Arab Coffeehouse - Henri Matisse (1912–1913)

"Arab Coffeehouse (French name: Le café Maure), is an oil-on-canvas painting by French visual artist Henri Matisse. Produced in 1913, Arab Coffeehouse was part of a series of goldfish paintings that Matisse produced in the 1910s and 1920s. In 1912, Matisse visited Tangier, Morocco, where he noted how the locals would be fascinated for hours by goldfish swimming in bowls. Matisse was noted to admire the lifestyle of the Moroccans. Like other 20th-century cosmopolitan Parisian artists, Matisse ‘valued Islamic art for its ornamental exuberance and anti-illusionistic qualities’. ...”

Wikipedia

2012 May: Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia, 2015 April: Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse: The Art of the Flower, 2016 April: Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, 2017 May: Matisse in the Studio, 2018 August: The apartment rooftop that hosted Henri Matisse, 2022 May: Matisse: The Red Studio

​In a stretch of southern Ukraine, the Russians have left, but their bombs remain.

"KHERSON REGION, Ukraine — The magnetic squeal of the metal detector signals that the team of Ukrainian soldiers is ready to sweep the grounds of a school that Russian forces had used as a fighting position. The roof of the school was blown off during fighting months ago, and the remains of three charred Russian military vehicles were still scattered around the building. The grounds were littered with shell craters and scraps of blasted metal pieces. The Ukrainian military’s southern command said on Monday that since it launched its southern counteroffensive at the end of August, its forces have retaken 90 towns and villages where more than 12,000 people were still living. ...”

NY Times

BBC: Russia accused of sabotaging Ukraine water pipe to Mykolaiv

Aljazeera: US lawmakers withdraw letter calling for Ukraine war diplomacy (Video)

NBC News: What is a 'dirty bomb' and what damage can it cause? (Video)

Police officers secure the scene in a "hazardous material hot area" after the explosion of a "dirty bomb" during a simulated attack at a dock at the Port of Los Angeles in 2004.

Son cubano

"Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres, derived from the Spanish guitar. On the other hand, its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section (bongo, maracas, etc.) are all rooted in traditions of Bantu origin. Around 1909 the son reached Havana, where the first recordings were made in 1917. This marked the start of its expansion throughout the island, becoming Cuba's most popular and influential genre. ...”

W - Son cubano

The Influential Sounds of Son Cubano in Cuba (Video)

amazon: Cuba and Its Music. Ned Sublette, Guardian: Havana good time

YouTube: Jazz a la Cuba (1933), Sexteto Habanero-(Bururú Barará) Como Esta Miguel, El Manisero · Antonio Machin, El Bongo del Habanero · Sexteto Habanero, Papaupa.Son Montuno de Arsenio Rodriguez, Chano Pozo-Parampampin, Arsenio Rodriguez - Mi Chinita Me Boto, SEPTETO NACIONAL (Cuba 1920-....) SongoroCosongo&Donde estab

Sexteto Occidente: Maria Teresa Vera (guitar), Miguelito Garcia (clavé), Ignacio Piñeiro (double bass), Julio Torres Biart (tres), Manuel Reinoso (bongo) and Francisco Sanchez (maracas) Date 1926

​World Cup provisional squads explained: What are the rules and will they be made public?

"A month from today, it all begins. The World Cup in Qatar looms ever larger on the horizon and the countdown is on to the first of 64 games that will crown a winner at the Lusail Stadium on Sunday, December 18. Doubts persist over the suitability of Qatar to host this World Cup, as well as its readiness to welcome more than one million visitors, but the biggest names in football are about to descend on a tiny Gulf nation that’s half the size of Wales and roughly as big as the US state of Connecticut. …”

The Athletic

The Analyst: World Cup 2022 Guide to Each Group

​Terror to elation: Ukrainian woman’s journey from Azovstal to PoW to freedom

"It was like something from the cold war. After five months in the most notorious jail in occupied Ukraine, Alina Panina, 25, had found herself, without explanation, at the foot of a bridge over a river in no man’s land with 107 fellow female Ukrainian prisoners of war. Behind Panina lay Russian-occupied territory and her experiences of the siege of Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks, the subsequent surrender and then captivity in Olenivka prison in Donetsk. There she was witness to the aftermath of an explosion that killed 53 male prisoners, a blast said by Kyiv to have been engineered by Moscow to silence the victims of torture. Ahead, north, stood the Russian PoWs for whom she and the other women were, it seemed, being swapped – and free Ukraine. ...”

