Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse: The Art of the Flower

Vincent Van Gogh, Bowl with Zinnias and Other Flowers, 1886
"The exhibition explores the infusion of new spirit and meaning into the traditional genre of floral still-life painting in 19th-century France, even as the advent of modernism was radically transforming the art world. It features more than 60 flower paintings by more than 30 artists, including well-known painters such as Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri Matisse, as well as less familiar figures such as Antoine Berjon and Simon Saint-Jean. These artists, whose careers collectively span the nineteenth century, engaged in a sophisticated reworking of traditional imagery, bringing the floral still life into dialogue with emerging models of science and commerce, and ultimately transforming the genre into a meditation on the nature of artistic representation itself."
VMFA
[PDF] VMFA
Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse: The Art of the Flower

Between the Wars EP - Billy Bragg (1985)

Wikipedia - "Between the Wars was an extended play released by Billy Bragg in 1985. It reached #15 on the UK Singles Chart. The title track was inspired by the UK miners' strike (1984–1985). The choice of other songs on the record was also relevant to the dispute - 'Which Side Are You On?' is an American pro-trade union song from the 1930s, whilst Bragg's own composition 'It Says Here' is critical of the political bias of British newspapers, most of which opposed the strike. The proceeds from sales of the record were donated to the striking miners' fund. ..."
Wikipedia
Billy Bragg Reviews
Family Detective: Billy Bragg
[PDF]Jeremy Tranmer - Cercles
YouTube: Between The Wars (Live), Between The Wars, Which Side Are You On (Live), The world turned upside downIt Says Here

2011 November: Billy Bragg, 2012 November: Strange Things Happen (Live on The Tube 1984), 2012 December: The Internationale, 2013 May: Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, 2014 June: Tooth & Nail (2013), 2014 September: Peel Session, 2014 December: Don't Try This at Home (1991).

Hip-Hop Revolution

"Hip-Hop Revolution presents more than 80 photographs taken between 1977 and 1990 by three preeminent New York-based photographers—Janette Beckman, Joe Conzo, and Martha Cooper—who documented hip hop from its pioneering days through its emergence into mainstream popular culture. Hip-hop culture, incorporating such elements as DJing, rapping, and breaking (dancing), was born on the streets of New York City in the 1970s and grew to have a global impact on music, dance, and fashion. The exhibition showcases the experiences of each photographer during these seminal years, as DJs, MCs, and b-boys (breakdancers) were continually innovating, developing new forms of self-expression"
Museum of the City of New York
NY Times: Hip-Hop? She Won’t Stop (11 Photo)
BJP (14 Photo)
6 crazy, sexy, true stories of NYC’s early hip-hop scene (Video)

2012 January: The Hip-Hop Family Tree: A Look Into the Viral Propagation of a Culture, 2012 August: ‘Hip Hop Family Tree’ Comics Explain Genesis of the Genre, 2013 October: The Hip Hop Family Tree, 2014 June: Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop.

Central Park jogger case

Wikipedia - "The Central Park jogger case concerned the violent assault, rape, and sodomy of Trisha Meili, a female jogger, and attacks on others in New York City's Central Park, on April 19, 1989. The attack on the female jogger left her in a coma for 12 days. Meili was a 28-year-old investment banker at the time, weighing under 100 pounds. The attacks were, according to The New York Times, 'one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s.' Five juvenile males—four black and one of Hispanic descent—were tried, variously, for assault, robbery, riot, rape, sexual abuse, and attempted murder. They were convicted of most charges by juries in two separate trials in 1990, and received sentences ranging from 5–10 to 5–15 years. Four of the convictions were appealed; they were affirmed by appellate courts. The defendants spent between six and thirteen years in prison. In 2002, Matias Reyes, a Hispanic male who had been a juvenile at the time of the attack, confessed to raping the jogger, and DNA evidence confirmed his involvement in Meili's rape."
Wikipedia
W - The Central Park Five
PBS: The Central Park Five
Central Park Revisited
CNN: Judge approves $41M settlement in Central Park jogger case (Video)
YouTube: The Central Park Five Official Trailer #1 (2012)

