Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe

"Bell Labs Experimental Research Facility, New Jersey, 1978, a misty snapshot of the artist in her lair. Laurie Spiegel, dark hair streaming down to her shoulders, eyes closed, cigarette in hand, stands surrounded by a forest of sci-fi machines. Synthesisers the size of industrial freezers loom around her, a monitor hovers overhead mid-snowstorm, wire snakes around the room in a network of cat o' nine tails. There aren't any 'personal computers', not yet. She grins."
The Quietus
New Yorker: An Electronic-Music Classic Reborn (Video)
Pitchfork
Continuo
amazon: The Expanding Universe
YouTube: Old Wave, East river dawn

2011 May: Laurie Spiegel

John Renbourn - Sir John Alot

"An instrumental album (originally called Sir John Alot of Merrie England) featuring John Renbourn with his Pentangle bandmate Terry Cox on percussion and Ray Warleigh on flute. Originally released in England in 1968, the same year that Pentangle started to record, Sir John Alot was steeped largely in English folk music."
Folk Yourself
amazon
YouTube: Seven Up, Lady Goes To Church, My Dear Boy

2011 September: Faro Annie
2011 April: Cruel Sister (1970) - Pentangle

Vhils New Mural In London, UK

"Alexandre Farto aka Vhils arrived in London for his upcoming exhibition 'Devoid' at Lazarides on November 29th. The Portuguese artist and his crew used their unique excavating process of chipping away at the wall to create this portrait of a man which can be seen on Hewlett Street, Shoreditch London."
StreetArtNews

2012 March: Vhils Solo Show

Billy Bragg - Strange Things Happen (Live on The Tube 1984)

"All winter long while I was locked in my room
Your face at the window and my hair on the floor
I was thinking of you
All winter long while I was locked in my room
Your face at the window and my hair on the floor
I was thinking of you
But the phone rang all night long
To tell me I was wrong
And I watched while the officer
Wrote all their ages down
YouTube: Strange Things Happen

2011 November: Billy Bragg

Yankee go home (PoemTalk #59)

"Paul Blackburn performed his poem '7th Game : 1960 Series,' which had been written in 1960, on or near the first day of the 1971 baseball season, during a reading he gave at SUNY Cortland. The poem was later republished in Blackburn’s Collected Poems (here is a PDF copy). ... As Blackburn introduces the poem, the Cortland audience laughs; listeners to the audio-only recording now might be confused by this, but we think you can safely guess that Blackburn had just put on his Yankee cap."
Jacket2

2008 August: Paul Blackburn

Crystal Pite

"Integrating movement, original music, text, and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot’s performance work is assembled with recklessness and rigour, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. Under the direction of internationally renowned Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, the company’s distinct choreographic language – a breadth of movement fusing classical elements and the complexity and freedom of structured improvisation – is marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention."
Kidd Pivot
Wikipedia
W - Kidd Pivot
Arts Alive
vimeo: 2012/09 Crystal Pite - Conflict is vital
YouTube: The Tempest Replica - Kidd Pivot | Crystal Pite, WESTERN FRONT-free dance-spiritual, Dark Matters, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt, 2011 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award Recipient, Frontier, Nederlands Dans Theater 1. "ARMS"

Astral Weeks by Lester Bangs

"...Verdict: Lester Bang’s Astral Weeks, best album review of all time. Rock critics, like all writers, have rituals. When Lester Bangs (1948-1982) set about to write an album review, he would listen to the album incessantly for a week straight at all hours of the day, at varying stages of inebriation, at both poles of his bi-polarity, in sleeping, in waking, and, yes, in love-making, love-quarreling, and self-pleasuring. He would become one with the music. After nightfall on the last day of the week, the album would be abruptly turned off."
Lo! The Greatest Album Review by Philip Francis (Video)
Astral Weeks by Lester Bangs from "Stranded" (1979)

