​Special report: Qatar, the World Cup and the war on truth

"For a brief few moments it looked like the World Cup was being rigged in real time, amplifying an explosive conspiracy theory seen by millions around the world. In the days running up to the tournament opener between hosts Qatar and Ecuador on November 20, a viral tweet suggested the South Americans had been bribed to deliver a 1-0 defeat. The claim mutated from the Twitter feed of someone named Amjad Taha to other social media sites and news outlets around the world. …”
The Athletic (Video)
Guardian – As Qatar’s World Cup ends it is time for truth: Fifa chose death and suffering
Guardian – Qatar 2022: this World Cup has taken place in a crime scene
World Corrupt (Audio)

Putin’s War: The Inside Story of a Catastrophe

"They never had a chance. Fumbling blindly through cratered farms, the troops from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had no maps, medical kits or working walkie-talkies, they said. Just a few weeks earlier, they had been factory workers and truck drivers, watching an endless showcase of supposed Russian military victories at home on state television before being drafted in September. One medic was a former barista who had never had any medical training. Now, they were piled onto the tops of overcrowded armored vehicles, lumbering through fallow autumn fields with Kalashnikov rifles from half a century ago and virtually nothing to eat, they said. Russia had been at war most of the year, yet its army seemed less prepared than ever. ...”

NY Times (Video)

They plod through Ukraine with old maps like this one from the 1960s, recovered from the battlefield, or no maps at all.

Italian Journey - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1786 to 1788)

"Italian Journey ... is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786 to 1788 that was published in 1816 & 1817. The book is based on Goethe's diaries and is smoothed in style, lacks the spontaneity of his diary report and is augmented with the addition of afterthoughts and reminiscences. ... By May 1788 he had travelled to Italy via Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass and visited Lake Garda, Verona, Vicenza, Venice, Bologna, Rome and Alban Hills, Naples and Sicily. He wrote many letters to a number of friends in Germany, which he later used as the basis for Italian Journey. ...”

Wikipedia

NY Times: Goethe Italian Journey

amazon

YouTube: Goethe's Italian Journey Itinerary

Invader “4000” Opens in Paris with Exhibition and Mosaic Encyclopedia

"Infusing meaning into numbers is one way to identify benchmarks, recognizing that time takes us forward regardless of our intentions. For street artist Space Invader, the act of recording and cataloging his two-decade Space Invaders project ‘is very much an ongoing meta-work, constantly expanding and transforming.’ Marking that passage of time and his seemingly indefatigable dedication to it around the world, the artist releases ‘4000′, his new book – and accompanying exhibition – that celebrates the completion of 4,000 installed mosaics. ...”

Brooklyn Street Art

Manhattan, NY

What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysis

"... Senior Ukrainian officials say Vladimir Putin is preparing for a major new offensive in the new year, Isobel Koshiw and Peter Beaumont reported, despite a series of humiliating battlefield setbacks for Russia in recent months. In an interview with the Guardian, Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said that while Ukraine was now able to successfully defend itself against Russia’s missile attacks targeting key infrastructure, including the energy grid, evidence was emerging that the Kremlin was preparing a broad new offensive. Reznikov’s comments echoed similar remarks made to the Economist this week – including from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the head of the armed forces, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and the chief of ground forces, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskii. ...”

Guardian

NY Times: Paintbrush in Hand, a Russian Muralist Wages His Own War

Russia launches another major missile attack on Ukraine

People rest in a subway station, being used as a bomb shelter during a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. Ukrainian authorities reported explosions in at least three cities Friday, saying Russia has launched a major missile attack on energy facilities and infrastructure. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in at least four districts, urging residents to go to shelters.

​Inside Mar-a-Lago, Where Thousands Partied Near Secret Files

"Mar-a-Lago is the primary home of former President Donald J. Trump. It is also a private club reserved for 500 members and a venue for parties and fund-raisers that are frequently attended by hundreds of people at a time. ... A New York Times investigation reveals how easily accessible classified documents may have been to the thousands of guests who visited Mar-a-Lago in the months after Mr. Trump left office. The Times created a 3-D model of Mar-a-Lago and reviewed images from social media and other sources to show how people were, at times, within feet of the materials. ...”              

