Monthly Archives: August 2023

ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, Mayor [William] ODwyer and Borough President [John] Cashmore wielded pick and shovel today in ground-breaking ceremonies for the first postwar construction on the $25,000,000 Brooklyn-Queens Connecting Highway. The ceremonies took place shortly after noon at Amity and Hicks Sts., launching construction on Contract 1 for the first section of the long-proposed cross-Brooklyn traffic artery. No homes are to be affected by construction of the first section, Mr. Cashmore pointed out. All structures were removed in 1941 when Hicks St. was widened to 160 feet from Hamilton Ave. to Atlantic Ave. A luncheon for the officials who took part in the ceremonies followed at the Hotel Bossert. Eventually the highway will run from the end of Gowanus Parkway at Hamilton Ave. along Hicks St. to Atlantic Ave., then swing toward the waterfront and run along a three-level structure overhanging Furman St. After skirting the Brooklyn Heights area, it will connect with Park Ave., curve through Williamsburg to Meeker Ave., and then, by viaduct, to the Kosciusko Bridge over Newtown Creek to Queens.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, Giant commercial airlines will take off from Floyd Bennett Field on regularly scheduled trans-ocean and cross-country flights within six weeks, it was indicated today as a formula was prepared by city and navy officials for airline use of the airport without hampering the navys expanded reserve pilot training program. Although no definite date was announced when commercial airlines would move into the field, thereby making Brooklyn a major air terminus, Mayor ODwyer, it was believed, was planning to make the transition about Oct. 1. After an hour-long conference yesterday in the airports administration building, the Mayor told reporters that the city was working toward the earliest possible date for occupancy. The conference, attended by ranking navy and city officials, set up a preliminary procedure whereby the city will have temporary use of a major part of the 1,280-acre airport to relieve the rapidly mounting congestion of commercial air traffic at LaGuardia Field. President Truman has given his blessing to the Mayors plan for acquisition of the field. The need for additional airport facilities in the New York area was emphasized today by major airlines which reported substantial increases in flight schedules. American Airlines, United Air Lines and Pennsylvania Central Air Lines announced record increases in domestic air traffic, and Air France said it would increase its New York-to-Paris service from two to three planes weekly.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, A plan to set up a municipal lottery expected to yield $300,000,000 to $400,000,000 a year was proposed today to Mayor ODwyer as a means of rehabilitating the citys finances and insuring retention of the 5-cent subway fare. The plan, authored by William Beckerman, Brighton Beach real estate broker, would set up an organization called the United Philanthropic Society of New York City with membership dues of $10 per year, payable quarterly. Each member would receive a certificate giving the right to participate in a drawing to be held every three months for a list of more than 1,000 prizes ranging from $25 to $10,000.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, WASHINGTON (U.P.) Air Force investigators who turned up two tattered disk-type airplanes in an abandoned Maryland tobacco shed hinted today the discovery may break the flying saucer mystery. They were searching for a missing inventor who built the two craft and reportedly got one of them into the air before disappearing with his wife and child about 10 years ago. It is apparent that both ships would give the appearance of flying disks, said a spokesman for Air Force investigators who have worked on the flying saucer mystery for two years with little or no tangible result. They could well be the prototype of what have been reported as flying saucers, he said. The investigators hoped to find Jonathan E. Caldwell, whose attempt to sell stock to finance production of the disk planes he invented reportedly was blocked at the time by Maryland authorities.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, WASHINGTON (U.P.) Official confirmation that Russia has exploded an H-bomb today swept the world into a deadly new lap of the atomic arms race and brought Congressional demands for stepped up U.S. defenses. Chairman Lewis L. Strauss of the Atomic Energy Commission announced shortly after midnight that the United States detected an atomic explosion in Russia on Aug. 12. He said subsequent information indicated the Russians had tested an H-bomb. His statement followed by less than two hours a Moscow communique which said that one of the types of the hydrogen bomb was exploded in the Soviet Union a few days ago for experimental purposes. Strauss made it clear that the United States was far ahead of Russia in developing the awesome H-bomb, which may release up to 1,000 times as much destructive force as an atomic bomb.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include former N.Y. Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles, who was born in 1944; journalist Connie Chung, who was born in 1946; Reaper star Ray Wise, who was born in 1947; Fringe star John Noble, who was born in 1948; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), who was born in 1948; Perfectly Good Guitar singer John Hiatt, who was born in 1952; Thirtysomething star Peter Horton, who was born in 1953; weather forecaster Al Roker, who was born in 1954; Pleasantville star Joan Allen, who was born in 1956; Buffy the Vampire Slayer star James Marsters, who was born in 1962; Limp Bizkit founder Fred Durst, who was born in 1970; Arrival star Amy Adams, who was born in 1974; Supernatural star Misha Collins, who was born in 1974; N.Y. Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury, who was born in 1976; wrestling commentator Byron Saxton, who was born in 1981; Hacksaw Ridge star Andrew Garfield, who was born in 1983; and Skyscraper singer Demi Lovato, who was born in 1992.

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Special thanks to Chases Calendar of Events and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable:

Some kids dream of joining the circus, others of becoming a major league baseball player. I have been doubly blessed. As a member of the New York Yankees, I have gotten to do both.

former N.Y. Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles, who was born on this day in 1944

August 19 | Brooklyn Eagle History

August 18 | Brooklyn Eagle History

August 18 | Brooklyn Eagle Staff

August 17 | Brooklyn Eagle History

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August 20: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Go back to a previous copy of your note and take advantage of version history in Google Keep.

A Google Keep notes version history will help you see your changes to a note over time. Like the nature of the simple app, Google has kept version history as uncomplicated as possible. Lets see how to find older versions of your Google Keep notes.

