11 Memoirs by 20th-Century American Radicals

"With the Trump era now a week old and storm clouds gathering, many decent, salt-of-the-earth Americans not previously given to shows of popular unrest, never mind civil disobedience or outright violence, may find themselves newly curious about America’s radical past, in particular the radical left. For the big picture, there is always the work of the late and ever-insightful Howard Zinn, but then sometimes your curiosity craves a more intimate literature: the memoir. ... For those who prefer their radical history first-hand, the 20th century provides in abundance, from the anarchist riots and unionist shutdowns of the early century to the interwar New York intellectuals, always flirting with offshoots of the Russian Revolution, to the new wave activists of the late 60s and early 70s, with the violence, infighting, despair, and a few strands of hope and inspiration that followed. ..."
LitHub

Lindsay Cooper - Rags (1980)

"Having played with British bands Comus and Henry Cow during the 1970s, bassoonist, composer and songwriter Lindsay Cooper, born 1951 (more info here), was used to communal music activities and LP-cum-political-tract releases when she co-founded the Feminist Improvising Group (FIG) in 1977 with Maggie Nicols (of Centipede fame). Her first solo LP, Rags, published 1980, was the soundtrack to The Song of the Shirt, a 1979 Feminist/Marxist film by Sue Clayton and Jonathan Curling. The musicians are members of FIG (Lindsay Cooper, Sally Potter, Georgie Born) plus Frith and Cutler from Henry Cow and Phil Minton from the Mike Westbrook Band. Self-published in 1980 in the UK through small label Arcades, Rags was recorded and engineered by Dave Vorhaus at his own Kaleidophon studio, the usual White Noise recording facility. ..."
Continuo (Video)
Surfing the Odyssey
Discogs
YouTube: The Exhibition/Lots of Larks/General Strike, 1848/The Chartist Anthem/Cholera, Song of the Shirt, Woman's Wrong (Part IV)

December 2009: Lindsay Cooper, 2010 February: Art Bears, 2012 July: The Art Box - Art Bears, 2012 November: David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme, 2013 March: The Last Nightingale, 2013 October: Art Bears Songbook - 2010-09-19 - Rock In Opposition Festival, 2014 April: Lindsay Cooper, 1951-2013, 2015 February: Oh Moscow (1991), 2015 April: Rarities Volumes 1 & 2 (2014), 2015 May: Music For Other Occasions (1986), 2016 April: News from Babel (1983-1986).

Elmore James - "Standing At The Crossroads" / "Sunnyland" (1951)

"... The original 'Sunny Land' as recorded by James in 1954 was more of a loping shuffle, released on Flair Records, and backed by 'Standing At The Crossroads.' The songwriting is credited to Joe Bihari (one of James’ publishers under a pseudonym) and Elmore James. But the track that has captivated me all these years was recorded late in James’ life at the New Orleans studio of Cosimo Matassa, a legendary R & B producer and engineer. James was plagued by health problems and embroiled in disputes with the musicians’ union and died not long after these sessions took place. This 1961 version is far more driving and has a dirty, distorted sound with a blues-shout vocal style that gives the track an urgency the original lacks. ..."
The Vinyl Press
Discogs
YouTube: Standing At The Crossroads, Sunnyland

2014 November: Blues Master Works

Francofonia - Alexander Sokurov (2015), The Rape of Europa Collector's Edition (2009)

"Fourteen years after Russian Ark, that renowned single-take movie journey through the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, Alexander Sokurov has created another absorbing meditation on art, history and humanity’s idea of itself – this time centred on the Louvre in Paris. It is a sophisticated, complex film: a cine-prose poem or installation tableau, weaving newsreel footage with eerie floating images above Paris and dramatised fantasy scenes. It has all sorts of wayward digressions and perambulations around the idea of French and European culture, and the role of the museum in conserving art and promoting the idea of what it means to be human. ..."
Guardian: Francofonia review – a wayward meditation on art, history and humanity (Video)
Roger Ebert
NY Times: ‘Francofonia,’ About World War II Foes Turned Allies, for the Sake of Art - A. O. Scott
Guardian: Francofonia review – eerie look at the Louvre's vulnerable freight
W - Francofonia
YouTube: Francofonia - Official Trailer
2014 August: Louvre, 2016 January: Russian Ark (2002)

"World War II was not just the most destructive conflict in humanity—it was also the greatest theft in history: lives, families, communities, property, culture and heritage were all stolen. The Rape of Europa Collector's Edition includes the award-winning documentary film, The Rape of Europa, based on the book by scholar Lynn Nicholas, and narrated by Academy Award-nominated actress Joan Allen. It also features interviews with key figures including the Monuments Men and other war heroes, victims of the Nazis' thefts, and prominent cultural figures including Major Corine Wegener (retired), a modern day 'Monuments woman' who served in Iraq. The Rape of Europa Collector's Edition addresses the questions of our time about the role of art in defining culture, and our shared responsibility to protect it. ..."
The Rape of Europa - Order the Collector's Edition DVD
The Rape of Europa (Video)
YouTube: The Rape of Europa - Topic 79 video

