Gregory Isaacs & U Brown - The Border (1978)

"I don’t want summer to end so I’m going to post one of my all time favorite reggae songs, Gregory Isaacs 1978 classic 'The Border.' This one has everything: a great rhythm, the Cool Ruler’s smooth vocals, lyrics with a message, and U-Brown’s great toasting at the end. My perfect reggae song!"
Song of the Day: Gregory Isaacs & U Brown “The Border” (Video)
YouTube: Gregory Isaacs & U-Brown - The Border 12", Gregory Isaacs & U-Brown - The Border + GG AllStars-Dub Part Two

Hainbach - Gestures (2019)

"... Gestures is an album of disappearing and acceptance. The sense of loss is lifted by interweaving piano phrases, harmonized by fragile oscillators. Gentle movements above radio antennas guided the recording process, adding an incorporeal, dreamlike feel. Wonderfully executed, incredibly unique and entirely Hainbach. ..."
Bandcamp (Audio)
YouTube: Gestures (full album) 34:32

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)

Les Nabis

Pierre Bonnard, Dining Room in the Country, 1913.
Wikipedia - "Les Nabis (French pronunciation: ​[le nabi]) was a group of young French artists active in Paris from 1888 until 1900, who played a large part in the transition from impressionism and academic art to abstract art, symbolism and the other early movements of modernism. The members included Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Sérusier. Most were students at the Académie Julian in Paris in the late 1880s. The artists shared a common admiration for Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne and a determination to renew the art of painting, but varied greatly in their individual styles. They believed that a work of art was not a depiction of nature, but a synthesis of metaphors and symbols created by the artist. In 1900, the artists held their final exhibit, and went their separate ways. ..."
Wikipedia
The Radiant Paintings of Les Nabis, the Movement Started by Bonnard and Vuillard
Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Nabis and Decorative Painting
The Nabis 101
Musée d'Orsay: Nabis and decoration. Bonnard, Vuillard, Maurice Denis... (Video)
YouTube: les nabis 26 videos

Les Nabis at Stephane Natanson’s house in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, south-east of Paris, c. 1898. Lying, from left: Felix Valloton, Édouard Vuillard, Stephane Natanson, Marthe Mellot, Thadée Natanson and Misia Natanson. Standing: Cipa (half-brother of Misia Natanson).

Soccer at the Edge of the World

During the week of the Greenland national soccer tournament, the astroturf soccer field in Sisimiut was in near constant use.
"SISIMIUT, Greenland — The boat journey along Greenland’s wild, rocky coast lasted three days. It was long and slow, calling in at what felt like every village on the way to pick up passengers and drop off supplies. The scenery was spectacular: sheer, snow-capped mountains rising from the sea, fjords cutting into untouched wilderness. After a while, though, Inuk Mathaussen found even that started to pall. It was, as he remembers it, pretty 'boring.' All that time at sea was not Mathaussen’s only sacrifice. He had left his partner and their 1-year-old at home for a couple of weeks. He had cashed in valuable vacation time. He had spent hundreds of dollars, too: for transportation and accommodations, for equipment and membership fees. In return, once the boat reached its destination, he would have the dubious pleasure of spending seven nights on a mattress in a school gymnasium, struggling to sleep in a room filled with a few dozen friends and strangers. ..."
NY Times
W - Greenland national football team
Guardian: The unlikely success story of football on the massive island of Greenland

The fog rolls into Sisimiut every few days, blanketing the town with a low-slung, white cloud.

Jane Bowles

Wikipedia - "Jane Bowles (February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright. Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917, to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jane Bowles spent her childhood in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island. She developed tuberculous arthritis of the knee as a teenager, and her mother took her to Switzerland for treatment, where she attended boarding school. At this point in her life, she developed a passion for literature coupled with insecurities. As a teenager she returned to New York, where she gravitated to the intellectual bohemia of Greenwich Village. She married composer and writer Paul Bowles in 1938. The location of the honeymoon inspired the setting for her novel Two Serious Ladies. Bowles had a rich love life. In 1937, she met Paul Bowles and in following year (1938), they were married and went to a honeymoon in Central America. She visited lesbian bars while they traveled together in Paris. ... Bowles, who was an alcoholic, suffered a stroke in 1957 at age 40. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times - The Extravagant Jane Bowles: Always on the Edge of Something
The Best Book of 1943: Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
Millicent Dillon: “the originality and emotional power” of Jane Bowles

