she put the miss in misdemeanour when she stole the beans from lima (12. 404)

Although a bit too old for the PBS game show continuation of the franchise—though I’d defy anyone to not declare the theme song from house band (“Do it Rockapella!”—inspired by “Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction) an absolute banger, I do remember the original educational computer game, Carmen Sandiego, released on this day in 1985 by Brøderbund software (whose catalogue includes Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing). Though upon reevaluation deemed edutainment, Carmen Sandiego and later incarnations were meant to teach geography in response to a significant portion of US children demonstrating a lack of basic knowledge when it came to the globe and atlas and questions were vetted and fact-checked by the National Geographic Society, a major underwriter of both the game and television version from 1991. The objective was for fledgling gumshoes of the ACME detective agency to thwart the organised crime ring of international art thieves headed by the titluar character using geography. The series was rebooted 2021 (see above) and Rockapella reprised their theme, though the production team criminally used another song. She’s a double-dealing diva with a taste for thievery.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

 

one year ago: the lost mixtape (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, David Bowie’s self-portraits plus Plain People on vacation

eight years ago: more bad flags, more terror attacks in Germany, a concept flying car, Trump dismisses the surgeon general plus Billy Butcher on love power ballads

nine years ago: breathing exercises plus pavement level pedestrian signals 

eleven years ago: populist politics plus TTIP and reciprocal tariffs

kvinnan med handväskan (12. 387)

Photographed on this day on 1985 in Växjö by journalist Hans Runesson features the subject of Danuta Danielsson protesting against a Neo-Nazi rally with her handbag, captured at a decisive moment of resistance when Communists were prepared to deliver their rebuttal to Nordic Realm Party supporters and drove out the latter, the residents driving them to hide in the train station toilet until authorities transported them away. Danielsson was of Polish Jewish heritage and her mother survived internment in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, but kept her identity anonymous until 2014 when a number of statues were proposed and commissioned illustrating her act of defiance.

 

synchroptica

one year ago: a self-righting ship cabin (with synchronoptica), a return visit to a local castle plus the cats of the Mexican presidential palace

seven years ago: homonyms, assorted links to revisit plus day names in north west Africa

eight years ago: cultural ambassadors, the overview effect, the Summer of Love, doodling with AI plus a real life medical tricorder 

 

nine years ago: fashematics plus a visit to a local museum

 

eleven years ago: internet gods plus a collection of map pins

 

 

sylvanian families (12. 328)

First eleased on the Spring Equinox in 1985 and marketed elsewhere as the most concise translation of the play-figure line, Pleasant Friends of the Forest Epoch System Animal Toy (森のゆかいな仲間たち エポック社 システム・コレクション・アニマルトーイ・シルバニアファミリー after the Roman god of the woods Silvanus), I recall that haunting refrain (the jingle now come home to roost again) from the commercials and never really understood the concept, having missed out on their backstory as presented in a cartoon series by Haim Saban exclusively on American family-friendly/evangelical programming networks a couple years after their debut. Now, however, we’ve occasion to take a peak into the rather elaborate lore and legacy, thanks to Happy Mutant contributor Popkin, who informs that there is a theme park in Osaka (see also) that gives visitors an immersive experience of the franchise, set in Shirubania originally somewhere in North America though later revised as Great Nature patterned off of Richard Scarry’s Busy Town with firmly middle class anthropomorphised hedgehogs, foxes, deer, mice, rabbits, raccoons, etc running successful local businesses or with professional callings with a certain 1960s aesthetic with their nuclear, four-member families that were never inter-species. The characters, despite the decline of the toyline has been sustained throughout with a series of video games (see above), theme-restaurants and making the discontinued family clans mascots for various corporations and events.  Accessories sold separately.

synchronoptica

one year ago: truth windows (with synchronoptica), the HTML Review plus pharmaceutical contraindications 

seven years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Outlook snitching on leakers, typographer Herb Lubalin plus Biden’s threat to beat some sense into Trump

eight years ago: The End of History, an appreciation of the VW bus plus Trump dismantles NASA

nine years ago: Walk of Life improves any movie ending, algae as a plastic alternative plus a terror attack in Belgium

ten years ago: more links to enjoy

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.”

