Ibrahim El-Salahi: A Visionary Modernist

"Ibrahim El-Salahi: A Visionary Modernist is the first museum retrospective of the exemplary career of Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi. Bringing together approximately 80 works from five decades of the artist's career, the retrospective highlights one of the most significant figures in African and Arab Modernist art, and reveals his place in the context of a global art history. The exhibition traces a personal journey that originates in Sudan and leads to the artist's international schooling, his detention as a political prisoner in his home country, his self-imposed exile in Qatar, and his current life in the United Kingdom."
Museum for African Art
amazon - Ibrahim El-Salahi: A Visionary Modernist
W - Ibrahim el-Salahi
YouTube: TateShots

6 Great Transit Maps That Aren't Transit Maps

"A good transit map is like a party for your eyes, and everyone's invited. Maybe it's the intentional distortion that brings clarity to an otherwise confusing world. Maybe it's the sharp lines and fluid curves that transform a utilitarian document into a piece of wall art (or, at least, a T-shirt). Maybe it's just something cool that's not worth over-analyzing. In any event, we find transit maps so appealing that they're worth looking at even when they don't actually depict transit systems. Here are six great transit maps — from a chart of classic movies to a meta transit map of the world's transit systems — that are likable precisely because they have little to do with transit."
The Atlantic: Cities

"Ol' '55" - Tom Waits

"Time went so quickly,
I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol' '55
Pulled away slowly, feelin' so holy
God knows I was feelin' alive

And now the sun's comin' up
I'm ridin' with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks"
Wikipedia
YouTube: Ol' 55 Live 1999, Ol' 55 (The Early Years)

2012 July: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
2013 March: Burma Shave

Narelle Jubelin

BOX.SET 10, 1999
"Art comes face-to-face with architecture in Vision in Motion, a project by the artist Narelle Jubelin. A celebration of significant – though often overlooked – modernist architecture, the exhibition presents a survey of Jubelin’s intricately sewn petit points of the past three decades alongside new site-specific works and videos, inspired by architecture and the built environment. The exhibition will be reconfigured for each venue of the tour."
Vision In Motion
Marlborough Contemporary
The Renaissance Society

Fairytale - Donovan

Wikipedia - "Fairytale is the second album from British singer-songwriter Donovan. ... Fairytale finds Donovan evolving his styles further towards British folk, especially on songs such as 'Summer Day Reflection Song' and 'Jersey Thursday'. 'Sunny Goodge Street' foreshadows the jazzy feel and descriptions of life in urban London that Donovan would continue to explore over the next two years."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Colors, To Try For The Sun, Summer Day Reflection Song, Sunny Goodge Street, Little Tin Soldier, Ballad of a Crystal Man, The Universal Soldier, Ballad of Geraldine

By the Lake, Tasmania

"Three young filmmakers from Melbourne, Australia heard about a man named Phipps who lived on a lake in central Tasmania. Phipps was a fly fisherman so the three set out to create a short film about the beauty of the serene sport. Once they met Phipps, however, that all changed. As Drew Dunlop, one of the three filmmakers explained to us, 'Phipps lives in a fisherman’s shack that his family’s owned all his life.
 His front garden is a giant lake, brimming with 9 lb trout; his neighbors are wedge-tailed eagles and possums and tiger snakes.
 We set out thinking we'd make a short film about the beauty of fly fishing but soon found out Phipps was the real star. The end result being a snapshot of Phipps' beautiful, quiet world.'"
My Modern Met (Vimeo)

A Passion for France

Edouard Vuillard, Young Girls Walking, 1891
"A pair of American art lovers, passionate about French culture, created, over several decades, an outstanding collection of 19th century and early 20th century works. The bonds of friendship established between the owners and the director of the Musée d’Orsay and Musée de l’Orangerie have now enabled this collection to be exhibited. Works include the seventh panel of Édouard Vuillard's Public Gardens, the Musée d'Orsay already has five of the nine panels, as well as works by Bonnard, Ranson and Roussel, and several of Vuillard's enchanting paintings, decorative panels by Maurice Denis and two Symbolist masterpieces by Redon."
Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay: A Passion for France

