Monthly Archives: August 2023

For exercise, Stephen Brown leaves his home early in the mornings to collect trash around the Briarwood community. During every trip, he would walk past the dilapidated building between a run-down gas station and Alpha Investments. He lived in the neighborhood for six years, and it was always vacant.

Over the pandemic, the property grew worse in appearance as trash and grocery-store carts decorated the property. People slept under the awnings. Last summer, he spotted a “For Lease” sign in front of the building, and out of curiosity, he called the owners for a walk-through.

Turns out, the Alpha Investments owners, an elderly couple, also own the building and a few other properties across the metro area. At one point, the building was an abortion clinic and later a daycare.

Brown invited the bulk of his family to the walk-through, hoping they could use the space as a family compound due to their various businesses. The building owners had been using the building for storage, so old refrigerators and ovens sat throughout the space. The insulation and tiles were falling from the ceiling, and mold and rust were present in certain areas.

Nevertheless, as Brown stepped from room to room, he looked past all the wear and tear, and the gears in his head started to turn. He visualized putting a small studio equipped with recording devices in one room, turning another into an arts and painting room, and setting up a pop-up shop in the next space.

After talking it over, Brown and other members of his family signed a lease for the building in September. However, one by one, cosigners began to drop out of the lease, citing reasons such as financial constraints or bad timing. Eventually, Brown was the last name on the lease, though he said he would have never signed for the building had he known he would have to manage it alone.

Following some self-reflection and prayer, Stephen Brown accepted his fate and soon afterward opened the Briarwood Arts Center. Approaching its one-year anniversary, the center provides art education and workspace for creatives to hone their technical skills and to develop greater business acumen. The community center also hosts workshops, mentorship programs, events and other offerings.

Briarwood Arts Center is an idea factory open to members of the community who have ideas, but do not necessarily have the space to explore them, Brown explained. At the center, getting started is as simple as picking a date and coming in to work toward progress.

“It’s not that experts are not welcome here, but this space is kind of designed for folks who are still trying to figure it out,” he said. “(The Briarwood Arts Center is) for those who have a genuine curiosity about something, but are afraid to dip their toe in the water because they’re like, ‘What if I don’t get it right?’ But we’re like, ‘Come here and screw up!’”

‘I Am Because We Are’

Stephen Brown splits his time between his full-time job at the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Briarwood Arts Center. After his usual shift at the museum, he drives to the center to teach a music-production workshop, and then he records the Vibe Controls podcast in the music-production lab. Once he has finished, Brown will plan for the next program, which could be an ACT-prep class or the mentoring program, all while simultaneously being a full-time dad and music producer.

“It’s like all the stuff kind of overlaps,” he said.

The center offers various spaces for creativity such as Cole’s House #2. Named after Brown’s dog who was tragically murdered, the small music-production lab is where Brown teaches lessons on songwriting, music production, recording basics and the music business.

A craft kitchen houses sewing machines, embroidering machines, vinyl cutters, T-shirt presses and candle-making equipment. Volunteers, nicknamed the Craft Cartel, can also teach classes in the room.

“Instead of us just trying to shove programming down their throat, we want to know what it is they want, and then we basically go find somebody to teach it,” Brown said.

The building includes a remote office for people who work remotely, but do not want to lease a long-term office space. The office has its own keyboard and mouse, Wi-Fi, and wireless printing. The boardroom in the back of the building is used for small group meetings like firearm-safety classes and gatherings of a local anime club.

Additionally, a branding lab has a backdrop for photoshoots or professional headshots. “There’s a photography studio called 242 Creative, and they’ve done a headshot gathering here where they just posted up with all their lights and filters and stuff and invited people to come and get headshots done,” Brown explained.

The e-learning center is for SAT and ACT prep, financial-aid advice, college planning, career coaching, and GED and GRE prep. The center has an art studio, a room for vendors to do a pop-up shop, and the Ubuntu room.

“Ubuntu means ‘I am because we are’; this is our general community meeting space,” Brown said. “This is where we have our youth-mentorship programs, photography workshops, financial-literacy workshops, mural painting, hip-hop cardio, Afro-Caribbean dance classes, the krumping dance class called Groove Moves and Vibe Sessions.”

