monobloc

Thanks to Pasa Bon! for enlightening us about the name and design history of the ubiquitous plastic chair—so called as it’s forged as a single piece from polypropylene.
Based originally on the drafts of Canadian designer D.C. Simpson and informed by the success of industrial artist Joe Colombo’s Chair Universal 4867 in 1965, production of the stool began in the 1970s with close to a billion in existence. Their affordableness and easy deployability somewhat discounts their endurance to the elements as a consequence of our disposable society but there are creative ways to mend broken seats—which seems like a quite worthwhile endeavour since we’ll have to live with them forever. Much more to explore at the link above, including repairs and intervention ideas plus a short documentary on the Monobloc.

deadmau5 & the neptunes

Here is the official music video for the band’s number Pomegranate—via Seitvertreib—from artist Nick DenBoer.

commemorative toonies

Via friend of the blog par excellence Nag on the Lake, we learn that the Royal Canadian Mint will honour the centenary of the birth of Haida Gwaii (see also here and here) artist Bill Reid (*1920 – †1988)—whose artwork had previously graced the 2004 series of the $20 banknote with a special two dollar coin featuring two versions grizzly bear (Xhuwaji) motif, one in traditional colours and the other uncoloured specie.
The name of the coin itself—first going into circulation in 1996—is a reference to the 1987 introduction of the one-dollar coin, the loonie, featuring the bird found through Canada on the reverse—although during the roll-out of the $2 coin, one parliamentarian hoped that the nickname Nanuq (Inuit for polar bear) might become popular as a way of acknowledge the culture of First Nations. The launch of the coin was to coincide with Reid’s January birthday but was delayed due to the pandemic outbreak.

a short conchological glossary

Though not presented as a tongue-twister nor with any other context or accompaniment that might appeal to anyone outside the academic community of cockles and mussels or shell-collectors, this odd exercise in splendid enunciation—via Weird Universe—has a soothing, dulcet quality that is only to be found I think in a subject this niche. Click through to download the recording as an MP3.
It makes me think about the admonishment of not being critical of others for mispronouncing a word as they might have only ever encountered that word in print beforehand—I know my head pronunciation of things can be sometimes a mismatch, and we probably ought to bring back the pronouncing album. The opening disclaimer that there no official—only customarily correct way of saying these Latin names does not dissuade us from listening to more from R. Tucker Abbott, PhD (*1919 – †1995), preeminent malacologist, who made up the names of many of the species himself.

6x6

ningaloo canyons: incredible footage from the previously unplumbed depths of the sea off western Australia

sea bass on a bed of contact lenses: hilarious mistranslation of French haute cuisine (see previously)

working lads institute: an antique gallery of portraits of those rehabilitating at the White Chapel Mission of London

cooper black: a look at the history behind the ubiquitous typeface, via Messy Nessy Chic, whose other finds are well worth checking out too

now is the time: raising the first new totem pole on Haida Gwaii (see also) in generations

geocities to neocities: the illustrious cabinet of hypertext curiosities of Mx van Hoorn, via Kicks Condor  

corrugated community: the vernacular architecture of Tīrau, New Zealand

vignettes canadien

Helpful in the extreme but at a more sensible pace as not to turn her journey into Marathon and not live to be a nonagenarian, on this day in 1813, Laura Secord (*1775 – †1868) undertook a mission of walking some thirty-two kilometres (twenty miles) from her home on the Niagara escarpment to warn British and Mohawk troops at their outpost at Beaver Dams of news of a planned sneak attack by the American forces. Thanks to this intelligence, the British and First Nations allied forces were able to repel the invasion in this pivot battle of the War of 1812 and hold the territory.

hommages posthumes

Born circa 1700 in Maderia and sold into a life of enslavement Marie-Josèphe dite Angélique (so named by her last owner) was tried and made a coerced confession under torture of setting fire to her master and mistress’ home, engulfing much of the old town of Montréal, and was executed by hanging on this day in 1734.
When the devastating fire had spread back in April, rumours circulated accusing Angélique of arson but there were no witnesses (other than a five-year old that took the stand by surprise, coming forward quite late in the proceedings) or corroborating evidence and prosecutors struggled to impose the sentence but the punishment was eventually meted out.
While until recent times, the court’s verdict was not re-examined, assuming that Angélique did in fact start the fire to exact revenge on her owners, closer inspection suggests it may have been accidentally and that Angélique was a convenient scapegoat—other historians do indeed find her culpable but in the larger context of the struggle for freedom and equal rights. There is of course no such thing as being a little bit owned and not one’s own person but conditions in New France were far different in other areas, there being a degree of civil protections for enslaved persons and rather a hierarchy of “unfreedoms” that restricted movement and liberty. In 2012, a public square facing the Montréal City Hall was designated Place Marie-Josèphe-Angélique in her honour and numerous adaptations of her life have been produced.

someday i’ll have a disappearing hairline, someday i’ll wear pajamas in the daytime

Released this month in 1994, Crash Test Dummies’ “Afternoons and Coffeespoons,” the third single from the album God Shuffled His Feet (the cover art is Titian’s 1523 Bacchus and Ariadne with band members faces on the figures) considered to be the most popular song according to the alternative rock band’s fanbase and was among the highest charting in their repetoire references the 1915 T. S. Eliot verse “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”—I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. This interior monologue of reflection and lament on estrangement, isolation and disillusioning realisation of morality resounding in both works takes on an especially resonant meaning in the latter musical tribute in these times.