Jane Bowles and Paul Bowles

2007 November: The Authorized Paul Bowles Web Site, 2010 February: Paul Bowles (1910-1999), 2011: January: Halfmoon (1996), 2013 July: Tellus #23 - The Voices of Paul Bowles, 2014 January: Let It Come Down: the Life of Paul Bowles (1998), 2014 March: The Sheltering Sky (1949), 2015 January: Things Gone & Things Still Here, 2015 October: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles – a cautionary tale for tourists, 2015 November: The Rolling Stone Interview (May 23, 1974), 2016 June: Let It Come Down (1952), 2016 December: Paul Bowles & the Music of Morocco, 2017 July: Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles, 2018 July: The Sheltering Sound

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash Session Unearthed for Bootleg Series

"A session Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recorded in Nashville in 1969, much of it never bootlegged, is finally set for release in the 15th installment of Dylan’s Bootleg Series, Rolling Stone reports. The 3xCD set compiles their session—where they laid down 'Girl From the North Country,' jammed with Carl Perkins, covered 'Mystery Train,' and wrote Cash’s 'Wanted Man'—with largely unheard and sought-after outtakes from John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, and more. Bob Dylan (featuring Johnny Cash)’s Travelin’ Thru, 1967 – 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15 is out November 1 (via Columbia/Legacy). ..."
Pitchfork (Video)
Bob Dylan (Featuring Johnny Cash) – Travelin’ Thru, 1967 – 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15 out on Nov. 1

The Crisis for Birds Is a Crisis for Us All

A male Baltimore Oriole.
"Nearly one-third of the wild birds in the United States and Canada have vanished since 1970, a staggering loss that suggests the very fabric of North America’s ecosystem is unraveling. The disappearance of 2.9 billion birds over the past nearly 50 years was reported today in the journal Science, a result of a comprehensive study by a team of scientists from seven research institutions in the United States and Canada. As ornithologists and the directors of two major research institutes that directed this study, even we were shocked by the results. We knew of well-documented losses among shorebirds and songbirds. But the magnitude of losses among 300 bird species was much larger than we had expected and alarmingly widespread across the continent. ..."
NY Times
Ny Times: Birds Are Vanishing From North America
Cornell: Nearly 30% of birds in U.S., Canada have vanished since 1970 (Video)
Cornell: Seven Simple Actions to Help Birds

Debatable: Should the presidency have an age limit?

"Life has seven stages, Shakespeare wrote, ending in oblivion, but he might have forgotten an eighth: running for president. Jimmy Carter, the country’s longest-living former chief executive, seemed to express concern on Tuesday that all three Democratic presidential front-runners are septuagenarians. ... The debate: The age minimum for the presidency is 35. Should there be a maximum, too? The average age of American presidents at swearing-in is 55, but recent decades have seen many outliers. At 70, President Trump was the oldest to take office, beating a record set by Ronald Reagan, who still remains the oldest person ever to leave it, at 77. Well before the end of Mr. Reagan’s second term, in 1989, speculation abounded about his mental decline; he would be found to have Alzheimer’s disease five years later. ..."
NY Times
10 reasons there should be a maximum age limit to run for president

The Portable Beat Reader - Ann Charters

"Cutting through bohemian posturing and excess, Charters here reprints much of the most vital, readable and relevant material produced by the Beat generation, primarily in the 1950s and '60s, with some selections from the '70s and '80s. The novels of such leading figures as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs lend themselves well to excerpting, giving this volume creditable ballast. Representative works of Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder are included along with those of lesser-known Beats (e.g., John Clellon Holmes), fellow travelers like Frank O'Hara and Amiri Baraka, and wives and girlfriends often overlooked at the time, including Hettie Jones, Carolyn Cassady and Joyce Johnson. Charters (Kerouac) offers a broad perspective on this seminal literary movement: she links East Coast Beats to the San Francisco Renaissance poets; pays attention to such latter-day Beats as Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg; and explains the position of non-Beat but related writers--Alan Watts, Anne Waldman, Diane DiPrima and the young Norman Mailer--in her helpful introductory essay and notes preceeding each entry. Her energizing, liberating anthology makes it clear that such Beat preoccupations as the bomb, the meaninglessness of modern existence and ecological destruction remain current."
Publishers Weekly
[PDF] Introduction - The Beat Half-Century
amazon

