The world’s best record shops #007: Rockers International, Kingston

"We continue our quest with Jamaica’s finest. Every week, we pick out one must-visit spot from a different city around the world with photos and a little bit of history. Think of it as a kind of 1000 places to see before you die for record shops. Our round-the-world-trip has already taken us to London, Berlin, Chicago, New Delhi, Tokyo and Paris. Next stop? Orange Street, downtown Kingston. Once alive wth record shops and music studios, Orange Street today is an abandoned ghost town, the last vestige of reggae’s golden era. Augustus Pablo’s legendary dub institution Rockers International is just one of two record shops left on the strip. ..."
The Vinyl Factory
Keep on Dubbing: Inside Jamaica’s Rockers International Record Shop
Guardian - Rockers International Records on Orange Street, Kingston: reggae playlist (Video)
Orange Street, Vestige of the Golden Age of Reggae
YouTube: Addis Pablo @ Rockers International Record Shop speaking; Java & Augustus Pablo

Bernie Sanders and the History of American Socialism

Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs addressing a 1912 meeting in New York.
"Evidence suggests that, in the early 1960s, American college students favored pouring beer on their heads and dancing to 'Louie Louie' over joining the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL). But if anybody was likely to join the Socialist Party’s youth auxiliary, it was a brainy child of immigrant Jews, a son of Brooklyn — where Jewish voters had, for decades, cast ballots for socialists and liberals who resembled socialists. For Bernie Sanders, socialism was something of a birthright. ... It seems fitting that the country’s first serious socialist presidential candidate since the 1930s should have political roots in the Lower East Side — the cradle of New York socialism. ..."
Jacobin

2016 January: Donald Trump and the Joys of Toy Fascism, 2016 January: Sanders Is Not Trump, 2016 January: Donald Trump’s Twitter Insults: The Complete List (So Far), 2016 February: Bernie and the Millennials, 2016 April: Lost in TRUMPLANDIA.

Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial

"Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial is the fifth installment of the museum’s signature contemporary design exhibition series. With a focus on aesthetic innovation, Beauty celebrates design as a creative endeavor that engages the mind, body, and senses. Curated by Andrea Lipps, Assistant Curator, and Ellen Lupton, Senior Curator of Contemporary Design, the exhibition features more than 250 works by 63 designers and teams from around the globe, and is organized around seven themes: extravagant, intricate, ethereal, transgressive, emergent, elemental, and transformative. ..."
Cooper Hewitt
NY Times: Cooper Hewitt Triennial Offers a Bold Look at ‘Beauty’
CNN: Sniff Central Park and see Bogota at dusk, 63 designers capture 'Beauty'
Beauty, According to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

When the Oil Fields Burned

"Twenty-five years ago, as the United States-led coalition started driving out Iraqi forces from Kuwait, Saddam Hussein’s troops responded by setting ablaze hundreds of oil wells, creating one of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory. By the time I reached southeastern Kuwait in April 1991, on assignment for The New York Times Magazine, the war had ended but the smoke from the arson in the Greater Burgan oil fields continued to obliterate the sun and the flames lit up the desert horizon. Oil-well firefighters from dozens of countries had begun working in unbelievably difficult circumstances to try to extinguish the inferno. For me, these men are the true heroes of the war. Covered head to foot in oil, they moved like phantoms through the gloom. The roar of the flames forced them to communicate by shouting into one another’s ears. ..."
NY Times
W - Kuwaiti oil fires
Kuwaiti Oil Wells
Kuwait Oil Field Restoration
NPR - Iraq War Fear: The Burning Fields
VICE: Syria's Illegal Oil Wells (Video)
YouTube: Kuwait oil fields burning Gulf War 1991

The Elements - Joe Henderson featuring Alice Coltrane (1973)

Wikipedia - "The Elements is an album by American saxophonist Joe Henderson, released in 1973 on Milestone. 1970 began a decade of discovery for Joe Henderson, a time to set aside the post-bop instrumentation and repertoire he was identified with and branch out into other realms. One of the most successful and challenging of these efforts that the Milestone label documented was the present four-part improvisation on the basic themes of 'Fire', 'Air', 'Water' and 'Earth'. Assisting the tenor saxophonist was a group of sympathetic explorers--Alice Coltrane on piano and harp, violin original Michael White, bass giant Charlie Haden, and the multifaceted percussionist Kenneth Nash. Latin American, Indian, and Native American strains enter the mix as Henderson applies the heat and mercurial invention of his more conventional work to these open-ended settings. While the music is enhanced with overdubbing in spots, the true magic of The Elements emanates from the musicians' collective genius at listening and responding to each other. ..."
Wikipedia
JOE HENDERSON featuring ALICE COLTRANE
YouTube: The Elements (Full Album)

