Category Archives: Zeitgeist Movement

Cory Henry emerged from the cocoon of coronavirus lockdowns a new artistnot so much in style as in profile. The 34-year-old, Brooklyn-born prodigy earned a credit on Kanye Wests latest album, Donda; performed the National Anthem with Michelle Williams at the NFLs season opener in Tampa Bay, and saw his work featured as the backing song on a Beats commercial starring controversial track sensation ShaCarri Richardson.

All of that comes on top of the four albums that Cory has dropped since COVID swept the globe. In 2020, he released the Art of Love live album, the original Something to Say, and the holiday-heavy Christmas With You. He followed those with a mesmerizing mix of vocal and instrumental tracks on 2021s Best of Me.

So when Cory returned to the stage this year, he had plenty to work with. The former member of the famed jazz ensemble Snarky Puppy put that prolific stretch of solitude to tremendous use during a two-night stint in the cozy confines of Gold-Diggersnow of Leon Bridges famein Los Angeles, shortly after summer had given way to fall.

Being by yourself aint so bad, Cory told the crowd of his greatest lesson from lockdown.

The mini-run at the similarly mini-venue was billed as a celebration of Corys latest release. To that end, he and his Funk Apostles didnt disappoint. Cory connected with the zeitgeist of virally induced introversion on Alone, tickled the keys on his Moog, Roland, and harpejji while trickling on his talk box during the P-Funky Waterfall, and summoned his inner Stevie Wonder to fly beyond the clouds on Dreaming Of. To close out the set, he tapped into the social justice movement that continues on by bringing his 2020 hit Rise back to the top.

Cory Henry Alone Los Angeles, CA 9/30/21

[Video: glamcem]

Cory Henry Rise Los Angeles, CA 9/30/21

[Video: glamcem]

Along the way, Cory appeared a man possessed, as much by his instruments as the musings of his bandmates. His face twisted and contorted with praise and surprise at every guitar lick, funky bass line, dappled drum beat, keyboard concoction, and vocal remedy that his group offered up alongside him.

Cory Henry Swing Los Angeles, CA 9/30/21

[Video: glamcem]

Of course, Cory did plenty of captivating himself. He guided the audience through call-and-response, set clapping patterns on the second and fourth beats, and generally cut the figure of a solo artist fully formed, the Master Henry as which hes been known since before he first took the stage at the Apollo Theater in New York City when he was just six years old.

Sure, the size of the venues that Cory currently plays, compared to where he started, may not make it seem like hes come so far. But, in fact, he has hit his stride, and then some, at least within the inner circles of the music industry. So long as he continues to write and perform songs of such melodious repute as he has so far, and so long as he keeps collaborating with the world-famous artists with whom hes kept company, its only a matter of time until Cory Henry not only becomes a household name but leaps from packing intimate clubs to filling vast concert halls with his indomitable talents.

See the original post:

Cory Henry Returns To Touring With 'Best Of Me' Celebration At Gold-Diggers In Los Angeles [Photos/Videos] - Live for Live Music

Stice by Walter Wlodarczyk

In 2020 Temp-Illusion's Pend balanced making audible the oppressive forces that surround us while also giving clues to their vulnerability. The Iranian duo of Shahin Entezami (who works solo as Tegh) and Behrang Najafi (Bescolour) construct immense, swaggering monoliths of sound over the tapes six tracks, while allowing fragile glimmers of light to poke through. Their ire was directed at the use of the media as a war weapon, and the release of Pend Reworks continues to unravel the oppressive machine. Entezami and Najafi have invited a globe spanning array of producers to remix the original tracks. And the sheer diversity of approaches and recontextualisations genuinely feels like a process of triumphant shared ownership. As Temp-Illusions compositions are opened up to be tinkered with and reformed, it hints at the possibility of wrenching any media into democratic domains.

Kenyan artist KMRU pulls a glint of fragile light from Two Lands and flings it into the air. Completely scrubbing away the originals harshness, and switching it into a moment of shimmering grandeur. Idelfon takes on the same track with drastically different results. Overlayed with Martin Luther Kings Three Evils Of Society speech and splayed beats, it turns into a ferocious protest rhythm as Kings defiance hijacks the electronic dread.

The b-side sees four radical reworks of Caustic Surface. Rojin Sharafi adds metallic percussion and trickling piano arpeggios, unbuckling its claustrophobic pressure into a richly liberated flow. Elvin Brandhi mashes the track into Two Ships and drenches the product in her Autotuned vocals. It sounds like shes wrestling with the machine, and ultimately winning as the dense textures cannot resist any longer, pinging out of rigidity into an unbounded, joyful deluge. Pouya Ehsaei flips it in yet another way, making entropy tangible as he plunges the track into cavernous depths and then watches it fizzle out and congeal into a beautifully warped new form.

The whole tape taps into a similar burnt ecstasy found in the recent Low and Bug albums. A knocking of sound into the red in the hopes itll finally collapse the old teetering edifices and allow something new to emerge. Sheer sonic intensity acting as last gasp attempt to shake some light out of the void. Beyond that though, the sheer breadth of artists involved in this project and the freedom with which they tinker with Temp-Illusions tracks feels like a very material reminder of art being a way to communicate around the usual borders.

Nick Zanca Cacerolazo(Full Spectrum)

Nick Zanca dove deep into his personal archive for Cacerolazo, but this tape shows that looking back doesnt have to be shrouded in melancholia. At the heart are recordings taken on a European tour, under his former Mister Lies guise, back in 2013. Most pertinent among the snippets of conversations is a documentation of a demonstration in Istanbul which Zanca found himself caught in the centre of. The title of the tape, Cacerolazo, refers to a particular form of protest, participants gathering in a public place and striking kitchenware to create a din to voice their frustrations. The name specifically references protests in Chile, yet this use of a racket to voice disapproval is a wide ranging and well embedded one, similar forms for instance appearing in charivari or rough music. The clangour Zanca witnessed in Turkey crops up repeatedly through the album, mutating in form yet ever present. Whether rising electronics, contemplative piano or violent screams, Zancas arrangements give shape to the memory, blending his present self back into these recordings as a way of processing youthful explorations collision with political dissent. Walter Benjamin wrote of past revolutionary dreams layering up and imprinting themselves in unexpected places in the present, and theres a similar sense here of Zanca trying to track a fervour across different times and spaces, from Turkish streets to the artists studio. Its clearest on Cacerolazo 3, a rising swarm of frazzled electronics and babbling voice snapping back into the racket of the 2013 protest so old and new, personal and social turmoil come as close as possible to existing side by side in a single moment. Theres a stunning array of sound collected in these pieces, vibrant textures slipping into idle chat, and the jumble they combine to create reminds me more than anything of the asynchronous narrative Kurt Vonnegut deploys in Slaughterhouse 5, as if disparate events are folding into each other to sketch an outline of whatever bridges the two.

Ursula Sereghy OK Box(Gin&Platonic)

Prague-based Ursula Sereghys OK Box seems to challenge the listener to a different mode of perception, undoubtedly following its own internal logic yet making perfect sense. Sereghys background is as a saxophone player in jazz bands, but OK Box sees her step into working solo, experimenting with machines and sound design, according to the liner notes. The pieces unfurl like a 1970s fibre-optic lamp, lines of ideas firing multi-directionally outwards from a centre but never totally unhinging themselves from the base. Slug Tremollo (Defenders Of The Existent) is built on a choral line which sounds like it could be lifted from an Arvo Prt composition. Cut up and reassembled into every possible permutation, it becomes a fluctuating hook spinning through the scattered arrangement. Other tracks sound like a big band refined down to the molecular and sprinkled across exploding glitch funk, flashes of meandering bass and wind instruments further bending the unhinged grooves, so that the closing three songs combine into something approaching a trance track getting ever more tangled up in its own contorted momentum. The whole tape seems to strive towards shedding hierarchies, pointing away from electronic musics traditional unison and tight structures to something far more open ended and genuinely transcendent.

Pilgrim Raid Anna Agenda(Chinabot)

According to the liner notes, Pilgrim Raids Anna Agenda is shaped by nostalgia for growing up in Vietnam in the 00s. And the feeling the duo bottle more than anything here is the overwhelming youthful awe at every new sensation. Those pivotal years where your senses are racing your mind in a desperate attempt to hear, see and understand a zeitgeist which is constantly just out of reach. In that sense, while nostalgia is typically linked to whats lost, here it feels much more like a celebration. Cardboard Creek is an absolute rager, nodding to Vina House, a form of Vietnamese EDM, it swings from skyward facing trance into a widescreen string lament. Alluvial Sky splinters from industrial laced hip hop into pitch bent mania, before climaxing in pure snare drum acceleration. Ni Bi sits firmly in a Nintendo sound track zone but with a piercingly beautiful arrangement, while Thin thn v c Qu pairs the most addictively catchy melody with the most addictively gnarled synth sound. The whole tape feels like an attempt to reach ecstasy by flooding your brain with stimuli, so that m Vnh K manages to sound like five songs bleeding into each other without ever losing coherence or momentum. Its a revelation, an overloaded celebration of the sheer vibrancy of everything.

