Designated by an NGO calling themselves amigos of this trickster character of Brazilian folklore to coincide with Halloween as a way to counter American cultural hegemony, the holiday, even where backed with state-support, only enjoys limited recognition and celebration—despite familiarity and popularity of its mascot.
The monopod figure with an enchanted cap and always smoking a pipe, mostly active at night, can be dangerous and malicious—though most pranks are merely annoying—but will grant the wishes of those who trap him or free him, liable to caught in a bottle while disappearing and reappearing in the midst of a whirlwind. Reportedly Saci’s magic cap, according to those who’ve tried to steal it, has an indelibly foul smell and those who’ve handled it can never wash the stench away. Saci can be propitiated with offerings of a libation of cachaรงa and a measure of tobacco for his pipe.Sunday 31 October 2021
Saturday 30 October 2021
8x8
the motion picture that pits steel weapons against steel nerves: Joan Crawford in Herman Cohen’s 1967 Berserk! plus a medley of other horror films
phenaskistiscopic vinyl: animated record albums—see previously
cop26: designer installs a sinking Monopoly style house on Putney Weir ahead of this crucial climate conferenceghostly footsteps (with chains): in 1977, BBC’s foley artists (previously) released a best-selling record of spooky sound-effects
cloaca maxima: Rome’s revered sewer-system—see also
auchan daily mascarpone cheese: a decade of Russian music videos
the high-handed enemy: director Denis Villeneuve storybooks the gom jabbar scene
kitchen witchery: a tarot deck to divine one’s dinner
Friday 29 October 2021
spirit halloween
Courtesy of Boing Boing, whilst the Horror GIF Necronomicon may not have an exhaustive selection of every spooky animation that was circulating during the nineties and naughties, there’s certainly an impressive amount to be found and the site (an original Neocities property) seems to be still undead and kicking.
catagories: ⚰️, ๐, ๐ป, networking and blogging
Tuesday 26 October 2021
7x7
in the stacks: museum curators uncover what may be the oldest depiction of a ghost on an ancient Mesopotamian tablet
1928 porter: a look at the 1965 short-lived sitcom (see also) My Mother the Car this climate does not exist: visualisations of one’s neighbourhood under the climate crisis from Nag on the Lakeev: more outstandingly odd electric vehicles from the on-line market Alibaba—via Things Magazine
reasonable person: “a moron in a hurry” is codified in Anglophone legal statute—via the New Shelton wet/dry
graphics processing unit: glitch art in medical imaging—via Waxy
don’t go wasting your emotion: the ABBA classic, as performed by a vampire—via Everlasting Blรถrt
Saturday 23 October 2021
7x7
floh u. trรถdel: couple’s costume ideas—via the ever excellence Everlasting Blรถrt
boutonniere: Harriet Parry’s flower arrangements reproduce iconic fine art and classic tarot card designs—via ibฤซdem
microface: a quick quiz to identify whether the subject is a font or a Marvel character (see previously)—via Kottke’s Quick Links
์ค์ง์ด ๊ฒ์: Squid Games Funko-Pop characters—see also
pyrrhic victory: the rules of play for a variant called Atomic Chess allows a pawn crossing the breadth of the game board promotion to a scale that would instantaneously annihilate all pieces—of both sides
rollercoaster tycoon: Saudi Arabia transforms a decommissioned drilling platform into an extreme amusement park
hell no: a sensible horror film
Friday 15 October 2021
spook it up
Through some experimentation with text style-changes—dialing-up the fright-factor—our artificial intelligencer (previously here and here) has been able to solicit recommendations for Halloween costume improvement, surpassing her initial concept in terms of keeping with the reason for the season.
More about methodology and algorithmic improvement at the link above, but we were particularly intrigued with the below prompt and response:Input: I’m dressing as a princess for Halloween!
More interesting: You are preparing to confront the powerful Uber Faerie, one of the rulers of the week, he who commands the forces of week, including faeries, goblins, toadstools, lampposts, and fleas. It is to be your first confrontation with him, and you are secretly afraid.
Whilst I might not be able to visual convey my distress, I do very well to better understand my character’s motivation. Be sure to check out how machine-learning altered the tone and tenor of a beloved Winne the Pooh theme song with the same parameters in mind.
development hell
The Maximum Fun podcasting network (previously) has been hosting a block party this week to introduce the neighbours—that is, new programming adjacent to the shows that one already listens to discover new content and expand one’s listenership, helpfully recommending crossing-over points and places with easy egress for those unfamiliar with the programme’s content and approach. Already feeling over-subscribed, I am reluctant to add more shows but was always about Dead Pilots’ Society—see also here and here—whose premise is to unearth spec scripts for sit-coms and procedurals that were never produced and give them a proper table-read with a cast of professional actors and stand-ups. One stellar point of entry is episode twenty from 2017 that covers the bizarre pitch from writer Rob Schrab for Jetpackula performed with the talents of Patton Oswalt, Sujatat Day and Constance Wu about a has-been graphic novel illustrator whom befriends a vampire from the future, which was ultimately deemed too expensive to create. Check it out at the link above.
