Today across the world , Nelson Mandela is a hero exalted as a legend. But to the people of South Africa who he liberated, he was Madiba, a leader who fought against the tides for justice. To honor Madiba’s legacy is to fight injustice before history rewrites itself. youtu.be/I39uc0PRhCY

I had a suspicion when I was browsing the 1910 census last week that "Pawo Humanik, musician" was the celebrity Ukrainian-American fiddler Pawlo Humeniuk. And now that I had a chance to look, it was definitely him, he lived on East 2nd from 1905 to the 1930s. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawlo_H...

It's strange to say but there's an old man in my lane in the Templeton Pool who really smells like the classic cashew butter and daikon sandwich from Les Vivres in Montreal in the early 2000s🤔 not sure how it's possible. Life still surprises

This is an incredibly good speech - featuring a shoutout to @jfrejnyc.bsky.social, formed to counter the narrative that all American Jews were skeptical of Mandela in 1990 due to his support for Palestinian liberation. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Join the Workers Circle for a book talk and discussion with @mollycrabapple.bsky.social, New York Times bestselling author of Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. Learn more and RSVP: www.circle.org/events/here-... #JewishLaborBund #Yiddish #MollyCrabapple #WorkersCircle

you stupid mother fucker (markwayne not eugene) we tricked the entire world into sending their smartest hardest working people here and then tricked those same people into staying permanently instead of going back to their home country you are BLOWING UP OUR SPOT

found a member of this landsmanshaft among my East 2nd St cohort (drummer Jack Kasanofsky who lived at 97 2nd Ave in the 20s, so only a little bit north of this). and now thinking back to this letter 🥸

having been adding to this tally over morning coffee most days since this, and so far I'm at 165 Jewish musicians who lived along this strip ~1910-25, of which ~45 are known klezmer musicians and ~55 are Progressive Musical Benevolent Society members. (the organization's office was right here.)

I did not think this would be as wild as it was 🥺

Here’s the full story: the BC Conservatives have hired an Alberta separatist and a far-right media figure, signalling the direction the party plans to take under new leader Kerry Lynne Findlay thetyee.ca/News/2026/07...

lmao

Please? 1) ALT-TEXT GRAPHICS. It's good internet behavior. Accessibility matters. 2) Please do not ask strangers online qs that (basic/non-AI) Google can answer. It's just rude to demand their time. 3) Check someone's profile before you decide you know their deal & start yelling at them? OK?

having been adding to this tally over morning coffee most days since this, and so far I'm at 165 Jewish musicians who lived along this strip ~1910-25, of which ~45 are known klezmer musicians and ~55 are Progressive Musical Benevolent Society members. (the organization's office was right here.)

Getting very sick of my computer and wishing I had a room sized Minority Report style holographic display to browse digital archives

… will probably have more to say about this later. Palestinians, Jews of color … all people of color deserve better than this shit jewishcurrents.org/curt-mills-a...

"Now, this is not totalitarian. Democracy is happening. The democratically elected mayor of Vancouver announced this idea three years ago." Here's my story on Day 1 of the public hearing for Vancouver's villages rezoning proposal, and why it looks like an uphill battle. www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-p...

deranged MAGA guy, but honestly an opinion held and put in practice by many "fitness obsessed" Vancouver residents in past years of extreme forest fire🥸so I observed as I saw them sprinting in their fancy gear past my window in pea soup wildfire smoke

Such scenes are playing out all over Canada, so if you complain of firesmoke — absolutely understandable; it is an apocalyptic hellscape — please be mindful you are literally surrounded by the ashes of other people's lives and dreams. It, too, is an unthinkable horror. It's all so wrong.

sad situation. as someone who has attended some of Centre A's programming I want the best for them, but it doesn't sound like they are treating the workers right.

Hive Mind! I am looking for a Deaf or Partially Deaf artist/graphic designer who signs (I'm not overly bothered whether that's BSL, ASL, or what) who might *potentially* be interested in doing some SFF book covers for pay. These are fact-finding enquiries for me at present, not immediate contract.

Both are, at this point, crazy and evil people, but the thing about J.K Rowling that I find striking is that there is a visibly hedonic quality to her online viciousness that you don't really see in someone like Elon Musk. (Though not for the latter's lack of trying.)

