Photo booth

Wikipedia - "A photo booth is a vending machine or modern kiosk that contains an automated, usually coin-operated, camera and film processor. Today the vast majority of photo booths are digital. Traditionally photo booths contain a seat or bench designed to seat the one or two patrons being photographed. The seat is typically surrounded by a curtain of some sort to allow for some privacy and help avoid outside interference during the photo session. Once the payment is made, the photo booth will take a series of photographs (though most modern booths may only take a single photograph and print out a series of identical pictures)."
Wikipedia
Behind the Curtain: A History of the Photobooth by Mark Bloch
Photobooth.net
amazon: American Photobooth, Photobooth by Raynal Pellicer, Photobooth by Babbette Hines
Photobooth: A Biography by Meags Fitzgerald (Graphic novel), vimeo
YouTube: Weekend Explorer: History of the Photo Booth

Bill Laswell - ROIR Dub Sessions (2003)

"Few American record labels have done more to further the cause of modern dub than New York's ROIR imprint, which has not only reissued classic dub recordings, but also actively encouraged contemporary artists to reinterpret the tradition according to their own vision. And since bassist and producer Bill Laswell is among the most prolific and original modern exponents of dub, it was inevitable that the two would find their way to each other. Laswell has recorded four albums of progressive dub under his own name for ROIR, and this retrospective collection brings together one track from each of them to make a more-or-less full-length compilation. At just over 46 minutes, the program is a bit skimpy, but it does sell at budget price, and there's certainly no arguing with the quality of the content. ..."
allmusic
Blog Critics
amazon
YouTube: Dread Iternal, Ethiopia, Thunupa, Cybotron

A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn (1980)

Wikipedia - "A People's History of the United States is a 1980 non-fiction book by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn seeks to present American history through the eyes of the common people rather than political and economic elites. ... Reviews have been mixed. Some have called it a brilliant tool for advancing the cause of social equality. Others have called the book a revisionist patchwork containing errors. In a 1998 interview, Zinn said he had set 'quiet revolution' as his goal for writing A People's History. 'Not a revolution in the classical sense of a seizure of power, but rather from people beginning to take power from within the institutions. In the workplace, the workers would take power to control the conditions of their lives.'"
Wikipedia
A People's History Of The United States by Howard Zinn. Presented by History Is A Weapon. A Note and Disclaimer are below.
Voices of a People's History of the US: Bringing history to life
YouTube: A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn. Narrated by Viggo Mortensen., Conversations with History 42:21, Three Holy Wars 36:49

Chamade - Vintage French Photos

Café de Flore - St-Germain, Paris, 1949
Chamade - Vintage French Photos

Georges Adéagbo

The Becoming of the Human Being
Wikipedia - "Georges Adéagbo (born 1942) is a Beninese sculptor known for his work with found objects. A native of Cotonou, Adéagbo studied law in Abidjan before moving to France to continue his studies. He returned to Benin in 1971 upon the death of his father, and began creating installations and environments in isolation from family and society. By the early 1990s he had begun to receive recognition, culminating in the reception of the Prize of Honor at the Venice Biennale in 1999. Adéagbo gathers the material for his art wherever he travels."
Wikipedia
Synchronizing Archaeology- Designation of Events
MoMA/PS1: Abraham – L’ami de Dieu
vimeo: La personne de Georges Adéagbo

History of Harlem

Wikipedia - "Founded in the 17th century as a Dutch outpost, Harlem developed into a farming village, a revolutionary battlefield, a resort town, a commuter town, a ghetto, and a center of African-American culture. ... Since the 1920s, this period of Harlem's history has been highly romanticized. With the increase in a poor population, it was also the time when the neighborhood began to deteriorate to a slum, and some of the storied traditions of the Harlem Renaissance were driven by poverty, crime, or other social ills. For example, in this period, Harlem became known for 'rent parties', informal gatherings in which bootleg alcohol was served and music played. Neighbors paid to attend, and thus enabled the host to make his or her monthly rent. Though picturesque, these parties were thrown out of necessity. Further, over a quarter of black households in Harlem made their monthly rent by taking in lodgers, many of whom were family members, but who sometimes brought bad habits or even crime that disrupted the lives of respectable families."
Wikipedia
Harlem History
New York Metro - A Harlem History
PBS: Harlem in the 40s
History: The Roaring Twenties (Video)
NBC: Living history in Harlem (Video)
YouTube: Ann Petry and Harlem's History, Daily Life In Harlem, Walking in Harlem - 125th street, The Streets of Harlem Documentary

2010 October: Apollo Theater, 2010 August: A Nightclub Map of Harlem, 2011 August: Memories of Sugar Hill, 2012 July: Dawoud Bey - Harlem, U.S.A..

