​Winter starts, Ukraine goes dark: Fear and resolve in blackouts

"Kyiv, Ukraine – I’m not much of a fighter, but I know the feeling. And if you’ve ever prepared to take a punch to the stomach, you know the feeling, too. The intake of breath. The tensing of the muscles. The knowledge that the blow is coming. The hope that it won’t be too painful. That’s what it’s like in Ukraine, waiting for the next wave of Russian missile strikes. Everyone knows it’s inevitable. It’s just a question of when. And how bad. Since October 10, every few days, Russia has deployed its strategic bombers and warships to unleash aerial devastation on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Cruise missiles have smashed into power plants and water facilities. Most are shot down by Ukrainian air defence. But enough get through to take large parts of the energy grid down completely. ...”

Aljazeera (Video)

POLITICO: Target Crimea

BBC - Ukraine war: The surrender hotline for Russian soldiers

The Atlantic: Why Putin Made Peace With the Soviets’ Archenemies (October 2022)

A pedestrian passes by cars covered in snow, in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 30, 2022

Ambient Music With A Library Of Congress C1 Cassette Player

"In his latest video, synthesist Hainbach takes a look at the Library Of Congress C1 Cassette Player, and using it for creating ambient music. The C1 has some unique features, making it an interesting tool for experimenting with cassette tapes. It offers variable speed tape playback, half speed switching, and the ability to play both sides of a tape without flipping the tape. Here’s another performance featuring a C1 and other cassette players, playing tape loops, via Amulets (Randall Taylor). ...”

Synthtopia (Video)

2018 October: Distressed Tape, 2019 February: Sandpaper Is a Form of Change, 2019 February: Hainbach - Gear Top 7: My Personal Favorites In 2018, 2019 May: The Sound of Architecture and Design | Bauhaus, Piezo Microphones and FX, 2019 June: Make Noise Morphage - My "Film Noir" Reel, 2019 August: The Sands Take You | tape loop, OP-1 (2019), 2019 September: Gestures (2019)

​Shopping Diary

"September 14. I am in my mobile mall, which is my phone’s WiFi hotspot on the NJ Transit. Paynter Jacket Co. is this British couple, Becky and Huw, who make chore jackets in micro-batches. When you purchase a jacket, you also buy its journey, from sourcing the cloth to cutting the pattern to meeting with Sergio, who serges the jackets together in Portugal. I already have their perfect chore jacket from a micro-micro-batch, a Japanese tiger-print patchwork. The latest is a Carpenter Jacket, so, not a chore jacket at all. ...”

The Paris Review

The Paris Review - Category Archives: Diaries

Camille à la ville paper dolls.

Ukraine Warns of More Strikes on Power Plants, as Russians Dig In

"Amid Ukrainian warnings that Moscow is preparing a new wave of strikes on energy plants, Russian forces are fortifying their defensive lines in southern Ukraine after retreating from the city of Kherson. Since being ordered to pull out of Kherson earlier this month, Russian troops have been digging trenches and erecting barriers against the possibility of a new Ukrainian offensive east and south of the city, a gateway to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. But the Kremlin, presumably still stinging from the bitter setbacks, on Monday dismissed widespread speculation that its forces might soon relinquish another prize in Ukraine’s south, the nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia that it seized soon after invading in February. ...”

NY Times

Guardian: Ukraine needs tanks, and the west should supply them. They could finish off Putin and Russia

GRID: Ukraine has an insatiable need for ammunition, but the US doesn’t have an endless supply

Critical Threats: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 28

​Milford Graves Full Mantis review – cutting-edge drums and terrific storytelling

"What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians? A drummer. Except that this delightfully entertaining and idiosyncratic music documentary ought to banish the stereotype of drummers as talentless thickos. It’s also one of those films you can happily watch without having a jot of prior interest in its subject. Just as well, because few will have heard of Milford Graves, the avant-garde jazz percussionist. In archive footage of a noisy performance with other 1960s pioneers – this film is too cool for subtitles to tell you who’s who – there’s a woman in the audience with her hands clamped over her ears, face a rictus of pure agony. ...”

