ÁRPÁD  FARKAS/Poetry

Poems by ÁRPÁD  FARKAS Translated from the Hungarian by Paul Sohar   Let There be No Silence (Csak csend ne legyen) Let wispy little voices spring from blocks of dumbstruck dawns, let them flood the borders of glistening fields, let them ring out on the plates of...

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Fred Roberts/World Music

Fred Roberts/World Music

Few people outside of the Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans speaking world will have heard of Stef Bos. He entered the music scene in Holland in 1990 with a song Papa that struck a nerve. It’s a Dutch counterpart to Harry Chapin’s evergreen Cat’s In the Cradle…

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Fred’s February Playlist

Fred’s February Playlist

Frank Nagel photo Mary Ocher, with Felix Kubin, one of Fred's February picks....   TAKE TEN     Category: Forgotten Brazilian Guitarists Song Title: Amor de Argentina Artist: Américo Jacomino Year: 1928 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4weR4B4heQ...

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Fred Roberts / Dispatches

Fred Roberts / Dispatches

he EurNoVision project which began in 2015 released a new edition late December 2016, curated by Paul Mangan. The compilation registers a strong political statement at a time when the veneer on Europe is showing serious cracks. Waves of refugees. Brexit. Terrorist attacks. While Europe veers towards disintegration, the cycle of songs shows a cohesive spiritual unity with many stand-out entries.

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Jennifer Love/Travel

Jennifer Love/Travel

I haven’t been in a church since my grandfather’s funeral over a year ago, but now that I’m traveling in Mexico, I’m checking out churches like a regular Catholic pilgrim. I’m addicted to the fraudulent feelings I get each time I…

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Lauren Johnson/Travel

Lauren Johnson/Travel

My Roman classmates blamed the trash on the government corruption. For years, organized crime syndicates had been managing the contracts for sanitation services—primarily as a cover. Under mafia groups, the sanitation workers were well paid (or perhaps better paid than they are now) and could clock in at their leisure. Over the past year, the municipal government has been working to replace the corrupt contracts with legitimate ones. Virginia Raggi, Rome’s recently elected first woman mayor, promises to clean up the mess. In the meantime, garbage will continue to be an essential part of the Roman milieu.

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Celeste Hamilton Dennis/World

Celeste Hamilton Dennis/World

Craig and I watch Los Angeles-based Maya Mackrandilal’s Kal/Pani, a video installation whose title references the blackwater creeks found throughout Guyana, and think of our friend Mr. Reece, a man of great character who could a climb a coconut tree as deftly as he could argue that teachers be paid their fair wages. It was with him we took a trip down the Berbice River and learned how to hunt wild boar. A few years later, he too moved “outside” to Philadelphia and began working as a stocker at Walmart so his daughter could live out her dream of becoming an engineer and his son, a doctor.

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Stéphanie Martin Petit/Art

Stéphanie Martin Petit/Art

Thanks to the use of digital cameras, tons of us have emerged during those last years and we are now hundreds of people taking pictures, wherever we find ourselves in the world, of pieces of urban art, most of which are totally ephemeral and destined to be seen only for a short period of time. And, by collecting and sharing those pictures, our hobby is not just a hobby. It’s also a significant, and from my point of view, essential record of the history of urban contemporary art.

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Carmen Firan/Commentary

Carmen Firan/Commentary

If Trump wins he promises to deport about 11 millions of these immigrants and to build a big, insurmountable wall on the Mexican border and only let in immigrants with exceptional abilities, able to graduate from colleges like Harvard, Yale or Princeton…he hasn’t mentioned as of yet if they need be blond and blue-eyed, but the campaign is still ongoing. Other candidates are silent as to their plans in handling illegal immigrants out of fear of confronting their electorate with controversial topics. Border States like Arizona, Texas and New Mexico take this subject to heart. Illegal immigration is also connected with drug trafficking, violence and other crimes, which, while controlled by the government as much as possible, creates fear and resentment in the local population.

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The Land of The Sleeping Buddha/Rishi Shankar

The Land of The Sleeping Buddha/Rishi Shankar

We had the barest glimpse of the Sleeping Buddha at Tumling. And it was foggy and cloudy from then onwards. We waited for the skies to clear up as we reached Kalpokhrey, but they did not relent. An old woman with a heavily lined forehead framed in a first floor window is turning a prayer wheel, chanting in a low voice. We camped at All near Sandakphu and woke up to a bitterly cold and foggy morning. We made our way to Sabargram and experienced hailstones.

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On Location/France

Q) What is the first image you remember ?

A) … when I was 12-13 years old near my school was small shoemaker shop, he was selling illegal hand made black and white photographies of rock stars, porno and erotic playing cards printed on old B&W photographic paper. This erotic image is still in my mind…

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