Download Images From Rad American Women A-Z: A New Picture Book on the History of Feminism

"The next time story hour rolls around, you can give a mouse a cookie or you can awaken pre-readers (and yourself) to some key figures in women’s history. 26 of them, to be precise. It’s no accident that that number corresponds to the exact number of letters in the alphabet. Author Kate Schatz and illustrator Miriam Klein Stahl actively sought to include women of color and a variety of sexual orientations when choosing whom to feature in Rad American Women A To Z, a progressive feminist text cum ABC primer. (Illustrations from the book, like the ones featured on this page, can be downloaded here for free.)"
Open Culture
amazon: Rad American Women A-Z

Lindsay Cooper - Rarities Volumes 1 & 2 (2014)

"Lindsay Cooper, like contemporaries Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson, and John Greaves, cut their avant-garde teeth in the uncompromising leftist band Henry Cow. Cooper had been playing with the progressive rock band Comus when she was invited to join Henry Cow. The rest really is history, but not a well-known one. After Henry Cow’s demise, Cooper started a band called News from Babel. Both the Henry Cow and News from Babel material are fairly well-documented, but there is so much more to Cooper’s musical legacy that remains largely unknown to any but the most diehard fans. Rarities, Volumes I & II attempts to redress the various oversights in Cooper’s eclectic career as composer and improviser on some of the toughest instruments to bring to any kind of combo – jazz, rock, or improvisatory – mainly the oboe, bassoon and sopranino saxophone."
avant music news
Biography by Sally Potter
W - Rarities Volumes 1 & 2
facebook

December 2009: Lindsay Cooper, 2010 February: Art Bears, 2011 April: Rags (1980)/The Golddiggers (1983), 2012 July: The Art Box - Art Bears, 2012 November: David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme, 2012 November: News from Babel, 2013 March: The Last Nightingale, 2013 October: Art Bears Songbook - 2010-09-19 - Rock In Opposition Festival, 2014 April: Lindsay Cooper, 1951-2013, 2015 February: Oh Moscow (1991).

RAE on the Loss and Retrieval of his Trunk in Trunk Work

"
"On exhibit through April 19 at 34 1/2 Bayard Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown, RAE’s brilliantly idiocyncratic Trunk Work celebrates the retrieval and contents of RAE‘s trunk from his former Brooklyn studio, while chronicling the events related to its loss and rescue. Graphically and conceptually engaging, Trunk Work wittily defines the mood and culture of the Brooklyn environs that housed RAE‘s trunk, as it showcases a range of RAE’s rescued and new works."
Street Art NYC
RAE - Instagram

Fashioning Spaces: Mode and Modernity in Late-Nineteenth-Century Paris - Heidi Brevik-Zender (2015)

Hush! (1875), James Tissot (1836-1902)
"In Fashioning Spaces, Heidi Brevik-Zender argues that in the years between 1870 and 1900 the chroniclers of Parisian modernity depicted the urban landscape not just in public settings such as boulevards and parks but also in 'dislocations,' spaces where the public and the intimate overlapped in provocative and subversive ways. Stairwells, theatre foyers, dressmakers’ studios, and dressing rooms were in-between places that have long been overlooked but were actually marked as indisputably modern through their connections with high fashion. Fashioning Spaces engages with and thinks beyond the work of critics Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin to arrive at new readings of the French capital.Examining literature by Zola, Maupassant, Rachilde, and others, as well as paintings, architecture, and the fashionable garments worn by both men and women, Brevik-Zender crafts a compelling and innovative account of how fashion was appropriated as a way of writing about the complexities of modernity in fin-de-siècle Paris."
University of Toronto Press
“Hush!” Worn Through’s Second Award Winner Explores the Art and Fashion of Late-Nineteenth Century Paris
Google - Fashioning Spaces
amazon

2012 December: Impressionism and Fashion (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), 2013 March: Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, 2013 July: Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy.

