Daily Archives: May 9, 2021

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max and U.S. distributor and sales firm Utopia have acquired rights to well-received Sundance Film Festival title Were All Going To The Worlds Fair.

The coming-of-age horror-drama follows teenager Casey who becomes immersed in an online role-playing horror game, wherein she begins to document the changes that may or may not be happening to her.

The film, which will have its NY premiere later this month at the New Directors/New Films festival, is the narrative feature debut of writer-director Jane Schoenbrun. Utopia will release the film in U.S. theaters early next year and HBO Max has licensed U.S. streaming rights.

With an original score by Alex G, the movie stars Anna Cobb and Michael J Rogers alongside a number of performers appearing in various real and staged YouTube videos, including Theo Anthony, Evan Santiago, and the ASMR content creator Slight Sounds.

Related Story'Doctor Who' Star David Tennant Joins 'The Amazing Maurice'; HBO Max Greenlights Spanish-Language Original 'Garca'; Channel 4 Axes 'The Circle' - Global Briefs

Carlos Zozaya and Sarah Winshall produced the film, with cinematography by Daniel Patrick Carbone and Abby Harri serving as co-producer and casting director.

The deal was negotiated by Danielle DiGiacomo for Utopia and Chris Grunden for HBO Max with CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.

Utopia is honored to be partnering with Jane Schoenbrun on the release of their first feature, Sundance standout Were All Going To The Worlds Fair, a chillingly immersive and emotional journey into the all-encompassing universe of the internet. We cannot wait for audiences to enter into the riveting cinematic world that Jane has built, said Danielle DiGiacomo, Head of Content for Utopia.

I am so honored to be working with the smart and lovely team at Utopia, and to be bringing my first film to streaming via HBO Max. Were All Going To The Worlds Fair is a deeply personal film that was made with a lot of love by a small group of artists and friends, and to know itll have a proper chance to find its audience with the help of these great companies is so exciting to me, added Jane Schoenbrun.

Utopias previous acquisitions have included TIFF comedy Shiva Baby, Cannes title Mickey And The Bear and Errol Morriss American Dharma.

More:

HBO Max & Utopia Pick Up Sundance Coming-Of-Age Horror Were All Going To The Worlds Fair - Deadline

Among all species, it is perhaps only humans who create habitats that are not fit to live in. Stephen Marshall

Its a damning statement but one that can be reasonably argued to be true. We dont have the best track record in creating lasting and sustainable habitats, especially if one considers cities built in the past century.

The next 50 years will demand a new model of urban development. For a more sustainable future in a world of climate change, 21st-century cities must be based on models of adaptation that learn from natural systems. We now have the digital modelling technology to design such cities, rather than the fixed urban form that now dominates our world.

Read more: Future cities: new challenges mean we need to reimagine the look of urban landscapes

We are witnessing firsthand the destructive impact of an urban model that dates back to the early 1900s. The automobile was seen as the future of city planning. The city itself was designed like a machine: finite, predictable, perfect and, of course, shiny!

The ideal or utopian city, put forward as a visionary model for the 20th century, changed the course of city planning. It abandoned the traditional urban fabric of the previous five millennia for a modern urban order in which the car took centre stage. Car manufacturers even invested in 20th-century city design in the continuous pursuit of Utopia.

One of the most influential architects and urban planners of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, did not shy away from the role the automobile would play in city design. He even pursued sponsorship from companies like Citroen, Michelin and Peugeot to realise his vision. The motor must save the great city, he wrote.

The vision for this city followed similar patterns: separated pedestrians and vehicles, sprawling low-rise suburbs and scattered open spaces of inordinate sizes sound familiar?

Most important to this model was the concept of repetition. If it works in Chicago, it will work in Chandigarh.

As the utopian urban movement dominated, Utopia turned out to be not necessarily a good thing. As early as the 1960s this had become clear through the works of critics like Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander. As Jacobs wrote:

Le Corbusiers dream city was like a wonderful mechanical toy. But as to how the city works, it tells nothing but lies.

Read more: What might Jane Jacobs say about smart cities?

Cities throughout the world, across a range of scales and locales, exemplify this. Brasilia (Brasil), Detroit (USA), Milton Keynes (England), Norilsk (Russia) the list goes on were designed as modernist visions of a single, finite solution. However, this vision quickly unravelled. Overpopulation, climate change, diminishing resources, rampant commercialisation and demographic change have destabilised the urban fabric of modernist cities.