Looking For Community

Bernadette Milnick lived in Tennessee before she retired and relocated to Jackson after her son, who lives in the capital city, asked her to move. She arrived last year in August, having no friends in the community for the first few months. One day while she was in her kitchen, she overheard a news story on her TV about the Briarwood Arts Center.

She paused her task and thought that maybe she would be able to find a sense of community there. She mentioned it in a conversation with her son, who coincidentally knew the owner.

“Mom, that’s my friend, Stephen Brown,” the son said at the time. “Oh, OK,” Milnick responded. “Call him,” her son continued. “He would love for you to come by and see him.”

So, she visited the Briarwood Arts Center and met with Brown. “I really like him,” she told the Mississippi Free Press.

By volunteering with the center, the Jackson transplant says she has finally found the feeling of community she had wanted. Milnick mainly helps at the front desk and occasionally hosts meetings, though she hopes to teach craft classes in the future.

Milnick has been helping to plan the art center’s first “birthday” on Sept. 10, along with other volunteers like Braden Luckett, who has a platform called Urban World that he uses to support local artists throughout the state.

Luckett has other clients across the South in states like Georgia and Texas, but he said he feels called to do work in Jackson. “Music has always been a part of my life,” he told the Mississippi Free Press inside the Briarwood Arts Center lobby. “It’s just right now, I feel like I’m supposed to help build here.”

Through personal conversations with Brown, Luckett has determined that people can often get too caught up in needing other people to create opportunities for them instead of simply going out and pursuing their dreams on their own.

“Sometimes, you just do it yourself,” Luckett said. “(Brown has) talked about toxic self-reliance because you don’t want to feel like you can’t depend on anyone. If you want your dreams to come true, just go do it.”

‘Firm Foundations’

The smell of Little Caesar’s pizza wafted through the room on the day this reporter visited the center before Jackson Police Department Precinct 3 Commander Christian Vance rounded the corner carrying the stack of orange boxes. The Firm Foundations, a nonprofit that mentors boys between the ages of 7 and 15, was hosting its youth-mentorship night. School had just started back, so the meeting was not as packed as it normally would be, but it proceeded as usual.

Inside the meeting room, foundation founder Christian Vance stood at the white board, initiating a game of hangman with the five youths in attendance. The category was candy and a few boys took some guesses at what the candy could be while Stephen Brown was having a discussion with another mentee about being a sibling.

When Vance was 27-years-old, he wanted to find other avenues to positively affect his community, so he got together with his other childhood friends and his father to create The Firm Foundations. The program ran out of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation for five years before the pandemic slowed the program down, he said.

“Steven, who is the greatest human being that you’ll ever meet in your life, called me, and he’s like, ‘Dude, I got this thing going on,’ and it was automatic: ‘Dawg, I got you,’” Vance told the Mississippi Free Press.

The nonprofit founder also coaches basketball through the police academy, so some of his mentees are also his players. He gets to maintain regular contact with his mentees through these various avenues. It’s all about consistency, Vance said.

“A lot of these things are symptoms and not the disease,” the JDP officer explained. “A lot of times the disease is low quality of life. And we attack the low quality. That’s the root. If we can attack the low quality of life, then we’ll start seeing the fruit on the tree again.”

Many of Vance’s mentees do not have fathers around, so he endeavors to act as a positive male figure in their absence. As to what his mentees get from the program, he believes they may not see their own growth just yet.

“We talk about adversity, goals, feelings, And a lot of times, I’ll come up with a topic, and we’ll just talk through it. What is adversity? What does adversity do? How does it make you feel? What are the choices it gives you? What determines the choices you make?” the founder listed.

And at times, the conversations can get so personal and vulnerable that kids will burst into tears, mentors as well. Vance said he will never give up on Jackson. His hope and prayer is that if he does not see the city become what he believes it is supposed to be, he will at least help raise and guide the next generation of youth who will live and prosper here.

“The role of a man in society is to be a repairer of the breach,” Vance said. “And that means not only am I fixing this thing that’s broken, I’m taking you through safely while I fix this thing that’s broken. And then when I fix this broken thing, I’ll find another problem to solve.”

