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This 1943 painting by N.C. Wyeth (father of Andrew, and iconic illustrator of Treasure Island and other favorites) struck us at our recent outing to the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadd’s Ford, Pa. The painting was commissioned by Bristol-Myers Squibb as an advertising window display for its products. It is unironically titled “Public Health and Morale.” Your mileage may vary…
Brandywine Museum of Art
Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania
It seems every generation there is a new upsurge of white supremacy and with that new attempts to justify it in some pseudo-scientific manner. We’ve had some great books in the past such as those by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin laying out the scientific fallacies of those racist justifications. And now with the advances in genetic technology, it’s only natural that we have to update that scientific de-bunking. I was happy to talk with the author of a new book called Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins, Dr. Shoumita Dasgupta.
Click on small triangle or mp3 link to listen to the interview as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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Seeley Street
Brooklyn, New York
Monday morning finds Jesse Welles with just the greatest smile and joy singing about his true passion in life! What a kick.
More at Jesse Welles
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This American Robin turned this empty feeder bowl into a holder for her nest, where she is currently incubating her eggs.
Prospect Park,
Brooklyn, New York
This week marks the convergence of a number of important dates: May Day, the end of National Poetry Month (April 30th), and the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon (also April 30th). So I thought I’d acknowledge all of them at once with the poetry of Ho Chi Minh. He was arrested as a spy in August 1942 by the Kuo Min Tang and put into a series of Chinese prisons, enduring harsh conditions. He wrote over hundred short poems in prison, mostly in quatrain form, and they have been translated by several English translators including Aileen Palmer, Timothy Allen, and Kenneth Rexroth.
Click on the small triangle or MP3 link above to listen to a selection of the poems, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI-FM and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Monday morning, Nat King Cole reminisces about a summer Sunday.
Thanks to YouTuber catman916
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This swan has good reason to be sitting on her nest, hiding in the reeds–one of her eggs had been stolen the year before by a so-called human.
Prospect Park
Brooklyn, New York
“It’s Shakespeare’s 461st birthday coming up April 23rd, and you might wonder, what does an author write after it seems like he’s done it all?”
For the answer to that, click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen to my commentary, as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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Looking like some ancient pterodactyl, the Brown Pelicans seem to have no fear at all of humans in the water, and merrily go their way swooping among us diving for fish.
Playa Biesanz,
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
The great Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, King of the 12-string Guitar, one of the most important musicians in American music, is the subject of a recent film documentary, titled Leadbelly: The Man Who Invented Rock and Roll. Perhaps it would be more telling to subtitle the film, The History of Being an Exploited Black Musician in America. What makes this film special is that the producer of the film, Alvin Singh II, is the great-nephew of Leadbelly, and the film includes not only his remembrances of Leadbelly, but also the wonderful on-screen memories of Tiny Robinson, Lead Belly’s niece. And to top it off, we get plenty of first-hand accounts of Leadbelly from interviews with a dazzling array of musicians— Odetta, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, BB King, Oscar Brand and more…
Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen to my review (and more Lead Belly music!), as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Monday morning, Huddie Ledbetter, the great blues and folk singer known as Lead Belly, talks and sings about being thrown out of a whites-only boarding house in Washington DC. The recording is listed as made in 1936.
Thanks to YouTuber Traveler Into The Blue
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We had fun watching these mischievous monkeys invading our Costa Rican hotel, eating an avocado, and playing around with a plastic bottle. The monkeys would sniff the bottle and realize it was some kind of soap, then throw it back on the ground where another monkey would do the same thing. Folks had their cameras out, and had a good time laughing at the antics of the capuchins. Until…
We go back to our hotel room, and Linda calls out from the bathroom–“Did you see the shampoo bottle?”
Me: What shampoo bottle?
L: You know, the little plastic travel bottle I filled with shampoo…
Me: Uh-oh, no, couldn’t be…
L: It’s missing from the bathroom
Then we look in the main room, at the sidetable where we had two avocados sitting ripening. One is missing!
Now things were really getting crazy! Had they come in through the balcony door? No, it was locked. But lo and behold I realized I had left the bathroom window slightly ajar–so they came in through the bathroom window (Thank you, Joe Cocker!) and stole the avocado and shampoo bottle. Then they climbed up the pole right outside the bathroom window to the balcony of the next floor upstairs to where I was snapping photos, oblivious to the fact that their stolen booty belonged to us.
And that’s why we went home with dirty hair…
Manuel Antonio,
Costa Rica
Tom Keough died about a month ago, far too young. He was a brilliant artist, political activist, and community organizer. Tom was also a dear friend, and someone whose life I think Arts Express listeners might like to know more about. So in tribute to Tom, here’s a little bit more about him.
Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my tribute to Tom as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, as heard on WBAI-FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Josh Turner (without guitar!) focuses on the singing this time, with Martina DaSilva, Sonny Step, Luke Bob Robinson, and David Linard. Written by Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, and Harry James, with lyrics by Don George.
More at Josh Turner Guitar
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They have to be my favorite birds ever, otherworldly in their beauty. The macaws would fly by our hotel room balcony in twos or threes, around twice a day. Fortunately, their raucous call alerts one to drop everything else and pick up a camera.
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
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While slipping down the trail, we couldn’t miss this lovely tanager when we looked up! A lifer for me.
Trail to Playa Biesanz, Manuel Antonio,
Costa Rica
“Jesse Welles has got a voice like John Prine, plays guitar like Bob Dylan, and can write a song that’s as topical and clever as the songs of Phil Ochs or Tom Paxton or Woody Guthrie. It turns out, despite his handsome shaggy-haired babyface look, he has been making songs for a long time. In an age where so much music is artificially created with plastic lyrics and digitally manipulated instruments, it is refreshing to hear a protest song on a simple acoustic folk guitar that doesn’t just talk about generalities, but actually names names, and has a political point of view…”
Click on the mp3 link or triangle above to hear the rest of my commentary on Welles, as broadcast this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country.
Herein, Part two of our conversation with Jeremy Braddock, author of the book, Firesign.
Click on the mp3 link or triangle above to hear the interview as broadcast this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country
Note: Our posting lately has been more sporadic than usual–we hope to be back up to speed in a week or two.
If you are of a certain age, growing up as a high school or college kid during the late 60s or early 70s, then odds are that at least one time as you were toking up, the surrealist record LPs of the Firesign Theatre invaded your brain. As the albums brilliantly shifted in and out of tv, film and radio parody, they broke down walls of time, space and authority. Now in a new book about the Firesign Theater, called Firesign, author Jeremy Braddock provides a wonderful non-linear look at the four influential guys who turned the art of radio and recording upside down. I was happy to have as our guest on the show, the author of Firesign, Jeremy Braddock.
Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview as heard on the Arts Express radio program broadcast this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation
Part Two here:
Monday Morning, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and Seeger’s grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, belt their song out.
Thanks to YouTuber Evan
What a beautiful magic act! Magician Nikolai Striebel takes a simple premise and keeps expanding on it…
More at Nikolai Striebel
Monday morning, It is what it is. Another Jesse Welles gem. This guy is writing topical songs as fast or faster than Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton used to in the Sing Out! days.
More at Jesse Welles
