John Berger 1926-2017

"I first rang John Berger more than a year ago – I had been given his number by his publisher to arrange a date to meet him in Paris. I mentioned that November was a busy month, to which he responded in a warm, conspiratorial tone: that was good – because he would be away throughout the month and could not say when next he would be free. The sense was – charming, if not helpful in professional terms – that we would agree not to meet unless or until it suited us. The clear subtext was: let the bosses go hang. I put the phone down – amused but then anxious that I had missed my opportunity to meet the great man – storyteller, art critic, artist.  ..."
Guardian
New Yorker - Postscript: John Berger, 1926-2017
The Paris Review (Video 30:02)
Jacobin
NY Times: John Berger, Provocative Art Critic, Dies at 90
YouTube: John Berger, John Berger on Ways of Seeing, being an artist, and Marxism (2011) - Newsnight archives

2008 May: John Berger, 2010 November: Ways of Seeing - 1972 BBC four-part television series

Separate Cinema: 100 Years of Black Poster Art

"A new book from film poster collector John Duke Kisch presents 100 years of black film posters, charting the evolution of African-American cinema and changing attitudes towards race… Separate Cinema: The First 100 Years of Black Poster Art presents a compelling visual history of the representation of African-Americans in film, from early productions perpetuating racist stereotypes, to ground breaking films by black directors and contemporary releases such as Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave. The book features hundreds of film posters from Europe, Asia and the US, which were sourced from Kisch’s Separate Cinema Archive – a collection of more than 35,000 posters from 30 countries. ..."
Creative Review
UCLA Film
The History Of Black Cinema In Vintage Hollywood Posters
amazon

John Ashbery - New Collages (2017)

“Salle d’Attente” (2016)
"The poet John Ashbery starts many of the collages in his new show at his longtime gallery, Tibor de Nagy, with a found postcard or a color reproduction of an old master painting like Andrea Mantegna’s 1497 'Parnassus.' Atop these politely cropped images, he affixes some small figure cut out of an incongruously different source, a comic strip like 'Popeye' or a vintage Coca-Cola advertisement. He places this figure where it will reinforce rather than disrupt the original composition, so that even as he is shading, psychologizing or interpreting the painting he’s chosen, he’s also letting it shine as it is. ..."
NY Times: What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week
Tibor de Nagy Gallery
In John Ashbery’s Collages, Life Is a Mixed-Media Affair

The Jam: Absolute Beginners EP (1981)

"This EP is more officially called The Jam, but it is record company Polydor putting two different singles and their B-sides together in one volume. ... Paul Weller and company, whether they sound more punk or new wave, consistently have something interesting going on. Inspired by the Colin MacInnes mod subculture novel of the same name, 'Absolute Beginners' features the line, 'I need the strength to get what I want,' which plays right into both the novel and The Jam’s ongoing themes of speaking up for the underclasses and those who are on the outskirts of mainstream society. ... 'Funeral Pyre' deals more directly with those in power who work against those below them. In the age of Thatcher, where the power of trade unions and other workers’ benefits programs were greatly reduced, the government presented their policies as being 'for the good of Great Britain.' ..."
Persephone Magazine (Video)
Post Punk Monk
Discogs
YouTube: Absolute Beginners (Live), Funeral Pyre (Live), Tales From The Riverbank (Live)

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), 2016 April: "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" (1979).

Jackie Opel - Cry Me A River / Eternal Love (1964)

Wikipedia - "Born Dalton Sinclair Bishop in Chapman Lane, Bridgetown, Barbados in 1937, Jackie Opel was a popular singer who possessed a rich, powerful voice with a high octave range. He was known as the 'Jackie Wilson of Jamaica' and was also a gifted dancer. In the early 1960s, he was discovered by Byron Lee, the band master of the Dragonaires, who brought him to Jamaica. His styles included ska, R&B, soul, gospel and calypso. He is credited with inventing spouge music, a fusion of ska, calypso, and R&B music. ..."
Wikipedia
The Jackie Opel Story
Discogs
YouTube: Cry Me A River, Lonely Tear