Self Portrait - Robert Mapplethorpe

"As variously costumed characters, Mapplethorpe researches his own identity, capturing his complex and contradictory nature. Whether depicting himself in a playful, fierce, or vulnerable state, the artist’s explorations are intensely personal and self-reflexive. In a number of early self-portraits, Mapplethorpe boldly explores the notion of gender. In one work from 1980, the artist appears as a sneering, smoking greaser – a James Dean archetype. In another from the same year, Self Portrait (with make-up), Mapplethorpe blurs his gender identity by appearing in partial drag, his face dramatically made-up."
Skarstedt
YouTube: Robert Mapplethorpe 'Self Portrait', 1980

2008 July: Robert Mapplethorpe, 2010 September: Arena - Robert Mapplethorpe (1988), 2010 October: The Hotel Chelsea, 2011 December: "Wild Leaves" - Patti Smith on World Aids Day, 2012 September: Last Address - Ira Sachs.

PUNK: Chaos to Couture

"The Met's spring 2013 Costume Institute exhibition, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, will examine punk's impact on high fashion from the movement's birth in the early 1970s through its continuing influence today. Featuring approximately one hundred designs for men and women, the exhibition will include original punk garments and recent, directional fashion to illustrate how haute couture and ready-to-wear borrow punk's visual symbols."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Video and Audio)
Met Museum: Punk Fashion Will be Focus of Spring 2013 Costume Institute Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum
New Yorker: The Day That Punk Died Again
BBC: Punk fashion from chaos to couture at New York's Met (Video)
Punk: Chaos to Couture at the Costume Institute Shows How Derivative the Style Has Become (Video)
Dezeen
amazon
YouTube: "Punk: Chaos to Couture" exhibit, PUNK Gallery Views, Punk : Chaos to Couture Interview With Andrew Bolton - VOGUE, Met Gala 2013: Behind the Scenes at Punk: Chaos to Couture

A Century of Proust

"May 2 - Reading Proust: An Introduction. ... One hundred years after its publication, 'Swann’s Way,' the first volume in Marcel Proust’s cycle 'À la Recherche du Temps Perdu' — 'In Search of Lost Time,' better known to many Anglophone readers as 'Remembrance of Things Past,' the Shakespearian title used by Proust’s first English translator — doubles as thematic 'overture' and Michelin guide to the most captivating, ambitious and elusive of modern novels. The glittering surface of 'Swann's Way' presents a Manet-like canvas of belle époque France, a sumptuous world of fashionable salons and tranquil summer homes populated by characters — old and young, rich and poor, artists and aristocrats, footmen and physicians — who spring at us with comic ferocity: their sufferings and delusions, their petty cruelties, their self-destructive obsessions and corrosive vanities. By the end of the giant cycle (some 4,000 pages) these fictitious beings will seem realer than the members of one’s own family."
NY Times
Paris Review – Proust, Lost in Translation
Slate: In Pursuit of Proust

2008 June: Marcel Proust, 2011 October: How Proust Can Change Your Life, 2012 April: Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu, 2013 February: Marcel Proust and Swann's Way: 100th Anniversary.

Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions

Wikipedia - "Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions is a 2012 box set album featuring the lyrics of American folk musician Woody Guthrie set to music by English folk rock guitarist Billy Bragg and American alternative rock band Wilco. The set contains all the tracks from the previously-released Mermaid Avenue (1998) and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (2000) as well as a third disc of outtakes from the original album sessions. Nonesuch Records released the album for Record Store Day to commemorate Guthrie's 100th birthday. In addition to the three albums, the box set includes the documentary Man in the Sand about the making of the Mermaid Avenue project."
Wikipedia
Christian Century (Video)
ZPitchfork
Salon: Greil Marcus on “Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions”
YouTube: Go down to the water, Listening To The Wind That Blows, She Came Along to Me, Walt Whitman's Niece, Airline to Heaven, Remember the Mountain Bed, Natalie Merchant - Birds and Ships

Aryz New Mural In San Francisco, USA

"After a series of progress shots last week (covered), Aryz has now completed his new piece in San Francisco, USA. As usual with the Barcelona-based artist, he delivers a large scale mural featuring his signature colour palette combined with always impeccable technique. Organised by Upper Playground in association with Fifty24SF and WALLSPACE SF, this mural can be found on Polk Street. Make sure to peep some more extra shots after the jump..."
Street Art News

