2016–17 College Basketball

Oregon Chris Boucher
"Sports Illustrated’s College Basketball Projection System is a collaboration between economist Dan Hanner and SI’s Luke Winn and Jeremy Fuchs that produces our 1–351 team rankings, conference predictions and player statistical forecasts. For a deeper look at how the system works, read this explainer. This model has produced the most accurate college basketball projections for the past two seasons. Visit this page for daily updates until the season begins on Nov. 11. ..."
SI
The Undefeated’s top 10 college basketball players for the 2016-17 season
68 things things to know about the 2016-17 college basketball season
NCAA: College basketball: 32 bold predictions for 2016-17 season, Part I (Video)
W - 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season

2012 July: Doin’ It In The Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC, 2013 March: March Madness 2013, 2014 January: History of the high five, 2015 February: Dean Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015), 2015 September: Joint Ventures: How sneakers became high fashion and big business, 2015 December: Welcome to Smarter Basketball, 2016 January: The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams (1994), 2016 January: A Long Hardwood Journey, 2016 March: American Hustle - Alexandra Starr, 2016 July: Photographers in Focus: Ethan Sprague.

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, November 11 – 19

"Friday, November 11. • Saturn is falling ever farther away to the lower right of Venus at dusk. Far to Venus's upper left, Mars is drawing closer to it — very gradually. • Orion is clearing the eastern horizon by about 8 p.m. now, depending on how far east or west you live in your time zone. High above Orion shines orange Aldebaran. Above Aldebaran is the little Pleiades cluster, the size of your fingertip at arm's length. Far left of the Pleiades is bright Capella. ..."
Sky & Telescope

Close Listening with Will Alexander

"Will Alexander talks with me about his early immersion in the work of John Coltrane and its abiding connection to his own jazz-process/Surrealist poetry and discusses his 'constellation' of mythological and scientific sources, the influence of Aimé Césaire on his work, the politics of his poetic form via resistance to colonization, the role of the black poet in America, the necessity of performance, and his aim to bring the reader into a state of 'supra-mind.' ...”
Jacket2 (MP3)
UPenn: Will Alexander
W - Will Alexande
amazon
YouTube: Will Alexander

Acid Arab - Musique De France (2016)

"Paris’s Les Halles in the 1e arrondissement used to house a vibrant wholesale market, which, once-upon-a-time, was regarded as the beating heart of the city. That was until it was bulldozed in 1971 to make way for a shopping mall and garden maze where drug dealers could hang out in the daytime and set up shop. Recently it’s been upgraded to a giant canopy with a multi storey shopping centre underneath, but its functional opulence is a far cry from the predominantly white working class nerve centre that it once was; Emile Zola called it le ventre de Paris or 'the belly of Paris'. You can find stunning old photographs by Robert Doisneau online, featuring everything from offal stands to accordion players, and French folk going about their business buying sheep’s heads from smoking commerçants in bloodied aprons. ..."
The Quietus
Resident Advisor (Video)
SoundCloud: ACID ARAB
Discogs
iTunes
amazon
YouTube: "Sayarat 303", Acid Arab • DJ Set #2, Acid Arab • DJ Set

Dennis Hopper: Colors, The Polaroids

"After losing himself in Taos, New Mexico, for 15 years, Dennis Hopper (1936–2010) returned to Los Angeles in the mid-’80s. In 1987, on the verge of directing Colors, Hopper made use of a Polaroid camera to document gang graffiti in Los Angeles. He was particularly drawn to the abstract shapes of overlapping paint that appeared when graffiti had been covered up or written over, reminding him, he said, 'that art is everywhere in every corner that you choose to frame and not just ignore and walk by.' ..."
ArtBook
Issue Magazine
2014 HOPPER
amazon

2009 November: Easy Rider (1969), 2010 May: Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010), 2010 November: The American Friend (1977), 2012 November: Dennis Hopper Documentary (90s), 2013 May: The Lost Album, 2013 December: On the Road

Pharoah Sanders - Tauhid (1967)

