The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic

"More than 400 abandoned suitcases, covered with dust and pigeon droppings, were stacked for decades in the attic of an empty building on the grounds of a mental hospital in upstate New York. They were discovered by workers shortly after the facility closed in 1995. The luggage belonged to individuals who had been patients at Willard Psychiatric Center at one time or another during a period of almost a century. Most of the suitcases looked as if they hadn't been opened since they were packed. It was as if time had stopped in each owner's life once he or she crossed the hospital threshold."
Crosscut Tout
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
Abandoned Suitcases Reveal Private Lives of Insane Asylum Patients
Jon Crispin's Notebook
Voice: What They Left Behind
NYT: Forgotten Suitcases, Emotional Baggage
amazon: The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
Kickstarter: Willard Asylum Suitcase Documentation by Jon Crispin (Video)

Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe

"Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe invites visitors to explore the roles of Africans and their descendents in Renaissance Europe as revealed in compelling paintings, drawings, sculpture and printed books of the period. Vivid portraits from life both encourage face-to-face encounters with the individuals themselves and pose questions about the challenges of color, class, and stereotypes that this new diversity brought to Europe. Despite the importance of the questions posed for audiences today, this is the first time they have been addressed in a major exhibition."
The Walters
The Walters: About
The Walters: African Renaissance
NYT: A Spectrum From Slaves to Saints

Sun Ra Arkestra - Points On A Space Age

"Offers rare insight of the Arkestra and examines their current work (in the physical absence of Sun Ra) under the direction of Marshall Allen (now age 86). - Points on a Space Age (filmed from Spring of '06 to Spring of '07) explores the recent activity of the remaining members of the influential Sun Ra Arkestra. The Arkestra, is an experimental big band formed in the mid 1950's around the teachings of, musician, philosopher, and spiritualist Sun Ra. Sun Ra, according to himself and his disciples believed that he was sent to this planet to prepare human beings for the world for the future, a future centered around space travel, and the human capacity to evolve with ever changing demands of a highly technological world."
YouTube: Sun Ra Arkestra - Points On A Space Age
GameVortex
amazon: Points On A Space Age (2009)

David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme

"Two songs from David Thomas' masterpiece: 'A Day At The Botanical Gardens' and 'The Rain'. The Pedestrians was Richard Thompson, Jack Monck, Paul Hamann, Jim Jones, Anton Fier, Chris Cutler and Lindsay Cooper."
YouTube

2008 April: Pere Ubu
2010 July: Pere Ubu - 1

"Urban Masters" London Group Show

RONE
"Opera Gallery and Butterfly will be opening a new group show entitled 'Urban Masters' later this week in London. This new show will present an homage from 33 artists to the masters, masterpieces and muses that have influenced their journey through the world of art."
Street Art News
PDF: A STREET ART SHOW SUPPORTING - Opera Gallery

Dennis Hopper Documentary (90s)

"A documentary on Dennis Hopper I recorded off TV a few years back, a bit rare I think."
Videos for: Dennis Hopper
YouTube: Dennis Hopper Documentary - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

2009 November: Easy Rider (1969)
2010 May: Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010)
2010 November: The American Friend (1977)

Duke Vin, Count Suckle & the Birth of Ska in Britain trailer

"London in the 1950’s was a cold place in more ways than the obvious. Or so it appeared if you were one of the thousands of newly arrived Jamaicans. Many were overqualified for their menial jobs. Thousands of others quite simply could not get work. Discrimination and racial tensions culminated in fierce riots in both Nottingham and Notting Hill Gate. It was in this environment that the Jamaican soundmen; Duke Vin and Count Suckle arrived in the UK. They both stowed away on a boat from Kingston and brought with them a sound that was sweeping across the small Caribbean island and would later change the face of music in the UK. This was the sound of ska!"
uncarved
YouTube: Duke Vin, Count Suckle & the Birth of Ska in Britain trailer

