A part-talkie (with mixed audio-dialogue, sound-effects and score plus intertitles), Public Domain Review presents Paul Fejลs’ 1928 Lonesome, exploring the subject through following the lives of two working-class New York City urbanites apart and together over the course of a single July day, the telephone operator and factory worker get a break from their drudgery, met and have a splendid time at a funfair but are separated by a sudden downpour and regret loosing each other only to later discover that they’ve been neighbours in the same apartment block all along. The featurette, considered a masterpiece, has the narrative of an O Henry story and many innovations in terms of cinematography including fast-motion, superimposition, split screens and a roller-coaster mounted camera.
Tuesday 16 July 2024
only the lonely (11. 697)
Sunday 14 July 2024
the great white way (11. 691)
Via the New Shelton wet/dry, we are directed towards an interesting biography of the individual, coining the above nickname for Broadway in 1901 due to its dazzling electric lights, responsible for the spectacle of Times Square, OJ Gude. Taking advantage of the accident of civil planning that had created a bowtie-shape with the intersections of 45th Street and Seventh Avenue that was an ideal amphitheatre for showcasing the energy and dynamism of commerce and advertising, Gude designed many of the flashing, animated billboards that fill the skyline. This theatre-in-the-round upstaging the playhouse-district put the show on the periphery for a captive audience of consumers, who couldn’t ignore the advertisers’ messages, was a bit of promotional genius, the tradition upheld for over a century, with Gude’s salesmanship directly behind many of the iconic and colossal displays. More at the links above.
Thursday 13 June 2024
7x7 (11. 626)
senza vergogna: some notes for Martha-Ann Alito on her anti-Pride flag (see previously)
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prospecting: Norwegian mining firms discovers Europe’s largest cache of rare-earth metals
adaptive force controlled shaving demonstration: a robot barber in Shanghai
daily bread: an overview of the staple foodstuff’s contribution to civilisation
hydrant directory: colour palettes of New York’s suppression points—via Pasa Bon!
gruppo dei sette: following EU elections, the G7 forum begins in Puglia
one year ago: a top album by Alanis Morissette plus an early world-traveller
two years ago: a chronic case of the hiccups, a hit by Paul McCartney plus international crisps flavours
three years ago: the G7, Shangri La the musical, St Anthony plus two very prolific travelogues
four years ago: illustrator Wilbur Husley, assorted links to revisit, the Pentagon Papers (1971) plus a banger from Mungo Jerry
five years ago: the elusive American Middle-Class plus x before x-rays
Sunday 2 June 2024
modern ruins (11. 602)
Via friend of the blog, Nag on the Lake, and an exhibit curated by Hyperallergic we are treated to an extended portfolio of the photography of Phillip Buehler as he performs a post-mortem on a mid-sized mall in New Jersey and the forgotten, inaccessible islands, and triangulated with
a third source in this student footage of an abandoned Ellis Island immigration processing centre from 1974, there’s a conversation between documenting histories and urban decay that’s a crucial one to have for both the changed landscape of commerce (see previously) and quarantine and crowd-control as well as the code of ethics for such spelunking, an acknowledged trespassing but with a definite prohibition on vandalism or over-publicising one’s exploits.
