BAM: Cassavetes - Jul 6—Jul 31, 2013

"Godfather of American independent cinema John Cassavetes led his stable of fearless actors — Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel, and, especially, wife Gena Rowlands — into hitherto uncharted cinematic territory, portraying raw human emotion with radical realism and penetrating insight. His films are guided not by conventional narrative technique, but by the rhythms and interiority of everyday life. All films directed by John Cassavetes unless otherwise noted."
BAM: Cassavetes
VOICE: The Life Project: John Cassavetes Brings the Love to BAM
New Yorker: Seeing John Cassavetes (Video)
YouTube: 34-Minute Clip: Host Dick Cavett welcomes guests actors John Cassavetes, Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara., 40-Minute Documentary (1969)

2008 September: John Cassavetes, 2010 December: Shadows (1959), 2011 June: A Woman Under the Influence (1974), 2012 February: His Life and Work, 2012 July: A Constant Forge, 2013 June: Minnie and Moskowitz

State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970

Eleanor Antin, “100 Boots,” 1971-73
"State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970 offers the first in-depth survey of Conceptual art and related avant-garde activities in both Northern and Southern California during a pivotal period in contemporary art. Organized as part of Pacific Standard Time, the exhibition showcases more than 150 works of art—installations, photographs, videos and films, artists’ books, and extensive performance documentation—that demonstrate the critical role of California artists in the development of Conceptual art and other new genres."
Berkeley Art Museum
Exhibitions
LA Times - Art review: 'State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970' at OCMA
amazon
NY Times: ‘State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970'

Legends of the Dead Ball Era (1900–1919) in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick

"The term 'dead ball era' refers to the era of American baseball when the combination of cavernous ballparks, spongy baseballs, and pitcher-friendly rules resulted in games with few home runs. Strategy was important to the sport at this time, with great value placed on individual runs, stolen bases, sacrifice bunts, and other maneuvers. Beginning July 8, the exhibition Legends of the Dead Ball Era (1900–1919) in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will feature nearly 600 historical trade cards of baseball greats from the time."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
NY Times: Rascals and Heroes, Before the Babe
NY Times: Slideshow

Subway Art

Wikipedia - "Subway Art is a collaborative book by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, which documents the early history of the New York graffiti movement. Originally published in 1984, the book holds great significance in exporting graffiti and the wider hip hop culture internationally."
Wikipedia
NYT: The Subway Art History Project
amazon: Subway Art
7 Incredible Images Of New York City Subways in the 70s and 80s (Video)
YouTube: Subway Art: 25th Anniversary Edition, Martha Cooper - graffiti interview

Van Morrison: Under Review 1964-1974

"Van Morrison: Under Review 1964-1974 is a 2 hour documentary film which covers the musician’s albums during that period, from the formation of Them through to his solo records Astral Weeks, Moondance, St. Dominic’s Preview, Tupelo Honey, Veedon Fleece and It’s Too Late To Stop Now."
YouTube: Van Morrison: Under Review 1964-1974, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

2007 July: Van Morrison, 2011 January: Astral Weeks, 2011 June: Van Morrison & The Caledonia Express, 2012 January: "Into the Mystic", 2012 March: Live at Montreux 1980/1974, 2013 May: Saint Dominic's Preview.

Rauschenberg Research Project

"The Rauschenberg Research Project provides free worldwide access to a wealth of scholarly research and documentation relating to artworks by Robert Rauschenberg in SFMOMA's permanent collection. The museum's holdings span the artist's career from 1949 to 1998 and include Combines, sculptures, paintings, photographs, and prints and other works on paper. A rich range of materials surrounds the featured works, including newly commissioned essays, numerous images, interview footage, artist's statements, conservation reports, and archival materials, which together provide new insights into the artist's work."
SF MoMA
Cy + Roman Steps (I-V).By Nicholas Cullinan, July 2013
YouTube: Robert Rauschenberg - Erased De Kooning

2008 May: Robert Rauschenberg

The Last Detail (1972)

