Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde

"From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, Tokyo transformed itself from the capital of a war-torn nation into an international center for arts, culture, and commerce, becoming home to some of the most important art being made at the time. Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde provides a focused look at the extraordinary concentration and network of creative individuals and practices in this dynamic city during these turbulent years."
MoMA
NYT: A Feisty Phoenix From the Nuclear Ashes
amazon
Japan Times

Songs for Drella - Lou Reed and John Cale

Wikipedia - "Songs for Drella is a concept album by Lou Reed and John Cale, both formerly of The Velvet Underground, and is dedicated to the memory of Andy Warhol, their mentor, who had died unexpectedly in 1987. Drella was a nickname for Warhol coined by Warhol Superstar Ondine, a contraction of Dracula and Cinderella, used by Warhol's crowd. The song cycle focuses on Warhol's interpersonal relations and experiences, with songs falling roughly into three categories: Warhol's first-person perspective (which makes up the vast majority of the album), third-person narratives chronicling events and affairs, and first-person commentaries on Warhol by Reed and Cale themselves. The songs on the album are, to some extent, in chronological order."
Wikipedia
Popdose Flashback ’90: Lou Reed/John Cale, “Songs for Drella” (Video)
amazon
YouTube: Songs For Drella, Live At The Brooklyn Academy Of Music, New York 1989, 56:01

Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning, 1910-1983

"Gunning suffered a life of bitter poverty which became the fuel for dozens of moving songs about working people, the mines, and the great coal strikes of the twenties and thirties. Gunning's a cappella roots music is intercut throughout the interviews and archival footage."
folkstreams (Video)
folkstreams: Transcription of Dreadful Memories

Robin Skouteris

"Robin Skouteris is a music producer, DJ and a video director from Athens, Greece. Mostly known for his mashups, Robin also remixes and composes for music artists, tv commercials and short films. A solo self-produced album with collaborations, is in the works."
last.fm
Soundcloud (Video)
YouTube: Scissor Sisters - Let's Have A Kiki (Robin Skouteris ''Kiki In The Park'' Official Mix), Popalicious! (Pet Shop Boys / Kylie / Black Eyed Peas / Katy Perry & More), Madonna - The Queen Of Pop MEGAMIX, by Robin Skouteris, Working Lady Should Be Dancing Like Jagger (Donna Summer/Bee Gees/Maroon), " Rock This! " (Queen / Gwen Stefani / Beastie Boys / Nirvana / Michael Jackson & More), Jennifer Lopez Vs Britney Spears Vs Rihanna - Against The Floor (Robin Skouteris Mix), Michael Jackson - The Legendary MEGAMIX

A Fractured State

"Michael Kirby Smith began photographing what would become A Fractured State, after arriving in Sana’a, Yemen in December 2011. An ongoing journalistic investigation into a nation gripped by conflict and social problems, the project documents a country recovering from a thirty-three year dictatorship and a population struggling with rampant poverty, malnutrition, internal conflicts, environmental issues, an increasing number of refugees from the Horn of Africa, and an expanding U.S.-led covert war against Al Qaeda. Smith gives us an intimate look into an underreported region with the eye of a humanist."
Guernica

"Going Underground" - The Jam

Wikipedia - "'Going Underground' is the first British number-one chart single by The Jam, released in March 1980. It went straight in at number one, a rare feat at the time, and spent three weeks at the top. It was the first of three instant chart-toppers for the group. 'Going Underground' was not released on any of the band's six studio albums, although it has appeared on many compilations and rereleases since then. The single's B-side was 'Dreams of Children', which had originally been intended to be the A-side; following a mix-up at the pressing plant, the single became a double-A-side, and DJs tended to choose the more melodic 'Going Underground' to play on the radio."
Wikipedia
The Jam: The Band That Inspired Me To Become A Music Writer
YouTube: Going Underground, Going Underground (Live), Going Underground (Live - Pinkpop 1980), The Dreams Of Children, The Dreams Of Children (Live)

