The Roots of Route 66

"No other road has captured the imagination and the essence of the American Dream quite like Route 66. The idea behind the 'Mother Road' was to connect urban and rural America from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles, crossing eight states and three time zones. With more hope than resources, Dust Bowl migrants and others escaping poverty caused by the Great Depression could motor west on Route 66 in search of a better life. This 2,440-mile 'Road of Dreams' speckled with romantic and unconventional attractions symbolized a pathway to easier times. It was one of the few U.S. highways laid out diagonally, and it cut across the country like a shortcut to freedom. ..."
The Atlantic

The Modern Dance - Pere Ubu (1978)

"There isn't a Pere Ubu recording you can imagine living without. The Modern Dance remains the essential Ubu purchase (as does the follow-up, Dub Housing). For sure, Mercury had no idea what they had on their hands when they released this as part of their punk rock offshoot label Blank, but it remains a classic slice of art-punk. It announces itself quite boldly: the first sound you hear is a painfully high-pitched whine of feedback, but then Tom Herman's postmodern Chuck Berry riffing kicks off the brilliant 'Non-Alignment Pact,' and you soon realize that this is punk rock unlike any you've ever heard. ... The Modern Dance is the signature sound of the avant-garage: art rock, punk rock, and garage rock mixing together joyously and fearlessly."
allmusic
TinyMixTapes
W - The Modern Dance
YouTube: The Modern Dance (1978) [Full Album]

2008 April: Pere Ubu, 2010 July: Pere Ubu - 1, 2012 November: David Thomas And The Pedestrians - Variations On A Theme, 2013 February: Dub Housing, 2014 September: Carnival of Souls (2014), 2015 June: Street Waves / My Dark Ages (1976), 2016 January: Live at the Longhorn: April 1, 1978, 2016 February: Cloudland (1989), 2016 April: Architecture of Language 1979-1982.

Beauty Is in the Street: A Visual Record of the May 68 Uprising

Wikipedia - "Beauty Is in the Street: A Visual Record of the May 68 Uprising is 2011 book of posters produced by the Atelier Populaire (Popular Workshop) in support of the May 1968 events in France. It was edited by Johan Kugelberg with Philippe Vermés and published in the United Kingdom by Four Corners Books in 2011. Poster created in May 1968. In his review of Beauty Is in the Street, The Guardian's Justin McGuirk wrote that 'The [image of a] riot policeman bearing down on the viewer with his truncheon aloft, his head helmeted and goggled in a ghoulish mask, has become synonymous with oppression.' ..."
Wikipedia
amazon

2009 September: Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, 2009 November: The Society of the Spectacle, 2010 December: On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, 2011 May: Détournement, 2011 October: Posters from the Paris Protests, 1968, 2014 July: Situationist International Anthology, 2014 August: Confrontation: Paris, 1968.

Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle (1967)

Wikipedia - "Song Cycle is the debut album by American recording artist Van Dyke Parks, released in December 1967 by Warner Bros. Records. It mixes a number of genres, including bluegrass, ragtime, and show tunes – framing classical styles in the context of 1960s pop music. Upon its release, Song Cycle was largely raved by critics despite lukewarm sales, and later gained status as a cult album. With the exception of three cover songs, Song Cycle was written and composed by Parks, while its production was credited to future Warner Bros. Records president Lenny Waronker. The album's material explores unconventional song structures, and lyrically focuses on American history and culture. ..."
Wikipedia
Pitchfork
Guardian - Van Dyke Parks: 'I was victimised by Brian Wilson's buffoonery'
GENIUS (Video)
amazon
YouTube: Song Cycle 32:52

2012 July: Van Dyke Parks, 2015 December: Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove (1998)

Rudy Burckhardt - Subterranean Monuments: A Centenary Celebration

Haircut Shave, ca. 1939
"The Tibor de Nagy Gallery is pleased to celebrate Rudy Burckhardt’s centenary with a survey of his photographs, paintings, and a selection of his films. There will also be vitrines with his collages, his early photographic albums, and sketches. In addition, exhibited for the first time will be a group of his otherworldly painted mushrooms. The show marks the first time the gallery has exhibited the artist’s photographs and paintings side-by-side. ..."
Tibor De Nagy
NY Times
The Wonderful World of Rudy Burckhardt
Rudy Burckhardt: Subterranean Monuments Photographs, Paintings and Films: A Centenary Celebration

010 December: Edwin Denby, 2013 December: Rudy Burckhardt, 2014 July: Rudy Burckhardt Films: 1936-1999, 2015 May: Edith Schloss Burckhardt Archive

Keith Hudson - Brand (1979)

"Another amazing chunk of dub, Brand is the dub version of Keith Hudson's Rasta Communication. And if you think Pick a Dub was tough to find, Brand was assumed to have fallen into a crack in the universe. Only available at outrageous collector's prices, Brand was finally rescued by producer and dub mastermind Adrian Sherwood for his label Pressure Sounds. Exhilarating and powerful, Brand proves that Pick a Dub was no fluke and that Hudson was simultaneously writing and rewriting the book of dub. ..."
allmusic
brainwashed
Keith Hudson the Rasta Communicator
amazon
YouTube: Felt The Strain (Rasta Took The Blame), My Eyes Are Red Dub, National Anthem Dub 2, Image Dub, Rub Dub (Rasta Communication - King Saul), Barrabas Dub

