56 Years Ago The Rolling Stones Released Their Hit Second Live Album - Men's Journal
Men's Journal article commemorating the Rolling Stones' classic second live album release from 56 years ago.
John Cox
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Tagged history · everything
Wait, Andrew Garfield's ‘The Uprising’ is Actually a Robin Hood Movie? — GQ
Paul Greengrass's historical drama *The Uprising*, about the 1381 Peasants' Revolt starring Andrew Garfield, has suddenly pivoted its marketing to present the film as a Robin Hood origin story just weeks before release, with Garfield's previously unnamed "Ploughman" character now being positioned as the legendary outlaw. The rebranding is puzzling given that the film was developed for years as a straightforward historical epic, though Greengrass has hinted at connections to early Robin Hood literary sources, while the UK distributor flatly denies any Robin Hood connection. The article notes the odd timing and contradiction, comparing it to other failed recent Robin Hood films and speculating whether this was secretly a Robin Hood movie all along.
Frank Lloyd Wright Designs Book | Frank Lloyd Wright Store
This is a Frank Lloyd Wright architecture book featuring 350 of his drawings and designs, including both famous projects like Fallingwater and the Guggenheim as well as previously unpublished sketches that reveal his creative process. The book emphasizes Wright's gift for humanely scaled spaces with meticulous attention to detail, and argues that his drawings alone—capturing his initial moments of inspiration—would secure his legacy as a master artist even without his built structures. The accompanying text provides standard shipping and return policies for the publisher's online store.
Was Anne of Cleves the Original Catfish?
This piece debunks the popular "catfishing" myth surrounding Henry VIII's marriage to Anne of Cleves, arguing that Hans Holbein's portrait was actually an accurate, verified likeness rather than flattering deception. It traces the "Flanders mare" legend to a single unreliable 17th-century history written 140 years after the fact, and argues the real reasons Henry rejected Anne were cultural mismatch, her lack of courtly sophistication, and his own declining health—not her appearance. Worth keeping as a myth-busting corrective that also doubles as a case study in how a juicy but false anecdote outlives the historical record.
Wildfires across Europe detonate forgotten World War bombs
Wildfires and drought sweeping Europe this summer are unearthing and detonating unexploded ordnance left from the two world wars, from Belgium's High Fens battlefields to receding rivers in Hungary and Slovakia. Drawing on interviews with historians, bomb disposal officials and researchers like Sarah Njeri and Christina Greene, the piece argues that climate change is ending Europe's "climatic luck," reactivating buried munitions once kept dormant by stable weather and forcing firefighters and civilians to confront wartime dangers decades after the fighting ended. It's a striking example of how climate change is colliding with historical conflict legacies in unexpected, physically dangerous ways.
Opinion | These 25 Artifacts Explain America
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BASIC ruled the '80s. Here's why Python quietly became the new gateway to coding
Framed as a nostalgic case for why Python has effectively replaced BASIC as the default on-ramp into programming, this piece walks through the parallels: both were bundled or trivially accessible on the machines of their era (home computers then, Linux/graphing calculators/downloads now), both offer low-stakes interactive environments with immediate feedback rather than compile cycles, and both are backed by a huge ecosystem of beginner-friendly books and tutorials (from type-in BASIC programs in old magazines to Sweigart's "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python"). The author, drawing on his own '80s/'90s BASIC background, argues Python earns the "spiritual successor" label precisely because it preserves that approachable, tinkerable feel while scaling up to serious work like data science.
Between Chattanooga And Knoxville Is Tennessee's Growing City Renowned For Fishing And Downtown Fun
Dayton, Tennessee is a quiet, growing town of about 8,000 people roughly 2.5 hours from Nashville, offering a low-key alternative to the state's busier tourist hubs. The piece highlights its historic downtown—home to the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial courthouse-turned-museum and local shops like The Gathering Place and Main Stage Music—alongside its outdoor draws, especially Chickamauga Lake's trophy bass fishing and the waterfalls and trails of Laurel-Snow State Natural Area. It's worth keeping as a practical guide for a scenic, car-friendly detour near Chattanooga and Knoxville.
