“... Audio Archives label offers a special double CD containing 43 ultra rare underground psychedelic-folk gems and medieval sounds from the British & Emerald Isles. The tracks here a ultra rare sound sources from folk bands recorded in recorded in England/Scotland/Wales/Ireland during the 1960s and 1970s. Rare tracks , such as acid folk, psychedelic folk, and trad folk and includes works never before on CD, and from sound sources released only at the time. Comes with large poster sleeve crammed full of rare memorabilia and artifacts together with detailed info on each artist. This is one of the best ever folk offerings celebrating the rich history of alternative psych-folk rarely heard. ...”
A painter’s mystery scene on the Sixth Avenue elevated after midnight
“Elevated trains were the fastest mode of mass transit in the late 19th century. Lurching and groaning high above the sidewalks along almost all of New York’s avenues, they whisked people to work, to school, to the theater, to Central Park, to department store shopping—all for a nickel per ride. At night, the elevated invited intrigue. Everett Shinn, former newspaper illustrator best known as a member of the Ashcan School of social realism painting, captures a moment at one end of a poorly lit all-male car in his 1899 work, ‘Sixth Avenue Elevated After Midnight.’”
2017 January: 34th Street (1903), 2019 September: The fantasy of window shopping in New York City, 2020 December: A food vendor’s Christmas on 14th Street in 1904
Why Germany is hooked on Russian gas
“Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU has sanctioned much of Russia’s economy, but Russia’s natural gas trade remains untouched. The EU gets nearly a quarter of its energy from natural gas, and almost half of that comes from Russia, the world’s largest gas exporter. As the EU’s largest economy, Germany is Russia’s biggest customer, paying Russia’s state-owned gas company 200 million euros. So while Germany has even sent Ukraine weapons, in a historic shift of military policy, through its gas supply Germany is helping to pay for the war it’s trying to stop. ... Today, as the world tries to punish Russia through sanctions, that dependence is getting in the way. ...”
Three Tales - Gustave Flaubert (1877)
“I’ve got the old 1961 Penguin translation by Robert Baldick. It has no notes but a handy nine-page introduction in which Baldick places the Tales in the context of Flaubert’s life and work. Born in 1821, Flaubert spent his whole adult life living off a small private income in the remote Normandy village of Croisset and devoting his life to literature. But he was far from successful. ... In other words the mid-1870s found Flaubert at a financial, emotional and artistic low point. And yet he not only wrote these three short tales relatively quickly but, when they were published, the volume turned out to be his most critically acclaimed and popular book. In fact, it turned out to be the last book he published during his lifetime. ...”
2012 August: On Cataloguing Flaubert, 2013 March: Sentimental Education - 1(1869), 2017 August: The Sentimental Education (1869), 2018 May: In Which Our Tragic Effects Remain Purely Professional, 2019 March: The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas (1911), 2021 November: Madame Bovary and the Impossibility of Re-reading - Anjali Joseph, 2021 December: In Which a Direct Line is Drawn From Flaubert’s Unfinished Novel
Sun Ra House in Philadelphia Is Now a Historic Landmark
“Sun Ra House, the three-story Philadelphia building that has been a cradle for Sun Ra’s evolving Arkestra outfit since the 1960s, has been listed as a historic landmark in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. The building at 5626 Morton Street, also known as the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra, reportedly still houses a number of Arkestra members, including current bandleader Marshall Allen. Allen had lived in the house since 1968. In 2021, he reported that the building had partially collapsed. On May 13, the Philadelphia Historical Commission unanimously voted to grant the protected status, a representative for the register said. ...”
The staggering amount of US military aid to Ukraine, explained in one chart
“American weapons are pouring into Ukraine. President Joe Biden requested that Congress send $33 billion of emergency aid to the country at war with Russia, and the US House increased the pot to $40 billion, with about 60 percent going toward security assistance in some form or another. A bipartisan majority in the Senate is expected to approve it this week. It’s an unprecedented ramp-up that builds on the rapid transfer of billions’ worth of weapons already sent. ...”
NY Times: On a Russian talk show, a retired colonel stuns his colleagues by pointing out that the invasion isn’t going well. (Video)
Smoke rises from the steel works in Mariupol on May 5, 2022. The steel plant has a maze of more than 30 bunkers and tunnels.