Cubs End 108-Year Wait for World Series Title, After a Little More Torment

"If you are going to endure years — no, generations — of futility and heartbreak, when you do finally win a World Series championship, it may as well be a memorable one. The Chicago Cubs did just that, shattering their 108-year championship drought in epic fashion: with an 8-7, 10-inning victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 7, which began on Wednesday night, carried into Thursday morning and seemed to end all too soon. When the Indians rallied with three runs in the eighth inning — including a two-out, two-strike, two-run thunderbolt of a home run by Rajai Davis off closer Aroldis Chapman — the Cubs found a way to beat back the ghosts of playoffs past. ..."
NY Times
W - 2016 World Series
Washington Post - Plenty of heroes, no goats: An epic Game 7 finally delivers Cubs a World Series (Video)
Washington Post / Thomas Boswell - You knew it couldn’t come easy, but the Cubs are World Series champions (Video)
MLB: A look at World Series Game 7s (Video)

1908 World Series
W - 1908 World Series, ... W - 1945 World Series
NY Times: A Baseball Writer Looks Back on 20 World Series

When Bob Dylan Practiced Downstairs

"The year was 1974 and things in New York, in a word, sucked. The city was in financial meltdown. Bankruptcy and the famous Daily News headline 'Ford to City: Drop Dead' were only a year away. Maybe the meltdown was part of the reason Bob Dylan was back in his townhouse on MacDougal Street, just north of Houston. He and his wife Sara were on the rocks after almost a decade together. A melting-down city and a melting-down marriage. At the time, I lived in a $200-a-month loft on the fourth floor of 124 West Houston, on the edge of Soho, then still an industrial wasteland. ..."
VOICE

Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Doc at the Radar Station (1980)

"Generally acclaimed as the strongest album of his comeback, and by some as his best since Trout Mask Replica, Doc at the Radar Station had a tough, lean sound owing partly to the virtuosic new version of the Magic Band (featuring future Pixies sideman Eric Drew Feldman, New York downtown-scene guitarist Gary Lucas, and a returning John 'Drumbo' French, among others) and partly to the clear, stripped-down production, which augmented the Captain's basic dual-guitar interplay and jumpy rhythms with extra percussion instruments and touches of Shiny Beast's synths and trombones. ..."
allmusic
W - Doc at the Radar Station
Doc At The Radar Station discography
Spotify
YouTube: Doc At The Radar Station (Full Album) 38:20

2009 October: Captain Beefheart, 2010 December: Captain Beefheart, Art-Rock Visionary, Dead At 69, 2011 October: Interview with Captain Beefheart, 2013 August: This Is The Day (1974-Old Grey Whistle Test), 2014 July: Safe as Milk (1967), 2014 August: Some YoYo Stuff: An observation of the observations of Don Van Vliet by Anton Corbijn (1993), 2015 January: It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper.

Interactive Map Shows What Languages NYers Speak At Home

"New York City neighborhoods where the most common language spoken at home isn't English stand out on web developer and designer Jill Hubley's latest census map like islands: deep blue Spanish in Sunset Park; mint green Yiddish in Hasidic Williamsburg and a portion of Crown Heights; fuchsia Russian in Brighton Beach. Hubley, who also brought us maps of the city's tree species, toxic spills, and greenhouse gas emissions by building, designed the Languages of NYC map to complement her analog map of Queens languages, which was on display at the Queens Museum this past weekend. ..."
Gothamist
Languages of NYC

Colleen Murphy (Classic Album Sundays) – London, UK

"Introducing London-based collector Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy: the woman behind Classic Album Sundays, a self-proclaimed 'audio diva,' a mom, and a lover of cosmic-disco. Colleens’ CAS listening sessions take place in cities all over the world and feature true high-end audiophile systems. It’s a great idea—the perfect meeting point of cool music nerds and lovers of art and technology. Just like Dust & Grooves, she brings the community closer together one record at a time. ..."
Dust & Grooves (Video)
Classic Album Sundays: Colleen Murphy
Classic Album Sundays
W - Colleen Murphy

Cruel Sister (1970) - Pentangle

"Originally released in 1970, this was the fourth release from the British folk-rock group Pentangle and may qualify as their swan song. With only five songs, Jacqui McShee, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Terry Cox, and Danny Thompson create a dense, layered sound that is woven within the fabric of each song like a tapestry. Although known for their eclectic approach and love of jazz, here the group concentrates on traditional material like 'A Maid That's Deep in Love' and the 18-minute 'Jack Orion.' ..."
allmusic
Wikipedia
Discogs
amazon, Spotify
YouTube - A Maid That's Deep in Love - 1/6, When I Was in My Prime, Lord Franklin, Cruel Sister, Jack Orion - part 1, Jack Orion - part 2