"3 a.m. Eternal" - The KLF

Wikipedia - "'3 a.m. Eternal' is a song by the British acid house group The KLF. Numerous versions of the song were released as singles between 1989 and 1992. ... When, the following year, The KLF accepted an invitation to perform at the BRIT Awards ceremony, they caused controversy with a succession of anti-establishment gestures that included a duet performance of '3 a.m. Eternal' with the crust punk band Extreme Noise Terror, during which The KLF co-founder Bill Drummond fired machine-gun blanks over the audience of music industry luminaries."
Wikipedia
YouTube: 3am Eternal HD (sNEaKY uPLOaDeR miX), 3AM Eternal (Guns of Mu Mu) 12 inch HD (sNEaKY uPLOaDeR ExCLUsIVe), 3 a m eternal (Complete)

2009 May: The KLF
2011 June: Justified & Ancient

Saul Bass

Wikipedia - "Saul Bass (... May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Oscar winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho."
Wikipedia
Saul Bass’s Title Sequences (Video)
YouTube: The Man With The Golden Arm">, Edge of the City, North by Northwest, West Side Story, Anatomy of a murder, Vertigo, Psycho

Chris Cutler - Domestic Stories (1992)

"Alternately harrowing and slyly humorous, this collaboration between Chris Cutler and Lutz Glandien plays more like an Art Bears reunion featuring, Fred Frith on guitar and the irrepressible Dagmar Krause on vocals. What Glandien brings to these compositions is a modern manipulation of sound using digital and tape effects, creating rumbling beds of disturbance for the music to play against. The texts by Cutler take a look at the power relationships in marriage -- from a concerned Marxist, the outlook is pretty grim as one could imagine. But the accompanying music is fascinating, dramatic, theatrical, and strange."
allmusic
W - Lutz Glandien
Domestic Stories
Song Cycle on Texts by Chris Cutler, 1992
YouTube: None are disbarred, Unquiet Days in Eden, Seven Veils, Up to our Elbows, the same river

The Techniques

Wikipedia - "The Techniques were a Jamaican rocksteady vocal group mainly active in the 1960s. The group was formed by Winston Riley in 1962 while still at school, with the initial line-up also featuring Slim Smith, Franklyn White, and Frederick Waite. They regularly performed at Edward Seaga's Chocomo Lawn club, where they were spotted by talent scouts from Columbia Records, who released their first single, 'No One', released only in the United Kingdom in 1963. Their Jamaican debut came in 1965 when they were introduced to producer Duke Reid by singer Stranger Cole, with Reid-produced singles such as 'Don't Leave Me', 'When You Are Wrong', and 'Little Did You Know' appearing on labels such as Island Records, and Reid's own Duke and Treasure Isle labels."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: It's You I Love, I'm So In Love With You, Day O (The Banana Boat Song), I Specialise In Good Girls, My Best Girl (With Dave Barker)

The Lost Album - Dennis Hopper

"Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present photographs from The Lost Album of the late Dennis Hopper. This historically significant body of work from the 1960s has not been exhibited in the United States since 1970. ... Before his rise to Hollywood stardom, he captured the establishment-busting spirit of the 1960s in photographs that travel from Los Angeles to Harlem to Tijuana, and which portray iconic figures including Tina Turner, Andy Warhol, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Lost Album in its entirety comprises over 400 black and white photographs taken between 1961—when his first wife Brooke Hayward gave him a Nikon camera for his birthday—and 1967. He would not make photographs again until the early 1980s."
Gagosian
Gagosian: Exhibition
NYT: Off Camera, Hopper Wielded His Own Lens
Dennis Hopper Photos Bring California Cool To Gagosian Gallery (PHOTOS)
Telegraph - Dennis Hopper: the Lost Album (PHOTOS)

2009 November: Easy Rider (1969), 2010 May: Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010), 2010 November: The American Friend (1977), Dennis Hopper Documentary (90s).