How to be Perfect - Ron Padgett (2007)

"Ron Padgett has written his recherche du temps perdu. Throughout this specular book he loses again what has been lost, waits for what has come and because most poetry saves nothing but time, is perfect timing. A basic rhythm, true to the moment of writing, appears to be one of holding and releasing. The poems are connected across gaps but the head comes away from the body more than once, and the attack of the collection — ‘Mortal Combat’ — sees the author trying to stop the idea of an English muffin from descending further than his salivary glands to his fingers, perhaps, where it is too late, and from ‘trying to pull me away from who I am. I am / a squinty old fool stooped over / his keyboard having an anxiety attack over an English muffin!’"
Jacket 37
Pataphysic
Excerpts from How to be Perfect
amazon

March 2008: Ron Padgett 

40 maps that explain the Middle East

11 - The 2011 Arab Spring
"Maps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today."
Vox

Gerdes Folk City

Wikipedia - "Gerdes Folk City (sometimes spelled Gerde's Folk City) was a music venue in the West Village in New York City. Initially opened as a restaurant called Gerdes, by owner Mike Porco, it eventually began to present occasional incidental music. First located at 11 West 4th Street (in a building which no longer exists), it moved in 1970 to 130 West 3rd Street. It closed in 1987. ... Opening officially on January 26, 1960, Folk City was born in Greenwich Village, New York, and generated several waves of musical genres ranging from folk music to rock ‘n’ roll; folk rock to punk; blues to alternative rock, bringing the world a wide range of music from Pete Seeger to 10,000 Maniacs. From The Weavers to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Judy Collins and Rev. Gary Davis, many musicians who formed contemporary music’s foundation performed there."
Wikipedia
Folk City: GERDES FOLK CITY
Apr 11, 1961: Bob Dylan plays his first major gig in New York City
NYT: September 29, 1961 - 20-Year-Old Singer Is Bright New Face at Gerde’s Club
WNYC - Vanished Venues: Gerde's Folk City (Video)
YouTube: Corrina Corrina {Gerdes Folk City 1962}, Talkin' New York - Gerde's Folk City, New York, April 1962, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean {Gerdes Folk City}, Doc Watson - Live, Gerdes Folk City 41:34, Arlo Guthrie - 1966 Gerdes Folk City, New York

Roulette TV: MIXOLOGY FESTIVAL 2014 - M. Geddes Gengras, Pete Swanson, Ben Vida, Loud Objects & more...

"As even consumer electronics move into a 'post-PC' era of tablets and smartphones, Roulette’s 2014 Mixology Festival looks at the newest ways electronics are being used to make music. For a while dominated by laptops, the current landscape hold no singular method; co-opting analog and digital synthesizers from the past, exploring the touch screen as a modern performance instrument, and designing open source programming platforms and DIY circuits for personalized music making."
vimeo: MIXOLOGY FESTIVAL 2014
Fluorescent Tubes And Psychedelic Bass Mark This Year's Mixology Festival (Video)

Album - Vik Muniz

"Album presents two new bodies of work – the eponymous Album series as well as Postcards from Nowhere. Muniz continues to explore the contemporary fragmented visual experience, with an increased emphasis on nostalgia and the materiality of photography. The Album series utilizes found personal photographs, many treated in sepia tone, collected by Muniz over a number of years. The images composed are of familiar scenes that may be found in family photo albums - a portrait of a baby, a wedding, a school picture, or a vacation snapshot. These images reflect intimate yet universal narratives. With the proliferation of inexpensive cameras in the late 20th century, and by the ease and speed of digital documentation in more recent years, such images have become more common and less precious. Album questions the implications of these shifts in technology and image-making, and their impact on community, collective experience, and memory."
Sikkema Jenkins Co.
whitezine

2010 February: Vik Muniz, 2011 April: Waste Land.

Blast of Silence (1961)

Wikipedia - "Blast of Silence is an American crime/thriller film released in 1961. It was written and directed by Allen Baron and produced by Merrill Brody who was also the cinematographer. Frankie Bono (Allen Baron), a hitman from Cleveland, comes to New York City during Christmas week to kill a middle-management mobster, Troiano (Peter H. Clune). First he follows his target to select the best possible location, and orders a gun from rat-loving dealer Big Ralph (Larry Tucker). One night, he meets a former friend from the orphanage he grew up in, rattling his cool and putting his life in danger."
Wikipedia
New Yorker: Allen Baron’s “Blast of Silence” (Video)
Film Noir of the Week
Bright Lights Film Journal
YouTube: Blast of Silence - Trailer

Bim Sherman - Across the Red Sea (1998)

