Taking Shape Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s

Omar El-Nagdi, Untitled, 1970. Mixed media on wood, 47 x 47 inches
"Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s explores mid-20th-century abstract art from North Africa, West Asia, and the Arab diaspora—a vast geographic expanse that encompasses diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds. Comprising nearly 90 works by artists from countries including Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the exhibition is drawn from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation based in Sharjah, UAE. The paintings, sculpture, drawings, and prints on view here reflect the wide range of nonfigurative art practices that flourishes in the Arab world over the course of four decades. Decolonization, the rise and fall of Arab nationalisms, socialism, rapid industrialization, wars and mass migrations, and the oil boom transformed the region during this period. ..."
Grey Art Gallery
Brooklyn Rail
amazon

Menhat Helmy, Space Exploration/Universe, 1973.

Dollar Bin Mix #4 - Astral Jazz

"It's been a heady week, so I've dived deep into the Dollar Bin for a mix of far out jazz to cleanse the soul and feed the spirit. Join me on a trip to out there and back where you'll end in a lighter place. - Mr Chips. Note: All songs were taken from albums exclusively found in the Dollar Bins of my travels. Pops and clicks are all part of the experience. Track List: Stanley Turrentine - Gibraltar, Rashaan Roland Kirk - Black Root 10:19, Ramsey Lewis - Jungle Strut 13:26, Les McCann - The Harlem Buck Dance Strut 18:04, Charles Earland - Betty's Dilemma 24:02, Eddie Harris - Shorty Rides Again 32:14, Cannonball Adderley - Leo 40:42, Herbie Hancock - Fat Mama 43:33, Lonnie Liston Smith - Devika (Goddess) 47:17, Les McCann - The Dunbar High School Marching Band 52:23, Flora Purim - Uri (The Wind) 58:28, Deodato - Adam's Hotel 1:04:30, Leon Thomas - Echos 1:08:01, Rufus Harley - Scotch & Soul 1:13:36, Qunicy Jones - Oh Happy Day 1:18:38.
mixcloud (Audio)

The secret backhouse behind East 38th Street

"While walking through Murray Hill recently, I cut through the driveway of an apartment building to get from 38th to 37th Street without going all the way to Third Avenue. What I saw when I peered over the apartment building’s brick fence and into a yard next door surrounded by tidy brownstones made me stop in my tracks and ask myself: is that a backhouse? Backhouses aren’t uncommon in New York; these are small dwellings built behind a main house. Property owners in the late 18th and early 19th century put up backhouses for various reasons. Sometimes they served as a stable, but others were cheap houses landlords constructed on a lot to squeeze more tenants into the property and get more rent. I’d seen backhouses before, mostly downtown in the Village or Chelsea—like this backhouse, now hidden behind tenements in the East Village. ..."
Ephemeral New York

Cape Breton Island - Protest Song (2012), Songs of Steel, Coal and Protest (2012)

"On Cape Breton Island, where coal mining and steel making were once an essential part of the region’s culture and economy, protest song and verse are found in abundance. The Protest Song Project is an initiative of The Centre for Cape Breton Studies at Cape Breton University. The program’s goal is to preserve and promote the protest songs and verse that represent the region’s rich industrial heritage. ... These songs played an important role in the labour struggles of the 1920s and are an unexplored aspect of Cape Breton’s labour heritage. ... Songs of Steel, Coal and Protest. This is part two of a program to preserve, promote and make available the steel, mining and protest songs of the region. It tells stories about the struggles to survive strikes and hard times, the courage of workers wives, the fight by trade unionists and the oppression of international company owners. ..."
Protest Songs, Protest Songs – Volume 1 (Audio), Songs of Steel, Coal and Protest – Volume 2 (Audio)
Industrial heritage remembered
iTunes:: Cape Breton Island Protest Songs (Audio), Songs of Steel, Coal and Protest (Audio)
W - Cape Breton Island
YouTube: Albert Lionais - He Walked Right In

2015 October: History of the Acadians, 2012 February: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 2012 December: Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler, 2011 June: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood - Alistair MacLeod, 2016 February: Island (2001), 2016 October: Alistair MacLeod - No Great Mischief (1999), October: Nova Scotia Lighthouse, 2017 April: Cape Breton fiddling

