sleeping very soundly on a saturday morning i was dreaming i was al capone

Billed as Smile, the previous band of drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May under which the booking had originally been made, those two were joined by bass-player Mike Grose and Freddie Bulsara on lead vocals to perform publicly together for a charity fund-raising event at the City Hall of Truro in Cornwall on this day in 1970. Welcoming the singer, the group was convinced to change its name to Queen by a persuasive Mercury who also took that moment to redefine himself, inspired by the lyric, “Mother Mercury—look what they’ve done to me” for the draft that would become song “My Fairy King,” which would feature on their first eponymous record album. The ballad itself inspired by Robert Browning’s poem The Pied Piper, it quotes directly “and horses were born with eagles’ wings” and immediately preceding the lament, “Someone, someone has drained the colour from my wings / Broken my fairy circle ring / And shamed the king in all his pride / Changed the winds and wronged the tides.” The titular opening lines are from an early version of “Stone Cold Crazy” was among original material performed at the first gig, with a small show, under their new name, following in London on 18 July.

avonymic

As Iceland drops fees and bureaucratic onus to change one’s (to opt out of the matronymic or patronymic construction scheme) name and gender marker, the Czech Republic is poised to enact legislation that would reform the centuries old requirement for feminised surnames, further dismantling the patriarchy. If successful, all women will be able to choose whether or not to formally adopt the “-ová” suffix upon marriage and buck the declension rules of the language—exemptions granted in rare cases when the betrothed intends to live outside of Czechia or marries a foreigner. There is a heated debate between progressives and purists. Though many media outlets have chosen not to respect the naming convention, the rule applies to public figures as well with activist and tennis star Martina Navratilova rendered in the domestic press as Martina Navrátilovaová.

we here at weyland-yutani corporation would like to wish a happy pride month to all of our lgbtq+ colonists on lv-426

Via JWZ and ourselves just seeing the Y in the corporate logo for the first time, we are rather enjoying this show of corporate solidarity from villainous, fictitious companies including Umbrella Corporation, Tyrell and Cyberdyne Systems, makers of Skynet.  No official statements yet from their real world counterparts regarding Pride Month and often fleeting and hollow-ringing shows of support irrespective of however a person might identify themselves or whatever association is foisted on them.  

the morbidity and mortality weekly report

In a bulletin published on this day in 1981 by the US health authority, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, five individuals in Los Angeles are reported to be suffering from a rare form of opportunistic pneumonia that only occurs in people with a compromised immune system. Though first appearing in an article in the homosexual publication the New York Native a couple of weeks prior describing the other comorbidity of Kaposi's sarcoma with warnings directed towards the CDC of a “gay cancer” the five were considered to be the first clinically diagnosed with what became known as AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Before settling on the above, accepted naming-convention, the disease was usually referred to its associated pathologies or by the acronym GRID—gay-related immune deficiency, or the even worse “4-H disease” with affected communities seemingly confined to heroin-users, homosexuals, haemophiliacs and Haitians—both dropped once it was shown that the disease was not isolated to any one group, though the stigma and discrimination endures. Approaching forty million live with AIDS and at least thirty-five million have died from it since the discovery.

8x8

such good: a dating app based on shared meme-affinity  

boulevard du crime: a lost Parisien theatre district that specialised in putting on felonious melodramas 

lion city rising: photographer Keith Loutit captures eight years of change in Sinagpore  

lunachicks: a flamboyant punk rock group who are a product of unvarnished New York  

broodclipjes: more fun with twist-ties and related species (see previously)—from Pasa Bon!  

horological constraints: the typography of watches—see also  

 profiles in pride: World of Wonder showcases some of the gay rights movement’s pioneers (see also), starting with Frank Kamey of the DC Mattachine Society  

masterpieces of streaming: a collection of the subtle genius of dumb viral videos—via Waxy

can’t stop, shan’t stop

Previously we’ve been presented for our consideration with one early twentieth century Russian poet as the primogenitor of the genre which seemed like a valid nomination but we were especially taken with this new to us performance by English playwright, cabaretist and near contemporary Noël Coward of one his signature numbers “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” which certainly bares some correspondence with modern rap recitations. Acknowledged precursors include spoken-word poetry sessions and the expressionist vocal technique loosely classed as Sprechgesang—a touch operatic and dialogue delivered somewhere in between sung and parlando—realised as popular music in the Bronx in the early 1970s, articulated from the role of the master of ceremonies (MC) to entertain between disc-jockey (DJ) sets.