IOWA

What Cheer, Iowa. Population: 646.
"Batavia Libertyville Fairfield Keokuk Salem Washington Rubio Rome Riverside Packwood Lockridge Eldon Brighton Richland West Point Keota Harper Sigourney Hayesville Ollie Martinsburg Hedrick Delta What Cheer Thornburg Kinross Keswick Webster South English Gibson Pleasant Plain Coppock Douds Leando Milton Cantril Mount Sterling Farmington Bonaparte Vernon Bentonsport Keosauqua Stockport Birmingham New Boston Argyle Croton Donnellson Franklin Fort Madison Montrose"
IOWA

Hanuman Books

"Hanuman Books was founded by Raymond Foye and Francesco Clemente in 1986. The press published small handmade books, primarily of works by contemporary avant-garde writers and rare translations. The administrative and editorial functions were housed in New York's Chelsea Hotel, while printing and binding were done in Madras, India. Through correspondence, invoices, manuscripts, typescripts, artwork, audiotapes, printed ephemera, photographs and books, this collection documents the founding of Hanuman Books, the administration of a small press, Indian printing practices, San Francisco’s North Beach and New York’s Lower East Side art scenes, Beat poetry, the Naropa Institute, contemporary music and film, and gay culture."
University of Michigan Digital Library
[PDF] Hanuman Books - Parkett
Beautiful Hand-Made Paper Gems from Hanuman Books
Hanuman Book Covers
Raymond Foye - Hanuman Books

Raymond Pettibon and Baseball

"Raymond Pettibon is one of the leading contemporary artists of this generation, and man whose work has been accepted and glorified by both high and low culture, high art and lowbrow enthusiasts, major galleries in NYC and Los Angeles as well as punk rock zines and indie rock album covers. He also has a love of baseball that has spanned decades, creating an impressive body of work depicting the intimate details of America’s pastime. His view of baseball comes from a passionate following, but also an alternative angle, one of dialog, art, unspoken communication. We look at some of the great Pettibon baseball pieces today as America turns its attention toward the Major League All-Star break."
The Citrus Report
art21: Raymond Pettibon: Gumby, Vavoom, and Baseball Players
Juxtapoz
art21: Raymond Pettibon (Video)
W - Raymond Pettibon
NY Times: The Underbelly Artist

Charles Cohen

Wikipedia - "Charles Cohen is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area-based free jazz musician and composer. Creating music since 1971, his music is entirely improvisational and produced solely on a vintage Buchla Music Easel synthesizer, an extremely rare integrated analog performance instrument made by synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla. He has been increasingly recognized for his artistry performing internationally and is one of a handful of musicians who has mastered the Buchla Music Easel, an extremely rare instrument. Only twenty-five of the instruments were produced in the early 1970s and only a few have survived. He is also considered a pioneer in synthesizers and performance music. ..."
Wikipedia
Charles Cohen: Synthesis and context
The Bob Ross of the Music Easel: Watch Charles Cohen at the Buchla (Video)
Soundcloud: beepsandboops (Video)

Vermont Historical Society examines lasting impact of 1970s counterculture

Verandah Porche (standing and wearing glasses) is shown here with fellow members of the Total Loss Farm, a commune established in 1968 in Guilford, Vermont. Ray Mungo, Porche's college boyfriend and co-founder of the commune, is seated in the center.
"The Vermont Historical Society is collecting firsthand accounts, artifacts and documents from the back-to-the-land movement. The curators of the project will link the pivotal 1960s and 1970s cultural shift in Vermont’s history to the current political, economic and cultural climate of the state. ... The first phase of the project includes research, community forums, and the compilation of anecdotes, ideas, and artifacts. The historical society will produce 50 oral histories from the era and work with academics to interpret the material."
Vermont Historical Society
Back to the Land: Communes in Vermont (Video)
Life on a Vermont commune: Poet Verandah Porche remembers back-to-the land living
Vermont Hippies! Photographs by Peter Simon and Rebecca Lepkoff at the Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT
Google

