“On 24 February 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Navy attacked Snake Island, a Ukrainian island in the Black Sea, and captured it along with its entire garrison. The attack was widely publicized when an audio clip of Russian cruiser Moskva hailing the island's garrison over the radio demanding their surrender and being told ‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself‘ ... in response went viral, along with initial inaccurate reports of the garrison's deaths. ... Following its capture Ukraine launched a campaign to retake the island, deploying anti-ship missiles to force Russian naval forces to withdraw from the area around the island while continued air, artillery, and missile strikes made the Russian position on the island untenable. This caused Russia to withdraw from the island on 30 June 2022. ...”
At the Existentialist Café – Sarah Bakewell
“Three young and brilliant philosophers — the good-hearted Jean-Paul Sartre, the elegant Simone de Beauvoir, and the debonair Raymond Aron — sat in a bar on Paris’s rue du Montparnasse sometime around 1932. As they sipped apricot cocktails, they discussed how philosophy could be about everyday things, like apricot cocktails. Galvanized by the tipsy banter, Sartre had an epiphany: ‘Finally there is philosophy.’ So recounts Sarah Bakewell in her new book, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails, throwing her reader into a world of dazzlingly brilliant and revolutionary 20th-century philosophers, including the aforementioned threesome, as well as Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Karl Jaspers, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. ...”
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Orbital Patterns Live
"The YouTube channel of Orbital Patterns is always worth returning to. Over a year has passed since the Michigan-based musician’s The Lonely Orbit album, and in advance of news of a follow-up, there’s a steady stream of live ambient jams to fill the void. The latest is trademark Orbital Patterns: glitchy atmospherics, shimmery foundational sonics, slushy melodicism. He mixes in vocalizing and field recordings with a sublime sense of balance. The music is at once oceanic in its swelling, and wondrously detailed in its production. This is the latest video I’ve added to my ongoing YouTube playlist of fine live performance of ambient music. Video originally posted at youtube.com.”
TRUMP SOUGHT TO JOIN JAN. 6 MOB: Enraged, He Lunged for Limo Wheel to Go to Capitol
The Jan. 6 Committee Produces a Very Special Episode: “The Jan. 6 committee’s hearings have a lot in common with scripted TV mini-series: narrative, editing — even surprise reveals, as when the committee sprang a bonus episode, featuring Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, on a day’s notice. One thing the hearings do not have, however, is episode titles. But if they did, it would be hard to resist calling this jaw-dropping installment ‘The Beast.’ As White House watchers know, ‘The Beast’ is a nickname for the presidential vehicle. It also evokes the mayhem that Ms. Hutchinson described inside the vehicle as the attack began. ...”
War has been raging in Ukraine for 4 months. What comes next, and when will it end?
“Four months into the war in Ukraine, and three months after the Russians announced that they would focus their attacks on the eastern part of the country, the war has become a ferocious battle for the region known as the Donbas. And hopes for a swift victory — or even one that might come in the next several weeks — appear to have vanished for both sides. At various stages of the war, Grid has taken stock of where things stand on the battlefield, potential scenarios for the war’s end and the global impact of the conflict, beyond Ukraine and Russia themselves. ...”
Ukrainian servicemen fire toward Russian positions at a front line in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June 15.
The ultimate American movie road trip
"The myth of the American road is one of the oldest and most patriotic stories ever to be told in the United States, featuring lonely, wandering characters trying to find purpose in the wasteland of the desolate country. Wide, endless and sprawling, these American back roads and highways represent a poetic landscape rife for self-discovery, led by the inspiring muffled vibrations of the music of the liberating car stereo. Much like the classic American Western, the road movie relies on an exploratory narrative where characters explore their own frontiers whilst pushing the physical borders of discovery. ...”
At least 16 dead as Russian missile hits shopping centre in Ukraine
“A Russian missile hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, killing and injuring scores of people, the Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine’s president, Volodoymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 1,000 people were inside the building at the time of the strike. Images from the scene showed giant plumes of black smoke and flames, with emergency crews rushing in to search for victims and put out fires. ... Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors told the Guardian earlier that 14 bodies had been found in the ruins, and one person died from their wounds in hospital. At least 40 missing persons reports had been submitted by locals searching for loved ones who had gone missing in the building. ...”
Les Temps modernes
“Les Temps Modernes (Modern Times) is a French journal, founded by Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It first issue was published in October 1945. It was named after the 1936 film by Charlie Chaplin. Les Temps Modernes filled the void left by the disappearance of the most important pre-war literary magazine, La Nouvelle Revue Française (The New French Review), considered to be André Gide's magazine, which was shut down by the authorities after the liberation of France because of its collaboration with the occupation. ...”
