Via Messy Nessy Chic (whom has found an assortment of travel-related items including a bit more information on l’รฎlot rocheux de Nichtarguรฉr) we are directed to the premiere animated short from Champeaux Studios—the founder in collaboration with Jean Image, stage-name of Imre Hajdรบ, also responsible for France’s first full-length animated film, Jeannot l'intrรฉpide, Johnny the Giant-Killer). This satiric cartoon about a group of tourists, foreign visitors and one provincial, from 1958 but with a thoroughly contemporary style would have been screened in cinemas, like Looney Tunes, with newsreels before the feature. Sparse commentary by chanson artist Jacques Baudoin—unnecessary to enjoy the animation and visual presentations of the behaviour of tourists (we especially liked the montage of snapshots with the American party posing for selfies)—this portrait of Paris in the late 1950s won numerous accolades with its commanding audience-share. There are some light stereotypes, mostly to do with travellers abroad, which dates the work but don’t detract from the fun.
Thursday, 17 July 2025
paris-flash (12. 586)
Friday, 11 July 2025
7x7 (12. 571)
edge of eternity: Poseidon’s Underworld’s cinematic vacation to the Grand Canyon
the open-hearted many and the broken-hearted-few: the venerable and ongoing Leonard Cohen Files—via Metafilter

voulez-vous danser avec moi: the mambo scene of Brigitte Bardot and Dario Moreno from Michel Boisrond’s 1959 « Come Dance with Me? »
flatland: the four dimensional world of Alicia Boole Stott—see also
and if i haver: an endurance run of The Proclaimer’s I’m Gonna Be—via Web Curios
it happened here: a contemporary table-read of Stephen King’s what-if premise of Apt Pupil considered during a staycation from Today in Tabs—via ibidem
Saturday, 28 June 2025
tumuli (12. 559)
Although closed to visitors due to protect the site still being researched by archaeologists, wandering through the archway of thick ferns and undergrowth approaching the Tumulus of Tumiac, the monumental burial mound (Hรผgelgrab) in the town of Arzon was very impressive to ponder.
The fifteen metre high and two hundred metre circumference man made hill with an interior vault filled with precious grave goods constructed around 4000 BC provides a commanding perspective of the area and out to sea. According to local lore, hence the nickname Caesar’s Butte, it was from here that the Roman general witnessed the naval victory of his fleet against the Veneti in 56 BC, four millennia later, who were more skilled pilots and whose sturdy ships were impervious to ramming, and thus sealed the conquest of Gaul—though assimilation was more of a negotiated peace particularly with this sophisticated tribe who allowed the Romans entry to their trading partners on the British Isles. The tomb itself was not excavated and studied until 1830. We also visited the nearby le Petit Mont also at the head of the Rhuys peninsula by the Port of Crouesty, the older and slightly smaller megalithic cairn was converted to a temple of Venus during Gallo Roman occupation and originally contained three tombs, though one was destroyed during WWII when the mound was converted into a bunker by the Nazis, though the exterior architecture mostly remains true to the original.Thursday, 12 June 2025
11x11 (12. 529)
somewhere beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see: Reuters’ delivers a deadpan juxtaposition of Trump’s attendance at a showing of Les Misรฉrables just after sending in the US marines to quell demonstrations
๐ฉ: defecation syncope and other perils of pooping
renascidos: a cosplay parenting craze with hyperrealistic dolls has captivated Brazil, prompting some legislation against their appearance in public

artek: the upcoming centenary of Crimea’s famed Soviet youth camp that once hosted Samantha Smith—see also
have you tried clearing your cache: a concept artist with a reputation for the mischievous develops a dating website based on harmonious browsing history
pomp and circumstance: a preview of Trump’s grand military parade to be held this weekend—previously
more cow bell: artist Margareta Sarvana performs the Schalger song Itke en lemmen tรคhden (Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen) on a Swedish variety show in 1973—via Pasa Bon!