Paul Éluard

"Paul Éluard (... 14 December 1895 – 26 November 1952), was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement. ...The three young poets Jean Paulhan recommended to Paul were André Breton, Phillipe Soupalt and Louis Aragon. The meeting with Paul took place in March 1919. Paul was intimidated. He was shy and blushing. He was still a soldier and wearing his war uniform. It was the best omen for the three poets, who all showed great courage during the war. Paul brought with him his poems and read them to the ‘jury’.  ... Paul and Gala moved to a house just outside Paris and were joined by Max Ernst, who entered France illegally, using Éluard's passport. Jean Paulhan once more helped Paul by providing Max Ernst with fake identity papers."
Wikipedia
Poets
Guardian - Watching boxing with Picasso and a ménage-à-trois at home: my life with the surrealist elite
Affair of the art
amazon: Paul Eluard
Green Integer Review: Clock of Secret Weddings, Memories and the Present
Paul Éluard - Twenty-Four Poems

Andrew Savulich: The City

"Social and cultural transition is often hard to gauge. New York in the 1980s and the first half of the 90s was clearly a different place than it is now: the city was more violent, the street stranger, and Times Square still wonderfully sleazy. Andrew Savulich's subject is this perpetually changing metropolis, and his images are a unique mix of spot news and street photography, capturing crime scenes as well as everyday life. The startling immediacy of the moment prevails in his black-and-white images on which he provides handwritten captions. What at first seems like objective commentary soon reveals an dry ironic tone, at times bordering on black humor."
artbook
Steidl
Google

A New War With Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front - Week 4

"In the early days of World War 1, warfare is still based on ideas and ideals of 19th century generals. The technological progress during industrialisation clashes with obsolete war tactics. Tens of thousands of soldiers lose their lives in carnage at the Western front. The foreshadow of this carnage could already be seen in last week's episode."
YouTube: A New War With Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front I - Week 4

2014 December: The Great War: WWI Starts - How Europe Spiraled Into the Great War - Week 1, Europe Prior to WWI: Allies and Enemies I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 1/3, Tinderbox Europe - From Balkan Troubles to WWI I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 2/3, A Shot that Changed the World - The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 3/3, 2015 January: Germany in Two-Front War and the Schlieffen-Plan I - Week 2, 2015 March: To Arms! Deployment of Troops - Week 3

Pull My Daisy (1959)

Robert Frank, Alfred Leslie and Gregory Corso
Wikipedia - "Pull My Daisy (1959) is a short film that typifies the Beat Generation. Directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Daisy was adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of his play, Beat Generation; Kerouac also provided improvised narration. It starred poets Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky and Gregory Corso, artists Larry Rivers (Milo) and Alice Neel (bishop's mother), musician David Amram, actors Richard Bellamy (Bishop) and Delphine Seyrig (Milo's wife), dancer, Sally Gross (bishop's sister), and Pablo Frank, Robert Frank's then-young son. Based on an incident in the life of Beat icon Neal Cassady and his wife, the painter Carolyn, the film tells the story of a railway brakeman whose wife invites a respected bishop over for dinner. However, the brakeman's bohemian friends crash the party, with comic results."
Wikipedia
Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac’s brilliant 1959 short, ‘Pull My Daisy’ (Video)
Is Pull My Daisy Holy?

2009 November: Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut, 2010 July: Kerouac's Copies of Floating Bear, 2011 March: Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show, 2013 September: On the Road - Jack Kerouac, 2014 May: “Walker Evans and Robert Frank – An Essay on Influence by Tod Papageorge” (1981).

