John Hirsch Photographs

John Hirsch Photographs. "...selections from Hirsch’s ongoing series focusing on two kinds of transitory communities: RV parks and ice fishing. Shot using a large format 8x10 camera, his sensitive black and white portraits show quiet moments in these emergent, ever-changing societies."

CJ Heyliger Photography

CJ Heyliger Photography. "...These vacant buildings, many of which have been empty since the companies last shut their doors, are presently in a state of transition. After sitting empty for so many years there has been an interest by developers and city planners in giving these buildings a new life in their modern cities. Some are renovated into loft spaces or galleries, others are demolished in order to make way for new businesses and others are still awaiting their destiny. My goal is to document this period of transition as these structures are given new roles in the modern economy."

America's No. 1 Website

Sharpeworld is reborn!

Vinyl Sniffers

Sebastian of PCL LinkDump asked me (and a bunch of others) to sniff a favourite record and write about it. Read the responses from the Vinyl Sniffers.

Kaneto Shindo

The Films of Kaneto Shindo at Strictly Film School - Analysis of Landmark Cinema.

Big Beat Badger Blowout

Don't miss the fourth annual edition of "Big Beat Badger Blowout" currently available in the Audio Archives at Radio Rumpus Room. "...For the fourth time RRR went WISCONS-INSANE as we showcased the primal rockin' sounds of the Badger State during from the late '50s to the late '60s. It was a headfirst dive into a bottomless cheddar vat of rarely heard sounds from our Midwest neighbor. From famed Cuca label rockabilly to the dawn of psychedelia in Milwaukee, Rhinelander and the Fox River Valley, you know Radio Rumpus Room was rockin' till the cows came home in Full Spectrum Schnapp-O-Phonic Sound!"

The Adventures of Zatoichi

Original theatrical trailer for The Adventures of Zatoichi (1964, Toho Pictures, .wmv video 02:18).

The Tale of Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman Series

Images Journal... The Tale of Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman Series. "...Although the sword-wielding exploits of the amoral, sardonic anti-hero, played by the great Toshiro Mifune, from Yojimbo (1961) may be more familiar to Western audiences, the blind bulldog-looking assassin/masseur Zatoichi, who can strike down an opponent with his trusty shikomi-zue (cane sword), using hearing alone to find his target, is by far the most popular Japanese movie hero ever. Beginning in 1962 with The Tale of Zatoichi (a.k.a. Zatoichi Story and Zatoichi: The Life and Opinions of Masseur Ichi among other titles), the stoic yet violent swordsman starred in 25 films in just 11 years."

Postcard Diaries 2006

Mark Mothersbaugh... Postcard Diaries 2006. "...During his downtime on early worldwide tours with DEVO, Mark Mothersbaugh began illustrating on postcards to send to his friends, which he still creates, and has been creating every day for over 30 years. It's an obsessive habit/hobby which still yields anywhere from one to a couple dozen new postcard-sized images per day." From The Visual Art of Mark Mothersbaugh.

RIO WHOLETRAIN

RIO WHOLETRAIN from Lost Art. (br)

First Yank Into Tokyo

"...The face of a hero... Transformed into the face of a beast." Original trailer for First Yank Into Tokyo (1945, RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., .wmv video 02:14). "...An army pilot (Tom Neal) undergoes plastic surgery to infiltrate the Japanese during World War II."

Chinga Tu Madre

Cholita... Chinga Tu Madre (.mp3 audio 02:26). From Cholita! - The Female Menudo. "... Graciela Grejalva, lead singer of the Latina musical sensation known as Cholita!, is not your average thirteen and a half year old. She's over six feet tall and has brilliant orange hair ('I tried to bleach it,' she confesses). But then Cholita! is not exactly a group made up of typical girls." Part of the official website of Alice Bag.

RIP: Buck Owens

Corky Jones... Label Shot of Hot Dog (.mp3 audio clip 00:34) b/w Rhythm And Booze (1956, Pep 107). Corky Jones' real name was Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. - born in 1929 in Sherman, Texas. RIP: Buck Owens.

