“London’s Strut Records concludes it’s exploration into Sun Ra Arkestra’s historic recordings in Egypt with a reissue of the 1983 collaborative album with great Egyptian percussionist and drummer Salah Ragab and his large ensemble, The Cairo Jazz Band. The incredible five-track recording came together while the Arkestra when the band returned for their second stint of performances in Egypt in 1983. ...”
Georges Perec - Récits d'Ellis Island, Part 1: Traces, Part 2: Mémoires (1978-1980)
“In 1978, Robert Bober and Georges Perec set out to in the search of traces of Ellis Island, that is, as Georges Perec put it, of ‘the very site of exile, the place of the absence of place, the non-place, the nowhere.’ They traveled to New York to film what was left of this ‘Golden Gate’, nicknamed ‘the Island of Tears’ by the immigrants. One of the objectives of the filmmaker and the writer was to gather testimonies of survivors who, as children, passed through Ellis Island. ... As a result, Récits d'Ellis Island are more than a document; they are also a profound reflection on exile, wandering, and hope, as well as on the symbolic power of places of memory, contrasted with the ineffectiveness of isolated objects. ...”
U.S. Technology, a Longtime Tool for Russia, Becomes a Vulnerability
“WASHINGTON — With magnifying glasses, screwdrivers and a delicate touch from a soldering gun, two men from an investigative group that tracks weapons pried open Russian munitions and equipment that had been captured across Ukraine. Over a week’s visit to Ukraine last month, the investigators pulled apart every piece of advanced Russian hardware they could get their hands on, such as small laser range finders and guidance sections of cruise missiles. The researchers, who were invited by the Ukrainian security service to independently analyze advanced Russian gear, found that almost all of it included parts from companies based in the United States and the European Union: microchips, circuit boards, engines, antenna and other equipment. ...”
In April, Russian missiles struck a storage facility in Odesa, Ukraine, that housed petroleum products.
For Ukraine the World Cup looked unthinkable. Now they’re 1 game away after spirited win over Scotland
“GLASGOW, Scotland — Ukraine are 90 minutes away from the World Cup. For a country that is fighting for its very existence following Russia’s invasion in February, to even think about the insignificance of qualifying for a football tournament is difficult to comprehend, but Ukraine’s 3-1 win against Scotland in their World Cup play-off semifinal on Wednesday sent a message to the world that theirs is a country of incredible spirit and resolve. …”
Anthology Of Post Industrial And Experimental Music From Italy
“The latest entry in the Unexplained Sounds Group sound mapping project is a compilation of outside music from Italy. While often synth-driven and a cultural cousin of sorts to Kosmiche and dark ambient, Italy’s post-industrial scene is a more diverse and unique animal. These pieces are influenced less by western rock music and are instead reflective of modern innovations in electronics, noise sculpting, musique concrete, and cinematic composition. As such, many of these recordings include sound collages of samples, environmental noises, voices, and processed rhythms, as well as more traditional instrumentation....”
Will more countries want nuclear weapons after the war in Ukraine?
“On a certain level, many of today’s most pressing U.S. national security problems are really just variations of one problem: how to manage the risk of armed conflict in a world with nuclear weapons. The questions haunts American foreign policy on multiple fronts. In Ukraine, the key question the U.S. and its allies are facing is how much military support they can provide without risking an all-out NATO-Russia war that could end civilization as we know it. President Joe Biden’s trip to Asia last week was interrupted by multiple missile tests from nuclear-armed North Korea and overshadowed by his vow to defend Taiwan with military force if it were attacked by China, a scenario many analysts have projected could easily go nuclear. ...”
How Did Cartographers Create World Maps before Airplanes and Satellites? An Introduction
“Regular readers of Open Culture know a thing or two about maps if they’ve paid attention to our posts on the history of cartography, the evolution of world maps (and why they are all wrong), and the many digital collections of historical maps from all over the world. What does the seven and a half-minute video above bring to this compendium of online cartographic knowledge? A very quick survey of world map history, for one thing, with stops at many of the major historical intersections from Greek antiquity to the creation of the Catalan Atlas, an astonishing mapmaking achievement from 1375. ...”