2009 March: The Jam
2011 December: Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery

"In keeping with its tradition of exhibiting masterworks from collections outside of New York, the Frick will present fifty-eight drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, London. This exhibition marks the first time that so many of the principal drawings in The Courtauld's renowned collection — one of Britain's most important — have been made available for loan. The prized sheets represent a survey of the extraordinary draftsmanship of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, German, Spanish, British, and French artists active between the late Middle Ages and the early twentieth century. The survey features works executed in a range of drawing techniques and styles and for a variety of purposes, including preliminary sketches, practice studies, aide-mémoires, designs for other artworks, and finished pictures meant to be appreciated as independent works of art."
Frick
WSJ: Delicate Lines
NYT: Sketches That Speak Their Lines Silently
Guest Blogger Review: From Mantegna to Matisse at London’s Courtauld gallery
YouTube: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery: An introduction to the exhibition

Ngola Ritmos

Wikipedia - "Ngola Ritmos is an Angolan traditional music band, created around 1947 by Liceu Vieira Dias, Domingos Van-Dúnem, Mário da Silva Araújo, Manuel dos Passos and Nino Ndongo. They sung kimbundu music with guitar and small percussion. In the 1950s, the band comprised Liceu, Nino, Amadeu Amorim, José Maria, Euclides Fontes Pereira, José Cordeira, Lourdes Van-Dúnem and Belita Palma. Their lamentos were inspired by the daily chronicles or funeral laments sung by bessangana women and their sembas by popular dances."
Wikipedia
Cabinda Ritmo ‘Filomena’ - N’Gola, early 1970′s (Video)
YouTube: Manazinha, Monami

Your Guide to the Brooklyn Nets

"Alright, so you have been presented with the rare and exciting opportunity, smack in the middle of adulthood, to just suddenly begin rooting for a brand new professional sports franchise. We've written elsewhere about the decisions you'll have to make regarding whatever established rooting interests you have, but this is for those of you whose utter lack of knowledge about anything related to basketball has allowed you to come into this blissfully untethered to another team."
Brooklyn Magazine
NYT - All Black Everything: A Brooklyn Nets Style Guide
Brooklyn Nets
YouTube: Brooklyn Nets #1 - The Association - Part 1 "Hello Brooklyn", Part 2; Episode 2 Part 1, Part 2; Episode 3 Part 1, Part 2

"My Girl" - Madness

Wikipedia - "'My Girl' is a song by British ska/pop group Madness from their debut album, One Step Beyond.... It was written by Mike Barson. The song was released as a single on 21 December 1979 and spent 10 weeks on the UK Singles Chart peaking at number 3."
Wikipedia
YouTube: My Girl

2011 August: Madness

Faith47 "Fragments Of A Burnt History" Johannesburg Exhibition Coverage

"Last week, Faith47 opened 'Fragments Of A Burnt History', her new exhibition at David Krutt Projects in Johannesburg, South Africa. Our friend Rowan Pybus spent some time with the South African painter during the preparation and installation of this beautiful new show. 'Fragments of a Burnt History' featured a stunning installation of found objects and artwork created in the artist’s studio. Each individual artwork can be seen in details here."
StreetArtNews
DAVID KRUT PROJECTS
(vimeo) - Fragments Of A Burnt History

2011 February: Faith47

Geologic Time, Sped Up

"Mark Ward almost titled this nine-minute mix of drone and pulse 'Three Chords in Geological Time.' Instead he went with 'From Sea to Sierra.' The latter is arguably the better of the two titles for various reasons. Like the 'Geologic Time' title, 'Sea to Sierra' hints at the sense of movement, but it better allows for the pacing of the actual track. Drones can be especially static, and this drone-based composition is anything but."
disquiet (Video)

The Dream Life of Grete Stern

Artículos eléctricos para el hogar, hacia (1950
"Today, Whitney Otto, author of Eight Girls Taking Pictures, has a slideshow on the Huffington Post drawing our attention to inspirational female photographers the viewer may not know. We were delighted to see Grete Stern featured. As Otto explains, 'Grete Stern was born in Germany to a Jewish family, and in Weimar Berlin, she and Ellen Auerbach had a photography studio called ring! + pit that specialized in advertising. She emigrated to Buenos Aires in 1935.'"
Paris Review
LesGouExposiciones
Grete Stern (Ring!)
Dreaming in Feminine: Grete Stern's photomontages and the parody of psychoanalysis
W - Grete Stern
YouTube: Art of Photography