Margenrot - Obkhod(Klammklang)

Obkhod is a transliteration of the Russian word passing by, and Margenrot, aka Moscow-based Russian-Armenian Lusia Kazaryan-Topchyans tracks feel like palimpsests of the imprints different contexts leave on the self, as traditional Armenian music is woven through haggard electronics and wavering minimal wave beats. On Nazani, synthetic wildlife sounds flutter over hypnotic bass, while Odnogogolsii 2.0 seems in a state of constant slippage between sorrowful pop and the background chatter of existence. Signal conjures a serene equilibrium, as though youre sitting and listening to the nexus where organic and inorganic sound completely dissolves and the two blur into a singular pulse. Kazaryan-Topchyan seems to lasso overlaps of music, technology and organic sonics into her compositions, so her enigmatic songs and brittle beats come across as an attempt to process and solidify transient sensations and permanent impressions into coherence. With the musical archive now bigger and more instantly accessible than ever, it shows there are still unique paths to be ploughed through sound. A map of the way layers of sonic and cultural history tumble into each other as they lodge into our synapses.

Stice Stices Satyricon(Ramp Local)

What do you think they say about you? Maybe they dont think about you at all, sings Stices Caroline Bennett (aka Crab) on I Need Cash!!!. A line of raw truth slicing through the tracks riotous cyber-slacker mess. It captures the teetering between vulgar and cutting honesty that defines Stices Satyricon, Bennett and producer Jake Lichter giving voice to internet-era neuroses across these pounding synth punk anthems. Bolstered by Bennetts absurd videos, with an aesthetic equal parts Tim and Eric and a technicolour David Lynch, Stice seem like a Butthole Surfers for the uncanny valley. Bennetts machine gun vocals refract through pop musics electrified remains, dense layers of free association combining into disturbing coherence, as though shes snapping the boundary between inner monologue and public self. Switching between smut and manic anxiety, the fraught intensity of the delivery ends up both as diagnosis and escape from perilously compressed nervous energy. The whole thing a triumphantly bizarre, unjudging mirror on our precarious, frantic times.

Helena Celles Correspondence Table - Glasgow Decentral(Fort Evil Fruit)

Helena Celles Correspondence Table is the latest alias of Glasgow based Kay Logan (aka Outlet Archive, Time Binding Ensemble, Helena Celle and many more). Texturally, the ten tracks of Glasgow Decentral sound like a jungle tape stuck in a car stereo too long, compositionally, the beats sound like theyve been scattered through a gnarled prism, shifting familiar surfaces into strange constellations. In a recent interview for tQ Logan stressed that her music was not about randomness, and I feel that holds true here. Listening to Glasgow Decentral kind of feels like putting your head inside a mischievously wired motherboard your mind lodged amongst an intricately balanced system of inputs and outputs so that each event feels like it triggers a chain of others into action. It feels more dialogic than systematic though, revelling in a mesmerising back and forth between sounds rather than striving to hit a crescendo or linearly placed end point. Backroad Angel sees a drum roll act as catalyst for an off-centre call and response between night drenched bass and metallic clatter. Saint Enochian feels like dance track sowing the seeds of its own demise, as if the vibration of the beat that initiates it also shakes the whole thing apart. The relationships of causality and connection these tracks seem to imply as fascinating as the off-kilter beats they combine to create.

Daniel Spicer/Chris Gregory Jubilate Deo/Bird Flight(Monocreo)

The side of this split tape by occasional tQ contributor Daniel Spicer sounds like someone trying to play Terry Rileys In C with a band of uncooperative automatons. Dominated by intensely disciplined piano lines, which somehow sound repetitive without ever repeating, bells, electronics, and mouth harps flow through and warp the composition creating a hallucinogenic affect akin to rippling water. Generally dominated by microscopic fluctuations and phasing, a couple of switches hit on the macro scale, the whole composition morphing in disarmingly triumphant fashion. Theres something gleefully rickety in the side long pieces gait like minimalism being played in the school assembly hall. Chris Gregory's Bird Flight is divided into three solo acoustic guitar works embedded in low key environmental recordings. His playing tends to come in flurries and gusts, from tentative, sorrowful strums into elegant glides of movement. It excels at evoking the birds alluded to in the title, Gregorys guitar reflecting a deep observation of the stop-start clumsy grace that goes into getting a feathered creature to soar through the skies.

Voice Of Space Maps Of Inner Space: Voice Of Space&Hatchback And Ocean Moon Maps Of Inner Space: Journey In Onarimon&Pop Levi Maps Of Inner Space: Invisible Music(Lo Recordings)

This new triptych of tapes from Lo Recordings burrow down into thick, luscious ambience, vibrant sonics bridging the gap between internal and external worlds. Vol. 1, Voice Of Space unites the duo of Mark O Pilkington (of Teleplasmiste) and Jon Tye (from Seahawks/Ocean Moon) in sonic transmutation, the piece dissolving, bending and blending through different states. Beginning with gentle rustles somewhere between waves crashing and wind blowing, the tape slips through vaporous pads into more solid forms, arpeggios falling into glassy percussion before bell-like sounds arrive. It proceeds to dissolve again, rarely settling in one form and instead evoking constant material flux.

Vol. 2 is Journey In Onarimon, once again featuring Tye, this time in collaboration with Californias Hatchback, aka Sam Grawe. More fixed than Vol. 1, it uses stasis and suspension to trigger deep contemplation. A more bare palette of tones hover in perfectly placed serenity, a time freezing effect which seems to strive for prehension over comprehension as the music hits serene disassociation.

Vol.3 comes from Pop Levi, recorded at his home on a Greek Island. Where Vol. 1 and 2 tend to reside on gelling sounds together, Vol. 3 thrives in contrasts. Disparate synth lines exist in strange but never jarring symbiosis, creating gentle disruptions to the varied terrain that unfurls. Describing music as scenery would usually seem pejorative, but here its not these tracks feeling like a richly detailed backdrop seeping from the periphery into a fully-fledged world which doesnt need focal points or protagonists to be complete.

Neil Campbell v Territorial Gobbing - Bunker Tonsure Region(Self-released)

Bunker Tonsure Region unites Territorial Gobbing and Astral Social Clubs Neil Campbell for a pair of side long jaunts through gleeful sonic mess. Theres a heavy dose of what actually is that sound? in these file sharing jams, really getting to the playful heart of what makes acousmatic experiments so fascinating as sonics seem familiar until you actually try to pinpoint what they are. On A-side Blinged-out Redcurrant Punnet a headspinning cacophony of bell-like sounds arrive about seven minutes in reminding me of Charlemagne Palestines Schlingen Blngen, but whether theyre actually bells, water spraying out of a pipe, industrial machinery or none-of the above, I really cant tell. Theres more to this than a game of trying to pinpoint the sound source though. Whether its the off-kilter, glitchy funk that opens Fulfilment Centre Slump, or the way Blinged-out slips into a psyche rock groove through the electrical detritus, these compositions are held together with a gleeful disavowal of slickness, and a contagious tactility.

A Farewell to Hexes Rendlesham(The Dark Outside)

In 1980 the village of Rendlesham, Suffolk was put on the map with two UFO encounters at the nearby RAF base. These events were far from trivial, two airmen suffering life threatening injuries in the first encounter, while the second incident saw increased levels of radiation detected at a site where one of the UFOs allegedly landed. These events form the inspiration for Adam Leonard, or rather, A Fairwell To Hexes's Rendlesham. More than anything these wonky synth jams conjure the homemade, hopeful skywatching spirit of John Was Trying To Contact Aliens, a world of garden shed laboratories and off balanced experiments. East Gate Expedition is a ramshackle kosmiche banger, the stargazing synths conjuring an ambience equal parts PolyCement and Harmonia. The second side slips into a slightly more sinister place, closer Aftermath featuring the voice of Attorney Patrick Frascogna speaking at a US court hearing in 2011 in an attempt to gain access to the medical records of John Burroughs and James Penniston the two airmen injured in the first Rendlesham encounter. Juxtaposed against the sci-fi synths, it brings to light the layers of secrecy and obstruction that can surround the night sky.

