Deep Art Nature

"Souvenirs" - John Prine (1972)

"As much of the world has come to know, John Prine had a genius for laughing at life. Almost all of his foundational stories, the ones about how he became who he became, are funny. Funny but true. This applies to the writing, playing and recording of ‘Souvenirs,’ one of his classic and most beloved songs. ... Videos by American SongwriterInstead, ‘Souvenirs’ was relegated to his second album, Diamonds in the Rough, released in 1972. Produced also by Arif Mardin, who produced his debut, it was done quicker and at lower cost, which is what John wanted. ...”

Behind The Song: “Souvenirs” by John Prine (Video)

YouTube: John Prine & Steve Goodman - Souvenirs (Live)

2010 February: John Prine, 2011 October: John Prine - 1, 2012 May: Diamonds in the Rough., 2013 September: Sweet Revenge (1973), , 2020 April: Living in the Present with John Prine

The USWNT shootout that ended its World Cup

"Penalties are always a game of chance, turning 120 minutes into a matter of inches. For the U.S. women’s national team, those inches, or even a single millimeter, mattered the most on Sunday as it bowed out of the World Cup to Sweden at the quarter-final stage with a 5-4 loss in penalties. These penalties were unlike most that we’ve seen from the U.S. Megan Rapinoe missed for the first time in years. Alyssa Naeher stepped up and scored as a surprise sixth selection. Sophia Smith, whose form going into the tournament had been red hot, missed hers as well. Any of those moments could easily have been the biggest takeaway from this shootout were it not for what happened at the very end, as goal-line technology decided the end of the shootout when Naeher couldn’t get a palm on the winning spot kick in time after parrying upward on the initial effort. ...”

The Athletic (Video)

The Athletic: USWNT out of World Cup after epic shootout vs. Sweden: Key takeaways, analysis (Video)

The Athletic: USWNT’s historic World Cup exit was decided by millimeters — now comes the fallout

YouTube: USWNT vs. Sweden: WILD Penalty Shootout in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup (7:39), Sweden vs. United States Highlights | 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup | Round of 16 (4:53)

As War in Ukraine Grinds On, Fighting Intensifies Beyond Established Battlefields

"Ukrainian strikes on Russian ships in the Black Sea. Waves of drones fired at Moscow. A Russian attack on a Ukrainian port on the Danube River near the Romanian border. Nearly a year and a half into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both sides appear increasingly ready to open a new dimension in the war, taking violence to people and to places that have largely been spared until now. The attacks have come as Ukraine presses on with a counteroffensive in the south and east that it launched around two months ago, with no sign yet that Russian lines have been decisively breached. ...”

NY Times

NY Times: Putin’s Forever War

BBC: The Russians hunting for cheap flats in occupied Mariupol

POLITICO: ‘Stalinist.’ Putin nemesis Alexei Navalny gets 19 more years in prison

Damaged buildings in Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine, on Friday.

Have Climate Questions? Get Answers Here.

July 3, 2023: “Climate change is tremendously complex — and we’re here to help. The climate desk at The Times has been collecting reader questions and has started answering them here. Type your question in the search box to see if we’ve covered it yet. If you don’t find an answer, don’t worry: We’re following your great questions and will add more in time. ...”

NY Times

NY Times: This Looks Like Earth’s Warmest Month. Hotter Ones Appear to Be in Store. (July 27, 2023)

NY Times: What This Year’s ‘Astonishing’ Ocean Heat Means for the Planet (Aug. 3, 2023)

NY Times: A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy (Aug. 4, 2023), Project 2025: About Project 2025

Asymmetric Cut – Davide Bernardi

"1. Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why? One of my favorite knobs are all the Arturia MicroFreak potentiometers, but my fav thing about the MF is the touch sensitive keyboard (I was scared at the beginning, but now I’m totally in love). Another thing that I like so much, are the wooden and clicky buttons of the OrganelleM. 2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change? I don’t own many things, I have the Critter & Guitari Organelle M, Norns Shield by Garret Labs (+ Novation Launchpad Mini MK2 as 64 ‘Grid’), Arturia MicroFreak, Koma Elektronic Field Kit FX, Zoom MS-70CDR pedal and an old Panasonic Dictaphone. ...”

