Silence Is Violence — but Not When It Comes to Israeli Rape Victims
"On Sunday, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Representative Pramila Jayapal why so many progressive women have been silent about the extensive reports of widespread rape and sexual assault carried out by Hamas against Israeli women during the massacres of Oct. 7.
What followed was a master class in evasion, both-sidesism and changing the subject from the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 'I’ve condemned what Hamas has done,' Jayapal allowed, briefly, before moving immediately to condemn Israel. 'I was just asking about the women, and you turned it back to Israel. I’m asking about Hamas. I’ve already answered your question, Dana,' Jayapal replied, adding that while rape was 'horrific,' it 'happens in war situations. Terrorist organizations like Hamas obviously are using these as tools. However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians.' ..."
Literary Fight Club: On the Great Poets’ Brawl of ‘68
"One Saturday evening in 1968, the poets battled on Long Island. Drinks spilled into the grass. Punches were flung; some landed. Chilean and French poets stood on a porch and laughed while the Americans brawled. A glass table shattered. Bloody-nosed poets staggered into the coming darkness. Allen Ginsberg fell to his knees and prayed. The World Poetry Conference at Stony Brook University was almost over. At Michigan State University, Jim Harrison was a self-described 'nasty item,' a 'prominent, if obnoxious, student in comparative literature.' He had no business graduating with a Master’s degree. ..."
Top 20 Best Neil Young Guitar Songs
"Greetings, fellow guitar aficionados, today we’re going to embark on an exciting lesson through the world of Neil Young’s best guitar songs. If you aren’t familiar with Neil’s repertoire you should definitely check it out and study it to the bone, because there is so incredibly much to learn from. There’s no musician more authentic and real in his music and playing than Neil. Neil Young is a legendary musician known for his great melodies and versatile guitar playing style. He has inspired countless musicians around the world. Whether you love strumming along to beautiful acoustic guitar classics or you want to learn how to play rocking guitar riffs on the electric guitar, you’re in for a treat. I’ve put together a list of the top 20 Neil Young guitar songs that are sure to get your fingers moving and your heart singing. ..."
2008 February: Neil Young, 2010 April: Neil Young - 1, 2010 April: Neil Young - 2, 2010 May: Neil Young - 3, 2010 October: Neil Young's Sound, 2012 January: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, 2012 June: Like A Hurricane, 2012 July: Greendale, 2013 April: Thoughts On An Artist / Three Compilations, 2013 August: Heart of Gold, 2014 March: Dead Man (1995), 2014 August: Ragged Glory - Neil Young + Crazy Horse (1990), 2014 November: Broken Arrow (1996), 2015 January: Rust Never Sleeps (1979), 2015 January: Neil Young the Ultimate Guide, 2015 March: Old Black, 2015 September: Zuma (1975), 2016 January: On the Beach (1973), 2016 April: Sleeps with Angels (1994), 2016 November: Eldorado (EP - 1989), Long May You Run - The Stills-Young Band (1976), 2017 June: "River Of Pride" / "White Line" (1975), 2017 July: "Thrasher" [Live at the Cow Palace, 1978], 2017 November: Words (Live at Red Rocks, 2000), 2020 November: Neil Young Releases a Never-Before-Heard Version..., 2022 January: Time Fades Away (1973)
The Secrets of Beauty By Jean Cocteau
"Jean Cocteau wrote on anything he could get his hands on, wherever he could. Édouard Dermit informs us that he often saw Cocteau writing next to him in the car, or while lying down, or when at the table (between fruit and dessert courses), using the smallest scrap of paper or cloth. This version of Secrets of Beauty was composed in March 1945, on a long journey back to Paris. ... Cocteau was like one of those magicians who, having announced that they are going to reveal the secret of one trick, immediately perform another. He offered up 'secrets of beauty' so frequently that the volume from which the following notes have been extracted could almost be called New Secrets of Beauty. ... —Pierre Caizergues ..."
