On Lessons From August Wilson’s Jitney

"Jitney ran for a limited revival at the Mark Taper Forum prior to the quarantines that recently swept through L.A. County. ... A part of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Century Cycle' of plays, meant to cover 100 years of Black life in Pittsburgh, Jitney, written in 1979 and first performed in 1982, remains eerily prescient for the times we find ourselves in now. Set in 1977, the play follows a cab station in Pittsburgh, where several Black American drivers operate ‘jitneys’ – or unlicensed taxis – as vehicle services for the poor Black community where ‘official’ cabs will not go. Each driver has his own personal burdens to bear: the youngest, Youngblood, is a hot-tempered Vietnam veteran attempting to save money to buy a house for himself, his girlfriend, and their young child. ..."
Riot Material
KPBSAugust Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ Depicts The Mundane And Finds Something Profound (Audio)
W - Jitney (play)
[PDF] Jitney

L-R: Ray Anthony Thomas (as Turnbo), Steven Anthony Jones (as Becker), Anthony Chisholm (Fielding), Keith Randolph Smith (Doub) and Amari Cheatom (Youngblood) in August Wilson’s Jitney, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson.

2017 July: Fences (2016), 2017 August: The Ground on Which I Stand, a Speech on Black Theatre and Performance (1992), 2018 July: Pittsburgh Cycle, 2018 August: August Wilson in St. Paul: A MN Original Special, 2020 May: August Wilson's Blues Poetry

Black Atlantic lives

Conakry, Guinea.
"Last month, the brother of George Floyd appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to stop racist violence and the killing of black people in the US. While the current US administration continues to ignore and amplify systemic racism, Philonise Floyd looked well beyond his national borders for help. As he declared, 'Black lives do not matter in the United States of America.' Floyd’s statement comes alongside weeks of anti-racist protests in cities across the world, with activists and ordinary citizens mobilized and enraged by events in the US. However, this 'global conversation' on American racial injustice is not a new one. ... The example of a small country like Guinea shows how intimately black Atlantic lives are connected through shared pain, protest, and hope. ..."
Africa is a Country
W - Guinea

Progress in Play: Board Games and the Meaning of History

The Chronological Star of the World, An Entertaining Game, published by John Marshall of London, 1818
"Players moving pieces along a track to be first to reach a goal was the archetypal board game format of the 18th and 19th centuries. Alex Andriesse looks at one popular incarnation in which these pieces progress chronologically through history itself, usually with some not-so-subtle ideological, moral, or national ideal as the object of the game. ..."
The Public Domain Review

Healthy Living, created by the doctors and textbook authors K. W. Lapin and A. S. Berljand, and published by the Soviet Commission on Public Health, Rostov-on-Don or Moscow, 1926

The Sopranos - Season 1

"The first season of The Sopranos aired on HBO from January 10 to April 4, 1999.  ... The season introduces DiMeo Crime Family Capo Tony Soprano and his family, as well as his troubled relationship with his mother Livia. Also troubled is his relationship with his Uncle Junior, who becomes locked in a power struggle with Tony after the death of the Crime Family Boss, Jackie Aprile. Tony also begins therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi after his panic attacks become more frequent. Meanwhile, Tony's daughter Meadow becomes aware of her father's true profession while preparing to get into college, and Tony's nephew Christopher attempts to write a screenplay about his crime life and anxiously awaits becoming a made man. Due to Junior's plotting of an assassination, Tony also gets embroiled in a plot against childhood friend Artie Bucco, a charming but obsequious restaurateur. ..."
W - The Sopranos (season 1)
W - Tony Soprano, W - Carmela Soprano, W - Jennifer Melfi
RecapGuide: The Sopranos - Season 1
The Sopranos: 10 Best Episodes Of Season 1, According To IMDb
Top 5 Episodes: The Sopranos – Season 1 (Video)
Season 1 - Music (Video)
YouTube: The Sopranos Dictionary | HBO, Episode 1 Ducks Depart The Pool & Tony Has a Panic Attack

