macabre magic (13. 907)

Shortly after leaving the priesthood to pursue the vocations of poet and playwright, Joseph Pintauro collaborated with illustrator Norman Laliberté to write his Seasonal Quartet: Rainbow Box, a tetralogy of four volumes published as a cube. Along with The Peace Box, The Rabbit Box, A Box of Sun, The Magic Box was a thanatopsis and a reflection on how death is not something to be regarded with dread, a consequence of living—
though that impulse to fear the hereafter probably is the driver behind much of what we all do and don’t do—and is both very much a product of the aesthetic of the late 1960s and early 1970s and timeless in its currency in terms of style and as a heuristic for gauging and dispelling haunted, halting anxieties with tricks and treats—likewise very much sought after then as now. More from the Daily Heller at the link above.

7x7 (13. 901)

catch me if you can: Frank Abagnale in his own words 

ultimata thule: the dark history behind that iconic daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe 

use case scenario: representation in AI and the overly-confident cohort of fabricated industry leaders   

fugs for peace: radical, counter-culture figure Ed Sanders  

rough cut: an hour-long workprint of Space Jam from early 1996  

signor formica: ETA Hoffman’s novella about the Italian Baroque artist Salvator Rosa, painter of witches  

super scam me: turning the tables on confidence trickers

tea and gargoyles (13. 856)

As we get firmly ensconced in the Spooky Season, we are directed, courtesy of {feuilleton} to the the first modern ghost story anthology, as selected and compiled by Lady Cynthia Asquith—which marks its centenary in print this month (the cover from the 1970 edition pictured but all the original tales can be read here). As editor, Asquith’s discernment is to be lauded for expanding the genre to include the uncanny and nebulously menacing, recruiting notable contemporaries, like D H Lawrence, Algernon Blackwood, Hugh Walpole and Enid Bagnold, with some magical realism, psychological distress, preternatural abilities accepted as fact that anticipate later collections, like those featured in The Twilight Zone, without straying into the realm of unbidden horror or rustic superstition. Oliver Onions’ two vignettes, the author dismissing them as trifles, explores the notion that broadcast signals (the wireless a fairly new innovation at the time) are somehow interfering with spectral repose and invite hauntings, and Asquith’s own contribution under the pseudonym C L Ray deals in cursed antiques and unfinished business. A respected author in her own right, Asquith was also a diarist and a Royal-Watcher with a regular column on the Family and was personal secretary to J M Barrie, who left her his entire literary estate, except Peter Pan.  

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump dollar coins (with synchronoptica) 

two years ago: anchor Dan Rather assaulted, an ongoing treasure hunt plus another scavenger hunt  

three years ago: a return visit to Markbreit 

four years ago: The Tornados’ Telstar plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: The Final Programme (1973)

six years ago: the Feast of Francis of Assisi, cross-section infographics plus Sir David Attenborough as insects

seven years ago: a pastel makeover for London’s subway carriages,  cinnamon-roll day plus award-winning laundromats of Japan

eight years ago: a sketch a day for October, the International Geophysical Year plus Bavaria’s plans for a Space Force of its own

 

hello ghosties (13. 851)

Once again a bit late to the party, we rediscover the pop-up newsletter from Laura E Hall that celebrates thirty-one days of Halloween, with daily vignettes for the month of October featuring art, anecdotes, decorating and nostalgic readings, like today’s feuilleton featuring our friend Basil Rathbone reciting some scary stories from Edgar Allen Poe, all for Spooky Season. If you miss a day like us, there’s a full archive but be sure to follow along, as comes the first of November, the newsletter returns to its crypt.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more Riquewihr (with synchronoptica) 

two years ago: a banger from Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, the Berlin Freedom and Unity monument plus thirty-one days of Halloween

three years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus US congress without a speaker 

four years ago: more links to enjoy, Tree Talk plus Star Wars Cantina music as inspiration 

five years ago: your daily demon: Malphas plus der Tag der Deutsche Einheit

six years ago: a logical second plus a bit of seasonal decoration

seven years ago: East Germans flee to Czechoslovakia (1989),  Germany’s four corners, Trump in Europe, Banksy’s shop, Inland Printer plus East Berlin’s TV Tower

eight years ago: the 2008 financial crisis, reminders of a divided Germany, Plastic Love plus Trump-inspired cocktails

 

 

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.