2016 January: Ptah, The El Daoud - Alice Coltrane & Pharoah Sanders (1970)

Experiments with the New York School of Poets

Frank O'Hara and Franz Kline - Cedar Tavern, 1959
"... Borrowing this line, our four-week poetry writing workshop at Mid-Manhattan Library began writing poems in March. We traveled our own memory lanes to call up a friend, a lover, a favorite actor, or a foe to give a line to in our notebook, a public address to aid in immortality. Our March workshop, led by poet Hermine Meinhard, discussed the New York School of poets, their influences, their style, and their writing habits as it captured the spirit of the 1950s and 60s in New York City. Taking some of these habits, we wrote poetry, trying for a slice of life or a walk down a New York street, using drips and splashes of collaged ideas. The New York School of poets began in the late '40s with a group of poets interested in art, especially the Abstract Expressionists, and urban life. Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery and Barbara Guest were among the originals to this group and we devoted a session to discussing each of them and then writing poetry inspired by their style. ..."
The New York Public Library
Elaine de Kooning, Frank O’Hara, and the New York School

2013 June: Cedar Tavern

Agitprop!

Yoko Ono and John Lennon made noise with their 1972, Some Time in New York City.
"At key moments in history, artists have reached beyond galleries and museums, using their work as a call to action to create political and social change. For the past hundred years, the term agitprop, a combination of agitation and propaganda, has directly reflected the intent of this work. Agitprop! connects contemporary art devoted to social change with historic moments in creative activism, highlighting activities that seek to motivate broad and diverse publics. Exploring the complexity, range, and impact of these artistic practices—including photography, film, prints, banners, street actions, songs, digital files, and web platforms—the exhibition expands over its run within a unique and dynamic framework. ..."
Brooklyn Museum
NY Times: The Art of Politics, in ‘Agitprop!’ at the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum’s Activist Art Show Is a Messy Collision of Curation and Politics
Art In America: Waves of Dissent, Legacies of Change
YouTube: Dread Scott: Brooklyn Museum's New 'Agitprop!' Exhibit | BK Live

The Jam - "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" (1979)

Wikipedia - "'Down in the Tube Station at Midnight' was the second single taken from the album All Mod Cons by The Jam. Released on 21 October 1978, it charted at number 15 and was backed by a cover of the Who song 'So Sad About Us', and 'The Night', written by Bruce Foxton. The back of the record jacket displayed a photo of Keith Moon, former drummer of The Who, who had died of an overdose of prescribed medication intended to help his alcoholism the month prior to the single's release. ..."
Wikipedia - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
allmusic
Genius
YouTube: Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, So sad about us, The Night

2009 March: The Jam, 2012 November: "Going Underground", 2013 January: In the City, 2013 February: This Is the Modern World, 2013 July: All Mod Cons, 2013 November: Setting Sons, 2014 January: Sound Affects (1980), 2014 December: Live At Bingley Hall, Birmingham, England 1982, 2015 March: "Town Called Malice" / "Precious", 2015 July: The Gift (1982), 2015 September: "Strange Town" / "The Butterfly Collector" (1979).

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

"The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story is a limited series that takes you inside the O.J. Simpson trial with a riveting look at the legal teams battling to convict or acquit the football legend of double homicide. Based on the book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson by Jeffrey Toobin, it explores the chaotic behind-the-scenes dealings and maneuvering on both sides of the court, and how a combination of prosecution overconfidence, defense shrewdness, and the LAPD’s history with the city’s African-American community gave a jury what it needed: reasonable doubt. ..."
FXNET: About the Show (Video)
FXNET (Video)
W - The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
W - O. J. Simpson murder case
This O.J. Simpson Juror Revealed 7 Things 'The People v. O.J. Simpson' Got Wrong About The Real Trial

Mother Earth - Living with the Animals (1968)

