Instress: part 1 - The secrets of clouds, part 2 - Contagion as metaphor

"Some poems declare their interest in magic openly through formal choices. Some poems are constructed as and/or ‘after’ ancient or occult spells and take the form of a spell, which has some generally predictable structures. If we go from the ancient spells exemplified in Joshua Trachtenberg’s work, we’ll find these components: appeal, historiolae (historical or mythological precedents/correlates of the situation at hand), invocation, enunciation of names, request. Of poems that follow this form, sonic choices alluding to the spell’s incantatory form might be the easiest to identify as invested in magic; poems of chant and litany lull and charm the reader with sound....”

Jacket2: instress part 1, part 2

“The Enamored Mage: Translation #6” a portrait of Robert Duncan by Jess, 1965. Courtesy of The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco 

Battered School Holds Memories of Collective Trauma in a Ukrainian Village

"YAHIDNE, Ukraine — The elementary school’s former custodian carefully turned the key to the green door leading to the basement and walked down the stairs, shining a flashlight. Eventually, he paused the beam on a calendar scrawled on the cement wall and on the list of names alongside it. It is how the people imprisoned there by Russian occupiers kept a record of who died and when. ‘People were dying, people couldn’t take it,’ said the former custodian, Ivan Petrovich Polhui. ‘There was not enough air. We spent a month there — 28 days.’ Mr. Polhui has become something of an unofficial keeper of the memories of the school and of the suffering that Russian soldiers inflicted there in March, when they held him and more than 300 of his neighbors, including children, in the dank and desperate confines of the basement. ...”

NY Times

BBC - Ukraine war: Were Russian soldiers shot after surrendering?

Aljazeera - Loss and liberation: Escape from Russia-occupied Kherson (Video)

GRID: After fears of a winter energy crisis, Europe has more than it needs. How did that happen?

Yahidne last month. In March, more than 300 residents, including 77 children, were marched from their homes at gunpoint and forced into a cramped school basement.

The Radar – The Athletic’s 2022 World Cup scouting guide

"Welcome to The Radar — the World Cup edition. Last year, for Euro 2020, we profiled 60 players that people were talking about — or would be by the end of the competition. Thirty-four of those players have since moved club. More teams means more players, so for the World Cup we’ve upped that to 100. The result is below, a carefully crafted guide to some of the best footballers on show in Qatar listed alphabetically by country — the heavyweight names, the rising stars and the under-the-radar players who could be coming to an elite club near you. ...”

The Athletic

Rook Radio 3 // African Disco & Afro-House

"A vinyl only set of African Disco, Afro-house and electronic beats. Mixed by Juby Rook. 1. Mike Umoh - Shake Your Body 2. Charlie Kingson - Nimele Bolo 3. Steve Watson - Born To Boogie 4. Christy Essien - You Can’t Change A Man 5. Steve Monite - Only You 6. Mr Bird - Dance Away 7. Esnard Boisdour - Soufwans (3am Mix) 8. Oumou Sangare - Fadjamou (St. Germain Remix) 9. Jimi Tenor - Quantum Connection 10. XOA - Mon École 11. Joni Haastrup - Do The Functro 12. Basa Basa- African Soul Power 13. Romare - The Blues (It Began In Africa) 14. Soothsayers - Blinded Souls (Titeknots Remix) 15. Stephen Colebrooke - Shake Your Chic Behind 16. Joni Hasstrup - Greetings 17. Ronald Snijders - Kaseko Attack 18. Arp-Frique - Nos Magia 19. Explosion - Waka Mang 20. Oluko Imo - Praise Jah 21. Sony Enang - Don’t Stop That Music 22. Oumou Sangare - Yere Faga (Natureboy Flako Remix) ...”

Soundcloud (Audio)

YouTube: Rook Radio 3 // African Disco & Afro-House [Vinyl Mix] - Live (Video)

 

​Ukraine’s 15,000-Mile Lifeline

"On the night of Feb. 23, when Kyiv was still rife with rumors and denials about the Russian troops and weaponry amassing along the border, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the 38-year-old chief executive of Ukrzaliznytsia — Ukraine’s national rail system — sent a photograph to the management’s Telegram group chat in an attempt to settle everyone’s nerves. The photo showed him tucking his two sons, 8 and 12, into bed in their apartment in central Kyiv. The head of passenger services, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, replied with a photo of his toddler taking a bath. The implication of both photos was clear: The leaders, and their families, were staying put. Kamyshin had been in charge of Ukrzaliznytsia for only six months. Still in his trial period, he hadn’t even been offered a permanent contract. ...”

