Tuesday 22 January 2019
be kind, rewind
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We very much enjoyed being introduced courtesy of BOOOOOOOM’s illustrator spotlight to the rather extensive and featured portfolio of Berlin-based illustrator Max Guther, whose collages are limned by architectural elements and explore how the human body is framed and engages with constructed spaces. Though his figures and environments are far more bespoke, Guther’s work reminds us a little bit of the Sims life simulation worlds. Much more to discover at the links above.
Monday 21 January 2019
9x9
aaron burr, sir: Alexander Hamilton’s mostly fraught relationships with the first five US presidential administrations
four baths in the course of a month: how to bathe in January, according to seventh century philosopher Hierophilus the Sophist
faux chรขteaux: drone footage reveals surreal failed real estate development project between Ankara and Istanbul
messrs. 1569 and 1571: some of the strangest declassified artefacts that are stumping the investigative team at Muckrockgot to catch ‘em all: custom-tailored Pokรฉmon dress shirts
nรฉpzene: a quick-sort algorithm demonstrated by Hungarian folk dancing
heatseekers: night time skiing guided by overhead flares, via Memo of the Air
muzzy von hossmere: a fond appreciation of the life and career of the late Carol Channing (*1921 – †2019)
the president shall from time to time give to the congress information of the state of the union: until 1913, most State of the Union addresses were delivered in writing
Sunday 20 January 2019
sunday drive: kloster kreuzberg
Built on the western-face of Franconia’s “holy mountain” with some six hundred thousand visitors and host to eighty pilgrimages yearly and not to mention one our favourite nearby locales, I was a bit taken aback to find that I had neglected to make mention of the Franciscan Kreuzberg Cloister beforehand—but will make amends for the place we went to again today, taking advantage of the sunny and clear though cold day.
Until Irish missionaries arrived in the mid-seventeenth century, the mountain was known as Aschberg (after a warlike race of Norse gods รsir, like the titans as distinct from the Olympians, and not the tree, however) and ostensibly the site of a tree-worshiping cult before being rebranded in the native language after Golgotha. A convent was later formed and in the early 1700s, the brothers were granted a charter to brew beer (it is hard to object to a group of sequestered individuals who earn their keep through prayer and beer), which is still a major attraction to this day.
After making sport in the snow or hiking the trails, most repair to the guesthouse for a beer and refreshments. The monks also raise Saint Bernards to rescue the wayward, but the newest additions in the kennel were not in the mood to have their pictures taken. We are sure to return another time when the place is a bit less crowded and once again more conducive to exploring.
mnemonic device
Having indulged before the Cathedrals of the Mind and cultivated our own memorisation tricks, we enjoyed very much being outfitted with additional mnemonic devices with seventeenth century English mystic and polymath Robert Fludd, with due deference to its predecessors and earlier influences. His first comprehensive correspondence to given orthographic alpha-numerical values sought to create narratives based off of the ways each glyph could interact and passing down that particular story in order to remember it.
Such are the tools of champion memorisers but with just a little practise and a non-sense scenario (the more ridiculous, the more memorable), one could easily commit an elusive yet useful to know-by-heart account number or passkey to memory. It might even make the exercise more effective should one transcribe the alphabet from Fludd’s 1617 Utriusque Cosmi…Historia into a more familiar and accessible set of symbols. Much more to explore at the ever-excellent Public Domain Review at the link above.
