By Kenneth Goldsmith: “It's amazing to me that UbuWeb, after fifteen years, is still going. Run with no money and put together pretty much without permission, Ubu has succeeded by breaking all the rules, by going about things the wrong way. UbuWeb can be construed as the Robin Hood of the avant-garde, but instead of taking from one and giving to the other, we feel that in the end, we're giving to all. UbuWeb is as much about the legal and social ramifications of its self-created distribution and archiving system as it is about the content hosted on the site. In a sense, the content takes care of itself; but keeping it up there has proved to be a trickier proposition. ...”
Eddie Palmieri With Harlem River Drive – Recorded Live At Sing Sing (1972)
“For a time in the late 1960s and early '70s, Latin music legend Eddie Palmieri's output had a political edge to it. This was clearly showcased on 'Recorded Live At Sing Sing', which includes many songs about economic and racial injustice. Backed by his Harlem River Drive ensemble, this performance at the upstate New York prison also reveals the culmination of Palmieri's experiments in funk, jazz and fusion. The combination of relentless ethnic grooves and hard-hitting funk workouts is truly impressive. Here it is the classic record Eddie Palmieri did with his Harlem River Drive band recorded live at the Sing Sing Prison in 1972. ...”
2014 March: Harlem River Drive - Harlem River Drive (1971), 2017 December: Nu Yorica: Culture Clash In New York City - Experiments in Latin Music 1970-77, 2018 December: Latin Underground Revolution: Swinging Boogaloo, Guaguanco, Salsa & Latin Funk from New York City 1967-1978, 2017 June: Eddie Palmieri - Unfinished Masterpiece (1976), 2018 July: The Soul Of Spanish Harlem / El Barrio: Sounds from the Spanish Harlem Streets, 2022 January: East Harlem/Spanish Harlem/El Barrio
Battered by Russian Shells, a Monastery Remains Loyal to Moscow
“SVIATOHIRSK, Ukraine — Of the hundreds of battle sites all across Ukraine, the Sviatohirsk Monastery of the Caves surely ranks among the most incongruous.The sprawling complex of onion-domed churches built into a high bank of the Siversky Donets River is considered one of the five holiest sites in the Russian Orthodox Church. Yet it is directly in the line of fire of the Russian Army in its advance in eastern Ukraine.Russian shells aimed at Ukrainian troop positions regularly go astray and strike the monastery, with terrifying shrieks and metallic booms that echo through the churchyards. They tear through building walls and leave gaping holes in the grounds; at least four monks, priests or nuns have been killed, Ukrainian police say. ...”
A monk in the doorway of a building heavily damaged by Russian artillery at the Sviatohirsk monastery complex on Friday.
The Story Behind The Song: New Order’s pioneering ‘Temptation’
“Few songs capture the essence of New Order like their groove-laden and joyous single ‘Temptation’. Written in the wake of Ian Curtis’ tragic death, this 1982 offering stands in stark contrast to the sepia-tinged tones of their previous singles ‘In A Lonely Place’ and ‘Ceremony’, both of which carry the imprint of that dark period. ... ‘Temptation’ wouldn’t have existed without two important influences: Martin Hannett and New York club culture. Hannett had shown New Order how to use studio technology, allowing them to craft their increasingly synth-dominated songs without the need for a producer. This new knowledge coincided with a trip to America in 1981, during which the band were introduced to the synthetic beats of Italian disco pioneers like Giorgio Moroder. ...”
2009 February: New Order, 2011 May: Movement, 2011 October: Low-Life, 2011 December: Brotherhood, 2012 May: Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division, 2012 September: Power, Corruption & Lies (1983), 2015 June: Believe In A Land Of Love: New Order's Low-Life 30 Years On, 2015 November: True Faith (1987), 2016 March: New Order, olden style: A unique take on Blue Monday, 2020 August: The Perfect Kiss (1985), Bizarre Love Triangle (1986), Blue Monday (1983), Confusion (1983)
It’s Happening at the Bushwick Collective: Mr. June, Ligama, Mr. Blob, Cody James, Ashley Hodder, 1.4.4.0 and More
“As the Bushwick Collective readies for its 11th Annual Block Party, a first-rate array of artists from near and far have been busy at work around Troutman and St Nicholas Avenues and its surrounding blocks. Pictured above is the Dutch artist David Louf aka Mr. June working on a small section of his new huge, hugely impressive mural. Several more images of newly-fashioned murals captured in the rain yesterday evening follow. ...”
