James Presley Ball was one of the most successful and famous African-American daguerreotypists of the19th century. Born in 1825 in Virginia, Ball opened his first photography studio at the age of twenty in Cincinnati, Ohio, just a few years after the invention of the daguerreotype. Business didn’t fare well, but the following year when he returned to Richmond, Virginia, Ball found considerable success with his new studio. By 1847 he took to the road again, this time as a traveling daguerreotypist, eventually returning to Cincinnati. In 1855 Ball published an abolitionist pamphlet depicting the horrors of slavery; accompanying his publication was an exhibition of his daguerreotypes on the subject of slavery, which he exhibited several times in the pre-Civil War years. After living some three decades in Ohio, he moved to Minneapolis, opening a daguerreotype studio there with his son. In 1887 Ball moved to Helena, Montana. That same year he was selected as the official photographer for a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. While living in Montana he was also elected a delegate to the Republican convention for the Montana territory in 1894. In his years in Montana he produced hundreds of incredible photographs depicting life in the White, Black and Chinese communities. In 1900, he moved to Seattle, Washington opening his final studio, the Globe Photo Studio. In poor health, James Presley Ball moved once again, this time to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he died in 1904. His extensive body of work is housed at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Historical Society, Montana Historical Society, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, as well as in many private collections.
Orleans from France in 1837 where he was a lithographer and portrait painter -- at the Exposition of Paris of 1833 he was the youngest lithographer to be awarded an honorable mention. It’s believed that Lion returned briefly to Paris in 1839 and 1840 to study photography with Louis Daguerre. Upon his return Lion exhibited his first daguerreotypes in New Orleans in 1840; unfortunately only a couple of them have survived. By 1841 in New Orleans, he was lecturing on photography, co-founded an art school and was running a successful studio. Not much more is known of Jules Lion, except the occasional newspaper announcement and city records listing him as a professor of drawing at the College of Louisiana from 1852 to 1865. In his later years he returned to painting portraitures. Among his most famous commissions were portraits of President Andrew Jackson and naturalist John J. Audubon. Throughout his career he continued teaching and occasionally returning to Paris to exhibit his lithographs and daguerreotypes until his death in New Orleans in 1866.
years of age and Fayard 18, they became the featured act at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club. That same year they shot their first film, a short subject musical called Pie, Pie, Blackbird.
Alley. In 1941 the duo appeared in both Glenn Miller movies, Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives. The former included the definitive version of “Chattanooga Choo Choo;” the brothers' dance number also included Harold’s future first wife, the incomparably beautiful Dorothy Dandridge.
command performance for the King of England at the London Palladium and over the years they danced for nine different Presidents. Retrospectives of the Nicholas Brothers' work in film include a special presentation at the 1981 Academy Awards and a Kennedy Center Honors in 1991. They were awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard University where they taught master classes in tap dance as teachers-in-residence. In 1994 they received a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7083 Hollywood Blvd and were inducted into the first class of the Apollo Theater's Hall of Fame and the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame. The Nicholas Brothers were also recipients of the 1998 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Modern Dance.
incidents of censorship/prior restraint (hello FCC!) as well as the larger issues," he replied. "No one is 'pro-censorship' but I wonder if there'll be any discussion of the 'crying fire in a theater' test, or child pornography, or the video game you mention, etc. I think there will be... Vale will keep it moving and interesting, no doubt about it."
s of the band.
