up with people (12. 567)

Whilst not exactly counter-programming for the later Expo ’74 and other iterations, the evangelic conference held in mid-June 1972 in Dallas, Texas sponsored by the Campus Crusade for Christ—the name meant to suggest a “spiritual explosion” and capitalise off the international expositions—and was considered the showcase event of the Jesus Movement which arose as a backlash to the perceived godlessness of alternative lifestyles and the cultural awakening of the previous few years of the Baby Boomer generation. Also described as “Christian Woodstock,” it took place during the height of the protests against the Vietnam (the final night coinciding with the Watergate break-in), with some grumblings at the fringe that were mostly kept muted by the atmosphere of enthusiastic patriotism that bordered on Christian nationalism, musical acts included Johnny Cash, Larry Norman and Kris Kristofferson and prominent guest speakers the reverend Billy Graham (previously). Attendance for the multi-day event ranged from eight-thousand to one hundred thousand, attending seminars and workshops—mostly US college students but with a foreign delegation representing around seventy five countries. Conservative groups were critical of Explo ’72 for its ecumenical nature, reaching out to both Protestant and Catholic ministries, as well for the music and dancing. Much more about the conference and side-show as well as its legacy from We are the Mutants contributor Michael Grasso at the link above.

501(c)(3) (12. 564)

Since its adoption in July of 1954, the Johnson Amendment as a provision in the US tax code has prohibited non-profit organisations, charitable foundations, universities and churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates or risk losing their tax exempt status. Named for then senator Lyndon B Johnson (previously), the section of the tax code of the Internal Revenue Service defining which groups are not liable to a levy on donations was amended without debate and was long considered uncontroversial until the 2010s when the Pulpit Freedom Initiative—likewise shielded from taxation—begin lobbying for its repeal, culminating with Trump announcing his intent to “totally destroy” the provision during the National Prayer Breakfast in February of 2017 shortly after his first inauguration. Whilst not completely removing the language, the acting IRS commission, during ongoing litigation between the tax authority and religious liberties campaigners, has signalled a significant posture shift in the rarely enforced law—comparing a religious institution’s endorsement of a a political candidate to a “family discussion” and falls short of intervening in a campaign if a pastor “in good faith speaks to their congregation through customary channels” on electoral platforms through a lens of faith. The Catholic church, regardless of legal permissibility, does not allow funds to be spent on behalf of candidates, officially, and as a general rule should not engage in partisan politics.

jargeau (12. 556)

On the way back from Morbihan in south Brittany, we crossed back into the central Loire valley and found a nice campsite on l’île aux Moulins in the river between the later partitioned towns of Jargeau and St Denis de l’Hôtel, just outside of Orléans. This intermediate stop brought us back coincidentally to another connection with Joan of Arc.

It was here during the Hundred Years’ War, after receiving her field promotion, she had her first military success, delivering the town from English occupation on 12 June 1429–on battle’s anniversary in 1920, Joan was beatified and declared a national heroine. Following the Edict of Nantes to seek some accommodation for Protestantism, the town was split with the original community of Jargeau listed as a safe haven for Huguenots.

Symbolically as a statement against religious tolerance and to practically divide Republicans from Royalists, the ancient stone bridge linking the two communities was destroyed during the French Revolution and anti-clerical terror. The medieval foundations are still present as stepping stones but the new span was not completed until 1998. During Nazi occupation, the town was host to a concentration camp for political prisoners, specifically a KZ-Lager for Nomaden—that is, Roma and Sinti people rounded up. The area to the east of town, Le Clos Ferbois, made a memorial to the resistance and some seventeen thousand individuals who were incarcerated there.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the ancient quarter of Maccagno (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: musical performance rights in Germany, paternalism and the EU plus ad revenue

fourteen years ago: a cursed economy 

coques et moules (12. 554)

Today was a beach day and we wandered over the dunes to the water’s edge along the plage near where the cargo ship the TK Bremmen washed ashore in 2011, long since cleared away and salvaged due to the pollution risk from oil in the hold.

Taking a nice stroll in the sand and surf, there was the remains of a World War II concrete pillbox bunker, a relic of Nazi Germany’s Atlantic Wall and impervious to destruction after eighty years. Later on we returned to the Island of Saint Cado and had mussels served the traditional way with frities and fortified cidre in tea cups.