Run soundtrack the past couple of weeks has been @thedigradio.bsky.social brilliant new series, Nusantara, on the 20th-century history of Indonesia. A hard listen at times because of obvious reasons, but it’s fantastic. Give it a listen: thedigradio.com/Nusantara/

who the fuck was this guy they brought in to do a Q&A with Boots Riley at the Park Theatre here in Vancouver last night.😭 honestly the worst interviewer I have seen live in all my decades of film fests and book fairs, it's like they pressed into service a "more of a comment than a question" film bro

Vancouver folks, there is a public hearing coming up regarding the data centre being proposed at the Hootsuite building, 111 E 5th Ave. Comments are being accepted, and also the opportunity to speak against it. www.shapeyourcity.ca/111-e-5

finally reading this today (or rather listening to it on my phone while doing monotonous work) and wow this is a rough read but fascinating. I only read the pages about Joseph Moskowitz a few years ago but it's far from the most interesting part.

the "mossad did it" stuff is such a cop-out. it lets people sidestep the male privilege and rich-guy networks that enabled epstein for years. and it derails the conversation from the actual crimes these dudes committed—and the accountability they still owe their victims.

Some Vancouver election news: next Tuesday me and @cbcstephenquinn.bsky.social will hold an all-candidates forum with the three Vancouver mayoral "progressive" candidates - COPE's Stephanie Allen - Green Party's Pete Fry - OneCity's William Azaroff It'll air on The Early Edition and our podcast.

JK Rowling through her TERF organization, Beira's Place have sent Amnesty International a demand letter seeking a full retraction of their report, a public apology, and a bar to future criticism of gender critical groups as anti rights orgs. If they don't comply, they'll commence legal action.

Beyond physical media for books, music, movies and TV, etc too lots of crafts and hobbies have lost physical spaces you can go for supplies and inspiration- private equity has shut big chain stores and smaller ones can't provide the same hours or locations, there are fewer places to go for things

will be happy to see these folks (ABC) out of a job this fall. came to power on an anti-incumbent wave and haven't done anything to deserve keeping power.

chuckling at the name of this trombone player in the 1922 A.F.M. local 802 directory "Adolf Esskuchen" (looked him up on Ancestry, unsurprisingly a German immigrant to NYC, born around 1890)

You might not care about climate change but I can promise you it will come for you regardless

The Las Vegas skyline from Blade Runner 2049 vs the Toronto skyline from right now.

chuckling at the name of this trombone player in the 1922 A.F.M. local 802 directory "Adolf Esskuchen" (looked him up on Ancestry, unsurprisingly a German immigrant to NYC, born around 1890)

If Mad magazine was still at its height they would have ended JD Vance's career by doing a parody called “Hillbilly Smellegy” in 2016, this is why they want to neutralize real journalism

Kid1, who is both an conductor and engineer for CN and has driven trains through SK wildfires himself, just sent me this video from Ontario. When I tell you they arent paid enough!!! vt.tiktok.com/ZSXkuEadE/

aha! someone in the big klezmer group chat was able to figure out via someone at NYPL that it's online here:

I've worked 16 years in BC postsecondary as a CUPE member and the whole time under the BC-Liberal-created PSEA, retained by BC NDP. meaning when it comes to collective bargaining, the employer is just a sockpuppet for the provincial government who forbid any precedent-setting gains.

if anyone is at Harvard and knows how they can request & have digitized a BA thesis from the 90s to share with me please reach out!🥺📜

will be happy to see these folks (ABC) out of a job this fall. came to power on an anti-incumbent wave and haven't done anything to deserve keeping power.

I wrote about what looks very much like a formal US plan to institutionalize a global network of concentration camps.

this guy was decades ahead of me, researching niche NY klezmer history like the Progressive Musical Benevolent Society for his BA thesis in the mid 90s😅"A Gilgul fun a Nigun: Jewish musicians in New York, 1881-1945" by James Loeffler. sadly not digitized & even my friend at Harvard couldn't get it😓

👀

Speaking of which, does anyone know of any Yiddish translations of the classic Jewish children's books "where the wild things are" and "the giving tree?" I just read them to the babies in my own Yiddish words but I'm afraid I don't do them justice

Just added a little over a hundred more works to the Southeast Asian Composers Solo Keyboard pieces bringing the total number of works to about 750! doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...

You’d think I’d have fully processed the 2024 US election by now, but I still have the odd moment of “Jesus Christ, they elected him *again*?”

I've worked 16 years in BC postsecondary as a CUPE member and the whole time under the BC-Liberal-created PSEA, retained by BC NDP. meaning when it comes to collective bargaining, the employer is just a sockpuppet for the provincial government who forbid any precedent-setting gains.

this is utterly shameful on the part of amnesty international, throwing their uk office under the bus for defending the rights of a state-persecuted minority because the persecutors have fuck you money

Anyone know if anybody is tracking this kind of thing in Canada? The author was looking... 📚 #PubLibs

People talking about their favorite Sam Neil performances. He was so good at adding depth to what might have been throwaway supporting pieces. His work in the first couple of seasons of Peaky Blinders grounded the show.