Monocle on Saturday, April 29, 2023: The weekend’s biggest discussion topics with Georgina Godwin. Robin Lustig reviews the papers, Andrew Mueller recaps the week and Monocle’s Washington correspondent, Christopher Cermak, brings us stories from the Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago. Plus: a look ahead at this year’s Hay Festival.
All posts by Intellicurious
Adventures: An Epic 53-Day Road Trip In Morocco
Video timeline: 00:00 Intro 01:19 Arrival 01:30 Chefchaouen 02:45 Talassemtane National Park 04:12 Mediterranean Coastline 06:40 Into the Sahara Desert 08:20 Seclusion of the desert 10:24 Towards Iche 11:20 No Drones allowed 11:52 Desert Cauliflower 12:25 Figuig 13:34 Snow in the desert 14:35 The importance of water 15:16 Rheris Gorge 16:20 Khettara aka Foggara 17:17 Gara Medouar 18:00 Erg Chebbi 24:06 Taouz to M’hamid 24:38 Lost City 25:39 Arabian Camels 27:30 Taouz to M’hamid 29:25 Erg Lehoudi 30:40 Erg Zaher 33:00 Dust-Topia 33:55 Erg Chegaga 35:58 Donkeys 37:05 Rock formations near Foum-Zguid 38:01 Cleaning the air filter 38:35 Rock Carvings of Aït Ouazik 39:46 Jbel Saghro 41:40 Barbary Ground Squirrels 41:58 Todgha Gorge 42:30 Akhiamm Rock Arch 43:03 Dadès Gorge 44:12 Valley of Roses 45:22 Rammed earth architecture 45:50 Desert rain 46:33 Western Sahara 48:33 Dhakla 48:54 Border to Mauritania 50:05 Assalama Shipwreck 50:31 Khenfiss National Park 51:46 Ksar Tafnidilt 52:18 Plage Blanche 4×4 Trail 57:54 Argan Tree 58:25 Amtoudi 58:57 Anti-Atlas 59:24 Painted Rocks of Tafraout 01:00:24 Souss-Massa National Park 01:01:37 Essaouria 01:03:10 La Sultana Oualidia 01:05:26 Hammam Treatment 01:06:00 Lagoon of Oualidia 01:06:48 Marrakesh 01:07:30 Djemaa el Fna 01:09:10 Bahia Palace 01:09:42 La Sultana Marrakesh 01:11:13 Saadian Tombs 01:11:42 Storks 01:12:26 Climbing Mount Toubkal 01:16:55 Tizi’n’Test Mountain Pass & High Atlas 01:18:19 Aït-Ben-Haddou 01:19:28 Ouzoud Falls 01:20:00 Aguelmam Azegza National Park 01:20:17 Morocco’s Trash Problem 01:20:51 Barbary Macaques 01:22:03 Fès 01:22:27 Tanneries of Fès 01:25:12 Volubulis 01:26:43 Rabat 01:28:07 Outro
Watch as we explore remote landscapes, climb high peaks, battle breath-taking dust-topias (double pun, yeah!), and navigate the hectic bustle of Morocco’s major cities.
Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – May 1, 2023
Barron’s Magazine – May 1, 2023:
The Cautionary History of Debt-Limit Gimmicks
The U.S. Congress began imposing debt limits in 1776. When the Continental Congress authorized its very first loan from France, it instructed U.S. commissioners to borrow a “sum not exceeding two million sterling.” Congress continued to permit the Treasury to borrow only up to bond-by-bond specific limits until 1917. Prior to then, U.S. Treasury secretaries actually operated under multiple debt limits, authorized bond by authorized bond. The single, aggregate debt limit we’re more familiar with today was first adopted by the U.S. in 1939.
The Fed Has Few Good Options. The Risk of a Misstep Is Growing.
The Federal Reserve is struggling to cool inflation further without damaging the economy. The easy part is over.
J&J’s Kenvue Spinoff: A Rare IPO Winner in a Moribund Market
The consumer health company features a range of leading brands, a relatively cheap valuation, a solid balance sheet, consistent earnings, and a healthy dividend yield. It’s no tech unicorn, a good thing in 2023.
Pressure on First Republic Mounts as Advisors Jump Ship
The bank’s elite wealth management unit is suffering a major talent drain. It may only get worse.
Front Page: The New York Times — April 29, 2023
Fed Slams Its Own Oversight of Silicon Valley Bank in Post-Mortem
The Federal Reserve released hundreds of pages documenting how bank supervision and regulation failed to prevent the lender’s collapse. The F.D.I.C. released a separate report on Signature Bank.
North Carolina Gerrymander Ruling Reflects Politicization of Judiciary Nationally
When it had a Democratic majority last year, the North Carolina Supreme Court voided the state’s legislative and congressional maps as illegal gerrymanders. Now the court has a Republican majority, and says the opposite.
Homeless in the City Where He Was Once Mayor
Craig Coyner’s descent onto the streets of Bend, Ore., came after decades spent fighting as a lawyer and politician for those on the edge of society.
Gov. Hochul Gets a Budget Deal, but No Signature Win
The budget deal contained a series of hard-fought wins for the governor, but left her without a grand policy achievement to trumpet.
Art: ‘Must-See Museum Exhibitions’ – May 2023
Doris Salcedo – Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, 21 May–17 September 2023 – Salcedo is a Colombian-born artist, whose central subject is human trauma and tragedy. Though much of her work emanates from the violent conflict over the last three decades in her native land, its resonance is universal. Doris Salcedo presents eight major series of works from across her career – from untitled pieces of wooden furniture filled with concrete to the remarkable Palimpsest in which the names of over 300 refugees and migrants who died at sea quite literally weep before our eyes.