NY Times (Audio)

VOX: Can Ukraine’s infrastructure survive the winter?

Guardian - ‘Biggest challenge of my life’: Kherson’s leaders toil to turn city around

Damaged railway lines near Zolochiv. 

The History of Slavery Is All of Our History - Howard W. French

"One morning this July, I rose early for a several-mile drive along the Ghanaian coast to give a talk at one of the most important historical sites of the modern era: the imposing whitewashed, fortified trading station at Elmina that Ghanaians commonly refer to as a ‘castle.’ I was honored to have been invited there by the country’s government to give a talk about my new book, Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War, but I had little idea of what kind of crowd, if any, would turn out to hear me speak about a book that few in the country would have yet read. Would they be Ghanaians interested in the history of slavery, in which this stretch of the West African coast played a hugely important part? ...”

Foreign Policy (Audio)

Guardian - Built on the bodies of slaves: how Africa was erased from the history of the modern world - - Howard W. French

The interior of Elmina Castle near Cape Coast, Ghana, on Feb. 4, 2008.

​Trump Faces Five Major Investigations. He Has Dozens of Ways Out.

"Donald Trump and his business empire are currently the subjects of no fewer than five major simultaneous investigations, a truly extraordinary challenge for anyone, let alone a former and possibly future president of the United States. These are complicated investigations, with long and winding paths to resolution. They involve scores of federal and state investigators and witnesses across the country, from politicians eager to shield themselves from scrutiny to employees turning on their colleagues to a former president who knows how to navigate — and manipulate — the legal system like no one else. ...”

NY Times | Opinion

 

​For Ukraine, Keeping the Lights On Has Become One of the Biggest Battles

"KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is turning winter into a weapon, even as its soldiers flail on the battlefield. In a relentless and intensifying barrage of missiles fired from ships at sea, batteries on land and planes in the sky, Moscow is destroying Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, depriving millions of heat, light and clean water. Keeping the lights on for the majority of the millions of people who live in cities and towns far from the front — and keeping those places functioning through the winter — is now one of the greatest challenges Ukraine faces. President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Wednesday night, ‘If we survive this winter, and we will definitely survive it, we will definitely win this war.’ ...”

NY Times

Guardian - The night everything changed: waiting for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

New Depths of Russian Insanity as Putin’s Ukraine Debacle Continues

NY Times: How Ukraine Blew Up a Key Russian Bridge

Aljazeera: NATO faces new challenge as Ukraine war spills into Poland (Video)

Employees working last week to repair a transformer at an electrical substation damaged by a Russian missile strike in central Ukraine.

​Marilyn Monroe in New York: Her Year of Reinvention

"In late December 1954 Marilyn Monroe came to New York City wearing a disguise. Monroe — by then the biggest movie star in the world — came to the East Coast to reinvent herself and her career. The year 1955 would be a turning point in her life and it all played out on the streets of the city. She intended to spend the rest of her life here.It was a year of discovery — exploring the city, working on her craft and generally being the toast of the town. ...”

Bowery Boys (Audio)

EMS VCS3 in the 1970s

"Necessity is the mother of invention. In the case of Peter Zinovieff, the necessity was quite conventional. His cutting-edge studio that functioned as a research facility for electronic music experimentation, was in dire need of money. ... Together with his two collaborators at EMS, David Cockerell and Tristram Cary, Zinovieff drew upon their vast collective knowledge of sound processing and came up with the company’s first commercial product, originally geared towards educational institutes. ... This is the story of the VCS3, one of the most unique synthesizers in the history of electronic music. ...”

