"In early 1994, my late husband Fred Sonic Smith and I were preparing a second album together. We had several songs in mind, one being Summer Cannibals. While strumming the chords, Fred told me a story of his youth in the MC5. He woke up early one morning at a stopover in Georgia, feeling a lot of conflicting emotions. He loved playing music and was a true musician, but the stress and excess of being on the road was taking its toll. He already felt, at the age of twenty, as if he was being devoured. ...
Swagger and Tenderness: The South Bronx Portraits by John Ahearn & Rigoberto Torres
"Inspired and enabled by the people who live in the vibrant community where the Bronx Museum is located, local artists John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres have become world-famous for their portraits of their South Bronx neighbors. ... This major survey exhibition mirrors the creative and loving residents of the South Bronx whose personal stories and innovative aesthetics both reflect and shape culture internationally. Ahearn and Torres are often praised for uplifting their subjects, thus representing social justice, diversity, dignity, and equity. ...”
“Joe Conzo at 17,” 2020, Acryic on plaster
Pet Shop Boys Lost In Russia
"Pet Shop Boys have released a new EP, Lost [YT playlist], of four tracks recorded in 2015 for Super, but held off the album for not fitting thematically. The Lost Room meditates on the alienation of military school, with images from the German film Die Junge Törless [Trailer, 3m] used in the video. I Will Fall is a love song Neil said he could hear George Michael singing. Skeletons In The Closet might be talking about Russia's unwillingness to deal with Stalinism. Kaputnik continues the Russia theme. And finally, Living In The Past seems to be a VERY new song, and again deals with Russia. The video has a demo version of the song. ...”
2008 September: Pet Shop Boys, 2010 November: Pet Shop Boys - 1985-1989, 2011 January: Behaviour, 2011 May: Very, 2011 December: Bilingual, 2012 March: "Always on My Mind", 2012 August: Nightlife, 2012 September: "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)", 2012 December: Release, 2013 March: Pandemonium Tour, 2013 November: Leaving, 2014 April: Introspective (1988), 2014 August: Go West, 2015 January: "So Hard"(1990), 2015 February: "I'm with Stupid" (2006), 2015 July: Thursday EP (2014), 2016 May: "Twenty-something" (2016), 2017 September: Left To My Own Devices / The Sound of the Atom Splitting (1988), 2019 May: It's A Sin (1987), 2021 April: Pet Shop Boys Share Live Cover Of Blur's 'Girls & Boys'
Critic films hilarious taste test of best croissants in Paris while surrounded by riot chaos
"Paris may be on fire and full of stinking rubbish - but that should not prevent you from enjoying your morning croissant. That's the message from fearless video reviewer Luis Sal, who braved riots and strikes on a city-wide taste test of flaky pastries last Thursday. The 25-year-old Italian found himself at the centre of a day of action against President Emmanuel Macron's decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote last month. 'My name is Luis and today I'm in Paris to try the top five croissants, and we're going to see which one is the best,' he says in a YouTube video which had 650,000 views within a day of being posted. Luis is immediately shoved in the back by a riot policeman, as La Rotonde – Mr Macron's favourite Paris restaurant – burns in the background. ...”
Liverpool and how it became the football mural capital of the UK
"It is a glorious spring morning in north Liverpool and John Barnes is gazing up at the latest striking addition to Anfield’s growing collection of street art. Covering the entire end wall of a terraced house on Balfour Street, a five-minute stroll from the stadium he once graced as a player, it consists of two images of Barnes: a close-up of his face — brow furrowed, lips pursed — and another of him unleashing a left-footed shot. …”
Russian Lawyers Ask Court to Ease Crackdown on Speaking Out
"A group of leading Russian lawyers on Tuesday asked the country’s highest court to declare unconstitutional a law banning criticism of the armed forces, in a rare display of opposition to the draconian censorship imposed by the Kremlin in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. The complaint, filed by three lawyers and supported by 10 more, most of whom are still in Russia, asked the Constitutional Court to strike down the measure, which has emerged as the Kremlin’s most effective tool for stifling dissent in the country. ... The censorship laws effectively ban anything that does not correspond to the Kremlin’s depiction of the war, which it continues to call a ‘special military operation.’ They have virtually silenced debate in Russia. ...”
