Maison Martin Margiela with H&M - Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's dance performances (2012)

"Maison Martin Margiela invited Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Rosas to perform at the launch of its collection for H&M, on October 23, 2012, in New York City. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and 10 dancers of Rosas revealed Maison Martin Margiela’s collection through a number of site specific performances. Over the 9 floors of Beekman palace, an impressive New York landmark, abandoned since almost 40 years, 31 squares of white sand were spread. The collection was presented through solos and duets danced on the squares of sand, each performance leaving behind a pattern in the sand, traces of the movements, subtle prints of the body and the clothes’ texture."
Rosas
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Dance Performances for Maison Martin Margiela’s Collaboration with H&M (Video)
Maison Martin Margiela for H&M Avant-Garde Party in New York
YouTube: Maison Martin Margiela with H&M - Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's dance performances, Behind the scenes footage from the collaboration lookbook shoot

2009 July: Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, 2012 December: Rosas Danst Rosas (1983), 2013 September: Re : Rosas!.

Push the Sky Away - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (2013)

"It's been nearly five years since Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds issued the manic, intense rock cabaret that was Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Since then, the formation and breakup of Grinderman yielded two studio offerings, and Cave and Warren Ellis have composed a few film scores. Push the Sky Away, produced by Nick Launay, is painted with a deliberately limited sonic palette by Ellis. The album's sequencing makes it feel like a long, moody suite. While most of these songs contain simple melodies and arrangements that offer the appearance of vulnerability and tenderness, it is inside this framework that they eventually reveal their sharp fangs and malcontent. ..."
allmusic
W - Push the Sky Away
Pitchfork
YouTube: Higgs Boson Blues, Push The Sky Away, Mermaids, Water's Edge, We No Who U R, We Real Cool

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", 2013 April: No More Shall We Part, 2013 June: The Secret Life Of The Love Song/The Flesh Made Word (1999), 2013 October: The Abattoir Blues Tour (2007).

Richard Thompson - Videowest 81

Guitar Player Session, December 9th, 1981
YouTube: Jenny Lind Polka, Time To Ring Some Changes, Honky Tonk Blues, Banish Misfortune, Bright Lights Tonight, The Choice Wife, Just The Motion, Going To Need Somebody, Interview part 1/2, Interview part 2/2

2011 July: Shoot Out the Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson, 2012 February: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight.

RIP Bill Knott, 1940-2014

The Naomi Poems by Saint Geraud (aka bill knott)
"Several of Bill Knott’s former colleagues at Emerson College have confirmed that Bill passed away yesterday from complications with surgery. The inventive, subversive, and immensely influential poet was 74. Knott was the author of more than an a dozen poetry books and had more recently taken to publishing all of his work, for free, online. His first book, The Naomi Poems: Corpse and Beans, was published in 1968 under the pseudonym 'Saint Geraud' and came on the heels of the poet’s own fake suicide, detailed by Paul Carroll in his introduction to Knott’s slim–and by nearly every critical estimation, classic–volume..."
Coldfront
W - Bill Knott
The Poetry Foundation
Three Poems by Bill Knott
Bookslut | An Interview with Bill Knott
"Knotty, Knotty Boy:" Richard Hell on poet Bill Knott
a few hundred of the thousands of rejection slips i've got over the years—
YouTube: Bill Knott READING "Corpse and Beans or What is Poetry", Bill Knott reading his poem "ANT DODGER", "A LESSON FROM THE ORPHANAGE"

Bloc Party: 65 Artists From Former Eastern Bloc Countries Form Compact Show at New Museum

Jindřich Polák, Ikarie XB-1 [Voyage to the End of the Universe], 1963
"Both time capsule and time machine, this compact exhibition gathers work by 65 artists from former Eastern Bloc countries. As you step off the elevator into a faux spaceship based on designs from Eastern European sci-fi films of the Cold War era, you might be reminded of how such plaster facsimiles can appear thrillingly dynamic onscreen. Perhaps this will put you in the proper head space for what a newspaper handout accompanying the exhibit describes as 'an asychronic narrative,' one in which 'the present is understood as an overlap of multiple temporal and spatial frames.' A slide show of Soviet modernist buildings from 1955-91 documents zigzagging stone buttresses, labial concrete roofs, and other edifices as loopy as any background seen in futuristic drive-in flicks."
Village Voice
Futures of Eastern Europe Conference – Part 1, Part 2
The New Museum’s Fifth Floor Will Be Turned Into a Spaceship

Transatlantic Sessions - Programme Three (2007)

"Music co-directors, Shetland fiddle virtuoso Aly Bain, dobro ace Jerry Douglas and their all-star house band, host a gathering of the cream of Nashville, Irish and Scottish talent in a spectacular new location overlooking the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. In this episode look out for the deftly delicate guitar of Russ Barenberg, one of the Sessions' 'founding fathers', and John McCusker's rollicking fiddle."
BBC
W - Transatlantic Sessions 3
amazon
YouTube: Swan, Julie Fowlis with Jenna Reid & Donal Lunny - Biodh An Deoch Seo 'N Làimh Mo Rùin, The Drummers of England - Russ Barenberg, Frank McConnell's 3 Step, Elanor of Usen, Whole lot of Heaven (Iris DeMent), Bruce Molsky with Julie Fowlis - The Blackest Crow, Sir Aly B with Gerry Douglas, The Open Door - Darrell Scott, Eddi Reader with Tim O'Brien - Back To Earth, Hector The Hero - Jenna Reid with Aly Bain, Cara Dillon with Sam Lakeman - Garden Valley, Joan Osborne with Iris DeMent & Bruce Molsky - Holy Waters, Crucán Na bPáiste - Karen Matheson, The Crossing - Tim O'Brien, Julie Fowlis with Donal Lunny and Bruce Molsky, He Reached Down - Iris DeMent, Fred Morrison, Michael McGoldrick and Donal Lunny, The Streets of Derry - Cara Dillon with Paul Brady

