The Magnetic Fields - André Breton and Philippe Soupault (1920) Image
The First Christmas Meal
“These days, British and American Christmases are by and large the same hodgepodge of tradition, with relatively minor variations. This Christmas Eve, for example, when millions of American kids put out cookies and milk for Santa, children in Britain will lay out the more adult combination of mince pies and brandy for the old man many of them know as Father Christmas. For the last hundred years or so, Father Christmas has been indistinguishable from the American character of Santa Claus; two interchangeable names for the same white-bearded pensioner garbed in Coca-Cola red, delivering presents in the dead of night. But the two characters have very different roots. Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, was given his role of nocturnal gift-giver in medieval Netherlands. Father Christmas, however, was no holy man, but a personification of Dionysian fun: dancing, eating, late-night drinking—and the subversion of societal norms. ...”
Inhuman communication: Søren Kierkegaard versus the internet
“The story is, by now, a familiar one: some person ― whether a celebrity or a relative unknown ― says something racist, misogynistic, or just plain stupid online. We see it, we're angry, we tell them so. Within hours, they've received thousands of replies, ranging from the politely critical to the clearly abusive. The perpetrator then either lashes out defiantly, issues an apology (whether sincere or not) or simply withdraws from the social media space altogether. This is what's called a ‘pile-on.’ Now, you might be one of those people who thinks the ‘victim’ of a pile-on had it coming. Speaking and writing are, after all, actions, and actions have consequences; free speech doesn't mean freedom from being called out. ...”
2011 July: Søren Kierkegaard, 2013 April: Repetition (1843), 2013 December: The Quotable Kierkegaard, 2014 October: Fear and Trembling - Søren Kierkegaard (1843), 2014 December: The Dark Knight of Faith - Existential Comics, 2015 July: I still love Kierkegaard, 2015 October: The Concept of Anxiety (1844), 2016 October: Cruel intentions, 2017 July: Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter, 2018 January: Either/Or (1843), 2018 November: The Seducer’s Diary (1843), 2020 July: Søren Kierkegaard’s Struggle with Himself, 2020 November: W. H. Auden - The Living Thoughts of Kierkegaard (1952)
Socialism Informs the Best of Our Politics - Michael Harrington
“... Is socialism relevant to the late 20th and 21st centuries? And if so what does one mean by ‘socialism’? In any case, why identify as a socialist in the United States where the very word invites misunderstanding, at best, and a frantic, ignorant rejection at worst? Finally, given all of these problems why build a socialist organization in this country? First, the socialist critique of power under both capitalism and Communism is not only substantial in and of itself; it also makes a significant contribution to the cause of incremental reform as well as to a radical restructuring of society. ...”
2016 May: The Other America (1962)
Warm Up 2020 | MoMA
“Warm Up wherever you are and celebrate NYC’s music communities online and outdoors. MoMA PS1 presents an all-day streaming edition of Warm Up to support New York City’s music communities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic with eight hours of continuous music streamed live from MoMA PS1’s iconic courtyard. Tune in for 12 DJ sets and live performances by artists who represent NYC’s expansive music community, framed by stage design created by New York-based artist Cécile McLorin Salvant. ... Broadcast globally in partnership with music streaming platform Boiler Room, this one-day-only program will also stream at outdoor music venues across the city, allowing audiences to patronize the open, outdoor cultural spaces in their neighborhoods. ...”
John le Carré, Best-Selling Author of Cold War Thrillers, Dies at 89
“John le Carré, whose exquisitely nuanced, intricately plotted Cold War thrillers elevated the spy novel to high art by presenting both Western and Soviet spies as morally compromised cogs in a rotten system full of treachery, betrayal and personal tragedy, died on Saturday in Cornwall, England. He was 89. The cause was pneumonia, his publisher, Penguin Random House, said on Sunday.Before Mr. le Carré published his best-selling 1963 novel ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,’ which Graham Greene called ‘the best spy story I have ever read,’ the fictional model for the modern British spy was Ian Fleming’s James Bond — suave, urbane, devoted to queen and country. With his impeccable talent for getting out of trouble while getting women into bed, Bond fed the myth of spying as a glamorous, exciting romp. Mr. Le Carré upended that notion with books that portrayed British intelligence operations as cesspools of ambiguity in which right and wrong are too close to call and in which it is rarely obvious whether the ends, even if the ends are clear, justify the means. ...”