This unfortunately did not deter the continued planning and construction of this universal city. All too often the urban pattern was repeated blocks distributed across a grid with little adjustment to the local ecology or environment. Factor in a rapidly changing climate and exponential population growth and mobility, and these cities no longer seem utopian.

The problem with a city detached from its context one that is generic, repetitive and built around vehicle traffic is that it resists adaptation. After all, it was not designed to adapt it is visionary, a fixed solution to an ever-changing problem.

Unfortunately for us, the problem has been changing at an alarming rate. The original solution is becoming ever more problematic.

The paradox is that repetitive urban form seems to be the quickest solution for the rapid growth of urban populations globally, unfortunately with dire impacts. Cities are a leading source of carbon emissions that have made them increasingly vulnerable to climatic events, with rising sea levels threatening coastal cities around the world. In some cases, failed cities lie completely abandoned such as in Spain or China.

Read more: Townsville floods show cities that don't adapt to risks face disaster

However, some cities examples include Shibam in Yemen, Fes el Bali in Morocco or the Hutongs in Beijing have evolved over many centuries as they adapted to changes in their environment and climate. These cities survived in the face of changing conditions. They were built on a model of continuous change.

Unfortunately, changing the built forms and spatial patterns of a city is a slow process. The evolving cities described above managed this by being able to change at a rate that matched changes in local climatic conditions. Today, the pace of global climate change makes it almost impossible for mature cities to adapt.

We need a more sustainable model of urban development.

Read more: What next after 100 Resilient Cities funding ends?

Technological advances in computation and data analysis allow us to create digital simulations of the evolution of cities over centuries. It is now possible to understand the inherent complexity of these systems. We can then replicate the conditions that result in an adaptive city as a whole.

These computational models draw on concepts from the natural world. They learn from how species adapt to their environment and how evolution enables adaptation. The result is urban models based on variation instead of repetition.

Research in this field by the likes of Michael Weinstock, Mike Batty and many others has increased over the past decade. This work builds on the criticisms made by Jacobs and Alexander in the 1960s, but is now supported by advanced technologies and digital simulations.

The stresses on future cities demand an approach that enables them to adjust to rapid change. Up to now, we have designed a city that is geared towards permanent configurations. Its the opposite of what is required in a world going through radical changes across multiple frontiers.

Originally posted here:

Farewell the utopian city. To cope with climate change we must learn from how nature adapts - The Conversation AU

Now let us look at Marxs labour theory of Value that he borrowed from David Ricardo [1772-1823] and adopted for his own purposes. And how it leads to exploitation of man and hence makes overthrow of the superstructure of Capitalism desirable. [The base is to be carefully preserved in order to keep producing platitude.]

In Marxs earlier formulation of his theories, then based in metaphysics, Commodities have both a use value and an exchange value. Use value is easily explained in relation to the actual use the commodity is put to. What explains exchange value and how does that make it possible for somebody to accumulate exchange value through the operation of the market?

David Ricardo in his labour theory of value, posits that the exchange value of any commodity is simply the number of socially necessary hours of labour needed to produce it. [Liberal theory thinks use value is already in the exchange value as part of it and hence need not be separately tracked.] The more labour required, the higher the exchange value. Marx latched on to this explanation by Ricardo to reformulate his theory of exploitation of labour under capitalism.

The accumulation of exchange value as surplus is then explained in terms of extortion of labour from the laborer, by exchanging his means of subsistence for hours of labour in excess of those needed to produce those means.

Marx thus makes the case that the existence of any & all surplus value must necessarily be explained in terms of labour used but not paid for.

Marxs assumption is without basis under free market conditions and fully true only under slavery. Hegel would argue even against such an assumption under slavery. But nevertheless, Marx assumes such exploitation of labour as the basis of his new theory of human nature that triggers history to overthrow Capitalism.

Marxs assumption that only labour produces any value flies in the face of his own assertion that accumulated knowledge is a key part of his productive forces. Nor does Marx give much thought to how to value the store of accumulated knowledge that actually and visibly drives history in our everyday experience.

Stop for a moment to think where this complication or contradiction comes from. As I noted earlier, Marxs very definition of labour is metaphysical in which any and everything I do is labour, and there is no other way in which I can interact with this world or others like me, save through my labour.

So, if I work for 1 day on the shop floor, I get a wage to fill my belly. But if I decide not to work, go hungry, in order to make a widget that helps me do my job better, I neither get a wage, nor any extra reward for inventing the widget, and have to go hungry. Which fool will argue that, under such conditions, Mans store of accumulated knowledge will grow, and grow inevitably [and for free] as Marx assumes?

