The Alexandria Quartet: 'Love is every sort of conspiracy'

A Coptic funeral in Mohammed Ali Square, Alexandria, early twentieth century.
"Lawrence Durrell claimed that the four books of The Alexandria Quartet were 'an investigation of modern love'. It's possible to take that idea at face value. Some have even used it as a stick with which to beat him. Notably, his Guardian obituarist (writing in 1990, at a time when Durrell's reputation was possibly at its lowest ebb) said 'a harsh judgment' of his masterpiece might be that it was 'a four-volume romantic novel written by a poet steeped in Freud and on nodding terms with Einstein'. I'm guessing from the warm response the books have had from this month's Reading Group that most of you reading this will see that as an absurd rather than just a harsh judgment. Even if we accept that Durrell was only concerned with romantic love, that gives us endless scope for discussion – as Reading Group contributor Wheldrake has pointed out. ..."
Guardian
Lawrence Durrell's Egypt 

2011 December: The Alexandria Quartet - Lawrence Durrell, 2013 September: Villa that inspired Lawrence Durrell faces demolition, as Egypt allows heritage to crumble, 2014 August: Prospero’s Cell (1945), 2015 April: Bitter Lemons (1953–1956), 2015 May: Caesar's Vast Ghost: Aspects of Provence, 2016 July: Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953), 2016 September: The Greek Islands, 2016 October: Justine (1957), 2017 February: Balthazar (1958), 2017 April: Mountolive (1958), 2017 May: Clea (1960)

On the Hook

A taco from Country Boys.
"It is hard to imagine a government official stopping Daniel Day-Lewis on Oscar night, following the actor down the red carpet, asking a series of questions about his acting and filmmaking credentials, and telling him to change outfits or withdraw from the contest. The food service industry, however, is a very different stage, and Brooklyn food vendors like Marcos Lainez answer to public health officials as a part of everyday business. During this year’s Vendy Awards, an annual cooking competition billed as “the Oscars of street food,” a cohort of inspectors from the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene arrived just after doors opened to conduct full inspections of every nominated business. Lainez is a co-owner of El Olomega, a street food business that specializes in the Salvadoran-style pupusa (a thick, griddled corn cake). ..." (Nov 7, 2013)
BKLYN

Vendors lined up on Bay Street, near Field 1. The vendors once operated inside the fence surrounding the fields — now they're on the street.

Sun Ra - Exotica - A Modern Harmonic Industrial Film Short (with Irwin Chusid)

"We had the esteemed pleasure to speak with Irwin Chusid (that's partly a joke as we talk to him all the time!) of the Sun Ra estate. We secretly recorded that call and turned it into another Modern Harmonic Industrial Film Short. This is in celebration of the Exotica set that Irwin put together! Sensuous dreamscapes to transport the listener to the lush tropical environs of the outer reaches of the omniverse. Your choice of three colorful inter-stellar saucers or two compact saucers of 'Exotic-Ra' bringing you to a lush cocktail party where space is the place. All packaged in a beautiful Chesley Bonestell adorned gatefold package with two sets of extensive notes! Sun Ra. Exotica. Incongruous? Listening to the 25 tracks herein will showcase that Sun Ra was, indeed, an Exoticat of sorts, albeit in his own unique way, of course. That Sun Ra hasn’t been celebrated in Exotica circles is understandable. ..."
YouTube: A Modern Harmonic Industrial Film Short (with Irwin Chusid)
W - Irwin Chusid
Shiny Beast

In Paris, Passion Battles the Decline of Stamp Collecting

Buying and selling at the stamps and postcards market in Paris.
"PARIS — There is a rundown shop in my neighborhood near the Rue des Martyrs that never seems to close. When I peer through the window late at night, I usually see a small group of older men bent over a long table, picking up and moving around thousands of tiny bits of colored paper with their tiny tweezers. At first, I wondered whether the place might be a front for a bookie joint or a money-laundering operation. Not at all. It is very respectable. It goes by the name Action Philatélie — Action Philately — and has been in business for as long as anyone can remember. It is dedicated to the buying, selling, researching, sorting, evaluating and classifying of postage stamps. ..."
NY Times

2007 November: Literary Stamps, 2008 May: Penny Black, 2009 January: Mail art, 2009 September: Cuba Stamp, 2009 September: First day of issue, 2009 November: Airmail stamp, 2009 DecArtistamp, 2010 January: Zeppelin mail, 2010 February: Miniature sheet, 2011 August: Artistamp, 2014 March: First day of issue

