#29 Ludlow street

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https://cafeforgot.com/products/beepy-bella-cutie-beanie

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In the tradition of portrait photographers such as Nicholas Nixon and Milton Rogovin, Thomas Holton photographed the Lam family over an extended period of time. Holton was born in Guatemala to a Chinese mother who was a tour guide in Taipei and an American father who was a travel photographer. While he grew up in Manhattan, his maternal grandparents lived in Chinatown, but he always felt like a visitor in their neighborhood. 

Holton met Steven and Shirley Lam and their three young children when he was taking publicity photographs for the University Settlement, an organization that offered support to immigrants on the Lower East Side (LES) in Manhattan since 1886. Holton visited the Lam family once a week for more than twelve years and became a part of their household. 

Holton’s photographs are closer to street photographs than portraits, capturing the daily lives of the family in a candid manner with emotional sensibility and respect. His “The Lams of the Ludlow Street” project was triggered by Holton’s interrogation of his own cultural identity. Over the years, his work has grown into a close relationship with the family - Holton accompanied the family on a trip to Hong Kong and China in 2004, and the Lams attended Holton’s wedding in 2007. Holton’s project shows the Asian American immigrant experience as well as it is the exploration of a family's turbulent history.

According to Holton, “My need to see the Lams regularly moved beyond the desire to make new photographs and became akin to visiting family members that I cherish. I return out of love and the knowledge that time is fleeting.” 

Thomas Holton : the Lams of Ludlow Street Texts: Charles Traub, Bonnie Yochelson, Thomas Holton. Heidelberg : Kehrer, c2015. 96 unnumbered pages : ill. (chiefly col.), ports. ; 23 x 29 cm. English HOLLIS number: 990145137490203941

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2019 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30.  GLASS – back in 2000, I went from liking the work of The Sixth Sense’s writer-director M. Night Shyamalan to becoming a genuine FAN thanks to his sneakily revisionist deconstruction of superhero tropes, Unbreakable.  It’s STILL my favourite film of his to date, and one of my Top Ten superhero movies EVER, not just a fascinating examination of the mechanics of the genre but also a very satisfying screen origin story – needless to say I’m one of MANY fans who’ve spent nearly two decades holding out hope for a sequel.  Flash forward to 2016 and Shyamalan’s long-overdue return-to-form sleeper hit, Split, which not only finally put his career back on course but also dropped a particularly killer end twist by actually being that very sequel.  Needless to say 2019 was the year we FINALLY got our PROPER reward for all our patience – Glass is the TRUE continuation of the Unbreakable universe and the closer of a long-intended trilogy.  Turns out, though, that it’s also his most CONTROVERSIAL film for YEARS, dividing audiences and critics alike with its unapologetically polarizing plot and execution – I guess that, after a decade of MCU and a powerhouse trilogy of Batman movies from Chris Nolan, we were expecting an epic, explosive action-fest to close things out, but that means we forgot exactly what it is about Shyamalan we got to love so much, namely his unerring ability to subvert and deconstruct whatever genre he’s playing around in.  And he really doesn’t DO spectacle, does he?  That said, this film is still a surprisingly BIG, sprawling piece of work, even if it the action is, for the most part, MUCH more internalised than most superhero movies.  Not wanting to drop any major spoilers on the few who still haven’t seen it, I won’t give away any major plot points, suffice to say that ALL the major players from both Unbreakable and Split have returned – former security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis) has spent the past nineteen years exploring his super-strength and near-invulnerability while keeping Philadelphia marginally safer as hooded vigilante the Overseer, and the latest target of his crime-fighting crusade is Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), the vessel of 24 split personalities collectively known as the Horde, who’s continuing his cannibalistic serial-murder spree through the streets.  Both are being hunted by the police, as well as Dr. Ellie Staple (series newcomer Sarah Paulson), a clinical psychiatrist specialising in treating individuals who suffer the delusional belief that they’re superheroes, her project also encompassing David’s former mentor-turned-nemesis Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), the eponymous Mr. Glass, whose life-long suffering from a crippling bone disease that makes his body dangerously fragile has done nothing to blunt the  genius-level intellect that’s made him a ruthlessly accomplished criminal mastermind. How these remarkable individuals are brought together makes for fascinating viewing, and while it may be a good deal slower and talkier than some might have preferred, this is still VERY MUCH the Shyamalan we first came to admire – fiendishly inventive, slow-burn suspenseful and absolutely DRIPPING with cool earworm dialogue, his characteristically mischievous sense of humour still present and correct, and he’s retained that unswerving ability to wrong-foot us at every turn, right up to one of his most surprising twist endings to date.  The cast are, as ever, on fire, the returning hands all superb while those new to the universe easily measure up to the quality of talent on display – Willis and Jackson are, as you’d expect, PERFECT throughout, brilliantly building on the incredibly solid groundwork laid in Unbreakable, while it’s a huge pleasure to see Anya Taylor-Joy, Spencer Treat Clark (a fine actor we don’t see NEARLY enough of, in my opinion) and Charlayne Woodard get MUCH bigger, more prominent roles this time out, while Paulson delivers an understated but frequently mesmerising turn as the ultimate unshakable sceptic.  As with Split, however, the film is comprehensively stolen by McAvoy, whose truly chameleonic performance actually manages to eclipse its predecessor in its levels of sheer genius.  Altogether this is another sure-footed step in the right direction for a director who’s finally regained his singular auteur prowess – say what you will about that ending, but it certainly is a game-changer, as boldly revisionist as anything that’s preceded it and therefore, in my opinion, exactly how it SHOULD have gone.  If nothing else, this is a film that should be applauded for its BALLS …

29.  THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON – quite possibly the year’s most adorable indie, this dramatic feature debut from documentarian writer-directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz largely snuck in under the radar on release, but has gone on to garner some well-deserved critical appreciation and sleeper hit success.  The lion’s share of the film’s success must surely go to the inspired casting, particularly in the central trio who drive the action – Nilson and Schwartz devised the film with Zack Gotsagen, an exceptionally talented young actor with Down’s Syndrome, specifically in mind for the role of Zak, a wrestling obsessive languishing in a North Carolina retirement home who dreams of escaping his stifling confines and going to the training camp of his hero, the Saltwater Redneck (Thomas Haden Church), where he can learn to become a pro wrestler; after slipping free, Zak enlists the initially wary help of down-at-heel criminal fisherman Tyler (Shia LaBaouf) in reaching his intended destination, while the pair are pursued by Zak’s primary caregiver, Eleanor (Dakota Johnson).  Needless to say the unlikely pair bond on the road, and when Eleanor is reluctantly forced to tag along with them, a surrogate family is formed … yeah, the plot is so predictable you can see every twist signposted from miles back, but that familiarity is never a problem because these characters are so lovingly written and beautifully played that you’ve fallen for them within five minutes of meeting them, so you’re effortlessly swept along for the ride. The three leads are pure gold – this is the most laid back and cuddly Shia’s been for years, but his lackadaisical charm is pleasingly tempered with affecting pathos driven by a tragic loss in Tyler’s recent past, while Johnson is sensible, sweet and likeably grounded, even when Eleanor’s at her most exasperated, but Gotsagen is the real surprise, delivering an endearingly unpredictable, livewire performance that blazes with true, honest purity and total defiance in the face of any potential difficulties society may try to throw at Zak – while there’s excellent support from Church in a charmingly awkward late-film turn that goes a long way to reminding us just what an acting treasure he is, as well as John Hawkes and rapper Yelawolf as a pair of lowlife crab-fishermen hunting for Tyler, intending to wreak (not entirely undeserved) revenge on him for an ill-judged professional slight.  Enjoying a gentle sense of humour and absolutely CRAMMED with heartfelt emotional heft, this really was one of the most downright LOVEABLE films of 2019.

28.  PET SEMATARY – first off, let me say that I never saw the 1989 feature adaptation of Stephen King’s story, so I have no comparative frame of reference there – I WILL say, however, that the original novel is, in my opinion, one of the strongest offerings from America’s undisputed master of literary horror, so any attempt made to bring it to the big screen had better be a good one.  Thankfully, this version more than delivers in that capacity, proving to be one of the more impressive of his cinematic outings in recent years (not quite up to the standard of The Mist or It Chapter 1, perhaps, but certainly on a par with the criminally overlooked 1408), as well as one of the year’s top horror offerings.  This may be the feature debut of directing double-act Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, but they both display a wealth of natural talent here, wrangling bone-chilling scares and a pervading atmosphere of oppressive dread to deliver a top-notch screen fright-fest that works its way under your skin and stays put for days after.  Jason Clarke is a classic King everyman hero as Boston doctor Louis Creed, displaced to the small Maine town of Ludlow as he trades the ER for a quiet clinic practice so he can spent more time with his family – Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color, Stranger Things), excellent throughout as his haunted, emotionally fragile wife Rachel, toddler son Gage (twins Hugo and Lucas Lavole), and daughter Ellie (newcomer Jeté Laurence, BY FAR the film’s biggest revelation, delivering to the highest degree even when her role becomes particularly intense).  Their new home seems idyllic, the only blots being the main road at the end of their drive which experiences heavy traffic from speeding trucks, and the children’s pet cemetery in the woods at the back of their garden, which has become something of a local landmark.  But there’s something far darker in the deeper places beyond, an ancient place of terrible power Louis is introduced to by their well-meaning but ultimately fallible elderly neighbour Jud (one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from screen legend John Lithgow) when his daughter’s beloved cat Church is run over. The cat genuinely comes back, but he’s irrevocably changed, the once gentle and lovable furball now transformed into a menacingly mangy little psychopath, and his resurrection sets off a chain of horrific events destined to devour the entire family … this is supernatural horror at its most inherently unnerving, mercilessly twisting the screws throughout its slow-burn build to the inevitable third act bloodbath and reaching a bleak, soul-crushing climax that comes close to rivalling the still unparalleled sucker-punch of The Mist – the adaptation skews significantly from King’s original at the mid-point, but even purists will be hard-pressed to deny that this is still VERY MUCH in keeping with the spirit of the book right up to its harrowing closing shot.  The King of Horror has been well served once again – fans can rest assured that his dark imagination continues to inspire some truly great cinematic scares …