NY Times

*****NY Times: Jan. 6 Panel Plans Vote on Referring Trump for Insurrection, Other Criminal Charges 

​Afrofuturism in Black Music

"The term Afrofuturism invokes writers such as Octavia E. Butler, Samuel Delany, Ytasha L. Womack, Ishmael Reed, and Mark Dery who coined the term in 1992. Even the great Zora Neale Hurston has been described as an Afrofuturist. And when the focus shifts to Black music, the following names often appear: Sun Ra, Parliament-Funkadelic, Grace Jones, OutKast, Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, and Janelle Monáe. But While Afrofuturism has been characterized as a philosophy, a movement, and a cultural aesthetic, among other things, there has been little discussion of the spiritual principles that essentially comprise the conceptual foundation of Afrofuturism in music. ...”

Carnegie Hall (Video)

Sun Ra

​The Infrared Hunt for Russian Troops in the Battle for Bakhmut

"BAKHMUT, Ukraine — Wind howled through leafless trees and through the windows of the blown-out apartment building as the surveillance team marched up flights of stairs covered with broken glass. The cold numbed their fingers as they set up their equipment: a laptop-size thermal imaging sight, its tripod and a Starlink satellite dish and battery. The job was straightforward: The small team of several men, led by an American known as Wolf, would be Ukraine’s eyes on their battle for Bakhmut that night, huddling in the Soviet-style apartment and staring at the white-and-black glow of infrared images as it tried to identify Russian positions.In front of them was a panoramic view of Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine’s east, mostly without power and devastated by six months of concerted shelling. ...”

NY Times

NY Times - An Alternate Reality: How Russia’s State TV Spins the Ukraine War

Guardian: Why Crimea is Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s greatest bargaining chip

NY Times: Opinion | Are We in the West Weaker Than Ukrainians?

An explosion lighted up the sky as a small surveillance team for the Ukrainian Army scanned the horizon over Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine.

​France beat Morocco to reach final: Mbappe v Messi, Amrabat’s tackle and a rare fast start

W – Antoine Griezmann “France withstood an impressive Morocco display to set up a World Cup final with Argentina on Sunday that pits Kylian Mbappe against his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Lionel Messi. Theo Hernandez, who came into the France side in the first game when his brother Lucas suffered a tournament-ending knee injury, scored the opening goal after just five minutes, acrobatically steering the ball past goalkeeper Yassine Bounou. …”
The Athletic
NY Times: Why Antoine Griezmann Is France’s Most Important Player
Guardian: France bring Morocco’s adventure to an end and reach World Cup final
Guardian: Antoine Griezmann’s devilment gives France the edge when it matters
The Analyst: France 2-0 Morocco: France Through to Fourth Final in Last Seven World Cups

“Julian Alvarez and Lionel Messi starred for Argentina as they swept past Croatia to seal a place in the World Cup final. Messi opened the scoring from the spot after Alvarez was fouled by the Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. Then Alvarez bundled his way through a scrambling Croatia defence to make it two before the break, and the two players combined for a brilliant third goal in the 69th minute. …”
The Athletic:Argentina beat Croatia to reach final: Alvarez stars, magical Messi assist, goodbye Modric
Guardian: Inspired Lionel Messi takes Argentina past Croatia and into World Cup final
The Analyst – Argentina 3-0 Croatia: Lionel Messi is One Game From Immortality
NY Times: Lionel Messi’s World Cup Magic Continues in Argentina’s Romp Over Croatia (Video)

 

​The Best Experimental Music of 2022

"Welcome to the year-end edition of Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp, in which we’ve picked 12 of our favorites from 2022. There was so much great experimental music on the site this year that no list could truly represent the breadth and depth of it all, but we are sure that these releases below are worthy of your time. Presented in alphabetical order by artist, our selections include ground-shaking drones, songs sung by artificial intelligence, a moving musical elegy, an homage to the VHS tape, and a 71-minute magnum opus. ...”