An Architect Breaks Down the Design Details of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel
“Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel features many notable players: Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, and presiding above all, Ralph Fiennes as celebrated concierge Monsieur Gustave H. But it is Gustave’s domain, the titular alpine health resort, that figures most prominently in the film, transcending place, time, and political regime. Such an establishment could only exist within Anderson’s cinematic imagination, which dictates the manner in which he introduces it to his viewers. ...”
2013 November: Wes Anderson Honors Fellini in a Delightful New Short Film, 2013 November: Rushmore (1998), 2013 Decemher: Hotel Chevalier (2007), 2014 March: Wes Anderson Collection, 2014 April: The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies, 2014 July: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), 2014 August: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), 2014 December: Welcome to Union Glacier (2013), 2015 January: Inhabiting Wes Anderson’s Universe, 2015 July: Books in the Films of Wes Anderson: A Supercut for Bibliophiles, 2015 November: Moonrise Kingdom (2012), 2015 December: Chapter 8: "The Grand Budapest Hotel", 2016 June: Here's pretty much every song used in a Wes Anderson film, 2016 November: Watch Come Together, Wes Anderson’s New Short Film...., 2018 September: Isle of Dogs (2018), 2020 May: Honest Trailers - Every Wes Anderson Movie, 2020 July: Exploring Wes Anderson’s wonderful cinematic commercials, 2020 September: Steal Like Wes Anderson..., 2021 October: In the Company of Wes Anderson
Quartering Jerusalem
“Maps of Jerusalem show the Old City divided into four: top left Christian Quarter, top right Muslim Quarter, bottom left Armenian Quarter and bottom center Jewish Quarter. Such neat divisions. Nearly all modern maps do this. Many are even color coded, with blocks of shading for each quarter and precise borders marking frontiers from one quarter to the next. But it’s no surprise to learn that in reality no city functions like this. The busiest of Jerusalem’s lanes is Suq Khan al-Zeit. ...”
Following its introduction by Williams in 1849, the idea of “four quarters” took hold in outsiders’ imaginations, and it became a standard feature of maps of the city up to our own time, including this poster-size illustrated map for sale in the city to tourists.
Can Ukraine hold Russia accountable for environmental crimes?
“As forensic investigators in Ukraine uncover evidence of killings that may amount to war crimes, experts of a different kind are at work to document the effect of Russia’s war on the environment.Ukraine’s ministry in charge of environmental protection said in a briefing last month that destroyed military equipment and ammunition, as well as exploded missiles and air bombs, pollute the soil and groundwater with chemicals, including heavy metals. Nickolai Denisov, deputy director of the Geneva-based Zoï Environmental Network, is part of a team mapping incidents of war-related damage or disruption. By the end of April, the group had reported 3,300 incidents in some 600 settlements, including cities, towns and villages. ...”
A local resident stands next to unexploded mortar shells left during Russia's invasion, in the village of Yahidne, Ukraine, on April 20. While there is little published research on contamination from munitions, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says the First and Second World Wars have left soils in some parts of Europe contaminated for decades.
Richard Thompson :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
“You’d have to imagine that Werner Herzog is not a man who is easily impressed. But there’s a moment in In The Edges, Erik Nelson’s short film documenting the sessions for the Grizzly Man soundtrack, where the legendary filmmaker seems positively overcome. As Richard Thompson improvises a dark, shimmering elegy on electric guitar, Herzog, seated nearby, appears to blink away tears, smiling in rapture. Music From Grizzly Man, which is receiving a handsome reissue this week from No Quarter records, is full of similarly stunning moments. ...”
2011 July: Shoot Out the Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson, 2012 February: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, 2014 March: Videowest 81, 2015 October: Richard & Linda Thompson - Rafferty's Folly (1980), 2015 December: Rumor and Sigh (1991), 2016 March: Hand of Kindness (1983), 2018 December: You? Me? Us? (1996), 2019 July: Across a Crowded Room—Live at Barrymore’s 1985, 2020 July: Bloody Noses (EP 2020)
Daou ~ Sanctuary
“The idea of sanctuary is inviting: a place of safety, where no harm will come; a welcoming nation for refugees; a place of worship, free from the outside world. In Georges Daou‘s album of the same name, sanctuary refers to an escape from the pressures of society, technology and the daily grind, although the journey there is hard-won, fraught with rumination and regret. The tape loops contain this feeling of looking back, repeating old thoughts and problems, wishing that things could have been different. ...”
