The Battle of Bouvines

Wikipedia - "The Battle of Bouvines, which took place on 27 July 1214, was a medieval battle which ended the 1202–1214 Anglo-French War. It was fundamental in the early development of France in the Middle Ages by confirming the French crown's sovereignty over the Angevin lands of Brittany and Normandy. Philip Augustus of France defeated an army consisting of Imperial German, English and Flemish soldiers, led by Otto IV of Germany. Other leaders included Count Ferrand of Flanders, William de Longespee and Renaud of Boulogne. The defeat was so decisive that Otto was deposed and replaced by Frederick II Hohenstaufen; Ferrand and Renaud were captured and imprisoned and King John of England was forced to sign the Magna Carta by his discontented barons. Philip was himself able to take undisputed control of most of the territories in France that had belonged to King John of England, Otto's maternal uncle and ally."
Wikipedia
BBC: The most important battle you've probably never heard of
YouTube: The Battle of Bouvines

Bootleg recording

Wikipedia - "A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging. A great many such recordings are simply copied and traded among fans of the artist without financial exchange, but some bootleggers are able to sell these rarities for profit, sometimes by adding professional-quality sound engineering and packaging to the raw material. Bootlegs can consist of recordings of live performances or material created in private or professional recording sessions. Changing technologies have had a great impact on the recording, distribution, and varying profitability of the underground industry."
Wikipedia
W - Great White Wonder
W - Bob Dylan bootleg recordings
The 10 Best Bob Dylan Bootlegs
W - Category:Bootleg recordings
amazon: Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry
amazon: The Great White Wonders: The Story of Rock Bootlegs
amazon: Bootleg: The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording History
YouTube: Popular Bootleg recording Videos

Train of Thought: On the ‘Subway’ Photographs - Bruce Davidson

"In the spring of 1980, I began to photograph the New York subway system. Before beginning this project, I was devoting most of my time to commissioned assignments and to writing and producing a feature film based on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s novel, Enemies, A Love Story. When the final option expired on the film, I felt the need to return to my still photography—to my roots. I began to photograph the traffic islands that line Broadway. These oases of grass, trees, and earth surrounded by heavy city traffic have always interested me. I found myself photographing the lonely widows, vagrant winos, and solemn old men who line the benches on these concrete islands of Manhattan’s Upper West Side."
The New York Review of Books
Magnum Photos
Bruce Davidson's 'Subway' Photos Show How Much New York City Has Changed Since The '70s And '80s

2014 January: Bruce Davidson

The Essential Ellen Willis

"... 'The Essential Ellen Willis,' which gathers 40 years of her work, carries the sound of a feminist who never forgot the ideals of the ’60s, and who never stopped arguing for what those years gave her and others. (Willis died in 2006.) 'The valorization of too much allowed me, for the first time in my life, to have something like enough,' she recalled in 1989, in an article for The Village Voice. The collection is edited by Willis’s daughter, Nona Willis Aronowitz, and divided by decade; it begins with a 1969 essay on Willis’s awakening to feminism and concludes with excerpts from an unfinished book exploring the 'cultural unconscious in American politics.' In between, there is relentlessly rigorous thinking on Janis Joplin, Bell Hooks, child care, Bill Clinton, 'The Sopranos,' and Sept. 11."
NY Times
Book Excerpt: Ellen Willis on "Bringing in the Noise" of Trash TV
NPR: A Second Posthumous Collection From Rock Critic Ellen Willis
Ellen Willis
Why Ellen Willis Is An Essential Icon
Ellen Willis’ Radical Jewish Sex-Positive Rock ’n’ Roll Politics of the Future
amazon
YouTube: THE ESSENTIAL ELLEN WILLIS (book trailer)