Anyway, above is an excerpt from the interviews in which Andy Warhol (sans glasses) credits Brigid Berlin (also in the clip) for contributing to the creation of many of his paintings, resulting in folks becoming highly skeptical of "his" work and whether or not "his" work should be rightfully credited to him or someone else. 
eling C-BO's notorious reputation amongst hardcore rap fans. 
nd was leaked on the Internet a while back. It is a modern day dance till it hurts kind of song, complete with all the trimmings to make you move your feet till you get a cramp in your big toe. The second single, "My Love is Better," features this one guy from this one band...
hip and happening hotspots of the past 2,500 years or so. First, I'd cruise down to Athens circa fourth-century B.C.E. where I'd walk along the agora to hear some great oration and maybe catch an Aristophanes play or two. The next stop would definitely be the salons of Central Europe in the 19th century to watch Franz Liszt play his own compositions, and maybe swing by Gustav Klimt's studio just a few decades later. I'm sure I could get in a visit to Kafka's Prague and some early New York vaudeville shows before I had to get the time machine back to the shop for a tune-up. After that, I suppose I'd have the ol' time machine drop me by Andy Warhol's Factory in early 60's New York and leave me there.
Hence it is no surprise that a lot of explicit hip-hop and soca were targeted by the JBC in its follow up ruling ban of few days ago. The reaction to this ban has been mixed. Some in Jamaica are outraged, calling it a double-standard since there is still a lot of explicit material in TV shows and movies. Others, such as US based YouTuber and big time dancehall fan Daggasista, said that, "Mi nuh care if dem ban di daggerin song dem mi still a whine an galang bad fi dem." As with any other past instances of censorship of music, bans like this usually only drive the music further underground while simultaneously fueling an interest in it.
honest I think she’s looking pretty good -- a side note, I think she also got hosed on Dancing with the Stars back in 2007 (sure she received the lowest scores ever in a Dancing With the Stars finals history, but her ridiculous attempts were sort of ...dadaistic. Well anyway ...)
in the serious record collecting world. I blame the recent rise of tantalizing yarns on bored muckrakers and conspiracy theorists having outgrown tall tales of Area 51, JFK, the Masons, and the New World Order as a viable entertainment option. Now they have moved on to Ebay auctions and hobbyists.
BC website
"Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life," claims the heading on 
use of the song in the TV spot featuring school boys (who do a fun spot-on imitiation of Madness) seems most appropriate, with their re-appropriation of the lyrics into a ditty promoting dental hygiene coming across as clever, not crass. 
Another legend has left us. Joe Cuba, who was known as “The Father of Boogaloo," passed away on Sunday, February 15. He had many hits during the 60's and 70's with his "Boogaloo" style, a mixture of Latin music and R&B sung in both Spanish and English. It was the perfect marriage between Motown and Fania, which were the sounds of New York at that time. It was the kind of music that got Afro-Americans listening to Latin music and got Latinos into soul. He had a number of hits, such as “Bang Bang,” “Push Push,” “El Pito,” “Ariñañara,” and “Sock It To Me Baby,”
orry Bryan MacLean). Lee was truly one of a kind.
I remember lying on a couch in my room in Oakland, sometime in either 1989 or 1990. Afternoon light was pouring in my window and I was in a hypnogogic state, somewhere between waking and dreaming. My mind was occupied with the vision of long and dark brown hands holding what looked to be a piece of blue glass. The agile hands turned the glass over and over again, and with each turning, facets appeared, polished and refracting light. The glass was becoming more and more ornate and I remember thinking that it was "perfecting." Suddenly, I sat bolt upright, realizing that I was having a visual experience of the music I was listening to at the moment: The title track from the recently issued LP by Horace Tapscott, Dark Tree. 
beauty in it. And every time it came around, there was less of anything superfluous. The theme, under his long, dark fingers, was "perfecting."
from the prolific WU warrior, who nowadays lives in LA, is also selling well at the other two Amoeba stores. Meanwhile, another SoCal resident, the even more prolific, endlessly talented and highly influential producer Madlib, who considers himself a "DJ first, producer second, and MC last," continues to dominate the Amoeba top 5 (and near every other hip-hop chart) -- this time with his latest installment in the Beat Konducta series on Stones Throw Records.