The Music Aficionado: Part 1 (Video), Part 2 (Video)

W - EMS VCS 3 

User's eye view of the "VCS 3"

​I Went to Ukraine, and I Saw a Resolve That We Should Learn From

"IZIUM, Ukraine — Inna Osipova pointed to the 30-foot pile of rubble that is all that’s left of her apartment building. She and her 5-year-old son narrowly escaped when Russian shelling destroyed the structure, but her grandmother did not and is interred somewhere in the wreckage. Osipova hopes her body will be found so she can be given a proper burial. Her voice cracked with emotion, but she held together until I asked what she thought of Americans who say it’s time to move on from supporting Ukraine. ... These areas in northeastern Ukraine, recently liberated after months of Russian occupation, show what’s at stake as some Americans and Europeans seek to trim assistance for Ukraine. There are bombed-out buildings, survivors cooking over open fires outside, children injured by land mines, freshly vacated Russian torture chambers — 23 discovered so far here in the Kharkiv region alone — along with mass graves of corpses with hands tied and shattered limbs. ...”

NY Times: Opinion

Guardian: Alleged Russian ‘torture room’ uncovered in liberated Kherson

BBC: Why did Russia invade Ukraine and has Putin's war failed?Published8 hours ago (Video)

NBC News: How the Poland missile strike could change Putin's war in Ukraine (Video)

NY Times: How an American Survived Hiding From the Russians in Kherson for 8 Months

Timothy Morales, 56, an American teacher,  managed to send his 10-year-old daughter to safety, but was trapped in occupied Kherson, Ukraine, during Russia’s occupation.

Babel - Alejandro González Iñárritu (2006)

"Babel focuses on four families in four countries on three continents in a multidimensional story that engages the senses, startles the mind, and engenders within our consciousness an appreciation for small acts of kindness and compassion in a world filled with hatred, violence, confusion, dread, suffering and loss. This extraordinary film is the third in a trilogy by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu that includes with Amores Perros and 21 Grams. People today are cut off from each other by race, language, culture, and tradition. ...”

Spirituality and Practice

W - Babel

amazon

YouTube: Babel - Trailer

2022 November: 21 Grams

​Stop and admire the Chelsea Hotel’s beautiful iron balconies

"There’s a lot to love about the Chelsea Hotel: the Queen Anne (or Victorian Gothic?) style, its backstory as a failed early cooperative apartment house, the enchanting main staircase and lobby fireplace, and its cultural relevance as a home for artists, writers, and free thinkers throughout the 20th century. But there’s one feature I can’t get past: the magnificent floral-ornamented iron balconies gracing the circa-1883 building—seven rows of delicate leaves and flowers spread across the hotel’s red brick facade.The floral motifs bring the beauty and softness of the natural world to the harsh brick and mortar cityscape of West 23rd Street. ...”

Ephemeral New York

2010 October: Hotel Chelsea, 2014 January: Arena Hotel Chelsea, 2019 August: The Chelsea Affect - Arthur Miller, 2022 July:  ​‘Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel’ Review: Bohemia’s Holdouts

​For Western Weapons, the Ukraine War Is a Beta Test

"Three months ago, as Ukrainian troops were struggling to advance against Russian forces in the south, the military’s headquarters in Kyiv quietly deployed a valuable new weapon to the battlefield. It was not a rocket launcher, cannon or another kind of heavy arms from Western allies. Instead, it was a real-time information system known as Delta — an online network that military troops, civilian officials and even vetted bystanders could use to track and share desperately needed details about Russian forces. The software, developed in coordination with NATO, had barely been tested in battle. But as they moved across the Kherson region in a major counteroffensive, Ukraine’s forces employed Delta, as well as powerful weaponry supplied by the West, to push the Russians out of towns and villages they had occupied for months. ...”

NY Times

BBC: Ukraine's secret weapon - the medics in the line of fire (Video)

NY Times: In Poland, a Warm Welcome for Ukrainian Refugees Wobbles

NBC News: Ukraine dismisses push to compromise in wake of Russian attacks — and retreats (Video)

Aljazeera: Barrage of Russian missiles causes blackouts across Ukraine

Soldiers with Ukraine’s Carpathian Sich Battalion reviewing drone footage below the front line in May.

