​Two portraits of one lowdown saloon in 1919 Greenwich Village

 

“The Village has always had dive bars that attract locals and luminaries. But The Golden Swan, on the corner of Sixth Avenue and West Fourth Street, might have been the first—and the most notorious in its day. Inside this Irish tavern dating back to at least the 1870s, writers, artists, activists, and assorted Village characters of the 1910s gathered to drink. (National prohibition was looming, after all.) While the front of the tavern may have catered to locals and Hudson Dusters gangsters, bohemians made the back room—aka, the Hell Hole—their own. Charles Demuth was a fan of the Swan. ...”

Ephemeral New York

​Chess in the arts

 

Honoré Daumier (1863), The Chess Players

“Chess became a source of inspiration in the arts in literature soon after the spread of the game to the Arab World and Europe in the Middle Ages. The earliest works of art centered on the game are miniatures in medieval manuscripts, as well as poems, which were often created with the purpose of describing the rules. After chess gained popularity in the 15th and 16th centuries, many works of art related to the game were created. One of the best-known, Marco Girolamo Vida's poem Scacchia ludus, written in 1527, made such an impression on the readers that it singlehandedly inspired other authors to create poems about chess. In the 20th century, artists created many works related to the game, sometimes taking their inspiration from the life of famous players (Vladimir Nabokov in The Defense) or  well-known games (Poul Anderson in Immortal Game, John Brunner in The Squares of the City). ...”

Wikipedia

Chess in the Arts

The Chess Players — John Lavery (1929)

Andrea Belfi & Machinefabriek ‎– Pulses & Places (2009)

 

“This ninth release in the Brombron series (hosted by Korm Plastics) comes from the absurdly prolific Machinefabriek and Italian electro-acoustic musician Andrea Belfi.  For this project, Rutger Zuydervelt plays guitar and organ, while Belfi concentrates on drums and assorted percussive instruments. While the mood of the music is consistent with Machinefabriek's propensity towards atmospheric, detailed ambience, there's a markedly more organic aspect to this music that sets it apart from most of the Dutch composer's collaborations. The presence of Belfi's live, acoustic drums puts a very different slant on this music, bringing a kind of swaying, somnolent rhythm to the first piece, while Zuydervelt's layered drones map out a woozy trail. ...”

Boomkat

Bandcamp (Audio)

W - Andrea Belfi, W - Machinefabriek

Discogs (Video)

YouTube: Pulses & Places (Full Album) 34:13

The Battle of Algiers

 

“The Battle of Algiers was a campaign of urban guerrilla warfare carried out by the National Liberation Front (FLN) against the French Algerian authorities from late 1956 to late 1957. The conflict began as a series of attacks by the FLN against the French forces followed by a terrorist attack on Algerian civilians in Algiers by a group of Pieds-Noirs (European settlers), aided by the police. Reprisals followed and the violence escalated leading the French Governor-General to deploy the French Army in Algiers to suppress the FLN. Civilian authorities left all prerogatives to General Jacques Massu who, operating outside legal frameworks between January and September 1957, successfully eliminated the FLN from Algiers. The use of torture, forced disappearances and illegal executions by the French later caused controversy in France. ...”

Wikipedia, W - National Liberation Front, W - Women in the Algerian War

YouTube: The Algerian Revolutionary, Larbi Ben Mhidi 47:23, Veterans: The French in Algeria 24:23

 

The six historical Leaders of the FLN: Rabah Bitat, Mostefa Ben Boulaïd, Mourad Didouche, Mohammed Boudiaf, Krim Belkacem and Larbi Ben M'Hidi. 

 

The Battle of Algiers - Gillo Pontecorvo

“The Battle of Algiers is a 1966 Italian-Algerian historical war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo and starring Jean Martin and Saadi Yacef. It is based on events undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa, the most prominent being the titular Battle of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. It was shot on location in a Roberto Rossellini-inspired newsreel style: in black and white with documentary-type editing to add to its sense of historical authenticity, with mostly non-professional actors who had lived through the real battle. The film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone. It is often associated with Italian neorealist cinema. The film concentrates mainly on revolutionary fighter Ali La Pointe during the years between 1954 and 1957, when guerrilla fighters of the FLN regrouped and expanded into the Casbah, the citadel of Algiers. Their actions were met by French paratroopers attempting to regain territory. The highly dramatic film is about the organization of a guerrilla movement and the illegal methods, such as torture, used by the colonial power to contain it. Algeria succeeded in gaining independence from the French, which Pontecorvo addresses in the film's epilogue. The film has been critically acclaimed. Both insurgent groups and state authorities have considered it to be an important commentary on urban guerrilla warfare. ...”