2008 August: Lester Bangs
2010 April: Creem
2011 Janurary: Astral Weeks

Cuba Hip Hop

Wikipedia - "Hip hop music arrived in Cuba via radio and TV broadcasts from Miami. During the 1980s hip hop culture in Cuba was mainly centred around breakdancing. But by the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the onset of the Special Period, young 'raperos' were seeking ways to express their frustrations."
Wikipedia
Hip-hop, rap & reggaeton in Cuba
Guerrilla Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro (Video)
Hip Hop & the Cuban Revolution, WW commentary, part 1, WW commentary, part 2
amazon: Cuban Hip Hop All Stars 1
WHAT IS CUBAN HIP HOP? (Video)
Havana-Cultura (Video)
GRAFFITI AND HIP HOP IN CUBA (HAVANA)
YouTube: Cuban HipHop: Desde el Principio, Low-Q - Un Mejor Mundo Es Un Chiste, Santiago de Cuba hip hop Ando Raper Isaac, Miki Flow: Cuban Hip Hop, La Fabri K (The Cuban Hip-hop Factory)

Ray K. Metzker

Wikipedia - "Ray K. Metzker (born 1931) is a major American photographer known for both his work in cityscape and landscape photography and for his large 'multiples', assemblages of printed strips and single frames. He is originally from Wisconsin and lives in Philadelphia."
Wikipedia
Laurence Miller Gallery
Stephen Daiter Gallery

Double Nickels on the Dime - Minutemen

Wikipedia - "Double Nickels on the Dime is the third studio album by American punk trio Minutemen, released on the Californian independent record label SST Records in 1984. A double album containing 45 songs, Double Nickels on the Dime combines elements of punk rock, funk, country, spoken word and jazz, and references a variety of themes, from the Vietnam War and racism in America, to working class experience and linguistics."
Wikipedia
amazon
YouTube: This Ain't No Picnic, History Lesson - Part II, Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, The Glory Of Man, Two Beads at the End, Corona, Toadies

2009 June: Minutemen
2010 October: We Jam Econo - The Story of the Minutemen

Dancing around the Bride

"Dancing around the Bride is the first exhibition to explore the interwoven lives, works, and experimental spirit of Marcel Duchamp (American, born France, 1887–1968) and four of the most important American postwar artists: composer John Cage (1912–1992), choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919–2009), and visual artists Jasper Johns (born 1930) and Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008). Creating both individually and together, they profoundly affected the direction of postwar avant-garde art and American culture as a whole."
Philadelphia Museum of Art
YouTube: Dancing around the Bride

Encounters with the 1930s

Max Beckmann, Paris Society, 1931
"Encounters with the 1930s, one of the most important exhibitions of the season, is the Museum’s contribution to the commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the creation of Guernica (1937), Pablo Picasso’s emblematic art work. The show, jointly organized by the Museum’s departments of Collections and Exhibitions, will occupy a surface of more than 2,000 square meters divided into two areas."
Wall Street International
CNN (Video)
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Rubble and Revelation

"Like an archeologist probing the wreckage of modernity, Cyprien Gaillard travels the world looking for monuments of our era that have lost their aura and symbolic power, and with the precision of a research scientist, he documents their life and gradual disappearance. He roams nomadically from continent to continent, encountering ruins and relics that are immortalized in photos, videos, sculptures, and collages which convey his obsession with the poetry of decay."
Fondazione Nicola Trussardi (Video)
purple DIARY
designboom

Aleksandr Deineka

RIA Novosti
"Aleksandr Deineka is one of the artists who complicate the still prevalent practice of dividing the history of Soviet art into a binary opposition between an avant-garde and kitsch 'Socialist Realism.' Born in 1899 in Kursk, Deineka studied at the Kharkov Art College and participated in the defense of Kursk by the Red Army during the civil war following the 1917 revolution."
U. Chicago
Wikipedia
Was Socialist Realism Forced Labour? The Case of Aleksandr Deineka in the 1930s
YouTube: Aleksandr Deineka