A man walks past an inscription reading 'No to war' left on a wall in Moscow on Jan. 26.
The Comedians Who Helped Define Generation X
"Last May Prime Video launched the sixth season of the legendary sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall. Not a reboot, but a continuation following a 27-year hiatus. The five actor-comedians who make up the troupe — Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson — are older and some of their preoccupations have changed, as death, which pervaded the original series, creeps closer and the generation gap between the troupe and young audiences widens. But to the relief of most critics and fans, they’re still outsiders looking in at mainstream society with curiosity and contempt. ...”
YouTube: Buddy Cole Kids in the Hall Gay Bar Monologue, Chicken Lady - Phone Sex, Comfortable High, Into the Doors, etc.
2011 July: Kids in the Hall, 2015 June: The Kids in the Hall's Scott Thompson on Why Their Comedy Is Timeless
Tucker Carlson, a source of repeated controversies, is out at Fox News.
"Fox News said Monday that it was parting ways with Tucker Carlson, its most popular prime time host who was also the source of repeated controversies and headaches for the network because of his statements on everything from race relations to L.G.B.T.Q. rights. The network made the announcement less than a week after it agreed to pay $787.5 million in a defamation lawsuit in which Mr. Carlson’s show, one of the highest rated on Fox, figured prominently for its role in spreading misinformation after the 2020 election. In making its announcement, Fox offered a terse statement of gratitude. ...”
2022 May: How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable
At Ukraine’s Gravesites, a Spring Ritual Hints at Renewal
"STARYI SALTIV, Ukraine — The families milled about, greeting one another and exchanging news, or sitting at picnic tables laid with candy, Easter eggs and freshly baked bread, reviving village life in an improbable place: the cemetery. Outside the cemetery’s checkerboard of graves, which were festooned on Sunday with fresh flowers and where children ran about collecting candy, the village of Staryi Saltiv is a grim tableau of ruins. ‘You can see people are returning to clean the cemetery, and the village is coming back to life,’ said Natalia Borysovska, a seamstress whose house was destroyed last year. She had no home to return to after fleeing — but still a family plot to tend.Sunday was a traditional day of remembrance in Ukraine, called Provody. Families spend time in cemeteries each year on the first Sunday after the Orthodox Easter, tidying up graves and leaving food and flowers for their dead loved ones. ...”
Alla Chyhyrynska, 64, at the grave of a relative on Sunday in Shestakove, outside Kharkiv. An annual day of remembrance draws villagers to cemeteries in Ukraine.
Watch Cab Calloway Actually Perform “Mr. Hepster’s Dictionary,” His Famous Dictionary of Jazz Slang (1944)
"Who’s up for a good dictionary on film? Colin Browning, assistant editor of The Bluff, a Loyola Marymount University student newspaper, has some kopasetic casting suggestions for a hypothetical feature adaptation of the ‘Merriam-Webster classic.’ He’s just muggin’, of course. Still, he seems like a young man who’s got his boots on. Dig?…no? In that case, you’d best acquaint yourself with the only cinematic dictionary adaptation we’re aware of, the Mr. Hepcat’s Dictionary number from Sensations of 1945, above. Musical team Al Sherman & Harry Tobias drew directly from Cab Calloway’s Cat-ologue: a Hepster’s Dictionary, a lexicon of Harlem jazz musicians’ slang originally published in 1938’ when choosing terms for Calloway to define for a young protégée, eager to be schooled in ‘the lingo all the jitterbugs use today.’ In between, Calloway, lays some iron in white tie and tails. ...”
