50 Years From Selma, Jetsonorama and Equality in Brooklyn

"From Selma to Ferguson, Birmingham to Charleston, Jimmie Lee Jackson to Michael Brown, Street Artist Jetsonorama is crossing the country from Arizona to New York and a half-century of America’s struggle with our legacy of racism and injustice. As marches have continued across the country in cities like Ferguson, Oakland, Baltimore, New York, Dallas and Cleveland in the past year addressing issues such as police brutality and racism, the south is taking down confederate flags on state houses and the US is mourning another mass shooting. Now as Americans everywhere are pulling out and waving the stars and stripes to celebrate freedom, this new powerful installation on a Brooklyn wall reminds us of what New York poet Emma Lazarus said, 'Until we are all free, we are none of us free.' ..."
Brooklyn Street Art

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880-81)

Wikipedia - "Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880–1881, French: Le déjeuner des canotiers) is a painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Included in the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition in 1882, it was identified as the best painting in the show by three critics. ... The painting, combining figures, still-life, and landscape in one work, depicts a group of Renoir's friends relaxing on a balcony at the Maison Fournaise along the Seine river in Chatou, France. The painter and art patron, Gustave Caillebotte, is seated in the lower right. Renoir's future wife, Aline Charigot, is in the foreground playing with a small dog. On the table is fruit and wine. The diagonal of the railing serves to demarcate the two halves of the composition, one densely packed with figures, the other all but empty, save for the two figures of the proprietor's daughter Louise-Alphonsine Fournaise and her brother, Alphonse Fournaise, Jr, which are made prominent by this contrast. ..."
Wikipedia
Phillips Collection
Luncheon of the Boating Party Analysis
Smithsonian: Where’s the Lunch? Looking at Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party
amazon: Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
YouTube: Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81

2010 February: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 2010 July: Late Renoir, 2012 February: Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting, 2012 September: Renoir: Between Bohemia and Bourgeoisie, 2014 December: Dance at Le moulin de la Galette (1876), 2015 June: Dance at Bougival (1883).

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2012)

"In the stirring, soulful Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, director Shola Lynch mixes original interview footage and archival clips with the agility of a master turntablist, syncing images and ideas with precision and focus. Lynch and her film tackle a lot: humanizing Angela Davis; retrieving from modern history's remainder bin one of the most important episodes in the civil rights struggle; and subtly underscoring both how far we've come on issues of race, class, gender, and injustice—and how far there still is to go. The amount of information doled out may seem daunting, but it never overwhelms; none is superfluous. And thanks to Lynch's expert pacing and modulation of narrative tension, even viewers who already know the outcome of the film's central incident will likely be pulled to the edges of their seats. ..."
Voice: Humanzing Angela Davis in Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
NY Times: A Radical Beatified
YouTube: Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, University of California Television (UCTV) 37:11

2011 September: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, 2013 February: Angela Davis, 2014 December: Angela Davis: ‘There is an unbroken line of police violence in the US that takes us all the way back to the days of slavery’.

What Is “Lynchian”?

"Many things are being identified as 'Lynchian' lately. Probably too many. Often because they’ve been directly inspired by the work of David Lynch; there are several generations of artists and creators out there that grew up watching Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Twin Peaks religiously. Other times they’re believed to be Lynchian because they’re just plain bizarre. Meanwhile, David Lynch himself goes on to create art that is completely unlike any of the things his style is being compared to. ..."
Welcome to Twin Peaks (Video)
Urban Dictionary

2008 September: Twin Peaks, 2010 March: Twin Peaks: How Laura Palmer's death marked the rebirth of TV drama, 2011 October: Twin Peaks: The Last Days, 2014 October: Welcome to Twin Peaks, 2015 June: David Lynch: ‘I’ve always loved Laura Palmer’, 2015 July: Twin Peaks Maps 2014 September: David Lynch: The Unified Field, 2014 December: David Lynch’s Bad Thoughts - J. Hoberman, 2015 March: Lumière and Company (1995), 2015 April: David Lynch Creates a Very Surreal Plug for Transcendental Meditation.