2011 May: Ellen Willis

Bush Tetras

Wikipedia - "Bush Tetras are an American post-punk band from New York City that was popular in the Manhattan club scene and college radio in the early 1980s but never achieved much mainstream success. Their music combined funk rhythms and dissonant guitar riffs. Lead guitarist Pat Place and vocalist Cynthia Sley produced the most distinctive aspects of the Tetras sound. Place's guitar lines were rhythmic and distortion-filled. She had been the original guitarist and one of the founding members of the no wave band The Contortions."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Bush Tetras - Roir
Perfect Sound Forever: Pat Place talks of Contortions
BUSH TETRAS: WE’RE NOT DEAD
YouTube: Too Many Creeps, You Can't Be Funky, Things that go boom in the night, Das Ah Riot, Snakes Crawl, Rituals, Cowboys In Africa, You taste like the tropics

Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern American - Donald L. Miller

"While F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, Manhattan was transformed by jazz, night clubs, radio, skyscrapers, movies, and the ferocious energy of the 1920s, as this illuminating cultural history brilliantly demonstrates. In four words—'the capital of everything'—Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: the Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history. Supreme City is the story of Manhattan’s growth and transformation in the 1920s and the brilliant people behind it."
amazon
NY Times: The Roar of the Crowd>
Supreme City, Supreme History: Donald L. Miller’s Monumental Book about Manhattan in the ’20s
WSJ - Book Review: 'Supreme City' by Donald L. Miller
How the Jazz Age Invented Modern America
Simon and Schuster (Video)
YouTube: Donald L. Miller: Supreme City 1:02:59

“Summer of The Rub”

"'Summer of The Rub' is officially here!!!! What better way to get this celebration started than releasing a new mix as apart of our buds over at Fool’s Gold Records’ 'Foolcast' Podcast series? Our kick-off party is this Saturday at Dekalb Market and it is going to be an absolute throwdown. We’re bringing out the big guns with DJ Neil Armstrong as well as Rich Medina to ensure your evening becomes a sweaty sing-a-long. As for the podcast, well this is not your typical mix at all.”
Its Rub - Brooklyn (Video)
The Rub (Ayres & Eleven) – Summer of The Rub 1. Rolling Stones – Paint It Black 2. Cream – White Room 3. Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower 4. Sly & The Family Stone – I Want to Take You Higher 5. Flaming Ember – Gotta Get Away 6. Rare Earth – I Just Want to Celebrate 7. The James Gang – Funk #49 8. Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride 9. The Doors – Peace Frog 10. The Doobie Brothers – Long Train Running 11. Stealers Wheel – Stuck in the Middle With You 12. The Beatles – Glass Onion 13. T.Rex – Bang A Gong (Get It On) 14. The Zombies – Time of the Season 15. The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil 16. Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic 17. Erma Franklin – Light My Fire 18. Eric Burdon and The Animals – Good Times 19. The Temptations – Psychedelic Shack 20. Sly & The Family Stone – You Can Make It If You Try 21. The Doors – Break On Through (To The Other Side) 22. Led Zeppelin – Whole Lot of Love 23. The Turtles – Happy Together 24. Santana – Jingo

Downtown Los Angeles

"Above the grit and noise of the street, downtown Los Angeles quietly provides some of the most amazing visual detail in its buildings and public art works. This is a selection of those buildings and public arts filmed across some 50 different locations in the immediate downtown area and the arts district. There are many many more locations that are not included and are equally if not more impressive. Some of the buildings are in disrepair, some have been restored to their full glory while others have been transformed into artworks. In all of them, there is character, color and detail that makes the area a never-ending source of intrigue."
vimeo: Downtown Los Angeles (Video)
YouTube: A Drive Through Bunker Hill and Downtown Los Angeles, ca. 1940s, Los Angeles in the 50s
W - Downtown Los Angeles

Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil

Laura Belém, Veneza do Brasil, 2007
"Published on the occasion of the first major exhibition of contemporary Brazilian art at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil, co-curated by Jennifer Lange, Bill Horrigan, and Paulo Venancio Filho, documents the exhibition and also discusses a related series of contemporary Brazilian documentary films organized by Chris Stults. The exhibition Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil, features thirty-five artists (or artistic teams), working across virtually all genres, who reflect the vibrant and diverse artistic scene currently flourishing throughout the country."
Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil
Via Brasil (Video)
YouTube: Contemporary Art in Brazil, Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil

Wire - Document And Eyewitness (1979-1980)

"Wire are set to reissue their 1981 live album Document And Witness on August 18 via the band's Pink Flag label. The record, which marked the end of the band's first period, famously took a notorious 1980 concert at London's Electric Ballroom, which saw the band going in for some Dadaist onstage experimentation in front of a hostile audience, as its main source material. ... Now, all three of those gig recordings will be released as individual albums as part of Pink Flag's 'Legal Bootleg' series, alongside an expanded version of Document And Witness, which includes singles, B-sides and previously unheard rehearsal recordings on double CD and vinyl."
The Quietus (Video)
The Portable Infinite
Pinkflag
W - Document And Eyewitness (1979-1980)
YouTube: Midnight Bahnhof Cafe, Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars), Witness to the Fact, Relationship, 5/10, Underwater Experiences, Safe - Lorries, Our Swimmer Versions Second Length + Catapult 30 from Crazy About Love EP

2009 January: Wire, 2012 January: On the Box 1979., 2013 September: Chairs Missing (1978), 2014 June: 154 (1979).

Blues Masters, Vol. 2: Postwar Chicago Blues

"Excellent 18 track compendium of all the major movers and shakers who helped shape the Chicago blues scene in the 50s. Everyone is well represented here, and major stars like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf stand next to behind-the-scenes geniuses like Earl Hooker and Jody Williams for an interesting, and accurate, blend."
allmusic
amazon
YouTube: Eddie Boyd - Five Long Years (Live), Magic Sam ~ All Your Love / Lookin' Good (Live), Howlin Wolf - Smokestack Lightning (Live), Baby Face Leroy Trio - Rollin' And Tumblin', All Your Love (I Miss Loving) - Otis Rush, Jody Williams - You May, Muddy Waters - I Just Want To Make Love To You, Jimmy Rogers - Thats All Right, Little Walter - Off The Wall, Sonny Boy Williamson - Don't Start Me Talkin', Johnny Shines & Walter Horton - Evening Sun, Bo Diddley - I Am A Man, Sweet Woman (From Maine)- Robert Lockwood, Jr., Mama Talk to Your Daughter - J.B. Lenoir, Jimmy Reed - Bright Lights, Big City, Buddy Guy - First Time I Met The Blues, Blue Guitar - Earl Hooker, Junior Wells - Little By Little

"Suspicion" - Terry Stafford (1964)

"One-hit wonder Terry Stafford was known for his Elvis sound-alike single 'Suspicion,' which became a Top Five smash even at the height of Beatlemania in 1964. Stafford was born in Hollis, OK, on November 22, 1941, and grew up in Amarillo, TX. He moved to Los Angeles after high school to pursue a singing career and performed at various local dances and social events. He got the chance to record a demo and chose 'Suspicion,' an album track from Elvis Presley's Pot Luck LP (1962)."
allmusic
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Suspicion"

Rudy Burckhardt Films: 1936-1999

Circles, 1939
"... Rudy Burckhardt is well known for his cityscape photographs and what's best in the films is an extension of what is great in the photos: the street signage, the criss-crossing motion of people walking in the street, the buzz and hum of the sidewalk. The DVD collection also includes a selection of Burckhardt's zany narrative films, starring Edwin Denby, John Ashbery, Mimi Gross, Alex Katz, Neil Welliver, Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher, Paul Bowles, Aaron Copland, John Latouche, Fairfield Porter, Anne Waldman, Virgil Thomson, Yoshiko Chuma, Grazia Della-Terza, Douglas Dunn, Harry Sheppard, and Red Grooms, among others, and music or texts by Joe Brainard, Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara, and Ashbery."
Jacket2
Rudy Can’t Fail
A Simple Representation of What Is: Rudy Burckhardt
Heartland: Rudy Burckhardt Films [DVD]
vimeo: Trailer for Rudy Burckhardt Films

