Type 42: Fame Is the Name of the Game

"In spring 2012 artist Jason Brinkerhoff (born 1974) discovered a collection of around 950 black-and-white Type 42 Polaroids featuring headshots and intimate close-ups of actresses taken from the television screen beginning in the late 1960s. The origins of the series—and, most notably, its creator—remain entirely mysterious, their author's only trace being the scribbles of actresses' names and dates on the Polaroids' edges. Edited by Nicole Delmes and Susanne Zander, and introduced by Cindy Sherman, Fame Is the Name of the Game showcases a selection of 120 works from the extraordinary archive. Capturing such celebrities as Brigitte Bardot, Doris Day, Catherine Deneuve, Mia Farrow, Jane Fonda, Sophia Loren, Barbara Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor and Tina Turner, the collection wrests the fleeting fame of 1960s cinema into the present, memorializing the fascination it provided for the anonymous photographer. ..."
artbook
Galerie Susanne Zander
Wall Street Int.
amazon

The Rape of Belgium – War Crimes in the Summer of 1914 - Week 5

"During their advance through Belgium, the German Army is committing atrocities against Belgian civilians. The Austro-Hungarian Army is perpetrating massacres against the Serbian civilian population to retaliate against Serbian guerrilla warfare. At the Eastern Front, German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff succeed in one of the most important battles of World War I: The Battle of Tannenberg."
YouTube: The Rape of Belgium – War Crimes in the Summer of 1914 - Week 5

2014 December: The Great War: WWI Starts - How Europe Spiraled Into the Great War - Week 1, Europe Prior to WWI: Allies and Enemies I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 1/3, Tinderbox Europe - From Balkan Troubles to WWI I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 2/3, A Shot that Changed the World - The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand I PRELUDE TO WW1 - Part 3/3, 2015 January: Germany in Two-Front War and the Schlieffen-Plan I - Week 2, 2015 March: To Arms! Deployment of Troops - Week 3, 2015 March:A New War With Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front - Week 4

The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky

Robe (detail), ca. 1700–40. Eastern Plains artist; probably Illinois, Mid–Mississippi River Basin.
"This exhibition will unite Plains Indian masterworks found in European and North American collections, from pre-contact to contemporary, ranging from a two-thousand-year-old human-effigy stone pipe to contemporary paintings, photographs, and a video-installation piece. Works of art collected centuries ago by French traders and travelers will be seen together with those acquired by Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition of 1804–06, along with objects from the early reservation period and recent works created in dialogue with traditional forms and ideas.The distinct Plains aesthetic—singular, ephemeral, and materially rich—will be revealed through an array of forms and media: painting and drawing; sculptural works in stone, wood, antler, and shell; porcupine-quill and glass-bead embroidery; feather work; painted robes depicting figures and geometric shapes; richly ornamented clothing; composite works; and ceremonial objects. Many nations, including Osage, Quapaw, Omaha, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota, Blackfeet, Pawnee, Kiowa, Comanche, and Meskwaki will be represented."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Video
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Exhibition Objects

Chris Rock explains how Major League Baseball got so old and white

"Chris Rock recorded a seven-minute monologue on blacks in baseball for HBO's Real Sports. If you still watch baseball, you'll want to watch this. Just a heads up, there's some premium cable language, so put headphones in if you're at work."
SD Nation (Video)

200 Ansel Adams Photographs Expose the Rigors of Life in Japanese Internment Camps During WW II

"... [Actor George] Takei and his family were among over 100,000 Japanese-Americans— over half of whom were U.S. citizens—interned in such camps. Into one of these camps, Manzanar, located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, celebrated photographer Ansel Adams managed to gain entrance through his friendship with the warden. Adams took over 200 photographs of life inside the camp."
Open Culture

Hip-Hop History Tuesdays: Joe Conzo (Born In The Bronx) Amoeblog Interview

"'It's pretty humbling and amazing to see my photos from when I was a sixteen, seventeen year old kid,' Joe Conzo told the Amoeblog - as seen in the above video clip - speaking last week by the wall of photos on display at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise gallery space on Greenwich Street in the Village in New York City. The exhibit is similar in title and theme as well as contributors to the highly recommended 2007 published book Born In The Bronx that he is an integral part of. 'Born In The Bronx: Afrika Bambaataa, Buddy Esquire, Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style and Joe Conzo - A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop' the exhibit that is curated by Johan Kugelberg (editor of the book) runs through July 26th, 2014 at the downtown gallery space and is well worth visiting - and it is free. ..."
Amoeba (Video)

2012 January: The Hip-Hop Family Tree: A Look Into the Viral Propagation of a Culture, 2012 August: ‘Hip Hop Family Tree’ Comics Explain Genesis of the Genre, 2013 October: The Hip Hop Family Tree, 2014 June: Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop, 2015 April: Hip-Hop Revolution.

