Pina Bausch: Year - Title (1989 - 2009)

Palermo, Palermo (1989) 
"... Human degradation, especially what men do to women, but also the infinite capacity of all peoples to harm themselves, is, in the end, Miss Bausch's underlying theme. 'Palermo, Palermo' is low on the simulated or actual violence that has made Miss Bausch controversial in the past. She has learned to inflict pain without striking. In one of the most forceful and resonant passages, a group of men in black suits rushes in carrying Beatrice Libonati, as uninhibited a Bausch veteran as any. They support her as they place a bottle of mineral water between her knees. The water pours out as immediately as the image of humiliation."
NYT: Pina Bausch's 'Palermo, Palermo' Explores a World Beyond Logic, September 30, 1991
Telegraph: Pina Bausch: Palermo, Palermo, Sadler’s Wells, review
Palermo, Palermo, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch – Palermo Palermo – London
YouTube: Palermo Tanztheater Italia 1990 (Italia)

Two Cigarettes in the Dark (1992)
""... 'Two Cigarettes in the Dark' is not devoid of cruelty: a woman bangs a man into a wall; a man spills water on the floor and treats a woman accusingly like a dog who has transgressed. But there are also bitterly comic images about escapist fantasies and domestic disputes. All appear ultimately to deal with the banal chores of getting through life. By now it is clear that each dance-theater piece by the German choreographer is a fresh installment in a serialized opus about human existence. Male-female relations receive special attention; hopes and failures are her larger concern."
NYT: Pina Bausch, but Not So Sure This Time
The New Criterion - Smokeless “Cigarettes”: Pina Bausch at BAM
Fresh Hamm: The Prada Pina
YouTube: Two Cigarettes in the Dark, Two Cigarettes in the Dark - 1

On the Mountain A Cry Was Heard (1993)
"The most memorable element of Pina Bausch’s Auf dem Gebirge Hat Man ein Geschrei Gehört (On the Mountain a Cry Was Heard) is the thick layer of special dirt that blankets the stage at Sadlers Wells – a clean soil, chemical-free, that cushions the dancers as they roll around in it. The dancers of Tanztheater Wuppertal spent most of Thursday evening flailing around in it, diving into it, tossing each other into it. That is, when they weren’t racing through the auditorium, stripping between intervals of piano playing, or attempting to scale the proscenium wall. ..."
On the Mountain a Cry Was Barely Heard: Pina Bausch at Sadlers Wells
NY Times
The Emotion Extinguisher
facebook: Das StÜck mit dem Schiff 1994 (Video)
YouTube: Das Stück mit dem Schiff

Danzón (1995)
"There is a thorny problem that exists in the dance world. Should a company that is identified with one creator, continue after that creator’s death? Take, for example, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. For 36 years, the daring and innovative German choreographer had redefined the meaning of dance theatre with her singular collision of movement, drama, text and music. ... The company performed Danzón, a work created in 1995. It’s an interesting choice for this post Bausch era, precisely because while it is one of the choreographer’s most dancey pieces, it also deals with matters of life and death. When Danzón toured the United States in 1999, Bausch even performed a short solo, so her ghost literally inhabits the work."
Danzón brings Bausch's dance back to life after her death
Critic's Notebook: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch is in moment
YouTube: Danzón, 1995, with Dominique Mercy
facebook: Danzón

Der Fensterputzer (The Window Washer) (1997)
"The curtain opens on a set consisting of a twenty-foot-high hill of red silk flowers in one corner, an image that alludes to Hong Kong region's geography, as well as to the impending onslaught of Bauschian imagery. It is morning. A young girl greets us, repeating 'Hello, good morning' with a saccharine smile, while others go through the mundane actions of shaving, dressing, and fixing their hair with a synchronization and smoothness that elevates the actions to dance. One desperate soul attempts to please her guests--the audience--by offering coffee, food, or soft drinks. A lone window washer attemps a ludicrous task: behind a reflective sheet of plastic, suspended in a seat with squeegee and pail, he trys to keep the glass surfaces of Hong Kong's glimmering neon cityscape free of grime and glare. His lonely toil, contrasted with his later appearances as a well-dressed, pipe-smoking, poodle-toting gentleman, reminds us of the gap between rich and poor, worker and dandy. - Kelly Hargraves"
Stanford
Sanjoy Roy
WhatsOnStage
British Theatre Guide
Peter Lindbergh: DER FENSTERPUTZER

Masurca Fogo (1998)
"... In 'Masurca Fogo' ('Fiery Mazurka'), which had its United States premiere on Tuesday night, Ms. Bausch turns, as in recent years, to a geographic springboard (Portugal) for still another chapter in her epic examination of life lived by all. By Bausch standards, the piece looks deceptively entertaining, with a quotient of bathroom humor. It has none of the simulated violence and confessional cruelty that shocked so many when her Tanztheater Wuppertal troupe made its New York debut in 1984. Yet 'Masurca Fogo,' to be performed through Sunday afternoon, is not fluff. Its unstated theme has to do with love, lust and desire, and much of it has a northern European view of Latin sensuality."
NYT: Sun, Surf and Sexuality In a Pina Bausch Romp
Guardian[PDF] Talk to Her! Look at her! Pina Bausch in Pedro Almodóvar’s Hable con ella
Pina Bausch & the Tanztheater Wuppertal
Masurca Fogo - Sadler's Wells
Telegraph: A place where life happens
frieze: Body Language
YouTube: Masurca Fogo - Mazurca Fogo en Teatro a Mil, Santiago, 2007

Wiesenland (2000)

"... Alongside the steady flow of water, there is also a downpour of imagery, particularly in the opening part, where the multi-layering of episodes is particularly intense. Long sequences are roughly interrupted and different strands of activity are often super-imposed so that two or more are developing simultaneously. This layering is not uncommon in Bausch’s repertoire but it seems to be more overt and more frequent in Wiesenland. The work is between 30 and 50 minutes shorter than all but one of the other nine World City pieces and yet it seems that it might contain as much action, given this overlay of scenes. It is hardly unusual for the episodes in any Bausch work to be described as sexy and funny, but in Wiesenland the balance seem to be sexier and funnier, perhaps because the sinister and melancholic themes are not so prevalent. ..."
London Dance
Laurent Paillier - Dance photographer
PINA BAUSCH: LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL
Sadlers Wells: Wiesenland
facebook: Diaporama Wiesenland

