'Gays Against Guns' Stages Die-Ins At NYC Pride March

“Hey, ho, the NRA has got to go!”

That was what a newly formed LGBTQ gun control group, Gays Against Guns, or GAG, shouted as it marched down Fifth Avenue during the New York City Pride March on Sunday. When the shouting stopped, silence erupted as hundreds of people dropped to the ground as if dead. It was a stabbing reminder of the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando.

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Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ta-Nehisi Coates Discuss Art And Social Justice

Prolific poet Sonia Sanchez invited two literary greats — iconic author Toni Morrison and acclaimed journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates — to have a conversation about art and social justice at the Ambassador Theatre in New York on Wednesday, June 15.

In front of a sold-out audience, Sanchez led an insightful discussion on how the writers use their craft to voice their truths and tell stories untold. Addressing modern-day tragedies like the Orlando shooting and instances of police brutality, the three explained why they felt their occupations weren’t optional; they considered it their duty. 

“I want to remind us all that art is dangerous,” Morrison warned the audience. “Somebody’s out to get you. You have to know it before you start, and do it under those circumstances, because it is one of the most important things that human beings do.”

Following the discussion, all three of the panelists received the Marlon Brando Award for excellence in the arts and commitment to social engagement from The Stella Adler Studio of Acting. As one would expect, the 90-minute conversation was full of gems — including what they each learned from the late Muhammad Ali. Here are a few key quotes from Sanchez, Morrison and Coates, respectively, on some of the topics they discussed that night.

On writing:

Sanchez:

When I began to write, I wanted to tell how I became the woman with razor blades between her teeth. What made me want to power others through my bloodstream, what made me want to rise up to tell my story and… all our stories, I guess it must’ve been something underneath our skirts, girls… Something accented, unaccented in my and your walk and talk. Jimmy Baldwin wrote, ‘For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new. It must always be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell. It’s the only light we’ve got in all of this darkness.’”

Morrison: 

“I began, not because I wanted to write, but because I wanted very, very much to read…  I wanted to read that book that I did not think anybody had written. I read all the time, and I was never in those books. So I decided that I would write the book that I really and truly wanted to read. I called it The Bluest Eye. And it was the result of a convo I had with my friend, at 8 or 9 years old. She and I were having a very serious discussion about whether there is a God or not. I said there was. She said there wasn’t and she had proof. And I said, ‘what is the proof?’ She said, ‘I have prayed for blue eyes for two years and hadn’t gotten them. He hasn’t delivered them to me.’

And I remember turning around and looking at her and thinking two things at the same time. One, thank God He had not given her blue eyes because she would look awful. That was when I realized that what I was thinking was, as she was, she’s a very, very dark-skinned girl with these beautiful cheekbones, high cheekbones, these great almond eyes, but I had never said or thought ‘beautiful.’ That’s not a word we would use as kids… For the first time, I looked at her… she was beautiful.”

Coates:  

“I guess I never knew of it as a means to a choice. I grew up in a household surrounded by books, there were books everywhere. My dad published books. My mother was a teacher. My mother taught me how to read and taught me how to write… I was interested in doing all that outside the classroom. So if you’d put a teacher in front of me and sat me at a desk… I would almost immediately cease to be interested in reading and writing. Reading and writing was something that belonged to me. It didn’t really belong to the classroom. But the flip side of that is that it meant that there weren’t too many other options besides writing in my life. This is the thing that brought me the most joy. This is the thing that no matter, when it wasn’t being published, when it no longer made money… I’ll still be doing it. It’s just a thing that’s here.” 

On fighting injustice:

Sanchez: 

“All of these people who were [in Orlando], let’s take a minute of silence…. because we know if you work, not just at some point saying something like ‘I have a good friend who’s gay,’ not that… but you go to your church and people talk against your brother and your sister and your mother and your father and your uncle and your aunt. You’ve got to say something. You’ve got to say something… Because when we let that happen, then we produce people who think they have a right to kill. And so we have to come up against that at some point.”

Morrison:

“I want to remind us all that art is dangerous. I want to remind you of the history of artist who have been murdered, slaughtered, imprisoned, chopped up, refused entrance. The history of art, whether it’s in music or written or what have you, has always been bloody because dictators and people in office and people who want to control and deceive know exactly the people who will disturb their plans… And it’s something that society has to protect. When you enter that field, no matter where you enter, whether it’s Sonia’s poetry or Toshi’s music or Ta-Nehisi’s rather starkly clear prose, it’s a dangerous pursuit. Somebody’s out to get you. You have to know it before you start, and do it under those circumstances, because it is one of the most important things that human beings do. That’s what we do.”

