this is my island (13. 498)

Aeon magazine directs our attention to a 1972 segment from the BBC documentary series Look, Stranger that portrays a more measured, conservative perspective of self-sufficiency and off-grid living (see also) with this tour of Herm, a small Channel Island (the perfect size) depopulated and fallen into disrepair during World War II, some twenty years into the experimental community after Major Peter Wood and his wife Jenny became tenants of the bailiwick (from the Old French for hermit) between Sark and Guernsey. Some of the utopian idealism seems to have faded but Helm is still held in trust to this day.

portu ii (13. 482)

 

For our last full day in Corsica, we returned to Porto (Portu)—the harbour of the community of Ota, located higher up on the cliffs, and enjoyed a longer stroll around the marina, watching the waves break against the rocks at the foot of the Torregiana, the fifteenth century fortified watchtower to rebuff piracy. 

Marvelling also at the mountains that just a bit inland gave us the sense of being in a massive crater, we descended to the roiling rapids of the stream to the so called Grotto of the Serpents, a cave whose weathered features certainly can conjure up all sorts of phantasms.

 

 

synchronoptica

one year ago:  Gideon v Wainwright (with synchronopticæ), the Carpenters in space (1978) plus Star Trek: TOS’ disappointing final episode

fourteen years ago: more EU budgetary shortfalls plus Mid-Century Modern textile patterns 

fifteen years ago: public-facing websites 

sixteen years ago: social media and SharePoint 

seventeen years ago: eavesdropping 

mare e monti (13. 480)

 

Driving to the clifftop of Col de la Croix in Osani, we took a hike down the verdant slope through the nature reserve of the peninsula of La Scandola, the oldest on the island and included in the UNESCO registry, down in the direction of the gulf of Girolata. There are three such “mountain and sea” trails in Corsica and our short walk was only a tiny portion of the system of long-distance trails along the western coast.

Though we didn’t quite make it to the isolated, former fishing village—touted by boating excursion operators as an abandoned pirate town, most of whom are not allowed to lay anchor there, we discovered, and so a little suspect as a tourist trap—accessible otherwise only by foot, we nonetheless had a very nice walk through the woods punctuated with stretches of marquis shrubland of savanna-like evergreens, myrtle and oleander—called machja in Corsican, the ground cover gives off a distinctive piney aroma, and discovered a pebble beach in one of the coves which we had all to ourselves, sharing it only with a couple of sedate cows.  

9x9 (13. 226)

strength is not strong: it takes more than might to make right 

right of reply: Palantir sues small Swiss media outlet for accurately reporting of the government’s rejection of their surveillance and analytic services offers  

lifeguard on duty: annual design competition to reimagine Toronto’s beach rescue stations as public art during the winter break  

a tuba to cuba: the travelogue of a jazz band’s trip to Havana to explore their musical roots  

visual variable: a free library of thousands of cartographical icons that can be scaled down to the head of a pin—via the Map Room  

the tamizdat project: a library curating literature smuggled into the Soviet Union as part of US spycraft (“published abroad”) to destablise the Bloc from within 

site specific: a roundup of some of the most garish public art installations in the world—via Miss Cellania   

homily: Pope Leo urges priests to stop using AI to write sermons 

brother fire: reflections on a war of choice and the dashed hopes of the Arab Spring

push pineapple, grind coffee (12. 952)

Although in retrospective named among the most annoying songs of all time and on this day in 2003, according to a poll of music writers in Q magazine, judged the worst ever, comparing it to a cruise conga line, the 1984 novelty single by the travelling DJ duo managed to become the eighth best-selling for that year in the UK and charted in the top seventy-five hits for weeks. Based on the Club Med French version—“Agadou,” based on a Moroccan melody, this cover with dance became the better known one and was in turn covered with several international language versions, Greek, Thai, Finnish and Czech to name a few as well as commercial jingle homages and in children’s programmes.

