BEAST IN BLACK - Power Of The Beast [Single Link, YouTube] – Contains: Falsetto, power metal, colorful outfits, spiky bits, AND SUPER EURO BEAT.

Mosqpedia is an encyclopedia of winners of the triennial Abdullatif Al Fozan Award for Mosque Architecture, focused on contemporary ideas in mosque design and construction. The award also has a YouTube channel with short documentaries in a variety of languages, including English, that discuss the architects' design decisions.

- The "winners" link is from the entry for the Naji Hamshari Mosque in Amman, Jordan. - Not all of the mosques are modernist; many are in a more traditional style, like this one.

The Real Story of the Crisis at the Washington Post (The Atlantic gift, Brian Stelter)

When I first told friends about the latest turn my reading had taken, I got a lot of blank stares at first but soon fell into a delightful text exchange with a friend who has a Ph.D. and who also read Morning Glory Milking Farm. She sent me a link to Hermione Granger–Draco Malfoy fanfic that she said had taught her a lot about BDSM. I started to realize that, though many of us may be out here walking around with the latest literary fiction from Riverhead or Pantheon in our tote bags, our phones runneth over with stories of men with tails and two dicks. from Falling for a Minotaur [The Cut; ungated] [Text is probably NSFW]

One of a swelling series in The Cut's Summer of Smut

The Breeders play a pared-back, acoustically-centered set of four songs from 1993's enduring and definitive grunge-pop masterpiece Last Splash LP. No Cannonballs allowed, though; this was recorded amongst the peaceful redwoods and rocks in California's Big Sur, about 100 yards away from a small audience of surprised hikers. It's Glorious.

AMC's Interview with the Vampire has been renewed for its third season in the run up to the final episode of season two this weekend. [Note: all links may contain spoilers!]

Despite rave critical and audience reviews, IWTV has struggled to gain traction, which may be partially due to AMC's lack of marketing and poor scheduling which has resulted in the show not being eligible for the 2024 Emmy season. It may also have something to do with the way the show has always been unapologetic about its queerness, as well as the complex traumas faced by its main characters. But it's clear AMC is definitely hoping for more from these vampires. They've invested in the entire catalogue of Anne Rice's IPs (including the recently greenlit show about the shadowy supernatural organization The Talamasca, and the sadly lackluster Mayfair Witches) and with the news that IWTV will soon be coming to Netflix in the US, I know I'm hoping the future stays bright for these nasty children of darkness! (For anyone who wants to watch or rewatch the series, please join us on FanFare to discuss it and lie together on the floor while we're overcome with emotions.)

Guardian: The average public library is not only a provider of the latest Anne Enright or Julia Donaldson: it is now an informal citizens advice bureau, a business development centre, a community centre and a mental health provider. It is an unofficial Sure Start centre, a homelessness shelter, a literacy and foreign language-learning centre, a calm space where tutors can help struggling kids, an asylum support provider, a citizenship and driving theory test centre, and a place to sit still all day and stare at the wall, if that is what you need to do, without anyone expecting you to buy anything.

The manifesto opens with the kind of pun Vonnegut could never resist. "Gentlemen," the professor writes, "As the first superweapon with a conscience, I am removing myself from your national defense stockpile. Setting a new precedent in the behavior of ordnance, I have humane reasons for going off." The manifesto goes on for another page and a half. The tone is Norbert Wiener's, [wiki] but the politics are even more overt. [sciencefriday]

this post is inspired by a recent comment by torokunai linking current thinking about Machine Learning to Kurt Vonnegut's first published novel. the FPP quote is from an unpublished earlier work (Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers, having discovered Sirens of Titan at a young age). Westworld [fanfare] came to mind, thinking about all of this. happy to see that was by design: "Westworld co-producer Jonathan Nolan has credited Vonnegut with inspiring the show's player piano, referring to it as a touchstone image of the show's first season." [the conversation; playlist, denofgeek] Nine Inch Nails (inspiration for the post title [wiki]) when the simulacra starts to fray at the edges, things begin to rock [season 3, content note: violence] Common People, originally (bonus: cover by Star Trek's Captain Kirk) Westworld previously on the tech [illanoise.edu]

Mattias Krantz is a Swedish engineer who modifies instruments mostly by having really dumb or funny ideas, and then being stubborn and persistent enough not to give up where any sensible person would. He has done a number of weird and whacky pianos (including one previously featured on mefi) but has more recently moved on to guitars: a petrol-powered electric, an acoustic strung with Madagascan spider silk, and a spinning necked guitar which he then tries to play. Now his most recent guitar project is all about speed: picking speed, specifically. Here is his concept for a thousand-pick auto-picking guitar, like a hair metal hurdy-gurdy. [MLYT]

Todd in the Shadows' Trainwreckords episode on Justin Timberlake's baffling Man of the Woods, cementing his seemingly permanent step away from the spotlight and a look at the critical drubbing his reception has gotten over the past half-decade or so.

Previously with Todd: One-Hit Wonderlands on "Barbie Girl", "Relax", Trainwreckords episode on Nickelback's No Fixed Address, 'Songs that stop on the word 'stop'' compilation

"It is possible, thanks to the magic of the internet. In 1960, five years before her death, Shirley Jackson recorded readings of "The Lottery" and "The Daemon Lover" for an outfit called Folkways Records—the only time we know of that she ever recorded performances of her own work."

YouTube: Fatboy Slim 'returns' (without much PR) to educate us fellow role models on how to operate. Features Andy Warhol, David Byrne, Debbie Harry, David Bowie..

No word on who directed.

BBC Rewind has a collection of freely downloadable sound effects available, as well as a mixer mode you can use to play around with them to your heart's content. For the deep-cut retrotech enthusiasts among us, I call your attention to the Electronics section, but there's a lot here to enjoy.

James Chance, no wave saxman who played with Lydia Lunch in an early version of Teenage Jesus & the Jerks before leading the Contortions and (as James White) the Blacks, passed away on June 18 after several years of declining health.

