the world of 2026 a.d. (13. 048)

Though the time setting for the novel and later screen-play for the film by Thea von Harbou is up for interpretation, having both gone through several rewrites and serialisation prior to and after its debut in 1927, subject to reconstructions during restoration—the original title cards, incorporated in the 2010 remastering does not specify a year and contemporary audiences placed it around the turn of the millennium, both 2000 and 3000—at minimum the Giorgio Moroder produced truncated version from 1984, the silent film rescored featuring a pop-soundtrack with Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury (see also) and Loverboy, does specifically set Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in this year with an intertitle, subtitles used for the dialogue.

mmxxv (13. 042)

As this year draws to a close and we look forward to 2026, we take the time agin to reflect on a selection of some of the things and events that took place during the past twelve months. Thanks as always for visiting. We’ve made it through another wild year together.

 january: a vehicle ramming attack kills ten and injures dozens in central New Orleans.  After a five year deal expires without renewal, Russian gas can no longer be piped through Ukraine to the EU as the continent braces for a cold winter.  After a decade as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau announces he will step aside.  An earthquake strikes the holy city of Shigatse in Tibet.  Wind-swept wildfires devastate southern California.  Joe Biden and others eulogise Jimmy Carter for his state funeral.  After the US supreme court rejects a petition to delay sentencing over his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, Trump becomes a convicted felon, although given an unqualified discharge by the presiding judge and will serve no time.  Sunset Boulevard is unrecognisable after being engulfed by wildfires.  Israel and Hamas appear close to reaching a truce to bring about a permanent ceasefire.  Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth faces a gruelling nomination hearing in congress for role of secretary of defence.  Donald Trump is inaugurated for a second time and unleashes a flurry of executive orders, including a hiring freeze, immediate rescinding of Biden era policies, removal of DEI initiatives within the federal government and contracting partners, declaring that there are two genders only, issuing a blanket pardon to the January Sixth rioters in an attempt to reframe and rewrite history, freezing virtually all foreign aid, closing the borders and vowing to unleash agents to facilitate mass-deportations.  Cabinet nominees are approved by the US senate, including, narrowly—Trump’s pick to head the Department of Defence.  Trump proposes that Gaza be depopulated of Palestinians and urges neighbouring Egypt and Jordan to take in all displaced individuals.  A scrappy open-source AI developed in China on a shoe-string budget knock a trillion dollar hole in the grift-cum-technofedualism markets in the US.  Prolific blog commentator and good soul XOXOXOBruce (see more here and here) has passed away.  A passenger plane collides with a Blackhawk helicopter over Washington, DC, killing all, including members from American and Russian figure skating teams.  Iconic entertainer Marianne Faithfull passes away, aged 78. Mexico, Canada and China hit back against US tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.  The government of El Salvador agrees to allow the US to offshore its most dangerous incarcerated population.  A deadly shooting occurs at a continuing education centre in Örebro.  Trump meets with Netayahu and offers to own the Gaza Strip and redevelop it, expelling the Palestinian population.

february: Novelist Tom Robbins dead, aged 92.  Relenting on implementing tariffs for Mexico and Canada after security promises already underway, Trump shocks the markets by imposing a twenty-five percent duty on all aluminium and steel globally.  Trump orders federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against disgraced New York City mayor Eric Adams after repeated attempts to curry favour with the president.  The Aga Khan passes away, aged 88. Boycotts to protest inflation and A ramming attacked is perpetrated in München, ploughing into a crowd of union protesters, a day ahead of the Munich Security Conference.  Pope Francis is hospitalised with double pneumonia, his prognosis for recovery guarded.   Veteran actor Gene Hackman found dead, aged 95, at home along with his wife and dog.

