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, jck, and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), 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.
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The news is pretty bleak today. I have a few articles from the news for you that you might have missed, and a lot of stories about the arts. It’s Friday night, and it has been an awful week.
We begin with news from Al Jazeera:
The two countries warn of potential economic, environmental and humanitarian effects if FSO Safer spills or explodes.
From Deutsche Welle:
Regions around the world are facing drought and water shortage, even where rain was once abundant — and that will only worsen as the planet warms. In many parts of the world, cities and countries are learning to adapt.
Back in 2018, taps in Cape Town, South Africa, almost ran dry, making it the world's first major city to face the risk of running out of water. That problem hasn't gone away — this year, communities in Nelson Mandela Bay, about 750 kilometers (460 miles) to the east, could see their reservoirs used up by July.
Cape Town managed to avoid "Day Zero" by introducing strict water restrictions on businesses and residents. The city increased water tariffs and fines for overuse and worked with the agriculture sector to reduce water consumption and retain soil moisture.
That’s it. Now some non-disaster news.
We begin with Deutsche Welle:
The iconic Swedish pop stars are returning to the stage to present their album "Voyage" — as digital versions of themselves. DW talked to member Björn Ulvaeus ahead of the tour premiere.
"It was magic. It really, really worked!" The day after the preview of the ABBA concert that will premiere on May 27 in London, Björn Ulvaeus was visibly excited. "The audience agree to be in this imaginary world for a while at a concert, and they see the ABBAtars as living creatures," the ABBA star told DW, referring to the fact that the band's return to the stage is actually a virtual live concert.
Thanks to the ABBAtars, the name given to the digital holograms of the legendary Swedish pop band, Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid seem miraculously rejuvenated — as if a time machine had transported them directly to 2022 from the late 1970s, when they were at the peak of their fame.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (video):
Upgrading your wall art can seem super expensive, but there are a bunch of affordable sites to find fantastic pieces.
From the Las Cruces Sun News:
Minerva Baumann
LAS CRUCES - The National Endowment for the Arts has approved a $40,000 grant for the University Art Museum at New Mexico State University, among $1.6 million in NEA awards recommended for arts projects in New Mexico.
The NEA recently announced more than $91 million in recommended grants to organizations in all 50 states and United States jurisdictions. Grants are in three NEA funding categories: Grants for Arts Projects, Our Town and State and Regional Partnerships.
From the Armenian Weekly:
NEW YORK, NY—The future of the Armenian community was on display at the opening reception of “The Future of Things Passed” exhibition in Manhattan on May 19th.
The exhibition features celebrated women artists of Armenian descent Eozen Agopian, Melissa Dadourian, Linda Ganjian and Judith Simonian. It is the first developed by the Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice, co-founded by Christopher Atamian and Tamar Hovsepian. Part of the proceeds from art sales at the exhibition will be donated to the New York Armenian Students’ Association Scholarship Fund.
From the NY Times:
Books about Viola Davis, Harvey Fierstein, Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward and more take us “into performance and creativity, slipping down old lanes, conducting close readings.”
The one thing we want to know about art is the one thing no one seems to be able to tell us. How, exactly, does the magic happen? It seems to be a site for danger and vulnerability, and the people who do it keep secrets inside them — sometimes biographical ones, certainly creative ones — that they aren’t always able to convey. But still, we read hungrily about them, trying to understand how some eyes see more than ours do.
From Surface Magazine:
A program called Spazi Capaci organized by anti-Mafia organization Fondazione Falcone brings public art to Palermo, reminding locals of its not-so-distant entanglements with organized crime.
BY RYAN WADDOUPS
With its alluring mix of architectural styles and scenic bay setting nestled within Sicily’s Monte Pellegrino, the city of Palermo teems with energy and vitality, its charming streets bustling with tourists and alfresco trattorias. But it wasn’t always that way: Palermo was once a stronghold of organized crime, with quarreling mobsters whacking one another in the streets, using public funds to build unsightly high-rise apartments, and leaving its historic city center unpreserved. Things changed after the 1992 murder of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone in a bombing, a watershed moment that galvanized the reeling populace into organizing against the mob with mayor Leoluca Orlando.
From Artsy:
The best art is often made from idiosyncratic materials. While few collectors have to deal with the particularities of collecting a work by, say, a known alchemist like
Ad Reinhardt—who was known for his complicated paint recipes—many do have to contend with the fact that artists have not stopped experimenting with unusual materials to make their work.
From the Daily Camera:
Front Range art news and guide May 27-June 2
Week in art
Ana’s Art Gallery is celebrating a move to downtown 1100 Spruce St., Boulder, with an opening reception 5-8 p.m. May 27. The Black-owned gallery, owned by Ana Weir, specializes in art from the Caribbean and Africa and has a variety of African masks, sculptures, carvings and paintings; anasartgallery.com.
The Art Center of Estes Park is ushering in its summer kick-off event, the 22nd Annual Art Market this weekend with vendors, food, drinks and music. This popular event brings in more than 100 local and national artists with a wide variety of fine arts and crafts for sale at Bond Park, 170 MacGregor Ave., Estes Park; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. May 28-29, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. May 30; free; artcenterofestes.com/art-market.
From Travel Awaits:
Be it a picture of an animal, a hunter, or a handprint, there’s something pretty magical about coming face to face with some of humanity’s earliest artworks.
Cave paintings (pictographs) and carvings (petroglyphs), some dating back as far as 40,000 years, may at first glance appear primitive, but these ancient works of art point to the beginnings of human creativity, when we started to express ourselves through images. Some of the world’s most well-known prehistoric artworks are tens of thousands of years old, and despite the humans of the era often being thought of as “primitive cavemen,” much of this art shows incredible creativity and skill.
From the Art Newspaper:
Many works depict enlisted soldiers’ day-to-day routine while some are even anti-war
When the US military evaluates its assets, it tallies its fighter jets, attack helicopters, anti-tank missiles, naval destroyers, grenade launchers, trained personnel and anything else a combat force might need. A perhaps lesser-known asset in the military’s arsenal is its series of art collections, holding tens of thousands of works.
From Deutsche Welle:
More than 20 looted objects from Namibia — including jewelry, tools, fashion and dolls — are being sent back to the country. The loan is the latest move by Germany to address its colonial past.
The artifacts include an ancient three-headed drinking vessel, a doll wearing traditional dress and various spears, hair pieces and other fashion accessories
Twenty-three museum pieces were loaned back to Namibia on Friday from Germany as part of a commitment by Berlin to repair ties with its former African colony.
From the Palm Beach Daily News:
Jodie Wagner
A Palm Beach art dealer whose Worth Avenue gallery was raided by federal agents in December is facing charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in connection with an alleged scheme to sell forged high-end artwork.
Daniel Elie Bouaziz made his first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in West Palm Beach on Friday, according to a release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
It was not immediately known whether Bouaziz entered a plea or he had hired a lawyer to represent him.
From the Washington Post:
A French court on Wednesday charged the former head of the Louvre museum in Paris with fraud in connection with his alleged role in trafficking millions of dollars’ worth of art.
Jean-Luc Martinez, who has denied any wrongdoing, stands accused of “complicity in fraud” and “false facilitation of the ‘origin of property derived from a crime or misdemeanor,’” a French judicial official, commenting on the condition of anonymity as a matter of court policy, told The Washington Post in an email.
From Black Hills Fox (KEVN):
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - A local artist, Charlie Cuny, is sharing her craft with kids on the Pine Ridge Reservation, creating a free box of art supplies designed around Lakota traditional stories, virtues, and values.