Erik Satie: Things Seen to the Right and the Left, documentary (2015)
“Éric Alfred Leslie Satie; 17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, Surrealism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd. ... In addition to his body of music, Satie was ‘a thinker with a gift of eloquence’ who left a remarkable set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications, from the dadaist 391 to the American culture chronicle Vanity Fair. ...”
The fallout of Russia’s grain blockade
“The alarm on Ahmed Karim Khalife’s phone is set for 6am, so the 22-year-old budding architect can join the queue that starts forming early outside his neighbourhood bakery in Beirut. The shop opens at about 7:30am, and nowadays, often runs out of bread by 9am, said Khalife. ... Lebanon’s grinding economic crisis has driven inflation up over the past three years, and the giant explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020 destroyed the country’s biggest grain silos, hobbling its ability to store wheat. Now, Russia’s unrelenting blockade of the Black Sea amid the war in Ukraine – where Lebanon imports more than 60 percent of its wheat – is deepening the Middle Eastern nation’s food crisis, upending the lives of families like Khalife’s. ...”
Three holdout brownstones hiding in the Diamond District
“For a block devoted to the jewelry trade, 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues has business bustle and energy…but not much sparkle. Marked by two oversized diamond-shaped lights (below) and some colorful signage above some storefronts, the buildings lining the block dubbed the Diamond District seem drab—not unlike neighboring blocks with a similar mix of old brownstones and commercial loft buildings in the shadows of modern office towers. ...”
A Brief History of Women’s Eyebrows in Art
“Being a public persona on the internet means that my face is looked at almost constantly by strangers, leading to uninvited comments about one feature in particular: my eyebrows. ... Reactions range from applause to truly unhinged amounts of anger and disgust. I started wondering: Have people always been this weird about eyebrows? As the most easily mutable facial feature, women’s eyebrows have often been sites of intense scrutiny and have gone through seemingly endless, rapidly changing trend cycles around the world. ...”
Unknown artist, "Mummy portrait of a young woman named Eirene from Egypt” detail (c. 1st century BCE–1st century CE), encaustic on wood panel
Russian missiles hit residential buildings in Ukraine’s Kyiv
“Russian missiles have hit residential buildings in Kyiv, wounding five people and burying others under rubble, in the first such attack on the Ukrainian capital in nearly three weeks. A fire broke out in a nine-storey residential building that was partially damaged in the attack in the central Shevchenkivskiy district, the emergency services said on Sunday. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said several explosions were heard in the Shevchenkivsky district at approximately 6:30am (03:30 GMT) on Sunday. ... The Shevchenkivskiy historic district, one of Kyiv’s central neighbourhoods, is home to a cluster of universities, restaurants and art galleries. ...”
Missiles hit a residential building in the typically lively district
Jean Genet on the Hidden Heart of Jean Cocteau
“Greek [Grec]! The dry elegance of this word, its brevity, its rupture even, a little abrupt, are the qualities that can be readily applied to Jean Cocteau. The word is already a fastidious work of cutting: thus it designates the poet freed, cut loose from a substance whose chips he has made vanish. The poet—or his work, but even so, it is still he—remains a curious fragment, brief, hard, blazing, comically incomplete—like the word ‘Greek’—and one that contains the virtues that I want to enumerate. Luminosity above all. ...”
2017 August: Three Stones for Jean Genet told Patti Smith (2013), 2019 September: Jean Genet in Tangier – Mohamed Choukri, Paul Bowles (Translator), 2020 March: The Maids (1947)
Chicago, 1968
“Wishing for Wings” by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada in Catalonia, Spain
“Contemporary artist Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada recently worked on a new mural for the GarGar festival in Penelles near Lleida in Catalonia. For the last 2 years, the artist has focused on working on lines and movement, which allows him to play with various textures and techniques. This mural is another example of the unified aesthetic that the artist has developed in the last few years. Gerada’s murals now bridge together all of the artist’s directions, including his land-art works, sculptures and paintings. ...”
Coal Dust and Methane Below, Russian Bombs Above
“DOBROPILLIA, Ukraine — When Aleksander Maryinych enters a metal cage and descends into darkness with dozens of other miners for his six-hour shifts, the concussive thumps of an artillery war are replaced by the clatter of rail carts and the grind of machinery carving deep into the earth. Plumes of dust and smoke from Russian bombardment are exchanged for clouds of fine coal dust, seeping into the crevices of the miners’ skin and staining their eyebrows a signature black. ...”