2009 March: Jean Cocteau, 2016 February: In Which Jean Cocteau Gives Elan To This Milieu, 2021 January: Flair Magazine: The Short-Lived, Highly-Influential Magazine That Still Inspires Designers Today (1950), 2021 August: Orphic Trilogy
Sonny Boy Williamson II
"... The ones I’m grouping in this manner are the Chess/Checker foursome: Muddy, The Wolf, Sonny Boy and Little Walter (and for clarity I should say that by Sonny Boy, I mean Sonny Boy Williamson II – see later). I was lucky enough to get to see the first three of these gents in a London club setting which implied a closeness (and ambiance) which wasn’t available in a concert format. They didn’t disappoint. Were they necessarily better than other blues artists who’d migrated north like Reed, Hooker, Rush, James and Guy? No, but there was that Chess aura that surrounded them. We, and the new so-called R&B groups which were springing up everywhere, worshipped Chuck and Bo from the Chess stable. Muddy and co were just one step further. ..."
From Gilded Age beer garden to 1970s strip club: 100 years of vice on a Chelsea corner
"There’s a four-story tenement on the traffic-choked corner of Sixth Avenue and 24th Street with some curious signage. Not the store sign for a now-shuttered ground floor cafe, nor the enormous 'for sale' banner spread across the second floor of the facade. (Yikes, is this red-brick beauty in danger?) Signage that’s much more intriguing comes into view when you stand nearby and look up. On the corner of the building, two brownstone nameplates say, well, 'The Corner,' in Victorian-style lettering. Above the cornice is a pediment that reads 'The Corner' with 'Koster & Bial' underneath. So what was The Corner, and who were Koster and Bial? The tenement is all that’s left of a theater and beer garden empire that stretched across Sixth Avenue and offered excess beer, edgy performances, and illicit adventures to libertine New Yorkers. ..."
The politics of hosting AFCON
"A decade later, in January 2024, Ivorians will finally welcome the continent and the world to the next AFCON. Economic and sporting realities are making it harder for sporting tournaments to find hosts. In the past, hosting gigs were keenly sought after and contested by different countries. The appeal of welcoming thousands of visitors and positively impacting economic and tourist activities was usually viewed positively while winning bids was always a good tonic for political leaders. Yet, expansion means growing tournament costs and the need to maximize economic output, while mitigating CAF’s financial difficulties is making it harder to find hosts. This trend might impact AFCON, the continent’s premier football competition. ..."
‘Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome’: Parliament’s Funk Opera
"At the peak of its powers, Parliament-Funkadelic seemed capable of anything: scoring radio hits, crafting visionary best-selling albums, spinning-off successful solo acts and satellite groups, even producing an unparalleled live show that climaxed every night with an onstage spaceship landing. Yet leader George Clinton believed that P-Funk still had unfinished creative business. Since Parliament’s 1975 album Chocolate City, as he recalled in his 2014 memoir, he’d been working toward, 'a complete, comprehensive funk opera.' ..."
2009 January: George Clinton, 2010 December: Mothership Connection - Houston 1976, 2011 October: Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove, 2011 October: "Do Fries Go With That Shake?", 2012 August: Tales Of Dr. Funkenstein – The Story Of George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, 2015 July: Playing The (Baker's) Dozens: George Clinton's Favourite Albums, 2015 August: Chocolate City (1975), 2016 February: Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971), 2016 June: P-Funk All Stars - Urban Dancefloor Guerillas (1983), 2017 March: Up for the Down Stroke - Parliament (1974), 2017 May: P-Funk mythology, 2019 September: Tear the Roof Off the Sucker: An Introduction to Parliament Funkadelic, 2019 December: Cosmic Slop - Funkadelic (1973), 2020 July: How George Clinton Made Funk a World View, 2021 November: ‘Computer Games’: How George Clinton’s Solo Debut Played To Win, 2022 September: ‘The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein’: Parliament Unleashes An Intergalactic Funk Classic
There Once Was an Empire
"When it comes to history writing, one of the most recognizable frames is the story of the 'rise and fall.' Although broad and often misused, it is undeniably a trope that deeply interests the public imagination. So much so that nowadays one doesn’t need to look far to find anxieties over our own alleged fall. Discussions on 'decline' and even 'collapse' have become more commonplace online. More generally, across all published literature, mentions of doom and gloom have reached new heights, irrespective of political leanings. But despite the cultural climate, catastrophes are hard to imagine, and even the doomsayers themselves usually say such things half-heartedly. This is because so few people alive and born in the Western world have experienced anything truly like it. Personal memories of war have also faded for most. Limited by experience, historical perspectives help to fill in the gaps of our imagination. ..."