march: By executive order, Trump makes English the official language of the United States.  Israel blocks humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, demanding that Hamas abide by changed conditions dictated by the US, leading by mid-month to a resumption in airstrikes on the territory.  Rosenstolz singer AnNa R passes away, aged 55.  A French politician calls for the return of the Statue of Liberty.  After rejecting a previously brokered US peace deal, during a telephone call with Trump, Putin signals he will agree to a thirty-day ceasefire on energy infrastructure.  Boxer and entrepreneur George Foreman passes away, aged 76.  Germany’s marked fiscal pivot to embrace debt and invest in defence stunned fellow EU members.  Trump’s commerce secretary proposes cutting the social security safety net for seniors and the disabled.  Arrest and detention of Erdoğan rival and Istanbul mayor ignites protests in Türkiye.  Wildfires ravage South Korea.  A coalition of the willing convene in Paris in solidarity with Ukraine, fearful of the outcome of a US-brokered deal with Russia.  Thousands dead and many more displaced after an earthquake ravages Myanmar.  Globally, thousands participate in Tesla Takedown protests against Musk.  Far-right French politician Marine Le Pen banned from public office after being found guilty for misappropriating EU funds.

april: Despite millions in campaign donations, Musk and conservatives were unable to flip the state supreme court in Washington.  New Jersey Democrat Corey Booker spoke in the Senate, rebuking the Trump administration for a record twenty-five hours and five minutes, beating Strom Thurmond’s filibuster against integration and equal rights.   Actor Val Kilmer dead at age 65.  Israeli defence forces annex huge swaths of the Gaza Strip.  Foregoing over two billion dollars in federdal funding, Harvard refuses to give in to Trump demands.  Katy Perry and an all-female crew travel briefly to the edge of space.  The world mourns Pope Francis.  The US threatens to walk away from the Ukraine-Russia peace deal it brokered.  As a rebuke to Trumpism, Canada elects another liberal government with Mark Carney as Prime Minister.

may: The US Department of Homeland Security is planning to remove illegal migrants to Libya.  The College of Cardinals elect the first American pope, Leo XIV.  India and Pakistan exchange violent skirmishes over the disputed territories of Kashmir and Jammu.  Austria wins the Eurovision song contest.  A tall ship from the Mexican navy collides with the Brooklyn bridge during manoeuvrers.  Romanian elects a centrist, pro-EU mathematician for president in a surprise turn-out.  Former US president Joe Biden diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.  UK, France and Canada sharply criticise Israel for its continued assault on Gaza and blockade of humanitarian aid, suspending trade talks and recalling diplomatic staff.  Veteran actor George Wendt passed away, aged 76. King Charles delivers a speech of solidarity from the throne in Canada to open parliament.  Trump blasts Putin for escalation of fighting in Ukraine.

june: In planning for eighteen-months, Ukraine carries out surprise drone attack on Russian bombers in five regions.  Trump rescinds nomination of private astronaut to head NASA after apparent falling out with Elon Musk, who recommended the nominee for the job.  Trump federalises the California national guard against the will of the state’s governor to suppress protests against ICE raids.  The Israeli defence forces seise a Gaza-bound cargo ship of humanitarian aid with activist Greta Thunberg onboard.  A London-bound plane crashes shortly after departure from Ahmedabad with a sole survivor. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys passes away, aged 82.  Israel launches air strikes against Iran’s nuclear processing facilities, killing the commander of the Revolutionary Guard. The US bombs three Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities.  In the last week before recess, the US supreme court delivers Trump several judicial victories. Veteran journalist and moderator Bill Moyers has died.  Israeli attacks on Gaza humanitarian assistance sites markedly intensify.  

