Jungle Fever

The Tornados... Jungle Fever (1962, DECCA F11494 .mp3 audio 02:14).

Susana Raab: Rank Stangers

Susana Raab: Rank Stangers at Dean Jensen Gallery in Milwaukee, WI. "...There is something subtle and human about what artist Susana Raab extracts from otherwise tragically standardized, asphalt- and smiley-face laden places of American pilgrimage. For more than five years, the former New York Times photographer has explored gaudy, American alternate realities - small-town festivals, Elvis conventions, theme parades, corn dog stands and Carl's Jr. restaurants - with both a sense of critique and affection." See also... Susana Raab: Off-Season. Brilliant! From Susana Raab Photography

Billy's Blues

The Starfires.... Billy's Blues (Pama 117 .mp3 audio 01:43). From Probe is Turning-on the People!

Bucharest Below Ground

Bucharest Below Ground by Poul Madsen (2008). "...A multimedia documentary about the life of homeless families and drug addicts who find refuge in abandonned sewage pipes in central Bucharest." More... Works by Poul Madsen at his personal site.

I'm A Little Airplane

The Modern Lovers... I'm A Little Airplane (.mp3 audio 02:47). From the album Modern Lovers 'Live' (1977, Beserkley BSERK 12).

Shedding Light on New York: Edward F. Caldwell & Co

Shedding Light on New York: Edward F. Caldwell & Co. "...Edward F. Caldwell & Co., of New York City, was the premier designer and manufacturer of electric light fixtures and decorative metalwork from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries. Founded in 1895 by Edward F. Caldwell (1851-1914) and Victor F. von Lossberg (1853-1942), the firm’s legacy of highly crafted creations includes custom made metal gates, lanterns, chandeliers, ceiling and wall fixtures, floor and table lamps, and other decorative objects that can be found today in many metropolitan area churches, public buildings, offices, clubs, and residences. A majority of these buildings were built in the early 20th century, a time of tremendous growth in construction and when many cities were being electrified for the first time."

Cow Tuesday

Cow Tuesday - a flickr set of cows photographed with a Holga camera by Plastic Fantastic (aka James Arnold).

Samuel Fosso: Autoportraits des années 1970’s

Samuel Fosso: Autoportraits des années 1970’s. From Works by Samuel Fosso at Jean Marc Patras / Galerie in Paris.

Good Morning Mr. Orwell

Nam June Paik... Good Morning Mr. Orwell (1984) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...Good Morning Mr.Orwell is an edited version of Paik's first international satellite 'installation,' which was held on New Year's Day 1984. Paik's transcultural satellite extravaganzas link different countries, spaces, and times in often chaotic but entertaining collages of art and pop culture, the avant-garde and television. Good Morning Mr.Orwell, which Paik saw as a rebuttal to Orwell's dystopian vision of 1984, linked France, Germany and the U.S. The event featured vibrant performances by Laurie Anderson, Merce Cunningham, Peter Gabriel and Allen Ginsberg, among many others. Paik coordinated the event and designed the TV graphics that connected the various live and pre-recorded segments. This project can be seen as a development of Paik's thinking on the potential of satellite communication, as proposed in A Conversation, and realized with his typical pastiche of art, entertainment, and crosscultural juxtapositions."

Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir

Gotta get Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir from Criterion. "...From the late 1950s through the sixties, wild, idiosyncratic crime movies were the brutal and boisterous business of Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan. In an effort to attract youthful audiences growing increasingly accustomed to American and French big-screen imports, Nikkatsu began producing action potboilers (mukokuseki akushun, or 'borderless action') that incorporated elements of the western, comedy, gangster, and teen-rebel genres. This bruised and bloody collection represents a standout cross section of what Nikkatsu had to offer, from such prominent, stylistically daring directors as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Takashi Nomura." More.

Son Of Blob

Mort Garson & The Blobs... Son Of Blob (.mp3 audio 02:29). From the movie Beware! The Blob (1972, directed by Larry Hagman). Also... the Trailer for Beware! The Blob (Flash Video 00:59) and Beware! The Blob - the entire movie (Flash Video 1:27:05).

Labor in Crisis: Memory, Art and Race, 1911-1929

Labor in Crisis: Memory, Art and Race, 1911-1929. "...When W.E.B. Du Bois founded The Crisis magazine in 1910 there was little discussion of visuals – but the monthly publication from the fledgling National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was rich with drawings, political cartoons, photographs and prints. These extraordinary images illustrate the central role art played in Du Bois’ and the NAACP’s struggle to change minds. Unlike images of African Americans in other magazines, the visuals he published were generated from a black perspective. The artwork is almost always directly tied to important political and social issues of the day, yet it also reflects Du Bois’ attempt to help build a collective memory for black people beyond that shaped by the white-dominated culture they lived within."

Yi BiTe: Recent Works by Feng Mengbo

Yi BiTe: Recent Works by Feng Mengbo at Chambers Fine Art, Beijing. "...For his first exhibition at Chambers Fine Art Beijing, Feng Mengbo continues his investigation of classical Chinese culture that began with Wrong Code: Sanshui without abandoning his deep immersion in every aspect of the cyberworld. More than any other artist in China today, Feng Mengbo has been associated with the world of computers, video-games and youth culture. Exploring the darker aspects of this technology, he moved rapidly from CD-ROMs to actual games in which spectator participation became increasingly important."