Guardian (Video)

NY Times: ‘Milford Graves Full Mantis’ Delivers a Lot of Heart (Video)

W - Milford Graves

Criterion

Milford Graves: A Mind-Body

YouTube: Milford Graves Full Mantis 

William Blake - Satan Exulting over Eve (1795)

"Satan hovers in malevolent glory over Eve, who is entwined by his alter ego, the serpent of the Garden of Eden. The uneven, fibrous, opaque color of the ground under Eve distinguishes this area as printed, while the even sweep of the red washes shows that the flames behind Satan are mostly watercolor, a medium William Blake often used because he liked its transparent quality. Blake's images reflected his own very personal visions, which he insisted were ‘not a cloudy vapour or a nothing; they are organized and minutely articulated beyond all that the mortal and perishing nature can produce.’ The twelve large, color-printed drawings that he created in 1795 rank among his most complex works. ...”

Getty

2009 April: William Blake, 2010 December: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 2011 June: The Ghost of a Flea, 2012 August: Isaac Newton (1795), 2015 November: America a Prophecy (1793), 2019 May: The Notebook of William Blake, 2019 October: ‘To Particularize Is the Alone Distinction of Merit’: Blake’s Visionary Imagination, 2021 September: William Blake’s 102 Illustrations of The Divine Comedy Collected in a Beautiful Book from Taschen, 2022 May: William Blake: The Remarkable Printing Process of the English Poet, Artist & Visionary

​Monday briefing: How the weather could sway the outcome of the war

"Good morning. As winter arrives in Ukraine, sleet and snow will become a daily fact of life. Depending on the severity of the weather, the ground will become impassably muddy, or freeze over. Civilians in parts of the country will be left without power, heating or water as a result of Russian attacks on infrastructure, and could face frostbite, hypothermia and pneumonia. Temperatures will get as low as -20C. While the months ahead look grim, the question of how these drastically changing conditions will impact the progress of the war is more complicated. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Julian Borger, reporting for the Guardian from Kyiv, about how both sides will hope to use the circumstances to their advantage – and how the prospects for diplomacy could be shaped by the facts on the ground. ...”

Guardian

BBC - Ukraine war: Russia atrocities bring Nato members closer

Aljazeera: US eyes long-range rockets for Ukraine as arms supplies dwindle (Video)

NY Times: For Putin’s Opponents, Exile From Russia Proves a Boon

Ukraine accuses Russia of committing war crimes throughout its full-scale invasion - including in Bucha, near Kyiv

Avatar deepartnature 41s ago Octavio Paz: Political thought

"... Originally, Paz supported the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, but after learning of the murder of one of his friends by the Stalinist secret police, he became gradually disillusioned. While in Paris in the early 1950s, influenced by David Rousset, André Breton and Albert Camus, he started publishing his critical views on totalitarianism in general, and particularly against Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. ... In his magazines Plural and Vuelta, Paz exposed the violations of human rights in communist regimes, including Castro's Cuba. Paz continued to consider himself a man of the left, the democratic, 'liberal' left, not the dogmatic and illiberal one. ... Politically, Paz was a social democrat, who became increasingly supportive of liberal ideas without ever renouncing to his initial leftist and romantic views. ...”

W – Political thought

Dissent – Poetry and Action: Octavio Paz at 100

Octavio Paz and Intellectual Independence in Defense of Freedom and Democracy

[PDF] Octavio Paz: eight decades of poetry, politics and history

2020 September: Octavio Paz

 

​Revisiting The Jam's riotous performance of 'In The City' from 1977

"This week marks 43 years since The Jam announced their arrival onto the scene with their riotous debut single ‘In The City’, a track which immediately stopped Britain in their tracks and the mod revival would then be born. The impressionable three-piece warmed themselves to angry teens across the country from the get-go, instantly connecting to Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler who, in appearance, looked like people they would associate with and, opposing to the mainstream musicians of the time, not some pop star who appears to have been dropped down from an alien planet. ...”