the schwatz awakens: a preview trailer of the Space Balls sequel to premier in 2027, when Mel Brooks turns 101
simple article summaries: Wikipedia suspends an experiment that would display AI generated synopses after editor and contributor opposition
i’m michael barbaro, see you tomorrow: California governor Gavin Newson interviewed by the New York Times on Trump’s ICE raids
synchronoptica
one year ago: counting crows (with synchronoptica), a Minoan archaeological discovery, emotion-cancelling technology, Trump’s revenge agenda plus assorted links to revisit
seven years ago: internet freedom index, more movies scripted by AI, Reagan tells Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (1987) plus a meeting of Dear Leaders
eight years ago: memory holes, courtroom sketch artists, waste-water popsicles, mobility and mobile devices plus a surrogate social network
nine years ago: Citigroup tries to copyright the word Thanks, carbon sequestration plus more on the Trump travel ban
ten years ago: Erasmus and free-will, more links to enjoy plus Jung and Freud
Sunday, 1 June 2025
6x6 (12. 502)
the chairs of dr who: the quest to identify as much seating as possible from the series’ first great age from 1963 to 1989—via Pasa Bon!

cowardcore: milquetoast Pride apparel collections—via Super Punch—see previously
the amalfi coast of japan: sites that compare themselves to more famous vacation destinations
all these worlds are yours, except europa—attempt no landing there; use them together, use them in peace: future missions to drill into the icy crust of the ocean moons—see previously
maxwell house: a fascinating omnibus of the cinematic commercial advertisements of Ridley Scott
catagories: ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ณ️⚧️, ๐ณ️๐, ๐บ, ๐งฎ, ๐งณ, ๐ช, ๐️, Blade Runner
Sunday, 25 May 2025
threat model (12. 489)
Not content with being partially lionised over the yet unproven claim that the COVID pandemic might have been caused by a lab leak from a facility studying corona viruses in Wuhan, the new head of the US National Institutes of Health is not only suggesting that the NIH itself created the novel virus, triggering a mass walkout during his first all-hands meeting, like-minded cohorts in the US Food and Drug Administration have severely restricted access to vaccines for the vast majority of Americans, as if we needed another reason not to travel—or to erect a cordon sanitaire to stop the spread of vectors for measles, bird flu and any number of preventable maladies, quitting the WHO and the media blackout when it comes to monitoring emerging outbreaks—insisting on amplifying warnings of side effects, despite the efficacy of treatment and the low incidence. Having missed crucial windows to ramp up production for the next season, many major pharmaceutical companies gave up altogether. Click through for important reminders on how Long COVID is the retronym of the polio generations endured—and yet another reemergent illness that had been eradicated—and one’s first line of defence.
Thursday, 17 April 2025
iec 60906-1 (12. 397)
Via Pasa Bon! we are directed to the Digital Museum of Plugs and Sockets which gives in extensive detail information regarding domestic and heavy-duty electricity standards and outlet types for countries all over the world, including exhibits on rare and superannuated for different kinds of current and low-voltage applications. There’s considerably less variation nowadays, but camping we’ve encountered a lot of these alternative groundings and have a kit of adapters and converters for contingencies, and it’s interesting to see how hybrid models incorporate USB standards for one’s personal electronics. The International Electrotechnical Commission published the above specification for plugs that look similar but are not identical in terms of pin number and spacing, wattage tolerance, etc with an eye towards a universal standard for the European Union (see Schuko design has a friendly face) and though harmonisation has continued apace since the 1990s, enforcement of the project has been put on hold.