2013 December: Rudy Burckhardt

The Shadows Took Shape

Cyrus Kabiru. African Guitar (from the C-Stunners series), 2012
"One part a literary subgenre of sci-fi, pioneered by the likes of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler, and one part cross-cultural, interdisciplinary aesthetic movement, Afrofuturism — a term coined by cultural critic Mark Dery in his 1994 essay “Black to the Future“— can be tricky to describe. The Studio Museum in Harlem’s current exhibition, The Shadows Took Shape includes a diverse range of 29 artists, featuring painting, sculpture, photography and video, all comfortably drawn under Afrofuturism’s spacious umbrella. Drawing on Afrocentric imagery, cultural references, experiences and concerns, Afrofuturism as articulated in The Shadows Took Shape seems as much a cross-cultural political statement on historiography as it is about conceptualizing the future."
He Who Controls the Past: Highlights from “The Shadows Took Shape” at the Studio Museum
Open Culture: Sun Ra’s Full Lecture & Reading List From His 1971 UC Berkeley Course, “The Black Man in the Cosmos” (Video)
NY Times: Going Beyond Blackness, Into the Starry Skies
'The Shadows Took Shape' Tackles Race In Past, Present And Sci-Fi Future
amazon: The Shadows Took Shape (Lost Reel 3) - Sun Ra

Stories of Change – Beyond the ‘Arab Spring’

Mahmoud Khaled, Egypt
"World Press Photo, the Dutch non-profit foundation has just announced the release of Stories of Change – Beyond the ‘Arab Spring’, a book and online presentation. Stories of Change offers a unique, intimate perspective on everyday life in five North African countries: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. The World Press Photo Academy ran a two-year training program for young photojournalists and multimedia makers from the region to support them in advancing their storytelling skills. The results are fantastic and the way they’ve been brought together via the  website application work really well."
World Press Photo
Stories of Change – Beyond the ‘Arab Spring’ (Video)

2013 March: Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of North African Literature
Algeria - 2011 February: Raï, 2011 November: The Battle of Algiers (1957), 2012 February: An Intro To Rebel Hip-Hop Of The Arab Revolutions
Egypt - 2011 February: TNR's Egypt Coverage, 2011 February: Egypt Burning - Al Jazeera, 2011 December: The Alexandria Quartet - Lawrence Durrell, 2013 March: First Look: Graffiti and The Egyptian Revolution, 2013 September: Villa that inspired Lawrence Durrell faces demolition, as Egypt allows heritage to crumble, 2014 February: Cairo: Images of Transition. Perspectives on Visuality in Egypt 2011-2013
Morocco - 2010 February: Paul Bowles (1910-1999) UbuWeb, 2013 September: Kassidat: Raw 45s from Morocco, 2014 March: Yto Barrada

This and That - Norma Cole

"... I think to myself again that I would like someday to read this memoir. Maybe in the summer—still thinking of summertime as 'halcyon' days. I look up 'halcyon' just to see if it’s still there. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary tells me that as a noun, it’s a kingfisher (now I need to reread [Charles] Olson’s 'Kingfishers,' What does not change / is the will to change); and as an adjective it’s calm, peaceful, happy & golden. Ah. But a kingfisher. It is actually 'a bird identified with the kingfisher and held in ancient legend to nest at sea about the time of the winter solstice and to calm the waves during incubation.'"
Poetry Foundation
Poetry Foundation: "The Kingfishers" By Charles Olson

2009 January: Charles Olson, 2009 April: Rockport Harbor, 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, 2013 January: Mass.Charles Olson, 2013 May: The Maximus Poems, 2013 November: A Guide to The Maximus Poems of Charles Olson.