FAROUT (Video)

YouTube: In The City  (1977 UK T.O.T.P)

2009 March: The Jam,  2012 November: "Going Underground", 2013 January: In the City, 2013 February: This Is the Modern World, 2013 July: All Mod Cons, 2013 November: Setting Sons, 2014 January: Sound Affects (1980), 2014 December: Live At Bingley Hall, Birmingham, England 1982, 2015 March: "Town Called Malice" / "Precious", 2015 September: "Strange Town" / "The Butterfly Collector" (1979), 2016 April: "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" (1979), 2017 January: Absolute Beginners EP (1981), 2017 March: David Watts / "A" Bomb In Wardour Street (1978), 2017 December: The Gift (1982), 2018 May: Peel Session

 

Even amid murderous Russian raids, western apathy is Kyiv’s deadliest foe

"A two-day-old baby is killed in an attack on a maternity ward in southern Ukraine. Officials say at least 437 children have died since Russia’s invasion began. More than 800 have been injured. How many kids are permanently traumatised is anybody’s guess. Every day, Vladimir Putin gets away with murder.The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is shelled again, despite repeated UN warnings of Europe-wide catastrophe. In liberated Kherson, more grisly evidence of war crimes is uncovered. Wherever the Russians go, it’s the same horror story. Every day the killers go unpunished. ...”

Guardian

Aljazeera - Ukraine-Russia live: As snow falls, Kyiv works on restoring power (Video)

NY Times: In Ukraine, Bakhmut Becomes a Bloody Vortex for 2 Militaries

NBC News: Snowfall in Kyiv as millions struggle with power outages across Ukraine

A couple walks in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 24, 2022, after a Russian rocket attack knocked out power.

Religious war

"A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war (Latin: sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to which religious, economic, ethnic or other aspects of a conflict are predominant in a given war. The degree to which a war may be considered religious depends on many underlying questions, such as the definition of religion, the definition of 'religious war' (taking religious traditions on violence such as 'holy war' into account), and the applicability of religion to war as opposed to other possible factors. Answers to these questions heavily influence conclusions on how prevalent religious wars have been as opposed to other types of wars. ...”

W - Religious war

Religious Wars and Religious Freedom: A Troubled History

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: The First Religious War in the 21st Century (March 3, 2022) 

The battle as depicted in the Berner Chronik, W - Battle of Grunwald, 15 July 1410

World Cup 2022: How Teams Can Advance to the Round of 16

"The 2022 World Cup is well underway. This year’s tournament is a little more open than usual, our chief soccer correspondent writes. And with the first matches completed in each group, we’ve already seen two major upsets: Argentina’s loss to Saudi Arabia, and Germany’s defeat against Japan. In the tournament’s opening matches, known as the group stage, each team plays the other three teams in its group, earning three points for a win and one point for a draw. ...”

NY Times

​‘I can’t take up a weapon, so I create’: how Ukraine’s artists are taking on Putin’s Russia

"When I meet him, artist Oleksiy Sai, along with his wife and son, have slept the night in their studio, a warren of rooms tucked behind an unassuming courtyard in central Kyiv. It’s on the ground floor, and with good walls, so they reckon it’s reasonably safe from Russian rockets. Safer, that is, than their apartment: the previous day they were woken by the juddering scream-boom of cruise missile strikes, one cratering a children’s playground a block from their flat. Somehow, their windows survived, though the glass was blown out of most of the nearby buildings. Now, the whole family is busy making work: his son Vasyl is at a screen editing videos; his wife, Svitlana Ratoshnyuk, is making folksy textiles embroidered with ‘Fuck Putin’ in Ukrainian. ...”

Guardian

Aljazeera: As Russia attacks, Ukrainians offer tips on survival, optimism

NY Times: On the Anniversary of Ukraine’s Famine, Parallels to Russia’s Strikes

Salvaging belongings and clearing debris from a residential building hit by Russian missiles this week in Vyshhorod, Ukraine.

