Reaching the top of the UK singles charts on this day in 1976, the Four Seasons’ song by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker, showcasing the band’s drummer Gerry Polci and vocalist Frankie Valli, the lyrics were originally set three decades prior in 1933 to 5 December, marking the end of Prohibition in the US. The group however revolted against the juxtaposition of such a good disco, doo-wop groove with an obscure historical reference, and it was decided that it should be shifted forward to capture the spirit of Americana as a jukebox favourite circa the early 1960s.
Wednesday 21 February 2024
til she finds another (11. 367)
Released as a single on this day in 1984 in UK markets, the duet by Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire and Phil Collins, originally a solo for Bailey and his most successfully performance outside of the group, was a chart-topper in the US, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands besides. The accompanying video that won an MTV Award and was nominated for a Grammy poked fun at the process of producing a music video, en route to Etward Studios in London and was directed by Jim Yukich, whose other credits include Debbie Gibson, Steve Guttenberg, Kenny Loggins, REO Speedwagon, Iron Maiden and Richard Marx.
Tuesday 20 February 2024
10x10 (11. 365)
royal mews: King Charles’ one of a kind electric Jaguar up for auction—via Miss Cellania
ppe: the portable nuclear bomb shield, patented by Harold Tiff
got clearance clarence: after embarrassing blunder over bad travel advice, Air Canada advocates personhood (and limited liability) for its chatbot customer representative
1776 days: Julian Assange’s long detention and fight against rendition to the US for Wikileaks
tigers blood: new singles from Waxahatchee
daddy daughter day: breakdancing, bitcoin father revealed as a veteran of member of the Christian Coalition and conservative speech writer
the second in line: Swedish illustrator Mattias Adolfsson—via Messy Nessy Chic
body armour: Casimir Zeglen, the priest who invented the bulletproof vest
motorcade: Joe Biden’s Cadillac sedan for sale—via tmn
synchronoptica
one year ago: artist creates a prosthetic extra digit plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: more links to enjoy, the subterrene (1972) plus The Shape of Things to Come (1936)
three years ago: introducing the Jeep (1941), a Nyan Cat NFT plus a suite of Japanese pictograms
four years ago: more mass-transit upholstery, RIP Larry Gordon Tesler who invested copy-and-paste, superannuated map styles, the possible extradition of Julian Assange plus the new US ambassador to Germany
five years ago: all the presidents’ meals, a secret meeting between industrialists and the Nazi government (1933), more links worth the revisit, the US emergency broadcast system (1971), vintages mazes plus the bokeh technique
Sunday 18 February 2024
colonel sanders’ tijuana picnic (11. 361)
Via Good Internet, we are treated to a travelling exhibition of the worst album covers on display presently at the Alnwick Bailiffgate Gallery in Northumberland, featuring some four hundred aesthetically challenging vinyl sleeves from the collection of Steve Goldman, amassed over the years from bin sales and charity shops with the purchasing, inclusion criteria of it being laughably bad—nothing mean spirited but rather when choices went awry, irrespective of music quality—see also judging a book by its cover, via Web Curios. Select tracks from the collection will also be playing, with visitors invited to dance a bit and vote for their favourites, ranging from education, promotional, devotional, obscure artists and more well-known musicians. The pictured cover for the 1979 album from Peter Rabbit was what inspired Goldman’s hobby and share his obsession.
catagories: ๐ถ, ๐, libraries and museums
Thursday 15 February 2024
opus 314 (11. 352)
Premiering on this day in 1867 with a performance of the Vienna Men’s Choral Association, the waltz by Johann Stauss II was originally met with a rather tepid response from the audience but has since become one of the most enduring compositions in the classical repertoire and an unofficial anthem for Austria—the national hymn “Land der Berge, Land am Strome” a tune by Mozart. The lyrics were added after the orchestral part was finished about a year earlier by the Mรคnnergesang-Verein’s resident poet Joseph Weyl as a carnival song, with eleven satirical verses lightly lampooning the country’s loss in the recent Austro-Prussian War:
Weit vom Schwarzwald her
eilst du hin zum Meer,
spendest Segen
allerwegen,
ostwรคrts geht dein Lauf,
nimmst viel Brรผder auf:
Bild der Einigkeit
fรผr alle Zeit!