Thursday 16 May 2024
10x10 (11. 562)
crimes of atrocity: a long, dense episode of -ologies with Alie Ward on the hugely fraught and difficult subject of genocide with a powerful and circumspect post-script
airoboros: artificial intelligence trained on AI made content is becoming highly problematic and only compounded—see previously
palmerston’s follies: two maritime forts off Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight that have been converted into boutique accommodations go up for auction
the deuce: the Greek grandmother who built an adult entertainment empire in Times Square before its Disneyfication
foot on the gas: the inevitability of the climate collapse and humanity’s capacity for adjustment
⌘ |: the lost history of pre-internet emoji and rendering software—via Waxy—see previously
flashing headlights: the giant Dana squid’s photophores in attack-mode
eternal return: cosmic cycles and time’s resurgence
first-day agenda: how Trump is framing his vision for a second-term
one year ago: assorted links to revisit plus a visit to Arnstadt
two years ago: St Brendan, more links to enjoy plus the Electrotechnical Exhibition of 1891
three years ago: a classic from Kim Carnes, a language quiz, more links worth the revisit plus an ancient action figure
four years ago: more Trump’s Space Force, birdhouses, the stress of social media moderation, a medieval manuscript game plus a musical typing tutor
five years ago: GenX, consular services at McDonalds, soliciting grievances, Japanese mascots plus office equipment
Wednesday 15 May 2024
asemic writing (11. 560)
The above describing wordless or meaningless text intended to invite the reader to divine a message through the symbolisms rather than to convey a message—though these carefully recorded compositions that suggest mathematical and chemical formulae certainly encoded a meaning that was perhaps only known to the artist—and could be certainly applied to the verisimilitude (see also) of the collected works of outsider artist Melvin May, a bassist who returned to New York City to study informatics but his career path was sidelined by a schizophrenia diagnosis and subsequent drug use, landing him in a men’s shelter on Randall’s Island whilst seeking treatment. Way’s discipline was discovered through art workshops sponsored by the shelter, dense and intricate sketches with ballpoint pens committed to found scraps of paper, often carrying around works-in-progress on his person, protected with a layer of scotch tape. More on this retrospective—and sadly posthumous by only months—and Way’s life at Hyperallergic at the link above.
catagories: ๐จ, ๐ฃ, ๐ฝ, ๐ง , libraries and museums
Wednesday 8 May 2024
hardhat riot (11. 546)
As our faithful chronicler reminds, on this day in 1970, around noon a group of more than four-hundred construction workers—many working on the World Trade Center—converged on a group of anti-war protesters, mostly college students picketing the New York Stock Exchange and rallying on the steps of Federal Hall, originally a Customs House on Wall Street, setting up a memorial for those killed at Kent State four days prior and calling for an end to the fighting in Vietnam and Cambodia, release of political prisoners and an end to military-related research on university campuses. By lunch time the clashes turned violent with some eight hundred office workers joining the ranks of the agitating construction workers, breaking through a thin line of police separating the two sides and pursuing students and onlookers and beating them safety equipment and tools. Law enforcement, sympathetic to the counter protesters, did little to intervene or stop the melee. Two weeks of protests followed before the demonstrations, pitting labour union leaders against pacifists, subsided and towards the end of the month, the organiser of the initial riot and a delegation of representing some three-hundred thousand unionised trade workers, were invited to the White House to meet with president Richard Nixon, who said he sought to honour those labour leaders “and people from Middle America who still have character and guts and a bit of patriotism,” accepting hard hats as a gift. For his loyalty and role in starting a culture war, a values war that divided traditionally shared sentiments among Democratic voters, that leader Peter J Brennan was appointed secretary of labour and the cabinet official outlasted the Nixon administration and served under Ford as well.
one year ago: an early fifth century bog man
two years ago: the Nebra Skydisc
three years ago: a classic Eurodance number, assorted links worth revisiting plus more photographs from Pete Souza
four years ago: the death of Tito (1980), more links to enjoy plus Russian borderlands
five years ago: more links worth the revisit plus Heath Robinson contraptions
Sunday 28 April 2024
cafรฉ rouge (11. 520)
Often performing in the title nightclub of the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown Manhattan along with other Big Band ensembles that the spacious venue could host, Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded his instrumental version of the tune (originally by Jerry Gray with lyrics by Carl Sigman—Numbers I’ve got by the dozen, everyone’s uncle and cousin but I can’t live without buzzing…) on this day in in 1940 at the RCA Victor Studios in New York. One of the oldest telephone exchanges still in use, the accommodations closed permanently in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and lost efforts to declare the building as a candidate for historical preservation (the club itself converted into a basket ball court in its final decade), currently being demolished to make way for new skyscrapers on Penn Plaza. Only Sigman’s refrain was retained after the telephone sound effect, shouted by band members. The foxtrot hit would go on to be recorded by many other artists, with homages and parodies, including Transylvania 6-5000 and Weird Al’s Plumbing Song with the number “Roto-Rooter 6-5000.”
