Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Monday, June 29, 2020
Racial Fault-lines in “Baseball’s Great Experiment:” Black Perceptions, White Reactions
Racial Fault-lines in “Baseball’s Great Experiment:” Black Perceptions, White Reactions
by Henry D. Fetter Transatlantica (2011)
This paper examines three facets of the breaking of major league baseball’s color line by Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947: the perception of blacks, the response of white players (whether teammates or opponents), and the reaction of baseball fans. By so doing, the paper will illuminate the fault-lines that characterized race relations within both the sport of baseball and the larger society as each was confronted with new challenges to long established policies and practices in the years after the Second World War.
by Henry D. Fetter Transatlantica (2011)
This paper examines three facets of the breaking of major league baseball’s color line by Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947: the perception of blacks, the response of white players (whether teammates or opponents), and the reaction of baseball fans. By so doing, the paper will illuminate the fault-lines that characterized race relations within both the sport of baseball and the larger society as each was confronted with new challenges to long established policies and practices in the years after the Second World War.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
The Lost Lamb - Abigail Washburn
With Flights Banned, Son Sails Solo Across Atlantic to Reach Father, 90 // NY Times
Real men wear masks, After 85 days at sea Juan Manuel Ballastero meets his 90 y.o. Dad in Argentina
With Flights Banned, Son Sails Solo Across Atlantic to Reach Father, 90
by Dan Politi // NY Times
BUENOS AIRES — Days after Argentina canceled all international passenger flights to shield the country from the new coronavirus, Juan Manuel Ballestero [IG: skuanavega] began his journey home the only way possible: He stepped aboard his small sailboat for what turned out to be an 85-day odyssey across the Atlantic.
The 47-year-old sailor could have stayed put on the tiny Portuguese island of Porto Santo, to ride out the era of lockdowns and social distancing in a scenic place largely spared by the virus. But the idea of spending what he thought could be “the end of the world” away from his family, especially his father who was soon to turn 90, was unbearable.
So he said he loaded his 29-foot sailboat with canned tuna, fruit and rice and set sail in mid-March.
“I didn’t want to stay like a coward on an island where there were no cases,” Mr. Ballestero said. “I wanted to do everything possible to return home. The most important thing for me was to be with my family.”
Sailing across the Atlantic in a small boat is challenging in the best of circumstances. The added difficulties of doing it during a pandemic became clear three weeks into the trip.
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Mr. Ballestero, left, with his brother and his father, who turned 90 while his son was on his voyage. Credit...Juan Manuel BallesteroOn April 12, the authorities in Cape Verde refused to allow him to dock at the island nation to restock his supply of food and fuel, said Mr. Ballestero.
Hoping he still had enough food to carry him through, he turned his boat west. With less fuel than he hoped for, he’d be more at the mercy of the winds.
He was no stranger to spending long stretches of time at sea, but being alone on the open ocean is daunting to even the most experienced sailor.
Days into the journey, he became panicked by the light of a ship that he thought was trailing him and seemed to be approaching closer and closer.
“I started going as fast as possible,” Mr. Ballestero said. “I thought, if it gets very close, I’ll shoot.”
KEEP READING
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Under sail - Wednesday evening - Eastchester Bay, Bronx, NY
For the start of my 21st season on North River 2 we stripped the varnish on the coaming, toe rails, rubrails. and transom. Will do the same for the hull after the season. Wood is good but it does require attention.
North River 2 is a Buzzards Bay 14. It was designed in/about 1945 (like me) by L. Francis Herreshoff, and built at The Boat School in Eastport, Maine in 1985.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Friday, June 19, 2020
On John Coltrane's "Alabama" by Ismail Muhammad // The Paris Review
On John Coltrane's "Alabama" by Ismail Muhammad // The Paris Review
The first thing you hear is McCoy Tyner’s fingers sounding a tremulous minor chord, hovering at the lower end of the piano’s register. It’s an ominous chord, horror movie shit; hearing it you can’t help but see still water suddenly disturbed by something moving beneath it, threatening to surface. Then the sound of John Coltrane’s saxophone writhes on top: mournful, melismatic, menacing. Serpentine. It winds its way toward a theme but always stops just short, repeatedly approaching something like coherence only to turn away at the last moment. It’s a maddening pattern. Coltrane’s playing assumes the qualities of the human voice, sounding almost like a wail or moan, mourning violence that is looming, that is past, that is atmospheric, that will happen again and again and again.
What are we hearing?
Monday, June 15, 2020
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Friday, June 12, 2020
Dylan has a lot on his mind - Douglas Brinkley interview - NY Times
Dylan contains multitudes - Douglas Brinkley interview New York Times June 12, 2020
***Q. “I Contain Multitudes” is surprisingly autobiographical in parts. The last two verses exude a take-no-prisoners stoicism while the rest of the song is a humorous confessional. Did you have fun grappling with contradictory impulses of yourself and human nature in general?
***Q. “I Contain Multitudes” is surprisingly autobiographical in parts. The last two verses exude a take-no-prisoners stoicism while the rest of the song is a humorous confessional. Did you have fun grappling with contradictory impulses of yourself and human nature in general?
I didn’t really have to grapple much. It’s the kind of thing where you pile up stream-of-consciousness verses and then leave it alone and come pull things out. In that particular song, the last few verses came first. So that’s where the song was going all along. Obviously, the catalyst for the song is the title line. It’s one of those where you write it on instinct. Kind of in a trance state. Most of my recent songs are like that. The lyrics are the real thing, tangible, they’re not metaphors. The songs seem to know themselves and they know that I can sing them, vocally and rhythmically. They kind of write themselves and count on me to sing them.
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Monday, June 8, 2020
Maine Lobster and the EU - Trump pledges to fix it
How to lobster pic.twitter.com/PZTlomCi5T
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) June 9, 2020