Hear 4+ Hours of Jazz Noir: A Soundtrack for Strolling Under Street Lights on Foggy Nights

"Nowadays few crowds seem less likely to harbor criminal intent than the ones gathered to listen to jazz, but seventy, eighty years ago, American culture certainly didn't see it that way. Back then, jazz accompanied the life of urban outsiders: those who dabbled in forbidden substances and forbidden activities, those influenced by the alien morality of Europe or even farther-away lands, those belonging to feared and mistreated social groups. That image stuck as much or even more firmly to jazz musicians as it did to jazz listeners, and when a new cinematic genre arose specifically to tell stories of urban outsiders — the lowlifes, the anti heroes, the femmes fatales — jazz provided the ideal soundtrack. ..."
Open Culture (Spotify, Video)
amazon: Jazz Noir
YouTube: Jazz Noir [part 1], [part 2], [part 3]

2009 January: Film noir, 2014 February: Crime Jazz: How Miles Davis, Count Basie & Other Jazz Legends Provided the Soundtrack for Noir Films & TV, 2014 June: The 5 Essential Rules of Film Noir, 2015 August: Infographic explains “film noir” and finds the most noir film of them all, 2017 September: John Zorn - Naked City (1990).

Bob Dylan - The Bromberg Sessions / Series Of Dreams (The Best Of The 1989-1993 Sessions & Lives)

"New video today from the 90's. This is another great compilation from the blog A Thounsand Highways and includes the best of the years 1989 to 1993, with rare performances, studio sessions and more. Also, the first part includes the very rare Bromberg Sessions. Before Good As I Been To You, Bob worked with long-time partner David Bromberg (they first met in 1970 for Self-Portrait) to record a new album. The sessions didn't come to fruition and Bob went on his way. However, thanks to the Bootleg Series Vol.8, we had a preview of how great those sessions were. For now, only three other songs circulate, and they are just perfect. A rare treasure and certainly one of the holy grail of Dylan's career. 1989 to 1993 also offered classic performances, like the 60th anniversary celebration of country legend Willie Nelson, the Supper Club shows in November 1993, and other rare outtakes from Oh Mercy and Under The Red Sky. This is a must-have for any fan of the Bard. Hope you will like it as much as I do. - Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands"
YouTube: The Bromberg Sessions / Series Of Dreams 2:52:38

Vermont International Film Festival

"VTIFF was born from the anti-nuclear movement in the 1985, making it the world’s oldest environmental and human rights film festival, although its focus today has broadened to embrace a wide spectrum of social issues and a focus on independent art-house cinema. Founded by two longtime peace and social justice activists, George and Sonia Cullinen, the inspiration for the festival came from the success of their 1981 film, From Washington to Moscow, which documented a Walk for Peace between two rural towns — Washington and Moscow, Vermont. ... VTIFF grew out of this vision. The first Vermont International Film Festival was held in 1985 at Marlboro College in southern Vermont. About one hundred people attended the inaugural event. Now based primarily in Burlington, VTIFF also present showcases in other parts of Vermont. Past festival guests have included such activist artists as actor Danny Glover, Bread & Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann, and historian and playwright Howard Zinn, among others."
VTIFF

Agnès Varda’s Ecological Conscience

Jules Breton, The Recall of the Gleaners, 1859.
"'Existence isn’t a solitary matter,' says the shepherd to the wanderer in Agnès Varda’s 1985 film, Vagabond. This vision of collectivity, the belief that we are all in it together, recurs throughout Varda’s films, from her early, proto–New Wave La Pointe Courte (1954) to her acclaimed Cléo from 5 to 7 (1961) to her most recent film, Faces Places (2017), made in collaboration with the young French street artist JR. (Filmmaking isn’t a solitary matter, either.) 'This movie is about togetherness,' she told New York Magazine. Watching Faces Places, I couldn’t help thinking about Varda’s 2000 film, The Gleaners & I. Both are road-trip movies in which Varda interviews the kinds of people we don’t often see in movies—farmers, miners, dockworkers, and their wives. ..."
The Paris Review

August 2010: Agnès Varda, May 2011: The Beaches of Agnès, 2011 December: Interview - Agnès Varda, 2013 February: The Gleaners and I (2000), 2013 September: Cinévardaphoto (2004), 2014 July: Black Panthers (1968 doc.), 2014 October: Art on Screen: A Conversation with Agnès Varda, 2015 September: Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Plaisir d’amour en Iran (1976), 2017 April: Agnès Varda’s Art of Being There, 2017 April: AGNÈS VARDA with Alexandra Juhasz, 2017 August: Agnès Varda on her life and work - Artforum.

Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs

"Raghubir Singh (1942–1999) was a pioneer of color street photography who worked and published prolifically from the late 1960s until his death in 1999 at age 56. Born into an aristocratic family in Rajasthan, he lived in Hong Kong, Paris, London, and New York—but his eye was perpetually drawn back to his native India. This retrospective exhibition will situate Singh's photographic work at the intersection of Western modernism and traditional South Asian modes of picturing the world. It will feature 85 photographs by Singh in counterpoint with works by his contemporaries—friends, collaborators, fellow travelers—as well as examples of the Indian court painting styles that inspired him. ..."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Exhibition Objects
CNN - "Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs" at the Met Breuer
amazon

Les Filles du feu - Gérard de Nerval (1854)

Wikipedia - "Les Filles du feu (English: The Daughters of Fire) is a collection of short prose works, poetry and a play published by the French poet Gérard de Nerval in January 1854, a year before his death. During 1853, Nerval had suffered three nervous breakdowns and spent five months in an asylum. He saw Les Filles du feu as an opportunity to show the public, his friends and his father that he was sane, though except for the introduction all of the pieces in Les Filles du feu had been published previously: 'Angélique' in Les Faux Saulniers (1850), 'Sylvie' in La Revue des Deux Mondes (1853), and 'Émilie', 'Jemmy', 'Isis' and 'Octavie' in diverse reviews. The precise meaning of the title, which Nerval chose just before publication, is uncertain. ..."
Wikipedia
amazon

2007 December: Gerard De Nerval, 2010 March: Robin Blaser - Les Chimeres, 2016 June: Voyage to the Orient (1851), 2017 March: Selected Writings of Gerard De Nerval (1957), 2017 June: Did Gerard de Nerval walk his pet lobster through Paris?

The Black Balloon - John Renbourn (1979)

"The Black Balloon is one of John Renbourn's instrumental guitar albums. He gives a classical feel to the tracks on the first side, taking 'The English Dance'1979) at an appropriately quick speed and displaying some fast, intricate playing on 'Bourée I and II.' The lengthy medley of 'The Mist Covered Mountains of Home,' 'The Orphan,' and 'Tarboulton' introduces his frequent supporting musician Tony Roberts on flute, with Stuart Gordon adding tabla on the final section for a sound reminiscent of the John Renbourn Group projects. The second side contains two long tracks, 'The Pelican' and "The Black Balloon," each of which finds Renbourn adding to his textured acoustic work with some overdubbed electric guitar playing, and Roberts again sits in on the title tune. For those who have followed Renbourn to this point, the album will seem like a continuation of one of the paths he enjoys following in British folk music."
allmusic
W - The Black Balloon
amazon
YouTube: The Black Balloon (full album) 37:32

2011 September: Faro Annie, 2012 November: John Renbourn - Sir John Alot, 2013 May: The Lady and the Unicorn, 2014 February: Bert &; John (1966), 2014 October: The Hermit (1976), 2015 March: John Renbourn: ceaseless explorer of song – appreciation., 2015 November: The Attic Tapes - John Renbourn (2015), 2016 November: Cruel Sister (1970) - Pentangle, 2016 December: Lost Sessions (1973)

Lightbath’s Percussive Reverberations

Forgiveness | Ambient Eurorack Modular Synthesizer | Chance, Plonk, Rainmaker, Rings, T-Wrex, Clouds
"In her interview as part of the Sound + Process podcast, Emily Sprague mentioned two musicians as inspirations for her, one of them being Lightbath, aka Bryan Noll. She was speaking in particular about Lightbath’s videos, in the context of videos with a certain aesthetic that she found comforting if rare — which is to say, not all 4/4, not techno, not noisey, not songy, not purely noodling; instead: soft, ambient, and ever so slightly melodic. She doesn’t specifically say those things; that’s an aesthetic triangulation on my part based on what Sprague’s music often sounds like, and what Lightbath and the other musician whose videos she mentioned, R Beny, are generally up to. ... Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/lightbath. More from Lightbath/Noll at lightbath.com and twitter.com/lightbath."
disquiet (Video)

Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series

"In 1941, Jacob Lawrence, then just 23 years old, completed a series of 60 small tempera paintings with text captions about the Great Migration, the mass movement of black Americans from the rural South to the urban North that began in 1915–16. Within months of its making, the Migration Series was divided between The Museum of Modern Art (even-numbered panels) and the Phillips Memorial Gallery (odd-numbered panels). The work has since become a landmark in the history of African American art, a monument in the collections of both institutions and a crucial example of the way in which history painting was radically reimagined in the modern era. ..."
artbook
Phillips Collection
amazon

2015 February: One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North

Popol Vuh - Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin (1981)

"Recorded in 1980 and produced by Klaus Schulze, Sei Still, Wisse ICH BIN ("Be quiet, I am") is one of Popol Vuh's sacred music offerings. Like Hosianna Mantra nearly a decade before, this set is regal in its solemnity and in its intensity. Utilizing the Chorensemble der Bayerischen Staatsoper and the soprano saxophone stylings of Chris Karrer, Popol Vuh -- down to a three-piece with vocalist Renate Knaup fronting the choir, Fricke on piano and voice, and guitarist Daniel Fichelscher holding down the drum chair as well, this is a huge recording . Schulze's immediate mix, which brings the vocals into complete balance with the undulating, mantra-like instrumentation, is nothing less than stunning; from Tibetan-style prayer chants to Eastern Orthodox choral scales, from thundering bass drums and cymbals to snaky, elusive, sparse electric guitar lines and Fricke's trademark shimmering piano, each of this album's seven selections is its own kind of masterpiece. It is the perfect marriage of world music utilized in rock & roll fashion, and of both being placed at the service of the Sacred. It is nothing less than awe-inspiring."
allmusic
W - Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin
Discogs
YouTube: Sei still, wisse ich bin FULL ALBUM

2008 August: Popol Vuh, 2010 December: Aguirre, the Wrath of God, 2011 May: Abschied (1972), 2013 May: Fitzcarraldo - Werner Herzog, 2913 September: Hosianna Mantra (1972), 2014 April: Revisited & Remixed 1970-1999 (2011), 2014 August: Letzte Tage-Letzte Nächte (1976), 2014 May: Agape-Agape (1983), 2016 July: Die Nacht Der Seele - Tantric Songs (1979), 2016 November: Das Hohelied Salomos (1975)

20 Pieces of Writing Advice from William Faulkner

"William Faulkner is one of the best writers America has ever produced, with a distinctive voice and a relentless intelligence that earned him a Nobel Prize in literature at age 52—not to mention two Pulitzer prizes, two National Book Awards, and the undying love of many readers. He’s one of those writers you can read again and again without really understanding how he’s done what he’s done; he has that magic. But that doesn’t keep anyone from trying to learn from him. Though he didn’t much care for interviews, he has shared his expertise in a few; he also served as the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia in 1957 and 1958, and some of his pedagogical conversations with students there have since been made public. Faulkner was born 120 years ago today in New Albany, Mississippi; to celebrate his birthday and to better learn from his work, find below some of his best advice on craft, character, and the writer’s life. ..."
lithub

2011 September: Southern Gothic, 2014 February: William Faulkner, 2015 October: William Faulkner Draws Maps of Yoknapatawpha County, the Fictional Home of His Great Novels, 2015 November: Interviews William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12, 2016 April: Absalom, Absalom!! (1936), 2016 May: The Sound and the Fury (1929), 2016 October: The Snopes Trilogy (1940, 1957, 1959), 2016 December: Light in August (1932), 2017 February: As I Lay Dying (1930), 2017 June: The Wild Palms (1939), 2017 August: Sanctuary (1931). 2017 September: The Unvanquished (1938)

What Sewing Samplers Tell Us About Women’s Lives from the 17th to 19th Centuries

Sampler with framing border (1830)
"There are rare records of women’s voices in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially ordinary middle and lower class women. An exhibition at the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum is approaching sewing samplers as documents of these overlooked lives, as the objects are sometimes the sole trace of a woman’s name, or existence. Created to demonstrate stitching skills, both for employment and as a future homemaker, they range from alphabets in thread that proved literacy, to dense embroidery that showed off needlework talents. Sampled Lives: Samplers from the Fitzwilliam Museum features more than 100 examples of samplers from the 17th to early 20th century, most of which are rarely on view due to their fragility and sensitivity to light. ..."
Hyperallergic
Sampled Lives: Samplers from the Fitzwilliam Museum
What is a Sampler?
V&A: A History of Samplers
Hidden Messages: Symbolism in Seventeenth Century Samplers
Towards an Identity

