le baiser de l’hôtel de ville (13. 744)

Best known for his commission for Life magazine, known in Anglophone circles simply as The Kiss as an internationally recognised symbol of young love—from a series of images for a photo essay on affection and infatuation in the capital, we quite enjoyed this collection—it is a Russian LiveJournal site but seems safe to peruse though some of the later marquee pictures are water-marked—of humanist photographer and photojournalism pioneer (privileging the documentation of the everyday over the reportage of the latter) of Robert Doisneau’s lesser known works, spanning his entire career from the 1930s to the 1990s, courtesy of Messy Nessy. His work gives prominence to the street culture of children and unstructured play in urban environments, unfettered by parents and teachers. Before becoming a freelancer, Doisneau worked in industrial advertising and then for the Rapho agency in Paris, the world’s oldest press syndicate specialising in images until WWII and the occupation of France, using his picture taking skills and training as a draughtsman to forge passports and identity papers for the resistance. His first commercial photo essay was on the subject of the Saint-Ouen flea market, Le marché aux Puces, which he sold to the publication Excelsior.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump tries to out Fed board member (with synchronoptica), a US consulate in Nuuk plus an unapologetic AI hater

two years ago: a skilled sniper plus a circle-and-spoke map of the London Underground 

three years ago: The Guinness Book of World Records (1955)

four years ago: George Jetson’s birthday (2022), St Monica, AI displays a certain virtuosity plus assorted links worth the revisit

five years ago: the eruption of Krakatoa (1883), an interactive job listing plus more round-trip words

six years ago: the Zugspitze summitted (1820), mail-order shopping, abundance of caution, the Hatch Act of 1939 plus an antique German friend book

ordinary abundance (13. 741)

Via Things Magazine, we quite enjoyed this cozy turn about a tiny apartment that showcases all the features and amenities which were out of reach or unimaginable to generations just a few removed from the comfortable and sheltered lives that many of us live—taken for granted—scrolling through short vignettes that are inexhaustive, not giving the complete the history behind the unseen conveniences, but in those brief anecdotes we come to appreciate what’s not fully articulated that underpins their engineering and the larger systems behind them. Of course we knew about the savings in labour but it isn’t something that presents itself with enough regularity, particularly when bemoaning doing a chore that used to occupy a whole day, the work that went into a single garment, distances transversed and the cost of candlepower. We also liked how the suite looks like an IKEA showroom.

pepperidge farm remembers (13. 734)

Via ibidem, we are referred to this rather incredible gallery documenting the effort that went into the packaging and presentation of corporate standing for shareholders and stakeholders once upon a time for annual reports when trade and commerce were a bit more staid and predictable for North America and companies involved invested in production and distribution, retaining their own branding and marketing teams. This expansive archive ranging from the 1940s to the present is interactive and fully searchable—though beyond the considerable cover art might prove a tad boring and academic. Take a browse through the archives and let us know what you find.

mundaneum (13. 731)

Established in Mons in 1910 by the collaborative work of two Belgian lawyers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine as founding pioneers of the discipline of documentation science, informatics or library science as the study of the recording, storage and retrieval of data, following the their first joint project of establishing the Institute International de Bibliographie in Brussels with the mission to classify and cross-reference all recorded knowledge with a card catalogue system with tables, indicators and connecting mark-up notation, originally as the Palais Mondial in the left wing of the government office complex Parc du Cinquantenaire, this programme of systematic and public-facing linkages, an archive of some twelve million annotated index cards and other documents provisioned the internet—see also here, here, here and here. Though the technical capacity of the peace activist’s time was not up to the challenge, Otlet hoped that people would be able to access his catalogue from their own home studies or the office and experimented with a pre-digital réseau (network), virtual communities of researchers that cooperated via telegraph. As the scope of the project grew, there were plans to move the Mundaneum (World Museum) to Geneva to be housed in an institution designed by architect Le Corbusier (previously) but failing to materialise, the collection was copied and with another branch in the Hague, championed by Otto Neurath in 1933, following the political economist’s flight from Austria after the defeat of the Social Democratic Party following the dissolution of the Hapsburg empire (here is another artefact from Otlet). Under Nazi occupation the Mundaneum was placed in storage with the area in the Cinquantenaire Palace used as an exhibition space for Third Reich Art. The collection was eventually reunited, restored and conserved in a large former department store in the Hainaut capital. On this day in 2015, the massive filing cabinets of the card catalogue were featured as the Google Doodle in tribute to its founders and forefathers of open information. More from Open Culture at the link up top.