Live at The Cafe Au Go Go - The Blues Project (1965)

Wikipedia - "Live at The Cafe Au Go Go is the debut album by the American band The Blues Project, recorded live during the Blues Bag four-day concert on the evenings of November 24-27, 1965 at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City. The band scaled down their usual lengthy arrangements for the album due to time constraints and record label wariness."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Live at The Cafe Au Go Go – The Blues Project (Video)
IT'S ALL THE STREETS YOU CROSSED NOT SO LONG AGO
YouTube: Blues Project -- Cafe au Go Go, I Want To Be Your Driver, Alberta (NYC Live 1965), Violets Of Dawn, The Way My Baby Walks (NYC Live 1965), Catch The Wind (NYC Live 1965)

2009 February: Al Kooper, 2011 September: The Blues Project, 2012 January: Child Is Father to the Man - Blood, Sweat & Tears , 2013 April: I Stand Alone, 2013 January: Cafe Au Go Go.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul - Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1974)

Wikipedia - "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is a 1974 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem. The film won two awards at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival[1] and is considered to be one of Fassbinder's most powerful works. Brigitte Mira received the German Film Award for her performance. ... Ali (Salem), is a Moroccan Gastarbeiter (guest worker) in his late thirties, and Emmi (Mira), is a 60-year-old widowed cleaning woman. They meet when Emmi ducks inside a bar, driven by the rain and drawn by the exotic Arabic music (Al Asfouryeh by Sabah) she says she has heard so often on her walk home from work. A woman in the bar (Katharina Herberg) who is part of Ali's Arabic-speaking cohort tauntingly suggests Ali ask Emmi ('the old woman') to dance, and Emmi accepts. A strange and unlikely friendship develops, then a romance and soon they are living together in Emmi's flat."
Wikipedia
Criterion (Video)
Roger Ebert
Reverse Shot
Bright Lights Film Journal
YouTube: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

2014 May: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 2014 June: Effi Briest (1974).

Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today (1975)

"The title is intended in an ironic way, as illustrated not only by the cover -- a grim parody of late-'40s/early-'50s advertising imagery depicting white versus black social reality -- but the grim yet utterly catchy and haunting opening number, 'Billy Jack.' A song about gun violence that was years ahead of its time, it's scored to an incisive horn arrangement by Richard Tufo. 'When Seasons Change' is a beautifully wrought account of the miseries of urban life that contains elements of both gospel and contemporary soul. ... The album doesn't really have as clearly delineated a body of songs as Mayfield's earlier topical releases, but it's in the same league with his other work of the period and represents him near his prime as a composer."
allmusic
W - There's No Place Like America Today
NPR: You've Never Heard Curtis Mayfield's 'There's No Place Like America Today'?! (Video)
YouTube: There's No Place Like America Today (1975)
01. Billy Jack 06:04 02. When Seasons Change 05:23 03. So In Love 05:12 04. Jesus 06:10 05. Blue Monday People 04:47 06. Hard Times 03:43 07. Love To The People 04:03

2013 June: Roots (1971), 2014 May: Super Fly (1972).

Soviet Ghosts: The Soviet Union Abandoned: A Communist Empire in Decay

"The countries of the former Eastern bloc are full of abandoned monuments to the glory of the Soviet Union. Risking arrest and radiation, photographer Rebecca Litchfield took a road trip through the ruined hospitals, barracks, prisons and spy stations to produce a haunting ghost story in bricks and mortar."
Guardian
Photos Of The Old Soviet Union Are Haunting But Alluring
amazon

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson (2014)

Wikipedia - "The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 2014 comedy film written and directed by Wes Anderson and inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig. It stars Ralph Fiennes as a concierge who teams up with one of his employees to prove his innocence after he is framed for murder. ... In the present, a teenage girl approaches a monument to a writer in a cemetery. In her arms is a memoir penned by a character known only as 'The Author' (Tom Wilkinson). She starts reading a chapter from the book. The Author begins narrating the tale from his desk in 1985 about a trip he made to the Grand Budapest Hotel in 1968. Located in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka, a European alpine state ravaged by war and poverty, the young Author (Jude Law) discovers that the remote, mountainside hotel has fallen on hard times."
Wikipedia
New Yorker
Slate (Video)
YouTube: Official International Trailer HD, Meet the Cast of Characters, Featurette: "The Story", "Good Morning, Pinky", "They Only Had the Half-Ounce", "Interview with Zero"

2013 November: Wes Anderson Honors Fellini in a Delightful New Short Film, 2013 November: Rushmore (1998), 2013 Decemher: Hotel Chevalier (2007), 2014 March: Wes Anderson Collection, 2014 April: The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies.