Gilbert Sorrentino - The Orangery (1978)

"Sorry about that cheesy orange opening, but since every poem of the seventy-eight collected here in 1978 for the Texas Press Poetry Series and published as The Orangery, purposely (and cleverly) contains a variation or adjective on 'orange' -- coronas, coronets, carillons, crèmes, burnt-orange, blossoms, bustiers, roses, glare, gold, fruit, flavor, flowers, tangelos, juice, ice, orangeades, sponges, sunsets, suns, light, love, stars, moon, Florida, slacks, conflagration, flames, gifts, gaudiness, wallpaper, glitter, groves, orchards, Orange Julius, disingenuousness, drinks, trees, glamour, togas, poppies, poseurs, hair, sombreros, guava, lava, Java, jelly, underbellies, duck's feet, sherbet, wax, marmalade, and perhaps a few other words I've neglected to itemize -- understand that my apology is truly insincere! ..."
Enrique Freeque's Forum
amazon
[PDF] Green Integer

2012 January: Gilbert Sorrentino

Keb Darge – The Man Who Sold His Soul (and funk, and r&b Records)

"The name Keb Darge has been a synonym for vinyl record culture for the past four decades. The outspoken Scotsman, responsible for starting more than his share of music scenes for the past 40 years, knows all too well the ups and downs of a record collector. Having owned and sold many of the world’s rarest records in his lifetime, he has seen the many of these leave his record box more than once, without regrets. Credited for discovering unknown records and bringing them to the public, Mr. Darge has been adamant about one thing: the music. A Northern soul boy at heart, he started dancing at Wigan Casino, the Mecca for Northern soul music and its culture in England. ..."
Dust and Grooves
Interview: Keb Darge
Music More Than Myself: Keb Darge and the History of Northern Soul
1960s darge -- All Categories
YouTube: Keb Darge vol.1/2/3, Keb Darge Interview August 2011 Part 1/3, Part 2/3, Part 3/3

Muddy Waters - The Complete Plantation Recordings (1993)

"At long last, Muddy's historic 1941-1942 Library of Congress field recordings are all collected in one place, with the best fidelity that's been heard thus far. Waters performs solo pieces (you can hear his slide rattling against the fretboard in spots) and band pieces with the Son Sims Four, 'Rosalie' being a virtual blueprint for his later Chicago style. Of particular note are the inclusion of several interview segments with Muddy from that embryonic period and a photo of Muddy playing on the porch of his cabin, dressed up and looking sharper than any Mississippi sharecropper on Stovall's plantation you could possibly imagine. This much more than just an important historical document; this is some really fine music imbued with a sense of place, time and loads of ambience."
allmusic
Swampland
amazon
YouTube: The Complete Plantation Recordings 1:01:43

A New Whitney

"From the west, along the Hudson River, it looks ungainly and a little odd, vaguely nautical, bulging where the shoreline jogs, a ship on blocks perhaps, alluding to one of New York’s bedrock industries from long ago. It’s a glittery emblem of new urban capital, shipping now having gone the way of so much else in the neighborhood. From the north, it resembles something else, a factory or maybe a hospital, with a utilitarian wall of windows and a cluster of pipes climbing the pale-blue steel facade toward a rooftop of exposed mechanicals. And from the east, its bulk suddenly hides behind the High Line, above a light-filled, glass-enclosed ground floor that gives views straight through the building to the water. By moving downtown from Madison Avenue, the Whitney Museum of American Art does more than drop a cultural anchor at the High Line’s base, in the deracinated meatpacking district."
NY Times
The High Line

2015 March: The Whitney Museum, Soon to Open Its New Home, Searches for American Identity

David Chase Reveals the Philosophical Meaning of The Soprano’s Final Scene

"Eight years after it aired, the final scene of the final episode of The Sopranos still has people guessing: What happened when the screen suddenly went black? Did Tony Soprano get whacked? Or did he live to see another quasi-ordinary day? Could he really die as Journey sings, 'Don’t Stop Believing?' In a new interview appearing on The Directors Guild of America web site, David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, revisits the making of the final scene. Chase doesn’t directly answer the questions about Tony’s fate. But he does give us some insight into the deeper philosophical questions raised in the scene (watch it above) and how much they’re bound up in the lyrics of Journey’s soundtrack. ..."
Open Culture (Video)

2011 June: The Sopranos, 2012 March: The Family Hour: An Oral History of The Sopranos, 2013 June: James Gandolfini

291

Wikipedia - "291 is the commonly known name for an internationally famous art gallery that was located at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York City from 1905 to 1917. Originally known as the 'Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession', the gallery was created and managed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz. The gallery is famous for two reasons. First, the exhibitions there helped bring art photography to the same stature in America as painting and sculpture. Pioneering artistic photographers such as Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertrude Kasebier and Clarence H. White all gained critical recognition through exhibitions at 291. Equally important, Stieglitz used this space to introduce to the United States some of the most avant-garde European artists of the time, including Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Henri Rousseau, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuși, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp."
Wikipedia
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and His Circle
Alfred Stieglitz's Gallery 291
291 is Dead. Long Live 295.
Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, 291 Fifth Avenue, New York City