2013 December: Programme One, Programme Two (1995)

John Ruskin

Wikipedia - "John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation."
Wikipedia
Spartacus Educational
VictorianWeb
Guardian: What was John Ruskin thinking on his unhappy wedding night?
YouTube: John Ruskin, John Ruskin: Photographer and Draughtsman

In Which Berthe Morisot Is Spared Nothing

Berthe Morisot, Young Girl in a Greenhouse
"It's all vantage points. From the perspective of the sky, men dominated the Impressionist movement. On the ground things weren't as clear. The singular female impressionist Berthe Morisot was alternately challenged and defused by the indelible artistic talent that surrounded her. Ironically, her personal correspondence to a variety of men and women shows all who knew her in a more stark, realistic light. Modernity came on the shoulders of these individuals, for whom gender was the least of their concerns. After her marriage to Manet's brother Eugene, she gave birth to a daughter Julie, and seemed to be rid of the anxieties of her years as a struggling young painter. The writing in the correspondence that follows is sharp, incisive, and almost entirely devoid of a familiar cynicism."
This Recording
W - Berthe Morisot
At the Royal Academy - Julian Bell

Christian Marclay's "Chalkboard" (2010)

Chalkboard, 2010
"Christian Marclay is a darling of museum curators. Wherever there is a show about sound or music he is sure to be in it. However, the question remains: Is Christian Marclay a good musician? And does it matter? For two months this summer, the Whitney Museum got all trigger-happy and gave its keys to our multidisciplinary artist so he could throw a party. Oh, what a setting! Marclay invaded the entire fourth floor, made it dark and grungy, and invited a bunch of his friends, as well as a group of respected avant-garde musicians, to play, or at least pretend they can play, his extravagant musical scores."
artnet
Christian Marclay: Festival at The Whitney (Video)
LiveStream: Chalkboard: Peter Evans (2010)
YouTube: Christian Marclay's Chalkboard, 2010 with Anthony Coleman performing Shuffle, 2007

Central Park in the Dark - Charles Ives (1906)

Wikipedia - "Central Park in the Dark is a music composition by Charles Ives for chamber orchestra. ... Central Park in the Dark displays several characteristics that are typical of Ives’s work. Ives layers of orchestral textures on top of each other to create a polytonal atmosphere. Within this polytonal atmosphere, Ives juxtaposes the different sections of the orchestras in contrasting and clashing pairings (i.e. the ambient, static strings against the syncopated ragtime pianos against a brass street band). These juxtapositions are a prevalent theme in the works of Ives, and can be seen most notably in The Unanswered Question, Three Places in New England, and the Symphony No. 4."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Central Park in The Dark - Notes
The Atlantic: The Many Faces of Ives
YouTube: Central Park in the Dark

2008 September: Charles Ives, 2010 December: Holidays Symphony, 2011 November: Three Places in New England, 2012 August: Symphony No. 2, 2012 December: Decoration Day.

Johnny Shines - Takin' The Blues Back South (1973)

Wikipedia - "John Ned 'Johnny' Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Shines was born in Frayser, Memphis, United States. He spent most of his childhood in Memphis, Tennessee playing slide guitar at an early age in local 'jukes' and on the street. He was taught to play the guitar by his mother. Shines moved to Hughes, Arkansas in 1932 and worked on farms for three years putting his musical career on hold. It was a chance meeting with Robert Johnson, his greatest influence, that gave him the inspiration to return to music. In 1935, Shines began traveling with Johnson, touring in the United States and Canada. The two went their separate ways in 1937, one year before Johnson's death. Shines played throughout the southern United States until 1941 when he settled in Chicago. There Shines found work in the construction industry but continued to play in local bars."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Takin' The Blues Back South (Full Album)

Jiří Hanke Kladno – the 80's

Kolmistr Street, Kladno, 1982
"... His present exposition at the Leica Gallery Prague includes both several photos from the collections mentioned and many so far unpublished snapshots. In spite of all the motif and style differences, they are linked by the place unity of an industrial town in the vicinity of Prague, time of origin during one decade that was beginning with a profound totalitarianism and ended with the return of freedom, and even by a subjective author´s view that discovers, with a subtle irony and dry humour, in seemingly trivial situations and environment expressive visual symbols. Hanke belongs, next to Gustav Aulehla, Viktor Kolář, Bohdan Holomíček, Jaroslav Kučera and Dana Kyndrová, to an expressive group of authors without formal education, who enriched the Czech documentary photography of the 1980s in a decisive way."
Jiří Hanke Kladno – the 80's
VIEWS FROM THE WINDOW OF MY FLAT (Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, 1981-2003)
W - Jiří Hanke
YouTube: Kladno (with music by YoYo Band) / slideshow for Fotojatka 2013

Alain Resnais - Toute la mémoire du monde (1956)