8x8 (12. 839)

house of dynamite: Trump’s call to resume nuclear weapons testing—on hiatus since 1992—throws Washington into chaos 

trick-or-treat: Illinois governor calls for Halloween armistice on ICE raids in Chicago 

fяiends: an AI generated montage of the show is an accidental Lynchian fever dream  

monster-palooza: the musical stylings of Verne Langdon as amanuensis for the vampire at the harpsicord  

gold ¼ starter: ancient Celtic coin discovered near Leipzig  

mister mountbatten windsor: Prince Andrew stripped of all styles and evicted from the Royal Lodge over his association with Jeffrey Epstein 

7 500: Trump lowers refugee admissions cap with priority for white South Africans—see previously  

nuclear option: Trump urges senate to end the filibuster rule to reopen US federal government without Democrats 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Halloween tragedy from 1974 that ruined trick-or-treating for everyone (with synchronopticæ) plus ghoulish ABBA

twelve years ago: US scolds Germany and Japan for their economic policy 

thirteen years ago: forever chemicals in outdoor wear, catastrophic weather events, in praise of Wikipedia plus Disney to acquire the Star Wars franchise

fourteen years ago: more debates about daylight savings time 

sixteen years ago: Halloween and the Swine Flu 

seventeen years: what’s scary this spook season 

11x11 (12. 833)

krasnaya polyana: luxury Black Sea ski resort under development linked to Aleksandr Lukashenko—the town makes a good name for the Russian asset in the White House 

bride of frankenstein: tour guide uncovers unknown grave of silver screen legend and horror icon Elsa Lanchester decades after her death 

parlour of prestidigitation: a visit to Hollywood’s Magic Castle in 1978 with tour guide Orson Welles  

kunstformen der natur: the discovery of microscopic marine life informed one of the most influential illustrated books published in the work of Ernst Haeckel  

heptarchy: the realm of the Anglo-Saxons could have just as easily turned out being called Sexland  

🌀:potentially unprecedented in terms of strength and destruction, Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on Cuba and Jamaica  

open house: the real estate industry has entered the era of AI slop for virtual tours

turing patterns: the hypothetical evolutionary mechanism that might explain the emergence of complex geometries in Nature 

fiend without a face: a 1958 scifi horror feature 

if you are a werewolf—and very likely you may be—for lots of people are without knowing: a comedy of manners about a coven of witches is considered a classic of early feminist writing 

neunundneunzig luftballons: Lithuanian forces shoot down dozens of balloons invading their airspace dispatched by Belarus

mummers parade (12. 830)

Featured in full on Spitalfield’s Life, we found this abecedary by illustrator Marion Elliot of folklore and superstition to be an absolute delight whose risograph alphabet on exhibit is perfect for the height of the spooky season. 

From the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance to the Cornish legend of the Mermaid of Zennor, with everything in between ranging from sin-eaters, corn dollies and The Wicker Man (see previously here and here). 

Adopt a letter and research further into the custom or myth each panel represents, but be cautious as these collections were not only regarded as didactic aides by the clergy, it was also believed that the alphabet possessed supernatural powers itself.

le séance double (12. 807)

For the onset of the spooky season—we’re over midway through without much planning thanks to the horror of the headlines but cosplay, costumed dictators are no match for the truly infernal and menacing—we are referred by { feuilleton } to a playlist of ten pioneering French classics of the genre from the British Film Institute. From the pcitured 1960 masterpiece, whose hurdy-gurdy leitmotif adds an element of absurd menace to the psychological thriller, to Georges Méliès’—magician turned cinematographer after seeing what the Lumière brothers could do—silent short work at the very dawn of the media, Le Manoir du diable, considered the first horror movie and innovative for its use of special effects, to the 1929 Luis Buñuel surreal work Un chien andalou and back to the 1960s and beyond, there’s sure to be something in the catalogue to frighten and unnerve any viewer.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Cin script (with synchronopitcæ), the British India Ocean Territory and the loss of its top-level domain plus images of passengers going through a car-wash

fourteen years ago: art expositions of the Third Reich 

grand marshal (12. 032)

First taking place along the route of 34th Street to the flagship store on Herald Square with store workers dressed up in vibrant costumes, floats, marching bands and borrowed animals from the Central Park Zoo (later replaced by balloons) and initially called Macy’s Christmas Parade, the annual tradition began on this day in 1924, welcoming Santa Claus with an enthronement ceremony on the portico of the department store’s entrance. Tied as the second oldest Thanksgiving pageant in the US after Philadelphia’s municipal one, it was immediately declared to held yearly due to popular acclaim despite it being barely covered in the press and has aired live on television since 1953. The popularity of the event was also due to civic pressure for an alternative way to celebrate the holiday rather than the custom called Ragamuffin or Beggars’ Day that came into being in New York shortly after the national holiday was declared by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 (see also) in the spirit of reconciliation after the Civil War. Children dressed, prior to the popularisation of Halloween, as exaggerated imitations of the poor and unhoused and went door-to-door, begging for pocket change and other treats—much to the annoyance of adults and sought to channel this activity into a more wholesome and organised one, with commercial sponsorship.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: home taping is killing music (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: municipal concessions to attract big business, speculation about the identity of the individual who invented bitcoin plus more profiles of colours

 

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit plus franchises universes

