Al Jazeera reports that Somalia’s national archives of voice recordings have survived sixty years of threats but now may be in danger of disappearing. As I mentioned in 2006, Somali history has been preserved through poetry and spoken word.
Wikipedia has a list of journalists killed recently in Somalia
The only American woman sentenced to death by direct order of Adolf Hitler was arrested on this day in 1942.
Mildred Fish was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She met Arvid Harnack, a German Rockefeller Fellow, while he was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. They were married in 1928 and moved to Germany in 1929.
During the 1930s Mildred and Arvid traveled outside Germany but they continued residing there past the point when they knew their freedom would be severely restricted by the Nazis. This 1939 postcard from Mildred ends with the sentence “Better not write but don’t forget me…”
Eventually the couple helped establish an underground resistance group with hundreds of members. They alerted other countries of the Nazi Army’s brutal mistreatment of occupied civilans/POWs and of Hitler’s aggressive and expansive intentions. Mildred gave advance warning to the Soviet Union, for example, of Germany’s intention to break the 1940 trade / 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop pacts and invade in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa).
Precautions were taken by the Harnaks and underground members to protect communication but they were up against more than 20 years (since 1918) of decryption and surveillance expertise in the German government. In July 1942 the Nazi Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) Abteilung Fremde Heere West (FHW) or “High Command of the Army, Foreign Armies West” intelligence department intercepted and cracked the groups’ radio messages. In August the Gestapo began capturing members of the group, torturing them and putting them in jail. The Harnaks were arrested on September 7th, 1942.
Arvid Harnack was sentenced to death and executed just a couple months later. Mildred initially received a six year jail sentence but Hitler reversed the decision and ordered her put to death. She was beheaded by guillotine in 1943 in Ploetzensee Prison.
Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) has produced a video called “Wisconsin’s Nazi Resistance: The Mildred Fish Harnack Story”
WPT also has produced an interview with Andreas Sander, a Gestapo Prison expert on the Harnacks’ incarceration and interrogation.
Watch Andreas Sander on PBS. See more from WPT Documentaries.
“To and From the Guillotine” is a memorial poem by Mildred’s friend, Clara Leiser
A humorous and well-written investigation of cigarettes has been posted by the Wall Street Journal.
Under “c” alone we find cardamom oil, carob bean extract, cinnamon oil, coffee extract, coriander oil, corn syrup and an oil made from camomile flowers. Gone, apparently, are some that appear in earlier lists: “civet absolute,” for example, which turns out to be a secretion from the anal gland of the civet cat, and castoreum, a comparable secretion from the Siberian beaver.
The real story here actually is that the massive amount of data generated by litigation over risk has allowed researchers to mine for historic ingredient information. Another way to look at it is that transparency forced by compliance upon product manufacturers and providers has led to some surprises.
Note: “secretion from the anal gland of the civet cat” might sound unusual but it also has been used by the sugar industry as an “ingredient in the food additives used to add butter, caramel, and rum flavorings to sweets”.
A pair of school friends from the rural countryside of upstate New York (near the old race track south of Lake George) have turned simple synth sounds serendipitously into an international music career.
Here’s “Don’t Move” from Phantogram‘s Nightlife EP released by barsuk records:
I’m not your nervous feeling
Each time we say goodnight
You picture buildings burning to the ground
From a basement in the street light
I’m not your drinking problem
A hole is in the sky
It’s not your heart that you’ve been thinking of,
Just the feeling like you’re gonna dieChorus
I’m not your paranoia
When someone’s at the door
Vision fangs clawing out the throat of a body rising through the floorI’m not your fortune teller
I’m not your spinning head
I’ll never make you uncomfortable too
This is starting to fuck with my headAll you know how to do is shake shake
Keep your body still
Keep your body still
All you do is shake shake shake
Keep your body still
Keep your body stillDon’t you realize you’re fine
Why can’t you see that you’re fine
You know that you’re still alive
You know that you’re still alive
Why don’t you know you’re alive
Don’t you know you’re alive
Buried in the sky
During times of unemployment and tough career-choices, especially in rural America, their story is an inspiration. They have managed to avoid the pressure for relocation to the big city to be discovered. Information technology not only brought easy access to information but also helped them gain fans quickly and reach a global audience. Hopefully they are not the exception but rather evidence of new rules being written.
In their music I sense a late 1980s revival of etherial melodies and lilting voices over prominent drum beats along the lines of Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kate Bush…at the same time I can’t help but notice that Josh Carter captures perfectly the look and feel of the disenfranchised artists of late 1950s New York. Both periods are known for strong counterculture and youthful escape from the broken rules and fallen dreams of a prior generation. Interesting mashup.
James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg in Howl
Here’s the acoustic version of their single “When I’m Small”:
Lucy’s underground,
She’s got a mouth to feed
Am I underground,
Or am I in betweenLucy’s underground,
She’s got a mouse to feed
Am I underground,
Or am I in too deepShow me love,
You’ve got your hand on the button now
Sure enough,
You’ve got your hand on the button nowLucy’s underground,
She’s never coming back
Am I still alive,
Or has the light gone blackTake me underground,
Take me all the way
Bring me to fire,
Throw me in the flamesSo show me love,
You’ve got your hands on the button now
Sure enough,
You’ve got your hand on the button nowI’d rather die,
I’d rather die,
Than to be with you
…and here’s the polished version as produced by barsuk records.