A.K.A. Houdini

Harry Houdini Straightjacket Escape (QuickTime Video). "...A patient in a Canadian insane asylum inspired Houdini's straightjacket escape. Houdini knew the violent thrashing and twisting required to free himself from a straightjacket presented a frightening scene that the public wanted to see. He took the escape outside and attracted crowds as large as 80,000. People packed the streets to see him escape as he hung upside down from the top of a tall building. The struggle almost always made the evening newspaper." From A.K.A. Houdini. ...Harry Houdini was born on this day in 1874 in Budapest, though he later claimed to have been born on April 6, 1874, in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Celebrating the American West: 19th Century Mammoth Plate Photographs

Celebrating the American West: 19th Century Mammoth Plate Photographs. "...an exhibition of 19th century American, mammoth plate photographs by Carleton Watkins (1829-1916), William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), and Frank Jay Haynes (1853-1921). This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view so many objects of distinction together in a gallery setting."

mozART, bARTók And the thiRd secTor

Mieko Shiomi... Yoshimasa Wada (d, dis, a, ais, h, his - sound installation, .mp3 audio 00:53). From Fluxus Suite - A musical Dictionary of 80 people around FLUXUS. "...For each person, I used only the pitches available from the letter spelling his / her name. If an s, e+s or i+s was included in the name, b or # would be added to certain notes. For instance, Giuseppe Chiari gets eleven pitches, c, cis (c#), es (e b ), e, eis (e#), ges (g b ), g, as (a b ), a, ais (a#) and h." Part of the program mozART, bARTók And the thiRd secTor - Celebrating Mozart and Bartók in the programs of the Budapesti Spring Festival and Artpool Art Research Center.

Transportation Futuristics; Visionary Designs in Transportation Engineering

Early 1940s Milwaukee Machine Tools Ad proclaiming that air-conditioning will be available for automobiles after the war. From Transportation Futuristics; Visionary Designs in Transportation Engineering. "...What is 'Transportation futuristics'? Many of us are familiar with covers from Popular Science that depict commuters buzzing around in tiny aircraft and landing on rooftops, or fanciful drawings of vehicles that run on roads, float on water and also take to the air. The basic problem many of us face each day - how to get from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time with the least amount of trouble - has inspired many to dream of marvelous ways to solve that problem."

Mail Art

Jerry Dreva... Fetish (ca. 1978, broadside). "...Portrait of Dreva holding up a razor-blade cross with seven copies of another self-portrait. Dreva wears shirt with title on front in all eight portraits. 'DREVA' is marked at bottom of image. From Mail Art at the Cleveland Public Library.

Ouattara Watts: Works on Paper

Ouattara Watts: Works on Paper. "...In these new drawings, titled the Mad Masters Series, Ouattara continues to explore a wide vocabulary of symbols and forms – linguistic, numeric, and scientific – through which he is able to communicate a dynamic vision. Born in Abidjan, West Africa, the artist has lived and worked in New York City for the past seventeen years. Ouattara’s work reflects his own multicultural identity and a lifetime of travel, and his unique iconography of imagery reaches far and wide, referencing his love for music and deep spirituality." From Mike Weiss Gallery in New York, NY.

Happy Birthday Upsetter

Radio Scratch... Happy Birthday Upsetter (.mp3 audio 1:03:52). "...March 20 2006 is Lee Perry's 70th birthday and so the premiere edition of Radio Scratch is a special birthday tribute to the Upsetter: an eclectic range of artists covering some of Scratch's best known productions. Featuring music from The Clash, The Specials, Luciano, The Fall, Asian Dub Foundation and more." From Eternal Thunder. Thank you, DMc.

A Witches' Brew of Fact, Fiction and Spectacle

A Witches' Brew of Fact, Fiction and Spectacle - Benjamin Christensen's Häxan (The Witch, 1922). "...The single, persistent question with which viewers are often left after viewing Benjamin Christensen's 1922 film Häxan (The Witch) is, what is it? Part illustrated exploration of the history of witchcraft, part grisly horror film, part burlesque comedy and part condescending reappraisal of the ignorant past, Häxan is nothing if not utterly unique, a compelling oddity that still retains its often shocking effectiveness and, despite being left out of many conventional film histories, is one of the most artful and influential of all silent films." From Kinoeye, Vol 3 Issue 11.