We walked around the whole of the island. A service was being held in the chapel but we saw the devotional fountain fed by the sea, built in the 1700s with a Celtic cross in deference to Cardoc, patron of Gaul and Armorica (along with Saint Anne, the mother of Mary), restored in the twenty first century for the procession of Saint Cado’s Pardon (see previously), a pentential pilgrimage—to be granted indulgence—coinciding with a feast day and unique to Breton.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to a historic hermitage (with synchronopticæ) 

twelve years ago: Wiesbaden’s Fort Biehler plus an FAQ on FAQs 

thirteen years ago: wayside shrines, the Feldenkrais method plus the return of the hibachi

île de saint cado (12. 549)

Walking the opposite direction along the shore front Moulin des Oies from the campground, we first came to the dolmen known as Boccénic Vras (the geese-mill) on an outcropping, one of a few remaining prehistoric megalithic structures which were formerly as numerous as the preserved Carnac Stones not far from here but many of the granite monuments were used for construction material for lighthouses and churches, continuing through the habour and to the island of Welsh holy man Cardoc (Enez Kado), whose remote hermitage became a monastery during the high Middle Ages.

The rather remarkably engineered dike bridge connecting it to the mainland predates that period and was, according to legend, built by the devil in the course of one night. For his troubles, Satan claimed the first soul to cross—for which the saint volunteered but threw a black car onto the bridge at the last minute. About a hundred architectural marvels in France have the same demonic attribution.

Credited with the founding of many churches and abbeys throughout Breton, Cornwall and Scotland, Cado / Cardoc is fêted on 21 September (bay-dee-ya) and his Norman-era vita is considered one document that independently corroborates the historicity of the figure of King Arthur—prayed to for intervention for glandular issues and deafness. The church and supporting village was chiefly a fishing community and the monumental cavalry (see previously) dates from 1832 and the very photogenic Maison de Nichtarguér, an 1894 construction built for the caretaker of an oyster farm.

apocalypse hier et demain (12. 515)

Realising the resonance of revelation seems less abstract now than in more peaceful and sanguine times, a special exhibition put together by the Bibliothèque nationale de France of images and interpretations of the End of Days spanning from medieval manuscripts to nineteenth and twentieth century depictions, like the pictured rendition from chapter twenty of the enchained dragon locked away for a millennium from Symbolist draughtsman Odilon Redon, curated in a fashion that is meant to make visitors reflect on the choices that brought us to this eschatological inflection point and the spiritual housekeeping that might prove a measure redeeming rather than a fatalistic preoccupation with the end of the world. From the Koinē Greek incipit ἀποκάλυψις for unveiling, the prophetic text of John of Patmos, a series of visions recorded in the Book of Revelations in a grotto on the small Aegean volcanic island received by one of Jesus’ apostles banished like many others of this new cult seen as a political subversive to a penal colony and sentenced to hard labour. After a missive to the Seven Churches of Asia—“he who has an ear, let him listen to what the Holy Spirit say”—relating his instructions, John commits his fantastic and symbolic disclosures in florid detail with iconic and inscrutable figures like the Son of Man among seven lampstands, the Whore of Babylon, the Beast with Seven Heads, the Four Horsemen, the Woman Clothed with the Sun. The numbers seven and four in this context refer respectively the perfection of the hereafter and the imperfection of the present world according to ancient numerological traditions. Much more on the showing from Hyperallergic at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an early, dark version of ChatGPT (with synchronoptica), commencement addresses plus an extraordinary tree specimen in New Zealand

seven years ago: guidelines for nurturing democracy, THX’ Deep Note plus shape-shifting ghouls

eight years ago: Putin’s playbook, medieval games and pastimes plus continued tensions between Germany and Türkiye

nine years ago: the Lollards, diplomatics, a new Banksy graffiti  plus the US attempt to annex Iceland

thirteen years ago: the passage of Venus, flea market finds plus distorted Google maps views

sara-la-kâli (12. 485)

Venerated on this day in folk Catholic traditions, sharing it with her companion and co-worker St Joanna though not officially recognised by the Church, as the patron protectress of the Romani people, particularly in the Camargue region of southern France with her shrine in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer considered a place of pilgrimage, St Sarah, according to legend, was a servant of the Three Marys, a maid of Mary of Clopas (sister-in-law of Joseph) from descendants from the coastal area of Malabar and brought to Egypt through Indo-Roman trade, where they landed after the Resurrection fleeing persecution and to work as missionaries to the continent. “Sarah the Black”—Romani Sara e Kali, she shares her name with the Hindu goddess worshipped in the northern part of India where the Romani originate. This religious syncretism is unique in Europe, though many pagan customs were adopted by Christianity, and on her feast, her statue is taken to the sea for a ritual bath with the ceremony paralleling worship of Kali and solemn ablutions.

