9x9

toccata und fuge in d-moll: table settings scatter and repair to Bach’s virtuoso piece

tapón del darién: the gap in the Pan American Highway that may never be bridged

hording: USA buys up all available stock of a drug treatment for COVID-19, leaving none for the rest of the world—unclear whether it is an effective intervention, via Super Punch

double-decker: panoramic people mover designed for physical distancing

dr-dr-draugur: Icelandic utility company contracts an exorcist (see previously) to clear neighbouring farmstead of ghosts

we’d call them farmers’ markets: the indispensable role of China’s “wet markets” in food logistics and how they’re unfairly stigmatised

afrofuturism: Sun Ra’s syllabus from a 1971 UC Berkley “African American Studies” course

oppression of scale: a gallery of evocative large construction projects

various artists: another look at the New Age anthology Pure Moods, via The Morning News

whistle-stop or i am the operator with my pocket calculator

Via these chiptune renditions of arrival and departing flourishes and leitmotifs used in Japanese railway stations (see also) we learn about train music (発車メロディ), composed in such a way as to prime the senses and move passengers, whether daily commuters or reunited families. Probably the first instance of such a jingle and musical cue and accompaniment dates back to the mid-nineteenth-century with Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Le chemin de fer, an étude that gave the same signals.

seat check

From Present /&/ Correct, we are referred to another resource for vintage Japanese railway ephemera and memorabilia (see previously) in this collection of tickets and fare information. Though much of this fantastic design have become relics due to electronic ticketing, there’s no reason we can’t appreciate the craft and incorporate the same level of artistry into contemporary conductor inspections as well.

priority seating

Via Super Punch, we are directed towards a growing feed that curates public transportation upholstery from mass transit systems around the world (see previously here, here and here). We were especially taken with this textile pattern detail from the extensive, well-serviced transport network of tramlines in the city of Kraków. Much more to explore at the links above.

eking out an existence or the best of the rest

Definitely a consolation better than the crumbs that these mice are literally, cinematically at each other’s throats over, the people’s choice award for Wildlife Photographer of the Year was captured by dint of good-timing plus a lot of patience by commuter and documentary filmmaker Sam Rowley (previously) was just announced when out of an embarrassment of quality submissions, the sponsoring organization and jury asked fans to look through the images and elevate some of the outstanding pictures that they failed to recognise. Fascinated with urban wildlife, Rowley became absorbed with the lives of the mice that inhabit, invest the London Underground, staking out this shot over the course of a week, wanting to highlight the plight of these opportunists that share our infrastructure.

express limited

Also known as headboards (on the engine) or drumboards (on the caboose), we appreciated learning about head masters, roundels mounted to advertise the name of a locomotive or special service—an excursion or commemorative journey. Peruse a whole gallery of vintage Japanese rail emblems at Present /&/ Correct at the link above.

fundbüro

Via Dave Log v.3 (broken link unfortunately) we’re well acquainted with the Unclaimed Baggage Processing Centre in Enterprise Alabama that sells on lost and never claimed luggage from the airlines and more recently were given a tour of Paris’ but we were heretofore unfamiliar with the logoistics behind reuniting when possible, warehousing then auctioning off lost items from Germany’s railways as told in this visual storyboard from the New York Times.
Nearly a quarter of a million items, from the mundane to the esoteric and inexplicable—steeped in more mystery when one considers how one might lose track of certain treasures much less be unable to follow up on their whereabouts, are found every year in stations, on the platforms and left in the trains. A team of a dozen curators headquartered in Wuppertal try to deaccession their collections through research and detective work and find their owners.
Once all efforts have been exhausted, items go under the hammer, auctions held weekly on Platform 1. Though it would be a bit of a railway journey in itself but I’m going to resolve to check the city and the Bahnhof for the clearance event out one Thursday afternoon soon.

u-bahn

Via the always resourceful Kottke, we are directed to a speciality site called Metrobits curating the branding, routes, technology and fare-schemes of public transit systems from major cities around the world. In addition to the expertly annotated legend and key to the icons, there’s also an extensive gallery of metro stations (see also) that are sacred celebrations of public infrastructure.

rolling stock

Via Nag on the Lake, we are directed towards an installation, Kirkby Design’s submission for the recently concluded London Design Festival, that rehabilitates and revamps the interior décor of a vintage subway carriage. The new palette is informed by the dreadful-excellence of traditional moquette (previously) that was meant to durable, aesthetic and invisible all at the same time. I think it would be fun to transform our foyer (or at least the entryway of my little apartment) into something like this and pass through each morning.

tagskryt

Previously we’ve encountered the Swedish term for flight shaming, and in an article on work-life balance and how some companies are beginning to accommodate staff willing to forego air travel for public and ground-based transportation options by offering extra annual leave to accomplish the legs of the journey we’re introduced to its corollary concept: train bragging.
Not immodesty like a humble-brag or outright boasting since negotiating the network of trains and trams takes some skill and planning and people are right to take pride in lessening their environmental impact but rather that some places are better serviced by rail and mass-transit infrastructure than others. Long-distance trips in under-serviced, remote areas are pretty untenable by means other than flying—though those passengers also have the leverage to make the airlines innovate and be better stewards of the skies.