John Sonsini

“Byron and Ramiro” (2008)
"John Sonsini is best known for his portraits of Latino laborers, at once highly personal depictions and references to the politics of immigration. Sonsini pays the men, whom he recruits from hiring posts, an hourly rate to pose as themselves, wearing their own clothing and taking their own postures and expressions, sometimes supplementing the scenes with props suitcases, backpacks, sports equipment, guitars, and other narrative elements. The thick paint, lively brushwork, and distorted drawing all recall Alice Neel’s portraits, which were also grounded in the relationship between painter and subject. ..."
Artsy
The Sensations of Presence
Brooklyn Rail
An Interview with Artist John Sonsini
W - John Sonsini

Marcel Odenbach

Im Kreise drehen (Turning Circles), 2009, digital video, color, sound, 15 minutes 51 seconds.
"Though it is tempting to call Marcel Odenbach a pioneer, this designation might imply that his work is done. Born in 1953, he is not only a forefather of video art and a cofounder, with Ulrike Rosenbach and Klaus vom Bruch, of the 1970s producer group ATV, he is also—still—a protagonist of political art. For his generation in West Germany, addressing the political through art meant working through the complex process of dealing with the country’s Nazi past. ... The exhibition promises to illuminate new facets of Odenbach’s investigations into the exploitation of history in contemporary ideological battles, which remains as pressing as ever in the era of Trump and populist right-wing movements looming all over Europe."
ARTFORUM
Anton Kern Gallery
Marcel Odenbach: Large-scale Collage - Anton Kern Gallery
Galerie Gisela Capitain
W - Marcel Odenbach
vimeo: “Turning Circles” 2009, “Men Stories” 2005, “Disturbed Places” 2007, “In stillen Teichen lauern Krokodile (In Still Waters Crocodiles Lurk)” 2004/2004

Rodney Crowell - "It Ain't Over Yet (feat. Rosanne Cash & John Paul White)"

"They may just be three songwriting heavyweights sitting in an empty house, but that’s all you need with a song like this. Rodney Crowell’s new tune 'It Ain’t Over Yet' features stirring performances by John Paul White and Rosanne Cash. A standout from his new album, 'It Ain’t Over Yet' evokes the same kind of autobiographical lyrics that endeared him to many in the 1980s and beyond. The feature performance by Cash is particularly poignant, since the two shared a 13-year marriage and a whole lot of success together. Much of 'It Ain’t Over Yet' seems to reference how the hard feelings of time soften with age. Or, as Crowell puts it, things look a bit different through 'watery eyes.' ..."
Wide Open Country (Video)

From a Secret Location

Kenneth Patchen, An Astonished Eye Looks Out of the Air, 1945
"About: From Book to Web by Steve Clay. In 1996, Rodney Phillips and I began curating the exhibition, 'A Secret Location on the Lower East Side,' which took place at the New York Public Library from January 24 – July 25, 1998, followed by a book of the same title published by NYPL and Granary Books. We had the fond hope to someday significantly broaden our view beyond the New York City / San Francisco / New American Poetry vortex — to focus on developments further afield, from Cleveland to Kathmandu. For fifteen years, I’ve envisioned a second volume of the Secret Location book, though always accompanied by the nagging sense that a printed book would never be able to contain it all. With considerable resistance on my part, the notion of a website became the inevitable solution. ..."
About: From a Secret Location
From a Secret Location

2012 April: A Secret Location on the Lower East Side, 2015 June: Small Press / Mimeograph Revolution, 1940s–1970s

50 Years Behind the Lens

"As a boy, walking along the docks near his home in Olso, Norway, Tor Eigeland watched ships and sailors from around the globe, and he dreamed of adventure. At home, 'curled up in a cozy chair, I devoured everything from Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky to Ibsen and Hemingway,' he recalls. Soon he was 'desperate to smell the tropical world and see palm trees. I knew there was a lot more out there, and I wanted to see it.' It didn’t take long. In the summer of 1947, at age 16, Eigeland convinced his skeptical parents to allow him and a friend to take a sabbatical from school to work aboard a merchant ship. The M/V Tricolor took the pair down the coast of Europe, across northern Africa, through the Suez Canal, along the Arabian Peninsula and on to India, the Philippines and China, ending in Shanghai. ..."
AramcoWorld (Video)