27.  THE REPORT – the CIA’s notorious use of torture to acquire information from detainees in Guantanamo Bay and various other sites around the world in the wake of September 11, 2001, has been a particularly spiky political subject for years now, one which has gained particular traction with cinema-goers over the years thanks to films like Rendition and, of course, controversial Oscar-troubler Zero Dark Thirty.  It’s also a particular bugbear of screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, Contagion, Side Effects) – his parents are both psychologists, and he found it particularly offensive that a profession he knows was created to help people could have been turned into such a damaging weapon against the human psyche, inexorably leading him to taking up this passion project, championed by its producer, and Burns’ long-time friend and collaborator, Steven Soderbergh.  It tells the true story of Senate staffer Daniel Jones’ five-year battle to bring his damning 6,300-page study of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program, commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee, into the light of day in the face of increasingly intense and frequently underhanded resistance from the Agency and various high-ranking officials within the US Government whose careers could be harmed should their own collusion be revealed. In lesser hands this could have been a clunky, unappetisingly dense excuse for a slow-burn political thriller that drowned in its own exposition, but Burns handles the admittedly heavyweight material with deft skill and makes each increasingly alarming revelation breathlessly compelling while he ratchets up the tension by showing just what a seemingly impossible task Jones and his small but driven team faced.  The film would have been nought, however, without a strong cast, and this one has a killer – taking a break from maintaining his muscle-mass for Star Wars, Adam Driver provides a suitably robust narrative focus as Jones, an initially understated workman who slowly transforms into an incensed moral crusader as he grows increasingly filled with righteous indignation by the vile subject matter he’s repeatedly faced with, and he’s provided with sterling support from the likes of Annette Bening, delivering her best performance in years as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Jones’ staunchest supporter, the ever-wonderful Ted Levine as oily CIA director John O. Brennan, Tim Blake Nelson as a physician contracted by the CIA to assist with interrogations who became genuinely disgusted by the horrors he witnessed, and Matthew Rhys as an unnamed New York Times reporter Jones considers leaking the report to when it looks like it might never be released.  This is powerful stuff, and while it may only mark Burns’ second directorial feature (after his obscure debut Pu-239), he handles the gig like a seasoned pro, milking the material for every drop of dramatic tension while keeping the narrative as honest, forthright and straightforward as possible, and the end result makes for sobering, distressing and thoroughly engrossing viewing.  Definitely one of the most important films not only of 2019, but of the decade itself, and one that NEEDS to be seen.

26.  DARK PHOENIX – wow, this really has been a year for mistreated sequels, hasn’t it?  There’s a seriously stinky cloud of controversy surrounding what is now, in light of recent developments between Disney and Twentieth Century Fox, the last true Singer-era X-Men movie, a film which saw two mooted release dates (first November 2018 then the following February, before finally limping onto screens with very little fanfare in June 2019, almost as if Fox wanted to bury it. Certainly rumours of its compromise were rife, particularly regarding supposed rushed reshoots because of clashing similarities with Marvel’s major tent-pole release Captain Marvel (and given the all-conquering nature of the MCU there was no way they were having that, was there?), so like many I was expecting a clunky mess, maybe even a true stinker to rival X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  In truth, while it’s not perfect, the end result is nothing like the turd we all feared – the final film is, in fact, largely a success, worthy of favourable comparison with its stronger predecessors.  It certainly makes much needed amends for the disappointing mismanagement of the source comics’ legendary Dark Phoenix saga in 2006’s decidedly compromised original X-Men trilogy capper The Last Stand, this time treating the story with the due reverence and respect it deserves as well as serving as a suitably powerful send-off for more than one beloved key character.  Following the “rebooted” path of the post-Days of Future Past timeline, it’s now 1992, and after the world-changing events of Apocalypse the X-Men have become a respected superhero team with legions of fans and their own personal line to the White House, while mutants at large have mostly become accepted by the regular humans around them.  Then a hastily planned mission into space takes a turn for the worst and Jean Grey (Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner) winds up absorbing an immensely powerful, thoroughly inexplicable cosmic force that makes her powers go haywire while also knocking loose repressed childhood traumas Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) would rather had stayed buried, sending her on a dangerous spiral out of control which leads to a destructive confrontation and the inadvertent death of a teammate.  Needless to say, the situation soon becomes desperate as Jean goes on the run and the world starts to turn against them all once again … all in all, then, it’s business as usual for the cast and crew of one of Fox’s flagship franchises, and it SHOULD have gone off without a hitch.  When Bryan Singer opted not to return this time around (instead setting his sights on Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody), key series writer Simon Kinberg stepped into the breach for his directorial debut, and it turns out he’s got a real talent for it, giving us just the kind of robust, pacy, thrilling action-packed epic his compatriot would have delivered, filled with the same thumping great set-pieces (the final act’s stirring, protracted train battle is the unequivocal highlight here), well-observed character beats and emotional resonance we’ve come to expect from the series as a whole (then again, he does know these movies back to frond having at least co-written his fair share).  The cast, similarly, are all on top form – McAvoy and Michael Fassbender (as fan favourite Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto) know their roles so well now they can do this stuff in their sleep, but we still get to see them explore interesting new facets of their characters (particularly McAvoy, who gets to reveal an intriguing dark side to the Professor we’ve only ever seen hinted at before now), while Turner finally gets to really breathe in a role which felt a little stiff and underexplored in her series debut in Apocalypse (she EASILY forges the requisite connective tissue to Famke Janssen’s more mature and assured take in the earlier films); conversely Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) get somewhat short shrift but nonetheless do A LOT with what little they have, and at least Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult still get to do plenty of dramatic heavy lifting as the last of Xavier’s original class, Raven (Mystique) and Hank McCoy (Beast); the only real weak link in the cast is the villain, Vuk, a shape-shifting alien whose quest to seize the power Jean’s appropriated is murkily defined at best, but at least Jessica Chastain manages to invest her with enough icy menace to keep things from getting boring.  All in all, then, this is very much a case of business as usual, Kinberg and co keeping the action thundering along at a suitably cracking pace throughout (powered by a typically epic score from Hans Zimmer), and the film only really comes off the rails in its final moments, when that aforementioned train finally comes off its tracks and the reported reshoots must surely kick in – as a result this is, to me, most reminiscent of previous X-flick The Wolverine, which was a rousing success for the majority of its runtime, only coming apart in its finale thanks to that bloody ridiculous robot samurai.  The climax is, therefore, a disappointment, too clunky and sudden and overly neat in its denouement (we really could have done with a proper examination of the larger social impact of these events), but it’s little enough that it doesn’t spoil what came before … which just makes the film’s mismanagement and resulting failure, as well as its subsequent treatment from critics and fans alike, all the more frustrating.  This film deserved much better, but ultimately looks set to be disowned and glossed over by most of the fanbase as the property as a whole goes through the inevitable overhaul now that Disney/Marvel owns Fox and plans to bring the X-Men and their fellow mutants into the MCU fold.  I feel genuinely sorry for the one remaining X-film, The New Mutants, which is surely destined for spectacular failure after its similarly shoddy round of reschedules finally comes to an end this summer …

25.  IT CHAPTER 2 – back in 2017, Mama director Andy Muschietti delivered the first half of his ambitious two-film adaptation of one of Stephen King’s most popular and personal novels, which had long been considered un-filmable (the 90s miniseries had a stab, but while it deserves its cult favourite status it certainly fell short in several places) until Muschietti and screenwriters Cary Joji Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman seemingly did the impossible, and the end result was the top horror hit of the year.  Ultimately, then, it was gonna be a tough act to follow, and there was MAJOR conjecture whether they could repeat that success with this second half.  Would lightning strike twice?  Well, the simple answer is … mostly.  2017’s Chapter 1 was a stone-cold masterpiece, and one of the strongest elements in its favour was the extremely game young cast of newcomers and relative unknown child actors who brought the already much beloved Loser’s Club to perfectly-cast life, a seven-strong gang of gawky pre-teen underdogs you couldn’t help loving, which made it oh-so-easy to root for them as they faced off against that nightmarish shape-shifting child-eating monster, Pennywise the Dancing Clown.  It was primal, it was terrifying, and it was BURSTING with childhood nostalgia that thoroughly resonated with an audience hungry for more 80s-set coming-of-age genre fare after the runaway success of Stranger Things.  Bringing the story into the present day with the Losers now returning to their childhood home of Derry, Maine as forty-something adults, Chapter 2 was NEVER going to achieve the same pulse-quickening electric charge the first film pulled off, was it?  Thankfully, with the same director and (mostly) the same writing crew on hand (Fukunaga jumped ship but Dauberman was there to finish up with the help of Jason Fuchs and an uncredited Jeffrey Jurgensen) there’s still plenty of that old magic left over, so while it’s not quite the same second time round, this still feels very much like the same adventure, just older, wiser and a bit more cynical.  Here’s a more relevant reality check, mind – those who didn’t approve of the first film’s major changes from the book are going to be even more incensed by this, but the differences here are at least organic and in keeping with the groundwork laid in Chapter 1, and indeed this film in particular is a VERY different beast from the source material, but these differences are actually kind of a strength here, Muschietti and co. delivering something that works MUCH better cinematically than a more faithful take would have. Anyway, the Loser’s Club are back, all grown up and (for the most part) wildly successful living FAR AWAY from Derry with dream careers and seemingly perfect lives.  Only Mike Hanlon has remained behind to hold vigil over the town and its monstrous secret, and when a new spree of disappearances and grisly murders begins he calls his old friends back home to fulfil the pact they all swore to uphold years ago – stop Pennywise once and for all.  The new cast are just as excellent as their youthful counterparts – Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy are, of course, the big leads here as grown up Beverley Marsh and Bill Denbrough, bringing every watt of star power they can muster, but the others hold more interest, with Bill Hader perfectly cast (both director and child actor’s personal first choice) as smart-mouth Richie Tozier, Isaiah Mustafah (best known as the Old Spice guy from those hilarious commercials) playing VERY MUCH against type as Mike, Jay Ryan (successful on the small screen in Top of the Lake and Beauty & the Beast, but very much getting his cinematic big break here) as a slimmed-down and seriously buffed-out Ben Hanscom, James Ransone (Sinister) as neurotic hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak, and Andy Bean (Power, the recent Swamp Thing series) as ever-rational Stan Uris – but we still get to hang out with the original kids too in new flashbacks that (understandably) make for some of the film’s best scenes, while Bill Skarsgard is as terrifying as ever as he brings new ferocity, insidious creepiness and even a touch of curious back-story to Pennywise.  I am happy to report this new one IS just as scary as its predecessor, a skin-crawling, spine-tingling, pants-wetting cold sweat of a horror-fest that works its way in throughout its substantial running time and, as before, sticks with you LONG after the credits have rolled, but it’s also got the same amount of heart, emotional heft and pathos, nostalgic charm (albeit more grown-up and sullied) and playful, sometimes decidedly mischievous geeky humour, so that as soon as you’re settled in it really does feel like you’ve come home. It’s also fiendishly inventive, the final act in particular skewing in some VERY surprising new directions that there’s NO WAY you’ll see coming, and the climax also, interestingly, redresses one particularly frustrating imbalance that always bugged me about the book, making for an especially moving, heartbreaking denouement.  Interestingly, there’s a running joke in the film that pokes fun at a perceived view from some quarters that Stephen King’s endings often disappoint – there’s no such fault with THIS particular adaptation.  For me, this was altogether JUST the concluding half I was hoping for, so while it’s not as good as the first, it should leave you satisfied all the same.