spring den lyn (12. 454)

In a striking move that severs a partnership programme of sponsoring, integration and resettlement of refugees with the US federal government that have endured for nearly four decades, the Episcopal Church, part of the Anglican communion, citing moral opposition to the designation of Afrikaners, whose first members arrived by private jet at Washington’s Dulles Airport, and will, according to the presiding bishop, grant monies that support their outreach, winding down the relationship, rather than dignify the administration’s shrill cries of “reverse racism” and equate the travel wealthy South Africans to the plight of those fleeing persecution. With its Migration Ministries an outshoot of their philosophy and guidance, the denomination has always been a strong proponent of social justice and aligned with figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu against institutional apartheid and refused to turn its back on its values its historic ties—particularly at a time when all other migration to the United States is essentially frozen with long-term residents being deported or removed to foreign prisons and international humanitarian organisations effectively defunded out of existence. The arrival of the first plane load comes as a consequence of an executive order Trump issued in February under the suggestion of Elon Musk, promising that America would take in “Afrikaners who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” hateful rhetoric and expropriation of land—baselessly and strongly rejected by the government and much of the public, outside of the aggrieved, taking grave exception with this privilege. The Episcopal Church will continue supporting migrants but on its own ways, coinciding with the new Pope Leo pledge in no uncertain terms to uphold the legacy of Pope Francis in caring for the displaced.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump’s potential running-mate (with synchronoptica) plus Lincoln and Ireland

seven years ago: the Ice Saints plus an AI suggests ice cream flavours

eight years ago: Jimmy Carter visits Wiesbaden 

ten years ago: the grooks of Piet Hein plus assorted links to revisit

eleven years ago: Kassel and the Allied Trizone plus brain exercises

 

taubertal: detwang (12. 426)

For the long Labour Day weekend (see also), H and I returned to the Tauber valley and stayed at a campground just outside of the Kirchdorf Detwang, just a leisurely twenty minute walk along the river from Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

After setting up camp, we discovered the little village on the crossroads of the Franconian Marienweg and the Jakobsweg (the pilgrimage trail of el Camino de Santiago de Compostela) to be quite a historic jewel itself. From the Old High German for someone’s field (=Det’s Wang), it was first mentioned in a lease contract in 1335 when the local chapter of the Teutonic Knights, bought later in the same century by the imperial city of Rothenburg. The Gothic parish church of Sts Peter and Paul was founded in the tenth century and features an altar retable hewn from wood by Tilman Riemenschneider (see previously).

 

The small neighbouring castle is from the end of the 1200s and was built for the hereditary office of Reichsküchenmeister (magister coquinae, Master of the Kitchen) held by the ennobled lords von Nordenberg, kept in the family through the end of the Holy Roman Empire. There was an ensemble of historic houses and mills, formerly the site of a working cloister.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Carl Linnaeus’ binomial nomenclature (with synchronoptica), the BASIC programming language (1964) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: ancient debt-forgiveness, a roasting in the press, more links to enjoy plus Witchcraft through the Ages

eight years ago: no lapse in appropriations, five decades of IKEA catalogues, more Brexit omnishambles, an animated version of the Rex Factor plus Trump’s Diet Coke buzzer

nine years ago: film set crossovers, strategic cheese stockpiles, a weasel sabotages CERN, WiFi rustico, letter-carriers lend a helping hand in Finland plus a history of trademark applications

ten years ago: comment is free, a stationary bike for washing up plus universal

millennial saint (12. 415)

