Lawrence Durrell — Caesar's Vast Ghost: Aspects of Provence

"To read Durrell's book is to wander through Caesar's vast ghost, Provence, and to become intimately familiar with its many Roman aspects. He writes of Provence as though it were a 2,000 year old suburb of Rome where its retired generals and consuls moved to escape the hurl-burly of city life. To wander through Provence is to quaff it heady brew: wine, that ubiquitous concoction - whether it be of 'poor contrivance' or a connoisseur's choice. ... And while you await passage to Provence, wherever you are, prop open this gorgeous book and imbibe large intoxicating draughts of its fragrant bouquet. In brilliant color and picturesque story, Caesar's vast ghost is proffered to be quaffed like a highly contrived dry red wine to stave off the prolonged drought before arrival on the sunny shores of the Rhone."
doyletics
Durrell's Cockerel: Caesar's Vast Ghost
Etsy
amazon

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), 2015 April: Bitter Lemons (1953–1956).

FIFA’s Sepp Blatter Has Finally Met His Match

"When I heard about the latest accusations of corruption against FIFA, the global governing body of soccer, my initial reaction was to think of Captain Renault’s disingenuous response to gambling at Rick’s Café in the movie 'Casablanca.' Like many other long-suffering soccer fans, I was 'shocked, shocked!' to learn that the U.S. Justice Department had charged nine FIFA officials with conspiring to enrich themselves through such practices as selling their services to the highest bidder, siphoning off millions of dollars in 'sports marketing contracts,' funnelling money through offshore shell companies, and, in some cases, receiving suitcases full of cash."
New Yorker (Video)
Slate: Soccer Superpower
NY Times: Crisis-Hit FIFA Prepares to Vote on Whether to Keep Sepp Blatter as Chief
NY Times: How the Indicted Officials Fit Into FIFA (Video)
NY Times: After Indicting 14 Soccer Officials, U.S. Vows to End Graft in FIFA (Video)
World Soccer: Sepp Blatter

Scissors Kick - Bill Davis

The Grinding Down by Paul Blackburn

"In the summer of 1963, poet Paul Blackburn wrote an essay in Kulchur 10 entitled 'The Grinding Down,' which mapped the contemporary landscape of the Mimeo Revolution and lamented for those beloved days of yore when Robert Creeley’s editorial vision surveyed the literary fringe from the lofty heights of Black Mountain Review (which itself rose from the broad shoulders and bushy brow of the 6 foot 7 inch Charles Olson). As Graham Rae would say, I am chuckling here. Let’s be honest, this is a dubious nostalgia. Black Mountain Review only folded six years earlier, a mere blip in terms of literary history. Although the beginnings of the Mimeo Revolution can be traced back to Waldport during World War II, things really only heated up when Black Mountain Review went down in flames in late 1957, along with the Howl Trial, the San Francisco Scene of Evergreen Review, and the publication of On the Road. ..."
Reality Studio

Skyping with the enemy: I went undercover as a jihadi girlfriend

"It was 10 o’clock on a Friday night in spring 2014 and I was sitting on the sofa in my one-bed Paris apartment when I received a message from a French terrorist based in Syria: 'Salaam alaikum, sister. I see you watched my video. It’s gone viral – crazy! Are you Muslim? What do you think about mujahideen?' A journalist, I had been writing about European jihadis in Islamic State for about a year. I created a social media account, using the name Mélodie, to investigate why European teenagers were attracted to Islamic extremism. I spent hours scanning feeds filled with descriptions of gruesome plans. I had spent that night on my couch, flicking from account to account, when I came across a video of a French jihadi who looked about 35. He wore military fatigues and called himself Abu Bilel. He claimed to be in Syria. ..."
Guardian

