topdressing: an appreciation of the world’s “ugliest” utility airplane, the Airtruk, designed for crop-dusting in New Zealand—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
future-proof: an advertising campaign from a pen company in the early 1960s strangely forecasts our technological present
night-climbers: John Bulmer’s photographs of a secretive group that scaled the campus of Cambridge under the cover of darkness—more here
crochet coral: an evolving nature and craft hybrid project to memorialise and raise awareness about our disappearing reef—see previously—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links
money pit: a tour of the world’s abandoned airports
Released in November of the previous year with the premier of the film, and was until the debut of Thriller by Michael Jackson in 1982 the best-selling album in history, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever began a twenty-four week run on the top of the US charts—with comparable success in international markets on this day in 1978. A nineteen-year-old Tony Manero (portrayed by John Travolta, see previously) escapes disillusionment by in his working-class Brooklyn neighbourhood by escaping to the a local disco (above) on the weekends, where he rules the dance-floor and longs for a better life in Manhattan, just across the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge. Showcasing the musical talents of the Bee Gees, Yvonne Elliman, Kool & the Gang, The Trammps amd KC and the Sunshine Band, the Brothers Gibb’s group and many of the other artists were not involved with the project until post-production, after the deal fell through with the recording label for Boz Scaggs (denied because the song “Lowdown” had recently appeared in another disco film Looking for Mister Goodbar, which is hard to describe as a dance drama but Saturday Night Fever has a complicated plot with a lot happening as well) and much of the choreography had to be redone after the movie’s producer commissioned the Bee Gees as understudies, with the lead tracks written and recorded over the course of a single weekend at a French chรขteau.
An immediate and enduring commercial and critical success and remaining the artist’s winningest recording, the sixth studio album by Joni Mitchell (previously) was released on this day in 1974. Presaged with the singles “Raised on Robbery” (below), “Free Man in Paris,” “Down to You” and “Help Me,” the tracks represent a departure from Mitchell’s folk roots shifting to pop with an infusion of jazz elements.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus a rolling snapshot of blog posts
Released on this day in 1979 as the lead single from their sixth studio album, Voulez-Vous, this song about a “little girl” was informed by Simon and Garfunkel’s cover of a Peruvian standard “El Condor Pasa”—and subsequently recorded in Spanish after its critical acclaim as part of Gracias Por La Mรบsica. One of ABBA’s biggest hits to date (see previously), it was showcased in a UNICEF charity concert, broadcast from a plenary session with royalties going to support the children’s emergency fund.
ray fay: the mostly-unreleased 1976 comedic spoof Queen Kong with traditional gender roles reversed
from-to: reputational-based urban maps that can help you find the analogue East Village of London and other neighbourhoods in different cities
tv mirror: leafing through the February 1977 includes an interview with Henry Winkler and more on the Dino De Laurentiis remake that condemned the above treatment of the colossus to obscurity
isdn: a look at the once future-proof telecommunication standard quickly vanishing
oppidum du mont beauvray: the successive rediscoveries of the ancient capital of the Gallic Aedui tribe, Bibracte
synchronoptica
one year ago: St Mungo plus assorted links to revisit
Topping out at number two on Billboard around the same time, the Village People’s only single from their 1978 studio album Cruisin’ reached number one on the UK charts on this day in 1979. Rhythmically complex and with lyrics full of double-entendre, the singer-songwriter Victor Willis has affirmed that the song is to be understood on many levels and not just a celebratory anthem but also praising the diversity that the organisation fostered, the boarding house function originally founded in the 1880s to provide affordable rooms for people from rural areas coming into the cities to look for work had by the time the song was composed had seen a demographic shift to the unhomed urban population and displaced youth cohabitating with the older, more typical tenants, with a not insignificant proportion who were gay. Initially, the YMCA was going to sue the band for besmirching their name but later settled and came to embrace the enduring number for singing the praises of the institution. Inscribed by the US Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry as culturally important and “proof that disco never truly died,” the number and routine is a popular cheer for sporting events and over the eventual objection of The Village People, featured in Donald Trump’s campaign rallies—see also. Once defeated, YMCA was adopted by supporters of his challenger Joe Biden and was blasted on loudspeakers as Trump boarded Air Force One for the last time to leave Washington ahead of the inauguration of his successor.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus FDR’s Four Freedoms (1941)
We are treated to the musical stylings of virtuoso organist, composer and conductor Anthony Newman through his 1974 album (just one entry in his prodigious discography), whom despite his quite liberal interpretations of Baroque compositions met with scepticism and criticism at first but is now generally accepted as allowable, influential variations. Over his long current (still playing), Newman has gone on to collaborate with noted musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Itzhak Perlman and Wynton Marsalis.