"Before he radically transformed narrative cinema with such nonlinear masterpieces as Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad, the French New Wave icon Alain Resnais, who turns ninety-one today, began his career experimenting with cinematic form in short documentaries. The best known of these is probably the epochal 1955 Holocaust film Night and Fog, but the director also made a number of other gorgeous poetic ruminations on the ineffable. To honor M. Resnais on his birthday, we’re posting his evocative 1956 short Toute la mémoire du monde, which is both a look at the inner workings of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and a meditative piece about the fragility of human memory and the ways in which we try to shore it up—which would remain favorite themes of Resnais’."
Criterion (Video)
W - Alain Resnais
ALL TOMORROW'S YESTERDAYS
Strictly Film School

First day of issue

1962 World Cup
Wikipedia - "A first day of issue cover or first day cover is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day the issue is authorized for use within the country or territory of the stamp-issuing authority. Sometimes the issue is made from a temporary or permanent foreign or overseas office. There will usually be a first day of issue postmark, frequently a pictorial cancellation, indicating the city and date where the item was first issued, and "first day of issue" is often used to refer to this postmark. Depending on the policy of the nation issuing the stamp, official first day postmarks may sometimes be applied to covers weeks or months after the date indicated."
Wikipedia
A Short Course on First Day Covers

Garment District

Men pulling racks of clothing on busy sidewalk in Garment District (1955)
Wikipedia - "The Garment District, also known as the Garment Center, the Fashion District, or the Fashion Center, is a neighborhood located in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The dense concentration of fashion-related uses give the neighborhood—which is generally considered to lie between Fifth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, from 34th to 42nd Street—its name. The Garment District has been known since the early 20th century as the center for fashion manufacturing and fashion design in the United States, and even the world. Less than one square mile in area, the neighborhood is home to the majority of New York’s showrooms and to numerous major fashion labels, and caters to all aspects of the fashion process–from design and production to wholesale selling. No other city has a comparable concentration of fashion businesses and talent in a single district."
Wikipedia
The History of The New York City Garment District
The NYC Garment District
NYT: Needles, Threads and New York History
Garment Industry History Initiative
YouTube: Garment District - Manhattan - Morning 08/31/10, 8th Avenue 2002

2013 March: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

James Brown - Live at the Apollo (1963)

"An astonishing record of James and the Flames tearing the roof off the sucker at the mecca of R&B theatres, New York's Apollo. When King Records owner Syd Nathan refused to fund the recording, thinking it commercial folly, Brown single-mindedly proceeded anyway, paying for it out of his own pocket. He had been out on the road night after night for a while, and he knew that the magic that was part and parcel of a James Brown show was something no record had ever caught. Hit follows hit without a pause -- 'I'll Go Crazy,' 'Try Me,' 'Think,' 'Please Please Please,' 'I Don't Mind,' 'Night Train,' and more. The affirmative screams and cries of the audience are something you've never experienced unless you've seen the Brown Revue in a Black theater. If you have, I need not say more; if you haven't, suffice to say that this should be one of the very first records you ever own."
allmusic
Pitchfork
W - Live at the Apollo
YouTube: Night Train lIve 1963, Lost Someone, James Brown Live At The Apollo 1962 FULL

Robert Wyatt - Cuckooland (2003)

"Robert Wyatt's first full-length of new material since 1997's Shleep is no less mischievous, witty, and poignant. As has become his custom, Wyatt offers a set of 16 new songs seemingly composed for a wide array of musicians including Annie Whitehead, Eno, David Gilmour, Tomo Hayakawa, Karen Mantler, Phil Manzanera, Paul Weller, and others he enlisted to record it. The album is divided into two halves. The first eight selections being 'neither here...' while the last eight are 'nor there...'. What divides the halves are in Wyatt's mind and aesthetics alone, as the disc feels like a seamless, unified whole. From the opener, 'Just A Bit,' a dastardly yet delightful bit of cynicism directed at organized religion and new age phoniness, the listener hears Wyatt in good humor with razor-sharp political sensibilities, and in fantastic musical form. ..."
allmusic
W - Cuckooland
BBC - Cuckooland
YouTube: Insensatez (CuckooLand), Lullaloop, Just A Bit, Old Europe

Blue Jasmine (2013)

Wikipedia - "Blue Jasmine is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It tells the story of a rich Manhattan socialite (played by Cate Blanchett) falling into poverty and homelessness. It was released on July 26, 2013, in New York and Los Angeles. Blue Jasmine received praise from the critics, particularly for Blanchett's performance; additionally, they compared the film to Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. ... Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) disembarks in San Francisco after a flight from New York. The lady who had been sitting next to her on the flight tells her husband that Jasmine had been talking to her constantly. Jasmine takes a taxi to her sister Ginger's (Sally Hawkins) apartment, where Ginger is shocked to learn that Jasmine travelled first class despite claiming to be broke."
Wikipedia
NYT: Pride Stays, Even After the Fall
'Blue Jasmine' review: Allen, Blanchett dazzle (Video)
New Yorker: Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine”
YouTube: Blue Jasmine - Official Trailer, Woody Allen Blue Jasmine Interview BBC Newsnight 2013

Larry Clark - Home Alone 2

"Larry Clark’s lurid portraits of teenage sex, violence and drug taking hang at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, and can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Now, Mr. Clark, as a kind of thank you to the fans who have made his bleak 1971 photography book, 'Tulsa,' and his 1995 movie, 'Kids,' cult classics, is offering thousands of his one-of-a-kind color snapshots for purchase at $100 apiece at an East Village art space. The sale is for people who 'come to my shows in thousands and could never afford 10 to 15 thousand dollars for a print,' Mr. Clark, 70, wrote in an email. 'This is a payback to all the skate rats and collectors who would like a souvenir, so I can die happy.'”
NYT: For Fans of Photographer, a Window of Opportunity
There are $100 Larry Clark Prints at Leo Fitzpatrick's Home Alone 2 Gallery (Yes, You Read That Right)
Selected Photos From Larry Clark’s Unique Photo Show at Home Alone 2
W - Larry Clark
Tulsa - An Essay by Larry Clark
vimeo: Tulsa (1971)
YouTube: Kids (1995), Another Day in Paradise (1998)

