The Death of the American Gangster Film

"The history of the American Gangster movie and an analysis of how Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America killed the genre. This video essay considers the major characteristics of the gangster film, how the genre evolved over time, and how Leone exploited genre archetypes to reveal the innate brutality of the gangster myth. ..." 

YouTube   35:20

"No genre has influenced the public’s perception of criminals more than Gangster Movies. For more than 80 years, the best gangster movies have fascinated and allured the minds of millions; from Prohibition-era pre-code crime to 21st Century gang life. Our list of the 30 best gangster movies of all time includes films that span the globe and were produced in different time periods, with very different budgets. ..."

Top 30 Best Gangster Movies of All Time, Ranked (2023) (Video)

 Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America
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Trump Ineligible to Hold Office, Colorado Supreme Court Rules

"Colorado’s top court ruled on Tuesday that former President Donald J. Trump is disqualified from holding office again because he engaged in insurrection with his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, an explosive ruling that is likely to put the basic contours of the 2024 election in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Colorado Supreme Court was the first in the nation to find that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — which disqualifies people who engage in insurrection against the Constitution after taking an oath to support it — applies to Mr. Trump, an argument that his opponents have been making around the country. The ruling directs the Colorado secretary of state to exclude Mr. Trump’s name from the state’s Republican primary ballot. It does not address the general election. ..."

***NY Times - Principles at Stake in Push to Disqualify Trump: Democracy and Rule of Law

*****NY Times - Supreme Court Won’t Hear Case on Trump’s Immunity Defense for Now

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The 25 Best Christmas Hip-Hop, Rap, And R&B Songs

Blondie feat. Fab 5 Freddy – Yuletide Throwdown (Cut Chemist Remix)

"Hip-hop may be associated more with brags and bling than goodwill and giving, but the best Christmas hip-hop and R&B songs are gifts that keep on giving. “Let it snow” might mean something different to Gucci Mane than it does Boyz II Men, but whether you’re having Christmas in Harlem, Hollis, or Hoxton, these Yultetide classics will keep you full of Christmas cheer as you deck the halls. ..." 

udiscover:  The 25 Best Christmas Hip-Hop, Rap, And R&B Songs (Video)

udiscover: Best Christmas Blues Songs: An Essential Seasonal Playlist (Video) 

udiscover: A James Brown Christmas Is A Soulful Christmas (Video) 

YouTube: Christmas Hip Hop Music Mix [Uncut] 🎄 Best Xmas Rap Trap Songs | X-Mas Party Remix | DJ Noize 

YouTube: Gucci Mane Christmas Mix 2023

Gucci Mane - St. Brick Intro
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The Last Poets’ Umar Bin Hassan’s Comic, ‘Up South In Akron,’ Gets a Reboot

"The title alone, Up South In Akron: Summer 1959, is enough to stoke the flames of curiosity: How can Akron — a modest Ohio metropolis up north known as the 'Rubber Capital of the World' — be 'Up South' when the South is, well, south? But Umar Bin Hassan, born in 1948 and one of three living members of the iconic spoken-word group The Last Poets, faced just as much racism growing up in Ohio in the 1950s and ’60s as he would have in Alabama or Georgia. Up South In Akron, Hassan’s recently reissued comic book, paints, in just a handful of meticulously detailed pages, a vivid portrait of what life was like for a young Black kid roaming the Akron streets. Edited by former Def Jam Recordings publicist and journalist Bill Adler and illustrated by Nate McDonough, the comic was originally published in 2013 but found new life when Music Arkives volunteered to spruce it up with an updated cover, bios, the story behind the original publication, a hip-hop family tree, and photos of Hassan as a young Akronite. ..."


Genius: Cover art for Introduction to “Up South in Akron 1959” (by Bill Adler) by Umar Bin Hassan

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Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special

"'Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special' as you've never seen it before — Beautifully restored, remastered and in high definition! Join the whole Playhouse gang for one of the wackiest specials ever! With laughs for the whole family, this unique, triple Emmy®-nominated special offers all the imagination and charm of Saturday morning's most outrageous TV series, which became a cultural milestone when it aired from 1986- 1991. Pee-wee gets into the spirit of the season with lots of singing, dancing and other holiday fun with his Playhouse pals and more than a dozen celebrity guest stars as you've never seen them before. Everything is going great for Pee-wee... until his Christmas wish list becomes so long that there won't be enough presents for all the other kids in the world! When Santa Claus pleads for help, Pee-wee reluctantly learns a lesson about the true meaning of Christmas. Special Guests Include: Frankie Avalon, Charo, The Del Rubio Triplets, Annette Funicello, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Whoopi Goldberg, Magic Johnson, Grace Jones, k.d. lang, Little Richard, Joan Rivers, Dinah Shore and Oprah Winfrey!"