Pauline Oliveros - Deep Listening (1988)

"On this project, released by the progressive San Francisco label New Albion, accordionist Pauline Oliveros has teamed up with trombonist Stuart Dempster and vocalist Panaiotis to produce a remarkable album of atmospheric space music. The recording took place inside a huge cistern at an army fort, an acoustic space characterized by tremendous reverberation. The unlikely instruments -- primarily accordion, trombone, didjeridu, and voice -- produce sustained tones that are subtly modulated by the extraordinary acoustics, making it often seem as if there were more instruments present, or as if this music has been electronically processed -- neither of which is the case. All the music was improvised on site, with the musicians banging on metal pipes and found objects on the final track. The effect is remarkable, immersing the listener in a hypnotic field of shifting resonance, in a truly profound experience of deep listening."
allmusic
W - Deep Listening Band
iTunes
YouTube: Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis ‎– Deep Listening (Full Album)

2016 June: Meet Four Women Who Pioneered Electronic Music: Daphne Oram, Laurie Spiegel, Éliane Radigue & Pauline Oliveros

Anita Malfatti: 100 Years of Modern Art

Sao Vincente, 1942
"Having left Brazil in 1910 to study in Berlin and New York, Anita Malfatti gained notoriety when she returned to São Paulo seven years later on account of an exhibition of her Expressionist- and Cubist-inspired paintings. ... This exhibition commemorates that inaugural year for modernism in Brazil and will display works representative of Malfatti’s full artistic trajectory, from her portraits and landscapes of the teens to paintings that evoke the return to order of the 1920s, and even examples of her reliance, much later, on regional themes. The overview will provide a rare opportunity to assess Malfatti’s shifting visual language as well as her important contributions to the country’s aesthetic debates. — Kaira M. Cabañas"
ARTFURUM
W - Anita Malfatti
Between Exhibitions: Anita Malfatti and the Shifting Ground of Modernism
YouTube: Anita Malfatti obras

Lessons in Flânerie: The Fine Art of People-Watching in Paris

"Whether spending time with good friends or enjoying a solitary meal, much of Parisian life takes place in the capital’s ubiquitous cafés. Photo: Peter Turnley"
"'Une place, madame?' Seated on one of the mismatched chairs at the café La Bourse ou La Vie ('the money or your life'), his yellow suspenders holding in a roll of flesh, my interrogator peers at me through round-rimmed spectacles, waves me past, and turns back toward his companions. He is telling a story, ostensibly to them, but from the bombastic way his voice echoes off the yellow ceiling, he clearly wants me to hear it too. It’s a folk tale, drawn from the works of the 17th-century fabulist Jean de La Fontaine, of a heron that refuses to eat anything but the finest food. The man spreads his arms in imitation of the bird—nearly knocking one hapless diner off his feet—and begins to chirp wildly. Then he stops. He has spotted someone he knows, driving down Rue Vivienne. On this balmy June afternoon, the café doors are wide open; nothing separates us from the pavement and street outside. ..."
National Geographic Society
Revolutionary Walking, or The Art of the Flânerie
amazon: Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into the Heart of Historic Paris

2013 October: Flâneur

The Raincoats (1979)

