"The main stage at this year’s festival will feature a unique fusion of some of the best and brightest female voices in UK reggae. A special showcase from Mad Professor’s Ariwa label will see The Roots Daughters making a heartful and defiant impression on the Wilkswood Reggae faithful. Sista Aisha, Awa Fall and Redhead QI will be joined by the Robotiks for some solid live roots. ...”
On a changing block in Chelsea, a Broadway set designer’s 1904 studio still stands
"The luxury architecture of today’s far West Chelsea is surrounded by ghosts: of former horse stables, converted warehouses, and the steel trestle of the elevated railway that once carried trains and is now traversed by pedestrians. Some of these ghosts offer mysterious clues about their former residents. Case in point: the blond-brick building on the south side of West 29th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. ‘John H. Young’ a terra cotta plaque above the door at Number 536 reads. ‘Studios 1904.’ Who was John H. Young? ...”
The Artists of Dialogue
"... Widely acknowledged as the world’s leading collection of Orientalist art outside of museums, [Shafik] Gabr describes his three decades of collecting more than 180 paintings as not only ‘a personal journey,’ but also ‘a message I want to pass on.’ In 1993 Gabr bought his first painting: Egyptian Priest Entering a Temple, painted in 1892 by Ludwig Deutsch, a Paris-based artist of Austrian heritage and one of the most prominent Orientalists. Its pharaonic theme, Gabr says, resonated. ...”
2018 April: Orientalism - Edward W. Said (1978)
Étienne Dinet - “Spectators Admiring a Dancer,” 1905.
13th Street Repertory Theatre – Greenwich Village
"The wilting three-story building in Greenwich Village that houses the 13th Street Repertory Company creaked and groaned as its artistic director, Joe Battista, gave a tour of its theater one afternoon in July. The Repertory opened in 1972 and is one of the oldest Off Off Broadway theaters in New York. Mr. Battista walked past its 65 tattered seats and onto its stage. … According to theater lore, Williams stood downstage right shortly before his death and proclaimed that the future of American theater was not on Broadway, but in small playhouses like 13th Street. ...”
Maria Prymachenko, a picturesque region - Kyiv
"Maria Prymachenko grew up in Polissya, a picturesque region near Kyiv. With no formal artistic training, she took inspiration from nature. Regardless of floods or droughts, she continued to work amidst adversity, and was fortified by an inner light. Maria Prymachenko spent almost her entire life in her native village, rarely venturing far away. But in her imagination, she created a universe that audiences can continue to explore and delight in today. Since the destruction by Russian forces of a local museum housing Prymachenko’s works, it has only been possible to see the artist’s paintings through exhibitions such as this. During times of war, Prymachenko’s art became a source of strength for Ukrainians. It reminds them of their own power, their incredible past, and what the future could hold. ...”
Maria Prymachenko. No Name. London, 2023.
Cooking with Elizabeth David - Valerie Stivers
"Elizabeth David considered herself ‘not a writer really you know, but only a self-made one’—primarily a cook. And she wasn’t a typical writer, even within her chosen genre of food writing. David abhorred the arty and artificial, kept her private life to herself, and made concessions to her audience only when it suited her values. Her voice, especially in her journalism, is acerbic—she was a woman who liked to eat well, and didn’t care what you thought of that. And yet she has been England’s most influential food writer since the peak of her career in the fifties, and she remains a household name in the UK. Her groundbreaking works, A Book of Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking, and simply Italian Food, all published just after World War II, introduced the English to those cuisines. ...”
The Story of the Blues
"The blues is the most important genre in all of modern popular music, bar none. To understand why, think of the blues as the parent and the music that descended from it as grandchildren and great grandchildren. Out of the blues came jazz and boogie-woogie, which led to rock, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and eventually to hip-hop. Country music was first country and western music, which was a category that Billboard invented to separate white blues from Black music. Rosco Gordon’s swaying ‘No More Doggin’ became a foundational record for the creation of ska, which later spawned reggae. It would be astonishing if it were fiction, but it’s true. One reason it’s true is that the blues is a universal music. ...”
