The Joy of Small Things by Hannah Jane Parkinson review a compendium of delights

 Posted on May 13, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  382 words  |  Aldo Pusey

The ObserverJournalism booksReviewThe Guardian writer’s collection of her columns is a droll and open-hearted bite-size read In 2018, when things seemed bleak, both in her personal life and in the world at large, the journalist Hannah Jane Parkinson started writing a column for the Guardian on small things that gave her joy. The idea, she freely admits, was nabbed from JB Priestley, who wrote a book some 70 years earlier called Delight. [Read More]

What did I just buy? I tried to use New Yorks first NFT vending machine

 Posted on May 13, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1123 words  |  Aldo Pusey

BlockchainCould buying an NFT the way one buys a bag of Cheetos demystify the process? It’s easy to miss the storefront that is home to the “world’s first NFT vending machine” in Manhattan’s financial district. Squished between a sandwich shop and a tailor, the windows are bathed in pink neon light, with glowing letters that announce “NFT ATM.” When you walk through the entryway, you enter a tiny booth with the vending machine, filled with rows of little paper cartons, looking almost like cigarette packs. [Read More]

'If you ask me, sex is overrated' | Life and style

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  520 words  |  Valentine Belue

The ObserverLife and style'If you ask me, sex is overrated'Mariella Frostrup on sex and marriageIf you ask me, sex is overrated. Not as an enjoyable hobby - there's no question that there is pleasure to be had in bed - but as the physical act that underpins not only our relationships but our lives. Esther Perel's book assumes that entry into a long-term relationship means bidding farewell to the frenetic sexual activity we've enjoyed when single. [Read More]

'Moral panic' over gender identity film sparks backlash in Indonesia | Human rights

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  913 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Human rights This article is more than 4 years old'Moral panic' over gender identity film sparks backlash in IndonesiaThis article is more than 4 years oldDirector gets death threats as 93,000 sign petition to have ‘LGBT film’ Memories of My Body banned lest young ‘imitate behaviour’ The release of an award-winning Indonesian film about a male dancer exploring his sexuality has led to a backlash from religious groups in the south-east Asian country. [Read More]

Are you, like Rita Ora, terrified of death? Youre quite right to be | Philippa Perry

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  721 words  |  Kary Bruening

Grayson Perry’s Recipe for Humanity, 2005, based on Irvin Yalom’s four givens.Grayson Perry’s Recipe for Humanity, 2005, based on Irvin Yalom’s four givens.OpinionDeath and dying This article is more than 8 years oldAre you, like Rita Ora, terrified of death? You’re quite right to beThis article is more than 8 years oldPhilippa PerryDeath, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness: how do you face the four horsemen of existential theory? I admire people debilitated by the idea of death: this means they are not in denial about it. [Read More]

Cat clings to plane wing for flight | Animals

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  384 words  |  Kary Bruening

The YouTube video showing the stowaway cat during the three-minute flight GuardianAnimalsCat clings to plane wing for flightPilot’s video shows surprising stowaway as ultra-light aircraft flies hundreds of feet above the ground A cat has escaped with at least one of its nine lives after stowing away on an ultra-light aircraft flight. A video has been posted on YouTube of the cat digging its claws into the aircraft’s wing as its pilot and passenger fly hundreds of feet above the ground at first apparently unaware of its presence. [Read More]

I wish more people would read A Scrap of Time by Ida Fink

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  833 words  |  Aldo Pusey

I wish more people would readShort storiesThese tightly focused stories of Jewish life in Nazi-occupied Poland should be be remembered, as vital historical witness and as great literature Every Friday, an email titled A Personal Anthology arrives in my inbox. It’s a subscription newsletter devised by the writer Jonathan Gibbs, who invites guest editors to compile lists of 12 short stories chosen according to whatever criteria they like. In October an Arkansas-based academic called Dorian Stuber shared his list, and that’s where I first heard of Ida Fink and her story collection A Scrap of Time. [Read More]

Koko Taylor | Music | The Guardian

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  725 words  |  Valentine Belue

MusicObituaryKoko TaylorFormer cotton-picker widely seen as the world's leading female blues singerBy the mid-1990s, Koko Taylor, who has died aged 80 from complications following surgery, was acknowledged as the world's foremost female blues singer. The influence of the Grammy award-winner can be heard in the work of everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Tom Waits. It was in 1962 that Taylor, then working as a domestic cleaner in Chicago for affluent white families, was first heard by the songwriter and producer Willie Dixon. [Read More]

Muammar Gaddafi's compound was the beating heart of the regime | Muammar Gaddafi

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  770 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Muammar Gaddafi This article is more than 12 years oldAnalysisMuammar Gaddafi's compound was the beating heart of the regimeThis article is more than 12 years oldHarriet SherwoodThe rebel invasion of Bab al-Aziziya was a moment of enormous symbolism, and has echoes of other historic momentsThe invasion of Bab al-Aziziya, the beating heart of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, by rebel forces was a moment of enormous symbolism for those who have fought a civil war for the past six months and nurtured an underground opposition for the past four decades. [Read More]

The Lavender Scare: the shocking true story of an anti-LGBT witch-hunt

 Posted on May 12, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1181 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Documentary filmsIn an eye-opening new documentary, director Josh Howard reveals the horrifying state-sanctioned homophobia that once plagued the US When Josh Howard began working on his documentary The Lavender Scare, way back in 2009, America was a very different place – not least for its LGBT citizens. Barack Obama had recently been elected president; one of his early actions, in a reversal of Bush administration policy, was to sign a UN declaration calling for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. [Read More]