Martin

YouTube: Davide Bernardi / Asymmetric Cut

Instagram (Audio), Bandcamp (Audio), SoundCloud (Audio)

Show us your current studio - Desktop Studio

Sunken Ice Cream Trucks Were Used Create Artificial Reefs in NYC

"The bottom of the ocean is a mysterious place, often home to many objects that are not naturally part of marine life. However, some of these confusing objects found on the ocean floor were not victims of falling overboard or sinking ships, they were actually placed there on purpose. Since its official establishment in 1962, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Artificial Reef Program has been sinking unlikely objects with the hopes of promoting biodiversity off the shores of coastal states. One of their most iconic projects took place in the mid-1960s when they sank a fleet of Good Humor ice cream trucks. ...”

UntappedCities

2021 June: Flashback: Good Humor delighted generations with its curbside delivery of ice cream bars — and not even the mob could stop it

New Doc Contextualizes the Impact of ‘Midnight Cowboy’

"When it opened in the theaters in 1969, John Schlesinger’s masterpiece Midnight Cowboy shook Hollywood to its core. The story of wannabe hustler, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), and his limping, brash compatriot, ‘Ratso’ Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), not only exposed audiences to the dark corners of society but condemned a system that left people dead on the street, which is portrayed in the movie’s opening montage with Harry Nilsson’s ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ on the soundtrack. ... Writer-director Nancy Buirski’s compelling documentary, Desperate Souls, Dark City & The Legend of Midnight Cowboy contextualizes this cultural juggernaut, which garnered Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. ...”

Voice (Video)

W – Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy

2017 September: Midnight Cowboy - John Schlesinger (1969)

Pastor or Traitor? Ukrainians Shun a Church Seen as a Kremlin Tool.

"For two decades, Ilya Solkan served as the parish priest in a tiny Ukrainian village outside the capital, Kyiv. He baptized babies, blessed marriages and conducted funerals. The Orthodox church stood at the heart of the village and Mr. Solkan was central to its life. ... Today, he is unemployed and has been ostracized from the village after parishioners booted him out last October for putting politics into his pastoral care.The removal of Mr. Solkan, a priest with no public profile beyond his home village, reflects the gradual rejection by much of Ukrainian society of a church that answers to Moscow — a process that has been accelerated by the war. Specifically, it speaks to the division between the two branches of Orthodox Christianity, the most predominant religion in Ukraine. ...”

NY Times

Ukraine war latest: More explosions reported in occupied Crimea (Video)

The Intercept_: A Pro-Putin Facebook Network Is Pumping French-Language Propaganda Into Africa

Guardian: Vladimir Putin aiming for ‘global catastrophe’, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Parishioners leaving church after a service in Blystavytsya, Ukraine. The village has switched its allegiance from the Russian Orthodox Church to the Ukrainian national church.

Black Roots - Sugar Minott (1979)

"Recorded for Island's Mango label in 1979, Black Roots is among Sugar Minott's earlier solo efforts and is also among the best albums that the Jamaican singer ever recorded. Black Roots isn't an album to acquire if you're looking for slickness; Minott favors simplicity throughout this LP, which often recalls the northern soul and sweet soul of the '60s. If you combined Stax's raw production style with the type of sweetness that characterized a lot of Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia soul and added a reggae beat, the outcome might sound something like Black Roots. ...”

allmusic (Audio)

W - Black Roots

amazon

YouTube: Black Roots (Full)

2020 November: Sugar Minott @ Studio 1

JAN. 6 RIOT ‘FUELED BY LIES,’ INDICTMENT SAYS

"Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted on Tuesday in connection with his widespread efforts to overturn the 2020 election following a sprawling federal investigation into his attempts to cling to power after losing the presidency. The indictment, filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Federal District Court in Washington, accuses Mr. Trump of three conspiracies: one to defraud the United States; a second to obstruct an official government proceeding, the certification of the Electoral College vote; and a third to deprive people of a civil right, the right to have their votes counted. Mr. Trump was also charged with a fourth count of obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. ...”

