Finally, we arrived at the conclusion that its health, and not the economy, stupid! We are faced with the evidence that the way we envision health care affects everything. The limitations of the current approach unfold in most tragic ways.

From a political point of view, the pandemic revealed that the promise of safety does not hold. Citizens cannot trust the system anymore to protect them. It is not the fault of the incumbents and public employees. It is the entire system of production that loses legitimacy. It does not correspond to our needs and it does not protect us from such dangers as a pandemic.

When I say mode of production, it is not about surgical masks and ventilators. Certainly, some may have wondered whether it would be in the national interest to have national suppliers for medical equipment so that they can be mobilized in the times of crisis. However, the questions about how to respond to the demand for hospital supplies are irrelevant when it is too late. They just show that there were many more questions that needed to be pondered upon before the outbreak of the crisis.

We have arrived at the limits of masculine, technocratic utopias. Living in the world of progress does not protect us from the problems of developing countries. The belief in medicine and vaccination exposes us to sudden and unexpected plagues. Pharmacological approaches can step in only after it is already too late.

What is a masculine utopia and why does it not work?

The theories about economy of scale convinced many that centralization in production is a good thing and a sign of progress. If you calculate the revenues for the few, maybe it does make sense for them but at high costs for the entire population.

COVID-19 sheds light on the limitations of the centralized supply. Amazon employees enjoying limited autonomy in the operation are forced to overwork, which undermines their immune system, and then they cannot protect themselves. Due to lack of adequate measures, they put themselves at risk and their families respectively. The damages to the local businesses that Amazon has induced now reveal themselves. There is more potential supply in neighborhoods and in conditions that the owners can control because they are in direct relation with their employees and customers rather than seeing them as an expendable crowd. If there would be a more de-centralized distribution system, there would be more autonomy in undertaking protective measures and finding creative solutions. More direct relations induce more care for another because of the inter-dependence between all parties.

The chicken processor Tyson, is reported to use a peracetic acid an antimicrobial as a replacement for antibiotics formerly fed to animals. Workers whose task is to spray this substance on carcasses experienced eye irritation, sore throats, headaches and sinus infections. A scientist suspects that it may damage lungs in long term exposure. An estimated 250,000 workers work with this sterilizer. The corona virus is particularly dangerous for them. Again, the perils of mass production are revealed.

When it comes to the necessities such as food, there are so many more questions to be asked in the context of a plague like this one. The lack of healthy food undermines immune systems. Caloric value, engineered by mass agriculture and centralized production, does not solve the problem, it only helps us survive another day. We cannot expect our bodies to deal with a malignant virus if they already have to deal with poisons in McDonalds meals. Holistic thinking about food in the case of health and production systems is noticeably absent in technocratic utopias although it has been obvious for dozens of years that food matters.*

Imagine that each citizen would be embedded in a decentralized network of food supply, which I propose in my feminine utopia. Self-organization of a part of the production process or stable long term relations with food producers promise more resilience in the times of a plague. It is easier to adapt the production process to include new safety measures. For example, the co-producing peers may decide for separate shifts so that less contact is necessary. In Washington, DC, I participated in a network linking consumers and producers. We took our orders from a backyard of one of the organizers.

Many diseases treated by the medical system are preventable. We do not need to handle the consequences of obesity, stress, or loneliness but rather eradicate the factors contributing to them. If there would be more systemic reflection in thinking about prevention, hospitals would be available for real emergencies. This is what medicine should be for acute cases. The rest can be solved by changing the conditions of living.

The philosophical underpinnings of the current system prevent the adequate dealing with the pandemic. It would make so much sense to get food supply under state control and redistribute daily meals to those vulnerable, while maintaining the operation of businesses. Giving temporary accommodation to those who may otherwise infect others, for example, the staff working in elder care would further protect the most vulnerable. This, however, would mean that food and housing are commons. Instead, governments are ready to pay for technological rather than subsistence measures, which does not touch upon the dogmas of private property.

The ongoing environmental damage is predicted to make humans vulnerable to further plagues. When biodiversity is on the wane, viruses have one particular species to live on humans.

We should already start preparing for the next pandemic. This time, it may be made in India. In the region of Hyderabad, the pharmacological companies leak waste into ground and water. We cannot imagine the viruses that are going to grow in this way. Using antibiotics in excess further contributes to strengthening viruses. One of the causes is the irresponsible prescription by doctors, which induces the development of viruses resistant to treatment antimicrobial resistance. In India, 60,000 babies a year are estimated to die because of this phenomenon. The main contribution to generating superbugs is most probably the practice of farmers of feeding antibiotics to animals as a way of making them fatter. Further imbalance in the eco-system is caused by irresponsible prescription of anti-depressants. Drugs in human waste enter the environment, which affects marine life by changing behavior of aquatic species and putting them in danger. In the UK, 7.3 million people were prescribed antidepressants in 2017-2018 according to The Guardian. In Australia, nearly one in ten adults takes anti-depressants.

These examples demonstrate that the cure in the hands of Big Pharma is actually worsening the health for all species. The future holds for us more stories of viruses and the limitations of masculine (dys)topias.

Naomi Klein warned that the quarantine may be used to increase the power of digital companies by strengthening the importance of their products and services in health and education. Coherent with her shock doctrine hypothesis that the periods of crisis are used by powerful actors to increase their power, she calls this shift the Screen New Deal. This development promises to further undermine the human resources in these crucial and understaffed services, whereas digital giants will accumulate more wealth.

Fortunately, there are other models than the centralized system of production. Initiatives within the framework of cosmolocalism have responded swiftly to the innovation needs of a response to Corona virus. Innovation in farming following the cosmolocal approach is implemented by Tzoumakers in Greece and LAtelier Paysan in France.** And lets not forget the growing movement of permaculture, community supported agriculture, buying clubs, consumer cooperatives, and small-scale farmers.

Katarzyna Gajewska, PhD, is an author and educator. You can contribute to her crowdfunding campaign to help publishing the feminine utopia Imagine a Sane Society or other forthcoming Creative Commons books. Listen to an excerpt! She does not want her work to benefit Amazon because she opposes its practices.

For more evidence of technocratic utopia disappointment, see Rutger Bregman (2017): Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

* Among earlier conceptualizations on the relation between food and immunity to tuberculosis, see: Weston Price (1938/2010): Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects. Oxford: Benediction Classics, p. 29. This book is in public domain.

Indian Parliament proposed restrictions in January 2020. Pharmacological industry representatives tried to water-down the constraints in March 2020. Andrew Wasley , Alexandra Heal , Madlen Davies (31 March 2020):Indian drug companies try to gut antibiotic pollution controls, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Aniruddha Ghosal (2018):This is Indias Action Plan to Battle Superbugs That Kill 60,000 Newborns Every Year, News 18.

Mike Mcrae (2018):Your Antidepressants Are Ending Up in The Environment, Bathing Fish in a Drug Soup, ScienceAlert.

Mya Frazier (2020): If one of us gets sick, we all get sick: the food workers on the coronavirus front line. The Guardian, 17 April.

Naomi Klein (2020):Screen New Deal: Under Cover of Mass Death, Andrew Cuomo Calls in the Billionaires to Build a High-Tech Dystopia. The Intercept, 8 May.

** Vasilis Kostakis and Chris Giotitsas (2020):Intervention Small and local are not only beautiful; they can be powerful, Antipode Online.

Featured image: By Ambrosius Holbein Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Collection http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/8855bx, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41822513

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Of Viruses and the Limits of Masculine (Dys)topias - Resilience

Anything with "technology convergence" and "climate change" in the same sentence captures my attention. Contextualize it in the "making or breaking of human civilization as we know it" and Im hooked and admittedly a tad skeptical.

Thats why I buckled up and dug into the recent 90-page report put forth by think tank RethinkX, co-founded by internationally recognized technologists and futurists Tony Seba and James Arbib. "Rethinking Humanity" makes the case that the convergence of key technologies is about to disrupt the five foundational sectors that underpin the global economy, and with them every major industry in the world.

Super heady stuff, to be sure.

The vision Seba and Arbib detail reads somewhat like a distant techno-utopia. But the vision they lay out isnt all that far off: Climate change solved and poverty eradicated within the next 15 years? Got my attention.

Given that Seba and Arbib have been impressively accurate over the past decade in predicting the speed and scale of technological disruption, I figured it was worth giving the analysis a closer look.

Focusing on the disruptive potential of emerging technologies in the information, energy, transportation, food and materials sectors, the report predicts that across all five and within the next 10 years we could see costs of key technologies fall by 10 times or more, production processes become 10 times more efficient, all while using 90 percent fewer natural resources and producing up to 100 times less waste.

What Seba and Arbib are calling the "fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history" isnt just a reframe of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which we know is underway and being enabled by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing. Indeed, many of their predictions will sound familiar to those conversant in technological change. But its not just the march of progress of individual technologies that will save us.

The report does not introduce this alluring vision as an absolute quite the contrary. Therein lies one big variable: Humans need to make it happen, and fast.

Instead, the report posits that we are on the cusp of the third age of humankind what they describe as "The Age of Freedom." This new era will be defined by a shift away from models of centralized extraction to localized creation; ones built, they say, not on coal, oil, steel, livestock and concrete, but on photons, electrons, DNA, molecules and qbits (a unit of quantum information).

They predict, for example, that the combination of cheap solar and grid storage will transform energy systems into entirely distributed models of self-generation in which electrons are virtually free. And that as the widespread adoption of autonomous electric vehicles replaces car ownership with on-demand ride sharing, well completely reimagine and redesign our roads, infrastructure and cityscapes.

Their vision for the future of food, outlined in greater detail in another report last year, predicts that traditional agriculture soon will be replaced by industrial-scale brewing of single-celled organisms, genetically modified to produce all the nutrients we need (say what?). Similar processes, combined with additive manufacturing and nanotechnologies, will allow us to create all the materials necessary to build infrastructure for the modern world from the molecule up, rather than by continuing to extract scarce and depleting natural resources.

These transformations mirror, in many ways, what weve seen already in the information sector in which the decentralization enabled by the internet has reduced barriers to communication and knowledge in ways unimaginable 25 years ago.

What may sound like a pipe dream is what Seba and Arbib claim could be a lifestyle akin to the "American Dream" in terms of energy consumption, transport needs, nutritional value, housing and education accessible to anyone for as little as $250 a month by 2030.

To be clear, the report does not introduce this alluring vision of The Age of Freedom as an absolute quite the contrary. Therein lies one big variable: Humans need to make it happen, and fast. Will the public embrace self-driving cars and genetically modified foods, among other innovations? Futurists have been wrong before about such things. (Werent we all supposed to be getting around in flying cars by now?)

"We can use the upcoming convergence of technology disruptions to solve the greatest challenges of humankind inequality, poverty, environmental destruction if, and only if, we learn from history, recognize what is happening, understand the implications and make critical choices now; because these very same technologies that hold such promise are also accelerating civilization's collapse," Seba said.

We can use the upcoming convergence of technology disruptions to solve the greatest challenges of humankind inequality, poverty, environmental destruction if, and only if, we learn from history ...

Indeed, we face an epic choice.

But, are utopia or dystopia really our only options? Is framing the path forward in a binary win-or-lose scenario actually accurate, let alone helpful for the business leaders, policy makers and citizens in whose hands such a complex set of decisions rest today? And what about the millions of people without access to jobs, food, housing or healthcare right now? Where do they fit into this grand, seemingly idyllic plan?

The report outlines a set of recommendations which, in many ways, seem as unlikelyas the vision theyre intended to enable. Giving individuals ownership of data rights, scaling new models for community ownership of energy and transportation networks, and allowing states and cities autonomy on policies such as immigration, taxation and public expenditure, for example, take time.

The rapid reimagining and restructuring of what they call our societys fundamental "Organizing System" is no small feat. And the report seems to gloss over many messy realities of how social change actually occurs.

Still, theres something compelling here. Regardless whetherSeba and Arbibs techno-utopian dream materializes in the ways theyve outlined, the report offers compelling ideas for building a more robust, resilient and equitable society than weve ever seen. It's certainly good fodder as we enter a decade that will, without question, be defined by great disruption and already is.

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Are we on the cusp of the 'Age of Freedom'? | Greenbiz - GreenBiz

Emily Jablon and students from the Binghamton Hosuing Authority are creating a mosaic for Columbus Park in Binghamton.

How to cope, stay sharp and fit and committed absent competitive baseball?

Ryan Clark is a regular in the weight room and pitching tunnels of the Bo Dome. Michael Osinski is wearing out that pitching machine firing sizzlers in the direction of his bat. Justin Topa figured, why not go ahead and build a backyard mound?

That trio from Broome County is among the masses of minor leaguers dealt a summer devoid of baseball. The three started at their organizations respective spring training facilities only to be shooed away in concert with the coronavirus outbreak.

Clark is a Johnson City native who pitches in the Los Angeles Angels organization, Osinski a Vestal High alum and corner infielder in the Boston Red Sox chain, and Topa a Chenango Valley graduate and pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

Ryann Clark of Johnson City, a pitcher in the Angels organization, is among minor leaguers from Broome County whose careers are on hold.(Photo: Provided)

All were hopeful, eager, rip-roarin ready, until

Osinski received a text while gassing up his vehicle in Fort Myers, Florida, around supper hour that March evening. It said, everyone come to the field and grab your stuff because were sending everyone home. I packed my stuff and left Fort Myers around 8 that night.

Clark absorbed the news from MLB Network while getting his day started in the weight room in the Angels Tempe, Arizona, headquarters.

Topa was recipient of an email on a Thursday that informed the Brewers would be postponing all activities through the weekend. Then, literally Friday afternoon it was, Heres your flight home, he said.