B-Sides & Rarities - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2005)

Wikipedia - "B-Sides & Rarities is a 3CD compilation by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in March 2005. It features over 20 years of the band's B-sides and previously unreleased tracks, including tracks performed with Shane MacGowan and acoustic versions of 'Deanna' and 'The Mercy Seat'. It is also the first recording to include all members of The Bad Seeds, past and present: Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, Thomas Wydler, Martyn P. Casey, Conway Savage, Jim Sclavunos, Warren Ellis, Barry Adamson, Kid Congo Powers, James Johnston, Roland Wolf and Hugo Race."
Wikipedia
amazon: B-Sides & Rarities
Pitchfork
allmusic
YouTube: Where the Wild Roses Grow (PJ Harvey), Deanna, The Mercy Seat, City of Refuge, Black Betty, The Train Song, Rainy Night in Soho, Little Empty Boat, Jack The Ripper, The Willow Garden, Red Right Hand, Black Hair (PJ Harvey), Bless His Ever Loving Heart, Little Janey's Gone, (I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World, What A Wonderful World, I feel so good, Shoot Me Down

2008 August: Nick Cave, 2010 November: Henry Lee - Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 March: The Boatman's Call, 2012 January: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - White Lunar, 2013 January: "We No Who U R", 2013 April: No More Shall We Part, 2013 June: The Secret Life Of The Love Song/The Flesh Made Word (1999), 2013 October: The Abattoir Blues Tour (2007), 2014 March: Push the Sky Away (2013), 2014 May: Live from KCRW (2013), 2014 July: I Am the Real Nick Cave, 2014 March: God Is In The House (2001), 2015 June: Nocturama (2003), 2015 July: Higgs Boson Blues.

Giant Steps - John Coltrane (1960)

Wikipedia - "Giant Steps is the fifth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane as leader, released in 1960 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD 1311. His first album for his new label Atlantic, it is the breakthrough album for Coltrane as a leader, and many of its tracks have become practice templates for jazz saxophonists. ... The recording exemplifies Coltrane's melodic phrasing that came to be known as sheets of sound, and features his explorations into third-related chord movements that came to be known as Coltrane changes. Jazz musicians continue to use the Giant Steps chord progression, which consists of a peculiar set of chords that often move in thirds, as a practice piece and as a gateway into modern jazz improvisation. Several pieces on this album went on to become jazz standards, most prominently 'Naima' and 'Giant Steps.' ..."
Wikipedia
JazzWiseMagazine
Guardian - 50 great moments in jazz: John Coltrane's giant step for improvisation (Video)
YouTube: John Coltrane - Giant steps full jazz album
01 Giant Steps - 00:00 02 Cousin Mary - 04:46 03 Countdown - 10:36 04 Spiral - 13:01 05 Syeeda's Song Flute - 19:05 06 Naima - 26:11 07 Mr. P.C. - 30:36 08 Giant Steps (alternate version 1) - 37:39 09 Naima (alternate version 1) - 41:23 10 Cousin Mary (alternate take) - 45:55 11 Countdown (alternate take) - 51:46 12 Syeeda's Song Flute (alternate take) - 56:23 13 Giant Steps (alternate version 2) - 1:03:35 14 Naima (alternate version 2) - 1:07:07 15 Giant Steps (alternate take) - 1:10:35

2011 November: John Coltrane Quartet, Live at Jazz Casual, 1963, 2012 March: John Coltrane 1960 - 1965, 2012 September: "Naima" (1959), 2012 October: Blue Train (1957), 2013 April: The World According to John Coltrane, 2013 November: A Love Supreme (1965), 2014 July: New Photos of John Coltrane Rediscovered 50 Years After They Were Shot, 2014 November: Coltrane’s Free Jazz Wasn’t Just “A Lot of Noise”, 2015 February: Lush Life (1958), 2015 May: An Animated John Coltrane Explains His True Reason for Being: “I Want to Be a Force for Real Good”, 2015 July: Afro Blue Impressions (2013), 2015 September: Impressions of Coltrane.

Marcel Dzama: The Fallen Fables

"Marcel Dzama has become known for his prolific drawings, which are characterized by their distinctive palette of muted colors and scribbled texture. In recent years, the artist has expanded his practice to encompass three-dimensional work and film and has developed an immediately recognizable language that draws from a diverse range of references and artistic influences, including Dada and Marcel Duchamp. Like many of Dzama's compositions this portfolio of twelve soft ground etchings explore themes of fairytale, violence and bizarre fantasy. The masked faces of Dzama’s characters are just one of the many examples of the erotic, historical, and literary iconography that the artist uses to create a darkly twisted image of humanity."
artspace
Marcel Dzama on Being a "Trickster" Artist, and Why He's a Devotee of Duchamp
Marcel Dzama: The Fallen Fables
W - Marcel Dzama