Sandhog

Wikipedia - "Sandhog is the slang term given to urban miners, construction workers who work underground on a variety of excavation projects in New York City. Generally these projects involve tunneling, caisson excavation, road building, or some other type of underground construction or mining projects. The miners work with a variety of equipment from tunnel boring machines to explosives to remove material for the project they are building. The term is an American colloquialism.  ... In addition, they worked on the foundations for most of the bridges and many of the skyscrapers in the city. Many of these workers are Irish or Irish American and West Indian. Sandhogging is often a tradition and is passed down through generations of families; since mining projects span decades, it is not uncommon to find multi-generations of families to work together on the same job."
Wikipedia
Episode 158: Sandhogs
Long Haul (Video)
Voice: Sandhogs Tunneling Under Second Avenue
YouTube: Documentary clip - The Sand Hogs, SANDHOGS - Award Winning TV Special 1:32:35

Augustus Pablo - Valley of Jehosaphat (1999)

"This may be tantamount to sacrilege in roots reggae circles, but really, don't Augustus Pablo's albums all pretty much sound alike? There's no denying his historical importance as a musician and producer for bringing in the melodica and popularizing, if not introducing, dub techniques into the music. Certainly King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown and probably East of the River Nile belong in any serious reggae collection for their crucial musical innovations in mid- and late-'70s Jamaican music. But the fact is, you know what you're going to get on any Pablo disc -- melodica instrumentals with a basic backing band, some dub touches -- and there's only so much mileage you can get out of that combination. There are some different twists on Valley of Jehosaphat, like the dischords Pablo throws into his soloing on 'Lymphatic Time' or the blend of British and Jamaican veterans backing him. ..."
allmusic
YouTube: Valley of Jehosaphat [full album] 58:47

2009 December: Augustus Pablo, 2011 November: King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo and King Tubby, 2011 May: East of the River Nile, 2013 January: King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown

Bitter Lemons - Lawrence Durrell (1953–1956)

Wikipedia - "Bitter Lemons is an autobiographical work by writer Lawrence Durrell, describing the three years (1953–1956) he spent on the island of Cyprus. ... Durrell moved to Cyprus in 1953, following several years spent working for the British Council in Argentina and the Foreign Office in Yugoslavia. Having relinquished government employment, Durrell wanted to plunge himself once more into writing, and was looking to return to the Mediterranean world he had experienced in Corfu and Rhodes. He had hoped that he would be able to purchase a house in an affordable location and write. Although Durrell must have experienced personal difficulties—his wife, Eve, was undergoing treatment for mental illness and had left him in charge of his young daughter, Sappho (born 1951) — the book does not mention these people or incidents, aside from a few oblique references to his daughter."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Bellapais Journal; Bitter Memories of a Love Affair With Cyprus
Transversality - Robert O'Toole
amazon: Bitter Lemons, Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (A CSA Word Recording)

2011 December: The Alexandria Quartet - Lawrence Durrell, 2013 September: Villa that inspired Lawrence Durrell faces demolition, as Egypt allows heritage to crumble, 2014 August: Prospero’s Cell (1945).

Magda Love

"Born in Argentina, Magdalena Marcenaro aKa Magda Love has lived in New York City for more than a decade. Mostly know by her colorful street art and big public works. The artist forms deeply textured, often ferocious, narratives joining nostalgic images with sudden, emotional moments. Her aim is to inspire dialogue about personal experience and prompt a thoughtful pause in the roller coaster of life. Her work, inspired by her travels is often deeply textured, exposes vulnerability joined with sudden ferocity, and nostalgia linked to sudden joy. ..."
From Argentina With Love- Magda Love! (Video)
Street Art NYC

Kenneth Patchen

Wikipedia - "Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911 – January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which were often compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he 'developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence.' Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence over the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation. ..."
Wikipedia
Poetry Foundation
Kenneth Patchen Home Page
Jacket2: Kenneth Patchen — Poetry and Jazz days, 1957–1959
We Meet and The Walking Away World by Kenneth Patchen
Silliman's Blog
amazon: Kenneth Patchen
Kenneth Patchen: December 6, 1957 (Video)
YouTube: Kenneth Patchen Part 1, Part 2, Do The Dead Know What Time It Is?, The Journal of Albion Moonlight, Do I Not Deal With Angels, John Cage & Kenneth Patchen - The City Wears A Slouch Hat (1942), Kenneth Patchen w/ Chamber Jazz sextet - The Murder Of Two Men By a Young Kid Wearing Lemon

The Ideal Copies: Graham Lewis Of Wire's Favourite Albums

"Wire have always been a band of tensions, of different modes, mysteries and ways of being. It's often tempting to try and locate which elements of their wry angularity come from which member, but it's probably a mistake to always assume that the pop comes from Colin Newman, the art from Graham Lewis and, before he left, experimental textures by Bruce Gilbert. That's what makes Wire such a special band - a slipperiness that has arguably kept them slightly adrift from the recognition that they deserve. With new album Wire getting plaudits all over the shop this seems, pleasantly enough, likely to change. ..."
The Quietus (Video)

2009 January: Wire, 2012 January: On the Box 1979., 2013 September: Chairs Missing (1978), 2014 June: 154 (1979), 2014 July: Document And Eyewitness (1979-1980).

