Tag: 02.16.19

Ken Nordine, Creator Of ‘Word Jazz’, Dead At 98

“You may never have heard the Ken Nordine name, but there is no doubt you have heard him. … [He was] one of the few people in the history of radio to use the medium to its fullest potential, rather than as a forum for blather, confrontation, inanities and noisy nonsense. He made a kind of vocal music as the voice of thousands of commercials and as the force behind a new art form he created and called ‘word jazz.'” – Chicago Tribune

Robert Rauschenberg Once Threw His Paintings Into A River Because A Critic Said So

The artist’s 1953 exhibition in Florence wasn’t well-received by the conservative public of the city: one critic was appalled at the art’s “barbaric metaphysics” and another called it “psychological garbage and that it must be thrown into the Arno.” So, when the show was over and Rauschenberg saw how much it would cost to ship the art home to the States, that is what he did. – The Daily Beast

Heavy Metal Has A Nazi Problem. But What To Do About It?

“Should metal stay dangerous and controversial and offensive? Is it censorship to deny bands a platform for their genocidal views? Is it curtailing their free speech to make it harder for a band to get booked or get signed versus at what point does it become critical to keep these dangerous Fascist elements out of our scene? At what point is that record worth so much to you that you would buy it knowing that you were actively contributing to something that is harming other people?” – The New Yorker

The Tate Modern’s Angry Neighbors Entirely Missed The Point Of Cities

Everyone’s looking, in a city like London. Also, “it takes a special kind of confidence to blow millions on a flat with a swanky glass exterior – one that is positioned a stone’s throw from one of London’s most popular tourist attractions – and subsequently try to eradicate all visible human life within a 150ft radius.” – The Guardian (UK)

Blackface Was Never Harmless

Yes, minstrel shows started in the 19th century – and were one of the U.S.’s first popular forms of entertainment. But they were never seen as harmless, at least not by African Americans. “Frederick Douglass decried blackface performers as ‘the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens.'” – The Atlantic

The Dancing Soldier From South Wales

One night, a young man in dance school worried about his future walked by an Army recruitment center in Manchester – and joined up. Alex Smith “says that, despite appearances, dancers and soldiers have quite a lot in common. Self-discipline is important in both cases, and a determination to succeed.” – BBC

This Map Of The Bezos Story Looks Like It Came From An Amazon Original Police Story

Seriously, connecting the dots is a little bit intense. Bezos’ affair and associated selfies, and his post to Medium last week, “has revealed more than just a series of leaked texts and naked selfies. It has also laid bare a tangled web of overlapping relationships and interests across Hollywood, politics, national security and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” (And if you were wondering why Amazon has Jack Ryan as an original series, well, read on.) – Los Angeles Times