In light of recent toasting and cheering and an earlier post on translation of popular lyrics, we enjoyed learning about the Japanese verses inserted into the Robert Burns’ poem made into a New Year’s tradition. Initially used for a completely separate purpose, Hotaru no Hikari (The Glow of a Firefly, ่ใฎๅ ) set to the tune of the Scottish folk song was used for school matriculations and graduations and played also as outro music at shops and restaurants to signal closing time for customers, a few lines from this other composition in Japanese are added to Auld Lange Syne to ring in the New Year. Much more at Language Log at the link above including various performances of the different versions.
Continuing a long-standing tradition, Chris the Barker (previously) has made another Sgt Pepper’s style collage as a tribute and remembrance to those who have passed in 2023, updated until the last minute and reaching back all the way to the beginning of the year lest we forget any legends lost. It’s a crowded assembly to reflect on and features a key—also in the style of the album’s liner notes. Pee-wee Herman, Dame Edna, Sinรฉad O’Connor, Tina Turner, and Jane Birkin feature prominently but also includes political figures and cross-over moguls like Silvio Berlusconi, Jerry Springer and Gina Lollobrigida as well as Bobi, the oldest dog ever, and the Sycamore Gap tree who get their visual obituaries. Shared on X, we can’t locate a reference to the death of Twitter on the cover however.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a new addition to the family plus assorted links to revisit
Sometimes colloquially called in their native Australia as Acca-Dacca and named after their sister pointed out the label on the electric adapter of her portable sewing machine, thinking that it captured the sense of raw energy that her brothers Angus and Malcom Young wanted to convey, the band had their first official engagement on New Year’s Eve in 1973 in a nightclub in Sydney called Chequers (or according to other sources, an event for Bondi Beach lifesavers). In the early days, their stage personae consisted of glam rock outfits and super hero costumes and would go on to record their first studio album two years later. Their iconic logo was designed by typographer Gerard Huerta who also produced lettering and artwork for Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Blue รyster Cult among many others and created corporate alphabets for Condรฉ Nast, Waldenbooks, Calvin Klein’s fragrances and Swiss Army brands as well as mastheads for Time, Money, People, Working Mother and the Atlantic magazines.
We had background music on for long enough for this intriguing and clever number from Andrew Bird to pop up on the playlist a few times, bundled along side other indy-rock classics and The Magnetic Fields. The song from the 2017 album My Finest Work Yet sounded familiar but hadn’t been overly-exposed because of the seemingly digital-only platform. Named for the Greek king punished by Zeus for trying to cheat death (and also for being a bad host), “Sisyphus” is about the consequences of letting one’s rock roll—or embracing one’s fate to overcome the task. “I’d rather fail like a mortal than flail like a god on a lighting rod; history forgets the moderates.”