NY Times: Trump Indictment (Video)

POLITICO: Trump’s Jan. 6 Indictment Might Just Matter

NY Times: The Trump Classified Documents Indictment, Annotated

NY Times: Trump Jan. 6 Indictment Relies Heavily on House Panel’s Work

NY Times: Trump’s Case Has Broad Implications for American Democracy

***NY Times: Trump’s Classified Documents Inquiry***

***POLTICO: Latest updates: The indictment of former President Donald Trump***

DJ Angelo

"In today’s saturated marketplace, DJ ANGELO is a much needed breath of fresh air and a breed of DJ the world never had before. Multi-talented yet grounded, multi-faceted yet focused – he continues to innovate the art form, elevate his followers, and push the boundaries of what a DJ is capable of. When he’s not winning World DJ Championships and touring every continent of the globe with his explosive live shows, ANGELO is an in-demand Creative Consultant and Content Producer for many global brands in the music space, and beyond. ...”

DJ Angelo (Video)

YouTube: Funky Turntablism, DJAngelo

Aksak Maboul: Before And After Bandits (Documents 1977-1980, 2015)

"Formed in 1977 by Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis, the Belgian avant-rock band, Aksak Maboul, excelled at the playful construction of ersatz yet exciting musical forms and counterfeit cross-cultural soundtracks that seem ever more radical and innovative with the passing of time. Their first recording, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (‘Eleven Dances for Fighting Migraines’), fused early electronica, classical chamber orchestral, improvised jazz, Balkan folk, traditional Turkish music and Satie-esque miniatures with a light and humorous touch that transcended its hybrid nature to anticipate future musical forms, such as its proto-techno opener ‘Saure Gurke.’ ...”

The Quietus - Before And After Bandits: Marc Hollander Of Aksak Maboul & Crammed Discs (Video)

YouTube: Aksak Maboul: Before And After Bandits (Documents 1977-1980, 2015) 1:18:38

2014 November: Aksak Maboul, 2017 July: Made to Measure, Vol. 1 (1984), 2020 March: Tout a une fin / Blaue Bleistift (2020), 2020 August: Aksak Maboul ‎– Figures (2020), 2020 September: From Aksak Maboul to Crammed Discs, Marc Hollander Envisions a Musical Melting Pot, 2023 April: Une Aventure De VV - Songspiel (2023)

The Outsider – Colin Wilson (1956)

“Like Aldous Huxley and C S Lewis with John F Kennedy, the English writer Colin Wilson had the misfortune of dying on the same day as a vastly (and justly) more famous man: Nelson Mandela. When Wilson’s first book, The Outsider, came out in 1956 — coinciding with the arrival of a noisy cohort of anti-establishment writers labelled the ‘Angry Young Men’ — he became an overnight sensation: a self-taught, ‘staggeringly erudite’, working-class, provincial 24-year-old hailed by highbrow reviewers as Britain’s answer to Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. ...”

Aeon

The Rise and Fall of Colin Wilson and the Night he Met Marilyn Monroe

W – The Outsider

amazon

Roots Daughters Vol 1&2

"The main stage at this year’s festival will feature a unique fusion of some of the best and brightest female voices in UK reggae. A special showcase from Mad Professor’s Ariwa label will see The Roots Daughters making a heartful and defiant impression on the Wilkswood Reggae faithful. Sista Aisha, Awa Fall and Redhead QI will be joined by the Robotiks for some solid live roots. ...”

Wilkswood Reggae (Video)

YouTube: Roots Daughters Vol 1&2 (Full Albums) 1:17:07

On a changing block in Chelsea, a Broadway set designer’s 1904 studio still stands

"The luxury architecture of today’s far West Chelsea is surrounded by ghosts: of former horse stables, converted warehouses, and the steel trestle of the elevated railway that once carried trains and is now traversed by pedestrians. Some of these ghosts offer mysterious clues about their former residents. Case in point: the blond-brick building on the south side of West 29th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. ‘John H. Young’ a terra cotta plaque above the door at Number 536 reads. ‘Studios 1904.’ Who was John H. Young? ...”

