1959: The Year That Changed Jazz

"Luckily we have BBC4’s 2009 documentary, 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz to do just that. Produced by documentarian Paul Bernays and UK jazz DJ Jez Nelson, 1959 scrutinizes the impact of Brubeck’s classic Time Out album alongside three others from that year: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, Charles Mingus’s Ah Um and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come."
Dangerous Minds
amazon: 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz
YouTube: 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz

"Atmosphere"/ "Dead Souls" - Joy Division

Wikipedia - "'Atmosphere' is a song by the band Joy Division. It was originally released on 18 March 1980 as a France-only single under the title Licht und Blindheit. It was limited to 1578 copies and had 'Dead Souls' as the B-side."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Atmosphere", "Dead Souls"

2008 March: Ian Curtis, 2009 August: Factory: Manchester From Joy Division To Happy Mondays, 2010 November: Love Will Tear Us Apart, 2012 February: An Ideal for Living EP, 2012 May: Unknown Pleasures

Spalding

Wikipedia - "A Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball, often called a Spaldeen (with the accent on the second syllable), is a small pink rubber ball, somewhat similar to a racquetball, supposedly made from the defective core of a tennis ball without the felt. It was the more expensive and more popular version of the Pensie Pinkie (made by the Penn tennis ball company). These balls are commonly used in street games developed in the mid-20th century, such as Chinese handball (a variation on American handball), stoop ball, hit-the-penny (involving trying to make a penny flip on a sidewalk), butts up, box ball, punchball, half-rubber, and stickball (a variation of baseball)."
Wikipedia
Streetplay
NYT: The Spaldeen Is Back (Even if the Dodgers Aren't)

Jeonghan Yun

Handmade Paper
"I feel my heart beats when Dak trees are found and appetized when the barks are peeled off. As they are steamed, my taste buds get erected; the buds detect the smell of the soil and porridge. While the soft cellulose of the barks becomes untangled in the water, I feel hungry. Then, all of sudden, as if I were fed by the colors of the dying paints, I feel energized, watching the white bark fibers get dyed. It is my hands sensing these unique experiences of the papers from Dak trees."
Jeonghan Yun
Bill Lowe Gallery
YouTube: Bill Lowe Presents: Jeong-han and Choon-Hyang Yun

Janis Joplin - Summertime, Ball And Chain (Live)

Gröna Lund 1969 - Stockholm. Germany 1969.
YouTube: Summertime, Ball And Chain

2008 May: Janis Joplin
2010 October: Janis Joplin: 1962-1965
2012 December: "Little Girl Blue"

Henry Miller

Wikipedia - "Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of the real-life Henry Miller and yet is also fictional. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939). He also wrote travel memoirs and essays of literary criticism and analysis."
Wikipedia
Henry Miller
Henry Miller Memorial Library
Walking Paris with Henry Miller
The Paris Review: Henry Miller, The Art of Fiction No. 28
Work Schedule 1932-1933
amazon: Henry Miller
NYT: The Male Mystique of Henry Miller

YouTube: The Big Sur Brooklyn Bridge, The Henry Miller Odyssey (1969) 1:31:35, Reflections on Writing - Robert Synder, 1974 Part 1 14:44, Reflections on Writing - Robert Synder, 1974 part 2 14:44, To Paint Is To Love Again 4:38, Henry miller reads 7:27, Interview with Henry Miller Screener 4:19, Henry Miller (1980) 2:52

2010 March: Dinner With Henry (1979)
2011 December: Asleep & Awake (1975)

The Surreal Beauty of a New York Commute in 'Sub City New York'

"The Sub City series explores the wonder in the humble experience of exiting the subway through dreamy slow motion and elegant steadicam cinematography. New York-based filmmakers Sarah Klein and Tom Mason talk about the inspiration for the project and where they'll film next in an interview with The Atlantic."
The Atlantic: Sub City New York (Video)

Dream of Life - Patti Smith

"The big difference between Patti Smith's four 1970s albums and this return to action after nine years lies in the choice of collaborator. Where Smith's main associate earlier had been Lenny Kaye, a deliberately simple guitarist, here her co-writer and co-producer (with Jimmy Iovine) was her husband, Fred 'Sonic' Smith, formerly of the MC5, who played guitar with a conventional rock competence and who lent his talents to each of the tracks, giving them a mainstream flavor. In a sense, however, these polished love songs, lullabies, and political statements are not to be compared to the poetic ramblings of Smith's first decade of music-making -- she's so much...calmer this time out."
allmusic
Patti Smith — Dream Of Life (Video)
Daily Motion: part 1, part 2