Beatified and with the confirmation of a second miracle attributed to his intercession, the canonisation of blessed Carlo Acutis, a teenager and avid gamer (though imposing limits on himself to an hourly weekly as an ascetic) and burgeoning influence (whose bandwidth is increased in the repose of the saints, noted for his devotion to the Eucharist, hitting when the time is ripe for inculcating into trad- and pious ways which appeal to many), was originally scheduled to be canonised on this day but the death of Pope Francis means the matter is left to his predecessor. I wonder who played the devil’s advocate for this hearing. Sadly succumbing aged fifteen to leukaemia, Acutis had created several websites for local parishes for outreach and volunteer engagement and another prize-winning project that documented all miracles, guardian angels and Marian apparitions, demonstrating from a young age a keen interest in hagiography, particularly the life of St Francis of Assisi, where he was eventually entombed in the Sanctuary of the Spoliation of Santa Maria Maggiore, his funeral and memorial mass attended lapsed Catholics, especially young people that had abandoned the Church. It is not yet determined what Acutis’ patronage will be exactly but one can make educated guesses. His relics and body on display exhibit the incorruptibility of the holy—some of which is owing to an expert embalming job. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica), the Hobby Computer Club of Leiden plus Lego Lost at Sea

seven years ago: the Japanese domestic automarket, nightingale floors, North and South Korea accords, a unique bicycle design, America’s balloon lobby plus typographer Herb Lubalin

eight years ago: der Kuss, AI safeguards, an AI outfitter, the skies of The Scream plus a pop-up recycling facility

nine years ago: longer-lasting batteries plus taxidermied mermaids

ten years ago: the Jonbar Hinge

boîtes de nonne (12. 300)

Cloistered and with no outside visitors allowed into their cells, since at least the early seventeen century, nuns from sisterhoods across France created “spiritual boxes,” curated dioramas that changed over time, accumulating keepsakes and marking special occasions with recycled materials. Treasured and intimate, this poorly documented craft and practise was hardly a guarded secret as older members sometimes shared theirs with novices as teaching aides (see also) and showed their miniatures to benefactors of the convent as a personal expression and glimpse into life in a nunnery, linking the inside with the outside. More from Messy Nessy Chic at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: patent models (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: senate panel rules out Russian collusion in US presidential campaign, life’s milestones plus David Bowie as the Periodic Table

eight years ago: a celebration of Brutalist landmarks plus the Pope on Compassionate Disruption

nine years ago: the cinematic inspiration of The Shining plus a dignified soup kitchen

ten years ago: unmarked white vans, innovations in 3D printing plus assorted links worth revisiting

ambuluwawa temple (12. 290)

Via Messy Nessy Chic’s regular roundup, we discover a singular multi-faith centre in Sri Lanka extending the eponymous peak (අම්බුළුවාව) of the strategically important mountain range separating the north and south of the island nation and protecting the historic capital of Kandy from colonial powers. The spiralling fairytale white tower with a narrowing staircase winding around takes a hour to ascend, affording spectacular vistas of the highlands. At the base of the pinnacle some fifty metres below is a complex opened to the public in 2007 (built at the urging of a former prime minister from this area to uphold both religious tolerance and harmony with nature) including a Buddhist stupa, a Hindu kovil, Muslim mosque and Christian chapel so all denominations can commune together above this biodiversity reserve.

julian the hospitaller (12. 226)

Fêted on this day in the Roman Catholic tradition as patron of innkeepers, wandering minstrels, clowns and jugglers—invoked by those seeking good lodging, is a fourth century saint from Gaul whose hagiography shares some elements with the story of Œdipus. On the night of his birth into a prominent family, his father witnessed a witch casting a curse upon the boy, destining him to kill his parents. His father wanted to send him off immediately but his mother’s overtures stopped him and as Julian grew up, his mother often wept over this awful fate. Whilst out hunting in the woods one day as a young man, Julian encountered a stag who relayed to him the reason for his mother’s despondence. Resolving then to escape the curse, Julian marched for fifty days south to Galicia and settled there, marrying a noble widow and leading a prosperous life. Two decades later, his parents decided to try to find their estranged son and along the way, inquired where they might seek shelter for the night, weary from travel. and woman at a wayside altar at a crossroads graciously invited them to stay at her house, saying her husband was out hunting, treating them well and offering them their bed. Returning home from the hunt, the devil, however, whispered in Julian’s ear that his wife was unfaithful and carrying on with another man, and arriving to find his bed occupied, murdered the sleeping pair. Repenting for his grave misunderstanding (see also), Julian and his wife embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome, establishing a chain of hospices along the route to aid fellow travellers. His association with circus workers probably owes to the proximity of his feast day with Carnival.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a seventeenth century road atlas of England and Wales (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the first flat-pack furniture

eight years ago: apocalyptic resorts, Russia floats extraditing Snowden to US, Trump assaults the administrative state, George Washington’s legendary lineage, the US Secretary of Education plus electing the German president

nine years ago: more on gravitational waves, a long-running German police procedural plus lenticular photographs

ten years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Mean Girls and fine art plus eminent domain over unclaimed correspondence

my father used to take me to watch the crusades (12. 209)

