Algerian Chronicles - Albert Camus (2013)

"... When the Algerian war for independence broke out in 1954, Camus was devastated. For years he had voiced strong criticism of French colonial policy in Algeria, and was forced to leave the country in 1940 after the authorities shut down the newspaper where he had published his most critical articles. He considered himself Algerian. ... When even such modest proposals were scuttled by hard-line French settlers and the French government, power among Arabs shifted to the independence movement, which had concluded that only violence could make the French budge. The bloody war that ensued lasted eight years; terrorism and brutal repression — including the torture of militants by the French Army — reinforced each other in a deadly cycle. Even a regime change in France, with Charles de Gaulle returning as president of the Fifth Republic in 1958, could not stop the bleeding for another four years. ..."
NY Times: The Postcolonial
NYB - Camus & Algeria: The Moral Question
New Republic: What Camus Understood About the Middle East
Harvard: Algerian Chronicles (Video)
France24: Special show for the 100th anniversary of Albert Camus’ birth (Video)
amazon

2011 October: Albert Camus on Nihilism, 2014 November: Albert Camus: Soccer Goalie, 2015 May: LISTEN: New Cave And Ellis Soundtrack, 2016 April: Anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Wondem - Dexter Story (2015)

"Wondem is Dexter Story's second album as a solo artist. His first, 2012's Seasons, was a gem that highlighted his take on global soul and reflected his lifelong participation in L.A.'s sprawling, interconnected, independent music scene. A singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger, he is a founding member of the Life Force Trio, as is his co-producer here, Carlos Niño. The lineup on Wondem features a host of their regular musical partners, including Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Mark de Clive-Lowe. The album was inspired by East African, North African, and Caribbean music, all sifted through modern L.A. soul, funk, and jazz. Story is everywhere, singing, playing keyboards, percussion, guitars, basses, etc. His arrangements are easy on the ears; they cordially invite the listener into his brand of global fusion on their own terms. ..."
allmusic
NPR - Review: Dexter Story, 'Wondem' (Spotify)
Wondem (Video)
YouTube: Lalibela (Official Video 8mm version - Live), Eastern Prayer (ft Nia Andrews)
YouTube: Wondem (Full Album)

Paul Strand

Wikipedia - "Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. His diverse body of work, spanning six decades, covers numerous genres and subjects throughout the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Strand was born in New York City to Bohemian parents. In his late teens, he was a student of renowned documentary photographer Lewis Hine at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. ... Over the next few decades, Strand worked in motion pictures as well as still photography. His first film was Manhatta (1921), also known as New York the Magnificent, a silent film showing the day-to-day life of New York City made with painter/photographer Charles Sheeler. ..."
Wikipedia
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
New Yorker: Paul Strand’s Sense of Things
Lumiere Gallery
V&A: Paul Strand – an introduction (Video)
YouTube: Paul Strand 22:19

Tellus #25 - Site-Less Sounds (1991)

"TELLUS issue #25 looks like a continuation from previous endeavors, namely #9 ‘Music With Memory’, 1985 (especially for the Brenda Hutchinson‘s interviews collage ‘Interlude from Voices Of Reason’) and #18 ‘Experimental Theater’, 1987, which included impressive readings on gender issues by Spalding Gray and Jerri Allyn, amongst others. Tellus #25 ‘Site-Less Sounds’ is a theater of voices with all contributions based on reading, sound poetry and language, as well as extended use of recording studio facilities (including Studio Pass on tracks #1 & 6). The works on this CD mingle semantics with politics, mirroring racial, political and gender issues with semantics/phonetics. Language is considered the tool of oppression itself (via media overload, political blabber and daily prejudices) and the means of liberation at the same time, providing composers and the people use it as a weapon. ..."
Continuo
Discogs
[PDF] Tellus 25#
UbuWeb: Tellus #25 - Site-Less Sounds (Video)

2009 September: Tellus Audio Cassette Magazing, 2010 May: Tellus #16 - Tango, 2010 June: Tellus #12 - Dance (1986), 2010 June: Tellus #10: All Guitars! (1985), 2010 August: Tellus #13 - Power Electronics (1986), 2011 March: Tellus #15: The Improvisors (1985), 2013 July: Tellus #23 - The Voices of Paul Bowles (1989), 2014 June: Tellus #26 - Jewel Box (1992).