Alfred Gescheidt

Alfred Gescheidt at Higher Pictures. "...Rooted in traditional art practices and possessed of an idiosyncratic, at times hallucinogenic vision, simultaneously mocking and flattering American sensibilities, Alfred Gescheidt developed a rich body of work in a genre of photography that has few masters. His technical skills dazzled, even confounded fellow professionals. Through montage, collage, double exposure, retouching, re-photographing (always his own images, and in various states of manipulation), distorting lenses – shifts in scale, startling juxtapositions, hybrid forms and elastic anatomies, antic humor, a mischievous sense of eros, and a keen awareness of the complicity and duplicity of photography itself, Gescheidt rendered a compelling metamorphic pictorial world. There the mundane, commonplace, and conventional are transformed into witty, indiscreet, seductive, and certainly fantastic alternatives. His friend the cartoonist Rube Goldberg said to him, 'Youʼre a genius! Your pictures donʼt need captions.' And indeed they zero in on the visual heart of the matter, needling the optic nerve."

Subtle Perception

Yo Imae... Subtle Perception. Portraits by photographer Yo Imae.

Tempo Block

Raymond Scott... Tempo Block (.mp3 audio 03:15). From the album Soothing Sounds for Baby: Volume II (1963, Epic LN24084).

Weston's Westons: Iconic and Rare Edward Weston Prints from the Cole Weston Trust

Weston's Westons: Iconic and Rare Edward Weston Prints from the Cole Weston Trust at Danziger Projects. "...For most of his life, Weston meticulously made his own prints, noting on each negative envelope the various idiosyncrasies of each particular picture. However, as he got older and the effects of Parkinson's began to take a toll, he began to have his sons – first Brett and then Cole - print for him under his strict instruction.
Cole, an accomplished photographer himself, soon became the sole printer, printing for ten years under Edward's guidance and then continuing to make posthumous prints from 1958 until 1988 when he announced his plan to curtail his printing of Edward's negatives to concentrate on his own work. A provision in Edward Weston's will stipulated that no one else could make prints from those negatives –now all housed at The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson.
Cole Weston's prints – EW/CWs as they came to be known – were readily available to photography collectors in the 1970s and 1980s. But as the market for photography grew more pricey and rarefied and connoisseurs began to focus on the vintage print, EW/CWs came to be somewhat taken for granted. Today, however, it has become clear that not only are many of the EW/CW prints quite rare, but that there is a special validity to prints made by the great photographer's own son."

Thomas Allen: Epilogue

Thomas Allen: Epilogue at Foley Gallery in New York, NY.

Air Doll

Review of Air Doll by Tom Mes at Midnight Eye. "...For the past few years, Hirokazu Koreeda seems to be consciously trying to move toward a more commercial form of filmmaking, or at least toward making films capable of reaching audiences (particularly homegrown audiences) wider than festival and arthouse crowds. His pacifist samurai film Hana (Hanayori mo Naho, 2007), which starred multi-media idol and cover boy Junichi Okada, was a very clear attempt in that direction and saw the filmmaker promptly snubbed by the major festivals that normally vie for his presence. A planned biopic of perennially popular actress Yoshiko Yamaguchi / Ri Koran seems to have fallen through, but even with the seeming return to his Ozu-inspired arthouse roots that was Still Walking, Koreeda sought to reach a mainstream audience by casting the ubiquitous handsome romantic lead Hiroshi Abe as the father of the family."

Metropolis: New York City Water and Transit Infrastructure in Photographs

Metropolis: New York City Water and Transit Infrastructure in Photographs at the NYPL Digital Gallery. "...Over 600 images, primarily original photographs, plus selected published sources, on the themes of traffic, transit and water. The digital collection includes mass transit proposals and projects, dating from 1867; the multi-county Catskill Aqueduct system that still supplies the city's water; and the pioneering Holland Tunnel for vehicular traffic under the Hudson River."

Funky Little Song

Bruce Haack (recording as Jackpine Savage)... Funky Little Song (.mp3 audio 03:38). From the album Together (1971, Dimension 5).

Susan Burnstine: Reverie & Rhapsody

Susan Burnstine: Reverie & Rhapsody at Verve Gallery of Photography. "...Susan Burnstine is an award winning fine art and commercial photographer based in Los Angeles. Susan is represented in galleries across the country, widely published throughout the world and has also written for several photography magazines, including a monthly column for Black & White Photography (UK). Nominated for the 2009 Santa Fe Prize for Photography and winner of numerous awards including B&W Magazine’s 2008 Portfolio Spotlight Award.
These images are shot on film with homemade medium format cameras and homemade lenses, primarily made out of plastic, vintage camera parts and random household objects. Effects are created entirely IN-camera. No photoshop post-processing techniques are used to achieve effects." More... Works by Susan Burnstine at her personal site.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen: Interiors

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen: Interiors. "...Family portraits and home interiors from North Shields, 1979/80, developed as part of the broader photographic project, North Tyneside Survey."

Magda Trzaski: Dark Wish

Magda Trzaski: Dark Wish at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. "...Magda Trzaski’s casts of animal-inspired characters are enclosed under glass in forestalled activity, as strange and newfound specimens might have been in the Victorian era. Balloons float in mid-air as tiny sculptures of gangly limbed and cracked-skinned creatures balance in limbo of attempted escape and despair. There is a looming sense of life floating away, contained momentarily within the shadow boxes. The intricate figures highlight the dark undertones in Trzaski’s work which is heavily influenced by Dutch Vanitas painters, whose aim was to remind us of the inevitability of death, and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures." More... Works by Magda Trzaski at her personal site.

Girl On The Billboard

Del Reeves... Girl On The Billboard (1965, United Artists 824 .mp3 audio 02:43).

Geschichte der Nacht

Clemens Klopfenstein... Geschichte der Nacht (1979) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "..."It's a black-and-white record of European cities in the dark (2-5am), from Basel to Belfast. Quiet, and meditative, what ermerges most strongly is an eerie sense of city landscapes as deserted film sets, in which the desolate architecture overwhelms any sense of reality. The only reassurance that we are not in some endless machine-Metropolis is the shadow of daytime activity: a juggernaut plunging through a darkened village, a plague of small birds in the predawn light. The whole thing is underscored by a beautiful 'composed' soundtrack, from quietly humming stretlamps to reggae and the rumble of armoured cars in Belfast. A strange and remarkable combination of dream, documentary and science-fiction." - Chris Auty, Programme Note London Film Co-op.

