The Long Brazilian Crisis

"Wednesday, January 24, 2018 might prove to be an infamous day in the history of Brazil. That day, a regional court of appeals in the southern city of Porto Alegre voted unanimously to uphold former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s corruption conviction, sentencing him to twelve years in prison. For many, Lula’s conviction marks a victory against the culture of elite impunity and criminality that scars Brazilian politics. For most of the Left, this judgment represents another nail in the coffin of Brazilian democracy, as a reactionary judiciary seeks to ban Brazil’s most popular politician from competing in the upcoming 2018 elections. ..."
Jacobin

What Trump’s Speech Says About His Mental Fitness

"As part of the discussion about Donald Trump's lack of fitness for the presidency, some have argued that his linguistic capacities have worsened, suggesting significant cognitive decline. In interviews in the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Trump speaks in complete sentences, using mature vocabulary and expressions. There aren’t the endless digressions that make his current mode of expression a kind of vocal fantasia. America has certainly never experienced a commander in chief who expressed himself in this fashion. In public, at least. However, the distinction between public and private speech is key here, so I am unconvinced that his current speech patterns can be analyzed as evidence of dementia. Instead, they’re characteristics of casual speech as it has always existed. It is easy to forget how much casual speech in general differs from writing. We tend to imagine our speech is tidier than it often is. The complete sentences and logical throughlines of writing are a stylization of speech, rather than a mirror image. Take this famous Trump utterance from July 2016. ..."
NY Times (Video)
GQ: It’s Officially Fair to Question Donald Trump’s Mental Fitness - Jan. 8, 2018 (Video)

His Master's Voice - Stanisław Lem (1968)

Wikipedia - "His Master's Voice (original Polish title: Głos Pana) is a science fiction novel on the "message from space" theme written by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. It was first published in 1968 and translated into English by Michael Kandel in 1983. It is a densely philosophical first contact story about an effort by scientists to decode, translate and understand an extraterrestrial transmission. The novel critically approaches humanity's intelligence and intentions in deciphering and truly comprehending a message from outer space. ... Throughout the book Hogarth—or rather, Lem himself—exposes the reader to many debates merging cosmology and philosophy: from discussions of epistemology, systems theory, information theory and probability, through the idea of evolutionary biology and the possible form and motives of extraterrestrial intelligence, with digressions about ethics in military-sponsored research, to the limitations of human science constrained by the human nature subconsciously projecting itself into the analysis of any unknown subject. ..."
Wikipedia
conceptual fiction
amazon

2011 June: Stanisław Lem, 2017 March: Pilot Pirx (1979-1982), 2017 April: The Star Diaries (1971)

Augustus Pablo Presents Rockers International (2015)

"Originally issued as two separate album releases this 2CD remastered edition collects up 28 Augustus Pablo classic from the golden age of Rockers. Melodica masterpieces, deep dubs and classic vocal sides from the likes of Jacob Miller, Junior Delgado, Earl Sixteen etc. all built on Augustus Pablo signature rock solid drum and bass foundations. The sound is very good--clean, warm, organic, and fairly crisp. The 10 page booklet has an essay on Pablo and the music, plus a list of musicians, a few period photos, and a list of tunes on each original album. These are the original albums with no extra tracks added. But none are really needed--Pablo's production along with King Tubby's mixing efforts make these tracks some of Pablo's best work. There's a lot to like here utilizing Pablo's production skills, and mixing by Tubby, Prince Phillip Smart, Prince Jammy, and a couple of others. Mixing was done at King Tubby's, Channel One, and Harry J's studios. ..."
Holland Tunnel Dive
amazon
YouTube: Augustus Pablo Presents Rockers International - 28 videos

why tapes matter

"I’m pretty obsessed with contemporary cassette culture. Over the last few years, countless young and ambitious efforts have adopted the format – sculpting one of the most vibrant contexts of new music I’ve encountered, yet it seems – caught by the object itself (or simply not having a tape deck), people often miss what makes it so special. It feels reductive to mention the all mighty dollar – but it counts, and is generally downplayed in narrative of seminal music. Art is supposed to come first – and it does, but particularly for those of us who have shuffled through a frustrating flux in formats during the last three decades, it has played a significant role. Though everyone has their preferences and reasons, a largely unspoken factor which contributed to the vinyl revival we are currently witnessing, is that for many years (the 90’s and the first half of the 2000’s) LPs were the cheapest way to buy music. ..."
the hum

