Nioque of the Early-Spring: Francis Ponge

"For those unaware of the French poet Francis Ponge, this new translation by Jonathan Larson offers a glimpse into a realm of glimpses, a fraction of poetic marvels in a realm of mere fractals. As a single work surrounded by many others, this book on its own is ultimately a gentle, inviting framework through which Ponge’s work and endurance, seasoned and lightened at once, can explore the gradients of concept and theme. It is filled with openness and propulsion. It is a thorough radicalism and also a challenge to the immensity of time and space. Knowing and to be known, the process and the result, a spiraling enthusiasm, wondrous, an investment, and an engagement. It is relational and intentional. Time, nature, knowledge. These are key spaces of the macrocosmic warp and wordplay Ponge iterated originally though Nioque, as explored by its translator’s introduction. Through a significant treatment, Jonathan Larson has recrafted a book capable of encountering time in the umbrella of the creative process. Poems of 1950-1953, entries and explorations into and out of the wrapped, frolicking springtime. Nature as a reflection of seasons, perhaps with Spring serving as keystone, and nature as spirit, as something remarkably anew, consciously reverberating in circumspection. Nioque provides a portrayal of significance in its self-referential patterning. At what better, triggering instance does a poetics have an opportunity to grow, does a mode of thought lead to future elevations? ..."
Yellow Rabbits Review #41: Nioque of the Early-Spring by Francis Ponge
Jonathan Larson On His Translation Of The Poetry Of Francis Ponge
Two Poems by Francis Ponge
LitHub
amazon

Mayan Letters: Soap

Joe Bataan - Riot! (1968)

"A real killer from the legendary Joe Bataan – an album of righteous power that really lives up to the dynamic promise of the title and cover! Joe Bataan's in top form throughout – serving up a blend of Latin grooves and 60s soul influences that few other artists of the time could touch – soaring and upbeat one minute, but mellow and laidback the next. There's a number of longer tracks on here that really move past the standard Latin Soul modes – bringing in bits of descarga jazz, instrumental soul, and mellower ballads to Joe's already-great blend of styles. The depth here is tremendous, and nearly every track's a winner! Titles include the slamming 'It's A Good Feeling (Riot)', 'Muneca', and 'Mambo De Bataan' – plus the soul tracks 'What Good Is A Castle', 'My Cloud', 'Daddy's Coming Home', 'Ordinary Guy', and 'For Your Love'."
dusty groove
Joe Bataan talks about his iconic LP Riot and starting Ghetto Records
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: Riot! (Full Album )

2018 April: Salsoul (1994)

A Brooklyn Barkeep’s Illustrated Guide to New York Watering Holes

"
"John Tebeau lives the kind of life you thought was extinct in New York City. He spends three days a week behind the bar at Red Hook’s Fort Defiance, tending to a cast of regulars and visitors, many of whom have wandered in after a trip to IKEA, in dire need of booze. When he’s not at Fort Defiance, Tebeau’s in his Brooklyn Heights studio working as a freelance illustrator. He combines his two areas of expertise in his new book, Bars, Taverns, and Dives New Yorkers Love: Where to Go, What to Drink, which features his hand-drawn renderings of fifty bars from around the five boroughs, along with recipes and short essays on all things hospitality: whether to sit at the bar or a table, advice on engaging with your fellow drinkers, and quotes overheard at his regular Atlantic Avenue tavern, ChipShop. The importance of a good bar was established in his life early on, as a kid in North Muskegon, Michigan. ..."
Voice
amazon: Bars, Taverns, and Dives New Yorkers Love: Where to Go, What to Drink - John Tebeau

Gloria / Baby, Please Don't Go - Them (1964)

"'Gloria' is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and originally recorded by Morrison's band Them in 1964 and released as the B-side of 'Baby, Please Don't Go'. The song became a garage rock staple and a part of many rock bands' repertoires. It is particularly memorable for its 'Gloria!' chorus. It is easy to play, as a simple three-chord song, and thus is popular with those learning to play guitar. Morrison said that he wrote 'Gloria' while he performed with the Monarchs in Germany in the summer of 1963, at just about the time he turned 18 years old. He started to perform it at the Maritime Hotel when he returned to Belfast and joined up with the Gamblers to form the band Them. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Baby, Please Don't Go
W - Them
Genius (Audio)
YouTube: "Gloria" (Live 1965), Baby, Please Don't Go

Europe After the Rain: Watch the Vintage Documentary on the Two Great Art Movements, Dada & Surrealism (1978)

"'Dada thrives on contradictions. It is creative and destructive. Dada denounces the world and wishes to save it.' So says one narrator of journalist-filmmaker Mick Gold's Europe After the Rain, a 1978 Arts Council of Great Britain documentary on not just the international avant-garde movement called Dada but the associated currents of surrealism churning around that continent during the first half of the twentieth century. 'Dada wanted to replace the nonsense of man with the illogically senseless. Dada is senseless, like nature. Dada is for nature, and against art. Philosophers have less value for Dada than an old toothbrush, and Dada abandons them to the great leaders of the world.' Of the many bold and often contradictory claims made about Dada, none describe it as easily understood. But Dada has less to do with intellectual, aesthetic, or political coherence than with a certain energy. ..."
Open Culture (Video)

