H. Paul Moon

JO ADELL JUST ROBBED A THIRD HOME RUN TONIGHT HE JUMPED INTO THE STANDS 🤯

@adamlehodey @CityJournal Let's wait until a more fiscally responsible administration is in place before auctioning off such a priceless and non-recurring asset!

New York wants to raise revenue; the city has 3mn parking spots, most of which are free; real-estate in the city is some of the most valuable in the entire world. So... here's a new idea in @CityJournal, New York City should auction off leases to all of these spots, raising $3bn

@business Dude thinks he's Robin Hood when in fact he's the sheriff tax collector.

@StevenIsserlis I've always loved your interpretation of Barber with Slatkin, Steven! More such Barber-philia at: barberfilm.com

Day for beautiful slow pieces! Samuel Barber b otd 1910, Pachelbel d otd 1706. Of course, both much more than just THOSE pieces. I love Barber's understatement: "I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible."

@LairdOfThManor See also the trailer at barberfilm.com by the Cathedral Choral Society in Washington, D.C. conducted by the late great J. Reilly Lewis

When Samuel Barber was but 26 years of age, he composed a single, unassuming movement for string quartet. It was not conceived as a requiem, nor fashioned as a hymn for the dead. It was simply the second movement of a chamber work, inspired by a Latin poem reflecting upon harvests and the patient labour of the fields. Yet within that melody lay something ineffable, a quiet ache no one could quite name, and so, by some shared instinct of the human heart, the world gradually began to entrust it with its mourning. It has accompanied the passing of presidents and the grief of nations: the funerals of FDR and JFK, and the solemn remembrance of Sept. 11 attacks. Again and again, this music returns, as though it alone knows how to carry the weight of collective sorrow. What Barber first entrusted to strings already possessed this gravity. Yet when the melody passes from instruments into the fragile dignity of human voices, its very nature is transformed. A string vibrates through friction; a voice vibrates from within the body itself, from lungs and diaphragm, through throat and bone. The Agnus Dei is not merely a transcription; it is a revelation. The ancient liturgical plea… grant us peace… meets a melody that seemed to understand the prayer long before it had words with which to utter it. Within the ancient vastness of Sint-Janskathedraal, where seven centuries of stone gather and return every trembling harmonic, the music seems no longer to issue from the singers at all. It rises instead from the cathedral itself… from walls, vaults, and flagstones alike. Sixty voices unfold and divide, the dynamics swelling from a breath of near-silence into a fortissimo that does not burst forth like thunder, but arrives with the slow, solemn inevitability of fate. Listen closely to that moment when every voice opens at once. There is no microphone, no artifice of amplification, only the pure generosity of Gothic acoustics. The sound lingers long after it is sung, and that lingering becomes part of the music itself: each note bearing the gentle shadow of the one that came before. Perhaps that is why the piece tightens the chest without so much as asking leave. Barber did not merely compose sorrow. He shaped, with exquisite precision, the very space that loss carves within the human heart… and the cathedral simply reveals what was always waiting there. This, Timothée Chalamet is true art. This will never die. 📽️Reelsclassics(ig)

Werner Herzog & @drsteveboyes on masterful new @docofilm "Ghost Elephants" (w/brilliant music as ever by @ernstreijseger) @IFCCenter. Favorite moment: in response to prototypical audience question "where do you get your inspiration?", "I don't believe in inspiration." #discipline

Street mural that gets inside Travis Bickle's head, in the Bowery

I just used this priceless tool to save a master shot in my documentary july9th.com - it's really the best available tool for noise reduction, so this is a great opportunity to up your game!

H. Paul Moon Releases Film Version of Händel’s ‘Radamisto’ bit.ly/3LJb5GH

As is often the case, several things can be true at the same time: ICE is operating within federal law when it attempts to apprehend individuals in urban environments subject to deportation. Minnesota officials show themselves to be entirely unserious when they demand that ICE leave Minnesota. It is a bad idea for civilians to actively interfere with ICE operations, no matter how poorly handled these operations appear to be. Minnesota officials should discourage this behavior. The state and city should set up a clear protest cordon area. It is a bad idea to show up armed to a protest. That doesn't mean you don't have the right to or that you should be shot for it. It just means ... it is a bad idea. ICE, at best, completely botched the initial contact that led to the likely preventable killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In the latter, many armed officers should have been able to safely neutralize one suspect who was not brandishing his weapon. Angry agents and/or badly trained agents and/or terrified agents (or all three!) can't do these jobs and shouldn't be doing them. Trump and his surrogates are either lying or crazy or both, and they thrive on the chaos they purposely create. If you are analyzing frame by frame videos of the latest shooting or screaming that Trump is a fascist rather than looking at the bigger picture, they are winning. Whenever you are paying attention to them, they are winning. That has been true for 11 years. The bigger picture is that Democrats and whatever uncompromised Republicans are left have to figure out: What's the immigration plan? (It can't be a 2023-4 open border; it can't be that anyone in the world with a self-identified claim to asylum is released into the country with no followup; it can't be defined by AOC and Mamdani.) What should immigration enforcement look like? What's our pitch to the American people for a secure border, swift and sure deportations of recent arrivals with no claim to be here, and for a politically acceptable level of legal immigration, including legalizing some (but not all) of the people who have been here for years already?