Orbital Patterns Goes Deep

"'A Vessel in the Fog,' uploaded to the YouTube channel of the musician who goes by Orbital Patterns just this Monday, is a live ambient piece. Textures twist and turn like clouds of smoke, turning in the air before vaporizing and being replaced by something else, something similar and yet apart. There’s numerous such elements at any given time, packed like sediment in a vibrant terrarium: surface noise, and muffled chords, and crunchy percussives like fall leaves under foot, and what sounds like psychedelic guitar riffs going round and round. It’s a beautiful piece, gaining depth as it goes, a deep bass tone slowly making itself heard and lending a slow, thoughtful pace to what might otherwise be an understated roil. It is clearly, so to speak, the title vessel. Video originally posted at youtube.com. More at instagram.com/0rbitalpatterns and twitter.com/orbitalpatterns."
disquiet (Video)
YouTube: A Vessel In The Fog/eurorack modular lofi ambient, Ellipsis/eurorack modular lofi ambient, Full Of Unspoken Words/eurorack modular lofi ambient, Cant Push The Sun/eurorack modular lofi ambient, Torn From The Morning/eurorack modular lofi ambient

Baadasssss Songs: A History Of Blaxploitation Soundtracks

"Its title might read more like a Blaxploitation spoof rather than the real deal, but, when it was released in April 1971, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss song ushered in a whole new era of filmmaking. Despite a rudimentary plot – even by the standards of the time – the fact that writer, director, actor and musician Mario Van Peebles masterminded, starred in and financed the whole thing himself proved that a new genre of film could attract a black audience to the cinemas – and that that same audience could, finally, see characters they related to up on the big screen. Released during funk music’s heyday, the film also boasted a soundtrack written by Peebles and performed by nascent funk group Earth, Wind And Fire. This marriage of sound and vision would help to define Blaxploitation films, as a host of artists clamoured to assert their street cred and soundtrack these cinematic tales of ghetto life. ..."
udiscover (Audio/Video)

C/2020 (NEOWISE)

Finding Charts
"C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) or Comet NEOWISE is a retrograde comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered on March 27, 2020, by astronomers using the NEOWISE space telescope. At that time, it was a 10th-magnitude comet, located 2 AU (300 million km; 190 million mi) away from the Sun and 1.7 AU (250 million km; 160 million mi) away from Earth. By July 2020, it was bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. It is one of the brightest comets in the northern hemisphere since Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997. Under dark skies, it can be clearly seen with the naked eye and might remain visible to the naked eye throughout most of July 2020. ... For observers in the northern hemisphere, in the morning, the comet appears low above the north-eastern horizon, below Capella. In the evening, the comet can be seen low in the north-western sky. ..."
W - C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), W - NEOWISE (pre-hibernation)
How to see Comet NEOWISE
Stellarium Astronomy Software
NASA: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Spies Newly-Discovered Comet NEOWISE
YouTube: I filmed Comet Neowise with my 12 inch Telescope !!!!, How to view comet NEOWISE at night, and in the morning

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE from Slovakia, Europe.

‘We Have One Last Chance to Save America’: This Powerful New Anti-Trump Ad Will Bring Tears to Your Eyes

"Eleven Films released a powerful new anti-Trump ad on Thursday, featuring footage from recent protests calling for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. 'In November, we have one last chance to save America. #VoteForOurLives,' Eleven Films wrote above the ad on Twitter, where it quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Titled 'The Dangerous Ones', the two-minute, 29-second ad is set to the song of the same name, performed by Kasey Anderson. It was funded by the Resistance. 'We’re almost there,' a title screen reads near the end of the ad. 'We’ve been through hell. We must vote.' Watch it below."
TOWLEROAD (Video)
YouTube: Eleven Films
YouTube: BREAKING The Dangerous Ones