Guardian

Aljazeera - Analysis: The Russia-Ukraine war and the view from Saudi Arabia (Video)

GRID: In Russia’s war against Ukraine, are ‘a coup or a nuke’ the only endgames left?

BBC - Ukraine war: The cost of occupation in Kherson region

Many villages in Kherson region were turned into a battleground

​Their America Is Vanishing. Like Trump, They Insist They Were Cheated.

"When Representative Troy Nehls of Texas voted last year to reject Donald J. Trump’s electoral defeat, many of his constituents back home in Fort Bend County were thrilled. Like the former president, they have been unhappy with the changes unfolding around them. Crime and sprawl from Houston, the big city next door, have been spilling over into their once bucolic towns. ... The county in recent years has become one of the nation’s most diverse, where the former white majority has fallen to just 30 percent of the population. ...”

NY Times

Once predominantly white, Fort Bend has quickly become one of the most diverse places in the country. Its congressman is an outspoken denier of Donald J. Trump’s defeat.

 

​A Visual Guide to the Aztec Pantheon

"South American and Mesoamerican civilizations have fascinated me since childhood, when I would watch The Mysterious Cities of Gold. ... Only ten years ago, I learned about Aztec codices and a whole world of deities, each taking care of some aspects of human life. Using these codices, I tried to identify them all, like a Pokemon chaser, despite scattered, partial and sometimes contradictory sources. I finally collected and restored illustrations of more than a hundred gods. ...”

The Pudding

​Nationwide Protest of Putin’s War, and Exodus From Putin’s Russia

"Moscow—Vladimir Putin, by declaring a ‘partial’ mobilization in Russia, achieved at least one thing: Russian society finally realized that it was in a state of war. In fact, in a matter of a few minutes, the president not only destroyed the social contract that had been functioning in the country for more than two decades of his rule but also nullified the work of his own propaganda during the previous seven months of the conflict with Ukraine. Until the mobilization was announced, most of society here did not think about the war; many did not even know about it. Of course, propagandists raged on TV literally every day, and on the Internet there were fierce battles between supporters and opponents of the military operation in Ukraine. But Russia’s apolitical society did not show much interest in this—most people do not watch political television shows and do not read political websites, neither oppositional nor pro-government ones. ...”

The Nation

NY Times: ‘We Heard It, We Saw It, Then We Opened Fire’

Guardian - Unseen and underhand: Putin’s hidden hybrid war is trying to break Europe’s heart

NBC News: Russians avoiding conscription long for home but refuse to fight in Ukraine

Vox

Ukrainian civilians queue for humanitarian aid provided by the Red Cross as people try to survive amid the wave of Russia’s missile strikes in Sviatohiersk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on October 20, 2022.

​For Trump’s Backers in Congress, ‘Devil Terms’ Help Rally Voters

"As Representative Mary Miller embarked on her first congressional campaign, she described herself in salt-of-the-earth, all-American terms: a mother, grandmother and farmer who embodied the ‘Midwestern values of faith, family and freedom.’ ... But there is another side to Ms. Miller’s wholesome image. Since entering Congress, she has routinely vilified Democrats and liberals, calling them 'evil' communists beholden to China who want to 'destroy' America and its culture. And President Biden’s plan, she seethed on Twitter this spring, is to ‘flood our country with terrorists, fentanyl, child traffickers, and MS-13 gang members.’ ...”

