Russia’s war in Ukraine: complete guide in maps, video and pictures

 

Members of a de-mining team check for unexploded devices in a school ...

“Moscow has confirmed it carried out an airstrike on Kyiv during a visit on Thursday by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, while Russian forces are again attacking the huge Azovstal steel plant where fighters and some civilians are holed up in the southern city of Mariupol. Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily briefing on Friday that two ‘high-precision, long-range air-based weapons’ had destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday night. The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said on Friday one body had so far been recovered from the rubble of a 25-storey residential building in the capital’s Shevchenkivskyi district after the strike, which Guterres’s spokesperson described as ‘shocking’. ...”

Guardian (Video)

BBC: How many Ukrainians have fled their homes and where have they gone? (Video)

The Booksellers (2019)

 

“The Booksellers is a 2019 American documentary film that was directed, edited, and produced by D.W. Young. It was also executive produced by Parker Posey, who provides narration in the film. The film explores the world of antiquarian and rare book dealers and their bookstores. It focuses primarily on booksellers in New York City, including Adina Cohen, Naomi Hample and Judith Lowry, the three sisters of the Argosy Book Store; Stephen Massey, founder of Christie’s NY Book Department; and Nancy Bass Wyden, owner of the Strand Bookstore. Other prominent people featured in the film include Fran Lebowitz, Gay Talese, Justin Croft, Zack Hample, Susan Orlean, William S. Reese, A. S. W. Rosenbach, Jay S. Walker, and Kevin Young....”

Wikipedia

NPR: 'The Booksellers' Speaks Volumes About Old Books And Those Who Love Them

YouTube: The Booksellers Movie Trailer (2020) , Documentary Movies Series

Sound American #24 – The Sun Ra Issue

 

“A journal founded in 2012 by Nate Wooley, providing in-depth interviews and essays, Sound American  starts from a simple desire to open the doors of experimental music to a wider audience. Sound American believes that music is for everyone and should be shared on the most basic human level. Sound American aims to accomplish this by creating a direct intellectual, social, and emotional bridge that links audiences and artists. ... Sound American is also an editorial platform for other print or music projects. Sun Ra (1914-1993) is an African-American experimental jazz pianist and composer. ...”

les presses du reel

Sound American #24

​They Survived the Holocaust. Now, They Are Fleeing to Germany.

 

“I understand the pain of these people, I know who they are,” said Pini Miretski, the medical evacuation team leader.

“HANOVER, Germany — Their earliest memories are of fleeing bombs or hearing whispers about massacres of other Jews, including their relatives. Sheltered by the Soviet Union, they survived.Now elderly and fragile, Ukraine’s Holocaust survivors are escaping war once more, on a remarkable journey that turns the world they knew on its head: They are seeking safety in Germany. For Galina Ploschenko, 88, it was not a decision made without trepidation. ... Ms. Ploschenko is the beneficiary of a rescue mission organized by Jewish groups, trying to get Holocaust survivors out of the war wrought by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ...”

NY Times

NY Times: On the Trail of Russian War Crimes

NY Times: A Body Bag and a Sister in Denial

 

Charred identification papers that were found with Oleksandr Pokhodenko’s body this month.

Van Morrison Is More Than ‘Astral Weeks’—and He Damn Well Knows It

 

“Astral Weeks turns 50 this month. What a record. Lester Bangs, in perhaps the greatest piece of rock criticism ever written, poetically referred to the 1968 Van Morrison album as a ‘beacon, a light on the far shores of the murk.’ Greil Marcus, less poetically, called it ‘a profoundly intellectual album,’ and meant it as a compliment. Both would agree that Astral Weeks is one of the best 47-minute pieces of music ever created. A landmark in the fusion of rock and jazz. A masterpiece. ...”