Exiting an elevator at the end of a shift.
Finding Traces of Harriet Tubman on Maryland’s Eastern Shore
“Of the many feats Harriet Tubman accomplished, none awe me more as an historian than the estimated 13 trips she made to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Each time, she stole family and friends from enslavement much in the way Tubman first secreted herself away to freedom in 1849. Born on the Eastern Shore, Tubman grew into a fearless conductor along the perilous routes of the Underground Railroad, guiding enslaved people on journeys that extended hundreds of miles to the north, ending on the free soil of Pennsylvania, New York and Canada. ...”
2016 April: Tubman replacing Jackson on the $20, Hamilton spared, 2018 December: Songs of the Underground Railroad
No place better remembers the abolitionist Harriet Tubman than Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where she was born enslaved 200 years ago. Much of her story is told through its land.
Hot Tuna: Keep On Truckin' - 46th Street Rock Palace (3/22/73)
“Well now keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away
Keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away
Here you come mama big as sin, tell what you been doin' by the shape you're in
So keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away …”
2013 December: Hesitation Blues
SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V. WADE
“Tracking Which States Banned Abortion Today. Abortion is now banned in at least five states, with trigger laws in eight more states set to take effect in the coming days. Laws in four states — Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and South Dakota — went into effect on Friday in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Oklahoma passed a law in May prohibiting nearly all abortions. Expected legal status of abortion without Roe. The New York Times is tracking abortion laws in each state following the court’s decision. The states fall into five categories: those where abortion is now or likely to be prohibited; those where it is likely to be prohibited or restricted; those where the status of abortion restrictions is uncertain; those where abortion is expected to remain legal; and those where the procedure will remain legal and where access is being expanded. More information on each state is below. ...”
Kaliningrad row: Lithuania accuses Russia of lying about rail 'blockade'
“Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has said Russian claims of a rail blockade of its territorial outpost in Kaliningrad are a lie. Kaliningrad is on the Baltic Sea and uses a rail link to Russia via Lithuania for passengers and freight. When Lithuania banned the transit of steel and other ferrous metals under EU sanctions last Saturday, Russia threatened to respond. The Kremlin condemned the sanctions as illegal and unacceptable. Ms Simonyte explained that passengers were still able to travel freely across Lithuanian territory from Russia to Kaliningrad and only about 1% of Russian freight was affected. ...”
Diplomats say no goods trains have yet been barred from crossing Lithuania
Amirtha Kidambi & Luke Stewart – Zenith/Nadir (2022)
“Two of experimental music’s busiest and most creative voices join together on this set of vocal and bass duets. Stewart employs feedback, loops, and effects to generate discordant and boiling noise structures. His instrument’s natural sounds are often hidden to the point of indiscernibility behind these rumbling constructs. Kidambi also makes generous use of effects and processing, with her vocabulary stretching the notion of ‘singing’ to haunting and plaintive wails, chant, and scat. Her wordless vocalizations are largely obscured. But as Zenith/Nadir progresses, the instrumentation and vocals become more clearly identifiable. ...”
The Ukraine War in data: 16,000 alleged war crimes, and counting
“The country of Ukraine is a war zone. It’s also a humanitarian crisis, a refugee crisis, and the origin point for a food production and commerce crisis impacting far-flung corners of the globe. But as we were reminded this week, the territory of Ukraine is also a crime scene. This week, the official in charge of war crimes investigations for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Grid that more than 16,000 such cases are now under review. These range from allegations against individual soldiers to Russian commanders in Bucha and Mariupol, from the widespread use of cluster munitions to the charge that the invasion itself is a war crime — and thus Russian President Vladimir Putin should be charged with crimes against humanity. ...”
An underground natural gas storage facility in Rehden, Germany.
Segregation, Poverty and Policing: A Shared History
“... What has changed in 56 years? As I speak, we are just a week away from the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 was the brutal exercise of the forceful continuance of segregation — the roots of which run back more than a century in time. We should not look at the murder of Mr. Floyd — as horrific as it was — as the acts by a lone-wolf troubled officer. ... These experiences are not unique. Scholars and writers, like James Baldwin, identified the roots of the modern criminal justice system in the United States as linked to the maintenance of its racialized social order brought about by segregation. ...”
An Introduction to Stanislaw Lem, the Great Polish Sci-Fi Writer, by Jonathan Lethem
“Who was Stanislaw Lem? The Polish science fiction writer, novelist, essayist, and polymath may best be known for his 1961 novel Solaris (adapted for the screen by Andrei Tarkosvky in 1972 and again by Steven Soderbergh in 2014). Lem’s science fiction appealed broadly outside of SF fandom, attracting the likes of John Updike, who called his stories ‘marvelous’ and Lem a poet of ‘scientific terminology’ for readers ‘whose hearts beat faster when the Scientific American arrives each month.’ ...”