"Originally released in 1982, Across the Red Sea captures Bim Sherman at an early creative peak. Teaming for the first time with producer Adrian Sherwood, his sweet, delicate vocals are well served by the booming rhythms and experimental textures of tracks like 'Golden Locks,' 'Slummy Ghetto,' and 'Party Time.'"
allmusic
YouTube: Golden Locks 12", Golden Locks Dub, Party Time, Slummy Ghetto, Revolution, You Are the One, Just Like A King, Golden Morning Star

Unedited History: Iran 1960-2014

Mazdak Ayari (né en 1976) Vie de famille, 2001-2013
"The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is presenting UNEDITED HISTORY, Iran 1960-2014 at ARC. Comprising over 200 works for the most part never shown in France before, the exhibition brings a fresh eye to art and visual culture in Iran from the 1960s up to the present. Its survey of the contemporary history of the country is arranged in sequences; the years 1960–1970, the revolutionary era of 1979, the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988) and the postwar period up until today. Bringing together twenty artists from the years 1960–1970 and representatives of the new generation, the exhibition focuses on painting, photography and cinema, as well as key aspects of Iran's modern visual culture: posters and documentary material ranging from the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of the Arts to the revolutionary period and the Iran-Iraq war."
MaM
Slash

Putumayo Presents: Afro Latino

"Far from a typical salsa release, Putumayo Presents: Afro Latino is an intriguing compilation that examines the relationship between African music and Afro-Cuban music in the 1990s. African rhythms were instrumental in the development of son, cha cha, mambo, guaguanco, and other Cuban styles that came to be called salsa, and things really became ironic when artists in different parts of Africa started embracing salsa. Spanning 1995-1998, this 12-song CD boasts salsa recordings by both African and Cuban artists."
allmusic
YouTube: Afro Latino

Ruin Lust

John Skoog, Redoubt (commission from Towner, 2014)
"Ruin Lust, an exhibition at Tate Britain from 4 March 2014, offers a guide to the mournful, thrilling, comic and perverse uses of ruins in art from the seventeenth century to the present day. The exhibition is the widest-ranging on the subject to date and includes over 100 works by artists such as J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, John Martin, Eduardo Paolozzi, Rachel Whiteread and Tacita Dean."
Tate (Video)
Guardian: Ruin Lust review – transience, doom and lyrical melancholy
Guardian: Ruin Lust at Tate Britain review – 'a brilliant but bonkers exhibition'
Independent: Ruin Lust at Tate Britain, art review

Jammin' the Blues (1944)

"Jammin' the Blues is a 1944 short film in which several prominent jazz musicians got together for a rare filmed jam session. It features Lester Young, Red Callender, Harry Edison, Marlowe Morris, Sid Catlett, Barney Kessel, Jo Jones, John Simmons, Illinois Jacquet, Marie Bryant, Archie Savage and Garland Finney. Barney Kessel is the only white musician in the film. He was seated in the shadows to shade his skin, and for closeups, his hands were dyed with berry juice."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Jammin' the Blues

The Sinking Bear & Ray Johnson’s A Book About Death

"At the forthcoming New York Art Book Fair at MoMA/PS 1 (September 19-22) there will be a dual exhibit in the Ray Johnson Room (Gallery Y) devoted to Sinking Bear and Ray Johnson’s A Book About Death, displayed along with related ephemera and zines. Boo-Hooray and Division Leap are co-publishing the exhibition catalogue The Sinking Bear, the first publication dedicated to the most insane, beautiful and innovative mimeo zine of the 1960s. Edited by the mysterious Soren Agenoux (by differing accounts a mail artist, playwright, suspected thief and forger) The Sinking Bear arose from a loose circle of artists associated with various downtown New York scenes, particularly the circle around the poetry newsletter Floating Bear, edited by Diane Di Prima and Leroi Jones, which not only filled a vital role allowing poets to share and refine their work, but also provided fodder for the rather vitriolic ridicule presented in Sinking Bear, which balanced a fine line between imitating Floating Bear and acting like its nemesis."
BOO-HOORAY
RealityStudio: Floating Bear 24

The Dead (1987 film)

Wikipedia - "The Dead is a 1987 film directed by John Huston, starring his daughter Anjelica Huston. The Dead was the last film that Huston directed, and it was released posthumously. According to Pauline Kael, 'Huston directed the movie, at eighty, from a wheelchair, jumping up to look through the camera, with oxygen tubes trailing from his nose to a portable generator; most of the time, he had to watch the actors on a video monitor outside the set and use a microphone to speak to the crew. Yet he went into dramatic areas that he'd never gone into before - funny, warm family scenes that might be thought completely out of his range. Huston never before blended his actors so intuitively, so musically.'"
Wikipedia
W - The Dead (1914)
The Dead - James Joyce
Guardian: 'I think he died for me'
Roger Ebert
NYT: The Dead (1987)
YouTube: The Dead, ".. upon all the living and the dead."