to russia with elton

Starting with a venue in Leningrad on this day in 1979, Elton John gave the first of a series of eight concerts in the Soviet Union, marking the largest-scale tour thus far of a Western artist (see also), preceded by smaller shows by Boney M and Keith Richards. A subsequent live broadcast from the Rossiya Concert Hall in Moscow (the evening of 28 May) that was also carried by BBC1 marked the first satellite link-up between the USSR and the West and helped diffuse geopolitical tensions at he height of the Cold War.

de twee bruidegommen

Passed by the Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer) of the States General and affirmed by the Senate during the December before, same-sex marriage (Homohuwelijk) became legal in the Netherlands on this day in 2001, the first country in modern times to sanction and recognise marriage equality. Registered partnerships were introduced on New Year’s 1998 as an alternative for homosexual couples, which under the law convey the same rights, duties and responsibilities as matrimony, and have since become nearly as popular as civil marriage among heterosexual couples as well.

listen to me coppertop—we don’t have time for twenty questions

Going into general release in US theatres on this day in 1999, though the tropes and themes have been to an extent ironically co-opted by more right leaning and extremist elements, The Matrix (previously) written and directed by the siblings Wachowski, whom years after their movie debuted came out as transgender women, acknowledged some subtle allegory in the plot and dialogue:“an error in the Matrix,” that sense that something is fundamental wrong—“like a splinter in your mind” suggests body dysphoria and the red pill that for some in the above-mentioned circles has become representative for throwing down the gauntlet for seeking truth inside conspiracy did for others draw comparisons to red oestrogen pills that transitioning individuals might take. In the original script, the character of Switch (quoted above) was to be portrayed as male in the real world and as female in the Matrix but that idea was dropped during filming.

satan’s sneakers

While we don’t claim to comprehend exactly what is going on here, a string of double standards is underpinning the career of Nas X, in saying that his Country and Western song didn’t qualify for the genre (because of the identity of the artist) and now his music video tie-in with some unauthorised limited edition trainers, replete with pentagrams and other demonic symbolism plus the signature swoosh is painted with human blood has prompted the athletic shoe company to sue the artist and his collaborators, though an earlier edition of Jesus Shoes—white and containing holy water—didn’t raise the same level of objection over infringement. What do you think? More images at Dezeen at the link above, and we especially liked the attention paid to the shoebox—a collectors’ item itself I suppose with the detail from the lower half of Jan van Eyck’s (previously) Diptych with Calvary and Last Judgement (Diptiek met kruisiging en laatste oordeel) printed on the inside, with a warning from verse Matthew 25:41 inscribed along death’s head and wings Ite vos maledicti in ignem eternam—Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, which fits with all the other embedded messages and Easter eggs in the sneakers and associated video.

6x6

ribbit: frogs use their lungs effectively as noise-cancelling devices—via the new Shelton wet/dry  

oculus: architect envisions Rome’s Pantheon as world’s largest camera obscura (previously) with a conceptual installation 

fetish-free commodities: Existential Comics attempts to demystify Marxist marketplaces—via Nag on the Lake and Memo of the Air 

radiant baby: a brief biography of artist Keith Haring told with drawings and song  

ipa: an iconographic dictionary that corresponds to each phoneme of human language 

marshmallow test: cuttlefish demonstrate self-control and delay gratification, passing a cognitive benchmark designed for human children

create escape

With an expertly spliced narration from Bob Ross’ own affirming Joy of Painting, Banksy (see previously) shares the making of his latest mural of a jail-break taking place on the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison in Reading where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated for the crime of gross indecency with the poet scaling the outer wall with knotted bedding anchored by a typewritten manuscript and typewriter.

