Liberating will

"The exercise of autonomy has as its trajectory the realization, the appearance of the will. Discovering oneself capable of realizing plans, dreams, and purposes creates a firmness that establishes availability and determination. In the context of autonomy, rigidity and firmness allow flexibility, as there is around what to revolve. The will is an instrument of change, of liberation. ... At this point, we can state that through romantic ideals, humans regained their place at the center of the world with their will. This new idea explodes in the arts, literature, in poetry and philosophy. Nietzsche shows the dancing gods and announces the death of God. ...”

MEER

The dance of the Bacchants, by Charles Gleyre and Friedrich Nietzsche

Russian Missile Barrage Cuts Power and Water Across Ukraine

"KYIV, Ukraine — Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy facilities on Wednesday, as missiles rocked Kyiv and other cities, plunging large areas of the nation into darkness, shutting down water systems and cutting off power in half the neighboring country of Moldova. The attack was the widest since Nov. 15, when 100 missiles and drones rained down, and among the most devastating of the entire war. The blasts sent plumes of smoke into the skies as Ukrainian air defense systems worked to shoot down incoming rockets that Moscow has been aiming at energy installations for weeks in an effort to break Ukrainians’ will by depriving them of light and heat in the winter months. ...”

NY Times

Aljazeera: Russian forces in Kherson alert as Ukraine plans next move (Video)

GRID - The Ukraine War in data: After 9 months of war, what the data tells us

Compassion, Forgiveness, and Love

Smoke from a Russian artillery bombardment rising on Wednesday from the port of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which has come under daily shelling this week from Russian positions located across the Dnipro River.

Ebba Jahn - A Jazz Film (1984)

"In 1984, before Tonic or CB's Lounge or even the Knitting Factory and Rudy Giuliani, New York Citywas a rough-and-tumble place filled with a wonderful array of musicians in a state of hyper-creativity. Some of them had come out of the loft scene of the '70s or even earlier and were reconciling all the shades of the avant-garde while others were creating entirely new vocabularies still being solidified today. German filmmaker Ebba Jahn made ‘A Jazz Film’ that year with interviews, musical performances and fascinating visuals of the city before it became sterilized. ... Many of the musicians featured are still active players: Charles Gayle, William Parker, John Zorn, Jemeel Moondoc, Irene Schweizer, Peter Brötzmann. And unsurprisingly, the film captures many who have departed firmly in their element: Charles Tyler, Don Cherry, Denis Charles, Peter Kowald. ...”

All About Jazz

lluminating Downtown's Dark Years. (Video)

Criterion Channel (Video)

​47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station

"The 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station is an express station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located along Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) between 47th and 50th Streets, on the west side of Rockefeller Center. The station is served by the D and F trains at all times, the B and M trains on weekdays, and the ⟨F⟩ train during rush hours in the peak direction. In 2019, it was the 12th busiest subway station in the system. ...”

Wikipedia

Rockefeller Center: Everything leads to the Center.

What to do in New York at Christmas: a subway ride on the “Nostalgia Trains”, the vintage trains of the old NYC.

YouTube: R179 (A) and (C) Trains at 47th-50th Streets - Rockefeller Center

​Ukraine war: Power cuts across the country and in Moldova as missiles hit

"Ukraine's western city of Lviv is without power after a wave of Russian missiles pounded the country. Critical infrastructure in Kyiv was also targeted, and the city's officials said three people died in the attack. Across the border, Moldova also reported ‘massive’ blackouts, although it has not been directly hit. Moscow has recently increased strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, leaving half of the country's power grid in need of repair. Ukraine's national power grid operator has said the damage sustained by power generating facilities in recent weeks has been ‘colossal’ and warned that Ukrainians could face long power outages over the winter months. ...”