Modern Mythologies - a talk with Raffaele Pezzella

"Raffaele Pezzella organises streaming radio sessions (more than 200 as I write this) for promoting the artists he finds and/or curates across the world under the umbrella of the Unexplained Sounds Group label, or the Eighth Tower Records sublabel. He started the Unexplained Sounds Group back in 2015, an currently the imprint has reached more than 50 releases in its catalogue, published mostly on CD and as digital download. The label was recently described by Bandcamp as a ‘global network of aural disorientation’. Raffaele focuses on experimental music, whether it is ambient, abstract or drone. ...”

theATTIC (Audio)

SoundCloud (Audio)

Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst): I'm mainly inspired by what I can't explain with evidence, by the mystery of things and of reality (Video)

Guido Van Helten Soars in Salina, Kansas

"Following our previous story on the public/private art initiative ‘Boom!’ festival in Salina, Kansas, we follow today with the one previous project on silos that ushered in many approvals for the festival by Australian mural artist (and photographer) Guido Van Helten. Completed in the summer of 2021, the images of children playing a circular game like ‘Ring-Around-the-Rosie’ fairly surround the HD Flour Mill. With a mix of sepia tones and faded pastels, the scene includes a diverse mix of kids rendered with tender respect, a composition that evokes the moment and captures a timeless truth that children and play go together like peanut butter and jelly. Van Helten got to know the community before he began the project, making this work a mirror of life in the area. ...”

Brooklyn Street Art (Video)

The Liberation of Kherson

"While the war in Ukraine was not a major issue in the midterms, Ukrainians—and others who support their cause—watched Tuesday’s elections with some apprehension due to a streak of GOP skepticism toward U.S. aid to Ukraine. Last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that Ukraine would no longer get a ‘blank check’ once the Republicans got control of Congress. He and his allies promptly moved to reassure the party’s defense hawks that they weren’t advocating a cutoff of military aid, just better oversight, but the anti-Ukraine rhetoric from the right continued to make people nervous, especially with such prominent pundits as Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham turning their shows into platforms for Kremlin talking points. The GOP’s lackluster election performance, which may leave control of the Senate in Democratic hands, likely spells the end of any serious effort to curb aid to Ukraine. This comes amid other big developments certain to affect the war’s course: the Russians’ decision to withdraw from Kherson, abandoning their biggest prize since the February 24 invasion, and renewed but still uncertain talk of negotiations. ...”

The Bulwark (Video)

NY Times: Russia Tried to Absorb a Ukrainian City. It Didn’t Work.

BBC - Ukraine war: 'Long and difficult path' ahead - Zelensky in Kherson (Video)

Guardian: Ukraine uses Cop27 to highlight environmental cost of Russia’s war

KHERSON, UKRAINE: A Ukrainian flag seen in the military assembly center of artillery batteries in Kherson, Ukraine on July 15, 2022. Ukrainian artillerymen in the military assembly center check the weapons and special equipment to make them ready before they go to their duties at the frontline in Kherson.

​When the Finely Tuned Spotlight Falls on the Lighting Designer

"Lighting designers live in the dark, shining light on others. Jennifer Tipton, who works in dance and theater, has received more attention than most in her profession. At the top of it for the last 50 years or so, she has earned Tony Awards, Bessie awards, an Obie for lifetime achievement and a MacArthur fellowship, among other accolades and prizes. Still, she’s spent her career being mostly invisible, intentionally without an identifiable style, always in service to the vision of choreographers, playwrights and directors — often famous ones, like Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and Robert Wilson. ...”

NY Times

W - Lighting designer

2015 March: Jennifer Tipton

Claire Denis - Beau travail (1999)

"With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism’s legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema. ...”

Criterion (Video)

NY Times: ‘Beau Travail’ Finds the Rhythm of Life (and Dances Away the Pain)

W - Beau Travail

YouTube: Beau Travail | Trailer

2009 September: Claire Denis, 2013 October: Claire Denis Dialogue with Eric Hynes, 2017 June: White Material (2009), 2022 February: Claire Denis’s Closet Picks

​Mines, looting, no power: Kherson assesses damage after Russian retreat

"After two nights of jubilation following the liberation of their city, the people of Kherson on Sunday began to assess the extent of the damage wreaked by eight long months of Russian occupation, with residents still without electricity and water.On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces had destroyed key infrastructure before retreating, while the mayor of Kherson said the humanitarian situation was ‘severe’ because of a lack of medicine and bread.The departing Russian troops also left behind thousands of mines, tripwires and unexploded shells. ...”