La Danse du Chaos - Off The Wall

Lost Art... La Danse du Chaos - Off The Wall. "...Na primeira fase do projeto La Danse du Chaos, colamos fotos pelas ruas de SP em : La Danse du Chaos > On the Wall (em comemoração aos 170 anos da fotografia). Agora, levamos a nossa bailarina mascarada de volta às ruas em um dia frio e chuvoso e apresentamos : La Danse du Chaos > Off the Wall."

Shintaro Sato: Tokyo Twilight Zone

Shintaro Sato: Tokyo Twilight Zone. Also... Shintaro Sato – from Tokyo Sky Tree series at Japan Exposures. "...Shintaro Sato was born in 1969 in Tokyo, and graduated from Tokyo College of Photography in 1992 and Waseda University School of Letters Arts and Sciences in 1995. After working as a staff cameraman for Kyodo News for 7 years, he left there in 2001 and has been a freelance photographer since. In 2008, Sato’s Tokyo Twilight Zone was published by Seigensha to great acclaim, and earlier this year Sato received the 2009 Newcomer’s Award from the Photographic Society of Japan."

Miwa Yanagi: Fairy Tale

Miwa Yanagi: Fairy Tale. From Miwa Yanagi.

Painting Angels

Painting Angels. Greetings to Serena Matthews.

Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight

Sid King & The Five Strings... Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight (1956, Columbia 4-21564 .mp3 audio 02:07).

Greg Miller: Recent Work

Greg Miller: Recent Work at William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. "...Greg Miler’s work is sexy, thought provoking, and Angeleno inspired art, where unspoken heroes, and the lure of women casually mingle together. Miller offers the excitement of discovery mixed with the unexpected thrill of recovering something long lost. Bold contemporary images and popular themes are intermingled with text and presented in billboard-like simplicity, offering a varied and often surprising look at the timelessness of American historical and cultural events. The merging of pop culture, American Art, and the conceptual art movement of the 60s and 70s provide the content that is found throughout my art, paintings, and films." More... Works by Greg Miller at his personal site.

James Henkel: Spills

James Henkel: Spills (17 black & white photographs) at Zone Zero. "...Drawing is often at the heart of these photographs, though the materials are not usual. The SPILLS pictures use milk, sand, salt or sugar to draw their own vessels or explore the appropriateness of their function. The photographs humorously explore ideas about the container and the contained and suggest the beauty of the accident and the poetry in the objects." More... Works by James Henkel at his personal site.

Works by Coke Wisdom O'Neal - The Box

Works by Coke Wisdom O'Neal - The Box. "...In the isolation of South Texas, O’Neal collaborated with the San Isidro community to build and activate his large-scale specimen box. They constructed the sculpture on a ranch and then moved it to the local school grounds, where O’Neal fostered an immersive and interactive art experience. O’Neal taught photography to students and invited local residents to be photographed. Later, the Box returned to the ranch, where workers and livestock were invited in.
Ultimately, O’Neal’s Box exists as a sculpture (combining Claes Oldenburg’s scale and Donald Judd’s form to absurd effect), a performance, and a series of photographs. O’Neal uses the Box as a framing device—a blank canvas that obliterates geographic location, leaving the viewer to carefully observe light, pose, expression, and attire to envision a narrative. Together, the subjects’ vignettes uniquely represent their community, without direction or digital manipulation by the artist. O’Neal has set the stage and invited San Isidro to join him."

The Sweeney Decade: Acquisitions at the 1959 Inaugural

The Sweeney Decade: Acquisitions at the 1959 Inaugural at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. "...When the Guggenheim Museum first opened its doors in October 1959, the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda was filled with a selection of more than 120 works from the permanent collection. While the exhibition represented, to a limited extent, the Guggenheim’s history as the former Museum of Non-Objective Painting with works by Vasily Kandinsky and other modernists, the inaugural presentation also included 40 works dating from the 1950s. Drawn from the contemporary paintings and sculpture acquired by director James Johnson Sweeney during his tenure from 1952 to 1960, The Sweeney Decade: Acquisitions at the 1959 Inaugural features examples of international postwar trends in abstraction including Abstract Expressionism, CoBrA, Tachisme, and Art Informel, by artists Karel Appel, Alberto Burri, Eduardo Chillida, Willem de Kooning, Jimmy Ernst, Hans Hartung, Jackson Pollock, Pierre Soulages, Antoni Tapies, and others."

Cliff and Rocky - Dynamite

Cliff Richard & The Shadows... Dynamite (1959, EMI Columbia DB 4351 .mp3 audio 01:57). Plus... a whigged out French Version of Dynamite by Rocky Volcano (1961, Philips 432704 .mp3 audio 02:05). Which one did Dave Edmunds cover?

The World in Black and White: Vintage Prints from the National Geographic Archive

George Shiras III... Hunting Deer with a Camera, Northern Michigan (1930, Vintage gelatin silver, printed 1930). From the exhibition The World in Black and White: Vintage Prints from the National Geographic Archive at Steven Kasher Gallery in New York, NY. "...The World in Black and White: Vintage Prints from the National Geographic Archive is comprised of sets of photographic prints by over a dozen photographers associated with the Society. Each photographer is represented by 10-15 pictures. Portraits and documents of the photographers will also be presented. The exhibition will include images from several continents and several genres, including exploration, discovery, anthropology, aeronautics, and portraiture. Many of these images have never been published. Many have never been seen outside the National Geographic Image Collection archive, housed in Washington."

NAKED!

