A printmaker’s New York in shadows and light

Dock Workers Under the Brooklyn Bridge, 1916-1918
"Martin Lewis’ masterful etchings—which offer shadowy, poetic glimpses of 1920s and 1930s New York—have been featured on Ephemeral New York many times before. But just when I’d given up on finding new examples of the way he illuminates the darker (and sometimes darkly humorous) edges of the cityscape, I came across the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s digitized collection—which includes a trove of Lewis’ etchings. ..."
Ephemeral New York

Derricks, 1927

Inventing Impressionism - 2

Degas, Dance Foyer of the Opera at rue le Peletier (1872)
"Here are some chairs I noticed. An empty chair at the natural optical centre of Degas’s Dance Foyer of the Opera at rue le Peletier (1872), occupied by a fan and a puddle of white cloth. It is waiting – and the viewer is waiting, subliminally – for its occupant to return and claim the fan. It is reserved. Someone has bagged it. Not a circumstance you often see painted, though common enough in real life. Nor is the violinist playing. He is pausing, his bow at rest on his trouser leg. Degas has painted a pause. A thing that hasn’t been painted before. In the same picture, a dancer to the right, in the foreground, is sitting on another chair, her legs stiffly out front – ungainly yet graceful, resting. The upright back of the chair is invisible because it is under her unmanageably stiff tulle skirt, lifting the skirt up and slightly out of alignment. All her fatigue is there in the mistake, the carelessness of her plonking down."
New Statesman: How the impressionists found a new way of capturing the remarkable in everyday life
Guardian: Inventing Impressionism review – a superb exhibition in every respect
The National Gallery: Inventing Impressionism
YouTube: Inventing Impressionism | The National Gallery, London

The Galettes, 1882, Claude Monet.

Impressionism: Art and Modernity

La Grenouillère, Claude Monet, 1869
"In 1874, a group of artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. organized an exhibition in Paris that launched the movement called Impressionism. Its founding members included Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro, among others. The group was unified only by its independence from the official annual Salon, for which a jury of artists from the Académie des Beaux-Arts selected artworks and awarded medals. The independent artists, despite their diverse approaches to painting, appeared to contemporaries as a group. While conservative critics panned their work for its unfinished, sketchlike appearance, more progressive writers praised it for its depiction of modern life. Edmond Duranty, for example, in his 1876 essay La Nouvelle Peinture (The New Painting), wrote of their depiction of contemporary subject matter in a suitably innovative style as a revolution in painting. The exhibiting collective avoided choosing a title that would imply a unified movement or school, although some of them subsequently adopted the name by which they would eventually be known, the Impressionists. Their work is recognized today for its modernity, embodied in its rejection of established styles, its incorporation of new technology and ideas, and its depiction of modern life. ..."
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Garden at Argenteuil, Edouard Manet, 1874

The Age of Impressionism

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Venice, the Doge's Palace, 1881
"Showcasing the Clark's renowned holdings of French Impressionist paintings, this exhibition features seventy-three works of art, including works by Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. Also represented are Pierre Bonnard, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jéan-Leon Gérôme, Jean-François Millet, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, among others. The MFAH exhibition tells not only the story of Sterling and Francine Clark's devotion and passion for collecting but also of painting in nineteenth-century France, including the Orientalist works of Gérôme, Barbizon paintings of Corot and Théodore Rousseau, Impressionist masterpieces of Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley, and Early Modern output of Bonnard and Lautrec. Portraits, landscapes, marines, still lifes, and scenes of everyday life by twenty-five artists, spanning seventy years, are on view."
The Clark
YouTube: The Age of Impressionism

Camille Pissarro, The River Oise near Pontoise, 1873

Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting

Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather, 1896, Camille Pissarro
"This extraordinary gathering of paintings reveals the story of Monet, Renoir, Degas, Manet, Pissarro, and their visionary art dealer and champion, Paul Durand-Ruel. The artists now known as the Impressionists once struggled to introduce their new style of painting to critics and the public. With Durand-Ruel, they forged an identity and moved from the margins to international fame. Recaptured in this exhibition are the often forgotten setbacks and breakthrough triumphs of Impressionism. Monet’s visions of graceful poplar trees, Renoir’s joyous dance paintings, and Pissarro’s luminous cityscapes showcase the talent recognized by Durand-Ruel. Durand-Ruel secured Impressionism’s place in history through tireless promotion across Europe and the United States—enthusiastic Americans ensured its success."
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Featured Artists
NY Times: Paul Durand-Ruel, the Paris Dealer Who Put Impressionism on the Map
WSJ: ‘Durand-Ruel’ Impressionism Show Tours Paris, London, Philadelphia
YouTube: Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand Ruel at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy

"Presented as a companion to the major exhibition Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, which investigates Impressionist artists’ expressive use of contemporary fashion in depictions of public life, this exhibition focuses on the private side of apparel—and the lack thereof. Featuring more than 120 drawings and prints, as well as select paintings, photographs, and materials from the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Undressed explores the connotations of informal dress and undress in intimate, personal situations."
The Art Institute of Chicago


Barbizon through Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark

Camille Corot, Road by the Water, c. 1865–70.
"The international tour of French nineteenth-century paintings from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute made its ninth stop at the Shanghai Museum. The Clark’s world tour has drawn more than 1.6 million visitors since it began in October 2010. Open to the public from September 18–December 1, 2013, the exhibition in Shanghai features seventy-three paintings, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and Camille Pissarro, as well as those by Pierre Bonnard, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Paul Gauguin, Jean-François Millet, Alfred Sisley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jean-Léon Gérôme. Visit the Masterpiece Gallery to view the works included in the exhibition."
The Clark
The Clark: Slideshows
amazon: Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism

How Mexico’s Muralists Lit a Fire Under U.S. Artists

Zapatistas, Clemente Orozco’s 1931 painting of the Mexican peasant guerrillas
"From floated proposal to finished product, 'Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945' at the Whitney Museum of American Art represents a decade of hard thought and labor, and the effort has paid off. The show is stupendous, and complicated, and lands right on time. Just by existing it accomplishes three vital things. ... Judging by the story told here, we should be actively inviting our southern neighbor northward to enrich our cultural soil. That story, a hemispheric one, begins in Mexico in the 1920s. After 10 years of civil war and revolution, that country’s new constitutional government turned to art to invent and broadcast a unifying national self-image, one that emphasized both its deep roots in indigenous, pre-Hispanic culture and the heroisms of its recent revolutionary struggles. ..."
NY Times
Whitney - Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945 (Video)
amazon: Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945

Eitaro Ishigaki’s Soldiers of the People’s Front (The Zero Hour), circa 1936-37.

Explore the Winter Hexagon Tonight

Stellarium, with additions
"With the February dark of the Moon upon us, we have a fine opportunity to enjoy some winter sights. Perhaps most appealing for naked-eye observers is an impressive collection of stellar luminaries. Face south at nightfall, and no fewer than seven stars of first magnitude or brighter can be taken in with a single view. Most are included in the Winter Hexagon, as shown in the chart above. ... Deep-Sky Delights. Within the expansive confines of the Hexagon are some of the season’s finest deep-sky treasures, including the Orion Nebula, which I wrote about here. And of course, near the center of the figure is Betelgeuse, the much talked about variable star that has recently hit a new low and is, for the moment, slightly too faint to count as first magnitude. ..."
Sky & Telescope

The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, in Canis Major. Nearby is the lovely open cluster, M41.

A Woman Drinking with Two Men - Pieter de Hooch (1658)

"There is mystery in this room. One of the figures has her back to us, so we can’t see the expression on her face. But since the man behind the table seems to be using two clay pipes as a pretend violin and bow, and his companion gestures as though conducting a duet, she may be singing. Scenes left open to different interpretations are characteristic of seventeenth-century Dutch painting, and depictions of musical gatherings were especially ambiguous – they can represent innocent entertainments or something more salacious. We can’t be sure if what we see here is a musical gathering, however, let alone whether or not it is an innocent one. But we do feel as though we are in a real space. De Hooch has used the black and white floor tiles to help create this illusion: their lines and sizes help our eye to understand where the figures, furniture, walls and windows are in relation both to us and to each other."
National Gallery
W - A Woman Drinking with Two Men
W - Pieter de Hooch

The Total Anti-Totalist Robert Stone

"Not far from 76-year-old novelist Robert Stone’s Upper East Side apartment is a model-toy shop. Its shelves are filled with miniature weaponized planes and ships that run the gamut of technological advancement through the United States’ various 20th-century wars. Throughout Stone’s long career as a premiere voice of American reason and delirium, his novels have brought many of those conflicts home in hallucinogenic, lightning-quick prose, in precise, haunting episodes, and in characters who appear like survivalists extended to the end of their tethers. Whether transporting Vietnam to drug-fueled Southern California in his classic 1974 novel Dog Soldiers or taking readers into the dark revolution of a Central American nation teetering on the brink in his 1981 novel A Flag for Sunrise, Stone is a writer with a preternatural ability to transform a location into a geo-political snare trap through which very few pass without a lot of pain or bloodshed. ..."
Interview