2011 June: Stanisław Lem, 2017 March: Pilot Pirx (1979-1982), 2017 April: The Star Diaries (1971), 2018 February: His Master's Voice (1968), 2021 December: A Century in Stanislaw Lem’s Cosmos
Will the war with Russia rein in Ukraine’s oligarchs?
“Kyiv, Ukraine – The Azovstal steelworks has become an almost mythical symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s aggression. Bird’s-eye view footage from drones, along with photos by Azov Regiment soldiers holed up in the industrial complex in the southern city of Mariupol for 82 days, showed how Russian bombers, multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery methodically and mercifully annihilated Azovstal. The plant occupied 11 square kilometres (four square miles), provided tens of thousands of jobs, churned out two-fifths of Ukraine’s steel and had its own port on the Sea of Azov to ship metal slabs worldwide.The odorous smog from Azovstal and its smaller sibling, the Ilich steel plant, blanketed the city of 480,000 people for decades.In the 1930s, Moscow boosted steel production in Ukraine – and made its steelworkers and coal miners the poster boys of the Communist way of life. ...”
Paul Bowles: Time Traveling with Musical Recordings from Mid-20th-Century Morocco
“If you’re unfamiliar with Paul Bowles and hoping to get a primer, this article will only lead you further astray. It won’t help you understand his writing style, composing quirks, or cultural significance. Instead, it’s an appeal for the value of winding, irregular melodies and enigmatic rhythms. It’s a defense of the love of dust. And also a strong recommendation that you track down this collection of music and figure out how to make it work for you. Sometimes the best way into something completely unfamiliar and complex is to try to get a picture of how it operates on a purely mechanical level. ...”
2007 November: The Authorized Paul Bowles Web Site, 2010 February: Paul Bowles (1910-1999), 2011: January: Halfmoon (1996), 2013 July: Tellus #23 - The Voices of Paul Bowles, 2014 January: Let It Come Down: the Life of Paul Bowles (1998), 2014 March: The Sheltering Sky (1949), 2015 January: Things Gone & Things Still Here, 2015 October: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles – a cautionary tale for tourists, 2015 November: The Rolling Stone Interview (May 23, 1974), 2016 June: Let It Come Down (1952), 2016 December: Paul Bowles & the Music of Morocco, 2017 July: Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles, 2018 July: The Sheltering Sound, 2019 September: Jane Bowles, 2019 December: So Why Did I Defend Paul Bowles?, 2020 June: A Distant Episode (1947), 2020 September: Paul Bowles in Exile - Jay McInerney, 2021 January: Here to Learn: Remembering Paul Bowles
Hand-drawn map by Paul Bowles, showing his itinerary through Morocco in 1959
5 wildly different sign styles outside New York’s subway entrances
“The New York City subway system has 472 stations, according to the MTA. Some of these stations made up the original IRT line that debuted in October 1904; others opened in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and beyond (looking at you, Second Avenue Q train). The nice thing about a subway system constructed in different decades is that there's no one uniform subway sign above ground outside station entrances. The wide range of sign styles reflects the era the station opened and/or the feel of the surrounding neighborhood. Each has a different magic. ...”
A Shopping Trip for Apples, Over the Last Bridge in Lysychansk
“LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine — The woman’s mission was simple: she was going shopping, and she would not be deterred. Svitlana Zhyvaga just needed to cross a bridge. But this was not just any bridge. The residents who lived nearby said it was mined. Ukrainian soldiers warned others that the bridge had been shelled and would likely be shelled again. But last Friday morning Ms. Zhyvaga, 54, woke up just before sunrise, climbed a ladder and walked across what is currently one of the most dangerous river crossings in the world. ... The bridge spans a roughly 250-foot-wide portion of the Siversky Donets River, which separates the eastern Ukrainian cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. It would be completely impassable if not for several ladders connecting a collapsed section to the road above. ...”
Svitlana Zhyvaga, 54, who lives in Lysychansk, crossing one of the destroyed bridges still being used by civilians to go back and forth from Lysychansk to Sievierodonetsk, on Friday.
