Deep Art Nature

Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter

“WILHELMSHAVEN, Germany — When a major energy company wanted to bring liquefied natural gas to Germany through the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven three years ago, the proposal hit a brick wall. The company couldn’t find enough customers, the government offered only tepid support and residents denounced the scheme as a threat to a local apple orchard. ... Now, steel pipes are being rammed into the sea floor to prepare for the arrival of a nearly thousand-foot-long L.N.G. processing vessel, the Höegh Esperanza. Nearby, construction crews in bulldozers are digging along the perimeter of a forest to clear the way for a new 20-mile pipeline to connect to Germany’s gas grid. The hope is for gas to start arriving here before the end of winter, Uniper said, as the demand for heating homes soars. ...”

NY Times

GRID - Global food crisis: Beyond the Ukraine-Russia grain deal, what else can the world do?

The Intercept_: Russia-Ukraine War Is Propelling Us Into a New Age of Global Political Upheaval

Aljazeera: US basketball star Brittney Griner testifies in Russian court

A port station for shipments of liquefied natural gas is under construction in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

Photographer Bob Gruen Gets Candid

“... While too many of his rock-star subjects—and friends—have passed away, due to vagaries of the lifestyle or simply bad luck, Gruen is 76 and blessed with a vivid memory matched only by his kind mien. Both are eminently clear in his book Right Place, Right Time: The Life of a Rock & Roll Photographer, an absorbing tome that should also bear the label “right person.”Many of the Long Island native’s photos capture a relaxed intimacy achieved only via an easygoing creativity that creates a kinship, sometimes forged over decades, notably with NYC-based subjects including Debbie Harry, David Johansen, and John Lennon. ...”

Voice

W - Bob Gruen

YouTube: Bob Gruen on his Iconic Rock Photos

Revolution Rock: Joe Strummer and other icons

‘Sinsemilla’: Black Uhuru’s Creative And Compelling Roots Reggae Triumph

“At its peak Black Uhuru brilliantly merged uncompromising roots militancy with a keen sonic progressivism, establishing itself as the most creatively vital and commercially successful of reggae’s second-generation groups. Founded in the Waterhouse section of Kingston in the early 70s by vocalist Derrick ‘Duckie’ Simpson, the group’s sound wouldn’t fully coalesce until a few years later when, post-several personnel changes, lead singer Michael Rose and South Carolina-born singer, dancer, and former social worker Sandra ‘Puma’ Jones joined Simpson to form the trio’s most celebrated iteration. ...”

udiscover (Video)

W - Sinsemilla (album)

Discogs (Video)

YouTube: Live At Rockpalast "Sinsemilla" (live video)

Ukraine Is the Next Act in Putin’s Empire of Humiliation

“Valentyna told me that not long after Russian troops arrived in Yahidne, her village in northern Ukraine, a tall, blond soldier came to use her bathroom. She asked him what the Russians were doing in Ukraine. ‘We want you to be with us,’ he told her, ‘for you to be with Russia.’ In Yahidne, the reality of being “with us” meant the following: The Russian soldiers herded some 300 villagers into a cellar underneath a school next to their artillery, turning them into human shields. The oldest villager was 96. ‘We are here to protect you,’ the Russian soldiers told them. But they held the villagers in the cellar for about a month, and 10 died after Russians did not provide proper medical care. Others, including Valentyna, a pensioner who lives alone, stayed in their homes, which Russian soldiers ransacked, looking for money and loot. ...”

NY Times: Opinion

Aljazeera: Russia plans big military drills next month in the country’s east (Video)

GRID: Russia says it’s leaving the International Space Station again. This time might be different.

NY Times: Kyiv Nightlife Comes Back Amid Urge for Contact. ‘This Is the Cure.’

Literary Tourism: Jack Kerouac’s New York

“In this silent five minutes of 16mm film, Jack Kerouac is considering Lower Manhattan. He’s on 3rd Avenue and 6th Street with Ginsberg, Lucien Carr and the Carr family, appearing to be partaking in the hippest meal of the day, brunch, in all his casual glory. While Ginsberg takes care of pleasantries and corrals all in attendance, he makes special check-ins with his notoriously moody friend, coming up to him here and there to speak quietly and closely. ...”