Osinski, wholl turn 25 on August 4, is a fourth-year professional long on versatility. Hed played mostly third base, some first base and in abbreviated spring training was mixed in at second and acquainted to the corner outfield positions. He was coming off a 2019 season interrupted by a broken bone in his hand, incurred while batting in his sixth game of the season. Notably, he finished that game pre-diagnosis, in fact even grabbed a base hit.

Michael Osinski, Vestal High grad, in 2019 with Triple-A Pawtucket.(Photo: Provided)

The whole baseball world is in the same situation so you cant really look at it as a negative, he said. At this point you have to find something you can take advantage of when we come back. You have to get better any way possible, youve got to get something positive out of it no matter what. You cant go backward, you have to be moving forward.

Clark, 26 and a fifth-round draft choice of the Atlanta Braves in 2015, was primed as primed could be for his sixth professional season.

Its definitely frustrating, not in an anger way, he said. With no minor league season, people can get really upset about that or whatever. Im still happy because I still have a job playing baseball. They released a ton of guys, there were two waves of cuts. Im thankful the Angels think highly enough of me to keep me around.

The most frustrating part is, Im still continuing with my development, trying to get better every day. Ive been putting on live ABs here with other pro pitchers, some college guys. Were facing professional hitters and other college guys who arent with a big-league team.

This is the best Ive feltever. My velocity is right where I want it to be, my off-speed stuff is right where I want it. So the most frustrating part is, no matter how well I do right now, no one can see it. Like if this is the year where everything clicks, a really good year to set me up for next year, there is no record of it.

Similarly, there was much promise attached to an eighth professional season for 29-year-old Topa.

I think most frustrating for me is knowing how prepared I was going into the season, he said. I felt really well in spring training, I was fortunate enough to be what they call a major league backup, so I was at pretty much every major league spring training game this year and I ended up pitching in three or four. Its one of those things where theyd bring 3-4 guys to every game and if they hit their pitch limit or something happens, then these minor league guys will go in and help cover some innings.

Justin Topa, a Chenango Valley High graduate, doing work in 2019 with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers.(Photo: Provided)

Last game, velocity was there, arm felt great, I was making a pretty good impression with the big-league staff. So, for everything to shut down and to have the minor league season canceled, thats the most frustrating part for sure.

Topa resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and is fortunate to have two nearby facilities hes utilized the last couple offseasons. However, shortly after his return from spring trainingthe state shut down gyms and the like.. And so, Plan B: Secure dumbbells for home workouts, construct that backyard pitching mound and enlist the services of a high school catcher to backstop his bullpens.

He eventually gained access to a gym for lifting purposes, and his go-to facility recently reopened.

Arms good, staying in shape, pretty much ready to go when we get the go-ahead, said Topa, whose initiation to minor league ball came at age 10 as a part-time Binghamton Mets bat boy, a gig that led to full-time detail at NYSEG Stadium.

Home for Clark and wife Anna these days is Dublin, Ohio, not far from Bo Jacksons Elite Sports in Columbus114,000 square feet, 75-foot-high ceiling, full-size infield, pitching tunnels, full weight room. Call it Utopia for the professional athlete bent on maintaining overall fitness and baseball shape.

Theres a great group of guys out here who all want the same thing, to pitch in the big leagues, he said. With the Dome and all the mounds they have in there, Im fortunate to have that resource as well. Where if I was, say, back home and Im trying to figure what fields I can get on and whos around to play catch or whod want to catch.

Ive gotten very lucky with my situation in Columbus, from offseasons to now, said Clark, who played last autumn in the Dominican RepublicThat was a blast, completely new culture and great competition.

Osinski has spent his downtime on the home front in Vestal. Taking it easy with the baseball stuff, honestly, not blowing myself out, he said. There are four-a-week batting sessions, thrice-a-week fielding ground balls on the high school turf, workouts at the house and camps to work in Cortland.

What he misses the most in this, his first baseball-free summer since age 5 or so?

Being able to suit up every night and play the game I love, being around all the guys, he said. Its been weird. In Zoom meetings we always have a good time and give it to each other like we do when were playing. But thats what I miss the most, being around the team and being able to play.

The future look of minor league ball when we emerge from the pandemic, given Major League Baseballs intentions to lop 40 farm teams and significantly scale back the draft?

Competition is going to be a lot stronger, Osinski said. Just shows how much more you have to put in the work, be ready to go and take care of every opportunity you get. Thats what its going to come down to now.

Clark: The biggest impact from this coronavirus pandemic is going to be money. Im interested to see how that affects owners, GMs, signing people who are free agents this year.

With minor leagues, I dont know. Seems almost like something theyll get to it when they get to it.

Follow Kevin Stevens on Twitter @PSBKevin. Support our journalism and become a digital subscriber today. Click here for our special offers.

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Local minor leaguers grind through frustration of a summer without baseball - Pressconnects

Amazon Prime Video has released a new trailer for its long-gestating American adaptation of Utopia.

The one-minute trailer imagines the end of the world with snippets of young comic fans who discover that the conspiracy and beloved protagonist in a graphic novel (entitled Utopia) is real. Its ominous cinematography and editing capture their high-stakes journey to save humanity.

It is a story about a rogue scientist who created biological warfare, says an unnamed character in the trailer, which you can watch above.

We have no idea what the end of the worlds gonna bring, [but] french cut string beans arent gonna save anybody, says another character.

During the Comic-Con@Home panel for the show, writer and executive producer Gillian Flynn said that even though she started this project almost seven years ago, it has never felt more resonant. She also shared her adaptation process for fans of the original British series.

My idea was to not only Americanize it and deal with things that are resonant to Americans in a lot of ways but to also make things gritty and dirty and nasty in a very realistic way, she said. Whereas [Dennis Kelly, the U.K. shows writer] took his cue from the graphic novels themselves, I took my cue more from the 70s paranoia thrillers that I love.

John Cusack, who plays Dr. Kevin Christie, the CEO of a multinational corporation producing new food sources, said he got hooked on the show as soon as he received a call from Flynn. He got his hands on six or seven episodes and read them all at once, finishing them by three in the morning.

It was amazing writing, great characters and truly a world and a take that I hadnt seen before, he said. Really ambitious, really audacious, sophisticated, crude, shocking, funny as hell.

Of his character, Cusack said:Hes someone whos trying to make the world a better place from the 1% down. What he says to his family every day is, What have you done to earn your place in this crowded world? So thats kind of a mantra he repeats. So every day, people who work at his company or people who he makes contact with feel that they have a need to be of service to this world, not just take.

Wilson, who plays a lower-level scientist named Michael Sterns, shared that although his character has been neglected and passed over for grants, through his past work, he ends up connected to a much larger global kind of medical conspiracy and gets drawn in and slowly by slowly, episode by episode, becomes an unlikely hero.

Similar to the British series, Amazons Utopia follows comic fans who first meet online, bonding over their obsession of a seemingly fictional comic, but soon they are drawn into a high-octane adventure to save the world after meeting the comics famed central character Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane).

Previously, Flynn told Variety the show was like catnip to her. Dennis Kellys show blew my mind, and he has been so incredibly generous in letting me crack open his world and play around in it and make it my own weird, wild place. Utopia is all about exploring resonant issues within dark, twisted storytelling its a series thats urgent and current and a little holy-crap, but a hell of a lot of fun.

Jessica Rhoades, Sharon Hall, Karen Wilson, Sharon Levy and Kelly also executive produce the series, which is a co-production between Endemol Shine North America and Kudos and Amazon Studios.

In addition to Lane, Cusack and Wilson, the show stars Dan Byrd, Ashleigh LaThrop, Jessica Rothe, Desmin Borges, Javon Wanna Walton, Farrah Mackenzie, Christopher Denham and Cory Michael Smith.

Utopia will launch this fall on Amazon.

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Amazons Utopia Trailer Introduces the New Apocalypse at Comic-Con (Watch) - Variety

HERE

OUTDOOR CULINARY PROGRAMS AND FAIRY HOUSES

Looking for fun, creative, and tasty summer experiences? Highfield Hall & Gardens in Falmouth has announced two culinary programs, the locally sourced Farm to Table series and Sizzlin Summer Fare with global flavors. Keeping each participants health in mind, every class will meet outdoors on the lawn or on the porch, with plenty of space for socially-distant learning. Surrounded by the propertys flowers, fresh herb gardens, and beautiful views, participants will explore the best in grilling techniques and recipes (every Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., through Sept. 2; $60-$70). While youre there, dont miss the outdoor summer exhibition, Your Utopia: Lessons From the Fairies, featuring fairy house creations made by artists, families, and children nestled along paths, nooks, and crannies on the property (through Sept. 30; 508-495-1878, highfieldhallandgardens.org/).

SUMMER SAVINGS IN THE BERKSHIRES

Take advantage of low prices in the bucolic Berkshires this summer with the 30 percent discounts offered at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge. Welcoming guests back to its iconic front porch with relaxing rocking chairs the inn is serving al fresco breakfast, lunch, and dinner at The Courtyard, as well as seasonal cocktails and drafts from local craft breweries like Berkshires Brewing Company. The main dining room is now also open for meals. Getting out in nature is easy, as the inn is surrounded by forests with hundreds of walking paths, foot trails, and steep climbs suitable for hiking or biking. Rates from $150 per night with the 30 percent discount. 413-298-5545, http://www.redlioninn.com/getaway-deals. If youve got a hankering for some tasty takeout, its a short hop to Truc Orient Express in West Stockbridge, a 42-year-old, family-run restaurant serving authentic Vietnamese foods available for curbside pickup Thursday through Sunday. 413-232-4204, http://www.facebook.com/TrucRestaurant/

OLD-SCHOOL SEAFOOD IN THE SUNSHINE

Get out of town on a lobster-centric road trip to the Lobster Trap in Bourne, located just 2 miles from the Bourne Bridge rotary, on Shore Road overlooking the Back River. Guests can enjoy summer breezes on the patio while gorging on popular items such as traditional lobster rolls, steamed whole lobsters (with potato salad and corn), and lobster Reubens, grilled on marble rye with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. Not a lobster fan? The menu offers a variety of local seafood sourced straight from fishing boats including crabs, quahogs, mussels, steamers, fish, and more. (There are also burgers and barbecue ribs for carnivores.) Online ordering for pickup and take-home also available. 508-759-7600, http://www.lobstertrap.net/

THERE:

MUSIC-THEMED GETAWAY

Those looking for a not-too-far-away getaway can take a music-themed trip to the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. The recently reopened Museum at Bethel Woods, the historic site of 1969s Woodstock festival, is once again welcoming visitors to experience its immersive multimedia exhibits that take you on a journey through the cultural transformations of the decade with artifacts, films, music, and more. (No more than 25 percent occupancy allowed to ensure social distancing; http://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/museum.) Its a 90-minute drive north to stay at The Roxbury at Stratton Falls, a whimsical hotel offering fully-immersive stays in rooms such as Tonys Dancefloor, a nod to the disco era, and The Partridge Nest, inspired by the artist Mondrian and the Partridge Family bus. Or sing your way along the yellow brick road for a stay in The Wizards Emeralds, an over-the-top Oz-themed room. Rates from $139 a night. 607-326-7200, theroxburyexperience.com

VIKING ADDS 2023 MISSISSIPPI CRUISES

Plan ahead for sailing along the mighty Mississippi with Viking. The companys first custom vessel, Viking Mississippi, makes its debut in August 2022, though with many of its first voyages sold out, Viking has made additional 2023 sailings available for booking now. Four eight- to 15-day cruises Americas Great River, Americas Heartland, Heart of the Delta, and Southern Celebration are scheduled for ports of call in seven US states: Louisiana (Baton Rouge, Darrow, New Orleans, and St. Francisville); Mississippi (Natchez and Vicksburg); Tennessee (Memphis); Missouri (Hannibal, St. Louis); Iowa (Burlington, Dubuque, and Davenport); Wisconsin (La Crosse); and Minnesota (Red Wing, St. Paul). The new state-of-the-art Viking Mississippi will host 386 guests in 193 all outside staterooms. Inaugural pricing starts at $3,699 per person, with discounted airfare from $199 per person. 800-304-9616, http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/ships/mississippi/viking-mississippi.html

EVERYWHERE:

SANITIZER SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

Whether journeying across country or to the supermarket, hand sanitizer is a needed travel accessory that is often hard to find. Founded as a solution to unethical hoarding, price gouging, and product shortage, Sanitizer.com is a US-based subscription service that helps keep your hands and devices germ-free with high-quality, multipurpose sanitizer sprays. Created in strict accordance with WHOs guidelines, the 80 percent-alcohol-based formula can disinfect hands as well as sanitize high-touch surfaces. Simply sign up for a monthly subscription, and choose either one sanitizer for $6.99 or three for $20 to be delivered to your door monthly. The 2-ounce bottles are ideal when youre on the go and washing hands isnt possible. http://www.sanitizer.com

NECEE REGIS

Necee Regis can be reached at neceeregis@gmail.com.

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Fairy houses, deals in the Berkshires, and Vikings new Mississippi cruises - The Boston Globe

Iowa Starting Line is very pleased to announce the newest member of our ever-growing Iowa reporting team. Rachelle Chase will start in August as our Waterloo-based reporter.

You may recognize her name, but if not, youre likely familiar with her work. Chase has written two books on Buxton, Iowa, the historic coal town that existed as a Black Utopia at the turn of the 20th century, where white and black residents worked and lived together in harmony. Shes spoken extensively across Iowa about the town and her research into it.