Georges Hugnet... Bonjour, Paris (1936, photo collage). From the exhibition NAKED! at Paul Kasmin Gallery. "...Naked is not nude nor 'naturalist' - it is altogether more intriguing, predicating perhaps a state of desire, whether narcissistic or voyeuristic, that sense of being naked as an active, self-conscious sense of heightened awareness if not arousal. While nudity is continuously represented in the history of art, the classical nude often pretends to itself that it is not just plain naked. Of course, anyone can tell the difference, can feel it on their own skin indeed. While nudity, in its mythological and even mystic beauty is to be appreciated, this exhibition will present the naked – traditionally arousing, interpreted by myriad artists."

Sister Street Fighter Theme

Shunsuke Kikuchi... Sister Street Fighter Theme (Onna hissatsu ken, 1974, directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi). From The Quomma.

Chris Antemann: Battle of the Britches

Chris Antemann: Battle of the Britches at Ferrin Gallery. "...Inspired by a popular theme from 17c Staffordshire figurines, Battle of the Britches investigates the struggle for dominance within the domestic experience. Playing off historical stereotypes of marriage, courtship and coupling, this series exposes the tension created when two individuals try to become one. As long as there is wedlock, tying the knot, getting hitched; this battle, a source of humor and entertainment for centuries, rages on."

Don Fritz: Deja Vu

Don Fritz: Deja Vu at Billy Shire Fine Arts in Culver City, CA. More... Works by Don Fritz at his personal site.

Allen Frame

Allen Frame... Veronesa, Mexico City (2007, Chromogenic color print). From Allen Frame at Gitterman Gallery. "...A departure from his previous black and white work, this exhibition features Allen Frame’s color photographs from Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. In these unstaged photographs, Frame extends the formal and conceptual ideas of his black and white series Detour, using color to intensify the sense of immediacy and sensuality of portrait figures observed in intimate situations. The use of color is restrained, with occasional bursts of intensity, drawing the viewer into the subject’s psychological space." More... Works by Allen Frame at his personal site.

Why Do I Feel?

The Shaggs... Why Do I Feel? (.mp3 audio 03:55). From the album Philosophy of the World (1969, Third Word Records).

Works by Marion Post Wolcott

Works by Marion Post Wolcott at G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle, WA.

Off The Charts - The Song Poem Story

Off The Charts - The Song Poem Story (Flash Video 54:38). More Information at PBS Independent Lens.

The BLAB! Show

The BLAB! Show from BLAB!

Andrés Carretero

Works by Andrés Carretero.

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within. "...The film features never before seen footage of William S. Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with his closest friends and colleagues including John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Laurie Anderson, Peter Weller, David Cronenberg, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Sonic Youth, Anne Waldman, George Condo, Hal Willner, James Grauerholz, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, V. Vale, David Ohle, Wayne Propst, Dr. William Ayers, Diane DiPrima, Donovan, Dean Ripa (the world's largest poisonous snake collector), and many others, with narration by actor Peter Weller, and soundtrack by Sonic Youth."

Tu M'as Trop Menti

Chantal Goya... Tu M'as Trop Menti (1965, Si Tu Gagnes Au Flipper EP, RCA Victor .mp3 audio 01:48). From the movie Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis (1966, directed by Jean-Luc Godard). Chantal Goya stars along with cameos by Brigitte Bardot and Françoise Hardy. Watch the Trailer (QuickTime Video).

Industrial

Industrial - a selection of black and white photographs by Denis Oliver.

Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker

Goudstikker's Black Book - an online feature for the exhibition Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker at the Jewish Museum. "...Reclaimed reveals the remarkable legacy of Jacques Goudstikker, a preeminent Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam whose vast collection of masterpieces was almost lost forever to the Nazi practice of looting cultural properties. Between the two World Wars, Goudstikker's impressive and historically important collection rose to international acclaim. This exhibition presents rarely-seen Old Master paintings-including Dutch Old Master works and Italian and Northern Renaissance paintings-recently restituted to Goudstikker's family."

Vintage Sound System Flyers

Vintage Sound System Flyers at Flickr. "...Sound System Flyers from the UK, mostly late 1970's to early 1980's."

Women at Work

Lens Culture... Women at Work - photographs and text by Joel Gräfnings. "...All the chosen subjects are women who work in male-dominant environments and professions. The professions are also all of a nature that demands work uniforms in the form of protective clothing. I’ve taken two photos of each subject, one before the work-shift and one after. Through this I hope to show the nature of each job to the viewer."

La Danse du Chaos

Lost Art... La Danse du Chaos - Photography & Street Intervention. "...Para comemorar o Dia da Fotografia (170 anos!!!), LOST ART, que tanto fotografou, documentou e divulgou a arte de rua brasileira pelo mundo, decidiu homenagear São Paulo com um toque de arte, leveza, graciosidade, e subversão para contrastar com uma realidade dura, suja, e impiedosa."

Ce petit coeur

Françoise Hardy... Ce petit coeur (1965, Vogue EPL 8389 .mp3 audio 02:14). Thank you DMc.

Ton meilleur ami

Françoise Hardy... Ton meilleur ami (1962, Vogue EPL 8048 .mp3 audio 02:09). Also... Only Friends - an English version of Ton meilleur ami (Flash Video 02:21).

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Fall of the Berlin Wall - Moscow House of Photography. "...At the end of the 20th century, the map of the world was drastically altered: a number of states disappeared, some new countries emerged; and all these happened without any wars and bloodshed. One of the first evident milestones of this process was the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. It was actually the fall of the concrete Iron Curtain that had divided the world into the 'friends' and the 'enemies' for more than a quarter of a century. The Exhibition 'The Fall of the Berlin Wall' is dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of this event and presents the most interesting documentary evidence collected from various sources. The Berlin Wall is more than a tragedy of a city or a symbol of the post-war division of the world; it also implies many broken human lives, separated families, many people who were killed trying to cross the Wall into West Berlin. The Exhibition recreates the main stages in the history of the Berlin Wall."