Alternative Histories New York Art Spaces, 1960-2010

"This groundbreaking book--part exhibition catalogue, part cultural history--chronicles alternative art spaces in New York City since the 1960s. Developed from an exhibition of the same name at Exit Art, Alternative Histories documents more than 130 alternative spaces, groups, and projects, and the significant contributions these organizations have made to the aesthetic and social fabric of New York City. ... Beginning in the 1960s and early 1970s, it was within a network of alternative sites--including 112 Greene Street, The Kitchen, P.S.1, FOOD, and many others--that the work of young artists like Yvonne Rainer, Vito Acconci, Gordon Matta-Clark, Ana Mendieta, David Wojnarowicz, David Hammons, Adrian Piper, Martin Wong, Jimmie Durham, and dozens of other now familiar names first circulated."
MIT Press
Exit Art
amazon
YouTube: Alternative Histories at EXIT ART

Every Woody Allen Movie

"The purpose of this blog is to watch, review and discuss every film ever made by Woody Allen. I’m not really sure why I’m doing this. Mostly because I’ve always wanted to be able to legitimately describe myself as an 'expert' in something. Anything. I’d also like to be able to answer the question 'What do you do?' without mumbling something inaudible and changing the subject (although I will likely continue to do that). Woody Allen would probably call this blog a pathetic attempt to avoid looking directly at the meaninglessness of my life. He would not be inaccurate."
Every Woody Allen Movie (Video)
W - Woody Allen filmography
W - Woody Allen
Ranked: Woody Allen Films from Worst to Best (Video)
Slate: I've Seen Every Woody Allen Movie

The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. 2

"Songs: Bye Bye Bird, My Younger Days (Sonny Boy Williamson), Come On Home Baby (Sunnyland Slim), Nervous (Willie Dixon), Mojo Hand (Lightnin' Hopkins), Black Snake Blues (Victoria Spivey), Everyday I Have the Blues (Memphis Slim), Don't Throw Your Love on Me so Strong (T-Bone Walker), Tall Heavy Mama (Roosevelt Sykes), Sittin' and Cryin' the Blues (Willie Dixon), Murphy's Boogie (Matt 'Guitar' Murphy), Stranger Blues (Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee), Shake for Me, I'll Be Back Someday, Love Me Darlin (Howlin' Wolf), Down Home Shakedown (Big Mama Thornton)."
amazon: The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. 2
YouTube: The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966 Vol. 2, 1:03:37

2012 June: The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. 1

Sun Blindness Music - John Cale

Wikipedia - "New York in the 1960s: Sun Blindness Music, better known as Sun Blindness Music, is an album by John Cale released in 2001. It is the first of a loose anthology of experimental albums recorded during Cale's tenure with the Theatre of Eternal Music during the mid 1960s. The pieces included on the album were recorded between 1964 and 1966. Albums following in the anthology include the collaborative effort Day Of Niagara, and the Cale compilations Dream Interpretation and Stainless Gamelan. Each song in the trilogy is an exemplar of the burgeoning minimalist music genre, emphasizing atonality, drone, and noise."
Wikipedia
W - Dream Interpretation
W - Stainless Gamelan
Pitchfork
Album Reviews: Sun Blindness Music
YouTube: Sun Blindness Music pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4, pt. 5
Dream Interpretations: Ex-cathedra
Stainless Gamelan: Stainless Steel Gamelan

Bruce Springsteen - "Thunder Road" - Live At Hammersmith Odeon, 1975

"There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
  in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
From your room you hear their engines roar on
But when you get to the porch
  they're gone on the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers and I'm pulling outta here to win"
YouTube: Thunder Road
W - "Thunder Road"