synchronoptica
one year ago: a pocket phonograph plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: Rome’s Cinecittร plus more links to enjoy
three years ago: the impasses of Paris, antique furniture trade cards plus the animated Dutch version of Lord of the Rings
four years ago: wargaming the next US civil war
five years ago: Ukrainian Easter, the stained glass hall of fame of The Champion pub plus mutiny on the Bounty
Tuesday 9 April 2024
8x8 (11. 480)
chambre de bonne: disappearing top-floor tiny apartments of Paris
semifreddo: the origin of Neapolitan ice cream
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court dress: the pink sleeves of the supreme courts of Labrador and Newfoundland are in deference to the former summer robes for sittings in England and Wales—via Super Punch
geoengineering: Tennessee legislature outlaws (see also) so called chemtrails
bpm: Chechnya announces ban of music considered too fast or too slow
backsplash: mosaic of the day
warehouse-to-loft-conversion: a tribute to the last of New York’s artists’ dwellings—via Messy Nessy Chic
Monday 26 February 2024
7x7 (11. 383)
bacile calmette-guรฉrin: a century-old variolation against bovine tuberculosis technique might present a treatment route for dementia
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marketable skill: Nvidia executive says kids shouldn’t learn to code
icc: renewed calls to make ecocide the fifth international crime and within the scope of the UN’s court—via tmn
kรผrschรกk’s tile: a visual proof a complex geometric tessellation
project ceti: how, powered by AI, a first contact could play out between humans and whales—see previously, see also
goldplate: research suggest that a treatment with nanoparticles of the element might be a cure for neurodegenerative diseases
Saturday 10 February 2024
willie loman (11. 340)
Premiering on Broadway on this day in 1949, the two-act drama by Arthur Miller (previously) set in Brooklyn was largely informed and inspired by the playwright’s chance encounter two years prior with his uncle Manny Newman in a theatre lobby in Boston showing one of his own pieces. Rather than congratulating his nephew on his success, the struggling travelling salesman immediately launched into an update on how well his cousins were faring, appearing in the play as Happy, Biff and Ben, and how despite his poor prospects and barely surviving life constantly on the road with a hustling subsistence that’s echoed contemporarily with the allure and disappointment of the gig-economy his uncle was building a legacy for his fail-sons, aspiring to the successful but departed, haunting presence of the eldest Ben. Father and Biff, a would be professional football player, in the course of the day try to secure more stability in their careers and realise the American Dream, with Happy sacrificing and long-suffering but a womaniser like Loman, but it plays out as a Greek tragedy. Winning a Tony and a Pulitzer prize, many critics consider it among the best plays of the twentieth century. The first cinematic adaptation came two years later in 1951 with direction from Lรกszlรณ Benedek.
7x7 (11. 338)
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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
Monday 22 January 2024
goody goodwife (11. 286)
Written as an allegory for McCarthyism, the Red Scare during which left-leaning views were repressed and politicians and private individuals were systematically repressed over fear of Soviet infiltration and Communist influence with most accusations ultimately found to be exaggerated if not outright false, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible had its premier performance on this day in 1953 at the Broadway Martin Beck Theatre. Speculating with the opening narrative (following on with each act) that the theocratic society of the Puritans, isolation and unstable conditions contributed to the paranoia and hostility, the play is set in colonial Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Though some liberties were taken to fully limn out the litigants and the sentenced, most of the names and events are dramatised from court records.
