Don’t think I would ever NOT post this one . . . .
Roy Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas on this day in 1936. Mercy!
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R.E.M. | Laughing
Thursday, April 23, 2026
So Many Roads . . . updated!
Blues, Funk, Soul, and Reggae - Re-Posts - An Update
just to say if you haven’t already spotted but Speedy has done loads of work on his back catalogue and you won’t believe the range and quality his ROIOS that he has either re-booted or re-made available and you best check as some may disappear in 30-60 days it is frankly ENORMOUS and there is always something for everyone there . . . check it out!
Art of The Day DANGEROUS MINDS - MARCEL DUCHAMP - Readymades: How Marcel Duchamp inspired Andy Warhol with trash
Readymades: How Marcel Duchamp inspired Andy Warhol with trash
"A urinal. A signature. With those two things, Marcel Duchamp ignited a firestorm of debate and discourse in the art world that is still in no danger of stopping a literal century after Fountain debuted at the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York City.
Once you put aside the initial grossness of the fact that it’s, y’know, a literal urinal,(sic?) the controversy of Fountain comes from the fact that it’s a mirror. One forcing you to reflect on what gets to be called art and why. After all, many people still think that Fountain is an act of arrogance and hubris. After all, what gives Duchamp the right to slap his name on any old shite and call it art? It’s a fine question. Yet if it’s asked of one piece of art, should it not be asked of all pieces of art ever?
After all, it might be that labelling something “art” is an inherently arrogant practise. What’s more, it may be ok to do that, especially if some twat like me comes along and rolls their eyes at a Hockney masterwork as nothing more than lifeless images rendered in colourful goop. The thing that people who want to be artists do when they don’t have the talent to be musicians. You might also say that Fountain is a troll, that Duchamp is laughing at everyone, myself included, for seeing everyone lose their minds over a literal pisspot.
Yet what a lot of people don’t realise is that Fountain wasn’t released in a vacuum. In fact, quite the opposite, it was one of a series of what Duchamp called his Readymades, found items that he decided were, in fact, art. It wasn’t even the first in this series, by the time Fountain pissed in everyone’s breakfast cereal of choice, he’d been planning these pranks for three years and actively exhibiting them for two, the whole idea for the Readymades coming together in 1914 with one simple idea.
That idea being that Duchamp had a bottle rack in his studio that wasn’t seeing much action.
(Credits: Marcel Duchamp / photo Alfred Stieglitz - yes THAT Alfred Stieglitz O’Keefe’s lover)
What inspired the Readymades of Duchamp?
Yeah, it really was as simple as that – Duchamp bought a bottle rack from a market in 1914 and kept it in his studio for a few months, and he then found that he wasn’t using it anywhere near as much as he thought he would, yet he did appreciate the object as a sculpture, which got him thinking about the artistic merit of everyday objects, leading him to the first Readymade sculpture, a snow shovel with its title In Advance of the Broken Arm painted on it, along with Duchamp’s signature.
This never found its way out of Duchamp’s studio, the same as the next three installations in the Readymades series, a chimney ventilator, a steel dog grooming comb and a typewriter cover. All presented exactly the way they were found, save for a small signature from Duchamp. By 1916, Duchamp intended to honour the original object that inspired this series by asking his sister to paint “(from) Marcel Duchamp” on that original bottle rack in a letter to her. However, ironically enough, she’d already chucked it out.
The year afterwards, Fountain shocked the art world to its core, and despite the controversy, Duchamp still continued *his Readymades series. In fact, the Readymade that followed Fountain was arguably the best prank of the lot. Trap (Trebuchet) was installed near the entrance of the Bourgeois Art Gallery and went completely unnoticed for its entire time there. This was because the piece was a coat rack. It didn’t even have his signature on it.
Perhaps this is a sign that Duchamp knew that this was more than just a prank. Perhaps he knew that this was less an artistic movement and more a way of seeing the world, that art is everywhere we look if we choose to see it. One that no less a figure than Andy Warhol would swear by in his epoch-defining work in the 1950s and 1960s.
A pretty amazing legacy for a troll, right?"
Marcel Duchamp | HOW TO SEE “Readymades” with MoMA curator Ann Temkin
Still in the public domain and in the minds of the audience stands testament to Marcel Duchamp and his iconic most daring works. Will wrestles (admittedly not very hard here) with the search for meaning and good on him! Not entirely sure about the Warholian connection but as a mini thesis needing more work and examination, I would leave that to Will and his audience to explore deeper
I studied Duchamp at college under the tutelage of renowned Historian Fred Orton and composer Gavin Bryars as I am won’t to remind folk at every given opportunity and I specialised in looking at the work of Picabia and Man Ray writing papers on both but the bulk of the study was Duchampian! Such a happy time . . . .
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Roger Daltrey - Baba O'Riley ( The Chieftains with Sinead O'Connor ) A Celebration With Pete Townshend And Music Of The The Who !!
Roger Daltrey - Baba O'Riley
Roger Daltrey - Baba O'Riley ( The Chieftains with Sinead O'Connor ) A Celebration With Pete Townshend And Music Of The The Who !!
at Roger’s 50th Birthday celebration?
The Left Banke - Pretty Ballerina | courtesy of Gary Lucas
The Left Banke - Pretty Ballerina
"Pretty Ballerina" as visualized by Thomas Walsh
Gary L started his day by posting this rare treat (well here at least - anyone recall The Left Banke?)
Gary and my taste is always so similar that I quite stumble when he catches me out with something left field or that I don’t know or had quite forgotten . . . this had slipped my mind (easier to do these days!)
Thanks Gary . . . . . . . .
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