2011 September: Faro Annie, 2012 November: John Renbourn - Sir John Alot, 2013 May: The Lady and the Unicorn, 2014 February: Bert &; John (1966), 2014 October: The Hermit (1976), 2015 March: John Renbourn: ceaseless explorer of song – appreciation., 2015 November: The Attic Tapes - John Renbourn (2015)

David Salle

Mingus in Mexico, 1990
"Born in 1952 in Norman, Oklahoma, David Salle grew up in Wichita, Kansas. At the age of eight or nine, he began taking life-drawing classes at the Wichita Art Association. ... After school, Salle moved to New York, where he supported himself by working for artists, including Vito Acconci; teaching art classes; and cooking in restaurants. He also did paste-up in the art department of a soft-core pornography magazine. When the publisher folded, Salle saved a group of stock photographs depicting nudes, sporting events, airplane crashes, and such, which he later used as source material for his paintings. ..."
Guggenheim
David Salle
W - David Salle
Interview
YouTube: David Salle | Masterpiece, 'Good Painting Has Immediate Impact' | TateShots

Porya Hatami

"... IRAN: Porya Hatami - Kani (Day). Porya Hatami is an experimental electro-acoustic artist from Sanandaj, a mountainous, mainly Kurdish region in the north-west of Iran; and this environment is the primary location for all the audio recordings which make up the base of his music. He has amassed a body of work that utilizes field recordings, live sampling, Harold Budd and Brian Eno leaning ambient and electronica, all of which borders on the new age but still possesses a rigorous sense of structure and harmonious balance between components."
Guardian - John Doran (Video)
Porya Hatami
SOUNDCLOUD: Porya Hatami (Video)
The Garden by Porya Hatami (Video)

Shipped Out

"Adam Brouwer built New Netherland’s first mill in the mid-1640s on the banks of the Gowanus Creek. A native of Germany who served as a soldier for the Dutch West India Company in Brazil, he had arrived in New Netherland in 1642 and quickly became a respected citizen of Breuckelen. His tidewater-powered flour mill was quite far upstream, near the present-day intersection of Union and Bond streets, and by the 1660s over a dozen more farmers had opened mills or planted crops on the banks of the creek. ..."
BKLYNR

Justine - Lawrence Durrell (1957)

Wikipedia - "Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's literary tetralogy, The Alexandria Quartet. The first in the tetralogy, Justine is one of four interlocking novels, each of which tells various aspects of a complex story of passion and deception from differing points of view. The quartet is set in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in the 1930s and 1940s, the city itself as described by Durrell becoming as much of a complex character as the human protagonists of the novels. ... The character of Justine — who is portrayed by Durell as alluring, seductive, mournful, and prone to dark, cryptic pronouncements — has been described by critics as the centrifugal force of the novel. ..."
W - Justine
WSJ: Lawrence Durrell's 'Justine': Missing Alexandria
NY Times: It Happened in Alexandria
Pseudo-Intellectual Reviews

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), 2015 May: Caesar's Vast Ghost: Aspects of Provence, 2016 July: Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953), 2016 September: The Greek Islands

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - Madjafalao (2015)

"The legendary Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo of Cotonou is much more than just a music band in Benin and Western African countries, it is like a banner. ... The Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou brings not less than 46 years of existence and 500 songs in its discography, mixing funk, soul, and afrobeat musics with voodoo rythms of Benin. Even if they have performed along with the greatest african stars as Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango or Miriam Makeba, and have been broadcasted on the national radio, the Orchestra had never went out of Africa before 2007. ..."
Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo Of Cotonou (Video)

2011 August: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, 2012 April: Afrikafestival Hertme, 2013 April: Echos Hypnotiques

My Strange Friend Marcel Proust

"Next month, City Lights will publish Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, a series of reminiscences and miniportraits of modernist writers and artists—Blaise Cendrars, James Joyce, Pierre Reverdy, and others—by Philippe Soupault, a Dadaist who, with André Breton, wrote Les Champs magnétique in 1919, kicking off the Surrealist movement. Soupault’s sketches in Lost Profiles were originally published in French in 1963; this translation, by Alan Bernheimer, marks their first appearance in English. ... - Nicole Rudick. ..."
The Paris Review
City Lights: Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism
Table of Contents, Introduction, Translator's Note, and the First Chapter from Lost Profiles 

2008 June: Marcel Proust, 2011 October: How Proust Can Change Your Life, 2012 April: Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu, 2013 February: Marcel Proust and Swann's Way: 100th Anniversary, 2013 May: A Century of Proust, 2013 August: Paintings in Proust - Eric Karpeles, 2013 October: On Reading Proust, 2015 September: "Paintings in Proust" - View of the Piazza del Popolo, Giovanni Battista Piranes, 2015 September: In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way: A Graphic Novel, 2016 January: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (1919), 2016 February: Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy and Translator, 2016 May: The Guermantes Way (1920-21), 2016 August: Marcel Proust’s Search for Lost Time — Patrick Alexander.