Here and Elsewhere

Qalandia by Wafa Hourani
"The exhibition brings together more than forty-five artists from over fifteen countries, many of whom live and work internationally. In keeping with the New Museum’s dedication to showcasing the most engaging new art from around the globe, 'Here and Elsewhere' is the most recent in a series of exhibitions that have introduced urgent questions and new aesthetics to US audiences. ... Combining pivotal and under-recognized figures with younger and midcareer artists, 'Here and Elsewhere' works against the notion of the Arab world as a homogenous or cohesive entity. Through the original and individualized practices of a multigenerational constellation of artists, the exhibition highlights works that often have conceptual or aesthetic references to the Arab world, yet also extend well beyond."
New Museum
NY Times: Far From Home, an Arab Summer
“Here & Elsewhere,” Window Into Arab World, Opens at New Museum
Artists from the Arab world on show in New York City (Video)

Record Shopping in Brussels

"In the latest of FACT TV’s Record Shopping jaunts abroad, we tackle Brussels. Belgium’s capital is known for operating at a slower pace than many of Europe’s key cities, and that translates to their vinyl culture – as the staff of The Collector tell host Bart Sibiel, they don’t want to take part in the 'online craze' that dominates much modern-day record buying. Later in the show, Sibiel heads to the 'more specialist' Veals and Geeks and Doctor Vinyl, the dance store that Jeff Mills, Dave Clarke and others visit when they’re in town, and explores the general differences between people’s approach to record shopping in Brussels and that of other European cities."
FACT
YouTube: FACT TV: Brussels' Best Record Stores

John Lennon - Out of the Blue

"For many mainstream listeners, the four-CD Anthology boxset is probably the first time they encountered John Lennon’s home recordings. [For the more hardcore Beatles fans, the Abbey Road sessions provide a good idea of what it was like in the studio.] And for the Lennon fans, the Lost Lennon Tapes would have been a good place to start and recent releases such as The Lost Home Tapes 1965-1969; John Lennon - At Home; Come On, Listen To Me and older releases such as Listen To This… are worthwhile companion albums."
THE PHILIP COHEN COLLECTION (Video)
BootlegZone
YouTube: Out of the Blue - (Full Album)

2009 September: John Lennon - Live in New York City (Madison Square Garden 1972), 2014 April: "Jealous Guy" (1971), 2014 May: Mind Games (1973).

Xenia Hausner

St. Francis, 2014
Wikipedia - "Xenia Hausner (1951 in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian artist. ... Hausner mainly focuses in her art work on the depiction of women whose relationship to each other are difficult for the viewer to really fathom. Her style is expressive and the range of her colors is extremely varied. This becomes especially evident in the flesh tones of her protagonists. She turned to painting in 1990 and from there increasingly to graphic works and mixed media, taking large-format photographs, painting them over and incorporating other materials, piecemeal, into her work. Her projects evolve into collages, rising above their original painterly basis. Her themes lead the viewer into a puzzling world of images, enriched with codes and clues about their meaning."
Wikipedia
Xenia Hausner
YouTube: xenia hausner

Il Sorpasso (1962)

