The Essentials of Socialist Writing

"Left-wing writing is often caricatured one of two ways: as impenetrable jargon, weighted with Marxist lingo no-one has the time to look up, or as oversimplified propaganda. Of course one’s politics never precludes one from being an incomprehensible, lazy, or just plain bad writer. But the Left’s history is full of authors who took to the pen because they had an important message to convey, and who worked hard to make sure that message was understood as broadly and deeply as possible. Moreover, it is rarely discussed how the goals of a socialist writer, and the methods required to reach such goals, differ from the capitalist or apolitical writer. To find out, Mark Nowak for Jacobin spoke to author and LeftWord Books chief editor Vijay Prashad about the role of writing in socialist politics. ..."
Jacobin

Kamal Keila’s “Muslims and Christians” Offers a Rare Glimpse Into 1990s Sudanese Jazz

"Had Jannis Stuertz listened to the moldy reels of audiotape just once before digitizing them, the recorded music of Kamal Keila—who is often referred to as Sudan’s James Brown, and one of the godfathers of a nearly forgotten strain of Sudanese jazz—might have been lost forever. Though Stuertz didn’t know it when he first laid eyes on them, the tape reels contained Kamal Keila’s Muslims and Christians, one of the only recorded Sudanese jazz albums in existence. Built on the synthesis of early American rock ‘n’ roll and traditional Sudanese rhythms, instrumentation, and arrangements, Sudanese jazz is an entirely unique and unequivocally African musical innovation. Despite its name, the genre bears little sonic resemblance to what we typically call 'jazz' in the West. Rather, the music that poured out of clubs in Omdurman and Khartoum throughout the ‘60s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s, was closer to what it might sound like if Fela Kuti covered a Bill Haley song for the soundtrack of a Quentin Tarantino film. Timely blasts of horns are reminiscent of funk; guitar strings bent to their breaking point evoke the blues; familiar and foreign rhythms blur into a versatile groove that’s sometimes reggae, sometimes rock, and always addictive, drenched in the joie de vivre of earnest originality. ..."
Bandcamp (Audio)
Soundcloud: Kamal Keila - Taban Ahwak (Release coming soon), Muslims And Christians
Habibi Funk 008: Muslims and Christians (Audio)

Resistance, Rebellion, and Death - Albert Camus (1960)

Wikipedia - "Resistance, Rebellion, and Death is a 1960 collection of essays written by Albert Camus and selected by the author prior to his death. The essays here generally involve conflicts near the Mediterranean, with an emphasis on his home country Algeria, and on the Algerian War of Independence in particular. He also criticizes capital punishment ('Reflections on the Guillotine') and totalitarianism in particular. Camus proclaims the call to justice and the struggle for freedom also declaimed in the Old Testament, particularly the minor prophets. But he does so in a modern context, where God is silent and man is the master of his own destiny. Although he sees no messianic age, he proclaims the hope that by continuous effort, evil can be diminished and freedom and justice may become more prevalent. ..."
Wikipedia
Commentary Magazine: Lionel Abel (Feb. 1, 1961)
amazon

2011 October: Albert Camus on Nihilism, 2014 November: Albert Camus: Soccer Goalie, 2015 May: LISTEN: New Cave And Ellis Soundtrack, 2016 April: Anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche, 2016 April: Algerian Chronicles (2013), 2017 November: The Stranger (1942)

Renowned Photographer/Artist JR at Galerie Perrotin in NYC

"I first came upon JR‘s ingenious aesthetic ten years ago when I discovered a series of his portraits of Israelis and Palestinians pasted face to face along the Separation Wall in Abu Dis, Jerusalem. Celebrating the similarities between Israelis and Palestinians, the Face 2 Face Project heightened the absurdity of this seemingly endless conflict among cousins — and has stayed with me since. Within this past decade, JR has continued to bring his wondrous talents and socially-conscious vision to dozens of sites across the globe, often giving a voice to those whose voices are silenced. This past week, Galerie Perrotin NYC launched Horizontal featuring an eclectic selection of JR‘s works. ..."
Street Art NYC

2018 March: Faces Places - Agnès Varda and JR (2017)

Red Moon Meets Red Planet in Longest Total Lunar Eclipse of the Century

During a lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow envelops the Moon, as shown in this sequence taken through a small telescope on September 27, 2015.
"104 minutes. That's the length of the longest lunar totality of the 21st century. And it happens Friday, July 27th, when the Moon creeps into Earth's umbra like some thief in the night. If my dad were still alive, he'd probably watch for 10 minutes and be done with it. 'Enough's enough,' he'd say. But for his son and fellow skywatchers, staring down the length of Earth's shadow is never a waste of time. 2018 began with a total lunar eclipse on January 31st nicely split between Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Friday's eclipse is primarily an Eastern Hemisphere affair, visible from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and parts of South America. Unlike a total solar eclipse, a total lunar is visible across half the planet wherever the Moon is up in the sky. Just wish my half of the planet was included! ..."
Sky and Telescope