Stick In The Wheel Tonebeds for Poetry(From Here Records)

Drawing a link from the Anglo-Saxons to autotune is the name of the game for Stick In The Wheel, aka Nicola Kearey and Ian Carter, on Tonebeds For Poetry. Opener Long The Day submerges Keareys voice in electronics over baroque arpeggios. Blind Beggar sounds like Vangelis taking on production duties for Shirley Collins, the collision between vocoder and folk form eerily uncanny, while the Devils Nag is built from a midi file of a seventeenth century dance track, translated into a strange techno wig out. It feels like theres more at stake in these tracks than smashing old folk forms into contemporary technology, though. Whether its Ruins grime-like sparse use of a single synth sample, Wierds Broke Its crunch of angst ridden grungy distortion, or their use of a startlingly apocalyptic tenth century poem on The Seafarer, Kearey and Carter seem to hone in on traditions which end up being buried in the archive due to their common folk origins. It means the blasts of auto-tune through ancient songs forms arent just there for novelty value, but highlight a living connection between types of music which at various points in history havent been taken seriously due to their unvarnished, working class origins.

Norman W. Long BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN(Hausu Mountain)

The distinction between hearing and listening is crucial in Chicago based sound artist Norman W. Long's practice, focusing on how the latter is an action fundamental to how we understand our world. BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN is built from field recordings and environmental sounds captured in and around his home community of South Deering, which in his words is a majority Black and Brown community that straddles residential, industrial and wasted space. The sounds documented include the delicate calls of local wildlife, on Recovering Landscape Community eerie high pitched whines which could be either electronic or organic, and the hollow resonances of open spaces. Long subtly spins these sounds through modular synth and effects, so that on Southeast Live 2019, clangs and rings are gently netted together into percussive patterns. The approach seems less about abstracting sources than amplifying specifics a magnifying glass to focus attention. Like Pauline Oliveros, for Long deep listening seems a vital social and political act. While BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN is to non-Chicagoans a fascinating tapestry woven through Longs neighbourhood, it also works as a blueprint for thinking whats embedded in our audio environments. In Longs words: Disconnection is a process. That process is fuelled by white supremacy and capitalism. African Americans experience and witness this disconnection to our environment, economy, sense of self and place I invite you to listen as part of the collective field because as we listen and sound we expand our awareness of our connection and disconnection.

(Eli)zabeth Owens Knock Knock(Grimalkin Records)

(Eli)zabeth Owens has an exquisite control of timing and delivery on second album Knock Knock. A labyrinth of twists and turns creating a theatrical sense of tension and release. On Once In A While they sing I think of my father as the final line before the song falls into a swirl of ghostly voices and haggard guitar, a reveal which completely upends the self-reflection held in the song until that point. This control of setting and mood fills these tracks with an endlessly compelling drama, Owens arrangements of harps, piano and electronics switching between swooning melodies and intricate bombast. Cliffside somehow lurches from courtly dance into a duel between marching prog riffage and harp, while Layperson jumps from showtune jauntiness into a glitchy anthem. The album forms a part of what Owens calls a coming of age saga, and the constant sense of misdirection in the songs captures that process as one that never neatly resolves. In an age of growing pressure to curate, streamline and soundbite what we present publicly, Owens challenges that simple dilution. Their multifaceted songs reflecting the full breadth of private experiences and emotions that go into constantly shaping our volatile, ever-shifting selves.

Continued here:

Features | Spool's Out | Spool's Out: Cassette Reviews For October By Daryl Worthington - The Quietus

David Carnoy/CNET

You know what's good? Buying a book for the cost of a cup of coffee. You know what's great? Getting a classic book for free. Thanks to the magic of the public domain, there are many books you can read for exactly $0 on bothAmazon's Kindle storeandApple Books. These include reads from Plato to Peter Pan.

Everyone knows about Kindle, but Apple Books is a real star here. It has an extensive "books you're meant to read" list, which is stacked with books you can download for free. Many of these are also free on Amazon, but some will cost you a couple of bucks (or maybe just a couple of cents). If you're an Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you'll have many, many more books to read for "free."

There's a big, wide world of cheap and no-cost books to be found on these platforms. Here are 17 classics to get you started.

Entertain your brain with the coolest news from streaming to superheroes, memes to video games.

Little Women was a hit from the moment it was published in 1859, and got its latest moment in the sun thanks to the 2019 film adaptation starring Emma Watson. It's a coming-of-age novel that follows four sisters into womanhood, and it's been consistently successful over the last 150 years. Little Women was an acclaimed novel, and has been adapted into plays, films, operas and TV shows. You can see what the fuss is about for $0.

Download Little Women for free on Apple Books or Amazon Kindle for $1.63.

Here's one for parents looking for something to read to their kids, or Disney enthusiasts wanting to read the play that inspired the novel that inspired the 1953 classic. Peter Pan, also published as Peter and Wendy, is the story of Neverland, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and the nefarious Captain Hook. A worthy disclaimer though: It contains portrayal of Native Americans that's very 1904.

Download Peter Pan free on Apple Books or for $2.23 on Kindle.

Like most classics, there's a chance you may have suffered through Frankenstein during English classes in high school. We've all been there. Picking apart any book in school is enough to turn anyone off a book, but Frankenstein has always been an exception to me. Not only is Frankenstein seen as the first science-fiction novel, it's also a timeless parable, one of the finest examples of gothic literature and a true product of the Romantic movement.

If that kind of thing doesn't sell you, you can still laugh at Victor Frankenstein whining as he reaps what he sows.

Download Frankensteinfree on Amazon Kindle or free on Apple Books.

Another one for the Goths! If you're a fan of our undead friends, it's worth experiencing one of the books that started it all. The story is terrific for those after a good, suspenseful gothic horror. It's easy to think that Dracula must be another hard-to-read classic, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The writing holds up really well (after over 100 years, that's quite a feat) and it's genuinely spooky in parts.

Download Dracula for free on Apple Books orfor free on Amazon Kindle.

Greek philosophers are still harkened back to all these centuries later, which means they're unlikely to fall out of style anytime soon. Plato is arguably the most famous Greek philosopher -- next to Socrates and Aristotle -- and The Republic is his most famous work. What's most striking about much (though thankfully maybe not all) of ancient Greek writing is how relatable it is today.

Reading ancient Greek literature can also help you sound more pretentious at parties, which is nice.

Download for free on Amazon Kindle or free on Apple Books.

Sigmund Freud is one of those rare specialist academics who pierces into the zeitgeist. Oedipus complex, Freudian slips, id, ego and super-ego, and even the phrase "defense mechanism" are all related to Freud's works. Unfortunately, many of those works are intensely academic and dense. At just 216 pages, Dream Psychology is one of Freud's most notable works, and it's also one of the easiest to read.

Download Dream Psychology for free on Apple Books or $2.91 on Amazon Kindle.

There are plenty of long reads on this list, so here's a short one. The Metamorphosis follows a man's sudden and inexplicable transformation into a huge insect, and despite spanning less than 100 pages it has been the subject of rigorous psychological scrutiny and interpretation in the 116 years since it was first published.

Download for free on Apple Books or 77 cents on Amazon Kindle.

If you really want to challenge yourself, Shakespeare is the way to go. The language and format can take a while to get used to, but it's richly rewarding once you do. There's a play for everyone, for those who like romance, tragedy, comedy or even absolutely unhinged fantasy. Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet are among the most famous, so they would be good places to start. Almost everyone is at least a little familiar with the stories -- and trust us, familiarity with the plot helps a lot if you're new to Shakespeare.

Download Romeo and Juliet for free on Apple Books or for 80 cents on Amazon Kindle.

Download Hamlet for free on Amazon Kindle or free on Apple Books.

Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes was cool way before Robert Downey Jr. played him on the silver screen. This collection of stories was published over 120 years ago, but mysteries have a timeless quality to them: Intrigue doesn't die with age. Sherlock Holmes may not be the most important book on this list, but it might be the most fun.

Download The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes forfree on Apple Books oron Amazon Kindle for $2.01.

We know what you're thinking: Wouldn't Jane Austen just be a more wordy and boring Bridgerton? What are they saying? What is even happening? And yes, Jane Austen books can feel very daunting and almost bland when you look at them through a modern lens. Reading Austen books, however, is like a cheeky window into the past: They parody Regency society and poke fun at how ridiculous some social mores were at the time. If you're wanting to get started on Austen, we recommend going with Pride and Prejudice or Emma first.

Download Emma for free on Apple Books or for 87 cents on Amazon Kindle.

Download Pride and Prejudice for free on Apple Books or $1 on Amazon Kindle.

Let us state straight up that including this isn't an endorsement of communism. With that out of the way, The Communist Manifesto is among the most influential pieces of writing in the last few centuries. Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it inspired a movement and philosophy that would ultimately take over half of Europe within a century of its 1848 publish date. It's also much easier to read than Marx's significantly more thorough work Capital, but that's also available for free if you're up to reading thousands of pages of 19th century economics.