"Conventional wisdom has it that saxophonist Pharoah Sanders' signature, late-1960s astral jazz recording is 'The Creator Has A Master Plan' from Karma (Impulse!, 1969). But conventional wisdom is rarely to be trusted. ... At a relatively brief 16:16, 'Egypt' has all the elements which characterised Sanders' astral excursions—explicit spiritual references, vocal chants, a rolling bass ostinato, 'exotic' percussion, out-there but lyrical tenor saxophone, and extended vamp-based collective jamming—and crucially, was played by an edgier and more challenging band, including guitarist Sonny Sharrock and pianist Dave Burrell, than was assembled for Karma. ..."
allaboutjazz
EarTrip
amazon
Spotify
YouTube: Tauhid

2015 December: Maleem Mahmoud Ghania With Pharaoh Sanders - The Trance Of Seven Colors (1994), 2016 January: Ptah, The El Daoud - Alice Coltrane & Pharoah Sanders (1970)

Scenes From Anti-Trump Protests

"Thousands of people across the country marched, shut down highways, burned effigies and shouted angry slogans on Wednesday night to protest the election of Donald J. Trump as president. The demonstrations, fueled by social media, continued into the early hours of Thursday. The crowds swelled as the night went on but remained mostly peaceful. Protests were reported in cities as diverse as Dallas and Oakland and included marches in Boston; Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Seattle and Washington and at college campuses in California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. In Oakland alone, the Police Department said, the crowd grew from about 3,000 people at 7 p.m. to 6,000 an hour later. ..."
NY Times - Not Our President’: Protests Spread After Donald Trump’s Election (Video)
Washington Post - ‘Not my president’: Thousands protest Trump in rallies across the U.S. (Video)
Dissent: Tomorrow’s Fight
"The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety. ..."
New Yorker: An American Tragedy
VOICE: It's Not Going to Be Okay
Jacobin: Politics Is the Solution by Megan Erickson, Katherine Hill, Matt Karp, Connor Kilpatrick, & Bhaskar Sunkara
Michael Moore’s “Morning After To-Do List” Facebook Post For Democrats Is Going Viral

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, 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, 2016 October: Why Bernie Was Right.

The Artists and Their Alley, in Postwar France

Jean Tinguely and the French painter Yves Klein
"There’s a back street in Montparnasse, the entrance to a hospital morgue, where weeds grow in sidewalk cracks and beer cans rust on the pavement. The only discernible sign of life is a corner cafe, but even that feels more like the backdrop of a Cartier-Bresson photograph than a place to purchase actual coffee. On a clammy afternoon in August, the owner sits outside alone, smoking. This narrow, nondescript passage — known as the Impasse Ronsin — was once an artery of aesthetic energy that, in no small fashion, defined French postwar art in all its insanity. ..."
T Magazine

Lynn Nottage - Sweat (2015)

"... With warm humor and tremendous heart, SWEAT tells the story of a group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets and laughs while working together on the line of a factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in the hard fight to stay afloat. Kate Whoriskey (Ruined) directs this stunning new play about the collision of race, class, family and friendship, and the tragic, unintended costs of community without opportunity."
Public Theater
NY Times: Lynn Nottage’s ‘Sweat’ Examines Lives Unraveling by Industry’s Demise
Theater Review: Ruined’s Lynn Nottage Heads to the Factory Floor With Sweat
W - Lynn Nottage
Lynn Nottage
W - Reading, Pennsylvania
YouTube: Steelworkers’ stories of disappearing jobs come to life onstage in ‘Sweat’

5 houses from the East Village’s shipbuilding era

"...Greek Revival–style houses on East Seventh Street between Avenues C and D."
"If you traveled back in time to the far East Village of the mid-19th century, you would see a neighborhood sustained mainly by one industry: shipbuilding. Along the East River, thousands of iron workers, mechanics, and dock men—many who were recent Irish and German immigrants—toiled in shipyards and iron works in what was then called the Dry Dock District, east of Avenue B. ..."
Ephemeral New York

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, 2016 October: An Immersive Audio Tour of the East Village’s Famed Poetry Scene.