What is the Morally Appropriate Language in Which to Think and Write? - Arundhati Roy

"At a book reading in Kolkata, about a week after my first novel, The God of Small Things, was published, a member of the audience stood up and asked, in a tone that was distinctly hostile: 'Has any writer ever written a masterpiece in an alien language? In a language other than his mother tongue?' I hadn’t claimed to have written a masterpiece (nor to be a 'he'), but nevertheless I understood his anger toward a me, a writer who lived in India, wrote in English, and who had attracted an absurd amount of attention. My answer to his question made him even angrier. 'Nabokov,' I said. And he stormed out of the hall. The correct answer to that question today would of course be 'algorithms.' Artificial Intelligence, we are told, can write masterpieces in any language and translate them into masterpieces in other languages. As the era that we know, and think we vaguely understand, comes to a close, perhaps we, even the most privileged among us, are just a group of redundant humans gathered here with an arcane interest in language generated by fellow redundants. ..."
LitHub

2008 May: Arundhati Roy, 2010 April: "Walking With The Comrades", 2015 November: Politics by Other Means

Stream Online the Complete “Lost” John Coltrane Album, Both Directions at Once

"Expectations ran high when it was announced last month that a lost (!) John Coltrane album, Both Directions at Once, had been discovered by the family of his ex-wife Naima, and would finally be released for fans to hear. Would it prove worthy of Sonny Rollin’s comparison to 'finding a new room in the Great Pyramid'? Such discoveries can lead to dead ends and disappointments as often as to revelations. In this case, the album yields neither, which is not to say it isn’t, as Chris Morris writes at Variety, 'a godsend.' The album lives up to its title, chosen by Coltrane’s son Ravi, as a transitional document, stunning, but not particularly surprising. Hear all 7 cuts on the single-disc version of the release on this page, with typically excellent playing by Coltrane’s classic quartet (bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones, and pianist McCoy Tyner) and an early take on 'one of the warhorses of the Coltrane catalog'—'Impressions'—including three additional takes on the Deluxe Version, which you can stream on Spotify here or purchase here. ..."
Open Culture (Video)
W - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album
YouTube: Both Directions At Once The Lost Album | 1st Impressions - The Vinyl Geek
amazon

2015 March: Attica Blues (1972), 2016 June: Archie Shepp - The Magic of Ju-Ju (1967), 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, 2017 October: Live at the Village Vanguard (1962), 2017 December: Interview: Archie Shepp on John Coltrane, the Blues and More, 2018 March: Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago (1959), 2018 June: Lost John Coltrane Recording From 1963 Will Be Released at Last

MADONJAZZ #145: African & Middle Eastern Spiritual Sounds

"MADONJAZZ #145: African & Middle Eastern Spiritual Sounds. A 1hr set from Mark Gallagher, a spiritual journey of African field recordings, Middle Eastern gems and Afro-jazz rarities."
MADONJAZZ (Audio)
Mixcloud (Audio)

The Legend of Johnny Twist

"I don’t often take Cottage Grove Avenue on the way home, but traffic forced my hand one warmish Saturday afternoon, and I found myself stopped at a light along a stretch near 65th Street in Woodlawn when the sound of a Muddy Waters tune drifted through my half-open window from somewhere vaguely to my left. I turned my head and saw a vision: a kaleidoscope of red and black and green and gold on a small brick storefront. Inspecting the façade more closely, I realized it was a checkerboard of slogans ('Black Love Is Power,' 'Up with Divine Blackness,' 'Down with Self-Black Hate') and hand-painted pictures (a musical note, a peach-colored saxophone, and, apropos of nothing, a small table on which were perched a pair of peep-toe heels, a pair of polished black oxfords, and a single spectator shoe with a bow of Day-Glo green lace). ..."
Chicago
South Side Weekly
Discogs
YouTube: Elusive Chicago bluesman Johnny Twist, Why I Play The Blues, Go Go Baby, "Bo" Dud & Johnny Twist Sure Is Fun, Bo Dud & Johnny Twist - The Get It