We see precisely this killing off of innovation at work in modern socialistic societies, where rate of innovation falls off steeply compared to Capitalistic societies. This mixing up of concepts about labour, and what it is utilized for - direct for production, or saved to add to accumulated knowledge, lies at the heart of the flaw in Marxs thought.

There are other deep philosophical issues that arise with respect to store of accumulated knowledge and Capital itself [assuming Capital itself is nothing but saved labour] when you bring the time dimension into the matrix of productive forces and try to balance inter-generational equity.

This is true not only of Marxs ideas but also those of the liberal theories. There is this notion of unearned gains when wealth passes from one entrepreneur to his progeny. Or windfall profits to certain types of property holders when technology changes, completely revising the valuation matrix in society.

On the negative side, changes in store of accumulated knowledge render whole industries obsolete making large number of workers redundant, and destroying enormous amounts of accumulated wealth/capital. Material forces not only create value but also destroy value, and if one looks at history, value destroyed as redundant far exceeds the value currently in use. Pause to think. Unlike Marx assumes, Capitalism destroys a considerable amount of wealth and property even as it creates it through changes in accumulated knowledge. Marx gives no thought to this aspect at all.

Nor is liberal theory free from flaw. Under Capitalism, the historical claims of Capital are preserved over future labour of others not yet born. In a sense, there is more notional wealth in this world than the labour required to meet those claims!! If you look at rich nations today, you find enormous amounts wealth, but a declining work force, that cannot meet the claims on its output by accumulated wealth over a life time. Such wealthy nations have to perforce import labour from abroad, either directly or through import of goods and services. What is true of nations today can be true of the world tomorrow because accounting for wealth is deeply flawed.

And yet we see people go hungry and without jobs. To explain this curious phenomenon of paper or notional wealth require a book. So, I will leave it here as a contradiction that bedevils both Marxist thought & Capitalism.

So, Marxs simplistic but critical assumption that all value comes from labour is deeply flawed and misleading. The reality should give more weight to store of accumulated knowledge and once you recognize that, the entire Marxist theory of base + superstructure driving history, and constituting consciousness, becomes inconsistent needing complete revision.

SUMMING UP

He did a phenomenal job of restoring man to the centre of our philosophical attention through his concept of labour. This place had been lost to machines, technology, and deified history. Marx brought focus back to man, which is why he proved so popular.

Unfortunately, he couldnt resurrect the individual that Renaissance, and Kant had created; but Hegel had lost in his Theory of History. Marx promised to restore the Kantian man through Communism to his free creativity, but his thoughts about labour were to prove deeply flawed. You cannot sink, reduce, and submerge a creative individual into mere labour, and nothing but labour, and expect to restore him to full free creativity. The two are mutually exclusive. But Marx did not return to the metaphysical problem he had defined away in his conception of labour. He just kept waiting a life time for history to prove him right.

Also, as we saw, production of goods and services in plentitude necessary to transcend capitalism, requires growth in accumulated knowledge that comes from saved labour. A right to private property arises when I forego my meal in order to save my labour in making a widget. It is not a fetish for property that drives me, but the need to creatively address my problem in enhancing my productivity. So Marx rather long a dreary fascination with fetishes and false consciousness was as misplaced as the Buddhist thought that the world is Maya and should be forsaken. Hardly a constructive way to engage with the world although conceptually, it a thought pregnant with meaning.

Lastly, Marxists of all kinds have misrepresented Marx in order to use his philosophy as an intellectual manual to overthrow the existing order. Marx spent most of his life waiting for the revolution. But it never came. 175 years after Marx, we still wait for it.

My guess is we are missing the revolution even as we wait for it because a revolution happens each day I skip my meal and wage in order to make a widget or think of a new way to teach maths to school kids. They are tiny, ubiquitous, and everywhere, if only we know how to look for them. The bigger economic problem is how to recognize and reward them under any economic arrangement. Even Capitalism is yet to find an efficient way of doing so.

Marxs friend, philosopher, and guide, and later publisher of all of Marxs unpublished works, warned Marx to rethink his revolution because even in his life time, instead of collapsing through overproduction as Marx kept predicting, Capitalism was thriving as it found new markets vertically in increasing demand, or horizontally through imperialism. With oil, entirely new markets were created in transportation. Friedrich Engel therefore asked Marx to rethink his revolution as Capitalism kept creating it own demand for goods and services, instead of collapsing under the weight of over-production. But Marx I guess was too exhausted to do so.