BBC

Guardian: How Putin is preparing children to ‘die for the motherland’

NBC News: Russia's bombardment and plunging temperatures endanger millions in Ukraine, WHO warns (Video)

POLITICO: EU plans subsidy war chest as industry faces ‘existential’ threat from US

Fire and rescue workers attend a building hit by a missile in central Kyiv

​How Saudi Arabia shocked Argentina: Direct play and high line, crowd sows panic, microscope on Messi

"Saudi Arabia have beaten Argentina 2-1 in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. The opening match of Group C at the 2022 World Cup looked to be going as expected after Lionel Messi’s early penalty. Yet two goals in the first eight minutes of the second half — from Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari — stunned the South American champions, who entered the tournament as one of the favourites to lift the trophy. …”

The Athletic (Video)

Guardian – ‘We gave them a response’: Saudi Arabia claim their place in World Cup history

NY Times: Saudi Arabia Leaves Another Scar on Argentina’s Soul

BBC – World Cup 2022: Saudi Arabia deliver ‘seismic’ shock, but don’t count Argentina out

The Athletic: ‘He sold himself to the devil’ – Messi, 2030, and a very uncomfortable deal with Saudi Arabia (Video)

Guardian: Lionel Messi’s international career has never felt closer to oblivion

The Athletic: Messi’s Argentina have no excuses – but they also shouldn’t be too worried

The Athletic: Saudi Arabia humble Argentina – but was it the greatest World Cup shock ever?

Rap/Hip-Hop

"Rap is original poetry recited in rhythm and rhyme over prerecorded instrumental tracks. Rap music (also referred to as rap or hip-hop music) evolved in conjunction with the cultural movement called hip-hop. Rap emerged as a minimalist street sound against the backdrop of the heavily orchestrated and formulaic music coming from the local house parties to dance clubs in the early 1970s. Its earliest performers comprise MCs (derived from master of ceremonies but referring to the actual rapper) and DJs (who use and often manipulate pre-recorded tracks as a backdrop to the rap), break dancers and graffiti writers. ...”

CH (Audio)

G-MAN Park Jam in the Bronx

Ukraine’s security service raids Russian-backed monastery in Kyiv

"Ukraine’s SBU security service and police have raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv as part of operations to counter suspected ‘subversive activities by Russian special services’. Located south of the city centre, the sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – is the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church that falls under the Moscow patriarchate, as well as being a Ukrainian cultural treasure and a Unesco World Heritage site. The Russian Orthodox church, whose head, Patriarch Kirill, has strongly supported Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine, condemned the raid as an ‘act of intimidation’. ...”

Guardian

BBC: Millions of lives under threat in Ukraine this winter - WHO

Understanding the Real Value of U.S. Financial Aid to Ukraine

NY Times: For Ukraine, So Much Unexpected Success, and Yet So Far to Go

Ukrainian law enforcement officers stand next to the entrance of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery

Garvey's Ghost - Burning Spear (1976)

"... However, relations were so strained between Winston Rodney and Mango, over the remixed version of Marcus Garvey they'd released internationally, that the artist had launched his own label Spear to prevent this ever happening again. Thus Mango decided to mix up a dub album, Garvey's Ghost, in an attempt to mollify Rodney. Apparently this rather obvious ploy did the trick, and the tensions between the label and artist now eased. However, listening to the record, one wonders why, for, if anything, Ghost merely added insult to injury. Rodney was aggrieved at the reggae light remix of his dread masterpiece, and if Garvey was light, Ghost was positively ashen. ...”

allmusic (Audio)

W - Garvey's Ghost

Discogs (Video)

YouTube: Garvey’s Ghost  1 / 10

2009 June: Burning Spear, 2010 October: Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost, 2012 March: Burning Spear 1981 - Markthalle Hamburg, 2012 December: Hail H.I.M., 2015 August: Man In The Hills / Dry & Heavy (1976)

Rochefort's Escape - Édouard Manet (1881)

"This painting is the smaller of the two versions of Rochefort's Escape painted by Manet after December 1880. The other version is in the Kunsthaus, Zurich. Virulently opposed to the imperial regime, Rochefort founded a political newspaper, La Lanterne in 1868. The newspaper, which was published in Brussels, was soon banned. In 1873, the journalist was sentenced to penal servitude for his role during the Commune. His spectacular, swashbuckling escape by sea, in 1874, inspired Manet to paint this strange composition, six years after the event. ...”