On-U Sound Present Reggae Archive Volume 1, Volume 2
“Original reggae recordings from 1977 - 1981 including tracks from the pre-On-U Sound label, Hitrun. Featuring Creation Rebel, Carol Kalphat, Clint Eastwood, Doctor Pablo, Bim Sherman, Errol Holt & Prince Far I. ... Originally released in 1994, a very popular compilation featuring some of the most crucial reggae cuts in the On-U catalogue. Deadly Headly, Singers & Players, Bim Sherman and Lol Coxhill. ...”
Russia cuts gas supplies to Netherlands and firms in Denmark and Germany
“Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe, after state energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification of the economic battle on Tuesday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine follows the EU’s overnight decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports as part of its financial sanctions against the Kremlin. EU leaders said the ban would immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports, rising to 90% by the end of the year. ...”
Bloodied military stretchers outside a hospital in Bakhmut, in the Donbas region.
Albert Camus: The philosopher who resisted despair
“In March 1946, the French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus sailed across the Atlantic to deliver a speech at Columbia University. It was his first and only trip to America. Camus had achieved worldwide fame with the publication of his 1942 novel, The Stranger, and his stature as an artist and a member of the French resistance had grown considerably over the course of the war. The Nazis had been defeated the year before and there was a belief that some kind of final victory over fascism had been achieved. But in his address, Camus did not oblige that sentiment. The philosopher, who was expected to talk about French theater and philosophy, lingered on the pathologies that produced Nazism. ...”
2011 October: Albert Camus on Nihilism, 2014 November: Albert Camus: Soccer Goalie, 2015 May: LISTEN: New Cave And Ellis Soundtrack, 2016 April: Anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche, 2016 April: Algerian Chronicles (2013), 2017 November: The Stranger (1942), 2018 July: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1960), 2019 September: Les Pieds-Noirs: Algeria’s Forgotten Footballers, 2020 March: The Plague (1947), 2020 September: An Animated Introduction to Albert Camus’ Existentialism, a Philosophy Making a Comeback in Our Dysfunctional Times, 2021 October: Albert Camus on the Responsibility of the Artist: To “Create Dangerously” (1957)
John Peel's family are selling some of his rarest records
“A set of rare records owned by the legendary DJ and champion of new music, John Peel, are to be sold at an auction in London in June. Peel passed away in 2004, but before his death, he had managed to amass a collection of 26,000 LPs, 40,000 7″ singles and countless CDs. Now, it has been announced that a selection of this extensive collection, including pieces of other memorabilia, will be put up for auction at Bonham’s in Knightsbridge on June 14th. ...”
Russian, Ukrainian troops fight block by block in key city
“KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Russian troops pushed farther into a key eastern Ukrainian city and fought street by street with Kyiv’s forces Monday in a battle the mayor said has left the city “completely ruined” and driven tens of thousands from their homes. Military analysts painted the battle as part of a race against time for the Kremlin, which they said wants to complete its capture of the industrial Donbas region before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. Weapons from the West have already helped Kyiv’s forces thwart a Russian advance on the capital in the early weeks of the war. ...”
Piles of rubble are seen next to a heavily damaged apartment building on May 28 in Chernihiv, Ukraine.
The Men Lost to 20 Bruckner Boulevard
“Two laborers board an elevator at the top of a five-story building under renovation in the Bronx. They wear construction helmets, reflective vests and face masks, none of which will do them any good. The older man, a supervisor, rarely talks about anything beyond what needs to be done at this work site at 20 Bruckner Boulevard. But he and his younger co-worker have become friends through a morning ritual: One buys the coffee and the other, the doughnuts. ... The floor seems to vanish beneath the men’s work boots. They scream as they plummet. A crash. Then stillness, save for clouds of disturbed dust. ...”
Lauro Martínez at the tomb of his son, Marco, who at 18 emigrated from Ecuador and was soon working in construction in New York City.
A People’s History of Baseball
“Seventy-five years ago this spring, Brooklyn Dodgers second baseman Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. Most baseball fans probably know the story, which has been told numerous times in books and film. But do they know about Robinson’s civil rights activism off the field? How about the attempts to integrate prior to Robinson or the many struggles against labor exploitation before free agency was finally established in the 1970s? ... Jacobin contributor Michael Arria spoke to Peter Dreier about the books and how America’s pastime has been shaped by rebels and radicals. ...”
2017 April: Baseball color line, 2017 May: Racist taunts stir up ancient pains in Boston
Curt Flood of the Saint Louis Cardinals, May 1966. Flood challenged Major League Baseball’s “reserve clause” barring players from changing teams.