Every generation logically thinks doom is here. The world ought to have ended soon after Buddha discovered that it was an illusion. It never did. My guess is that even if Communism were ushered in by some magic, as Herman Hesse imagined in his book the Glass Bead Game, Nietzsches Will to Power thesis will ensure we will invent a new game of life to transcend even the Communist utopia, if it were at all desirable.

Marx didnt reckon with what creativity can do when Man mixes it with his labour and nature. John Locke invented labour as one of Mans rights. Marx tried to sink and submerge Man in the narrow concept of his labour. Not a very wise thing to do even if your intentions are noble as Marxs undoubtedly were.

Man is much more than his labour.

Much much more.

Man is creative; and much much more than just an artifact of his history.

Read the original:

A critique: Where Marx (1818-1883) was right and why he was wrong on the demise of capitalism - National Herald

In 2016, the president of Lyft, John Zimmer, offered a rosy and ambitious vision of technological progress, predicting that soon most of his companys customers would be cruising around in autonomous taxis. Car ownership would decline dramatically, he said, as people would be able to summon robo-taxis on demand, all paid for by the mile or via a Netflix-style subscription. (Dont drive very often? Use a pay-as-you-go plan for a few cents every mile you ride, he wrote. Take a road trip every weekend? Buy the unlimited mileage plan. Going out every Saturday? Get the premium package with upgraded vehicles.) The idea was utopia: Eliminating parking spots would make room for more public space, and taxis themselves would be hybrid office-entertainment venues, ferrying blissful passengers safely between destinations. This wasnt just remaking transportationit was transforming society. (Transportation doesnt just impact how we get from place to place. It shapes what those places look like, and the lives of the people who live there.) All this would happen by 2021, he predicted.

None of it has come to be, obviously. Last week, Lyft announced that it had sold its autonomous vehicles division to Toyota for $550 million. Waymo, Googles self-driving division, just shuffled its executive leadership. Late last year, Uber sold its self-driving arm to a start-up. In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Tesla acknowledge it may never reach its ambition of fully self-driving cars. Across the industry, autonomous vehicle efforts have proven to be stubbornly difficult to bring to fruition, consuming billions of R&D dollars and thousands of engineering hours. Meanwhile, the infrastructure needed to support autonomous carsgovernment investment in roads, highways, communications, along with proper regulatory oversightremains inadequate to the challenge. Additional issues present themselves around the law, consumer trust, and even the computational limits of deep learning and artificial intelligence. Despite these enormous obstacles, tech leaders preach continued faithand venture capital investmenthaving spent the last decade promising that our blissful self-driving future is just around the corner.

At a time when fighting climate change and providing alternate forms of mobility should be core parts of urban and transport policy, we seem to be going backward. The federal government has largely left it to states to regulate autonomous vehicles, leaving a patchwork of laws that companies like Tesla, which has taken an incrementalist approach to rolling out self-driving features in a series of software updates, have exploited to do what they want. What little federal policy remains seems ineffective: The recent Biden stimulus plan laid out huge investments in electric vehicles, rather than placing a renewed emphasis on public transport.

See the article here:

Autonomous Vehicles Aren't the FuturePublic Transportation Is - The New Republic

Coldplay just released their new single, Higher Power. While that seems to indicate the band has a new album on the way, they havent officially announced one yet although Chris Martin has done everything he can to let fans know that one is more than likely on the way.

Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland spoke to Capital Breakfast With Roman Kemp this morning (as NME notes), and when asked about the possibility of a new album, Martin chose his words carefully. That said, he did everything but directly say the band has a record coming, saying, Were not supposed to say, but there wont not be one. Buckland added, Weve recorded more than one song.

Elsewhere, Martin spoke with Apple Musics Zane Lowe, and while he didnt talk about the album that doesnt officially exist, he did speak about his willingness to experiment musically, saying, I think that every artist is completely intertwined with whats happening culturally and whats happening technologically around them, you know? So when the delay pedal came through, whoever invented that, then you had all these amazing delay pedal records. So weve existed in the band concurrently with the barriers between types of music coming down which for us is the biggest blessing in the world. When we started, it was like, Youre a white indie band and this is urban radio and this is alternative radio and basically old fashioned racist statements. Of course we fit in a box at the beginning, and then right now in 2021, everyones doing everything. You can like Olivia Rodrigo as much as you like AC/DC and no one thinks thats weird, and thats musical utopia for me. [] Its miraculous. So why would you want to stay in one box?

Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Read the rest here:

Coldplay Says There 'Won't Not Be' A New Album On The Way - UPROXX

League of Legends first animated series is coming to Netflix. League of Legends Arcane will hit the streaming service sometime later this fall, according to a new teaser trailer released on Monday.

The teaser may be just a few seconds long, but it already seems to reveal a few things about what the shows plot could include. The trailer opens with a fight between Vi, Jinx, who are already familiar parts of the League of Legends universe, and a mysterious third character who seems to skate on walls, and another with lightning powers and some kind of staff weapon.

While we already knew from the series first teaser that it would probably be about the origins of Jinx and Vi, it seems this new character could be part of the reason the two eventually became enemies.

Along with their story, well also probably get some backstory of Runeterras two competing twin cities, Piltover and Zaun which might be the green-light soaked city we see at the end of the teaser. Both cities are obsessed with technology, but while Piltover is a steampunk utopia, Zauns unchecked experimentation led to a much darker outcome.

If the series is set around these two cities, then its also possible we could see appearances from recognizable characters like Viktor, Warwick, Caitlyn, or any of the other dozen or so champions from the region.

League of Legends Arcane will be produced by Riot Games in partnership with Fortiche Productions, which it has worked with on several cinematics and music videos in the past. The series will debut on Netflix later this fall.

View post:

League of Legends Arcane, Riots new animated show, coming to Netflix - Polygon

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Its appropriate that Mothers Day weekend brings a wealth of major music releases from women, including Miranda Lamberts west Texas adventure, the first solo album by Hearts Nancy Wilson, Bebe Rexhas long-awaited sophomore release and a Judy Collins hybrid dip into both present and past...

Album of the Week: Miranda Lambert follows a Grammy Award win for Best Country Album (Wildcard) with something new -- and different. For The Marfa Tapes (Vanner/RCA Nashville), she teams with pals Jack Ingram and Jon Randall to write and record in the high desert Texas town of its title, sounding as good stripped down as Lambert does in a full-scale Nashville production.

Album Title of the Week: Aly & Aj, a touch of the heat gets you up on your feet gets you out and then into the sun (self-released)

Did Ya Know?: When Tony Joe White died in 2018 he left behind acoustic demos that the Black Keys Dan Auerbach and some Nashville pals fleshed out into a full-bodied finale, Smoke From the Chimney (Easy Eye Sound).

New & Noteworthy

Judy Collins, White Bird -- Anthology of Favorites (Wildflower/Cleopatra)

Sarah Jarosz, Blue Heron Suite (Rounder)

Leftover Salmon, Brand New Good Old Days (Compass)

Monsta X, Flavors of Love (Universal)

Van Morrison, Latest Record Project, Volume 1 (Exile/BMG)

RagnBone Man, Life By Misadventure (Best Laid Plans/Columbia)

Bebe Rexha, Better Mistakes (Warner)

Sufjan Stevens, Convocations (Asthmatic Kitty)

Weezer, Van Weezer (Crush Music/Atlantic)

Nancy Wilson, You and Me (Carry On Music)

Also Out

The Accidentals, Time Out (self-released)

Steve Almaas, Everywhere Youve Been (Whippowill)

Arielle, Analog Girl in a Digital World (self-released)

The Aristocrats, FREEZE! Live in Europe 2020 (BOING)

Ashe, Ashlyn (Mom+Pop)

Daniel Bachman, Axacan (Three Lobed)

The Bamboos, Hard Up (BMG)

Mandy Barnett, Every Star Above (BMG)

Benjamin Jayne, Theater (WhatAboutMusic)

Natalie Bergman, Mercy (Third Man)

Blue Cactus, Stranger Again (Sleepy Cat)

Baily Bryan, Fresh Start (300 Entertainment)

Quintin Copper & Nas Mellow, April Dreams (Sonar Kollektiv)

Graham Costello, Second Lives (Gearbox)

CVLT on the SVN, We Are the Dragon (Napalm)

Diamante, American Dream (Anti-Heroine)

The Damn Truth, Now or Nowhere (Spectre Musique/Sony)

Doss, 4 New Hit Songs (Lucky Me)

Tommy Emmanuel, Accomplice Series Vol. 1 (CPG Sounds)

False Memories, The Last Night of Fall (Frontiers)