 

ten years ago: lycanthropy and other divided-selves  

eleven years ago: Wiesbaden’s Christmas Market plus the avatars of Thanksgiving past

lay all your blood on me (11. 949)

Writer, actor, musician (multi-hyphenate) and Youtuber Brian David Gilbert, in addition to making a comedy musical out of Stranger Things (Stranger Sings), has released a series of classic monster themed ABBA covers under the label AAH!BBA. His scariest video, by critical and popular consensus was entitled Earn $20K Every Month by Being Your Own Boss in October of 2020, though we think the accolade ought to go to a 2022 overview of the US health care industry.  Check out the artist’s website at the link above to discover the whole anthology.

the candy man (11. 948)

On this day in 1974 in Deer Park, Texas, optician and Baptist deacon Ronald Clark O’Bryan poisoned his eight year old son Timothy with a Pixy Stix laced with cyanide, ostensibly collected during neighbourhood trick-or-treating, to collect on a life-insurance claim and ease the family’s financial difficulties, O’Bryan having accumulated one-hundred thousand dollars in debt having problems holding a job longer than six-months and defaulting on several loans. While fears over tainted Halloween loot and accepting candy from strangers had been on the minds’ of parents beforehand, this gruesome, callous and senseless murder has perpetuated anxieties and is why candy is x-rayed for razor blades and carefully inspected for signs of tampering. Despite trunk-or-treat, the only occurrences have been cases of filicide with parents pretending it was the work of some mad poisoner. In order to make his crime seem plausible, O’Bryan and his son and daughter accompanied their neighbours and their children on the outing, and visited an apparently vacant house. No one answered the door and having grown impatient, the party left with O’Bryan catching up a few moments later, producing five packets of the sweet and sour powered confection that one pours into one’s mouth. Saying that they came to the door, O’Bryan distributed them amongst the children. On returning home, O’Bryan urged his son to eat some of the candy, claiming he chose the Pixy Stick—an unlikely first choice. Less than an hour after consuming the poison, a dose large enough to kill three adults, the son died, convulsing on the way to the hospital. The other children had not touched the poisoned candy (again, garbage candy). There was panic nationwide over the possibility of poisoned treats and investigators did not suspect O’Bryan initially, until his story began to fall apart—none of the homes in the two block radius of their trick-or-treating had given out Stix (...) and eventually locating the house with authorities that was slow to answer, O’Bryan maintained that the door only opened a crack and a man’s hairy arm emerged with the deadly candy but in implicating the owner, an air-traffic controller who had been working late that evening and had a solid alibi, police began to doubt his version of events. Undertaking a thorough inspection of his accounts and career history, authorities learned that O’Bryan was about to be dismissed from his current job and hid assets were on the verge of foreclosure and repossession—plus the high value of the policies he had taken out on his children and the purchase of two kilograms (the smallest unit of sale) of potassium-cyanide. O’Bryan was sentenced to death (given the title monicker and “the Man who Ruined Halloween”) and a decade later was executed by lethal injection.

synchronoptica

one year ago: International Savings Day (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a mythological horror plus the CIA and wax museums

eight years ago: campaign music, phreaking and toll-fraud plus Tales of the Unexpected

nine years ago: pale blue dot plus the hunt for the tomb and treasure of a Visigoth king

ten years ago: a prototype ambulance drone

 

ghosta nova (11. 935)

The latest musical animation from Louie Zong (see previously) brings back our departed duo for a harmonising session under the Brazilian moonlight with a distinct Rio bossa nova flair—including the nice detail of a looming ghostly statue in the background towards the end. Find all the iterations of this seasonal serenade at the artist’s Youtube channel and website. ¡Laiálaiá!

9x9 (11. 928)

star crystal, 1986: the manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer Space—via jwz 

sorry charlie: a 1961 patent for advertising on fish—perfect for aquariums in waiting rooms  

ghost mall: the story of Spirit Halloween bear and lampshade: an electronic medley of Queen songs 

bear and lampshade: an electronic medley of hits from Queen

ghost with the most: the psychological profile of people who cut off communication 

carbon capture: a covalent organic framework that binds CO₂ in ambient air—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links 

vội vàng: the legacy of Edgar Allen Poe in Vietnam  

extra-toppings: Pizza Hut is offering to print one’s CV on a box and deliver it (along with a pizza) to prospective employers—via Pasa Bon!   

the city of orion: Hannsjorg Voth’s monumental structures in the Moroccan desert like the Earth and sky—via Messy Nessy Chic

synchronoptica

one year ago: Bob Sinclair’s Stardust (with synchronoptica) plus a data-poisoning tool to fight against AI scraping

seven years ago: the typography of Vinicius Araujo, cheese in China, innovative underground maps, an underwater restaurant in the works, Japanese delivery boxes plus more presidential merchandise

eight years ago: problem-solving paradigms plus a thriving orchid

nine years ago: grand tours, assorted links to revisit plus a Lenin monument transformed

eleven years ago: German chancellor’s phone tapped

kild by severall accidents (11. 926)