"Picking the 'best' Raincoats is more an intellectual exercise than it is a work of thoughtful criticism. So, to make it easy for the benighted, all three studio releases are absolutely essential. Their live cassette is wonderful, but not the ideal entry point. Better yet, start with their debut, a soaring, daring, avant-garde-influenced folk-punk record. Don't let the words 'avant-garde' scare you off; the Raincoats are not harsh or unapproachable. In fact, this music, even at its most dissonant, is stunning and captivating. There's a great cover of the Kinks' 'Lola' that's so skewed and obtuse, Ray Davies probably never dreamed it could sound this way. Reissued by Geffen on CD with extra tracks in 1995."
allmusic (Video)
W - The Raincoats
The Quietus - Post-Punk Distilled: The Raincoats' Debut Album 30 Years On
Drowned In Sound
amazon
YouTube: Fairytale in the Supermarket - directed by Gina Birch
YouTube: The Raincoats (full album)

2015 July: Odyshape (1981)

Second Avenue Subway

"Finally. The Second Avenue subway opened in New York City on Sunday, with thousands of riders flooding into its polished stations to witness a piece of history nearly a century in the making. They descended beneath the streets of the Upper East Side of Manhattan to board Q trains bound for Coney Island in Brooklyn. They cheered. Their eyes filled with tears. They snapped selfies in front of colorful mosaics lining the walls of the stations. It was the first day of 2017, and it felt like a new day for a city that for so long struggled to build this sorely needed subway line. In a rare display of unbridled optimism from hardened New Yorkers, they arrived with huge grins and wide eyes, taking in the bells and whistles at three new stations. ..."
NY Times: As Second Avenue Subway Opens, a Train Delay Ends in (Happy) Tears
W - Second Avenue Subway
NY Times: Highlights From the Opening of the Second Avenue Subway (Video)
NY Times: Art Underground: A First Look at the Second Avenue Subway (Video)
MTA Maps

Bone Machine - Tom Waits (1992)

"Perhaps Tom Waits' most cohesive album, Bone Machine is a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative -- and often harrowing -- effect. In keeping with the title's grotesque image of the human body, Bone Machine is obsessed with decay and mortality, the ease with which earthly existence can be destroyed. The arrangements are accordingly stripped of all excess flesh; the very few, often non-traditional instruments float in distinct separation over the clanking junkyard percussion that dominates the record. It's a chilling, primal sound made all the more otherworldly (or, perhaps, underworldly) by Waits' raspy falsetto and often-distorted roars and growls. ..."
allmusic
W - Bone Machine
Quarantining The Past: Tom Waits's 'Bone Machine'
amazon
YouTube: Earth Died Screaming
YouTube: Bone Machine (Full Album)

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), 2016 April: 'It's perfect madness', 2016 May: Real Gone (2002), 2016 October: Tom Waits Sings and Tells Stories in "Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna", a 1979.

See Red Women's Workshop - Feminist Posters 1974–1990

"Founded in 1974, See Red Women’s Workshop grew out of a shared desire to combat sexist images of women and to create positive and challenging alternatives. Women from different backgrounds came together to make posters and calendars that tackled issues of sexuality, identity and oppression. With humour and bold graphics, they expressed the personal experiences of women as well as their role in wider struggles for change. Written by See Red members, detailing the group’s history, See Red Women’s Workshop Feminist Posters 1974-1990 features all of their original screenprints, alongside posters commissioned for radical groups and campaigns. ..."
juxtapoz
Girls are Powerful: the feminist posters of See Red Women’s Workshop
artbooks: See Red Women's Workshop - Feminist Posters 1974–1990

A Visit to William S. Burroughs at the Beat Hotel in Summer, 1958

Extracts from a Journal, 1958 by Gael Turnbull. Vacationing in Paris in the summer of 1958, the Scottish poet Gael Turnbull kept a journal documenting his visits to William Burroughs and Gregory Corso at the Beat Hotel. Excerpts from the journal were published in 1962 in Mica #5, a poetry magazine featuring Charles Bukowski, Ian Hamilton Finlay, and others. ..."
Reality Studio

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, 2015 December: Destroy All Rational Thought, 2016 January: Commissioner of Sewers: A 1991 Profile of Beat Writer William S. Burroughs, 2016 June: Nothing Here Now But The Recordings (1981), 2016 September: # 1 – A Descriptive Catalogue of the William S. Burroughs Archive, 2016 December: #6 – Call Me Burroughs LP.

