Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. This edition of the OND started out as being primarily about the arts then...I came across some interesting things...really not in the mood for much news tonight.
Hollywood Reporter- Metropolitan Museum of Art Reveals Theme of 2019 Fashion Exhibition and Gala by Booth Moore
Just when you thought the Met Gala red carpet couldn't get any crazier, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute on Tuesday announced the theme of its upcoming fashion exhibition: camp, as in all things campy in fashion.
Sponsoring the show will be none other than Gucci, the luxury brand that designer Alessandro Michele has taken to outrageous heights with the help of such collaborators as Elton John and Dapper Dan, by putting human heads, balaclavas, Paramount Pictures logos, New York Mets team jerseys and more on his costumey runways.
Titled "Camp: Notes on Fashion," the exhibition will run May 9-Sept. 8, 2019, and is inspired by cultural critic Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on Camp," which posited different ways the concept can be construed, according to the announcement published on Vogue.com. Sontag argued that camp is the "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration...style at the expense of content...the triumph of the epicene style," explains the exhibition's curator Andrew Bolton.
It's a concept that certainly has been resonating in society lately, whether you are looking at the political ascendance of reality show star turned president Donald Trump (due to be visited by Kanye West in the White House on Thursday, natch), the rise of social media "stars" vying to out peacock each other on all platforms, or the success of fashion brands like Gucci and Balenciaga, which thrive on exaggeration to the point that runway show-goers sometimes wonder if they are being punked.
Guardian- After Burroughs and Beckett: opening up experimental fiction beyond old white men by Harvey Thomlinson
On a cloudy Saturday in Notre Dame, Indiana, as the new US supreme court justice is being sworn in, consecrated with arcane ritual language, I am at the &Now festival of experimental writing. Started 15 years ago by cult novelist Steve Tomasula, the event has become perhaps the anglosphere’s major, if not only, celebration of the literary avant garde. Over the course of a weekend in &Now’s literary funhouse, the virus of language is purposefully mutated into deviant strains, from narratives told as a series of Facebook pages and art exhibitions imagined as novels, to music videos reconstituted as socio-cultural commentaries.
There is a premium on innovation that makes this event feel closer to a festival of the visual arts than one of writing.The diversity here goes beyond form. Experimental fiction was once defined by white male gunslingers such as William Burroughs (whose legend grew after he accidentally shot his wife), and cryptic geniuses such as Samuel Beckett and Thomas Pynchon. Now, in the age of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, the authors being celebrated as experimental are both more diverse and politically engaged, using language as a vehicle to explore different identities.
A/V Club- Here's an in-depth investigation into just how real Banksy's art-shredding prank was by Sam Barsanti
Over the weekend, we were all thrilled by the story of a Banksy art print that automatically shredded itself after being sold for over $1 million at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London, partly because it was a nice way to make some millionaire feel like a dummy (even if the shredded work is probably morevaluable) and partly because it was nice to see Banksy pulling something clever again after his “crappy Disneyland” stunt from 2015.
Now that we’re separated from the whole thing by a few days, though, the world is starting to question just how real the whole thing was. After all, the Banksy print was being displayed in a comically large frame, so Sotheby’s probably should’ve known that something was up, and internet sleuths have even begun to question if the real print was shredded or if a fake print simply popped out of the bottom of the frame in tatters.
Jason Bailey at Artnome has put together a deep dive on the veracity of Banksy’s stunt, and believe it or not, it seems like the whole thing was legitimate—depending on how you feel about Sotheby’s involvement. Banksy released a video showing how he built the frame that has since been deleted, but it indicated that battery in his homemade shredder was set to last for 10 years and that the blade used to cute the print was actually a row of about 38 razor blades. Bailey figures that the battery life checks out, but the razors were a very inefficient way to shred something, at least until you take into account the weird curl at the bottom of the print in the print:
Saveur- The Unexplored Roots of Black Cooking in Nova Scotia by Chantal Martineau
It’s damp and chilly outside, but it’s toasty in Wendie Poitras’ kitchen, where rendered pork skins sizzle and pop in a cast-iron pan. Poitras—a teacher and artist who has become a vocal advocate along with scholars and activists to help define and commemorate African Nova Scotian culture—is cooking traditional dishes for a few friends and relatives. She’ll eventually add the pork to boiled potatoes and flaked salt cod. Yellow-eyed beans bake for hours to a deep brown, the ham hock in the center of the pot falling softly apart. Oxtails swim in a rich sauce next to a pot of rice and beans and a pan of cornbread.