W - The Battle of Algiers

The Battle of Algiers at Fifty

Madeleine Dobie — Edward Said on The Battle of Algiers: The Maghreb, Palestine and Anti-Colonial Aesthetics

senses of cinema

Criterion: The Battle of Algiers (BLU-RAY/DVD)

YouTube: The Battle of Algiers - Trailer, An Excerpt from Marxist Poetry: The Making of THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, Steven Soderbergh, Mira Nair, Spike Lee, and Julian Schnabel on THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS

Albert Camus

NPR - Camus' 'Chronicles': A History Of The Past, A Guide For The Future, NY Times: The Postcolonial, New Republic: What Camus Understood About the Middle East, YouTube: Albert Camus, Algerian Chronicles, ABC: Late Night Live, Google, amazon: Algerian Chronicles

Frantz Fanon and the Algerian revolution today, Fanon — Revolution, W - A Dying Colonialism - Frantz Fanon, [PDF] A Dying Colonialism, amazon

Mother Jones: A Savage War of Peace, amazon: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, Google

History and the politicians (May 2021)

 

Frantz Fanon

Deux Filles ‎– Silence & Wisdom / Double Happiness (2013)

 

“The short, mysterious career of the female French duo Deux Filles is bookended by tragedy. Gemini Forque and Claudine Coule met as teenagers at a holiday pilgrimage to Lourdes, during which Coule's mother died of an incurable lung disease and Forque's mother was killed and her father paralyzed in an auto accident. The two teens bonded over their shared grief and worked through their bereavement with music. However, after recording two critically acclaimed albums and playing throughout Europe and North America, Forque and Coule disappeared without a trace in North Africa in 1984 during a trip to visit Algiers. The short and terribly unhappy lives of Forque and Coule are at the root of the small but fervent cult following the mysterious duo have gained since their disappearance, not least because the placid, largely instrumental music on the duo's albums betrays no hint of the sorrow that framed their personal lives. ...”

Dark Entries (Audio)

The Quietus

Discogs (Video)

YouTube: Silence & Wisdom (1982) FULL ALBUM

​The Super League Thought It Had a Silent Partner: FIFA

 

“Tucked away in the pages and pages of financial and legal jargon that constitute the founding contract of the Super League, the failed project that last month briefly threatened the century-old structures and economics of European soccer, were references to one ‘essential’ requirement. The condition was deemed so important that organizers agreed that the breakaway plan could not succeed without satisfying it and yet was so secret that it was given a code name even in contracts shared among the founders. Those documents, copies of which were reviewed by The New York Times, refer to the need for the Super League founders to strike an agreement with an entity obliquely labeled W01 but easily identifiable as FIFA, soccer’s global governing body. ...”

NY Times

​Trump Is Marching Down the Road to Political Violence

 

“At the beginning of last week, former President Donald Trump referred to the 2020 election as the ‘greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country.’ By the end of the week, he had issued a statement saying, ‘As our Country is being destroyed, both inside and out, the Presidential Election of 2020 will go down as THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!’ What else is new? These are the ravings of a 74-year-old sociopath, isolated and banned from social media, living in Mar-a-Lago, where he is crashing wedding parties and delivering rambling monologues. ...”

The Atlantic

2021 February: 77 days: Trump’s campaign to subvert the election, 2021 February: First They Guarded Roger Stone. Then They Joined the Capitol Attack., 2021 February: A Small Group of Militants’ Outsize Role in the Capitol Attack , 2021 March: Police Shrugged Off the Proud Boys, Until They Attacked the Capitol, 2021 March 21: ‘We’ve Lost the Line!’: Radio Traffic Reveals Police Under Siege at Capitol, 2021 April: Capitol Police Told to Hold Back on Riot Response on Jan. 6, Report Finds

Projective Verse - Charles Olson (1959)

 

“Charles Olson’s influential manifesto, ‘Projective Verse,’ was first published as a pamphlet, and then was quoted extensively in William Carlos Williams’ Autobiography (1951).  ... Composition by field opposes the traditional method of poetic composition based on received form and measure. Olson sees the challenge of the transference of poetic energy from source to poem to reader, and the way in which that energy shifts at each juncture, as particularly of concern to poets who engage in composition by field, because the poet is no longer relying on a received structure as a propulsive force. ...”