"Though Mother Earth is often remembered as a vehicle for Tracy Nelson, Living With the Animals is a true group effort, combining memorable vocal performances with tight R&B-derived playing with excellent guitar work from Michael Bloomfield. Side one is a showcase for Nelson's blues belting and piano, particularly on 'Down So Low' and 'Mother Earth.' Not to be overlooked is the blues shuffle 'I Did My Part' and R.P. St. John's sardonic 'Living With the Animals' and 'Marvel Set,' which features him on lead vocals. Side two doesn't hold up quite as well, though there are stellar moments here as well, including 'Cry On' and 'Goodnight Nelda Grebe,' with fine horn section work and excellent Nelson vocals. Written and fronted by St. John, 'The Kingdom of Heaven Is Within You' is a brilliant closer; it's nocturnal, moody, and spacy and showcases beautiful muted trumpets and reeds with a gorgeous flute solo by Link Davis Jr. The album was reissued on CD by Wounded Bird in 2004."
allmusic
Discogs
NPR: What Does It Take To Get Your Attention?
YouTube: Marvel Group, Mother Earth, I Did My Part, Living With The Animals, Down So Low, Cry On, It Won't Be Long, My Love Will Never Die, Goodnight Nelba Grebe, The Telephone Company Has Cut Us Off, The Kingdom of Heaven (Is Within You)

2016 March: Make a Joyful Noise - Mother Earth (1969)

Far from Heaven - Todd Haynes (2002)

Wikipedia - "Far from Heaven is a 2002 American drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, and Patricia Clarkson. The film tells the story of Cathy Whitaker, a 1950s housewife, living in wealthy suburban Connecticut as she sees her seemingly perfect life begin to fall apart. It is done in the style of a Douglas Sirk film (especially 1955's All That Heaven Allows and 1959's Imitation of Life), dealing with complex contemporary issues such as race, gender roles, sexual orientation and class. ..."
Wikipedia
Guardian: Far from Heaven
Guardian: Pride and prejudice
NY Times: A 50's Picket Fence Around Love
Roger Ebert
YouTube: Far from Heaven Official Trailer #1

2016 April: Carol (2015)

History of Hip Hop w/ The Rub

"Cosmo Baker, DJ Ayres, and DJ Eleven of The Rub present their history of hip-hop series on BrooklynRadio.com! Beginning in 1979, the Reagan decade is counted down with each years pop hits, underground club classics, and obscure gems. Youll start with the genres block party roots in the South Bronx with Grandmaster Flash and work your way through its mainstream acceptance with Run D.M.C. and LL Cool J. Get ready for the boombox breakdance era of early rap in New York City. Its the History of Hip-Hop: The 80s. After a tour of the 80s, the crew digs into the genre as it becomes a pop culture phenomenom in the 90s. ..."
Brooklyn Radio (Video)

10 Contemporary Baseball Books for the New Season

Duke Snyder, 1955 World Series
"Baseball is a nostalgic sport. Its glories are in the past, the thinking goes. You should have seen Ted’s swing. Jim Palmer, now there was a pitcher. The same could be said for the game’s literature. The old books tend to loom the largest. Jim Boulton’s Ball Four is a Book of the Century, according to the New York Public Library. Summer of ’49 and October 1964 were penned by David Halberstam, the Pulitzer Prize-winner who gave us definitive accounts of Vietnam, the Kennedy Administration, and just about every seminal moment of post-war America. And then there’s Bernard Malamud and The Natural. What novel has a better claim to a place in the American canon? (Full disclosure—at eight, I nearly lost my left thumb trying to fashion a bat from the trunk of a lightning-struck tree.) But the art of baseball writing didn’t die with Red Smith; it’s alive and well. Talented novelists still look to America’s pastime for insight into the national condition. ..."
Literary Hub

Meredith Monk: 16 Millimeter Earrings and the Artist’s Body (1966/1998)

Performed by Meredith Monk at Judson Church 1966
"At once a choreographer, composer, actress, singer, and director, Meredith Monk is known for a body of work that is often considered unclassifiable. Since the 1960s, her practice has spanned across disciplines of dance, theater, visual arts, and film, and has included solo as well as ensemble pieces. Monk’s self-fashioned degree in 'Interdisciplinary Performance,' obtained from Sarah Lawrence College in 1964, remains the best definition of her work, as the artist often combines multiple performative elements in individual pieces. Her approach results in works that cannot be singularly defined as dance, theater, concert, or film works, but are instead a unique synthesis of artistic disciplines, most broadly described as simply 'performance art.' One of Monk’s earliest pieces is 16 Millimeter Earrings, created in 1966 and originally staged at the Judson Church in New York. ..."
Walker
Meredith Monk: 16 Millimeter Earrings
Meredith Monk: Perception as Content
Killacky: Q&A with dancer and performer Meredith Monk
YouTube: 16 Millimeter Earrings (Excerpt, 1966 - 1979), 16 Millimeter Earrings - Directed by Robert Withers. 1979, 25 min. 24:56

