Daily Archives: June 23, 2021

Rendering cliches moot is no small achievement. Yet if these two records prove anything, it is that it's possible to accomplish this daunting task in a variety of ways. In the case of Paul Taylor, aka New Memphis Colorways, his truth lies in the restoration of the fundamental notion a single individual can indeed sound like a larger ensemble. For their part, Utopia implicitly addresses the verity that two musicians can best illustrate the essential difficulty of playing music well together. Indirectly, however, these artist's records also confront the essential challenge of how to address that paradox of complexity within simplicity, a conundrum of no small proportions inside and outside of the creative realm. If it is indeed true that art mirrors life and vice-versayet another hackneyed sayingthen these artists are confronting philosophical issues of the highest order and making it sound like it's an unmitigated pleasure to do so.

New Memphis Colorways It Is What It Isn't Owl Jackson Jr. Record Company 2021

Making true solo recordings was hardly a novelty even before the quarantines arising from the pandemic. Yet the dexterity and depth of feeling with which Paul Taylor imbues New Memphis Colorways would be distinctive no matter the context. It certainly helps that the sound, mastered by Justin Perkins, spans the audio spectrum and virtually leaps from the speakers/phones. But such dynamism has its source in the one-man playing of all manner of guitars, keyboards and percussion. On cuts like "Hey F****r, Don't Do That," the multi-instrumentalist exhibits the musicianly touch of restraint combined with naturally fluid thought patterns manifest in the shifting instrumental tones and textures. Therein lies a palpably human sensibility at work, captured as much in originals like "Hangover Funk" or disparate choices of cover material in the form of Hammerstein and Kern's "All The Things You Are" and the late Jaco Pastorius' "Teen Town." It Is What It Isn't constitutes a stern lesson in self-discipline leavened with the utter joy of creation.

Utopia Imaginably Self Produced 2021

The uncanny instrumental marriage of acoustic guitar and saxophone fostered by Yuto Kanazawa and Yuto Mitomi is a gateway to the pair's individual and shared ingenuity. Crucially, the musiclover's journey is far less rife with the unknown of the novel because of the familiarity in choices of material like The Beatles' "Blackbird." Yet it matters not if the song under exploration is a well-known cover like Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" or the somewhat knotty title tune original: the virtually non-stop flow of ideas between the two musicians, airy but substantial, t bespeaks their own (re) discovery of possibility, not just in the material, but in their own musicianship. At approximately thirty-three minutes slightly longer in duration than its companion piece, the listener's sense of time is otherwise suspended because Kanazawa and Mitomi conjure more than a little otherworldly atmosphere as they interact. Thankfully, it's all recorded with Jason Borisoff's technical skill and pure feel, a own combination of virtues comparable to the musicians.'

Tracks: Hangover Funk; Hey F****, Don't Do that; All the Things You Are; ffs,tmi; On The downs; Stanlee's Sonata; Teen Town

Personnel: Paul Taylor: guitars, basses, synths, keyboards, omnichord, percussion.

Imaginably

Tracks: Karatachi No Hana; Imaginably; I Want You Back; Blackbird; Doralice; Ugly Beauty; Isn't she Lovely; Sweet Lorraine.

Personnel: Yuto Mitomi: tenor and soprano saxophones; Yuto Kanazawa: Brazilian 7-string guitar.

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New Memphis Colorways and Utopia: Way Outside the Box ...

Utopia Falls is a science fiction drama that follows a group of teenagers as they prepare to perform in a dance competition to honor the founder of their colony, New Babyl, which is the only Utopian colony in the post-apocalyptic world. Ahead of the event, one of the teens makes a startling discovery that changes their lives forever.

Canadian writer-director Randall Thorne serves as the creator of this futuristic series. He is known for working with hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg and Drake. The co-directors are Melanie Orr, Warren P. Sonoda, and Sudz Sutherland.

The show aims at portraying the significance of culture and history in the modern world that seems to have lost touch with its roots. Packed with a fresh cast and invigorating music, the first season of Utopia Falls received a mixed response. Which obviously makes fans of the show wonder: will there be an Utopia season 2? Lets find out.

