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

7x7 (11. 702)

drake’s equation: a reevaluation of the cosmic amenities we take for granted suggests that alien life might be exceedingly rare—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

now the chips are down: the archive of the BBC’s Computer Literacy Project—see previously—via Web Curios

sunnyside up: a supercut of the best egg scenes in cinema 

duckmaster: a luxury hotel’s waterfowl tradition  

crickets: how the chirping of the insect came to be synonymous with “a conspicuous silence”—via Strange Company 

blue screen of death: transportation, media outlets and health care disrupted by largest IT outage yet, exposing the fragility of our digital infrastructure—essentially what the y2k patch worked against 

star-studded: the shortlist revealed for Royal Greenwich Museum’s astronomy photographer of the year

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Genesis (with synchronoptica), the UK 1881 census plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: a zombie emoji, an engraved dinner knife, a gameified office, the woman’s signature on the US Declaration of Independence plus a stop-motion fairy-tale

nine years ago: Syncro-Vox animation

fourteen years ago: the landscape of Top Secret America plus an inspired preoccupation with rockets

only the lonely (11. 697)

A part-talkie (with mixed audio-dialogue, sound-effects and score plus intertitles), Public Domain Review presents Paul Fejős’ 1928 Lonesome, exploring the subject through following the lives of two working-class New York City urbanites apart and together over the course of a single July day, the telephone operator and factory worker get a break from their drudgery, met and have a splendid time at a funfair but are separated by a sudden downpour and regret loosing each other only to later discover that they’ve been neighbours in the same apartment block all along. The featurette, considered a masterpiece, has the narrative of an O Henry story and many innovations in terms of cinematography including fast-motion, superimposition, split screens and a roller-coaster mounted camera.

kinesigraph (11. 669)

Public Domain Review contributor Irfan Shah revives the forgotten figure of Wordsworth Donisthorpe of Leeds—inventor, chess enthusiast, anarchist, linguist, social reformer and unrecognised pioneer of cinematography, only to fall behind the competition in Louis Le Prince and Thomas Edison. Though Donisthorpe’s career is punctuated with lamentable near successes and frustrating failures—which saw him turn to blackmail on more than one occasion but that did not produce a favourable outcome either—except as a posthumous postscript that connects Donisthrope, through his social outreach, to one of the early icons of the silver screen. Read more about the Kinesigraph patent, free love and his Latinate language reform attempts at the link up top.

7x7 (11. 668)

zungenbrecher: revisiting the topic of German tongue-twisters whose recitation challenges are also trending on the socials—via Language Hat  

nuts and bolts: hyperrealistic pencil-drawings of metallic objects by Kohei Ohmori  

heraclea sintica: a near-complete statue of Hermes discovered whilst excavating a Roman sewer in southwest Bulgaria 

murder by contract: Poseidon’s Underworld reviews the 1958, low-budget Vince Edwards vehicle  

ovocipede: a personal mobility vehicle conceived by Salvador Dalí  

game over: a stop-motion animation re-creates classic arcade game play with food and candy  

dawn chorus: explore morning birdsong from around the globe—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links (lots more to see there)

synchronoptica

one year ago: the first summer study abroad programme (plus synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: Trump and the press, more on still-lives plus superlative drone photography

eight years ago: the Iraq Inquiry

nine years ago: the taxonomy of Jorge Luis Borge plus assorted links to revisit

ten years ago: advertising hoardings that serve as shelters plus ISIS’ wanton destruction of cultural treasure

light as a feather (11. 667)

Going into general release in the USA on this day in 1994, admittedly I never watched the Robert Zemeckis adaptation of the Winston Groom novel that follows the life of the protagonist photobombing pivotal events of the twentieth century and recalling his story ignorant of their significance but never skipped it out of any ideological reason that I was aware of but rather that I missed the moment and it was already part of the Zeitgeist and could surmise, intuit it by enough popular references. I never appreciated however that the film was part of the ongoing values debate in America and limns a contentious divide for those who interpret the melodrama about being present as either a nostalgic glamorisation of conservative (and counter- counter-cultural) credentials or as a sweet as a box of chocolates but glib reduction of the most consequent decades of the mid-twentieth century.