Ephemeral New York

The Artists of Dialogue

"... Widely acknowledged as the world’s leading collection of Orientalist art outside of museums, [Shafik] Gabr describes his three decades of collecting more than 180 paintings as not only ‘a personal journey,’ but also ‘a message I want to pass on.’ In 1993 Gabr bought his first painting: Egyptian Priest Entering a Temple, painted in 1892 by Ludwig Deutsch, a Paris-based artist of Austrian heritage and one of the most prominent Orientalists. Its pharaonic theme, Gabr says, resonated. ...”

Aramco World (Audio)

2018 April: Orientalism - Edward W. Said (1978)

Étienne Dinet - “Spectators Admiring a Dancer,” 1905.

13th Street Repertory Theatre – Greenwich Village

"The wilting three-story building in Greenwich Village that houses the 13th Street Repertory Company creaked and groaned as its artistic director, Joe Battista, gave a tour of its theater one afternoon in July. The Repertory opened in 1972 and is one of the oldest Off Off Broadway theaters in New York. Mr. Battista walked past its 65 tattered seats and onto its stage. … According to theater lore, Williams stood downstage right shortly before his death and proclaimed that the future of American theater was not on Broadway, but in small playhouses like 13th Street. ...”

NY Times: The Little Theater That Could

W – 13th Street Repertory Theatre

Daytonian in Manhattan

Maria Prymachenko, a picturesque region - Kyiv

"Maria Prymachenko grew up in Polissya, a picturesque region near Kyiv. With no formal artistic training, she took inspiration from nature. Regardless of floods or droughts, she continued to work amidst adversity, and was fortified by an inner light. Maria Prymachenko spent almost her entire life in her native village, rarely venturing far away. But in her imagination, she created a universe that audiences can continue to explore and delight in today. Since the destruction by Russian forces of a local museum housing Prymachenko’s works, it has only been possible to see the artist’s paintings through exhibitions such as this. During times of war, Prymachenko’s art became a source of strength for Ukrainians. It reminds them of their own power, their incredible past, and what the future could hold. ...”

Saatchi Gallery

Guardian - Removing statues and renaming streets: Odesa cuts out Russia

NY Times - They Tried to Rally South America Behind Ukraine. They Nearly Got Killed.

BBC - Ukraine war: Western armour struggles against Russian defences

NBC News - Explosion rocks Russian city close to Ukraine border (Video)

Maria Prymachenko. No Name. London, 2023.

Cooking with Elizabeth David - Valerie Stivers

"Elizabeth David considered herself ‘not a writer really you know, but only a self-made one’—primarily a cook. And she wasn’t a typical writer, even within her chosen genre of food writing. David abhorred the arty and artificial, kept her private life to herself, and made concessions to her audience only when it suited her values. Her voice, especially in her journalism, is acerbic—she was a woman who liked to eat well, and didn’t care what you thought of that. And yet she has been England’s most influential food writer since the peak of her career in the fifties, and she remains a household name in the UK. Her groundbreaking works, A Book of Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking, and simply Italian Food, all published just after World War II, introduced the English to those cuisines. ...”

The Paris Review

The Paris Review - Valerie Stivers

The Story of the Blues

"The blues is the most important genre in all of modern popular music, bar none. To understand why, think of the blues as the parent and the music that descended from it as grandchildren and great grandchildren. Out of the blues came jazz and boogie-woogie, which led to rock, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and eventually to hip-hop. Country music was first country and western music, which was a category that Billboard invented to separate white blues from Black music. Rosco Gordon’s swaying ‘No More Doggin’ became a foundational record for the creation of ska, which later spawned reggae. It would be astonishing if it were fiction, but it’s true. One reason it’s true is that the blues is a universal music. ...”