*    *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: tonic rotation (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: blind-spot safety plus convenience foods

thirteen years ago: The Complete Banker, art deco fonts plus ninja as a profession made redundant

fifteen years ago: embroidered memes 

seventeen years ago: decking the halls 

8x8 (12. 627)

the people of 1925: a survey of a century ago through the lives of people we never knew—via Strange Company  

the zendian problems: a detailed cartographic study of an imaginary republic used to train cryptanalysts for a simulated invasion 

американка: recollections of a summer exchange programme of a Russian literature major—via Web Curios  

universal soundtrack: Ze Frank (previously) on crickets, katydids and grasshoppers 

sonderauftrag bayeaux: a fragment of the famed tapestry taken by the Nazi Ahnenerbe Society will be reunited when it goes on display in England  

megastrike: the longest measured lightening bolt stretched near nine-hundred kilometres across Texas and Kansas  

revelations of a wife: the longest novel you’ve never heard of, serialised over four decades with a readership of millions 

indecent exposure: photographs of individuals being cited on Rockaway beach in New York City in 1946

7x7 (12. 565)

alligator auschwitz: Trump’s Florida detention centre is by every definition a concentration camp

solvitur ambulando: when in doubt, go for a walk—see previously  

mcmxxv—mmxxv: the century in one hundred films 

rif me daddy: US supreme court overrules injunction against executive branch illegal mass firings after passage of Trump’ domestic policy agenda  

geschirrspüler: a 1959 German dishwasher in action  

adam und eva: a group of Europeans’ failed attempt to found a utopia during the interbellum period on a remote Galápagos island—via Neatorama 

race and ethnicity: the case of George Shishim, invoking Jesus, illustrates the particularly American obsession with whiteness to the exclusion of others—see more

23-skidoo (12. 467)

Unclear who arranged the shells, former FBI director under Donald Trump during his first term, James Comey (previously here and here)—who prior to the election made hay over Hilary Clinton’s private server overshadowing Trump’s own string of controversies and unceremoniously dismissed for conducting an independent investigation into Russian interference in the campaign and since his firing a vocal critic—was interviewed by the US Secret Service for an hour after sharing and then deleting an image encountered on a stroll along a beach with the widely shared though perhaps selectively interpreted political message, 8647. Trump accused Comey of feigning ignorance, Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem is continuing the investigation for advocating the assassination of the president with Director of National Intelligence calling for the former FBI chief to be jailed for “issuing a hit” while the president was on official travel in the Middle East and Junior—his father having survived two assassination attempts during the race accused Comey of “calling for my dad to be murdered.” The term 86, which generally does not denote violence but rather booting out an undesirable patron, seems to have entered the political lexicon when Trump’s then  press-secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Mexican restaurant in Virginia in 2018, cleaving close to the original meaning of the rhyming slang for nix. Coined in the 1920s by the hospitality industry, it was shorthand among service personnel to indicate an item from the menu that was no longer available and by extension a guest that was no longer welcome in the establishment, the etymology is unclear: whether from the jargon and numerical codes of soda jerks, a signal during Prohibition to exit out the back door ahead of a police raid out to Eighty-Sixth Street or from an unknown source. The term was cited occasionally for partisan gesturing since, a similar formulation used previously by Republicans to call for Biden’s removal but without this level of controversy or retributive repercussions. Also with a bit of contrived numerology—8+6+4+7=25, as in the twenty-fifth amendment of the US constitution that outlines the process to remove a sitting president.

after the sun goes down (12. 464)

Having spent much of my life overseas after a rather cloistered college experience, I discover quite often that there are large segments of pop culture that passed me by though I suspect in a lot of cases not missing much. And while I usually don’t harbour a strong urge to dive deeper or entertain a re-watch, I do get a strong measure of satisfaction from reading glosses and specialised wikia and I find it comforting that such research and documentation has gone into even lesser cultural artefacts. One such television show I had no idea existed was this syndicated spinoff, which only lasted two seasons, concluding its short run on this day in 1997, I think just as it was finding its legs. The original premise of the series revolved around a mid-life crisis and subsequent disillusionment of the resident police officer whose beat was to patrol the Los Angeles waterfront, who decides to leave the force and form a detective agency, a la Moonlighting. The former cop is joined by his friends from Baywatch, including David Hasselhoff (previously), and most cases of the first series involve characters going under cover in order to infiltrate gangs and trafficking rings, including posing as a female impersonator to apprehend individuals harassing members of a drag troupe and being hired by a wealthy cosmetics executive to investigate his son’s falling in with a band of roller-skating bandits. After disappointing ratings, producers retooled the show to introduce a paranormal element (a la, The X-Files) with a monster-of-the-week format involving sea-serpents, murderous mermaids, spell books, possessions, re-animated Vikings, voodoo curses and time travel—the penultimate episode, which a temporal vortex transports the stars to the year 2017.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a visit to the Aisch valley (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the original concept for Mario Brothers, a diagrammatic metro map plus the Wobblies’ song book (1909)

eight years ago: a brief history of the internet, Trump goes to the Middle East for his first foreign trip, photographing the post-Soviet building boom, Sgt Pepper at fifty plus Buckminster Fuller on Universal Basic Income

nine years ago: a visit to Stonehenge, caravanning through England plus a version of Islam sanctioned by the Chinese government

ten years ago: a visit to Schmalkalden plus assorted links to enjoy

holidays are jollidays (11. 829)