happiness hotel (11. 645)

Founded in 1919 as Charlie Chaplin Studios (with a fitting homage to the Little Tramp of Kermit with top hat and cane), the Henson Estate is selling off the storied and iconic lot it has occupied since 2000 as part of a strategy (yet to be disclosed) to consolidate production and Creature Workshop operations. During the central Hollywood’s incarnations over the decades it was not only home to Chaplin’s classics but also the television series The Adventure of Superman and Perry Mason with the in-house recording studio used by Lady Gaga and Daft Punk following “We are the World” before its distinction as Muppet headquarters. Let’s hope the new buyer continues this chain of creativity.

9x9 (11. 636)

who is this imposter: AI ruins classic, static reaction memes with animation  

🥖: the bygone baguette boxes of French Polynesia—via Messy Nessy Chic  

quantum compass: London Underground hosts trials for a subatomic sensor that could supplement satellite navigation  

crystal lake: the preponderance of 1980s horror movies set at summer camp  

ball & chain: Nag on the Lake shares a special memory from Festival Express, the touring show of Monterey Pop, when the musicians came to Toronto

message in a bottle: the dozen times humans have tried to communicate with extra-terrestrial intelligences—see previously here, here and here  

encarta: the short, happy reign of the multimedia CD-ROM as part of Fast Company’s 1994 Week—via Slashdot  

casa bonita: a 1974 amusement park restaurant reopens under new management and with a monumental wait-list 

 surgeon general’s warning: US top doctor urges health notices for social media

synchronoptica

one year ago: an AI’s take on emoji (plus synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting, a human computer plus Adsense (2003)

five years ago: Sweden’s alcohol monopoly, the UK Carbon Brief plus more links to enjoy

six years ago: a Banksy gallery opens, first issue magazine covers, the War of 1812, a space slingshot, more links worth the revisit plus Trump and Merkel

seven years ago: the US withdrawal from the Paris Treaty plus even more links

nine years ago: tobacco introduced to the Old World, more links, Hocus Pocus plus the nobiliary particle

advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young (11. 611)

Via our faithful chronicler, we are reminded of the spoken-word composition by Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann (Romeo + Juliet, Strictly Ballroom, The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge!), which topped the UK singles’ charts on this day in 1999. The essay is in the tone of a hypothetical commencement speech and was written two years prior by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich—though often misattributed due to a viral email circulated around graduation time to Kurt Vonnegut and address given at MIT (here’s the one they’re probably thinking of), and hits, mellows as pretty poignant, particularly as it’s the year I got my college diploma. Trust me on the sunscreen.

9x9 (11. 598)

on covfefe day no less: a meme roundup on Trump’s felony conviction  

canine rainbow: dogs’ visual spectrum and how they see perceive the world 

love exposure: the acclaimed, sprawling 2008 comedy-drama by Sion Sono  

the scary ham: proper late rites for an aged cut of pork

leftovers: five thin volumes on post-apocalypse Briton

nondescript fern: researchers find the largest genome (fifty times the genetic material of humans) in a small plant on an Australian island  

why be dragons: the origins of the universal mythological creatures  

evening standard: venerable London newspaper to suspend daily publication after almost two hundred years—see previously  

today is my birthday, please like me: a Twitter feed of some the revolting, disturbing but morbidly compelling AI-generated slop inundating Facebook—via Web Curios

synchronoptica

one year ago: Crazy Frog (2005) plus Adobe’s Generative Fill

two years ago: Scotch whisky (1495) plus the Stresa Convention on Cheeses (1951)

three years ago: your daily demon: Eligos, The Ship of Fools (1497), more on monopolies and monopsonies plus a Simon and Garfunkel classic

four years ago: seasonal dormancy, more King Ubu, St Rónán plus elections matter

five years ago: re-creating TV living rooms with IKEA furnishings,  Japan’s first folklore museum, the Lennon-Ono Honeymoon Suite plus a robot job interviewer

