#between netherlands and italy 2024

[umlewis]

who am i challenge! | grill the grid 2024 | episode 5, but it's just lewis - august 28, 2024

[umseb]

"Thanks as well to @.bikeacademydavos for looking after us, the go to Bike address in Davos." - september 7, 2024 📷 @.sebastianvettel / instagram

[umgeorge]

who am i challenge! | grill the grid 2024 | episode 5, but it's just george - august 28, 2024

[ummick]

via mick's ig story - august 28, 2024

[meademalove]

🐐🧡

Vivianne Miedema of Holland during the European Championship qualifying match for women between the Netherlands (w) and Italy (w) at the Fortuna Sittard Stadium on July 12, 2024 in Sittard, Netherlands. ANP BART STOUTJESDIJK (Photo via Getty Images)

[artzonestuff]

Differences Between the Southern and Northern Renaissance: A Study Through Jan van Eyck's "Portrait of a Man" (self portrait?)"

Written by ArtZoneStuff, 2024

The Renaissance, a period of cultural rebirth and revival of classical learning, manifested differently in the southern and northern regions of Europe. While both regions shared a common interest in humanism, art, and science, the way these ideas were expressed varied significantly due to differing cultural, social, and economic contexts.

The Southern Renaissance, centered in Italy, emphasized classical antiquity, proportion, perspective, and human anatomy. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Raphael (1483-1520) focused on idealized beauty, harmony, and balanced compositions.

In contrast, the Northern Renaissance, which flourished in regions such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Flanders, focused more on meticulous detail, naturalism, and domestic interiors. Northern artists like Jan van Eyck (1390-1441), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), and Hieronymus Bosch (?-1516) were known for their detailed and realistic depictions of nature, landscapes, and everyday life. Their work often contained rich symbolism and a focus on surface textures and fine details.

Jan Van Eyck's self portrait

Jan van Eyck's "Portrait of a Man" (Appendix 1), also known as his Self-Portrait from 1433, is a small-scale Dutch portrait measuring 25.9 x 33.1 cm (Google Arts and Culture, n.d.). The man in the painting emerges from a dark background, with his body depicted in three-quarter view. On his head, he wears a red chaperon, often mistaken for a turban, styled upward rather than hanging down (Nash, 2008, p.154). His dark fur-lined garment resembles the attire in "The Arnolfini Portrait" (Appendix 2), indicative of wealth during an era when textiles were extremely costly (ArtUK, 2019). His detailed face features a faint stubble, white highlights in his eyes and on his cheekbones, non-idealized features such as wrinkles and veins on his forehead, showcasing the Northern realism (Hall, 2014, p.44).

As described by the English art historian James Hall, the painting appears almost fleeting and alive - with the gaze seeming to capture the viewer before the face, and just like that, the penetrating stare turns away, perhaps followed by the light streaming from the right (Hall, 2014, p.43). The portrait conveys that the artist scrutinizes everything closely, including himself, without losing sight of the bigger picture (Hall, 2014, p.43). All these naturalistic details clearly indicate a Flemish painting.

The work is considered a self-portrait due to the frame. Jan van Eyck often used frames he designed and painted to enhance understanding and add meaning to his works (Hall, 2014, p.43; The National Gallery, 2021, 4:45-5.15). The gilded original frame of "Portrait of a Man" is crucial for interpreting the piece. Inscribed at the top of the frame is Jan van Eyck’s motto: "Als Ich can," translated to English: "As I can." At the bottom is his signature, and the date in Roman numerals: October 21, and in Arabic numerals, the year 1433. This results in the inscription: "Jan van Eyck made me on October 21, 1433" (Hall, 2014, p.43). He capitalizes the "I" in "Ich," playing on the pun Ich/Eyck. The motto can be interpreted as either boastful, "As I can," or modest, "As best as I can" (Hall, 2014, p.43).

The inscription highlights the relationship between words and image, indicating his awareness of his talent. His skill in painting surpasses that of a craftsman, which painters in this period was considered as. "As I can" suggests he is the only one capable of achieving such stylistic naturalism which cannot be imitated (The National Gallery, 2021, 5:10-5:58). "Jan van Eyck made me" also reflects a high degree of self-awareness, as he claims a painting of this quality, emphasizing that he created it and is conscious of his own abilities (The National Gallery, 2021, 5:10-5:58). All of this, along with his signing of his works as one of the first artists to do so, demonstrates a desire not to remain an anonymous craftsman (Hall, 2014, p.43; Farmer, 1968, p.159; Blunt, 1962).

The motto "Als Ich can" appears on several of his works, but the self-portrait is the only one where it is so prominent and clear. Additionally, the motto is placed at the top of the frame, where he would usually write the model’s name, thus, the motto can be seen as the model's identity (The National Gallery, 2021, 5:15-6:25). This, along with his direct gaze at the viewer, suggesting it was painted from a mirror, are the strongest indicators that the portrait is a self-portrait (Hall, 2014, p.43).