Xu Zhen

"Provocation has always been a main aspect in Xu Zhen’s creation, touching upon taboos, definitions and rules. His early work 8848-1.86, fully reflects doubts about power and truth - this installation is a ‘troublemaker’, ironizing humankind’s illusory and blind pursuit for a certain ‘apogee’- it encompasses the current chaotic situation in politics, economy, culture and history generated by ambitions of hegemony, selfish desires. With provocation as a stimulus, Xu Zhen builds a systematized ‘destruction/reconstruction’ cycle."
MOVEMENT FIELD
W - Xu Zhen
James Cohan Gallery
Xu Zhen's Forbidden Castle Exhibit Arrives At Muzeum Montanelli (PHOTOS)
vimeo: Xu Zhen 'In Just a Blink of an Eye' 2005

Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light

"Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light, the first solo exhibition of Labrouste’s work in the United States, establishes his work as a milestone in the modern evolution of architecture. The exhibition includes over 200 works, from original drawings—many of them watercolors of haunting beauty and precision—to vintage and modern photographs, films, architectural models, and fragments."
MoMA
A Daily Dose of Architecture
NYT: A Poetry Grounded in Gravity and Air
YouTube: Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light

Various Artists - Channel One Dubs 1974 - 79

"The kind of material on Maxfield Avenue Breakdown, recorded from 1974-1979 by the Revolutionaries with Ernest and JoJo Hookim at the Channel One studio controls, may lack the pure sonic invention of a Lee Perry or King Tubby, but it played an equally crucial role in the development of dub. Jamaican recordings from this era introduced the rockers style driven by Robbie Shakespeare's throbbing bass and Sly Dunbar's echoed rim-shot clicks and explosive snare shots, which became a fundamental definition of roots reggae. Over that fresh drum and bass foundation, the Hookims keep their dub easy to digest by retaining most of the original song structures and mutating one element at a time."
allmusic
YouTube: 1) Woman Is Like A Shadow, 2) King Of The Minstrels, 3) Have Mercy Version, 1) Ragnampaiza Version, 2) Speak Easy, 3) Natty A General Version

Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey (1964)

Wikipedia - "Sometimes a Great Notion is Ken Kesey's second novel, published in 1964. While One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is arguably more famous, many critics consider Sometimes a Great Notion Kesey's magnum opus. The story involves an Oregon family of gyppo loggers who cut and procure trees for a local mill in opposition to striking, unionized workers. The story centers on the Stamper family, a hard-headed logging clan in the fictional town of Wakonda, Oregon. The union loggers in the town of Wakonda go on strike in demand of the same pay for shorter hours in response to the decreasing need for labor due to the introduction of the chainsaw."
Wikipedia
W - Sometimes a Great Notion (film)
Sometimes a Great Notion: The Story
of a Family Who Would Never Give an Inch
Ken Kesey: Sometimes a Great Notion Takes Root
Voice: Deserved Second Act for Paul Newman's Sometimes a Great Notion - J. Hoberman
YouTube: Sometimes a Great Notion - Incredible Scene, All His Children : Charley Pride, Sometimes a Great Notion 1971 CUT

2010 May: Ken Kesey

The Angel of the Odd

“The Nightmare” (Fuseli) – 1781
"It was in the 1930s that the Italian writer and art historian Mario Praz (1896-1982) first highlighted the dark side of Romanticism, thus naming a vast swathe of artistic creation, which from the 1760s onwards exploited the shadows, excesses and irrational elements that lurked behind the apparent triumph of enlightened Reason. This world was created in the English Gothic novels of the late 18th century, a genre of literature that fascinated the public with its penchant for the mysterious and the macabre."
Musée d'Orsay (Video)
Musée d'Orsay: The Angel of the Odd. Dark Romanticism from Goya to Max Ernst

No More Shall We Part - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Wikipedia - "No More Shall We Part is the eleventh studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 2 April 2001 in the UK (and 10 April in the US). The album came after a 4-year gap from recording, following the much acclaimed album The Boatman's Call. Cave had to overcome heavy heroin and alcohol addictions in 1999-2000 before starting work on the album. ... The album showcases the virtuoso talents of the Bad Seeds, with elaborate instrumental sections on nearly every track. Also, Cave's lyrics are less obscure than usual, and he sings in a wider vocal range than he had previously, reaching alto on several tracks."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: As I Sat Sadly By Her Side, And No More Shall We Part, Hallelujah, Love Letter, Fifteen feet of pure white snow, God Is In The House, Oh, my lord, Sweetheart Come, The sorrowful wife, We Came Along This Road

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, 2013 January: "We No Who U R"

