The pool of reporters gathered (including those who could speak Korean since apparently that iteration played before the English version) in Singapore covering the meeting between Trump and Kim could have been easily forgiven for thinking that the clip that heralded Trump’s entrance was a propaganda video crafted by the North, having a similar look and feel to it, when in fact this mess of a message was a gift that Trump had produced for Kim to mark the occasion of their historic summit.
Wednesday 13 June 2018
a destiny pictures production
legal-ade
Though we’re usually wary about posting such things as it’s just amplifying a company’s marketing gimmick, I do feel the sentiment in which it was presented on Kottke is a good one, bearing repeating.
catagories: ⚖️, ๐ฑ, food and drink, labour
father of many seeds
Unlike the Little Prince who considered them an existential threat to his tiny planet, we’ve been cultivators of baobabs for quite some time and have many clones around the house grown from errant leaves and branches and it was quite distressing and depressing to learn that after millennia of existence, we’re living through a time (with our much more modest lifespans) when many of Africa’s monumental trees have succumbed to the ill affects of manmade climate change. The title is the etymological root for the plant, borrowing from the Arabic name abลซ แธฅibฤb (ุฃุจู ุญุจุงุจ). Hopefully it’s not too late for those majestic and sheltering landmarks that remain.
benedictine beatnik
A self-described “monknik,” Hyperallergic introduces us to the concrete poetry and cut-up style of Dom Sylvester Houรฉdard, a Benedictine priest and theologian who regularly slipped away from his abbey in the Cotswolds to spend weekends in London, helping to inform the particular genre and scene.
Artfully presented and visually stunning, Houรฉdard’s works are replete with religious references but reflect a view broader than his own tradition, having an affinity for Eastern philosophy as well. Like the poems of his friends and correspondents William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg (who objected to the label beatnik, coined by journalist Herb Caen after the launch of Sputnik), Houรฉdard was interested in acquainting writer and reader “in maximum communication with minimum words,” composing terse and polished little stumbling blocks to cause one to question semantic trappings.
small blows
It’s vital to remember that in the face of dispiriting, soul-crushing contemporary civics and politics that we have allies against the forces of regression—and indeed allies worth celebrating, including the witty and insightful contributors to McSweeney’s. Since 2016, the publishing house has been offering a regular feature that helps cope with the paralysing apoplexy that uncivil discourse can bring about in an anthology of thoughtful, modest and inspiring essays on the theme of One Small Blow Against Encroaching Totalitarianism. Be sure to visit and indulge in their expansive archive fighting for social justice, for yourself and for the greater good.