On the Dangers of Greatness: A Conversation with Svetlana Alexievich
“An escape from history seems impossible for 2015 Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich. After chronicling the Soviet Union through her ‘documentary novels,’ her own genre often mistaken for oral history, since 1985, she had begun working on two new books, one on love and another on aging and death. She saw these topics as an opportunity for something different, untethered to the history of what she calls the ‘Red Person’ in the former Soviet Union. But following the explosive 2019 revolution in Belarus, her subsequent flight into exile (her second in a little more than two decades) in which she had to abandon her manuscripts, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, she realized that her project is not yet over. ...”
A Russian gold processing plant in the desert outside al-Ibediyya, 200 miles north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
LAFMS: The Lowest Form Of Music (1996)
“... Long out of print huge box, The Los Angeles Free Music Society was a complete screwball fringe music collective that peaked in the true heart of darkness -- America in the mid 70s. They self-released LPs, 7"s and cassettes in the dawn before real independent distribution and the myth that surrounds those sacred pressings has in recent years become feverish. Mixing pure sonic weirdness, musique concrete, free improv blare, fringe-noise-nonsense and much more, the musicians involved with LAFMS created a unique bounty of individualistic art. This unbelievable box of 10 CDs, which took a number of years to finally assemble, creates an awesome overview of this inspired, largely ignored scene. Features music by Le Forte Four, The Doo Dooettes, Airway, Tom Recchion, Rick Potts, Dennis Duck, Fredrik Nilsen, Joe Potts, Chip Chapman, Monique et Aviv, John Duncan and CV Massage, and more. ...”
Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics
“Without revolutionary change, humanity confronts a dystopian future of global heating, epidemics, and mass extinction. Yet, the mainstream ‘solutions’ on offer are either too modest or too risky, such as toothless cap-and-trade programmes, dangerous geoengineering schemes, lab-grown meat, luxury electric cars, and wildlife conservation bankrolled by billionaires. ... The mainstream discussion on the environmental crisis is predicated on the belief that a few painless reforms would allow business as usual in our capitalism society to continue. It can’t. Half-Earth Socialism criticizes such tepid solutions and offers instead a countervailing vision for the future....”
A Farmer Holds On, a Fraying Lifeline for a Besieged Corner of Ukraine
“SIVERSK DISTRICT, Ukraine — One of the few civilians still driving on a road leading toward the battle front, Oleksandr Chaplik skidded to a stop and leaned out the car window to swap information with a villager. He was taking supplies back to his village, one of a handful still in Ukrainian hands that lie in the path of the Russian advance. ‘We are surrounded on all sides,’ said Mr. Chaplik, 55, a dairy and livestock farmer. ‘It is the second month without light, without water, without gas, without communication, without the internet, without news. Basically, horror.’ ...”
“My nerves are cracking,” said Oleksandr Chaplik, a farmer who has kept his corner of Ukraine linked to the outside world.
Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938)
“Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was a German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic based on analyses of intentionality. In his mature work, he sought to develop a systematic foundational science based on the so-called phenomenological reduction. Arguing that transcendental consciousness sets the limits of all possible knowledge, Husserl redefined phenomenology as a transcendental-idealist philosophy. Husserl's thought profoundly influenced 20th-century philosophy, and he remains a notable figure in contemporary philosophy and beyond. ...”
Why Boxwood, a Perennial Favorite, Needs a New Approach
“It’s time for boxwood-loving gardeners to learn the abbreviation B.M.P. — best management practices — and get with the program. Boxwood needs our informed attention and care to do its job as the indispensable landscape element it has become since the first Buxus were planted in the United States in the mid-17th century. It is hard to think of another plant that lends such year-round structure to a design as boxwood, defining spaces with its evergreen presence, while holding little interest for hungry deer — another big plus. ...”
Boxwood flanks an entrance at Jardin de Buis, or garden of boxwood, in Pottersville, N.J. Although the plants are pruned less severely to help reduce disease pressure from boxwood blight, they still offer evergreen formality.
100 days in, Russia’s war is now a brutal offensive in eastern Ukraine
“One hundred days into the war in Ukraine, Russia has turned its siege tactics on Sievierodonetsk, the last major city in Luhansk still outside its control. Ukraine is still gripping the city, as Russia seeks to take it by leveling it to nothing. Almost 90 percent of Sievierodonetsk’s buildings, and all of its critical infrastructure, have been destroyed, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A few thousand people remain in the city, without access to food, water, electricity, medicine. ... Sievierodonetsk represents the current phase of Russia’s war in Ukraine — a grinding, brutal, and unforgiving offensive in the Luhansk and Donestk oblasts (or administrative regions) where Russia seeks to take towns and territory, inch by inch, often relying on indiscriminate shelling and bombing that leaves the region a wasteland. There is no clear end to this campaign. ...”