The Sheltering Sound

Paul Bowles in 1987, near his home in Tangier, Morocco.
"In a 1975 interview, the poet Daniel Halpern asked the author and composer Paul Bowles why he’d spent such a significant chunk of his life scrambling about the globe. I imagine Bowles’s speaking voice here as matter-of-fact, exegetic: 'I’ve always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born,' he answered (that place was Flushing, Queens, in 1910; he was the only child of a rancorous, unloving father and a meek, bookish mother). 'Far both geographically and spiritually. To leave it behind. One belongs to the whole world, not just one part of it.' What was Bowles darting around after for all those years? Travel invariably expands a person’s parameters, like air huffed into a balloon: there is an intellectual broadening, a widening of the precincts. But there’s a metaphysical utility to that kind of movement, too. Who among us has not left home expressly to find home, casting about for a place that feels like the right place, that isn’t necessarily the ancestral plot but, instead, is where a person feels whole, awake to something, realized? ..."
New Yorker

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), 2016 December: Paul Bowles & the Music of Morocco, 2017 July: Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles

Italian food stores have New York’s best signs

"Most of them are in the city’s faded Little Italy neighborhoods—white, green, and red store signs with 1970s-style letters spelling out an Italian surname and the choice delicacies they sell. Mozzarella, ricotta, tortellini, gnocchi: Whatever the vintage sign says, you know you’re in good hands. So many of these old-school Italian food stores have closed up shop, it’s good to celebrate the ones that remain. Like Piemonte Ravioli on Grand Street. Established in 1920. Reading the 'Made Here Daily' sign in the window makes my mouth water. Same with Russo’s, making mozzarella and fresh pasta since 1908 on East 11th Street—once the center of a mostly defunct Little Italy in today’s East Village. Italian cakes and pastries are baked on the premises at Caffe Roma on Mulberry Street, going strong since 1891. I like this painted ad better than their actual store sign. ..."
Ephemeral New York

Colette: On the Streets and in the Clubs, 1972 – 1985

Colette
"From the very start of her career in the 1970s, Colette was a much-noted presence in the New York art world. It was a time of radical change brought on by the advent of pop art, and a new generation felt free to break the rules that traditionally separated fine art and popular culture. Colette worked without inhibition. Acting out an inner-world of fantasies she began making photographic self-portraits, creating soft fabric environments in which she was often a crucial living presence, and exhibiting self-referential hybrid works that combined sculpture, painting, and photography. By the mid-1980s she was famous here and in Europe for performances in which she slept in store windows and art spaces, street paintings for which she was once arrested, and forays into fashion and music that worked equally well in boutiques, nightclubs and museums. ..."
Gallery98

Kondi Band - The Freetown Tapes 2006-2016

"In 2006, blind Kondi (thumb piano) player Sorie Kondi was surviving by busking on the streets of Freetown, Sierra Leone, abandoned by relatives who had fled the rebel takeover of the city in the late ‘90s. His sound was marked by his electrified Kondi, run through a small distorted amplifier that he carried on his back. Since then, he has recorded and finished five albums, culminating in ‘Without Money No Family’, which caught the ear of US producer / DJ Chief Boima (also of Sierra Leonean descent) after chancing upon a YouTube link. The two joined forces as Kondi Band, combining Sorie's traditionalist performances with Boima's globally-informed electronic production. The duo released an EP this year on Strut, recently performed acclaimed sets to thousands at Transmusicales and Womex, and have received accolades from tastemakers including Gilles Peterson. With a Kondi Band album coming in 2017, Boima has created a free mix to showcase Kondi's incredible history. As well as collecting songs from across Sorie Kondi’s recorded music career, this mix also includes one original and two remixes of songs from ‘Salone’, the forthcoming debut album. ..."
Kondi Band (Audio)
INTLBLK (Video)
Salone by The Kondi Band (Audio)
Kondi Band release debut album ‘Salone’ (Audio)

There Is a Revolution on the Left. Democrats Are Bracing.

Abdul El-Sayed, a liberal candidate for governor of Michigan, worked the crowd at a barbecue in Milford. He is part of a wave of young politicians redefining the left in the Democratic Party.
"DETROIT — For Rachel Conner, the 2018 election season has been a moment of revelation. A 27-year-old social worker, Ms. Conner voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries, spurning the more liberal Bernie Sanders, whom many of her peers backed. But Ms. Conner changed course in this year’s campaign for governor, after concluding that Democrats could only win with more daring messages on issues like public health and immigration. And so on a recent Wednesday, she enlisted two other young women to volunteer for Abdul El-Sayed, a 33-year-old advocate of single-payer health care running an uphill race in Michigan to become the country’s first Muslim governor. ... Voters like Ms. Conner may not represent a controlling faction in the Democratic Party, at least not yet. But they are increasingly rattling primary elections around the country, and they promise to grow as a disruptive force in national elections as younger voters reject the traditional boundary lines of Democratic politics. ..."
NY Times
New Republic: The 2018 Midterms Are All About Health Care

