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vangelis: with ambient sounds and moments of dialogue interspersed, the soundtrack from Blade Runner is extended into a feature-length soundscape  

metaphorical portraits: deep and heartfelt images of table-scraps and toss-aways 

sessile by nature: a nice crafted series of time-lapse movies illustrate how houseplants move throughout the day—via Things Magzine  

adobe add-on: after the announcement that support for Flash Player will be discontinued, crippling huge swaths of the early web, the Internet Archive comes to the rescue again with a forever home to hundreds of files  

upton sinclair was an optimist: chicken processing plant executives place wagers on how many workers would get sick with COVID-19  

waiting in the wings: clear and present implications of delaying the trans—Dcccf Rex zzz. @#z@smaan anaNN—see also  

you deserve a break today: a detailed look at a bespoke Nintendo DS game created as a training tool for a fast food franchise—see also  

patch cord productions: the musical stylings of Moog maestro Mort Garson

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cheese tetrahedrons and synergetic stew: a celebrity cookbook presented to author and futurist Buckminster Fuller (previously) reissued for the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of his birth  

lüften: tried and true ventilation and fresh air may be the most effective way to stave off more infections  

heart of sharkness: winning images and honourable mentions from a drone photography contest  

föräldrapenning: a South Korean man living in Sweden documents his daily routine 

adobe flash: an appreciation of the platform that shaped the internet and the implications of suspending support for the multimedia plug-in and player—via Kottke  

disaster constitutionalism: EU taking the UK to court, despite only breaking international law in a “specific and limited way”  

can our government be competent: celebrating Jimmy Carter’s ninety-sixth birthday (previously) in campaign buttons

eat fresh: with tax implications for the franchise, Irish high court rules that one fast food chain’s bread cannot be called bread or a dietary staple due to its high sugar content—via Boing Boing

person, woman, man, camera, tv

#FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/9dHIMedoIx

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) July 24, 2020

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houstonia: a century of the Texas city told though iconic photographs—via Things Magazine

bovine flatulence: a strange fast food campaign touts its efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions and improve animal welfare

triple word score: a Star Wars round-up including Scrabble tiles in the script of Galactic Basic, Aurebesh (previously)

eggs over easy: an introduction to Britain’s influential pub rock scene of the 1970s and its lasting legacy

when she walks, she’s like a samba: a deconstruction of the complex Girl from Ipanema (see also July 2019), the second most covered song in history

le vetture tranviarie: engineer Arturo Tedeschi redesigns a tram car for social distancing (see previously)

eponymous first album: quarantined residents in of a senior assisted living centre recreate iconic record covers

unclaimed baggage: more on the small town Alabama store (previously) that resells the world’s lost luggage—via Duck Soup

6x6

à la russe: a guide to Russian Paris

turntabling: musical pairings of diverse songs that sound the same

grow apple trees and honey bees and snow white turtle doves: soft drink giant ravages communities already water-insecure to produce more of its product and raise the next generation of loyal customers—see also

#beardedbuttigieg: many people are advocating for US presidential candidate Mayor Pete to grow facial hair and helpfully previewing his new look

two-up two-down: a home in Osaka with sixteen levels  the beauty of real food is that it gets ugly: to promote its cutting of artificial preservative, one fast food giant features a mouldy hamburger, as compared to this exhibit

shortlisted: a gallery of some of the images to advance to the next round of judging in the Sony World Photography Awards

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mudras: nifty exercises for your hands and wrists

holy rollers: A reformed, formerly anti-LGBTQ fast food franchise announces it will make amends

konmari: life style guru and evangelist of de-cluttering now wants to fill that tchotchke-shaped void in your soul

flea circus: the marvelous performing Savitsky cats, via Everlasting Blört

between two ferns: eight-two famous and infamous interviews animated

anti-archiv: a massive cache of photographs and home movies from the DDR, via Things magazine

discerning audiences: light entertainment from 1972

self-policing: a browser extension uses machine learning to highlight AI generated content, via Waxy

cracker jack

In response to a petition levied against the fast food industry championed by two young people from Hampshire in southern England, one chain has committed to stop handing out promotional plastic toys with children’s meals, foregoing the chance for market tie-ins, out of respect for the environment.
Restaurants will also have an amnesty bin to return old, unwanted toys, whose plastic cannot be recycled in the collection schemes used by most municipalities for packaging, where they can be melted down and reincarnated as something else. The franchise’s chief rival countered that while it will not eliminate toys giveaways altogether, it will offer customers alternatives and look into manufacturing them from less polluting materials.

