“We’ve gathered here today to raise a glass to hip-hop. It’s 50, baby! Half a century of effrontery, dexterity, elasticity, rambunctiousness, ridiculousness, bleakness, spunk, swagger, juice, jiggle and wit, of defiant arrogance, devastating humor, consumptive lust and violent distress, of innovation, danger, doubt and drip. Salud! I’ll be honest, though. I knew the magazine covers and concerts and TV specials were coming, but I wasn’t feeling it. Seemed too arbitrary a date. Or maybe just impossible to ascertain. What I did feel was that hip-hop has so thoroughly infused the atmosphere of American life (we’ll just start with this country), that it has pushed so much forward — who cares that it’s pushing 50? ...”
The Battle of Hostomel Airport: A Key Moment in Russia’s Defeat in Kyiv
"The battle for Hostomel Airport was the first major battle of the Russo-Ukrainian War (2022-present) and a decisive event in the war. This battle started on the morning of February 24 and lasted less than 36 hours. In the opening hours of the Russo-Ukrainian war Russian forces sought to seize a key airfield just 12 miles from the capital’s center. Additional airborne battalions would follow on transport planes. They would rapidly deploy, seek to take control of the city, and overthrow the government or make the leadership flee. Russia ultimately gained control of the airport but failed to achieve the objective of the assault. Ukrainian National Guard conscripts, backed by artillery units, were able to delay the elite Russian airborne troops long enough to prevent the Russian military from using the airfield as an airbridge to support a rapid seizure of Ukraine’s capital. ...”
YouTube: Tragedy of civilian life in Donbas | This Week in Ukraine Ep. 20, This Week in Ukraine Ep. 20 (Audio)
A woman carries a bicycle after a Russian missile strike hit an apartment building in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, on Aug. 8, 2023.
New York Intellectuals
"The New York Intellectuals were a group of American writers and literary critics based in New York City in the mid-20th century. They advocated left-wing politics but were also firmly anti-Stalinist. The group is known for having sought to integrate literary theory with Marxism and socialism while rejecting Soviet socialism as a workable or acceptable political model. Trotskyism emerged as the most common standpoint among these anti-Stalinist Marxists. ...”
There are 28 new Little Free Libraries in New York City.
"More than two dozen new Little Free Libraries will bring books to community gardens in all five boroughs of New York City, Serena Tara of Thrillist reports. The new installations are a project of Little Free Library, the nonprofit that is responsible for more than 150,000 book-exchange boxes around the world, and The New York Restoration Project. Here are the locations of the new libraries. ...”
Robbie Robertson’s 16 Essential Songs
"In Robbie Robertson’s music, earthiness and mystery were never far apart.Robertson, who died on Wednesday at 80, wrote songs that were firmly and widely rooted. Although he was Canadian, his music was steeped in Americana: in blues, country, ragtime, Cajun music, parlor songs, Appalachian ballads, gospel, circus bands, vaudeville and his Indigenous heritage. The way he deployed his guitar was twangy, sly and rigorously pithy, allowing no wasted motion. The lyrics he wrote could be cryptic or narrative, character studies or tall tales or riddles, and they were informed by history, myth and paradox. ...”
Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson of the Band. Robertson shaped an ensemble sound that was down-home and communal but laced with thoughtful details.
‘She’s hard to pin down’: the ‘avant-garde It girl’ who became a revolutionary photographer
"One morning in the mid-90s, the art historian Patricia Albers and her husband drove out to a farm in Oregon, looking for clues that would bring her closer to a woman she had encountered a decade before. She had been perusing an exhibition celebrating the work of California photographer Edward Weston, yet, wandering through the gallery space, it was the photographs of his Italian lover and protege, taken in Mexico in the 1920s, that especially piqued her interest. Who was she, Albers wondered? However, Tina Modotti wasn’t so easy to find. ...”
Mixing artistic rigour with political power … Modotti’s Men Reading El Machete, 1929.