The Ngoni - Africa's History: Bassekou Kouyaté Interviewed

"Bassekou Kouyaté's innovation in expanding the possibilities of what can be done with the ngoni, a form of west African lute, cannot be underestimated. With his group Ngoni Ba he has developed a, literally as the name translates, 'powerful' sound for the instrument, with lead, rhythm and bass roles in the style of a traditional rock band with guitars. Kouyaté comes from a lineage of ngoni players and griot musicians in his family that dates back hundreds of years. ..."
The Quietus (Video)
Telegraph (Video)
Ngoni Pioneer Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba’s Forthcoming ‘Ba Power’ LP (Video)
Soundcloud: Siran Fen

Jim Shaw: Entertaining Doubts

"Since the 1970s, Jim Shaw has created a vast body of work spanning diverse media and reference points. Shaw’s work mines the essentials of American cultural detritus, from comic books, pulp novels, and album covers, to vintage advertisements, movie posters, and noise rock. Originating from these sources, the work often features recurring characters including himself, his friends, fictional superheroes, politicians, and film stars. Combining text and the painted figure with objects and drawings from his unconscious, Shaw’s works consistently illustrate purposely bad puns, while twisting politics, religion, and belief into one long dream sequence. ..."
MASS MoMA (Photo)
Jim Shaw’s subconscious runs amok at Mass MoCA
Jim Shaw: Entertaining Doubts at MASS MoCA

Bob Dylan - "I Threw It All Away" / "Drifter's Escape" (1969)

Wikipedia - "'I Threw It All Away' is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. ... 'I Threw It All Away' was one of the first songs written for Nashville Skyline and one of only two new songs that were definitely written prior to the recording sessions ('Lay Lady Lay' being the other). ... The song is about how someone is speaking about a love that they have lost by being cruel and angry. There has been some speculation on who Dylan is referring to in the song."
W - "I Threw It All Away"
W - "Drifter's Escape"
Open Culture: The First Episode of The Johnny Cash Show, Featuring Bob Dylan & Joni Mitchell (Video)
Rolling Stone: Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan Tape TV Number in Nashville
YouTube: I Threw It All Away~ Live on The Johnny Cash Show 1969, "Drifter's Escape"

Through Clouds and Water

"'The waves are best in the winter, when there's a bigger swell but you can come out with icicles hanging off your face,' says British documentarian Tom Elliott. 'We shot the film in December and January, when guys go in wearing 5mm-6mm thick neoprene suits, hoods, gloves and boots.' It's a long way from the beaches of Hawaii, California and Australia to the icy coastline of England's industrial North East. Better known for steel mills and chemical refineries than surfboards and Ambre Solaire, its cities seem an unlikely place to find men who live to ride the perfect wave. But it's here beside the goods-yards and the chimneys that filmmaking team Tom Elliott and Simon Reichel — known as A Common Future — have made a compelling discovery: the smokestack surfer dude. Driving past the port of Middlesborough one day, Reichel was reminded of a friend who had studied there but said he spent his whole time surfing. The coastline was a bleak mass of heavy machinery – could this really be the place? ..."
NOWNESS (Video)

Dexter Gordon - Our Man in Paris (1963)

"This 1963 date is titled for Dexter Gordon's living in self-imposed Parisian exile and recording there with two other exptriates and a French native. Along with Gordon, pianist Bud Powell and Kenny 'Klook' Clarke were living in the City of Lights and were joined by the brilliant French bassman Pierre Michelot. ... Gordon is at the very top of his game here. His playing is crisp, tight, and full of playful fury. Powell, who at this stage of his life was almost continually plagued by personal problems, never sounded better than he does in this session. His playing is a tad more laid-back here, but is nonetheless full of the brilliant harmonic asides and incendiary single-note runs he is legendary for. The rhythm section is close-knit and stop-on-a-dime accurate."
allmusic
W - Our Man in Paris
Graded on a Curve: Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris
YouTube: Our Man In Paris (1963)