NY Times

Best Snoop Dogg Songs: 20 Essential Tracks From A Hip-Hop Icon

"Since his emergence in 1992, Snoop Dogg (born Calvin Broadus, Jr, on October 20, 1971) has become one of the most recognizable personalities in both hip-hop and the wider popular culture. With his innate ability to reinvent himself and remain creatively cutting-edge, “Uncle Snoop’s” longevity is a testament to his skill as a lyricist, his cultural influence, and his musicianship. His discography spans multiple genres, including R&B, soul, rock, reggae, and even gospel. As the best Snoop Dogg songs reveal, his artistry has no bounds. ...”

udiscover (Video)

​Blackouts in parts of Ukraine after ‘massive’ Russian attacks

"Hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Ukraine are without power after Russia carried out massive drone and missile attacks, as intense fighting continues in the southeastern region of Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson where Russia has been struggling to stop renewed Ukrainian advances. Ukraine’s air force said in a statement on Saturday that Russia had launched ‘a massive missile attack’ targeting ‘critical infrastructure’, hours after air raid sirens blared across the country. It said that it had downed 18 out of 33 cruise missiles launched from air and sea.  Local officials in regions across Ukraine reported strikes on energy facilities and power outages as engineers scrambled to restore the ruined network. Some advised residents to stock up on water in case of cuts. ...”

Aljazeera

NBC News: Russian-installed authorities order evacuation of Kherson in face of Ukrainian counteroffensive (Video)

Guardian - ‘My heart is bleeding’: villagers flee as the battle for Kherson rages on

NY Times: Scenes From the Front Line

A Ukrainian soldier atop an abandoned Russian tank in eastern Ukraine in May.

​Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Brueghel the Younger as Moralist and Entrepreneur

"Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564 – 1637/38) was hugely successful in his lifetime. Born in Brussels, he was the son the renowned painter, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1526/30 – 1569). Clearly talented, by the time he was around 20 years old, Brueghel the Younger was already registered as a master in Antwerp’s Guild of Saint Luke. Between 1588 and 1627, he took on nine formal apprentices, an indication of his studio’s success, while records reveal his workshop produced more than 1,400 paintings. These range from exact copies of famous compositions by his father, to pastiches and more inventive compositions that further promoted the distinctive Brueghelian ‘family style’, usually focused on scenes of peasant life. ...”

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Guardian: Pieter Brueghel the Younger review – weighty works from son of revolutionary artist

UChicago

Pablo Neruda: Man of words, man of politics

"Pablo Neruda, the late Chilean poet, continues to be among the most read poets of all time. He died on September 23, 1973, 12 days after General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup and 12 days after he was offered asylum in Mexico. For many years, there were doubts about the real reason for his death. Documents released by Chile’s Ministry of the Interior acknowledged later that it is ‘quite possible’ that Pablo Neruda was assassinated. ... Although he claimed that he was not a political writer, Neruda was an artist who knew how to blend politics and poetry in his life. ...”

Meer

W - Salvador Allende, W - Death of Salvador Allende, YouTube: Remembering Salvador Allende

February 2009: Pablo Neruda, 2011 November: 100 Love Sonnets, 2015 November: The Body Politic: The battle over Pablo Neruda’s corpse, 2015 December: In Chile, Where Pablo Neruda Lived and Loved, 2016 May: Windows that Open Inward - Pablo Neruda. Milton Rogovin, Photographing., 2018 March: What We Can Learn from Neruda’s Poetry of Resistanc, 2018 July: Poet of the People: The partisan world of Pablo Neruda, 2018 December: Neruda - Pablo Larraín (2016), 2019 July: An Introduction to Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda: Romantic, Radical & Revolutionary

Salvador Allende and Pablo Neruda 

Russian threats revive old nuclear fears in central Europe

"WARSAW, Poland — Two stories beneath a modern steel production plant on Warsaw's northern edge lies an untouched Cold War relic: a shelter containing gas masks, stretchers, first aid kits and other items meant to help civil defense leaders survive and guide rescue operations in case of nuclear attack or other disasters. A map of Europe on a wall still shows the Soviet Union — and no independent Ukraine. Old boots and jackets give off a musty odor. A military field switchboard warns: ‘Attention, your enemy is listening.’ Until now, nobody had seriously considered that the rooms built in the 1950s — and now maintained as a ‘historical curiosity’ by the ArcelorMittal Warszawa plant, according to spokeswoman Ewa Karpinska — might one day be used as a shelter again. ...”