Gem Spa

Wikipedia - "Gem Spa is a newspaper stand and candy store located on the corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It opened under another name in the 1920s, and received its current name in 1957. It is open 24 hours a day, and is known for being commonly considered to be the birthplace of the authentic New York City-style egg cream, which its awning describes as 'New York's Best.' It does not stock pornographic magazines, and it gets magazines delivered one or two days before other New York City newsstands. In the 1950s, Gem Spa was a gathering place for beats, and in the 1960s it was a hippie hangout, known for selling a wide selection of underground newspapers. New York Magazine named it the best newsstand in the East Village in 2001, and it has been featured on television programs about food, including Kelly Choi's Secrets of New York. ..."
Wikipedia
Gothamist: A Look Inside The Iconic East Village GEM Spa
Voice: Original Gem Spa (1972) Closes: Bye Bye, Miss American Egg Cream
Gem Spa: Not Closed
yelp

Noam Chomsky on Paris attacks: “If you want to end it, the first question you ask is — why did it take place?”

"How should Western leaders react to the terror attacks in Paris, renowned linguist and professor Noam Chomsky was asked by acTVism Munich host Zain Raza shortly after the attacks. 'It depends what they want to do,” Chomsky replied over a video feed at the event titled Germany’s role in the European Union and International Affairs: Post War History, Present and Possible futures. Do they want to encourage further terrorism, or do they want to end that kind of terrorism? That’s the choice,' he said of European and U.S. leaders. 'If you want to end it, the first question you ask is: why did it take place? What were the immediate causes and what were the deeper roots? And then you try to address those. The only information we have is the explanation given by ISIS,' Chomsky began, 'they say, if you bomb us we’ll attack you.'”
Salon (Video)

2011 January: Peak Oil and a Changing Climate, 2015 May: The Limits of Discourse As Demonstrated by Sam Harris and Noam Chomsky, 2015 October: Electing the President of an Empire

Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka (1971)

Wikipedia - "Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka was an album produced by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. The album was a recording of the Moroccan group the Master Musicians of Joujouka, in performance on 29 July 1968 in the village of Jajouka in Morocco and released on Rolling Stones Records, and distributed by Atco Records in 1971. ... It was significant for presenting the Moroccan group to a global audience, drawing other musicians to Jajouka, including Ornette Coleman.The album was reissued in 1995. The executive producers were Philip Glass, Kurt Munkacsi, and Rory Johnston, with notes by Bachir Attar, Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Stephen Davis, Jones, Brion Gysin, and David Silver. This deluxe album included additional graphics, more extensive notes by David Silver and Burroughs, and a second CD, produced by Cliff Mark, with two 'full-length remixes.' ..."
Wikipedia
allmusic
The Master Musicians of Joujouka (Video)
amazon
YouTube: The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka (FULL ALBUM)

Africa remix: the artists subverting colonial imagery

Folsade Adeoso, The ocean is a woman, 2013.
"Share, click, repost, send. These are the daily habits of hundreds of thousands of Africans living parts of their life online, connecting them to regions, histories and people that, like for all of us, were previously inaccessible. Africa’s major urban centres have since 2000 become rapidly digital ready: investment in mobile broadband, fibre-optic cables, and the expansion of power supplies has enabled millions of people across the continent to get online. Coupled with the declining costs of smartphones and tablets, reports celebrating Africa 'going digital' proliferate. But few focus on the more creative and unusual side of digital engagement: how this world has become a playground for artists. ..."
Guardian

The Scandalous Legacy of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Collector of Art and Men

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner (detail), (1888).
"The first time I encountered Isabella Stewart Gardner was the way most people do: through her museum. The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum is located near Fenway Park in Boston, just a short walk from the Museum of Fine Arts. ... Isabella smoked cigarettes, and the newspaper ran stories claiming she had taken zoo lions for a stroll in the park. A dahlia bears her name, and so does a mountain peak in Washington. She once shocked all of Boston Society by showing up to the Boston Symphony Orchestra bearing a headband that declared, 'Oh you Red Sox.' She invited the Harvard Football team to her home after they beat Yale. She hosted a boxing match at her home and, while the men fought, she danced. She had two large diamonds attached to wires and wore them bouncing in her hair. At the opening of her museum, she served champagne and donuts. The woman courted the world, and the world courted the woman. ..."
Broadly

2012 April: Renzo Piano’s Addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, 2013 March: Gardner Museum Heist Case Might Crack, 2014 April: Carla Fernández: The Barefoot Designer: A Passion for Radical Design and Community

Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years (1987)