Whilst Musk is in “demon mode” along with his minions (someone said “traitor tots”) frenetically working to dismantle the administrative state—there have been less than convincing assurances that their access to government pay systems at the Treasury are limited to read only, and reporting suggests that at the Office for Personnel Management they have full editing privileges with the possibly to scrub for forgotten recriminations, delete, alter or insert documents into the permanent records (eOPF, electronic personnel files) of federal workers, harassing into quitting en masse, Trump for the National Prayer Breakfast (previously) hosted in the Capitol’s statuary hall reverted to his weird and off-putting “pious mode,” preaching unity to the gathered group. The conciliatory tone is in jarring, urging the shift away from partisan divides to a more collegial congress, returning to a time when members from across the aisle would socialise, and unsettling given the scorching rhetoric spewed just moments prior, rubbishing Democrats and the bureaucratic state as the enemy of the people, and what followed after this brief respite, calling for a task force, under the leadership of his newly appointed attorney general, Pam Bondi, to investigate and root out “anti-Christian bias” across the executive branch and establish a commission promoting religious liberty. This subversion of civil right and the principle of separation of church and state does not end with government policies or postures, but as with private sector businesses who uphold diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, they would be barred from funding or bidding for federal contracts.

12x12 (12. 179)

contraception begins at erection: Mississippi lawmaker has introduced a bill called ‘contraception begins at erection’ outlawing male masturbation, hoping to bring balance to the reproductive rights’ restriction that focus on women—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

obayashi world: Japan’s most Lynchian filmmaker  

so long and thanks for all the fish: Joan Ocean’s Dolphin Connection—via Web Curios  

crass competing abstrusities: official, sanctioned transcription of US secretary of state Marco Rubio (鲁比奥) changed—possibly as a way to get around the ban the Chinese government itself imposed plus other politicians’ names—see previously  

 

but if you don’t make your product in america—which is your prerogative—then very simply you will have to pay a tariff: though vacillating somewhat on his commitment and working from home, Trump delivers a message to the Davos WEF summit  

she was nasty in tone, not compelling or smart: Bishop Budde won’t apologise for her appeal for mercy and hospitality  

the birthright citizens’ brigade: a list of organisations pushing back against the slide to authoritarianism in the US  

dreiundfünfzig tage: how Hitler dismantled a constitution republic through constitutional means  

xanthelasma: Florida man on diet of beef, cheese and sticks of butter oozes cholesterol from his skin—see also—via Miss Cellania  

a catalyst for curiosity: Wikenigma documents the unexplained—via Kottke—those scientific and academic questions that evade a definitive answer, like the Collatz conjecture 

you remind me of the babe: Robert Eggers to make a sequel for Labyrinth  

unplanned pregnancy: as an encore to freeing all the January Sixth rioters, Trump pardons dozens of anti-abortion protesters, some jailed for violent tactics to block clinic access and intimidating doctors ahead of the Right to Life March

ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅ (12. 136)

Having rescinded the presidential decree recognising him as the patriarch of the See of Saint Mark by Anwar Sadat after a contentious decade for the secular and spiritual leadership of Egypt, the president seen as stoking violence between Islamic and Christian communities to solidify his own power, and banished to the remote desert monastery of St Pishoy, on this day in 1985 the successor administration of Hosni Mubarak fully restored Pope Shenouda III to his original office. Committed to ecumenism and healing religious schisms through interdenominational dialogue, Shenouda met the Bishop of Rome in 1973, the first such summit in fifteen-hundred years, and together with Pope Paul VI forged a path towards reconciliation and was also respected by the Muslim population for his support for Palestinian autonomy and criticism of the Camp David Accords—going on the serve in the papacy for over forty years, until his death in March 2012.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a survey of overused phrases (with synchronoptica), China in miniature plus the Japanese verses of Auld Lang Syne

seven years ago: a robotic DJ, Public Domain Day plus Monumental Trees

eight years ago: the assertion that progress hinges on the unreasonable

nine years ago: more accidental Renaissance art,  a year in full moons plus the Twelve Days of Christmas

ten years ago: plastic coins, songs reimagined as video games, a synaesthetic clock, Martin Luther’s messaging plus motivations for the American Revolution