For Russian-Speaking Ukrainians, Language Clubs Offer Way to Defy Invaders
“LVIV, Ukraine — The teacher sounded her words slowly, careful to show which syllable to stress: Eyebrow. Cheekbones. Hair. The students, arranged in a semicircle around her, parroted them back. But they were not there to learn a foreign tongue: Aged 11 to 70, they were Ukrainians, in Ukraine, trying to master the official language of their own country. Since Russia’s invasion, a number of language clubs have opened in cities in western Ukraine. Teachers and volunteers are reaching out to millions of displaced people who have fled to the relative safety of western cities like Lviv from the Russian-speaking east — encouraging them to practice and embrace Ukrainian as the language of their daily lives. ...”
A Yamova language class in progress at a library in Lviv on May 19.
Paris Dispatch 2 : C215 and the Guys on the Street
“We return today to the streets of Paris for Dispatch 2 with Norwegian photographer Tor Staale Moen, who tells us that the streets are alive with stencils and aerosol paintings as much as ever. Our first Paris report a couple of days ago focused on the presentation of the female form and energy by street artist in this city. Today, it’s time for the guys. Here we begin with one of the country’s most well-known stencil masters, C215. His portraits of unknown street dwellers, as well as important historical figures, have graced walls, mailboxes… even national postal stamps. ...”
13bis
Mario Batkovic - Introspection (2021)
“Mario Batkovic plays the accordion. Sounds straightforward enough. Except he plays the accordion in the manner of Steve Reich or Terry Riley if they were entranced by the carnivalesque dancing of a youthful Alejandro Jodorowsky, their nimble fingers reenacting the exuberant choreography upon compressed keys. And Batkovic’s fingers work overtime, like Lubomyr Melnyk transported to a squeezebox. ... Instead, we’re treated to mantle-deep bellows, glistening twinkles, and squelchy, fuzz-caked riffage akin to the guitar work of Muse but with ideas beyond basic pageantry. This is music for classicists. ...”
Ukraine pleads for weapons as Russian onslaught threatens to turn the tide
“Ukraine is in a race against time to save the eastern Donbas region as relentless Russian artillery and air strikes threaten to turn the tide of the war, and support for Kyiv’s continued defiance among some west European allies appears to be slipping. Ukrainian officials say they urgently need advanced US-made mobile multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) to halt Russian advances in Luhansk and Donetsk. The rockets would be capable of striking Russian firing positions, military bases, air strips and supply lines at a range of up to 300km (185 miles). ...”
Valentyn, 6, poses in the trench that he and his friend Andrii have dug at their makeshift checkpoint next to a school crossing on Friday in Stoyanka, Ukraine.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty (14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest and he wrote on perception, art, politics, religion, biology, psychology, psychoanalysis, language, nature, and history. He was the lead editor of Les Temps modernes, the leftist magazine he established with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in 1945. At the core of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy is a sustained argument for the foundational role that perception plays in the human experience of the world. ...”
“Jamaica Has A Magic To It”: An Interview With Chris Blackwell
“In a landscape where there were scant possibilities for subcultures to coalesce, long before it was possible to say you were a ‘gamer’, that you followed a particular influencer, or that you only wore a certain brand of trainers, music was everything. From the late 60s through to the 1980s, better than any other label, Island records plotted all the available coordinates. In a music industry temporarily torn asunder by The Beatles, Chris Blackwell, the label’s effortlessly charismatic founder, steered the imprint to unimaginable pre-eminence. Island, alongside Virgin, Chrysalis and A&M, was the sexiest of a new breed of massive independent labels. It represented a time when it was possible to be both revolutionary in intent and reach a huge global audience. ...”
How Does It End? Fissures Emerge Over What Constitutes Victory in Ukraine
“WASHINGTON — Three months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, America and its allies are quietly debating the inevitable question: How does this end? ... In the past few days alone there has been an Italian proposal for a cease-fire, a vow from Ukraine’s leadership to push Russia back to the borders that existed before the invasion was launched on Feb. 24, and renewed discussion by administration officials about a ‘strategic defeat’ for President Vladimir V. Putin — one that would assure that he is incapable of mounting a similar attack again. ...”