YouTube 48:22

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New York: Deluxe Edition - Lou Reed (2020)

"Lou Reed was unusually hard to pin down in the 1980s. After the gay-rights-rallying cry of Transformer in 1972, he spent a decade mating queerness with rockn’roll and flirting with his own homosexuality in public statements, an identity that seemed to culminate in 1979, when he came out to Creem Magazine. Hardly a year later, he was celebrating married love on Growing Up in Public and, by 1982, heterosexuality in more general terms on the nonetheless excellent The Blue Mask. Reed’s subject matter changed because his life did—he got married in 1980—yet his newfound pop persona as a successful heterosexual capitalist coincided with the rise of Ronald Reagan, who was murdering gay people with his refusal to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic while helping to make greed and white-collar success culturally ubiquitous. Reed never supported Reagan’s policies, but he gave the impression of a star wearing the garb of his own era, scrawling an ode to his New Jersey country home as easily as he once caked on glam rock make-up. And then he made New York, a record of unmistakable conviction, one so direct and literary, erudite and rageful that it resembles no protest music written before or since. ..."

 
W - New York



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Turner in January

"Scotland’s famous collection of Turner watercolours was left to the nation by the great art collector Henry Vaughan in 1900. Since then, following Vaughan’s strict guidelines, they have only ever been displayed during the month of January, when natural light levels are at their lowest. Because of this, these watercolours still possess a freshness and an intensity of colour, almost 200 years since they were originally created. Turner in January, the annual display of these watercolours in Edinburgh, is a keenly awaited tradition for many people in Scotland. ..."



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Trump ‘Could Tip an Already Fragile World Order Into Chaos’

"Two weeks ago, The Washington Post published 'A Trump Dictatorship Is Increasingly Inevitable. We Should Stop Pretending,' by Robert Kagan. Four days later, The Times published 'Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First,' by Charlie Savage, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, one in an ongoing series of articles. On the same day, The Atlantic released the online version of its January/February 2024 issue; it included 24 essays under the headline 'If Trump Wins.' While the domestic danger posed by a second Trump administration is immediate and pressing, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran — sometimes referred to as the 'alliance of autocracies'' — have an interest in weakening the global influence of the United States and in fracturing its ties to democracies around the globe. ..."

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Jane B. par Agnès V. (1988)

"Jane B. par Agnès V. is a 1988 French docudrama film directed by Agnès Varda and starring French-English actress Jane Birkin. The film was conceived when Birkin admitted to Varda she was apprehensive about turning 40 and Varda told her it was a beautiful age and the perfect time to make a portrait on Birkin's life. The film mixes interviews with Birkin about her past and current life with small vignettes where she takes on roles that either she or Varda are interested in seeing her play. ..."



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), 2023 July: La Pointe Courte: How Agnès Varda “Invented” the New Wave

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At Trump’s Fraud Trial, a Courtroom Artist With a Different View

"... But several courtroom artists — an anachronistic group that continues to use chalky pastels to draw scenes from camera-free courtrooms to sell to TV stations and newspapers — were on it, erasing Mr. Trump’s pupils from their sketches. 'He’s nodding off!' the artist Isabelle Brourman whispered to a colleague. Ms. Brourman, a 30-year-old newcomer, was not part of the dwindling coterie of commercial courtroom artists who make their livings selling cinematic, sometimes vaguely expressionistic trial drawings to news outlets. She is there for a different kind of art project: A mixed media artist, she has found herself drawn to big trials... " 


Ms. Brourman collapses different scenes from the trial into panorama-like drawings, with many of the key figures plainly visible. Some of her sketches show Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who is presiding over the case; Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen; and Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka. 

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Barrow-wight

"Barrow-wights are wraith-like creatures in J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth. In The Lord of the Rings, the four hobbits are trapped by a barrow-wight, and are lucky to escape with their lives; but they gain ancient swords of Westernesse for their quest. Tolkien derived the idea of barrow-wights from Norse mythology, where heroes of several Sagas battle undead beings known as draugrs. Scholars have noted a resemblance, too, between the breaking of the barrow-wight's spell and the final battle in Beowulf, where the dragon's barrow is entered and the treasure released from its spell. Barrow-wights do not appear in Peter Jackson's film trilogy, but they do feature in computer games based on Tolkien's Middle-earth. ..."