2016: DADA Companion, 2016: The Growing Charm of Dada, 2009 February: Charles Baudelaire, 2012 December: Impressionism and Fashion, 2017: How Baudelaire Revolutionized Modern Literature, 2017: The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology - Mary Ann Caws

Jonas Mekas - Scrapbook of the Sixties: Writings 1954 - 2010

"Scrapbook of the Sixties is a collection of published and unpublished texts by Jonas Mekas, filmmaker, writer, poet, and cofounder of the Anthology Film Archives in New York. Born in Lithuania, he came to Brooklyn via Germany in 1949 and began shooting his first films there. Mekas developed a form of film diary in which he recorded moments of his daily life. He became the barometer of the New York art scene and a pioneer of American avant-garde cinema. Every week, starting in 1958, he published his legendary 'Movie Journal' column in The Village Voice, writing on a range of subjects that were by no means restricted to the world of film. He conducted numerous interviews with artists like Andy Warhol, Susan Sontag, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Erick Hawkins, and Nam June Paik. Some of these will now appear for the first time in his Scrapbook of the Sixties. Mekas’s writings reveal him as a thoughtful diarist and an unparalleled chronicler of the times—a practice that he has continued now for over fifty years. Jonas Mekas (*1922, Semeniškiai / Lithuania), lives and works in New York. Film-maker, writer, poet and co-founder of the Anthology Film Archives one of the world’s largest and most important repositories of avant-garde film. Mekas’s work has been exhibited in museums and festivals worldwide. ..."
Motto
amazon

2014 May: Anthology Film Archives, 2014 October: Captured: A Film/Video History of the Lower East Side, 2016 February: Jonas Mekas, 2017 July: Patti Smith Sang Some Lou Reed at a Gala For Anthology Film Archives’ Expansion, 2017 August: Jonas Mekas talks about Movie Journal

Foundation for Arabic Music Archiving and Research

CD – Salama Higazi
"AMAR is a Lebanese foundation committed to the preservation and dissemination of traditional Arab music. AMAR owns 7,000 records, principally from the 'Nahda' era (1903 – 1930s), as well as around 6,000 hours of recordings on reel. To safeguard this rare collection, AMAR has acquired a state-of-the-art studio specifically dedicated to the digitization and conservation of this music. In early 2010, AMAR built a multi-purpose hall that hosts up to eighty people. The launch of AMAR took place on August 17th – 19th, 2009 at its premises in the Qurnet el-Hamra Village, Metn District, Lebanon. ... The CD is a reliable format for the sale and distribution of music so long as it is part of a more informative package. The package should include one or more CDs unveiling the works of multiple singers such as Yûsuf al-Manyalâwî or ̕Abd al-Hay Hilmî, together with a booklet that provides historical, musical and pictorial information about them and their work. The first proposed package was an ambitious one. In October 2011, AMAR released the integral Yûsuf al-Manyalâwî records, which were the ultimate reference in art singing at the beginning of the 20^th century.  A total number of approximately sixty-two 78 rpm (rounds per minute) disks, were reproduced on 10 CDs (after being digitized, restored and re-mastered) representing all facets of Manyalâwî:  dawr,  qasîda,  mawwâl,  muwashshah and layâli type improvisations, among others. The choice of this vocalist as a first priority is justified by his artistic significance, as well as the technical quality of his recordings (particularly during the campaign of May 1910). ..."
AMAR: About - Lebanese
AMAR
AMAR - Products
AMAR - Timeline

CD – Qasabgi. Muḥammad al-Qaṣabgī

Clash: An Urban Collective

"Detour Gallery is pleased to announce CLASH: An Urban Collection an exhibition of works by such artists as DAIN, BNS, Cleon Pederson, and Stikki Peaches among others. CLASH pushes the boundaries of sensibility while maintaining its order in the commonality that all of the works root themselves firmly in the grit of the urban art spirit. The exhibit places a combination of both emerging and established urban artists together in the spirit of a happy accident. Place the best representation of works conceived by artists who hail from such diverse sections of the world as Brooklyn and LA to Oslo and Germany and see what happens. Their work shouts loud colors, iconic images, and bold lines. The artwork emulates an urban city landscape through its multifaceted layers of expression consisting of layers of spray paint, photography, ink, silkscreen acrylic and pop culture characters. ..."
Carpe Diem
StreetArtNYC: Red Bank’s Detour Gallery Presents “CLASH: An Urban Collective” with Dain, Cleon Peterson, Ashleigh Sumner, Ståle Gerhardsen, Stikki Peaches, Faile and more
artsy