Wikipedia - "The Last Detail is a 1973 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jack Nicholson, with a screenplay adapted by Robert Towne from a novel of the same name by Darryl Ponicsan. The film became known for its frequent use of profanity. ... U.S. Navy petty officers Billy 'Badass' Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and Richard 'Mule' Mulhall (Otis Young), are awaiting orders in Norfolk, Virginia when they are assigned a shore patrol detail escorting young sailor Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid) to Portsmouth Naval Prison near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Meadows has drawn a stiff eight-year sentence for the petty crime of trying to steal $40 from a collection box of his C.O.'s wife's favorite charity."
Wikipedia
YouTube: The Last Detail Theatrical Trailer, A scene, directed by Hal Ashby, Winter picnic scene

Dobro

Wikipedia - "Dobro is a registered trademark now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar. The name has a long and involved history that is interwoven with that of the resonator guitar. Originally coined by the Dopyera brothers when they formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company, in time it came to commonly mean a resonator guitar, or specifically one with a single inverted resonator. ... The name originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. 'Dobro' is both a contraction of 'Dopyera brothers' and a word meaning 'goodness' in their native Slovak (and also in most Slavic languages)."
Wikipedia
Vintage Guitars Info's Dobro Metal Body Resonator Vintage Guitar Info.
amazon: Basic Recordings in Bluegrass Dobro / Resonator Guitar
YouTube: Man of constant sorrow, Blues Stay Away From Me, Little Medley - Jerry Douglas, Crying Time, On Dobro - The Whirley Brothers Bluegrass, Panhandle Rag

A Mural of a Spanish Poet in Bushwick, Confounding and Enchanting

"A huge portrait of Federico García Lorca peered out onto Stockholm Street in Bushwick, painted on a drugstore wall alongside verses from 'Sleepless City (Brooklyn Bridge Nocturne).'

Out in the sky, no one sleeps. No one, no one.

But out on the sidewalk, one man groused. ... Out by the wall, two artists — accustomed to the entire gamut of popular reaction evoked by their latest mural — painted their fourth of the Spanish poet and playwright in this Brooklyn neighborhood."
NY Times
W - Federico García Lorca
The Federico Garcia Lorca Murals
vimeo: Lorca’s Route in New York/La Ruta de Lorca en Nueva York

All Mod Cons - The Jam

Wikipedia - "All Mod Cons is a 1978 album by the British band The Jam, their third full-length LP. The title, a British idiom one might find in housing advertisements, is short for 'all modern conveniences' and is a pun on the band's association with the mod revival. The album was more commercially successful than The Jam's previous album, This Is the Modern World. The single 'Down in the Tube Station at Midnight' was one of the band's most successful chart hits up to that point, peaking at #15 on the UK charts."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: "A" Bomb In Wardour Street, David Watts, Down In The Tube Station, In The Crowd, Mr Clean

2009 March: The Jam, 2011 December: Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, 2012 November: "Going Underground", 2013 January: In the City, 2013 February: This Is the Modern World

Brushy One-String

"When filmmaker Luciano Blotta walked out of a rural Jamaican recording studio, way off the beaten path of tourists and music hounds, he saw something wildly unusual: a man with an instrument. Even more surprising, the instrument in question—a battered but resonant acoustic guitar—had only one string. Blotta had encountered Brushy One-String (born Andrew Chin), son of a musical family who despite his challenging life had a seemingly innate ability to inspire and move even casual listeners—including millions of people who have watched and shared Brushy’s videos on YouTube."
Rock Paper Scissors (Video)
amazon: Brushy One-String
YouTube: Chicken in The Corn, They Are Going Down, No Man Stop Me (Good Morning Mr.Sun), Life Is For Every Man, War and Crime, Boom Bang Deng, Destiny, Seeking a better