A Mini-Russia Gets Squeezed by War
“TIRASPOL, TRANSNISTRIA — At the Back in the U.S.S.R. cafe, it is like the Soviet Union never collapsed.Busts of Lenin greet visitors at the door. Red hammer and sickle flags hang on the wall. Huge plastic Soviet-era telephones sit on the tables, next to bowls of traditional borscht and lumps of Stolichnaya potato salad. This cafe and the whole Transnistria region, a Russia-supported breakaway republic wedged between Moldova and Ukraine, feels like a Soviet-themed vintage shop. The cafe may be intentionally kitschy, but still, it speaks to a real nostalgia for a long-gone era and a deep appreciation for Russia. ...”
The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon (1966)
“The Crying of Lot 49 is a 1966 novel by American author Thomas Pynchon. The shortest of Pynchon’s novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-old feud between two mail distribution companies; one of these companies, Thurn and Taxis, actually existed (1806–1867) and was the first private firm to distribute postal mail. Like most of Pynchon’s output, Lot 49 is often described as postmodernist literature. ...”
A Peterson Field Guide To Wildflowers: Northeastern and North-central North America - Roger Tory Peterson
“Find what you're looking for with Peterson Field Guides—their field-tested visual identification system is designed to help you differentiate thousands of unique species accurately every time. Grouped by color and by plant characteristics, 1,293 species in 84 families are described and illustrated. Included here are all the flowers you're most likely to encounter in the eastern and north-central U.S., westward to the Dakotas and southward to North Carolina and Arkansas, as well as the adjacent parts of Canada. ...”
Ukraine: The spy war within the war
“The decades-long spy conflict between Russia and the West is intensifying over the Ukraine war. But what are Russia's intelligence services suspected of doing and how will their officials' expulsion from capitals affect Putin's clandestine overseas operations? When Russia first targeted its military forces on Ukraine in 2014 it also unleashed its intelligence services on the West - from interfering with the US elections using cyber attacks to poisonings and sabotage in Europe. But in recent months the spy war has intensified as Western countries have sought to hit back and inflict lasting damage on the ability of Russian intelligence to carry out covert operations. ...”
World Soccer June 2022
“Our countdown to the 2022 World Cup continues in this issue as we preview the remaining European, Asian and inter-confederational play-offs to determine the final three qualifiers for Qatar. Three players already with their eyes on the World Cup are this issue’s cover stars – Netherlands hot-shot Cody Gakpo, Portugal forward Diogo Jota and United States wonderkid Brenden Aaronson – and we shine the spotlight on the talented trio who are all having terrific seasons for their clubs. The Ukraine conflict continues to cast its shadow, but countries around the world persist in showing their support for the war-torn nation. ...”
Peter Rehberg (1968–2021)
“In 1995, I received a fax from Peter Rehberg stating that Mego, the label he co-ran, wanted to work with me. It was the start of a twenty-six-year relationship that ended with the album I released this year. To reflect on the late artist, who performed as Pita, one might start with his work there. Mego’s first release, General Magic and Pita’s 1995 ‘Fridge Trax,’ is a twelve-inch record that features four pieces constructed using recordings of refrigerators. For decades of avant-gardists, utilizing found sounds evoked musique concrète, but in nonacademic electronic music, at the intersection of techno, house, and ambient where many early Mego releases staked their claim, the staging of such mundane sounds marked a distinct otherness, a new vocabulary. ...”
Ukraine decimated Russian forces trying to cross a river in the east, Britain’s defense ministry says
In this handout photo provided by the Ukraine Armed Forces on Thursday, May 12, 2022, a ruined pontoon crossing with dozens of destroyed or damaged Russian armored vehicles on both banks of Siverskyi Donets River after their pontoon bridges were blown up in eastern Ukraine.
“The British defense ministry on Friday said satellite imagery has confirmed that Ukrainian forces decimated a Russian battalion as it tried to cross a series of pontoon bridges over a river in northeast Ukraine earlier this week, a dramatic setback for Russian forces already struggling to make significant progress along the eastern front.While it was not clear how many soldiers were killed trying to cross the Seversky Donets River, the numbers of burned-out and destroyed vehicles scattered along the riverside suggested that Russian forces suffered heavy losses. ...”
Meet the New Old Book Collectors
Amy Winehouse’s copy of “Howl, Kaddish, and Other Poems,” by Allen Ginsberg.