Burlington Progressives — lots of them — eye mayor’s office after council wins

The list of possible candidates is already long: Clockwise from top left: Carina Driscoll, Max Tracy, Gene Bergman, John Franco, Brian Pine and Ali Dieng.
"Burlington, VT — After the election of two new Progressives to the City Council Tuesday, another race was quickly on the minds of Burlington Progressives — the 2021 mayoral election. Party executive director Josh Wronski was less than a minute into his speech at a victory celebration Tuesday night when he crystal balled the party’s success boded well for its chances of taking back the mayor’s office next year. 'Miro Weinberger, we’re coming for you,' Wronski said. Already, Progressives are starting to float names of potential candidates to take on Weinberger, a Democrat who’s served since 2012. In an interview Friday, the mayor said he was months away from deciding, but allowed there was a 'good chance' he will run again for another three-year term. ..."
VTDigger (Audio)

Voters inside the Fletcher Free Library, the polling place for Burlington’s Ward 8, on March 3.

2017 December: Vermont Progressive Party, 2018 February: Carina Driscoll - Mayor: Burlington, Vermont - Progressives Party, 2018 February: Burlington officials grapple with controversial mural, 2017 May: 05401PLUS, 2019 May: Mayor and ‘Foreign Minister’: How Bernie Sanders Brought the Cold War to Burlington

Women Directors: 150 Filmographies (1972)

"When the total number of films made by women is considered, it becomes useless to determine universally common themes and styles. Such gestures of interpretation and analysis would constitute a disservice to the individuality of each. Would we presume to find common threads among men directors? In spite of the attitudes of male critics and historians, Reiniger, Dulac, Riefenstahl, Deren, Varda, and Chytilova have received the recognition and historical placement they deserve; most other women filmmakers have not. The image of women in film—in front of and behind the cameras—is a subject of keen interest currently being studied elsewhere. The comments and filmographies which follow are not meant as political statements with relation to the women’s movement, although much overlapping of interest is self-evident. Rather, the existence of the women’s movement has generated an interest in and search for more information on the place of women in the arts. It is to this end, temporary as its usefulness may be, that the historical tone of this introduction is directed. ..."
FILM COMMENT

Elaine May

From Doo-Wop to Hip-Hop: Paul Winley and the Invention of the Breakbeat Compilation

"Paul Winley’s life neatly joins the dots between 1950s doo-wop and old-school hip-hop. In fact, he views both artforms as part of an unbroken oral tradition that binds every facet of black American music. Winley was impeccably placed to make such an observation. As a young man, he worked in Manhattan’s fabled Brill Building, penning songs for the likes of Big Joe Turner and Ruth Brown. In 1956, he set up his own label, which became home to groups such as the Paragons and the Jesters. By the late 1970s, however, Paul Winley Records had shifted its focus to New York’s burgeoning hip-hop scene. The imprint was at the vanguard of the movement. ..."
Red Bull Music Academy (Video)
W - Paul Winley

Emma Goldman Is Alive and Well and Making Trouble on the Lower East Side

"A certain kind of career is well known among American intellectuals. An eager young person joins the Socialist Something-­or-other movement and spends several fer­vent years in its ranks. He develops literary and analytic skills. And after a while the Socialist Something-or-others begin to dis­appoint him. They aren’t prospering the way he expected. They need to shape up. He tells them how. But they won’t hear of it. The young comrade therefore undergoes a crisis. Why, he asks himself, can’t the Something-or-other movement do better? Why is the Party a failure and why is social­ism not proving popular in America? Different answers come to mind. Maybe socialism doesn’t deserve to be popular. In that case the young militant becomes a con­servative. Maybe socialism is all right but the Party’s version is extreme, rigid, or mis­guided. The militant becomes some sort of liberal or social democrat. Maybe what the Party believed as literal truth should be reinterpreted figuratively. The militant be­comes a sophisticated radical. ..."
Voice - by Paul Berman (October 1, 1985)
W - Emma Goldman

2015 November: The Masses,1911 - 1917

Afro football fever

Ugandan soldiers serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) play football with young Somali boys in the central Somali town of Buur-Hakba.
"It can be hard to see how the real energies and possibilities of African football survive in the niches left by globalization. Sometimes one needs a sharper eye. Both visitors and the leading lights amongst a new generation of African photographers have that. Taking football as their subject matter, they have helped capture the game’s deep historical meanings and living everyday presence. The Senegalese, Omar Victor Diop, dressed as little-known but important figures from the African diaspora, took a series of self-portraits based on paintings from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Styled and posed like the African studio photography of the twentieth century, Diop made the twenty-first century connection to these images by adding an object. Pedro Camejo, the only black officer in the army of Simon Bolívar, wearing goalkeeping gloves. Badin, first a slave, then butler and diarist to Princess Sophia of Sweden, holding a red card. ..."
Africa Is a Country

