Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular

"Based on a 2001 symposium at the Getty Research Institute, Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular surveys the artist’s influence on American film, music, and the visual arts. Featuring color reproductions of Smith’s images, as well as essays by scholars, friends, and colleagues, the book explores the life of the 20th-century Renaissance man best known for his definitive Anthology of American Folk Music — a six-record compilation of commercial songs from 1926-1932 that helped facilitate the folk revival of the ’60s. The multifaceted mystic also achieved cult-hero status in the world of cinema for his experimental films, and received critical praise for his rare, freeform abstract paintings."
FLAVORWIRE
Mondo Blogo (Video)
Harry Smith Archives
amazon: Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular

2009 March: The Old, Weird America
2010 October: Harry Smith

The Lady of the Lake

Wikipedia - "The Lady of the Lake, Lady of Avalon, is the title name of the ruler of Avalon in the Arthurian legend. There are several related characters in the role which include giving King Arthur his sword Excalibur, enchanting Merlin, and raising Lancelot after the death of his father. Different writers and copyists give her name variously as Nimue, Viviane, Elaine, Niniane, Nivian, Nyneve, Evienne and other variations."
Wikipedia
King Arthur & The Knights of the Round Table

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Wikipedia - "Pier Paolo Pasolini (... March 5, 1922 – November 2, 1975) was an Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure. He demonstrated a unique and extraordinary cultural versatility, becoming a highly controversial figure in the process. While his work remains controversial to this day, in the years since his death Pasolini has come to be valued by many as a visionary thinker and a major figure in Italian literature and art."
Wikipedia
Pier Paolo Pasolini
mubi
The life and death of Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Criterion Collection
MoMA/PS1
Criterion: Trilogy of Life (Video)
YouTube: Pier Paolo Pasolini - The Filmmaker - Documentary (1/3), Documentary (2/3), Documentary (3/3)

Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers

Wikipedia - "Rex Garvin (b. circa 1937) is an American former R&B singer, songwriter, keyboard player and arranger. His writing credits include the 1957 US chart hit 'Over The Mountain, Across The Sea', by Johnnie and Joe, and his own 1966 recording 'Sock It To 'Em J.B.', later recorded by The Specials."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Sock it To'em JB - Part 1, Part 2, Emulsified, Believe It Or Not, You don't need no help, Raw Funky, Queen Of The Go-Go, Funky Broadway

Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets

"This ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK SCHOOL POETS—written and compiled by Terence Diggory — is my new (or one of) favorite book(s). Yes it's an expensive hardcover reference book, that could also be used as a textbook, part of the FACTS ON FILE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE series. But it's also one of the best alphabet lists I've ever encountered (and as anyone who has read this blog for more than a few days knows, I love alphabet lists). And I find it totally engaging and—despite my widespread experience in this scene and connections with many involved in it as well as my deep reading of most of the works referred to in it — enlightening."
Lally's Alley
amazon
Google - Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets

TNIW [That Night In Williamsburg]

"Picture Made by Supralude (Shot with my Canon 5D mkII, edited and post produced with After Effects). Sound Made By Near Deaf Experience [Remix of Nine Inch Nails' 21 Ghosts].
"
vimeo: TNIW [That Night In Williamsburg]

WNET/Thirteen Experimental TV Lab

"... Before the Internet, questions about how to unleash the possibilities of new technology promising high definition images and/or multi-channel delivery, and about how to use the medium to innovate and bring new voices and new audiences to public television were asked — and answered spectacularly by the TV lab. The TV LAB was an earlier "digital revolution," though few called it that; it stirred innovation in public television because television engineers and artists invented synthesizers to manipulate the video signal and used the new digital time- base correcters to put portable small format video on the air. This first digital revolution nurtured video art, created reality television made with half-inch portable video equipment, and offered fresh local and global perspectives from new voices, whose influences are still felt."
WNET/Thirteen Experimental TV Lab (Video)
TV LAB: License to Create
Nam June Paik and the TV LAB -- License to Create (YouTube)
YouTube: TV LAB documentary trailer
vimeo: TV LAB Interview Excerpts