9x9 (11. 585)

super easy, barely an inconvenience: if cats had podcasts  

minor arcana: a metaphysically intelligent™️ tarot reading—via Web Curios  

fleeting moments: a concept camera that only delivers ephemeral poetry based on the subject in the view-finder—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest  

the ghana must go: as ubiquitous as the IKEA bag but more practical, this tartan sack from Japan by way of Hong Kong contains multitudes  

god’s influencer: following a second miracle attributed to his intercession, the first Millennial saint is canonised  

atlas shrugged: AI-apocalypse Jennifer Lopez vehicle from James Cameron garners negative reviews but we found it enjoyable—going in blindly and wondering if it wasn’t part of the Duneiverse and setting up the Butlerian Jihad 

long averages: advances in the understanding of probability fuelling casino gambling—via Damn Interesting  

planchettes and re-enchantment: LLMs are haunted things toc-cat-a in b-major: Noam Oxman personalised musical pet portraits—via Waxy

 synchronoptica

one year ago:  a portrait of a dog, Berlin’s Mouse Bunker, a study of incomplete cubes plus men and women duelling in the Middle Ages

two years ago: a pact between NATO and Russia (1997), a dragon in Essex plus assorted links worth revisiting

three years ago: mojibake, font sizes, the Golden Gate Bridge (1937), relocating geese plus Dune manga

four years ago: more links to enjoy, a rock-climbing inspection, weasel iconography plus Trump 2.0 would be far more fraught

five years ago: getting around in Swiss Saxony

mittwoch mantinee (11. 559)

Released on this day in 1968, the surrealist drama adapted from the 1964 eponymous John Cheever short story by the Oscar-nominated writer-director duo of Eleanor and Frank Perry (see previously) features the acting talents of Burt Lancaster in the title role of Ned Merrill, Janice Rule, Joan Rivers and Janet Landgard. Set in an New England suburb, Merrill drops by a neighbour’s pool party and chatting over cocktails realising that the series of backyard pools in this community form a river that would make it possible for him to swim back to his home. Slightly put off by this plan though tolerant of such behaviour, Merrill departs and crashes a succession of pool parties, revisiting past dramas and incidents and gradually revealing his downfall, mental breakdown and social ostracism which Merrill had managed to temporarily put out of his mind.

ampas (11. 553)

Founded on this day in 1927 by head of the studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer Louis B Mayer in order to create an organisation to mediate labour disputes without the need for outside, independent trade unions and improve the image and reputation of the film industry with input from prolific actor and matinee idol Conrad Nagel (who would six years later go on to establish the Screen Actors’ Guild) and thirty-five other professionals including Mary Pickford and Harold Lloyd, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was to hold an annual banquet but no mention of awards at the time. During the Great Depression, the Academy lost credibility as an arbitrator when it came to labour negotiations and gradually pivoted towards its present role as an honours society, with meritorious awards for “distinctive achievement” in one five branches—acting, directing, writing, technical accomplishment and producing—eventually becoming known as the Oscars. Around the same time, the Academy founded the first film school in collaboration with the University of Southern California, a library charged with collecting all publications about movies and state-of-the-art screening venue for members.

11x11 (11. 552)

syntax error: AI co-pilots are changing the way coders operate 

baby lasagne: a preview of Eurovision acts to watch for—see also here and here  

spaghettification: a NASA simulation shows what it’s like to be sucked into a Black Hole  

high-fidelity photogrammerty: how Google’s enhanced Street View with 3-D panoramas could again change the world of navigation and virtual exploration—see also 

breakfast of champions: the drawings and doodles of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr—see previously 

not a shared universe: a meta study on the perceived beliefs of fictional characters regarding other fictional characters  

early machinations: development notes on xkcd’s collaborative Rube Goldberg machine, an annual tradition—via Waxy 

my colours are blush and bashful, mama: Poseidon’s Underworld rewatches the 1989 star-studded Steel Magnolias  

