The band Röyksopp, 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, Röyksopp 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.
Dani Connor Wild graduated from Exter University in England before heading to Northern Sweden for an adventure in a forest near the North Pole (and top of the world!). A conservationist and wildlife photographer, Dani hikes through the woods and finds five orphaned baby red squirrels after their mother was killed by a car on a nearby country road. She visits the little squirrels in the forest daily and leaves food and water so they can grow up without being caged. She falls in love with them, and they fall in love with her. The squirrels learn how to survive on their own. She makes another trip to Sweden six months later and discovers they still recognize her!
No earth tremor, but a skyquake. Turner could have painted it, secured by ropes. A single mitten whirled past right now, several miles from its hand. Facing the storm I am heading for that house on the other side of the field. I flutter in the hurricane. I am being x-rayed, my skeleton hands in its application for discharge. Panic grows while I tack about, I am wrecked, I am wrecked and drown on dry land! How heavy it is, all that I suddenly have to carry, how heavy it is for the butterfly to tow a barge! There at last. A final bout of wrestling with the door. And now inside. Behind the huge window-pane. What a strange and magnificent invention glass is—to be close without being stricken. . . Outside a horde of transparent splinters of gigantic shapes rush across the lava plain. But I flutter no more. I sit behind the glass, still, my own portrait.
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 was awarded in Oslo, Norway to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski of the Viasna Human Rights Centre from Belarus (Imprisoned by the Belarusuian government, his wife Natallia Pinchuk accepted his award); the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, and Ukrainian human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties.
Under the provisions of Alfred Nobel’s will, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is charged with awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the person or organisation that has conferred the greatest benefit to humankind in the field of peace during the preceding year.”
Closing remarks from the Nobel Peace Prize winners
Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties: “This is a very important human story because civil society and human rights defenders [have] always built invisible ties and protect[ed] people in circumstances when the law doesn’t work.
Now we continue jointly to resist the common evil which tries to dominate in our part of the world. I couldn’t predict what will be in the future, but I know for sure that we will do our best in order to create the future we want.
Jan Rachinsky from the Russian organisation, Memorial: “It’s very difficult to imagine the world without Putin; he’s been in power for so long. Let’s hope we’ll see the day that the world will be based on respect for international law and not on the efforts of separate countries to destroy that.”
Natallia Pinchuk, wife of the jailed activist Ales Bialiatski: “I hope that the Belarusian voice will be heard by the international community. I hope for this, people in Belarus hope for this, and those compatriots who live abroad also hope for this.”
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
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).
My trip to Paris in 2007 was the end of my trips to Europe. A visit with Monica and Tomas had been meaningful as they had become friends in both my life and imagination. At the Stockholm Writer’s Union in the garden, I sat with Anya on a bench and we talked about our mutual interest in the iconic American and Russian writers of our reading histories. She spoke of Anna Akhmatova, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, and Tolstoy. I spoke of the American fictioneers, late comers to the world stage of great literature: John Cheever’s short stories, T.S. Eliot’s remarkable poetry, William Faulkner’ novels, and the epic life and writing of Ernest Hemingway. As we talked the 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 the day. We said goodbye and separated in two directions: I would return to America and Anya back to Moscow.
Inspired by the fullness of this trip on the way to the airport to fly to Paris, I suddenly wanted to sneak aboard a train and continue on a night trip to Portugal, to the capital city of Lisbon, to enjoy more Europe! Not less, but more Europe. Yes, the Portuguese and then the French! But I had been gone from America for an extended period, and many people and work were pulling me back home. Portugal would have to wait!
Tomas Tranströmer 