It takes just five steps or less to check the version history of a Google Keep note.

If you included any image files in a Google Keep note, it wont be included in the version history. You can only see and recover the text.

Right now, the feature is being rolled out worldwide and only works on the web version of Google Keep. Android and iOS support may arrive later, as Google Keep is always recommended for notetakers on the move.

Google Keeps version history feature is rudimentary at present. You cannot roll back a note to a previous version with a click. You can copy the content from a downloaded older version and paste it into the current note as a workaround. Its a bit of a speed bump to do it from a downloaded HTML file rather than having it part of the note. Also, it doesn't cover images, so if you used a photo in a note, you wouldnt be able to go back to a past version for it.

The feature is a late addition to a notetaking app with such a good track record. But we can assume its because Google Keep is seen as an uncomplicated and instant notetaking tool without frills.

The version history of a Google Keep note isnt only about keeping track of changes. If you use Google Keep for writing down ideas and collaborating with teammates, then looking back at the past versions can help you see how your notes have evolved. Shared notes or lists can be backtracked to an earlier version and checked for accuracy or any change in context. But undoing any mistake or recovering some lost information is often the most important use of version history as you can now go back in time.

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How to Keep Track of Changes in Google Keep With Version History - MUO - MakeUseOf

100 years ago in 1923:

Vienna welcomed hundreds back home to Homecoming Day. More than a thousand people were on the village green to witness a program of sports or in attendance at a baseball game which was to wind up the afternoons program.

The Vienna Boosters club had charge of the years Homecoming affair, which had been an annual event for some time among the loyal present and past residents there.

Every store and every house at the center of the village was decorated with flags and bunting. From telephone poles, banners bore Welcome Home! inscriptions.

A parade which was formed at the school house and traversed the village streets to the town square opened the days program, led by the Gilliland band of Warren which was to be one of the feature attractions of the day.

50 years ago in 1973:

Warren attorney George Gentithes was main speaker at the dedication of the citys new Municipal Justice Building on South SE, and took the occasion to laud the city for making progress, yet declared the $2 million structure was only a symbol and reminder of all that still needed to be done.

Gentithes said Warren must get busy in improving its streets and roads, improving services to citizens and in learning how to get along better among ourselves.

Warren has been criticized for a certain conservativeness, a certain slowness. Yet there has been a certain sureness, too, and this building is a symbol of that sureness, Gentithes said.

25 years ago in 1998:

Thirty U.S. Air Force reservists left the Youngstown Air Force Reserve station for a 15-day cargo delivery operation at the air force base in Anchorage, Alaska.

The units took turns throughout the year traveling around the world supporting other bases, helping to evacuate people in emergencies or dropping supplies and food into war torn areas.

10 years ago in 2013:

Weathersfield Township Community Leadership awards were presented to its first group of honorees. The group included four men who contributed to the community through their work and volunteering.

Those honored included assistant fire Chief Ken Boring, William Rummell, Harlan Collier and Frank Wodogaza. Their names were placed on a new marker at the main entrance of the township administration building.

Rummell, Collier and Wodogaza were honored posthumously.

Among their accomplishments: Boring has served 48 years with the fire department as captain and assistant chief; Rummell was a math teacher, baseball and basketball coach, principal and superintendent in the Mineral Ridge School District; Collier was a member and chief of the fire department and zoning board member, and a U.S. Air Force veteran; and Wodogaza was a local businessman, precinct committeeman and veteran of the Army.

Compiled from the archives of the Tribune Chronicle by Emily Earnhart.

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This Week in History: Vienna Homecoming welcomes native sons ... - Warren Tribune Chronicle

Highlights

The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is incredibly rich and detailed, with entire histories of nations being written, even if they never factor directly into the plot. It's one of the most interesting things about the series, as the world feels so real and lived-in, while still maintaining a certain fantastical element to it. A lot of the cultures of this fictional world draw inspiration from real-life Asian and Indigenous cultures, which only adds to that feeling of realness. While a lot of the lore is set up in ATLA, it's expanded upon even further in The Legend of Korra, which even delves into parts of the history such as the story of the first Avatar.

The four nations are also really important to the overall plot of the show, as the way the world is divided plays into the story a lot. One of the areas that is important to the characters in both ATLA and Korra - mainly because some of the most important characters from each series hail from this place - is the Water Tribe. There are technically two Water Tribes - the Northern and the Southern, who come from the same culture, though they developed certain differences over the years. The traditions of the Water Tribe were inspired by various Indigenous and Inuit cultures. While this nation is important to characters like Katara, Sokka, and Korra, its history is only briefly touched on in the actual show itself. How did the Water Tribe come to be, and what differentiates the Northern sect of the tribe from the Southern?

RELATED: Avatar: The Last Airbender Fans Are Already Critical of Netflix's Live-Action Series

During the time period prior to the existence of the first Avatar, the early peoples that would later make up the Water Tribe were gifted the element of water by the lion turtles, who granted them this power through energybending. These people came together as the Water Tribe after the lion turtles stepped back from being the protectors of humans, and these early Water Tribe members left the lion turtle cities and settled at the North Pole of the world. Many of the ways of life and traditions that these early settlers started became important parts of the Water Tribe culture, such as a dependence on water for sustenance, or how dome-like structures were a mainstay of their architecture. Of course, there were also some differences. There were a lot of things about early Water Tribe culture that were actually reminiscent of Fire Nation culture.

