We spend enough time in mainstream museums that we often get tired of eating our American history with a slice of apple pie and vanilla ice cream. A new museum soon to open in New York, however, is offering a darker look at “The American Century” and a new book features raw, crowd-sourced images from the time when photography ... Read More »
From the early days of film, America turned to the cowboy, that stoic dust-covered hero in leather and denim, to create a origin myth about ourselves, to define ourselves as we trotted out of our isolationist past into a global future. Now that bronco-ridin’ figure, so much as he ever existed in true life, is in his sunset years—the ... Read More »
No sooner did we mention the fact that record-company giant EMI is reacting to several quarters of low returns by putting the legendary Abbey Road Studios on the market than a group of interested parties left a notice about a grassroots effort to buy and preserve the place where most of the Beatles’ catalog and dozens of other genre-changing ... Read More »
Abdulkhakim Ismailov, the Red Army solider who at the age of 28 was photographed unfurling a Hammer and Sickle atop the Reichstag during the climax of the Soviet siege of Berlin in 1945, died in his Russian hometown this week at the age of 93. The flag was made of tablecloths and the moment was staged, but Yevgeny Khaldei’s ... Read More »
The relationship between the Van Goghs (Vincent and Theo) and Paul Gauguin was long and complicated. Theo purchased, sold, and commissioned the painter’s work while Vincent, then just a struggling artist and brother of a successful dealer, befriended and attempted to collaborate with the far more grounded and well-regarded Gauguin. It was a difficult relationship between the two, strained ... Read More »
The news today that Oren Moverman has started pre-production on a Kurt Cobain biopic has us just a little worried. See, for every “Ray”, “Amadeus”, or “Walk The Line” that captures the lives of musicians with faith and brilliance on celluloid, there seems to be a couple well-meaning duds like “Beyond The Sea”, “What We Do is Secret”, or ... Read More »
Columbia continues to try to switch its leading industry from cocaine production to tourism, sometimes with nasty overlaps. (Matador) Martin Scorsese’s next project will have him directing a short film for superbrand Chanel. (My Fashion Life) After seven deaths, thousands homeless, and hundreds of tourists stranded, Maccu Picchu is returning to normal after disruptive mudslides damaged nearby ... Read More »
This week we”re going sing of the unsung heroes, the musician’s musicians, bands that get mentioned in every “influences” column on MySpace but still, somehow, manage to sell a measly number of records next to their more commercially accessible rivals. We’re talking hardcore rockers who couldn’t make it on to the radio, the wacky iconoclasts who were just to ... Read More »
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