Children walk among buildings destroyed during fighting in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine on May 25.
Strut reissues Sun Ra Arkestra’s 1983 Egyptian sessions with Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band
“London’s Strut Records concludes it’s exploration into Sun Ra Arkestra’s historic recordings in Egypt with a reissue of the 1983 collaborative album with great Egyptian percussionist and drummer Salah Ragab and his large ensemble, The Cairo Jazz Band. The incredible five-track recording came together while the Arkestra when the band returned for their second stint of performances in Egypt in 1983. ...”
Georges Perec - Récits d'Ellis Island, Part 1: Traces, Part 2: Mémoires (1978-1980)
“In 1978, Robert Bober and Georges Perec set out to in the search of traces of Ellis Island, that is, as Georges Perec put it, of ‘the very site of exile, the place of the absence of place, the non-place, the nowhere.’ They traveled to New York to film what was left of this ‘Golden Gate’, nicknamed ‘the Island of Tears’ by the immigrants. One of the objectives of the filmmaker and the writer was to gather testimonies of survivors who, as children, passed through Ellis Island. ... As a result, Récits d'Ellis Island are more than a document; they are also a profound reflection on exile, wandering, and hope, as well as on the symbolic power of places of memory, contrasted with the ineffectiveness of isolated objects. ...”
U.S. Technology, a Longtime Tool for Russia, Becomes a Vulnerability
“WASHINGTON — With magnifying glasses, screwdrivers and a delicate touch from a soldering gun, two men from an investigative group that tracks weapons pried open Russian munitions and equipment that had been captured across Ukraine. Over a week’s visit to Ukraine last month, the investigators pulled apart every piece of advanced Russian hardware they could get their hands on, such as small laser range finders and guidance sections of cruise missiles. The researchers, who were invited by the Ukrainian security service to independently analyze advanced Russian gear, found that almost all of it included parts from companies based in the United States and the European Union: microchips, circuit boards, engines, antenna and other equipment. ...”
In April, Russian missiles struck a storage facility in Odesa, Ukraine, that housed petroleum products.
For Ukraine the World Cup looked unthinkable. Now they’re 1 game away after spirited win over Scotland
“GLASGOW, Scotland — Ukraine are 90 minutes away from the World Cup. For a country that is fighting for its very existence following Russia’s invasion in February, to even think about the insignificance of qualifying for a football tournament is difficult to comprehend, but Ukraine’s 3-1 win against Scotland in their World Cup play-off semifinal on Wednesday sent a message to the world that theirs is a country of incredible spirit and resolve. …”
Anthology Of Post Industrial And Experimental Music From Italy
“The latest entry in the Unexplained Sounds Group sound mapping project is a compilation of outside music from Italy. While often synth-driven and a cultural cousin of sorts to Kosmiche and dark ambient, Italy’s post-industrial scene is a more diverse and unique animal. These pieces are influenced less by western rock music and are instead reflective of modern innovations in electronics, noise sculpting, musique concrete, and cinematic composition. As such, many of these recordings include sound collages of samples, environmental noises, voices, and processed rhythms, as well as more traditional instrumentation....”
Will more countries want nuclear weapons after the war in Ukraine?
“On a certain level, many of today’s most pressing U.S. national security problems are really just variations of one problem: how to manage the risk of armed conflict in a world with nuclear weapons. The questions haunts American foreign policy on multiple fronts. In Ukraine, the key question the U.S. and its allies are facing is how much military support they can provide without risking an all-out NATO-Russia war that could end civilization as we know it. President Joe Biden’s trip to Asia last week was interrupted by multiple missile tests from nuclear-armed North Korea and overshadowed by his vow to defend Taiwan with military force if it were attacked by China, a scenario many analysts have projected could easily go nuclear. ...”
How Did Cartographers Create World Maps before Airplanes and Satellites? An Introduction
“Regular readers of Open Culture know a thing or two about maps if they’ve paid attention to our posts on the history of cartography, the evolution of world maps (and why they are all wrong), and the many digital collections of historical maps from all over the world. What does the seven and a half-minute video above bring to this compendium of online cartographic knowledge? A very quick survey of world map history, for one thing, with stops at many of the major historical intersections from Greek antiquity to the creation of the Catalan Atlas, an astonishing mapmaking achievement from 1375. ...”