Elizabeth Warren, Once a Front-Runner, Drops Out of Presidential Race

"Senator Elizabeth Warren entered the 2020 race with expansive plans to use the federal government to remake American society, pressing to strip power and wealth from a moneyed class that she saw as fundamentally corrupting the country’s economic and political order. She exited on Thursday after her avalanche of progressive policy proposals, which briefly elevated her to front-runner status last fall, failed to attract a broader political coalition in a Democratic Party increasingly, if not singularly, focused on defeating President Trump. Her departure means that a Democratic field that began as the most diverse in American history — and included six women — is now essentially down to two white men: former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders. Ms. Warren said that from the start, she had been told there were only two true lanes in the 2020 contest: a liberal one dominated by Mr. Sanders, 78, and a moderate one led by Mr. Biden, 77. ... Though her vision energized many liberals — the unlikely chant of 'big, structural change' rang out at her rallies — it did not find a wide enough audience among the party’s working-class and diverse base. ..."
NY Times (Video)
NY Times: Elizabeth Warren Was the Wrong Kind of Radical
NY Times: The Case for Elizabeth Warren
NY Times: Will Elizabeth Warren Endorse a Candidate? She Has a Few Options
***NY Times: I Am Burning With Fury and Grief Over Elizabeth Warren. And I Am Not Alone.

Cooking with Cesare Pavese

Characters in Pavese’s work follow the unchanging traditions of the countryside, including eating much polenta, easily made from medium-grind cornmeal, like this.
"Film buffs will know the Italian modernist writer Cesare Pavese (1908–50) because his novel Among Women (Tra donne sole) was the source for Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Le Amiche. But I came across his work in the unlikely location of a cookbook, English food writer Diana Henry’s How to Eat a Peach. Pavese, Henry writes in a chapter entitled, 'The Moon and the Bonfires (and the Hazelnuts),' was born in Piedmont in Northern Italy, and his native landscape was 'almost a character' in his work. She quotes him as saying that, if you live there, you 'have the place in your bones like the wine and polenta.' How to Eat a Peach is formatted as menus drawn from Henry’s travels and interests, and her Pavese-Piedmont menu, inspired by the 1949 novel The Moon and the Bonfires, offers an ox cheek stew, white truffle pasta, and a hazelnut-strewn chocolate cake. She suggests an accompaniment of the local Barolo or Dolcetto wine. ..."
The Paris Review

The wines of Piedmont are elegant and challenging, like the work of Cesare Pavese.

2015 August: Cesare Pavese, 2017 March: NYRB: The Moon and the Bonfires, The Selected Works of Cesare Pavese

When Tenants Take On Landlords Over Bad Conditions: A Rent-Strike Explainer

Organized rent strikes can give tenants greater leverage in negotiations with their landlords.
"D.C. appears to be in the midst of a rent-strike resurgence. From an ongoing strike in Columbia Heights to a recently resolved strike in Brightwood Park, the practice has emerged at several buildings in the city as a means to provoke landlord compliance with housing code. Rent strikes — in which tenants aim to withhold rent until their grievances are addressed — have grown more common in several cities contending with the impact of gentrification on affordable housing. And the strategy isn’t new to D.C., where an ultimately unsuccessful 1964 strike nonetheless inspired a spate of similar efforts, with mixed results, through the 1960s and 1970s. So how does a rent strike work? Here are the basics. ..."
WAMU
“Organizing 4 power”, from workers to tenants
YouTube: Jane Mcalevey | A Collective Bargain

The Piano - Jane Campion (1993)

"The Piano is a 1993 New Zealand-Australian period drama film about a psychologically mute young woman and her pre-adolescent daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater town on the west coast of New Zealand. It also involves the woman's failing arranged marriage to a frontiersman. The Piano was written and directed by Jane Campion and stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin in her first acting role. The film's score by Michael Nyman became a best-selling soundtrack album, and Hunter played her own piano pieces for the film. She also served as sign language teacher for Paquin, earning three screen credits. ..."
Wikipedia
Guardian - How we made: Michael Nyman and Jane Campion on The Piano
amazon
YouTube: The heart asks pleasure first Michael Nyman The Piano