2013 September: Outerbridge Reach (1993), 2015 January: Robert Stone (August 21, 1937 – January 10, 2015), 2017 March: Damascus Gate (1998)

The Woman Behind Elizabeth Warren’s Foreign Policy

Scrutiny: Warren attends a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in 2018. She joined the committee in 2016.
"Foreign policy is arguably where US presidents are able to have the largest impact. Yet presidential candidates typically treat it as secondary to their domestic agenda. Elizabeth Warren is no exception; her main 2020 pitch is that she would take on the big banks and impose new regulations to save capitalism from itself. Still, while it has received less attention, she has rolled out a foreign policy vision that aligns with her domestic promises of 'big, structural change.' It’s ambitious, bold, and progressive: It would end the 'endless wars' since 9/11, prioritize fighting climate change, and aim to stamp out transnational corruption and kleptocracy. And like Warren’s entire platform, it’s the product of a team of wonks who believe deeply in their candidate, convened by an earnest expert who reports directly to Warren. ..."
The Nation

2019 December: Fighting Words - Elizabeth Warren, 2020 January: Elizabeth Warren’s Smart Answer on ‘Electability’, 2020 January: The Democrats' Best Choices for President

‘In Italy I Kept Meeting Guys’: The Black Women Who Travel for Love

"Italy, a country known for its language of love and for its men who publicly shower overtures on women like a centuries-old art form, is often associated with romantic encounters of the kind portrayed in the movies, from 'Roman Holiday' to 'The Lizzie McGuire Movie.' So some black women ask, why shouldn’t it be the same for them? Latrese Williams is one such black traveler. When Ms. Williams goes out in Chicago or pretty much anywhere else in the United States, she said, she often feels ignored by men who seem to barely register her existence. But when she walks into a room in Italy, all eyes are on her — and to her, that’s a good thing. These polar reactions occur, she said, because she is black. ..."
NY Times
NY Times - When the Monkey Chants Are for You: A Soccer Star’s View of Racist Abuse

Harry Mathews’s Drifts and Returns

"There are two ways, at least, into 'Cool gales shall fan the glade,' the last poem Harry Mathews completed and the first one included in Harry Mathews Collected Poems: 1946–2016. One is to read it as a twilight soliloquy: a wandering rumination on a long life richly lived, filled with loves and lusts and leisure and loss, shaped by many wandering ruminations before this one. Another is to read it as an experiment on a French fixed form from the fourteenth century called the sestina, with the supplemental rule that the words concluding each line, instead of merely repeating in spiraling permutation, add a letter and rearrange themselves into new words with every stanza: at becomes fat becomes fast becomes feast. These two ways are not mutually exclusive, I don’t think; perhaps, to hear Harry Mathews in the poem as I hear him, it is necessary to travel both at once. ..."
The Paris Review
LitHub: Few Were As Devoted to Poetry and Friendship as Harry Mathews
amazon

2017 February: Harry Mathews, 2019 July: Redux: Sulfurous Coils of Red and Green

The French Rural Revolution 1789-1793

Les Vendéens demandent à Cathelineau de prendre la tête de l’insurrection, Jules Gabriel Hubert-Sauzeau, 1900.
"When Louis XVI failed to reconcile the Estates General during the séance royale of June 23, 1789, the expectations for reform held by a large part of French rural communities, as captured in the cahiers de doléances, faced possible demise. Early on in the French Revolution then, the interests of the countryside and the capital would diverge, in many ways creating two separate revolutions. On June 28, days after the séance royale, 104 members of the local assembly of the Barony of Thodure near Lyon – made up primarily of male landowners – gathered to reflect on the situation. Before the fiscal crisis, these men had pushed for tax equality and the liberalization of certain feudal obligations; as a privileged few opposed these reforms, deepening turmoil demanded recasting the situation and advancing innovative solutions. ..."
Age of Revolutions
W - Great Fear

