One of the busiest, most in-demand artists of the 19th century, Gustave Doré made his name illustrating works by such authors as Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, and Dante. In the 1860s, he created one of the most memorable and popular illustrated...
Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague De Camp at the Navy Yard in 1944 Robert Heinlein was born in 1907, which put him on the mature side by the time of the United States’ entry into World War II....
On the 5 May, a Viennese public assembled on Judenplatz in the city’s First District to listen to the Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm deliver his ‘Speech to Europe’, the third in the series following Oleksandra Matviichuk (2023) and Timothy Snyder...
The history of different peoples, and of humanity as a whole, can be presented in all kinds of ways. But, in the end it comes down to food and hunger. In the final analysis, it’s the stomach that counts. I...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UzS0dwuuHg In the video above, poet, artist, National Book Award winner, and “godmother of punk” Patti Smith reads a selection from Virginia Woolf’s 1931 experimental novel The Waves, accompanied on piano and guitar by her daughter Jesse and son Jackson....
In Soundings, Óscar García Agustín discusses the traces of Eurocommunism that linger on in contemporary European politics. ‘The legacy of Eurocommunism is, at the least, paradoxical. Although few voices from the left claim its validity and relevance for a left...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuA9l77ODbs The Carnegie Hall YouTube Channel sets the scene: On January 28, 2023, pianist Yuja Wang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall for a once-in-a-lifetime, all-Rachmaninoff marathon that featured the composer’s four piano concertos plus...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxhSOcyPCVo It doesn’t take an expert in the field to know that, around the world, there is much disagreement on the subject of religion. But as explained in the UsefulCharts video above by Matt Baker, whose PhD in Religious Studies makes him...
Dreary, dismal, drab, forlorn. In an issue of Wespennest entitled ‘No future’ (a homage to the Sex Pistols, as the cover makes clear), Jens Balzer writes on ‘Softies, punks and smoked sausage: The pop-cultural marketization of apocalyptic feelings in the...
‘The modern world has established the border between our madness and their sanity … Enlightened despots of the 21st century always have something to say, even if we haven’t asked them to.’ P.B. Preciado. It is a hot first day...
