6:10 a.m. | August 29, 2005

To mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, below the brilliant performance by Aaron Neville of Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" from the September 2, 2005 "Concert for Hurricane Relief."

Katrina reached New Orleans on August 29, 2005 at 6:10 a.m.

The Data Stream on the Campaign Trail

The Data Stream is in the first days of a seventeen day road trip from Omaha, Nebraska to Denver, Colorado to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, and back to Omaha in conjunction with "The Electoral College," a year long media project on the 2008 U.S.

presidential elections and democratic practice in America.

Over the next two weeks, the 'Stream' will be taking a break from its usual, eclectic arts & culture coverage, with the exception of occasional, previously scheduled posts, and Electoral College updates. We thank you for your support.

The Data Stream

The Electoral College
The Electoral College YouTube Channel

[graphic: screen grab of temporary site of The Electoral College. Click on image to enlarge.]

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

[with thanks to CDN for the tip, below, a June 2008 presentation at the Library of Congress by Michael Wesh, director of the Kansas State University Digital Ethnography Program.]

Recreations of Performances

Walter Phillips Gallery
The Banff Centre
Glyde Hall, St. Julien Way
Banff, Alberta Canada

Bureau de Change

[click on image to enlarge]

more


[screen grab from gallery mailing. Photo caption: Elizabeth Chitty, History, Colour TV and You, 1982." Photo credit: Corry Wyngaarden."]

Instruments Have Come!

[graphic from Tipitina's Foundation. Click to enlarge.]

Over the Hump

New Orleans Museum of Art
One Collins C. Diboll Circle
City Park
New Orleans, Louisiana 70124

"Get Over the Hump ... Wednesday Evenings at the New Orleans Museum of Art"

NOMA is now open on Wednesdays from noon to 8 p.m. In addition to the Museum's permanent collection and special exhibitions and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, enjoy these special evening activities. All events begin at 6:30 p.m.

AUGUST 13
Botero Tour, Bi-lingual (Spanish & English) Walk-through with Miranda Lash, NOMA's Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art>

FILM, Botero the Rebel (52 min., English/Spanish) (Please note that this film begins at 7 p.m.)

more

[graphic from google image search for 'New Orleans. NASA landsat photograph].

The Free University of the Airwaves

The Free University of the Airwaves
Monday 18 August to Friday 22 August 2008, daily from 10am to 3pm, repeated nightly 7pm to midnight. [all times gmt]

Resonance 104.4 FM, broadcasting in central London on FM, with live simultaneous streaming worldwide via www.resonancefm.com

"Resonance FM announces a "summer school on the radio" for a week during the holidays. Designed to appeal to the general (adult) listener, this series of lectures ranges restlessly across many subjects. "The Free University allows listeners to dip into a vast range of material," explains project instigator and Resonance programming director Ed Baxter. "What we are aiming for is a snapshot of contemporary thought, subject matter we find provocative and intriguing. The result is digressive, for sure, but always stimulating and unusual."

The Free University is certainly that. Historian Ariel Hessayon (Goldsmiths) speaks on two subjects: about Jews in England from their expulsion in 1290 to their readmission in 1659; and "Restoring the Garden of Eden in England's Green and Pleasant Land," which takes a new view of the seventeenth century Diggers. There is more visionary stuff from Plymouth's Professor Malcolm Miles, who specialises in concepts of Utopia, while at the other end of the scale Mark Miodownik of King's College's Materials Library takes us through an elemental reading of the making of a cup of coffee – illustrated in robust fashion in the station's kitchen. Oneupmanship not intended, Professor Steven Connor (Birkbeck) talks about The History of Air; and, refreshing beverages sorted, ethnographer Caroline Osella asks, How do you make a man?

There is a strong anthropological strand, with contributions from Monica Janowski (Potency, Hierarchy and Food in Borneo), Magnus Marsden (Muslim village intellectuals) and Edward Simpson (Remembering natural disasters and memorials in Gujurat); while Alpa Shah asks, Would Yosemite be a better place for the Elephants of Eastern India? Only Resonance FM can provide the answer.

Influential professor of design Peter Rea offers various insights into Visual Literacy, illustrated with audio from Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd and the rural blues of the 1930s; Dr. Julian Stallabrass talks about visual representations of war; Professor Jean Seaton has recourse to George Orwell's enduring relevance; and Roberta Mock asks what constitutes avant-garde performance.

Philosophers AC Grayling and Jonathan Wolff, cultural theorist Nicolas Bourriaud, "new complexity" composer Richard Barrett, folk music specialist Professor Reg Hall and Christine Kinnon, Professor of Molecular Immunology at UCL, are among others of the two dozen contributors to this extraordinary project. The station will post brief and user-friendly on-line reference material, photographs and bibliographies for the lectures."

For audio, further information, pictures etc, call Richard Thomas on +44 20 7089 2170.

[graphic from google image search for "University of the Airwaves.']

Hot Buttered Soul

[Associated Press article below reprinted in full from the online version of the New York Times.]