WHKRadio

VOX: The secret history of America’s tactical nukes

The Nation: Nationwide Protest of Putin’s War, and Exodus From Putin’s Russia

Guardian: What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysis (Video)

Switches and gauges on a control united of power generators in Josip Broz Tito's underground atomic war command in Konjic, Bosnia, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. ... It was built to withstand nuclear war.

Notes from Iran

"Before this September, I hadn’t heard from Yara in months. They’re an Iranian journalist who has reported for the country’s most prominent newspapers and publications. We first met in New York in 2018 and bonded over the difficulties that come with reporting on Iran: they were rightly afraid of being arrested for their work, and I’ve been afraid that I will no longer be able to return to the country where I was born due to writing about it from abroad. As the Islamic Republic began to escalate the crackdowns on journalists, activists, and civil society, Yara—a pseudonym I’m using to protect their identity—was forced to leave Iran.  If the authorities knew that Yara was communicating with me, an Iranian dual national who works for the New York Times, they could accuse them of conspiracy, spying, and a whole host of other nonsensical charges. I worried about Yara, but I knew their silence meant they were safe. ...”

The Paris Review

W - Mahsa Amini protests, W - Death of Mahsa Amini

NY Times: Iran’s Loyal Security Forces Protect Ruling System That Protesters Want to Topple (Oct. 17), How Two Teenagers Became the New Faces of Iran’s Protests (Oct. 13), Unveiled and Rising Up: How Protests in Iran Cut to the Heart of National Identity (Oct. 5)

Aljazeera: Iran indicts dozens for inciting ‘riots’ amid persisting protests (Video - Oct. 12), Can protests in Iran bring change? (Audio)

CNN - Stalked, tortured, disappeared: Iranian authorities have a playbook for silencing dissent, and they’re using it again (Video - Oct. 20)

Iranian protesters on Keshavarz Boulevard in Tehran.

Rubbish Music – Upcycling (2022; Flaming Pines); Iain Chambers – Secrets of Orford Ness (2020; Flaming Pines)

"Rubbish Music is the duo of Kate Carr (who runs the label Flaming Pines) and Iain Chambers (who runs the label Persistence of Sound).   Both artists compose using field recordings as well as found objects, usually in a specific thematic context as it pertains to the audio picture they want to make or service to the idea they want to put across. ... The ‘upcycling’ in this case refers to the inevitable degradation of humanity’s discarded items, eventually expressing a kind of ‘new’ state that serves to benefit animals and other lifeforms in positive ways.   Now that’s a rather high concept, not to mention, an original idea for an audio recording! ...”

Avant Music News (Audio/Video)

Ukraine war: We secretly filmed our lives in occupied Kherson

"... It wasn't clear what - if anything - Ksusha had seen that day to evoke the disturbing image. But evidently she was unsettled. Nothing had been the same since Russian soldiers first marched past our window in the late afternoon of 1 March, and I began filming our lives for a BBC Eye documentary. My day job had been as a local reporter. Never did I think I would be filming an invasion of my home city - the only Ukrainian regional capital to have been captured. How we shielded Ksusha from the brutality of Russia's invasion, and we ourselves remained sane, became central to our lives, as my wife Lidia and I grappled with our new reality. In the first few days our city seemed frozen - I filmed the emptiness as schools stood closed, government buildings abandoned, and factories and offices empty. Most people laid low. The Russian forces, having taken Kherson, were now trying to advance on nearby Mykolaiv, and were shelling ferociously. ...”

BBC (Video)

NBC News - Cold, dark and without power: Ukraine faces outages as Russian attacks begin a long winter (Video)

NY Times - ‘It Was Horror’: Liberated Ukrainians Share Tales of Occupation

Guardian - Ukraine’s true detectives: the investigators closing in on Russian war criminals

As Russia scrambles to pull its civilian staff out of the city of Kherson ahead of a Ukrainian counter-offensive, Ukrainian father Dmytro Bahnenko reflects on the months he and his family lived there under occupation and secretly filmed for BBC Eye at great personal risk.