24.  MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN – it’s taken Edward Norton twenty years to get his passion project adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s novel to the big screen, but the final film was certainly worth the wait, a cool-as-ice noir thriller in which its writer-director also, of course, stars as one of the most unusual ‘tecs around.  Lionel Essrog suffers from Tourette syndrome, prone to uncontrollable ticks and vocal outbursts as well as obsessive-compulsive spirals that can really ruin his day, but he’s also got a genius-level intellect and a photographic memory, which means he’s the perfect fit for the detective agency of accomplished, highly successful New York gumshoe Frank Minna (Bruce Willis).  But when their latest case goes horribly wrong and Frank dies in a back-alley gunfight, the remaining members of the agency are left to pick up the pieces and try to find out what went wrong, Lionel battling his own personal, mental and physical demons as he tries to unravel an increasingly labyrinthine tangle of lies, deceit, corporate corruption and criminal enterprise that reaches to the highest levels of the city’s government.  Those familiar with the original novel will know that it’s set in roughly the present day, but Norton felt many aspects of the story lent themselves much better to the early 1950s, and it really was a good choice – Lionel is a man very much out his time, a very odd fit in an age of stuffy morals and repression, while the themes of racial upheaval, rampant urban renewal and massive, unchecked corporate greed feel very much of the period. Besides, there’s few things as seductive than a good noir thriller, and Norton has crafted a real GEM right here. The pace can be a little glacial at times, but this simply gives the unfolding plot and extremely rich collection of characters plenty of room to grow, while the jazzy score (from up-and-comer Daniel Pemberton, composer on Steve Jobs, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) provides a surprising complimentary accompaniment to the rather free-form narrative style and Lionel’s own scattershot, bebop style.  Norton is exceptional in the lead, landing his best role in years with an exquisitely un-self-conscious ease that makes for thoroughly compelling viewing (surely more than one nod will be due come awards-season), but he doesn’t hog ALL the limelight, letting his uniformly stellar supporting cast shine bright as well – Willis doesn’t get a huge amount of screen time, but delivers a typically strong, nuanced performance that makes his absence throughout the rest of the film keenly felt, Gugu Mbatha-Raw continues to build an impressive run of work as Laura, the seemingly unimportant woman Lionel befriends, who could actually be the key to the whole case, Alec Baldwin is coolly menacing as power-hungry property magnate and heavyweight city official Moses Randolph, the film’s nominal big-bad, Willem Dafoe is absolutely electrifying as his down-at-heel, insignificant genius brother Lou, and Boardwalk Empire’s Michael K. Williams is quietly outstanding as mysterious jazz musician Trumpet Man, while Bobby Canavale, Ethan Suplee and Dallas Roberts are all excellent as the other hands in Minna’s detective agency.  It’s a chilled-out affair, happy to hang back and let its slow-burn plot simmer while Lionel tries to navigate his job and life in general while battling his many personal difficulties, but due to the incredible calibre of the talent on offer, the incredibly rich dialogue and obligatory hardboiled gumshoe voiceover, compelling story and frequently achingly beautiful visuals, this is about as compulsively rewarding as cinema gets. Norton’s crafted a film noir worthy of comparison with the likes of L.A. Confidential and Chinatown, proving that he’s a triple-threat cinematic talent to be reckoned with.

23.  PROSPECT – I love a good cinematic underdog, there’s always some dynamite indies and sleepers that just about slip through the cracks that I end up championing every year, and one of 2019’s favourites was a minor sensation at 2018’s South By Southwest film festival, a singularly original ultra-low-budget sci-fi adventure that made a genuine virtue of its miniscule budget.  Riffing on classic eco-minded space flicks like Silent Running, it introduces a father-and-daughter prospecting team who land a potentially DEEPLY lucrative contract mining for an incredibly rare element on a toxic jungle moon – widower Damon (Transparent’s Jay Duplass), who’s downtrodden and world-weary but still a dreamer, and teenager Cee (relative newcomer Sophie Thatcher), an introverted bookworm with hidden reserves of ingenuity and fortitude.  The job starts well, Damon setting his sights on a rumoured “queen’s layer” that could make them rich beyond their wildest dreams, but when they meet smooth-talking scavenger Ezra (Narcos’ Pedro Pascal), things take a turn for the worse – Damon is killed and Cee is forced to team up with Ezra to have any hope for survival on this hostile, unforgiving moon.  Thatcher is an understated joy throughout, her seemingly detached manner belying hidden depths of intense feeling, while Pascal, far from playing a straight villain, turns Ezra into something of a tragic, charismatic antihero we eventually start to sympathise with, and the complex relationship that develops between them is a powerful, mercurial thing, the constantly shifting dynamic providing a powerful driving force for the film.  Debuting writer-directors Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell have crafted a wonderfully introspective, multi-layered tone poem of aching beauty, using subtle visual effects and a steamy, glow-heavy colour palette to make the lush forest environs into something nonetheless eerie and inhospitable, while the various weird and colourful denizens of this deadly little world prove that Ezra may be the LEAST of the dangers Cee faces in her quest for escape.  Inventive, intriguing and a veritable feast for the eyes and intellect, this is top-notch indie sci-fi and a sign of great things to come from its creators, thoroughly deserving of major cult recognition in the future.

22.  DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE – S. Craig Zahler is a writer-director who’s become a major fixture on my ones-to-watch list in recent years, instantly winning me over with his dynamite debut feature Bone Tomahawk before cementing that status with awesome follow-up Brawl On Cell Block 99.  His latest is another undeniable hit that starts deceptively simply before snowballing into a sprawling urban crime epic as it follows its main protagonists – disgraced Bulwark City cops Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Tony Lurasetti (BOCB99’s Vince Vaughn), on unpaid suspension after their latest bust leads to a PR nightmare – on a descent into a hellish criminal underworld as they set out to “seek compensation” for their situation by ripping off the score from a bank robbery spearheaded by ruthlessly efficient professional thief Lorentz Vogelmann (Thomas Kretschmann).  In lesser hands, this two-hour-forty-minute feature might have felt like a painfully padded effort that would have passed far better chopped down to a breezy 90-minutes, but Zahler is such a compellingly rich and resourceful writer that every scene is essential viewing, overflowing with exquisitely drawn characters spouting endlessly quotable, gold-plated dialogue, and the constantly shifting narrative focus brings such consistent freshness that the increasingly complex plot remains rewarding right to the end.  The two leads are both typically excellent – Vaughn gets to let loose with a far more showy, garrulous turn here than his more reserved character in his first collaboration with Zahler, while this is EASILY the best performance I’ve seen Gibson deliver in YEARS, the grizzled veteran clearly having a fine old time getting his teeth into a particularly meaty role that very much plays to his strengths – and they’re brilliantly bolstered by an excellent supporting cast – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’s Tory Kittles easily matches them in his equally weighty scenes as Henry Johns, a newly-released ex-con also out to improve his family’s situation with a major score, while Kretschmann is at his most chilling as the brutal killer who executes his plans with cold-blooded precision, and there are wonderful scene-stealing offerings from Jennifer Carpenter, Udo Kier, Don Johnson (three more Zahler regulars, each featured with Vaughn on BOCB99), Michael Jai White, Laurie Holden and newcomer Miles Truitt.  This is a proper meaty film, dark, intense, gritty and unflinching in its portrayal of honest, unglamorous violence and its messy aftermath, but fans of grown-up filmmaking will find PLENTY to enjoy here, Zahler crafting a crime epic comparable to the heady best of Scorsese and Tarantino.  Another sure-fire winner from one of the best new filmmakers around.

21.  FAST COLOR – intriguingly, the most INTERESTING superhero movie of the year was NOT a major franchise property, or even a comic book adapted to the screen at all, but a wholly original indie which snuck in very much under the radar on its release but is surely destined for cult greatness in the future, not least due to some much-deserved critical acclaim.  Set in an unspecified future where it hasn’t rained for years, a homeless vagabond named Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is making her aimless way across a desolate American Midwest, tormented by violent seizures which cause strange localised earthquakes, and hunted by Bill (Argo’s Christopher Denham), a rogue scientist who wants to capture her so he can study her abilities.  Ultimately she’s left with no other recourse than to run home, sheltering with her mother Bo (Middle of Nowhere and Orange is the New Black’s Lorraine Toussaint), and her young daughter Lila (The Passage’s Saniyya Sidney), both of whom also have weird and wondrous powers of their own.  As the estranged family reconnect, Ruth finally learns to control her powers as she’s forced to confront her own troubled past, but as Bill closes in it looks like their idyll might be short-lived … this might only be the second feature of writer-director Julie Hart (who cut her teeth penning well-regarded indie western The Keeping Room before making her own debut helming South By Southwest Film Festival hit Miss Stevens), but it’s a blinding statement of intent for the future, a deceptively understated thing of beauty that eschews classic superhero cinema conventions of big spectacle and rousing action in favour of a quiet, introspective character-driven story where the unveiling and exploration of Ruth and her kin’s abilities are secondary to the examination of how their familial dynamics work (or often DON’T), while Hart and cinematographer Michael Fimognari (probably best known for his frequent work for Mike Flanagan) bring a ruined but bleakly beautiful future to life through inventively understated production design and sweeping, dramatic vistas largely devoid of visual effects.  Subtlety is the watchword, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t fireworks here, it’s just that they’re generally performance-based – awards-darling Mbatha-Raw (Belle) gives a raw, heartfelt performance, painting Ruth in vivid shades of grey, while Toussaint is restrained but powerfully memorable and Sidney builds on her already memorable work to deliver what might be her best turn to date, and there are strong supporting turns from Denham (who makes his nominal villain surprisingly sympathetic) and Hollywood great David Strathairn as gentle small town sheriff Ellis. Leisurely paced and understated it may be, but this is still an incendiary piece of work, sure to become a breakout sleeper hit for a filmmaking talent from whom I expect GREAT THINGS in the future, and since the story’s been picked up for expansion into a TV series with Hart in charge that looks like a no-brainer.  And it most assuredly IS a bona fide superhero movie, despite appearances to the contrary …

[jordan--sullivan]

This Thursday at @rubberfactoryny, 6-8PM, 29 Ludlow Street... (at Rubber Factory) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6J9QB9l2Ub/?igshid=181gxra9oqvoy

[ch-dld-bft-brit-omm]

Izzy Young: Talking Folklore Center (1989) [Full documentary]

The guru of folk music, responsible for discovering Bob Dylan, returns to Greenwich Village to revisit the Folklore Centre days in this 1989 documentary directed by Jim Downing. 