Peasants Burning Castles During the Great Fear of 1789

2014 February: French Revolution Digital Archive, 2015 July: A Guide to the French Revolution, 2016 April: Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France, 2017 March: Paris Commune 1871, 2018 February: Flash Mob: Revolution, Lightning, and the People’s Will

“Hugs and kisses” on a Murray Hill manhole cover

"New York City’s old manhole covers have an artistry all their own. Some feature glass bubbles that looks like jewels in the right light. Others are decorated with stars or similar emblems, and almost all have the name of the designer or foundry on them, advertisements for their work. But what to make of this manhole cover spotted in front of East 35th Street near Fifth Avenue? Jordan Wouk, a manhole cover enthusiast, noticed it on the way to the Morgan Library recently. It lacks an identifying name, contains a single starfish-like star, and the Xs and Os decorating the lid were a mystery. The message I got was “hugs and kisses,” says Mr. Wouk. ..."
Ephemeral New York

2013 May: Manhole cover, 2015 March: Manhole covers that left their mark on the city

100 Historic Black Women Guitarists and Bassists You Need To Know

"Last February, we published '50 Historic Black Women Guitarists and Bassists You Needs to Know' to showcase the influences that black, indigenous, and Afro-identifying women musicians have had on music history. For 2020, we updated the list to 100 black women guitarists, because we should constantly be celebrating the innovation, resilience, and talent of black music communities. For this particular list, we choose to focus on black women guitarists and bassists from prior to 1999. We did this specifically to showcase the legends—many of whom unfortunately have been overlooked, dismissed, or forgotten—that should be recognized as pillars of music history.  ..."
She Shreds (Video)

Gail Muldrow

The Guerrilla Car Washers of N.Y.C.

"On a record-breaking 68-degree January day, New Yorkers were unnerved, enjoying the weather and wary of what it meant. But for the guerrilla carwash guys of Upper Manhattan, it was only good news. As of 11 a.m. that Saturday, there were at least six carwashes set up on Ninth Avenue from 201st Street to 207th, with numerous Fords, BMWs and a Toyota already soaped up, and more were waiting. For as long as anyone can remember, there has been a thriving cottage industry, operating out of vans and without conveyor belts, mechanized brushes or complicated hydraulic systems, along an industrial stretch near the Harlem River in Inwood. ... The car washers are there every day of the year, rain or shine, and a full-service wash, inside and out, will run you $20. ...."
NY Times

A Brief Introduction to the Art of Ancient Assyrian Kings

"From the 800s to the 600s B.C., the kings of Assyria built grand palaces in their capital cities, located in the land we know today as Iraq. Inside these palaces were some of the most remarkable works of sculpture to survive from the ancient world. These sculptures took the form of reliefs carved onto gypsum or limestone panels and affixed to interior walls. The reliefs, which were originally painted, stood about two meters (six feet) high and covered the lower portion of palace walls; the wall space above was decorated with painted plaster and glazed bricks. Thanks to a generous loan from the British Museum, thirteen Assyrian palace reliefs are on view through 2022 at the Getty Villa in the exhibition Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq. Here is a short how-to guide for understanding the imagery and narrative techniques of Assyrian palace art, which is rather different from the Greek and Roman art found throughout the rest of the Villa. ..."
Getty
Getty - Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq
Khan Academy: The palace decoration of Ashurbanipal, Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II

Battle with a Camel Rider. From the Central Palace of Tiglath-pileser III at Kalhu (Nimrud), 728 B.C.

Anthony Braxton: Ghost Trance Music

"Plenty of musicians claim a wide-ranging set of artistic influences. But few can conceive of a stylistic retinue as dizzyingly diverse as the one that inspires saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton. When he accepted the NEA’s bestowal of 'Jazz Master' status, back in 2014, he gave a speech in which he cited the saxophonist Paul Desmond (best known for his work with Dave Brubeck), as well as the University of Michigan marching band and John Philip Sousa. Later in the same talk, Braxton described 'taking classes on the great music of the Native Americans – their ghost dance music, for instance.' Nor is this atypical assortment of references a recent thing. The jazz and classical visionary dedicated portions of For Alto, his 1969 solo saxophone recording, to musicians as distinct as the Zen-influenced classical music philosopher John Cage and the free jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor. ..."
Red Bull Music Academy (Video/Audio)
NY Times: Anthony Braxton Composes Together Past, Present and Future (Audio)
Rolling Stone - Anthony Braxton’s Big Ideas: Why ‘Forces in Motion’ Is an Essential American Music Book (Video)
W - Anthony Braxton, W - Anthony Braxton discography
YouTube: Ghost Trance Music Nos. 169 and 199
YouTube: Ghost Trance Music 7 videos

Anthony Braxton at The Banff Centre in 1984.