synchronoptica
one year ago: US Supreme Court rules on Roe v Wade (1973) plus artist Sophie Hollington, AI on fantasy glam rock plus the door gods of the Lunar New Year
two years ago: the new normal (2003), Our Town (1938), AI suggests breakfast cereal plus a 1972 interview with David Bowie
three years ago: the death of Queen Victoria, another MST3K classic plus unnamed implements
four years ago: assorted links to revisit, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb corrected, Trump and the tabloids plus an upcoming auspicious date
five years ago: artist Max Guther, a celebration of blank video cassettes plus Apple’s 1984 commercial
Sunday 21 January 2024
2001 odyssey (11. 283)
Released in November of the previous year with the premier of the film, and was until the debut of Thriller by Michael Jackson in 1982 the best-selling album in history, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever began a twenty-four week run on the top of the US charts—with comparable success in international markets on this day in 1978. A nineteen-year-old Tony Manero (portrayed by John Travolta, see previously) escapes disillusionment by in his working-class Brooklyn neighbourhood by escaping to the a local disco (above) on the weekends, where he rules the dance-floor and longs for a better life in Manhattan, just across the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge. Showcasing the musical talents of the Bee Gees, Yvonne Elliman, Kool & the Gang, The Trammps amd KC and the Sunshine Band, the Brothers Gibb’s group and many of the other artists were not involved with the project until post-production, after the deal fell through with the recording label for Boz Scaggs (denied because the song “Lowdown” had recently appeared in another disco film Looking for Mister Goodbar, which is hard to describe as a dance drama but Saturday Night Fever has a complicated plot with a lot happening as well) and much of the choreography had to be redone after the movie’s producer commissioned the Bee Gees as understudies, with the lead tracks written and recorded over the course of a single weekend at a French chรขteau.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Mika’s Grace Kelly plus Space Songs, an educational LP
two years ago: more links to enjoy, planning a rendezvous with Oumuamua, the DeLorean (1981), a new album from Neil Young, more Wikihow illustrations plus a podcast miniseries on the comic Cathy
three years ago: Bernie Sanders at the inauguration plus Biden undoes Trump’s executive orders
four years ago: a field guide to wildflowers at speed
five years ago: more links worth the revisit
Wednesday 20 December 2023
7x7 (11. 199)
dongmei zone: seven months interred in a online scam labour camp—via Waxy
santa claus go straight to the ghetto: David Byrne shares his Christmas playlist
napolรฉon vu par abel gance: a 1927 ingenious, panoramic adaptation of the historical figurelocal inference: when AI assistants leave the cloud and haunt one’s laptop, all bets are going out the window—via Good Internet
autogamy: evolutionary changes in wild pansies suggest that the flowers have given up on increasingly rare insects and are turning to self-pollination, a vicious cycle for the whole ecosystem
tom & jerry: the typology of North American eggnog cartons—via Kottke
jewel streets: a twelve-block neighbourhood known as the Hole of New York City neglected and forgotten for decades
Sunday 3 December 2023
i just don’t see why blance should shove a broken bottle in stanley’s face—couldn’t she just take his abuse with gentle good humour? (11. 161)
Premiering at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway on this day in 1947, Tennessee Williams’ Southern Gothic play (previously) narrates the experiences and
trajectory of a former southern belle who loses her teaching job and the family home to creditors and with no other prospects, moves in with her younger married sister and husband in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Deceptive and critical of her new hosts, Blanche Dubois is acting out of self-defence and deflection to not own her series of bad choices, including an early marriage to a gay man and an affair with a student that led to her dismissal from the school. The original cast showcased the talents of Kim Hunter with Jessica Tandy and Marlon Brando and the name comes from a streetcar line (discontinued by the time of the cinematic adaptation in 1951 and replaced by a bus service) that ran not far from the playwright’s own apartment when living on Toulouse Street.
