z—is for zoning that marks off the land, so that homes, schools and factories are properly planned (13. 374)

With an energy and outreach similar to India’s census for the people, via Boing Boing, we are directed towards this rhyming abecedary produced by the Committee on City Planning (in full here) in 1937 under the mayorship of Fiorello La Guardia (previously)seizing an opportunity to educate in youngest residents in the field of civil engineering and instil the concept of considered regulations on maintaining the metropolis. Some of the entries reflect a certain agenda, foreshadowing NIMBYism and getting rid of the elevated trains in favour of expanding the subway and promoting municipal markets over street food vendors.

circle star theatre (13. 177)

First broadcast on Valentine’s Day in 1973—though I seem to have a distinct memory of this made for TV movie, actually the feature length pilot of an unsold comedy series, perhaps with some Mandela Effect factoring in—the would-be satanic sit-com with Sammy Davis Jr and Christopher Lee revolves around a bungling demon vying for a promotion and trying to earn his horns by convincing a hapless San Francisco accountant (played by Jack Klugman) to enter into a Faustian bargain, a sort of reverse premise of It’s a Wonderful Life. Despite the prospect of instant wealth and an albeit temporary temporal existence with luxury and security, the account has a last minute change of heart and retains his immortal by a technical breach in the contract. The project was inspired by Davis’ own membership in the Church of Satan, ceremonially elevated to the rank of honorary warlock second degree shortly after Poor Devil first aired.  Clips from Dangerous Minds at the link up top.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ), playable video clips plus EU berated at the Munich Security Conference 

thirteen years ago: sixteen-year olds get to vote in Hamburg plus Valentines greetings

fourteen years ago: a proposed tax on the childless plus more Valentines greetings

fifteen years ago: a backlash against multiculturalism 

sixteen years ago: Star Wars travel posters 

seventeen years ago: tending ugly plants 

 

11x11 (13. 159)

que rico ser latino: staging Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time celebration  

coed darcy village: a building project on the brownfield site of a former Welsh mine abandoned without explanation—via Things Magazine 

printing films: vintage educational and instructional shorts on typesetting and the publishing industry—via Kottke  

as slow as possible: anticipating the next chord change after almost two years for the organ in a church in Haberstadt playing six-hundred year John Cage (see previously) composition  

wseg-10: with nuclear treaties lapsed and the US retrofitting obsolete silos, an interactive map showing areas of the US most likely to be affected by an atomic exchange 

material worlds: revisiting architecture Bruce Goff and his homespun futurism through a new retrospective exhibit—via Nag on the Lake  

lawful neutral: Jeremy Bentham’s 1817 categorical table of human impulse as an early form of alignment chart 

pitchforks: San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march turns out as a bust  

tangible media: a collection of data one can hold 

hagyomány, identitás, történelemthe: mysterious Rohonc Codex that has resisted decipherment—see also  

viva italiano: Winter Games opening ceremony was a celebration of the host country’s cultural icons—including Bialetti’s Moka Express

talk to me (13. 009)

DJ Earworm (previously), aka Jordan Roseman of San Francisco, presents his annual United State of Pop in a quite longstanding and well established, since 2007, tradition of mashing-up the most vaunted albums of the year. And whilst admitting I must have aged out of the top-twenty for some time now—and recognised zero percent of these songs but a few of the artists, I appreciate the artistry of the precise mixing and sampling of contemporary culture as a hook to make me want to find out more.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Chinese names and the challenges of Romanisation (with synchronopticæ), a survey of superyachts plus euro coins starter packets

twelve years ago: the evolution of Santa Claus plus holiday long-distance commercials

thirteen years ago: the coat of arms for Frankfurt am Main 

sixteen years ago: ring-fatigue 

no good deed goes unpunished (12. 754)

