-
- TUMBLRFACEBOOKTWITTER
-
-
Occupy Wall Street
#Occupy As Live Action Role-Playing -
Reading Room
A Belated Review Of Anita Hill’s Autobiography -
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy The Rust Belt: Notes From The Pittsburgh Protest -
Star Spangled Bummer
Mitt Romney’s American Wasteland Tour -
The Way We Were
Hippies Fight Back During People’s Park Uprising
Category Archives: Cultural Notebook
Cultural Notebook
Larry Clark: The Devil Down in Tulsa
was born in tulsa oklahoma in 1943. when i was sixteen i started shooting amphetamine. i shot with my friends everyday for three years and then left town but i’ve gone back through the years. once the needle goes in it never comes out.” -Larry Clark
Cultural Notebook
Pittsburgh Renaissance: The Specter of Urban Renewal
Given the passage of time, and how the Pittsburgh Renaissance (1946-1973) and the destruction of the cultural institutions of the lower Hill District are viewed today, this 1960 Pittsburgh Press caption shows a skewed (but potentially widespread) sentiment:
TAGS: 1960, city, Culture, ghetto, hill district, pittsburgh, pittsburgh renaissance, slum, urban renewal
Cultural Notebook
The Truncated Life of Ghettopoly
Last Sunday, at a monthly flea market held at an abandoned mine outside of Pittsburgh, I stumbled upon a cache of racist collectibles. For context: This flea market is less the kind of place you’d find bingo daubers and inexpensive hardware, and geared more for serious collectors of high-end antiques. So the goods on display often reach back several hundred years in origin. Having been to this flea market dozens of times, I’ve noticed these types of pieces in the past — Golliwogs and items of that nature — but this time around there was an odd abundance of peculiarities: Namely a stationery embossing tool used by the Women of the Ku Klux Klan (i.e., the “Busy Bee Klan”) and a ghetto-themed Monopoly knockoff called Ghettopoly.
TAGS: Cultural Notebook
Cultural Notebook
Postcards from America: Rochester, New York
A year ago we did a project called Postcards From America. It was a groundbreaking experiment. Rather than waiting to be commissioned, we just made a decision to do something and hit the road. We drove from San Antonio to Oakland. It was really thrilling. But it was also pretty chaotic.
Cultural Notebook
Railyard Dispatches: BuZ Blurr’s Diversion From Boredom
“I’m a retired railroad man who indulged in the folk art tradition of making chalk drawings on the railcars as an announcement of presence, and diversion from boredom. Although against the rules of the railroad, it was a common enough practice by the employees and hobos, by ignoring enforcement it was de facto tacit approval, for I dispatched drawings for…
Cultural Notebook
Skinemax: The Lure Of Adolescent Nostalgia
In the description for this hyper-nostalgic audio-video mix, Smash TV explains that “Skinemax is Koyaanisqatsi for a generation raised on late night television and B-movie VHS tapes. It’s long form entertainment for short attention spans.”
Cultural Notebook
The View From Kingston, Jamaica
Boogie’s descent into a culture of chaos.
There is no normal police presence in the city, the kind that would make you feel safe. The only time you see cops is when there are five of them piled on a jeep with their assault rifles. But the firepower of gangs in Kingston rivals that of police.
Cultural Notebook
When Ricky Powell Met Gay Talese
I gleaned this from the files of Ricky Powell‘s Rickford Institute, a photo of Gay Talese in front of a tailor shop on Christopher Street in New York. Not all that surprising considering Talese’s well-known sartorial infatuation, but it’s interesting to consider the occasion of these two crossing paths.
As Ricky explains it, he helped Talese find the tailor shop…
Cultural Notebook
The Furries Have Arrived
In what’s become an annual summer tradition here in Pittsburgh, the furries have arrived for Anthrocon. For those who are unfamiliar, “Anthrocon is the world’s largest convention for those fascinated with anthropomorphics, which are humanlike animal characters. We are a collection of artists, animators, writers, costumers, puppeteers, and just everyday fans who enjoy cartoon animals and their kin.” Let the…
Cultural Notebook
In Progress: Pharrell Williams Resource Center
Pharrell Williams is investing in the youth of Virginia Beach, his hometown, with a $35 million/30,000-square foot facility intended to nurture creativity. The space is slated to open in 2013, and according to ArchDaily, the center’s “treehouse [concept] aims to inspire future generations through architecture, providing a place where kids can escape and imagine.” With rap always acting as a…
Cultural Notebook
An American Apparel Ad Without Controversy
Watching this latest ad spot from American Apparel is unnerving, mainly because you’re waiting for the action within the frame to deteriorate into awkwardness bordering on perversion. But this time around AA keeps it G-rated, and fairly well executed. Shot by Tony Kelly, a photographer whose helped the brand propagate its nipple-centric style as of late, the focus remains…
Cultural Notebook
Back In The Day: Turning Everyday People Into Icons
The New York Times‘ Lens blog has put together a slide show commemorating the 10th anniversary edition of Jamel Shabazz’s book “Back in the Day” (powerHouse): “Photography gave Jamel Shabazz direction in life — straight to the young men and women he saw every day in parks, on stoops and on streets. When he started in the mid-1970s in Brooklyn’s…
Cultural Notebook
The Psychedelia, Redemption of Baseball Iconoclast Dock Ellis
Though he was an accomplished all-star pitcher, Ellis had a reputation on and off the field as a shit-talker who thrived on the adversarial relationship between pitcher and batter. As a result, his reputation preceded him — often playing out in vivid drama each time he took the mound.