#1 - Le Mellotron: Mehmet Aslan • DJ Set

"Now approaching its eighth year, Le Mellotron in Paris has firmly staked its place in the city’s alternative music scene. Recorded at a modest and trendy bar in the heart of Paris, the radio station offers a refreshing taste of what some of the city’s finest DJs and artists are all about. We reached out to learn more about the station’s alluring philosophy and what lays behind the steady rise of Le Mellotron." [00:00] Selda Bağcan - Acıyı Bal Eyledik; [04:32] Barış Manço - Kara Haber; [07:30] Barış Manço - Eğri Eğri (De Los Miedos Edit); [12:46] Osman İşmen Orkestrası - Disco Madımak (Barris K Edit); [17:53] Salma Agha - Come Closer; [23:09] Nur Yoldaş - Nagehan Bustane Faslı (Kaan Düzarat Edit); [27:20] Arşivplak - Volga Nehri; [31:19] Hakkı Bulut - Ben Köylüyüm; [34:15] Steaua De Mare - ?; [39:25] Mazhar Ve Fuat - Nerde Hani (Mehmet Aslan Edit); [48:03] Steaua De Mare - Doamne Ce Greșeală Am (Mehmet Aslan Remix); [55:33] Moğollar - FAIRY TALES / Peri Bacaları; [58:04] RÜYA ÇAĞLA-ODANA SERDİM HALİ"
YouTube: Mehmet Aslan • DJ Set
MixCloud: Mehmet Aslan • DJ Set
French club Badaboum is going to hide DJs behind a curtain (Video/Audio)

Death of a Cyclist - Juan Antonio Bardem (1955)

Wikipedia - "Death of a Cyclist (Spanish: Muerte de un ciclista) is a 1955 social realist Spanish drama film directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and starring Italian actress Lucia Bosè, who was dubbed into Spanish by Elsa Fábregas. It won the FIPRESCI Award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. While returning to Madrid after an illicit tryst, a wealthy socialite housewife and a university professor accidentally strike a bicyclist with their car. Although they see that he is still alive after the accident, they know they cannot summon help for him without their affair being revealed. They drive away and leave him to die. After the bicyclist's death is reported in the newspaper, the pair deal with ever-rising tension, borne from their fear that their deeds will be exposed. ..."
Wikipedia
Culture Court
senses of cinema
amazon
YouTube: Death of a Cyclist - Trailer

Le Grand Canal - Claude Monet (1908)

Wikipedia - "Le Grand Canal is an oil on canvas painting by French Impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840–1926). This painting is part of a series of paintings Monet undertook during 1908. This painting series en plein air, is a classic view of the Grand Canal, an attempt to capture the ever-changing face of Venice, as seen from the Palazzo Barbaro, where he stayed during his trip, was painted during a period that is generally regarded by art historians as the peak of his career. It is one of the paintings from this series of Venetian waterscapes by Claude Monet. ... While there Monet completed a series of artwork on the Canale Grande painting the same motif at different times of the day. Monet had the habit of studying the same subject in a varying light, at different times of the day, which resulted during his active career in many distinct Monet series, like for example the Water Lilies series, Poplar series, Rouen Cathedral series, Haystacks series and Charing Cross Bridge series. ..."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Monet’s ‘Le Grand Canal’ | Sotheby's

Who Are You, Jack Whitten? By Jack Whitten

Mr. Whitten in his studio in TriBeCa in 1983.
"... My first studio in New York was a storefront at 369 East 10th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. Stanley’s Bar was on the corner of Avenue B at 12th Street. The Lower East Side in 1960 was a thriving young art community and Stanley’s Bar was our favorite meeting place. Every night of the week I could speak with Ishmael Reed, Calvin C. Hernton, David Henderson, and other members of the Umbra Group of Poets and Writers. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg often frequented the bar on off hours. Stanley, the Polish owner, knew Charlie Parker who was also a visitor in the early fifties. I loved to hear Stanley’s stories about Charlie Parker spending hours playing the jukebox and playing Polish polkas! Stanley, like Mike Fanelli who I would meet later in the sixties when I moved to the Lower West Side, was a friend of the artist. You could always get a hot meal on credit, cash a check without having a routine identification card; this was important because who had a bank account? The first time I ever showed a painting in public was at Stanley’s…a small group of collage paintings from 1963. ..."
The Paris Review
W - Jack Whitten
NY Times: Jack Whitten, Artist of Wide-Ranging Curiosity, Dies at 78
art21: An Artist's Life - Jack Whitten (Video)
artnet
YouTube: Jack Whitten on Mapping the Soul