11x11 (12. 172)

concrete feats: the landmark Våga Water Tower on coast Varberg, Sweden  

ſpy v ſpy: a look at the world of espionage in the Middle Ages—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

obelisks: researchers discover a new form of life with circular RNA—that appear less alive than viruses  

we were wrong that day—we broke the law: convicted January Sixth capitol rioter known as MAGA Granny rejects clemency offer  

winning odds: a collection of vintage Japanese lottery tickets  

cinematic universe: The Goonies and Back to the Future happened on the same day in 1985—via Kottke  

шрифт: foundry excavating Ukrainian fonts from the underground  

dark web: Trump has granted an unconditional pardon to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht 

red team: research students—under supervision recreate—viral pathogens identical to those that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic  

lexicon: a glossary of medieval words from Middle English whose meanings have shifted  

solar gate: 4D printed blinds mimic plants to open and close on their own

crowd size (12. 196)

Marking the fiftieth US presidential inauguration, the second swearing-in of Ronald Reagan and deputy George H W Bush was, due to inclement weather conditions, a televised ceremony inside the capitol rotunda, organisers compelled to curtail the public event over sub-zero temperatures, cancelling parades and other fanfare. A repeat ceremony was held the next day in the venue of the Capital Centre basket ball stadium in the Maryland suburbs with attendance of the replacement event in the thousands as compared to the ninety-six that had shown up for the first one. High school bands that had travelled to DC to perform were rescheduled for a Memorial Day march held at Disney’s EPCOT theme park attended by Reagan.

synchronoptica

one year ago:Australia in infrared (with synchronoptica) plus epigraphic letters

 

seven years ago: US government shuts down due to a lapse in appropriations, “Things that Weaken the American” plus more nostalgia for the early internet

eight years ago: updating the chain of command portrait wall plus assorted links worth revisiting

nine years ago: the archetypal wild man, space blossoms plus more links to enjoy

ten years ago: unpegging the Swiss franc plus Japanese onomatopoeia

ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅ (12. 136)

Having rescinded the presidential decree recognising him as the patriarch of the See of Saint Mark by Anwar Sadat after a contentious decade for the secular and spiritual leadership of Egypt, the president seen as stoking violence between Islamic and Christian communities to solidify his own power, and banished to the remote desert monastery of St Pishoy, on this day in 1985 the successor administration of Hosni Mubarak fully restored Pope Shenouda III to his original office. Committed to ecumenism and healing religious schisms through interdenominational dialogue, Shenouda met the Bishop of Rome in 1973, the first such summit in fifteen-hundred years, and together with Pope Paul VI forged a path towards reconciliation and was also respected by the Muslim population for his support for Palestinian autonomy and criticism of the Camp David Accords—going on the serve in the papacy for over forty years, until his death in March 2012.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a survey of overused phrases (with synchronoptica), China in miniature plus the Japanese verses of Auld Lang Syne

seven years ago: a robotic DJ, Public Domain Day plus Monumental Trees

eight years ago: the assertion that progress hinges on the unreasonable

nine years ago: more accidental Renaissance art,  a year in full moons plus the Twelve Days of Christmas

ten years ago: plastic coins, songs reimagined as video games, a synaesthetic clock, Martin Luther’s messaging plus motivations for the American Revolution

a1000 (11. 713)

Released on this date in 1985, introduced at a gala held at Lincoln Center in New York City by Andy Warhol (see also) and Debbie Harry, but not widely available to the public until the following year due to production and distribution difficulties by Commodore International, the first personal computer of the Amiga series was powerful day standards of the day and featured a preemptive multitasking operating system that allowed it process high quality graphics and sounds, including a text-to-speech library and voice input/output, without degrading performance. The innovative model was especially well received by the gaming community and visual artists.

a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse (11. 447)

Taking place according to the teen coming-of-age movie on this day, a Saturday, in 1984, The Breakfast Club by John Hughes, featuring the acting talents of Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason, Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson. Relating the encounters of five individuals from different high school social cliques being punished with a weekend detention overseen by an authoritarian vice-principal with the assignment to write a thousand word essay on who they think they are as punishment, with instructions not to talk or interact with their fellow classmates, all strangers to one another from different social groups. Hiding from their minder, they break the rules and pass the time gradually opening up and sharing their circumstances with one another. Considered the quintessential 1980s movie (in general release about a year after the events in the movie timeline occurred) and with a stellar soundtrack, film poster, a “family shot” ensemble of the cast was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Lassie finale (1973) plus an ominous sign in the heavens (1345)

two years ago: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1952)

three years ago: the Potato Decree (1756), Donkeyskin, Moscow on the Hudson plus an alternative keyboard format

four years ago: International Tuberculosis Day plus a long fight ahead

five years ago: Meshes of the Afternoon plus marijuana etiquette

symbolics.com (11. 423)