Ukrainian flags fly above graves at the military cemetery in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Queen from The Lewis Chessmen (Probably made in Scandinavia, circa 1150-1175)
“The Queen has been drinking. She holds a drinking horn in her left hand, while her right palm supports her face as she slumps miserably on her throne. This is a tremendously vivid portrait, or caricature, full of life – yet it’s part of a hoard of chess pieces made for playing with, not looking at. There are no other medieval chess pieces as fine as these. Discovered in Uig on the Isle of Lewis in 1831, they were probably carved in the recently Christianised Norse regions and abandoned by a merchant ship. This masterpiece of medieval art is also an emblem of emotion. The Queen’s pose, with her face on her hand, was the symbol of the melancholy humour, seen too in Renaissance art and even Munch’s painting Melancholy. Uneasy rests the head that wears the crown.”
The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I - Roger Shattuck (1958)
“... His most famous book, in some ways his best, was also his first: The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I (1958), a quirky, seductive, utterly original romp through the work of Henri Rousseau, Alfred Jarry, Erik Satie, and Guillaume Apollinaire. Roger made connections—made sense—out of themes and continuities that no one had sensed before but that now seem obvious. Roger’s mind was omnivorous, as at home in anthropology and moral philosophy as it was in literature. ...”
Filtration and forced deportation: Mariupol survivors on the lasting terrors of Russia’s assault
“On the final day of March, soldiers of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic entered the basement in Mariupol where Svitlana and Vitaly were sheltering. ‘You have 15 minutes to get ready and then you’re leaving,’ shouted one, waving an automatic rifle. It was, according to the Russian narrative of its Ukraine invasion, the day that Svitlana and Vitaly were liberated. But it did not feel much like that to them. Instead, it was merely the end of one ordeal and the start of another: a wearying and humiliating journey through so-called “filtration” procedures, followed by forced deportation to Russia. ...”
An explosion in an apartment building that came under fire from a Russian army tank.
The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers
“DONDON, Haiti — Adrienne Present steps into the thin forest beside her house and plucks the season’s first coffee cherries, shining like red marbles in her hands. The harvest has begun. Each morning, she lights a coal fire on the floor of her home in the dark. Electricity has never come to her patch of northern Haiti. She sets out a pot of water, fetched from the nearest source — a mountain spring sputtering into a farmer’s field. Then she adds the coffee she has dried, winnowed, roasted and pounded into powder with a large mortar called a pilon, the way she was taught as a child. ...”
In 1791, enslaved Haitians did the seemingly impossible. They ousted their French masters and founded a nation.
Premier League winners and losers: set pieces, sprinting, nutmegging and fouling
“Manchester City are champions, Tottenham Hotspur grabbed the final Champions League spot and Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min share the golden boot trophy. The main prizes have now been handed out, but take a look under the bonnet and there are plenty of alternative awards to be handed out to players and teams. Some of them are insightful, some of them are utterly pointless. All of them are fun. Here we go… ”
A doomed river crossing shows the perils of entrapment in the war’s east
“... Out on the riverbank, the scene of mayhem unfolded under a baking spring sun: blown up tanks, the detritus of pontoon bridges, heaps of branches shorn off by explosions and the bodies of Russian soldiers, some half buried in the mud. In the forest, a short, eerie walk revealed bits of torn Russian military uniforms hanging from trees. The failed river crossing that took place at this spot over several days in early May was one of the most lethal engagements of the war for the Russian army. Its forces had sought to surround Ukrainian soldiers in the nearby town of Sievierodonetsk — but instead became surrounded themselves, boxed in by the river and a Ukrainian frontline. ...”
Ukrainian civilian volunteers fill sandbags with Black Sea sand, along a tourist beach, for use in defensive positions in the city before an expected Russian assault in Odessa, Ukraine, on March 5.
Chuito & The Latin Uniques - From The Street (1968)
“... Indemand and rare Latin Soul Boogalo LP on the New York 'Speed' label. Killer streetwise latin soul bombs on this stunning LP. 'Spanish Maiden' is even popular with the Northern Soul crowd. The Speed label out of NYC released quite a few gems in its day, in different styles. This one from 1968 is a Latin Soul / Boogaloo LP of some merit. It is mainly famous for the track ‘Spanish Maiden’ as sung by Tony Middleton who features on the LP as a singer. ... This is a special record. What makes it special are the singers Danny Agosto, Norberto Carrasquillo, and Tony Middleton; they lay down some of the most soulful and moving vocals I’ve ever heard on a Latin soul record. ...”