‘Just Do The Work’

Stephen Brown said the hardest challenge that comes with running the Briarwood Arts Center can be toxic self-reliance, which can lead to burnout. “Toxic self-reliance is, ‘Man, I’m the only one who cares about this neighborhood. If I don’t pick this up, nobody’s gonna pick it up … Nobody else cares about this neighborhood, and I’m the only one who has to do it,’” he explained.

Dealing with the habit of self-reliance has been a personal struggle for the music producer, who is learning to better lean on other community members to assist him with registration, mentorship and other things. He is learning to be a better leader, he said.

“It’s an ongoing process, but thankfully I have people that have grace with me and that understand that that’s something I’m overcoming—(people who) know if they have to snatch it outta my hands to help me for the greater purpose of BAC and the greater purpose of the community, then I have to get outta my own way,” Brown said.

From his first year operating the center, Brown has learned to document everything, to not overthink as much and to not take things personally—that last point being of extreme importance as he struggles to get the Briarwood community to buy into the center. People within the immediate neighborhood rarely show up to anything, he said.

The center does, however, draw in people from Grenada, Brandon, Clinton, South Jackson, Ridgeland, Madison, Kosciusko and various other cities and zip codes across the state. The center has been on the news and people in the community know him as the man that picks up trash on the street with his trash grabber, yet he still struggles to bring them to the center.

“I don’t allow myself to take it personally. I don’t worry about who is showing up. We’re not called to be impressive. We’re called to be obedient,” Brown said. “Just do the work and leave it. Eventually, in the grand scheme of things, I have to find a better way to market what we’re doing to the Briarwood community.”

His short-term goal is to own the building instead of leasing it. Acquiring the building should take around $65,000, which the music producer does not readily have on hand at this moment.

“We are registered as a 501(c)(3) as the Briarwood Arts Foundation,” Brown said. “We got all the building permits, fire inspections. We’ve been doing everything the right way. We just wanted to show people for a full year this is what we can do with no funding. Now imagine if you were to give us some operating funds.”

Despite the center being self-funded, it has more money in its account now than it did when it first opened. In year two, Brown hopes to apply for more grants and funding now that he has shown that his business model indeed works.

“What we would want is some group of people in Shady Oaks to say, ‘Hey, there’s an abandoned building here in our neighborhood, too. Let’s get together and buy it and start the Shady Oaks Center,” he explained.

To learn more about Briarwood Arts Center, visit briarwoodartscenter.com. To keep up with the various programs and events at the center, follow their Instagram and Facebook pages. To donate or sign up for volunteer opportunities at the center, click here. 

Plane crash believed to have killed Russian mercenary chief seen as Kremlin’s revenge

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and top officers of his private military were presumed dead in a plane crash that was widely seen as an assassination, two months after they staged a mutiny that dented Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority. Russia’s civil aviation agency said that Prigozhin and six of his top lieutenants were on the business jet that crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Moscow, with a crew of three. Rescuers quickly found all 10 bodies, and Russian media cited sources in Prigozhin’s Wagner private military company who confirmed his death. U.S. and other Western officials long expected Putin to go after Prigozhin, despite promising to drop charges in a deal that ended the June 23-24 mutiny.

Trump set to surrender at Georgia jail on charges that he sought to overturn 2020 election

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump is set to surrender to authorities in Georgia on charges that he schemed to overturn the 2020 election in that state, a booking process expected to yield a historic first: a mug shot of a former American president. Trump’s arrival comes on the heels of a presidential debate featuring his leading rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination, a contest in which he remains the leading candidate despite accelerating legal troubles. His presence in the state, though likely brief, is expected to swipe the spotlight at least temporarily from his opponents in the aftermath of a debate in which other candidates sought to seize on Trump’s absence to elevate their own presidential prospects.

Vivek Ramaswamy takes center stage, plus other key moments from first Republican debate

Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have dominated the Republican presidential nomination fight for much of the year. Neither dominated the debate stage Wednesday night. Trump skipped the GOP’s opening presidential primary debate. DeSantis showed up, but he was overshadowed for much of the night by political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy has crept up in recent polls, leading to his position next to DeSantis at center stage. And he quickly showed why when he showcased his ready-for-video, on-message approach. His rivals, however, attacked him for his lack of political experience and his view that the U.S. should stop supporting Ukraine.