White work band sampler (1660), inscribed "Elizabeth Potter"

Joni Mitchell: Fear of a Female Genius

"... Some people think that when a woman takes her husband’s last name it is necessarily an act of submission or even self-erasure. Joni Mitchell retaining Chuck’s last name for decades after their divorce has always struck me as a defiant, deliciously cruel act of revenge. In the 50 years since, she spread her wings and took that surname to heights and places it never would have reached had it been ball-and-chained to a husband: the hills of Laurel Canyon, The Dick Cavett Show, a window overlooking a newly paved Hawaiian parking lot, the Grammys, Miles Davis’s apartment, Charles Mingus’s deathbed, Matala, MTV, the Rolling Thunder Revue, and the top of a recent NPR list of greatest albums ever made by women. Over a singular career that has spanned many different cultural eras, she explored—in public, to an almost unprecedented degree—exactly what it meant to be female and free, in full acknowledgement of all its injustice and joy. ..." (Kate M.)
The Ringer

2015 July: Blue (1970), 2015 Novemer: 40 Years On: Joni Mitchell's The Hissing Of Summer Lawns Revisited, 2016 August: On For the Roses (1972), 2016 November: Court and Spark (1974), 2017 February: Hejira (1976), 2017 August: Miles of Aisles (1974)

The History of 452 Greenwich Street

"Tom Miller, who writes about the history of Manhattan buildings at Daytonian in Manhattan, has allowed Tribeca Citizen to create a database of his Tribeca posts. ... Around 1819, Alexander Thompson completed construction of a house at the southwest corner of Greenwich and Desbrosses Streets. The prim, Federal-style dwelling was two-and-a-half stories tall and faced in Flemish bond red brick. Incised brownstone lintels were an added touch. An especially pleasing recessed, arched doorway at the southern end of the structure was fully paneled and, possibly, included a stylish fanlight. The architect’s attention to this feature is more remarkable because it appears that it originally provided access to the rear yard and not to the house proper. ..."
Tribeca Citizen
The Alexander Thompson House - 452 Greenwich Street

2017 July: Seeking New York: The Stories Behind the Historic Architecture of Manhattan

Endless - Luca D'Alberto (2017)

"On 2nd June !K7 records' newly created contemporary classical imprint 7K! will release ‘Endless’ – the new album played entirely by Luca D’Alberto – the Italian composer who counts Wim and Donata Wenders, Peter Lindbergh and Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa as fans. Driven by pristine piano and rich strings, ‘Endless’ is sonically opulent with vivid, wonder-evoking pieces conveying wintry, widescreen panoramas and a propulsive arpeggio-fueled energy. Luca composed, arranged and played all instruments on ‘Endless’ himself – the violin, viola, violectra, cello and piano. It was produced by Martyn Heyne (who has worked with Nils Frahm, Lubomir Melnyk, Peter Broderick, Tiny Ruins and The National), with additional production by the lauded DJ/musician Henrik Schwarz."
Lucad Alberto (Audio)
Luca D’Alberto ~ Endless (Video)
amazon,
YouTube: Endless (Official Music Video), "Her Dreams" (live)

La Ciénaga - Lucrecia Martel (2001)

"As Lucrecia Martel demonstrates in La Ciénaga (The Swamp), there is more twisted banal horror and caustic humour to be discovered in the forms of personal narrative than found within the boundaries of the horror genre itself. La Ciénaga is a horror film in a way, though it is as inscrutable as the work of Claire Denis, as biting as that of Luis Buñuel, and as rich and unmistakably stamped with an undercurrent of discomfort as Martel’s own films La Niña Santa (The Holy Girl, 2004) and La Mujer sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman, 2008). Loosely plotted, La Ciénaga observes a somewhat wealthy extended family spending a summer cramped together in an isolated, wet, decaying mansion in a provincial town in the provinces. ..."
senses of cinema
W - La Ciénaga
Roger Ebert
Submerged in Sound: Lucrecia Martel’s La Cienaga
YouTube: New Argentine Cinema and Lucrecia Martel’s La Ciénaga