The Ringer (Video), YouTube: Astral Weeks (2015 Remaster)

Astral Weeks – Lester Bang

A Moment in Time: Van Morrison & Astral Weeks (Video)

Discogs (Video), amazon: Astral Weeks (Expanded & Remastered)

W – His Band and the Street Choir, amazon, YouTube: His Band and the Street Choir

​True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe 1780–1870

 

“In this unique exhibition, explore the inventive ways artists in the 18th and 19th centuries recorded fleeting moments in nature, capturing the effects of light, drama, and atmosphere first-hand in the open air. The exhibition unites for the first time more than 100 oil sketches from the remarkable collections of The Foundation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, and The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, together with a distinguished private collection of sketches, never before seen in public. Featuring works by artists including John Constable, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, J.M.W. Turner, Edgar Degas and Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont, the thrill of these painters’ encounters with nature is palpable in their highly skilled, rapidly painted sketches. ...”

The Fitzwilliam Museum (Video)

 

Storm at Handeck, Alexandre Calame.

​The Bizarre Russian Prophet Rumored to Have Putin’s Ear

 

“The madness of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has once again turned the spotlight on the creepy, enigmatic guru who has been called ‘Putin’s brain’ or, irresistibly, ‘Putin’s Rasputin’: maverick ‘political philosopher’ Aleksandr Dugin. And indeed, in many ways this is Dugin’s moment: For more than a quarter century, he has been talking about an eternal civilizational war between Russia and the West and about Russia’s destiny to build a vast Eurasian empire, beginning with a reconquista of Ukraine. Both the war in Ukraine and the new Cold War against the West can be said to represent the triumph—or the debacle—of Dugin’s vision. ...”

The Bulwark

AP: East Ukraine under heavy fire in advance of Russian holiday (Video)

NY Times: Opinion | What the Inventor of the Word ‘Genocide’ Might Have Said About Putin’s War

GRID - The war in data: 2,000 Russian armored vehicles destroyed

 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, fourth left, is seen during his visit to Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 28, 2022.

​Sasha Waltz’s ‘In C’ Marries Choreography and Improvisation

 

The choreographer Sasha Waltz at Radialsystem, a performing arts space she established in Berlin.

“BERLIN — ‘I started in the deep lockdown,’ said the German choreographer Sasha Waltz. ‘Everything was closed. And it was in the winter. It was gray and everybody was depressed. And we said, we have to keep working. We cannot go on like this.’ Waltz, 59, was talking about ‘In C,’ a dance she choreographed during the pandemic with her Berlin troupe, Sasha Waltz and Guests. The hourlong work, set to Terry Riley’s 1964 composition — a milestone of minimal music — will be performed Thursday through Saturday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where Waltz and company performed frequently before the pandemic. ...”

NY Times

W - Sasha Waltz

 

Waltz said that “In C” “is almost like a dance that is similar to a football game.”

​Five astonishing ghost towns lost to natural disaster

 

“Why are we so fascinated by abandoned places? Perhaps because they offer a humbling reminder that nothing can endure for eternity, that even the most powerful civilisations must eventually fall. In this way, ghost towns and lost cities can be seen to serve as archaeological mirrors, capable of reflecting our beliefs about the past as well as our fears for the future. ... Here, we’ve put together a selection of the most astonishing sites lost to natural disasters. From Earthquakes to coastal erosion and volcanic eruptions, these five locations all boast rich and complex histories. Better still, they’re all available to visit. ...”

FAR OUT (Video)

​They Flooded Their Own Village, and Kept the Russians at Bay

 

Though some people complained about the sluggish clean-up process, which is expected to take weeks or months, much of the village has banded together in almost joyous communal effort to dry out their homes. 

“DEMYDIV, Ukraine — They pull up soggy linoleum from their floors, and fish potatoes and jars of pickles from submerged cellars. They hang out waterlogged rugs to dry in the pale spring sunshine.All around Demydiv, a village north of Kyiv, residents have been grappling with the aftermath of a severe flood, which under ordinary circumstances would have been yet another misfortune for a people under attack by Russia. This time, though, it was a tactical victory. ...”

