popturf

metro area: new york / northern new jersey / long island, NY-NJ-PA

anderson theater

from janis joplin posted in music by donkeyoti

Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin on lead vocals) played their New York City debut at the Anderson Theater (a former Yiddish theater) on February 17, 1968.

A vintage review of the show can be read here.

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brookhaven national laboratory

from tennis for two posted in video games by pete_nice

Developed in 1958 by William Higginbotham to entertain bored visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Tennis for Two is considered one of the first video games ever created.

The game was constructed using an oscilloscope as a display and a Donner Model 30 analog computer as a processor. The players would use an aluminum analog joystick to volley a "tennis ball" back and forth in a profile view of a match (unlike Pong, which was viewed from above).

The game was used only twice (during the Brookhaven open houses), but hundreds of people gathered in line to experience the new form of interaction. Check out this fascinating video of the 1958 recreation.

Higenbotham now has a special collection named for him, the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection, at Stony Brook University. Their mission is dedicated to "documenting the material culture of screen-based game media."

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“this land is your land”

from woody guthrie posted in music by crabapple

The name of the building was the Hanover House or the Hanover Hotel, and it was located at 101 West 43rd Street on the northwest corner of 43rd Street and Sixth Avenue (now called Avenue of the Americas). Currently, it is the International Center for Photography.

This blogger does a great job analyzing the different views Guthrie would have had out his window as he wrote his most famous song.

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mermaid avenue

from billy bragg & wilco posted in music by crabapple

The Guthrie family lived at 3520 Mermaid Ave for 7 years. Guthrie used to take the kids to the beach and to his favorite restaurant- Nathan's Famous hot dogs.

Source: Rolling Stone

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woody guthrie foundation & archives

from woody guthrie posted in music by crabapple

Managed by Woody's daughter, Nora Guthrie, the Woody Guthrie Foundation and the Woody Guthrie Archives house the largest collection of Guthrie material in the world.

Researchers can apply to access the handwritten lyrics, notebooks, photographs, drawings, recordings, correspondence, manuscripts and much more. Billy Bragg used the Archives to research the material for the Mermaid Avenue project.

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