Psychedelic Blues: When The Blues Turned On And Tuned Out

"After psychedelia came to a boil in the late 60s, the blues and rock heroes of the 50s took a brief but thrilling walk on the wild side, with fuzz guitars, wah-wah effects, and epic jams to the fore. It was the Age of Aquarius, and the blues was busy being psychedelicized. The psychedelic blues period for Chicago titans like Muddy and Wolf and first-generation rock’n’rollers like Bo, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard wasn’t a long one but it blasted a hole in preconceptions on either side of the stylistic fence. And the impact was as unforeseen as it was long-lasting. Baby boomer rockers and Chicago blues originators spent a good portion of the 60s doing a dizzying do-si-do together. ... But by the late 60s, the countercultural explosion had pulled rock fans further from away the genre’s musical roots, so a few savvy souls decided to do something about it. ..."
udiscover (Video/Audio)

Exploring Wes Anderson’s wonderful cinematic commercials

"American filmmaker Wes Anderson is easily one of the most unique artistic voices in contemporary cinema. Now famous for his beautiful films such as Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel and more, his work stands out in cinematic tradition because of their eccentric visual and narrative styles. Some critics even cite him as the 'modern-day example of an auteur'. The critically acclaimed director is not just responsible for making cinematic masterpieces. Over the course of his career, Anderson has also directed some of the best commercials of the 21st century for top companies like American Express, Prada, Hyundai and AT&T. The clips also feature a few of his biggest collaborators such as actors Jason Schwartzman and Adrian Brody, cinematographer Robert Yoeman and co-writer Roman Coppola. Here are some of the brilliant commercials that Wes Anderson directed. ..."
FAR OUT (Video)

2013 November: Wes Anderson Honors Fellini in a Delightful New Short Film, 2013 November: Rushmore (1998), 2013 Decemher: Hotel Chevalier (2007), 2014 March: Wes Anderson Collection, 2014 April: The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies, 2014 July: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), 2014 August: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), 2014 December: Welcome to Union Glacier (2013), 2015 January: Inhabiting Wes Anderson’s Universe, 2015 July: Books in the Films of Wes Anderson: A Supercut for Bibliophiles, 2015 November: Moonrise Kingdom (2012), 2015 December: Chapter 8: "The Grand Budapest Hotel", 2016 June: Here's pretty much every song used in a Wes Anderson film, 2016 November: Watch Come Together, Wes Anderson’s New Short Film...., 2018 September: Isle of Dogs (2018), 2020 May: Honest Trailers - Every Wes Anderson Movie

How Cannonball Adderley Shared the Joy of Jazz

"Jazz has always had big personalities. In the mid-20th century, an explosion of major players became as well known for their personal quirks as for their revolutionary techniques and compositions. Monk’s endearing oddness, Miles Davis’ brooding bad temper, Charles Mingus’ exuberant shouts and rages, Ornette Coleman’s cryptic philosophizing, Coltrane’s gentle mysticism…. These were not only the jazz world’s greatest players; they were also some of the century’s most interesting people. The same can be said for Julian Edwin 'Cannonball' Adderley, saxophonist and bandleader who was heralded as a new Charlie Parker on arrival in the New York scene from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where he had worked as a popular high school band director and local musician before deciding to pursue graduate studies. Music had other plans for him. ..."
Open Culture (Video)

2018 March: Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago (1959)

Bicycle gearing

"Bicycle gearing is the aspect of a bicycle drivetrain that determines the relation between the cadence, the rate at which the rider pedals, and the rate at which the drive wheel turns. On some bicycles there is only one gear and, therefore, the gear ratio is fixed, but most modern bicycles have multiple gears and thus multiple gear ratios. A shifting mechanism allows selection of the appropriate gear ratio for efficiency or comfort under the prevailing circumstances: for example, it may be comfortable to use a high gear when cycling downhill, a medium gear when cycling on a flat road, and a low gear when cycling uphill. Different gear ratios and gear ranges are appropriate for different people and styles of cycling. ..."
W - Bicycle gearing
W - Bicycle
YouTube: Bicycle Documentary, How Do Bicycle Gears Actually WORK?