All 139 the Clash Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best

"The Clash were principled. They wrote real songs. They were goofy. They went to the edge and beyond. And they did what they did, made the world come to them, and felt guilty about it. They recorded the equivalent of nine records in six years, including two or three of the greatest rock-and-roll records ever, and possibly the greatest album of all time (London Calling) along the way. After the demise of the Sex Pistols, they remained the reigning aesthetic embodiment of an authentic, radical art movement rife with provocations and contradictions. And they had Top 40 hits. ..."
Vulture (Video)

Noam Chomsky Diagnoses the Trump Era

"... There is a diversionary process under way, perhaps just a natural result of the propensities of the figure at center stage and those doing the work behind the curtains. At one level, Trump’s antics ensure that attention is focused on him, and it makes little difference how. Who even remembers the charge that millions of illegal immigrants voted for Clinton, depriving the pathetic little man of his Grand Victory? Or the accusation that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower? The claims themselves don’t really matter. It’s enough that attention is diverted from what is happening in the background. ..."
The Nation

2011 January: Peak Oil and a Changing Climate, 2015 May: The Limits of Discourse As Demonstrated by Sam Harris and Noam Chomsky, 2015 October: Electing the President of an Empire, 2015 December: Noam Chomsky on Paris attacks, 2016 December: Chomsky: Humanity Faces Real and Imminent Threats to Our Survival, 2017 April: Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power (2016), 2017 July: Noam Chomsky: Neoliberalism Is Destroying Our Democracy

Patty [Oldenburg] Mucha Archive: New York City Art World in the Sixties & Seventies

Photograph by Robert McElroy of Patty in the Claes Oldenburg 1960 Happening "Circus: Ironworks & Fotodeath" at the Reuben Gallery.
"The Patty Mucha Archive features correspondence, manuscripts, artworks, documents and ephemera from a wild index of artists, poets, dancers and performers active in the era of Pop Art, Happenings, E.A.T., Yippies and Punk including: Olga Adorno, David Bradshaw, Joe Brainard, Gregory Corso, Jean Dupuy, Bob Dylan, Kenward Elmslie, Deborah Hay, Richard Hell, Jasper Johns, Ray Johnson, Ruth Kligman, Billy Klüver, Frosty Myers, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Clarice Rivers, Larry Rivers, Lucas Samaras, Carolee Schneemann and Andy Warhol to name a few. ..."
Granary Books

Stellar Splendor: An Extraordinary Encounter

Skalnate Pleso Atlas of the Heavens
"There are different experiences of awe or great wonder in astronomy. The most staggering and momentous, I believe, comes during a total eclipse of the Sun. But the most peacefully (yet still stirringly) wondrous is the sight of a clear, dark sky filled with stars. Perhaps the best sky of this sort was one I observed 40 years ago this September. Across most of the contiguous United States, the least cloudy time of year runs from about late August through mid-October. Strong cold fronts move through frequently but briefly, temporarily pushing away clouds and haze. ... But some of the clearest and therefore most star-crowded nights I’ve experienced occurred in September or early October. Take a look at our October all-sky map on page 42 (October 2017 issue). ..."
Sky & Telescope

A Question of Degree / Former Airline - Wire (1979)

"... Even at their punkiest there was always something different about Wire. Their 1977 debut (Pink Flag) still sounds surprisingly fresh and minimal today (yep, I just listened to it), but it's from their 2nd album (Chairs Missing) that things really start to get interesting. Songs are deconstructed and reconstructed in wierd and wonderful ways. Jagged, Dissonant and Swirling guitar work-outs rub shoulders with shimmering pop songs of breath-taking beauty. 'A Question of Degree' is a single put out in 1978 between 'Chairs Missing' and the 3rd (and even better) album '154'. It is one of Wire's many moments of pop inspiration with an off-kilter center that leaves you feeling slightly queasy. Like much of Wire's output, it's similar to a David Lynch movie - misleadingly normal on the outside, but with an unsettling and slightly uneasy world view once you scratch below the surface. If only all pop music were like this. 'Former Airline' is experimental, abrasive, repetitive, and not for the faint of heart. - Smelsch"
Rate Your Music
Pinkflag: A Question Of Degree / Former Airline
YouTube: A Question of Degree, Former Airline

 2009 January: Wire, 2012 January: On the Box 1979., 2013 September: Chairs Missing (1978), 2014 June: 154 (1979), 2014 July: Document And Eyewitness (1979-1980), 2015 April: The Ideal Copies: Graham Lewis Of Wire's Favourite Albums, 2015 July: Pink Flag (1977), 2015 December: The Peel Sessions Album (1989), “Dot Dash”, "Options R" (1978), 2017 June: Outdoor Miner / Practice Makes Perfect (1979).