No Wave Cinema

Downtown '81
Wikipedia - "No wave cinema was a Colab-sponsored boom (1976–1985) in underground filmmaking on the Lower East Side of New York City. Its name, much like its cousin no wave music, was a stripped-down style of guerrilla filmmaking that emphasized mood and texture above other concerns. This brief movement, also known as New Cinema (after a short-lived screening room on St. Mark’s Place run by several filmmakers on the scene), had a significant impact on both underground film, spawning the Cinema of Transgression (Scott B and Beth B, Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Tessa Hughes-Freeland and others) and a new generation of independent filmmaking in New York (Jim Jarmusch, Tom DiCillo, Steve Buscemi, and Vincent Gallo). ..."
Wikipedia
No Wave Cinema - The New Elder Statesmen
The Refined Sloppiness of a No Wave Cinema Gem
No Wave and Independent Film (Video)
vimeo: Amos Poe: Pioneer of No Wave Cinema

2013 October: Blank City

Cold Turkey - John Lennon (1969)

Wikipedia - "'Cold Turkey' is a song written by John Lennon, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apples 1001 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1813 in the United States. ... According to Peter Brown in his book The Love You Make, the song was written in a 'creative outburst' following Lennon and Yoko Ono going 'cold turkey' from their brief heroin addictions. However Lennon's personal assistant in the late 1970s Fred Seaman claimed otherwise, stating that Lennon confided in him that the song was actually about a severe case of food poisoning suffered by John and Yoko after eating Christmas leftovers 'cold turkey'. ..."
Wikipedia
The Beatles Bible
YouTube: Cold Turkey (Live)

2009 September: John Lennon - Live in New York City (Madison Square Garden 1972), 2014 January: Michael Rakowitz - The Breakup, 2014 April: "Jealous Guy" (1971), 2014 May: Mind Games (1973), 2014 July: Out of the Blue, 2014 December: Double Fantasy - John Lennon/Yoko Ono (1980), 2015 August: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), 2016 October: "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" (1970).

Six to Celebrate

"Now in its third year, Six to Celebrate is a dynamic program of the Historic Districts Council, and New York’s only targeted citywide list of preservation priorities. ... The program helps community activists learn to use tools such as documentation, research, zoning, landmarking, publicity, and public outreach to advance local preservation campaigns. In just a few years, HDC has been able to help Six to Celebrate groups create two new National Register districts (the Bowery and Far Rockaway Beachside Bungalows) and two New York City historic districts (Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights and the East Village/Lower East Side) with many others still in the works in all five boroughs (Bedford and Gowanus in Brooklyn, Harrison Street on Staten Island, Port Morris and Van Cortlandt Village in The Bronx, and Mount Morris Park and Morningside Heights in Manhattan). ..."
Six To Celebrate: About
Six To Celebrate
Six to Celebrate Brochures 2011-2014

Eternal Sites: From Bamiyan to Palmyra

"PARIS — When the Islamic State was about to be driven out of the ancient city of Palmyra in March, Yves Ubelmann got a call from Syria’s director of antiquities to come over in a hurry. An architect by training, Mr. Ubelmann, 36, had worked in Syria before the country was engulfed by war. But now there was special urgency for the kind of work his youthful team of architects, mathematicians and designers did from their cramped offices in Paris: producing digital copies of threatened historical sites. Palmyra, parts of it already destroyed by the Islamists who deemed these monuments idolatrous, was still rigged with explosives. So he and Houmam Saad, his Syrian colleague, spent four days flying a drone with a robot camera over the crumbled arches and temples. ..."
NY Times: Damaged by War, Syria’s Cultural Sites Rise Anew in France (Video)

2016 October: Archaeological Victims of ISIS Rise Again, as Replicas in Rome

Arthur Russell - Instrumentals (2007)