Rodney Graham

Rheinmetall Victoria installation
Wikipedia - "Rodney Graham (born January 16, 1949) is an artist and musician born in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He is most often associated with the Vancouver School. ... Coming out of Vancouver's 1970s photoconceptual tradition, Rodney Graham's work is often informed by historical literary, musical, philosophical and popular references. He is most often associated with other West-coast Canadian artists, including Vikky Alexander, Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, Roy Arden and Ken Lum."
Wikipedia
Rodney Graham (Video)
BOMB: Rodney Graham by Kim Gordon
YouTube: "Rodney Graham. Through the Forest", Rheinmetall/Victoria8 @ MoMA
vimeo: 'The Phonokinetoscope' film on view at Matthew Marks

Flappers

Wikipedia - "Flappers were a 'new breed' of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms. Flappers had their origins in the liberal period of the Roaring Twenties, the social, political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe."
Wikipedia
'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong
Smithsonian - The History of the Flapper, Part 1: A Call for Freedom
YouTube: The Roaring 20s, flappers dancing the Charleston, The Fabulous Flappers

The North Star Grassman and the Ravens

Wikipedia - "The North Star Grassman and the Ravens is a 1971 album by English folk rock singer-songwriter Sandy Denny. Built mostly around her own compositions, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens is distinguished by its elusive lyrics and unexpected harmonies."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: The North Star Grassman And The Ravens, Crazy Lady Blues and Late November, The Sea Captain, Blackwaterside, John the Gun, The Optimist

2009 March: Sandy Denny
2013 January: "A Sailor’s Life" - Fairport Convention

Daguerreotype

Wikipedia - "The daguerreotype ... (French: daguerréotype) was the first commercially successful photographic process, invented around 1837 by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. The physical daguerreotype itself is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate. The raw material for plates was called Sheffield plate, plating by fusion or cold-rolled cladding and was a standard hardware item produced by heating and rolling silver foil in contact with a copper support. The surface of a daguerreotype is like a mirror, with the image made directly on the silvered surface; it is very fragile and can be rubbed off with a finger, and the finished plate has to be angled so as to reflect some dark surface in order to view the image properly."
Wikipedia
YouTube: The Daguerreotype: Photographic Processes, Daguerreotypes at the Met

Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui

Earth’s Skin, 2007
"The first solo exhibition in a New York museum by the globally renowned contemporary artist El Anatsui, this show will feature over 30 works in metal and wood that transform appropriated objects into site-specific sculptures. Anatsui converts found materials into a new type of media that lies between sculpture and painting, combining aesthetic traditions from his birth country, Ghana; his home in Nsukka, Nigeria; and the global history of abstraction."
Brooklyn Museum (Video)
NYT: A Million Pieces of Home (Slide Show)
arrestedmotion
YouTube: Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui

Sera Cahoone

Wikipedia - "Sera Cahoone (born August 4, 1975) is a singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Cahoone's music combines elements of both classic country-western and modern indie rock and lo-fi. ... In 2006, Cahoone focused on singing, songwriting, and guitar playing, skills she'd been honing for nearly 15 years on her own. Her first album was Sera Cahoone (2006)."
Wikipedia
Sera Cahoone
Sub Pop
YouTube: Nowhere To Be Found, Naked, Baker Lake, You Might As Well, Nervous Wreck, Full Performance (Live on KEXP) 27:09

Jeff Greinke - Timbral Planes

"Jeff Greinke is one of the world's leading practitioners of dark minimalism. He recorded Timbral Planes in 1986 and 1987 at Simultaneous Studios in Seattle, WA. Dossier Records (in Germany) released it in 1988. Greinke remixed it in 1993, and Linden Music reissued it in 1994. It is a very worthy reissue. Greinke builds vast atmospheres on top of deep drones. He surrounds those dark atmospheres with darker and drearier textures. Experimental sounds add the finishing touch and push this soundscape to the limit."
allmusic
amazon
Rhapsody: Timbral Planes (Video)

