The Viewing List 5

New Orleans: A Living Museum of Music (2010, 57 minutes)

Narrated by Wendell Pierce, this CINE Golden Eagle award-winner is an intimate look at the fantastic music that emanates from New Orleans - "America's music," namely jazz.

Learn about the work of local musicians like Irvin Mayfield and educators who mentor young talent; museum curators who care for musical treasures such as Fats Domino's Steinway piano, ruined by the Katrina floods; historians and archivists who research and document the stories, including the Louisiana State Museum's Greg Lambousy who shares Louis Armstrong's first cornet; activists working to protect, heal and inspire the many musicians whose livelihoods were taken away by Katrina, such as the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic.

"The living museum is a manifestation of participation," proclaims Ellis Marsalis, revered jazz pianist, patriarch of the Marsalis family jazz dynasty, and one of the many artists featured in A Living Museum of Music, which you can watch below. Make sure you click on the Full Screen icon at the bottom right of the video for optimal viewing.

-o0o-

Cecelia Webber Photograph

Take a closer look at the picture on the right. What do you see?

- A couple of flowers.
Well, yes, but look closer.

Los Angeles based artist Cecelia Webber creates flower and butterfly assemblages using hundreds of nude human form photographs. That’s right, every stem and petal in the image is composed of naked human bodies! Although Cecelia’s photographic compositions can take up to two months to produce due to the complexity of finding the right pieces, the results – as you can see – can be quite stunning.

You can see more of Cecelia’s, and purchase images from her site at Cecelia Webber Photography…

Thanks to AmO Life for bringing Cecelia’s work to our attention.

-o0o-

And finally, something to leave you with a smile on your dial, and joy in your heart: an amazing ‘surfing’, skiing, and skateboarding bulldog. Enjoy.

The Viewing List 4

So much to see – so little time. Thankfully we can at least get a glimpse of the world’s amazing wonders through this incredible window called the Internet.

Wesley Townsend Kitten, the principle behind WTK Photography has created a series of great videos, many of which showcase his hometown – the city of San Francisco.

The following video, The City, produced by Wesley, is a time lapse composition that was a year in the making. Begun in June, 2010 and finished in August, 2011, it uses (according to Wesley), about 28,000 frames and 85 different shots – although all the frames weren't used in the final video. It’s a remarkable look at a remarkable city.

The City from WTK Photography on Vimeo.

More info
WTK Photography… http://wtkphotography.com/
WTK Photography Blog… http://wtkphotography.com/blog/
WTK Photography on Vimeo… http://vimeo.com/24178338

-o0o-

Bonnie and Clyde – The Hollywood Myth
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934.

Though known today for his dozen-or-so bank robberies, Barrow in fact preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders. The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers. Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. ~ Source: Wikipedia...

-o0o-

Bonnie and Clyde – The Brutal Reality
Who knows where these clips are sourced from, or how people get hold of them, but here is a two minute film shot soon after the final ambush and shootout that finally killed Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.

The remarkable thing about the footage is that Bonnie Parker’s body can been seen, still slumped against the body of Clyde Barrow as police go about their work of securing the scene, documenting the shootout, and emptying the car of weapons (two sawed-off shotguns, two “machine rifles”, ten automatic pistols and fifteen-hundred rounds of ammunition!

-o0o-

The Viewing List 3

Another in our weekly selection of slide shows and video’s that have caught our attention and interest while trawling across the far reaches of the Internet. Enjoy…

The 20 best NYC movies of all time
Starting with Spike Lee's 1989 offering, Do The Right Thing, and ending with Super Fly (1972), Melissa Anderson, David Fear and Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out online take on the all but impossible task of selecting the 20 Best NYC Movies of All Time.

Of course you will find Martin Scorsese's searing Taxi Driver, and Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon here, as well as the original Taking of Pelham 123 and Woody Allen's Manhattan. Both Scorsese and Woody Allen score two films in Time Out's top 20 with the inclusion of Scorsese's 1985 flick, After Hours, and Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

You will also find some less known films on the list, including the 1953 film Little Fugitive (see image above), John Cassavetes’s debut 1959 film, Shadows (1959), and 1957s Sweet Smell Of Success. See the full slide show here…
Unfortunately, my favourite New York film, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America is not listed among the top 20, which only goes to show that even Time Out can’t always get it right ;- ).

-o0o-

Dennis Hopper Reads Rudyard Kipling on Johnny Cash Show
The poem is “If” by Rudyard Kipling (1899). The scene is The Johnny Cash Show, 1970. The reader is the great Dennis Hopper. Hard to beat this…

Thanks to Open Culture for the heads up on this. Follow them on Twitter at @openculture

-o0o-

The Viewing List 2

Another selection of slide shows and video’s that have caught our attention and interest while trawling across the far reaches of the Internet over the past week. Enjoy…

George Harrison Documentary Premieres at Telluride
Charley Rogulewski, writing for Rolling Stone magazine reports on the new Martin Scorsese documentary on George Harrison called George Harrison: Living In a Material World.

If it is anything like Scorsese’s brilliant 2005 doco, Bob Dylan: No Direction Home, the 210 minute (3 1/2 hour) two-part documentary will be pretty much everything a George Harrison fan could wish for.

The film, which was five-years-in-the-making, premiered over American Labor Day weekend at the Telluride Film Festival, and coincides with the 10-year anniversary of Harrison's death in 2001 from lung cancer. The documentary, which will begin airing on HBO starting October 5th, was made with the full support and cooperation of Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and son Dhani, and includes interviews with her, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Klaus Voormann, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Eric Clapton, among others.

Below you can see the official trailer for George Harrison: Living in the Material World.

...

...

Read the full Rolling Stone article here…

-o0o-

Highlights of Harlem (slide show)
Starting with the City College of New York, and ending with the Harlem Market, the Travel Channel has put together a 17 stop slide show of the some of the best landmarks that Harlem has to offer. In between you get the iconic Apollo Theater, the Hue-Man Bookstore (said to be the largest African-American bookstore in the country), a selection of restaurants and eating establishments (Make My Cake, Chill Berry, and Food for Life Supreme), and arts and cultural institutions (the Studio Museum in Harlem, Lenox Lounge, and the Maysles Cinema).

-o0o-

The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
Recently I wrote about the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art on Staten Island, New York. Although the video below was broadcast on the Time Warner Cable program On The Beat, and talks in part about a now concluded 60th anniversary exhibition, it provides a great introduction to the museum.

-o0o-