2011 March: Passages from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (1965-67), 2010 March: Ulysses Seen, 2013 February: ULYSSES “SEEN” is moving to Dublin!, 2013: Dubliners.

L.A. Turnaround - Bert Jansch (1974)

Wikipedia - "L.A. Turnaround is the ninth album by Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, released in 1974. Two of the songs were recorded in Paris in 1973, and the others were recorded in Los Angeles in 1974. The album was produced by former Monkee and Country rock artist Michael Nesmith, who also played guitar. Other guest musicians include Red Rhodes (steel guitar), Byron Berline (fiddle, mandolin) and Jesse Ed Davis (guitar)."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: "L A Turnaround" - Full Album

April 2010: Bert Jansch, 2011 October: Bert Jansch (November 1943 – October 2011), 2014 February: Bert Jansch / John Renbourn - Bert & John (1966).

Don Ward

"'Don’t worry,' Don says, upon hearing that his next customer has never had her shoes shined before. 'I’ll be gentle.' He instructs her to climb into an office chair bolted to a red-and-gray plywood box the size of a refrigerator, and sit down on a grubby towel printed with the White House’s insignia. 'I brought it from home,' he says, pausing for laughter. He throws a stained towel over her knees and skirt, to protect her modesty ('It’s not my birthday!'), and starts in on the story of how Don Ward, who prefers to be known only as Don — 'Cher can have only one name; so can I' — runs a successful business shining shoes at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Forty-seventh Street in Manhattan, just south of the headquarters of Fox News."
New Yorker - Making Money: There's No Business Like Shoe Busines
YouTube: No Your City: Episode 3 (Don), Don Ward: Shoe Shiner Extraordinaire

Kraftwerk - "The Telephone Call" (1987)

Wikipedia - "'The Telephone Call' (German: 'Der Telefon-Anruf') is a 1987 single by German techno group Kraftwerk, on the 1986 album Electric Café. 'The Telephone Call' was number one on the dance charts for two weeks, and was the second single that Kraftwerk took to number one in four months. ... The song's music video features each member of the band answering a telephone (Ralf Hutter's being a combination of a telephone and a synthesiser). None of the band members are seen singing the song in the video except for a silhouette Karl Bartos, but when the camera pans around it is revealed to in fact be Wolfgang Flur. He is also seen at a typewriter typing 'You're so close, but far away'. At several other points in the video, various other iconic images are seen including a dangling phone on a wire and an eye staring through a hole in a wall, the latter appearing for only one second in the video. The images give the video an unsettling feeling."
Wikipedia
YouTube: The Telephone Call, The Telephone Call (long version)

2008 April: Kraftwerk, 2011 March: Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution, 2011 March: Kraftwerk - Documentary, 2011 April: Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany, 2011 May: Autobahn, 2011 October: Trans-Europe Express, 2012 February: Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, 2012 October: Radio-Activity.

Mondo Black Chamber - David Toop (2014)

"David Toop is a composer/musician, author and curator based in London. Since 1970 he has worked in many fields of sound art, listening practice and music, including improvisation, sound installations and video works, field recordings, pop music production, music for television, theatre and dance. He has recorded Yanomami shamanism in Amazonas, appeared on Top of the Pops with the Flying Lizards, exhibited sound installations in Tokyo, Beijing and London's National Gallery, and performed with artists ranging from John Zorn, Evan Parker, Bob Cobbing and Ivor Cutler to Akio Suzuki, Elaine Mitchener, Lore Lixenberg, Scanner and Max Eastley."
SubRosa (Video)
Morr Distro (Video)

2009 October: David Toop

Fela Kuti - Upside Down (1976)

"Upside Down, released in 1976, is one of the more unusual items in Fela Kuti's discography from the period. Not structurally -- it's the usual two-song, half-hour deal, the songs beginning with several minutes of instrumental solo trades before the socially conscious lyrics enter. The song 'Upside Down' itself, however, is sung not by Kuti but by Sandra Akanke Isidore. She was a woman that he met during his stay in the United States at the end of the 1960s, and who is credited with helping to elevate his own social awareness and ethnic identity. It's basically like hearing a track by this artist with a different vocalist, then. Although Isidore's pipes aren't as strong as Kuti's, it makes for something refreshingly different in the midst of all those similar two-song releases from the mid-'70s. The other track, 'Go Slow,' is a little jazzier, and puts less emphasis on lyrics than most Kuti tracks, with the singing largely limited to chants that punctuate the instrumental arrangement."
allmusic
YouTube: Upside Down, Go Slow