Download The Communist Manifesto for free on Apple Books or 78 cents on Amazon Kindle.

There are several books that are known as "the great American novel" -- Catcher in the Rye, Moby Dick and To Kill a Mockingbird among them. But perhaps the novel with greatest claim to the title is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain is regarded as America's greatest humorist and he's one of its most celebrated authors ever. Huckleberry Finn is the book he's most known for and it's a must-read for anyone wanting to familiarize themselves with American literature.

Download The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for free on Apple Books or $4 on Amazon Kindle.

To be sure, Huck Finn isn't the only great American novel you can read for free. Moby Dick gave the world the term "white whale," as well as one of the most famous opening sentences. The book is 170 years old, but it remains a staple of "books you should read" lists everywhere.

Download Moby Dick for free on Apple Books or $1 on Amazon Kindle.

You may have first experienced these as extremely boring history class texts, but the worldwide phenomenon that is the Hamilton musical has breathed new life into them. The Federalist Papers are a collection of essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay (but mostly by Hamilton) in which the writers encourage the ratification of the US Constitution and also argue for a more centralized state. These will be dry for many, but worthwhile background for diehard fans of Hamilton the musical.

Download The Federalist Papersfor free on Apple Books orfor 79 cents on Amazon Kindle.

We've saved the biggest for last. War and Peace is a monster, so much so that its name has become a signal used to describe intimidatingly large pieces of work. And make no mistake, War and Peace is a lot to get through. But doing so will be to familiarize yourself with "the lion of Russian literature," as the book has been called. If you're up to the challenge, it's free on Apple Books.

Download War and Peace for free on Apple Books or for 80 cents on Amazon Kindle.

See original here:

17 free books to download on Kindle and Apple Books right now - CNET

Cycle-synching is this years wellness buzzword for worthy reason; aligning your lifestyle choices with your menstrual cycle is thought to have a whole host of benefits, from boosting your mood and concentration, to your skin, diet and fitness levels.

Female optimised training is something athletes have long been adept at, but it has the potential to positively impact anyones physical and mental health, whether involving intensive exercise or not.

Your menstrual cycle can have an extremely beneficial impact on your exercise and vice versa, explains Dr Ajai Seth, consultant in sport and exercise medicine at London Bridge Hospital, part of HCA Healthcare UK. Hormonal fluctuations during the cycle can positively influence your energy levels and performance. In addition, the endorphin and serotonin release during and after exercise has an antidepressant and mood-elevating effect, helping us through menstrual symptoms. These hormones can also alleviate pain such as cramping and bloating by aiding digestion.

However, he notes that its important to remember that everyone's body is different, and we don't all respond to hormonal fluctuations in the same way. In addition, menstrual cycle lengths can vary drastically so a one size fits all approach cant be taken to cycle synching.

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Hailing from New York, dynamic fitness method P.Volve has plugged into the zeitgeist with its new clinically-backed cycle-syncing programme named Phase and function.

With a crack team of experts behind it from certified trainers to an obstetrician-gynaecologist, nutritionist, health coach and more the virtual series intends to match your movement, meals and mindset to the ebb and flow of your hormones.

Personalised to you (tracked via details about the timings and length of your period and cycle) it provides an individualised workout and nutrition plan, as well as expert-led education for the four phases of the menstrual cycle; menstrual, follicular, ovulatory, and luteal. The results can mean reduced PMS, increased energy and performance plus improved weight management.

If youre interested in exploring the idea without commitment, Dr Seth explains the basics of aligning your exercise programme to your cycle.

Note: day one of your cycle is the first day of your period. During your period at the start of your cycle, progesterone and oestrogen levels are at their lowest, which can cause low energy and mood fluctuations, explains Dr Seth. However, during the first 14 days of your cycle (the follicular phase) your body adapts and responds to strength training better than in the later stages of your cycle. It is easier to build and gain strength and muscle mass during this time. Therefore, he suggests incorporating strength routines (such as Pilates and weight training) with light cardio during this time to maximise this affect.

Around the time of ovulation (day 14) there is a surge in oestrogen and testosterone levels, Dr Seth confirms. Many athletes time their performances and are exertional training for this time to maximise their results. Higher training intensity and volumes may be more achievable mid-cycle, he advises.

In the last 14 days of the cycle the luteal phase progesterone levels start to rise and can have more of a depressant effect. This is the time where women should be boosting serotonin and endorphin levels to alleviate these symptoms, but recognising there may be a slight dip in performance. He suggests steady training with slightly lower intensity may be more suitable during this time.

Of course, as well as the benefits of exercise on your cycle, always be mindful of potential negative effects. If you feel that exercise is negatively affecting your cycle and you experience missing periods, this certainly needs further investigation to make sure your metabolic balance is correct, Dr Seth notes.

Within P.Volves programme, meals are where much of the personalised experience comes into play. Registered dietician, Vanessa Rissetto, who designed the nutrition portion of Phase and function, explains that she curated nutritional options that complement the workouts to properly fuel your body in accordance with your hormones.

Indeed, a bespoke approach is always advised when cycle-syncing your diet. Calorie expenditure throughout the menstrual cycle is very individualised, explains Dr Seth. There are so many variables that affect our metabolic activity and calorie expenditure in day-to-day life. Having said that, he notes there is some evidence to suggest that women are more likely to crave high-fat and sweet foods during the later stages of their period (luteal phase) pre-menstruating, which could suggest a natural response to increased calorie burn during this phase.

He says the key is to listen to your body's requirements with regards to appetite, fatigue and mood and respond with the appropriate exercise plan. Keeping a balanced diet throughout your cycle but also matching your calorie intake to your exercise volume and intensity, will always ensure you get the adequate amount of energy.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Visit link:

Cycle syncing your workouts could benefit your body and mood - harpersbazaar.com

As billionaires try to beat each other by shooting themselves into space, theres plenty of movement in space tourism for us plebes that dont have our own rocket companies to promote. From Disney to Vegas, space seems to be the hottest new theme in tourism.

Were still years, possibly decades, away from affordable and accessible off-Earth tourism, but in the meantime, theres a wave of new space-themed tourism experiences.

The highest-profile projects are both at Walt Disney World. After unprecedented delays, the Space 220 restaurant opened last week at EPCOT. Themed to a fixed space station located 220 miles above Orlando, the themed dining experience is akin to the California Grill or Coral Reef but with large hyper-real projections of Earth. The new restaurant is also one of the most realistic looks to date of how a space elevator would work. Like its precursor, the hydrolators at The Living Seas, the Stellarvator, as the space elevator is referred to, has obvious issues that keep it from being too authentic.

But by far the most ambitious simulated space tourism project is a new resort announced for Las Vegas. Using a building technique nearly identical to that of Space Mountain, the new casino resort will have a central tower that supports a massive 735-foot tall Moon-shaped building, the largest replica of the Moon ever attempted. Inside, guests will have hotel rooms with views of the lunar surface, and there will be a spacious area for guests to explore the simulated lunar surface.

Some think the highly publicized Moon resort, expected to cost $5 billion, will go the same route as the Titusville project. Scott Roeben of Vegas news site Vital Vegas is one of those skeptics. He sees the recent trend in space-themed tourist attractions as a link to recent launches and unusual theming. I think over-the-top announcements are always fun to talk about, and this story is over the moon in terms of how ludicrous it is. Beyond the outlandish element, space is a thing at the moment. Every billionaire is blasting themselves into space, so it's in the zeitgeist, despite this particular project being complete science fiction.

Roeben acknowledges Vegas has always had a unique fascination with space, including previous proposals for a Moon-themed resort, aptly named Moon World. This specific project seems unlikely to him due to the location, costs, and design concept. The proposed site appears to be on land owned by Wynn Resorts, and I can guarantee there is no price where they'd let what is arguably a tacky monstrosity be built on that site. I know, buzzkill. He admits the bars at Moon would interest but quickly adds, unfortunately, this project has zero hope of ever existing. It's pure whimsy. A second Moon resort is proposed for Dubai.

In 2016, a concept similar to the doomed Titusville one was proposed for Vegas. It wouldve simulated Mars inside a massive dome, nearly as tall as Giza's Great Pyramid. Circling the simulated surface would be a large retail and entertainment complex. That project now seems stalled as well. It comes as no surprise to Roeben as he notes, Vegas is about big dreams, and the vast majority are of the pipe variety.