“But we who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.  We have nothing else to think of.  Suffering―curious as it may sound to you―is the means by which we exist, because it is the only means by which we become conscious of existing; and the remembrance of suffering in the past is necessary to us as the warrant, the evidence, of our continued identity,” said Wilde of his time behind bars. The prison confirms that the graffiti will be a permanent feature as the artist claims the work as his own.

matronym or organised kaos

The regulatory body in Iceland, Kynhlutlausa—the national naming authority (see also), in addition to approving the names Ingaló, Sanný, Gulla, Róma, Bertmarí, Estíva, Gulla, Lucas, Theo and Søren has also enacted previously passed legislation that restricts names to specific genders and allows neutral assignment and can give themselves whatever name they choose. Some resistance circulated due to grammar and standard Icelandic orthography but such differences can be set aside.

7x7

the lady and the dale: a con-artist and the “car of the future”  

the lovers, the dreamers and me: after a five-year hiatus Snarkmarket makes a return to analyse and discuss two songs from The Muppet Movie—via Kottke and RSS reader 

tennesee tuxedo as a school-marmish cereal cop: children’s animated breakfast commercials often touted dark, authoritarian narratives  

i don’t want to be carrot man but i am carrot man: a delightful vintage guide on making costumes 

act-out: one hundred eighty-five German stage, television and film stars stage mass coming-out in support for greater representation and gender diversity in roles, via Super Punch 

like a small boat on the ocean sending big waves into motion: Trump’s legal defence wraps up a bizarre, specious rebuttal  

the witch of kings cross: a dramatization of the persecution that a sorceress and healer faced in 1950s Australia—via Strange Company’s Weekend Link Dump

mmxx

As a long-standing tradition here at PfRC, here is our annual recap of this most extraordinairy year. We‘ve come all this way together and here‘s to us ploughing on. Thanks for visiting and be good to yourselves and one another.

january: Bushfires rage across Australia, taking the lives of an estimated billion animals.  We had to bid farewell to historian and Monty Python member Terry Jones and veteran reporter and newscaster Jim Lehrer.  Tragically basketball star Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna with seven others died during a helicopter accident.  Trump signs a trade deal with Canada and México to replace NAFTA.  The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally announce their intention to leave the European Union, initiating an eleven-month transition period.

february: Veteran actor Kirk Douglas passed away, aged one hundred and three as well as fellow actors Orson Bean and Robert Conrad.  A detailed study of the most distant planetary body explored by a space probe, now called Arrokoth, is released.  World stock markets respond early to unease surrounding the spread of the novel SARS virus.  Luxembourg makes all public transportation free to the public. 

march: Actor and singer-song writer Kenny Rogers passed away and we said farewell to Max von Sydow. Playwright Terrence McNally (*1938), actor Mark Blum (*1950), architect Michael Sorkin (*1948), influential Indian chef Floyd Cardoz (*1960), Romanian dissident author Paul Goma (*1935) and saxophonist Manu Dibango (*1933) passed away due to complications of COVID-19.  Composer Krzysztof Penderecki (*1933) whose music scored The Exorcist and The Shining also succumbed after a long bout of illness as did musician Bill Withers (*1938, Lean on Me, .Lovely Day, Just the Two of Us) from heart complications. Breonna Taylor (*1993) was murdered in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky by police conducting a groundless, no-knock search of the premises. 

april: We had to say goodbye to award-winning musician Adam Schlesinger (*1967) of Fountains of Wayne fame, Alexander George Thynn, Marquess of Bath (*1932), veteran rhythm guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli (*1926), jazz pianist and educator Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr (*1934), folk musician and storyteller John Prine (*1946) and polymath John Horton Conway (*1937), inventor of among other things of The Game of Life, and comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor (*1940) succumbing to COVID-19.  We say farewell to veteran actress Honor Blackman (*1925), known for her roles in The Avengers and in Goldfinger as Bond Girl Pussy Galore.  We also say farewell to teacher Harriet Mae Glickman (*1925), whom persuaded Charles M. Schultz to include a black character in his comic strip Peanuts, cartoonist and long-time contributor to Mad magazine Mort Drucker (*1929), veteran actor Brian Dennehy and lesbian and civil rights advocate Phyllis Lyon (*1924).