Éliane Radigue: The Mysterious Power Of The Infinitesimal

"Éliane Radigue receives me in the soothing half-light of her apartment located in the middle of a little street in the 14th arrondissement. It’s not a very good day, she informs me at first, as her back is hurting and she nearly canceled our appointment. To show my gratitude, I slip a copy of Ardor into her hands, a book by Roberto Calasso dedicated to the Vedas, the sacred word of the Brahmins. The radiant octogenarian flips through the book with interest, her luminous gaze a near translucent blue. The charm has worked and a rapport is quickly established between us. We get off to a flying start for a four-hour conversation, over the course of which her memories become haphazardly entangled as she blithely skips from one anecdote to the next. ..."
Red Bull Music Academy Daily (Video)

ARP 2500

2014 February: Women And Their Machines: A Think-piece About Female Pioneerism in Electronic Music, 2018 May: Trilogie de la Mort (1988-1993)

Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven

JEH MacDonald, The Little Falls Sketch, 1918
"One would think The Group of Seven needs no introduction. Their iconic works are known to millions of Canadians, yet few are familiar with the lives of the artists themselves. Why did they choose locations in the remote, rugged wilderness of northern Ontario? Does anyone know precisely where they went? Past meets present in a film that is evocative in approach, energized by breathtaking cinematography and an uplifting musical score, and offers a new and articulate voice to the artists who were the Group of Seven. Painted Land weaves seamlessly the experiences of Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael and A.J. Casson – with the adventures of three modern day sleuths. Historian Michael Burtch, and the writer and photographer team of Gary and Joanie McGuffin are determined to track down the precise locations of these famous paintings. Archival film, letters, journals and photographs of the artists – some of which have never been seen in public – take the viewers back in time. This film weaves this history with a modern day adventure, up mountains, down canyon rivers and over portages with our trio as they try to achieve their own personal quest: to actually ‘walk in the Group of Seven’s footsteps’."
White Pine Pictures (Video)
W - Group of Seven (artists)
W - Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven
Painted Land (Video)
vimeo: PAINTED LAND: In Search of The Group of Seven (sizzle reel)

Frederick H. Varley, Stormy Weather - Georgian Bay, 1920

The ROIR Label’s Timeless Documents of Underground Music

"If you had a taste for underground music in the ‘80s, you almost certainly had multiple releases on the ROIR (pronounced 'roar') label in your collection. The tiny New York label’s output was exclusively available on brightly-colored cassettes, with liner notes by noted rock critics like Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, Byron Coley, Kurt Loder, Jon Pareles, and a pre-Yo La Tengo Ira Kaplan. The catalog included releases by proto-punk and punk legends like the MC5, Television, the New York Dolls (and Johnny Thunders), Nico, the Raincoats, the Dictators, and Suicide, as well as hardcore acts like Flipper and GG Allin, compilations like New York Thrash (featuring the Beastie Boys’ earliest recording), and the Bad Brains’ legendary 'yellow tape.' They also released noisy, arty music by Glenn Branca, Christian Marclay, Laibach, and Einstürzende Neubauten. ..."
Bandcamp (Audio)
ROIR - Bandcamp
W - ROIR
W - List of artists that appear on ROIR

New Orleans Funk 1960/75 - Soul Jazz

"Check the title -- New Orleans funk is not the same thing as New Orleans R&B or soul, so this may not be the sound that you're expecting. Even if it opens with the Meters, this isn't a compilation that plays to familiar sounds or expectations. Instead, it lays the groundwork for funk as it was known in the '70s or plays forgotten, possibly never-heard sounds from the '70s. So there ain't a single cut here that you will have heard or recognize unless you are an unrepentant New Orleans fanatic; some names are familiar -- the Meters, Lee Dorsey, Eddie Bo, Huey Piano Smith, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, and Robert Parker -- but apart from Professor Longhair's 'Big Chief,' there's not a single thing here that regularly makes New Orleans comps or that will be recognized by anyone outside of the devoted. All 24 selections were chosen on one basis -- whether their recorded grooves were funky enough to be sampled and reappropriated to something else. Most of them are, but that may be beside the point, since this is a collection for record collectors who don't specialize in this style -- they're just looking for grooves. ..."
allmusic
Discogs
amazon
YouTube: New Orleans Funk 1960/75 - Soul Jazz [Full Album]