19th century architectural remnants hiding in today’s Metropolitan Museum of Art
"Every week, thousands of people come to see the millions of artifacts on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the city’s treasures for indoor art viewing and outside people watching. But hidden inside this majestic museum building and its many additions fronting Fifth Avenue from 79th to 84th Streets are some fascinating architectural artifacts. They’re not officially on exhibit, nor do they come with captions explaining their origins. These are the remnants of the museum’s first incarnation as a much smaller Romanesque- and Gothic-style structure dating back to 1879—nine years after a group of citizens decided Gotham needed a world-class art museum, then put plans in place to make it happen. ...”
Ukraine war: The Russian ships accused of North Sea sabotage
"Russia has a programme to sabotage wind farms and communication cables in the North Sea, according to new allegations. The details come from a joint investigation by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It says Russia has a fleet of vessels disguised as fishing trawlers and research vessels in the North Sea. They carry underwater surveillance equipment and are mapping key sites for possible sabotage. The BBC understands that UK officials are aware of Russian vessels moving around UK waters as part of the programme. The first of a series of reports is due to be broadcast on Wednesday by DR in Denmark, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden and Yle in Finland. ...”
Best Reggae Producers: 10 Pioneers Of Jamaica’s Musical Legacy
"The best reggae producers pioneered new sounds and recording techniques. They also ensured that Jamaica was recognized as a country capable of creating worldwide stars. From helping to sow the seeds of hip-hop to ushering in the ‘version,’ or creating utterly unique music that couldn’t have been made by anyone else, in any other place, the best reggae producers deserve to be held up alongside any other sonic innovators in musical history.Here are the best reggae producers of all time. ...”
Sir Coxsone Dodd
Time and Its Other: The Temporal Landscapes of Béla Tarr
"There is something almost tormenting and inhuman about the cinema of Hungarian director Béla Tarr. The characters and faces feel foreign or even alien, as well as the situations they find themselves in. It is as if an apathetic fisherman has hooked something more alive even than fish that refuses to resist. But isn’t resistance a condition of life, or is it just the way we have come to think of it? The famous escape – what Fitzgerald calls ‘the journey into a trap’ – is an opportunity or a crack, an image of the resistance-against-and-beyond the already monolithic rolling of the hours, but not salvation, never salvation. Tarr makes me want to help the catch, to unhook it and throw it back into the depths from which it came. But I know – its wounds are incurable. ...”
2012 January: The Man from London, 2012 January: The Turin Horse, 2022 September: Damnation (1988), 2022 September: : Sátántangó (1994)
The Turin Horse (2011)
The Making of Modern Ukraine, Yale’s famous course on Ukrainian history by Professor Timothy Snyder
"’Everyone needs a future. We need a politics of the future; we need an event that can break us out of our rut and which will point us towards a future. I believe it’s very important that Europeans and others help to offer Ukrainians a future after this war in the form of membership in the European Union, and in the form of generous aid which allows Ukrainians to rebuild,’ said Professor Timothy Snyder, a famous historian in his speech at the Kyiv Security Forum on May 8, 2022. This fall, Dr. Snyder is making his lecture course on Ukraine at Yale University, The Making of Modern Ukraine, available to all interested. ... As stated in Yale University’s course catalog, the course represents a ‘study of Ukraine from the Cossack rebellions of 1648 to the democratic revolution of 2004. Topics include the decadence of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, Russian and Austrian imperial rule, the collapse of traditional Jewish and Polish social life, the attraction of Russian culture, the emergence of a Ukrainian national movement, civil war, modernization, terror, the consequences of Nazi occupation (including genocide and ethnic cleansing), problems of democratic reform, and European integration since 1991′. In somber times of russian invasion into Ukrainian sovereignty, the course also underlines the uniqueness of Ukraine’s national identity. ...”