 In this Swedish production, Izzy Young returns to his legendary Folklore Center on MacDougal Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village - The mecca of the American folk music movement during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Izzy chats with old friends and collaborators, including Pete Seeger, Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs, Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, the Mayor of NYC Ed Koch, and many other. 

 Allen Ginsberg sings “Father Death Blues”, and Pete Seeger performs and demonstrates his playing technique. Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold reads his poem “A Meeting” to the wonderful music of Chet Baker “Talkin’ Folklore Center Blues”, a tune by Bob Dylan previously never recorded, is performed by Eric Bibb. 

 Enter the lively and creative atmosphere of Greenwich Village's Streets, and witness a studio performance featuring the leading folk musicians of the ‘60s, in a live WBAI (NYC) radio recording. This documentary also included rare footage of the 1961 folk music demonstrations, when Izzy led the protest against the ruling of the Park Department of NYC to prohibit singing in Washington Square. 

 Tracks: 0:00 TALKING FOLKORE CENTER (Bob Dylan) 3:59 Fiddle tune 6:12 A PLEA FOR ORDER 7:21 LITTLE RAIN (J. Reed - E. Abner) Conrad Music - The Seeds of Reed Music(BMI) 15:29 OH MARY DON’T YOU WEEP 16:45 LONELY GIRL 20:27 ME, THE BLUES AND JONES 21:20 FATHER DEATH BLUES - (Allen Ginsberg) - May King Poetry Music (BMI) 28:13 FOUR (Mills Davis) Prestige Music Co. 30:39 WHO CALLS THE TUNE MUST PAY THE PIPER (Tuli kupferberg) 32:40 POEM (Ed Sanders) 34:08 AS THE YEARS GO PASSING BY 39:13 Traditional song 41:58 LIVING IN THE COUNTRY (Pete Seeger) Sanga Music, Inc. (BMI) 43:03 HOLE IN THE BUCKET 44:00 CABBAGE HEAD 46:56 GOODNIGHT IRENE (H Ledbetter - J. Lomax) Ludlow Music, Inc, (BMI) 48:55 ETT NYTT MOTE (Jan Erik Vold) 

 Directed by Jim Downing Camera: Tom Molin Sound: Bengt Alsterlund Online Editor: Michael Eklind Ⓟ Gazell Records AB http://www.gazell.net Gazell Videos is created by Gazell Records, one of the oldest still independent music companies in Sweden. Gazell has a reputation for excellent productions of jazz and world music and many of Sweden's major artists have recorded albums for Gazell.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If3WGtI5v9s)

RIP Izzy Young

[thedjmusic]

Defected Make A Dance Are Youre Friends  & Sophie Is Your Friend

DOWNLOAD: https://thedjmusic.com/music/defected_make_a_dance_are_youre_friends_sophie_is_your_friend

DATA CREATED: 2022-04-17 TOTAL: 70 GENRE: House, Tech House, Afro House, Jackin House, Deep House, Soulful House, Funky House

1,"Acid Jerks - The Tribute.mp3"

2,"Donald's House - Piano Parfait.mp3"

3,"Frederik Hendrik, Make A Dance - Oranje - Make A Dance Mix.mp3"

4,"Chez Damier, Stacey Pullen - Forever Monna.mp3"

5,"Metro Area - Evidence.mp3"

6,"Moby - Party Time.mp3"

7,"Make A Dance - I Need Somebody.mp3"

8,"DJ Dove - Illusions - 12" Version.mp3"

9,"Wolfram - Automatic Dub.mp3"

10,"Chicken Lips - He Not In - Groove Armada's Dub Reconstruction.mp3"

11,"Flamingo Pier, Demi Riquísimo - Cosmic Sunset - Demi Riquísimo Remix.mp3"

12,"Make A Dance - Acid Cult.mp3"

13,"Mark Seven - Pillow Talk.mp3"

14,"Sha-Lor - I'm in Love - Deconstruction Remix.mp3"

15,"Les Rythmes Digitales - Dreamin'.mp3"

16,"Magari, Demi Riquísimo - Don't Touch - Demi Riquísimo Remix.mp3"

17,"Mark Henning - You're Digging Into Me.mp3"

18,"Soul Capsule - Lady Science - NYC Sunrise.mp3"

19,"Soul of Hex - Say It Again.mp3"

20,"H.C.C.R. - Son Of Mongo.mp3"

21,"D.C. LaRue, Jamie 3:26 - Cathedrals - Jamie 3:26 Extended Disco Dub Version.mp3"

22,"Quentin Harris - My Joy.mp3"

23,"Blackjoy - Moustache (La Stache).mp3"

24,"Blue Boy, Fire Island - Sandman - Fire Island Groove 12" Mix.mp3"

25,"Robert Ouimet - Roots ReTwinzeed.mp3"

26,"Secret Night Gang, Cosmodelica - Captured (Cosmodelica Dub).mp3"

27,"Kebekelektrik, Dam Swindle - War Dance - Dam Swindle Edit.mp3"

28,"Kelly G - Feels Good (Yeah!) - Kelly G. Little Louie Party Mix.mp3"

29,"Jungle Fire, Felipe Gordon - Atómico - Felipe Gordon Remix.mp3"

30,"Soundstream - Soul Train.mp3"

31,"Jitwam, Cosmo's Midnight - Feel Good - Extended Mix.mp3"

32,"Austin Ato - Cherry Soda.mp3"

33,"Jasper Street Co., Spensane - Solid Ground - Spensane Vocal Mix.mp3"

34,"Seven Grand Housing Authority, Proper, Kenny Summit, Eric Kupper - I Wanna Go Higher - Proper's 2016 Mix.mp3"

35,"Dames Brown, Amp Fiddler, Andrés - What Would You Do? (feat. Andrés & Amp Fiddler).mp3"

36,"Fouk, Rebiere - Blue Steel - Original Mix.mp3"

37,"Sophie Lloyd, Dames Brown, Danny Krivit - Calling Out (feat. Dames Brown) - Danny Krivit Edit.mp3"

38,"Ubblahkan, Art of Tones - Odyssey - Art Of Tones Remix.mp3"

39,"Funkky, Mavhungu, Jimpster - Mitodzi - Jimpster Remix.mp3"

40,"Moodymann, Amp Fiddler - Taken Away.mp3"

41,"Dam Swindle - Get Together.mp3"

42,"Art of Tones - I Can.mp3"

43,"Basement Boys, Hoza, Teddy Douglas - Rise.mp3"

44,"Nikki O, thatmanmonkz - Bigger.mp3"

45,"Sophie Lloyd, Pauline Taylor - Angels By My Side (feat. Pauline Taylor) - 7" Version.mp3"

46,"Daniele Baldelli, Marco Dionigi - Time Is Plastic.mp3"

47,"DJ Spen, Jasper Street Company, Terry Farley, Pete Heller - A Feeling - Heller & Farley Project Remix.mp3"

48,"Donna Allen, Sophie Lloyd - He Is The Joy - Sophie Lloyd Remix.mp3"

49,"East Coast Love Affair - Confrontations.mp3"

50,"Honey Dijon, Dave Giles II, Cor.Ece, Mike Dunn - Work (feat. Dave Giles II, Cor.Ece & Mike Dunn) - Extended Mix.mp3"

51,"Sebas Ramis, Life on Planets, Hotmood - Control - Hotmood Remix.mp3"

52,"Rocco Rodamaal, Osunlade - Tbt3 - Osunlade Remix.mp3"

53,"Jamie 3:26 - Give Me Your Love.mp3"

54,"Candice Hoyes, Natasha Diggs - Zoras's Moon - Natasha Diggs Remix.mp3"

55,"Pete Maxey, Art of Tones - Right On - Art of Tones Remix.mp3"

56,"Love Drop - Don't Look Back - Original Mix.mp3"

57,"CINTHIE - This Bomb Is Mine.mp3"

58,"Mainline Magic Orchestra, Eden Burns - Xumba Xumba - Eden Burns Remix.mp3"

59,"Plush Managements Inc., Bea - Mr. Mailman.mp3"

60,"Make A Dance - Lush Acton.mp3"

61,"PVBLIC XCESS, Chloé Caillet, Josh Ludlow, Pat Kalla - Don't Wanna (Get Down) [Remix].mp3"

62,"Jive Talk - Love Right - Spotify Mix.mp3"

63,"Happy Mondays, andy weatherall, Paul Oakenfold - Hallelujah - Club Mix.mp3"

64,"Coeo - Bliss - Hot Version.mp3"

65,"RN&C - Lovin You.mp3"

66,"Terrence Parker - Your Love - TP Extended Mix.mp3"

67,"High Tide - Time Unlimited.mp3"

68,"Shonky - Coco Feel and Love Shonk.mp3"

69,"The African Dream - Makin' a Living.mp3"

70,"James Curd - Disco Fool.mp3"

[trascapades]

Music, Movies, Festivals, Theater - Tra’Scapades’ List of Things To Do In NYC this Weekend June 29-July 1, 2018:

FRIDAY, JUNE 29

R&B Singer “The Love King”  Raheem DeVaughn & DJ Boogie Blind Summerstage, Betsy Head Park - Dumont Avenue & Strauss Street, Brooklyn, 11212, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm (FREE)

BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival - Branford Marsalis / Roger Guenveur Smith: “Frederick Douglass Now”

Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th Street & Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NY 11215,  6:30PM Gates / 7:30PM Show (FREE)

“Two sets from GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis will bookend Roger Guenveur Smith's one man show, Frederick Douglass Now, which incorporates elements of slam poetry and rap.”

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA SUMMER RECITAL SERIES 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm SummerStage, Socrates Sculpture Park Broadway & Vernon Blvd., Queens, 11106

NYC “culture orchestrator” Bobbito Garcia’s autobiographical documentary ROCK RUBBER 45S screening at Metrograph Theater, 7 Ludlow Street, NYC.  Check site for showtimes and to purchase tickets.

Watch the trailer:

'The Originals' Rich Medina, Stretch Armstrong, Clark Kent, D-Nice & Tony Touch spinning Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, Disco, Latin and Jazz at Cielo, 18 Little West 12th Street.  Doors at 10:00 PM.  Tickets: www.OriginalsJune29.eventbrite.com.  Some may be available at the door. 

This is the last weekend to see Akin Babatunde in Lonesome Blues, “the true story of legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson” at the York Theatre Company.  $30 tickets with code Blues30, offered by Walk Tall Girl productions. Purchase tickets online, by phone - 212.935.5820, or at the box office - 54th Street and Lexington Avenue. 

Soul In The Horn with resident DJ Natasha Diggs and special guests Megatronicuk & DJ D.Luxe at Megu, 355 W. 16th Street & 9th Avenue. No cover, fellas bring a lady for entry.  Curated by D. Prosper.