There were several independent tribes in the North at first, until they were united by a group of waterbenders who built the capital Agna Qel'a. However, this unity didn't last long, as there was a period of civil unrest within the tribe. There was a group that separated from the original tribe and moved to the South Pole to start a new sect of the tribe as they didn't agree with some of the views and cultural practices that had become normal in the North. Because of these disagreements, the two Water Tribes became distant (not just physically) and were culturally and politically divided for years.

The Northern Water Tribe thrived specifically because of its isolation, as it was not subject to the invasions that the Southern Tribe experienced, and it actually grew into a huge economic and political power after the Hundred Year War. The Northern Tribe tended to be more spiritual and conservative in their traditions than the South. For example, the Northern Water Tribe did not allow women to learn waterbending for fighting purposes and only trained them as healers. Parents also often arranged marriages for their children. There were a number of women who left the Northern Tribe to go to the Southern in order to escape these strict rules, but a lot of the rules were questioned and became more lax after the Hundred Year War. The Northern Water Tribe is led by a chief who can be male or female, and at the end of The Legend of Korra was ruled over by twins Desna and Eska, who took over for their father Unalaq after his fall from grace.

The Southern Water Tribe is actually a federation of a bunch of smaller tribes, ruled over by a Council of Elders who are also responsible for electing a chief for the tribe. The South experienced an unfortunate string of intense Fire Nation raids that decimated the tribe and resulted in most of their waterbenders being taken prisoner. The tribe was on the edge of extinction when Sokka and Katara came across Aang at the very beginning of The Last Airbender, and this discovery is what saved their nation in the end. After the Southern Tribe assisted in the Siege of the North, Master Pakku sent aid down to them to both help their redevelopment and also foster a more positive relationship between the tribes.

The Southern Tribe, though it was not entirely free of sexism, did not have the same gender equality issues that the North had, as women were allowed to be benders apart from just healing, and no one was forced into arranged marriages. The Southern Tribe was more progressive than the North, but they were still technically a confederation under the Northern Tribe's jurisdiction, at least until the Water Tribe Civil War that occurred during The Legend of Korra which led to the South's independence. After this Civil War, the Southern Tribe grew bigger and more powerful than ever, and has been in a state of prosperity since then under Chief Tonraq.

NEXT: Avatar Quest for Balance Should Only Be a Stepping Stone for the Franchise

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Avatar: The Last Airbender: The History of the Water Tribe - GameRant

This is the incredible story of Walter Samuel "Edy" Tavares da Veiga's journey from the small island of Maio to the dazzling heights of the NBA and beyond.

And this is how it all began.

In March 2009, a German man named Joaquin walked into the offices of CB Gran Canaria (a professional basketball team competing in Spain's Liga ACB) to meet with of Ral Rodriguez, the director of the team's youth program at the time.

Joaquin, who had been invited to the offices by a friend and colleague of Rodriguez, had an interesting proposition for the director: he wanted him to sign a teenager from Cape Verde who had never played basketball.

Normally, such a pitch would have anyone laughed out of the office of any sports professional, but Joaquin knew that the young man he had spotted had enormous potential in the sport, simply due to his sheer size. Rodriguez's curiousity was peaked, but before he would go any further, he needed some proof as to just how tall this kid was.

That was no problem for Joaquin, who ran a business selling cars on the Canary Islands and regularly visited Cape Verde, where he first spotted a towering teenager working in a convenience store. That young man was Edy Tavares, and the shop he worked in after school belonged to his grandmother. At this time, Tavares had never even touched a basketball. But the introduction of Joaquin was about to change his life forever.

Growing up in Maio, one of the smallest islands in Cape Verde, Tavares, like most kids his age, was only interested in football. But after Joaquin explained how basketball could provide a path to helping his family's standard of life, Tavares was keen to learn more.

First thing was first, though: Joaquin needed to take a picture of Tavares (who was then 2.16m (7 ft 1 in) tall) and send it to Rodriguez to prove just how tall the youngster was.

Suffice to say, the photo did the trick, as not long after it arrived on Rodriguez's desk Tavarez was meeting with the director, Alejo Melero, then-secretary of Gran Canarias youth program, and Carlos Frade, then an assistant coach for Gran Canaria's senior team in Praia, Cape Verde's capital city, on the island of Santiago.

Despite not owning a pair of basketball shoes - an issue that was only partly remedied after the Cabo Verde Basketball Federation got involved to secure a pair of size 13.5 sneakers, well under Tavares' size 17 feet the team of men who had come to evaluate Tavares quickly noticed that the teenager couldn't shoot the ball at all, but was humble, smart, and had exceptional hands that could easily snag the ball from the air.

And that was enough for Rodriguez to take a chance on him.

At 17 years old, Tavares moved to the Canary Islands, where he tried to adjust to Spanish life and culture without the support of his family. In addition to learning the basics of basketball, Tavares - who speaks both Cape Verdean Creole and Portuguese - started learning Spanish and English.

His hard work began to pay off, and by 2012, Tavares had worked his way up from Gran Canaria's youth B team to the senior squad that competes in Spain's Liga ACB arguably the second-best basketball league in the world after the NBA.

Progressing to the senior team meant that Tavares was exposed to tougher competition, but also the tutelage of coach Ato Garca Reneses, who mentored NBA stars Ricky Rubio and Pau Gasol before their moves to the USA. By the end of the 2013-14 season, Tavares, who had finished sixth in the league in rebounds (6.8 per game), was generating looks from NBA scouts for the upcoming 2014 NBA Draft. On 26 June 2014, Tavares was selected with the 43rd overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks, becoming the first Cape Verdean-born player to be drafted in the NBA.

Walter Tavares #22 of the Atlanta Hawks poses for a portrait during the 2015 NBA rookie photo shoot.