2008 March: Meredith Monk, 2009 September: Songs of Ascension - Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton, 2011 February: Meredith Monk: A Voice For All Time, 2011 August: Ellis Island, 2012 December: Turtle Dreams, 2013 February: Quarry: The Rally (Live, 1977), 2014 November; 10 Things You Might Not Know About Meredith Monk, Volcano Songs (1994), 2015 June: Ellis Island.

Christian Marclay - Records (1981-1989)

"Records 1981-1989 is a fascinating collection of Marclay's work during the 1980s, the results of hours of home recordings -- using up to eight turntables and various other instruments of his own making -- plus many live performances (one track comes from a nationally televised appearance on the David Sanborn/Hal Willner program Night Music). Marclay did much more than just scratching and sampling for these tracks -- 'One Thousand Cycles' uses an increasing variety of repeated samples and clicks to create a complex rhythm of its own, while 'Pandora's Box' varies the speed on its array of plunderphonics. (Though the latter sounds like an easy contemporary of late-'90s major-label turntablist LPs, it was originally released on a 1984 avant-indie compilation from Sweden that also featured Sonic Youth and Live Skull.)"
allmusic (Video)
sputnik music
amazon
YouTube: Pandora's Box, Groove, Dust Breeding, Smoker, Neutral, His Master's Voice (excerpt), Black Stucco, Phonodrum, Jukebox Capriccio, Brown Rain

2008 September: Christian Marclay, 2010 July: Christian Marclay Festival, 2010 October: Night Music, 2011 March: Christian Marclay - Part I: Race to ‘The Clock’, 2011 July: Christian Marclay's Video Quartet, 2011 August: Cyanotype, 2012 July: Fred Frith at Cafe Oto, with Christian Marclay, John Edwards, and Mark Sanders, 2013 October: Record Player: Christian Marclay (2000), 2013 December: Telephones (1995), 2014 March: "Chalkboard" (2010), 2015 October: Scratching DJs.

Ralph Fasanella

A supporter of unions, Fasanella spent years researching and depicting the 1912 “Bread and Roses” strike, a landmark in the history of the labor movement.
Wikipedia - "Ralph Fasanella (September 2, 1914 – December 16, 1997) was a self-taught painter whose large, detailed works depicted urban working life and critiqued post-World War II America. Ralph Fasanella was born to Joseph and Ginevra (Spagnoletti), Italian immigrants, in the Bronx on Labor Day in 1914. He was the third of six children. His father delivered ice to local homes. His mother worked in a neighborhood dress shop drilling holes into buttons, and spent her spare time as an anti-fascist activist. Fasanella spent much of his youth delivering ice with his father from a horse-driven wagon. This experience deeply impressed him. He saw his father as representative of all working men, beaten down day after day and struggling for survival. ... Fasanella's mother was a literate, sensitive, progressive woman. She instilled in Fasanella a strong sense of social justice and political awareness. ..."
Wikipedia
Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget
Smithsonian Institution
NY Times: Ralph Fasanella
Washington Post
Ralph Fasanella - Art of Social Engagement
amazon
vimeo: Ralph Fasanella’s America
YouTube: Interview with Ralph Fasanella for "the Great Depression" 1:07:39

Anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche

Wikipedia - "The relation between anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche has been ambiguous. Even though Nietzsche criticized anarchism, his thought proved influential for many thinkers within what can be characterized as the anarchist movement. As such '[t]here were many things that drew anarchists to Nietzsche: his hatred of the state; his disgust for the mindless social behavior of 'herds'; his anti-Christianity; his distrust of the effect of both the market and the State on cultural production; his desire for an 'übermensch'—that is, for a new human who was to be neither master nor slave'. ... Post-anarchism is a contemporary hybrid of anarchism and post-structuralism. Post-structuralism in itself is profoundly influenced by Nietzsche in its main thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze as well as the early influence of Georges Bataille on these authors. ..." Max Stirner, Emma Goldman, Salvador Seguí, Federica Montseny, Murray Bookchin, Albert Camus, etc.
Wikipedia
Prophet Nietzsche
Saul Newman - Anarchism and the politics of ressentiment

2009 December: Anarchism, 2010 February: Spanish Civil War, 2010 March: The Philosophers' Football Match, 2011 July: Spanish Civil War - 75 Year, 18 Jul, 2012 September: The Turin Horse - Béla Tarr, 2014 March: Semiotext(e), 2015 December: Gisèle Vienne – This is how you will disappear (2012).