William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying (1930)

Wikipedia - "As I Lay Dying is a 1930 novel, in the genre of Southern Gothic, by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner said that he wrote the novel from midnight to 4:00 AM over the course of six weeks and that he did not change a word of it. ... The novel utilizes stream of consciousness writing technique, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths. The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family's quest and motivations—noble or selfish—to honor her wish to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi. ... The family's trek by wagon begins, with Addie’s non-embalmed body in the coffin. ..."
Wikipedia
NYBooks: On ‘As I Lay Dying’- E.L. Doctorow
Creation and Rebellion in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying By Tristan Gans
amazon: As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text

2011 September: Southern Gothic, 2014 February: William Faulkner, 2015 October: William Faulkner Draws Maps of Yoknapatawpha County, the Fictional Home of His Great Novels, 2015 November: Interviews William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12, 2016 April: Absalom, Absalom!! (1936), 2016 May: The Sound and the Fury (1929), 2016 October: The Snopes Trilogy (1940, 1957, 1959), 2016 December: Light in August (1932)

The Smothers Brothers: Laughing at Hard Truths

"On Sunday nights at 9, 50 years ago, more than a quarter of American households were watching NBC’s 'Bonanza.' That comfortable and comforting western series was so dominant that CBS felt it had nothing to lose by taking a chance and giving that time slot to two brothers, musical satirists who interrupted songs like 'Boil That Cabbage Down' and 'Dance, Boatman, Dance' with ridiculous bouts of sibling rivalry. The brothers, Tom and Dick Smothers, had had a successful run of appearances in nightclubs and on television variety shows with subversive takes on folk songs. When 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' made its premiere on Feb. 5, 1967, CBS figured the two men in their late 20s, clean-cut and appealing, might find a niche. ..."
NY Times (Video)
W - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
YouTube: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Akram Zaatari

After They Joined The Military Struggle, Saida early 1970s (2007)
"There’s something peculiar about the faces of people posing for pictures in a photographer’s studio. Whether smiling or thoughtful, serious or sad, in their expressions the public and the private collide. Standing still before the camera, studio clients are afforded the luxury of pursuing their greatest fantasies (film star; sheikh) — all within the confines of the studio, complete with its own particular codes, customs, and theatrics. You could say that what emerges on the photographic print is a curious amalgam of all of these factors. It is the complexity of the studio image that Akram Zaatari seeks to investigate in his ongoing Madani Project. For some years already, Zaatari has been working on compiling, structuring, and (re)contextualizing photographic material gathered from the former Studio Shehrazade in Saida, Lebanon, where he was born in 1966. ..."
Bidoun
Sfeir-Semler (Video)
W - Akram Zaatari
Photography as Apparatus - Akram Zaatari in conversation with Anthony Downey
MoMa - Projects 100: Akram Zaatari
[PDF] MoMA
vimeo: akram zaatari - 16 Videos

Hip-Hop Utopia: Culture + Community at Jersey’s City’s Dineen Hull Gallery Through February 21

Yishai Minkin, Biggie
"While visiting Hip-Hop Utopia: Culture + Community at Hudson County Community College‘s Dineen Hull Gallery this past Friday, I had the opportunity to speak to Michelle Vitale aka woolpunk who — along with Fred Fleisher — curated the wonderfully eclectic exhibit. What a fabulous tribute to hip-hop this is! What would you say is the exhibit’s mission? Its mission is to celebrate the culture of hip-hop. Its four elements –  MCing, Graffiti, DJing and Breakdancing — have had a huge, positive impact on today’s society. This exhibit is our way of paying tribute to these elements and to the community that has nurtured them. ..."
Street Art NYC

Jon Hassell ‎– Earthquake Island (1979)

"Earthquake Island was Hassell's first project supported by a traditional lineup -- two guitarists, a bassist, and several percussionists. Rhythms from Latin American and the Caribbean appear for the only time (so far) in this world citizen's recordings, and on a couple of tracks there's even a guest vocalist named Clarice Taylor. Earthquake Island is also the artist's least discussed album. Okay, make that undiscussed -- even on websites devoted to Hassell's music, it only gets a sentence or two. In hindsight, this album seemed like a backward step compared to the electronic drones and hand percussion of Vernal Equinox, and was perhaps taken as a thin example of the late-'70s jazz fusion taste for Latin percussion and horn arrangements. ..."
allmusic
Discogs
YouTube: Earthquake Island (Full album)

Roy C & The Honeydrippers - Impeach the President (1973)

