The Shrine – Lagos

"In the past week the Nigerian authorities have finally succeeded in closing the legendary Shrine venue in Lagos. The Shrine club originally formed part of the 'Kalakuta Republic' founded by Fela Kuti in the early 70s (which also included a recording studio and commune), and was the stage where Fela developed the Afrobeat sound. It’s not the first time the venue has been closed by the authorities – The original Shrine was already destroyed in 1977 – but unfortunately it appears this latest closure may be final."
Laboca, Aphrodesia, amazon, YouTube - Lagos Jump - Visit to Fela's Shrine, Live at the Africa Shrine(Fela Death)

Orson Welles - The One Man Band (1995)

"ORSON WELLES: THE ONE-MAN BAND is a fascinating glimpse at this extraordinary man's final years - made with the cooperation of Oja Kodar, Welles' longtime companion, to whom he bequeathed a wealth of unedited films and fragments when he died in 1985. Granted exclusive access to Welles' heretofore unseen archives - and drawing from almost two tons of film cans containing fragments, shorts, project ideas, and sketches - the filmmakers are led by Kodar through the rich but unfulfilled Welles legacy."
UbuWeb

The Subway Issue

"The Subway in Pictures. A gallery of New York Times photography documenting 10 decades of New York City’s subway system."
NY Tiimes

Classified X

"A history of the racially stereotyped portrayal of African Americans in cinema. Written and narrated by Melvin Van Peebles, director of 'revolutionary' film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Van Peebles is no angel, his films have been called exploitative, but this history is powerful. Watch ALL 6 PARTS to see how stereotyped representations have evolved from early cinema to today."
YouTune - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Leaked Cables Offer Raw Look at U.S. Diplomacy

"A mammoth cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the last three years, provides an unprecedented look at bargaining by embassies, candid views of foreign leaders and assessments of threats. The material was obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of news organizations in advance."
NYT - State's Secrets, Wikileaks, Guardian, Spiegel, YouTube - Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on Upcoming Iraq War Wikileaks Docs (Part 1 of 2), (Part 2 of 2)

Vintage Curt Teich linen postcards 1930s-50s

"A portion of my collection of linen postcards from the 30's and 50's"
flickr, Wikipedia - Curt Teich, jitterbuzz

Pills and Thrills: Fred Tomaselli’s Transports

Car Bomb, 2008
"When Motherless Brooklyn author Jonathan Lethem announced in April that he would be relocating from Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, to the white-collar, academic enclave of Claremont, California (where he’d take over David Foster-Wallace’s teaching slot at Pomona College), the borough felt a twinge of old-time, Brooklyn Dodgers–style rejection. Fortunately for dwellers of Kings County—and others who hold resident New York bards dear—Fred Tomaselli was simultaneously putting the finishing touches on the installation of his latest crackerjack show: his unabashedly gorgeous, conceptually expansive midcareer retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum."
The Paris Review, Wikipedia, James Cohan Gallery, white cube, BOMB, YouTube - Fred Tomaselli

Graffiti

Wikipedia - "Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. In modern times paint, particularly spray paint, and marker pens have become the most commonly used grafitti materials."
Wikipedia, playdo, YouTube - Graffiti Tools

Funk History

Funk History 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 8/8

Skip James

Wikipedia - "Nehemiah Curtis 'Skip' James (June 9, 1902 – October 3, 1969) was an American delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Devil Got My Woman (1966), Skip´s Worried Blues, Cherry Ball Blues, Crow Jane, I'm So Glad (1931), Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues

Marwencol

"After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark built a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populated the town he dubbed 'Marwencol' with dolls representing his friends and family and created life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas."
siff, IMDb, Netflix

Sun Ra - "Space Is the Place" (1974)

Film still from Space is the Place, 1974
"Avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra stars in the movie version of his concept album Space Is the Place. Not following a linear plot line, this experimental film is a bizarre combination of social commentary, blaxploitation, science fiction, and concert performance."
UbuWeb

Robert Palmer

Wikipedia - "Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949 – 26 September 2003), born in Batley, Yorkshire, was a Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter. He was known for his distinctive voice and the eclectic mix of musical styles on his albums, combining soul, jazz, rock, pop, reggae and blues."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Addicted To Love, Simply Irresistible, I didn't mean to turn you on (remix)

The American Friend (1977)

Wikipedia - "The American Friend ... is a 1977 film by Wim Wenders, loosely adapted from the novel Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith. The film is of the neo-noir genre, and features Dennis Hopper as career criminal Tom Ripley and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann, a terminally ill picture framer whom Ripley coerces into becoming an assassin."
Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, 1