Carlos Garaicoa

Cuban Garden, 1997. Installation, performance in Old-Havanna
"Carlos Garaicoa is known for his explorations of social and political issues in the context of urban architecture and the built environment. Inspired by his native Havana, Garaicoa adopts the city as a laboratory and metaphor for human existence, intervening on its landscape to offer searing and insightful commentary on issues such as architecture's ability to alter the course of history, the failure of modernism as a catalyst for social change, human rights, and the frustration and decay of 20th century utopias."
Art Daily
artnet
BOMBSITE: Carlos Garaicoa by Holly Block
YouTube: Carlos Garaicoa MOMA New Photography 05, Carlos Garaicoa at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

Margin Call (2011)

Wikipedia - "Margin Call is a 2011 American independent drama film directed by J.C. Chandor. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay also written by Chandor. The film takes place over a 36-hour period at a large Wall Street investment bank and highlights the initial stages of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. In focus are the actions taken by a group of employees during the subsequent financial collapse. The ensemble cast features Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci in lead roles."
Wikipedia
NYT: Number Crunching at the Apocalypse
TNR: How ‘Margin Call’ Gets It Right About the Financial Crisis
New Yorker: All That Glitters
YouTube: Margin Call Trailer

phora (2005) - Ann Hamilton

"Lining the entrance corridor were large images of the still mouths of medieval wooden figures. The images, made by moving a miniature video camera in close proximity to the figures, created the passing illusion of the mouth's opening or closing. Two short walls and one long wall of the garden corridor were covered with a film that retained some transparency while reflecting the surrounding mouths like a mirror."
phora (Video)
PDF - La maison rouge
Jessica Hemmings
vimeo: phora pen video (Video)

2010 March: Ann Hamilton

Aksak Maboul

Wikipedia - "Aksak Maboul (also spelled Aqsak Maboul for a while) were a Belgian avant-rock band founded in 1977 by Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. They made two studio albums, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (1977) and Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (1980), the last one with ex-Henry Cow members Chris Cutler and Fred Frith. They were also active in the Rock in Opposition movement."
Wikipedia
Crammed
YouTube: Bosses de Crosses, Saure Gurke, milano per caso & fausto coppi arrives, I viaggi formano la gioventu, Chez les aborigènes, Ossip & Lili/Odessa

2011/2012 Brazil Vacation Moleskin

"I took this watercolor moleskin, my first one in fact, and turned it into a travel log (kind-of) of my Winter Vacation to Brazil. I was really excited because I never had the chance to do much watercoloring, so it was great practice. During this vacation I visited family in Ribeirão Preto (state of São Paulo), stayed with cousins in São Paulo (city), and went hang gliding and exploring Rio de Janeiro with my cousins from Niterói. Finally, I've been able feel complete with my travel sketchbook enough to post it and share."
Moleskin (Video)

The Robert Fripp String Quartet

"The Robert Fripp String Quartet. Principally recorded live during tours of California, Italy, England and Argentina in May and June, 1993. After the staid acoustic concerns of the League of Crafty Guitarists, Fripp’s latest ensemble indulges, thankfully, in both electric and electronic applications. Fripp is accompanied here by longtime associate Trey Gunn (on grand stick) and by The California Guitar Trio."
last.fm
YouTube: Kan Non Power, Contrapunctus, Yamanashi Blues, Passacaglia, Chromatic Fantasy-Contrapunctus

Buddy Holly,

Wikipedia - "Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as 'the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll.' His works and innovations inspired and influenced contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Don McLean, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton, and exerted a profound influence on popular music."
Wikipedia
Buddy Holly Center
YouTube: Peggy sue, That'll Be The Day, Rave on!, Oh, Boy!, Everyday, Maybe Baby, I'm Gonna Love You Too, Ting - a - ling, Moonlight Baby, Rock Around With Ollie Vee, Ready Teddy

2011 May: Charles Hardin Holly; Clovis, New Mexico; May 27, 1957

Tim Hawkinson - Uberorgan

"Imagined and created by artist Tim Hawkinson, the Uberorgan (or Überorgan) was initially created for a 15,000 square foot gallery at MassMOCA in 2001. The challenge of filling the volume of the gallery is what gave birth to the Uberorgan: how to create something that had a strong visual presence in such a large volume of space while simultaneously having strong auditory presence. The result was accomplished by Hawkinson adjusting his process by building models of the space to study how he would accomplish filling the space and avoid being caught 'shorthanded'. The final product involved a series of large scale balloons that were effectively large bagpipes producing music."
Odd Music
MASS MoCA
Acousmata (Video)
PBS: Tim Hawkinson (Video)
art 21: Uberorgan