Having foiled the attempted assassination of US president Gerald Ford two days prior by grappling with Sara Jane Moore as she tried to aim her pistol, decorated former Marine and disabled veteran of the Vietnam war Oliver Wellington “Billy” Sipple was indirectly pubically outed by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen after friend and fellow activist Harvey Milk expressed frustration from the community over the president’s delay in recognising Sipple’s heroic intervention. Believing that the White House was reluctant to acknowledge a gay ex-service member, the Caen hoped his article might change stereotypes. Sipple received a personal note from Ford the next day, praising his selfless actions from earlier in the week and offering his heartfelt appreciation. The media sensation surrounding his sexual orientation and associations with the local scene was unwelcome for Sipple, who unsuccessfully tried to sue the Chronicle for invasion of privacy (having asked that that matter be kept off the record) and when the news broke to his conservative, Midwestern parents, whom were unaware that their son was gay, they virtually disowned him, according to some accounts—and afterwards he fell into a cycle of depression and alcohol abuse.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Tanaka Memorial of 1927 (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: German chancellor softens stance on the EU question 

thirteen years ago: inflation and Oktoberfest 

fifteen years ago: Ostalgia 

seventeen years ago: hidden missives in spam 

moffett field (12. 587)

Via Kottke, we really enjoyed browsing the Internet Archive’s expansive exhibit of over five thousand historical images of the NASA Ames Research Centre, built at the tip of San Francisco Bay in 1939 and now surrounded by the campuses of tech giants Google, Microsoft and Apple originally as a facility to conduct wind-tunnel tests and gauge the aerodynamic properties of propeller-drive aircraft, its scope broadened quickly after World War II to compass space exploration, rocketry and computer science. Perusing the collection (see also) gives one an appreciation of the eight decades’ worth of missions, discoveries and breakthroughs that came from this nexus of Silicon Valley and makes us more than a little anxious about the future of public, state-sponsored research and long-term repercussions of short-sighted priorities.

synchronoptica

one year ago: American’s AI-military complex (with synchronopticæ) plus an evil cocktail

10x10 (12. 325)

isolated dictatorship: Canadian MP urges citizens to avoid travel south of the border  

sykkelinfrastruktur: an amazing bike tunnel in Bergen  

incel camino: a new make and model for the Swasticar for all the domestic terrorists 

four of swords: Hyperallergic’s tarotscope for the coming of Spring  

fabio and the goose: Bobby Fingers (previously) reconstructs the encounter of harlequin novel author and pin-up’s encounter with a migrating bird whilst on a rollercoaster  

arbour day: tree planting activities cancelled over anti-DEI posture  

cats in outlines: the strangely gratifying effect of felines freezing in place 

sorry—not sorry: a study of apologies gleaned from reality television 

scylla and charybdis: the millennia-long aspirations to link Sicily with the mainland may soon come to pass  

pin: an unnerving psychosexual horror Canadian horror film from 1988

ultra vires (12. 264)

US district judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued a decision that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must rescind directives sent to some departments and agencies ordering them to fire employees serving under their probationary periods—that it was overreach on their part, illegal and “in no universe” can OPM direct other bureaus to hire or fire. Although the defence maintains that the memoranda did not constitute a direct order, the judge citing substantial evidence to the contrary from unions, media and personal accounts sided, after another case had been dismissed for want of standing, and petitioning for legal remedy and relief, believing those dismissed are likely to win on the merits of their case. The initial ruling, pending a later evidentiary hearing, is limited in scope, however, and only pertaining a few agencies, the Bureau of Land Management (park rangers), the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and subsequent to this decision, parts of government that layoff employees, not included among the defendants, are doing so of their own volition and not entangled by legal proceedings.

an irwin allen production (12. 085)

Premiering on this day in 1974, the disaster film (see previously) directed by John Guillermin (King Kong, The Bridge at Remagen) and featuring the all-star ensemble cast including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Dabney Coleman, Richard Chamberlain and OJ Simpson had the highest grossing domestic box-office of the year and would go on to win numerous awards, among them the Academy Award for Best Music, scored by John Williams with the Oscar going to duo Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for “We May Never Love Like This Again” who also collaborated for “The Morning After”—see above. The plot involves the return of a prize-winning architect to over see the dedication of the mixed-used skyscraper—at just over five hundred metres, the world’s tallest—in San Francisco. Concerns over potentially dangerous inadequacies in the electrical work by a subcontractor are ignored and the gala continues in the building’s Promenade Room, one hundred thirty five storeys above street level. As the male leads all wanted top-billing (see also), credits were staggered for posters and promotional material.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: façadism plus the art of Patrick Nagel

eight years ago: Sylvester Stallone to head the US National Endowment for the Arts, the microseasons of Japan, the EU’s headquarters plus recreating ancient soundscapes

nine years ago: an appreciation of the Galactic Empire’s bureaucracy

ten years ago: a feature length painted film about van Gogh plus the Witch of Endor

pont y borth (11. 995)