Over the course of the next nine years, Tavares, despite only playing one game for the Hawks, has built an impressive resume of accolades while positioning himself as one of the best defensive players in European basketball:

Amidst his defensive rampage of Europe, Tavares has also found the time to help Cape Verde make history.

Prior to the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers, Tavares had only donned the national jersey on a couple of occasions, including a memorable outing against Angola during AfroBasket 2021 when he recorded 20 points, 18 rebounds and 6 blocks in a shocking overtime victory over Angola. In the last minute of the game, Tavares shattered the backboard with a game-tying dunk, causing a delay to the game.

Cape Verde would finish fourth at the tournament, but the real prize came in February 2023, when Tavares helped the team qualify for its first-ever World Cup.

Considering the year Tavares has had, it should come as no shock that the big man is receiving renewed interest for a return to the NBA, with the Portland Trail Blazers reportedly presenting a multi-year offer to the center. However, Tavares has a massive buyout clause in his contract with Real Madrid, which he signed in 2019.

But before Tavares' club future can be resolved, there's the little matter of the World Cup. Cape Verde have been drawn in Group F along with Slovenia, Georgia and Venezuela, and have an outside shot of progressing to the knockout round.

Now we want to have fun at the World Cup. A reward for the country, Tavares told Revelo. The World Cup is a fitting reward for Tavares, too: 14 years after he first held a basketball,Tavares will now lead his nation on one of international basketball's biggest stages. And yes, this time the shoes will definitely fit.

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Edy Tavares and Cape Verde poised to make history at 2023 FIBA ... - Olympics

No team is immune from making trades that turn out to be stinkers and the Baltimore Orioles are no exception. In fairness, the Orioles have also been responsible from some of the best trades in league history. The trade that brought Frank Robinson to the Orioles back in 1965 still brings smiles to the faces of Orioles fans even today.

However, to gain infamy, a trade has to do more than just not work out. Lots of deals fizzle out and fans can barely remember that they even happened. There are some deals, though, that are seared into a franchise's memory as turning out so gross that even mentioning them will get a grimace from the Orioles' faithful. Those are the deals that will be talked about here.

This is purely going to be a look at the results of trades here. Hindsight is a funny thing and some of these moves had real justification back when they were made. Unfortunately, history doesn't remember a lot of that and definitely remembers when future All-Stars and Hall of Famers get shipped out of town for returns that don't move the needle. Is that entirely fair? No, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Let's take a look at 10 of the worst trades in Baltimore Orioles history.

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10 all-time worst trades in Baltimore Orioles history - Birds Watcher

The once-Russian, now-American artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid got together to look back over the art they created as a team, the places they lived and the times they lived through. The occasion for this was a retrospective of their work held at the Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University in the U.S. The show followed their path from their earliest work together in the 1970s until they stopped collaborating in 2003, along with works they each created later.

It was a wild ride. Over the years the two artists created paintings in every conceivable style and genre. They worked in photography and performance art. They created installations, sculptures, an opera, music and poetry. They made letter-writing an art form. And they collaborated with other artists as well as with creatures, great and small.

Komar and Melamid began to work together in Moscow after graduation from the Stroganov School of Art and Design in 1967. In 1972 they created Sots Art, a kind of mash-up of Soviet Socialist Realism and Western Pop Art. These were meticulously painted canvases with inappropriate images their portraits in profile, like Lenin and Stalin or familiar appeals (Our Goal is Communism) made ridiculous by the signature of the artists, or an Ideal Slogan a line of squares instead of letters followed by the obligatory exclamation mark.

That was just the beginning. The pair set out to come up with at least four original projects a year. One was a set of Biographies that included the(supposedly) first abstract paintings done by a fictional serf artist named Apelles Ziablov and dozens of sentimental images of a landscape done by the (also fictional) one-eyed artist Nikolai Buchumov, each with a bit of the artists nose in the corner (the bane of a one-eyed artists vision). These were presented deadpan, with biographical information.

They also created a groundbreaking work called Biography of Our Contemporary 197 two-inch tiles, each painted in a different style, each depicting part of life in a line from conception to emigration.

Then came Post Art art of the future including the iconic Factory for the Production of Blue Smoke. They made a series of coded works (an essential skill of Soviet people) that included the story of their lives in a language they invented (and later forgot) and a canvas with colored dots that represented letters in an excerpt from Soviet Constitution. That became particularly famous when border guards thought it was a tablecloth and let it through customs.

They also produced a series of canvases with a few tiny, brightly colored brush marks in the center, which upon closer look appear to be miniscule figures representing key moments in Russian history, such as Conference regarding the best and quickest ways to subjugate the Khazan Khanate, April 1552. Fourteen people present.

These works were created in the Soviet Union. It is no surprise that the powers-that-be in Moscow were not amused. Komar and Melamid were arrested in 1974 for an apartment performance, and their Sots Art double portrait was smashed in the so-called Bulldozer Exhibition, when the authorities destroyed an outdoor show of unofficial art.

If the Soviet authorities were displeased, the New York art world was ecstatic. In 1976 the Ronald Feldman Fine Arts gallery in New York held a show of their works that had been smuggled out of the country by various means. The two artists were not given visas to attend. That was the pretext for another Komar and Melamid project, Trans State, the creation of a kind of sovereign nation-in-limbo complete with insignia and passports. They were finally granted permission to emigrate to Israel in 1977, and by 1978 they were working together in New York.

