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Alicia Keys

Alicia is the seventh studio album by Alicia Keys (pictured) and released on September 18, 2020. Alicia's mostly low-tempo and melodically subtle music reconciles her experimental direction with bass drum–driven R&B and piano-based balladry. The songs explore identity as a multifaceted concept, sociopolitical concerns, and forms of love within multiple frameworks. Keys described the album as therapeutic and reflective of greater introspection in herself. After a surprise announcement of its impending release in September, Alicia debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 in its first week and became Keys's eighth top-10 record in the US, while charting in the top 10 in several other countries. It received critical praise for Keys's nuanced vocal performances and the music's broad appeal, while her thematic messages were considered balanced, healing, and timely against the backdrop of unfolding world events. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album in 2022. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Jay Rayner

... that the Top Chef Masters judge Jay Rayner (pictured) has attributed writing his viral review of Le Cinq to being "eye-gougingly, bone-crunchingly, teeth-grindingly angry"?
... that Red Sea tuna and seashells found at the roadside station of Khirbet es-Samra suggest that long-distance trade reached deep into Roman Arabia?
... that Dan Pashman spent three years working on a new pasta shape that he named cascatelli, after the Italian word for 'waterfall'?
... that the Dark Millennium, which suddenly followed the Neolithic in the United Arab Emirates around 4000 BC, has furnished virtually no evidence of human activity?
... that Jeffrey Epstein's contact list has been published three times, but the existence of a separate client list is a matter of controversy?
... that the rise of CONUS Communications spurred the Big Three American TV networks to subsidize the purchase of satellite trucks for local newsgathering?
... that a former handball player was the tallest player in the Canadian Football League?
... that Ahmad Shah Durrani faced an army five times larger than his own at the Battle of Manupur?
... that Kim Jong Un was amused by a lube factory?

In the news

Robert Redford

American actor and filmmaker Robert Redford (pictured) dies at the age of 89.
In television, The Studio wins best comedy and The Pitt wins best drama at the Primetime Emmy Awards.
After widespread protests, Sushila Karki is appointed interim Prime Minister of Nepal, replacing K. P. Sharma Oli.
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is sentenced to 27 years in prison for his involvement in a coup plot.

On this day

September 18

Old Faithful erupting

324 – Constantine the Great decisively defeated Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire and ending the Tetrarchy.
1850 – The United States Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, decreeing that all escaped slaves be brought back to their masters.
1870 – Nathaniel P. Langford of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition first observed a geyser in the Wyoming Territory erupting at regular intervals, naming it Old Faithful (video featured).
1948 – The Australian cricket team's Invincibles tour of England concluded; they had played 34 matches, including five Tests, without defeat.
1950 – Korean War: The Korean People's Army retreated from the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter after six weeks of fighting, marking the farthest that the KPA would advance in the war.

Andronikos Komnenos (b. 1091)
William Hazlitt (d. 1830)
Helene Scheu-Riesz (b. 1880)
Salvatore Schillaci (d. 2024)

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Today's featured picture

The little pied cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) is a species of waterbird in the cormorant family, Phalacrocoracidae. It is a common bird found around the coasts, islands, estuaries and inland waters of Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Timor-Leste and Indonesia, and around the islands of the south-western Pacific and the subantarctic. Measuring 56 to 58 centimetres (22 to 23 inches) in length with a short bill, it is usually black above and white below with a yellow bill and small crest, although a mostly black, white-throated form predominates in New Zealand. This little pied cormorant was photographed in Freycinet National Park in Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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