Tuesday, 16 May 2023

bachstadt arnstadt (10. 746)

While waiting for our dog to recover after surgery at the veterinarian clinic there, H and I took a quick tour of Arnstadt, an old and storied town also known as the Gateway to the Thรผringer Wald due to its location on the northeast corner of the forest, the oldest settlement once in East Germany due to its first documented mention in 704, a candidate for the origin of Bratwurst and Weizen beer outside of Bavaria thanks to a fourteenth century mention, and mostly famously for its native son Johann Sebastian Bach (see previously), who had his first posting in the New Church—now known as the Bachkirche—as organist. 

Granted a charter as a city by Hersfeld Abbey, heavy sanctions were levied against the town for aiding fugitives during the Peasants’ War in the thirteenth century and nearly a hundred rebels were burnt in the market square. 

The main landmark is the remaining tower of the ruin of the Neideck palace, already in disrepair by the end of the reign of the dukes of Schwarzburg by the beginning of the nineteenth century, the rest was bombed into rubble during World War II. The church’s Baroque pipe organ has been restored to its condition and appearance in 1703 when the eighteen year old prodigy first played it.  The monument is pure speculation as no portraits or physical descriptions of Bach and locals refer to the bronze as the ‘Marktflรคtz’—one whose sprawled out in the square—cf, Marktplatz.

Thursday, 11 May 2023

boulevard of broken dreams (10. 732)

Via Miss Cellania, sort of in the same vein as those ubiquitous posters of nail salons, we take a deep dive into the equally omnipresent cafe and restaurant mural featuring variations on the fantasy gathering of celebrities—the usual suspects being Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, James Dean and Humphrey Bogart when an artist called Gottfried Helnwein, best known for album covers, created a homage to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks in 1985. The mass-reproduced piece, intended as a bit of humour, took on a life of its own with other painters taking up the trope of the ‘Fakehawk’ foursome in different settings that do not only echo a singular facet of Hollywood nostalgia but also serves as activity placemats for adults with meaning to decode and hidden Easter Eggs embedded in the backdrop. More from Ryan H Walsh for The Believer at the link above.

Tuesday, 9 May 2023

9x9 (10. 728)

daily double: Jeopardy! had a all-fonts category with answers in the typefaces they were looking for as the question—via Kottke  

on the eighth day: a 1984 BBC documentary on nuclear winter preparedness—see previously 

a la carte: a century of cultural changes captured in restaurant menus—see previously  

ใ‚ซใ‚ฏใƒ†ใƒซ: an award-winning small Tokyo ex-urb defined Japanese cocktail culture 

that’s so fetch: tech retreats from the Metaverse to the new hotness  

exciton condensates: physicists find a link between photosynthesis and strange states of matter  

cabin crew: the argot of airplane travel 

mutually assured destruction: new analysis of the same Cold War  

grundvig: font-founder Reinadlo Camejo transforms a Copenhagen church into a typeface

Saturday, 15 April 2023

8x8 (10. 676)

footprint: a sobering visual essay showing the deleterious impacts of cruises from Puget Sound to Alaska—via Things Magazine 

kitakyushu kaku-chi: a look into Japan hidden liquor shop drinking culture 

the wonderful world of tupperware: a vintage celebration of the storage solution’s storage solution as the company goes insolvent 

bea wolf: a re-telling of the epic poem for both kids and grow-ups  

influential flop: deconstructing the Apple Lisa—Locally Integrated Software Architecture 

great firewall: the US state of Montana moves to implement a ban on TikTok 

subcal: an exploration of the best of Tokyo’s fandom nightlife  

greenhouse effect: acknowledging the contributions of the mostly forgotten Eunice Foote, pioneer of climate science

Friday, 14 April 2023

aphorism (10. 672)

Via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links, we are informed that enhanced and apparently made-to-order chatbots may be usurping human authorship in one tradition and am admittedly a bit torn on whether this is a good or bad development: fortune cookies. While admitting that I didn’t appreciate how large the collective enterprise was and that there are a recognised cohort of veteran fortune writers for this manufactured custom (Chinese diners are generally served fruits as a degistif), part of me is leaning towards saying that AI is optimised for palaver, wallpaper like this as well as horoscopes and greeting cards but another side wants to rally against it for stripping away the intent and sentiment and even benediction and blessing offered as one’s fortune. What do you think?