Seamus Murphy: A Darkness Visible

Seamus Murphy: A Darkness Visible (Digital Journalist, August 2009). "...Murphy's mesmerizing collection of black-and-white photographs tells the story of the Afghan people who, enduring a perpetual state of devastation, still maintain a vibrant culture. It also reveals a gifted journalist with the heart of an artist, compelled to undertake an epic project in a country entirely unlike his own. With each return Murphy seems to have become even more deeply involved with the fluctuating reality of the Afghan land and its inhabitants."

Please Be Welcome

Keith Greiman... Knock em' Dead (record and sleeve). From the exhibition Please Be Welcome at Fuse Gallery. "...Philadelphia based artist and curator Damian Weinkrantz cordially invites you to his apartment in Fuse Gallery. His apartment has three rooms – a living room, bedroom and kitchen each tastefully decorated with a variety of artworks ranging from functional to wall art. Casual attire please."

Je suis folle de tant t'aimer

Arlette Zola... Je suis folle de tant t'aimer (1971, RCA 49125 .mp3 audio 02:52).

Sam Milai of the Pittsburgh Courier

Sam Milai of the Pittsburgh Courier. "...Sam Milai ( March 23, 1908-April 30, 1970) was an artist and cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Courier for thirty-three years. He won the National Newspaper Publisher’s Association Russwurm trophy for the best cartoon eight times during his career. In addition to his editorial cartoons, Milai created a cartoon series titled Facts about the Negro that celebrated the accomplishments of people of color. During the late 1930s, he also contributed a comic strip to the newspaper. He taught part time at Pittsburgh’s Ivey School of Professional Art from 1964-1967 and was teaching full-time at the Pittsburgh Art Institute at the time of his death.
Most of Milai’s work was not returned to him after publication. The cartoons in this exhibition were found by his granddaughter stored in a suitcase in her mother’s attic. Sam Milai was a centrist who disdained all forms of extremism. He was loyal to Lyndon Johnson, and some of his pro-Johnson cartoons are housed in the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library."

African American Sheet Music

African American Sheet Music at the Brown University Library Center for Digital Initiatives. "...The African-American related sheet music includes songs from the heyday of antebellum blackface minstrelsy in the 1850s and from the abolitionist movement of the same period. It includes numerous titles associated with the novel and the play Uncle Tom' s Cabin, so greatly influential in its day. Civil War period music includes songs about African-American soldiers, a controversial topic of the time, and the plight of the newly emancipated slave. Post-Civil War music reflects the problems of Reconstruction and the beginnings of urbanization and the northern migration of African Americans, notably in the music associated with the Harrigan & Hart shows of the 1880s. Sheet music of this period further documents the emergence of African-American performers and musical troupes, first in blackface minstrelsy, and later at the beginnings of the African-American musical stage in the late 1890s."

Faces: Vintage and Contemporary Photographic Portraits

Tom Arndt... Young man doing a rope trick (1987, Gelatin silver print, Signed, titled and dated in pencil on verso). From the exhibition Faces: Vintage and Contemporary Photographic Portraits at Charles A. Hartman Fine Art. "...For this exhibition, the gallery draws upon its specialized access to 19th and 20th century photographic masterworks, and thematically merges those selections with images from contemporary photographers represented by the gallery. Artists in the exhibition include: Ansel Adams, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Harry Callahan, Lewis Hine, Danny Lyon, Sally Mann, Arnold Newman, W. Eugene Smith and Frederick Sommer, with Corey Arnold, Daido Moriyama, Mark Steinmetz and Issei Suda, amongst others."

Henry Diltz: Woodstock Photographs

Henry Diltz: Woodstock Photographs at Morrison Hotel Gallery. "...A selection of photographs of Woodstock 1969 from the beginning to the end by the Official Photographer Henry Diltz."

Jesus Christ

Big Star... Jesus Christ (.mp3 audio 02:41). From the album Third/Sisters Lovers - produced by Jim Dickinson. RIP: Jim Dickinson.

Nicolai Howalt: Car Crash Studies

Nicolai Howalt: Car Crash Studies. "...Car Crash Studies is a thought provoking photographic study of life's fragility. The images that move between documentation and abstraction are based on cars from traffic accidents. Nicolai Howalt addresses in his exhibition at Martin Asbæk Gallery a general fear of death, and the intolerable fact that life is not eternal. Several of the images are almost abstract and look more like landscapes than what they actually are. Collided bodyworks, dents and cracks in varnish appear as highly enlarged details in the monumental works. Another series show more obvious signs of accidents in airbags that have been released. From Works by Nicolai Howalt.

Malick Sidibé: Bamako Nights

Malick Sidibé: Bamako Nights at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum. "...The country is Mali, the time the sixties. In the festive atmosphere of a newly-independent country, a young photographer Malick Sidibé would travel from wedding to party on his bicycle. It was the time of the yéyés, the twist and pop singles and his shots exude the insouciance of the era. His portraits were taken in seconds using a flash, fixing the spontaneity of a euphoric youth searching for its place in a changing society."

Sarah Stolfa: The Regulars Revisited

Sarah Stolfa: The Regulars Revisited at Gallery 339 in Philadelphia, PA. "...Stolfa made this remarkable body of work while tending bar at McGlinchey’s (one of Philadelphia’s oldest taverns) and while still an undergraduate at Drexel University. She earned her BS in photography from Drexel University, Philadelphia, in 2005 and her MFA in Photography from Yale University in 2008. She is represented by galleries in Philadelphia and New York, and her work has been collected by museums around the country, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Stolfa currently resides in Philadelphia and is the founder and Executive Director of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, a non-profit organization which will open this summer." More... Works by Sarah Stolfa at her personal site.