Wikipedia - "Il Sorpasso ... is a 1962 Italian cult movie directed by Dino Risi. It is considered Risi's masterpiece and one of the most famous examples of Commedia all'italiana film genre. It's a hazy, dreamy, sun-baked and seemingly empty Rome on an August morning. A young, timid law student Roberto (Trintignant), looking out his window, is asked for trivial favor by a 40-ish man named Bruno (Gassman) who has passed under his window while at the wheel of a convertible Lancia Aurelia: Could he please make a phone call for him? The young man tells him to come up and make the call himself. After Bruno fails to contact his friends--after all, he's a full hour late for the meeting they--he insists in repaying Roberto's courtesy by offering him a drink. Being tired of studying for the day, and falling prey to Bruno's enthusiasm, the young man accepts."
Wikipedia
Criterion
NPR: Two Italys Take A Road Trip In 'Il Sorpasso'
Watch: Alexander Payne Talks Dino Risi's 'Il Sorpasso' For The Criterion Collection
YouTube: Il sorpasso - Trailer - Italian Movies, Beach Party!, Seconda Parte

Everybody Street

"From sidewalk antics in Harlem with Bruce Davidson to people-watching with Magnum veteran Elliot Erwitt, a new feature-length documentary by Cheryl Dunn chronicles the pioneering photographers making their mark on the streets of New York. For three years the photographer and filmmaker—whose work has shown at the The Hole, MoCA and OHWOW—trawled archives, visited old haunts and relived the heyday of Studio 54 to trace the history of NYC photography. ... Having been shown at the Tate Modern in London, and also featuring Bruce Gilden, Joel Meyerowitz, Rebecca Lepkoff and Mary Ellen Mark, the film premieres this week at Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto.”
NOWNESS (Video)

Amos Milburn

Wikipedia - "Joseph Amos Milburn, Jr. (April 1, 1927 – January 3, 1980) was an African-American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, popular during the 1940s and 1950s. He was born and died in Houston, Texas. One commentator noted, 'Milburn excelled at good-natured, upbeat romps about booze and partying, imbued with a vibrant sense of humour and double entendre, as well as vivid, down-home imagery in his lyrics.' ... The Texan boogie-woogie pianist and singer was an important performer of blues music during the years immediately after World War II. Milburn was one of the first performers to switch from sophisticated jazz arrangements to a louder 'jump' blues. He began to emphasize rhythm and technical qualities of voice and instrumentation second. "
Wikipedia
allmusic
The Official Amos Milburn
YouTube: Down The Road A Piece, Chicken Shack Boogie, Rocky Mountain, One Scotch, One, Bourbon, One Beer, Bad Bad Whiskey, Milk and Water, Vicious, Vicious Vodka, I Done Done It, Rock Rock Rock, Rooming house boogie, My Baby's Boogying

Situationist International Anthology

"In 1957 a few European avant-garde groups came together to form the Situationist International. Picking up where the dadaists and surrealists had left off, the situationists challenged people's passive conditioning with carefully calculated scandals and the playful tactic of detournement. ... The Situationist International Anthology, generally recognized as the most comprehensive and accurately translated collection of situationist writings in English, presents a rich variety of articles, leaflets, graffiti and internal documents, ranging from early experiments in 'psychogeography' to lucid analyses of the Watts riot, the Vietnam War, the Prague Spring, the Chinese Cultural Revolution and other crises and upheavals of the sixties." (E-book)
libcom
BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS: Situationist International Anthology
One Step Forward, One Step Back - Ken Knabb's Pas de deux
amazon
YouTube: Politics Book Review: Situationist International Anthology by Ken Knabb

2009 September: Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, 2009 November: The Society of the Spectacle, 2010 December: On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, 2011 May: Détournement.

Don DeLillo: The Word, The Image, and The Gun

"On September 27, 1991 BBC 1 broadcast a film on Don DeLillo, titled 'Don DeLillo: The Word, The Image, and The Gun' which was directed by Kim Evans. As of October 2013 the film has been put up on YouTube - here's the link. ... DeLillo at 5:20: 'I think it's true that none of my novels could have been written in the world that existed before the assassination. In my fiction there seems to be a sense of danger everywhere, of something unraveling. When Kennedy was shot, something changed for ever in America. Something opened up, a sense of randomness, deep ambiguity, we lost the narrative thread.'"
Perival
YouTube: Don DeLillo Documentary 50:39

2010 October: Pafko at the Wall, 2012 May: Underworld , 2012 July: The Body Artist, 2013 September: White Noise, 2013 November: The Art of Fiction No. 135.