may: founding member of Kraftwerk and electronic music pioneer Florian Schneider (*1947) passed away after a prolonged struggle with cancer.  Entertainer and illusionist Roy Horn (Uwe Ludwig, *1944) of Siegfried & Roy, and Ken Nightingall (*1928), audio engineer and famously known as the Pink Shorts Boom Operator from Star Wars passed away after succumbing to complications of COVID-19.  Pioneering singer and performer Little Richard (*1932) died after a long struggle with cancer as did techno DJ and producer Pascal FEOS (*1968) and rhythm and blues singer Betty Wright (*1953), known for her ability to sing in the whistle register, above falsetto. Veteran actor and comedian Jerry Stiller (*1927) passed away, aged 92.  Monumental artist Christo (*1935 on the same day as his partner in life and professionally Jeanne-Claude, †2009, previously here and here) passed away of natural causes.  Costa Rica legalises gay marriage, the first Latin American country to do so.

june: Rallies and marches rage across the US in response to the brutal murder of Floyd George while being detained by police. Actor Ian Holm (*1931), known for his roles as Napoleon in Time Bandits, Ash in Alien and Bilbo Baggins in the Tolkien adaptations, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease.  Influential graphic designer Milton Glaser (*1929, previously) passed away on his ninety-first birthday.  Iconic comedian and fixture of Japanese television for decades, Ken Shimura (*1950) died of COVID-19.

july: Veteran civil rights activist and politician John Lewis (*1940) passed away after an extended bout with  cancer.  Founder of Fleetwood Mac Peter Green (*1946) has died. Actress Olivia de Haviland (*1916) died of natural causes in her home in Paris, aged 104. The US gross domestic product plummets by a third, prompting Trump to suggest that the November elections be delayed until such time as people can vote safely in person.  Long time Trump and Tea Party supporter and once-time presidential candidate Herman Cain (*1945) died of complications of COVID-19 after contracting the virus during Trump’s rally in Tulsa.

august:  Veteran actor and musician Wilford Brimley (*1934) passed away, dying in hospital suffering from multiple health issues.  John Hume (*1937),  architect of the peace accords in Northern Ireland and instrumental in passing the Good Friday Agreement, has departed.  A giantic explosion occurred in the port of Beirut when chemicals stored in a warehouse there detonated.  Actor and singer behind such standards as “If I Had a Hammer” and “Lemon Tree” Trinidad “Trini” López (*1937) died due to complications from COVID-19.  Media mogul Sumner Redstone who created the production company Viacom, recognising that content was king, passed away, aged 97.  Linguist and long-time contributor to Public Radio Geoffrey Nunberg (*1945) died after coping with a long illness.  The Joe Biden campaign selects Kamala Harris as its running-mate, and both parties hold their conventions virtually.  Kremlin-critic and chief opposition candidate to Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, is presumably poisoned on a flight back to Siberia and is subsequently medically evacuated to Germany.  Black Panther actor and humanitarian Chadwick Boseman (*1976) dies after a four-year battle with colon cancer. Long-time Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announces his retirement from elected office over health reasons.

september: Economist and anarchist David Graeber (*1961) passed away at a hospital in Venice, dying from undisclosed causes.  After a short struggle with cancer and last months spent with family and contented reflection, accomplished actor Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (*1938) has died.   Interviewed for a new expose by Bob Woodward, Trump admitted on tape months ago that he downplayed the danger of COVID-19, though this revelation seemed to barely rise above the general din of the news cycle and receded quickly in voters’ conscience.  The Polish-government allows twelve municipalities to declare themselves LGBT-ideology free-zones.  Protests continue in Belarus over the disputed reelection of long-serving, Russian-aligned leader Alexander Lukashenko.  Jurist and US Supreme Court associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (*1933) died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, leaving a court vacancy just before the presidential election.  A grand jury in Kentucky declined to file homicide charges against the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor.  Australian singer and actor Helen Reddy (*1941) passed away after succumbing to complications from dementia.  During the first US presidential debate, devolving into a messy, nasty political food-fight, Trump refused to denounce white supremacist groups. 