Black and White and Black: On the Comics of Chris Reynolds

"Around the start of the first millennium, a territory on the northern coast of Africa fell under control of the Romans, who dubbed it 'Mauretania,' possibly derived from a native word or from the Greek for 'dark' (or 'obscure')—the root that eventually informed the term Moor. Centuries later, the Cunard Line affixed the name to a giant ship, built in Newcastle and launched in 1906, which for several years enjoyed distinction as both the world’s fastest and largest ocean liner, beloved by many, though called by Kipling 'the monstrous nine-decked city.' It was scrapped between 1935 and 1937, and parts of the interior found a home in a pub in Bristol. Eight decades after the RMS Mauretania’s maiden voyage, Chris Reynolds, a Welsh-born artist in his mid twenties, embarked on what would be his life’s work, a beguiling series of loosely connected stories that he called Mauretania Comics. The work had nothing to do with that remote place or with seafaring vessels of yore, and the name was just one of its many elusive mysteries. The stories were and are easy to consume but tantalizingly difficult to characterize. ..."
The Paris Review
The Paris Review: Endless Summer Wells
amazom: Chris Reynolds

Maximum Joy - I Can't Stand It Here On Quiet Nights: Singles 1981-82

“I Can’t Stand It Here On Quiet Nights is centred around the trio of singles the band released on Dick O’Dell’s Y Records between 1981-1982. Their first, ‘Stretch’, was licensed to seminal American label 99 Records and soon after became an anthem on the New York club underground, a cult staple at Danceteria and on late-night radio. Closer to home and a shared personal favourite is their first B-side, ‘Silent Street / Silent Dub’: a languid, haunting tribute to long summer nights in St Pauls (where the Idle Hands shop presently resides), and specifically the Black & White Cafe, “where dub-reggae reigned supreme, 24/7”. Llewellin’s mesmerising one-drop kit and Catsis’s outrageously heavy bassline anchor the track, allowing Rainforth’s exquisite vocal and Wrafter’s trumpet to soar within the intense, expressionistic dub mix. In both subject matter and execution it is the definitive Bristol tune. ... Listening today, three-and-a-half decades later, it’s easy to hear Maximum Joy as a relic of their era. The defining characteristics of their music—rope-like basslines, squalls of dub delay, and alternately soaring and honking horn parts—peg them to the early 1980s, when punk rock, funk, disco, and reggae were all mixing together. But the Bristol, UK, group has never enjoyed the acclaim of contemporaries like Rip Rig and Panic, Pigbag, or the Pop Group (with whom they shared members), to say nothing of New York acts like ESG or Liquid Liquid (with whom they rubbed elbows on the roster of New York’s 99 Records). ..."
Holland Tunnel Dive
silent street (Audio)
Pitchfork (Audio)
Discogs
W - Maximum Joy
YouTube: Stretch, Silent Street & Silent Dub, Building Bridges (Building Dub)

Cecil Taylor - Jazz Advance (1956)

"The Transition label and the then new music of Cecil Taylor were perfectly matched, the rebellion in modern jazz was on in 1956, and the pianist was at the forefront. Though many did not understand his approach at the time, the passing years temper scathing criticism, and you can easily appreciate what he is accomplishing. For the reissue Jazz Advance, you hear studio sessions in Boston circa 1956, and the legendary, ear-turning set of 1957 at the Newport Jazz Festival. A young Steve Lacy is included on several tracks, and while revealing Taylor's roughly hewn façade, the few pieces as a soloist and with his trio of bassist Buell Neidlinger and drummer Dennis Charles are even more telling. ... With Jazz Advance, the revolution commenced, Taylor was setting the pace, and the improvised music world has never been the same. For challenged listeners, this LP has to be high on your must-have list."
allmusic
W - Jazz Advance
Guardian
Discogs
amazon, iTunes, Spotify
YouTube: Jazz Advance (1956) - Complete Album

2018 April: RIP, Cecil Taylor (1929-2018)

The 30 Ugliest Skyscrapers in the World

HypoVereinsbank, Munich, Germany
"Designing anything, let alone a massive building, is not a simple task. It requires pragmatic decision-making coupled with bold creativity. As with any form of art, the designer ultimately strives to make something striking and original. Sometimes this effort pays off in the form of a lasting structure—a work that transcends time and place. While other times, well, not so much. Of course, it's not always the architect's fault. In some instances, like Tour Montparnasse in Paris, the designers are a bit unlucky. Had they erected their work in any other location other than the City of Light, maybe it wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. But, alas, architecture, like all creative endeavors, is a cruel venture. As such, AD rounds up the 30 ugliest skyscrapers from around the world, ones that began with high intentions but eventually didn't quite meet the mark. ..."
Architectural Digest

In Which Our Tragic Effects Remain Purely Professional

"In every relationship, romantic or otherwise, one of the two people feels slightly closer to the other, if only by a matter of degrees. So it was with Gustave Flaubert and his hypochrondriac, flaky friend Ivan Turgenev. These two barnacles met when Flaubert was 40 and Turgenev was three years older. From the tenor of their conversations, which Flaubert seemed to treasure above all else, we can deduce that their spirits remained substantially youthful. Flaubert's self-professed love of literature was so all-encompassing it almost crowded out other parts of himself; Turgenev shared his friend's basic interest but saw the underlying reality for what it was. (Turgenev called his friend, 'the only man in existence really devoted to literature.') Turgenev would visit Flaubert at his retreat in Croisset in the summer, or in Paris during the winter season. Many of the hours they passed together consisted of Flaubert reading his novels or plays aloud, a difficult task even for one of his most central admirers. The written correspondence between the two in the 1860s leaves the mortal plane behind; it can be classified as the first bubbles of modernity to enter the universe. ..."
This Recording

