luminous beings are we, not this crude matter (13. 176)

Courtesy of Weird Universe through another one of the artist’s short experimental montages, we are introduced to the National Film Board of Canada’s acclaimed visual essayist Arthur Lipsett. Working as an editor in the animation department, his first solo project Very Nice, Very Nice came about collecting random scene from the cutting-room floor pieced them together as an audio-video montage and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961. The technique attracted the attention of Stanley Kubrick, who asked Lipsett to produce a trailer for his upcoming Dr Strangelove. Lipsett politely declined and Kubrick directed the preview himself by the inspiration was obvious and acknowledged. The 1963 short 21-87 employed a similar method of found footage but also combined shots of Montreal and New York which Lipsett filmed himself to create an outline of narrative. Though reception was more mixed now that the artist had a reputation, with some critics thinking that it was too much like Free Fall (at the link at the top), it caught the notice of aspiring director George Lucas, influencing THX 1138, its spiritual successor America Graffiti and Star Wars—the concept of the Force itself was informed by an NFB colleague discussing the contemplative and revealing—animistic and pervasive—aspect of his works, speaking in terms that echo how Obi Wan explained the source of Jedi power to Luke Skywalker. Though the two never met, there’s a continuity of tributes throughout the saga with Princess Leia imprisoned on the Death Star in detention block AA-23 cell number 2187 and Finn’s original stormtrooper designation of FN-2187.

the first thing that china will do is terminate all ice hockey being played in canada and permanently eliminate the stanley cup (13. 163)

Despite the fact that the newly completed span connecting Ontario with Michigan was financed by the Canadian government, Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge until the US is compensated for everything it has given to its northern neighbour—including fairness and respect, despite the infrastructure project’s shared, cross-border public ownership. The massive construction undertaking endorsed in 2013 under the Obama administration in Detroit, the family who owns the parallel Ambassador Bridge (built in 1929) lobbied successive governments to stop the improved linkage with untrue claims that no American steel was involved. Poignantly named in honour of the then recently deceased, celebrated hockey icon, we think it’s acceptable to reflag it as the Epstein-Trump Connexion until the US relents from this nonsense.

isolar – 1976 tour (13. 137)

Beginning on this day in 1976 at the venue of Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum to promote his Station to Station album (see previously), the series of concerts given by David Bowie were more commonly referred to as the Thin White Duke tour. The spectacle began without interlude with a screening of the Surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou with the artist appearing on an empty stage immediately following its conclusion, jarring the disoriented audience. Whilst some audio samples were rebroadcast by the King Biscuit Radio network, the only complete recorded footage is courtesy of a bootleg edition captured by a concert goer at the end of the month during a show in Cleveland, since remastered and reissued as the definitive experience, the set list including the tracks “Fame,” “Queen Bitch,” “Life on Mars,” “Changes” and “Diamond Dogs”—with encores of “Rebel Rebel” and “The Jean Genie.” Regarding the tour’s name, some speculate it is an anagram of one of Bowie’s favourite words sailor, or alternatively, in his own words: “Isola is Italian for island. Isolation plus solar equals Isolar—if I remember correctly, I was stoned.” The last shows were a two-night (the scheduled third one was cancelled) performance in mid-May at the Pavillon de Paris.

*     *     *     *     *

 synchronoptica 

one year ago:the first Sears department store (with synchronopticæ) plus the hamster test

 

twelve years ago: polar week, wedding photography from Russia, vegetarian pastizio plus RIP Maximilian Schell

 

thirteen years ago: leveraged yield, Germany’s federal statistics office, Grand Central’s centenary plus twenty years ago today

 

fourteen years ago: managing gossip and misinformation 

 

fifteen years ago: more on the revolution in Egypt 

 

sixteen years ago: space shuttle programme ends 

 

seventeen years ago: Groundhog Day origins 

8x8 (13. 133)

i’m blue jeans and apple pie and the indian removal act: America reminds its citizens that it is still their country 

heated rivalry: Don DeLillo’s contribution to the erotic sports genre with the pseudonymous novel Amazons—via MetaFilter   

thermoradiative diode: reverse solar panels harness infrared energy at nighttime  

your money’s no good here: photos of ICE with their backs turned posing with detainees (Minnesota rioters) is sending the opposite message 

once upon a prime time: a 1966 Canadian parody about a housewife who loses her family to television and then sees her home invaded by TV tropes  

mirror, mirror: our brains interpret a left to right reversal in our reflections when its really back to front hézmənd-halsh: more unexpectedly effortful British family names—see previously   

another country: Adam Shatz writing for the London Review of Books on the sublime abomination—via Web Curios

thrones and dominions (13. 127)