The Picasso Capers
"If social art history entails studying an artwork’s reception, few scholars have been so committed to this approach as Hannah Gadsby. Already in secondary school, at Launceston College near Tasmania’s northern coast, they developed a novel mode of discourse analysis. For an assignment, the future comedian was asked to ‘write about one piece of work.’ They chose Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, ‘the painting that adorned the cover of my book about Cubism,’ as they explain in their 2022 memoir, Ten Steps to Nanette. ...”
A bank of posters for “It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby” near the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
Lionel Messi: The evolution of the greatest footballer of all time
"The way his first coach tells the story, the kid wasn’t even supposed to be on the pitch. It was his older brother’s game. They were a player short. Salvador Aparicio looked over at the stands and saw a small boy playing by himself, in private communion with the ball. When he asked his mother if he could borrow him, she said he didn’t know how to play football. …”
“Urban Revolution” Offers a Graff/Street Art Installation Survey in Lisbon
"’Urban[R]Evolution: A Journey from Graffiti to Contemporary Art’ is a large exhibition that marks the rise and popularity of urban art and features original installations by 18 renowned Portuguese and international artists. Curated by Pauline Foessel and Pedro Alonzo, this showcase takes place at Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon, running from June 21st to December 3rd. The historic and iconic building that once served as the National Rope Factory during the late 18th century, catering to the needs of the Portuguese Navy by producing ropes for naval purposes, is situated near the scenic Tagus River. ...”
Zelensky says he talked to the British prime minister about protecting Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
"President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on Tuesday for more weapons aid to protect his country’s historical heritage as the United Nations began assessing the damage to landmarks in Odesa after near-nightly attacks recently by Russian forces on the city. The U.N. said on Monday that its top official in Ukraine, Denise Brown, was in Odesa to examine the toll of a week of attacks that have killed civilians, destroyed agricultural facilities and damaged sites including the city’s most important cathedral. The intentional destruction of cultural sites could amount to a war crime, UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural agency, said in a statement on Sunday. Russia has denied targeting the landmarks and blamed the destruction on Ukraine’s air defenses. ...”
The damaged Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa on Sunday
Hania Rani live at Invalides, in Paris, France for Cercle
"Pianist, composer and singer-songwriter Hania Rani recently to the Cercle stage to perform a unique concert which was broadcast online last month. Traditionally, Hania Rani’s music is entrenched in chamber music melodies and modern classical piano and string arrangements. ... It’s as if she has given modern classical music a stadium anthem-styled electric current. Part of the Cercle experience is that an artist remixes a track from the Cercle archives so alongside band versions of album favourites and unreleased extras, there’s a new remix track to enjoy live too. It is a magical concert and deserves a lot of love. ...”
2021 April: Live from Studio S2 (2021), 2022 January: Hania Rani, 2022 March: Music for Film and Theatre (2021), 2023 January: Esja (2019)
Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger: Modular Organ System
"Since 2017, artists and musicians Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger have been developing the Modular Organ System: the first monumental pipe organ that can be re-engineered according to the acoustics of any space. Sollmann and Sprenger have deterritorialized the classical organ; their revolutionary instrument is composed of pipes and parts taken from former church organs as well as newly fabricated pieces. When installed, all of the Modular Organ’s elements—pipes, console, action, and wind box—are visible, allowing visitors to witness the instrument’s physicality. By freeing the pipe organ from a singular, static installation, the artists usher in limitless possibilities for the placement and recontextualization of the tremendous instrument and its unique sound. ...”