2012 August: On Cataloguing Flaubert, 2013 March: Sentimental Education - 1(1869), 2016 December: Three Tales (1877), 2017 August: The Sentimental Education (1869)

Rukmini Callimachi on Audio’s Power to Reveal the Truth of the ‘Caliphate’

Rukmini Callimachi, The Times’s terrorism correspondent, at a church in western Mosul that had been converted into the headquarters of the Islamic State’s morality police.
"Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times. 'Who are they?' This seemingly simple question drives “Caliphate,” The Times’s first documentary audio series, as Rukmini Callimachi, a foreign correspondent, searches for a deeper understanding of the Islamic State. 'Caliphate' debuted in April, with Ms. Callimachi, who has covered Al Qaeda and ISIS for The Times since 2014, serving as its guide, deftly aided by the producer Andy Mills. Their 10-part series centers on the story of 'Abu Huzayfah,' a former ISIS member living in Canada who, like many jihadists, uses a nom de guerre. The podcast complements 'The ISIS Files,' Ms. Callimachi’s investigation into thousands of internal Islamic State documents that her team recovered from Iraq. New chapters of 'Caliphate' are released every Thursday afternoon, and subscribers can listen a week early. ..."
NY Times (Audio)
NY Times: Caliphate (Audio) Apple Podcasts - RadioPublic - Stitcher - Spotify

A soldier of the pesh merga, the Iraqi Kurdish military force, handed over a man suspected of being an Islamic State militant to security officials near Kirkuk, Iraq, in October 2017.
twitter
NY Times: Caliphate - newsletters
2018 April: The ISIS Files

Fleeing Iraqi civilians walked past the Al Nuri Grand Mosque in Mosul, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Iraq, in July 2017.

Latin American Boom

Wikipedia - "The Latin American Boom (Boom Latinoamericano) was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. The Boom is most closely associated with Julio Cortázar of Argentina, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia. Influenced by European and North American Modernism, but also by the Latin American Vanguardia movement, these writers challenged the established conventions of Latin American literature. Their work is experimental and, owing to the political climate of the Latin America of the 1960s, also very political. 'It is no exaggeration,' critic Gerald Martin writes, 'to state that if the Southern continent was known for two things above all others in the 1960s, these were, first and foremost, the Cuban Revolution and its impact both on Latin America and the Third World generally, and secondly, the Boom in Latin American fiction, whose rise and fall coincided with the rise and fall of liberal perceptions of Cuba between 1959 and 1971.' ... In general—and considering there are many countries and hundreds of important authors—at the start of the period, Realism prevails, with novels tinged by an existentialist pessimism, with well-rounded characters lamenting their destinies, and a straightforward narrative line. In the 1960s, language loosens up, gets hip, pop, streetwise, characters are much more complex, and the chronology becomes intricate, making of the reader an active participant in the deciphering of the text. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Magic realism
New Yorker: The Woman Behind Latin America's Literary Boom
Guide to the Latin American Boom
Avon Bard Latin America
Looking Back on 50 Years of Latin American Literary Rock Stars
These are the Latin American authors you should be reading this summer

[From left to right] Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa

Impressionism: Art and Modernity

The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne, Alfred Sisley, 1872
"In 1874, a group of artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. organized an exhibition in Paris that launched the movement called Impressionism. Its founding members included Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro, among others. The group was unified only by its independence from the official annual Salon, for which a jury of artists from the Académie des Beaux-Arts selected artworks and awarded medals. The independent artists, despite their diverse approaches to painting, appeared to contemporaries as a group. While conservative critics panned their work for its unfinished, sketchlike appearance, more progressive writers praised it for its depiction of modern life. Edmond Duranty, for example, in his 1876 essay La Nouvelle Peinture (The New Painting), wrote of their depiction of contemporary subject matter in a suitably innovative style as a revolution in painting. The exhibiting collective avoided choosing a title that would imply a unified movement or school, although some of them subsequently adopted the name by which they would eventually be known, the Impressionists. Their work is recognized today for its modernity, embodied in its rejection of established styles, its incorporation of new technology and ideas, and its depiction of modern life. ..."
Metropolitan Museum of Art