Bazm and Razm: Feast and Fight in Persian Art

Details from two folios from the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. Iran, Safavid period, ca. 1525–30.
"For centuries, Persian kingship was epitomized by two complementary pursuits: bazm (feast) and razm (fight). The ruler’s success as both a reveler and hunter/warrior distinguished him as a worthy and legitimate sovereign. The pairing of bazm and razm as the ultimate royal activities is an ancient concept with roots in pre-Islamic Iran. It is a recurring theme in the Shahnama (or Book of Kings)—the Persian national epic—as well as other poetic and historic texts. The exhibition Bazm and Razm: Feast and Fight in Persian Art, which opened February 17 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, features some three dozen works in various media, created between the 15th century and the present day."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia (Video)

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup

"Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs such as 'That's All Right' (1946), 'My Baby Left Me' and 'So Glad You're Mine', later covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other artists. ... Crudup stayed in Chicago to work as a solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label. ..."
Wikipedia
allmusic
The Mississippi Blues Trail
amazon
YouTube: Mean Ol' Frisco Blues, My Baby Left Me, That's All Right, So Glad You're Mine, Rock me Mama, I'm gonna dig myself a hole, Death Valley Blues, My Mama Don't Allow, Hey Mama Everything's All Right, Standing At My Window, She's Gone, Gonna Be Some Changes Made, Just Like A Spider, Dust My Broom, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.29.15

Various Artists on a “magnet wall” in Berlin.
"BSA again proudly shouts out Young New Yorkers this week as they offer you works by many Street Artists on the scene today at auction. Check out the auction on April 1st of some of New Yorks’ finest (and generous) Street Artists whose work will benefit the programs of 'restorative justice' which YNY offers to 16 and 17 year olds in NYC who have become entangled with the law. (Video at bottom) Also our hearts go to the neighbors who lost homes and were hurt (some very badly) in the explosion and fire that destroyed two buildings on the Lower East Side this week. Meme-making selfies by callous bimbos aside, stories of strangers and neighbors reaching out to help out remind us why we love NYC. Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring B.D.White, City Kitty, Claw Money, Enzo Sarto, Hot Tea, Jeff Soto, Philippe Vignal, Rhino, Sbagliato, Sobr, Stikman, Tona, Urban Solid, and VK."
Brooklyn Street Art

Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese (1973)

Wikipedia - "Mean Streets is a 1973 crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. ... Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is a young Italian-American man who is trying to move up in the local New York Mafia but is hampered by his feeling of responsibility towards his reckless friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), a small-time gambler who owes money to many loan sharks. Charlie works for his uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), the local caporegime, mostly collecting debts. He is also having a secret affair with Johnny Boy's cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson), who has epilepsy and is ostracized because of her condition—especially by Charlie's uncle."
Wikipedia
Roger Ebert
The impact of Martin Scorsese’s ‘Mean Streets’(Video)
What’s the Big Deal?: Mean Streets (1973)
YouTube: Mean Streets theatrical trailer, $10 on a $2,000 debt, Q&A with Martin Scorsese, "Mean Streets" 49:00

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - God Is In The House (2001)

"The centerpiece of this DVD is a 90-minute concert by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, performing live in Lyon, France, in the summer of 2001 during a European tour in support of the album No More Shall We Part. Its mature and emotive textures dominate this show, which means if you're hoping to see Cave whipping himself into a frenzy while Blixa Bargeld rattles the walls with his guitar, well, you're out of luck. However, this footage proves that, in more subtle form, Cave is still a magnetic and compelling performer and that the Bad Seeds have grown into a singularly gifted ensemble who bring just the right amount of drama and force to Cave's superb songs (with guitarist Mick Harvey and violinist Warren Ellis taking top honors at this performance)."
allmusic
amazon: God Is In The House
YouTube: God Is In The House 1:28:15

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", 2013 April: No More Shall We Part, 2013 June: The Secret Life Of The Love Song/The Flesh Made Word (1999), 2013 October: The Abattoir Blues Tour (2007), 2014 March: Push the Sky Away (2013), 2014 May: Live from KCRW (2013), 2014 July: I Am the Real Nick Cave.