Inside Abbey Road

"The latest nifty, nerdy online delight is Inside Abbey Road, a virtual tour of the famous London studio that allows users to 'walk' through the three recording rooms, examine some of the gear, and learn more about the artists who recorded there. Part of Google’s DevArt partnership with the Barbican, a London arts center, Inside Abbey Road is full of fun features, including a time-lapse video of a full symphony setup, a sound test by stereo inventor (and Abbey Road engineer) Alan Blumlein, and a 'mixing desk' to try your hand at sound levels. ..."
Quartz‎
Google - Inside Abbey Road (Video)

By The El: Third Avenue and its El at Mid-Century

Uptown express leaving 23rd Street
"... His photographs form such a rich and rare archive of mid-century street life, transportation and building that his son Lawrence was moved to catalogue the images and bring them to a wide public. The resulting book, By The El: Third Avenue and its El at Mid-Century, is now in its second printing and is available for purchase on Amazon, or at the New York Transit Museum or the Bronx County Historical Society. The combination of the elder Stelter’s photographs, the younger Stelter’s comprehensive knowledge of our transit history, and first-hand accounts of living by or traveling on the El provides either a nostalgic reminder for someone who experienced this nearly forgotten chapter of New York City’s history or a welcome introduction for someone who didn’t."
By The El: 3rd Avenue and its El at Mid-Century
Ten minute impressionistic documentary film Third Avenue El (Video - 1950)

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Trade Machine: Let’s Kick Out James Taylor, and Seven More Ways to Improve Music’s Crock of a Museum

"On Saturday, the following artists will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Lou Reed, Green Day, Bill Withers, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Ringo Starr, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and the '5' Royales. On behalf of mankind, I offer my congratulations to these luminaries on what is truly a momentous honor. Now, let’s talk once again about how the Rock Hall is a crock and desperately needs to be reformed. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame typically elicits three kinds of negative responses. The first kind — indifference — doesn’t concern us, so let’s skip ahead to the next two: anger over an inductee who is deemed undeserving, and anger over an artist who is deserving but isn’t inducted. Pretty much every argument about the Rock Hall revolves around one of those scenarios. ..."
Grantland (Video)

Eduardo Galeano (3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015)

After a speech at the National Pedagogical University in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 2005.
Wikipedia - "Eduardo Hughes Galeano (3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered by some, among other things, 'a literary giant of the Latin American left'. His best-known works are Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) and Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire Trilogy, 1982–6). 'I'm a writer,' the author once said of himself, 'obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia.' ... In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee. His book Open Veins of Latin America was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina. ... He fled again, this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy, Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire), described as 'the most powerful literary indictment of colonialism in the Americas.' ..."
Wikipedia
Guardian: Eduardo Galeano: 'My great fear is that we are all suffering from amnesia'
10 Eduardo Galeano Quotes That Will Change The Way You View Human History
Democracy Now!: Remembering Eduardo Galeano, Champion of Social Justice & Chronicler of Latin America’s Open Veins (Video)
Aj Jazeera: The beautiful game loses its man of letters
amazom: Books by Eduardo Galeano
Lannan: Eduardo Galeano with Marie Arana (Video)

Berkeley in the Sixties (1990)

Wikipedia - "Berkeley in the Sixties is a 1990 documentary film by Mark Kitchell. The film highlights the origins of the Free Speech Movement beginning with the May 1960 House Un-American Activities Committee hearings at San Francisco City Hall, the development of the counterculture of the 1960s in Berkeley, California, and ending with People's Park in 1969. The film features 15 student activists and archival footage of Mario Savio, Todd Gitlin, Joan Baez, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Huey Newton, Allen Ginsberg, Gov. Ronald Reagan and the Grateful Dead. The film is dedicated to Fred Cody, founder of Cody's Books. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. ..."
Wikipedia
PBS
NY Times
YouTube: Berkeley in the Sixties, Berkeley in the Sixties 12:55, vimeo: Berkeley in the Sixties 1:55:40

Sailors and Daughters: Early Photography and the Indian Ocean

"Sailors and Daughters reveals the expansive maritime societies of Zanzibar, the east African coast, and beyond. From the 1840s, cameras traced the international migrations of traders, sailors, sons, and daughters through Indian Ocean ports, continuing trade that dates back over five millennia. East African cities flourished as hubs of both land and sea trade routes, which extended to the central African interior, Horn of Africa, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean islands, western India and the Far East. The region’s intercultural ethos generated a multitude of encounters between subjects, photographers, and the global audiences who viewed the resulting images. By gathering images from scarce and little-known collections of early photographs, lithographs, postcards, and private albums, this exhibition focuses attention on a diverse cross-section of the region’s people and their cosmopolitan cities by the sea. It serves as a starting point for a larger photographic and creative visual history of the prosperous and diverse communities of the Indian Ocean world."
Smithsonian