Utopia Falls season 1 released on February 14, 2020, on Hulu. It consists of ten episodes with a runtime of 55-60 minutes each.

As far as the next season goes, heres what we know. Even though the concept of the show is conducive for multiple seasons, the tepid response to the first season is a worrying sign. At this point of time, we can only wait and watch. The final decision will be taken by Disney based on viewership numbers. Our best guess is that if renewed, Utopia Falls season 2 can release sometime in February2021.

Utopia Falls puts the spotlight on a fresh ensemble that comprises Robyn Alomar (Riot Girls) as the daughter of the Tribunal, Aliyah, Akiel Julien (American Gods) as Aliyahs performance partner and friend Bohdi, Devyn Nekoda (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as Sage, Robbie Graham-Kuntz (Full Out) as Tempo, Phillip Lewitski (Supernatural) as Apollo. Snoop Dogg voices The Archive.

The show also stars Humberly Gonzlez (Orphan Black) as Brooklyn, and Mickeey Nguyen (Make It Pop) as Mags, Melissa Strong as Jia, Jeff Teravainen as Gerald, Huse Madhavji as Mentor Watts, Sean Baek as Ryden, Kate Drummond as Authority Phydra, and Stephanie Hood as Nada.

Utopia Falls features some extraordinary teenagers whose lives are about to change. In a dystopian world, set over 300 years into the future, there is a Utopian colony called New Babyl. Each year, a few teens are chosen to perform at the Exemplar entertainment competition to honor the legacy of their founder Gaia.

One of the candidates Aaliyah, accidentally finds a secret library of cultural relics The Archive. A stunned Aaliyah introduces the place to her fellow candidates, and they begin to wonder why the Tribunal has deprived them of such a multi-faceted assemblage of art forms like Rap and Hip-Hop, etc.

After Bohdi is captured for performing a hip-hop inspired set during the rehearsals, all the Exemplar Candidates, led by Aliyah, start a rebellion against the Tribunal. Aliyah, Apollo, Bohdi, and Brooklyn embark on a quest to uncover whether there are more people beyond the shield that covers New Babyl. Aliyah and her group decide to expose the real side of their idyllic colony through the power of dance and music at the competition. Meanwhile, Authority Phydra does whatever she can to stop Aliyah from fulfilling her purpose.

Check out the gripping trailer of Utopia Falls season 1.

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Utopia Falls Season 2: Release Date, Cast, Hulu, New ...

17 March 2021, 13:33

The Houston rapper has confirmed his new album 'Utopia' will be dropping this year.

Travis Scott has geared up his fans after releasing new details about his highly-aniticapted new album 'Utopia'.

Following the 2018 release of his third studio album 'ASTROWORLD', there is nothing but great expectations from the stars forthcoming project.

The Houston native's last album enlisted some of the biggest names in pop/rap music, including; Frank Ocean, Drake, The Weeknd, James Blake, Philip Bailey, 21 Savage, Swae Lee, Gunna, Nav, Quavo, Takeoff, Juice Wrld, Sheck Wes, Kid Cudi, Don Toliver and others.

But what does Travis Scott have in store for his upcoming album?

Find out more details on the album below.

Travis Scott revealed new details on his new album 'Upotia' during a recent interview with I-D Magazine.

The "Goosebumps" rapper explained that he is developing a new sound for his upcoming project.

Travis said: I never tell people this, and Im probably going to keep it a secret still, but Im working with some new people and Im just trying to expand the sound".

He continued Ive been making beats again, rapping on my own beats, just putting everything together and trying to grow it really."

"Thats been one of the most fun things about working on this album. Im evolving, collaborating with new people, delivering a whole new sound, a whole new range. Travis told the publication.

He added "I want to make a f**king new sound. I might spend days banging my head against a wall trying to figure it out, but once I do it, its like ultimate ecstasy.

Travis Scott initially teased 'Utopia' for the first time on in late summer 2020.

On the second year anniversary of his 'ASTROWORLD' release, he celebrated it on social media while cryptically teasing his new album 'Utopia'.