Robert Ashley, 1930-2014

"UbuWeb mourns the passing of the great American composer Robert Ashley. You can listen to his music and invterviews here, watch his films here, read about him here. If you're unfamiliar with his work, the best place to start is Peter Greenaway's documentary Four American Composers: Robert Ashley (1983). His most well-known video work is Perfect Lives (1978-83), a television opera in seven parts. He interviewed composers such as Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma in his epic video series, Music With Roots in the Aether, where interviews are followed by performances. He will be missed."
Robert Ashley in UbuWeb Sound (Video)
Robert Ashley in UbuWeb Film (Video)
NYT: Robert Ashley, Opera Composer Who Painted Outside the Lines, Dies at 83
vimeo: Celestial Excursions by Robert Ashley - Live @ La Mama, 2009, That Morning Thing by Robert Ashley - Live @ The Kitchen, 2011, Dust by Robert Ashley - Live @ La Mama, 2009
YouTube: Directed by Peter Greenaway, part of the "Four American Composers" series (1983) 1/6, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6, 6/6. Texas, 1946: ft. Robert Ashley Spoken Word (Love is a Good Example), The Angel of Loneliness (1998), Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon

2008 March: Robert Ashley, 2011 November: Perfect Lives - Robert Ashley, 2012 April: Sonic Arts Union, 2012 July: Various - Lovely Little Records, 2013 October: The Old Man Lives in Concrete.

Gilf Covers Gentrification in NYC

"gilf! is a conceptual artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. gilf! was born out of the artist’s definitive need to protest the Bush Administration. Baffled at our culture’s lack of response to the crumbling structures of society she uses concept specific materials to present new perspectives to her viewers. Recognized as a strong voice of the current street art scene gilf! had her first solo show in New York with Arcilesi Homberg Fine Art in 2013. She has also participated in various group and two person shows in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bern, Munich, and Montreal. Through her travels murals, uncomissioned street work, gallery installations, and curatorial projects continue her dialog of mindful and constructive revolution. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BS in Fine Art."
gilf!
Wooster Collective
gilf! - Blog

Heartworn Highways - James Szalapski (1975)

"James Szalapski's documentary Heartworn Highways. Recorded in 1975, released in 1981. Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered his song 'Pancho and Lefty,' scoring a number one hit on the Billboard country music charts. Despite achievements like these, the bulk of his life was spent touring various dive bars often living in cheap motel rooms, backwoods cabins, and on friends' couches. Van Zandt was notorious for his drug addictions, alcoholism, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and insulin shock therapy erased much of his long-term memory."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: Heartworn Highways Trailer, Townes Van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty, Townes van Zandt - Waitin' Around To Die, Guy Clark - That old time feeling, Townes Van Zandt In His Element, David Allan Coe - I Still Sing the Old Songs, Rodney Crowell - Bluebird Wine, Richard Dobson - Hard by the Highway, , Uncle Seymour Washington gives some advice on life

A History of the World in 100 Objects - Neil MacGregor

"While we’re catching up with historical podcasts, note that BBC Radio 4′s The History of the World in 100 Objects (iTunes – RSS Feed – Web Site) has wrapped up and covered all 100 objects. And not, mind you, just any old objects: these objects come straight from the collection of the British Museum, and thus almost certainly reveal the story of mankind more effectively than most. For that has constituted the program’s project since its inception: to tell, for just under fifteen minutes at a stretch, one chapter of human history as the trained eye can read it in an object like an early writing tablet, a Chinese bronze bell, or an Egyptian clay model of cattle."
The Complete History of the World (and Human Creativity) in 100 Objects
W - A History of the World in 100 Objects
British Museum: A History of the World in 100 objects
amazon

The Agronomist

Wikipedia - "The Agronomist is a 2003 American documentary directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Jean Dominique. The documentary follows the life of Dominique, who ran Haiti's first independent radio station, Radio Haiti-Inter, during multiple repressive regimes. The Agronomist is about Jean Leopold Dominique who hosted Radio Haiti-Inter, Haiti's first independent radio station. Jonathan Demme puts together this documentary with historical footage and interviews. The result is a serious recount of Haiti during its numerous regimes.mRadio Haiti-Inter was Radio Haiti in 1960 and in 1969, it became Radio Haiti-Inter. It finally ended its broadcast three years after the assassination of Jean Dominique. His broadcasts were primarily for the struggle of democracy and he was able to capture the feelings of those who were poor and powerless."
Wikipedia
Roger Ebert
NYT: Elegy for the Unflinching Conscience of Haiti
Haiti: An Introduction to The Agronomist
YouTube: The Agronomist (2003) - Trailer, Jean Dominique Talks About the Effect of Carter and Reagan on Haitian Politics in "The Agronomist"

Fela Kuti - Underground System (1992)

"Underground System was among the better recordings of Fela's late career, comprised of two extended tracks, the title cut and 'Pansa Pansa.' 'Underground System' starts off with rhythms that are far faster and more urgent than those on most of Fela's characteristically lengthy tracks. If that sounds like a marginal quality upon which to judge a song as a standout, well, something like a much faster and played-as-though-we-mean-it tempo really does help to differentiate it from the singer's generally similar output of the 1980s and 1990s. The backup singers also come in quickly with infectious chants, prior to a typical Fela lyric observing the difficulty in enacting positive political change in Africa. ..."
allmusic
Fela
YouTube: Underground System, Pansa Pansa 1/2 (Berlin 1978), Pansa Pansa 2/2 (Berlin 1978), C.B.B. (Confusion Break Bone)