Jerry Burchard, Debbie Fleming Caffery and Linda Foard Roberts

Jerry Burchard, Debbie Fleming Caffery and Linda Foard Roberts at Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, CA. "...This exhibition presents artists who produce black and white images of elusive and sometimes highly intimate occurrences - shadowy portraits in Mexican brothels, evanescent streaks of light in a Moroccan nightscape, or deeply charged metonymic symbols of personal dealings with the fragility of life. The dark and often subjective imageries of these photographers describe personal landscapes that are more universal than they may initially appear."

How High The Moon

Les Paul & Mary Ford... How High The Moon (1951, Capitol 1451 .mp3 audio 02:08). RIP: Les Paul.

Nine Pound Hammer

Jim & Jesse... Nine Pound Hammer (.mp3 audio 02:08).

Daughters of the Revolution: Women & Collage

Daughters of the Revolution: Women & Collage at Pavel Zoubok Gallery. "...In 1971 the pioneering art historian Linda Nochlin posed the question, 'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?' - opening the door to a wave of Feminist inquiry that has changed the face of art and art history. Within the more narrowly defined history and practice of collage, one can also ask the question, 'Why have there been so many great women collagists?' Daughters of the Revolution: Women & Collage brings together thirty-four artists, whose work has helped to re-define this quintessentially Modernist art form."

Sip The Kool-Aid

Sip The Kool-Aid - works by James Castle, Thorton Dial, Martín Ramírez, Bill Taylor, and George Widener at Ricco|Maresca Gallery.

The Philippe Zoummeroff Collection of May 1968

The Philippe Zoummeroff Collection of May 1968. "...The Philippe Zoummeroff Collection of May 1968 depicts—through startlingly raw and graphical imagery— the explosion of protests that swept across France and nearly toppled the government of Charles de Gaulle."

Perian Flaherty: Still Life

Perian Flaherty: Still Life (17 color photographs) at Zone Zero. "...In the beginning, I imagined an alphabet of bones. Only to begin another journey, since bones are often still clothed in the particularities of a life: fur, feather, skin, scale. To get down to the bone is it’s own journey. A certain kind of work."

Claude LeLouch: Iran

Claude LeLouch: Iran (1971) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...This film is best understood after watching Albert Lamorisse's Baadeh Sabah, an ostentatious propaganda film of the same commission that was originally rejected for it's inadequate portrayal of Iran's nouveau-modernism (urban youth, industrial marvels) and it's overly-lyrical style. In LeLouche's rendition, there are no such inadequacies. The focus is on culture - heritage, modernity and (what soon would be named) Westernization. Past and present meet - veils and miniskirts, camels and helicopters, remains of ancient Persia, the highlights of Islamic art, caviar and the oil fields and gas pumps. The Shah looks good in white turtlenecks and Farah Diba is seen in the Farah Diba hairstyle. This charming couple didn't copy Europan royalty, rather appeared as an Eastern equivalent to Mr. and Mrs. John F. Kennedy - Pax Americana had succeeded Rule Britannia. The Pahlavi dynasty was a young one, but here the Shah is depicted as the modern link in an old tradition. Many emperors have used this trick to establish a dynasty, or at least their own position. By this time the picture of Iran was changing."

Black Sheep

Sam The Sham And The Pharoahs... Black Sheep (1967, MGM K 13747 .mp3 audio 02:50). From another wonderful post by Debbie D. at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

Big Streets in a Little City - Downtown Street Scenes in Kiel, 1860-1980

Big Streets in a Little City - Downtown Street Scenes in Kiel, 1860-1980. "...The name of this collection, Big Streets in a Little City, is an affectionate reference to the official City of Kiel slogan, 'the little city that does big things.' Located on the Sheboygan River in the southwest corner of Manitowoc County, this city of approximately 3,500 has a thriving downtown, beautiful parks, progressive schools, a strong employment base, and a growing respect for its heritage. In 2004 we celebrated our sesquicentennial with a year-long series of activities that involved residents and visitors of all ages.
Not long after that, the Kiel Public Library was the beneficiary of an amazing collection of photographs, original documents, newspaper clippings, indexed obituaries, and other archival materials. The donor, Edwin J. Majkrzak, a former library trustee and author of a comprehensive city history, had spent the better part of two decades collecting these items, and organizing them into 80 notebooks and dozens of enlarged and framed, vintage photographs."

Works by Clay Perry

Works by Clay Perry at England & Co. "...In the midst of 1960s ‘Swinging London’, Clay Perry was the photographer for the avant-garde art scene, documenting the most innovative international artists of the period, including Yoko Ono, David Medalla, Liliane Lijn, Robert Rauschenberg, Sérgio Camargo, Gustav Metzger, Jesús Rafael Soto, Takis and Mark Boyle. Perry became house photographer for the legendary Signals Gallery, producing images for its iconic Signals Newsbulletin that provided a forum for artists, writers and poets involved in experimental art."

Wasteland

Wasteland by Brent Foster at Bombay Flying Club. "...Wasteland explores the burning coal fields of northeastern India. Whole families live and work in the toxic dust, their homes built on burning ground. Many make a living by illegally collecting baskets of coal to sell for the equivalent of $1 to $1.50, enduring extremely hazardous conditions." More... Works by Brent Foster at his personal site.

Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe

Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe. "...New Mexico is a photographers' paradise: the incandescent quality of the light, dramatic cloud formations, and expansive landscape have attracted photographers to our state since nearly the beginning of photographic history. From about 1850 to the present, photography has been used effectively to document, create, and promote Santa Fe. Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe is a visual history of Santa Fe, New Mexico — as it celebrates its 400th anniversary as the oldest capital city in North America. These images, selected from the collection of the Photo Archives at the Palace of the Governors and through studio visits with contemporary photographers, illuminate the multiple meanings of place."