2008 April: Michael Nyman, 2010 August: Decay Music, 2010 December: After Extra Time, 2011 August: Michael Nyman Band, 2011 December: The Draughtsman's Contract - Peter Greenaway, 2012 March: Time Lapse, 2013 July: Composer in Progress, In Concert (2010), 2015 September: An Eye for Optical Theory (Live at Studio Halle, 2010), 2016 January: Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds, 2017 April: Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (1972), 2019 May: The Heart Asks Pleasure First
2015 August: Jane Campion: Top of the Lake (2013)

Damon Locks / Black Monument Ensemble - Where Future Unfolds (2019)

"... 'Where Future Unfolds by Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble is a mighty jazz & gospel album made up of a stunning live recording of a band that challenges the hard-hitting subject matter with powerful eloquence. Psychedelic bells greet the listener when starting Where Future Unfolds by Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble before distorted vocals are brought into play. The powerful metaphors rattled off by Damon Locks in the first track 'Statement of Intent / Black Monument Theme' compliment the intense bells and draw you into this exciting music. The bells remind me of Pharoah Sanders, and most recently, Maisha, who both employ them to imbue their jazz with a lysergic acid feel. The freeform drums which start to build behind the voice escalate, and the message being delivered gets clearer and more aggressive. The message drives home why the former and current US governments are failing the people, and why institutional racism means that things won’t change. ..."
Holland Tunnel
Discogs (Video)
amazon
YouTube: Where Future Unfolds [FULL ALBUM 2019], Damon Locks and the Black Monument Ensemble (Live)

The Urban Lens: Documenting Gentrification’s Toll on the Mom-and-Pops of Greenwich Village

"Bleecker Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenue South was once a huge Italian enclave with many traditional 'mom and pop' stores catering to the large Italian families who resided in the neighborhood. By the late 1930s, it also had a significant bohemian population with many artists, writers, poets and musicians living in the area who set up galleries, coffee houses and music shops. Due to widespread gentrification and escalating real-estate values, the neighborhood has changed drastically and its unique appearance and character is suffering. We are here to take you on visual tour to experience how many of the truly authentic shops remain on this venerable Greenwich Village street, and to show you what has replaced the ones that have vanished. Many of the shops you’ll encounter ahead have been featured with full-color photographs and insightful interviews with the store owners in three of our widely acclaimed books on the subject, but we’ve also rounded up several more ahead. ..."
6sqft

Ireland’s Voices

"Throughout its history, The New Yorker magazine has published extraordinary writing by and about Irish authors and poets, from Maeve Brennan’s first Talk of the Town, in 1937, to Ian Parker’s Profile of the renowned novelist Edna O’Brien, published this past October. Such a commitment to Irish writing is far from surprising, as the island’s natural wonders and historic cities have inspired some of the most influential writers of the age—people so dear to the Western canon that it’s almost redundant to name them. (But still we will: Swift, Wilde, Joyce, Yeats, and Beckett are just a few.) The New Yorker has published poetry and fiction from Brennan and O’Brien, as well as Elizabeth Bowen, Seamus Heaney, Mary Lavin, Colm Tóibín, and Sally Rooney, among others. ..."
New Yorker

2011 March: Passages from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (1965-67), 2010 March: Ulysses Seen, 2013 February: ULYSSES “SEEN” is moving to Dublin!, 2013: Dubliners, 2014 May: The Dead (1987 film), 2014 May: “Have I Ever Left It?” by Mark O'Connell, 2014 July: Digital Dubliners, 2014 September: Read "Ulysses Seen", A Graphic Novel Adaptation of James Joyce’s Classic, 2015 January: The Mapping Dubliners Project, 2015 February: Davy Byrne’s, 2016 January: Port and Docks, 2016 February: Hear James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Read Unabridged & Set to Music By 17 Different Artists, 2016 April: Nassau Street, 2016 May: Stephen’s Green, 2016 October: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), 2016 November: Skerries, 2017 January: Walking Ulysses | Joyce's Dublin Today, 2018 October: Bloomsday Explained