Ohio Players

Wikipedia - "The Ohio Players were an American funk and R&B band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their double #1 hit songs 'Fire' and 'Love Rollercoaster'."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Love Rollercoaster, Fire 1974 Live , Skin Tight, Who'd She Coo

100,000 Fleeing Hilda - Boke Press 1967

Mimeo Mimeo

A Thanksgiving Prayer - William S Burroughs

"Thanksgiving Day, Nov 28,1986 first appeared in the chapbook Tornado Alley, with illustrations by S. Clay Wilson. Gus Van Sant then made a short film of Burroughs reading the text. This poem resonates today as exposing what has gone horribly wrong in the USA, or maybe what has always been wrong."
YouTube - Thanksgiving Prayer - William S Burroughs

Pet Shop Boys - 1985-1989

Wikipedia - "Unperturbed by the low chart position, the band returned to the studio in August to re-record 'West End Girls' with producer Stephen Hague. Released in October 1985, this new version initially entered the charts at a similarly low position, but began a slow rise, so that, by January 1986, it achieved the top spot."
Wikipedia, YouTube - West End Girls (Live 1986), West End Girls, It's A Sin (Live at The Roxy 1987), Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money), Suburbia, I Want A Lover, One More Chance, It couldn't happen here 1988, Two Divided By Zero, Love Comes Quickly

The Upsetters

Wikipedia - "The Upsetters was the name given to the house band for Jamaican reggae producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry. The name of the band comes from Perry's nickname of Upsetter, after his song 'I Am The Upsetter', a musical dismissal of his former boss Coxsone Dodd. The Upsetters were originally Gladdy's All-Stars, led by pianist Gladstone Anderson and it was they who originally recorded the international hits 'Live Injection' and 'Return Of Django'."
Wikipedia, last.fm, Roots Archives, YouTube - Return of Django, Holiday Dub, Dry Acid, Guns of Navarone, One Step Dub

Jazz Age

Wikipedia - "The Jazz Age was a movement that took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties from which jazz music and dance emerged. The movement came about with the introduction of main stream radio and the end of the war. This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression but has lived on in American pop culture for decades. With the introduction of jazz came an entirely new cultural movement in places like the America, France and England. The birth of jazz music is often accredited to African Americans but expanded and modified to become socially acceptable to middle-class white Americans."
Wikipedia, Jazz Age Culture, Jazz Age Chicago, YouTube - To Live In The 1920's, Flappers - The Roaring Twenties

Gert Jan Kocken

Gert Jan Kocken

Old School Hip Hop Mega Mix

"This video and mega mix is dedicated to all pioneers of Hip Hop Culture from the East Coast to the West Coast from 1967 - 1985. We thank you for everything you have created for us. We also thank you for showing the world that creativity, ingenuity, inspiration, practicality, and perseverance with limited resources can shock the world... quell racism...and eventually construct peace."
YouTube - Old School Hip Hop Mega Mix

Jason Eppink's The Shadow Machine

"The Shadow Machine is a hand-made analog projection system that reanimates two blacksmiths from the late 1800’s, photographed by Eadweard Muybridge and compiled on plate #374 of his Animal Locomotion series."
Wooster Collective

Hindsight is Always 20/20 - R. Luke DuBois

"An interview with R. Luke DuBois, the creator of 'Hindsight is Always 20/20' on August 23, 2008, near the Pepsi Center on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. Luke's artwork is part of the innovative 'Dialog:City' project curated by Seth Goldenberg and coordinated by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. Luke's project is brilliant, well worth putting on your must-see list if you are in Denver for the convention."
blip, Hindsight is Always 20/20, R. Luke DuBois

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" - Joy Division

"Recorded a mere two months before lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide but released a month after his death, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' is the sound of despair in musical form. At the time of writing the song, Curtis’s marriage was under considerable strain, due in part to his ongoing affair with a Belgian woman. And whether autobiographical or not, the lyrics are clearly the work of a troubled soul."
BBC, YouTube - Love will tear us apart

Werner Herzog Reads Curious George

"Ok, it’s not really Werner Herzog. Just a little playful satire. A guess at how the German director might reinterpret/read the children’s classic Curious George. This version is dark and existential."
Open Culture

"Silence: lectures and writings" - John Cage

"'As the unchallenged father figure of American experimental music, Mr. Cage wields an influence that extends far beyond sound alone....Indeed, the entire American avant-garde would be unthinkable without Mr. Cage's music, writings, and genially patriarchical personality.'--John Rockwell, The New York Times"
amazon, Google, YouTube - Listen : John Cage - in love with another sound -01, 02