Lorenzo Masnah: Bonita

Lorenzo Masnah... Bertha 33 (mixed media on panel). From the exhibition Lorenzo Masnah: Bonita at Fuse. "...In this body of work, Masnah criticizes the objectification of women by the media. Influenced by street art, he collages magazine images of 60’s pin ups and 'bombs' and 'tags' them. Defacing these nostalgic beauties with contemporary graphic imagery allows his work to transcend a specific era. He utilizes outlining, shading and other graffiti techniques to emphasize peculiarities and expressions of the women in these vintage prints."

Leo Fitzpatrick: That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore (America At The Turn Of The Century)

Leo Fitzpatrick: That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore (America At The Turn Of The Century) at Fuse Gallery in New York, NY. "...Photographing the deterioration of America at the turn of the century, Leo Fitzpatrick says 'fuck you to digital nightlife photography.' In reaction to the accessibility and degradation of photography, he seeks out complex yet simple images of landscapes, street corners and aging architecture. His observations come from having traveled cross-country by train and car eight times." More... Works by Leo Fitzpatrick at Tiny Vices.

Beach Blanket Bingo - A Summer Mixer

Beach Blanket Bingo - A Summer Mixer at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. "...Like the broad spectrum of humanity one might find sunbathing on the sand of a summer seashore, the collection of artists participating in Beach Blanket Bingo runs the gamut, showcasing a visually diverse mixture of emerging and established talent. Works in the show include original paintings, drawings, and sculptures created using an array of mediums in a vast range of different styles."

Dreyer's draft script for 'Vampyr'

The first 39 pages of Dreyer's draft script for 'Vampyr' from the Carl Theodor Dreyer Collection at the Danish Film Institute.

Misirlou

The Astronauts... Misirlou (1963, EP RCA VICTOR 86328 .mp3 audio 02:02).

Deborah Oropallo: Wild Wild West.Show

Deborah Oropallo: Wild Wild West.Show at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. More... Works by Deborah Oropallo at her personal site.

Not Quite Hollywood

Trailer (Flash Video 02:12) for Not Quite Hollywood. "...Free-wheelin’ sex romps! Bloodsoaked terror tales! High-octane action extravaganzas! They’re the main ingredients of NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, the first detailed examination and celebration of Australian genre cinema of the 70s and 80s."

Crappy Taxidermy

We like Crappy Taxidermy.

Helen Keller – S/T 7″

Helen Keller – S/T 7″ (1978, Blitz Records) at Killed By Death Records. "...These guys have some real talent and knows exactly what they’re doing. It could’ve resulted in some so so jumping on the bandwagon record but no no they manage to crank out the exact right feeling. I wonder what they wanted to achieve with this release? 200 copies pressed with a white stamped sleeve. Did they just want to hand it out to friends and family to show off that they could play punk too?" Via Robot Action Boy.

Sweet 16

Happy birthday to my daughter Amy - 16 years old today.

One Good Gal

Charlie Feathers... One Good Gal (.mp3 audio 02:49). From the album Charlie Feathers - Honky Tonk Kind: Rare and Unissued Recordings Vol. 2 (2008, Norton Records).

Lot in Sodom

James Sibley Watson... Lot in Sodom (1933) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...Opening on a very attractive model of the walled city & then cutting to expressionist sequences capturing the temple mysteries, consisting of homosexual dancers. In a length very overt invocation of a gay orgie, the camera lingers over naked male flesh & clinging bodies in ways that seem improbable for 1933, but this is before the Hayes Code banned homosexuality from the screen. Lot in Sodom (1933) came out in the sound age & we do hear Lot praying & there's a contemporary musical soundtrack. But in the main this is a silent film. When an angel (Lewis Whitbeck) visits Lot (Fredrich Haak) it's spooky as all hell. The coweled angel's unfriendly air doesn't keep a buff bare-chested Sodomite from trying to seduce him in the night near Lot's house. Lot intercedes, offering his daughter instead."

Kostnice (The Ossuary)

Jan Svankmajer... Kostnice (The Ossuary) (1970, Krátký Film Praha, Flash Video 10:05). "...A non-narrative voyage round Sedlec Ossuary, which has been constructed from over 50,000 human skeletons (victims of the Black Death)."

Lillian Birnbaum: Transition

Barbie in Plastic (2002, C-Print, Edition of 7). From the exhibiton Lillian Birnbaum: Transition at Andrea Meislin Gallery. "...In creating the Transition body of work, Lillian Birnbaum spent a period of several years observing a group of young girls. She was able to photograph seven friends and their delicate, at times demanding, often joyful metamorphosis from childhood into early womanhood without ever imposing herself or her camera. In doing so, Birnbaum succeeded in erasing the notion of being "in front of" or "behind" the camera, working in a prolonged moment of self-abandonment and with the blind eye of the artist."

Hot Fun In The Summer Time

Hot Fun In The Summer Time at Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York.

Is That All To The Ball (Mr. Hall)

Billy Lee Riley (recording as Bill Riley)... Is That All To The Ball (Mr. Hall) (1958, Brunswick 9-55085 .mp3 audio 02:07). RIP: Billy Lee Riley.

Jon Lowenstein: South Side

Jon Lowenstein: South Side. "...Chicago’s South Side has experiences major changes in the past five years, including a multi-million dollar rehabilitation of the Lakefront. Unfortunately, as the city is repackaged the poorest residents are being squeezed out of the city and forced to move to new communities and are not reaping the benefits of gentrification and urban transformation." More... Works by Jon Lowenstein at his personal site.

Works by Tim Hetherington

Works by Tim Hetherington.