The American restaurant is on life support

Joe Dietsch
"In a week, The New York Times would run a rave review of FieldTrip, a rice-centric little place in Harlem, New York City. Crowds of eager diners would suddenly descend, and the Sweetgreen chain, as well as the folks at Rockefeller Center and developers around the country, would get in touch about possible alliances. But at 5:30 on a weekday before the review, owner and chef JJ Johnson did what he’d done since the restaurant opened three months earlier: He greeted the two tables of two who were having an early dinner, tasted everything the kitchen had going, dropped some supplies on a shelf, and fretted. The 35-year-old Johnson had cooked at two high-end restaurants until they went out of business—The Cecil, a fine-dining establishment nearby, and Henry, a short-lived place in a restaurant-laden neighborhood called the Flatiron, where he was a partner. ..."
The Counter (Video)

Front of house at Gadi Peleg’s flagship Breads Bakery.

The Best Protest Songs In History: 10 Timeless Political Anthems

"From unflinching portrayals of racial hatred to hard-hitting invective against injustice, demands for equality and even stadium anthems with a subversive message, the best protest songs speak not only to the issues of their times, but transcend their eras to become timeless political expressions. Hip-Hop arguably remains the most politically engaged music of our current era, but, throughout the decades, jazz, folk, funk and rock music have all made contributions to the best protest songs of all time. Many more can lay claim to a place in this list. Think we’ve missed your best protest songs? Let us know in the comments section, below. ..."
udiscover (Video)

Quarry - Meredith Monk (1976)

"When Meredith Monk’s multimedia opera 'Quarry' was first performed, in 1976, it posed a question for critics. Should it be covered by a dance writer, or a music specialist? Or perhaps someone versed in the underground cinema scene: A short film of Ms. Monk’s earlier devising, carrying the same title, was also projected during the three-act work. Another wrinkle was added in 1978, when a filmed version of Ms. Monk’s 'memorial piece for a world at war' played in New York. Even as the film receded from view, she continued to raise questions of genre with a decades-long stream of new productions blending choreography, sound and theater. ..."
NY Times: Meredith Monk’s Fantasy of Fascism, Newly Restored (Video)
Quarry: an opera in three movements
YouTube: Quarry: The Rally (Live, 1977), Dictator's Speech from Meredith Monk's "Quarry", Quarry: Introduction (Live, 1977)

2008 March: Meredith Monk, 2009 September: Songs of Ascension - Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton, 2011 February: Meredith Monk: A Voice For All Time, 2011 August: Ellis Island, 2012 December: Turtle Dreams, 2013 February: Quarry: The Rally (Live, 1977), 2014 November; 10 Things You Might Not Know About Meredith Monk, 2015 April: Volcano Songs (1994), 2015 June: Ellis Island, 2016 April: 16 Millimeter Earrings and the Artist’s Body (1966/1998), 2016 December: Beginnings (2009), 2017 February: Book of Days (1988), 2017 May: Piano Songs (2014), 2017 December: Monk Mix: Remixes & Interpretations of Music By Meredith Monk (2012)

Can YouTube Quiet Its Conspiracy Theorists?

"Climate change is a hoax, the Bible predicted President Trump’s election and Elon Musk is a devil worshiper trying to take over the world. All of these fictions have found life on YouTube, the world’s largest video site, in part because YouTube’s own recommendations steered people their way. For years it has been a highly effective megaphone for conspiracy theorists, and YouTube, owned and run by Google, has admitted as much. In January 2019, YouTube said it would limit the spread of videos 'that could misinform users in harmful ways.' One year later, YouTube recommends conspiracy theories far less than before. But its progress has been uneven and it continues to advance certain types of fabrications, according to a new study from researchers at University of California, Berkeley. ..."
NY Times

These Are the 7 Most Important Races for Progressives

Marie Newman is challenging Representative Dan Lipinski in the Democratic primary in Illinois's 3rd Congressional District.
"The presidential race is, understandably, overshadowing the left’s fight to reshape Congress. But no matter who is president, if establishment Democrats in Congress are defining the party’s policies, the progressive movement will be stifled. With primary season approaching—the first states hold their primaries on March 3—it’s time to examine the left’s best opportunities to seize seats from conservative or ineffective Democrats. Seven primary races stand out: In all of them, the stakes are high, and the progressive challengers have the resources and grassroots support to compete. ..."
The Nation

3. CA-16: Jim Costa (incumbent) versus Esmeralda Soria

March 2020: A Planet Trio and More!