THE AIRSHIP (Video)

2009 November: Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut, 2010 July: Kerouac's Copies of Floating Bear, 2011 March: Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show, 2013 September: On the Road - Jack Kerouac, 2014 May: “Walker Evans and Robert Frank – An Essay on Influence by Tod Papageorge” (1981), 2015 March: Pull My Daisy (1959), 2015 December: Hear All Three of Jack Kerouac’s Spoken, 2016 July: Mexico City Blues (1959), 2017 February: The Jack Kerouac Collection (1990), 2017 May: The Subterraneans (1958), 2017 June: The Town and the City (1950), 2018 January: Big Sur (1962), 2018 March: A Slightly Embarrassing Love for Jack Kerouac, 2019 March: Jack Kerouac’s “Beat Paintings:”..., 2020 April: Book of Dreams (1960), 2020 August: Camp Like Kerouac in a Fire Lookout Station, 2022 March: The road well travelled: 100 years of Jack Kerouac

Analysis of Joseph Conrad’s The Duel

“As with many of his shorter pieces, Joseph Conrad interrupted work on a novel—in this case Chance—to write the Napoleonic novella The Duel. It was originally published serially in Britain as ‘The Duel—A Military Tale’ in Pall Mall Magazine in January through May of 1908. That same year, in July through October, it was published in the United States, in Forum, as ‘The Point of Honor.’ Following the serial publication in Britain, A Set of Six was released in August 1908, in which The Duel was collected with five shorter works. ...”

Literary Theory and Criticis

2011 November: Heart of Darkness, 2014 May: Nostromo (1904), 2015 December: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad – a trip into inner space, 2016 July: Lord Jim (1899-1900) , 2019 October: Victory (1915)

Nord Stream: Key Russian pipeline resumes pumping gas to Europe

“Russia has resumed pumping gas to Europe through its biggest pipeline after warnings it could curb or halt supplies altogether. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline restarted following a 10-day maintenance break but at a reduced level. On Wednesday, the European Commission urged countries to cut gas use by 15% over the next seven months in case Russia switched off Europe's supply. Russia supplied Europe with 40% of its natural gas last year. Germany was the continent's largest importer in 2020, but has reduced its dependence on Russian gas from 55% to 35%. Eventually, it wants to stop using gas from Russia altogether. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February sent wholesale gas prices soaring in Europe, with a knock-on impact on consumer energy bills. ...”

BBC

Aljazeera: Ukraine aims to ship grain this week, despite Russian attack (Video)

NY Times: As Ukraine Signs Up Soldiers, Questions Arise About How It Chooses

Guardian: Craters, queues, and goodbyes: a day in the life of a Ukrainian city

Nord Stream 1 runs under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany

Julio Antonio Mella

“Julio Antonio Mella McPartland (25 March 1903 – 10 January 1929) was a Cuban political activist and one of the founders of the original Communist Party of Cuba. Mella studied law at the University of Havana but was expelled in 1925. He was working against the government of Gerardo Machado, which had grown increasingly repressive. Mella left the country, reaching Central America. He traveled north to Mexico City, where he worked with other exiled dissidents and communist sympathizers against the Machado government. He was assassinated in 1929, but historians still disagree on which parties were responsible for his death. The 21st century Cuban government regards Mella as a communist hero and martyr. ...”

W - Julio Antonio Mella

W - Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)

Camagüey for Julio Antonio Mella

The American Bartender Invasion of 1920s Cuba

YouTube: Havana, Cuba 1930, 1933 HAVANA CUBA TRAVELOGUE, Havana 1931-1932-1933 / Zieley Home Movies

W - Sloppy Joe's Bar, Havana

Premier League owners: Who is in charge of your club?

“With the 2022-23 campaign quickly coming into focus and the summer transfer window in full flow, many Premier League owners are in the spotlight once again. Following the Chelsea takeover and the promotion of Fulham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, there will be some new faces at the table this season. So, who owns your lot? See below for a breakdown of the ownership structure and board make-up of all 20 Premier League clubs…”

The Athletic

Last Stand at Azovstal: Inside the Siege That Shaped the Ukraine War

“The two Mi-8 helicopters tore across enemy territory early on the morning of March 21, startling the Russian soldiers below. Inside were Ukrainian Special Forces fighters carrying crates of Stinger and Javelin missiles, as well as a satellite internet system. They were flying barely 20 feet above ground into the hottest combat zone in the war. Ukraine’s top generals had conceived the flights as a daring, possibly doomed, mission. A band of Ukrainian soldiers, running low on ammunition and largely without any communications, was holed up in a sprawling steel factory in the besieged city of Mariupol. The soldiers were surrounded by a massive Russian force and on the verge of annihilation. The plan called for the Mi-8s to land at the factory, swap their cargo for wounded soldiers, and fly back to central Ukraine. Most everyone understood that the city and its defenders were lost. ...”