The Band — Don’t Do It (1976)

"... Of course, what I REALLY love writing about is how Music A informs Music B and how exploring A and B allows you see both differently. So, it’s within that framework that we revisit [Marvin] Gaye. He was one of the benchmark R&B singers of the 20th century, with enough pop sensibility to crossover, and enough gospel in his voice that you knew he meant business. And yet, he also occupies an interesting niche in rock history. As it happens, an obscure-ish 1964 Marvin Gaye single was the first song heard in The Last Waltz, and the final song ever played by the original Band. When Robbie Robertson says, 'We’re gonna do one more song and that’s it,' that was it. ..."
Adios Lounge (Video - Winterland, San Francisco, November 25, 1976)
song mango
W - Baby Don't You Do It
YouTube: Don't Do It (live 12/28-12/31/71, the Academy of Music, NYC)

2009 July: The Band, 2011 June: Music from Big Pink, 2011 September: The Last Waltz, 2012 December: King Harvest 2012 January: Rare Concert Footage of The Band, 1970, 2015 January: Stage Fright (1970), 2015 October: The Band (1969), 2015 December: The Band With The Hawks - The Silver Dome 1989.

Nassau Street

"Nassau Street is referenced only once in Dubliners. It appears early in 'Two Gallants' as one of the avenues Corley and Lenehan traverse on their way from a public house in Dorset Street, in the north part of the city, to the area of Stephen’s Green in the south, a journey of over 1.5 miles (2.5 km) that would take roughly 30 minutes to walk, according to the map. Nassau Street runs along the southern edge of Trinity College, connecting Grafton Street in the west and Kildare Street in the east. The young men’s path takes them past the gates of Trinity College (which face west), which they reach at 'twenty after,' around the corner and along Nassau Street, and then into Kildare Street. ..."
Mapping Dubliners Project

2011 March: Passages from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (1965-67), 2010 March: Ulysses Seen, 2013 February: ULYSSES “SEEN” is moving to Dublin!, 2013: Dubliners, 2014 May: The Dead (1987 film), 2014 May: “Have I Ever Left It?” by Mark O'Connell, 2014 July: Digital Dubliners, 2014 September: Read "Ulysses Seen", A Graphic Novel Adaptation of James Joyce’s Classic, 2015 January: The Mapping Dubliners Project, 2015 February: Davy Byrne’s, 2016 January: Port and Docks, 2016 February: Hear James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Read Unabridged & Set to Music By 17 Different Artists.

Julia Wertz

Greenpoint drawing of Manhattan Ave and Kent St in the 1920’s
Wikipedia - "Julia Wertz (born December 29, 1982 in the San Francisco Bay Area) is an American cartoonist, writer and urban explorer. ... In 2010, Random House published Drinking at the Movies, Wertz's first full-length graphic memoir. Against the backdrop of her move from San Francisco to New York, the book details serious issues, such as a family member's battle with substance abuse and her own alcoholism, with trademark wit and self-effacement. ... In 2015, Wertz started a monthly comics series for The New Yorker, about lesser known historical events and facts about New York City, as well as a monthly illustration series of cityscapes for Harper's Magazine. Wertz currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. ..."
Wikipedia
Harpers | Julia Wertz
The Paris Review - Staying Out of Trouble: An Interview with Julia Wertz
Aha Moment: “My New York Diary” (Video)
Julia Wertz
YouTube: Young and Uninsured: Cartoonist Julia Wertz

Bouchra Khalili: The Mapping Journey Project

"This exhibition presents, in its entirety, Bouchra Khalili’s The Mapping Journey Project (2008–11), a series of videos that details the stories of eight individuals who have been forced by political and economic circumstances to travel illegally and whose covert journeys have taken them throughout the Mediterranean basin. Khalili (Moroccan-French, born 1975) encountered her subjects by chance in transit hubs across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Following an initial meeting, the artist invited each person to narrate his or her journey and trace it in thick permanent marker on a geopolitical map of the region. The videos feature the subjects’ voices and their hands sketching their trajectories across the map, while their faces remain unseen. ..."
MoMA
Sharjah Art Foundation
The Meaning in Mapping: Bouchra Khalili's Border-Crossing Video Art at the New Museum
NY Times: ‘The Mapping Journey,’ Bouchra Khalili’s Searing Refugee Project