“Late last month, during the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory, Rebecca Romney withdrew a copy of ‘Howl, Kaddish, and Other Poems,’ by Allen Ginsberg from her booth’s display case. She did so not to recite from its pages but to show off the writing in the margins. Amy Winehouse had puzzled out lyrics to an unrecorded song alongside Ginsberg’s lines. ..;. The Ginsberg text is the centerpiece of Ms. Winehouse’s 220-book collection, which Ms. Romney’s company, Type Punch Matrix, near Washington, D.C., is in talks to sell as a unit for $135,000. ...”
Thoreau and the Language of Trees - Richard Higgins (2017)
“... Two generations earlier, another poet laureate of nature and the human spirit made trees a centerpiece of his emotional universe. For Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817–May 6, 1862), they were creative and spiritual companions, sane-making and essential. His love of them comes alive in Thoreau and the Language of Trees (public library) — a selection of the great Transcendentalist poet and philosopher’s meditations on trees, drawn from his two-million-word journal by writer and photographer Richard Higgins, whose beautiful black-and-white photographs complement Thoreau’s arboreal writings. ...”
2020 April: Henry David Thoreau - I, 2020 May: This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal - II, 2022 January: Emerson and Thoreau’s Fanatical Freedom, 2022 March: Using Thoreau’s Notebooks to Understand Climate Change
A white oak near Spencer Brook in Concord, 19 1/2 feet in circumference, as it looked in 2005; it sprouted around the time Thoreau was born, in 1817.
These Dancers Escaped the War. Their Journeys Are Just Beginning.
Victoria Glazunova, Kate Myklukha and Polina Loshchylina of the Dutch National Ballet.
“AMSTERDAM — Kate Myklukha pushed herself up onto the tip of her left foot, then stretched her arms out in front of her as if hugging a tree.As a pianist at the Dutch National Ballet here played a jaunty tune, several of Myklukha’s classmates wobbled from side to side, struggling to hold the delicate pose. But Myklukha held her balance, then spun around and dipped into a knee bend, before gracefully waving an arm skyward.During that short sequence last month, Myklukha, 17, looked as if she had been a member of the ballet’s junior company for years. Yet, she had arrived in Amsterdam only two and a half weeks before, having escaped the war in Ukraine. ...”
“When my aunt gave her passport to the russian he asked, 'Why are your hands shaking?'"
Flight Paths - Omar El Akkad
Wire Reveal Official Release Of Old Bootleg, 'Not About To Die'
“An old bootleg release by Wire is getting an official release four decades on from its initial circulation.No Time To Die initially emerged in the early '80s via Amnesia Records, and contained some demos that Wire recorded for their second and third albums, Chairs Missing and 154. The band had recorded the demos for their label at the time, EMI, and while the cassettes were intended to be circulated among an inner circle of people, low-quality recordings of the material on the tapes were eventually leaked out collectively under the name No Time To Die. ...”
2009 January: Wire, 2012 January: On the Box 1979, 2013 September: Chairs Missing (1978), 2014 June: 154 (1979), 2014 July: Document And Eyewitness (1979-1980), 2015 April: The Ideal Copies: Graham Lewis Of Wire's Favourite Albums, 2015 July: Pink Flag (1977), 2015 December: The Peel Sessions Album (1989), “Dot Dash”, "Options R" (1978), 2017 June: Outdoor Miner / Practice Makes Perfect (1979), 2017 November: Live at the Roxy, London, 2018 June: Wire at Maxwell's (06-12-1987), 2021 May: 60 minutes of music that sum up art-punk pioneers Wire
Once Best Friends, Bulgaria Takes a Stand Against Russia
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia this month.
“SHIPKA, Bulgaria — A week after Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Bulgaria climbed a snowy mountain pass to honor czarist-era Russian soldiers who died there fighting for Bulgarian independence in the 19th century. Present day concerns, however, quickly eclipsed the effort to remind Bulgaria of the debt it owed Russia. That same day, Bulgaria expelled two of the ambassador’s underlings for espionage and announced the arrest of a senior military officer on charges of spying for Russia. ...”
A man stands in his destroyed house in Vilkhivka, Ukraine, on Monday.
Rainer Ganahl
“2009, 4 min, color, sound. As I have done with Sigmund Freud, Lenin and Handke (his goal keeper book), I I'm kicking the book of Karl Marx to its full destruction. I don't do that out of hatred for the authors but out of a reminder that books were destroyed in the past (particular those of the firsts 3 authors). I do that also because it is quite an intense act of expression that transcends reading. The relationship between violence, destruction and (re)creation is quite challenging and provokes interesting questions that go beyond my pure will to ‘just make art.’ ...”