NY Times (Video)

W - Azovstal iron and steel works

W - Siege of Mariupol

YouTube: Ukraine War: What's happened at Azovstal steelworks? (May 5)

By May, after months of battle, the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works was a charred skeleton.

PUSHING IT FORWARD: ILLicit Creatives Claiming Space on the Streets of Queens, New York

“Queens is major stomping ground. It has been for generations – from the Long Island Railroad in Jamiaca. to Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights. At the turn of the century, Queen’s 7-line train, rooftops, tunnels, and streets were notorious for their graffiti. From 74th street and Roosevelt Avenue all the way up to Flushing Main Street, graffiti was rampant. But then with elected officials like Mayor Rudy Giuliani and District Attorney Peter Vallone, it became scarce. These politicians, alongside prosecutors and judges, came down heavily on graffiti writers. Years went by with very little action on the 7 line. Then came the pandemic. ...”

Street Art NYC

2018 April: Corona Is Queens’ Cultural Smorgasbord, 2018 April: The Many Languages (and Foods) of Jackson Heights, 2019 October: Your Guide to Jamaica: Queens’ First, Bustling Downtown

Welcome to Chicago, Hot Dog Town, U.S.A.

“CHICAGO — Before leaving the city for graduate school, Heidi Ratanavanich got a shoulder tattoo of a Chicago-style hot dog. Painterly and bright, the tattoo depicts a poppy-seed bun cradling a shiny frankfurter, which is topped with a squiggle of yellow mustard, neon-green sweet pickle relish, chopped white onion, two tomato slices, a pickle spear, pickled sport peppers and celery salt. You can’t see the celery salt, but it’s implied. There is, perhaps most significantly, no evidence of ketchup to be seen. ...”

NY Times

Kherson’s secret art society produces searing visions of life under Russian occupation

“Under the threat of imprisonment, interrogation and the constant pressure of searches by Russian soldiers, six artists secretly met in a basement studio in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson. In the months after their homes were taken over by Putin’s forces, the artists formed a residency during which they created dozens of works, including drawings, paintings, video, photography, diary entries and stage plays. The results, which they have named Residency in Occupation, offer a harrowing insight into the horrors endured by millions of Ukrainians living under the Russian invasion. Images show agonising embraces at train stations, families sheltering in basements – death looming behind them – houses on fire and figures dancing, human skeletons underfoot. ...”

Guardian

Guardian: How the war has robbed Ukraine’s oligarchs of political influence

NY Times: Draghi’s Fall Reverberates Beyond Italy

Putin’s Crackdown on Anti-War Protesters

YouTube: Ukraine-Russia war: Key Odesa port hit after grain deal

Parting sorrow: Marka Royal’s painting, Impossible to stay/leave 04/18/2022.

The Ephemeral Art of Mexico City’s Food Stalls

“In the heart of Mexico’s capital, the colorful signs that have come to define the urban landscape of the city are being erased. Mexico City’s street stalls were not, until recently, aiming for subtlety. Their walls were covered with primary colors, loudly announcing their specialties. Tortas — Mexican sandwiches — weren’t just tortas. They were ‘gigantic tortas,’ ‘hot tortas,’ ‘delicious tortas,’ and ‘super tortas.’ Juices could be super, delicious and ‘curative.’ The signs were part of a long tradition of hand-painted advertisements adorning the facades of small businesses across Mexico. ...”

NY Times

The Long Revolution of the Ultras Ahlawy

"CAIRO, Egypt — On Sunday, as Ahmed Abdel Zaher turned to celebrate scoring his side’s second goal in the final of the African champions league, he did something strange with his outstretched right hand. He extended his four fingers, and tucked his thumb over his palm. The goal itself was significant—it ensured that Cairo’s mighty Al-Ahly team would beat South Africa’s Orlando Pirates for its eighth champions league title. But in Egypt, it was Abdel Zaher’s celebration that later stole the limelight. For his four-fingered salute has over the past three months become a potent and divisive sign of opposition to the overthrow of Egypt’s former president, Mohamed Morsi. ..."