Preview Know Hope “Water Takes the Shape of its Container” at Openspace Galerie Paris

"Know Hope makes his first Solo Appearance in Paris at Openspace Galerie Paris. The exhibition titled 'Water Takes the Shape of its container' will feature a new body of work moving from installation, collage, assemblages and traditional drawing. Know Hope draws from all aspects of his oeuvre utilizing photographs of installations, ephemera, and natural found elements in nature. Intimate compositions that speak deeply, building a story visually but also utilizing text placed insitu to generate deep contrasts are just some of what make Know Hope one of our generations most sincere voices. His ability to sense and be sincere through his art, even when placed behind glass in a frame is why you need to make sure you go witness his latest exhibition in Paris. You wont be sorry."
Graffuturism
flickr: this is limbo
Widewalls

Bill Murray: five best moments

"As an actor, Bill Murray seems to exist on a separate plane, somewhere beyond Hollywood’s usual ego-stroking circle jerk. Notoriously hard to pin down for interviews, and partial to pulling the odd prank on fans before scurrying away, he’s built a phenomenal career since cutting his comedic teeth on Saturday Night Live in the 70s. He’s starring in St Vincent, out in UK cinemas this week, so we’re burdening ourselves with the task of picking his five best performances to date. Join in below the line with the roles you’d have chosen. ..."
Guardian (Video)

Poetry in 1960 — A Symposium

"The materials published in this feature are led by my introduction to a symposium on the poetry and poetics of 1960. The introduction you'll read here is more or less just as I spoke it a few months ago at the Writers House in Philadelphia. Since then, Gordon Faylor and I have gathered somewhat revised versions of the presentations made that evening. We then solicited responses from various others and we are happy to present these also as part of our 1960 feature, along with several other images and documents. I have been obsessively tracking 1960 doings and writings — reading, watching (film and TV), researching, interviewing, cross-referencing, following apparently meaningless leads; some of these have been posted to my blog '1960.'  ..."
Jacket2
Introduction to the poetry and poetics of 1960
PennSound: Poetry in 1960 — A Symposium (Video)

Günter Grass

Wikipedia - "Günter Wilhelm Grass (... 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. Grass was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In May 1945, after brief service as a teenaged soldier in the Waffen SS, he was taken prisoner by U.S. forces and released in April 1946. Trained as a stonemason and sculptor, he began writing in the 1950s. In his fiction, he frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. Grass is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism. It was the first book of his Danzig Trilogy, which includes Cat and Mouse and Dog Years. His works are frequently considered to have a left-wing political dimension, and Grass was an active supporter of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). ..."
Wikipedia
NPR: Günter Grass, Who Confronted Germany's Past As Well As His Own, Dies At 87
SPIEGEL Interview with Günter Grass: 'The Nobel Prize Doesn't Inhibit Me in My Writing'
NY Times: A Soldier Once By JOHN IRVING
DW: Mourning Günter Grass (Video)
YouTube: Writing against the wall 38:39

The Tentmakers of Cairo

"Their work combines sophisticated skills with craft techniques that have been refined over many generations. Using only a needle, thimble, and large pair of tailor’s scissors, these skilled artisans flip, fold and stitch fabric with virtuoso precision. Khayamiya originates from architecture, but resembles the historic development of quilts. The Tentmakers use a vast array of colours in their work. The careful use of colour combinations is one of the most important elements of their designs. During the Khedival period (1867-1914), the Tentmakers used cottons dyed by hand in shades of red, white and blue, as well as recycled fabrics. Their designs have changed dramatically over the last two centuries, drawing from a wide range of sources across the history of Islamic visual culture. Khayamiya is an important feature of Egyptian public and private life. Decorated tents are used as backdrops and venues for weddings, funerals, feasts and many other celebrations. ..."
The Tentmakers of Cairo: The History
The Tentmakers of Cairo
The Tentmakers of Cairo: The Trailer (Video)
W - Khayamiya
Aramco World
The Tentmakers of Cairo: Documenting a Dying Craft
YouTube: Tentmaker in Cairo

"Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" - Bob Dylan (1966)

Wikipedia - "'Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)' is the first track of the second disc of the 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, the seventh album from singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. ... The song consists of three verses with a bridge after the second verse. It is done in a bluesy style, with a moderate tempo. The lyrics speak of a man who has grown tired of constantly guessing at his girlfriend's feelings and is going to move on with his life rather than continue fighting the unpredictability of his girlfriend. The song presents a feeling of change and movement that was one of the trademarks of the 1960s. This song has a swinging beat and is representative of the album's sound as a whole."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)"

2010 August: Blonde on Blonde (1966), 2011 February: "I Want You", 2013 July: ‘Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands’ | Classic Tracks.