Till human voices wake us - Siavash Amini (2014)

"'Till human voices wake us' comprises ten tracks with an obvious and smart structural script, based on poems by T.S Eliot. Which highlights Siavash Amini’s work as a composer for theater, film and art exhibitions. His music deliberately slants to the ambient statements – or Morricone’s Western film scores. The different nuances of the synthetic/digital and the multilayered soul healing riffs of electric guitar create an opulent sonic texture ranging from the dramatic to melancholic moments, with a finely constructed and fluid dynamism. There is an emotional depth in each of Amini’s songs, guided by tonal variations and blending grains that make his music a mental journey with landscapes and cold outcomes and the passivity of an ending that everyone expects at the end of this long road. Till human voices wake us is the first album of Amini in a non-Iranian label, and we are very proud to present it in Umor Rex. He is one of the most familiar faces on the experimental music scene in Iran, on the boil in recent years."
Umor Rex (Video)
Headphone Commute (Video)
futuresequence (Video)

The unsanitized story of Jackie Robinson

"... Yet even that is a concoction. At best, it is a fantasy discouraging the deeper, more painful excavation of the barriers he couldn't break and why, the ones society did not lower but strengthened because of the threat of his presence. At worst, it is a simplistic and corrosive lie designed to keep America from itself, to keep it from what it is, which is a nation far more comfortable with always being the good guy, always preferring the fairy tale to the truth. The real Robinson, whole and unsanitized, was constantly human, competitive, flawed and pained, honorably naïve but always in determined opposition to the obstacles that prevented him from fulfilling a quest still unrealized some 44 years after his death: full partnership in the American dream for African-Americans. The real Robinson lives beautifully and heroically, inside a confectionary lie that his sainthood was something given by a redeemed America rather than taken from a resistant one. ..."
ESPN
LA Times: Ken Burns' 'Jackie Robinson' documentary is a lump-in-the-throat trip that goes beyond baseball
NY Times: ‘Jackie Robinson,’ on PBS, Covers More Than Race and Baseball
Mother Jones: Ken Burns on His New Jackie Robinson Documentary: "It's About Black Lives Matter" (Video)
PBS: Jackie Robinson (Video)

2009 September: Jackie Robinson

The story behind three faded ads in Manhattan

"If you look up enough while walking through the city, you see a fair number of these weathered ads, partly erased by rain and grime. Deciphering what they say isn’t always easy. Take this ad at 23 East 20th Street. “Furs” is still legible, but the name of the company is tricky. It looks like M. Handin & Grapkin—which is close, as sure enough a company with the name Drapkin appears to have gone into the furrier business as early as 1909. The wonderful faded sign site 14to42.net says that M. Handin and Drapkin were located in this building around 1909, and the faded ad could be more than a century old. ..."
Ephemeral New York

Clifford Brown and Max Roach (1955)

"According to the original 1955 liner notes to Clifford Brown and Max Roach, the announcement that Clifford Brown and Max Roach had begun recording and playing together sent shock waves throughout the jazz community and predictions ran rampant about how the two might shape bop to come. The last duo to really shape the music had begun over ten years earlier, with the relationship between Bird and Diz. This recording was early fruit from a tree that would only live as long as Clifford Brown was around to water it (1956, the year of his tragic auto accident). The result is by far some of the warmest and most sincere bebop performed and committed to tape. Brown's tone is undeniably and characteristically warm, and he keeps the heat on alongside Roach's lilting vamps and pummeling solos. ..."
allmusic (Video)
W - Clifford Brown and Max Roach
Clifford Brown-Max Roach Project at the Piedmont Piano Company
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: Clifford Brown & Max Roach (Full Album)
1/ Delilah 00:00 2/ Parisian Thoroughfare 08:03 3/ Daahoud 15:18 4/ Joy Spring 19:19 5/ Jordu 26:09 6/ The Blues Walk 33:51 7/ What Am I Here For? 40:36

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
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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
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