october: After White House aid Hick Hopes tested positive for coronavirus, Donald and Melania Trump were also screened and found to both be carriers.   The nomination ceremony for the US Supreme Court justice to replace the vacancy left by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the White House rose garden turned into a superspreader event.  Iconic fashion designer Kenzō Takada (高田 賢三, *1939) died from complications of COVID-19.  Singer Eddie Van Halen (*1955) passed away after a long battle with cancer.  The FBI in conjunction with other domestic law enforcement authorities foil a plot by a white supremacists to kidnap the governor of Michigan.  Jacinda Arden remains Prime Minister of New Zealand after her party wins the election in a land-slide victory.  Space probe OSIRIS-REx (previously) arrives at asteroid Bennu and collects mineral samples to bring back to Earth.  Magician and scientific sceptic James Randi (*1928) passes away, aged 92. Despite the US presidential election only being a little more than a week away, the Republican-controlled Senate rush through the confirmation of a young, conservative justice with questionable qualification and adjourn until after the ballots close, leaving those negatively impacted by the continuing pandemic no fiscal relief package.  Actor Sean Connery passed away, aged ninety.  

november: Terror incidents occur in Paris and Vienna.  With most of Europe entering a second quarantine as a firebreak to slow the spread of COVID-19, Germany goes into lockdown-light for the month.  Election Day comes for the United States with nearly one hundred million voters casting their ballots early.  The election is called in favour of Biden and Harris.  Team Trump refuses to concede.  Long time television game show host Alex Trebek (*1940) dies after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer.  Veteran Middle East negotiator Saeb Erekat dies, aged sixty-five, from complications of COVID-19.  The purge of the Trump administration continues with the dismissal of the Defence Secretary for not authorising the mobilisation of the army against protesters and the chief of cyber-security for countering Trump’s false narrative and rightly proclaiming the election the best safeguarded vote in modern US history, and halving troop levels in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan by executive decree.  A historic Hurricane Iota ravages Central America, having barely recovered from the last, Hurricane Epsilon.  Not conceding defeat Trump allows the Biden transition team to begin its work.  Argentine footballer, one of the greatest of all time Diego Maradona (*1960) dies of a heart attack.  

december: Courts, including the US Supreme Court, rebuff Trump’s efforts to overturn election results in a nacent coup attempt.  Massive protests in reaction to legislation that liberalises farming practises leave India paralysed.  The first vaccinations against the SARS-CoV-2 virus are administered.  With last-ditch Brexit negotiations poised for failure and the UK to crash out of the EU with no deal, Britain moves to deploy naval warships to protect fishing stocks in its national waters.  Pioneering Country and Western singer Charlie Pride (*1934) passes away due to complications from COVID-19.  Intelligence officer and master of the spy novel, John le Carré (*1931) has died.  French president Emmanuel Macron contracts COVID-19 and goes into quarantine.  The archbishop of Canterbury tells parishioners, especially the vulnerable, that it is not necessary to attend church services on Christmas day, echoed by the Pope and other religious leaders.  Compounding Brexit uncertainty, the final week of the year sees the UK cut off from much of the rest of the world over concerns about a new coronavirus strain that is significantly more transmissable.  A final deal was arranged for the UK leaving the EU at the last minute which spares Britain the worse fate of crashing-out with no deal but is significantly not as good of a trade pact had the UK remained in.  A powerful earthquake shakes Croatia.  French fashion designer Pierre Cardin passes away, aged ninety-eight.

7x7

repetition: an exploration of built-environments as an audio-visual landscape of infinite regression  

a pigment of our imagination: the illusory nature of colour  

nationally determined contributions: European Union agrees to more than halve its carbon emissions by 2030—via Slashdot 

awesome sauce: a safari-pak of canned-meats from 1967 

road gritters: track Scotland’s fleet of snow-plows in real time by name  

training a generation of future karens: this scholastic kids books series are clearly coding adults as happy and confident with their life choices as monsters and misfits—via Super Punch 

a universe of imagination: revisiting a classic and inspiring documentary (previously) on cosmology on its sixtieth anniversary

die wörters des jahres

Collegially, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS, see previously) has selected a range of words for 2020. In first place is Corona-Pandemie and second is Lockdown, fourth is Black Lives Matter and seventh is Triage. The remaining six selectees, however, need a bit of unpacking and interpreting, we think. 