Responding to recent revelations that the members of the Alberta Prosperity Project, the separatist movement gathering signatures to hold a referendum by October on the question of the western province’s independence, have been meeting in secret with senior agitators from the Trump administration, several premiers have called this attempt to destabilise the union as an act of treason. A vocal minority of Albertans, around twenty-percent, according to polling would support the idea of separating from Canada but that figure drops precipitously when followed with cession leading to annexation by the United States, as was the case with Hawaiʻi (I fail to see the appeal either with no social welfare system and a host of inherent sacrifices in the name of winning), and to make the idea more palatable to the populace have turned the meddling to financial backing to the tune of half-a-trillion dollars to support the hypothetical sovereign country establish itself free from the support of the central government. First advocated at the turn of the last century shortly after its transition from a territory and premised on the the idea that the residents are culturally and economically distinct from the rest of Canada, with its wealth of natural resources providing more for the general fund than it takes from it and trade flowing north to south rather than latitudinally. Waxing and waning over the decades, the movement has mainly been fuelled by perceived threats to this oil dividend from taxation and environmental regulations but has now been shoved into polarised vibe politics and interference from US officials making little effort to veil their objectives. In contrast, Canada was roundly scolded by America for broadcasting a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan critical of tariffs as foreign influence. As an outcome of the bid by Quebec—albeit a very different scenario with supporters and detractors from the whole political spectrum—Canada has codified the process of secession, something expressly forbidden in the US, with required negotiations, dependant on the outcome of the vote, with the federal government and upholding civil rights and the respect of First Nations—who strongly oppose such a break up and reject the dangerous and increasingly free-wheeling rhetoric as a threat undermining all Canadians. In the run-up, I’m sure that they’ll be no shortage of Trump’s favourite standby of rigged elections, beyond gunboat diplomacy with justification to “liberate” Alberta, like with Venezuela.

7x7 (13. 105)

helix nebula: JWST captures amazing images of the planetary incubator 

academy cinema two: the linocut posters for movie classics from Peter Strausfeld  

degrassi high: an appeal for Canada television to bring back its weirdness—via MetaFilter  

deus ex machina: a survey of the long history of technology assisted writing  

the attention economy: cybernetic interface and the tolerance of distraction as told through “pursuit tests” on the last century  

public domain revue: an call for submissions to remix properties like Betty Boop, Nancy Drew, Flip the Frog and more—see previously, see also  

galileo let me go: the most challenging mission in the history of NASA

hands off kalaallit nunaat (13. 098)

In response to the limited deployments of eight European and NATO partner nations over Trump’s continued threats and overtures to annex Greenland in Operation Arctic Endurance and Trump’s retaliatory levee of an additional ten percent tariffs on the participants and any country opposing the US ownership of the semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, a three-hour emergency meeting was held in Brussels with strong rebukes for America’s behaviour, igniting yet other trade war when the aggressor has full-access to the strategic island in the north Atlantic. The EU, UK and Canada were united in solidarity and refused to be blackmailed further—the extra punitive tariffs on top of the not insignificant ones of ten percent for the UK and Canada and fifteen percent for the rest of Europe from a deal reached in July now void, demonstrating that they were not wrong to roll-over on this earlier appeasement plan. Russia, which stands to benefit from the turmoil in the trans-Atlantic alliance surely pleased its agent is doing its bidding, even called out the US for its double standard over sovereignty. Macron and several other EU leaders have advocated utilising the so called “trade bazooka,” the untested Anti-Coercion Instrument that bypasses the required unanimity on negotiations for the infra-national bloc and makes available an arsenal of countermeasures to deploy including sanctions, embargoes, boycotts, reciprocal tariffs and procurement, with some ninety-three billion euro in leverage on stand-by, not to be bullied into submission by dumping US debt holdings, some nine trillion in bonds and equity. Canada, meanwhile, freshly returned from China with new trade deals, announced it will open an embassy in Nuuk.

electoral collage (13. 078)