not for all the tea in china (13. 679)

Whilst some are uncommon lexical fossils, some three dozen Chinese terms for teas have been formally made part of the English corpus, language of course reflecting discernment revealing historic attitudes ranging from admiration, appropriation to derision. Bohea and Keemun have been borrowed directly from their regional provenance as well as descriptive words for different styles like oolong (烏龍) and congou, and souchong developed and cultivated in the Wuyi mountains of northern Fujian—green, white, black all coming from the same tea leaves, just dried and cured with different processes which affect the taste. The etymologies of some terms are more abstract, such as “pekoe” for grading leaves, with the Western tea trade’s standards—ostensibly from a word meaning downy and referring the quality of a leaf freshly emerged for the bud and suitable for the highest quality brew—it may have been invented by nineteenth century magnate Sir Thomas Lipton with his premium “orange pekoe” (something that did not exist in Chinese tea culture) in deference to the House of Orange-Nassau and the more established Dutch East India Company who first introduced the beverage to Europe, and then there’s the unfortunate pantomime stock character Widow Twankey. A corruption of the tea export hub of the district of Tuxni (屯溪) in Anhui province that had an unfair reputation of producing lower quality tea leaves, older, courser, raggedy and became associated with something past its prime with a stereotyped staple role in musical stage comedies that would make Mickey Rooney’s part in Breakfast at Tiffany’s seem mild in comparison, an eccentric matronly figure, usually played by a male actor in drag, running a Chinese laundry. One would like to report such depictions did not linger but the 1861 routine lasted through the vaudeville era in the 1930s and the Widow Twankey was revived in the third season of Kevin Sorbo’s Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as a recurring character—played by Michael Hurst—Iolaus, Hercules’ charioteer in that series as well as on Xena: Warrior Princess, in drag and conflating several mythological tradition as the original was Aladdin’s mother somehow. Fortunately other tea-terminology, not the reserve of experts and connoisseurs, is transmitted accurately and with respect though the business of trade was anything but.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Helsinki Accords (with synchronoptica), more synthetic geology plus the playfulness of AI

two years ago: Ford is prepped for his new role,  the samplers of Lorina Buwler plus cartographic innovations

three years ago: Dune published (1965), assorted links worth revisiting plus the case against Trump

four years ago: a taxonomical exploration plus MST3K on Hercules Unchained

five years ago: the debut of MTV (1981), more on hyperinflation, the biblically nameless, more Universal Everything plus a prime pollinator

six years ago: Lammas Day, Deadmau5 and the Neptunes plus facial masks inspired by mass-transit upholstery patterns

present /&/ correct (13. 676)

Having been a long-time fan and standard go-to resource for vintage stationary, brochures and advertising ephemera, we quite enjoyed this interview with Bloomsbury shop and blog co-founder Neal Whittington on the occasion of their entrance into the world of publishing and share some stories about their finds over the years—sometimes ambitions become deadstock but never surplus to needs. The history of the venture and the curated collections is inspired. Much more from It’s Nice That at the link above. Do explore their sundries.

i feel clean—my whole body is a’quiver with cleanness (13. 663)