On-U Sound Present Reggae Archive Volume 1, Volume 2
“Original reggae recordings from 1977 - 1981 including tracks from the pre-On-U Sound label, Hitrun. Featuring Creation Rebel, Carol Kalphat, Clint Eastwood, Doctor Pablo, Bim Sherman, Errol Holt & Prince Far I. ... Originally released in 1994, a very popular compilation featuring some of the most crucial reggae cuts in the On-U catalogue. Deadly Headly, Singers & Players, Bim Sherman and Lol Coxhill. ...”
Russia cuts gas supplies to Netherlands and firms in Denmark and Germany
“Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe, after state energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification of the economic battle on Tuesday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine follows the EU’s overnight decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports as part of its financial sanctions against the Kremlin. EU leaders said the ban would immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports, rising to 90% by the end of the year. ...”
Bloodied military stretchers outside a hospital in Bakhmut, in the Donbas region.
Albert Camus: The philosopher who resisted despair
“In March 1946, the French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus sailed across the Atlantic to deliver a speech at Columbia University. It was his first and only trip to America. Camus had achieved worldwide fame with the publication of his 1942 novel, The Stranger, and his stature as an artist and a member of the French resistance had grown considerably over the course of the war. The Nazis had been defeated the year before and there was a belief that some kind of final victory over fascism had been achieved. But in his address, Camus did not oblige that sentiment. The philosopher, who was expected to talk about French theater and philosophy, lingered on the pathologies that produced Nazism. ...”
2011 October: Albert Camus on Nihilism, 2014 November: Albert Camus: Soccer Goalie, 2015 May: LISTEN: New Cave And Ellis Soundtrack, 2016 April: Anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche, 2016 April: Algerian Chronicles (2013), 2017 November: The Stranger (1942), 2018 July: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1960), 2019 September: Les Pieds-Noirs: Algeria’s Forgotten Footballers, 2020 March: The Plague (1947), 2020 September: An Animated Introduction to Albert Camus’ Existentialism, a Philosophy Making a Comeback in Our Dysfunctional Times, 2021 October: Albert Camus on the Responsibility of the Artist: To “Create Dangerously” (1957)
John Peel's family are selling some of his rarest records
“A set of rare records owned by the legendary DJ and champion of new music, John Peel, are to be sold at an auction in London in June. Peel passed away in 2004, but before his death, he had managed to amass a collection of 26,000 LPs, 40,000 7″ singles and countless CDs. Now, it has been announced that a selection of this extensive collection, including pieces of other memorabilia, will be put up for auction at Bonham’s in Knightsbridge on June 14th. ...”
Russian, Ukrainian troops fight block by block in key city
“KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Russian troops pushed farther into a key eastern Ukrainian city and fought street by street with Kyiv’s forces Monday in a battle the mayor said has left the city “completely ruined” and driven tens of thousands from their homes. Military analysts painted the battle as part of a race against time for the Kremlin, which they said wants to complete its capture of the industrial Donbas region before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. Weapons from the West have already helped Kyiv’s forces thwart a Russian advance on the capital in the early weeks of the war. ...”
Piles of rubble are seen next to a heavily damaged apartment building on May 28 in Chernihiv, Ukraine.
The Men Lost to 20 Bruckner Boulevard
“Two laborers board an elevator at the top of a five-story building under renovation in the Bronx. They wear construction helmets, reflective vests and face masks, none of which will do them any good. The older man, a supervisor, rarely talks about anything beyond what needs to be done at this work site at 20 Bruckner Boulevard. But he and his younger co-worker have become friends through a morning ritual: One buys the coffee and the other, the doughnuts. ... The floor seems to vanish beneath the men’s work boots. They scream as they plummet. A crash. Then stillness, save for clouds of disturbed dust. ...”
Lauro Martínez at the tomb of his son, Marco, who at 18 emigrated from Ecuador and was soon working in construction in New York City.
A People’s History of Baseball
“Seventy-five years ago this spring, Brooklyn Dodgers second baseman Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. Most baseball fans probably know the story, which has been told numerous times in books and film. But do they know about Robinson’s civil rights activism off the field? How about the attempts to integrate prior to Robinson or the many struggles against labor exploitation before free agency was finally established in the 1970s? ... Jacobin contributor Michael Arria spoke to Peter Dreier about the books and how America’s pastime has been shaped by rebels and radicals. ...”