NY Times: The War in Ukraine Has Unleashed a New Word By Timothy Snyder (April 22, 2022)
Thinking about... (Video/Audio)
Netflix Will End Its DVD Service, 5.2 Billion Discs Later
"Call up your Luddite loved ones and your nostalgic friends who still cherish physical media. After 25 years, Netflix is ending its DVD-by-mail business. Before it was upending the entertainment industry and ushering in the streaming era, Netflix was a company whose business model revolved around sending DVDs through the mail in easily recognizable red-and-white envelopes. At its peak, in 2010, roughly 20 million subscribed to the DVD service. But the practice has long felt anachronistic, and the company said on Tuesday that it will ship its final DVDs to customers on Sept. 29. How many customers? ...”
Elevating the Underground: The ’70s NYC Loft Jazz Scene
"... That’s how [Wadada Leo} Smith describes the origins of the loft music scene that arose in 1970s New York City, a DIY network of literally homegrown venues created by and for musicians who transcended the conventions of jazz—even the term itself. ... Nevertheless, ‘loft jazz’ is the tag commonly attached to the movement that began in earnest when players turned their downtown NYC homes into performance spaces, mostly in Greenwich Village East and West; Soho; and the Lower East Side.In the pre-gentrification ‘70s, much of Manhattan’s southerly section was a textbook example of urban blight. But that’s what made it possible for musicians to occupy loft spaces on the cheap. ...”
A $787.5 Million Settlement and Embarrassing Disclosures: The Costs of Airing a Lie
A 1962 sign from the John Birch Society imploring people to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Henry Taylor’s B Side: Where Mind Shapes Itself to Canvas
"Ages ago when there were LP records and 45s, the B side of a popular single made allowances for experimentation and could be counted on as an alternative vision to the more mainstream and compulsory hit single. ... Henry Taylor’s thirty-year retrospective at MOCA Grand pays homage to the unexpected, the visceral, and the odd man out, and like any successful B side, you want to keep listening. Featuring more than 150 works that include paintings, drawings, sculptures, and painted objects like cereal boxes and beer crates, this survey represents a vision forged in fire yet tempered with tremendous sensitivity, compassion, and humor. ...”
Warning shots not required, 2011
Russia Is Importing Western Weapons Technology, Bypassing Sanctions
"Late last month, American and European Union officials traded information on millions of dollars worth of banned technology that was slipping through the cracks of their defenses and into Russian territory. Senior tax and trade officials noted a surge in chips and other electronic components being sold to Russia through Armenia, Kazakhstan and other countries, according to slides from the March 24 meeting obtained by The New York Times. And they shared information on the flow of eight particularly sensitive categories of chips and other electronic devices that they have deemed as critical to the development of weapons, including Russian cruise missiles that have been used to strike Ukraine. As Ukraine tries to repel Russia from its territory, the United States and its allies have been fighting a parallel battle to keep the chips needed for weapons systems, drones and tanks out of Russian hands. ...”
Smoke rises from the site of a Russian rocket strike in March at an industrial complex in Slovyansk, Ukraine.
East L.A. walkouts
"The East Los Angeles Walkouts or Chicano Blowouts were a series of 1968 protests by Chicano students against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. The first walkout occurred on March 5, 1968. The students who organized and carried out the protests were primarily concerned with the quality of their education. This movement, which involved thousands of students in the Los Angeles area, was identified as ‘the first major mass protest against racism undertaken by Mexican-Americans in the history of the United States.’ …”
W – East L.A. walkouts, W – Sal Castro, W – David Sanchez (activist), W – Vickie Castro, W – Carlos Montes, W – La Raza (newspaper)
YouTube: Yo Soy Chicano: The East LA Student Walkouts of 1968, The 1968 East L.A. Student Walkouts (y Ruben P.C.)
Nearly two full years before the walkouts, eighteen demonstrators picketed in front of Lincoln High School in 1966 to protest against the lack of counseling services and educational opportunities for Latino students.
My Curtains, My Radiator
"I moved to Chicago late last summer and spent my first evening alone scrubbing and rescrubbing an old dresser I had found in the basement of my new apartment. It was plastered in dust and cobwebs, and dotted with some small dried-out things that were probably once eggs. Underneath, it was beautiful—maybe a hundred years old, a deep cherry color with intricate metal handles. I cleaned it and stapled fabric to the bottoms of the drawers, which still catch sometimes and deposit small slivers of wood on my T-shirts. Still, it works well enough. I loved the apartment when I moved in. ...”