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - Echos Hypnotiques

"The greatest band in Benin's history, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, is back. The legendary West African band was founded in 1968 and has included some of the most influential and virtuosic African musicians ever to play a note. Similar to the Rail Band of Mali and Afrika 70 of Nigeria, OPR was extremely popular throughout West Africa in the 1970s. With an exquisite groove, a homemade Afrobeat funk that combined vodoun (voodoo) rituals, Latin music and James Brown--influenced jams, they played with the likes of Manu Dibango, Fela Kuti and Gnonnas Pedro."
YouTube: "Se Ba Ho", Mi Ve Wa Se, Azoo De Ma Gnin Kpevi, Ahouli Vou Yelli, Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me

2011 August: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou
2012 April: Afrikafestival Hertme

The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

"Like so many daily comestibles we completely take for granted—salt, sugar, and (far fewer of us) tobacco—coffee has a long and often brutal history. And like many of these substances, it tends to be addictive. But coffee has also inspired a longstanding social tradition that shows no signs of ever going out of fashion. It’s a drug that makes us thinky and chatty and sociable (I for one don’t speak a human language until I’ve had my first cup). It’s these contradictions of coffee history—its complicity in slave economies and the Enlightenment public square—that Mark Pendergrast takes on in his new book Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World."
Open Culture (Video)
amazon: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

2010 September: Espresso

Vhils New Murals In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

"Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is now in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for his upcoming exhibition at Clark Art Center.
The Portuguese artist and his crew spent the last few weeks working on the streets of Rio where they dropped a series of fresh portraits. Vhils' work continues explores the layers of urban space and its history through the destruction of their walls."
StreetArtNews

2009 September: Alexandre Farto (aka Vhils), 2012 March: Vhils Solo Show, 2012 November: Vhils New Mural In London, UK.

Women Unveiled: Marc Garanger’s Contested Portraits of 1960s Algeria

"For France, the trauma of the Algerian War (1954-1962) was not unlike the experience of the Vietnam War for the United States. But, unlike the conflict in Vietnam, few photographic documents exist from that period in Algeria: it is as if the French responded with collective amnesia. Marc Garanger’s Algerian Women is one of the few photographic essays dedicated to that painful period."
Light Box

The Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art

PIARS Sonic Arts
"The Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art, SONM, has been created as a public access resource -both physical and virtual online- with my entire collection of experimental music and sound art, gathered over the past thirty years of direct exchange with thousands of sound artists worldwide. This sound archive is not the result of a collector's accumulation (I am not a collector) but is instead the consequence of an intense activity as an artist, and also of one of the most fundamental features of the international community of sound artists: the exchange and collaboration, both physical and telematic. The archive is thus a personal collection, subjective, partial, and particularly focused on the global communities of so-called 'independent' or 'underground' artists, which I am part of since the late 70s."
SONM Archive
Sonm
The Journal of Sonic Studies
YouTube: Slow Dancing Society - The Delicate Sound Of Silence, Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek — In Session 05.10.09, Asmus Tietchens - Hydrophonie 1, zoviet france -- Mohnomishe -- Untitled-4, Mike Hovancsek, B. Chabala & J. Cieciel - The Stomp

On Painting: Alex Katz & Felix Vallotton

Alex Katz, Sunset 1, 2008
"Paintings by Alex Katz, one of the most famous contemporary American painters have been hung alongside a selection of works by Felix Vallotton, one of Switzerland’s most renowned artists, who lived 100 years ago. The show is like walking through the studio of artists who could very well have been painting side by side. Although Katz was born two years after Vallotton died and knew very little of him, there are uncanny resemblances in the themes that inspired them and in the way they painted."
World Radio (Video)
e-flux: On Painting. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton
Museum Publicity

2008 February: Alex Katz
2010 December: Life Imitates Art
2012 June: Alex Katz Prints

Pretty Boy Floyd

Wikipedia - "Charles Arthur 'Pretty Boy' Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934) was an American bank robber. He operated in the Midwest and West South Central States, and his criminal exploits gained heavy press coverage in the 1930s. Like most other prominent outlaws of that era, he was killed by policemen. He remains a familiar figure in American popular culture, sometimes seen as notorious, but at other times viewed as a tragic figure, partly a victim of hard times. ... In March 1939, five years after Floyd's death, Woody Guthrie, a native of Oklahoma, wrote a song romanticizing Floyd's life, called 'The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd.' The song has the form of a Broadside 'come-all-ye' ballad opening with the lines..."
Wikipedia (Video)
FBI: Kansas City Massacre—Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd
YouTube: Pretty Boy Floyd - Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, Joan Baez

"Homburg" - Procol Harum (1967)

