Saturday, 8 February 2025

11x11 (12. 214)

traitor tots: Musk’s merry band of pickpockets and the corporate raids behind the Putsch and purge 

temper tantrum: extinction burst behaviour is one accounting of the ascendancy of MAGA intolerance  

fifty-first: Trudeau warns Trump is serious about annexing Canada—insultingly offering it statehood before Puerto Rico and DC 

isolation mode: after three decades, Baltic nations are switching to the EU power grid, getting off the Russian network

nosotromo: the high school play adaptation of Alien   

endless jeopardy!: hourly answers, honours go to the best, most creative questions—via Waxy   

expo 67: revisiting centenary celebrations in Montreal—see previously 

re-apartheid: Trump administration launches volley of complaints against South Africa, cutting of foreign aid and promote the “resettlement of of Afrikaner refugees”   

center for the performing arts: Trump declares himself chairman of the Washington, DC cultural institution and dismissing board members who disagree with his taste 

hr@opm.gov: unencrypted mass email to CIA operatives offering them the chance to resign may have compromised the agents’ identifies with serious counterintelligence concerns   

federal communications commission: Trump threatens to shut down the CBS television network, calls for the firing of journalists critical of the administration and for doxxing one of Musk’s minions

 synchronoptica

one year ago: vintage hotel luggage tags (with synchronoptica) plus a banger from Billy Ocean

eight years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus augmented metrics

nine years ago: the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s charter, neologisms and nomonyms plus the Lunar New Year

ten years ago: LARPing at large plus more links to enjoy

eleven years ago: targeted political advertisement, Russian ban on genetically modified foods plus sugar-based batteries

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

be my valentine, charlie brown (12. 190)

Premiering on this day in 1975 on the CBS television network, the thirteenth prime-time animated special based on the Peanuts comic strip, deals with the subject of rejection and heartbreak when Sally first misinterprets Linus’ heart-shaped box of chocolates for his teacher as an overture for her non-requited affection and our protagonist receiving only one treat, a chalky candy heart with the message “FORGET IT KID!” during the class party—the teacher departing early with her boyfriend. A belated greeting arrives from the Little Red Haired Girl and Charlie Brown gets a regifted card from Violet. Optimistic that these pity Valentines might sustain a trend and he’ll get more next year, but Linus warns his friend not to get his hopes up. The score with the opening theme “Heartburn Waltz” was recorded by Vince Guaraldi’s Orchestra. The card which Sally reads and acted out by Snoopy is the entirety (see also) of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese (№ 43), which opens with “How do I love thee? Let me me count the ways.”

synchronoptica

one year ago: USA for Africa’s We are the World (with synchronoptica) plus the zombification of the abandoned internet

seven years ago: pedometers and privacy, Thamesmead Housing Estate plus Aloha Wanderwell

eight years ago: governance per Tweet, assorted links worth revisiting plus Little Englanders

nine years ago: a time-capsule apartment in Chicago, ranking passports plus the game Go

ten years ago: hydrophobic materials plus a superb cartographical collection

Sunday, 26 January 2025

13x13 (12. 185)

embossed: turn of the century tactile teaching aids for the visually impaired for lessons on nature and geography  

lab-leak theory: US Central Intelligence Agency embraces controversial vector for COVID-19 pandemic, discounting zoonosis factors 

ghostwatch: the supernatural horror BBC mockumentary broadcast on Halloween (see also) 1992 and never shown again due to the panic it elicited  

sb593: Oklahoma legislature introduces bill to “restore moral sanity” and criminalise production, distribution and possession of adult material—see previously 

minimoog: a fully-functional analogue synthesiser in LEGO  

haptics and macros: an idea to add gait gestures to one’s smart phone—we can hardly do the right kind of fake kick to open the rear hatch on our car 

mox nix: language borrowings from German propagated by US and UK soldiers stationed there post WWII  

electric garden: a run-down lodge transformed into a living museum mapchat: interact with AI shopkeepers for local businesses—results may vary 

wassergรถttin: prehistoric figurine from the Hallstadt culture found in 2022 in Lower Franconia goes on display at the Bavarian State Archaeological Museum in Mรผnchen  

walk without rhythm and you won’t attract the worm: graboids—see also—the other in-jokes that Tremors leans into  

underrepresentation: as part of order to eliminate DEI programmes, US Food and Drug Administration curbs clinical trials aimed at diverse populations for cancer research 

 switchmen: the sign language of railroad workers

Saturday, 25 January 2025

info nuggets (12. 183)