Der Fensterputzer (The Window Washer) - Pina Bausch (1997)

"The curtain opens on a set consisting of a twenty-foot-high hill of red silk flowers in one corner, an image that alludes to Hong Kong region's geography, as well as to the impending onslaught of Bauschian imagery. It is morning. A young girl greets us, repeating 'Hello, good morning' with a saccharine smile, while others go through the mundane actions of shaving, dressing, and fixing their hair with a synchronization and smoothness that elevates the actions to dance. One desperate soul attempts to please her guests--the audience--by offering coffee, food, or soft drinks. A lone window washer attemps a ludicrous task: behind a reflective sheet of plastic, suspended in a seat with squeegee and pail, he trys to keep the glass surfaces of Hong Kong's glimmering neon cityscape free of grime and glare. His lonely toil, contrasted with his later appearances as a well-dressed, pipe-smoking, poodle-toting gentleman, reminds us of the gap between rich and poor, worker and dandy. - Kelly Hargraves"
Stanford
Tanztheater Wuppertal
Sanjoy Roy
WhatsOnStage
British Theatre Guide
theartsdesk
youku: Der Fensterputzer 28:00

2008 May: Pina Bausch, 2009 June: Pina Bausch 1940-2009, 2012 August: Pina Bausch Costumes.

Chris Burden - Metropolis II

"Chris Burden's Metropolis II is an intense kinetic sculpture, modeled after a fast paced, frenetic modern city. Steel beams form an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of 18 roadways, including one six lane freeway, and HO scale train tracks. Miniature cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour; every hour, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulate through the dense network of buildings. According to Burden, 'The noise, the continuous flow of the trains, and the speeding toy cars produce in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st century city.'"
LACMA
W - Chris Burden (Video)
How Chris Burden Created Metropolis II, A Tiny City Where 1,100 Toy Cars Zoom (Video)

Yto Barrada

Wikipedia - "Yto Barrada (born 1971 in Paris) is a visual artist living and working in Tangier, Morocco. Yto Barrada is the daughter of French journalist Hamid Barrada. She studied history and political science at the Sorbonne in Paris and photography at the International Centre of Photography, New York. Her Strait Project, begun in 1998, describes the static and transitory life of her hometown, the border city facing Europe across the Strait of Gibraltar. Her photographs capture a city tortured by dreams very different from those in tourist brochures, where thousands of immigrants attempt to make the illegal and perilous journey across the Strait. Her recent work, Iris Tingitana, follows a different border, examining the interstices where the botanical landscape meets the urban, and Flowers, extending her inquiry to the fast-growing edges of the city, where the monocultural vision of planners and developers threatens to homogenize landscape and human lives."
Wikipedia
Yto Barrada
Artist Project / A Life Full of Holes - Yto Barrada
e-flux - Album: Cinematheque Tangier
The Renaissance Society (Video)
PACE
YouTube: Yto Barrada on the ways the Strait of Gibraltar shapes life in Tangier, Yto Barrada on life in Tangier, home to "a population that wants to leave", Interview with Yto Barrada DB Artist of the Year 2011, The Spirit of Utopia

Quartets - Fred Frith (1994)

Wikipedia - "Quartets is a 1994 studio album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It consists of two compositions by Frith, 'Lelekovice, String Quartet #1', performed by the Violet Wires String Quartet, and 'The As Usual Dance Towards the Other Flight to What is Not', performed by an electric guitar quartet. Frith performs with the guitar quartet, but not with the string quartet. 'Lelekovice, String Quartet #1' was composed by Frith in 1990 and was dedicated to Iva Bittová, Lelekovice being the name of the village near Brno in the Czech Republic where Bittová lives. It was first performed in July 1991 by the Edison Quartet at the Nieuwe Musiek Festival, in Middelburg, the Netherlands, and was used by the United States choreographer Amanda Miller in her dance piece, My Father's Vertigo in 1991."
Wikipedia
YouTube: The as usual dance towards the other flight to what is not, Lelekovice, String Quartet #1

Harlem River Drive - Harlem River Drive (1971)

"The reason this record is 'legendary' is because it marks the first recorded performances, in 1970, of Eddie and Charlie Palmieri as bandleaders. The reason it should be a near mythical recording (it has never been available in the U.S. on CD, and was long out of print on LP before CDs made the scene), is for its musical quality and innovation. The Palmieris formed a band of themselves, a couple of Latinos that included Andy Gonzales, jazz-funk great -- even then -- Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie, and some white guys and taught them how to play a music that was equal parts Cuban mambo, American soul via Stax/Volt, blues, Funkadelic-style rock, pop-jazz, and harmonic and instrumental arrangements every bit as sophisticated as Burt Bacharach's or Henry Mancini's or even Stan Kenton's. ... Harlem River Drive is a classic because after 30-plus years, it still sounds as if listeners are the ones catching up to it. It's worth every dime you pay for it, so special order it today."
allmusic
DailyOM (Video)
W - Eddie Palmieri
W - Charlie Palmieri
YouTube: Harlem River Drive (Theme Song), Idle Hands, Seeds Of Life, Broken Home, If we had peace today