Chase is a longtime author who has lived and worked all across the country in many different fields, moving to Iowa from San Francisco in 2014 several years after hearing about Buxton from a friend in Iowa. She currently lives in Ottumwa.

This will serve as Starting Lines first fully community-based reporting position. While Starting Line started out as mostly a political insider site in January 2015, our news outlet has grown considerably since, expanding into significant policy and government reporting since our large expansion to multiple full-time reporters in 2019 during the Iowa Caucus.

Now we want to try out doing a sustained examination of a single Iowa city, building up sources and local knowledge to tell in-depth and unique stories. The overarching goal will be to tell the story of one of the most diverse cities in Iowa and lift up the stories of the people there, their communities, the challenges they face, and the solutions local leaders are working on. We have funding to run this new project for at least six months, but will be looking for more.

Chase wont be starting up until next week, but you can start sending story suggestions or tips to her at Rachelle@IowaStartingLine.com.

For those keeping track, our post-caucus core Starting Line team is: Libby Meyer, our federal reporter; Isabella Murray, our investigative and statehouse reporter; Claudia Thrane, our Immigrant Voices reporter; Adam Henderson, our administrative director; Pat Rynard, the managing editor; and now Rachelle Chase, our soon-to-be Waterloo reporter.

Posted 7/28/20

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Buxton Author Rachelle Chase To Join Starting Line Team - iowastartingline.com

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By Anna Synakh and Isabel Paris || Copy Editor and Managing Editor

In an email sent out on July 9th, President Altmann introduced Dr. Gretchel Hathaway as Franklin & Marshalls first Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She will start her position at F&M on August 20th.

In an interview with The College Reporter, Dr. Hathaway revealed her plans for bettering the campus environment, her concerns, and perspectives on what exactly a liberal arts school such as Franklin & Marshall must do in the fight for equity.

The interview began with Hathaway explaining her thought process behind coming to F&M. She has previously been involved with the college and its culture, as her son is not only an F&M alumni but also one of the founders of the student organization I.M.P.A.C.T. Hathaway stated that she knows first hand that colleges such as ours are crucial in the social justice movement, as these conversations are best held in small classes.

Dr. Hathaway highlighted that in the current climate, no educational facility can remain as is, due to the importance diversity and inclusion plays in the college selection process. Without improvement, schools such as Franklin & Marshall could very well end up with extremely low admission and retention rates, ultimately losing business.

According to the newly elected vice president, F&M must address the issue of inclusion on campus not only through training or one-day programs but also through a school-wide effort. Hathaway emphasized the importance of teaching what diversity means and how broad the concept actually is. She noted that speakers or workshops are not going to solve these issues, but rather that it is an ongoing process to do so. In order for Franklin & Marshall to sustain as an institution of education , Hathaway says we must strive to better ourselves and better the campus. Without this initiative, we will become another institution that failed to acknowledge the pressing social justice issues that surround us.

However, Hathaway does not want nor does she expect to have a utopia for students, faculty, and staff to exist in. When asked what an ideal diverse and inclusive learning environment would look like, she said that there will never be a perfect environment, and rather, we should avoid adopting an attitude of complacency. Hathaway explained, There will never be a college that wont be handling a social justice issue. Whats important is how they are addressing it and discussing it. She continued, saying,We will always have these issues as long as we have a diverse population. Ultimately, Hathaway concluded her answer with her message of constant education and re-education of the people around us. This type of commitment is what will keep an institution enduring rather than make it appear as a seemingly utopian society.

When looking at how Franklin & Marshall can be improved, Hathaway said the first step is to create an environment where people have a voice at the table. She pressed, Even more so, those who have a seat at the table but still feel as though they cant speak at the table. She emphasized that students, faculty, and staff all need to be made aware of and be educated in social justice issues. Hathaway wants to educate those who are not even aware that what they think or say is wrong. She asked, How can you punish someone who doesnt understand what theyre saying is inherently wrong? Her solution is through bringing the community inward and dissecting the culture of the campus. As for the campus community in particular, Hathaway states, Everyone has implicit biases. But she also reassures that biases and prejudices are learned behaviors and can be unlearned.

Throughout the interview, Hathaway was positive about Franklin & Marshalls administration and mentioned her impression that the senior staff is not only ready to understand and learn about [diversity and equity], but to move forward on these issues. She is looking forward to working with them directly and expects that they will fully support changing curriculums and providing a more diverse learning environment regardless of department affiliations.

Listening to Dr. Hathaway, the most important point, it seemed, was that the campus must and will change in the years to come, whether education will be online or in person. She has been working with Union College over the summer and providing diversity training over Zoom, so she ensured that addressing social justice and diversity online will not be new to her and it is very much possible.

Much of the programming Hathaway has offered focuses on encouraging incoming freshmen to understand the basics of social justice, equity, and inclusion, and that the three must play an important role for the community. She stated that HAs will most likely be asked to provide more training on these topics, and orientation will not just feature talk or two on the issues, but rather be built around them. Additionally, she highlighted that such focus on these aspects must not end with orientation; the topics must be revisited throughout freshman year so that the students never stop learning.

Dr. Hathaway concluded the interview by saying that inclusion, equity, and diversity are not about political correctness, but rather social correctness. Offensive actions must not be considered political but taken for what they are, social.

Junior Anna Synakh is a Copy Editor. Her email is asynakh@fandm.edu

Senior Isabel Paris is the Managing Editor. Her email is iparis@fandm.edu

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TCR Sits Down with Dr. Gretchel Hathaway, New VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - The College Reporter

Lauren Beukes new novel imagines what happens after a virus kills nearly every male

It cant be easy to have a pandemic novel hit the market in an actual pandemic. You do all the research and plotting and hard work of creating a plausible apocalypse, and then when it publishes, people can experience the real thing by doomscrolling Twitter.

Lauren Beukes, to her credit, has created a different dystopian vision than the one were all currently enduring. In her new novel Afterland, Beukes the author of The Shining Girls, recently ordered to series by Apple TV imagines a world where 99 percent of men have died from HCV. Its a virus that triggers massive, fatal cancers, starting with their prostates.

The manopocalypse, as its called, has been done before in Brian K. Vaughans comic-book series Y: The Last Man, although Vaughan killed every male on Earth but one (and his pet monkey). Beukes pandemic is slower and more grounded in science, but the result is still Biblical in scale: 3.2 billion men and boys dead.

Three years later, Cole and her son Miles, one of the last 12-year-old boys on the planet, have escaped from the custody of the federal government. Theyre trying to get home to South Africa. This is complicated by Coles sister, Billie, whos promised Miles to human traffickers. There are people who will pay almost anything for a live male.

After cracking Billie across the head with a tire iron, Cole and Miles, disguised as Mila, take off on a road trip across a transformed United States. Along the way, they encounter abandoned senior living developments being reclaimed by the desert, an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City, and finally, the Church of All Sorrows, a cult dedicated to apologizing profusely for the plague in the belief that it will eventually bring the men back.

Cole, unlike most of the characters of apocalypse fiction, is not an omnicompetent action hero. Shes human, trapped in an impossible situation. She makes mistakes, like allowing Miles to post their location on Instagram, and shes wracked with guilt and sorrow and loss. At one point, overwhelmed, she forces Miles to beg the Church for a ride. All Cole wants is to protect her son, but in the process, she reveals a conscience that will not stop hectoring her about the steps she takes to do that.

Miles is 12 years old, so of course he appreciates this not at all. On the edge of puberty, hes often annoying or a jerk to his mom, because there are some things that not even the end of the world can change.

To be fair, neither of them are aware that Billie, still alive despite a brain injury, is hard on their trail, assisted by a couple of armed thugs. Billie is instantly recognizable to anyone whos had a perennial fuck-up in the family. She has no idea why the collection agency is calling, she didnt think youd be so uptight about borrowing your credit card, she barely even touched that cop, that judge was being so unfair. She is the particularly ugly variety of selfish that cannot imagine anything more important than her own needs, even if that means selling her nephew.

But outside of the chase, there are moments when the world that contains Cole and Miles and Billie feels strangely incomplete. Beukes Beautiful Monsters shows she can make her settings come alive with almost surrealistic attention to the key details. There is an interlude that describes how the world deals with the Thanos-like reduction in population, and it only feels like the beginning of the story.

Half the humans on Earth have died, and it seems like the survivors would still be knee-deep in bodies rather than posting on social media and making Starbucks runs. Globally, we are currently at less than .02 percent of that death toll, and we are not handling it well at all. Its unfair that we can test fiction against reality here in 2020, but there are times in the narrative when maybe there should be more endless screaming.

Still, that might be male ego talking. Rebecca Solnit has argued that disasters unite people, rather than separating them, so its possible that women are simply better at getting their shit together in the face of a global pandemic. Theres strong evidence that this is the case in the real world. See Germany and New Zealand, or the way my wife makes masks and friendship bread while I binge-read comic books.

And getting rid of all the men would definitely solve the problem of the guys in the zombie movies who hoard supplies, shoot others at random, and hide their infection until its too late. (Its worth noting here that men commit the vast majority of all violent crime in the U.S.)

Thats not to say the women-only world is a utopia. As Beukes said in an interview, women can be bad guys, too. Its nice to hope for a villain-free society once the men are mostly gone. But Billie and her collaborators show that sociopathic assholes arent just one gender. Thats sadly true outside of fiction, too. Witness every YouTube video featuring a Karen Gone Wild or the CPS files of mothers who abuse their kids.

Afterland challenges the assumptions that weve swallowed in our constant diet of apocalypse porn, especially the belief that we will all inevitably descend into cannibalism and chaos. It is not a zombie movie, or the world according to Mad Max. Its our world, cut in half, and Beukes shows us how the survivors try to live with the wound.

(Tor, July 28, 2020)

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'Afterland': A World Without Men, Amen - Book and Film Globe

The past few months showed us something that many thought wed never see in our lifetimes: empty roads. Miles of asphalt without a single vehicle to spoil the view. Parked cars gathered dust, multi-storeys were deserted and garages shuttered. As lockdown eased, cars started to fill our streets again. But the great hiatus provided a glimpse into an alternative future.

Some cities, such as Milan, have already stated that they want to make permanent the changes brought about by the pandemic, and there have been calls across Britain for more space for walking and cycling. The warning lights signalling the end of the cars total dominance over the way we travel and the way we plan cities are now flashing.

For the past 15 years, I have been the Observers motoring editor. Like so many other things, the pandemic brought my weekly column to a juddering halt. Though environmental concerns also played a factor in its demise, its hard to review cars if you cant drive anywhere, despite the temptation of those blissfully empty roads.

What does looking back over 15 years of reviewing cars tell me about motorings next chapter? The automobile has dramatically transformed our lives since its invention. Steam-powered and even hydrogen-driven automobiles can be dated to the 1770s, but 1886 is generally regarded as the birth year of the modern motor. That was when Karl Benz patented his first Motorwagen. There are now 1.3bn cars on the worlds roads.

In terms of captivating design coupled with brilliant technology, the last half-century has surely been the cars golden age. If you regard motor manufacturing as an artform, these past decades will be seen as the automobiles high mark, its Renaissance era, as one game-changing advance was piled on another. But a glance in your rearview mirror will tell you that this period will also be known as the last time cars could be driven with a clear conscience, a time of motoring innocence before driving became so compromised; freighted with the knowledge that these beautiful machines were wrecking our planet.

Guilt has never made for an amenable passenger, and the pumping soundtrack of a gurgling V8 soon starts to sound like a death rattle.

Ive loved cars for as long as I can remember. My mother has a picture of me as a toddler sitting on my potty, knock-kneed and in red sandals, earnestly parking my fleet of colourful Dinky toy cars. I then grew up and through my job found myself at the wheel of the real-life versions of the same models Id been playing with. As a journalist, I drove everything from the first Series 1 1948 Land Rover Defender, with its famous registration plate HUE 166, to the last Jaguar E-Type to roll off the production line in Coventry in 1974. I drove around Le Mans in a vintage 1954 racing car with the grandson of William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar. I drove a one-off futuristic VW prototype with consumption figures so low you could go from London to Edinburgh on little more than a sip of fuel.

There were Minis and Mondeos, Fiats and Ferraris, MPVs, SUVs, ATVs I remember thinking it was funny to take an Aston Martin to a McDonalds drive-thru, only to see there was a Lamborghini in the queue behind me. I took our household rubbish to the council tip in a Rolls-Royce and was cheered by the workers there.

Ive long been dazzled by the cars mechanical mastery of the multiple threats of travelling at speed with a tank of highly flammable liquid in the back. Im amazed you can drive in comfort over frozen tundra or across a scorching desert with your paint job remaining immaculate through a swing of 60C. Why doesnt it all just flake off? Cars give us limitless freedom. Theyre our escape pods, parked on permanent standby.

So whats going to happen to them now? The next generation of motorists will see transformative technology once again reinvent vehicles. But how quickly will it happen? Will we soon be driven by fleets of self-piloted zombie cars? When autonomous cars finally become the norm, a point which is nowhere near as tantalisingly close as some suggest, one of the biggest changes will be the reduction in the number of fatal accidents. It will become almost impossible to die in a crash.

It wont just be lives that are saved, either. Autonomy will create efficiencies in many ways. These vehicles wont be owned we will rent them by the hour or day, which means we wont need so many. and our streets wont be so clogged with underused cars. Traffic lights, road signs and markings will become unnecessary the cars know where they are going. Our cities will be quieter and cleaner. Our built environment will be less dominated by the infrastructure of the road.

The elderly, infirm and even visually impaired will be able to enjoy driving without depending on taxis or other people. Autonomous cars will be far more energy efficient, too. Some studies estimate that fuel use will fall by at least a quarter.