Shades of Dance with DJ's Donna Edwards & liL Ray spinning “vintage Heat & new Tunes for the Dance Massive!!!!” $5 Cover, 11pm-Until, Franks Lounge - 660 Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY 

SATURDAY, JUNE 30

HOUSE HEADS - THIS IS NOT TO BE MISSED -  Carlos Mena’s Bembe 12th Anniversary at Output with Yoruba Records boss Osúnlade, the legendary Ron Trent, NYC mainstay CASAMENA and Yoruba rising star Sonny Daze. Output, 74 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11249. 10:00 PM - 4:00 AM. Tickets on RA: http://bit.ly/2Lbeyd2 Tickets on Ticketfly: https://ticketf.ly/2IruLgm

Music, Art, Food, Health education and more at the 2nd Annual Mott Haven H.E.ARTS Festival featuring South Bronx residents, artists, musicians, grassroots organizations and businesses to celebrate Mott Haven as a uniquely vibrant and diverse community.  349 E. 140th Street, Bronx, NY, 12:00PM-5:00PM (FREE) 

Main Stage artists include:  Hip Hop Legends Grand Wizard Theodore (Inventor of Scratching!), DJ Phase, T Ski Valley, Voice of Harlem, Happy Original Pioneer | M.A.K.U. Soundsystem | Mazarte Dance Company | UpBeat NYC Latin Jazz Big Band.

The Bronx Night Market, “a festival of food, craft beverages, and packaged items that celebrate the global community within our city. The market, which is a collaboration between Edible Bronx, BLOX, and The Fordham BID, has more than 35 food vendors, the market has live entertainment and Bronx-based merchants.” 4:00 p.m. on June 30 at Fordham Plaza (1 Fordham Plaza between Fordham Road and 189th Street). This event will recur on the last Saturday of every month through October. (FREE)

4th Annual Linden Outdoor Dance Festival with DJs Jihad Muhammad, Duce Martinez, Mark Francis, live performances by Byron Stingly (Ten City), Kenny Bobien and more.  Raymond Wood Bruer Promenade, 400 North Wood Avenue, Linden, NJ. 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm (FREE).

Music, Art, Vendors at the 47th Annual International African Arts Festival (June 30-July 4),  Commodore Barry Park  - Nassau Street & Park Avenue, between Navy Street. and N. Elliot Place, downtown Brooklyn, 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM (FREE)

3 SIDES OF DAMIEN SNEED: CLASSICAL, JAZZ & SANCTIFIED SOUL WITH BRANDIE SUTTON, STEFON HARRIS AND KEKE WYATT / JAZZMEIA HORN

7:00 pm - 10:00 pm (Doors open 6:00 pm), SummerStage, Central Park, Rumsey Playfield, Manhattan, 10021

Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose (Caroline, or Change; A Raisin in the Sun; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) is sultry and spectacular as “Carmen Jones,” now playing at the Classic Stage Company through August 19, 2018.

On Saturday, June 30, Walk Tall Girl Productions Presents Black Theater Community Night at CARMEN JONES, 8:00 PM. Tickets: $45.00* with code CJ63018 (Reg. $72).

To purchase tickets:

-CLICK HERE or

-Call 866.811.4111 and mention code CJ63018 or

-Present this offer at the Classic Stage Box Office - 136 East 13th Street, New York, NY 10003.

MC/Lyricist TALIB KWELI, with hip-hop duo OSHUN and a pre-show Voices of A People’s History Workshop with spoken word /performance artist Staceyann Chin. 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm - SummerStage, Betsy Head Park Dumont Avenue & Strauss Street, Brooklyn, 11212

SUNDAY, JULY 1

“Singer, Songwriter, Soul Lover” GABRIELA RILEY’s ALBUM RELEASE / BIRTHDAY PARTY with special guest Kora Master Yacouba Sissoko and AFTER PARTY with the great DJ Easy Mo Bee. Doors: 8:30 PM/Show: 9:00 PM 

R&B, soul and reggae singer-songwriter Melanie Fiona with the versatile DJ mOma of Everyday People

Summerstage, Betsy Head Park, Dumont Avenue & Strauss Street, Brooklyn, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. (FREE)

[agentlexie]

Dear white people, let’s talk about violence

First, lets make it clear, the protesters are far from violent. In fact, the majority of protesters are peaceful.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/01/george-floyd-violent-rioters-america-police-officers

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/george-floyd-death-protests-unrest-disorder-2020-06-02/

There are some people who are more upset about violence when it comes to the destruction of property than they are about the murder, torture, and genocide of people. They are more upset about broken windows and burning buildings than they are about the economical inequities that have become the fabric of life in America. What these people fail to see is that the violence has never ceased. Violence against black & brown people. Violence against Muslims. Violence against union workers. Violence against the LGBT community. Violence against and the exploitation of the working class poor. Where was that voice when you saw all the other videos of black people being murdered by cops &/or white vigilantes? Where was that voice before property got involved?

Covid19 revealed the America that I've always known: Unequal, racist, and a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. People have been taking the knee for several years to no avail. People have been protesting for decades to no avail. People have been asking for issues to be addressed & they haven't been. Amy Cooper May have struck the match and George Floyd ignited the flame but Covid19 poured gasoline on the fire. Black pain is consumed as entertainment & then once the 24hr news cycle is over, the status quo prevails. We watch the wealth gap increase and find ways to vilify and blame the poor for their own exploitation while at the same time celebrating greed and excess. Violence begets violence. America is a violent country. It always has been. It was only a matter of time before it exploded, if not to stand against racism then to stand against inequality. Either way, it was coming.

I’ve read comments from people who didn’t think that racism was a problem in America despite witnessing the mistreatment of black & brown people, despite their black & brown friends telling them that it’s an issue. It’s always, they must have done something to deserve being murdered while handcuffed, while minding their own business, while sleeping in their beds, while eating ice-cream in their living rooms, driving their cars, while walking in their neighbourhoods, and the list goes on.

It's not that people didn’t realize that this is the America that we live in, it’s that we’ve been conditioned to ignore it because some of us benefit from systemic racism and white supremacy. The rest of us have been conditioned to internalize the pain and inequity, identify with our oppressors, & blame ourselves. For some of us who actually experience it on an almost daily basis, pre-pandemic, it’s a lot more difficult to ignore it. There comes a point when enough is enough. And nothing has been done about injustice for decades and decades. If you want to find out more about injustice, educate yourself on native American history, slavery, the school to prison pipeline, redlining, generational wealth, lack of job opportunities in black & brown communities, the impact of Jim Crow, food deserts, lack of adequate education, genocide, police brutality, institutional racism, the vilification of black people & people of color, beauty standards, colonialism, and the list goes on, but if you were interested you would already know that.

People are fed up. There isn't a riot in our lifetime that can ever equate to the amount of lives lost because of white supremacy. There isn't a riot in the world that will ever be as brutal as slavery, genocide, and institutional racism. Violence is as American as apple pie. America was founded on violence. Whether it was the genocide of native Americans, slavery, Japanese internment, Jim Crow, Civil War, the Tulsa massacre, or rape culture, It’s a violent country. We celebrate slave owners & rapists and display them on our currency, immortalize them in the form of monuments as if they were valiant and honorable men & continuously suppress the stories of the minority. American violence is in the form of government sanctioned violence against union organisers and members, (See: Pennsylvania mine workers killed by Luzerne county sheriff, Ludlow massacre…

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/tulsa-race-massacre-1921-99th-anniversary-trnd/index.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-1897-massacre-pennsylvania-coal-miners-morphed-galvanizing-crisis-forgotten-history-180971695/

https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-ludlow-massacre-still-matters

America is a place where some ceo’s make more than twice what the median U.S. worker makes in one week in a second.

https://www.businessinsider.de/international/how-rich-is-jeff-bezos-mind-blowing-facts-net-worth-2019-4

History has taught us that significant change doesn’t happen without violence in America. For all those mentioning Dr. King, it was violence that created a need for the Civil Rights movement in the first place & violence that took MLK’s life. The events leading up to the civil rights movement included open lynchings of black people. It was violence that made the globe take notice of the Civil Rights movement when the international community saw images of peaceful protesters being assaulted by white angry mobs. It is unfortunate that violence and destruction has to take place for people’s voices to be heard, but one thing that is consistent throughout U.S. History is that the oppressed are not the instigators of the violence.

Roughly 1/2 of the U.S. population is considered poor or low income, many of them black, and everyday they wake up to see excess and abundance, whether it’s on their screens, radios, in their workplaces, and schools, or fake influencers & celebrities flaunting their lavish lifestyles, they are confronted with a lacking: a lacking of adequate nutrition, healthcare, housing, schools, opportunities and they are left out of that even if they work hard. Many people are quarantined in small dilapidated spaces with poor living conditions, roach infested apartments, mold, and the list goes on. Flint still doesn’t have clean water. Nobody cares. It’s a great talking point for intellectuals, the 24hr news cycle, and for outrage politics that we can post about on facebook and carry on with our lives.

So many people are hopeless. Currently over 40 million people are unemployed. Hundreds of millions staying home because of the pandemic. Cases of domestic violence have spiked. Child abuse is at an all time high since the pandemic. Some children don’t even have food to eat because they’re not in school and the only meals they have for the day are at school. We are a nation of downtrodden & mistreated people. According to the 2010 census report 48% of the population is considered poor or low income in the so-called “greatest country on earth.” That’s a whopping 146.4 million people. And according to a recent article published in the New York Times, we can expect an increase in poverty as well as a widening of racial disparities as a result of the pandemic. That’s on top of what has presumably taken place over the last decade since the 2010 census.

https://kairoscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Poverty-Fact-Sheet-Feb-2015-final.pdf

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/census-data-half-of-us-poor-or-low-income/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/upshot/coronavirus-prediction-rise-poverty.html

We shouldn't have a system in which one could end up homeless if they're out of work for a couple months because of a pandemic. A system that punishes people for crime based on their skin color. A system in which someone works 40hrs or more per week and still can't afford a shitty apartment without roommates, let alone buy a home. We shouldn’t have a system in which we worship the wealthy and they have license to use the bodies of others for their own enrichment by not paying people a liveable wage. Without labor, ideas can’t be executed, so why is there such a huge discrepancy in compensation and the extreme devaluing of one in favour of the other when the ceo can’t exist without the laborer and vice versa?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/state-of-the-unions

Yes we’ve gotten rid of plantations but working just to pay for food and basic shelter isn’t really that far off from slavery. You’re still working for the same thing: basic shelter and scraps of food, and we might not be being whipped but we’re far from free. We’re being stopped and frisked, shot in our cars, shot in the streets, even children are being handcuffed and murdered.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/orlando-6-year-old-arrested.html

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/865261916/a-decade-of-watching-black-people-die

Our institutions have taught us that the way to get what you want and accomplish anything is by brute force and a total disregard of human life. Instead, value is placed on all things material and people are more outraged at the destruction of property than they are at murder, genocide, the torture of human beings, and the lack of a liveable wage. In the 1950’s a doctor, milkman and factory worker could afford homes in the same neighborhood but that’s not the case in 2020 America.