"Audika Records can't be beat for their efforts to bring the work of composer, cellist, and songwriter Arthur Russell back into the public eye. Russell, who passed away in 1992 at the age 40 from complications due to AIDS, was well-known in downtown New York City circles, but was also a cipher in many ways. While he played on the Talking Heads' first single, he also played and recorded with Allen Ginsberg, made a slew of 12" disco singles -- which were spun at NYC clubs and universally celebrated for their originality -- and performed regularly at the Kitchen. But he was also rather notorious for recording full-length albums of his compositions and, once having had test pressings made of them, left them to sit, never to release them. Legend has it that Russell left over 1,000 unreleased tapes of his music. Such was his way. ..."
allmusic (Video)
Pitchfork
The Culture Space
Discogs
YouTube: Arthur Russell's "Instrumentals" @ Bad Bonn Kilbi (excerpt), Arthur Russell's Instrumentals directed by Peter Gordon - Primavera Sound 2015 (Live)
YouTube: Instrumentals A | 1975, Instrumental 1D, 1974 Volume 1, Part I, Instrumentals Volume 1 (part 6), Reach One

2015 November: Love Of Life Orchestra ‎– Extended Niceties EP (1980), 2015 September: Arthur Russell

Roberto Musci - Tower Of Silence (1983-87)

"Music From Memory has revealed some details of a forthcoming compilation showcasing the work of Roberto Musci. The Amsterdam label says the double-LP, titled Tower Of Silence, will be its second-to-last release of 2016. Pencilled in to hit shops in late September, it features some of Musci's solo material as well as his lauded collaborative work with fellow Italian Giovanni Venosta. ... Music From Memory says Musci 'travelled extensively across Asia and Africa between 1974 and 1985 to study music.' During this time he 'made many field recordings and collected many instruments, which he would then combine with synthesizers and electronics back in Italy.' ..."
Resident Advisor (Video)
Music From Memory
Soundcloud
YouTube: Tamatave, Claudia, Wilhelm R And Me

2012 April: Roberto Musci

Sunset Song - Terence Davies (2016)

"Sunset Song, about a rural Scottish girl growing to womanhood in the years before World War I, is one of the great director Terence Davies' best films: an example of old school and new school mentalities coming together to create a challenging and unique experience. The movie feels as if it could have been made in the 1940s, were there no such thing as censorship. There's frank sex and violence, and the movie doesn't shy away from the nastier aspects of life in that time and place. But there's never a feeling that Davies is rubbing our noses in suffering, because the film displays so much empathy for its characters and such awareness of the social, political and historical forces that hover beyond the edges of their consciousness. ..."
Roger Ebert
Wikipedia
NY Times: ‘Sunset Song’ Shows a Woman’s True Grit (Video)
YouTube: Sunset Song

Jim Jarmusch Lists His Favorite Poets: Dante, William Carlos Williams, Arthur Rimbaud, John Ashbery & More

"When it comes to American indie director Jim Jarmusch, we tend to think right away of the importance of music in his films, what with his collaborations with Neil Young, Tom Waits, and Iggy Pop. (Jarmusch is himself a musician who has released two studio albums and three EPs under the moniker Sqürl.) But Jarmusch’s most recent film, Paterson, is an ode to poetry, drawn from his own love of New York School poets like Frank O’Hara and John Ashbery. ..."
Open Culture

2014 October: Captured: A Film/Video History of the Lower East Side, 2016 October: An Immersive Audio Tour of the East Village’s Famed Poetry Scene, Narrated by Jim Jarmusch

Detroit Industry Murals - Diego Rivera (1932-33)

Detroit Industry, South Wall (detail)
Wikipedia - "The Detroit Industry Murals are a series of frescoes by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, consisting of twenty-seven panels depicting industry at the Ford Motor Company. Together they surround the Rivera Court in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Painted between 1932 and 1933, they were considered by Rivera to be his most successful work. On April 23, 2014, the Detroit Industry Murals were given National Historic Landmark Status. The two main panels on the North and South walls depict laborers working at Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Plant. Other panels depict advances made in various scientific fields, such as medicine and new technology. The series of murals, taken as a whole, represents the idea that all actions and ideas are one. ..."
Wikipedia
WSJ: When the Motor City Was a Symbol of Strength
Rivera, Detroit Industry Murals
The Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts--Introduction and Index
YouTube: Rivera Court - Detroit Institute of Arts