Coates:

“When something catastrophic happens, we like to analyze it at the point of conflict. Take Orlando right now, and so where we are is ‘OK, assault weapons are banned, that’s what we need right now.’ And so things that really are insufficient measures seem like radical steps. Like assault weapons bans, which would not be adopted, we wouldn’t even be close to adopting… And so, where that goes into a situation like Ferguson, you get bogged down into this place: What happened between the officer and Mike Brown? All of the analysis happens right there. And none of the analysis goes to the sort of broader question, ‘OK, what is the relationship between the police department in general, historically, between this community and the cops.’

I think part of that is we’re just scared of the work. It’s gonna be a lot of work. It’s gonna be a lot of really, really hard work. And we might not win. And yet we have to commit ourselves to the struggle, because it’s nothing else besides struggle. There is no laying down and giving up. And so one thing about this moment right now, and I am seeing more of this in the journalism and the activism, we have to get past a place of how can we get these officers convicted in a court of law, and get to a place of why did this happen in the first place.”

On Muhammad Ali:

Sanchez:

“Along comes Muhammad Ali, and I said, I made this great production, ‘I don’t watch boxing, it’s cruel.’ My father said, ‘He is this dancer. He is this poet. He is clever. He’s a clever boxer.’ And so I watched him and fell in love with him. Not only was he boxing for himself, he was boxing for all of us. I said to someone recently, he loved [black people] more than we loved ourselves. And more than he loved himself…

I remember, with my twins, going up to [Deer Lake]… and he got in the ring, he said to everybody, ‘Come on, come on, come on, come on. I’m here. Come on.’ And they were put in the ring with him and they start boxing him. He fell out on the ground and the kids put their feet on him. ‘We won, we won, we won.’ And then they put me up there. I said, ‘I ain’t gonna box you, man.’ He picked me up and throw me up in the air. His timing was so perfect. I was so scared. He was saying something like, ‘Are we getting ready to go?’  and he caught [me]. That was my one and only time in the ring, people.”

Morrison (who was Ali’s book editor):

“That was one smart dude. I have to tell you, and he understood instantly what other people needed in him, what other people wanted in him. He complained to me [that] he couldn’t go to some book signing in New Jersey, and I said, ‘what do you mean you can’t go, it’s already set up.’ ‘No, no, no, it costs too much,’ [he said]. I said, ‘It doesn’t cost anything, what are you talking about? We pay, you just go and sign books.’ He said, ‘It costs because people ask me for money.’ And I said, ‘you don’t have to give it to ‘em.’ He said, ‘I’m the champ. They hit me on the shoulder, they say ‘hey, champ, give me a dollar. Give me five dollars.’ I can’t say I don’t have it. I can’t say no.’ So everybody who asked him for money, he always gives it and it costs. And I insisted that that was not a good enough reason for him to refuse to go to this signing… But he was correct in what the limitations were and it was less about the money, I think, than the fact that everybody who came in the line and who he spoke to hit him on his shoulder and said ‘Hey champ.’ A thousand of those hurt. And he’s not gonna say it. So you had to have some mechanism so you could stop it. [Laughs.] And make everybody happy, including him. But I have to say that working with him, it was strategic, that’s all I mean. You had to think like him… and use his best resources and his own personality, and then it was successful and the book was successful.”

Coates: 

“I think we are always, as African Americans, under some sort of pressure to sort of conform ourselves in ways that won’t either bring bodily harm to ourselves or to our children, and so there’s a lot of pressure revolving on talks about this: Make sure your skin isn’t ashy, everything’s straight, your hair looks right. And there’s a whole sort of performance that we do to put on our best face for folks. And to see somebody so profoundly reject that, I mean it’s just the most powerful thing… To see somebody out there like, ‘My Image is my own. I don’t have to conform to any of these… If I’m gonna say I’m the greatest, I’m gonna say I’m the greatest.’ Just be mad about it.” 

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Pepsi Is Adding Aspartame Back Into Its Diet Drinks

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Last summer, PepsiCo announced it would remove the controversial chemical aspartame from its Diet Pepsi soft drink.

Now, one year later, it’s bringing the ingredient back.

Starting in September, Diet Pepsi will come in two versions: one with aspartame, housed in light blue packaging with a label touting Diet Pepsi’s “classic sweetener blend.” The other will contain sucralose, an artificial sweetener better known as Splenda, and will be sold in Diet Pepsi’s now-familiar silver packaging. 

In yet another change, Pepsi Max will be called Pepsi Zero Sugar, a drink that has always had aspartame as an ingredient. What does it all mean?!

There isn’t any solid scientific evidence that artificial sweeteners cause health problems like cancer, but aspartame hasn’t been able to shed its bad reputation among nervous consumers. PepsiCo removed aspartame last year in hopes of boosting sales, but alas, many fans didn’t like the taste of the new formulation and demanded it back. 

