The Pont Neuf Wrapped - Christo and Jeanne Claude

"Christo and Jeanne Claude's first grand-scale urban project, wrapping the oldest bridge in Paris - the same bridge where Christo courted Jeanne-Claude. A love story set in the heart of Paris: between a refugee artist and a French General's daughter; between a 400-year-old bridge and the people of Paris. Since the days of King Henry IV, the Pont Neuf has inspired artists. Now it is the focus of the environmental artists, Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude - and the millions of Parisians who watch them create an astounding architectural poem. Rich in political intrigue and artistic debate, this film tracks Christo's escape from Bulgaria, his early years as a struggling artist, his romance with Jeanne-Claude and the fulfillment of a ten-year obsession: the wrapping of the Pont Neuf."
Maysles Films
Christo and Jeanne-Claude | Projects | The Pont Neuf Wrapped
The Pont Neuf Wrapped

Rembrandt 400 in the Rijksmuseum

"In 2006, the Rijksmuseum celebrated Rembrandt van Rijn's 400th birthday. This page offers an overview of all the Rembrandt 400 Rijksmuseum exhibitions, specials and activities."
Rembrandt 400 in the Rijksmuseum
Wikipedia
Rembrandt 400 (Video)
YouTube: Amsterdam Rijksmuseum Rembrandt

The Velvet Underground

Wikipedia - "The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited by many critics as one of the most important and influential groups of the 1960s."
Wikipedia
Rockhall
amazon: The Velvet Underground
YouTube: Femme Fatale, Venus in furs, What Goes On, Heroin, Stephanie Says, Some Kind of Love, After Hours, Sweet Jane, Beginning to See the Light, Ocean

Tom Clark reviews "100 Multiple-Choice Questions" by John Ashbery

"100 Multiple-Choice Questions is

1. a vast electrical disturbance
2. a cut-up of student examination papers
3. tremendously funny
4. spanking new/old stuff just out & need-to-get
5. a work that travels at the velocity of glacial drift
6. more complex hygronomy from the author of A Kind of Waffle"

Jacket2

Daniel Hernández-Salazar

"Daniel Hernández-Salazar is among my very favorite photographers. I respect him immensely and have posted on his work here on several occasions before. His photography - and the ongoing struggle for political memory in his native Guatemala with which it is entangled - are featured in this recent post on the Lens blog at The New York Times. Daniel Hernández-Salazar stands as a striking counterexample to those who blindly insist that art and politics don't mix."
Daniel Hernández-Salazar (Again)
amazon
NYT: Angels Watch Over Memories of War

The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. 1

Wikipedia - "The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe beginning in 1962. German jazz publicist Joachim-Ernst Berendt first had the idea of bringing original African-American blues performers to Europe. Jazz had become very popular, and rock and roll was just gaining a foothold, and both genres drew influences directly back to the blues. Berendt thought that European audiences would flock to concert halls to see them in person. Promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau brought this idea to reality. By contacting Willie Dixon, an influential blues composer and bassist from Chicago, they were given access to the blues culture of the southern United States."
Wikipedia
amazon
YouTube: The American Folk-Blues Festival 1962-1966 vol.1

John Houck

"John Houck works with photographic materials and executes architectural interventions. Through installations, he explores photography as a mode of thought, focusing on the relationship between embodied perception and depiction."
A Conversation with John Houck
John Houck

Listening to Instagram

"Late last year this site launched the Instagr/am/bient: 25 Sonic Postcards compilation album. The success of it, as measured by coverage (hilobrow.com, createdigitalmusic.com, theverge.com, blog.soundcloud.com) and listens (almost 40,000 between SoundCloud and the Free Music Archive, and nearly 16,000 downloads on top of that), continues to astound me. The biggest surprise for me, though, is how much I have embraced Instagram. The Instagr/am/bient project originated not out of enthusiasm for the popular image-sharing service but out of skepticism."
disquiet (Video)

Laraaji & Brian Eno - Ambient 3

Wikipedia - "Laraaji (born 1943) is an American musician. Born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia, he studied violin, piano, trombone and voice in his early years in New Jersey. ... In the early seventies he began to study Eastern mysticism and believed he'd found a new path for his music and his life. It was also at this time he bought his first zither from a local pawn shop. Converting it to an electronic instrument, he began to experiment using the instrument like a piano. By 1978, he developed enough skill to begin busking in the parks and on the sidewalks of New York."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Laraaji & Brian Eno Ambient 3: Day Of Radiance