Tourists have long been fascinated with space. One of Coney Islands most successful early attractions was a simulated ride to the Moon. That attraction had debuted at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, where guests paid double the price of other attractions. The steep cost didn't deter guests, with it ranking as the one of the most popular exhibits at the expo.A similar attraction opened at Disneyland in 1955, where it too saw large crowds.Epcots Mission: Space, adding the thrill of the G-forces to a space attraction, opened at Epcot in 2003. In a post-ride area, guests can explore Mars via a computer simulation.

Theres also a push towards actual space tourism. In Las Vegas, there are plans for a spaceport just outside the city, though Roeben thinks this is yet another pipe dream, due in large part to the citys lack of qualified workers. Back in Florida, Brevard County is trying to keep its space supremacy, with a proposal to change the county's name to Space Coast in an attempt to better market the region. Numerous companies have now set goals of having regular space tourism trips by the end of the decade, with many of the projects launching from Brevard County.

Earlier this year, Virgin Galactic made news when it scooped up one of Disney's most recognizable Imagineers, Joe Rohde. In his new role, Rohde is tasked with ensuring a seamless experience for tourists visiting space from Virgin Galatic's custom-built, hyper-luxury spaceport in New Mexico.

In the 1980s, when EPCOT was new, it was the first introduction for many guests to the global cultures celebrated within it. Since then, access to those distant nations has become far easier for many. Similarly, Space 220 will be the first taste of space many guests encounter. But, with dozens of other space-themed attractions and authentic space tourism proposals moving forward, in a few decades, the restaurant may feel as outdated as the land formerly known as Future World.

For now, space is reserved for the smartest and wealthiest. Maybe one day that wont be the case, but in the meantime, theres always Disney and Vegas pipedreams.

Stay on top of Central Florida news and views with our weekly newsletters, and consider supporting this free publication. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you Central Florida news, and every little bit helps.

Here is the original post:

New moon-shaped casino announced for Vegas, but for space themed fun Disney is a better bet - Orlando Weekly

PARIS, FRANCE SEPTEMBER 30: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) A model poses backstage ahead of the Coperni Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 30, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)

Fashion month really is delivering in the beauty stakes right now, with one major highlight being Coperni. The French label, co-founded by Sbastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, really lent in to the idea of a post-pandemic aesthetic, layering sequinned belly-baring skirts with lashings of lipgloss; itsy bitsy sparkly bikini bottoms with a sweep of lilac shadow it was youthful, zeitgeist-y and a ball of fun (exactly the kind of thing were craving after 24 months of weirdness).

What was so great about Copernis beauty look was that it was achievable and relatable the kind of makeup youd pull together with girlfriends before a night out. Fresh skin with nary a lick of concealer, a touch of sweat shine (preferably from a night spent on the dance floor), smudgy lilac shadow, chunky lashes and an overzealous application of lip gloss.

The lilac shadow in particular felt very of the minute a Y2K/TikTok/Olivia Rodrigo-esque hue that was subtle but shimmered in the right light. Framed with sticky black mascara and a big, fluffy brow, it was simple, playful but perfect against the clothes.

Hair followed a similar suit. The only real common denominator was an expensive-looking shine, but outside of that it was anything goes: thick braids, stick straight, soft movement or wrapped up in a technicolour headscarf. Red hair was definitely a trend to watch, with Gigi Hadid showing off her washed-out, cool-girl copper and another model with a bright auburn hue.

The runway also showed off glossy, bronzed body skin buffed, lacquered and shined to perfection.

It was summer personified (at least, the summer we dream of) and the perfect reference point for all those soon-to-be-had European sojourns.

Scroll on for some of the best runway beauty looks.

Visit link:

All The Y2K Beauty Details From The Coperni Show In Paris - Grazia

Produce Section Inside Meow Wolf's Omega Mart in Las Vegas

Some businesses have been more affected by the Covid-19 pandemic than others. While on-line commerce has thrived, in person activities such as visiting a restaurant, bar or movie theater have continued to face an uneven recovery.

Previously I havewritten about how an interactive arts space, Santa Fe-basedMeow Wolfwhich operates theHouse of Eternal Return, was dealing with the challenges of Covid. As an immersiveartsand entertainmentexhibition built around interactive experiences, mysterious and magical worlds and features such asslides andsecret passageways, social distancing guidelines were particularly challenging for suchabusiness to meet.Meow Wolf was guided by its deep social mission and identity as a B Corp in how it handled both visitors to its space and employees.

We also had discussed Meow Wolfs expansion plans and it was great to hear that after facing multiple delays due to the pandemic, it opened its second permanent exhibition,Omega Martin Las Vegas on February 18, 2021. Omega Martstarts out as an exhibition in the form of an average-seemingsupermarket featuringaisles filled withthought provoking products that highlight the bizarre, mysterious and often hilarious nature of consumer culture asCorvas Brinkerhoff, Meow Wolf Co-Founder and SVP of Experience Design, and Executive Creative Director for Meow Wolf Las Vegas told me.

A popular product at Omega Mart: Nut Free Salted Peanuts. 100% Salt (Warning: It may contain ... [+] peanuts.)

For example, Nut Free Salted Peanuts is nut free, i.e. 100% salt, although a disclaimer notes that it may contain peanuts. Participants soon discover theres more than meets the eye at Omega Mart, and embark on a journey through hidden portals into a world of surreal landscapes and immersive storytelling that inspires a real life choose-your-own-adventure game.

At the time of its opening, Las Vegas still faced many health and safety restriction mandates, including reduced capacity. Omega Mart openedat a reduced capacity of 25% and was able to expand to full capacity in May,with several health and safety protocols still in action daily by Omega Mart to ensure guest and employee safety and wellness.Since then it has attracted record-breaking attendance numbers, and touristscontinueto flock to Omega Mart.

As part of myresearch on social businessesI recently had the chance to talk toBrinkerhoff about Omega Mart, and topics such as how the pandemic shaped the opening andthe experience ofopening an exhibition in Las Vegas.See below for our edited conversation.

Christopher Marquis: What was the inspiration forOmega Mart?

Corvas Brinkerhoff:Can we reconnect you with your imagination in a new and mind-blowing way? Can we disrupt a status quo way of thinking? Can we explode our collective sense of possibility into a thousand fractal shards of color and creativity? Can we create a setting where an artist can completely unleash themselves? This is the kind of thing we draw inspiration from. Then every project has its own unique set of sources and influences.

Omega Mart is about the bizarre, mysterious and often hilarious nature of consumer culture. Its much more than a critique or satire, though. Its really a joyous and earnest exploration of modern life and the wonderful - if not utterly surreal - renderings of culture that come with having nearly everything you can possibly desire at your fingertips. Just who and what are we becoming? Omega Mart is not asking you to shuck or hide from our culture, its an invitation to find the humor, mystery, and beauty below the surface.

"Old Fashioned Spray," One of 7 Cocktails Exclusively Served at the Hidden Bar Datamosh Inside Meow ... [+] Wolf's Omega Mart

As you dig deeper, you will find winding narratives that pull you into the secret underpinnings of a cyber-spiritual mega corporation, Dramcorp. Think Church of Scientology crossed with Amazon. Youll find the story of a group of young people banding together and claiming their power. Eventually, youll uncover a story about evolution, resistance to change, and the power of creativity. Im inspired by simple and beautiful metaphors, stories that help me understand my place in the universe.

And beneath all of that, its just an excuse to give artists an opportunity to make work at an incredible scale and depth. If nothing else, its a world-class collection of amazing pieces of immersive art. We are artists and we are inspired by artists.

Artists Emily Montoya and Benji Geary are the core of the creative vision behind Omega Mart, the store itself. (Its a bit confusing because the store is about 10% of the exhibition and its namesake, the other 90% being other art installations and otherworldly explorable dimensions). They lead up the creative vision for the store itself, including all the advertisements, products, interior design, music, etc. They are both just persistent fountains of brilliant ideas. My hats off to them, and the hundreds of incredible artists who contributed to the show.

Marquis: What do you hope visitors get out of the Omega Mart experience?

Corvas Brinkerhoff, Meow Wolf Co-Founder and SVP of Experience Design, and Executive Creative ... [+] Director for Meow Wolf Las Vegas

Brinkerhoff:We want to ignite your imagination. We want to create a deep and powerful journey that brings guests to a place of wonder, amazement, and self-reflection. You get there through a wildly meandering series of rooms and experiences beginning with a tripped out grocery story that isalmostnormal, until you look a little closer. From the store, youll find yourself launched into myriad other worlds - a parallel dimension.

We say sell em candy and give em medicine. You know, we want you to be happy and feel like you got something unique and valuable when you fork over some of your hard earned cash. And in that sense, theres something for everybody, whether you're soaking up the jaw-dropping immersive art or diving into the multiple storylines. We want you to come for the spectacular and wondrous, and stay for the mysterious and meaningful.