Stereotypes and Admonitions

Roger Shimomura... The Gook (2003, Acrylic on canvas). "...One Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1976, Roger visited Seattle's tourist-filled Pike Place Market. While walking along the crowded stalls, Roger noticed that walking in front of him was a tattooed Caucasian male with long hair, wearing a leather headband, cutoff jeans and no shirt. The man appeared to be in a highly agitated state and was walking in an exaggerated fashion while swearing profusely. As Roger began to pass him, the man yelled at Roger, 'Hey Gook, I killed your fuckin' brother in 'Nam. I killed your mother and father, too!' Then for at least 30 more feet the man walked beside Roger, screaming about having 'killed hundreds of VCs and Chinks just like you!'" From Stereotypes and Admonitions, a 2003 exhibition of works by Roger Shimomura at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, WA.

Puppets by Andrej Štular

Puppets by Andrej Štular of Kranj, Slovenia. Also paintings, sculpture, comics, film, video, photography, and more.

Picturing the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Tribes

Major Lee Moorhouse... Picturing the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Tribes. "...Major Lee Moorhouse of Pendleton, Oregon was an Indian Agent for the Umatilla Indian Reservation and a photographer. From 1888 to 1916 he produced over 9,000 images which document urban, rural, and Native American life in the Columbia Basin, and particularly Umatilla County, Oregon. So extensive and revealing are Moorhouse's images that his collection is one of the preeminent social history collections for Oregon. Special Collections & University Archives of the University of Oregon Libraries has a collection of 7000 images by Major Moorhouse."

The Kriegsmann Files

MISS MELLISSA KAY. From The Kriegsmann Files (178 photos) at Sharpeworld - Discarded studio photographs of early 70s bands and entertainers, found in a Venice alleyway. Absolutely, bleeding brilliant.

Ota Janeček: Grafika

Ota Janeček: Grafika at Galerie ART, Svìtlana a Luboš Jelínkov. (cz)

CB Argument, Jan. 6th, 1971

CB Argument, Jan. 6th, 1971 (.wma audio 13:21). "...It's January 6th 1971, location Milwaukee Wisconsin, the recording is a great history lesson, the times were turbulent to say the least. Tempers flare, the topic being the war in Vietnam, the language used is foul at times and there are a couple racial slurs, so you have been warned. Of course there are also many side comments as word spreads of the turmoil on the channel. From Vintage CB Recordings at RetroCom.

America Hates You

The Tami Show... America Hates You (.mp3 audio 04:58). From The Tami Show.

hinahgift013 - Tribute To The Anthology Of American Folk Music By Harry Smith

The Tami Show... The House Carpenter (.mp3 audio 04:48) and Anamude... Pet and Awl (.mp3 audio 04:32). From hinahgift013 - Tribute To The Anthology Of American Folk Music By Harry Smith. Covers of the Folkways classic by Anamude, Matt Bauer, Dave DeCastro, Everything is Fine, Half Asleep, Kenyon, Marc Manning, oRSo, Pollyanna, Charlie Parr, Sandusky, and The Tami Show.

Six Post-War Japanese Photographers, A Survey: 1960–1980

Nobuyoshi Araki... Untitled (1994-1999, gelatin silver print). From Six Post-War Japanese Photographers, A Survey: 1960–1980 at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. Photographs by Nobuyoshi Araki, Masahisa Fukase, Eikoh Hosoe, Daido Moriyama, Issei Suda, and Shomei Tomatsu.

Long March Capital

Liu Liping... Bathroom (1989, Oil on canvas). From the exhibition Long March Capital at Long March Space A, 798 Art District, Jiuxianqiao Rd #4, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China.