The idea that we had peace is a fallacy. America has always been unequal since it’s inception. It’s ironic that people fleeing persecution in Britain ended up committing genocide and persecuting others. The idea that things are good in America & that everyone is able to accomplish the American dream is a fallacy that is evidenced by the ever diminishing middle class and the growth of the working class poor. This violence was always there, it's just out in the open now without pretence. If 45 did anything during his presidency it's taking off those blood-tinted-rose-colored glasses from our eyes & for showing us, in full unadulterated color, who we are as a nation. Because of the pandemic, black’s aren’t the only ones really feeling the gross inequities that exists in our country, whites are feeling it too. The two groups most impacted by white supremacy in America are Native Americans and African Americans & none of us are even talking about the former. The two groups most impacted by Covid19 are Native Americans and African Americans and again we’re not really talking about the former. Let that sink in…

#NojusticeNoPeace

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” 

– James Baldwin

One thing this whole chain of events has done is reopen the dialogue between different communities. It has allowed us all to come together. It has revealed who our friends are. It has shown us that we have a long way to go but it’s a start & that’s good!

[furryalligator]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bowery Boogie (@boweryboogie)

Going au naturale #ludlowstreet #graffiti

A post shared by Bowery Boogie (@boweryboogie) on Dec 29, 2017 at 2:47pm PST

see also: http://www.fadingad.com/fadingadblog/2014/09/25/wholesale-grocers-sign-revealed-on-55-ludlow-street-concord-painting-inc-glenn-adelson/

[the-royal-courier]

Events This Week

Steelgrove Syndicate Monthly Auction

When: Tuesday, May 23 Time:  6 Bells (server) Where: In front of Steelgrove’s Shop (Pott’s Plates)

Steelgrove Syndicate’s monthly auction of rare and exotic goods. For the Murlocs.

(Contact @steelgrove-syndicate for more information)

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Xerathi Liquors Grand Opening

When: Wednesday, May 24th Time:   6 Bells (Server) Where: Xerathi Liquors (Pyrotechnics shop in the Mage District)

Edwin Xerathi is hosting a grand opening of his new shop, Xerathi Liquors. Located just down the street from the Slaughtered Lamb (Fireworks Shop!), come out to try some of his signature rums and special brews.

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Into the Molton Core

When:  Thursday, May 25th Time:    5 Bells (server) Where:  Blackrock Mountain

The Second Part of the Blackrock Expedition takes the explorers deep into the heart of the mountain! The Molten Core! Come join the Nature Expedition as the groups studies how the elements of fire have behaved after the fall of Ragnaros the Firelord!

( Contact Firebát in game for more information)

____________________________________

The Rat Bastard Tavern

When: Friday, May 12 Time:  8 Bells (server) Where: The Rat Bastard Tavern (Ship in Stormwind Docks, middle pier)

Tired of the same old watering hole? Have you counted the cracks on the ceiling of every local pub? The Rat Bastard Tavern offers a switch of scenery, floating serenely in the Stormwind Harbor for one night only every other week. If the change of scenery is not enough, why not come for the live music, the diverse patrons, and the fun and friendly staff? Sporting a wide drink menu of local and imported spirits and food menu to come, The Rat Bastard will leave you with some good memories and maybe a fun staggering walk home. Don’t dress up, we prefer things casual!

Rules:

1. No fighting. 2. No weapons. 3. No pets.

Any weapons will be checked at the door and looked after by our professional staff to be returned on departure. Any pets will be kindly asked to be left outside. Hope to see you there!

(Contact Masnira for more information @enigmatic-elegance )

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The Bloodsport Brawl

When:  Saturday, May 27 Time:   8 Bells (server) Where:  Stormwind Docks (The stone bunkers at the Stormwind harbor, the ones with the parapets, closest to the dry docks.)

Honor, jousting, nobility and chivalry. Most people know there is only one deciding factor in a real fight, and that is who lives and who dies.

The Bloodsport Brawl is a tournament drawing from that spirit. Leave weapons and armor aside and face off with another scrapper where only one rule decides the victor: Draw blood, any way you can. The first to bleed their foe moves on up the ladder, determining them to be the dirty, the bloody, the best.

Cash rewards to be given to the first and runner up.

(OOC:  Base d20 roll fight with a first to 3 contact victory. Contact Masnira @enigmatic-elegance  for more information!)

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Alms for the Poor Charity Event When: Sunday, May 28th Time: Noon (server)

Instead of a charity auction this month, Ludlow Vineyards will be putting the funds earned from previous ones to good use. They will be hosting their very first soup kitchen!

This event will be held to help those that are in desperate need of food, drink, and clothing. They will even be offering help to those brand new adventurers wishing to make their way out into the big wide world of Azeroth!

((OOCLY we will be handing out bags, potions, shirts, food, and more to fresh players wishing to get a good start in the game. ICly people are welcome as well! Feel free to come down and RP with us! This is an event for those poor and displaced within the world, so if that fits your character do come down and share some RP. We look so forward to having you and being able to give back to the WrA community! Contact @lumenwolf @elizebella or @ludlowvineyards for more information))

___________________________________

OOC:  Blizzard Events

Cataclysm Timewalking Dungeon Event [ May 23–May 29]

While this event is active, players level 86 or higher may access a special Timewalking Dungeon Finder queue, which scales players and their items down to revisit past dungeons from the Cataclysm expansion. While Timewalking bosses will yield loot appropriate for a player’s regular level.

Glowcap Festival [ May 27]

Today, the sporelings of Sporeggar in Zangarmarsh hold their annual mushroom festival. Help them keep the great Fshoo alive as long as possible!

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Weekly Events

Wine & Poetry Night Hosted by Ludlow Vineyards

Where:  Bridgeton Home (OOC: Ledgerman Lounge in Old Dalaran) When:  Wednesday’s at 6 Bells (server)

Join the employees of Ludlow Vineyards for an evening full of laughter, wine, food and good friends. Build a poem one line at a time from a theme chosen by the group.

@ludlowvineyards  @elizebella @lumenwolf

____________________________________

The Vital Spice

When:   Wednesdays @ 6 Bells (server) Where:  Canal side of the Trade District (Canal Tailor and Fit Shop)

Whether you’re a budding alchemist looking for a few more ingredients, a Mercenary or Adventurer looking to make some coin, or a brave organization fighting the good fight; The Vital Spice can supply you all with every medicinal need. Owned and operated by Harboson Company, the Vital Spice will help you with what ails you!

(OOC: The Vital Spice is a Medicinal Store with a focus on realism and immersion for all parties involved. We actually go to pick the herbs, we actually bring them to the store, we actually have someone turn raw resources into products. All this in the name of an immersive experience for everyone. Contact Elstine, Scassira, Sonnilynn, Galleia, or Tideguard to schedule bulk orders, or scripted RP. @harboson-c)

____________________________________

Steelgrove Syndicate Store When: Thursday @ 6 Bells (server) Where: Dwarven District (Pott’s Plates - Canal side) Theme: Shop

A small get together for those who wish to browse our wares, and enjoy good company. Refreshments offered free of charge! Join us at 6pm (st) until 8pm (st). ( @steelgrove-syndicate)

____________________________________

Consortium Confections

When: Thursdays @ 6 Bells (server) Where: Consortium Confections Store (Stonefire Tavern), Ironforge

Come sate your sweet tooth with a treat from the creative minds at Iron Rose Consortium.

(See the menu here and reach out to Moriay in game or @moriayamina for more information)

____________________________________

Silverblade Contracts

Open: Monday & Tuesday: 4-6 pm,  Friday & Saturday: 4-5 pm Closed: Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday Where: Cathedral District Theme: Shop

This shop hosts an array of services such as Weapon Sales and Repairs, Protection Services, and more! To inquire more about large orders or other services, please send word to Count Adorlan Matheredor (Adorlan in-game, @adorlan)  

____________________________________

The Cask n Anvil: When - Fridays @ 6 pm server Where - Ironforge Who - Modarin Theme - Social

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The Wyrmhearth Tavern When: Saturdays @ 8 pm Server Where: Thelsamar Who: Annalura, Noelina, Leatei, or Oakenmoon Theme: Social

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The Sparrow’s Nest When: Sunday’s Noon - 2 Bells (Server) Where: The Sparrow’s Nest (Essential Components in the Mage Quarter) Theme: Social Who:  Lakryss Sparrow

Come have a relax cup of tea in a quiet relaxed environment. All teas crafted by Miss Sparrow herself!

@lakryss-sparrow

____________________________________

The Steel Pub

When: Sunday @ 6 pm server Where: in Anvilmar, Dun Morogh Who: Bath Ironstout Theme: Social

@bath-ironstout @ironstoutbrews

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Upcoming Events

Alliance Merchant Festival

When: Friday, June 10 Time: 7 to 10 Bells (Server) Where:  Celestial Court, Timeless Isles

Come out to support Alliance Merchants from around Azeroth. Games, food, drink, trinkets and more!

(Contact Loala in game or @little-lady-lo  for more information on how you can participate, host a booth or just come along for some fun! )

_____________________________________

Burning Hearts Date Auction

When - June 25th Time - 6:30 Server time Where - Behind the Stormwind Cathedral!

“Ladies and gentlemen, have you found yourself longing for a dance, but with no one to dance with? Well, the Burning Hearts Date Auction and Ball is just what you’re looking for! On June 25th, at 6:30pm we will be auctioning off the cuties you see above, as well as some other lovely candidates as dates for the Burning Hearts Ball on July 1st! But don’t worry, if you already have a date you can come down and browse some of the stands we’ll have set up! Such as Galfouh Diamond-Eye’s stand, selling the finest of jewelry, get that special someone in your life a jewel as beautiful as she is. We’ll also have a seamstress stand, selling gowns and the like if you haven’t found the perfect outfit for the ball yet!”

(Contact @madame-miersae )

_________________________________

Burning Hearts Ball!

When: Saturday, July 1st Time: 7 pm Where: Kun-Lai Summit

The Burning Hearts Ball, celebratesthe burning love we have for our significant others! Of course, you don’t have to have a significant other to be there, perhaps you’ll find your happily ever after at the ball! But be sure to dress your best! We’ll be having a Best Dressed competition for both couples and singles, three winners will be picked via votes from the crowd! There will also be a raffle to win several different prizes ranging from gold to fluffy companions! Aside from that, we’ll have live entertainment, refreshments and of course a wide open dance floor!