Now they’ll have a choice, though the best choice, of course, is no soda at all. Cheers to a glass of cold, additive-free water!

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6 Women Share How They’ve Redefined Beauty In New Dove Campaign

You define your beauty. 

That’s the message behind the new Dove campaign #MyBeautyMySay. The campaign, which launched Tuesday morning, features the stories of badass women proudly expressing their beauty. 

“My Beauty My Say” includes six separate videos featuring six women’s personal stories about how they define their own beauty every single day. The six women include androgynous model Rain Dove, boxer Heather Hardy, plus-size fashion blogger Jessica Torres and more. 

“They said I was too pretty to fight,” Hardy says in the video above.

“They said I was too fat, only skinny girls could dress well,” Torres says. 

“They said I was too masculine,” Dove says. 

But these accomplished ladies pointed out that the negative comments didn’t stop them from achieving their goals. Dove is a world-renowned model and Torres is a successful fashion blogger. And Hardy’s pretty face definitely didn’t stop her from becoming the UBF and WBC Super Bantamweight International Champion

According to the beauty brand, 7 out of 10 women believe that women receive more compliments and comments on their looks than their accomplishments. Dove also found that 74 percent of the women surveyed agreed that there are other unique characteristics of a woman — not just her looks — that make her beautiful. 

As Dove says in regards to all those naysayers and critics:

Yes, yes, and more yes. 

Head to YouTube to hear more from each woman in Dove’s #MyBeautyMySay campaign. 

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We Must Not Accept an Algorithmic Account of Human Life

One remarkable development of twentieth century science is the discovery that both physical structures and the communication of ideas can be assembled on the basis of algorithms that make use of codes. The genetic code helps living organisms assemble the basics of other living organisms and guide their development. Verbal languages provide us with alphabets (with which we can assemble an infinity of words that name an infinity of objects, actions, relationships and events) and with grammatical rules that govern the sequencing of the words so as to construct sentences and stories that narrate events or explain ideas.

Many aspects of the assembly of natural organisms and of communication depend on algorithms and on coding, as do all aspects of computation as well as the enterprises of artificial intelligence and robotics. These solid and interesting facts, however, have given rise to the sweeping notion that natural organisms would be reducible to algorithms or fully explainable by algorithms.

The worlds of artificial intelligence, biology and even neuroscience are inebriated with this notion. The thoughtful historian Yuval Harari echoed it in a recent interview published in the The WorldPost. Asked to pick one idea that would prove most influential in the next 50 years, Harari responded, “It’s definitely the algorithm” and added that current biology can be summarized in three words: “Organisms are algorithms.” Not only that, biology and computer science are converging because the “basic insight that unites the biological with the electronic is that bodies and brains are also algorithms.” The fact that “we can write algorithms artificially” enables the convergence.

Needless to say, I am not blaming Harari for voicing ideas that have gained currency in technology and science circles. I am only interested in the merit of the ideas and because ideas do matter, this is an opportunity to consider if they conform to scientific fact and how they fare in human terms. From my perspective, they are not scientifically sound, and they suggest a problematic account of humanity. Why so?


Saying that living organisms are algorithms is, in the very least, misleading and in strict terms, false.

Saying that living organisms are algorithms is, in the very least, misleading and in strict terms, false. Algorithms are formulas, recipes, enumerations of steps in the construction of a predicted result. As noted, living organisms, including human organisms, use code-dependent algorithms such as the genetic machinery. But while, to a certain extent, living organisms are constructed according to algorithms, they are not algorithms themselves. They are consequences of the engagement of algorithms. The critical issue, however, is that living organisms are collections of tissues, organs and systems within which every component cell is a vulnerable living entity made of proteins, lipids and sugars. They are not lines of code.

The idea that living organisms are algorithms helps perpetuate the false notion that the substrates of organism construction are not relevant. This is because embedded within the label “algorithm” is a notion of context and substrate-independence. Applying the same algorithm to new contexts, using different substrates, is presumed to achieve similar results. But this is simply not so. Substrates count. The substrate of life is organized chemistry, a servant to thermodynamics and the imperative of homeostasis, and to the best of our current knowledge, that substrate is essential to explain who we are. Why so?

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A model of the human brain constructed of wires and ports.

First, because the particular chemical substrate of life is necessary for the phenomena of feeling, and, in humans, reflection and elaboration on the experience of feelings is the basis for much that we hold as humanly distinctive and admirable, including moral and aesthetic judgments as well as the experience and notions of being and transcendence. While there is plenty of evidence that artificial organisms can be designed so as to operate intelligently and even surpass the intelligence of human organisms, there is no evidence to date that such artificial organisms can generate feelings without an actual living substrate (I note that the counterhypothesis, i.e. that certain designs might allow artificial organisms to simulate feelings, is well worth investigating).