Sixty-Nine Days - Héctor Tobar

"The San José Mine is situated inside a round, rocky, and lifeless mountain in the Atacama Desert, in Chile. Once every dozen years or so, a storm system sweeps across the desert, dropping a torrent of rain. When that happens, the dust turns to mud as thick as freshly poured concrete. Charles Darwin briefly passed through this corner of the Atacama in 1835. In his journal, he described the desert as 'a barrier far worse than the most turbulent ocean.' In the deeper desert, miners are the only conspicuous living presence; they ride in trucks and buses to the mountains, which contain gold, copper, and iron. The minerals draw workers to the Atacama from all over Chile. On the evening of August 3, 2010, Juan Carlos Aguilar began a bus journey of more than a thousand miles to reach the San José Mine, leaving from the temperate rain forests near Valdivia."
New Yorker

Urban decay

Urban Decay: American Auto
Wikipedia - "Urban decay (also known as urban rot and urban blight) is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. It may feature deindustrialization, depopulation or changing population, restructuring, abandoned buildings, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and a desolate, inhospitable city landscape. Since the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay has been associated with Western cities, especially in North America and parts of Europe. Since then, major structural changes in global economies, transportation, and government policy created the economic and then the social conditions resulting in urban decay."
Wikipedia
100 Captivating Examples of Urban Decay Photography
YouTube: Urban & Rural Decay Photography Slideshow

Brooklyn Heights

Wikipedia - "Brooklyn Heights is an affluent residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Originally referred to as 'Brooklyn Village', it has been a prominent area of Brooklyn since 1834. As of 2000, Brooklyn Heights sustained a population of 22,594 people. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 2. ... It is a popular tourist destination, a fine termination point, with its spectacular views, after a breath-taking walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. By the mid-1950s a new generation of property owners began moving into the Heights. They pioneered the so-called Brownstone Revival by buying and renovating pre-civil war period houses. The new population and their consolidated opposition to a Robert Moses slum clearance plan for luxury rental housing led to the development of a major middle income cooperative known as Cadman Plaza."
Wikipedia
Montague Street: The Shopping Street of Historic Brooklyn Heights
YouTube: New York City - Video tour of Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn (Part 1), (Part 2)

Sully - Blue EP (2014)

"In preparation for his performance at Perth's very own Circo Festival, Keysound Recordings have just announced the release of former garage and dubstep maestro Sully's new 'Blue' EP, in what they're amusingly calling four sides of warm vinyl dedicated to classic break-based rollage ‘n’ choppage: less 'where were you in ’92?' rather 'who wants more from ’94?' One title seems to sum it up best: 'Simple Things'. This double pack is not a statement about 2014, it is not trying to be a new sound, scene or development. This is just seven tracks of uncomplicated, intensely emotive, rhythmic fun – as MC’ed over by original-junglist-at-heart Riko on a recent Rinse FM show."
Stoney Roads (Video)
Podcast 215: Sully (Video)
YouTube: "Blue" [Keysound Recordings], Simple Things, Checkmate, Routine, M141

Zen Arcade - Hüsker Dü

"In many ways, it's impossible to overestimate the impact of Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade on the American rock underground in the '80s. It's the record that exploded the limits of hardcore and what it could achieve. Hüsker Dü broke all of the rules with Zen Arcade. First and foremost, it's a sprawling concept album, even if the concept isn't immediately clear or comprehensible. More important are the individual songs. Both Bob Mould and Grant Hart abandoned the strict 'fast, hard, loud' rules of hardcore punk with their songs for Zen Arcade. ..."
allmusic
Wikipedia
BBC
FROM THE VAULT: Husker Du – Zen Arcade
Rolling Stone: 33, Hüsker Dü, 'Zen Arcade'
YouTube: Zen Arcade (Private Remaster UPGRADE)
YouTube: Chartered Trips, Something I Learned Today, Broken Home, Broken Heart, Pink Turns To Blue

2009 May: Hüsker Dü