2010 January: The Lord of the Rings, 2018 January: An    Atlas of Literary Maps Created by Great Authors: J.R.R Tolkien’s   Middle   Earth, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island & More, 2019 January: The Largest J.R.R. Tolkien Exhibit in Generations Is Coming to the U.S.: Original Drawings, Manuscripts, Maps & More, 2020 January: Hear Christopher Tolkien (RIP) Read the Work of His Father J.R.R. Tolkien, Which He Tirelessly Worked to Preserve, 2020 August: The Complete Guide to Middle-earth - Robert Foster (1971), 2021 September: When the Nobel Prize Committee Rejected The Lord of the Rings..., 2021 October: When J.R.R. Tolkien Worked for the Oxford English Dictionary..., 2022 March: J.R.R. Tolkien Tolkien Estate, 2022 October: One Ring, 2023 May: Old Forest, 2023 July: W - Barrow-wights

“Two huge standing stones” like a doorway: A long barrow, the dolmen at Locmariaquer, Brittany. The chamber is a passage with wider places for burials and grave-goods.



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Various & Gould Go to Church to Spread Colorful “Strahlen” with Project “Startbahn”

"In the heart of Berlin-Neukölln, the Genezareth Church, a neo-Gothic tower with a history as rich and intricate as the city itself, stands renewed and vibrant, thanks to the artistic duo Various and Gould. Their latest project, 'Strahlen' (German for 'rays' or 'to shine'), was inaugurated in mid-September, almost 120 years to the day after the church’s foundation stone was laid in 1903. The installation heralds a new era for the church, which has been experiencing a revival under the Startbahn team, an open-minded group managing the church for the past few years. ..."


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Bob Marley And The Wailers - "Rat Race"

"'Rat Race' appeared on the Rastaman Vibration album, which was released in May 1976 on the Island label. The song was instantly popular and remained in the Wailers' repertoire for many years. Its popularity with Jamaican and non-Jamaican audiences all over the world is no doubt due to its reference to both a specifically Jamaican situation and a more universal context of suffering and oppression. In other words, the song's message was sufficiently clear for every Jamaican to pick up all the references in 1976 and vague enough for every listener to interpret it according to the situation he or she was in at the time (Marley's use of proverbs or proverb-like statements like 'When the cat's away, the mice will play' and 'In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty' ensured that). When 'Rat Race' was first released in May 1976, the People's National Party was in office with Michael Manley as Prime Minister. ... Once in office, Manley's government launched a raft of measures like free education and a land reform, but these measures cost money and the 1973 oil crisis dealt a serious blow to the Jamaican economy. ..."


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The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger


"If the American foreign policy establishment is a grand citadel, then Henry Kissinger is the ghoul haunting its hallways. For half a century, he was an omnipresent figure in war rooms and at press briefings, dutifully shepherding the US empire through military interventions and underhand foreign policy. For generations of antiwar activists, Kissinger personified the depravity of the American war machine. The world Kissinger wrought is the one we live in today, where ideal investment conditions are generated from the barrel of a gun. Today, global capitalism and US hegemony are underwritten by the most powerful military ever devised. Any political vision worth fighting for must promise an end to the long-running cycle of wars rolling through the twenty-first century. Breaking that cycle means placing the twin evils of capitalism and imperialism in our crosshairs. In this edited collection, Jacobin follows Kissinger’s trajectory across the globe, across Central and South America, Africa and the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia — not because he was evil incarnate, but because he, more than any other public figure, illustrates the links between capitalism, empire, and the feedback loop of endless conflict that plagues us today. ..."





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The five artists who inspired The Clash

"When the punk music scene exploded in 1976, a seemingly endless volume of bands came and went. Drawn in by DIY music-making and extreme fashion, young people across the country picked up instruments, learnt four chords, and started forming groups. Whilst some of these bands were more enduring than others, one of the few that completely transcended the punk scene and cemented themselves as one of the most iconic British bands of the century was The Clash. Formed by guitarist Mick Jones, who soon recruited Paul Simonen on bass and scouted frontman Joe Strummer, who was fronting The 101ers at the time, The Clash made their mark on the punk scene. ..."