The freed slave who ran a famous 19th century roadhouse on today’s Second Avenue
"Imagine New York in the 1810s: the population almost topped 100,000, City Hall had just been completed, and the northern reaches of the booming young city now extended past Canal Street. And though slavery wouldn’t be illegal in New York State until 1827, New York City had passed legislation in 1799 that gradually abolished the practice and granted freedom to many enslaved residents. One of these formerly enslaved residents was Cato Alexander, who was born in the city in 1780, according to a 2015 article in Eater by David Wondrich. Another account has it that Cato was born enslaved in South Carolina, bought his freedom, and then came to Gotham. ...”
Can You Understand Bird? Test Your Recognition of Calls and Songs
"Language has long been considered the exclusive provenance of humans. But in the animal kingdom, birds, not primates, communicate with the level of vocal complexity and variability closest to ours. Ornithologists have made progress in understanding the rich variety of ways in which birds converse, thanks in part to large and growing databases of bird calls such as one from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which includes millions of recordings captured by citizen scientists. This summer the New York Times birding project is encouraging readers to try birding by ear. So here’s a quick tour of the avian soundscape. ...”
La Pointe Courte: How Agnès Varda “Invented” the New Wave
"In September 1997, I saw Agnès Varda introduce a brand-new 35 mm print of her first feature film, La Pointe Courte (made in 1954), to an admiring audience at Yale University. More astonishing than the luminous black-and-white images was Varda’s claim that she had seen virtually no other films before making it (after racking her brain, she could come up with only Citizen Kane). Whether Varda’s assertion was true or the whim of an artist who does not wish to acknowledge any influence, La Pointe Courte is a stunningly beautiful and accomplished first film. It has also, deservedly, achieved a cult status in film history as, in the words of historian Georges Sadoul, ‘truly the first film of the nouvelle vague.’ ...”
May 2011: The Beaches of Agnès, 2011 December: Interview - Agnès Varda, 2013 February: The Gleaners and I (2000), 2013 September: Cinévardaphoto (2004), 2014 July: Black Panthers (1968 doc.), 2014 October: Art on Screen: A Conversation with Agnès Varda, 2015 September: Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), 2017 February: Plaisir d’amour en Iran (1976), 2017 April: Agnès Varda’s Art of Being There, 2017 April: AGNÈS VARDA with Alexandra Juhasz, 2017 August: Agnès Varda on her life and work - Artforum, 2017 October: Agnès Varda’s Ecological Conscience, 2018 March: Faces Places - Agnès Varda and JR (2017), 2018 July: Vagabond (1985), 2019 March: Agnès Varda, Influential French New Wave Filmmaker, Is Dead at 90, 2019 April: Mur Murs (1980), 2020 May: Socialism and cha-cha-cha: Agnès Varda's photos of Cuba forgotten for 50 years, 2020 August: Four Ways of Looking at Agnès Varda, 2022 January: From Here to There (2011)
Russia pounds southern Ukraine in third night of fiery attacks
"KYIV, Ukraine — A third night of Russian air attacks pounded Ukraine’s southern cities, including the port of Odesa, and wounded at least 21 people, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.At least 19 people were injured overnight in Mykolaiv, a southern city close to the Black Sea, the region’s Governor Vitalii Kim said in a statement on Telegram.Russia’s attacks on southern Ukraine have become more intense this week, after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to send grain to countries facing the threat of hunger. ...”
The wreckage of a destroyed building Thursday after a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine.
Marcus Glitteris on Curating “Solo With Friends” at Theatre for the New City in the East Village
"On view through August 5 at Theatre for the New City is ‘Solo With Friends.’ Curated by Marcus Glitteris, it showcases a delightfully diverse range of artworks by over 60 artists, along with new and recent paintings by Marcus. When visiting the space last week, I had the opportunity to pose a few questions to Marcus. Could you tell us something about the concept behind this exhibition? I was interested in showcasing a mix of established artists along with younger emerging ones. And, as always, I wanted to do a show that reflects and includes our community, the Lower East Side and the East Village. ...”