Tim Foljahn, I Dreamed A Dream (Cart/Horse)

Fried Monk and Beautiful Fortune, Here As One (self-released)

Ghost Iris, Comatose (Long Branch)

GoGo Penguin, GGP/RMX (Blue Note)

Noah Haidu, Slowly: Song For Keith Jarrett (Sunnyside)

Todd Michael Hall, Sonic Healing (Rat Pak)

Highlight, The Blowing (Kakao Entertainment)

Iceage, Seek Shelter (Mexican Summer)

Benjamin Jayne, Theater (WhatAboutMusic)

India Jordan, Watch Out! (Ninja Tune)

KALI, Circles (Nettwerk)

Ted Russell Kamp, Solitaire (Continental)

Kayak, Out of This World (InsideOut)

Sophia Kennedy, Monsters (City Slang)

Lipstick Jodi, More Like Me (Quite Scientific)

LOrange & Namir Blade, Imaginary Everything (Mellow Music Group)

Man On Man, Man On Man (Polyvinyl)

Mara TK, Bad Meditation (Extra Soul Perception)

Mia Joy, Spirit Tamer (Fire Talk)

Mighty Mighty Bosstones, When God Was Great (Hellcat/Epitaph)

Chloe Moriondo, Blood Bunny (Public Consumption/Fueled By Ramen)

Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny, Lets Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)

New Order, Education Entertainment Recreation (Live at Alexandra Palace) Rhino/Warner)

Night Beats, Outlaw R&B (Fuzz Club)

NoMBe, Chromatopia (Th3rd Brain)

Opium Moon, Feast of Sevens (Six Degrees)

Procol Harum, Missing Persons (Alive Forever) (Esoteric Antenna/Cherry Red)

Ritual Cloak, Divine Invasions (Bubblewrap Collective)

Salem, Salem II (Roadrunner)

Maia Sharp, Mercy Rising (Crooked Crown)

David Shaw, David Shaw (Yokoko/C3)

Slow Leaves, Holiday (Birthday Cake)

Sonic Haven, Vagabond (Frontiers)

Mark Spiro, Traveling Cowboys (Frontiers)

Squid, Bright Green Field (Warp)

Stone Whiskey, Rebels of the Sun (self-released)

Sumo Cyco, Initiation (Napalm)

Skuli Sverrisson and Bill Frisell, Strata (Newvelle)

Teke::Teke, Shirushi (Kill Rock Stars)

Alfie Templeman, Forever Isnt Long Enough (Chess Club)

Tommys Rocktrip, Beat Up By Rock N Roll (Frontiers)

Travis Tritt, Set In Stone (Big Noise Label Group)

Sam Valdez, Take Care (B35CI)

Various Artists, Deewee Compilation: Foundations (Deewee)

Geoff Westen, Random Acts of Music (Disturbing Music)

Jesse Keith Whitley, Breakin Ground (Benny & the Big Guy)

Remi Wolf, We Love Dogs! (Island)

Pete Yorn, The Rooftop EP (Sony)

From The Vaults

Johnny Ace, The Johnny Ace Collection 1952-55 (Acrobat)

Alphaville, Afternoons in Utopia (Deluxe Edition) (Rhino)

Kenny Chesney, Here and Now (Deluxe) (Warner Music Nashville)

Alex Chilton, Boogie Shoes: Live on Beale Street (Ominvore)

Erasure, Chorus (Deluxe Edition) (Mute)

Al Hibbler, The Singles Collection 1946-59 (Acrobat)

Goldie Hill, The Goldie Hill Collection 1952-62 (Acrobat)

It Bites, The Tall Ships, Map of the Past (InsideOut)

Lulu, Gold (Crimson/Demon)

Jane Morgan, The Jane Morgan Collection 1946-62 (Acrobat)

Red Nichols, The Red Nichols Collection 1926-32 (Acrobat)

Angel Olsen, Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories (Jagjaguwar)

Billy Joe Royal, The Very Best of Billy Joe Royal: All the Hits + Rarities (Classics France)

Save The World, One (Frontiers)

Staind, Live: Its Been Awhile (Yapem/Alchemy)

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Miranda Lamberts The Marfa Tapes tops this weeks new releases - cleveland.com

Today (5 May),Frieze New Yorkwillboldly openas planned, the first fair in the city to do so in more than a year.Over 60 internationalgalleries willoccupythebrand new location of The Shed in Hudson Yardsa glimmering sign that the city is inching back tonormalcy.

