Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Banksy biography at Wikipedia

In a tribute to Allen Ginsberg’s classic 1956 poem, Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” is a 3-min film lampooning the addictions of our generation

Stockholm, Sweden/ Cergy, France October 6, 2022

This year’s 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature winner is French writer Annie Ernaux as a surprise selection. The 82-year-old writer is known for works that blur the line between memoir and fiction. Ms. Ernaux was on the betting list at Ladbrokes Coral, the leading London betting parlor, of writers for this years Nobel Prize in London. Every year Ladbrokes Coral releases a list of leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the most popular and valuable of the Nobel Prizes.

Ernaux was considered a long shot on a list that included better-known name writers such as Margaret Atwood and Anne Carson (both Canadians), Haruki Murakami (Japan), Edna O’Brien (Ireland), and Salman Rushdie (India) for the Nobel. The selection of Ernaux is considered a breakthrough as all previous winners of the French Nobels were all male. The difference this year was pointed out by Dr Ruth Cruickshank, an academic who specialises in contemporary French literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. She pointed out that all previous French writers in the 20th^th and 21st^st centuries since 1901 who won the Nobel Prize were “thirteen dead and two living white French men Nobel laureates.”

The Nobel citation for the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, declared Ernaux “has created an uncompromising” 50-year body of work exploring a life marked by great disparities regarding gender, language and class.”

The Nobel Prize in Literature is the most valued award in the world of literature, with an award this year of € 900,000 Euros (with a conversion rate to $896,000 US dollars).

Steven Ford Brown

This video features musicians playing for the global campaign ChangeAround The World. John Paul Jones of British band Led Zeppelin leads a global collaboration of musicians playing from Earth’s cities, territories, and tribal homelands, including Peranaá, Argentina, Venice Beach, California, London, England, and Kitekite Falls, New Zealand (complete list below). The campaign to save Planet Earth from human impact is to preserve the delicate balance of the world’s biodiverse ecosystem that exists within the only inhabited Blue Planet in the universe.

Definition biodiversity: Biodiversity refers to the variety of living species on Earth, including humans, animals, ocean, land, and sky dwellers, bacteria, fungi, and plants. The Earth’s biodiversity is rich but many species are being threatened with extinction due to human activities, putting the Earth’s magnificent biodiversity at risk. Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems, like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life. Biodiversity supports everything in nature that we need to survive: food, clean water, medicine, and shelter. Source: National Geographic

“When The Levee Breaks” is a powerful, thought-provoking, and emotionally charged song by Led Zeppelin from the album Led Zeppelin IV (1971). The song on the Zeppelin album is a new version of the 1929 original recording by Kansas Joe Mccoy and Memphis Minnie about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flooding in U.S. history, with 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) inundated in depths of up to 30 feet. The flood affected Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Arkansas suffered the most damage, with 14% of its territory covered by floodwaters extending from the Mississippi and Arkansas deltas across the landscape.

Origin of the song “When The Levee Breaks”: Memphis Minnie (born Lizzie Douglas 1897 in Tunica County, Mississippi, died 1973) was married to Kansas Joe Mccoy (born 1905 in Raymond, Mississippi, died 1950). As a married black couple in the Deep South, the largest region at the time in the United States where black citizens lived, they were deeply affected by the destruction of the region where they were both born and lived. The couple wrote music and lyrics to the song and recorded it for Columbia Records in September 1929 in New York City.

Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe Mccoy, 1929

If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break
And the water gonnna come in and we’ll have no place to stay

Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan
Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan
Thinkin’ ’bout my baby and my happy home

Copyright ⓒ 1929 Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe Mccoy.

“When The Levee Breaks,” recorded New York City, 1929

Film location information: This video was shot on location with dancers and musicians from cities, countries, territories, and tribal lands in: Argentina (Peranaá); California (Los Angeles, Mission Beach, Topango Canyon, Venice Beach); Congo (Kinshasa and Lukla); England (London); Florida (Jacksonville); Minnesota (Anishinaabe Tribal Land); New Zeland (Kitekite Falls, Pina and Te Henga Bethells Beach); Nigeria (Eruwa); Norway (Guovdageaidnu Sampi Tribal Land); Texas (Austin); Utah (Valley of the Gods).

Non-Profit Conservation Partners for the World

Partners in Peace and Environment

American Rivers

https://www.americanrivers.org

The World Wildlife Fund

https://www.worldwildlife.org

Conservation International

https://www.conservation.org

The Nature Conservancy of Massachusetts

https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/massachusetts/

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

https://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/in-english/

Steven Ford Brown

 

 

 

 

 

Jamie James

Finnmark, Norway

The band Røyksopp, from Tromsø from Troms of Finnmark, Norway, is one of the best-known electronic bands in the contemporary Nordic music scene (Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden). Part of the European Union, the collective population of the Nordic region is 28 million people united by similar cultures and languages. A very active and popular nightlife in the region’s iconic cities (Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Reykjavik, Stockholm) provides large young audiences for the popular bands and musicians. After releasing two albums in Norway, Røyksopp received worldwide attention from music videos on America’s MTV in heavy rotation. Their song “Sparks” was licensed by Apple Inc. for use as the welcome music to the company’s Mac OS X Panther operating system (2003), playing the first time a user booted a new Apple-brand computer. In Norway the band continues to create and release their stunning music and videos to a global audience.

Peter Last

Boston, MA/ Stockholm, Sweden

Tomas Tranströmer receives 2011 Nobel Prize in Stockholm

Link to Memoir: https://tomastranstromer.us/memoir/

My trip to Stockholm was the end of this trip to Europe. A visit with Monica and Tomas had been meaningful as they had become friends in both my life and imagination. At the Writer’s Union before I left, I shared a conversation with Anya about our mutual interest in the American and Russian writers of our reading histories. As we talked on a bench in the garden, the sky and world around us expanded as literary angels looked down upon us and listened to our conversation. The sky above was busy towing its infinite, luminous blue cargo net of birds, clouds, human dreams, and sunlight towards the end of day. We said goodbye and separated in two different directions: I would return to America and Anya back to Moscow. Inspired by the fullness of this trip on the way to the airport, I suddenly wanted to sneak aboard a train and continue on a night trip to Portugal, to Lisbon, to enjoy more Europe! Not less, but more Europe.

Steven Ford Brown