"... Rather, this is just the third installment in Waits' eccentric series of Island Records albums in which he seems most inspired by German art song and carnival music, presenting songs in spare, stripped-down arrangements consisting of instruments like marimba, baritone horn, and pump organ and singing in a strained voice that has been artificially compressed and distorted. The songs themselves often are conventional romantic vignettes, or would be minus the oddities of instrumentation, arrangement, and performance. For example, 'Innocent When You Dream,' a song of disappointment in love and friendship, has a winning melody, but it is played in a seesaw arrangement of pump organ, bass, violin, and piano, and Waits sings it like an enraged drunk. ..."
allmusic
The Quietus - 25 Years On: Franks Wild Years By Tom Waits Revisited
NY Times
W - Franks Wild Years
Spotify
YouTube: Way Down in the Hole, Hang On St. Christopher, Innocent when you dream, You're Innocent When You Dream

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), 2015 April: Swordfishtrombones (1983), 2015 July: Alice (2002), 2015 September: Tom Waits On The Tube Live UK TV 1985.

Recollections of Gran Apachería - Ed Dorn (1974)

"... In his next book, Recollections of Gran Apachería, Dorn presents the Apaches as noble 'not in themselves / so much as in their Ideas.' Apache thought, like the Gunslinger’s, arises from dwelling undistractedly in a timeless, local space, defined by actual geographical features: 'Their leading ideas / come directly from the landform.' Western culture, in contrast, wants to control everything through the abstract force of predictive reason, which Dorn labels 'Mind.' Mind is a deadly tool in the wrong hands, and Dorn distinguishes it from the thinking practices of people who think with the landform. ..."
Jacket2: Introduction to Edward Dorn
Tom Clark: Geronimo in Exile (Edward Dorn: Recollections of Gran Apacheria)
Wordplay this week: Ed Dorn
Ron Silliman: Way More West: New and Selected Poems
Bill Sherman On Ed Dorn’s Collected
Edward Dorn's Derelict Air: From Collected Out, edited by Justin Katko and Kyle Waugh
amazon: Recollections of Gran Apachería, Way More West: New and Selected Poems
PennSound: Reading at SUNY Buffalo, April 19, 1974; Reading SUNY Buffalo, April 20, 1974 (Video)

2007 December: Edward Dorn, 1929-1999, 2011 February: Slinger, 2011 April: The North Atlantic Turbine, 2012 September: Fulcrum Press, 2014 September: Tom Clark - Edward Dorn (1929-1999), 2015 November: The Collected Poems 1956 - 1974.

New York Rocker

"In the spring of 1975, more than a year before the release of the Ramones' debut album, Alan Betrock founded the magazine New York Rocker. In doing so, he changed American popular culture forever. The Queens native was already a leading collector and discographer of '60s rock, and the past publisher of the mimeographed fanzine Jamz and the collector-oriented The Rock Marketplace. But New York Rocker was the visionary move, the product of Betrock's realization that the music rising from a run-down Bowery bar deserved its own magazine—one with its own style of photography and graphic design, one that would blend a fan's enthusiasm with an educated critical eye. Through the pages of New York Rocker, Alan Betrock defined the new rock and roll. His covers made stars of Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, and Talking Heads before they'd even crossed the Hudson. ..."
Voice
Perfect Sound Forever: New York Rocker
FANZINE FAVES
W - New York Rocker

Why Black Man Dey Suffer - Fela Kuti (1971)

"Pioneering musician, activist, and bandleader Fela Kuti is the first word in Afro-beat, making such strides in the genre over the course of his career that his contributions are foundational and nothing less than legendary. Why Black Man Dey Suffer is a relatively early chapter in the Fela discography, originally recorded in 1971. Put to tape with early band Africa 70 and Cream drummer/Afro-beat enthusiast Ginger Baker on board as well, the record is made up of two extensive, repetitive, and loping pieces. The rhythmic title track is a blueprint of early Afro-beat and 'Ikoyi Mentality Versus Mushin Mentality' is a deep groove of burning horns and fearless percussion."
allmusic
W - Why Black Man Dey Suffer
Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1971) (Video)
Spotify
YouTube: Why Black Man Dey Suffer, Ikoyi Mentality Versus Mushin Mentality

U.S. Seeks to Avoid Ground War Welcomed by Islamic State

"As the debate on how best to contain the Islamic State continues to rage in Western capitals, the militants themselves have made one point patently clear: They want the United States and its allies to be dragged into a ground war. In fact, when the United States first invaded Iraq, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the move was the man who founded the terrorist cell that would one day become the Islamic State, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He excitedly called the Americans’ 2003 intervention 'the Blessed Invasion.' His reaction — ignored by some, and dismissed as rhetoric by others — points to one of the core beliefs motivating the terrorist group now holding large stretches of Iraq and Syria: The group bases its ideology on prophetic texts stating that Islam will be victorious after an apocalyptic battle to be set off once Western armies come to the region. ..."
NY Times
NY Times: Recent Attacks Demonstrate Islamic State’s Ability to Both Inspire and Coordinate Terror
Al Jazeera: US asks allies to step up effort to contain ISIL
Al Jazeera: Playing politics with boots on the ground