NY Times

NY Times: Standing in the path of war, a small Ukrainian town braces as Russians advance. (Video)

Aljazeera: Russian provinces bordering Ukraine report series of blasts (Video)

Ukrainian Actor Questioned by Police After Venice Biennale Guerrilla Performance

POLITICO: What’s Putin’s Next Move? Look to Syria

​The Moderns: An Anthology of New Writing in America edited by LeRoi Jones

 

“An anthology called The Moderns had better, one thinks, be good. If it isn’t, it will be difficult for it to avoid appearing pretentious, which, I am afraid, is how Mr. Jones’s collection strikes me. His Introduction does not help me to feel otherwise. It has its perceptive moments, but on the whole it is too arcane for my understanding; and I wish he could have spelt out his assumptions and his principles of selection more simply and with expanded references. What he means by ‘modern’ seems clear enough. ...”

NYBooks: What’s New? – Walter Allen (January 9, 1964)

amazon

A Whirlwind Architectural Tour of the New York Public Library–“Hidden Details” and All

 

“The New York Public Library opened in 1911, an age of magnificence in American city-building. Eighteen years before that, writes architect-historian Witold Rybczynski, ‘Chicago’s Columbian Exposition provided a real and well-publicized demonstration of how the unruly American downtown could be tamed though a partnership of classical architecture, urban landscaping, and heroic public art.’ ...”

Open Culture (Video)

2015 August: The New York Public Library, 2015 August: Underground New York Public Library, 2016 January: Lifting the Veil on the New York Public Library’s Erotica Collection, 2016 March: 11 Essential Feminist Books: A New Reading List by The New York Public Library, 2017 September: Get NYPL Digital Collections Tab for Your Browser, 2017 September: Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, 2021 November: Reading Around New York

​Two months of horror and resilience: 7 takeaways from the war in Ukraine

 

“The war in Ukraine is two months old. There were many who didn’t think it would last two weeks. The day after the Russian invasion, Grid wrote that “tectonic shifts” were likely. It wasn’t that bold a prediction; from the beginning, it was clear that NATO would be tested severely, a new refugee crisis was possible and geopolitical alliances might be scrambled as well.In truth, none of us guessed the extent of it, nor in some cases did we imagine where those tectonic shifts would occur. At the two-month mark, Grid’s global team looked at the surprises and key takeaways from the war to date. ...”

GRID

VOX: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is fracturing the delicate peace in the Arctic (Video)

ARTFORUM: Russia Increases Arts Funding as Sanctions Take Hold

Aljazeera: Five things to know about Russian-backed Transnistria (Video)

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 25

 

The Russian “50 Years of Victory” nuclear-powered icebreaker is seen at the North Pole on August 18, 2021.

​Control and Chaos: Cate Blanchett

 

Manifesto (Julian Rosefeldt, 2014)

“In 2014, Cate Blanchett collaborated with German artist Julian Rosefeldt on a 13-channel film installation, Manifesto. Blanchett plays 12 different roles in the project, each a distinct archetype: a stockbroker, a tattooed punk, a choreographer, a machine operator, and more. In separate 10-minute chapters, each unfolding in a different setting, these figures deliver fragmented monologues comprising snippets of artistic manifestos collaged from various authors, sorted by movement and theme (’Surrealism,’ ‘Architecture,’ ‘Film’). Molding her countenance and gestures to embody each character, Blanchett is transformed beyond recognition. ...”

Film Comment

Film Comment - The Film Comment Podcast: In Conversation with Cate Blanchett (Audio)

2014 March: Blue Jasmine (2013), 2016 April: Carol (2015)

Learn About Québec City, a European-Style Walled City in North America

 

The Quebec City skyline with the Chateau Frontenac at sunset.

“Are you wishing to travel to the fairytale-like cities of Europe but are North America-bound for now? Québec City, the capital of the beautiful Canadian province of Québec, has all the charm of cathedrals, chateaus, and magnificent vistas. It is the perfect weekend trip for history nerds and winter sports enthusiasts alike. The only walled city north of Mexico, Québec City is the crown jewel of French-speaking Canada. From pitched battles to ice canoe races, the city's history and present are both complex and fascinating. ...”