In brief, there is no evidence that pure intellectual processes, which lend themselves well to an algorithmic account and which do not appear to be as sensitive to the substrate, can form the basis for what makes us distinctly human. Throw away the chemical substrate and you throw away feelings along with the values that humanistic cultures, from the axial ages forward, have been celebrating in the form of arts, religious beliefs, justice and fair governance. Once we remove suffering and flourishing, for example, there is no natural grounding for the logical conclusion that human beings deserve dignity. Of note, none of this implies that the higher functions of living organisms are not amenable to scientific investigation. They certainly are, provided the investigations take into account the living substrate and the complexity of the processes.

The implication of these distinctions is not trivial as we contemplate a new era of medicine in which the extension of human life will be possible by means of genetic engineering and the creation of human-artificial hybrids.


There is no evidence that pure intellectual processes can form the basis for what makes us distinctly human.

Second, the abundant presence of conscious feeling and creative intelligence in humans guarantees that the execution of the native algorithms can be thwarted. Our freedom to run against the impulses that the good or bad angels of our natures attempt to impose on us, is limited; but the fact remains that we can act against such impulses. The history of human cultures is in good part a narrative of our resistance to native algorithms by means of inventions not predicted by those algorithms. One can argue that all of these departures from native algorithms are in turn open to an algorithmic account. The scope of an algorithm may be expanded to capture a system at an arbitrary level of detail, but by then, what are the advantages of using the term algorithm?

Third, accepting an algorithmic account of humanity is the sort of reductionist position that often leads good souls to dismiss science and technology as demeaning and bemoan the passing of an age in which philosophy, complete with aesthetic sensibility and a religious response to suffering and death, made humans soar above the species on whose biological shoulders they were riding. But of course, denying the value of science as a reaction to problematic accounts of humanity is not acceptable either.

Science and philosophical inquiry can proceed side by side, not always in synchrony but often feeding off each other. Science needs to continue, in spite of the enthusiasts who reduce the sublime power of life to engineering and entrepreneurial successes, and in spite of the nervous Jeremiahs who are afraid that science will not honor the humanist traditions of the past. Both science, as honest knowledge-seeking, and philosophy, as serious debate and love of honest scientific knowledge, will not only endure but prevail.

Earlier on WorldPost:

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High Hopes at The Ride, Part 1: This Little Hurricane Packs a 1-2 Punch

When musicians Anthony “Tone” Catalano and Celeste “C.C.” Spina decided to form Little Hurricane in 2010, the San Diego-based duo never could have predicted the big trouble that would soon follow.

They’ve survived some extreme weather conditions over the years, including dust storms in New Mexico and sub-zero temperatures in Canada during the polar vortex.

Yet the most frightening time of their musical lives was in October 2012, when Superstorm Sandy, what’s been called the second-costliest hurricane in America’s history, chased them along the East Coast.

“It was literally following our touring path,” Spina said in late June, calling on the phone with Catalano from Lake Tahoe, where they were in the middle of recording their third studio album. “We played in Manhattan the night that it hit. Well, we played that night and it hit at 4 in the morning. So we played our set and just had to book it west to Pennsylvania. That was kind of a grueling experience just because we didn’t know if we were gonna get hit by an actual hurricane.”

2016 Ride Festival logo typeThrough thick and thin, the name stuck, though, and so has the pair of singer-songwriter-performers, who will be one of the first acts on the main stage when The Ride Festival officially kicks off its fifth yearly event July 9 in Telluride, Colorado.

“We wanted something that would kind of encase what we’re all about,” Catalano added about the band’s origin story. “Small, there’s only two of us, but wild, powerful. … There’s a phrase that I’ve been using: No one likes a big hurricane but a little hurricane is more of a party, a good time.”

Little Hurricane have been kicking up a storm since Catalano, then playing electric drums, answered Spina’s Craigslist ad for a guitar player in 2009, four years after she left her hometown, the Windy City of Chicago. She knew someone would apply after previously replying to a want ad for a bartender and showing up for the job — along with 400 other applicants.

Living only a few blocks away from each other in San Diego, Spina and Catalano hit if off right away, quit their regular jobs, kept their relationship strictly on a professional basis and became two-for-the-road warriors.

little hurricane“For us, it’s just been easier to keep some balance in our life; just kind of focus on the music,” Spina said about not mixing business with pleasure.