In August 2020, the "SICKO MODE" rapper posted a handwritten note on Twitter, which read: "Happy Astroversary a 2 year ride that's still one of my favorites!!! Album means so much to me!! To every one that bumps and rages to that soundtrack I love you."

He added, "Let's keep the ride going see you in Utopia."

During a recent interview with I.D Magazine, Travis Scott revealed that 'Utopia' will deifnitely be dropping this year.

Infact, to quote the rappers words, he said his new album will be coming soon.You can bet that.

The rapper also revealed that the COVID-19 restrictions of quarantine enabled him to be way more productive without concerts and travel on the agenda.

You in the crib, and I got the studio at home and I have the peace to record all day, you know? Obviously like, you lose a little bit by not being able to travel and, you know, just see the earth. the star told the publication.

As for now, there is no guarantee who will be on Travis Scott's new album as there is no official track listing.

The star has also revealed that he is switching up his sound, making it hard to guess who may be on his new album.

There is no official tracklist to Travis Scott's new album 'Utopia' as of yet.

However, Genius has put together a list of songs that are to be confirmed and that are already out, which may appear on the project. See below.

1. Highest In The Room

2.The Last Time

3. Niagara Falls Ft 21 Savage

4. Franchise (featuring M.I.A and 21 Savage)

5. Franchise Remix (featuring Future, M.I.A and 21 Savage)

This article will be updated with relevant information when it is released.

Travis Scott fans took to Twitter to claim his new album 'Utopia' was allegedly leaked online.

On Tuesday (Mar 16) people began speculating whether Travis' album was leaked or not.

One fan wrote "think i found the utopia album cover leak" while others claimed they had the actual album.

Another Twitter user wrote "Okay okay, UTOPIA boutta drop, PLEASE, LETS BEHAVE, NO LEAKS" while one added "ISTFG IF UTOPIA GETS DELAYED CUZ SOME DUMBASS DECIDED TO LEAK HALF THE MUSIC AND THE COVER I WILL GO ON A RAMPAGE".

While there has been no official leak link on the social media platform, it is all speculation at this point.

See other Tweets below.

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Travis Scott new album 2021 'Utopia': Release date ...

The Minimes barracks in Paris dont look like the future of cities. A staid brick-and-limestone complex established in 1925 along a backstreet in the Marais district, its the sort of structure you pass without a second glance in a place as photogenic as Paris.

A closer look at its courtyard, however, reveals a striking transformation. The barracks former parking lot has become a public garden planted with saplings. The surrounding buildings have been converted to 70 unusually attractive public housing apartments, at a cost of 12.3 million ($14.5 million). Elsewhere in the revamped complex are offices, a day-care facility, artisan workshops, a clinic, and a cafe staffed by people with autism.

The green, mixed-use, community-friendly approach extends to the streets beyond. Five minutes down the road, the vast Place de la Bastille has been renovated as part of a city-funded 30 million revamp of seven major squares. No longer a roaring island of traffic, its now dedicated mainly to pedestrians, with rows of trees where asphalt once lay. A stream of bikes runs through the square along a freshly repaved, protected coronapisteone of the bike freeways introduced to make cycling across Greater Paris easier during the coronavirus pandemic. City Hall has since announced that the lanes will be permanent, backed by 300 million in ongoing funding from the region and top-ups from municipalities and the French government.

Place de la Nation, one of seven transformed squares.

Photographer: Dmitry Kostyukov for Bloomberg Businessweek

Taken together, the new trees and cycleways, community facilities and social housing, homes and workplaces all reflect a potentially transformative vision for urban planners: the 15-minute city. The 15-minute city represents the possibility of a decentralized city, says Carlos Moreno, a scientific director and professor specializing in complex systems and innovation at University of Paris 1. At its heart is the concept of mixing urban social functions to create a vibrant vicinityreplicated, like fractals, across an entire urban expanse.