For the Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (2002)
"In Pina Bausch's 'For the Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a dancer parts her hair with the stiletto heel of her shoe. In Ms. Bausch's world, this is par for the course. But that world is also ours, re-examined and recreated in strange contexts by a fierce choreographic sensibility and a ferocious imagination. ... 'For the Children' will strike some as mellow Bausch or Bausch gone soft. It has none of the violence that sometimes offends so many, and its few little cruelties, if any, are related to the games children play. The wit and depth are still there with a major dose of tenderness. ..."
NY Times
Flight of the scorched squirrel
Ballet Dance
The Pina Bausch Smorgasbord: Brooklyn’s Favorite Take-Away
YouTube: Für die Kinder von gestern, Fur die Kinder (Splitter) Venedig 2005 15:48

Nefés (2003)
"Pina Bausch fell in love with Turkey four years ago, and out of that love has come 'Nefés,' which her Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch performed on Saturday night as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. It is a dark piece, though Ms. Bausch’s sly humor and audacious visual imagination are in full play in this nearly three-hour modern-dance work. The fabled ancient city of Istanbul, gaudy and hectic, may have been the piece’s inspiration, but for all its humor, 'Nefés' is imbued with a meditative sadness. (Its title is the Turkish word for 'breath.') 'Nefés' sprawls out in a series of solos, duets and group processionals. The piece opens with a direct reference to Turkish culture, in a scene-setting tableau in which a man wrapped in a white bath towel comically cries: 'He is me! That’s me in the hamam!' over a succession of prone bodies."
NY Times
Review: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch - Nefés - Sadler's Wells
the arts desk
Istanbul in Paris: "Nefés" by Pina Bausch
Sadlers Wells: Nefés (Video)

Ten Chi (2004)
"... A giant whale tail sticks up in the middle of the stage, with hump and dorsal fin at the back. The first half of the work contains a lot of swimming actions, as if the stage were a sea, but the overriding sense is of falling asleep: Dominique Mercy snores softly at the front row, as if encouraging them to drift off; Helena Pikon turns a man into a big bear and snuggles down on to his back; a goodnight kiss leads to a lullaby chorus of kissy noises as the cast search for imaginary songbirds. Hushed music and a slow, continuous fall of white petals impart a dreamlike quality to the sharper second half."
Guardian
NYT: An Olympian Twirl Around the Globe
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch – Ten Chi – London
Ten Chi, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Barbican Theatre
Renate Stendhal
DailyMotion: Ten Chi
YouTube: JAPON CREATION TEN CHI

Vollmond (Full Moon) (2006)

"It’s been over a week since I saw Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch perform Vollmond (Full Moon) at Brooklyn Academy of Music, yet many of the images from the piece – and the endless downpour of water – still linger in my memory. ... But the twelve dancers were utterly mesmerizing as they frolicked, climbed, kissed, yearned, tumbled, and flung themselves through a nonstop array of dream-like vignettes set against a rainstorm. A large boulder and a dip in the stage to create a flowing river transported the audience to a separate, mystical setting far from earth. At full moon, these fierce spirits let themselves go."
Dancing Perfectly Free
Interview Working with Pina Bausch
Guardian: Tanztheater Wuppertal – review
YouTube: Vollmond (Full Moon) - -parte 01, parte 02, parte 03. Dominique Mercy solo 2007

Rough Cut (2007)
"... The Berliner Festspiele always brings the most stunning and creative shows to Berlin. Tonight, was no exception. All the energy that emanated from this dancing performance flooded the audience, giving them no other option than hanging on and enjoying the ride. The female dancers, in colourful ball-gown style dresses, run, jump and somehow float around the huge stage. The male dancers, many times carrying, throwing and spinning these beautiful creatures, seem infatigable. This passionate combination of woman and man on stage, interlacing their bodies is very liberating. However, I was sometimes melancholic when the facial expressions and body movements were full of sad emotion. The music also emphasised this feeling."
My Journeys
Dance Photos
Reportage : ROUGH CUT de Pina Bausch
Choreographer Pina Bausch Stages 'Rough Cut' Portraying Korean Culture
[PDF] Rough Cut: Phenomenological Reflections on Pina Bausch’s Choreography

Bamboo Blues (2007)
"Pina Bausch’s 'Bamboo Blues' (currently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music) is, like most or all of her work, an incoherent dreamscape. Sometimes strikingly picturesque, always fluid in its comings and goings, it switches between episodes of sensual impulsiveness; coy, catwalklike audience-awareness; rushing scenes of harrowing need or anxiety; and diverse aspects of melancholia. Even this much analysis is risky: Ms. Bausch, who has been a leading figure in world theater (not just dance) since the 1970s and is the director and choreographer of the Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany, is the most deliberately vague of artists."
NYT: Glimpses of India, Eruptions of Chaos, Flashes of Choreography
Brooklyn Rail: Pina Bausch Returns to BAM with Bamboo Blues
Telegraph - Pina Bausch: A vision of life’s humour and pain
ballet dance
YouTube: Bamboo Blues@Spoleto52 Festival dei 2Mondi
facebook: Bamboo Blues

“…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si…” (2009)
"The moment the curtain rises on Pina Bausch’s masterpiece, '…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si…' at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, we see a woman on all fours; a primal position that feels both demeaning and funny, all at once. By beginning the evening with this pose Bausch conveys that this work isn’t about the ethereal women of Marius Petipa or the idealized women of Balanchine. Instead, Bausch is interested in what it means to be a contemporary woman—and there is nothing otherworldly about it. Similar to Marcel Duchamp’s scandalous work 'Fountain' (1917), a porcelain urinal turned upside-down and placed in a museum, Bausch has her dancers reenact everyday female rituals, turns them on their heads and sets them on a stage: a woman applies makeup while a man pours a bottle of water on her head, and a woman sitting at a restaurant eats her meal beneath the table."
The Dance Critic
NYC Dance Stuff
NYT: The Swan Song of Pina Bausch
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
Review: The Last Testament Of Pina Bausch
YouTube: "...como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si ...", creación de Pina Bausch

Pina Bausch Sourcebook | Etc.