My Modern Met

 

A 1797 engraving by Hervey Smyth of the siege of Quebec on September 13, 1959.

​The Five Conspiracy Theories That Putin Has Weaponized

 

“Vladimir Putin’s Russia is driven by conspiracy theories. For two decades, journalists and officials, in concert with the Kremlin, have merrily spread disinformation. However far-fetched or fantastical — that the C.I.A. was plotting to oust Mr. Putin from power, for example — these tales served an obvious purpose: to bolster the regime and guarantee public support for its actions. Whatever the personal views of members of the political establishment, it seemed clear that the theories played no role in political calculations. They were stories designed to make sense of what the regime, for its own purposes, was doing. Not anymore. ...”

NY Times: Opinion | The Five Conspiracy Theories That Putin Has Weaponized

NY Times: ​America’s Road to the Ukraine War

NY Times: In a Ukrainian School, 12 People Await the War’s End, or Their Own

CNN Navalny (Video), NY Times - ‘Navalny’ Review: Speaking Truth to Power in a Corrupt System (Video)

The Intercept_: American Phone- Tracking Firm Demo'd Surveillance Powers by Spying on CIA and NSA (Video)

 

Natalia Skvortsova sheltering in the basement of Kharkiv Municipal Gymnasium No. 172. A school secretary, she wants to protect against looting and prevent records from being destroyed.

​Long Island Dirt: Recovering Our Buried Past

 

“Long Island is rich in diverse histories, and archaeology is one way those histories can be explored. Long Islanders understand that their life experiences are shaped by the region in which they live, and that their communities are often defined in relation to each other. In a sense, their identity is tied up within a series of boundaries and relationships—through municipal boundaries like town and village limits; school district boundary lines that sometimes transcend town and village borders; the environment; transportation routes; and other factors. As a result, they have developed bounded senses of community that are not so easily understood by outsiders. Long Island Dirt is about exploring what we can learn from micro-histories or place-based narratives, investigating how those local narratives might be connected to other sites. ...”

Gotham Center

 

Long Island: Understanding the Place and its People

​National Geographic Celebrates Earth Day with Murals Across the US

 

A close-up from the NYC mural — fashioned by Steffi Lynn — located at 573 Johnson Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn

“In celebration of Earth Day, National Geographic has partnered with ABC Owned Television Stations (OTV) and local artists in four major cities to fashion murals centered on four themes: wildlife, the Amazon, forests and oceans. All of the murals have been inspired by photos from National Geographic’s archive. The image featured above was painted here in NYC by Brooklyn-based muralist and illustrator Steffi Lynn. Several more images of environmentally-conscious murals that have surfaced this month in collaboration with National Geographic follow. ...”

Street Art NYC

Warsaw’s Welcome Mat Risks Fraying Under Strain of a New Refugee Surge

 

Ukrainian refugees in Krakow, Poland, singing their national anthem during an antiwar protest this past week.

“WARSAW — Warsaw’s biggest pediatric hospital has put patients from Ukraine on its waiting list for liver transplants, sometimes ahead of Polish children. Schools in Poland’s capital have had to search for extra teachers to keep up with the influx of new pupils. Public transport has risked buckling under the strain of so many new residents. Yet, to just about everyone’s surprise, Warsaw has kept working, defying predictions of a breakdown and an angry public backlash. The city, which has welcomed hundreds of thousands of fleeing refugees, has decked itself with Ukrainian flags and banners of support for Poland’s war-ravaged eastern neighbor. ...”

NY Times

W - Ukraine genocide

NY Times: ​Rattled by Ukraine War, Moldova Strives to Dodge Russia’s Long Shadow

Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine (Video)

​For the Record: April 22, 2022.

 

Toshimaru Nakamura

“For the Record is a weekly round-up of new and upcoming recordings of interest to the new-music community – contemporary classical music and jazz, electronic and electroacoustic music, and idioms for which no clever genre name has been coined – on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, digital-only formats… you name it. This list of release dates is culled from press releases, Amazon, Bandcamp, and other  internet stores and sources, social-media posts, and online resources such as Discogs. Dates cited typically correspond to initial U.S. release, and are subject to change. ...”