Working Families Party

"At a recent private dinner in Manhattan, a small group of leftists plotted to take over America. The group, a dozen community organizers and activists from all over the country, had convened at a sushi restaurant in the Flatiron District with the leaders of the New York-based Working Families Party. They were heads of organizations from Boston to Albuquerque, with names like National People’s Action and Washington Community Action Network. And they were there to hear why their states should form their own chapters of the insurgent party, in order to capitalize on the country’s rising liberal tide and push the national conversation leftward. ..."
The Atlantic: The Pugnacious, Relentless Progressive Party That Wants to Remake America
W - Working Families Party
Working Families Party
Jacobin: The Working Families Party Has Written Itself Out of History
NY Times: Working Families Party Endorses Elizabeth Warren. Here’s Why It Matters.

Artist of Industry - Richard Sexton

"Richard Sexton’s forthcoming book Enigmatic Stream: Industrial Landscapes of the Lower Mississippi River documents, in close to one hundred images spanning nearly twenty years of work, the role of industry along the riverbank. “I am drawn to environments that are not destined to last, and whose final chapter may be soon written,” says Sexton, who shot the series in black and white 'to evoke the technological era,' a time when these industrial sites 'were celebrated and romanticized as the feats of human ingenuity they genuinely are.' Juxtaposing the hulking silhouettes of these places against their adjacent surroundings—residential areas, agricultural pastures, and seemingly undisturbed wetlands—Sexton poses the question of how to facilitate economic development in the region while maintaining the health of the nearby ecosystem. ..."
Oxford American
W - Richard Sexton
amazon: Enigmatic Stream: Industrial Landscapes of the Lower Mississippi River

MADONJAZZ #163 by Spiritmuse Records: Deep World Sounds

"MADONJAZZ #163 by Spiritmuse Records: Deep World Sounds. A 1hr set from Mark Gallagher of deep, spiritual jazz and psych folk sounds from around the globe. Also includes music from Moondog, Sun Ra, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Don Cherry, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and many more! All Vinyl. Enjoy 🎶 Spiritmuse Records is a new independent record label based in London, UK, dedicated in unearthing hidden gems from past and future, music for both mind and spirit. ..."
MixCloud (Audio)

A Rebel French Poet Draws New Followers to the Hometown

A mural with Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Ophelia” in the poet’s hometown, Charleville-Mézières, France.

"CHARLEVILLE-MÉZIÈRES, France — When Bernard Colin took over as caretaker of this city’s cemetery 27 years ago, his predecessor gave him some remarkably non-prescient advice: 'Don’t worry, you won’t be bothered by the grave of Arthur Rimbaud — no one visits it.' Now 60, Mr. Colin collects a few letters every week, from as far away as South Korea and Japan, addressed to Rimbaud, the poet who wrote classics like 'The Drunken Boat' and 'A Season in Hell,' and died in 1891. They are left on his grave in Charleville-Mézières, Rimbaud’s hometown — along with poems and train tickets. The caretaker has also caught couples getting overly friendly at the site, conveniently shaded by the thick, verdant foliage of a couple of conifers. ..."

NY Times

“Arthur, it has been so difficult to come here, but at least here I am,” wrote a pilgrim from Italy named Silvia.