In mid-March, a waning crescent Moon joins Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in the predawn sky.
"Early risers can easily spot Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in the predawn sky. They're three bright beacons above the southeastern horizon. But their arrangement changes over the next few weeks. To figure out which one is which, listen to this month's Sky Tour! Meanwhile, Venus, is the dramatically bright 'Evening Star' high in the southwestern sky after sunset. It's not a star, of course, but Venus looks so bright because lots of sunlight is reflecting off the planet's nearly pure-white cloudtops. Looking south after sunset, you'll spot Sirius — the brightest actual star in the nighttime sky. ..."
Sky & Telescope (Audio)

Long Way Home By Rosanne Cash

Photographs courtesy of Rosanne Cash
"I was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Memphis on a muggy evening just before eight p.m. in late May 1955. Two months later, my father’s very first single, 'Hey Porter,' backed with 'Cry, Cry, Cry,' was released on Sun Records, a small record label and recording studio at 706 Union Avenue in downtown Memphis. Sun was owned by Sam Phillips, a young music entrepreneur, recording engineer, and record producer. The building still stands, essentially as it was in the early 1950s when my dad, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins created their first recordings. Now it is a thriving tourist destination but still a fully functioning recording studio. Musicians come from all over the world to genuflect at the altar of the birthplace of rock & roll. ..."
Oxford American

Johnny and Roy Cash with their wives Vivian and Wandene, 1956

2010 March: Rosanne Cash, 2012 January: Black Cadillac, 2012 April: "I Was Watching You", 2012 July: The Wheel, 2012 February: Live From Zone C, 2014 February: The River & the Thread (2014), 2014 August: Rules of Travel (2003), 2015 June: King's Record Shop (1987), 2016 June: 10 Song Demo (1996), 2017 January: Rodney Crowell - "It Ain't Over Yet (feat. Rosanne Cash & John Paul White)", 2019 August: Everyone But Me

2012 November: Ain't No Grave, 2011 October: Hurt, 2013 May: 4 Classic Sun Records, 2014 April: Ridin' The Rails The Great American Train Story (1974), 2017 September: Highway 61 Revisited & The Man Comes Around

To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It

"There are two ways to fight epidemics: the medieval and the modern. The modern way is to surrender to the power of the pathogens: Acknowledge that they are unstoppable and to try to soften the blow with 20th-century inventions, including new vaccines, antibiotics, hospital ventilators and thermal cameras searching for people with fevers. The medieval way, inherited from the era of the Black Death, is brutal: Close the borders, quarantine the ships, pen terrified citizens up inside their poisoned cities. For the first time in more than a century, the world has chosen to confront a new and terrifying virus with the iron fist instead of the latex glove. At least for a while, it worked, and it might still serve a purpose. ..."
NY Times
Guardian - How to protect yourself against coronavirus
W - Coronavirus
WIRED - Ask the Know-It-Alls: What Is a Coronavirus?
NY Times - Coronavirus
Guardian - Coronavirus outbreak
****New Yorker: Quarantine Cooking: Finding Relief from Coronavirus Anxiety in the Kitchen
*****NY Times: Here Comes the Coronavirus Pandemic
YouTube: ********Ghen Cô Vy| NIOEH x KHẮC HƯNG x MIN x ERIK | WASHING HAND SONG

Say It Is So: Baseball’s Disgrace

Fans’ mementos adorning the grave of Chicago White Sox player “Shoeless” Joe Jackson at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Greenville, South Carolina, 2003
"... He summarily banished eight Chicago players, including at least one who was only minimally involved in the plot, if at all, the all-time great 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson. Not only had Jackson declined to play poorly during the series; he hit a sterling .375 while setting a record for most base hits that would stand until 1964; and he played flawlessly in the outfield. But he knew about what was going on when one of the complicit players threw $5,000 on his bed, so he was done. ... The scandals did not end. More discovered over the last thirty years have resulted in harsh penalties assessed on specific players. The great hitter Pete Rose’s betting on baseball, exposed in 1989, was peanuts compared to the offenses of either the Black Sox or the 1951 Giants. While managing the Cincinnati Reds at the end of the 1980s, Rose, the all-time major league leader in hits, placed wagers on baseball games—but never against his own team, which would have been deeply suspicious. ..."
NYBooks