Austria-Hungary popularized the postcard as a way to communicate between its many cultural regions. Some even featured limited-edition illustrations like this one, a 1912 postcard of the Café Heinrichhof in Vienna by Moriz Jung.
Henry Kissinger and the Vietnam War
"American diplomat Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) played an important and controversial role in the Vietnam War. Starting out as a supporter, Kissinger came to see it as a drag on American power. In 1968, Kissinger leaked information about the status of the peace talks in Paris to the Nixon campaign and was rewarded with being appointed National Security Adviser under Richard Nixon. As National Security Adviser, Kissinger sought initially to find a way to end the war on American terms. During his tenure, Kissinger came to differ with Nixon as Kissinger was more in favor of seeking an end to war as expeditiously as possible with minimum damage to American prestige. In October 1972, Kissinger reached a draft agreement that Nixon at first rejected, leading to the Christmas bombings of December 1972. The agreement that Kissinger signed in January 1973—which led to the American withdrawal from Vietnam in March of that year—was very similar to the draft agreement rejected the previous year. As National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, Kissinger favored continued American support for South Vietnam right until the collapse of that state in April 1975, which Kissinger blamed Congress for. ..."
"Henry A. Kissinger’s decision to authorize the secret carpet bombing of Cambodia, his efforts to negotiate the American exit from the Vietnam War and his role in the U.S. rapprochement with China have rippled through Southeast Asia in the decades since. Mr. Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the peace accords that ended American involvement in the Vietnam War. But some critics accused him of needlessly prolonging the war when a framework for peace had been available years earlier. The fighting between North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam did not end until the North’s victory in 1975. Some observers have said that was the inevitable result of a cynical American policy intended to create space — “a decent interval,” as Mr. Kissinger put it — between the American withdrawal from the country in 1973 and the fall of Saigon two years later. ..."
The aftermath of a bombing in Snuol, Cambodia, during the Vietnam War, in May 1970.
Behold LEGO Reenactments of Famous Psychology Experiments, as Imagined by Artificial Intelligence
"Cognitive scientist Tomer Ullman, head of Harvard’s Computation, Cognition, and Development lab, may have inadvertently blundered into an untapped vein of LEGO Icon inspiration when his interest in AI led him to stage recreations of famous psych experiments. If you think Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night LEGO playset is a challenge, imagine putting together the AI-generated playset inspired by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram’s 1961 obedience studies, above. Participants in these studies were assigned to play one of two parts – teacher or learner. Partner pairs were seated in separate rooms, accessible to each other by microphones. The teacher read the learner a list of matched words they’d expected to remember shortly thereafter. ..."
Postcards from Elizabeth Bishop
"Elizabeth Bishop delighted in the postcard. It suited her poetic subject matter and her way of life—this poet of travel who was more often on the move than at home, 'wherever that may be,' as she put it in her poem 'Questions of Travel.' She told James Merrill in a postcard written in 1979 that she seldom wrote 'anything of any value at the desk or in the room where I was supposed to be doing it—it’s always in someone else’s house, or in a bar, or standing up in the kitchen in the middle of the night.' Since her death in 1979 and the publication of her selected correspondence, Bishop has become known as one of the great modern-day letter-writers. ..."
Lee Scratch Perry - Battle Of Armagideon, 2CD Expanded Edition (1986)
"... In 1985, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry returned to Trojan Records, the celebrated British company which, during reggae’s the formative years, had been instrumental in establishing him on the international scene as one of Jamaica’s most talented, innovative and influential producers. By this time, he was exploring new musical avenues, having teamed up with the Dub Factory, a British band led by rhythm guitarist and synth player Mark Downie. The first evidence of this new union came towards the close of the year when Trojan released Perry’s seasonal single, ‘Merry Christmas, Happy New Year’, on which he was accompanied by London-based singer, Sandra Robinson. The disc provided an indication of his bold, new sound, which effectively blended Jamaican rhythms with rock sensibilities. ..."