Road & Kingdoms (2013)

Reading List: Ronnie Close

In Conversation with Ronnie Close about Cairo's Ultras (Audio)

amazon

The Economy Putin Didn’t Actually Ruin

“LVIV, Ukraine — The hassles never end for Yuriy Adamchuk, a Ukrainian executive who spends most of his waking hours coaxing 3,000 software coders to deliver projects on time, despite the obstacles and occasional horrors of war and a never-ending series of interruptions. Sitting in his office, he starts to elaborate, then is interrupted. The sounds of air raid sirens fill the streets of this historic, elegant city and an automated voice is heard, from loudspeakers in all directions, urging citizens to head to the nearest bomb shelter. From Mr. Adamchuk, the 43-year-old chief operating officer of Avenga, a software developer based in Lviv, there is no sense of concern. He resigns himself to evacuating the building and stands up, wearing a turquoise Lacoste shirt and the grudging smile of a world-weary man. ...”

NY Times

Aljazeera: Russia, Ukraine sign grain export deal at Istanbul ceremony (Video)

NY Times: Ukraine Tries to Make the Case That It Can Win, Citing Recent Strikes

5 takeaways from the January 6 hearing

“The January 6 committee concluded its first series of public hearings Thursday night with a revelatory look at what then-President Donald Trump was doing, and who was trying to influence him, during the 187 minutes between when he finished his Stop the Steal speech at the rally on January 6, 2021, and when he tweeted a video calling for the rioters at the Capitol to leave. ... 1) During the siege, Trump watched Fox News and “poured gasoline” on what he saw unfolding. For nearly three hours, according to the committee, Trump watched Fox News as it broadcast live images of the Capitol being breached and the mob attacking law enforcement officers. That matched previous press reports about Trump’s activities at the time. ...”

VOX

NY Times: Five takeaways from the eighth hearing of the Jan. 6 committee. (Video)

NY Times: Jan. 6 Panel Presents Evidence of Trump’s Refusal to Stop the Riot (Video)

A writer recalls “the beauty of it all” after a visit to 1890s Manhattan Beach

“During summer in the early 1890s, a huge electric sign dominated the side of the St. Germain Hotel, at Broadway and 22nd Street. The St. Germain stood on the sliver of land that would be home to the Flatiron building less than a decade later. But at that time, nothing obstructed the ad—which faced the fashionable hotels, streetcar lines, and shopping emporiums of Madison Square. ... The electric sign hoped to lure sweltering city residents to this middle class resort, a more genteel version of Coney Island on the same Brooklyn peninsula. But it also captivated Theodore Dreiser, who was new in New York City after a stint as a journalist in the Midwest. ...”

Ephemeral New York

The Manhattan Beach Hotel, 1900

Europe’s gas crisis is here

“Nord Stream 1, the pipeline that delivers natural gas from Russia to Germany, was shut down this week for annual maintenance. Typically, this is routine. But typically, a war isn’t raging in Europe. That’s why Germany — and the rest of the European Union — was nervous that when the 10-day maintenance was scheduled to end on July 21, the pipeline wouldn’t come back online. Instead, Russia might keep it closed, or drastically reduce its flows, as retaliation against Germany and the rest of Europe for sanctions and their support for Ukraine. The worst didn’t happen. Gas is flowing through Nord Stream 1 again as of Thursday morning, though at less than half of its capacity. ...”

VOX

Ukraine Is Winning

Guardian: Germany tables new crisis measures after Russian gas supply only partly restored

BBC - Ukraine war: CIA chief says no intelligence that Putin is in bad health

A young Ukrainian rallies against Uniper Energy, Germany’s largest importer of gas from Russia, in front of the company’s headquarters in Duesseldorf, Germany, on July 14

Pessoa (2022)

“... In Pessoa, you are one of Pessoa’s most famous heteronyms — Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos, and Bernardo Soares — and move between the metaphysical space of Pessoa's head and the physical spaces of Lisbon to gain inspiration from the iconic cafés, visit bookshops to expand your library and knowledge, and seek inspiration to write poems, thereby scoring victory points. Whoever has the most victory points at the end of the game wins.In more detail, Pessoa is a worker-placement game with special rules in which players can place their heteronyms since each player is a different heteronym, but all players are also the same physical person, that is Fernando Pessoa. ...”