Trains and the Brits Who Love Them: Monty Python’s Michael Palin on Great Railway Journeys

"What is it with Britons and trains, anyway? Hardly just the title of collection of Irvine Welsh’s stories of heroin and degradation, the term 'trainspotting' actually refers to a real, and fervently pursued hobby; trainspotters exist, just as do birdwatchers and sports fans. In terms of obsession with the design and operational minutiae of their own trains, Britain falls second only to the even more densely rail-laden Japan. But we Americans, possessed of a train system few would call robust, can’t quite bring ourselves to believe it. Perhaps we just need to hear it from the mouth of Michael Palin, writer, comedian, television host, Python — and avowed trainspotter."
Open Culture (Video)
W - Great Railway Journeys

Hilma af Klint

Wikipedia - "Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings were amongst the first abstract art. She belonged to a group called 'The Five' and the paintings or diagrams were a visual representation of complex philosophical ideas."
Wikipedia
Guardian: Out of this world
Things that Quicken the Heart: Artist
frieze
Pinterest

Caged/Uncaged - A Rock/Experimental Homage To John Cage (1993)

"Issued for the XLV Biennale di Venezia with support from The Institute For Contemporary Art, New York, Mudima Fondazione per l'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy. All John Cage excerpts are from John Cage's Silence and A Year from Monday, recorded at 222 Bowery in New York City, December 1968 [wrongly on sleeve as 1986] and March 1969, courtesy of Giorno Poetry Systems."
UbuWeb (Video)

Lucinda Williams - "Can`t Let Go", "Pineola", "Changed the Locks"

"He won't take me back when I come around
Says he's sorry then he pulls me out
I got a big chain around my neck
And I'm broken down like a train wreck
Well, it's over, I know it but I can't let go"
YouTube: Can`t Let Go, Pineola, Changed the Locks

2008 January: Lucinda Williams
2010 May: Lucinda Williams - 1
2011 March: Blessed
2011 November: Austin, Texas, 1989
2012 May: World Without Tears
2012 October: Honky Tonk Women: The Changing Role of Women

Mad Men

Wikipedia - "Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. ... Mad Men is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, and later at the newly created firm Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The focal point of the series is Don Draper (Jon Hamm), creative director at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and the people in his life, both in and out of the office. The plot focuses on the business of the agencies as well as the personal lives of the characters. As such, it regularly depicts the changing moods and social mores of 1960s America."
Wikipedia
AMC
Huffington Post
Salon
YouTube: Mad Men Opening Credits, How to Handle: an Insubordinate Employee, I Want You to Give Me One for Free, How to Handle: a Pretentious Intellectual, Don Draper Recites Frank O' Hara's Poetry, Mad Men: let's twist again

In the City - The Jam

Wikipedia - "In the City is the debut studio album of British mod revival/punk rock band The Jam. It was released in 1977 by Polydor Records and featured the hit single and title track 'In the City'. Weller's guitar style on the album is very much influenced by Wilko Johnson and Pete Townshend. The album includes two cover songs, 'Slow Down' and the theme to the 1960s television series, Batman, the latter of which had also been previously covered by The Who."
Wikipedia
W - In the City
Punk News
YouTube: In the City/Art School, In the City - Bricks and Mortar, Slow Down, Batman Theme, I Got By In Time, I've Changed My Address, Sounds From The Street

2009 March: The Jam
2011 December: Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
2012 November: "Going Underground"

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, Lithograph by Currier and Ives
Wikipedia - "The Brooklyn Bridge is a bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915."
Wikipedia
Brownstoner - Past and Present: Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
On "Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge"
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Bridge | PBS
YouTube: The Brooklyn Bridge
About: How to Walk the Brooklyn Bridge

Chalk-drawn Adventures of Sluggo

"Meet Sluggo – a green semi-subterranean inhabitant of Ann Arbor, Michigan. This strange little creature first appeared back in 2008 on a sidewalk, and since then started peaking out of walls cracks, chilling on ledges or doing his daily routines all over the town. Turns out, it was drawn by a local graphic artist David Zinn, using simple colored chalks. Calling himself an 'inveterate doodler and a shameless word nerd', David uses art as a problem-solving tool, even if the problem is a sad-looking street crack."
Bored Panda
Chalk Art by David Zinn

Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate - Kala Djula

"'Kala Djula' is a lovely instrumental number from the album 'Ali & Toumani'."
vimeo: Kala Djula
YouTube: Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté - Ali and Toumani

2010 November: Ali Farka Toure
2011 April: Original African Guitar Excellence - Zaiko & Ali Farka Toure

Palermo, Palermo - Pina Bausch (1989)

"... Human degradation, especially what men do to women, but also the infinite capacity of all peoples to harm themselves, is, in the end, Miss Bausch's underlying theme. 'Palermo, Palermo' is low on the simulated or actual violence that has made Miss Bausch controversial in the past. She has learned to inflict pain without striking. In one of the most forceful and resonant passages, a group of men in black suits rushes in carrying Beatrice Libonati, as uninhibited a Bausch veteran as any. They support her as they place a bottle of mineral water between her knees. The water pours out as immediately as the image of humiliation."
NYT: Pina Bausch's 'Palermo, Palermo' Explores a World Beyond Logic, September 30, 1991
Telegraph: Pina Bausch: Palermo, Palermo, Sadler’s Wells, review
Palermo, Palermo, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch – Palermo Palermo – London
Tanztheater Wuppertal - Pina Bausch
YouTube: Palermo Tanztheater Italia 1990 (Italia)
facebook: Bilder aus Stücken der Pina Bausch 1, 2

2008 May: Pina Bausch
2009 June: Pina Bausch 1940-2009
2012 August: Pina Bausch Costumes

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "We No Who U R"

"'The trees all stand like pleading hands,' dapper gloom-and-doomer Nick Cave sings on 'We No Who U R,' the lead single off Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' upcoming 15th studio album, Push the Sky Away (out February 19). If the crisply orchestrated track's lyric video didn't illustrate Cave's anthropo-horror-fic imagery clearly enough, the brooding sparkler now has a woodsy video to match. The four-minute clip, directed by French-based Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noé, follows a shadowy figure as it stalks aimlessly through a forest."
Spin (Video)

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 

Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum

"Opened in September 2012, Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum is home to the world’s largest collection of visual art, artifacts and printed materials relating to the starvation and forced emigration that occurred throughout Ireland from 1845 to 1850. Works by noted contemporary Irish artists are featured, as well as a number of important 19th and 20th-century paintings. Begun in 1997, this dynamic collection continues to grow."
Quinnipiac University
Ireland's Great Hunger Museum
NYT: Mournful, Angry Views of Ireland’s Famine
YouTube: Ireland's Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University

Garry Winogrand

World’s Fair, New York City, 1964
Wikipedia - "Garry Winogrand (14 January 1928, New York City – 19 March 1984, Tijuana, Mexico) was a street photographer known for his portrayal of America in the mid-20th century. John Szarkowski called him the central photographer of his generation. Winogrand was influenced by Walker Evans and Robert Frank and their respective publications American Photographs and The Americans. Henri Cartier-Bresson was another influence although stylistically different. Winogrand was known for his portrayal of American life in the early 1960s."
Wikipedia
10 Things Garry Winogrand Can Teach You About Street Photography
Getty Museum
MoCP
YouTube: Garry Winogrand - Part 1, Part 2

Desperate Straights - Slapp Happy / Henry Cow

Wikipedia - "Desperate Straights is an album by British avant-rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in November 1974. It was the first of two collaborative albums by the two groups and was released in March 1975. Almost all of the album comprises Slapp Happy composed material and it is for this reason that it is generally regarded as a Slapp Happy album with backing by Henry Cow. The music is an unusual blend of avant-garde music and nostalgic pop, and the success of this collaboration led to the two bands merging."
Wikipedia
BBC Review
Pitchfork
YouTube: Bad Alchemy, Desperate Straights, Strayed, The Owl, Caucasian Lullaby, Some Questions About Hats, Apes in Capes