Named Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgos special envoy for smart cities, Moreno has become a kind of deputy philosopher at City Hall as it endeavors to turn the French capital into what he calls a city of proximities. His 15-minute concept was developed primarily to reduce urban carbon emissions, reimagining our towns not as divided into discrete zones for living, working, and entertainment, but as mosaics of neighborhoods in which almost all residents needs can be met within 15 minutes of their homes on foot, by bike, or on public transit. As workplaces, stores, and homes are brought into closer proximity, street space previously dedicated to cars is freed up, eliminating pollution and making way for gardens, bike lanes, and sports and leisure facilities. All of this allows residents to bring their daily activities out of their homes (which in Paris tend to be small) and into welcoming, safe streets and squares.

Similar ideas have been around for a long time, including in Paris itself. Walkable neighborhoods and villages were the norm long before automobiles and zoning codes spread out and divided up cities in the 20th century. Yet the 15-minute city represents a major departure from the recent past, and in a growing number of other cities its become a powerful brand for planners and politicians desperate to sell residents on a carbon-lite existence. Leaders in Barcelona, Detroit, London, Melbourne, Milan, and Portland, Ore., are all working toward similar visions. Theyve been further emboldened by the pandemic, with global mayors touting the model in a July report from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group as central to their recovery road maps.

With climate change, Covid-19, and political upheaval all challenging the ideals of globalism, the hope is to refashion cities as places primarily for people to walk, bike, and linger in, rather than commute to. The 15-minute city calls for a return to a more local and somewhat slower way of life, where commuting time is instead invested in richer relationships with whats nearby. These crises show us the possibility for rediscovering proximity, Moreno says. Because we now have the possibility to stay closer to home, people have rediscovered useful timeanother pace for living.

Its a utopian vision in an era of deep social distressbut one that might, if carried out piecemeal, without an eye to equality, exacerbate existing inequities. Skeptics also wonder whether a city thats no longer organized around getting to work is really a city at all.

Dreams of breaking down the segmented urban planning that dominated the 20th centurywith industry on the outskirts, residential areas ringing the city, commerce in the core, and auto networks connecting long distancesof course arent new. Urban thinkers have been advocating for the preservation or return of walkable, socially mixed neighborhoods at least since the 1961 publication of Jane Jacobss paean to Manhattans Greenwich Village in The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

This advocacy has slowly filtered into mainstream planning orthodoxy. Copenhagen pedestrianized its main shopping street in 1962, the first of many densely built European cities to take this approach in their downtown cores. In the U.S., the so-called New Urbanism of the 1980s and 90s created a planning template (first fully realized in Seaside, Fla.) that saw a preference for row houses and apartments over detached houses, as well as for walkable, tree-lined streets and a careful dispersal of schools, stores, and parks to reduce the need to drive. Since the turn of the millennium, rising concerns over air pollution and climate change have led to further innovations, such as the congestion charge London introduced in 2003 for cars driving into the center and massive expansions of public transit networks in cities from Moscow to Medelln.

The 15-minute city concept draws all these trends into an intuitive rubric that ordinary residents can test against their own experiences. Its also served as a response to pressures wrought by property speculation and rising tourism, which have pushed up rents and driven residents and businesses out of some long-standing communities. The 15-minute city seeks to protect the vitality that made diverse, locally oriented neighborhoods attractive in the first place.

Paris has been moving in this direction for some time. Under the mayorship of the Socialist Partys Hidalgo, who was first elected in March 2014, the city introduced bans on the most polluting motor vehicles, transformed busy roads flanking the Seine into a linear park, and, in a bid to maintain socially mixed communities, expanded the citys network of public housing into wealthier areas. It wasnt until 2020, however, that Hidalgo grouped these efforts together under the umbrella of the 15-minute city, plucking the term from the academic realm and giving it new political urgency.

Moreno

Photographer: Chaire ETI

During her reelection campaign, she teamed with the concepts originator, Moreno, a former robotics specialist whod realized that his primary interest was the environment in which robots functioned. Hidalgo had already laid much of the political groundwork for Morenos blueprint in her first term; now she could link all those bike paths and car lane closures with a vision that matched the vibrancy and convenience of a metropolis with the ease and greenery of a village.