coronal mass ejection: strongest solar storm in two decades lights up the night sky in Europe  

hind’s hall: the refreshing and unexpected entrée of Macklemore’s protest rap—see more  

syntax error: English being proposed as the new top-level coding language with the ability to articulate one’s wishes (as with a jerk genie) is of utmost importance

 synchronoptica

one year ago: Sweden passes world first personal data protection law (1973), those omnipresent cafe celebrity murals, a Trump townhall plus Nixon tries to strengthen the powers of the executive branch (1973)

two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus M (1931)

three years ago: more links to enjoy, Cats (1981), more on the Ice Saints plus the revival of night trains

four years ago: St Gangolf plus more links worth the revisit

five years ago: a sleep-over cinema plus a classic from Ottawan (1979)

hjelp (11. 531)

This is cute. Previously we’ve posted about how internationally distributed entertainment is sometimes retitled for different audiences, but we didn’t known about this rather clever former convention employed in Norway to signal to viewers that the film was a foreign comedy with a simple and often hilarious formula of prefixing “Help” to a brief description of the situation, like Airplane! as “Help, we’re flying!” or the National Lampoon trilogy as “Help, We have to go on Vacation,” followed by “Help, We Have to go on European Vacation” and “Help, We Have to go on Christmas Vacation.” It’s sort of like the Carry On series. The practise began to wane in the 2000s with increasing English literacy in the country but some later domestic comedies have used the same taxonomy.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on the Populuxe design movement, a space alphabet plus drone strikes over the Kremlin

two years ago: el Tres de Mayo (1808)

three years ago: NPR’s first broadcasting day, World Press Freedom Day plus the Benty Grange helmet

four years ago: Future Shock (1970), Cetacean Ops, a timeline of the pandemic, rock-paper-scissors not legally binding, more on Star Trek: TAS plus assorted links worth revisiting

five years ago: Sun Day, more links to enjoy plus nuisance lawsuits

space cowboy (11. 529)

Before Star Wars or even the failed vision of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune—see also, a writer-director called Tony Foutz, who was also friends to the planned main cast, conceived of a sci-fi, fantasy project called Saturation 70, a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, in which a Victorian child falls through a wormhole and discovers himself in a dystopian Los Angeles after the climate collapse and his befriended by a group of time-travelling aliens to save the Earth from pollution—the extra-terrestrials are outfitted in hazmat suits against the toxic atmosphere, the title referencing the tolerance for carbon monoxide in blood. To star the then five-year-old son of Rolling Stone Brian Jones, country singer Gram Parsons, Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas and Nudie Cohn, much of the principal footage had already been shot before funding fell through and the production called off, many scenes filmed without a permit during a 1969 convention of alien abductees at Giant Rock near Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert. Douglas Trumbull who created the special effects for 2001 and later The Andromeda Strain was also involved. Aside from a brief showreel and a few stills, the film has been lost and regarded by cinephiles and Parsons’ fans as a rumour, nearly undocumented for nearly four decades, only a gallery showing in 2014 at London’s Horse Hospital but the story is being told in book form, featuring some never before published on-set photographs and scripts. More from Dangerous Minds at the link up above.

7x7 (11. 522)

diddly doodly: a live action, 1950s version of The Simpsons in the works

trylon and perisphere: rides and attractions of the 1939 New York World’s Fair  

so your property has been banksyed—now what: conserving the artist’s murals and the difference between the studio and the street 

unfrosted: Netflix’s Pop-Tarts movie from Jerry Seinfeld  

the aethererius society: the London cab driver who became the voice of the Interplanetary Parliament in 1954  

the complete mashography: DJ Earworm takes on Taylor Swift  

anti-social network: Aaron Sorkin plans a sequel to the Facebook film, blaming the social media giant for the January Sixth Insurrection