China bans seafood from Japan after the Fukushima nuclear plant begins its wastewater release

OKUMA, Japan (AP) — Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun releasing its first batch of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. In a live video from a control room at the plant Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings showed a staff member turn on a seawater pump, marking the beginning of the controversial project that’s expected to last for decades. China responded by banning seafood from Japan, effective immediately. But the Japanese government and TEPCO say the water must be released for the plant to decommission and to prevent accidental leaks. They say the treatment and dilution exceeds international safety standards. Still, some scientists say the long-term impact needs attention.

Gunfire at a California biker bar kills 4 people, including the shooter, and wounds 5 more

TRABUCO CANYON, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say three people were killed and five others were wounded in a shooting at a Southern California biker bar. The gunman was also killed by deputies. The shooting occurred after 7 p.m. Wednesday at Cook’s Corner in rural Trabuco Canyon in Orange County, a popular longtime watering hole for motorcycle riders and enthusiasts who gather for live music and other events. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said the gunman was dead four minutes after reports of the shooting first came in. Six others were taken to a hospital, including five with gunshot wounds. The hospital said two were in critical condition.

Fire renews Maui stream water rights tension in longtime conflict over sacred Hawaiian resource

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — During the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, a developer of land around a threatened Maui community urgently asked state officials for permission to divert stream water to help fight the growing inferno. In letters reviewed by the AP, the developer suggests approval was delayed while the state sought the OK from a taro farmer downstream. The dispute highlights tensions over water rights that date to Hawaii’s mid-1800s plantation era. The executive who wrote the letters says he wants stream water for fire suppression. Native Hawaiians worry the developer is using the fires to reduce overall caps on their water use.

At least 1 person is dead and 2 are missing as Tropical Storm Franklin batters Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Tropical Storm Franklin is unleashing heavy floods and landslides in the Dominican Republic after making landfall in the country’s southern region. The Civil Defense agency said the storm killed one person on Wednesday. The storm began to slowly spin away from the island of Hispaniola that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti after dumping heavy rain for several hours.  Forecasters say Franklin could dump up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain, with as much as 16 inches for Hispaniola’s central region. Officials are most concerned about the storm’s impact in Haiti, which is vulnerable to catastrophic flooding because of severe erosion from deforestation.

Zimbabwe’s election extends to a second day after long ballot delays. Some slept at polling stations

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Voting is still underway in Zimbabwe. Hourslong delays in distributing ballot papers forced the president to extend the general election by a day at dozens of polling stations. Some frustrated voters slept at polling stations, snuggling under blankets or lighting fires to keep warm. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who seeks a second term, used his presidential powers to extend voting to Thursday night at dozens of polling stations. Some people shoved and shouted at election officials and police officers after being told ballot papers had run out. The lead opposition candidate claims that the delays are aimed at disenfranchising voters in his urban strongholds.

3 small Palestinian villages emptied out this summer. Residents blame Israeli settler attacks

AL-QABUN, West Bank (AP) — United Nations monitors say three small Palestinian herding villages have emptied out over the past four months, with residents blaming mounting violence by Israeli settlers. The most recent departures took place in al-Qabun, a Bedouin village in the heart of the occupied West Bank that once had 89 residents. For Palestinians, the recent wave of evacuations is emblematic of a new stage in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as settlers use shepherding as a tool to seize land with little effort. U.N. officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank and entrenching unauthorized outposts.

Jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich arrives at a hearing on extending his detention

MOSCOW (AP) — Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained on espionage charges, arrived at a Moscow court Thursday for a hearing on a motion by the prosecution to extend his arrest. A 31-year-old United States citizen, Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia in late March. He and his employer deny the allegations, and the U.S. government declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities have not provided any evidence to support the espionage charges. Gershkovich is the first American reporter to to face espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Iggy Azalea shows off her insane curves in a silver bikini to promote her new single as she makes a comeback to music after OnlyFans controversy

By Ciara O’loughlin For Daily Mail Australia

Updated: 20:25 EDT, 23 August 2023

Iggy Azalea is back with a bang. 

The Australian rapper, 33, is releasing a new song for the first time in over two years and she has been very busy promoting it. 

Money Come will debut on August 25, and Iggy posed for a very raunchy photoshoot to go with it this week. 