​96 Tears Raises a Glass to the Late, Beloved Punk Stalwart Howie Pyro

"The term ‘safe space’ doesn’t usually conjure up images of a black-ceilinged bar and a vintage Seeburg jukebox packed with vinyl that includes ‘Have Love Will Travel,’ by the Sonics, and ‘What a Way To Die,’ by the Pleasure Seekers (15-year old Suzi Quatro’s all-female family and friends band). Not to mention steep stairs presided over by collectible Ramones ‘Demented Dollz’ and an Iggy Pop photo for patrons to ogle as they descend to the cozy Cabin Down Below basement bar. ... The weekend scene belies the area’s gritty cultural bona fides. But at 7th Street and Avenue A, 96 Tears is taking back the night. ...”

Voice

An ashtray for the scholars.

​The ancient mecca of mindfulness: Carlsbad, the Czech Republic’s healing town

"Even Holy Roman Emperors have hobbies. For the 14th Century ruler Charles IV, a spot of horseback hunting was the ideal way to pass the time between imperial duties. He was a bane to the scurrying wildlife in the Ore Mountains. However, he had an impeding ailment—an injured leg. One day, his travelling men discovered a warm pool of water mystically bubbling up from the ground. The emperor plunged his aching heft into this Godsent hot spring and felt an instant miraculous recovery. In the wake of his holy discovery, he granted city privileges to the small encampments surrounding these divine lands, and the healing springs were soon to form a brand-new mindful municipality. ...”

FAROUT (Video)

What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysis

"Russia fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine in a new onslaught against the country’s civilian infrastructure on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people in residential areas, as Moscow once more tried to retaliate for its military defeats by targeting the population. Ukraine’s armed forces estimated that Russia launched 70 cruise missiles, of which 51 were intercepted by air defences, in what the army called a ‘large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities’, Lorenzo Tondo and Julian Borger reported. One of the 10 that evaded the defences in Kyiv hit an apartment block in the northern suburb of Vyshgorod, killing three people and wounding 15. ...”

Guardian (Video)

BBC - Ukraine war: Most of Kyiv spends night without power after missiles

Aljazeera - Which EU politicians refused to label Russia a sponsor of terror?

Ukrainian artist Aljoscha on bioethics, war, and hope

Aljoscha

​Zelda Fitzgerald: Writer, Muse, and… Painter?

"For decades, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was known primarily as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife and highly quotable sidekick, the original Roaring Twenties flapper and model for many of her husband’s fictional heroines. With the women’s movement in the late 1960s came a resurgence of interest in Zelda’s own talents as a writer of fiction and as a dancer. But until recently, few people were aware of her artwork, although she produced more than one hundred cityscapes of the places where she lived, illustrations for fairy tales and biblical stories, and paintings of figures and flowers. For me, though—her granddaughter—the showstoppers were always her paper dolls. ...”

LitHub

amazon

2014 January: View the Passport Photos of F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf & Other Cultural Icons, 2014 August: Gatsby to Garp: Modern Masterpieces from the Carter Burden Collection, 2014 November: Lost Generation, 2015 November: The Crack-Up (1945), 2017 December: Living Well Is the Best Revenge By Calvin Tomkins, 2019 August: Three Letters from Switzerland By Zelda Fitzgeralds, 2020 November: A Few Words about F. Scott Fitzgerald, 2021 February: The Great Gatsby Is Now in the Public Domain and There’s a New Graphic Novel image

Liberating will

"The exercise of autonomy has as its trajectory the realization, the appearance of the will. Discovering oneself capable of realizing plans, dreams, and purposes creates a firmness that establishes availability and determination. In the context of autonomy, rigidity and firmness allow flexibility, as there is around what to revolve. The will is an instrument of change, of liberation. ... At this point, we can state that through romantic ideals, humans regained their place at the center of the world with their will. This new idea explodes in the arts, literature, in poetry and philosophy. Nietzsche shows the dancing gods and announces the death of God. ...”