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Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War) - Jaimie Branch (2023)

"Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War) is the posthumous third studio album by American jazz trumpeter Jaimie Branch, released through International Anthem Recording Company on August 25, 2023. It was recorded by Branch in April 2022 at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. Mixes were completed by Branch's quartet Fly or Die and her family after her death in August 2022. The album received universal acclaim from critics. Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War) received a score of 97 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on six critics' reviews, indicating 'universal acclaim'. Pitchfork gave it their Best New Album distinction, with Andy Cush calling it 'a heartbreaking glimpse of where [Branch] might have gone next, but more importantly, it's a joy to hear'. ..."








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Sun Ra in Sin City By John Corbett

"The last time I spoke with Sun Ra, I asked him for his take on the enduring legacy of the Great American Songbook. It was 1993. Ra had returned to Birmingham, Alabama, where he’d been born nearly eighty years before. He would die there, from complications associated with pneumonia, a few weeks later. The pianist, composer, and bandleader’s first published composition, ‘Alone with Just a Memory of You,’ written in 1936 together with Henry McCellons, conveyed a tender, awkward Tin Pan Alley tone that betrayed his love of sentimental songcraft. This passion is driven home repeatedly in a survey of Ra’s magnificently gigantic discography. ..."

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Tom Waits In The Studio: The Island Albums

"When Tom Waits grabbed the production reins of his albums, he ended up redefining what a singer/songwriter could be and the very act of record-making itself. Along the way, he assembled a staggering tally of timeless songs that sound like nothing else that came before them and inspired cover versions by an endless list of legends, including Steve Earle, Alison Krauss, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, The Ramones, Los Lobos, The Neville Brothers, Tori Amos, Elvis Costello, and countless others. We discussed this remarkable run of records with some of the collaborators Tom knew best. ..."



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Silence Is Violence — but Not When It Comes to Israeli Rape Victims

"On Sunday, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Representative Pramila Jayapal why so many progressive women have been silent about the extensive reports of widespread rape and sexual assault carried out by Hamas against Israeli women during the massacres of Oct. 7. What followed was a master class in evasion, both-sidesism and changing the subject from the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 'I’ve condemned what Hamas has done,' Jayapal allowed, briefly, before moving immediately to condemn Israel.  'I was just asking about the women, and you turned it back to Israel. I’m asking about Hamas. I’ve already answered your question, Dana,' Jayapal replied, adding that while rape was 'horrific,' it 'happens in war situations. Terrorist organizations like Hamas obviously are using these as tools. However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians.' ..." 


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Literary Fight Club: On the Great Poets’ Brawl of ‘68

"One Saturday evening in 1968, the poets battled on Long Island. Drinks spilled into the grass. Punches were flung; some landed. Chilean and French poets stood on a porch and laughed while the Americans brawled. A glass table shattered. Bloody-nosed poets staggered into the coming darkness. Allen Ginsberg fell to his knees and prayed. The World Poetry Conference at Stony Brook University was almost over. At Michigan State University, Jim Harrison was a self-described 'nasty item,' a 'prominent, if obnoxious, student in comparative literature.' He had no business graduating with a Master’s degree. ..."


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Top 20 Best Neil Young Guitar Songs

"Greetings, fellow guitar aficionados, today we’re going to embark on an exciting lesson through the world of Neil Young’s best guitar songs. If you aren’t familiar with Neil’s repertoire you should definitely check it out and study it to the bone, because there is so incredibly much to learn from. There’s no musician more authentic and real in his music and playing than Neil. Neil Young is a legendary musician known for his great melodies and versatile guitar playing style. He has inspired countless musicians around the world. Whether you love strumming along to beautiful acoustic guitar classics or you want to learn how to play rocking guitar riffs on the electric guitar, you’re in for a treat. I’ve put together a list of the top 20 Neil Young guitar songs that are sure to get your fingers moving and your heart singing. ..."