Tim Rollins and K.O.S.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S., A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2009
"Tim Rollins (b. 1955, Pittsfield, Maine) studied fine art at the University of Maine and earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. After graduate studies in art education and philosophy at New York University, Rollins began teaching art for special education middle school students in a South Bronx public school. In 1984, he launched the Art and Knowledge Workshop in the Bronx together with a group of at-risk students who called themselves K.O.S. (Kids of Survival). In 1997, the documentary, Kids of Survival: The Art and Life of Tim Rollins & K.O.S. was widely received at the London Film Festival, Cinema de Real, France and the Hamptons International Film Festival."
Lehmann Maupin
W - Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
Guardian: 'A fantastic field of visual ecstasy' – the art of Tim Rollins and KOS
Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: A History (Video)
YouTube: Tim Rollins part1, part2, part3, part4, part6

Erik den Breejen

Harry Nilsson (All My Life), 2013
"Erik den Breejen was born in Berkeley, California in 1976. He studied art and music at U.C. Santa Cruz before transferring to the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts), where he majored in painting. Den Breejen moved to New York in 2000 and received his MFA from Cornell University in 2006. He has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. Key solo exhibitions include Smile at Freight+Volume in New York (2011) and Image, Music, Text at the UNTITLED Art Fair in Miami (2012). His work is in collections throughout the world. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY."
Freight + Volume
Erik den Breejen
One River Gallery
Beach Boys, Artists and Copyright Lawsuits
NYT: Erik den Breejen: ‘Smile’
Erik den Breejen on SMiLE (+ more)
YouTube: Erik den Breejen Smile at FREIGHT & VOLUME

The Ñewmerican Dream: Yoav Litvin Talks to Ñewmerica

"Ñewmerica is a collective of artists, which includes LNY, Icy and Sot, Mata Ruda, NDA and Sonni. Each well-known to street art enthusiasts in New York City and worldwide, they joined forces in 'The Birth of a Nation,' currently on display at Exit Room in Bushwick. After a fantastic opening chocked full of performances, raffles and other fun surprises, I returned to Exit Room to re-examine the art.  The first piece one encounters is an installation piece constructed by the group —  'La Inmortal Deli,' a bodega stocked with hand-embellished bottles and cigarette boxes. Outside the bodega are pieces by each of the artists in the main hall of Exit Room."
Street Art NYC

Transatlantic Sessions 4 (2009)

"Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever', as Shetland fiddle virtuoso Aly Bain and dobro ace Jerry Douglas host a Highland gathering of the cream of Nashville, Irish and Scottish talent. Artists featured in the complete series include James Taylor, Julie Fowlis, Dan 'Man of Constant Sorrow' Tyminski, Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain, Allan MacDonald, Martha Wainwright, Mairead ni Mhaonaigh, Karen Matheson, Donal Lunny, Rosanne Cash, Emily Smith, Mike McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly, Allison Moorer, Karen Casey, Liam O'Maonlai, Stuart Duncan and Ronan Browne."
BBC
W - Transatlantic Sessions 4
YouTube: Karan Casey & James Taylor - The King's Shilling, Motherless Children - Rosanne Cash, Maili Dhonn - James Graham, Black, Black, Black - Ronan Browne, How She Does It - Allison Moorer, Dan Tyminski - I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow, Aly Bain- Kid On The Mountain Set

2013 December: Programme One, Programme Two, 2014 March: Programme Three

Los Angeles: Double Face

"Whatever else may be wrong in a political way -- like the inadequacy of the Great Depression techniques applied to a scene that has long outgrown them; like old-fashioned grafter's glee among the city fathers over the vast amounts of poverty-war bread that Uncle is now making available to them -- lying much closer to the heart of L.A.'s racial sickness is the co-existence of two very different cultures: one white and one black. While the white culture is concerned with various forms of systematized folly -- the economy of the area in fact depending on it -- the black culture is stuck pretty much with basic realities like disease, like failure, violence and death, which the whites have mostly chosen -- and can afford -- to ignore. ... - Thomas Pynchon: from A Journey into the Mind of Watts, in New York Times Magazine, 12 June 1966"
Tom Clark

Lewis Warsh

"... I made my first collages in 1996. They were image-based, like most collages, cut-outs from magazines. I did a series of 24 4x6 collages on poster boards. I always wanted to do collages and artist's books so I decided to do it. In the early 90s I'd begun a series of poems where I collaged and then arranged often a hundred or more lines, with a space between each line. Each poem consisted of 3-4 pages of these lines, mostly lines from poems that I'd discarded. There was no obvious connection between each of the lines but I tried to arrange them so they created a hidden narrative. 17 of these poems were collected in the book, The Origin of the World (Creative Arts, 2001), named after Courbet's famous painting. (I didn't realize that it was famous until afterwards.)"
Granary Books
W - Lewis Warsh
Lewis Warsh
Poetry Foundation
PennSound
YouTube: A Reading By The Overpass 2/9/2011