Gotha's Library of Forgotten Islamic Wonders
"Often brushed aside by locals and largely ignored by tourists, the city of Gotha—population 45,000 in the heart of central Germany—might not look like much today, but in the 17th century, it was arguably at the center of the world. Or at least it was aspiring to be.When Europe’s Thirty Years’ War over dynastic and territorial rivalries ended in 1648, the region’s top aristocrat, Duke Ernst I, wanted to build an official residence atop the rubble of a castle razed during the conflict, which had stood on Gotha’s highest hill. The result was Friedenstein Palace, a sprawling, royal residence that today is considered one of the best-preserved examples of early Baroque architecture in Europe. ...”
Also among the collection of handwritten books is this artful Şükûfe-nâme (Flower Book), in which illustrations of flowers are pasted in.
Russia strikes Ukraine’s Odesa port in ‘hellish’ attack after Moscow vowed payback for Crimea bridge
"Russia launched a massive air attack on the Ukrainian port of Odesa for a second night in row, which one Ukrainian official on Wednesday described as ‘hellish,’ but authorities vowed not be intimidated and to continue work to export grain.The attack was ‘very powerful, truly massive,’ Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said in a voice message on his Telegram channel on Wednesday. ... The attacks on Odesa, one of Ukraine’s main ports for exporting grain, followed a pledge of retaliation by Russia after a blast on a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula on Monday that Moscow blamed on Ukraine. Shortly after the bridge was hit on Monday, Moscow withdrew from a year-old Black Sea grain agreement that allowed for the safe export of Ukraine’s grain, a move the United Nations said risked creating hunger around the world. ...”
Firefighters work at storage facilities hit during Russian missile and drone strikes in Odesa, Ukraine, July 19 2023, in this screenshot
Beginners Guide to The Saturn Label
"Straying into unfamiliar territory is always daunting, even more so, in outer space. A reader sent me questions about Saturn originals, in particular, Sun Ra’s 1966 album, The Magic City. A gap in my knowledge, I couldn’t answer. So I was determined to fill that gap, hence this Beginners Guide to Saturn, the Beginner in question being me. Let’s see where it goes, climb on board, strap in, ignition, Houston, we have lift off, destination Saturn! Say again, Houston, how many light years to Saturn? ...”
Can NYC’s New Climate Agenda Keep Our Heads Above Water?
"In September 2021, New York City experienced historic and catastrophic flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. Streets turned to rivers, cars flooded and were left abandoned, people drowned in their own basements. This writer dodged waterfalls in the subway before arriving home to find a room slowly filling with water gurgling up through the toilet. Never designed to handle such a large volume of rainfall in such a short time, Ida challenged the city’s 100-year-old sewer system. ...”
Climate change roulette.
Russia blames Ukraine for attacking a vital bridge in occupied Crimea.
"A predawn assault on a critical bridge linking the occupied Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia forced the temporary closure on Monday of a main artery used by its military to support its troops in southern Ukraine, in yet another blow to a Russian military command that was already dealing with internal strife. Hours after the attack, Moscow announced that it was pulling out of the Black Sea grain deal, an agreement that helped keep global food prices stable. But Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said the attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge and Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the deal were not connected. Given the deep strategic and symbolic importance of the bridge, Monday’s assault was another embarrassment for Russia’s military leadership, which has been roiled by the fallout from last month’s failed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group. ...”
NBC News: Russia halts wartime deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain in a blow to global food security (Video)
A video released by a Crimean news station shows a damaged section of the Kerch Strait Bridge.
Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex by Angela Davis
"Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of the social problems that burden people who are ensconced in poverty. These problems often are veiled by being conveniently grouped together under the category ‘crime’ and by the automatic attribution of criminal behavior to people of color. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages. Prisons thus perform a feat of magic. ...”