Bandcamp (Audio)

The Picasso Capers

"If social art history entails studying an artwork’s reception, few scholars have been so committed to this approach as Hannah Gadsby. Already in secondary school, at Launceston College near Tasmania’s northern coast, they developed a novel mode of discourse analysis. For an assignment, the future comedian was asked to ‘write about one piece of work.’ They chose Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, ‘the painting that adorned the cover of my book about Cubism,’ as they explain in their 2022 memoir, Ten Steps to Nanette. ...”

ARTFORUM

Brooklyn Museum - It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby (Video)

NY Times: With Hannah Gadsby’s ‘It’s Pablo-matic,’ the Joke’s on the Brooklyn Museum

Hannah Gadsby’s Disastrous ‘Pablo-matic’ Show at the Brooklyn Museum Has Some ‘Pablo-ms’ of Its Own

A bank of posters for “It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby” near the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

Lionel Messi: The evolution of the greatest footballer of all time

"The way his first coach tells the story, the kid wasn’t even supposed to be on the pitch. It was his older brother’s game. They were a player short. Salvador Aparicio looked over at the stands and saw a small boy playing by himself, in private communion with the ball. When he asked his mother if he could borrow him, she said he didn’t know how to play football. …”

The Athletic (Video)

“Urban Revolution” Offers a Graff/Street Art Installation Survey in Lisbon

"’Urban[R]Evolution: A Journey from Graffiti to Contemporary Art’ is a large exhibition that marks the rise and popularity of urban art and features original installations by 18 renowned Portuguese and international artists. Curated by Pauline Foessel and Pedro Alonzo, this showcase takes place at Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon, running from June 21st to December 3rd. The historic and iconic building that once served as the National Rope Factory during the late 18th century, catering to the needs of the Portuguese Navy by producing ropes for naval purposes, is situated near the scenic Tagus River. ...”

Brooklyn Street Art

Zelensky says he talked to the British prime minister about protecting Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

"President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on Tuesday for more weapons aid to protect his country’s historical heritage as the United Nations began assessing the damage to landmarks in Odesa after near-nightly attacks recently by Russian forces on the city. The U.N. said on Monday that its top official in Ukraine, Denise Brown, was in Odesa to examine the toll of a week of attacks that have killed civilians, destroyed agricultural facilities and damaged sites including the city’s most important cathedral. The intentional destruction of cultural sites could amount to a war crime, UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural agency, said in a statement on Sunday. Russia has denied targeting the landmarks and blamed the destruction on Ukraine’s air defenses. ...”

NY Times

NBC News: Russian missile strikes on Odesa kill 1 and damage historic cathedral (Video)

How controversial cluster munitions give Ukraine needed punch during counteroffensive

Weekend Update # 38 (Video)

Ukrainian counteroffensive: What is going on?

The damaged Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa on Sunday

Hania Rani live at Invalides, in Paris, France for Cercle

"Pianist, composer and singer-songwriter Hania Rani recently to the Cercle stage to perform a unique concert which was broadcast online last month. Traditionally, Hania Rani’s music is entrenched in chamber music melodies and modern classical piano and string arrangements. ... It’s as if she has given modern classical music a stadium anthem-styled electric current. Part of the Cercle experience is that an artist remixes a track from the Cercle archives so alongside band versions of album favourites and unreleased extras, there’s a new remix track to enjoy live too. It is a magical concert and deserves a lot of love. ...”

Higher Plain Music (Video)

Soundcloud (Audio)

Spotify (Audio)

2021 April: Live from Studio S2 (2021), 2022 January: Hania Rani, 2022 March: Music for Film and Theatre (2021), 2023 January: Esja (2019)

Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger: Modular Organ System

"Since 2017, artists and musicians Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger have been developing the Modular Organ System: the first monumental pipe organ that can be re-engineered according to the acoustics of any space. Sollmann and Sprenger have deterritorialized the classical organ; their revolutionary instrument is composed of pipes and parts taken from former church organs as well as newly fabricated pieces. When installed, all of the Modular Organ’s elements—pipes, console, action, and wind box—are visible, allowing visitors to witness the instrument’s physicality. By freeing the pipe organ from a singular, static installation, the artists usher in limitless possibilities for the placement and recontextualization of the tremendous instrument and its unique sound. ...”