(Contact @madame-miersae )

_________________________________

MidSummer Dream Cruise When: July 1st & 2nd Time:  5 Bells (Server-3 server Sunday the 2nd) Where: Stormwind City (ending in Tanaris)

Embark on an all-inclusive romantic dinner & wine sunset cruise and awaken to the beautiful sugar sand beaches of Tanaris! Hosted by Ludlow Vineyards, this all-inclusive ticket purchases include an elegant, formal dinner with live music, complete with a dance floor. Dance the night away and then sleep in luxurious, romantic mini-suites. Wake to a breakfast that is fit for a king and enjoy sunbathing on the decks in lounge chairs throughout midday, until the ship’s arrival in Tanaris. Ice-cold beverages, alcoholic beverages, and food will be shuttled from the cruise ship onto the beach and served to guests by our wait staff as the party continues on into the night.

Guests are asked to begin boarding the “The Matron’s Grace” docked in Stormwind Harbor at five tolls of the bell. All guests are asked to bring formal dress attire for the formal dinner & dance as well as beach clothes, sunglasses, and smiles!

Cabin Ticket Price: 500 gold per single guest or 800 gold per couple.

((OOC This is a two day event!

Dates & Times:

July 1st at 5pm server - ship departs at 6pm server.

July 2nd ship arrival to beach in Tanaris 3pm server up until 9pm server.

Other OOC Info:

Tickets are purchased with IC currency, pre-sale or upon arrival. Pre-sale of tickets require IC interaction. Send a message via tumblr to @ludlowvineyards or send an in-game message, as well as use the in-game mailing system to make arrangements! In-game names to message: Elizebella   Altheyr   Lumên)

_____________________________________

(Have an event you would like advertised? Send a message to @risrielthron or contact Risri in game)

[myphillyrealty]

July 4th in Philly 2017: Wawa Welcome America, parade routes, and street closures

Everything you need to know about the city’s big July 4th celebration festivities

July 4th is a big deal here in Philly, where our country was officially founded. And while there are a bevy of events planned for the national holiday, the big shebang will be happening on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and around Independence Mall with the annual Wawa Welcome America festival.

This year, it’s a five-day party with more than 50 free events, including the July 4 concert featuring headliner Mary J. Blige, that will take place around the city to celebrate our nation’s independence.

Sticking around these parts for the big weekend? Or coming from out of town? Here’s what you need to know if you want to attend.

When and where is Wawa Welcome America?

The five-day-long event kicks off on Thursday, June 29 and runs through Tuesday, July 4. Most of the big events take place on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, but there are many others taking place throughout the city.

Independence Day Parade

July 4 at Independence Mall from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Wawa Welcome America July 4 Concert

July 4 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

Wawa Welcome America July 4 Fireworks

July 4 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway fro 9:30 to 10 p.m.

Freedom Festival Fireworks

July 4 on the Delaware River Waterfront from 9:30 to 10 p.m.

Which streets will be closed for Wawa Welcome America?

A bunch of roads will be closed all around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Independence Mall from Thursday, June 29 through Tuesday, July 4. Per the City of Philadelphia, the street closures are as follows:

Thursday, June 29

Arch Street, between 5th and 6th streets, will be closed for crowd safety, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for Wawa Hoagie Day, which begins at noon at the National Constitution Center.

Friday, June 30

Chestnut Street, between 5th and 6th streets, will be closed from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to construct the stage for the Pops Concert.

Saturday, July 1

Chestnut Street, between 5th and 6th streets, will be closed, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for ongoing stage construction.

Monday, July 3

Chestnut Street, between 5th and 6th streets, from 6 a.m. through the post-event break-down of the festivities on July 4 at about 5 p.m.

5th Street, between Market and Walnut streets including Ranstead and Ludlow Streets, between 4th and 5th streets, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

5th Street, between Market and Walnut streets Including Ranstead and Ludlow Streets, between 4th and 5th streets, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

6th Street, between Market and Chestnut will remain closed overnight until the post-event break down of the festivities on July 4th at about 5 p.m.

See maps below: The inner lanes of the Parkway, between 20th and Eakins Oval, will be closed from 9:30 a.m. until July 5th at 5 a.m. (Outbound lanes will reopen for evening rush hour on Monday, July 3).

Street closures on July 3 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Street closures on July 3 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Street closures on July 3 from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Tuesday, July 4

Chestnut Street, between 5th and 6th streets, from the prior-day closures will be in effect until 5 p.m.

6th Street, between Market and Chestnut streets, from prior day until 5 p.m.

See map below: Chestnut Street, from 5th to Front streets, and Front Street, from Market to Dock streets, will be closed on July 4th, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., for the set-up of the parade.

Welcome America Independence Parade street closures on July 4 from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

See map below: Chestnut Street, from 6th to 9th Street; 9th Street, from Walnut to Market streets; and Market Street, from 10th to Front streets, will close at about 10:45 a.m. until about 2 p.m. All cross streets (9th, 8th, 7th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd) will be closed during the parade — one block back from the parade route (Arch or Walnut), to allow traffic to be diverted around the parade.

Welcome America Independence Parade street closures on July 4 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

See map below: All lanes and the entire width of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, from 18th to the Art Museum, will be closed beginning at 5 a.m. until July 5. The Parkway, from 15th to 18th streets, may be closed, depending on the volume of pedestrian traffic.

2017 Welcome America street closures on July 4 from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A limited-access perimeter (event participants and Parkway-area residents only) will be established, from 18th to 25th streets, and from Arch to Spring Garden streets, beginning at 5 a.m. until the clean-up is complete in the early hours of July 5th.

See map below: The Parkway, from 20th to 25th streets, will be closed for extensive cleanup overnight until about 5 a.m. on Wednesday, July 5th.

2017 Welcome America street closures from 4 a.m. on July 4 to 5 a.m. on July 5.

How to get to Wawa Welcome America

If you’ve made it this far, the answer is pretty clear: You’re going to want to walk or take public transportation. SEPTA is running extra service on July 4 to and from Wawa Welcome America activities. You can find their Independence Day schedule here.

There’s also PHLASH, a local bus that only runs on weekends and roams around all of Center City’s main attractions. You can buy a ticket for just $2 or $5 a day and hop on and off as you wish.

Wawa Welcome America [Official]

SEPTA July 4 schedule

from http://philly.curbed.com/

The post July 4th in Philly 2017: Wawa Welcome America, parade routes, and street closures appeared first on MyPhillyRealty.

http://myphillyrealty.com/2017/06/28/july-4th-in-philly-2017-wawa-welcome-america-parade-routes-and-street-closures/

[micaramel]

Artist: Zuzanna Czebatul

Venue: Centre d’Art Contemporain La Synagogue Delme

Exhibition Title: The Singing Dunes

Date: February 29 – September 20, 2020

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Centre d’Art Contemporain La Synagogue Delme, Delme

Press Release:

Zuzanna Czebatul operates mainly in the field of sculpture, creating pieces that blur the lines between commercial product, architectural relic, and artistic production. Her work investigates complex relationships between the viewer and the viewed. She produces her own materials and creates works that deal with different themes representing strength or weakness, depicted in their opposed forms and with a certain sense of humor and kitschy eroticism. Her installations appear in turns collapsed, destroyed, deflated, or fragmented, and question concepts such as monument, public edifice and symbolic architecture. Reality and artificiality appear in her work in a constant dialogue in which she exposes the fluidity or flexibility of politics, the art market, or the human body. Thus, her work often addresses power structures, ideologies and politics and asks the question: how do we want to live?

For her exhibition The Singing Dunes at CAC Synagogue de Delme, the artist uses the phenomenon of the singing dunes (1) and the eternal movement of sandy deserts as a metaphor for nomadism, the transformation of knowledge and civilizations, migrations, the alternation of constructed forms, and the evolution of beliefs. A monumental in situ work made of concrete and created in dialogue with the synagogue’s architecture, spreads on the ground floor. Inspired by the opus sectile technique (2), which was popular in public buildings and private homes of the ancient and medieval Roman world, this tiled floor depicts the synagogue’s original architectural elements (the Torah ark, the windows and the columns at the entrance) caught in a maelstrom that ends up spiraling into a hole. Between quicksand and psychedelic vision, this creation constitutes a monumental, luxurious floor, worthy of the building’s decorative features, which have long disappeared (3). At the same time the work recalls the movement and inherent fluctuations that accompany the passing of time, altering and transforming forms, knowledge and culture.

The metaphor takes its course upstairs, where a collection of sculptures represents vestiges of a pseudo Egyptian antiquity, excavated from the desert. Replete with historical inconsistencies and with fantasized visions of ancient Egypt (4), these fragments, once reconstructed, are meant to replicate a female sphinx from the blockbuster movie The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille (1923), one of the most expensive productions in the history of Hollywood. This epic staged an entire, constructed city as a film set that, because it was difficult to store in studios, was deliberately buried in the California desert, until its remains were rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1960s. Thus presented, these (fake) sculptures reproduce the specificity of an archaeological excavation, as if they have just been dug out of the sand, while mimicking the situation of a museum display, where these vestiges ended up eventually. Staging an archaeology that is just as artificial as the rediscovered film set, Zuzanna Czebatul places several historical strata on the same level: Egyptian antiquity, the Jewish exodus, Hollywood cinema, contemporary archaeology, and current human migrations. Their proximity, embodied by the physical and metaphorical presence of sand in the exhibition, evokes a seemingly endless postmodernity, as well as the way history and ideologies fluctuate alongside power shifts. Zuzanna Czebatul confronts us with our contemporary era’s “desert of the real” (5), where the origins of power are not as natural and neutral as they appear: they usually spring from multiple fictions produced arbitrarily. From time immemorial, culture has been concealing the ideology of the day. It is up to each of us to identify it.

(1) The sound produced by the friction of sand grains during the movements of dunes in the desert. (2) An ancient artistic technique where marble, mother of pearl or glass were cut and inlaid into walls and

floors to make a picture or pattern. (3) The synagogue was blown up with dynamite by the Germans in 1944, leaving only the outer walls. (4) In Egyptian Antiquity, female sphinxes did not exist. There were only sphinxes that had strictly male physical traits. (5) Expression by Jean Baudrillard, extracted from Simulacra and Simulation, Semiotext(e), New York, 1983 [1981].