Street Food, Istanbul Style

"Late one night during the winter of 1973, on a wind-blown, dimly lit street corner not far from Sirkeci train station, I walked through a light rain and noticed steam wafting from an open-air food stall. A tall, vertical spit, layered with roasting meat, was illuminated by a single bare light bulb as a man with an enormous black moustache wielded a long, shiny knife and what looked like a small stainless steel dust pan. He sliced, scooped and assembled ingredients and seasonings with astonishing speed and then wrapped them up in large cones of flat bread. A half dozen eager customers were lined up, and I joined them. ..."
AramcoWorld (Video)

Max Beckmann in New York

"This exhibition puts a spotlight on artist Max Beckmann's special connection with New York City, featuring 14 paintings that he created while living in New York from 1949 to 1950, as well as 25 earlier works from New York collections. The exhibition assembles several groups of iconic works, including self-portraits; mythical, expressionist interiors; robust, colorful portraits of women and performers; landscapes; and triptychs. During the late 1920s, Max Beckmann (1884–1950) was at the pinnacle of his career in Germany; his work was presented by prestigious art dealers, he taught at the Städel Art School in Frankfurt, and he moved in a circle of influential writers, critics, publishers, and collectors. ..."
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Exhibition Objects
NY Times: ‘Max Beckmann in New York,’ a Belated but Full-Blown Homage to a German Modernist
Yale Book: Max Beckmann in New York
W - Max Beckmann
vimeo: MET MUSEUM: MAX BECKMANN IN NEW YORK

Neil Young - Eldorado (EP - 1989)

"Eldorado is the 21st release from Neil Young, one of the most prolific artists around today. Released as a special EP in Australia and Japan, and running at only 25 minutes, Eldorado is not much of a value. However, in that 25 minutes there is some of the hardest rocking music that Neil had put out, pre-Ragged Glory. Recorded with the Restless (making for the joke, Neil Young and the Restless), this is a wonderful accomplishment for only three players. The other musicians on the record are Chad Cromwell on drums and Rick 'The Bass Player' Rosas, who both also appear on the album This Note's For You. One of the great things about Neil is that after playing with people such as Cromwell and Rosas (and more recently Booker T and the MGs), he gets a great idea for what would be fun to do next and does it. ..."
Thrasher's Wheat
W - Eldorado (EP)
Discogs
YouTube: Eldorado - Hamburg (Live), Eldorado, Cocaine Eyes (Live), Don't Cry (Live), Heavy Love (Live), On Broadway (Live)
YouTube: No More (Live SNL 1989)

2008 February: Neil Young, 2010 April: Neil Young - 1, 2010 April: Neil Young - 2, 2010 May: Neil Young - 3, 2010 October: Neil Young's Sound, 2012 January: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, 2012 June: Like A Hurricane, 2012 July: Greendale, 2013 April: Thoughts On An Artist / Three Compilations, 2013 August: Heart of Gold, 2014 March: Dead Man (1995), 2014 August: Ragged Glory - Neil Young + Crazy Horse (1990), 2014 November: Broken Arrow (1996), 2015 January: Rust Never Sleeps (1979), 2015 January: Neil Young the Ultimate Guide, 2015 March: Old Black, 2015 September: Zuma (1975), 2016 January: On the Beach (1973), 2016 April: Sleeps with Angels (1994).

Alex Hartley: After You Left

A Gentle Collapsing II, 2016. Site-specific sculptural installation, Victoria Miro.
"An exhibition of new work by the British artist, including a major architectural intervention in the gallery’s waterside garden. Thoughts of modernism and its legacy, as well as Romantic ideas of the ruin and the picturesque are conjured in these new works. While modernist architecture has been a constant touchstone for Hartley, amplified in recent work is a sense of narrative, of the viewer having arrived at a situation of ambiguous cause and uncertain outcome. ..."
Victoria Miro

Hopes and Fears - Art Bears (1978)

Wikipedia - "Hopes and Fears is the debut album by the English avant-rock group Art Bears. It comprises tracks by Henry Cow, Art Bears's predecessor, recorded at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg in Switzerland in January 1978, and tracks by Art Bears, recorded at Kaleidophon Studios in London in March 1978. Hopes and Fears began as a Henry Cow album, but after the first recording sessions in Switzerland, some of the members of the band were unhappy about the predominance of song-oriented material. As a compromise it was agreed that two albums would be made: the songs would be released by Fred Frith, Chris Cutler and Dagmar Krause as Art Bears, and the instrumental compositions would be released later by Henry Cow. ..."
Wikipedia
allmusic
Pitchfork
iTunes
YouTube: Moeris Dancing, In Two Minds, Terrain, The Dividing Line, All Hail

2010 February: Art Bears, 2012 July: The Art Box., 2013 July: Coda To "Man & Boy", 2013 October: Art Bears Songbook - 2010-09-19 - Rock In Opposition Festival, , 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, 2016 October: Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins & Berlin Theater Songs (1997).