Via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links, we are referred to this hypothetical map (see previously)—which albeit premised on a lot of assumptions, like the United States actually annexing Canada as its fifty-first state and continuing to having free and fair elections—illustrates what the addition of the nation’s population would mean demographically and for the political landscape. It was long assumed Washington, DC might become a state jointly with Puerto Rico but now that the latter has turned less conservative, establishment Republicans don’t want to take the risk of ceding minoritarian rule. Assuming also rules governing the apportionment of representatives as outlined in their constitution and redistricting procedures controlled by individual states hold, the enlarged America (with different scenarios played out) would decidedly skew blue in favour of the Democrats and blunt the outsized power and influence of senators from rural, low-population polities. More at the links above.

the technate of north america (13. 054)

Given the recent invasion by the United States on the southern limit of this hypothetical map of a continental federation, a sphere of influence, self-sufficient and only requiring minimum trade with outsiders, aligned with the recently published Trump Corollary, the technocracy movement, founded chiefly by engineer Howard Scott after World War I, flourishing in the minds of many as a genuine alternative political ideology, more popular than fascism or communism, up through the Great Depression and the entry of the US in World War II—though suffering many internecine breakups and dogmatists at odds in the steering committees of the various groups and factions under this umbrella, just like Scott’s own falling out with the unionists and the IWW that first fostered his ideas, has again been garnering attention. Understandably with propagandised charts showing US influence stretching from Greenland to the north, through Panama all the way down to Venezuela, people are worried that Trump may make good on his threats of annexation by force, but Technocracy Incorporated, administered by besuited technocrats with legions of working-class followers, including one chiropractor (a suspect pseudo-science itself) from Regina, Joshua Norman Haldeman, the maternal grandfather of Elon Musk (members were required to adopt numbers in place of names, which may have inspired great-grandson XÆ A-12 as well as other notions of Musk’s), was not premised on utopian technology that would make labour superfluous and end scarcity but rather its opposite, suggesting that progress would never outpace population-growth and that the monetary system needed reform—proposing an energy theory of value to replace the price based systems of economy, privileging exchange and property and believed to perpetuate market inefficiencies. Energy input and output would replace fiat currency as a metric of labour and worth, non-fungible rationed allotments distributed to regulate the flow of energy that could not be bartered outside the system—tied to an individual’s productive credit account—and having an expiration date to discourage hoarding and accumulation of capital, as a form of technological feudalism.

might i suggest a nice solomonic compromiſe… (13. 040)

Notwithstanding splitting the difference, Canadian lexicographers and editors are taking exception to the sudden shift away from the standard -ize constructions of standard national orthography to the -ise of British English in official communication. PfRC admits feely to some level of affectation and can see why this move away from North American spelling, though the US does not, despite its hegemony and default settings that yield a more considered difference from time to time, hold a monopoly on the spelling—accredited in the main to Noah Webster as a distinguishing signifier with the gerund form or verbing closer to the Ancient Greek origins of -ίζειν (see also) with common usage considering both cases to be acceptable.

9x9 (13. 032)

christmas day storm: heavy rains and landslides batter Los Angeles area  

vertex summary: holiday reception by renowned fiddler in Nova Scotia cancelled due to AI search erroneous labelling the performer a sex-offender—via Super Punch  

soft cell: astronaut Tibor Kapu debuts geometries that can only exist in microgravity aboard the ISS  

high holidays: an assortment of newspaper clippings on confiscated marijuana Christmas trees of yesteryear  

autocoup: a viral fake video of an overthrow in Paris is throwing the government in turmoil  

daemon est deus inversus: the occult imagination of W B Yeats  

winterval: seasonal breaks and the signal most observed public holiday—maybe not the one you’re thinking of—from Quantum of Sollazzo  

neighbourhood watch: AI powered app issues false crime alerts across US, terrorising residents  

spirit of the season: US launches strikes against ISIS militants in Nigeria—accused of persecuting Christians 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ), Wild Strawberries (1957) plus a classic from Goorge Harrison

thirteen years ago: an antique Bible 

fifteen years ago: Boxing Day and Second Christmas 

7x7 (13. 003)

it cuts up a man’s youth and vigour most horribly: Jane Austen invented the wellness guy  

maplewashing: the deceptive practise of making things seem more Canadian than they actually are narrowly beat out “elbows up” for Canadian English Dictionary’s inaugural Word of the Year  

antipodes: Rothera Antarctic research station gets a new Royal Mail postbox 

genai.mil: Pentagon installs a chatbot on all DOD computers—immediately concludes that Hegseth is a war-criminal—via Super Punch  

