The Rogovoy Report 11.27.22

From around the corner to around the globe ...

Nov 27, 2022

You are reading the new and (hopefully) improved version of The Rogovoy Report, now being created and sent via the Substack platform. Click here if you want to read more about the whys and wherefores of the current iteration of The Rogovoy Report. Also, if you are so moved, please share the newsletter with friends and on social media via the Share button below. Thanks. — SR

The Shaggs, 1968 |© GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty Images (courtesy TLS)

How to Become a Better Listener

(TLS) - Speculations about the origins and functions of music abound. Some invoke Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, an adjunct to his notion of natural selection, whereby the skill and imagination needed for musical performance advertise an individual’s prospects as a mating partner in the same manner as the peacock’s tail. Others cite the roles of mother-child bonding or social cohesion. For Susan Rogers, author of This Is What It Sounds Like, “in large part we seek out music for the rewards of letting our minds wander, rewards linked to our deepest conception of our personal self … We turn to our favourite records to take us where we want to go – where we need to go”.

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How can we live well? Three new books draw on the work of historical philosophers in the hope of finding an answer. (TLS)

An ode to the short but influential life of the audio cassette. (Adjacent Possible/Tip of the hat to Peter Spear)

Better fitness in 10 minutes or less sounds like an infomercial scam, but recent research has shown that short bouts of physical activity sprinkled throughout the day can have big benefits when performed correctly. (WSJ)

The Netherlands, which is a bit bigger than Maryland, has become the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products and food technology behind the U.S. (WaPo)

The classic retail model is in need of a fundamental shake up and even though we keep tacking extensions onto it, like digital or sustainability, it’s the frame itself that needs reinventing. Rebuilding that frame won’t be something any of us does on our own, it will be a collective effort – we will reinvent retail together or we won’t do it at all. (SG/Thanks to Peter Spear)

UKRAINE

Illustration by Ben Jones / courtesy Foreign Affairs

Ukraine Holds the Future

(Foreign Affairs) by Timothy Snyder - Russia, an aging tyranny, seeks to destroy Ukraine, a defiant democracy. A Ukrainian victory would confirm the principle of self-rule, allow the integration of Europe to proceed, and empower people of goodwill to return reinvigorated to other global challenges. A Russian victory, by contrast, would extend genocidal policies in Ukraine, subordinate Europeans, and render any vision of a geopolitical European Union obsolete. Should Russia continue its illegal blockade of the Black Sea, it could starve Africans and Asians, who depend on Ukrainian grain, precipitating a durable international crisis that will make it all but impossible to deal with common threats such as climate change. A Russian victory would strengthen fascists and other tyrants, as well as nihilists who see politics as nothing more than a spectacle designed by oligarchs to distract ordinary citizens from the destruction of the world. This war, in other words, is about establishing principles for the twenty-first century. It is about policies of mass death and about the meaning of life in politics. It is about the possibility of a democratic future.

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Be thankful for the pugnacious Zelensky’s magnificent resistance to suppression by George Will (WaPo)

CIVIL WAR WATCH

Donald Trump Is Ineligible to Be President

(NYT) - How does a democracy protect itself against a political leader who is openly hostile to democratic self-rule? This is the dilemma the nation faces once again as it confronts a third presidential run by Donald Trump, even as he still refuses to admit he lost his second. There is a solution in our Constitution to protect the country from Trump: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from public office anyone who, “having previously taken an oath” to support the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort” to America’s enemies.

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The list of investigative priorities for the House Judiciary Committee that the incoming GOP chairperson, Jim Jordan, sent to the Justice Department earlier this month reads like an assignment sheet for Fox News. (The Atlantic)

Presidential candidate Kanye ‘Ye’ West reveals Trump ‘screamed’ at him in bombshell 2024 campaign video. “The thing that Trump was most perturbed about [is] me asking him to be my vice president,” Kanye said. (Daily Beast)

Donald Trump had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Nick Fuentes. Who is Nick Fuentes? A Holocaust-denying virulent antisemite and white supremacist incel. (Forward)

At protests, guns are doing the talking. Armed Americans, often pushing a right-wing agenda, are increasingly using open-carry laws to intimidate opponents and shut down debate. (NYT)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

James Taylor and Taylor Swift hold hands after performing the song "Fire and Rain" together during a concert that they played at Tanglewood in Lenox in July 2012. (Courtesy Berkshire Eagle)

Will the Other Taylor Play Tanglewood Next Summer?

