Nag on the Lake has just acquainted us with an amazingly dedicated individual by the name of Alwyn Collinson that has recounted every pivotal moment in World War II as it happened for the past six years, concluding 15 August (1945, formally signed on 2 September) with the surrender of the Japanese Imperial Army and beginning another harrowing new cycle on 1 September (1939) when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, using the false-flag operation, the attack on the broadcasting tower in Gleiwitz, then part of Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien) that occurred the night before, by Schutzstaffel (the SS) provocateurs disguised as Polish separatists as pretense for shift retaliation. It’s fascinating to see how quickly matters accelerated in real time, as it were, and history pressing forward unmediated by the lens of history—plus it’s surely a brave and noble effort to be willing to relive these horrors over and over again—repeating them in the hope that we might not. Perhaps, like the Cosplay Caliphate, those aspirants to the Turd Reich would be dissuaded if they knew truly what they were making light of.
Saturday 2 September 2017
Friday 1 September 2017
rock, paper, scissors
wedlock
The winding down of wedding season is a good time for reflection on the institution and the curators of the Ricco-Maresca Gallery in Manhattan furnish us with a captivating lens to view the changing conventions and trappings of matrimony with a collection of Victorian era cabinet cards that take a slice of late nineteenth century attitudes towards portraiture and keepsakes. These sombre, serious poses (a little haunted but typical for the time when photography was new and reserved for such special occasions and vows weren’t always exchanged out of love but rather for the sake of utility) are contrasted with a progression of wedding cake toppers from that time up to the present that reflect maturing outlooks and rituals that retain meaning in their fungibility.
campaign hat
In what’s surely to further unhinge Dear Leader in ways that we can’t predict, we learn from Super Punch, one major, disruptive retail outlet in selling knock-offs of the baseball caps (campaign hats are those typically worn by park rangers and Mounties) he’s been shamelessly promoting during press-conferences on the hurricane response and recovery in Texas for a quarter of the price. Although Dear Leader seems unable to move beyond campaign mode, apparently he can recognise when his merchandise has gone stale.
borscht belt
Via the always brilliant Nag on the Lake, we’re invited on an idyll odyssey with Pablo Iglesias Maurer inspired by a lot of vintage postcards depicting resorts of the Catskills and the Poconos during their heyday fifty years ago juxtaposed with their present state of wrack and ruin.
The ephemeral nature of the missives served their purpose—much like snapshots on social media—but isn’t meant to rubbish those destinations and experiences now abandoned, while at the same the medium romances both the nostalgia and the decay. What do you think? Surely the portrayals are all the more awful for those with a connection to the places. We’ve a sudden urge to watch Dirty Dancing and inspect the facilities at Kellerman’s. Be sure to visit the links up top for a whole gallery of rather sad then-and-now transitions.