Sunday, 13 April 2025
freelandia (12. 388)
Not to be confused with the micronation formed by the terra nullis of along the borderlands of Serbia and Croatia but apparently both inspired by the Fredonia of the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup, courtesy of Weird Universe, we are directed toward the ascend and crash of the alternate airline conceived by young venture capitalist Kenneth Moss and in operation from from 1973, folding the next year after only fifty flights due an unsustainable business model. Those few passengers, however, the experience was one of a kind and never again to be emulated by even the most exclusive luxury air-carriers. Cashing out of the stock market at the right moment, Moss found himself incredibly wealthy and sought to do something fulfilling with his life. After a brief and abortive stint as a holy man in Spain failed, Moss returned to California and brainstormed with his future business partner Darcy Flynn about a sojourn to Bali, musing it would be nice to have a whole retinue of friends and like-minded people coming along, just as one might plan a caravanning road-trip. After a year, Moss and Flynn secured landing rights at major airports from the US Federal Aviation Administration, bought a used Douglas DC-8-20, secured a well trained pilot and cabin crew, avoiding high airport surcharges by declaring it to be a travel club instead of a commercial airline and positioned itself as a no-profit with all after-cost proceeds going to worthy causes, like food banks and free clinics. Fare prices, offset by annual membership fees of fifty dollars, were about one third the price of tickets offered by major carriers. Voting on destinations by ticketed passengers, even with rather epic stories of en-route changes of course with a scheduled flight from Newark, New Jersey to Brussels adding a stop-over in Rome and a second one in Bangor, Maine for a lobster dinner, future itineraries were planned including round the world-trips ($400 per passenger) but financial difficulties had already begun as it was a problem to fill flights. This proved to be a problem despite the well-appointed interior of the jet, no class distinction, most of the banks of seats removed and replaced with oversized pillows fitted with safety harnesses, waterbeds and an arcade with home-cooked organic fare on the menu—and surely over favours to create a cross-continental party. Stewards were outfitted in black and creme berets and donned uniforms reminiscent of Flash Gordon. Unable to fill sets and with the oil crisis making cheap flights untenable, Freelandia went out of business and was sued for false advertising.
Thursday, 20 March 2025
auswรคrtiges amt (12. 319)
Following the detention and expulsion of three nationals (two tourists and a green-card holding permanent resident), the Foreign Office has issued a travel advisory for Germans travelling to the United States. While in most cases residents of the EU can enjoy visa-free travel in America for up to ninety-days, the decision on whether a traveller can enter ultimately lies with the host country’s border authorities, the enforcement reciprocated. Tantamount to a warning only in degree, Berlin advises prospective vacationers to prepare for arrest, holding (in the cited cases, for periods exceeding two weeks in austere conditions, far beyond just ruining one’s holiday) and deportation even with documentation and pre-flight vetting through ESTA (their Electronic System for Travel Authorisation visa-waiver programme).
synchronoptica
one year ago: an intemperance scale (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: the Game of Life, an evacuation collection plus a profile of Atlantic City
eight years ago: mandalas from sifted red earth, plans for a paperclip skyscraper plus more on map projections
nine years ago: duelling constitutions plus belated pi day
ten years ago: assorted links to revisit plus collaborative human-robot experiments
Wednesday, 1 January 2025
duo lingo (12. 132)
Having always found foreign language phrase books either a bit sinister and/or absurdist (see previously), we enjoyed this excerpt taken from a 1937 edition of Collins’ Pocket Interpreter series for visitors to Paris, which makes any excursion outside of one’s comfort zone sound particularly fraught, and as described by author James Thurber as singularly tragic in an overwhelming and original way.
I cannot open my case.
I have lost my keys.
I did not know that I had to pay.
I cannot find my porter.
Excuse me, sir, that seat is mine.
I cannot find my ticket!
I have left my gloves (my purse) in the dining car.I feel sick.
The noise is terrible.
Did you not get my letter?
I cannot sleep at night, there is so much noise.
There are no towels here.
The sheets on this bed are damp.
I have seen a mouse in the room.
These shoes are not mine.
The radiator doesn’t work.
This is not clean, bring me another.
I can’t eat this. Take it away!
The water is too hot, you are scalding me!
It doesn’t work.
This doesn’t smell very nice.
There is a mistake in the bill.
I am lost.