2008 February: Neil Young, 2010 April: Neil Young - 1, 2010 April: Neil Young - 2, 2010 May: Neil Young - 3, 2010 October: Neil Young's Sound, 2012 January: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, 2012 June: Like A Hurricane, 2012 July: Greendale, 2013 April: Thoughts On An Artist / Three Compilations, 2013 August: Heart of Gold, 2014 March: Dead Man (1995), 2014 August: Ragged Glory - Neil Young + Crazy Horse (1990), 2014 November: Broken Arrow (1996), 2015 January: Rust Never Sleeps (1979), 2015 January: Neil Young the Ultimate Guide, 2015 March: Old Black, 2015 September: Zuma (1975), 2016 January: On the Beach (1973), 2016 April: Sleeps with Angels (1994), 2016 November: Eldorado (EP - 1989), Long May You Run - The Stills-Young Band (1976), 2017 June: "River Of Pride" / "White Line" (1975), 2017 July: "Thrasher" [Live at the Cow Palace, 1978], 2017 November: Words (Live at Red Rocks, 2000), 2020 November: Neil Young Releases a Never-Before-Heard Version..., 2022 January: Time Fades Away (1973)


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The Secrets of Beauty By Jean Cocteau

"Jean Cocteau wrote on anything he could get his hands on, wherever he could. Édouard Dermit informs us that he often saw Cocteau writing next to him in the car, or while lying down, or when at the table (between fruit and dessert courses), using the smallest scrap of paper or cloth. This version of Secrets of Beauty was composed in March 1945, on a long journey back to Paris. ... Cocteau was like one of those magicians who, having announced that they are going to reveal the secret of one trick, immediately perform another. He offered up 'secrets of beauty' so frequently that the volume from which the following notes have been extracted could almost be called New Secrets of Beauty. ... —Pierre Caizergues ..."


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Sonny Boy Williamson II

"... The ones I’m grouping in this manner are the Chess/Checker foursome: Muddy, The Wolf, Sonny Boy and Little Walter (and for clarity I should say that by Sonny Boy, I mean Sonny Boy Williamson II – see later). I was lucky enough to get to see the first three of these gents in a London club setting which implied a closeness (and ambiance) which wasn’t available in a concert format. They didn’t disappoint. Were they necessarily better than other blues artists who’d migrated north like Reed, Hooker, Rush, James and Guy? No, but there was that Chess aura that surrounded them. We, and the new so-called R&B groups which were springing up everywhere, worshipped Chuck and Bo from the Chess stable. Muddy and co were just one step further. ..."


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From Gilded Age beer garden to 1970s strip club: 100 years of vice on a Chelsea corner

"There’s a four-story tenement on the traffic-choked corner of Sixth Avenue and 24th Street with some curious signage. Not the store sign for a now-shuttered ground floor cafe, nor the enormous 'for sale' banner spread across the second floor of the facade. (Yikes, is this red-brick beauty in danger?) Signage that’s much more intriguing comes into view when you stand nearby and look up. On the corner of the building, two brownstone nameplates say, well, 'The Corner,' in Victorian-style lettering. Above the cornice is a pediment that reads 'The Corner' with 'Koster & Bial' underneath. So what was The Corner, and who were Koster and Bial? The tenement is all that’s left of a theater and beer garden empire that stretched across Sixth Avenue and offered excess beer, edgy performances, and illicit adventures to libertine New Yorkers. ..."


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The politics of hosting AFCON

"A decade later, in January 2024, Ivorians will finally welcome the continent and the world to the next AFCON. Economic and sporting realities are making it harder for sporting tournaments to find hosts. In the past, hosting gigs were keenly sought after and contested by different countries. The appeal of welcoming thousands of visitors and positively impacting economic and tourist activities was usually viewed positively while winning bids was always a good tonic for political leaders. Yet, expansion means growing tournament costs and the need to maximize economic output, while mitigating CAF’s financial difficulties is making it harder to find hosts. This trend might impact AFCON, the continent’s premier football competition. ..."

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‘Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome’: Parliament’s Funk Opera

"At the peak of its powers, Parliament-Funkadelic seemed capable of anything: scoring radio hits, crafting visionary best-selling albums, spinning-off successful solo acts and satellite groups, even producing an unparalleled live show that climaxed every night with an onstage spaceship landing. Yet leader George Clinton believed that P-Funk still had unfinished creative business. Since Parliament’s 1975 album Chocolate City, as he recalled in his 2014 memoir, he’d been working toward, 'a complete, comprehensive funk opera.' ..."