Scenes of misery and charity on Gilded Age New York’s most famous breadline

"The Gilded Age ushered in opulent mansions, ostentatious balls, and very conspicuous consumption. But this era synonymous with wealth also brought us the breadline—where impoverished New Yorkers stood in the shadows night after night, waiting their turn to obtain a free meal. Breadlines (many of which distributed more than bread) proliferated by the turn of the century at Gotham’s missions and benevolent societies created to serve the poor. But the first breadline, where the term originates, started at a fashionable bakery on Broadway and 10th Street in 1876. ...”

Ephemeral New York

“Fleischmann’s Bread Line,” by Everett Shinn, about 1900

Carl Stone - We Jazz Reworks Vol. 2 (2022)

"Carl Stone is keeping busy these days. Since the Unseen Worlds label started to issue some of his under-recognised work from the 1970s–90s in 2016, the Tokyo-based composer has enjoyed a popular resurgence, and a spate of new works has met with even more accolades. Much of Stone’s recent music is constructed by taking popular musics from around the world and pulling them through various sampling technology (most especially the MAX programming language) like so much digital taffy. These compositions are texturally familiar, but structurally challenging; they can be gorgeous, silly, even nigh-danceable. ...”

The Quietus (Audio)

Soundohm (Audio)

Bandcamp (Audio)

2010 August: Carl Stone, 2012 September: Carl Stone' DARDA performance Super Deluxe Tokyo, 2013 December: Tetsu Inoue and Carl Stone - pict.soul (2001), 2016 August: Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties (2016), 2022 April: Mom's (1992)

​Where Have All the Men in Moscow Gone?

"MOSCOW — Friday afternoons at the Chop-Chop Barbershop in central Moscow used to be busy, but at the beginning of a recent weekend, only one of the four chairs was occupied. ‘We would usually be full right now, but about half of our customers have gone,’ said the manager, a woman named Olya. Many of the clients — along with half of the barbers, too — have fled Russia to avoid President Vladimir V. Putin’s campaign to mobilize hundreds of thousands of men for the flagging military campaign in Ukraine. Many men have been staying off the streets out of fear of being handed a draft notice. As Olya came to work last Friday, she said, she witnessed the authorities at each of the four exits of the metro station, checking documents. Her boyfriend, who was a barber at the salon, has also fled, and the separation is taking a toll. ...”

NY Times

The Intercept_: Mercenary Lawyers - Inside the Aggressive Legal War to Shield the Founder of Russia’s Wagner Group

Guardian: Putin declares martial law in annexed areas as Ukraine pushes offensive (Video)

A priest performed a blessing for conscripted men in Moscow earlier this month.

​Arsenio Rodríguez

"Arsenio Rodríguez (born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull; 31 August 1911 – 30 December 1970) was a Cuban musician, composer and bandleader. He played the tres, as well as the tumbadora, and he specialized in son, rumba and other Afro-Cuban music styles. In the 1940s and 1950s Rodríguez established the conjunto format and contributed to the development of the son montuno, the basic template of modern-day salsa. He claimed to be the true creator of the mambo and was an important as well as a prolific composer who wrote nearly two hundred songs. Despite being blind since the age of seven, Rodríguez quickly managed to become one of Cuba's foremost treseros. ...”

Wikipedia

Arsenio Rodriguez (Video)

allmusic

YouTube: Lo Mejor de CHANO POZO (SALSA GUAGUANCO SON MONTUNO CUBA)  1:20:15

Making Black America: Through the Grapevine - Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2022)

"... Professor Gates, with directors Stacey L. Holman and Shayla Harris, chronicle the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people beyond the reach of the ‘White gaze.’ The series recounts the establishment of the Prince Hall Masons in 1775 through the formation of all-Black towns and business districts, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, destinations for leisure and the social media phenomenon of Black Twitter. Professor Gates sits with noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders and old friends to discuss this world behind the color line and what it looks like today. ...”