july: The US congress narrowly passes Trump’s domestic policy agenda.  Flash flooding in Texas Hill Country claims dozens, including many from a summer camp for girls.  Russian transport minister found dead hours after his dismissal ostensibly for his failure to secure Moscow from Ukrainian drone attacks.  Trump announces twenty-fiver percent tariffs on Japan and South Korea, as the administration pushes for ninety trade deals in ninety days.  Trump disavows MAGA supporters who demand the release of the Epstein files. Israel launches airstrikes on Damascus to defend Druze communities living on the border of the Golan Heights.  UK government resolves to lower voting age to sixteen.  The US senate approves rescission bill to defund public broadcasting in America and eliminate billions in foreign aid.  Iconic rocker Ozzy Osboure has died, aged 76.  The famine in Gaza worsens as hundreds have been killed just queuing for aid.  France resolves to acknowledge Palestinian statehood.  Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan passed away, aged 71.  The EU negotiates a last minute trade and tariff deal with Trump, giving Europe worse than nothing but perhaps preserving global security and stability in Ukraine.  Contrary to assurances that the Qatari gift of Air Force one would not be for the Trump’s personal use post-presidency, the secretary of defence accepted the gift, explicitly calling it not a bribe.  Trump admits his friendship with Epstein came to an end because Epstein was stealing employees from his pleasure spa.  

august: Trump’s redacted name appears in the Epstein files.  Microsoft joins Invidia as the first firms to reach a four trillion dollar market valuation.  Global stocks are shocked by tariff deadline with few deals.  Trump fires government statistician after poor jobs-growth report, revising downward previous months’ estimates.   Sabre-rattling, two nuclear submarines move within striking distance of Russian.  Netanyahu announces plans to take over Gaza City whilst Trump again threatens to federalise Washington, DC. Astronaut and Apollo XIII commander Jim Lovell dies, aged 97.  Putin has a summit with Trump in Alaska, followed by a meeting in Washington, DC between Trump and Zelenskyy with several European leaders also inviting themselves.  Texas and California commence with their redistricting war to gerrymander the mid-terms.  The Florida department of transportation removes the rainbow crosswalk memorial of the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre.  Rumours of the death of Trump are trending.  The White House announces intent to end mail-ballots and allow only in-person voting.  Israeli attacks aided by the US kill Houthi prime minister in Yemen.  Modi and Xi meet with Putin as counterbalance to western hegemony.

september: A devastating earthquake hits Afghanistan.  Google emerges more or less unscathed from a landmark anti-trust case.  Chaos at the US Centres for Disease control prompts many states to do their own research.  Celebrated fashion designed Giorgio Armani dead, aged 91.  Over a dozen killed in a tragic funicular accident in Lisbon.  The US targets an alleged Venezuelan drug-boat and deploys warships to the Caribbean.  Israeli Defence Forces order the complete evacuation of Gaza City. Right wing influencer and conservative activist Charles Kirk is assassinated during a speaking event at a college campus in Utah.  Actor, activist and director Robert Redford passed away, aged 89. Donald Trump arrives in London for his second state visit.  The GOP are exploiting the death of Charlie Kirk to silence dissent. Portugal, the UK, Canada and Australia recognise Palestinian statehood, ahead of the UN General Assembly—with host nation refusing to issue visas to the country’s delegation to attend (the first time the US has barred entry since 1998 and banning PLO head Yasser Arafat, which prompted the UN to change the venue to Geneva).  Trump gives a rambling and dangerous speech falsely linking acetaminophen, childhood vaccinations with autism.  Erik Adams drops his re-election bid to be mayor of New York City.