Via the always excellent Nag on the Lake, we are directed to a retrospective exhibition of nostalgic photographer John Wilfrid Hinde whose carefully staged compositions influenced the style of picture postcards made famous through his commissioned series of Butlin’s holiday camps from the 1960s through the early 70s. Founded by Billy Butin in 1936 after a frustrating stay at a bed-and-breakfast in Wales during which he found himself locked out of the accommodations by his landlady during the day (common practise at the time) and was inspired to create seaside resort destinations that were affordable or the working-class with plenty of amenities and excitement. During the immediate post-war period, they were extremely popular with the franchise spreading across Britain, Ireland and the Bahamas but succumbed in the 1970s and 1980s to cheap package holidays to the Mediterranean. Most of the facilities are closed and long demolished or repurposed (see previously), with a few exceptions like the pictured pool lounge of Bognor Regis, but all the parks with attractions like heated pools, monorails, gondolas, sports facilities, stages for theatrical performances and rides but have a living legacy in the millions of postcards meticulously framed by Hinde.

summermash (11. 826)

Though admittedly not familiar with the majority of the songs in this medley, this latest instalment from DJ Earworm (previously) is a masterpiece of remixing with some outstanding transitions—including key changes—and editing that really bops, despite of the kind of unoriginal material that the artist had to work with for Brat Summer.

joe’s hill (11. 378)

Via tmn circling back to this viral map of the island of Kiritmati and select toponyms of the Republic of Kiribati (Christmas Island, pronounced Kirimass after the Gilbertese phonology, quite a feat of exonymy) piqued our curiosity—especially the debunked detail, rumour that the government of the Micronesian nation was behind the original posting to draw attention which has nevertheless attracted a spike in interest and has helped its campaign to promote sustainable tourism for this paradise existentially threatened by sea-level rise. Just so you know, Paris is a former settlement with a coconut plantation named by priest Emmanuel Rougier who was homesick, also through a lease from the British named the village Londres (London, Ronton). Poland was named in honour of mechanic Stanisław Pełczyński who improved the island’s irrigation systems. The village of Banana, possibly conflated with the reef isle of Banaba, is of unknown etymology, but was designated such in 1962 when four thousand American military personnel were stationed there in support of Operation Dominic, a series of thirty-one multi-pronged nuclear tests carried out in response to the resumption of Soviet trials following the breach of an informal moratorium and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. It is near the international airport. The oldest and largest village of the island chain is Tabwakea, native for sea turtle be bestowed by Captain James Cook. The title refers to the highest point of the atoll, originally la Colline de Joe, a twelve metre elevation named after Joe English of Medford, Massachusetts, one of the supervisors of Rougier’s coconut farm.  Under US dominion as a claim of the Guano Islands Act from 1882, independence was granted in 1979 and ratified in 1983.

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

castaway narrative (11. 016)

Coined in 1731 by author Johann Gottfried Schnabel in the preface of deserted island, survivalist story The Island Stronghold (Die Insel Felsenberg), the term robinsonade describes the genre wherein the protagonists find themselves shipwrecked and marooned and suddenly separated from civilisation, an homage to Daniel Defoe’s 1719 work Robinson Crusoe, and testament to proliferation of derivative works that followed, spanning decades and up to modern times. The most familiar being Johann David Wyss’ 1812 The Swiss Family Robinson in its various adaptations (theatrical produced in 1940 and again in 1960 and the sci-fi series Lost in Space—Danger Will Robinson!), the stranded group of immigrants were nameless in the book and is one of a number (at least two-hundred historic and contemporary examples) national and regional versions, like the Bohemian Robinsons, the Icelandic Robinsons and the Dutch Robinsons—with the conceit continuing. As primitive as can be.