Someone robbed me.
I shall call a policeman.
That man is following me everywhere.
There has been an accident!
She has been run over.
He is losing blood.
He has lost consciousness.
Hopefully you’ve never been in a situation to have such phrases at one’s ready disposal. Much more from Futility Closet at the link above. Ces chaussures ne sont pas ร moi.
Friday, 25 October 2024
costa-del-home (11. 929)
Dissecting this article about the trending popularity of cruise vacations by people identifying with the cohort of Millennials and GenZ—via Web Curios—left me depressed and angry, not knowing whether to lay the onus on the industry catering to a different demographic, sensational generational baiting characterising progenitorial peers as stay-ins and homebodies or latch it to the holiday-makers finding appeal not in the port-of-call but never leaving the house, reliably fed and bed with the opportunity for a few no stakes sharable moments. What do you think? What hit as really was the commiseration over vacations that had no gone to plan and finding such a preferable alternative in the safe and secure with all the familiar comforts, especially after revolts against this mode of tourism.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: crony capitalism hindering Puerto Rico’s recovery
eight years ago: a half-buried church in Helsinki
nine years ago: banksters sentenced in Iceland, Germany’s little reunification plus Dutch bubble houses
twelve years ago: vampiric gourds
Thursday, 24 October 2024
9x9 (11. 928)
star crystal, 1986: the manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer Space—via jwz
sorry charlie: a 1961 patent for advertising on fish—perfect for aquariums in waiting rooms

bear and lampshade: an electronic medley of hits from Queen
ghost with the most: the psychological profile of people who cut off communication
carbon capture: a covalent organic framework that binds CO₂ in ambient air—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links
vแปi vร ng: the legacy of Edgar Allen Poe in Vietnam
extra-toppings: Pizza Hut is offering to print one’s CV on a box and deliver it (along with a pizza) to prospective employers—via Pasa Bon!
the city of orion: Hannsjorg Voth’s monumental structures in the Moroccan desert like the Earth and sky—via Messy Nessy Chic
synchronoptica
one year ago: Bob Sinclair’s Stardust (with synchronoptica) plus a data-poisoning tool to fight against AI scraping
seven years ago: the typography of Vinicius Araujo, cheese in China, innovative underground maps, an underwater restaurant in the works, Japanese delivery boxes plus more presidential merchandise
eight years ago: problem-solving paradigms plus a thriving orchid
nine years ago: grand tours, assorted links to revisit plus a Lenin monument transformed
eleven years ago: German chancellor’s phone tapped
Friday, 11 October 2024
fรผrstenberg / havel (11. 896)
Leaving Himmelpforte on the Stolpersee, we headed back slowly towards our home port on Rรถblinsee for an early departure the next morning.
catagories: ๐งณ, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Sunday, 6 October 2024
vom ellbogen see bis pรคlitzer seeplatte (11. 889)
synchronoptica
one year ago: more adventures in Frankonia wine country (with synchronoptica) plus proof of galaxies beyond our own
seven years ago: De Dion-Bouton four-wheeler, the storyboards of Sergei Eisenstein plus Trump visits Puerto Rico
eight years ago: Japanese joinery, a French driving hazard, a Mexican Bat Woman plus combatting typographical tofu
ten years ago: the demands of the Olympic Committee
eleven years ago: the Rushmore Syndrome
catagories: ๐งณ, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Saturday, 5 October 2024
bundeswasserstraรe obere havel (11. 888)
H and I travelled north for a houseboating holiday on the Havel, which intersects with a few different national parks crossing the borders between Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg Vorpommern.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐งณ, ๐ข, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Friday, 27 September 2024
safelight (11. 875)