The Year in Review by Dave Barry | @rayadverb buff.ly/pW4FvDJ

@nicolegelinas @yaelbt My sympathies for the biker lobby evaporated after a few times trying to get from A to B in Central Park & finding the vast & wide central throughfare is one-way only. The biker attitude culture on this is arrogant, despite so much room compared to city streets. #spandex #uptight

Yes, Central Park was not meant for motorized fast-moving vehicles. And ebikes are motorized fast-moving vehicles. Ergo ... city-journal.org/article/centra… @yaelbt

What is going on here? Get "In the Spirit" and find out tomorrow & Sunday (2 concerts this time) @hirshhorn. The general seating tickets are sold out, but you are welcomed to join the standby line at the entrance to the auditorium for either concert: 21consort.org

Can you come to our next concert @hirshhorn? Actually, two chances this weekend, as explained in our latest dispatch: mailchi.mp/e94af680dcfd/i…. See you there!

Here's @BillyShebar with @meredith_monk, the subject of his masterful new documentary "Monk in Pieces" at @DOCNYCfest during post-screening discussion @AngelikaFilm_NY

@archeohistories Buried and nearly hidden in this tweet is the fact that the featured photograph (which is the clickbait that gets anyone to read this) shows a theme park-like reconstruction built in the 20th century.

The Gates of ancient Nineveh refer to the monumental entrances that punctuated the defensive walls of Assyrian capital city of Nineveh, situated on the east bank of the Tigris River, near present-day Mosul in northern Iraq 🇮🇶. Constructed primarily during reign of King Sennacherib (704–681 BC), the city’s fortifications extended for approximately 12km and were reinforced by fifteen major gates that provided both military access and ceremonial passageways into the urban core. The ruins of Nineveh, capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, are surrounded by the remains of a massive stone and mudbrick wall dating from about 700 BC, about 12 kilometers in length. There are about five (out of the total 15) gateways that have been explored to some extent by archaeologists. While the gates of Nineveh were rebuilt in 20th Century CE, they remain prized symbols of the ancient heritage of the residents of modern Mosul. Nineveh's sprawling fortification system, primarily constructed during reign of King Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BC), included several other gateways of particular note beyond the most extensively documented portals. On the northern wall, complementing the Adad and Nergal gates, was the Sin Gate, named for the moon god. While not as extensively excavated, preliminary investigations suggest a complex internal architecture, potentially including a corridor that led to a ramp or stairway providing access to the battlements. Serving the southern sector was the solitary Ashur Gate (named after ancient city of Assur), a singular entry point on the city's shortest rampart, which likely governed traffic coming from the south. Finally, archaeological and textual evidence indicate the existence of numerous unnamed or less-explored gates, especially along the western and eastern sectors, which further demonstrate the intricate urban planning of the Assyrian capital. These portals, varying in scale and design, not only controlled the flow of people and goods but also reflected a sophisticated defensive strategy, with multiple access points configured to manage movement, ceremonial processes, and military security across Nineveh's vast perimeter. The presence of these gates in varying states of preservation underscores the city's complex history and the challenges inherent in modern archaeological recovery efforts. Nergal Gate was a monumental city gate constructed around 700 BC by the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib as part of the extensive fortification of Nineveh, his new administrative capital. The gate, located on the northern wall of the city, was named for the god of war, plague, and the underworld, reflecting both its defensive function and religious significance and may have been used for some ceremonial purpose. Architecturally, the gate was an imposing complex, with thick, double walls of mud brick resting on limestone foundations, designed with a central passageway flanked by colossal towers. This design included an inner courtyard or "trapyard," intended to corner and neutralize any enemy forces that managed to breach the outer gate. The most significant architectural and artistic feature of the Nergal Gate was the pair of immense, human-headed winged bulls, known as lamassu (inspect), that flanked its entrance. It is the only known gate flanked by stone sculptures of winged bull-men (lamassu). These 4.5m high, limestone guardian figures symbolized the king's divine protection and immense power, combining the strength of a bull, the swiftness of an eagle, and the intelligence of a human. #archaeohistories

@not_your_LL @nicolegelinas This is an excellent analysis, thank you.

Can the government constitutionally regulate rents? Yes. Can the government constitutionally force landlords to operate at a loss? Probably not. I think if it ever gets there (and Mamdani makes it more likely), the Supreme Court would hold that rents cannot be set lower than the sum of prudent operating costs plus a market return on the capital value of the apartments rented. (This should sound familiar to the folks responsible for ratemaking at Con Ed and NatGrid) The Rent Stabilization Law and the Emergency Tenant Protection Act aren't designed to set rents this way. Rather, until HSTPA they gave renewing tenants increases below landlords' increases in operating costs and compensated landlords with vacancy increases. (Today about 20% of my outerborough apartments rent for less than their operating costs). HSTPA blew up this system causing much of the distress that we see in pre-74 buildings. For buildings that would be profitable but for regulated rents, the state could eventually be held liable for damages. The Mamdaniites hate to hear it but these buildings are private property. I think that renewal rights and especially succession rights ("endless leases") are constitutionally suspect. I also think that the courts probably would like to avoid deciding the issue. But if a case about tens of thousands of bankrupt apartments gets to the Supreme Court, maybe they would.

This is not an idle risk. There are people working on this, they are actually excited, and this for NYC is like Roe vs. Wade. Mamdani is their unwitting useful dupe. You can think taking this risk is worth it, but you should at least be aware of it so can weigh it against the benefits.

Great presentation by Matt Workman @mattworkman at @Vimeo #REFRAME conference. I'm inspired to learn @UnrealEngine for my next project!

Liked this video: Juri Seo: Sea Monsters | 21st Century Consort (360-degree panoramic video) youtube.com/watch?v=BalQss…

Liked this video: Universal Numbers youtube.com/watch?v=Y4I7vu…