2011 September: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, 2013 February: Angela Davis, 2014 December: Angela Davis: ‘There is an unbroken line of police violence in the US that takes us all the way back to the days of slavery’., 2015 December: Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2012)
The color and drama at a beachside Coney Island fruit stand
"When social realist artist William Glackens visited Coney Island in the late 1890s, he had a bounty of kaleidoscopic scenes he could have immortalized in paint: the double-dip chutes of Steeplechase Park, the aquatic animals at Sea Lion Park, or the mass of humanity crowding the boardwalk and bathing pavilions. But what captured his interest and imagination? A small wooden fruit stand perched on the sand.It’s a curious choice out of all the attractions at Sodom by the Sea, as Coney was known in its golden era. But Glackens’ ‘Fruit Stand, Coney Island‘ manages to draw out much more emotion and drama than seen at first glance. ...”
Inside the Saudi Gold Rush
"The cold calls and text messages started arriving on Jan Van Winckel’s phone a couple of months ago, and they have not stopped. They come at a rate of about 10 a day, he said, a steady stream of hope-you’re-wells and long-time-no-speaks from old acquaintances, archived contacts, friends of friends of friends. The bromides change but the brass tacks are the same. Van Winckel, 49, now works in the United Arab Emirates, but he has spent a good portion of his career in soccer in Saudi Arabia, serving as both a coach and the technical director of the country’s national teams. …”
The Roots of Dub
"For such an influential genre, very little is known about dub’s origins and protagonists. Delving into its history is a wonderful, challenging journey into the world of one-off dubplates and dirt-encrusted 45s – the available evidence of its incubation and development in Kingston, Jamaica in the early ’70s is more akin to oral traditions in mythology than meticulously written documentation. Even the trainspotting skills of an experienced record collector are not especially helpful here. Retrospectively trying to piece together a timeline of dub’s development via record label credits ends in frustrating attempts to glean release dates and producer credits from hard-to-locate 7" singles, often with multiple label issues and conflicting information written in patois. ...”
Landscape at Arleux-du-Nord by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1871-4
"The young impressionists were shaking landscape art when the elderly Corot painted this placid, rustic moment. But far from seeing him as a conservative dullard, the French avant garde recognised his intensity and originality. Corot, born in 1796, ploughed his own furrow, painting silent, calm, poetic rural scenes that straddle the Romantic age and the early years of modernism. This painting may even be subtly influenced by the impressionist appetite for strong sunlight. It’s a tender hymn to the French countryside by an artist who loved his national landscapes as much as John Constable loved Suffolk.“
Pro-Ukraine Activists Still Clashing with the Russian Opposition
"While the NATO Summit in Vilnius focused on questions of Ukraine’s future membership in the alliance and of current aid to its war effort against the Russian invasion—genuinely existential issues for Ukraine and for the future of freedom in Russia—the related shadow ‘summit’ of the online activist group that calls itself NAFO, or the North Atlantic Fella Organization, sparked the latest round of verbal wars between pro-Ukraine militants and the liberal Russian opposition.NAFO, identifiable by its trademark image of a cartoon-like Shiba Inu dog somewhat similar to the Dogecoin logo, was founded in May 2022 to counter Russian propaganda online with trolling, trash talk, and memes as well as serious debunkings. ...”
A Year of Cosmic Wonder With the James Webb Space Telescope
"By now, perhaps, we should be getting used to unreal images of the cosmos made with the James Webb Space Telescope. But a year after NASA released the cosmic observatory’s first imagery, the space agency has dropped yet another breathtaking snapshot of our universe. Wednesday’s image was Rho Ophiuchi, the closest nursery of infant stars in our cosmic backyard. Located a mere 390 light years away from Earth, this cloud complex is chock-full of stellar goodness. Around 50 stars with masses comparable to our sun are sprinkled in white: some fully formed and shining bright, others still hidden behind dark, dense regions of interstellar dust. ...”
A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth
Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground
"... Near the border of Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, a disputed area called Fashaga is home to one of the most raucous, hypnotic, addictive, and celestial dance musics being made anywhere in Africa, perhaps the least known to the wider world of them all. Far from the townships of South Africa or the cities of Nigeria, this sound belongs to people intimately tied to their land, deep in the rural areas of Sudan. ...”