PBS (Video)

PBS: Episode 1-4 (Video)

2017 March: Africa's Great Civilizations, 2019 April: Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, 2019 May: The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross

The Building of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

​The world has a choice: act decisively now or face a larger conflict with Russia

"Last week saw the latest grim act in Russia’s war crimes epic. Missiles rained down indiscriminately on civilian areas across Ukraine two days after a massive explosion at a symbolic bridge built to link the annexed Crimean peninsula to Russia.In Zaporizhzhia in the south-east, 12 Russian rockets partially destroyed a nine-storey tower, and levelled five other residential buildings. Kateryna Ivanova and her family were forced to run to the bathroom as their apartment filled with smoke. After managing to escape to the street, Kateryna said she was met by a neighbour who screamed that her husband was dead. Another resident, Lyudmyla, told how she rushed to wake her children and move them to safety after a blast completely destroyed the door to her home. ...”

Guardian: Vladyslav Vlasiuk

NY Times: As Europe Piles Sanctions on Russia, Some Sacred Cows Are Spared

BBC - Ukraine war: Blackouts in 1,162 towns and villages after Russia strikes (Video)

POLITICO: U.S. industry cranks up HIMARS production as Ukraine war intensifies

Large numbers of residential buildings lie in ruins after being destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian occupying forces, on October 18 in Kozacha Lopan, Ukraine.

The Man from London - Béla Tarr (2007)

"The Man from London is a 2007 film by Hungarian director Béla Tarr. It is an adaptation by Tarr and his collaborator-friend László Krasznahorkai of the 1934 French language novel L'Homme de Londres by prolific Belgian writer Georges Simenon. ... The plot follows Maloin, a nondescript railway worker who recovers a briefcase containing a significant amount of money from the scene of a murder to which he is the only witness. Wracked by guilt and fear of being discovered, Maloin sinks into despondence and frustration, which leads to acrimony in his household. Meanwhile, an English police detective investigates the disappearance of the money and the unscrupulous characters connected to the crime."

Wikipedia

Reverse Shot

NY Times: Slowly, Slowly in the Fog to Noir, via Simenon

MUBI: Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report

amazon

YouTube: The Man from London TRAILER

2012 January: The Turin Horse, 2022 September: Damnation (1988), 2022 September: Sátántangó (1994)

Love, Loosha By Lucia Berlin and Kenward Elmslie

"In 1994, the internationally acclaimed fiction writer Lucia Berlin met the New York School poet and librettist Kenward Elmslie at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, where they were both visiting writers. 'We just clicked,' Berlin said in a 2002 interview. ... That friendship developed through a faithful and frequent correspondence, a literary exchange of about two letters per week over the course of a decade. ... –Chip Livingston ...”

The Paris Review

April 2008: Kenward Elmslie, PENNSOUND, Jacket #7, Wikipedia, 2011 February: Kenward Elmslie's poem songs, 2016 February: Nite Soil (2000), 2017 February: Kenward Elmslie / Videos, 2022 July: Z Press - Calais, Vermont

​What is known about the Iranian-made drones that Russia is using to attack Ukraine.

"The latest Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Monday was preceded by a sound that has become increasingly familiar in the war: the buzz of a small engine, like a lawn-mower or moped, that signals the arrival of an exploding Iranian-made drone. Russia’s use of the devices, which first appeared in Ukraine about two months ago, is considered to be a sign that it is running low on precision-guided weapons, analysts say. The drones have allowed Russia to strike energy infrastructure and civilian targets, even as it loses ground on the battlefield in the northeast and south of the country. ...”

NY Times

On Putin’s ‘Outright Satanism’

NY Times: Opinion | Putin’s Desperate Measures Won’t Get Him What He Wants

YouTube: What are ‘kamikaze’ drones? | Al Jazeera Newsfeed

BBC - Ukraine war: Russia dive-bombs Kyiv with 'kamikaze' drones (Video)

Mayor Klitschko shared a photo of what he said were fragments of a kamikaze drone on Telegram

​Liverpool’s unmovable Van Dijk shows Haaland is a stoppable force

"Virgil van Dijk puffed out his cheeks and wrapped his arms around Joe Gomez. Mohamed Salah may have been Liverpool’s match-winner but this enthralling 1-0 triumph over Manchester City was built on firm foundations. Van Dijk has found himself in uncharted territory this season. His crown as the most complete centre-back in world football has slipped. As Liverpool’s defensive vulnerability has been repeatedly exposed, his form has been held up as a symptom of the team’s decline. There have been uncharacteristic errors and accusing fingers pointing in his direction. ...”