Poetry Foundation: Essay on Poetic Theory - Projective Verse

LARB - All Architectures I Am: The (Unintended) Legacy of Charles Olson’s Projective Verse

Projective Verse - Printer’s Devil Review (Video)

[PDF] Projective Verse

2009 January: Charles Olson, 2009 April: Rockport Harbor, 2010 September: Charles Olson: The Art of Poetry No. 12, 2011 July: Charles Olson: February 21, 1957, 2012 June: In Which We Lather Our Sensibilities At Length, 2013 January: Mass.Charles Olson, 2013 May: The Maximus Poems, 2013 November: A Guide to The Maximus Poems of Charles Olson , 2015 March: "In Cold Hell, in Thicket" (1950), 2017 May: The Collected Poems of Charles Olson edited by George Butterick, 2017 May: Gloucester HarborWalk #: Charles Olson 3rd Letter on Georges, unwritten to Schooner Footage, 2020 March: A Trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester

​Deeper Listening: An Introduction to Drone Composition

 

“Drone composition encompasses a variety of music, all of which use long, slow-moving pitches as a vehicle for questioning how we perceive sound. Composers create these transfixing pieces by manipulating tape, layering acoustic instruments, and even inventing whole new instruments; but regardless of the nuts-and-bolts of their creation, the aim of drone composition is have us reconsider the role of sound in our day-to-day lives.The genre is garnering new attention thanks to the documentary Sisters With Transistors (2020), which sheds light on the work of female electronic musicians, many of whom were pioneers in the field of drone composition. ...”

bandcamp (Audio)

amazon: Experimental Music Since 1970, Jennie Gottschalk

Burning Spear - The Fittest Of The Fittest (1983)

 

“After the rather disappointing Farover, this mellow album laid down a firm foundation for the future, ensuring that while Burning Spear's fire no longer burned as fiery as before, a bright glow would still last down through the years. The Fittest of the Fittest's title track encapsulates both the sound and vision of what was to come. The Burning Band's rhythm section lays down a succulently meaty groove, while the rest of the musicians weave in and out, layering on riffs and flourishes to create a rich tapestry of sound. Overhead, Winston Rodney chants along, a long-distance roadrunner eating up the miles and passing cultural touchstones along the way. ... A superb album, which while not in the same class as Spear's first five releases, proves that the artist still has a good deal of simmer left. ...”                ”

allmusic (Audio)

W - The Fittest of the Fittest

Discogs (Video)

amazon

YouTube: 7'' Bad To Worse (& Dub), Fittest of the Fittest (2002 Remaster), Old Boy Garvey (2002 Remaster), Repatriation (2002 Remaster),  2000 Years (2002 Remaster)

A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation of the GOP – A Fareed Zakaria Special

 

“CNN’s Fareed Zakaria investigates the roots of the radicalization of the modern Republican party.  A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation of the GOP – A Fareed Zakaria Special, explores the roots that foreshadowed this critical moment for American democracy in a one-hour prime time special that premieres Sunday, May 16 at 8:00pm Eastern on CNN and CNN International. From Barry Goldwater and the John Birch Society, to the conspiracy theories of the defeated Donald Trump, who refused to accept the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and fomented an insurrection, Zakaria traces the GOP’s tradition of elevating personalities prepared to suppress the democratic franchise through the pursuit of illiberal extremism and conservative grievances against a changing world. Zakaria shows the political pathway of how America landed at the current inflection point for the ‘Party of Lincoln.’ ...

CNN

CNN (Video)

Extraterrestrial Plutonium Atoms Turn Up on Ocean Bottom

 

The remnants of a supernova, center bottom in blue-green, near the Small Magellanic Cloud, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

“Scientists studying a sample of oceanic crust retrieved from the Pacific seabed nearly a mile down have discovered traces of a rare isotope of plutonium, the deadly element that has been central to the atomic age. They say it was made in colliding stars and later rained down through Earth’s atmosphere as cosmic dust millions of years ago. Their analysis opens a new window on the cosmos. ... Dr. [Anton] Wallner works at the Australian National University as well as the Helmholtz Center in Dresden, Germany.Dr. Wallner and his colleagues reported their findings in Science on Thursday.Plutonium has a bad reputation, one that is well-deserved. ...”

NY Times

America’s Dead Souls

 

Engraving from Gustave Doré’s 1861 illustration of Dante’s Inferno.