2008 May: Arthur Rimbaud, 2010 November: Arthur Rimbaud - 1, 2012 October: Patti Smith: Poem about Arthur Rimbaud (Subtitulado), 2012 December: Writers’ Houses Gives You a Virtual Tour of Famous Authors’ Homes, 2013 August: Arthur Rimbaud Documentary, 2013 November: julian peters comics - The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud, 2014 June: In Which We Begin To Roar With Laughter At Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, 2015 May: Illuminations - Arthur Rimbaud (John Ashbery - 1875), 2016 March: Rimbaud in New York, 2016 December: The Photography of Poet Arthur Rimbaud (1883), A Season in Hell - Arthur Rimbaud (Robert Wyatt, Carl Prekopp, Elizabeth Purnell, 2009)

G.M. Strike: 50,000 Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Idled Plants

"The United Automobile Workers union went on strike at General Motors, sending nearly 50,000 members at factories across the Midwest and South to picket lines on Monday morning. With the two sides far apart, U.A.W. regional leaders in Detroit voted unanimously on Sunday morning to authorize the strike, the union’s first such walkout since 2007. It began at midnight, after the union’s current bargaining agreement expired on Saturday. ... The U.A.W. is pushing G.M. to improve wages, reopen idled plants, add jobs at others and close or narrow the difference between pay rates for new hires and veteran workers. G.M. wants employees to pay a greater portion of their health care costs, and to increase work force productivity and flexibility in factories. ..."
NY Times (Video)

Battle of Lake George

Benjamin West's depiction of William Johnson sparing Baron Dieskau's life after the battle
Wikipedia - "The Battle of Lake George was fought on 8 September 1755, in the north of the Province of New York. The battle was part of a campaign by the British to expel the French from North America, in the French and Indian War. On one side were 1,500 French, Canadian, and Indian troops under the command of the Baron de Dieskau. On the other side were 1,500 colonial troops under William Johnson and 200 Mohawks led by noted war chief Hendrick Theyanoguin. The battle consisted of three separate phases and ended in victory for the British and their allies. After the battle, Johnson decided to build Fort William Henry in order to consolidate his gains. William Johnson, who had recently been named the British agent to the Iroquois, arrived at the southern end of Lac du Saint Sacrement on 28 August 1755, and renamed it 'Lake George' in honor of his sovereign, George II. ..."
Wikipedia
W - Fort William Henry
French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George (Video)
French and Indian War: Siege of Fort William Henry

Location of Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George

2015 October: History of the Acadians, 2016 October: French and Indian War

A last remnant of the Duane Street shoe district

"New York is a necropolis of defunct businesses. But every so often an old sign from one of these dead and gone businesses reappears like a ghost, reminding us that at another time in another New York, they were part of the cityscape. One of these long-gone stores recently revealed itself at 114 Chambers Street in Tribeca. 'Craig’s Shoes' it reads, looking strangely British and very old-fashioned. Tribeca Citizen also noticed the back-in-view sign earlier this summer. Reader comments explain that Craig’s had been in business since 1949, ending its run in 2006 at a second store site on 132 Chambers Street, which was to be demolished and replaced by the AKA Tribeca Hotel. Interestingly, Craig’s wasn’t just a one-off shoe store in a neighborhood once known for its light industry and food provisions businesses. ..."
Ephemeral New York

Sierra Club

Wikipedia - "The Sierra Club is an environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who became its first president. ... Traditionally associated with the progressive movement, the club was one of the first large-scale environmental preservation organizations in the world, and currently engages in lobbying politicians to promote environmentalist policies. Recent focuses of the club include promoting sustainable energy, mitigating global warming, and opposing the use of coal. The club is known for its political endorsements, which are often sought after by candidates in local elections; it generally supports liberal and progressive candidates in elections. ..."
Wikipedia
W - John Muir
Sierra Club
Ready For 100 | Sierra Club (Video)

John Muir

Amy Sherald’s Shining Second Act

“A single man in possession of a good fortune,” 2019; “The girl next door,” 2019.
"What a difference a presidential portrait makes. Two years ago, Amy Sherald’s painting career was slowly if belatedly picking up steam. She was 44 and after a four-year hiatus from art — for family illness and her own heart transplant — had had a handful of solo shows, including a four-day pop-up affair on New York City’s Lower East Side in March 2017. A few months later, in October, Ms. Sherald’s profile began to rise when the National Portrait Gallery commissioned her to paint a portrait of the former first lady Michelle Obama, setting the artist on the fast track to prominence. And so here we are: Ms. Sherald is having her first full-fledged New York solo in the Chelsea space of the voracious mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth. 'Amy Sherald: The Heart of the Matter...' is a magnificent, stirring show. ..."
NY Times
Amy Sherald the heart of the matter...
What Amy Sherald Is Looking At: The Painter on 8 Cultural Touchstones That Inspire Her, From Wes Anderson to WEB Du Bois

Installation view of “Amy Sherald: The Heart of the Matter...” at Hauser & Wirth.