Callies

Monheim Triennale II

Inverted Audio: Phillip Sollmann & Konrad Sprenger ‘Modular Organ System’ take centre stage at CTM 2022 (Video)

YouTube: CTM 360° – Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger – »Modular Organ System« 9:10, Konrad Sprenger X Oren Ambarchi X Phillip Sollmann (live) - Halle am Berghain - ARTE Concer 35:50

The freed slave who ran a famous 19th century roadhouse on today’s Second Avenue

"Imagine New York in the 1810s: the population almost topped 100,000, City Hall had just been completed, and the northern reaches of the booming young city now extended past Canal Street. And though slavery wouldn’t be illegal in New York State until 1827, New York City had passed legislation in 1799 that gradually abolished the practice and granted freedom to many enslaved residents. One of these formerly enslaved residents was Cato Alexander, who was born in the city in 1780, according to a 2015 article in Eater by David Wondrich. Another account has it that Cato was born enslaved in South Carolina, bought his freedom, and then came to Gotham. ...”

Ephemeral New York

Can You Understand Bird? Test Your Recognition of Calls and Songs

"Language has long been considered the exclusive provenance of humans. But in the animal kingdom, birds, not primates, communicate with the level of vocal complexity and variability closest to ours. Ornithologists have made progress in understanding the rich variety of ways in which birds converse, thanks in part to large and growing databases of bird calls such as one from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which includes millions of recordings captured by citizen scientists. This summer the New York Times birding project is encouraging readers to try birding by ear. So here’s a quick tour of the avian soundscape. ...”

NY Times (Audio)

NY Times: There’s a Birding Group for Everyone

La Pointe Courte: How Agnès Varda “Invented” the New Wave

"In September 1997, I saw Agnès Varda introduce a brand-new 35 mm print of her first feature film, La Pointe Courte (made in 1954), to an admiring audience at Yale University. More astonishing than the luminous black-and-white images was Varda’s claim that she had seen virtually no other films before making it (after racking her brain, she could come up with only Citizen Kane). Whether Varda’s assertion was true or the whim of an artist who does not wish to acknowledge any influence, La Pointe Courte is a stunningly beautiful and accomplished first film. It has also, deservedly, achieved a cult status in film history as, in the words of historian Georges Sadoul, ‘truly the first film of the nouvelle vague.’ ...”

Criterion

W - La Pointe Courte

Criterion: La Pointe Courte

YouTube: Theatrical Trailer

May 2011: The Beaches of Agnès, 2011 December: Interview - Agnès Varda, 2013 February: The Gleaners and I (2000), 2013 September: Cinévardaphoto (2004), 2014 July: Black Panthers (1968 doc.), 2014 October: Art on Screen: A Conversation with Agnès Varda, 2015 September: Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), 2017 February: Plaisir d’amour en Iran (1976), 2017 April: Agnès Varda’s Art of Being There, 2017 April: AGNÈS VARDA with Alexandra Juhasz, 2017 August: Agnès Varda on her life and work - Artforum, 2017 October: Agnès Varda’s Ecological Conscience, 2018 March: Faces Places - Agnès Varda and JR (2017), 2018 July: Vagabond (1985), 2019 March: Agnès Varda, Influential French New Wave Filmmaker, Is Dead at 90, 2019 April: Mur Murs (1980), 2020 May: Socialism and cha-cha-cha: Agnès Varda's photos of Cuba forgotten for 50 years, 2020 August: Four Ways of Looking at Agnès Varda, 2022 January: From Here to There (2011)

Russia pounds southern Ukraine in third night of fiery attacks

"KYIV, Ukraine — A third night of Russian air attacks pounded Ukraine’s southern cities, including the port of Odesa, and wounded at least 21 people, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.At least 19 people were injured overnight in Mykolaiv, a southern city close to the Black Sea, the region’s Governor Vitalii Kim said in a statement on Telegram.Russia’s attacks on southern Ukraine have become more intense this week, after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to send grain to countries facing the threat of hunger. ...”