Live in New York City - 1972

Wikipedia - "...Recorded on 30 August 1972 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Lennon performed two shows, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, to raise money for children with mental challenges at friend Geraldo Rivera's request. Rivera introduces Lennon and Ono at the beginning of the album, and he is referenced in Lennon's impromptu revised lyrics in the opening song, 'New York City'."
Wikipedia
amazon
YouTube: John Lennon - Live in New York City, 1972

Art History with Labor

Maine Gov. Paul LePage, 36-foot mural depicting the state's labor history
"Can street art murals be simply too hot to handle for the public to view? Are the public funds and corporate subsidies often used to produce it any more disreputable than the same norms that permit corporations to peddle much more insidious ideologies through an invasion of public space through the medium of billboards? The idea of politically correct, and liberty of expression seems to be a flexible and elastic concept depending on the context. And the current social and economic context, does recall the artistic current of realism and social realism of the 1930′s."
Mural mural on the wall…
Revisionist art history as Maine removes labor mural
The Maine Department of Labor Mural

Street Art Street Life: From the 1950s to Now

NYT -"If I say 'street life,' and you think noise-lights-action, you may find 'Street Art Street Life: From the 1950s to Now' at the Bronx Museum of the Arts a puzzling show. There is noise — a pop song, the clatter of metal across concrete — but not much. Lights and action are confined to videos, several of them bleached, grainy, way predigital. The bulk of the work is photography. Some of the pictures are snazzy: Jamel Shabazz’s color portraits of sidewalk supermodels from the 1980s; photomontages by Fatimah Tuggar that transport New York to Africa and vice versa."
NYT: Finding Art in the Asphalt
flavorpill
amazon
Accessible Art

Eight Miles High

Wikipedia - "'Eight Miles High' is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby and first released as a single on March 14, 1966 (see 1966 in music). ... The song was subject to a U.S. radio ban shortly after its release, following allegations published in the broadcasting trade journal the Gavin Report regarding perceived drug connotations in its lyrics. The band strenuously denied these allegations at the time, but in later years both Clark and Crosby admitted that the song was at least partly inspired by their own drug use."
Wikipedia
YouTube: The Byrds - Eight miles high 1966, The Ventures, Lighthouse 1972, Leo Kottke, Roxy Music, Ride, Hüsker Dü, Golden Earring

Milan Kundera

Wikipedia - "Milan Kundera (... born 1 April 1929) is the Czech Republic's most recognised living writer. Of Czech origin, he has lived in exile in France since 1975, having become a naturalised citizen in 1981. Having written in both Czech and French, he revises the French translations of all his books; these therefore are not considered translations but original works. Kundera is best known as the author of works such as The Joke, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. His books were banned by the Communist regimes of Czechoslovakia until the downfall of the regime in the Velvet Revolution of 1989."
Wikipedia
Open Democracy: Milan Kundera and the Invisible Tribunal
The Paris Review: Milan Kundera, The Art of Fiction No. 81
amazon: Milan Kundera

The Black Ark

Wikipedia - "The Black Ark was the recording studio of reggae and dub producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry, built in 1973 and located behind his family's home in the Washington Gardens neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica. Although the studio itself was somewhat rudimentary in its set-up and particularly basic with regard to some of the dated equipment employed by Perry, it was nonetheless the breeding ground for some of Jamaica's (and arguably the world's) most innovative sounds and recording techniques in the latter half of the 1970s."
Wikipedia
The Black Ark
amazon: Lee "Scratch" Perry-Black Arc Productions, Ten Crucial Lee Perry/Black Ark Albums
YouTube: Lee Scratch Perry - Studio Black Ark, Lee "Scratch" Perry @ Black Ark, Lee "Scratch" Perry in interview, Lee Scratch Perry Guiness Ads