However, this can be taken with some skepticism, as other portraits by him, such as "Portrait of Margaret van Eyck" (Appendix 3) and "Portrait of Jan De Leeuw" (Appendix 4), share the same penetrating gaze (Pächt, 1994, p.107). This might instead indicate his realism, where the painter’s position does not function as an observer but rather takes an active role. The model’s direct gaze towards the viewer shows that the model has looked at Jan Van Eyck. This shows Jan Van Eyck possessing an active role, which was very different from painters in this period, and by doing so, creating a new respect for the painter as an artist, again showcasing his self-awareness of his position and talent (Pächt, 1994, pp.106-108).

Literature

Books and Journals:

Hall, James (2014). The self-portrait, a cultural history. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd 

Nash, Susie (2008). Northeren Renaissance Art. New York: Oxford University Press.

Blunt, Anthony (1962). The Social Position of the Artist. Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450-1600. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press 

Farmer, David (1968). Reflections on a Van Eyck Self-Portrait. Oud Holland. S. 159 

Online

Google Arts and Culture (n.d.): Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (selfportrait). Found at: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/portrait-of-a-man-in-a-red-turban-selfportrait/SAFcS1U8kYssmg?hl=en  

ArtUK: Butchart, Amber (2019). Fashion reconstructed: the dress in Van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait. Found at: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/fashion-reconstructed-the-dress-in-van-eycks-arnolfini-portrait 

The National Gallery (2021). Jan van Eyck's self portrait in 10 minutes or less | National Gallery. Found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMJK1EDG2X8&t=1s&ab_channel=TheNationalGallery 

[ars-theurgia]

Anarchy & Apathy (things we should probably learn from Eurovision 2024)

(tl;dr – a review of the voting process is critical; Croatia should have won)

It’s a rare year that sees a consensual Eurovision winner. It is to be expected – the contest is not only a competition of musical taste, but also of musical identity. There is more than simply genre, melody or vocals at play, as these are often filtered through the lens of national sensibility. At face value, a stereotype of geopolitics; at a deeper level, the actual cultural wealth of each European region. 'Our neighbours', etc. To which of course, theatrics and gimmicks are added, in the hopes of standing out from the rest of the crowd.

This is what makes, or should make, watching Eurovision a positive experience. Which this year, failed spectacularly on all counts, leading to a problematic, underwhelming and polarising edition, derailed on Thursday night and crashing its way through apathy and anarchy all the way to the grand final.

Apathy, because it seemed to want to get away with being apolitical. Anarchy, because it failed to carry out apolitical acts.

And from each side, its worst attribute, resulting in what feels like a bland and uncomfortable watch.

This year, Eurovision attempted (and in my view, failed) to manage itself by allowing too many paradoxes to take place. Glaring inconsistencies, arbitrary exclusions, aloof silences, inability (or lack of desire) to address core issues and legacy accusations – a broken code. A program in error, glitching and ineffectual, all under the symbolic and literal guise of “neutrality” – which doesn’t stick. And worse, seems to negate the actual positive aspects of the show, this year neutralised themselves.

This isn’t to say Switzerland did or did not deserve the win – the voting conditions of both jury and public are clearly stated, and in theory were applied. The jury voted, the people voted, and the winner was chosen.

But unlike other years where a similar pattern of voting distribution could be considered ‘curious’, and where ‘the safer song’ wins over the public favourite – see Käärijä 2023 – this year’s jury results feel unjust not only to the runner-up, but to the vast majority of contestants. And by extension, the viewers.

Stage presentation was ignored (see UK for the extreme example, and Ireland for a less radical, visually incompatible result).

Vocal performance was ignored (see Norway’s Gunnhild/Gåte for the extreme example, along with Portugal’s Iolanda; Germany’s Isaak, possibly the strongest vocalist in the competition this year; Israel’s Eden Golan for the complete disregard of vocal ability over nationality).

Radio-friendly potential was ignored (see Luxembourg’s ‘Fighter’, Cyprus’ ‘Liar’, Italy’s ‘La Noia’, Austria’s ‘We Will Rave’ even).

Resulting once again, in a surprisingly cohesive jury vote that deems Switzerland’s ‘The Code’ as the winner, over the fifth place that the public attributed it.

Being neutral is not the same as being objective. And while objectivity is difficult to gauge in a contest where musical taste and national identity (not to mention global politics) are part of the formula, there is a case to be made for the fact that Eurovision and the EBU’s passivity and top-up decision making reflects poorly on the Eurovision experience.

Recurring discrepancies between jury and public voting should be addressed. Because a jury’s role (in Eurovision and elsewhere) should not be of neutrality, but of objective action.

In objective action, a contestant cannot be excluded without a proper justification, to date only explained through vague declarations and heavy speculation (see Netherlands).

In objective action, and in a self-identified democratic continent, the people’s paid vote should inform the winning result over a closed group of juries (see Croatia’s disproportionate second place).

In objective action, rules must be enforced equally to all contestants (see Ireland, who had to remove part of their presentation, vs. Portugal, who was allowed to show a message through nails).

And in objective action, microphones should not be silenced; contestants must be allowed the freedom to be judged by the people listening, and not on what the EBU determines should be judged.