Maybe if I could do a play-by-playback
I could change the test results that
I will get back
I’ve watched the summer evenings pass by
I’ve heard the rattle in my bronchi…

toki pona

Invented in 2001 with its full lexicon published on this day in 2014, the eponymous constructed ‘language of the good’ has a sparse, flexible vocabulary of around one hundred and twenty root words set forth by linguist Sonja Lang whose minimalistic qualities championed by a small but strong community of enthusiastic ascribers employs a few words to express big and broad ideas and promote positive thinking—the project developed as a form of self-therapy out of a dark place—in line with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity that posts that one’s grammar defines one’s world-view and outlook.
Basic ideas can be used to communicate increasingly complex and nuanced meanings but only through an additive process that’s just as easily parred back down to its elemental concepts. Despite being rejected as imprecise by authorities, Toki Pona was among the languages subject to an investigative study on the ability of machines to understand natural language (even naturally occurring examples are parochial and political with prescriptive grammar) in context, significantly outperforming English and others. Because of the limited lingual inventory and morphemes, aside from the Latin script, two logographic writing systems were developed by Toki Pona students: sitelen pona and sitelen sitelen, the latter glyphs pictured along with the banner of constructed languages, designed by Christian Thalmann for the CONLANG family—Lang’s experiment not intended as an auxiliary form of communication but having in a way attained that status.

channelized blast zone

Here pictured just a day before the eruption four decades ago that left the peak without its northern face and scarred by a massive crater, one can appreciate how it had earned the title of Fuji-san of North America, Mount Saint Helens (known to aboriginal populations as Lawetlat’la or Loowit) began its crescendo of seismic activity back in late March venting steam before dramatically exploding with ash and pyroclastic columns and flows. According to most sources, fifty-seven people lost their lives, debris from the resulting landslide buried sixty square kilometres of the surrounding area, two hundred homes were destroyed as well as vast tracts of forested land and rivers clogged with ash and pumice.

and we can dress real neat from our heads to our feet

Reaching its apex on this day in the Canadian Singles Survey (these charts give me great joy) in 1983, Men Without Hats’ hit The Safety Dance was inspired after band leader Ivan Doroschuk was tossed out of a night club by bouncers for pogoing on the dance floor during the transition from the slow death of disco to new wave in the early 1980s, despite the efforts of some to read more meaning into the song, interpreting it as an appeal to practise safe sex or protest nuclear armament though those are noble take-aways. The music video, directed by Tim Pope was filmed in the village of West Kington in Wiltshire, features several superannuated styles of dancing including mummers and maying.

making waves

Having achieved the goal the group was originally constituted for, the Don’t Make a Wave Committee—established in British Columbia in October 1969 to protest underground nuclear weapons testing in a wildlife refuge on the Aleutian Islands by the US government and halted further tests, the founders revaluated their mission and the power of organising and broadened it to officially be known as Greenpeace from this day onward in 1972.
The devastation of the 1964 Alaskan Earthquake still fresh in residents’ minds, there were fears that the tests could trigger further quakes and tsunami, sparking the initial rallies under the banner “It’s Your Fault If Our Fault Goes”—which failed to stop the US from detonating the bomb but accrued support for the opposition, which eventually prevailed, the protesters blocking the access to the island chain with a flotilla of private fishing boats, including the eponymous trawler, that stood up to the US navy.

pierre-papier-ciseaux

In a decision reached in mid-April, we learn that the Court of Appeal of the province of Québec has vacated the outcome of a dispute resolved through the means of best of three rounds of “rock, paper, scissors” and reinforcing the ruling of a lower court that the settlement of debts by the above means was not a legal valid or sufficient one.
The case, which is in fact far more salacious, involving a love-triangle and a soured business investment, than the salient factors was heard and the verdict reached not by dint of poor documentation of said contract, the personalities of the menage e trois or even the stakes involved but rather the technicality that according to legal code gaming and wagers are only an acceptable means of resolution if the underlying contest involves skill or bodily exertion—à la seule adresse des parties ou à l’exercice de leur corps, with the court finding their match involved no strategy and was purely a game of chance. Much more at Lowering the Bar at the link above.