Eliane Radigue - Transamorem - Transmortem (1974)

"There are a number of significant omissions in Eliane Radigue's discography, as the sole available medium in the '60s and '70s (vinyl) could not contain her long-form drone works without ruining them by carving them up into multiple parts. Consequently, this extended epic of ultra-minimalism is just now getting a formal release despite being premiered in 1974. While its immediate impact is blunted considerably by the 37 years of drone/electronic music evolution that followed it, patient listening reveals a visionary and enveloping work that is unexpectedly timeless. Transamorem-Transmortem is a single 77-minute piece that was originally intended as an installation, but was debuted at The Kitchen in the spring of 1974. ..."
Brainwashed (Audio)
Soundohm
Important Records
Tiny Mix Tapes
Discogs (Video)
YouTube: Transamorem Transmortem 1:07:05

2018 May: Trilogie de la Mort (1988-1993), 2018 October: The Deeply Meditative Electronic Music of Avant-Garde Composer Eliane Radigue, 2019 February: Adnos I-III, 2019 May: Occam Ocean, Vol. 1 (2017), 2019 December: Songs Of Milarepa (1992)

The Soccer Politics of Morocco (2018)

The “ultra” fans of Raja Casablanca lighting torches at a game in the Mohammed V stadium, Morocco, November 25, 2018
"Casablanca, Morocco—On that glorious night, they stood on their seats for almost the entire game, arms aloft, shouting, cheering, booing and, most of all, singing. Lyrical chants filled the air that chilly November evening. There was a sea of green—their team’s color—on their shirts and on the flags they waved. Artistic graffiti decorated the stadium. The fans shared an immense love for and loyalty to the Raja Athletic Club of Casablanca (RCA). They sang and sang until the final whistle, savoring every word of songs that expressed the passion in their hearts. Raja was facing AS Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup final, one of Africa’s major soccer tournaments. It was hard to focus on the action on the field because the supporters captured most of our attention in the stadium. ..."
NYBooks
NYBooks - World Cup 2018: Morocco’s Glimpse of the Possible
NY Times: In Morocco, an Imported Team for the World Cup
W - Morocco national football team
Guardian: Morocco football team

Young Raja supporters in the streets of Derb Sultan, a district of Casablanca, on game day, Morocco, November 25, 2018

2019 July: Yes We Can—Football and Nationalism, 2019 July: Sport, history and politics at the African Cup of Nations, 2019 August: Beyond game day

Your Guide to Sunset Park: Sweeping Views in South Brooklyn

The sidewalks along Sunset Park’s Eighth Avenue are a maze of nameless produce stands.
"While Sunset Park owes its name to a 25-acre hilltop park with panoramic harbor views, the neighborhood’s early history was anchored five avenues downhill, on its industrial waterfront. From the end of the nineteenth century, Sunset Park’s ports served as a docking zone for arriving cargo ships, while nearby factories produced a range of goods from military supplies to clothing. The neighborhood remains working-class and immigrant, though the faces have changed: Once known as 'Finn Town' and 'Little Norway,' Sunset Park is now majority Latino, with significant Puerto Rican, Dominican, Ecuadorian, and Mexican communities. The second largest ethnic group is Chinese, a 30,000-plus population concentrated along Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn’s Chinatown. ..."
Voice
The Atlantic: Sunset Park is New York's Vantage Point
NY Times - Sunset Park, Brooklyn: Not Quite Trendy
Residents Overwhelmingly Support Proposed Sunset Park Historic Districts at LPC Hearing
W - Sunset Park, Brooklyn

For stargazers, the Big Dipper is a celestial compass, clock, calendar and ruler. Here’s how to use it.

A night scene captured in Achada do Gamo, Dark Sky Alqueva Mértola, shows the silhouette of a skywatcher who is trying to show us where to find Polaris, the North Star, in the Big Dipper.
"At one time or another, most of us have probably used a Swiss Army Knife. An excellent everyday tool, it's really just a glorified pocket or penknife; a tool incorporating several blades and other appliances such as scissors and screwdrivers. And ascending the northeast sky on February evenings is what we might call the 'Swiss Army Knife of the sky': the Big Dipper. It is not an official constellation in itself; rather, it's a prominent grouping of stars (called an asterism) that forms a different type of star pattern within a recognized constellation — in this case, Ursa Major, the great bear. ..."
Space (Video)
Doorstep Astronomy: See the Big Dipper
W - Big Dipper

From northern latitudes, use the Big Dipper to point the way to Polaris and the north celestial pole. Currently, the Big Dipper can be seen at its highest in the northern sky late in the evening, with its bowl overturned.