2008 April: Frida Kahlo, 2008 May: Diego Rivera, 2013 April: Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe unlocked and on display after nearly 60 years, 2015 April: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit

Paul Bowles & the Music of Morocco

Paul Bowles on the roof of the Palais Jamai in Fes, Morocco, 1947
"In the late 1950s, the last remaining muezzin in Tangier who delivered the Muslim call to prayer with strength of voice alone decided to begin using a modern amplifier. His final call to prayer before doing so would be the last unplugged recitation in Tangier’s history, a milestone not lost on the American writer and resident of the city, Paul Bowles. According to Josh Shoemake’s literary history of Tangier, Bowles stationed himself at a café near the muezzin’s mosque and set up a tape recorder to capture the event. ... Tape recorders were not widely available at the time, but Bowles had one for a much larger sonic project that coalesced almost thirty years of interest in Moroccan music. He first visited the country in 1931 while studying music theory and composition with Aaron Copland, and was bowled over by the Arabic music he heard. ..."
Guernica

2007 November: The Authorized Paul Bowles Web Site, 2010 February: Paul Bowles (1910-1999), 2011: January: Halfmoon (1996), 2013 July: Tellus #23 - The Voices of Paul Bowles, 2014 January: Let It Come Down: the Life of Paul Bowles (1998), 2014 March: The Sheltering Sky (1949), 2015 January: Things Gone & Things Still Here, 2015 October: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles – a cautionary tale for tourists, 2015 November: The Rolling Stone Interview (May 23, 1974), 2016 June: Let It Come Down (1952).

A Literary Map of Paris’ Left Bank

"The San Francisco Chronicle has created a literary map of Paris online called The Literary Left Bank. The interactive map plots book stores and the historic homes and cafes frequented by authors onto a Google Map. Check it out: 'There is no doubt that the Latin Quarter, the student district centered around the venerable University of Paris (founded in the 12th century), has lost much of its bohemian allure as real estate prices have risen. But as the accompanying interactive map of the Left Bank shows, there is still a thriving literary culture in the city’s 5th and 6th arrondissements. San Francisco Book Co. and Berkeley Books of Paris fit nicely into that tradition, keeping alive the rich history of Americans and other foreigners contributing to the literary life of Paris.' ..."
Galley Cat
SF Chronicle: The Literary City
Two bookstores with Bay Area roots thrive in Paris
The Literary Right Bank

2012 December: Shakespeare and Company, 2016 January: What It's Like to Live Inside the Legendary Paris Bookstore Shakespeare & Co., 2016 September: Shakespeare and Company, Paris - A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart

Billie Holiday - Banned From New York City – Live 1948 to 1957

"Wonderful live work from the second chapter of Billie Holiday's career – that stretch when she was barred from performing in most New York clubs, due to the loss of her cabaret card – which actually seemed to lead to a wider range of exposure in venues across the country! The overstuffed 2CD set brings together a number of very well-recorded live dates from cities that include Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston – plus work from a show in Brussels, and a TV appearance on Steve Allen's early Tonight Show – some material that's only been out partially before, mixed with other tracks that are seeing the light of day for the first time ever. ... 2CD set features a whopping 42 tracks, with lots of notes – and titles include a number of Holiday standards, plus some lesser-known gems too."
Dusty Groove
Billie Holiday in Los Angeles: the blues were brewing
amazon
YouTube: Banned From New York City – Live 1948 to 1957

2010 April: Billie Holiday, 2014 December: "Strange Fruit" (1939), 2014 November: A Harlem Throwback to the Era of Billie Holiday, 2015 February: The Hunting of Billie Holiday, 2015 June: "Fine and Mellow" (1957)

