of rich chords over a bass pedal. It is mainly made up of a slow, restrained melody, though there is also a brief piano solo. One of Coltrane's most famous compositions, he recorded it numerous times."
Wikipedia
John Coltrane: Naima
YouTube: Naima (Belgium 1965), Naima (alternate take)

Vollmond - Pina Bausch

"It’s been over a week since I saw Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch perform Vollmond (Full Moon) at Brooklyn Academy of Music, yet many of the images from the piece – and the endless downpour of water – still linger in my memory. ... But the twelve dancers were utterly mesmerizing as they frolicked, climbed, kissed, yearned, tumbled, and flung themselves through a nonstop array of dream-like vignettes set against a rainstorm. A large boulder and a dip in the stage to create a flowing river transported the audience to a separate, mystical setting far from earth. At full moon, these fierce spirits let themselves go."
Dancing Perfectly Free
Interview Working with Pina Bausch
Tanztheater Wuppertal
NYT: Swimming Through Bausch’s World
YouTube: Vollmond (Full Moon), Dominique Mercy solo 2007, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch at BAM

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

"Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)" - Pet Shop Boys

Wikipedia - "'Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)' is a 1991 single by UK synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. The song is a medley of covers of U2's 'Where the Streets Have No Name' and 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You', the 1960s single by Frankie Valli, though in an arrangement informed by the 1981 disco version of the song by Boystown Gang rather than the original."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You) 1991 album, Live - Performance, Live - Mexico City

Christopher Felver

"Even a partial list of photographer/filmmaker Christopher Felver’s subjects reads like a roster of America’s mid-century avant garde. The collection presented here is new work—photographs of structural elements transformed through his critical eye into lyrical mosaics. There is a mysterious nature to these images, and when juxtaposed into a grid system, the division of space and contrasting tonal values result in a new language, functioning almost as an ancient alphabet—agents of a short story."
Natural Curiosities
Christopher Felver
amazon: Christopher Felver
vimeo: Ferlinghetti - Trailer
YouTube: BEAT Book, John Cage - Talks About Cows & One/Seven
musica: Cecil Taylor: All The Notes

Talking Heads: Live at Wembley Arena 1982

"Intro, Life During Wartime, Big Blue Plymouth, Once in a Lifetime, Mind, Big Business, I Zimbra, Slippery People, Psycho Killer, My Big Hands, Swamp, What a Day That Was, Crosseyed and Painless"
YouTube: Talking Heads: Live at Wembley Arena 1982