James Carr

Wikipedia - "James Carr (June 13, 1942 - January 7, 2001), was an American Rhythm & Blues and soul singer. Born to a Baptist preacher's family in Coahoma, Mississippi, Carr began singing in church and was performing in gospel groups and making tables on an assembly line in Memphis, Tennessee, when he began recording in the mid-'60s for Goldwax Records, a small Memphis based label."
Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube - You Got My Mind Messed Up, Pouring Water on A Drowning Man, At the dark end of the street, A Man Needs A Woman, Love Attack, I'm Going for Myself, Only fools run away, That's The Way Love Turned Out For Me, Bring Her Back

Mark Bradford

Kryptonite, 2006
Wikipedia - "Mark Bradford (born 1961 Los Angeles, California) is an American artist living and working in Los Angeles."
Wikiedia, PBS - art21, PBS - art21, 2, Sikkema Jenkinsco, YouTube - Artists Talk: Mark Bradford

The Strange World of Albrecht Dürer

Nemesis (The Great Fortune)
"The strange world of Albrecht Dürer, populated by monsters, witches, hybrid animals, and marauding soldiers, shares spiritual and social preoccupations with our own time."
The Clark

Youth International Party

Wikipedia - "The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was a more radically youth-oriented and countercultural offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the 1960s. It was founded on Dec. 31, 1967."
Wikipedia, Yippie Leaflet, Chicago, August 25, 1968, Video - Yippie (1968)

Akhenaten

Wikipedia - "According to the composer, this work is the culmination of his two other biographical operas, Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha (about Mohandas Gandhi). These three people — Akhenaten, Einstein and Gandhi — were all driven by an inner vision which altered the age in which they lived, in particular Akhenaten in religion, Einstein in science, and Gandhi in politics."
Wikipedia, Glass Pages, amazon, YouTube - Akhnaten, Akhnaten's aria, Akhnaten, Hymn to the Sun, Love duet from Akhnaten

April 2010: Wikipedia - "Satyagraha is an opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by Glass and Constance de Jong. The opera is loosely based on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, and is the second part of Glass's 'Portrait Trilogy' of operas about men who changed the world, which also includes Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten." Wikipedia, W - Satyagraha, Philip Glass, amazon, YouTube

January 2010: Wikipedia - "Einstein on the Beach is an opera scored and written by Philip Glass and designed and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson. It also contains writings by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs." Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3)

People Watching Plus

"A common phrase in any metropolis is the term 'people watching.' This game takes the restful past-time and adds an interactive element. Made by Rune Madsen, Scott Wayne Indiana, Nien Lam and Nikolas Psaroudakis."
vimeo, Rune Madsen

Joe Brainard - "I Remember"

"I remember the first time I met Frank O’Hara. He was walking down Second Avenue. It was a cool early Spring evening but he was wearing only a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. And blue jeans. And moccasins. I remember that he seemed very sissy to me. Very theatrical. Decadent. I remember that I liked him instantly."
Poets, amazon, frieze - "I Remember"

Secrets of the Ancient 20th Century Gamers - Mark Bloch

NY Arts Magazine - "There are a lot of points of entry to the multifaceted world of Mark Bloch, so you will have to decide for yourself where to begin. An artist of the future, Bloch emerged from underground this spring with a one-man show at the Emily Harvey Foundation that was not too difficult to get into. His series titled, Storàge Museums seems to be much about the idea of 'storàge,' a term coined by Bloch to relate this work to terms like 'collage,' and 'assemblage' from the 20th century. The accented a transforms the word into a French pronunciation."
NY Arts Magazine, Secrets of the Ancient 20th Century Gamers

Lee Friedlander: America By Car

"Driving across most of the country’s fifty states in an ordinary rental car, master photographer Lee Friedlander (b. 1934) applied the brilliantly simple conceit of deploying the sideview mirror, rearview mirror, the windshield, and the side windows as picture frames within which to record reflections of this country’s eccentricities and obsessions at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Friedlander’s method allows for fascinating effects in foreshortening, and wonderfully telling juxtapositions in which steering wheels, dashboards, and leatherette bump up against roadside bars, motels, churches, monuments, suspension bridges, essential American landscapes, and often Friedlander’s own image."
Whitney, amazon, NYT, artbook, YouTube - America by Car

London Calling - The Clash

Wikipedia - "The album represented a change in The Clash's musical style, which featured elements of ska, pop, soul, jazz, rockabilly and reggae more prominently than before. The album's subject matter included unemployment, racial conflict, drug use, and the responsibilities of adulthood."
Wikipedia, YouTube - London Calling, Guns Of Brixton, Should I stay or should I go, Spanish Bombs, Koka Kola, Lost In The SuperMarket, Clampdown, Four Horsemen & I'm Not Down, Jimmy Jazz, Rudie Can't Fail

