Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (1976)
"Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions is a series of five albums recorded May 14–23, 1976 at Studio Rivbea, a loft jazz space in New York City, run by Sam Rivers and his wife Bea. The albums include performances by groups led by musicians such as Hamiet Bluiett, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Dave Burrell, Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Jimmy Lyons, Ken McIntyre, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Roscoe Mitchell, David Murray, Sunny Murray, Sam Rivers, Leo Smith, Henry Threadgill, and Randy Weston. ... Author Phil Freeman wrote: 'this set... contains an overwhelming amount of truly beautiful jazz performances, by names recognizable to almost anyone with a serious interest in the music... This music is composed, thoughtful, and artistic in every sense. The cliche of avant-garde jazz, that it is mere inchoate bleating, is repeatedly disproved here... This is an astonishing document, sonically wide-open to anyone with an ear for music of the spirit. The performances are varied enough, and sequenced in such a manner, that the most palatable, groove-oriented works will draw the listener in that he or she may appreciate the more abstract, experimental works as well. This music's vitality is timeless; these recordings should be heard by anyone with anything more than a glancing interest in jazz.' ..."
The 2023 High School Yearbook of American Politics
"It has been such a special political year, brimming with extraordinary, even historic moments. From an ex-president indicted to a Senate staffer busted for making porn at work, each fresh development made you proud to be an American. Singling out the exceptional events and players was tougher than ever. I mean, when Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t even merit a mention …. But making hard calls is part of my job, and the true standouts deserve a shout-out. ..."
Frozen In Time: This is Darkness playlist – December 2023
"Here are the dark ambient albums that we at This is Darkness have been listening to this month – some are new releases, but a few are older gems we’ve just (re)discovered. Please check these out by clicking on the Bandcamp link next to each review (or by clicking on the BNDCMPR link at the bottom of the page), and please consider supporting the featured artists. Enjoy! ... With LUMINA, world-renowned throat singer/performance artist/shaman SoRIAH returns with an incredible set of two collaborations featuring experimental legends Hans Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia) and Norman Westberg(Swans). The music here is majestic, ethereal, and spiritual in both vibe and tone – and is intended to bring peace to the lost souls of those who have recently passed, a common overarching theme of SoRIAH‘s work. This album is also available here on beautiful 10” white smoke vinyl, with a hand numbered limited edition of 350. Simply wonderful. ..."
LUMINA SoRIAH, Norman Westberg and Hans Joachim Roedelius
Past Lives - Celine Song (2023)
Past Lives review – a must-see story of lost loves, childhood crushes and changing identities. "This heart-meltingly romantic and sad movie from Korean-Canadian dramatist and film-maker Celine Song left me wrung out and empty and weirdly euphoric, as if I’d lived through an 18-month affair in the course of an hour and three-quarters. How extraordinary to think that this is Song’s feature debut. It’s delicate, sophisticated and yet also somehow simple, direct, even verging on the cheesy. Past Lives has been compared to the movies of Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig; all true, but I also found myself remembering the wrenching final moments of Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, with Tony Leung murmuring his pain into a stone hollow in Angkor Wat and – yes – the gooey genius of Dean Friedman’s plaintive 1978 chart hit Lucky Stars. This is a story of lost love and childhood crush, the painful and dangerous access to the past given by digital media; the roads not taken, the lives not led, the futile luxury of regret. ..."
Michigan Supreme Court Decides Trump Can Stay on Ballot
"The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday paved the way for Donald J. Trump to appear on the state’s primary ballot, a victory for the former president in a battleground state.
The state’s top court upheld an appeals court decision that found that the former president could appear on the ballot despite questions about his eligibility to hold elected office because of his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Michigan decision followed a bombshell ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, which on Dec. 19 determined in a 4-3 opinion that Mr. Trump should be removed from the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. ..."
The Michigan Hall of Justice building in Lansing, where the state Supreme Court considered whether former President Donald J. Trump was eligible to appear on the primary ballot.
In Campus Protests Over Gaza, Echoes of Outcry Over Vietnam
"Richard Flacks remembers the challenges of building a protest movement during the Vietnam War as a pillar of the left-wing political and antiwar group Students for a Democratic Society during the 1960s.
'The whole idea of S.D.S. began with the idea of, We need a new way of being on the left, a new vocabulary, a new strategy,’ said Mr. Flacks, who helped write the group’s manifesto, the Port Huron Statement, in 1962. 'We knew we were right, and I don’t think we were arrogant about it.'
Sixty years later, Iman Abid sees similar challenges in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. ..."
NY Times
Students from the Black Students Organization protesting Columbia University’s suspension of the groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Smithsonian: What Was the Protest Group Students for a Democratic Society? Five Questions Answered
TIME: How the Weather Underground Failed at Revolution and Still Changed the World
Students from the Black Students Organization protesting Columbia University’s suspension of the groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Afro Futuristic Dreams - Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids (2023)
Legendary Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids return with cosmic jazz explorations on ‘Afro Futuristic Dreams’: "Celebrating 50 years as a pioneering group led by the legendary bandleader Idris Ackamoor, and as a follow-up to their most recent retrospective box set release, The Pyramids return with a highly-anticipated and adventurous new full-length on Strut, titled Afro Futuristic Dreams. This brilliant and expansive 10-track recording pushes their sound in new directions, blending together spiritual and cosmic jazz grooves with strings, African and Eastern-rooted percussion rhythms, and soulful vocal chants and group choruses that delve into subjects as various as police brutality to uplifting celebrations of the ancestors and departed loved ones. There also seems to be a touch of Funkadelic and Sun Ra Arkestra influences in the fabric of the music. ..."
2017 November: We Be All Africans (2016), 2020 August: Shaman! (2020)
How to Create a Black Hole Out of Thin Air
"How many ways are there to leave this universe?
