Users that often use this tag:
The Whelk (2)
flapjax at midnite (2)

Beloved indy ethnographic documentarian Les Blank died yesterday. This interview gives a good overview of his background, and this post includes clips. Watch a couple of his public domain films here. Or do yourself a favor and find the complete version of Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers. [more inside]
posted by latkes on Apr 8, 2013 - 19 comments

All things Quast. Remember Inspector Javert in the 1987 Les Mis cast? Must have been some famous world class opera singer, right? No, he was just a minor Australian actor. Who just happens to have an unbelievable voice.
posted by EnterTheStory on Nov 24, 2012 - 79 comments

In 1999 MTV launched Downtown, an animated slice of life show about young people in Manhattan's Lower East Side based on interviews with non-actors (Pilot part 2 part 3 ) created by animator Chris Prynoski (Daria, Beavis And Butt-head, Metalocalypse). Despite an Emmy nomination, the show was cancelled after one season (with one unaired episode). Like so many MTV shows, licensing complications prevented it from reaching DVD, meaning the only way to watch the show was to e-mail Chris directly. Until someone uploaded the entire series to Youtube.
posted by The Whelk on Dec 16, 2011 - 18 comments

Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (SLYT)
posted by leigh1 on Nov 15, 2011 - 36 comments

How many arms have held you, and hated to let you go, how many, how many, I wonder, but I really don't want to know.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Sep 21, 2011 - 10 comments

Somewhere along the line, you might've heard one of the biggest hits to ever come out of the world of jazz: it was a song originally made famous by Les McCann and Eddie Harris back in 1969, called Compared To What. If you were in the right place at the right time, you might've even caught them doing it live. Or, if you were born a little too late for all that, you might've heard the song performed by John Legend and the Roots. Well, the man who wrote the song, Gene McDaniels, has just left us at age 76. RIP Gene McDaniels.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Aug 2, 2011 - 25 comments

Photographs of New York City from the 1940s in color via the Charles W. Cushman collection. The Lower East Side. Downtown - 1960. Landmarks and Times Square (via)
posted by The Whelk on Apr 15, 2010 - 19 comments

Les Paul, musician, pioneer of multitrack recording, and creator of one of the most successful and recognizable guitars in history, passed at the age of 94. [more inside]
posted by mrg on Aug 13, 2009 - 169 comments

Photographs of Manhattan 1964-1969 By Irwin Klein. Immigrants, storefronts, gangs, mafiosi, street scenes. More Klein here. My fave. First link via
posted by CunningLinguist on Apr 18, 2007 - 19 comments