Zuzanna Czebatul was born in 1986 in Miedzyrzecz (Poland). She studied at Städelschule, Frankfurt and Universität der Künste, Berlin. She lives and works in Berlin. Her work has recently been presented in solo exhibitions at GGM1 City Gallery, Danzig; IG Metall Haus, Berlin ; CCA Futura, Prague ; CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw ; 83 Pitt Street, New York ; Mélange, Cologne ; Piktogram, Warsaw ; Gilmeier Rech, Berlin ; Bad Reputation, Los Angeles ; Mini/Goethe-Institut Ludlow 38, New York … and featured in group exhibitions at Somerset House, London ; Kunsthalle Lingen ; Kunsthalle Bratislava ; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw ; Exile Gallery, Berlin ; Tenderpixel, London ; Contemporary Art Museum, St.Louis…

Link: Zuzanna Czebatul at Centre d’Art Contemporain La Synagogue Delme

from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/3fdfTz3

[shropsnews4u]

Shrewsbury + Roads and car parks: UPDATE – Thursday 5 March 10:45am

Please see below important information about roads, car parks, buses and other services affected by this week’s flooding.

Important message: please continue to adhere to road and car park closures; they are in place for people’s safety and will cease as soon as flooding and associated hazards subside.

CAR PARKS

Shrewsbury

Frankwell – main and riverside – closed

St Julian’s Friars – partially open. Please avoid coned off areas.

Raven Meadows multi-storey – open.

Abbey Foregate – open

The Gap (off Raven Meadows) – open.

NCP (Wyle Cop) – open – spaces may be limited due to flood water.

Premier Inn car park (off Raven Meadows) – open.

Resident and season ticket holders for Frankwell Main and St Julian’s Friars car parks may park in Abbey Foregate car park until further notice.

Bridgnorth

Riverside car park – closed

Riverside West elevated car park – closed

Residents or customers in Bridgnorth with a valid resident or season permit (on or off-street) can use  Innage Lane Car Park.

BUSES

Bridgnorth

The Bridgnorth 101 town service will be FREE to use every Saturday in March 2020.

Ludlow

Ludlow Park and ride service willbe FREE to use every Thursday in March 2020.

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury bus station is open.

Park and ride is operating as normal.

FREE park and ride – from Saturday 29 February to Saturday 14 March To show our support for businesses in Shrewsbury town centre affected by this month’s floods,  and to encourage people to visit the town, Shrewsbury’s park and ride service will be FREE to use for two weeks – from all three park and ride sites – Meole Brace, Harleslcott and Oxon. 

School transport

School transport in the Melverley area is disrupted.

ROAD CLOSURES

Shrewsbury

Gravel Hill Lane – closed

Sydney Avenue – closed

Atcham to Cross Houses – open

Chiltern Farm Lane – closed

Berwick Road – open

Old Coleham – closed

Victoria Avenue – open

Cressage to Eaton Constantine – open

Williams Way – open

Longden Coleham – open

Raven Meadows – open

Roushill – open

Smithfield Road – open

Coton Hill – open

Chester Street and Cross Street – open

Atcham to Berwick Wharf

B4380 Emstrey Island to Atcham – open

Meadow Place – open

Coleham Head  –open

Frankwell – open

Welsh Bridge – open

Underdale Road – open

Note: London Road, Shrewsbury is closed one-way (eastbound) for BT cable work, meaning there’s no access to the A5.

North Shropshire road closures

Colliery Road, St Martins – closed

Clarke’s Lane, St Martins – closed

Burma Road, Park Hall, Whittington – closed

South Shropshire road closures

B4368 Clun to Newcastle (road slip) – closed 

Doctors Lane, Bridgnorth – closed

Riverside, Bridgnorth  – open

Severnside South Bridgnorth – closed 

The A442 Bridgnorth to Sutton Maddock – open

Coalport Bridge – We’ve inspected the bridge and it’s currently safe to use. We’ve installed traffic management on the bridge with a 3-tonne weight limit as a precautionary measure so that we can keep it open. We’ll continue to make daily inspections whilst we wait for water levels to reduce sufficiently to carry out a more detailed survey.

Further information

Please follow Shropshire Council on Facebook or twitter for the latest information.

For help and advice please call Shropshire Council on 0345 678 9006 or visit our website.

The post Roads and car parks: UPDATE – Thursday 5 March 10:45am appeared first on Shropshire Council Newsroom.

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[biofunmy]

‘The Harder They Come’: A Pop Classic That Has Hardly Faded

A brash bumpkin from the countryside comes to the city, dreaming of stardom. He cuts a record, gets ripped off, turns to trafficking drugs, is betrayed, and dies a folk hero at the hands of the police as his song becomes an anthem.

“The Harder They Come,” currently being revived at BAM Rose Cinemas and Metrograph, is a universal story set in a highly specific milieu. Powered by one of the most infectious scores in the history of cinema, it is also a pop classic — the movie that brought reggae to America and “launched a thousand spliffs,” as the New York Times critic Ben Brantley joked in a 2008 review of a theatrical version in London.

Inspired by the life of the Jamaican outlaw Ivanhoe “Rhygin” Martin, credited with the line that gives the movie its title, “The Harder They Come” was a vehicle for the reggae star Jimmy Cliff. It was independent Jamaica’s first homemade feature, as well as the first film directed by Perry Henzell, a scion of that nation’s white planter class. The distinguished black playwright Trevor Rhone co-wrote the script. (“The Harder They Come” is being shown in conjunction with the theatrical release of Henzell’s long-delayed follow-up, “No Place Like Home,” which is also at BAM.)

Beginner’s luck — or lack of same — might almost be the movie’s subject. Robbed upon arrival in Kingston, Ivan Martin (Cliff) founders at first in the urban maelstrom. Social conditions are manifest in documentary-type shots, filmed in 16 millimeter, of poverty and desperation. Ivan finds his footing only to mix it up with an assortment of predatory preachers, mercenary record producers, corrupt cops and miscellaneous hustlers. In the background, Toots & the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Cliff and others sing a collective siren song of fame. Chased by the police, Ivan creates his own legend, leaving graffiti (“I am here — I am everywhere”) and imagining an audience for his last stand.

A movie of abrupt transitions, “The Harder They Come” appears to have been assembled piecemeal and shot off the cuff. Cliff, who wrote the title song, has described the film changing direction while in production. In an article published in The Caribbean Quarterly in 2015, the cinematographer Franklyn St. Juste said he never saw a script: “I really didn’t know what was happening — and what was going to happen from one scene to the next or from one setup to the next.” But the spontaneity proved a recipe for what St. Juste termed “happy accidents.”

The timing was also fortuitous. The film arrived on the international scene in the wake of “Shaft” (1971) and “Superfly” (1972), with a hero akin to the righteous outlaws in films like the Brazilian director Glauber Rocha’s “Antonio das Mortes” (1969), Melvin Van Peebles’s “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (1971) and numerous Italian westerns. (It’s hardly coincidental that Ivan goes to see “Django,” Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 evergreen.) For early audiences, Ivan’s willingness to defy authority at the cost of his life evoked Bonnie and Clyde, the Black Panthers and Che Guevara.

After making a splash at the 1972 Venice Film Festival, “The Harder They Come” was picked up by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures; it opened (with English subtitles, because of the particularly thick Jamaican patois) to some success at a Broadway theater in February 1973 and enjoyed a second run as an exploitation film. (I saw it that summer in Florida on a double bill with the Pam Grier prison movie “Black Mama, White Mama.”) It would soon have a third life. In a 1974 piece titled “Films That Refuse to Fade Away,” the New York Times critic Vincent Canby noted the movie’s popularity as a midnight attraction.

As reported by Canby, “The Harder They Come” ran for 26 weeks at the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge, Mass., in 1973. A true cult film, it was brought back in 1974, where, as Jonathan Rosenbaum and I wrote in our book “Midnight Movies,” it remained another seven years. In April 1976, The Times ran an article, noting that “The Harder They Come” had played 80 consecutive weekends at the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. (The run would continue there for months.)

In his enthusiasm, Canby called “The Harder They Come” “a more revolutionary black film than any number of American efforts, including ‘Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.’” In any case, “The Harder They Come” provided a model for later movies, most notably the 1980 British film “Babylon,” which belatedly opened in New York this spring and itself became a cult film. (It is on the Criterion Channel and can be streamed elsewhere.)

That film’s director, Franco Rosso, named “The Harder They Come” as his inspiration. “Babylon” (1980) might be a sequel, focusing on West Indian life in London. An immersive, verité-style movie following a disaffected young singer of a homegrown reggae group, it uses a constant flow of music to animate the struggle for survival in a hostile white world. “The movie is more interested in what feels right than what seems right,” the critic Wesley Morris wrote in his review for The Times.

See one and stream the other. Even more than the program I caught in Florida, they make a sensational double bill.

The Harder They Come

Aug. 21-27 at BAM Rose Cinemas, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn; 718-636-4100, BAM.org

Aug. 23-29 at Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street, Manhattan; 212-660-0312, metrograph.com.

Rewind is an occasional column covering revived, restored and rediscovered movies playing in New York’s repertory theaters.

Sahred From Source link Arts

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[addictionrecoveryassistance]

Detox Centers In Shelocta Pennsylvania 15774

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Shelocta is a borough in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 130 at the 2010 census. The Keystone Generating Station is located to the west of the borough, in Plumcreek Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.

[furryalligator]

from wikipedia entry:

(2013)

339 Grand Street, also addressed as 57 Ludlow Street, located at the corner of Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City was completed in c.1831-33 in the Federal style as one of five row houses constructed by John Jacob Astor on property he purchased in 1806. The early tenants of the building were several dry goods merchants. The rear addition on Ludlow Street was built c.1855. The front of the house has been a storefront since at least 1884.[1]

The house, a rare example of a surviving Federal-style house in Manhattan, is the only one of the five row houses built by Astor that is still largely intact. It features "a front facade with Flemish bond brickwork, high peaked roof and dormer", and the rear retains its "flat roof, stone lintels and sills, and cornice." The house is 3.5 stories in height in the front – three in the rear – and is 17 feet (5.2 m) wide.[1]

The house was designated a New York City landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on October 29, 2013.[1]

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We announced last year that the Federal row house building that houses Ideal Hosiery is up for sale and we recently checked up on the shop and found that it is still open for business. This long-time men’s hosiery #storefront on Grand Street (its been open since 1950) which we photographed for our book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York” in 2004 never ceases to amaze us as the window displays are full of dusty faded undershirts 👕and inside are rows of boxes 📦 of products that form a narrow aisle, and don’t look conducive to a vibrant business. The building is landmarked (it was built between 1831-1833 by John Jacob Astor) and has a pitched roof so it’s unlikely that a developer will be allowed to build higher than its present 3 1/2 stories but the air rights can be transferred to an adjacent lot. • • • • • #signage #shopsmall #typography #dailytype #fontastic #storefront #ig_signage #everything_signage #signgeeks #signcollective #signsunited #seeyourcity #typevstime #type #momandpopstorefronts #supportsmallbusiness #handpainted #shoplocal #lowereastside #analog #hosiery

A post shared by James and Karla Murray (@jamesandkarla) on Jul 1, 2019 at 5:06pm PDT