Gaia x Freddy Sam New Mural in Johannesburg, South Africa

" While we last heard from Gaia in Argentina (covered), the American artist is now in South Africa for the Acrylic Walls project. He teamed up with Freddy Sam to paint this large scale collaboration somewhere on the streets of Johannesburg. Check back with us soon for more by Gaia and Acrylic Walls."
StreetArtNews
flickr

Mass: Charles Olson

"This segment of Jim Dunn and Kevin Gallagher's feature, 'Mass: Raw Poetry from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,' focuses on Charles Olson, and includes contributions from James Cook, Anne Dewey, and Rachell K. Lerner. 'To find out for yourself"' - James Cook. Projecting Amy Lowell - Anne Dewey. Rexroth's 'The Dragon and the Unicorn' - Rachelle Katz Lerner."
Jacket2

2009 January: Charles Olson
2010 September: Charles Olson: The Art of Poetry No. 12
2010 December: "In Cold Hell, in Thicket", NET film
2011 July: Charles Olson: February 21, 1957
2012 April: A Trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester
2012 June: In Which We Lather Our Sensibilities At Length

Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel

"When Gram Parsons died of booze and pills (natural causes said the coroner's finding) in 1973 his friend and road manager Phil Kaufman lived up to his end of a deal that they had made earlier. He stole Gram's body and burned it in the desert; at Joshua Tree, California. It was a moment typical of Gram's desire for the big moment, the flamboyant gesture that would set him apart from the rest. ... Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel, a documentary film by Gandulf Henning attempts to answer the enigma of Graham Parsons by interviewing the famous, the family, and all of those who knew him during his brief, meteoric passing."
Blogcritics
amazon: Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel
YouTube: Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel - trailer

2008 March: Gram Parsons
2011 March: Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris. Liberty Hall, Texas, 1973
2012 May: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

On The Map - Simon Garfield

The Mountains of Kong. Africa. 1839 American atlas.
"On The Map is a book about something that makes us human. Maps relate and realign our history. They reflect our best and worst attributes – discovery and curiosity, conflict and destruction – and they chart our transitions of power. Even as individuals, we seem to have a need to plot a path and track our progress, to imagine possibilities of exploration and escape. And maps fascinate us because they tell our stories. The ones in this book examine how maps came about, who drew them, what they were thinking, and how we use them."
Simon Garfield
WSJ: The End of the Map By Simon Garfield (Video)
NYT - The Unfolding Story of Maps: Dragon Warnings to Smartphone Screens
npr: New History Puts Cartographers' Art 'On The Map'
Guardian
amazon
YouTube: Simon Garfield at The Cheltenham Literature Festival (Video)

Kids in the Hall - Into the Doors

"Doors fans aren't made, they'e born!"
YouTube: Into the Doors

2011 July: Kids in the Hall

A Day with New York City’s Pothole Repair Crew

"Each morning, at a small depot tucked away under the Williamsburg Bridge, the New York City workers who call themselves the 'pothole gang' pore over a giant spreadsheet known as 'The Daily Pothole.' On it are thousands of potholes all over the city: giant gorges caused by rain and sleet, small interconnected divots that can flatten tires, and pretty much every other roadway wound you can imagine. The sun is barely up, and yet for these men — members of a street maintenance team tasked by the Department of Transportation with roadway repair — the race has already begun."
Storyboard (vimeo)

Christopher Wool

Wikipedia - "Christopher Wool (b.1955, Chicago) is an American artist residing in New York City. Since the 1980s, Wool's studio practice has incorporated issues surrounding post-conceptual ideas - moving beyond theoretical readings. Ken Johnson, writing in The New York Times, said, 'Christopher Wool made some of the punchiest paintings of the 1980s and 1990s: big, signlike word pictures that delivered gnomic, vaguely alarming messages.'"
Wikipedia
Christopher Wool
Christopher Wool: Painting about Painting
artnet
YouTube: Crosstown Crosstown, artist talk at DCA