Until that’s learned, processed, addressed, reformed – why watch for disappointment?

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Ryan Burge

Published: Oct 3, 2024

Generating a graph that helps us understand the religious composition of just 18 countries is a Herculean task, as I found when trying to do just that with the Global Attitudes Project from Pew. In the United States, it’s pretty simple to throw together four or five categories that encompass almost all of our religious diversity - Protestant, Catholic, atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular. Those five labels will fit at least 80-90% of the residents of most parts of the United States. Of course, there are outliers like Utah and its significant Latter-day Saint population. Yet, despite the fact that we have Lutherans in some parts and Southern Baptists in other areas - American religion falls into just a handful of broad categories.

When I went to try and visualize the religiosity of the countries that were included in this recent dataset that was published on the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), I had to rethink how many categories were necessary and how many groups could just be combined into a “all others” category. This is my best attempt at that after writing about four hundred lines of computer code.

There is a lot going on in the world of religion when you compare just this dozen and a half countries. Of course there are many that are dominated by Protestants and Catholics. For instance, 96% of Poles say that they are members of the Roman Catholic Church, as do 67% of Italians and 61% of Hungarians. But there are also lots of Catholics in Spain (54%), Belgium (51%) and France (41%). On the other hand there is not a single majority Protestant country in this group of eighteen. Sweden comes the closest at 45%, and there are a few clustered around 25-30% (UK, Germany, Australia).

What about non-religious places? What is striking to me is how few of them have a big chunk of atheists - France leads the way at 26%, followed by the Netherlands at 22%. Yet, there are a lot that fall between 10% and 20% - UK, Sweden, Spain, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Canada, Belgium, and Australia. The number of agnostics in a country tend to be strongly related to the share who are atheists, too.

But then there are the outlier countries. For instance, 68% of Malaysians say they are Muslim. Nearly 90% of the country of Greece are part of the Orthodox Christian faith and 38% of the Japanese say they are Buddhists. And I would be remiss to not point out the incredible religious diversity of Singapore, where no religious group makes up more than 30% of the population. It’s 17% Protestant or Catholic, 21% Muslim, 29% Buddhist, and 23% non-religious. That’s a whole lot of larger religious groups at relative parity in terms of size.

But I wanted to move a step beyond that and focus on some other really intriguing questions about the role that religion plays in the personal lives of each respondent. And also how important they think religion is in terms of a well-functioning society. Let me start by showing you how people responded to the question, “How important is religion in your life?”

From this angle, Australia is the least religious country in the dataset. Nearly half of folks say that religion is “not at all important” (47%), but don’t miss out on Japan. While only 30% say that religion is not important at all, another 37% chose the “not too important” option. That puts it on par with Australia. Almost all the European countries fall between 30% and 40% on this metric. The country that is easily the most religious from this data is Malaysia with 84% of folks living there saying that religion is “very important” to them. That’s double the rate of the next country - Singapore where just 42% chose the ‘most important’ response option.

Of the eighteen countries in total, seven of them are more likely to say “somewhat” or “very important” than they are to choose the bottom two response options. There’s a nice mix of regions there, though. You have Italy and Greece, but also Israel, Singapore and Malaysia. It’s just not so simple to say that one region of the world is really religious - it very much matters what country we are talking about.

Let’s take this a step further by looking at this religious importance question through the lens of age groups. What I am really interested in is tracking how quickly religion will continue to decline in the future in countries outside the United States. So, I calculated the share of each age group in each country that said that religion was not important all.

One thing I can say without a doubt - older people put a higher value on religion compared to younger folks. You can see that by looking at the 65 and older group. In most countries, less than 20% of those people say religion is not important at all. When you look at the younger age group, you can see the overall percentages are a whole lot higher. Religion is clearly fading in a macro-level sense.

What also stands out to me is that there isn’t a huge jump from one age bucket to the next, it’s just a really incremental slide away from religious importance. For instance, in the Netherlands, the percentages go like this: 47% → 42% → 36% → 29%. Every successive age category is five or six points less likely to place no importance on religion. Generally speaking, the trend is maintained in this data. Inside each country, younger people are less religious than older people. It's just that the baseline tends to be different based on the overall religiosity of the country.

But to simplify this analysis, I wanted to show you the share who said religion is not important at all in the youngest age group and the oldest age group side by side per country. This really illustrates how much religion is declining across generations in some places.

One interesting observation: there are two countries in which the younger generation is actually more religious than the older generation. In Belgium, 32% of retired folks say religion is not important at all. It’s only 27% of people between the ages of 18-29 years old. Maybe there’s a religious resurgence in Belgium. That’s not something I have seen reported on by any outlets. Also, young Israelis are slightly more religious than the oldest Israelis. The difference here is just two percentage points, but it’s also worth noting that the country of Israel is a whole lot more religious than the average country in this dataset.

Which countries are experiencing huge drops? We have to talk about South Korea. Among South Koreans who are at least 65 years old, just 10% say religion is not important at all. Among the youngest adults in that country a whopping 42% place no importance on religion. That 32-point gap is the largest in the dataset. The other countries that have a huge generational gap are Japan at 25 points while Hungary and Spain are at 23 points.