Tim Lawrenc - Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor: 1980-1983 (2016)

"Halfway through Tim Lawrence’s 'Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor: 1980-1983,' a six-hundred-page book about four years in the life of a dozen New York City clubs, there’s a short chapter called 'Shrouded Abatements and Mysterious Deaths.' It describes two forces that began warping New York City in the early eighties, neither of them musical, and it elegantly explains how a period of artistic flourishing was squashed. The first of these forces, chronologically speaking, was money. More specifically, Lawrence points to a system of tax abatements pushed for by the city’s mayor at the time, Ed Koch. ..."
New Yorker: When Rent Was Cheap and Dance Music Reigned
NY Times: ‘Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor’ Charts a Kinetic Scene in the Early ’80s
VOICE: When NYC's Dance Scene Reigned Supreme
amazon

John Sloan, "The Lafayette" (1927)

"Sloan's canvas portrays the entrance to the Hotel Lafayette, located at 9th Street and University Place in Greenwich Village, which was a popular haunt for the neighborhood's writers and artists, including Sloan. Descending on the the hotel's double awning-covered stairways is a group of genial people who are finishing their dinner conversations as a doorman hails a distinctive New York yellow Checker taxicab. In his 1944 book Gist of Art, Sloan lauded the hotel: 'To the passerby not looking for modern glitter, it has always had a look of cheer and comfort, particularly on such a wet evening as this.'
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ephemeral New York - A Ninth Street cafe beloved by artists and writers
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Soul Sound Supreme Session #14

"After a beautiful broken beat special, The RawSoul is back with the volume 14 of his SSSS series. This time, he dug through his vinyl racks to give us a blend of the dopest reggae/dancehall, soul, hip hop and R&B of different eras. This is the perfect mix for the hot summer days by the pool. Enjoy! Visit the Soul Sound Supreme Sessions archives here and follow The RawSoul on Mixcloud and dig through the archives of his weekly house music oriented series 'The Raw House Supreme Show', now presented on Music Is My Sanctuary."
Brooklyn Radio (Mixcloud)

Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950

Diego Rivera, “Liberation of the Peon” (1931)
"From the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 to the aftermath of World War II, artists and intellectuals in Mexico were at the center of a great debate about their country’s destiny. The exhibition tells the story of this exhilarating period through a remarkable range of images, from masterpieces by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frida Kahlo, and Rufino Tamayo to transfixing works by their contemporaries Dr. Atl, María Izquierdo, Roberto Montenegro, Carlos Mérida, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, and many others. Paint the Revolution offers a deep look at the forces that shaped modern art in Mexico, the progress of which was closely watched around the world. ..."
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections : Search Collections
NY Times: ‘Paint the Revolution’ Offers Mexican Muralist Muscle and Delicate Beauty
amazon

2008 April: Frida Kahlo, 2009 March: Diego Rivera, 2011 April: Mexican muralism (Video), 2013 October: Mexican Portraits, 2012 July: Photographing the Mexican Revolution

The David Johansen Group Live (2004)

"Nine tracks from this July 21, 1978, concert at New York's Bottom Line were released as a promotional LP at the time, but this 1993 CD is the first time the entire concert was released. If this had been available commercially at the time, as opposed to 1981's comparatively limp live offering Live It Up, it might have changed the direction of David Johansen's commercial fortunes, it's that good, a Frampton Comes Alive of New York glam-punk. Johansen is always an engaging live performer, but he was absolutely on fire this night, and all 18 tracks are absolute scorchers. ... Powerful, funny, and rocking, this is essential for all David Johansen fans."
allmusic
W - The David Johansen Group Live
Robert Christgau
amazon
YouTube: The David Johansen Group Live 1:01:39

2015 June: New York Dolls (1973), 2016 February: David Johansen (1977), 2016 September: Too Much Too Soon - New York Dolls (1973)

Rencontres - Miriodor (1998 re-issue)

"... Miriodor's first album, Rencontres, was originally released in an edition of 500 on vinyl only. It has been out of print for a decade, & contains the only recordings of the band in their original sextet formation. Including almost 30' of bonus material, the music here is joyful & spiritied. The music is more squarely in the progressive rock vein than their later more RIO-oriented works, with nods to the classic Quebeçois prog sound, and lovely melodies performed on violin, electric guitar, flute, sax or keyboards. Many symphonic/progressive fans think this is their best release ever, & in any event, there's a lot to enjoy here."
Cuneiform Records
progarchives
amazon
iTunes
YouTube: Checkmate

2014 July: Cobra Fakir, 2016 July: Jongleries Élastiques (1996)

Agnes Martin (1912–2004)

