Saturday, March 10, 2018

Zappa: Lost Under Babylon Berlin Heaven – “The Breath Of Light”

Frances McDormand’s new Oscar was stolen at an after-party. The thief was caught after bragging on Facebook
↩︎ The Los Angeles Times

To deal with this breakdown between the rule-based Universe as we know it and these 'here be dragons' parts of black holes, physicists apply a little thing called cosmic censorship
What an Indian tiger’s bid for freedom says about humans and nature The Economist

There’s a Type of Black Hole That Erases Your Past And Messes With Your Future Science Alert Original. Make up your own destiny ...

Since Rousseau, at least, we've told ourselves a story about the shape and direction of human history. Big problem: It isn't true The Other  

Like the character Mopsa in The Winter’s Tale, who crooned: “I love a ballad in print, alife, for then we are sure they are true.” Mopsa today would implicitly trust the big-ticket newspaper and TV networks. 



As We have observed before, you don’t get Hitler (or Stalin or Latitude mafia) because of Hitler — there are always potential Hitlers hanging around. You get Hitler because of Weimar, and you get Weimar because the people in charge of maintaining liberal democracy are too weak and corrupt to do the job.
Media Dragon: State of Disuniom (sic): God's Plan for MEdia Dragons and Babylon Berlin
  Babylon Berlin is reportedly the most expensive German TV series ever produced, and it will be shown in the US on Netflix starting in a few weeks; see also the official show site.  
       The series is based on a book series by Volker Kutscher -- which was amazingly first picked up in English by Scottish publisher Sandstone Press (see their publicity page) -- with Picador now bringing out a US edition (see their publicity page) to coïncide with the US-airing of the show; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. 
       At Deutsche Welle Siobhán Dowling now reports on How a Highlands publisher has hit the big time with 'Babylon Berlin'. Noteworthy also the necessary reliance on translation grants, including from the Goethe Institut, after being featuredin New Books in German (and, yes, it probably helped -- a lot -- that they did not stick to the original title ('The Wet Fish' !).) 
       (See also previous coverage in, for example, The Herald, where Karin Goodwin wrote From Deutschland to Dingwall: how a small Scottish publisher is riding high with Babylon Berlin last month.)
 


Havel letter criticises President Putin for undermining democracy

 

pohľad na Tatry z obce Vrbov

Havel was particularly affronted by the arrest of Plastic People of the Universe, a Czechoslovakian rock band that had taken its name from a song by the American singer Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa's connections to MEdia Dragons and Prague 


How a Revolutionary Czech Rock Band Inspired Vaclav Havel - Rolling Stone

Frank Zappa Last Performance (Prague 1991) 


FZ & Václav Havel


Frank Zappa’s We’re Only In It For The Money Is The ’60s Psych Satire That Became A ’60s Psych Classic


"To be the man, you gotta beat the man, and...I’m the man." - The Nature Boy, Ric Flair Statistically, there’s a good chance…

Obituary: Vaclav Havel 




“If It Makes You Happy” Is (Still) Having A Moment


My downstairs neighbors have a habit of getting wine-drunk and singing old songs. They generally break out stuff like "Love Shack" or "We Are Family."

  NYC ‘Sperminator’ Has Fathered 26+ Kids by Donating Sperm in Some Pretty Weird Ways.

Nick Cave Teases Events To Dialogue With Fans


It's been two years since Nick Cave released his most recent album, Skeleton Tree, and since then he's had a hand in a bunch of…