8x8
day-walker: monster lore invented by Hollywood—via Miss Cellania’s links
tastes like pencil-shavings and heartbreak: niche Chicago liquor Jeppson’s Malรถrt
vermithrax pejorative: dress up as Galen (Peter McNicol) from Dragonslayer plus other obscure, vintage costumes—via Super Punchmodelleisenbahn: real-time model railroading with Hamburg’s transit system—via Maps Mania
hedge rider: an etymological celebration of wizards, witches, warlocks and more
๐: chanting, harmonised breathing and parasyphonic sounds
mundane outfits: revisiting a tradition of dressing as highly specific yet relatable, everyday, social faux pas—an unfancy dress ball held in Japan and Taiwan
the calls are coming from inside the building: a lampoon of the haunted house film trope
Thursday 7 October 2021
shock theatre
With the debut of the syndicated package of made-for-television monster movies after a few minor roles in a Western series—one being an undertaker—on this day in 1957 in the Philadelphia market, John Zacherle (*1918 - †2016) began a decades’ long career as a horror host, editing a pair of anthologies of ghost stories plus penning a few monster novelty songs. Often filling in for his colleague and fellow Philadelphian broadcaster Dick Clark when touring, Zacherle was the substitute MC for American Bandstand. As a promotional stunt to mark his move to New York, Zacherle staged a presidential campaign in 1960, running as a “cool ghoul” but failing to meet the threshold to get on the ballot in any state. Continuing the same format as Shock Theatre, the interstitial breaks became more and more elaborate with a cast of monstrous characters and branched out into a few motion picture parts as well as hosting a cartoon variety hour and adolescent dance show in New Jersey called Disc-O-Teen. Through the seventies and eighties, Zacherle was a Prog Rock disk-jockey and in an array of b-movies. His success and notoriety helped his niece Bonnie Zacherle develop and successfully pitch her 1982 toy line, My Little Pony—the horror.
Friday 1 October 2021
this ain’t no sunday school picnic
Having garnered quite a bit of experience and reputation in the Pittsburg market making television commercials, industrials and educational shorts with their production company The Latent Image, George A. Romero (previously) and John Russo resolved to make a full-length feature responding to audience interest in the genre of horror, realising their ambitions on this day in 1968—as our faithful chronicler informs, with the premier of the classic featuring a growing horde of the cannibalistic undead surrounding a group barricaded in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania. Though establishing the rules and conventions for future films of this type, zombies are never mentioned, and like all good monster movies allegorically tracks and critiques contemporary social mores including Cold War paranoia, Western hegemony and domestic apartheid.
botober
Friday 24 September 2021
6x6
social distancing: a racier version of Bernie Sanders inauguration getup (previously)—via Everlasting Blรถrt
directory assistance: file folders are a foreign concept to younger pupils—via Waxystreet view: a stroll around New York City in 1914
the matter of britain: early fragment of the Arthurian legend discovered and translated
we are on the worst timeline: the future used to be cool
apocalypse no: as a global community, we have overcome some high-hurdles
catagories: ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ฝ, Middle Ages
Saturday 31 July 2021
you tacky thing, you put them on
Though perhaps too early to be think about one’s Halloween attire or even how Halloween will be observed in the coming three months (or perhaps not), one needs the lead time to get one’s order in for these quite stunning and custom-tailored, highly-specific one-off David Bowie cosplay outfits, via Dangerous Minds, which are of course acceptable for weddings and other special occasions and everyday wear as well. Wanda Cobar’s shop selling celebrity inspired costumes and dancewear also includes various iconic glam get-ups of Elton John and Freddie Mercury.
Saturday 31 October 2020
8x8
no wait, that was the prince of tides: researchers identify neural cells responsible for episodic, cinematic memories
there goes the neighbourhood: a five-storey historic building in Shanghai walks to its new location, avoiding demolition, via Slashdot
utopia planitia: future Martian settlements will not be colonies beholden to terrestrial governmentsanti-pop: Danny Elfman—previously of Oingo Boingo, releases his first surprise single in three-and-a-half decades
stingy jack: the legend behind the Halloween lantern from Nag on the Lake
brototype: the baked-goods based photography of Jill Burrow
haute couture: Ken Tanabe’s annual DIY ideas for stylish Halloween costumes
brain-in-a-vat: laboratory-cultured neural organoids could be conscious, via Miss Cellania’s Links
copaganda
Friday 30 October 2020
necromantic tripos
Buried in a 1925 newsletter from Trinity College, Cambridge we are treated to a fanciful syllabus from analytic realist Charles Dunbar Broad, whom like his contemporary colleagues Bertrand Russell (previously here and here) and G. E. Moore, would have rejected as quickly and wholly as the Platonic forms, that was surely contributed to amuse his students and reads very much like a modern wizarding 101 with courses in magic, alchemy and astrology—with practica dedicated to scrying, rhabdomancy and the interpretation of entrails—to name a few.