The Pina Bausch Sourcebook - The Making of Tanztheater
"Climenhaga's book...is not yet another omnibus volume, collecting essays from a symposium. It is a complex and excellent edited sourcebook that ties together traces of written memories which have been slumbering in archived magazines or newspapers - waiting to be woken up from a 30-year sleep. Ultimately, The Pina Bausch Sourcebook - The Making of Tanztheater is a source in itself and can be marked as a 'Survey of Remembering Tanztheater'. As a glance at ways of 'Remembering Dance', this book is an indispensable contribution to the (still to be broadened out) research literature on dance for every scholar and student working in the field of dance history and theory. It focuses on and highlights the roots, aesthetics and methods of the German Tanztheater as well as its followers from the 1960s until today. It is a also a source for the reader who seeks to deeply research, ask further questions and continue her or his own path of reflecting on the Wuppertaler Tanztheater and the dance as art form in general. - Theaterforschung"
amazon: The Pina Bausch Sourcebook - The Making of Tanztheater
Google: The Pina Bausch Sourcebook - The Making of Tanztheater

Kyoto Laureate Symposium 2007 - Pina Bausch
"The Inamori Foundation’s 23rd Annual Kyoto Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Arts and Philosophy was presented to Pina Bausch in 2007. Pina Bausch is an influential modern dance choreographer whose style blends elements of theater and dance into mesemrizing meditations that touch both dancers and audiences deeply. ... Bausch, known as 'the uncrowned empress of modern dance' (Newsweek), constructs dances by using repetition as a counterbalance for meaning. Simple gestures repeated become a movement, the movement becomes a phrase, and then a dance. The dance progresses by starting a phrase as a solo, then adding dancers until the entire company, sometimes more than 20 dancers, joins together."
USD: Kyoto Laureate Symposium
YouTube: Pina Bausch USD Kyoto Prize Presentation


Etc.



Meeting Pina Bausch
"This week the world-renowned Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch arrives in London - for the first time, without its towering creator. Last summer the German choreographer died at the age of 68. The company intends to continue, despite the dodgy track record for troupes formed around one singular giant vision to survive long without that magnet at the core. Bausch (1940-2009) was shy in person and had no need to publicise her work, but at Christmas 2001 I met her in her base in Wuppertal, and she looked back in detail over the surprising sources in her life for her innovative style of dance-theatre. Small, grey, as unobtrusive as a wren, she seemed deceptively gentle and thin-skinned for someone whose theatre is legendarily acerbic, fantastical, sexually assertive and worldly in its wit."
theartsdesk Q&A

Somebody Nailer My Dress To the Wall. A Glimpse Into The Work of Pina Bausch By Randolyn Zinn
"... As an example of her innovations, take the astonishing first moment of Palermo, Palermo as witnessed by some of us at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in September of 1991. Spanning the width of the Harvey Theater’s stage, an imposing 30-foot high gray wall of concrete blocks faced us, silent and still, as we waited in the darkened house for the piece to begin. We expected an entrance, an overture, something…and we thought our eyes were playing tricks on us when it seemed that the solid wall appeared to be tipping forward from the top. All of a sudden, in arguably one of the most astonishing opening cues in the history of theatre, the enormous wall smashed to the floor, whereupon the performers entered to dance through the rubble."
3QuarksDaily

Step-by-step guide to dance: Pina Bausch/Tanztheater Wuppertal
"... To the disgust of traditionalists, Bausch completely revamped the Wuppertal into a vehicle for her own searing style of Tanztheater. Rules of style and presentation were bulldozed by her imperatives of emotional and psychological expression. Despite the hostile reactions, however, she began to attract an international cult following and the small town of Wuppertal became a mecca for the world of dance (and beyond: her devotees included several actors, directors, artists and film-makers). From the mid-80s onwards, many of the company's new works were made through residencies in international cities, including Rome, Lisbon, São Paulo, LA, Istanbul and Tokyo. ..."
Guardian (Video)

Pina Bausch Remembered
"The world-renowned dancer and hugely influential choreographer Pina Bausch died on 30 June at the age of 68 (See News, 30 Jun 2009). She had, reportedly, been diagnosed with cancer, just five days earlier. Her disappearance from the world of dance seems grievously sudden, for she had never stopped working. Retaining her status as a leading light in her field, she made a personal appearance in London just last year, when Sadler's Wells invited her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, to present her celebrated seminal works Café Müller and The Rite of Spring as a double bill."
Pina Bausch Remembered

Pina Bausch (1940-2009) | Costumes

"Philippina 'Pina' Bausch (27 July 1940 – 30 June 2009) was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director. With her unique style, a blend of movement, sound, and prominent stage sets, and with her elaborate collaboration with performers during the development of a piece (a style now known as Tanztheater), she became a leading influence in the field of modern dance from the 1970s on. She created the company Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch which performs internationally. ... Her best-known dance-theatre works include the melancholic Café Müller (1978), in which dancers stumble around the stage crashing into tables and chairs. Bausch had most of the dancers perform this piece with their eyes closed. The thrilling Frühlingsopfer (The Rite of Spring) (1975) required the stage to be completely covered with soil. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times
A Stage for Social Ego to Battle Anguished Id - NYT
Pina Bausch - NYT
Guardian: Dancing in the dark - John O'Mahony
Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts
NPR: Modern Dance Master Pina Bausch's Latest Work (Video)
Pina Bausch: A Worldly Choreographer - NYT

"What Moves Me" - Pina Bausch
"... The war experiences are unforgettable. Solingen suffered a tremendous amount of destruction. When the air raid sirens went off, we had to go into the small shelter in our garden. Once a bomb fell on part of the house as well. However, we all remained unharmed. For a time, my parents sent me to my aunt's in Wuppertal because there was a larger shelter there. She thought I would be safer there. I had a small black rucksack with white polka dots, with a doll peering out of it. It was always there packed ready so that I could take it with me when the air raid siren sounded. I remember too our courtyard behind the house. There was a water pump there, the only one in our area. People were always lining up there to fetch water. ..."
[PDF] "What Moves Me" (English version) - Pina Bausch
Photo Caption - Page 17 at 22.

Tanztheater Wuppertal - Pina Bausch
"It began with controversy; in 1973 Pina Bausch was appointed director of dance for the Wuppertal theatres and the form she developed in those early years, a mixture of dance and theatre, was wholly unfamiliar. In her performances the players did not merely dance; they spoke, sang - and sometimes they cried or laughed too. But this strange new work succeeded in establishing itself. In Wuppertal the seeds were sown for a revolution which was to emancipate and redefine dance throughout the world. ... Hers is a world theatre which does not seek to teach, does not claim to know better, instead generating experiences: exhilarating or sorrowful, gentle or confrontational - often comic or absurd too. It creates driven, moving images of inner landscapes, exploring the precise state of human feelings while never giving up hope that the longing for love can one day be met. Alongside hope, a close engagement with reality is another key to the work; the pieces consistently relate to things every member of the audience knows; has experienced personally and physically. ..."