The above domain of the now defunct privately held computer company spun of from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s artificial intelligence laboratory in 1980 that developed and sold the first single-user workstations utilising a high-level programming language especially fluent for hardware and peripheral integration was the registered on this day in 1985, making it the first of its kind and as it is still active, sold to napkin.com investments, also the oldest. The venerable property now uses AI to rate one’s domain, it appears. Maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the other core and original generic top-level domains .org, .edu, and .net were registered to the US Department of Defence research and development agency DARPA in January of that year, whose predecessor was responsible for the ARPANET project (see previously) that created the first computing network that allowed communication and resource sharing amongst remote terminals.

there’s a choice we’re making—we’re saving our own lives (11. 301)

Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, organised by Harry Belafonte and produced and conducted by Quincy Jones, the supergroup USA (United Support of Artist) for Africa (inspired by Band Aid’s success from the year before) gathered at A&M studios in Hollywood on this day in 1985 to record the charity single. Over forty-five of America’s most popular musicians and celebrities, including Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and Dionne Warwick, were involved in the project with solos and as part of the chorus—with more than fifty turned away—arriving to be greeted by a delegation Stevie Wonder and Charles, who threatened the artists if the song wasn’t done in one take, the two blind men, would be everyone’s chauffeurs for that evening, and a note pinned to the studio door to please check their egos here. Released five weeks later on 7 March, the song raised over sixty-three million dollars that went directly to relief funds for areas hardest hit by the famine affecting the continent and continues contributions through charitable foundations and tribute renditions for other humanitarian crises and has gone on to become among the most popular and purchased commercial singles.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a match monopoly, going to Canossa plus the Ceremony of the Keys

two years ago: another NFT minting operation plus a video game game show

three years ago: the execution of a Scottish witch 

four years ago: the musical stylings of Rupa Sen, train headboards, American Type Founders plus more on manicules

five years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, WiFi names, yellow jackets and red scarves, Trump lifts sanctions against Russia, Casa Décor plus propaganda kimonos

music can be such a revelation (10. 923)

The artist Madonna achieved his first number one on the UK singles chart on this day in 1985 with her contribution to the sound track of Desperately Seeking Susan—the song not officially released in the US in order to not detract from sales of her Like a Virgin prelude “Crazy for You” nor given a proper music video, only a montage of scenes from the film that was nonetheless in heavy circulation on MTV. The movie’s director Susan Seidelman rejected Kelly McGillis, Melanie Griffith and Diane Keaton for the title role and cast Madonna (also launching the careers of co-stars Aiden Quinn and Rosanna Arquette) after an encounter in the “downtown music scene” with the artist offering her song for a disco scene shot in the Manhattan Danceteria nightclub.

synchronoptica

one year ago:  the Disposition of Christ plus Tears for Fears

two years ago: waggling the dog, the first email in Germany (1984), reimagined, retro social platforms plus the movie posters of Richard Amsel

three years ago: Joe Columbo’s Chair Universal,  Prussia—Borussia plus the photography of Alberto Lenardo

four years ago: a Jugenstil and Art Deco exhibit, Poolside FM, Every Noise at Once, precision taping plus a trip to the Black Moor

five years ago: photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White,  prescient warnings about global warming plus the cult of Q-Anon

drive (10. 902)

Released on this day as the lead single from The Cars’ fifth studio album Heartbeat City (b-side, “My Best Friend’s Girl, the record also including the tracks “Just What I Needed,” “Hello Again,” “Magic,” and “You Might Think”) on this day in 1984 and was an instant top-charting song in almost all markets, reaching the top-ten again a year later when the band performed at Live Aid, the ballad also used as background music for a photomontage of the famine in Ethiopia (“You can’t go on thinking nothing’s wrong”) introduced by David Bowie. The accompanying music video was directed by actor Timothy Hutton and introduces model and writer Paulina Porizkova, who would later become co-vocalist Ric Ocasek’s wife, her profile heightened thanks in part to an appearance on Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, a talk show that aired on MTV for the network’s first couple of years. Warhol directed the music video for “Hello Again” for Ocasek and made a cameo appearance as a bartender.

south america! (10. 842)