Bandcamp (Audio)

Defenses Carved Into the Earth

"Trenches are not new to Ukraine. Trench warfare has long been a feature of the battle in eastern Ukraine for the Donbas region. Ukrainians fight from their own trenches on their side of the line near Popasna, where Russians are waging an intense campaign to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the city of Bakhmut. But the pace and the scale of Russian construction over the last couple of months is unmatched. All of the structures in the image above appeared within six days. The fortifications show how Russia’s military is trying to set up more robust, defensible positions against Ukrainian pressure, often with the help of natural obstacles like rivers. ...”

NY Times

​The Climate Impact of Your Neighborhood, Mapped

"New data shared with The New York Times reveals stark disparities in how different U.S. households contribute to climate change. Looking at America’s cities, a pattern emerges. Households in denser neighborhoods close to city centers tend to be responsible for fewer planet-warming greenhouse gases, on average, than households in the rest of the country. Residents in these areas typically drive less because jobs and stores are nearby and they can more easily walk, bike or take public transit. And they’re more likely to live in smaller homes or apartments that require less energy to heat and cool. ...”

NY Times

​Counter Intelligence: Detroit

"From the East River to the Pacific Coast, the map of America is dotted by record stores – some famous, some wildly obscure. On Counter Intelligence, RBMA Radio gets the stories of these storefronts straight from the personalities who run them, soundtracked by their signature records. This week, our episodes focus on shops based in Detroit. In advance of their premiere on RBMA Radio, we sent Maxwell Schiano to document each one.  ...”

Red Bull

Donors meet in Paris to get Ukraine through winter and Russian bombing

"Dozens of countries and international organizations threw their weight and more than $1 billion in aid pledges behind an urgent new push Tuesday to keep Ukraine powered, fed, warm and moving amid the onset of winter. An international donor conference in Paris quickly racked up substantial promises of financial and in-kind support, a defiant response to sustained Russian aerial bombardments that have plunged millions into the cold and dark by targeting critical infrastructure. ...”

NBC News (Video)

Guardian: Ukrainian forces damage key bridge near Melitopol, reports say (Video)

Aljazeera: When will global gas prices go down to pre-Ukraine war levels?

Ukrainian citizens make their way through snow on Dec. 7, 2022 in Borodyanka.

Angelo Badalamenti, Composer for ‘Twin Peaks,’ Is Dead at 85

"Angelo Badalamenti, an internationally sought-after composer who wrote the hypnotic theme to ‘Twin Peaks,’ David Lynch’s 1990s television drama series, and the music for five Lynch films, including 'Blue Velvet' (1986), died on Sunday at his home in Lincoln Park, N.J. He was 85. ... Mr. Badalamenti was at the piano behind Isabella Rossellini when she sang ‘Blue Velvet’ at the Slow Club in Lumberton, N.C., a flower-filled, picket-fence kind of town with a very dark side. Aside from the title song, a Bobby Vinton hit from 1963, he had composed much of the film’s music. ...”

NY Times

W - Angelo Badalamenti

YouTube: Angelo Badalamenti explains how he wrote Laura Palmer's Theme, Theme from Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me

​The Disturbing Paintings of Hieronymus Bosch: A Short Introduction

"Most casual viewers of Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings must acknowledge his artistic skill, and many must also wonder whether he was completely out of his mind. But insanity, however vividly suggested by his imagery, isn’t an especially compelling explanation for that imagery. Bosch painted in a particular place and time — the Netherlands of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, to be specific — but he also painted within a dominant worldview. ‘He grew up in a time of deep religious anxiety,’ says Youtuber Hochelaga in the video essay above. ...”