Perhaps the best known exit entails the death of a star. In 1939 the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his student Harlan Snyder, of the University of California, Berkeley, predicted that when a sufficiently massive star runs out of thermonuclear fuel, it collapses inward and keeps collapsing forever, shrink-wrapping space, time and light around itself in what today is called a black hole.
But it turns out that a dead star might not be needed to make a black hole. Instead, at least in the early universe, giant clouds of primordial gas may have collapsed directly into black holes, bypassing millions of years spent in stardom. ..."
A composite image showing the quasar UHZ-1. The X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown in purple; the galaxies and stars are from infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Uncertain Business of Christmas Tree Peddling
"Two hundred years ago, anyone who wanted a Christmas tree in New York City would have had to go out of town, fell their own fir, and tow it back via horse and wagon. In fact, 200 years ago Christmas was not even a national holiday (it was declared one in 1870), nor were Christmas trees commonplace, except in the homes of immigrants from Germany, where the custom began. However, according to an 1878 article in the New York Tribune, in 1851 a 'jolly woodman named Mark Carr, who was whistling away a happy life on the flanks of the Catskills, conceived the idea that New York needed some Christmas trees.' ..."
“Load of Xmas trees, NY,” ca. 1910 - 1915. 
Drone music isn’t just one note
LEYA’s Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz, claire rousay.
YouTube: Kassel Jaeger - Swamps / Things 1:13:07, Drew McDowall Live at Pioneer Works (Full Set) 46:17, Kali Malone - 'Does Spring Hide Its Joy' live at Purcell Room, Souothbank, 03/12/2022 56:59, Cascade - William Basinski 40:10
Kali Malone
Meredith Monk: The Recordings
"One of the quiet revelations of ‘Meredith Monk: The Recordings’ (ECM New Series) is that Monk herself confides that it was Janis Joplin who set her —and her voice— free. The 13-CD set chronicles the thrust of her career by re-releasing all of the recordings, remastered as necessary, that she made with Manfred Eichler’s intrepid (and consummately professional) ECM over the 40 years since Monk’s career broke. No disrespect to Janis, as beloved an artist as rock has ever produced, but Monk took her newly freed voice to heights, depths, and expressive ranges arguably no other vocal artist has attempted or even dared. She has taken her singular work onstage in equally varied settings, underscoring the sheer courage of her artistry. ..."
2008 March: Meredith Monk, 2009 September: Songs of Ascension - Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton, 2011 February: Meredith Monk: A Voice For All Time, 2011 August: Ellis Island, 2012 December: Turtle Dreams, 2013 February: Quarry: The Rally (Live, 1977), 2014 November; 10 Things You Might Not Know About Meredith Monk, 2015 April: Volcano Songs (1994), 2015 June: Ellis Island, 2016 April: 16 Millimeter Earrings and the Artist’s Body (1966/1998), 2016 December: Beginnings (2009), 2017 February: Book of Days (1988), 2017 May: Piano Songs (2014), 2017 December: Monk Mix: Remixes & Interpretations of Music By Meredith Monk (2012), 2020 March: Quarry (1976)
BSA HOT LIST 2023: Books For Your Gift Giving
"It’s that time of the year again! Our 13th 'Hot List' of books – a best-of collection that is highly personal and unscientific presents a sampling across the board for a variety of graffiti and street art fans. Our interests and network continued to venture afield this year, and we offer a cross-section of books that are well worth your time – whether it’s the stories they tell, the rare glimpse inside a wiley mind, or the revelation of seeing images previously unseen except by a handful of people. We have political, personal, and professional takes on this beautiful street art scene, as well as a careful instruction book on how to make your own. ..."
CITY OF KINGS: A History Of New York City Graffiti
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. ..."
Top 30 Best Gangster Movies of All Time, Ranked (2023) (Video)
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. ..."
Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America
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
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: Gucci Mane Christmas Mix 2023
Gucci Mane - St. Brick Intro
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
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
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
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. ..."
November 2007: J. M. W. Turner, 2009 April: Turner & Italy, 2011 June: J. M. W. Turner - 1, 2014 June: In Which We Find His Theory Of Color Implausible, 2014 September: The EY Exhibition: Late Turner – Painting Set Free, 2015 May: Mr. Turner (2014), 2018 November: The Slave Ship (1840), 2018 December: Turner and Constable: The Inhabited Landscape, 2020 September: The Fighting Temeraire (1838), 2021 August: Sun Rising Through Vapour, Before 1807, 2022 March: Turner paintings not seen in UK for 100 years to go on show at National Gallery
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. ..."
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
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.
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. ..."
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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. ..."
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. ..."
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. ..."
2023 May: Blood On His Hands: Henry Kissinger, 2023 November: Henry Kissinger and the Vietnam War
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. ..."
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'. ..."
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. ..."
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. ..."
2012 July: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, 2013 March: Burma Shave, 2013 May: "Ol' '55", 2013 July: The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), 2014 January: Blood Money, 2014 March: Telephone call from Istanbul (1987), 2014 November: Rain Dogs (1985), 2015 February: Mule Variations (1999), 2015 April: Swordfishtrombones (1983), 2015 July: Alice (2002), 2015 September: Tom Waits On The Tube Live UK TV 1985, 2015 December: Franks Wild Years (1987), 2016 January: "Bad as Me" (2011), 2016 April: 'It's perfect madness', 2016 May: Real Gone (2002), 2016 October: Tom Waits Sings and Tells Stories in "Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna", a 1979, 2017 January: Bone Machine (1992), 2017 April: Bad as Me (2011). 2019 February: "Downtown Train" / "Tango Till They're Sore" (1985)
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.' ..."
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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