Vincent van Gogh 2023 marks the 170th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh. Three exhibitions opening this month look set to enhance our understanding of the great Dutch painter:
Van Gogh and the Avant Garde The Art Institute of Chicago 14 May–4 September 2023 – Van Gogh and the Avant Garde takes the modern landscape as its central subject and looks at how the artist – along with Seurat, Signac and others – turned his attention from urban Parisian life to wrestling with the surrounding countryside with a formal inventiveness that set the tone for the development of Modernism.
Van Gogh’s Cypresses The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 22 May–27 August 2023 – From the religious connotation of trees in graveyards to their role as the backdrop of his incarceration at the asylum in Saint-Remy, the artist’s flame-like evergreens will be presented with all their evocative resonance in Van Gogh’s Cypresses,
Van Gogh in Auvers. His Final Months Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 12 May–3 September 2023 – The unsurpassable Van Gogh Museum will celebrate its own 50th anniversary with Van Gogh in Auvers. His Final Months – an exhibition delving into the tremendously productive final period of his life, in which he made several of his most renowned masterpieces.
The New York Times Book Review – April 30, 2023
The New York Times Book Review (April 30, 2023): On the cover this week – Ned Blackhawk’s “The Rediscovery of America,” a sweeping, important, revisionist work of American history that places Native Americans front and center. Illustrating it is “Les Castors du Roi,” a 2011 painting by Kent Monkman, a Cree artist in Canada’s Dish With One Spoon Territory.
Read Your Way Through Boston
Paul Theroux, the quintessential travel writer, has also enshrined his Massachusetts roots in his writing. Here are his recommendations for those who come to visit.
My father, like many passionate readers, was a literary pilgrim in his native Massachusetts, a state rich in destinations, hallowed by many of the greatest writers in the language. “Look, Paulie, this is the House of the Seven Gables — go on, count them!”
Everything, Everywhere, in One Big Book
In “All the Knowledge in the World,” Simon Garfield recounts the history of the encyclopedia — a tale of ambitious effort, numerous errors and lots of paper.
In ‘Ordinary Notes,’ a Radical Reading of Black Life
The scholar Christina Sharpe’s new book comprises memories, observations, artifacts and artworks — fragments attesting to the persistence of prejudice while allowing glimpses of something like hope.
Seaside Italian Villa Tour: Capo Mortola In Liguria
Located in a setting considered among the most beautiful in Western Liguria, made even more pleasant by the typically Mediterranean microclimate of the area, this property extends over 2,341 sqm of luxuriant terraced flower garden that descends towards the sea, with private access, richly planted with olive trees, cacti, lemons, grapefruit, fruit trees and a small vegetable garden.
The often breathtaking panorama opens up to the view from the exclusive infinity pool, located right on the seafront, flanked by a pool house with a shower and toilet. A panoramic glass lift allows convenient access to the estate, also guaranteed by a picturesque porticoed driveway, adorned with bougainvillaea and scented wisteria.
Music Concerts: Chopin’s Sonata For Cello & Piano
- CELLO Camille Thomas
- PIANO Julien Brocal
The Chopin’s sonata for cello and piano was dedicated to his friend Auguste-Joseph Franchomme. Franchomme transcribed the Chopin’s piano pieces for cello after knowing Chopin found no objection to this.
The most ambitious project of the Franco-Belgian cellist Camille Thomas. Camille Thomas plays on the Franchomme’s mythical cello – the Stradivarius Feuermann.
Travel & History: The Sindh Region Of Pakistan (DW)
The 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan was devastating for those living in the Sindh region. Most were Hindus and fled to India, as the area was completely assigned to Pakistan. Many Muslims from India then resettled in Sindh and changed the face of this region, whose cultural heritage had been formed over centuries.
Suddenly, the Hindus who remained found themselves in the minority. Many members of the Sindhi community are now scattered across the globe. They’re making every effort to preserve the old stories and traditions and are proud of their legacy as descendants of one of the oldest human civilizations.
Architecture: Wainscott Residence In New York
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Heirloom Home 00:22 – The Salt Box 00:47 – Acknowledging the Culture of Place 00:57 – The Brief 01:40 – A Walkthrough of the Heirloom Home 02:06 – The Art Cube 02:39 – Intertwining Domestic and Vacation Living 02:58 – The Future Needs of the Materials 03:41 – The Interiors Palette 04:07 – Unifying the Home and Immersing in its Surrounds 04:55 – Coming Together to Form One Voice
Its structure and materiality connect the residing family to the landscape, art and heritage of the area, whilst also bringing them together through considered multigenerational living. Bates Masi + Architects thoughtfully responds to the needs of the future home’s inhabitants, who came with a desire to display a significant art collection inside an heirloom home, to maintain views of the landscape and to house their two adult children as the family grows.
This forms the basis of the residence’s distinct structure, which is made of three individual volumes that operate just as seamlessly separately as they do together. Wainscott Residence reveals what lies inside an heirloom home. It is inherently linked to the surrounding landscape, dominated by picturesque green lawns, trees and a distant skyline that give a fresh, vibrant feel that is echoed in the coveted art collection. The southern aspect connects to the surroundings; every south-facing room opens up to the outside, with the doors pocketed into the walls so that the house can be completely unified with the landscape.