In the U.S. they bought and sold souls, including the soul of Andy Warhol, under the slogan No one else in the world pays cash for nothing. They joined together American advertising and Soviet propaganda posters in a series called Glories. And in 1982 they began the series Nostalgic Soviet Realism, what they called the dark paintings that seem to cast a spell on viewers. The works are very large, beautifully painted versions of socialist-realist canvases that look almost just for half a moment like works that could have been painted 60 years ago. But as you turn away you suddenly feel as if youve done something terribly shameful.

Komar and Melamid left their black magic behind and began to work in what they called Anarchistic Synthesism, something of an expansion of their work on "Biography of Our Contemporary," only now they used large blocks of various styles and genres. From there collaborations with animals, including a chimpanzee who took photographs on Red Square and elephants in Thailand who painted with various appendages. Their last collaboration was the series Peoples Choice: paintings created to represent the peoples preferences of what they like best in works of art.

And that list is not all the projects that they did or that were represented at their retrospective at the Zimmerli Art Museum. The show was curated by Julia Tulovsky, who had an eye for their best work and a magical gift of keeping the show from being overwhelming. She told The Moscow Times that she had long wanted to do a retrospective of their works, and then when the war broke out, the relevance of their art to today's world became of course much more apparent. I had to considerably rethink the concept of the show and the name. It first was called "You are feeling good!" and now it is "A Lesson in History."

Around the walls of the rooms are quotes from some of the early art critics writing in the US, most of whom seemed to see mostly satire in Komar and Melamids works. The humor and satirical elements of their art, Tulovsky said, made some critics find them superficial. But that is a misunderstanding. They introduced a new and very influential method that is widely used today, she said. They call it conceptual eclectics, which allows the inclusion of contradictory life phenomena in the same work, helping the viewer to have a new, often tongue-in-cheek perspective on politics, art and other topics. They made a very important contribution to the development of contemporary arts.

MT talked with Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid about their art, their history and the history of art. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

MT: Everyone struggles to describe your work. How should I describe you? What do you prefer?

Vitaly Komar (VK): I dont argue with any perception of our work. I respect the freedom of the viewer to understand it as they wish the problem is really very simple. When a person begins to talk about art when a person speaks or writes or discusses art the way we are now, they fall into the role of translator translator from one language to another. From visual language to verbal language. This is far more difficult than, say, translating verse by the Russian poet Khlebnikov into English its almost impossible because there will always be some subjective, personal understanding. There isnt an objective translation from visual into verbal language.

Alexander Melamid (AM): We have never had, and I still don't have any, let's say style. I don't understand what the style is.

We are part of the huge picture which is called art. And art consists of drawers or shelves. We're open to any interpretation There's no right interpretation. There are just different interpretations And everything is all right. There's no wrong interpretation.

Back in Russia they see us as Russian but actually they see us as Russian everywhere Once when Id been living in New York for a very long time, I met a friend, a native New Yorker, and she said, Oh, you got new shoesThey're so Russian." Come on. I bought them at the corner store, I said. She said, No, no. Only a Russian could buy these shoes." I was really amazed. I walked around and I realized that every second man on the street was wearing shoes exactly like that.

You see, if you see Russianism, you see everything as Russian. What does it mean? Why is it Russian specifically? That's the shelf or whatever, a drawer in which we were placed. And there's nothing you can do about that.

MT: Could you talk a bit about how you started out in Moscow. You were part of the underground scene, werent you?

AM: Generally speaking, yes, but not really. Nobody took us seriously. Nobody. We made our art and then we started to knock on the doors of famous underground artists just out of the blue saying, "Here we are. People accepted us, but already established figures like Ilya Kabakov or Oscar Rabin thought of us as just funny guys who made a kind of kapustnik like an amateur comedy gag. Thats how they saw us.

The underground art world was as strictly guarded as the official art world, the Union of Artists, and so on. They didn't let just anyone inthey were really very guarded all the privileges, the connections with foreigners, the possibility of sales. It was an alternative world, which was quite well off, quite prosperous, actually.

MT: Looking back, what do you think of your earliest works?

VK: [When starting out] Melamid and I did what are called polyptychs. We combined paintings of various styles depending on our mood. We combined them into something like little streets. In diptychs, triptychs and so on. This was an interesting innovation, I thought.

Picasso changed his style. But he never made diptychs or triptychs from his various styles. He didn't combine cubism and neo-classicism. Or he didnt combine, say, his blue period and rose period with cubism. Never in the form of a triptych or diptych.

I think we were the first to do that in the early 1970s. We created a work in 1973 made up of more than 100 little paintings.

AM: Andy Warhol said that every artist is famous for 15 minutes. I want to say more. Every artist is a genius for 15 minutes. I saw this when I looked more closely at some artists who I really dont like or care about. But sometimes there was something that was really amazingly good.

Thats what is represented by our very early works. Just the beginning, the first 10 years. We were geniuses then the dark paintings were the end of the period. It was, say, from the end of 1972 until 1983.

MT: Could you talk about politics and art and art today?

VK: During war, the muses fall silent. War is not a good time for art.

Its fairly new to have politics in art. One of the first to do it was Goya in the early 19th century. He was the first; he painted Napoleons troops executing Spanish patriots in The Third of May 1808.But the thing is, politics are history for an instant. It is an instant of history today, right now.

[In the arts] things are very different than they were all through history. In the past, there was always one style [per age] the style during the Renaissance, for example and then for the first time in the 20th century, or even the late 19th, there were different styles in fashion at the same time.The peaceful coexistence of many different styles had never happened before in the history of art... Eclecticism became a kind of synthesis. This is a totally new phenomenon, and it has changed the idea of progress in art history.

Today artists think less about experimentation since all the options, all the experiments, have been done, all the possibilities of visual style have been used. You wont amaze someone with abstract art or a performance.