(Berkshire Eagle) by Clarence Fanto, LENOX, Mass. - For many of us, it wasn’t the end of the world as we know it. But for Swifties, as Taylor Swift’s many millions of fans are known, it was mass heartbreak, shared via social media, when Ticketmaster, part of the the worldwide Live Nation Entertainment mega-company shut down sales of Swift tickets for the general public before the scheduled start a week ago Friday. The unlucky millions who failed to score tickets were furious, and an outcry erupted among critics accusing Ticketmaster and Live Nation of a stranglehold on the concert business. As part of an apology to fans on Instagram, Swift hinted that more shows may be scheduled. Back in July 2012, Swift, already a rapidly rising star, was the special guest for James Taylor's annual gig at Tanglewood. Here’s a thought: In view of her stellar performance at Tanglewood in 2012, wouldn’t that be the ideal site for one of her additional bookings? And this time, maybe Taylor, James Taylor, could be her co-star.

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A new survey attempts to find out if or how low-paid workers at nonprofit cultural groups can afford to live in the Berkshires (B Eagle)

Shakespeare & Co names first three plays of 2023 season (iBerkshires)

New BSC artistic director to announce 2023 season in January (B Eagle)

The brewing of Berkshire roots-rock 'supergroup' Whiskey Treaty Roadshow (iBerkshires)

Here’s who’s performing in the Capital Region between now and year's end (ATU)

Twenty years after the series aired, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh sat down and watched the complete 'Seinfeld' for the first time. Here's what he found.... (New Yorker)

NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

The Springs Motel in the Berkshires. The motel was the subject of the makeover show "Inn the Works." (Christopher Muther/Globe Staff)

Despite Its Reality TV Makeover, Springs Motel Is Still a Work in Progress

(Boston Globe) NEW ASHFORD, Mass. — Who can resist the charm of a classic midcentury motor lodge? The sleek lines of the roadside architecture were combined with the new and exciting phenomenon of an affordable vacation just off the freeway. As a result, the motels of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s sprang up like weeds between cracks in the asphalt. Often anchored by a restaurant, a gift shop, and, of course, a pool. But as midcentury architecture and motor lodges fell out of favor, many of these gems were bulldozed to make room for strip malls, big box stores, and generic family-style dining chains. Some were abandoned as nature had its way with forgotten swimming pools and miles of deserted shag carpets. In the Berkshires, the Springs Motel, a 1959 motor lodge with a lobby straight out of Palm Springs, faced a similar fate until it was purchased by 34-year-old Lindsey Kurowski last year. Along with three of her siblings (plus contributions from her grandmother), she renovated the motel on the Magnolia Network show “Inn the Works.” The reality show followed her as she took the crusty Springs from an eyesore to a polished jewel.

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GB Select Board postpones decision on Housatonic School redevelopment (Berkshire Edge)

Valve shut on merger of Great Barrington and Housatonic water systems (Berkshire Edge)

A 'once-in-a-lifetime' stretch of Pittsfield land may become a riverwalk (B Eagle)

As recreational marijuana prices plummet in Mass, medical sales slump (Boston Globe)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Joan Didion (photo Neville Elder/Getty Images)

The Auctioneer Behind the $1.9 Million Joan Didion Sale Can’t Believe Those Prices Either

(Town & Country) HUDSON, N.Y. - Who but Joan Didion could make sense of the fact that her unremarkable seashell collection netted $7,000. That her non-working desk clock—valued at $100—fetched $35,000, plus a 28% purchaser’s premium. Didion’s iconic and omnipresent Celine sunnies—made famous in an advertisement for the brand—sold for $27,000. A pair of leather waste paper baskets—one of which is splotched with apparent water damage—earned well over a dozen furious bids. The winner will take them home for the price of $5,500. Auctioneer Colin Stair of STAIR Galleries has wondered about what Didion would have made of the hoopla — those prices! He thinks she would have kept it as simple and inscrutable as ever. Perhaps just a warm thanks. Or: “I’m grateful.”

The Rogovoy Report