La Grenouillère, Claude Monet, 1869

Pina Bausch & Clairice Lispector

Pina Bausch in "Cafe Müller"
"When realism isn’t real, where is a writer to go? Meaning, the sentence is a construction which feels at least as habitable as the bus which carries a poet to an unfamiliar town, and the couch upon which the poet sleeps later that night. When realism isn’t enough, isn’t authenticated or represents a fractional or purely outward series of events, poets turn to the body of the sentence upon which to recline, repose, deconstruct and reject any sort of frame which insists upon the 'real' being limited to finite perceptions. A sentence may break, with the force of bodily gesture, something more fluid. When I think of the poet’s novel I think of an oblique truthfulness. The choreography of Pina Bausch comes to mind, as an example of art which echoes the interior and bodily aspects of the real. What is the difference between realism and the real? I’d like to preface these remarks by saying that this commentary is in no way a critique of realism, but instead a depiction of a category of the real which attempts something entirely different then say, a realistic novel evoking a specific time and place. In the work of Pina Bausch we are called to question: how does the real manifest in the body? How does the real impel a body to move? How do we represent the unsayable? Take the following quiz to find out some of your own preconceptions and expectations about modern dance. ..."
Jacket2
W - Cafe Müller (1978)
YouTube: Café Muller 3:06
YouTube: Café Muller 49:18

Mo Salah, Breaking Down Cultural Barriers, One Goal at a Time

"LIVERPOOL, England — Mohamed Salah’s routine is familiar now. As Anfield, the atmospheric home of Liverpool F.C., erupts joyously around him, celebrating yet another of the Egyptian’s goals, he runs to the fans closest to him, arms outstretched. He stands stock still, soaking in the adulation. Once his teammates have congratulated him, he walks slowly back to the center circle. 'Then there is this pause,' said Neil Atkinson, host of The Anfield Wrap, a Liverpool fans’ podcast, and a regular at the stadium. Mr. Salah raises his hands to the sky and then kneels on the field, prostrating himself in a deeply personal demonstration of his Muslim faith. 'The crowd goes a little quieter, allows him that moment of reflection,' Mr. Atkinson said. There is another roar as he stands up, 'and then everyone celebrates again.' ... His faith — and his public displays of it — have also made him a figure of considerable social and cultural significance. At a time when Britain is fighting rising Islamophobia, when government policy has been to create a 'hostile environment' for illegal immigrants, he is a North African and a Muslim who is not just accepted in Britain, but adored. ..."
NY Times (Video)

Bay Ridge Offers Small-Town Spirit Beneath a Soaring Bridge

Since 1964, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge has been the defining feature of the Bay Ridge skyline.
"Once upon a time in the nineteenth century, what we now know as Bay Ridge was something of a resort area. In its pre-Brooklyn days, the village, then known as Yellow Hook (before the yellow fever epidemic wrecked that color’s brand), attracted wealthy industrialists seeking a respite from New York life. You can’t blame them: Even today, there’s something peaceful about Brooklyn’s southwesternmost corner. After you emerge from whatever fresh hell the notoriously unreliable R train just put you through, you’ll notice that the air off the river is fresh. The buildings are low. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, stretching out to Staten Island, soars above the horizon. Today, Bay Ridge is a neighborhood of immigrants. The first to arrive around the turn of the twentieth century were Scandinavians, whose influence can be seen at Leif Ericson Park or during the annual Norwegian Day Parade. After the arrival of the subway in 1916, Italians and Irish families populated the area, followed, in the mid-twentieth century, by Lebanese, Syrian, and Greek immigrants. These days, the neighborhood is also home to Latino and Chinese communities and is renowned as the heart of Arab New York, boasting the largest population of Arabic speakers in the city. Lately, more families have started migrating from elsewhere in Brooklyn, as well. ..."
Voice
W - Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

Balady Halal Foods offers shelves stacked high with dates, olive oil, and other Middle Eastern foodstuffs.

Thelonious Monk - Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 (2017)

"Any occasion for unreleased Thelonious Monk recordings is one for celebration. The discovery of his excellent soundtrack sessions for Roger Vadim's film Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960, an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 18th century novel, happened by accident. Producers Zev Feldman, François Le Xuan, and Frederic Thomas found these tapes while searching French saxophonist Barney Wilen's manager's archives in search of unreleased material. What they found were the original soundtrack and full sessions cut in New York during a single day in 1959 -- the same fertile year that yielded the Monk's At Town Hall; 5 by Monk by 5, and Thelonious Alone in San Francisco. Like these recordings, this soundtrack showcases Monk at the very top of his game. For various reasons including health issues and legal troubles, Monk had no time to travel or compose original music for the film. For this session he brought along tunes from his repertoire -- as was his wont throughout his career -- and reinvented them for the film with his working quartet of saxophonist Charlie Rouse, drummer Art Taylor, and bassist Sam Jones, with the addition of Wilen (who should be far better known to American jazz fans). The album is one of the only occasions in the pianist's discography where he employed two tenor players: the other was Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk, with Harold Land alongside Rouse. ... This handsome package contains a plethora of liner essays including one by Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. There are loads of photos in black-and white and color; all are intimate, and as revelatory as the music. This was made available during the centennial anniversary of Monk's birth; and given its quality, it makes for one of the most important jazz discoveries in recent years."
allmusic
Discogs
A Lost Soundtrack Uncovered At Last: Thelonious Monk | Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 (Video)
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: Rhythm-a-Ning [Alternate], Crepuscule with Nellie, Six in One, Well, You Needn’t