Pina Bausch Foundation
"The task of the Pina Bausch Foundation is to preserve the artistic legacy of the great dancer and choreographer; to keep it alive and carry it on into the future. One of the fundamental tasks of the foundation is to assort the very complex and exceptionally comprehensive material from Pina Bausch’s artistic legacy in an archive and make much of it available to the public. In addition, the foundation follows the traces in order to collect the knowledge and experience of Pina Bausch’s companions, dancers, and staff. The objective of this work is to keep Pina Bausch’s art alive by making it perceptible for future generations – for experts and amateurs, for the curious and newcomers, people of all ages and especially for a young generation of dancers. In letting the pieces come true on stage again and again in the future. And in having a long-term home for the Pina Bausch Foundation and the Pina Bausch Archive; a place for people to meet and a creative universe, like a lushly verdant garden. A centre from which Pina Bausch’s work radiates into the world."

Grasses, Weeds and Flowers for Pina Bausch - Bill Davis, Archive



Pina Bausch Costumes


"Visionary choreographer Pina Bausch never followed a prescribed method when conceiving her unique productions. Guided instead by her finely honed intuition, Bausch would let the works develop in an organic, visceral manner and her trusted company of dancers and collaborators at the Tanztheater Wuppertal would fall into step as her creative vision unfolded. For costume designer Marion Cito – who has been in the role since 1980 – this meant designing costumes 'speculatively', relying on a certain amount of guesswork, in terms of the direction she felt each piece might take, in order that her workshop kept pace."
In Pictures
Tanztheater Wuppertal: Marion Cito
Tanztheater Wuppertal: Rolf Borzik
Guardian: Hurts so good
NYT: Person and Performer, and No Space Between
YouTube: Orpheus and Eurydice (Costumes & lights : Rolf Borzik), Bamboo Blues (Costume Design : Marion Cito)

Choreographer Pina Bausch
"Pina Bausch is regarded one of the most influential artists on the European dance scene. Two years ago, Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal visited Beijing with a show at the Tianqiao Theater featuring 'Cafe Muller', one of her signature works. Over the years, Pina Bausch has developed her own dance theater. It's become union of genuine dance and theatrical methods of stage performance. It creates a new dance form that distinguishes itself through an intended reference to reality."
Dance Tech (Video)

Pina Bausch: Video

One Day Pina Asked... - Chantal Akerman (1983)

Die Klage der Kaiserin (1990) aka The Complaint of an Empress
"This first film by choreographer Pina Bausch reflects her method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. The film does not tell a story, but is made up of various scenes put together as a collage with scenes set in different locations, such as the woods and fields around Wuppertal, the city centre, the suspension railway, a carpet shop, a greenhouse and the rehearsal room. The futility of human activity and the search for love make up the film's central theme set against the strains of a Silician funeral march. Filmed on location in Wuppertal, Germany, between October 1987 and April 1989. ..."
Die Klage der Kaiserin (1990) aka The Complaint of an Empress

Pina Bausch - (documentary by Anne Linsel, 2006)
"Directed by Anne Linsel, Germany, 2006; 44m. Before choreographer Pina Bausch and her Tanz-theater Wuppertal were known around the world, her new, unusual and original body language was ill-received. In the early days the audience (and most critics) were irritated and confused. Tumultuous scenes in the audience were not unusual. Pina Bausch speaks about the beginnings of the Tanztheater and the inescapable path she felt she had to follow. She talks about rehearsals, her pieces (more than 30 by now), her co-productionswith other cities and countries and being on tour. Some of her dancers, the set designer Peter Pabst and the costume designer Marion Cito, all of whom have been with Pina Bausch for decades, talk about working with her. Shot in Venice at the Teatro Fenice, in Lisbon and Brussels, and in Wuppertal with the support of WDR Cologne, and Arte France."
Pina Bausch - (documentary by Anne Linsel, 2006)

One Day Pina Asked... - Chantal Akerman (1983)
"A fortuitous encounter between two icons of film and dance, Chantal Akerman and Pina Bausch, One Day Pina Asked... is Akerman’s singular look at the work of the remarkable choreographer and her Wuppertal Tanztheater during a five-week European tour. More than a conventional documentary, Akerman’s film is a journey through her world, composed of striking images and personal memories transformed. Capturing the company’s rehearsals and assembling performance excerpts from signature works such as Komm Tanz Mit Mir (Come Dance with Me, 1977) and Nelken (Carnations, 1982), the director applies her unique visual skills to bring us close to her enigmatic subject."
Film Society of Lincoln Center
amazon
YouTube: "One Day Pina Asked..." (1983) Clip, Nelken, excerpt: The Man I Love, In Un jour Pina a demandé, komm tanz mit mir

"Coffee with Pina"
"Lee Yanor first met with the choreographer Pina Bausch in Paris in 1993. They have had an ongoing dialogue for 12 years, which resulted in the film 'Coffee with Pina': a 50 minutes documentary on Pina Bausch`s universe. Filmed in Paris in 2002 and in Wuppertal (Germany) in 2005, hometown of Pina Bausch and her company, the film links different elements in order to convey a choreography of state of mind."
Art Action
YouTube: Coffee with Pina - Lee Yanor, 2, 3, 4

Lissabon Wuppertal Lisboa - Pina Bausch
"A making-of of Pina Bausch's ballet piece 'Masurca Fogo' (1998), for the EXPO 98, from the first workshop in Lisbon until the avant premiere in Wuppertal, Pina Bausch's city, all moments dated on screen. The ballet master presides behind her work desk to the creation of steps by different dancers, as varied a mix as the African, Latin American, Fado and jazz music to which they swirl, representing the spirit of that world event. Not by chance, the camera shows prominently a photo-book on the gypsies close to Pina's ashtray."
IMDb
Masurca Fogo
YouTube: Lissabon Wuppertal Lisboa