Death and Feminism in a Nutshell

"Homicide. Suicide by hanging. A great deal of drinking, mainly of whiskey, mainly by men. Blood pooled on the floor. Chairs overturned. Many weapons: guns and knives and ropes. Burned Cabin, where a burned skeleton is barely visible, Dark Bathroom, which contains a dead woman in a bathtub beside an empty liquor bottle, and Unpapered Bedroom, in a boarding house where an unknown woman has been found dead. In Frances Glessner Lee’s dioramas, the world is harsh and dark and dangerous to women. 'The Nutshell Series of Unexplained Death,' her series of nineteen models from the fifties, are all crime scenes. Glessner Lee built the dioramas, she said, 'to convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell.' ..."
The Paris Review
Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (Video)
NY Times: Heiress Plotted 19 Grisly Crimes. Investigation Underway.
W - Frances Glessner Lee
NPR: The Tiny, Murderous World Of Frances Glessner Lee (Audio)

Red Winter - Anneli Furmark (2018)

"Timed perfectly to our snow day here in Montreal, Anneli Furmark's Red Winter hits stores today, and I can't think of a better book to curl up on the couch with. Set in northern Sweden in the late seventies, where the political climate is tense, and the harshness is exasperated by the relentless chill, Red Winter is a visual masterpiece, with a cold blue and orange watercolour palette that enhances Anneli's already incredibly expressive cartooning style. Though the story revolves around Siv, a married mother of three, and her young lover, Ulrik, a communist recently arrived from southern Sweden, with a mission to infiltrate the local steelworkers union, at its core, it's the story of a mother reclaiming her sense of self. ..."
Drawn and Quarterly
Anneli Furmark
amazon

Carlos Henriquez - The Bronx Pyramid (2015)

"There is topographical significance in the musical architecture of Carlos Henriquez’s record, The Bronx Pyramid and it is a bold thesis, one that has gained considerable momentum in recent years. It attempts to create a quadrangular base that stretches from Havana, New Orleans, The Bronx and San Juan with Mother Africa as its apex. While the idea of such a cultural nexus may not be new, Mr. Henriquez has, like a musical architect of considerable talent, created something truly noteworthy. It is music, that is, rooted in a dramatically enriched cultural sod and the bassist’s roots run very deep. Tito Puente (though not the first protagonist) had a great deal ‘to say’ about this in his music when he was alive. And like this illustrious ancestor, Carlos Henriquez has added not just to the conversation, but to the musical language as well. ..."
Latin Jazz Network
NPR - Carlos Henriquez: The Bronx Pyramid (Audio)
amazon, iTunes
Soundcloud: The Bronx Pyramid - Carlos Henriquez (feat. Pedrito Martinez), Descarga Entre Amigos - Carlos Henriquez (feat. Rubén Blades)
YouTube: The Bronx Pyramd Live at Dizzy's 2016 - PART1, PART2
YouTube: The Bronx Pyramid (full album) 10 videos

Flash Mob: Revolution, Lightning, and the People’s Will

Detail from La Liberté Triomphante (1792), showing Liberty brandishing a thunderbolt in one hand and a Phrygian cap on a stick in the other
"It is often observed that the French Revolution was a revolution of scientists. Nourished by airy abstractions and heartfelt cries to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, its leaders sought a society grounded, not in God or tradition, but in what Edmund Burke decried as 'the conquering empire of light and reason'. To be sure, if we tallied the professional affiliations of the members of the first National Assembly, we would find it overwhelmingly populated by lawyers. But the revolution’s symbols and motifs were not derived from legal practices and traditions, and it was not as men of law that Maximilien Robespierre and Jean-Paul Marat called for the death of their king and the creation of a democratic republic. Rather, they did so as scientists—middle class intellectuals who saw in government a field ripe for experimentation, innovation, and improvement. ..."
Public Domain Review

2014 February: French Revolution Digital Archive, 2015 July: A Guide to the French Revolution, 2016 April: Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France, 2017 March: Paris Commune 1871, 2017 June: BBC: Paris - City of Dreams

Harold Budd: Ambient drifting in London

"... An invitation to support the legendary American minimalist pianist Harold Budd in a forthcoming London show was a real joy this week. Described as an ‘ambient music master’ by the Guardian newspaper, I remember hearing his work for the first time as a teenager. The Pavilion of Dreams was released back in 1978 on Brian Eno’s exploratory record label, Obscure, bringing forth this warm, organic world, bridging the avant-garde and dream worlds. Looking over the credits now many years later I realise that it features the playing of several musical friends, Richard Bernas, Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars. Nor would I ever have imagined my world connecting to these folks all those years ago, whilst I sat quietly in my bedroom listening to this exquisite music. ..."
Scanner (Video)
W - Harold Budd
The Sound-Painted World of Harold Budd
YouTube: The Pavilion Of Dreams (1978) FULL ALBUM

L'Eclisse - Michelangelo Antonioni (1962)