Now the main sensation are the prices at auctions. Art journals write about that. Its the big sensation. This is the commercialization of the art world.

AM: Art is [sometimes thought of as] a sacred thing. When you talk to some people, lets say rather simple people, and they ask you, "What do you do?" I say, "I'm an artist." "Oh, oh, oh!" I cannot explain it, but they know that it's a privileged caste.

But there's now, I think, millions of artists who work around the globe There's a children's art, there's this art, that art. There are millions and millions of people involved. And you try to see more. And when you see more, each one gets smaller. Because there is only so much that we can keep in our mind. The bigger art is, the smaller the artist. And that's inevitable, I suppose. So that's how it is. That's how it works. Of course, it's not fair, but what is fairness?

The exhibition "Komar and Melamid in America" will open at the Zimmerli Art Museum on Sept. 13, 2023, and run until Feb. 4, 2024. You can read more about the exhibitionhere.

A book and catalog of the exhibition "Komar and Melamid: A Lesson in History" is available here.

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Artists Komar and Melamid Give Lessons in History - The Moscow Times

INDIANAPOLIS It's move-in day for the Butler Bulldogs and this years incoming freshman class is setting major records.

With 600 Hoosiers filling the campus, this incoming class has the most in-state students Butler University has ever seen.

In addition, this year's class is the most diverse freshman class in the universitys history with 22% of students identifying as a person of color.

Jim Danko, President of Butler, says the university has been focusing on increasing the campus' diversity in recent years.

Myron Cornel Stokes Jr. is an incoming freshman from Memphis. He was a recipient of the Dr. John Morton-Finney Diversity Scholarship. He says thats a big part of what drew him to the school.

The scholarship is awarded to students who have invested time and energy into advancing diversity and inclusion in their schools or communities by community service or being involved in extra-curricular activities.

Stokes says the scholarship requires students to log a certain number of hours each week doing community work, such as tutoring or inclusion activities.

I didnt want the scholarship for just the money, but also the things they have me doing with it. I appreciate that and would like to continue, Stokes said.

Danko says this year the campus represents 38 states and over a dozen countries.

Set aside all the talk about diversity on the political side. On the educational side, there is nothing better than to have a tapestry of students that are bringing different backgrounds in, whether its social, economic, culture, color, Danko said.

Stokes says Butlers environment already makes him feel like he fits in.

From the statistics of previous years, there were maybe 157 black students. Now Ive already seen between 50 to 80. Its amazing to see, Stokes said.

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Butler welcomes the most diverse freshman class in university ... - WRTV Indianapolis

Crow Fair 2023 is officially underway in Crow Agency with an official invite from Crow Fair Royalty.

Dualah, welcome, Crow royalty said Friday as they overlooked the balcony at the new arbor.

If youve never been, there is so much history and culture to soak in, no matter where you're from.

Youre welcome at my camp. Come over and well have a good time, says Shawn Backbone, who is the 2023 elected Crow Fair Pow Wow Manager.

Backbone manages the largest Native American encampment in the world, boasting about 1,500 teepees. In fact, Crow Fair is known as the teepee capitol of the world, but many who live in Montana havent seen it in person.

We wanted to invite the people in Yellowstone County, Big Horn County, all the local counties around us, so come see us, says Backbone.

The view from Backbones camp is a front-row seat, with a daily parade going by at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Get here at nine, recommends Backbone. Find a good parking space, the bombs will go off. The bombs are real loud and that starts everything.

"The Crow way of life is a unique culture. We decorate our horses in beadwork, and we make them look nice, says Macariah Pine, Miss Crow Fair 2023.

The parade is about an hour and a half and its just the start to a full day of immersing yourself in Crow culture and history, an annual tradition in its 104th year that used to be very different.

Crow Fair was not a pow wow, it was not this, says Dy Anna Three Irons, Crow Fair finance manager and royalty coordinator. At that time, it was early reservation when they wanted Native Americans to become farmers. They were forced to become farmers. They wanted them to become civil and wanted them to display their crops.

The produce exhibit evolved into what youll see today, an incredible display of pride aimed at keeping Crow culture alive, and it is led by a dozen Crow princesses.

The grand entry at the powwow is probably one of the most beautiful sights youll ever see, says Pine.

The grand entry features various men, women and children's powwow dance categories like hot dance and fancy feather, all with big prize money.

Hello everybody my name is Dorothea Scalpcane, 2023 Tiny Tot Crow Nation Princess, and I invite you all to come watch the crow hop dance, says Dorothea Scalpcane.

Its unique dancing and thats the only place you can see it is here, so hope you all come, says Debra Dont Mix, Miss Big Horn District Princess.

Its an experience truly unlike any other.

I can say a lot, but youre going to have to come see it for yourself and enjoy it and then you have your own story, says Backbone.

Link:

Crow Fair 2023 packed with history and culture, and all are invited - Q2 News

Across the political spectrum, a persistent minority of voices insists that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the eastward expansion of NATO in the 1990s and 2000s. Others couch their criticism in more nuanced terms, but suggest that Russia should not pay a significant price for its invasion and war crimes, the better to get back to business as usual.

Political scientist John Mearsheimer, a conservative, blames the U.S. and NATO for the invasion. So does Noam Chomsky on the far left, propounding a few historical distortions along the way. Academic gadfly and tax delinquent Cornel West, wading into the unfamiliar waters of foreign policy, claims that NATO expansion "provoked" Russia into attacking Ukraine. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman and public nuisance, hasn't explicitly blamed NATO for the invasion, but her demand that the U.S. cease all aid to Ukraine and withdraw from NATO is a tacit endorsement of the opinion that Kyiv got what it deserved because of its dangerous liaison with America and NATO. The argument has become a leitmotif of the American far left and far right.