Musee Orsay

W - Rochefort's Escape

2011 May: Manet, the Man who Invented Modernity, 2013 April: Manet: Portraying Life, 2019 June: Manet and Modern Beauty, 2021 March: Manet: Three Paintings from the Norton Simon Museum

Rochefort's Escape (c. 1881), Musée d'Orsay

On the River at Night, Ambushing Russians

"ON THE BANKS OF THE DNIPRO RIVER, Ukraine — Under cover of darkness, a group of soldiers heaved their dinghy off the sand into the water. Another group loaded equipment with a heavy clanking into their boat, while a third pushed off silently with oars. Engines humming quietly, the boats turned to the open water and disappeared into the blackness. The fighters, a volunteer Ukrainian special forces team called the Bratstvo battalion, were crossing the wide expanse of the Dnipro River, the strategic waterway that bisects Ukraine and has become the dividing line of the southern front. After recapturing the city of Kherson a week ago, Ukrainian forces hold the western bank, while the Russians still hold the eastern bank. ...”

NY Times

Aljazeera: Shunned by the West, Russia’s IT sector goes on the defensive

POLITICO - Key weapons in Ukraine’s resilience: Ingenuity and improvisation

GRID: Why Russia has made homophobia part of its anti-Ukraine propaganda

NY Times: Opinion | What Will Russia Without Putin Look Like? Maybe This.

Members of a special forces unit using oars to push their boats into the water while on a night operation targeting Russian forces behind the front line.

Peter Schjeldahl (1942–2022)

"One problem with seeing an exhibition with someone else is that rhythms of looking are so often at odds—either they move too slowly or not slow enough, or pay too much attention to stuff that you do not. Soon after we met in 2014, Peter Schjeldahl and I figured out that we were weirdly in-sync gallerygoers. Walking through a show together, we’d incessantly narrate bits of what we were seeing to each other, trying out descriptions and bits of language in the presence of the art itself—Peter scribbling on a checklist or small notepad like a proper reporter. These were my most vivid encounters with Peter the Poet, always aiming to delight with an unexpected adjective or analogy. The goal was marrying precision and surprise. ...”

ARTFORUM

NY Times: Peter Schjeldahl, New York Art Critic With a Poet’s Voice, Dies at 80

2017 July: Peter Schjeldahl

An immigrant printmaker and painter gives color and light to Depression-era New York City

"Max Arthur Cohn was a prolific 20th century artist of many mediums. But whether a silkscreen print, oil painting, mural, or lithograph, Cohn’s work imbues nuanced scenes of midcentury New York City with bursts of color and Ashcan-inspired realism. His early years echo those of so many early 20th century immigrants. Born in London in 1903 to Russian parents, Cohn and his family settled in America two years later, moving to Cleveland and then Kingston, New York. At 17, he landed his first art-related job in New York City: making commercial silkscreens. ...”

Ephemeral New York

Hooverville Depression Scene, 1938

​Ukraine war: We will rebuild, vows mayor of flattened Mariupol

"Vadym Boychenko is under no illusions. The Russians, says the mayor of Mariupol, will never leave the city voluntarily. But the Ukrainian Army, he adds, will expel them. In fact, he is so confident that day will come that he has just been in Poland signing a deal with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to rebuild his shattered city when the Russians depart. Working together with the World Bank, a ‘Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment’ report is being compiled to quantify the damage to water, sanitation, public transport and lighting. Once this is complete, it's intended to produce The Mariupol Revival Plan. ...”

BBC

Aljazeera - Russia-Ukraine live: Shelling at Zaporizhzhia ‘playing with fire’ (Video)

Critical Threats: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 19

Guardian: A Message from Ukraine by Volodymyr Zelensky review – a winner in the war of words

The Azovstal Iron and Steel Works was pummelled by Russian artillery

​Collecting My Heritage(s)

"This essay features two main concepts, that of collecting and that of heritage. When I first started building a music collection, I never thought about the implications this might have for the discovery and, implicitly, for the conservation of a music heritage, which could, otherwise, be lost. The two concepts do not always have to be related to one another, yet, in certain cases, one informs the other in such a way, that they become almost inseparable. But before I address the issue of how music collecting and building a cultural heritage have become entangled phenomena in my personal history, I should attempt to provide some sort of definition for these two concepts, in order to better grasp how their content is formed and how it functions. ...”

theATTIC

Instress: part 1 - The secrets of clouds, part 2 - Contagion as metaphor

"Some poems declare their interest in magic openly through formal choices. Some poems are constructed as and/or ‘after’ ancient or occult spells and take the form of a spell, which has some generally predictable structures. If we go from the ancient spells exemplified in Joshua Trachtenberg’s work, we’ll find these components: appeal, historiolae (historical or mythological precedents/correlates of the situation at hand), invocation, enunciation of names, request. Of poems that follow this form, sonic choices alluding to the spell’s incantatory form might be the easiest to identify as invested in magic; poems of chant and litany lull and charm the reader with sound....”