Wikipedia - "L'Eclisse (English: "Eclipse") is a 1962 Italian drama film written and directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Alain Delon and Monica Vitti. Filmed on location in Rome and Verona, L'Eclisse is about a young woman who breaks up with an older lover and then has an affair with a confident young stockbroker whose materialistic nature eventually undermines their relationship. The film is considered the last part of a trilogy, and is preceded by L'Avventura (1960) and La Notte (1961). ... While Antonioni's earlier film L'Avventura had been derided upon its 1960 premiere, it was quickly reevaluated to the extent that L'Eclisse became 'the most eagerly awaited film of the 1962 Cannes Film Festival'; critics had begun to believe that Antonioni's approach 'was perhaps one way forward for an artform that was in danger of endlessly repeating itself.' ..."
Wikipedia
Guardian: L'Eclisse review – Antonioni's strange and brilliant film rereleased
The Film Sufi
New Yorker: Movie of the Week: “The Eclipse” By Richard Brody (Video)
The Emotional Historiography of Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse

2011 September: Red Desert (1964), 2014 December: The Passenger (1975), 2017 April: Blow-Up (1966), 2017 October: L'Avventura (1960), 2017 December: La Notte (1961)

The Subway Is Next Door. Should New Yorkers Pay Extra for That?

"Ever since August Belmont Jr. arranged the financing for a four-track 'underground railroad' more than a century ago, the subway has fueled New York City’s economy, delivering workers from homes in distant neighborhoods to jobs in Manhattan and enriching landlords and real estate developers near stations. Today, with the subway in precipitous decline and the city enjoying an economic boom, some policymakers think the time has come for the subway to profit from the financial benefits it provides, including its considerable contribution to property values. Proponents point to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where co-op and condominium prices in a 10-block stretch near the Second Avenue subway have risen 6 percent since it opened in January 2017, according to figures from the Corcoran Group, a large real estate firm. ..."
NY Times
NY Times: Your Train Is Delayed. Why? (Video)

Brazil Classics 1 - Beleza Tropical (1988)

"Brazilian popular music plays a larger role in the cultural life of Brazil than popular music seems to elsewhere. It wasn’t until the second half of the of twentieth century that a majority of the population was literate. And a large majority of Brazilians still live below the poverty line. Perhaps these facts contribute to the importance of oral tradition in Brazil. Brazilian Portuguese is constantly evolving, and its speakers maintain a very playful relationship with it. Despite the poverty and isolation of much of Brazil, the literate portion of the population is exceptionally informed. They have an acute awareness of cultural developments in the rest of the world. ... - David Byrne, June 1988"
Luaka Bop
amazon, iTunes
Discogs
YouTube: Brazil Classics 1: Beleza Tropical (Video)

2017 January: The Rise and Rise of Forró – The Couples’ Dance from Northeast Brazil

28 Days, 28 Films for Black History Month

Francine Everett as Gertie La Rue, a nightclub performer who flees Harlem for a Caribbean island.
"It has been almost a year since Barry Jenkins’s 'Moonlight' won the Oscar for best picture. This awards season, Jordan Peele’s 'Get Out' and Dee Rees’s 'Mudbound' have received multiple nominations and accolades, optimistic signs that black filmmakers are receiving more opportunities in the movie industry. ... The critical and box-office success of 'Get Out' and the very existence of big-studio productions like 'Black Panther' are good reasons to revisit the remarkable, complex story of black filmmaking in America. For Black History Month, we have selected 28 essential films from the 20th century pertaining to African-American experiences. These aren’t the 28 essential black-themed films, but a calendar of suggested viewing. We imposed a chronological cutoff in an effort to look back at where we were and how we got to here. ..."
NY Times (Video)

Lou Reed - Street Hassle (1978)

Wikipedia - "Street Hassle is the eighth solo studio album by American musician Lou Reed, released in February 1978 by Arista Records. Richard Robinson and Reed produced the album. It is the first commercially released pop album to employ binaural recording technology. Street Hassle combines live concert tapes (with overdubs) and studio recordings. All of the songs on Street Hassle were written by Reed, including 'Real Good Time Together', a track that dates back to his days as a member of the Velvet Underground. The album was met with mostly positive reviews, with AllMusic's Mark Deming writing, 'Raw, wounded, and unapologetically difficult, Street Hassle isn't the masterpiece Reed was shooting for, but it's still among the most powerful and compelling albums he released during the 1970s, and too personal and affecting to ignore.' ..."
Wikipedia
Babe, I’m On Fire: the Making of Lou Reed Street Hassle
Genius (Audio)
Lou Reed found his voice again on “Street Hassle”
Discogs
Scratch The Surface :: Lou Reed, Street Hassle (MP3)
YouTube: Street Hassle live Firenze 1980, Street Hassle (music video)
YouTube: Street Hassle (Full Album)