What strikes me also is looking at the countries that are the least religious in the aggregate. Take note of Australia and Sweden. In both those cases, young adults are incredibly irreligious. But it’s not like the older generations in those countries are highly devout, though. For instance, 38% of Australians who are 65 years old or more say religion is not at all important. If you compared just the oldest Australians to the entire sample from every other country, they would only trail Sweden and the Netherlands for the mantle of ‘least religious.’ It’s quite stunning just how irreligious Australia is when looking at this data.

There’s another battery of questions in this data that I thought were incredibly telling about how people in these countries see the importance of religion to a functioning society. Respondents were asked how important a bunch of issues were to being good members of a society. There were questions about voting, reducing climate change, joining demonstrations, paying attention to current events, and getting the COVID-19 vaccine. I am showing you the share who said that each activity was very important across all 18 countries.

The activity that clearly scores at the top in most countries is voting. But there are others that also tend to do well. For instance, reducing climate change was seen as very important by huge chunks of folks in European countries like Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, and Italy. It’s fascinating to see which countries don’t put a ton of emphasis on environmental concerns. In Israel, just 28% of respondents said it was very important. There was also significant positive sentiment toward getting the COVID-19 vaccine. In most countries, a majority of folks said that being vaccinated was very important to being a good member of a society.

Where does regular religious attendance rank across these countries? In short - very low. There is a total of one country where it scores in the top 3 activities and that’s Malaysia, which as you can recall, was easily the most religious country in this survey. In many countries, the share who say church attendance is a vital part of being a good citizen is below 20%. In Japan it’s the absolute lowest at just 5%, followed by Sweden at 6% and Australia at 7%. It’s fair to say that they really don’t value religious service attendance in those countries.

Let me just zero in on that question about the role of church attendance in being a good member of society. This time I calculated the share of each country who said that religious attendance was not important at all. What we find here is pretty similar to the prior graph. Over half of Australians say that attending church is not at all important to being a good member of society, it’s 50% of Swedes and 45% of Spaniards. In fact, most European countries in this data score at least 40% on this metric.

The countries at the bottom of the graph are Malaysia and Singapore. I think it’s interesting to compare them to the country of Japan, which scores in the top five. Just because these countries come from the same broad region of the world doesn’t mean that they have the same general approach to religion. That’s also true when comparing a country like Poland to most of its European neighbors. Poland is still a strongly religious country - which stands in stark contrast to other countries in the region.

It’s always nice to broaden our perspective and try to understand the contours of religion outside the United States. There’s a clear sentiment in a lot of these countries that religion is just not an essential pillar to a functioning society. It ranks near the bottom when compared to things like staying abreast of current events or tackling climate change in a lot of countries in this dataset.

This data clearly points to the conclusion that in the case of almost all of these countries in the survey that they will continue to move away from religion in the decades to come. Young adults are much less religious than their parents and grandparents and generational replacement will continue to secularize these countries for the rest of the 21st century. Whether Belgium is just an outlier or represents a reversal of this trend, it is too early to tell.

==

Reminder: an "agnostic" is an atheist who won't admit they're an atheist.

[aphfanficwriters]

Monthly Members' Fics — Sep 2024

Portbra Confession by FangsofLightening (Brazil/Portugal) There was one last thing Brazil had to do to finish celebrating his independence. However it ended, it couldn't be left unsaid any longer. Title says it all really

It Was Always You — Chapter 1 by Delgumo (America/Canada) Matthew visits Alfred's apartment to drink on his birthday. Alfred confesses his feelings in a way that will change their relationship forever. Matthew, distraught, denies his advances but Alfred refuses to give up.

On the Cusp of Blooming by smuttyandabsurd (Indonesia/Netherlands) Netherlands surprises Indonesia with an unannounced visit.

Breaking the Dragon Head — Chapter 5 by NashTea (Fishandnear) (China/Russia) Set against the backdrop of illegal and deprave scientific advancement, where debauchery runs rampant; Ivan Braginsky, inner circle member of a secret criminal organisation dubbed as "World Meeting" have finally made his move onto the founder, Wang Yao. Ivan seeks to crack apart everything Wang Yao strive to hide and destroy in his past, haunting him as the ghost he have forgotten. Disgruntled associates forcibly recruited under Ivan's team have started stirring too, waiting for just the right time to bring Ivan down.

The Convocation of Kings — Chapter 8: The After Years by ChibiDashie (England, America, China, Germany, North Italy, Japan, Austria, Hungary, Russia, France, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Original Characters, Minor Characters) A followup to "The Joker's Dreadnought" Time has passed since the great razing of the Spades Kingdom, which killed hundreds, if not thousands, of her own citizens and tore a hole within the hearts of the ones chosen by the Gods and their people. Despite this, the Spades have rebuilt what was lost to them from this great catastrophe. One day, the Spades invite their neighboring kingdoms for a great fête to celebrate the kingdom's recovery while honoring those lost in the calamity. Little do they know that one of the most revered idols of the Spades, the Faerie Queen Titania, traveled to the Spades as a messenger on behalf of the Dragon King, Bahamut. When the nobles convene to diplomatic talks between man and beast, there are so many more mysteries unraveled within the meeting, that even the noble ones chosen by the Gods begin to question the knowledge passed down to them for generations. Who is right? Who is wrong? What is a truth and what is a lie?