Originally planned as a live satellite simulcast for the iconic duo but abandoned once it was realised there would be a split-second delay and would necessitate one to lip-sync the part (which neither was having), David Bowie and Mick Jagger recorded a cover version of Martha and the Vandellas 1964 hit and civil rights anthem on this day in 1985. Charting in the UK and reaching number one on the US Billboard Hot 100—Jagger’s only song to reach that height and Bowie’s last, remarkably, incredulously, and proceeds went to the charity Live Aid for famine relief. The accompanying video by David Mallet was shot after the marathon recording session—both track and music video were completed within thirteen hours during the short time that the artists had for the duet, and was filmed at the derelict Millennium Mills, a flour processing plant built at the turn of the century, in the London docklands.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: Samantha Reed Smith visits the Soviet Union at the personal invitation of the General Secretary (1983) 

two years ago: the cartoonist T Hee plus van Gogh’s bridge in Arles

three years ago: Quo Vadis, the Feast of SS Peter and Paul, the debut of the iPhone (2007), more Old School blogging, unusual cereal flavours plus chiptune trains

four years ago: a Disney heiress petitions for better treatment of workers plus BC/AD or Common Era

five years ago: the European Union flag adopted (1985) plus Trump’s Supreme Court

danaë (10. 809)

Seriously damaged during an act of vandalism on this day in 1985 in its home at the Hermitage in St Petersburg but fully brought back after over a decade of careful restoration, the work by Rembrandt (previously) features a life-sized depiction of the mother of Perseus, presumably when Zeus transformed “himself into a shower of gold and visited her—visited her and loved her,” the Argive princess locked away in resplendent but isolating chamber with no entrance or egress, save a skylight, to prevent a prophesy delivered to her father King Acrisius that his grandson would kill him, ultimately unable to thwart his fate when at a homecoming games celebrated for the demigod’s triumphs, he accidentally strikes Acrisius in the head when throwing a discus. Originally executed in 1536, the artist undertook some major revisions to the monumental piece, scaling down the canvas to make it more marketable, too big for all but the grandest of settings at two-and-a-half by three metres, and changing the face from its original model’s likeness, Saskia van Uylenburgh, his wife, to that of Geertje Dircx, his son’s caretaker and mistress.

boulevard of broken dreams (10. 732)

Via Miss Cellania, sort of in the same vein as those ubiquitous posters of nail salons, we take a deep dive into the equally omnipresent cafe and restaurant mural featuring variations on the fantasy gathering of celebrities—the usual suspects being Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, James Dean and Humphrey Bogart when an artist called Gottfried Helnwein, best known for album covers, created a homage to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks in 1985. The mass-reproduced piece, intended as a bit of humour, took on a life of its own with other painters taking up the trope of the ‘Fakehawk’ foursome in different settings that do not only echo a singular facet of Hollywood nostalgia but also serves as activity placemats for adults with meaning to decode and hidden Easter Eggs embedded in the backdrop. More from Ryan H Walsh for The Believer at the link above.

fuga dal bronx (10. 582)

First given the MST3K treatment on this day back in 1996, the 1985 apocalyptic film by Enzo Castellari (also creator of the 1978 film movie The Inglorious Bastards, Quel maledetto treno blindato—“That Damned Armoured Train,” a remake inspired from The Dirty Dozen but only an inspiration in for the title of the similarly named Quentin Tarantino film which is not a remake but does have a cameo of Castellari as a Nazi general) was also released under the title Escape 2000 and chronicles the resistance of the residents of the New York borough, a dystopian wasteland to sinister property developer, General Construction Corporation, and their plans to drive out the present population and build a futuristic city in its place.

a piece of the rock (10. 524)

Closed since 1969 after the near unanimous results of a referendum not to become a condominium shared with the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (the Gibraltarians much more partial to self-determination than either alternative), the border between Gibraltar and Spain was fully reopened on this day in 1985, effectively ending a decades-long embargo that restricted freight, postal and communication links and ocean-going traffic as well—the concession made as part of Spain’s admission into the European Community.

implants—those aren’t your memories, they’re someone else’s—they’re tyrell’s niece’s (10. 427)

Courtesy of Super Punch, we learn that the publisher of the 1985 video game for Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum home computing systems loosely based on the 1982 film was unable to obtain a tie-in licensing deal and so declared that it was inspired by the Vangelis soundtrack instead—obliging players to listen to an unskippable opening sequence of two minutes of tinny, MIDI music. Gaming reviews were mostly unfavourable, calling it derivative of the hit adaption of Ghostbusters! from the year before.

hunting high and low (10. 238)

The first Norwegian group to do so, A-Ha's signature single—see previously—topped the US Billboard’s Hot 100 first on this day in 1985, remaining in the rankings for a total of twenty-seven weeks, following success in the UK charts and the release of the accompanying music video the most prior. This second, more recognisable rotoscoped music video (the first from 1984 only features the band performing in front of a blue background) illustrates the romantic, plaintive narrative of a comic book hero coming to life and was directed by Steve Barron, whose other credits include “Billie Jean,” “Money for Nothing,” “Africa,” and “Don’t You Want Me Baby,” winning multiple awards.