Olek

"My crocheted version of Martin Luther King’s. 'Injustice anywhere is a treat to justice everywhere' (video) is more personal than one can imagine. To read the full story and support this case, please click here. It has been a very busy year. It was a year of unknown future. Here is a video brilliantly edited by my assistant, Shir Lieberman with sound by Freakatronic. It is a visual story documenting my steps from August 2011 till the end of September 2012."
Olek - vimeo: Olek Reel 2011-2012

Chico & Rita

"Sexy, sweet and laced with a sadness at once specific to its place and time and accessible to anyone with a breakable heart, 'Chico & Rita' is an animated valentine to Cuba and its music. Shuttling between Havana and New York and conveying the blend of soul and scholarship that signifies true jazz devotion, the film brings alive an almost unimaginably rich and resonant moment in musical history. The fictional couple at its heart — star-crossed lovers and sometime artistic collaborators — encounter bad luck in various forms, but Chico and Rita also have the good fortune to mingle with real-life legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and the great Cuban conga player Chano Pozo, a crucial figure in the era’s mixing of styles and genres."
NYT: A Pianist and a Honey-Throated Chanteuse in the Heart of Havana
YouTube: Chico & Rita - Official Trailer, Courtyard Rumba, Clip de Chico y Rita, New York, Guardian: directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, Un peculiar estilo de animación (Spain)

2011 July: Fernando Trueba on Chico and Rita

Patti Smith: Camera Solo

" ... Patti Smith: Camera Solo will be the first museum exhibition of her photography in the United States. The exhibition will include seventy photographs, one multi-media installation and one video work. Also on view will be a number of objects depicted in the photographs along with a selection of original Polaroids."
Patti Smith: Camera Solo
Camera Solo: See Patti Smith's Photos of Rimbaud's Spoon, Mapplethorpe's Slippers, and Other Obscure Arts Relics
amazon: Patti Smith: Camera Solo
Soundcloud - Audio Tour for Patti Smith: Camera Solo (Video)
YouTube: Letter to Mapplethorpe, The Tiger (by William Blake)
CT: The Photography of Patti Smith at the Wadsworth in Hartford (Video)

Turntablism

Wikipedia - "Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer. The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer to manipulate sound. The new term coincided with a resurgence of the art of hiphop-style DJ-ing in the 1990s. ... Some turntablist DJs use turntable techniques like beat mixing/matching, scratching, and beat juggling. Some turntablists seek to have themselves recognized as traditional musicians capable of interacting and improvising with other performers."
Wikipedia
last.fm: Turntablism
turntablism: beat juggling & scratching (Video)
allmusic: Turntablism (Video)
The History of Turntablism
Guardian - Hey, what's that sound: Turntablism (Video)
14 Videos of The World's Best Turntablist DJs (Video)

Autoconstrucción: The Film - Abraham Cruzvillegas

"Through his interest in autoconstrucción ('self-construction'), Abraham Cruzvillegas explores economies of the makeshift, the handmade and the recycled. His recent work gravitates toward an examination of his childhood home and the neighborhood of Ajusco, a district in the south of Mexico City founded by migrants who, like his parents, settled in what was deemed uninhabitable land in the 1960s. Ajusco’s landscape of volcanic rock is a work in process. Structures are in a constant state of transformation as materials become available and necessity dictates. The sense of ingenuity and improvisation that created this vibrant, self-reliant and politically active community is the impetus for the artist’s own exploration of the roots of his practice."
REDCAT
[PDF] self-building autoconstrucción
Modern Art Oxford
MuseoMagazine
W - Abraham Cruzvillegas
YouTube - TateShots: Abraham Cruzvillegas

Wayne Thiebaud

“Pies, Pies, Pies” (1961)
Wikipedia - "Wayne Thiebaud (born November 15, 1920) is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work."
Wikipedia
Smithsonian: Wayne Thiebaud Is Not a Pop Artist
NGA Classroom
YouTube: Wayne Thiebaud - CBS Sunday Morning, Wayne Thiebaud: Beyond the Cakes