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Roddenberry Archive, custom game cartridges plus the fired Florida principal gets to visit the David

two years ago: a Martian probe encounters the wreckage of an earlier mission plus viewing tectonic shifts

three years ago: International Dance Day with Colin’s Bear plus deepfake satellite imagery

four years ago: the evacuation of Saigon, the Golden Hat of Schifferstadt, daily constitutionals, zen toast plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: the inspiration for Thanos’ power glove plus not taking God’s name in vain

elasticity of demand (11. 507)

A bit of disheartening news coming out of the Coming Attractions Department that is part of growing trend—and admittedly we haven’t yet watched the Barbie movie because I’d rather live with the idea of it a little longer—but hearing of the announcement that director Margot Robbie will capitalise of the success of the film by partnering with rival toy company Hasbro, as with Mattel for the previous feature, for a big-budget nostalgia and marketing ploy with a cinematic adaptation of the board game Monopoly. Though the Barbie film freighted with a message may be an outlier, consumer capitalism is dominating the industry and cadet branches in the form of branded collaborations and appeal to test audiences—nothing wholly new or novel with infinite accessories, legacy films and reboots with a series of LEGO movies already a decade old and various examples of cross-paracosm productions, cannibalisation of back catalogues can sometimes result in the satisfying, entertaining and even poignant. All elements of narrative are derivative to a measure as part of their appeal and connection but the familiar and wistful are not the pinnacle of art and storytelling.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus space-based cocktails

two years ago: Earth Day

three years ago: more links to enjoy

four years ago: the first Earth Day (1970), the shortest river around the world plus ambient noises from the office

five years ago: don’t mess with mother, ugly Belgian houses plus Alien vignettes

kick off the sunday shoes (11. 505)

Unseating Michael Jackson’s Thriller as top album on this day in 1984 after thirty-seven weeks at number-one on the US charts, the soundtrack of Herbert Ross (a Broadway choreographer who went on direct musicals and comedies) film starring Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow featuring tracks by Kenny Loggins and Deniece Williams held its spot through the end of June. The movie tells the narrative of a Chicagoan teen moving to a small, conservative town that has banned dancing and rock music, which the newcomer and his group of friends contest so that the high school can host a proper senior prom, ultimately held just outside and within earshot of the prohibition’s jurisdiction. Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe had been previously cast to play the lead but were unavailable—Bacon turning down an offer for the main role in Steven King’s Christine to take the part of Ren McCormack. The title song has been covered by VeggieTales, Good Charlotte and in Swedish by the Herreys.

is this the leto boy i worked for? (11. 481)

Though advertised as a clip-show of highlights from the past hundred minisodes, an unexpected, rather absurd visitor, America’s newscaster emeritus, Dune-loving Tom Brokaw, steals the spotlight of the Flop House to pitch his musical version of the Frank Herbert epic—incorporating elements of Fiddler on the Roof—far superior to the HP Lovecraft Historical Society’s 1979 and 2001 revival parody A Shoggoth on the Roof by He Who (for legal reasons) Must Not Be Named, like the above lyric from the lament of mentat Thufir Hawat for his protégé Paul Atreides. In the tradition of the best musical homages from The Simpsons, there are some really clever numbers explored to a lesser or greater extant on the expense of the exasperation of the co-hosts. As the sequel premieres, Brokaw also teases a part two with the template of Sweeney Todd. We also very much enjoyed the leitmotif from A Baliset Player on the Sietch of the Bene Gesserit Gaius Helen Mohiam with the lines “How can I hope to make you understand don’t you move your right hand. Keep it that small box or I will land on your neck with my gom jabbar,” inspired by “Far from the Home I Love.” Listen and subscribe at the link above. Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dune. 

 synchronoptica

one year ago: 12 Angry Men (1957) 

two years ago: the first 3D studio release (1953), assorted links to revisit plus random ID cards

three years ago: the Thelema Book of Law, the Statue of Anne (1710) plus a glossary of television terms

four years ago: German and Finnish COVID-19 terminology, a memorial service for the Notre Dame fire, William of Ockham plus more links to enjoy

five years ago: vintage volvelles, a reversal on dollar coins, the Moka Pot reissued, shopping per horoscope, imaging a black hole plus punitive tariffs on the EU