Between Asheville And Greensboro Is North Carolina's Charming City With A Lovely Downtown And Tasty Eats
Newton, North Carolina, is a small historic town of 13,500 people located midway between Asheville and Greensboro that offers carefully preserved downtown architecture, community-driven events, and local dining and shopping concentrated along its Main Avenue and surrounding streets. The downtown's National Register–listed buildings from the 1920s–1930s house businesses alongside cultural institutions like the Catawba County Museum of History, while the community maintains an active social calendar featuring theater productions, festivals, and concerts at the Frank and Sue Jones Amphitheatre. Its location makes it accessible as either an overnight destination with charming bed-and-breakfast inns or a day trip from larger nearby cities.
Review: ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’
Graeber and Wengrow's *The Dawn of Everything* dismantles the conventional linear narrative of human history—from egalitarian hunter-gatherers through agriculture to inevitable state hierarchies—by drawing on recent archaeological evidence to show that pre-industrial societies were far more politically complex, varied, and deliberately organized than assumed, with populations regularly choosing between different social forms rather than passively following technological determinism. The authors argue that human beings have long possessed the freedom to disobey, relocate, and create alternative social arrangements, and that this freedom, rather than inevitable progress toward bureaucratic states, should define what we consider "civilization." The book, posthumously published after Graeber's death, frames human history as one of political experimentation and possibility rather than predetermined stages, suggesting that our current "stuck" condition in hierarchical states was neither inevitable nor necessary.
Why Confederate Lies Live On
Clint Smith visits Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia—home to 30,000 Confederate graves and magnificent Tiffany stained-glass windows—and discovers how the "Lost Cause" mythology has allowed white Americans to sanitize the Civil War's origins in slavery while dismissing the discomfort of Black visitors. Through encounters with cemetery staff, Sons of Confederate Veterans members, and Civil War reenactors, Smith documents how people insist the war was about states' rights and personal heritage rather than the documented truth that Confederate leaders fought explicitly to preserve slavery. He contrasts this with the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, which centers enslaved people's experiences and refuses the nostalgia that allows visitors elsewhere to ignore slavery's brutality, suggesting that confronting the full reality of American slavery requires rejecting comfortable family narratives in favor of historical truth.
The Surprisingly Complicated History of the Frisbee
The Frisbee originated in 1937 when Walter Morrison and his girlfriend played catch with a popcorn tin lid, then cake pans, eventually recognizing a commercial opportunity after strangers offered to pay for their flying discs. After World War II, Morrison refined the design using aerodynamic principles, partnering with investors to create the plastic Whirlo-Way and later the Pluto Platter, which he sold to Wham-O in 1957. Wham-O adopted the name "Frisbee" (a playful reference to the Frisbie Pie Company tins that Yale students had been throwing for years) and, under marketing executive Ed Headrick's direction in the 1960s, transformed it into a mainstream sport and eventually inspired disc golf.
The Orphans of Flight 723
After her mother's death in 2021, Michelle Brennen discovered a box of documents about Delta Flight 723, the 1973 crash that killed her father when she was ten, and spent two years tracking down the other 88 passengers' families to understand how the tragedy had shaped their lives. She discovered striking parallels in their experiences—unprocessed grief, life paths dramatically altered, childhood exclusion from mourning rituals—and organized a 50th anniversary gathering at Logan Airport that became a moment of collective reckoning, particularly when the pilot's granddaughter spoke publicly to defend her grandfather's memory against decades of blame. The piece explores whether shared grief and community can provide healing that decades of individual silence could not, weaving together research on trauma and loss with intimate portraits of how one catastrophe rippled across multiple families for half a century.
Colin Powell Still Wants Answers
Colin Powell privately opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion as foolish and warned President Bush it would end badly, yet he became the war's most persuasive public advocate by delivering the February 2003 U.N. speech presenting allegedly solid intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The article reveals that C.I.A. analysts and other intelligence officials doubted much of the evidence Powell presented—including claims from a dubious source nicknamed Curveball—and that the speech was constructed under pressure to make an unconvincing case more "slam dunk" persuasive for domestic audiences, with dissenters kept out of the preparation process. Powell later acknowledged he could have simply refused the assignment and resigned, which might have created a political domino effect that prevented the war, but he chose not to because "he's the president."