Wikipedia - "'Homburg' was Procol Harum's follow-up single to their initial 1967 hit 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. Written by pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid, 'Homburg' reached number 5 in the UK charts, number 15 in Canada, and number 34 in the United States. ... Reid's 'Homburg' lyrics contains the same surreal, dream-like imagery and feelings of resignation and futility as in the debut single. The music also features Matthew Fisher's rich and deep Hammond organ, but the piano and guitar have bigger places in the overall sound."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Homburg"

2009 July: Procol Harum
2011 July: A Salty Dog
2011 December: Broken Barricades

Repetition - Søren Kierkegaard (1843)

Wikipedia - "Repetition is a 1843 book by Søren Kierkegaard. ... In Repetition he followed his own advice and became his own psychologist. He used the pseudonym Constantin Constantius in this book. Constantin is currently conducting experiments into whether repetition is possible. The book includes his experiments and his relation to a nameless patient known only as the Young Man. Every patient must have a problem. The Young Man has fallen in love with a girl, proposed marriage, the proposal has been accepted, but now he has changed his mind."
Wikipedia
Wikiquote
Kierkegaard's Repetition as a Comedy in Two Acts - Stuart Dalton
amazon: Repetition and Philosophical Crumbs (Oxford World's Classics)
Job and the thunderstorm in Kierkegaard’s Repetition

2011 July: Søren Kierkegaard

Bamboo Blues - Pina Bausch (2007)

"Pina Bausch’s 'Bamboo Blues' (currently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music) is, like most or all of her work, an incoherent dreamscape. Sometimes strikingly picturesque, always fluid in its comings and goings, it switches between episodes of sensual impulsiveness; coy, catwalklike audience-awareness; rushing scenes of harrowing need or anxiety; and diverse aspects of melancholia."
NYT: Glimpses of India, Eruptions of Chaos, Flashes of Choreography
Brooklyn Rail: Pina Bausch Returns to BAM with Bamboo Blues
Telegraph - Pina Bausch: A vision of life’s humour and pain
Dance’s free radicals: Bringing Pina Bausch’s work to the Olympics
ballet dance
Pina Bausch's Sensuous, Mysterious, Funny, Sexy, Playful, Violent "Bamboo Blues"
Tanztheater Wuppertal - Bamboo Blues
YouTube: Bamboo Blues@Spoleto52 Festival dei 2Mondi
facebook: Bamboo Blues

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

The Ruins of an Empire

"Motown has ran out of gas. The city looks like a ghost-town or a place that has been hit by a typhoon. Some areas even look like war zones. As I drive around downtown Detroit and in the adjacent neighborhoods below the infamous 8 mile road that defines Detroit’s northern border, I have post-apocalyptic visions. All I see are beautiful abandoned art deco buildings and Neo-Gothic skyscrapers, rusted factories, broken windows, desolated churches, evacuated schools, unoccupied hotels and motels, dried up gas stations, empty supermarkets and shuttered shops. I also see thousands of deserted homes."
charles le brigand

Chemiserie Niguet

"Spotted at Beautiful Century, this scan of a postcard showing the flower shop which now occupies what was originally the Chemiserie Niguet in Brussels. The shop is in the Rue Royale, and the Art Nouveau storefront was installed in 1896 from a design by Belgian architect Paul Hankar (1859–1901). Considering this is one of Hankar’s few Art Nouveau designs to have survived the depredations of 'Brusselization' I was surprised that the only illustration in any of my books was the early plan below. (In fairness, Victor Horta tends to dominate any general discussion of Belgian Art Nouveau architecture.)"
feuilleton

KEEPINTIME

" Keepintime started as a simple idea, let’s bring some of the most revered and notable L.A. session drummers together for a photo shoot. Then have them talk about the famous (to us) recordings that we (those whose ears have been opened through hip-hop) treasure, sample and discuss endlessly. The musicians (Roy Porter, Earl Palmer, Paul Humphrey and James Gadson) were excited at the prospect of sitting together and discussing old times, old friends and the business. The first problem we encountered though was that to our ears the famous sessions were in fact often beyond the reach of our musician’s memory."
mochilla
Stylus
CDUniverse
Discogs: Various ‎– Keepintime: A Live Recording
YouTube: Keepintime: Talking drums and whispering vinyl pt. 1, pt. 2
YouTube: Brasilintime Documentary (ft. Madlib,babu,cut Chemist) 1:52:22
YouTube: Keep In Time: A Live Recording 47:00