Board Game Geek

More Than Meeples $

YouTube: Pessoa - Daily Game Unboxing

2008 March: Fernando Pessoa, 2012 October: The Book of Disquiet, 2012 November: Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems, 2014 May: Aspects by Fernando Pessoa, 2016 March: Passoa's Trunk - 13+ ways of looking at a poem, 2017 September: Fernando Pessoa’s Disappearing Act, 2020 February: Strange Music Of Silence: Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet, 2021 August: The Heteronymous Identities of Fernando Pessoa By Richard Zeniths, 2022 January: Conceptual Personae: The many imagined lives of Fernando Pessoa

Body and Soul - Coleman Hawkins (1939)

“The language of jazz is built on small phrases — riffs that pass like coveted currency from one musician and one generation to the next. But every now and then, there comes a moment when that tried-and-true vocabulary no longer serves, and by rejecting it, an artist arrives at a statement that nudges or catapults the music in new directions. Coleman Hawkins' 1939 treatment of ‘Body and Soul’ is one of those great evolutionary leaps. Hawkins, who's been called ‘The Father of the Tenor Saxophone,’ was by all accounts the first to establish the tenor sax as a jazz instrument. ...”

NPR (Audio)

W - Body and Soul (Coleman Hawkins album)

[PDF] LOC: “Body and Soul”

Discogs (Video)

YouTube: Body and Soul 1967 (Live)

2019 August: The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins (1957) / Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (1957)

European nations are asked to cut their use of natural gas 15 percent until next spring.

“BRUSSELS — To avoid energy shortages that would stall economic growth and leave households cold in the winter as Russia weaponizes its gas exports, European countries should immediately start rationing use of the fuel, the European Commission said on Wednesday, and cut their use 15 percent until next spring. If the bloc’s 27 member countries agree to adopt the plan and the new legislation that goes with it, it would solidify the sense that Europe’s economy is on war footing because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The proposal would grant the Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, powers to force member nations to follow a strict plan of energy consumption cuts as of this summer. ...”

NY Times (Video)

Bloomberg: Putin Signals Gas Pipeline Will Restart as Clock Ticks Down (Video)

Aljazeera: Brussels asks EU member states to slash gas use by 15% (Video)

NY Times: Germany Hopes to Outrace a Russian Gas Cutoff and Bone Cold Winter (July 15)

Renée Méndez Capote (1901-1989)

“Renée Méndez Capote y Chaple (12 November 1901 – 14 May 1989), also known by the pseudonyms Io-san, Berenguela, and Suzanne, was a Cuban writer, essayist, journalist, translator, suffragist, and feminist activist. She worked in children's literature, short stories, essays, and biographies. ... Together with Berta Arocena de Martínez Márquez, she was one of the founders of the Lyceum on 1 December 1928, one of the ‘most cultural and intellectual’ feminist organizations of the era. They were joined by Carmen Castellanos, Matilde Martínez Márquez, Carmelina Guanche, Alicia Santamaría, Ofelia Tomé, Dulce Marta Castellanos, Lilliam Mederos, Rebeca Gutiérrez, Sarah Méndez Capote, Mary Caballero, María Josefa Vidaurreta, and María Teresa Moré in organizing a group which advocated for women's suffrage. This became a lobbyist institution in Cuba's parliament and organized several feminist events in the country. ...”

Wikipedia

Repeating Islands

How we tell the story of African film history

“In December 2019, film connoisseurs in Ethiopia received a rare treat when the Addis Ababa Cinema Houses Administration Enterprise arranged a festival to showcase some of the classic Ethiopian movies made between 1964 and 1992. These films had been largely inaccessible to filmgoers, filmmakers, instructors, and students, for decades. The last time any of them screened was in 2008. The desire to go back in time and see some of these early masterpieces was evident as crowds lined up to enter the Ambassador Theatre in the center of Ethiopia’s capital city. ...”