It all sounds pretty good, but this auto-utopia is still a long way from reality. There are so many obstacles to overcome. First up there is cost. Superfast sensors, lasers and cameras dont come cheap. Then there is safety. On average, a vehicle in the UK is involved in a fatal crash once in every 200 million miles. This gives you a clue as to the phenomenal scale of testing that autonomous systems will have to undergo before we as humans will be prepared to hand over the steering wheel to a computer.

What about insurance? If there is a crash, who and what is responsible? The mapping providers? The GPS system? The robo-pilot? Will our premiums drop? What about our no-claims bonus?

In theory, any car can be modified to be self-driving. But for some reason, we tend to pair autonomy with electric vehicles. Battery technology, despite being around for more than a century, is still in its infancy. As the uptake of electric cars increases so their power packs will become smarter, more productive and more efficient. The lack of fast chargers and anxiety over range will cease to be an issue. Clearly, we are in dire need of more public charging points, and the uptake of electric vehicles wont truly get into its stride without the installation of thousands of easy-to-access charge sites across the UK. But a lack of petrol stations didnt stop Henry Ford rolling out his world-beating Model T. He once famously said: If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

A ban on all new sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2035 will focus our minds. But how ethical and sustainable is the production of an EV? The manufacture of the cars and particularly the essential minerals for the batteries, often mined in countries with poor environmental records and even worse abuses of their labour force is anything but green. Swapping an internal combustion engine for an electric motor is only a short-term fix. Are we, in fact, just kicking our problems down the street?

Autonomous cars will massively reduce the number of fatal accidents. It will become almost impossible to die in a crash.

Of all the scenarios about what well be driving in the coming years, the one I find most plausible is that many of us will actually choose not to drive at all. In some ways, itll be a relief. Commuter constipation, motorway standstills and city gridlock all mean that driving now is often just a frustrating nightmare.

Before the lockdown, Birmingham once, proudly, the UKs motorway city had already announced plans to entice people out of their cars and on to bikes and buses, and on to their feet. If Birmingham goes ahead, it will join areas of York, Bath, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh and Brighton among others, which have already experimented with car-free days. Bristol has announced plans to ban diesel soon.

Further afield, Madrid has banned older cars from its centre, and Paris is following a similar route. The sustainable transport charity Sustrans estimates that of the 6.8 million private vehicle trips that were made daily in Greater London, 4.2 million could be walked or cycled.

Its ironic that the answer to all our car problems might be as simple as more of us turning off our engines, getting out and simply using our own legs.

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Driving may never be the same after coronavirus. But what a ride its been! - The Guardian

No doubt many people smitten with the heady, inventive pop music of the late 1960s have wondered what it would have been like to be part of the scene at the time.

But are those musings enough to sustain 574 pages?

Utopia Avenue, the eagerly awaited new novel from David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) leaves the answer in doubt. A shaggy, sprawling, picaresque tale, with one brief detour into time-traveling fantasy fiction, it certainly has its moments. But its also a bit of a letdown as it tells the story of four musicians of varied backgrounds who are thrown into a psychedelic-folk band put together by an enterprising Brian Epstein type toward the end of 1966.

Mitchells take on how the members of Utopia Avenue find their musical chemistry and their audience is winning. The individual stories behind three of those band members (the drummer doesnt have much to say for himself) also have appealing weight. But cameo appearances by The Rolling Stones Brian Jones, Pink Floyds Syd Barrett, a presuccess David Bowie and many others feel as though Mitchell expects their names alone to do his character-portrayal work for him.The book is also strewn with allusions to Mitchells earlier fiction in ways that feel more gimmicky than meaningful.

Mitchell, who was born in 1969, is better when evoking the general texture of the period. And he almost convinces you that this band hes dreamt up which eclectically blends folk, jazz, blues and guitar-god elements could have enjoyed minor chart success in the winter of 1967-1968.

All four members of Utopia Avenue have good reason to try something new. Bassist Dean Moss is penniless and headed toward homelessness. A police cell would solve his immediate housing dilemma, he muses as he considers throwing a brick through the window of a coffee shop that just fired him, but a criminal record wouldnt help in the long run.

When discreetly gay Canadian music manager Levon Frankland takes Dean under his wing, Dean wonders if its because he has the hots for him. Instead, Levon has an offbeat band concept in mind, based not on Monkees-like teen-idol appeal but on real musical possibilities.

Levons next recruits are guitarist Jasper de Zoet and drummer Peter Griffin (Griff), both happy to accept his invitation when their blues band implodes onstage midperformance. The final musician to join the lineup is folk singer Elf Holloway, likewise in the market for a new gig after her musical and romantic partner ditches her.

By the end of 1967, theyve cracked the Top 20 singles charts, appeared on Top of the Pops and have an LP ready to go. After an array of mishaps a drug arrest in Italy, a psychic crackup for Jasper in New York the band hits the West Coast in late 1968, where things take a disastrous turn.

Mitchells portraits of Jasper, Dean and Elf are the books strongest component. Dean is trying to escape his working-class background, especially his alcoholic, abusive father. Guitar virtuoso Jasper diagnosed with aural schizophrenia in his teens is on medication to keep his hallucinations at bay, and his difficulties interpreting social signals can be a source of humor. (When an uptight business executive calls him a nancy-boy because of his long hair, his response is so artless its delightful.)

Elf, the steadiest of the four, is the soulful heart of the novel. In a laudably cool way, she sidesteps the sexism she inevitably encounters. And shes poignantly brave and understated in the way she comes to grips with what shes looking for in a lover.

Levon, alas, is one of the books disappointments. Mitchell never really takes us inside his story. Characters commentary on the music of the time is more on-target. (The Beach Boys Dont Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulders), Elf notices, is a much weirder song than it admits to being.)

Mitchell festoons the book with philosophical asides that dont amount to much (Do you think reality is just a mirror for something else?), and he plays games that may not work for readers not already steeped in the period. The identity of a dapper gent named Lenny whom the band meets in New York, for instance, is hinted at in lyrics from past and future Leonard Cohen songs anachronisms that are deliberate, if corny. But Elfs reference to the Scenius theories of the bands friend Brian Eno, several years off-chronology, feels more like a mistake.

One early passage in the book, where Dean crosses paths with painter Francis Bacon and his boozy circle at the Colony Club, is such a blast that it almost makes you wish Mitchell had focused more narrowly on the plight of an attractive, young, straight would-be rock star navigating Bacons world. As it stands, Utopia Avenue feels both overstuffed and incomplete.

_____

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, Random House, 574 pp., $30

David Mitchell will present an online lecture hosted by Seattle Arts & Lectures on Thursday, July 23, at 7: 30 p.m. Ticket bundles start at $55 and include a copy of Utopia Avenue; head to lectures.org for more info.

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David Mitchells hyped-up Utopia Avenue, an ode to the music scene of the late 1960s, falls a bit flat - Seattle Times

This years Toronto International Film Festival will be slimmed down and more safety-minded than ever, but it still has an opening night film to kick things off. The festival announced today that HBOs Spike Leedirected version of the Broadway-acclaimed David Byrnes American Utopia will open the 45th edition of TIFF on September 10.

The film, Lees second release of the year following his Netflix production Da 5 Bloods, documents Talking Heads frontman David Byrnes popular musical Broadway show. David Byrnes American Utopia played at Broadways Hudson Theatre in New York City with plenty of fanfare from October 2019 to February 2020.

The show finds Byrne performing songs onstage with 11 musicians from around the world. Lee masterfully directs a transformative experience, the festival said in a statement. The show raises social and political issues, revealing how audiences can come together during challenging times through the power of entertainment.

The show consists of performances of songs from Byrnes 2018 solo album of the same name, including popular Talking Heads favorites such as Once in a Lifetime and Burning Down the House. In Canada, David Byrnes American Utopia will premiere on Bell Medias Crave day-and-date with the previously announced U.S. broadcast on HBO this fall.

This joyful film takes audiences on a musical journey about openness, optimism, and faith in humanity, said TIFF co-head and executive director Joana Vicente, executive director and co-head of TIFF in an official statement. This is especially poignant at a time of great uncertainty around the world. Were eager to share the excitement of Opening Night with audiences.

Cameron Bailey, artistic director and co-head of TIFF added, Spike Lee has somehow always been exactly of his moment and ahead of his time. With David Brynes American Utopia, he brings Byrnes classic songs and joyous stagecraft to the screen just when we need it. Spikes latest joint is a call to connect with one another, to protest injustice, and, above all, to celebrate life.

As the festival announced last month, this years event set to take place September 10 19 will exist as a both limited physical festival and an online experience, through a combination of physical screenings and drive-ins, digital screenings, virtual red carpets, press conferences, and industry talks. The lineup will be dramatically reduced from previous editions, with 50 new feature films and five short film programs. By contrast, the 2019 festival hosted over 300 films.

Per todays announcement, the festival has again addressed that it is working with the Province of Ontario, the City of Toronto and public health officials on the safety of the festival. The presentation of TIFFs traditional in-person film festival will be contingent on the Provinces reopening framework to ensure that Festival venues and workplace practices meet and exceed public health guidelines, the festival said.

Meanwhile, the festival has already made clear that it will have a reduced press corps, as the total accredited media will be limited this year. According to an accreditation form sent out to members of the press this week, the festival will not include in-person Press & Industry screenings or other on-site press activities, and all press access will exist entirely online. Press has been asked not to travel to Toronto for the event.

The festival will continue to announce programming additions in the coming weeks, with new titles joining the opening along with previously announced picks like Francis Lees Ammonite, Thomas Vinterbergs Another Round, Ricky Staubs Concrete Cowboy, Nicolas Peredas Fauna, Reinaldo Marcus Greens Good Joe Bell, Suzanne Lindons Spring Blossom, Halle Berrys directorial debut Bruised, and Naomi Kawases True Mothers.

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TIFF 2020: Spike Lees David Byrnes American Utopia Will Open This Years Festival - IndieWire

For the 4th Republic of Ghana, perhaps with the exception of the Second Parliament, almost all other Parliaments have been accused of not asserting their independence enough by standing up to the Executive.

This need for Parliamentary independence and assertiveness has been reechoed by notable Parliamentarians such as Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin and Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the current 2nd Deputy Speaker and Majority Leader respectively. Indeed, some have even gone a step further in describing Parliament as a rubber stamp where the Minority always has its say and the Majority has its way when it comes to decisions in the house, although some decisions in the house are based on consensus building across the aisle.

But how can we make our Parliament more independent and assertive as true independence of the house will translate into quality laws, quality of representation and better oversight of policy implementation by the Executive arm of government?

For answers, we must as a country agree on the type of Parliament we want. Countries do determine the type of legislatures they want or aspire to. Many of the worlds representative bodies only represent that is, their governmental functions only consist of affirming and legitimizing the national leaderships decisions.

The only national representative that actually possesses powers of governance is the U. S. Congress which never accedes to the Presidents budget proposals without making changes. Both the British House of Commons and the Japanese Diet always accept the budget exactly as proposed by the government ( Lowi, Ginsberg, Shepsle & Ansolabehere, 2010:166). Like our Constitution, we in Ghana can agree to go the way of hybrid thereby giving some latitudes to our Parliament to make far reaching inputs to Executive budget appropriations, bills and motions where members deem it fit without overbearing influence of party control and whipping in line.

As we ponder over this, I have in mind a utopian Ghana and Parliament. I am no Prophet or a soothsayer. I have no timelines as to when this can happen in Ghana. It is a kind of utopia that will be interesting to experience. It is a utopia that we must avert our minds to even if the probability of its occurrence is such miniscule. That utopia is to have the Executive and the Legislative arms of government controlled by two different political parties.

Have we seriously thought of this scenario playing out one day in this Republic? This utopia does have a lot of ramifications on our governance system. For starters, this utopia will see Parliament controlled and led by an Opposition Speaker and Majority Leader who will also be in charge of Parliamentary business. The Leader and the Speaker will decide to a large extent which government business, bill, agreement and motion get featured on the Order Paper for a given day. It will produce a Business Committee with majority from the opposition party. This will create a scenario of having Minister for Parliamentary Affairs who will not be a Leader of the house.

That utopia will produce majority of the Standing Committees that have majority of their members being non-members of the ruling party. Such committees with opposition party chairs will decide the extent of amendments to bills and appropriations from the Executive. They will decide on what constitute certificate of urgency and whether or not to grant tax waivers to individuals or companies as shall be proposed by the Executive.

That Parliament led by opposition parliamentarians will decide on when constitutional instruments especially those that will be sent by the Electoral Commission get laid in the house and when they get mature. It will impact on the ECs budget, programme and timing of events. And perhaps, it will encourage compromises being made by the EC and Parliament and promote a more friendly relationship between the two bodies.

Further, this utopia should lead us rethink the provision in our constitution that makes the Speaker of Parliament the automatic Acting President whenever both the President and her/ his vice are out of the jurisdiction. It should lead us to provide a delimitation to the extent of his/her functions if we are still going to hold on to the practice whose relevance some have questioned against the backdrop of the internet and social media which can make our Presidents deliver their instructions ubiquitously. It will also test Parliaments constitutional mandate of controlling government appropriations and expenditure since the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee will be a member of the ruling party.

More seriously, it will be a test case of our belief in the principles of rule of law and a test of the character of the Executive arm of government. For example, will the President rule mainly by issuing Executive Instruments or find a way of by passing Parliament?