Since winning reelection in June, shes doubled down, appointing a Commissioner for the 15-Minute City, Carine Rolland. A Socialist Party councillor whod previously served in a culture-oriented role in the 18th arrondissement, Rolland also became Pariss culture commissioner. Its true that Paris is already a 15-minute city to an extent, she says, but not at the same level in all neighborhoods and not to all sections of the public. Theres much to be done in the working-class districts on Pariss eastern edge and in many quarters close to the Boulevard Priphrique beltway, for example. In areas like these, social housing towers frequently predominate, and grocery stores and community facilities such as sports centers and clinics are sparse. This has particularly acute consequences for older people and those with limited mobility, Rolland points out.

Closer to Pariss heart, she says, are areas characterized by what we call mono-activitya single commercial activity occupying a whole street. These are notably around the eastern section of the citys inner ring of boulevards, which are dominated by offices and small shops, leaving streets that are lively on workdays to become quiet and uninviting on evenings and weekends.

Rollands job as 15-minute-city commissioner entails coordinating related efforts by different departments. In September, for example, 10 Parisian school grounds reopened as green oasis yards, bringing the total to 41 since the initiative began in 2018. Each has been planted with trees and remodeled with soft, rain-absorbent surfaces that will help battle the summer heat. The yards are left available after school for use as public gardens or sports grounds, and they open onto revamped school streets where cars are banned or severely limited and where trees and benches have been added. Transformations like these, Rolland explains, involve bringing together departments responsible for education, sports, roads, and parks, as well as local business and community organizations.

Paris is far from alone in attempting this sort of transformation. Londons new Mini-Hollands import Dutch planning ideas that seek to reduce or block car access to neighborhood shopping hubs. Barcelona has been turning 400-by-400-meter chunks of road in areas dominated by apartment towers into mostly car-free superblocks. Madrid has declared plans to copy that approach, in keeping with its goal to be a city of 15 minutes as it recovers from the pandemic. Milan has said the same, with hopes to turn Covid-19 bike lanes and sidewalks permanent as its economy restabilizes. But turning the 15-minute city into a truly global movement will require a big battle over a core urban tension: the primacy of the car.

Its one thing to turn a Paris or a Barcelonacities that were almost completely shaped before the automobile was inventedinto a neighborhood-centric utopia. Transforming them is rather like giving a supermodel a makeover. The challenge is far greater in the kinds of younger, sprawling cities found in North America or Australia, where cars remain the dominant form of transit.

Some are trying. Since 2017, Melbourne has been working on a long-term planning blueprint centered on the 20-minute neighbourhood. But while the citys aspirations are similar to Pariss, the issues involved in implementing them could scarcely be more different, especially in areas beyond the already densifying core and inner suburbs. Some middle suburbs are well-served by public transport and are starting to experience densification, but others arent on the bandwagon, explains Roz Hansen, an urbanist who oversaw the preparation of Melbournes blueprint. Meanwhile, the outer suburbs are still at very low densities, partly because of poor public-transport connections.

The city has tried to improve transportation and job options in the outer suburbs, which are marked by single-family homes. Some of the middle suburbs have hosted pilot projects where new mixed commercial-residential developments are being encouraged and streets are being remodeled to increase cycling space and improve walkability. But to create and connect true 20-minute neighborhoods, investment in public transit will be key. The bureaucrats kept thinking, Oh, this is also about getting in your car for a 20-minute trip, but its got nothing to do with the car, Hansen says. The 20-minute neighborhood is about active modes of transport and increasing an areas catchment of accessibility. If youre walking, 1 to 2 kilometers [1.2 miles] is your catchment. If youre cycling, it could be up to 5 to 7 kilometers. With public transport, it can be 10 to 15 kilometers.

Of course we need to adapt this concept for different realities. Not all people have the possibility of having jobs within 15 minutes

U.S. cities holding similarly optimistic blueprints are also struggling to strike a balance between vision and reality. In 2016, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan laid out a plan to turn high-density corridors outside the central business district in his sprawling, 140-square-mile city into 20-minute neighborhoods. Its leading edge thus far is a $17 million pedestrian upgrade in the Livernois-McNichols area, 9 miles northeast of downtown. The project concluded in early 2020 with an emphasis on narrower streets, wider sidewalks for cafe seating, and new lighting. Residents and business owners have been largely pleased with the improvements; a walk to the supermarket is now a much more pleasant ambition.