“We decided to keep (the group) at two people since we liked the way everything was sounding and it was easy to turn the bass up on the guitar and, traveling to gigs, everything was easier,” offered Catalano, a native of Santa Cruz, Calif., who previously was an audio engineer and worked with artists ranging from Gwen Stefani to John Paul Jones, the former Led Zeppelin bass player.

Recording demos while touring, they self-released Homewrecker in 2011, then Gold Fever in 2014. They have been billed as a rootsy blues-rock band but some Southwestern influence also creeps in, sonically touching territory explored by other prominent duos such as Escondido, a 2013 Ride participant, and HoneyHoney, a ballsy band that will open NightRide‘s series performances July 8 at the Sheridan Opera House.

gold fever coverAs producer of Gold Fever, Catalano, Little Hurricane’s principal singer who accompanies his gritty voice with rich and moody tones from an electric guitar, added string and brass players to complement their already full sound.

Their songwriting approach varies, depending on “whose feelings we’re focusing on,” said Spina, who sticks mostly to drums but occasionally plays mandolin, ukulele and harmonica. Her story about her brother’s struggle with addiction supplies the emotionally charged themes in “Sorry Son,” probably the album’s strongest track.

Allowing that their yet-untitled third album will be released in “roughly January or February,” Catalano teases that he and Spina are “kind of pushing the boundaries as to what to categorize our sound as. … Some of the songs on the new album, there’s no guitar. I’m either playing keyboards or mandolin or … so it’s interesting on my part just to switch up. … But I think our overall sound will remain constant.”

Whether the winds of change ever arrive, expect to be blown away by Little Hurricane.

ON THE ROAD TO THE RIDE: LITTLE HURRICANE

Though Little Hurricane will make their debut at the Ride Festival, which this year includes headliners Pearl Jam (July 9) and Cage the Elephant (July 10), this isn’t the first time Catalano and Spina have performed in the southwest Colorado town of Telluride.

Ride2016 PosterIn 2012, they played the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. “The B-52s headlined, which was kind of awesome,” said Spina, who teamed up with Catalano to open the 19th annual event with a Thursday night show at the Sheridan Opera House.

In honor of their upcoming appearance, Little Hurricane offered opinions about the Ride, the road and the town known for peak performances.

Other first impressions of Telluride:

C.C.: “I think for me it was the most beautiful venue and environment we’ve every played in. It’s just so gorgeous to be on that stage and looking out at the mountains. Definitely a magical place.”

Tone: “We did a music video (‘Trouble Ahead’) on that gondola (between the town and the Mountain Village). It’s on YouTube somewhere.”

C.C.: “Yeah, and one at the very top of the mountain (‘Get By’). I think it was for Paste magazine, actually.”

On performing at high altitude:

C.C.: “Oxygen tanks were waiting for us backstage. … I think since we’ve been recording up here in Tahoe, the elevation is like 7,500 feet, so we’ll be a little more prepared this time.”

Tone: “I do remember turning around a few times onstage. We had a two-hour set, and taking some really deep breaths. So it’s always getting behind on the breathing, you’re pushing a lot of air out but there’s not a whole lot of time to take the air in. So that was the tough part for me. But I’m sure drums were more … “

C.C.: “Actually, looking back, my lesson learned would be I’m not gonna wear too tight of a dress. My dress was tight and it was hot. So I’ll take that wisdom and apply it.”

What crowds can expect from Little Hurricane at the Ride, with a set on the main stage Saturday afternoon (1:30-2:30 p.m. July 9) and the Sunday NightRide show (10:30 p.m. July 10) at the Moon at O’Bannon’s:

Tone: “I’m sure the Sunday night run will be longer, so we’ll get into more of the deep cuts, I guess. More cover songs and stuff. The one during the day we’ll probably keep the energy up, keep the people going. … We’ll play some of the new songs probably if not at the festival then at the after-show on Sunday.”

coverLittle Hurricane’s go-to cover song:

Tone: “We used to cycle through them but there was one that stood out. We got a lot of requests for it, so Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine.’ “

C.C.: “But we do have a full record of covers that’s online, too (Stay Classy, available for free download at bandcamp.com). Ten songs, with artists varying from Fiona Apple to Aerosmith. It just kind of runs the whole gamut.”

Since this festival is called the Ride, what has been the ride of your life?

C.C.: “Well, for me, it’s definitely been Little Hurricane that has been the ride of my life. Last year we went to 11 countries; we go to all sorts of amazing places. You never know what’s gonna be next. In August, we are going to St. Bart’s in the Caribbean. … Some places I still can’t pronounce that we visited in Europe.”

Tone: “Maybe I was taking the question too literally. We did a festival up in Norway (Parkenfestivalen in August 2015). As part of the package for the artists, they had this activity where you jump off a cliff with a parachute, paragliding. We were like, ‘All right, we’ll do it.’ So that was a crazy ride. Running off a cliff hoping that the parachute is gonna hold you. And it did.”