This Heat

Wikipedia - "This Heat were a British experimental music group formed in early 1976 in Camberwell, London by multi-instrumentalists Charles Bullen (guitar, clarinet, viola, vocals, tapes), Charles Hayward (drums, keyboards, vocals, tapes) and Gareth Williams (keyboard, guitar, bass, vocals, tapes). This Heat were active in the ascendancy of British progressive rock and punk rock, but stood apart from those scenes due to a radically inventive approach that touched on numerous different styles and genres, but was always confrontational and politically charged."
Wikipedia
The Quietus - This Heat Interview By Simon Reynolds: A Totally Wired Outtake (Video)
Stinking Hellebore
amazon: This Heat
YouTube: Health and Efficiency, Testcard/Horizontal Hold, Suffer Bomb Disease, 24 Track Loop, Twilight furniture 1978, The fall of Saigon (Peel Session) 1977, Not Waving (Peel Session), Triumph, Paper Hats, S.P.Q.R.

What Sandy Sounded Like

"The storm we’ve come to call Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States last night, and this morning I found myself looking at photos of the Victoria Secrets lingerie model (and Transformers threequel actress) Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. This was because my anxious pre-dawn searches on Twitter for updates regarding my hometown of Huntington, Long Island, were apparently yielding nothing of particular value. I live in San Francisco, and Huntington felt very far away."
disquiet (Video)
CBS: Superstorm Sandy: State-by-state snapshot (Video)

Jean-Serge Essous

Bantous, 1963
"Another monument of African music has passed away. Jean-Serge Essous (born January 15, 1935) has died in Brazzaville on November 25, 2009. He was present at the foundation of the O.K. Jazz, of Rock-a-Mambo, and of 'his own' orchestre Bantous and Ryco Jazz. His music and his orchestras have had a huge influence on African music, and maybe even on the music outside of his continent."
In Memoriam Jean-Serge Essous
W - Jean-Serge Essous
Rumba on the River
YouTube: Comite Bantous, Tokumisa Congo, Rock-A-Mambo, Mokuwa, Makambo mibale, Isabelle, Maboko Na Moto, El Manicero, Kumbele kumbele (1964), Annie teye, Loin du Congo

Jana Euler

Social Expectations Overpainted (2012)
"German artist Jana Euler’s (b. 1982) first solo show in an American gallery will open in one week at Real Fine Arts. Euler’s will be the further episode in a three-year-old program held in Brooklyn. ... Her work addresses interpersonal relationships in codified environments and suggests that people’s daily lives get stuck in the vortex of networked society, not accomplishing any actual exchange. To paraphrase the title of a series of Euler’s paintings: in the postmodern world, emotions are transforming their own bodies."
Kaleidoscope
Contemporary Art Daily
Jana Euler, “Form Follows Information Exchange”
dépendance gallery brussels

Lissabon Wuppertal Lisboa - Pina Bausch

"A making-of of Pina Bausch's ballet piece 'Masurca Fogo' (1998), for the EXPO 98, from the first workshop in Lisbon until the avant premiere in Wuppertal, Pina Bausch's city, all moments dated on screen. The ballet master presides behind her work desk to the creation of steps by different dancers, as varied a mix as the African, Latin American, Fado and jazz music to which they swirl, representing the spirit of that world event. Not by chance, the camera shows prominently a photo-book on the gypsies close to Pina's ashtray."
IMDb
Masurca Fogo
DVD - Lissabon Wuppertal Lisboa
YouTube: Lissabon Wuppertal Lisboa 1 de 4, 2 de 4, 3 de 4, 4 de 4

2008 May: Pina Bausch
2009 June: Pina Bausch 1940-2009
2012 October: Pina Bausch: 30th Next Wave Festival

Explore Thomas Cole

"In the early nineteenth century, many in this country were searching for an art they could call their own. Painter, poet, and essayist, Thomas Cole responded to this quest by creating pristine landscape paintings unlike any yet seen in America. Critics, patrons, and fellow artists embraced his work enthusiastically, and Cole became the leader of an informal alliance of landscape artists now known as the Hudson River School."
Explore Thomas Cole