2010 August: Heroin, 2011 June: All Tomorrow's Parties - The Velvet Underground, 2011 June: The Velvet Underground, 2012 November: Songs for Drella - Lou Reed and John Cale, 2013 October: Lou Reed (1942 - 2013), 2014 June: The Bells (1979), 2014 August: New York (1989), 2015 June: Capitol Theatre Passaic, NJ 9/25/1984, 2015 October: The Blue Mask (1982), 2016 March: New Sensations (1984), 2016 May: Coney Island Baby (1976), 2017 March: Celebrating Lou Reed: 1942–2013, 2017 November: Watch Footage of the Velvet Underground Composing...

How Muslim Women Use Fashion To Exert Political Influence

Muslim women wearing modest fashion in (from left to right) Turkey, Iran, and Indonesia
"I have been researching Muslim women’s fashion since 2004. My comparative investigation has taken me to three locations: Tehran, Iran; Yogyakarta, Indonesia; and Istanbul, Turkey. While there have been studies of Muslim women’s clothing in many individual countries, there are few cross-cultural and transnational comparisons. As I undertook such a comparison over the next dozen years, I found surprise, pleasure, and delight in pious fashion. My conversations about modest clothing with women around the world also challenged those neat intellectual boxes to which I had grown overly accustomed in the United States. Each of the three Muslim-majority, non-Arab countries where I conducted my ethnographic research has its own history of regulating women’s clothing through official dress codes. These regulations reflect the idea that women’s modest clothing is a sign of something else—whether a 'bad' sign that Muslim women need saving or a 'good' sign of the honor and moral health of an entire nation. For much of the last 100 years, battles over these signs have been instigated by male elites to further political agendas that have had little to do with improving the lives of actual women. ..."
The Atlantic
W - Women in Iran
W - Women in Indonesia
W - Women in Turkey

Indonesia

The Democrats’ Massive, Foolish Omission

Joe Kennedy III
"Immediately following President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Senator Bernie Sanders was staring into a video camera, wearing his usual exasperated frown. Sanders had a right to be frustrated with the president. Record-breaking hurricanes, extreme flooding, and raging wildfires wreaked emotional, economic, and environmental havoc on America last year. Each of these horrors were fueled by climate change—a problem caused by humans, but which is also fixable by humans, if there’s the political will. ... The official response to Trump from the Democratic Party, by Congressman Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, didn’t mention climate change once. Neither did Virginia state lawmaker Elizabeth Guzman, who gave the Spanish-language response. ..."
New Republic
NY Times: Joseph P. Kennedy III Gives Democratic Response to State of the Union (Video)
Democrats Ignore Climate Change In State Of The Union Rebuttal (Video)
Who Is Massachusetts Representative Joe Kennedy III? (Video)
W - Joe Kennedy III

Burlington officials grapple with controversial mural

The mural, along an alley off Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace, was painted in 2012 to mark the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s arrival in the Champlain Valley in 1609.
"City officials have begun the process for deciding what to do with a controversial downtown mural that has been called inaccurate, non-representative and racist. When Burlington activist Albert Petrarca spray painted the words 'Off the Wall' on the prominent Church Street mural meant to depict the history of Burlington last October, he likely sparked the events that led to Monday’s city council decision to have the city attorney report on the legal ramifications of its removal. Petrarca was making a political statement at the time, and through his act of vandalism was attempting to show the lack of racial and historical representation in the mural. ..."
VT Digger
W - Samuel de Champlain

Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes Reissued

"Arc Light Editions, the reissue label curated by The Wire's Jennifer Lucy Allan, have announced the details of their second release, following last year's first ever vinyl pressing of Arthur Russell's Another Thought album. Released on 12th April, it will be a vinyl reissue of American composer Ingram Marshall's 1984 release Fog Tropes/Gradual Requiem, originally released through Foster Reed's New Albion label and not repressed on vinyl since. The two pieces it gathers, 1981's Fog Tropes and 1980's Gradual Requiem, are among Marshall's best-known, drawing together environmental field recordings, brass instruments and voice into extended, exquisitely slow-to-unfold musical movements. You can listen to clips from its six tracks via the embed below. ..."
The Quietus (Audio)
Discogs
W - Ingram Marshall
amazon
YouTube: Fog Tropes, Gradual Requiem
YouTube: Fog Tropes (Live)

Americans - Smithsonian

Likenesses of American Indians have been used to sell everything from cigars to station wagons.
"Festooned with a colorful collection of movie posters, magazine spreads, supermarket products, college merchandise and more, the towering walls of the 3,000-square-foot gallery space at the heart of the National Museum of the American Indian’s new 'Americans' exhibition are initially downright overwhelming. Here, a sporty yellow Indian-make motorbike; there, a bullet box from the Savage Arms gun company. Here, an ad for Columbia Pictures’ The Great Sioux Massacre; there, scale models of the U.S. military’s Chinook, Kiowa and Apache Longbow helicopters. It’s a dizzying blizzard of pop cultural artifacts with nothing at all in common—save for their reliance on Native American imagery. ..."
Smithsonian: Probing the Paradoxes of Native Americans in Pop Culture (Video)
Americans - Smithsonian (Video)

Hollywood milked the cowboys-and-Indians genre for all it was worth.