Alte Burgen seh’n
nieder von den Hรถh’n,
grรผssen gerne
dich von ferne
und der Berge Kranz,
hell vom Morgenglanz,
spiegelt sich in deiner Wellen Tanz
Prevalent in popular culture, in Austria, it is played at midnight on New Year’s as well as being the traditional sign-off tune for the end of the broadcasting day, a coda sung to Mexican birthday gatherings as “Queremos pastel, pastel, pastel” to serve the cake and played during the 1970s and 1980s over the PA systems of Chinese domestic flights as reassurance to passengers on landing. Die Donau so blau, so blau.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Amerika, a 1987 mini-series
two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus the fist demonstration of closed-captioning (1972)
three years ago: Decimalisation Day (1971) plus another Roman holiday
four years ago: harnessing the power of falling rain, Japanese business jargon plus a trip to castle ruin Henneberg
five years ago: Trump sends troops to the Mexican border plus introducing OpenAI
Sunday 11 February 2024
8x8 (11. 343)
๐ถ: a Good Internet cross-posting of Good Music, featuring a mix of tracks from Wilco, Kim Gordon, the Beths and many more
nato backstab: in a Drudge Report style headline, the Huffington Post reports Trump at a campaign event that he might encourage Russia to attack ‘deadbeat’ alliesinternal monologue: philosophers explore new field of the inner voice at the intersection of psychiatry
compliance moats: anti-anti-monopolists and data-brokers wrangle over regulation
story-walk: using olfaction with narrative to simulate reflection and retention
certificate of honourable discharge: explore the best-preserved Roman military diploma (constitutio) in a new 3D exhibit
grand bargain: US Supreme Court seems poised to keep Trump on state ballots but deny him blanket immunity
i’m only sleeping: a Grammy winning painted music video of the Revolver track from Em Cooper
Saturday 10 February 2024
7x7 (11. 338)
homing: Nikola Tesla’s love for pigeons and telepathy—via Strange Company
‽: more on the interrobang—see previously
stringe-watching: the opposite of binging a series to indulge in the experience
hash mark: the works of artist Ding Yi coinage: TikTok has seen an (irritating) explosion in linguistic novelties to promote niche microtrends—via Miss Cellania
in the aeroplane over the seas: Neutral Milk Hotel covers for the album’s anniversary
castro street: Bruce Baillie films Riverside, California in 1966
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Tapestry (1971) plus a pioneering hypertext novel
two years ago: the Dread Pirate Roberts plus a geographical challenge
three years ago: the Simpsons’ intro, the feast of St Scholastica, vernacular ceramics, no fly free zones plus profiting from conspiracy
four years ago: more Orange Menace
five years ago: more links to enjoy
Friday 9 February 2024
national jukebox (11. 336)
Via Web Curious (a lot more to explore there), we enjoyed poking around the playlists of this project from the US Library of Congress that streams over ten thousand historic recordings and growing produced by the Victor Talking Machine Company (the ascribing labels, OKeh Records, Columbia, RCA, now subsidiaries of Sony Music Entertainment—but the clearinghouse granted a free license to the library to make them publicly available…) from 1901 to 1925. We especially liked the recommendation algorithm and a feature that’s grouped what was recorded on a particular day of the year. Look around and see what old-timely tunes you can discover.
catagories: ๐ถ, libraries and museums
Thursday 8 February 2024
the tough get rough (11. 333)
Starting a four-week run on the top of the UK singles charts on this day in 1986, the Billy Ocean song was the theme of The Jewel of the Nile, the Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner vehicle and sequel to 1984’s Romancing the Stone. A global hit, it was eventually unseated by Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know,” the accompanying video was initially refused by Top of the Pops for the cast’s lip-syncing, not being members of the Musicians Union, with Danny DeVito’s miming as a saxophonist, like the August rendition of “You Can Call Me Al,” considered a violation of the guild’s rules for non-member performers.
Sunday 4 February 2024
i never did believe in miracles but i’ve a feeling it’s time to try (11. 321)
Swapping out the working-title of Yesterday’s Gone, Fleetwood Mac—during a turbulent time in the band’s career with non-stop touring for their last album, drug use and relationship breakups for many of the members as well as changes for personnel—released on this day in 1978 their eleventh studio album on this day in 1978, an instant worldwide success of a soulful and confessional nature and features some of the group’s most enduring tracks. Teased as singles “Don’t Stop,” “Dreams,” “You Make Loving Fun” and “Go Your Own Way,” all dominated the charts for weeks at a time and taken as an anthology of the members’ anguish and optimism is considered one of the greatest records of all time.