Tuesday, 28 March 2023

a side of gloss (10. 640)

Though mostly, exclusively North American foodways and the sort of niche subject that elicits strong feelings one way or another (see also), we quite enjoyed perusing the entries for this volume, an ongoing project of abecedaria, of icons and analogues of for better or worse consumable (and usually) highly-processed staples, regional variants and the last holdouts of once expansive franchises. From salad bars, all-you-can-eat buffets, juice-boxes to Frank Sinatra’s heart-shaped pizzas, this index is brimming with morsels to explore. More from Tedium at the link above.

Monday, 6 March 2023

in witness whereof (10. 595)

As our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1984, US president Ronald Reagan issued Proclamation 5157 (they are numbered sequentially whether public or not so we know when the government is up to something) “in recognition of the significant contribution which the frozen food industry (see previously) made to the nutritional well-being of the American people, the Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 193 … has designated ‘Frozen Food Day,’” calling “upon the American people to observe such day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.” Citing large-scale availability during war time rationing, convenience and the abundance of such meals aboard Skylab and other space missions, Reagan further extolled the estrangement from fresh, unprocessed groceries as a symmetrical response to rural-to-urban migration and due homage to the bounty of the land through surplus and subsidy.

Monday, 27 February 2023

soup on the rocks (10. 576)

Via Miss Cellania, we are directed towards a bizarre MidCentury fad that Campbells (M’m! M’m! Good!) is still attempting to make happen with an advertising campaign, rather aggressively marketed with celebrity endorsements and placement on the drinks menus of landmark restaurants, convincing people to try their line of refreshing, nutritious brothtails: beef bouillon over ice—straight from the can—with a garnish of lemon and a dash of Worcestershire. Though mostly touted as an alcohol-free alternative one artefact of this long-running effort was the Bull Shot, sometimes known as “Ox on the Rocks,” with vodka and Tabasco sauce added to the above and Campbells along with soup enthusiasts in the past couple have introduced such divisive concoctions as the Thai Chicken Negroni and a dirty martini variant.

Sunday, 29 January 2023

zero my hero (10. 507)

Turning fifty this month with its debut as a series with Multiplication Rock with songs written and performed by Bob Dorough going through the tables—see also—the interstitial animated educational shorts Schoolhouse Rock! was a staple of American Saturday morning cartoon programming, originally running through 1984. The original concept was suggested by an advertising executive of the influential firm McCaffrey and McCall’s that his young son was—despite being able to memorise the lyrics of Rolling Stones songs—struggling to rote lessons, resulting in the pre-canon “Three is a Magic Number” in 1971 before pursuing the project further. One of three between programming segments along with Time for Timer (“A Hankering for a Hunk of Cheese”) and the Bod Squad (“The Munchies,” “Don’t Drown Your Food”) and was followed by a second series, Grammar Rock, and for the US bicentennial in 1976, America Rock, culminating in the final run of Scooter Computer and Mister Chips.

Monday, 23 January 2023

6x6 (10. 492)

zhengyue 2: the second day of the Lunar New Year is considered the birthday of all dogs 

only took the m’f’er fifteen tries: Randy Rainbow lampoons Kevin McCartney with a parody of ‘Master of the House’ from Les Misรฉrables 

i shot the serif: US Department of State drops the typeface Times New Roman in favour of the more legible Calibri font  

yellow magic orchestra: watch performances by the Japanese group that created some of the most innovative and influential acts in electronic music  

odonymy: more open etymological street maps—see also  

tet: a short, hand-drawn game about cooking and serving a Vietnamese holiday meal—via Waxy

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

yulehole (10. 367)

Via Language Hat, we are referred to a love letter to obscure and superannuated words—like the above that refers to the slacker notch in one’s belt that might be necessitated by the attendant feasting that goes along with the Festive Season—from Guardian contributor and logophile Paul Anthony Jones who offers a selection of Christmas-related terms like boun—that is, to dress with evergreen boughs, the snowballing effect of rolling across a field to accrue size is a hogamadog (also the name of a nascent snail shell that matures into something substantial), bull week, the period preceding the holiday and a time to sort out the rest of one’s business and particularly the Tudor-era term for a hangover, a barleyhood.