2014 August: The Islamic State, 2014 September: How ISIS Works, 2015 February: The Political Scene: The Evolution of Islamic Extremism, 2015 May: Zakaria: How ISIS shook the world, 2015 August: ISIS Blows Up Ancient Temple at Syria’s Palmyra Ruins, 2015 November: Times Insider: Reporting Europe's Refugee Crisis, 2015 November: Three Teams of Coordinated Attackers Carried Out Assault on Paris, Officials Say; Hollande Blames ISIS, 2015 November: The French Emergency, 2015 December: A Brief History of ISIS.

The Trades: Hendrik Beikirch (ECB) Traces Moroccan Faces

"Street Artist ECB is introducing you to the trades of Morocco by painting the faces of current practitioners whom he has met on the street. By now we are familiar with the storytelling role that artists can fulfill with their portraits of individuals who live in a region, town, or neighborhood and Street Artists such as the Parisian C215, Canadian Fauxreel, and the American desert dweller Jetsonorama come to mind as well as more recent Brooklyn social activists like LMNOPI and Tatiana Fazlilazadeh. ..."
Brooklyn Street Art

Gisèle Vienne – This is how you will disappear (2012)

"... My previous shows have explored seemingly opposite aesthetic realms. I therefore felt it was important to juxtapose these oppositions within a single work. Our springboard is the notion of beauty that stems both from order and from disorder. We shall examine these different types of aesthetic experiences, which are seemingly contrary and yet inseparable, through the prism of Apollonian beauty versus Dionysian beauty. This leads to an inquiry into the Nietzschean view of tragedy -- how it is born from the reconciliation of conflicting gods. The action takes place in a very naturalistic forest. The landscape, at first realistic and then increasingly symbolic, is inhabited by three characters in search of a spiritual experience. ..."
This is how you will disappear
In Performance: Gisèle Vienne – This is how you will disappear
Kaaitheater 15|16
Urban Landfill
YouTube: This Is How You Will Disappear, Interview with Gisèle Vienne

The Clash - "Clash City Rockers" / "Jail Guitar Doors" (1978)

Wikipedia - "'Clash City Rockers' is a song and single by The Clash. First released in February 1978 with the b-side 'Jail Guitar Doors,' a re-worked version of a song from Joe Strummer's pub rock days. It was later included as the opening track of the belated US version of the band's eponymous debut album. The song was first played live at Mont De Marsan (Landes - France), in August 1977 and recorded the same year in the band's October and November sessions at CBS Studios. ... The Clash's first overt attempt at self-mythology, 'Clash City Rockers' is, by and large, a song about positivity and moving forward, and revisits themes common in Clash songs of the era, specifically dead-end employment and having a purpose in life. ..."
Wikipedia
W - "Jail Guitar Doors"
Jail Guitar Doors - Billy Bragg
YouTube: Clash City Rockers, Jail Guitar Doors, Billy Bragg sings "Jail Guitar Doors" - Joe Strummer Tribute in S.F. 10-2-09

The Square (2013)

Wikipedia - "The Square is a 2013 Egyptian-American documentary film by Jehane Noujaim, which depicts the ongoing Egyptian Crisis until 2013, starting with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 at Tahrir Square. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards. ... A.O. Scott from the New York Times wrote, 'The Square, while it records the gruesome collision of utopian aspirations with cold political realities, is not a despairing film. It concludes on a note of resolve grounded in the acknowledgment that historical change can be a long, slow process.' ..."
Wikipedia
The Square (Video)
Al-Jazeera: The Egypt outside ‘The Square’
NY Times: Brave Optimism of Tahrir Square Meets Other Fierce Forces (Video)
Washington Post: ‘The Square’ is a beautiful documentary. But its politics are dangerous.
Guardian - The Square: an Egyptian Oscar nominee that won't be shown in Egypt
YouTube: THE SQUARE Movie Trailer (Official Documentary Release 2013)
DailyMotion: The Square 1:42:29

2014 July: Stories of Change – Beyond the ‘Arab Spring’

John Baldessari - Concrete Couples (2015)

