Stoop ball

"Stoop ball (also spelled 'stoopball') is a game that is played by throwing a ball against a stoop (stairs leading up to a building) on the pavement in front of a building. ... Historically, it has been popular in Brooklyn and other inner cities. It first became popular after World War II." W - "A Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball, often called a Spaldeen, is a small pink rubber ball, somewhat similar to a racquetball, supposedly made from the defective core of a tennis ball without the felt."
Wikipedia, W - Spaldeen, SI - "Confessions Of A Stoop Ball Champion", The Big Apple

Patti Smith & Christoph Schlingensief

Christoph Schlingensief & Patti Smith
"On the occasion of the premiere of Christoph Schlingensief’s Africa project Remdoogo – Stunde Null. Via Intolleranza II after Luigi Nono at the Munich Opera Festival 2010, Galerie Sonja Junkers shows photographs and film fragments by Christoph Schlingensief from Burkina Faso and Namibia, where he shot his film The African Twintowers, and selected photographs by Patti Smith."
Patti Smith & Christoph Schlingensief, MySpace, Galerie Sonja Junkers, Schlingensief

Thomas Mapfumo

Wikipedia - "Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo (born 1945) is a Zimbabwean musician known as 'The Lion of Zimbabwe' and 'Mukanya' for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his music, including his sharp criticism of the government of President Robert Mugabe. He both created and made popular Chimurenga music and his slow-moving style and distinctive voice is instantly recognizable to Zimbabweans."
Wikipedia, Afro Pop, last.fm, YouTube - Moyo Wangu, Ndozvamaida, Marehwarehwa pt.1, Part 2, Part 3, Guestbook: Thomas Mapfumo

Christian Marclay: Festival

"Christian Marclay can make music out of almost anything. He's composed scores out of found objects, clothing, record covers, and restaurant menus. Now, the Whitney Museum is presenting Christian Marclay: Festival. The show focuses on Marclay's "graphic scores," which will be interpreted by a number of musicians, some of whom he has worked with in the past, including Anthony Coleman, Butch Morris, Elliott Sharp, and Mary Halvorson."
WNYC, NY Times, Daily Serving

Édith Piaf

Wikipedia - "Édith Piaf ... born Édith Giovanna Gassion (December 19, 1915 – October 11, 1963), was a French singer and cultural icon who became universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads."
Wikipedia, Edith Piaf's Paris, last.fm, DailyMotion - La Vie En Rose, Non Je Ne Regrette Rien, Milord, Padam Padam, La Foule

Atomic Surgery

"From my homeworld of Swar in the 30th century I bring you...The Knowledge of The Future!"
Atomic Surgery

Judy Mowatt

Wikipedia - "Judy Mowatt (born in 1952) is a Jamaican singer."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - Black Woman, Slave Queen, Concrete Jungle, Joseph, Black Warrior Queen

The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme

After The Bath
"The J. Paul Getty Museum is the first of three venues to present The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme (June 15-September 12, 2010). This much-anticipated special exhibition, the first of its kind in nearly 40 years, features 99 works by the French artist (1824-1904) and important contemporaries."
Art Museum, The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme

Coming out in Lublin, Poland

"Around the city of Lublin Poland, on empty buildings as well as inhabited ones, in the alleys of the old city and on streets of the newer parts, I posted photos of different examples of Jewish people who lived on these streets in these houses of the center of Lublin in between in the nineteen twenties 'till 1941."
Wooster Collective

Prince Albert Hunt

"Originally titled Memories of Prince Albert Hunt, this film is a study of the wild short life of Prince Albert Hunt, a blues singer/fiddler from Terrell, Texas, who was murdered in 1931 by a jealous husband."
Folk Streams, The Old, Weird America, "Wake Up Jacob" - Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers, YouTube - Blues In The Bottle, Wake up Jacob

Bohemianism

George Sterling
Wikipedia - "Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits, with few permanent ties. Bohemians can be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds."
Wikipedia

Something Else Press

Emmett Williams. Anthology of Concrete Poetry, 1967. Something Else Press.
Wikipedia - "Something Else Press was founded by Dick Higgins in 1963. It published many important texts and artworks by Higgins, Gertrude Stein, George Brecht, Daniel Spoerri, Bern Porter, Emmett Williams and others. The Something Else Press was an early publisher of Concrete poetry and other works by Fluxus artists throughout the 1960s."
Wikipedia, Ubu

Grace Jones

Wikipedia - "Grace Jones (born May 19, 1948) is a Jamaican-American singer, model, and actress."
Wikipedia, the world of grace jones, last.fm, YouTube - Pull up to the bumper, I've seen that face before..., Walking in the Rain, Demolition Man, Corporate Cannibal, My Jamaican Guy, Libertango

George Schneeman

Collage by George Schneeman and Ron Padgett
"If George Schneeman was an 'unfairly obscure' painter, as The New Yorker once called him, he did not mind it very much. For Mr. Schneeman, making art was a deeply personal act, though also a highly social one. He was known in an intimate New York circle for his long, fruitful collaborations with a flock of well-known poets, among them Peter Schjeldahl, Anne Waldman, Larry Fagin and Ted Berrigan."
NY Times, CUE Art Foundation, Google

Cave paintings

Wikipedia - "Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest known European cave paintings date to Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known. The evidence suggests that they were not merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in which they have been found do not have signs of ongoing habitation."
Wikipedia, Lascaux