Jacket2: instress part 1, part 2

“The Enamored Mage: Translation #6” a portrait of Robert Duncan by Jess, 1965. Courtesy of The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco 

Battered School Holds Memories of Collective Trauma in a Ukrainian Village

"YAHIDNE, Ukraine — The elementary school’s former custodian carefully turned the key to the green door leading to the basement and walked down the stairs, shining a flashlight. Eventually, he paused the beam on a calendar scrawled on the cement wall and on the list of names alongside it. It is how the people imprisoned there by Russian occupiers kept a record of who died and when. ‘People were dying, people couldn’t take it,’ said the former custodian, Ivan Petrovich Polhui. ‘There was not enough air. We spent a month there — 28 days.’ Mr. Polhui has become something of an unofficial keeper of the memories of the school and of the suffering that Russian soldiers inflicted there in March, when they held him and more than 300 of his neighbors, including children, in the dank and desperate confines of the basement. ...”

NY Times

BBC - Ukraine war: Were Russian soldiers shot after surrendering?

Aljazeera - Loss and liberation: Escape from Russia-occupied Kherson (Video)

GRID: After fears of a winter energy crisis, Europe has more than it needs. How did that happen?

Yahidne last month. In March, more than 300 residents, including 77 children, were marched from their homes at gunpoint and forced into a cramped school basement.

The Radar – The Athletic’s 2022 World Cup scouting guide

"Welcome to The Radar — the World Cup edition. Last year, for Euro 2020, we profiled 60 players that people were talking about — or would be by the end of the competition. Thirty-four of those players have since moved club. More teams means more players, so for the World Cup we’ve upped that to 100. The result is below, a carefully crafted guide to some of the best footballers on show in Qatar listed alphabetically by country — the heavyweight names, the rising stars and the under-the-radar players who could be coming to an elite club near you. ...”

The Athletic

Rook Radio 3 // African Disco & Afro-House

"A vinyl only set of African Disco, Afro-house and electronic beats. Mixed by Juby Rook. 1. Mike Umoh - Shake Your Body 2. Charlie Kingson - Nimele Bolo 3. Steve Watson - Born To Boogie 4. Christy Essien - You Can’t Change A Man 5. Steve Monite - Only You 6. Mr Bird - Dance Away 7. Esnard Boisdour - Soufwans (3am Mix) 8. Oumou Sangare - Fadjamou (St. Germain Remix) 9. Jimi Tenor - Quantum Connection 10. XOA - Mon École 11. Joni Haastrup - Do The Functro 12. Basa Basa- African Soul Power 13. Romare - The Blues (It Began In Africa) 14. Soothsayers - Blinded Souls (Titeknots Remix) 15. Stephen Colebrooke - Shake Your Chic Behind 16. Joni Hasstrup - Greetings 17. Ronald Snijders - Kaseko Attack 18. Arp-Frique - Nos Magia 19. Explosion - Waka Mang 20. Oluko Imo - Praise Jah 21. Sony Enang - Don’t Stop That Music 22. Oumou Sangare - Yere Faga (Natureboy Flako Remix) ...”

Soundcloud (Audio)

YouTube: Rook Radio 3 // African Disco & Afro-House [Vinyl Mix] - Live (Video)

 

​Ukraine’s 15,000-Mile Lifeline

"On the night of Feb. 23, when Kyiv was still rife with rumors and denials about the Russian troops and weaponry amassing along the border, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the 38-year-old chief executive of Ukrzaliznytsia — Ukraine’s national rail system — sent a photograph to the management’s Telegram group chat in an attempt to settle everyone’s nerves. The photo showed him tucking his two sons, 8 and 12, into bed in their apartment in central Kyiv. The head of passenger services, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, replied with a photo of his toddler taking a bath. The implication of both photos was clear: The leaders, and their families, were staying put. Kamyshin had been in charge of Ukrzaliznytsia for only six months. Still in his trial period, he hadn’t even been offered a permanent contract. ...”