Old Black

Wikipedia - "Old Black is the name given to the main electric guitar used by rock musician Neil Young. Most of Neil's electric guitar parts were recorded on 'Old Black,' though some were played on Gretsch White Falcons or on an orange Gretsch Chet Atkins. Young acquired Old Black in 1969 through a trade with one-time Buffalo Springfield collaborator Jim Messina, who received one of Young's orange Gretsch guitars (Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins) in exchange."
Wikipedia
Neil Young’s ‘Old Black’ Magic
YouTube: NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE - Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), Wild Man de-strings 'Old Black' Gibson Guitar

2008 February: Neil Young, 2010 April: Neil Young - 1, 2010 April: Neil Young - 2, 2010 May: Neil Young - 3, 2010 October: Neil Young's Sound, 2012 January: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, 2012 June: Like A Hurricane, 2012 July: Greendale, 2013 April: Thoughts On An Artist / Three Compilations, 2013 August: Heart of Gold, 2014 March: Dead Man (1995), 2014 August: Ragged Glory - Neil Young + Crazy Horse (1990), 2014 November: Broken Arrow (1996), 2015 January: Rust Never Sleeps (1979), 2015 January: Neil Young the Ultimate Guide.

John Renbourn: ceaseless explorer of song – appreciation

"It wasn’t the sort of house where you could just drop in and say hi. The converted chapel on the Scottish borders that John Renbourn had called home for the past three decades was far away. Far from pretty much everywhere. And given how remote John’s house was – and that everything in it had got there by being carried along a 200-yard path via a narrow footbridge – it really was astonishing how much stuff there was in it. The 20 or so guitars. The bed in the corner of the large living space. The four or five record players dotted about the place. The thousands of records in the kitchen included an original copy of Lena Hughes – Queen of the Flat-Top Guitar, a privately pressed album of Appalachian folk instrumentals that numbered among his astonishingly diverse influences. The water supply came directly from the river. Mostly it worked, but sometimes, John would have to go outside and fix the pump."
Guardian (Video)
Pitchfork: Pentangle Founder John Renbourn Has Died (Video)
John Renbourn, Eclectic Guitarist Who Founded the Pentangle, Dies at 70

2011 September: Faro Annie, 2011 April: Cruel Sister (1970) - Pentangle, 2012 November: John Renbourn - Sir John Alot, 2013 May: The Lady and the Unicorn, 2014 February: Bert &; John (1966), 2014 October: The Hermit (1976).

The Whitney Museum, Soon to Open Its New Home, Searches for American Identity

"When the Whitney Museum of American Art opens its new building in Manhattan’s meatpacking district on May 1, it’s the big things everyone will notice first: the sweeping views west to the Hudson River; the romantic silhouettes of Manhattan’s wooden water towers; the four outdoor terraces for presenting sculptures, performances and movie screenings; and the tiered profile of its steel-paneled facade, intentionally reminiscent of the Whitney’s Modernist, granite-clad Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue, which had been the museum’s home since 1966. Its new digs, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, also offer commodious interior spaces: 50,000 square feet of galleries, unencumbered by structural columns, and huge elevators that are themselves immersive environments, the work of the artist Richard Artschwager."
NY Times (Video)

Massive Underground City Found in Cappadocia Region of Turkey

Tourist map of Derinkuyu Underground City
"When the invaders came, Cappadocians knew where to hide: underground, in one of the 250 subterranean safe havens they had carved from pliable volcanic ash rock called tuff. Now a housing construction project may have unearthed the biggest hiding place ever found in Cappadocia, a region of central Turkey famous for the otherworldly chimney houses, cave churches, and underground cities its residents carved for millennia. Discovered beneath a Byzantine-era hilltop castle in Nevşehir, the provincial capital, the site dates back at least to early Byzantine times. It is still largely unexplored, but initial studies suggest its size and features may rival those of Derinkuyu, the largest excavated underground city in Cappadocia, which could house 20,000 people. ..."
National Geographic
Derinkuyu & The Underground Cities of Cappadocia