Aguirre - Popol Vuh

Wikipedia - "Aguirre is the seventh album by German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh. It contains music used in the soundtrack to Werner Herzog's film Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), first released as an album in 1975 on Ohr, and reissued in 2004 by SPV with one bonus track. This score was the first of many filmic collaborations between the group and Herzog. Only two tracks ('Aguirre I' and 'Aguirre II') are from the film; the rest were gathered from various recordings done by the group during the period 1972–1974, including alternative versions of two songs ('Morgengruß II' and 'Agnus Dei') originally released on the band's 1974 album, Einsjäger und Siebenjäger."
Wikipedia
amazon
YouTube: Aguirre I, Aguirre III, Vergegenwärtigung, Aguirre IV
YouTube: Aguirre 43:44

2008 August: Popol Vuh
2010 December: Aguirre, the Wrath of God
2011 May: Abschied (1972)

History of Boogie Woogie

"This is part 1 of the History of Boogie Woogie from the South Bank Show in England -1986. Featuring many great short clips of famous boogie artist such as Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis. Also Big Joe Duskin and world renown Axel Zwingenberger from Germany perform in Part 4."
YouTube: Boogie Woogie History Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

2011 June: Boogie Woogie

YouTube Multiplier - disquiet

"Sonic Diptychs: The great youtubemultiplier.com site was introduced to me by the talented and insightful Samuel Landry, and since his initial mention I’ve seen and received many others. The service lets you easily play two or more (up to eight) YouTube videos side by side, simultaneously. The previous link goes to a Landry (aka @le_berger on Twitter) cocktail of Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, and Stephan Mathieu. The service is wonderful if only for letting me now, whenever I want, play one of my favorite sonic diptychs: Brian Eno’s Thursday Afternoon + DJ Krush’s Kakusei."
YouTube Multiplier
YouTube: Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, and Stephan Mathieu, Brian Eno’s Thursday Afternoon + DJ Krush’s Kakusei

Television - Little Johnny Jewel

"Now Little Johnny Jewel,
Oh, he's so cool,
He has no decision,
He's just trying to tell a vision.
Some thought that this was sad,
And others thought it mad,
They just scratching the surface,
JJ can do the floor kiss."
YouTube: Little Johnny Jewel (Parts 1 & 2), Little Johnny Jewel (Live SF 78), Little Johnny Jewel (Live in Brazil 23-10-05)

2007 November: Tom Verlaine
2010 March: Tom Verlaine - 1
2011 October: Warm and Cool

Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems

"The melancholy writer Fernando Pessoa, who died 75 years ago this week, was likely unaware of the effect he would have on Portugal decades later. Pessoa is still read by new students of literature, and older readers who constantly rediscover his work. He has been immortalised in statue form outside Lisbon's beautiful Brasileira cafe, and performances, exhibitions, and films pay him consistent tribute. There is even a table football in his old house-turned-museum – 11 wooden Pessoas competing against a cast of artistic and literary figures."
Guardian: Fernando Pessoa and the multiple faces we show on the net
W - Heteronym
amazon: Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems

2008 March: Fernando Pessoa
2010 October: disquiet: ambient/electronic
2011 October: Autopsicografia
2012 October: The Book of DisquietZ