2009 November: Lee "Scratch" Perry
2011 June: The History Of Dub
2012 February: Arkology - Lee "Scratch" Perry

McSorley's Old Ale House

Wikipedia - "McSorley's Old Ale House, generally known as McSorley's, is the oldest 'Irish' tavern in New York City. Located at 15 East 7th Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, it was one of the last of the 'Men Only' pubs, only admitting women after legally being forced to do so in 1970. The aged artwork, newspaper articles covering the walls, sawdust floors, and the Irish waiters and bartenders give McSorley's an atmosphere that many consider, correctly or not, reminiscent of 'Olde New York'."
Wikipedia
McSorley's Old Ale House
YouTube: McSorleys Old Ale House, New York City

Foli: There Is No Movement Without Rhythm

"Life has a rhythm, it's constantly moving. The word for rhythm (used by the Malinke tribes) is FOLI. It is a word that encompasses so much more than drumming, dancing or sound. It's found in every part of daily life. In this film you not only hear and feel rhythm but you see it. It's an extraordinary blend of image and sound that feeds the senses and reminds us all how essential it is."
YouTube

Recovering "Memorial Day"

"Today at PennSound we’re marking the Memorial Day holiday in a distinctly poetic way, by unveiling a long lost recording of Ted Berrigan and Anne Waldman’s 'Memorial Day' from a May 5, 1971 reading at the Saint Mark’s Poetry Project. This new addition to the PennSound archives is notable not only because 'Memorial Day' is a landmark collaboration between two of the New York School’s finest poets, but also due to the rarity of the recording. Berrigan and Waldman only read the poem together and in its entirety once — in fact, 'Memorial Day' was composed specifically for their joint reading in the spring of 1971 — and while the event was recorded, it would seem that the tape had been missing for several decades, presumably lost forever."
Jacket2 (Video)

Paul Fussell

Wikipedia - "Paul Fussell (March 22, 1924 – May 23, 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary on America’s class system. He is best known for his writings about World War I and II, which explore what he felt was the gap between the romantic myth and reality of war."
Wikipedia
W - The Great War and Modern Memory
Slate: Man of War
amazon: Paul Fussell
EVTV1: Brokaw Interviews Veteran Paul Fussell (Video)
Studio 2: Paul Fussell: Lamenting Emotional Immaturity (Video)
C-SPAN: The Great War and Modern Memory (Video)

The Yardbirds

Wikipedia - "The Yardbirds are an English rock band that had a string of hits in the mid 1960s, including 'For Your Love', 'Over Under Sideways Down' and 'Heart Full of Soul'. ... A blues-based band that broadened its range into pop and rock, The Yardbirds were pioneers in guitar innovations of the 1960s: fuzz tone, feedback, distortion, backwards echo, improved amplification, etc."
Wikipedia
The Yardbirds
amazon: The Yardbirds
YouTube: For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul, Shape of things, I Wish You Would, I'm A Man, Louise, Train Kept A Rollin', Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, Over Under Sideways Down, Stroll On

Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes

Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, Antico (c. 1455-1528)
"The sculptor Pier Jacopo Alari de Bonacolsi (c. 1455–1528) acquired the nickname Antico (the antique one) for his knowledge of ancient art. Born in or near Mantua, he probably trained as a goldsmith. In his youth Antico traveled to Rome, where masterpieces of the distant past were coming to light in excavations. The Renaissance passion for antiquity fostered the collecting of classical Greek and Roman art."
The Frick Collection
The Frick Collection: Exhibition Checklist
NYT: Classics in the Palms of His Hands

Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound

"Many are creative, and most of us are productive in some way, but few people are both creative and productive. Brian Eno is the exception -- a producer known for his creativity, and a musical creator known for his prodigious output. Eric Tamm shows how Eno, the 'non-musician' whose instrument is the recording studio, uses holistic approaches to bring his ideas to audible life. From the 'idiot energy' of his progressive rock to New Wave and "fourth world music," from the 'meta-meta-idea' that became ambient to Robert Fripp's 'catalytic creature,' Brian Eno is one brain."
Fairview Collaborative
amazon
PDF - Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound
Synthtopia

The Sound of Jazz (1957)

Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Gerry Mulligan
"On Wednesday, 4 December 1957, Columbia Records documented one of the most important jazz recordings in the history of the music ('The Sound of Jazz'/CS-8040) with an all-star cast from various record labels. On Sunday, 8 December 1957, in what remains perhaps the most important jazz event in television history, CBS television aired a live broadcast, including most of the musicians from the recording session, as they performed the same music in a recording studio environment."
NYPL
W - The Sound of Jazz
YouTube: The Sound of Jazz CBS 1957 54:05