The Soul of Black Peru (1995)

"The Afro-Peruvian style heard on The Soul of Black Peru compilation originated hundreds of years ago from the Spanish slave trade. The music is a mix of African, Spanish, and Andean traditions, due to the fact that the slaves who came to Peru were not from one specific region, so they did not have a common language to communicate with. It's easy to break the music down and see which culture contributed what -- the lyrics are all sung in Spanish (Spain), have a slight melancholy approach (similar to the Yaravi form from the Andes), and boast interesting rhythms (Africa). The musical form is just starting to catch on in other parts of the world, and deservedly so. And since this is heartfelt, emotional music, fans outside of the world music circle can easily grasp and appreciate it."
allmusic
W - The Soul of Black Peru
YouTube: The Soul of Black Peru

Dancing in the dark - John O'Mahony

"One of the world's most influential choreographers, she is based in an obscure German town where her avant garde, often violent, work attracted furious hostility. Her own company rebelled over her methods but more recently, after she overcame personal tragedy, critics have noted a lighter touch."
Guardian

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

Storm de Hirsch - Peyote Queen (1965)

"Storm de Hirsch was a very important player in the New York Avant-Garde film scene of the 1960s, though her biography and work are generally left out of the history. Like many experimental filmmakers at the time, she did not begin her artistic career as a filmmaker. She had been a poet and published a number of works in the early 60's. She wanted to find a new mode of expression for her thoughts that went beyond words on the page, which is when she turned to filmmaking. Despite lack of recognition, she was very present in the underground film movement and socialized with every big name on the scene, filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke and others."
UbuWeb (Video)
W - Storm de Hirsch
Storm De Hirsch Filmography
YouTube: Divinations

The 78 Project

"The 78 Project is a documentary and recording journey inspired by Alan Lomax and his quest to capture music where it lived throughout the early 20th century. Our project brings the spirit of his work into the present as we pair breakthrough musicians with the songs and the fascinating recording technology of the past. With just one microphone, one authentic 1930′s Presto direct-to-acetate disk recorder, and one blank lacquer disc, musicians are given one take to cut a record anywhere they choose. What we have found is that the film, music and feelings that result defy space and time, living music inspired by ghosts."
The 78 Project (Video)
The 78 Project Feature-length Documentary Film (Video)
NPR: That Old-Time Sound, Captured Live In The Moment (Video)
Back to the Future By William Gibson

Brownstone

Fort Greene
Wikipedia - "Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house (rowhouse) clad in this material. ... There are many brownstones throughout numerous New York City neighborhoods, especially in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Cobble Hill, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn Heights, and Bedford Stuyvesant. The Manhattan neighborhood of the Upper West Side, too, retains many brownstones. New York City brownstones are highly desired, and usually cost several million dollars to purchase."
Wikipedia
NYT: Bidding Farewell to a City’s Precious Stone
New York City is Officially Out of Brownstone
Historic Preservation Victory: Brooklyn Brownstones Saved from Demolition
Brownstone Quarry That Helped Build New York Closes

The 5000 Spirits or Layers of the Onion - Incredible String Band (1967)

"In 1967, Joe Boyd had signed the Incredible String Band, who were then down to Robin Williamson, Mike Heron, and Licorice McKechnie, to Elektra. The 5000 Spirits or Layers of the Onion had been crafted in a cottage in Glasgow, but Boyd wanted a proper recording studio to get it on tape. He chose engineer John Wood's Chelsea studio for the sessions. Recorded on a four-track machine, Boyd and Wood proceeded to capture the very best of the dozens of songs Williamson and Heron brought in. ... The meld of all ISB’s influences are heard on 'Gently Tender,' a beautiful if somewhat anarchic tune where flutes, acoustic blues, hand drums, bass, gimbri, and sitar are all employed. This set stands as one of the true masterpieces in the group's catalog."
allmusic
W - The 5000 Spirits or Layers of the Onion
YouTube: First Girl I Loved, Painting box, My Name Is Death, The Mad Hatter's Song, The Hedgehog's Song, The 5000 Spirits or Layers of the Onion...