Open Culture (Video)

2016 February: The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymus Bosch (1490 - 1510), 2016 September: Hieronymus Bosch’s Lost Masterpiece, 2018 September: The Hieronymus Bosch Demon Bird Was Spotted Riding the New York City Subway the Other Day…, 2021 April: The Meaning of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights Explained

​In a Wary Arctic, Norway Starts to See Russian Spies Everywhere

"TROMSØ, Norway — In hindsight, some things just didn’t add up about Jose Giammaria. For one, the visiting researcher at the University of Tromsø, in Norway’s Arctic Circle, was ostensibly Brazilian. But he couldn’t speak Portuguese. Then there was the fact that he self-funded his visit, an oddity in academia, and even planned to extend it — yet he never talked about his research. But he was always helpful, even offering to redesign the home page for the Center for Peace Studies, where he worked. That was until Oct. 24, 2022, when Norway’s security police, the PST, arrived with a warrant to search his office. Days later, they announced his arrest as a Russian spy, named Mikhail Mikushin. ...”

NY Times

Aljazeera: EU could face gas shortage next year, IEA warns (Video)

Guardian: In Kyiv, I saw Dante under sandbags – a modern image of the hell of war

NY Times: Russia Is Using Old Ukrainian Missiles Against Ukraine, General Says

An airport employee inside the control tower at the Tromsø airport, where traffic has been disrupted by unauthorized drones.

​How England kept France’s star forward Kylian Mbappe quiet

"There are a handful of players you need to consider for special attention,’ England assistant coach Steve Holland said before the quarter-final against France. ‘You’d have to put (Kylian) Mbappe in that category. We need to look at trying to avoid leaving ourselves in situations where he is as devastating as we’ve seen.’ On a night when Mbappe recorded just one shot and one key pass, and failed to score or assist for the first time when starting a game at this World Cup, here is how England managed to keep him quiet… ”

The Athletic

The Athletic: Why this World Cup is the tournament of the ‘finisher’ (Video)

The Athletic: This is how you can stop Lionel Messi

The Athletic - Alan Shearer: Kane’s penalty miss will hurt and haunt him every day for the rest of his life (Video)

NY Times: This Is Now Morocco’s World Cup

PUSHING IT FORWARD: ILLicit Creatives Claiming Space on the Streets of Queens, Part II

"After a hiatus of several weeks, we are back with our documentation of ILLicit creatives claiming space on the streets of NYC. Pictured above is MFK, the Metal Fingers Krew; what follows are several more graffiti bombs and throwies captured as we revisited Queens. ...”

Street Art NYC

​Ukraine strikes Wagner HQ in Luhansk, governor says

"Ukrainian forces have struck a headquarters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk's Ukrainian governor has said. Serhiy Haidai said a hotel where the group was based in Kadiivka, Luhansk region, was hit. He added there were major Russian losses. The BBC was unable to independently verify Wagner's presence at the hotel. Wagner are state-sponsored mercenaries who act in the Kremlin's interests, according to Western experts. The private military company, set up by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former restaurateur and close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. ...”

BBC

NBC News: Drone strikes leave more than a million without power in southern Ukraine, officials say (Video)

Aljazeera: Saudi minister says ‘all bets off’ if Iran gets nuclear weapon (Video)

Guardian: Putin has to escalate to survive. There can be no lasting peace until he falls

Moscow-backed authorities in Melitopol posted images of a fire

At Proust Weekend: The Madeleine Event

"... In the meantime, I attended some panels. When Lydia Davis was beamed in to talk about her award-winning translation of Swann’s Way, I stared at the cat in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. In order to be properly Proustian, I knew, the center of an experience would be hidden in the margins of the event itself. The events of the Weekend transpired in the second-floor ballroom of the Gilded Age mansion that houses Villa Albertine, the French embassy–adjacent artist’s residency program that had organized the event. Most attendees were, I gathered, elderly residents of the Upper East Side and/or miscellaneous French people. ...”