Going into general release on this day in 1955 after its premiere in the producer Paul Gregory’s hometown of Des Moines Iowa as a fundraiser for the local YMCA, as our faithful chronicler reminds, the genre-setting Southern Gothic thriller directed by Charles Laughton, his first and last cinematic work preferring the stage to the screen, was received unfavourably by critics and audience as being too avant-garde and abstract, but upon reevaluation has been named among the best films ever made, ranked second only to Citizen Kane. Adapted from the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb and drawing from the true-crime story of Harry F Powers, Dutch-born Harm Drenth who immigrated to West Virginia—a serial-killer who lured his victims through “lonely hearts” classifieds, Harry Powell, portrayed by Robert Mitchum, is arrested during the Great Depression, apprehended for driving a car registered as stolen, and serves his sentence with inmates of a botched bank robbery however with the pilfered ten-thousand dollars still missing. The heist’s architect hanged for the killing of murder of two police during its execution, once released, his cellmate—posing as an itinerant preacher, travels to the robbers’ hometown, charismatically wedding the executed’s widow (Willa, played by Shelly Winters—previously) and ingratiating himself on his step-children to learn the location of the cache. Wanting to restore the attentiveness and atmosphere of silent movies, the director studied the blocking and lighting of films from that era and employed techniques, like not shooting with traditional takes but rather leaving the cameras rolling and sound equipment on until the reels ran out with editors and engineers on the set, how directing was done before talkies, and used nitrate prints—though the studio had urged Laughton to make a colour film.

double-six (13. 626)

Translated as the above, sugoroku (雙六 or 双六) historically referred to two different classes of board game, ban-sugoroku akin to Western backgammon, and e-sugoroku, picture games similar to snakes-and-ladders. With the proliferation and increasing sophistication of wood-block printing, beginning in the Edo period (the late thirteenth century), the former meaning became nearly obsolete, a retronym like “acoustic guitar” or “landline,” with the colourful boards produced under thousands of variants with the same basic rules of play on subjects ranging from religion, career-progression, geopolitics, adult-themes and culture, meant to educate and to a degree inculcate—see also. Via Kottke, we are directed to an appreciation of the format through a recently expanded collection from the Rumsey archives (previously) of nineteenth century tabletop entertainments, which still leave an imprint of society in family game night traditions and mini-games within arcade franchises like Super Mario Brothers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: understanding light pollution (with sychronoptica) plus definitely not a bag full of drugs

two years ago: the asteroid Pallas plus Lonesome (1928)

three years ago: a vintage workwear catalogue,  an experimental overland train plus the Trinity nuclear test (1945)

four years ago: the flag of Estonia plus assorted links to revisit 

five years ago: along the Gota canal plus a hike over an extinct waterfall

six years ago: Disney theme parks reopen during the pandemic plus more links to enjoy

 

 

🧐 (13. 564)

Courtesy of Kraftfuttermishwerk, we discover the world of how-to instructional reels that well predate but prevision influencers and looksmaxxing in the cache of Movietone News shorts, colourised and remastered carefully to preserve their charm and possibly unintentional humour through the lens of this 1930 tutorial by Count Etienne Louis Philippe Ścibor-Rylski of colonial Singapore, perhaps prompted by reports that the fashion trend had finally arrived in the States, on how to properly wear a monocle, the etiquette surrounding it—for those uncouth Yankees—and how to use it as an effective prop. Monocle drop was the original mic-drop. Click through for more vintage reels curated by Did You See? (including scenes of street life from the same period) and let us know what you find.

pause for station identification (13. 551)

Via Swiss Miss, we are invited to tune in to a range of virtual televisions that host programming by decade from the 1950s though the aughts with thousands of channels on the dial. There is a guide to consult and one can select from a list of genres, soap operas, cartoons, drama, trailers, commercials, music, sitcoms, news, talk shows, game shows, etc—though those modern day luxuries does not factor into the nostalgia and we think it’s much more rewarding to sit with the random shuffle as one surfs to see what’s on already in progress. The ads alone make this worthwhile. It’s of course saturated with mostly North American broadcasts but I think there’s some UK shows as well—the individuals behind this project seem to have crafted it with care and new media is being added on a regular basis. Let us know what forgotten gems you find.

