Archive for April, 2016

The Legend of Maya Deren, Her Collaboration with Alexander Hammid & Teiji Ito

Friday, April 29th, 2016
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    Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

    The film was shot in 1943 in Los Angeles by Deren’s then-husband, Alexander Hammid, a Hollywood cinematographer and filmmaker himself, and it launched Deren’s career as a staunch proponent of independent and experimental film in the New York indie scene.
    The 50 most important independent films

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    Maya Deren
    Meshes of the Afternoon – 1943
    The sound composed by her Japanese husband was added in 1953 (Via)
    She made four trips to Haiti between 1951 and 1952 and came home with endless footage of voodoo rites. What she had shot overwhelmed her: Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti, a 54-minute sound film, was edited after her death by Cherel and Teiji Ito. The latter, 18 years younger, was a Japanese drummer whom Deren married in her New York days. When she died at 44, he scattered her ashes on the side of Mount Fuji.

  • Elinka at 4 years old Maya Deren

    Eleanor (Maya Deren) was around 14 years old when she wrote this poem after an encounter with Gandhi at his lecture in Geneva.

    Gandhi

    Small in size
    Great in belief
    Poor in Clothing
    Rich in Will
    Withered in body
    Full with purpose
    Scarce in beauty
    Overflowing with wisdom
    That is Gandhi

    (From The Legend of Maya Deren, a documentary biography and collected works, page 86)

    Eleanora (Maya) Deren was born in Kiev, Russia and came to USA as a child.
    Studied in France and Geneva. B.A from NYU and Master’s from Smith College. She has been a reporter, a radio scriptwriter and a translater. Worked as a secretary to Katherine Dunham and her dance group.
    Her earlier interest was in folkdancing and cultural expressions of diverse nationalities and races. She wrote papers as a graduate student of anthropology.

  • Ritual of Transfigure Time
    In this film Deren weaves together her interest in dance with the exploration of myth and symbol. Dance becomes a metaphor for courtship and sexual union. (via)

    Key themes in this film are the dread of rejection and the contrasting freedom of expression in the abandonment to the ritual. (via)

    After her death, Deren allegedly appeared to poet James Merrill (1926-1995) and his partner David Jackson (1922-2001) during séances in which she spelled out ghostly messages through a Ouija board. Deren is a character in Merrill’s The Book of Ephraim (1976), the first book of the trilogy known as The Changing Light at Sandover (1982). James Merrill paid for the completion of several of Deren’s films. (via)

    Round Midnight Photo Exhibit of Cy Twombly, Dexter, Bertrand, Ella, Marilyn & Paul Mazursky

    Monday, April 25th, 2016
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    Photograph of Cy Twombly by Robert Rauschenberg
    Cy Twombly with Relics
    Cy Twombly birthday April 25, 1928.

  • Dexter & Bertrand 1aBertDexter
    Happy birthday Bertrand Tavernier. (Bertrand Tavernier update, Journey of French Cinema-2018)

  • Ella and Marilyn 1aEllaMarilyn
    Ella Jane Fitzgerald, April 25, 1917 (birthday)

    During the ‘50s, one of the most popular venues was Mocambo in Hollywood. Frank Sinatra made his Los Angeles debut at Mocambo in 1943, and it was frequented by the likes of Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Lana Turner.

    Fitzgerald was not allowed to play at Mocambo because of her race. Then, one of her biggest fans made a telephone call that quite possibly changed the path of her career for good. Here, she tells the story of how Marilyn Monroe changed her life:

  • Paul Mazursky 1ePaulMazurskyr his birthday was also April 25.

  • Willem De Kooning – Mini Retrospective – 2016

    Sunday, April 24th, 2016
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    The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.

    Willem de Kooning April 24, 1904

  • In his studio ..De Kooning photography by Fred McDarrah

    De Kooning in His Broadway Studio, March 23, 1962
    Vintage gelatin silver print, printed 1962

    Well, I have my beautiful de Kooning
    to aspire to. I think it has an orange
    bed in it, more than the ear can hold

    Frank O’Hara
    (See Summer Couch from – In Memory of My Feelings)

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    1958
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    Jane Freukcher with Ruth Kligman and DeKooning.

    Under the Cherry Moon – Good Night Dear Prince

    Thursday, April 21st, 2016
  • The Artist 1artistPrince

    With Kristin Scott Thomas 1artistKristin

  • Billboards – Geoffrey Ballet –

    R.I.P Malick Sidibe – Mali Photographer of Youth, Women and Joy

    Saturday, April 16th, 2016
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    Malick Sidibé

    NYtimes. Malick Sidibe Photographer known for social reportage in Mali dies at 80.

    He attended Saturday-night parties at which young Malians, dressed to the nines, danced the twist, the rumba and the merengue to the Beatles, James Brown and Afro-Caribbean music. This was Mali’s youthquake, and Mr. Sidibé was its photographic witness.

    “For me, photography is all about youth,” he told The Daily Telegraph of London in 2008. “It’s about a happy world full of joy, not some kid crying on a street corner or a sick person.”