In the case of Omega Mart, its all about The Source: the source of our creativity, the source of our humanity, the source of our food and possessions, the source of our desires, the source of our light, and the source of our darkness.Its all about The Source.

Marquis: What are some of your favorite products featured at Omega Mart?

Brinkerhoff:Well who doesnt want to be caressed by our Sweet Whispers brand toilet paper? And I personally always prefer using my Plausible Deniability laundry detergent.But my favorite has to be the Nut Free Salted Peanuts. Its 100% salt (Warning: It may contain peanuts.)

Marquis: How was working in Las Vegas on a project like this different than in Santa Fe?

Brinkerhoff:I think weve done work in 10 or 15 cities at this point. Most of that was early days temporary stuff that not a lot of people saw. One thing thats amazing about Vegas is that there are tons and tons of artists, performers, and generally just brilliant creators. Because so many people think they know Vegas when they really just know The Strip, that gets overlooked a lot. We wanted to help shine a light on another side of Vegas, a more authentic and artistic side, which has this wonderful culture and creativity.

One thing that you learn doing work in a lot of different places is that there are artists and powerhouse creative geniuses literally everywhere. They are often undervalued, undersupported, and underrecognized. As a culture, we are so hungry for that creativity and authenticity. We hope that Meow Wolf and, more importantly, our business model can be a force of real and lasting change in the plight of the modern living artist. We dont sell expensive art to rich people. We sell an affordable experience of art to millions of people. This democratizes the process of tastemaking, which allows everyone to determine what is good and valuable in art, not just the super elite.

It would be a shame for Meow Wolf to be the only group using this model to support artists.Fortunately, there appears to be a movement coming up around us. We are so proud and so thrilled to be innovators in this new chapter of the evolution of art.

Beyond the supermarket is Projected Desert, an artificial canyon where psychedelic journeys become a ... [+] reality.

Marquis: Why do you think Omega Mart has seen such a great and immediate response inLas Vegas?

Brinkerhoff:Theres what I can reason, and then theres just the bigmystery. First off, this show is just bonkers. There are combinations of artists, processes, technologies, and mediums that have never been combined before and at a completely unprecedented scale. Its just got a gravity to it that is kind of undeniable. So Id say thats a good start. Our marketing team is really very good at what they do, too. A lot of artists hate the idea of marketing, but for us, everything, every desk in the office, every interaction with our guests, every aspect of our process and organization is part of the artwork. Meow Wolf doesnt just make art, it is a work of art.

Another thing thats helped: we work really hard to empower local artists and activate the community. We want our work to be an embraced piece of the social fabric of the city we are in.We do that because it feels right to us. When opening an exhibition in a pandemic, that local focus turned out to also be a really important way to establish an audience when there werent so many tourists in town.

At this point, we are seeing a lot of tourists in addition to locals. Why do they keep coming? I think it comes down to a hunger we all have regardless of where youre from.We want authenticity.We desire to feel affirmed and elevated in our humanity.Art gives us that. When all of the A.I.s and bots take over, what will be left for us humans? I believe creativity is non-fungible; its our essence; its what we have to offer when everything else is stripped down.When you experience a monument to the creative spirit, such as a Meow Wolf exhibition or a great concert or whatever it may be, it testifies to who we are - the boundless flowing stream of dreams, stories, images, and ideas that all of us continually generate. I think it comes down to this; the experience is fun, new, and inspiring and that makes us feel good because it reminds us of what we already knew to be true about ourselves but might feel a bit disconnected from.

And then, theres the big Mystery.Maybe we should just give all the credit to that. You really cant take credit when something catches the collective zeitgeist. Thats not something you have control over. You just make work and hope that your channel is open and clear. And then maybe if youre lucky youll make something that really connects with other people.

Marquis: How did Meow Wolf navigate opening its second installation in a time during the pandemic when many health and safety restrictions, including reduced capacity, were still in effect?

Brinkerhoff:Leading up to the opening, with so much still up in the air with health and safety restrictions, there was definitely some collective anxiety about opening when we did. But, we decided to lean into it by adding extra layers of safety for our guests and employees, making sure to communicate our efforts effectively as much as possible along the way. We were thrilled to see such strong visitorship and were confident that its due in large part to the hard work of our team in developing and implementing a rigorous health and safety plan.

Marquis: As a B-Corp, Meow Wolf makes a strong investment in its social impact. How is the company working to become a part of the Las Vegas community?

Brinkerhoff:Meow Wolf has always been about giving. From the early days where me and all the OG Meow Wolfers were giving countless hours, days, and years of our lives as volunteers, to the concerts and immersive experiences we gave to our community, to the countless volunteers, supporters, champions, and enthusiasts along the way, this thing was built on the spirit of generosity and doing something bigger than ourselves.

As the company grows and matures and we expand into new cities, we are dedicated to giving back to the communities we inhabit and being not only a good neighbor but a catalyst for positive social change. With that, we look for opportunities to support the art community and local organizations that provide for underserved and often marginalized communities.

Our outreach team in Las Vegas has worked really hard to forge new partnerships and get behind important causes. A few things were doing so far include: donating tickets, merchandise and auction items to non-profit groups and their fundraising efforts; providing monetary and in-kind donations and sponsorships to groups like Communities in Schools of Southern Nevada, the Indian Center of Las Vegas, The Animal Foundation and others; providing volunteer opportunities for our staff to work with organizations like Delivery with Dignity, Vegas Roots, Just One Project, Project150, and others; engaging artists on various community projects to make art more publicly accessible; and much more.

Marquis: Is there anything else youd like to add?

Brinkerhoff:Thank you for helping tell our story. We are dedicated to inspiring profound change in our culture, and Im personally really grateful for your help in getting the word out.

Read more:

An Immersive Art And Entertainment Attraction Highlighting The Bizarre, Mysterious And Often Hilarious Nature Of Consumer Culture Thrives During Covid...

I know, I know, youre probably sick of anniversary journalism, but it must be noted that this week marked the 32nd anniversary of Billy Joels last big hit, the unforgettable We Didnt Start the Fire. Im thinking theres plenty of material for a sequel: January insurrection, COVID-19 detection, Daft Punk, Donald Trump ... I can t take it anymore.

Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to receive this newsletter weekly at inquirer.com/bunch, because the fire will always be burning, while the world is turning.

Yo, Trump voters in rural Ohio diners! Wake up! Its time to put your MAGA hats back on, grind some bitter coffee and wipe the layers of grease off that Formica countertop. The New York Times still desperately wants you, and theyre coming back your way! Like, for the umpteenth time.

That may sound over the top, but I dont know what else to say after learning that Americas most influential newsroom after more than four years of dozens of stories informing its largely left-leaning readers that Donald Trump voters still love Donald Trump is doubling down on efforts to persuade media-bashing right-wingers to like them, and maybe even subscribe.

Thats the take-away from a recent report by Vanity Fairs Joe Pompeo into whats behind this months somewhat opaque announcement from the Times that its launching a high-powered 10-member team, including three prominent journalists, aimed at addressing readers trust in the media, particularly in the so-called Paper of Record itself. Pompeos sources told him the team a top priority for Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger is aiming to sort of win people over with an amped-up effort to teach people how journalism works, to show the rigor we use in preparing our report.

The fact that we have a Supreme Court reporter whos a lawyer, or that we have a medical doctor writing about COVID we know that stuff, but how do we get that across? one Times insider told Vanity Fair, while another added: Its about ensuring that people understand how and why we do what we do.

Pompeos sources said that while the project obviously targets the deep media distrust held by conservatives the kind of folks who go bonkers at rallies when Trump calls the American media enemies of the people it also looks to educate and woo recalcitrant readers on the left, as well as young people or others who tend to lack what journalism professors call news literacy.

Its true that lack of trust in the media is widespread these days, but since the dark morning of Nov. 9, 2016, the Times has been largely obsessed with its seeming failure to understand the Trump movement, but also more weirdly its inability to forge some kind of connection with these huddled masses who seem to hate them. In an anxious moment when the Times core readers and a flood of new digital subscribers looked for leadership to defend truth, science, and the role of a free press, the Times instead dwelled on the question that Sulzberger and top editor Dean Baquet asked in a letter five days after that election: Did Donald Trumps sheer unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support among American voters?

READ MORE: Saving journalisms soul in the Age of Trump | Will Bunch

Thus, the Times dispatched teams of reporters to Trump-ified country diners and coffee shops across West Virginia or Iowa, again and again and again, even though a) these right-wing voters never wavered in their support even after the 45th president did something that looked obviously stupid or corrupt to the cosmopolitan reporter asking the questions and b) no comparable effort was made to survey, say, barbershops in Black Detroit neighborhoods that voted 99% for Hillary Clinton. While its ads appealed for mostly left-learning new subscribers desperate for the truth, Times leaders seemed more obsessed with balance when they hired climate-denying columnist Bret Stephens. When democracy was most under assault from Trumps demagoguery, the Times often seemed to run from the fight.