Stolen from a movie by Anonymous (America, Germany) (The idea, the idea was "stolen"). It happened out of nowhere; not everybody came back.

Sunder — Chapter 20 by Delgumo (America/Canada/Russia, America/England, Lithuania/Poland) Serial killers Alfred and Matthew just want to elude capture and remain free to commit their ghastly crimes. The arrival of a new killer into their New York territory gets them noticed by some of the area's nastiest organizations and their comfortable life is harshly shaken.

[abysscronica]

Nerdy 2024 summary

Once again, here's the yearly summary no one asked for!

Anime

The Boy and the Heron (movie) ★☆☆☆☆

The Wind Rises (movie) ★★★☆☆

Demon Slayer (season 4) ★★★☆☆

Violet Evergarden (dropped!) ★☆☆☆☆

Beastars (season 3 pt.1) ★★★★☆

Manga & Comics

One Piece ★★★☆☆

My Hero Academia ★★☆☆☆

Chainsaw Man ★★☆☆☆

Vinland Saga ★★★★☆

Books

Orange is the New Black - Piper Kerman ★★★☆☆

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy ★★★☆☆

Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo ★☆☆☆☆

Il Corsaro Nero - Emilio Salgari ★★★☆☆

The Call of Cthulhu - H.P. Lovecraft ★★☆☆☆

The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett ★★★☆☆

Cry of the Kalahari - Mark & Delia Owens ★★★★☆

The Wendigo - Algernon Blackwood ★★★☆☆

Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore - Luigi Pirandello ★★★☆☆

Series

Avatar - The Legend of Aang ★★☆☆☆

Gilmore Girls (season 7) ★☆☆☆☆

Gossip Girl ★☆☆☆☆

Shōgun ★★★★★

Hazbin Hotel ★★★★★

Helluva Boss ★★★★★

The Witcher (season 3) ★★☆☆☆

Echo ★☆☆☆☆

Sex Education (season 4) ★★☆☆☆

Invincible (season 2) ★★★☆☆

3 Body Problem ★★☆☆☆

Downton Abbey ★★★★☆

Iwájú ★★☆☆☆

Fallout ★★★☆☆

Pixar's SparkShorts ★★☆☆☆

Baby Reindeer ★★☆☆☆

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ★★★★☆

Angel ★★☆☆☆ (3x stars for season 5)

Marvel What If's (season 2) ★★☆☆☆

Geek Girl ★★☆☆☆

We were the lucky ones ★★★★★

The Boys (season 4) ★★☆☆☆

Solar Opposites ★★★☆☆

Emily in Paris (season 4) ★★☆☆☆

Fleabag ★★★☆☆

The People vs. O.J. Simpson ★★★★☆

The Perfect Couple ★☆☆☆☆

Expats ★★★☆☆

Those About to Die ★★☆☆☆

The Rings of Power (season 2) ★★★☆☆

The Legend of Vox Machina (season 3) ★★★☆☆

Arcane (season 2) ★★★★☆

Agatha All Along ★★★★☆

La Palma ★★☆☆☆

Squid Game (season 2) ★★★★☆

Movies

Dune part 2 ★★★★☆

Apocalypse Now ★★☆☆☆

The Marvels ★★☆☆☆

Godzilla x Kong: a New Empire ★★★☆☆

Wish ★★☆☆☆

Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse ★★★★☆

Nimona ★★★☆☆

Godzilla Minus One ★★★☆☆

Under Paris ★★★☆☆

Inside Out 2 ★★★★☆

The Menu ★★★☆☆

Elemental ★★★☆☆

Turning Red ★★☆☆☆

Lightyear ★★☆☆☆

Deadpool & Wolverine ★★★★★

The New Mutants ★★☆☆☆

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ★☆☆☆☆

The Creator ★★☆☆☆

Enemy of the State ★★★☆☆

Super Mario Bros. The Movie ★★☆☆☆

Alien series (minus Romulus) ★★★☆☆

Predator series ★★★☆☆

Oppenheimer ★★★☆☆

The Mountain between Us ★★☆☆☆

Travels

Italy (Apulia)

The Netherlands (Amsterdam)

[keepxsolxinxsolxinvictus]

Politico

European Greens Ask Jill Stein to pull out of US election to prevent Trump victory

November 1, 2024

By Jakob Hanke Vela and Zoya Sheftalovich

“The race for the White House is too close for comfort,” write parties from around Europe, calling on Stein to throw her support behind Democrat Kamala Harris.

Green politicians from across Europe on Friday called on U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to withdraw from the race for the White House and endorse Democrat Kamala Harris instead.

“We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House,” Green parties from countries including Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, Poland and Ukraine said in a statement, which was shared with POLITICO ahead of publication.