"... From that crucial moment on, the Georgia native has staunchly committed himself to over five decades of the funkiest funk and silkiest soul that ever spun at 45 and 33 1/3 rpm. One of those compositions, born out of a 1973 presidential espionage scandal, would go on to have an unexpected shelf life decades beyond the mom-and-pop record-shop bins of the day. With a sly, syncopated backbeat and loopy guitar licks courtesy of a precocious group of high school kids from Queens, New York, called the Honey Drippers, 'Impeach the President' was one funky juke-joint juggernaut destined to inform the headphone masterpieces of generations to come. ..."
Wax Poetics: Roy C’s legacy goes beyond the single song (and ubiquitous golden-era hip-hop break) “Impeach the President”
W - Roy C
iTunes
YouTube: Impeach the President

The 15 Best Things to Do in New York City

7/15 - Walk the Brooklyn Bridge to Dumbo
"When you're visiting a city, the pressure to see and do everything is intense. Not to mention, it's hard to stay on top of what's happening in a city that's not your own. We get it. We also get that the best experiences are as much about the how as they are the what. Meaning, you can go to Central Park, just like everyone else, but do you really know how to do it? How to find those quiet, picturesque nooks that only the locals know, and taking advantage of the nearby great coffee shops you wouldn't make it to otherwise? That's why, in the following list of things we think every visitor to our hometown should do, we’ve built in tried and true strategies and tips—like where to get an excellent chocolate chip cookie when you’re touring the new Whitney, because you can't fully appreciate Diane Arbus if you're in a pissy, low blood sugar–induced mood. ..."
Condé Nast

The Jack Kerouac Collection (1990)

"This triple-disc box set is centered on the reissue and restoration of Jack Kerouac's three long-players: Poetry for the Beat Generation (1959), Blues and Haikus (1959), as well as Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation(1960). The Jack Kerouac Collection (1990) also adds over a half-hour of previously unissued material. These include outtakes from the Blues and Haikus sessions, recitations from On the Road and Visions of Cody from the Steve Allen Plymouth Show, as well as a candid recording from a symposium titled 'Is There a Beat Generation,' which was held at the Hunter College Playhouse and sponsored by Brandeis University. ... There is also copious discographical, biographical, and bibliographical information as well. This set is an essential piece of Americana and is highly recommended for literary buffs and beatniks alike."
allmusic (Video)
LA Times: 'The Jack Kerouac Collection'
W - Poetry for the Beat Generation, W - Blues and Haikus, W - Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation
Discogs, amazon
YouTube: The Jack Kerouac Collection, McDougal Street Blues, Charlie Parker, I Had A Slouch Hat Too One Time, October in the Railroad Earth

2009 November: Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut, 2010 July: Kerouac's Copies of Floating Bear, 2011 March: Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show, 2013 September: On the Road - Jack Kerouac, 2014 May: “Walker Evans and Robert Frank – An Essay on Influence by Tod Papageorge” (1981), 2015 March: Pull My Daisy (1959), 2015 December: Hear All Three of Jack Kerouac’s Spoken, 2016 July: Mexico City Blues (1959).

Sherwood at the Controls, Vol. 2: 1985-1990

"Four primary factors distinguish Adrian Sherwood's earlier productions and remixes, anthologized on Sherwood at the Controls, Vol. 1: 1979-1984, from the later work gathered here. The September 1983 murder of close friend Prince Far I temporarily pushed Sherwood away from reggae. Shortly after that, while in the U.S. on business, he bonded with Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald, and Doug Wimbish, progressive session pros who had played together on 'Rapper's Delight' and 'The Message,' among other cuts. Sherwood's work with that trio, scattered across dozens of 12" and full-length releases during the latter half of the '80s, is summarized with a front-loaded batch on this second volume. ..."
allmusic
Discogs, amazon
YouTube: Sherwood At The Controls Vol. 2: 1985 - 1990 12 videos

2011 September: Adrian Sherwood, 2012 April: Dub Syndicate, 2013 August: Don't Call Us Immigrants (2000), 2014 May: Bim Sherman - Across the Red Sea (1998), 2016 November: Keith Hudson - Brand (1979)

Harry Mathews

Wikipedia - "Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. He was also a translator of French. ... Together with John Ashbery, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch, Mathews founded and edited the short-lived but influential literary journal Locus Solus (named after a novel by Raymond Roussel, one of Mathews's chief early influences) from 1961 to 1962. Mathews was the first American chosen for membership in the French literary society known as the Oulipo, which is dedicated to exploring new possibilities in literature, in particular through the use of various constraints and algorithms. ... Mathews was married to the writer Marie Chaix and divided his time between Paris, Key West, and New York City. ..."
Wikipedia
The Paris Review: Harry Mathews, The Art of Fiction No. 191
The Many False Floors of Harry Mathews
BOMB: Harry Mathews
amazon: Harry Mathews
Poetry Foundation: Cool gales shall fan the glades By Harry Mathews (Video)
YouTube: Harry Mathews reads "The White Wind", "The New Tourism"