Aaron Schuman: Once Upon A Time In The West

Aaron Schuman: Once Upon A Time In The West. "...Once Upon a Time in the West was photographed on the eroding sets and locations of Sergio Leone’s celebrated 1960’s ‘Spaghetti Westerns’, deep in the Almerian deserts of southern Spain. For several years Schuman has pursued work concerned with the propagation of American myths abroad. He recently became fascinated by the notion that a fundamental American archetype – the Wild West, and its associations with freedom, independence, rebelliousness, brutality, morality, honour and so on – had been transposed by an Italian film director onto the landscape of Franco’s Spain, and subsequently came to define this ‘quintessentially American’ genre in itself."

Thirst

Red Band Trailer for Thirst (2009, directed by Park Chan-Wook). Whoa!

Stack-A-Records

Tom Tall & His Tom Kats... Stack-A-Records (1958, Crest 45-1038 .mp3 audio 02:24).

McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17

McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17 at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. "...Frederick McCubbin is one of the foremost Australian Impressionists, most well known for his images of the bush. This exhibition traces the radical changes in his work after he viewed the works of the European masters JMW Turner and Claude Monet in London. It includes a diverse range of joyous Australian paintings, from the bush to city life, interiors and portraits."

Ringl and Pit

Ringl and Pit. "...A captivating portrait of Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach, two pioneering artists who met in Berlin in 1929 and started the 'ringl + pit' studio to do advertising photography. Full of humor and vitality at 91 and 89 years old, they reflect on their work, their lifelong friendship, and what being a 'New Woman' was like 70 years ago.
Challenging the expectations of their Jewish middle-class parents, Stern and Auerbach opened their studio in 1929, in the midst of an exciting time of social liberation, expanding mass media, economic upheaval and political change. Stern also spent a year at the legendary Bauhaus school. "ringl + pit" soon won international prizes, for work that subverted the images of women in mainstream advertising.
But when the Nazis came to power, Grete and Ellen fled, with Ellen eventually settling in New York and Grete in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ellen photographed during her travels and later worked with emotionally disturbed youth. Grete became one of the most influential figures in Argentine photography."

Blue, Blue, Blue Beat

The Tornados... Blue, Blue, Blue Beat (1964, Decca (UK) 11889 .mp3 audio 02:51). From Probe is Turning-on the People!

European Anatomy Museums

European Anatomy Museums on Flickr. "...In 2007, I received a travel grant to visit various medical and anatomy museums in Europe. In particular, I was interested in those museums with extensive teratology — the study of 'monsters' — collections. During late January and early February 2008, I traveled to England, France and Holland drawing from and photographing (with permission of the curators of each institution) interesting specimens and objects. This is seed material for a new body of work titled Cabinet of Curiosities."

Wisconsin State Fair

Wisconsin State Fair at the WHS. "...This gallery provides highlights of those changes through time, from fire company competitions, horse races, sideshows and brass bands, to auto and motorcycle races, aeronautics shows, demolition derbies, politicians and TV/movie celebrities, Alice in Dairyland, and of course, food and amusement rides. Today the fair is a huge eleven-day event with an attendance of nearly one million - a far cry from its modest beginnings."

Somehow You'll Find Your Way

Hasil Adkins... Somehow You'll Find Your Way (,mp3 audio 03:20). From the album What the Hell Was I Thinking (1998, Fat Possum FTPM 80314).

Carmageddon - The Cars That Ate Bangkok

Carmageddon - The Cars That Ate Bangkok - photographs by Philippe Blenkinsop. "...For these photographs, Anglo-Australian photographer Philip Blenkinsop camped out in the back of an ambulance belonging to Poh Tech Teung, an independent rescue and body recovery company in Bangkok, Thailand.
In the absence of a government-run institution, Poh Tech Teung were among a number of recovery groups. When word of an accident got out, they sped out into the heat of the Bangkok night in an effort to get the incident first.
There were a lot of accidents.Bangkok has ten million people and three million vehicles (450 new vehicles appear on the roads every day). Traffic laws are few; those that do exist are wholly ignored. Blenkinsop says the Thai’s seemingly total disregard of street-signs, traffic-lights, lanes and other motorists can be viewed two different ways. 'The Western way, irresponsible and negligent with an almost blatant disregard for human life, or the Thai way, a sort of subconscious poetic blend of technology and karma on wheels at high speed, where only the dead deserve to die.'" More... Works by Philippe Blenkinsop at Noor Images, including Tales From The Yellow River Bank.

Karl Blossfeldt: Urformen der Kunst - The Complete Portfolio

Karl Blossfeldt: Urformen der Kunst - The Complete Portfolio at Soulcatcher Studio. "...Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) was a German instructor of sculpture who used his remarkable photographs of plant studies to educate his students about design elements in nature. Self-taught in photography, he devoted himself to the study of nature, photographing nothing but flowers, buds and seed capsules for thirty-five years. He once said, 'The plant never lapses into mere arid functionalism; it fashions and shapes according to logic and suitability, and with its primeval force compels everything to attain the highest artistic form.'
Blossfeldt's photographs were made with a homemade camera that could magnify the subject up to thirty times its actual size. By doing so he revealed extraordinary details within the natural structure of the plants. In the process he created some of the most innovative photographic work of his time. The simple yet expressive forms captured on film affirmed his boundless artistic and intellectual ability.
Published in 1928 when Blossfeldt was sixty-three and a professor of applied art at the Berliner Kunsthochschule, Urformen der Kunst quickly became an international bestseller and in turn made Blossfeldt famous almost overnight. His contemporaries were enchanted by the abstract shapes and structures in nature that he revealed to the world. In 2001 Urformen der Kunst was included in 'The Book of 101 Books' as one of the seminal photographic books of the Twentieth Century." More at the Karl Blossfeldt Archiv.

Skate Para Meninas

Lost Art Presents... Skate Para Meninas. (br)