Verschwörungszählung refers to the conspiracy theory (Americans don’t have an absolute monopoly) that numbers of cases and casualties of COVID-19 are being inflated 

AHA—the three rules of keeping one’s distance (Abstand), practising good hygiene and wearing masks daily (Alltagsmaske) 

systemrelevant emphasises the importance of a regulated approach and clear and consistent messaging 

Geisterspiele are ghost games referring to the tournaments happening in empty stadiums 

Gendersternchen is acknowledging the new practise of using an asterisks to refer to male and female occupations, affiliations or offices instead of the generic masculine or to assign a job a sexual identity, Künstler/Kunstlerin (artist) to Künstler*in, with the ensuing debate about article and case agreement 

And rounding out the list is wish for continued good health in Bleiben Sie gesund!

sara josephine baker

Born this day in 1873, the Poughkeepsie, New York native and pioneering physician—while perhaps not a household name—contributed to literacy in hygiene, preventative medicine and the concept of public health with enduring impact matched only by Florence Nightingale. Baker, Doctor Joe as she was universally called, solely and significantly reduced infant mortality through aggressive educational campaigns and cheap and effective early interventions—remarking, not without controversy at the time that “Healthy people don’t die” and dedicated her practise to preventing people from falling ill. Not to overshadow the countless anonymous lives she saved and sent off with better future prospects, Baker also tracked down and remanded to isolation Mary Mallon—twice, and helped her colleagues accept that there could be such a condition as an asymptomatic carrier. Also petitioning fervently for the franchise, Baker was a feminist who spent a quarter of a century with her partner, Australian author Ida (“I.A.R”) Wylie, whom had more than thirty of her novels and stories adapted cinematically from the 1920s through the early 1950s (Keeper of the Flame, Four Sons, The Red Mirage). On retirement, the couple bought a ranch in New Jersey with their friend pathologist Louise Pearce, who developed a therapy to render sleeping sickness less fatal, saving millions in central and southern Africa. Read more at the WOW Report at the link up top.

the age of consent

Released on this day by London Records in 1984, the synth-pop trio Bronski Beat’s above titled debut album was in reference to legal and social reforms in much of continental Europe that decriminalised homosexuality and harmonised the age of consent with that for heterosexual relationship, legislation which the United Kingdom did not ascribe to at the time. All members of the band were openly gay and their music contained commentary on politics and gay-related issues. Their one charting song “Smalltown Boy” is featured on the record, an eventual anthem addressing hardships of coming-out and experiencing homophobia, released also as a single earlier in the year.

rip rbg

As consequential and inopportune her death is and one hopes that her “most fervent” wish will be respected, one also hopes that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s departure (1933 – 2020) and vacancy in the US Supreme Court does not eclipse her life and career as a champion for justice, equality and access. One of my favourite details of her biography was her early desire to become an opera singer—before having any aspirations at law—and the eventual pop culture icon’s supernumery stage roles (extras—usually non-speaking parts but was once appointed to the judgeship in decide the case in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, bring justice for Shylock) and her regular attendance at shows in Washington, DC.

Despite pronounced ideological differences, Ginsburg considered fellow justice (at the Supreme Court and previously at the US Court of Appeals) Antonin Scalia (1936 – 2016, see also that succession crisis with this vacancy likely to be the encore) and often went to the opera together, twice appearing together in the Richard Strauss comedy of manners Ariadne auf Naxos—an instance of unexpected collegiality that inspired its own opera buffa in 2015. The string of lace jabots illustrated is from the excellent SCOTUS Blog (their obituary linked up top) and was Ginburg’s signature accessory and was said to wear particular one’s depending on her mood and what sort of opinion—dissenting or majority—she was issuing. Let’s all wear black and gold and uphold her legacy and hard-won victories.