August 10, 2008
Isaac Hayes, Deep-Voiced Soul Icon, Is Dead at 65
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:55 p.m. ET

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose ''Theme From Shaft'' won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.

Hayes was pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis an hour after he was found by a family member, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

With his muscular build, shiny head and sunglasses, Hayes cut a striking figure at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting Afros. His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White.

And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show ''South Park.''

''Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music,'' Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. ''When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes -- the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it.''

Hayes was about to begin work on a new album for Stax, the soul record label he helped build to legendary status. And he had recently finished work on a movie called ''Soul Men'' in which he played himself, starring Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac, who died on Saturday.

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

''The treadmill was running but he was unresponsive lying on the floor,'' Shular said.

The album ''Hot Buttered Soul'' made Hayes a star in 1969. His shaven head, gold chains and sunglasses gave him a compelling visual image.

''Hot Buttered Soul'' was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a ''cool'' style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers. He prefaced the song with ''raps,'' and the numbers ran longer than three minutes with lush arrangements.

''Jocks would play it at night,'' Hayes recalled in a 1999 Associated Press interview. ''They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever.''

Next came ''Theme From Shaft,'' a No. 1 hit in 1971 from the film ''Shaft'' starring Richard Roundtree.

''That was like the shot heard round the world,'' Hayes said in the 1999 interview.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.

''The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence,'' he said. ''And they'll tell you if you ask.''

Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

''I knew nothing about the business, or trends and things like that,'' he said. ''I think it was a matter of timing. I didn't know what was unfolding.''

A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.

He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote such hits for Sam and Dave as ''Hold On, I'm Coming'' and ''Soul Man.''

All this led to his recording contract.

In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album ''Black Moses'' and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. Hayes composed film scores for ''Tough Guys'' and ''Truck Turner'' besides ''Shaft.'' He also did the song ''Two Cool Guys'' on the ''Beavis and Butt-Head Do America'' movie soundtrack in 1996. Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's ''Nick at Nite'' and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.

He was in several movies, including ''It Could Happen to You'' with Nicolas Cage, ''Ninth Street'' with Martin Sheen, ''Reindeer Games'' starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody ''I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka.''

In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the South Park cook as ''a person that speaks his mind; he's sensitive enough to care for children; he's wise enough to not be put into the 'wack' category like everybody else in town -- and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies.''

But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion.

''There is a place in this world for satire,'' he said. ''but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs of others begins.''

Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes ''has no problem -- and he's cashed plenty of checks -- with our show making fun of Christians.'' A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was 6.

Hayes wanted to be a doctor, but got redirected when he won a talent contest in ninth grade by singing Nat King Cole's ''Looking Back.''

He held down various low-paying jobs, including shining shoes on the legendary Beale Street in Memphis. He also played gigs in rural Southern juke joints where at times he had to hit the floor because someone began shooting.

------

AP writers Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Ky., and Nekesa Moody in New York contributed to this story.

[photo from New York Times. Caption: G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times. "Isaac Hayes performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an inductee in 2002."]

Quart Bag

Civilian Art Projects
406 7th Street NW, Third Floor
Washington, DC 20004
202.347.0022

August 8 - August 16, 2008
Opening Reception: August 8 |7-9 pm
QUART BAG: A Community Art Show

"Inspired by the many things you can do with a quart bag, Civilian Art Projects has invited 100 DC area artists to participate in a community art exhibition called Quart Bag. The exhibition provides an imaginative opportunity for artists to use thirty-two ounces of space within a plastic quart size bag. All works of art will be sold for $100 or less, providing an opportunity for all people to walk home with a piece of art that is FAA approved."

[image from Civilian Art Projects Web site.]

Lunch with Liberace

Liberace Museum
1775 East Tropicana Avenue
Las Vegas, Nevada 89119-6529
phone: 702-798-5595
"Lunch with Liberace
Tuesday through Saturday (ask a Cast Member for details)

Enjoy good eats and visual treats at the Liberace Café, inside the Liberace Museum. Great food, and great Liberace memories from our video archives."

Lunch & Video $10.00
Includes Sandwich, Chips, Beverage (excluding juice) and Dessert

Snack & Video $5.00
Includes Dessert & Beverage (excluding juice)

Video $4.00

[graphic from museum web site.]

An eye on scale

Centre Pompidou
Place Georges Pompidou
75004 Paris

Galerie des enfants

L'Oeil sur l'échelle
Edouard Sautai

through September 1 2008



[photograph from exhibition Web site. Caption: "Hwanghak-dong II" série Séoul 2003. Tirage Lambda sur Dibond 98 x 120 cm. © Edouard Sautai."]

Jerry Garcia | August 1, 1942

On the occasion of the anniversary of the birth of Jerry Garcia, here's a Grateful Dead performance of the Buddy Holly rock 'n roll standard "Not Fade Away." Note: Jerry Garcia is not the musician featured in the YouTube video still. Kuipo42, who posted the clip to YouTube, provides the following information: "Grateful Dead - Not Fade Away - Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, Mickey Hart & Bill Kreutzman - Alpine Valley Music Theater 1989"]