A food vendor’s Christmas on 14th Street in 1904
“Ashcan school painter Everett Shinn gravitated toward New York’s underdogs: the lonely, the lost, the dreamers, and those who appear to be battered by life’s elements. This food vendor pushing his flimsy wood cart during the holiday season appears to fall into the latter category. Painted in 1904, ‘Fourteenth Street at Christmas Time’ gives us a blustery, snowy street crowded with Christmas tree buyers and other shoppers beside the lights from store window displays. Our vendor, however, stands away from everyone, his body crouched to avoid the frightful weather. His cart glows with the warmth of hot food cooking…but he has no buyers.”
2017 January: 34th Street (1903), 2019 September: The fantasy of window shopping in New York City
The Irishman - Martin Scorsese (2019)
“The Irishman (titled onscreen as I Heard You Paint Houses) is a 2019 American epic crime drama film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. It stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, with Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, and Harvey Keitel in supporting roles. The film follows Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a truck driver who becomes a hitman involved with mobster Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and his crime family, including his time working for the powerful Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). ... De Niro, who also served as producer, and Pacino were confirmed that month, as was Pesci, who came out of his unofficial retirement to star after numerous requests. Principal photography began in September 2017 in New York City and in the Mineola and Williston Park sections of Long Island, and wrapped in March 2018. ...”
Jeremiah's Vanishing New York: Robert Herman
“The man who jumped to his death from the 16th floor of his Tribeca apartment building on Friday night has been identified as photographer Robert Herman. He left a note that read, ‘How do you enjoy life?’ Since the 1970s, Robert was one of New York's consummate street photographers, capturing the day-to-day life of the sidewalks with his camera and, most recently, with his iPhone. I met him once or twice, we had a similar love for the city, and he was always lovely and kind. He will be missed, along with all the photographs he will never get to take. What follows is an interview I did with him here in 2013, on the publication of his beautiful book The New Yorkers, a vivid collection of his work from 1978 - 2005. ...”
The Champions League’s New Twist: Injury Roulette Image
For Kylian Mbappé and other stars, injury looms as a formidable Champions League foe.
“The procession was nearly over. Ninety-five of the 96 games that constitute the group phase of the Champions League, six weeks of phony war that largely serve to check boxes, cross Ts and dot Is, were complete. Most of the heavyweights had long since advanced to the knockout rounds. As is so often the case, there had been precious little drama. The whole exercise only served to fuel to the flames of those who would revamp the competition or abandon it altogether. Bayern Munich and Manchester City dropped only two points. Juventus, Barcelona, Chelsea and Sevilla qualified with two games to spare, Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund with one. And yet, with five minutes of injury time still to play in the one game outstanding, it felt a little like everything was on the line. ...”
1960s Dial-a-Poem
"On any given night in 1970, a teen somewhere in rural America could dial a number and hear the radical wisdom of Patti Smith, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Bourroughs – the list of poets was long, and painfully hip. One needed only the ten sacred digits of 'Dial-a-Poem,' a revolutionary hotline that connected millions of people to a room of telephones, linked up to an evolving selection of live-recorded poems, speeches, and inspired orations. And frankly, we’d kill to dial up that hotline right now. It all began in the 3rd floor Manhattan loft of the hotline’s founder, artist, and activist, John Giorno, who also happened to be Andy Warhol’s lover at the time. John was on the phone one morning with someone and feeling cranky. ...”