Subatomic Sound System / Emch

"For over a decade Emch has been the producer, selector, and musician spearheading Subatomic Sound System and the Subatomic Sound label. Founded at the turn of the millennium, NYC’s Subatomic Sound System has built a reputation worldwide for explosive shows, genre bending production, and breaking down barriers with their unique adaptation of 1970’s Jamaican sound system culture and dub reggae studio techniques to current music genres, technology, and live performances."
Subatomic Sound System (Video)
W - Subatomic Sound System
Brooklyn Radio (Video)
SoundCloud (Video)
YouTube: Subatomic Sound System live melodica dub of Lee Scratch Perry & Dubblestandart, Subatomic Sound System live in Brooklyn, Subatomic Sound System @ Dub Mission

Brian Eno - "Kings Lead Hat" - 1977

"Dark alley (dark alley) black star
Four turkeys in a big black car
The road is shiny (bright shine) the wheels slide
Four turkeys going for a dangerous ride
The lacquer crackles (black tar) the engines roar
A ship was turning broadside to the shore
Splish splash I was raking in the cash
The biology of purpose keeps my nose above the surface (OOH)"
YouTube: Kings Lead Hat

2008 April: Brian Eno

Inferno - Dante

Brunetto Latini Accosts Dante - Gustave Doré
Wikipedia - "Inferno (Italian for 'Hell') is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin."
Wikipedia
U. Texas: Dante's Inferno
W - Divine Comedy

2011 October: A TV Dante by Tom Phillips and Peter Greenaway
2012 August: The Dante Quartet (1987) - Stan Brakhage

Son Volt - Austin City Limits

"It's always fun for fans of a group when older stuff surfaces, enriching the band's catalog and overall accomplishments. Live from Austin TX travels back to November 11, 1996, for Son Volt's first appearance on Austin City Limits. Yes, that's nearly ten years and another lineup ago, and what fans may think of as classic Son Volt. ... The performance here is solid but familiar, meaning that the songs don't sound all that different from the studio versions. Then, as now, Jay Farrar's vocals dominate the band's alternative country sound, and one's enjoyment of the band will depend on whether one enjoys his driven nasal drone."
Live from Austin TX
YouTube: Son Volt 11.11.1996 Austin City Limits Complete Concert 1:07:17

Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here

"This is how al-Mutanabbi street looked like; a winding street filled with outdoor book-fair stalls. Poems and prose invaded its atmosphere until one day when Baghdad municipality raided the street and smashed all the book stalls with the support of military forces and without any prior warning. The municipality instigated huge losses and the people expressed sadness because they were used to this heritage for many years."
Book sellers in Baghdad's iconic al-Mutanabbi street under crackdown (Video)
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here (Video)
The Economist: A literary bridge to Baghdad (1 / 14)
Historic Baghdad Book Market Bulldozed in Late-Night Raid
An Inventory Of Al-Mutanabbi Street, Gallery 1, 2, 3
A Day That Lingers with Us Still - Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here
Google: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here
amazon: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here

Charles "Mad Dog" Sheffield

"Charles ‘Mad Dog’ Sheffield, cut 'It's Your Voodoo Working' for J. D. Miller at his Crowley, Louisiana studio in 1961 and released on Nashville’s Excello Records, as were many of Miller’s productions. Sheffield was a blues singer originally from the Beaumont, Texas area on the Gulf Coast, who started off recording as Mad Dog Sheffield in 1957."
Soul Strutter
YouTube: It's Your Voodoo Working, Shoo Shoo Chicken, Rock 'n' Roll Train, I Got Fever, Cool Cat

Iman Issa

Part of the “Material” series (2010–2011).
"Iman Issa’s exhibition, ‘Material’, developed a critical position around monuments quite different to that of the ‘anti-monument’. Anti-monuments, after all, are now part of the mainstream. The British public, for example, not only instantly understood the critical thrust of the unassuming, feminized, interactive aspects of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain (2004) in London’s Hyde Park, but also grasped the failures of that criticality. Monument and anti-monument have a complementary relationship that completes a circle and constitutes the expansion of the language of each."
Frieze
Iman Issa
Iman Issa: Radical Subtraction By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
YouTube: Short Stories, A conversation with Iman Issa and Isla Leaver-Yap