For those who have not averted their minds to this utopia, I remind us that this will have a far reaching influence on how fast new governments are composed, which Ministers get approved by the Parliaments Appointment Committee. It will be an interesting payback time for some nominees who may be a pain in the neck of the opposition party or who might have insulted or cast a slur on some opposition figures during the campaign. But it will also make chiefs, Imams and the prelate influential lobbyists on the side of some of these nominees. This will be so serious as to determine which Supreme Court nominee gets to sit on the apex court regardless of their knowledge, experience and expertise.

Meanwhile, it will make the Executive arm more accountable to the Legislature as the Legislature will have the opportunity of requesting of the Executive to make full disclosures of its intents on appropriations and agreements. It will also impact on the quality of bills passed and agreements entered into considering that there will be more scrutiny and thoroughness on the part of the Legislature. For Ministers of State who are fond of giving excuses whenever motions pertaining to their ministries are filed, they will have to change their attitude.

For us the public, we must brace ourselves to live with two parallel governments one at the Jubilee House and the other at the Opposition Partys Headquarters. It will have far reaching effect on governments appropriation bill which may get rejected or approved with significant changes and amendments. Such situations will have dire consequences on public service delivery and running of government business. But in this utopia, I am jealous of the enviable status of the Committee Chairperson of the Finance Committee. He/She will pull strings and there will be all eyes on her/him.

But it will also be a test of the integrity of Opposition Parliamentarians. Will they respect their whips and the party headquarters or they will break ranks with their party in Parliament? But for whatever they do, they must not lose sight of the next election.

So, for those who clamour for a true separation of powers, real independence of the Legislature, and bipartisanship in our governance system, this utopia is worth our pondering over. But lets remember that among other things, it will create unnecessary delays, conflicts, polarization and party jingoism. Followers of the American Congress which sometimes see an opposing party control either of the houses will fully appreciate the true ramifications of this utopia in Ghana.

That is why thoughts of this utopia should let us think of the relevant constitutional changes that can provide us with an insurance against the negative consequences of this scenario. And as it is said, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, we the public will have to brace ourselves for the huge consequences of this utopia one day.

***

The writer, Gborse Nicholas Mawunyah, is a writer and conference speaker on topical issues in education, political-history, school leadership and innovations. Contact him via: gborsenicholasm@gmail.com

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Gborse Nicholas Mawunyah: The 4th republic, when the executive and the legislature shall be controlled by two political parties - Myjoyonline.com

Stars Hollow is so integral to Gilmore Girlsthat it's basically a star of the show in itself. The charming home of the show's protagonists embodies the idyllic New England small town to a T--tiny local shops varying from the cozy diner to the antique store, quirky business owner rivalries, unique town rituals, and, of course, town gossip galore.

RELATED: Gilmore Girls: 5 Reasons Luke Is Actually A Saint (& 5 Ways He's Not)

Stars Hollow in many ways makes up many a fan's utopia. However, upon closer inspection of what being a resident, there really looks like, this all-American dreamy location may be seen in a less than ideal light. Here are five reasons fans might love to live there, and five they'd do better to pass.

One of the top reasons fans would want to live in Stars Hollow is, of course, because of Luke's Diner--or, as the stars of the show call it, simply "Luke's".

Luke's is the perfect cozy spot that exists in everybody's small-town fantasies. It has big windows, classic, simple menu with all-American basics, and the vintage charm of having been adapted from an old Hardware store, complete with old signage still intact.

Living in Stars Hollow means living amongst--or perhaps more accurately, under the reign--of Taylor Doose.

Taylor comes off as a mostly harmless, if irritating, old man; but any fan of the show knows that Taylor is completely capable of being somewhat of a tyrant, using his role as mayor to manipulate townspeople.

A top pro of living in a small town such as Stars Hollow is that one will always be able to rely on having an interdependent community.

The people of Stars Hollow all know each other well, to the effect that it's essentially a small community of family--one that doesn't always get along, but what family does?

Everybody in town living in such close-quarters with one another means that it isn't so easy to keep one's life private.

RELATED: Gilmore Girls: 10 Ways Rory Got Worse And Worse

There are certain aspects of life that most people, even the most social, would like to keep to themselves, and yet the townspeople grow entitled to having their own say on the goings-on of other people's intimate lives, such as Lorelai's relationship with Luke.

Living in a small town involves supporting small businesses, and one of the main perks of this is that, firstly, everything is within easy reach, and secondly, shopping is never an impersonal experience.

Most people enjoy the feeling of being a "regular" at a business, and in a small town, everybody becomes a regular.

Some days a person just wants to walk to the shop without being recognized. Something that city life--or just slightly bigger towns--offer, is the feeling that one can turn invisible whenever they like, disappearing into the crowds of people on the street.

In Stars Hollow, however, there is no avoiding a run-in with a neighbor.

The idea of "sleepy New England towns" is a clich for a reason. There's a mellowness to towns like Stars Hollow, and even if the town is technically fictional, it's very much based on real examples of little country towns in Northeast USA.

If one were to take a drive through Connecticut, they would come across several cozy corners of the country that Stars Hollow captures so well.

Part of the charm of living in Stars Hollow is the old-fashioned atmosphere of the place. Many people turn to living in such small towns because life has a feeling of greater simplicity.

The downside of this is that with simplicity can come a lack of complexity and a feeling of living in a world that is on a time-lag compared to the rest of the world--an ideal for some, a nightmare for others.

Stars Hollow has several rituals and traditions that are featured throughout the show. This gives the town a feeling of wholesome inter-connectedness, as their events supply regular public interactions to look forward to and share together every year.

RELATED: Gilmore Girls: 5 Storylines That Got Too Much Attention (& 5 That Deserved More Screen Time)

The fact that some of the events are so strange and particular to the town, such as the day where residents prepare a picnic basket that must be raffled off to the highest bidder and shared with the maker, causes people's ties to the events to feel even more special.

Stars Hollow is dreamy and comfortable, but this also makes it very easy to get settled into and forget that there is a whole world out there waiting to be explored.

Some characters on the show have lived in the town their entire lives, such as Luke Danes, and the show will often make use of these characters to highlight the slight insecurity of never having ventured out to experience places outside of their comfort zone.

NEXT: Gilmore Girls: 5 Reasons Season 1 Was The Best (& 5 Ways Other Seasons Were Better)

Next Ozark: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Jonah (& 5 Times We Hated Him)

Glenna is a Glasgow-based writer from New England. She studied English Literature and Music and loves babbling about pictures.

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Gilmore Girls: 5 Reasons We'd Want To Live In Stars Hollow (& 5 We Wouldn't) - Screen Rant

Its hard to tell whos more out of touch, the Democratic mayor of Santa Fe or the Republican in the White House.

The mayor, Alan Webber, says he wants to re-imagine and reshape the way city government works for you.

Webber ought to be asking if it works at all.

Weeds in Santa Fe are more ubiquitous than campaign promises in this election year. The city failed to make six springtime payments to employee retirement programs. The promise of safe neighborhoods gets more talk than action.

I recently reported a stop sign in the South Capital via Constituent Services that is completely obscured by Siberian elms. [They] still havent been cut down, one resident said this week.

With basic services neglected, Webber wants to create three more city departments.

One comes with a blue-sky promise from the mayor. He says his proposed Department of Community Development would deliver enhanced neighborhood livability and improved economic opportunity across the community.

Everyone in town looks forward to details on how a reshuffled government agency will create this utopia.

Webbers claim brings to mind the misplaced confidence of President Donald Trump, who said the new coronavirus would one day just disappear, I hope.

Another of Webbers new departments would remake the City Clerks Office, which no longer is responsible for overseeing municipal elections. That job shifted to the county government under state legislation.

Webber and the City Council should be streamlining the City Clerks Office, an operation stuck in the 19th century.

Even tiny towns use the internet to rapidly report election returns to their residents. Not midsize Santa Fe.

City Clerk Yolanda Vigil occupied herself on election nights by standing in City Hall and reading the results to a few dozen people who were eager to learn if their candidates won.

Vigil functioned as an overpaid town crier. After dribbling out election returns, she would praise her staff for transmitting the numbers the way it was done before statehood.

Webber wants to expand the City Clerks Office rather than shrink it, even though its workload has been cut. The mayor envisions the City Clerks Office as sort of a hospitality suite of government.

By moving Constituent and Council Services into the City Clerks Office, we will transform it into our Community Engagement Office, an information and data-rich operation where the whole community can go to get answers to their questions, find updates on city programs and projects, examine records from the past and offer input toward the citys future, Webber said.

Every service he mentioned should already be provided as a matter of routine. Calling basic functions an innovative breakthrough is an old shell game at City Hall.

Webber also wants to establish a Department of Community Health and Safety. He stated that the new agency would re-balance the resources for Police, Fire and Community Services, and introduce new ways for them to join hands in solving complex community problems, from law enforcement to firefighting to social services.

Forget for a moment Webbers jumbled syntax in which firefighting and policing became problems. The greater issue is why a new department is needed to re-balance how the city spends money and deploys staff members responsible for public safety.

What in the existing government structure prevents the mayor and city manager from making sure the police and fire departments are operating efficiently?

Building bureaucracy and calling it progress are two of Webbers weaknesses. He began his term as mayor in 2018 by adding a chief of staff to the public payroll.

The job was unnecessary. Worse, Webbers maneuver reeked of cronyism.

He hired Jarel LaPan Hill, who was part of his campaign team. Now shes his city manager.

Sorry to say, but the rubber-stamp City Council is almost certain to approve Webbers reorganization plan.

It ought to be asking whether having more city departments will fill another pothole, smooth a bumpy road or make certain evidence doesnt vanish from the leaky police department.

The council ought to be saying city government doesnt need additional departments, more empty promises and fancy new titles.

What it could use is nowhere to be found on Webbers agenda.

The pandemic provides more than the usual incentive to eliminate featherbedding at City Hall. It was a way of life before Webbers arrival, and he has continued the tradition.

Webber wont back away from his plan. He wants his fingerprints all over a bloated organizational chart that doesnt fit a city of 85,000 people.

What hes really doing is setting the stage for erratic governance. The next mayor might junk Webbers convoluted creations in a back-to-basics campaign.

But for now, Webber can reinvent the wheel and spin it as ingenuity.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.

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Mayor reinvents the wheel, spins it as ingenuity - Santa Fe New Mexican

Screenshot, Madeline Miller and David Mitchell in conversation.

It was just serendipity that the Chicago Humanities Festival scheduled two screenwriters with hot new novels two weeks in a row for their livestream show. Well, serendipity and the fact that the release dates were a week apart (July 7 and 14).

Last week, it was Charlie Kaufman (Anomalisa; Synecdoche, New York; andBeing JohnMalkovich) with his first novel,Antkind. This week, it was David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas,The Bone Clocksand eight novels) with his latest novel,Utopia Avenue.

This article is not a book review, but a report on the hosts conversations with two talented and idiosyncratic authors.

David Mitchells conversation with author Madeline Miller (her novels areSong of AchillesandCirce) turned out to be a mutual admiration fest.Miller did succeed in turning the conversation to Utopia Avenue and Mitchells other writings, but he came armed with a long list of questions, he said, about Millers two novels drawn from classic mythology; he flourished copies of both books to the video camera as he talked. Mitchell said hes a big admirer of Millers novels and so there was a lot of conversation about how Miller got interested in the classics (her mother read her The Iliad when she was 5 or 6), the longevity of myth, and the power of poetry in Homers writing.

Utopia Avenue is about a fictional British band in the 1960s (named Utopia Avenue after they decide against naming themselves The Way Out), and the four musicians who come together to make music and money. The band is formed under the guidance of a manager, Levon Frankland, who is a decent guy, not the stereotype evil dealer. Theres Elf (Elizabeth Frances), the keys player, vocalist and songwriter, who comes from the folk scene. Griff, the drummer, is a jazzer. Jasper is a virtuoso guitarist and songwriter and Dean is a talented, self-taught bassist and songwriter and former member of a band named Battleship Potemkin. (Jasper and Griff were with a sub-subpar band named Archie Kinnocks Blues Cadillac and Elf just broke up with her duo partner/boyfriend.)

The 60s were the early days of rock and roll and there were plenty of eclectic influences as bands began. The Stones were already well-established and enviably rich.

Mitchell, Lancashire-born and now living in County Cork, Ireland, has written a book larded with musical references, musical jargon, famous bands and track titles. Jasper meets a still-unknown David Bowie while leaving the bands management office. There are cameo appearances by famous musicians like Syd Barrett, Jimi Hendrix and Leonard Cohen.

When Miller asks Mitchell about works that influenced this book, he names the Canadian band Rush because of their high register vocabulary, Dr. Who and Isaac Asimovs Foundationseries .And one more thing: the childrens book series, Flat Stanley. As Flat Stanley found, upon becoming flat, a curse is a blessing and a blessing is a curse.

Mitchell isnt a musician but he admires the instant feedback loop that musicians have in live performance. Im jealous of that, he said, and commented that music is important to us from the womb on (when we are conscious of the bass track of our mothers heartbeat) and then in adolescence, when music is a tribal identifier. We have a primal relationship with music throughout our lives.

The musicians intention is changed by the listener, who adds personal meaning to the musicians work. And a novel cant make the reader hear the music, Mitchell acknowledged, but it can show its effect on human beings.

His descriptions of the bands early gigs are realistic, with the musicians terrified and their audiences in turn bored or insultingand later their audiences become adoring fans. The band members play off each other; they are strangers at first and become a unit. They start by playing in grungy, mostly empty college halls and rural bars. They travel in a decrepit van they call the Beast. It barely runs but it carries all their gear, amps and Griffs drum kit.

Miller commented on the interconnectedness of Mitchells novels: characters or incidents in one novel appear in others. He does that, he says, because it pleases me to do it. My characters get away and may have a future in another book. Im sometimes thinking three books ahead, he said.

