Category Archives: Media

Pynchon on the Simpsons, Hughes on the Bootsie cartoons

Posted on August 29, 2012 by wcd2

August 29, 2012 I’m not absolutely sure it is his voice, but most people seem to think it is: “Diatribe of a Mad Housewife,” Season 15 of The Simpsons, aired on Jan 25, 2004. Marge is mad enough to write a … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, collaboration, Contemporary Art, Ethnicity, Graphic Novels, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, Modernist poetry, print medium, Race, Remediation, Television, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, YouTube videos | Tagged " Graphics Classics, "Danse Africaine", "Simple" stories, "The Negro, Afua Richards, All's Fair in Oven War, Bootsie cartoons, Chicago Defender, Daumier, Diatribe of a Mad Housewife, Hogarth, Langston Hughes, Moby-Dick, Ollie Harrington, Stan Shaw, The Simpsons, Thomas Pynchon | 2 Comments

Billie Holiday, Abel Meeropol: Black/Jewish Strange Fruit

Posted on July 25, 2012 by wcd2

July 25, 2012 Billie sang it, but the music and lyrics were Abel’s. He had first written it as a poem, after seeing the photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana on August 7, 1930. … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Black-Jewish alliances, Cities, collaboration, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Jewish literature, lyric, Media, Music, Newspapers, print medium, Publishers, Race, Racial violence, slavery, Twentieth century literature | Tagged " Café Society, "Strange Fruit, Abel Meeropol, Abram Smith, Billie Holiday, Columbia Records, Commodore, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Indiana, Lady Sings the Blues, Laura Duncan, Lewis Allan, Madison Square Garden, New York Teacher, Robert and Michael Meeropol, Sonny White, Thomas Shipp | 4 Comments

Richard Wright, Count Basie, Paul Robeson: Collaboration that Happened and Collaboration that Didn’t

Posted on July 18, 2012 by wcd2

July 18, 2012 Richard Wright had always liked boxing, but what intrigued him most of all was probably the personality of Joe Louis – “King Joe” – the world heavyweight boxing champion for more than 11 years, defending his title … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Afro-Asian alliances, Asia, Cities, collaboration, Ethnicity, Global South, Interdisciplinarity, jazz, lyric, macro politics, Media, Music, Newspapers, peripheral networks, planet, Sports, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged " FDR, "King Joe, Adam Clayton Powerll, Bandung Conference, boxing, Count Basie, Daily Worker, Ganges, Hitler, Joe Louis, Max Baer, Max Schmeling, Nazism, Niger, Nile, Okeh Records, Paul Robeson, Richard Wright, State Department, Yangtze, Yankee Stadium | 2 Comments

Street Scene: Langston Hughes, Kurt Weill, Elmer Rice

Posted on July 11, 2012 by wcd2

July 11, 2012 It started out as a play by Elmer Rice: a Broadway run of 601 shows, the Pulitzer Prize in 1929, the movie in 1931. Kurt Weill saw it in Berlin, both the play and the film, and … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, African-American literature, Arts communities, Broadway plays, Cities, collaboration, Dance, Ethnicity, film medium, Interdisciplinarity, jazz, lyric, Media, Modernist poetry, Music, Remediation, Theater, Twentieth century literature, world literature, YouTube videos | Tagged " Anna Sokolow, " Life Magazine, "Lonely House, "Moon-faced, Abbey Lincoln, Berlin, blues, Broadway, Elmer Rice, Harlem, jazz, Kurt Weill, Langston Hughes, Musical Digest, Pultizer Prize, Starry-Eyed, Street Scene | 9 Comments

Tender is the Translation

Posted on June 20, 2012 by wcd2

June 20, 2012 Because of my online lectures on Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner, I’ve been getting inquiries about these authors from Asia, Europe, South America – many viewers of the Open Yale Courses are outside the US. This week I … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, Arabic, Asia, Brazil, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Global South, Latin America, Media, Middle East, Portuguese, print medium, Publishers, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged Asia, Beckett, Cosac Naify, Danish literature, Europe, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Flaubert, Fru Marie Grubbe, Gyula Krúdy, Hemingway, Jens Peter Jacobsen, Lady Chatterley's Lover, New York Times, Open Yale Courses, Sinbad;s Youth, South America, Tender is the Night, The Arabic Nights, The Wishing Tree, Tolstoy | 2 Comments