The Paris Review

More than cake: unravelling the mysteries of Proust’s madeleine

[PDF] Gilles Deleuze - Proust and Signs (2000)

W - Madeleine, Literary reference

2008 June: Marcel Proust, 2011 October: How Proust Can Change Your Life, 2012 April: Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu, 2013 February: Marcel Proust and Swann's Way: 100th Anniversary, 2013 May: A Century of Proust, 2013 October: On Reading Proust, 2015 September: In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way: A Graphic Novel, 2016 January: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (1919), 2016 February: Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy and Translator, 2016 May: The Guermantes Way (1920-21), 2016 August: Marcel Proust’s Search for Lost Time — Patrick Alexander, 2016 October: My Strange Friend Marcel Proust, 2017 March: Sodom and Gomorrah (1921-1922), 2017 August: Letters To His Neighbor by Marcel Proust; translated by Lydia Davis, October: Proust's À la recherche – a novel big enough for the world, 2017 October: Proust Fans Eagerly Await Trove of Letters Going Online, 2017 December: The Prisoner / The Fugitive (1923-1925), 2018 May: Time Regained (1927), 2018 September: Céleste Albaret, 2018 November: In the Footsteps of Marcel Proust, 2019 February: On the Anxiety and Vanity of Marcel Proust, Debut Novelist, 2020 October: 182 Days of Marcel Proust, 2022 June: Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to Hardcover – Eric Karpeles

Sitting On Top Of The World’s Best Blues Album Covers

"We live in an age where the consumption of music is increasingly defined and dominated by digital music, and because of that the importance of album covers seems to be diminishing – at least for a generation where streaming individual tracks rather than a complete set of songs seems a more desirable way to listen. But with the miraculous revival of vinyl – whose sales have increased exponentially over the last couple of years – it’s feasible that album art will come into prominence again, whether that be for hip-hop, rock or the often overlooked world of blues album covers. ...”

udiscover (Video)

​At Nobel Ceremony, Russian Crimes and ‘Imperialism’ Take Center Stage

"KYIV, Ukraine — In an impassioned speech upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, the laureate from Ukraine seized the moment to make an incongruous but powerful point: At this moment in history, she said, the only way to secure democracy, human rights and a lasting peace in Ukraine is to fight. ‘People of Ukraine want peace more than anyone else in the world,’ said Oleksandra Matviychuk, who accepted the prize on behalf of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, which she heads. ‘But peace cannot be reached by a country under attack laying down its arms. This would not be peace, but occupation.’ The other two laureates — Memorial, a Russian research and human rights organization, and Ales Bialiatski, a jailed Belarusian activist — have also become symbols of resistance and accountability during the largest ground war in Europe since World War II, set off by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ...”

NY Times

Aljazeera: Ukrainian, Russian Nobel Peace winners slam Putin’s ‘insane’ war 

NBC News: Nobel Peace Prize winners blast Putin’s invasion of Ukraine (Video)

​Mysteries of a Venetian Perfectionist Revealed in Washington

"... The year is 1882, the American writer is not yet 40, and the him is Vittore Carpaccio: the painter of the early Renaissance whose narrative cycles of Christian saints decorate churches and confraternities all around the maritime city. James is falling in love with Venice, and writing a first essay in which he gasps before the paintings of Tintoretto and Bellini and whines about the other tourists. ... Not quite so bright these days. With the coming of the 20th century, Venice’s pilgrims and day-trippers gravitated to the fervent, agitated paintings of Titian and Tintoretto — Tintoretto even appeared as a ‘contemporary’ artist in a recent Venice Biennale, holding his own in the white cube. Carpaccio, working half a century earlier, was more Gothic and more uptight. ...”

NY Times

W - Vittore_Carpaccio

Vittore Carpaccio, “Saint George and the Dragon” (circa 1504-1507). The artist stars in a survey at the National Gallery of Art. This work, from a narrative cycle that recounts episodes from the lives of the saints, is leaving Italy for the first time.

What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysis

"... Russia fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine in a new onslaught against the country’s civilian infrastructure on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people in residential areas, as Moscow once more tried to retaliate for its military defeats by targeting the population. Ukraine’s armed forces estimated that Russia launched 70 cruise missiles, of which 51 were intercepted by air defences, in what the army called a ‘large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities’, Lorenzo Tondo and Julian Borger reported. One of the 10 that evaded the defences in Kyiv hit an apartment block in the northern suburb of Vyshgorod, killing three people and wounding 15. ...”