For the shoot, the Fancy singer showed off her stunning curves in a skimpy silver bikini. 

Posing on a table in an office with several women in the background, the blonde bombshell showed off her tiny waist and cleavage in the swimsuit. 

Iggy Azalea (pictured) is back with a bang. The Australian rapper, 33, is bringing out a new song for the first time in over two years and she has been very busy promoting it

She completed the look with a long bright pink coat and knee-high black boots, and accessorised with a pair of black sunglasses and a silver chain. 

The musician placed her long bleach blonde locks up in a ponytail and was made up with a glamorous palette and a nude lip. 

Iggy announced the news of her new single a couple of days ago.

Iggy Azalea, 33, will release her highly-anticipated new single Money Come on August 25

‘Have you ever seen five bad b*tches at ya door?! Clear your schedule for August 25th,’ she wrote alongside the cover art for Money Come. 

Some fans were shocked by the cover, which showed Iggy brandishing a silver gun while bills of money rained down around her. 

In another promotional image from the single, Iggy is seen riding what appears to be a male music executive down a hallway as she fires hundred dollar bills into the air.

The song and its upcoming music video may be a reference to the rapper taking control of her career by joining OnlyFans.

In an interview with the High Low with EmRata podcast in March, Iggy said that her decision to join OnlyFans was so that she could make money off of her body instead of having record labels and other companies commodify her. 

‘I made record labels so much money off my body. I made a lot of people so much money off my body. And I got the smallest cut off my own f**king body and my own work and my own ideas,’ she said.

In a promotional image from the single, Iggy is seen riding what appears to be a male music executive down a hallway as she fires hundred dollar bills into the air

‘I made record labels so much money off my body. I made a lot of people so much money off my body. And I got the smallest cut off my own f**king body and my own work and my own ideas,’ she previously said

‘I don’t think I have to say sorry about the fact that I want to commodify my own s**t,’ she continued.

‘It’s been commodified and I wasn’t even the main f***ing benefactor of it, so f**k this. And I enjoy it. I’m going to do it anyway.’

While the Fancy hitmaker has refused to reveal exactly how much she’s made on OnlyFans, the figures are believed to be in the millions. 

She charges $25 a month for an entry-level subscription to her page, but then users need to spend even more to access racier photos and videos. 

Iggy is estimated to have made millions of dollars from her OnlyFans stint

In February, Iggy admitted her subscribers sometimes pay her large sums of cash in exchange for voice messages, in which she humiliates and degrades them. 

‘Men pay me to tell them that they’re a piece of s**t,’ she boasted during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

‘They’ll send me like six hundred dollars just to send a voice note like, “I’d never suck your disgusting little f***ing d**k! Is that even a d**k? I wouldn’t even let my dog lick that d**k.”

‘And they’re like, “Ugh. $200. $300.” And I’m like, I like this game! I like to sit in bed at night and tell men how [inaudible] and they pay me for it.’ 

He is at least the third Hitler-promoting antisemite that has appeared on the Trump-backed ReAwaken America tour. Two other tour regulars were set to appear at Trump’s Miami resort in May but were pulled from the event after widespread media criticism.

Dean is a chiropractor, Rumble host, and fringe conspiracy theorist who believes that the Earth is under the “control” of alien reptiles. He has appeared on One America News and Alex Jones’ Infowars network. Dean gained a following during the COVID-19 pandemic by pushing false medical claims and grifting followers by offering his own health “protocol.”

Trump allies Roger Stone, Kash Patel, and Mike Flynn, and Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers have appeared on Dean’s program. He also posted a video of himself having a “strategic meeting” with congressional candidate and former Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini.

He is a regular speaker on the ReAwaken America tour and is scheduled to speak this week in Las Vegas. (Dean, tour co-founder Clay Clark, and the tour’s website have confirmed his appearance.) The tour features QAnon conspiracy theorists and Christian nationalist rhetoric. In April 2022, Dean posted a picture of him meeting with tour co-founder Flynn, who also has a history of making antisemitic remarks, and thanked him for “giving me connections to people to meet with for the future.”

Members of Trump’s inner circle and past Trump administration officials are scheduled to speak at the event along with Dean. They include: Donald Trump Jr., Guilfoyle, Lara Trump, Devin Nunes, Habba, Flynn, and Stone.