G Lucas Crane: Time Boiler

"Time Boiler is both a tale of time travel memory loss told in tape collage music and a series of attempts at time compression through musical trials on the performing body. In this program, G Lucas Crane will be tasked with specific times in which to tell each part of the story, cooking down time itself into a series of dense atmospheric collages set to otherworldly video pieces. He will reveal the lost tapes of prophecy and use these mutant tapes of yore to succeed in the trials of the Time Boiler. This performance will illustrate the psychological consequences of time travel on the human mind through a series of live compositions constructed from the depths of his cassette tape archive of ancient sound memories collaged together in the style of an apocalypse DJ. ..."
Roulette (Video)
Roulette: Spotlight on G. Lucas Crane
G. Lucas Crane (Audio / Video)
vimeo: G. Lucas Crane, NYC @ Silent Barn | 09 Apr 2011, g lucas crane live november
YouTube: G. Lucas Crane Explains Himself: Tapes, Analog Livin' and the Silent Barn (2011), G LUCAS CRANE REMIX ON POST APOCALYPTIC MUSIC (2009)

Felipe Jesus Consalvos

"A self-appointed 'artist, healer, and man,' Felipe Jesus Consalvos worked for much of his life as a cigar roller, and he extrapolated the vernacular tradition of cigar band collage to a sophisticated practice. The Havana-born artist immigrated to Miami around 1920, eventually settling in New York and then Philadelphia. His obsessive body of work—over 750 surviving collages on paper, found photographs, musical instruments, furniture, and other unexpected surfaces—was discovered in 1980 at a West Philadelphia garage sale. Consalvos' practice parallels and in some cases prefigures certain contemporaneous developments in Surrealist, Dada, and Futurist and Pop collage, and even poetry. His collages share the biting socio-political satire and absurdist impulse of Dadaists like Kurt Schwitters and Max Ernst, along with abstruse mysticism. ..."
Fleisher Ollman Gallery
W - Felipe Jesus Consalvos
W - Outsider art

DNA - A Taste Of DNA (EP - 1981)

“New York's DNA have had a massive effect on alternative / indie rock around the world, despite the trio never releasing a full-length studio album during their four year tenure (1978-82). Various groups citing them as an influence have included Sonic Youth, Boredoms, Big Black and Blonde Redhead (the latter taking their name from DNA's most-famous song). While the band's explosive live performances captivated audiences, extant recordings captured DNA's dynamic sound and savage economy in songwriting. Originally released in 1981, A Taste Of DNA remains a primary source for No Wave archaeologists. Singer/guitarist Arto Lindsay and drummer Ikue Mori are joined by bassist and Pere Ubu founding-member Tim Wright. Across the EP's six anti-epic tracks, the band charges forward with jagged guitars and dislocated grooves, while Lindsay's guttural screams create a thoroughly personal semantics. ..."
Boomkat
W - A Taste Of DNA
Discogs
YouTube: A Taste of DNA (Full Album)

2009 October: Arto Lindsay, 2012 July: Lounge Lizards, 2015 October: The Golden Palominos - The Golden Palominos (1983), 2015 November: Love Of Life Orchestra ‎– Extended Niceties EP (1980), 2017 October: The Lounge Lizards - Lounge Lizards (1981), 2018 February: Arto Lindsay ... Simply Are

Trump, at Putin’s Side, Questions U.S. Intelligence on 2016 Election

During a press conference with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, President Trump would not say whether he believed Russia meddled with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
"HELSINKI, Finland — President Trump stood next to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday and publicly challenged the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election, wrapping up what he called a 'deeply productive' summit meeting with an extraordinary show of trust for a leader accused of attacking American democracy. 'They said they think it’s Russia; I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia,' Mr. Trump said, only moments after the Russian president conceded that he had favored Mr. Trump in the election because of his promises of warmer relations with Moscow. 'I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be' Russia that was responsible for the election hacking, Mr. Trump added. 'I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.' The 45-minute news conference offered the remarkable spectacle of the American and Russian presidents both pushing back on the notion of Moscow’s election interference, with Mr. Putin demanding evidence of something he said had never been proved, and Mr. Trump appearing to agree."
NY Times (Video)
The Atlantic: Trump Sides With the Kremlin, Against the U.S. Government
NY Times: 12 Russians Charged: Major Highlights of the Indictment and Rod Rosenstein’s Statement (Video)