Africa Is a Country

amazon: Cine-Ethiopia: The History and Politics of Film in the Horn of Africa

How ‘Stop the Steal’ Captured the American Right

“The Pennsylvania State Capitol, in Harrisburg, is a Beaux-Arts landmark that on its eastern side echoes the west terrace of the U.S. Capitol, and the scene there on Nov. 7, 2020, four days after Election Day, strikingly prefigured the one in Washington two months later. On the plaza below, more than a thousand strong, were the Donald Trump faithful, in MAGA hats and every possible variation of red, white and blue clothing, waving the banners of the campaign. ‘Stop the steal!’ they chanted. ‘Stop the steal!’ ... The larger, louder pro-Trump contingent included many of the same groups, and in some cases the same people, who would later be investigated for their role in the events of Jan. 6. There were men with assault-style rifles and forearm tattoos pledging allegiance to the Proud Boys and the Three Percenter antigovernment movement, and the Groypers, supporters of the young white nationalist Nick Fuentes’s America First group. ...”

NY Times (Audio)

NY Times: Democracy Challenged

The protest outside the Pennsylvania Capitol on Nov. 7, 2020, the day news organizations began calling the race for president for Joe Biden.

Russia hits Ukrainian homes, infrastructure as Putin visits Iran

“Russian missiles have struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, hitting homes, a school and a community centre as Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Iran to discuss a United Nations-backed proposal to unblock exports of Ukrainian grain. At least two civilians were killed and 15 more were wounded by Russian attacks across Ukraine during the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office said in a morning update on Monday. In Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province that is considered a likely occupation target of Russian forces, one person was killed in an air raid on Monday that hit a five-story residential building, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in televised comments. ...”

Aljazeera (Video)

BBC - Ukraine war: Six die in shelling as new assault looms

Guardian - Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 146 of the invasion

GRID: Why Vladimir Putin is going to Iran

A five-story residential building is seen damaged from a rocket attack in a residential area, in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine

‘Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel’ Review: Bohemia’s Holdouts

“Early in ’Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel,’ a construction worker says that the famed building has ‘a lot of ghosts.’ A home for untold authors, artists and musicians since it opened in the Gilded Age — and probably the only dwelling anywhere that housed, at different times, Mark Twain and superstars from Andy Warhol’s Factory — the Chelsea Hotel, as seen in this documentary from Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier, appears haunted even by its current residents, who wander halls that have been filled with plastic sheeting. ...”

NY Times (Video)

Voice - ‘Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel’ Is a Strange Movie About a Strange Place

2010 October: Hotel Chelsea, 2014 January: Arena Hotel Chelsea, 2019 August: The Chelsea Affect - Arthur Miller

Putin Thinks He’s Winning

“... We sat in silence for a moment before I changed the topic. Since when did a political disagreement have the power to make my mother cry? How much further had my family been transformed by propaganda since I had escaped its claws? Like my parents, I had been pro-Putin once. I thought that Russia had ‘saved’ Crimea from neo-Nazi rebels, that it was the victim of a global smear campaign because the world couldn’t bear the fact that Russia is so big and oil-rich. But since I moved to the U.S. for a second bachelor’s degree and fell in love with journalism, I realized that my political views were rooted not in facts but in a lifelong exposure to the Kremlin’s propaganda machine. My family is still in Russia, and over the years, the views of my reasonable, highly educated and once liberal-leaning parents have become almost alien. Like many Russians, they believe the invasion of Ukraine is just an ‘operation to take out neo-Nazis.’ ...”

POLITICO

NY Times: .Opinion | Putin Thinks He’s Winning

NY Times: Reunited in Bucha, a Ukrainian Family Comes to Terms With War’s Traumas

GRID - ‘They thought we were crazy’: Why millions of Ukrainian refugees are coming home

Travelers wait to board a Ukrainian bus to Kyiv, at the bus station in Krakow, Poland, on June 16.

Geopolitics In Tintin Comics: Around The World In 24 Albums

“What makes certain creative works, containing egregious racial caricatures and politically replete depictions, outlive their popularity among readers they were originally meant for, but continue to hold the fancy among readers in other parts of the world? Just like P.G. Wodehouse, whose quaint, upper-class British humour and characters are all but forgotten in his homeland, but continue to regale generations of English-educated middle class in South Asia. Or, say, Tintin, the globetrotting comicbook hero that Belgians and other Europeans seem to have grown over, but whose fandom continues to grow in the global South. ...”