In pre-pandemic times, May was undoubtedly one of the busiest months on the New York calendar. Traditionally kicking off with the Met Gala and the concurrent opening of the Costume Institutes fashion exhibition (both of which will be held in September this year) and ending with the close of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (now scheduled for November), this dynamic confluence of culture means the Frieze New York atmosphere will, no doubt, feel a little different.

With strict health and safety protocols in place, and a powerful social justice message that 50 galleries have chosen to participate in, this years edition promises to be like no other. Read our top tips for asafe, immersive,and memorable Frieze New York 2021, whether youre in thephysical or digital space:

Frieze Artist Award 2021 winnerPrecious Okoyomons Earthseed.Exhibition view at the Museum Fr Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 2020. Courtesy of the artist, the Museum Fr Moderne Kunst, and Quinn Harrelson / Current Projects. Photography: Axel Schneider

Frieze New York 2021 is excitingly being staged at The Shed, leaving its Randalls Island venue for the first time since the fair launchedin 2012. Specifically designed to produce and foster innovation and creativity in all forms, the Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed space is one of the best-equipped venues in the Big Apple to meet the needs of a major event during these times.

The Shed boasts a modern ventilation system that has already been fitted with Merv-16 filtration, and ambient air turns over at least once every hour. Timed entry tickets, along with the requirement for proof of a negative PCR test within 72 hours before arrival, a rapid antigen test within 24 hours before arrival, or proof of vaccination, are part of amulti-tiered approach that aims to assure guests and exhibitors of health and safety. Wherever possible, a one-way traffic flow has been instituted and hand-sanitising stations have also been installed throughout the venue.

This is a time for creativity, flexibility and collaboration, all of which have led us to an exciting opportunity to hold a smaller fair at The Shed, alongside Frieze Viewing Room online that will connect galleries and audiences all over the world, says Victoria Siddall, Frieze Art Fairs global director.

Awol Erizku,Untitled (Forces of Nature #1), (2014), which featured on the cover of the Vision & Justice issue of Aperture magazine.Courtesy of Ben Brown Fine Arts and the artist.Public Art Fund, in partnership with The Cooper Union, will present a free virtual conversationbetween Awol Erizku and curator Daniel SPalmer on 10 May to accompany the artistsJCDecaux bus sheltersacross New York City and Chicago

One of the most significant cornerstones of this years fair is the tribute to the Vision & Justice Project, founded by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, associate professor at Harvard University. The educational initiative is dedicated to expanding visual literacy and examining the role of art in understanding the relationship between race and citizenship in the United States.

At its heart are two new commissions by Carrie Mae Weems and Hank Willis Thomas, who have each created homages to the project. Weems work comprises monumental images of unique book covers for theartists and scholars originally involved in the Vision &Justice Project in 2016. Thomas, co-founder of artist activist platform For Freedoms, recreates his iconic Who Taught You To Love? (2020), from the groups billboard campaign, while, also realised with For Freedoms, artist Mel Chin reveals a new billboard in solidarity with the Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

Hank Willis Thomas x For Freedoms,Who Taught You to Love?(2020).Courtesy of For Freedoms and the artist

More than 50 participating galleries in the fair have pledged their support to the Vision & Justice Projects cause by having their programming respondto the question: How are the arts responsible for disrupting, complicating, or shifting narratives of visual representation in the public realm?

The question of how visual representation functions in a representational democracy to expand our understanding of who counts requires all of us, reflects Lewis. Sothis collective engagement with the mission of the Vision & Justice Project by [this number of] galleries at Frieze feels significant. It is also fitting, since the work of artists is central to the mission. In the end, the tribute raises fundamental questions about the new potential of art fairs for social engagement, and highlights the relationship of the private act of looking, even at an art fair, for the public work of justice.

JR,28 Millimtres, Women Are Heroes, Action in Favela Morro da Providencia, Maria de Fatima,day view, Rio de Janeiro, 2008. The piece is part ofGaleriaNara RoeslersSurpassing marginson Frieze Viewing Room, which pays tribute to the Vision & Justice Project

New York-based multidisciplinary artist Precious Okoyomon is the winner of this years Frieze Artist Award, which provides an opportunity to present an ambitious commission at the fair. Supported by the Luma Foundation, Okoyomon will present a performance-activated installation conceived specifically for The Shed. This work extends Okoyomons practice by bringing together poetry, sensory elements, sculpture, light and sound in a celebration of self-expression and the value of the collective shared experience. Aiming to create what the artist describes as a portal for a space of fragilisation, the performance will be filmed and streamed online from the fairs opening date for viewers around the world to experience.