Dancing Dreams: Teenagers Perform (2010)
"Pina Bausch was a celebrated and innovative choreographer who became one of the leading figures of modern dance in Germany. Bausch said she believed a piece would change when performed by different dancers even with the same choreography, and as if to demonstrate this, several years after staging her 1978 ballet 'Kontaktof' (aka 'Contact Zone') with a cast of senior citizens, she took the casting in the other direction and employed forty youngsters between fourteen and eighteen years of age, mostly amateurs recruited from schools in Wuppertal. ..."
NY Times
amazon
YouTube: Documentary about Pina Bausch, Trailer
YouTube: Dancing Dreams: Teenagers Perform 1:29:16

After Paris Attacks, a Slow Reawakening for City’s Cultural Offerings

"On Wednesday morning, May Zhang, a tourist from Shanghai, was outside the Louvre using a selfie stick to snap photographs with a friend. The courtyard is normally packed with tourists, but they had it mostly to themselves — and to the dozen or more heavily armed police officers pacing in the background. 'We aren’t too worried,' said Ms. Zhang, 36, a sales manager who began her first trip to Paris just days after assailants killed 129 people and wounded hundreds of others. 'I think security is now at a very high level,' she added, not long after the police finished a raid in St.-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, in which at least two people, including a female suicide bomber, died, and eight people were arrested. Museums and cultural institutions were closed last weekend by executive order, and movie theaters shut until Sunday. ..."
NY Times: After Paris Attacks, a Slow Reawakening for City’s Cultural Offerings
Jacobin: Turning Tragedy Into War
Jacobin: France Returns to the State of Exception

The Attic Tapes - John Renbourn (2015)

"The Attic Tapes is a 20-song archival hodgepodge cobbled together from early recordings of the late British guitarist John Renbourn, who died in March. Renbourn sourced the core of the tracklist from a tape labeled '1962' that he discovered in the attic of fellow folk revivalist Mac MacLeod, pairing those few songs with various onstage collaborations from his salad days, before he and his guitar-sparring partner Bert Jansch and their band, Pentangle, helped redefine the scope of modern folk. Renbourn had yet to sign a record deal, so these takes are rough with their age and his youth. ..."
Pitchfork
World Music Network
amazon
YouTube: Anji, Rosslyn, Candyman, I Know My Babe, The Wildest Pig in Captivity, Judy

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), 2015 March: John Renbourn: ceaseless explorer of song – appreciation.

"They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" - Pete Rock & CL Smooth (1991)

Wikipedia - "'They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)' is a song by Pete Rock & CL Smooth, inspired by the death of their close friend Troy Dixon (better known as 'Trouble' T. Roy of Heavy D & the Boyz) in 1990. The song was the lead single off their debut album, Mecca and the Soul Brother, released in 1992, and later became a staple of classic early 1990s hip hop. ... Over a saxophone and bass sample of Tom Scott's cover of 'Today' by Jefferson Airplane, CL Smooth unravels fond memories of his own childhood, being the son of a young teenage mother, her father and four siblings, and the love he feels for other family members in working class Mt. Vernon. The chorus' ad libs are provided by Pete Rock. The 12 second intro is sampled from the 1971 song "When She Made Me Promise" by The Beginning of the End. The b-side of the 12" pressing is 'The Creator', which is taken from the group's 1991 EP, All Souled Out. ..."
Wikipedia
Genius
Spotify
YouTube: They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.), The Creator

Why New York Subway Lines Are Missing Countdown Clocks

"There are people who stand every morning outside the Carroll Street station in Brooklyn staring dead-eyed into the middle distance. They stand still in ones and twos, clearly strangers to one another, mostly quiet, as though they’d stopped on their way to work to take note of some spectacular disaster in the sky. But you look in the general direction they’re all looking and there’s nothing there. They are, as it turns out, waiting for the F train. Carroll Street is one of the rare New York subway stations whose trains are boarded underground but where you can stand outside to see them coming. When you spot the F rolling down the bridge, you have just enough time to run inside to catch it. So people stand there waiting. They wait for as long as it takes, for as long as their patience will allow, because in 2015 there is no app, no screen, not even a scratchy voice over a PA system that can tell them when the train is actually going to arrive. ..."
The Atlantic

Winter on Fire (2015)

"It's blood in the streets in this arresting and immediate documentary portrait of the Maidan protests in Kiev that, in the winter of 2014, forced Viktor Yanukovych, then president of the Ukraine, to flee to Russia. Yanukovych had once before been booted from the presidency — in 2004, the Ukrainian supreme court determined that his recent election had been fraudulent. This time it was months of protests in the capital that sent him packing, but only after his Berkut security forces assaulted the citizenry with stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets, ultimately killing 125 people. The uprising of thousands at first targeted Yanukovych for his refusal to follow through on plans to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union, but the crackdown of his troops inspired such outrage that the crowds swelled. ..."
Voice: Bracing Doc ‘Winter on Fire’ Puts You in the Heart of Ukraine’s Maidan Protests
Slant
NY Times - ‘Winter on Fire’: The View From the Trenches of a Political Uprising
YouTube: 'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom' Comes to Netflix

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Complete Albums 1965-1980

"Many a musical artist has made their bones by singing the blues, but it's not just about singing them, it's about playing them, too. In the 1960s, many a young Caucasian found success by sitting at the knees of his favorite African-American blues artists, and the best of the bunch were never afraid to give credit where credit was due. Take Paul Butterfield, for instance, who - along with his buddy Nick Gravenites - spent a good deal of time making the rounds of Chicago blues clubs, meeting and sometimes even jamming with such greats as Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Otis Rush, and Muddy Waters, all of whom encouraged Mr. Butterfield and his colleague. ..."
Rhino
amazon

2014 January: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965), 2015 July: East-West (1966)

Rashid Johnson: Anxious Men

"Since distinguishing himself as the youngest artist in Freestyle, the landmark 2001 exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Johnson has established himself as one of the preeminent artists of his generation. Invoking such varied themes as the black experience in America, the dialogue between abstraction and figuration, and the relationship between art and personal identity, Johnson has been discussed within the context of contemporary painting, photography, sculpture, video, installation art, and even performance. Now, with the Anxious Men, drawing enters that list. ..."
Drawing Center
NY Times: Looking Deeply at the Art of Rashid Johnson
Hauser & Wirth
New York’s Prestigious Drawing Center Showcases Star of the ‘Post-Black’ Art Movement
Nowness: Rashid Johnson's Post-black Art
Guggenheim: Storylines: Rashid Johnson