Outlook

The World According to Tintin

Guardian: How could they do this to Tintin?

The Statesman: Nonagenarian Tintin

BOOKFORUM: Much Ado About Nothing

2008 May: Georges Remi, 1907-1983, 2010 July: The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free, 2011 December: Prisoners of the Sun, 2012 January: Tintin: the Complete Companion, 2012 December: Snowy, 2015 August: The Black Island (1937), 2015 September: King Ottokar's Sceptre (1938), 2015 December: Red Rackham's Treasure (1943), 2016 July: Captain Haddock, 2017 April: Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934), 2018 March: Destination Moon (1950), Explorers on the Moon (1954), 2018 July: The Calculus Affair (1956), 2018 October: Professor Calculus, 2019 March: Thomson and Thompson, 2020 January: Tintin

The Lower East Side’s Mechanics Alley is one of the last true alleys in Manhattan

“In the Hollywood-inspired imaginations of people who don’t live here, New York City is a place with shadowy alleys around every corner where danger lurks. Though the city past and present certainly has its dark pockets and little-traveled lanes, Gotham never really had many alleys, even in its earliest days. The creators of the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan, which laid out the street grid, wisely knew that real estate would be too valuable to intentionally leave undeveloped. ...”

Ephemeral New York

Moscow Signals a Shift to a More Aggressive Phase of Ukraine War

“KYIV, Ukraine — In an indication that Russian forces were ending what they called an operational pause in their invasion of Ukraine, the defense minister of Russia, Sergei K. Shoigu, on Saturday ordered his forces to intensify attacks “in all operational sectors” of the war. As the Ukrainian government disclosed modest new ground attacks by Russian forces, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement that Mr. Shoigu had instructed that combat be intensified to stop Ukraine from shelling civilian areas in Russian-occupied territory. After deadly Russian missile strikes across Ukraine in recent days that killed civilians, the statement was a new signal from Moscow that its invasion may be entering a more aggressive phase. ...”

NY Times (Video)

POLITICO: Russia strikes south Ukraine city, presses attacks in east

NY Times: As Russia Runs Low on Drones, Iran Plans to Step In, U.S. Officials Say

There Can Be No Negotiated Settlement

The shadow of a helicopter is seen on the field of sunflowers in Kyiv region on July 14, 2022, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.

John Lely - Meander Selection (2020)

"The music of John Lely has run a continuous thread through the programmes of Apartment House for some 20 years. A subtle, yet sinuous presence, producing music that has a quiet yet significant sounding air about it. Lely’s titles of his works are ambiguous, yet point to hidden constructs and origins, Pale Signal, Meander Section or Karnaugh Quartets for example. Ambiguous perhaps, but revealing music of great clarity and an etched beauty. The harmonic worlds sound familiar, yet redolent of some hidden, subliminal place, like a photograph by Luigi Ghirri or Eugene Atget. As I wrote that previous sentence the Giacometti sculpture ‘The Palace at 4am’ (1932) popped into my mind’s eye. Lely’s music is there and so are we, listening, eternally. ...”

Another Timbre

Bandcamp (Audio)

YouTube: Meander Selection

Hidden Van Gogh self-portrait discovered

“Believed to be a first for a UK institution, the mysterious image was revealed by an x-ray taken when we examined Van Gogh’s Head of a Peasant Woman of 1885 ahead of our exhibition A Taste for Impressionism. Visitors will be able to see the amazing x-ray image for the first time through a specially crafted lightbox at the centre of the display. Hidden from view for over a century, the self-portrait is on the back of the canvas with Head of a Peasant Woman and is covered by layers of glue and cardboard. ...”

National Galleries (Video)

2010 March: Van Gogh Museum, 2010 May: Why preserve Van Gogh's palette?, 2012 April: Van Gogh Up Close, 2015 May: Van Gogh and Nature, 2016 January: Van Gogh's Bedrooms, 2016 November: Wheat Fields - Van Gogh series, 2019 April: At Eternity’s Gate - Julian Schnabel (2018), 2020 April: The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen (1884), 2021 February: Vincent van Gogh Paris painting from 1887 to make public debut, 2022 May: Langlois Bridge at Arles