2009 December: Jeff Greinke
2012 September: Cities in Fog

Rawiya: She Who Tells a Story

Laura Boushnak
"Rawiya is a photography collective founded by female photographers from across the Middle East. Rawiya presents an insider’s view of a region in flux balancing its contradictions while reflecting on social and political issues and stereotypes. As a collective, Rawiya’s photographers respect the human dignity of the stories they tell, pooling resources and vision to produce in-depth photo-essays and long-term projects. Rawiya, meaning ‘she who tells a story’, brings together the experiences and photographic styles of Myriam Abdelaziz, Tamara Abdul Hadi, Laura Boushnak, and Tanya Habjouqa."
Rawiya
She Who Tells a Story: Interview with the Photography Collective Rawiya
Tanya Habjouqa
Tamara Abdul Hadi
Myriam Abdelaziz
Laura Boushnak
Newsha Tavakolian
Dalia Khamissy
Rawiya / She who tells a story (Video)

Société des Artistes Indépendants

Grand Palais, 1901
Wikipedia - "The Société des Artistes Indépendants (Society of Independent Artists), Salon des Indépendants, formed in Paris 19 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the device 'No jury nor awards' (Sans jury ni récompense). Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were among its founders. For the following three decades their annual exhibitions set the trends in art of the early 20th century, along with the Salon d'Automne. This is where artworks were often first displayed and widely discussed. World War I brought a closure to the salon, though the Artistes Indépendants remained active. Since 1920, the headquarters is located in the vast basements of the Grand Palais (next door to the Société des Artistes Français, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Société du Salon d'Automne, and others)."
Wikipedia

Manhole cover

Kraków
Wikipedia - "A manhole cover is a removable plate forming the lid over the opening of a manhole, to prevent anyone or anything from falling in, and to keep out unauthorized persons and material. They date back at least to the era of ancient Rome, which had sewer grates made from stone."
Wikipedia
W - Manhole

1959: The Year That Changed Jazz

"Luckily we have BBC4’s 2009 documentary, 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz to do just that. Produced by documentarian Paul Bernays and UK jazz DJ Jez Nelson, 1959 scrutinizes the impact of Brubeck’s classic Time Out album alongside three others from that year: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, Charles Mingus’s Ah Um and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come."
Dangerous Minds
amazon: 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz
YouTube: 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz

"Atmosphere"/ "Dead Souls" - Joy Division

Wikipedia - "'Atmosphere' is a song by the band Joy Division. It was originally released on 18 March 1980 as a France-only single under the title Licht und Blindheit. It was limited to 1578 copies and had 'Dead Souls' as the B-side."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Atmosphere", "Dead Souls"

2008 March: Ian Curtis, 2009 August: Factory: Manchester From Joy Division To Happy Mondays, 2010 November: Love Will Tear Us Apart, 2012 February: An Ideal for Living EP, 2012 May: Unknown Pleasures

Spalding

Wikipedia - "A Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball, often called a Spaldeen (with the accent on the second syllable), is a small pink rubber ball, somewhat similar to a racquetball, supposedly made from the defective core of a tennis ball without the felt. It was the more expensive and more popular version of the Pensie Pinkie (made by the Penn tennis ball company). These balls are commonly used in street games developed in the mid-20th century, such as Chinese handball (a variation on American handball), stoop ball, hit-the-penny (involving trying to make a penny flip on a sidewalk), butts up, box ball, punchball, half-rubber, and stickball (a variation of baseball)."
Wikipedia
Streetplay
NYT: The Spaldeen Is Back (Even if the Dodgers Aren't)

Jeonghan Yun

Handmade Paper
"I feel my heart beats when Dak trees are found and appetized when the barks are peeled off. As they are steamed, my taste buds get erected; the buds detect the smell of the soil and porridge. While the soft cellulose of the barks becomes untangled in the water, I feel hungry. Then, all of sudden, as if I were fed by the colors of the dying paints, I feel energized, watching the white bark fibers get dyed. It is my hands sensing these unique experiences of the papers from Dak trees."
Jeonghan Yun
Bill Lowe Gallery
YouTube: Bill Lowe Presents: Jeong-han and Choon-Hyang Yun

Janis Joplin - Summertime, Ball And Chain (Live)

Gröna Lund 1969 - Stockholm. Germany 1969.
YouTube: Summertime, Ball And Chain

2008 May: Janis Joplin
2010 October: Janis Joplin: 1962-1965
2012 December: "Little Girl Blue"

Henry Miller

Wikipedia - "Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of the real-life Henry Miller and yet is also fictional. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939). He also wrote travel memoirs and essays of literary criticism and analysis."
Wikipedia
Henry Miller
Henry Miller Memorial Library
Walking Paris with Henry Miller
The Paris Review: Henry Miller, The Art of Fiction No. 28
Work Schedule 1932-1933
amazon: Henry Miller
NYT: The Male Mystique of Henry Miller