Wes Anderson Collection

"A stark contrast runs through each of writer-director Wes Anderson’s films, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'Rushmore,' from 'The Royal Tenenbaums' to 'The Darjeeling Limited.' On the one hand his movies are front-loaded with artifice: The characters often harbor grand, even quixotic ambitions, and usually wear costumes that stand out as costumes. His camera constantly calls attention to itself with whip pans and staged compositions and somber slow motion, augmented by captions that frequently pop onscreen, always in bright Futura font."
Roanoke Times
“Yep,” “Hmm,” “Right”: On "The Wes Anderson Collection" by Calum Marsh
The Life Aesthetic With Wes Anderson
YouTube: Wes Anderson Collection

Keziah Jones & Native Maqari: Captain Rugged

"Captain Rugged is a multimedia graphic-novel collaboration between Nigerian musicians and artists Keziah Jones (born 1968) and Native Maqari (born 1980) that describes Nigeria’s oil boom of the 1970s. The hero, Captain Rugged, was conceived by Jones as an embodiment of the Nigerians who flooded the city of Lagos in hopes of making a living, inadvertently bringing about an extreme population explosion and a soaring crime rate. It also led to a bizarre jumble of architectural styles and uncompleted buildings around the city. From Captain Rugged’s birthplace in Makoko--an illegal water settlement on stilts within the Lagos lagoon--through the hectic bus stations of Obalende, this publication chronicles the hero’s adventures through the city."
artbook
Nigeria’s First Superhero: Keziah Jones Is ‘Captain Rugged’ (Video)
Keziah Jones

Dead Man - Neil Young (1995)

Wikipedia - "Dead Man is the soundtrack to the 1995 Jim Jarmusch western-themed film of the same name starring Gary Farmer, and Johnny Depp as William Blake. Neil Young recorded the soundtrack by improvising (mostly on his electric guitar, with some acoustic guitar, piano and organ) as he watched the newly edited film alone in a recording studio. The soundtrack album consists of seven instrumental tracks by Young, with dialog excerpts from the film and Johnny Depp reading the poetry of William Blake interspersed between the music. The version of the main theme used over the film's beginning and end credits is not included, but was released as a promo single. The soundtrack differs from the film in that it uses background noises of a driving car while the whole plot is set in 19th century (before automobiles were invented)."
Wikipedia
A Neil Young Soundtrack Film - Directed by Jim Jarmusch
YouTube: Dead Man Theme (long version), Guitar Solo 5 (Full Version)
YouTube: Guitar Solo #1, Guitar Solo #2, Guitar Solo #3, Guitar Solo #4, Organ Solo

2008 February: Neil Young, 2010 April: Neil Young - 1, 2010 April: Neil Young - 2, 2010 May: Neil Young - 3, 2010 October: Neil Young's Sound, 2012 January: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, 2012 June: Like A Hurricane, 2012 July: Greendale, 2013 April: Thoughts On An Artist / Three Compilations, 2013 August: Heart of Gold.

Jerome Liebling: Matter of Life and Death

May Day, Union Square Park, New York City
"Steven Kasher Gallery is proud to announce its representation of the estate of Jerome Liebling (1924-2011) with the exhibition Jerome Liebling: Matter of Life and Death. Curated by Liebling’s daughter, filmmaker Rachel Liebling, the show includes both early vintage photographs and later large-scale prints in black and white and color. Spanning six decades, the 75 photographs in the show comprise a retrospective of selected works that explore the themes of youth, maturity, and death. Liebling’s images capture unguarded intimacy on both sides of the lens. He reveled in subjects and places where fortitude battled against decay."
Jerome Liebling
Jerome Liebling: Photos
Jerome Liebling: Video
Get the Picture: Jerome Liebling
NYT: Jerome Liebling, Socially Minded Photographer
W - Jerome Liebling

Havana Boxing Dreams

"Dreams are pretty much all you can have in Cuba and boxing allows Cuba’s youth to do just that. Cuba’s rich olympic legacy is a strong source of inspiration for young fighters all around the country. Ambitions of a successful career a la 'Kid Chocolate' fuel determination and focus in La Havana’s numerous neighborhood boxing gyms. It’s in these neglected infrastructures where passion emerges, where skills are forged and where dreams are born. My first stop was in Havana Vieja at Rafael Trejo’s gym. Rafael Trejo Gimnasio al Aire Libre is the oldest boxing club in Havana. The open air training facility offers local pugilists a boxing ring placed at the center of a courtyard surrounded by bleachers and pastel walls from apartment buildings next-door."
charleslebrigand

William Faulkner

Wikipedia - "William Cuthbert Faulkner (born Falkner, September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962), also known as Will Faulkner, was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of written media, including novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays. He is primarily known and acclaimed for his novels and short stories, many of which are set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, a setting Faulkner created based on Lafayette County, where he spent most of his life, and Holly Springs/Marshall County. ... Faulkner was known for his experimental style with meticulous attention to diction and cadence. In contrast to the minimalist understatement of his contemporary Ernest Hemingway, Faulkner made frequent use of 'stream of consciousness' in his writing, and wrote often highly emotional, subtle, cerebral, complex, and sometimes Gothic or grotesque stories of a wide variety of characters including former slaves or descendants of slaves, poor white, agrarian, or working-class Southerners, and Southern aristocrats."
Wikipedia
W - Yoknapatawpha County
W - Southern_Renaissance
University of Mississippi
The Paris Review: William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12
amazon: William Faulkner
Rare 1952 Film: William Faulkner on His Native Soil in Oxford, Mississippi (Video)