Mark Alan Stamaty

Wikipedia - "Mark Alan Stamaty is an American cartoonist and children's book writer and illustrator. During the 1980s and 1990s, Stamaty's work appeared regularly in the Village Voice. He is the creator of the long-running comic strip Washingtoon, as well as the earlier comic strip MacDoodle Street, and the online strip Doodlennium for Slate magazine He is also a spot illustrator for Slate. He produced a monthly comic strip in the New York Times Book Review called 'Boox' in 2001–2004 that made fun of publishing trends. Stamaty has published several books, including collections of his strips and graphic novels for children, notably Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq (2004) and the cult classic Who Needs Donuts? (originally published in 1973 and reprinted by Random House in 2003."
Wikipedia
Mark Alan Stamaty
The New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium: Mark Alan Stamaty
New Republic: A Pre-Election Washingtoon Round-Up
Slate Illustrated, 2009
amazon: Mark Alan Stamaty

The Sounds of Memphis

"The Memphis Grizzlies will be honoring the old Memphis Sounds for their Hardwood Classic games this season by wearing the Sounds’ red-and-white jerseys. Given that the Sounds were around in the early 1970s and were of the ABA, the jerseys are pretty slick and sweet. Even better is the logo of the Memphis Sounds. Just gorgeous. Of course that name, the Sounds, is the most appropriate name ever given to a Memphis pro basketball team. The Tams and Pros of the ABA and the Grizzlies of the NBA don’t speak to the soul of that Tennessean city as well as the Sounds do. The Mighty Mississippi passes by and gives Memphis a steady rhythm. The pastoral hinterlands stand by providing a certain patience to Memphis as well. The confluence of these geographic entities gives Memphis a unique feel, a particular sound, that deserves a little more exploration. ..."
Pro Hoops History (Video)

2011 June: American Basketball Association, 2012 July: Doin’ It In The Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC, 2012 November: Your Guide to the Brooklyn Nets, 2013 March: March Madness 2013, 2013 October: Rucker Park, 2013 November: Free Spirits', 2014 January: History of the high five, 2015 February: Dean Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015), 2015 June: Basketball’s Obtuse Triangle, 2015 September: SLAM Magazine, 2015 September: Joint Ventures: How sneakers became high fashion and big business, 2015 October: Loose Balls - Terry Pluto (2007).

OverUnder: “My Sentiments Abstractly” Opens in Oakland

"A mark. That is all most of us can hope to make on the world, or even to get through it. The Celebrity Industrial Complex that is busily distracting us also routinely overlooks masses of beautiful people who are daily just trying to pay the rent, tend to their ill, worship their deity, grow their garden, pen their poem, make their mark. 'My Sentiments Abstractly' says the title of OverUnder’s solo show opening tonight in Oakland, California, continues the fine/Street Art/graffiti artists’ examination of his mark making, and . Feeling mortal, OverUnder is taking a wider view of the path with this collection of recent wheatpastes, painting, photography, mixed media and site-specific installation. ..."
Brooklyn Street Art

Three Historic Performances at Paris’ Le Bataclan: The Velvet Underground (1972), Genesis with Peter Gabriel (1973) & Jeff Buckley (1995)

1972: John Cale, Lou Reed and Nico
"After every terrible tragedy in the West, we expect celebrities to weigh in. And they do, with comments insightful and heartfelt, appalling and boorish, perfunctory and banal. Often, the larger the public profile, the more self-serving the soundbite. One take in particular has provoked sneers and ridicule: Bono—who paid respects with his band at music venue Le Bataclan—told an interviewer, 'this is the first direct hit on music we’ve had in this so-called War on Terror.' ... One can understand the sentiment, without excusing the verbiage. Le Bataclan—scene of what has rightly been called a 'bloodbath'—has occupied a significant place in pop music history since it started booking rock bands in the 1970s; and it has hosted famous musicians and singers—like Edith Piaf—since its opening in 1864. ..."
Open Culture (Video)

12'' Vivian Jones - Red Eyes (1993)

"... By the mid-90s Vivian Jones had established his own Imperial House label, and he escaped his lovers rock image when in 1994 he released the rootsyIyaman, an approach that continued with The King. In 1994, ‘Happiness’ reaffirmed his status as one of the UK’s top lovers rock performers. In 1995 he recorded his debut for Fashion Records, ‘Dedicated To His Majesty’, which featured an outstanding performance from the contemporary DJ Nico Junior. ..."
allmusic
W - Vivian Jones
YouTube: Red Eyes, Got a Light

Brian Eno & Harmonia '76 - Tracks and Traces (2009 Reissue)

Wikipedia - "Tracks and Traces is the one and only album credited to Harmonia '76, but it is generally regarded as the third album by the highly influential Krautrock/Kosmische Musik group Harmonia. Harmonia was formed by the addition of Neu! guitarist Michael Rother to Cluster, the duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. British ambient musician Brian Eno joined the group at Harmonia's studio in Forst, Germany for the September 1976 recording sessions which resulted in this album. ..."
Wikipedia
The Quietus
popmatters
YouTube: Tracks and Traces Full Album (2009 Reissue)

Interviews William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12

"William Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, where his father was then working as a conductor on the railroad built by the novelist’s great-grandfather, Colonel William Falkner (without the 'u'), author of The White Rose of Memphis. ... Encouraged by Sherwood Anderson, he wrote Soldier’s Pay (1926). His first widely read book was Sanctuary (1931), a sensational novel which he says that he wrote for money after his previous books—including Mosquitoes (1927), Sartoris (1929), The Sound and the Fury (1929), and As I Lay Dying (1930)—had failed to earn enough royalties to support a family. ... Recently, though shy and retiring, Faulkner has traveled widely, lecturing for the United States Information Service. This conversation took place in New York City, early in 1956."
The Paris Review

2011 September: Southern Gothic, 2014 February: William Faulkner, 2015 October: William Faulkner Draws Maps of Yoknapatawpha County, the Fictional Home of His Great Novels

When Women Ruled Fashion

The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by Her Ladies-in-Waiting, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1855.
"As the story is usually now told, Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895), often described as a French couturier of British origin, created the institution of haute couture. This take on fashion history defines the most respected sector of the fashion world—the sector where the economic stakes are highest—as having always been what it largely is today: a male preserve. It’s true that, despite such notable exceptions as Coco Chanel, beginning with the founding of the Maison Worth in 1858, the great fashion houses have been run by men. From today’s vantage point, it seems as if it’s always been the same scenario: men designing women’s clothing and dictating not only color and skirt length but the ideal shape for the female body—even the types of undergarments to be used to achieve perfect proportions. But the history of haute couture is more than an all too predictable chronicle of famous tailors. ..."
Laphams Quarterly