Grant Snider

"Grant Snider's interests have changed drastically since he was four years old - with the exception of dragons, dinosaurs, and drawing. Grant's first published cartoons appeared in the University of Kansas student newspaper, followed by a weekly strip called 'Delayed Karma' for the Kansas City Star. His comics and illustrations now appear in newspapers, books, magazines, and across the internet. He lives in Wichita, Kansas with his family, where he practices orthodontics and webcomics."
Incidental Comics
Grant Snider Illustration
tumblr

Splendour and Misery. Pictures of Prostitution, 1850-1910

Jean Béraud, L’Attente
"The first major show on the subject of prostitution, this exhibition attempts to retrace the way French and foreign artists, fascinated by the people and places involved in prostitution, have constantly sought to find new pictorial resources for depicting the realities and fantasies it implied. From Manet's Olympia to Degas's Absinthe, from Toulouse-Lautrec and Munch's forays into brothels to the bold figures of Vlaminck, Van Dongen or Picasso, the exhibition focuses on showing the central place held by this shady world in the development of modern painting. The topic is also covered with regard to its social and cultural dimensions through Salon painting, sculpture, decorative arts décoratifs and photography. A wealth of documentary material recalls the ambivalent status of prostitutes, from the splendour of the demi-mondaine to the misery of the pierreuse (street walker). ..."
Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay: For a detailed presentation
NY Times - ‘Splendor and Misery: Images of Prostitution,’ Captures a Profession in Paris Through Artists’ Eyes
VOGUE: An Enthralling New Show at the Musée d’Orsay Explores Prostitution in France
Guardian - Cocottes, courtesans and sex in the city: Paris celebrates art of the demi-monde
ArtNews
euronews: Sex in the city at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay (Video)

'It's perfect madness'

"In the first of an occasional series in which the greatest recording artists reveal their favourite records, Tom Waits writes about his 20 most cherished albums of all time. So for the lowdown on Zappa and Bill Hicks, step right up..."
Guardian

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, 2015 December: Franks Wild Years (1987), 2016 January: "Bad as Me" (2011).

Lightnin' Hopkins - "Remember Me - The Complete Herald Singles"

"Lightnin' Hopkins was simply one of a kind - his time was his time and that was that! You either played by his rules and time, or you incurred the wrath and stares he was sometimes known for. There's a ton of Lightnin' Hopkins available on CD, currently somewhere in the vicinity of 200 titles, but this is the best he ever did. Stripped down, raw, and playing some of the most smokin' electric Blues ever waxed, if you add one Lightnin' CD to your collection, by all means, make it this one. It's worth the small sum asked by many online retailers. All cut in 1954, this is smoldering, gutbucket work by a master. ... Accompanied by his stinging electric guitar, the bass work of Donald Cooks, and a still-unidentified drummer, this is the stuff that legends are made of. Comprised of two sessions, both which are amazing, Lightnin' blazes through a set of awesome Blues as only he could. ..."
This Blues Ring
Discogs
YouTube: The Complete Herald Singles Full Album 1:04:03