Untitled, 1958
"For more than forty years, Agnes Martin (1912–2004) created serene paintings composed of grids and stripes. With an attention to the subtleties of line, surface, tone, and proportion, she varied these forms to generate a body of work impressive both in its intricacy and focus. Martin’s commitment to this spare style was informed by a belief in the transformative power of art, in its ability to conjure what she termed 'abstract emotions' — happiness, love, and experiences of innocence, freedom, beauty, and perfection. ..."
Guggenheim (Video)
Guggenheim - Beauty and Truth: Agnes Martin at the Guggenheim
NY Times: The Joy of Reading Between Agnes Martin’s Lines
New Yorker: Agnes Martin, a Matter-of-Fact Mystic

2013 April: Agnes Martin

The New World (2005)

Wikipedia - "The New World is a 2005 British-American romantic historical drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, depicting the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement and inspired by the historical figures Captain John Smith, Pocahontas of the Powatan Native American tribe, and Englishman, John Rolfe. It is the fourth feature film written and directed by Malick. ... In 1607, Pocahontas, the spirited and adventurous daughter of Chief Powhatan, and others from her tribe witness the arrival of three ships sent by English royal charter to found a colony in the New World. Aboard one of the ships is Captain John Smith, below decks, in chains. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Pocahontas, W - John Smith, W - John Rolfe
Guardian: The New World: a misunderstood masterpiece?
YouTube: The New World - Trailer, The New World - Love Scenes

The definitive, ranked guide to ballers running another kind of screen

"It’s just not enough to be the type of athlete who drives the lane, knocks down 3-pointers or consistently records triple-doubles. Nope. Gotta be a movie star, too. Gotta try, at least. And these men did — even when, perhaps, they should not have. Running screens is fun — hey, it’s how these guys make a living, nab multimillion-dollar endorsement deals and become famous. But playing a caricatured version of yourself? That’s clutch, for real. Get ready for a lot of Shaquille O’Neal, plus fellow Hall of Famer Allen Iverson. Here’s the ultimate ranking — from worst to best — of the most Undefeated NBA stars of all time in their Hollywood moments. ..."
TheUndefeated

"Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" - Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band (1970)

Wikipedia - "'Instant Karma!' – sometimes referred to as 'Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)' – is a song written by English musician John Lennon, released as a single on Apple Records in February 1970. In the UK, the single was credited to 'Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band'.  ...  'Instant Karma!' was written, recorded and released within a period of ten days, making it one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history. The recording was produced by Phil Spector, marking a comeback for the American producer after his self-imposed retirement in 1966, and leading to him being offered the producer's role on the Beatles' Let It Be album (1970). ..."
Wikipedia
The Beatles Bible
The Story of John Lennon’s ‘Instant Karma!’
YouTube: Instant Karma!, Instant Karma (Live in New York City), Yoko Ono : "Who Has Seen the Wind?"

2009 September: John Lennon - Live in New York City (Madison Square Garden 1972), 2014 April: "Jealous Guy" (1971), 2014 May: Mind Games (1973), 2014 July: Out of the Blue, 2014 December: Double Fantasy - John Lennon/Yoko Ono (1980), 2015 August: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970).

The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges (1941)

Wikipedia - "'The Library of Babel' is a short story by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set. ... Borges' narrator describes how his universe consists of an enormous expanse of adjacent hexagonal rooms, each of which contains the bare necessities for human survival—and four walls of bookshelves. Though the order and content of the books is random and apparently completely meaningless, the inhabitants believe that the books contain every possible ordering of just 25 basic characters (22 letters, the period, the comma, and the space). ..."
Wikipedia
[PDF] The Library of Babel
Open Culture: Visit The Online Library of Babel: New Web Site Turns Borges’ “Library of Babel” Into a Virtual Reality
Open Culture: What Does Jorge Luis Borges’ “Library of Babel” Look Like? An Accurate Illustration Created with 3D Modeling Software
amazon

2009 August: Jorge Luis Borges, 2013 May: Jorge Luis Borges - 1, 2013 October: Borges: Profile of a Writer Presents the Life and Writings of Argentina’s Favorite Son, Jorge Luis Borges, 2016 May: Borges and $: The Parable of the Literary Master and the Coin.

Tommy Brown

"Discovered by the Griffin Brothers while touring in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1950, Brown recorded for Savoy Records in Atlanta under his own name -- with the Griffins' band in support -- before moving north to Washington, DC, to join the brothers in their touring and recording unit. His first Dot Records recording with the Griffin Brothers was a cover version of Dave Bartholomew's 'Tra-La-La,' and it was a huge success, peaking at number seven in the R&B charts in August 1951. This was followed by an even bigger hit in December when Brown’s emotional 'Weepin’ & Cryin' reached number three, and heralded a succession of such histrionic records. ..."
allmusic
W - Tommy Brown
Weepin' Tommy Brown
BlackCat Rockabilly
YouTube: Southern Women, Double Faced Deacon, Honky tonk, The House Near the Railroad, Atlanta Boogie, Griffin Brothers - Weepin' and Cryin', Remember Me

An Immersive Audio Tour of the East Village’s Famed Poetry Scene, Narrated by Jim Jarmusch