2012 September: Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, 2013 August: Five Spot Café, 2014 February: Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, 2015 February: "Epistrophy" - Thelonious Monk / Kenny Clarke (1941), 2016 November: Underground (1968), 2017 May: The Thelonious Monk Quartet: The Complete Columbia Studio Albums Collection (2012)

Mueller Has Dozens of Inquiries for Trump in Broad Quest on Russia Ties and Obstruction

"WASHINGTON — Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s election interference, has at least four dozen questions on an exhaustive array of subjects he wants to ask President Trump to learn more about his ties to Russia and determine whether he obstructed the inquiry itself, according to a list of the questions obtained by The New York Times. The open-ended queries appear to be an attempt to penetrate the president’s thinking, to get at the motivation behind some of his most combative Twitter posts and to examine his relationships with his family and his closest advisers. They deal chiefly with the president’s high-profile firings of the F.B.I. director and his first national security adviser, his treatment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. But they also touch on the president’s businesses; any discussions with his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, about a Moscow real estate deal; whether the president knew of any attempt by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to set up a back channel to Russia during the transition; any contacts he had with Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser who claimed to have inside information about Democratic email hackings; and what happened during Mr. Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. ..."
NY Times
NY Times: The Questions Mueller Wants to Ask Trump About Obstruction, and What They Mean
NY Times: Opinion | What Robert Mueller Knows****

Doc Martens Boots Adorned with Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights”

"As in cuisine, where peasant food can become trendy and expensive overnight, so it is in fashion: how else to explain the way a humble working-class boot went from the factory floor to stylistic statement. The original 1960’s Dr. Martens boot, the one with the cushioned sole, fancy tread, and yellow stitching, was designed to be affordable. That’s why the punks loved it, that’s why the ska/Two Tone guys and gals loved it, and that’s why rich rockers like Pete Townshend showed his solidarity by wearing them along with his boiler suit. But that was then, and this is...the Tate Gallery of London’s specially commissioned series of arty Docs. The '1460' boot above shows details from Hieronymus Bosch’s 'Garden of Earthly Delights' (the hellish third panel), which you have to admit is pretty cool. For the lover not the fighter among us, you can also go for the more debauched second panel from 'Garden' printed on a '1461' style shoe. ..."
Open Culture

Capitalism and the Family

Victor Berger, Bertha Hale White, and Eugene V. Debs in 1924.
"Issues of gender and sexuality are dominating the American public in a way that has few precedents in the recent past. From the alarmingly open misogyny of the president to the cascading revelations of sexual attacks in the workplace on one side, to the energy behind the historic women’s marches on the other, gender relations have risen to the top of the political debate. In a wide-ranging conversation, historian Stephanie Coontz places the current juncture in historical perspective, and offers her thoughts on how gender relations have been affected by the recent stagnation in working-class incomes and skyrocketing inequality. She closes with an eloquent plea to integrate gender politics into a broader progressive political vision. ..."
Catalyst: Capitalism and the Family
Socialism: An American Story (Video)
The Nib - Socialism: As American As Apple Pie
Red State: Does Socialism Have a Future in Texas?
When Socialism was Popular in the United States
Jacobin: Beyond Social Movement Unionism
Jacobin: Socialism and Black Oppression
The Nation: America Has a Long and Storied Socialist Tradition. DSA Is Reviving It.
The Nation: The Next Generation of Democratic Socialists Has Started Winning Local Elections

DSA members at the Women’s March in New York City on January 21, 2017. 

2016 April: Bernie Sanders and the History of American Socialism, 2014 September: Anarchism in America (1983), 2015 August: The Prophet Farmed: Murray Bookchin on Bernie Sanders,  2017 January: Reason, creativity and freedom: the communalist model - Eleanor Finley, 2017 February: Socialism’s Return, 2017 July: Don’t March, Organize for Power, 2017 December: Vermont Progressive Party, 2017 December: The 2017 Progressive Honor Roll, 2018 February: Catalyst, 2018 April: Are You Progressive?

Detroit Was Crumbling. Here’s How It’s Reviving.

"Last week, we visited the city to find further signs of recovery as Detroit moves out from under budgetary oversight. ... In Brush Park, construction equipment whirs non-stop. Old Victorians glisten with new interiors. 'What brought me back?' said John Davis, a Detroiter who moved away, then returned. 'Economic indicators.' ... Some houses sit on blocks alone, reminders of an essential struggle: A city built for 1.8 million residents now has fewer than 700,000. The dilapidated houses left behind have been torn down by the thousands. ... For a while, Detroit couldn’t pay for services most take for granted. With a cheerier budget picture, the city has resumed cleaning out storm drains and sending street sweepers down neighborhood streets, where years of grime had accumulated. ..."
NY Times