NY Times (Audio)

VOX: Can Ukraine’s infrastructure survive the winter?

Guardian - ‘Biggest challenge of my life’: Kherson’s leaders toil to turn city around

Damaged railway lines near Zolochiv. 

The History of Slavery Is All of Our History - Howard W. French

"One morning this July, I rose early for a several-mile drive along the Ghanaian coast to give a talk at one of the most important historical sites of the modern era: the imposing whitewashed, fortified trading station at Elmina that Ghanaians commonly refer to as a ‘castle.’ I was honored to have been invited there by the country’s government to give a talk about my new book, Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War, but I had little idea of what kind of crowd, if any, would turn out to hear me speak about a book that few in the country would have yet read. Would they be Ghanaians interested in the history of slavery, in which this stretch of the West African coast played a hugely important part? ...”

Foreign Policy (Audio)

Guardian - Built on the bodies of slaves: how Africa was erased from the history of the modern world - - Howard W. French

The interior of Elmina Castle near Cape Coast, Ghana, on Feb. 4, 2008.

​Trump Faces Five Major Investigations. He Has Dozens of Ways Out.

"Donald Trump and his business empire are currently the subjects of no fewer than five major simultaneous investigations, a truly extraordinary challenge for anyone, let alone a former and possibly future president of the United States. These are complicated investigations, with long and winding paths to resolution. They involve scores of federal and state investigators and witnesses across the country, from politicians eager to shield themselves from scrutiny to employees turning on their colleagues to a former president who knows how to navigate — and manipulate — the legal system like no one else. ...”

NY Times | Opinion

 

​For Ukraine, Keeping the Lights On Has Become One of the Biggest Battles

"KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is turning winter into a weapon, even as its soldiers flail on the battlefield. In a relentless and intensifying barrage of missiles fired from ships at sea, batteries on land and planes in the sky, Moscow is destroying Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, depriving millions of heat, light and clean water. Keeping the lights on for the majority of the millions of people who live in cities and towns far from the front — and keeping those places functioning through the winter — is now one of the greatest challenges Ukraine faces. President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Wednesday night, ‘If we survive this winter, and we will definitely survive it, we will definitely win this war.’ ...”

NY Times

Guardian - The night everything changed: waiting for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

New Depths of Russian Insanity as Putin’s Ukraine Debacle Continues

NY Times: How Ukraine Blew Up a Key Russian Bridge

Aljazeera: NATO faces new challenge as Ukraine war spills into Poland (Video)

Employees working last week to repair a transformer at an electrical substation damaged by a Russian missile strike in central Ukraine.

​Marilyn Monroe in New York: Her Year of Reinvention

"In late December 1954 Marilyn Monroe came to New York City wearing a disguise. Monroe — by then the biggest movie star in the world — came to the East Coast to reinvent herself and her career. The year 1955 would be a turning point in her life and it all played out on the streets of the city. She intended to spend the rest of her life here.It was a year of discovery — exploring the city, working on her craft and generally being the toast of the town. ...”

Bowery Boys (Audio)

EMS VCS3 in the 1970s

"Necessity is the mother of invention. In the case of Peter Zinovieff, the necessity was quite conventional. His cutting-edge studio that functioned as a research facility for electronic music experimentation, was in dire need of money. ... Together with his two collaborators at EMS, David Cockerell and Tristram Cary, Zinovieff drew upon their vast collective knowledge of sound processing and came up with the company’s first commercial product, originally geared towards educational institutes. ... This is the story of the VCS3, one of the most unique synthesizers in the history of electronic music. ...”

The Music Aficionado: Part 1 (Video), Part 2 (Video)

W - EMS VCS 3 

User's eye view of the "VCS 3"

​I Went to Ukraine, and I Saw a Resolve That We Should Learn From

"IZIUM, Ukraine — Inna Osipova pointed to the 30-foot pile of rubble that is all that’s left of her apartment building. She and her 5-year-old son narrowly escaped when Russian shelling destroyed the structure, but her grandmother did not and is interred somewhere in the wreckage. Osipova hopes her body will be found so she can be given a proper burial. Her voice cracked with emotion, but she held together until I asked what she thought of Americans who say it’s time to move on from supporting Ukraine. ... These areas in northeastern Ukraine, recently liberated after months of Russian occupation, show what’s at stake as some Americans and Europeans seek to trim assistance for Ukraine. There are bombed-out buildings, survivors cooking over open fires outside, children injured by land mines, freshly vacated Russian torture chambers — 23 discovered so far here in the Kharkiv region alone — along with mass graves of corpses with hands tied and shattered limbs. ...”