Well, I don't want to spoil it for you.
n (off his 1994 LP A Night In San Francisco), Carly Simon, and Etta James (Kanye West sampled her version on the song "Addiction" on his album Late Registration). 
a dozen times, but never on the big screen where it is meant to be seen. What I love most about Black Orpheus, even on the small screen, is the music, which is a seemingly never ending percussion based track that plays throughout the entire film as everyone moves to its rhythm. It is like one long dance. 
nt any part of this. I think it all got kick started on Groundhog Day. I went to some kind of birthday shindig/gig thing bent on intoxication and good ol’ fashion trouble. It had been a tough couple of weeks. My fatigue was palpable. I suspect the psychological scars may have been grossly apparent. A night of depravity was prescribed by an alcoholic friend of mine, so I took my doctor’s advice.
ver to be seen again. Unfortunately he tagged me good with whatever pathogen he was sharing. Two and a half days later some ghastly virus, intent on killing me, hit me like a rock, kicking me in the chest and smashing in my skull. Well, shit happens. The good news is this is my first cold/flu thing since last summer. The bad news is, I’m as sick as a dog -- an old dog that should be put out of his misery.
med to less-than-stellar reviews from folks who frankly can't be bothered to give a damn about properly experiencing it, folks who don't have friends (and the necessary extra boom boxes) who unconditionally love music.
retrace the violently and deliberately erased ancestral histories of a group of participants, all of African ancestry, whose relatives were, for the most part, brought over involuntarily from Africa. The answers it provides are often thought-provoking in ways that most discussions about race aren't.
On March 6th, step into the world of Andy Warhol and his original 1960s New York City Factory. The Factory Party takes place in a massive warehouse space divided into nine distinct rooms where guests are immersed in a wide range of art mediums, as well as live art, musical performances and theatrical art forms. 
children. It was initially suggested that he design a variety of cars. Instead Beck came up with the series of simple action figures standing less than 3 inches tall with moving arms and legs that bent at the hip and wore snap-on clothes. The original toys included knights, construction workers and Native Americans. They were unveiled at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1974 and needless to say, they were an instant and resounding flop. Adults may not have gotten the concept, but kids certainly did. Playmobil toys became a huge international success. In the 35 years since their development, they have sold more than 2.2 
billion figures in more than 70 countries. I have a 6 year old son whose room is, more often then not, cluttered with Playmobil pirates, rescue workers, police officers, knights and dragons -- strewn from wall to wall.
Expanding their line with a myriad of toys and sets, Playmobil has come up with every possible historic and vocational desire a kid could ever want, from firefighters, nurses, deep sea divers, cowboys, Romans, jewel thieves, hot dog vendors, astronauts, circus animal trainers, veterinarians, Egyptologists, police tracking dogs and airport security. Brandstätter, which employs a staff of 3,000, posted $408 million in sales last year, mostly due to their Playmobil division.
made many Best of 2008 lists including yours truly's and Amoeba SF's Electronica section's, as well as Pitchfork's (#12), Mixmag's, Time Out's and more, and for good reason. Branching out from making 6-minute dancefloor singles, Lindstrom crafted the title track into a 30-minute epic piece that rises and falls like the tides, taking the listener on a proper journey through disco basslines, laser FX and a vibe that brings to mind 
McMahon are seen selling off their worldly possessions to get some needed cash. 
ay of Candlemas; the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, when a 40 day old Jesus was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem to complete Mary's ritual purification after childbirth, and to perform the redemption of the firstborn. In German tradition if a hibernating critter casts its shadow on Candlemas, winter will last six more weeks. And accordingly if no shadow is seen, spring will come early. 
completely oblivious to this part of their musical heritage. Thankfully, that's changing. With a renewed interest in 
ounding side project by The Coup frontman, which is detailed further in the conversation that follows.
caught the first time that "Raspberry Beret" was a tale of a person losing his virginity? With attention to detail draped in poetry and the abstract, the lyrics sound idiosyncratic and real as anything Joni Mitchell ever wrote. But songs like "Darling Nikki" expose a rawness and sexiness balanced in a tale about the love and loss found in a one night stand. So what is he about? What does it all mean?