Numerous other toxic commentators will be speakers, including Alex Jones sidekick and January 6 insurrectionist Owen Shroyer; far-right conspiracy theorist Lara Logan; COVID-19 conspiracy theorist Sherri Tenpenny, who has promoted antisemitic and Holocaust denying material; and election denier Mike Lindell.

Streaming host Stew Peters, a white nationalist who is virulently anti-LGBTQ, is also scheduled to speak. He has also repeatedly made antisemitic remarks, including stating that Judaism “is a death cult built on the blood of murdered babies” and writing: “It’s become socially unacceptable and in some cases even illegal to question or critique Jews, Israel, or the Zionist mob. The murder of Jesus (Read Book of Matthew). The attack on the USS Liberty. 9/11 dancing Israelis. Rothschild family. Who controls international banking, Hollywood, and the entire MSM.” He also wrote: “Say what you will about Hitler, but people turned out for his rallies.”

The tour invited Peters despite his attacks on Trump allies, including calling Trump adviser Ric Grenell “a sodomite … who finds the meaning of life at the bottom of a shit hole.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

More about the company

John Rich is giving a round of applause to Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony as they continue making headlines for their music.

In a new interview, the Big & Rich member defended the singers’ straightforward approach to songwriting. 

“When a guy like myself or Jason or Oliver Anthony — our new buddy who’s coming out here now — when guys like us speak the truth in a song, it’s done that way on purpose,” he told Fox News in an interview published Monday. “It is said in a certain way where, you know, that’s the truth. That’s a real song.”

“That’s not something a record label came up with,” Rich continued. “That’s actually a guy telling you how he feels about it.”

Last month, Aldean sparked controversy for his “Try That in a Small Town” music video. Supporters, however, helped make the song go No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

As for Anthony, he’s finding success on the music charts after detailing his frustrations with the U.S. in his song “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

While he’s the first artist to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs with no prior chart history in any form, Anthony said he doesn’t care about fame and recognition. 

“I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression,” Anthony wrote on Facebook Aug. 17. “These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bullsh–. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”

The appreciation of the human mind for music knows no limits. A quick look at a list of the most watched YouTube videos shows that 90 percent of the top thirty are songs, with total views for each ranging from 3 billion to 13 billion.¹ Most of us can correctly remember melodies and lyrics learned in childhood, even years after last having heard them. While speaking words effectively communicates information, we seldom remember even a short speech verbatim. It seems that the human mind is wired for music.

What’s the evidence for design in the linkage between mind and music? We could start by observing that from an evolutionary perspective, music is not something we grew up with ancestrally. Beyond the calls and trills of birds, nature as we know it provides few sounds that resemble even the simple melodies of children’s nursery songs. Is our ability to appreciate music akin to our ability to comprehend mathematics? Again, from an evolutionary standpoint, human mathematical ability far exceeds any adaptation we might have from needing to count the number of ducks in the pond.

Benefits for the Soul

The benefits of music for the human soul and its effects on our emotions are well-documented.

Music is ubiquitous across human cultures — as a source of affective and pleasurable experience, moving us both physically and emotionally…²

Music has a bewitching power when it comes to our thoughts and emotions….The psychology of music has been recognized and studied since ancient times, with Plato theorizing that different styles of music stirred different emotions in listeners.³

Plato’s thoughts on music are confirmed by recent scientific studies. UC Berkeley researchers studying 2500 people from the United States and China have identified 13 different emotions evoked by music, from amusement to annoyance, and sadness to triumph.⁴

More than just stimulating emotions, music’s influence on us extends to deeper levels as well. 

The use of music in the realm of medicine is impressively far-reaching. It’s been known to assist in therapy and healing for a wide range of illnesses and conditions.⁵

Music therapy can minister to people with mental health issues and help to regulate moods and reduce stress.

Is the connection between mind and music limited to humans?

One context in which music therapy may be used to enhance animal welfare is to alleviate stress in domestic environments.⁶

Testimony to Human Exceptionalism?