Instead of learning from those mistakes as we enter the Biden era, the new Times initiative seems to double down on its lost-cause obsession with wooing angry conservatives, like John Cusack holding up that boombox. Why? The crass answer would be money, as the Times which already dominates digital journalism in America with 7 million subscribers, including more in many cities than that citys hometown paper is aiming for a goal of 10 million, which presumably could be reached with some (literal) buy-in from conservatives.

But more important is the Times stuck-in-the-1950s worldview that their self-worth as journalists comes from everyone perceiving them as balanced and fair as opposed to a commitment to uncomfortable truths, regardless of how that might offend some readers. This apparent belief by prominent Times journalists that the public would like them more if they only understood how gosh-darned smart and overqualified its medical or legal reporters are is almost sad in its naivete. It shows that in those 58 months since the Sulzberger-Baquet letter, the Times has learned nothing about the modern conservative moment.

Trump voters dont think the New York Times is an enemy of the people because they dont understand how the newsroom works. They hate the Times because they do understand exactly what they do they just dont like it and because of the elite, condescending tone thats embedded in the just-let-us-tell-you-how-brilliant-and-educated-we-are vibe of its new project.

The Times could save some money and much-needed reporting resources by simply reading a few books like Kathy Kramers The Politics of Resentment, in which her travels across Wisconsin actually defined the zeitgeist of rural rage that so befuddles the Times newsroom leaders. Her research chronicles the anger and the slights felt by voters isolated from the concerns of the so-called professional and managerial elites bureaucrats and, yes, journalists who they feel look down on them. Of course, this resentment also gets wrapped up in problematic ideas about issues like race or immigration that dont jibe at all with the illuminating ideals of journalism.

In other words, not only is there little nothing, really the Times can do to gain the trust of such non-readers, it shouldnt even consider pandering to these instincts in the first place. A truly trustworthy news organization doesnt cater to the concerns of any segment of the public but only to one thing, the truth.

In todays current fraught moment, that means an aggressive and clear-eyed approach to informing that public about the unprecedented threats to American democracy with zero concern about on one hand, on the other hand forms of balance. The irony is that, in doing this, the Times might actually gain a few million new readers from so many Americans who desperately want the earned trust that comes with unvarnished truth, and not a phony, manufactured kind. If the Times still insists on clueless kowtowing instead of rising to this moment, the nations premier news org might be destroying journalism instead of saving it.

The late Bob Marley sang his Redemption Song. Now Robert Kagan the neoconservative thought leader who strongly advocated for the disastrous and immoral 2003 Iraq War is singing his redemption song, in a powerful and timely Washington Post op-ed titled, simply: Our constitutional crisis is already here. Kagan powerfully makes the case that Trump will be the 2024 Republican nominee and that the scheme to reinstall him in the White House by subverting electoral democracy is well underway.

If you follow D.C. politics, you know that this is going to be a nerve-racking week. If you follow the Philadelphia Phillies, as Ive been blessed and cursed to do these last two decades, you know the anxiety levels will be 10 times higher. Beginning Tuesday night in Atlanta (7:20 p.m., on NBC Sports Philadelphia), the Phils need to sweep a three-game series to have any realistic hope of returning to Octobers playoffs for the first time in 10 years. If anyone can make this impossible dream happen, its MVP candidate Bryce Harper. Pennant fever is a hopelessly incurable disease.

Question: What are your thoughts on the filibuster? Via Jean Burke-Spraker (@jburkespraker) on Twitter

Answer: What a well-timed question, Jean. As regular readers know, Ive long opposed the filibuster, which requires a supermajority of 60 out of 100 votes to pass most key legislation in the Senate. Simply put, its an antidemocratic measure that was never intended by the nations Founders, which not only thwarts the will of a popular majority but has most often been used over 200 years to defend white supremacy. (Please read Adam Jentlesons Kill Switch, if you havent already.) This week, the Republicans use of the filibuster to block raising the nations debt ceiling threatening an economic crisis gives the Democrats the perfect moral and timely rationale for ending this curse on democracy.

The Inquirer published an article last week looking in depth at the nine announced or highly likely candidates (eight Republicans, and Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro) for Pennsylvanias open governors seat in 2022. One thing jumped off the page all nine of the faces were white men. That might be shocking but for the fact that 47 of the last (checks notes) 47 Pa. chief executives have also been white men. The Keystone State is a hard place, politically but especially for women, whove also never seen one of their own get elected either Philadelphia mayor or to our two U.S. Senate seats.

READ MORE: Can #MeToo politics be the thing that takes down Philly's Democratic machine? | Will Bunch

Just ask Nina Ahmad. A former local leader of the National Organization for Women and Philadelphia deputy mayor with a compelling coming-to-America story, Ahmad has struggled to gain elected office. In 2020, winning a hard-fought Democratic primary on a path to become Pennsylvanias first female auditor general, she hoped to sweep into office with President Biden and Shapiro, only to see voters vanish when they got to her ballot line in the general election. It could have been a demoralizing moment. Instead, Ahmad is back just 10 months later with a new mission: Launching an organization called Equity PAC aimed at promoting not only other women candidates, but those committed to racial and social justice, Ahmad said this week: I know the change we desperately need can happen if we try. In Ahmads home state, those changes are long overdue.

My latest Sunday column was in some ways inspired by those on Twitter who insist the media are being hysterical in writing about the 2020-21 spike in homicides, since overall crimes are down and at historical lows. Really? Some 5,000 more Americans were murdered in 2020 than in 2019, more than the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq War. Thats a real crisis, and anecdotally it seems that homicide today is more a matter of rage boosted by too many guns than a question of economics. I argued that means we should think differently about how to fight it.

The threat to American democracy posed by the GOPs Trump-inspired voter suppression and schemes to override future election results is getting very, very serious. Over the weekend, I wrote about one especially pernicious part of the plan an effort to elect or install zealously pro-Trump conspiracy-minded secretaries of state in key battlegrounds ahead of 2024. In Pennsylvania, a new governor in 2023 will choose our new secretary of state, so voters really need to choose the right governor.

When I first moved to the Philadelphia region at the dawn of the 1990s, to say that Philly wasnt a soccer town (despite some remarkable history) would have been a gross understatement. Today, the Philadelphia Union are finally competitive in Major League Soccer and drawing good crowds to their unlikely home in Chester. The Inquirer is blessed with one of the nations top soccer writers in Jonathan Tannenwald. Last week, he covered the long-awaited visit of officials planning the 2026 World Cup with some brilliant insight on whether the worlds premier sporting event will really come to Lincoln Financial Field. Sports and good journalism are two elements of a healthy, livable community. Support good journalism in Philadelphia by subscribing to The Inquirer.

Continue reading here:

NY Times cluelessness is wrecking journalism | Will Bunch Newsletter - The Philadelphia Inquirer

In 1974, it was clear, maybeJesus died for somebodys sins but notNew Yorks the city was falling into some sort of adrenalised comic book dystopia. Andy Warhols factory had stepped one toke over the line, and the prelapsarian dream that blossomed from the flowerbed of the sixties was now a ruinous relic like a long-forgotten civilisation that the History Channel will say was built by aliens and abandoned centuries from now. The spirit of the age was gritty tumult and grimy turmoil. Hippy flower power was an old ideal that had been paved over and buried under brutalist architecture. While opiates andChines Rocksreplaced opulent excesses, the only priceless spiritual commodity that the zeitgeist had to offer was poverty.

This feverish despair that had been forecast in a thousand bad acid trips from the decade earlier reflected the disheartening failure of the technological fix to bring about post-war progression. The sprawl of concrete, commercialism and internal decay sunk New Yorks lowly denizens into a plashy mire of crime and punishment. Punk clawed its way out of the darkened depths of degeneracy and never even brushed itself clean after it clambered into a sauntering snarl. Joey Ramone was the bowl cut Frankenstein monster that the cultural New York cocktail shaker had poured out as an emblem of thedisintegration of humanityafter a fair glug ofThe Velvet Underground and The New York Dollshad been slung in there. The place they were serving this most-vile concoction was none other than the CBGBs: The spiritual home of seventies artistic heathenry.

