John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Cristina de Middel and the Signifying Afronaut

...signifying is a "technique of indirect argument or persuasion," "a language of implication," "to imply, goad, beg, boast, by indirect verbal or gestural means." "...signifying... the language of trickery." --Henry Louis Gates quoting Roger D. Abrahams in "The 'Blackness of Blackness': A Critique of the Sign and the Signifying Monkey."... Read more →

WTF America? Higher Education Edition

I found this poster via my friend Stan Banos, who writes the fine Reciprocity Failure blog. It really doesn't need an introduction. Click directly on the poster to see an even larger version. * * * You can find the poster and many more good things on Occupy* Poster's tumblr. Read more →

Funky Friday: Roy DeCarava on Photographing Jazz

I'm doing something a little different for today's Funky Friday -- words and pictures, rather than music. The other day, I stumbled across an wonderful 1990 interview that Ivor Miller conducted with the great Roy DeCarava, who was know for his photographs of jazz musicians (among many other things). What... Read more →

Funky Friday: Brandee Younger & Afro-Harping -- A Winter JazzFest Preview

I've been looking forward to this for a very long time: Tonight! Brandee Younger presents Afro-Harping: A Tribute to (the great) Dorothy Ashby, as part of Winter JazzFest 2013. Location: Sullivan Hall, 214 Sullivan St., between Bleecker and West 3rd, in New York City. Time: 10:15pm. I'll be there. You... Read more →

Stranger with an Octobox: "Appalucci," LaNola Stone's Appalachia

Imagine Appalachia. If you're lucky, you're thinking about mountains -- high enough to reach for the stars, low enough to be forested from hollow to peak. You might know something about the hills' lush summer greens and the stark beauty of winter's bare trees and cottony snow. Or you might... Read more →

Gordon Parks: "A Harlem Family," Life Magazine, 1968

It began as a challenge. Righteous anger propelled it forward. It moved many of Life magazine's readers to acts of generosity. Yet it ended in tragedy. What should have been a triumph became instead a reminder that the law of unintended consequences can exert its force in unimaginably heart-breaking ways.... Read more →