The Blue Coxsone Box Set (2020)

"Clement ‘sir Coxsone’ Dodd has made his mark as one of the major players in the reggae scene. With the help of his label, Studio One, he has crossed all the styles close to reggae, such as rocksteady, ragga and dub. Coxsone has launched the careers of many artists like Bob Marley & The Wailers, Ken Boothe, Toots And The Maytals and The Skatalites among others. Studio One will be releasing a brand new 6×7″ box set in July containing singles released under the sub-label Coxsone Records, entitled 'The Blue Coxsone Box Set'. ... This limited edition box set features six rare singles all reproduced on the original Blue Coxsone label featuring essential tunes from Joe Higgs, Winston Jarrett, The Sound Dimension, The Melodians and other Studio One icons. ..."
Studio One releases a box set of rare Coxsone Records singles (Audio)
Various – The Blue Coxsone Box Set (Audio)
bandcamp (Audio)

The Last Tocquevillian

A Deck of Cards Dating Back to the French Revolution Where Kings Have Been Replaced With Wise Men (Solo, Plato, Cato, & Brutus), and Queens With Virtues (Justice, Union, Prudence, & Force). Leo S. Olschki,La Bibliofilia, Firenze : Giuseppe Boffito, 1906
"François Furet, who passed away twenty years ago this year, was a central figure in late twentieth-century intellectual life. Historian of the French Revolution, he challenged the social interpretation that presented the uprising as an expression of class struggle, a symptom of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Instead, Furet’s political interpretation portrayed the revolution as the triumph of a Manichaean ideology that almost inevitably led to the violence that followed. Furet first advanced this perspective in Interpreting the French Revolution (1978), which mobilized the then-ascendant French critique of totalitarianism to paint the event as proto-totalitarian and thereby discredit the revolutionary tradition. ..."
Jacobin
W - François Furet
W - Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America

Richard Thompson - Bloody Noses (EP 2020)

"... It is a six track EP by Richard Thompson called 'Bloody Noses' that is available – due to coronavirus – on download and streaming only. Hopefully a physical copy will appear at some stage. It is brand new and I have just bought the download from Bandcamp. It cost me $7.20 – you can pay more if you want. Now I regard Richard Thompson as not only one of the great singer song writers but also the finest guitarist..ever. Acoustic or electric, he is simply brilliant. And 'Bloody Noses' is an acoustic EP - sounds like Richard has multi - tracked rhythm & lead – at least on the first song 'As Soon As You Hear The Bell' which is a terrific opener- the second track 'If I Could Live My Live Again' – which rocks along nicely and is of course beautifully played, is to my ears, just Richard. ..."
rateyourmusic
bandcamp (Audio)
Discogs
YouTube: Facebook Live Concert #4

2011 July: Shoot Out the Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson, 2012 February: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, 2014 March: Videowest 81, 2015 October: Richard & Linda Thompson - Rafferty's Folly (1980), 2015 December: Rumor and Sigh (1991), 2016 March: Hand of Kindness (1983), 2018 December: You? Me? Us? (1996), 2019 July: Across a Crowded Room—Live at Barrymore’s 1985

David Brazil - A Holy Forest: 2008

"... I spent a few hours that afternoon rooting around in those bags, which is where I discovered a copy of the Coach House edition of Robin Blaser’s The Holy Forest with its lovely mysterious cover of leafy shadows. Brenda Iijima had advised me when I departed for California that I should anticipate 'lemon trees, succulents, and the ghost of Jack Spicer,' and I knew Blaser’s name from reading Spicer — specifically, his afterword essay in the Black Sparrow Collected Poems, which I’d had to borrow back in Ithaca, New York, from the poet Joshua Corey in whose library I had spotted it, because it, too, was fabulously expensive, and remained so until Kevin Killian and Peter Gizzi’s new edition, My Vocabulary Did This To Me, arrived years later. ..."
Jacket2
 