This is Nova Scotia, a vaguely lobster-shaped peninsula that juts, with its surrounding islands, east out into the Atlantic, one time zone farther than the rest of Canada’s east coast. We’re in Dartmouth, just across the harbor from Halifax, and in the windows, the fog is thick like milk. Evergreens stand out like emerald-robed figures in the gray-white mist.
I’ve come with my mother and daughter—my first time here since I was a teenager—in search of a connection to my ancestors, my roots. I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia’s capital, but my grandmother’s family had lived in the region until moving to Montreal in 1955. My mother returned at age 21, when she was a private in the Navy. It was then that she met my father, a Quebecois, in the forces, and after I was born, we left permanently for Quebec. My parents took us back to visit Nova Scotia every few years, a 12-hour road trip backward into my heritage.
h/t to Denise Oliver Velez for the African Glitz tweet
BBC- Exclusive: Yoko Ono covers Imagine
John Lennon's Imagine - the third greatest song of all time, according to Rolling Stone magazine - has been given a reworking today for what would've been the former Beatle's 78th birthday.
So who better then to deliver this musical gift, than the track's co-writer, Yoko Ono?
The Japanese artist, who married Lennon in 1969, was only officially recognised as co-writer last year.
Now she's released a haunting new church organ version of the 1971 classic and you can check it out exclusively on Music News LIVE below.
Was that really necessary?
Guardian- 1251, London: ‘Bold, imaginative and fun’ – restaurant review by Jay Rayner
...Cochran told the website London Eater that it had been a “huge learning curve”. Happily, he has moved on to his new restaurant in Islington, called 1251. From eating there, I can say this. At his best he’s a terrific cook: bold, imaginative and fun. But there is also an air of just-managed chaos about his venture. When I ate there the dishes arrived in a weird order. Some are brilliant and some are total head-scratchers. Service comes and goes like cloud cover in April. The space is two long rooms, one on top of the other, reached through what feel like separate front doors. And yet there’s enough interesting stuff going on here to stop you grabbing them by the collar and bellowing “pull yourselves together”.
The menu is divided between “snacks” and larger “plates”. The kitchen will send them out when they’re ready. They really will and they won’t be stopped. Which is why we get a main course lamb dish first, followed five minutes later by a piece of soda bread with whipped butter. The lamb is as beautifully accessorised as a Bond Street fashionista: there’s a dollop of whipped cod’s roe, some baby artichokes and the carefully managed astringency of black olive. The meat itself is just on the “watch me bleed” side of rare. The nutty bread arrives in time to dab at it.
I read Jay Rayner’s restaurant reviews at The Guardian more often than not...even though I will probably never eat in any of these places...Rayner is just such a great food critic.
Ars Technica- How orgasm faces differ between people from Eastern and Western cultures by Beth Mole
In the unspoken language of love, the face you make at the pinnacle of pleasure may have something of an accent based on where you come from.
People from Western and East Asian cultures had consistently different ideas of what facial expressions indicate the moment of orgasm, researchers found in a study published Monday in PNAS. Specifically, Western participants expected widened eyes and gaping mouths, while East Asian participant’s ideas culminated in a slight, tight-lipped smile.
But contrary to those cultural climaxes, the look of dire pain had universal contortions. Participants from both cultures recognized the apex of anguish by inward-pulling facial expressions, such as lowered brows, wrinkled noses, and raised cheeks.
The researchers behind the study—led by psychologists at the University of Glasgow in Scotland—argue that the new data disputes earlier conclusions that faces of physical pain and sexual pleasure are indistinguishable. “This finding is counterintuitive, because facial expressions are widely considered to be a powerful tool for human social communication and interaction,” they note.
Reuters- Axe throwing takes aim at sunny Los Angeles by Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Axe throwing may not seem to have a place in Los Angeles, where sun and surf reign supreme, but the city’s first venue featuring the niche sport is counting on people to ditch the waves for steel hatchets.
On a sunny fall day a group of real estate agents visited the North Hollywood warehouse that is home to LA Ax to try their hand at the sport.
Like many, their first attempts to get the 1.5 pound hatchet to stick to the target were unsuccessful.
But soon the clang of the axes hitting the ground was replaced by the satisfying thud of them piercing the wood, leading to gleeful smiles and hoots from their co-workers.
LA Ax’s resident “axepert” said the sport provides a low-tech fun in a high-tech society, where people are constantly checking social media.
Really...this is a thing, now?
1. Alabama
2. Georgia
3. THOSE people
4. Clemson
5. Notre Dame
6. West Virginia
7. Washington
8. Penn State
9. Texas
10. Central Florida
That was a nice win by Texas over Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry but a 10-spot jump into the Top 10?
Don't forget that Meteor Blades is hostng an open thread for night owls tonight.
Everyone have a good evening and I will see you this coming Saturday for...science!