JOIN, or DIE

Wikipedia - "JOIN, or DIE. is a political cartoon, attributed to Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. The original publication by the Gazette is the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by a British colonist in America. It is a woodcut showing a snake cut into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of one of the American colonies or regions. New England was represented as one segment, rather than the four colonies it was at that time. Delaware was not listed separately as it was part of Pennsylvania. Georgia, however, was omitted completely. Thus, it has eight segments of a snake rather than the traditional 13 colonies. The two northernmost British American colonies at the time, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, were not represented, nor were any British Caribbean possessions. The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the 'disunited state' of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. It became a symbol of colonial freedom during the American Revolutionary War. ..."
Wikipedia

The 54 Galleries to See Right Now in New York

Annette Kelm, Proposal for Knots (2018)
"Is the New York art gallery scene thriving or dying? It may be doing both, depending on where you look. Blue-chip galleries are expanding, and a surprising number of international galleries are opening here, too, mostly on the Upper East Side. (Not to mention the prosperous art fairs arriving next week, including Frieze New York, TEFAF and the 1-54 International Contemporary African Art Fair. And they’ll be followed by the big May auctions.) But many midsize and small galleries are in survival mode, facing rising rents. There have been regrettable closings; this week, for example, that of Real Fine Arts, a pioneering Brooklyn space. Yet other midsize and small galleries persist. And good thing, too: They’re crucial as discoverers of new talent. Art fairs and auctions notwithstanding, they also help develop new collectors, those with independent taste and a sense of risk-taking. Even for occasional visitors, these intimate arenas can open new worlds. It can seem like the city is breaking out in galleries. There is now a Chinatown gallery district and one in East Chelsea/NoMad may be in the offing. My fellow critics and I have fanned out to take the pulse of the scene, producing one of the best, most evenly distributed gallery roundups in quite a while. — ROBERTA SMITH"
NY Times

Interstate Projects is showing “The Celibate Machine,” an exhibition by Cindy Ji Hye Kim. It includes, from left, “Parable of the Blind,” after Bruegel, and “As a Dog Returns to Its Vomit, a Man Repeats His Sins.” - NY Times: 12 Galleries to Visit Now in Brooklyn and Queens

Bill Frisell - Music IS (2018)

"The tradition of solo jazz guitar recordings is a long one, with guitarists like Johnny Smith, Al Viola, George Van Eps, Lenny Breau and Joe Pass demonstrating just how far a mere six (in some cases, seven) strings could be taken on their own as far back as the 1950s. Subsequent guitar soloists like John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner went even further by, at times, taking advantage of the recording studio's facility to overdub layers of guitar to create even broader expanses. But it's been during the past two decades or so that guitarists like Eivind Aarset and Stian Westerhus have explored extensive use of looping and other technological innovations, truly developing the orchestral potential of their instrument. ... If ever there was an album title to reflect the infinite potential of an art form that has occupied most of [Bill] Frisell's life, it's Music IS. ..."
All About Jazz
Release: Bill Frisell "Music IS"
amazon
YouTube: Rambler (Alternate Version) (Live)
YouTube: Music IS @Full Album 2018 11 videos

From Lone Mountain - John Porcellino (2018)

"John Porcellino makes his love of home and of nature the anchors in an increasingly turbulent world. He slows down and visits the forests, fields, streams, and overgrown abandoned lots that surround every city. He studies the flora and fauna around us. He looks at the overlooked. Porcellino also digs deep into a quintessential American endeavour—the road trip. Uprooting his comfortable life several times in From Lone Mountain, John drives through the country weaving from small town to small town, experiencing America in slow motion, avoiding the sameness of airports and overwhelming hustle of major cities. From Lone Mountain collects stories from Porcellino’s influential zine King-Cat—John enters a new phase of his life, as he remarries and decides to leave his beloved second home Colorado for San Francisco. Grand themes of King-Cat are visited and stated more eloquently than ever before: serendipity, memory, and the quest for meaning in the everyday. Over the past three decades, Porcellino's beloved King-Cat thas offered solace to his readers: his gentle observational stories take the pulse of everyday life and reveal beauty in the struggle to keep going. ..."
Drawn & Quarterly
A From Lone Mountain exclusive showcases a master minimalist’s skill
amazon

A Cinematic Journey Through Paris, As Seen Through the Lens of Legendary Filmmaker Éric Rohmer: Watch Rohmer in Paris

"Site of so many historic screenings, cradle of so many innovative auteurs, setting of so many memorable scenes: does any city have a more central place in the cinephile's consciousness than Paris? Filmmaker-professor Richard Misek calls it 'the city where cinephilia itself began.' It certainly has a place in his own cinephilic journey, beginning with a chance encounter, 24 years ago in the district of Montmartre, with one of the luminaries of French New Wave film: Éric Rohmer, who was then in the middle of shooting his picture Rendezvous in Paris. ... He tells this story early in Rohmer in Paris, his hour-long video essay on all the ways the auteur used the city in the course of his prolific, more than fifty-year-long filmmaking career. Misek describes Rohmer's characters, 'always glancing at each other: on trains, on streets, in parks, in the two-way shop windows of cafes where they can see and be seen,' as flâneurs, those observant strollers through the city whose type has its origins in the Paris of the 19th century. ..."
Open Culture (Video)
W - Éric Rohmer
W - Éric Rohmer filmography
vimeo: Rohmer in Paris