8x8 (13. 550)

add to dictionary: a remembrance of the departed Tony Krueger, the software engineer that introduced red squiggles to word-processing to indicate a potential error  

seen by the machine: AI scores one’s relative importance by billions of datapoints called “the weights”—please consider the environmental impact before googling oneself—via MetaFilter 

drain the swamp: a meme roundup on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool  

cancon: musical acts propelled to stardom over minimum requirements for domestic content on Canadian airwaves—via Miss Cellania and Nag on the Lake  

reading the room: a moment of silence observed before interviews with filmmakers to take in the room tone as a supercut from Criterion  

a la carte: US history told in early restaurant menus—see previously  

able mabel: a robotic maid from 1966  

usa a-ok: more than amplifying random statistical noise, an interesting look at Americans’ misspellings mapped

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Carnac Stones (with synchronoptica) plus a trip to Belz

two years ago: exploring Maccagno  

three years ago: artist and freedom fighter Willem Arondéus, a revolt and march toward Moscow plus the last Emperor

four years ago: Germany legalises abortion plus a work cruise on the Rhein

five years ago: artist Robert Rotar, the goddess of luck, the bells of Bad Hersfeld, assorted links to revisit plus Cubist cars

six years ago: an orchestra for houseplants,  the Battle of Bamber Bridge (1943), tourists not welcome plus the Pontiac Ghost Car

(13. 542)

We are introduced to one of Clippy’s ancestors in this advertisement from the classifieds of a 1864 volume of The Telegrapher: A Journal of Electrical Progress courtesy of Cardhouse. Helpful like his descent, this security message hook promises to pay for itself many times over with the assurity and peace-of-mind that a missive won’t be lost or misplaced again.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a shipwreck beach (with synchronoptica) plus St Cado

two years ago: master medium Patience Worth plus a blocked alpine pass

three years ago: an Underground safety campaign plus a missing person case at the Vatican

four years ago: Man of La Mancha plus assorted links to enjoy

five years ago: your daily demon,  a vintage electric microcar, Galileo found guilty of heresy (1633) plus windowless homes

six years ago: Heritage Minutes, dad flavour plus canines who smell COVID

pushball (13. 447)

Via MetaFilter, we are introduced to the sporting craze emerging in the 1890s with a father of three Harvard football players, having attended many matches over the years, observing that “if the all were only made large—yes, large enough so that a player on one side could not see who was on the other, you would then have a chance to interest spectators in watching the whole game and in so introducing merriment, as well as skill.” After the rules were codified and kit and equipment made according to specific measures, amateur and collegiate leagues were formed in New England and England and tournaments were held on existing pitches. Though not enduring through world wars, the game has seen a continuity in Europe on horseback as hoofball with the occasional non-equestrian interest.

9x9 (13. 350)

reference desk: harness Google’s secret card catalog—via Kottke  

nitrate divas: a remarkable 1928 amateur film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” 

📍: a Scrabble Map commissioned for the word play game’s (previously) international commemoration, celebrated yesterday  

middle powers: Carney’s Liberal Party secures supermajority in parliamentary special elections  

print gallery of an artist: an MC Escherque exploration of recursive spaces—via Waxy 

infallibilità papale: ally Meloni (previously) breaks with Trump over criticism of Pope, cancels security arrangement with Israel  

dutch cartocubism: an overlooked approach to simplify mapping from the early 1930s from the figures behind ISOTYPE—via Quantum of Sollazzo—see also  

connie converse: rediscovering the forgotten folk-music genius 

огас: the 1960s proto-internet that the Soviet Union passed on—see previously

dickeled and jimed (13. 343)

Though obviously never gaining traction in the vending machine business nor with the US mint—beverage distributors working out other forms of price-control and serving size, see previously, either through smaller portions or eating the margins to reduce competition, president of Squirt soda (see previously), one Edward Welsh Mehren, made a modest proposal in the late 1940s to introduce fractional coinage, in between the established US denominations of the nickel, dime and quarter (2½¢, etc) to provide some relief for consumers facing both the prospects of inflation and shrinkflation. Even with the benefit of the penny, Mehren argued that prices were raised in five-cent increments—particularly for the coin-op business—when we more conservative margins would have worked for the companies to the benefit of consumers. Despite the lack of takers, Mehren continued his crusade well into the 1970s, advocating a two-and-a-half dollar bill, claiming that it was more efficient and made more economic sense to print a half-five dollar bills as the unpopular and considered unlucky to receive back in change Jefferson two-dollar had recently been discontinued in 1966—only to be reintroduced into circulation with a new design for the US bicentennial on the anniversary of the third American president’s birthday 13 April, 1743 (Old Style, 2 April). More from Weird Universe at the links above.