2009 January: George Clinton, 2010 December: Mothership Connection - Houston 1976, 2011 October: Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove, 2011 October: "Do Fries Go With That Shake?", 2012 August: Tales Of Dr. Funkenstein – The Story Of George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, 2015 July: Playing The (Baker's) Dozens: George Clinton's Favourite Albums, 2015 August: Chocolate City (1975), 2016 February: Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971), 2016 June: P-Funk All Stars - Urban Dancefloor Guerillas (1983), 2017 March: Up for the Down Stroke - Parliament (1974), 2017 May: P-Funk mythology, 2019 September: Tear the Roof Off the Sucker: An Introduction to Parliament Funkadelic, 2019 December: Cosmic Slop - Funkadelic (1973), 2020 July: How George Clinton Made Funk a World View, 2021 November: ‘Computer Games’: How George Clinton’s Solo Debut Played To Win, 2022 September: ‘The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein’: Parliament Unleashes An Intergalactic Funk Classic

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There Once Was an Empire

"When it comes to history writing, one of the most recognizable frames is the story of the 'rise and fall.' Although broad and often misused, it is undeniably a trope that deeply interests the public imagination. So much so that nowadays one doesn’t need to look far to find anxieties over our own alleged fall. Discussions on 'decline' and even 'collapse' have become more commonplace online. More generally, across all published literature, mentions of doom and gloom have reached new heights, irrespective of political leanings. But despite the cultural climate, catastrophes are hard to imagine, and even the doomsayers themselves usually say such things half-heartedly. This is because so few people alive and born in the Western world have experienced anything truly like it. Personal memories of war have also faded for most. Limited by experience, historical perspectives help to fill in the gaps of our imagination. ..."


Austria-Hungary popularized the postcard as a way to communicate between its many cultural regions. Some even featured limited-edition illustrations like this one, a 1912 postcard of the Café Heinrichhof in Vienna by Moriz Jung.
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Henry Kissinger and the Vietnam War


"American diplomat Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) played an important and controversial role in the Vietnam War. Starting out as a supporter, Kissinger came to see it as a drag on American power. In 1968, Kissinger leaked information about the status of the peace talks in Paris to the Nixon campaign and was rewarded with being appointed National Security Adviser under Richard Nixon. As National Security Adviser, Kissinger sought initially to find a way to end the war on American terms. During his tenure, Kissinger came to differ with Nixon as Kissinger was more in favor of seeking an end to war as expeditiously as possible with minimum damage to American prestige. In October 1972, Kissinger reached a draft agreement that Nixon at first rejected, leading to the Christmas bombings of December 1972. The agreement that Kissinger signed in January 1973—which led to the American withdrawal from Vietnam in March of that year—was very similar to the draft agreement rejected the previous year. As National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, Kissinger favored continued American support for South Vietnam right until the collapse of that state in April 1975, which Kissinger blamed Congress for. ..."




"Henry A. Kissinger’s decision to authorize the secret carpet bombing of Cambodia, his efforts to negotiate the American exit from the Vietnam War and his role in the U.S. rapprochement with China have rippled through Southeast Asia in the decades since. Mr. Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the peace accords that ended American involvement in the Vietnam War. But some critics accused him of needlessly prolonging the war when a framework for peace had been available years earlier. The fighting between North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam did not end until the North’s victory in 1975. Some observers have said that was the inevitable result of a cynical American policy intended to create space — “a decent interval,” as Mr. Kissinger put it — between the American withdrawal from the country in 1973 and the fall of Saigon two years later. ..."




 
***NY Times: OPINION | Ask Brutalized Cambodians What They Think of Kissinger
The aftermath of a bombing in Snuol, Cambodia, during the Vietnam War, in May 1970.
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Behold LEGO Reenactments of Famous Psychology Experiments, as Imagined by Artificial Intelligence

"Cognitive scientist Tomer Ullman, head of Harvard’s Computation, Cognition, and Development lab, may have inadvertently blundered into an untapped vein of LEGO Icon inspiration when his interest in AI led him to stage recreations of famous psych experiments. If you think Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night LEGO playset is a challenge, imagine putting together the AI-generated playset inspired by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram’s 1961 obedience studies, above. Participants in these studies were assigned to play one of two parts – teacher or learner. Partner pairs were seated in separate rooms, accessible to each other by microphones. The teacher read the learner a list of matched words they’d expected to remember shortly thereafter. ..."


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Postcards from Elizabeth Bishop

"Elizabeth Bishop delighted in the postcard. It suited her poetic subject matter and her way of life—this poet of travel who was more often on the move than at home, 'wherever that may be,' as she put it in her poem 'Questions of Travel.' She told James Merrill in a postcard written in 1979 that she seldom wrote 'anything of any value at the desk or in the room where I was supposed to be doing it—it’s always in someone else’s house, or in a bar, or standing up in the kitchen in the middle of the night.' Since her death in 1979 and the publication of her selected correspondence, Bishop has become known as one of the great modern-day letter-writers. ..."


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