Night After Night (Audio)

​33 Best Cyberpunk Books of All-Time

 

“In case you haven’t noticed, cyberpunk is huge in 2019. While we clearly love sci-fi as a whole, cyberpunk is probably our second favorite subgenre – second only to post-apocalyptic books, of course. Below, discover over 30 of our favorite cyberpunk novels of all-time, including well-known classics and a few obscure titles you probably have never heard of. Here are the best cyberpunk books of all-time. ...”

nerd much

Guardian - Neon and corporate dystopias: why does cyberpunk refuse to move on? (Oct. 2018)

2010 October: Bruce Sterling, 2011 July: William Gibson, 2015 May: Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology - edited by Bruce Sterling (1986), 2015 July: A Global Neuromancer, 2016 May: The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (1990), 2017 August: Sprawl trilogy, 2019 February: Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk & Postmodern Science - Edited by Larry McCaffery (1992), 2019 December: How William Gibson Keeps His Science Fiction Real, 2020 May: We’re on the Brink of Cyberpunk, 2020 August: The Origins of Sprawl, 2020 November: Cyberpunk

​‘Worst crisis since the second world war’: Germany prepares for a Russian gas embargo

The Kasimovskoye underground gas storage facility, operated by Gazprom in Russia.

“An embargo on Russian natural gas could cause Germany’s economic output to drop as much as 5 percent this year, the Bundesbank warned on Friday, potentially driving the country into a recession while pushing up already high consumer prices. The central bank’s predictions, largely in line with those of several economic institutes, also served as a warning of the danger that Europe’s largest economy could face if Russia decides to cut off gas exports to Europe. The central bank said its predictions were couched in uncertainty, given the unpredictable nature of the crisis surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ...”

NY Times: Germany’s economy is expected to contract under a Russian gas embargo.

W - Russia in the European energy sector

CNN: Germany faces $240 billion hit if Russian gas is cut off (Video)

​The art of the third-man run (feat. Son, Smith Rowe and De Bruyne)

 

“Xavi knows a thing or two about passing and movement patterns, and about how to navigate a way through the opposition press. ‘I’ve been hearing about the third man since I was 11, 12, 13 years old at Barcelona,’ Xavi, who is now managing the Catalan club he starred for as a player, told Coaches’ Voice last year. The third man is a relatively simple but fascinating concept to explore in terms of freeing up a player to receive possession in between the lines, or in some cases to break through on goal, after two team-mates exchange passes. Essentially, how player A passes to player B, who is marked and unable to receive the ball from him directly, via player C. Picture a defender playing the ball into the striker, who lays it off for a midfielder. ...”

The Athletic

The Multifaceted Mingus

 

’70s Mingus, with (L to R) John Foster, Roy Brooks, and Charles McPherson

“Charles Mingus was everything all at once: jazz, folk, dance, theater, label owner, brave Black man. In an era where the wrong opinions could get him killed or, at the very least, exiled from the music business, he expressed himself boldly, and exorcised strong emotions through the strings of his upright bass. His playing style was fierce, almost violent, as if the trauma of American racism was coming through it. Born 100 years ago on Friday along the United States-Mexico border, in a body that confounded easy racial categorization (one of his most memorable ballads is ’Self-Portrait in Three Colors’), Mingus lived, wrote and played bass in a state of agitated brilliance. ...”

NY Times (Video)

Charles Mingus at 100: The Legacy Continues

NPR: Charles Mingus contained multitudes, but his native language was protest (Video)

2015 August: "Meditations On Integration" - Filmed in Belgium on April 19 1964., 2016 February: XXL’s A Great Day in Hip Hop: 16 Years Later (2014), 2017 May: Mingus at the Bohemia (1955), 2017 September: Blues & Roots (1960), 2021 December: ​Charles Mingus’s Secret Eggnog Recipe Will Knock You on Your Ass

 

Charles Mingus & Eric Dolphy

​The new phase of the war in Ukraine, explained

 

People walk down a debris-laden Mariupol avenue on April 12.