MEER

The dance of the Bacchants, by Charles Gleyre and Friedrich Nietzsche

Russian Missile Barrage Cuts Power and Water Across Ukraine

"KYIV, Ukraine — Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy facilities on Wednesday, as missiles rocked Kyiv and other cities, plunging large areas of the nation into darkness, shutting down water systems and cutting off power in half the neighboring country of Moldova. The attack was the widest since Nov. 15, when 100 missiles and drones rained down, and among the most devastating of the entire war. The blasts sent plumes of smoke into the skies as Ukrainian air defense systems worked to shoot down incoming rockets that Moscow has been aiming at energy installations for weeks in an effort to break Ukrainians’ will by depriving them of light and heat in the winter months. ...”

NY Times

Aljazeera: Russian forces in Kherson alert as Ukraine plans next move (Video)

GRID - The Ukraine War in data: After 9 months of war, what the data tells us

Compassion, Forgiveness, and Love

Smoke from a Russian artillery bombardment rising on Wednesday from the port of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which has come under daily shelling this week from Russian positions located across the Dnipro River.

Ebba Jahn - A Jazz Film (1984)

"In 1984, before Tonic or CB's Lounge or even the Knitting Factory and Rudy Giuliani, New York Citywas a rough-and-tumble place filled with a wonderful array of musicians in a state of hyper-creativity. Some of them had come out of the loft scene of the '70s or even earlier and were reconciling all the shades of the avant-garde while others were creating entirely new vocabularies still being solidified today. German filmmaker Ebba Jahn made ‘A Jazz Film’ that year with interviews, musical performances and fascinating visuals of the city before it became sterilized. ... Many of the musicians featured are still active players: Charles Gayle, William Parker, John Zorn, Jemeel Moondoc, Irene Schweizer, Peter Brötzmann. And unsurprisingly, the film captures many who have departed firmly in their element: Charles Tyler, Don Cherry, Denis Charles, Peter Kowald. ...”

All About Jazz

lluminating Downtown's Dark Years. (Video)

Criterion Channel (Video)

​47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station

"The 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station is an express station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located along Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) between 47th and 50th Streets, on the west side of Rockefeller Center. The station is served by the D and F trains at all times, the B and M trains on weekdays, and the ⟨F⟩ train during rush hours in the peak direction. In 2019, it was the 12th busiest subway station in the system. ...”

Wikipedia

Rockefeller Center: Everything leads to the Center.

What to do in New York at Christmas: a subway ride on the “Nostalgia Trains”, the vintage trains of the old NYC.

YouTube: R179 (A) and (C) Trains at 47th-50th Streets - Rockefeller Center

​Ukraine war: Power cuts across the country and in Moldova as missiles hit

"Ukraine's western city of Lviv is without power after a wave of Russian missiles pounded the country. Critical infrastructure in Kyiv was also targeted, and the city's officials said three people died in the attack. Across the border, Moldova also reported ‘massive’ blackouts, although it has not been directly hit. Moscow has recently increased strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, leaving half of the country's power grid in need of repair. Ukraine's national power grid operator has said the damage sustained by power generating facilities in recent weeks has been ‘colossal’ and warned that Ukrainians could face long power outages over the winter months. ...”

BBC

Guardian: How Putin is preparing children to ‘die for the motherland’

NBC News: Russia's bombardment and plunging temperatures endanger millions in Ukraine, WHO warns (Video)

POLITICO: EU plans subsidy war chest as industry faces ‘existential’ threat from US

Fire and rescue workers attend a building hit by a missile in central Kyiv

​How Saudi Arabia shocked Argentina: Direct play and high line, crowd sows panic, microscope on Messi

"Saudi Arabia have beaten Argentina 2-1 in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. The opening match of Group C at the 2022 World Cup looked to be going as expected after Lionel Messi’s early penalty. Yet two goals in the first eight minutes of the second half — from Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari — stunned the South American champions, who entered the tournament as one of the favourites to lift the trophy. …”

The Athletic (Video)