2014 April: Night in Tunisia, Whats new, Blues Walk (Holland, 1964)

Adger Cowans

Sun and Trees, 1959
"... Even taking a photograph, for me, it's about a feeling, not what I'm seeing. Not even so much what I conjure in my mind. Because those images are only in my mind until they become a reality in the so-called real world. So it is the thought, and then you get these images, and you think about them, and sometimes you don't even think about them, they just happen in your mind. You have an experience and then you get something happening in your mind. You get a feeling, you get a picture, you get an idea, you get a thought, and maybe it materializes and maybe it doesn't. And then you have thousands and thousands of thoughts every day. Some of them go right by, but some of them, the ones you have the strongest feeling about, you might take reaction to them. I try to start my day, every day, with my meditating. That's the first thing. I empty my mind, and that's really hard, because there's a lot there that you have to deal with. But I think just sitting quietly for an hour every morning before I make any moves about the day is best."
BOMB
Adger Cowans
burgess fine arts collection

D.J. Rich Medina

"Please welcome Rich Medina, a D.J. , a poet, music producer and an amazing music collector. Q: What was your first record album? How did you get it? At what age? Can you describe that feeling and do you still have it in your collection? A: Believe it or not, the first record I bought with 'my own money' was a copy of the KISS 'Alive' Concert LP. I bought it at Crazy Eddie’s in Eatontown NJ, after making some chore money. It was 1980, and I was growing more and more into rock and roll, aside from actively participating in the complete spectrum of hip-hop culture. ... Q: Why vinyl? A: Vinyl is the origin of my personal love for music, aside from 8 track tape, my grandparent’s church, piano lessons, and 70’s radio. I was simply born during a time where these were the primary consumer mediums for music, so I really don’t know any better. I am not so much of a purist that I have bad thoughts or words for other mediums though. ..."
Dust and Grooves (Video)
D.J. Rich Medina (Video)
vimeo: Art of Turntables - Rich Medina Set Snippet II, All Rights Reserved
YouTube: D.J. Rich Medina, Rich Medina - Too Much feat. Martin Luther

How Things Break

"Sonny Liston landed on canvas below Muhammad Ali’s feet on May 25, 1965, and Neil Leifer snapped a photo. Afterward, several events unspooled. The photo languished unlauded—before it was (much later) recognized as one of the greatest sports photos of all time; Ali became the most hated figure in American sports—before he was (much later) named 'The Sportsman of the Century'; and Liston was subjected to intense scrutiny—before (not much later) he fizzled into a mostly forgotten footnote. Like many sports fans, I’d glimpsed this picture for years—in random Ali articles, atop 'best of' lists, even on T-shirts—but it wasn’t until doing my own research, excavating layers, that I discovered its most astounding attribute. Everything you’d initially imagine about the image is wrong. ..."
Slate (Video)
NY Times: The Night the Ali-Liston Fight Came to Lewiston (Video)

Louis (Blues Boy) Jones

"Louis Prince Jones, Jr. (April 28, 1931 – June 27, 1984), credited as Louis Jones or Louis (Blues Boy) Jones, was an American R&B singer, songwriter and musician who recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born in Galveston, Texas, the son of Rebecca Prince Jackson and Louis Jones, Sr. He began singing with his mother in their church choir, and learned to play piano and drums. After attending Central High School in Galveston, he served as a medic with the US Army during the Korean war under the name Louis Prince, and worked as a longshoreman and shipyard worker. In the early 1950s he moved to Houston to live with his brother, and soon began singing backing vocals on recordings produced by Don Robey at Peacock Records. ..."
Wikipedia
YouTube: I Cried, I'll Be Your Fool, Come On Home, That's Cuz I Love You, Rock n' Roll Bells, I believe to my soul, All over, goodbye

Mapping the New York That Once Was

"Beneath the present-day surface that every city shows to the world, there are shadows of the city as it was in previous eras. In some places—Rome is a good example—that ghost city of the past lives side by side with the current one. In others, such as New York, it is more efficiently hidden, although it can show itself in surprising places. A newly launched website, OldNYC, reveals the New York City that once was. It’s the work of software engineer Dan Vanderkam, who has mapped some 40,000 photos from the collection of the New York Public Library, making it possible for you to click on a random street corner and see what once was there. ..."
City Lab
OldNYC