Stein is on the ballot in almost every critical U.S. state and polls between 1.1 and 1.4 percent, meaning her candidacy could cost Harris critical votes in the tight race for the White House.

“Right now, the race for the White House is too close for comfort,” the statement said. “We call on Jill Stein to withdraw from the race, and endorse Kamala Harris for the presidency of the United States.”

But with the election just days away — voters head to the polls on Nov. 5 — and the relationship between Europe’s Greens and Stein’s party strained, the plea seems unlikely to sway her.

Friday’s statement from the European Greens highlighted the “divergent values and policies” of the European and U.S. Greens, noting “there is no link between the two as the US Greens are no longer a member of the global organization of Green parties.”

The statement attributes the “fissure” to the American party’s “relationship with parties with authoritarian leaders, and serious policy differences on key issues including Russia’s full scale assault on Ukraine.”

Stein was criticized for attending a 2015 dinner in Moscow sponsored by Russian state television network RT, where she sat at the same table as President Vladimir Putin.

[umlewis]

lewis hamilton discusses the decision that defines his remarkable career [part 2/2] - august 26, 2024

[umseb]

Vettel Backs Schumacher For F1 Comeback With Williams

Mick Schumacher has been kinked with a return to the grid to replace a struggling Logan Sargeant at Williams.

Four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has asserted Mick Schumacher is deserving of an F1 comeback at Williams. Following Logan Sargeant's heavy crash during FP3 at Zandvoort, reports emerged that the American driver could be dropped ahead of the Italian Grand Prix this weekend. Sargeant's time with Williams was already confirmed to be numbered prior to the incident as the Grove-based squad announced during the summer break that he would be replaced in 2025 by Carlos Sainz. However, in the wake of his latest difficult weekend, his exit could come even sooner - with ex-Haas driver Schumacher emerging as a candidate. Vettel has backed the 25-year-old to step into the seat in place of Sargeant. "If it were my decision, I would tend to favour Mick," Vettel told Bild. "Of course, I'm a bit biased because he's my friend, but in my eyes he's the best solution. Mick has two years of experience in Formula 1 as a driver, has a very broad technical insight thanks to his current role [as Mercedes reserve driver]. He knows the Mercedes engine and has matured a lot as a person since leaving Haas."

Vettel states people have 'wrong image' of Schumacher

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has also voiced support for Schumacher in light of the possibility of a return to the grid; however, Red Bull reserve Liam Lawson has also emerged as a contender after Christian Horner confirmed the team would be open to loaning out the New Zealander. Vettel pinpointed that Schumacher's knowledge of the remaining tracks on the calendar (bar Las Vegas) should place him as the favourite. "Mick is a good racing driver," Vettel added. "He's won Formula 2 and Formula 3. That's no mean feat. Now he has matured even more. I'm sure that he could impress at Williams, especially as, unlike other candidates, he knows the Formula 1 driver line-up and the circuits. That's a big advantage. I hope he gets the chance and can show the world what he's capable of. Mick has been unfairly branded because of his two years at Haas. Of course, he made mistakes, but the car wasn't competitive. Many people have the wrong image of him."

[jonnylovers-in-neverland]

Coldplay’s Self-Help Pop

Chris Martin, the band’s front man, discusses reading Rumi, making music like an apple tree grows apples, and the band’s new album, “Moon Music.”

An interview by Amanda Petrusich (September 30, 2024)

On a recent afternoon in Malibu, Chris Martin, the front man of Coldplay, was enjoying a brief pause between tour dates. “We have breaks, but only in the way that Serena Williams has a banana between sets,” he said, pulling his bare feet up under him. Martin, who is forty-seven, was wearing an emerald-green sweater featuring a picture of the earth, affixed with a tiny white button that said “LOVE.” Later on, when he took the sweater off, he revealed a blue T-shirt with the same button. I wondered, but did not ask, how many of them he owned. It felt indicative of Martin’s quintessence at this particular moment: LOVE, layered ad infinitum.

Martin was in the midst of converting an old property into a studio and the de-facto Coldplay HQ. The complex was beset by scrubby clay slopes dotted with sagebrush, California aster, evergreen oaks. Martin likes to send visitors home with unlabelled jars of fresh honey from an apiary nearby. We sat at a picnic table overlooking a meadow. In conversation, Martin is engaging, magnetic. When I apologized for putting my sunglasses on—the light had suddenly shifted—he grinned: “No, I love it. It sort of flips the script. We’ll talk about your album in a minute.” We’d been discussing the gurgling anxiety inherent to any romantic entanglement—the fear of starting to need someone. It’s an idea that arises in “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” the swooning first single from “Moon Music,” the band’s tenth record, which comes out in October. “I know that this could feel like that / But I just can’t stop / Let my defenses drop,” Martin sings in the opening verse.

