Turnagain Arm

Lovely video essay by Mark Lester, A Spring Tide On Turnagain Arm. Music, "Almost Down," by Anchorage musician & composer, James Glaves.

Merry Christmas

and Mele Kalikimaka with Bette Midler - enjoy!



via @therealroseanne

8 Days Of Hanukkah

(And hope you are having a happy one!)  Brought to you by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

¡Viva Calaca!

Enjoy ¡Viva Calaca! - an animation project by the Spanish art director and designer Ritxi Ostáriz, and based on today's Mexican celebration, Dia de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead).  The soundtrack is from Day of the Dead by American singer and composer Voltaire.

o bella ciao !

So it goes!

the confessions of robert crumb (1987)

Simply heartbroken by the #jesuischarlie cartoonist news.  Me too ... in honor of satiric artists everywhere, free thought & speech, and the eternal (French, s'il vous plaît ) spirit of résistance ... posting The Confessions of Robert Crumb (1987) ...



More at Paris Review with American cartoonist Robert Crumb, last seen about the south of France (shhhh!)  ..

Below, another Cheap Suit Serenaders chanson, Crying My Blues Away:




Oh, here is the cover, if you're still searching ... (pricey though) along with more no one is showing you ...

For sale in Chicago, though.
 

*crossposted at Old Sauk River, amongst the many fondly regarded contributors, with that Hunter-Gatherer news site.  As for the curiosity shop, it is still out for the time being.  We are still working on that coming back, reincarnated better than ever before, soon (we hope)  ...

 -------------------------

1.21.2015 crossposted Editor's Note.  The satiric comment about a pricey Ebay Charlie Hebdo copy was made with the writer's off-the-cuff perception (and possible misunderstanding) that an unknown individual was selling theirs (in the Charlie Hebdo magazine-deprived U.S.A.) for something like 30,000 dollars .. and the way others, say, have Ebay or amazon-posted their favorite 10.00 dollar novel or CD for similar profits with a "Hey, ya never know," "might as well." 

It has since come to our attention that the magazine is donating proceeds to the families of the victims and that may be a genuine fundraising attempt.  We, of course, fully support such fundraising on behalf of the families of the  victims;  however, we do not research these channels one way or the other.  Therefore, if you wish to donate funds for the Charlie Hebdo families of the victims, we recommend contacting the newspaper directly for further information as to where and how you can do that over the internet.

americana

Amy LaVere and Will Sexton in Last Rock N Roll Boy To Dance. ..

oldest known music

Guess that rhythm.  It was written 3,400 years ago on clay tablets in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit using cuneiform signs in the hurrian language.   

Via Open Culture - listen here.

ladies of the world

Ironical, funny retro take with a bigger message.  From Flight of the Condor's 4.21.08 album;  you tell 'em, lads.

when you're with me, i can fly ..

"Eclectic adventurist" Raul Midón in Sunshine at Joe's Pub.  Via @Joshua_Zer0.

 

orange moon

Yes, that's what I am .. from Erykah Badu ..

have yourself a merry little christmas

con una rosa

Vinicio Capossela plays Con Una Rosa in Sanremo in 2001. 

manoir de mes rêves

Around the fire with Angelo Debarre and friends.

le ballet mécanique

Le Ballet Mécanique (1924), a collaboration between American composer George Antheil, French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker Joseph Fernand Henri Léger, filmmaker Dudley Murphy, and American modernist artist Man Ray who contributed cinematographic input.



The Philadelphia Museum of Art is currently hosting an interdisciplinary exhibition through January 5th, 2014, Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis.   Curated by Anna Vallye, the exhibit is designed to "shed new light on the vitally experimental decade of the 1920s in Paris when the great French modernist Fernand Léger (1881-1955) played a leading role in redefining the practice of painting by bringing it into active engagement with the urban environment and modern mass media. This will be the first exhibition to take as its inspiration and focus Léger’s monumental painting The City (1919), a cornerstone of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s collection and a landmark in the history of modern art, placing it in dialogue with the urban art and culture of modernity."

PMA hosted a screening and discussion of Le Ballet Mécanique, what wiki describes as one of the masterpieces of early experimental filmmaking. Composer Antheil's "most enduring work" was intended as a soundtrack, but film and music were reportedly not brought together until the 1990s.

why

Leon Redbone's Why.

 

float on

Dedicated to the brilliant lights on twitter .. a Seattle area classic too, this Modest Mouse video is featured in one of the music exhibits at the Emerald City's exciting, very hands-on Museum of History and Industry. 

shine on harvest moon

Hope you had the chance - or will have the chance - to see a lovely harvest moon September 18th and 19th.  Some awesome photos here via EarthSky News.  And more here, including why you see that red color and what farmers were doing with all the extra moonlight in the days before electricity.

Leon Redbone's wonderful rendition of Shine On Harvest Moon, composed by Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth in 1903.  If you enjoy Django Reinhardt, you'll also want to listen to Milton Brown's version here, "cofounder of western swing" and an important influence on Reinhardt.  Of course, the musically sweet sound of the Hal Kemp orchestra in 1929.

 

*Photo credit/Wikipedia, uploaded by Roadcrusher, "Harvest Moon."

marionette

Them Bird Things.

che cossè l'amor

I discovered the fabulous Vinicio Capossela via Putumayo's collection, Italian Café, and in Che Cosè L'Amor - the album pamphlet saying that he "has been compared to Tom Waits because of his quirky creativity, use of unusual instruments, lyrics that describe complex and bizarre characters and nostalgic melodies that conjure up bygone eras."  Mr. Capossela is also a novelist, wiki reporting his lyrics "highly original" and "often inspired by literary sources such as John Fante, Geoffrey Chaucer, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others."  From Putumayo:  "Che Cosè L'Amor (What Is Love?) deals with the meaning of love.  The impressionistic lyrics describe various unusual objects and characters, asking them their definition of love.  He asks the wind, he asks a frozen hammock blown from its gazebo, he asked a disinterested coatroom attendant and a dancing Peruvian, who tells him, 'What is love? It's like a pebble in your shoe that stings with each lazy step of the bolero.'"