2010 June: Locus Solus, 2012 January: The Tropological Space of Locus Solus

The First Monday in May

"The debate about what does and does not constitute Art rages—although quite politely—at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. One would imagine that anything within the Met's revered galleries and extensive collections would receive the benefit of the doubt in regards to its stature as Art. Even so, there's still a battle over the status of fashion among the museum's curators and people involved in the fashion world. The Met's Costume Institute is housed in the museum's lowest level, meaning that its collection is physically and, hence, figuratively seen as occupying the basement of Art. ..."
Roger Ebert
The First Monday in May (Video)
W - The First Monday in May
YouTube: Watch the First Monday in May Trailer

2015 May: China: Through the Looking Glass

The Myth of the Well-Behaved Women’s March

"On October 5, 1789, a crowd of more than seven thousand women—fish sellers and bakers, working women from the markets, bourgeois 'bonnet-wearing' women from the suburbs—marched the twelve miles from Paris to Versailles to demand King Louis XVI release his stores of grain. The march had been planned at the Palais Royal by a group of women who were furious over food shortages, especially after rumors that the king had thrown a lavish feast for his bodyguards only days before. The women swore that together, they would save the city: 'Tomorrow things will be better because we will be in charge!' ..."
New Republic

Evergreen Review

Wikipedia - "Evergreen Review is a U.S.-based literary magazine founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 through 1973, and was re-launched online in 1998. Its diversity can be seen in the March–April 1960 issue, which included work by Albert Camus, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bertolt Brecht and LeRoi Jones, as well as Edward Albee's first play, The Zoo Story. The Camus piece was a reprint of 'Reflections on the Guillotine', first published in English in the Review in 1957 and reprinted on this occasion as the magazine's 'contribution to the worldwide debate on the problem of capital punishment and, more specifically, the case of Caryl Whittier Chessman.' Evergreen Review debuted pivotal works by Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Marguerite Duras, Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg, Günter Grass, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, Pablo Neruda, Vladimir Nabokov, Frank O’Hara, Kenzaburō Ōe, Octavio Paz, Harold Pinter, Susan Sontag, Tom Stoppard, Derek Walcott and Malcolm X. United States Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote a controversial piece for the magazine in 1969. Kerouac and Ginsberg regularly had their writing published in the magazine. ..."
W - Evergreen Review
Evergreen: The Glossy of the Underground
RealityStudio: Evergreen Review Archive
RealityStudio: Bibliography of Burroughs Texts in Evergreen Review, Evergreen Review, Issues 1-31, Evergreen Review, Issues 32-99
amazon: Evergreen Review Reader 1957-1967, Evergreen Review Reader: 1957-1966, Evergreen Review Reader, 1967-1973

Betty Davis: Columbia Years 1968-1969

"A name on the guestlist of greatness, the former Betty Mabry had hip cachet in the ’60s, and has it again now. A model, a songwriter and a friend of both Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis (who she married), her trio of mid-1970s albums (Betty Davis, They Say I’m Different and Nasty Gal) established her as a powerful female performer. A cross between George Clinton and Bette Midler, she played sex music with no implied candlelit dinner, a hard and uncompromising funk in which she inhabited an aggressive, theatrically sexual persona. At the time, she outraged nearly everyone. Hers is a story with some great records, a lot of interesting associations, and – possibly the most important factor – many years of unaccounted time, into which mystery and supposition has since enticingly poured. ..."
Uncut
All About Jazz
amazon
YouTube: Down Home Girl, My Soul is tired, Hangin' Out, Politician Man, Born on the Bayou, I'm Ready, Willing & Able (Take 9)

2012 October: Betty Davis

Hate Map | Southern Poverty Law Center

"... Rise of Hate Groups - The SPLC has documented an explosive rise in the number of hate groups since the turn of the century, driven in part by anger over Latino immigration and demographic projections showing that whites will no longer hold majority status in the country by around 2040. As the chart shows, this rise accelerated in 2009, the year President Obama took office, before leveling off and beginning to decline in 2011. Read about our most recent count in 2015, when the total number of groups increased for the first time in three years (download a PDF of the HateMap). ..."
Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate & Extremism
W - List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups

Love and Black Lives, in Pictures Found on a Brooklyn Street

"One night six years ago, on a quiet side street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, I came across a photo album that had been put out with the trash. I lived around the corner, and I was walking home when I saw it sitting beneath a streetlamp on Lincoln Place. It looked handmade, with a wooden cover bound with a shoelace. But it had been tied up with twine, like a bunch of old newspapers, and left atop a pile of recycling. After hesitating a moment, I picked it up and took it home. The pages were fragile, and they cracked when I turned them, as if the album hadn’t been opened in a long time, but the photos were perfectly preserved. They seemed to chronicle the life of a black couple at midcentury: a beautiful woman with a big smile and a man who looked serious, or was maybe just camera-shy, and had served in World War II. ..."
NY Times