Guardian

NY Times: Ukraine Rushes Supplies to Kherson as Military Assesses Destruction

NBC News: Ukraine vows to drive out Russian forces after retaking Kherson (Video)

BBC - Ukraine war: Kherson curfew and river ban in security crackdown

An aid delivery in Pravdyne, near Kherson

World Cup 2022 Group A guide: De Jong keeps Netherlands ticking and watch out for Ecuador’s set pieces

"What tactics do the Netherlands use? What is Senegal’s weakness? Which quirk should we look out for from Ecuador? The 2022 World Cup is nearly upon us and The Athletic will be running in-depth tactical group guides so you will know what to expect from every nation competing in Qatar. Liam Tharme will look at each team’s playing style, strengths, weaknesses, key players and highlight things to keep an eye on during the tournament. …”

World Cup 2022 Group A guide: De Jong keeps Netherlands ticking and watch out for Ecuador’s set pieces  The Athletic - (Video)

Group B guide: England’s control and the Iran goalkeeper’s javelin-style throws (Video)

Group C guide: Argentina’s fast starts, ageing Mexico and possession-shy Poland (Video)

Group D guide: France’s high press, Denmark’s inverted wingers and an Australian giant (Video)

Group E guide: Spain’s young midfield stars and watch out for Germany’s triangles (Video)

Group F guide: Free-scoring Belgium, cross-heavy Croatia and Canada’s cutbacks (Video)

Group G guide: Tadic’s corners, Swiss pressing and a more complete Neymar (Video)

Group H guide: Bernardo Silva the orchestrator and Uruguay’s last dance (Video)

Feuer Zungen - Glocken Saiten (2022)

"Composing electroacoustic music is a breathtaking, exciting adventure, exploring unknown and unforeseeable sonic worlds. This album contains electroacoustic pieces I composed between 2000 and 2021. I wrote two of the pieces for performer and live electronics, and the remaining three are acousmatic pieces (i.e. without performer). For the pieces including live performers, I have been developing a live electronics program for over 20 years which allows for the complex and layered processing of the sounds produced by the performer....”

Bandcamp (Audio)

AMN Reviews: Rainer Bürck – Feuer Zungen Glocken Saiten (2022; earsay) (Audio)

Ukraine Signals It Will Stay on the Offensive, Despite Talk of a Lull

"As jubilant Ukrainian troops hoist their national flag over Kherson after a comprehensive Russian retreat, they give no sign of stopping their offensives for the winter, or allowing the war to settle into a stalemate. In the east, Ukrainian forces continue to grind forward and have repelled repeated Russian efforts to seize towns like Bakhmut and Pavlivka, reportedly killing hundreds of Russian soldiers. In the south, they are striking deep behind Russian lines, hitting Moscow’s troops before they can settle and build defenses on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, across from Kherson. And there are growing hints from troops on the ground, and volunteers close to them, that the Ukrainians are preparing for a new land offensive between those two fronts, south through the Zaporizhzhia region toward Melitopol, challenging Russia’s hold on the entire southern area that it seized in the invasion that began in February. ...”

NY Times

NY Times: Winter Will Be a Major Factor in the Ukraine War, Officials Say

Aljazeera - ‘Kherson ours’: Ukraine celebrates after Russian retreat (Video)

GRID: Russia’s retreat from Kherson is a military disaster that not even the Kremlin and its propagandists can spin

Voice: An Exhibition of Compelling Art by Ukrainians Benefits Ukraine

Guardian: Banksy artwork appears on damaged building in Ukraine

A work thought to be by Banksy in Borodianka.