Screenshot. Greta Johnsen and Charlie Kaufman discuss his book.

Antkind, the quirky, circuitous story of a film critic, and Kaufmans other writing were the subjects of his conversation with Greta Johnsen (WBEZ and the Nerdette podcast) last week.

In Antkind, B. Rosenberger Rosenberg, the not-Jewish film critic, drives through Florida, trying to keep his windshield bugfree and stopping at a Slammys for a biggy cola and paper towels. He has an African American girlfriend (you would know her name), a relationship of which hes inordinately proud. Hes headed for the St. Augustine Film History building, the architecture of which recreates the head of The Creature from the Black Lagoon,filmed nearby.. (The vault is in the chin; the screening room is in the left gill.) B. is there to do research for a monograph on a Black filmmaker.

The film critic serves partly as Kaufmans opportunity to lampoon film critics (they can write about you but you cant write about them). B. is a jerk, Kaufman says, has a deep need for approval, and hates the work of Charlie Kaufman. The book is often self-referential and in current argot, meta.

Mitchell explains the musicians intention being completed by the listeners experience and emotional state. Kaufman says a piece of work is completed by the readerit goes into your brain.

The main plot line of Antkind concerns the ancient outsider filmmaker that B. meets who has been working for 90 years on a stop-motion animation film with an army of puppets. Watching the film takes three months. B. decides this masterpiece could be the greatest discovery in the history of cinema plus it could save his foundering career. His attempt to bring the film to cinema royalty is the main story thread among many.

Kaufman is being interviewed from his temporary New York apartment. Johnsen asks him if he knew where he was going when he started writing the book, which, by the way, runs 720 pages. Not at the beginning, he says. I like to explore, sort of free form.I didnt know if it would be funny or something else. I tried writing in third person, then first person. (Its written from B.s perspective, in B.s voice.)

Johnsen asks him when he knew he was done. He worked on the book for five-and-a-half years, Kaufman said, and after about five years, he knew where he was goingbut thats by design. Everything is anxiety-inducing for me, he says, so I just add that to it (the anxiety).

Are there books that Antkind is in conversation with? Johnsen asks. Like Kafka, David Foster Wallace, Pynchon. He acknowledges that Kafka has been a big influence on his life and on his thinking. And I used to read a lot of Philip K. Dick, but not recently. Everything feels very of the moment.

Do you ever have writers block? Johnsen asks the standard issue question to a writer. Well, if I do, therere always things percolating even when you dont know they are. (So we might think of writers block as a different form of creativity.)

Charlie Kaufman has a thing for hirsuteness. He begins Antkind with a first-person homage by B. to his beard.

My beard is a wonder. It is the beard of Whitman, of Rasputin, of Darwin, yet it is uniquely mine. Its a salt-and-pepper, steel-wool, cotton-candy confection, much too long, wispy, and unruly to be fashionable. And it is this, its very unfashionability, that makes the strongeststatement. It says, I dont care a whit (a Whitman) about fashion. I dont care about attractiveness. This beard is too big for my narrow face. This beard is too wide. This beard is too bottom-heavy for my bald head. And on and on. Its what he calls his beard monologue.

In a 2015 photo of Kaufman from some film festival, his beard is thick, longish (not a goatee) and dark although not unruly. Hes also definitely not bald. Thick dark curly hair. So Im a little surprised when he Zooms onscreen to converse with Greta Johnsen. His hair is moderately cropped and ruly and hes beardless, but has a big old porn-star mustache.

As to the books themselves, Ive read the first 100 pages of Utopia Avenue and a little less of Antkind (in e-galley versions from the publisher). Utopia Avenue is immediately engrossing, as Mitchell introduces the band members and the London music setting of the late 1960s. I can tell by the smart and funny dialogue among the musicians, as well as hints of whats to come, that Im going to love Utopia Avenue. I know that its at least partly because Im smitten with the pop/rock music scene and thats why UA immediately appeals to me.

Antkind feels as if it will be a novelized version of some of Kaufmans quirky films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich. I didnt find the first section that I read as appealing as the other book, but Ive always felt you should read 100 pages of a book before deciding if you want to finish it or not.

Finally, I just want to say something about longggggg books. Mitchells is 574 pages and Kaufmans is 720 pages in print. Now Ive always been a devoted reader and Ive read my share of 700-page doorstops. Im looking at you Ron Chernow with your eye-opening Hamilton biography and David McCulloughs John Adamsor Simon Schamas glorious Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution at 900 pages! But those are all nonfiction. Of course, theres Ulysses (no, Ive never finished it) and Tom Wolfes Bonfire of the Vanities, which I devoured every word of. But whats wrong with a nice 300-page novel? I like a book that fits in my bag when Im commuting or traveling and that doesnt turn my arm numb when Im reading in bed. (Yes, I do read on a Kindle, but I prefer a real book.)

Maybe the pandemic is the time to finally read Ulysses from cover to cover.

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Categories: Events, Lit, Live Lit, Stages

Tagged as: Antkind, Charlie Kaufman, CHF, Chicago Humanities Festival, David Mitchell, Greta Johnsen, Madeline Miller, PenguinRandomHouse, Utopia Avenue

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Conversations: Two Screenwriters Talk About Their New NovelsUtopia Avenue and Antkind - thirdcoastreview.com

WellI thought that by now, Id be cranking out ecstatic columns about the return of dining in Southern California. And it almost almost! happened a few weeks ago. And thenCOVID-19 came raging back, placing California, and Southern California in particular in the unfortunate ranks of Florida, Texas and Arizona. And so, going out to restaurants became a high-risk game of chicken once again.

Though Colorado Boulevard in Old Pasadena, with its newly configured street parking and outdoor dining options, is making a noble attempt to return to normalcy, were still in a state of you pays your money, and you takes you chance. So, for a few more weeks at least, dining at home seems to be the safest of options especially with all the binge-watching available on our several zillion TV channels. And as Ive demonstrated over the past three months, theres a lot of great takeout available across Southern California. Including our much loved standby salad.

Now, Ill bet you thought you knew salad I sure thought I did. And then, I looked at the Wikipedia entry for salad, and discovered theres a lot more to a salad than a bowl of greens with something tasty poured overand something even tastier tossed in for both goodness and texture we do love our crunch.

When it comes to salad, theres a whole world of complexity. Just consider, for starters, the Wikipedia definition of salad: A salad is a dish consisting of a mixture of small pieces of food, usually vegetables or fruit. However, different varieties of salad may contain virtually any type of ready-to-eat food

So far, so recognizable.

But then, the article goes on to detail salads, both cold and warm, appetizer salads, side salads, main course salads and dessert salads. We learn that salad and salt have the same Latin root, since the veggies in a salad used to be salted in brine and in some cases, still are. We discover that William Shakespeare may have coined the term salad days, based on the notion of green vegetables and youthful inexperience. We learn that the ancient Greeks, the Persians and the Romans all ate salad, with dressing. And that a 1699 Discourse of Sallets was written to encourage the English to eat more greens. (It didnt succeed as anyone whos enjoyed deep-fried fish and chips in London can attest!)

And then, we learn of the nine types of salads I mean, who knew? There are composed salads, and there are tossed salads. There are green garden salads, and green wedge salads. There are fruit salads. There are rice and pasta salads, dinner salads, and dessert salads which include not just Jell-O salad, but also pistachio salad, ambrosia, Snickers salad (seriously!), glorified rice salad and cookie salad!

And, theres a term Ive never encountered before: bound salads. Which have nothing to do with bondage & domination, but instead are salads held together bound with thick sauces like mayo (tuna salad, chicken salad, potato salad and egg salad).

You can, of course, make many of these yourself. Or, if youre hankering for the last episode of The Great, and just dont have the time, or the masks needed, to run to the market, there are great takeout salads available all over town. We are defined by our salads, always have been. We created the Caesar salad after all. And the Cobb for the luvva mike! We own the word salad. It defines us. And keeps us healthy, happy and well-crunched.

Beachwood BBQ

210 E. 3rd St., Long Beach; 562-436-4020, http://www.beachwoodbrewing.com

It may seem a bit strange to declare one of the best salad destinations in town to be a barbecue and beer place. But at Beachwood BBQ what they do with their salads is pretty awesome. Consider the Cobb salad, which is made with smoked ham, smoked turkey and applewood-smoked bacon a barbecue fanatics version of a Cobb.

Theres a barbecue chicken salad as well, that pretty much kicks butt, thanks in part as well to the addition of roast corn, black eyed peas and smoked red onions, in a killer chili-buttermilk dressing.

And their salads arent just built around smoked meats though you can add chicken or pork to any of them for a few dollars extra. The Hoppin John Salad is a pure Southern creation of wild rice, farro, black eyed peas, celery, peppers, arugula and watercress in a bacon vinaigrette (got to get the bacon in there somehow!). I also like the roasted root vegetable and farro salad. Its made with smoked feta. It comes with cornbread, as do all the salads. The que at Beachwood is pretty great. But the salads rock as well.

The many salad options include the wedge this one featuring hand-cut grilled bacon. (File photo by Eugene Garcia, Orange County Register/SCNG)

This Caesar salad features blistered cherry tomatoes, chicken breast and croutons. (File photo by Eugene Garcia, Orange County Register/SCNG)

While Cobb salads often feature chicken, this one includes Cajun-seared ahi, along with avocado, boiled egg, blue cheese, baby heirloom tomato, pancetta and grilled corn tossed with a Dijon vinaigrette. (File photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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This Greek salad features a garden lettuce blend, roasted chicken, kalamata olives, cucumbers, red onions, feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrettee. (File photo by Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register/SCNG)

This salad is made all the more appetizing topped with hot fried chicken. (File photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Green Olive

3580 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach; 562-912-7030

The Green Olive is a Middle Eastern restaurant, reminding us theres more to Middle Eastern dishes than hummus and skewers over pita. Which is not to take away from hummus and skewers over pita, which I love much. But on the side, its definitely a pleasure to have a fine pile of tabouli, that classic creation of crushed wheat, chopped parsley, tomato and green onions in lemon juice and olive oil. Or perhaps fattoush, which is built around toasted pita chips like tortilla chips, only not. I love the yogurt and cucumber, flavored with garlic and mint so simple, and so brilliant.

Theres also a Greek salad, a Caesar salad, and a grilled vegetable salad with peppers, eggplant and feta cheese. And no kale in sight. How is that even possible?

Humblebrags Eatery

3225 Carson St., Lakewood; 562-429-3161, http://www.humblebragseatery.com

Yes, I have mentioned Humblebrags often in these takeout guides, including here, here and here. And thats because, like Jongewaards, they do so much so very right. And in the case of salads, they make me very happy. There are large, well assembled plates of a proper Cobb (chopped, but not too chopped), an heirloom tomato and burrata creation (with lines of both pesto and balsamic, very colorful), a chunky old school iceberg wedge, and if you need to mix protein with your greens, both a steak salad and a grilled chicken salad. The grilled chicken comes with shredded mozzarella; the steak with blue cheese crumbles.

Humbly, details are well respected here. And, of course, theres more. For what goes better with a salad, than a sandwich? And a burger including a bison burger with blue cheese and a chipotle aioli. And dont miss Marys Airline Chicken. Which makes me think its going to be something you might be served at 30,000 feet, a breast with a drumette attached, that comes with soup or salad, and a choice of side braised carrots and prosciutto mac and cheese seemed right. Right enough that the restaurant deserves bragging rights though done humbly so.

Saint & Second

4828 E. 2nd St., Belmont Shore; 562-433-4828, http://www.saintandsecond.com

As one of the trendiest restaurants in Belmont Shore, it comes as no surprise that at Saint & Second among the salmon poke, the lamb belly (Korean style) and the smoked short ribs with mole sauce theres an equally edgy assortment of salads. You can get your arugula and quinoa, mixed with grapefruit and a lemon-parmesan dressing, with Moroccan spiced Marys chicken breast, or with grilled Skuna Bay Salmon very nice.

The chicken & goat cheese salad is tossed with, of all things, Green Goddess dressing and its good to see it back! Theres a spiced shrimp salad with candied pecans, figs, bacon, aged cheddar and toasted oats. Theres an ahi soba salad, which would fit very nicely at any number of Japanese restaurants around town. And how about the S&S Cobb Salad, made with both Duroc pork slab bacon, and fried chicken. Is it the classic Cobb? Of course not. Thats the point.

Utopia

445 E. 1st St., Long Beach; 562-432-6888, http://www.utopiarestaurant.net

Who knew that Utopia was in Long Beach diagonally across from a Courtyard by Marriott and a Best Western Plus? I always figured that Utopia, as first envisioned by Sir Thomas More in 1516, was an idyllic island in the southern Atlantic. But no, there it is at the intersection of First Street and Linden Avenue a very pleasant Italian/Eclectic restaurant, with a good bar, and lots of original art on the walls.

Indeed, the full name is Utopia Good Food & Fine Art. Though its rarely referred to as such Utopia more than suffices.

Utopian cuisine leans toward the comfort food side of the equation, with a menu of the sort of dishes that are easy to settle into, and pleasantly easy to enjoy. Steamed clams and mussels in a light garlic and white wine sauce? No problem at all. Fried artichoke hearts with feta cheese and a pesto aioli for dipping but of course and what a pleasure a nice crispy artichoke heart can be.

The artichoke hearts reappear in a salad with kalamata olives and roasted red bell peppers, a perfect combination. But perhaps not as perfect as the salad of garbanzo beans, tomato, cucumber, parsley, celery and feta cheese with a lemon and olive oil dressing honestly, my favorite new salad, and one Ive got to try making at home. A dish that inspired me to get into the kitchen, and start chopping, for the goodness of it, and the healthiness as well.