We really enjoyed this appreciation from Open Culture of VH-1’s Pop-Up Video, the sister-network and alternative to MTV launching on New Year’s day 1985, premiering over a decade into the channel’s run in October of 1996, pitched as antidote to shortening attention spans attributed to rise of MTV itself with barely the audience stamina for suffering a four-minute music video. The parent company expressed initial scepticism as then owners Blockbuster rental outlets felt they knew little enthusiasm for foreign films interpreted as viewers not wanting to read on screen dialogue in subtitles. The pilot, featuring Tina Turner’s “Missing You” with other standards on rotation, nonetheless, proved compelling and the show continued, expanding its profile with anecdotes and facts (classified by the above title), of varying relevance, sublimating as dialogue bubbles—all before there were forums for such trivia, requiring a good deal of research and cold-calls to artists, producers and grips involved in production. The meta-commentary was compared to the contemporary phenomenon of MST3K (see previously), as a programme for “TV-people who-are-sick-of-TV.”

Sunday, 19 January 2025

the man from another place (12. 193)

We enjoyed this appreciation of the soundscape of the filmography of transcended director David Lynch compiled by NPR correspondent Hazel Cillis. Covering Lynch’s own composition “In Heaven” from Eraserhead to the orchestral soundtrack to Dune (see previously), all tracks from Toto (the band best known for their hit “Africa”) except Brian Eno’s ambient contribution in the “Prophecy Theme” and all moody and atmospheric numbers in between, the playlist embodies the surreal and mysterious essence of the creator, especially in the use of standards to disabuse the audience from thinking they know what they’re hearing just because it’s familiar.

Saturday, 18 January 2025

movin’ on up (12. 190)

One of the longest-running sitcoms in television history and the second spin-off of All in the Family—after Maude—Norman Lear’s The Jeffersons follows the lives of the former neighbours of the Bunkers who were able to relocate from Queens to Manhattan (a deluxe apartment in the sky) due to the success of the couple’s dry-cleaning chain. The Jeffersons itself had one short-lived spin-off featuring their housekeeper, Florence, who takes a job as the team chief of a luxury hotel cleaning crew, and has continuity with the hospital drama E/R (the CBS production, lasting only one year, before being picked up by NBC a decade later in 1994 as ER, as developed by writer Michael Crichton, with the same cast of principals of George Clooney and Mary McDonnell). A traditional sitcom, the show occasionally had episodes covering serious subjects, like racism, gun-control, gender-identity and alcoholism and generally high ratings—though suffering from switching time-slots—it was ignominiously cancelled by the during the summer-break of its eleventh season in July 1985 without warning to the cast, Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley, and without a series finale.

Friday, 17 January 2025

canonicity (12. 187)

Via Web Curios, we are referred to this rather incredible resource from Joi Massat that has compiled dozens of series pitches and show bibles for cartoons including Dungeons & Dragons, He Man and She-Ra, Spongebob, Ren & Stimpy and many other classic Nicktoons. Linked documents include character specifications, episode samples, lore and backstories and as a whole presents a pretty good guide on how to go about packaging and promoting one’s own animated ideas with a nice supplement that outlines the presentation and pick-up process, selling the premise and refining their stories.

Thursday, 16 January 2025

cultural attache (12. 184)

It was refreshing how in the Roman Empire dictators would prolong their term by declaring a holiday, instead we have a president-elect in the United States as Los Angeles continues to smoulder and burn appoint three special envoys to Hollywood, not to help with repair and recovery from the devastation but rather act as celebrity legates to revitalise a failing industry and bring back its Golden Age. Ceremonial sine cure titles were awarded to actors, known for their MAGA boosterism, to Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone (see previously)—assuredly to the disappointment of others to hitched their star to that movement—Trump announced his special ambassadors to “a great but very troubled place” which has “lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries” as his eyes and ears, pledging to get done what they suggest. The equivalent of DOGE for the movies, its unclear how they might brooch this situation and what countries are undermining Tinsel Town and whether it is a problem at all and not another manufactured crisis that’s in their modus operandi to invent and then pretend to solve with a new code of standards to appeal to grievances—if anything the industry is under threat from AI, studio greed and independent cinema.