A more serious, and subtler, condemnation of current U.S. and NATO policy asserts that an outright military defeat of Russia (meaning the expulsion of Russian forces from all the Ukrainian territories they have seized by force) would be destabilizing and dangerous for the world. The operative phrase is that NATO must not "humiliate" Putin.

Henry Kissinger, our centenarian former secretary of state and self-appointed intermediary with China, has asserted that the West should not force "an embarrassing defeat" on Russia. He also said Ukraine must be prepared to accept Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, which would effectively predetermine the outcome of any future negotiated settlement. Oddly, though, Kissinger has flip-flopped on his previous opposition to Ukraine becoming a NATO member, albeit as a diminished state, with Crimea "subject to negation." That, however, could leave Ukraine vulnerable to a close Russian blockade of its Black Sea grain ports. Kissinger, the ultimate realist, evidently thinks it is acceptable to allow the Russian navy to have its hands around Ukraine's windpipe.

French President Emmanuel Macron, a key leader in the coalition supporting Ukraine, has not gone as far as Kissinger. But on several occasions he has advanced this argument: "We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means." French media, calling Macron a "keen student of history," says "he is also wary of the desire among some allies to punish Moscow for its aggression, citing the Versailles Treaty imposed on a defeated Germany at the end of World War I in 1919."

Brookings scholar Michael O'Hanlon has offered a more carefully hedged analysis, writing that an overly lenient settlement would give Russia little incentive not to attack again. On the other hand, in decrying hypothetical harsh terms, he also mentions World War I, claiming that "the Versailles peace wound up establishing the predicate for World War II more than producing stability."

Versailles has become a shorthand for critics of NATO's Ukraine policy, from those who think Washington and Brussels should offer Putin soft terms to those who explicitly blame the West for his war of aggression.

This invocation of the Versailles Treaty has become a form of shorthand for many critics of NATO's Ukraine policy, from those who think Washington and Brussels should offer Vladimir Putin soft terms to those who explicitly place moral responsibility on the West for his brutal war of aggression. Versailles has become a metaphor whose supposed "lessons" are that aggressors must not be humiliated or punished. The thesis also slyly shifts blame for criminal behavior from the aggressor to third parties.

The frequent castigation of Versailles in popular histories over the past century has established a narrative implying that seeking justice for international crimes will boomerang, and that wise statesmen should know better. It is a disguised insinuation that the Allied leaders of 1919, by humiliating Germany after four years of ghastly slaughter, paved the way for Hitler, thereby placing at least some of the moral onus on themselves. The so-called lessons of Versailles appeal to many because they are easy to grasp: a simplistic, determinist picture of history moving inexorably in a straight line and devoid of human actions, contingency and the complex interplay of events.

This argument, which reinforces both the purported lessons of history and a shallow realpolitik, falls readily to hand for those eager to accuse the West of provoking the Ukraine war. Supposed Allied triumphalism and harsh punishment of Germany in 1919 appear analogous to the situation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when NATO expansion allegedly pushed a shamed and demeaned Russia into the mud. The argument hints that payback is to be expected, and perhaps deserved.

Like the origins of the Cold War, the legacy of the Versailles Treaty has been subject to so much revisionism, tendentious pleading and misinformation that closer examination is warranted. The treaty is called "draconian" (even the website of the Palace of Versailles describes it thus) and a reflection of victors' justice. There is no question that the post-World War I settlement, of which that treaty was a major part, failed to prevent a second, even more disastrous war. But the question is why it failed; after all, treaties are not self-enforcing.

In particular, the treaty's reparations demands were allegedly so crushing that the price was beyond Germany's ability to pay. This issue will be salient if the international community is ever in a position to pressure Russia to repair the vast material damage it has inflicted on Ukraine. (Last November, the UN in fact adopted a resolution calling on Russia to pay reparations.)

Given the widespread belief that World War I was a meaningless great-power bloodbath, the revisionist critique asserts that it was unjust to saddle Germany with guilt for starting the war, since every power involved was responsible. But during the treaty deliberations, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau supposedly quipped that one thing was certain: "The historians will not say that Belgium invaded Germany."

Not only in Belgium, but also in the richest and most industrialized part of France, the Germans invaded, systematically plundered, and took many civilians as forced labor. The official German policy against civilians was described as Schrecklichkeit frightfulness. According to Belgian records, "German soldiers murdered over 6,000 Belgian civilians, and 17,700 died during expulsion, deportation, imprisonment, or death sentence by court." The land was so devastated in Northern France and Belgium that to this day, farmers and construction workers constantly discover unexploded ordnance. It was this vast human and material destruction that reparations were meant to compensate.

The bill presented to Germany came to 132 billion Reichsmarks over 30 years something like $500 billion in 21st-century dollars. From the beginning, Berlin fell behind on payments, not from an objective inability to pay, but because nearly the entire ruling class the civil service, the aristocracy, big capital and the political parties along with the middle class, swallowed the German Army's lies.

The army general staff had received everything it had demanded during the war, including a virtual dictatorship over the country, yet it botched the job and then washed its hands, passing off the mess to the civilians while claiming it had been "stabbed in the back." Hoodwinked citizens refused to believe Germany had been "genuinely" defeated, choosing to believe instead that political leaders had fallen for the tricks of the Allies and domestic subversives, the most insidious such trick being Versailles.