L'argot Du Bruit - Pascal Comelade (1998)

"By 1998, France's Pascal Comelade was well into his stride, and releasing albums as if they were editions of a regular magazine. Indeed, the magazine comparison is also valid on the basis that his albums tend to follow a similar pattern with only subtle variances in style. His first album of this year was L'argot Du Bruit; I believe a rough translation is 'The jargon of noise'. Comelade's listing on this site under the wing of 'Progressive electronic' is somewhat misleading, as his albums are most certainly not synthesiser-fests or keyboards infested virtuoso performances. The main sounds here, and indeed on many of Comelade's albums are French style accordions, Spanish brass and a variety children's instruments. The tracks tend to be short, sometimes very short, with only the occasional indulgence into anything over 4 minutes. The compositions are simple, using repetition a lot, their simplicity being emphasised by the instruments used and the basic arrangements. ..."
Progarchives
YouTube: Pascal Comelade & PJ Harvey. Love too soon, L'argot du bruit, Via-Crucis Del Rocanrol, Le soir du grand soir, Domisiladoré, Marie = un faux-cil dans la transmission, Teresa

2014 June: Pascal Comelade, 2014 September: September Song (2000), 2014 November: El pianista del antifaz (2013).

Coypel's 'Don Quixote' Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France

"A masterpiece of comic fiction, Cervantes’s Don Quixote (fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) enjoyed great popularity from the moment it was published, in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615. Reprints and translations spread across Europe, captivating the continental imagination with the escapades of the knight Don Quixote and his companion, Sancho Panza. The novel’s most celebrated episodes inspired a multitude of paintings, prints, and interiors. Most notably, Charles Coypel (1694−1752), painter to Louis XV, created a series of twenty-eight paintings (also called cartoons) to be woven into tapestries by the Gobelins manufactory in Paris. ..."
The Frick Collection
The Frick Collection: Introduction
NY Times: Review: ‘Coypel’s Don Quixote Tapestries’ Weaves a Classic Tale
YouTube: Coypel's 'Don Quixote' Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France

Laura Kicey

"Kicey is a photographer and artist based just outside of Philadelphia, PA. Her work has been shown in a number of galleries regionally, and has appeared in numerous publications internationally. Her 'construct' series of photographic montages is what drew me to her talent. The series consists of digitally altered photographs of architecture to make imaginary walls. Her color schemes and the contrast of style make her work completely vibrant and fun!"
thestudio4art
laura kicey

The Departed - Martin Scorsese (2006)

Wikipedia - "The Departed is a 2006 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, with Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, and Alec Baldwin in supporting roles. ... The film takes place in Boston. Irish Mob boss Francis 'Frank' Costello (Jack Nicholson) plants Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as a mole within the Massachusetts State Police; the two characters are loosely based on famous gangster Whitey Bulger and corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, who grew up with Bulger. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover state trooper William 'Billy' Costigan (Leonard DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello's crew. When both sides realize the situation, Sullivan and Costigan attempt to discover each other's true identity before his own cover is blown."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Scorsese’s Hall of Mirrors, Littered With Bloody Deceit
YouTube: The Departed - Trailer - (2006)

The literary Coney Island

"Everybody sees Coney Island a little differently. Most people know it for the amusements but not everybody has the same feeling about them. One person craves the beaches, the food. Another prefers a stroll along the boardwalk, fireworks, an evening Cyclones game. Others live nearby, too familiar with the swelling weekend crowds. And some people — and this seems like blasphemy — have had their fill of Nathan’s hot dogs. Coney Island has always been a Rorschach test of class, morals and taste, an escape from the city for more than 150 years. (In the 19th century, it was an escape from two cities, as Brooklyn was independent then and had not yet subsumed Coney Island within its borders.)"
Bowery Boys History
Coney Island's Storied Past
amazon: A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion
W - A Coney Island of the Mind, Lawrence Ferlinghetti

2009 April: Coney Island, 2010 July: Nathan's Famous, 2011 March: "An Underground Movement: Designers, Builders, Riders", Owen Smith, 2013 August: Donna Dennis: Coney Night Maze, 2013 October: Last Days of Summer at Coney Island, 2014 July: Coney Island - Directors: Steve Siegel and Phil Buehler (1973).

Volcano Songs - Meredith Monk (1994)

"The Random House Dictionary defines volcano as 'a vent in the earth’s crust through which lava, steam, ashes, etc., are expelled, either continuously or at irregular intervals.' In spite of human fears, the volcano is vital to the earth’s formation, sculpting the very landscapes we inhabit. For Meredith Monk, it would seem more importantly a source of fertility, and it is from this fertility that she opens herself to the generative spirit that infuses the world as a living organism. In this sense, she vocalizes a point of continuity between herself and listener, between the illusions of recorded sound and the illusions of physical bodies."
ECM
W - Volcano Songs
YouTube: Lost Wind, Walking Song, Three Heavens and Hells 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, New York Requiem

2008 March: Meredith Monk, 2009 September: Songs of Ascension - Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton, 2011 February: Meredith Monk: A Voice For All Time, 2011 August: Ellis Island, 2012 December: Turtle Dreams, 2013 February: Quarry: The Rally (Live, 1977), 2014 November; 10 Things You Might Not Know About Meredith Monk.

