Good news of the year:
Recommended Books:
- Robert Peckham: "Fear - An Alternative History of the World"
- Ed Conway: "Material World". Six materials are shaping the future: copper, iron, lithium, oil, salt and sand.
- Christopher Clark: "Revolutionary Spring". The year 1848 was a fateful year of (mostly failed) revolutions.
- Kevin Mitchell: "Free Agents - How Evolution Gave Us Free Will"
- Robert Zubrin: "The Case for Nukes". A compelling defense of nuclear energy.
- Matthew Desmond: "Poverty, by America". So many people live in poverty because so many rich people benefit from it.
- Frank Dikotter: "China after Mao"
- Peter Frankopan: "The Earth Transformed". A history book about how climate change has shaped civilizations across time
- Yasheng Huang: “The Rise and Fall of the east: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline”
- Peter Attia & Bill Gifford: "Outlive". Advice from a longevity expert for living longer and more healthily.
- Antony Loewenstein: "The Palestine Laboratory - How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World"
- Andrew McAfee: "The Geek Way". The rapid-prototyping, risk-taking spirit of
Silicon Valley can be applied as well to other fields.
- Naomi Klein: "Doppelganger - A Trip into the Mirror World". A messy but inspired and erudite fresco of the social and political scene.
- Tim Alberta: "The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory". A chronicle of the modern evangelical movement in the USA.
Articles:
Events in
Tech and Science
- Katsuhiko Hayashi from Osaka University created eggs from the cells of male mice
- Marta Zlatic's lab at the University of Cambridge maps the entire connectome of an entire brain of the fruit fly
- A Weizmann Institute team in Israel creates a faithful model of a 14-day-old human embryo using stem cells instead of sperm and egg.
Cinema. Best Films:
Recommended jazz of 2023
( http://www.scaruffi.com/ratings/2023.html ):
- Ivo Perelman: Seven Skies Orchestra (Fundacja Sluchaj)
- Steve Lehman: Ex Machina (Pi)
- Yussef Dayes: Black Classical Music (Brownswood)
- Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension (Nonesuch)
- Tyshawn Sorey Trio: Continuing (Pi)
- Kate Gentile: Find Letter X (Pi)
- Allison Miller: Rivers in our Veins (Royal Potato Family)
- Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
- Ingrid Laubrock: Monochromes (Intakt)
- Angel Bat Dawid: Requiem For Jazz (Intergalactic Mantra)
- Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
- Henry Threadgill: The Other One (Pi)
- Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera (Intakt)
- Kendrick Scott: Corridors (Blue Note)
- Mette Henriette: Drifting (ECM)
- Perch Hen Brock & Rain: Elegiacal (Wig)
- Barry Guy's Blue Shroud Band: All This This Here (Fundacja Sluchaj)
- London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
- Isaiah Collier: Parallel Universe (Night Dreamer)
- Walter Smith III: Return to Casual (Blue Note)
- Yoni Mayraz – Dybbuk Tse (Astigmatic)
Best classical music recordings:
- Paavo Jarvi & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin: Brahms Double Concerto (Ondine)
- Klaus Makela & Orchestre de Paris: Stravinsky's "The Firebird" and "The Rite of Spring" (Decca)
- Lahav Shani & Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra: Bruckner's Symphony No 7 (Warner)
- Nils Schweckendiek & Helsinki Chamber Choir: Saariaho's Choral Works (BIS)
- Francois-Xavier Roth & Les Siewcles: "Saint-Saens Symphonic Poems" (Harmonia Mundi)
- Raphael Pichon & Pygmalion: Monteverdi's "Vespro della Beata Vergine" (Harmonia Mundi)
- Francois-Xavier Roth & Cologne Guerzenich Orchestra: Bruckner's Symphony No 4 (Myrios)
- Anne Queffelec: Beethoven's last 3 piano sonatas Op. 109, 110, 111 (Mirare)
- Vadym Kholodenko: Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" (Quartz)
- Alexandre Bloch & Orchestre National de Lille: Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra (Alpha)
- Tõnu Kaljuste & Tallinn Chamber Orchestra: Arvo Part's "Tractus" (ECM)
- Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic: Thomas Adas' "Dante" (Nonesuch)
Best Art Events:
- Egon Schiele at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Boris Eldagsen's AI-generated Photograph "The Electrician"
- Vermeer Exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now at M+, Hong Kong
- LuYang Vibratory Field at Kunsthalle Basel
- Marc Chagall and Paul Klee at Atelier des Lumieres, Paris
- Georgia O’Keeffe at MoMA, New York
Heroes of the year:
( Current events)
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