Via the always engrossing Language Hat, we discover that the song that the governess Maria uses to teach the children solfรจge in The Sound of Music has of course been translated into a number of languages, which does not strike one as the same solmisation that English audiences are accustomed to but preserves the tune and structure of the perhaps fits better to non-Western scales than we can appreciate. Also covering Arabic language renditions (adapted indirectly through manga), the Japanese version approximates the lyrics thus: Do is for “doughnut” ใใฏใใผใใใฎใ / Re is for “lemon” ใฌใฏใฌใขใณใฎใฌ / Mi is for “everyone” ใใฏใฟใใชใฎใ (or in French, Mi, c'est la moitiรฉ d'un tout—Mi, it’s half of a whole) / Fa is for “fight” / So is blue sky ใฝใฏ้ใ็ฉบ / Ra is for “trumpet” ใฉใฏใฉใใใฎใฉ / Si is “happiness” ใทใฏๅนธใใ (or in Italian, Si: se non ti dico no—Yes: if I don’t tell you no) / So let us sing! ใใๆญใใพใใใ. One wonders what is meant by mnemonics and homophony to begin with.
Never failing to far exceed expectations and always delivers, DJ Earworm (see previously) releases his annual United States of Pop mashup—which is more of an exercise in triangulation as a third, hybrid song and lyrics emerges from each combination from the catalogue of the top twenty-five most popular hits of the past twelve months. The Taylor Swift compositions are especially enjoyable but do give the whole album a listen and seek out the 2009 edition—you won’t be disappointed.
Held on this day in 1808 at the venue of Theatre an der Wien, the benefit concert—orchestral symphonies at the time referred to as academies and because of the year’s performance schedule and booked out concert halls (no summertime performances were held as the influential aristocracy left the city over those months for their country estates and space was given over to rehearsals for operas as the higher status productions during the winter with only the weeks of Advent and Lent available for purely musical concerts)—of Ludwig van Beethoven, conducted by the composer himself and incredibly debuting his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Choral Fantasy and Fourth Piano Concerto, for the musicians’ “deserving widows” fund was a four hour affair in the bitter cold of the theatre and suffered in terms of audience reception. Rather incensed with the shoehorning of so much new material into one block, Beethoven’s former teacher Antonio Salieri organised a counter-concert—on the same day—with proceeds going to the same cause, although the relationship between the two warmed again shortly afterwards—Beethoven’s fame spreading by those who had been in attendance and admittedly overwhelmed by the scope of the evening (too much of a good thing) and eager to have a chance to digest individual movements more slowly and at one’s leisure. The entire programme as performed as been recreated a number of times since.
local inference: when AI assistants leave the cloud and haunt one’s laptop, all bets are going out the window—via Good Internet
autogamy: evolutionary changes in wild pansies suggest that the flowers have given up on increasingly rare insects and are turning to self-pollination, a vicious cycle for the whole ecosystem
tom & jerry: the typology of North American eggnog cartons—via Kottke
jewel streets: a twelve-block neighbourhood known as the Hole of New York City neglected and forgotten for decades
To round out the podcasting year, 99% Invisible presents a selection of choice minisodes on a variety of topics ranging from practising architecture without a license, decimalising the clock, ghost kitchens and fascinatingly the primordial streaming service, dial-a-song, subscription-based amenity patented by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. For a monthly fee, people could listen to an entire electric orchestra over the telephone lines. The massive analogue instrument that synthesised the immersive experience was called the telharmonium—also a product of Cahill’s genius—and was the precursor to the Hammond organ and other electronic keyboards. As popular as the novelty was—including live concerts—by 1907, streaming subscribers turned toward the medium of radio. Much more at the links above.
Via Pluralistic, we are reacquainted with the seasonal tradition of DJ Riko that’s spanned two decades and is still going strong. Begun as CD mix-tape sent to friends as a very special Christmas card, his unadulterated but refreshed playlists covering multiple eras, interpretations and genres started circulating on the internet and caught the attention of established media and their use is encouraged for one’s own holiday greetings and personal soundtrack. Good for those wanting to avoid the standard programming, click the cover image to listen to the full album.
future-proof: an advertising campaign from a pen company in the early 1960s strangely forecasts our technological present 