YouTube: The Big Sur Brooklyn Bridge, The Henry Miller Odyssey (1969) 1:31:35, Reflections on Writing - Robert Synder, 1974 Part 1 14:44, Reflections on Writing - Robert Synder, 1974 part 2 14:44, To Paint Is To Love Again 4:38, Henry miller reads 7:27, Interview with Henry Miller Screener 4:19, Henry Miller (1980) 2:52

2010 March: Dinner With Henry (1979)
2011 December: Asleep & Awake (1975)

The Surreal Beauty of a New York Commute in 'Sub City New York'

"The Sub City series explores the wonder in the humble experience of exiting the subway through dreamy slow motion and elegant steadicam cinematography. New York-based filmmakers Sarah Klein and Tom Mason talk about the inspiration for the project and where they'll film next in an interview with The Atlantic."
The Atlantic: Sub City New York (Video)

Dream of Life - Patti Smith

"The big difference between Patti Smith's four 1970s albums and this return to action after nine years lies in the choice of collaborator. Where Smith's main associate earlier had been Lenny Kaye, a deliberately simple guitarist, here her co-writer and co-producer (with Jimmy Iovine) was her husband, Fred 'Sonic' Smith, formerly of the MC5, who played guitar with a conventional rock competence and who lent his talents to each of the tracks, giving them a mainstream flavor. In a sense, however, these polished love songs, lullabies, and political statements are not to be compared to the poetic ramblings of Smith's first decade of music-making -- she's so much...calmer this time out."
allmusic
Patti Smith — Dream Of Life (Video)
Daily Motion: part 1, part 2

Xu Zhen

"Provocation has always been a main aspect in Xu Zhen’s creation, touching upon taboos, definitions and rules. His early work 8848-1.86, fully reflects doubts about power and truth - this installation is a ‘troublemaker’, ironizing humankind’s illusory and blind pursuit for a certain ‘apogee’- it encompasses the current chaotic situation in politics, economy, culture and history generated by ambitions of hegemony, selfish desires. With provocation as a stimulus, Xu Zhen builds a systematized ‘destruction/reconstruction’ cycle."
MOVEMENT FIELD
W - Xu Zhen
James Cohan Gallery
Xu Zhen's Forbidden Castle Exhibit Arrives At Muzeum Montanelli (PHOTOS)
vimeo: Xu Zhen 'In Just a Blink of an Eye' 2005

Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light

"Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light, the first solo exhibition of Labrouste’s work in the United States, establishes his work as a milestone in the modern evolution of architecture. The exhibition includes over 200 works, from original drawings—many of them watercolors of haunting beauty and precision—to vintage and modern photographs, films, architectural models, and fragments."
MoMA
A Daily Dose of Architecture
NYT: A Poetry Grounded in Gravity and Air
YouTube: Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light

Various Artists - Channel One Dubs 1974 - 79

"The kind of material on Maxfield Avenue Breakdown, recorded from 1974-1979 by the Revolutionaries with Ernest and JoJo Hookim at the Channel One studio controls, may lack the pure sonic invention of a Lee Perry or King Tubby, but it played an equally crucial role in the development of dub. Jamaican recordings from this era introduced the rockers style driven by Robbie Shakespeare's throbbing bass and Sly Dunbar's echoed rim-shot clicks and explosive snare shots, which became a fundamental definition of roots reggae. Over that fresh drum and bass foundation, the Hookims keep their dub easy to digest by retaining most of the original song structures and mutating one element at a time."
allmusic
YouTube: 1) Woman Is Like A Shadow, 2) King Of The Minstrels, 3) Have Mercy Version, 1) Ragnampaiza Version, 2) Speak Easy, 3) Natty A General Version

Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey (1964)