"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" - The Allman Brothers Band (1970)

"’In Memory of Elizabeth Reed‘ is an instrumental composition by the American group The Allman Brothers Band. It first appeared on their second studio album, Idlewild South (1970), released on Capricorn Records. The jazz-influenced piece was written by guitarist Dickey Betts, among his first writing credits for the group. Betts named it after a headstone he saw for Elizabeth Jones Reed Napier in Rose Hill Cemetery in the band's hometown of Macon, Georgia. Multiple versions of the composition have been recorded, with the version performed on the group's 1971 live album At Fillmore East generally considered the definitive rendition. ...”

W - "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"

YouTube: "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" (Live)

Headstone for Elizabeth Reed at Rose Hill Cemetery.

​GhostRider

"GhostRider is a wooden roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It is located in the Ghost Town section of the park, south of the main entrance. Manufactured by Custom Coasters International, GhostRider is the tallest and longest wooden coaster on the West Coast of the United States, measuring 4,533 feet (1,382 m) long and 118 feet (36 m) tall. The ride follows an L-shaped double out and back pattern, with a station themed to a mining building. There are three trains, each themed to a different precious metal, though only two are in use at any given time. GhostRider was announced in August 1997 as part of an expansion of Knott's Berry Farm. ...”

W - GhostRider (roller coaster)

W - Wooden roller coaster

GhostRider | Wooden Roller Coaster - Knott's Berry Farm (Video)

​What Russia’s withdrawal from a key Ukrainian city means for the war

"Ukrainian troops entered the southern city of Kherson, days after Russia announced its retreat from the regional capital it has occupied since close to the start of the war. The Ukrainian military said Friday that Kherson was now back under Ukrainian government control. Earlier this week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had said all Russian troops would withdraw from the city of Kherson to the eastern side of the Dnieper River, territory that Russia still controls. Ukrainian officials initially expressed some skepticism about a Russian retreat; they had recently worried that, though Russia had shown signs of a possible withdrawal, it might instead be a feint to lure Ukrainian forces into a costly urban battle. So the sentiment among Ukrainian leaders was basically: Ukraine will confirm a full-on Russian withdrawal when it sees it happen. ...”

VOX

Aljazeera: Russia’s Kherson retreat marks tectonic shift in Ukraine war (Video)

NY Times: Ukrainian forces enter Kherson City as Russia says its retreat is complete. (Video)

Why Interpol Overturned U.S. “Red Notice” on Prigozhin

Guardian - ‘We fight propaganda with art’: the Georgian festival hitting back at Putin

Footage verified by The New York Times shows civilians in Kherson’s main square greeting and cheering on some of the first Ukrainian troops to enter the city.

​Two Weeks of Chaos: Inside Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter

"SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk had a demand. On Oct. 28, hours after completing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter the night before, Mr. Musk gathered several human-resource executives in a ‘war room’ in the company’s offices in San Francisco. Prepare for widespread layoffs, he told them, six people with knowledge of the discussion said. Twitter’s work force needed to be slashed immediately, he said, and those who were cut would not receive bonuses that were set to be paid on Nov. 1. ... Twitter, which is under financial pressure from debt and a slumping economy, is now unrecognizable compared with what it was a month ago. Last week, Mr. Musk slashed 50 percent of the company’s 7,500 employees. Executive resignations have continued. Misinformation proliferated on the platform during Tuesday’s midterm elections. A key project to expand revenue from subscriptions hit snags. Some advertisers have been aghast. ...”

NY Times

The Sea at L’Estaque - Paul Cézanne (1876)

"’It’s like a playing card,’ wrote Cézanne of the Mediterranean fishing village L’Estaque, where he stayed in 1876: ‘red roofs against the blue sea.’ Those words illuminate this painting. A playing card is a flat surface with no pretensions to be anything else: hearts or clubs, the images are simply shapes on a plane. The way he paints the houses and sea here creates a similar effect. The sea doesn’t recede in waves like an ocean painted by Turner but stands up in a solid wall of blue. This unyielding hard water is juxtaposed with the yellow walls, red roofs and oval leaves of the ‘foreground’ in a way that makes them all seem equal, just like symbols on a playing card. Cézanne exhibited this painting with the impressionist group yet he is pushing further than they did, into a sun-blasted future where space no longer exists.”