Slapp Happy - Ça Va (1998)

"Released in 1998, Slapp Happy's Ça Va was the first album issued by the trio of Dagmar Krause, Peter Blegvad, and Anthony Moore since the mid-'70s collaboration with Henry Cow, Desperate Straights. The arty instrumentation and arrangements of the early days -- which ranged from a rather twisted version of British folk-pop to avant cabaret to (in collaboration with Henry Cow) confrontational art rock and even pure sonic experimentation -- are gone, replaced by a more commercial blend of pop music sounds, including looped samples. Nearly everything is played by Blegvad and Moore, whose vocals sound as engaging as they ever have, with Blegvad the literate and somewhat eccentric transatlantic singer/songwriter and Moore mining moodier John Cale-styled pop/rock territory. ..."
allmusic (Audio)
W - Ça Va
Discogs
YouTube: Scarred for Life, Working At The Ministry (Montage), Coralie, Silent The Voice, Powerful Stuff

2013 January: Desperate Straights - Slapp Happy / Henry Cow, 2015 May: Acnalbasac Noom - Slapp Happy and Faust (1973)

Hipster Culture and Instagram Are Responsible for a Good Thing

Jason Coatney works on the Spotify mural.
"Some punk kids have no dreams at all. Paul Lindahl was a skater and a drummer in a band when he found himself dreaming of painting advertisements. 'There was a paint production company in Portland, Oregon,' he said. 'I was like, oh my God, that’s amazing. Big-format murals, I want to do that.' Before the advent of low-cost vinyl plotters, large-format hand-painted murals were the norm for advertisements in cities across America. Mural painting was a trade passed on through a system of informal apprenticeship, much like plumbing or tattooing. By the mid-1990s, when Mr. Lindahl started dreaming, opportunities for new painters were few and far between. Hand-painted ads had become a niche product, an expensive last resort in landmark districts with strict signage laws. ..."
NY Times

Hunting for the Lost River of Paris

"La Seine, immortalized by artists and adored by lovers dangling their feet over the quay, harbours a dark secret. Under the fifth and thirteenth arrondissements grumbles la Bièvre, the Seine’s younger sibling who was banished to the netherworld exactly one hundred and one years ago. Starting thirty-three kilometers away in the Yvelines and feeding into the Seine at Gare d’Austerlitz, the Bièvre was once a vibrant river that attracted people way back in the Neolithic period. It was eventually named after the beavers that lived on its banks (derived from the Gaul bèbros). In the beginning, the Bièvre followed the course that the Seine follows now. ..."
Messy Nessy Chic

2007 July: Paris Walking Tours, 2011 February: La Seine, 2016 June: Crowds Are Out, Crates Are In as Louvre Takes Flood Precautions, 2017 November: Paris Wants to Build a Few Garden Bridges

Cleveland Indians Will Remove 'Chief Wahoo' From Uniforms In 2019

"The Cleveland Indians will be removing 'Chief Wahoo,' the bright red caricature of a Native American the team uses as a logo, from players' caps and uniforms starting in 2019. The divisive logo, which has been publicly protested as a racist and offensive image for decades, will remain on official merchandise available for purchase by fans. 'The team must maintain a retail presence so that MLB and the Indians can keep ownership of the trademark,' the Associated Press reports. The Indians announced the change on Monday. The team name — which has also been criticized as offensive — will not be changing. ..."
NPR

DJ LEXIS: Digging Is His Sanctuary

"Montreal-based collector Alexis Charpentier is nothing if not eclectic. He’s equally comfortable digging for fusion jazz records in Serbia as he is vibing to Quebec hip-hop. With a voracious appetite for musical knowledge, DJ Lexis’ collection spans genre and medium to create the best collection in the world—for him, anyway. Lexis has said that he wouldn’t trade his 10,000-plus albums for anyone else’s, not even those of his biggest influence, Gilles Peterson. Each album holds a special memory, personal history or intrinsic magic that’s a result of an intense dig or memorable moment with a friend. Yet Lexis will be the first to say that he doesn’t only collect for himself. He’s traveled the world to dig for vinyl and spin, exposing an untold number of ears to obscure Canadian sounds and unique mixes. ..."
Dust & Grooves (Audio)
LEXIS (Founder of Music Is My Sanctuary) (Audio)
twitter
Discogs - Crate Diggers Montreal Spotlight: DJ Lexis (Video)