Wikipedia - "Sometimes a Great Notion is Ken Kesey's second novel, published in 1964. While One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is arguably more famous, many critics consider Sometimes a Great Notion Kesey's magnum opus. The story involves an Oregon family of gyppo loggers who cut and procure trees for a local mill in opposition to striking, unionized workers. The story centers on the Stamper family, a hard-headed logging clan in the fictional town of Wakonda, Oregon. The union loggers in the town of Wakonda go on strike in demand of the same pay for shorter hours in response to the decreasing need for labor due to the introduction of the chainsaw."
Wikipedia
W - Sometimes a Great Notion (film)
Sometimes a Great Notion: The Story
of a Family Who Would Never Give an Inch
Ken Kesey: Sometimes a Great Notion Takes Root
Voice: Deserved Second Act for Paul Newman's Sometimes a Great Notion - J. Hoberman
YouTube: Sometimes a Great Notion - Incredible Scene, All His Children : Charley Pride, Sometimes a Great Notion 1971 CUT

2010 May: Ken Kesey

The Angel of the Odd

“The Nightmare” (Fuseli) – 1781
"It was in the 1930s that the Italian writer and art historian Mario Praz (1896-1982) first highlighted the dark side of Romanticism, thus naming a vast swathe of artistic creation, which from the 1760s onwards exploited the shadows, excesses and irrational elements that lurked behind the apparent triumph of enlightened Reason. This world was created in the English Gothic novels of the late 18th century, a genre of literature that fascinated the public with its penchant for the mysterious and the macabre."
Musée d'Orsay (Video)
Musée d'Orsay: The Angel of the Odd. Dark Romanticism from Goya to Max Ernst

No More Shall We Part - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Wikipedia - "No More Shall We Part is the eleventh studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 2 April 2001 in the UK (and 10 April in the US). The album came after a 4-year gap from recording, following the much acclaimed album The Boatman's Call. Cave had to overcome heavy heroin and alcohol addictions in 1999-2000 before starting work on the album. ... The album showcases the virtuoso talents of the Bad Seeds, with elaborate instrumental sections on nearly every track. Also, Cave's lyrics are less obscure than usual, and he sings in a wider vocal range than he had previously, reaching alto on several tracks."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: As I Sat Sadly By Her Side, And No More Shall We Part, Hallelujah, Love Letter, Fifteen feet of pure white snow, God Is In The House, Oh, my lord, Sweetheart Come, The sorrowful wife, We Came Along This Road

2008 August: Nick Cave, 2010 November: Henry Lee - Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 March: The Boatman's Call, 2011 December: B-Sides & Rarities, 2012 January: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - White Lunar, 2013 January: "We No Who U R"

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - Echos Hypnotiques

"The greatest band in Benin's history, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, is back. The legendary West African band was founded in 1968 and has included some of the most influential and virtuosic African musicians ever to play a note. Similar to the Rail Band of Mali and Afrika 70 of Nigeria, OPR was extremely popular throughout West Africa in the 1970s. With an exquisite groove, a homemade Afrobeat funk that combined vodoun (voodoo) rituals, Latin music and James Brown--influenced jams, they played with the likes of Manu Dibango, Fela Kuti and Gnonnas Pedro."
YouTube: "Se Ba Ho", Mi Ve Wa Se, Azoo De Ma Gnin Kpevi, Ahouli Vou Yelli, Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me

2011 August: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou
2012 April: Afrikafestival Hertme

The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

"Like so many daily comestibles we completely take for granted—salt, sugar, and (far fewer of us) tobacco—coffee has a long and often brutal history. And like many of these substances, it tends to be addictive. But coffee has also inspired a longstanding social tradition that shows no signs of ever going out of fashion. It’s a drug that makes us thinky and chatty and sociable (I for one don’t speak a human language until I’ve had my first cup). It’s these contradictions of coffee history—its complicity in slave economies and the Enlightenment public square—that Mark Pendergrast takes on in his new book Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World."
Open Culture (Video)
amazon: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

2010 September: Espresso

Vhils New Murals In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

"Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is now in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for his upcoming exhibition at Clark Art Center.
The Portuguese artist and his crew spent the last few weeks working on the streets of Rio where they dropped a series of fresh portraits. Vhils' work continues explores the layers of urban space and its history through the destruction of their walls."
StreetArtNews