Mike Innocenzi

"My name is Mike Innocenzi. I was raised in Oak Park, Ill., and then lived in other places. I currently live and work in Chicago. ... I have also contributed regularly to several venerable city news outlets, including Gapers Block, WBEZ, Chicago Reader, CenterSquare Journal, and Chicagoist. Editorially, I’ve covered Iraq War protests, Obama’s Grant Park Inauguration, the Occupy Chicago movement, Chicago Teacher’s Union strike, and more. I’m also a member of the Hungry Ghost Collective, a group of fine art photographers based in Chicago."
Mike Innocenzi
inspirefirst
mashkulture

Habib Koité

Wikipedia - "Habib Koité (born 1958 in Thiès, Senegal) is a solo singer, songwriter and guitarist, based in Mali. His band, Bamada, is a supergroup of West African musicians, including Kélétigui Diabaté playing balafon. Koité is known primarily for his unique approach to playing the guitar by tuning it on a pentatonic scale and playing on open strings as one would on a kamale n'goni. Other pieces of his music sound more like the blues or flamenco which are two styles he learned under Khalilou Traore. Koité's vocal style is intimate and relaxed, emphasizing calm, moody singing rather than operatic technical prowess. Members of Bamada play talking drum, guitar, bass, drum set, harmonica, violin, calabash, and balafon."
Wikipedia
African Musicians Profiles
YouTube: Habib Koité & Bamada - Massakè, N'teri, Fatma, Mali, Sambara Bulama, Habib Koité, Afel Bocoum & Oliver Mtukudzi - Malaika 2010, Wassiyé, Ma Ya, Special: Habib Koite & Eric Bibb - live at Radio 6, Live @ Ethno Port Festival, Poznan

The Polaroid Years

"... 'The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation' at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., covers the period right before the 1972 release of the SX-70, the first automatic camera to make self-developing, instant color prints, until the present, and includes work by 39 artists and collectives. Like the snapshot-size prints made by the SX-70, the exhibition is compact and somewhat modest, but it’s an excellent introduction to the artistic use of this popular technology."
NYT: Instant Photographs, Lasting Images
'The Polaroid Years' Book Explores The Retro Camera's Influence On Photography
amazon

Netherlandish Proverbs - Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Wikipedia - "Netherlandish Proverbs ... is a 1559 oil-on-oak-panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder that depicts a land populated with literal renditions of Dutch proverbs of the day. The picture is overflowing with references and most of the representations still can be identified; while many of the proverbs have either been forgotten or never made the transition to the English language, some are still in use. Proverbs were popular during Bruegel's time: a number of collections were published including a famous work by Erasmus. ... Bruegel's paintings have themes of the absurdity, wickedness, and foolishness of humans, and this painting is no exception."
Wikipedia
feuilleton: Proverbs details
Web Gallery of Art
YouTube: Bruegel Peter the elder "Netherlandish proverbs" #17

2010 May: Peasant, 2011 March: "The Harvesters", Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 2012 February: The Mill and the Cross - Lech Majewski, 2012 December: The Lord of Misrule and the Feast of Fools.

Salvatore Giuliano

Wikipedia - "Salvatore Giuliano is a 1962 Italian film directed by Francesco Rosi. Shot in a neo-realist documentary, non-linear style, it follows the lives of those involved with the famous Sicilian bandit, Salvatore Giuliano. Giuliano is mostly off-screen during the film and appears most notably as a corpse."
Wikipedia
W - Salvatore Giuliano
The Criterion Collection (Video)
Storytellers: Salvatore Giuliano, The Lost Corleone
amazon: Salvatore Giuliano
YouTube: Trailer, Salvatore Giuliano The Man The Myth The Legend, Casa Museo Salvatore Giuliano

The Clash - Armagideon Time

I stayed around don’t played around
This old town too long
Seems like I got to
Travel on
A lotta people won't get no supper tonight
A lotta people won't get no justice tonight
The battle is getting harder
In this iration, Armagideon time
YouTube: Armagideon Time - London 79, Armagideon Time - Justice Tonight / kick it over