Mapping Antonin Artaud

“Nancy Spero’s Maypole: Take No Prisoners II, 2008 (detail).”
"The Google map below shows places, dates, and events from Artaud’s life. The red symbols mark biographical elements, the yellow symbols mark performance- or art-based elements, and the blue symbols mark Artaud’s continuing legacy. Where possible there are photographs, video, or links to further materials. ..."
Jacket2

2009 November: Antonin Artaud, 2011 August: La Coquille et le Clergyman - 1926, Germaine Dulac, 2014 September: You Are Quite Unnecessary, Young Man!.

Underground - Thelonious Monk (1968)

"This release has long been considered Thelonious Monk's acknowledgement to the flourishing youth-oriented subculture from whence the collection takes its name. Certainly the Grammy-winning cover art -- which depicts Monk as a World War II French revolutionary toting an automatic weapon -- gave the establishment more than the brilliant swinging sounds in the grooves to consider. Underground became Monk's penultimate studio album, as well as the final release to feature the '60s quartet: Charlie Rouse (tenor sax), Ben Riley (drums), and Larry Gales (bass) behind Monk (piano). One of the motifs running throughout Monk's recording career is the revisitation of titles from his voluminous back catalog. ..."
allmusic
Slate: Lost in Production
W - Underground
amazon
YouTube: Underground (HD FULL ALBUM)

2012 September: Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, 2013 August: Five Spot Café, 2014 February: Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, 2015 February: "Epistrophy" - Thelonious Monk / Kenny Clarke (1941).

The Virtual Splendor of Paris’s Glass House

"Discovering the existence of the Maison de Verre in Paris can be a major aesthetic epiphany. When you see a photograph of this translucent structure in glass, steel and expanses of glass brick — completed in 1932 — the impression is of startling modernity, something very much of its time yet strikingly ahead of it, too, like Picasso’s 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' or Duchamp’s 'The Large Glass.' Tucked into a courtyard on the Left Bank and invisible from the street, the Maison de Verre is among the first large homes made entirely of industrial materials whose structure is starkly exposed. ..."
NY Times
W - Maison de Verre
Maison de Verre Paris by Pierre Chareau + Bernard Bijvoet.
W - Pierre Chareau
YouTube: Architecture 19 of 23 Pierre Chareu Maison de Verre

A Street Scene in Venice - John Singer Sargent (1880-81)

A Street in Venice, 1880-81. This work contains similar use of chiaroscuro and geometrical framing.
Wikipedia - "Street in Venice (or A Street Scene in Venice) is a c. 1882 oil on wood painting by the American artist John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Painted in a post-impressionist manner, it is set in a quiet backstreet off the Calle Larga dei Proverbi, near the Grand Canal in Venice. The painting shows a young woman walking along the flagstones, kicking her skirt with her right foot, and observed by two men in the shadows to her right. From the manner in which Sargent depicts her down-turned eyes and seemingly fast pace with which she passes the two men, he is concerned largely with the invasive male glare and its effect on the passing woman. ..."
Wikipedia
The Clark

Death of Gram Parsons

Wikipedia - "The death of Gram Parsons occurred on September 18, 1973, in room eight of the Joshua Tree Inn, near Joshua Tree National Park. Encouraged by his road manager Phil Kaufman, Parsons again visited the park after completing his latest recording sessions. Earlier, he had confessed to Kaufman his wish to be cremated and his ashes scattered on the park in case he died. ... Parsons spent time in the desert during the day and at local bars at night, consuming barbiturates and alcohol every day. On September 18, after injecting himself with morphine, Parsons overdosed. ..."
Wikipedia
The Strange Tale of Gram Parsons’ Funeral in Joshua Tree
NY Times: A Joshua Tree Motel Room, Haunted by the Ghost of a Country Legend
Midnight Rider

2008 March: Gram Parsons, 2011 March: Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris. Liberty Hall, Texas, 1973, 2012 May: Sweetheart of the Rodeo, 2013 January: Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel, 2013 September: Flying Burrito Brothers - Live At The Avalon Ballroom 1969, 2014 February: The Gilded Palace of Sin - The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969), 2014 March: Burrito Deluxe - The Flying Burrito Brothers (1970), 2014 May: GP (1973), 2014 September: Grievous Angel (1974), 2015 October: Top 10 Gram Parsons Songs

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