L'argot Du Bruit - Pascal Comelade (1998)

"By 1998, France's Pascal Comelade was well into his stride, and releasing albums as if they were editions of a regular magazine. Indeed, the magazine comparison is also valid on the basis that his albums tend to follow a similar pattern with only subtle variances in style. His first album of this year was L'argot Du Bruit; I believe a rough translation is 'The jargon of noise'. Comelade's listing on this site under the wing of 'Progressive electronic' is somewhat misleading, as his albums are most certainly not synthesiser-fests or keyboards infested virtuoso performances. The main sounds here, and indeed on many of Comelade's albums are French style accordions, Spanish brass and a variety children's instruments. The tracks tend to be short, sometimes very short, with only the occasional indulgence into anything over 4 minutes. The compositions are simple, using repetition a lot, their simplicity being emphasised by the instruments used and the basic arrangements. ..."
Progarchives
YouTube: Pascal Comelade & PJ Harvey. Love too soon, L'argot du bruit, Via-Crucis Del Rocanrol, Le soir du grand soir, Domisiladoré, Marie = un faux-cil dans la transmission, Teresa

2014 June: Pascal Comelade, 2014 September: September Song (2000), 2014 November: El pianista del antifaz (2013).

Coypel's 'Don Quixote' Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France

"A masterpiece of comic fiction, Cervantes’s Don Quixote (fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) enjoyed great popularity from the moment it was published, in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615. Reprints and translations spread across Europe, captivating the continental imagination with the escapades of the knight Don Quixote and his companion, Sancho Panza. The novel’s most celebrated episodes inspired a multitude of paintings, prints, and interiors. Most notably, Charles Coypel (1694−1752), painter to Louis XV, created a series of twenty-eight paintings (also called cartoons) to be woven into tapestries by the Gobelins manufactory in Paris. ..."
The Frick Collection
The Frick Collection: Introduction
NY Times: Review: ‘Coypel’s Don Quixote Tapestries’ Weaves a Classic Tale
YouTube: Coypel's 'Don Quixote' Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France

Laura Kicey

"Kicey is a photographer and artist based just outside of Philadelphia, PA. Her work has been shown in a number of galleries regionally, and has appeared in numerous publications internationally. Her 'construct' series of photographic montages is what drew me to her talent. The series consists of digitally altered photographs of architecture to make imaginary walls. Her color schemes and the contrast of style make her work completely vibrant and fun!"
thestudio4art
laura kicey

The Departed - Martin Scorsese (2006)

Wikipedia - "The Departed is a 2006 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, with Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, and Alec Baldwin in supporting roles. ... The film takes place in Boston. Irish Mob boss Francis 'Frank' Costello (Jack Nicholson) plants Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as a mole within the Massachusetts State Police; the two characters are loosely based on famous gangster Whitey Bulger and corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, who grew up with Bulger. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover state trooper William 'Billy' Costigan (Leonard DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello's crew. When both sides realize the situation, Sullivan and Costigan attempt to discover each other's true identity before his own cover is blown."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Scorsese’s Hall of Mirrors, Littered With Bloody Deceit
YouTube: The Departed - Trailer - (2006)

The literary Coney Island

"Everybody sees Coney Island a little differently. Most people know it for the amusements but not everybody has the same feeling about them. One person craves the beaches, the food. Another prefers a stroll along the boardwalk, fireworks, an evening Cyclones game. Others live nearby, too familiar with the swelling weekend crowds. And some people — and this seems like blasphemy — have had their fill of Nathan’s hot dogs. Coney Island has always been a Rorschach test of class, morals and taste, an escape from the city for more than 150 years. (In the 19th century, it was an escape from two cities, as Brooklyn was independent then and had not yet subsumed Coney Island within its borders.)"
Bowery Boys History
Coney Island's Storied Past
amazon: A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion
W - A Coney Island of the Mind, Lawrence Ferlinghetti

2009 April: Coney Island, 2010 July: Nathan's Famous, 2011 March: "An Underground Movement: Designers, Builders, Riders", Owen Smith, 2013 August: Donna Dennis: Coney Night Maze, 2013 October: Last Days of Summer at Coney Island, 2014 July: Coney Island - Directors: Steve Siegel and Phil Buehler (1973).

Volcano Songs - Meredith Monk (1994)

"The Random House Dictionary defines volcano as 'a vent in the earth’s crust through which lava, steam, ashes, etc., are expelled, either continuously or at irregular intervals.' In spite of human fears, the volcano is vital to the earth’s formation, sculpting the very landscapes we inhabit. For Meredith Monk, it would seem more importantly a source of fertility, and it is from this fertility that she opens herself to the generative spirit that infuses the world as a living organism. In this sense, she vocalizes a point of continuity between herself and listener, between the illusions of recorded sound and the illusions of physical bodies."
ECM
W - Volcano Songs
YouTube: Lost Wind, Walking Song, Three Heavens and Hells 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, New York Requiem

2008 March: Meredith Monk, 2009 September: Songs of Ascension - Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton, 2011 February: Meredith Monk: A Voice For All Time, 2011 August: Ellis Island, 2012 December: Turtle Dreams, 2013 February: Quarry: The Rally (Live, 1977), 2014 November; 10 Things You Might Not Know About Meredith Monk.