Jimmy James

Wikipedia - "Jimmy James (born Michael James, 13 September 1940, Jamaica) is a soul music singer, known for songs like Come To Me Softly, Now Is the Time and I'll Go Where the Music Takes Me. ... The Vagabonds were originally formed in 1960. Later, James, already a successful solo artist in Jamaica, teamed up with them under Canadian band manager Roger Smith and in April 1964, they relocated to the UK. 'Ska-Time' (Decca Records) was recorded as Jamaica's Own Vagabonds within two weeks of their arrival, and is one of the first examples of Jamaican ska music to be recorded in the UK."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: A Man Like Me, I'll Go Where Your Music Takes Me, Hey girl, Bewildered and Blue, Come To Me Softly, This Heart Of Mine, Now Is The Time (Live)

2012 October: Northern Soul, 2012 December: The obsession that is Northern Soul

55th Venice Biennale 2013

Venetians, 2013. Pawel Althamer.
"The Encyclopedic Palace is laid out in the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and in the Arsenale forming a single itinerary, with works spanning over the past century alongside several new commissions, including over 150 artists from 37 countries. 88 National Participations are also exhibited; among these 10 countries are participating for the first time. 47 Collateral Events are promoted by various organizations and exhibited in different venues around the city."
la Biennale di Venezia
Exhibition: la Biennale di Venezia
Photo: la Biennale di Venezia
Universes In Universe
NYT: Beyond the ‘Palace,’ an International Tour in One City
vimeo: 55th Art Biennale Venice, 2013
YouTube: The Encyclopedic Palace (Arsenale). 55th Venice Biennale, May 30th 2013, 30:49, The Encyclopedic Palace (Giardini). 55th Venice Biennale. May 31st, 2013. 28:29, Il Enciclopedico Palazzo del Mondo Goes to the Venice Biennale

Appalachian Journey

"Appalachian Journey is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). It offers songs, dances, stories, and religious rituals of the Southern Appalachians. Preachers, singers, fiddlers, banjo pickers, moonshiners, cloggers, and square dancers recount the good times and the hard times of rural life there."
folkstreams (Video)
folkstreams: Transcript for Appalachian Journey

No (2012)

Wikipedia - "No is a 2012 Chilean drama film directed by Pablo Larraín. The film is based on the unpublished play El Plebiscito, written by Antonio Skármeta. Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays René, an in-demand advertising man working in Chile in the late 1980s. The historical moment the film captures is when advertising tactics came to be widely used in political campaigns. The campaign in question was the historic 1988 plebiscite of the Chilean citizenry over whether general Augusto Pinochet should have another 8-year term as President."
Wikipedia
W - Augusto Pinochet
W - 1973 Chilean coup d'état
NY Times: ‘No,’ With Gael García Bernal (Video)
YouTube: 'No' Official Movie Trailer , NO | Film Trailer | Participant Media, Acclaimed Film "No" Documents Historic 1988 Vote in Chile

XL: 19 New Acquisitions in Photography

Lynn Hershman Leeson. Roberta’s Construction Chart #2. 1976.
"This exhibition addresses photography’s influential role in contemporary art through a selection of recent major acquisitions, primarily multipart and serial works. Presented at MoMA for the first time, these works by 19 artists are grounded in diverse photographic traditions, suggesting the creative fertility of the medium from 1960 to today. They range from postwar experiments with darkroom processes (such as photograms and photomontages), to 1970s feminist performances conceived for the camera, to political and documentary engagements with labor history and globalization in the 1980s and 1990s, to forms of archival and historical reconstitution made since 2000."
MoMA

Ringolevio

Wikipedia - "Ringolevio (also spelled ringalevio or ring-a-levio) is a children's game which may be played anywhere but which originates in the teeming streets of New York City, and is known to have been played there at least as far back as before World War I. It is one of the many variations of tag. It requires close team work and near-military strategy. ... There are two teams. In one version, one team goes off and hides. The other team counts to some number like 30 and then goes looking for them. In another version, each team has its own 'jail', perhaps a park bench or other defendable turf. In Bay Terrace, Queens, both teams had a park bench jail, and whichever team could capture all of the other team's members, won. Often, the game would go on so long that it was called on account of darkness."
Wikipedia
ring-a-levio | Dictionary of American Regional English