#TBT: When the Reds became Redlegs

"If you remember your high school U.S. History class, you know about the Cold War and Joseph McCarthy. A Republican senator from Wisconsin, McCarthy was relatively unknown when he gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in February 1950 in which he purportedly pulled out a paper with a list of known Communists in the state department. With the post-World War II tensions between the United States and Soviet Union building -- the Soviets had developed their own nuclear weapon in 1949 -- fear of Communism was a concern, and McCarthy exploited it. ... The fear -- and for a few years, McCarthy's popularity -- continued to grow. It was in this context that the Cincinnati Reds officially changed their name to Redlegs in April 1953 because they didn't want to be associated with the Red Scare."
ESPN
W - Joseph McCarthy
Sen. Joe McCarthy's Startling Morphine Source
Cold War Museum: Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism, and The Witch Hunt
NYBook: Un-American Activities
YouTube: Senator McCarthy Claims Communist Infiltration, The Hollywood 10 Placed on Blacklist

Os Gêmeos

Houston Street and Bowery
Wikipedia - "Os Gêmeos (Portuguese for The Twins; born 1974 in São Paulo, Brazil as Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) are graffiti artists and identical twin brothers. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and gradually became a main influence in the local scene, helping to define Brazil's own style. Their work often features yellow-skinned characters - taken from the yellow tinge both of the twins have in their dreams - but is otherwise diverse and ranges from tags to complicated murals. Subjects range from family portraits to commentary on São Paulo's social and political circumstances, as well as Brazilian folklore. Their graffiti style was influenced by both traditional hip hop style and the Brazilian culture."
Wikipedia
BOMB: Os Gêmeos
Os Gemeos for the wall at the corner of Houston Street and Bowery
ICA: Organized by Pedro Alonzo, ICA Adjunct Curator
Google
YouTube: Os Gemeos - Art in the Streets - MOCAtv

The Complete Recordings - Robert Johnson

Wikipedia - "The Complete Recordings is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released August 28, 1990 on Columbia Records. The album's recordings were recorded in two sessions in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas for the American Record Company (ARC) during 1936 and 1937. Most of the songs were first released on 78rpm records in 1937. The Complete Recordings contains every recording Johnson is known to have made, with the exception of an alternate take of 'Travelling Riverside Blues'. ..."
Wikipedia
JazzWax (Video)
NPR: You've Never Heard Robert Johnson's 'Complete Recordings'?! (Video)
amazon
Spotify
YouTube: The Complete Recordings (Full Album) 1:15:38

A Struggle to Secure Iraq’s Shared Past, and Perhaps Its Future

"Looted and shuttered after American troops seized Baghdad a dozen years ago, the National Museum of Iraq has officially reopened its doors — a response to Islamic State thugs’ taking jackhammers to ancient treasures in Mosul. The message was clear: Baghdad and its government belong to the civilized world, and the Islamic State does not. American officials even returned some recovered objects to show solidarity. But public relations are one thing, daily life in the long-suffering Iraqi capital another. The reopened museum looks hardly changed since the Saddam Hussein era, notwithstanding tens of millions of mostly foreign money ostensibly spent on its rejuvenation, which went who knows where."
NY Times
BBC: Looted Iraqi Museum in Baghdad reopens 12 years on (Video)
NY Times: The National Museum of Iraq Reopens (March 1, 2015)
NY Times: National Museum of Iraq

César Vallejo

Wikipedia - "César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. He was always a step ahead of literary currents, and each of his books was distinct from the others, and, in its own sense, revolutionary. Thomas Merton called him 'the greatest universal poet since Dante'. The late British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo '...the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language.' He was a member of the intellectual community called North Group formed in Trujillo city. Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia's translation of The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo won the National Book Award for translation in 1979. ..."
Wikipedia
Poets (The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition, by César Vallejo, Clayton Eshleman (trans.) - Poet 6)
Poetry Foundation
amazon: César Vallejo
YouTube: Translations of Cesar Vallejo (Poet Clayton Eshleman)

2012 October: The Complete Posthumous Poetry

Brush Fires in the Social Landscape - David Wojnarowicz

Where I'll Go After I'm Gone, 1988-89. Black-and-white photographs, acrylic, spray paint, collage on masonite.
"David Wojnarowicz’s use of photography, at times in conjunction with text and painting, was extraordinary, as was his unprecedented way of addressing the AIDS crisis and issues of censorship, homophobia, and narrative. Brush Fires in the Social Landscape, begun in collaboration with the artist before his death in 1992 and first published in 1994, engaged what Wojnarowicz would refer to as his 'tribe' or community. ... Through the lens of various contributors, the book addresses Wojnarowicz’s profound legacy: the relentless tugs, allegiances, censorship, and ethical issues, alongside his aesthetic brilliance, courage, and influence."
aperture
David Wojnarowicz and Nan Goldin go head-to-head
Advocate
amazon

Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits (1983)