November 2007: EPC, November 2009: Robin Blaser (1925 - 2009), March 2010: Les Chimeres, 2011 February: The Holy Forest, 2011 July: "Image-Nation 21 (territory", 2010 April: Manroot and Acts,  2015 January: 'Absolutely temporary': Spicer, Burgess, and the ephemerality of coterie, 2015 March: San Francisco Renaissance, 2016 March: The Astonishment Tapes: Talks on Poetry and Autobiography with Robin Blaser and Friends, 2017 May: The Pacific Nation, 2016 March: The Astonishment Tapes: Talks on Poetry and Autobiography with Robin Blaser and Friends, 2019 November: The Moth Poem (1963)

Tommy "Madman" Jones

"... The Mad label came out of the rich "honkers and barwalkers" tradition in Chicago. Tenor saxophonists, in emulation of the great Illinois Jacquet's 'Flying Home,' would jump up on the bars and squall and blast on their horns. If any one tenor sax blower epitomized this tradition it would have to be Tommy 'Madman' Jones, who for nearly three decades decades entertained Chicago nightclub audiences with wild exuberant performances on his instrument. In the 1940s and 1950s, Jones was generally considered a jazz player, and his bebop heritage is frequently audible on his records. But he had a strong orientation toward the blues (he was sometimes billed as 'Madman Jones and his Blue Saxophone'), and his style exhibited such hard blowing and energy that it could just as easily be considered rhythm and blues. Jones was credited for inventing a unique amplifier for the saxophone, which he later gave aspiring honkers and barwalkers lessons on. He made a few records in the 1940s and 1950s, but he built his reputation mainly as a nightclub performer. ..."
The Mad and M&M Labels
Discogs (Video)
YouTube: Hi Fi Apartment, Snake Charmer (Jungle Exotica), "Jess" one mo' time, Four Shades Of Rhythm - Come Here, Bow Legs

Readings on Racism, White Supremacy, and Police Violence in America

"The events of the last week—nationwide protests catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer and the subsequent wave of police violence released upon the streets of America—have revealed yet again this country’s deeply rooted racism and its predisposition to state violence. It is hard to know what the next week will bring—let alone the next five months—but as we imagine a way forward it is important to have a grounding in the past. Below you’ll find selected essays we’ve published over the last five years—historical, personal, political—that explore what it means to be Black in a country founded in white supremacy and racial injustice. ..."
LitHub

On Eric Garner, Jean-Michel Basquiat and police brutality as an American tradition.

An Introduction to Hagia Sophia: After 85 Years as a Museum, It’s Set to Become a Mosque Again

"No tour of Istanbul can fail to include Hagia Sophia. The same is true enough of the British Museum in London or the Louvre in Paris, but Hagia Sophia is more than a museum: it's also spent different stretches of its near-millennium-and-a-half of existence as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a mosque. Stripped of its religious function in the mid-1930s by the administration of President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, remembered for his creation of a secular Turkish republic, the majestic building has spent the past 85 years as not just a museum but the country's top tourist attraction. Now, according to a decree issued last week by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hagia Sophia will become a mosque again. ..."
Open Culture (Video)
W - Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia Architecture and Dome Features
123rf