october: At an impasse, the US government shuts down.  Renowned primatologist and wildlife advocate Jane Goodall passes away, aged 91. Veteran UK actor Patricia Routledge dies, aged 96.  Hamas and Israel reach a tentative ceasefire days after the second anniversary of the the beginning of the war.  Gazans begin returning home, joy amid sorrow and destruction as the Israeli army pulls back.  Actor Diana Keaton has died, aged 79.  Trump misappropriates funds to make military pay-day during the shutdown.  Hamas begins releasing the remaining Israeli hostages.  Elite universities in the US choose to forego federal funding rather than submit to conditions on research and hiring practises.  The US CIA begin covert operations to overthrow the government of Venezuela.  Every major US media outlet surrendered their Pentagon press credentials rather than sign a pledge to only report on approved releases. Former Trump national security advisor John Bolton indicted for mishandling of classified information.  NPR founding reporter and anchor Susan Stamberg passed away, age 87.  Partial demolition begins on the East Wing of the White House to construct Trump’s ballroom.  The Japanese parliament elects its first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.  Charles III and Pope Leo XIV pray together in the Sistine Chapel.  Against America’s peace agenda, the Knesset votes to annex the West Bank.  Leftwing candidate Catherine Connolly wins Ireland’s presidency.  Veteran television star June Lockhart passes away, aged 100.  Fawlty Towers actor Prunella Scales dies, aged 93. US government shutdown surpasses Trump’s old record for the longest in history.  Dick Cheney dies, aged 84.  Zohran Mamdani wins mayorship of New York City.

november: Redistricting efforts in Texas ahead of US mid-term elections are ruled to be unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. The US federal government reopens after an unprecedented shut-down as Democrats fold.  A violent civil war continues to rage in Nigeria.  COP 30 begins in Brazil.  Tech businesses and telecoms shed tens of thousands of employees.  In response to a cadre of congressional representatives urging service members not to obey illegal orders, Trump cries sedition and threatens them with execution.  US leaks a twenty-eight point peace plan for Ukraine and Russia. Marjorie Taylor Greene announces she will leave the US congress in January after a public falling out with Trump.  Flames engulf a residential apartment block in Hong Kong.  The pope makes his first trip abroad, visiting Türkiye and Lebanon.  With war in Venezuela imminent, closing the country’s airspace, Trump pardons notorious Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, commuting his sentence in a US federal prison after smuggling weapons and four hundred tonnes of cocaine into the country.  A deadly fire in a Hong Kong housing estate kills scores.

december: Playwright Tom Stoppard passes away, aged 88.  Influential architect Frank Gehry has died, aged 96.  Australia launches a world first social media ban for young people.  The US military seizes a Venezuelan oil tanker, escalating tensions.  Articles of impeachment are forwarded for both secretary of war and RFK, Jr.  Indiana state lawmakers reject Trump’s redistricting plans to gerrymander Democrats out of existence.  A gunman kills a dozen individuals gathering at Australia’s Bondi beach for Hanukkah celebrations.  Actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer-Reiner are found murdered—with the couple’s son arrested as the the prime suspect.  The US justice department releases a heavily redacted version of the Epstein files.  Singer, songwriter Chris Rea, performer behind “Driving Home for Christmas” dies, aged 74.  Brigitte Bardo has died, aged 91.  Trump announces ground strikes in Venezuela.  Xi announces intent to reunite Taiwan in New Year’s Eve address.

9x9 (13. 024)

participation, in this context, is a kind of alignment: the Vanity Fair photo shoot of Trump’s cabinet 

escape velocity: a super-massive runaway black hole has been ejected from its home galaxy and is careening through space—via Kottke 

that thoth over there: a guide to the messy divine family of Egyptian mythology  

beyond the last-minute gift guide: the year of Tedium wrapped  

no-one comes to casablanca for the waters—you were misinformed: every drink in the 1942 classic (see previously, oddly no gin)—via MetaFilter  

capital allocation: on the social uselessness of finance, creating winners and losers  

homecoming: a preview of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey—see also 

intraterrestrials: subsurface microbes have geological lifespans 

unreliable narrator: Epstein and company as Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert—see previously

public domain review (13. 021)