Sounds of the Universe (Audio), YouTube: Battle of Armagideon (Millionaire Liquidator) (Expanded Version) 18 videos
Gerry Eastman – Not Just His Brother’s Keeper
"Jazzman Gerry Eastman, 78, cooks harder than ever. Every Friday he gigs fast and mean, nimble and soulful, experimental and tender at the Williamsburg Music Center, which he has owned and operated (and lived in) since he bought the building for $50,000, in 1981. Back then the neighborhood was Black and Puerto Rican, and Eastman, composer and virtuoso electric guitarist, was just one of many musicians who owned their own clubs. Now his is the only Black-owned jazz club in Williamsburg (and one of only a few in Brooklyn). But although the neighborhood’s avant-garde music scene has dissolved since the early 2010s (documented in Pratt Institute professor Cisco Bradley’s heavily reported book The Williamsburg Avant-Garde), Eastman continues to rocket into the jazz stratosphere. ..."
L: Historical artifacts adorn the walls of the Williamsburg Music Center. R: Gerry Eastman, guitar virtuoso.L: Courtesy Gerry Eastman. R: Ben Gambuzza
GQ: Meet Cooper B. Handy, Better Known As LUCY, the Experimental Singer-Songwriter Who's Charmed New York and Baffled TikTok
"In early September of this year, when Cooper B. Handy, who goes by the stage name LUCY, opened for King Krule in Atlanta, Georgia, a concertgoer who uses the TikTok handle @macmandyy filmed six seconds of his performance and posted it with the text overlay: 'when the opener so bad u have to pull up slime videos to zone out.' The video went semi-viral, racking up over 360,000 likes and nearly two and a half thousand comments, which offer a fairly robust summary of the pop musician’s current status. ... Handy, 29, is almost startlingly soft-spoken, dressed head-to-toe in primary colors, and is charmingly prone to blushing, especially when he’s asked to talk about himself. We walked through chapels filled with medieval ephemera, pausing for an extra-long time in front of the unicorn tapestries, which tell the tale of a hunted magical beast. ..."
Stikman “SIGNS” Show Slides into Skewville.
"Stikman always appears to lurk in New York on street signs, slapped on mailboxes, and stuck into doorways. A Gotham stalwart for two decades or so, his stiff amulet self is true to form, an image of sticks awkwardly compiled, sometimes in 2D, sometimes in 3. He appears in scenes where everyone else is fully formed and buxom, where space travel requires a bubble helmut and silver jumper, where jumbled graphics almost erase him, where nothing else is happening except this somewhat lonely guy quietly existing in the dirty chaos of NY street culture. Stikman. ..."
Classic Performances - Pet Shop Boys
"The Pet Shop Boys do ballet. If you spent a large portion of the 80s singing 'West End Girls' into a hairbrush, then get ready for a surprise - the Pet Shop Boys composed the music for their first ever ballet in 2011. Entitled 'The Most Incredible Thing', it's based on a Hans Christian Andersen story and premiered at the Sadler's Wells theatre in London. ..."
YouTube: Pet Shop Boys: HD Remastered 43 Videos
Hania Rani Nancy Jazz Pulsations 2023
"Hania Rani has a gift in creating moments of intimate communion with her audience using only her fingertips, one reason why this Polish pianist is seeing her star rise in the neoclassical world. Her liberated, graceful playing defies codes and labels, while her startling melodies captivate and transport audiences. For this unmissable concert, Hania Rani performs alongside Ziemowit Klimek. ..."
YouTube: Nancy Jazz Pulsations - ARTE Concert
2021 April: Live from Studio S2 (2021), 2022 January: Hania Rani, 2022 March: Music for Film and Theatre (2021), 2023 January: Esja (2019), 2023 June: Invalides, in Paris, France for Cercle
It’s a working Thanksgiving for this late 19th century streetcar driver
"It’s hard to imagine a time when mass transit meant taking a horse-drawn streetcar. But stepping into an unheated, weakly lit car that glided along steel tracks embedded in the street was one way New Yorkers got around in the 19th century. By 1860, Manhattan had 14 horse-drawn streetcar lines carrying 38 million passengers a year, according to The Wheels That Powered New York. This was in addition to 29 omnibus lines, which arrived in the early 19th century. (An omnibus was similar to a streetcar, but the wheels didn’t align with steel runners in the street—making it a bumpier, more hazardous ride.) Hundreds of car drivers were employed by the many private streetcar companies that plied the avenues of Manhattan and Brooklyn. ..."