Niney the Observer

Wikipedia - "Winston Holness, better known as Niney the Observer (born George Boswell, 1951, Montego Bay), is a Jamaican record producer and singer who was a key figure in the creation of many classic reggae recordings dating from the 1970s and early 1980s. Holness gained his nickname 'Niney' after losing a thumb in a workshop accident. In the latter half of the 1960s he worked as an engineer at KG records, where he began producing. His first release was his own composition 'Come on Baby' issued on his Destroyer label. He moved on to work with Bunny Lee in 1967, then for Lynford Anderson's studio, then working for Joe Gibbs as chief sound engineer, replacing his friend Lee 'Scratch' Perry."
Wikipedia
amazon: Niney the Observer
Roots Archives
YouTube: NINEY - Blood and Fire (12' Disco Mix), Blood And Fire - reggae roots dub 12" single, Dub 51, Confusion in a Babylon (AKA Mutiny), No More Will I Roam (Dennis Brown), Niney The Observer & King Tubby - Everyone's Dubbing, King Tubby meets Niney The Observer & Dennis Brown - Fire From The Observer Station, Winston Niney Holness & Perry & Scientist - Mutiny

An Intro To Rebel Hip-Hop Of The Arab Revolutions

"Early adopters in countries like Morocco, Algeria and Palestine have a more strongly developed and time-tested hip-hop scene—but across the greater Arab world, hip-hop has risen up alongside folk anthems as a revolutionary soundtrack. And in the Western world, Arab diaspora rap preoccupies itself with questions of Eastern and Western dislocated identity. These artists take a great deal of inspiration from some of the greats of politically conscious rap in the eighties and nineties in the United States, particularly Public Enemy and Wu-Tang Clan. They also draw from the long history of Arab poetry and artistic political dissidence, from Khalil Gibran to Mahmoud Darwish and Ahmed Fouad Negm. Here is a handy starter kit for listening to Arab and Middle Eastern rap and hip-hop music."
The Awl (Video)
Beats and Breath (Video)
Revolutionary Arab Rap: The Index (Video)
Rebel Rap from the Outlaws of Hermel (Video)
[PDF] Esquire Middle East - Fight The Power
Hip-Hop Responds to Middle East Mobilization (Video)

Matthew Monahan

“Exit Wounds"
"Matthew Monahan’s work presents a futuristic archaeology. Drawing from a wide range of influences, from Modernist art to ancient totems, Monahan’s ‘artefacts’ are both familiar and strange. Filtering historical mythologies through his own personal system of reference, altered further through the experience of making, Monahan’s work alludes to a contemporary spirituality, where beauty and brutality coalesce as virtual monuments."
Saatchi Gallery
YouTube: Matthew Monahan

Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde

"From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, Tokyo transformed itself from the capital of a war-torn nation into an international center for arts, culture, and commerce, becoming home to some of the most important art being made at the time. Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde provides a focused look at the extraordinary concentration and network of creative individuals and practices in this dynamic city during these turbulent years."
MoMA
NYT: A Feisty Phoenix From the Nuclear Ashes
amazon
Japan Times

Songs for Drella - Lou Reed and John Cale

Wikipedia - "Songs for Drella is a concept album by Lou Reed and John Cale, both formerly of The Velvet Underground, and is dedicated to the memory of Andy Warhol, their mentor, who had died unexpectedly in 1987. Drella was a nickname for Warhol coined by Warhol Superstar Ondine, a contraction of Dracula and Cinderella, used by Warhol's crowd. The song cycle focuses on Warhol's interpersonal relations and experiences, with songs falling roughly into three categories: Warhol's first-person perspective (which makes up the vast majority of the album), third-person narratives chronicling events and affairs, and first-person commentaries on Warhol by Reed and Cale themselves. The songs on the album are, to some extent, in chronological order."
Wikipedia
Popdose Flashback ’90: Lou Reed/John Cale, “Songs for Drella” (Video)
amazon
YouTube: Songs For Drella, Live At The Brooklyn Academy Of Music, New York 1989, 56:01

Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning, 1910-1983

"Gunning suffered a life of bitter poverty which became the fuel for dozens of moving songs about working people, the mines, and the great coal strikes of the twenties and thirties. Gunning's a cappella roots music is intercut throughout the interviews and archival footage."
folkstreams (Video)
folkstreams: Transcription of Dreadful Memories

