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Reminiscent of this earlier modular feline environment, we are quite enjoying these cardboard shrines for cats in the Shinto style for the further deification of one’s worshipful beloved. With a variety of configurations possible, one can easily adapt the housing in a number of ways for the safekeeping of the sacred. Learn more at Spoon & Tamago at the link above.

la chamber d’écoute

Born this day in 1898 (†1967) and pictured here posing with his painting The Pilgrim, René François Ghislain Magritte, son of a haberdasher and milliner, would go on to become an influential surrealist artist, informing pop, minimalist and conception art through a long and prolific career. Classically trained at the Académie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Magritte found instruction in traditional impressionism to be uninteresting and quickly thereafter discovered cubism and futurism as a point of departure, his signature style cemented once exposed to the metaphysical, juxtaposition of Le chant d’amour (1914) by artist Giorgio de Chirico.

After a failed first exhibition in the capital in the early 1920s, Magritte relocated to Paris where his work was better received and shown in galleries alongside Salvador Dalí (previously), Pablo Picasso, Yves Tanguy and Joan Miró (see also). During the war and living in Nazi-occupied Belgium, Magritte went through a painterly transition, called his “Renoir Period,” an interlude that expressed his feelings of abandonment and besiegement, though would later renounce that darker spell and committed with fellow artists to use surrealism to promote peace and reconciliation immediately after fighting ceased. Provisionally, Magritte supported himself and his family through forging Picassos and counterfeiting bank notes (he appeared on the genuine five-hundred-franc bill until it was replaced by the euro) until the arts sector was able to get back on its feet and by 1948 was returning to his pre-war style with Golconda (the raining men in bowler hats), The Lost Jockey, The Son of Man (a pop culture homage), The Balcony, The Empire of Light series, and The Listening Room (colossal green apple taking up a whole room).

8x8

physiological colours both mixt and simple: a taxonomical table of hues and saturation that to facilitate unambiguous descriptions of the colours of natural bodies—see also

the next tuesday after the first monday in the month of november: though at least a term ahead, we could relate and appreciate this thoughtful election day essay and reflection by Kottke guest host Tim Carmody  

telethot: a 1918 proposal for a hand-mirror like accessory that would allow telephone interlocutors to see one another—via Messy Nessy Chic  

relithiation: targeted healing can potential rejuvenate batteries that would otherwise be scrapped

dna sequencing: the storied, celebrated San Francisco lounge and concert venue turns thirty-five  

the max headroom signal interruption: a deep dive into the unsolved pirated television incident—see previously  

sorkin, strunk and white: how good screenplays reflect the best elements of style—see previously  

cyanometer: a colour wheel from 1789 to gauge the blueness of the sky

nürnberger prozesse

The International Military Tribunal having officially started two days prior with precedent established by the Leipziger Prozesse in the aftermath of World War I which while under the jurisdiction of Germany’s own legal system informed the legal framework for prosecuting war crime despite no punishment possible rising to the occasion to fit the transgression, US Supreme Court associate justice, the Honourable Robert Houghwout Jackson (*1892 – †1954) delivered his opening remarks for the prosecution on this day in 1945, setting the stage over the course of a several hours’ long oration for the court and for the press covering proceedings and relaying them to the public. Rejecting the superior orders, Befehl est Befehl defence, the Tribunal fixed the notion that crimes against humanity are the culpability of individuals and not abstractions or an imposed collective and only through such judgment can international law be enforced, informing in turn the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the permanent International Criminal Court

meow, meow, meow

Whilst not much is known about the fifth century Cornish missionary and saint (see previously) venerated on this day who is often conflated with Saint Felicity or Felix of Dunwich, what is reputed to Felec of Cornwall, his miraculous ability to communicate with cats, lions and other felines more than makes up for his overall obscurity.  How would you limn out Saint Felec’s acta and vita?

20-n

A fateful date similar to Schicksalstag, the above is a symbolic abbreviation of employed to denote a range of events that occurred on this day for Spain. In the first year of the civil war, founder of the fascist party Falange Española José Antonio Primo de Rivera was put to death in Alicante on 20 November 1936 but was later idealised and venerated by the Francoist dictatorship. Thirty-nine years later to the day, in 1975, Generalísimo Francisco Franco (*1892). Like its German equivalent, the day is eschewed in the main to avoid associations but a 2011 general election fell on this date as did the assassination of Basque nationalists in 1984 and 1989.

8x8

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

o tannebaum

Much like that bellwether tree stood up in Rome four years ago, the poor sacrificial spruce (with stowaway, another climate refugee) left to slowly desiccate and die at Rockefeller Center, already bedraggled and reflective not only of this dreadful year but of our seemingly incipient and insurmountable toxic relationship with the environment, ought to be accorded the single dignity of being the last offering to this tradition born out of bleak austerity into this genuflexion before capitalism and conspicuous consumption. We could deck the place with a nice hologram instead.