dayton accords: a look back at the peace negotiations to end the war in after the collapse of Yugoslavia three decades on  

cut spelng: English orthographer Christopher Upward’s failed proposal for language reform through elimination of redundant letters—see previously, see also 

little wars: HG Wells’ contribution to table top role play games

synchronoptica

one year ago: Vince Collins celebrates the US bicentennial (with synchronopticæ), Intershop (1962) plus assorted links worth revisiting

thirteen years ago: IKEA instructions for that dapper monkey 

sixteen years ago: drug money helped banks weather the Great Recession 

10x10 (12. 973)

no time for dancing or lovey-dovey: David Byrne’s ensemble Tiny Desk concert—see previously  

bathing beauties: the nautical folk art of Kyler Martz—via Messy Nessy Chic  

ac/dc: the unlikely friendship of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla 

warrior ethos: the Canadian publisher of the beloved children’s book series Franklin the Turtle strongly objects to US Secretary of War’s depiction of him firing on boats of supposed narco-terrorists 

the downfall of joann: the US craft and hobby economy ruined by private equity—via MetaFilter—see previously  

steerage: turned upside down, this grainy photograph of a third-class cabin appears to expand into a grand stateroom  

not even a squib of an entry: a steeple chase of an etymological mystery that may have arisen out of a case of mis-division—see also 

exalting the beauty of an overcast sky: Luke Howard (previously) on cloud-modification and his correspondence with Goethe  

nuns on the run: a rebel sisterhood who escaped from a nursing home to return to their abandoned convent refuse to give up their social media accounts as it would deprive them from the protection of an interested public 

chanson pour tout le monde: “Song for the Children” was by Jimmy Buffet, released on his 1979 album Volcano

7x7 (12. 878)

breaking rust: Billboard’s top country-genre song is AI generated slop—see previously  

crown jewels: Hapsburg family to display to the public a secret, personal stash of treasures hidden in Canada since WWII  

grist for the mill: all the commercial, off-kilter blogs were private-equitied out of existence—via Kottke  

mecces: visiting a McDonald’s in West Berlin in 1984 

s-money: a 1963 patent to replace US paper currency with square plastic wafers—see previously, see also here and here 

the call of the first æthyr: occult poetry by Aleister Crowley (see previously) delivered in his only known recording  

poice: Sora created videos of fake immigration raids in the US infest Facebook

grendel’s mom (12. 864)

We very much appreciated the introduction to artist and wordless novelist Lynd Ward through the lens of his 1939 hand-tinted woodcuts for his graphic novelisation (pioneering the genre) of the classic tale of Beowulf. Also working with the media of lithography and mezzotint, Ward was inspired to take up illustration when a teacher pointed out to him that his surname was “draw” backwards whilst recuperating at sanitarium for tuberculosis patients ay Sault Ste Marie in Ontario and honed his skill as an engraver. Settling in Leipzig with a scholarship, he first encountered picture books that were able to convey a narrative without captions and upon returning to New York City developed his portfolio for commission, first in an adaptation of Japanese folk tales.

A series of three classics brought out by Heritage Press in the late 1930s awarded to Ward also included The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Misérables fully established his credentials, avoided by the mainstream publishers for a time over depictions of racial injustice for earlier illustrations referencing slave trade and lynchings, though Ward’s work never shied away from taboo and subversive themes. Similar to the hortatory opening of Homer’s Iliad “Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage,” the Old English epic poem starts with the invocation Hwæt!—listen to my story.  Although preferring to work in monotone, the contrast of hot and cold colours for the heroic legend really demonstrate Ward’s mettle.

8x8 (12. 842)

dressed like a priest you was, tod browning’s freak you was: the long legacy of the 1932 pre-code sideshow feature that still prompts discussion on exploitation and othering  

never throw out anything that might be useful: a thoroughgoing interview with author Margaret Atwood (previously) ahead of the publication of her new memoir  

tactical infrastructure: proposed US legislation to open up public lands and national parks to commercial development and harvesting if any part of the designated space abuts borders as a buffer-zone  

grandfather clause: the brevity of the fifteenth amendment to the US constitution belies its impact on voting rights—and shows America has endured such disenfran-chisement before

bee positive: our pollinator friends have the capacity to experience happiness and its contagious—via Strange Company  

they’re simultaneously launching a new game where you get to do chores in a stranger’s house: twenty-thousand dollar humanoid robot fails to preform tasks autonomously and requires teleoperation—see previously—via Super Punch  

let them eat cake: while millions of Americans face hardships due to a lapse in food aid and skyrocketing health insurance premiums during the furlough, Trump remodels the Lincoln Bathroom, plus the Great Gatsby-themed party on the patio that was formerly the Rose Garden at Mar-a-Lago

gorgon: for her annual fancy dress party, Heidi Klum dressed as Medusa—inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion monster for Clash of the Titans