Concrete Couples, 2015
"Concrete Couples marks the artist’s sixth project in his two decade partnership with the Mixografia Workshop. In this new series Baldessari continues his ongoing exploration into the visual language of contemporary American culture. Concrete Couples draws inspiration from the iconic sidewalk outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, where countless celebrities have preserved their handprints, footprints and signatures along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In his rendition, Baldessari has created nine panels of what appear to be sections of sidewalk, into which he has carefully composed and etched the names of famous couples from throughout history and fiction. These drawings follow the archetype of teenagers chronicling their love by scratching their names into wet concrete, poking fun at some of history’s most notorious couples. ..."
Art Miami Fair

2009 October: John Baldessari, 2012 May: A Brief History of John Baldessari, 2014 January: This Not That (2010).

Njideka Akunyili Crosby

5 Umezebi Street, New Haven, Enugu, 2012 (acrylic, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil and transfer on paper)
Wikipedia - "Njideka Akunyili Crosby (born 1983) is a Nigerian-born visual artist working in Los Angeles, California. Her works on paper combine collage, drawing, painting, printmaking, and photo transfers. Akunyili Crosby negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating works that expose the challenges of occupying these two worlds. She has created a sophisticated visual language that pays homage to the history of Western painting while also referencing African cultural traditions. Akunyili Crosby depicts deeply personal imagery that transcends the specificity of individual experience and engages in a global dialogue about trenchant social and political issues. A hallmark of her compositions is the use of small photographic images as if they were swatches of fabric. She photocopies pictures from various sources such as wedding albums and magazines and transfers them to paper using acetone solvent. The result is a memory-book textile that evokes the feelings of nostalgia, rootedness, homesickness, and loss, adding the dimension of time to the work and demonstrating the artist’s culture of origin is present in her daily life. ..."
Wikipedia
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Victoria Miro
Studio Museum Awards 2015 Wein Artist Prize to Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Artist to Know: Njideka Akunyili Crosby (Video)
SF MoMA: Njideka Akunyili Crosby on painting cultural collision

Composing Myself: Philip Glass (2015)

"Philip Glass, early protagonist of the Minimalist movement, studied with Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger. His first job, assisting Ravi Shankar on a film soundtrack, heralded the start of his own successful cinema career, and to date he has scored over fifty movies. Early works tended to be abstract, but from the mid-1970s his attention shifted towards the stage. His first operatic triumph, Einstein on the Beach, did much to reinvigorate the international contemporary opera scene. Profoundly interested in traditional cultures, Glass often draws on Eastern traditions, as in Monsters of Grace (1997), a multimedia collaboration based on the writings of Rumi."
Music Sales Classical
YouTube: Composing Myself

2009 November: Philip Glass, 2010 April: Satyagraha, 2010 May: Koyaanisqatsi, 2010 July: The CIVIL warS, 2010 November: Akhenaten, 2011 January: Landscape with Philip Glass (1975), 2011 May: Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera (1985), 2011 August: Philip Glass Ensemble - "Train/Spaceship", 2011 December: The Satyagraha protest, 2011 December: Glassworks, 2015 June: THE EARTH MOVES. A documentary about Einstein on the Beach.

A New Yorker in “Little Syria” tells his story

WWI, New York City — Little Armenia on Lexington Avenue and Little Syria
"The late 19th century city was home to a massive tide of new immigrants: Russian, Italian, Hungarian, Chinese. Amid the lower Manhattan neighborhoods these newcomers settled in was Little Syria. Also known as the Syrian Quarter, it was a vibrant enclave along Washington Street near the Battery where thousands of Syrian Christians, Armenians, Greeks, and others from Middle Eastern and Mediterranean communities lived. Here, they resided in tenements and operated dry goods stores, textile factories, and cafes selling pastries and coffee. The following account of arriving in Little Syria and making a home in the neighborhood comes from a 1906 book about the immigrant experience. ..."
Ephemeral New York
A trip to Little Syria, New York’s first Middle Eastern neighborhood
Making Music in Prewar New York

2013 September: Little Syria

The Other Paris - Luc Sante

"Luc Sante is no doubt a well-behaved person whose lodgings are neat as a pin, but his mind teems with filth and disorder, his nostrils alert to the dankness of slums. To this explorer of the urban under­belly, the squalid and the tawdry are manna from heaven. Lost neighborhoods, the way the other half lived and died, buried treasure in the form of old photographs and documents, what he has called the 'husks' cast off by the past, are the main attraction for this literary scavenger. The Belgian-born and vastly erudite Sante has followed his appetite for the detritus of the past in essays and translations and in books like 'Low Life' (1991) and now 'The Other Paris.'  ..."
NY Times
Luc Sante
Work in Progress - The Other Paris by Luc Sante (Excerpt)
The Paris Review - Colossally Sordid: An Interview with Luc Sante
LA Times: Author Luc Sante's 'The Other Paris' wanders the city streets of past and present
amazon
YouTube: The Other Paris