James Chance ‎– Twist Your Soul: The Definitive Collection (2010)

"From brutally unrefined beginnings to later laser precision, James Chance managed to wield fearsome power with the churning suction of jazz-inflected and punk-fuelled funk. His band The Contortions were one of the four acts (along with Lydia Lunch, Mars and DNA) on Brian Eno's NO New York document of the 'no-wave' scene. ... It wasn't long before these screaming and angular beginnings were jettisoned in favour of intricate saxophone trills, sparser bass lines and longer, more laid back songs. This mutation was announced via a name and group change – James White and the Blacks – although the abrasive atonality of the guitars remained as a nod to Chance's own free-jazz beginnings. Twist Your Soul is a two disc retrospective with each disc curated by Chance himself, mainly drawn from the Contortions and Blacks periods in his musical journey. ..."
Drowned In Sound
Discogs
amazon
allmusic: Twist Your Soul: The Definitive Collection (Video)

2009 December: James Chance, 2011 December: No New York, 2014 July: No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980, 2014 July: Bush Tetras, 2015 January: Buy - James Chance and the Contortions (1979), 2015 July: James White And The Blacks - Off White (1979), 2015 October: Pat Place, 2016 January: Lost Chance (1981).

Finding beauty and poetry in a cold, snowy city

"Not a fan of the chilly wet days that characterize a New York winter? Let these shimmering images from Saul Leiter of the city in the 1950s and 1960s give you a different perspective. Leiter, a longtime East Village resident who died in 2013 at age 89, was one of Gotham’s greatest (and mostly unheralded) street photographers, capturing the color of the mid-century metropolis in a subdued, tender glow. His soft-focus photos show us seemingly random, ordinary street scenes: pedestrians at a newsstand, a worker taking a break on the sidewalk, the visual poetry of people and buildings reflected in glass, around corners, and through a misty lens. ...."
Ephemeral New York

2008 June: Saul Leiter, 2011 September: Saul Leiter - 1

Histories of Violence.

“Cat Eating a Bird,” 1939, by Pablo Picasso
"The Histories of Violence project explores the theoretical, aesthetic and empirical dimensions to violence. Taking advantage of the latest developments in new media technologies and online broadcast capabilities, it provides open access resources to compliment existing teaching formats and further facilitate trans-disciplinary discussion and reflection. Committed to pedagogy in the public interest, its guiding ethos is to critically challenge violence in all its forms. Since its launch in September 2011, our videos have enjoyed over 500,000 hits from over 50,000 unique users spanning 152 different countries. Founded & Directed by the project benefits from an international advisory board which brings together renowned academics from the United Kingdom, Europe and North America, breaking down the intellectual boundaries between politics, culture and the Arts."
Histories of Violence. (Video)
LA Review of Books (Video)
New Republic: A History of Violence By Steven Pinker

Now Gallery

Micro Show opening 1984
"The New York East Village art movement of the 80s is now considered to be the most influencial of the later half of the 20th century culture and art. The Now Gallery was founded in 1983 by an artist and art curator Jacek Tylicki as his cultural concept. Fashion Moda in Bronx was a hub of the street art (graffiti), but in the early eighties the East Village became the main gallery quarter in the city. Club 57, Fun Gallery and The Now Gallery where those early places crowded with visual artists, art performers and poets introducing the underground art into the mainstream art world. At the height of the East Village 'urban primitive' art scene there were over 120 art galleries, many of which also served as performance spaces. ..."
Now Gallery
W - Now Gallery
W - Fashion Moda

Barry White & The Atlantics - "Tracy (All I Have Is You)" (1963)

"BARRY WHITE first appeared on vinyl in 1961 on the song 'Boo-Hoo-Hoo', as part of the Atlantics, alongside Delbert Franklin, Chick Carlton and Gaynel Hodge. The record was released on Eddie Davis’ Linda Records and later covered by female vocal group The Sa-Shays. The Atlantics would go on to record 'Remember The Night' / 'Flame Of Love' in ’62’, with a revised line-up. In 1963 'Flame Of Love' was reissued coupled with 'TRACY' credited to Barry White and The Atlantics, White’s first lead credit. When White left the group to pursue a solo career the remaining band members formed The Rivingtons. SAMMY LEE makes two appearances on the new Outta Sight CD East L.A. Soul: Sammy Lee & The Summits 'Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go' and as a solo artist on his Northern Soul winner 'It Hurts Me' featured here."
Northern Soul Direct
YouTube: Tracy (all I have is you)

Make the Most of the Met

"One of the 21st century’s great wonders, the Metropolitan Museum of Art contains an incomparable collection of humanity’s greatest accomplishments — spanning 6,000 years and the entire globe. Where else can you see the inside of an Egyptian tomb, a full set of Japanese armor and a room of Renaissance paintings in one day? Don't be overwhelmed by the Met's offerings; we'll guide you on your journey through the museum. ..."
New York Times
[PDF] Make the Most of The Met
Met Map - The Met Fifth Avenue / The Met Cloisters / The Met Breuer

Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection - Sun Ru (2016)

"How do you pin down Sun Ra? The cosmic jazzman laid down so much music it would take a warehouse of full-time historians working round-the-clock hours to figure it all out. Albums were often hastily assembled from his prolific sessions, packaged with DIY artwork and sold at gigs for quick cash. Thousands of hours of unheard recordings are rumored to exist. Maybe he stacked boxes of magnetic tape on far-away planets too, such was his connection to the stars. If it’s even possible to traverse the vast Sun Ra universe on board a single starship, then Strut Records’ new compilation Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection offers a compellingly sturdy vessel. It’s a 65-track set of 7-inch fragments of the celestial god, sent to earth to help us map out details of his galaxy that the albums could not. There are no wasted motions here: Each flat, wax disc represented another bright star in the constellation Ra. ..."
Pitchfork
allmusic (Video)
Singles by Sun Ra (Video)
iTunes, amazon
Juno: Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection 1952-1991 (remastered)

75 Books for the Next Four Years

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
"In the last weeks as I’ve found myself rereading George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, a work I never took to in high school yet felt even then, all the same, that the context of how the work was being taught had eluded the experiment of my sophomore English class. Orwell’s gray fantasia had been reduced to a Cold War allegory (if even that) about the joys and necessities of unlimited self-expression. In short, what happened in the world before or outside America in the late 1990s. This time round, more than 15 years later, after three presidents and two imperialist wars and so very much else, Orwell’s text strikes me less as science fiction or totalitarian parable. It describes a world I know, today, intimately. It renders the temperature of our corporatized media and the destabilizing rhetoric of the incoming administration under President-elect Trump. ..."
Literary Hub

The Rise and Rise of Forró – The Couples’ Dance from Northeast Brazil

"There can’t be many popular musical genres which feature the triangle, drum and accordion as three staple instruments. Forró, pronounced foh-ho, is one of them. It’s a lively, addictive music that has its origins in Northeast Brazil and which can now be heard and danced to in bars and parties all over London. Couples dance together coladinho, heads and hips often touching, spinning and skipping in a close embrace. There’s something magical about a forró party – a live band and their traditional instruments squeezed into the corner of a Brazilian pub in South London every weekend. The crowd sing along to the lyrics as they dance, trying not to trip over tables. Many people dance barefoot. There’s a theory that the word forró comes from the English phrase ‘for all,’ though the more plausible origin is the Brazilian Portuguese forrobodó, a word for a big party. ..."
Sounds and Colours (Video)
NY Times - Forró in Brazil: Under a Full Moon, Dancing to the Beat of the Zabumba
History of Forró

Brazil Forró: Music for Maids and Taxi Drivers
"Forro didn't become as popular abroad as other Brazilian styles, although it has its charms. The form mixes European influences in arrangements and verse and chorus structure, with Bahian/Indian rhythms and vocal styles. It features predominantly trios, with accordions, triangle and zabuma (shallow marching drum) the prime instrumentation. The songs are somber, thoughtful and sometimes poignant, and played in a straightforward, less improvisational manner. This 17-cut anthology offers an extensive look at forro; while it doesn't have the enticing qualities of other Brazilian idioms, it's worth close listening and scrutiny."
allmusic (Video), amazon

Brazil Classics, Vol. 3: Forro, Etc.
"When David Byrne first visited the Salvador/Bahia region in 1986, a new musical form that he never heard before amazed him. Dubbed forro, this dance sound originally hailed from northeastern Brazil, described as "a mixture of ska with polka" by Byrne himself. All of the album's tracks radiate a strong, positive energy, created in the most part by reggae-ish acoustic guitars, melodic accordions, and never-ending contagious rhythms. And although this musical style could be compared to America's zydeco sound, forro is intended mainly for parties. Brazil Classics, Vol. 3 was compiled by Byrne himself and features the very best artists and compositions that the genre has to offer. ..."
allmusic (Video), amazon

2010 August: Forró, 2014 June: NaurÊa

Alton Ellis - Mad Mad (1967)

"With an exuberant blast of brass, 'Mad Mad' surged into the sound systems in 1967 to eventually become one of Studio One's most beloved riddims. Intricately arranged by Jackie Mittoo, the song was not one of the label's typically lavish rocksteady fare. For starters, the melody line was slighter and far less lush than usual, while the chorus didn't actually jog with the verses. However, Mittoo made it work regardless, building the arrangement around a compulsive rhythm, jangling cowbell and the song's signature brass line, all offset only by Mittoo's own sparkling piano...and Alton Ellis's soulful vocals abetted by the warm harmonies, of course. ... It was a particular favorite of Junjo Lawes, who scored big with the song's most popular version, Michigan & Smiley's 'Diseases', and continues to be versioned to this day."
allmusic
YouTube: Mad Mad / Diseases (Alton Ellis, Michigan & Smiley)