Syrian Cassette Archives
“... For these reasons, tapes were widely popular in many parts of the world, Syria being one potent example. Syrian Cassette Archives, a new website created by a team led by Iraqi-American musician and collector Mark Gergis and Damascus-born DJ and community organizer Yamen Makdad, offers a window into the country’s rich musical history through tapes. Gergis grew up hearing pop by the likes of legendary Egyptian vocalist Umm Kulthoum and famed Lebanese diva Fairuz before making his first of many trips to Syria in 1997, where he began amassing mountains of cassettes as he immersed himself in the local music. ...”
I Spent Weeks on Ukraine’s Front Lines. Everything Has Changed.
Sheltering in a basement shelter near Russian positions that were only a few miles away in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine.
“First the whiz and then the explosion a second later. One after another. One after another. I was hiding in an underground dugout — it would be difficult to call it a bunker: no solid entrance door, no proper stash of food and water. The walls were wooden and there were two sort-of beds, a couple of rugs and some wooden chairs. The place was untidy with phone chargers and military clothing — helmets, flak jackets. There were a few cookies and some chocolate bars. Home for Ukrainian soldiers on the front line. ...”
Witness a Total Lunar Eclipse on Sunday, May 15–16
“You can't do better for an astronomical event than a total lunar eclipse. It's visible to city and rural residents alike across half the planet, requires no special equipment, lasts for hours and is guaranteed to happen. How many other celestial shows offer this kind of ease and certainty? About the only thing that can get in the way are clouds. And for that, you can check current cloud maps to find the nearest clear skies. More about that in a moment. ...”
Locus Solus (journal)
“Now to look at Locus Solus, a magazine of poetry and prose edited by John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler from 1961–’62, and published by Harry Mathews in Lans-en-Vercors, France. All five issues of the publication are part of The Little Magazine Collection at DU. To me, the most compelling issue of Locus Solus is ‘New Poetry,’ a double issue (III–IV) edited by John Ashbery, published in Winter 1962. Within New Poetry one finds poetry by (among many others) Ashbery, Joseph Ceravolo, Diane di Prima, Barbara Guest, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler — writing crucial to the body of work that evolved from many of the aforementioned poets. ...”
Ukrainians unearth horrors near Kyiv, a month after Russian retreat
Mourners gather for a memorial service at the home of Dmytro Luchynya's family in Kolonshchyna village on May 6, 2022.
“KOLONSHCHYNA, Ukraine — It wasn’t relief or calm that washed over the constellation of towns and villages west of Kyiv when the Russians withdrew after their monthlong occupation. It was horror and unnerving silence. Residents emerged from their cellars to discover their neighborhoods flattened and bodies dotting the streets. They cautiously inspected what was left and began searching for those who were lost. Vira Tyshchenko spent weeks poring over thousands of images of mutilated corpses, bloody clothing and personal items. She thought that among the remains and detritus she might recognize her younger brother or at least something that belonged to him. But she also hoped to find nothing at all, because she wanted to believe he was somehow still alive. ...”
Guardian: Italy launches inquiry into Kremlin disinformation
The operation was co-ordinated by the UN and the Red Cross.
A Messy Table, a Map of the World
“Jason Farago of the New York Times has published another close reading of a Dutch masterpiece. Over the last few years Farago has released a number of art essays which look closely at famous works of arts. Each of these art critiques owe a lot to the navigation and presentation techniques developed for online interactive maps. As you progress through one of his close readings an accompanying interactive zooms and pans around an image of the discussed painting to help illustrate Farago's observations of the artist's work. In his latest close reading A Messy Table, A Map of the World Farago examines a still life by the 17th Century Dutch artist Willem Claesz Heda. ...”
The amazing survival story of the last 3 single-family row houses on Central Park West
“If you find yourself facing the corner of Central Park West at 85th Street, you’ll see three stunning row houses, each with different Queen Anne-style touches. They’re charming, confection-like holdouts from the Gilded Age, dwarfed (but not outshined) by their Art Deco apartment tower neighbor. But before 1930, these three beauties were part of a row of nine spanning the entire block. While their sister buildings met the wrecking ball, they managed to survive—and now are thought to be the last remaining single-family row houses on all of Central Park West. ...”
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