Jorge Uzon: Guatemala 1996-2000

Jorge Uzon: Guatemala 1996-2000. "...These are recent crimes. You can still see fear in these faces. It’s hard to believe that the genocide in Guatemala happened just over 20 years ago. There are almost no photos of it. Guatemala’s tragedy doesn’t have the place it merits in the history of infamy perhaps for this reason: there are no photos. Or there aren’t many, if we take into account the images James Natchwey, Jean-Marie Simon or Alon Reininger, along with a few others, made of Guatemala in the 1970s and 1980s. In any case, what was happening in Guatemala at that time faded into the background of the story of the triumph and eventual electoral defeat of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, or the war in El Salvador."

Kuzai Heart You Girl

The Sneaks... Kuzai Heart You Girl (QuickTime Video). Much fun from New Zealand's The Sneaks.

War Models

William Laven... F14 Tomcat (2005, Carbon-based pigment print produced on Hahnemuhle paper. Edition of 5). From War Models. "...War Models is a series by Bay Area photographer William Laven. Here he presents large scale photographs of unassembled model airplane kits of aircraft flown in the current Iraqi war. These black and white prints touch on the American fascination with symbols of power. Forty aircraft types have been flown in Operation Iraqi Freedom. This includes 30 types of airplanes - fighters, troop transporters, aerial tankers, and reconnaissance planes - eight types of helicopters and two kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), one armed with missiles, the other with cameras. Of the forty aircraft flown, model kits are made of twenty one."

Tamás Farkas: A Photographer Looks Back

Tamás Farkas: A Photographer Looks Back at [origo] Galéria.

Dickey Chapelle

Dickey Chapelle with Bullets (unknown photographer/date). From Dickey Chapelle at the Wisconsin Historical Society. "...Dickey Chapelle was born Georgette Meyer in Shorewood, Wisconsin. Chapelle covered the Second World War in Iwo Jima and Okinawa and became known for her coverage of major wars for Life, Look, and National Geographic. In 1965, while covering the Vietnam conflict, Chapelle was killed by a landmine. She was the first female correspondent killed in action."

Works by Ramez Elsaïd

Works by Ramez Elsaïd at Hinah Exhibitions. (fr)

Grace Gordon-Collins: Beyond the Obvious

Grace Gordon-Collins: Beyond the Obvious at Diane Farris Gallery. "...Beyond the Obvious is a series of architectural photographs taken over time in the port areas of North Vancouver. Shipping containers and piles of plywood signify the inscrutable faces of ports worldwide. Contents cannot be seen and are not always examined by port authorities, masking the implicit danger of what might be hidden within." Also... Pulp - a prior exhibition by Grace Gordon-Collins.

Swiss Folks

Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs... Moment of Truth, Part 2 (2205). From the exhibition Swiss Folks at Galerie Edward Mitterrand.

My Tender Heart

The Sprague Brothers... My Tender Heart (.mp3 audio 03:34).

Democratic Visages: The Tintype and America

Democratic Visages: The Tintype and America. "...The photograph on iron plate, commonly called the tintype, was the cheapest, easiest, most permanent, and most popular method of capturing a portrait during four of America’s most tempestuous decades. It was invented in 1854, popularized by the Presidential election of 1860, and spread by the Civil War. The tintype was the first medium of mass portraiture. Never before had so many people, people of all classes, commissioned a portrait in any medium. Before the tintype only a mirror could show how us how we looked. Before the tintype we had no pictures of our mothers or daughters and they had none of us; no beloved person was kept in wallet or album or frame. It was the tintype that first brought vivid self-representation into the home of the average American."

Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885–1939): Drawings from the 1930s

Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885–1939): Drawings from the 1930s, February 7 – April 22, 2006 at Ubu Gallery in New York, NY. "...an exhibition of over sixty rare works by the Polish painter, photographer, writer and theorist. Witkiewicz, also known as Witkacy, was a central figure among the Polish intellectual elite and is considered to be one of the most creative and acute minds of interwar Europe. In all aspects of his life’s work, he championed the individual creative spirit and defended it against the mechanized world, which he believed was alienating humanity from the true structure of the universe, in his terms the 'mystery of existence.' His metaphysical philosophies about the human condition are expressed with immediacy in his drawings of grotesque, half-human creatures in phantasmagoric landscapes."