Saturday 3 February 2024
9x9 (11. 319)
thinking of you. i mean me. i mean you: a new exhibition on the artist Barbara Kruger advances her legacy up to the present—see previously
hi neighbour: Johnny Costa introduced jazz to Mister Rogers along with his audience
una vincenzo, the lady troubridge: fashion icon, sculptor, translator and unashamed, power lesbianbaud per second: Eclectic Method’s dial-up modem song
unexcused absences: obstructionist state senators cannot run for re-election in Oregon after constitutional amendment—via Super Punch
unwatering: researchers find the solution the Richard Feynman’s hypothetical reserve sprinkler
amateuraufnahmen: colour footage of Berlin, Leipzig and Bad Schandau from the 1960s
please don’t try to print it: unlocking the page dimensions in Adobe to create a PDF larger than the entire Universe—via Kottke
friend or foe: Clownfish count stripes to keep out adult interlopers from their territory—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links—see also strange sex lives of the species
transcendental aesthetic (11. 318)
A direct ancestor of the Laserium light show (collaborating with Henry Jacobs for his display at the Morrison Planetarium), we quite enjoyed this short 1961 abstract, experimental animation on 16mm film from Jordan Belson, a prolific artist, often with a nonobjective (his career was kicked off by a sustaining grant from the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which later became known as the Guggenheim) but spiritual bent, who created an extensive portfolio of works over the course of six decades. Evoking a mediative, introspective experience like many of his works, in 2011, the US Library of Congress inscribed “Allures” in the National Film Registry.
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐ถ, ๐ญ, ๐ณ️, libraries and museums
Friday 2 February 2024
me and my arrow (11. 315)
Via our faithful chronicler, we learn that on this day in 1971, The Point! was first aired as the ABC Movie of the Week. Based on the eponymous sixth studio album by Harry Nilsson (previously), the animated adaptation from director Fred Wolf (also behind Free to Be… You and Me) features the voice talents of Dustin Hoffman, Paul Frees, Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady) and June Foray and tells the fable of a boy named Oblio, born with a round head and made to wear a pointed cap to hide his “pointless” condition from his pointy-headed peers. After dishonouring the son of a wicked count, Oblio finds himself banished and encounters many strange characters in the Pointless Forest that show him that everything has a purpose, though it may not be obvious at first glance.
the ลฟecond part, to the ลฟame tune (11. 314)
Having felt a bit cheated by a news article about chart-rankings for seventeenth century English ballads over missing ourselves a link to the project, we appreciated the extra digging from Web Curios and the chance to take a second look and visit the collection of top pop broadsides, complete with sheet-music and actual recordings and historical context as well as insights into the industry and artists. With a wide range of themes ranging from knaves and knights, to kings and kidnapping, vis-a-vis the preceding post, one is sure to find something resonant and engaging. Sorted by popularity, the number one hit from the era is a much covered retelling of The Aeneid, the “Wandring Prince of Troy.” Much more at the links above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Groundhog Day, never a poem as lovely as a tree plus a Nutcracker tradition
two years ago: Candlemas plus problematic portrait artist Charles Frederik Goldie
three years ago: assorted links to revisit, the Great Comet plus free market capitalism
four years ago: the Lake District in Limburg, outsider artist Madge Ethel plus Cynthia the Mannequin
five years ago: suggestion boxes, Zuckerberg in Congress plus more on Candlemas
catagories: ๐ถ, ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, Middle Ages
Thursday 1 February 2024
heptarchy (11. 313)
Whilst regularly reviewing what was posted three and four years ago, I can’t say that I haven’t given the bardcore trend any thoughts recently, but we were nonetheless pleased to have come across this medieval-style cover of the White Stripe’s anthem. Though as the songwriter Jack White retells, the title comes from a childhood memory of mishearing “Salvation Army,” the lyrics could indeed refer to the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon era England, which were eventually subdued, consolidated and united, with some notable resistance, by the ninth century under Alfred the Great.
catagories: ⚽️, ๐️, ๐ถ, Middle Ages
Wednesday 31 January 2024
my, my, how can i resist you? (11. 310)
Coincidentally sharing some of the same lyrics (Mamma mia, let me go!), on this day in 1976 ABBA unseated Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” from its nine-week run at the top of the UK singles charts with the opening track on their eponymous third studio album. Resistant to the idea of promoting the song for fear of over-exposure (and due to the composition being shopped around before it was offered to the group), it was first trialled in the Australian market but the overwhelming positive reception prompted ABBA to release it as a single in Britain, soon becoming an international hit. The B-side of the UK version had the instrumental track “Intermezzo № 1” with variants including “Hey, Hey Helen” and “Tropical Love Land.”