Ghost Streets of Los Angeles

"In a short story called 'Reports of Certain Events in London' by China Miéville—a text often cited here on BLDGBLOG—we read about a spectral network of streets that appear and disappear around London like the static of a radio tuned between stations, old roadways that are neither here nor there, flickering on and off in the dead hours of the night. For reasons mostly related to a bank heist described in my book, A Burglar's Guide to the City, I found myself looking at a lot of aerial shots of Los Angeles—specifically the area between West Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard—when I noticed this weird diagonal line cutting through the neighborhood...."
BLDGBLOG

The Notebooks - Jean-Michel Basquiat

"Brooklyn-born Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88) was one of the most important artists of the 1980s. A key figure in the New York art scene, he inventively explored the interplay between words and images throughout his career, first as a member of SAMO, a graffiti group active on the Lower East Side in the late 1970s, and then as a painter acclaimed for his unmistakable Neoexpressionist style. From 1980 to 1987, he filled numerous working notebooks with drawings and handwritten texts. This facsimile edition reproduces the pages of eight of these fascinating and rarely seen notebooks for the first time. The notebooks are filled with images and words that recur in Basquiat’s paintings and other works. Iconic drawings and pictograms of crowns, teepees, and hatch-marked hearts share space with handwritten texts, including notes, observations, and poems that often touch on culture, race, class, and life in New York. ..."
Princeton University Press
An Intimate Reading of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Poetry
YouTube: The Notebooks

2013 April: Saving Basquiat: Seeing the Art Through the Myth-Making at Gagosian, 2015 February: Now's the Time, 2015 May: Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks

Art Blakey - Paris Jam Session (1959)

"This 1959 concert in Paris by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers has been sporadically available on various labels, but this reissue in Verve's Jazz in Paris series is the best sounding and best packaged of the lot. Blakey's group of this period (Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Jymie Merritt, and Walter Davis, Jr.) is in great form during an extended workout of Morgan's intense blues 'The Midget,' and Dizzy Gillespie's timeless 'A Night in Tunisia' is kicked off by Blakey's an electrifying solo. But it is the addition of some special guests for the first two numbers that proves to be extra special. Bud Powell, sitting in for Davis, and French saxophonist Barney Wilen, on alto rather than his normal tenor sax, are both added to the band for inspired versions of Powell's 'Dance of the Infidels' and 'Bouncing with Bud.' Morgan's trumpet playing is outstanding throughout the concert. This is one of the essential live dates in Art Blakey's rather extensive discography."
allmusic
W - Paris Jam Session
Discogs
Spotify
YouTube: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Paris Jam Session (Full Album)

2014 February: Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, 2014 August: A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 - Art Blakey (1954), 2015 August: Moanin' (1958)

Burning Spear - Rockin' Time (1974)

"Winston Rodney is, hands down, one of reggae's (or any other genre's) most prolific artists. His unorthodox singing styles range from subtle whisper, through mystical chant, to painful wailing without warning. In the late '60s, as the popular dance tunes of the rocksteady era began to give way to an influx of Rasta consciousness, Rodney (who adopted the Burning Spear moniker from a Kenyan freedom fighter) cut two records for Studio One's Clement Dodd that were subsequently overshadowed by his more celebrated releases on Island/Mango Records. Studio One has re-released these gems, many of which are being heard for the first time in 30 years. This is cosmic reggae at its rawest, before the sound became super-produced. ..."
allmusic
W - Rockin' Time
BURNING SPEAR ALBUMS AT STUDIO ONE
YouTube: Rocking Time ( full album )studio 1 records 1974

2009 June: Burning Spear, 2010 October: Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost, 2012 March: Burning Spear 1981 - Markthalle Hamburg, 2012 December: Hail H.I.M., 2015 August: Man In The Hills / Dry & Heavy (1976)

The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past

"The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past presents some 200 photographic prints, a number of vintage photographic albums, and memorabilia that utilized formal portraiture of the shah, the exhibition shows how photographers—many of them engaged by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848-1896), the longest reigning Shah of the Qajar Dynasty (1785-1925)— ultimately created a portrait of the country's ancient and recent past . Most of the photographs in the exhibition have never been publicly displayed. ..."
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World: Introduction
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World: Highlights
Princeton University (Press Click to enlarge)