2008 August: Incredible String Band, 2012 April: Troubled Voyage In Calm Weather - The Early Years of the Incredible String Band

Up Close on Baseball's Borders

"Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated has called the line running through Connecticut that separates Yankee fans and Red Sox fans the Munson-Nixon line. Mr. Rushin came up with the name — in honor of the late Yankee catcher Thurman Munson and the retired Red Sox right fielder Trot Nixon — in 2003, and he had to guess where the line ran: 'north of New Haven but south of Hartford, running the breadth of central Connecticut.' We don’t have to guess anymore."
NYT: Up Close on Baseball's Borders
Atlantic Cities: Every U.S. County's Favorite Baseball Team (According to Facebook)
Baseball’s Borders

The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies

"Video essayist Kogonada previously made some brilliant observations about the visual obsessions of some of cinema’s greatest formalists. Stanley Kubrick, as Kogonada elegantly points out, composes most of his shots using one-point perspective. Once called out, it becomes a motif that’s really hard to ignore. Yasujiro Ozu – a director who has more cinematic eccentricities than just about any other major director – had a fascination with windows, doorways and corridors."
Open Culture (Video)

Gustave Caillebotte

Vue de toits (Effet de neige)
Wikipedia - "Vue de toits (Effet de neige) ... is an oil painting by French impressionist Gustave Caillebotte executed in the winter of 1878 and 1879. The canvas measures 81 by 65 centimetres (32 in × 26 in). It was originally gifted by Caillebotte's brother in 1894 to the Musée du Luxembourg, then transferred to the Musée du Louvre in 1929. ... Vue de toits depicts snow covered rooftops in Montmartre, Paris from a high vantage point, possibly a balcony. Here Caillebotte employs a largely monochromatic palette of grays, adding additional color to highlight building features. This perspective was not at all common in French paintings, and in fact Caillebote may have been inspired by the photographic works of Hippolyte Bayard."
W - Vue de toits (Effet de neige)
Musée d'Orsay: Gustave Caillebotte, Rooftops in the Snow (snow effect)
W - Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte
NPR - Gustave Caillebotte: Impressions Of A Changing Paris (Video)
YouTube: The Complete Paintings

"Jealous Guy" - John Lennon (1971)

Wikipedia - "'Jealous Guy' is a song written and performed by John Lennon which first appeared on his 1971 album Imagine. It is one of the most commonly covered Lennon songs, with at least 92 recorded cover versions, the most notable being Roxy Music's version, which reached number one in several countries three months after John Lennon's death. ... A promotional video was made for the song in 1971. It showed, mostly in a continuous overhead shot by helicopter, John and Yoko travelling in a hearse from their Tittenhurst Park mansion to a nearby lake, where they were then shown hopping into a rowing boat."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Jealous Guy" (Original Video 1971)

2009 September: John Lennon - Live in New York City (Madison Square Garden 1972)

Irit Batsry

Fuller's Flow, 2003
"Born in Israel in 1957, Irit Batsry has lived and worked in New York since 1983. She received a degree in fine art from the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem in 1983 and, once settled in New York City, became an instructor and on-line editor for Film/Video Arts. She has had an extensive video and media art career and is renowned for her experimental videos in the early eighties. Her single and multi-channel videos and installations have been shown in museums and galleries around the world, including the Institute of Contemporary Art (London, England), the National Gallery (Washington, U.S.), the Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid, Spain) and the Witte de With (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)."
The Daniel Langlois Foundation
Irit Batsry (Video)
Irit Batsry, Recent Work
Shoshana Wayne Gallery
Volta Show (vimeo)
vimeo: Recently Uploaded
YouTube: There are not my images (Neither there nor Here)

Raúl Ruiz

Wikipedia - "Raúl Ernesto Ruiz Pino (25 July 1941 – 19 August 2011) was an experimental Chilean filmmaker, writer and teacher whose work is best known in France. He directed over 100 films. ... According to Ruiz in a 1991 interview, Three Sad Tigers 'is a film without a story, it is the reverse of a story. Somebody kills somebody. All the elements of a story are there but they are used like a landscape, and the landscape is used like story.' He was something of an outsider among the politically oriented Chilean filmmakers of his generation such as Miguel Littín and Patricio Guzmán, his work being far more ironic, surrealistic and experimental. In 1973, shortly after the military coup d'état led by the dictator Augusto Pinochet, Ruiz and his wife (fellow director Valeria Sarmiento) fled Chile and settled in Paris, France."
Wikipedia
MUBI
NYT: Raúl Ruiz, Prolific Director of Cryptic Films, Dies at 70
Guardian
YouTube: Exiles - Raul Ruiz, Visions - 1985, The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting

Johnny Cash - Ridin' The Rails The Great American Train Story (1974)

"There's nothing that stirs my imagination like the sound of a steam locomotive - that lonesome whistle cutting through the night and that column of black smoke & steam throwing shadows across the land. When I was a boy the trains ran by my house and they carried with them a promise that somewhere down the track anything would be possible." --Johnny Cash
YouTube: Ridin' The Rails The Great American Train Story 51:39

Massacre (Live - Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, Poland, 2000)

