The Beat Goes On

Now for a word from our sponsors, or a small word of self-promotion. (Also cultural promotion, for that matter). “The Record” has opened at the Nasher Museum at Duke Univeristy. While few of you may get there, all of you should check it out. Dedicated to the crossover between music and art, the catalogue includes my essay from Frieze on the cover Robert Rauschenberg did for the Talking Heads’ Speaking in Tongues. 

 

The book also includes contributions by another Catskills writer Luc Sante and cultural impresario (and once years ago my landlord) Carlo McCormick. The exhibit itself features Jasper Johns and Christian Marclay as well as Jeroen Diepenmaat’s “Pour Des Dents d’un Blanc Eclatant et Saines,” shown here, and Dario Robleto’s moving, mournful piece below, “Sometimes Billie Is All That Holds Me Together.”

 

 

Robleto took Billie Holiday records, pressed the vinyl into buttons and painted them, then sewed them onto shirts missing buttons found at thrift stores and other places. Once the shirt had all its buttons, he gave it back to the thrift shops or returned it to where he’d found it originally. “Sometimes Billie…” is also the back cover to Yo La Tengo recent (and excellent) album “Popular Songs.” Indeed, what goes around, comes around and “The Record” is up until February 6, 2011.