"Between the release of Heartattack and Vine in 1980 and Swordfishtrombones in 1983, Tom Waits got rid of his manager, his producer, and his record company. And he drastically altered a musical approach that had become as dependable as it was unexciting. Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and much less of the piano work that Waits' previous albums had employed; instead, the dominant sounds on the record were low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion, set in spare, close-miked arrangements (most of them by Waits) that sometimes were better described as 'soundscapes.' Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. ..."
allmusic
The Quietus: Moving On: Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones Revisited (Video)
W - Swordfishtrombones
YouTube: Underground, Swordfishtrombones (Live)

2012 July: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, 2013 March: Burma Shave, 2013 May: "Ol' '55", 2013 July: The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), 2014 January: Blood Money, 2014 March: Telephone call from Istanbul (1987), 2014 November: Rain Dogs (1985), 2015 February: Mule Variations (1999).

Ashcan School

John Sloan, "A Woman's Work," 1912.
Wikipedia - "The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the early twentieth century that is best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods. The most famous artists working in this style included Robert Henri (1865–1929), George Luks (1867–1933), William Glackens (1870–1938), John Sloan (1871–1951), and Everett Shinn (1876–1953), some of whom had met studying together under the renowned realist Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and others of whom met in the newspaper offices of Philadelphia where they worked as illustrators. ..."
Wikipedia
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Ashcan School, an introduction
amazon: Painters of the Ashcan School: The Immortal Eight
YouTube: Ashcan School

2011 November: American realism

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit

"The Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition will explore the tumultuous and highly productive year that Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo spent in Detroit, a pivotal turning point in each artist's career. Between April 1932 and March 1933, Rivera created one of his most accomplished mural cycles—Detroit Industry—on the four walls of a centrally located courtyard at the DIA. At the same time and largely unnoticed, Kahlo developed her now-celebrated artistic identity. By including works before, during and after their time in Detroit, the exhibition also looks at the evolution of each artist’s career, a subject that has never been fully studied in an exhibition or catalogue. Rivera’s epic preparatory drawings for Detroit Industry will be the centerpiece of the exhibition. ..."
Frida Kahlo
NPR: In Detroit's Rivera And Kahlo Exhibit, A Portrait Of A Resilient City (Video)
Rivera, Kahlo exhibit mirrors spirit of DIA, Detroit (Video)
NY Times - Review: ‘Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit’
Yale: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit
Guide to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit at the DIA (Video)

2008 April: Frida Kahlo, 2008 May: Diego Rivera, 2013 April: Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe unlocked and on display after nearly 60 years.

The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960–1980

‘Untitled, Subway, New York’ (1980) - Bruce Davidson
"The American city of the 1960s and 1970s experienced seismic physical changes and social transformations, from urban decay and political protests to massive highways that threatened vibrant neighborhoods. Nowhere was this sense of crisis more evident than in the country’s three largest cities: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Yet in this climate of uncertainty and upheaval, the streets and neighborhoods of these cities offered places where a host of different actors—photographers, artists, filmmakers, planners, and activists—could transform these conditions of crisis into opportunities for civic discourse and creative expression. The City Lost and Found is the first exhibition to explore this seminal period through the emergence of new photographic and cinematic practices that reached from the art world to the pages of Life magazine."
Artic
New City
amazon: The City Lost and Found
WSJ: A Tale of Three Cities

The Imitation Game (2014)

Wikipedia - "The Imitation Game is a 2014 historical thriller film directed by Morten Tyldum, with a screenplay by Graham Moore loosely based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the British cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who helped solve the Enigma code during the Second World War and was later prosecuted for homosexuality. ... The LGBT civil rights advocacy and political lobbying organisation the Human Rights Campaign honoured The Imitation Game for bringing Turing's legacy to a wider audience. However, the film was criticised for its inaccurate portrayal of historical events and Turing's character and relationships. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times: Broken Codes, Both Strategic and Social
Slate: How Accurate Is The Imitation Game? (Video)
9 Secrets About The Imitation Game, Straight From Its Screenwriter
NYBook: A Poor Imitation of Alan Turing
YouTube: Official Trailer, Benedict Cumberbatch Interview with Jon Stewart

The Specials (1979)

Wikipedia - "The Specials is the debut album by British ska revival band The Specials. Released on 19 October 1979 on Jerry Dammers' 2 Tone label, the album is seen by some as the defining moment in the UK ska scene. Produced by Elvis Costello, the album captures the disaffection and anger felt by the youth of the UK's "concrete jungle"—a phrase borrowed from Bob Marley's 1972 album Catch a Fire but equally apposite used here to describe the grim, violent inner cities of 1970s Britain. Musically, the album encapsulates the wave of British ska, greatly reworking the original sound of 1960s Jamaican ska. The music shares the infectious energy and humour of the original sound, but injects new-found anger and punk sensibility."
Wikipedia
The Specials
allmusic
YouTube: Rock Goes To College (Live 1979) 44:29

2009 October: The Specials, 2912 September: Ghost Town, 2013 November: Too Much Too Young - The Special AKA (1980).