2012 July: Alton Ellis, 2012 September: Darker Than Blue: Soul from Jamdown, 1973–1977, 2015 September: Randy’s 17 North Parade (1987)

Walking Ulysses | Joyce's Dublin Today

"Eighteen chapters, six hundred and forty-four pages, a quarter of a million words, and seven years in the writing. ... Ulysses is not for the faint hearted. ... This project is intended to help you solve some of these puzzles. WALKING ULYSSES is designed to represent, through an exploration of each of the senses, the experience of living in Dublin on a typical day around the turn of the twentieth century. Our map narrates the journey of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom over the course of a single day, paralleling the progress of James Joyce’s Ulysses, traversing, chronologically, the eighteen chapters of the book. It’s designed to enhance the reader’s vicarious journey through the pages of Ulysses as mediated through the senses of its principal characters. ..."
Walking Ulysses | Joyce's Dublin Today - About
Walking Ulysses | Joyce's Dublin Today
A Walk around James Joyce’s Dublin
amazon: Joyce's Dublin: A Walking Guide to Ulysses

2011 March: Passages from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (1965-67), 2010 March: Ulysses Seen, 2013 February: ULYSSES “SEEN” is moving to Dublin!, 2013: Dubliners, 2014 May: The Dead (1987 film), 2014 May: “Have I Ever Left It?” by Mark O'Connell, 2014 July: Digital Dubliners, 2014 September: Read "Ulysses Seen", A Graphic Novel Adaptation of James Joyce’s Classic, 2015 January: The Mapping Dubliners Project, 2015 February: Davy Byrne’s, 2016 January: Port and Docks, 2016 February: Hear James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Read Unabridged & Set to Music By 17 Different Artists, 2016 April: Nassau Street, 2016 May: Stephen’s Green, 2016 October: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), 2016 November: Skerries.

The Realist

"There’s something oddly funny about Paul Krassner. And it’s been going on for more than 50 years. He palled around with Lenny Bruce, the pioneering 1950s 'sick' comic, and even edited Bruce’s autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. He was instrumental in founding the Yippies!, those radical 'Groucho Marxists' who fought the establishment in the late 1960s with theatrical, absurdist guerrilla monkeyshines. ... The Realist was a proto-underground magazine of 'Free-thought Criticism and Satire' begun in 1958. In its heyday, everyone from Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller to Woody Allen and Dick Gregory to Ken Kesey and Tim Leary to Art Spiegelman and S. Clay Wilson appeared on its cheap newsprint pages. ..."
Paul Krassner on Obama, Orgies, and the Art of Offensive Cartoons
W - The Realist
Fantagraphics: Paul Krassner/The Realist Cartoons ($)
THE REALIST ARCHIVE PROJECT
amazon: Best of The Realist
YouTube: Author, Journalist, Stand-Up Comedian: Paul Krassner Interview - Political Comedy

American 50’s Record Clubs: Jazztone

"My French Rollins title is a typically gutsy mid-’50s fairly heavy vinyl pressing."
"Hot on the heels of the American Recording Society post, the Jazztone record club needs to be given some attention. The Jazztone Society was the first independent jazz record club in the United States, an offspring of Concert Hall Society, a classical music mail order business created by David Josefowitz and his brother Sam, entrepreneurial offspring of Ukrainian emigres. ... The success of Concert Hall prompted diversification by adding a jazz record club, Jazztone. Jazztone operated for three years between 1955 and 1957. ..."
LondonJazzCollector
Discogs - Jazztone (Video)

Trump's Move On Keystone XL, Dakota Access Outrages Activists

"The Trump administration is pushing forward with plans for two major oil pipelines in the U.S., projects that sparked nationwide demonstrations and legal fights under President Barack Obama.
President Trump signed documents inviting the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline to resubmit a proposal for the project, which the Obama administration rejected in 2015, and instructing the Army to expedite the review and approval process for the section of the Dakota Access Pipeline that hasn't been built. ... Demonstrators, sometimes numbering in the thousands, set up several camps on occupied land near the proposed crossing site beginning last summer, in support of the Standing Rock Sioux. The tribe filed a lawsuit against the federal government to block the pipeline, which was retracted earlier this month. ..."
NPR: Trump's Move On Keystone XL, Dakota Access Outrages Activists
NY Times: **For Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Leader, Revival of Keystone XL Upsets a Balancing Act
NY Times: **Histories of Violence.
NY Times: The Conflicts Along 1,172 Miles of the Dakota Access Pipeline
Washington Post
The Spirit of Standing Rock on the Move 
The Verge: Trump resurrects stalled Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines (Video)
ACLU: Stand With Standing Rock
The Never-Ending Indian Wars: Spotlight Returns to Standing Rock
Tsunami of Outrage, Vows of Resistance Follow Trump's Pipeline Order