51 Must-Visit National Park Properties Across America
This is a state-by-state guide to over 400 National Park Service sites across the United States, highlighting one notable property in each state plus Washington, D.C. Each entry provides a brief description of the site's distinctive features—whether geological formations like the Grand Canyon, historical landmarks like Valley Forge, or cultural heritage sites like the Freedom Riders National Monument—along with specific activities and attractions visitors can expect to find there. The guide serves as a practical reference for planning road trips or identifying NPS destinations within driving distance regardless of location.
The Great Buenos Aires Bank Heist
# Summary On January 13, 2006, seven thieves staged a bank robbery at Banco Río in San Isidro, Argentina, that captivated the nation as police and media surrounded the building for hours—all while the gang quietly escaped through a tunnel dug from underground storm drains, having emptied 143 safe-deposit boxes of nearly $20 million in cash and valuables. Mastermind Fernando Araujo spent years planning the perfect heist, recruiting an engineer to construct the tunnel, a negotiator to distract police, and specialists to crack the boxes, designing every detail to be a flawless work of art that would leave no evidence. The gang was eventually caught through an impulsive betrayal by one member's wife, but have since become folk heroes in Argentina, publishing books, consulting on films, and openly discussing their crime as a masterpiece now that the statute of limitations has expired.
Paul McCartney: 'I was thought to be the guy who broke The Beatles up'
This is an extensive interview with Paul McCartney conducted during the 2020 lockdown, covering his reflections on The Beatles' reunion through Peter Jackson's documentary, his prolific solo career that he argues is equal to much of his work with the band, and his evolving relationship with fame over six decades. He discusses how he was initially reluctant to acknowledge his Beatles past but has grown more openly nostalgic, while defending his controversial lawsuit against the band that was necessary to save their catalog from manager Allen Klein, and reflecting on depression, self-doubt, and the difference between 1960s fame and today's social media-driven celebrity culture.
3 Years and Over $2 Million: What It Costs to Restore a Frank Lloyd Wright Home
Frank Lloyd Wright's homes are beloved by admirers but notoriously difficult and expensive to maintain, with owners facing structural issues like weak foundations, leaky roofs, and deteriorating materials that require substantial investment to address. The article documents several case studies of Wright home restorations, from the Ditmer family spending roughly $300,000 in the first year on a 2,900-square-foot Wisconsin home to the $2 million renovation of Indiana's Samara between 2019 and 2022, showing that costs vary widely depending on the home's condition, intended use, and the meticulous standards owners choose to maintain. These restorations reveal that while preserving Wright's original design vision is possible, it demands significant financial resources, specialized craftspeople, and long-term commitment from owners who are often underestimating the true costs of stewardship.
Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation?
I was born in 1976 and this essay argues that [[Generation X]] — the cohort whose members recall the shared, broadcast-TV moments of the late twentieth century — made outsized cultural contributions, as epitomized by the watershed year of 1994, which included the deaths and headlines around [[Kurt Cobain]] and [[O.J. Simpson]]’s white Ford Bronco chase, the presidency of [[Bill Clinton]] and the coming into force of [[NAFTA]], and the debut of shows like [[Friends]] and [[ER]]. The author situates personal memory (after‑school aloneness, wood‑paneled basements) alongside a cascade of influential films and albums to interrogate where Gen X begins and ends, how its boundaries are contested, and why its artistic output and collective experience warrant reconsideration as a defining cultural force, and its generational legacy in politics and the economy.
Did American History X foreshadow the resurgence of white nationalism in the US?
Released in 1998, *American History X* dramatized white nationalist recruitment and violence by centering the story on a white family where racist ideology takes root through economic anxiety, parental influence, and the search for belonging—a bold choice that shifted focus from pathologizing black families to examining how white families incubate extremism. The film's portrayal of how charismatic demagogues exploit alienated young men, leverage internet connectivity, and weaponize racial grievances proved prescient for the rise of the alt-right and movements like the Proud Boys, though experts note it failed to anticipate how these fringe ideologies would eventually enter mainstream Republican politics. While the film's unflinching critique of white supremacy was ahead of its time in the 1990s, critics argue it ultimately reproduced racist stereotypes about black people and centered white redemption rather than addressing the systemic nature of racial inequality.