Precious Okoyomon Earthseed,exhibition view at the Museum Fr Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 2020. Courtesy of the artist, the Museum Fr Moderne Kunst, and Quinn Harrelson / Current Projects. Photography:Axel Schneider

Jenny Schlenzka, executive artistic director at Performance Space New York and one of this years jurors, says, Simultaneously playful and critically inquisitive, this singular artist-poets work highlights the inevitability of change, decay, death, and rebirth. By extending poetry into the organic world, Okoyomon reminds us that apocalypse and utopia coexist and always have.

Aside from heralding significant milestones, Frieze New York willpushthe envelope on several other fronts:

Frame

The section of the fair dedicated to young galleries and emerging artistshas been assembled with the advice of gallerists Olivia Barrett and Sophie Mrner. It sees exciting talents presented by galleries that have been in operation for less than ten years, from Shanghai, Lisbon, Bogota, Los Angeles and New York.

Olga Balema, Interior biomorphic attachment, 2014/2020, steel, foam, latex. Photography: Gregory Carideo Courtesy the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC

La Prairie artist commission

Luxury skincare brand La Prairie, an ardent supporter of the arts, unveils a time-focusedwork by Hong Kong-based artist Carla Chan, inspired by her artists residency at the Monte Rosa Hut near Zermatt in the Alps. The specially commissioned piece celebrates La Prairies new partnership with Frieze New York and Frieze London, expanding its commitment to investing in art and culture.

Carla Chan,Space BetweenThe Light Glows, commissioned byLa Prairie forFrieze New York 2021

Augmented reality

In a nod to the ever-converging worlds of technology and art, The Looking Glass, is an exhibition of augmented reality artworks curated by Acute Arts artistic director Daniel Birnbaum and The Sheds chief curator Emma Enderby. It premieres works by Kaws, Cao Fei and Precious Okoyomon that spring to life on a smartphone when viewers arrive on site. Also visible through the Acute Art app, these works blend the physical and virtual worlds with an element of surprise.

Cao Fei, RMB City AR, augmented reality, 2020. Courtesy Cao Fei and Acute Art

Frieze Viewing Room

For those unable or not yet ready to visit the fair in person, the Frieze Viewing Room, now in its third edition, beams works from 160 galleries from six continents directly to your screen. Built to facilitate discovery and boasting improved image loading times, mobile functionality and user experience, the platform showcases a wide cross-section of works at all levels of the market.

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Frieze New York is kicking off: heres what not to miss - Wallpaper*

The late John Prine, a tragic early victim of COVID-19, sang make me a poster from an old rodeo just give me something that I can hold onto . " Who doesn't hope, especially these days, for something dear to hold onto?

The California mountain summer camp I attended as a lad during World War II, and then helped lead a decade later, shut down after more than 50 golden years when grasping new-age parents began filing lawsuits if their kid got a bloody nose playing capture the flag.

Southern California, where I grew up, was a utopia before developers began destroying it after World War II when the world moved there. Today ,Californians are fleeing yesteryear's sweet-smelling Shangri-la because of high costs, cars, crowds and general contentiousness.

The reliable Bell Telephone System was the world's biggest business and among its most honorable when I worked for its parent, the original AT & T, in New York City. Communications wannabes who scoffed at the company's genuine "spirit of service" hired political lobbyists to divvy up the system's customer-focused national organization and, in 1983, it was annihilated.

That beloved summer camp, yesteryear's glorious Southern California, and the Bell System, all pillars of my own life experience, are no more. Many consider that progress. Others tilt toward John Prine's lyrical lament: "Just give me something I can hold onto." In the battle to keep the Bell System intact during the early 1980s we warned, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Same idea. Keep the good things going.

Every bit as cherished as our lake, our mountains, our schools and galleries, our hospital, our celebrated cafes, family businesses and City Beach, the library defines our collective soul. To tamper with an institution so well led just to accomodate hostile, misanthropic, science-doubting malcontents who refuse to mask up to protect others would be foolish and pure folly. Let's hold onto our library as it is. If it ain't broke, which it ain't, don't fix it.

On May 18 responsible voters must ensure that incumbents Amy Flint and Jeanine Asche remain on our library's accomplished board of trustees. Many thanks.

TIM H. HENNEY

Sandpoint

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Masks on, or hands off the library - Bonner County Daily Bee