But that basic urban function is out of reach for the vast majority of the city. An estimated 30,000 citizens lack access to a full-service grocery store, according to a 2017 report by the Detroit Food Policy Council. Katy Trudeau, the citys deputy director of planning and development, says it wasnt long ago that many people had to travel to the suburbs for shopping and other errands. Thats improved overall, and nine other districts have been targeted for upgrades along the lines of the one in Livernois-McNichols. Yet chronic fiscal problems and large swaths of blighted structures left vacant as the citys population declined have made rapid transformation implausible.

So far, most of Detroits achievements under the 20-minute rubric have been modest, including moves toward a comprehensive transportation plan and ongoing investments in lighting and resurfacing. Trudeau also points to a new $50 million public-private affordable housing fund, which seeks to help low-income residents stay in place as property values rise in redeveloping neighborhoods. These things might seem really basic in Paris, but here weve suffered so much in the form of population loss and financial uncertainty in the form of bankruptcy, she says. We have to balance these concentrated strategies with citywide strategies that help everyone with their quality of life. The 20-minute label has served mainly as useful shorthand to communicate the citys goals with residents and investors. Trudeau hopes initiatives such as the housing fund will ensure that it includes a diverse cross section of the population.

Within 15 minutes of the + symbol

Data: Remix, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, OpenStreetMap, Google, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Detroits plans were partly inspired by Portland, Ore., which is celebrated in urbanist circles as a model of U.S. city planning. Portland has the highest rate of bike commuting of any major American metro, a tight boundary that defines how much it can sprawl, and forward-thinking policies aimed at spurring dense, lower-cost housing production. Were often mixed up with Paris, jokes Chris Warner, director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT).

Yet even there, it will take years to achieve the level of compactness that makes for a complete neighborhood, as the citys 2013 plan phrased its goal. About three-quarters of Portlands residential land is occupied primarily by single-family homes, and more than half of its population commutes by car. A recent Brookings Institution report that studied local travel behaviors found that among six U.S. metropolitan areas, Portland had the shortest average trip distance for people traveling to work, shopping, and errands. But that distance was still 6.2 miles, hardly a 15-minute walk or bike ride to the dentist or laundromat. To combat this, PBOT is spending most of its $150 million capital-improvement budget on bike and walking infrastructure inside complete neighborhoods, and on transit to connect them.

Adie Tomer, a fellow at Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and co-author of the report, says the 15-minute concept falls flat in America because people in the U.S. already live in a 15-minute city, its just that theyre covering vast distances in a car. Planners concerned with urban livability and rising carbon emissions might do well to focus on distance rather than time, he says. He suggests that the 3-mile city might resonate better.

However the concept is cast, Art Pearce, PBOTs manager of policy planning and projects, sees signs that Portlanders are keeping their travel closer to home as the pandemic changes the way they relate to their surroundings. Were seeing a lot of people adjusting their behaviors to focus more on their communities, he says. That produces an opportunity to strengthen those ties as people return to a more normal life.

One thing would-be 15-minute cities everywhere will have to reckon with is social equityand affordable housing in particular, as Detroits Trudeau points out. Many neighborhood services rely on lower-income workers who often make long commutes, and a 15-minute city isnt really one if only the well-off can stay put. To that end, Paris aspires to have 30% of its housing stock in the public domain by 2030, and its been increasing the share even in richer districts despite resistance from well-heeled neighbors. It is completely part of Anne Hidalgos program to resist real estate pressure, to maintain public housing, and to diversify the housing offer for the middle class, says Rolland, the 15-minute-city commissioner.

Cyclists along Rue de Rivoli in Paris.