eleven herbs and spices

A master of self-promotion with its past campaigns to include sun-screen that smelt of fried chicken and Bluetooth enabled dining tray inserts to help patrons keep their phones grease-free, we learn via Miss Cellania’s Quick Links, that the latest marketing ploy from a fast food chain is a dating simulator (I am not quite sure what that even means) called ❤️I Love You❤️ Colonel Sanders!, pursuing a hotter, younger version of the franchise’s founder, Harland Sanders—an honourary title granted by the state’s governor for excellence in restaurateurship. Inexplicably, one of the playable characters is a dog, who is also a professor at the culinary institute that you all attend.  The property will be released later in the month, for those of you who might be interested, on a platform where enthusiasts watch one another play video games.

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alltid öppet: McDonald’s franchises in Sweden (previously) install insect hotels in their signage and billboards

.xlsx: a concerning amount of scientific research contains data misinterpreted by spreadsheet software

glory to hong kong: protestors create their own anthem and rallying cry

metallic wood: researchers create a porous nickel-based matrix (see also) as strong as titanium though exceedingly light

schism: Pope Francis unafraid of conservative groups calling his leadership too progressive

k2-18β: astronomers detect water vapour in the atmosphere of a distant super earth that could harbour life as we know it

gravy train: bug-based pet food better for canine and feline companions and for the environment

genomkörning på svenska

Whilst some organisations have taken to deputising fast-food franchises with plenipotentiary and consular powers, we discover that a few such outposts in Sweden (fifty-five at least) are installing drive-thru charging stations for electric vehicles to supplement the coverage of state-sponsored infrastructure that leaves just enough gaps as to dissuade some drivers from committing to this other mode of transportation. While a full re-charge takes a bit longer than fulfilling one’s order, it still offers a nice alternative and adds extra value to queuing up.

robble-robble

In a side note that’s bigger than the post’s main topic Super Punch casually asks us if we‘d ever heard of the early depiction of McDonaldland character Hamburglar as the Lone Jogger.
One can’t just drop that sort of a bombshell without elaborating. After reforming his original incarnation as a lecherous old man with rodent features, for creative reasons lost to history the Hambuglar (previously) was given a partner in crime, the piratical Captain Crook, and donned with his signature cape, only to be directed to mime being a flasher—only to disclose his his identity as the Lone Jogger.  The advertising campaign was significantly curtailed after a 1973 lawsuit levied by Sid and Marty Krofft against McDonald’s for copyright infringement on their character universe. 

vienna convention

In a move that seems particularly American and symptomatic of its McWorld mentality, US citizens travelling in Austria who’ve lost their passport or are otherwise distressed may seek out consular services and relief at any one of the country’s nearly two hundred McDonald’s franchises.
Fast food staff, thanks to a deal reached between the company and the US State Department, will have a special hotline to reach the Embassy to relay emergencies and seek resolution. A spokesperson for the US Mission says that this partnership is not in lieu of a fully staffed and trained diplomatic corps and is in fact increasing access to the embassy by distributing services throughout the country, choosing McDonald’s for this pilot programme because of its geographic spread, after-hours staffing and familiarity to Americans.

you deserve a break today

Referred by Coudal Partners’ Fresh Signals, we get a glimpse of the direction a fast food giant could have taken towards mellower, harvest palette instead of the signature red and gold, which supposedly stimulates the appetite, thanks to some recently recovered 1973 (also the same year as the introduction of the Egg McMuffin) marketing proofs from Unimark International. The alternate look reminds us of the iconic Sainsbury’s store brand. The design archives of McDonald’s and other anchor lines are being researched and curated by the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

spuntino

Recently a team of archaeologists uncovered a delightfully well-preserved “fast food” counter from the ruins of Pompeii (previously).  In the Empire such thermopolia (singular thermopolium) catered to merchants as conveniences and those without the means to set up and staff a kitchen at home—whose value menus included such on-the-go and processed (fermented and thus the domain of Bacchus rather than Demeter) fare as mulled wine, lentils, baked cheese and preserved fish.

hemebase

While this latest fare I suspect wouldn’t be for someone like me who has happily been a vegetarian for over two decades, meatless options moving into the fast food business (I was afraid that this was some cynical prank because of the timing but gladly not) are certainly positive developments all around and might encourage omnivorous appetites to significantly cut back on beef consumption.
There’s always an element of acclimation—I suppose the same as I would go through trying to convince myself that what was being offered to me—and I’d be willing to try—was not a hamburger but something completely plant-based, but changing diets without compromising anything in terms of taste or texture is pretty pivotal. Our dietary choices have consequences, and when beef becomes cheap and disposable, we are paying for it dearly elsewhere. I wonder what we will ultimately gain in return for moving in a more healthy and humane direction.