In anticipation of Public Domain Day 2026 (previously), here is a preview of the selection of literary and artistic works from 1930 and musical compositions from 1925 (under US jurisdiction, songs have a full century until IP lapses under current law) whose copyrights expire and are released to whomever and for whatever purpose. Artists’ works include Piet Mondrian’s Composition II, the pictured untitled work by Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Abel Lafleur’s Jules Rimet Cup—the original trophy of FIFA, along with countless works in the Art Deco movement registered in that year. Among dozens of cinematic works, All Quiet on the Western Front, the Three Stooges’ Soup to Nuts, The Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers and Savadore Dalí’s and Luis Buñuel’s L'Âge d’or are counted in, as well as audio recordings by the Gershwin brothers like “I Got Rhythm” and “Embraceable You,” “Georgia on My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, “Dream a Little Dream of Me,”Leo Robin’s “Beyond the Blue Horizon,” the inspiration for the Star Trek theme (see also) and “Sweet Georgia Brown.” Comics and cartoons include Betty Boop, Disney’s first appearance of Pluto (as Rover) and Flip the Frog and other characters created by Ib Iwerks after he left the studio. More from Duke Law School at the link up top.

sessomatto (13. 015)

Whilst unable to give a full-throated endorsement to the Italian erotic anthology film by Dino Risi—that debuted in cinemas on this day in 1973—eight short chapters on various proclivities (no kink shaming) with Laura Antonelli appearing as a different character in each vignette, we can however—via Dangerous Minds—recommend the soundtrack without reservation. It makes for a nice long-play of ambient sound with funk, Italo-pop flair with no one the wiser for the accompanying action and is by composer and conductor Armando Trovajoli who specialised in the music for Commedia all’italian exploitation films.

*    *    *    *    * 

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a never-melting snowman (with synchronopticæ) plus Adolf Hitler released from prison (1924)

fourteen years ago: America abandoning its leadership role and turmoil in Europe 

8x8 (12. 997)

you think hamilton wrote the federalist papers in trebuchet ms: Times New Roman turns rightwing 

the night that the loving ended and the killing began: Hitchcock knock-off Crescendo! reviewed in depth  

mercatino di natale: Brothers of Italy host a week-long winter wonderland named after the protagonist of The Never Ending Story—see also, see previously 

the glazed pagoda: East meets West through cultural depictions of Nanjing’s Great Bao’en Temple  

running on empty: peak copper’s coincidence with peak oil and what that means for the renewable transition with or without the matinee darlings of Rare Earths—via Web Curios 

castello di sammezzano: the Moorish and Oriental follies of Cesare Mattei and Ferdinando Panciatichi  

asahi illusion: from the Japanese for morning sun, the centre of this optical deception is no brighter than the background 

журнальная рубленаяa: Journal grotesque and typographical options in the Soviet Union—via Kottke 

jack nasty (12. 989)

Released for general audiences worldwide on this day in 2005 following premiers at the Venice film festival and New York City, the neo-Western by filmmaker Ang Lee—based off of the eponymous short-story by author Annie Proulx first published in the New Yorker magazine in 1997—focuses on the complicated romance between two shepherds-cum-coyboys. In pre-production since 2001, the realised film received critical acclaim and industry accolades and was among the biggest commercial successes of the decade (the first major film to be later released simultaneously as a DVD and digital download), with a global box-office (given slightly cryptic titles for foreign audiences, mostly in essence translating to “the secret of Brokeback Mountain and Túi a barátságon in Hungary, friends with benefits) markets ten-fold of its budget and stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (Matt Damon, Joaquin Phoenix, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Josh Hartnett, Edward Norton and Ryan Phillippe were among the first choices) with supporting cast of Anne Hathaway and Anna Faris, with the opening set in 1963 Wyoming. Producers rented Airstream trailers for the cast and crew to live on site (filmed primarily in Alberta in the Canadian Rockies, whose wildlife authorities made an exception to allow in domestic sheep with careful controls and limitations to ensure that they didn’t infect wild herds, though the guild defending animal actors took issue with the sheep’ shuttling to location and quarantine, resulting in digitally created flocks) with the atmosphere of a summer camp and the first intimate scene between Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar took thirteen takes before Lee was satisfied with it. Although pleased with the adaptation and screenplay, Proulx has expressed personal, not professional, regret for writing the story since the movie, receiving wide spread criticism from reply-guys who submit fan-fiction and alternative endings—fine for the unsolicited critiques but failing to recognise that the narrative arc is not some kind of choose-your-own adventure scenario.