"British guitarist Fred Frith moved to N.Y.C. in 1979, and within a year had formed the improv rock trio Massacre with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Fred Maher. The group released Killing Time in 1981 and then called it quits a year later. Frith and Laswell rejoined, this time with drummer Charles Hayward, in 1998 to record an album in the same vein, under the Massacre name. Funny Valentine was released on the Tzadik label later that same year. In 2001 the group released Meltdown, a six-track set recorded at Robert Wyatt's Meltdown Festival in London in June 2001, followed by 2007's Lonely Heart, which was recorded live at two festivals in Europe in January and June 2003."
allmusic
W - Massacre
YouTube: Massacre (2001) 1:04:54

Bonfire of the Humanities

"People dress like kings and queens in the capital of Mali, even in the dirt streets on the far side of the river. The women walk down mud lanes wearing immaculate gowns with puffed shoulders, gold detailing, and beadwork. The dudes are natty, too, in safari suits, crisp office boy outfits, or the grand boubou, the national robing that makes any man walk like a giant. Only the heroic boys everywhere—young teens carrying loads, pushing groceries, directing trucks—go around in recycled jeans and T-shirts. In squalor the people must be regal."
Outside
Tuareg region
The smuggled hard drives of Timbuktu
Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu

"I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)" - James Brown (1967)

Wikipedia - "'I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)', also known as 'I Can't Stand It', is a song written and recorded by James Brown in 1967. It is the most successful of the handful of recordings he made with The Dapps, a band of white musicians led by Beau Dollar. The single release of the song, on which its tempo was mechanically sped up, rose to #4 on the Billboard R&B chart and #28 on the Pop chart. The single's B-side, 'There Was a Time', also charted. 'I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)' was included on the 1968 album I Can't Stand Myself When You Touch Me, where it was labeled 'Pt. 1'. A 'Pt. 2', which appeared later in the album, never received a single release."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Can't Stand It & Give It Up 1969

The Gutters in Buena Vista Park are Made Out of Old Headstones

"San Francisco is a city of secrets. Hidden tunnels and bricked-up passageways, sunken ships and rebuilt palaces. With our backfilled downtown, railcar tracks that lead into empty parking lots, and stairways that sneak you from one neighborhood to another, we are the Winchester Mystery House of urban areas. One of the secrets is right beneath your nose, and you’ve likely passed it at least once. Maybe you’ve walked your dog there. Or gone to play tennis at one of the hidden-gem tennis courts that locals like to keep all to themselves. Maybe, like me, you’ve cut through Buena Vista Park from Haight Street, zigzagging your way down toward Market on your morning commute-with-a-view, all blissfully ignorant that you were in the presence of hundreds of headstones. ..."
The Bold Italic

Hear Patti Smith Read 12 Poems From Seventh Heaven, Her First Collection (1972)

"So it’s National Poetry Month, and the Academy of American Poets recommends 30 Ways to Celebrate, including some old standbys like memorizing a poem, reading a poem a day, and attending a reading. All sensible, if somewhat staid, suggestions (I myself have been re-reading all of Wallace Stevens’ work—make of that what you will). Here’s a suggestion that didn’t make the list: spend some time digging the poetry of Patti Smith. A living breathing legend, Smith doesn’t appear in many academic anthologies, and that’s just fine. What she offers are bridges from the Beats to the sixties New York art scene to seventies punk poetry and beyond, with spandrels made from French surrealist leanings and rock and roll obsessions."
Open Culture (Video)
YouTube: Reading at St. Mark's Church, NYC (1972), St Marks - "Oath", "Oath" 1973 reading, Babelfield 1978, Feedback and Poetry, Interview, Stockholm October 1976, A Reading Of Virginia Woolf, Letter to Mapplethorpe

Richard Baker

Installation view, “Richard Baker: Holiday”
"For the past decade, Richard Baker has developed two distinct but related bodies of work, one in oil and the other in gouache: the oil paintings depict tabletops covered with all sorts of printed ephemera and bric-a-brac; the gouaches are of book covers and, more recently, record covers. In 2012, however, Baker began breaking down the neat division between the oil paintings and works on paper by making something silly — a Whoopee cushion — out of paper and painting it pink. At the same time, while a poetry book cover and a novelty store standby might not seem to have that much in common, it seems to me that they are or were a part of the artist’s life, and that he is unembarrassed about these details."
Richard Baker Kicks Out the Jams
Tibor de Nagy
artnet
RICHARD BAKER with JOHN YAU

The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie

"In the world of early-20th-century African-American music and people obsessed by it, who can appear from one angle like a clique of pale and misanthropic scholar-gatherers and from another like a sizable chunk of the human population, there exist no ghosts more vexing than a couple of women identified on three ultrarare records made in 1930 and ’31 as Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley. There are musicians as obscure as Wiley and Thomas, and musicians as great, but in none does the Venn diagram of greatness and lostness reveal such vast and bewildering co-extent. ..."
NY Times (Video)

2013 July: Geeshie Wiley