Three Teams of Coordinated Attackers Carried Out Assault on Paris, Officials Say; Hollande Blames ISIS

The Guardian
"Three teams of Islamic State attackers acting in unison carried out the terrorist assault in Paris on Friday night, officials said Saturday, including one gunman who may have traveled to Europe on a Syrian passport along with the flow of migrants. 'It is an act of war that was committed by a terrorist army, a jihadist army, Daesh, against France,' President François Hollande told the nation from the Élysée Palace, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. 'It is an act of war that was prepared, organized and planned from abroad, with complicity from the inside, which the investigation will help establish.' As the death toll rose to 129 victims — with 352 others injured, 99 of them critically — a basic timeline of the attacks came into view. ..."
NY Times (Video)
Guardian: Paris attacks kill more than 120 people – as it happened (Video)
BBC - Paris attacks updates (Video)
France24 (Video)
The Atlantic: What ISIS Really Wants (2015 March)
What is “Islamic”? A Muslim Response to ISIS and The Atlantic (2015 February)
Nov. 15:
NY Times: The Opinion Pages | What Will Come After Paris
NY Times: To Save Paris, Defeat ISIS
NY Times: How ISIS Expanded Its Threat

Buddy' Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984)

"Eugene 'Buddy' Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984) was, in the estimation of many blues scholars, one of the two most influential East Coast blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's debut in 1935 (the other being Josh White). A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Barbecue Bob, Moss was part of a coterie of Atlanta bluesmen, and among the few of his era who had been involved in the blues revival of the 1960s and 1970s. A guitarist of uncommon skill and dexterity with a strong voice, he began as a musical disciple of Blind Blake, and may well have served as an influence on the later Piedmont-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Although his career was halted in 1935 by a six-year jail term, and then by the Second World War, Moss lived long enough to be rediscovered in the 1960s, when he revealed his talent had persevered throughout the years. ..."
Wikipedia
Jas Obrecht Music Archive (Video)
American Music
Spotify
YouTube: Buddy Moss Recorded Works (1933-41) In Chronological Order, Rediscovery, Going To Your Funeral In A Vee Eight Ford, Four Songs From 1963: "Untitled Instrumental No 1", "Hey Lawdy Mamma", "In The Evening" and "A Thousand Women Blues"

The Masses,1911 - 1917

June 1914 cover of The Masses depicting the Ludlow Massacre
"The Masses was a graphically innovative magazine of socialist politics published monthly in the United States from 1911 until 1917, when federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription. It was succeeded by The Liberator and then later The New Masses. It published reportage, fiction, poetry and art by the leading radicals of the time such as Max Eastman, John Reed, Dorothy Day, and Floyd Dell. ... their magazine. ... It was more open to Progressive Era reforms, like women's suffrage, than Emma Goldman's anarchist Mother Earth. At the same time it fiercely criticized more mainstream leftist publications like The New Republic for insufficient radicalism. After Eastman assumed leadership, and especially after August 1914, the magazine’s denouncements of the war were frequent and fierce. ... "
Wikipedia
Modernist Journals Project
A Short History of THE MASSES

St. Mark’s Place: It’s Party Time in the East Village!

"St. Mark’s Place may be named for a saint but it’s been a street full of sinners for much of its history. One of the most fascinating streets in the city, St. Mark’s traces its story back to Peter Stuyvesant, meets up with the wife of Alexander Hamilton in the 1830s, experiences the incredible influx of German and Polish immigrants in the late 19th century, then veers into the heart of counter-culture — from the political activism of Abbie Hoffman to the glamorously psychedelic parties of Andy Warhol. And that’s when the party really gets started! St. Mark’s is known for music, fashion, rebellion and pandemonium. In the 1970s and 80s, clothing stores like Limbo and club nights like Club 57 helped define its character — punk, new wave, alternative, raucous. ..."
Bowery Boys History
The Strange History of the East Village's Most Famous Street
What an Electrifying Past: 19-25 St. Marks Place
St. Marks Place in 20 Years of Photos
Rockit Scientist Records Packs Up Its Crates
On the Stoop of Rock ‘n’ Roll History
Voice: Our 10 Best Things to Eat on St. Marks Place in the East Village, NYC
YouTube: Saint Marks Place NYC Historical Photos, St. Marks Place NYC

2011 October: Saint Mark's Place

The Body Politic: The battle over Pablo Neruda’s corpse

"The were all there for Pablo Neruda, but nobody seemed to like Pablo Neruda. The members of the Chilean media had assembled on a rock formation that rose up from the beach, a formation that now bristled with tripods like a sea urchin, a dozen lenses trained on the darkened windows of Neruda’s hillside home. Nothing was happening there; the poet lay still in his grave. 'He wrote all these love poems, but he was a son of a bitch,' said a reporter from a wire service. She poured Nescafé from a thermos into a styrofoam cup and recited a brief history of the poet’s amorous cruelty. She wondered about Neruda’s first divorce, a hasty arrangement in Mexico, possibly unofficial. Was Neruda a bigamist? ..."
Harpers

February 2009: Pablo Neruda, 2011 November: 100 Love Sonnets.

A Political History of Hip-Hop: South Bronx to the Arab Spring Exhibition at IMA

"With American hip-hop dominating the radio and record sales, many would be surprised to know that France is the second biggest (behind the USA) consumer and producer of hip-hop music in the world. In a unique new exhibition covering political, cultural and musical themes, the Institut au Monde Arabe in Paris have traced the multicultural genealogy of hip-hop from old school rap of New York’s South Bronx to the streets of the recent Arab Spring via France in ‘HIP-HOP, du Bronx aux rues arabes‘. With hip-hop music now a global phenomenon with incredible commercial power and influence, it’s hard to imagine that just a few decades ago it emerged on the margins of American society. ..."
LOPA
LOPA Magazine
Time Out Paris
YouTube: What Ever Happened to Hip Hop (Documentary) 54:44, From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale 56:06, What is Beef? Hip-Hop/Rap (Documentary) 1:42:55

2012 January: The Hip-Hop Family Tree: A Look Into the Viral Propagation of a Culture,  2012 November: An Intro To Rebel Hip-Hop Of The Arab Revolutions, 2014 June: Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop, 2014 December: How to Raise Hell in Three Steps: on RUN-D.M.C, Parliament, Blackness and Revolution, 2015 April: Hip-Hop Revolution, 2015 April: Hip-Hop History Tuesdays: Joe Conzo (Born In The Bronx) Amoeblog Interview, 2015 July: Nas presents the Real Hip-Hop – video, 2015 September: Hip Hop Family Tree 1975-1983 Gift Box, 2015 October: Rubble Kings – The Mixtape.