"A peek at the photos on a realtor’s listing for a New York City one bedroom apartment formerly occupied by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg is a dispiriting reminder of how much the East Village has changed. And that listing is over six years old! Daniel Maurer, the editor of Bedford + Bowery, and a Ginsberg fan whom history has compelled to take over a portion of his hero’s formerly sprawling digs, wrote amusingly of shoddy renovations and his upstairs neighbor, punk rock icon Richard Hell. ..."
Open Culture (Video)

2014 September: Passing Stranger :: The East Vilage Poetry Walk, 2009 May: Washington Square Park, 2010 January: Judson Memorial Church, 2011 February: Greenwich Village, 2011 July: East Village, Manhattan, 2012 July: MacDougal Street, 2013 August: The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village, 2014 August: South Village, 2015 August: East Village Other, 2014 October: Houston Street, 2015 September: Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival, 2016 January: Chumley's, 2016 March: 25 Radical Things to Do in Greenwich Village, 2016 March: The most charming building on East 13th Street, 2016 October: Stuyvesant Street, 2014 February: The 11 Best Classic Diners and Luncheonettes in NYC, 2015 December: Gem Spa

After Nothing Comes - Aidan Koch

"In quiet moments, after the roar of a concert or the consistent rapport of an intoxicating conversation, true friendship is realized. It is is not until this connection is solidified, to wait for another day, that one may understand how perfectly another person fits into their life. These moments of quiet contemplation and reminiscing are just as important as the active, energetic parts. This quiet moment is where true narrative brilliance is found, as Aidan Koch makes clear with After Nothing Comes. The book is comprised of a selection of Koch’s zines spanning six years, from 2008 to 2014. It’s what any zinemaker can only hope their work is: concise, self-knowing, and unlike anything else available. ..."
TCJ
Koyama Press
Koyama exclusive: After Nothing Comes spotlights a bold cartoonist’s evolution

Don't Mourn-Organize!: Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill (1990)

"Joe Hill's powerful songs moved Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, Si Kahn, and countless others to blend politics and song. This dramatic tribute to the Industrial Workers of the World songwriter and activist Joe Hill, features songs by and about Hill performed by Billy Bragg, Hazel Dickens, Earl Robinson, Paul Robeson, and others. Compiled by Lori Elaine Taylor."
Smithsonian Institution (Video)
London Celtic Punks (Video)
Discogs
iTunes, Spotiry
YouTube: Don't Mourn-Organize!: Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill

Nonstop Metropolis: A New York Atlas (2016)

"If you ask any New Yorker, they’ll tell you—their city is the center of the world. And according to the MTA or Google, the Big Apple’s core is somewhere in lower Manhattan. But traditional maps don’t show the locations familiar to the city’s millions of denizens: the corner in Queens where you can overhear Zulu and Jamaican patois, the trucks selling jerk chicken and dirty rice outside Hasidic synagogues in Brooklyn, the Staten Island Ferry that RZA and Ghostface Killah rode to go to grindhouse theaters in Times Square. In their new atlas, Nonstop Metropolis, Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro share 26 maps of New York that prioritize bachata over Broadway, phở over pizza. ..."
WIRED: Nonstop Metropolis’ Stunning Maps Show NYC the Way Locals See It
Nonstop Metropolis: An Atlas of Maps Reclaiming New York’s Untold Stories and Unseen Populations
UCPress
Guardian: Nonstop metropolis: viewing a city's crazy, diverse, complex history as an atlas
Nonstop Metropolis: The Remix
Kickstarter (Video)

French and Indian War

Battle of Quebec, 13 September 1759, painted by Captain Hervey Smyth
Wikipedia - "The French and Indian War (1754–1763) comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756-1763. The war pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France, as well as by Native American allies. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 European settlers, compared with 2 million in the British North American colonies. The outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. Following months of localised conflict, the metropole nations declared war on each other in 1756, escalating the war from a regional affair into an intercontinental conflict. ..."
Wikipedia
W - General Wolfe
YouTube: History Brief: The French and Indian War

Eddie Hazel - Rest in P (1994)

"Like Jams From the Heart, Rest in P isn't a full-length LP but rather a compilation of vault recordings dug up to satisfy P-Funk fans' insatiable hunger for Eddie Hazel material. A Japanese import, Rest in P actually manages to eclipse the brief four-song Jams of the Heart by featuring that material under different song titles as well as additional material. Standout moments include the three epic jams: 'Juicy Fingers' (14 minutes), 'We Three' (12 minutes), and 'No, It's Not!' (nine-and-a-half minutes). ... Either way, this is still a fine collection of Hazel's unreleased studio work from the late '70s that will provide ample insight to this man's ongoing legacy as an under appreciated funk-metal guitarist."
allmusic
W - Rest in P
YouTube: Rest In P

2009 January: George Clinton, 2010 December: Mothership Connection - Houston 1976, 2011 October: Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove, 2011 October: "Do Fries Go With That Shake?", 2012 August: Tales Of Dr. Funkenstein – The Story Of George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, 2015 July: Playing The (Baker's) Dozens: George Clinton's Favourite Albums, 2015 August: Chocolate City (1975), 2016 February: Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971), 2016 June: P-Funk All Stars - Urban Dancefloor Guerillas (1983).