A temporary export bar has been placed on a 1827 needlework sampler made by Mary Anne Hughes, aged eleven, to prevent the national treasure (“rare, modest and of enduring interest”) from leaving the UK by giving institutions (see previously) the chance to raise funds for its purchase ahead of auction. The image depicts the Menai Bridge, opened to the public just the year before after seven years of construction, Designed by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford as the first suspension span of this scale and carries road traffic to this day, the bridge connects Anglesey to the Welsh mainland, bypassing a treacherous water route (particularly for fording livestock) through the Menai Strait. More from The History Blog at the link above.

living insignia (11. 989)

Tasked by the editor of the San Francisco Examiner, one William Randolph Hearst, with finding, photographing and capturing alive a wild grizzly—believed to be extinct in California—reporter Allen Kelly went on a several months long expedition in the San Gabriel Mountains and eventually detected a large bear, later called Monarch, that they lured into a trap baited with honey and mutton. Becoming the last of his kind in captivity, Monarch was transported by livery to the city and presented to the public for the first time in his grotto at Woodward’s Gardens (later in Golden Gate Park) on this day in 1889. Surviving the devastating 1906 earthquake, the bear became a symbol of strength and reward and prominently displayed as San Francisco recovered and rebuilt, prompting the revision of the state flag (Ursus arctos horribilis—the name garnered a bad reputation for the creatures that were mostly herbivores and posed little threat to people or livestock—had been the California state animal and depicted already on earlier designs of the banner) to immortalise the bear. Euthanised at a very advanced age in 1911, Monarch’s taxidermied body is on display, maintained by the California Academy of Sciences.

9x9 (11. 950)

hotwired: an oral history of Wired! magazine and the choices made with its 1994 launch—via Kottke 

enjoy it while you can: duo forms political action committee to appeal to inconsistent voters through ads on porn sites

affaire des poisons: a murder scandal with accusations of witchcraft in the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV  

nutty narrows: a catenary suspension bridge built over a busy road in Washington state to give squirrels safe passage 

oh brave new world with so many goodly creatures: Uranus’ moon Miranda may harbour a subsurface ocean 

la jetée: an influential time-travel movie made of still images  

scope of practise: a new museum dedicated to the paranormal and Victorian spiritualism opens in Carmarthen’s Penuel chapel 

if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed: a terrifying theory on the truth behind Trump and Johnson’s ‘little secret’ that defers the election to 11 December  

ghost jobs: banking resumes for vacancies that don’t really exist are haunting already demoralised tech workers

synchronoptica

one year ago: Three Wishes for Cinderella (with synchronoptica), McDonald theogony plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: books and things, art entrêpots plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: US sending troops to Norway to counter Russian aggression, mobile office space, high-fives plus synthehol

nine years ago: esotericism in the Third Reich plus advances in fusion power

ten years ago: Rome abandons the West

7x7 (11. 897)

ghost lot: an installation of sunken cars buried in a mall parking area as commentary on catering to automobile culture 

weather manipulation: a whirlwind of conspiracy theories over recent hurricanes in the US have netted distrust, death threats for meteorologists 

loveland frogmen: maps of the most famous cryptids and mythical monsters charted by America states and internationally—via Nag on the Lake  

scripting news: a founding member of the blogosphere enters his fourth decade—via Waxy  

general headquarters: the lost board game from Kurt Vonnegut (previously) has been completed and available for purchase 

theobros: understanding the GOP’s efforts to remake America through Christian Nationalists—via Miss Cellania  

y-crossing: the Trinity Bridge of Crowland, Lincolnshire, a relic before the rivers were rerouted

synchronoptica

one year ago: a catalogue of edible seeds (with synchronoptica) plus the Polish System of pedagogy

seven years ago: a line rider banger, pictorial kanji, a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden plus the US withdraws from UNESCO

eight years ago: Mr Yuk plus a monument to Henrietta Lacks

nine years ago: a courtly selfie-stick plus assorted links to revisit

fourteen years ago: predictive text plus Japanese heraldic traditions

bop spotter (11. 887)