My Night at Maud's (1969)

The History of 135 Hudson

"In 1882, few of the once-grand houses that had graced the former St. John’s Park neighborhood still stood. The elegant park had been replaced in the 1860s by the Hudson River Railroad Company’s freight terminal. Wealthy homeowners abandoned their Federal-style brick mansions, which in turn were rapidly converted for business or razed for hulking warehouse buildings. No. 135 Hudson Street was an exception. ... Basically Romanesque Revival, the severe composition smacked of a medieval fortress—or prison. Gaping arches—one on the narrow Hudson Street façade and seven along Beach Street—were separated by rounded brick piers. The architects used the rounded shape not so much to add visual interest; but to eliminate the sharp corners which would be easily broken off by the in-and-out traffic of freight wagons. Iron tie rods, which elsewhere in the city added ornament by being cast as stars, starfish, or curlicues, here had the straightforward appearance of giant screw heads. These, like the iron anchor plates which were purposely left exposed, stressed the structural integrity of the building. ..."
Tribeca Citizen

2017 July: Seeking New York: The Stories Behind the Historic Architecture of Manhattan, 2017 October: The History of 452 Greenwich Street, 2018 February: The History of 121 Chambers

Women Intellectuals and the Art of the Withering Quip

"... The literary critic Michelle Dean’s new book of the same name, a cultural-history-cum-group-biography, examines the lives and careers of ten sharp women, among them Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Dorothy Parker, Renata Adler, Hannah Arendt, and Zora Neale Hurston. What unites this disparate group, Dean claims, is the ability 'to write unforgettably.' If this casts something of a wide net, it does so out of necessity: the collected body of work this constellation of women produced—a mixture of fiction, book and movie reviews, essays, cultural criticism, and journalism—comprises a map of twentieth-century thought. ..."
The Paris Review

No Hope, No Fear: Industrial Music in Zagreb

"It was at a secondhand shop for electronics in the former Yugoslavia where, in 1982, Vladislav Knezević found a cassette by chance. It was a bootleg copy of Für Immer, by Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. The insert had the tracklisting in both English and German, its letters uneven and patchy from the inconsistent typewriter ribbon. DAF – an electronic band with a minimalistic sound that focused on fast-paced basslines and simplistic German vocals – had somehow found their way to Zagreb, hidden among the throwaways of the shop. At the time, Knezević had no clue what an impact DAF and their style of music would have on the future of his city. But much later on, after he became an electronic musician himself, he would look back on the appearance of the cassette as nothing less than destiny. Two years earlier, the first Yugoslavian president, Josip Broz Tito, died. The country, then one-sixth of Yugoslavia, was left without stability after 27 years. There was a feeling of uncertainty that initiated an unfamiliar sense of freedom amongst the people, especially the youth. At the cusp of a new decade, Tito’s passing would prove pivotal to the history of Zagreb, and all of Croatia. While Croatia was a socialist republic before the president’s death, the 1980s promised change. ..."
Red Bull Music

Flyer for a Borghesia show at Club Đuro Đakovic in Zagreb – June 16th, 1988

Women Artists in Paris 1850-1900

"In the second half of the 19th century, Paris attracted an international gathering of women artists, drawn to the French capital by its academies and museums, studios and salons. Featuring thirty-six artists from eleven different countries, this beautifully illustrated book explores the strength of these women’s creative achievements, through paintings by acclaimed Impressionists such as Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, and extraordinary lesser-known artists such as Marie Bashkirtseff, Anna Bilinska-Bohdanowicz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and Hanna Pauli. It examines their work against the sociopolitical background of the period, when women were mostly barred from formal artistic education but cleverly navigated the city’s network of ateliers, salons, and galleries. Essays consider the powerfully influential work of women Impressionists, representations of the female artist in portraiture, the unique experiences of Nordic women artists, and the significant presence of women artists throughout the history of the Paris Salon. By addressing the long-undervalued contributions of women to the art of the later 19th century, Women Artists in Paris pays tribute to pioneers who not only created remarkable paintings but also generated momentum toward a more egalitarian art world."
Yale
artsy

Marie Bashkirtseff (Ukrainian, 1858-1884), In the Studio, 1881

People Have the Power - Patti Smith (1988)

"'People Have the Power' is a rock song written by Patti Smith and Fred 'Sonic' Smith, and released as a lead single from Patti Smith 1988 album Dream of Life. The cover photograph is by Robert Mapplethorpe. The music video is filmed mostly in black-and-white and features Patti Smith singing, writing and walking. The song was ranked number 22 on NME magazine's list of the 'Singles of the Year'. For most of U2's Innocence + Experience Tour, the group has used 'People Have the Power' as its entrance music. Smith herself joined them to close their show with the song at London's O2 Arena on October 29, 2015, as well as the December 6, 2015 show at Accorhotels Arena in Paris. ..."
Wikipedia
YouTube: People Have the Power