NYCTrust Special – E’s E on Nickel & Dime Radio

"Relaxed sunday vibes with E’s E guest set on $mall ¢hange’s Nickel & Dime Radio Show. Recorded live on WFMU, 91.1FM – Jersey City, NJ. Enjoy! Tracklist: Moodie’s All Stars – Frog Leap, Jovens Do Prezda – Pina, Abdel Mohamed – Laissez Passer, Los Dandy’s – Tu Son Tu Son, Los Fantasticos De Chimbote – Quiero Que Amanesca, Pedro Miguel – Cabrita Que Tira Al Monte, Harold y Su Banda – Carretera, Carretera, Prince Buster – Funky Jamaica, Bumps Jackson – Funky In Jamaica Pt. 2, Hugh Masekela – Unhlanhla, Father & Sons – Soul In The Bowl, Les Leopards – D’Leau Coco, Minguito – Ngi Kalakala Mivu Ioso, Conjunto Tipica Contreras – Capricho Egipcio.
Brooklyn Radio (Audio)
mixcloud (Audio)

Charles Messier (26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817)

Wikipedia - "Charles Messier (French: [me.sje]; 26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817) was a French astronomer most notable for publishing an astronomical catalogue consisting of 110 nebulae and star clusters, which came to be known as the Messier objects. The purpose of the catalogue was to help astronomical observers, in particular comet hunters like himself, distinguish between permanent and transient visually diffuse objects in the sky. ... Messier's occupation as a comet hunter led him to continually come across fixed diffuse objects in the night sky which could be mistaken for comets. He compiled a list of them, in collaboration with his friend and assistant Pierre Méchain (who may have found at least 20 of the objects), to avoid wasting time sorting them out from the comets they were looking for. The entries are now known to be galaxies (39), planetary nebulae (5), other types of nebulae (7), and star clusters (55). ..."
Wikipedia
W - Messier object
Hubble’s Messier Catalog
YouTube: Charles Messier: The Catalog of Space | David Rives

Messier star chart depicting all the Messier objects (plotted on a rectangular grid right ascension and declination)

Hidden Histories: The Story of Women Film Editors

Margaret Booth
"A momentous event in online film culture went mostly unnoticed earlier this year: the unveiling of Edited By, Su Friedrich’s large and invaluable web resource devoted to women film editors. Friedrich, a renowned experimental filmmaker with a body of work spanning over four decades, tells the story of coming upon a film history book, turning to the editing chapter, and finding that each reference to a film mentioned the director—but never the editor. Looking up the cited films on IMDb, she discovered that most of them were edited by women. Out of this seed of curiosity grew the enormous research effort that has now resulted in the website. ..."
Criterion

Elizaveta Svilova

Harlan County, USA (1976)

Wikipedia - "Harlan County, USA is a 1976 documentary film covering the 'Brookside Strike', an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky in 1973. Directed and produced by Barbara Kopple, who has long been an advocate of workers' rights, Harlan County, U.S.A. is less ambivalent in its attitude toward unions than her later American Dream, the account of the Hormel Foods strike in Austin, Minnesota in 1985-–86. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary at the 49th Academy Awards. ..."
Wikipedia
Documentary Noise: The Soundscape of Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, U.S.A.
YouTube: Harlan County USA Trailer
YouTube: Harlan County, USA 1:44:34