Via JWZ, we learn of Riley Walz’ project that coopts the rather depressingly insidious programme called Shotspotter (™️ presumably and run by subcontractor touting benefits for public safety and security but failing to deliver) that detects and ranges gunfire by arrays of microphones installed in cities across America—though some police forces have cancelled their subscriptions due to cost and the diminishing returns on investment of random bullets—with a hidden phone attuned to picking up songs from street level perched somewhere high above San Francisco’s Mission District. Shazam is an application that can identify music from a short clip and adds the song to the playlist. When first launched in 2002 in the UK, people would text “2580” on their mobile phones and hold it up to the radio or television to get a piece recognised, getting a text back with the title and artist.

suburban fury (11. 865)

Joining the only other American female would-be presidential (let’s not forget Fanny Kaplan and the long tradition of Russian attempts) assassin with the mutual target being Gerald Ford inside of a month from each attempt, Sara Jame Moore tried to kill the US president on this day in 1975 as he was leaving a San Francisco hotel. Preoccupied with Patricia Hearst (maybe a case of Stockholm Syndrome by-proxy), Moore and volunteered as a bookkeeper and informant for the the organisation founded by William Randolph Hearst to rebuff the claims by the Symbionese Liberation Army that they had kidnapped and inculcated his daughter for his crimes against the poor up until the moment of her plot foiled by the FBI. Picked up by local authorities the day prior on suspicion of having an illegal handgun and a large supply of ammunition, Moore acquired a new revolver and shot at Ford from a distance of twelve metre as he exited the St Francis Hotel and misjudging the sightings on her new and untested weapon missed by a narrow margin. Moore said later that her motive was to incite revolution and bring about positive change in America. Remanded for life in prison and with an interim escape and re-apprehension, Moore was paroled at the end of 2007 and is living in Tennessee, aged 94.

happy bell’s riot day—to all who celebrate (11. 805)

Though quickly degenerating into internment camps run by gangs—in their particular argot: gimmies, dims and ghosts—the US government’s attempts to redress endemic problems with homeless and unemployment in major urban areas by creating closed Sanctuary Districts began in the early 2020s and was regarded as a way to shield the general public realising the extent of societal collapse (the re-settlement zones were also cut off from the planetary computer network) and curbing the risk for political upheaval. In accordance with Starfleet’s temporal displacement policy, crew from outpost Deep Space 9 travelled back in time to the end of August 2024 to try to rescue an abducted colleague without impacting the history, however, one of the revolutionary leaders is killed while saving the life of Dr Bashir and Commander Sisko, prompting the latter to take on Gabriel Bell’s identity (clips from the 1995 episode at the link) and repair their timeline. The riot occurring on this day, the inmates took over the district’s processing centre and with the help of Chris Brynner, owner and proprietor of Brynner Information Systems (Channel 90 on the Net), reconnected the Sanctuary with the outside world with many imprisoned inside able give testimony, sparking wider rebellions and eventual justice reform.

 

synchronoptica

 

one year ago: factoids about every number (with synchronoptica), warning signs, a walk along an ancient footpath plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: resorts in the Catskills then and now, more Trump merchandising, Victorian era cabinet cards plus North Korea challenges US to a dance-off

 

eight years ago: exquisite glass sea creatures plus 7-Up psychedelic advertising 

 

nine years ago: more links to enjoy plus free will and microscopic chaos

 

ten years ago: a visit to a Roman outpost in Germany 

pont d‘austerlitz (11. 723)

Overcoming the chaos of an arson attack that sabotaged rail transport into the city and a downpour of driven rain—and a few skeptics who believed the four-hour long spectacle that spanned six kilometers along the Seine with thousands of performers was too ambitious, Paris pulled off the Games’ opening ceremonies with excitement and fanfare and kitsch that embraced and celebrated gentle French stereotypes, poking fun at themselves.