9x9 (10. 985)

built on sand: UN monitoring reveals the alarming scale of marine dredging 

but the meteor men beg to differ, judging by the hole in the satellite picture: revisiting a cringey faux academic essay on “All Star” to realise that Steve Harwell (RIP) had more to tell us  

j-mouse: a procession of dead-end peripherals—I would get the PC in an ottoman 

⡆⠄: LEGO’s braille bricks offered free-of-charge to parents and educators now available to the general public 

the secret-sharer: a confessional box from Simone Giertz (previously) where one’s messages are only present for a few seconds before self-destructing  

phil a. o’fish: a short-lived McDonaldland mascot and early beef alternatives—via Weird Universe  

mixed media: experiential scale-models of Tracey Snelling inspired by the architecture of Berlin—including the Mäusebunker 

premeditatio malorum: fifty short rules for better living from the Stoics  

thermohaline circulation: scientist support using the oceans’ inclination for equilibrium to pull in excess atmospheric carbon-dioxide—see previously

 synchronoptica

one year ago:  Tainted Love (1981) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: a film from D W Griffith, armorial bearings plus the debut of the Muppet Show (1976)

three years ago: the opening of the Gotthard Tunnel (1980)

four years ago: the greenwashing of the recycling movement plus a legendary kingdom in Bretagne

five years ago: a Freddie Mercury birthday bash, a Queen arrangement in brass, outsider artist James Henry Pullen plus reconciling with the end of coal through art

9x9 (10. 752)

x-date: unless a compromise is found to work with the statutory debt ceiling, the US could default on paying its bills and unleash chaos in global financial markets 

the house of mouse: Disney is cancelling plans for a billion dollar Florida annex—and shuttering its immersive Star Wars experience resort hotel—in an ongoing feud with the state’s arch-conservative governor  

garbage patch kids: creepy dolls being washed ashore are auctioned off to benefit marine habitats—see also 

superimposition: researchers at the Zurich Institute of Technology create the world’s largest ‘Schrödinger’s Cat” 

the great silence: we are probably not alone in the Universe but we might as well be—see previously  

random access memory: previously unreleased tracks from retired duo Daft Punk  

interior design: browser-based application to create and share voxel rooms, via Waxy—see previously  

byte-dance: American state of Montana passes a ban of the social media platform TikTok over conflated fears of violations of users privacy  

seat at the table: G7 summit hosted in Hiroshima—with nuclear deterrence on the agenda

8x8 (10. 700)

a is for anarchist: a counter-culture abecedarium—see previously  

man o’war: thousands of by-the-wind-sailors (Vellela vellela) wash ashore in California  

runway-zero-one-left: views of random airport exteriors—via Pasa Bon!—see previously

manicule: Punctuation Personified: or, Pointing Made Easy (1824)—see also  

pepperoni hug spot: an AI made an intriguingly nightmarish TV commercial 

 jefferies tube: a survey of secret passages—including the ulitidors at Disneyland  

roaring forties: remote Gough Island is hiring 

yon zircle: final-born member of the Bowlin alphabet family passes away, aged 94

seashore—never more

Via Strange Company’s Weekend Link Dump, we learn that during his life time, Edgar Allen Poe’s most popular and best-selling work was the field guide “The Conchologist’s First Book.” In the 1830s, geology, due to the rising interest in coal as a fuel source, and its sister-science of conchology (see previously) were the hottest commodities as combined, it allowed one to expound on Earth’s history through studying successive strata, and Poe’s slim and portable contribution to the discipline was well-received and had the poetic and evocative subtitle: A System of Tesataceous Malacology—that is, the study of small, soft-bodied creatures by exhuming their hardened ruins. Though perhaps not the most expressive vehicle, some of the author’s flair and license does manage nonetheless to shine through. Much more to explore at the links above.

west coast sound

Through the biography of the once promising career of crooner Dane Donohue, the soi-disant lost prince of the genre, we find ourselves introduced to the classification of the very familiar broad musical category and aesthetic filed under Yacht Rock. This easy-listening, adult-contemporary playlist includes Christopher Cross’ emblematic song Sailing, Toto’s Rosanna, Poco, Santana, Steely Dan, REO Speedwagon and Donohue’s 1978 break-through hit Casablanca and focuses on themes exploring isolation, male loneliness and suburban mindsets—a significant departure from the protest anthems of the previous years and accidentally united by a class of performers who played into the genre. Learn more about Donohue and how his career as anthemic as it was was cut short at Narratively at the link up top.