For Juneteenth, a small press roundup (over 50 more below the fold), starting with Library Journal's Juneteenth 2024 | A Reading List which includes these small press books:

• Black Cloud Rising (David Wright Falade, Grove Atlantic, historical fiction about the African Brigade in the civil war: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Beyond "Passing": The Further Writings of Nella Larsen (Nella Larsen, CSRC Storytelling, an autobiographical novel and several short stories: Amazon; Bookshop)
• and The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom (Thulani Davis, Duke UP, a "sweeping rethinking of Reconstruction": Amazon; Bookshop).

Kalamazoo Public Library's Teen Reads Celebrating Juneteenth includes small press titles X: a novel (Malcolm X's daughter Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon, Candlewick Press, a fictionalized account of Malcolm X's childhood and teen years, 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book: Amazon; Bookshop) and Freedom By Force: The History of Slave Rebellions (Therese Harasymiw, Greenhaven Publishing LLC*: Amazon). * Greenhaven is a bit of a stretch as a small press – they're owned by Rosen Publishing Group who are huge, but independent of the Big Five. Milwaukee Community Journal's 13 Books that will remind you of your power this Juneteenth includes these small press books:

• Juneteenth Is (Natasha Tripplett, ill. Daniel J. O'Brien, Chronicle Books, a children's book celebrating Black American history: Amazon; Bookshop)
• The Juneteenth Cookbook: Recipes and Activities for Kids and Families to Celebrate (Alliah L. Agostini, Becker & Mayer kids: Amazon; Bookshop)
• We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For (The W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures) (Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Harvard University Press: Amazon; Bookshop).

Temple University Center for Anti-Racism's 5 books reflecting Juneteenth principles includes small press title Being Human Being: Transforming the Race Discourse (Molefi Kete Asante and Nah Dove, Universal Write Publications LLC: Amazon; Bookshop). Universal Write Publications' most recent titles also include:

• The Journey of Kamau Miller: HipHop Composite Counterstories for Black Men Teachers (Dawn N. Hicks Tafari: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Media Racism: The Impact of Media Injustice on Black Women's Lives (Marquita M. Gammage: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Revolutionary Pedagogy: Primer for Teachers of Black Children, Second Edition (Molefi Kete Asante: Amazon; Bookshop)

and I have also noticed: Antiblackness and Global Health: A Response to Ebola in the Colonial Wake by Lioba Hirsch (Pluto Press, June 2024): Examines how colonial mentalities and infrastructures shaped the response to the West African Ebola epidemic. (Bookshop) Black Pastoral by Ariana Benson (University of Georgia Press, 2023): Poems that explore Black people's experiences with the natural world. Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner; finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. (Amazon; Bookshop) Bluff: Poems by Danez Smith (Graywolf, 20 Aug 2024): Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith's powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown of the Twin Cities. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame, and critical pessimism to wonder and imagine how we can strive toward a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures. (Amazon; Bookshop) Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, ill. Alex Bostic (Union Square Kids, 2022): This lyrical celebration of Juneteenth, deeply rooted in Black American history, spans centuries and reverberates loudly and proudly today. (Amazon; Bookshop) The Global History of Black Girlhood eds. Corinne T. Field and LaKisha Michelle Simmons (University of Illinois Press, 2022): How and why we should seek out the Black girls of the past. (Amazon; Bookshop) Japa and Other Stories by Iheoma Nwachukwu (University of Georgia Press, 1 Sept 2024): These eight brutally beautiful stories are struck full of fragmented dreams, with highly developed thieves, misadventurers, and displaced characters all heaving through a human struggle to anchor themselves in a new home or sometimes a new reality. This book is about young Nigerian immigrants who bilocate, trek through the desert, become temporary Mormons, sneak through Russia, and yearn for new life in strange new territories that force them to confront what it means to search for a connection far from home. Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. (Amazon; Bookshop) The History of Juneteenth: A History Book for New Readers by Arlisha Norwood (Rockridge Press, 2022): Chapter book. (Amazon) The Joys of Being a Little Black Boy (Amazon; Bookshop) and The Twirl of Being a Little Black Girl (Amazon; Bookshop), both illustrated hardcover picture books by Valerie Reynolds, ill. Chris Turner (Chicago Review Press, 13 Aug 2024). Juneteenth Rodeo by Sarah Bird (U Texas Press, 4 June 2024): Timeless photos offer a rare portrait of the jubilant, vibrant, vital, nearly hidden, and now all-but-vanished world of small-town Black rodeos. (Amazon; Bookshop) Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership by Brea Baker (One World, 18 June 2024): Why is less than 1% of rural land in the U.S. owned by Black people? An acclaimed writer and activist explores the impact of land theft and violent displacement on racial wealth gaps, arguing that justice stems from the literal roots of the earth. (Amazon; Bookshop) A Seat at the Table: The Life and Times of Shirley Chisholm by Drs. Glenn L. Starks & F. Erik Brooks (Chicago Review Press, Mar 2024): Biography of the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate and how her run shaped the future. (Amazon; Bookshop) Trailblazers: Black Women Who Helped Make America Great, American Firsts/Icons by Gabrielle David (2leaf press) is a six-volume series that examines the lives and careers of over 400 brilliant women from the eighteenth century to the present who blazed uncharted paths in every conceivable way. Volumes 1 (Amazon; Bookshop); 2 (Amazon; Bookshop); 3 (Amazon; Bookshop); 4 (Amazon; Bookshop); 5 (released June 2024); and 6 (released Sept 2024). We Are the Culture: Black Chicago's Influence on Everything by Arionne Nettles (Chicago Review Press/Lawrence Hill Books, Apr 2024): Pop culture expert Arionne Nettles takes us through the history of how Black Chicagoans have led pop culture in America for decades, and gives insight into the ways culture spreads and influences our lives. (Amazon; Bookshop) We're Alone: Essays by Edwidge Danticat (Graywolf, 3 Sept 2024): Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat's childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We're Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience. (Amazon; Bookshop) When I Passed the Statue of Liberty I Became Black by Harry Edward (Yale UP, 20 Feb 2024): The lost memoir of Britain's first Black Olympic medal winner—and the America he discovered. (Amazon; Bookshop) The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due (Akashic Books, 2023): In her first new book in seven years, Tananarive Due further cements her status as a leading innovator in Black horror and Afrofuturism. (Amazon; Bookshop) * Bonus content of non-American African diaspora books! Brittle Paper's 23 African Beach Reads for a Relaxing Summer Vacation includes small press titles:

• A Kind of Madness (Uche Okonkwo, Tin House Books, 2024, 10 short stories concerned with literal madness but also those private feelings that, when left unspoken, can feel like a type of madness: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Like Water Like Sea (Olumide Popoola, Cassava Republic, 2024, follows Nia, a queer, bi/pansexual naturopath in London, as her life unfolds across three pivotal moments, spanning from her 28th year to a life-altering realisation at the age of 50: Amazon)
• Womb City (Tlotlo Tsamaase, Erewhon Books*, 2024, Afrofuturism set in a dark and deadly future Botswana: Amazon; Bookshop)

* Like Greenhaven above, Erewhon is a bit of a stretch as a small press – they're owned by Kensington Publishing Corp who are also huge, but independent of the Big Five. Akashic Books offers the original noir anthologies Accra Noir (Ghana) (Amazon; Bookshop), Addis Ababa Noir (Ethiopia) (Amazon; Bookshop), Nairobi Noir (Kenya) (includes Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o; Amazon; Bookshop). The CBC's 40 books by Black Canadian authors to read includes small press titles:

• Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir (Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali, U Regina Press: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Butter Honey Pig Bread (Francesca Ekwuyasi, Arsenal Pulp Press, an intergenerational saga about three Nigerian women: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Dominoes at the Crossroads (Kaie Kellough, Esplanade Books/Véhicule Press, linked portraits from the Caribbean diaspora: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Finding Edward (Sheila Murray, Cormorant Books, a lonely Jamaican student follows his obsession with the Depression-era life of an itinerant Black boy: Amazon; Bookshop)
• From My Mother's Back: A Journey from Kenya to Canada (Njoki Wane, Wolsak & Wynn, memoir: Amazon)
• I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin (Valerie Mason-John, U Alberta Press, Social Justice Poetry Spoken-word poet Valerie Mason-John unsettles readers with potent images of ongoing trauma from slavery and colonization: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Junie (Chelene Knight, Bookhug Press, mother-daughter relationships in 1930s Vancouver; longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2024: Amazon; Bookshop)
• The Sleeping Car Porter (Suzette Mayr, Coach House, a queer Black man works as a porter on a sleeper train in 1929, winner of the 2022 Giller Prize: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson and Syrus Marcus Ware, eds., U Regina Press: Amazon; Bookshop)

and the poetry collections:

• Black Matters (Halifax's Poet Laureate Afua Cooper & photographer Wilfried Raussert, Roseway Publishing: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Dream of No One But Myself (David Bradford, Brick Books: Amazon; Bookshop)
• eat salt | gaze at the ocean (Junie Désil, Talonbooks: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Finish this Sentence (Leslie Roach, Mawenzi House: Amazon; Bookshop)
• The Gospel of Breaking (Jillian Christmas, Arsenal Pulp Press: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Mother Muse (Lorna Goodison, Véhicule Press: Amazon; Bookshop)
• The Response of Weeds: A Misplacement of Black Poetry on the Prairies (Bertrand Bickersteth, NeWest Press: Amazon; Bookshop)
• Word Problems (Ian Williams, Coach House Books: Amazon; Bookshop)

And the UK's Black Writers Guild's book release page includes small press titles Monster (Dzifa Benson, Bloodaxe Books, 24 Oct 2024: Amazon; Bookshop) and Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black, Queer Body (Dean Atta, Canongate Books, 4 July 2024: Amazon). Previous roundups: 1 (pride), 2 (no theme), 3 (challenging work), and 4 (no theme).

Ilid Kaolo is a singer-songwriter and Outlet Drift is a three piece rock band. Both acts draw on their roots as Indigenous Taiwanese people to create wonderful fusions.

Indigenous Taiwanese people belong to the family of austronesian peoples. Even if you don't know much about the Indigenous Taiwanese, there's a good chance you've listened to a traditional melody of the Amis tribe. In 1994, German electronic group Enigma sampled a recording of a traditional chant in their song Return to Innocence (the original performers, Difang and Igay Duana sued Enigma and Virgen records for unauthorized use, and the case was settled out of court). Ilid Kaolo writes in both Chinese and the Amis language, and is influenced by bossa nova and jazz music. I'm fascinated by the songs that blend Amis melodies with jazz-influenced arrangements. (The post title is the name of a song on Ilid's album My Carefree life.)

• My Carefree Life
• 以莉高露 Ilid Kaolo《尋找你 Longing》-女人島 (客廳音樂會Live)
• 餵奶歌 —以莉高露教你唱(feat. Stacey Wei) ｜2018台北演唱會即將開演

Outlet Drift is a grunge-influenced rock band. With their last album, Lady of the Ocean, they say they wanted to use their music to express the breath and power of the Ami marine culture.

• 搭寮 Patireg to Talo'an｜漂流出口 Outlet Drift x 蔡子安 TZU-AN, TSAI｜LUC UP ! 10 x 10 [合拍]
• 漂流出口(Outlet Drift)海女(Lady of the Ocean)
• # 漂流出口 Outlet Drift – 仙人掌的花 Cactus Flower (Live from YuChen Studio)

I originally learned of both of these acts via the Taiwan Beats article 5 Taiwanese Indigenous Artists that You Should Know. These were my favorites from the article, but maybe you'll vibe more with one of the other groups mentioned.

Columbia Journalism Review on The New Old Liberals Neoliberalism had become a slur. A group of very online young politicos set out to change that.

www.queensongs.info is your comprehensive guide to the music of Queen.