Sky Above and Earth Below: Tibetan Landscapes and Thangka Paintings

Sky Above and Earth Below: Tibetan Landscapes and Thangka Paintings by Karma Tsering Lama, Nima Gyamcho Lama & Binod Moktan. "...Though they live today in Nepal and the United States, these three artists work in a Tibetan painting tradition which stretches back over a thousand years. The earliest extant thangka paintings date to ninth century Tibet. Meaning literally 'rolled art,' the thangka is a Buddhist scroll painting used for a variety of spiritual, didactic or social purposes. They might be commissioned to teach the young, to help heal the sick, to aid the dead in their reincarnation, or more commonly as a focus of meditation by the faithful. Subjects might be the Buddha or numerous other deities, great teachers, or ornate mandalas - geometric diagrams of the cosmos."

Itchy Itchy Hay Hay

Georgia & August Greenberg... Itchy Itchy Hay Hay (.mp3 audio 01:38). From the album Georgia & August Greenberg - Sing Songs for You and Me!. "...Georgia Riederer Greenberg and August Riederer Greenberg are brother and sister and both live in the windy city of Chicago, IL with their mother and father. Georgia is six years old while her little brother August is four. When they are not singing their hearts out they can both be found playing with clay, drawing pictures, and eating lunch. These songs were recorded over the past three years (2001 thru 2003)."

The Bagpipe Iconography Page

The Famous Czech Bagpiper J. Matasek from Strakonice (Printed around 1940 in Brno). From The Bagpipe Iconography Page.

Now That You've Gone

Delta 5... Now That You've Gone (.mp3 audio 04:13). From the album Singles & Sessions 1979-81 at Kill Rock Stars.

Lamar Peterson

Lamar Peterson... Personal Jesus (2005, Acrylic and gouache on paper). From Works by Lamar Peterson at Richard Heller Gallery.

A Dozen Portraits of Pétroleuses

A Dozen Portraits of Pétroleuses by Ernest Eugène Appert. "...After the suppressing of the Paris Commune (1871), photographer E. Appert made portraits of hundreds of prisoners. This selection shows twelve so-called pétroleuses - female arsonists."

The Dead Brothers: Death Is Not Enough

Trailer for 'The Dead Brothers: Death Is Not Enough' (.wmv Video | QuickTime Video) - an M.A. Littler Film.

Illustrations by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux

Illustrations by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux for Jules Verne's Hector Servadac (Hector Servadac, voyages et aventures à travers le monde solaire, 16 November 1877: eleventh double volume). From The Illustrated Jules Verne - The Original Illustrations of the Voyages Extraordinaires. Paul Dominique Philippoteaux is better known for painting The Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama in 1884.

I Can't Get Enough

The Dead Brothers... I Can't Get Enough (.mp3 audio 02:33). From The Dead Brothers. "... a Psycho Slavic Country & Eastern funeral band."

The Brick Testament

Massacre of Jericho (Joshua 6:1-7:1 with 28 illustrations). "...Then Joshua told the army, 'The city and eveyone in it must be offered to Yahweh under the curse of destruction. Only spare Rahab the prostitute and those in her house.'" From The Brick Testament - An illustrated Bible presented by The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith.

Picturing Madison: Winifred Ford's Watercolors

Winifred Ford... Elmside (ca 1938, watercolor). "...Elmside was built by Peter Van Bergen, a prominent builder of the 1840's, at 302 South Mills Street. The house was later owned by Dr. J.B. Bowen." From Picturing Madison: Winifred Ford's Watercolors at the Wisconsin Historical Society. "...In 1938-39, Winifred Ford created over 40 watercolors of historic Madison residences (especially those owned by socially prominent people), the old City Hall, and several University of Wisconsin buildings. The paintings in the Society's collections are realistic and detailed representations of these buildings — quite bold in treatment, using bright colors that have held up remarkably well. Since almost half of the buildings she depicted no longer exist, her paintings serve as an important architectural record."