President Bernie Sanders?

"Senator Bernie Sanders — the septuagenarian Jewish democratic socialist who wants to remake the American health care system, end public college tuition and give workers partial ownership stakes in the companies they work for — has officially emerged, at least for now, as the Democratic Party’s front-runner in the race for president. Anyone who remembered Mr. Sanders’s improbable insurgency in the 2016 Democratic primary and the breadth of his support knew better than to write him off entirely. But four months after a heart attack seemed to endanger his candidacy, his continued momentum is spurring a more serious reckoning with the possibility of his nomination. ..."
NY Times

The Enduring Vision of Chinatown

"The first time I saw Chinatown, I was about as far as you can get from Los Angeles—sitting by myself in an old movie house in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This was in the early 1970s, before the era of the multiplex, and movies would arrive in a cluster, spreading across the Cape’s beach towns like sea spray off Nantucket Sound. I was about to turn 13: I did not know anything about Southern California, either its history or its prevailing myths. I had not yet given much thought to water, nor to the conventions of the hard-boiled mystery. I liked crime fiction, though, and I remember the prurient shock of watching as the film’s director, Roman Polanski, who had a cameo as a gangster, sliced open the nose of the detective hero, J.J. Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson. ..."
New Republic
The ultimate ‘Chinatown’ filming location map of Los Angeles

2014 July: Chinatown - Roman Polanski (1974)

Closer to the Code

"
"Each year, my listening seems to get a little closer to the source. This habit, this tendency, goes back to my earliest music explorations. Enamored of a given album in my teens and early 20s, I’d track down music by the individual players on it. In part this pursuit was to expand my horizons, but in part, especially I recognize in retrospect, this was to narrow them; I had the sense that if I gained a comprehension of the individual player’s sound, I’d better understand their contribution to the initial album that seeded my interest. Fast forward to 2020, and much of my listening is to sketches, to rough drafts, to works-in-progress that people post to SoundCloud and, increasingly, to YouTube of the most inchoate of musical inventions. In the case of this video, it is Nathan Wheeler documenting his participation in a coding circle. ..."
disquiet (Video)
Soundcloud (Audio)
Bandcamp (Audio)

Identify Any Tree in New York City With this Map

"Though we may like to think that we know the secrets of the blocks we live on, we may be missing far more information than we realize. Can you name, for example, the number of trees that line your block? What about each kind of tree that grows on your block? Sure, you may know what the tree outside your window looks like, but what kind of tree is it? What kind of trees are on either side of it? If you live within the bounds of New York City, this tree map has all your answers. Using the last tree census data (yes, there’s a tree census) from 2005, Brooklyn-based web developer Jill Hubley created an incredibly detailed map of all of the street trees in New York City. In theory, each tree on every street in the five boroughs is represented. ..."
Atlas Obscura
CityLab
Open Culture - Behold the New York City Street Tree Map: An Interactive Map That Catalogues the 700,000 Trees Shading the Streets of New York City
New York City Street Tree Map
YouTube: NYC Street Tree Map

A birds-eye view of street trees in a section of Bed-Stuy.

Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art

Jacob Lawrence, The Music Lesson, from the Harlem series, 1943.
"It’s not a good sign when you step into an art exhibition and immediately begin to reinstall it in your head. But don’t hold that against 'Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art,' a crowded, enthralling exhibition at the Jewish Museum with a fascinating back story that is rarely told on this scale. It recounts the life of a long-running influential art gallery and, by extension, of the person who willed it into existence. That person, Edith Gregor Halpert (1900-1970), was a formidable, feisty and sometimes manipulative self-starter with an ecumenical eye, a passion for art and an inborn instinct for sales and promotion. Halpert was central to establishing the market for between-the-wars American art and thought that everyone should own art. ..."
NY Times
Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art (Video/Audio)
FT - Edith Halpert: American art’s invisible visionary
Yale Books: Edith Halpert, the Downtown Gallery, and the Rise of American Art (Video)