Category Archives: Views

Village Walks: Fayence In The South Of France (4K)

Tourist Channel (April 29, 2023) – Located in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of south eastern France, Fayence is midway between the mountains and the sea.  Perched on the side of a hill, it overlooks the plain between the southern Alps and the Esterel massif which borders the coast between Cannes and Saint Raphael.  

A fine example of traditional Provençal architecture, Fayence lies on the D562 road between Draguignan and Grasse, and is a gateway for visitors wishing to explore the surrounding area.  North of the town, the D563 road leads through oak forested hills to Mons and beyond to the Route Napoléon which links Nice to Grenoble through the Alps. 

Fayence has long been a secret destination for tourists driving towards the interior countryside of the Var with its deep gorges, rocky outcrops, vineyards, fields of lavender and olive groves along the way.  It is an unmissable stop for the lovers of historical towns and relaxing landscapes characteristic of Provence.   The long summers are warm averaging around 25C and dropping to a mild 10C from December until February.

Adventures: An Epic 53-Day Road Trip In Morocco

Lucas T. Jahn Films (April 29, 2023) – From sweeping sand dunes to desolate highways of emptiness, bustling cities, and snow-covered peaks, we explored Morocco from north to south and east to west. Driving more than 10,000 km in eight weeks, our roadtrip included many unforgettable adventures.

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.

Front Page: The New York Times — April 29, 2023

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Fed Slams Its Own Oversight of Silicon Valley Bank in Post-Mortem

The Federal Reserve faulted its oversight of Silicon Valley Bank, saying it failed to take forceful enough action to prevent its collapse.
CREDITJIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

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

The North Carolina Supreme Court reversed itself on Friday on a key voting rights case after its majority flipped from Democratic to Republican.
CREDITSEAN RAYFORD/GETTY IMAGES

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.

Seaside Italian Villa Tour: Capo Mortola In Liguria

Lionard Luxury Real Estate (April 28, 2023) – On the promontory of Capo Mortola, at a stone’s throw from the French border and Montecarlo, this wonderful villa in a high position offers a stunning panoramic view of the sea and Villa Hanbury’s wonderful botanic gardens.

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.

Architecture: Wainscott Residence In New York

The Local Project – (April 28, 2023) – Inside an heirloom home, unification lies at the centre. In designing Wainscott Residence, Bates Masi + Architects considers the fabric of the area and the immediate and future needs of the house.

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.

Travel: Aerial Tour Of The Village Of Barbiani, Italy

Florence TV (April 28, 2023) – The centenary of the birth of Don Lorenzo Milani in 2023 gave us the excuse to return to Barbiana, in the municipality of Vicchio, where Don Lorenzo was sent by the Florentine Curia in 1954. There, in a place isolated and unknown at the time, he gave life to a school and to a teaching capable of speaking to the whole world.

Barbiana is located in the region of Tuscany. Tuscany’s capital,  Florence is approximately 14 mi away from Barbiana (as the crow flies). The distance from Barbiana to Italy’s capital Rome (Rome) is approximately 149 miles.

Front Page: The New York Times — April 28, 2023

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U.S. Economy Continues to Grow, but More Slowly

CREDITKARL RUSSELL

Gross domestic product increased 1.1 percent in the first quarter as consumer spending remained robust despite higher interest rates.

Biden Faces His First Big Choice on Debt Limit

President Biden faces a cascading set of decisions as the nation barrels toward default. He will need to find what, if any, common ground on spending cuts he has with Republicans.
CREDITDOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

After Republicans passed a bill that pairs spending cuts and fossil fuel support with raising the nation’s borrowing cap, the president must decide when and how to negotiate

New York Officials Failed to Address the Housing Crisis. Now What?

The state seemed poised to take the first meaningful action in decades to address its deep housing shortage. But the plans fell apart, in yet another indictment of dysfunction in Albany.

Meet the Climate Hackers of Malawi

On tiny farms they’re testing creative ideas to stay ahead of the cascading threats — heat and drought, cyclones and floods — transforming their world.