Bread and Puppet Cheap Art Posters

Dreaming winged horse poster
"Graphic images- chiseled into masonite, printed and painted on cloth, and paper- have been an integral part of Bread & Puppet Theater's shows since the very beginning in the early sixties. Peter Schumann, Bread & Puppet's founder, director and artist, created and continues to create, the contents- both pictures and texts- of nearly all our publications and posters. After moving to a farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, in 1974, we sold posters, banners and chap books, in our Museum Barn and at Bread & Puppet events. By the late eighties, Bread & Puppet Press was established, with an annual calendar and mail-order catalog, and in 2000, its own print shop building. (Until then, we had printed and painted, helter-skelter, in the Museum, chicken coops, and rehearsal and meeting spaces.) There, under Lila Winstead's able management, she and local volunteers, make all the hand-printed and -painted items for sale, including letterpress broadsides and handmade books. The Print Shop also produces the banners, flags, curtains and costumes, as needed, for specific shows and events."
Bread & Puppet
Bread & Puppet: Posters
Bread & Puppet: Postcards
Mythological Quarter (Video)
Left Matrix

2009 October: The Bread and Puppet Theater, 2013 September: Peter Schumann on 50 years of the Bread and Puppet Theater

Popol Vuh - Agape-Agape (1983)

"Two years after the issue of Sei Still, Wisse ICH BIN, Agape-Agape (Love-Love) offers a deeper view of the same animal. Still utilizing a choir for Gregorian chant-like ethereal intensity -- though they sing in Byzantine scales -- pianist Florian Fricke, guitarist/percussionist Daniel Fichelscher, guitarist Conny Veit (who came back to the fold after a prolonged absence), and vocalist Renate Knaup delve deeply into the drone world of Fricke's sacred music muse. There are eight pieces on this set, the longest of which is the final one, 'Why Do I Fall Asleep.' But they are all of a single theme, even Fichelscher's 'They Danced, They Laughed, As of Old,' which is an extended retreatment of 'Kleiner Kreiger' from the Einsjäger & Siebenjäger album. Fricke only comes to the fore on the title track with his shimmering, insistent mantra-piano, but the twin guitars of Fichelscher and Veit more than compensate elsewhere as they entwine and slip through and around one another. Once again, though the music might seem formulaic, it is in the subtleties and dynamics that Fricke's compositional growth is revealed, and Agape-Agape is a worthy, devastatingly beautiful outing."
allmusic
W - Agape-Agape
Cosmik
The Essential… Popol Vuh
YouTube: Why Do I Still Sleep?
YouTube: Agape-Agape Love-Love (1983) FULL ALBUM 37:33

2008 August: Popol Vuh, 2010 December: Aguirre, the Wrath of God, 2011 May: Abschied (1972), 2013 May: Fitzcarraldo - Werner Herzog, 2913 September: Hosianna Mantra (1972), 2014 April: Revisited & Remixed 1970-1999 (2011), 2014 August: Letzte Tage-Letzte Nächte (1976).

Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of The New Yorker by Thomas Kunkel

"In his salad days as an uncommonly dapper reporter for The New York Herald Tribune and The World-Telegram, Joseph Mitchell wrote about celebrities, crimes and the quotidian disasters of city life during the Depression: He covered the Lindbergh kidnapping trial ('a mess'), witnessed the electrocution of six men, and watched a woman who had been stabbed in the neck bleed to death while he tried to make her lie still. ... The advice helped transform Mitchell from a competent beat reporter with a graceful prose style into, arguably, our greatest literary journalist — a man who wrote about freaks, barkeeps, street preachers, grandiose hobos and other singular specimens of humanity with compassion and deep, hard-earned understanding, and above all with a novelist’s eyes and ears. ..."
NY Times
NYBooks: The Master Writer of the City - Janet Malcolm
WSJ: Writing the City, Block by Block
New Yorker: The People You Meet
New Republic: Why Joseph Mitchell Stopped Writing
amazon