2011 July: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown, 2012 September: The Ghost Dance, 2016 September: A History and Future of Resistance, 2016 November: Dakota Access Pipeline protests, 2016 December: Police Violence Against Native Americans Goes Far Beyond Standing Rock, 2016 December: Dakota Protesters Say Belle Fourche Oil Spill 'Validates Struggle', 2017 January: A Murky Legal Mess at Standing Rock

Gil Scott-Heron's - Pieces of a Man (1971)

"Gil Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man set a standard for vocal artistry and political awareness that few musicians will ever match. His unique proto-rap vocal style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists, and nowhere is his style more powerful than on the classic 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.' Even though the media -- the very entity attacked in this song -- has used, reused, and recontextualized the song and its title so many times, the message is so strong that it has become almost impossible to co-opt. Musically, the track created a formula that modern hip-hop would follow for years to come: bare-bones arrangements featuring pounding basslines and stripped-down drumbeats. ..."
allmusic
W - Pieces of a Man
Genius: Introduction / The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Video)
amazon, iTunes
mixchoud: Pieces of a Man (1971) ~Full Album~
YouTube: Pieces Of A Man [Remastered + Bonus Tracks] 1:00:23

Rachel Carson

"Featuring the voice of Mary-Louise Parker as the influential writer and scientist, Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When Silent Spring was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides. Drawn from Carson’s own writings, letters and recent scholarship, the film illuminates both the public and private life of the soft-spoken, shy scientist who launched the modern environmental movement."
PBS (Video)
W - Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
NY Times: How ‘Silent Spring’ Ignited the Environmental Movement
amazom: Rachel Carson
YouTube: Pesticides - DDT - Rachel Carson - Silent Spring

The Weary Blues - Langston Hughes (1925)

Wikipedia - "'The Weary Blues' is a poem by American poet Langston Hughes. Written in 1925, 'The Weary Blues' was first published in the Urban League magazine, Opportunity. It was awarded the magazine's prize for best poem of the year. The poem was included in Hughes' first book, a collection of poems, also entitled The Weary Blues. ... 'The Weary Blues' takes place at an old Harlem bar on Lenox Avenue. There is a piano player playing the blues. As he plays, the speaker observes his body movement and the tone of his voice. Throughout the poem, several literary devices are used to guide the reader through the mixture of emotions the blues player is feeling. The vivid imagery and use of language gives the reader a more personal glimpse into the life of the man playing the blues. ..."
Wikipedia
On "The Weary Blues" - Steven C. Tracy
Poetry Foundation: When the Weary Blues Met Jazz (Video)
YouTube: Poetry by Langston Hughes - The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes - "The Weary Blues" on CBUT, 1958

Clarence Carter - Slip Away / Funky Fever (1968)

"What would I give / For just a few moments / What would I give / Just to have you near // Tell me you will try / To slip away somehow / Oh, I need you, darling / I want to see you right now // Can you slip away / Slip away / Slip away / Oh, I need you so...
Lyric Mode
W - Clarence Carter
Discogs
YouTube: Slip Away, Funky Fever

The Rebel Girl

Crowd in Patterson, New Jersey in 1913 during the IWW silk strike.
"In 1976, Life magazine marked the US bicentennial with a special report on 'Remarkable American Women.' I was thirteen years old at the time and I remember thumbing eagerly through the pages of the magazine, a gift from my mother to nurture my budding feminism. Among the 166 women profiled was the Rebel Girl, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (also known as the IWW or the Wobblies), free speech fighter, co-founder of the ACLU, and first female secretary of the Communist Party USA. Her bio and photo appeared in the section titled 'Noble Causes,' along with seventeen other 'Crusaders for the Sick, Poor and Oppressed,' including Angela Davis, Dorothy Day, Dolores Huerta, Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones, and Harriet Tubman. ..."
Jacobin
W - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
NWHM
YouTube: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Tenement Talk from March, 2015

Maggie Roche (1951-2017)

Maggie Roche, center, in 1985 with her sisters Suzzy, left, and Terre.
"Maggie Roche, co-founder of the idiosyncratic and influential sister trio The Roches, passed away on Saturday, January 21. Her sister and bandmate Suzzy Roche announced the death on Facebook and said the cause was breast cancer. NYT Obituary. Prior to forming the Roches, Maggie and sister Terre performed as a duo before Paul Simon asked them to contribute vocals to 'Was A Sunny Day' on his 1973 album, There Goes Rhymin' Simon (YT) (Spotify). Maggie and Terre subsequently released Seductive Reasoning (Spotify) (YT) in 1975, with contributions from Simon and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section. ... Adding youngest sister Suzzy in 1977, they properly re-christened themselves as The Roches, releasing a stunning self-titled debut album (YT) (Spotify) two years later. ..."
Metafilter (Video)
NY Times: Maggie Roche, Who Harmonized With Her Singing Sisters, Dies at 65

2008 August: The Roches