Five Bullets 10.11.24
High-Rise revisited, Polyrhythmics, Photography & more
Good Morning and Happy Friday!
This morning is a beautiful sunny day with cool temperatures. We got the first 40 degree temperatures of the fall season this week and also the aurora borealis were visible last night due to a geomagnetic storm.
I’ve got a short dispatch today because I’ve spent all my time this week writing about J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise! Hope you enjoy and are interested enough to read the book or watch the movie.
Have something to share? Leave me a comment!
Five Bullets:
Books: Earlier this month I revisited J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise which I first read earlier this year (I’ve posted about the book before). This time, I wanted to dive into and study it to try to better understand Ballard and the novel. Read more here:
High-Rise: Surrealist Dystopia
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In 1975 J.G. Ballard imagined a violent, concrete landspace as midwife to a new social class.
History: The last survivor of the Japanese force which bombed Pearl Harbor, Masamitsu Yoshioka, has died at age 106. Yoshioka and his pilot destroyed the training ship USS Utah; 58 servicemen died. “They were young men, just like we were. I am so sorry about it; I hope there will not be any more wars” said Yoshioka.
Music: This week I’ve been listening to a few more funky instrumental bands: Polyrhythmics, a Seattle-based band with a psychedelic record-breaks meets afro-beat sound; and from Staten Island, The Budos Band, who also incorporate afro-beat and soul into their Sabbath-inspired riffs. I first saw Budos on Halloween back in 2021 and have been hooked ever since.
NYC: Susan Schiffman photographs un-renovated, rent-stabilized apartments in the East Village as portraits of the residents who live there. (If you or someone you know has a story to tell about your neighborhood, the Neighborhood Stories Project is back up and running!)
Photography: Nick Paumgarten talks with Lee Jaffe about meeting Bob Marley, working and making music with the Wailers, and being there to photograph it all.