Either/Or - Søren Kierkegaard (1843)

Wikipedia - "Either/Or (Danish: Enten – Eller) is the first published work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Appearing in two volumes in 1843 under the pseudonymous editorship of Victor Eremita (Latin for "victorious hermit"), it outlines a theory of human existence, marked by the distinction between an essentially hedonistic, aesthetic mode of life and the ethical life, which is predicated upon commitment. Either/Or portrays two life views. Each life view is written and represented by a fictional pseudonymous author, with the prose of the work reflecting and depending on the life view being discussed. For example, the aesthetic life view is written in short essay form, with poetic imagery and allusions, discussing aesthetic topics such as music, seduction, drama, and beauty. The ethical life view is written as two long letters, with a more argumentative and restrained prose, discussing moral responsibility, critical reflection, and marriage. The views of the book are not neatly summarized, but are expressed as lived experiences embodied by the pseudonymous authors. ..."
Wikipedia
amazon

2011 July: Søren Kierkegaard, 2013 April: Repetition (1843), 2013 December: The Quotable Kierkegaard, 2014 October: Fear and Trembling - Søren Kierkegaard (1843), 2014 December: The Dark Knight of Faith - Existential Comics, 2015 July: I still love Kierkegaard, 2015 October: The Concept of Anxiety (1844), 2016 October: Cruel intentions, 2017 July: Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter

Women’s Marches: Art in Action

"At this dangerous moment in history, our actions will determine our very survival. As artists, we use our pens, our pencils, our brushes, and our ideas to cast a light on darkness and combat the forces that are driving us towards a precipice. Curated by Andrea Arroyo, Steve Brodner, and Peter Kuper, OppArt features artistic dispatches from the front lines of resistance—check back each day as a diverse set of artists take aim and draw."
The Nation

I Called Him Morgan (2017)

"In February 1972, in the midst of a blizzard, the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan died after being shot in a Manhattan nightclub by his common-law wife, Helen. The shooting was tragic and traumatic for those who were there — one of Morgan’s band mates stayed away from New York for many years after — but for the rest of the world, it has the qualities of a sad, strange, faded tabloid story. 'I Called Him Morgan,' a suave and poignant documentary by Kasper Collin, dusts off the details of Morgan’s life and death and brushes away the sensationalism, too. This is not a lurid true-crime tale of jealousy and drug addiction, but a delicate human drama about love, ambition and the glories of music. Edged with blues and graced with that elusive quality called swing, the film makes generous and judicious use of Morgan’s recordings. The scarcity of film clips and audio of Morgan’s voice is made up for by vivid black-and-white photographs and immortal tracks from the Blue Note catalog. There are fewer pictures of Helen Morgan, who didn’t like to be photographed. ..."
NY Times: ‘I Called Him Morgan,’ a Jazz Tale of Talent and Tragedy (Video)
I Called Him Morgan (Video)
W - I Called Him Morgan
YouTube: I Called Him Morgan - Trailer

The Snooty Bookshop: Thirty Literary Postcards by Tom Gauld

"Tom Gauld (Mooncop, You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, Goliath) has created countless iconic strips for the Guardian over the course of his illustrious career. A master of condensing grand, highbrow themes into one-to-eight panel comics, Gauld’s weekly Guardian strips embody his trademark British humor, while simultaneously opening comics to an audience unfamiliar with the artistry that cartooning has to offer. Funny but serious, the Guardian comics allow Gauld to put his impressive knowledge of history, literature, and pop culture on full display—his impeccable timing, and distinctive visual style setting him apart from the rest. ... Witty and beautifully drawn, Gauld’s collection will make you chuckle at least thirty times, guaranteed."
Drawn & Quarterly
Tom Gauld


2017 October: Baking With Kafka (2017)

Tension in the Mist - A device-duet in layers by Joseph Branciforte

"This short test run by a composer based in Brooklyn by the name of Joseph Branciforte combines two devices toward layered, fragile effect. One is a synthesizer that provides for patching by cables to produce various sounds, patterns, and textures. The other, into which the synthesizer’s signals flow, is a delay pedal, which lends a sense of spaciousness that is in direct contrast to the tiny footprint of the actual boxes. ... This is the latest video I’ve added to my YouTube playlist of recommended live performances of ambient music. Video originally published to Branciforte’s YouTube channel. More from Branciforte at josephbranciforte.com, instagram.com/josephbranciforte, and twitter.com/josbranciforte. Branciforte did me the honor recently of adding to a track I’d recorded as part of a Disquiet Junto project.
disquiet (Video)
Soundcloud: Joseph Branciforte (Audio)
Joseph Branciforte (Video)
Berklee (Video)