YouTube: "You're a Hook"—The 15 Year Anniversary of Dial-a-Poem (1968-1983) full album, UbuWeb: Giorno Poetry Systems / Dial-A-Poem Poets
2012 June: The Dial-A-Poem Poets: The Nova Convention, 2014 March: The Dial-A-Poem Poets (1972), 2015 January: Dial-A-Poem Poets - Big Ego (1978), 2018 November: I ♥ John Giorno and So Should You, 2019 November: John Giorno – the New York radical who broke art and poetry's boundaries
Tri-Cornered Baseball Game
“The Tri-Cornered Baseball Game was a three-way exhibition baseball game held at the Polo Grounds on June 26, 1944, among the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and New York Yankees. The game, a Second World War fundraiser, was played with a round-robin format in which each team batted and fielded during six innings and rested for the other three. The Dodgers won by scoring five runs in their times at bat; the Yankees scored one run, while the Giants were unable to score. The game came 20 days after the Normandy landings in 1944. It was devised by the War Loans Sports Committee as a method of selling war bonds to aid in the U.S. war efforts. ... New York Daily News sportswriter Dick Young described the event as ‘the wackiest diamond battle ever conceived.’ ...”
Various Apocalyptic Scenes from the Prophetic Messenger (ca. 1827–61)
The Incredible Lightness of Being
Brest téléphérique from station atop a historic stone building
“After the Emirates Air Line fiasco, most people in the UK had written off cable cars as a valid public transport mode. But reading about the official gondola proposal for Vancouver’s Burnaby Mountain university campus as an ideal solution, this mode warrants another look. Niche transport modes are ideal solutions, but only for specific geographic transport problems – funiculars, catamarans, hydrofoils, and cable cars. The key is not to fall for the salesperson’s or politician’s pitch, but to apply them appropriately. Cable cars are increasingly being constructed to connect topographically constrained urban areas in an inexpensive and quick manner. ...”
Nights of Ballads & Blues - McCoy Tyner (1963)
Brian Eno - Film Music 1976-2020
When Sun Ra Went to Egypt in 1971: See Film & Hear Recordings from the Legendary Afrofuturist’s First Visit to Cairo
John Lennon and the Politics of the New Left
Watch “Jackson Pollock 51,” a Historic Short Film That Captures Pollock Creating Abstract Expressionist Art on a Sheet of Glass Image
2014 October: Jackson Pollock's Mural
August Wilson, American Bard
“In the woods of Barnesville, Ga., two Black men are running, barely visible in the dusk. There are crickets chirping, dogs barking in the distance and, more immediately, the urgent pants of their breath. This seems to be a familiar horror, but the men aren’t being chased; they’re heading toward a tent. Inside, Ma Rainey — played by Viola Davis, her lips painted burgundy, eyelids smoked with black, cheeks stained merlot — beckons the audience in a royal blue dress. ‘Daddy, daddy, please come home to me,’ she sings, shimmying in the heat. ‘Anytime you see two Black people running in the South, you think the Klan’s somewhere, but, no, they’re not running from something. They’re running to something — to this woman whose voice is telling their story,’ says George C. Wolfe, the director of ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ the Netflix film version of August Wilson’s beloved play, which debuts this month. The scene feels appropriate for the opening of a Wilson adaptation: One of the most acclaimed Black playwrights in America, he spent more than three decades telling the story of Black America with pride and verve, with language that beckoned like Ma’s voice in that tent. ...”
2017 July: Fences (2016), 2017 August: The Ground on Which I Stand, a Speech on Black Theatre and Performance (1992), 2018 July: Pittsburgh Cycle, 2018 August: August Wilson in St. Paul: A MN Original Special, 2020 May: August Wilson's Blues Poetry, 2020 July: On Lessons From August Wilson’s Jitneys
Gramsci in the postcolony
2013 July: Gramsci Monument, 2018 January: The Fate of the Party
Bird bath
A male House Sparrow in a birdbath in Makawao, Maui
“A bird bath (or birdbath) is an artificial puddle or small shallow pond, created with a water-filled basin, in which birds may drink, bathe, and cool themselves. A bird bath can be a garden ornament, small reflecting pool, outdoor sculpture, and part of creating a vital wildlife garden. A bird bath is an attraction for many different species of birds to visit gardens, especially during the summer and drought periods. Bird baths that provide a reliable source of water year round add to the popularity and ‘micro-habitat’ support. Bird baths can be pre-made basins on pedestals and columns or hang from leaves and trees, or be carved out depressions in rocks and boulders. ...”
Greatest Hits Music issue: Playlists
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