Guardian – ‘We gave them a response’: Saudi Arabia claim their place in World Cup history

NY Times: Saudi Arabia Leaves Another Scar on Argentina’s Soul

BBC – World Cup 2022: Saudi Arabia deliver ‘seismic’ shock, but don’t count Argentina out

The Athletic: ‘He sold himself to the devil’ – Messi, 2030, and a very uncomfortable deal with Saudi Arabia (Video)

Guardian: Lionel Messi’s international career has never felt closer to oblivion

The Athletic: Messi’s Argentina have no excuses – but they also shouldn’t be too worried

The Athletic: Saudi Arabia humble Argentina – but was it the greatest World Cup shock ever?

Rap/Hip-Hop

"Rap is original poetry recited in rhythm and rhyme over prerecorded instrumental tracks. Rap music (also referred to as rap or hip-hop music) evolved in conjunction with the cultural movement called hip-hop. Rap emerged as a minimalist street sound against the backdrop of the heavily orchestrated and formulaic music coming from the local house parties to dance clubs in the early 1970s. Its earliest performers comprise MCs (derived from master of ceremonies but referring to the actual rapper) and DJs (who use and often manipulate pre-recorded tracks as a backdrop to the rap), break dancers and graffiti writers. ...”

CH (Audio)

G-MAN Park Jam in the Bronx

Ukraine’s security service raids Russian-backed monastery in Kyiv

"Ukraine’s SBU security service and police have raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv as part of operations to counter suspected ‘subversive activities by Russian special services’. Located south of the city centre, the sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – is the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church that falls under the Moscow patriarchate, as well as being a Ukrainian cultural treasure and a Unesco World Heritage site. The Russian Orthodox church, whose head, Patriarch Kirill, has strongly supported Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine, condemned the raid as an ‘act of intimidation’. ...”

Guardian

BBC: Millions of lives under threat in Ukraine this winter - WHO

Understanding the Real Value of U.S. Financial Aid to Ukraine

NY Times: For Ukraine, So Much Unexpected Success, and Yet So Far to Go

Ukrainian law enforcement officers stand next to the entrance of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery

Garvey's Ghost - Burning Spear (1976)

"... However, relations were so strained between Winston Rodney and Mango, over the remixed version of Marcus Garvey they'd released internationally, that the artist had launched his own label Spear to prevent this ever happening again. Thus Mango decided to mix up a dub album, Garvey's Ghost, in an attempt to mollify Rodney. Apparently this rather obvious ploy did the trick, and the tensions between the label and artist now eased. However, listening to the record, one wonders why, for, if anything, Ghost merely added insult to injury. Rodney was aggrieved at the reggae light remix of his dread masterpiece, and if Garvey was light, Ghost was positively ashen. ...”

allmusic (Audio)

W - Garvey's Ghost

Discogs (Video)

YouTube: Garvey’s Ghost  1 / 10

2009 June: Burning Spear, 2010 October: Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost, 2012 March: Burning Spear 1981 - Markthalle Hamburg, 2012 December: Hail H.I.M., 2015 August: Man In The Hills / Dry & Heavy (1976)

Rochefort's Escape - Édouard Manet (1881)

"This painting is the smaller of the two versions of Rochefort's Escape painted by Manet after December 1880. The other version is in the Kunsthaus, Zurich. Virulently opposed to the imperial regime, Rochefort founded a political newspaper, La Lanterne in 1868. The newspaper, which was published in Brussels, was soon banned. In 1873, the journalist was sentenced to penal servitude for his role during the Commune. His spectacular, swashbuckling escape by sea, in 1874, inspired Manet to paint this strange composition, six years after the event. ...”