Times Insider: Reporting Europe's Refugee Crisis

"Stories of Hope, Courage and Loss As Historic Journey Unfolds By Richard W. Stevenson. Sometimes it is clear in an instant that the world has changed: a jetliner slices into an office tower; a leader is felled. But more often, history unfolds incrementally. For months, we have watched it do so in literally millions of steps, as hundreds of thousands of people trudge from some of the world’s most conflict-ridden and poorest regions toward Europe and what they hope will be more secure and prosperous lives. It is a development remarkable in its scale, and in what it says about the limits of borders in a globalized, interconnected world. And it is producing countless stories of courage, loss, heroism and avarice that are forcing societies to confront issues of race, religion, security and national identity. ..."
NY Times
This map shows the routes of Europe's refugee nightmare — and how it's getting worse

CR Newsmakers Interview: Ben Towle, Craig Fischer

"I was looking for ways to throw a spotlight on this weekend's HeroesCon in Charlotte -- an extremely well-liked, much-lauded show -- when Ben Towle contacted me to remind that he and Craig Fischer were doing an ambitious panel this weekend on comics and music. That's a good subject for a big panel at a comics show, particularly one where Ed Piskor and Peter Bagge are in attendance. I'm also sort of interested in comics programming right now as its own thing -- it has improved across the board in recent year due in no small part to people like Ben and Craig doing ambitious presentations like they will be this weekend. ..."
Comics Reporter

The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966

Wikipedia - "The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 is a set of recordings from 1965 and 1966 by Bob Dylan, released in November of 2015 on Legacy Records. It compiles mostly unreleased session demos and outtakes from recording sessions for the albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Three different versions of the set were released simultaneously: a two-disc Best of edition in the packaging and format standard to the rest of the series after the first installment; a six-disc box set Deluxe edition similar in packaging to its counterpart from the previous Bootleg set; and an 18-disc limited Collector's Edition available exclusively by order from Dylan's official website. Stated on the website as being limited to 5000 copies total in manufacture ever, the Collector's Edition is unique as it includes "...every note recorded during the 1965-1966 sessions, every alternate take and alternate lyric.' ..."
New Yorker: Bob Dylan and the “Hot Hand”
Salon - Bob Dylan’s “electric trilogy” masterpieces: I played all 18 discs and 357 tracks. Here’s why you should
NPR - Review: Bob Dylan (Video)
YouTube: Visions of Johanna, Just Like a Woman - Take 1, It Takes a Lot to Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry - Take 1, Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again - Take 13, Sitting On a Barbed Wire Fence - Take 2, Subterranean Homesick Blues (alternate music video)
YouTube: The Story Of The Cutting Edge, UPDATED unboxing Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965 - 1966

Life After God - Douglas Coupland (1994)

Wikipedia - "Life After God is a collection of short stories by Douglas Coupland, published in 1994. The stories are set around a theme of a generation raised without religion. The jacket for the hardcover book reads 'You are the first generation to be raised without religion.' The text is an exploration of faith in this vacuum of religion. The stories are also illustrated by the author. Several critics have suggested that this publication marks an early shift in the stylistic vocabulary of Coupland and, according to one critic, he was 'excoriated presumably for attempting be serious and to express depression and spiritual yearning when his reviewers were expecting more postmodern jollity'. However, the short story would later come to garner more praise (see below) though critics and academics have paid little attention to the publication in terms of academics' articles and commentary. ..."
Wikipedia
amazon
Douglas Coupland’s Life After God: A Case of Style Over Substance - by Dan Geddes
Life After God? No Answers from Gen-X Guru
Interview with Douglas Coupland

Deloris Ealy & The Roadrunners Band

"This 45 captured my attention not only for its extended title, but also for its fetching ebay price of nearly $1,000. 'Deloris is Back (To Blow Your Mind) with Jerome and His Band' has one of the funkiest, most primal drum grooves on vinyl. That's an even more impressive feat if you're to believe Deloris when she wails that her drummer is only thirteen years old! It's three minutes of simple reel-to-reel recording technology, but therein lies the charm behind the most expensive mp3 file in my collection. Enjoy!"
Deloris Is Back With Jerome & His Band- Deloris Ealy
YouTube: It's About Time I Made A Change, Honeydripper, In Your Town, How I Wish You Were Mine, Traveler In Space, Kenyatta's In Your Town

The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now

New Orleans–style group photo in painter Wadsworth Jarrell’s backyard, c. 1968
"The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now links the vibrant legacy of the 1960s African American avant-garde to current art and culture. It is occasioned in part by the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a still-flourishing organization of Chicago musicians whose interdisciplinary explorations expanded the boundaries of jazz. Alongside visual arts collectives such as the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA), the AACM was part of a deep engagement with black cultural nationalism both in Chicago and around the world during and after the civil rights era. Combining historical materials with contemporary responses, The Freedom Principle illuminates the continued relevance of that engagement today. ..."
The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now
artsy
Guardian: The Freedom Principle review – an astounding fusion of jazz and art
YouTube: The Freedom Principle

American Qur'an

"A project to hand-transcribe the entire Qur'an according to historic Islamic traditions and to illuminate the text with relevant scenes from contemporary American life. Nine years in the making, the project was inspired by a decade of extended travel in Islamic regions of the world. ... Collected together and grouped generally according to length (rather than chronologically), the 114 chapters ('suras') form a collection of sermon-like 'revelations' that are the fundamental text of Islam, the fastest growing religion in America. At a time when the United States was involved in two wars against Islamic nations and declared itself to be in a cultural and philosophical struggle against Islamic extremists, American artist Sandow Birk’s latest project considers the Qur’an as it was intended – as a universal message to humankind. ..."
Sandow Birk
Atlantic: American Qu’ran Makes a Sacred Text Familiar
GOOD
amazon