Guinness

Wikipedia - "Guinness (/ˈɡɪnᵻs/) is an Irish dry stout produced by Diageo that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. It is brewed in almost 50 countries and is available in over 120. ... A feature of the product is the burnt flavour that is derived from roasted unmalted barley, although this is a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic flavour. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Great Times in Beer History - The Rise of Guinness and How It Became an Icon
12 things you didn't know about Guinness
Guinness
YouTube: Guinness

Throttle Elevator Music featuring Kamasi Washington (2016)

"Cross Coltrane with The Clash and it would resemble the departure point Throttle Elevator Music leaps from. Tenor Saxophonist Kamasi Washington takes the lead and raises the bar of instrumental intensity on 16 original compositions ranging from shorter punk minded 45 second flurries to thematic uptempo romps, and rounding out with a few expansionary journeys. Kamasi’s melodic tonality melds nicely into the electric undercurrent laid down by punk drummer/guitarist Mike Hughes, Wide Hive Player’s bassist/keyboardist/composer Matt Montgomery, and Wide Hive Players composer/engineer/producer Gregory Howe."
Wide Hive
amazon
YouTube: Throttle Elevator Music IV 11 videos

2015 December: The Epic - Kamasi Washington (2015)

The Growing Charm of Dada

Francis Picabia, The Lovers (After the Rain), 1925
"During World War I, Zurich, the largest city in neutral Switzerland, was a refuge for artists, writers, intellectuals, pacifists, and dodgers of military service from various countries. A handful of these decided in 1916 to create a new kind of evening entertainment. They called it Cabaret Voltaire and established it at Spiegelgasse 1, not far from the room that was occupied by an occasional visitor to the cabaret, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The group, which became known as Dadaists, consisted of three Germans (Hugo Ball, Richard Huelsenbeck, Emmy Hennings), one Alsatian (Hans Arp), two Romanians (Marcel Janco and Tristan Tzara), and the Swiss Sophie Taeuber. They were soon joined by Walter Serner, an Austrian born in Bohemia. The youngest, Tzara, was twenty; Hennings was the oldest at thirty-one. All were united in their loathing of the war. ..."
NYBooks
Open Culture: Hear the Experimental Music of the Dada Movement: Avant-Garde Sounds from a Century Ago (Video)
From Revolutionary to Normative: A Secret History of Dada and Surrealism in American Music
UbuWeb: Dada for Now (Video)

New RAE BK Exhibit, All Systems Go, to Launch New Years Eve with DJ Kool Herc at 99 Bowery

"NYC’s prolific RAE BK will join forces with the legendary DJ Kool Herc at 99 Bowery on New Year’s Eve for an unprecented event. A brief interview with RAE BK about his new exhibit  and its New Years Eve launch follows: This sure seems like a fun way to spend New Years Eve! What spurred you to do this? After everything that has gone on with this Presidential Election in the US, I decided the best way to bring in a 2017 is with a bang.  I hope it’s a way to at least turn the page for an evening for those who attend. The name of the exhibition is All Systems Go and it centers around the comparison of discarded objects and human beings. ..."
Street Art NYC

Francis Bebey - Psychedelic Sanza 1982-1984

"The incredible 'Psychedelic Sanza 1982-1984' is a beautifully dreamy follow-up to Born Bad's much-loved Francis Bebey showcase, 'African Electronic Music 1975-1982'. Celebrating the uniquely affective timbre of the sanza, or African thumb piano, this compilation shifts focus from pop-wise anthems such as 'New Track' or 'Coffee Cola', onto the Cameroonian polymath's more stripped, rhythm-driven, and atmospheric workouts. And it's every bit as hypnotic, transcendent as that last sentence implies. Bebey's vocals are still key, but this time they're mostly used as rhythmelodic texture in chant and spectral vibings, moving further from Western styles and scales to a looser, more spacious mixture of African tradition and Western musical conventions resonating with John Hassell and Brian Eno's 4th world explorations. ..."
boomkat
Soundcloud: Noisey
amazon
YouTube: Psychedelic Sanza 1982 - 1984 57:07