*    *    *    *    *

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revist (with synchronopticæ) plus Noah Webster’s daily newspaper

 

twelve years ago: electro-swing plus more persuasive maps 

 

fourteen years ago: UK objections to EU budget 

 

seventeen years ago: sick days 

one flew east, one flew west (12. 892)

As our faithful chronicler reminds, on this day in 1975, Miloš Forman’s cinematic adaption of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel was released in the United States, starring Jack Nicholson as newly arrived patient at a mental institution, Randle McMurphy feigning mental illness in order to avoid a sentence of hard labour following a series of crimes including statutory rape, and Louise Fletcher as the abusive and sadistic Nurse Mildred Ratched (77 Sunset Strip and spiritual leader Vedek Winn on Star Trek: DS9, much like the part of head nurse) with a supporting cast of inmates featuring Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito and Will Sampson, Jr as Chief Bromden. In development hell for thirteen years prior (primarily due to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia—the Communist party was Forman’s Nurse Ratched) to shooting in Salem Oregon, the project originally called for Kirk Douglas and either Angela Lansbury, Anne Bancroft or Jane Fonda in the lead roles, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was critically acclaimed and remains ranked among the best films ever made, netting five Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Screenplay and Director. Recognising the subversive presence of the new arrival as a threat to her authority within the ward, Ratched scales back patient privileges—only causing more rebellion. Rehearsed on location at Oregon’s state public psychiatric hospital, the cast observed the daily routine prior to filming to get into character, including sessions of electro-shock therapy and stayed overnight in the wards among the criminally insane.

i think i’ll transfer you to the undergrowth department, brackens, small shrubs, that sort of thing…(12. 857)

Via our faithful chronicler, we are reminded that on this day in 1981 after a successful midsummer debut in the UK, Terry Gilliam’s critically acclaimed feature had its North American premiere. The project was born out of frustration in 1979 when the filmmaker could not find backing for his ambitious dystopian black comedy Brazil—that temporarily shelved idea eventually realised as the second instalment of his “Trilogy of Imagination” that began with Time Bandits and ended with The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen. Though violent and bleak at times, Gilliam sought to produce a family movie from the perspective of a child, with the camera angled accordingly for a kid’s point of view, but fearing a young boy wouldn’t be able to sustain the narrative alone, he cast the bandits who pilfered the map of holes in spacetime for looting with actors of a similar height. Produced by George Harrison’s HandMade Films studio, the elevator-pitch whilst playing a round of golf to the esteemed performer who would play Achilles, picture it: “Removing his helmet reveals himself to be none other than Sean Connery or an actor of equal but cheaper stature,” and as a Monty Python fan agreed to do the role. The picture also stars Shelley Duvall, Ian Holm, David Rappaport, Kenny Baker (R2D2), Jack Purvis and troupe alumni John Cleese and Michael Palin.

irrgarten der leidenschaft (12. 848)

Premiering in München on this day in 1925—though not released in the UK until the following April, the silent, joint Bavarian-British production The Pleasure Garden marked the directorial debut of Alfred Hitchcock, a cinematic adaptation of the 1923 melodrama by Oliver Sandys (one nom d’plume of Marguerite Florence Laura Jarvis who also wrote under the aliases of Countess Barcynska, Armiger Barley and others) about the misadventures of two chorus girls engaged by a theatre in London. Though the interview and audition of one young dancer, Jill—played by American import Carmelita Geraghty, is marred by a purse-snatching right before, she is taken in by a sympathetic member of the company, Patsy (Virginia Valli, another US actor) and ultimately lands a part. Initially a ménage à trois, a throuple Jill eventually succumbs to the overtures of aristocratic guests and leaves her benefactors, abandoning them in the time of the greatest need. Filmed principally in Germany and Lake Como, the movie was deemed too European and without redeeming qualities, hence the delay of it being screened in England and in America regarded as highly objectionable and unwholesome. Whilst not critically well received, one can see some of the motifs of Hitchcock’s later films storyboarded in the opening scenes, anticipating Vertigo, Rear Window and Family Plot.