C.C.: “He did it far better than I. I crashed my landing because I didn’t know how to run properly. (laughs) He landed pretty well.”

Most memorable road trip together as Little Hurricane:

Tone: “We’ve seen some crazy weather, I will say that, touring around. Dust storms in New Mexico nearly blowing our van over. Ice storms up in Toronto, minus-12 degrees.”

Act you would climb a mountain to see:

C.C.: “I just saw that Van Morrison is touring and it’s almost all sold out. I would love to see Van Morrison. Tone has seen him several times but that would be for me a huge one I would love to see perform.”

Tone: “I think it would be cool to see Pearl Jam (who headline at 7 p.m. July 9). I’ve never seen them perform. And we’re gonna be in the same place.”

Favorite road song:

C.C.: ” ‘Turn the Page,’ Bob Seger. That’s my go-to on-the-road song.”

Tone: “Lately, we’ve been listening to this Nathaniel Rateliff album (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats).”

First in a three-part series. Little Hurricane publicity photo courtesy of the Ride Festival.

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What Summer Is Like In Norway’s Most Isolated Community

A posting to Jan Mayen island in the North Atlantic is a dream come true for some. “Meet the North,” a series that ventures into the lives of some of the 4 million people who call the Arctic home, learns about love and isolation in a community of 18 souls.

Siw Landro fell in love, again, when she arrived on Jan Mayen, Norway. Siw has a partner and children back home, but Mr. Beerenberg immediately caught her eye. “Mr. Beerenberg is the most handsome man I ever saw.” He’s moody, she said, but “he almost makes my husband jealous. I get goosebumps just looking at him.” “He” last erupted in 1985.

Mr. Beerenberg is the 2,277-meter-tall (7,470 feet) volcano that dominates the north end of Jan Mayen, a Norwegian territory that lies closer to Greenland than any other Arctic territory. At 71 degrees north, Jan Mayen sits 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Greenland, 600 km north of Iceland, and 1,000 km southwest of Svalbard. The island is 54 km long and was home to 18 people when I visited during the summer of 2015.

Everyone lives on a small military base that dates back to World War II, though its first meteorological station was established in 1921. Today, the base is dedicated to meteorology, seismology, navigational equipment and seasonal research.

I arrived aboard the National Geographic Explorer, a ship owned by Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic, which sponsors “Meet the North.” The day we arrived, the water was calm enough to land our zodiacs, which is rare for this island. Most days, the seas are heaving, and sometimes the land heaves with it – there had been four earthquakes the day before our arrival.

At the time, the island’s core team of 18 (five women and 13 men) included station commander Wiggo Johansen, nurse Siw, five people in maintenance, four people at the weather station, four who managed satellite operations and three working in the kitchen. The only two land animals were dogs named Storm and Kuling (Arctic foxes have been extirpated), but the island teems with birds. Hundreds of thousands nest in the cliffs, including northern fulmars, dovekies and Brunnich’s guillemots. There are enough glacier views and beautiful hill walks to last a lifetime.

A 13-month post on Jan Mayen was the “grand finale” of Wiggo Johansen’s career with the Norwegian air force. I asked him to describe life on the base, and the simplicity came through loud and clear. The best part is getting away from it all: “At home you have to drive in line and shop in line,” he said. “I like the nature.” And the worst part didn’t sound too bad at all: “In winter time when the weather is bad you are stuck inside watching TV.”

Nurse Siw arrived in March 2015 after years of dreaming about Jan Mayen’s wide open landscape and the adventure of working somewhere even more isolated than where she grew up. Siw was born and raised in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, where her father worked in the local coal mine and her mother ran a laundry.

As the nurse tending to 17 generally healthy people, Siw has a wide range of other duties. She looks after the library, wine cellar and gift shop, as well as the medicines and dental equipment reserved for the dentist who flies in periodically. She also takes care of the tourist ships that arrive at Jan Mayen – though there had only been five in the four months before I met her – and cleans the bathrooms.

Unofficially, she is also the person everyone turns to when they need to talk. She’s easy to open up to and she guarantees confidentiality. “If you have ever been to a family dinner and Christmas or Easter, you get the picture,” she said.

Given Siw’s love of Mr. Beerenberg, I had one final question, “What is your plan if the volcano erupts?”

Siw didn’t miss a beat: “Take pictures.”

This article originally appeared on Arctic Deeply. For weekly updates about Arctic geopolitics, economy, and ecology, you can sign up to the Arctic Deeply email list.