“There are two methods that humans use to survive,” Martin said. “One is calcification and sequestering and separating: my stuff, my tribe, my this, my that. And then the other half is so open to everything. Those people fall in love a lot more, but they also have a lot more heartbreak.” I guessed that he was in the latter camp. “I’m so open it’s ridiculous,” he said. “But, if you’re not afraid of rejection, it’s the most liberating thing in the world.” Well, sure—but who’s not afraid of rejection? “Of course,” Martin said, laughing. “To tell someone you love them, or to release an album, or to write a book, or to make a cake, or to cook your wife a meal—it’s terrifying. But if I tell this person I love them and they don’t love me back, I still gave them the gift of knowing someone loves them.” Martin noticed a slightly stricken look on my face. “I’m giving this advice to myself, too,” he added. “Don’t think I’ve got it mastered.”

Coldplay, which formed in 1997, in London, has sold more than a hundred million records. (Besides Martin, the band includes the guitarist Jonny Buckland, the bassist Guy Berryman, and the drummer Will Champion.) The ongoing tour for “Music of the Spheres,” the band’s prior release, has sold ten million tickets and made close to a billion dollars, becoming the highest-grossing rock tour of the past forty years. It has broken attendance records in countries including Romania, Singapore, Brazil, Colombia, the Netherlands, Chile, Portugal, Sweden, France, Indonesia, Italy, and Greece. (When I brought this up, Martin was quick to note how colonialism has enabled his success: “We’re only able to play in so many countries because people who spoke English did such terrible things all around the world.”)

“Moon Music” was produced by Max Martin, the Swedish hitmaker behind twenty-seven No. 1 singles. Martin described Max Martin’s technique as “a mix of mathematics and fluidity, of real structure and being totally open,” adding, with a kind of proud certainty, “He’s our producer now.” Martin also confirmed that Coldplay will make two more albums and then stop recording, though the band will continue to tour. “Yesterday, I went to see the L.A. Philharmonic. All those songs were released two hundred years ago,” he said. “It still felt extremely vibrant. So perhaps there’s a point where new material is not essential to make an amazing show.”

Martin, like many successful songwriters, explains the work as a kind of divine channelling: a song appears and he receives it. “If you’re lucky enough to have the space to let the music talk to you, and through you, then you can relax a bit,” he told me. “I’m just sort of doing what I’m told, the way an apple tree grows apples.” He said that establishing the Coldplay catalogue as finite has been liberating for the band: “By knowing there’s an end point, nobody is phoning it in. We only have two more chances. And most of the songs already exist, in a skeletal form.” I asked if that last day in the studio might be sad for him—a final take, the feeling of knowing that something is over. I find ending things so excruciating, I told him, I’d often rather just go down with the ship. He gave me a sympathetic look. “I think it will feel amazing,” he said.

At some point, Coldplay became—how else do I say it?—motivational. In recent years, it has felt less like a band than like an engine of unrelenting positivity, a high-grade confetti cannon straight to the face. The shift started around 2014, with the release of “Ghost Stories,” which contained little rancor or moodiness, fewer nods to Echo and the Bunnymen, less audible guitar. Coldplay, once skewered by critics for being too plaintive and self-pitying, was now broadcasting the opposite message: everything is magic. It reminded me, in some circuitous way, of “Attitude,” the punk band Bad Brains’ one-minute opus from 1982, in which the vocalist H.R. barks, “Hey, we got that P.M.A.!”—a reference to “positive mental attitude,” a phrase coined in 1937 by the author and probable con man Napoleon Hill. He was peddling a notion that we today refer to as manifestation: “Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve.” But Bad Brains still had fury, bite, edge. For whatever reason, Coldplay had willfully neutralized itself.

In Malibu, when I needled Martin about that change—what happened, exactly, to the yearning and discord of “Parachutes” or “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” the band’s first two releases?—he attributed it both to a burgeoning interest in Rumi, the thirteenth-century Sufi mystic, and to his experience working with the visionary electronic musician Brian Eno, who produced “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends,” Coldplay’s fourth album. Martin said that Eno’s purity and sense of wonder had helped him “completely abandon the concept of trying to be cool. He came in with the enthusiasm of a nine-year-old for everything.” Mostly, though, Martin sees the change as incremental, organic. “It’s not like it was black-and-white, and then became color,” he said. “The first song on the first album is called ‘Don’t Panic.’ There’s also a song called ‘Everything’s Not Lost,’ which is exactly the same message that we’re singing now. Just sung by a slightly less experienced, more insecure, younger person.”

Though he likely wouldn’t frame it this way, Martin appears motivated by a kind of vocational mandate. He occupies a rarefied position, insofar as it’s actually possible for him to make the world a little less fractured, for a couple of hours, seventy-five thousand people at a time. This requires obliterating his ego, and accepting that a lot of people will find what he’s doing—bouncing around a stage covered with rainbows, singing lines such as “In the end it’s just love,” as he does on “One World,” which closes “Moon Music”—unbearably corny. In a way, the messaging has to be flat to translate so widely. On “Clocks,” a lush and tumbling track from “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” Martin sings about grappling with his own fallibility and bafflement, of trying his best to be of service in the world: “Am I part of the cure, or am I part of the disease?” His voice swoons, flutters, dissipates. “You are,” he answers. It’s a strange lyric, but I’ve always appreciated its strangeness: cure, disease, good, bad, hurtful, benevolent. You are.

