The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has acquired the complete archives of Lou Reed .
The library and Reed's wife, musician Laurie Anderson, made the announcement Thursday, on what would have been his 75th birthday. The Lou Reed Archive features paper and electronic records, photos, and about 3,600 audio and 1,300 video recordings.
"What better place to have this than in the heart of the city he loved the best?" said Anderson.
Reed, an aspiring poet, rose to prominence after Andy Warhol encountered The Velvet Underground, the experimental rock band he formed in 1964. Warhol produced the band's first studio album and invited it to perform as part of his recurring multimedia event, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable.
After leaving The Velvet Underground in 1970, Reed enjoyed success as a solo artist, releasing nearly 30 albums and publishing several volumes of poetry and photography, according to the library.
"He paved the way for the punk and glam rock of the '70s, inspired the use of noise and experimental techniques in pop music, and later explored ambient sound and music for meditation," it said in a statement.
The library will host free displays and public programs over the next two weeks to celebrate and showcase Reed's life and work, and his collection's new home.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More