Cajun music

A black and white reproduction of a 1938 photograph by FSA Photographer Lee Russell depicting a group of musicians playing at a cajun dance hall near Crowley, Louisiana.
Wikipedia - "Cajun music (French: Musique cadienne), an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based zydeco music, both of Acadiana origin, and both of which have influenced the other in many ways. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media, such as television commercials. ..."
Wikipedia
64 Parishes
What is Cajun & Zydeco: Dance & Music
YouTube: Louisiana Cajun French Music From The Southwest Prairies 50:00, Cajun Songs from Lousiana (Folkways, 1956) 32:28, Ambrose Thibodeaux ‎– Authentic French Acadian Music (1966) 29:52, Zydeco - Louisiana Creole Cajun Music Blend 1:24:06, Balfa Brothers - Tribute to Cajun Music - 1979, Mink DeVille - Mazurka

Hohner 3002 folk/Cajun Ariette Acordeón Marrón Natural

Debatable

"The big debates, distilled. This comprehensive guide will put in context what people are saying about the pressing issues of the week. Sign up for Debatable to hear more from the voices you agree with — and better understand those you don’t."
NY Times: Emails may include promotional content from The New York Times.
NY Times: Debating - News about Debating, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
Wikipedia - Debatable, Cambridge Dictionary: Debatable

NY Times: The Role of Men in the Debate Over Abortion - A man in Atlanta protesting Georgia’s restrictive abortion law in May.

Tear the Roof Off the Sucker: An Introduction to Parliament Funkadelic

Parliament Funkadelic, circa 1974
"If you don’t know much about funk, P-Funk—the legendary Parliament Funkadelic—is a great place to start. (Yes, you can make the same case for James Brown, Sly Stone, the Ohio Players, and myriad others.) P-Funk emerged in the late ‘60s and dominated the 1970s. They went through at least four somewhat distinct periods, pioneered a unique approach to groove—especially once bassist Bootsy Collins, resh from a stint with James Brown, joined the band—and combined that with psychedelia, humor, space travel, and subtle yet cutting social commentary. They were a guitar-centric outfit, but often had a horn section, embraced synthesizers, and never lost sight of their vocal roots. Parliament and Funkadelic were not two separate bands. P-Funk, under the guidance of vocalist and ringleader George Clinton, was a collective of musicians—which numbered about 50 people during their mid-’70s peak. ..."
Reverb LP (Video/Audio)

2009 January: George Clinton, 2010 December: Mothership Connection - Houston 1976, 2011 October: Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove, 2011 October: "Do Fries Go With That Shake?", 2012 August: Tales Of Dr. Funkenstein – The Story Of George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, 2015 July: Playing The (Baker's) Dozens: George Clinton's Favourite Albums, 2015 August: Chocolate City (1975), 2016 February: Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971), 2016 June: P-Funk All Stars - Urban Dancefloor Guerillas (1983), 2017 March: Up for the Down Stroke - Parliament (1974), 2017 May: P-Funk mythology

World’s Most Famous Replica of NYC Gets a New Shine

The Panorama of the City of New York
"On long-term view at the Queens Museum, the Panorama of the City of New York was once the highlight of the World’s Fair in 1964. The miniature replica of New York City (including all five boroughs) took over 100 full-time workers nearly three years to build, and is still the largest architectural model of any city in the world to date. The Panorama was the brainchild of 'master builder' Robert Moses, who saw it as a tool for urban design and planning after it left the fair. The City of New York spent $672,662 in 1964 to construct the miniature metropolis, which included 830,000 buildings (now there are 895,000 buildings) over an area of 9,335 square feet. The meticulously crafted, hand-painted design continues to fascinate New Yorkers and global travelers alike, even after 53 years. ..."
The Culture Trip (Video)

10 essential UK dub and reggae albums

"Reggae was born in Jamaica, but it found a second home in the UK – the result of waves of post-war Caribbean migration, and the curatorial ambitions of labels like Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, who took names like Bob Marley and made them international celebrities. Early on, the idea that Britain could turn out reggae artists to compete with the Jamaicans seemed absurd. But around the mid-‘70s, a new wave of musicians and studio hands started bubbling up from the UK’s multiracial centres, taking the style, sound and themes of the Caribbean groups and giving them a distinctly UK twist. Red Bull Music caught up with three legends of the UK reggae and dub scene – broadcaster and DJ Don Letts, On-U Sound don Adrian Sherwood and BBC 1XTRA’s Seani B – and asked to talk through 10 essential UK reggae and dub landmarks. ..."
Red Bull (Video/Audio)