Guardian (Video)

NY Times: Qatar Extends Its Natural Gas Dominance at Russia’s Expense 

The Torn Loyalties of Russian Liberals

Guardian: The artists defying Putin’s war on Ukrainian culture (Audio)

The liquid natural gas facility in Ras Laffan, Qatar. The country is becoming an indispensable energy supplier with vast reserves and very low costs.

Mirror - Andrei Tarkovsky (1975)

"Mirror is a 1975 Russian drama film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, unconventionally structured, and incorporates poems composed and read by the director's father, Arseny Tarkovsky. ... Mirror is structured in the form of a nonlinear narrative, with its main concept dating back to 1964 and undergoing multiple scripted versions by Tarkovsky and Aleksandr Misharin. It unfolds around memories recalled by a dying poet of key moments in his life and in Soviet culture. The film combines contemporary scenes with childhood memories, dreams, and newsreel footage. Its cinematography slips between color, black-and-white, and sepia. The film's loose flow of oneiric images has been compared with modernist literature's stream of consciousness technique. ...”

Wikipedia

Andrei Tarkovsky's Mirror Continues to Reflect Intergenerational Trauma

Senses of Cinema

YouTube: Mirror | Restoration Trailer, The Mirror | FULL MOVIE

2012 May: Solaris, 2018 October: Andrei Rublev (1966), 2020 December: Bruegel as Cinema

​The 10 best albums from 1970s New York

"Martin Scorsese’s 1976 masterpiece Taxi Driver says it best. In the grisly thriller, the streets of Manhattan have descended into the postlapsarian dystopian nightmare forecast in a thousand bad acid trips from the decade earlier. The technological fix for a society that the post-war progression promised has been swallowed up in nothing more than the sprawl of concrete, the rise of brutalist architecture and a chronic lack of deodorant. With no life ring cast from those in power or prominence, who were more concerned with threats from afar than the onset of internal decay, the denizens of the city sink into the plashy mire of crime and punishment. ...”

FAR OUT (Video)

​Navigating a War Zone: Ukrainian Railways in Conversation

"Whether in New York City or on the outskirts of Kyiv, riding a rail line can be maddeningly tedious—lugging luggage, trying to comprehend garbled announcements, rushing to platforms. Trains might not run on time, and once the journey begins, they may move slowly, leaving passengers to wonder if they have made any progress. Engineers sit at the head of the train, tucked away, unseen; conductors move through the cars, collecting tickets, answering riders’ questions. Each day these engineers and conductors go to work, getting trains to their destinations, becoming part of the larger system. In Ukraine, however, these workers have taken on a new role—they are first responders in a country in an active war, transporting civilians out of some of its most dangerous areas. Since Russia invaded Ukraine this past February, nearly one-third of Ukrainians have had to flee their homes; according to a recent report from the UN, more than six million people have been displaced within the country and over seven million have sought refuge in other European countries. ...”

Voice

NY Times: Away From the Spotlight, a Debate Rages Over a Postwar Ukraine Economy

NY Times - Opinion | Putin vs. the Priest: A Big Story About a Small Sermon (Video)

Waiting game in a war zone

How Qatar Built Stadiums with Forced Labor

"I will let Vox preface the video above: Ever since Qatar won the rights to host the FIFA World Cup in 2010, its treatment of migrant workers has made international headlines. News stories and human rights organizations revealed migrant workers who built the stadiums, hotels, and all the new infrastructure required for the World Cup were being forced to work, not getting paid, unable to leave, and in some cases, dying. At the heart of the abuse faced by migrant workers is the kafala system. ... To understand how hundreds of thousands of migrant workers were stuck in an exploitative system while building the stadiums for the World Cup, watch our 10-minute video above. ...”