The Flint Militants

Workers keep a calendar during the Flint Sit-Down Strike.
"On February 8, 1937, John L. Lewis, leader of the fledgling Committee of Industrial Organizations (CIO), met with Frank Murphy, the newly elected governor of Michigan. Just over a month earlier — and just two days before Murphy started his term — hundreds of autoworkers had seized two General Motors (GM) plants in Flint, paralyzing the massive corporation’s production line. The workers’ new tactic — the sit-down strike — was threatening to fundamentally change the balance of power between workers and management. Recognizing what was at stake, GM cut the heat to the occupied plants, hoping the cold would break the sit-downers’ morale. But the strikers were determined to stay. They sent Murphy a defiant telegram in response to rumors that he might mobilize the National Guard to evict them, announcing that they would be pulled out dead before they walked out on their own. ..."
Jacobin
W - Flint sit-down strike
Flint Sit-Down Strike (1936-1937) (Video)
The Flint sit-down strike, 1936-1937 - Jeremy Brecher

Spirited Things: Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic - Fleming Museum

"This fall the Fleming Museum of Art presents the exhibition Spirited Things: Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic, drawn from the Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic Collection (SABA) at Duke University. This collection is the product of 35 years of ethnographic research by J. Lorand Matory, Lawrence Richardson Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Director of the SABA Project at Duke University, and James Marsh Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont. The exhibition will include sacred objects from the Yoruba religion of West Africa, as well as Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, Brazilian Candomblé, and Caribbean Spiritism, faiths that emerged from the practices of enslaved Africans who blended their ancestral cultures with that of their captors. ..."
UVM - Fleming Museum
Art Review: 'Spirited Things: Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic,' Fleming Museum
vimeo: On View: The Fleming Museum Presents Spirited Things

Sun Ra ‎– The Mike Huckaby Reel-To-Reel Edits Vol. 1

"Jazz is a process as much as a sound, one in which melodic variation and real-time interaction are paramount. It's also deep in the mix of all kinds of Detroit music—Berry Gordy opened and shut a jazz record shop before founding Motown, whose players laid down world-changing R&B as a break from their real jobs playing jazz in clubs. The Stooges and MC5 were as inspired by 'Trane and Ornette as by the Stones and Who. George Clinton took notes on the spaceways Sun Ra navigated. And Detroit dance music simply doesn't exist without fusion and astral jazz, as everything from UR's 'Jupiter Jazz' to Innerzone Orchestra's Programmed has made clear. Nevertheless, the mixing of jazz with dance beats tends to be a pretty iffy proposition—jazz rhythm tends to be looser than house or techno, their basslines generally serve very different sorts of functions, most dance producers are simply not ace improvisers, etc. That's one reason Detroit vet Mike Huckaby's new series of jazz re-edits is intriguing. ..."
Resident Advisor
Discogs
Soundcloud: The Antique Blacks (Mike Huckaby Reel To Reel Edit)
YouTube: UFO (Mike Huckaby Reel-To-Reel Edits)

The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon (1961)

""A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon’s masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said’s Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. ... Fanon’s analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark. ..."
Grove Atlantic
W - The Wretched of the Earth
[PDF] Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Jean-Paul Sartre 1961 - Preface to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth”

Catalonia: Past and Future - Luke Stobart

In Saint Julia de Ramis, police move in on crowds attempting to participate in the October 1 Catalan referendum vote.
"The battle around the October 1 independence referendum — called by the Catalan parliament but banned by Spain’s highest court — has become one of the most dramatic European developments in years. As result of attacks on polling stations that were occupied by citizens to guarantee the vote would take place, around nine hundred people were injured by police — including many elderly people and a man likely to lose an eye after being shot using a banned rubber bullet. In Catalonia the violence led to mass participation in a general strike two days later that managed to shut down most public transport, farms, docks, smaller shops, and the public sector — albeit helped in the last case by the Catalan government subsidizing lost pay. This was a political strike of the kind not seen since the struggles against the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. ..."
Jacobin