#TBT: When the Reds became Redlegs

"If you remember your high school U.S. History class, you know about the Cold War and Joseph McCarthy. A Republican senator from Wisconsin, McCarthy was relatively unknown when he gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in February 1950 in which he purportedly pulled out a paper with a list of known Communists in the state department. With the post-World War II tensions between the United States and Soviet Union building -- the Soviets had developed their own nuclear weapon in 1949 -- fear of Communism was a concern, and McCarthy exploited it. ... The fear -- and for a few years, McCarthy's popularity -- continued to grow. It was in this context that the Cincinnati Reds officially changed their name to Redlegs in April 1953 because they didn't want to be associated with the Red Scare."
ESPN
W - Joseph McCarthy
Sen. Joe McCarthy's Startling Morphine Source
Cold War Museum: Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism, and The Witch Hunt
NYBook: Un-American Activities
YouTube: Senator McCarthy Claims Communist Infiltration, The Hollywood 10 Placed on Blacklist

Os Gêmeos

Houston Street and Bowery
Wikipedia - "Os Gêmeos (Portuguese for The Twins; born 1974 in São Paulo, Brazil as Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) are graffiti artists and identical twin brothers. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and gradually became a main influence in the local scene, helping to define Brazil's own style. Their work often features yellow-skinned characters - taken from the yellow tinge both of the twins have in their dreams - but is otherwise diverse and ranges from tags to complicated murals. Subjects range from family portraits to commentary on São Paulo's social and political circumstances, as well as Brazilian folklore. Their graffiti style was influenced by both traditional hip hop style and the Brazilian culture."
Wikipedia
BOMB: Os Gêmeos
Os Gemeos for the wall at the corner of Houston Street and Bowery
ICA: Organized by Pedro Alonzo, ICA Adjunct Curator
Google
YouTube: Os Gemeos - Art in the Streets - MOCAtv

The Complete Recordings - Robert Johnson

Wikipedia - "The Complete Recordings is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released August 28, 1990 on Columbia Records. The album's recordings were recorded in two sessions in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas for the American Record Company (ARC) during 1936 and 1937. Most of the songs were first released on 78rpm records in 1937. The Complete Recordings contains every recording Johnson is known to have made, with the exception of an alternate take of 'Travelling Riverside Blues'. ..."
Wikipedia
JazzWax (Video)
NPR: You've Never Heard Robert Johnson's 'Complete Recordings'?! (Video)
amazon
Spotify
YouTube: The Complete Recordings (Full Album) 1:15:38

A Struggle to Secure Iraq’s Shared Past, and Perhaps Its Future

"Looted and shuttered after American troops seized Baghdad a dozen years ago, the National Museum of Iraq has officially reopened its doors — a response to Islamic State thugs’ taking jackhammers to ancient treasures in Mosul. The message was clear: Baghdad and its government belong to the civilized world, and the Islamic State does not. American officials even returned some recovered objects to show solidarity. But public relations are one thing, daily life in the long-suffering Iraqi capital another. The reopened museum looks hardly changed since the Saddam Hussein era, notwithstanding tens of millions of mostly foreign money ostensibly spent on its rejuvenation, which went who knows where."
NY Times
BBC: Looted Iraqi Museum in Baghdad reopens 12 years on (Video)
NY Times: The National Museum of Iraq Reopens (March 1, 2015)
NY Times: National Museum of Iraq

César Vallejo

Wikipedia - "César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. He was always a step ahead of literary currents, and each of his books was distinct from the others, and, in its own sense, revolutionary. Thomas Merton called him 'the greatest universal poet since Dante'. The late British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo '...the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language.' He was a member of the intellectual community called North Group formed in Trujillo city. Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia's translation of The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo won the National Book Award for translation in 1979. ..."
Wikipedia
Poets (The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition, by César Vallejo, Clayton Eshleman (trans.) - Poet 6)
Poetry Foundation
amazon: César Vallejo
YouTube: Translations of Cesar Vallejo (Poet Clayton Eshleman)

2012 October: The Complete Posthumous Poetry

Brush Fires in the Social Landscape - David Wojnarowicz

Where I'll Go After I'm Gone, 1988-89. Black-and-white photographs, acrylic, spray paint, collage on masonite.
"David Wojnarowicz’s use of photography, at times in conjunction with text and painting, was extraordinary, as was his unprecedented way of addressing the AIDS crisis and issues of censorship, homophobia, and narrative. Brush Fires in the Social Landscape, begun in collaboration with the artist before his death in 1992 and first published in 1994, engaged what Wojnarowicz would refer to as his 'tribe' or community. ... Through the lens of various contributors, the book addresses Wojnarowicz’s profound legacy: the relentless tugs, allegiances, censorship, and ethical issues, alongside his aesthetic brilliance, courage, and influence."
aperture
David Wojnarowicz and Nan Goldin go head-to-head
Advocate
amazon

Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits (1983)

"Between the release of Heartattack and Vine in 1980 and Swordfishtrombones in 1983, Tom Waits got rid of his manager, his producer, and his record company. And he drastically altered a musical approach that had become as dependable as it was unexciting. Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and much less of the piano work that Waits' previous albums had employed; instead, the dominant sounds on the record were low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion, set in spare, close-miked arrangements (most of them by Waits) that sometimes were better described as 'soundscapes.' Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. ..."
allmusic
The Quietus: Moving On: Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones Revisited (Video)
W - Swordfishtrombones
YouTube: Underground, Swordfishtrombones (Live)

2012 July: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, 2013 March: Burma Shave, 2013 May: "Ol' '55", 2013 July: The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), 2014 January: Blood Money, 2014 March: Telephone call from Istanbul (1987), 2014 November: Rain Dogs (1985), 2015 February: Mule Variations (1999).

Ashcan School

John Sloan, "A Woman's Work," 1912.
Wikipedia - "The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the early twentieth century that is best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods. The most famous artists working in this style included Robert Henri (1865–1929), George Luks (1867–1933), William Glackens (1870–1938), John Sloan (1871–1951), and Everett Shinn (1876–1953), some of whom had met studying together under the renowned realist Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and others of whom met in the newspaper offices of Philadelphia where they worked as illustrators. ..."
Wikipedia
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Ashcan School, an introduction
amazon: Painters of the Ashcan School: The Immortal Eight
YouTube: Ashcan School

2011 November: American realism

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit

"The Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition will explore the tumultuous and highly productive year that Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo spent in Detroit, a pivotal turning point in each artist's career. Between April 1932 and March 1933, Rivera created one of his most accomplished mural cycles—Detroit Industry—on the four walls of a centrally located courtyard at the DIA. At the same time and largely unnoticed, Kahlo developed her now-celebrated artistic identity. By including works before, during and after their time in Detroit, the exhibition also looks at the evolution of each artist’s career, a subject that has never been fully studied in an exhibition or catalogue. Rivera’s epic preparatory drawings for Detroit Industry will be the centerpiece of the exhibition. ..."
Frida Kahlo
NPR: In Detroit's Rivera And Kahlo Exhibit, A Portrait Of A Resilient City (Video)
Rivera, Kahlo exhibit mirrors spirit of DIA, Detroit (Video)
NY Times - Review: ‘Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit’
Yale: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit
Guide to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit at the DIA (Video)

2008 April: Frida Kahlo, 2008 May: Diego Rivera, 2013 April: Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe unlocked and on display after nearly 60 years.

The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960–1980

‘Untitled, Subway, New York’ (1980) - Bruce Davidson
"The American city of the 1960s and 1970s experienced seismic physical changes and social transformations, from urban decay and political protests to massive highways that threatened vibrant neighborhoods. Nowhere was this sense of crisis more evident than in the country’s three largest cities: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Yet in this climate of uncertainty and upheaval, the streets and neighborhoods of these cities offered places where a host of different actors—photographers, artists, filmmakers, planners, and activists—could transform these conditions of crisis into opportunities for civic discourse and creative expression. The City Lost and Found is the first exhibition to explore this seminal period through the emergence of new photographic and cinematic practices that reached from the art world to the pages of Life magazine."
Artic
New City
amazon: The City Lost and Found
WSJ: A Tale of Three Cities

The Imitation Game (2014)

Wikipedia - "The Imitation Game is a 2014 historical thriller film directed by Morten Tyldum, with a screenplay by Graham Moore loosely based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the British cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who helped solve the Enigma code during the Second World War and was later prosecuted for homosexuality. ... The LGBT civil rights advocacy and political lobbying organisation the Human Rights Campaign honoured The Imitation Game for bringing Turing's legacy to a wider audience. However, the film was criticised for its inaccurate portrayal of historical events and Turing's character and relationships. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Broken Codes, Both Strategic and Social
Slate: How Accurate Is The Imitation Game? (Video)
9 Secrets About The Imitation Game, Straight From Its Screenwriter
NYBook: A Poor Imitation of Alan Turing
YouTube: Official Trailer, Benedict Cumberbatch Interview with Jon Stewart

The Specials (1979)

Wikipedia - "The Specials is the debut album by British ska revival band The Specials. Released on 19 October 1979 on Jerry Dammers' 2 Tone label, the album is seen by some as the defining moment in the UK ska scene. Produced by Elvis Costello, the album captures the disaffection and anger felt by the youth of the UK's "concrete jungle"—a phrase borrowed from Bob Marley's 1972 album Catch a Fire but equally apposite used here to describe the grim, violent inner cities of 1970s Britain. Musically, the album encapsulates the wave of British ska, greatly reworking the original sound of 1960s Jamaican ska. The music shares the infectious energy and humour of the original sound, but injects new-found anger and punk sensibility."
Wikipedia
The Specials
allmusic
YouTube: Rock Goes To College (Live 1979) 44:29

2009 October: The Specials, 2912 September: Ghost Town, 2013 November: Too Much Too Young - The Special AKA (1980).

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).