Robin Skouteris

"Robin Skouteris is a music producer, DJ and a video director from Athens, Greece. Mostly known for his mashups, Robin also remixes and composes for music artists, tv commercials and short films. A solo self-produced album with collaborations, is in the works."
last.fm
Soundcloud (Video)
YouTube: Scissor Sisters - Let's Have A Kiki (Robin Skouteris ''Kiki In The Park'' Official Mix), Popalicious! (Pet Shop Boys / Kylie / Black Eyed Peas / Katy Perry & More), Madonna - The Queen Of Pop MEGAMIX, by Robin Skouteris, Working Lady Should Be Dancing Like Jagger (Donna Summer/Bee Gees/Maroon), " Rock This! " (Queen / Gwen Stefani / Beastie Boys / Nirvana / Michael Jackson & More), Jennifer Lopez Vs Britney Spears Vs Rihanna - Against The Floor (Robin Skouteris Mix), Michael Jackson - The Legendary MEGAMIX

A Fractured State

"Michael Kirby Smith began photographing what would become A Fractured State, after arriving in Sana’a, Yemen in December 2011. An ongoing journalistic investigation into a nation gripped by conflict and social problems, the project documents a country recovering from a thirty-three year dictatorship and a population struggling with rampant poverty, malnutrition, internal conflicts, environmental issues, an increasing number of refugees from the Horn of Africa, and an expanding U.S.-led covert war against Al Qaeda. Smith gives us an intimate look into an underreported region with the eye of a humanist."
Guernica

"Going Underground" - The Jam

Wikipedia - "'Going Underground' is the first British number-one chart single by The Jam, released in March 1980. It went straight in at number one, a rare feat at the time, and spent three weeks at the top. It was the first of three instant chart-toppers for the group. 'Going Underground' was not released on any of the band's six studio albums, although it has appeared on many compilations and rereleases since then. The single's B-side was 'Dreams of Children', which had originally been intended to be the A-side; following a mix-up at the pressing plant, the single became a double-A-side, and DJs tended to choose the more melodic 'Going Underground' to play on the radio."
Wikipedia
The Jam: The Band That Inspired Me To Become A Music Writer
YouTube: Going Underground, Going Underground (Live), Going Underground (Live - Pinkpop 1980), The Dreams Of Children, The Dreams Of Children (Live)

2009 March: The Jam
2011 December: Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery

"In keeping with its tradition of exhibiting masterworks from collections outside of New York, the Frick will present fifty-eight drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, London. This exhibition marks the first time that so many of the principal drawings in The Courtauld's renowned collection — one of Britain's most important — have been made available for loan. The prized sheets represent a survey of the extraordinary draftsmanship of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, German, Spanish, British, and French artists active between the late Middle Ages and the early twentieth century. The survey features works executed in a range of drawing techniques and styles and for a variety of purposes, including preliminary sketches, practice studies, aide-mémoires, designs for other artworks, and finished pictures meant to be appreciated as independent works of art."
Frick
WSJ: Delicate Lines
NYT: Sketches That Speak Their Lines Silently
Guest Blogger Review: From Mantegna to Matisse at London’s Courtauld gallery
YouTube: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery: An introduction to the exhibition

Ngola Ritmos

Wikipedia - "Ngola Ritmos is an Angolan traditional music band, created around 1947 by Liceu Vieira Dias, Domingos Van-Dúnem, Mário da Silva Araújo, Manuel dos Passos and Nino Ndongo. They sung kimbundu music with guitar and small percussion. In the 1950s, the band comprised Liceu, Nino, Amadeu Amorim, José Maria, Euclides Fontes Pereira, José Cordeira, Lourdes Van-Dúnem and Belita Palma. Their lamentos were inspired by the daily chronicles or funeral laments sung by bessangana women and their sembas by popular dances."
Wikipedia
Cabinda Ritmo ‘Filomena’ - N’Gola, early 1970′s (Video)
YouTube: Manazinha, Monami