Balcony Seats to the City

A newly arrived immigrant eats noodles on the fire escape in New York City.
"Even in quickly evolving New York City, there’s something romantic about slowing down, stepping out of the fast currents of foot traffic, and looking up. Few neighborhoods will disappoint. Look up high, especially in Manhattan, and you can see the built history of the big city play out in the architectural details and ornamental facades of buildings, awnings and balconies standing out like grooves in record, ready to reveal the story of each block. Within the skyscraper canyons of Midtown, you can spot the pinnacles of great towers, and the cranes of greater towers in the making. But look a little lower, around the corners and in the alleyways, and you’ll see a structure with a romantic connection to an older New York City, zig-zagging down towards the streets. Fire escapes have a fairly straightforward purpose, designed for the noble role their name implies. But for much of their history, in cities across the world, they’ve served altogether different roles. ..."
Patrick Sisson

Tintin Mural, Brussels. By Chris Brearly

A solstice track from Malta-based Robert Farrugia

"Gossamer lines that go on forever. Layers of tones that never congeal, each left with enough space to retain its own unique quality, its own place in the nonetheless lush, expressive, and expertly choreographed mix. Deep swells, occasionally sudden, that lend drama in the face of stasis. These are just a few of the qualities of 'Transition' by Robert Farrugia. The track is one of eight on Solstice, a new compilation from the Archives label. Also featured on Solstice are the musicians r beny, Steve Pacheco, Pechblende, Mikael Lind, Hotel Neon, Hirotaka Shirotsubaki, and Warmth, the latter aka Agustín Mena, the Valencia, Spain–based head of Archives. Track first posted at soundcloud.com/archives-5. Get the full album at archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com. More from Farrugia, who is based in Malta, at robertfarrugia.bandcamp.com."
disquiet (Audio)
Out Now! Robert Farrugia – Almost There (Audio)

France, Finally Showing Its Class, Wears World Cup Crown

France’s celebrates after winning the World Cup.
"France’s first goal came off a Croatian’s head. The second was scored with the aid of the Argentine referee, and became the first video-assistant-reviewed goal in World Cup history. But the next two — hard low shots by the young French stars Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé — confirmed what everyone knew even before France polished off its 4-2 victory on Sunday: France was the best team in the field this summer in Russia, and for that reason its team — a potent mix of greatness, grit and good fortune — is the world champion again. The title is France’s second and the first since it won on home soil in 1998, and it ended a thrilling run by Croatia. The Croats survived three consecutive extra-time games and two penalty shootouts to reach their first final, and they even had the better of the game on Sunday. ..."
NY Times
Aljazeera: France beat Croatia to win World Cup 2018
Guardian: France 4 - 2 Croatia
YouTube: France vs croatia 4-2 ¶¶ hightlight all goals final

Henry Singleton, "The Storming of the Bastille."
"Today people all over the world celebrate the 1789 storming of the Bastille Saint-Antoine — a dramatic popular rebellion that sparked the French Revolution. But what was the French Revolution, how did it reshape Europe and the world, and what relevance does it have to the workers’ movement today? Here’s a short primer, lovingly compiled by Jacobin to mark the occasion. What was the French Revolution? The French Revolution was one of the most dramatic social upheavals in history. In 1856, French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville reviewed the so-called “grievance books” — lists of demands made by the various social layers of France in anticipation of the Estates-General, the assembly that would undermine Louis XVI’s reign and lead ultimately to revolution. What he discovered startled him. ..."
Jacobin: A Guide to the French Revolution
Jacobin: Yes, the French Revolution Was Necessary
The Nation - ‘The Social Ladder Is Broken’: Hope and Despair in the French Banlieues
The France of No Tomorrow

Dealing with Creative Block? A Deck of Cards Might Help

Ricardo Cavolo, from the series “Tarto Del Fuego,” 2016. Courtesy of Station 16 Gallery.
"Geeta Dayal was stuck. Back in 2007, the music journalist was working on a book about Brian Eno’s 1975 album Another Green World, but ideas and drafts kept piling up with little forward progress. The project, she wrote later, had started to weigh on her 'like a ten-thousand-pound albatross.' So she picked up an Oblique Strategies deck—a set of instruction-based cards written by Eno and artist Peter Schmidt to help overcome creative block—and let them guide her. 'Work at a different speed,' one commanded. Dayal jotted down her ideas without hesitating or overthinking. 'Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate.' She ripped up the chapter she had been working on. 'Take a break.' She stopped writing for a while—long enough to take up cycling and read both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. ..."
artsy