2014 August: Joseph Mitchell

DOURONE

"Fabio Lopez aka DOURONE was born in Madrid and raised in the countryside, soaking up the 'art and affection' provided by his family. In 1999, he began displaying his creations in the streets under the name DOURONE that he retains today. His self-taught style reflects on his experiences in the world, which captures real-life moments that stand out for their beauty. His works are often defined as figurative illustration, classical, and surreal. He draws nspiration from artists like MC Escher, Mohlitz Philippe, Jean Giraud (Moebius), Giovanni Battista Piranesi. ..."
DOURONE (Video)
Brooklyn Street NYC: BSA Film Friday: 05.22.15, 1. Rap Quotes ATL: Dirty South Edition 2. Narcelio Grud – Cinetic Graffiti 3. DourOne in South Park LA by Phil Sanchez 4. Haeler Keeping Detroit Alive (Video)

The Story of Funk - One Nation under a Groove (2014)

"In the 1970s, America was one nation under a groove as an irresistible new style of music took hold of the country - funk. The music burst out of the black community at a time of self-discovery, struggle and social change. Funk reflected all of that. It has produced some of the most famous, eccentric and best-loved acts in the world - James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, George Clinton's Funkadelic and Parliament, Kool & the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire. During the 1970s this fun, futuristic and freaky music changed the streets of America with its outrageous fashion, space-age vision and streetwise slang. But more than that, funk was a celebration of being black, providing a platform for a new philosophy, belief system and lifestyle that was able to unite young black Americans into taking pride in who they were."
BBC
YouTube: The Story of Funk - One Nation under a Groove 59:04

Van Gogh and Nature

Iris, 1889
"From his earliest letters to his last great works of art, Vincent van Gogh showed an extraordinary fascination with the natural world. Youthful studies of trees, flowers, and heath-land were accompanied by verbal descriptions of the changing seasons, while increasingly ambitious pictures showed the Dutch landscape in all its aspects. His travels to England, Belgium, and France brought new encounters with nature and a shift from biblical perspectives to modern attitudes influenced by contemporary literature and science. In Arles and Saint-Rémy, most notably, Van Gogh painted elemental landscapes in snow, wind, rain, and sunshine, while making incisive images of insects, leaves, and rocks that reflect his knowledge of illustrated natural history publications. Van Gogh and Nature will be the first exhibition to explore this subject in depth. Some forty oil paintings and ten drawings will survey the artist’s developing relationship with his natural surroundings. ..."
The Clark
Van Gogh Museum
NY Times: Van Gogh in Pastoral Mode, at the Clark Art Institute

2010 March: Van Gogh Museum, 2010 May: Why preserve Van Gogh's palette?, 2012 April: Van Gogh Up Close.

40 Ways The World Makes Awesome Hot Dogs

"It’s not just a sausage in a bun; it’s a beautiful blank canvas. It’s a hot dog, which is a foodstuff eaten worldwide. Here are 40 distinctive varieties from around the globe — from iconic NYC 'dirty water dogs' to fully loaded South American street-cart dogs to Japanese octo-dogs. There is a tubesteak out there for every craving that ever was."
Food Republic

Talking Heads - And She Was (1985)

Wikipedia - "'And She Was' is a rock song written by David Byrne for the 1985 Talking Heads album Little Creatures. 'I used to know a blissed-out hippie-chick in Baltimore,' recalled Byrne in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. 'She once told me that she used to do acid (the drug, not music) and lay down on the field by the Yoo-hoo chocolate soda factory. Flying out of her body, etc etc. It seemed like such a tacky kind of transcendence… but it was real! A new kind of religion being born out of heaps of rusted cars and fast food joints. And this girl was flying above it all, but in it too.' The song is musically notable for its unusual use of modulation, interspersing the key of E major between verse one ('and she was lying in the grass') and the chorus ('the world was moving') with the key of F major for verse two ('see the lights of a neighbour's house'). ..."
Wikipedia
YouTube: Talking Heads - And She Was

2008 September: Talking Heads, 2011 June: Talking Heads: 77, 2011 August: More Songs About Buildings and Food, 2011 October: Fear of Music, 2012 January: Remain in Light, 2012 April: Speaking in Tongues, 2012 June: Live in Rome 1980, 2014 December: "Road To Nowhere" (1985).

Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

"In 1965 Carl Oglesby was elected president of Students for a Democratic Society, the principal campus-based organization of the 1960s New Left. S.D.S. then had some 10,000 members; over the next few years, thanks to swelling opposition to the Vietnam War among young Americans, it expanded tenfold. Oglesby, a thoughtful opponent of the war, made an important contribution to S.D.S.’s success, but by 1969 he found himself on the sidelines. A more radically inclined leadership cadre, collectively known as Weatherman, was in the process of dismantling S.D.S. as a mass organization, determined to convert it (in the rhetoric of the time) into a 'revolutionary youth movement.' A worried Oglesby wrote an essay for the pacifist magazine Liberation, cautioning his successors on the perils of their course: 'We are not now free to fight the Revolution except in fantasy. . . . If S.D.S. continues the past year’s vanguarditis, then it . . . will have precious little future at all. For what this movement needs is a swelling base, not a vanguard.' ...”
NY Times
You Say You Want a Revolution (Feb. 18, 2009)
Washington Post: Bryan Burrough recounts the havoc caused by several domestic terror group
Vanity Fair: Meet The Weather Underground’s Bomb Guru
Bowery Boys History: ‘Days of Rage’ and Nights of Terror
NPR: How Young People Went Underground During The '70s 'Days Of Rage' (Video)
amazon: Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

The Clash - Audio Ammunition Documentary / LIVE - Paris 1980

"In this exclusive documentary featuring never-before-seen footage of the late, great Joe Strummer, all four members of 'the only band that matters' walk us through the making of each of their classic albums. In Part 1 the band explains how finding drummer Topper Headon made them a force that could transcend punk."
YouTube: Part 1 "The Clash" (1977), Part 2 "Give 'Em Enough Rope", Part 3 "London Calling", Part 4 - Sandinista, Part 5 "Combat Rock"
YouTube: LIVE - Paris 1980 (1/3), (2/3), (3/3)
"Le Palace was an old music hall, a famous parisian venue near the Grands Boulevards, opened in 1923 but closed finally in 1996. Between 1978 and 1983 it was a popular nightclub." 1) JIMMY JAZZ 2) LONDON CALLING 3) PROTEX BLUE 4) TRAIN IN VAIN 5) KOKA KOLA 6) I FOUGHT THE LAW 7) SPANISH BOMS 8) WRONG 'EM BOYO 9) STAY FREE 10) JANIE JONES 11) COMPLETE CONTROL 12) GARAGELAND 13) TOMMY GUN

Mr. Turner (2014)

Wikipedia - "Mr. Turner is a 2014 British, French and German biographical drama film, written and directed by Mike Leigh, and starring Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Jesson, Marion Bailey, Lesley Manville and Martin Savage. The film concerns the life and career of British artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), who is played by Spall. ... The film was critically acclaimed, and received four nominations each at the 87th Academy Awards and 68th British Academy Film Awards. Describing Turner as 'a great artist: a radical, revolutionary painter', writer/director Leigh explained, 'I felt there was scope for a film examining the tension between this very mortal, flawed individual, and the epic work, the spiritual way he had of distilling the world'."
Wikipedia
NY Times: The Painter Was a Piece of Work, Too (Video)
Guardian: Mike Leigh shines a brilliant new light on the great master (Video)
YouTube: Mr. Turner - Official Trailer, Cannes Film Festival (2014) - Mr. Turner

November 2007: J. M. W. Turner, 2009 April: Turner & Italy, 2011 June: J. M. W. Turner - 1, 2014 June: In Which We Find His Theory Of Color Implausible, 2014 September: The EY Exhibition: Late Turner – Painting Set Free.