pardon our progress

Via Coudal Partners’ Fresh Signals, we are invited to reflect on the bold but humble typography of Tokyo metro worker Shuetsu Sato (佐藤修悦), a practise and an art form that he cultivated in order to better perform his job of helping commuters safely and swiftly navigate through a maze of shifting corridors and detours that result from the continuous construction projects on the stations and subway lines.
Equipped with some rolls of colourful duct tape and an X-Acto knife, Sato san has transformed the matter of broadcasting diversions and disruptions into something brilliantly captivating, albeit temporary, with his neat and helpful guides. Much more to explore and an entire gallery of Sato san’s improvised signage at the links above.

flygskam

The above Swedish word for flight shame, accompanied by the hashtag jagstannar-påmarken—meaning stay on the ground, have gained considerable cultural cachet in their native Sprachraum (språkområdet) and beyond as people become more keenly aware of the impact that flying has on the environment. Train ridership has seen an upturn with the trend continuing on the same trajectory and the government as well as tour operators are working to make rail routes an increasingly attractive and viable alternative.

verkehrsmittel

Among our favourite things to discover on holiday are examples of vernacular, sometimes super-antiquated public transportation and in the Sächsische Schweiz, H and I got to sample plenty on our way to Bad Schandau through the Kirnitzsch (Křinice, a tributary of the Elbe) Valley.
A train, a ferry and steamboat were ultimately involved to bring us to an electric street car established in 1898 to transport guests of the sanitaria. The terminal ended with a guesthouse under the ægis of an artificial waterfall but there was the chance to hike up to the summit.
The peak with its natural sandstone archway and system of caves and hollows to explore became known as the Kuhstall, as this had to reach shelter became a favourite spot for residents to hide their livestock for safekeeping during the Thirty Years’ War and hidden from Swedish interlopers. The funicular is no longer the only option for traversing these nine kilometres but certainly the recommended mode of travel.

chunnel

A quarter of a century ago on the day, French president François Mitterrand (*1916 – †1996) and Queen Elizabeth II boarded the royal Rolls Royce, their spouses following in an inaugural Citroën, the cars loaded onto the autorack of a train—which would eventually ferry passengers and haul freight, to mark the opening of the Channel Tunnel with their fifty kilometer journey one hundred meters below the bed of the English Channel (la Manche). Despite being beset with delays and cost-overruns, this feat of engineering that significantly cuts transit time between the UK and the continent has proven itself to be an enduring success and is the culmination of project first envisioned over a century ago during the reigns of Victoria and Napoleon III exploring the idea of a mined tunnel under the water. Learn more at the link above.

on diversion

Via the always excellent Nag on the Lake, we are treated to the brilliant still life photographic compositions informed by the upholstery found on board bus lines in London (previously and see also here and here) of Emilia Cocking. Her extensive portfolio focuses on built environments and recognising and appreciating those intersectional coincidences of finding art in the everyday. Much more to explore at the links above.

8x8

interview mit bauhäuslern: a curated exhibit of the art and design movement’s journal (previously), published from 1926 to 1931

it’s 10 pm—do you know where your children are: the history of American public service announcements

erisology: the new discipline of agreeing to disagree—named for the goddess of discord that started the Trojan War

symbol and cipher: Louise Borinski explores how abstract shapes acquire meaning

audience-share: a gadget that helped marketers gauge what engaged radio-listeners in the 1930s

kannen: radical Japanese concept art of the late 1960s—see also

nattåg: Sweden plans to revitalise overnight train services in a push for more environmentally friendly travel options

less is more: the life and work of Maria Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in graphic novel format 

clang, clang, clang went the trolley

Via the always engrossing Things Magazine, we are treated to a very nicely curated interactive gallery of the charts and strip maps of artist Jake Berman (previously) that allows one to compare historic public transportation systems (see also) with their modern equivalents for several US cities.
Reaching back more than a century in some cases, Berman plots old train and street car routes—or ambitious proposals pared back versus their contemporary circuits and study in detail how coverage has expanded or contracted.

lakawana limited or as pure as the driven snow

Drawing on several sources, Just a Car Guy introduces us to the passenger line operated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad—later by the Erie Railway—that shuttled holiday-makers to resorts in the Poconos, marketing the prestige train as Phoebe Snow, to demonstrate how anthracite powered trains had cleaner exhaust than the steam locomotives of its competition. The engine was kept a pristine white, supposedly, to show when pulling into each station, that passengers need not suffer indignities of soiled clothes thanks to clean coal. Read more at the link up top.

muster and moquette

CityLab made a quite wonderful and inspired appeal with their international, publically-jured round-up of mass-transit upholstery (previously here and here) sourced from trains, busses and metro-lines in service all over the world.

A few that I’m acquainted with can be reviewed here and I can completely relate to the feeling of pride and affection that passengers develop for these dreadfully excellent and challenging creations in textile that need not only to be practicable and identifiable (like this specimen of priority-seating for ScotRail) but have to also remain fresh, colourfast and rebuff graffiti for quite some time. Do share the distinctive seat-covers from your local public transport—and support them with your ridership and patronage. Much more to explore at the link above.

lozenge moquette

Thanks to City Lab, we are invited to revisit the plush and pile of mass-transit upholstery through the industrial textile designs of Enid Marx and other samples archived by the London Transportation Museum. By turns both extravagant and practical, both overlooked and omnipresent, the exhibit offers a retrospective look at the power of the intentionality in design, underscored perfectly by something that often retreats into the background yet (if not itself the subject of passing derision) so much part of a shared ridership experience.