The Radiants

"The Radiants were an American doo-wop and R&B group popular in the 1960s. The group formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1960, where its members met singing in the youth choir of Greater Harvest Baptist Church. They performed both gospel and secular tunes, the latter of which were written by leader Maurice McAlister. While attempting to land a record deal, they found that labels weren't interested in gospel groups anymore, and concentrated on secular tunes, eventually landing a deal with Chess Records."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Baby You Got It (1965), Voice Your Choice (1966), Don't Wanna Face The Truth (1965), (Don't It Make You) Feel Kind Of Bad (1965), I'm Glad I'm The Loser

Manet: Portraying Life

"This singularly important exhibition is the first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. Spanning the entire career of this enigmatic and at times controversial artist, 'Manet: Portraying Life' brings together works from across Europe, Asia and the USA. Manet’s engagement with portraiture has never been explored in exhibition form before, despite it constituting around half of his artistic output. Manet painted his family, friends and the literary, political and artistic figures of his day, giving life not only to his subjects but also to Parisian society of the time."
Royal Academy (Video)
vimeo - Manet: Portraying Life
NYT: I Went to a Movie and an Art Exhibition Broke Out
Manet: Portraying Life – review
amazon
YouTube - The Making of Manet: Portraying Life

2011 May: Manet, the Man who Invented Modernity

Superflex - Burning Car (2008)

Wikipedia - "Superflex is a Danish artists' group founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen. Superflex describe their projects as Tools, as proposals that invite people to participate in and communicate the development of experimental models that alter the economic production conditions. Often the projects are assisted by experts who bring in their special interest, these tools can then be further used and modified by their users. Often their projects are related to economic forces, democratic production conditions and self-organisation."
Wikipedia
UbuWeb: Superflex (Video)
SUPERFLEX with PHONG BUI

They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950

"During the first half of the 20th century, the city of Chicago was shaped and reshaped by waves of migration and immigration as African Americans poured in from the South and newcomers arrived from Europe and Mexico. They Seek a City is the first exhibition to focus on the art produced by the wonderfully diverse communities that made Chicago their home. Over 80 works primarily by southern- and foreign-born artists—many rarely seen by the museum’s audiences—come together for this look at the city’s rich art of migration, as Chicago became the polyglot, cosmopolitan place that it remains today."
The Art Institute of Chicago
N'DIGO
In seeking a city, AIC’s latest misses connection
amazon
WTTW (Video)

Western Culture - Henry Cow

Wikipedia - "Western Culture is an album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Sunrise Studios in Kirchberg, Switzerland in January, July and August 1978. It was their last album and was released on Henry Cow's own private label, Broadcast, in 1979. Later editions appeared on Interzone in the US and Celluloid in France. Only the UK Broadcast pressing used the custom label artwork design."
Wikipedia
Pitchfork
Prog Archives
allmusic
amazon
YouTube: (History and Prospects) Industry, History and Prospects: On the Raft, Day by Day: Falling Away, Day by Day: Gretel's Tale, Day by Day: ½ the Sky, Viva Pa Ubu

photograph + poem = PHO-TOEM

"My visual art pieces, crafted digital photographs, draw from the traditions of urban landscape photography, collage, mural, and graffiti art. I call these works 'pho-toems.' I begin with a digital photo I’ve taken. Then, via Photoshop, I add other images I have created, e.g., black & white images I’ve Xeroxed out of 1930’s sixth-grade textbooks, hand-colored, and scanned back in. Then, I add small bits of my own text— mini-poems, if you will."
Nance Van Winckel
PhoToems by Nance Van Winckel
YouTube: Astral Project Town

Township Jive & Kwela Jazz (1940-1960

"Kwela jazz is frequently quoted as the defining sound of a more innocent time in South African history. A cursory wiki provides this somewhat sterile snapshot: ‘happy, often pennywhistle-based, street music from Southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat’. That’ll do as a high-level view of the music itself but can never provide the sense of sheer exuberance that the music itself resonates."
deep absurdum (Video)
YouTube: Soul Safari presents Township Jive & Kwela Jazz (1940-1960)

Tommy McCook - Blazing Horns/Tenor in Roots

"Saxophonist Tommy McCook is primarily remembered for his role as a founding member of the seminal ska band the Skatalites, who played such an important part in the development and maturation of ska before it morphed into the slower rocksteady genre, and later into reggae. But McCook was no slouch in those later categories of music, either, as this wonderful two-for-one reissue makes plain. The Blazing Horns segment of this disc was originally issued on LP in 1979 on the Grove Music label and consists of nine tracks originally produced by Vivian 'Yabby U' Jackson."
allmusic
Dusted Reviews
YouTube: Blazing Horns, Blazing Horns, Tears of love, Tubby's control, Far over yonder, Gold Street Skank