Why Bernie Was Right

"This past April, just days before the critical New York primary, the Bernie Sanders campaign released a new ad it hoped would help overcome its rival’s home-state advantage and take the Vermont senator over the top. ... The pointedly unsubtle attack hit upon the central theme of the Sanders campaign, and its critique of frontrunner (and eventual nominee) Hillary Clinton. Making note of Clinton’s lucrative speaking fees from Wall Street banks it also employed coded class rhetoric to charge her — and by extension the entire Washington political establishment — of enjoying an incestuous, transactional relationship with powerful private interests at the expense of average Americans. This was the essence of the populist, social-democratic message upon which Sanders founded his presidential campaign. ..."
Jacobin

2016 January: Donald Trump and the Joys of Toy Fascism, 2016 January: Sanders Is Not Trump, 2016 January: Donald Trump’s Twitter Insults: The Complete List (So Far), 2016 February: Bernie and the Millennials, 2016 April: Lost in TRUMPLANDIA, 2016 April: Bernie Sanders and the History of American Socialism, 2014 September: Anarchism in America (1983), 2015 August: The Prophet Farmed: Murray Bookchin on Bernie Sanders, 2015 October: Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), 2015 October: The Ecology of Freedom (1982), 2016 July: Murray Bookchin’s New Life,  2016 August: Jill Stein, 2016 September: “The Spoiler” Speaks, 2016 September: Jill Stein’s Ideas Are Terrible. She Is Not the Savior the Left Is Looking For.

100 Years of Sun Ra – A Special Black Classical Broadcast

"Today marks the centennial of the arrival of prolific jazz composer and bandleader Sun Ra to Planet Earth. Born on May 22nd 1914, Ra, previously known as Herman Poole ‘Sonny’ Blount, would go on to play a varied and highly pivotal role on the outer reaches of the jazz realm, producing music that can best be described in places as otherworldly and building a formidable and much sought after discography, underpinned by many recordings alongside his free jazz ensemble the Sun Ra Arkestra. ..."
The Jazz Meet (Video) 5:56:36
Jazz Times: Sun Ra Music Archive Reissues 21 Albums Exclusively for iTunes

Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins & Berlin Theater Songs (1997)

"A combined digital edition of Die Sieben Todsünden and Lotte Lenya Sings Berlin Theatre Songs of Kurt Weill, a pair of recordings given additional weight and texture as a result of Lenya recording them after visiting Berlin following a 20-year absence from the city -- she was heartbroken on seeing the devastation that had resulted from World War II. Die Sieben Todsünden is a nine-part work for vocal ensemble and soloist, while the Berlin Theatre Songs collection essentially rifles the Kurt Weill canon for highlights, coming up, as expected, with 'Moritat vom Mackie Messer' and 'Seeräuberjenny,' amongst others. Familiarity, however, makes the songs -- and the recordings -- no less a treasure. ..."
allmusic
W - Lotte Lenya
amazon
iTunes ($), Spotify
YouTube: Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill, Pirate Jenny

2009 December: Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht, 2011 August: W - Communards’ Wall 1871, 2012 March: The Threepenny Opera - Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, 2012 July: Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht / Weill & Eisler - Dagmar Krause, 2013 March: Pina Bausch - "The Seven Deadly Sins", 2015 February: The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women, and Germany on the Brink.

Kerry James Marshall’s Paintings Show What It Means to Be Black in America

“De Style” 1993
"People say we’re in the middle of a second civil rights movement, and we are. The only surprise is that the first one ever ended. The artist Kerry James Marshall was there for it. He was just a kid then, born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1955. But kids take in a lot. He was in Birmingham in 1963, when white supremacists dynamited a Baptist church and killed four young girls. He was 9 and living in Los Angeles in 1965 when Watts went up in flames. He remembers all that, just as he also remembers growing up in those years in a loving family: mother, father, sister, brother. Home. ..."
NY Times

2011 January: Kerry James Marshall

Syria/Turkey: DJ K-Sets – Popular Kurdish Cassette mix

"... As a music fan, you occasionally chance across a resource on the web that makes your heart leap with joy because of the numerous new sonic pathways it opens up . That is exactly what happened when Spanish compiler Manuel Sánchez sent me a link to his awesome DJ K-Sets web page. This is one of the best sets of Middle Eastern tapes I’ve come across, and the names of the mixes are enough to tantalise alone: Canaanite Galaxy; Destroy Route; Tel Aviv Bus Station; Tehran Electro Tunes; Iberia Ancient Songs … I’ll certainly be revisiting this page until I’ve soaked up each and every mix. ... I couldn’t agree more. -- John Doran"
Guardian (Video)