Memories of Underdevelopment - Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (1968)

Wikipedia - "Memories of Underdevelopment ... is a 1968 Cuban film. Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, the story is based on a novel by Edmundo Desnoes entitled Inconsolable Memories (Inconsolable Memorias). It was Alea's fifth film, and probably his most famous worldwide. The film gathered several awards at international film festivals.Sergio, a wealthy bourgeois aspiring writer, decides to stay in Cuba even though his wife and friends flee to Miami. Sergio looks back over the changes in Cuba, from the Cuban Revolution to the missile crisis, the effect of living in an underdeveloped country, and his relations with his girlfriends Elena and Hanna. Memories of Underdevelopment is a complex character study of alienation during the turmoil of social changes. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
NY Times: Outside Cuba’s Revolution, Looking In
NY Times: 'Memories,' Cuban Film, Draws a Bead on Alienation
MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT by Julia Lesage
Guardian
YouTube: Memories of Underdevelopment 1:34

Shango - Peter King (1974)

"Shango by Peter King is an album loaded with history. Originally recorded in 1974 in a Camden studio session funded by money from a TV soundtrack recorded by King a few years earlier, it remained unreleased for close to 30 years despite King releasing five albums in the years that followed, the band touring America, Europe and Japan and King establishing himself in the West as one of Nigeria s finest multiinstrumentalist. It finally saw release in 2002 by which point King had returned to his homeland to found the Peter King College of Music and continue his lifelong dedication to seeing how far I can go with Highlife fusion. Musically the album is equally loaded. Headed by King, who wrote and played saxophone and flute, the band included David Williams on bass, Paul Edoh on congas, James Menin on drums, Arthur Simon on guitar, Mike Falana on trumpet and Humphrey Okoh-Turner on alto sax. Together they fused funk, jazz and afrobeat and added hard-hitting vocal messages including calls for freedom in Africa album closer Watusi is about the struggle for freedom and democracy in Angola during the 1970s and references to African history and the Yoruba religion. ..."
Holland Tunnel Dive
allmusic
W - Peter King
Soundcloud: Shango
amazon
YouTube: Shango, Go Go's Feast, Mr Lonely Wolf, Prisoner Of Law, Freedom Dance

Poetry Reading Flyers of the Mimeograph Revolution

"Hello! I'm Sluggo. Just Wanted to Let You Know," for a reading by Clark Coolidge and Larry Fagin at The New York Studio School
"Poetry reading flyers are transitory by nature — quickly printed, locally distributed, easily discarded and thus frequently overlooked by scholars and curators when researching and documenting literary activities. They appear from time to time as fleeting one-offs in archives and collections, yet when viewed in the context of a large group these seemingly ephemeral objects take on significance as primary documents. Through close observation of this collection of poetry reading flyers, one gains insight into considerations of the development and representation of literary communities and affiliations of poets, the interplay of visual image, text and design, and the evolution of printing technology. A great many of the flyers appeared during the flowering of the mimeo revolution, an extraordinarily rich period of literary activity which was in part characterized by a profusion of poetry readings, performances, and publications documented by the flyers. This collection includes flyers from the mid-sixties to the present with a focus on the seventies, and embraces a range of poets and national venues with particular attention to activity in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. ..."
Granary Books

For a benefit "Brunch / Reading with Margaret Randall" at La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley, February 2, n.d. Flyer. 8-1/2 x 11 inches.

Trump Ordered Mueller Firing Last June

"President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive. The West Wing confrontation marks the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice. Amid the first wave of news media reports that Mr. Mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the president began to argue that Mr. Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation, two of the people said. ..."
NY Times (Video)
Washington Post: Special counsel is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, officials say (Video)
CNN: 5 things Trump's attempted firing of Robert Mueller teaches us (Video)

The Junction

"Broadway Junction is a place from which parting is the objective. Bed-Stuy, East New York, Brownsville, and Bushwick collide beneath the multilevel edifice of concrete and steel, where the A, C, J, Z, and L trains intersect. A woman sells churros, performers jump through hoops, and men and women preach about repentance while commuters cut through angular tunnels with a learned precision and speed. Planes descend overhead toward JFK, while in the distance, Manhattan looks like a hazy exaggerated version of itself. Even when standing still, everyone, and everything, is in motion, always on the way. Photos by Will DeNatale."
BKLYNR