Ukraine reports ‘unprecedented bloody battles’ in Bakhmut
"Ukraine’s military has reported ‘bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades’ in the eastern city of Bakhmut as the death toll from a Russian attack on residential buildings in nearby Sloviansk climbed to 11. The reported battles on Saturday came as the Russian defence ministry said fighters from its Wagner mercenary group had captured two more areas of Bakhmut. Wagner has spearheaded Russia’s attempt to take the city – the main target of Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine – since last summer.The fight has been the longest and deadliest battle of the war for both sides. ... It added that Russian army paratroop units were supporting the claimed advance by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks. ...”
Ukrainian artillery fires towards the front line during heavy fighting near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on April 13, 2023
Searching for Lost Time in the World’s Most Beautiful Calendar
"Another year. A season passed. We’ve made it through winter: food from the larder and hoary-headed frosts. The meals were heavy. So were the ermine capes, the wools and silks on our heads. Dry January came and went. Resolutions frayed as the weeks ticked by. What does it mean to live a life in time? A life divided into equal parts, shaped by the stars, named for gods and saints? To speak astronomically, a year has a simple definition: one trip around the sun. From one vernal equinox to the next takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. Give or take. But for a long time before Copernicus put forth his heliocentric model, artists and augurers were mapping the phases of the moon and the changing of the seasons to mark the years. We’ve been making calendars since the Bronze Age. They recur across civilizations, and across systems of knowledge. ...”
From one vernal equinox to the next takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. Give or take.
Remanence ~ Sepiadrone (2023)
"Here’s some advice we seldom hear: best played at medium volume. Remanence (Brian McWilliams, previously covered as Aperus, and John Phipps) also recommend that the music be played at night so the nuances can blend with ‘the muted atmosphere of a quiet environment.’ They are right; these drones are poorly suited to sunshine, preferring to exist in the backgrounds, corners and closets, seeping out as the night descends. The dark ambient gurgles and long, slow drones are akin to those of artists on the Cold Spring label, though Remanence admits a slice of filtered light. ...”
US thinks UN chief too accommodating to Moscow, leaked files suggest
"The US believes the UN secretary general is too willing to accommodate Russian interests, according to fresh revelations in classified documents leaked online. The files suggest Washington has been closely monitoring Antonio Guterres. Several documents describe private communications involving Mr Guterres and his deputy. It is the latest from a leak of secret documents, which US officials are scrambling to get to the bottom of. The documents contain candid observations from Mr Guterres about the war in Ukraine and a number of African leaders. One leaked document focuses on the Black Sea grain deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey in July, following fears of a global food crisis. It suggests that Mr Guterres was so keen to preserve the deal he was willing to accommodate Russia's interests. ...”
Antonio Guterres (C) visited war-ravaged Ukraine in April of last year
A Growing W.N.B.A. Still Boxes Out Some Personalities
"Aliyah Boston, one of the most dominant and decorated players in women’s college basketball, was selected with the top pick in the W.N.B.A. draft Monday night. ... Since Angel Reese made a mocking gesture to Caitlin Clark at the end of the N.C.A.A. Division I championship game between Louisiana State and Iowa nearly two weeks ago, players, fans and internet rabble-rousers have weighed in on racial double standards that exist in the women’s game: How ponytailed, high-scoring white players are lauded for their brashness while Black women who talk trash are vilified for it. The matter of racial hypocrisy has been a bone of contention in the W.N.B.A., a league where 80 percent of players are women of color but that, players say, has struggled to promote its Black stars. ...”
Aliyah Boston declared for the W.N.B.A. draft after playing in the 2021 and 2022 Division I championship basketball games with South Carolina.