10x10 (12. 183)

compliments of the season: Poseidon’s Underworld reviews 1973 British anthology series Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries 

hagiography: breathtaking hidden murals in the Cathedral of Angers depicting the life of local saint called Maurille, who fled due to embarrassment for failure to perform a miracle, unveiled for the first time 

wmw: a list of endangered historic and cultural sites for 2025, around the world and beyond 

infinite nonsense honeypot: a lure for AI scrapers  

there is a plot—what would be the point of just a bunch of things: legendary director David Lynch dies, aged 78—see previously

run the bricks: a mother in New Zealand completes a hundred metre sprint barefoot over a track of Legos—setting a Guinness Record—via Metafilter 

but is it like the old playboy magazine—do you have essays there by the modern day equivalent of gore vidal and william f buckley jr: US supreme court justice Samuel Alito asks if people visit PornHub (previously) for the articles—via Super Punch 

cozy rewatch recommendation: the 2003 New Wave film The Dreamers (Innocents) that follows the exploits and adventures of an American university student in Paris during the 1968 riots—via Messy Nessy Chic  

๐’€ธ๐’‹ฉ๐’†•๐’€€: a paranoid ruler’s illiteracy and a torched library behind a glimpse of everyday life in the Assyrian Empire 

celebrity is a broad church: BBC1’s 1985 entertainment magazine Friday People

synchronoptica

one year ago: artist Monica Sjรถรถ (with synchronoptica), generational perceptions, an ethnographic study of bathroom graffiti, another banger from ABBA plus words for lighthouse

seven years ago: laser-cut note pads, Madrid reinstates direct rule on Catalonia plus free-floating exoplanets

eight years ago: theatres protest the inauguration of Trump 

nine years ago: a slipper-shaped wedding chapel

ten years ago: misattributed quotations plus McDonald’s new slogan

Saturday, 11 January 2025

8x8 (12. 165)

all the things that we’ve amassed sit before us, shattered to ash: interviews from celebrities who lost their homes in the Los Angeles megafire, which is still burning out of control  

facechan: some words of advice for disillusioned social media employees  

bepicolombo: final flyby of the space mission beams back extraordinary photos of Mercury’s polar region

obit.: Bob Canada’s two volume tribute to celebrity deaths of last year we may have overlooked  

erfolgreich abgemeldet: German and Austrian government and academic institutions leave X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, following the summit between Musk and Weidel  

chip off the old block: apparently in some families, it’s customary to nickname a son named after his father the former, a son named after his grandfather Skip and one named after all three Trip  

you’re so woke—diet coke: corporate America abandoning DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) programs ahead of Trump’s return, hoping to curry favour with the new administration 

delta smelt: fact-checking the fallout over water shortage for emergency responders in California

synchronoptica

one year ago: David Lynch’s 1984 unfinished Dune sequel (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links with revisiting

seven years ago: John Wayne as Genghis Khan (1965), time and dark energy plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: even more links, misinformation about the refugee situation in Germany plus an anti cow bell campaigner denied Swiss citizenship

nine years ago: the elegance of heliocentrism, RIP David Bowie plus the performer as internet pioneer

ten years ago: a slow news day (1922) 

Friday, 10 January 2025

torchwood (12. 162)

The always interesting Kottke turns our attention to a curated collection of all the Doctor Who intertitle or title cards used over the course of the long-running sci-fi series that addresses the change in typefaces, establishing shots, fades and introductions over the years. In the early years each serial was given its own title whether a stand alone bottle episode or part of a larger story arc. The classic era ones are the most visually engaging and all can be found at the show’s dedicated wiki.

synchronoptica

one year ago: where’s the beef (with synchronoptica) plus more blogging from the South Pole

seven years ago: the dossier on Trump’s Russian tiescosmopolitan chocolate bars plus stationers and stationary

eight years ago: a Manchurian candidacy

nine years ago: assorted links to revisit plus packing up Christmas for next year

ten years ago: Goethe plus the mythos of oaks

Thursday, 2 January 2025

dk’tronics (12. 137)

Although the only promotional tie-in video game that I can recall playing was Kool-Aid Man for Intellivision—a strange concept indeed where two waifish children search a haunted house to make a batch of Kool-Aid to summon the exorcist and stop the thirsty ghosts, “Oh yeah!”—we really enjoyed this review of early 8-bit licensed games based on British television programmes. Most of these ventures were slapdash, modular affairs that bore little resemblance to the actual show and game play was probably confusing—though through emulators, one can give all these and more a try without waiting for them to load—like this screen-grab for one based on the sitcom about four very different college students rooming together. The game-makers were not able to secure right to the series’ theme (see also) but composed a nice chip-tune alternate. Much more from Curious British Telly at the link up top.

