Five Bullets 9.15.23

This Litter Belongs to YOU

Welcome back to Circles in Space.

If you’re new here, read this.

Good morning and happy Friday everyone!

1956 Times Square © NYC Municipal Archives

Today’s bullets:

• Documentary: In the Shadow of the Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11 (2019). This past Monday was the 22nd anniversary of September 11th. Students at Stuyvesant High school watched the attacks unfold from a few blocks away and resumed school only one month later. This short documentary interviews students twenty years later.

• Music: Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio (2012). Robert Glasper on keys, Casey Benjamin on sax, flute and vocoder, Derrick Hodge on bass and Chris Dave on drums, Black Radio draws on Glasper’s influences from jazz, soul, rap, hip-hop, and rock.  The group moves across and within genres creating smooth and inventive tunes and covers of Mongo Santamaria, Sade and Nirvana. Bilal, Erykah Badu, Lalah Hathaway, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def and more contribute vocals.

• NYC: City streets will soon be getting a new litter basket - an upgrade from the ubiqutious green mesh baskets deployed in 2002 - in a city-wide effort to curb trash and rats. TIL in 1956 there was a giant litter basket in Times Square.

• Podcasts: Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson spoke with Lex Fridman about his new book on Elon Musk. Isaacson shared some helpful tips on writing and interviewing. 

• Science: America’s Fire Spotters Aren’t Ready to Fade Away Just Yet. In northwestern Montana and other heavily forested areas of the American West, fire lookouts are still a useful asset as forest fire detection moves toward cameras, satellites and AI. There’s also just something about remote off-grid fire towers. The article and accompanying photos capture the tranquil beauty of being high up on a mountain lookout as the first line of defense against forest fires. 

That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Keith