Start with the Discography. Then dive a little deeper on the Studio Info Page with track-by-track analysis of the recordings, including all kinds of detailed info about the studio recording process like who did what on each track with what instrument. Why not listen along to some MIDI Tracks while you read what the band was up to On This Day in History? Want to play along? Start with the Sheet Music and Tablature organized by album. And when you're ready, take the plunge into the 600 page Form and Analysis of every Queen song ever

Over 50 small press books under the fold! (previous: 1, 2, and 3)

The Ace and Aro Relationship Guide: Making It Work in Friendship, Love, and Sex by Cody Daigle-Orians (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 21 Oct 2024): Whether we're talking about friendships, romantic relationships, casual dates or intimate partners, this guide will help you not only live authentically in your ace and aro identity, but joyfully share it with others. (Amazon; Bookshop) And Then There Was One by Michele Castleman (Bold Strokes Books, 1 June 2024): Six weeks after Lyla Smith dragged her sister's dead body onto the Lake Erie shore, she escapes her small Ohio town to work as a nanny for distant relatives on their remote private island. (Amazon; Bookshop) Antiquity by Hanna Johannson, trans. Kira Josefsson (Catapult, 6 Feb 2024): Elegant, slippery, and provocative, Antiquity is a queer Lolita story by prize-winning Swedish author Hanna Johansson—a story of desire, power, obsession, observation, and taboo. (Amazon; Bookshop) Born Backwards by Tanya Olson (YesYes Books, 18 Jun 2024): Olson's third poetry collection "reports from inside butch culture in the 1980s American South as it traces how geography, family, experiences, and popular culture shape one queer life." (Amazon; Bookshop) Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke (Catapult, 23 Jan 2024): At once cinematic yet intimate, Broughtupsy is an enthralling debut novel about a young Jamaican woman grappling with grief as she discovers her family, her home, is always just out of reach. (Amazon; Bookshop) The Call Is Coming from Inside the House: Essays by Allyson McOuat (ECW Press, Apr 2024): In a series of intimate and humorous dispatches, McOuat examines her identity as a queer woman, and as a mother, through the lens of the pop culture moments in the '80s and '90s that molded her identity. (Amazon; Bookshop) Dances of Time and Tenderness by Julian Carter (Nightboat Books, 4 June 2024): A cycle of stories linking queer memory, activism, death, and art in a transpoetic history of desire and touch. (Amazon; Bookshop) The Dragonfly Gambit by A. D. Sui (Neon Hemlock Press, 16 Apr 2024): Nearly ten years after Inez Kato sustained a career-ending injury during a military exercise gone awry, she lies, cheats, and seduces her way to the very top, to destroy the fleet that she was once a part of, even at the cost of her own life. Ennis Rezál, Third Daughter of the Rule, has six months left to live. She is desperate to end the twenty-year war she was birthed to fight. But when she brings Inez aboard the mothership, a chess game of manipulation and double-crossing begins to unfold, and the Rule doesn't stand a chance. (Amazon; Bookshop) An Evening with Birdy O'Day by Greg Kearney (Arsenal Pulp, 16 Apr 2024): A funny, boisterous, and deeply moving novel about aging hairstylist Roland's childhood friendship with Birdy O'Day, whose fevered quest for pop music glory drives them apart. (Amazon; Bookshop) Finding Echoes by Foz Meadows (Neon Hemlock, 30 Jan 2024): Snow Kidama speaks to ghosts amongst the local gangs of Charybdis Precinct, isolated from the rest of New Arcadia by the city's ancient walls. But when his old lover, Gem—a man he thought dead—shows up in need of his services, Snow is forced to reevaluate everything. (Amazon; Bookshop) Firebugs by Nino Bulling (Drawn & Quarterly, 13 Feb 2024): After a trip to Paris, Ingken returns home ready for a break from drugs. Their supportive partner, Lily, is flushed, excited about a new connection she's made. Although Ingken wants to be happy for her, there's a discomfort they can't shake. Sleepless nights fill with an endless scroll of images and headlines about climate disaster. A vague dysphoria simmers under their skin; they are able to identify that like Lily, they are changing, but they're not sure exactly how and at what pace. Everyone keeps telling them to burn themself to the ground and build themself back up but they worry about the kind of debris that fire might leave behind. (Amazon; Bookshop) The Future Was Color by Patrick Nathan (Counterpoint LLC, 4 June 2024): As a Hungarian immigrant working as a studio hack writing monster movies in 1950s Hollywood, George Curtis must navigate the McCarthy-era studio system filled with possible communists and spies, the life of closeted men along Sunset Boulevard, and the inability of the era to cleave love from persecution and guilt. But when Madeline, a famous actress, offers George a writing residency at her estate in Malibu to work on the political writing he cares most deeply about, his world is blown open. (Amazon; Bookshop) Getting Glam at Gram's by Sara Weed, ill. Erin Hawryluk (Arsenal Pulp, 3 Sept 2024): A colourful and celebratory picture book that embraces all gender expressions through a fun family fashion show. (Amazon; Bookshop) God of River Mud by Vic Sizemore (West Virginia UP, Jan 2024): To escape a life of poverty and abuse, Berna Cannaday marries Zechariah Minor, a fundamentalist Baptist preacher, and commits herself to his faith, trying to make it her own. After Zechariah takes a church beside the Elk River in rural Clay, West Virginia, Berna falls in love with someone from their congregation—Jordan, a woman who has known since childhood that he was meant to be a man. (Amazon; Bookshop) Healthy Chest Binding for Trans and Non-Binary People: A Practical Guide by Frances Reed (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 18 Apr 2024): Binding is a crucial strategy in many transgender and non-binary people's lives for coping with gender dysphoria, yet the vast majority of those who bind report some negative physical symptoms. Written by Frances Reed, a licensed bodywork and massage therapist specialising in gender transition, this comprehensive guide helps you make the healthiest choices from the very start of your binding journey. (Amazon; Bookshop) If We Were Stars by Eule Grey (Ninestar Press, 2 Apr 2024): Best friends since they were ten years old, Kurt O'Hara and Beast Harris tackle the typical teenage challenges together: pronouns, AWOL bodies, not to mention snogging. A long-distance relationship with an alien named Iuvenis is the least of their troubles. (Amazon) Keep This Off The Record by Arden Joy (Rising Action, 31 Jan 2024): A romance: Abigail Meyer and Freya Jonsson can't stand one another. But could their severe hatred be masking something else entirely? (Amazon; Bookshop) The Long Hallway by Richard Scott Larson (University of Wisconsin Press, 16 Apr 2024): Growing up queer, closeted, and afraid, Richard Scott Larson found expression for his interior life in horror films, especially John Carpenter's 1978 classic, Halloween. He developed an intense childhood identification with Michael Myers, Carpenter's inscrutable masked villain, as well as Michael's potential victims. Larson scrutinizes this identification, meditating on horror as a metaphor for the torments of the closet. (Amazon; Bookshop) Love, Leda by Mark Hyatt (Nightboat Books, 24 Sept 2024): This portrait of queer, working class London drifts from coffee shop to house party, in search of the next tryst. (Amazon; Bookshop) Lush Lives by J. Vanessa Lyon (Grove Atlantic/Roxane Gay Books, 20 Aug 2024): With beguiling wit and undeniable passion, Lush Lives is a deliciously queer and sexy novel about bold, brilliant women unafraid to take risks and fight for what they love (Amazon; Bookshop) Medusa of the Roses by Navid Sinaki (Grove Atlantic, 13 Aug 2024): Sex, vengeance, and betrayal in modern day Tehran—Navid Sinaki's bold and cinematic debut is a queer literary noir following Anjir, a morbid romantic and petty thief whose boyfriend disappears just as they're planning to leave their hometown for good. (Amazon; Bookshop) Portrait of a Body by Julie Delporte (Drawn & Quarterly, 16 Jan 2024): As she examines her life experience and traumas with great care, Delporte faces the questions about gender and sexuality that both haunt and entice her. Deeply informed by her personal relationships as much as queer art and theory, Portrait of a Body is both a joyous and at times hard meditation on embodiment—a journey to be reunited with the self in an attempt to heal pain and live more authentically. (Amazon; Bookshop) Power to Yield and Other Stories by Bogi Takács (Broken Eye Books, 6 Feb 2024): An AI child discovers Jewish mysticism. A student can give no more blood to their semi-sentient apartment and plans their escape. A candidate is rigorously evaluated for their ability to be a liaison to alien newcomers. A young magician gains perspective from her time as a plant. A neurodivergent woman tries to survive on a planetoid where thoughts shape reality... (Amazon; Bookshop) So Long Sad Love by Mirion Malle, trans. Aleshia Jensen (Drawn & Quarterly, 23 Apr 2024): This graphic novel swaps out the wobbly transition of weaving a new existence into being post-heartbreak for the surprising effortlessness and simplicity of a life already rebuilt. Cleo not only rediscovers her identity as an artist but uncovers her capacity to find love where she has always been most at home: with other women. Mirion Malle dares to tell a story with a happier ending in a stunning, full-color follow-up to the multi-award nominated This is How I Disappear. (Amazon; Bookshop) Sons, Daughters by Ivana Bodrožić, trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (Seven Stories Press, 30 Apr 2024): This novel tells a story of being locked in: socially, domestically and intimately. Here the Croatian poet and writer depicts a wrenching love between a transgender man and a woman as well as a demanding love between a mother and a daughter in a narrative about breaking through and liberation of the mind, family, and society. (Amazon; Bookshop) Vantage Points: On Media as Trans Memoir by Chase Joynt (Arsenal Pulp, 17 Sep 2024): Following the death of the family patriarch, a box of newly procured family documents reveals writer-filmmaker Chase Joynt's previously unknown connection to Canadian media maverick Marshall McLuhan. Vantage Points takes up the surprising appearance of McLuhan in Joynt's family archive as a way to think about legacies of childhood sexual abuse and how we might process and represent them. (Amazon; Bookshop) You Can't Go Home Again by Jeanette Bears (Bold Strokes Books, 13 Aug 2024): Contemporary romance. Raegan Holcolm thought all they wanted was a proud military career, and that's what they had. But a sudden injury sends them back to their hometown with a wealth of pain, both physical and emotional, insecurities, and the reality that the career they'd chosen above all else has rejected them. The first time they fell in love, Rae left Jules behind. For love to have a second chance, they'll need to realize all along that home might have been a person just as much as a place. (Amazon; Bookshop) Previous roundups 1, 2, and 3 also included Bad Seed by Gabriel Carle, trans. Heather Houde (Feminist Press), The Default World by Naomi Kanakia (Feminist Press), Disobedience by Daniel Sarah Karasik (Book*hug), Indian Winter by Kazim Ali (Coach House), Love the World Or Get Killed Trying by Alvina Chamberland (Noemi), My Body Is Paper by Gil Cuadros (City Lights), These Letters End In Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere (Catapult), and, finally, How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica (Tin House) which Bookshop included in its Pride Month 15% off sale with code PRIDE24. The Bookshop sale also includes these small press titles that I haven't previously listed:

• All-Night Pharmacy (Ruth Madievsky, Catapult, Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction)
• Birthright (George Abraham, Button Poetry, "every pronoun is a Free Palestine," Bisexual Poetry Finalist in the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards; Button Poetry also has a 3 for $36 Pride Month deal going on, including Birthright and poetry by Blythe Baird, Sierra DeMulder, Andrea Gibson, Ebony Stewart, and more)
• Boulder (Eva Baltasar, trans. Julia Sanches, And Other Stories, a queer couple struggles with motherhood, shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize)
• Brown Neon: Essays (Raquel Gutiérrez, Coffee House Press, "part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree")
• Cecilia (K-Ming Chang, Coffee House Press, an "erotic, surreal novella")
• Corey Fah Does Social Mobility (Isabel Waidner, Graywolf, "A novel that celebrates radical queer survival and gleefully takes a hammer to false notions of success")
• A Dream of a Woman (Casey Plett, Arsenal Pulp Press, short stories by the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning Little Fish)
• Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 (Eman Abdelhadi & M. E. O'Brien, Common Notions, speculative fiction)
• Feed (Tommy Pico, Tin House Books, fourth book in Teebs tetralogy, "an epistolary recipe for the main character, a poem of nourishment, and a jaunty walk through New York's High Line park, with the lines, stanzas, paragraphs, dialogue, and registers approximating the park's cultivated gardens of wildness")
• Females (Andrea Long Chu, Verso, provocative genre-defying investigation into femaleness)
• The Free People's Village (Sim Kern, Levine Querido, a novel of "eat-the-rich climate fiction")
• The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs (Lambda Literary Award-winning Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Arsenal Pulp Press, disability justice, care and mutual aid)
• Her Body and Other Parties: Stories (Carmen Maria Machado, Graywolf Press, "blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction... to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies")
• High-Risk Homosexual: A Memoir (Edgar Gomez, Soft Skull, "a touching and often hilarious spiralic path to embracing a gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo")
• Homie: Poems (Danez Smith, Graywolf Press, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the NAACP Image Award for Poetry)
• How to Fuck Like a Girl (Vera Blossom, Dopamine/Semiotext(e), a how-to guide)
• I Love This Part (Tillie Walden, Avery Hill Publishing, graphic novel of teen queer love)
• It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (ed. Joe Vallese, Feminist Press, essays by Carmen Maria Machado, Bruce Owens Grimm, Richard Scott Larson)
• Love Is an Ex-Country: A Memoir (Randa Jarrar, Catapult, "Queer. Muslim. Arab American. A proudly Fat femme.")
• Mrs. S (K. Patrick, Europa Editions, a butch English boarding school matron begins an illicit affair with the headmaster's wife)
• Outwrite: The Speeches That Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture (eds. Julie R. Enszer, Elena Gross, Rutgers UP, 27 of the most memorable speeches from the OutWrite conference)
• Playboy (Constance Debre, trans. Holly James, Semiotext(e), the first volume of the renowned trilogy on the author's decision to abandon her bourgeois Parisian life to become a lesbian and writer)
• Sluts: Anthology (ed. Michelle Tea, Dopamine Books, anthology of essays and stories on sexual promiscuity in contemporary American culture)
• Stone Fruit (Lee Lai, Fantagraphics Books, a queer couple opens up to their families in this 2022 Lambda Literary Award winner for Comics)
• Survival Takes a Wild Imagination: Poems (Fariha Róisín, Andrews McMeel Publishing, "Who is my family? My father? How do I love a mother no longer here? Can I see myself? What does it mean to be Bangladeshi? What is a border?")
• Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through (T. Fleischmann, Coffee House Press, "an autobiographical narrative of embodiment, visual art, history, and loss")
• Thunder Song: Essays (Sasha Lapointe, Counterpoint LLC, what it means to be a proudly queer indigenous woman in the USA)
• The Tradition (Jericho Brown, Copper Canyon Press, Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry that examines black bodies, desire, privilege and resistance)
• When We Were Sisters (Fatimah Asghar, One World, "traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings," longlisted for the National Book Award)
• You Exist Too Much (Zaina Arafat, Catapult: Palestinian American queer coming-of-age novel)
• Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (Chen Chen, BOA Editions, "What happens when everything falls away, when those you call on in times of need are themselves calling out for rescue?")