the kah and the coo

We very much enjoyed the referral to this series of gentle and earnest research papers from Canadian-American behavioural psychologist Wallace Craig (*1876 – †1954) examining the “voice and manners” of our pigeon and dove friends (1909 – 1911, see also), who himself displayed talent and dedication in observing and listening to these avian neighbours—including the Passenger Pigeon, which was already extinct at the time of writing but the birds’ fate was not yet known for sure. Even transcribing their calls and vocalisations in musical notation, Craig goes on further to study the pigeon’s sexual dimorphisms and differences in gait and pace and pecks. Much more to explore at the links above.

pathogenesis

Putting a spotlight on another overlooked contribution to medical science, we appreciated learning about the life and career of Scottish virologist June Dalziel Almeida (*1930 – †2007) whose pioneering achievements in virus imaging not only led to improvements in faster identification and diagnosis but also put electron microscopy into the quivers of medical researchers and investigators. Her insights advanced later immunotherapies to combat hepatitis, HIV and rubella—as well as other viral diseases and in 1966, Almeida isolated and identified a previously unknown category that came to be known as the coronavirus.

⚡biscuit or shredded tweet

Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we get an example of the sort of tenacious curiosity that gets to the bottom of branding—even when the manufacturer itself was uncertain—and seemed a bit cagey in fact. Tri is definitely not three, not three wholesome ingredients or thrice-baked. Invented and granted a patent in 1902 before going into production the following year by the Shredded Wheat Company of Niagara Falls—the factory powered by the mighty waterfalls’ hydroelectric generation, the snack cracker boasted that it was the only one of its kind baked by this new-fangled electricity.

pyhä urho

Overlooking the possibly fictional but actually assigned patron Bishop Henrik (martyred and fêted on 19 January with a well-articulated legendarium of his own), a department store clerk of Finnish-extraction in the confusingly named town of Virginia, Minnesota lamenting that his homeland did not have a figure like Saint Patrick to celebrate their heritage and as a source of shared cultural cohesion and as an excuse to extend the general revelry (this year especially, please drink responsibly by staying at home or forever forfeit the right to be around other people hereafter) invented Saint Urho (hero) in 1956. Only known to diaspora (with the exception of the folklore and ethnography department at the University of Turku), Urho is variously credited with driving out the frogs (see also) or grasshoppers (with the command Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen! – Grasshopper, grasshopper, go back to Hell!—thus saving the grape harvest but inspiring acts that seem suspiciously like Springfield’s Whacking Day, incidentally on 10 May) and one is to regale themselves in royal purple and enjoy wine and/or purple beer so as to not mix one’s beverages.

white wilderness

Another instalment of Disney’s revisionist record (see previously here and here) and trying to prompt and preserve its wholesome image and promote its extensive and often problematic as worthy of our nostalgia wholesale comes to us courtesy of Hyperallergic in their staged series of nature documentaries with the particular cruelty of the Academy Award-winning White Wilderness, an exploration of our arctic animal friends that has been excised from available programming.
Though not the first time that the production company peddled a myth that was to awkward to otherwise own or disabuse, the film in question revived and reinforced the misconception that lemmings have the tendency to commit suicide en mass (the origins come from a pre-Enlightenment belief that the small hamster like rodents appeared during rain storms by spontaneous generation) by flinging the poor creatures rounded up and flung off cliffs at speed to portray this behaviour for entertainment value.

7x7

en nat på bloksbjerg: the incredible art work of Dutch illustrator Kay Nielsen—see previously, whom contributed to Fantasia but Disney let go

band camp: an overlooked and not unlistenable resource: Can This Even Be Called Music?—via Kicks Condor

theire soe admirable herbe: English colonist discover what the natives have been smoking in seventeenth century India

winter stations: interactive installations of Toronto’s beach to encourage outdoor play in the cold months

cabin-crew: the JFK retro TWA terminal hotel (previously) turns the body of a vintage jet into a bar and museum space

salon d’automne: a neural network trained on cubist art produces an infinite stream of paintings, via Waxy 

a parade of earthly delights: scenes from recent annual aquatic celebrations of Jheronimus Bosch (previously) held on the waters of ‘s-Herogenbosch—the next event begins in mid-June

megxit

Though still the duke and duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will no longer be styled his and her royal highness and remit the public funding that had gone into renovating their chosen residence and forego future tax-payer support in light of their decision to step back from their public duties and spend part of the year in North America.
This month—with quite a few days on balance remaining—has already been quite a year already so there was precious little bandwidth available for these developments on top of everything else. It is difficult to forecast what this semi-abdication means for the couple and for their family—seeming untenable that one could partially recuse oneself and equally fought to be a gainfully employed private person without commercialising one’s name. It is also quite incredulous that this news and the intrusive and racist way it unfolded is taking sufficient oxygen out of the room so that there’s far more acute fatigue over Brexit and the Johnson cabinet’s commitment to withdraw from the European Union at the end of the month.