all the presidents’ meals

The always brilliant Everlasting Blört refers us to a rather incredible, wide-ranging study from Foreign Policy on official White House State Dinners and how the evolution of the menu reflects changing tastes, health trends and American cuisine. Harry S Truman, hosting Dutch and British prime ministers Willem Drees and Winston Churchill, most certainly served samples of a certain new corn chip called Fritos and a couple of old fashioneds.
Nixon lost his creative flair after Watergate and recycled Bibb salads.  Jimmy Carter held the biggest state dinner with dignitaries from all over Latin American invited to attend the US transferring ownership of the Panama Canal. At one of the Reagans’ events, John Travolta danced with Princess Diana. Inventions of the kitchen—special sauces and desserts—were often named after the guests of honour. Reflecting popular diet fads of the 1990s, the Clinton White House only served beef on two occasions. Beautifully presented—plated, the interactive presentation that covers nearly nine decades of gastro-diplomatic fêting, we are ready to dig in and sample the courses through history.

white castle down or mayor mccheese

Though doubtless no amount of statecraft could ever manage to extricate Trump from the unconscionable lows he has already visited on the office, there are reportedly calls for Trump to delay his vaunted event, the State of the Union address, as another casualty of the partial federal government closure.
While ongoing culture wars and tribalism might spin the fact that due to the shutdown the White House scullery was woefully understaffed to stage a proper banquet and therefore emphasised Trump’s resourcefulness and image of playing a host who understands the palette of his guests, it really diffuses that narrative to point out that the same lamed apparatus also is a guarantor of safety, not just for the person of the president but the public at large.

mcdol ou le maire mccheese

We learn that the town of Dolus-d’Oléron has staged a four year legal battle to keep one fast food franchise off the picturesque and pristine Île d’Oléron (previously here and here), and amid contentions the courts may arrive at a decision soon.
Opponents, hoping to continue to foster a culture of environmental sustainability and minimising the deleterious effects of human enterprise, present some rather compelling arguments against the famously unwelcome franchise. Above and beyond reasons of aesthetics and how the competition hurts local business, the opposition group, led by the mayor of Dolus, offers that the business model of fast food and drive-thru service is a relic that’s done quite enough damage and has no place in the future. France has had a rather fraught relationship with the fast food giant over the decades not only as an assault on the palette but also a symbol of unchecked globalisation, protests and dialogues prompted over a trade dispute in 1990s when the US retaliated against an array of French products, including Roquefort cheese, over Europe’s refusal to allow hormone-treated beef into its markets.

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aurora: a primer for the Parker Solar Probe’s mission to touch the Sun, seeking answers regarding the solar winds and corona posed decades ago

banana for scale: an exponential (previously) romp through the Cosmos that will help one to appreciate perspective

of podcasts and puppets: an interview with the handler for MST3K’s Crow T Robot speaks on how novelty acts inform culture

wiigwaasabak: wanting to boost confidence and interest in preserving and using native languages, a First Nations young man took the initiative to dub his favourite cartoons in Anishiaabemowin and Cree

dugout: via Slashdot, a visit to the remote Australian opal mining town where people live underground

maccoin bubble: enthusiasts in China are trading commemorative tokens (whose face-value is a hamburger) issued for the fast food franchise’s fiftieth birthday at greatly inflated prices

bride of frankenstein: actually she’s Trump’s monster

strandbeest evolution: Dutch artist Theo Jansen engineers giant kinetic Jabberwockies that travel the beach powered only by the winds

food court

Though the history and geopolitical situation that frames Iran’s relationship to the US and the broader Western-world (and its neighbours in the region) if rather fraught and complex and believe that the profusion of convenience food is a real blight on society and the environment, we rather enjoyed this summary presentation through the lens of bootleg fast food franchises from Atlas Obscura that neither shied away from the uncomfortable truths nor trivialised the state of affairs.
Kentucky House, Mash Donald’s, Pizza Hot and others occupy an entrepreneurial and experiential space that’s otherwise absent in daily life. We also gained an appreciation for the nuance of the Persian pejorative gharbzadeghi (غرب‌زدگی) for being besotted (struck) with Western models and standards in education, business, arts and culture but also critically as it launches a discourse on imitation and authenticity and how one as a nation is can be played proxy as consumers of the products or the politics that the West is selling. Do give the whole article a read at the link up top and discover more with the help of their team of intrepid adventurers.