NY Times: Opinion

Guardian: Alleged Russian ‘torture room’ uncovered in liberated Kherson

BBC: Why did Russia invade Ukraine and has Putin's war failed?Published8 hours ago (Video)

NBC News: How the Poland missile strike could change Putin's war in Ukraine (Video)

NY Times: How an American Survived Hiding From the Russians in Kherson for 8 Months

Timothy Morales, 56, an American teacher,  managed to send his 10-year-old daughter to safety, but was trapped in occupied Kherson, Ukraine, during Russia’s occupation.

Babel - Alejandro González Iñárritu (2006)

"Babel focuses on four families in four countries on three continents in a multidimensional story that engages the senses, startles the mind, and engenders within our consciousness an appreciation for small acts of kindness and compassion in a world filled with hatred, violence, confusion, dread, suffering and loss. This extraordinary film is the third in a trilogy by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu that includes with Amores Perros and 21 Grams. People today are cut off from each other by race, language, culture, and tradition. ...”

Spirituality and Practice

W - Babel

amazon

YouTube: Babel - Trailer

2022 November: 21 Grams

​Stop and admire the Chelsea Hotel’s beautiful iron balconies

"There’s a lot to love about the Chelsea Hotel: the Queen Anne (or Victorian Gothic?) style, its backstory as a failed early cooperative apartment house, the enchanting main staircase and lobby fireplace, and its cultural relevance as a home for artists, writers, and free thinkers throughout the 20th century. But there’s one feature I can’t get past: the magnificent floral-ornamented iron balconies gracing the circa-1883 building—seven rows of delicate leaves and flowers spread across the hotel’s red brick facade.The floral motifs bring the beauty and softness of the natural world to the harsh brick and mortar cityscape of West 23rd Street. ...”

Ephemeral New York

2010 October: Hotel Chelsea, 2014 January: Arena Hotel Chelsea, 2019 August: The Chelsea Affect - Arthur Miller, 2022 July:  ​‘Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel’ Review: Bohemia’s Holdouts

​For Western Weapons, the Ukraine War Is a Beta Test

"Three months ago, as Ukrainian troops were struggling to advance against Russian forces in the south, the military’s headquarters in Kyiv quietly deployed a valuable new weapon to the battlefield. It was not a rocket launcher, cannon or another kind of heavy arms from Western allies. Instead, it was a real-time information system known as Delta — an online network that military troops, civilian officials and even vetted bystanders could use to track and share desperately needed details about Russian forces. The software, developed in coordination with NATO, had barely been tested in battle. But as they moved across the Kherson region in a major counteroffensive, Ukraine’s forces employed Delta, as well as powerful weaponry supplied by the West, to push the Russians out of towns and villages they had occupied for months. ...”

NY Times

BBC: Ukraine's secret weapon - the medics in the line of fire (Video)

NY Times: In Poland, a Warm Welcome for Ukrainian Refugees Wobbles

NBC News: Ukraine dismisses push to compromise in wake of Russian attacks — and retreats (Video)

Aljazeera: Barrage of Russian missiles causes blackouts across Ukraine

Soldiers with Ukraine’s Carpathian Sich Battalion reviewing drone footage below the front line in May.

