Tag: art

Culture Music Pussy Riot Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova: Why I have gone on hunger strike

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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova: Why I have gone on hunger strike
In an open letter, the imprisoned Pussy Riot member explains why the brutal conditions at Penal Colony No 14 have led her to undertake a hunger strike in protest

Click on text to read article and watch video

americans who tell the truth

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AmericansWhoTellTheTruth
Click any picture to go to site.

This is a great way to introduce yourself or your children/students to important figures in american life, from historical figures to contemporary truth tellers.

From the website:

“The original portraits and accompanying resources promote our country’s ideals, illuminate the necessary work of the present, and inspire hope in the future.”

“Sunset at Montmajour” by van Gogh finally authenticated

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van Gogh
Click the picture to read article.

I’m always naturally suspicious of how paintings are authenticated, but this one has all the evidence on its side. Even more importantly, at first glance, it seems to be a fairly prosaic painting; but even as a digital image, after viewing it for a short time, it quite magically comes to life. That is the real hallmark of a van Gogh to me. The sky has a slight swirl pattern a la “starry night” and many of his other paintings, but it is comparatively quite subtle. His style makes a unity of the ground and sky – and even the buildings far in the background – so everything becomes one vibrant organic whole. Magic I say.

The Mindscape of Alan Moore

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Great little piece (except for the voice-over guy) that will give you a tiny introduction to the man.

This is a fairly well-done doc. I have my quibbles with the actual film-making, but no real reason to go into it here. The film is an exploration of Moore’s autobiography and art, but it also becomes a fascinating presentation of his weltanschauung (worldview). Even if you have no interest in his art or story, the ideas he explores are worth listening to and thinking about.

Above is a great talk he gave in support of the library system in England. He talks about his history with books, comics – and the comics industry, the library, and many other topics.
His wit, intelligence, humor, integrity, and humanity – and of course his story telling abilities – are there for all to enjoy.

Exene and X

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What an amazing woman. And she doesn’t have insurance?!? This is how we treat our artists who don’t serve the corporate overlords in the appropriate manner. They end up down with the fifty million of us who can’t afford to get sick. Fuck those bastards and our so-called politicians who serve them. This country is a disgrace. Of course that goes without saying…

Well, without further ado:

Naropa University Archive Project

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naropa_image

click above to go to archive. an amazing resource. the site archive.org that hosts it is also an amazing resource. enjoy.

Description from site:

The Naropa University Archive Project is preserving and providing access to over 5000 hours of recordings made at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. The library was developed under the auspices of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (the university’s Department of Writing and Poetics) founded in 1974 by poets Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg. It contains readings, lectures, performances, seminars, panels and workshops conducted at Naropa by many of the leading figures of the U.S.literary avant-garde.

The collection represents several generations of artists who have contributed to aesthetic and cultural change in the postmodern era. The Naropa University Archive Project seeks to enhance appreciation and understanding of post-World War II American literature and its role in social change, cultural criticism, and the literary arts through widespread dissemination of the actual voices of the poets and writers of this period. Current interest in Oriental religions, environmentalism, political activism, ethnic studies, and women’s consciousness is directly indebted to the work of these New American Poets, writers and musicians.

Funding for this project was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Save America’s Treasures, the GRAMMY Foundation, the Internet Archive, the Collaborative Digitization Program, and private donors. If this collection is important to you please help us preserve it with your donations.

For more information visit our web site at http://www.naropaarchive.org or email us at archive@naropa.edu.
See a Tag Cloud for the this collection.

John Berger / Ways of Seeing , Episode 1 (1972)

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I.

II.

III.

IV.

This series was based on Walter Benjamin’s ideas. It begins slowly, but picks up speed – though the pace will still seem slow to us. Ostensibly, the subject is art and how we see it. In fact, it is an investigation of ideas and ideology, class and indoctrination.
In addition to the arguments Berger is making the series is interesting because, like anything viewed from the future, it has become a kind of historical document; thereby, giving us even more “ways of seeing.” How fast or slow it appears shows us something about how we see now. It shows us other things too. Aside from fashion and the technology (and budget) of the BBC, one of the many things it documents is a particular expression of second-wave feminism in England by “educated” middle and upper-class women in 1972. It’s useful to think about how we have progressed and regressed since then. It might also be useful to remember this was paid for by the state, i.e., taxpayers. All of these are ways of seeing that make this series even more interesting and complex than when it originally aired.

Miss America

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Great satirical song from David Byrne about – you guessed it…

And here is the full (wow), brilliant album (totally underrated):

And here is his official site:

http://davidbyrne.com/

Oh, for those of you who may not know (and i would love to be the person who turned you on to them), he was in a little band called, Talking Heads:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads

and…

Stop Making Sense

“Hi, I’ve got a tape I want to play…”

Great concert and great concert film. Directed by Jonathan Demme by the way…