Wednesday, 1 January 2025

sgt pepper’s 2024 (12. 131)

Continuing a tradition started in 2016, Chris the Barker has made another collage (see previously), frequently updated and up to the last minute to eulogise Olivia Hussey and Jimmy Carter, in tribute to those passed away this year. 

The field more crowded than ever it seems, there are two hundred and eleven personages featured including Maggie Smith, Bob Newhart, Phil Donahue, Dr Ruth, OJ Simpson, the Tory Party and American Democracy. Much more at the artist’s web presence (including complete liner-notes) at the link above.

Sunday, 29 December 2024

6x6 (12. 121)

glimmer vs trigger: political, cultural and business trends to expect for 2025 

geospatial: NATO’s Project HEIST to ensure telecommunications architecture from accident and sabotage or capricesee also—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

achive.today: some methods for getting around paywalled articles  

elo rating: grandmaster Magnus Carlsen quits World Internation Chess Federation (see previously) over dress code 

teotwawki: y2k preparations and people getting ready to bug out—see previously  

๐Ÿฟ: an omnibus list of list on movies and television from the past year

Tuesday, 24 December 2024

forschungslaboratorium fรผr elektronenphysik (12. 106)

Autodidact in applied physics and prolific inventor, Baron Manfred von Ardenne, after presenting to the public his concept of Fernsehen a year and a half earlier, achieved his first wholly electronic transmission of television pictures, using a cathode ray tube (see more) for both transmission and reception, on this day in 1933. Following trial runs on broadcasters, Ardenne’s technological advance progressed quickly with the private station of Paul Nipkow culminating with the live airing of the 1936 Berlin Games. Having also conducted pioneering experiments in the fields of radar, radio, isotope separation and inventing the scanning electron microscope, Ardenne’s research facilities in Berlin-Lichtenfelde were put a protective order by Soviet occupying forces in April 1945 and Ardenne and his colleagues were reassigned to laboratories in Abkhazia to work on the atomic bomb project (see also)—like the Russian version of Operation Paperclip. Realising that participation in such a plan would jeopardise his eventual repatriation to East Germany, Ardenne convinced authorities to focus on uranium enrichment rather than weaponising the programme, slowly development until the Americans bombed Japan and an extensive espionage network determined that it was more than theoretical possible. Once Ardenne returned to the DDR and assumed an advisory role in the government, he applied his study and resources to medical diagnostics, inventing an early form MRI scanner and radiotherapies to treat cancer.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: Christmas Greetings (with synchronoptica), Aida (1871) plus more accidental Renaissance art

seven years ago: Sleighrunner, Trump’s challenge coin plus more Season’s Greetings

eight years ago: A Human Document, internet court plus a collection of Yule Logs

nine years ago: more Yule Logs 

ten years ago: a visit from Father Frost

eleven years ago: 2013 wrapped plus a holiday reckoning  

Monday, 16 December 2024

11x11 (12. 086)

top fifty: a review of the biggest literary stories of 2024—including the Brontรซ sisters getting their diaeresฤ“s 

we all live in the ruins of the rot economy: a long-read about the abusive and exploitative ways that the tech industry treats people at scale—see previously  

bottle episode: the amazing dioramas of folk artist Carl Worner—via Messy Nessy Chic 

emporia: Kottke’s 2024 gift guide  

chirality: scientists warn strongly against research into synthetic biology and “mirror life”—compare to the handedness of thalidomide

do not obey in advance: in agreeing to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump, the network is courting further nuisance claims over critical coverage, forgetting the first lesson of On Tyranny 

body-horror: an AI-generated impossible gymnastic routine 

velben goods: premium and surge-pricing 

sovereign citizens brigade: group in England claiming extrajudicial standing tried to kidnap county coroner, accusing the officer of the Crown of necromancy   

the network effect: social media fire-exits 

home box office: the cable network’s December 1982 previews

Thursday, 12 December 2024

7x7 (12. 076)

primordial soup and son of soup: Dirty Feed’s 2024 wrapped  

mobile ui: top neglected App Store add-ons of the year  

merriam-webster defines: polarisation has been selected as the Word of the Year for 2024—with runner-ups including pander, resonate, demure and allision for when that container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March  

survive ’til 25: Mrs Claus’ strategies for making it through Christmas  

fallout: a tour of the Soviet-era nuclear shelters of the Prague subway  

the late set: a year of jazz discoveries  

starbug: a to scale model of the shuttle from Red Dwarf

synchronoptica

one year ago: The Poseidon Adventure (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, the adoration of words plus a comprehensive and inclusive eye-chart

eight years ago: the centenary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, even more links, Batman’s gadgets plus Iceland to oust the US FBI

nine years ago: delightful small towns around the world

ten years ago: Santa’s sweat shops plus hypervelocity stars

Saturday, 7 December 2024

directors’ cut (12. 063)