2017 October: Catalonia Leaders Seek to Make Independence Referendum Binding

Degas, Danse, Dessin. A Tribute to Degas with Paul Valéry

Edgar Degas, Seated Dancer
"On the centenary of his death, the Musée d'Orsay pays tribute to Edgar Degas (1834-1917) with an exhibition based around the little known work by the writer, poet and thinker, Paul Valéry (1871-1945). The friendship between Degas and Valéry lasting more than twenty years resulted in an essay published by Editions Vollard in 1937, Degas Danse Dessin. Both intimate and universal, it conveys a poetic, fragmentary image of the painter’s personality and his art, and a kind of meditation on the creative process. ..."
Musée d'Orsay
Poetry Foundation: Paul Valéry
[PDF] Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty

Jon Gibson - In Good Company (1992)

"Jon Gibson is probably one of the most important performers in Minimalist music. He primarily plays saxophone and clarinet, plus occasional flute. He played in the premieres Terry Riley's 'In C,' Steve Reich's 'Drumming,' was a founding member of Philip Glass' ensemble, and so premiered a whole lot of his early work, and has worked and recorded with LaMonte Young, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, and pretty much every major American Minimalistish composer who needed a reed player. As a composer he's somewhat less known, though his work is really up there with all of those guys. ..."
Incessant Noise (Video)
Gramophone
amazon
YouTube: In Good Company

John Coltrane Quartet - Live at the Village Vanguard (1962)

"This set documents the four-night stand by John Coltrane (sax) and his quintet at the Village Vanguard in New York City, November 1 -- 5, 1961. Although these are not newly discovered tapes -- as the majority of the selections have turned up on no less than five separate releases -- their restoration is significant in assessing motifs in Coltrane's [read: multi-show] live appearances. Coltrane is accompanied by an all-star ensemble of Eric Dolphy (alto sax/bass clarinet), Garvin Bushell (oboe/contrabassoon), Ahmed Abdul-Malik (oud), McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Reggie Workman (bass), Elvin Jones (drums), and Roy Haynes (drums). Their presence is as equally vital as Coltrane's -- inspiring as well as informing the dimensions of improvisation. ... The highly recommended box set also includes a nine-panel fold out poster, 48-page liner notes booklet -- with a complete discography for the included material -- and other ephemera, such as rarely published photographs."
allmusic
W - Live at the Village Vanguard
Discogs
YouTube: Live at the Village Vanguard 36:32

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), 2016 April: The Church of Saint John Coltrane, 2016 July: Soultrane (1958), 2016 December: Dakar (1957), 2017 July: The John Coltrane Record That Made Modern Music.

The sadness of Saturn

An ultraviolet image of Saturn's rings. Ringlets shown in turquoise have a greater concentration of frozen water than those shown in red.
"If you live in a city and go outside every so often, there’s a decent chance that you might have, unknowingly, walked straight past someone who believes that you have personally laid eyes on Satan. The devil of Christian mythology — the one with the goat’s horns and the woman’s breasts, the adversary of God and humanity, the stinking and shuddering principle of evil — you have seen him, and again you didn’t even know it. You have seen the devil glimmer faintly in the night sky. You drew pictures of him as a child, or made papier-mâché idols, while your teachers grinned down on you. You have seen gorgeous photographs of the deceiver, the iridescent storms swirling infinitely deep on his surface, his crown of rings, his delicate lollipop bands — and maybe, with impossible eyes, he looked back at you. ..."
The Outline

2017 September: Cassini Flies Toward a Fiery Death on Saturn

The Lounge Lizards - Lounge Lizards (1981)

"One might be forgiven for mistaking the Lounge Lizards' debut album for a traditional jazz release at a glance, what with the two Thelonious Monk covers and the participation of producer Teo Macero (who had previously worked with such heavyweights as Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck and Ella Fitzgerald, to name just a few). No, while there's definitely great respect shown here for the jazz tradition, the members are obviously coming at it from different backgrounds -- most especially guitarist Arto Lindsay, whose occasional atonal string scraping owes far more to his experience in New York City's no wave scene than to quote unquote traditional jazz. In fact, the two aforementioned Monk covers seem a strange choice when you actually hear the band, which has more in common with sonic experimentalists like Ornette Coleman or Sun Ra. That's not to say that this is too experimental; saxophonist and lead Lizard John Lurie knows when to blow noise and when to blow melody, and ex-Feelies drummer Anton Fier manages to infuse a good rock feel into the drum parts even when he's playing incredibly complex rhythms. ..."
allmudic
W - Lounge Lizards
YouTube: Lounge Lizards 40:32

2012 July: The Lounge Lizards