“There is money to be made off the dead. Nikolai Gogol knew this when he wrote his masterpiece, Dead Souls, the story of a middle-aged man named Chichikov who buys dead serfs with the intention of mortgaging their souls for a profit. I chose to read this novel at the start of quarantine, when everyone else was reading War and Peace. I had already read War and Peace. It ruined my life. I wasn’t keen to have my life ruined again. I wanted some other grand, sweeping Russian epic to fill my time. I wish I would have been more cautious in picking a book. Every time I read one of the Russian greats my life transforms into an eerie mirror of the work....”

The Paris Review

Don DeLillo

“Don DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, performance art, the Cold War, mathematics, the advent of the digital age, politics, economics, and global terrorism. ... DeLillo's work displays elements of both modernism and postmodernism. ... He has said the primary influences on his work and development are ‘abstract expressionism, foreign films, and jazz.’ Many of DeLillo's books (notably White Noise) satirize academia and explore postmodern themes of rampant consumerism, novelty intellectualism, underground conspiracies, the disintegration and re-integration of the family, and the promise of rebirth through violence. ... The psychology of crowds and the capitulation of individuals to group identity is a theme DeLillo examines in several of his novels, especially in the prologue to Underworld, Mao II, and Falling Man. ...” Wikipedia

W - White Noise, NY Times: White Noise by Jayne Anne Phillips (Jan. 13, 1985), Mapping Don DeLillo’s White Noise, LitCharts: White Noise Study Guide

W - Libra, Rolling Stone - Q&A: Don DeLillo, NY Times: DALLAS, ECHOING DOWN THE DECADES  By Anne Tyler (July 24, 1988), Don DeLillo’s Libra at 30

W - Underworld, NY Times: The Power of History by Don DeLillo (Sep. 7, 1997), Guardian: Don DeLillo’s Underworld – still hits a home run, NYBooks: Between Hell and History by Luc Sante (Nov. 1997), Excavating the Past in Don DeLillo’s Underworld, Guardian: No 98 – Underworld (1997), [PDF] Underworld

W - The Body Artist, NY Times: Ghostbuster (Feb. 2001)

W - Falling Man, The Paris Review - Falling Men: On Don DeLillo and Terror, NY Times: The Clear Blue Sky, Guardian: As his world came tumbling down

 NY Times: We All Live in Don DeLillo’s World. He’s Confused by It Too. (Oct. 2020)

The Paris Review: The Art of Fiction No. 135 (Fall 1993)

New York: What to Read (May 2007)

BOOKFORUM: Stockholm, Are You Listening? Why Don DeLillo deserves the Nobel

Soundcloud: Don Delillo reads from Mao II, Point Omega, Falling Man at Town Hall

amazon

Colette: The French resistance fighter confronting fascism

 

“90-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine confronts her past by visiting the German concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora where her brother was killed. As a young girl, she fought Hitler's Nazis as a member of the French Resistance. For 74 years, she has refused to step foot in Germany, but that changes when a young history student named Lucie enters her life. Prepared to re-open old wounds and revisit the terrors of that time, Marin-Catherine offers important lessons for us all. Film-makers Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard explain how they found out about the story of Colette and why they decided to make a documentary about her. Read the interview here ...”

Guardian (Video)

2021 January: Colette (2018 film)

The National Pastime - SABR

“Since 2009, The National Pastime has served as SABR’s convention-focused publication. Published annually, this research journal provides in-depth articles focused on the respective geographic region where the National Convention is taking place in a given year. From 1982 to 2008, the magazine was intended as a more literary outlet for SABR members to publish their research, in comparison to the more statistically inclined Baseball Research Journal. Click on a cover image below to read articles online from The National Pastime. (Note: Some TNPs are still being digitized and are only available as PDF downloads. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to view those files.) Most past editions of The National Pastime can be purchased at Amazon.com. ...”

SABR: The National Pastime Archives PDF

The National Pastime, Pictorial Issue: John Thorn

Debatable: ‘Full-scale war’

 

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

“A synagogue on fire. Gazan apartment buildings leveled by bombs. Jews attacking Arabs and Arabs attacking Jews on the street. It’s been called the worst outburst of Israeli-Palestinian violence in seven years. At least seven people, including two children, in Israel and 103 Palestinians, including 27 children, have been killed as of Thursday, and by Friday those numbers will probably be outdated. If the situation continues to escalate, the United Nations’ special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process warned, the region could be headed toward a ’full-scale war.’ Why is this happening, and what does it portend for the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Here’s what people are saying. ...”