Musee Orsay

W - Rochefort's Escape

2011 May: Manet, the Man who Invented Modernity, 2013 April: Manet: Portraying Life, 2019 June: Manet and Modern Beauty, 2021 March: Manet: Three Paintings from the Norton Simon Museum

Rochefort's Escape (c. 1881), Musée d'Orsay

On the River at Night, Ambushing Russians

"ON THE BANKS OF THE DNIPRO RIVER, Ukraine — Under cover of darkness, a group of soldiers heaved their dinghy off the sand into the water. Another group loaded equipment with a heavy clanking into their boat, while a third pushed off silently with oars. Engines humming quietly, the boats turned to the open water and disappeared into the blackness. The fighters, a volunteer Ukrainian special forces team called the Bratstvo battalion, were crossing the wide expanse of the Dnipro River, the strategic waterway that bisects Ukraine and has become the dividing line of the southern front. After recapturing the city of Kherson a week ago, Ukrainian forces hold the western bank, while the Russians still hold the eastern bank. ...”

NY Times

Aljazeera: Shunned by the West, Russia’s IT sector goes on the defensive

POLITICO - Key weapons in Ukraine’s resilience: Ingenuity and improvisation

GRID: Why Russia has made homophobia part of its anti-Ukraine propaganda

NY Times: Opinion | What Will Russia Without Putin Look Like? Maybe This.

Members of a special forces unit using oars to push their boats into the water while on a night operation targeting Russian forces behind the front line.

Peter Schjeldahl (1942–2022)

"One problem with seeing an exhibition with someone else is that rhythms of looking are so often at odds—either they move too slowly or not slow enough, or pay too much attention to stuff that you do not. Soon after we met in 2014, Peter Schjeldahl and I figured out that we were weirdly in-sync gallerygoers. Walking through a show together, we’d incessantly narrate bits of what we were seeing to each other, trying out descriptions and bits of language in the presence of the art itself—Peter scribbling on a checklist or small notepad like a proper reporter. These were my most vivid encounters with Peter the Poet, always aiming to delight with an unexpected adjective or analogy. The goal was marrying precision and surprise. ...”

ARTFORUM

NY Times: Peter Schjeldahl, New York Art Critic With a Poet’s Voice, Dies at 80

2017 July: Peter Schjeldahl

An immigrant printmaker and painter gives color and light to Depression-era New York City

"Max Arthur Cohn was a prolific 20th century artist of many mediums. But whether a silkscreen print, oil painting, mural, or lithograph, Cohn’s work imbues nuanced scenes of midcentury New York City with bursts of color and Ashcan-inspired realism. His early years echo those of so many early 20th century immigrants. Born in London in 1903 to Russian parents, Cohn and his family settled in America two years later, moving to Cleveland and then Kingston, New York. At 17, he landed his first art-related job in New York City: making commercial silkscreens. ...”

Ephemeral New York

Hooverville Depression Scene, 1938

​Ukraine war: We will rebuild, vows mayor of flattened Mariupol

"Vadym Boychenko is under no illusions. The Russians, says the mayor of Mariupol, will never leave the city voluntarily. But the Ukrainian Army, he adds, will expel them. In fact, he is so confident that day will come that he has just been in Poland signing a deal with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to rebuild his shattered city when the Russians depart. Working together with the World Bank, a ‘Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment’ report is being compiled to quantify the damage to water, sanitation, public transport and lighting. Once this is complete, it's intended to produce The Mariupol Revival Plan. ...”

BBC

Aljazeera - Russia-Ukraine live: Shelling at Zaporizhzhia ‘playing with fire’ (Video)

Critical Threats: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 19

Guardian: A Message from Ukraine by Volodymyr Zelensky review – a winner in the war of words

The Azovstal Iron and Steel Works was pummelled by Russian artillery

​Collecting My Heritage(s)

"This essay features two main concepts, that of collecting and that of heritage. When I first started building a music collection, I never thought about the implications this might have for the discovery and, implicitly, for the conservation of a music heritage, which could, otherwise, be lost. The two concepts do not always have to be related to one another, yet, in certain cases, one informs the other in such a way, that they become almost inseparable. But before I address the issue of how music collecting and building a cultural heritage have become entangled phenomena in my personal history, I should attempt to provide some sort of definition for these two concepts, in order to better grasp how their content is formed and how it functions. ...”

theATTIC