Frank O’Hara’s “For Bob Rauschenberg,” on His Birthday

Robert Rauschenberg, “Estate” (1963)
"Today is the birthday of the groundbreaking painter Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), who would’ve turned 91 today. Rauschenberg, who Frank O’Hara once called 'the enfant terrible of the New York School,' was of course both a good friend and inspiration to O’Hara, Ashbery, and their circle in the 1950s and 1960s. This link is nowhere more apparent than in a wonderful poem by Frank O’Hara called 'For Bob Rauschenberg' (1959), which I’ve always felt should be better known. ..."
Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets

2008 January: Frank O'Hara, 2010 February: USA: Poetry, 2010 October: Stones: Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara,  2011 October: City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara - Brad Gooch, 2012 December: USA: Poetry, Frank O'Hara (1966), 2013 June: A Visual Footnote to O’Hara’s “The Day Lady Died”: New World Writing and The Poets of Ghana, 2013 March: Happy Birthday, Frank O’Hara: The Beloved Poet Reads His “Metaphysical Poem”, 2014 June: Remembering Frank O’Hara’s Apartments, 2014 August: Lunch Poems (1964), 2014 November: In Which The Elements of Disbelief Are Very Strong In The Morning, 2014 December: Hymns of St. Bridget & Other Writings, by Bill Berkson and Frank O’Hara, 2013 June: Cedar Tavern, 2016 April: Experiments with the New York School of Poets.

Nova Scotia Lighthouse

Louisbourg, Cape Breton
"For centuries Nova Scotia’s lighthouses have helped protect seafaring visitors and our own hard working people who looked to the sea for their living. Standing proudly against the elements, they embody the province’s maritime history and spirit. Today, lighthouses continue to dot the coastlines of Nova Scotia from Cape Forchu to Louisbourg. The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society maintains a list of lighthouses on their website, including ones that are open to the public. ..."
Nova Scotia Lighthouse
Nova Scotia Lighthouse: Top 25 Attractions
All Lighthouses To Visit
Lighthouses of Canada: Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
YouTube: Peggy's Cove Lighthouse, Port Bickerton Lighthouse(s), French Point Lighthouse, Black Rock Lighthouse, Bass River & Five Islands Lighthouses

2015 October: History of the Acadians, 2012 February: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 2012 December: Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler, 2011 June: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood - Alistair MacLeod, 2016 February: Island (2001), 2016 October: Alistair MacLeod - No Great Mischief (1999)

Tom Waits Sings and Tells Stories in "Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna", a 1979 Austrian Film

"The film begins at a derelict gas station. A paper sign, peeling from the wall, warns in German that open flames and smoking are dangerous and strictly forbidden. In walks Tom Waits, smoking a cigarette. 'This reminds me of a place I used to work in National City, California, called Spotco Self Service,' Waits says as he leans against a pump. 'I worked for a gentleman named Charles Spotco. I was always late for work. I used to stay out at night. I’d come dragging to work, used to get there about ten-thirty in the morning.' ..."
Open Culture (Video)

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), 2015 April: Swordfishtrombones (1983), 2015 July: Alice (2002), 2015 September: Tom Waits On The Tube Live UK TV 1985, 2015 December: Franks Wild Years (1987), 2016 January: "Bad as Me" (2011), 2016 April: 'It's perfect madness', 2016 May: Real Gone (2002).

Stevie Wonder ~ Master Blaster (Jammin') Reggae Purrfection Version (1980)

Wikipedia - "'Master Blaster (Jammin)' is a 1980 single by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder from his 1980 album Hotter than July. The song, built on a heavy reggae feel, is an ode to reggae legend Bob Marley; Wonder had been performing live with Marley (billing him as an opening act) on his US tour in the fall of that year. Lyrics mention 'children of Jah' and the end of the civil war in Zimbabwe. ..."
Wikipedia
Genius
YouTube: Master Blaster (Jammin') Reggae Purrfection Version

NBA 2016-17

"It's time for our last big preseason tradition: plopping all 30 teams into tiers to snapshot their place in the league hierarchy at this precious moment when everyone is 0-0. These are not strict power rankings, and the order within each bucket doesn't necessarily matter. At least a half-dozen teams could slide up or down a tier, or even across three; the gooey center of the NBA is unusually muddled. ..."
ESPN - Zach Lowe's annual tiers of the NBA (Video)
NBA 2016-17 GM Survey
NBA: 2016-17 Season Preview: Team-by-team previews (Video)
FiveThiryEight: The Complete History Of The NBA
Washington Post: The Top 100 players for the 2016-17 NBA season
2016 SLAM Top 50
Wikipedia

2011 June: American Basketball Association, 2012 November: Your Guide to the Brooklyn Nets, 2013 October: Rucker Park, 2015 June: Basketball’s Obtuse Triangle,  2015 October: Loose Balls - Terry Pluto (2007), 2015 November: The Sounds of Memphis, 2015 December: Welcome to Smarter Basketball, 2015 December: New York, New York: Julius Erving, the Nets-Knicks Feud, and America’s Bicentennial, 2016 January: A Long Hardwood Journey, 2016 March: American Hustle - Alexandra Starr.