2015 June: The Texas Bluesman (1967)

Lost in TRUMPLANDIA

"'THE FED OWNS COWS!' a protester bellowed at me as I moved blindly toward the doors of a Donald Trump rally. It was February 8, the eve of the New Hampshire Republican primary, and I was surrounded by whirling white. 'Thank you,' I said, shaking the protester’s hand. 'Good luck getting those cows away from them.' Nice, I thought as I walked away. My interviewing skills were as sharp as swords from the mall. Discerning the true nature of the Trump phenomenon, one so baffling it’s in the process of ruining some of the more rational minds of our generation, was probably going to be easy. I had touched down in Manchester a few hours before, just as darkness began to fall together with snow. I entered the Verizon Wireless Arena, a 10,000-seat venue, to see a jumbotron projecting a photograph of Melania Trump in a bikini embracing a blow-up doll of Shamu. A hallucination? It was no longer possible to tell. ..."
New Republic: Lost in TRUMPLANDIA (Mar. 27, 2016)
Washington Post: In a revealing interview, Trump predicts a ‘massive recession’ but intends to eliminate the national debt in 8 years (Video)
New Republic: Bernie's Complaint (Feb. 25, 2016)
Five ways Republican bloodbath could end - BBC
W - United States third party and independent presidential candidates, 2016
Washington Post: How Republicans are gaming the voting system to tip the 2016 election in their favor (Video)
NY Times: Electoral Map Is a Reality Check to Donald Trump’s Bid

2016 January: Donald Trump and the Joys of Toy Fascism, 2016 January: Sanders Is Not Trump, 2016 January: Donald Trump’s Twitter Insults: The Complete List (So Far), 2016 February: Bernie and the Millennials.

By the Sound - Edward Dorn (1965)

"... By the Sound was originally called Rites of Passage when it was published in 1965, and now it is re-issued with minor revisions and the new, less pretentious title. It is a novel surprisingly conventional in form for Edward Dorn who has since he wrote this book come to be known for his wildly imaginative and original, comic and philosophical, open-ended poem Gunslinger. ... One could look to The Country of the Pointed Firs and Winesburg, Ohio for its literary models. The title refers to Puget Sound in Washington state, and the main characters of the novel, the people who are given sympathy, are the marginal workers who live in that generally grey, misty and smudged land. ..."
Ploughshares
David R. Godine
amazon
Google

Omniverse Sun Ra by Hartmut Geerken and Chris Trent

"... Omniverse Sun Ra features many previously unpublished photographs of Sun Ra and His Arkestra in New York in 1966 and Germany in 1979 by Val Wilmer, and Hartmut Geerken's previously unpublished photographs from Heliopolis in Cairo, Egypt, in 1971, in addition to an updated comprehensive pictorial and annotated discography by Chris Trent, including chronological discography and alphabetical record title, composition, personnel, and record label indexes, as well as indexes of shellac 78RPM records, 45 RPM singles, jackets, and labels. Also includes essays and photo documents by Hartmut Geerken, Chris Trent, Amiri Baraka, Robert L. Campbell, Chris Cutler, Gabi Geist, Sigrid Hauff, Karl Heinz Kessler, Robert Lax, and Salah Ragab. ..."
Squid
Art Yard (Photo)
100 Years of Sun Ra: digging deep with Peter Dennett, the space-jazz supremo’s chief archaeologist
Include Me Out
facebook

Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France

Marie Louise Élisabeth, Vigée-Le Brun's self-portrait
"Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, 1755–1842) is one of the finest 18th-century French painters and among the most important of all women artists. An autodidact with exceptional skills as a portraitist, she achieved success in France and Europe during one of the most eventful, turbulent periods in European history. In 1776, she married the leading art dealer in Paris; his profession at first kept her from being accepted into the prestigious Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Nevertheless, through the intervention of Marie Antoinette, she was admitted at the age of 28 in 1783, becoming one of only four women members. ... Independently, she worked in Florence, Naples, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Berlin before returning to France, taking sittings from, among others, members of the royal families of Naples, Russia, and Prussia. While in exile, she exhibited at the Paris Salons. ..."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Video)
W - Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
NY Times - Vigée Le Brun: A Delayed Tribute to a French Trailblazer
Khan Academy
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Eighteenth-Century Women Painters in France

Ghazal - The Rain (2003)

"On its fourth outing and its first for ECM, the Indian/Persian duo Ghazal chose to record a live album. Issued from a concert in Switzerland, the recording blends the musical styles of both countries. Shujaat Husain Khan, a direct descendant (grandson) of the venerable musician and spiritual master Ustad Vilayat Khan, plays sitar in the Imad Khan Gharana style that concentrates its method to emulate the sonorities of the human voice. Kayhan Kalhor, from Tehran, plays the kamancheh (a type of East Indian violin), and is a renowned composer as well as a soloist (he can be heard on Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road project -- which was born out of Ghazal's own trilogy on the Silk Road). ..."
allmusic
ECM
iTunes, Spotify
tune: Kayhan Kalhor & Shujaat Husain Kahn (live)
YouTube: Ghazal - The Rain 53:18