2011 September: Southern Gothic

Hudson 1993: A Tour of John Ashbery’s Home

"Fifteen years ago, when John Ashbery and I walked at snail’s pace around his house to prepare this article, he was still in the process of fashioning his surroundings; he has not ceased to create and recreate them in the intervening decade and a half. Not surprisingly, then, the article describes only one stage in the evolution of his house, some rooms of which have, since then, been further embellished, or reimagined, or pulled apart and are still being put together. Changes both major and minor have altered these rooms described below. In the Music Room, sparkle has been provided aplenty by the addition of an enormous antique strung-crystal basket-style chandelier. Some paintings, like the white rose by Alex Katz, are no longer on the walls where they were: they are traveling, on loan to various shows at museums or galleries, or they have been replaced by different pieces, as the poet’s taste has changed or sought refreshment. ..."
A Tour of John Ashbery's Home - Rain Taxi
Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets
The Ashbery Home School

The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology

"The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology traces the interest in history, archaeology, and archival research that defines some of the most highly regarded art of the last decade. Consisting almost entirely of work produced after the year 2000, The Way of the Shovel re-imagines the art world as an alternative 'History Channel' that is as concerned with remembering histories as it is with challenging their truthfulness. The exhibition is arranged according to several conceptual underpinnings. In the first strand, archaeology is considered metaphorically, with an emphasis on art that takes the form of historical, often archival, research."
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
e-flux - The Way of the Shovel: On the Archeological Imaginary in Art
artforum
vimeo: The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology

Nick Drake - Bryter Layter (1970)

"With even more of the Fairport Convention crew helping him out -- including bassist Dave Pegg and drummer Dave Mattacks along with, again, a bit of help from Richard Thompson -- as well as John Cale and a variety of others, Drake tackled another excellent selection of songs on his second album. Demonstrating the abilities shown on Five Leaves Left didn't consist of a fluke, Bryter Layter featured another set of exquisitely arranged and performed tunes, with producer Joe Boyd and orchestrator Robert Kirby reprising their roles from the earlier release. Starting with the elegant instrumental 'Introduction,' as lovely a mood-setting piece as one would want, Bryter Layter indulges in a more playful sound at many points, showing that Drake was far from being a constant king of depression. ..."
allmusic
W - Bryter Layter
The Quietus: Bryter Later (reissue)
Bryter Layter
YouTube: Bryter Layter (Full) 39:39

2012 July: Nick Drake, 2013 May: Five Leaves Left.

Jane Freilicher

Crosstown View, 1978
Wikipedia - "Jane Freilicher is an American representational painter of urban and country scenes from her homes in lower Manhattan and Water Mill, Long Island. She was a member of the informal New York School beginning in the 1950s, and a muse to several of its poets and writers. Freilicher was at the center of a milieu of important New York painters and poets, including painters Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Fairfield Porter, Larry Rivers, and poets of the New York School including John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler. Along with Frankenthaler and Mitchell, and Nell Blaine, she was among only a handful of women artists who were exhibiting alongside their male counterparts."
Wikipedia
Jane Freilicher: Painter Among Poets: Tibor de Nagy Gallery
Poetry Magazine: Leave It to Jane by John Ashbery
Poetry Magazine: Explicit As a Star by Jenni Quilter
NYT: A Painter Amid Friends
Freilicher and Friends
amazon - Jane Freilicher: Painter Among Poets
Parrish East End Stories

2011 February: ‘A Vanguard of Friends’ - Dan Chiasson

Pangs Of the Idealist - Guest Mix By Disasterpeace

"Data Garden is a Philadelphia based journal, record label and events producer encouraging the discovery of electronic music through the windows of history, science and community. They do really cool things, like releasing all of their digital downloads as codes on artwork that can grow into living plants. They recently asked me to put together a guest mix. Here’s a 72 minute collection of songs from some of my favorite contemporary artists."
Data Garden (Video)

The Blue Angel (1930)

Wikipedia - "The Blue Angel (German: Der blaue Engel) is a 1930 film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich and Kurt Gerron. Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller and Robert Liebmann – with uncredited contributions by von Sternberg. It is based on Heinrich Mann's novel Professor Unrat ('Professor Garbage', 1905), and set in Weimar Germany. The Blue Angel presents the tragic transformation of a man from a respectable professor to a cabaret clown, and his descent into madness. The film is considered to be the first major German sound film, and brought Dietrich international fame."
Wikipedia
The Harvard Crimson
Roger Ebert
NY Times
YouTube: Marlene Dietrich - Falling in love again
YouTube: The Blue Angel 1:45:56

The Gilded Palace of Sin - The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969)

"By 1969, Gram Parsons had already built the foundation of the country-rock movement through his work with the International Submarine Band and the Byrds, but his first album with the Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin, was where he revealed the full extent of his talents, and it ranks among the finest and most influential albums the genre would ever produce. As a songwriter, Parsons delivered some of his finest work on this set; 'Hot Burrito No. 1' and 'Hot Burrito No. 2' both blend the hurt of classic country weepers with a contemporary sense of anger, jealousy, and confusion, and 'Sin City' can either be seen as a parody or a sincere meditation on a city gone mad, and it hits home in both contexts. ..."
allmusic
Wikipedia
Time for a Repress: ‘The Gilded Palace of Sin’
YouTube: Christine's Tune, Sin City, Hot Burrito #1, Wheels, Dark End Of The Street, Do Right Woman, Hot Burrito #2

