The New York jazz singer Robyn Adele Anderson gives us an idea of what Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” might have sounded like if he had written it in the 1920s.
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Tag: united states
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Song Du Jour #23, Jimi Hendrix
Every now and then, a “new”, “unearthed” or “never heard before” Hendrix song is released. This time, it’s “Station Break”, an instrumental track recorded in 1965 by Curtis Knight & The Squires, to which Hendrix contributes with his already unmistakable style.
The Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2015 Like many American front pages Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal features a photo of Hillary Clinton at her Tuesday press conference where she discussed her use of private email while Secretary of State. During her first news conference since leaving her post as as secretary of state two […]
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Song Du Jour #21, Notorious B.I.G.
Brooklyn lost its hip hop king 18 years ago today. On March 9, 1997, Notorious B.I.G was shot to death over on the west coast, after attending a party in Los Angeles. He was promoting his second album, Life After Death, which would be released on March 25 and soon reach No. 1 in the […]
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You may know torch songs from Rihanna, but what about Enheduanna? In ancient Mesopotamia, she wrote the very first love songs, holding back very little. Watch her burn …
The Boston Globe, March 5, 2015 “IT WAS HIM” writes The Boston Globe on the front page of its Thursday edition, alongside a courtroom sketch depicting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev entering the courtroom on the first day of testimony in the Boston Marathon bombing trial. The Boston daily attributes the quote to a lawyer for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: […]
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Ukraine Mine Blast, Boston Trial, Roman Smog
AT LEAST 32 KILLED IN EASTERN UKRAINE MINE BLASTAn explosion believed to be gas-related at the Zasyadko coal mine in rebel-held Donetsk, Ukraine, has killed at least 32 people, local officials said Wednesday. Reuters reported some 70 miners were working in the mine at the time of the blast, and that dozens more people are […]
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Song Du Jour #17, Grateful Dead
Reports of skyrocketing ticket prices for the Grateful Dead’s reunion shows in Chicago on July 3-4-5 made us long for the good old days when, as one YouTube commentator puts it, you could see the legendary San Francisco psych rock band for cheap, “sleep in the back of your car, wash up at a gas […]
As an internationally renowned cryptography expert, American Bruce Schneier used to be a welcome visitor everywhere. But that’s no longer the case. “I used to be popular with the National Security Agency,” he says. “They used to invite me to their seminars, they listened to my advice. But it’s over. I was very critical after […]
The modern-day successors of ragmen, New York’s trash pickers (or “canners”) are credited with recycling 60% of the city’s glass and aluminum. Why don’t we notice this hidden economy?
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Song Du Jour #16, Johnny Cash
Today is the Man In Black’s birthday. He would have been 83 years old.
FIGHTING DIE DOWN IN EASTERN UKRAINEThe shaky truce in Eastern Ukraine finally appears to be taking hold. Wednesday marked the first casualty-free day since the Minsk agreement and the official start of a ceasefire on Feb. 15, the BBC reports. Pro-Russian rebels continued to withdraw their heavy weaponry from the frontline and the leader of […]
UKRAINE TRUCE STILL SHAKYAn already shaky ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is threatening to collapse further after a blast killed two people yesterday at a march commemorating the first anniversary of former president Viktor Yanukovych’s ousting. Ukrainian authorities said they arrested four people who had been armed and trained in Russia, Reuters reports. Pro-Russian rebels and […]
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Song Du Jour #10, Pancake Rap
It’s Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, so our song of the day is this impressive “Pancake Rap” by Mac Lethal.
A federal ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Alabama took effect Monday. But in up to 52 of the state’s 67 counties, most judges refused to go through with processing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, the International New York Times reports in its issue Tuesday. Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of the Alabama Supreme […]
NEW HOPE FOR UKRAINEGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama later today in Washington for talks that will focus primarily on a ceasefire for eastern Ukraine. This comes after emergency meetings Friday and Saturday in Kiev and Moscow to negotiate a possible agreement ahead of a four-way meeting Wednesday in […]
HAGUE ISSUES GENOCIDE RULINGAfter years of investigation, the Hague’s International Court of Justice has ruled that Serbia did not commit genocide against the Croats during the Balkan wars in the 1990s. While acknowledging that crimes had been committed, the court argued that Croatia failed to prove that Serbia had intended to “destroy in whole or […]
A native of China’s bustling capital who studied in the U.S. and UK felt more embraced as a local abroad than in a new Chinese city. Inside the native-foreigner divide.