However, a survey of the effects of varieties of music on different animals reveals inconsistent results. This may indicate that animal minds perceive and process musical sounds categorically unlike humans. Rats, however, do respond positively to Mozart.⁷

Is there anything inherent in nature that could suggest the connection between music and mind? Music is based on vibrations at varying frequencies, and vibrations are pervasive in nature. Most natural frequencies exist at levels far beyond the range of human hearing and occur apart from sound waves. All atoms have electrons that orbit with varying frequencies, exemplified by the hydrogen atom in its ground state for which the electron orbits about 6.57×10¹⁵ times per second, in the range of visible light frequencies (an electromagnetic wave), or approximately a trillion times higher than the frequency of sound waves humans can hear.

Planets orbit around the sun with much lower frequencies, approximately one billionth of an orbit per second, corresponding to a frequency about a trillion times lower than the frequency range of human hearing. The rotation rates of collapsed cores of massive stars, known as pulsars, include many millisecond pulsars, whose rotation frequency would be audible in the frequency range of human speech, if converted into a sound wave. 

Design in Hearing

“Whale song” also occurs within the range of human hearing but went unnoticed by humans until its discovery in 1967 by marine biologist Roger Payne.⁸

The whale song is considered one of the most complex non-human forms of communication created by any species in the animal kingdom. The whale song carries a predictable melodic tone and the notes are repeated over and over again like a chorus.⁹

In our discussion of the connection between music and mind, the biocomplexities of our auditory senses certainly play a key role and the documented evidence for design in hearing is profound. Our deep emotional and aesthetic appreciation for music adds to the argument that we are more than unguided outcomes of natural forces that evolved the ability to hear because it imparted to us a survival advantage. Attempting to reduce our love for music — the mystery of music — to an evolutionary adaptation has a dissonant edge to discerning ears.

Editor’s note: On the subject of music’s mystery, Evolution News has many times over recommended a wonderful, short video by George Steiner:

Notes

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-viewed_YouTube_videos .
2. Peter Vuust, Ole A. Heggli, Karl J. Friston, and Morten L. Kringelbach, “Music in the Brain,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 23, (2022) pages 287–305.
3.  “The Neuroscience of Music,” https://www.levinemusic.org/about/news/the-neuroscience-of-music/ (October 14, 2022).
4. Yasmin Anwar, “How Many Emotions Can Music Make You Feel?,” https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_many_emotions_can_music_make_you_feel . (January 17, 2020). 
5. The Neuroscience of Music,” https://www.levinemusic.org/about/news/the-neuroscience-of-music/ (October 14, 2022).
6. Paul McGreevy and Angela Crean, “Musical Dogs: A Review of the Influence of Auditory Enrichment on Canine Health and Behavior,” Animals 10 (1), January, 2020, DOI:10.3390/ani10010127.
7. Charles T. Snowdon, “Animal Signals, Music and Emotional Well-Being,” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8472833/ . 
8.  “Almost 60 years after the discovery of whale song, their haunting sounds reveal new secrets,”  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/16/roger-payne-60-years-discovery-of-whale-song-their-haunting-sounds-reveal-new-secrets .
9. https://www.whalefacts.org/what-is-a-whale-song/.

Pop star manager Scooter Braun, who courted controversy when he apparently refused to allow Taylor Swift to own her masters’ recordings, appears to have lost more big-name clients this week, according to US media.

According to media outlet Billboard, both Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato have parted ways with their manager, though the reason is unknown.

It follows rumours last week that Justin Bieber had also left Braun’s management company – though the claims were later refuted by sources for both men, but not publicly.

Both Grande and Lovato are said to be seeking new management.

Sky News has contacted representatives for Scooter Braun.

Grande has been signed with Braun for her entire music career so far and has not released an album since 2020.

She is due to play the role of Glinda in the film adaptation of musical Wicked, and had nearly wrapped production before film and TV industry strikes shut it down.

Lovato linked up with Braun in 2019, saying at the time: “Dreams came true for me. I officially have a NEW MANAGER. And not just any manager but the one and only Scooter Braun.

“Couldn’t be happier, inspired and excited to begin this next chapter – thank you for believing in me and for being a part of this new journey.”

Her split with Braun has been described as “amicable” by Variety.

But the timing could prove tricky for the former Disney Channel star, as she is about to release her new album Revamped – full of re-recorded rock versions of earlier songs.