Despite this intransigence, the Allies, except for France during the first few years, were not unyielding. The Dawes Plan of 1924 issued loans to help restructure Germany's finances, and the Young Plan of 1928 stretched out the reparations payments. In 1932, the Allies granted Germany, which had been continually in arrears on its payment schedule, an indefinite moratorium. By then, Germany had paid less than a sixth of the total reparations due: a pittance compared either to what it spent on the war or the damage sustained in the invaded territories.

Allied actions did not incite the extremism of Weimar Germany that led to Nazi rule; that was the result of an authoritarian society that modernized without gaining a democratic culture.

Did Versailles immiserate Germany? Not exactly. By 1929, its GDP was 12 percent higher than it had been in 1913, the last full prewar year, despite losing two million prime-age male workers in the war, with millions more disabled. What crushed the German economy by the end of the Weimar period was the Great Depression, a storm that swamped all boats: the United States itself was suffering 25 percent unemployment when Hitler came to power. Allied actions did not incite the endemic extremism of Weimar which culminated in Nazi rule; it was the toxic result of a traditionally militarized, authoritarian society that had industrialized and modernized without gaining a democratic culture.

Nor were the territorial clauses as onerous as typically depicted. Alsace-Lorraine, forcibly annexed by Germany in 1871, was returned to France. Formerly German territories awarded to Poland and Denmark had Danish- and Polish-speaking majorities who voted decisively in League of Nations plebiscites that they did not wish to remain with Germany. German speakers in what became Czechoslovakia had never been German subjects.

Both the territorial and indemnity provisions of the treaty were no worse than those Germany had imposed on France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and were vastly more lenient than the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918, in which the brand new Bolshevik regime in Russia was forced to hand over to Germany lands making up 34 percent of its population, 54 percent of its industry, 89 percent of its coalfields and 26 percent of its railways. This outcome warned the Allies what they could expect if Germany won the war.

From the beginning, Germany violated the Versailles clauses intended to prevent it from rearming. The Allies banned German possession of U-boats in view of their massive submarine campaign in the war, which had sunk not just Allied but neutral shipping. In the early 1920s, however, the German Navy secretly used shell companies to establish facilities in Sweden and the Netherlands to test new U-boat designs. Around the same time, the German Army agreed to a technology transfer scheme with the Bolsheviks that allowed the army to test new weapons and tactics at secret sites deep inside the Soviet Union.

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The Western powers were aware of most of Germany's secret rearmament schemes, but did nothing to stop them. During the 1920s, they were complacent; by the early 1930s, they were preoccupied with their own economic problems; by 1935, when Hitler formally renounced the treaty, the reaction was silent dread, rationalized by the excuse that maybe Germany had been treated unfairly, and that countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland rightfully belonged in Germany's sphere of influence anyway. It should have been evident by then that the treaty's provisions were not the problem; it was the Allies' lack of will to enforce them.

This overview of the Versailles Treaty is not merely of antiquarian interest; the same issues arose immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Like Germans who were shocked and unaccepting that they had been militarily defeated, many ordinary Russians couldn't believe they had lost the ideological competition with the West. The revanchist mentality of Vladimir Putin, who has said the USSR's demise was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century," echoes that of the German militarists of 1919. Independent Ukraine assumed the same position in the minds of Russian revanchists as independent Poland did to the right-wing movements of Weimar: territories unjustly taken from the homeland by fraud and force majeure.

There is a lingering belief, analogous to the notion that reparations exploited Germany economically, that Western countries consciously wielded free-market radicalism to loot the Russian successor state to the Soviet Union during the 1990s. It certainly appears true that many foreign investors and companies took advantage of the Wild West atmosphere of post-collapse Russia to reap huge profits.

There is a lingering belief that Western countries wielded free-market radicalism to loot Russia after the Soviet collapse. But the rise of Russia's oligarchs was a homegrown phenomenon.

But Russian migr journalist Arkady Ostrovsky, in his book "The Invention of Russia," explains how that Wild West atmosphere came to exist in the first place. He says that even before the fall of the Communist regime, former KGB operatives had already transformed themselves into oligarchs who divided up the Russian economy like a giant cake. This economic warlordism, like the endemic violence of Weimar, was a homegrown phenomenon, largely resulting from the lack of a democratic culture. By the same token, if Western governments had restricted their nationals from doing business in Russia (which would have amounted to imposing sanctions), the newly opened Russian economy would have been even more starved of capital. No doubt that too would have become a new charge in the critics' bill of indictment against the West.

Those who claim that NATO expansion provoked adverse Russian behavior typically present it as a process initiated and executed by Washington, with the existing and candidate members being passive subjects. This construct ignores the fact that the candidate states of Eastern Europe, many of which had experienced decades or centuries of Russian political domination and even forced Russification, had solid historical reasons for desiring NATO membership, rather than simply trusting in the Kremlin's good intentions. This year's protracted obstruction by Turkey of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden shows that member states are hardly U.S. vassals; had there not been unanimity within NATO, the expansion would not have proceeded.

The "lessons" of the Versailles Treaty are far more complex than the conventional wisdom will admit. On balance, Germany was not treated as a pariah: reparations terms were eased, disarmament violations were winked at and the country was admitted to the League of Nations in 1926. If the Allies had actually enforced the treaty, maintained a tolerable state of military readiness, and concluded mutual assistance agreements with Czechoslovakia and Poland, the most cataclysmic war in history might have been averted.

The invasion of Ukraine is but one component of an extraordinarily complex global crisis that requires the U.S. and its allies to rally global support for defending Ukraine while balancing our overall policies towards Russia and its de facto ally China. How the international community will eventually settle with Russia is an open question, but it should not be determined by a selective and misleading reading of history.

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from Mike Lofgren on politics and history

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Russia, Ukraine and Versailles: Bogus lessons from history won't ... - Salon