Egyptology’s Eloquent Eye: Mohammedani Ibrahim
"Behind the lens was Mohammedani Ibrahim, one of the first Egyptian-born archeological photographers and one of the most skilled. Ibrahim’s photos of the statue identified as depicting Lady Sennuwy of Asyut, wife of Djefaihapi of Asyut, and dated to the 12th dynasty of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom between 1971 and 1926 BCE, were later shipped with the statue to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. ... The only reason anyone knows Ibrahim’s name, despite leaving behind more than 9,000 photographs, is thanks largely to Reisner. Ibrahim, who spent more than 30 years documenting fragments of bygone eras of his homeland, has remained nonetheless almost as obscure as the long-ago architects, masons, sculptors and painters whose works he recorded on film. ..."
In Ukraine’s Slowed-Down War, Death Comes as Quickly as Ever
"The agony came in waves as the wounded Ukrainian soldier in the back of the ambulance slipped in and out of consciousness. The driver, hurtling past cratered fields on roads thick with mud, was racing to escape Russian artillery fire north of the city of Avdiivka, while hoping he was not spotted by drones. ... Russian forces have been staging fierce assaults around Avdiivka for more than a month and have recently launched simultaneous offensives across eastern Ukraine in what military analysts say is a bid to regain the initiative as winter approaches. Ukrainian forces are resisting furiously, while probing for openings in a southern counteroffensive and conducting river crossings near the southern port city of Kherson. ..."
Bowery Ballroom
"The Bowery Ballroom is a New York City live music venue located at 6 Delancey Street in Manhattan's Boweryneighborhood. The venue has enjoyed a fabled reputation among musicians as well as audiences. In 2013, industry insiders polled by Rolling Stone magazine named it the best club in America, describing it as 'both intimate and grand, with consistently great sound and sightlines, and touches of old-school class.' It has a capacity of 575 people. The Bowery Ballroom was founded in 1998 by Michael Swier, Michael Winsch, and Brian Swier, who still own and operate the business. The club was the team's second music venue after The Mercury Lounge. ... Patti Smith performed New Year's Eve at the Bowery Ballroom for fourteen consecutive years. ..."
Sun Ra: The Philadelphia Years
"In the fall of 1961, jazz pianist, composer and future-seer Herman Poole Blount, AKA Sun Ra, moved his Arkestra from Chicago to New York. Since World War II, New York had been an epicenter of modernity, the launching point for many major advancements in art, music and literature – from the Abstract Expressionism of the ’40s and the Beat poets of the ’50s, to Warhol’s Factory in the ’60s. For most of the latter decade Sun Ra and his Arkestra lived in New York, navigating 'high art' cultural circles while struggling against the constant threat of poverty that many black experimental musicians have come to know so well. During this time, Sun Ra came into contact with the poet and activist Amiri Baraka and the cadre of young poets and artists that formed what would come to be known as the Black Arts Movement. ..."
Ancestry as guide to character in Tolkien’s legendarium
"In Tolkien's legendarium, ancestry provides a guide to character. The apparently genteel Hobbits of the Baggins family turn out to be worthy protagonists of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is seen from his family tree to be both a Baggins and an adventurous Took. Similarly, Frodo Bagginshas some relatively outlandish Brandybuck blood. Among the Elves of Middle-earth, as described in The Silmarillion, the highest are the peaceful Vanyar, whose ancestors conformed most closely to the divine will, migrating to Aman and seeing the light of the Two Trees of Valinor; the lowest are the mutable Teleri; and in between are the conflicted Noldor. Scholars have analysed the impact of ancestry on Elves such as the creative but headstrong Fëanor, who makes the Silmarils. Among Men, Aragorn, hero of The Lord of the Rings, is shown by his descent from Kings, Elves, and an immortal Maia to be of royal blood, destined to be the true King who will restore his people. Scholars have commented that in this way, Tolkien was presenting a view of character from Norse mythology, and an Anglo-Saxon view of kingship, though others have called his implied views racist. ..."
Bilbo's and Frodo's ancestry analysed by geography of the Shire and Hobbit family character. Bilbo inherits bourgeois Baggins and adventurous Took, suiting him both for life in the Shire and for the adventure described in The Hobbit.