Defending One Brooklyn Brownstone Is Just the Beginning

Demonstrators outside of 1214 Dean Street.
"'This is very lovely,' Imani Henry said, stepping out of the gate at 1214 Dean Street in Brooklyn. Though it was past midnight, a crowd of over 30 remained of those who had gathered that night to defend the tenants of the building, in the Crown Heights neighborhood, against an illegal eviction. 'A typical part of our lives is illegal lockouts,' said Henry, the founder of Equality for Flatbush (E4F), the anti-gentrification and anti-police-brutality organization that initially sent out a call to action. For most New York City tenants, the most they can do in that situation is make a call to 311, the city’s government services line, and hope to be connected with a housing lawyer. But that night was unusual. Within three hours, almost 100 people assembled outside the house, demanding that the tenants be allowed to stay in their homes. Even after a season under the threat of the coronavirus and a month of racial justice uprisings, this felt new—and, as one person at the blockade put it, like 'the start of a long summer.' ..."
The Nation
Editorial: Checking My Black Privilege While Apartment Hunting in Brooklyn (Aug. 30, 2017)
NY Times: Gentrification in a Brooklyn Neighborhood Forces Residents to Move On (Nov. 27, 2015)
NY Times: As Brooklyn Gentrifies, Some Neighborhoods Are Being Left Behind (July 8, 2012)

2014 April: Brownstone, 2014 July: Brooklyn Heights, 2015 November: The old-school soda sign of a Brooklyn grocery, 2015 May: Park Slope and the Story of Brownstone Brooklyn, 2016 March: Spring comes to brownstone Brooklyn in 1949, 2018 January: The loveliness of New York’s skinny brownstones, 2020 July: A Guide to Brooklyn’s Coolest Neighborhoods

Beyond the Milky Way, a Galactic Wall

The starry core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy, in an infrared image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. Obscured behind it is the South Pole Wall, a curtain of thousands of galaxies across at least 700 million light-years.
"Astronomers have discovered that there is a vast wall across the southern border of the local cosmos. The South Pole Wall, as it is known, consists of thousands of galaxies — beehives of trillions of stars and dark worlds, as well as dust and gas — aligned in a curtain arcing across at least 700 million light-years of space. It winds behind the dust, gas and stars of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, from the constellation Perseus in the Northern Hemisphere to the constellation Apus in the far south. It is so massive that it perturbs the local expansion of the universe. But don’t bother trying to see it. The entire conglomeration is behind the Milky Way, in what astronomers quaintly call the zone of avoidance. ..."
NY Times
W - Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall
YouTube: Out There 24 videos

A projection of the South Pole Wall in celestial coordinates. The plane of the Milky Way is shown by a dust map in shades of grey; what lies behind it is obscured from direct observation.

Valley of the New York Dolls

May 26, 1975: The first time I laid eyes on the New York Dolls, they were drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of the Dancers. David Johansen had lost the high heel from one of his shoes. He said, 'I not only accept loss forever, I am made of loss,' while inside the club, the group’s managerial brain trust planned the conquest of blue dawns over racetracks and kids from sweet Ioway. The rest of the band — Johnny Thunders, Syvain Sylvain, Jerry Nolan, Arthur Harold Kane — talked happily about early days spent practicing in a bicycle shop near Central Park. And me? I’m a fool. My heart went out to the hopeful sounds. We all thought the group would achieve success through the purity of their rock ‘n’ roll art. ..."
Voice
Vanity Fair: Alley of the Dolls By James Wolcott
New York Dolls -Chronology-
rock'sbackpages
YouTube: Musikladen, 1973, Pills, Trash

2015 June: New York Dolls (1973), 2016 February: David Johansen (1977), 2016 September: Too Much Too Soon - New York Dolls (1973), 2016 October: The David Johansen Group Live (2004), 2017 April: From Paris With Love (L.U.V.)