With management's blessing, I set up a MeFi affiliate membership with Bookshop, so the links above will benefit MetaFilter.

Inspired by JaneBrown's comment in a LinkFilter thread [⇔ Linked], I went looking for more music by vocalist Edythe Wright. Jackpot, here's The complete Edythe Wright compilation via YouTube (90 minutes)!

Wright worked extensively with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra from 1935-1939 and was a popular act during heyday of the Swing era.

In a flip-flop for the ages, New York Governor Kathy Hochul suddenly decided to place NYC's massive congestion pricing program (that she championed) on "indefinite pause" less than a month prior to launch. The program, set to go in effect later this month, would have charged drivers coming into Manhattan's central business district $15 during peak hours. Those funds were set to deliver $1 billion dollars a year, providing much needed infrastructure and accessibility updates to the city's century-old subway system. Was this all a cynical election year ploy? Where will the money come from now? And is this even legal?

Finally, A Definitive Guide To Automakers That Also Offered Home Air Conditioners, So You Can Stop Asking by Lewin Day at The Autopian

The Banksy Museum does not own or display any actual Banksys but rather 167 decent-enough reproductions of them, life-size murals and paintings on panels treated to look like exterior walls that stretch through an exhibition space, designed to resemble the street. Max Lakin for the New York Times

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento for Morning edition:Museum founder Hazis Vardar says, "Banksy changed the rules. If you want to organize something about Banksy, you have to change the rules also," he said on a recent walk through the exhibit. Natasha Gural at Forbes supplies a more in-depth review: 4 Ways To See Beyond Graffiti At The Banksy Museum In New York Banksy Museum website

US banana giant ordered to pay $38m to families of Colombian men killed by death squads A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary death squad, after the US banana giant was shown to have financed the terrorist organisation from 1997 to 2004.

Previously, previouslier, previousliest

"This is a slow moving thread of screaming and horrified city gates. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Does what it says on the tin. (SLMastodon)

Occasionally, people make music, and then wildly different people cover that music with wildly different sounds and results. I like when this happens. I especially like when it happens without changing the pronouns of the original piece. "Look into his angel eyes..." hits differently when it comes from a sparsely accompanied, gravelly male voice, instead of, ah, ABBA. from Genderswap.fm by Eva Decker

Covers, previously

Could Elaine May Finally Be Getting Her Due? [ungated] - "A new biography gives a compelling sense of a comic and cinematic genius, and also of the forces that derailed her Hollywood career."