New York Art Exhibitions: ‘Matt Bollinger – Station’

Bollinger, Uncle Dave, 2023 (MBO 23.003) 2
Matt Bollinger, Uncle Dave, 2023.

François Ghebaly Gallery, New York City (April 27, 2023) – François Ghebaly is proud to present Station by Matt Bollinger. Ithaca-based artist Matt Bollinger works from a complex interdisciplinary base: as painter, draftsman, animator, and elegist, he creates work that straddles the projects of both visual art and narrative fiction.

Matt Bollinger – Station

April 22 – May 27, 2023

His stories, by and large, are of America’s rural working class–each is told through a bricolage of memory, family history, direct observation, art-historical research, and literary invention. For his latest exhibition, Bollinger chronicles the semi-fictional inhabitants of a rural central Missourian community, offering in the process ruminative, disillusioned vignettes of the real ‘American Dream.’

Bollinger, Brothers V, 2022 (MBO 22.005) 1
Matt Bollinger, Brothers V, 2022.

Spanning the far wall, Uncle Dave (2023) is the most ambitious work in Bollinger’s show–with its impressive vertical dimension, some eight feet-tall, the painting acts as an anchor to the New York gallery space, drawing the eye in and upward. The work depicts three sanitation workers surrounding the bright yellow cab of a dump truck. Framed by wildflowers underfoot and the scintillating glare of another truck’s headlight, the men are shown in progressive life stages.

Bollinger, Cape Hollow II, 2022 (MBO 22.002) 1
Matt Bollinger, Cape Hollow II, 2022.

At the far right, the youth holds a rake and stares listlessly out of view. The middle-aged man, partially obscured, gestures forward with a lighter and a yellow traffic flag, while the eldest is positioned above the other men and descends from the cab, directly confronting the viewer’s gaze. The work’s triadic symbol of labor, class, and the passage of time ––alongside compositional affinities, somewhere between Courbet and religious genre painting ––underscores many of the themes latent both in the exhibition title and in the artist’s work at large.

Historic Tour: Locations In ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry’ Film (2023)

National Trust (April 27, 2023) – Based on the bestselling novel by Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton is exclusively in cinemas from April 28 2023.

Recently retired, Harold Fry is an unremarkable man who is content to fade quietly into the background of life, until one day he learns that an old friend is dying. He sets off to the post office to send her a letter and decides to keep walking: all the way to her hospice, 450 miles away.

The Bath Skyline in Somerset and Minchinhampton Common in Gloucestershire were both used as locations for the film, which was shot sequentially across the UK over several weeks, mirroring Harold’s own pilgrimage through England’s many varied landscapes – from bustling cities to wild moorland.

Here Jim and Rachel tell us how being on location helped bring to life story’s themes of reconnecting with the land and embracing the unknown. Filming at National Trust places helps provide our charity with income which we use to keep those houses, gardens and landscapes in good condition for everyone to visit and enjoy.

Front Page: The New York Times — April 27, 2023

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House G.O.P. Passes Debt Limit Bill, Paving the Way for a Clash With Biden

Speaker Kevin McCarthy barely cobbled together the votes to pass his debt limit plan, which would cut spending and roll back parts of President Biden’s agenda.
CREDIT

House Republicans narrowly passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling while cutting spending by nearly 14 percent over a decade. President Biden has vowed to veto the measure.

On Eve of Trial, Discovery of Carlson Texts Set Off Crisis Atop Fox

The discovery of the texts added pressure on the Fox leadership as it sought to find a way to avoid a trial in the Dominion defamation lawsuit.
CREDITREBECCA NOBLE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Private messages sent by Tucker Carlson that had been redacted in legal filings showed him making highly offensive remarks that went beyond the comments of his prime-time show.

In Searing Detail, Trump’s Accuser Tells Her Story

E. Jean Carroll, who says Donald Trump raped her, told a chilling story on the stand. The former president harangued her from outside the courtroom.

In an Indian Village, Cultivating Girls’ Big-League Dreams

A new $500 million women’s cricket league is offering the kind of opportunities that never existed before in India. The girls of one Punjab village are ready.