The New Mosaics

Frank Leslie Hampton, ”Uptown New York” at the Tremont Avenue station (B, D).
"YOU’VE felt the heat already. New York City’s 722 miles of subways are among the dirtiest, hottest and most woebegone in the country. Other, newer systems are cleaner, cooler and run better. I notice decor a great deal, though, and… ... What makes New York City’s stations stand apart is the overwhelming use of tile and mosaics, initiated by subway art director/engineer Squire Vickers in the 1910s, at the end of the Arts and Crafts era, and continued by him into the 1930s, with the IND’s precise Machine Age graphics. After Vickers was gone, the subways seemed rootless, with a wide variety of different schemes, some effective, some not. In recent years, the MTA has restored much of Vickers’ work, especially along the BMT Broadway line, and new mosaic installations have appeared that seem to extrapolate Vickers’ ethos, adapting it to a more playful, innovative age, with additional colors and images. ..."
Forgotten New York

Patti Smith - Land (1975-2000)

"Patti Smith completed her contract with Arista Records after 27 years by assembling this compilation, which serves as both a best-of and rarities collection, one disc devoted to each. Disc one is drawn from Smith's eight studio albums (with the exception of a newly recorded cover of Prince's 'When Doves Cry'). Having scored only one hit single, 'Because the Night,' Smith was not constrained by chart performance, and she seems to have chosen the songs that still mean something to her (though in an interview she claimed to have taken fan preferences into consideration). ... Land (1975-2000) is a typically idiosyncratic compilation from a quirky but imaginative artist, and that's what her fans have come to expect, so they won't be disappointed."
allmusic
W - Land (1975-2000)
popmatters
iTunes
YouTube: Land (1975-2000)

Radiooooo: The Hit Tune Time Machine

Instead of browsing songs listed alphabetically or by genre, listeners on the Web site Radiooooo explore playlists organized by decade and by geography.
"In 2012, Benjamin Moreau, an artist and d.j., was test-driving his car-collector father’s most recent acquisition, a white 1966 Renault Caravelle, in the French Riviera. 'As we drove along this road, lost in time, my fingers came across the splendid old radio on the exquisite wooden dashboard,' he recalled. When Moreau switched it on, the speakers belched 'a wave of awful commercial music,' he said, 'instantly bursting the time bubble we were so happily swimming in.' The moment led to an idea: what if you could organize music, not based on genre or complex algorithms but instead as a part of time and space? What if, instead of scrolling through artists and songs arranged alphabetically, you could explore them historically and geographically? ..."
New Yorker
Radioooooo (Video)

Ethiopian Kings 1975-80 - Rod Taylor

"It took some time, but with the release of 'Ethiopian Kings 1975-80' we are finally treated to an excellent revive compilation set from tough roots singer Rod Taylor. In the second half of the seventies Rod Taylor made a series of heavyweight roots records that established the culturally conscious youthman as a name to watch. In 1975 he recorded the noteable 'Bad Man Comes And Goes' for producer Oswald 'Ossie' Hibbert, but it lasted until 1978 before Taylor came to prominence through his association with Bertram Brown's highly regarded 'Freedom Sounds' label. Rod Taylor recorded two of his most important hits for this producer, 'Ethiopian Kings' and 'In The Right Way', which led to sessions with Michael Campbell aka Mikey Dread. ... 'Ethiopian Kings 1975-80' contains excellent roots music from way back, still sounding great today."
Reggae-Vibes
W - Rod Taylor
Interview: Ten Big Tunes with Rod Taylor
YouTube: Rod Taylor - Ethiopian Kings 1975-80 48:01

Carol (2015)

"Carol is gorgeous, gently groundbreaking, and might be the saddest thing you’ll ever see. More than hugely accomplished cinema, it’s an exquisite work of American art, rippling with a very specific mid-century melancholy, understanding love as the riskiest but most necessary gamble in anyone’s experience. It’s hard to imagine a director handling this project more surely than Todd Haynes, a supreme chronicler of feminine emotional pain - from Safe through Far From Heaven and Mildred Pierce - who reasserts his status here as one of the greats. Everything in this long-gestating adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel feels weighted to perfection. The film’s a smorgasbord of edible Fifties design which finds meaning in the smallest details. ..."
Telegraph - Carol review: 'Cate Blanchett will slay you' (Video)
New Yorker: Forbidden Love
W - Carol
NY Times: ‘Carol’ Explores the Sweet Science of Magnetism (Video)
W - Patricia Highsmith
Guardian: Cate Blanchett superb in a five-star tale of forbidden love (Video)