Among the many merits of "Miss May Does Not Exist," a deeply researched, psychologically astute new biography of May by Carrie Courogen, is that the author sees continuities and patterns in a career that is unified, above all, by the force of May's character. Courogen also assesses May's fortunes in the light of social history, giving a detailed account of the many obstacles that May, as a woman, faced in the American entertainment industry of the late fifties and early sixties—a time of few female standup comedians or playwrights and no female movie directors working in Hollywood... She offers a vision of a society in which the crudely learned behavior of crudely socialized men brutalizes the women in their orbit even as it leaves the men vulnerable to calamities and catastrophes of their own making. The core of May's work is the horror of romantic relationships as experienced by women—the physical violence and mental cruelty endured by women at the hands of men... May is essentially a social filmmaker, one whose comedy involves more than her distinctive worlds: in their looseness, her movies defy the geometry of the frame and suggest ragged, shredded edges that reach out and tie in to the real world at large. Her next film would do so even more explicitly—and she'd pay the price for her audacity. After the eleven years in movie exile that May endured for "Mikey and Nicky," she made "Ishtar," a film that's far more famous for its negative publicity than its intrinsic qualities. Owing to reports of its out-of-control budget and May's domineering direction, her career was instantly, definitively crushed, and May has, for all intents and purposes, been serving a life sentence. The injustice of a great film being submerged under ignorant disdain is grievous enough; the wickedly punitive aftermath is an outrage... Alongside the film's scathing anti-Reagan politics, it's a tale of earnest grimness on a subject of fundamental importance to May: creative obsession... As discerningly intricate as her movies are about love and friendship, they're never limited to the private sphere but plugged into the wider world of power. She filmed with a bitterly realistic view of what people do to one another for the sake of perceived advantage, necessity, desire, or compulsion. The theme that unites these films is betrayal. Growing up poor and female, as the child of a man who was a desperate failure and a woman who was a desperate survivor, and in a household linked with the Mob, she felt the cold pressure of institutions and families alike, and witnessed the death grip of whoever had the upper hand. She saw the cruel side of show business from childhood, and entering show business, in her early twenties, negotiated its maelstrom of personal demands and implacable financial pressures. Even with no alter ego in her movies, they're filled with the dramatic essence of her experiences—and with their ravaging emotional effects. She revealed the unspeakably painful and the outrageously hostile, unseemly sympathies and scandals from behind antic masks and with the irresistible power of involuntary laughter. It's among the most vital bodies of work in modern cinema. But in 1987 her accomplishments mattered little. She instantly became a pariah and a has-been.

(previously: 1,2,3,4)

Last week's EU parliamentary elections have resulted in big wins for right (and far-right) parties across the continent, with inflation- and migration-driven campaigns seeing late surges in support from Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy to Geert Wilder's Party of Freedom to the extremist (and Nazi-curious) Alternative for Germany. Most notable was the unprecedented success of Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally in France, whose demolition of the ruling centrist coalition was so complete that President Emmanuel Macron has unexpectedly dissolved the legislature and called for snap elections later this month in a high-stakes bid to disrupt the national-populist wave. Not all is grim for the left -- socialist parties held their own in multiple nations, proudly illiberal Viktor Orban's Fidesz fell short of projections against a rising Péter Magyar, and France's two-round system has reliably kept the far-right out of power. Still, this week's results have massive and troubling implications for climate change, Ukraine, and a swath of other critical issues.

The Deep Ark is an eight hour plus mix of 1990's Warp Records "Electronic Listening Music" and related beats.

There's an interview with the Arkiteket and book of photos and poetry for sale. The site includes a download link, or you can listen to the entire mix on YouTube. Via blissblog.

KIRINJI - 時間がない (Jikanga Nai) is a super-simple music video of a guy dancing. The dancer/choreographer is also on instagram.

Celtix – a daily puzzle game about making Celtic knots.

From the maker of Cell Tower.

New Book Blames Yuppies for Trump, Housing—Basically Everything [ungated] - "Tom McGrath's Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation is not a flattering portrait of a generation."

A gluttonous desire for wealth ultimately led the yuppies to help dissolve post-war political orthodoxies like corporate responsibility for its workers, progressive income tax on higher-wage earners and protections for unions and American jobs. These led them to support right-winger Ronald Reagan and his supply-side economics. Panaceas such as tax cuts for the wealthy, shrinking of government programs, deregulation of industry and deficit military spending emerged as de rigueur Republican positions. McGrath details the ruinous historical results: The rich got richer, while everyone else floundered. Middle-class manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas as executives privileged shareholder value and their own compensation. Social programs were slashed, harming working people and the vulnerable.

The Oklahoma City Council (NPR) voted this week (NYT gift) to clear the way for the 1,907 foot (Popular Science) Legends Tower (Master Design Statement .pdf), which would be the tallest building in the US. It may be 'impropable' (Architectural Record), a 'PR stunt' (NPR station KOSU), or even 'sheer fantasy' (OKC Free Press), especially (The Oklahoman) in a state that has seen 103 tornadoes (National Weather Service) in 2024. It would definitely be expensive--developers (developers' site) say they have $1b in financing lined up.

the humanities do not teach information. they teach how to change desires. and the teacher has to assume the responsibility of learning that difficult task...it is not possible to unlearn one's privilege; and unlearn and unlearn and unlearn. i should use my privilege against the grain...: fair learning...this task is persistent ... these women vote...the largest sector of the electorate in Africa and Asia...there is no specific space with the name "art" or "culture," even when the European words are avoided, yet all of them vote [Gayatri Spivak, Vienna Festival ~2h] (second hour's Q&A; synopsis at the split ~1h, if time's a question)

previously, Don't judge a book by its cover, the difficulty of reading "Of Grammatology" [gbooks] also has to do with the politics surrounding the production of the translation, why do empires care so much about women's clothes?, occupy/canon, critical intimacy shoutout: James & Grace Lee Boggs Center [.org] Grace: "what time is it on the clock of the world?"; "the only way to survive is by taking care of one another" Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization [hup] "perhaps the literary can still do something" [pdf] αἴσθησις [wiki]

The Killers' debut album Hot Fuss turns 20 today. Tom Breihan of Stereogum reexamines the legacy of the little album made by outsiders to the NYC glamorous indie rock & roll scene and how it took over the world (or the UK, at least). "A fascinating case study of how hard those hipster sounds could go when they were adapted by people with no interest in hipness." "I wanted to be too cool for the Killers. I was not. You probably weren't, either." Also: "Hot Fuss Turns 10" by Ultragrrrl provides an on-the-ground eyewitness account of the same. And Tom's account of the worst-conceived alt-rock festival of 2005.