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  • Malick Sidibé: Portrait of the Artist as a Portraitist (Trailer)

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    See more photos from The Redlist

    Mark Rylance as Leonardo da Vinci – BBC Mini Series (2003)

    Friday, April 15th, 2016
  • Mark Rylance <> <>1adavinciMarkRylance

    Da Vinci, The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything (See a trailer and the film)

  • Clos Luce in Amboise KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

    Leonard spent his last years and died here at Le Clos Luce This is a wonderful place to visit, following La Loire and visiting the famous castles nearby.

  • Two drawings of Horses by Leonardo (scroll down)

  • Here is anexcerpt from David Markson
    “It is said that in the street markets of Florence Leonardo da Vinci would buy the various small birds that were for sale—the ones caged at the food stands, the ones for purchase by those with a palate for small roasted finches and warblers—and then he would go somewhere and set them free.
    I presume the birds were in cages. Though I do not know. Surely bird cages are an ancient art. You see, Leonardo was a vegetarian. If he saw other animals under the same market duress I suppose he might have let those go as well. After buying them. Monkeys and dogs and such. This would only make sense. He would want to spare all the innocents from the dastardly meat eaters. Though doubtless there were some animals which were not for sale as food. Decisions would have to be made. Was he only going to buy the birds and animals that were in the most immediate danger? Were there labels to help with momentous decisions such as this?
    Food monkey. Companion monkey. Edible parrot. This dog is for eating, this one is not. Please do not eat these birds. One does not want to think of the trial and error involved in birdeaters knowing which were the tastiest of birds. Let us say nothing of the dog testers. – David Markson

  • <><><> Leonardo
    The Renaissance man by Adam Gopnik from the New Yorker. He wrote, Leonardo remains weird, matchlessly weird, and nothing to be done about it.

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    Leonardo da Vinci Tarot is here.

    Arno <>Arno
    (photos by Fung Lin Hall)

    Tony Conrad – Drone and Minimal, Avand Garde Musicians & Filmmaker Died at 76

    Sunday, April 10th, 2016
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    Tony Conrad (Boingboing)

    Tony Conrad, drone and minimalist music pioneer, RIP

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    Wish You Were (Buffalo Avant Garde)

    Tony Conrad (American, born 1940). Examinations, 1979. Pencil on paper with Lucite, strap, and bed, drawing:

  • For a generation of musicians and filmmakers in Buffalo and around the world, Tony Conrad was the walking embodiment of the avant garde.

    Mr. Conrad, who died Saturday morning in Hospice Buffalo, Cheektowaga, at 76 after fighting prostate cancer, began his career as an underground musician and filmmaker and ended it as an internationally idolized composer, performer, professor and thinker.

    He served as a widely admired faculty member of the University at Buffalo’s media study department from 1976 until his death, during which time he was instrumental in the formation of Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center, the growth of Buffalo’s cable access network and countless exhibitions, collectives and collaborations on city streets, cable channels and in institutions across the region.

    Despite a diverse career that significantly impacted the lives of thousands of students, as well as the trajectory of visual art and music in the United States and far beyond, Mr. Conrad is perhaps best-known for inspiring the name of influential rock band The Velvet Underground when he was getting his start as an artist in New York City.

    Anthony S. Conrad was born March 7, 1940, in Concord, N.H. He earned a degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1962 before moving to New York City and beginning his career as an experimental musician, composer and filmmaker. During his time in New York, he collaborated with musicians John Cale, LaMonte Young and others in a loose collective known as the Theatre of Eternal Music and later as the Dream Syndicate, whose work would spawn and influence several new genres of music, including drone, minimalism, punk and electronica.http://buffalo.com/2016/04/09/news/art/tony-conrad-avant-garde-pioneer-ub-professor-dies-76

    Panama Papers: Could Pirate Party Co-Founder Birgitta Jónsdóttir Become Iceland’s Next PM?

    Wednesday, April 6th, 2016
  • Birgitta Jónsdóttir 1aBirgetta

    Panama Papers: Could Pirate Party Co-Founder Birgitta Jónsdóttir Become Iceland’s Next PM? (Amy Goodman Democracy Now)

    Birgitta Jónsdóttir (Wiki) is a Poetician.

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    Index

    Opening the door to my Soul, Mind & HeArth

    The Official Website of Birgitta Jonsdottir

  • Marlon and Stanley Kubrick, Kerouac’s Letter, Home Video with Monty

    Sunday, April 3rd, 2016
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    Hat tip to Will Mccrabb for the photo.

    Marlon set the timer on Kubrick (read how Kubrick got fired.)

    Stanley Kubrick and Marlon Brando working on the script of One-Eyed Jacks, circa 1958.

  • Marlon in Viva Zapata – Kazan

  • Marlon Brando Documentary (youtube)


  • (Jack Kerouac and Marlon Brando)

    Letter to Marlon – Come on now Marlon, put up your dukes

    I visualise the beautiful shots could be made with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak. I wanted you to play the part because Dean (as you know) is no dopey hotrodder but a real intelligent (in fact Jesuit) Irishman. You play Dean and I’ll play Sal (Warner Bros. mentioned I play Sal) and I’ll show you how Dean acts in real life, you couldn’t possibly imagine it without seeing a good imitation

  • Marlon and James Baldwin

  • Portrait of Marlon Brando by Julian Schnabel

    1aBrandoJulian