Building the Moroccan Court

"In its earliest decades, the Met's mission was centered on the idea that exposure to great works of art could elevate both the public's aesthetic sensibilities and what America, as an emerging manufacturing power, actually produced. I cannot help but think about this 140-year-old sentiment today as I watch fourteen Moroccan craftsmen in our galleries building a courtyard to accompany the magnificent works of art in our Islamic collection. What an extraordinary challenge to create something both historic and new, steeped in the traditions of the past, but crafted in fresh and modern circumstances: the gentle arabesque of hand-carving shown under LED lights. These craftsmen—the upholders of rare artisanal methods that stretch back centuries—arrived at the Museum from Fez in December and began their monumental task. Their project was to create a medieval Islamic courtyard within the Met's new Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia, opening on November 1 2011. ..."
Building History: The Making of the Met's New Moroccan Court
NY Times: History’s Hands
YouTube: Building the Moroccan Court

Crosscut Saw

Wikipedia - "'Crosscut Saw', or 'Cross Cut Saw Blues' as it was first called, is a bawdy blues song 'that must have belonged to the general repertoire of the Delta blues'. The song was first released in 1941 by Mississippi bluesman Tommy McClennan and has since been interpreted by many blues artists. 'Crosscut Saw' became an early R&B chart hit for Albert King, 'who made it one of the necessary pieces of modern blues'. Tommy McClennan's 'Cross Cut Saw Blues' is a Delta-style blues, which McClennan sings and plays acoustic guitar with an unknown player providing imitation bass accompaniment. The lyrics are rife with double-entendre:

Now, I'm a cross cut saw, drag me 'cross yo' log

I'm a cross cut saw, and drag me across yo' log

Babe, I'll cut yo' wood so easy, you can't help say 'hot dog'

The song follows the classic twelve-bar blues progression, contrary to Big Bill Broonzy's characterization of McClennan's timing as 'change from E to A to B when you feel like changing. Any time will do. Just close your eyes.'"
Wikipedia
YouTube: "Cross Cut Saw Blues" - Tommy McClennan, Albert King - Crosscut Saw

Uproot Andy “Barrioteca EP”

"Que Bajo records is back with a new selection of dancefloor heaters. This time Uproot Andy introduces the concept of Barrioteca, and provides a blueprint for a sound him and Geko Jones have been nurturing with their musically diverse Latin-oriented parties. Judging from the line up of their first Barrioteca rave this weekend for Red Bull Music Academy’s 2015 New York festival, this is sure to be an exciting series!"
Brooklyn Radio (Video)
Soundcloud (Video)
Thump (Video)

Natalie Czech

“A Small Bouquet by Frank O’Hara,” 2011.
"I first encountered the Berlin-based artist Natalie Czech’s work in 2012 at Ludlow 38 in New York. Her solo exhibition, I have nothing to say. Only to show. urged me to set aside any notion of passive viewership, and while the show’s title seemed to suggest that her photographs were merely to be looked at, they did in fact say something. The images felt like words to be looked at, but also carefully read, in pieces and over time, returned to like one returns to a poem, picks it up, and reads it over again. Opening up the connections between photography and writing in such a way as to eventually obscure their distinction, Czech’s work plays the visual qualities of text off the textual elements in the photographs, activating and crystallizing a mode of perception that both undoes and reconstitutes reading and seeing. ..."
Bomb — Artists in Conversation
Natalie Czech
frieze
Natalie Czech’s “I Cannot Repeat What I Hear”
Natalie Czech’s visual poetry of repetition

Nicolas Jaar Soundtracks Short Film About Police Brutality and #BlackLivesMatter

"Nicolas Jaar has created the soundtrack to Eleven Times, a powerful short film that pays tribute to Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and other victims of police brutality. Jaar composed the soundtrack with longtime Gil Scott-Heron collaborator Brian Jackson, and based it off Scott-Heron's 'Winter in America.' In light of yesterday's shooting of an unarmed man on LA's Skid Row, as well as fierce debates surrounding fatal police encounters in recent months, Nicolas Jaar's latest project holds immense relevance. The film's title is a reference to the number of times Garner said 'I can't breathe' while a police officer put him in a deadly chokehold. The killings of unarmed African-Americans such as Garner have sparked protests across the country, turning the manta 'Black Lives Matter' into an international movement. ..."
thump (Video)

2013 September: Nicolas Jaar, 2014 January: Other People