Chaucer goes digital as British Library makes works available online
"The entire collection of Geoffrey Chaucer’s works held by the British Library is being made available in digital format after the completion of a two and a half year project to upload 25,000 images of the often elaborately illustrated medieval manuscripts. In a 'major milestone' for the library, which holds the world’s largest surviving collection of Chaucer, it is hoped the digital platform will enable new research into the 14th-century poet, courtier, soldier, diplomat, and MP who is most famous for his Middle English epic, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer, who died in 1400, was proclaimed by his contemporary poet Thomas Hoccleve as the 'firste fyndere of our fair language' and is widely regarded as the father of English poetry. He was, in essence, the first poet laureate, being rewarded by Edward III with a gallon of wine daily for an unspecified task, thought to be for poetic work or works. He was also the first to be buried in what became Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. The British Library holds more than 60 items related to his works and life, and has now digitised them all. ..."
A detail from The Canterbury Pilgrims in a medieval edition of the book by Chaucer.
Inside Man: How FIFA Guided the World Cup to Saudi Arabia
“As the world reeled from the coronavirus crisis in the fall of 2020, the president of soccer’s global governing body, Gianni Infantino, headed to Rome for an audience with Italy’s prime minister. Wearing masks and bumping elbows, Mr. Infantino, the president of FIFA, and the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, greeted each other in front of journalists before disappearing with the president of the Italian soccer federation into one of the ornate state rooms of the 16th-century Palazzo Chigi, the Italian leader’s official residence. …”
Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, at the 2022 World Cup.
Well Charged – Vital Dub (1976)
"... Ok, back to the topic at hand: the riddims that are on this classic Dub-Set from 1976 are, with one exception, from the undisputed masterpiece of the Mighty Diamonds: 'The Right Time" aka 'I Need A Roof' and this connection alone has earned the reputation of 'Vital Dub' reasoned. Although no band is named on the album cover, a quick look at the line-up (despite some aliases) and it's obvious that the rhythms of this work were recorded by the early revolutionaries: drummer Sly Dunbar, bassist 'Ranchie' McLean ( partial replacement for Robbie Shakespeare), keyboardist Ansel Collins and all the other usual suspects are mentioned. Joseph 'Jo Jo' Hookim and keyboardist Ossie Hibbert sat at the mixing desk. The mix is mostly a straight-through of the rhythms that are still unparalleled to this day. The solid production is a remarkable instrumental collection Dubs. ..."
YouTube: Vital Dub 9 video
ModularGuitarFields I-VI - Zimoun (2023)
"... Zimoun is a multi-disciplilnary Swiss artist who is best recognized for his immersive and site-specific installations with cardboard, DC motors and other industrial objects to create large-scale installations of orchestrated noise and movement. His mechanized environments have been shown in prestigiuos museums and galleries worldwide. On his latest musical release, ModularGuitarFields I-VI is entirely based on the sounds of a Tenor Baritone Guitar, combined with select elements of a Modular Synth and a vintage 1960s Magnatone Amp. ModularGuitarFields I-VI encompasses expansive and atmospheric realms, showcasing Zimoun’s passion for raw, warm sounds, as well as minimalist concepts and approaches. ..."
John Luther Adams – Darkness and Scattered Light (2023)
"'Darkness and Scattered Light' is an album of composer John Luther Adams’s darkly beautiful, mesmerizing, virtuosic music for double bass (two solos and a bass quintet), performed by the late bassist extraordinaire Robert Black (1956–2023). This is one of the most beautiful albums I have heard in years. And so emotional. It seems strange that an album about the vastness of nature should be so human, and so emotionally resonant. As the music goes deeper into exploring the stark, mysterious slowness of the natural world it becomes clear just how little this world cares about what we think about it. Nature doesn’t need us – the majesty of this music reflects our smallness back to us. It is a humbling, devastating kind of beauty. ..."
Dissenting in Style: How Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Collars Became Political Signifiers
"When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took her seat on the Supreme Court bench on August 10, 1993, she became the second female to serve on the country’s highest court, joining Justice Sandra Day O’Connor(nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981). In the court’s group portrait from RBG’s first term, the nine justices, posed in front of red velvet curtains, wear flowing black judicial robes. The uniform is a simple but powerful symbol: concealing the individual’s body, it conveys impartiality and the somber, collective responsibility to uphold the Constitution. Justices Ginsburg and O’Connor flank the seven male justices. There isn’t a dress code for Supreme Court justices—the black robe has been worn over the years out of tradition. ..."
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