2008 March: Gram Parsons, 2011 March: Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris. Liberty Hall, Texas, 1973, 2012 May: Sweetheart of the Rodeo, 2013 January: Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel, 2013 September: Flying Burrito Brothers - Live At The Avalon Ballroom 1969  

Loren Munk

Wikipedia - "The artist Loren Munk (born 1951) is primarily known for his YouTube nickname James Kalm as an uploader of videos about New York exhibitions, amongst several others. He presents himself as a maker of contemporary paintings for several decades and of cubistic paintings of urban imagery. Munk also has received accolades for his drawings and mosaics. He differs from traditional mosaic artists by the manner in which he incorporates glass into his decorative paintings. Munk's work debuted in SoHo in 1981 with a double show at J. Fields Gallery and Gabrielle Bryers. Since then, he has overseen a international career. In addition to exhibiting in Brazil, France, Germany and the United States, Munk has received national and overseas, public and private commissions. He is well represented in important collections throughout Europe, South and North America and the Middle East."
Wikipedia
Loren Munk
NYT: ‘Location, Location, Location,Mapping the New York Art World’
YouTube: Interview Clip from Who's Afraid of Red Yellow and Blue, Loren Munk at Lesley Heller Workspace

William Anastasi: Sound Works, 1963–2013

Microphone, 1963 | Tandberg Model 5 tape recorder, tape, take-up reel
"The Hunter College Art Galleries are pleased to present William Anastasi: Sound Works, 1963–2013 at The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery. This exhibition provides an essential examination of Anastasi’s pioneering use of sound and music as part of an artistic career spanning more than fifty years. It also exemplifies the long-standing engagement The Department of Art at Hunter College has with minimal and conceptual art. William Anastasi: Sound Works, 1963– 2013 opens at a pivotal moment in the artist’s career—in the year of his eightieth birthday— and coincides with a resurgence of interest in sound-based art. This unique timing opens the door for critical discussion of the development of sound art and Anastasi’s pivotal role in its history."
William Anastasi
William Anastasi: Sound Works, 1963–2013 (Video)
William Anastasi: Installation Photograph
Brooklyn Rail
Xin Wang

For the Birds

"... More than almost any other team, the Orioles are in a state of limbo. To figure out why, and to diagnose where they should go from here, we need to consider a dizzying array of factors, including an honest evaluation of team talent and AL East competition, the incredibly opaque realm of team finances and TV deals, and the riches-to-rags-to-riches recent history that’s affected both the team’s record and bottom line."
Grantland

Michael Russem

"Metal and digital are in our blood. We learned to make books the old-fashioned way: one letter at a time. We also know how to turn on a computer. Because we've had our fingers and faces in the nitty gritty of metal type, we know that letters aren't just pictures of things. They are things. We treat things with respect. All about Michael Russem, Principal. Michael Russem grew up in North Andover, Masachusetts, before moving to Syracuse, Florence, Athens, and now Cambridge (and Florence). He spent three years working at the Press & Letterfoundry of Michael & Winifred Bixler, where he learned almost everything he knows about the minutiae of letters and spacing and pages."
The Offices of Kat Ran Press
amazon: Postage Stamps by AIGA Medalists
Eye Magazine: A century of lick and stick

A Week of Fire and Ice

"That barricades remain a brutal but effective final resort for desperate citizens was amply on display this past week, not only in Ukraine, where President Viktor F. Yanukovych appeared finally to surrender, but also in Venezuela, where the batons and tear gas of riot police officers failed to quell anti-government demonstrations, and in Thailand, where the police engaged in bloody efforts to clear sites occupied by protesters since late November. The images of fires and riot police officers pummeling demonstrators contrasted with those from Sochi of swirling skaters and daredevil skiers. But it was not all celebration in the melting snows of the Caucasus, as a few surprise results brought some kvetching not in keeping with the Olympic spirit."
NYT: A Week of Fire and Ice
Why is Ukraine in Crisis?: A Quick Primer For Those Too Embarrassed to Ask (Video)
NY Times: Ukraine
W - Ukraine
Guardian - Ukraine
CIA: Ukraine

Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe

Fortunato Depero, Skyscrapers and Tunnels (Gratticieli e tunnel), 1930
"The first comprehensive overview of Italian Futurism to be presented in the United States, this multidisciplinary exhibition examines the historical sweep of the movement from its inception with F. T. Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto in 1909 through its demise at the end of World War II. Presenting over 300 works executed between 1909 and 1944, the chronological exhibition encompasses not only painting and sculpture, but also architecture, design, ceramics, fashion, film, photography, advertising, free-form poetry, publications, music, theater, and performance. To convey the myriad artistic languages employed by the Futurists as they evolved over a 35-year period, the exhibition integrates multiple disciplines in each section."
Guggenheim
Guggenheim: Exhibition Website
NYT: In Thrall to Machines, War and a More Manly Future
amazon

Crime Jazz: How Miles Davis, Count Basie & Other Jazz Legends Provided the Soundtrack for Noir Films & TV

"When we think of film noir, we tend to think of a mood best set by a look: shadow and light (mostly shadow), grim but visually rich weather, near-depopulated urban streets. You’ll see plenty of that pulled off at the height of the craft in the movies that make up 'noirchaeologist' Eddie Muller’s list of 25 noir pictures that will endure, which we featured last week. But what will you hear? Though no one compositional style dominated the soundtracks of films noirs, you’ll certainly hear more than a few solid pieces of crime jazz. Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing, writing about Rhino’s eponymous compilation album, defines this musical genre as 'jazzy theme music from 1950s TV shows and movies in which very bad people do very bad things.'”
Open Culture (Video)

2009 January: Film noir