2017 April: Baseball color line, 2017 May: Racist taunts stir up ancient pains in Boston
Curt Flood of the Saint Louis Cardinals, May 1966. Flood challenged Major League Baseball’s “reserve clause” barring players from changing teams.
For Russian-Speaking Ukrainians, Language Clubs Offer Way to Defy Invaders
“LVIV, Ukraine — The teacher sounded her words slowly, careful to show which syllable to stress: Eyebrow. Cheekbones. Hair. The students, arranged in a semicircle around her, parroted them back. But they were not there to learn a foreign tongue: Aged 11 to 70, they were Ukrainians, in Ukraine, trying to master the official language of their own country. Since Russia’s invasion, a number of language clubs have opened in cities in western Ukraine. Teachers and volunteers are reaching out to millions of displaced people who have fled to the relative safety of western cities like Lviv from the Russian-speaking east — encouraging them to practice and embrace Ukrainian as the language of their daily lives. ...”
A Yamova language class in progress at a library in Lviv on May 19.
Paris Dispatch 2 : C215 and the Guys on the Street
“We return today to the streets of Paris for Dispatch 2 with Norwegian photographer Tor Staale Moen, who tells us that the streets are alive with stencils and aerosol paintings as much as ever. Our first Paris report a couple of days ago focused on the presentation of the female form and energy by street artist in this city. Today, it’s time for the guys. Here we begin with one of the country’s most well-known stencil masters, C215. His portraits of unknown street dwellers, as well as important historical figures, have graced walls, mailboxes… even national postal stamps. ...”
13bis
Mario Batkovic - Introspection (2021)
“Mario Batkovic plays the accordion. Sounds straightforward enough. Except he plays the accordion in the manner of Steve Reich or Terry Riley if they were entranced by the carnivalesque dancing of a youthful Alejandro Jodorowsky, their nimble fingers reenacting the exuberant choreography upon compressed keys. And Batkovic’s fingers work overtime, like Lubomyr Melnyk transported to a squeezebox. ... Instead, we’re treated to mantle-deep bellows, glistening twinkles, and squelchy, fuzz-caked riffage akin to the guitar work of Muse but with ideas beyond basic pageantry. This is music for classicists. ...”
Ukraine pleads for weapons as Russian onslaught threatens to turn the tide
“Ukraine is in a race against time to save the eastern Donbas region as relentless Russian artillery and air strikes threaten to turn the tide of the war, and support for Kyiv’s continued defiance among some west European allies appears to be slipping. Ukrainian officials say they urgently need advanced US-made mobile multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) to halt Russian advances in Luhansk and Donetsk. The rockets would be capable of striking Russian firing positions, military bases, air strips and supply lines at a range of up to 300km (185 miles). ...”
Valentyn, 6, poses in the trench that he and his friend Andrii have dug at their makeshift checkpoint next to a school crossing on Friday in Stoyanka, Ukraine.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty (14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest and he wrote on perception, art, politics, religion, biology, psychology, psychoanalysis, language, nature, and history. He was the lead editor of Les Temps modernes, the leftist magazine he established with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in 1945. At the core of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy is a sustained argument for the foundational role that perception plays in the human experience of the world. ...”
“Jamaica Has A Magic To It”: An Interview With Chris Blackwell
“In a landscape where there were scant possibilities for subcultures to coalesce, long before it was possible to say you were a ‘gamer’, that you followed a particular influencer, or that you only wore a certain brand of trainers, music was everything. From the late 60s through to the 1980s, better than any other label, Island records plotted all the available coordinates. In a music industry temporarily torn asunder by The Beatles, Chris Blackwell, the label’s effortlessly charismatic founder, steered the imprint to unimaginable pre-eminence. Island, alongside Virgin, Chrysalis and A&M, was the sexiest of a new breed of massive independent labels. It represented a time when it was possible to be both revolutionary in intent and reach a huge global audience. ...”
How Does It End? Fissures Emerge Over What Constitutes Victory in Ukraine
“WASHINGTON — Three months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, America and its allies are quietly debating the inevitable question: How does this end? ... In the past few days alone there has been an Italian proposal for a cease-fire, a vow from Ukraine’s leadership to push Russia back to the borders that existed before the invasion was launched on Feb. 24, and renewed discussion by administration officials about a ‘strategic defeat’ for President Vladimir V. Putin — one that would assure that he is incapable of mounting a similar attack again. ...”
Ukrainian flags fly above graves at the military cemetery in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
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