June 19, 2019
"Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds" - a profile in The New Yorker
As soon as we sat down, Liu called a waiter over and asked for two beers. I said I wouldn’t be drinking, but Liu clarified that he was happy to lay claim to both bottles.Jiayang Fan profiles science fiction writer Liu Cixin, primarily known internationally for his trilogy The Three-Body Problem and the film adaptation of The Wandering Earth, in The New Yorker.
Let's see Michael Phelps do that!
At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, American Walter Winans took the podium and waved proudly to the crowd. He had already won two Olympic medals—a gold for sharpshooting at the 1908 London Games, as well as a silver for the same event in 1912—but the gold he won at Stockholm wasn’t for shooting, or running, or anything particularly athletic at all. It was instead awarded for a small piece of bronze he had cast earlier that year: a 20-inch-tall horse pulling a small chariot. For his work, An American Trotter, Winans won the first ever Olympic gold medal for sculpture.
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”
"In total, Trump faces at least 15 criminal or civil inquiries by nine federal, state and local agencies into his business, his charity, his campaign, his inaugural committee and his personal finances. […] Trump plans to characterize the investigations in these blue states — just like those by special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigations — as attacks by the same people: Democrats, the media and his critics. To his backers, it’s already been a winning strategy." "In a sign of that fervour, Trump’s campaign raised a staggering $24.8m in the less-than 24 hours after kicking off his re-election bid, according to Republican party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel," overshadowing the amount raised by the top Democratic 2020 contenders during the first three months of 2019. [more inside]
Saving the Most Interesting Fruit in the World
"The banana used to be a luxury good. Now it’s the most popular fruit in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the production efficiencies that made it so cheap have also made it vulnerable to a deadly fungus that may wipe out the one variety most of us eat. Scientists do have a way to save it — but will Big Banana let them?" Maybe, if Western public opinion keeps coming around to the idea. But is
continuing to farm vast monoculture crops worth endangering global banana production? [more inside]
Aretha: Her story was in her songs
Aretha: Her story was in her songs
Six songs tell you as much about Aretha Franklin as any memoir ever could. The Queen of Soul was not much for talking about her life, so with the help of Oprah Winfrey, Paul Simon, Questlove and others, we peel back the layers of emotion, technique and lived experience she packed into these key performances.
"Your subconscious knows it might be the last movie you ever see"
When model, cookbook author and unofficial mayor of Twitter Chrissy Teigen wondered aloud on the social media platform whether there is a reason she cries more at movies while on a plane, she tapped into a shared — and apparently emotional — travel experience. The answer from her followers was an overwhelming “yes” […]
Although there are far more anecdotes than pieces of solid research, psychologists can point to explanations behind what’s been dubbed the “Mile Cry Club.” (Hannah Simpson, WaPo; non-WaPo link) [more inside]
Although there are far more anecdotes than pieces of solid research, psychologists can point to explanations behind what’s been dubbed the “Mile Cry Club.” (Hannah Simpson, WaPo; non-WaPo link) [more inside]
A History of Music and Technology
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason presents A History of Music in Technology, a nine-part Open University/BBC series "charting the history of music and technology and exploring the world of legendary artists, producers, engineers and inventors. The series shines a light on game-changing innovations including the synthesiser, electric guitar, samplers, drum machines and the recording studio itself," and airs until June 22. Episodes available to date: Sound Recording, The Studio Part 1, The Studio Part 2, Samplers and Drum Machines, The Synthesizer, The Hammond Organ, Electronic Music Pioneers, and The Electric Guitar.
And you can hug a deer, a long term ambition of mine
"Spiritfarer looks like utterly magical heartbreak" (short sl Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
"On this issue, the law has largely remained silent."
For those with hearing impairments, restaurant noise isn’t just an irritation. It’s discrimination. Under Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act, restaurants — as places of public accommodation — must accommodate disabilities. But what if the disability is a hearing impairment, and the request is for a lower volume?
"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?"
Today is Juneteenth: The Black American Holiday Everyone Should Celebrate but Doesn’t, Jamelle Bouie
What Is Juneteenth, How Is It Celebrated, and Why Does It Matter?, Jameelah Nasheed - " In Texas, approximately 250,000 people were still being held in slavery when, on June 19, 1865, Union troops, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston to announce that the war had ended and that all slaves were now free." [more inside]
What Is Juneteenth, How Is It Celebrated, and Why Does It Matter?, Jameelah Nasheed - " In Texas, approximately 250,000 people were still being held in slavery when, on June 19, 1865, Union troops, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston to announce that the war had ended and that all slaves were now free." [more inside]
Joy Harjo named US Poet Laureate
Poet, musician, and playwright Joy Harjo has been named US Poet Laureate. Harjo is the first Native American to hold the title.