Patch & Tweak: Exploring Modular Synthesis
"When asked to suggest a book on modular synthesis, many musicians used to recommend text books or manuals from the 60s and 70s. But the world has changed a lot since then – so Kim Bjørn and I created PATCH & TWEAK: a new book dedicated to modular synthesizers. It covers the instruments themselves, as well as those who create and make music with them. Dozens of artists and hundreds of modules are featured, as well as numerous patch ideas and other indispensable information, all wrapped in a gorgeous design. ...”
The Final Blocks: Inside Ukraine’s Bloody Stand for Bakhmut
"After 10 months of one of the longest and bloodiest battles in Russia’s war in Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers are now defending a shrinking half-circle of ruins in a western neighborhood of Bakhmut, only about 20 blocks wide and continually pounded with artillery. Pushed into this ever-smaller corner of the 16-square-mile city, the Ukrainian army is determined to hunker down and hold out, even as allies have quietly questioned the rationale for fighting block by block, sustaining significant casualties, in a city that is a devastating panorama of damaged buildings and rubble. Even six weeks ago, Ukraine’s toehold in Bakhmut, site of some of the fiercest urban combat in Europe since World War II, had seemed tenuous and the city close to being encircled, according to recently leaked U.S. intelligence documents. ...”
POLITICO - ‘We’ve proved everybody wrong’: Ukraine claps back after counteroffensive intel leak (Video)
A drone flying a giant Ukrainian national flag passes over the Motherland monument during Ukraine's Independence Day on August 24, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Eddie Palmieri – Unfinished Masterpiece (1975)
"The Runners-Up is a monthly column, which we first tried in 2013, wherein we will analyze an album that isn’t the consensus first choice or most canonical title by a given artist, but is one worthy of more attention than it’s received to date. The album we’ll look at this month is…Eddie Palmieri‘s 1975 album, Unfinished Masterpiece. A vast number of musicians appear on Unfinished Masterpiece: on most tracks, Palmieri is joined by Victor Paz on trumpet, Barry Rogers on trombone, Peter Gordon on French horn, Tony Price on tuba, Lou Marini (’Blue Lou’ from the Blues Brothers band) on alto sax, Lou Orenstein on tenor sax, Mario Rivera on tenor and baritone saxes, Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax and flute, Alfredo de la Fe on violin, Andy Gonzalez on bass, Tommy Lopez Jr. on bongos, Eladio Perez and Jerry Gonzalez on congas, and Nicky Marrero on timbales. ...”
2014 March: Harlem River Drive - Harlem River Drive (1971), 2017 December: Nu Yorica: Culture Clash In New York City - Experiments in Latin Music 1970-77, 2018 December: Latin Underground Revolution: Swinging Boogaloo, Guaguanco, Salsa & Latin Funk from New York City 1967-1978, 2018 July: The Soul Of Spanish Harlem / El Barrio: Sounds from the Spanish Harlem Streets, 2022 January: East Harlem/Spanish Harlem/El Barrio
Private Lives: Ian Penman On Rainer Werner Fassbinder
"Rainer Werner Fassbinder is not an artist who fits conveniently anywhere these days, an anachronistic conundrum wrapped up in an enigma. So it makes a strange sort of sense that Ian Penman’s new book Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors comes to us when it does. Penman missed the date for the 40th anniversary of the German director’s death last June, but then he was never really aiming for it in the first place. Furthermore, Penman is somehow only now getting around to having his first book released (Fitzcarraldo Editions previously published an anthology of music writing, It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track, in 2019). This unconventional Fassbinder biography adheres to no formal structure, giving the impression that thoughts are jotted down as they occur and then numbered sequentially. ...”
2014 May: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 2014 June: Effi Briest (1974), 2014 July: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), 2014 September: A Little Chaos: A Short Crime Film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Enfant Terrible of New German Cinema, 2014 October: Lola - (1981 BRD Trilogy), 2014 October: The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979 BRD Trilogy), 2014 December: Veronika Voss (1982 - BRD Trilogy), 2015 January: Digital Anthology: Rainer Werner Fassbinder - $0.99, 2016 February: The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971), 2019 June: Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
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