What an absolute gift to be able to watch an individual being paid tribute while they can still be part of it. Via Nag on the Lake, we are directed to this brilliant music video from Spike Jonze and Mary Wigmore from Coldplay’s new album, Moon Music, for the track “All My Love,” which together with the band they turned into a moving early birthday celebration for Dick Van Dyke (*1925) who sang and danced and was joined by his extended family. Chris Martin on piano delights at the end with an impromptu song about growing old for Van Dyke.

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

when the moon is in the seventh house (12. 034)

Courtesy of fellow internet caretaker, Messy Nessy, we are directed to a lavish performance of the medley The Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In by the indomitable Miss Raquel Welch. Filmed in 1968 just one year after Hair and The Fifth Dimension’s popular rendition, it was shot on location at the Pirรกmide del Sol in Teotihuacรกn originally to promote the Mexico City Olympic Games (see previously here and here)—but probably more people retain a hazy memory, or fever dream, of this sequence for its inclusion in the 1970 CBS television special Raquel! with extravagant musical numbers set in exotic, cosmopolitan locales. The elaborate zodiac costumes were designed by Bob Mackie—dresser of such icons as Cher, Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, Oprah among many other luminaries.

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

i am an authorised representative of the intergalactic mission (12. 030)

Courtesy of our faithful chronicler, a decade ahead of the more infamous Max Headroom Signal hijacking (caution, flashing images), we learn that on this day in 1977 viewers in southern England watching the ITN 5:10 pm news summary got quite a shock when the audio was commandeered by a deep buzzing and a electronically garbled voice addressing the world for some six minutes before returning to regular programming. Claiming to Asteron of the Vrillon race of extraterrestrials, the speaker delivered a message on behalf of the Ashtar Galactic Command (after the name of beings, ascended masters several contactees since the early 1950s claimed to have channelled as mediums):

For many years you have seen us as lights in the skies. We speak to you now in peace and wisdom as we have done to your brothers and sisters all over this, your planet Earth. We come to warn you of the destiny of your race and your world so that you may communicate to your fellow beings the course you must take to avoid the disaster which threatens your world, and the beings on our worlds around you.

This is in order that you may share in the great awakening, as the planet passes into the New Age of Aquarius. The New Age can be a time of great peace and evolution for your race, but only if your rulers are made aware of the evil forces that can overshadow their judgments.

Be still now and listen, for your chance may not come again. All your weapons of evil must be removed. The time for conflict is now past and the race of which you are a part may proceed to the higher stages of its evolution if you show yourselves worthy to do this. You have but a short time to learn to live together in peace and goodwill.  Small groups all over the planet are learning this, and exist to pass on the light of the dawning New Age to you all.

You are free to accept or reject their teachings, but only those who learn to live in peace will pass to the higher realms of spiritual evolution. Hear now the voice of Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command, speaking to you. Be aware also that there are many false prophets and guides at present operating on your world. They will suck your energy from you—the energy you call money and will put it to evil ends and give you worthless dross in return.

Your inner divine self will protect you from this. You must learn to be sensitive to the voice within that can tell you what is truth, and what is confusion, chaos and untruth. Learn to listen to the voice of truth which is within you and you will lead yourselves onto the path of evolution. This is our message to our dear friends. We have watched you growing for many years as you too have watched our lights in your skies.

You know now that we are here, and that there are more beings on and around your Earth than your scientists admit. We are deeply concerned about you and your path towards the light and will do all we can to help you. Have no fear, seek only to know yourselves, and live in harmony with the ways of your planet Earth. We here at the Ashtar Galactic Command thank you for your attention. We are now leaving the planes of your existence. May you be blessed by the supreme love and truth of the cosmos.

The transcript varies slightly according to the recollection of witnesses, and the station afterwards apologised for what was described as a “breakthrough in sound,” the network technically explaining how such a hoax could have occurred though the prank would have demanded not only considerable coordination and expertise to pull off. No one ever came forward and the author of the missive is unknown and is accepted as gospel by some in the ufology community—and in any case not a bad message for humankind.