These days, Martin describes the band’s message as “No one is more or less special than anyone else.” He went on, “The reason I’m able to say that is because we’re one of the few groups of people who get to actually see it. We travel everywhere. What Ryszard Kapuściński would call ‘the Other’ is not real.” I asked him what it felt like to stand onstage in, say, Kuala Lumpur, or Helsinki, or Tokyo, and hear the crowd bellowing his lyrics back to him, to one another, to themselves, to the air. “It feels like the answer,” he said. “It feels like: This is where humans actually work. It has nothing to do with us as a band. There are points where, hopefully, nothing exists except ‘We’re all just singing this together.’ ”

Ultimately, Martin hopes that by providing solace, and a place to unify, Coldplay can actualize some change in the world. I thought this sounded idealistic, even quixotic, until I considered all the ways in which I had been made better by songs. “If you’re able to live as yourself and understand who you are, whatever that might mean in terms of your gender or sexuality or what you like to eat or where you like to live or whether you like table tennis or riding donkeys . . . if you’re allowed to be yourself, would the world be as aggressive as it is?” Martin asked. “My feeling is no, I don’t think it would. I think much of the violence and conflict comes from repression, suppression, unreleased damage.”

Eventually, the air started to cool. Martin brought me a sweatshirt. Our conversation wound toward more existential matters: people we’d lost, what it meant, what it didn’t mean. “Death is in our songs a lot,” Martin said. “Maybe as a way of encouraging living. And also faith—the idea that, well, it’s O.K. It’s all O.K., isn’t it? I’m sure that’s crossed your mind.” The sun was beginning to ease into the Pacific. We sat for a moment in the hazy yellow pre-dusk. The air was parched, salty, soft. “Everything is perfect, of course,” Martin said. “Everything’s as it’s supposed to be.”

[ummick]

Schumacher and Lawson Main Options If Williams Replaces Sargeant For Monza

Williams is evaluating whether to stick with or replace Logan Sargeant after another big accident over Formula 1's Dutch GP weekend

Mick Schumacher and Liam Lawson have emerged as leading contenders for Williams if the Grove-based squad elects to make a driver change from this weekend's Italian Grand Prix. Williams team boss James Vowles is understood to be evaluating his options in the wake of another big accident for Logan Sargeant at Zandvoort last weekend. Sargeant, who is being dropped by the team at the end of this year in favour of Carlos Sainz, made a mistake in Saturday morning's wet final free practice session, dipping his right-hand wheels onto the grass at turn 4. That error meant he lost control of his car and spun at high speed into the barriers on the outside of the circuit, destroying many of the latest upgrades that Williams had brought to the Dutch GP weekend. Big accidents for Sargeant, including in Japan where he also made an error in practice, have triggered spare parts problems this season, and some have viewed the American's costly accident at Zandvoort as a potential last straw. Vowles told German publication Auto Motor Und Sport in Zandvoort that Williams needed to make a decision on what to do for the rest of the season, but did not want to rush it while emotions were high straight after the crash. It is understood that Vowles has sounded out rival team bosses to see who could be available should he decide that he wants someone else in alongside Alexander Albon for the rest of the season. One logical option is Schumacher, who is reserve driver for the Mercedes operation whose engines Williams run. Vowles is friends with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, and putting a deal together would be quite straightforward. However, one complication could be Schumacher's WEC commitments for Alpine, with the German currently scheduled to race in Austin this weekend. The other two remaining WEC events also clash with the Azerbaijan and Brazilian Grands Prix. Schumacher has said in the past that he would prioritise any F1 race chance over his sportscar efforts, but a call on a potential Monza chance would need to be taken before he traveled to the United States. Speaking at the Dutch GP, Wolff himself said he would like to see Schumacher get another opportunity in an F1 race cockpit, with the German's only hope of securing a 2025 seat now resting on Sauber. Wolff said: "I would very much hope that Mick gets the chance, because we haven't seen the real Mick. You know, winning F4, F3 and F2, and then you are underperforming in F1... I think he deserves a chance. The opportunity with Williams is something that we would be cheering for. But this is James Vowles' decision." Red Bull reserve Lawson is another option, with the New Zealander being lined up for a return to full-time F1 competition by his bosses for 2025, whether at the RB squad or its sister Red Bull operation. An opportunity to see out the season for Williams would give Red Bull more time to evaluate the performances of Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo ahead of a decision about next year's pairings, while also helping get Lawson back up to speed after his run of appearances for AlphaTauri in 2023. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has said that if the deal was right for his team, then he would be open to an arrangement with Williams. "It would depend on which terms and if we needed him back that we could have him back quite quickly," he said. "But certainly, if they needed a driver next weekend [at Monza], we'd be open to that. But that's a Williams question rather than one for us to answer."

[meademalove]

First full game back for Viv ❤️

Vivianne Miedema of Holland during the European Championship qualifying match for women between the Netherlands (w) and Italy (w) at the Fortuna Sittard Stadium on July 12, 2024 in Sittard, Netherlands. ANP BART STOUTJESDIJK (Photo via Getty Images)