2009 September: Alexandre Farto (aka Vhils), 2012 March: Vhils Solo Show, 2012 November: Vhils New Mural In London, UK.

Women Unveiled: Marc Garanger’s Contested Portraits of 1960s Algeria

"For France, the trauma of the Algerian War (1954-1962) was not unlike the experience of the Vietnam War for the United States. But, unlike the conflict in Vietnam, few photographic documents exist from that period in Algeria: it is as if the French responded with collective amnesia. Marc Garanger’s Algerian Women is one of the few photographic essays dedicated to that painful period."
Light Box

The Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art

PIARS Sonic Arts
"The Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art, SONM, has been created as a public access resource -both physical and virtual online- with my entire collection of experimental music and sound art, gathered over the past thirty years of direct exchange with thousands of sound artists worldwide. This sound archive is not the result of a collector's accumulation (I am not a collector) but is instead the consequence of an intense activity as an artist, and also of one of the most fundamental features of the international community of sound artists: the exchange and collaboration, both physical and telematic. The archive is thus a personal collection, subjective, partial, and particularly focused on the global communities of so-called 'independent' or 'underground' artists, which I am part of since the late 70s."
SONM Archive
Sonm
The Journal of Sonic Studies
YouTube: Slow Dancing Society - The Delicate Sound Of Silence, Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek — In Session 05.10.09, Asmus Tietchens - Hydrophonie 1, zoviet france -- Mohnomishe -- Untitled-4, Mike Hovancsek, B. Chabala & J. Cieciel - The Stomp

On Painting: Alex Katz & Felix Vallotton

Alex Katz, Sunset 1, 2008
"Paintings by Alex Katz, one of the most famous contemporary American painters have been hung alongside a selection of works by Felix Vallotton, one of Switzerland’s most renowned artists, who lived 100 years ago. The show is like walking through the studio of artists who could very well have been painting side by side. Although Katz was born two years after Vallotton died and knew very little of him, there are uncanny resemblances in the themes that inspired them and in the way they painted."
World Radio (Video)
e-flux: On Painting. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton
Museum Publicity

2008 February: Alex Katz
2010 December: Life Imitates Art
2012 June: Alex Katz Prints

Pretty Boy Floyd

Wikipedia - "Charles Arthur 'Pretty Boy' Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934) was an American bank robber. He operated in the Midwest and West South Central States, and his criminal exploits gained heavy press coverage in the 1930s. Like most other prominent outlaws of that era, he was killed by policemen. He remains a familiar figure in American popular culture, sometimes seen as notorious, but at other times viewed as a tragic figure, partly a victim of hard times. ... In March 1939, five years after Floyd's death, Woody Guthrie, a native of Oklahoma, wrote a song romanticizing Floyd's life, called 'The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd.' The song has the form of a Broadside 'come-all-ye' ballad opening with the lines..."
Wikipedia (Video)
FBI: Kansas City Massacre—Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd
YouTube: Pretty Boy Floyd - Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, Joan Baez

"Homburg" - Procol Harum (1967)

Wikipedia - "'Homburg' was Procol Harum's follow-up single to their initial 1967 hit 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. Written by pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid, 'Homburg' reached number 5 in the UK charts, number 15 in Canada, and number 34 in the United States. ... Reid's 'Homburg' lyrics contains the same surreal, dream-like imagery and feelings of resignation and futility as in the debut single. The music also features Matthew Fisher's rich and deep Hammond organ, but the piano and guitar have bigger places in the overall sound."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Homburg"

2009 July: Procol Harum
2011 July: A Salty Dog
2011 December: Broken Barricades

Repetition - Søren Kierkegaard (1843)

Wikipedia - "Repetition is a 1843 book by Søren Kierkegaard. ... In Repetition he followed his own advice and became his own psychologist. He used the pseudonym Constantin Constantius in this book. Constantin is currently conducting experiments into whether repetition is possible. The book includes his experiments and his relation to a nameless patient known only as the Young Man. Every patient must have a problem. The Young Man has fallen in love with a girl, proposed marriage, the proposal has been accepted, but now he has changed his mind."
Wikipedia
Wikiquote
Kierkegaard's Repetition as a Comedy in Two Acts - Stuart Dalton
amazon: Repetition and Philosophical Crumbs (Oxford World's Classics)
Job and the thunderstorm in Kierkegaard’s Repetition

2011 July: Søren Kierkegaard