Jon Gibson by Britton Powell

"Whether you’re drawing a straight line or zig-zagging through the history of American Minimalist music, there is one person you’re bound to meet. Jon Gibson is a New York-based composer and performer with an encyclopedic list of collaborators, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Arthur Russell, and Terry Riley. Gibson’s own work evokes a sense of uncharted exoticism that invites the listener to spin the compass and follow. His phrasing and textures float like smoke in the air—boundless, serpentine, and weightless. Arriving at Gibson’s loft in Tribeca feels like entering the territory of his imagination. Sheet music covered with arpeggios line almost every surface, echoing the rhythmically patterned geometries of Gibson’s own visual art. Golden gongs bask in the window’s light, Tibetan tapestries drape the walls, and sculptures of dragonflies hang from the ceiling, slowly spinning. Seeing all this, you immediately feel that Gibson’s home is a safe haven from the city below. ..."
BOMB (Video)


2017 October: In Good Company (1992)

We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960)

Wikipedia - "We Insist! (subtitled Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite) is a jazz album released on Candid Records in 1960. It contains a suite which composer and drummer Max Roach and lyricist Oscar Brown had begun to develop in 1959 with a view to its performance in 1963 on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. The cover references the sit-in movement of the Civil Rights Movement. The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album one of its rare crown accolades, in addition to featuring it as part of its Core Collection. The music consists of five selections concerning the Emancipation Proclamation and the growing African independence movements of the 1950s. Only Roach and vocalist Abbey Lincoln perform on all five tracks, and one track features a guest appearance by saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. We Insist! is an avant-garde jazz album and a vocal-instrumental suite on themes related to the Civil Rights Movement. ... Brown and Roach began collaborating in 1959 on a longer piece that they planned to perform at the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. However, the urgency of civil rights issues steered them towards a new project in 1960, the album that would become the Freedom Now Suite. ..."
Wikipedia
Liner Notes — We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite, by Nat Hentoff
allmusic
Discogs
amazon, iTunes
YouTube: We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite(Video)

Edward Hopper - Seven A.M. (1948)

"In her diary entry for September 22, 1948, Josephine Hopper recorded the completion of her husband Edward’s most recent painting: 'E. has done this canvas in 16 days. I find on looking back he stretched it on Labor Day Sept. 6. This [is] a very short time.' The painting she describes, Seven A.M., depicts an anonymous storefront cast in the oblique, eerie shadows and cool light of early morning. If the fullness of summer is suggested by the lush foliage at the left, the mood is decidedly off-season and desolate. The store’s shelves stand empty, and the few odd products displayed in the window provide no evidence of the store’s function. A clock on the wall confirms the time given in the title, and indeed the painting seems to depict a specific moment and place. Yet a series of Hopper’s preparatory sketches reveal that he experimented with significant compositional variations, depicting a figure in the second-story window. He even considered setting the painting at another time of day. Josephine Hopper described the storefront as a 'blind pig,' a front for some illicit operation, perhaps alluding to the painting’s forbidding overtones."
Whitney

2008 July: Edward Hopper, 2010 October: Finding Nighthawks, 2010 December: Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time, 2012 Wednesday: Through Edward Hopper's eyes: in search of an artist's seaside inspiration, 2013 July: Hopper Drawing, 2014 May: INTERVIEW: “An Interview with Edward Hopper, June 17, 1959″., 2014 September: How Edward Hopper “Storyboarded” His Iconic Painting Nighthawks, 2015 February: Edward Hopper's New York: A Walking Tour, 2015 September: Edward Hopper life and works, 2016 May: "Night Windows," 1928, 2016 July: Sunday (1926), 2016 September: Drug Store (1927)

The Deep Blue Moods (Chance, Zorn, Ribot) at The Cooler, NYC 9.28.95

"James Chance, Robert Aaron, AJ Mantas, Ron Miller, Richard Dworkin, John Zorn, and Marc Ribot, performing Ain't Nobodies Business If I Do, Yesterdays, Leave My Girl Alone (with Luther Thomas and Judy Taylor). Filmed by Rich Spezialo. September 28, 1995 at The Cooler in NYC."
YouTube: The Deep Blue Moods (Chance, Zorn, Ribot) at The Cooler, NYC 9.28.95 (Video)
W - The Cooler (night club)

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), 2017 January: Twist Your Soul: The Definitive Collection (2010), 2017 April: Contort Yourself / (Tropical) Heatwave full 12” (1979), 2017 May: Filmed by Libin+Cameron: James White & The Blacks (1980 Live Performance Hurrah NightClub), 2017 August: Live Aux Bains Douches - Paris 1980, 2017 September: Soul Exorcism Redux - James Chance & The Contortions (2007)