U.S. PONDERS ARMING UKRAINEThe United States may decide soon to equip Ukraine’s armed forces with “defensive weapons and equipment,” The New York Times reports, adding that many military and administration officials “appear to be edging toward that position.” Secretary of State John Kerry, who will travel to Kiev Thursday, is said to be open to […]
Last week, the great beatnik bard Bob Dylan gave his first interview in three years to AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons’ magazine — a peculiar choice until you consider that the AARP publication actually has the largest magazine circulation in the U.S. The interview proves, if it’s even necessary, that at age 73 […]
ISIS LOSES LONG KOBANI BATTLEAfter more than four months of intense fighting, Kurdish fighters have taken control of the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border and have driven out ISIS fighters, though these still occupy important areas outside the town, Reuters reports. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 1,600 […]
And it will happen sooner than you think…
U.S. President Barack Obama used his sixth State of the Union address to tell America the “shadow of the crisis has passed.” The Washington Post highlighted that Obama “dropped his veneer of reserve” and took credit for the improving economic situation. As the president announced more government intervention in the economy, with plans for new […]
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Skokie is a mostly Jewish district outside of Chicago, Illinois. In 1977, the far-right National Socialist Party of America decided to organize a march there, which the scandalized residents, including thousands of Holocaust survivors, naturally sought to stop, arguing it would incite hatred and lead to violence. But the ACLU, the American […]
Art Week and the sumptuous events around its star show, Art Basel Miami Beach, was a perfect showcase not just for art, but also guiltless expenditure of vast amounts of cold hard cash.
To the surprise of many, the family of legendary novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez sold his personal papers to the University of Texas. It’s nothing political – but all about posterity, and money of course.
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A Mouse In The Garden
When we went to Florida’s Cypress Gardens in the late 1980s, the botanical garden theme park was trying to survive, threatened as it was by a nearby rodent stealing all its visitors.
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The Blurry Future Of Google Glass
Though Google’s new technology was once hailed as revolutionary, product disappointment has set in and technology watchers are predicting that Google Glass is doomed.
A quick roundup of who has been saying what around the world.
A recently discovered species of deep sea snail, the Alviconcha strummeri, has been named by scientists in honor of the Clash frontman Joe Strummer. Why? “Because they look like punk rockers in the 70s and 80s and they have purple blood and live in such an extreme environment, we decided to name one new species […]
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Bilingual Symmetry
Funny how a picture without any people in it can still illustrate a city’s dual heritage, both linguistically (French/English) and demographically (Acadian/Creole).
After World War II, it was SS prisoners in Germany’s Landsberg prison. After 9-11, it was Guantanamo. The U.S. repeats its sins, but also repeats its repentance.
The dominant economic idea used to be to cut all barriers to capital flows, the so-called Washington Consensus. But since the 2008 financial collapse, the tech industry’s hold on global consumption rules the day, and anything impeding it is considere
The news quantified…
News in images
For Renaud Laplanche, it all began with a credit card statement that seemed all wrong. Now, after helping to bring banking into the digital era, it’s time for a major IPO for his SF-based firm.
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A 1997 Eminem Freestyle Battle Unearthed
A 17-year-old recording of a freestyle battle between Eminem and a local rapper named A.L. has been released online. The two-part recording features a 25-year-old Marshall Mathers in his early rapping career displaying an already impressive talent for freestyle. The battle took place when Eminem visited New York’s Baruch College’s Solo Vibes radio show for […]
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Surprise Sign
We arrived in our Los Angeles hotel at night, happy to rest after a long trip. The next morning, Easter Sunday, we got a nice Easter egg: This was the view from our hotel room!
REYHANLI — At the beginning of this year, Jamal Maarouf was regarded as the new white knight of the Syrian insurrection. Over the course of just a few days in January, Maarouf and his men drove ISIS jihadists out of northern Syria’s Idlib province. Armed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, the leader of […]