Tuesday 30 January 2024
8x8 (11. 307)
1,44mb: some Japanese ministries are phasing out the requirement of submitting official documents on physical media
forensic linguistics: language experts and crime-solving
jurassic lark: Poseidon’s Underworld recaps the 1960 cinematic experience Dinosaurs!painting with plasticine: Olive Harbutt, daughter of the medium’s inventor, creates art in this 1958 short
▧: Letraset fill patterns—see previously
throwing eggs: popular Chinese card game Guandan may receive sanction for the classroom
esperantido: linguist Manuel Halvelik created an auxiliary diglossia to make translations sound more archaic
omnichord: Suzuki brings back the portable music-maker from 1981
Monday 29 January 2024
castaways (11. 303)
First airing on this day in 1942 on the BBC Forces station, conceived and originally hosted by presenter Roy Plomley (until his death in 1985) and still broadcast on a weekly basis—making it the longest running radio programme after the Grand Ole Opry which began in 1925—Desert Island Discs invites celebrities, politicians, scientists, journalists, authors and artists as guests to choose eight audio (originally gramophone) recordings, a book (castaways are automatically given a volume of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare and the Bible or other appropriate theological or philosophical text) and a single luxury item that they would wish to have should they find themselves marooned, talking about their lives, careers and reasons for the titles selected. Over the course of three thousand episodes, guests have included Eartha Kitt, Bing Crosby, David Attenborough, Dave Bruebeck, Alfred Hitchcock, Liberace, Alec Guinness, Julie Andrews, Sophie Tucker, Cilla Black, Marlene Dietrich, Harold Pinter, Anthony Burgess, Magnus Pyke, Lauren Bacall, Elia Kazan, Burl Ives (who selected the I Ching), Norman Mailer, Bob Geldof, Stephen Hawking, Brian Blessed, Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Fry, Debbie Harry and Zadie Smith. Over the decades, the most requested piece of music has been “Ode to Joy,” the last movement from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Conceived with the sounds of crashing waves and the cries of seabirds as the introduction and conclusion, producers however insisted on “By the Sleepy Lagoon,” an instrumental by Eric Coates, composer of light music—see also.
synchronoptica
one year ago: School House Rock! at 50, Dr Strangelove plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: more banned books, a Mozart opera, Axis of Evil, an AI creates bespoke colours plus more conspiratorial thinking
three years ago: an opera by Peter Josef von Lindpainter, more links to enjoy plus a digital demesne
four years ago: Mantra Rock Dance (1967), the Rubik’s Cube (1980) plus the Space Cat gets a monument
five years ago: the event that inspired Boomtown Rats, an excellent Rube Goldberg machine, Sleeping Beauty (1959), a Trump attorney’s political thriller plus artist Javier Riera
Sunday 28 January 2024
there’s a choice we’re making—we’re saving our own lives (11. 301)
Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, organised by Harry Belafonte and produced and conducted by Quincy Jones, the supergroup USA (United Support of Artist) for Africa (inspired by Band Aid’s success from the year before) gathered at A&M studios in Hollywood on this day in 1985 to record the charity single. Over forty-five of America’s most popular musicians and celebrities, including Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and Dionne Warwick, were involved in the project with solos and as part of the chorus—with more than fifty turned away—arriving to be greeted by a delegation Stevie Wonder and Charles, who threatened the artists if the song wasn’t done in one take, the two blind men, would be everyone’s chauffeurs for that evening, and a note pinned to the studio door to please check their egos here. Released five weeks later on 7 March, the song raised over sixty-three million dollars that went directly to relief funds for areas hardest hit by the famine affecting the continent and continues contributions through charitable foundations and tribute renditions for other humanitarian crises and has gone on to become among the most popular and purchased commercial singles.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a match monopoly, going to Canossa plus the Ceremony of the Keys
two years ago: another NFT minting operation plus a video game game show
three years ago: the execution of a Scottish witch
four years ago: the musical stylings of Rupa Sen, train headboards, American Type Founders plus more on manicules
five years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, WiFi names, yellow jackets and red scarves, Trump lifts sanctions against Russia, Casa Dรฉcor plus propaganda kimonos
Friday 26 January 2024
12x12 (11. 294)
brownstone: Gotham Gothic rowhouses as playing cards
wall of eyes: Radiohead spinoff artist Jonny Greenwood’s latest album
scrabblegram: a form of constrained writing using all one hundred tiles of the gameblackula: a look at the brave inversion of exploitation cinema
research purposes: profiles in the pornographers of Wikimedia who image and caption—see also—human sexuality, via Web Curios
parks & rec: a map of sites in the US funded by FDR’s New Deal programme—via Waxy
best laptop 2024: readership, AI and the collapse of media outlets
nullification: Texas governor, alleging the US federal government has failed to protect the country from an immigrant invasion, hints at secession
the compaynys of beestys & fowlys: revisiting how animal groupings (see previously on the subject of venery) received such colourful names—via the morning news
schluckbildchen: sixteenth century edible devotionals
mixtape: Kim Gordon, formerly of Sonic Youth, raps her grocery list in new song Bye Bye
ephemerama: a growing archive of modern illustrations from circa 1950 to 1975—via Things Magazine
synchronoptica
one year ago: more trompe l’oeil paintings, assorted links to revisit plus pie-chart studies
two years ago: morphing logos plus more links to enjoy
three years ago: zorbing, the Council of Trent (1545), Australia Day, more links worth the revisit plus Tubman on the twenty
four years ago: modular, prefab kiosks plus the first television demonstration (1926)
five years ago: the longest government shutdown in US history, architect Sir John Soane plus all the world’s writing systems