NY Times (Video)

 

In Pics | Violence Grips Israel and Palestine in Most Intense Hostilities in Years

Richard Skelton’s Newest Ambient Works Are Inspired by 19th Century Magical Medicine

 

“For many years Richard Skelton has explored the natural world through sound. Ambient compositions that reflect nature often conjure up associations of soothing serenity, with the immersive soundscapes acting as the peaceful bliss and idyllic beauty of stretching landscapes. However, Skelton plunges deeper than this, exploring his own personal relationship and history to specific places, as well as the raging contradictions of nature, channelling its harshness and unforgiving unpredictability alongside its staggering splendor.In the early days Skelton never intended his music to be performed for, or heard by, anyone. His audience was the same as his inspiration: nature. ...”

bandcamp (Audio)

W - Richard Skelton

Articulate Silences interview with ambient/modern classical (Audio/Video)

Discogs

YouTube: River Song, Of the Sea, Noon Hill Wood, Threads Across The River

​See Reopening Plans and Mask Mandates for All 50 States

 

“All across the country, mask mandates are easing, restrictions are lifting and many states have gone back to business as usual. It appears much of the country will be open with few restrictions in the coming months. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, it has been largely up to state and local officials to determine what restrictions, if any, to impose to slow new infections. A nationwide patchwork of rules for businesses and residents resulted over months of trial and error, as governors reopened some sectors only to later re-close and reopen them again as infection rates rose and fell. ...”

NY Times

​Pina Bausch Magazine

 

“A conceptual magazine spread detailing the life and career of ballerina, modern dancer, and choreographer Pina Bausch. The brushed type treatment is a nod to her own style, which created motifs of rapid movement, disorientation, and distress through dance.  The text is taken from the biography published to her webpage. The cover design is inspired by ArtForum's styling. Typefaces used are Avenir Next, Bratz, and Baskerville. ...”

Caitlin Stamper

ARTFORUM: The Auto-Representation of Pina Bausch (February 1984)

​The Pleasures of Destroying a Good Book

 

“It is a sin, she said, to damage the spine. My elementary school librarian showed us a cracked book. The creases and wrinkles looked like an exposed skeleton. After her elegiac presentation, we were sent to the stacks to find books. I handled them with more fear than care. When I got the nerve to peek inside, I eased open the pages as if each text would crumble to dust. My librarian had good reason for her method: she had to preserve books for years of students. Unfortunately, her warnings made me think that books were meant only to be borrowed. As a reader, I want to inhabit a book as a form of communion. Most books took years to write—and likely a few more years to rewrite. They deserve more than a single read before being consigned to silent prison among their cousins of other genres on untouched bookshelves. Some books become part of my weekly, daily life. Those books are inevitably flattened on my desk. Dog-eared. Highlighted. Circled. ...”

LitHub

amazon: Best American Short Stories 1983, Anne Tyler

​Beautiful Garbage

 

Talking Heads

“Beautiful Garbage is a journey through one of America’s most revered and impactful genres. Moving from the four cornerstones: TheMC5, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and The New York Dolls; to Punk’s birthplace in New York at CBGB; and finally to England, where The Sex Pistols propelled it to worldwide recognition before imploding and leaving us with The Clash and asking ‘what is punk?’ Written and hosted by Kevin Hogan, Beautiful Garbage shares the quest for that answer and the stories we found in the archives, told by those who lived them. Stories about innovations in sound and style, technological breakthroughs, and the sociopolitical factors that produced the punk aesthetic and its indelible mark on popular music and culture. ...”

Osiris Pod (Audio)

Dangerous Visions - Harlan Ellison (1967 - Editor)

 

“Dangerous Visions is a science fiction short story anthology edited by American writer Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. It was published in 1967. A path-breaking collection, Dangerous Visions helped define the New Wave science fiction movement, particularly in its depiction of sex in science fiction. Writer/editor Al Sarrantonio writes how Dangerous Visions 'almost single-handedly [...] changed the way readers thought about science fiction.' Contributors to the volume included 20 authors who had won, or would win, a Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, or BSFA award, and 16 with multiple such awards. Ellison introduced the anthology both collectively and individually while authors provided afterwords to their own stories. ...”

Wikipedia

A Look Back at Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions by Ted Gioia

[PDF] Dangerous Visions

amazon