“This week, the new phase of Russia’s war in Ukraine has taken form. It is a war over control of the Donbas, the eastern Ukrainian region where Russia has been supporting a separatist rebellion since 2014. Whereas the war — which began with the Russian invasion on February 24 — previously spanned the country, centering on a Russian push to seize Ukraine’s capital and most populous city, Kyiv, its newest offensive is narrowly focused on a region several hundred miles to the east. ‘The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a Tuesday address.This is, in one sense, a smart move by the Russians. ...”

VOX

Aljazeera: At Venice Biennale, Ukrainian artists defy Russia’s invasion (Video)

Guardian - ‘We are fighting for our culture’: Ukrainian artists head to Venice Biennale

Guardian - Empty galleries and fleeing artists: Russia’s cultural uncoupling from the west (Video)

NY Times: Opinion | Acknowledging the Limits of Sanctions

Jacobin: The US Has No Idea Where Its Ukrainian Military Aid Is Going

 

People hide in one of the official underground shelters during an air alarm in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 22. - Ukraine war in photos, April 21: Life underground

Celebrate Spring with the Lyrids

 

“Lyra, the Lyre (an ancient kind of harp), gives its name to the annual Lyrid meteor shower. While they’re no summer Perseids — more like a gentle April shower — the Lyrids reliably return every year to add a little pizzazz to the early spring sky. Since the last significant shower (the Quadrantids) occurred in early January, these meteor-starved eyes welcome their return. The term 'Lyrids' is something of a misnomer because the shower's radiant — the point in the sky from which the meteors emanate — is located 8° southwest of Vega (Lyra's brightest star) in eastern Hercules. ...”

Sky & Telescope

NY Times: Watch the Lyrid Meteor Shower Peak in Night Skies

When to look up at the sky for the Lyrid meteor shower

​‘This is rarely taught’: an exhibition examining African-Atlantic history

 

Lois Mailou Jones - The Green Door, 1981

“Earlier that day she had presided over the US Senate confirmation of the supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who would mark the occasion by quoting poetry: ‘I am the dream and the hope of the slave.’ Then, in the evening, Vice-President Kamala Harris headed to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for a reception celebrating the opening of Afro-Atlantic Histories, a landmark exhibition that explores the brutal history of the transatlantic slave trade and cultural legacy of the African diaspora. ...”

Guardian

NGA: Afro-Atlantic Histories (Video)

amazon

​‘I Don’t Think It’s Going to Stop in Ukraine’: 10 Americans on Putin’s War

 

“The conventional wisdom is that Americans, scarred by the country’s involvement in wars for the last two decades, are by and large done with all that. When Russia invaded Ukraine, there was never a question of whether President Biden would send in U.S. troops to assist the Ukrainians. This wasn’t just because of a war-weary public: Pitting two nuclear powers against each other was incomprehensible. But in our latest Times Opinion focus group, 10 Americans — representing a range of political parties, ideologies and backgrounds — were clearly struggling with what the United States could or should do about the war and the daily evidence of brutality that increasingly alarms them. They had thought a lot about leadership, grit and hard decisions, especially as shown by Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and about how much they are willing to sacrifice, financially and otherwise, as the fallout from the war and Western sanctions continue. ...”

NY Times - Opinion (Audio/Video) 1:21:04

GRID: U.S. social media giants vowed to remove Russian war propaganda. It’s still there.

W - Media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis

Aljazeera: US unveils new sponsorship programme for Ukrainian refugees (Video)

NY Times: He Was a Penniless Donor to the Far Right. He Was Also a Russian Spy.

 

Newspapers for sale at a shop in Bratislava, Slovakia. Outlets friendly to Russia routinely portray it as a champion of peace and lodestar of Christian values, while casting NATO as a warmongering menace.