How a Distant War Is Threatening Livelihoods in the Arctic Circle
"In this corner of Norway’s far north, just five miles from the border with Russia, road signs give directions in Norwegian and Russian. Locals are used to crossing from one country to the other visa-free: Norwegians to fill up on cheap Russian gasoline; Russians to hit the Norwegian malls. A few years ago, those cross-border ties inspired Terje Jorgensen, the director of the Norwegian port of Kirkenes, to propose closer ties with the Russian port of Murmansk to build on the surging interest in cross-Arctic shipping routes, which connect Asia to Western Europe. He wanted to develop joint standards for sustainability and easier transport between the two ports. But then President Vladimir V. Putin sent his troops marching into Ukraine, bringing the whole project to a halt. ...”
NY Times: Opinion | The Editorial Board | The Flawed Moral Logic of Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a chasm in a part of the world that had prided itself as a place where Westerners and Russians could get along.
Bill Saxton Keeps the Spirit of Jazz Alive
"Bill Saxton boasts one of the most fitting names in jazz. He was born in Harlem in 1946, and after attending NYC public schools began playing sax professionally in 1965, since then jamming with jazz greats around the world and being honored at the White House, the Harlem Jazz Museum, and the Library of Music at Lincoln Center. With his wife, author Theda Palmer Saxton, he now runs Bill’s Place, on 133rd Street between Lenox and 7th Avenues in Harlem, eschewing advertising and thriving solely on word of mouth. Saxton plays two sets to a packed house every Friday and Saturday night, with lines down the block; according to him, during the Prohibition era, 133rd Street boasted more speakeasies than any neighborhood in Manhattan. ...”
2014 November: A Harlem Throwback to the Era of Billie Holiday
Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings
"The theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings has been remarked upon by critics since the 1970s. The Hobbits‘ visions of Saruman‘s industrial hell of Isengard and Sauron‘s desolate polluted land of Mordor have been interpreted as comments on modern society, while the destruction of Isengard by the tree-giant Ents, and ‘The Scouring of the Shire‘ by the Hobbits, have a strong theme of restoration of the natural environment after such industrial pollution and degradation. However, Tolkien’s love of trees and unspoilt nature is apparent throughout the novel. ...”
2010 January: The Lord of the Rings, 2018 January: An Atlas of Literary Maps Created by Great Authors: J.R.R Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island & More, 2019 January: The Largest J.R.R. Tolkien Exhibit in Generations Is Coming to the U.S.: Original Drawings, Manuscripts, Maps & More, 2020 January: Hear Christopher Tolkien (RIP) Read the Work of His Father J.R.R. Tolkien, Which He Tirelessly Worked to Preserve, 2020 August: The Complete Guide to Middle-earth - Robert Foster (1971), 2021 September: When the Nobel Prize Committee Rejected The Lord of the Rings..., 2021 October: When J.R.R. Tolkien Worked for the Oxford English Dictionary..., 2022 March: J.R.R. Tolkien Tolkien Estate, 2022 October: One Ring, 2023 May: Old Forest
Pastoral vision of an unspoilt England: the Old Mill at Hobbiton, reconstructed for the filming of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
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Zelenskyy hails Ukraine’s forces from symbolic Black Sea island to mark 500 days of war
"Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video of himself visiting Snake Island — the tiny Black Sea outpost that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance — to mark the 500th day of the war with Russia. ‘Snake island. The free island of free Ukraine,’ Zelenskyy said in a caption alongside a video, which shows him traveling to the island and laying a bouquet of flowers at a memorial. ... The island took on almost mythological status for Ukraine’s resistance, when officials in the country released an audio recording of a conversation between Russia’s flagship Moskva and Ukrainian soldiers defending the island. ...”
President Volodymyr Zelensky marked 500 days of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine by visiting Snake Island, located 35 kilometers south of the mainland.
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