Open Culture (Video)

NY Times: Stadiums as High Art in a World Cup Fantasyland

Poems Collected at Les Deux Mégots/Poets at Le Metro

"During the 1950s, East Tenth Street between Third and Fourth Avenues housed a number of art galleries exhibiting the most advanced art in America on a street that until then had been occupied by pawnshops, pool rooms, and sheet metal shops. During that decade, the area became a primary stomping ground for the young Abstract Expressionist painters and their attendant theorists/promoters, Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg. ... The Tenth Street Coffee House, owned by Micky Ruskin, was the scene from 1960 until 1962 of the first poetry readings in the area (organized by Chester Anderson, Howard Ant, and Ree Dragonette, and including Carol Bergé, Jackson Mac Low, and Diane Wakoski among the readers). Ruskin then moved his cafe and the readings to a larger basement storefront at 64 East Seventh Street, christened Les Deux Mégots Coffee House.  ...”

from a secret location

Village Preservation – “Secret Banned Rites”: Poets at Café Le Metro

Poets at Le Metro 19 (December 1964).

​Volodymyr Zelensky is Time Magazine's 2022 Person of the Year

"Time Magazine has named Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and 'the spirit of Ukraine' as its 2022 Person of the Year. The award goes to an event or person deemed to have had the most influence on global events over the past 12 months. ... The magazine's editor said the decision was ‘the most clear-cut in memory’. ‘In a world that had come to be defined by its divisiveness, there was a coming together around this cause, around this country,’ Edward Felsenthal wrote. He added that the ‘spirit of Ukraine’ referred to Ukrainians around the world, including many who ‘fought behind the scenes’. This includes people like Ievgen Klopotenko, a chef who provided thousands of free meals to Ukrainians and medic Yuliia Payevska who was captured, then released after three months in Russian captivity. ...”

BBC

NY Times: Russian Anti-War Activists Seek Common Goals (When They’re Not Bickering)

Aljazeera: Is Ukraine’s new drone a game-changer in the war? (Video)

GRID - ‘No Dumb Questions’: Why has the war in Ukraine lasted so long?

​Rook Radio 56 // Rare Soul & Funk

"Jay Rook steps back in for the latest episode, bring you another round of rare soul & funk 45s. He journeys from late 60s deep gems from Little Milton all the way to a hint of modern soul sweetness from the likes of Brief Encounter. As usual, expect only vinyl recorded at our Hackney Wick HQ. ...”

Soundcloud (Audio)

YouTube: Rook Radio 56 // Rare Soul & Funk [Vinyl 45 Mix] 

Trump Organization Found Guilty in Tax Fraud Scheme

"The Trump Organization, the family real estate business that made Donald J. Trump a billionaire and propelled him from reality television to the White House, was convicted on Tuesday of tax fraud and other crimes, forever tarring the former president and the company that bears his name. The conviction on all 17 counts, after more than a day of jury deliberations in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, stemmed from the company’s practice of doling out off-the-books perks to executives: They received luxury apartments, leased Mercedes-Benzes, extra cash at Christmas, even free cable television. They paid taxes on none of it. ...”

NY Times

NY Times: House Jan. 6 Committee Signals It Will Issue Criminal Referrals

Ukraine war: Russian missile strikes force emergency power shutdowns

"Ukraine is switching to emergency shutdowns to stabilise its power grid after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks hit the country on Monday. President Volodymyr Zelensky said many regions were affected, and officials said half of the Kyiv region would go without electricity in the coming days. Four people were killed in Monday's attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure. And overnight more missiles hit critical facilities near the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, officials said. In a separate development on Tuesday, the governor of Russia's Kursk region said a drone attack on an airfield set an oil storage tank alight. Videos showed fierce flames and dense black smoke billowing from the site. That came after a series of explosions at two military airfields deep inside Russia on Monday, which Moscow blamed on Ukrainian drones....”

BBC

GRID: Putin’s propagandists have a new message about Ukraine: If we don’t win, we’ll all be tried for war crimes

NY Times: Ukraine’s Philharmonic Plays On (Video)

NY Times: Inside the Face-Off Between Russia and a Small Internet Access Firm

Ukraine is becoming colder, and the authorities are struggling to maintain power supplies