"If there is something different about you, you are given this freedom"
London-born, NYC-based visual artist Shantell Martin in conversation with Ilana Glazer. The artist discusses growing up "brown with an afro" in white-working-class southeast London, connecting with her grandma as an adult, Tokyo vs. NYC club culture, never giving up, and art vs. shame. [more inside]
private political thoughts
Political Confessional: an ongoing series of anonymous interviews conducted by FiveThirtyEight's Clare Malone (previously) with people who hold political views they are afraid to admit to, like
being a 75-year-old woman who prefers to vote for (Democratic) men, wanting to ban private schools, or for Democrats to compromise on abortion to win votes, about why they hold these views, and why they feel they can't speak about them with friends or family. [more inside]
Kate Tempest's latest album: living poetry amid the chaos of 2019
Kate Tempest’s latest record finds beauty amidst breakdown. The spoken word poet – whose last album, 2016’s Let Them Eat Chaos (YouTube playlist), was nominated for the Mercury prize – is known for her chest-thumping, rousing statements. But on The Book of Traps and Lessons (YT pl), she takes a macro view of people (in one breath-catching moment she counts (YT): “7.2 billion humans … 7.3 billion humans …”, and on), before zooming right in to the smallest of intimacies. On Three Sided Coin (YT), she captures the current turbulence of the UK, a nation living “in the mouth of a breaking storm”; and then, quickly, the track unspools into the softer-edged I Trap You (YT), a meditation on a broken-down relationship. (The Guardian) [more inside]
Excerpt from The Book of Dust Volume Two
What Lyra did next. "An exclusive extract from Philip Pullman’s new novel The Secret Commonwealth: Twenty-year-old Lyra has to flee Oxford by boat for the third time in her life, this time in the company of the old gyptian Giorgio Brabandt. As they sail towards the safety of the Fens, they hear a zeppelin approaching …" The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two will be published on 3 October 2019. [more inside]
It's easy if you try...
In advance of a new film set in a parallel universe in which the Beatles never existed except in the memory of one man, several music writers consider the question of how popular culture and society in general would have differed had the band never existed. Would rock'n'roll have died out in the early 60s, with folk or jazz providing the basis of pop music? Would pop music have been more ephemeral and insignificant, with something else (possibly surfing or chess) serving as the core for generational rebellion? And what would have happened in the lives of everyone from the four erstwhile Beatles themselves to Brian Epstein, Mick Jagger and antecedents including Elton John, Noel and Liam Gallagher and Ed Sheeran. (SLGuardian)
goth spelunking
Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night whips it good [Rock Paper Shotgun] “Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, the crowdfunded return of Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, is out now. Produced by [director Koji Igarashi] new studio, ArtPlay, it’s a series successor in all but name. There might be a shortage of Belmonts or Draculas, but there’s a big gothic castle to explore, bosses to clobber, and a bundle of RPG elements to pad out the platform exploration and brawling. Below, a very tongue-in-cheek launch trailer, featuring Igarashi hamming it up in front of the camera again, daft character customisation, and free DLC plans. [...] The similarities run all the way down to the primary protagonist having magic tattoos which let her steal abilities from monsters and re-purpose them. Igarashi was just a producer, rather than director on that game, but I’m hoping it manages to recapture that fine balance between RPG flexibility and tricky platform combat.” [YouTube][Launch Trailer] [more inside]
"Where there is waste, there is an opportunity."
The Real Estate State
CAPITAL CITY: “Planners provide a window into the practical dynamics of urban change: the way the state both uses and is used by organized capital, and the power of landlords and developers at every level of government." Antifada Podcast: The Housing Monster w/ Samuel Stein of Capital City on the Real Estate State (89:00) 'Places where real estate is cheap don’t have many good jobs. Places with lots of jobs, primarily coastal cities, have seen their real-estate markets go absolutely haywire. " Why Housing Policy Feels Like Generational Warfare (The Atlantic) Grim New Report Shows Rent Is Unaffordable In Every State (Huffpost) Tenants Won This Round: Last week, New York tenants overcame the state's powerful real-estate lobby to win a historic package of renter protections. Next stop: universal rent control. (Jacobin) Berlin backs five-year rent freeze amid housing pressure (BBC) Lessons from Berlin (RTE)
Money Stuff
Facebook Will Make the Money Now - "Money is a technology. This is true, first of all, in a grand abstract sense: The human capacity to generate collective fictions is our most powerful and general technology, the thing that distinguishes us from other animals and enables long-term cooperation and complex societies, and money is one of the most important collective fictions."[1] [more inside]
"It has created so much curiosity and speculation in so many places"
“There are so many unanswered questions that will probably never be answered, but the one I would love to get answered is, Who was Peter Bergmann?” Ten years ago this week a man calling himself Peter Bergmann checked in to a hotel in Sligo town. Five days later his body was found on Rosses Point beach. Who was he?
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