The Bar-Kays

Wikipedia - "The Bar-Kays are a soul, R&B, and funk group formed in 1966. ... The Bar-Kays began in Memphis, Tennessee as a studio session musician group, backing major artists at Stax Records. They were chosen in 1967 by Otis Redding to play as his backing band. On December 10, 1967, Redding, his manager, and band members Jimmie King (born June 8, 1949; guitar), Ronnie Caldwell (born 1948; electric organ), Phalon Jones (born 1949; saxophone), and Carl Cunningham (born 1949; drums) died when their airplane plunged into Lake Monona while attempting to land at Truax Field, both near Madison, Wisconsin."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Soul Train Cruise
YouTube: Soul Finger, HOLY GHOST, SON OF SHAFT, Shake your rump to the funk, She Talks To Me With Her Body

Jana & Js "Who Said It Was Better Before"

"Next week, Jana & Js will be releasing a new stencil edition via Pretty Portal. 'Who Said It Was Better Before' is an edition of 10, Indian ink, watercolors, acrylics, spray and stencil on old music paper, they measure 30,5 x 47cm and comes signed and numbered by the duo."
StreetArtNews
flickr

Brian Eno - Textures (1989)

"An unreleased album of ambient cues and themes from Brian Eno, pressed as a promo-only CD for The Standard Music Library – an organization that licenses music for television programming and films. ... You can pretty much imagine any of this stuff floating behind barren landscapes on the BBC, or some National Geographic slo-mo underwater exploration, which are the types of clients this CD was designed to attract. You can’t buy this in stores. There’s more Eno in the archives."
UbuWeb (Video)
Wikipedia
YouTube: Textures (Whole Album)

Mink DeVille

Wikipedia - "Mink DeVille (1974–86) was a rock band known for its association with early punk rock bands at New York’s CBGB nightclub and for being a showcase for the music of Willy DeVille. The band recorded six albums in the years 1977 to 1985. Except for frontman Willy DeVille, the original members of the band played only on the first two albums (Cabretta and Return to Magenta). For the remaining albums and for tours, Willy DeVille assembled musicians to play under the name Mink DeVille."
Wikipedia
W - Willy DeVille
allmusic
YouTube: Spanish Stroll, Love and Emotion, Hey! Joe, She's so tough, Demasiado Corazon, I Broke That Promise, Just To Walk That Little Girl Home

Félicie de Fauveau. The Amazon Sculptress

"Félicie de Fauveau (1801-1886) was a figure as emblematic as she was unique. Nostalgic for an era that she had not lived through, a royalist, a catholic, a single woman and a feminist, this sculptress committed her life and her art to defending a political utopia, expressed principally through images of History. After supporting the Duchesse de Berry and organising uprisings in the Vendée with the Countess de La Rochejaquelein, she agreed to go into exile, and settled in Florence."
Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay - 1, 2, 3, 4.

A Visual Footnote to O’Hara’s “The Day Lady Died”: New World Writing and The Poets of Ghana

"Because his poems are so overstuffed with references to proper names, movies, books, small-scale historical events, and famous or not-so-famous friends, people who love and teach Frank O’Hara’s work often talk about how useful it would be to have an annotated version of his work, with explanations, images, and links to the myriad things, people, and places he mentions."
Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets
Modern American Poetry: On "The Day Lady Died"
Poetry Foundation: Frank O’Hara, "The Day Lady Died"

2008 January: Frank O'Hara, 2010 February: USA: Poetry, 2010 October: Stones: Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara, 2011 July: "Poet Among Painters" by James Schuyler, 2011 October: City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara - Brad Gooch, 2012 December: USA: Poetry, Frank O'Hara (1966).