The pair join J Balvin, a Colombian singer, who also left Braun’s management last month, going on to join Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

Braun is embroiled in a long-running feud with Taylor Swift, who claimed he would not allow her to buy her master recordings when she left his management company.

It meant Swift did not officially own her music, and was unable to make money from the sale and performance of her records.

Braun then sold her master recordings to an investment company.

Swift appeared to call Braun’s bluff and has since released re-recordings of the albums she made while she was managed by Braun, known as Taylor’s Versions – which have been backed by scores of her fans.

Lahaina (Hawaii), Aug 19 (AP) Long before a wind-whipped wildfire blasted through the island of Maui, tension existed between Hawaii’s kamaaina, or longtime residents, and the visitors some islanders resent for turning their beaches, mountains and communities into playgrounds.

It’s a love-hate relationship that dates back generations. But now that tension is building in the aftermath of a blaze that killed over 100 people and scorched the historic town of Lahaina, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century.

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A week after the fire, a state flag blew upside down in the breeze along a road leading to a neighbourhood designated for residents of Hawaiian descent, signifying that the community is in distress. Beneath the flag, a sign scrawled in blue paint ordered tourists to “KEEP OUT”.

“Tourism has definitely been a hinderance at this point, because we need to take care of our families – our ohana,” said Kapali Keahi, who lives in the neighbourhood. Keahi said those affected by the fire, himself included, are still “getting out of the survivor mode”.

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The Maui Economic Development Board says tourism is “irrefutably” the economic engine of Maui, which saw 1.4 million visitors in just the first half of 2023. About 70 per cent of every dollar generated in Maui can be attributed to tourism, according to the board.

Yet as the island looks to rebuild, residents like Keahi wonder what role tourism should play in the long road ahead to recovery. Experts say there’s no easy answer.

“You do have this time where you have to stop everything and focus on the disaster, but there does come a time when you have to start to rebuild, and that means keeping people employed,” said Rafael Villanueva, a member of the Tourism Expert Network, which provides consulting services to businesses like hotels.

Villanueva said that’s the general roadmap he and his then-colleagues at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority followed in 2017 after the deadliest mass shooting in modern America unfolded at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Support the victims and the community first, then worry about the tourists.

Within an hour of the shooting that would leave 60 dead and hundreds more injured, the publicly funded body charged with promoting Las Vegas had halted its advertising promising that “What Happens Here, Stays Here”.

Villanueva said they filled billboards with a message that the community instead could rally around: “Vegas Strong”.

Then they opened up their convention centre for recovery efforts, including victim notifications. But eventually, they shifted their messaging, inviting visitors back to a Strip that they promised was a safe tourist destination.

“You need to do what you can to not let the situation snowball into something much worse,” Villanueva said.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a statewide address on Friday night that tourists should avoid fire-ravaged West Maui while emphasising that the rest of the island and state were open and safe.

“We continue to welcome and encourage travel to our beautiful state,” he said, “which will support the local economy and help speed the recovery of those who have already suffered so much.”

Green also has said it would be “catastrophic” if Maui’s tourism industry came to a halt right now, warning that it could lead to a “mass exodus” of residents.

It’s a situation that Maui resident Julie Sumibtay said she wants to avoid, even if she understands how other locals want the space to grieve and deal with their profound pain without the prying eyes of outsiders.

“Some of us need work,” said Sumibtay, who works at the front desk of a condominium complex in Kihei, where some of the units are used as vacation rentals. “So if they’re saying Maui is closed, then there are no tourists coming in, and then we lose our jobs.”

Already the deadly fire and its aftermath has prompted some would-be tourists to change their plans, opting to head to other islands instead.

Tom Bailey and his family from the Sacramento area of California arrived on Maui the week before the fire spread from hillsides and raced toward historic Lahaina.

They had seen the smoke in the distance from their hotel in Kaanapali just up the road from Lahaina. At first, they were reassured that the blaze posed no immediate danger. But in the night, the glow of the fire intensified, prompting hotel officials to suggest guests voluntarily evacuate.

Bailey and his family packed up and left to spend the final five days of their vacation on Oahu.

“We just wanted to stay out of the way,” Bailey said, adding that he understands the local residents “need time”. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)