From this one small spot, a complete global culture-changing art form was born. It was, in many ways, a spiritual East Village Acropolis, and it served beer for less than a dollar. From the inside, it would be remembered by photographer Meryl Meisler as a stinking, sultry zenith of youthful revolt where kids werepulsating to the back beatof a defibrillated future. She recalled: Here was this enigma, the CBGB, with crowds all the time, people hanging outside all the time. The place itself, you can almost remember the smell, the smell of beer and whatnot in the room, and it was very interesting. And it also had a significant impact on those scattered around the world merely feeling the seismic reverberations of an almost inadvertent cultural epicentre.

As Moby recalls: When I was growing up, I fetishised New York City. It was the land of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, it was whereLeonard Cohen wrote Chelsea Hotel, it was CBGBs and all the punk rock clubs. Artists and musicians lived there, and it was cheap and dangerous. And he wasnt alone; for the UK-based punks that the club spawned, it was some sort of spiritual mecca. The club winked like somedangerous flirt, as John Cooper Clarke remarks: Youll hear it from every schlub from my era, but the mythology of CBGBs is unassailable. I saw punk rock as the same strand as[Jack] Kerouac, The Caf Wahand the Greenwich Village thing.

From this fabled holy land came a new artistry, one that reinvigorated music, as Patti Smith remembered:I was young, but I felt our cultural voice was in jeopardy and needed an infusion of new people and ideas. I didnt feel like I was the one. I didnt consider myself a musician in any way, but I was a poet and performer, and I did feel that I understood where we were at, what wed been given and where we should go, and if I could voice it, perhaps it could inspire the next generation. This was the mothering that punk needed, and it was Pattis proliferation of poignancy that catapulted it from cult skylarking to a vital creative voice.

Punk wasnt a movement of apathetic anarchy where riots were the aim of the game, as some would tell you. Take Joey Ramones words for it instead: For me, punk is about real feelings. Its not about, Yeah, I am a punk and Im angry. Thats a lot of crap. Its about loving the things that really matter: passion, heart and soul. As the poignant Patti Smith would concur, it speaks to a higher level, one that both belongs to, and is of art. It transcends the punk platitudes of piss, spit and spikey hair and relishes in need for freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are.

Things would never be the same after punk, but where is it now? What remains? Where can old romanticists go for a beer-sodden whiff of it? After all, you askthe spirit of Johnny Thunders, and hell tell you straight up that you cant put your arms around a memory. Now, you go to the space where the great CBGBs used to stand and you find a boutique fashion outlet. I walk by it now, and I see no destructive urges. In fact, theres not even a plaque. The same goes for Maxs Kansas City, the old haunt of poets then Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and the place Debbie Harry served shit steaks its now a deli, as if New York hasnt got enough of them! Even St. Marks Place, the street that styled the unruly job lot,is losing her faceshowing very few pimples of the past.

Is this the sad prognosis of the past?It was a gas, but it had a heart of glass? Well, not quite. Whilst it is disheartening that not much seems to be done to protect the cultural hotspots of the past from the sands of time and the mitts of commercialism, as any patron of the soon-to-be-paved-over Frankies Pizza in Sydney (one of the greatest bars there ever was) will attest or revellers from the defunct Gotham in Newcastle etc. -punks New York legacy is not bound to a place. As Richard Hell said of taking a mired legacy in your stride and looking forward: What other intelligent way to live is there but to laugh about it? The alternative, also respectable, is suicide. But how could you do that? Not only would it betray a woeful lack of humour, but it would keep you from finding out what was going to happen next.

Perhaps what happened next for New Yorks punk scene is that it mutated into the next thing and currently resides in Brooklyn. Therein shows such as Hamilton Leithausers Caf Carlyle residency, or the laid-back folk acts who jaunt into St. Mavies, or the eclectic buzzy bohemian vibes of the Music Hall of Williamsburg and The Bandshell, and Barbs for such nights as the Slavic Soul Party. The scene mightnt be as ardent, but under theMarquee Moonof Manhattans skyline, the buzz of punks bohemian zeitgeist still effervesces, and its certainly worth a visit. If youre on the trail of the CBGB, then Brooklynmust be the place. Long may it stay deli free.

Songs referenced:

The rest is here:

On the trail of the CBGB: What remains of the New York punk scene? - Far Out Magazine

We should not underestimate the crucial importance of leadership and design joining forces. Our global future depends on it. We will either design our way through the deadly challenges of this century, or we wont make it. For our institutionsin truth, for our civilizationto survive and prosper, we must solve extremely complex problems and cope with many bewildering dilemmas. We cannot assume that, following our present path, we will simply evolve toward a better world. But we can design that better world. That is why designers need to become leaders, and why leaders need to become designers.Richard Farson, Management by Design, 2000

The year was 1997. Looking back now, it seems like prehistoric times: pre-YouTube, pre-Facebook, 10 years before Apples launch of the iPhone. It was therein a conference room of one of my corporate clientsthat I first saw a publication titled Fast Company. That particular issue featured clever cover art mimicking the iconic Tide laundry detergent. As I inched over, I saw that the headline The Brand Called You took the place of the classic P&G nomenclature. I was intrigued. I riffled through to Tom Peterss cover story and read his declaration that a new construction of our corporate selves was required in the modern marketplace. As sexy as it seemed at the time, Im not sure anyone understood the gravity of Peterss proclamation. In hindsight, this became the entry point to living our lives publicly, punctuated with a constant barrage of personal pixels. And Fast Company had the scoop.

[Photo: Celine Grouard for Fast Company]By then the magazine was nearly two years old. I was newly minted in the branding business, and the first sentence of Peterss articleIts a new brand worldbecame my mantra. I adopted Fast Company as my business bible, as it identified and revealed the cultural concepts that have continued to define the zeitgeist. My growing knowledge was further influenced by another early Fast Company writer, Roger Martin, then dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. His pronouncement, Business people dont just need to understand designers betterthey need to become designers, became my rallying cry.

Its hard to imagine that Martin knew the extent to which business would ultimately embrace design, but 25 years later our entire culture is now immersed in a universe fueled by creativity. Behemoth corporations including P&G, Kraft, and Coca-Cola have shown us that scale alone is not nearly enough to thrive in a world where markets are rapidly globalizing and have proven that incremental improvement on its own cant deliver a robust return on investment. Companies, such as Apple, Nike, and Target, have proven that to succeed, prosper, and make a meaningful difference in todays world the most valuable contribution comes from using the designers foremost competitive weapon: innovation.

[Photo: Celine Grouard for Fast Company]We are living in a time where business skills and design skills have now converged in ways even Roger Martin couldnt have anticipated. And the stock market agrees: A Design Management Institute study showed that companies that put design at the core of their business strategy outperformed the market by a significant margin. Fifteen rigorously selected companies institutionally using design as a strategic tool beat the S&P by 228% from 2004 to 2014. And in 2018, McKinsey & Company reported that companies using design increased their revenues and total returns to shareholders substantially faster than industry counterparts that did not.

Now, if you are developing a marketing strategy, or streamlining a manufacturing operation, or building a new system for distributionif you work almost anywhere in the world of business todayyou must be engaged in the discipline of design. This bilingual ability has resulted in companies creating superior and elegantly refined products that not only taste different, feel different, and look different; these products are also attempting to make a difference in peoples lives.

[Photo: Celine Grouard for Fast Company]The biggest, boldest, most innovative products being created today come from companies that respond to compelling needs to redesign, improve, and change the way we livehow we travel, eat, enjoy music, or support causes we believe in. In addition, for the first time in our history as a modern civilization, design has become democratized. Motivated citizens are designing their own messages and creating brands to signify their beliefs. The Black Lives Matter movement, the Pussyhat Project, and the Extinction Rebellion are non-consumer-based initiatives to redesign society to reflect the type of world like-minded individuals want to live in. The condition of branding is beginning to reflect the condition of our culture.

[Photo: Celine Grouard for Fast Company]But it is still not enough. Democratized movements and superior products are beneficial but can only do so much. In order to survive and, more importantly, to thrive, the global economy must transform itself radically. Our institutions, organizations, and communities are facing complex challenges while coping with a global pandemic, climate crisis, blatant racism, financial volatility and inequality, and political unrest. We are facing a water shortage of epic proportions and unprecedented weather disruptions. Design and business must become inextricably linked to the way in which society, culture, the environment, and politics interact. The very fate of humanity is at stake. We can no longer assume that if we follow our present path, the world will simply evolve into a better place. The way toward that better place must be carefully considered and navigated by business leaders and designers alike. We must redesign the way we think, collaborate, and innovate. We must redesign the way we live and what we value.

This essay was excerpted from the book Fast Company Innovation by Design: Creative Ideas That Transform The Way We Live and Work on sale September 21. Pre-order a copy here.

Here is the original post:

The most successful companies infuse their business with design. Now they need to think bigger - Fast Company