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Donald Trump's Silence On SCOTUS Abortion Ruling Angers Conservatives

Despite assuring evangelicals last week that he would appoint anti-abortion judges and cares deeply about the anti-abortion cause, Donald Trump has so far been silent about the Supreme Court’s major abortion rights ruling on Monday. And conservatives are not happy. 

Just minutes after the high court struck down a pair of Texas abortion restrictions, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton praised the ruling and used it to attack Trump, who said earlier this year that women who have abortions should face some sort of “punishment” if the procedure ever becomes illegal.

“This fight isn’t over: The next president has to protect women’s health,” Clinton tweeted. “Women won’t be ‘punished’ for exercising their basic rights.” 

Everyone held their breath for Trump’s counter-jab — but instead, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee stayed mum. 

Trump’s silence on the ruling is odd, considering his monthslong struggle to assure skeptical anti-abortion activists that he’s on their side. Just last week, Trump accepted the endorsement of Troy Newman, the president of the extremist anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, who has said that the murder of abortion providers is justifiable. 

Conservative pundits are now skewering Trump for his silence on the ruling. Leon Wolf, the managing editor at RedState.com, wrote a scathing tweet mocking the real estate mogul. 

RedState’s Joe Cunningham called Trump a “coward.”

“Trump is unqualified to lead Republicans if he can’t stand up for one of the most fundamental parts of the Republican Party platform,” he wrote. 

Fox News contributor Erick Erickson also slammed Trump in an op-ed

“Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a decision propping up the abortion industry in America and giving it special rights against regulation,” he wrote. “And Donald Trump, supposed champion of the unborn, said nothing. … Can the leader lead or must he be led on this issue? If he must be led on an issue about which he is supposedly committed, I would submit he really is not that committed to the cause.” 

Some anti-abortion leaders are being a bit more careful about condemning Trump, knowing that he may be the GOP’s only alternative to Clinton — the strongest abortion rights champion the Democratic Party could ever nominate for president. Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel for Americans United for Life, told The Huffington Post that Clinton’s record is still in “stark contrast to whatever Donald Trump does or doesn’t say.” 

“Donald Trump and his campaign are learning the issue,” he said. “I have no reaction to his reaction. It’s a process.” 

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liarrampant xenophoberacistmisogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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NEA Jazz Master for 2017 Organist Dr. Lonnie Smith Keeps On Keepin' On

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By Dan Ouellette, ZEALnyc Senior Editor, June 28, 2016

Dr. Lonnie Smith, the Hammond B-3 organ king, is officially a Jazz Master, according to the NEA which bestows several jazz greats with the highest honor given to jazz musicians in the U.S. (other honorees for 2017 include vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, bassist Dave Holland, pianist Dick Hyman and journalist Ira Gitler). But these days, it’s all about going home for 73-year-old Dr. Lonnie Smith, jazz’s preeminent Hammond B-3 organist, in light of his long-in-coming return after 45 years to Blue Note Records, the label that essentially launched his career, for his spanking new recording, Evolution. It’s a masterwork of Smith’s trademark accent marks, finesse caresses, bright sparks and jagged lines. Welcome back, indeed.

“It’s like those old western movies where the cowboys brand the cattle,” the amiable Smith says. “Blue Note has always been in my blood. It’s like good wine that has lasted for all these years. When they called me, I was very pleased to be back in their company. After all, Blue Note and jazz is like Motown and soul. Imagine how a label like Blue Note stood the test of time and recorded all these great musicians. For it to still be here and for me to still be here, well, it’s an honor.”

A master of foot-tapping grooves, sophisticated harmonic voicings and indelible melodicism–not to mention his bold and mysterious synthesizer bursts on his Korg–Dr. Lonnie represents yet another Blue Note artist from yesteryear to rejoin the classic label with vital new music, along with such legends as Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson and Charles Lloyd. Smith recorded five “finger lickin’ good” (actually the name of his 1968 Columbia debut before joining Blue Note the following year) soul jazz albums from 1969 to 1970.

Blue Note president Don Was signed Smith and produced Evolution, which is a robust and spirited collection of seven tunes, including fresh takes on his favorite originals and standard covers as well as brand-new excursions that he had never recorded before.

A native of Detroit where Smith enjoyed a huge soul jazz following, Was became reacquainted with the B-3 bomber’s prowess at his appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2013, saying that he was playing these “incredible, exciting grooves and he was totally rocking the place…he came back for an encore and started slapping his walking stick to create these insane, wah-wah polyrhythms…he was awesome–clearly in peak form and without peer.”

Throughout his career Dr. Lonnie has been magnificent in the beat, starting in the mid ’60s with a r&b drive alongside George Benson and most famously linking up with Lou Donaldson, then recording with Blue Note, to play alongside the saxophonist on his 1967 hit album Alligator Bogaloo. That led him into the Blue Note stable, signed by label founder Alfred Lion, who Was says “was always looking for a good groove…that’s pretty much a benchmark of Blue Note’s records. The musicians knew that if they saw him doing his little dance in the control room that the take was probably a keeper.”