Around the World in 51 Soccer Movies

“Péle: Birth of a Legend”
"I started off intending to write an article about soccer and cinema, but I wound up writing just as much about poverty, tyranny, and war. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Football has always been tied up with politics, revolution, and social change. It’s the world’s most popular sport, and practically every country — no matter how small its film industry — has a movie about it. Sometimes these are triumphant tales of overcoming great odds: little kids whose dreams come true, or downtrodden nations finding success at the World Cup. Sometimes they are stories about how even soccer can’t defeat forces of violence and hate; indeed, sometimes the football is a weapon wielded by those very forces. The Beautiful Game can just as often be the ugliest one. ..."
Voice

Markets of Paris - Dixon Long & Marjorie R. Williams (2012) / The Markets of Paris - Emile Zola (1873)

"The food scene in Paris has changed dramatically since 2006, when Markets of Paris was first published. Yes, the same markets are held in the same locales as always—literally, for centuries—but many have undergone a remarkable transformation led by a young generation of purveyors focused, even more than their predecessors, on local and organic ('bio') produce. Markets of Paris, 2nd Edition revisits and updates the entire market scene in Paris, with new entries, including Virtual Markets and Market Streets, Markets Open on Sunday, Artisan Bakers and Artisan Foods, Getting Along in the Food Markets, Brocante Fairs, and more. Updates focus on the most interesting vendors and most unique and enticing offerings to be found at each locale, including prepared food that can be eaten on the spot. One of the biggest changes in the Paris market scene in recent years has been the spike of interest in organic, reflected in the popularity of the Raspail organic market. Often it’s referred to as 'Le Marché Bio,' and many claim it’s the crème de la crème of all Paris’s markets. ..."
NYRBooks
The Belly of Paris by Émile Zola - On Bookes
W - Le Ventre de Paris
The markets of Paris - Zola, Émile

The Square in front of Les Halles by Victor Gabriel Gilbert, 1880.

Left Politics Can Win All Over the Country

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, May 26, 2018.
"The Democratic establishment is clearly flustered by the stunning upset victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over the person who was considered to be the likely next Democratic leader of the House, Congressman Joe Crowley. Former DCCC Chair Steve Israel, in a quote I found entertaining as a former Iowan who has knocked on a lot of doors in Brooklyn, Iowa, opined that 'What sounds good in Brooklyn, New York, doesn’t work in Brooklyn, Iowa.' Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is at least a Midwesterner, said in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s victory that a political platform 'too far to the left' could not win in the Midwest. Other Democratic insiders are insisting that this upset isn’t that big a deal, making the case that Ocasio-Cortez’s ideas are actually no different than mainstream Democratic Party stuff, she just wraps it in the label 'socialism.' ..."
The Nation

Ikebe Shakedown - Hard Steppin' (2016)

"Ikebe Shakedown's debut release is as heavy as an angry herd of elephants! Recorded at Dunham Studios in Brooklyn with the help of members of The Budos Band, these tracks are rough and tough to be sure and offer a variety of different sounds from the band. Ikebe seamlessly blends the raw emotion and passion of '70s African Funk with the danceable horns and rhythms of American soul music! Ikebe Shakedown is Brooklyn-based, eight-piece instrumental juggernaut that incorporates the sounds of '60s and '70s African Funk and American Soul Music for a totally fresh sound. Featuring dynamic horns backed by a hard-hitting rhythm section, Ikebe Shakedown (pronounced ee-kay-bay) will get you out of your seat and onto the dance floor! With obvious influences from legendary groups such as The J.B.'s and The Meters, Ikebe Shakedown is also looking to make their own mark on the Brooklyn scene in the vein of more contemporary groups like The Budos Band, Antibalas, and The Menahan Street Band."
Underground HipHop
Discogs
iTunes
YouTube: Ikebe Shakedown - Hard Steppin' [FULL ALBUM STREAM]

The Burning House

David Wojnarowicz with Tom Warren, Self-Portrait of David Wojnarowicz (detail), 1983–84
"I was reading Close to the Knives in Mexico, where David Wojnarowicz spent significant amounts of time—Oaxaca, mainly, and Mexico City and the border towns—though I didn’t know that then. I was staying at an expensive resort, which was in a state of constant repair, as those kinds of resorts always are: stucco was being smoothed and repainted, bright clouds of bougainvillea were being trimmed, concrete was being resurfaced. It was an ultimately futile tussle between man and nature, one frustrating and poignant to watch; it took teams of people, and their collective diligence, to try to undo what nature would keep doing. One day, the resort would close, and within months or weeks or days, all of those years of vigilance would mean nothing—the rains would rust the metal lanterns, the sun would leach the color from the walls, the hibiscus would grow stalky and shaggy. ..."
The Paris Review