As part of an interesting ensemble of back to back posts from Kottke bookended with the explanation why older photographs or indoor sporting events have a nice hazy blue filter that one does not see on contemporary images (the ambiance is caused by cigarette smoke) and a nice primer on point-and-shoot technology that ushered in the age of the amateur shutterbug (amateur comes from the Latin to love originally and not a non-professional), we learn that at the turn of the last century, that the hotel amenity most in demand was a darkroom for guests (so called “Kodak fiends”) for developing their holiday snapshots. Starting as far back as the 1850s, innkeepers would accommodate itinerate photographers by allowing them space to rig up their own studios and labs, covering up windows, to supplement portable but possibly less reliable set-ups. By 1902, there was even an effort among hoteliers to come to a consensus on an international symbol that a darkroom was on the premises, like for fitness facilities, a pool and later television and wifi. By the mid-twentieth century, most hotels no longer offered such services and traveling photojournalists were issued kits that touted around in a suitcase that expanded into a sheltered workspace for developing film. Much more from Daniel J Schneider at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)
eight years ago: kinetic art, an Art Nouveau hotel in Brussels plus neighbourly civil engineering hacks
nine years ago: a visit to Bonn and environs, thanksgiving for a good harvest plus Queen Zenobia
eleven years ago: US government shutdown
twelve years ago: the Bavarian separatist movement
Monday, 23 September 2024
7x7 (11. 867)
urban glitch: a series of nostalgic, hyper-detailed paintings from Jeff Bartels
ganz kleine nachtmusik: a previously unknown work by Mozart discovered in a Leipzig library archive
promptographs: Mister Franรงois presents three hundred imaginative “secret car” models with the help of AI—Lamborghini school buses and Ferrari caravanswarchitecture: the language of urbicide was developed to address the wanton destruction of Sarajevo’s build environment and continues in contemporary conflicts—see also
do not show this travel pack to gdr or soviet officials: a 1989 British guide for West Berlin
papyrological discovery: for his birthday in 480 BC, new lines of Euripides’ lost plays Ino and Polyidus uncovered—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest (much more to explore there)
8-bit garden: dissolving digital artwork from Karol Polak of Gdaลsk
Thursday, 12 September 2024
222 west 23rd (11. 835)
The historic Queen Anne Revival accommodations in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Chelsea was originally a housing cooperative through the early 1980s before being gentrified into its present form, and the residential hotel was home to many up-and-coming luminaries until such time, including Jack Kerouac, Andy Warhol, Sherwood Anderson, Henri Chopin, Quentin Crisp, Ethan Hawke, Miloลก Forman, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Marian Faithfull, Bette Milder, Isabella Rosallini, Eddie Izzard, Jane Fonda and numerous others. In 2011, we learn, a lesser-known but long-term resident, Jim Georgiou and his dog Teddy, was evicted for failing to pay his rent and was temporarily unhoused. The following year during renovations on the building, he saw construction workers tossing out some of the old, white-washed and graffitied doors, which Georgiou managed to salvage and research, connecting them to the suites of different neighbours. After years of work, fifty-two doors were auctioned off, with the proceeds going to organisations that help New York City’s homeless in 2018.
Monday, 9 September 2024
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.
Sunday, 1 September 2024
the tour of dr syntax through the pleasures & miseries of london (11. 806)
Published anonymously in 1820 but believed to be authored by William Coombe and illustrated by Robert Cruikshank (see previously), the popular comedy epistolary series is about a rural school master and pastor who attempts to make his fortune by travelling and then writing about it.
Coombe—or often Combe—was himself an adventurer produced most of his works from debtors’ prison, with his first success dispatch from behind bars was a satire called The Diaboliad that attacked and defamed his creditors with thinly veiled allegory, and due to others trying to capitalise and plagiarising his Dr Syntax character (including as Derby porcelain figurines), the author, in the style of Cervantes and the false Don Quixote, put out a collection of spurious letters attributed to the fictional late Lord Lyttelton of Syntax’ continuing misadventures aboard—the plagiariser’s supposed correspondence taken as an admission to seditious speech against the government of King George III but later scholarship confirmed it was another tout to push pamphlets. More from Spitalfields Life at the link above.