CITY PLANNING

[cityplanning]

Hello loyal readers and followers.  I appreciate you and wanted to alert you that I’ve for the most part moved over to Instagram. I may still post here on occasion. But for the most part that’s where the action is:

www.instagram.com/theinvisiblelibrary

Check out and please do follow all!

Thanks,

Brendan

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In the spring of 1971 Sun Ra was an artist-in-residence at UC Berkeley, where he taught a lecture course officially described as African-American Studies 198, also known as “Sun Ra 171,” “The Black Man in the Universe,” or “The Black Man in the Cosmos.” You can now listen to a Sun Ra lecture in full and checking out his read list.

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Visit Original Link

“It’ll All Be Over”

The Supreme Jubilees

One of my favorite reissues in recent years. The folks at Light in the Attic Records rescued this 1980 self-release from obscurity and offer this description of the record, 'If God had a disco, the DJ would be playing California gospel-soul group The Supreme Jubilees.' A must listen if you dig The Delfonics, Al Green, etc.

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Design fans take note, NASA has released their 1975 Graphics Standards Manual--famous for introducing NASA's "Worm" logo, as well as outlining how the logo should be placed on various NASA materials--online as a downloadable PDF.

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Easily one of the most exciting new American independent films I've seen in a long time. The film's synopsis might suggest it's fairly conventional indie fodder--"estranged brothers reunite, etc"--however I can assure you it's anything but. Dark and often brutally funny, THE MEND is an electrifying and exuberant debut film that's inspired and idiosyncratic through and through. The performances by Josh Lucas, Stephen Plunkett, Mickey Sumner, Austin Pendleton, and the rest of the cast are uniformly terrific. But even more impressive is the direction by John Magary, who's crafted a singular vision that boldly tosses asides conventional ideas about how to pace and structure a move to exhilarating effect. It's the work of a filmmaker animated by the possibilities of cinema, certainly one to watch going forward

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Artist Tatsuya Tanaka creates miniature dioramas using everyday household items. Straws become a bamboo forest, egg cartons become a mountain range, a pill becomes a punching bag, a can of sardines a fishing boat, earbuds a grill, and on and on and on. It's wonderfully simple but wildly creative.

What's most astounding is that he's been doing this every day since April 2011. The entire archive is available at his website, miniature-calendar.com.

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Visit Original Link

“Aynotché tèrabu”

Mahmoud Ahmed

This 1975 single by Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Amed is a barn burner. It boasts an insanely catchy hook and amazing instrumentation by The Equators Band who back him up. After I my first listen I immediately put it on repeat and listened five more times.

If you've never heard Ethiopian music or often found it inaccessible, check out this track. It'll have you and everyone within earshot moving and grooving in no time flat.

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After existing on the margins of the literary world during her lifetime and in the years since her death in 2004, the writer Lucia Berlin is finally having her moment in the spotlight. Today marks the publication of 'A Manual for Cleaning Women', which collects 43 of her short stories. Her work is largely autobiographical, reflecting a life lived in the American West and as well as Chile, New York City and Mexico, multiple divorces, four children, and time spent in a variety of professions: house cleaner, a substitute teacher and a hospital clerk. I find her writing style almost completely singular but to give you a shorthand reference it's drawn comparisons to the short fiction of Lorrie Moore, George Saunders, Alice Munro, and Denis Johnson.

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B&H Dairy, the 73 year old East Village institution, is back! Forced to close after the devastating gas explosion that rocked Second Avenue this past March, it appeared the upgrades needed to reopen would be cost prohibitive. But thanks to fervent support from loyal patrons and a successful crowdfunding campaign, B&H has in fact returned. I recommend the potato pancakes and of course the challah--still made from scratch--it's some of the best I've ever had. The challah grilled cheese and french toast are especially remarkable. The soups have many fans as do the blintzes, home fries, omelettes, lox, and Matzah brei. An incredibly affordable and delicious spot. A great option for breakfast or a late night meal. Go support them!