The Athletic (Video)

Guardian: Salah shines as Klopp earns tactical triumph amid his touchline theatrics (Video)

SI: Liverpool Proves It Has Plenty of Fight Left in Drama-Filled Win Over Man City - Jonathan Wilson

BBC - Liverpool 1-0 Man City: 'Why Liverpool had to wait for Joe Gomez to get back to his best' - Martin Keown analysis  

Liverpool vs. Manchester City score: Mohamed Salah nets winner at Anfield as Jurgen Klopp sees red (Video)

​Prince of Enchantment: The 'Ud

"Sitting in his Pennsylvania workshop, surrounded by hanging tools and worktables, Najib Shaheen cradles a hand-crafted, wooden ‘ud (oud) in his arms. As he strums and picks, the nylon strings resonate along an Arab musical scale. Similar in size to an acoustic guitar but far different in shape and sound, the ‘ud is to many the most iconically Arab of all musical instruments. And Shaheen, whose expertise has earned him the nickname ‘Oudman,’ would know. Growing up in the Mediterranean coastal city of Haifa in the 1950s, the instrument has never been far from his reach. As a boy, he learned to play the round-backed, half-pear-shaped instrument amid an extraordinarily musical family. This included his father, Hikmat Shaheen, a well-known music educator, composer and ‘ud performer, and his younger brother Simon, who is today a virtuoso on both ‘ud and violin. ...”

AramcoWorld (Video)

​How Vladimir Putin is thinking about the war

"Less than 48 hours after the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea with Russia proper was damaged by a powerful blast, Vladimir Putin retaliated against Ukraine. Russia fired close to a hundred missiles at a variety of Ukrainian cities this past Monday and Tuesday. The rockets hit an array of buildings, including residences and schools, killing at least 19 civilians and injuring more than 100. While the missile attacks knocked out power and water to Ukraine’s largest cities, the value of the attacks was dubious at best. No military targets were hit. Ukraine’s population seems ever more determined to resist Russia. Experts pointed out that Russia retains a scarce number of precision-guided missiles, and it seemed like a waste to use them on these kinds of targets. Looking ahead, the attacks may well have also created a permission structure for NATO to arm Ukraine with better air defenses. ...”

VOX

NBC News: U.S. to provide Ukraine with more weapons as Putin signals end to unpopular mobilization drive (Video)

Guardian - Night terror in Zaporizhzhia: strikes bring misery but city’s people vow to stay

Guardian: Russian troops kill Ukrainian musician for refusing role in Kherson concert

BBC: How Ukraine is winning the social media war (Video)

A mural of a hacker has appeared on the streets of Kyiv

​The Jan. 6 Hearings Are Over. These 3 Things Must Happen Now.

"​On Thursday, in what was probably its final public hearing before the election, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol revealed new details about former President Donald Trump. Those details included Secret Service records documenting his determination to join a mob he knew was armed and headed for violence. The hearings have provided an indispensable record of an attempted coup that failed but that, as Representative Liz Cheney pointed out, threatens to recur. As the committee waits for the (unlikely) testimony of Mr. Trump, the torch now passes to other actors who hold the power to achieve accountability for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — and to prevent another one from happening. This task fits into three key areas. ...”

NY Times: Opinion| Guest Essay

NY Times: Opinion | Donald Trump Has Told Americans Exactly Who He Is

NY Times: Opinion | The Jan. 6 Committee Has Been Almost Wholly Ineffective

​Fall Music Preview ~ Drone

"The tractors are plowing the fields, the leaf blowers are clearing the lawns, the construction crews are fixing the roads, and a new season of drone music ~ live and recorded ~ is upon us.  Today’s drone post picks up from yesterday’s dark ambient cliffhanger, tilting us toward daylight savings, the harvest and Halloween.While late summer days continue to bring the heat, late summer nights yield a bit of chill, a tinge of the season to come, as the green begins to leach away, stolen by umber, russet and rust. ...”

a closer listen (Video/Audio)

Sarah Davachi - Two Sisters (2022)