For Decades, Cartographers Have Been Hiding Covert Illustrations Inside of Switzerland’s Official Maps

03 A reclining woman, hidden for almost sixty years in the municipality of Egg
"The first three dimensions—length, height, and depth—are included on all topographical maps. The 'fourth dimension,' or time, is also available on the website of the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (Swisstopo). In the 'Journey Through Time,'  a timeline displays 175 years of the country’s cartographic history, advancing in increments of 5-10 years. Over the course of two minutes, Switzerland is drawn and redrawn with increasing precision: inky shapes take on hard edges, blues and browns appear after the turn of the century, and in 2016, the letters drop their serifs. ..."
Eye On Design

04 A spider appears over an ice field on the Eiger mountain

The Primaries Are Just Dumb

"How fitting that Twitter — a social media platform apparently built for bickering — co-sponsored a political debate on Tuesday night that often descended into an unintelligible screaming match among too many candidates whose differences belie a vast common ground. Any one of the candidates in the Democratic race would be among the most progressive leaders ever elected to the White House, so common sense suggests that a few contenders bow out, to clarify the choice and ensure that a consensus nominee can emerge. That would be welcome. But disarray has a way of keeping even the slimmest of hopes alive. ..."
NY Times
NY Times: The Best Case for Each Candidate

Motherless Brooklyn - Edward Norton (2019)

"Motherless Brooklyn is a 2019 American neo-noir crime film written, produced and directed by Edward Norton, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem. Set in New York City in 1957, the film follows a private investigator with Tourette syndrome, who is determined to solve the murder of his mentor. Along with Norton, the film also stars Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe. A passion project of Norton's ever since he read Lethem's novel in 1999, the film took nearly 20 years to go into production. Although the book is set in contemporary times, Norton felt the plot and dialogue lent themselves more to a noir setting — moving it to the 1950s, with many added plot points inspired by The Power Broker. Other members of the cast joined by February 2018, and principal photography began that same month. ..."
Wikipedia
NY Times - ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ Review: Edward Norton Fights the Power Broker
Vanity Fair: Edward Norton Finds Real Emotion in the Pastiche of Motherless Brooklyn
The Atlantic: Motherless Brooklyn Is a Passion Project Without Heart
LA Times: Edward Norton’s 1950s noir ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ unravels a muddled New York conspiracy
YouTube: MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN

A Tribute to NASA’s Katherine Johnson (RIP): Learn About the Extraordinary Mathematician Who Broke Through America’s Race & Gender Barriers

"We don't call it a tragedy when a renowned person dies after the century mark, especially if that person is brilliant NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who passed away yesterday at the venerable age of 101. Her death is a great historical loss, but by almost any measure we would consider reaching such a finish line a triumphant end to an already heroic life. A prodigy and pioneer, Johnson joined the all-black 'human computing' section at NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in 1953. She would go on to calculate the launch windows and return trajectories for Alan Shepard’s first spaceflight, John Glenn’s first trip into orbit, and the Apollo Lunar Module’s first return from the Moon. ..."
Open Culture (Video)
W - Katherine Johnson
NY Times: Katherine Johnson Dies at 101; Mathematician Broke Barriers at NASA
YouTube: Former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson dies

Clarissa Oakes - Patrick O'Brian (1992)

"Clarissa Oakes (titled The Truelove in the United States) is the fifteenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1992. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. ... Glad that the penal colony is behind him, Captain Aubrey discovers a stowaway prisoner aboard near Norfolk Island. He deals with her before he allows the cutter from the governor at New South Wales to deliver his new orders to handle a political situation on a Pacific island. En route, Maturin learns the key to finding the high level agent giving British information to the French, while Aubrey addresses the unhappy crew of Surprise. One reviewer finds this novel a pure joy to read as it shares unmistakably original insights into the mysteries of the world. ..."
Wikipedia
The Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project - Clarissa Oakes (5663 Nautical Miles)
amazon

2009 September: Patrick O'Brian, 2013 July: Harbors and High Seas - Dean King and John B. Hattendorf, 2015 October: HMS Surprise (1973), 2016 May: Post Captain (1972), 2019 February: Aubrey–Maturin series, 2019 February: Cooking with Patrick O’Brian By Valerie Stivers, 2019 June: Desolation Island (1978)