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 

yo, el tarot (12. 815)

Much in the same vein as these previous collected aphorisms can be a good sounding-board for creative thinking, so to is this form of storyboarding with the major and minor arcana as presented by filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (see previously here and here) is a heuristic for self-discovery in the present rather than prognostication and his own narrative style of magical-realism. There’s an element of magical-thinking of course but things can sometimes manifest through insight. More from Open Culture at the link above.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI learns to point and click (with synchronopticæ), London’s mortality weekly plus the life of Boethius 

twelve years ago: more diabolical architecture plus Russia cracks down on homosexuality

thirteen years ago: Germany losses a neighbourhood retail anchor 

fourteen years ago: artistic crucifixes, the tale of dread pirate Störtebeker plus superlative t-shirts

8x8 (12. 813)

vampira: the obscure made-for-television title by George Moorse with a atmospheric score by Tangerine Dream 

concrete progress: a demonstration project for turning the rubble of war torn Ukraine into cement 

overton window: a measured approach to AI—via Kottke—see also  

spoiler-alert: William Castle’s Homicidal, a hammy, gimmicky film capitalising on the success of Psycho, gets reviewed by Poseidon’s Underworld

 
atira asteroids: a constellation of interior-Earth objects in our orbit and hidden by solar glare are uncomfortably close—via Damn Interesting 

it’s awfully strange to make a decision where i’m paying myself—but i was damaged very great and any money i would get i would give to charity: Grifter-in-Chief demands two-hundred and thirty million dollars in restitution from the US department of justice for past convictions  

billionaires’ row: a supertall residential tower on Manhattan’s Park Avenue is riddled with stress-fractures that may lead to its condemnation

the vampyre: Lord Byron’s unremembered manservant who invented the modern form of the genre—via Miss Cellania

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus the Berlin Crisis of 1961

fourteen years ago: exploring the past with the Retronaut

stop making sense (12. 809)

Using footage from the previous year of the band promoting their latest album, Speaking in Tongues, the Jonathan Demme directed documentary is considered among the best concert films of all time and was released on this day in 1984. Including performances of “Psycho Killer” and “Burning Down the House,” frontman David Byrne enters alone on a bare stage introducing the first number on a portable cassette tape player and joined successively by additional members of the band, session players and backup vocalists with each new track. During “Girlfriend is Better” (whose lyric is the origin of the title) Byrne appears in an oversized suite, informed by Noh theatre, that became an icon of the film and of Byrne himself. With many tributes and homages, the piece is considered a cult classic with frequent screenings with the audience dressed for the occasion.

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 

i like the city of san juan—i know a boat you can get on (12. 805)

Via our faithful chronicler, we are reminded that the cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim premiered on this day in 1961 (on the anniversary of the island’s takeover in 1898, ceded as part of the Treaty of Paris that settled the Spanish-American War) in New York City. The film from Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and Ernest Lehman (the team also behind The Sound of Music, Hello, Dolly! and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and starring Rita Moreno, Natalie Wood, George Chakiris and Richard Beymer was true to book, in turn inspired by the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, some numbers were re-ordered in appearance from the to better fit the narrative and lyrics changed to avoid censorship—particularly in “Jet Song” and “Gee, Officer Krupke,” “sperm to worm” was changed to “from birth to earth”—and in the brilliantly mixed-metre song “America” (the alteration inspired by a supposed visit to Puerto Rico and the “Habanera,” L’amour est un oiseau rebelle from Carmen) for a message deemed too harsh on fellow citizens and instead emphasises more of the perks of living on the mainland, ignoring the fact that the criticism was directed at their mistreatment and unwelcome. The 2021 Steven Spielberg version includes the revolutionary anthem La Borinqueña and restores some of lines from the original. I’ll give them new washing machine! What have they got there to keep clean?