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Did you know that in the 19th century Russia colonized California? Indeed from 1812 to 1842, Fort Ross, located in what's now Sonoma County, was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America. It's still standing and part of Fort Ross State Historic Park. You can go visit and imagine an alternate history in which California remained in the hands of Russia.

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‘The Playboy Club, Louise, 1983′ by Birney Imes

For more than 20 years Birney Imes roamed the countryside of his native Mississippi photographing the people and places he encountered along the way. Largely self taught and working in both black and white and color, Imes’ photographs take viewers inside juke joints and dilapidated restaurants scattered across that landscape. There he introduces the viewer to, as one writer put it, “the characters and locales that linger in the margins of Southern memory and culture.” Imes’ photographs have been collected in three books: Juke Joint, Whispering Pines and Partial to Home. They've also been exhibited at solo shows in the United States and Europe. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, La Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

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James Salter, The Paris Review Interview: The Art of Fiction No. 133

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ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA - directed by Shirley Clarke (1985)

The final film by Shirley Clarke. Clarke is easily one of the most important and pioneering figures in independent film history. A dancer by training, she began making ground breaking short films in the 1950's and then features in the 1960's, at a time when there were few if any women directing. She actually began shooting footage for "Ornette" in the 1965 for public television but they disliked what she showed them and fired her. Despite having directed a trio of immensely important and ground breaking independent films--"The Connection" (1961), "The Cool World" (1963), and "Portrait of Jason" (1967)--Clarke had difficulty finding financing for her films and turned to teaching for most of the 70's and early 80's. In 1983, Ornette Coleman was being honored in his native Forth Worth, Texas, and Clarke was brought on to complete her film, using both old and new material. The final product is amazing. It combines documentary footage, dramatizations of Coleman's childhood, video art, and musical performances into a collage that captures Coleman's own musical style. Richard Brody of The New Yorker describes it as "an open-ended work that points its vectors far into musical consciousness." RIP Ornette

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John Peel’s Record Archives

The late legendary DJ John Peel amassed a record collection of more than 25,000 LPs.

Thanks to the interactive website from the BBC and Arts Council England, which launched in 2012, you can hang out in Peel's home studio and virtually browse his collection.

Just scroll over the shelves, if you come across a record that interests you, click on it, and up pops a card with Peel's notes on the albums, comments, ratings, etc. Go ahead and listen or keep browsing. There's a bunch of additional multi-media material to explore: video, old Peel Sessions, photos, and so on.

The project is ongoing with more records continually being added to the shelves

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If you grew up in the 80's or 90's the opening sequence that preceded HBO feature presentations (nicknamed 'HBO in Space' or 'HBO Starship') was woven into the fabric of your childhood, even if like me you didn't have cable, let alone HBO. In fact, that I only saw rarely at friends houses made it even more special. In any case, the sequence was produced by the New York production company Liberty Studios and this is how they made it.

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A pioneer of the organic modernist movement of the 1960's, Stan Bitters' work can be found throughout the country, particularly in Southern California. 

Over the last decade a revival of interest in post-and-beam and case study architecture as well as midcentury modern interiors and gardens prompted a rediscovery of Bitters’ handmade work, and last year at 77, Bitters had his first solo show in 35 years.

His work ranges from everyday objects, such as birdhouses, thumb pots, and lanterns to large-scale architectural installations, murals, boulder walls, and fountains. Bitters documented his process and work in the 1976 book Environmental Ceramics (which has since been reissued), in it he offered this description of his work and philosophy:

“I saw ceramics as a centerpiece — indoors or outdoors — something that lasts forever with texture and color that engages you visually and physically, a presence that can be felt and touched. In contrast to pristine marble and bronze sculptures you set aside to view from a distance, my material allows you to be involved in it.”

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Late Fragment And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth. Raymond Carver