National Gallery

2011 August: Paul Cézanne, 2014 November: Cézanne: Landscape into Art, 2015 March: Madame Cézanne, 2017 June: Portraits by Cézanne, 2017 November: Inside Paul Cézanne’s Studio, 2018 April: The Lurchingly Uneven Portraits of Paul Cézanne, 2021 July: Cézanne Drawing

​Kherson: As Russia retreats, Ukrainians still fear a trap

"Not long after the Russians announced they would be pulling out of Kherson, a text popped up on my phone. It was from a resident of the city, who wanted to remain anonymous, giving me her impressions of what was happening. ‘I've seen the announcement and I'm really surprised,’ she wrote. ‘Of course, I hope things are going to get better, but during these eight months of occupation I learnt not to believe a word the Russians say. They lie so much about everything.’ She could see Chechen fighters, loyal to Moscow, moving around the city, many wearing civilian clothes. Her concern, like so many of her fellow citizens, was that Russia's announcement could be a trap - designed to draw Ukrainian troops into a killing ground. ...”

BBC

Aljazeera: Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine’s Kherson city explained in maps

NY Times: ‘You can see them on the streets.’ One Kherson couple says some Russian soldiers remain in the city.

GRID - The Ukraine War in data: Russia has lost more than 1,400 tanks in Ukraine; many armies don’t have that many

YouTube: Kherson withdrawal is ‘another victory for Ukraine’: NATO Secretary  11:33

Ukrainian soldiers near Kherson believe Moscow is trying to lure them into a trap

​The Passion of Questlove

"... Right at 1 a.m., he was greeted by a magical locomotive — chugging along so rhythmically that it almost seemed to dance, flipping gray buildings it passed into psychedelic colors — for his regular dose of peace, love and ‘Soul Train.’ Because ‘Soul Train’ was the only show, besides ‘Sesame Street,’ that he was allowed to watch as a child, and because Thompson, who you might better know as Questlove, grew up into the sort of adult who relies on an extensive knowledge of music to make sense of the world, his childhood memories are impossible to separate from which episode of ‘Soul Train’ was playing at the time. The two are knotted together so intricately that the archive of the show and the archive of his brain are the same. ...”

NY Times: The Passion of Questlove (Audio/Video)

W - Questlove

Stax Records

"Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. Stax was influential in the creation of Southern soul and Memphis soul music. Stax also released gospel, funk, and blues recordings. ... It featured several popular ethnically integrated bands (including the label's house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s) and a racially integrated team of staff and artists unprecedented in that time of racial strife and tension in Memphis and the South. ...”

Wikipedia

Soulsville: How It All Began (Video)

amazon: Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story

Former schoolteacher Estelle Axton, shown here outside Stax in 1968, co-founded the studio with her brother, Jim Stewart in a former movie theater on McLemore Avenue.

​‘Russia kaput!’: Ukraine brigade eyes victory as enemy retreats from Kherson

"On the edge of a copse, Danilo and two fellow soldiers stared intently at a screen. On it was a live video feed from a drone. ‘It’s quite simple to use. We put the drone up, call in an artillery strike and see where it lands. Then we adjust the position,’ said Danilo, a member of Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanised Brigade.The drone offered a panoramic view of the city of Snihurivka, occupied since the spring by Russian troops. There was an industrial estate, buildings and a grain silo, used by the enemy as a lookout point. The latest attack missed its target. ‘We were 300 metres off,’ said Danilo, pointing to the feed that showed a puff of grey smoke. The trio were standing next to a white satellite dish connected to Elon Musk’s Starlink system. Immediately behind them was a well-developed network of first world war-style trenches, dug beneath a line of bare autumn trees. For months the Russians were a mere kilometre away, hidden in civilian houses and dugouts. ...”

Guardian

NY Times - Phantom Retreats and Stolen Bones: The War of Deceit in Ukraine

NY Times: ‘Go ahead with the pullout of troops,’ Russia’s defense minister says.

LitHub: Four Ukrainian Writers on Literature, Solidarity, and the Future of Justice

YouTube: Ukraine war: Russia orders troops to withdraw from Kherson city

Aljazeera: Talks with Russia? No way, say Ukrainians

A woman stands in front of the 'memory wall of fallen defenders' in downtown Kyiv