The Wrong Side - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

"The unrepentant revolutionary poet and Beat godfather, now 91, looks back at friendships with Ginsberg, Pablo Neruda, Fidel, and the Sandinistas—and asks when The Nation will publish his next poem."
Guernica

Watts Riots, 1965

Wikipedia - "The term Watts Riots of 1965 refers to a large-scale riot which lasted 6 days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in August 1965. By the time the riot subsided, 34 people had been killed, 1,032 injured, and 3,438 arrested. It would stand as the most severe riot in Los Angeles history until the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The riot is viewed by some as a reaction to the record of police brutality by the LAPD and other racial injustices suffered by black Americans in Los Angeles, including job and housing discrimination."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Watts Riots News Reel

Hitchhiking

Wikipedia - "Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, 'fingering',tramping, hitching, autostop or thumbing up a ride) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long. The latter may require many rides from different people; a ride is usually but not always free."
Wikipedia

The Castaways

Wikipedia - "The Castaways are an American garage rock band from the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Their first and only hit single was 'Liar, Liar'. Written by band leader James Donna and Denny Craswell, produced by Timothy D. Kehr and released by Soma Records, it reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Liar, Liar

Beauty in Decay Book Launch

"If you are a regular reader of the Wooster Collective website, they you are already familiar with the absolutely stunning photography of RomanyWG. Based in the UK, RomanyWG has taken the baton passed by such people as Martha Cooper and Jon Naar, to become one of today's most important urban art documentarians."
Wooster Collective

Real Art Ways

"Founded in 1975, Real Art Ways is one of the country's early alternative arts spaces. Real Art Ways presents and produces new and innovative work by emerging and established artists, and serves as a crucial connection for audiences and artists regionally, nationally and internationally. The organization has sustained itself through committed support for new ideas and disciplines, and has steadily built a diverse and unique audience that crosses lines of color, sexual orientation, economics and age."
Real Art Ways

Ali Farka Touré

Wikipedia - "Ali Ibrahim 'Farka' Touré (October 31, 1939 – March 7, 2006) was a Malian singer and guitarist, and one of the African continent’s most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube, Ali Farka Toure part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

Robert Bechtle

Crossing Arkansas Street-Early Morning - 2002
Wikipedia - "Along with Richard Estes, Chuck Close, and Ralph Goings, Bechtle is considered to be one of the earliest Photorealists. By the mid-1960s, he had started developing a style and subject matter that he has maintained over his career. Working from his own photographs, Bechtle creates paintings described as photographic. Taking inspiration from his local San Francisco surroundings, he painted friends and family and the neighborhoods and street scenes, paying special attention to automobiles."
Wikipedia, artnet, KQED - Video

This is Ska!

"A programme from 1964 featuring the best in Jamaican ska, featuring Eric 'Monty' Morris, Jimmy Cliff, Prince Buster, (Toots and) The Maytals, The Charmers, Stranger Cole, Roy and Yvonne, The Blues Busters and Byron Lee and The Dragonaires"
YouTune - This is Ska! (1/4) 1964, (2/4), (3/4), (4/4)

Henry Lee - Nick Cave & PJ Harvey

"Get down, get down, little Henry Lee
And stay all night with me
You won't find a girl in this damn world
That will compare with me
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee"
YouTube - Henry Lee - Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, Henry Lee - 2

Peter Gizzi - "Jack Spicer, Bruce Conner and the Art of the Assemblage"

"Emotion and innovation is something I’ve thought a lot about relative to my own writing but it’s also something I’ve confronted in very concrete ways in the writing of Jack Spicer, and I thought I would focus here on Spicer’s work, specifically the affinity between his poetry and West-Coast assemblage art, and in particular the film work of Bruce Conner. I am interested in the ways both Spicer and Conner use history as a material texture while leaving gaps within their work to draw the reader into an intimate and emotional engagement with these materials."
The Sienese Shredder

The Art of the Steal

Wikipedia - "The Art of the Steal is a 2009 documentary film about efforts to break Albert C. Barnes's will and relocate the Barnes art collection from its longtime home in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. The collection of late-19th- and early-20th-century art includes 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 60 Matisses 44 Picassos and 14 Modiglianis. The 9,000 piece collection is valued at over $25 billion."
Wikipedia, NYT, amazon, YouTube - The Art of The Steal, Official Trailer

Avalon Hill

Wikipedia - "Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Their logo contained their initials 'AH', and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations."
Wikipedia, W - List of Avalon Hill games, Avalon Hill