From no deal to New Deal: how Boris Johnson could follow FDR and save the arts

Workers unite! … detail of a fresco at Coit Tower, San Francisco, painted in 1934 by Victor Arnautoff.
"As America struggled with the Great Depression in 1933, 25 artists were hired to paint murals depicting aspects of Californian life on the walls of Coit Tower in San Francisco. They were paid at least $25 a week – the equivalent of about £400 today. Tasked with beautifying public buildings, the artists seized the chance for some mischief. Bernard Zakheim’s mural depicts a worker in a library, screwing up a newspaper with one hand and reaching for Das Kapital on a shelf with the other. Clifford Wight’s triptych depicts capitalism, the New Deal and communism, with the latter panel containing a hammer and sickle and the caption 'Workers of the World Unite'. After a virulent press campaign, the hammer and sickle were removed a year later. ..."
Guardian
Coit Tower Politics

2014 March: Victor Arnautoff

Bisa Butler’s Beautiful Quilted Portraits of Frederick Douglass, Nina Simone, Jean-Michel Basquiat & More

"Fiber artist Bisa Butler’s quilted portraits of Black Americans gain extra power from their medium. Each work is comprised of many scraps, carefully cut and positioned after hours of research and preliminary sketches. Velvet and silk nestle against bits of vintage flour sacks, West African wax print fabric, denim and, occasionally, hand-me-downs from the sitter’s own collection. In The Warmth of Other Sons, a 12-foot, life-sized portrait of an African American family who migrated north in search of economic opportunity, a wary-looking young girl clutches a purse to her chest. The purse is constructed from a commercial wax cotton print titled Michelle Obama’s Bag, which commemorates one of the former First Lady’s trips to Africa. ..."
Open Culture (Video)
Claire Oliver Gallery - Bisa Butler
Bisa Butler is Having a Moment
Colorful Quilts by Bisa Butler use African Fabrics to Form Nuanced Portraits
W - Bisa Butler
YouTube: PrintbyPrint Group Interviews Bisa Butler, Bisa Butler's Portraiture Quilts | Brooklyn Made

The Pazant Brothers - The Brothers Funk: Rare New York City Funk 1969-1975

"I heard a fantastically funky song by the Pazant Brothers on one of those terrific 'Super Funk' compilations last year, and hoping that there was more where that came from I ordered this CD. Wow, what a find! Horns a-plenty and funky grooves galore. Where has this incredible band been hiding all these years? This music, recorded from 1969 to 1975 is sheer funk brilliance. Well, chock it down to bad marketing and inept record labels. The music that the Pazant Brothers made certainly was first rate, but like so many other great artists, they never seemed to get the breaks when they needed them. They put out one outstanding album for Vanguard in 1975 (hailed in the liner notes as 'one of the most consistently funk albums ever recorded' ... tough and funky"), titled 'Loose and Juicy', but according to the liner notes 'Vanguard had no idea how to promote black music ... and the record disappeared without a trace.' ..."
Holland Tunnel Dive
Discogs
amazon
YouTube: A Gritty Nitty, Fever, Back To Beaufort, The Work Song, Groovin', Juicy Lucy

Sharhabil Ahmed - The King of Sudanese Jazz

"We're super happy to announce our 13th release by Sharhabil Ahmed, the actual King of Sudanese Jazz (he actually won that title in a competition in the early 1970s). Sonically it sounds very different from what Jazz is understood to sound like outside of Sudan. It’s an incredible unique mix of rock’n’roll, funk, surf, traditional sudanese music and influences from Congolese sounds. Original copies of Sharhabil recordings are often hard to find, so we’re happy they will now be widely available. 'Argos Farfish' which was featured on our last comp amassed close to 400.000 plays already. -Habibi Funk Records ..."
Holland Tunnel Dive
Rough Trade (Audio)
Bandcamp (Audio)

Supreme Court Rules Trump Cannot Block Release of Financial Records

"The Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for prosecutors in New York to seek President Trump’s financial records in a stunning defeat for Mr. Trump and a major statement on the scope and limits of presidential power. The decision in the case said Mr. Trump had no absolute right to block release of the papers and would take its place with landmark rulings that required President Richard M. Nixon to turn over tapes of Oval Office conversations and that forced President Bill Clinton to provide evidence in a sexual harassment suit. ..."
NY Times (Video)
NY Times: Opinion | The Supreme Court Lets Trump Run Out the Clock
YouTube: The Supreme Court Just Told Trump: You're Not Above the Law.
NY Times: Landmark Supreme Court Ruling Affirms Native American Rights in Oklahoma
BBC: US Supreme Court rules half of Oklahoma is Native American land (Video)
****The Atlantic: The McGirt Case Is a Historic Win for Tribes