Guardian: Mass casualty incidents caused by the Israeli military offensive in southern Gaza are becoming normalised in the west and leading to a sense of fatalism inside Gaza itself, according to Sam Rose, the director of planning for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA (after its school in Nuseirat was bombed by Israeli forces) || Democracy Now: "Apocalyptic": 40 Killed in Israeli Airstrike on U.N. School Sheltering Displaced Palestinians in Gaza || BBC: US urges Israel to be transparent over Gaza school strike || Sky News UK: Experts told Sky News the [bomb] fragment [at Gaza school strike] can be identified as part of an American-made GBU-39 bomb; NPR: Israel used a U.S.-made bomb in a deadly U.N. school strike in Gaza [ground reporting that concurs] || MEMO (reporting of a Yedioth Ahronoth article): UN adds Israel to blacklist for harming children in conflict zones || ICYMI: Aharon Barak steps down as Israel's nominated judge to the ICJ case; Israel's Attorney-General urges Netanyahu to form commission of inquiry to provide legal cover from international judicial investigations such as through the ICC; Which ten countries have joined South Africa's case against Israel at the ICJ?

This is the fresh thread for the coverage of the violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The previous thread (worth a check of the last 50 comments or so for there continues to be fresh news).

You put a dollar bill into the 'Ask The Brain' fortune telling machine and await its response. Roll a seven-sided die or use a random-number generator. One Two Three Four Five Six Seven

The post title is a nod to the time Mad Magazine did one better than this post - one issue came with a flexidisc record with EIGHT spiral grooves, each with the same song but a different ending. Here's all eight versions - in full or just the intro followed by each ending.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are surging "faster than ever" to beyond anything humans ever experienced, officials say - "Not only is CO2 now at the highest level in millions of years, it is also rising faster than ever."

Secretary-General's special address on climate action "A Moment of Truth" [yt] - "Climate change is the mother of all stealth taxes paid by everyday people and vulnerable countries and communities. Meanwhile, the Godfathers of climate chaos – the fossil fuel industry – rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies."

Fourth and finally, we must directly confront those in the fossil fuel industry who have shown relentless zeal for obstructing progress – over decades. Billions of dollars have been thrown at distorting the truth, deceiving the public, and sowing doubt. I thank the academics and the activists, the journalists and the whistleblowers, who have exposed those tactics – often at great personal and professional risk. I call on leaders in the fossil fuel industry to understand that if you are not in the fast lane to clean energy transformation, you are driving your business into a dead end – and taking us all with you... Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action – with lobbying, legal threats, and massive ad campaigns. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies – Mad Men – remember the TV series - fuelling the madness. I call on these companies to stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction. Stop taking on new fossil fuel clients, from today, and set out plans to drop your existing ones.

World hits streak of record temperatures as UN warns of 'climate hell' - "Coal, oil and gas still provide more than three quarters of the world's energy, with global oil demand remaining strong." India runs power plants flat out to keep cool in heatwave and election - "In the autumn of 2021 and again in the spring of 2022, coal shortages meant many power generators were unable to start up in response to instructions from the grid... Since then, the government has attempted to prevent a repeat by prioritising coal movements across the rail network and accumulating large coal inventories on site at power generators." Despite extreme heat, climate change barely rated a mention in India's elections - "Low voter turnout was attributed to ongoing extreme heat, with temperatures in New Delhi reaching as high as 52.9 degrees Celsius, causing a party leader to faint during an election rally. But the sweltering temperatures did little to drive climate up the agenda." Phoenix Is Facing a Hurricane Katrina of Heat. It's Not Alone. - "You can see the risk here: If you don't have air conditioning, then Phoenix's summer heat quickly changes from unpleasant to deadly... a power failure during a heat wave in Phoenix or any other city will spread the misery far more broadly and kick a Heat Katrina into high gear." (The Heat Wave Scenario That Keeps Climate Scientists Up at Night)[1]

The number of unhoused people in the city has boomed along with the total population, rising 72% in the past six years to nearly 10,000. People experiencing homelessness made up 45% of the county's heat-related deaths last year, compared with 38% for people with housing (the living situation was unknown for the other 17% of deaths). And none of the 156 people who died indoors last year had functioning air conditioning. In 85% of those cases, AC units were present but broken. When temperatures hit 110F for weeks at a stretch, cooling systems can struggle to keep up. Retirees and people living from paycheck to paycheck may not have the money for repairs.

IEA expects global clean energy investment to hit $2 trillion in 2024 - "China is set to account for the largest share of clean energy investment in 2024 with an estimated $675 billion, while Europe is set to account for $370 billion and the United States $315 billion. More spending is focused on solar photovoltaic (PV) than any other electricity generation technology with investment set to grow to $500 billion in 2024 due to falling solar module prices. Global upstream oil and gas investment is expected to increase by 7% in 2024 to $570 billion, following a similar rise in 2023. This was mostly led by national oil companies in the Middle East and Asia, the report said." India to spend up to $385 bln to meet renewable energy target, Moody's Ratings estimates - "However, despite the steady growth in renewable energy, most of which will likely be solar power, Moody's expects coal will play a significant role in electricity generation for the next eight to ten years." US solar installations hit quarterly record, making up 75% of new power added, report says - "Solar accounted for 75% of electricity generation capacity added to the U.S. power grid early this year as installations of panels rose to a quarterly record, according to a report published by Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association on Thursday. The country's solar industry saw 11.8 gigawatts of new capacity in the first three months of 2024 as electric utilities continued their rapid additions of the renewable power sources, the report said." The Solar Breakthrough That Could Help the U.S. Compete With China - "South Korea's Hanwha Group says it will be the first company to use Lumet's technology. Hanwha's Qcells unit, one of the biggest solar-panel makers outside China, is building a multibillion-dollar solar supply chain in Georgia. The company expects the financial savings and performance gains to help it compete with low-cost products from the world's biggest producer."[2] Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity - "They're delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other states. And the technology is expanding rapidly."[3,4,5] EU wind and solar growth displaces fossil fuel generation, report says - "The additional solar and wind capacity helped push the share of total renewables to 44% of the EU electricity mix in 2023 from 34% in 2019. Meanwhile, a decline in coal and gas generation has pulled the share of fossil fuel generation down to 32.5% from 39%."

Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" is the Song of the Summer. It sounds like a genre that, in its time, was rejected by MTV and radio as 'not pop enough': '80s electro/synth funk/roller disco (Dan Charnas, author of The Big Payback and Dilla Time, writing for Slate).