Betty Davis

Wikipedia - "Betty Davis (née Betty Mabry, born July 26, 1945) is an American funk, rock and soul singer. She was also Miles Davis's second wife. ... Mabry met Miles Davis in 1967 and married him in September 1968. In just one year of marriage she influenced him greatly. The Miles Davis album Filles de Kilimanjaro included a song named after her and her photo on the front cover. In his autobiography, Miles credited Mabry with helping to plant the seeds of his future musical explorations by introducing the trumpeter to psychedelic rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix and funk innovator Sly Stone."
Wikipedia
Betty Davis: Undisputed '70s Queen of Funk (YouTube)
SoulWalking
YouTube: They Say I'm Different, Your Man My Man (1973), Come Take me (1973), She's A Woman, Don't Call Her No Tramp, Walking Up The Road (1973), F.U.N.K. (1975)

Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980

"Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 chronicles the vital legacy of the city’s African American artists. The work of these practitioners was animated to an extent by the civil rights and Black Power movements, reflecting the changing sense of what constituted African American identity and American culture. The power of the black community strengthened nationwide as racial discrimination began to lessen as a result of new legislation and changing social norms."
Hammer
amazon: Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980
LA Times - Art review: 'Now Dig This!' at the UCLA Hammer Museum
YouTube: Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960 - 1980 Trailer

Comicopera - Robert Wyatt

Wikipedia - "Comicopera is an album by Robert Wyatt released on 8 October 2007, available on both CD and double vinyl formats (the vinyl's fourth side contains no music and has a poem etched into its surface). It is Wyatt's first release on the Domino Records label. It features many other musicians, including Brian Eno, Paul Weller, Gilad Atzmon and Phil Manzanera, and was recorded in Wyatt's house and Manzanera's recording studio. The song Del Mondo is a cover from Ko de mondo, the debut album of Italian post-punk band Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti."
Wikipedia
amazon: Comicopera
Pitchfork
Guardian: Robert Wyatt, Comicopera
YouTube: Stay Tuned, Just as you are, On The Town Square, Out of the Blue, Be Serious
YouTube: Q & A, Purcell Room, London 15th Oct 2007 1:30:08

Trouser Press

Wikipedia - "Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name 'Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press' (a reference to a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and an acronymic play on the British TV show Top of the Pops). Its original scope was British bands and artists (early issues featured the slogan 'America's Only British Rock Magazine'). Initial issues contained occasional interviews with major artists like Brian Eno and Robert Fripp and extensive record reviews."
Wikipedia
Trouser Press

Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962

Otto Muehl, Untitled, 1963. Sand, plaster, stockings, and emulsion on sackcloth.
"Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949–1962 focuses on one of the most significant developments in contemporary abstract painting: the artist’s literal assault on the picture plane. Responding to the physical and psychological destruction wrought by World War II—especially the existential crisis resulting from the atomic bomb—artists ripped, cut, burned, and affixed objects to the canvas in lieu of paint. Destroy the Picture emphasizes this internationally shared artistic sensibility in the context of devastating global change and dynamic artistic dialogues, offering an innovative and expansive view of art making in the postwar period."
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
LA Times - Review: MOCA's 'Destroy the Picture' boldly steps into the void
SFAQ: “Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962″ at MOCA, Los Angeles
amazon: Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962

Au Pairs @ Pinkpop 1982

"New Wave/Punk band The Au Pairs from the UK playing live at the Pinkpop festival on 31-5-1982. 2 Songs: Set Up & Dear John."
YouTube: Set Up & Dear John, Armagh, America, Stepping Out Of Line, You, Pretty Boys, Diet, We're So Cool, Unfinished Business
YouTube: Topic - Au Pairs

2008 May: Au Pairs