The Black History of the Montgomery Brawl Folding Chair
"The Montgomery Alabama Riverfront brawl that unfolded when a group of White men attacked a Black dockworker over access to a boat parking spot last Saturday, August 5, ignited a fervent response from various bystanders who quickly jumped into action. The scene garnered international headlines and memes aplenty, as social media users celebrate the 16-year-old ‘Black Aquaman’ who swam to the scene to defend the dockworker and everyone else who joined forces. But the Internet has appointed the unnamed Black man equipped with a white folding chair as the most iconic fighter of the brawl, and the chair motif was quickly adapted into a variety of memes, fan art, merchandise, and even a tattoo. ...”
Artist and social media user Premimathieu ‘Premi’ Sterlin’s “Alabama Sweet Tea Party” (2023), a Photoshop revision of Ernie Barnes’s “Sugar Shack” (1976) with elements from the Riverfront brawl that took place in Montgomery, Alabama, last Saturday
John Coltrane’s Eternal “Equinox”
"Coltrane, who recently saw his latest posthumous release go metaphorically gold — i.e. sanctioned by the Ameri-Grecian/Bacchanalian Gods of Jazz — would have been proud of his dear friend’s latest release: Eric Dolphy’s Musical Prophet, reviewed yesterday by Henry Cherry. Dolphy’s is indeed a fine and wonderful new release, yet/and with all due respect I hence put forth Zeus, who, yay, sanctioned or obliterated all other sounds of this epic era in Jazz. Here, Coltrane’s ‘Equinox,’ where McCoy Tyner (who, by the gracious hands of those same breath-giving gods, is still with us, and still playing!!) lays down perhaps thee most spare and lovey piano solos ever put to tape, nor to ears nor time fore or since. ...”
John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy
Conspiracy theories in United States politics
"Conspiracy theories in United States politics are beliefs that an event or situation in US politics is the result of secretive collusion by powerful people striving to harm a rival group or undermine society in general. Such theories draw from actual conspiracies, in which individuals work together covertly in order to unravel a larger system. Often, the struggle between a real conspiracy theory and a misconception of one leads to conflict, polarization in elections, distrust in government, and racial and political divisions. Many political conspiracies begin and spread from politically charged circumstances, individuals' partisan affiliations, and online platforms that form echo chambers with like-minded individuals. Belief in American political conspiracy theories applies to all parties, ideologies, races, ethnicities, socioeconomic levels, and genders. ...”
YouTube: PBS - United States of Conspiracy (full documentary) 53:18, From Salem to QAnon: The enduring presence of conspiracies in American politics, QAnon And Conspiracy Theories: An American Political Tradition 27:17
In 1836, both camps in the so-called Bank War—supporters of U.S. president Andrew Jackson, and supporters of the Second Bank of the United States president Nicholas Biddle—lobbed accusations of conspiracy to sway Americans to their sides.
The 12 Most Popular Libraries in the World
"I don’t know about you, but I’m obsessed with my local library. I mean, if you think about it, the idea of a public library—where anyone in the community is trusted to borrow books, often for long stretches of time, for free, ad infinitum—is fairly magical. Where else do you get something for nothing? Which is not even to mention the many programs, study space, use of computers, and other perks that most public libraries offer. Basically, what I’m saying is: libraries should be even more popular than they are—but some of them are pretty popular already. ...”
A tucked-away holdout house built before the Civil War hides on 73rd Street
"It’s not a house with a famous pedigree—no Vanderbilts or Astors lived there. It wasn’t the site of a historical event; it didn’t witness a scandalous crime. Tucked away on a quiet Lenox Hill block, it doesn’t steal the spotlight from its converted carriage house neighbors. What distinguishes the red brick beauty with the curvy cornice and spectacular original iron veranda at 171 East 73rd Street is its astounding longevity. In an ever-changing Manhattan where row houses are renovated over and over to reflect current design styles—or bulldozed in favor of something taller and shinier—this set-back house still exists much as it did when it made its debut 163 years ago. ...”
"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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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.’ ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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? ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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. ...”
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 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. ...”
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. ...”
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. …”
“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. ...”
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. ...”
The damaged Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa on Sunday
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