And yes, there are a bunch of pastas. And risotto, rather than being made with porcini mushrooms, is topped with strips of beef tenderloin turning it into beef with rice dish, rather than a rice with more subtle mix-ins. Im not sure I agree with the notion; but Im not sure I dont. I do know I like being in Utopia its warm and caring, with a cheerful staff (they seem to be local college students or at least some are).

The crowd, when there is one, and not just takeout, is sophisticated. Conversations are hushed. No one was on their cell phone at least when I was there. Thats a Utopian notion if ever Ive heard one no cell phones with dinner!

Veggie Grill

6451 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach; 562-430-4986, http://www.veggiegrill.com

The popularity of the Veggie Grill chain is undeniable; most nights the local branch attracts not just the wheat juice crowd, but also families who appear to enjoy a hamburger with fries during the rest of the week.

Veggie Grill has managed to position itself as a destination for both vegetarians, and non-vegetarians. Its a tasty alternative, for those who want recognizable dishes, even if those recognizable dishes arent made of the animal protein theyre usually made of. Its a chain where salad, not surprisingly, is made with all the greens o the moment.

There are seven entre salads on the menu, including Quinoa Power Salad, All Hale Kale, and a Savory Kale Caesar. And that brings me to my sense of using vegetarian cooking as an aid in dieting. Salads are a wonderful thing as long as you dont assemble them as folks used to at places like the now defunct Souplantation, where the options make a Big Mac seem healthy.

I like my greens. I like them with a diet dressing, low in fat. And years ago, I got into the habit of getting the dressing on the side. I have little enough clothing that still fits. Ive got to do all I can to not have to move up another size. Eating salads, well-constructed, works very well.

Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic.Email mreats@aol.com.

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6 best restaurants for salads in the Long Beach area - Long Beach Press Telegram

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Since the beginning of the 1619 Riots following the death of George Floyd, the ideas of critical race theory, systemic racism, and white privilege have taken mainstream America by storm.

In university lecture halls, grade schools, sports arenas, and corporate boardrooms, progressive activists, especially those associated with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, now demand a wholesale reordering of American life and a nihilistic erasure of American history and culture. Those who oppose any element of this movement or express any qualms about its tactics or motives are deemed white supremacists.

Far from ending racism, however, BLM and its allies are fomenting racial hatred.

Robin DiAngelos White Fragility, the handbook of the racial left, espouses a new version of scientific racism, a set of ideas whose first incarnation led to the most horrific events of modern history. Not only was scientific racism used to justify slavery and apartheid, it was a mainstay of Adolf Hitlers beliefs and helped fuel the Nazi takeover of Germany, resulting in World War II and the Holocaust.

Scientific racism grew out of the work of Charles Darwin (though never directly endorsed by Darwin himself). Scientific racism claimed that race was an essential and defining human characteristic, that races were in permanent conflict with each other, that such conflict shaped human history, and that races had permanent characteristics that made some superior and others inferior.

Nordic races were viewed as more civilized and more intelligent, while sub-Saharan Africans, east and south Europeans, and Asians were seen as inferior and less civilized. For example, one 1911 guidebook to races and peoples described Italians as excitable, impulsive having little adaptability to organized society.

Scientific racism was a pseudo-science. Its research was at best contrived and often based on bizarre ideas about minor physical differences, such as the shape of peoples skulls, that were supposed to determine intelligence. Yet, it wasnt a fringe movement. It was considered settled science and found support among the most educated and progressive classes in the United States and Europe: politicians, jurists, government officials, professors, doctors, writers, and artists.

This was more than theory. Race science was designed to be applied to real human societies. Its best-known application was eugenics, which sought to do the work of scientific racism by creating a racially more fit and hygienic society through selective procreation.

Margaret Sanger, a founder of the American Birth Control League (later known as Planned Parenthood), stated her goal as more children from the fit, less from the unfit. (The original meaning of birth control was not something to prevent pregnancy but the idea that procreation should be determined and guided by scientific experts.) The unfit and inferior were to be prevented from reproducing and thus eliminated.

Under Nazi rule in Germany this application of racial science was taken to its logical extreme in a desire to create a utopia fit for the Master Race by eliminating Jews and other so-called inferior races, as well as people with disabilities.

The Holocaust and the defeat of Nazism discredited scientific racism as pseudoscientific biology. Racism became synonymous with evil, and Europe and the United States made significant progress in overcoming legalized forms of racism and its economic and political legacies.

Yet, as overt racism began to slowly fade away, post-modern academics became preoccupied with theories of race and racism, and by the 1990s began to lay the groundwork for a new version of scientific racism.

While the original scientific racism was grounded in biology, the new version is based in the humanities and social sciences, especially fields like sociology, education, and critical studies.

As in the 19th century, post-modern critical race theory creates a hierarchy of races, only it inverts the order of that hierarchy with whites at the bottom. The old racists ranked races using phony measures like attributes of civilization. The new racists create their ranking from each groups level of perceived victimization. The more historically victimized a group, the higher on the ranking it is and the more allegedly valuable it is.

Whites are oppressors, and their desire to oppress comes not from changeable attitudes but from their unchanging nature as white people, while people of color in varying degrees are permanent victims in need of solicitude.

Like pseudoscientists of the late 19th century, post-modern race scholars consider themselves on the cutting edge of scholarship and cloak their theories in opaque, mystical sounding jargon. Yet their scholarship is no more valid than their 19th century counterparts who debated the effect of skull shapes. Critical race scholars are either unable or unwilling to clearly define even their most basic terms, like white. Whole books are written about topics such as white fragility where authors cant coherently explain what white means.

Scientific racists believe that race defines the person. Character, individual identity, family background, or even culture are irrelevant. This is a special problem since most people dont define themselves by race. If you think of yourself as a Jewish American, Italian American, or just American, you have to be re-educated. So Di Angelo and other critical race theorists, spend a lot of effort to convince white people to define themselves as white.

The idea that to fight racism we have to convince white people to adopt a white racial identity and define themselves by their race is insane and dangerous, creating the very thing it claims to oppose.

A century ago, race theorists believed members of each race acted together in a kind of secret conspiracy. Anti-Semites promulgated fakes like Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and the belief that all Jews were part of a secret society dedicated to undermining or controlling society. Todays race theorists believe the same thing.

The late historian Noel Ignatiev stated, The white race is like a private club based on one huge assumption: that all those who look white are, whatever their complaints or reservations, fundamentally loyal to the race. The club, he believed, grants its members special powers denied to others.

In 1916, progressive eugenicist Madison Grant, a close ally of Margaret Sanger, published his book The Passing of the Great Race, a virulently racist tract that posited that the history of Americaand all human historywas defined by an eternal conflict between hostile races. This view was the hallmark of scientific racism, and it came to define the worldview of Adolf Hitler and many of his followers.

In 2019, the New York Times published the 1619 Project, which claims that American history is nothing more than a perpetual conflict between whites and blacks.

Todays progressives have now almost completely resurrected one of the most evil ideas ever created by humanity, a theory that caused untold death and suffering. Far from opposing racism, critical race theorists in academia and beyond are creating it and feeding it.

Critical race theory demeans people of all races and cultures, reducing them to a social construct of skin color. It deliberately foments conflict between racial and ethnic groups, based on real or perceived historical grievances, whether for political gain or even out of a belief that critical race theory will bring about a utopia of cultural harmony. Yet no such utopia can even exist, and those who seek political gain in racial strife ignore countless examples of the extreme danger of racial politics across the last century from Armenia to Rwanda.

For all its faults and imperfections, and through centuries of conflict and its hard lessons, America is one of the few examples of a society where people of different cultures, faiths, and races have had the possibility to live together in peace and safety.

Yet the return of scientific racism and its promotion by much of our political, social, and cultural elite, places Americans of all races in the gravest danger.

John Radzilowski, Ph.D., is a professor of history at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Unchaining Demons: Critical Race Theorists and Progressive Activists Revive One of Humanitys Worst Ideas - The Epoch Times

Office of the Public Advocate

Policing is part of the solution to addressing New York Citys spike in gun violence, says Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who blames the rise in bloodshed not on criminal-justice reform or a slowed court system but on the devastation wrought by COVID-19.

We happen to be in a time where crime is rising across the nation, Williams told WBAIs Max & Murphy Show on Thursday. Were going through a pandemic. Its surprising to me that we thought everything was going to get worse like housing, food insecurity, and unemployment except gun violence? We should have been planning for this for a while.

According to crime statistics published by the NYPD, through July 12 the city had seen 634 shooting incidents in 2020, a 61 percent increase over the same period in 2019. The data show a pronounced spike in the summer, with shootings over the past month up 210 percent over 2019, and the weeks toll 277 percent higher than the same period last year.

The number of shootings this year, however, is still 14 percent lower than it was in 2010.

Heres what we do know: Pre-pandemic, we were at historic lows, especially around gun violence. Then the pandemic hit and people were home for a few months. These same communities saw their family members dying or losing their jobs and that has an impact, Williams said. Mental health services werent there. Around the country, we saw the George Floyds and the Breonna Taylors. We saw a lot of that going on and I would have to say that has to have an impact.

Williams rejected the idea that the NYPD had been defunded in the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, and said the conversation around the budgets minor cuts and transfers distracted from the necessary conversation around policing reform.

We missed an opportunity in this budget. Everybody was so worried about the billion that we werent able to have a conversation about what is policing? Why are the police still policing things like mental health?

In this summers protests, as before, some criminal-justice advocates called for abolishing the police. A strong critic of the NYPD throughout his public career, Williams distanced himself from the notion that policing could be jettisoned entirely.

Its all about reframing what public safety is and what public safety isnt. Anyone who thinks that law enforcement is not a part of that conversation is just wrong. Anyone who thinks that law enforcement is the only part of that conversation is also wrong, he said. Among the shifts he supports: Putting more public support behind cure violence initiatives that seek to detect and defuse conflict on the street the peer intervention. If we dont mind spending money to send a bunch of cops into communities, we shouldnt mind spending money on things like Cure that we know work.

It would be great if one day police were not needed. I dont mind that as a goal that we have to get to but the reality is, for the foreseeable future, thats not where were going to be, the public advocate said. Quite frankly, even in a utopia, someone is going to be responsible for law enforcement.

Hear the conversation with Williams below, or check out the full show, which includes a chat with Partnership for NYC leader Kathy Wylde on the citys economic predicament.

With reporting by Ben Max

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Public Advocate Says Cops & 'Cure Violence' are Both Part of the Solution to Shootings - City Limits

The fall 2020 TV season will be unlike any other. Film and TV production shut down in March, due to the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that some shows, like Grey's Anatomy, ended their seasons earlier than expected because episodes weren't complete. Others, like The Good Fight and Billions, chose to linger in the middle of their seasons until further episodes can be filmed.

And if that's spring TV, then how will the pandemic thwart the conventional notion of fall TV? Will there even be new shows to watch, or will we be left staring at those rainbow bars?

In short, the answer is yes: From the third season of Selling Sunset to HBO's buzzy Lovecraft Country, a Tyler Banks helmed Dancing With the Stars, and Big Brother, there will be new TV shows out in August through the end of the year, though not all premiere dates are certain. Here's what we know of fall 2020's network and cable TV schedule, including a few highlights below of program's we're especially excited for.

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The third season of Netflix's juicy reality show about luxury real estate agents in Los Angeles, will return only months after the second one dropped. Already, we know season three has major drama in store: Chrishell Stause copes with her divorce from This Is Us actor Justin Hartley at the same time that Heather Rae Young's relationship with HGTV's Tarek El Moussa heats up.

HBO's most anticipated new series is backed by major star power: Jordan Peele (Get Out) and J.J. Abrams (Star Trek). Starring Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett, Courtney B. Vance and Michael Kenneth Williams, the series is about a road trip through the Jim Crow South, where characters contend with the horrors of racism and literal monsters. Later this fall, snuggle up with the book that inspired the eerie TV show.

Claire Crawley is a trailblazing Bachelorette. For one, at 39, she's the oldest lead in the franchise's 17-year history. Her season of The Bachelorette is also the first to be filmed entirely in quarantine due to a global pandemic, so there's that bit of history, too. All in all, the 16th season of The Bachelorette is shaping up to be an unmissable TV experience.

Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba star as a crime-fighting duo in this show. Need we say more? Didn't think so. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, L.A's Finest is a spinoff of his Bad Boys blockbuster franchise, with Union reprising her role of Sydney "Syd" Burnett. The 13-episode show originally premiered in 2019 on the Spectrum cable system, and will air on FOX in 2020.