2014 March: Blue Jasmine (2013)

Reality of My Surroundings: The Contemporary Collection

Blood Soaked South, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
"This winter, Duke’s Nasher Museum contributed its two cents to the roiling national conversation on race by celebrating its tenth anniversary with a show of artists of African descent, organized by chief curator Trevor Schoonmaker. The show explores identity and its construction, challenging traditional representations of black subjects in art history and recasting them in a more central role, while honoring the black struggle worldwide. The result is as sightly as is it compelling. The Nasher broke ground ten years ago, at a time when Durham was regionally infamous for its crime and gangs. In the mid-aughts, though, a slew of downtown investment kicked off a municipal rebirth, and the Nasher has grown up in concert with the city’s revitalized art scene. ..."
The Brooklyn Rail
Nasher
'Reality of My Surroundings' exhibit highlights artists of African descent

The Church of Saint John Coltrane

"‘The worship of God is what we encourage, and we’re using the music of John Coltrane.’ So says Bishop Franzo King, who with his wife, the Reverend Mother Marina King, founded the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church in San Francisco. Since its creation in 1971, it has evolved into the Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane Church. The vibe is a rapturous out-of-your-head-ness, where instead of the choir and the hymn book there is the sinuous, transcendent music of the jazz-saint, John Coltrane."
The Church of Saint John Coltrane (Video)
Open Culture: Discover the Church of St. John Coltrane, Founded on the Divine Music of A Love Supreme (Video)
YouTube: Saint John Coltrane - BBC 42:08

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, 2015 December: Giant Steps (1960), 2016 January: Crescent (1964).

A Southpaw in Havana

W: 1999 Baltimore Orioles – Cuban national baseball team exhibition series
"In 1947, the soon-to-be dynastic Brooklyn Dodgers moved their spring training camp to Havana, Cuba. As a venue, it made good sense—Havana offered warm winter weather and stellar baseball facilities. But what made Havana most attractive was its isolation; Jackie Robinson, recently promoted from the minors, was just weeks away from breaking American professional baseball’s color barrier, and Branch Rickey, the team’s president and general manager, sought to shield the outfielder from untoward attention as he trained with the team. ... Last Sunday, nearly 70 springs and an embargo later, when Barack Obama, the No. 42 of American presidential politics, boarded Air Force One for his historic sojourn to Cuba, he did so with two guests of honor—Rachel and Sharon Robinson, the widow and daughter of Jackie. The symbolism wasn’t subtle: The Robinsons and the Obamas embody the cause and effect of the effacing of generations-old biases. Or, failing all of that, the United States and Cuba share a historic love of baseball. ..."
The Atlantic: A Southpaw in Havana
NY Times: This Cuban Defector Changed Baseball. Nobody Remembers.
CNN: Obama engages in baseball diplomacy in Cuba (Video)
W - Baseball in Cuba
PBS: Stealing Home
ESPN: "Cuba has to budge"
Vanity Fair: Commie Ball: A Journey to the End of a Revolution (2008)
The Economist: Cuban baseball crisis
The Atlantic: Cuban Baseball (1984)
Inside MLB's Cuban Pipeline: It's High-Risk, High-Reward (2014)
The New Golden Age of Cuban Baseball in MLB
W - Cuban League
amazon: The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball, Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball, A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006, Havana Hardball, Pitching Around Fidel, The Quality of Home Runs: The Passion, Politics, and Language of Cuban Baseball

Lucy Knisley

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
Wikipedia - "Lucy Knisley (born January 11, 1985) is an American comic artist and musician. Her work is often autobiographical, and food is a common theme. Knisley's drawn travel journal French Milk was published through Simon & Schuster in October 2008. It received positive reviews in several publications, such as USA Today and Salon.com. Comics critic Douglas Wolk described it as 'a keenly observed letter back home... the pleasure Knisley takes in food and company is infectious.' Knisley holds a BFA ('07) from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While there, she contributed to and edited the comics section of the school newspaper, FNews. Knisley holds an MFA ('09) from the Center for Cartoon Studies. ..."
Wikipedia
Lucy Knisley
Travel and art blog for comic artist Lucy Knisley (Video)
Mice
amazon: Lucy Knisley