Enchanting rainy evenings in the Gilded Age city

Hoffbauer, New York Public Library
"Impressionist painter Charles Constantin Hoffbauer, born in 1875, must have loved the rain. He painted many scenes of streetlights and roadways and cable cars and black-clad people slick with rain, some depicting his native Paris but many of New York, where he arrived just before 1910. His New York is an evening or nighttime city on the move, one of melancholy skies illuminated by billboards and store windows. The exact location of each scene isn’t always clear, but the first image could be close to Times Square, with the Times building in the back. Next up is the very recognizable New York Public Library main building, an El station off in the distance. The third might be Madison Square Park’s Met Life Tower, flanked by the second version of Madison Square Garden in dark shadows. More images of a stormy, moody city can be found here."
Ephemeral New York

Atlantis - Sun Ra (1969)

"Featuring the Astro Infinity Arkestra, Atlantis reveals two very distinct sides of Sun Ra's music. The first consists of shorter works Ra presumably constructed for presentation on the Hohner clavinet. Not only is the electric keyboard dominantly featured, but also it presumably offered Ra somewhat of a novelty as it had only been on the market for less than a year. The second side consists of the epic 21-minute title track and features an additional seven-man augmentation to the brass/woodwind section of the Astro Infinity Arkestra. Tracks featuring the smaller combo reveal an almost introspective Arkestra. ..."
allmusic
Wikipedia
Spotify
YouTube: Atlantis [Saturn] [Full Album] 42:59

Jennifer Tipton

Autumn Sonata
Wikipedia - "Jennifer Tipton (born September 11, 1937 Columbus, Ohio) is a lighting designer. She has designed for dance, theater and opera. ... She is known for her designs for dance and is the principal lighting designer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Choreographers she has worked with include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jiri Kylian, Dana Reitz, Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Dan Wagoner and Shen Wei. Tipton has designed lighting for the American Ballet Theatre since A Soldier’s Tale (1971). She designed the lighting for Baryshnikov's production of The Nutcracker, both for the stage and for television. In January 2008, Tipton designed a large lighting display for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. It was her first non-theatrical installation."
Wikipedia
The queen of theater lighting, Jennifer Tipton, gets a spotlight for herself in two New York performances
[PDF] Jennifer Tipton by Megan Slayter
NY Times: Through the Lens Brightly With Jennifer Tipton
TheatreNow! Interview with Jennifer Tipton, Lighting Designer
vimeo: Light Above the Hudson
YouTube: Women in Theatre, Jennifer Tipton on Edward Hopper, Remembering Jerome Robbins, Sardono Dance Theater and Jennifer Tipton: Rain Coloring Forest

Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence

"The first major retrospective exhibition ever presented of paintings by the imaginative Italian Renaissance master Piero di Cosimo (1462–1522) will premiere at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from February 1 through May 3, 2015. Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence will showcase some 44 of the artist's most compelling works. With themes ranging from the pagan to the divine, the works include loans from churches in Italy and one of his greatest masterpieces, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Elizabeth of Hungary, Catherine of Alexandria, Peter, and John the Evangelist with Angels (completed by 1493), from the Museo degli Innocenti, Florence. Several important paintings will undergo conservation treatment before the exhibition, including the Gallery's Visitation with Saints Nicholas of Bari and Anthony Abbot (c. 1489–1490)—one of the artist's largest surviving works. ..."
NGA
[PDF] Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence
New Yorker: Change Artist By Peter Schjeldahl
Piero di Cosimo, a misunderstood master, at the National Gallery of Art
WSJ
amazon
Download Press Preview: Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence Lagu Gratis (Video)