Modern Mythologies - a talk with Raffaele Pezzella

"Raffaele Pezzella organises streaming radio sessions (more than 200 as I write this) for promoting the artists he finds and/or curates across the world under the umbrella of the Unexplained Sounds Group label, or the Eighth Tower Records sublabel. He started the Unexplained Sounds Group back in 2015, an currently the imprint has reached more than 50 releases in its catalogue, published mostly on CD and as digital download. The label was recently described by Bandcamp as a ‘global network of aural disorientation’. Raffaele focuses on experimental music, whether it is ambient, abstract or drone. ...”

theATTIC (Audio)

SoundCloud (Audio)

Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst): I'm mainly inspired by what I can't explain with evidence, by the mystery of things and of reality (Video)

Guido Van Helten Soars in Salina, Kansas

"Following our previous story on the public/private art initiative ‘Boom!’ festival in Salina, Kansas, we follow today with the one previous project on silos that ushered in many approvals for the festival by Australian mural artist (and photographer) Guido Van Helten. Completed in the summer of 2021, the images of children playing a circular game like ‘Ring-Around-the-Rosie’ fairly surround the HD Flour Mill. With a mix of sepia tones and faded pastels, the scene includes a diverse mix of kids rendered with tender respect, a composition that evokes the moment and captures a timeless truth that children and play go together like peanut butter and jelly. Van Helten got to know the community before he began the project, making this work a mirror of life in the area. ...”

Brooklyn Street Art (Video)

The Liberation of Kherson

"While the war in Ukraine was not a major issue in the midterms, Ukrainians—and others who support their cause—watched Tuesday’s elections with some apprehension due to a streak of GOP skepticism toward U.S. aid to Ukraine. Last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that Ukraine would no longer get a ‘blank check’ once the Republicans got control of Congress. He and his allies promptly moved to reassure the party’s defense hawks that they weren’t advocating a cutoff of military aid, just better oversight, but the anti-Ukraine rhetoric from the right continued to make people nervous, especially with such prominent pundits as Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham turning their shows into platforms for Kremlin talking points. The GOP’s lackluster election performance, which may leave control of the Senate in Democratic hands, likely spells the end of any serious effort to curb aid to Ukraine. This comes amid other big developments certain to affect the war’s course: the Russians’ decision to withdraw from Kherson, abandoning their biggest prize since the February 24 invasion, and renewed but still uncertain talk of negotiations. ...”

The Bulwark (Video)

NY Times: Russia Tried to Absorb a Ukrainian City. It Didn’t Work.

BBC - Ukraine war: 'Long and difficult path' ahead - Zelensky in Kherson (Video)

Guardian: Ukraine uses Cop27 to highlight environmental cost of Russia’s war

KHERSON, UKRAINE: A Ukrainian flag seen in the military assembly center of artillery batteries in Kherson, Ukraine on July 15, 2022. Ukrainian artillerymen in the military assembly center check the weapons and special equipment to make them ready before they go to their duties at the frontline in Kherson.

​When the Finely Tuned Spotlight Falls on the Lighting Designer

"Lighting designers live in the dark, shining light on others. Jennifer Tipton, who works in dance and theater, has received more attention than most in her profession. At the top of it for the last 50 years or so, she has earned Tony Awards, Bessie awards, an Obie for lifetime achievement and a MacArthur fellowship, among other accolades and prizes. Still, she’s spent her career being mostly invisible, intentionally without an identifiable style, always in service to the vision of choreographers, playwrights and directors — often famous ones, like Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and Robert Wilson. ...”

NY Times

W - Lighting designer

2015 March: Jennifer Tipton

Claire Denis - Beau travail (1999)

"With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism’s legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema. ...”

Criterion (Video)

NY Times: ‘Beau Travail’ Finds the Rhythm of Life (and Dances Away the Pain)

W - Beau Travail

YouTube: Beau Travail | Trailer

2009 September: Claire Denis, 2013 October: Claire Denis Dialogue with Eric Hynes, 2017 June: White Material (2009), 2022 February: Claire Denis’s Closet Picks

​Mines, looting, no power: Kherson assesses damage after Russian retreat

"After two nights of jubilation following the liberation of their city, the people of Kherson on Sunday began to assess the extent of the damage wreaked by eight long months of Russian occupation, with residents still without electricity and water.On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces had destroyed key infrastructure before retreating, while the mayor of Kherson said the humanitarian situation was ‘severe’ because of a lack of medicine and bread.The departing Russian troops also left behind thousands of mines, tripwires and unexploded shells. ...”

Guardian

NY Times: Ukraine Rushes Supplies to Kherson as Military Assesses Destruction

NBC News: Ukraine vows to drive out Russian forces after retaking Kherson (Video)

BBC - Ukraine war: Kherson curfew and river ban in security crackdown

An aid delivery in Pravdyne, near Kherson