All Saints Bookstore, Beijing

Posted on June 13, 2012 by wcd2

June 13, 2012 We were in Hong Kong on June 4, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. A candlelight vigil had been held in Victoria Park for the past 23 years. This year, 180,000 people showed up. There … Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, Boostores, China, Cities, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Diaspora, Dissidents, Educational institutions, literary magazaines, macro politics, Media, Nobel Prize, print medium, public universities, Publishers, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged All Saints Bookstore, Beijing, Beloved, candlelight vigil, Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Hemingway, Hong Kong, Liu Suli, Liu Zaiobo, Mark Twain, Nobel Prize, Peking University, Richard Powers, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Steve Jobs, Strand, The Echo Maker, The Road, Thinkers Cafe, Tiananmen Square crackdown, Toni Morrison, Tsinghua University, Wansheng Bookstore, World Literature Institute, Zhao Baisheng, Zora Neale Hurston | 9 Comments

Literature to Film, Sydney 2012

Posted on May 30, 2012 by wcd2

May 30, 2012 May 28, 2012 was the centenary of the birth of Patrick White. Many of us from the conference went down to a special screening of The Eye of the Storm, directed by Fred Schepisi, featuring Charlotte Rampling … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, architecture, Arts communities, Australia, Cities, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary Art, Diaspora, Educational institutions, film festivals, film medium, Global South, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, museums, Music, Remediation, Rock music, Theater, Translation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged Allen Ginsberg, Antony Waddington, Bob Dylan, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Chekhov, England, France, Fred Schepisi, Geoffrey Rush, Howl, I'm not There, James Franco, John Gaden, Judy Davis, MOMA, Patrick White, Russia, Seattle Film Festival, Sydney, Sydney Opera House, The Cherry Orchard, The Eye of the Storm, Vivid Lights Festival | 10 Comments

Jazz in Australia: Yusef Komunyakaa, Charlie Parker

Posted on May 22, 2012 by wcd2

May 22, 2012 I’m heading there later today, so I’ve been doing a bit of homework. Komunyakaa, of course: it’s so strange that I should be talking about his play adaptation of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney, when there … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Arts communities, Australia, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Ethnicity, Global South, Handwritten script, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Music, Near Eastern poetry, peripheral networks, planet, print medium, Remediation, twentieth century art | Tagged " Charlie Parker, "Testimony, Austraiia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Dexter Gordon, February in Sydney, Gilgamesh, jazz poetry anthology, Louis Armstrong, Mandy Sayer, Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, Miles Davis, Sand Evans, Sydney Opera House, Thieves of Paradise, University of New Orleans, University of Sydney, Yusef Komunyakaa | 8 Comments

Space Brownies: Alice B. Toklas, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs

Posted on May 16, 2012 by wcd2

May 16, 2012 Gertrude Stein was dead at that point; she had died in 1947. In 1952 Alice signed a contract with Harper’s to write a cookbook. Then in her 70s, Alice was not as quick with her pen as … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts communities, collaboration, Experimental poetry, film medium, Food in literature, Handwritten script, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, print medium, Publishers, Radio, Remediation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged Alice B. Toklas, Brion Gysin, canibus sativa, cookbook, cut-up method, Gertrude Stein, Harper's, hash brownie, hippie counterculture, I Love You, mash-up, Nova Trilogy, Peter Sellers, remix, William S. Burroughs | 2 Comments

Black Pittsburgh

Posted on May 2, 2012 by wcd2

May 2, 2012 I’ve been here before, but it hit me again this time, coming into the city at night. This has got to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The river and the bridges all lit up — there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Arabic, Arts communities, collaboration, Contemporary Art, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Islam, jazz, Media, Music, peripheral networks, Theater, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature, World religions | Tagged Abdullan Ibn, Billy Strayhorn, Brenda Buxton, bridges, Buhaina, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Fate Marable, Hill Distict, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Mary Lou Wiliams, Nation of Islam, New Orleans, Paris, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Cycle, riverboats, Romare Beaden, Stanley Theater, The Piano Lesson, West Afraica | 21 Comments