Adrian Younge: New Soul Rebel

"The distinctive clattering drums and twisted psychedelics underpinning Jay Z’s ode to stacking art dollars, 'Picasso Baby,' sounds like a dusty sample rattled out of a 70s funk studio in Memphis, Tennessee. It is in fact a loop from 'Sirens,' a track written in 2011 by Adrian Younge, a gifted multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer. The Los Angeles native’s singular obsession with the seemingly lost craft of analogue production has made him the go-to name for hip-hop, R&B and soul stars in search of an old-school studio magic. From Hova, Snoop, the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and Ghostface Killah to Common, Raphael Saadiq, Bilal, and Ali Shaheed of A Tribe Called Quest, Younge's multiple collaborators cite his passion for vinyl culture and nuanced approach in successfully creating music deeply inspired by the past, yet progressive in execution."
NOWNESS (Video)
Adrian Younge’s Perfection Of The Analogue Sound Dissected By RZA, Bilal, Raphael Saadiq & DJ Premier In Stunning Short Film
W - Adrian Younge
Linear Labs
Discogs
facebook
YouTube: Adrian Younge's Vinyl Collection - Crate Diggers

Travelers in Postwar Europe: Photographs by H. A. Durfee, Jr., 1951-53

Vineyard on the Rhine, Bacharach, Germany
"... In the early 1950s, prior to beginning his career in Vermont, Dr. Durfee practiced medicine at the U.S. Army Airbase in Wiesbaden, Germany. He and his wife Elizabeth took advantage of the assignment, traveling to London, Paris, Venice and the German countryside when they could find the time. On these travels, Durfee took with him two German cameras: a Rolleiflex and Rolleicord. Between 1951 and 1953, he took more than 600 black-and-white images, capturing the striking architecture, landscapes, monuments, ruins, and the uncannily empty streets of Europe’s cities in the aftermath of World War II."
Fleming Museum of Art
Travelers in Postwar Europe

Marianne Faithfull - Give My Love to London (2014)

"Though there is no musical resemblance, the title track of Marianne Faithfull's Give My Love to London looks back at her brilliant reading of Kurt Weill's and Bertolt Brecht's 'Pirate Jenny' on her 20th Century Blues album from 1997, and even mentions her by name. ... The intimate yet dramatic sadness in this reading completes a series of bridge constructions from the eras in Faithfull's musical past to her present. Thus, Give My Love to London is as complete a portrait of the artist -- at least from the late '70s on -- as we've ever had. In total, it reveals no abatement in her creative renaissance."
allmusic
W - Give My Love to London
Pitchfork
NPR: First Listen
YouTube: Give My Love To London, Love More Or Less, Late Victorian Holocaust, Sparrows Will Sing, True Lies, The Price of Love, Deep Water

2008 June: Marianne Faithfull, 2010 November: Marianne Faithfull - 1, 2013 January: Broken English: Deluxe Edition, 2013 November: Before the Poison (2005), 2014 August: Kissin' Time (2002), 2014 October: Broken English short film by Derek Jarman (1979).

Daedalus Books

Wikipedia - "Daedalus Books is an independent seller of books, music, and video founded in 1980. While it also sells new titles, Daedalus Books' specialty is the remaindered book. Its philosophy is to keep bestsellers, classics, and overlooked gems available to the reading public. The company has a wholesale division and a retail division. The retail division sells via catalogs, a web site, and through a bricks and mortar store."
Wikipedia
Daedalus Books
Daedalus Books – there’s a reason they’re a legend
Twitter

Mario Vargas Llosa

The Discreet Hero
Wikipedia - "Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa (...Spanish: born March 28, 1936) is a Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, essayist, college professor, and recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. ... Like many Latin American writers, Vargas Llosa has been politically active throughout his career; over the course of his life, he has gradually moved from the political left towards liberalism or neoliberalism. While he initially supported the Cuban revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, Vargas Llosa later became disenchanted with his policies. ..."
Wikipedia
The Paris Review: Mario Vargas Llosa, The Art of Fiction No. 120
New Yorker: Restless Realism
New Republic: Why Literature?
NY Times: Vargas Llosa Takes Nobel in Literature
amazon: Mario Vargas Llosa
Guardian: Nobel prize for literature goes to Mario Vargas Llosa (Video)