Altre Follie 1500-1750 - Jordi Savall, Hesperian XXL (2005)
“For listeners unconverted by the art of Jordi Savall, the enthusiasm with which his fervent fans have greeted his successive recordings has always seemed, to say the least, uncritical. After all, it seemed highly implausible that Savall's records could have steadily gotten better through his long career. ... The excellence of the music on the program is undeniable. Each Follie setting from the anonymous Peruvian composer's rhythmically infectious Folias criollas to the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi's violently virtuosic La Follia Sonata is more impressive than the last, their totality forming an organic unity in which the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. The beauty of the performances is incontestable. ...”
2020 February: Hespèrion XXI – Orient - Occident (2006), 2021 April: Marin Marais: Pieces for Viol from the Five Books (2006)
How to Make the Perfect Cup of Italian Coffee
“A hissing, rattling, and gurgling on my stovetop penetrates the still air in my kitchen. The reassuring sound — which physicists have dubbed the Strombolian phase of brewing — is gently comforting but also gets my bones moving each morning. Even more comforting and bone-activating are the steamy caffeinated vapors of roasted beans, which I deeply inhale while getting ready to start my day. But the real business of waking up begins when I pour the hot, brown elixir into a cup, usually with a splash of cream to mellow it out. Only then does the day really begin. ...”
2010 September: Espresso, 2013 April: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World, 2013 May: Coffeehouse, 2015 June: Barista, 2015 August: Coffee Connections at Peddler in SoHo, 2015 November: The Case for Bad Coffee, 2016 January: 101 Places to Find Great Coffee in New York (2014), 2017 June: How Cold Brew Changed the Coffee Business, 2017 September: Our 7 Favorite Literary Coffee Shops, 2017 October: Clever Literary Coffee Poster, 2017 October: Coffee as Existential Statement: A Crisis in Every Cup on Valencia Street, 2018 February: The Trencherman: A Tale of Two Coffee Shops, 2020 April: Unfair trade, April 2020: A (Very) Brief History of NYC Espresso, 2020 May: The Islamic History of Coffee, 2021 January: The Life Cycle of a Cup of Coffee: The Journey from Coffee Bean, to Coffee Cup, 2021 June: Philosophers Drinking Coffee: The Excessive Habits of Kant, Voltaire & Kierkegaard, 2021 July: The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?, August 2021: The Birth of Espresso: How the Coffee Shots The Fuel Our Modern Life Were Invented, 2021 October: Brew: A Brief History of Coffee, 2021 November: Coffee and Climate Have a Complicated Relationship, 2022 January: The Bialetti Moka Express: The History of Italy’s Iconic Coffee Maker, and How to Use It the Right Way, 2022 April: All Espresso Drinks Explained: Cappuccino, Latte, Macchiato & Beyond
Why grain can’t get out of Ukraine
“Approximately 20 million tons of grain sit in storage in Ukraine, with few ways out of the country. It is a slow-moving crisis that is choking Ukraine off from the global economy, and cutting the rest of the world off from Ukraine’s critical supply of grains. Ukraine provides about 10 percent of the global share of wheat exports, and almost half of the world’s sunflower oil. Alongside Russia, Ukraine makes this region one of the world’s ‘breadbaskets.’ But Moscow’s war in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia have squeezed agricultural exports from the entire Black Sea region. These products can be replaced on the global market, but at a cost. Food is harder to afford for poor countries, and for poor people in rich countries. It could deepen a worldwide hunger crisis....”
A Ukrainian serviceman attends a wheat field on a front line near the city of Soledar in the Donetsk region on June 10.
Travel New York in the footsteps of 'The Warriors'
“From Coney Island to the Bronx, The Warriors is a film that takes the viewer in and around the depths of New York City. Although most New York City-based films centre Manhattan in their stories, The Warriors are a gang with Coney Island on their minds, and the story sets out with the crew being framed for murder in the north end of the Bronx. Those unfamiliar with the layout of New York might need a bit of a recap, but really, the system is actually simpler and more organised than you might expect. ...”
2015 September: Cast of 'The Warriors' to Reunite in Coney Island One Last Time, 2020 October: The Real Deal - The Warriors (1979)
The Nuclear Observatory of Mr Nanof - Piero Milesi (1986)
“... Milanese composer Piero Milesi was one of the most prominent Italian artists in the field of electronic minimalism. After having studied cello, he graduated with a degree in experimental and electronic music composition from the Milan conservatory. He then joined the Gruppo Folk Internazionale entourage and got a degree in architecture with a thesis on the relationship between space and sound. ... Working in a melodic vein, The Nuclear Observatory Of Mr. Nanof veers from ethereal solo keyboard electronics to scores for lyricon and small chamber ensemble. Lovely, yet also rich musically. ...”
YouTube: The Nuclear Observatory Of Mr. Nanof 17 videos