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ), research vessel R/P FLIP, Alphabet sued by Russia, character amnesia plus a fan super site on Super Mario lore

thirteen years ago: November holidays plus animal crossings

fourteen years ago: dream therapy, liveable communities plus malleable memes

fifteen years ago: America votes 

c’est l’halloween (12. 841)

Reported by Stop Podcasting Yourself’s Dave Shumka, we learn about the greatest French language seasonal song ever, written by language immersion teacher Matt Maxwell in Halifax to teach his young pupils about the then mostly exclusively Anglophone tradition and acquire some vocabulary in a fun way. Notwithstanding thematic and lyrical similarities to the Jack Skellington number from The Nightmare Before Christmas, a more modern carol but still losing out in terms of popularity—according to recent and perennial polling to Monster Mash among Americans at least (like “Dominick the Donkey” for the latter holiday), it’s still of a shouty banger. Although a word of foreign origin, the Office Québécois de la Langue Française still prescribes adding an article which leads to elision and a silent h.

haskell free library (12. 823)

Citing “illicit cross-border activities,” the Trump regime has cancelled the century old arrangement for the library (see previously) that straddles the US and Canada line which endured 9/11, previous barment to entry, racist immigration policies enacted under his first term, the COVID pandemic and overtures for annexation that allowed egress from Stanstead Quebec to Derby Line Vermont customs free. Whereas the main entrance lies in America, Canadians are using the emergency exit until a new front door can be built—renovations put on hold during the interregnum.

fiscal forecast (12. 818)

As the shutdown of the US federal government drags on and Donald Trump appears far more interested in razing the White House (check out the major events timeline), betraying the ranching community that voted him back in office by touting Argentinian beef over domestically sourced (added to the bailout of the peso to ensure that the Trump crime family has a safe space for exile like Nazis in hiding) and uncharacteristically, charitably silent for a few hours perhaps embarking on another Weekend at Bernie’s, Washington and Ontario have suspended trade talks over an advertisement aired on social media at the behest of the province’s premier which excerpted a portion of a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan denouncing tariffs—counter-programming a series ran by Trump lauding their supposed benefits. Insisting that Reagan’s quote that “trade barriers hurt every American worker” was taken out of context and politicised (messaging also used by China), Marco Rubio, the secretary of state—charged with diplomacy but focused on economic issues and destabilising the government of Venezuela and who pointedly during the 2016 Republican primary debates called tariffs a tax on the American people—announced that negotiations have been put on hold, later echoed by the US president, calling the ad fake and fraudulent and declaring talks “hereby terminated.” Moreover the a group called the Reagan Foundation cried foul over the misrepresentation and is exploring legal options against Canada—to which Ontario released an extended version of the address—in the public domain—to differentiate it from Trump’s AI slop and distortions. This derailment comes ahead of the mandated six year reassessment of the NAFTA redux negotiated by Trump and the announcement of the Canadian federal budget, expected to emphasise a pivot away from reliance on its neighbour to the south.

rhapsody in green (12. 796)

Though released in 1976 with the impressive credentials of synth music pioneer and eclectic composer of genres ranging from easy-listening to the occult space age electronic pop Mort Garson, his anthology album of Moog sounds formulated for plants and plant-lovers failed to sell a single record for decades that is until a bootleg copy was put online and subsequent vinyl pressings. Its obscurity owed to the fact of its limited, exclusive release only as a free gift for those purchasing a houseplant from the eponymous store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles—and to those who purchased a mattress from a local Sears outlet. A touchstone of of the era also on account of the interest in horticultural communication and well-being, Plantasia is more celebrated and cerebral for human enjoyment as a forerunner of electronic music. More from Kraftfuttermischwerk including an intense analysis of the complex contrapuntal composition due in part to the to limitations of the Moog with a single voice, monophonic instrument and its virtuosity in the ability to layer those effects.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Pulp Fiction (with synchronopticæ), a simplified LED typeface plus a mysterious visit from Mr Babbage

fifteen years ago: Jesus H Christ