Photographer: Dmitry Kostyukov for Bloomberg Businessweek

Such measures can, to a degree, counterbalance Pariss trends toward high rents and social polarization. But in a city where property prices rose even during the pandemic, theyre unlikely to prevail completely. And other goals of the 15-minute city, such as greening and pedestrianizing the heart of Paris, risk alienating lower-income suburban commuters. This accusation was leveled against Hidalgos administration in 2016, after it introduced changes to the Seines lower quayside that eliminated a key route for car commuters. Valrie Pcresse, president of the regional council for le-de-France, which encompasses Pariss suburbs, accused Hidalgo of acting in an egotistical manner by pushing through road closures, noting that some people dont have any solution other than driving into Paris for work, because they dont have the means to live there. Others have pointed out a related concern: that, by prioritizing local infrastructure, governments will overlook badly needed regional investments, such as in transit systems for more distant commuters.

Moreno recognizes that large segments of the population might never enjoy the slower-paced, localized life he envisions. Of course we need to adapt this concept for different realities, he says. Not all people have the possibility of having jobs within 15 minutes. But he emphasizes that many peoples circumstances could be profoundly changedsomething he believes were already seeing because of the pandemics canceled commutes. In his view, centralized corporate offices are a thing of the past; telework and constellations of coworking hubs are the future.

The 15-minute city could also be seen as what writer Dan Hill identified as a form of post-traumatic urbanisma way to recover from the onslaughts of such things as property speculation, overtourism, and now the pandemic. Already its become clear in Paris, Rolland says, that the city needs a more localized medical network, so people dont feel they have to go straight to the emergency room.

Following the unending traumas of 2020, theres an appealing nostalgia to a renewed emphasis on neighborhoods, even if it addresses only some of the citys modern challenges. This, too, Moreno acknowledges, pointing yet again to his ideas recuperative possibilities above all. The 15-minute city is a journey, a guideline, a possibility for transforming the paradigm for how we live over the next many decades, he says. Before, people were losing useful time. With the 15-minute city, we want them to regain it.

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Pariss 15-Minute City Could Be Coming to an Urban Area ...

The Tony Awards, long delayed by the pandemic, announced on Tuesday the first recipients, honoring the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, an organization started five years ago by a group of actors and others as a tool to work toward dismantling racism through theater and storytelling.

The other recipients were David Byrnes American Utopia, an intricately choreographed concert by the Talking Heads singer, and Freestyle Love Supreme, a mostly improvised hip-hop musical that was created, in part, by Lin-Manuel Miranda. These honors, called special Tony Awards, were presented to three recipients that the Tony administration committee thought deserving of recognition even though they did not fall into any of the competition categories, according to a news release.

The recipients were announced more than one year after the ceremony had originally been expected to take place. During the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was put on indefinite hold. The awards show a starry broadcast that will celebrate Broadways comeback is now set to air on CBS in September, when Broadway shows are scheduled to return to theaters in almost full force. Most of the awards, however, will be given out just beforehand, during a ceremony that will be shown only on Paramount+, the ViacomCBS subscription streaming service.

The award for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition is indicative of how deeply the American theater industry was affected by the mass movement for racial justice set off by the police killing of George Floyd last year.

In a statement, Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, and Heather A. Hitchens, the chief executive of the American Theater Wing the two organizations that present the awards said that the coalition has provided an unparalleled platform for marginalized members of our theater community and tools to help us all do better as we strive for equity.

Among the organizations projects is Theater of Change, a social justice methodology developed with Columbia Law School that brings together Broadway artists, legal and policy experts and people whose lives have been shaped by forces such as the criminal justice, immigration and educational systems to collaborate on storytelling as a means to advocate just policies.

This years ceremony for the Tonys, formally known as the Antoinette Perry Awards, will be the 74th such event and will recognize work performed on Broadway between April 26, 2019, and Feb. 19, 2020.

Broadways 41 theaters have been closed since March 12, 2020; right now, the first planned performances are for Springsteen on Broadway, the rock legends autobiographical show, which is set to open this Saturday at the St. James Theater. As of now, the next show scheduled to open is Pass Over, a play about two Black men trapped on a street corner, on Aug. 4 at the August Wilson Theater.

American Utopia, which opened on Broadway in October of 2019, is planning to restart performances on Sept. 17. Freestyle Love Supreme, which opened that same month, is scheduled to play again for a live audience on Oct. 7.

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Special Tony Awards Go to 'American Utopia,' 'Freestyle Love Supreme' - The New York Times