The Philosophers' Football Match
"’International Philosophy’, commonly referred to as the Philosophers' Football Match, is a Monty Python sketch depicting a football match in the Munich Olympiastadion between philosophers representing Greece and Germany. Starring in the sketch are Archimedes (John Cleese), Socrates (Eric Idle), Hegel (Graham Chapman), Nietzsche (Michael Palin), Marx (Terry Jones), and Kant (Terry Gilliam). Palin also provides the match television commentary. ... Confucius is the referee and keeps times with an hourglass. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine (sporting haloes) serve as linesmen. The German manager is Martin Luther. ...”
Ukraine destruction: how the Guardian documented Russia’s use of illegal weapons
“At about midnight on 1 March 2022, a Russian air force jet dropped a series of 250kg Soviet-era explosives over Borodyanka, north of Kyiv. They were powerful FAB-250 bombs, designed to hit military targets such as enemy fortifications and bunkers. There were no such structures, however, in this quiet town of 13,000 people. The bombs fell on at least five residential buildings, splitting them in two. Dozens of bodies were found under the rubble when the Russians withdrew from the Kyiv region in early April, leaving in their path a gigantic crime scene that Ukrainian prosecutors investigating alleged war crimes by Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, have been working on for weeks. ...”
W -Flechette “... Fléchettes were used during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where samples of the projectiles were recovered in the mass graves in Bucha ...”
Travelling on the trail of 'True Detective' season one
“For many of us, the first season of True Detective is one of the best pieces of television we’ve ever seen. The inaugural edition of Nic Pizzolatto’s anthology crime drama premiered in January 2014 via the home of pretty much every great TV show, HBO. Coming with a bumper cast that features Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in career-defining roles, as well as Michelle Monaghan, Michael Potts and Tory Kittles, the acting in the show is so exquisite that the following two seasons had a hard time replicating it, regardless of the fact that they too are of very high quality....”
2015 January: True Detective (2014)
Eugène Deslaw - Les nuits électriques (1928)
"In 1927, Eugène Deslaw, an experimental filmmaker of Ukrainian origin, produced a film-poem on the neo-Baudelairian theme of city lights. Against a backdrop of the night sky, he focuses the film on windows, streetlights and illuminated signs in Paris, Berlin, London and Prague. ‘The film's actors,’ Deslaw wrote, ‘absolutely do not tempt me. I think the modern night, populated by strange an singing lights, doesn't really resemble any other night in history. It is as photogenic if not more than a beautiful woman's face.’”
Russia using ‘scorched earth’ tactics in Donbas, Ukraine says
“Heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces has continued in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, as Moscow’s troops pressed on with their advance on Severodonetsk, where local officials accused Russia of using ‘scorched-earth’ tactics. Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-held pocket that Russia has been trying to capture since mid-April, when it shifted focus to the south and east after abandoning its offensive to take Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. ...”
No spring break in Ukraine.
Priceless Sculptures Are ‘Literally Being Chipped Away’
“Among the more than 33,000 residents of Parkchester, the sprawling 1940s Bronx apartment complex, the most exuberant characters tend to hang out at the buildings’ entrances and corners: folk singers and firefighters, accordion players and harlequins, steelworkers and mermaids. There are exotic fauna as well, not typically found in such urban environs: gazelles, puffins, kangaroos and bears. Vivid and three-dimensional, these neighborhood fixtures are whimsically crafted terra-cotta sculptures — more than a thousand of them, many colorfully glazed — embedded in the facades of Parkchester’s red brick apartment blocks. ...”
A Hugh Jass Oral History of ‘Flaming Moe’s,’ Everyone’s Favorite ‘Simpson’s’ Episode
“After a hit-and-miss first season and a second season that was still finding its way, The Simpsons really hit its stride in Season Three. The season delivered classic episode after classic episode, and while the Simpson family had been pretty much figured out by this time, it was during the third season that the writers dove deeper into the city of Springfield and its countless bizarre and hilarious characters. Krusty the Clown reunited with his Rabbi father, Milhouse fell in love, Otto moved in with the Simpsons, Ned Flanders opened the Leftorium and Moe Szyslak, Springfield’s bad-tempered barkeep, hit it big with a drink called ‘The Flaming Moe.’ ...”
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