The Electric Prunes

Wikipedia - "The Electric Prunes are an American rock band who first achieved international attention as an experimental psychedelic group in the late 1960s. Their song Kyrie Eleison featured on the soundtrack of Easy Rider. After a period in which they had little control over their music, they disappeared for thirty years, reforming as a recording and touring band in 2001."
Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube - I Had Too Much To Dream, You Never Had It Better & I Had Too Much To Dream, Get Me To The Wor ld On Time

The CIVIL warS

Wikipedia - "The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down (rendered the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down) is an opera created in the early 1980s by director Robert Wilson to music by Philip Glass, David Byrne, Gavin Bryars and others. The vast five-act work has never been performed whole."
Wikipedia, Nonesuch, amazon, Knee Plays - David Byrne

SoHo

Wikipedia - "SoHo is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan in the United States. Prior to the mid-20th century, the area was known as Hell's Hundred Acres, and was described as an 'industrial wasteland', busy with sweatshops and small factories in the daytime, but empty at night. Before that, it was an area with more bars and brothels than anywhere else in the city."
Wikipedia

W. S. Merwin - The Art of Poetry No. 38

"In the past thirty-four years, you have published twelve books of poetry, three books of prose, and at least fifteen books in translation. Yet you said recently that 'writing is something I know little about.' How is that possible?"
The Paris Review

DAIN

"After two very successful New York shows, Brooklyn born artist DAIN, makes his first solo show in europe at the Lebenson Gallery in Paris. His love for old Hollywood glam is evident in all his work. This, along with his roots in graffiti, create a gritty yet classy street art style."
Lebenson Gallery

Dust Bowl Ballads

Wikipedia - "Dust Bowl Ballads is an album by Woody Guthrie, recorded for Victor Records during Guthrie's time in New York City in 1940. It was Guthrie's first commercial recording and the most successful album he made. It is sometimes considered the first concept album."
Wikipedia, Woody Guthrie: Dust Bowl Balladeer, youTube -Dust Bowl Refugee, Talking Dustbowl Blues, Dust Cain't Kill Me

Julius Heinrich Bissier

Dongo, 1964
"From 1947, after long struggles, Julius Heinrich Bissier managed to reintegrate color in his artwork. He produced colored monotypes and from 1948 also woodcuts. A short period focusing on geometric pictures on canvas followed in 1953. Around the mid 1950s the artist discovered watercolor techniques. At the same time Bissier produced his 'miniatures' in egg-oil-tempera."
Julius Heinrich Bissier, art.com

Red Barber

Wikipedia - "Walter Lanier 'Red' Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sportscaster. Barber, nicknamed 'The Ol' Redhead', was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds (1934–38), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966)."
Wikipedia, Radio Hall of Fame, npr, YouTube - Ernie Harwell and Red Barber, Red Barber on Jackie Robinson, Mel Allen and Red Barber on the 1947 World Series

Tellus #10: All Guitars! (1985)

"Tellus 'All Guitars' issue came out in 1985 and was curated by Tom Paine (Live Skull) and a cover art was created by Jane Bauman. As the title suggests, this is a collection of guitar pieces by various New York artists (and some of non-natives, as well). Thanks to UbuWeb sound archive, the compilation is available for download here."
I Heart Noise, UbuWeb

Juke joint

Cross Roads Store Bar juke joint. Melrose, Louisiana 1944
Wikipedia - "Juke joint (or jook joint) is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term 'juke' is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly. A juke joint may also be called a 'barrelhouse'. It could also derive from the Irish language 'deoch dionta' (drinking roofed place)."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Juke Joint, It Ain't A Juke Joint Without The Blues - Carl Sims, Fats Waller- This Joint Is Jump'in, Boogie Woogie Dream -Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson

Nurse with Wound

Wikipedia - "Nurse with Wound (or shortened as NWW) is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak. The band ranges in many genres such as avant-garde, industrial, noise, dark ambient, and drone."
Wikipedia, Nurse with Wound, lsat.fm, YouTube - The Bottom Feeder, I've Plummed This Whole Neighborhood, David Tibet live at Donau Festival, Trabendo, Paris - Part 1, Trabendo, Paris - Part 2

Simone de Beauvoir

Wikipedia - "Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, called Simone de Beauvoir (French pronunciation: [simɔn də boˈvwaʁ]; January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986), was a French writer, existentialist philosopher, feminist, Marxist, Maoist[1] and social theorist. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography in several volumes."
Wikipedia

Locus Solus

"The history and contents of the magazine Locus Solus provide insight into the type of progressive poetry circles and ideas Burroughs started tapping into with his small scale, textual cut-up works of the early 1960s. A testament to refined taste, Locus Solus was impeccably edited by John Ashbery (Issue 3/4), Kenneth Koch (Issue 2), and James Schuyler (Issue 1 and 5). Harry Matthews published the magazine in France."
RealityStudio, RS -Eureka: Locus Solus V

The Shirelles

Wikipedia - "The Shirelles were an American girl group in the early 1960s, and the first to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100."
Wikipedia, lsat.fm, YouTube - Will you still love me tomorrow?, Soldier Boy, Boys, Mamma Said, Dedicated to the one I love, Tonight's the night

Back to Rage Anew, Fires Smoldering Still

"'For your dubious pleasure!' John Lydon proclaimed as Public Image Ltd. started its set on Tuesday night at Terminal 5. That was Mr. Lydon’s famous cynicism. His corrosive mockery made him the voice of anarchy and nihilism for the brief, indelible punk flare-up of the Sex Pistols and then, from 1978 to 1992, a provocateur and post-punk pioneer as the leader of Public Image Ltd., abbreviated to PiL for the band’s logo."
NYT, npr - Public Image Ltd. Returns For A Thrilling Live Concert