A special disclaimer section follows of prohibitions that enrolees are to adhere to, for instance on the Evocation of Elementals: Owing to the terms of the fire-insurance on the College buildings it is necessary to prohibit absolutely the evocation of Salamanders in rooms in College. It is an immemorial rule of the College that the baths are “places for ablution and not for the evocation of Undines.” “No member of the college may make, have in his possession, melt, or transfix a mommet [poppet, a voodoo doll] of the Master or of any of the Fellows, Chaplains, Librarian, or Organist. Bedmakers have instructions to report immediately to the Dean of College the presence of any mommet that they find.” And on Levitation and Bilocation, they are “strictly forbidden in Hall, Chapel, the Library, and during lectures.” All in all, this seems like a pretty fun, charming curriculum and Broad’s pupils must have gotten a kick out of it.Saturday 24 October 2020
8x8
bongo cat: a joyous, simple noisemaker—via Boing Boing
der orchideengarten: Austrian fantasy-horror revue that prefigured and informed Weird Tales and related properties
backscatter: spooky, simple photography techniques and visual effects to haunt one’s Halloween picture portfolioporto-potty: Austrian postal service issues a special, rather expensive toilet-paper stamp whose proceeds go to charities benefiting those impacted most by COVID-19
llama glama: a llama-based webfont—via Pasa Bon!
smitten kitchen: for this US Food Day (made-up as a counterpart to Earth Day but never really took off) a look into the recipe library of Georgia O’Keeffe plus others
clean up on aisle four: glass-floor of a supermarket in Dublin reveals a millennium old glimpse of Hiberno-Norse history (see also here and here)
flags and drums: young brothers in Pakistan play BBC News theme on the table
Tuesday 20 October 2020
vitalienbrรผder
Executed by means of a beheading that as capitial punishment goes was extraordinarily dramatic on this day in 1401 (*1360), Klaus Stรถrtebeker (see previously for more of the lore) was the leader of a band of privateers—the Victual Brothers—engaged to supply Stockholm with provisions during a siege with Denmark.
Once their services were no longer needed after peace was achieved, they continued their piracy, adopting the new name for their group “Likedeelers”—the equal-sharers, maintaining a stronghold in East Frisia. Threatened with disruption to trade, a fleet of ships from Hanseatic Hamburg finally took on Stรถrtebeker, double-crossed by a disgruntled mate who sabotaged his escape vessel, and brought the fugitive back to city to stand trial. Despite offers to exchange a gold band long enough to encircle Hamburg for the freedom of him and his crew, Stรถrtebeker and seventy-three of his companions were sentenced to death for their crimes. The Lord Mayor did agree to acquises to one last request: that Stรถrtebeker be beheaded first and that all men he could pass after decapitation would be spared. Stรถrtebeker’s body rose (minus the head) and managed to walk past eleven crewmates before being tripped up. The Lord Mayor, however, did not honour those wishes.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฉ๐ฐ, ๐ธ๐ช, ๐, myth and monsters
7x7
whose side is justice department hunk trant finglepoz on, anyway: a treasury of Hallmark Channel movies counting down to the American election
moving pictures: TIME magazine showcases one hundred of the most influential photographs
malochio: an appreciation of the iconic, inspired CBS eye-logo
giant steps: exploring the overlapping sensory experience of synaesthesia (previously) to the musical stylings of John Coltrane
nazcat lines: archaeologists uncover a feline geoglyph in the Peruvian desert
stranger danger: Patch the Pony transformed into a Halloween soundtrack
fiscal cliffication: continued delays and deferment on financial aid will make it harder for the US economy to recover
Sunday 18 October 2020
the pharmacological merits of apotropaic magic
Just as drills for a zombie apocalypse is a useful heuristic for disaster-preparedness in general, so too are models of the inevitable vampiric saturation of run-away predation verses a more managed approach a tool for understanding contagion and immunity. Deferring to science, Dracula will always best our superstitions and folk-interventions.
catagories: ๐, ๐ง, ๐งฎ, ๐งฟ, myth and monsters