Saturday, August 1Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation: Season 1 (2013) 8 p.m. (BBC America)Ann Rules Sleeping With Danger, 8 p.m. (Lifetime)Super Monsters: The New Class, (Netflix)

Sunday, August 2Connected: Season 1, (Netflix)Taskmaster: Series 1 (The CW)The Real Housewives of Potomac: Season 5 (Bravo)Ann Rules A Murder to Remember (Lifetime)Shark vs. Surfer (Nat Geo)Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 75 Years Later (History)Fridge Wars: Season 1 (The CW)Elizabeth Smart: Finding Justice (Lifetime)The Osbournes Want to Believe (Lifetime)

Monday, August 3Immigration Nation (Netflix)

Tuesday, August 4Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning (Netflix)A Go! Go! Cory Carson Summer Camp (Netflix)Malibu Rescue: The Next Wave (Netflix)Mundo Mistrio (Mystery Lab) (Netflix)The Swamp (HBO)Whats It Worth? (A&E)Extreme Unboxing (A&E)Backyard Envy (Bravo)

Wednesday, August 5Anelka : LIncompris (Anelka: Misunderstood) (Netflix)Worlds Most Wanted (Netflix)Coroner: Season 1 (The CW)Catfish: The TV Show: Season 9 (MTV)Marrying Millions: Season 2 (Lifetime)

Thursday, August 6An American Pickle (HBO Max)Upright: Mini-Series (Sundance Now)The Rain: Season 3 (Netflix)Hitmen: Season 1 (Peacock)La Llorona (Shudder)On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries (HBO Max)The Seven Deadly Sins: Imperial Wrath of The Gods (Netflix)Christina on the Coast: Season 3 (HGTV)Star Trek: Lower Decks (CBS All Access)

Friday, August 7Work It (Netflix)Wizards: Season 1 (Netflix)Howard (Disney)Tales of Arcadia: Chapter 3 (Netflix)Alta Mar (High Seas): Season 3 (Netflix)Berlin, Berlin (Netflix)The Magic School Bus Rides Again Kids In Space (Netflix)Nailed It! Mxico: Season 2 (Netflix)The New Legends of Monkey: Season 2 (Netflix)Selling Sunset: Season 3 (Netflix)Sing On! Germany (Netflix)Tiny Creatures (Netflix)Word Party Songs (Netflix)Being Reuben (The CW)

Saturday, August 8License to Kill: Season (Oxygen)Jodi Arias: Cellmate Secrets (Lifetime)Dallas and Robo (Syfy)

Sunday, August 9YOLO: Crystal Fantasy Season 1 (Adult Swim)We Hunt Together: Series 1 (Showtime)Endeavour: Series 7 (PBS)Surviving Jeffrey Epstein (Lifetime)

Monday, August 10About Face: Season 1 (Quibi)Mapleworth Murders: Season 1 (Quibi)GAME ON: A Comedy Crossover Event (Netflix)10 Things You Dont Know: Season 1 (E!)

Tuesday, August 11Rob Schneider: Asian Momma, Mexican Kids (Netflix)Hard Knocks: Los Angeles (HBO)

Wednesday, August 12(Un)Well (Netflix)Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn (HBO)

Thursday, August 13Five Bedrooms: Season 1 (Peacock)An Easy Girl (Un fille facile) (Netflix)

Friday, August 14Ted Lasso: Season 1 (Apple TV+)Boys State (Apple TV+)The One and Only Ivan (Disney+)Project Power (Netflix)3%: Season 3 (Netflix)Fearless (Netflix)Glow Up: Season 2 (Netflix)El robo del siglo (Netflix)Octonauts & the Caves of Sac Actun (Netflix)Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix)Weird But True!: Season 3 (Disney+)Worlds Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji (Amazon Prime Video)The Great Heist (Netflix)

Saturday, August 15Rita: Season 5 (Netflix)Stranger: Season 2 (Netflix)

Sunday, August 16The Circus: Inside the Wildest Political Show on Earth: Season 5 (Showtime)Lovecraft Country: Season 1 (HBO)Darcey & Stacey: Season 1 (TLC)

Monday, August 17Punk'd: Season 2 (Quibi)Crazy Awesome Teachers (Netflix)Glitch Techs: Season 2 (Netflix)

Tuesday, August 18Dead Pixels: Season 1 (The CW)

Wednesday, August 19Crmenes de familia (The Crimes That Bind) (Netflix)DeMarcus Family Rules (Netflix)High Score (Netflix)

Thursday, Aug. 20Random Acts of Violence (Shudder)John Was Trying to Contact Aliens (Netflix)Biohackers (Netflix)Great Pretender (Netflix)

Friday, August 21Chemical Hearts (Amazon Prime Video)Lucifer: Season 5 (Netflix)Alien TV (Netflix)Fuego negro (Netflix)Hoops (Netflix)Rust Valley Restorers (Netflix)The Sleepover (Netflix)

Monday, August 24Reno 911!: Part 2 (Quibi)

Tuesday, August 25Emilys Wonder Lab (Netflix)Trinkets: Season 2 (Netflix)

Wednesday, August 26Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol (Netflix)La venganza de Anala (Netflix)Million Dollar Beach House (Netflix)Rising Phoenix (Netflix)

Thursday, August 27Tyler Perrys Madeas Farewell Play (BET+)Ravi Patels Pursuit of Happiness: Season 1 (HBO Max)Aggretsuko: Season 3 (Netflix)

Friday, August 28Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe (Disney+)Orgenes secretos (Unknown Origins) (Netflix)The Binge (Hulu)All Together Now (Netflix)

Sunday, August 30Love Fraud: Season 1 (Showtime)Top Gear Nepal Special (BBC America)2020 MTV VMAs (MTV)

Friday, September 4The Boys Season 2 (Amazon)

Sunday, September 6Undercover Season 2 (Netflix)

Tuesday, September 8Pen15 Season 2 (Hulu)

Thursday, September 10Football Night In America Season 15 (Special Night) (NBC)Sunday Night Football Season 34 (Special Night) (NBC)

Sunday, September 13Football Night In America Season 34 (NBC)

Monday, September 14Monday Night Football Season 51 (ESPN)

Wednesday, September 16The 55th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards (CBS)

Thursday, September 17Thursday Night Football Season 14 (NFL)

Sunday, September 20The 72nd Emmy Awards (ABC)

Monday, September 21Monday Night Football Season 51 (ESPN)

Sunday, September 27The Simpsons Season 33 (FOX)Bless The Harts Season 2 (FOX)Bob's Burgers Season 11 (FOX)The Comey Rule (Showtime)Family Guy Season 19 (FOX)

Tuesday, September 29The First Presidential Debate (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX)

Wednesday, September 30Coroner: Fire Season 2 (The CW)

Sunday, October 4The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)Britannia Season 2 (Epix)The Comedy Store (Showtime)

Wednesday, October 142020 CMT Music Awards (CMT)

Thursday, October 15The Second Presidential Debate (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX)

Thursday, October 22The Third Presidential Debate (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX)

Saturday, November 72020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (HBO)

Sunday, November 15The Reagans (Showtime)The E! People's Choice Awards (E!)

Sunday, November 22Belushi (Showtime)

Dates to Be AnnouncedGangs of London: Season 1 (AMC)Genius: Aretha (Nat Geo)The Undoing: Season 1 (HBO)neXt: Season 1 (Fox)L.A.'s Finest: Season 1 (Fox)Cosmos: Possible Worlds: Season 1 (Fox)MasterChef Junior: Season 8 (Fox)Filthy Rich: Season 1 (Fox)The Masked Singer: Season 4 (Fox)The Neighborhood: Season 3 (CBS)Bob (Hearts) Abishola: Season 2 (CBS)All Rise: Season 2 (CBS)Bull: Season 5 (CBS)NCIS: Season 18 (CBS)FBI: Season 3 (CBS)FBI: Most Wanted: Season 2, (CBS)The Amazing Race: Season 32 (CBS)SEAL Team: Season 4 (CBS)60 Minutes (CBS)Young Sheldon: Season 4 (CBS)B Positive: Season 1 (CBS)Mom: Season 8 (CBS)The Unicorn: Season 2 (CBS)Evil: Season 2 (CBS)MacGyver: Season 5 (CBS)Magnum P.I.: Season 3 (CBS)Blue Bloods: Season 11 (CBS)The Equalizer: Season 1 (CBS)NCIS: Los Angeles: Season 12 (CBS)NCIS: New Orleans: Season 7 (CBS)S.W.A.T.: Season 4, CBSSoulmates (AMC)The Right Stuff (Disney+)Clouds (Disney+)Bridezillas (WE tv)Devils (The CW)The Outpost: Season 3 (The CW)Pandora: Season 2 (The CW)Two Sentence Horror Stories: Season 2 (The CW)Swamp Thing: Season 1 (The CW)Supernatural: Season 15 (The CW)The Bachelorette: Season 16 (ABC)Dancing with the Stars: Season 29 (ABC)The Good Doctor: Season 4 (ABC)Big Sky: Season 1 (ABC)The Conners: Season 3 (ABC)The Goldbergs: Season 8 (ABC)American Housewife: Season 5 (ABC)Stumptown: Season 2 (ABC)Call Your Mother: Season 1 (ABC)Station 19: Season 4 (ABC)Greys Anatomy: Season 17 (ABC)A Million Little Things: Season 3 (ABC)The Rookie: Season 3 (ABC)Supermarket Sweep: Season 1 (ABC)Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (ABC)Americas Funniest Home Videos: Season 31 (ABC)Black-ish: Season 7 (ABC)The Salisbury Poisonings (AMC)This Is Us: Season 5 (NBC)The Voice: Season 19 (NBC)Manifest: Season 3 (NBC)New Amsterdam: Season 3, (NBC)Chicago Fire: Season 9, (NBC)Chicago Med: Season 6, (NBC)Chicago P.D.: Season 8, (NBC)Superstore: Season 6 (NBC)Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 8 (NBC)Law & Order: SVU Season 22 (NBC)Law & Order Organized Crime: Season 1 (NBC)The Blacklist: Season 8 (NBC)No Mans Land (Hulu)By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem (Epix)Emily In Paris: Season 1 (Netflix)David Byrnes American Utopia (HBO)Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 4 (Netflix)Over the Moon (Netflix )

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Fall TV 2020: See the Premiere Dates and Schedule for Every New and Returning Show - Oprah Mag

Chris Frantz became a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with Talking Heads.

But he lets his fingers do the talking in his new memoir "Remain In Love."

Talking Heads drummer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Christ Frantz tells his story in a new memoir, Remain In Love.

"Very few books have been written about Talking Heads and the ones that were written were pretty unsatisfactory to me," the drummer says by phone from the Connecticut home he shares with his wife, Tina Weymouth also his bandmate in Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club. "I don't think they really presented a very accurate image.

"It always turns into, like, the David Byrne show."

Byrne, of course, was the Heads' frontman and visual focus, as well as a successful solo artist, most recently on Broadway with his acclaimed "American Utopia" concert until it was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. But with "Remain in Love," which publishes Tuesday, Sept. 21, Frantz portrays the band also including keyboardist-guitarist Jerry Harrison as a more equal endeavor that he co-founded with Byrne and Weymouth, all alumni of the Rhode Island School of Design, during 1976 in New York.

The book traces the group's rise through the late 70s punk and New Wave scenes, establishing its own arty style that encompassed diverse influences from World Music and avant garde works, building a catalog of eight eclectic studio albums before a somewhat abrupt end in 1991, reuniting only for its 2002 Rock Hall induction.

"I mean no disrespect to David Byrne," Frantz, 69, insists. "I'm not jealous of him or anything like that. But it was always a more shared experience for Talking Heads. It was a very collaborative effort, always. Yes, David was the frontman, and we chose him to be the frontman, but there was a whole lot that went into the band and a whole lot of effort that went behind the band on the part of other people who rarely get mentioned or credited.

"So for that reason I thought, 'Oh, I can do this (book),' and tell a story that's more complete."

"Remain in Love" is more than just the Talking Heads' story, however. The 384-page book traces Frantz's childhood and upbringing in Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania, as well as the musical adventures of Tom Tom Club and his work producing, with Weymouth, albums for Ziggy Marley and Happy Mondays.

"I also wanted to express my great love for Tina and my belief that she was a very, very significant part of the band and a very important person for music in general," says Frantz, who married Weymouth in 1977; they have two grown sons. "I wanted it to be very personal. I consider myself a very fortunate guy to be able to have done the things I have and experience the things I did going around the world, playing the shows, making movies. It was all very exciting to me, and I wanted to convey that."

Rather than new perspectives, Frantz says writing the book gave him "a deeper understanding" of that life and particularly "what it was like to be Tina Weymouth and David Byrne." Weymouth, he notes, "made a lot of sacrifices along the way, on the personal front," including her playing being the subject of skepticism, sometimes even from within Talking Heads.

"Her playing wasn't steeped in the rockn roll tradition of the blues and Chuck Berry and whatnot," Frantz explains. "It often had a more classical approach, which was pretty unique, and I'm glad she seems to be getting recognized more for that now."

As for Byrne, who legally prevented the other three members from using the band name after its breakup, Frantz acknowledges that "there was a great deal of pressure on David, and maybe it didn't have such a great effect on him. It wasn't easy for him to accept being the 'rock star.' I'm not sure that he ever really wanted that, so I'm sympathetic. I know he wanted to be a star, but I don't know if it's a rock star that he wanted to be."

Frantz and Weymouth have kept Tom Tom Club alive, and the group plans to release a new album, "Live at the Clubhouse," on vinyl for this year's Record Store Day. They're also considering doing another studio album as an "electronic duo, just Tina and me with some drum machines and synthesizers." Meanwhile, Frantz is encouraging Weymouth to write a book of her own, and he has an idea for another book, one focusing on travels with the couple's two beagles.

"One of them has been to France 12 times, so it might be fun. I could describe the people we meet and the great cafs we can go to when we're in Europe, traveling with the dogs," Frantz says. "You know, I'm of a certain age, and the touring business is not so great right now in fact, it couldn't be worse. So I'm thinking that this might be a good way to keep myself busy."

Chris Frantz's memoir "Remain in Love" is one of a number of intriguing music books publishing during the spring and early summer. Among the o

A controversial music festival in Wisconsin this week was a "positive experience" for Detroit rock band Sponge.

Kevin and Michael Bacon are only one degree removed from each other and not even that when it comes to making music.

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Talking Heads drummer sheds light, and "Love," in new memoir - The Oakland Press