Postminimalism

Einstein Train, Philip Glass
Wikipedia - "Postminimalism is an art term that refers to work that comes after minimalism in both a chronological and stylistic sense. Post-minimalist works take the logics and rationalities of minimalist work and disrupt them. So Eva Hesse's use of wonky grids and serial difference works against the minimalist purity of the grid and series. This is a way in which post-minimalism is a post-modern style. At the same time, minimalism's emphasis on the contingency and literality of the art object is fundamental to post-minimimalist work like Serra's Casting. In music, post-minimalism refers to music following minimalist music."
Wikipedia
Guggenheim
The Art Story
A Forest from the
Seeds of Minimalism: An Essay on Postminimal and Totalist Music, By Kyle Gann
Minimal Music, Maximal Impact
WNYC: European Postminimalism (Video)

Where's Wally?

Wikipedia - "Where's Wally?, published in the United States and Canada as Where's Waldo?, is a series of children's books created by British illustrator Martin Handford. The books consist of a series of detailed double-page spread illustrations depicting dozens or more people doing a variety of amusing things at a given location. Readers are challenged to find a character named Wally hidden in the group. Wally's distinctive red-and-white striped shirt, bobble hat, and glasses make him slightly easier to recognise, but many illustrations contain 'red herrings' involving deceptive use of red-and-white striped objects."
Wikipedia
Find Wally?
Where's Wally?
YouTube: Werner Herzog Reads Where's Waldo

Talking Heads - Live in Rome 1980

"Live TV Concert Footage of The Talking Heads. David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Steve Scales, Burnie Worrell, Dolette MacDonald, Buster Jones, Adrien Belew."
YouTube: Live in Rome 1980 - 01 Psycho Killer, 02 Stay Hungry, 03 Cities, 04 I Zimbra, 05 Drugs, 06 Take Me To The River, 07 Crosseyed & Painless, 08 Life During War Times, 09 Houses In Motion, 10 Born Under Punches, 11 The Great Curve

2008 September: Talking Heads
2011 June: Talking Heads: 77
2011 August: More Songs About Buildings and Food
2011 October: Fear of Music
2012 January: Remain in Light
2012 April: Speaking in Tongues

Martin Kippenberger

Wikipedia - "Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 in Dortmund – 7 March 1997 in Vienna) was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona."
Wikipedia
Martin Kippenberger
NYT: Live Hard, Create Compulsively, Die Young
MoMA - Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective (Video)
YouTube: Martin Kippenberger

Doc Watson

Wikipedia - "Arthel Lane 'Doc' Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded."
Wikipedia
Doc Watson (Video)
NYT: Doc Watson, Blind Guitar Wizard Who Influenced Generations, Dies at 89 (Video)
Doc Watson--American Folk Music Legend (Video)
W - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
YouTube: Nine Pound Hammer, Doc & Merle Watson - Way Downtown, Doc Watson & Earl Scruggs Play At Doc's Home, Doc & Merle - "Make Me A Pallet" and "Streamline Cannonball", Doc Watson pt 1, pt 2, When I Lay My Burden Down - Doc Watson & Merle Watson, The Banks Of The Ohio, Doc Watson on Drop-Thumb Banjo, Down Yonder, I Am A Pilgrim, The Lone Pilgrim, Tennessee Stud, Black Mountain Rag

Andy Goldsworthy 1987 Grizedale

"Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment."
YouTube

2007 November: Andy Goldsworthy: Roof
2012 March: Rivers and Tides

Juan Genovés

The Embrace (El Abrazo, 1976)
"Trained at the Valencia Art College Genovés was always an inquiring painter, concerned both with the need to renovate Spanish art and also with the function of art and the artist in society. His firm conviction that art was transforming, and his concern for his environment lead him to join several important movements in the post war Spanish art scene: Los Siete (The Seven) 1949, Parpallós (1956) and Hondo (1960). It was in this last group that presented a new approach to figurative painting opposing Informalism, that Genovés developed a style of painting that was expressionist and provocative."
Juan Genovés (Video)
YouTube: Juan Genoves talks about his work, Juan Genoves at Marlborough Chelsea Gallery, New York 2009, Genoves in his studio