NBC News (Video)

POLITICO: Ukraine threatens Russian Black Sea ships in tit-for-tat move against Moscow

NY Times: Their City in Ruins, a Ukrainian University and Its Students Persevere

Aljazeera: Lithuanian border towns grapple with threat of Russia-Ukraine war

YouTube: CSIS - Russia Inflicts Grain Pain 14:16

The wreckage of a destroyed building Thursday after a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine.

Marcus Glitteris on Curating “Solo With Friends” at Theatre for the New City in the East Village

"On view through August 5 at Theatre for the New City is ‘Solo With Friends.’ Curated by Marcus Glitteris, it showcases a delightfully diverse range of artworks by over 60 artists, along with new and recent paintings by Marcus. When visiting the space last week, I had the opportunity to pose a few questions to Marcus. Could you tell us something about the concept behind this exhibition? I was interested in showcasing a mix of established artists along with younger emerging ones. And, as always, I wanted to do a show that reflects and includes our community, the Lower East Side and the East Village. ...”

Street Art NYC

Gotha's Library of Forgotten Islamic Wonders

"Often brushed aside by locals and largely ignored by tourists, the city of Gotha—population 45,000 in the heart of central Germany—might not look like much today, but in the 17th century, it was arguably at the center of the world. Or at least it was aspiring to be.When Europe’s Thirty Years’ War over dynastic and territorial rivalries ended in 1648, the region’s top aristocrat, Duke Ernst I, wanted to build an official residence atop the rubble of a castle razed during the conflict, which had stood on Gotha’s highest hill. The result was Friedenstein Palace, a sprawling, royal residence that today is considered one of the best-preserved examples of early Baroque architecture in Europe. ...”

AramcoWorld

Also among the collection of handwritten books is this artful Şükûfe-nâme (Flower Book), in which illustrations of flowers are pasted in.

Russia strikes Ukraine’s Odesa port in ‘hellish’ attack after Moscow vowed payback for Crimea bridge

"Russia launched a massive air attack on the Ukrainian port of Odesa for a second night in row, which one Ukrainian official on Wednesday described as ‘hellish,’ but authorities vowed not be intimidated and to continue work to export grain.The attack was ‘very powerful, truly massive,’ Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said in a voice message on his Telegram channel on Wednesday. ... The attacks on Odesa, one of Ukraine’s main ports for exporting grain, followed a pledge of retaliation by Russia after a blast on a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula on Monday that Moscow blamed on Ukraine. Shortly after the bridge was hit on Monday, Moscow withdrew from a year-old Black Sea grain agreement that allowed for the safe export of Ukraine’s grain, a move the United Nations said risked creating hunger around the world. ...”

NBC News (Video)

Vox: The uncertain future of the Black Sea grain deal, explained

NY Times: Wheat prices spike after Russia escalates tensions in the Black Sea.

CSIS: Ensuring NGO Accountability for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Relief in Ukraine

POLITICO: Why Latin America still won’t condemn Putin’s war in Ukraine (Audio)

Firefighters work at storage facilities hit during Russian missile and drone strikes in Odesa, Ukraine, July 19 2023, in this screenshot

Beginners Guide to The Saturn Label

"Straying into unfamiliar territory is always daunting, even more so, in outer space. A reader sent me questions about Saturn originals, in particular, Sun Ra’s 1966 album, The Magic City. A gap in my knowledge, I couldn’t answer. So I was determined to fill that gap, hence this Beginners Guide to Saturn, the Beginner in question being me. Let’s see where it goes, climb on board, strap in, ignition, Houston, we have lift off, destination Saturn! Say again, Houston, how many light years to Saturn? ...”

LondonJazzCollector

Can NYC’s New Climate Agenda Keep Our Heads Above Water?

"In September 2021, New York City experienced historic and catastrophic flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. Streets turned to rivers, cars flooded and were left abandoned, people drowned in their own basements. This writer dodged waterfalls in the subway before arriving home to find a room slowly filling with water gurgling up through the toilet. Never designed to handle such a large volume of rainfall in such a short time, Ida challenged the city’s 100-year-old sewer system. ...”

Voice (June 28, 2023)

Climate change roulette.