Søren Kierkegaard’s Struggle with Himself

Kierkegaard called his melancholy “the most faithful mistress I have known.”
"Imagine an educated, affluent European in his late twenties, seemingly one of fortune’s favored, who suffers from crippling feelings of despair and guilt. For no apparent reason, he breaks up with the woman everyone thought he was going to marry—not because he loves someone else but out of a sudden conviction that he is incapable of marriage and can only make her miserable. He abandons the career for which he has been studying for ten years and holes up in his apartment, where a kind of graphomania compels him to stay up all night writing at a frantic pace. His activity is so relentless that, in a few short years, he has accumulated many volumes’ worth of manuscripts. ... "
New Yorker

2011 July: Søren Kierkegaard, 2013 April: Repetition (1843), 2013 December: The Quotable Kierkegaard, 2014 October: Fear and Trembling - Søren Kierkegaard (1843), 2014 December: The Dark Knight of Faith - Existential Comics, 2015 July: I still love Kierkegaard, 2015 October: The Concept of Anxiety (1844), 2016 October: Cruel intentions, 2017 July: Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter, 2018 January: Either/Or (1843), 2018 November: The Seducer’s Diary (1843)

Detroit Rock City: A History Of Motor City Music

"Few cities in the world match the musical heritage of Detroit, the home of Motown. Though the flagship city of Michigan state is renowned for its soul music, the history of Detroit music is also rich in jazz, blues, gospel, country, rock, techno and, more recently, rap. 'There was a jambalaya of cultures in Detroit,' says native Don Was, the guitarist who co-founded Was (Not Was) and is now president of Blue Note Records.'We were exposed to everything – without judgement.' When construction began on the celebrated Orchestra Hall in June 1919 – a venue that is thriving again as home to the world-famous Detroit Symphony Orchestra – there were just under one million residents of a bustling port city that spans 143 square miles. A third of Detroit’s population were foreign-born. The hall opened in the mid-20s, by which time jazz was starting to dominate popular music across the US. ..."
udiscover (Video)

New Bird Song That ‘Went Viral’ Across This Species of Sparrow Was Tracked by Scientists For the First Time

"A song that ‘went viral’ across a species of bird has been tracked by scientists for the first time. Most of our feathered friends are slow to change their tune—preferring to stick with tried-and-tested songs to defend territories and attract females. Now a 20-year study has found how one rare ‘tweet’ travelled nearly 2,000 miles across Canada and the US. The analysis—based on recordings collected by bird watchers from 2000 to 2019—found that the new beat wiped out a historic song ending in the process. White-throated sparrows from British Columbia to central Ontario have ditched their traditional three-note-finish in favor of a unique two-note-variant. ..."
Good News Network (Video)
The Atlantic: The Birdsong That Took Over North America (Audio)
YouTube: A Viral new bird song in Canada, White-Throated Sparrow song has changed, from 3 notes to 2 notes

2008 September: Birds, 2008 June: Bird Songs, 2017 April: Of a Feather, 2017 June: Bird Sounds, 2017 July: Beautifully Designed Tiny Houses... For Birds, 2019 September: The Crisis for Birds Is a Crisis for Us All, 2019 March: She Invented a Board Game With Scientific Integrity. It’s Taking Off., 2019 June: Where Birds Meet Art . . . After Dark, 2019 September: The Crisis for Birds Is a Crisis for Us All, 2019 October: A Quest to Protect the World's Last Silent Places, 2020 June: Making a Garden That Welcomes the Birds