The rooftop dancing and roving torch-bearer combined with the flotilla of boats carrying the national teams down the river, along with the individual numbers, were quite impressive.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Peter Gabriel (with synchronoptica), art appreciation with the Flop House plus RIP Sinéad O’Connor

seven years ago: AI scours Street View for aesthetic photographs,  assorted links worth revisiting plus Soviet election interference

eight years ago: gumption and the complacent class,  feline delusions, artist Victor Vaserely plus Russian election interference

nine years ago: TTIP negotiations plus stress and emotional capacity

ten years ago: ephemeral social media, Croatia Week, Croatia’s founding, tiki couture plus Croatia’s natural wonders

9x9 (11. 722)

circumlocution: a useful synonym for circular logic  

we choose freedom: Kamala Harris’ first campaign advertisement reclaims the Trump GOP’s “so much freedom”  

hitchcock presents: the director’s cameos over five decades  

homobone: why an impact with our humerus hurts so much and is not so funny  

art but make it sports: finding classic analogues in modern day competitions  

forget it jake—it’s chinatown: the reason behind the common aesthetic dating back to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—via Card House  

in memoriam: a mid-year obituary of those celebrities we have lost  

ε ind ɑ: JWST directly observes an massive exoplanet a dozen light years away but shouldn’t be where it is  

multum in parvo: the Flemish Academy concocted Snelpaardelooszonderspoorwegpetrolrijtuig for horseless-carriage for those who had never encountered one

ponte dei salti (11. 653)

Driving back through Ticino near Locarno, we headed through the Verzasca valley, punctuated with a monumental reservoir, Lago di Vogorno. Completed in the mid-1960s by the same civil engineer, Giovanni Lombardi, who designed the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the dam makes a cameo in the 1995 film Goldeneye, with James Bond parachuting from the wall. No bungee jumping was on offer today, however.

We went on towards Lavertezzo with the arched pedestrian crossing, built originally in the 1700s for donkeys bearing burdens, over the turquoise river. 

The route was dotted with villages with traditional slate and granite houses. The rapids are treacherous but the shallows in this spot with bathers made it seem like a prehistoric water park from The Flintstones.

synchronoptica

one year ago: paronomasia (with synchronoptica) plus a critique of the Latin alphabet

seven years ago: America’s retaliatory strike on Syria, Salvador Dalí exhumed plus the TSA empowered to check one’s reading material

eight years ago: US supreme court upholds Trump’s travel ban plus the history of America’s Pledge of Allegiance

eleven years ago: Snowden granted asylum 

twelve years ago: drone warfare 

8x8 (11. 570)

nicht abgeholtes gepäck: the main station in Freiburg has a mystery vending machine where one can buy unclaimed items left in delivery lockers—see previously 

the ahramat branch: a long ago dried up arm of the Nile may explain some of the mystery behind the building of the Pyramids of Giza 

takenoko: a public service announcement for when the bamboo shoots sprout, one of Japan’s traditional seventy-two microseasons—see previously 

endless shrimp: the American seafood chain was private-equitied into bankruptcy and not by dent of its generous promotions—more here

first draft: in a since deleted post, Trump advocates for a “united Reich” in a video featuring hypothetical newspaper headlines following his reelection  

on the town: the story behind the ten-year-old who in 1947 spent a week in San Francisco with twenty dollars 

we call it maize: an interesting hypothesis that ancient Incan stonework and other architectural elements may be an homage to corn kernels  

out-of-order: broken and unused vending machines from around Japan—via Cardhouse—see also

synchronoptica

one year ago: Croatia Diplomacy Day, a classic from David Bowie, an evergreen piece on American gun-violence plus assorted links worth revisiting

two years ago: Ok Computer, a rainbow fifty pence coin for Pride, more feathered friends plus Amelia Earhart crosses the Atlantic

three years ago: your daily demon: Beleth, Elton John in the Soviet Union plus trace a raindrop from river down to the sea

four years ago: vintage Las Vegas logos, an avant-garde art show (1951) plus The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

five years ago: the White Night Riots (1979), regional airline logos, OK Cola, African air-carriers, one hundred and twenty years of photography plus a camera on a sushi conveyor belt