Friday 1 December 2023
9x9 (11. 156)
the saw lady: the virtuosity of Natalia Paruz
tribalism: the worsening internet is an uncomfortable fun-house reflection of our inchoate proclivities
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bouzingos: the overlooked precursor to the Bohemian subculture
microsleep: penguins take ten thousand seconds’ long naps per day to be rested but alert in noisy, hunted colonies
state-sanctioned socialist realism: the artistic duo of Komar and Melamid who turned subversive
fairytale of new york: celebrating the life and talent of legendary Pogues’ singer Shane MacGowan—see previously, see also
all about winning: Japan’s buzzword of the year continues a baseball-related streak
busking: mapping live music public venues
Thursday 16 November 2023
edelweiss, edelweiss—every morning you greet me (11. 122)
Opening on Broadway on this day in 1959 after an eight-performance audition cycle in New Haven and Boston, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with book by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay was based on the 1949 memoir of the matriarch and lead character, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, and the slightly fictionalised adaptation for the stage in set in Austria just before the Anschluss and annexation in 1938, we follow Maria, who vacillating on her decision to join a convent, has meanwhile become a governess to a large family. Maria is endeared to her charges as well as to their widowed father, Captain von Trapp. Opposed to the Nazi occupation, they all (now baroness) eventually flee Salzburg, with the help of the nuns, and escape to America. Musical numbers which have become show-tune standards include “My Favourite Things,” “Climb Every Mountain,” “So Long, Farewell” as well as the titular songs.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Arecibo Message (1974), an edible rescue drone plus the Artemis mission to return to the Moon
two years ago: the Feast of Saint Matthew
three years ago: Word of the Year: Lockdown, an architectural fancy-dress party, the Day of the Icelandic Language, the day before yesterday plus an early draft of Take on Me
four years ago: Word of the Year: Climate Strike, headlines from 2029 plus ugly Christmas sweaters
five years ago: assorted links to revisit plus Word of the Year: Toxic
Friday 27 October 2023
9x9 (11. 078)
page rank: the SEO trend of naming establishments X Near Me seems to actually drive customers—via Waxy
cyanea pohaku: a species of tree discovered right before it was driven to extinction
saint eom: the psychedelic compound of folk artist and fortune-teller Eddie Owens Martin outside of Buena Vista in the US state of Georgia and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp5inruQenGQGcwSbRDNEaieKau3lBvm0Wb3N-cnri5B71FokL1PqMl3saYv6uATBdnSVtvxP9Voq6suI7nGvOPJP9boGAq9BJPWISi7PCscQF90eN9y7k9pUltOPBPqJjbAs-1RelFV6TQBUiiqpHGt6h0iH6pBlIRPi9BC36Lctk8fsgcGiFR98Td00/s320/popcorn-swedish-chef.gif)
saob: the official Swedish dictionary published after one hundred forty years of work
the united states of guns: another sadly evergreen post about how an armed society is not a free society
happiness hotel: a luxury kennel once occupied the grounds of New York City’s Lincoln Center
report
of my death having been most industriously circulated by several of the
london daily newspapers, would the times permit me to contradict the
same through your valuable columns and refute the account: sculptor John Ternouth, designer of the plinth for Nelson’s Column, was surprised to learn of his premature demise—via Strange Company
i am altering the deal—pray i don’t alter it any further: Amazon’s Alexa is ending inoperability support with severe punishment for those who try to hack their way around it
Thursday 31 August 2023
8x8 (10. 973)
energy makes time: a resonant essay about how doing those essential things enables everything else—via Kottke
kopienkritik: Ancient Roman souvenirs and mementos limn their culture and makes their lived experience more accessible—see previously
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motes: what the tiniest specks of dust reveal about the world—via Damn Interesting—see also
honky chรขteau: more on the Abbey Road of the Val d’Oise—see previously
coenties slip: the East River waterfront street that was witness to New York City’s cultural evolution—via tmn
e-meter: the Church of Scientology urge the US government to walk-back right-to-repair legislation—via Slashdot
a spell against indifference: Maria Popova laments her discounting of the power of poems—via Swiss Miss
synchronoptica
one year ago: RIP Mikhail Gorbachev, Rolling Stones’ Street Fighting Man (1968) plus more Gorbymania
two years ago: assorted links to revisit, numeracy and conspicuous calculation plus the animation studio of John Hubley
three years ago: Dungeon Master for Halloween, the Gdaลsk Social Accords (1980), more links to revisit, Lincoln Logs (1920) plus Tom Hiddleston as macaroons
five years ago: a LEGO Bugatti, a corporate logo font, an intimate rave at Stonehenge plus the art and maps of Jo Mora
six years ago: unexploded munitions from WWII prompts an evacuation in Frankfurt plus more links to enjoy