10x10 (12. 801)

press credentials: all major US media outlets surrender their badges granting them access to the Pentagon rather than consent to only reporting on approved releases—see previously  

pomalo: embracing the unhurried lifestyle of the Dalmatian coast 

🚀: a huge archive of international space agency logos and patches, including private and fictional ones—via Kottke 

my my my my michell: a tribute to Joe Don Baker 

dear new york: an installation featuring the city’s denizens in Grand Central Station  

doxxing and the doxxed: a roundup of hateful boosterism from American Republican youth organisations  

un embarras du choix: perhaps options and avenues are a poor surrogate for being free 

farshoring: Luxembourg’s role as a space hub allows prospectors to claim asteroids—though profits may never pan out  

κόπος: Greek parliament passes thirteen-hour work days amidst strikes and labour shortages  

reframing: an exhibit inspired by WEB Du Bois’ infographic “data portraits”

dilemma of the video age (12. 778)

Via MetaFilter, we are directed to this odd cinematic time-capsule from a 1991 Entertainment Week listing of a hundred superlative obscure titles. It’s a pretty solid catalog that stands the test of time, although many have become better known as a cult classics in the intervening decades, like The 5000 Fingers of Dr T, Zardoz, Withnail and I and Xanadu, there are yet critical acclaimed sleeper hits to be rediscovered. The language and tone of the summaries seems more dated than one would have expected and the titular scenario is described as the following: “You walk into the local rental store, see that all sixty copies of Ghost are rented out and scan the aisles with dread,” which is both a reflection of our currently curated embarrassment of choices and an indictment on the siloing of content across channels and streaming services and media with many movies otherwise unavailable and the concept of owning a film library a legacy out of reach for most—the coda of the article inviting cinestes to invest in membership in a mail-order club, predating Netflix. Which of these films do you remember?

synchronoptica

one year ago: Suddenly (with sybchronopticæ) plus more boating adventures

thirteen years ago: life lessons from mythology

fourteen years ago: cruciform variations plus corking fun

sixteen years ago: travels in the States 

 

sk8er boi (12. 762)

Via friend of the blog Nag on the Lake, we discover this sweet short student film from 1965 from Noel Black (Pretty Poison, Kojak, The Electric Grandmother)—a narrative with no dialogue that tells a story of infatuation and rivalry set to a surf-rock sound track by Mike Curb performed by Davie Allen and the Arrows. Considered the first cinematic treatment of the subject, it was filmed in Torrance and Redondo Beach California, it received accolades from several festivals including taking the Palme d’Or in its class at Cannes.

8x8 (12. 751)

crybaby: the myth of the maternal instinct and what infant distress tells us 

i’ve been waiting twenty years for this meeting: Trump issues dangerous medical advice, linking acetaminophen, childhood vaccines with autism  

interflug: vintage Eastern European destination labels 

filtered for birdsong and catnip: the animal internet and archaeo-acoustics  

my dinner with skinner: the Steamed Hams version of My Dinner with Andre—see previously, see also—via Meta Filter 

novelisation: retro book jackets from modern classic cinema—see previously   

justice serviced: Trump ramps up pressure to pursue political enemies through a weaponised department  

non-linear vocal phenomenon: the distracting power of baby cries and dog barks may be overrated

synchronoptica

one year ago: a 1974 tour of Fort Knox (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit 

thirteen years ago: a ban on GMO crops in Europe, charted flights plus a superb dragonfly

fourteen years ago: faster-than-light physics 

fifteen years ago: the unbearable whiteness of anti-intellectualism