Hank Willis Thomas

"Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist living and working in New York City. His work focuses on themes related to perspective identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. He often incorporates recognizable icons into his work, many from well-known advertising and branding campaigns. On advertising, in an interview with Time, Thomas said, 'Part of advertising’s success is based on its ability to reinforce generalizations developed around race, gender and ethnicity which are generally false, but [these generalizations] can sometimes be entertaining, sometimes true, and sometimes horrifying.' After the senseless robbery and murder of his cousin, Songha Willis Thomas in 2000, Hank became known for B®anded, a series of photographs, and Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America 1968-2008, a body of work created from appropriating advertising images. He was thinking about the root of black-on-black violence in the US. ..."
Jack Shainman (Video)
Hank Willis Thomas (Video)
W - Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas | BRANDING USA
YouTube: "Am I Going Too Fast?" a short film by Hank Willis Thomas and Christopher Myers, Hank Willis Thomas: Artists Should Work in Society's Subconscious, Hank Willis Thomas on Race

William S. Burroughs - Destroy All Rational Thought

"There is a point during one of the last recorded interviews with William S Burroughs — which features on this occasionally mildly interesting, but mostly infuriating, DVD—where he laments the passing of so many of the 20th century’s ‘great minds’. His fear is that there will be no-one to take their place; no new innovators, no literary outlaws, no risk takers. Ostensibly this comment refers in particular to his deceased friend, the artist Brion Gysin, who along with Burroughs is the subject of this ‘celebration’. Yet when you consider the ongoing fascination with the mid-century decadents of the Beat generation that has lead to a DVD release for this nebulous, amateurish, though no doubt well intended documentary (merely because it has the name of Burroughs attached to it), you can perhaps see his point. ..."
pop matters
YouTube: Destroy All Rational Thought 48:12

2009 May: Cut-up technique - 1, 2010 March: Cut-up technique, 2010 December: The Evolution of the Cut-Up Technique in My Own Mag, 2012 August: The Nova Trilogy, 2014 February: William Burroughs at 100, 2014 September: The Ticket That Exploded, 2014 November: What Is Schizo-Culture? A Classic Conversation with William S. Burroughs, 2015 June: The Electronic Revolution (1971), 2015 August: Cut-Ups: William S. Burroughs 1914 – 2014.

The Delights and Perils of Navigating New York City With a Guidebook From 1899

"A century before the travel guide shelves at bookstores were bursting with Lonely Planets, Fodor’s, and Frommer’s, there was just one book for the discerning solo explorer: the Baedeker guide. Established in 1835 in Germany by Karl Baedeker, these pocket-sized books were intended for the well-to-do gentleman traveler. With their maps, restaurant recommendations, and practical information on international cities, Baedeker guides proved hugely popular among independent travelers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. But could an adventurer use one today? To find out, I spent a weekend exploring New York City, directed solely by the fourth edition of the 1899 Baedeker guide to the United States. ..."
Atlas Obscura

To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar (2015)

"The sentiment is universal, but the viewpoint on his second LP is inner-city and African-American, as radio regulars like the Isley Brothers (sampled to perfection during the key track 'I'), George Clinton (who helps make 'Wesley's Theory' a cross between 'Atomic Dog' and Dante's Inferno), and Dr. Dre (who literally phones his appearance in) put the listener in Lamar's era of Compton, just as well as Lou Reed took us to New York and Brecht took us to Weimar Republic Berlin. These G-funky moments are incredibly seductive, which helps usher the listener through the album's 80-minute runtime, plus its constant mutating (Pharrell productions, spoken word, soul power anthems, and sound collages all fly by, with few tracks ending as they began), much of it influenced, and sometimes assisted by, producer Flying Lotus and his frequent collaborator Thundercat. ... Free your mind, and your ass will follow, and at the end of this beautiful black berry, there's a miraculous 'talk' between Kendrick and the legendary 2Pac, as the brutalist trailblazer mentors this profound populist. To Pimp a Butterfly is as dark, intense, complicated, and violent as Picasso's Guernica, and should hold the same importance for its genre and the same beauty for its intended audience."
allmusic
W - To Pimp a Butterfly (Video)
Pitchfork
Why Did Everyone Claim to Enjoy Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly'?
Spotify
YouTube: Alright, King Kunta, i, For Free? (Interlude), These Walls (Live on Ellen) ft. Bilal, Anna Wise, Thundercat, Wesley's Theory (con George Clinton & Thundercat) [Subtitulado al Español] | TPAB
YouTube: To Pimp a Butterfly (16 Video)