città dei coralli (13. 259)

Via fellow internet caretaker, Messy Nessy Chic (lots more to discover there), we are introduced to the ancient art of coral-working perfected in the north-western Sicilian coastal city of Trepani. Embellished with jewels and precious metals, this craft was very much en vogue during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries following the rediscovery of reefs off the port in the Mediterranean and masters created vignettes as devotional and decorative items and as tribute for the aristocracy. The tradition continues with jewellery and figural tableaux like Nativity scenes by a new generation that have revived the art using the old tools of the trade for working the coral but with more of an eye towards conservation rather than exploitation of the maritime environment.  Much more to explore at the links above.

spine-tingling (13. 171)

Our thanks to Boing Boing for the education in book finishers’ craft with gauffered edging, gilt indentations along the page and decorative elements (called pallets)—the French version of the Germanic root that gives us waffle and wafer (see also) and means to plait or crimp—to revisit this highly satisfying demonstration of expert rebinding and book tooling skills, lovingly restoring an old volume with a pristine jacket, titled, ornamented with inlays and onlays and complete with marbled endpapers.

rebinding old book into a treasure
by u/Maddiee7diary in SatisfyingAF

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: unilateral peace negotiations for Ukraine (with synchronopticæ), malicious compliance plus the return of Enron

thirteen years ago: the retirement of Pope Benedict, furnished quarters plus architectural embellishments 

fourteen years ago: Nazis on the Moon 

❄️ (13. 147)

Reminding us of the collection of Vermont meteorologist Snowflake Bentley’s collection, we enjoyed discovering the volume Sekka Zusetsu (雪華図説) published in 1832 by the fourth daimyō of the Koga shogunate, representing two decades of careful observations of snow flowers (sekka, せっか) through the lens of his own microscope imported from the Netherlands. The book, originally privately printed for the feudal lord and his family and friends, was released to general readership soon thereafter in an expanded version with the patterns incorporated as motifs in porcelain and textiles (including decorative elements in local buildings, sidewalks and manholes) throughout Japan. More from Public Domain Review at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: Andean textiles (with synchronopticæ), demon mode/pious mode plus Wikipedia rabbitholes

twelve years ago: UN critical of the Vatican plus the tense backdrop of the opening of the Winter Games

thirteen years ago: repairing the Greek economy plus living in a computer simulation

fourteen years ago: the Queen’s diamond jubilee  

fifteen years ago: a drive through the Haßberge 

sixteen years ago: holiday overlap 

gossip bench (13. 119)

Via fellow internet peripatetic, we are referred to the item of furniture developed over time out of necessity and convenience, popular during the 1930s to the 1950s—also known as telephone tables—when their use was became commonplace and a fixture in any household. Cumbersome and non-portable, phones were usually placed in a central location, without affording much privacy or discretion, and craftsmanship adapted to the tethered situation with a comfortable chair and sideboard for storage—directories, calendars, magazines. Such a piece would be a useful vintage addition for the home office and might prevent me during the walk-and-talk from wandering into dead-zones (Funklöcher) in the house. See more examples from Messy Nessy Chic’s latest turn around the internet with much more to explore besides.

7x7 (13. 105)

helix nebula: JWST captures amazing images of the planetary incubator 

academy cinema two: the linocut posters for movie classics from Peter Strausfeld  

degrassi high: an appeal for Canada television to bring back its weirdness—via MetaFilter  

deus ex machina: a survey of the long history of technology assisted writing  

the attention economy: cybernetic interface and the tolerance of distraction as told through “pursuit tests” on the last century  

public domain revue: an call for submissions to remix properties like Betty Boop, Nancy Drew, Flip the Frog and more—see previously, see also  

galileo let me go: the most challenging mission in the history of NASA