Concertina

30-button Stagi A30, English concertina
Wikipedia - "A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it. Also, each button produces one note, while accordions typically can produce chords with a single button. The concertina was developed in England and Germany, most likely independently. The English version was invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone and a patent for an improved version was filed by him in 1844. The German version was announced in 1834 by Carl Friedrich Uhlig."
Wikipedia
Concertina Connection
Concertina Library
YouTube: Concertina (Niall Vallely), Noel Hill, Tony MacMahon - The Concertina, Come West Along the Road, The New Mown Meadow, Bunclody (Irish tune) on Anglo Concertina, Reel - The Keel Row, Kyckling (Chicken) polka on Wakker Hayden

Johnny Cash - Ain't No Grave

"There ain't no grave can hold my body down
There ain't no grave can hold my body down
When I hear that trumpet sound
I'm gonna rise right out of the ground
Ain't no grave can hold my body down"
YouTube: Ain't No Grave

The Souljazz Orchestra

"Canada's hardest-working super-group, the Souljazz Orchestra, have been perfecting their signature sound for over a decade now: a percussive explosion of Soul, Jazz, Afro, Latin and Caribbean rhythms, driven by majestic horn-drenched melodies, all backed by an arsenal of overheated primitive keyboards."
The Souljazz Orchestra
Wikipedia
YouTube: Ya Basta, Bibinay, Kapital, Secousse Soukous

Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror - John Ashbery

"The critic Harold Bloom places John Ashbery in his canon of the American Sublime places along with the likes of Emerson, Whitman, Eliot, Stevens. Ashbery is certainly among America’s greatest living poets. The article contains a brief overview of Ashbery within the American literary canon, followed by a piece on how to read Ashbery’s post-modernist verse and finally is his great poem (one of the great poems of the the last half of the 20th century) that in 1975 won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award) Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror."
Posthuman Destinies ("Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror")
E-rea: The Poetics of Vision and the Redemption of the Subject in John Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
amazon

2007 November: John Ashbery

John Walker - Seal Point Series

Seal Point Series #12
"These small paintings come from a specific place—Seal Point—in John Walker’s adopted homeland, Maine. They are painted on old bingo cards that Walker undoubtedly encountered in his foraging sorties in the Maine countryside. Hints of numbers linger beneath the surface, and the faintest memory of the printed grids sometimes paradoxically suggest a kind of aleatory structure, very much of our time. But also, not very much of our time."
Brooklyn Rail
Outside the Genre
Seal Point Series
Seal Point Series #V VIII and XVII

Sound of Channel One: The King Tubby Connection

"Sound of Channel One: The King Tubby Connection album by King Tubby was released Aug 03, 1999 on the Guava Jelly label. This generous two-CD collection of rare recordings features the work of both established and lesser-known reggae figures, but the real star is King Tubby, the studio innovator and remixing master who is credited with inventing the dub style. Sound of Channel One: The King Tubby Connection songs At Jamaica's Channel One studio, King Tubby perfected the 'version,' an alternate take in which he deconstructed songs, added layers of reverb and echo, and stripped the vocals down to a few phrases, leaving the song's essential rhythm to form the basis of the new track."
CD Universe
Roots Archives
amazon
YouTube: Calvin Stuart & King Tubby - Babylon a Turn Dem Back + Dub, Dub You Must Go Down, Calvin Stuart & King Tubby - The Alphabet Song + Dub, King Tubby - Stop Look Dub, Headlines Dub

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic

"More than 400 abandoned suitcases, covered with dust and pigeon droppings, were stacked for decades in the attic of an empty building on the grounds of a mental hospital in upstate New York. They were discovered by workers shortly after the facility closed in 1995. The luggage belonged to individuals who had been patients at Willard Psychiatric Center at one time or another during a period of almost a century. Most of the suitcases looked as if they hadn't been opened since they were packed. It was as if time had stopped in each owner's life once he or she crossed the hospital threshold."
Crosscut Tout
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
Abandoned Suitcases Reveal Private Lives of Insane Asylum Patients
Jon Crispin's Notebook
Voice: What They Left Behind
NYT: Forgotten Suitcases, Emotional Baggage
amazon: The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
Kickstarter: Willard Asylum Suitcase Documentation by Jon Crispin (Video)

Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe

"Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe invites visitors to explore the roles of Africans and their descendents in Renaissance Europe as revealed in compelling paintings, drawings, sculpture and printed books of the period. Vivid portraits from life both encourage face-to-face encounters with the individuals themselves and pose questions about the challenges of color, class, and stereotypes that this new diversity brought to Europe. Despite the importance of the questions posed for audiences today, this is the first time they have been addressed in a major exhibition."
The Walters
The Walters: About
The Walters: African Renaissance
NYT: A Spectrum From Slaves to Saints

Sun Ra Arkestra - Points On A Space Age

"Offers rare insight of the Arkestra and examines their current work (in the physical absence of Sun Ra) under the direction of Marshall Allen (now age 86). - Points on a Space Age (filmed from Spring of '06 to Spring of '07) explores the recent activity of the remaining members of the influential Sun Ra Arkestra. The Arkestra, is an experimental big band formed in the mid 1950's around the teachings of, musician, philosopher, and spiritualist Sun Ra. Sun Ra, according to himself and his disciples believed that he was sent to this planet to prepare human beings for the world for the future, a future centered around space travel, and the human capacity to evolve with ever changing demands of a highly technological world."
YouTube: Sun Ra Arkestra - Points On A Space Age
GameVortex
amazon: Points On A Space Age (2009)

David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme

"Two songs from David Thomas' masterpiece: 'A Day At The Botanical Gardens' and 'The Rain'. The Pedestrians was Richard Thompson, Jack Monck, Paul Hamann, Jim Jones, Anton Fier, Chris Cutler and Lindsay Cooper."
YouTube

2008 April: Pere Ubu
2010 July: Pere Ubu - 1

"Urban Masters" London Group Show

RONE
"Opera Gallery and Butterfly will be opening a new group show entitled 'Urban Masters' later this week in London. This new show will present an homage from 33 artists to the masters, masterpieces and muses that have influenced their journey through the world of art."
Street Art News
PDF: A STREET ART SHOW SUPPORTING - Opera Gallery

Dennis Hopper Documentary (90s)

"A documentary on Dennis Hopper I recorded off TV a few years back, a bit rare I think."
Videos for: Dennis Hopper
YouTube: Dennis Hopper Documentary - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

2009 November: Easy Rider (1969)
2010 May: Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010)
2010 November: The American Friend (1977)

Duke Vin, Count Suckle & the Birth of Ska in Britain trailer

"London in the 1950’s was a cold place in more ways than the obvious. Or so it appeared if you were one of the thousands of newly arrived Jamaicans. Many were overqualified for their menial jobs. Thousands of others quite simply could not get work. Discrimination and racial tensions culminated in fierce riots in both Nottingham and Notting Hill Gate. It was in this environment that the Jamaican soundmen; Duke Vin and Count Suckle arrived in the UK. They both stowed away on a boat from Kingston and brought with them a sound that was sweeping across the small Caribbean island and would later change the face of music in the UK. This was the sound of ska!"
uncarved
YouTube: Duke Vin, Count Suckle & the Birth of Ska in Britain trailer

Alternative Histories New York Art Spaces, 1960-2010

"This groundbreaking book--part exhibition catalogue, part cultural history--chronicles alternative art spaces in New York City since the 1960s. Developed from an exhibition of the same name at Exit Art, Alternative Histories documents more than 130 alternative spaces, groups, and projects, and the significant contributions these organizations have made to the aesthetic and social fabric of New York City. ... Beginning in the 1960s and early 1970s, it was within a network of alternative sites--including 112 Greene Street, The Kitchen, P.S.1, FOOD, and many others--that the work of young artists like Yvonne Rainer, Vito Acconci, Gordon Matta-Clark, Ana Mendieta, David Wojnarowicz, David Hammons, Adrian Piper, Martin Wong, Jimmie Durham, and dozens of other now familiar names first circulated."
MIT Press
Exit Art
amazon
YouTube: Alternative Histories at EXIT ART