With casualty data drawn from the London weekly “mortality bill,” reporting on the causes of demise from most of the city’s parishes during 1665, Open Culture directs us to a morbid little diversion in a seventeenth century death roulette, which delivers the croupier (originally meaning rump or one who stands behind the gambler with extra cash reserve to back them up during play but now spins the wheel—that too originally a study in perpetual motion machines from Blaise Pascal) their grim fate. Given the state of medical science, the causes listed are vague at times and ring more like curses than disease but provides an engrossing glimpse at historical demographics and record-keeping (compare to this treasury of antique prescriptions and treatment plans that may or may not have improved one’s condition). Spin at your own peril and probably it is best to remain ignorant of what such terminal ailments like the riſing of the lights (lung disease, using the term for the organ as an ingredient), strangury (the inability to empty one’s bladder despite the urgent need to do so), surfeit (over indulgence), kingſevil (scrofula, an infection of the lymph nodes supposedly cured by the touch of the sovereign), etc. as those were that compiled these list. There was also the Plague and any number of environmental hazards.

10x10 (11. 923)

potalapitsi: a 3D resin replica of ancient Wauja cave carvings presented after the original was vandalised is helping keep their tradition and ancestral wisdom alive  

stop the steal: the Trump campaign’s coup endgame—via Kottke  

waymo: robocars circling the block 

pumpkin spice: the untold story of the rebellious photographer that helped found the tradition of craft beer and the seasonal flavour  

👻: guide to converting one’s haunted mansion to an AirBNB  

grab-bag: vintage trick-or-treating paper sacks 

ㅛ: revisiting a demonic number  

charter cities: how wealth redraws geopolitical borders  

because i was not a trade-unionist: the political implication of mass-deportations

hillfort: a preserved early Celtic wooden chamber tomb

 synchronoptica

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

seven years ago: Trump’s possibly fake Renoir, a two party system plus the first and only Space Cat

eight years ago: ICANN meets, turning leaves plus a massive internet outage that could impact the US election

nine years ago: more links to enjoy, time-travel plus even more links

eleven years ago: sacred architecture in France, Chartreuse plus lavender cultivation

allium sativum (11. 913)

Via Strange Company’s Weekly Link Dump, we were intrigued by this herbarium of apotropaic plants that goes beyond one’s standard staple of garlic to ward off or disempower malign forces and how these superstitions intersect with traditional healing and culinary arts. For instance, testimony from witch trials during the sixteenth century in the Gulf of Trieste revealed the widespread belief that good witches (called Benandanti—see also) engaged in nightly parasomnic battles with their evil counterparts wielding wands made of rue and fennel. Dill was also held to have disenchanting properties and hedges of hawthorn (Weißdorne) were said to be protective barriers where dark magic could not enter. Much more at the links above.

nightgaunts (11. 906)

Via Fancy Notions, we are directed towards a quirky, creepy featurette that definitely has the look and feel of a silent work from the 1920s, an homage to the great puppet animator Władysław Starewicz and by extension, inspiration Tim Burton, but was only made in 1998. From studio Screen Novelties’ Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero in this stop-motion animation—with fitting accompaniment—a weird little old man is captured by flying demons (the titular creatures based on an HP Lovecraft story) and taken to the goblins’ lair. Watching the cartoon was reminiscent of perennially viewing of Disney’s Halloween Treat and the inclusion of the 1929 Silly Symphony The Skeleton Dance but much better crafted and with a spookier soundtrack best left on repeat.

leatherface (11. 895)

Going into general release on this day in 1974 in the US after its premiere on 1 October near the filming locations in Austin, the independent horror movie by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, the low-budget Texas Chainsaw Massacre, costing about a hundred thousand dollars to make with a cast of virtual unknown actors (narrator John Larroquette was paid in marijuana), had an international box-office of over thirty-million. While billed as based on a true story (a composite of criminals informed the plot including Butcher of Plainfield Ed Gein, serial killer and body-snatcher, who also inspired Norman Bates of Psycho and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs), the director and cowriter Hooper states the plot of a group of friends pursued by cannibals is more an allegory for the shifting political landscape of misdirection on the part of politicians with Watergate, the Oil Crisis and massacres in Vietnam coupled with the glib brutality of the nightly news. Controversial for its gore and (notably off-screen) violence, it was well-received by audiences and critics alike and set the standard for horror films to follow.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: the death of Pius XII (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: a collection of samplers plus composite mug shots

eight years ago: hairdresser to the stars

nine years ago: lost time and calendar conversion plus more on the Volkswagen emissions scandal

twelve years ago: Germany’s Energy Transition