Bowery

On the Bowery, 1957
Wikipedia - "The Bowery (/ˈbaʊ.əri/ or New York English /ˈbaʊər.i/), sometimes referred to simply as Bowery, is a street and neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street runs from Chatham Square in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north,[1] while the neighborhood's boundaries are roughly East 4th Street and the East Village to the north; Canal Street and Chinatown to the south; Allen Street and the Lower East Side to the east; and Little Italy to the west."
Wikipedia
NYT: Behind the Facades, a Seedy Past Endures (Video)
NPR: 'Bowery Boys' Are Amateur But Beloved New York Historians (Video)
W - On the Bowery
On the Bowery
YouTube: On the Bowery THEATRICAL TRAILER
YouTube: On the Bowery, Lionel Rogosin (1956)1:05:13

Romantic Warriors II: A Progressive Music Saga About Rock in Opposition

Wikipedia - "Romantic Warriors II: A Progressive Music Saga About Rock in Opposition is a 2012 feature length documentary film about the Rock in Opposition movement of the late 1970s, the music genre it spawned, and the influence it has on experimental groups across the world. The film was written and directed by Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder, and was released by Zeitgeist Media."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Romantic Warriors - Trailer - 9:52 (Video)
YouTube: Romantic Warriors Progressive Music Documentary - Trailer 2 6:44, Romantic Warriors II - Trailer - About Rock in Opposition 5:01

Minnie and Moskowitz - John Cassavetes

Wikipedia - "Minnie and Moskowitz is a film by John Cassavetes, starring his wife, Gena Rowlands, and actor Seymour Cassel in the title roles of Minnie and Moskowitz, respectively. Following a break-up, Minnie Moore, a museum curator, becomes disillusioned by love and meaningful relationships. But after a seemingly chance encounter, she meets Seymour Moskowitz, a parking-lot attendant. After this event, Moskowitz falls in love with Minnie, trying desperately to get her to love him back."
Wikipedia
Roger Ebert
Cassavetes' Works: Minnie and Moskowitz
notcoming
YouTube: Minnie and Moskowitz, Gena Rowlands, John Cassevettes, Minnie and Moskowitz - 1, A touching declaration of love

2008 September: John Cassavetes, 2010 December: Shadows (1959), 2011 June: A Woman Under the Influence (1974), 2012 February: His Life and Work, 2012 July: A Constant Forge

Konono Nº1

Wikipedia - "Konono Nº1 is a Grammy nominated musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They combine three electric likembé (a traditional instrument similar to the mbira) with voices, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group's amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator and a gigantic horn-shaped amplifier."
Wikipedia
Crammed: Konono Nº1
Robert Christgau
amazon
YouTube: Konono Nº1, Lufuala Ndonga, Makembe
vimeo: Yaya Mikolo (live in St. Nazaire)

The Atlas of True Names Restores Modern Cities to Their Middle Earth-ish Roots

"I was born in the City of the Flowland People, made my way to Stink Onion upon reaching maturity, then onward to New Yew Tree Village where I have lived for the last 217 moons. Look up some of your key co-ordinates in The Atlas of True Names and you too can have a personal history as mythic-sounding as mine. The maps—for the UK, USA, Canada, and World—replace modern geographical names with the original etymological roots of cities, countries, and bodies of water, translated into English. Their website picks the “Sahara desert” to illustrate the true name selection process."
Open Culture
The Atlas of True Names

Five Leaves Left - Nick Drake

Wikipedia - "Five Leaves Left, recorded in 1969, was the first of three albums by British folk musician Nick Drake. Like Bryter Layter but unlike Pink Moon, this album contains no unaccompanied songs. Drake was accompanied by members of the British folk-rock groups Fairport Convention and Pentangle."
Wikipedia
allmusic: Five Leaves Left
3quarksdaily: The magic, mystery and melancholy of Five Leaves Left
Five Leaves Left
amazon
YouTube: Five Leaves Left, Time Has Told Me, Way To Blue
YouTube: Five Leaves Left (1969) Full Album 41:20

2012 July: Nick Drake