Was notes that what “Alligator Bogaloo” as a song represents is a “a big leap up the Evolutionary Groove Ladder…in the groove continuum that runs from Albert Ammons to Robert Glasper.”

Speaking of Glasper, jazz’s foremost keyboardist, he guests on piano on Evolution’s opening track, the catchy big-phat grooving tune “Play It Back” that had originally been recorded on Smith’s fifth Blue Note album, Live at Club Mozambique, a date from 1970 that wasn’t released by the label until 1995. Glasper catches the groove on the acoustic piano while the double drums enlarge the beat and drive the tune and the organist zips into funky B-3 licks. “People keep asking me to play this song, so I can’t get away from it,” Smith says. “It’s different than the original because I play with a spontaneous feeling. I had never met Robert before, but it was wonderful. It really fit. We melded together.”

After leaving Blue Note, the Doctor continued his journey in the land of soul jazz, including a series of superb recordings during the aughts for Palmetto. Earlier in 2015 when he was touring music from the new album in clubs, The New York Times caught up with him in the city’s Jazz Standard and remarked: “[Smith] really seems to be up to something bigger than music, and older, and deeper. An hour and a quarter in his presence, and you start thinking about the nature of time, ancestors, the circulatory system. His tunes are relatively simple and his gigs are small-club casual, but they are done with so much care and attention that they seem to slow down the heart rate.”

For his six-night stand at Jazz Standard, Smith will play three nights with his longtime trio comprised of guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Johnathan Blake. The rest of the week will feature Smith’s Evolution septet including his trio and other band mates from the recording: trumpeter Maurice Brown, saxophonist John Ellis and drummer Joe Dyson. Special guest will be vocalist Alicia Olatuja.

The Doctor, in talking about his unique organ style, says, “It’s an extension of my being. It’s a part of my lens. It breathes for me; it speaks for me. I feel every bit of the organ. It’s like electricity–a fire that goes through my body. You can feel it vibrate. There’s nothing like it. It lifts me up, it crawls through the pores of the room.”

Cover photo: drlonniesmith.com

Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor at ZEALnyc, writes frequently for noted Jazz publications, including DownBeat and Rolling Stone, and is the author of Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes and Bruce Lundvall: Playing by Ear.

For more information about Dr. Lonnie Smith at Jazz Standard click here.

For all the news on New York City arts and culture, visit ZEALnyc Front Page.

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A Victory for Women

Women got a long-awaited victory today in the Supreme Court’s decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. They struck down as unconstitutional two abortion restrictions aimed at curtailing women’s access to abortion. They specifically held that an admitting privileges requirement for abortion providers and a burdensome surgical center facility requirement constitute undue burdens on a woman’s right to choose abortion.

In short, the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t believe the façade that these restrictions had anything to do with improving or protecting women’s health. In fact, these restrictions and the countless others that we’ve seen across the country are about shaming and demeaning women and taking away their most fundamental rights. The real threat to women’s health isn’t a procedure with a major complication rate of less than one-quarter of 1%, it’s the health center closures that result from restrictive and unnecessary reproductive health laws.

Since the beginning of the Tea Party takeover in 2010, there has also been a takeover of women, including their lives, bodies, and rights. Across the United States, legislatures have imposed approximately 300 abortion restrictions since 2011. The same is true here in Wisconsin, where the GOP dominated legislature and governor have passed abortion bans, forced vaginal ultrasounds laws, and harmful admitting privilege requirements.

We’ve seen the disastrous effects of these laws. In Texas, Wisconsin and across the country, life-saving health centers have been forced to close with nothing taking their place. There is no question that women’s health is suffering, sometimes in a very real life or death manner. As Justice Ginsburg points out: “When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners…at great risk to their health and safety.”

There is no doubt in my mind that legislative Republicans and Governor Walker will double-down and attempt to pass even more restrictive, and likely patently unconstitutional, laws in the sessions to come. There is no doubt in my mind that even though the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Wisconsin’s admitting privileges appeal, our Attorney General will continue wasting taxpayer money litigating future unconstitutional burdens on women’s reproductive rights.

This ruling is a turning point in the fight to restore reproductive rights for women that have been so seriously curtailed by state legislatures throughout the country. It is fitting that the court released this decision just days before our country celebrates individual rights and liberties on Independence Day. There is nothing that epitomizes individual rights and liberties more than affirming that women have a constitutional right to make their own decisions about their health, family, career, and future without interference from politicians.

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